FEBRUARY 7, 1975 25 CENTS VOLUME 39/NUMBER 4

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE • • CriSIS:

· Views from the unemployment lines -page 4

New York's crisis: What can AFSCMEdo? -page 6

L.A. cops training for 'food riots' -page 7

San Diego demonstration for iobs last fall Militant/Dennis Scoria Union women launch fight How a workers government against layoffs would provide jobs for all -page 8 The following is a statement by Peter Ca­ government doesn't represent working peo­ mejo, the 1976 presidential candidate of the ple- neither those who are out of work now Socialist Workers Party. nor those who may be laid off tomorrow. Affirmative action If we had a workers government in Wash­ Why can't the government do something ington today- that is, a government elected plans facing about unemployment? Why can't everybody by and responsible to the working people have a job? In the richest, most productive organized into a party of their own- it new attacks country in the world these are reasonable would not hesitate for five minutes to take -page 11 questions. And they're certainly ones mil­ the necessary steps to provide jobs for every­ lions of people are asking. body. But President Ford doesn't have any an­ Not for five minutes. Not for one minute. swers. He admits that the state of the union Not if it were really a government with a is bad . and that millions are out of work. shred of responsibility to the workers. Behind the But he proposes nothing more than two-bit tinkering to deal with the problem. Without hesitation it would immediately pro­ worldwide The Democrats are no better. They are vide adequate compensation to all jobless • • • sitting on their hands in Congress while workers. Payments would be at full union cutbacks and layoffs mount and unemploy­ scale, regardless of whether a person is a · econom1c cr1s1s ment lines grow longer. The government union member or not, and would be paid -page 20 is paralyzed while our unpaid bills pile as long as the person is out of work. up, our insurance policies lapse, and things This national insurance plan would put bought on time are repossessed. an end to the inequities that exist now, There can be no further doubts that this Continued on page 3 THIS In Brief

WEEK'S ILLINOIS DEMONSTRATORS DEMAND JOBS: Trade urban pupils are suspended at least om:e a year. Civil unionists from American Federation of State, County and rights organizations have pointed out that such suspen­ MILITANT Municipal Employees Local 1006, International Brother­ sions are used as a discriminatory weapon against Black hood of Electrical Workers Local 165, and Sheet Metal students. 4 Rising anger among Workers' Local 517, along with a contingent of unem­ unemployed ployed workers,' converged on the Illinois state capitol in WANTS THE DEATH PENALTY KEPT: President 6 How AFSCME can de­ Springfield Jan. 22 to demand jobs. Ford's nominee for the post of attotney general, Univer­ fend jobs of city workers Although there is a $300-million surplus in the state sity of Chicago President Edward Levi, said Jan. 27, 7 l. A. cops train for budget, existing unemployment programs are inadequate "My belief is that the death penalty, if it is enforced, in 'food riots' and discriminate against the Chicago area, with its large a limited area, is a deterrent." Black population. In addition, the Illinois state govern­ Levi said that the imposition of the death penalty ought 8 Union women call ment has eliminated 6,000 jobs in the past two years, to be left to individual states- meaning that the Supreme March 8 protest mainly in agencies such as Mental Health, Children and Court should not rule it unconstitutional. 9 Israel spreads death in Family Services, and the Department of Labor. lebanon INDIANS LOSE SUIT ON TREATY RIGHTS: Although 13 2,500 protest: No aid FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS: San Francisco Chronicle the history of government policy toward Indians might columnist Herb Caen reported Jan. 20 that "earlier this make us "retch at the recollection," the conquest of the to Thieu! month, a Pan Am 747 left S. F. for the Far East with Indian tribes has made them legally subject to the legis­ 14 Dr. King target of almost every seat taken, mostly by men- and since 747s lative power of the United States, ruled Federal District FBI seldom fly full in January, there had to be an explanation. Judge Warren Urbom Jan. 17. 15 Texans demand: Open "There is: The men are military pilots, members of three The ruling rejected the argument of 125 Indians that police files U.S. squadrons, traveling to Southeast Asia in civilian a Sioux treaty of 1868 gave the Sioux tribe, and not clothes, per official orders. They looked unhappy and are. the U.S. government, jurisdiction over alleged crimes com­ 16 Racist violence continues 'We don't like this a damn bit,' in the words of one pilot, mitted during the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, h1 Boston who added the forlorn cliche, 'We just wish the public S.D., in 1973. 17 Busing struggle: Should knew what was going on.'" we demand federal PORTUGUESE FEMINIST BEGINS TOUR: Maria Isa­ troops? Two new columns appear in this issue. "La Lucha bel Barreno, one of the three authors of the book, New Portuguese Letters, began a five-week tour of the United 18 Students lukewarm to Puertorriquena, 11 by staH writer Jose Perez, is on States in Washington, D. C., Jan. 21. McCarthy page 11. This column, which will deal with the in­ New Portuguese Letters was banned by the Portuguese 19 Detente vs. world creasingly important struggle of Puerto Ricans in government in 1972 and the authors, who became known revolution the United States and in Puerto Rico, will be pub­ as the "Three Marias," were tried for "obscenity." They 24 Help organize antiracist lished about twice a month. were acquitted in May 1974, shortly after the coup that deposed the military dictatorship. conference "Their Government, 11 which is on page 12, will While in Washington, Barreno spoke to an audience be written from Washington by Cindy Jaquith. It of women's liberation activists and Portuguese and Bra­ 2 In Brief also will appear about twice a month. zilian students at the University of Maryland. She shared 10 In Our Opinion the platform with Amy Congers, an American teacher Letters MAGEE GETS LIFE: Ruchell Magee, codefendant of An­ who was tortured in Chile. Both women urged support 11 National Picket Line gela Davis in the 1970 Marin County Courthouse incident, for Brazilian political prison-er Ines Etienne Romeu, who was sentehced to life imprisonment Jan. 23. La Lucha Puertor­ is serving a sentence of life imprisonment. Magee was never convicted by a jury of any charge re­ Also while in Washington, Barreno attended a reception riquena lating to the courthouse escape attempt, in which three for her sponsored by the National Organization for Wom­ 12 The Great Society fleeing prisoners and a hostage were killed by police. His en, appeared on several television and radio shows, and By Any Means Neces­ trial ended last year with a hung jury that reportedly met with reporters. sary voted 12 to 0 for acquittal on the charge of aggravated kidnapping, 11 to 1 for acquittal on the charge of mur­ Their Government THIRD LAWTON TRIAL: The third trial of Black com­ der, and 11 to 1 for conviction on the charge of simple munity activist Gary Lawton began in Riverside, Calif., 20 In Review kidnapping. Simple kidnapping is punishable in California Jan. 8. The earlier trials, in which Lawton was accused by a sentence of one to five years, with eligibility for pa­ of the ambush slaying of two Riverside police officers, WORLD OUTLOOK role in one year. ended in hung juries. 1 Maria Joffe gains exile However, last Aug. 14, as preparations for a new trial Although charges against Lawton's two codefendants were underway, Magee suddenly pleaded guilty to the were dropped prior to the third trial, the district attorney's 3 Shah admits 2,000 charge of aggravated kidnapping. He explained that after office continues with its vindictive attempt to get Lawton. troops in Oman three and one-half years of legal procedures he had been Russell Langton, a juror in the first trial, reacted to the World News Notes "so frustrated" that he just wanted "to get it all over government's case by saying, "It was more than a frame­ Rightist terror in with." up. If it had been a frame-up, they would have framed Argentina Magee subsequently tried to withdraw his guilty plea some evidence." -DAVE FRANKEL and have a new trial scheduled, but he was turned down earlier this month by the U.S. Supreme Court. THE MILITANT THE AIR FORCE DROPS A MISFIT: A "gung-ho offi­ cer," as the military would say, Major Harold Hering YOUR FIRST VOLUME 39/NUMBER 4 had been in the U. S. Air Force for 20 years and volun­ FEBRUARY 7, 1975 teered for five additional tours of duty in Vietnam. But on CLOSING NEWS DATE-JAN. 29, 1975 ·Jan. 11 an Air Force board of inquiry cited him for ISSUE? failure to discharge his assignments properly and for. having a defective attitude toward his duties. The board Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS SUBSCRIBE Business Manager: ROSE OGDEN ruled that he should be discharged. Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING It seems that Hering, who had been assigned to a mis­ sile crew at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California mTHE Published weekly by The Militant Publishing Ass'n., after returning from Vietnam, had "mental and moral 14 Charles lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: reservations as to his ability to launch nuclear weapons," Editorial Office (21 2) 243-6392; Business Office (212) MILITAIIT 929-3486. Southwest Bureau: 710 S. Westlake Ave., and demonstrated "failure to meet the duty performance Los Angeles, (alii. 90057. Telephone: (213) 483-2798. required of an officer." The fight to defeat the racist opponents of school desegre­ Washington Bureau: 1345 E St. N. W., Fourth Floor, The major "never refuSed to launch a nuclear .weapon, gation in Boston is part of The Militant's coverage of the . Washington, D.C. 20004. Telephone: (202) 783-2391. nor is he a conscientious objector," his defense lawyers national and international events that affect the lives of Correspondence concerning subscriptions or changes explained. He just "asked what checks and balances there all of us. Keep up with hard-hitting news coverage and of address should be addressed to The Militant Busi­ ness OHice, 14 Charles Lone, New York. N.Y. 10014. are to assure that a launch order could not be affected socialist analysis of the Black struggle, unemployment and Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. Sub­ by the president gone berserk.... " the economy, the revelations about the CIA and the FBI, scriptionS: domestic, $7.50 a year; foreign, $11.00. and the new threats of war in Vietnam and the Mideast. By first-class moil: domestic, Canada, and Mexico, SUPREME COURT 1: On Jan. 21 the U.S. Supreme $32, all other countries, $53. By airmail: domestic, Court ruled that state jury-selection laws that resulted Canada, and Mexico, $42. By air printed matter: Cen­ in the systematic exclusion of women from juries are IntrOductory Oller-81/2 monthS tral America and Caribbean, S40; Mediterranean Af­ unconstitutional. However, a week later the high court ( ) $1 for two months of The Militant. rica, Europe, and South America, $52; USSR, Asia ruled that the new law will apply only to juries impan­ ( ) $2 for two months of The Militant and three months Pacific, and Africa, $62. Write lor foreign sealed ·air of the International Socialist Review. postage roles. eled after the Jan. 21 decision. For subscriptions airmailed from New York and then ( ) $7.50 for one year of The Militant. posted from london directly to Britain, Ireland, and SUPREME COURT II: Young people as a whole, and ( ) New ( ) Renewal Continental Europe: ll for eight issues, l2.50 for six Black students in particular, won a victory Jan. 22 when months, l5 lor one year. Send banker's draft or in­ NAME------lernoiionol postal order (payable to. Pathfinder Press) the U. S. Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, that public school pupils cannot be suspended without notice of the charges ADORESS------to Pathfinder Press, 47 The Cut, london, SE1 8ll, CITY ______STATE -----ZIP------England. Inquire for air rates from london ot the against them, an explanation of the evidence being used 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. same address. against them, and the right to reply to it. Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily Surveys have indicated that more than 10 percent of represent The Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 JOB CRISIS: Socialist answer

•• .workers gov't would provide jobs Continued from page l operating the plants at full capacity, where some unemployed workers get the government will take them over union benefits, others get a few and run them by a board of directors months of government bel}efits, and elected by the workers instead of ap­ at least half get no benefits at all. pointed by the biggest stockholders After providing this immediate re­ and bankers. lief, a workers government would H this was done with other industries rapidly take steps to create employ­ and the banks, the economy could ment for everyone who wants a job then be operated according to a na­ and cannot find one. tional plan, which would eliminate the The first step would be to create causes of recessions and would use an emergency public works program. the full capacity of American produc­ This would kill two birds with one tion. stone- provide jobs for millions of That is the socialist answer to the unemployed workers, and take care long-term problem of unemployment, of the country's crying need for low­ depression, and poverty amid un­ rent housing, schools, hospitals, child­ precedented technology and plenty. care centers, mass transit, parks, ed­ Socialists are confident that the ma­ ucational and recreational facilities, jority of people will become convinced conservation, and many other urgent­ of the need for such a change. ly needed projects. Top priority would Unfortunately we don't have a be to eliminate the especially miserable workers government today, but conditions Blacks and other oppressed changes of an immediate nature can minorities are forced to live in. still be put into effect if enough people This program would have nothing will fight for them. in common with the present govern­ Socialist Workers campaign banner at Jan. 15 'Jobs for All' marcb in Washington, Struggles are emerging all over the ment's programs, which, in the name D.C. country demanding "Jobs for All"- for of fighting poverty, create highly paid a public works program, a shorter staffs of bureaucrats, but do very lit­ workweek with no reduction in pay, tle to improve the living conditions ities that don't help workers here or race, or sex would be locked up in and adequate unemployment compen­ of poor people. anywhere else, and use it to help the jail. In order to help achieve equality; sation. We will see more actions like Nor would a workers government unemployed. especially oppressed workers would the Jan. 15 demonstrations, sponsored tolerate the present shameful practice A workers government would also be given preferential consideration in by Operation PUSH. And as con­ of some city governments that make pass a law shortening the workweek hiring and promotions. ditions worsen, they are going to get welfare recipients work with no in­ with no reduction in weekly take-home One of the most irrational aspects bigger. crease in their meager payments or pay. This would benefit both the un­ of the present situation is that many But we would be foolish to count on with no provision for free child-care employed and the employed. It would plants are idle or operating at only Ford and the Congress to help us. facilities. All workers employed in the put people back to work by increas­ partial capacity. In fact, they are going to put road­ public works program would receive ing the number of jobs available. It The auto corporations argue that -blocks in our way. They'lf tell us top union wages. would make the lives of the employed they can't operate at full capacity now they support us one day so that they The only ones who could object to workers easier to bear by giving them because they can't sell all the cars can more easily stab us in the back such a program are the big business more leisure time. that would be produced, and if they the next day. interests that think no such measures Of course the owners of industry can't sell them they'll go bankrupt. What concessions we win will be should be undertaken unless a private and the big stockholders would have To this the workers government accompanied by much footdragging profit can be made on them. their profits reduc.ed because they would answer: We want to hear what on their part and only after tremen­ To those who will complain that would be paying out more in wages. the auto workers say. Let them ex­ dous mass pressure. these measures will "cost too much" There is one thing a workers gov­ amine your b'ooks and decide for The struggle for jobs can only be our workers government would an­ ernment would especially not tol­ themselves whether or not the real effective if working people do not rely swer: What about the billions of dol­ erate-discrimination against op­ reason your plants aren't operating on the capitalist Democratic and Re­ lars spent on propping up military pressed minorities, foreign-born work­ at full capacity is because, if they publican parties,· but have confidence dictatorships around the world and ers, and women. The present policy were, it wouldn't help you get richer. in our own organizations and our the billions more poured down the of "last hired, first fired" would be Our workers government would say own united strength. drain to finance. the secret-police ap­ brought to a screeching halt. Any em­ to the auto barons: H your profits This is the perspective of the Social­ paratus of the CIA and FBI? We'd ployer caught discriminating against are what is standing in the way of ist Workers Party, and this is what take this money, now spent on activ- a worker on the basis of nationality, putting workers back to work and we are campaigning for. Working people's Bill of Rights: Jobs for All As unemployment lines grow, mil­ posals in the new Bill of Rights with ocratic and Republican parties. lions of Americans are asking, "What as many people as possible. What do Enclosed is my contribution of $ __ can we do?" your co-workers think about a mas­ to support the Camejo-Reid campaign. Socialist Workers Party candidates sive emergency public works program Name______~------for president and vice-president, Peter to provide millions of useful jobs at Camejo and Willie Mae Reid, say union wages? A shorter workweek Address ______working people have a right to a with no reduction in pay? job. And they have a program for Help distribute the Bill of Rights City _____State ___Zip __ how to win jobs for all. They pro­ for Working People-discuss the pro­ Phone ______pose a Bill of Rights for Working posals where you work, study, and People aimed at protecting us from live- send us your ideas. the evils of this system- from unem­ Business Address ______ployment and inflation, from wars, ------The Bill of Rights for Working Peo­ racism, and sexism. ple: 3 cents each; 2 cents each for Occupation/ School/ Organization __ 1,000 or more. You can help distribute this Bill of ( ) Please send me one copy free of Rights at your workplace, at union charge ( ) in English; ( ) in Span­ Clip and mail to: Socialist Workers meetings, at community meetings, on ish. 1976 National Campaign Committee, unemployment and picket lines, or at Enclosed is $ __for ( ) Bill of 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. your school. It should be read by all Rights booklets ( ) in English; ( 10014. those looking for a way to fight back. in Spanish A copy of our report is filed with the Federal Election Commission and is available for pur­ The socialist candidates and their ( )I endorse the Camejo-Reid ticket chase from the Federal Election· Commission, supporters want to discuss the pro- as a positive alternative to the Dem- Washington, D. C.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 3 JOB CRISIS: Coast to coast

Interviews with unemployed... workers !i Harlem: u. ~obless benefits 'IOU'I?E ending soon' lN lt By BAXTER SMITH NEW YORK- Congested, under­ ~V..W.L IUII't ~ staffed hospitals and clinics, unmoti­ IIi.: vating schools, a sky-high crime rate, ~ !II (JYfT./1 ~ tumbledown firetraps that pass for H ll!;-c ·IOJI~ t:.lfll:~7jg(l~!l "" ;;\' . M:lll.lq dwellings- the list of social ills that 12 ,...-,..; ~ ~ • ~ 1,1; Harlem Blacks have to put up with g ); ~ a 11 ~ goes on and on- cramped parks to fS h'{t serve for recreation, littered streets 1'::: (ft. with backed-up sewers, too much ~~~~ ~ noise. ~ ~ And unemployment, especially un­ employment ft :gJ;-:i- "And unemployment [insurance] is ~\.: il-k rJt ,. running out soon, so I came here," lt "~~ t\ ~~ ll ~~ ft ,'lti Miami News/Wright Herbie Dawkins was telling The Mili­ tant the other day as he sat in a Har- lem employment office alongside other Also milling about the employment Until a week before, McBride had Even the steel industry, boasting a morose job-seekers wondering if some­ office was Robert Walker, 19, who worked as a cashier at a Kentucky record year of production and profits, thing would come through. says he'll take factory work or just Fried Chicken franchise. "I've tried has laid off workers. Republic Steel When even official unemployment in about anything." He has seven broth­ to find work, any kind of work," she has laid off 600 workers out of a Harlem is put at 20 percent and unof­ ers and sisters and his eldest brother said. "There just isn't any." total of 9,000 and has put hundreds ficially it is said to be 40 percent and was just laid off from Con Edison. It will be six to eight weeks before more on a four-day week. going higher, people like Herbie Daw­ "Pretty soon people are just going to her application for welfare is pro­ Robert Green, a keeper's helper, has kins start worrying. start breaking in and robbing," he cessed. "I'm busted," she said. "Every­ worked at Republic Steel for 27 years. Dawkins, who thought he was riding said. one I know is busted. I know I can't "The layoffs haven't hit me directly," high with his $7.50-an-hour construc­ get any money from anyone, and I he told The Militant, 'but since I am tion job, saw his rainbow come to an don't know what I'll do if unemploy­ the only one in the family working, end last year. Now laid off and glum, ment doesn't come through." the inflation has hurt me." he has pounded the streets since but Atlanta: "They expect us to be all sweet and As a union representative, Green had turned up no work. nice when they turn off the gas and to fight the company to get unem­ "There's a cutback in construction, cut off the lights," she added. 'Well, ployment compensation for the work­ I know, but there should be something ~Everyone they've got a surprise coming." ers laid off. The company tried to out there, I just don't get it," he said. Melvin Thomas is 26 and has two cheat them out of it by claiming the "Yeah, I'm worried. And this place children. Like 95 percent of those on workers were laid off because of the hasn't been much good." I know the line, he is Black. coal strike last year. Ohio law denies "This place" is the state employment Thomas has been without a job compensation to those idled because of office inside the shimmering new 19- since Nov. 1, but no unemployment a strike. story glass-and-marble State Office is broke' checks have yet been sent to him. He Workers at U.S. Steel are not so By JOEL ABER Building on 125th Street, which stands told The Militant he is forced to spend lucky, Green explained. They did not ATLANTA- For 30 years the busi­ out from the surrounding squalor like about two days a week at the unem­ get unemployment compensation from ness executives and politicians boasted a lily among weeds. ployment office, waiting as long as the state or Supplementary Unemploy­ that Atlanta was an economic miracle. The building was ballyhooed at its five hours for an interview. ment Benefits (SUB) from the Instead of urban decay and poverty, completion last May as bringing jobs Asked how he manages to make company. they promised jobs in abundance. At­ to Harlem, but of the 20 state agencies ends meet, Thomas replied, "Some­ Whitey Ford, president of United lanta's ~kyline got a face-lift: a 70- slated to move in, very few have, and times I go out on the street and mess Auto Workers Local 1112 in Lords- story hotel, convention centers, and whatever jobs they have brought have around with my old man. Sometimes town, told The Militant that the Vega new downtown parks. The city was a already been filled. I get a few dollars from my grand­ plant was shut down for two weeks in mecca for the construction industry. The state employment office moved parents. But it's not easy at all. I December and one week in January. But now the bubble has burst. The in last December. Richard Jefferson, don't have a job, and prices keep go­ "Out of 8,200 union members, 3,200 mood is grim. Thousands of building­ who heads it, paints a dreary picture ing up. Ford talks about a gas tax, are laid off," he said. "The entire sec­ of the job situation. Many who show trades workers are unemployed. Car­ but I don't have money to get gas ond shift has been laid off." up at the office looking for work, he penters Local 225 reports 500 of its now, and you need a car to look for How long will the United Auto said, are parolees, probationers, or 3;200 members are jobless. Twelve a job." Workers' SUB fund hold up? Ford individuals living at halfway houses. percent of the members of Interna­ estimates the fund will be depleted by "In this labor market the employer tional Brotherhood of Electrical Work- June. doesn't have to put up with trouble," ers Local613 are out of work. "The most complaints I get from the he said. "Just two years ago, we could Atlanta has three auto plants. The members are on the lag between the place anyone- send one person and largest, Lakewood General Motors, Cleveland: layoff and the time they get their first fill a job. But now an employer says has laid off 2,650 of its 4,400 work­ unemployment check," Ford said. send three or four people with recent ers. At the Doraville GM assembly "Sometimes it takes five or six weeks. checkable references, a minimum of plant, the entire second shift has been ~Entire Many companies are shutting down experience, blah, blah." idled, and 2,100 of 3,900 workers for a week or two in an attempt to de­ ~onique Moore, 20, easily recalls are on indefinite layoff. Ford has shut second shift lay mass layoffs. This is the only pro­ her experiences with employers. A col­ down its Hapeville assembly plant for gram the union leadership here has lege student who used to also work at a week, adding 2,550 auto workers proposed so far. At best it is a tem­ th~ Veterans Administration hospital, to the jobless rolls. laid off' porary stopgap. she says she left because 'government Coca-Cola, with its national head­ By HERMAN KIRSCH General Electric, a key industry in agencies are prejudiced." quarters here, recently presented its CLEVELAND- The official 6.1 per­ northern Ohio, has laid off 400 and She applied at the phone company employees with two "Black Fridays." cent rate of unemployment in Ohio wants to put most of its 2,200 workers but couldn't get anywhere. Then she On these two days, the workers went does not accurately reflect the full im­ on a four-day week. tried Macy's and didn't get hired- at in dreading to see whether their names pact of the recession in this highly in­ Joe Janor, president of International first. That is, until she went home, were on the long list of new layoffs. dustrialized state. Union of Electrical, Radio and Ma­ fried her Mro hairdo into straight The lines at unemployment offices These are only the full-time unem­ chine Workers (IUE) Local 707, is hair, and put on a miniskirt. "I even grow longer every day. Jean McBride ployed. Not counted are the many trying to convince management to shut had the same white interviewer," she was waiting on the line at the Marietta thousands who are forced to work down the plants one week at a time added. But because she came back Street office the other day. She is 27 three- and four-day weeks and are so that workers can qualify for un­ looking and acting like a white wom­ years old, Black, and the mother of therefore ineligible for unemployment employment compensation. an, she said, she got the job. two children. .benefits. "In all the years I've worked for

4 show rising anger across country this company, I've never seen it as Greg agreed with the last judgment employed since August. percent." bad as it is now," Janor told the union but dismissed the foreign worker issue He was standing in line at the gen­ The East Liberty district unemploy­ membership at its January meeting, as a cause or cure for unemployment. eral assistance office of the Minnea­ ment office, serving the east end of "and that includes the recession of Also interviewed was the leader of polis Welfare Department. A welfare Pittsburgh, including three Black com­ 1958. Fifty thousand of our IUEmem­ a group of electricians picketing in official says the office is more crowded munities, is supposed to be capable bers have been laid off." The IUE front of a Toyota auto dealership. than at any time in the past 27 years. of handling "1932 twice over." has a national membership of They carried signs reading, "Buy The waiting room, where more than In recent weeks the last of the of­ 280,000. American. American workers protest 100 people were sitting last week, fice's "emergency" lines have been put The building trades have been the competition from Japanese manufac­ looked like a scene out of the depres­ into operation, and often the "new ap­ hardest hit by the recession. Charles turers paying cheap wages." sion of the 1930s. Poorly clothed men, plicants" and "extended benefits" lines Pinone, executive secretary of the They were up from Modesto, Calif., women, and children waited for a few are more than two hours long. Cleveland Building Trades Council, where they had a beef against Toshi­ dollars to buy a little food, and per­ A large number of the unemployed estimates nearly 40 percent of the city's ba Company of Japan for using its haps a little time from. the landlord. are seasonal laborers, many of whom 35,000 crafts workers are out of work. own technicians to do repair work on The food stamp office has also been have not worked since October. Most a large power generator there. deluged. A line forms in the sub-zero had been in the jobless lines in pre­ temperatures outside the building long vious winters, but the mood was dif­ Gilbert Sturgis, business manager before it opens at 8 a.m. Seven min­ ferent this year. and captain of the pickets, said that utes after the doors open, officials an­ "This is the first year I've ever felt Bay Area: an ''important principle" was involved. nounce that the stamp office has its there might not be work for me in "Over a million jobs would be saved quota of applicants for the day. The the spring," was a common response for American workers if illegal aliens rest standing in line must come back among carpenters, excavators, and ~Ford's idea: were sent back to where they came tomorrow. other construction workers. from." Hunger is a growing problem. Six Black people are being laid off first The Militant reporter was asked his charity outlets in the Minneapolis area and often collect less in benefits be­ ·give breaks opinion on the "illegal alien" issue. He gave 10,000 people emergency gro­ cause of the low wages they made replied that this alleged solution was ceries last year, double the number of while working. Some young Blacks anti-working class and self-defeating, the year before. get only $5-$15 a week. to· wealthy, turning worker against worker in a The head of the food project told One woman said that she and all vain scramble for ever fewer jobs. a newspaper that thousands of met­ the other Black employees of a down­ By ROBERT WEST He threw a question back to Stur­ ropolitan residents go to bed hungry town health club were laid off in one SAN FRANCISCO- California work­ gis. 'What do you think of the fight every night. day. "I always thought that 'last hired ers are among the hardest hit by the for a shorter workweek with no re­ and first fired' was just a form of economic slump, and building-trades duction in pay as an answer to un­ self-pity," she said. "I just learned the workers the hardest of all. employment?" hard way how this system works." At both the Carpenters Local 22 and Sturgis reluctantly allowed that it Many of the "old-timers" who have Painters Local 4 hirb:ig halls the un­ "had some merit." He was pressed for been unemployed for months get into employed lists are long and the out­ Pittsburgh: a response to the demand raised by long discussions about their problems. look gloomy. many unions for a massive federal One such group came to the consensus Joe O'Sullivan, Carpenters business construction program. "Don't you ~I learned that "there has to be a recession every agent, leafed through the sigh-up sheet think this is a better way to fight for so often. It just seems that it always and said, "Ove~:: 300 men registered jobs?" · comes when the Republicans are in. that week, and not one job call came This time Sturgis broke down and When the Democrats take over, then in. Of course, some men did go to how system replied with whole sentences. "I guess there's a war. You can't win." work- about 20. But they went out we do need input into the economy The new applicants' line is quieter. and got their own jobs." to create jobs. Who else is in a better Most never thought they'd be there. At the Painters hiring hall, one old­ works' position to do it than the federal gov­ By VALMOLLER One truck driver was surprised that timer said, "I worked for this com­ ernment?" and FRED STANTON his boss would lay him off after 15 pany for six years, up until I got Then Sturgis looked at his watch, PITTSBURGH- Often referred to by years with the company. "They fired laid off six months ago. I haven't looked up, and called, "OK, men, let's local newscasters as "a bright spot in the Blacks first, then the bigmouths, worked since." He said the long lay­ go." Off they went to bug another the nation's economy," Pittsburgh en­ then me-what did I do?" off will hurt the size of his pension Japanese company. tered 1975 with an estimated 6.3 per­ Among the shocked newcomers was when he retires in a couple of years. cent unemployment rate. the stock supervisor of a supermar­ Asked whether he thought the coun­ According to Bureau of Employ­ ket. He had been told, "The store can try was heading into a depression, ment Security District Manager get as much work from fewer employ­ Russ, a 28-year-old journeyman car­ Charles Hamilton, there are now ees. They just have to work harder­ penter, responded typically. "It sure 51,000 people in this four-county area you understand. n seems like ii I see an awful lot of guys Minneapolis: getting unemployment compensation, When asked about Ford's economic coming around the job looking for up 31,000 since last October. proposals he laughed. "Inflation work." As for President Ford's eco­ On the "bright side," the bureau's means we all have less money and nomic proposal, "He gives a tax cut ~crisis for job bank lists 1,400 jobs available. he's raising taxes to fight recession." with one hand and takes it away with Hamilton estimates that "among What about Ford's proposals to higher fuel costs with the other." Black people 16 to 24 years old, un­ fight unemployment? "I didn't hear Mike, another carpenter, said Ford's construction employment might be as high as 25 any, did you?" program is "geared to give the rich guy the breaks. His idea of sharing workers' the hardships is to raise the price of By LEE GEARHART food stamps for all, rich or poor." MINNEAPOLIS - Many layoffs John, a 25-year-old apprentice car­ across Minnesota are not making the penter, observed, "If nobody can af­ newspapers. Cutbacks are not some­ ford to buy a house because of the thing firms like to p\lblicize. But the high interest rates, why can't the gov­ jobless picture is steadily worsening ernment step in and put money into here. construction?" More than 104,000 people were of­ Another apprentice, Greg, went fur­ ficially listed as jobless in December, ther. "I think the government has to up 11,500 frbm November. step in and keep people going. Unem­ Perhaps the hardest-hit industry is ployment insurance should last in­ construction. The downturn in home definitely- for as long as a person is building combined with traditional out of work." winter shutdowns is creating "a crisis" Opinions varied on the causes of for many construction workers, ac­ and solutions to inflation and unem­ cording to a St. Paul union official. ployment. Roberto, a carpenter with As many as one-third of the workers 20 years in the trade, thought that in the baking industry in the Twin "our frontiers should be closed to for­ Cities have been laid off or shifted eign workers." to part-time work. But almost in the same breath, he "Anybody who's got a job is hanging opposed the movement to "buy Ameri­ on for dear life," one union official can." "It won't work," he said. 'We'll says. stop their cars from coming in and "Everywhere I go to look for work, they'll stop ours from going there. It employers tell me they're looking for will be the same for us- maybe someone with experience," says a 30- worse." year-old assembler who has been un- Jobless workers lining up to receive une.mployment c;;hecks in Mount Clemens, Mich.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 5 JOB CRISIS: New York City How AFSCME can defend the jobs By RAY MARKEY garbage collection, fewer street re­ NEW YORK- New York, all will pairs, reduced subway schedules and agree, is a city in crisis. But it's a probable hikes in fare, less fire pro­ different crisis depending on who you tection, fewer teachers and textbooks, talk to. welfare cutbacks, poorer health care. For Mayor Abraham Hearne and Already the few opportunities for the rest of the city administration, the recreation for the city's poor are be­ crisis is a budget deficit. For the cur­ ing wiped out as fees are imposed for rent fiscal year the city is $430-mil­ visiting museums and zoos, library lion ·.in the red, maybe $650-million. hours are cut, and the parks fall into City auditors are not sure. disrepair. But Hearne, like mayors in other cities, has a "plan to save the city." It Test for unions is simple: cut services and lay off For the unions representing city em­ workers. ployees, the crisis means a direct test Last November Hearne proclaimed of their ability to protect their mem­ "the toughest austerity program since bers' livelihoods. the depression," and since then he has My union, District Council 37 of ordered three rounds of massive lay­ the American Federation of State, offs. All told, 11,985 city employees County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), represents roughly half Ray Markey is a member of Local the city work force. Other major 1930 of the American Federation unions involved include the United Federation of Teachers, Team­ of State, County and Municipal sters (sanitation workers), Uniformed Employees {AFSCME) and a dele­ Firefighters, and Communications gate to the District Council 37 Workers. delegate assembly. New York is AFSCME's stronghold. Other locals around the country, also threatened with layoffs, are watching have been ordered discharged or our response and expecting leader­ forced to retire. ship. So far this has not been The cuts affect schools, the Transit provided. Authority, Housing Authority, Health At the November delegate assembly Services, Addiction Services, welfare, meeting of District Council 37, held parks, libraries, and virtually every four days after the first layoffs were other city service. Eight fire companies ordered, executive director Victor Got­ were closed. Even a few cops were baum admitted he was completely con­ frred. fused by what was going on. Hearne's problem is not yet solved. Gotbaum complained that Hearne He figures the budget deficit is still wasn't playing by the rules, since he $120-million, so more layoffs are was firing civil service employees as Mayor's claim that there is 'no money' is absurd in financial capital of world. But surely in the works. well as provisionals (employees who the big corporations are hardly taxed at all. have not taken a civil service exam), Personal catastrophe when there were some 20,000 pro­ For the city workers handed pink visionals who could be laid off first. Second, even if the union's top de­ News keep pounding away with ar­ slips, the crisis can mean personal Gotbaum personally promised that m ands were won and the city agreed ticles blaming us, the city workers, catastrophe. Robert Marigliano, 33, there would be no layoffs of civil to reduce the work force only by at­ for being overpaid and underworked. a maintenance worker at the Brook­ servants. trition- then what? Then we're agree­ We know better, but so far we're doing lyn supreme court building, was one At the December delegate assembly ing to perpetual speedup as fewer and a poor job of getting our side of the of 598 "provisional employees" fired meeting, Gotbaum announced he had fewer workers try to provide services. story out. Jan. 17. A few hours later Marigliano found a miracle cure: force older And no matter how hard we are sat down at a street intersection, workers to retire early instead of firing pushed, services will continue to slide. Robbery- by banks drenched himself with gasoline, and younger workers. Third, talk is already thrown When Hearne announced the budget lit a match. Those who would be forced to retire around that a wage freeze if not out­ crisis at a Nov. 8 news conference, He was reported to have "been de­ on smaller pensions than they will be right wage cuts will be demanded of it was reported that he banged his spondent for weeks over the prospect entitled to in a few years were less us to balance the budget. fist on his desk and declared: "I want of being unable to take care of his than enthusiastic. In any case, the I have talked to workers who think you to understand that this has no elderly mother, with whom he lived." federal Department of Labor shot we should all take a 10 or 15 percent relationship to the word 'bankruptcy.' Most city workers laid off are now down the whole scheme by ruling it pay cut so that no one has to be laid Our bonds are good and secure. They eligible for unemployment compensa­ was age discrimination and therefore off. They propose this out of the best will be paid." tion, previously denied them. But this illegal. intentions- a desire not to see the bur­ That promise is what the budget amounts to $95 a week tops and lasts Since then the union has con­ den fall unfairly on one group of crisis is really all about: the demand only 26 weeks. Thousands will be centrated on requests for federal and workers. by the New York bankers that we forced onto the welfare rolls. state aid to the city, especially to But once we begin accepting such go on austerity so that their looting For the rest of the working-class plans, there will be no stopping the of the public treasury can go on un­ residents of the city, the crisis means "sweeten" retirement provisions. This way, Gotbaum asserts, the annual at­ city. The drive will be on to slash hindered. a grim picture of deterioration in al­ wages, speed up the work, and drive For this fiscal year, the city has ready inadequate city services: less trition rate could be stepped up from 10,000 to maybe 20,000. down pensions- all with the threat budgeted $1.8-billion for interest and hess reports are confused and con­ of layoffs unless we comply- until our repayment of principal to the banks, tradictory as to how many people union has been effectively destroyed. millionaires, and corporations that have actually been laid off to date. hold the city's bonds. This is called Some civil service employees have Frontal aHack ''debt service," and it amounts ·to 16.2 been fired, but then rehired under The plain fact is that, Hearne has/ percent of the entire city budget. For state or federally funded programs. launched a frontal attack against our those who collect the interest, every Such maneuvers have lulled many union, and so far we're giving in with­ penny is completely tax-free. workers into thinking the layoffs will out a fight. The longer we delay, the · It's gotten to the point where the not really be so severe, or that with bolder the attacks will become and the city borrows money to pay debt ser­ some fancy footwork they at least will weaker we will be. vice on old debts: paying interest on be spared. This false calm is likely What is fundamentally wrong with top of interest. By a typical method to be shattered in early February our union leaders' current approach of city financing, if the city borrows when Hearne insists that pink slips to the layoffs is that they are trying $100-million for, say, transit projects, will definitely fall on tenured civil ser­ to solve Hearne's problem instead of we will end up paying the banks vants. The need for action by our the problems of District Council 37 $234-million by the time the loan is union to stop the layoffs is urgent. members and the other working repaid. First, it is a moral outrage against people of the city. Instead of challeng­ That's at "normal" interest rates. In the standards of labor solidarity to ing the whole concept of cutbacks and January the city offered for sale $620- abandon the provisional employees an austerity program, they have only million worth of one-year notes. The to Hearne's tender mercies. Virtually tried to amend the plan to make it a banks got together and made only Victor Gotbaum of AFSCME. Union lead­ all of these workers are members of little more palatable. one bid: 9.4 percent interest, take it ers should quit worrying about solving our union- dues-paying members­ Who is to blame for the budget or leave it. The city took it, and those Beame's problems and start worrying and they should have the same right crisis? Day after day the union-hating notes alone will cost us taxpayers about problems of union members. to a job as everyone else. New York Times, Post, and Daily $58.1-million in interest.

6 Los Angeles cops train to put down food rioting By HARRY RING major labor troubles, civil distur­ of city workers LOS ANGELES- The Los Angeles bances· by people who are out of Police Department is conducting a spe­ work." Sold in minimum denominations of offs, the exorbitant executive salaries cial training program to deal with One reason advance training is $10,000, these notes are not for the to Beame's cronies. food riots. needed, he explained, is because of the proverbial "widows and orphans." The Nobody is in a better position to More than 500 police supervisors peculiar emotional problem involved next day the banks put a big ad for expose this information than our own have already gone through the pro­ if a deep-going depression hits. the bonds in the papers, pointing out union members. City secretaries, ac­ gram. Plans call for all 7,200 mem­ The problem seems to be that the that for individuals or corporations countants, and clerks who belong to bers of the force to take food riot cops won't be simply beating the in the 60 percent tax bracket, the our union, if their knowledge were control drills in station-house train­ heads of Chicanos and Blacks. Job­ taxable equivalent yield from one of pooled, organized, and publicized, ing sessions. less whites may need to be '\!ontrolled" these bonds would be 22.5 percent. could tell the real story of New York The program is being conducted as well. As one anonymous bond dealer City finances. under the direction of Commander The wide publicity given to the train­ confided to a New York Times re­ We should go after the books of the Frank Brittell, formerly a captain in ing program prompted a denial, of porter, "We make a hell of a lot of corporations and banks as well, using charge of the notorious Special Weap­ sorts, from Chief Davis. Davis said money off this city." the city's authority to uncover the ons and Tactics force (SWAT). the training program had been begun truth of how they're robbing us blind Debt moratorium It was SWAT that led the bloody because ''we thought it expedient to and getting off virtually tax-free. police shootout against the trapped anticipate from the rapidly changing There is an alternative to the lay­ What are the immediate steps our Symbionese Liberation Army mem­ economy some form of protest coming offs, an obvious one: declare an im­ union should take? First, we need to bers here last spring. It also conducted about within the country or city." mediate moratorium on these out­ launch a massive educational cam­ a shootout against the Black Panther A bad economic situation, he said, rageous interest payments. That paign to tell the truth about the bud­ Party headquarters here several years could provoke labor unrest and would cover the budget deficit several get crisis and who is to blame. The ago. student protests. Some activists, he times over. If there has to be austerity, administration knows what a power­ Explaining the present training pro­ predicted, might urge people to take a bank like Rockefeller's Chase Man­ ful weapon public opinion is- that's gram, Britten told the media: "I don't the law into their own hands. hattan- whose profits were up,38 per­ why they go to such lengths to blame know if we're going to have food riots cent last year-can afford it a lot us for rising taxes. That weapon must or not But the potential, because of But the idea that such a training better than our union members trying be turned around to rally public sup­ the economy, the inflation, and the program was intended to deal with to support families on a few thousand port behind our program of more recession, is such that the department food riots, he asserted, was the crea­ dollars a year. services and more jobs. has got to be prepared." Britten said tion of newspapers seeking a headline. Which is more important: the profits the program was initiated by Police The official jobless rate in California of the banks or the lives and well­ is 9 percent; the rate for Chicanos and being of city workers and residents? Allies in struggle Chief Edward Davis. Beame says the banks come frrst; we We would quickly find allies among The experts are making differing Blacks is much higher. Last month should stand up and say, "No, peo­ others hurt by Beame's austerity pro­ predictions about prospects for the there were ,787,600 Californians listed ple's lives are more important!" gram: other unions, welfare organiza­ economy, Britten said, 'but the ones as out of work. Of these, only 4 71,- Instead of jockeying around trying tions, community school boards, the who see things getting worse predict 125 qualified for unemployment com­ to get somebody else laid off, we unemployed, Black and Puerto Rican major civil disturbances. Food riots pensation. should be saying no layoffs and no groups, day-care workers and the would be one such problem. A major It's comforting to know the L. A wage freezes. What this city needs is mothers who depend on their services. unemployment problem could lead to cops are ready. more and better services, not cutbacks. Students are already organizing Instead of freezing new construction demonstrations against the cutbacks as Beame has done, the city should in the City University system, and undertake an emergency program to even fighting to save the jobs of city provide low-rent housing, rebuild the workers. ghettos, repair the dilapidated schools, We too should begin to mobilize Milwaukee teachers modernize rapid transit, and provide our power in. opposition to the lay­ more hospitals and health-care offs through marches and rallies. The facilities. Jan. 17 issue of Public Employee Press features a front-page call by Vic­ win support for strike No money? tor Gotbaum for a massive labor Beame will claim there's no money march on Washington. Let's follow up By LINDA D'RAND for such projects. Can any rational this excellent proposal by contacting MILWAUKEE- The first teachers' person accept that? This is the finan­ other unions, agreeing on a date, and strike in history here, begun Jan. 20, cial capital of the world, with blocks of then mobilizing our members in the is solid and winning labor support. skyscrapers housing the headquarters streets. Locals 1616 and 1053 of the Amer­ of the richest corporations in the For starters, it should be simple ican Federation of State, County and world. There's money to burn, but the enough to organize a demonstration Municipal Employees, representing really big money is hardly taxed of tens of thousands of workers right truck drivers and school secretaries, at all. here at city hall, which is actually have voted to strike in solidarity with When Beame says there is no ordering the layoffs. the Milwaukee Teachers Education As­ money, we can respond: open the And once we have made it clear sociation (M TEA). The Wisconsin Fed­ books of the city government Let's that there is an alternative to the lay­ eration of Teachers has endorsed the see who is really paying taxes and offs, that we stand for the welfare of strike. where the money goes. The bond­ the city and Beame stands only for The 5,800 members of the MTEA payment swindle is the biggest rip­ the banks, then we should be pre­ walked out after the school board sus­ off, but we would also uncover the pared for united strike action to shut pended 15 teachers and fired one real waste, the graft, the political pay- the city down tight if that's what it coach for taking part in a work slow­ takes to win our demands. down. The teachers have been with­ Our union, together with the allies out a contract since Dec. 31. we can win, has the power to stop the At Washington High School, price­ l~offLWe~~h~e~decWe~do~ tag signs reading "Teachers Rights/ Many District Council 37 members Student Rights- Not for Sale" were Militant/Linda must be wondering why Victor Got­ displayed in the windshields of sev­ Milwaukee teachers are fighting against baum, who is neither a fool nor a eral teachers' cars. union-busting suspensions and firings, coward, has taken a "you can't fight A young Black teacher explained: and for a cost-of-living escalator clause. city hall" attitude, thus endangering "When teachers start to gain power our livelihoods and our union. and feel that we can make X number Isn't it because Gotbaum considers of decisions, the school board feels to students' needs. Students also pick­ himself- and our union- part of the they have to change that. They want eted with teachers at Rufus King High Beame administration, part of the us to have less input on programs. School, a predominantly Black school. Democratic Party machine? Isn't it be­ Sometimes it seems when programs Teachers' strikes are illegal in Wis­ cause a serious fight against the lay­ are really being successfu.l they just consin, and already an anonymous offs would mean a break with the drop them." "citizen" has filed suit to get an in­ people our union leaders spent so The MTEA is demanding a 16 per­ junction against the strike. The Wis­ much money and time to get elected? cent wage increase and a cost-of-living consin Civil Liberties Union has de­ Next time somebody proposes that clause with quarterly payments. The manded that the state make strikes le­ we support another Democrat, or a teachers also want smaller class sizes gal. Liberal, or even a "progressive" Re­ and preservation of the seniority policy Last year, striking teachers in Hor­ publican for office, let's remember in transfers. tonville, Wis., were fired when they what "friends" like Beame and Gover­ Blacks are 33 percent of the city's walked out. Asked if she thought the nor Carey have done for us. If we do, 118,500 students. One group of Black Milwaukee strike could turn into an­ the idea of the union movement nomi­ students attended a session of the con­ other Hortonville, a Black teacher's City workers can ally with students and nating and electing its own candidates tract negotiations to urge that teachers aide replied, "We have to do whatever others who have stake in fight against on an independent labor party ticket be given adequate time to prepare is necessary. We either all sink together cutbacks. will not sound strange at all. classes and that education be suited or rise together."

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 7 JOB CRISIS: Labor response

CLUW sets nafl cam~igg Union women call March 8 protests By LINDA JENNESS At its Jan. 11 meeting, the Los An­ A national "campaign against the de­ geles CL UW chapter passed a resolu­ pression, unemployment and layoffs" tion stating:. was approved by the National Coor­ "Whereas, American working people dinating Committee of the Coalition are suffering the worst unemployment of Labor Union Women (CL UW), since 1940 at the time of the worst in­ meeting in St. Louis Jan. 17-19. flation in our history; To kick off this campaign the "Whereas, the layoffs have hit wom­ CL UW leaders called for actions on en and especially minority women the March 8, International Women's Day. hardest and are rapidly wiping out all A resolution approved by the Na­ the gains women have made over the tional Coordinating Committee states past decade; that "CL UW members should imme­ "Whereas, CL UW supports full em­ diately seek union endorsement of our ployment through the creation of jobs activity March 8, as part of a contin­ and favors a shorter work week with uing campaign to get union endorse­ no loss in pay to spread the available ment" for the fight ag!linst the layoffs. work around," the L. A CL UW called Meeting of New York chapter of Coalition of Labot Union Women. CLUW is setting for "united labor actions for jobs on The resolution proposes that CL UW example by organizing national campaign against layoffs. the West Coast." follow up the March 8 actions with a The New York CL UW chapter, at its series of public forums or hearings the Jan. 8 meeting of 500 women, heard week of April 28-May 3. These forums starting point for a vast campaign by CL UW will "oppose federal budget a proposal from the activities commit­ are to focus on the plight of women as union women to stop the layoffs. It cuts in programs for people, and tee that it focus its activities on the a result of the layoffs. places the blame for unemployment recommend a cut in U. S. military fight against the layoffs. CL UW's action reflects the fact that squarely where it belongs: on the U.S. spending to pay for these programs." The economic crisis poses a chal­ the growing unemployment lines are government and big business. The res­ The CL UW resolution sets a refresh­ lenge for the entire labor movement. filled with women. In plant after plant olution demands: ing and urgently needed example for With CL UW chapters discussing and the layoffs include a large per­ "Shorter workweek, no loss in pay. the entire labor movement, and it re­ urging actions against the layoffs, and centage- and in some cases all- of "No overtime as long as anyone is flects the sentiments expressed by with the resolution passed by the Na­ the female employees. laid off. CL UW chapters and activists across tional Coordinating Committee, In November 1974 the official job­ "No wage controls and support for the country. CL UW is in a position to prove in less rate for women jumped from 7.0 the concept of cost of living (clauses) Already the Chicago chapter of practice that it can fight for the in­ to 7.8 percent. In December it rose in all contracts. CL UW has moved to implement the terests of women unionists. again, reaching 8. 6 percent, compared "No speedup or any other form of resolution. At a Jan. 25 meeting of Local CL UW chapters, by imple­ with 6.2 percent for men. job harassment." 80 women, Chicago CL UW voted to menting this campaign against the The jobs these women are losing CL UW calls for "more jobs at union stage a march and picket line for jobs layoffs, can broaden their support in are crucial to their, and in many cases wages and working conditions includ­ on March 8. the union movement, recruit many their children's, survival. Today 30 ing public works jobs; support the Prior to the National Coordinating more union women to their ranks, and percent of all family income is brought Hawkins Bill, enforcement of the Full Committee meeting, both the Los An­ link up in action with other organiza­ home by women, and in 15 percent Employment Act of 1946, and any geles and New York chapters of tions. They can show that union of the families the female worker other measures to create full employ­ CL UW had proposed that the fight for women are in the forefront of the battle brings in the chief income. ment." job protection and against the layoffs to defend the interests of all working The CL UW resolution can be the The resolution further states that be a priority for CL UW. people. No mogram for action AFL-CIO officials look for scapegoats By CINDY JAQUITH gering was reached by Seafarers In­ mental restrictions on energy produc­ WASH lNG TON- "Ay-rab sheiks" and ternational Union President Paul Hall. tion and use." 'foreign workers" were made the scape­ "Look at the national security of this In the prevailing atmosphere of pa­ goats for unemployment and inflation country," he. implored, wistfully re­ triotic frenzy, it is hardly surprising at the Jan. 23 "emergency session" calling how U. S. forces defeated the that no one proposed to cut war here of the AFL-CIO general board. Japanese in World War II. spending- even though it fuels infla­ The meeting was intended to attract "Now the American fleet has been tion and sucks money away from so­ favorable publicity and give the im­ brought to its knees by the oil cartel cial services. pression that action to save jobs is in the Middle East," Hall claimed, The only suggestion that the power in the works. adding that Italy and Great Britain of the unions be mobilized to stop the Accordingly, the AFL-CIO tops de­ were also about to fall to the "Arab layoffs came in a brief floor discus­ cided to make the board meeting open sheiks." sion. William DuChessi, an official of to the media. The officialdom's gath­ Despite a few rhetorical blasts at the Textile Workers Union, asked the erings are traditionally closed to re­ the Democrats and Republicans, the AFL-CIO to "consider" calling for "or­ porters, not to mention rank-and-file board approved an "action program" derly demonstrations at state capitols union members. that differs only in minor details from and probably at the nation's capitol. The whole affair was carefully what the two capitalist parties are pro­ . . . to bring to our lawmakers the staged, with the speeches, "discussion," posing. Key. features of the program importance of what is going on in this and decisions prepared well in ad­ are the following: country." vance. Of the 317 official delegates, • A $20-billion tax cut, including a "Our people are looking for this," less than a dozen were Black or fe­ HALL: Rant~ against 'Arab sheiks' but re­ $5-billion cut in corporate taxes. he said to scattered applause. male. fuses to put forward a program to fight • A ban on oil irnports from coun­ In the morning, delegates dozed for jobs. tries that participated in the 1973- Another delegate also spoke in favor through a series of long-winded 74 oil embargo. of demonstrations. 'We in the labor speeches. The audience perked up, • Reduction of interest rates. movement are the only ones that are however,· when AFL-CIO President profits out of the pockets of working e Creation of one million public ser­ going to save [the economy]," he said. George Meany demanded that the people- was never mentioned by the vice jobs. The AFL-CIO must "pull out all the United States ban oil imports from union officials. e Protection of U.S. industry from troops" and "come back to Washing­ the Arab countries. Those speakers who didn't attack "unfair foreign competition" through ton with massive [numbers].... to "No tribute, no foreign aid, no trade, the Arabs denounced "foreign workers" import quotas and restrictions and make sure we have the kind of turnout no jet fighters to these people- noth­ instead. Murray Finley, president of export controls. the whole country listens to." ing until the blackmail stops!" he the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, e Modest improvement in unemploy­ These appeals were studiously ig­ thundered, striking what was to be the said that clothing factories in Haiti, ment compensation, bringing benefits nored by Meany, who closed the meet­ most popular theme of the day among the Dominican Republic, and South up to 75 percent of weekly wages. ing with the announcement that he the aging bureaucrats. Korea were ''trying to take away the The general board chimed in with would mail copies of the "action pro­ The real oil blackmailer- the U.S. jobs of American workers." the auto makers and coal barons in gram" to President Ford and Congress energy trust, which is gouging record The peak of patriotic phrasemon- a call to "stretch out present environ- the next day.

8 Threatens Sy_ria Israel spreads death in southern Lebanon From Intercontinental Press Onis. "The boy, with a head wound By DAVE FRANKEL wrapped in bandages, said that his "The lonely, potholed road that runs father had gone to the door last Thurs­ along Lebanon's southern border is a day night when he heard noises. trail of fear and bloodshed for the "'When he opened the door an Is­ villagers and farmers who live here raeli shot him,' he said. 'My brother within sight of Israel... ,"cabled New Abdullah went to help him and was York Times reporter Juan de Onis also shot. Then my brother Falah January 7. took a gun and fired out the window. "'The Israelis come every night,' He was killed too. ' " said Olya Hossein, a farmer's wife. Hudur Honnein, who was captured 'They have prohibited anyone from last year with his son, Saleh, described being out of his house after dark. the treatment of those taken back We are not allowed to turn on lights.'" across the Israeli border by the raid­ Since New Year's Day, when an ing parties. "We were held in jails in Israeli patrol blew up eleven houses Haifa and Ramie. For 35 days we in the village of Yarin and took three were in a dark hole, with nothing but prisoners there, along with another bread and water. three from a neighboring village, the 'We were tortured with electric Israelis have repeatedly attacked shocks. First they would torture me, southern Lebanon with ground forces while my son had to watch. Then they and artillery fire. In a protest sub­ would torture my son in front of me. mitted to the United Nations Security "They kept asking us to tell them Council January 16, the Lebanese about the fedayeen. 'You are work­ government listed sixty-one acts of Is­ ing with the Palestinians,' they said. Lebanese family in ruins of their home after Israeli attack raeli aggression in the ten days be­ I said all I 'knew was how to work raeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres "Libya and Syria," he continued, "are tween January 4 and 13 alone. my land. Look at my hands." quickly warned that any stationing of widely reported to have separately of­ Hussein Sharafeddin, fourteen years "He extended his palms upward," Syrian units in southern Lebanon fered Lebanon Soviet-made ground-to­ old, described one such instance to de wrote de Onis. "His hands were cov­ ered with callouses." would be regarded as a warlike act. air missile systems this month, and However, most Lebanese don't have A similar warning was reported in government sources here suggest that to worry about going through such an the January 22 Christian &ience Mon­ supply of the Vulcan system would 55% say 'No' experience. As one Israeli soldier ex­ itor. "According to semiofficial Israeli help· Franjieh neutralize growing do­ plained to Time magazine reporter sources," wrote Monitor correspondent mestic pressure on this issue." to new war Daniel Drooz, "If they can get their Francis Ofner, "there are now several Although the Lebanese government While the Ford administration con­ hands up faster than I can pull the thousand armed men in southern Leb­ has not responded to the attacks, the tinues dropping hints about the pos­ trigger, then I'll take them prisoner." anon taking their orders from Syria. Palestinian resistance fighters have. Is­ sibility of U.S. military intervention The Lebanese government has come "This situation, the sources say, rael reported twenty soldiers wounded against the Arab countries, a Gal­ under increasing pressure from the makes a mockery of Lebanon's formal and one dead in the first twenty-one lup poll conducted Jan. 10-15 indi­ victims of the raids to resist the Is­ refusal to permit the stationing of Syr­ days of January. cated that most Americans are not raeli aggression. "Angered by the es­ ian troops on its soil. They warn that The policy the Israeli regime has in the mood for any military adven­ calating scale of Israeli ground at­ mutual cross-border incursions might been following in southern Lebanon tures. tacks, and seeking greater protection grow too big to remain localized." was spelled out last April by former The poll found that only one in by Lebanese authorities," reported Jim Such threats are aimed as much Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. Re­ 10 people in the United States Hoagland in the January 3 Washing­ against Syria as Lebanon. "Some ob­ sponding to a Palestinian raid he would favor military intervention ton Post, villagers in the southern servers speculate that Israel is plan­ claimed had been mounted from south­ in the event of an oil boycott by the Lebanese town of Nabatiyah ning to invade western Syria from ern Lebanon, Dayan warned, "The Arab states. staged demonstrations, blocking Lebanon, entering the latter in hot people will find it impossible to live In addition, although 61 percent roads around the town with barricades pursuit of Arab guerrillas," noted C. L. there. Their homes will be destroyed, of those polled thought that another and burning automobile tires." Sulzberger in the January 26 New and the whole area will be deserted." Arab-lsr aeli war is likely to occur Although the Lebanese security York Times. Thus, in the village of Kfar Shou­ this year, 55 percent were against forces have refused to use their weap­ In the meantime, the attacks against ba, one of those the Israelis attacked, U.S. involvement. "The 51-year-old ons against the Israelis, they did use the people of Lebanon continue. 166 of the 202 houses were destroyed wife of an engineering consultant them against the villagers fleeing the ''President Suleiman Franjieh 's mod­ or damaged so badly that th.ey were from Alexandria, Va.," says the Gal­ Zionist raids, opening fire January erate government, which now runs the no longer habitable. The 1,500 people lup news release, "expresses a com­ 14 on a group of protesters in the town risk of being totally discredited un­ who were still living there at the be­ mon view concerning U.S. military of Merj 'Uyun. The next day, reported less it responds to the Israeli attacks, ginning of this year are now refugees. involvement: 'Don't send troops­ Christian Science Monitor correspon­ has put an urgent request to Wash­ "This is the way we left Palestine," we should have learned our lesson dent John Cooley, the refugees were ington for Vulcan 20mm., six-barrel commented a Palestinian employee of in Vietnam. Our country would go still in the town, able to watch as anti-aircraft guns, one of the most .ef­ a private relief organization helping to pieces if we got involved in an­ Israeli troops blew up their hpmes. fective air defense systems short of the refugees, who are Lebanese. other war.'" When Syrian President Hafez el-As­ missiles," reported Jim Hoagland in a "I'm afraid we·will never be allowed sad visited Lebanon January 7, Is- January 16 dispatch from Beirut. to go back," said one woman.

Greek people force gov~t to jail ex-dictator From Intercontinental Press not to plead. In a written statement, Ioannides 's statement seemed to con­ The Caramanlis government moved he said: firm speculation that he hoped the January 14 to begin prosecution of "I refuse to testify because the Govern­ junta could step back temporarily, let some of the most ill-famed personal­ ment is trying to replace justice by a the politicians take the blame for a ities in the junta that ruled the coun­ parliamentary act like a court ruling, defeat everyone knew was inevitable, try for more than seven years. It ar­ characterizing me in advance as a and then return to the center of the rested General Dimitrios Ioannides, the criminal." stage as the champions of offended strongman who dominated the dicta­ Ioannides, on the other hand, made "national honor." But the mass up­ torship in its final days, and intro­ an appeal to patriotism. He said that surge unleashed by the loosening of duced a bill formally declaring the the junta had turned over power vol­ the repression quickly ruled out any April 21, 1967, take-over a coup and untarily in July to enable the poli­ comeback for the dictatorship. not a ''revolution." The former mem­ ticians to achieve national unity and In December, the pressure of the bers of the junta claimed they had cre­ lead the country to victory against masses forced Caramanlis to let the ated a new ''revolutionary" legality and Turkey. monarchy fall. The fact that the old thus could not be tried for crimes re­ "The politicians gave us these as­ rightist politician now has decided to lated to establishing and maintaining surances," loannides said. "It was not open a public trial of the former re­ a dictatorship. On January 15, the possible to foresee the policy adopted actionary government, with which all bill was approved unanimously by afterward, which wa·s a policy of in­ the conservative forces in Greece were parliament. conceivable concessions and humil­ deeply implicated, indicates that mass iation." The general continued: pressure is continuing to mount for The former head of the junta, George IOANNIDES: 'When the revolution "When the revolution handed over punishment of those responsible for Papadopoulos, who was jailed by the handed over power, it did not intend power, it did not intend the civilian the dictatorship and for liquidation loannides clique after the November the civilian government to take revenge­ Government to take revengeful mea­ of the repressive apparatus they creat­ 1973 student demonstrations, decided ful measures against it.' sures against it." ed.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 9 In Our Opinion Letters

Sugar-cane workers inability to provide adequately for the needs of more than a privileged At a time when the sugar corpor­ What Ford offers few. If America's rulers are really ations are raking in huge profits While this country slides deeper and deeper into economic concerned about the price we must and sugar prices are soaring, the crisis, the "solutions" being offered up by Democratic and pay for gas to drive and to heat cane workers who produce the su­ Republican politicians alike are "solutions" for the rich, not our houses, they could nationalize gar are living at starvation level. for the majority. the oil companies. Then we The primarily Black sugar-cane President Ford's package of tax and energy proposals could pay the Arabs a fair price for workers of Louisiana live on the would mean a new cut in the standard of living. It would do their resources while at the same sugar plantations in shacks that in time lowering what we pay, since we nothing to slow rising unemployment, and would lead to even many cases once housed slaves, and would no longer have to fatten worse inflation. economically they are little better the record profits of these companies. Recent statements by Ford and his advisers have further off than the slaves had been. highlighted the completely reactionary aims of the adminis­ The growers, meanwhile, get richer Mark Speece tration's program. Here is what Ford is pushing for: and richer at the expense of the Vienna, Austria e Drastic cutbacks in all "income redistribution programs" workers. They are currently getting such as food stamps, Social Security, retirement benefits for $65 a ton for sugar cane for which they pay about 17 cents a ton in federal employees, and medical aid. The people who need Late train these benefits-the old, the sick, those unable to work or to production costs, including labor! find jobs-are already at the bottom of society. Ford would Now the workers are facing a The Second Avenue subway in New condemn them to even.greater misery. new threat. Under the Sugar Act of York City is a good example of capitalist government "planning." For another class of Americans, however, Ford has other 1930, Congress was given the power e to subsidize sugar profits and set Although the final approval for the ideas. For the Rockefellers, the Melfons, the Morgans, and "fair" minimum wages for workers. new line came in 1969 (almost 50 their kind, he says, "we must end the long-terrri downtrend Under this law workers were re­ years after the first proposal), work in corporate profits." . cently given a wage increase from didn't begin on any of the sections eWhile Ford denounces "excessive" federal spending for $2 to $2.50 an hour. But seeing until late 1972, and the plan called social benefits, he is campaigning vigorously against any no further need to subsidize sugar for it to be completed in 1981. cutbacks in the gigantic war budget. He wants to slash mil­ profits, Congress recently allowed Since then taxpayers have put up lions of dollars from social benefits to finance even more the law to expire, leaving growers $86.3-million in contracts, but still tiger cages and bombers for the Saigon dictatorship. free to cut the wages of the sugar­ no subway. And "revised" schedules e Ford's trifling tax rebate is designed to bring the least cane workers back again. now call for completion in 1988 at benefit to those who are the poorest and most oppressed. It is time to demand justice for the earliest. For example, a family of four making $7,000 a year will the sugar-cane workers and an end As one official recently pointed out, to the enormous profits of the sugar the work might go "to the turn of the get only $48 back, while the same size family making $40,- barons. century -when a lot of us will be 000 will get $955. Spencer Livingston playing harps instead of riding sub­ Ford called this giving "people in the middle-income brack­ Albany, N.Y. ways." ets a fair share." Workers on the first portion that Echoing Nixon's racist and class-biased preaching about the was started refer to it as the "election "work ethic" prior to the 1972 elections, Ford said: "I believe section," since groundbreaking took it would be a mistake to seek a solution to the problems of More reviews place just before election day. Vice­ recession by penalizing middle-income Americans. Nothing I've been reading The Militant con­ president Rockefeller (then governor would more effectively put a lid on the ambitions and enter­ tinuously since 1969. And I con­ of New York) said at the time, prise and hard work of this important segment of Americans tinue to be impressed with the steady "There is just one man responsible to continue up the economic ladder." .increase in quality over the years. for this groundbreaking this All of Ford's proposals are based on appealing to the I can definitely say that The morning, and that man is President priviliged against the most oppressed and disadvantaged Militant is one of the best tools our Nixon" Gee, thanks a lot.­ -the Blacks, the women, the young, and the old. Ford's movement has to get out the word economic program fits right in with his backing of white to more people. D.D. I'd like to see more space devoted New York, N. Y. racists in Boston, through his statements opposing busing to reviews of books, plays, and and his refusal to send troops to Boston to enforce the law movies, if possible. on desegregation. · Keep up the good work. · Ford is echoing the appeals of his predecessor, Nixon, to L.D. Native Americans the "silent majo~." But Nixon's so-called silent majority Chicago, Ill. I appreciate reading The Militant came to join the protesters in opposing the Vietnam war. for its information and views, but I And similarly, the majority of working people today are want to comment that too little is coming to realize that they have more in common with fellow said regarding the Native Ameri­ victims of layoffs-Black, Brown, or female-than they do No iive cans. They have played a vital with the class of employers whose interests Ford is defending. What is the yearly subscription role in this country throughout his­ Do the Democrats offer any better program for the growing price of The Militant now? We're tory and in my opinion have unemployment, poverty, and insecurity of life? tired of Associated Press and suffered the most blatant oppres­ The Democrats in Congress expend a lot of hot air criti­ United Press International; they sion and atrocious neglect. cizing Ford's programs. But what they do is another matter. jive, jive, jive. Please send us an I would like to see a good The best test of the Democrats' program is the record of the order form. analysis of the Red man in society from the socialist viewpoint. Instead new liberal Democratic governors and mayors who were K.P. and L.P. Lincoln, Nebr. of the token respect typical of social elected around the country in last fall's elections. action to date, the Red man deserves From Hugh Carey in New York to Edmund Brown in [The Militanf s yearly subscription much more of a humanistic re­ California, the Democrats are carrying out the same pro­ rate is $7.50. An introductory sub­ sponse than has been provided by gram on the state level that the White House is implementing scription is available to new readers the Department of the Interior and in Washington. at $1 for two months. Send to society as a whole. In New York, Carey is throwing thousands of state em­ the Militant Business Office, 14 The prevailing "fatherly" attitude ployees out of their jobs and cutting deeply into social pro­ Charles ~ane, New York, N.Y. must be destroyed so the Red peo­ grams affecting thousands of New York City's poor. In Cali­ 10014.] ple are totally accepted in everyone's fornia, Brown is rivaling his predecessor, Reagan, in .calling struggles for self-determination. for cutbacks in social spending in the name of "austerity." Eric Sorenson And what is liberal Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley Moorhead, Minn. doing to protect the masses of Los Angeles citizens from The basic problem economic hardships? His city police force is being trained The capitalist press in America in how to put down "food riots," in case people take action seems to be stepping up its in, the streets to demand the right to a job and a decent living! propaganda against the Arabs. Public employees In this issue of The Militant we present an alternative to the Along with this the government is Washington state employees are capitalist politicilms of both parties. We propose a program - talking of war to occupy the oil threatening to strike for the first that would mean some real changes, one that would come fields. Perhaps they hope to solve time in history. to grips with the problems facing the majority rather than their economic problems with this The demands of their union, the the concerns of the corporations for greater profits and domi­ classic capitalist maneuver, war. Washington Federation of State nation of the world. But the problems were there and Employees (WF SE), are for The Socialist Workers Party and its 1976 presidential and getting worse long before the oil implementation of recent salary survey findings (an average 12 per­ vice-presidential candidates, Peter Camejo and Willie Mae prices went up, and they will remain even if the capitalists manage to cent wage increase) by Feb. 1, plus Reid, are the ones who are fighting for this program. They regain control of oil. They cannot "catch-up" and "keep-up" increases deserve your active support. shift the blame to others by in the coming year. distracting attention with war talk. The demands are modest in view The basic problem is capitalism's of a civil service law passed in

10 National Picket Line Frank Lovell

1960, which requires that state Affirmative action under attack employees be paid "at not less than The following guest column is by Catarino Garza, Rustin cites the fact that affirmative-action pro­ prevailing rates" in private indus­ a bllingual teacher in New York and a member grams "cannot prevent the deterioration of economic try. But Washington state of the United Federation of Teaehers. standards when the economy as a whole is sick." employees have not been paid at True enough. But if oppressed people could not get these "prevailing rates" since 1969. Attacks are mounting against the modest gains won a fair shake when the capitalist economy was rela­ The strike threat is being backed by oppressed minorities and by women in education tively stable, what chance is there for people kept up by the organization of a state­ and on the job. out of jobs to break in now, with production going wide network that will be capable • A California superior court judge recently de­ down and unemployment skyrocketing? Stay in your of bringing the entire state machine clared that the University of California's special ad­ place, Rustin advises, until the capitalists get things to a halt should the union de­ missions program at its medical colleges was uncon­ straightened out. mands be ignored. Also, support stitutional A 30-year-old white research engineer had In the meantime Black and Puerto Rican unemploy­ is being sought from every labor sued the school for "reverse discrimination" because ment remains at least twice as high as white unem­ organization in the state, with he was turned down twice for admission to medical ployment. And ·as the American Council on Education an excellent reponse thus far. school. He charged that less-qualified minority appli­ recently reported, the proportion of Blacks in college One of the WFSE's leaflets makes cants were admitted. is falling drastically. the issues clear: It seems that 16 out of 100 places at the University Ir appears the old cycle is about to be repeated. "For a long time now state of California Medical College at Davis were reserved The oppressed were told that the reason they couldn't employees have carried the burden for "educationally or economically disadvantaged stu­ get good jobs was because they weren't educated of the state budget on their shoul­ dents. or "qualified." Parents and students fought against ders, sacrificing their legal right to e In New York, the City College's Center for Bio­ tremendous odds for the right to an education. Now prevailing wages so the budget medical Education is under attack in two similar that a few have obtained the necessary degrees they could be balanced and state ser­ suits, filed on behalf of white students by the Anti­ are told there are not enough jobs, and in any case vices could be provided without Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and the Italian­ they have to compete with white males who have unduly burdening the taxpayers of American Center for Urban Affairs. "higher qualifications." the state. e As The Militant recently reported, the U. S. De­ Who determines what these "qualifications" are to "But state employees have reached partment of Health, Education and Welfare has is­ be? Why, the white, male job-trusters, of course. the epd of the rope when it comes sued a special order on college hiring practices de­ "Heads we win, tails you lose." to balancing the budget at their signed to undercut any effective affirmative-action Many young white males, especially if they them­ expense." programs. It insists that "recruitment for employ­ selves have had to fight for an education, resent being Pat Bethard ment vacancies must be undertaken without desig­ told that race and sex matter. We didn't discriminate, Seattle, Wash. nation or identification by race, sex, [or) ethnicity." they protest. It's small consolation to them that what These attacks are being lauded by the conserva­ they judge as "reverse discrimination" is merely an tive officialdom of the AFL-CIO, especially through attempt to right the wrongs of previous generations 'Heartbreak Kid' the voice of Albert Shanker, president of New York's and of a racist and sexist system. United Federation of Teachers. Labeling attempts But it is unjust and a perversion of logic to demand I just had to write after seeing this to give minorities half a chance at previously all­ that the oppressed, who have been and still are the movie on TV. The Heartbreak Kid white jobs as "reverse discrimination" is a convenient victims of real discrimination, grin and bear it until showed excellently the political cover for Shanker and others to maintain white job­ there is a better economic climate. atmosphere of the typical college trusts in their unions. People who are truly concerned with equality and campus in 1972. Pious arguments are used by front men like Bayard justice will not fail to see that reason and right are on There was one scene that took Rustin in the AFL-CIO Federationist. He writes that the side of the oppressed. To do otherwise is to take place at a college and there, in a "we should not adopt as our principal mechanism a the position that so many young people condemned major movie, was a poster adver­ program designed exclusively to fight discrimination." their elders for in the 1960s. Why were you silent in tising the Linda Jenness vs. Paul This is a "narrow orienfation" and will lead to Shank­ the past, they asked, when the oppressed fought for McCloskey debate. er's favorite bugbears: "racial and sexual quotas" and equal rights and human dignity? That same decision R.R. "tampering with legitimate standards." is before the young generation today. Roxbury, Mass.

Labor history conference La Lucha Puertorriqueiia I am writing to notify you of the first annual Southwest Labor His­ tory Conference, to be held Aprlt 24- 26 in Stockton, Calif. The conference Jose Perez will mark the start of a new regional association of trade union­ ists, labor historians, labor editors, and others interested in the history Economic lynching of a nation of working people. This region has the most inter­ The New York Times ran an article Jan. 19 under hundreds of thousands have been forced to leave esting labor background of any the unassuming title, "Puerto Rico's Recession." Look­ the island and come to the U.S. in search of jobs. area in the country, and yet has ing at the contents, a more appropriate headline This migration has been so great that today about had no regional association. In would have been: "The economic lynching of a 40 percent of the Puerto Rican people live in the other areas unionists and historians nation." United States. have organized groups dedicated to The article outlines the effects of the U. S. recession With the recession in the U . .S., however, even that building a mutually advantageous on that Caribbean property of Wall Street. avenue of escape is being cut off. During times of partnership leading to a greater "Unemployment in Puerto Rico is estimated·at 16 relative economic prosperity Puerto Ricans here are interest in labor history. percent. ..." writes H. J. Maidenberg from San Juan. the last hired for the worst-paying and most dan­ Such an association is now being "Inflation is rampaging at an annual rate close to gerous jobs. During a downturn they are simply planned here. The conference 30 per cent- a particularly cruel trial for people thrown out into the street. should be of great interest. Any­ whose per capita income is still only one-third of Needless to say, the Times delicately avoids one interested in assisting should the national [ U. S.] average." probing why there are no jobs for Puerto Ricans contact the Pacific Center for But the Times's figures- astounding as they are­ today, either on the island or in the U. S. But the Western Historical Studies, Uni­ tell only a small part of the real story. reason is well known. versity of the Pacific, Stockton, In June 1970 unemployment in Puerto Rico was Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States. On Calif. 95211. 11 percent In addition to the 92,000 officially un­ Sally Miller employed, however, the government classified all important questions that concern it, the decisions are made directly by the U.S. government. More­ Conference coordinator 253,000 as "idle." This is a statistical sleight of hand Stockton. Calif. also used in the United States under the name "dis­ over, what little power the island's local government couraged workers" to cover up the real extent of un­ does have is simply delegated to it. What Uncle Sam employment. With the "idle" included, real unemploy­ gives he can also take away. ment in Puerto Rico in 1970 was 30.4 percent-as The economy of Puerto Rico is completely domi­ high as in the U. S. during the Great Depression. nated by Wall Street. The capitalist profiteers de­ ·fhe letters column is an open forum liberately maintain astronomical unemployment, for all viewpoints on subjects of gen­ The government's figures for 1970 showed another poverty-level wages, and prices even higher than eral interest to our readers. Please 35 percent as "underemployed"-people who wanted those in the United States. In this way they rake in keep your letters brief. Where neces-­ full-time work, but could only find part-time jobs. mountains of profits. The people of Puerto Rico have sary they will be abridged. Please in­ The Times does not give any current figures for absolutely no control over either their government dicate if your name may be used or "idle" or "underemployed" workers. But the stagger­ or economy. if you prefer that your initials be used ing 45 percent jump in the "unemployed" category In the United States it is the same story. The same instead. alone shows that the overall situation is much graver small clique of businessmen and bankers who con­ today than five years ago. The overwhelming ma­ trol the island run this country. And for this gang of jority of the workers of Puerto Rico are either un­ greedy parasites, the livelihood of hundreds of thou­ employed or underemployed. sands of Puerto Ricans is nothing compared to a But that's only half the story. In the past 25 years, fraction of a percent on their profit charts.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 11 The Great Society Harry Ring

What makes Henry run-" As a his­ to find out what the radicals were carbon from matches and lighters Concerning Agnew's tax evasion con­ torian, you would now have to predict marketing and to learn if they had may be a factor in causing lung can­ viction and bribery charges, Dilbeck that our kind of society would very any new products. They were a tar­ cer, along with the cigarette itself. observed philosophically, "What he probably not last much longer. But get company and we were another did when he was in office-that's if you are an official, you have no company in competition."- A former Crispy crunchy- According to the American politics." such freedom. You just have to do CIA agent describing his activities Hollywood grapevine, The Towering the best you can."- Henry Kissinger spying on New York radicals. Inferno and Earthquake may be dis­ as quoted by columnist Stewart Alsop. tributed as a double bill. Promotional Sweet- In the last half of 1974 stock­ mat~rial for the twin attraction, we're holders in the Great Western Sugar How appropriate can you get!- A Double whammy- In our neighbor­ advised, will go out under the head­ Company enjoyed a profit of $18.09 collective bargaining election at the hood they used, to say that if you ing" Shake and Bake." a share as compared with 51 cents a Ashland, Ore., Community Hospital were out of matches the way to start share for the same period the pre­ was won by the Amalgamated Meat a fire was to rub two boy scouts to­ vious year. Cutters and Butcher Workmen. gether. If you can't kick the habit, Sounds reasonable- Spiro Agnew's that may be the best way to light new real estate partner, Walter Dil­ Things-are-tough-all-over dep't- Pres­ The man in the gray flannel trench your coffin nails. According to a beck, says the former veep should be ident Ford said he won't be able to coat-"What we were trying to do was University of Missouri researcher, the a multimillionaire within four years. get away again this winter for skiing. By Any Means Necessary Baxter Smith Black unemployment high and going up Turn around today and everywhere you look mounting layoffs, coming as they do amid high and arrested still another brother. unemployment is high and going up. prices and inflation, can be deadly cripplers, He turned the question around and asked: 'What Official government figures in December set un­ crushing hopes and undermining every social and can you do?" employment in the construction industry at its economic gain Blacks have won in recent years. Indeed, what possible hope can Gerald Ford's highest level since 1961- 15 percent and going The resultant stories are legion and they all appeals kindle in people like these? What can his up. For young veterans the rate was 15.3 percent spell heartbreak. promises possibly mean? and going up. Unemployment for blue-collar work­ Richard Stokes, of Brooklyn, N.Y., received his People like Robert Walker could tell you those ers was 9.4 percent and going up. Twice what it dismissal notice Jan. 23 from the Seatrain Ship­ promises don't mean anything. The government, was one year ago, the jobless rate in manufacturing building Corporation, where he worked as a car­ the system, the Man, capitalism, "it"- whatever was 8.6 percent and going up. penter. "I've got four children and it's very com­ term they use, these people know it's out of whack All these sectors and others as well produced plicated," he explained to a reporter. "You can't and it isn't working for them. an overall unemployment figure in the Black com­ tell a kid there ain't no food, 'cause a baby don't But that's part of the game too. Promises? Sure. munity that remains twice what it is for whites. In understand. n But guarantees? Uh-uh. December it was 12.8 percent and going up. The Then there are the Walkers of 112th Street in No, capitalism is in an acute crisis and it's h~hest rate was for Black teen-agers- 36.6 per­ Harlem. Here is a family that; even before two making no more guarantees. And in times like cent. And, of course, that too is going up. of its members were struck by layoffs, was this Blacks and other minorities always suffer "These figures are depressing," Gustav Henning­ acquainted with trouble, had a friendship with first and hardest, not only in economic setbacks, burg, head cif the Newark Urban Coalition, told grief, and built strong bonds with tragedy. but in sharpening attacks on social gains, attacks a reporter. "But the actual figures are even worse. Nineteen-year-old Robert Walker told me at the that will increase as the economic problems deepen. These are only the people who are coming to the state employment office t.'le other day that he was No, for Blacks, capitalism, as Robert Walker unemployment office." Many Blacks, he believes, recently laid off from his job at a paint company. would probably agree, is like the cards in a black­ have given up hope altogether. His oldest brother was laid off from Con Edison jack game. You know, a dude gets dealt a few Even the Labor DepartmeiJt's estimate is that Company. His mother is deceased and his father good hands and everything's halfway cool. Until Blacks comprise about 25 percent of all those is disabled. One of his_ sisters, he suspects, uses he's dealt more than 21 and gets busted. Then he it terms "discouraged n workers. heroin. One of his brothers is in a home for de­ has to throw in his cards because they. didn't For Blacks, such widespread unemployment and linquents. And just the other day, a cop beat up pay off.

Their Government Cindy Jaquith Ford's 'starve with honor' plan WASHING TON- As Washington correspondent stamp cutbacks. Nor will their friends. worth of stamps. Under the new plan, she would for The Militant, I have yet to be invited to the But the impact will be severe on those who de­ have to pay $45 for $46 in stamps! Given all the White House for dinner. pend on the stamps. According to a survey done red tape you have to go through to get stamps in Normally I don't keep tabs on the social circuit for the Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy of the Joint the first place, why bother? at the White House, but I would be interested to Economic Committee of Congress: Joining this suit are several other groups, in­ know what the Fords are planning to serve for • The average monthly income of food stamp cluding the United Farm Workers and the National dinner on March 1. So would the 15 million peo­ households in 1973 was only $364. Welfare Rights Organization. The Department of ple who will be hit that day with a sharp hike in • Seventy-ni:qe percent of the adults in the pro- Agriculture is named as defendant the cost of food stamps, if Ford gets his way. gram are unemployed, unable to work, or retired. Agriculture Secretary Butz has already made A new plan devised by the White House and • Thirty-seven percent of the recipients are Black. plans for how he'll spend part of the estimated administered by Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz • Women head 66 percent of the households. $650-million the government will save by slashing would substantially raise the amount food stamp These are the figures as of 1973. Today, with food stamp funds. He's building a plush new dining re<;ipients have to pay for stamps, starting March 1. the jumps in both prices and unemployment, those room for himself and his_ guests at the Agriculture There has been a lot of hand-wringing from on food stamps have a much tougher time finding Department- at a cost of $185,000. the new "younger, more liberal" Congress about a job and keeping pace with inflation, especially As for the rest of the $650=-million, it just about the situation. Many of the politicians have pointed food prices. adds up to the extra money Ford is demanding to out that the price increase for food stamps is like The allocations to the food stamp program are prop up the dictatorships in South Vietnam and taking food from the tables of millions of retired, minimal to begin with. But if Ford's plan goes Cambodia. In effect, he is asking the poorest peo­ laid-off, or miserably paid working people. through, they will become virtually meaningless ple in this country to foot the bill for the stepped­ But thus far Congress has been dragging its for many recipients. up war in Indochina. feet on action to block this outrageous attack, al­ Consider, for example, the case of one young Just as the poor, the Blacks, and other working though pressure is mounting as the deadline ap­ woman who is a plaintiff in a suit filed by the people were forced onto the front lines of battle proaches. Food and Research Action Center to halt the hikes in Vietnam, so now they're being thrown into the Of course, the legislators- who do on occasion in food stamp costs. front ranks of the "starve with honor" brigade dine at the White House-won't be affected by the This woman now pays $33 a month for $46 here at home.

12 2,500 protesters say: No aid to Thieu! WASHINGTON- In a candlelight rally featuring Senator George Mc­ march to the White House Jan. 26, Govern (D-S. D.). Rabbi Balfour 2, 500 demonstrators denounced the Brickner, Bishop Paul Moore, and ·Ford administration's demand for Ron Young of the American Friends more funds for the war in Southeast Service Committee (AFSC) also Asia. spoke. Protesters carried signs bearing the Sixteen hundred people from 38 names of political prisoners in Sai­ states registered for the conference. gon's jails and of American draft re­ Sponsoring groups included AFSC, sisters and deserters. They gathered Coalition to Stop Funding the War, for a brief rally in Lafayette Park Indochina Peace Campaign, SANE, across from the White House after Women's International League for the march. Peace and Freedom, and Women The action was part of a four-day Strike for Peace. "Assembly to Save the Peace Agree­ The first two days of the conference, ment," called to mark the second an­ Jan. 25 and Jan. 26, were devoted niversary of the Vietnam "peace" ac­ to panel discussions, workshops, and cords. plenary sessions oriented toward lob­ The conference coincided with re­ bying Congress to cut off funds for newed threats of direct U. S. interven­ the war. Speakers at the sess!ons in­ tion in Southeast Asia and a White cluded Fred Branfman, Indochina Re­ House request for an additional $300- source Center; journalist I. F. Stone; million to back up the Thieu regime. Representative Bella Abzug (D-N. Y. ); In an official statement Jan. 27, the and several Vietnamese. anniversary of the accords, State De­ An antiwar film by Jane Fonda and partment spokesperson Robert Ander­ Tom Hayden, Introduction to the son said the U. S. "intends to continue Enemy, was shown and singers Joan to work in support of the objectives Baez and Holly Near performed. and purposes of the Paris agreement, The final two days of the assembly and to this end, we are going to sup­ U. S.-supplied fighter bombers over South Vietnam. Ford wants money to send more. were spent lobbying members of Con­ port the government of Vietnam with gress. A rally was held on the Capi­ military and economic aid so they tol steps Jan. 27, addressed by Rep­ can defend themselves." the history of the movement against stration, every action against the war resentative Robert Drinan (D-Mass.) The Jan. 26 demonstration at the the war. EHsberg reminded the crowd counted," he said. and other members of Congress. Dem­ White House heard antiwar activist what Watergate had shown about the Earlier in the evening, demonstrat­ onstrators demanded that Congress Tom Hayden and Pentagon papers impact of the Vietnam protests. "Every ors had packed into the New York cut off all aid to the Thieu and Lon defendant Daniel Ellsberg speak on picket line, every rally, every demon- Avenue Presbyterian Church for a Nol regimes. Raza Unida delegation plans trip to Cuba By HARRY RING · ployment, poor health, housing prob­ we come from similar kinds of ex­ While Chicanos have visited Cuba A delegation of activists from La Ra­ lems, all kinds of oppression. periences, although they're much more as part of other groupings, this is be­ za Unida Party ( R UP), led by Jose "Since the revolution," he continued, advanced than we are because of their lieved to be the first formal delegation Angel Gutierrez, will make a 1 0-day "it's reported they've found solutions revolution." from the Chicano movement to make visit to Cub a. • to these problems. We want to go see "We'll explain," he said, "that we're the trip to see the revolution firsthand. In a telephone interview, Gutierrez what those solutions are and see what attempting by all kinds of means­ told The Militant the delegation will their applicability is to our conditions at this point working within the sys­ include representatives from Texas, in the United States." tem- to exhaust all remedies, and in California, Michigan, Indiana, illi­ He said the people of Crystal City that process politicize our masses to nois, and Wisconsin. are enthusiastic about the delegation arrive at other methods or strategies Gutierrez is a leader of La Raza making the trip. "They're over­ to achieve our liberation." Unida Party in Crystal City, Tex., whelmed," he said. "They're eager for Gutierrez said this will be his first and was recently elected ·zavala us to go and find out if we can apply visit to Cuba, but he has been in­ County judge there. some of these solutions and also to terested in the Cub an revolution for The Crystal City delegation will in­ carry word of the Chicano movement many years. As he heard reports of clude Amancio Cantu, superintendent to other countries, such as Cuba." the accomplishments in Cuba he be­ of public-schools, and Zeke Guzman, Spreading the word about the Chi­ came increasingly interested in learn­ city manager. cano movement, Gutierrez said, is the ing what the revolution was about. The R UP leaders decided to make second purpose of the trip. He said. He said he assumed the Raza Unida the trip, Gutierrez said, after they re­ the visit would help to make more delegation would be red-baited by ceived an invitation from the Cuban widely known the activities of La Ra­ right-wing elements in the U. S. for ambassador to Mexico. za Unida Party, and he intended to making .the trip. "They'll accuse us of Explaining why they were going to talk about this as the opportunity per­ being in bed with the communists," Cuba, Gutierrez said, "Cuba prior to mitted. he said. "But the benefits of the visit the revolution had many of the prob­ "We will express the view," he said, far outweigh any criticism we might GUTIERREZ: Wants to see.whot solutions lems we have here- illiteracy, unem- "that we ought to work together; that be subjected to." Cubans hove found. Bombing is pretext for anti-Puerto Rican drive By JOSE PEREZ New York Times, which called the the PSP and other groups on the is­ porters in the repressive apparatus of NEW YORK- A powerful e"plosion bombing "manic nihilism" and used land. the system which use terror." that left four dead and dozens injured the occasion to attack Puerto Rican This is clear from the statement of Peter Camejo, Socialist Workers Par­ in a Manhattan financial district res­ independence. New York Assistant Police Chief James ty 1976 presidential candidate, also taurant Jan. 24 has been attributed The hypocrisy of these denunciations Sullivan. "We have established links issued a statement criticizing the ter­ by police to a group calling itself the is exposed by the fact that these cap­ with other groups," he told the Times, rorist action. "There is a good chance Fuerzas Armadas de Liberaci6n Na­ italist mouthpieces made no similar ''but I can't go into that at this time." this action was carried out by govern­ cional Puertorriq uefia ( F AL N­ statements against the Jan. 11 attack Moreover, the cops have announced ment agents provocateurs," he\ said. Armed Forces of Puerto Rican Na­ on the PSP, in which two workers that they are extending their dragnet "But even if it was carried out by sup­ tional Liberation). were murdered. to Puerto Rico. porters of independence, they've done According to an F AL N communi­ On that occasion the Times found Juan Mari Bras, general secretary a great disservice to the struggle. que, the bombing was carried out in space only for a six-paragraph United of th.e PSP, strongly condemned the "They've unnecessarily madeiteasier retaliation for a bomb attack against Press International dispatch, which New York bombing, which, he pointed for the U.S. government and others a Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) falsely stated that the bombing "was out, "prejudices the struggle for the to turn public opinion against the rally Jan. 11 in Mayagiiez, Puerto part of a war between left-wing and independence of Puerto Rico by iden­ struggle. Actions like this are not ef­ Rico. The "F ALN has also claimed right-wing extremists." tifying Puerto Rican nationalism with fective because they are not aimed responsibility for several other The pews coverage around the an act of terror." at winning mass support for social bombings in New York since last Oc­ F AL N bombing is designed not only In a statement released the day of change, but instead at relying on the tober. · to sell more papers but also to whip the bombing, Mari Bras said its effect deeds of a few individual saviors." The terrorist act was given sensa­ up hysteria against the proindepen­ was- "to fool people into thinking that Camejo called for solidarity with tionalist front-page treatment in ma­ dence movement. It goes hand in hand the left and the right function on the the proindependencemovementagainst jor New York newspapers for days. with the witch-hunt and terrorist at­ same level, ... when the truth is that any attempt to use the bombing as a Several ran editorials, including the tacks that are being carried out against it is the fascist bands and their sup- pretext for a witch-hunt.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 13 King, civil rights movement were targets of FBI at 1964 Democratic convention By CINDY JAQUITH The racist treatment of the Mississip­ WASHING TON- After the members pi Blacks at the convention had an of the Senate Watergate committee important impact on the civil rights kept the story secret for two years, movement. It helped convince a layer the facts on how the FBI disrupted of Black activists that the Democratic civil rights activists at the 1964 Dem­ Party is just as much an instrument of ocratic convention have finally begun racist rule as the Republican Party. to come out. In Lowndes County, Ala., the At the direct order of President Lyn­ Lowndes County Freedom Party was don Johnson, the FBI wiretapped formed in part out of this experience. Martin Luther King and other Black A group of Blacks decided civil rights leaders, and infiltrated "dissident fac­ could not be won by working within tions" at the Atlantic City, N.J., con­ the Democratic Party, and they ran vention. their own candidates against both the A "'description of the surveillance Democratic and Republican can­ campaign against King is contained didates. in a memo that the Senate Watergate Independent political action by committee never revealed to the pub­ Blacks was precisely what Johnson lic. The document deals with the testi­ and the ruling class feared. In the late mony of Leo Clark, who was head 1960s, they stepped up secret-police of the Atlantic City, N.J., FBI office attacks on the Black movement, par­ at the time of the 1964 convention. ticularly through the infamous Coin­ Details of his testimony were reported Martin Luther King speaking at Montgomery, Ala., civil rights demonstration in 1965 telpro ("counterintelligence") program. in the Jan. 26 Washington Post. At the time of his murder in 1968, Clark told the Senate committee in King was under constant watch by 1973 that Johnson ordered J. Edgar gation to the white, Mississippi dele- of delegates or delegations, . of vice the FBI. From the facts that have Hoover's assistant, Cartha DeLoach, gation. . presidential candidate possibilities, now surfaced on the 1964 convention, to report directly to him on King's "A conflict could have marred Dem­ and the identities of congressmen and it is clear that the White House was activities through a telephone line that ocratic unity or provoked picketing senators going in and out of King's supervising this blanket surveillance. bypassed the regular White House by civil rights activists. Although the quarters.... switchboard. The FBI was also as­ civil rights movement at the time "There was particular interest in Senate cover-up signed to spy on then attorney gen­ largely adhered to King's doctrine of learning who was seeking the support Yet the Senate Watergate committee eral Robert K'ennedy. nonviolence, such demonstrations of the black leaders and the maneu­ refused to inform the American people could have been politically embar­ vering of the black factions with re­ of Johnson's illegal spying on King. rassing." gard to the seating of the Mississippi When asked on the television program Feared Black challengers The challenge to the white Missis­ delegations." "Issues and Answers" why the senators "Although President Johnson in sippi delegation came from 68 Mis­ In addition to the FBI, Johnson covered up the Democratic spying, 1964 was assured of nomination for SISSippi Freedom Democrats, who directed other disruptive efforts at the Senator Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) of­ his first full term as President," wrote were mostly Black and had come to Blacks. He assigned Senator Hubert fered the lame excuse that "it was not the Post, "he was worried about a pos­ the convention to raise the issue of Humphrey, supposedly a supporter involved in the '72 presidential cam­ sible move to draft Robert Kennedy civil rights. The Mississippi Freedom of civil rights, to pressure other dele­ paign." to be his running-mate and about a Democrats demanded that they be gations not to raise the issue of the The real reason, however, is that challenge by a primarily black dele- seated instead of the racist "regular" Freedom Democrats on the floor. the Senate committee did not want the delegation. public to learn that Watergate extend­ "Trouble was expected from the Mis­ Humphrey's compromise ed far beyond Richard Nixon. It did sissippi and Alabama delegations," Humphrey proposed to the Freedom not want the American people to learn Clark told the Watergate committee. Democrats that they accept a "com­ that illegal spying against dissidents "One of the objectives of the FBI would promise"- the "regular" Mississippi is an integral part of both Democratic be to infiltrate dissident factions .... " delegation would be seated, but only and Republican administrations. In addition, he reported, the FBI in­ two Freedom Democrats would get As Fannie Lou Hamer put it in a stalled a wiretap on King's phone seats, and they would not even be telephone interview with The Militant, and a bug in his hotel room, and recognized as representing Mississippi. "Everyone's talking about the break­ watched to see who came in and out. The Freedom Democrats voted down in at the Watergate. Why, the same A tap and bug were also installed this "back-of-the-bus" plan, but the rest thing's been happening to us all the in a nearby civil rights office used of the convention accepted it. time." by the Congress of Racial Equality Humphrey was successful in part Hamer recalled the numerous FBI (CORE) and other groups. because he was able to convince key "investigations" of violence . against Johnson followed the details of Black leaders, including King, CORE Blacks during the civil rights strug­ King's whereabouts meticulously dur­ Director James Farmer, NAACP head gles. "Instead of investigating what ing the convention. According to the Roy Wilkins, and Social Democrat we would try to report- the brutality memo on Clark's testimony, "Clark Bayard Rustin, not to fight the exclu­ and all- the FBI was investigating recalls overhearing DeLoach speaking sion of the Mississippi Blacks. us! on the telephone to President Johnson Fannie Lou Hamer, one of the Free­ "Even before Watergate, we were and to Director Hoover, giving them dom Democrats, recalled the tremen­ aware that our phones were bugged, summary information from the techni­ dous pressure applied by the Demo­ that the FBI kept tabs on us. Now I cal surveillance.... cratic Party leadership.· "People were listen to the news about what they're "In a DeLoach conversation with saying things, and then chickening going to do about this 'domestic spy­ FBI reported directly to Lyndon Johnson ·the President, Clark heard mention out, and we didn't know why," she ing'-well, they let it go on for a long on King's activities. of discussions concerning the seating told the Post. time," she said. Attica frame-up: witness tortured into lying By WENDY LYONS said he agreed to ''back up" stories fed tiated what I said in 1971," Champen to destroy notes of interviews with Charles Crowley, a key prosecution to him by state officials implicating told the court, "that we were attacked informers so they could not be ob­ witness against five Attica defendants, four of the five men now on trial in and massacred. And we have been tained by the defense. has admitt~d that he had given false connection with the deaths of two other brutalized ever since." Crowley's admission further exposes testimony against them because he prisoners. Crowley's disclosure was not the the Attica indictments for what they was terrorized by police and prison first indication that testimony against are- a massive frame-up to prosecute guards. The five defendants are Big Black the Attica Brothers has been fabri­ the victims of Attica rather than the Crowley, a Black former prisoner, (Frank Smith), Roger Champen, Her­ cated. On Dec. 19, 1974, jurors who real criminals. said he testified to "save my life." He bert X Blyden, Shango Bahati Kaka­ acquitted Vernon La Franque of Sixty-two people have been indicted told a. Jan. 22 pretrial hearing that wana (Bernard Stroble), and Jomo charges of possessing tear gas during on 1,400 different felony counts since after the Attica rebellion he was sodo­ Joka Omowale (Eric Thompson). The the rebellion described the state's case the Attica rebellion. All of them were mized by guards with a nightstick, two men they are accused of killing as "trumped up" and "rehearsed." prisoners at Attica at the time of the threatened repeatedly with knives and were among 43 persons found dead uprising. Not one state trooper or a gun, shown the body of a Black after Nelson Rockefeller ordered the In November during the pretrial prison official who was responsible for prisoner killed in the Attica massa­ massacre that ended the Attica rebel­ hearings of Charles Pernasilice and the massacre at the prison has been in­ cre, and "made to crawl around on lion of September 1971. The five were Dacajeweiah (John Hill), who were ac­ dicted. And the biggest criminal of the floor and shout 'white power' and indicted for the murder more than two cused of murdering a prison guard, them all- Rockefeller- has been pro­ kiss their feet." years after the uprising. a Bureau of Criminal Investigation moted from governor of New York to As a result of the torture, Crowley Crowley's recantation "has substan- agent admitted that he was instructed vice-president of the United States.

14 Dossiers keP-t on thousands Texans demand: Open secret police files By EDJURENAS Democrat, of purposely waiting until privacy, defamation, slander, and HOUSTON- The Socialist Workers election year to announce the existence libel. An initial victory was won when Party has filed motions in federal dis­ of the files. Federal Judge John Singleton granted trict court to force the Houston police Hoping to attract liberal support for the ACL U request to bar Hofheinz department to turn over files it keeps his efforts to "clean up" the cops, with­ and the cops from destroying the files. on political activists. out impairing their day-to-day spy The judge also ordered Hofheinz's The SWP action comes in the wake functions, Hofheinz has named a commission to draw up a list of all of recent disclosures that the Criminal three-person commission to "investi­ people named in the dossiers. All spy Intelligence Division (CID) of the de­ gate." Hofheinz ordered the commis­ targets will be contacted by the court partment has amassed political dos­ sion to "purge the illegitimate activities and asked if they wish to become a siers on more than 1,000 Houston from the legitimate activities" as quick­ part _of the ACL U class-action suit. citizens. ly as possible. The full ramifications of the The spy files are being sought by the Police Chief Carrol Lynn has pub­ Houston police spy exposures are SWP as evidence in its suit challenging licly stated that files on so-called ex­ only beginning to become known. Re­ the Texas campaign disclosure law. tremist political groups or "anybody cently, local newspapers have referred The suit, being brought by the Ameri­ who is a threat to the community" will to similar political files having been can Civil Liberties Union (ACL U), be retained. In an earlier police spy kept, but now allegedly destroyed, by charges that the Houston police and scandal last March, Joe Singleton, ex­ the state department of public safety. other police agencies have spied on, head of the CID, admitted that the One reporter has charged that a illegally wiretapped, harassed, and police had infiltrated informers into secret-police unit exists that is funded otherwise interfered with the right of the SWP. jointly by the federal government and the SWP to carry on legal political Pedro Vasquez, SWP candidate for 10 local police agencies. The extent activities. state attorney general in 1974, de­ of this police operation, known as the The SWP is asking for a court order nounced the mayor's appointment of Harris County Organized Crime In­ barring the state from forcing the so­ the commission as nothing more th<;m telligence Unit, is not yet known. How­ cialists to turn over lists of financial a cover-up. ever, despite its claim that it does not contributors to its election campaigns. "Whose names will the commission conduct spying operations against As the recent spy file revelations show, keep on the enemies list and whose political groups, it has reported mem­ such a list in the hands of the govern­ Militant/Nelson Blackstock will it purge?" Vasquez asked. "No bership figures of various organiza­ ment would be used to provide addi­ PEDRO VASQUEZ: 'Let police victims in­ one will ever know. Let the victims tions, including the SWP, on its appli­ tional targets for illegal police spect our own files.' of police spying look at their own cation for federal funding. operations. files! Order Chief Carrol Lynn to The existence of a Houston enemies The Texas socialists maintain that tions are known to have been kept. make them available to the Chicano list has already sparked protest ac­ if they are successful in obtaining the Other prominent Houstonians and Black militants who were spied tivity at the University of Houston. dossiers, they will have the necessary named by Hofheinz as having been upon, to the antiwar activists, to the Students there are planning to conduct proof to win the case. spied upon include U. S. Representa­ civil liberties advocates, and to the a speak-out Feb. 7 to publicize the The existence of the CID "enemies tive Barbara Jordan and Gertrude many others- all targets of Houston's nature and extent of police spying. lisf' was revealed recently by Houston Barnstone, a former school board own Watergate. We demand our files!" The program has the endorsement Mayor Fred Hofheinz. In at least one member and well-known civil liber­ In a related action, the ACL U has and backing of the student govern­ file, that of a former fire chief, photo­ tarian. filed a $55-million class-action suit ment. Demands will also be made on graphs, surveillance reports, and One city council member has ac- . against the city for maintaining the the campus administration to open transcripts of wiretapped conversa- cused Hofheinz, who is a liberal files. The suit charges invasion of up its own files on political activists. New evidence of Baltimore police crimes By ANNEMARIE HILL leaders participating. Another memo BALTIMORE- Amid fresh revela- describes a 1971 debate between the tions that the Inspectional Services Di- two major Black candidates for may- vision ( lSD)- a secret unit of the Bal- or and also includes names of Black tim ore police department- has spied leaders in attendance. on at least 125 groups since 1966, Although Pomerleau has refused to a state senate committee has decided make public the complete list of in- to conduct a full-scale investigation dividuals and groups spied upon, one of the illegal spying. police document provided to the Balti- Among the groups that have been more Evening Sun by a former lSD targeted for the spy operation are the member names 125 groups, including Socialist Workers Party, the Young the following: Socialist Alliance, the Communist Par- Southern Christian Leadership Can- ty, the Student Nonviolent Coordinat- ference; Congress of Racial Equality; ing Committee, and the American Civ- NAACP; Communist Party; Socialist il Liberties Union. Workers Party; Young Socialist Al- The senate committee had conducted liance; Peace and Freedom Party; Rev- preliminary hearings following pub- olutionary Action Movement; Wom- lished disclosures last December of the en's Liberation Front; Women's Col- secret-police activities. lective; and a long list of tenant Since the initial articles appeared groups and neighborhood improve- in the newspapers here, new memos ment associations. Baltimore municipal workers. Unionists have been among the targets of secret police and revelations have been reported The cops even went so far as to spy operation. almost daily. The evidence proves that include in their sweeping operation· there has been a massive campaign any attorneys who defended any of of surveillance and harassment, in- the groups listed. A footnote to the ed Mitchell's 23-year-old godson, Mc­ though, that the training was "only eluding bugging, infiltration, break- list adds: "Note: Civil Liberties Leod Townes . for the purpose of preventing surrep- .ins, and burglaries, directed at radi- Union- This is made up of a group The cops claimed Townes illegally titious entry." cal groups, Black elected officials, civ-- of attorneys who protect the rights of left his car engine running unattended Thomas Bradley, director of the il rights workers, news reporters, min- persons demonstrating for a cause. outside Mitchell's home. When ques­ Metropolitan Baltimore Labor Coun­ isters, unionists, and environmental File these reports according to the or- tioned about this, the police claimed, cil, AFL-CIO, told the senate commit­ activists. / ganization involved." Townes became belligerent and at­ tee, "I think we really ought to open The information accumulated so far, Parren Mitchell told The Militant in tacked an officer. A fight ensued and up this can of worms. There seems to although incomplete, is staggering. a telephone interview that he was not Townes suffered an eye cut that need­ be a direct line between the police de­ Activists here consider the document- pleased with the senate committee's in- ed five stitches. partment, the CIA, the FBI, and the ed evidence as just the tip of the ice- vestigation so far. "I predict a white- Clarence Mitchell III, Parren Mitch­ Army Intelligence all over the coun­ berg. wash," he said. ell's brother, has charged that the ISD try." Police Commissioner Donald Porn- "You know, the same types of in- was behind at least two of the bur- erleau admitted to the senate commit- dividuals are investigating the ISD glaries at his Baltimore law office, Public concern is growing over the tee that the lSD prepared dossiers on that are investigating the CIA, and and another lawyer presented an affi­ ISD's illegal activities. The major U. S. Representative Parren Mitchell I'm not optimistic about what will be davit at the preliminary hearing de­ newspapers, the Black-owned Balti­ (D-Md. ), State Senator Clarence done," Mitchell said. He indicated that scribing how an lSD informer took more Afro-American, and several Mitchell III, women's groups, and an- he may file a suit to halt the ISD's important papers from his office. trade-union and Black leaders have tiwar organizations, but claimed such activities. Arrogantly, Pomerleau admitted at demanded full disclosure. And at a activities were not improper. Meanwhile, because of his outspok- the hearing that ISD agents were time when Watergate-style political One lSD memo reports on two 1969 en opposition to the ISD, Mitchell's trained by ''the best lock men in the crimes are fresh in the minds of the rallies protesting police brutality and family has received police harassment. business"- Army Intelligence men at public, .pressure for disclosure is includes names of prominent Black On Jan. 26 cops here beat and arrest- Fort Holabird, Md. He added, bound to increase.

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 15 link N.Y. & Boston struggles Kenneth Clark to speak at N.Y. meeting By SUSAN WINSTEN gents. In a regents' meeting Jan. 22 New York Human Rights Commis­ NEW YORK- Dr. Kenneth Clark and he voted against the new policy that sioner; the Baptist Ministers Confer­ Reverend Wilbur Miller will be the maintains that the number of Black ence of Greater New York; Students keynote speakers at a public forum students in a school district has no for a Better Government at BMCC; Feb. 7 sponsored by the New York bearing on its degree of integration. the student government at Brooklyn Student Conference Against Racism. Clark will seek legalo action to have College; Nat Hentoff; and People Entitled "Little Rock 1957- Boston the law repealed. Against Racism in Education. 1975: The Struggle for School Deseg­ Miller was a leading participant in The New York Student Conference regation," the meeting will be held at the 1973 school desegregation strug­ Against Racism can be reached at 8 p.m. in W oilman Auditorium, Fer­ gle in the Canarsie section of Brook­ Room 306, Ferris Booth Hall, ris Booth Hall, Columbia University, lyn. Columbia University, New York, 112th St. and Broadway. Also speaking will be Luis Fuentes, N.Y. 10027. Telephone: (212) 866- The forum ·will link the struggle fired superintendent of school District 8830. against racism in education in New 1; author Jonathan Kozol; Timothy York to the continuing campaign in Mitchell, chairperson of the racism HOUSTON- As part of the activities defense of Boston's Black students committee of the National Council of to build participation in the Nation­ against racist mob violence. Churches; and Richard Wall ace, a al Student Conference Against Racism Clark is the only Black member Black student now being bused in in Boston, a forum entitled "The Fight of the New York state board of re- Boston. Against Racism" will be held Feb. 4 The forum was projected at the first at 8 p. m. on the predominantly Black meeting of the New York Student Con­ Amsterdam News campus of Texas Southern University ference Against Racism on Jan. 23. Kenneth Clark will join other prominent here. The 85 participants included stu­ backers of school desegregation at Feb. The meeting will discuss how Hous­ dent government representatives and 7 forum at Columbia University. tonians can aid in the struggle to Black and Puerto Rican activists from defend school desegregation in Bos­ Hunter College, Borough of Manhat­ Most of the discussion at the Jan. 23 ton and will feature as speaker Rev­ tan Community College (BMCC), meeting centered on the best ways to erend Ransom Howard, the leader of Brooklyn College, LaGuardia Com­ mobilize New York students to attend the Concerned Citizens of Port Arthur munity College, Columbia University, the' conference. Already the student (Texas) Association (CCPAA). Staten Island Community College, governments at Brooklyn College and The association was formed several New York City Community College, BMCC have made their offices avail­ weeks ago after Clifford Coleman, a City College of New York, and other able to publicize the conference and 22-year-old Black man, was shot in campuses. are allocating funds to rent buses to the back by a cop outside the police The students felt that the Feb. 7 attend it. station in Port Arthur. forum, the first such activity in the During the past week a number of The association has held several city, could be a springboard to orga­ prominent New Yorkers have added marches and protests demanding the Militant/Norman Oliver nize New York participation in the their names to the broad list of en­ suspension of three cops involved in Jonathan Kozol has been speaking in a National Student Comerence Against dorsers of the upcoming Boston con­ the slaying incident. In response, a number of cities to publicize student anti­ Racism slated for Feb. 14-16 at Bos­ ference. Among them are: Gloria Justice Department mediator has been racist conference. ton University. Steinem; Eleanor Holmes Norton, called in to investigate.

Racist violence continues Thugs beat up Boston school bus driver By JON HILLSON won't be busing." the typical route that goes right gency exit, which bus company policy BOSTON- The climate ofviolencecre­ O'Brien wasn't surprised, he said, through the center of Roxbury." forbids. O'Brien closed the front door, ated by Boston's racist antibusing when the track team members from The students, O'Brien said, rolled telling the team he wouldn't open it movement was grimly underscored South Boston High School boarded down the windows and "spat at Black until the emergency exit was closed. again Jan. 23 when Kim O'Brien, a the bus on Jan. 23 and called him people, made obscene gestures, and "Then, a student tried to jerk the Boston school bus driver, was badly "nigger lover" and "faggot." "I didn't leaned out the window screaming 'nig­ door handle out of my hand and beaten by members of the all-white respond to the taunts," he said. ger.'" O'Brien said he told the stu­ punched me. The coach wasjustwatch­ South Boston High School track team. The bus was escorted into and out dents to put the windows up or he ing everything," O'Brien said. O'Brien, who is white, was driving of South Boston by police to deter would st~p the bus. "Then," he said, "Then a bunch of students attacked the team from South Boston to a track rock throwing. In this neighborhood, "more of them started yelling 'nigger me," he said. O'Brien then opened the meet. The bus route went through a which is crazed by race-hatred, any lover' and 'queer.' "The team's coach, door and got out of the bus. As the portion of Boston's Black commun­ yellow bus is a potential target. Joseph Crowley, "acted like nothing team disembarked, taunting him, he ity. The white students rolled down As the bus drove out to the South­ had happened. Then he finally told was jumped, "while three or four kids the windows of the bus, spat on Blacks, east Expressway, it took a Roxbury them to put the windows up and they held my coat and punched me in the made obscene gestures, and yelled ra­ exit. Roxbury is where a major por­ did." face." O'Brien slipped free from his cist epithets at them. tion "of Boston's Black community This increasingly tense scene was coat and ran. He was tackled by two O'Brien stopped the bus several lives. "The students cheered," O'Brien repeated five more times. of the hooligans who began beating times, insisting he would not drive said, "'We want to go to nigger town.'" When the bus pulled up to the Com­ him while others caught up and joined until the team members stopped such O'Brien explained that the bus route monwealth Armory, the site of the in. behavior. took a turn through the edge of the track meet, at a side-street entrance, "I thought they were going to kill When the bus reached its destina­ Black community that "is longer than one of the students opened the emer- me," O'Brien said. "Then the coach tion, one student took a swing at shouted 'that's enough,' and they stop­ O'Brien while others joined in. Mter ped." O'Brien l~ft the bus, he was jumped The track team and the coach left by four of the hooligans, beaten again, O'Brien bleeding. "I was in shock," then chased and pummeled by more O'Brien explained. He was finally "athletes" while the rest of the team taken to the hospital. cheered on the thugs. "I told a policeman at the hospital O'Brien is planning to take legal what had happened," O'Brien contin­ action against his assailants, as well ued. "The guy didn't even take any as the Boston school committee, which, notes. He just told me that I'd have to he asserts, ''is responsible for creating go to the courthouse if I wanted to the mood of ·terror and violence that make a complaint." pervades places like South Boston." "We're going to demand th~t the -South Boston is a center of racist school committee suspend all the stu­ resistap.ce to court-ordered desegrega­ dents and the coach, and we plan to tion. sue the school committee itself for cre­ O'Brien, who came to the National ating the climate of racism and vio­ Sh,ldent Conference Against Racism for lence where a bunch of bigots think help in his legal efforts against the they can maul people at will," he stat­ racists, told his story to The Militant. ed. "Just think if I'd been Black," "Just to drive a bus in Boston is O'Brien said, "they'd have maimed or dangerous," he said, 'because there's killed me for sure. a good chance you'll get rocks thrown "We have to show how to stand up at the windows. And the racists hate Militan-t/8a1xter to this vicious violence. We've got to the bus drivers. They think that if Just sight of yellow school bus has become enough to enrage South Boston reaction­ show them we can fight back," O'Brien they can stop us from driving, there aries. said.

16 plan, they refuse to call on the government to go racial defense force based on the Black community beyond mere words and back up the court order and trade unions would come to their rescue. Of course, the government cannot be depended Second ol a series with all the force that's necessary, including fed­ eral troops. upon to act in the interests of working people. By WENDY LYONS The sectarians &rgue that instead of troops, we It would be desirable if the Black community and 'We need at least a division of federal troops with need to call for "the formation of a bi-racial defense its allies were. in a position to ensure effective tanks, ack-ack guns, machine guns, grenades, and force, organized by black and community groups day-to-day defense for the Black students. But, bazookas and everything else- to put down the and the labor unions; to protect the buses and if they were in such a position, would the demand rock throwing and intimidation." maintain order in the schools." for federal troops be precluded, as the Spartacists This was the response last fall of Rafe Taylor, argue? Such a defense force would be an ideal solu­ a Black minister in Boston, to the campaign of This is a tactical question that would depend racist violence aimed at halting school desegrega­ tion, but unfortunately it does not correspond to on the concrete situation, but it is instructive to tion. Should this demand, raised by many in the the level of organization or consciousness in the look at one example from history. Black community, be supported? · Black community or in the trade-union movement Some sectarian groups on the left have said, right now. The Black community in Boston is just In 1957 in Monroe, N.C., sections of the Black "No." One of the most vociferous of these groups at the beginning stages of organizing a mass re­ community under the leadership of Robert Wil­ is the Spartacist League. sponse to the racist offensive. Most trade unions liams, president of the Monroe chapter of the NAACP, legally obtained guns and organized to defend the community from night-riding terrorist attacks by the Ku Klux Klan. In his book, Negroes With Guns, Williams describes how the call for federal and state action against the racists Busing strugglg went hand in hand with the Black community. organizing its own self-defense. "The local officials refused to enforce law and order and when we turned to Federal and state officials to enforce law and order they either re­ ·Should we demand gov't fused or ignored our appeals.... "We first appealed to [the governor]. He took sides with the Klan; they had not broken any laws, they were not disorderly. Then we appealed· send troops to Boston? to President Eisenhower but we never received a reply to our telegrams.... So we started arming ourselves." When the KKK attacked the home of one of the leaders of the NAACP, Blacks defended the house with guns. Williams reports, "After this clash the same city officials who said the Klan had a constitutional right to organize met in an emergency session and passed a city ordinance banning the Klan from Monroe without a special permit from the police chief." Williams recognized that the armed forces of the government are most often used to oppose rather than defend the interests of Blacks and other working people, but this dido 't stop him from demanding that the government enforce its own laws and protect Blacks. He saw that such demands would help put maximum pressure on the government. He wrote, "In 1961, after the Cuban invasion fiasco, when President Kennedy justified U. S. in­ tervention for the 'cause of freedom,' we sent an open telegram (read at the United Nations) to the President requesting equivalent U.S. tanks, airplanes, artillery, machine guns, and mercenary troops to fight the Klan in North Carolina."

Not an abstract question Mass pressure forced Eisenhower to send troops to enforce school desegregation in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957 As is typical of sectarians, the Spartacists raise the question of self-defense in an abstract way unrelated to the reality of Boston today. But it In a recent supplement of their newspaper, Work­ have yet to be convinced that they should pass is not an abstract question. The level of self-defense ers Vanguard, the Spartacists say, "Federal troops, resolutions supporting school desegregation in possible must be gauged by the stage of a strug- • just as much as the local police or National Boston, much less participate in a defense force. gle at any given moment. A method of self-defense Guard, are the armed fist of the bourgeois state, appropriate at one stage would be an exercise the enemy of working people.... Protect Black community in adventurism at another. "The Spartacist League condemns the call for Therefore, in the face of the immediate need The key to the defense of the Black community, troops as an expression of confidence in the gov­ to protect lives, the Black community is calling and to winning the battle over desegregation, is ernment, a betrayal of elementary Marxist prin­ for the government to enforce its own law and to rely on mass action and massive mobiliza­ ciples and a threat to the black population of send troops into white neighborhoods to defend tions of the Black community and its allies in Boston.. " Blacks going to school there. this struggle. The most effective way to do this The Spartacists argue that it is unprincipled Is it possible that the government can be com­ right now is through educational activities designed to demand that the Army, which they correctly pelled to use armed force to defend the Black to explain what the issues are and through mas­ point out is a bourgeois instrument, be used to students? According to the Spartacists this is out sive street demonstrations that will show the nu- protect Black students being bused into formerly of the question. They remind us that the Army, , merical strength of the movement all-white schools. police, and the National Guard are the enemies The demand for federal troops to enforce the But the busing plan itself was ordered into ef­ of working people. This is the ABC of Marxist law against segregated schools must be seen in fect by a federal court- an equally bourgeois in­ politics. But, to construct a whole sentence it is the context of building a mass independent move­ stitution. Was it wrong to demand that the bour­ ·necessary to go beyond ABC and learn the rest ment that relies on its own power. It is a demand geois court rule in favor" of school desegregation? of the alphabet. that both corresponds to the objective needs of If the Spartacists were consistent they would have The fact is that the capitalist state- the enemy the struggle today and also paves the way for the to say, "Yes." of working people- can sometimes be forced to movement, as it gathers strength, to take further According to their logic it would be unprincipled make concessions. The courts can sometimes be measures to ensure the safety of the embattled to support the court-ordered busing ·plan. Such forced to rule in favor of the interests of working Black community. support could be construed as an "expression of people, as they did with the desegregation deci­ confidence in the government"- couldn't it? sion, and the government can sometimes be forced Just published------.. This position would be absurd, of course. And to deploy its armed forces in the interests of work­ the Spartacists themselves support the demand "Im­ ing people. plement the busing plan!" Even they are forced For example, the .pressure of the civil rights to recognize that the court decision ordering school movement forced the government to send federal From Mississippi desegregation was a victory for the Black com­ troops to Little Rock, Ark., in 1957 to protect munity. the lives of Black students desegregating the schools there. to Boston: Demand gov't enforce law In Boston today the police have already been The Spartacist position boils down to .saying forced to protect Black students. On Dec. 11 a The demand for troops the following: "Oh yes, we're for desegregation. lynch mob gathered outside South Boston High But if the racist mobs use force and violence to School, trapping more than 100 Black students to enforce civil rights stop the buses, we can't demand that the govern­ inside. The police dispersed the mob and escorted $.75 ment do anything about it, because, don't you the students to safety. see, it's a bourgeois government" But according to Spartacist "principles," the stu­ Order from: Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., New After demanding that the government rule in dents should have refused police protection and York, N.Y. 10014. favor of desegregation and implement the busing waited until sometime in the future when a hi-

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 17 Students lukewarm to McCarthy '76 campaign By ELAINE MITCHELL ington University here got an oppor­ surprise of many in the audience, he WASHINGTON- On the campuses in tunity to see how "independent" Mc­ dismissed the role of big business in 1968 there were blue--and-white Mc­ Carthy actually is. Eight hundred stu-· the scandBJ, saying "there is very little Carthy buttons everywhere. Thou­ dents turned out to hear him speak evidence" that the interests of the rich sands of students worked on Eugene just a few days after he had an­ dominate government McCarthy's presidential campaign, nounced his campaign. McCarthy avoided talking about following him all the way to the Dem­ The size of the crowd was an indi­ anything besides Watergate and dem­ ocratic convention in Chicago, where cation of the interest there is in candi­ ocratic rights. So in the question peri­ the cops beat up hundreds of antiwar dates who pledge independence from od, students pressed him to explain demonstrators. the Democrats and Republicans. his views on other politic~! issues. In 1972, McCarthy made another Many were fll'st-year students, but A Zionist student asked him if he stab at the Democratic nomination, there was also a sizable number of old agreed with Secretary of State Kis­ bu~ gave up quickly. Now he has an­ McGovern and McCarthy supporters singer's threat to invade the Middle nounced that he will run again for and antiwar activists. A few people East if the Arabs place a "strangle-­ president in 1976, this time as an 'in­ sport~ 1968 McCarthy buttons, and hold on oiL" McCarthy said he dependent" supported by the Commit­ a campaign organizer at the door thought Kissinger's statement to the tee for a Constitutional Presidency. wore a "Gene Lives"button. media had been unfortunate, because Recently, students at George Wash- McCarthy had been billed to !!_peak secretaries of state should avoid an­ on the inequities of the federal cam­ swering 'hypothetical questions." paign "reform" law, and he devoted "But where do you stand on Israel?" most of his brief talk to this subject asked the student impatiently. After He explained why he has filed a suit further dodges, McCarthy finally said Gls train for Mideast war. McCarthy backs against this law, which he said "vio­ he believed the U. S. has "a legal and U.S. 'commitment to Israel' and the draft. lates freedom of association and the moral com~itment" to Israel "going right to privacy" of smaller parties. back to 1945." He mentioned that the Socialist Work­ Another student asked him about to other questions got a good re-­ ers campaign committees are also his stated opposition to a volunteer sponse, such as when he called for challenging the disclosure laws in army. "Does this mean you would reopening tradewith Cuba. the courts. favor the draft if you were president?" But McCarthy's basic program in His talk was liberally sprinkled with he asked. no way differentiated him from the jokes about Watergate and jibes at the To the shock of his audience, Mc­ Democrats and Republicans he corruption of both capitalist parties. Carthy said yes, and then launched claimed to oppose. He supported the Every time he attacked the Democrats into a hasty justification of his stand. aims of U.S. imperialism in the Mid­ for being just as bad as the Republi-. He argued that the 'best 'army" is one dle East, he supported the draft, and cans, he got a big hand. with "a mixture of drafted and enlisted he supported the capitalist economic But his explanation of why he is men." The trouble in Vietnam, he as­ system, where the rich minority rules .- running as an 'independent" was very serted, was that the 'balance" in the over the majority. vague. U.S. Army was poor, leading to mas­ Some in the audience seemed to He argued that the real root of sacres such as My LaL sense this, and one person questioned Watergate was a "desire for. power" No one applauded this answer, al­ him on his "independent" label. The on the part of Richard Nixon. To the though some of McCarthy's replies Continued on page 22 Right to abortion is issue in trial of Dr. Edelin By RICHARD CAHALANE January 1973 that abortions are com­ Several hundred anti-abortionists BOSTON- The trial of Dr. Kenneth pletely legal prior to viability of the gathered for an hour at the edge of Edelin, charged with manslaughter for fetus. The Supreme Court defmed via­ the Boston Common "to mourn for performing a legal abortion in the bility- the ability of the fetus to sur­ the millions of defenseless unborn fall of 1973, continues to attract wide-­ vive outside the womb- as taking children" and to press for legislative spread local and national interest. place sometime between 24 and 28 action to overturn the Supreme Court Day after day the prosecution wit­ weeks after conception. ruling. nesses have presented "medical testi­ The state clailns in the Edelin case At the same time, in front of the mony." Under defense cross-examina­ that the fetus was 24 weeks old and statehouse nearby, 100 defenders of tion, however, all three medical "ex­ "viable." Therefore, the prosecutors abortion rights put up a picket line perts" presented to the court by the argue, Edelin committed manslaugh­ to "support the Supreme Court deci­ prosecution have been exposed as ac- ter by performing the abortion. The sion and to gather support for the -tive members of various right-wing real intent, of course, is to reduce the rights of minors to have abortions." "right to life" organizations. time during which a woman can legal­ In August 1974 the Massachusetts The prosecution is trying, through ly obtain an abortion and, ultimately, legislature passed a law prohibiting the testimony, to redefine the accepted to restrict abortions altogether. abortions for minors without parental medical definitions of birth, abortion, Outside the courtroom the battle consent. This law is one of the reac­ and, most crucially, "viability" of the over a woman's right to choose abor­ tionary by-products of "right to life" fetus. "Viability" has become the focus tion was expressed at two rallies on agitation stirred up by the sensational­ of the courtroom battle. .Jan. 22, the second anniversary of the ism surrounding Edelin 's indictment The U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Supreme Court decision. in April 1974.

Easy way to find new readers for The Militant By ROSE OGDEN Seventy-three teachers in the Bay been sent back to the business office. for $10. This gives you the option of The Militant doesn't have the revenue Area tried out The Militant's intro­ Maceo Dixon, from Bosto"n, sent in giving away the extra subscription for a high-priced advertising cam­ ductory sub offer this past fall be­ the most cards-a total of 69. Bob to an interested person who is short paign to increase our circulation. In­ cause of the efforts of one active sup­ Mears of Lawrence, Kans., who sent. of money. stead, we rely on our readers to help porter there, Jeff Mackler. Mackler, in 18, was our second-highest seller Harry Baker of Salt Lake City, introduce people to the socialist news­ who is vice-president of the Hayward this fall. And Buddy Beck, running Utah, ordered a packet of 11 cards weekly. local of the American Federation of · · neck and neck with Mears, signed up in late December and has already sold Many of our readers promote the Teachers, sold the 73 subscriptions to 17 new readers in Pittsburgh using eight subscriptions. Baker writes, "I'm paper by selling subscriptions to their members of his union. the prepaid cards. certain many other working sisters friends or co-workers or to students Many readers have found that The and brothers who have been reading where they go to school. Militant's prepaid subscription cards Other supporters using the cards to The Militant for a long time, and who An~, our readers report, more and are a handy tool for selling ·subs. sell Militant subscriptions include :Pen now realize it is extremely important more people are open to the socialist The cards are actually postcards Harris from Nashville, who sent in that others read it too, will sell sub­ alternative. For example, one reader with The Militant's address and cor­ 14; Go.rdon Chapman from Washing­ scriptions this easy way." sold a subscription to his mailman. rect postage on one side and space ton, D. C., who sent in 1 0; .Don Gure-­ Another sold a subscription to a teller for a new subscriber's name and ad­ witz of Boston, Lee Smith of New Order your prepaid sub cards to­ where she banks, and the next week dress on the other. They sell for $1 York, and Alan Wald of Berkeley, day and never miss an opportunity to another teller asked for a sub. A read­ apiece and are worth a two-month who each sent in nine; and .Susie Beck get The Militant into the hands of new er in New York City writes that a subscription to The Militant from Pittsburgh and Eloise Linger readers. They are available from the plumber who was working in her Since last August, when the cards from Washington, D. C., both of whom Militant Business Office, 14 Charles apartment noticed a copy of The Mili­ were made available, 1,100 have been sent in eight. Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014, at five tant and decided to subscribe. purchased. Of these, 500 have already Packets of 11 cards are available cards for $5, or 11 cards for $10.

18 utlook A WEEKLY INTERNATIONAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE MILITANT BASED ON SELECTIONS FROM INTERCONTINENTAL PRESS, A NEWSMAGAZINE REFLECTING THE VIEWPOINT OF REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM.

FEBRUARY 7, 1975

By Gerry Foley to an open use of force. We locked ourselves in one of the rooms with our two guests. Parleys with the agents Maria Joffe, the widow of the Left Oppositionist Adolf of the G. P. U. were carried on through locked doors. Joffe, arrived in Israel January 12, according to a The agents did not know what to do; they hesitated, Reuters dispatch from Tel Aviv. The dispatch reported consulted with their chiefs by telephone, and when they that she planned to write her memoirs: had received instructions, announced that they were going Maria J"offe "I have little time left but I have a commitment to to force the door, since they must carry out their orders. humanity to write so people will know what happens Meantime, L. D. was dictating instructions for the future in the Soviet Union," the 75-year-old Bolshevik veteran conduct of the opposition. The door remained locked. said on her arrival at Tel Aviv airport. "Aleksandr We heard a hammerblow, the glass crashed, and a uni- • gains exile Solzhenitsyn wrote about the horrors of the concentra­ formed arm was thrust inside. . . . Seeing L. D. in his tion camps and I have my own story to tell of this dif­ slippers, they found his shoes and put them on him. ficult tim e." Then they found his fur coat and cap and put them on There was no indication of why Joffe's widow chose him. L. D. refused to go. They lifted him in their arms Israel as a place of exile. There could be some practical and started away. We hurried after. I slipped on my after considerations. Every Jew has a right to Israeli citizen­ snow-boots and my fur coat. ... The door slammed ship. The United States has been able to put strong behind me. On the other side of it, I heard a commotion. pressure on the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate. I shouted to the men who were carrying L. D. down the Moreover, Zionist emigration is perhaps the least em­ stairs and demanded that they let out my sons, the elder 27 years barrassing kind for the bureaucratic regime. of whom was to accompany us into exile. The door Maria Joffe was held in a concentration camp from was flung open, and my sons burst out, followed by 1929 to 1956, from the time the Stalinist bureaucracy our women guests, Byeloborodova and Joffe. They all consolidated its dictatorial regime until the post-Stalin forced their way through with the aid of athletic measures in Stalinist "thaw." She was in the Trotsky home on January 17, on Seryozha's part. On the way down the stairs, Lyova 1928, when the revolutionary leader was seized and rang all the door-bells, shouting: 'They're carrying Com­ sent off with his family to exile in Alma-Ata in Soviet rade Trotsky away!' Frightened faces flashed by us at • Central Asia. the doors and on the staircase; in this house, only prom­ Trotsky's wife Natalia described the incident in her inent Soviet workers were living. We were all crammed pr1sons diary: "... we had hardly finished breakfast when the into one automobile; Seryozha could hardly get his legs bell rang; it was Byeloborodov's wife; next came Joffe's in. Byeloborodova was also with us." I wife. Another ring-and the whole apartment was filled It is not clear what happened to Maria Joffe at this with agents of the G. P. U. in civilian clothes and uni­ time, whether she was arrested then, or decided to remain forms. An order was handed to L. D. [Lev Davidovich behind and was arrested later. Trotsky] declaring him under arrest for immediate con­ veyance under escort to Alma-Ata.... The telephone Family persecuted rang continually, but an agent stood beside it and good­ Like Trotsky's children, the family of the leading diplo­ humoredly prevented us from answering. It was only mat of the young Soviet state was a special target for by chance we managed to let Byeloborodov know that the paranoic vengeance of the dictator who destroyed our house had been occupied and that we were being the Bolshevik party and murdered most of its leaders. carried away by force.... An Old Bolshevik, Aleksandra Chumakova, mentions "The agents were noticeably excited. L. D. refused to Joffe's daughter Masha in her memoirs, which were pub­ leave of his own accord. He took advantage of the oc­ lished in samizdat sometime after the fall of Khrushchev. casion to make the situation perfectly clear. The Politbu­ Masha Joffe's fate was linked in a peculiar way to that reau was trying to make his exile, as well as that of at of Anya Khromova, a particularly talented representa­ least the most prominent oppositionists, seem like a vol­ tive of the idealistic youth who came of age after the es­ untary affair. It was in this light that the exile was being tablishment of Soviet power and were destroyed in the represented to the workers. Now it was necessary to great purges. Khromova was arrested for writing Stalin explode this legend, and to show the reality in such a letter in verse describing the sufferings of the forcibly a way that the facts could be, neither suppressed nor collectivized peasants. distorted. Hence L. D.'s decision to compel his opponents Chumakova wrote: "Upon returning to Moscow after her stay at the collective farm, Anya wrote a letter to Stalin in verses that described the miserable life in the collectivized village of Russia. "Anya hoped that Stalin would aid the starving kolkhoz and save her grandmother and grandfather from death by starvation. But she was mistaken. Her verse letter was not to Stalin's liking, and he ordered the OGPU to cal! Anya to account severely. "Soon the dread figure of an OGPU investigator ar­ rived at her school and began an investigation. The director of the school, the teachers, the maintenance peo­ ple, and even some of the students were all questioned. All those who were questioned liked Anya very much and spoke of her with affection. She was a very intel­ ligent and talented young woman. She was an attentive observer of natural phenomena and of human life and she put down what she saw in vivid images, embodied in.both prose and poetry. "No one had anything bad to say about her. They all spoke well of her. But the OGPU investigator was a crusty sort. He found it hard to accept favorable testi­ mony about anyone. He did not believe the testimony Continued on next pag'e

Trotsky speaking at Adolf Joffe's funeral in 1927. It was his last public speech before he was exiled from the 1. Leon Trotsky, My Life (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970), Soviet Union by Stalin. pp. 540-41. World Outlook WOf2

Continued from preceding page talent could overcome these obstacles. He was like a of the people at the school. He had his own professional sapper on a battlefield, clearing away a road that has opinion, worked out over many years as an investigator beeo mined, in his . efforts to win diplomatic recogni­ and based on suspicion and mistrust of people. He was tion for Soviet Russia. He was the first ambassador certain that the verse letter to Stalin about the collective plenipotentiary from the land of the Soviets to bour­ farms had not been written by Anya but by someone geois Germany and to other countries. He was assigned else who was hiding behind the skirts of a schoolgirl. by Trotsky, then commissar of foreign affairs, to un­ He arrested Any a and took her off to jail, straight from tangle the knots between Germany and Russia. He played school. The entire school wept, bidding Anya Khromova a major role in the peace negotiations at Brest in 1918. farewell. But even as she sat, huddled in a corner of the For this outstanding work he received Lenin's personal car, she was already whispering new verses to herself. thanks. Not long before his death, Joffe was our ambas­ ... Trotsky on "A few days later Anya was called for questioning. sador to Japan."3 The investigator had decided to expose her 'alleged lit­ Joffe returned from Japan in early 1927, gravely ill erary talent' and to make her tell the name of the real with tuberculosis and neuritis. His doctors in Moscow authors of the letter to Stalin. He felt certain that the author of the letter was some hardened enemy of Soviet Adolf Joffe: The following message was sent to Maria JoHe on power, one who was not going to get away. "When Anya was brought into his office, he gave her January 27 from the Political Bureau of the Socialist pen and paper and proposed that she create a literary Workers Party. tfollow the work in verse about the women with whom she shared her cell. Cothinkers of Adolf Abramovich JoHe and L. D. "The investigator left the room, saying he would return Trotsky in the United States, who continue to uphold in two hours. Left to herself, Anya fell into thought. the ideas and struggle traditions of the Left Opposi­ example of She began to call to mind the faces of her bunkmates tion, greet you, survivor of the generation of the and selected the most striking images to show how their October revolution and victim of Stalinist tyranny. life in prison had become one of unbearable suffering and torment. Among those sharing our cell at that time We welcome the report that you plan to tell your were the following: own story, free of KGB censorship, about the fate his life, not "1. Masha Joffe, daughter of the famous Soviet diplo­ of those in the camps, and look forward to its publi­ mat, A. A. Joffe. cation. "2. Elena Barbina, wife of an official in the Moscow his death' Soviet. agreed that the only hope for saving his life was to "3. A large group of Young Communist women guides send him abroad for treatment. But Stalin not only at the Gorky Park for Rest and Recreation, who were refused him an exit visa but deprived him of medical accused of wishing to emigrate to England. (That sum­ care, while the secret police subjected him to severe pres­ mer the British writer George Bernard Shaw had visited sure. Moscow.) On November 16, 1927, Joffe shot himself. The Left "4. Kabakova, wife of the first secretary of the Sverd­ Opposition was able to organize a demonstration at his lovsk Regional Committee of the party. funeral. It was probably the last open expression of revo­ "After two hours the investigator came back and took lutionary opposition to the bureaucracy outside the con­ the filled-in sheets of paper from Anya. With great ir­ centration camps until the rise of the new opposition ritation, but with eager absorption as well, he pored over after Stalin's death. the rhythmic phrases of her marvelous poetry. He was The old Left Oppositionist who published his memoirs overcome with anger, irritation, and chagrin. There in in samizdat for the new generation of oppositionists was his hands he held a literary work of talent, from whose a participant in this demonstration. pages the voice of anguished womanhood cried out, calling for help to the innocent arrested women whose Ten thousand at funeral .lives were being destroyed in prison. "The column at the head of the procession arrived at "With great poetic power Anya described one of her Novo-Devichy monastery. At the monastery gates were bunkmates in prison who had been taken away from mounted police, armed with rifles. The secretary of the her own nursing child by the Chekists when they ar­ All-Union Central Executive Committee of the Soviets, rested her. Her breasts became painfully swollen from Yenukidze, stood near the militia. He had given orders the sudden interruption in nursing, . and the inflamed to allow only relatives and close friends of the deceased nipples cracked and bled. The unfortunate mother tossed to enter the gate. We were ordered to 'immediately dis­ and turned on her bunk, groaning and cursing her fate perse and go home.' But there were 10,000 of us. We as a woman and mother. rushed the gates and took them by storm. The police "The investigator no longer had any doubts. He had retreated. Within the cemetery we saw an open grave Adolf Joffe, Maria Joffe's husband, was tested Anya Khromova's literary talent. He no longer right next to a wall; and on top of the wall stood armed a leader of early Soviet government. suspected someone else of having written the letter to troops of the Cheka. They had laid an ambush for us Stalin. Her fate was now sealed. She was sentenced to ('just in case').... penal exile in Siberia. In parting she asked us, 'Is it "A meeting began near the open grave. First Chiche­ true that Dostoevsky and Ryleev spent time in prison?' rin spoke. After him Ryutin, a member of the official We told her it was true. 'Then,' she said, 'I no longer government delegation to the funeral, got up to speak. fear for my future."'2 He was a 'newly risen star' of the first magnitude and The memorist never heard anything more of Anya he began to speak along familiar lines. His way of Khromova. And Masha Joffe seems to have disappeared speaking was crude and contained many outbursts just as completely. against the Opposition. It was a funeral oration profuse Adolf Joffe, revolutionist with insulting allusions and seemed to be a provocation. As for Adolf Joffe, his death could not fail to m ~:tkc . . . But we kept our indignation to ourselves and re­ an impression. His name was bound up inseparably mained silent. with the heroic period of Soviet power. He committed "Ryutin declared that the entire Opposition was to blame suicide at the last minute before Stalin established the for Joffe's death. Little did we suspect at that time that a political dictatorship of the bureaucracy. few years later we would meet that 'star' Ryutin in the An anonymous old "Bolshevik-Leninist" and veteran same boat as ourselves at the Verkhne-Uralsk prison." of the Left Opposition d_escribed Joffe's role in his sam­ Trotsky also spoke. izdat memoirs: "Having climbed to the platform, Trotsky bared his "A. A. Joffe came to the revolutionary movement in head. His speech flowed like a sad melody and struck the last days of czarist reaction when the bodies of revo­ us to the very quick. I had heard many of Trotsky's lutionaries hung from lamp posts, and the flames of the speeches but there had never been one like that. He spoke 1905 barricades were flickering out in the Presnya dis­ of his friend, of a revolutionary who had devoted his trict. Without regret he left the home of his wealthy father, ardent spirit to the cause of the revolution to the last abandoning his peaceful life as a bourgeois for the dan­ drop of his blood. gerous life of a revolutionary fighter for the proletariat. "Joffe's death deeply affected Trotsky. This kind of Fearlessly he walked down this path in life, although death could lead to impermissible imitations by others. he constantly risked exile or death from the bullets of The noble example of the Lafargues was not a struggle the police. for revolutionary ideals but a protest, a dearly bought "In the early days of Soviet power, Joffe was asked protest which could be detrimental, for it removes fighters to work in the most difficult area facing the Soviet state, from the ranks of revolutionaries. This could not be the sphere of diplomatic work, of foreign policy. Here permitted. there was one obstruction or impediment after another. "And then the sad melody in Trotsky's speech began The bourgeois world did not wish to recognize Soviet to give way 'to a spirited appeal to life, to the struggle power. Only Joffe's great capabilities, knowledge, and for life: Trotsky's scorching words seared into the crowd of 10,000 listeners, ringing out like metal, 'No one has the right to follow the example of this death. You must 2. George Saunders, ed., Samizdat: Voices of the Soviet Op­ Continued on next page position (New York: Monad Press. Distributed by Pathfinder Press, 1974), pp. 200-202. 3. Saunders, Samizdat, pp.. 94-95. V{0/3

Shah admits 2,000 Iranian troops fighting in Oman By Majid Namvar ligence sources say." , In the Associated Press interview, "There is really something wrong Kayhan reported, the shah "praised with you, with how much you enjoy the bravery and combat skills of the criticizing your allies and ridiculing 2,000 Iranian soldiers in Oman who them. You must be either masochists are aiding the fight against the com­ or very odd people." munist rebels." Kayhan added, how­ These words were part of what the ever, that the shah was irritated be­ shah of Iran was quoted as having cause "some American newspapers said about the U. S. press in an inter­ had criticized an Iranian infantry view with an Associated Press report­ unit" er. An account of the interview ap­ "In fact," Kay han quoted the shah peared in the January 4 air edition as saying, "this kind of criticism is of the Tehran daily Kay han. disgusting. Our soldiers have met and The shah was referring to unflat­ are maintaining all of their goals. tering reports in the American press One of our units was ambushed in a on the conduct of Iranian troops sent heavily forested region; its members to fight the liberation forces in Dho­ did not surrender and were killed. far. Although he did not mention any Now, instead of praising their brav­ particular newspaper, it was implied ery, they say that our soldiers do not that he was directing his comments know how to fight. It is as if they at the Washington Post. would like to destroy our image­ Jim Hoagland, a Washington Post we who are their allies." correspondent who visited the battle Disregarding the shah's praise for area in Dhofar, reported December 16 his troops' performance, it should be that in a recent clash with the libera­ noted that this is the first time he tion forces Iranian troops were has specified the number of Iranian cast, thereby confirming the widely the battle zone "after they had strafed handed a sharp setback. troops in Oman. suspected presence of a new Iranian their own troops." "A 200-man Iranian unit sent in to The shah's intervention in Dhofar brigade." Despite these incidents, the shah's take a commanding height between began in December 1973 under what Despite efforts by the shah's propa­ intervention in Dhofar is growing. the settlements of Manston and Ak­ Omani Foreign Minister Qais el-Za­ ganda machine to perpetuate Persian "Clad in American military-style khaki loot ran into fire from 30 or 40 guer­ wawi termed an "unwritten friendly chauvinism against Arabs, and his and gabardine uniforms," Hoagland rillas before it could set up defensive agreement" made in Tehran in 1971. frequent remarks about _the Dhofari reported, "Iranian officers and ser­ positions," Hoagland said. In July 1972, the shah and Sultan liberation fighters as a "handful of il­ geants have become the most "In hand to hand combat," he added, Qabus of Oman signed a secret pact literate savages," the Iranian army numerous military' group at the rap­ "the guerrillas killed 10 of the inex­ giving the shah control of almost all does not seem to show any sign of idly expanding Midway air base in perienced Iranian soldiers before es­ of the northern tip of Oman for coun­ enthusiasm for combat. central Dhofar." caping without any casualties, intel- terinsurgent activities. "The Shah may claim his effort here In addition, the shah has forces in To capitalize on rumored disagree­ as the first Persian military victory position to invade South Yemen, ments within the liberation forces, the in 2,000 years," a British officer in which borders Oman, and reported­ Omani government announced last Oman told Hoagland, "but so far the ly has been aiding the anti-Qabus , guerrillas. According to Hoagland, IRAN October that the shah's troops were results have not been impressive. The being withdrawn. The announcement, Iranians have shown inexperience and "Senior officers of the Omani com­ however, was contradicted on Octo­ over-reliance on American training mand feel that the shah has given ber 14 by a report in the Washington and tactics by trying to use firepower Oman an implied commitment to use Post. In addition to the troops already against the guerrillas, when dedicated the Iranian air force to retaliate in­ stationed in Oman, the Post reported, pursuit is needed." side South Yemen if the war. is seri­ Iran was dispatching a new brigade Hoagland reported that after ar­ ously escalated." SAUDI of paratroopers to take part in a ma­ riving in Oman a year ago, the Iran­ While officers from the British, Jor­ ARABIA jor offensive against the opponents of ian forces took up defensive positions danian, and Pakistani armies are be­ the Qabus regime. along the road leading to the coastal coming increasingly visible in the The arrival of these reinforcements town of Salalah but did not move area, the shah's troops remain the had reportedly been kept secret inside out to join the Om ani units. major counterrevolutionary force op­ Oman until the recent clash in which "According to officers in the sultan's erating in the Arab-Persian Gulf. · the ten Iranian soldiers were killed. army," he added, "the Iranians spent "Without naming the countries," "The capture of one Iranian," the most of their time blazing away at Hoagland reported, "Foreign Minister December 16 Washington Post said, their own positions when they heard Zawawi expressed displeasure with ". . . is thought to have forced the any suspicious noise." 'neighboring gulf states' that have not Omani government to issue a brief The Washington Post correspondent been prepared to offer support as free­ announcement of the losses on a late­ also reported that two Iranian heli­ ly as 'our good friends and neighbors Washington Post night Arabic-language radio broad- copter gunships were withdrawn from the Iranians' and Western countries."

Like the Old Bolsheviks who have passed on the truth about the Left Opposition in samizdat, Maria Joffe has survived the butcher of her party and lived to see the ... Maria Joffe decline of the system he built and of the state religion Samizdat Continued from preceding page he created to justify it. In the West, she can also find a new generation of revolutionists continuing the fight follow the example of this life.' of the Left Opposition. Her memoirs could tell the story Voices of "This was the order of the army commander.... We of the generations of revolutionists destroyed by the never forgot this order, this command, even in the Stalinist holocaust and help strengthen the continuity the Soviet darkest days of the Stalinist repression. 4 between their struggle and that of those who continue to uphold their ideals not only in the Soviet Union but "'The Leninist banner of world proletarian revolution throughout the world. Opposition has been thrown in the mud and trampled upon,' said Only the most dedicated and farsighted revolutionists An anthology of dissident writing cir­ Trotsky, accusing Stalin of betraying Lenin's cause. could maintain a revolutionary perspective through more The orator's voice rang like a warning bell, raising culated clandestinely in the Soviet than fifty years of mass terror and totalitarian repres­ alarm and trepidation. 'How shall we lift it up again? Union, edited by George Saunders. sion. But the Old Bolshevik memoirists who transmitted This collection includes memoirs of the How sh~ll we cleanse it of the mud that soils it?' we Adolf Joffe's name and example to those who are fighting thought to ourselves, picturing Lenin's banner in our early struggles against the growing the Stalinist bureaucracy today in the Soviet Union show mind's eye. Stalin bureaucracy; accounts of per­ that there is no lack of such character among the Left "Trotsky said further that the leadership of the Central sonal experiences in the prison camps; Oppositionists who survived. Committee had let slip revolutionary situations in Europe, and speeches, writings, and petitions China, and India, and had thrown back the world revo­ of the recent dissident movement. A lution many decades. This was a betrayai of interna­ Monad Press book. 4. The text of Trotsky's speech in the Harvard archives does tionalism .... 464 pp., $15, paper $3.95 not include the following passages. The editor of Samizdat "Trotsky's last words at Joffe's grave rang out like a speculated that the speeches of Trotsky and Zinoviev had run sacred oath: 'We will raise high the Leninist banner of the together in the memory of the "Bolshevik-Leninist." The latter's Order from: Pathfinder Press, 410 world proletarian revolution and carry it forward to speech was reportedly less restrained than Trotsky's. West St., New York, N.Y. 10014 world communism. Long live the revolutionary com­ munist party! '"5 5. Samizdat, pp. 95-98. World Outlook W0/4

Argentina: rightist terror World news notes hitsLCR,Politica Obrera · French sold;ers demonstrate The wave of terror against working­ Revolutionary People's Army), the About 500 French soldiers stationed in West Germany demon­ class and radical organizations in Ar­ military wing of the PR T. strated in the streets of Karlsruhe January 13, protesting the high gentina continues to claim new vic­ In a statement issued December 17, cost of train fare home, army policy on leaves, and low pay. Ac­ tims. On December 13 two members the Liga Cornunista Revolucionaria cording to a report in the January 14 Le Monde, this was the first of the Liga Comunista Revolu­ reported that a "people's prison" had time French draftees have demonstrated in West Germany. cionaria (LCR- Revolutionary Com­ been located in the house where Rodri­ The protest action was preceded by a general assembly on the munist League, a sympathizing orga­ guez and Drangosch were killed. base, attended by about 200 draftees, to discuss the "Appeal of the nization of the Fourth International) The statement described how the two One Hundred" and demands for improvements in living conditions. were killed when police raided their revolutionists had become aware of The Appeal of the One Hundred is a petition for democratic rights home in the city of Lomas de Zamora a militarist and centrist deviation in that has been circulating in the ranks since May 1974. in Buenos Aires province. the PRT and sided with the Fracci6n The appeal has now been signed by more than 5,000 conscripts. One of the two revolutionists, Mario Raja (Red Faction), which began to ("Gallego") Rodriguez, had been a raise criticisms of the organization's delegate to the Tenth World Congress course. After being expelled from the Latin Americans condemn U.S. trade law of the Fourth International in Febru­ PRT, the Fracci6n Raja formed the Representatives of twenty Latin American and Caribbean coun­ ary 1974. The other was Adriana LCR. tries voted January 23 to condemn the new U. S. trade law signed Drangosch, twenty-one years old, The terrorist attacks on the left in by President Ford on January 3. The protest, passed by the Per­ known as "La Petisa." Both were vet­ Argentina have been carried out both manent Council of the Organization of American States, called -the erans of the guerrilla struggle. by the government and by extra-legal trade law "discriminatory and coercive." Rodriguez had been arrested in squads made up of police, military, The law bars special duty-free status for all goods imported from 1971, along with an entire military and civilian rightists. Two members countries that 1) join cartels to hold up prices of exports; 2) refuse to sign agreements with Washington to provide essential goods at what the White House considers "reasonable" prices; or 3) take over American-owned firms without providing rapid compensation. The law would prohibit tariff preferences to Venezuela and Ecua­ dor because they are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Before the new law took effect, about 60 percent of U. S. imports from Latin America were free of tariff. Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez called the law an "un­ deniable act of economic aggression and political pressure." He pointed out that "the country that has benefited most from our re­ sources has made us the object of a highly discriminatory law."

Plight of immigrant workers- Norway The government of Norway announced January 10 that as of February 1 it would ban the entry of immigrant workers for one year. Exceptions are to be made for those with certain specialized Argentine police arrest demonstrators. Violence against left has also come from right­ skills, political refugees, those who have already established con­ ist gangs of thugs. tacts in the country, and workers from other Scandinavian countries.

team of the Partido Revolucionario of the Politica Obrera (Working-Class Plight of immigrant workers- Germany de los Trabajadores (PRT- Revolu­ Politics) group have been kidnapped Development Minister Egan tionary Workers party). He managed and murdered by the death squad Bahr announced January 13 that to escape a few months later by jump­ that calls itself the Alianza Anti­ Bonn is enacting measures to re­ ing from a window of the court build­ com unista Argentina ( AAA- Argen­ duce the number of foreigners ing. tine Anticommunist Alliance), ac­ working in West Germany from Adriana Drangosch became active cording to a statement by their com­ the present level of 2. 5 million and first in the Guerrilla del Ejercito de rades. to give preference to German job Liberaci6n (Guerrillas of the Nation­ The two were Jorge Fischer, general seekers. He said the program was al Liberation Army) under the mili­ secretary of the Miluz factory com­ aimed at making 500,000 jobs tary dictatorship that preceded the mittee, and Miguel Angel Bufano, a now held by foreigners available Peronist government inaugurated two trade-union activist in the same fac­ to Germans. years ago. She later joined the Ejercito tory. Tliose hardest hit by the new Revolucionario del Pueblo ( ERP- A third member of the organiza­ measures will be the 1.2 million tion, Ester Raquel Kitay, was seized foreign workers who have held / ~ by police at Ezeiza airport in early jobs in Germany for less than five SUBSCRIBE TO December on her way to Paris. She years. When a worker in this cat­ was accused of being a courier for the egory becomes unemployed, gov­ ERP, although the Politica Obrera ernment labor exchanges are or­ Intercontinental group has never had any ties with the dered to give job-referral pref­ ERP or the PRT. erence to Germans. Press The Politica Obrera group recent­ At the same time, however, Bonn World Outlook can publish only a small ly affiliated to the Comite d'Organisa­ is hoping to avoid an immediate portion of the international news and tion pour Ia Reconstruction de la mass departure of foreign work­ Marxist analysis contained each week Quatrieme Internationale (Organizing ers. For one thing, the jobs they in the newsmagazine Intercontinental Committee for the Reconstruction of hold tend to be low-paying posi­ Press. To be thoroughly informed of the Fourth International), a group­ tions at the bottom of the econom­ international revolutionary develop­ ing that opposed the reunification of ic scale, and it is expected that ments, subscribe to Intercontinental the Fourth International in 1963. In no more than 20 to 30 percent Typical run-down housing that im­ Press. a statement issued December 19, the of these jobs would be attractive migrant workers in Germany are Organisation Communiste Interna­ to German workers. forced to live in. ) Enclosed is $7.50 for six months. tionaliste (OCI- Internationalist ) Enclosed is 50 cents for a single Communist Organization of France), copy of the latest issue. the largest formation in this interna­ tional grouping, said that Kitay was Turkish students protest fascist attacks Name______on her way to a meeting of the Inter­ On January 25, Turkish students bela the largestdemonMration since national Bureau of the Comite pour martial law was imposed in that country in 1971. Twenty-five thou­ Address ______la Reconstruction de Ia Quatrieme In­ sand young people marched through Istanbul as part of a funeral ternationale at the time of her arrest. for a leftist youth. An Associated Press dispatch suggested .that the City------She was tortured, the OCI said, and youth had been killed by rightists. imprisoned. The march "culminated a student sit-in at Istanbul University. The State ______The statement said that Politica Ob­ sit-in was held to protest the "growing tide of unprovoked armed rera has been unable to function open­ raids by Fascist elements." Send to: Intercontinental Press, Box 116 ly in the recent period because of the Village Station, New York, N.Y., 10014. repression. Several other leaders of ' the group have been reported missing. Detente vs. world revolution stalin's first 'detente': where did it lead? Third ol a series achieve a network of "collective securi­ Stalin turned to the Western imperial­ By CAROLINE LUND ty" agreements with capitalist powers ist rulers and their organization, the Our previous article in this series dis­ of Western Europe in the 1930s. These League of Nations, as the hope for cussed how the Kremlin policy of de­ agreements were supposed to halt the stopping Hitler and assuring peace. tente runs counter to the Marxist ana­ spread of fascism and prevent a new lysis of the contradictions of the capi­ world war. Two types of imperialists talist system, which inevitably lead to The second test was Stalin's deals Stalin divided the imperialist coun­ wars. We also showed the vast dif­ with the Western imperialist powers tries into two categories. One was the ference between the revolutionary dip­ at the end of World War II. These "progressive," "peace-loving," "demo­ lomatic policy of the early Soviet gov­ agreements, codified at Tehran and cratic" governments, which included ernment under Lenin and Trotsky, Yalta, were also touted as a guaran­ the United States, France, some small­ and the current counterrevolutionary tee of "enduring peace" in the world. er European powers, and Britain. The dealings of the Kremlin. What were the results of these "de­ other was the "aggressive," fascist gov­ The most decisive test, however, in tentes" of the past? Has history shown ernments of Germany, Italy, and Ja­ evaluating the Stalinist detente per­ that the Marxist analysis of the preda­ pan. spective is the actual experience of tory nature of capitalism is outdated? Stalin's idea of "collective security" history. - Did these attempts at detente bring the was that the Soviet Union would sign The theory and practice of detente world closer to peace? nonaggression and mutual assistance Stalin with new ally Laval (right), who are not riew; the basic elements have pacts with the "peace-loving" imperial­ later became collaborator with the Nazis. been applied by Stalin and his heirs 'Collective security' ists. To make it worth their while to since the 1930s. It has gone by var­ Stalin's "collective security" policy, ally with the Soviet Union, the Com­ ious names-collective security, peace­ launched in 1934, was a major right munist parties in these countries would parable to the Democratic Party in the ful coexistence, and "building social­ turn of Soviet foreign policy. It was conduct themselves not as leaders of u.s. ism in one country." begun under the impact of the stag­ the class struggle but as props for The CP, as well as the SP, consis­ The fundamental line of the Krem­ gering defeat for the world working the shaky rule of the capitalist class. tently subordinated their proposals in­ lin through all these years has been class represented by Hitler's rise to They would use their power to block side the Popular Front to what would that the way to bring about world power. any workers' struggles from develop­ be acceptable to the Radicals, even peace and to preserve the Soviet work­ Because of the sectarian policy of ing into a revolutionary struggle for though this capitalist party had re­ ers state is through arranging diplo­ the mass German Communist Party­ power. ceived even fewer votes than the So­ matic pacts and deals with the impe­ which had minimized the fascist dan­ The Kremlin decreed, and the CPs cialists in the 1936 elections. When the rialist powers. ger and refused to make a united ac­ echoed, that the armament of these Popular Front came to power in 1936, The goal is to get the imperialists to tion front with the Socialist Party "democracies" for "security" against the CP members of parliament agree not to attack the Soviet Union against the Nazis- Hitler was able to Germany was progressive. supported all the government policies and to be "peaceful" rather than "ag­ take power without any resistance As part of this right turn, Stalin for administering French imperial­ gressive." In return, the Kremlin from the powerful German workers took the Soviet Union into the League ism- including the administration of promises to use its considerable weight movement. of Nations. He used the prestige of France's colonies. inside the world working-class move­ Stalin became alarmed by the re­ the world's only workers state to bol­ To understand the magnitude of the ment to the advantage of those capi­ armament of Nazi Germany and the ster the illusion that international con­ betrayal carried out in the name of talist governments that are allied with growth of a fascist movement in flicts could be averted through diplo­ the Popular Front, it is necessary to the Soviet Union at any particular France. But to meet this danger the matic discussions, and that the im­ !'ecall the context in which this policy time. Kremlin bureaucrats did not turn their perialist rulers were sincerely trying to was applied. Prior to the current detente, this poli­ attention to analyzing what the Ger­ prevent a war through their partici­ cy had already undergone two major man CP had done wrong, or how to pation in this international body. Prerevolutionary situation historical tests. mobilize the workers of Europe This was a complete reversal of the Following the victory of Hitler in The first was Stalin's attempt to against the fascist danger. Rather, policy of Lenin, 'who had called the 1933, the hopes of the working class League of Nations a "thieves kitchen." of Europe- and of the world- turned from Germany to France. France was moving toward a prerevolutionary sit­ Stalin-Laval pact uation. The focal point for Stalin's collec­ In February 1934 the French fas­ tive security policy was France. In cists had brought down the govern­ May 1935 Soviet Foreign Minister ment headed by Radical Party leader Maxim Litvinov and French Foreign Edouard Daladier through a massive Minister Pierre Laval concluded a armed demonstration. Franco-Soviet military alliance. The CP and SP were forced by pres­ Ostensibly the pact simply called for sure from the· masses to join in united­ mutual assistance by France and the front actions against the fascist Soviet Union in case either was at­ leagues. SP leader Leon Blum tacked. But Stalin's side of the deal described this mass pressure- stem­ amou·nted to much more than was ming from the workers' determination spelled out openly. It was to bring not to allow a repeat of the German the support of the French Communist defeat- as like an "electrical current." Party behind the French imperialist When the Popular Front government government and the preservation of came to power in June 1936, the capitalism in France. French workers responded with a One aspect of this support to French massive wave of strikes and plant capitalism that Stalin did make pub­ occupations that spread until more lic was his approval of the "national than one million workers were occu­ defense policy" of the French govern­ pying their factories. ment. The enormous power and confidence Within France, as in a number of of the workers at the height of the up­ other countries, Stalin's orders were surge led even some leaders of the So­ carried out through the policy of the cialist Party-by no means revolu­ "Popular Front." The French Popular tionists- to raise the slogan "every­ Front was a political bloc of the CP, thing is possible!" French Stalinist leader Maurice Thorez (right) with Socialist Party leader of Popular the Socialist Party, and the Radical What was the role of the CP in Front Leon Blum. Thorez wears tricolor sash to show his loyalty to French capitalism. Party, a liberal capitalist party com- Continued on page 22 stalin-Laval pact: what 'The Militant' said in 1935 In its issues of May 11 and May 18, the truth would have to be told to the que signed by Stalin and Laval, which gan, 'Defense of the Fatherland.' The 1935, The Militant (then called the workers about the nature of the pact. said: "M. Stalin understands and fully Stalinists march on the same path New Militant) ran front-page articles The Stalinists, on the other hand, approves the national defense policy under the banner of' Socialism in One by its editor James P. Cannon warn­ "paint up the rapacious French im­ of France in keeping her armed forces Country.' The content and the results ing that the Stalin-Laval pact, nego­ perialists as advocates of 'peace' and at a level required for security." are the same." tiated in 193 5, was not a step toward represent the pact with them as a 'vic­ Cannon noted that this means "noth­ peace but a step that would embolden tory for socialism,' an 'advance,' etc. ing is to be done to interfere with mili­ .Cannon wrote: "We say, with Lieb­ the imperialists in their drive toward tary preparations of ·the French im­ knecht and Lenin: The enemy is in war. "That is a lie, a deception, a fraud!" perialists. . . . The Social Democrats our own country! We reject the treach­ Cannon said the military alliance wrote Cannon. "By such perfidious of Germany and F.rance voted for the ·erous formula of 'peaceful' imperial­ itself was not the problem; the Soviet methods the French workers can be war credits of their respective Govern­ ists on the one side and 'aggressors' government had a right to make a dragooned into the trenches to fight ments on the Fourth of August, 1914. on the other. No truce in the class pact with an imperialist power if it for 'peace-loving' French imperialism; Following that they became recruiting struggle, no moderation of the class .were so weak that it had to turn to they cannot be led into a revolution­ sergeants for thew ar. struggle for a single day! The an­ such an unreliable source of aid. ary struggle to overthrow it." "The Social Democrats carried out swer to imperialist war is the workers' But if this were the case, he wrote, Cannon quoted the joint communi- their historic betrayal under the slo- revolution!"

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 19 In Review WHAT'S BEHIND DEEPENING lnprecor: International Press Correspon­ dence. Biweekly information organ of the United Secretariat of the Fourth Internation­ al. No. 16-17, Jan. 16, 1975. $1. . By DICK ROBERTS The capitalist world has plunged into the first international recession since the 1930s. Although unemployment is still much worse in the United States than in the oth~r major capitalist nations, there is no leading capitalist country where the ranks of unemployed are not growing and where industrial production is not slowing down. On top of this, as the plants close, prices are spiraling upward around the globe. Inflation rates in France ( 14.6 percent), Britain ( 17 percent), Italy (20.8 percent) and Japan (23.4 percent) are worse than in the United States ( 11.6 percent). Moreover, there is the danger that the deepening U. S. recession and the inflationary expansion of credit could combine to throw the capitalist world into an economic crisis on the scale of 1929-32. Leading capitalist experts in the United States, Europe, and Japan are the first to admit that such a danger exists. None of this was supposed to happen. The more New cars pile up in Germany. Plenty of goods can be produced, and the masses of working people n sophisticated capitalist economists- such as Paul goods. But capitalists will not produce, or sell, except at high enough profit. Samuelson of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech­ nology, whose texts are almost universally used in undergraduate economics courses- admitted Secondly, even if the present recession ended (Pierre Salama); Eastern Europe (Ted Harding); that the ups and downs of the capitalist 'business today and the U.S. economy started to turn up­ and the world famine (A. Udry). cycle" could not be eliminated. which it isn't going to do- this recession will still This is an extremely useful collection in that it presents the facts and figures on the economic But the effects of the business •cycle E:ould be end up being longer than the previous upturn of crisis in the leading capitalist nations (as well as ameliorated. Here is how Samuelson put it in the 1972-73. (The period of recession is generally several semicolonial nations) and an analysis of most recent edition of Economics, published in measured from the beginning of the slump until the specific roots of these crises. 1973, and more widely distributed than any other production again reaches the pre-slump level.) college economics text: The 1972-73 upturn lasted only 18 months. The present recession is more than a year old and still Overproduction Has business cycle been 'tamed'? on the downslide. Even the Ford administration believes unemployment will rise to 7.5 percent this The fundamental causes of the crisis can be "Many people do believe that the business cycle year. So that the period of crisis is longer than the singled out for special attention. These are the has finally been tamed.· And indeed, study of [the previous period of recovery. overproduction of goods and the falling tendency charts] shows that the American mixed economy Thirdly, there is a real danger of banking of the profit rate that makes overproduction in­ collapse. evitable. Not supposed to happen? "The generalized recession of 1974-75," Mandel Periodicals According to Marxist economic theory, crzszs writes, ''is a classical crisis of overproduction. This is< the inevitable consequence of contradictions of must be stressed all the more categorically in that has reduced recessions in the post-World War II the capitalist system. Today's. plague of spreading many circles are trying to lay the blame for the period to brief and infrequent punctuations in the unemployment and outright famine in many semi­ generalized recession on the 'oil sheikhs' or even progress of sustained growth. It used to be the colonial countries is not "accidental." It is the result on the trade unions- and not for reasons that are ca11e, under historic capitalism, that the charts of production for private profit purely ideological." showed the shadings of recession half the time.... The Generalized Recession of the International Mandel stresses the two underlying dynamics: "What can be said scientifically about the out­ Capitalist Economy, a special issue of Inprecor, "The current recession is the outcome of a typical look for business fluctuations? Most economists is a collectioil of articles by Marxists on the causes phase of decline in the rate of profit. This decline would pretty much agree with the following formu­ and consequences of the present world economic clearly antedates the pronounced increase in oil lation: Although nothing is impossible in an in­ crisis. Inprecor (International Press Correspon­ prices after the October War of 1973.... exact science like economics, the probability of a dence) is published biweekly by the United Secre­ "The present recession is marked by a pro­ great depression- a prolonged, cumulative and tariat of the Fourth International. nounced underutilization of productive capacity chronic slump like that of the 1930s, the 1890s, This special issue includes an introductory ar­ in the principal imperialist country, the United or the 1870s- has been reduced to a negligible ticle by Ernest Mandel, the well-known Belgian States.... " figure. "(p. 266, emphasis in original.) author of Marxist Economic Theory; and articles Mandel presents the following figures on the rate Samuelson is wrong on all three counts. In the on: Britain (by B. Sutcliffe); West Germany (Win­ of profit (after deduction of the gains of apprecia­ first place the present U. S. recession is the second fried Wolf); France (Helene Valentin and C. tion of stock values) on the net holdings of in­ in three years, so that the frequency of recessions Leucate); Japan (Jiro Fujiwara); the United States dustrial and commercial companies in Britain, has not slowed down. It is increasing. (Dick Roberts); Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico before taxes: 1950-54 16.5 percent 1955-59 14.7 1960-64 13.0 1965-69 11.7 1968 11.6 1969 11.1 1970 9.7 Underutilization of capacity To illustrate the underutilization of capacity Man­ del cites the equally striking figures for U.S. pro­ duction of manufacturing industries as a percen­ tage of capacity: 1966 92.0 percent 1967 87.9 1968 87.7 1969 86.5 1970 78.0 1971 75.0 1972 78.6 1973 83.0 1974 (fourth quarter) 78.0 Mandel adds, "This long-term deterioration is all the more pronounced if account is taken of the enormous share of American production wasted SAMUELSON: 'Probability af a great depression ... MARX: Economic crises are inevitable result of capital­ on military or paramilitary goods. The result is has been reduced to negligible.' ist production for profit. a virtually permanent nonutilization of nearly a

20 WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS? third of productive capacity directed toward civi­ nent derived from machinery, plant, and raw ma­ lian productive goals." · terials grows. Capitalist crises confront us not with too little, A car made in Henry Ford's day took two or that is, an absolute incapacity of the economy to three times the living labor required in auto plants provide enough- as, say, in the Middle Ages, today. A vast increase in the machinery and scale when plagues decimated the population and crops of auto production has greatly reduced the labor were destroyed by blights- but with too much. required per car. Too much plant capacity has been constructed, Wolf notes the complaint of the West German markets have been saturated, goods cannot be "Council of Experts" that "the constant deteriora­ profitably sold. tion of the share returning to the entrepreneur and "There is no better indication of the irrational the capitalist is explained by the fact that the com­ and inhuman character of the capitalist system," ponent of capital has become larger than the com­ says Mandel, "than the fact that millions of men, ponent of labor power." women, and children are gravely undernourished and threatened with starvation while enormous re­ Marx's law sources in machinery, raw materials, and labor Wolf also cites the ironic remark of the West remain unutilized- resources with which tractors, German weekly Der Spiegel that "West German fertilizer, irrigation canals, and electrical pumps capitalists are trying to lift ... the rate of profit could be produced to rapidly increase food produc­ back to what they consider a normal level. Un­ tion and thus feed the hungry." doubtedly, they are contributing through this price policy to accentuating inflation. But they have not Profits fall succeeded in braking the falling tendency of the How does this wastage of resources come about? rate of profit, this law discovered by Karl Marx Winfried Wolf capsulizes Marx's theory: "The in­ (a law that only Marxists resist recognizing troduction of qualitatively more advanced tech­ today)." nology also means the rise of the organic composi­ It is true, unfortunately, that the Marxist con­ tion of capital (increase in 'dead labor'- machines, cept of a falling tendency of profit rate has been French unions march against high cost of living raw materials- in comparison with 'living labor'). attacked in New Left circles, not only in West Since only living labor creates value and surplus Germany but in Britain and the United States value, this process also means that the mass of as well (by Monthly Review's Paul Sweezy, for biggest of all industrial monopolies. On the con­ profit realized per unit of capital diminishes; that example). trary, crisis is ultimately exacerbated by monopoly. is, the rate of profit falls. The reaffirmation of Marx's basic principle in Important elements of the present international "The rise in the organic composition of capital this series of articles and the demonstration of its crisis flow from the drive of monopoly to expand is thus the motor force of the regular increase in global effects will be of the utmost interest to those its markets to make up for the falling tendency. productivity; but at the same time it is the motor who are beginning to "rethink" the capitalist system As both Wolf, in the article on West Germany, force of the tendency of the rate of profit to decline and to consider the Marxian analysis. and Fujiwara, in the article on Japan, stress, the · For it is precisely in order to overcome the economies of these two countries have long since falling tendency of the profit rate that monopoly been pinned on huge exports; that is, on markets To to subscribe lnprecor: make checks pay­ saturates markets, that it produces too many goods going far beyond their own national boundaries. able to Gisela Scholtz. Rates: $10 for one considering the available purchasing power, and But as saturation becomes a global phenomenon, year by surface mail, $16 airmail. Six-issue thus p:.:-ovokes crises. Japan and West Germany cannot escape the con­ airmail introductory subscription $4.50. Send The prices that are on the cars in Detroit stock­ sequences. They will be deprived of their main to lnprecor, 12/14 rue de Ia Buanderie, yards are obviously not determined by the so­ export markets in the other advanced countries. called law of supply and demand as Samuelson Brussels 1000, Belgium. Fujiwara explains how this has heightened the (in most of Economics) would have us believe. drive of Japan to exploit the semicolonial nations There is a huge supply and many millions of of the Far East. "The bourgeoisie is now talking and thus of the general lowering of the rate of workers need cars. But the prices do not come about the need for raw-materials-saving industries growth." down sufficiently. General Motors does not re­ and a qualitatively advanced industrial structure, Marx recognized what capitalist economics can­ duce prices, keep production rolling along, and which means exporting the heavy industries such not accept: that labor and machinery do not enter keep workers at jobs. It fires workers, reduces as oil, petrochemicals, steel, etc., to the semicolonial the production process on an equal footing. No production, and keeps prices up. (The current countries, utilizing the abundance of raw materials matter how sophisticated the machinery, whether much publicized "cash rebates" cover only a tiny and the cheap labor of the Southeast Asian coun­ it is programmed to make a product from start to fraction of the full price of cars, are temporary, tries, importing the cheap basic materials processed finish and even repair that ·product- the machine and have undoubtedly already been planned into in those countries, and doing the final processing is not the source of new values and consequently the auto makers' long-term profit schedules.) at considerable profits in the 'mother country' of of the profits of capital. Japan. That is the 'grand design' of Japanese Only the workers who run the machinery can 'Normal' rate of profit imperialism." perform this role. Only living labor produces sur­ For prices are set in order to realize what the But this can be no solution. "Japan is becoming plus value. And consequently the capitalists can monopolists consider to be a normal profit rate surrounded by developing anti-Japanese struggles derive profits only from the component of the over and above costs. GM- in order to make up among the toiling masses of these countries. We value of a given commodity that is added by for the ever rising organic composition of its capi­ have seen the explosions of anti-Japanese senti­ labor power. tal, the huge scales of production, and the tremen­ ment in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philip­ The contradiction is that the profit drive forces dous technology that it commands-charges prices pines, and s'outh Korea, and those movements competing capitalists to more and more develop that ultimately must overstretch the ability of con­ will surely deepen their proletarian character," Fuji­ their technology, to add more and more machinery sumers to buy. wara notes. into the · production process. The component of Overproduction crises are not eliminated by value added by labor power shrink!il; the compo- monopoly, as can be seen in this example of the Heightening class struggle Thus from one end of the capitalist world to the other, economic crisis is deepening the problems facing working people and heightening the class struggle as a result. The crisis is rooted in funda­ mental contradictions explained by Marx. It can only be eliminated, in the last analysis, by ending the system based on exploitation of wage labor. "The generalized recession," Mandel concludes, 'is dealing a grave blow to all neoreformist and neogradualist illusions about the allegedly infinite capacities of 'adaption' possessed by the capitalist system. It confirms what our movement has been proclaiming ceaselessly throughout the years of the strongest expansion. "The leopard has not changed his spots. Capital­ ism is still· capitalism. Its internal contradictions remain insoluble. If a return to ,unemployment, to graver and graver recessions, to galloping infla­ tion, to famine throughout the semicolonial world, to misery that can reappear on a grand scale even in the imperialist countries is to be avoided.... the capitalist system and the bourgeois state must be overthrown. The regime of the workers must be established (and in the semicolonial countries, the Unemployed line in Britain. Jobless rolls are growing in every major capitalist country. regime of the workers and peasants)."

THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 21 he had stalled until the last minute arms to the Republican forces despite Black student currently being bused before endorsing him "because we the fact that Germany and Italy were into South Boston. These speeches thought we ought to wait until the pouring arms in to Franco's fascist were given at the highly successful head wounds healed from Chicago." army. teach-in against racism sponsored by Calendar This coincided with Stalin's policy When the meeting broke up, stu­ the committee and held Dec. 13, 1974, DENVER dents drifted out appearing somewhat of sending insufficient arms to Spain at Harvard University. BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION IN THE PRISONS. Speak­ in order to impress the Western impe­ There is also a feature article on ers: Frank Driscoll, former prisoner; others. Fri., disillusioned. Few stayed to talk to Feb 7., B p.m. 12.03 California. Donation: Sl. Ausp: the candidate or sign up as volun­ rialists with his disavowal of the rev­ why Black students should take the Militant Forum. For mare information call (303) 623- teers. olutionary implications of the heroic lead in building support for the con­ 2B25. "Wow, he really tried to dodge those struggle of the Spanish workers. ference as a way of helping to defend questions," commented one student on • Another by-product of Stalin's de­ the desegregation effort in Boston. DETROIT tente with French imperialism was the THE RIGHT OF TEACHERS TO STRIKE: LESSONS OF her way out. A new poster is also available from GARDEN CITY AND CRESTWOOD. Speakers: John expulsion of Trotsky from France. the committee. Melchor, chief negotiator for Garden City teachers; Trotsky had been permitted to move To order this material or to con­ Duncan Jones, Crestwood strike committee; Paula from Turkey to France in 1933, but tribute your time and money, contact Reimers, vice-president, American Federation of in April 1934-just as the negotia­ the National Student Conference Teachers local 2000. Fri., Feb. 7, B p.m. 3737 Wood­ ... detente tions were taking place leading up to ward. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more Against Racism, 720 Beacon St., Bos­ information call (31 3) B31-61 35. Continued from page J9 the Stalin-Laval pact-the French ton, Mass. 02215. Telephone: (617) this prerevolutionary situation? The government began to harass Trotsky 266-9665. LOS ANGELES: CENTRAL-EAST treacherous policy of the Stalinists was and finally ordered him expelled. THE ROSENBERG CASE, THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY: No country could be found that BUT WHOSE CRIME? Speaker: Peter Boyd, los Ange­ to rescue the French rulers from the les Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case; video- mass working-class upsurge! The CP, would accept him, however, until Nor­ . taped interview with Robert Meeropol, a son of the which most revolutionary-minded way did in June 1935, so Trotsky was Rosenbergs. Fri., Feb. 7, B p.m. 710 S. Westlake Ave. workers. mistakenly looked to, became in France during the momentous Readings on Donation: Sl. Ausp: Militant Forum. For mare informa­ the defender of the institutions of events that led up to the coming to tion call (213) 4B3-1512. French imperialism. power of the Popular Front govern­ ment. the Mideast NEW YORK CITY • The CP did everything it could to LmLE ROCK, 1957-BOSTON, 1975: THE FIGHT FOR end the sit-down strikes and to limit In the next article we will discuss ISRAEL AND THE ARAB REV­ SCHOOL DESEGREGATION. Speakers: Dr. Kenneth them to purely economic issues. They the alternative program that Trotsky OLUTION: Fundamental Prin­ Clorlc, member of New York state board of regents; raised the slogan: "Not everything is proposed to the workers of France ciples of Revolutionary Marx­ Jonathan Kozol author of Death at an Early Age; Rev­ possible''- claiming that "rash ac­ and assess the overall results of "col­ ism by Gus Horowitz, an ED U­ erend Wilbur Miller, leader in 1973 Canarsie school CATION FOR SOCIALISTS desegregation struggle; Reverend Timothy Mitchell, tions" "could only lead to the aliena­ lective security," the first historic test chairperson of racism committee, National Council of tion of an important part of the petty of the policy of detente. publication, 8x11 format, Churches; others. Fri., Feb. 7, B p.m. Willman Audi­ bourgeoisie," and would endanger "the $1.00 torium, Ferris Booth Hall, Columbia University, Broad­ security of France" against "Hitler's MIDEAST OIL AND U.S. CAP­ way and I 15th St. Ausp: New York Student Confer­ ITALISM by Dick Roberts, ence Against Racism. For more information call (212) menace." B66-BB30. • The CP' s support to "progressive" $.35 ... Boston ROOTS OF THE MIDEAST PHILADELPHIA "peace-loving" French imperialism Continued from baclc page WORLD HUNGER CRISIS: WHAT'S THE ANSWER? meant support to the French empire. War Anthology, taken from the Speakers: Abdul Yusuf, African Students Association, During 1935 the party gave up its Mro-American Unity; Case Western pages of the INTERN A TION~ U. of Penn.; D. Eileen Gersh, research associate pro­ defense of national independence Reserve University National Lawyers AL SOCIALIST REVIEW, fessor, U. of Penn. Fri., Feb. 7, B p.m. 1004 Filbert St. Guild; Geraldine Roberts, president of Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. Far more informa­ movements in the French colonies, Sxll format, $.75 tion call (215) W AS-4316. such as Vietnam. As CP leader Mau­ Domestic Workers of America; and SELF-DETERMINATION IN rice Thorez explained it, "the interest 'Curtis Wilson, director of the Cleve­ THE MIDEAST: A Debate SEATTLE of the colonial peoples is in their union land State University Black studies from the pages of THE MILI­ THE INDIAN FISHING-RIGHTS STRUGGLE CONTIN­ with the French people," since the "crit­ program. TANT and DAILY WORLD, UES. Speaker: Janet McCloud, member of Tulalip tribe, The Washington Teachers Union, Indian activist. Fri., Feb. 7, B p.m. 5623 University ical issue at present is the defeat of Dave Frankel versus Tom Way N. E. Donation: Sl. Ausp: Militant labor Forum. fascism." Local 1 of the American Federation Foley, $.00 For more information call (206) 522-7BOO. • In obedience to Stalin's approval of Teachers, AFL-CIO, on Jan. 27 WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST: of French "national defense," the CP passed a resolution supporting the con­ The Socialist View by Dave TWIN CITIES ference. THE WAR IN VIETNAM: TWO YEARS AFTER THE PEACE dropped its campaign against the in­ Frankel, Dick Roberts, Tony ACCORDS. Speakers: Marianne Hamilton, Committee troduction of two-year compulsory Also, at the recent National Coor­ Thomas, $. 00 for Defense of South Vietnamese Political Prisoners; military service in France. dinating Committee meeting of the Co­ Order from: Pathfinder Press, John Linder, Young Socialist Alliance. Fri., Feb. 7, • Support to the capitalist Popular alition of Labor Union Women 410 West Street, New York, N.Y. B p.m. 25 University Ave. S. E. Donation: $1. Ausp: Front also meant that the CP covered (CLUW), a resolution was passed op­ Militant Forum. For more information call (612) 332- posing the assault on desegregation in 10014 nBl. up for the refusal of this so-called "people's" government to come to the Boston and pledging CLUW to "make aid of the Republican side in the Span­ every effort to expose the antilabor, ish civil war. antiwomen, and antiminority efforts Calendar and classified ad rates: 75 Following on the heels of the French of the reactionary segregationistmove­ cents per line of 56-character-wide type­ ... students workers' upsurge, Spain was the other ment across the country." wriHen copy. Display ad rates: $10 per mass workers mobilization of the The conference organizing committee column inch ($7.50 if camera-ready ad Continued from page J8 1930s that held out the hope of a rev­ has produced an eight-page news, is enclosed). Payment must be included with ads. The Militant is published each student recalled that in 1968, after los­ olutionary victory by a workers and paper, the Student Mobilizer, which week on Friday. Deadlines for ad copy: ing the Democratic nomination, Mc­ peasants government. is available in quantity for use by lo­ Friday, one week preceding publication, Carthy urged his supporters at the last But the French Popular Front gov­ cal committees in building the con­ minute to back Democrat Hubert for classified and display ads; Wednes­ ernment, following the line of the oth­ ference. The Student Mobilizer features day noon, two days preceding publica­ Humphrey. er Western imperialist powers, adopted speeches by Jonathan Kozol, Maceo tion, for calendar ads. Telephone: (212) McCarthy defended his endorsement the policy of "nonintervention" in Dixon, Robert Harper, Reverend Ver­ 243-6392. of Humphrey, cynically adding that Spain. 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NORTH CAROLINA: Greenville: YSA, P. 0. Box 1693, 676-3460. - (303) 623-2B25, YSA- (303) 266-9431. MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, Room 4103 Mich. Greenville, N.C. 27834. Seattle: SWP, YSA, and Militant Bookstore, 5623 Greeley: YSA, c/o Barbara Jaeger, 712 15th Ave. Union, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. OHIO: Cincinnati: YSA, c/o C. R. Mitts, P. 0. Box University Way N. E., Seattle, Wash. 98105. Tel: (206) Court, Greeley, Colo. 80631. 48104. Tel: (313) 663-B766. 320B4, Cincinnati, Ohio 45232. Tel: (513) 242-9043. 522-7800. FLORIDA: Tallahassee: YSA, c/o Meriwether Shep­ Detroit: SWP, YSA, Eugene V. Debs Hall, 3737 Cleveland: SWP and YSA, 4420 Superior Ave., WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, 1 OB N. Breese Terr., herd, 811 W. Pensacola St., Tallahassee, Fla. 32304. Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mich. 4B201. Tel: (313) TEl- Cleveland, Ohio 44103. Tel: SWP-(216) 391-5553. Madison, Wis. 53705. Tel: (904) 575:5810. 6135. YSA- (216) 391 0327B. Milwaukee: YSA, UW-Milwaukee Union Box 139, Rm. 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THE MILITANT/FEBRUARY 7, 1975 23 THE MILITANT Help ·organize Boston antiracist conference By PETER SEIDMAN snow storm, 125 people, including stu­ in all cities. I urge you to attend the letter being circulated by the student BOSTON- Successful meetings in dents from 11 different colleges and National Student Conference Against group. Cleveland, Chicago, and New York high schoois, came to hear him. Racism at Boston University Feb. 14- Other prominent individuals who en­ underscore the broad interest in and Cassandra Dowden, a Black student 16, which will discuss the next steps dorsed this week include: Richard Hat­ support for the National Student Con­ from Columbia College, chaired the to be taken for equal education in cher, mayor of Gary, Ind.; I. F. Stone; ference Against Racism set to take meeting. Approximately $175 was col­ Boston." Beulah Sanders, National Welfare place here the weekend of Feb. 14. lected in an appeal for funds to con­ Rights Organization; and Marie Hase­ The meetings were part of a tour tinue the work of the Chicago student The president of the Boston NAACP, gawi, national president, Women's In­ by Jonathan Kozof, award-winning conference committee. Thomas Atkins, has also endorsed ternational League for Peace and Free­ au thor of Death, at an Early Age, and Supporters of the conference in the the conference. A New England re­ dom. Robert Harper, of the Harvard-Rad­ Chicago area received another boost gional conference of the NAACP, at­ Also, Clarence Smart, president, Uni­ cliffe African and Afro-American Stu­ this week when the Roosevelt Uni­ tended by the directors of 24 branches versity of Kentucky (UK) Black Stu­ dent Association. Harper is a coordi­ versity student government endorsed in the ar.ea, also voted to endorse the dent Union; UK Black Student Union; nator of the conference organizing the conference and provided the stu­ student conference- as did the regional UK student senate; Carey Junkin, pres­ committee. dent committee with office space and youth council of the NAACP. ident, UK. Gay Coalition; Carolyn Kozol spoke to a meeting of 250 a $1,000 budget Atkins will be one of the speakers Dougherty, Lexington, Ky., Women's Harper's tour of New York City at the teach-in being organized by the Center; Black Unity House, Cleveland; Further coverage of Boston de­ included meetings with a number of committee for Friday night, Feb. 14. Cleveland State University Society for prominent student leaders at Borough Continued on page 22 on {le has also signed a fund appeal segregation struggle appears of Manhattan Community College, pages 16 & 17. Brooklyn College, and with the pres­ ident of the City University of New people at Cleveland State University York student senate. On Jan. 23 Har­ on Jan. 24. The audience, which was per addressed a city-wide meeting of nearly half Black and included stu­ 85 supporters of the student confer­ dents from almost every campus in ence. the city, heard Kozol detail the racist New endorsers of the conference are campaign against school desegrega­ continuing to come in. This week the tion being carried out by the Boston COQference organizing office made pub­ school committee. lic the following statement from U. S. Kozol pointed to the upcoming con­ Representative Ronald Dellums (D­ ference as a key meeting where the Calif.): student movement can organize to de­ "I wholeheartedly support and en­ feat the racist mob violence directed dorse the upcoming National Student against Black public school students Conference Against Racism. Support­ here. A collection of $150 was taken ers of civil rights should continue to at the meeting, which was covered organize a massive response to the by the Plain Dealer and the local NBC violent racist attacks on the rights affiliate. of Black students in Boston. A vic­ The next evening Kozol spoke at a tory for Boston's embattled Black com­ meeting at the First Unitarian Church munity will mark a victory in the Part of crowd at Cleveland meeting to build support for Feb. 14-16 student confer­ in Chicago's Hyde Park. Despite a struggle for equality on all fronts and ence.

N.Y. regents in new attack on desegregation By BAXTER SMITH the NAACP, said his organization in New York City Jan. 23, Federal As a magnet school, Mark Twain Last week saw important develop­ would seek legal action to reverse the District Judge Jack Weinstein ordered would draw "gifted students" (read ments in the battle over school deseg­ new policy. Mark Twain Junior High School to white) with special talents and interests regation in New York State. In a The regents' decision follows an Oc­ be transfOrmed in September into in 12 areas and offer them advanced broadside attack on the fight for equal tober ruling in which they gave par­ Mark Twain Junior High School for programs. educational opportunities, the state ents the go-ahead to challenge a bus­ the Gifted and Talented. "When the parents [read white, board of regents in essence prohibited ing order on grounds that the bus ride The school, in the Coney Island sec­ again] see what we're going to offer," the schools from gathering statistics might endanger the health or safety of tion of Brooklyn, was ruled to be seg­ Allen Zelon, president of the District necessary to show that a school is seg­ their children. The ruling was viewed regated as the result of the NAACP 21 school board, said, "they will know regated. as bolstering racist attempts to halt suit Abou.t 80 percent of the students that if their child belongs there, he will On Jan. 22 the regents, who set the busing to achieve desegregation. at the school are Black or Puerto Ri­ be cheated if he doesn't go there." overall policy for all public schools in These two rulings by the regents can, while 70 percent of the students the state, voted 9 to 4, with two mem­ occur in the context of the racist offen­ in the district as a whole are white. Last July, an official of the NAACP bers absent, to ban the use of any en­ sive against busing in Boston. They In his original ruling Weinstein took assailed the proposed idea because it rollment figures indicating racial com­ represent another step by the U. S. rul­ note of segregated housing patterns calls for voluntary enrollment of white position. ers in their attempt to push back the in the area and proposed that new ·students rather than mandatory en­ With baffling logic, the regents ruled fight of Black people for equal rights. housing projects going up there be rollment. He said the NAACP might that a district may now be judged in The Jan. 22 ruling was viewed as a desegregated so as to cut down on have to go back to court because he compliance with state desegregation deliberate effort to stymie attempts to Black and Puerto Rican enrollment was worried that under the magnet laws merely by its "effort to bring move ahead with plans to desegregate at Mark Twain. But this attempt went setup the school might not become de­ about equal opportunity for children the school districts in Buffalo, Utica, awry after housing officials informed segregated. of various ethnic groups to inter­ Mount Vernon, Lackawanna, and Weinstein of. the broader social impli­ That seems a bit farfetched. mingle and to share a common learn­ Newburgh. cations of desegregating housing. It's fairly predictable that Mark ing environment. ... n These districts have Black students So Weinstein, still confronted with Twain will get its necessary ·number Dr. Kenneth Clark, the lone Black concentrated in only a few schools and a school segregated by the local of "gifted" white students. The racist member of the board, termed the ri­ were ordered to be desegregated in board, decided to turn Mark Twain and nonmotivating New York public diculous new policy ''shameful. n September. into the city's first "magnet" school schools don't turn out too many Black Nathaniel Jones, general counsel for Meanwhile, in a desegregation move next fall. students who are considered "gifted."

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