Importance of Che Guevara's THE communist perspective in Cuba Page 8-10

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 53/NO. 45 DECEMBER 1, 1989 $1.00 Attacks by Salvadoran regiiDe bring mounting civilian toll Towns bombed, Thousands priests protest U.S. assassinated aid to regime BY GREG McCARTAN "They are bombing on top of us. Tell them BY RONI McCANN to take away the airplanes," a woman in a Thousands of people in protests across the working-class neighborhood of San Salvador United States have issued a resounding "No!" told a reporter. "They are tearing us to to the U.S. government's continued, full­ pieces." fledged support- to the tune of some $1.4 Refusing calls for a cease-fire by religious million a day -of military rule in El Salva­ leaders, the U.S.-backed government of El dor. Salvador stepped up its use of helicopters and Students, unionists, church officials, polit­ C-47 gunships to machine-gun, bomb, and ical activists, city government representa­ rocket whole neighborhoods. tives, and immigrant workers, many from On November 21 rebel forces occupied Central and Latin America, are loudly voic­ sections of the El Salvador Sheraton Hotel in ing their outrage at the criminal actions of San Salvador. Among the hotel residents the Salvadoran government and calling on were eight heavily armed U.S. military ad­ Washington to halt all aid to that regime. visers and Green Berets. A spokesperson in the national office of Calling the occupation of the hotel "an the Committee In Solidarity with the People outrageous act of terrorism, putting civilians ofEl Salvador (CIS PES) reported on Novem­ at risk," State Department spokesperson Mar­ Relief workers evacuate residents of Conacaste neighborhood in San Salvador No­ ber 20 that protests have taken place in more lin Fitzwater said the U.S. government was vember 13. Jose Vallejo lies wounded after his house was rocketed by Salvadoran air than 100 cities since the fighting began No- considering "all options, including military force. Continued on Page 13 ones." A special U.S. military unit, Delta Force, was readied to intervene. Operating under the cover of a dusk-to­ dawn curfew, 30 people in military uniforms Pact reached in 16-week NYNEX strike - widely believed to be either from the army or a right-wing death squad- invaded the BY RUSSELL DAVIS insurance and wages was reached on Novem­ In addition to the workers victimized dur­ country's most prestigious university on No­ BOSTON - A tentative settlement of the ber 13. Negotiations broke down over local ing the walkout, one striker was killed shortly vember 16 and assassinated six Jesuit priests, 16-week strike by the Communication Work­ issues, especially the company's refusal to after the strike began. The CWA member, the housekeeper, and her daughter. ers of America (CWA) against NYNEX tele­ grant amnesty to 142 CWA members. The Edward Horgan, was struck by a car being The priests were well-known for their ef­ phone company was announced November union demanded that the suspension or dis­ driven through a picket line by a scab in forts in the country. This included publishing 21. Members of both the CWAand the Inter­ missal of workers during the strike be set Valhalla, some 30 miles north of New York works from around the region, seeking a national Brotherhood of Electrical Workers aside. Charges ranged from assault and bat­ City. political solution to the war, and documenting (IBEW) struck NYNEX August 6. tery and destruction of property to intimida­ In the November 21 accord, the CWA Continued on Page 13 An initial regional accord covering health tion and harassment. negotiating committee agreed to review each striker's dismissal on a case-by-case basis. The regional agreement, which has to be voted on by CWA members, covers 60,000 workers- 40,000 CWA members in New Pathfinder mural dedicated in New 'York York State and another 2,000 CWA and 18,000 mEW members in New England. The mEW negotiating committee had rec­ ommended accepting both the original re­ gional and local pacts, and a vote took place November 19. Some 13,000 mEW members voted. On the regional proposal, which covers basic wages and health benefits, the proposal passed by 9,000 to 4,000. The local agree­ ment passed by a narrower margin, around 8,000 to 5,000. Under the local agreement, the cases of dozens of IBEW members who have been suspended or frred for strike ac­ tivity will be arbitrated on a case-by-case basis. mEW members have now returned to work. Unity between the two unions on the regional pact was key, explained one CWA official, who said CWAmembers understood the mEW's decision to go back after agreeing to the proposals. The mEW will continue to honor picket lines that the CWA is setting up at two worksites in Boston. Fight over health insurance The proposed regional settlement repre­ sents a victory for the unions on the main issue in the strike- the company's demand that workers begin to pay up to $1,500 for their medical insurance, a demand known as "cost shifting." Under the proposed agree­ ment, workers will not pay health insurance premiums currently paid by the company. Union members also won wage increases ml::vFJiiiriiie'ti~ Siem of 6 percent over three years and a cost-of­ Pathfinder mural in New York is completed. Some 400 people gathered for celebration November 19. Dedication drew artists, living adjustment in the second and third political activists, strikers, and many other supporters of the international project. See story on page 5. years if inflation exceeds 2% annually. The Continued on Page 13 Toronto Cuba supporters welcome'Tablada

BY ROBERT SIMMS president of the Canadian-Cuban Friendship volvement in the growing movement of tens Maxine Jones, a striking community col­ TORONTO- Cuban economist Carlos Association. of thousands of voluntary workers. lege teacher and provincial executive board Tablada addressed one of the biggest political Mary-Ellen Marus - a member of the In­ Lennox Farrell, a leader of Rally Against member of the 60,000-strong Ontario Public meetings ever held in Canada in defense of ternational Association of Machinists who Apartheid who participated in a tour to Cuba Service Employees Union, asked the audi­ the Cuban revolution when he spoke to an charred the meeting - outlined the main this summer, explained that what's important ence to "try to imagine Michael Wilson, audience of 225 people here on November theme ofTablada's book and of the gathering: about Cuba's voluntary labor movement "is Canada's finance minister, asking workers to 11. Ernesto Che Guevara's insistence that build­ not just the changes you bring about in the work for eight hours for no pay." No one ing socialism must involve more than trans­ course ofbuilding a socialist society, but what would respond, she pointed out. The fact that The meeting, sponsored by the Pathfinder forming and developing the economy; human changes inside you." "last week, half a million Cubans did just Bookstore, celebrated the publication in En­ beings must transform themselves as well. Zaheer Bhyat of the African National Con­ that" underlines the fundamental difference glish of Tablada's book Che Guevara: Eco­ between Cuba, a society organized to meet nomics and Politics in the Transition to So­ Michel Prairie, editor of the new Path­ gress of South Africa, praised the·decisive finder French-language edition of Socialism role of the 300,000 Cuban volunteers who human needs, and Canada, which is not. cialism by Pathfinder. The meeting was and Man in Cuba by Che Guevara, explained went to Angola over the past 14 years to help translated into English and Spanish. Jones quoted Guevara from Tablada's how the Cuban toilers' self-confidence and defend that country's independence in the book on the kind of society he fought for: "It 'fablada was introduced by Nadia Geith, social solidarity increased through their in- face of South African aggression. is not a matter of how many pretty things from abroad you can buy... . It is a matter of making the individual feel more complete, with much more internal richness and much Unionists to miners: 'Your war is our war' more responsibility." BY NANCY BROWN Guevara's ideas timely CARTERTON, Va.- Unionists and "Che's ideas are timely," given what's strike supporters from six states arrived here happening in today's world, Tablada told the at Camp Solidarity November 15 and at­ meeting. When Guevara, as minister of in­ tended the weekly Pittston strike support dustry, began his study of how to develop rally. socialism in Cuba, Tablada explained, he Some 1, 700 miners, members of the foresaw that if capitalist methods and capi­ United Mine Workers of America, have been talist-style incentives continued to be used in on strike against Pittston Coal Group since the "socialist countries" that this would have April 5 in Virginia and West Virginia. The "very damaging consequences. Che's think­ two hundred Pittston miners in Kentucky ing showed how political economy could be joined the walkout a few weeks later. The humanized." 10-acre camp is near some of Pittston's big­ gest operations in southwest Virginia and In the mid-1970s, the Cuban government serves as a strike support center. began to copy the economic model developed Two striking Eastern Airlines workers - in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, myself and flight attendant Sandra Palmer - Tablada explained. This led to social, politi­ joined other airport workers and strike sup­ cal, and, eventually, economic problems. The porters from Washington, D.C., to visit the rectification process launched in Cuba by the camp. Our trip coincided with a caravan of Communist Party in 1986 aims at correcting unionists driving in from other parts of Vir­ these errors, he said. The goal is to increase ginia, organized by the state AFL-CIO. the participation of the Cuban people in the As soon as we arrived, Pittston striker Joel development of a socialist society, and to Phillips welcomed us to Camp Solidarity. Militant/Mary Imo fight for "the full development of the indi­ Phillips had been in Washington, D.C., two Miners' takeover of Pittston's Moss No.3 coal-processing plant in September. Pickets vidual, not individualism and selfishness." days earlier for the national AFL-CIO con­ are now limited to 20 at gates. The January 1990 congress of the Central vention. He took us to the picket line at Organization of Cuban Trade Unions will Pittston's Moss No. 3 coal-processing plant, signed to this area. welcomed the mine union into the organiza­ deepen the discussion on the involvement of the site of numerous strike activities, includ­ Back at the camp, unionists were arriving tion amidst cheers. workers in economic planning, he said. ing a mid-September 80-hour takeover by for the rally. There were strike supporters Jim Stroup from CWA Local 2205 in "Communism is not some far off dream," miners. from cities across Virginia, West Virginia, Newport News, who coordinated the Virginia Tablada declared. "Socialism is possible and Harley Harliss, a Pittston striker from Maryland, North Carolina, and New Jersey, caravan, said, "I've been in the CWA, a in Cuba we're going to continue building it." Logan County, West Virginia, was on duty at . as· well as Washington, D.C. Elaine Harris, telephone worker for 32 years in Newport His remarks were greeted with a standing the picket shack. He filled us in on the recent from the Communications Workers of Amer­ News, but I feel at home today." ovation. mobilizations by miners there to prevent ica union in Charleston, West Virginia, said "I'm proud of what you're doing- your Other speakers at the meeting included Pittston from running coal. Strikers in Logan that 85 CWA members had come down. war is my war!" He presented the mine union Pastor Vaile-Garay, Canadian representative face court injunctions limiting pickets, and Members of the International Union of Elec­ with a check for $5,000. of the Sandinista National Liberation Front several have been arrested as authorities try tronic Workers (IUE) came from throughout Union after union then got up and pre­ of Nicaragua; Keith Brown from Canadian to enforce the court orders. the Shenandoah Valley. There were 12 steel­ sented donations to the Pittston strikers. Action for Nicaragua; and Linda Grohovsky, Harliss said Logan County miners are set­ workers from Newport News, Virginia, along Sheetmetal workers from Richmond, Vir­ from the Canada-Cuba Cultural Interchange. ting up their own camp in preparation for with Teamsters, rubber workers, and letter ginia, brought $4,500 from local unions. The Five Cubans from the Embassy of Cuba in Pittston's plans to resume mining there. carriers. IUE members brought money and truckloads Ottawa, the consulate in Toronto, and one Virginia strikers face the same restrictions. More than 50 cars and trucks left from the offood. United Food and Commercial Work­ from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs As another group of strike supporters arrived campgrounds to nearby St. Paul for the rally, ers union members from Locall262 in Clif­ were introduced to warm applause. at the Moss No. 3 picket shack, we had to which was attended by 600 people. It was ton, New Jersey, had sent 30,000 pounds of The Toronto meeting to promote Tablada's leave since no more than 20 persons can be the first such rally held with the UMWA as food and toys for Christmas. Teamsters in book was the third in a series of four organ­ at the shacks. As we left, two Virginia state an official member of the AFL-CIO. The Hopewell, Virginia, raised $9,249 and gave ized by Pathfmder in Canada. police cruisers pulled up with video cameras miners' union was voted in at the federation's half of it to Pittston strikers and half to Eastern Tablada also addressed five university au­ to count the people present. Strikers said that national convention November 13-16. David strikers. In all, more than $20,000 was do­ diences on the Ontario leg of his cross-Can­ one-third of the state's police force is as- Laws, president of the Virginia AFL-CIO, nated at the rally. ada tour. The Militant THE MILITANT Closing news date: November 21, 1989 Editor: DOUG JENNESS Circulation Director: NORTON SANDLER TELLS THE TRUTH Nicaragua Bureau Director: LARRY SEIGLE Business Manager: JIM WHITE Editorial Staff: Susan Apstein (Nicaragua), Seth Galinsky (Nicaragua), Yvonne Hayes, Arthur Hughes, Susan LaMont, Subscribe today! Roni McCann, Greg McCartan, Selva Nebbia, Peter Thier­ jung. Published weekly except one week in August and the last 12 weeks for $4 - week of December by the Militant (ISSN 0026-3885), 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Editorial Of­ an $8 savings fice, (212) 243-6392; Fax 727-0150; Telex, 497-4278; Busi­ ness Office, (212) 929-3486. Nicaragua Bureau, Apartado From the Philippines to El Salvador, the Militant 2222, Managua. Telephone 24845. covers the struggles of working people around the Correspondence concerning subscriptions or changes world. It features: of address should be addressed to The Militant Business • Firsthand reports of labor battles, from strikes Office, 410 West St., New York, N.¥.10014. at Eastern Airlines and Boeing to the fightback in the Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at addi­ tional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes coalfields. 0 $4 for 12 ~eks, new readers 0 $9 for 12 ~eks, re­ to The Militant, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. Sub­ • Regular coverage of advances being made by newals scriptions: U.S., Canada, Latin America: for one-year sub­ Cuban working people, and speeches by Fidel Castro 0 $17 for 6 months 0 $30 for 1 yeN 0 $55 for 2 years and other Cuban leaders. scription send $30, drawn on a U.S. bank, to above address. 0$1.00 for An Action Program to Confront the Coming By first-class (airmail), send $65. 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2 The Militant December 1, 1989 A visit to northern Namibia: heartland of SWAPO support

BY SELVA NEBBIA vegetation consists mainly of small bushes OSHAKATI, Namibia - Under the su­ and dry grass. For most of the year, little rain pervision of the United Nations, Namibians falls. In December the rains come, and for a have elected a Constituent Assembly of 72. few months the rivers run and the land turns The assembly will soon meet to draft and green. Floods are frequent. approve a constitution and set the date for Sorghum and com is grown during that Namibia's independence. time and stored for the long dry season. Most Namibia, a country of 1.5 million in south­ farmers raise cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and west Africa, has been under colonial rule for donkeys. Vehicles along the roads here often more than a century. Awarded to South Africa have to stop while animals cross. after World War I, Namibia has been ruled "We are farmers," explained Sou-lee by South Africa since. Previously, it was a Sheya, a young woman from the area near German colony. Uukwamudhi. "We work very hard. We pro­ As a result of the military defeat suffered duce our own food and raise goats. Most of by the apartheid regime last year in Cuito the time it's dry, our big concern is water. We Cuanavale, Angola, Pretoria was forced to produce during the rainy season, and store begin the implementation of UN Resolution food for the dry season," she said describing 435 (approved by the United Nations in life here. Money is not widely used by most 1978), outlining steps for Namibia's indepen­ farmers. dence. "Our big problem is colonialism," said The South West Africa People's Organisa­ Sheya, 19. "We need to be independent to tion (SWAPO) won more than 57 percent of build housing and other things we need. the popular vote during the November elec­ Health conditions are very bad," she said, Militant/Selva Nebbia tions. "Well for the whites it's O.K., but for the rest Waiting to vote in Ondangwa polling station near Oshakati, November 7. The highest concentration ofthe Namibian of us not." population is in the northern part of the coun­ The daughter of farmers, Sheya is studying Among the many unemployed workers are attack, civilians would also be threatened. try. SWAPO received more than 90 percent on a scholarship in East Germany to become "returnees," part of the more than 41 ,000 One of the polling places I visited was at of the vote here in the area known as a doctor. She was here on a school break to exiles who came back to Namibia from 46 the Ponhofi secondary school where in Sep­ Ovamboland, bordering Angola. This region participate in the elections. "Most children in countries after June as part of the UN agree­ tember 1987 students initiated a boycott to was the main battle front during the 23 years this area cannot go to school. Many live very ment. The accord granted political exiles total protest the killing of two students by a mortar of armed struggle between the fighters of far from the nearest school. I was lucky to amnesty. shell that fell on the school. The students SWAPO's People's Liberation Army of live near the school." demanded the removal of military bases near Namibia and South African military forces. The illiteracy rate in Namibia is estimated • the schools. This boycott soon spread to the at between 60 and 70 percent. Schools and The white neighborhood in Oshakati is a rest of the country. • hospitals are racially segregated. fenced-in enclave, with armed guards at the As you travel further north, to the border As one approaches Ovamboland, the blue, gate. Though most are now empty, the large town of Oshikango, the landscape more dra­ green, and red flags of SWAPO can be seen • homes with well-kept gardens stand in sharp matically reveals the effects of the war. The flying from trees and masts in the eumbos Herds usually led by young children gather contrast to those ofNamibians who are Black. burned stumps of trees line the road. On both lined along Route B I - the main road that at the water holes, where women and children Every one of the homes in this enclave has sides of the Angolan border, what were once runs from southern to northern Namibia. also come for water. Women and young girls its own bunker, built with sand bags, remind­ brick houses have been left in ruins. "South Eumbo is the traditional extended family carry the water in containers balanced on their ing the visitor of the war that recently was Africa used chemical defoliants in this area," dwelling of the farmers in the area. heads back to their homes. Most homes have fought in this area. explained Hafeni, who was born in the area Surrounded by a fence made of narrow no running water or electricity. • · Many of the pblling sites in Ovambo were near Oshakati. tree trunks split in half, the eumbo is made The land is sandy and winds sweep the set up in school buildings. Next to many of Now UN troops from Malaysia guard the up of a series of ondumba-yomwiidi, separate terrain. While I was here a few showers fell, the schools are military installations. The border on the Namibian side. Troops of the straw-roofed round rooms. Each room serves but the water quickly evaporated and seemed South African military forces built their bases Angolan armed forces stand guard on the a specific function: sleeping, cooking, or never to reach the ground. next to schools so that in the event of an other side of the border. grinding com. There are special storage areas The SWAPO flags on the eumbos are for com, water, milk, and dried meat. For recent additions to the landscape. "Before some residents, housing consists of one-room April," explained Hafeni, 27, "to raise the ST. LOUIS* NEW YORK CITY* BAY AREA homes built of corrugated metal, generally SWAPO flag was illegal. There was a curfew windowless. from dawn to dusk." The curfew had been in The 'Failure of Socialism' In the small villages along Route B I, effect for more than 10 years. bottle stores -liquor stores - are frequent, Oshakati is the main town here. Namibians with names such as Beverly Hills, Country living in town work mainly in the shops and and the Future of Communism Club, or Good Times. in services. A meat-packing plant employs Discuss: The land is arid and riverbeds are dry. The about 300 workers. * The weight of the German Question in world politics * The "triumph of capitalism" and the historic tasks of the working class Contribute to the Pathfinder Fund * The importance of Ernesto Che Guevara, Malcolm X, and Thomas Sankara in Eastern Europe today Pathfinder Press tious program of pub­ $150,000 * Why Cuba and South Africa are at the center of publishes writings and lishing and promotion D resolving the crisis of working-class leadership on a speeches by commu­ of revolutionary books $132,000 world scale nist and working-class and pamphlets, Path­ ST. LOUIS: fighters such as Fidel finder launched a Speaker: Jack Barnes National Secretary, Socialist Workers Party Castro, Ernesto Che $150,000 fund in Au­ Friday, November 24, 7:30p.m. Guevara, Malcolm X, gust. Sheraton-St. Louis Hotel - West Ballroom Maurice Bishop, Tho­ So far $132,000 has 910 North 7th St. (near Convention Center) mas Sankara, Farrell been collected. The NEW YORK: Dobbs, James P. Can­ deadline for complet­ Doug Jenness Editor of the MUitant non, Nelson Mandela, ing the fund is Decem­ Saturday, December 2, 7:00p.m. Karl Marx, Frederick ber l. Please contrib­ Public School 11 , 314 West 21 St. (between 8th &.. 9th aves., Manhattan) Engels, V.I. Lenin, and ute as generously as Leon Trotsky. possible. SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: To carry out its ambi- Mary-Allee Waters Editor of New International Saturday, December 9, 7:00p.m Travelodge, 250 Beach St. at Mason, 0 Enclosed is my contribution of$ on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. 0 I wish to pledge $ toward the fund. Sponsored by Militant Labor Forums. Name These forums are part of three political conferences the Socialist Workers Party will host over the next few weeks. In St. Louis, November 24-16, Addr~ ------socialist activists from the Appalachian and western coal-mining regions, Qty the South, and Midwest will be meeting. Socialists on the East Coast will State/Province meet in New York, December 1-3. Activists from California, Pacific North­ Zip/Postal Code _____Country west, and Southwest will attend a conference in San frAncisco, December Clip and send to Pathfinder, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. 9-10.

. . D~~m~er 1, 1~89 The Militant 3 Abortion rights activists support Curtisdefense

Mark Curtis is a unionist and Many rally participants offered term before he can be paroled. his law license last May. "What hap­ A message of support from farm political activist from Des Moines, donations for the defense effort. A pened to Mark, tomorrow could leader Merle Hansen was read at the Iowa, who is serving a 25-year jail total of $140 was collected and sup­ • happen to us. We have to raise our rally. The Frame-Up ofMark Curtis term at the state prison in An­ porters of the defense committee "What Mark Curtis was trying to voices in unison against this frame­ video was shown. More than $300 amosa, Iowa, on frame-up distributed more than 2,000 leaflets do at Swift/Monfort, to unify the up and against the prohibition of was contributed to the defense ef­ charges of rape and burglary. on Curtis' case. workers and strengthen the union, certain materials that are not in the fort. The Mark Curtis Defense Supporters of Curtis from New is what I'm trying to do in the pack­ English language," she said. Committee is leading an interna­ York to Des Moines helped staff the inghouses here," Johnny MacGraw, "To remain politically active in • tional campaign to fight for justice table. Nan Bailey of Des Moines a United Food and Commercial prison, Mark needs our help," Mar­ "On behalf of the Executive for Curtis. For more information spoke on behalf of the Mark Curtis Workers shop steward said. He jorie Farmer, an activist who aids Board of the Salt Lake branch of the about the case or how you can Defense Committee at a post-rally spoke to a November 4 rally in Central American refugees, said. NAACP, I am pleased to be here to help, write to the Mark Curtis open house sponsored by the Young defense of Mark Curtis held in "Let's help Mark Curtis remove speak in support of Mark Curtis, Defense Committee, Box 1048, Socialist Alliance and Socialist Omaha, Nebraska, at the Chicano those barriers between prisoners so because we believe in justice, and Awareness Center. they can share all literature." not just us," Lenoris Bush told a Salt "We haven't had a raise in nine Hafeni Hatutale, the Midwest re­ Lake City rally in support of Curtis DEFEND MARK CURTIS! years. Only cuts and deductions, no gional coordinator of the South West on November 12. Bush is the first cost of living raises," MacGraw ex­ Africa People's Organisation, lik­ vice-president of the National Asso­ plained. The bosses "are trying to Des Moines, Iowa 50311; tele­ Workers Party. Curtis is a member ened Curtis' fight for justice to the ciation for the Advancement of Col­ destroy our union. If Mark is a pack­ phone (515) 246-1695. of the SWP. Bailey explained Curtis' fight to free Nelson Mandela and ored People branch. inghouse activist, he's a righteous If you have news or reports on continuing political activity in other South African political prison­ The rally was held at the AFL­ guy," he said. activities in support of Mark Cur­ prison and his fight for the right of ers, and to the frame-ups and im­ CIO's Union Labor Center and fea­ Rita Melgares, a central leader in tis from your city or country, prisoners to receive materials and prisonment of many SWAPO tured the Utah premiere of The please send them to the Militant. the fight to defend Chicano activist members by the apartheid regime. Frame-Up of Mark Curtis, which correspondence in languages other Francisco "Kik:o" Martinez, chaired than English, and for the right of "The struggle does not end when had a marked impact on the speakers the meeting. Martinez was framed­ they lock up one of us. When they Hundreds of participants in the prisoners to share literature. and the audience. "Everyone who November 12 rally to defend abor­ up in 1973 on letter-bomb charges. silence one of us, the rest must con­ sees this movie will understand why tion rights in Washington, D.C., Curtis was denied parole at a Melgares explained that after a 15- tinue to work in his place. When Mark Curtis was framed," Nancy crowded around the Mark Curtis hearing on November 8 and told he year defense effort Martinez was they feel that having one of these Jones, president of the American Defense Committee table near the may have to serve six years of his cleared of all charges and regained people behind bars causes them Federation of Government Employ­ Lincoln Memorial to learn about more trouble, they'll let them out. ees Local 2199, said. "Appalling is Curtis' fight. This is the power of the struggle not a strong enough word to use to More than 150 demonstrators lent which will win," he said. describe how the cops and courts their support to the defense effort at The keynote speaker at the rally, treated Mark. There is a direct par­ the rally by endorsing the defense Alfredo Alvarez, explained that he allel to Utah labor martyr Joe Hill effort or adding their names to an became an endorser of the defense in this story," Jonesexplained, "but open letter to activists for women's effort because "if it could happen to we must remember Joe's last words: rights. The letter explains why Mark Curtis, it could happen to any Don't mourn, organize!" women's rights activists have a of us. I believe this is a case with The rally also heard from the head stake in Curtis' defense effort. national and international implica­ of the Phoenix Center for Women, Some participants said they read tions. Until more of us come out and Kathy Hurd. The center is a self-help about Curtis' frame-up in various take a stand to say, 'No more Mark organization for women. Hurd de­ newspapers and publications distrib­ Curtises! No more injustices!' then scribed how she had been victim­ uted around the country and were this society can never be a free so­ ized and attacked by Iowa police eager to receive further information. ciety." Alvarez is the chairperson of years before. "Mark's case is remi­ A few said they would take materials the Des Moines Human Rights niscent of South African fighter Ste­ to their campus groups and wanted Commission. ven Biko. While there are a copy of the new video produced by Joe Swanson, a leader of the So­ differences, the vengeance of the Hollywood director Nick Castle, Jr., cialist Workers Party, spoke about system is the same," she said. The Frame-Up of Mark Curtis (see the party's recent victory over a 10- Regula Burki, the past president review on page 15). year harassment suit financed and of the Women's Physicians of Utah, One prochoice activist said that organized by an antilabor outfit spoke of the need to defend Curtis' after reading about Curtis in a stu­ known as the Workers League. rights behind prison walls. dent newspaper she wrote to him 1n Swanson underscored the victory prison. Curtis wrote back to her ex­ and explained how it has helped Ellen Whitt from Washington , D.C.; plaining his political perspectives in Curtis' supporters tum back the Pat Leamon from Omaha, Ne­ defending activists against frame­ Militant/Arthur Hughes Workers League's attempts to ped­ braska; and Steve Warshell from ups. She appreciated the political Some prochoice activists at November 12 action had heard of Curtis dle the cops' frame-up of Curtis and Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed to character of his response. case and wanted more information. disrupt the defense effort. this week's column. Havana int'l art event includes Pathfinder mural BY MALCOLM McALLISTER This year more than 400 artists from nearly The heart of the Bienal is Havana's three­ whose bodies are painted by Mendive - HAVANA, Cuba- Green banners sport­ 50 countries throughout the Third World are story Museum of Fine Arts where lectures, were also given. A collection of colorful ing the logo of the Third Havana Bienal participating. Included is a display of the slideshows, and lively discussion and debate Guatemalan paper dolls attracted visitors as adorned the city as visitors arrived here for Pathfinder Mural Project- a six-story work take place. The museum is open from 10:00 well as Inca-inspired monumental sculpture. the opening of one of the Third World's most of art in New York City featuring portraits of a.m. to 10:00 p.m. allowing for the steady There is half a floor of work by Cuban prestigious art events. revolutionary fighters from around the world. stream of students, workers, and others inter­ humorists, art from the struggle in South During the months of November and De­ Held every two years, hence the name, the ested in the arts to visit. Two video documen­ Africa, censored photographs from Chile, cember, 25 of Havana's art galleries and First Havana Bienal was in 1984. taries on Cuban art are shown continuously and several works of political commentary studios, along with the spacious Museum of "The main idea is to establish a better throughout the day. from British artists who are Black. Fine Arts, are attracting Cubans and visitors understanding of the artistic richness of the Some 700 works of a wide variety of art from all over the world. Third World," explained Llillian Llanes, di­ are displayed at the museum alone. Featured Pathfinder mural Some of the most exciting visual art pro­ rector of the Wilfredo Lam Cemc:r. She and is an installation by Mendive, one of Cuba's The six-panel display of photographs of duced from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Cuban Minister of Culture Armando Hart most prominent artists. Two performances - the Pathfinder mural is exhibited in a prom­ Latin America is on display free of charge. addressed the opening on November 1. Afro-Cuban ritual dances by performers inent spot on the first floor of the museum. Many Cubans were attracted by the portrait of Cuban President Fidel Castro painted on the mural by Cuban artist Aldo Soler. After Los Angeles forum celebrates rights victory reading the accompanying text beside the photographs, several people extended their LOS ANGELES - A meeting to cele­ La Mode garment plant in Los Angeles, and pated appeal of Pfaelzer's decision. The 60- congratulations on the project and all the brate the recent victory against the 10-year others. · day period for filing an appeal ·is now in literature on the mural was taken within the disruption lawsuit of Alan Gelfand and the Britton pointed out that Gelfand's lawsuit effect. first few hours. This display was the only one Workers League, an antilabor sect, was held threatened the fundamental right to freedom Monica Hill, Los Angeles organizer of the of a mural project on exhibit at the Bienal. at the Militant Labor Forum here November of association guaranteed by the Bill of Freedom Socialist Party, urged opposition to The Bienal expands from the museum. In 21. Rights. "IfPfaelzer had ruled the other way," a similar lawsuit brought against her party. one of Havana's old forts is an exhibition on he said, "if the membership, leadership, and The legal action was taken by a former mem­ On November 13 federal judge Mariana life in the Third World by Brazilian photog­ program of the SWP had begun to be decided ber who five years after resigning from the Pfaelzer dismissed an attempt by Gelfand, a rapher Sebastian Salgado. His black-and­ by the courts, then the legal existence of the party went to court demanding that a large Los Angeles attorney, to amend the court's white shots of hundreds of mud-covered, party would be in question. It would set a financial contribution he made while a mem­ August decision in favor of the Socialist sweating Brazilian gold miners, laden with precedent where unions and other organiza­ ber be returned. The judge in this case has Workers Party. Gelfand's lawsuit, filed in rock, climbing hundreds of feet up near-ver­ tions would not have the fundamental right ordered the Freedom Socialist Party to tum 1979, went to trial before Pfaelzer in 1983. tical wooden ladders, are some of the most to run their own affairs." over to the court membership lists, minutes The suit charged that the SWP is run by FBI chilling images of capitalist barbarity. Britton noted the significance ofPfaelzer's of meetings, and financial records. agents. Gelfand demanded that the court A host of workshops on ceramics, screen admission at the November 13 hearing that Among those joining the discussion was overturn his expulsion from the SWP and printing, architecture, and other topics were she had "made a bad mistake" in not tossing film dir~or Nick Castle, Jr., who recently remove the party's leadership. held. Visitors were treated to an evening Gelfand's suit out of court six years ago. Chlllpleted a video on the Mark Curtis case. fashion show featuring a live orchestra, Joel Britton, speaking for the SWP at the Gelfand's case, she said, "is groundless,~ . Ollil!iS·is an Iowa packinghouse worker and Cuban dancing, and opera singers, which was forum here, said, "The victory in this case is always was. A lot of it was simply harass­ unioDisuerving a 25-year prison sentence on held in historic Old Havana. important, not only for the Socialist Workers ment." frame-up charges. Party, but for everyone in struggle today." He Britton stressed continuing the campaign \ Castle stressed the link between building The art on exhibit, including the Pathfinder cited union activists, workers on strike at to spread the word of this victory because of opposition to Gelfand's disruption suit and Mural display, will stay up until the Bienal Eastern, coal miners at Pittston, strikers at the Gelfand's and the Workers League's antici- defending Curtis. ends December 31.

4 The Militant December 1, 1989 Pathfinder mural dedicated to working people of New York and the world Militant/Margrethe Siem Folksinger and activist Pete Seeger sang at mural unveiling

BY PETER THIERJUNG are needed more and more in today's tumul­ by renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, movements and the revolutionary struggles NEW YORK - Despite the frigid tuous world. They are needed and demanded but the inclusion of a portrait of V.I. Lenin in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Grenada in the last weather and wind, some 400 people gathered by working people here in the Americas, enraged Rockefeller, who had it destroyed. I 0 years making it possible to reach out and on Manhattan's Lower West Side for the Western and Eastern Europe, and around the Sam Manuel, director of the Pathfinder involve artists and activists from diverse November 19 unveiling and dedication of the world," Clark said. He noted Pathfmder's Mural Project, initiated the unveiling of the views and backgrounds. Pathfmder mural, a six-story work of art motto that appears at the center of the mural mural. As the music of Nkosi Sikele/' i Afrika, Pointing to today's rising labor struggles, painted on the south side of the Pathfinder designed by Mike Alewitz, "The truth must the inspirational anthem of the freedom strug­ Manuel said, "We did this for the Eastern Building. not only be the truth, it must also be told," gle in South Mrica, sounded, the green, black, Airlines strikers, the coal miners on strike Steve Clark, director of Pathfmder Press, and dedicated the mural to the working peo­ and gray banners draped across the mural against Pittston. This is their legacy, their opened the dedication by describing how the ple of New York and the world. came streaming down. Phumzile Zulu, a history." goals of the publishing house are reflected in Well-known U.S. folksinger and social ac­ member of the African National Congress of Ernie Mailhot, one of a group of Eastern the mural. He listed the fighters and leaders tivist Pete Seeger sang at the open and close South Mrica, and Tu Nokwe, a South Mrican strikers who attended the event, told the au­ whose speeches and writings are published of the ceremony. Prominent civil liberties singer, moved by the moment took to the dience about their 261-day strike. Members by Pathfmder and are depicted on the mural, attorney William Kunstler spoke and noted platform with clenched-fist salutes and sang of the United Mine Workers also attended the including Nelson Mandela of South Africa; that three of his former clients are among the the anthem. Applause and cheers rang out event. Greetings were read from Brazilian Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro of mural's portraits- Malcolm X, Martin Lu­ afterward. musician Gaudencio Thiago de Mello; Na­ Cuba; Maurice Bishop of Grenada; Thomas ther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks. tive American filmmaker Chris Spotted Sankara of Burkina Faso; Karl Marx; V.I. Former New York City Council president 'Post' attacks mural Eagle; South African poet Dennis Brutus; Lenin, and other leaders of the Communist Paul O'Dwyer said the mural was a contribu­ Not everyone welcomed the new mural. artist Charles White's widow, Fran; Irish re­ International in its early years; Rosa Luxem­ tion to the city and recalled the "desecration The same day's edition of the New York Post publican activist Gerard Kelly; and Argentine burg; and Malcolm X. of New York" in 1933 by Nelson Rockefeller. carried an editorial attacking the artwork as artist Ricardo Carpani. "The ideas and experiences of these figures The millionaire had commissioned a mural an "unseemly effort" and a "bizarre celebra­ tion of totalitarianism." It challenged the New Photo exhibition in Havana York State Council of the Arts' decision pro­ Professor David Kunzle, the chair of the viding some funding for the project. "The Art History Department at the University of 'Many friends of Cuba' greet mural should be removed," it provocatively California in Los Angeles, sent a message concluded. explaining that he had recently learned of the Clark noted the rising attacks on artistic mural in Cuba at the Havana Bienal. Malcolm Cuban painter in Minneapolis expression, which, he said, are aimed at "the McAllister, the mural's artistic director, set freedom to speak, write, and create in order up a photo display of the mural at the world­ BY PETER THIERJUNG art director of the Minnesota Museum of Art, to act" around social and political issues. He renowned art exhibition. Cuban painter Aldo Soler who is currently Jim Czarnecki, described the difficulties the hailed the victory won the day before when Sandy Boyer of the Irish Arts Center in touring several cities across the United States U.S. government creates to prevent and limit the National Endowment for the Arts rein­ New York made a fund pitch that raised more recently visited Minneapolis-St. Paul and cultural exchange with Cuba. Y. · stated a $10,000 grant for a New York art than $5,000 in cash and pledges to cover part Des Moines, Iowa. show about AIDS called "Witnesses: Against of the remaining $50,000 that needs to be Dozens of endorsers The Minneapolis College of Art and De­ Our Vanishing." raised toward the $125,000 cost of the mural sign sponsored a meeting for the artist at­ In his talk Soler commented that the doz­ Clark also called the mural's completion project. tended by 80 people on November 9. Seitu ens of individuals and organizations who a victory for freedom of expression and read Newark, New Jersey, artist Christine Vogel Jones, a well-known Black painter, intro­ endorsed the meeting "show that Cuba has a message from former New York mayor spoke, calling the mural an "extraordinary duced Soler. Jones and Soler both contributed many, many friends here in the United John Lindsay saying, "Freedom of artistic celebration of literacy and the figures por­ to the six-story mural on the side of the States." Following the meeting several peo­ and cultural expression is a hallmark of a trayed." Prominent art critic and promoter of Pathfinder Building in New York. Jones ple signed for more information about trav­ genuinely open, democratic society. The art­ cultural exchange with Cuba, Lucy Lippard, painted the portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois, a eling to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade, ists who have painted the Pathfmder mural said the mural showed that artists weren't founder of the National Association for the an activity promoted by brigade member have creatively put this freedom into practice, "above it all or below it all, but right in the Advancement of Colored People; Soler Mary Jo Doyle. enhancing the diversity of public art available middle" of today's struggles. . added Cuban President Fidel Castro and Karl Minneapolis Mayor Donald Fraser, St. to all New Yorkers." The project began two The mural is like "fresh and pure air," Marx. Paul Mayor George Latimer, and St. Paul's years ago. Cuban painter Aldo Soler said. He called it Tom Trow, a member of the Minnesota­ mayor-elect Jim Scheibel were joined by Guests that were recognized by Clark at a victory for revolutionary art and likened the Cuba Project, circulated a petition at the several city council members and Minnesota the unveiling included Margarita Delgado mural to a rainbow opening up to different meeting calling on the U.S. government to state legislators as endorsers of Soler's tour. Ramirez, the first secretary of the Cuban parts of the world. "I love this rainbow," he allow free cultural exchange with Cuba. Other endorsers included trade union offi­ Mission to the United Nations; Luis Miranda said. Soler was invited to tour the Walker Art cials, church leaders, the Minnesota-Cuba of Casa de Las Americas, an organization of Women of the Calabash performed at the Center the following day. Later, he viewed Project, Women's International League for Cuban-Americans based in New York who celebration. The three-woman ensemble per­ an art exhibition of Inuit peoples of the far Peace and Freedom, Minnesota Peace Coun­ organize solidarity with the Cuban revolu­ formed African and African-influenced north at the American Indian Center in Min­ cil, Minnesota Southern Africa Project, the tion; and Don Rojas, the press secretary to music. "Get everyone you know down to that neapolis. Central America Resource Center, and the the late Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice wall" to see the mural, group leader Made­ An open house at the home of a tour Art History, Studio Art, and Latin America Bishop. leine Yayodele Nelson urged the audience. supporter attracted more than 50 people who Studies departments of the University of Westbeth Gallery celebration took the opportunity to talk with the Cuban Minnesota. Protest sent to 'Post' artist and ask questions about life in Cuba. Soler presented his slideshow on contem­ Mter the dedication, festivities continued Loud applause greeted a proposal from Some of those who stopped by included porary Cuban art at Iowa's Drake University at Westbeth Gallery a few blocks away. Path­ Andrea Morell, a Mural Project coordinator, Marvin Davidov of the Honeywell Project, on November 8. At the meeting of more than finder representative Mark Severs and Vent­ that a protest telegram be sent to the New American Indian Movement leader Vernon 70 people, including many art students, Soler ana member Ellie Bernstein chaired a pro­ York Post responding to its editorial. "Your Bellecourt, members of the Venceremos Bri­ explained that education in Cuba is free. Art gram celebrating the mural's completion. open invitation to defacement and attempts gade, and members of various unions, includ­ students, he said, are provided materials free Ventana is a group of artists who organize to destroy the mural is an intolerable assault ing the United Auto Workers, Machinists, and of charge and are guaranteed jobs after they solidarity with the Nicaraguan revol~tion. on freedom of artistic expression and speech. United Food and Commercial Workers. graduate. Tim Worthen, chairman of the Artist Carole Byard introduced Betty We pledge to defend the right of this mural Drake University Art Department, introduced Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow. Byard pre­ to stay on the wall and that of all art to flourish Bellecourt welcome the Cuban painter. sented Shabazz with the sketch of Malcolm without interference from would-be censors Bellecourt welcomed Soler to the land of That same day Soler was interviewed dur­ X she used to paint his portrait on the mural. whether in Congress or newspaper offices," the Chippewa and the Lakota peoples and ing the noon news program on local televi­ "Pathfinder Press is dear to my heart," the protest read. described to him the plight of Native Ameri­ sion in Des Moines. The brief interview fea­ Shabazz said, referring to Pathfinder's work cans since Christopher Columbus first landed tured a photo of the Pathfinder mur~l. in publishing the speeches and writings of in the Americas. He also told of the FBI Concluding the spot, the newscaster encour­ Malcolm X. "I salute you and celebrate with Contributions to harassment he has endured as a political aged viewers to visit the mural on future trips you the completion of the mural." Two of activist and AIM leader. A representative of to New York. Malcolm X's teachers while he was a member cover mural The Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater gave Farmers and farm activists met with Soler of the Nation of Islam came from Washing­ Soler a video of the theater's production of at Iowa State University in Ames and were ton, D.C., to join in the celebration. costs are needed! The Reaper's Tale , which aims to tell the truth able to discuss agriculture in Cuba. Tax-deductible contributions should about the colonization of the Americas. Soler More than $300 was raised for the Path­ 50 artists, 20 countries promised to try to get the video shown on finder Mural Project during Soler's visit to Sam Manuel explained how more than 50 be sent to the Anchor Foundation, c/o the Pathfinder Mural Project, 410 Cuban TV. Des Moines. artists from some 20 countries, from the ages In a meeting of 75 people at the University of 13 to 78, were drawn together to work on West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. of Minnesota, Soler was introduced by Chris Tom 0 ' Brien from Minneapolis-St. Paul the mural. He described the gains working Checks should be made out to An­ Spotted Eagle, a film maker who painted on and Jon, Bixby from Des Moines, Iowa, people have won over the past four decades chor Foundation. the Pathfinder mural. During the program the contributed io this article. through the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War

Decembe~ 1, 1989 The Militant s New York unions host Dec. 8 benefit'for strikers Some 8,500 International Asso- Eastern strikers in New York ers. Also present were leaders of eryone marched several blocks Eastern and Boeing strikes at their ciation of Machinists (lAM) mem- are among the unionists building the Transport Workers Union more to the offices of Burlington last union meeting and decided they bers struck Eastern Airlines a major Labor Solidarity Benefit Local 553, which represents strik- Air Freight, a subsidiary of needed to get moving, since their March 4 in an etTort to block the concert and program, set for De- ing flight attendants at Eastern, Pittston Coal Group. For the week own contract negotiations are com- company's drive to break the cember 8 at Washington Irving and the Air Line Pilots Associa- before the action, Sam Hughes, a ing up soon. union and impose massive conces- High School in lower Manhattan. tion. striking coal miner, and ·his wife sions on workers. The event, billed as "A Musical Theresa were in the Los Angeles Tickets for the benefit cost $10; • Backed by flight attendants and Tribute to the Striking Workers of area speaking about the Pittston the high school is at 16th St. and Boston-area Machinists in Dis- pilots, the walkout crippled East- NYNEX, Eastern Airlines, and Irving Place. For more informa- strike. trict 38, which represents mechan- em, grounding a big majority of Pittston Coal," will feature singers At Burlington, Hughes and all tion call (212) 673-5120, ext 242. ics at the public transit system, Pete Seeger and Hazel Dickens, of the Eastern strikers present - Amtrak, and other smaller locals, and special guests. lAM District • more than 20, including one flight contributed generously to an ap- SUPPORT 100 President Charles Bryan will More than 175 people turned attendant - came to the front of peal for food donations to help be one of the speakers that eve- out November 4 for the regular the rally to show the solidarity Eastern strikers and their families EASTERN ning. biweekly solidarity picket line in between the two strikes. enjoy the holidays. On November 9 union officials front of the Eastern-Continental The November 4 action was the in New York held a labor breakfast eighth consecutive biweekly On November 9 the District 38 terminal at Los Angeles Interna- Machinists delivered a pickup truck STRIKERS! to map out plans for building the tiona! Airport. picket organized by Eastern strik- benefit. Among those who at- ers in Los Angeles. Everyone was filled with food and $3,500 in con- its 1,040 prestrike daily nights. tended were Jay Mazur, president After a "walk-through" of the urged to return on November 18. tributions to the Eastern strikers' Since July Eastern has been try- of the International Ladies' Gar- Eastern and Continental terminals, headquarters - one of the biggest ing to restart operations. By No- ment Workers' Union; Jack demonstrators marched to the Air- • collections in Boston for the Eastern vember 1 it was scheduling 775 Sheinkman, president of the port Hyatt Hotel for a show of sup- A lively picket line of 25 strike strike. daily flights. Amalgamated Clothing and Tex- port to members of Hotel Employ- supporters was held in Greens- The Eastern workers' faght has tile Workers Union; Jan Pierce, ees and Restaurant Employees boro, North Carolina, November Strikers Ernie Mailhot from JAM won broad support from working vice-president of the Communica- (HERE) locals 814 and 11, who are 9 to protest Eastern's attempts to Local I OJ 8 in New York and Maggie people in the United States and tions Workers of America; Dennis in the middle of a fight to win a hire scab mechanics. Pucci from JAM Local I 726 in Bos- Canada. Readers - especially Rivera, president of Drug, Hospi- decent contract at several Hyatt ho- Most of the picketers were mem- ton contributed to this column, Eastern strikers - are encour- tal and Health Care Employees tels in the area. HERE members also bers of the lAM at USAir's big along with Lisa Ahlberg from Los aged to send news of strike soli- Local 1199; lAM General Chair- joined the airport picket. maintenance facility in nearby Win- Angeles and Rich Stuart from clarity activities to this column. man Leroy Washington; and oth- After picketing the Hyatt, ev- ston-Salem. They had discussed the Greensboro, North Carolina. Miners, Florida unionists march for Eastern strike

BY PAT HUNT the delegation of Eastern Machinist union or decent health care?" "No!" the crowd matter what kind of workers we are." MIAMI- Some 1,000 Eastern Airlines members, flight attendants, and pilots that led roared. "Is it wrong what Frank Lorenzo and To sustained applause, Frank Ortis, presi­ strikers and supporters from around Florida the march. Pittston Coal boss Paul Douglas have done dent of International Association of Machin­ turned out for a downtown march and rally ists (lAM) Local 702, which represents 3,000 UMWA Local 8939 VIce-president James to unions today?" "Yes!" the crowd yelled here November 19 to show the continuing Holbrook stressed the common interests back. Lorenzo heads Eastern's parent com­ striking Eastern workers in Miami, read a list strength of the Eastern strike, now in its ninth pany, Texas Air Corp. of nearly 20 unions represented at the march month. shared by the Eastern and Pittston strikers. "It boils down to one thing: self-respect and "The line has been drawn," Holbrook said. and rally, from the International Ladies' Gar­ 1be weekend of expanded airport picket dignity," Holbrook told the cheering crowd. "I don't care if you're a garment worker in ment Workers' Union to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Members lines and other solidarity actions were named "They want to take it away. They want to New Jersey or a farm worker in California of the Machinists union from Titusville, Or­ Miami Camp Solidarity, inspired by the take away your job. If we stand together, we or a machinist in Florida, we're the backbone United Mine Workers of America's Camp can't be defeated." of this country. A sleeping giant has been lando, Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach, and Solidarity in Vrrginia. Four UMWA members "Is it wrong," he asked, "to expect a decent aroused that's tired of what's been done to it. Miami in Florida were also there. on strike against the Pittston coal company pension after working 20 to 30 years for a We're going to take our struggle forward. It's MeSsage from Boeing strikers came from Clintwood, VIrginia, and joined company, or to expect decent working hours time we came together as one union, no Striking Boeing Machinists from Portland, Oregon, and Seattle sent greetings of solidar­ ity to the rally. Kim Foster of the Dade County National Boeing Machinists ratify pact,·end strike Organization for Women also spoke. "As workers struggle for respect, women struggle BY KAREN RAY 4 here; in Portland, Oregon; and Wichita, the first year, followed by 3 percent in each for respect," she said. "As workers struggle SEATTI.E- After 48 days on the picket Kansas, demanding larger wage increases of the next two years. Mandatory overtime for human dignity, women struggle for line, the strike against Boeing Company has and reduction in mandatory overtime. Boeing will be reduced to 144 hours in a quarter and human dignity. We must refuse to be com­ been settled. On November 20 a new three­ workers had had no wage increase for six no more than two weekends in a row - partmentalized by race, color, or sex, for to year contract was ratified by an 81 percent years and were working up to 200 hours of down from four weekendS in the old contract. do so only serves our enemies." majority. forced overtime per quarter. Lump-sum bonuses were increased and a Some 58,000 International Association of The new contract includes the company's cost-of-living adjustment raised to cover 99 Gerard Jean-Juste from the Haitian com­ Machinists members went on strike October original offer of a 4 percent wage increase percent of inflation, up from 83 percent in munity organization Veye Yo blasted Presi­ the old pact. dent George Bush's hypocrisy in claiming to When the gates opened at the Kingdome be for human rights in Poland while spending sports arena where the vote took place, millions to slaughter workers in El Salvador Philadelphia: protest at Midway 30,000 workers received the contract sum­ and Haiti. mary, read it carefully, and discussed it with Other speakers included lAM District I 00 other union members. The proposal was President Charles Bryan; Mary Jane Barry, made to the union and company by federal president of Transport Workers Union Local mediator Douglas Hammond. 553, which represents striking flight atten­ 1be lAM's negotiating committee was dants at Eastern; and Air Line Pilots Associ­ split, with three members for and two against ation representative Gary Kosak. The 8,500 acceptance. President Tom Baker of lAM Machinists on strike at Eastern around the District 751, which covers 43,000 Seattle country and in Canada are part of lAM Dis­ strikers, said, "I think it is the best offer we trict 100. have negotiated" in 50 years. Miami Camp Solidarity began the morn­ lAM Regional VIce-president Justin Ostro ing of November 18 when 30 Eastern strikers said the mediator's proposal "failed to ad­ joined the Carpenters' District Council picket line against Turner Construction Inc. at the dress the workers' major issues, which were general wage increases." Colonnade Hotel. The carpenters are on strike against Turner for using nonunion labor in Mixed reaction an attempt to break the union. The reaction of strikers was mixed. Many During the day, unionists spoke at Local 702's strike headquarters, where Camp Sol­ thought the strike had gone on long enough and were concerned the walkout might last idarity was set up, and strikers assembled to until the holidays. Others said that the com­ go to the expanded airport picket lines. pany was starting to hurt and would have When the Pittston miners arrived at the given more if the strikers had stayed out a strike headquarters after their 18-hour jour­ little longer. Baker's presentation of the con­ ney from VIrginia, someone ran inside and tract summary was greeted by both cheers shouted, "The miners are here!" The union hall emptied out to the parking lot to applaud and boos. and welcome the miners. After getting a bite Pete Ajeto, a shop steward and daily vol­ to eat and making a few remarks to the unteer in the union hall, hadn't decided how strikers at the union hall, the miners led more to vote going into the meeting. "Every day I than a busload of Eastern strikers and sup­ On November 15 more than 100 Eastern strikers and other unionists swelled the talk to picketers," he said, "and they say they porters over to the airport to picket. picket line at the Philadelphia airport to protest Midway Airlines' agreement to are willing to stay out. This strike is stronger than the one in 1977. I think the union is lAM Local 702 beat back an attempt by handle air freight and other work for Eastern Airlines. Midway bought nine of Miami city government to charge a series of Eastern's 13 gates at the airport in September; November 15 was the start-up stronger." Strikers returned to work November 22. fees totaling $3,800 in order to hold the day for Midway's Philadelphia "hub." "It doesn't matter if it's Midway, November 19 rally at a public park. The fees Lorenzo, or whoever," said Thurston Hyman from the llotel and restaurant were waived, and strikers were also able to employees' union. "They're all interchangeable." Karen Ray, a member of /AM District 751, was on strike at Boeing's Everett, Washing­ raise needed funds for the food bank and other ton, plant. strike activities. 6 The Militant December 1, 1989 Cubans in' Nicaragua build new homes for hurricane victims BY SETH GALINSKY now completed, workers will soon be able to BLUEFIELDS, Nicaragua- "A central concentrate all their energies on the houses. part of the Cuban revolution is the idea of "As soon as the dry season begins, we are practicing internationalism to pay our debt to g?ing to really take off," Valdez said. humanity," Rafael Valdez explained. He is the director of the Jose Marti Contingent, a Houses, schools, and clinics group of 346 Cuban volunteers who are The houses already built are impressive. building 1,000 homes in this Atlantic Coast Some are two stories, designed to have one city. The homes are for victims of Hurricane family on each floor. All the homes have front Joan, which devastated the city in October porches, two or three bedrooms, a kitchen, a 1988. living room, indoor plumbing, and tile floors. Militant/Seth Galinsky Valdez is a veteran of the July 26 Move­ The high quality of the workmanship is evi­ Nicaraguans are working with Jose Marti Contingent from Cuba to build 1,000 new ment, which led the overthrow of the Ful­ dent. homes in Bluefields on the Atlantic Coast. gencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba in 1959. Each group of homes, spread out on three He also fought at the Bay of Pigs, where sites around town, will have a health clinic U.S.-backed mercenaries were defeated after and an elementary school. raguans - 200 young men who have fm­ lays tile and pours concrete, skills she learned an unsuccessful invasion in 1961. But this is Most of the Cuban volunteers are veterans ished their military service, 23 women, and as part of the minibrigade movement in Ha­ his first time outside Cuba. of the minibrigade movement in Havana, one person from each of the families who vana. "I'm 60 years old," he said, "and I knew what Valdez calls "a revolution in the revo­ will receive one of the first 150 homes. Other "We were really glad to come here," I wouldn't have many more opportunities like lution." These construction minibrigades Nicaraguans will join the project as it pro­ Gonz3lez said, "because this is a country that this. I asked the Communist Party to allow have concentrated on child-care centers, of­ gresses, Valdez said. "We hope to train 1,000 really needs help. We believe that you be­ me to carry out an internationalist mission." fices for Cuba's family doctor program, and Nicaraguans in skilled construction work," come a better revolutionary by practicing The project, which began in January, is housing to help alleviate the shortage that he added. internationalism." She added, "It is really scheduled to be completed in two years. So exists in Havana, Valdez said. "Being here Not everyone in Nicaragua appreciated the painful to see the effects of underdevelop­ far 55 houses are fmished and an additional means doing less of these social projects back arrival of the Cubans. "There were rumors ment and the war. It broke my heart to see 162 started. home, but we are willing to sacrifice for our that we were a special military group that the young children six or seven years old who The Jose Marti Contingent faced a number Nicaraguan friends." came to colonize Bluefields," Valdez noted. are already working to help their families get of problems. Dormitories for the workers had The Bluefields contingent is organized the "When we first arrived the rejection was by." ' to be built, along with a recreation room, same way as the minibrigades in Cuba. "Ev­ palpable. But, once the people got to know Gonzalez recalled that the day she started dining facilities, and warehouses for building erybody does physical construction work us, that all changed." working in Bluefields, a young Nicaraguan materials that could be affected by the Coast's here," Valdez said, "even the bureaucrats." Many of the Cuban volunteers have estab­ woman watched her for a while and then said, heavy rainfalls. Almost all of the materials The volunteers work six days a week, 10 lished close friendships with Bluefields res­ "That's men's work you're doing. That's no for constructing the houses, with the excep­ hours a day. They also take turns working idents, Valdez said. job for a woman." Gonzalez laughed when tion of some of the wood trim, is shipped additional hours during the week and on remembering the incident. "I told her no, from Cuba. Sundays. Women demand to participate women can also do this. A month later she The Cubans were not used to working In addition to recreational activities, the Claribel Gonz3lez, 35 years old, is one of joined the project and worked by my side. under the region's adverse weather condi­ Cuban workers have organized political 37 Cuban women volunteers who have re­ She's now very good at masonry." tions. "But we've learned a tremendous study groups - with an emphasis on recent cently arrived. "At first only men were sent Juan Alberto Quezada is an electrical en­ amount," Valdez stated. "What used to take speeches by Cuban President Fidel Castro. here," she explained. "But Cuban women gineer on the contingent. "I am from a work­ us all day, now we can do in an hour." The Union of Young Communists plays an immediately demanded our right to partici­ ing-class family. Without the revolution I With almost all of the support facilities - important role in this. pate." Gonz3lez is a lawyer in Havana's would never have become an engineer," he ( including a bakery and ice cream factory - Working alongside the Cubans are Nica- public prosecutor's office. On the project she said. He is proud not just of the opportunity to "do something significant for the revolu­ tion," but also because he was chosen from among thousands of Cubans who volun­ teered. "I felt iLwas a distinction.to win this Philippine army terrorizes toilers healthy competition among so many who wanted to participate," he said. BY RUSSELL JOHNSON the military as "rebels" or to resign from the widowed mother and three brothers and sis­ Quezada had other reasons for wanting to be on the contingent. "Being here is a chal­ i AUCKLAND, New Zealand-Passing union, he said. ters. He described how his father has suffered lenge for me as a professional," he stated. ' through an airport on a recent trip to the a similar fate, while he, his mother, and "We work on everything - from the most Philippines, an issue of the right-wing Soldier brothers cowered inside their house. The Private armies simple task like installing a switch, to more of Fortune magazine caught my eye at a army accused the father of supporting the complex questions of electrical engineering. newsstand. Central to the terror campaign has been guerrillas. Afterward the family fled into the A lot of times we don't have what we need "Political body count: Philippine army the government's resurrection of the alleg­ forest until they were driven down to the city at the right time. We have to invent solutions." tallies converts, not corpses," a prominent edly disbanded private armies of the sugar by sickness and hunger. Three of his brothers Ricardo Espinoza Casanova is a veteran headline read. The article claimed the re­ plantation owners, now known as the Civilian died in a hospital. Almost 250 children have of Angola, where he fought as an internation­ gime of President Corazon Aquino was suc­ Armed Forces Geographical Units - died under similar circumstances, aid work­ alist volunteer against the invasion by the cessfully turning back the peasant insur­ CAFGU. These paramilitary forces are ers told me. South African army. Before joining the gency led by the Communist Party of the funded in Negros by a levy on the sugar Fler Demegillo, a professor at a local Cath­ harvest. Together with sword-wielding vigi­ olic college who worked with the refugees, minibrigades in Havana he worked as a sea­ lante groups, they "protect" the villages and thought that Japanese pressure was a factor man. "What Cuban wouldn't be proud to be plantations from "communist infiltration." in the increased militarization of Negros. here?" he asked. "It is proletarian internation­ REPORTER'S Thirty-five thousand peasants have fled Tokyo has some large economic aid projects alism that allowed Cuba to develop. We are this "protection" and sought refuge in church­ on the island, including a part in financing just extending a helping hand. NOTEBOOK yards and school grounds around Negros. I the transformation of more than 12,000 acres "I don't know how to say this, but for me visited two of these evacuation centers and of prime rice land into prawn farms for the seeing the process of development of another Philippines on the island of Negros, by interviewed some of the refugees in October. Japanese market, further fueling discontent country, well, I'm going to return to Cuba shifting its focus away from seeking battle­ Sixty-two families were camped under among the landless peasant majority. politically more mature." field victory. The government is now "root­ plastic sheets on the grounds of Binalbagan ing out" CPP support in the villages by Catholic College in southern Negros, surviv­ "exposing communist infiltrators" and im­ ing on rice and medicines donated by private plementing social and political reforms, the aid organizations. Half of the families had Get the news every week from Cuba! article said. fled Sitio Bandling in the mountains behind As I was able to see for myself during a Binalbagan, after the military and the vigi­ visit to Negros, however, if there has been lantes razed their village on September 6. SUBSCRIBE TO any shift in the military's tactics, it is toward Maximo, a 33-year-old farmer from intensifying a systematic terror campaign Bandling, said soldiers had rounded up the against workers and peasants organizing in men from the village and ordered them to defense of their land and labor rights. evacuate their homes. They were to report to "Communist infiltrators" turn out to be the the nearest military camp within three days WEEKLY REVIEW organizers of the National Federation of and join up with the CAFGU or a vigilante Sugar Workers and the allied Small Farmers group. They were warned that they would be Granma Weekly Review is Cuba's international newspaper, with Association of Negros; or leaders of "basic held accountable for any clashes between the Christian communities," church-based orga­ military and the guerrillas in the area. The speeches by Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders, and important nizations through which villagers organize soldiers then forced them to bum each others' public statements from Cuba's government and Communist Party. themselves in agricultural and health-care houses, Maximo said. Granma Weekly Review also includes news and features on projects. At Sitio Bogambilya, further south in the • Building socialism in Cuba In an interview NFSW Vice-president mountains ofHinobayan, Trining Acosta pro­ • The freedom struggle in southern Africa Serge Cherniquin stressed that Negros had tested vigilante harassment to the mayor. The • Latin America and the Caribbean become the "social laboratory" for the Phil­ vigilantes responded by coming to her house, ippine military and their U.S. advisers in their slicing off her breasts, tearing out her intes­ • Art, music, literature, and sports effort to crush all worker-peasant opposition tines, and parading what was left of her Available in English, Spanish, and French (specify). One year: US$16. to the landlords and other capitalists. Since around the village chanting "Join us, or else!" Make checks payable to Pathfinder. the overthrow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos a neighbor told me. The villagers are' now in 1986, 40 of the NFSW's members and sheltered in a church at Pulupandan, just PATHFINDER organizers have been murdered, and thou­ south of the city of Bacalod. 410 WEST ST., NEW YORK, N.Y. 10014 sands more have been forced to surrender to Johnny, 14, was at that church with his

December 1, 1989 The Militant 7 Importance of Che Guevara's commt Forward march of Cuba's working people to build social

The following was presented November out of ignorance and some out of fear of the rectification process deepens. What was new, what had changed by L _ 2 at a panel on ''Che Guevara's Thought communist continuity he enriched, have con­ The arrest and conviction of Cuba's min­ summer of 1989, was the increased strength in Contemporary Cuba" during a confer­ spired to present Che as if he were really an ister of the interior, Jose Abrantes Fernandez, and confidence of Cuba's working people, a ence on ''Thirty Years of the Cuban Rev­ outsider to the revolution he helped lead, that on charges of abuse of authority, negligence change that enabled the revolution to olution: An Assessment," held in Halifax, is, someone out of step with its necessary line in carrying out his duties, and improper use strengthen its communist trajectory. The Nova Scotia, November 1-4. The interna­ of advance. of government funds and resources, and for world of Cuba's working people, to para­ tional conference was attended by 600 peo­ While spared the indignity of being stuffed which he was sentenced in September to 20 phrase Castro, the world of the men and ple, including a delegation of some 40 from and placed in a glass case, Guevara was years in prison, marked a leap forward in the women who work 10, 12, 14 hours a day to Cuba. A report on the gathering was fea­ nevertheless transformed over time from a rectification process. It was even more im­ produce what Cuba needs, had slammed it _ tured in the November 17 Militant. Mary­ real human being who lived and fought at a portant than the advance registered by the the world of a privileged and narrow layer Alice Waters is editor of the Marxist mag­ given historical time in a concrete world. He conviction and execution in July of Amaldo within the army and state apparatus, and those azine New International. She is also editor became an icon on a wall. He was reduced Ochoa, Antonio de Ia Guardia, and two other they protected and fed. The confrontation of In Defense of Socialism, a selection of to a moral example alone, stripped of his high ranking officers of the Revolutionary between those two worlds came into the open. speeches on the 30th anniversary of the other political qualities and strengths. Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior "What do the lives of these gentlemen have Cuban revolution by Cuban President This idealized Che was portrayed as he­ on charges of drug-trafficking and treason. to do with the life of a worker, the customs Fidel Castro, published earlier this year roic, courageous, and morally incorruptible, Along with the arrest, conviction, and 20- of these gentlemen with the customs of our by Pathf"mder. but still a less-than-practical dreamer. He was year prison sentence given Diodes Torralbas, working class," Fidel asked at the July r; presented as an idealist who did not under­ minister of transportation, these events of the Council of State meeting. "They are two BY MARY-ALICEWA TERS stand that human beings are by nature base summer of 1989 do not register a setback to different worlds, and we cannot rest until The political perspectives Ernesto Che and greedy. This romantic Che was a lonely the revolution. To the contrary, they are the Guevara fought for as part of the leadership and isolated fi~hter. It is the grotesque bour- product of victories, at home and abroad, and of the Cuban revolution and began to imple­ register the fact that Cuba's working people ment in the Rebel Army and in the ministries are on the march. and departments of the revolutionary govern­ "The world of Cuba's The victory over South African aggression ment he headed, are of immense historical in 1988 at Cuito Cuanavale in southern An­ and scientific importance. working people slammed gola, in which tens of thousands of young Che was one of the few great Marxists of into a world of a privileged Cuban men and women played a decisive the 20th century. He was a communist of role, created the objective conditions for ex­ depth and consistency who made the serious and narrow layer." posing and confronting Ochoa, de Ia Guardia, study and application of political economy and their circles in a manner that advanced the foundation of all politics. He was a ma­ the self-confidence and fighting capacities of terialist who understood that the only basis geois image of a hero, cast to render Che Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces and for creating a society in which human soli­ harmless and to appeal to those whose con­ working people. In the aftermath of the darity reigns- not dog-eat-dog competition sciousness has been forged by the bourgeois Ochoa affair it is clearer than ever why the -is for human beings, who are products of ideology Guevara gave his immensely pro­ future of the Cuban revolution, as well as the a world still dominated by capitalist relations ductive life to eradicate. future of Africa, was at stake at Cuito of production and exchange, to fight to build Today in Cuba, however, a profoundly Cuanavale. socialism. The new man and the new woman proletarian movement is gaining ground The mobilization and deepening proletar­ of whom Guevara talked will emerge from under the banner of what is called the recti­ ianization of the tens of thousands of volun­ the fight to eradicate the domination of capital fication process. A veritable political revolu­ teer workers who are participating in and capital's necessary companion: the de­ tion has begun to restore the real Che, to minibrigades and revolutionary construction bilitating and mystifying hold of the law of rescue him from the wall and give life to the contingents that have emerged in the rectifi­ value on social consciousness. communist program he fought for. It is reas­ cation process created the objective condi­ Abstracted from the dynamics of the serting the truth that history is made by the tions in which the corruption, privilege, and deeds of millions, not the words of manuals. Cuban revolution itself, however, the com­ abuse of power by a layer of the police and munist policies Che fought for are rendered The practical cause of the revolutionary internal security forces- nmning"the big­ lifeless. His arguments become fine words mass movement now emerging in Cuba is gest international capitalist business opera­ on a piece of paper rather than what they seen against the backdrop of the economic tion in all Cuba - could be confronted and were - the generalization of the line of stagnation and social crises exploding in the decisively dealt with. march ofa class making history and remaking Soviet Union and Eastern European countries where the political-economic policies Che i~lf in the process. rejected are being played out to the bitter end. All institutions affected Loss of revolutionary integrity among a Che's legacy These events of world historic importance are giving us all a new appreciation of Che's layer of those in the party, state, and govern­ Che Guevara doing volunteer work. He ex The worst fraud that has been perpetrated communist legacy. It is deeper and richer than ment apparatus holding positions of authority communist consciousness. against Che's legacy in the 22 years since he we understood even two years ago, much less and responsibility was not something newly was murdered in the mountains of Bolivia 20 years ago. discovered by the Cuban people in the sum­ has been the attempt to separate him from mer of 1989. As Raul Castro, head of Cuba's there is one single world here; not the world the Cuban revolution, his life's greatest work Che would have been the first to agree: armed forces, noted in the course of the of the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, t-· •t and accomplishment. It was that revolution what is most fundamental in contemporary Ochoa affair, the people knew more than the the world of our workers, our working class, that made Che Guevara the human being he Cuba is not his or anyone else's ideas but the party leadership, and knew it sooner. Other our proletariat, our farmers."3 became. Over time both friend and foe, some titanic social forces that are clashing as the instances of corruption and abuse had been A battle between these two worlds was dealt with already during the rectification joined and the working class emerged process. stronger, more confident. The war, however, In December 1986 a report by Cuban Pres­ has yet to be won. JUST REISSUED ident Fidel Castro adopted by the Third Con­ What does this have to do with Che? gress of the Cuban Communist Party referred The generals and their friends who were to the fact that even the party was starting tried and convicted were not accused of cou..­ "to go to pot" under the corrupting impact of terrevolutionary activity, of treason in the the erroneous political course the revolution sense of deliberately losing a war, of directly NewlntemaHonal had pursued for more than a decade. If not passing intelligence to Washington or Preto­ A MAGAZINE OF MARXIST POLITICS AND THEORY corrected, he noted, the consequences of the ria, of preparing to defect to the enemy, of errors could eventually prove "irreversible," conspiring to assassinate fellow members of leading "to a system worse than capitalism. "1 the armed forces or revolutionary govern­ New International is reissuing the six issues of the In 1987 Luis Orlando Dominguez - head ment. Their crimes, Granrna noted, were not magazine that have appeared since it was founded in of the civil aviation ministry, a former leader "the work of enemy agents but rather . f 1983. No.5, featuring "The Coming Revolution in of the Union of Young Communists, and re­ people coming from our own ranks .... They South Africa", and No. 6, with "The Second cent member of Castro's special support team show us how, without going over to the - was convicted on charges of gross corrup­ enemy, men who have been in our ranks can Assassination of Maurice Bishop" and "Cuba's tion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. inflict worse damage than any counterrevo­ lutionary.'o4 Rectification Process: Two Speeches by Fidel Castro" The Granma editorial that drew the lessons are already available. The first four issues will be of the Abrantes case in September of this year Their crimes undermined the integrity of reprinted soon. Use the form below to order your emphasized that "the entire nation realized the revolution and its international prestige in the eyes of the toilers. Their social attitu<:' - ~ copies. that the problems faced by the country this summer go far beyond the fate of a handful and behavior were those of a different class, ...... of corrupt and disloyal individuals . .. . What alien to the character of a workers' and has happened reflects a series of shortcom­ fanners' revolution, and the class attitudes it Please send me __ Issue No. 5, at $5 ings that affect, in one way or another, all the instills in its leadership, its army, and its 1 police and security forces. __ Issue No. 6, at $7 institutions of the Revolution."2 All the insti­ At the nationally televised July 9 meeting Name ------tutions. Address ------of the Council of State that discussed and C~-=--~~------­ State I Zip I Postal Code 1. Fidel Castro, "Important Problems for the Whole of International Revolutionary Thought," 3. Fidel Castro, speech to Council of State, Country------­ Dec. 2, 1986, in New International, no. 6, 1987, July 9, 1989, Granma Weekly Review, July 23, Clip and mail to New International, 41 0 West St., New p. 217. 1989. York, N.Y. 10014 2. "Let's Learn from These Experiences and 4. "Let's Learn from These Experiences and Continue Advancing," Granma Weekly Review, Continue Advancing," Granma Weekly Review, Sept. 10, 1989. Sept. 10, 1989.

8 The Militant December 1, 1989 Jnist perspectives in today's Cuba lism gives life to ideas he fought for

1 jected commuting the death sentences volunteer labor. It is through voluntary work the columns of the Rebel Army in the Sierra there are many who express a degree of against Ochoa and the three others, several that social, collective labor becomes a school Maestra mountains were formed, when a few ambivalence about its future, sensing that the council members whose remarks were for communist consciousness and socialist seasoned cadres of the first column divided minibrigades alone cannot fundamentally widely praised by Cuban working people administration, that work begins to change off and organized a second column, and then alter the overall organization of labor and drew directly on Che's legacy to explain the its character. Through volunteer labor "man a third and fourth column were created out transform social consciousness. Other, more character of the political challenge the revo­ starts to see himself reflected in his work and of the first two. Each new column starts with weighty moves must be made. lution faced. to understand his full stature as a human being the norms and discipline conquered by the Thus the advance in organization from "I feel as never before how the teaching through the object created, through the work founding units. minibrigades alone to construction contin­ · Che has to be relearned everyday," de­ accomplished. "7 This materialist understand­ Participation in the contingents is on a gents and minibrigades qualitatively broad­ clared communist youth leader Roberto ing of the place of volunteer labor in the volunteer basis, subject to being accepted. A ens the battle being waged to reorganize labor I Robaina. Che taught us that '"a leader must construction of socialism and communism flexible workday of I 0 hours or more de­ on a new foundation. The heavy battalions have and lack what the common people have has once again come to the fore in the Cuban pends on the work to be completed. There is of labor in the factories, mills, and fields are and .lack.' And this is true not only of our revolution after more than a decade in which a single wage rate with no overtime pay or beginning to be touched on this level for the leaders but should also be true of our Party it withered in the face of a diametrically bonuses. Room and board is provided. Work first time since rectification began. and our state. And I'm not advocating an counterposed political perspective. discipline is organized and maintained by the The trade unions too, long comfortable in absolute and facile equality which leads no- "Voluntary work," Che explained, is contingent members themselves. Equipment their assumed role that is closer to an auxiliary here, but I simply believe that much harm "based on the Marxist appreciation that man is cared for and kept running by the workers to management than the organizer and leader is done us by inequality when it is unneces­ truly reaches his full human condition when who use it. Administrative tasks are more and of a revolutionary working class, will have sary and, above all, offensive."5 he produces without being compelled by more taken on by the workers themselves, to be transformed in the deepening revolu­ not delegated to a separate group of increas­ tionary process. ingly nonproductive specialists. The percent­ age of administrative personnel is reduced to Nonproductive administrators a minimum. The advance of rectification also brings Having transformed the construction in­ with it a challenge to the middle-class pre­ dustry, the volunteer labor contingents are tensions and prerogatives of the grossly in­ now being introduced in a few other indus- flated raflks of nonproductive administrative . tries in a measured way. They are starting to and "professional" personnel. The introduc­ have an impact on the organization of all tion of the Economic Management and Plan­ labor, which is the central question in the ning System in the mid-1970s, largely copied transition from capitalism to socialism: How from the Soviet Union, brought with it nearly should the working class organize social a tripling of the numbers of administrators labor in order both to build a new economic and officials, from 90,000 in 1973 to 240,000 foundation and in the process transform itself by 1984. As Fidel Castro noted in a recent ~d its social consciousness? speech celebrating the second anniversary of This was the question that concerned Che, the founding of the Bias Roca Contingent, above all else. there were some "enterprises with more peo­ With the continued advance of the rectifi­ ple in the infrastructure than in direct work.'>9 cation process, the minibrigade movement With the inauguration of the contingents a will expand its role and increase its impact. veritable revolution has begun. At the begin­ Important as it is, however, the minibrigade ning of August 1989, of the 28,000 workers movement is still peripheral to the main or­ incorporated in 60 volunteer construction ganization of labor in basic industry, agricul­ contingents, only 6.4 percent were carrying ture, and transport. The minibrigades set an out primarily administrative responsibilities. example, mobilize tens of thousands of vol­ In 1988, while 55,000 new workers were unteers from every layer of society to take incorporated into the work force, for the frrst on special short-run projects that have high time administrative personnel and other of­ social priority, cut across petty-bourgeois ficials were simultaneously reduced by prejudices against workers and physical n~ly 23,000_. labor, and act as a giant school for learning This reorganization of the division oflabor, to think socially. But the minibrig;:tdes can too, goes to the heart of one of the most ultimately play only an auxiliary role that important questions in the transition to so­ spurs economic development and the growth cialism: the withering away of a specialized, Reprinted by permission of Pathfinder Press of class consciousness and confidence. and inevitably to some degree bureaucra­ plained that it is only through volunteer work that collective labor becomes a school of tized, stratum of administrators and officials. Bureaucratic negation The working class itself, better educated po­ Ifthe minibrigade movement remains sim­ litically and technologically, and increasingly Noting that the problem confronting the physical necessity to sell himself as a com­ ply an adjunct to a system in which bureau­ confident of exercising control over the ad­ ....volution could not be reduced to the cor­ modity."8 cratic command planning dominates the or­ ministration of the economy and state appa­ ruption of a handful of individuals, Lidia ganization of labor - bringing with it the . ratus, progressively incorporates more and As voluntary work becomes an increas­ Tablada, director of the national Veterinary inevitable increasing stratification and indi­ more elements of the necessary administra­ ingly weighty component of the total orga­ Medicine Center, quoted Che at length. "A vidual corruption, deadening class con­ tive tasks into its division of labor. nization of labor, producing a growing por­ counterrevolutionary is someone whodights sciousness, and blocking workers' control of tion of the socially necessary product, the 'Witch doctors' against the Revolution, but a counterrevolu­ production - then volunteer labor on the scope of the domination of the law of value tionary is also someone who through his scale of the mini brigades will not be a means The university-educated technocrats and - of the modern fetish that turns us all into influence obtains a house, and then two cars, by which the working class can school itself administrators- the "witch doctors," as objects- is progressively reduced. and then who cheats the ration system, and in economic management and transform it­ Castro has called them- are threatened by .... tds up with everything the people don't The revolutionary mass movement that self in the process of transforming the eco­ this revolutionary process in which the con­ have, and flaunts it, or doesn't flaunt it, but began with the relaunching of the minibrig­ nomic foundations of society. Over time, it tingents are fighting to lead the reorganiza­ has it just the same."6 ade movement in the city of Havana a little would be corrupted and turned into its oppo­ tion of all labor in Cuba. The division of labor more than three years ago, building child-care site. It would become another means for from which the administrative layers seek to With the events of the summer of 1989, centers, apartment complexes, family administratively trying to fulfill the plan derive their higher social status could begin the rectification process in Cuba entered a doctors' office-homes, polyclinics, schools, through bureaucratically conceived volun­ to fade away and with it the privileges and new stage. Dealing decisively with corrup­ bakeries, and more, has now been joined by teer work that is neither voluntary nor pro­ petty-bourgeois self-esteem they have come tion at the highest levels and responding to a growing number of volunteer construction ductive. to believe their due. t"e blows dealt to the integrity of the Revo­ contingents, a more advanced and complex This is what happened in the Soviet Union Rectification is a revolutionary response lutionary Armed Forces command proved to form of volunteer labor whose impact on the in the 1930s when the so-called Stakhanovite to the problems confronting Cuban society. be not a diversion from the course of rectifi­ future of the Cuban revolution is potentially movement and its accompanying "volunteer" It is a line of march that would have been cation but a deepening of the process. Mass even more far-reaching. workdays became a thinly disguised program impossible without the revolutionary upsurge confidence in rectification, which is rooted to increase the length of the compulsory in the region that brought the two great vic­ in proposals and ideas identified with Che, Labor contingents workweek and the pace of labor. tories of 1979 in Grenada and Nicaragua. bas increased not diminished. Cuba has already experienced elements of Those struggles broke through the 20-year In the last two years more than 60 labor this. The volunteer brigades of the 1960s and dry spell in the Americas without a revolu­ contingents, averaging over 500 workers in Voluntary work early 1970s were transformed into their bu­ tionary victory resulting in a workers' and each, have been established. Concentrated in reaucratic negation and then largely elimi­ farmers' government. Rectification is a line During the last three years, volunteer labor the construction industry, more than 30,000 nated with the argument that volunteer labor of march that would have been difficult to as a social movement has been reborn­ men and women are already involved. The supposedly contradicts Marxist - in reality sustain without the victory at Cuito phoenix-like, Castro said- at the heart of largest and oldest of the contingents, the Bias Stalinist - concepts of planning. Having ex­ Cuanavale. 1 the rectification process. Basing himself on Roca Contingent, now has some 2,600 work­ perienced this kind of "volunteer labor," It must also be seen in relation to the some of Marx's most profound insights, Che ers organized in 23 brigades, building brid­ many Cuban workers remain to be convinced profound crisis now shattering the bureau­ explained over and over why it is that "mao­ ges, roads, airports, dams, hospitals, and sim­ that the minibrigades and construction con­ cratic castes and parties in Eastern Europe as-a-commodity ceases to exist" only through ilar major projects. tingents represent a qualitatively different and the USSR. The roots of this crisis are to The numerous brigades of these contin­ political course, the one advanced by Che. be found in the system of organization of 5. Granma Weekly Review, July 23, 1989. gents, have been organized in the same way Moreover, even among those who support labor that has been imposed for decades on the minibrigade movement in Cuba today, the working classes of those countries. It is 6. Ibid. The quotation is from Che' s speech to a system that relies on bureaucratic planning members of the Department of State Security, May 18, 1962, in Emesto Che Guevara, Escritos 7. Emesto Che Guevara, Socialism and Man and individual and material, rather than po­ y discursos (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias in Cuba (New York: Pathfinder, 1989), p. 9. 9. Fidel Castro, speech of Oct. 1, 1989, litical, incentives. It depends on and rein- Sociales, 1977), vol. 9, p. 220. 8.1bid. Granma Weekly Review, Oct. 15, 1989. Continued on next page

December 1, 1989 The Militant 9 Cubans at conference discuss and debate BY JON HILLSON HALIFAX, Nova Scotia-This port city on Canada's eastern coast was the setting for an unusual encounter between Cuban revo­ lutionaries coming from Cuba and a diverse group of Cubans who live in the United States. They were gathered here for a confer­ ence on "30 Years of the Cuban Revolution: An Assessment." '· The event, sponsored by the Canadian Association of Latin American and Carib­ bean Studies and supported by several Hali­ fax-area universities and U.S. foundations, atttacted some 600 North American academ­ ics and Cuba studies specialists, as well as students, Cuba solidarity activists, and schol­ ars from many countries. (See November 17 Militant.) Workshops on "The Cuban-American Community and U.S.-Cuban Relations" and "The Cuban-American Community" drew over 100 participants - the vast majority of them Cuban. Among the Cuban-American participants were numerous professors who specialize in lilitllnt.INllnrv Cole "Cubanology" """'- the academic study of the Miami protest in June against U.S. government's TV Marti. Banner calls for an end to criminal blockade against Cuba, a demand Cuban revolution -with ideas ranging from that many Cubans living in the United States support and work for despite differing political views. sympathy for the socialist revolution and its leadership to militant rejection of the com­ [Cuba's] original sin was having made a of elderly Cuban emigres was a legitimate laughter that the community was like "chil­ munist course of the government. revolution." topic of consideration. dren born outside of marriage," part of the Groups and individuals working for nor­ In a lively debate that continued even after In the workshop on "The Cuban-American Cuban family, but not really accepted any­ malized U.S.-Cuba relations, such as the the workshop session, Cemuda and Morales Community," panelists discussed the chang­ where. Cuban-American Committee and prominent exchanged opinions on these themes. "I am ing social composition of the community, the The coalition works for family reunifica­ Cuban-Americans like Maria Cristina Her­ in agreement with you," the Miami lawyer impact of the Mariel generation within the tion and stands for "tolerance and freedom rera of the Miami-Dade Community College told Morales, that any discussion of relations Cuban community, the changing economic of expression" in Miami, Cruz, a former Institute for Cuban Studies, who describes between the Cuban community and Cuba and social status of women, and the default Catholic high-school principal, told the Mil­ herself as an "ex-terrorist" and who took part start with recognition of the Cuban govern­ of the trade unions in not seriously trying to itant. in actions against the Cuban revolution, ment. organize workers who are Cuban in South Throughout the conference, exchanges on played an active role in discussions. There are "things that must change," Mo­ Florida. these and other topics took place informally Right-wing emigres like Carlos Montaner, rales said, concerning the strictness of Cuban Jose Cruz, head of the newly formed and at social events, marking the first time an employee of U.S.-run Radio Marti, and law regarding family visits, mail, and phone Miami-based Cuban-American Coalition, that many of those involved had ever had Emilio Adolofo Romero, who spent more contacts. He agreed that retirement in Cuba explained from the floor to good-natured such a dialogue among themselves. than 18 years in a Cuban jail for plotting to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro, engaged in the debates. Noteworthy given pressures Guevara's communist perspectives The participation of such individuals was noteworthy given the pressures from the U.S. and of mechanisms that would bring eco­ who loudly proclaim that a reformed capital­ government to undercut the conference. Add­ Continued from previous page nomic growth -an automatic process to be ism is the hope of humanity. He pointed out ing to the pressures against Cuban-American forces the demobilization, demoralization, guided by the skillful use of the law of value how the course of modem history offered participation were preconference articles in and depoliticization of the working class, not and other mechanisms left over from capital­ ample proof of the kind of future capitalism the Miami Herald stating the event would be heightened communist and internationalist ism::~ will bring. · "one-sided" favoring the Cuban revolution. consciousness. Far from advancing the self­ Ricardo Alarc6n, Cuba's deputy foreign transformation of men and women as they Those who thought of workers as objects Che joined the real debate of our time. He minister and head of the Cuban delegation, transform the economic foundations of soci­ to be controlled, as incorrigible little animals took up the challenge of how imperialism can said in an interview that the presence of the ety, capitalist values and social norms have capable of advancing only if tempted with a be defeated and how workers and farmers right-wing opponents of the revolution "im­ been reinforced. Ultimately this system, and carrot or whipped by a stick, were setting can fmnly establish their political power. He plies something different" is happening in the the zigzagging policies of those who promote more and more of the economic and social joined the issue of how socialism can be U.S. Cuban community. He termed the span it, came into irrepressible conflict with na­ policy ofCuba. Those who like Che and Fidel advanced, and communism realized. If his of views "useful." tionalized property itself, because the anti­ believed in the revolutionary capacities of answers seemed utopian to some when he Ram6n Cernuda, vice-president of working class political course is incompatible working people to take the organization of posed them, it was only because a version of Miami's Museum of Cuban Art and Culture, with building socialism. The contradictions the economy in hand and build a socialist the road defended by the bureaucratic tech- the target of ultrarightist threats for defending are uncontainable, as witnessed today. society no matter what the obstacles, no mat­ . nicians of the Soviet Union and Eastern Eu­ cultural exchange with artists living and This system of organization of labor - ter what the odds, transforming themselves rope still seemed possible. working in Cuba, focused his attack on Cuban against which Che polemicized with such in the process, were put on the defensive. Today the burden of proof lies not on Che restrictions on visits aimed at family reunifi­ insight - was copied wholesale from the and Fidel, but on those who defend the cation. Soviet and East European experiences and po­ · Che's program untested litical course that led to the social crises A lawyer, Cernuda also acts as a defense introduced in Cuba in the mid-1970s. It rap­ Twenty-five years ago, however, Che ar­ tearing apart the parties and bureaucratic attorney for self-professed human rights ac­ idly led to a decline in communist political gued that if economic planning and the or­ castes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Eu- · tivists in Cuba. He called on the Cuban consciousness and revolutionary perspec­ tives in virtually every arena of daily social ganization of the working class are not de­ rope. government to implement a policy of "de­ signed to reinforce communist consciousness mocratization, liberalization, and national and economic activity. Volunteer labor, as "Many wonder what factors have led some Castro put it, survived only because it took rather than undermine it at every step, you reconciliation with the Cuban-American socialist processes to a disastrous state," Cas­ refuge in internationalism and defense - in wind up in a blind alley "after having traveled community." tro noted October 1. "Someday it will be clear aid to Angola, Nicaragua, Grenada, and other a long distance with many crossroads, and it University of Havana Prof. Esteban Mo­ and there will be those who explain what this countries, and in the birth of the Territorial is hard to figure out just where you took the rales challenged Cubans living in the United has to do with the methods used in the con­ Troop Militia in 1980. wrong tum. Meanwhile, the economic foun­ States to reject being instruments of dation that has been laid has done its work struction of socialism which were actually Washington's anti-Cuban policies. The Communist leadership of undermining the development of con­ capitalist methods. Unfortunately we were "triumphalism" of the Bush administration, affected by the virus, thanks to some people, The party and government in Cuba, how­ sciousness."10 Che not only argued this com­ its decision to drive ahead with Television supposedly very theoretically knowledge­ ever, remained qualitatively different from munist perspective, he tried to implement it Marti, and pending congressional legislation through the budgetary finance system he pi­ able, but who forgot the true path, the really to stiffen terms of the U.S. economic embargo the ruling parties in the rest of the workers' revolutionary path to build socialism. The states and thus ·a qualitatively different road oneered in Cuba. against Cuba meant there would be "no fa­ But Che's program for the organization of issue is whether you do or don't believe in vorable changes" in Cuba-U.S. relations. out of the morass was possible. A revolution­ people."•2 ary change of direction could be initiated the economy and the revolutionary leader­ This, he said, was "especially unfortunate" because a communist leadership and politi­ ship of the working class was never tried The practical relevance of Che 's contribu­ given that today "the majority of the U.S. cized working-class vanguard existed in broadly enough in Cuba to test it. Leaders tions, as well as their place in the continuity Cuban community supports normalized rela­ Cuba even if the party was damaged or responsible for other important sectors of the of scientific socialism, can be more accu­ tions, while only a minority rejects this, and weakened by the errors it had made. The economy could not be convinced of the po­ rately gauged today in the context of Cuba's a minority supports the revolution itself." "nag", as Castro has named the System of litical and economic perspectives on which rectification process and the deepening crisis the budgetary finance system was based. Yet, One Cuban-American professor de­ Economic Management and Planning, could in Eastern Europe, the USSR, and China. In be kept working while a new course was as Castro emphasized in his October 1987 this context Che can and will be restored to manded Morales "forget about the United speech marking the 20th anniversary of States." "What about us?" he asked. He charted, the fight to win a majority to a his true historical dimensions. communist perspective advanced, and a rev­ Guevara's death, without Che's economic sounded a theme of several emigres: that 11 olutionary replacement for the "nag" grad­ program "communism cannot be built." The profoundly revolutionary struggles Cuba should take unilateral action to enhance that are unfolding in Cuba, led by the working relations with the Cuban-American commu­ ually conquered. Crises of bureaucratic castes people in whom Che had such confidence nity. Under the system of planning, administra­ and with whom he identified blood and bone, Che did not waste his time or energy tion, and labor organization borrowed from will save Che from the fate of being redrawn Can't be taken out of context answering the hollow breast-beating of those the Soviet Union, alienation, cynicism, cor­ as a new, but still two-dimensional, portrait, Andres G6mez - a director of Are{to ruption, and political demoralization grew in a new but equally sentimental and liberal icon magazine, a Miami-based publication that the working class in the late 1970s and early 10. Guevara, Socialism and Man in Cuba, p. on a wall. supports normalization of U.S.-Cuban rela­ 1980s. Che 's - and Fidel's -communist 6. tions - answered that it was impossible to political perspective lost ground to those who 11. Fidel Castro, speech of Oct. 8, 1987, con­ "forget" Washington, and that such relations thought building socialism was primarily a tained in Socialism and Man in Cuba (New 12. Fidel Castro, speech of Oct. l, 1989, in can't be taken "out of their context, that matter of administration by a talented few York: Pathfinder, 1989), p. 36. Granma Weekly Review, Oct. 15, 1989.

10 The Militant December 1, 1989 International miners' meeting addresses world struggles

BY LIZ SUMMERS Maitland added that workers need to act CAIRO, Egypt- More than 100 dele­ together as one working class. gated miners and mine union officials from · Widespread violation of human rights was 47 countries met here to discuss the world the subject of remaiks by delegates from the political situation and common challenges Philippines and South Africa. facing miners internationally. "Repression of miners has continued un­ The General Egyptian Mine and Quarry abated by the police and the private armies Union hosted the Second Statutory Congress of the mine employers," said Marcel Golding, - of the International Miners Organisation. The assistant general secretary of the National five-day event took place here October 29- Union of Mineworkers in South Africa. November 2. "Daily, workers are harassed, detained, and The IMO was founded after the 1984-85 dismissed." strike by British miners. In his opening re­ maiks, IMO President Arthur Scargill, who Role of unions in South Africa is also head of the National Union of Mine­ Golding also discussed the role of the workers in Britain, explained the IMO was unions in the fight for broader social gains. founded to "bring into existence a truly in­ "Our union and our federation, COSATU ternational organization representing mine [Congress of South African Trade Unions], workers and energy workers in all parts of are crucial vehicles in the struggle for free­ the world." Its membership nears 6 million, dom and democracy in South Africa and Militant/Liz Summers encompassing 46 miners' federations and 26 represent the organized interests of the work­ Gold miner Edward Ramaila, representative of the National Union of Mineworkers of organizations from 43 countries. ing class in our country." South Africa, addressing miners' meeting in Cairo, Egypt. Miners from 47 countries Attending the congress were delegates As an example he described the role of the attended. from countries where workers are involved mine workers' union in the recent demonstra­ in massive struggles, such as Namibia and tions and rallies to celebrate the release of against the U.S. Pittston Coal Group by her ference delegates during the proceedings: one South Mrica, and from countries where min­ eight longtime political prisoners in South union, the United Mine Workers of America, protesting the government bombing of the ers and others confront government repres­ Africa. as an example. She extended an invitation to trade union offices in El Salvador, another to sion like the Philippines, Chile, New Cale­ Anthea Billy, a leader of the Mineworkers all to come and visit the strikers' Camp Sol­ the government of Zimbabwe protesting the donia, and Peru. Representatives also came Union of Namibia (MUN), also addressed idarity organizing center in Vrrginia. arrest of union leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and from unions in countries fighting against the the congress. Delegates were eager to hear news on the a message of solidarity to the South West effects of colonial domination or war like ''The IMO international congress takes strike and, by attending the conference, U.S Africa People's Organisation of Namibia. Nicaragua, Vietnam, Zambia, Ethiopia, and place at a turning point in the struggle of the miners were able to get out the word. They Libya. mine workers in Namibia, when the final made available recent issues of the UMWA Liz Summers works at a Peabody Coal mine Mter the opening speech by Scargill, del­ chains of imperialism and colonial oppres­ strike newsletter, the Camo-cal/. in Sundial, West Virginia, and is a member egates utilized the remainder of the confer­ sion and exploitation are soon to be broken Three messages were sent from the con- of UMWA Local2271. ence to make remarks on the struggle of from the racist South African colonial re­ miners in their countries. Extensive discus­ gime." She explained that Namibia has a high sion and debate took place on the conference illiteracy rate, so her union undertook a cam­ floor and informally. paign of voter education in preparation for --WORLD NEWS BRIEFS the elections. "At present two South Mrican Debt burden NUM organizers are assisting the MUN in have been dropped. Many delegates from Africa and Latin the independence process, thus strengthening Bolivia jails unionists, The trade union leader was arrested at America spoke of the burden of the growing the unity and solidarity of southern Mrican declares state of siege his offices in early October after the ZCTU Third World debt on their countries and the miners in practice." protested the government jailing of several toll on workers whose living standards are As part of the discussion on the attacks Following a march by tens of thousands Zimbabwe University student leaders and worsened by debt-repayment plans. Victor against unions and workers in general, the of workers in support of striking teachers, the breaking up, with tear gas and riot Cuadroz Paredes from Peru explained how delegates exchanged their experiences with the Bolivian government declared a three­ sticks, of a student protest against the de­ prices rise every day in his country. Soumaila schemes companies use to try to prevent month state of siege. tentions. The government then closed the Allazi from Niger said the policies of the union organizing. The Bolivian Interior Ministry said 500 campus. International Monetary Fund have only re­ In Pakistan, miners are employed by con­ teachers and other labor leaders were then The student leaders have also been re­ sulted in devastating poverty. tractors who hire for many jobs, not for one rounded up and sent to detention centers leased. University Vice-chancellor Walter specific company. The labor laws there only in the Bolivian tropics. Bolivia is located John Maitland, general president of the Kamba defended the government's ac­ allow action against the immediate employer in central South America. Coal and Shale Employees' Federation in tions. "Students have brought down gov­ - in this case the contractor - so the miners The Bolivian Workers Federation said Australia, added to a discussion on the mul­ ernments," he said. "Look at Nigeria and have no way to call the mining companies to that at least 3,000 were taken into custody tinational corporations in the developed South Korea." order or get recourse ifinjured on the job. during police raids on union offices around countries and how they move from one coun­ the country. try to the next exploiting cheap labor under In Chile, the ownership of the mines may Three teachers on a 24-day hunger strike Peru's governing party the free market system. He said the result is change hands several times in a few years. were also taken to private clinics and were miners competing against miners. With each new owner, miners have to battle drubbed in by-elections in serious condition. for union representation. He explained how the employers in Aus­ The 80,000 teachers, organized in the · Peru's governing American People's tralia show no sympathy for workers there A woman miner from the United States Union of Education Workers, have been Revolutionary Alliance (the Aprista party) - so why would the union side with the noted the increasing fightback of workers demanding a one-time bonus of $100 over lost all 18 of its seats in Lima, the capital bosses against their "foreign" competition? against the bosses' attacks. She used the strike their regular pay of $45 a month to com­ city, during municipal elections. pensate for inflation. In nationwide voting November 12 to The teachers' struggle has won the sup­ elect nearly 2,000 mayors, a coalition of port of students and workers in the county. parties called the Democratic Front won Coal miners in Nova Scotia They had clashed with police in the capital at least 23 of the 40 mayoral posts in the city La Paz. The government responded Lima suburban area. The United Left carne by closing all schools. in second, winning five races. show interest in 'Militant' While the monthly minimum wage is Millionaire television executive Ri­ only $25, the cost of living in the country cardo Belmont won the mayor's office in BY GREG NELSON ductory subscription to the Militant. More is one of the highest in South America. Lima. Running as an independent; he sup­ CAPE BRETON ISLAND, Nova Scotia than once, groups of miners pooled their The government of President Jaime Paz ports the Democratic Front in presidential - One of the oldest coalfields in North pocket change to share a subscription. An­ Zamora said the state cannot meet the elections slated for April 1990. America, and still one of the most productive, other 20 miners signed up but asked if they teachers' demands without "risking the Peru, a country of 21 million people, is is located here on Cape Breton Island on could be billed, and another 35 miners pur­ economic and financial stability of the located on South America's Pacific coast; Canada's Atlantic Coast. The miners are or­ chased single copies of the paper. country." north of Chile. Lima's population of 5 million has swollen dramatically in recent ganized by District 26 of the United Mine Interest in the strikes against Pittston Coal Zamora, who heads the Social Demo­ Workers of America. Group in Appalachia and Eastern Airlines cratic group, Movement of the Revolution­ years as tens of thousands of peasants A Militant sales team visited the Lingan was high. Miners here have been working ary Left, took office August 6. He has come to the city seeking employment. and Prince collieries on November 6 and 7. without a contract for I 0 months and many continued the anti-working class mea­ President Alan Garcia of the Aprista party cannot run for reelection. Because Some 1,400 miners are employed between felt they too would be forced to strike. The sures of the previous government. The of the growing crisis of the country's cap­ the two operations. The mines here are sub­ government has been threatening to close the measures include a wage freeze and lower italist economy, Garcia's party has been marine mines, as much as four miles deep 20-year-old Lingan mine "because it's con­ government spending. and from there, several miles out to sea. tract time," one miner said. The Prince mine widely discredited. Inflation in Peru is A waitress in a local pub directed the team is more modern, but the government is push­ running at 3,000 percent annually. Wages to the first mine visited. She said that her ing for concessions from workers there too. Zimbabwe union, for salaried workers have fallen by 50 father had been a coal miner and died from Miners also showed interest in reading a student leaders freed percent in the past year. black lung, a disease that commonly afflicts socialist newspaper with coverage on the Democratic Front presidential candi­ miners. · liberation fight in South Africa, the struggle The secretary general of the Zimbabwe date Mario Vargas Llosa has a significant The two mines are owned by the Canadian of Palestinians, and the freedom fighters in Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has lead in the polls. Vargas Llosa, a novelist, government and work crews have been cut Northern Ireland. been released from prison following five led a campaign against Garcia's plan to to the bone. In addition, bathhouses and park­ Several miners coming off work had al­ weeks in detention. nationalize the banking system in the ing lots are unstaffed most of the time so ready read a bit of the paper shown to them All charges against Morgan Tsvangirai, country. His campaign promises to "de­ miners bring little cash to work. by those who bought issues on their way in. which ranged from spreading subversive centralize" government decision-making Despite this fact, 15 miners scraped to­ When asked how he liked it, one miner literature to being a South African spy, and privatize state-owned industries. gether the $5 Canadian needed for an intro- replied, "It's excellent!"

December 1, 1989 The Militant 11 -THE GREAT SOCIETY------,------And easier to swallow -New didn't protest, even though I knew They care-Warned that cattle the village of Kaboul, inside Israel's stock swindling and drew six Zealand's prime minister takes a there was an actor in Hollywood feed contaminated with lead had pre-1967 borders, a Palestinian months. dim view of various members of who got $3 million just for doing a been shipped to Britain, officials did teacher was busted for teaching chil- Parliament doing 1V commercials. Toyota commercial there. I just not act until weeks later. With milk dren how to paint the Palestinian House calls? - Having a stress- Like one lawmaker who plugs a thought that in 16 years I hadn't samples showing four times the flag. And, in the West Bank, Adel ful relationship with Fido, resulting made any kind of money."- Ron "safe" lead level, more than 500 Erani was fined $7,500 for allegedly in messed-up rugs, chewed-up on why he took the $2 million for farms were then quarantined. Ini- throwing stones. Erani is nine. shoes, etc.? Call Animal Behavior the Japan trip. tially, officials permitted contami- Consultants, Inc. A specialist will nated milk to be dumped in with But everything's fine - After observe the situation and provide clean milk to dilute the lead. the 1987 stock market dive, 17,000 counseling. $300. In GE we trust- Michael Ab- brokerage jobs were lost. One Wall Harry bott, a nuclear scientist, lost his job Billion-dollar carpenter Street analyst estimates that by mid- Barely time to wink- The Ag- Ring for blowing the whistle on his em- bailouts? -"I want it to be as clear 1990, another 7,000 jobs will be riculture Dept. proposes to "stream- ployer, a General Electric subsidiary as it possibly can be that we are just gone. Brokers Shearson Lehman line" meat inspection. Inspectors that was peddling defective safety as much a part of providing housing Hutton, Inc., have begun layoffs that will have 12 seconds to check each brand of sour cream with assurance, devices for nuclear reactors. Abbott for the American people as the car- could total 2,500 in the next six carcass. A random one in 300 will "It doesn't leave as bad a taste in sued GE but ran out of money. Now, penters who drive the nails."- months, "if times don't get better." get a "thorough" inspection. All the your mouth as politics." GE is suing him for court costs. Barney Beeksma, chairman, U.S. meat will receive the USDA stamp Sure. They need the money to League of Savings Institutions. Stoic- "It could have been of approval. The plan will boost Cut-rate communicator? - spread their slogan, "We bring good worse."- Broker James Regan slaughterhouse production 40 per- "That's what was offered and I things to light." Law 'n order, Israeli style - In who was convicted on 63 counts of cent. ----CALENDAR------ST. LOUIS CALIFORNIA Congress of South Africa Youth Section; repre­ A Historic Turning Point. Panel . discussion. Defend Mark Curtis! sentative, South West Africa People's Organisa­ Sat., Dec. 16, 7 p.m. 116 McFarland St. Dona­ Los Angeles tion; Natasha Terlexis, Socialist Workers Party, tion: $3. Sponsor: Militant Labor Forum. For International Rally Los Angeles Premier Showing of the Video Young Socialist Alliance. Sat., Dec. 9. Recep­ more information call (304) 345-3040. for Justice The Frame-Up ofMark Curtis. At the home of tion, 6:30p.m.; program, 7:30p.m. 141 Halsey director Nick Castle, Jr. In attendance: Kate St., 2nd floor. Donation: $5. Sponsor: Pathfinder Kaku, wife of Mark Curtis; John Studer, na­ • Hear fighters from around the world Bookstore. For more information call (201) 643- speak out on behalf of Mark Curtis, a tional officer of the Mark Curtis Defense Com­ 3341. mittee; Mark Pennington and William Kutmus, AUSTRALIA union packinghouse worker framed two lawyers in the case. Sun., Dec. 3, 3 p.m. NEW YORK Sydney up on rape and burglary charges last 2231 N. New Hampshire. Sponsor: Supporters The Philippines, U.S. Bases, and the Fight for year in Des Moines, Iowa. He is now of the Mark Curtis Defense Committee. For Manhattan a Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific. in the state prison at Anamosa, Iowa. more information call (213) 666-6842. Palestine: Healing the Wounds of Occupa­ Speaker: Russell Johnson, national secretary tion. Benefit concert for Palestinian medical aid. Communist League of New Zealand. Fri., Dec. Music by Roy Brown, Human Condition, Toshi Sat., Nov. 25 7:30p.m. MICHIGAN 1, 7:30 p.m. 181 Glebe Point Rd., 2nd floor. Sheraton-St. Louis Hotel Reagon, AI-Watan. Wed., Dec. 6, 7:30p.m. The Sponsor: Militant Labor Forum. For more infor­ Detroit Triplex, Theatre 1, Borough of Manhattan Com­ mation call (02) 692 0319. West Ballroom The Crisis in Eastern Europe. Speaker: Jo­ munity College, 199 Chambers St. Donation: 910 N. anne Murphy, Socialist Workers Party. Sun., $10 to $50. Sponsor: Palestine Solidarity Com­ The Crisis in Eastern Europe and the Soviet 7th Street Union. Speaker: representative, Communist Dec. 3, 7 p.m. 50191;2 Woodward Ave. Dona­ mittee, Arab Club of BMCC. For more informa­ (next to Convention Center) tion: $3. Sponsor: Militant Labor Forum. For tion call (212) 964-7299. League. Fri., Dec. 15, 7:30p.m. 181 Glebe Point Rd., 2nd floor. Sponsor: Militant Labor Forum. more information call (313) 831-1177. Labor Solidarity Benefit: A Musical Tribute Donation: $5.00. For more informa­ For more information call (02) 692 0319. to the Striking Workers of NYNEX, Eastern tion call Mark Curtis Defense Com­ MINNESOTA Airlines, and Pittston Coal. Featuring: Hazel mittee in Des Moines (515) 246- Dickens, Pete Seeger, and other special guests. BRITAIN 1695. In St. Louis call (618) St. Paul Fri., Dec. 8, 7 p.m. Washington Irving High Why the Palestinian People Fight. A panel London 452-0089 or (314) 361-0250. School, 16th St. and Irving Pl. Tickets: $10. After the Guildford Four Victory. Speakers: discussion on the West Bank and Gaza uprising. Sponsors: New York Emergency Committee in Sat., Dec. 2, 7:30 p.m. 508 N Snelling Ave. Paul May, Birmingham Six Campaign; Tony Solidarity with the United Mine Workers of Hunt, member Amalgamated Engineering Donation: $2. Sponsor: Militant Forum. For America, Communications Workers of Amer­ Sat., Nov. 25, 7:30p.m. 6566, boul. Saint-Laur­ more information call (612) 644-6325. Union, supporter Mark Curtis Defence Cam­ ica, International Association of Machinists Dis­ paign; representative of Winchester Three Cam­ ent. Donation: $3. Sponsor: Librairie Pathfinder. trict 100, Transport Workers Union Local 553, paign. Fri., Nov. 24, 7:30p.m. 47 The Cut, SE 1. For more information call (514) 273-2503. MISSOURI Air Line Pilots Association. For information call Donation: £1. Sponsor: New International Fo­ (212) 673-5120 ext. 242. St. Louis rums. For more information call 01-928-7947. ICELAND Conversation on Contemporary Cuban Art: Sheffield A Slideshow Talk. Speaker: Aldo Soler, Na­ NORTH CAROLINA Reykjavik Crisis in Eastern Europe. Wed. , Nov. 22, 7:30 The 'Failure of Socialism' and the Future of tional Union of Cuban Writers and Artists. Sun., Greensboro p.m. 2A Waverley House, 10 Joiner St. Dona­ Nov. 26, 3 p.m. 701 Market St., 7th Floor. Spon­ Celebrate the Pathfinder Mural. See new Communism. 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Republic of Cuba; representatives of African SWEDEN National Congress of South Africa, South West Stockholm NEBRASKA Africa People's Organisation, and Britain-Cuba Omaha WEST VIRGINIA The Struggle for Palestine: Two Years of the Resource Centre. Sat., Dec. 9, 2 p .m. "Intifada." Eyewitness report and slideshow. U.S. Hands Off El Salvador! Panel of speak­ Charleston SADACCA, 48 The Wicker. Donation: £1. ers. Translation to Spanish. Sat., Dec. 2, 7:30 Cuba Today: 30 Years of Revolutionary Speaker: Tony Carlsson. Sat., Nov. 25, 3 p.m. Sponsor: Sheffield Pathfinder Bookcentre. For Vikingagatan 10 (T-bana St Eriksplan). Spon­ p.m. 140 S 40th St. Donation: $3. Sponsor: Mil­ Progress. Speaker: Greg Nelson. Sat., Dec. 2, 7 more information call (0742) 729469. itant Labor Forum. For more information call p.m. 116 McFarland St. Donation: $3. Sponsor: sor: Militant Labor Forum. For more informa­ (402) 553-0245. Militant Labor Forum. 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12 The Militant December 1, 1989 Neighborhoods bombed, clergy assassinated

Continued from front page stalled land reform program, and begin a By November 21 traffic had resumed and of ARENA leader Roberto D' Aubuisson, human rights abuses by the Salvadoran re­ mutual cease-fire in order to bring about a business reopened in much of San Salvador. who Washington considered bad for public gime. negotiated peace. Fighting continued in several areas on the relations because of his ties to the death The fighting began November 11 when Residents remained in most neighbor­ outskirts of the city. squads. The slogan of ARENA during the forces of the Farabundo Marti National Lib­ hoods occupied by the rebels in San Salvador Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani has elections was "Cristiani to the presidency; eration Front (FMLN), a bloc of five organi­ until the army began the bloody assaults. Tens played little role since the start of the offen­ D 'Aubuisson to power." zations, engaged government troops in open of thousands had fled the city by midweek. sive. U.S. Ambassador William Walker holds The Washington Post quoted a diplomat combat. The scope and the intensity of the The Salvadoran Red Cross said more than daily news conferences and a Bush adminis­ in San Salvador who said, "What is scaring combat made it the most extensive fighting 26,000 people had taken refuge in their fa­ tration official acknowledged that Cristiani's me rigid is that the right wing is taking over. in the 10-year civil war. cilities alone. control over the military "varies from time I think Cristiani has lost control." The rebel offensive succeeded in holding Some people in working-class neighbor­ to time." Following the murder of the six Jesuits, major sections of the biggest cities in the hoods and many leaders of unions and other Attorney General Mauricio Eduardo Colo­ country for nearly a week. organizations took up arms and participated Domination of military rado sent a letter to Pope John Paul ll asking in the fighting along with the rebel forces. that Catholic bishops "acting outside the gen­ Thousands dead and wounded No figures on the number of dead or The Salvadoran government has long been dominated by the military in a country where eral policy of the church" by "keeping alive In San Miguel, the country's third largest wounded are available. The Red Cross alone the questionable ideology of the 'church of city, hundreds of casualties have been re­ has treated 1,189 civilians and fighters. 2 percent of the population controls 60 per­ cent of the land. About half of the infants the poor'" be removed from the country for ported. The army bombed residential areas El Salvador, a country of 5.5 million peo­ their own personal safety. for hours one resident reported. "It's the worst ple, is located in Central America. More than born in El Salvador die before their first birthday. Average income is $820 a year. At the same time the U.S. Congress pre­ thing I've ever seen," he said. 70,000 people have died since 1980 in the pared an $80 million package of military aid The military hospital there, filled to capac­ civil war, most of whom were killed by the In an attempt to put a democratic veneer to the Salvadoran government for 1990. ity, "is operating 24 hours a day with only U.S. -backed and financed armed forces or by on the government, elections were organized Some members of Congress, who are five doctors and less than a dozen nurses death squads linked to the military. An addi­ in 1984 and in 1989. Cristiani, the candidate embarassed by defending a regime that taking 12- to 14-hour shifts," an army doctor tional 1 million have been forced into exile. of the Nationalist Republican Alliance openly carries out human rights abuses reported. The U.S. government, in an attempt to (ARENA), won the presidency in March of through death-squad activity, proposed a FMLN leaders said they will fight until shore up the embattled regime, has sent $4 this year. ARENA is the party most closely measure that would have held back some aid "there are full guarantees for negotiations." billion in aid in the past 10 years. Most of associated with internationally condemned if Cristiani did not bring the Jesuits' assassins The rebels have been pressing the govern­ the funds have gone to the military. The human rights abuses by the Salvadoran army to justice. Opposed by the Bush administra­ ment to dismiss 18 senior army officers, make Salvadoran armed forces are trained and and right-wing paramilitary death squads. tion, the measure failed by a vote of 215 to some changes in the constitution, restart a equipped by the United States. Cristiani was the party's candidate in place 194. Washington's campaign in region Washington is stepping up its campaign U.S. aid to El Salvador protested against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Panama as well. The Bush administration, with the ap­ Continued from front page are responsible for the bombing of the CIS PES National Director Angela Sanbra­ proval of congress, has allocated $3 million vember 11, and hundreds of other actions are FENASTRAS office and the murder of 10 no told the crowd, "We remember Vietnam for CIA use to attempt to topple the govern­ being organized. Many occurred after the labor leaders," he said, referring to the death­ and we remember how we stopped the Viet­ ment of Panama. slaying of six prominent Jesuit priests on squad attack on a Salvadoran trade union nam War." She was referring to the massive New guidelines for the flfSt time explicitly November 16. federation October 31. antiwar movement that helped force Wash­ permit U.S. participation in operations that "You are workers," Colon continued, "I ington to withdraw its troops from Vietnam. might result in the death of a leader of another Demands to halt U.S. aid am a Puerto Rican worker - they treat us Protests in New York began on November sovereign country. The plan, called Panama "The weapons of destruction in El Salva­ like they treat you. But if you keep fighting," 13 with a 200-person picket at an army re­ 5, includes the use of U.S. troops in the dor are financed by U.S. taxpayers- the he said to cheers, "you will win." cruiting center. Some 180 people attended a operation. message of today is that the people of Boston Mzwandile Kibi, a leader of the youth memorial service for the slain Salvadoran State Department officials denounced will no longer accept that," declared Boston section of the African National Congress trade unionists two days later. On November Cuba November 15, charging the country Mayor Raymond Flynn after leading a march visiting from the Solomon Mahlangu Free­ 20 some 350 protesters picketed at Times "may have" received advanced MIG-29 jet of 3,000 in that city November 19. Flynn dom College in Tanzania, spoke. "We are Square, then marched to U.S. Sen. Patiick aircraft from the Soviet Union. ordered flags in the city to be flown at half­ fighting the same enemy," he said, "who Moynihan's office. "We see no legitimate Cuban need for such mast commemorating the slain priests~ gives money for bombs and planes but not advanced aircraft," Richard Boucher said. The rally, called on 24-hours' notice, was for homes for people lying in this very park.·~ , In Seattle 200 demonstrators held a protest "Other countries in the region don't have addressed by a city council member, a rep­ Other speakers included actor Martin at the federal building November 16 and similar equipment." resentative of the offices of U.S. Sen. Edward Sheen and Blase Bonpane, who spoke on police arrested 33 who tried to reach the The plane is similar to the U.S. F/A-18 Kennedy, a member of the miners' union, an behalf of North American solidarity groups. offices of the U.S. senators from Washington Hornet. The United States is 90 miles from Eastern Airlines striker, a representative of. state. On November 20 some 300 demonstra­ Cuba, and the U.S. Guantanamo military base the Farabundo Marti National Liberation 'We remember Vietnam' tors blocked downtown traffic for three hours is located on Cuban soil. Front of El Salvador (FMLN), and others. Calling on the U.S. government to "stop protesting Washington's funding for the war Secretary of State James Baker added, Ellen Convisser, president of the Boston funding the blood-thirsty regime in El Salva­ in El Salvador. "Soviet behavior toward Cuba and Central chapter of the National Organization for dor," Jesse Jackson addressed a Washington, In Omaha, Nebraska, more than 7 5 people America remains the biggest obstacle to a Women, sent a statement to the rally declar­ D.C., rally of 1,500 on November 18. Dem­ attended a press conference and public speak­ full, across-the-board improvement in rela­ ing "NOW condemns the U.S. government's onstrators had marched from the Vietnam out to protest U.S. aid to the Salvadoran tions between the United States and the So­ policies of violence .. . . We stand in solidar­ veterans memorial to the White House. Four regime. viet Union." ity with our sisters and brothers of Latin buses of protesters traveled from New York Some 120 protested at the University of He claimed the Soviet Union holds special America in working for self-determination for the action. A contingent of students from Indiana at Bloomington on November 20. In responsibility for the conflicts in Central and social justice." Later in the day 1,000 New York University carried a banner that Chicago 150 protesters marched demanding America "because its arms and money, mov­ people gathered at Boston College for a me­ read, "No more money for death in El Sal­ an end to U.S. funding for the death squads ing through Cuba and Nicaragua, continue to morial mass. vador." in El Salvador. support violence, destruction, and war." Death-squad 'democracy' More than 2,000 protesters filled the streets of the largest Salvadoran neighborhood in Agreement reached in 16-week NYNEX strike Los Angeles on November 18 demanding an end to U.S. military aid to El Salvador. Continued from front page The company continued to hold out. Talks The NYNEX workers also linked up with Workers joined or cheered the demonstra­ pact includes none of the lump sum payments were broken off November 10 by the CWA other strikers, often showing up in groups on tors as they marched to a nearby park. Scores or bonuses the company had originally pro­ and November 11 by the IBEW. The pro­ the Eastern Airlines picket line. Members of of marchers carried posters demanding "No posed. NYNEX owners said they had agreed posed regional settlement carne shortly after, Local2222 and other mEW and CWAlocals more dollars for death-squad 'democracy' in to withdraw the cost-shifting demand in ex­ when it became clear that the unions were in the Boston area have come forward during El Salvador." FMLN representative Luis Flores ad­ change for a lower wage increase than was not going to back down. the strike to organize food banks, fund-rais­ dressed the rally, charging that North Amer­ offered earlier in the strike. Only a handful of union members have ers, and hundreds of mobile pickets that drove ican pilots are flying some of the planes that More than 200,000 workers at NYNEX crossed the picket lines during the strike. scab crews out of several towns completely. are strafing working-class neighborhoods and three other regional phone companies NYNEX has lost 18,000 customers since the The strikers' militancy took NYNEX by sur­ and murdering residents. He urged continued covering 20 states -known as "Baby Bells" walkout started, along with 100,000 antici­ prise. protests against U.S. aid and intervention. - went on strike in August, most over pated new accounts. Scab crews and man­ In Massachusetts mEW and CWA mem­ Eastern Airlines striker Eugene Colon company demands that union members begin agement have been unable to keep up with bers waged an unsuccessful fight for unem­ spoke in Spanish. "The same people who are paying health-care coverage. The other three the flood of repairs - not to mention new ployment benefits. In New York strikers re­ responsible for the murder of the Jesuit priests companies settled after dropping the cost­ installations -as the highly automated ceived unemployment benefits after seven shifting demands. NYNEX, however, held phone system began to break down. weeks. out, hoping to force the CWA and IBEW to accept the concession. An important advance registered in the The CWA exhausted its $18 million strike "Cuba Will During the week before November 13, the strike has been the unity between the mEW fund and began mapping out plans to ask for strikers demonstrated their determination to and CWA. In earlier contract negotiations the $5-a-week contributions from the union's Never Adopt hang tough. On November 6 IBEW Regional two unions had bargained separately. 650,000 members for the duration of the Vice-president John Flynn intervened in the strike. During the last few weeks, many strik­ As a result of the 1986 settlement with Capitalist talks over the heads of the mEW negotiating ers in New England have not received strike NYNEX, in which the mEW went back to committee, made up of heads of the 10 strik­ benefits. ·Methods" work before the CWA, a new leadership was ing locals, and agreed to union members On the picket lines, reaction to the tentative Excerpts from elected in mEW Local 2222 in Boston. The paying some health coverage costs. agreement on medical care and wages was local has 6,000 members. Fidel Castro's As word spread of the deal, 1 ,500 angry positive. "I'll wait to read the fine print, but July 26, 1988 speech mEW strikers converged on the hotel in During the strike, Local 2222 held bi­ it looks like we beat them because we stuck 32 pp. pamphlet, $1.50 Boston where Flynn was trying to press ac­ weekly membership meetings, each attended together," said one CWA member, before the Order from Pathfinder, 410 West St., New ceptance by the negotiating committee, forc­ by thousands of union members. The strikers collapse of the local talks November 19. York, N.Y. 10014. Please include 75¢ for ing him to flee. The committee then de­ organized mass picketing, rallies, and other "This proves labor can win," said one postage and handling. manded, and got, IBEW President Jack Barry support actions. Dozens of strikers were ar­ mEW striker. "I hope those guys at Eastern to order Flynn out of the negotiations. rested. are next."

December 1, 1989 The Militant 13 -EDITORIALS Stalinism and The protests in Eastern Europe Leninism Gigantic changes are sweeping one country after an­ competition among workers. BY DOUG JENNESS other in Eastern Europe. Hardly a week passes without the Lifting of restrictions on democratic rights and the Earlier this year, the New York Times ran a three-part removal of a central political figure from power, massive introducing of parliamentary-type forms of political rule series on "Communism Now: What Is It? - In the Words protest marches, the lifting of repressive measures, or are also seen as necessary to winning more trade agree­ of the Faithful," which presented the questioning of many announcements of new steps for restructuring these ments, loans, and investments from capitalist countries. "communists" about the prospects for communism today. countries' economies. The bureaucracies see this aid as a way of shoring up their It came in the context of the avalanche of coverage in the These changes reflect the growing disintegration of the declining economies. big-business press heralding the triumph of capitalism and Stalinist Communist Parties in Hungary, Poland, East These sweeping changes have brought with them in­ gloating about the "communist crisis." Germany, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia, and are leading creased pressure to return completely to the capitalist Martin Jacques, editor of Marxism Today, a British mag­ to major adjustments in the way the privileged bureau­ mode of production and social system. azine, told the Times, "Stalinism, intellectually and ideolog­ cratic strata have dominated these countries for 40 years. Serious obstacles to capitalist restoration exist, how­ ically, was a sort of predictable degeneration, if you like, The structures and patterns of totalitarian rule main­ ever. of Leninism." tained by the bureaucracies are being shattered and curbs First, there will be the resistance of the bureaucratic A Soviet lawyer and "strong supporter of Gorbachev 's on democratic rights are falling. This includes to some castes that depend on nationalized property for their priv­ policies," likewise argued that while he respects V.I. Lenin, degree lifting restrictions on freedom of speech, press, ileged position. Their domination of political life and and travel, and freedom to organize political and other control over the economy stem from their parasitizing the associations. state-owned means of production. They literally skim off LEARNING ABOUT Massive protests are pushing these changes along. a significant part of the social product created by workers Hundreds of thousands have marched, rallied, and pro­ and farmers for their own use. Their privileged status tested for the elimination of restrictions on democratic doesn't come from private ownership of the mines, mills, SOCIALISM rights and an end to aspects of the bureaucracies' dead­ factories, and other means of production, however, which end economic policies. Broad layers of the population are is necessary for the restoration of capitalism. the communist leader "was also responsible for many of participating, including professionals, students, and Secondly, resistance will come from workers and farm­ the things that led us to the situation of the '20s and '30s" workers. ers in Eastern Europe who more and more bear the brunt under Joseph Stalin's reign of terror. For more than 40 years the ability of working people to of the mounting economic crisis. As the crisis deepens, This notion that Stalinism is the continuation or logical engage in politics has been blocked by the privileged more belt-tightening will be demanded of them. Ending extension of Leninism is promoted by the opponents of ruling strata in Eastern Europe. Now, for the first time in subsidies for basic food items, cutting expenditures on communism who contend the seeds of the horrible repres­ decades, the possibilities for working people to partici­ everything from housing to medical care, imposing longer sion of the Stalin years were embedded in the policies and pate in and organize political activity are opening up. work hours, and speed-up on the job will be implemented. practices of the Bolshevik Party led by Lenin. The political crisis confronting the bureaucratic layers Unemployment will grow, and workers' wages will be It is also held by Stalinists who claim the heritage of the in these countries is connected to the depth of their eco­ ravaged by rising inflation. Bolshevik Party that led the October 1917 Russian revolu­ nomic difficulties expressed in low labor productivity, Attempts to return capitalism to Eastern Europe, tion. stagnating economiC growth, and declining living stan­ though, would require far more severe measures to under­ The truth, however, is that Stalinism is a reactionary dards. mine working conditions and the standard of living of negation of Marxism and Leninism - of the entire pro­ The self-perpetuating bureaucracies are narrow­ working people. gressive character of the working class' struggle to defend minded, self-seeking layers that parasitically live off the Workers in Eastern Europe have resisted these mea­ itself and establish a more humane social order. wealth created by working people. Their economic sures - and will do so more and more. Protests, strikes, Communism, as it was described by Karl Marx and model, which relies on the mechanism of a bureaucrati­ and other actions aimed at protecting their social wage, Frederick Engels in the Communist Manifesto, is a move­ cally dominated plan rather than the active participation standard of living, and working conditions deserve the ment of "the most advanced and resolute section of the of a politically conscious working class, has not led to­ full support of workers everywhere. working-class parties of every country," which, based on ward socialism or even caught up to capitalism. It has The crumbling of restrictions on democratic rights the experience of the class struggle, understands "the line ended up in this worsening crisis. opens space for workers to fight for the politicalization of of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of On November 13 the departing finance minister told the working-class movement as a whole. the proletarian movement." the East German parliament, to gasps of amazement, that It increases the opportunity to discuss, travel, learn, and Bolshevism and Leninism refer to the experiences and the country's budget deficit stood at $70 billion. Debt to organize. Without this elbow room, the ability to defend lessons of the working-class movement in the imperialist creditors in capitalist countries is said to be at least $20 the wages, working conditions, and social benefits from era, as lived through and generalized by the "most ad­ billion. Labor productivity in factories producing goods fl!rther erosion is curtailed. WorlPog people around the vanced and resolute section" of the working class. The rise for export fell by almost 50 percent in the last nine years. world should back every prote'St and demand for the ex­ of imperialism at the·tum of this century ushered in an era This shattered the illusion that the East Gennan econ­ pansion of democratic rights in these countries. of wars and revolutions. omy, the most developed in Eastern Europe, was a suc­ These fights and the crumbling ability of the bureau­ The Bolshevik-Leninists were the communists who pro­ cess. In Poland and Hungary the situation is much worse. cracy to keep workers out of politiCal life over time will vided leadership to the mass revolutionary movement that The bureaucracies in the Soviet Union and a growing lead workers in Eastern Europe to directly seek links with overturned Tsarist tyranny and capitalist rule in Russia and number of Eastern European countries see perestroika­ fighters in other countries from southern Africa to the established the world's first workers' and peasants' repub­ and glasnost-type policies as the only way to maintain Caribbean, from Palestine to North America. lic. stability and derail even bigger protests. Through this process a communist vanguard that is part This victory proved that the perspective of advancing They hope that by relaxing some of the more onerous of the working class will be assembled. This is a prerequi­ toward communism is possible, indeed necessary, in our restrictions on political rights they can get the backing site for building a working-class movement that can chart time, and not a task for the year 3000 or beyond .. In this from the population to impose belt-tightening measures, a course, as part of a world fight, towards the construction spirit the Bolshevik-Leninists helped to set up the Commu­ reduce social benefits, and implement policies promoting of socialism. nist International in 1919 and gave leadership to the process of educating communist workers in other countries. Stalinism, on the other hand, was spawned by the degen­ eration of the Russian revolution and the Soviet Communist Party. It did not grow out of something inherently wrong in Defend the Pathfinder mural! the communist vanguard, but out of ultimately more pow­ erful forces, the unfavorable conditions confronting the On November 19, the very same day the Pathfmder York's Artists Space gallery. The endowment initially revolution. Political isolation, as the result of working-class mural was unveiled, the New York Post editors launched a withheld funding because of the "political" character of defeats in other countries, and internal difficulties wore scurrilous attack against the artistic landmark headlined, the show's catalog. down the revolutionary masses and the communist van­ "Off the wall- and that's where it belongs." Earlier this year controversial photo exhibitions by art­ guard. For the last two years more than 50 artists from across ists Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano were can­ A bureaucratic layer, motivated by self-interest and na­ the United States and some 20 other countries volun­ celed after Sen. Jesse Helms and other public figures tionalism rather than by advancing the struggles of working teered their labor to complete the mural on the side of the claimed the displays were obscene. people internationally, got the upper hand. Over time this six-story Pathfmder Building on the Lower West Side of Using controversial art, promoters of censorship have stratum used its position within the bureaucracy to acquire Manhattan. demagogically used public funds as a weapon to chip a wide range of privileges. A reactionary social caste The artwork pictures portraits of figures whose away at freedom of expression and speech. In his column, emerged with its own interests antagonistic to those of speeches and writings are published by Pathfinder Press carried by the Post on November 22, former White House working people. including Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Emesto Che aide Patrick Buchanan attacked funding for "Witnesses: In a 1937 article, Stalinism and Bolshevism, Leon Guevara and Fidel Castro of Cuba, Malcolm X, Maurice Against Our Vanishing," and the mural. "Between the arts Trotsky, the foremost Soviet communist leader to continue Bishop of Grenada, Augusto Cesar Sandino and Carlos and gay communities on the one hand, and the U.S. Trea­ fighting on the Bolshevik-Leninist course, wrote that the Fonseca of Nicaragua, and Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, and sury on the other, we need to erect a 'high wall of separa­ bureaucracy "cowed the revolutionary vanguard, trampled Rosa Luxemburg. Others depicted are Martin Luther tion."' he said. upon Marxism, prostituted the Bolshevik Party. Stalinism King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, Archbishop Oscar Romero, The Post's call for the destruction of the mural and conquered." Bobby Sands, Emiliano Zapata, Joe Hill, Jose Marti, John open invitation for vigilante action against it must be At the time Trotsky wrote this, a mass purge of the Soviet Reed, Tomas Borge, and hundreds of others from the repudiated in the strongest way. All supporters of demo­ Communist Party, including frame-up show trials was tak­ South Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and cratic rights and all working people have a stake in beat­ ing place, which he said, "draws between Bolshevism and the Americas. ing back this intolerable assault on freedom of artistic Stalinism not simply a bloody line but a whole river of Calling the mural a "bizarre celebration of totalitarian­ expression and speech. blood." An entire generation of Bolsheviks who had partic­ ism" the Post said, "Whether or not it's appropriate to Supporters of the mural and democratic rights now ipated in the revolution was annihilated, he said. inflict such a mural on the sensibilities of ordinary New need to mobilize a united response protesting the Post's (Trotsky's article, well worth reading, is available in Yorkers is, by itself, an open question. We rather doubt attack. Messages of protest need to flood the Post's of­ Writings of Leon Trotsky 1936-37 from Pathfinder.) that a mural depicting, say, Adolf Hitler would be deemed fices at 210 South St., New York, N.Y. 10002. Messages There is not one smidgeon of progressive content or one appropriate· even if it were displayed on private property." demanding city authorities uphold constitutional guaran­ molecule of Marxism in Stalinism. It's thoroughly counter­ The editorial's provocative conclusion: "That public tees of free speech and artistic expression, and vigorously revolutionary. Its base in the state ownership of the facto­ funds were used to subsidize this unseemly effort settles prosecute perpetrators of vigilante violence also need to ries, mines, and basic transportation doesn't change that the issue, as far as we're concerned. The mural should be be sent to Mayor Edward Koch, c/o City Hall, New York, one tittle. It is a parasitic growth, with no necessary func­ removed." N.Y. 10007. Copies can be sent to the Pathfinder Mural, tion in an economy where the capitalist class has been It is no accident that the Post ran an editorial the fol­ c/o Pathfmder Bookstore, 191 7th Ave., New York, N.Y. expropriated. . lowing day, November 20, attacking the decision by the 10011, telephone (212) 675-6740. Stalinism is the polar opposite of communism, which National Endowment for the Arts reversing its decision to In addition, New York mural supporters hope to initiate supports every revolutionary movement against oppression withhold a $10,000 grant for "Witnesses: Against Our a broad, united front protest meeting to press these de­ and exploitation and recognizes that the emancipation of Vanishing," an art show about AIDS exhibited at New mands. If you can help, contact the Pathfinder Bookstore. workers must be by the working class itself.

14 The }\filitant December 1, 1989 .. Documentary about Curtis case, a weapon for truth

The Frame-Up of Mark Curtis. A VHS video documen­ floor fightback against abusive working conditions; and his the charges against Curtis in the newspaper and became tary produced by Nick Castle, Jr., 49 minutes. Avail­ activity in defense of immigrant workers victimized by the upset at the prospect of having a rapist living across the able from the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, Box Immigration and Naturalization Service made.him a target street. But then she saw Curtis, his fresh wounds from the 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311. Telephone (515) 246- of the bosses. police beating, and decided something wrong had happened. 1695. In the video Curtis reviews the events that led to his Terrel said she was convinced prior to the trial that Curtis frame-up on charges of burglary and rape. He tells of the was innocent and explained how the trial itself wiped any BY PETER THIERJUNG March 1, 1988, raid at the Swift plant and how the INS second thoughts from her mind. Today Terrel is the treasurer A powerful documentary that tells the truth about the picked up and jailed 17 of his Mexican and Salvadoran of the Mark Curtis Defense Committee. frame-up of Mark Curtis is now available from the Mark coworkers. Defense committee leader Hazel Zimmerman explains Curtis Defense Committee in Des Moines. Every supporter Curtis was part of organizing against this attack on how the committee functions and the growing international of Curtis' fight for justice will want to widely promote this immigrant workers' rights. He participated in a March 4, video. 1988, meeting to plan a protest against the INS action. He support won by the defense campaign. Clips from rallies It was produced by Hollywood director Nick Castle, Jr., spoke in Spanish of the need to use the power of the union held in Des Moines with international guests and speakers who has written and directed several movies including Tap, on behalf of the victimized coworkers. A few hours later on the platform testify to the attraction of Curtis' fight for released earlier this year, starring Gregory Hines. Des Moines police arrested him and beat him, calling him other activists and militants. Interspersed with clips from TV news broadcasts and trial a "Mexican-lover, just like you love those coloreds." Farm activists Harold Dunkelberger and Merle Hansen footage, the documentary features interviews with Curtis, Scenes from the trial are juxtaposed with interviews of explain in the documentary why they support the campaign Curtis' attorneys, Mark Pennington, William Kutmus, and to defend Mark Curtis and how their own experiences in Lylea Dodson Critelli, who expose the prosecution's lack the fight to save their land from bank foreclosures made it IN REVIEW of evidence and efforts, assisted by the judge, to hamper easier for them to see the stakes in his case. the courtroom defense effort. The revelations of brutality, The closing scenes of the video show Kaku, telling of his wife Kate Kaku, friends, neighbors, coworkers, com­ sexism, and racism that rocked the Des Moines Police her trips to New Zealand, the Philippines, Sweden, and rades, and defense committee activists. Department are part of the background to this case and are Britain. Clips from each of these countries show that Curtis' Grievances accumulated over years of concession con­ explained in an interview with Des Moines Human Rights fight for justice has truly become an international battle. tracts and harsh working conditions gave rise to a wave of Commission Chairperson Alfredo Alvarez. The documentary is an effective political tool and is strikes ~ong packinghouse workers in the mid-1980s. In Angela Sanbrano, a leader of the Committee in Solidarity professionally done. It is certain to provide a boost to the Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota, packing­ with the People of El Salvador, explains that Curtis had house workers were in revolt and the bosses were deter­ been framed because he was an effective political activist. defense campaign's already growing support in the United mined to quash it. Scenes from these struggles open the Files released to CISPES by the FBI showed that they had States and throughout the world. documentary and provide the context for the police frame-up a file on Curtis for his political activity. Curtis' active Curtis' Des Moines supporters showed their enthusiasm of Curtis, a young rebel worker at the Swift/Montfort opposition to U.S. involvement in Central America brought and appreciation for Castle's important contribution by packinghouse in Des Moines. him to the secret police agency's notice. wiring him a telegram of thanks after a preview showing. Curtis' ability to speak Spanish, which helped bridge The documentary shows how Curtis' defense effort carne Supporters of justice for Mark Curtis everywhere will feel divisions among coworkers; his participation in the shop- together. Neighbor Julia Terrel explains how she read about the same way when they see it. -LETTERS------which sits across the Rainy River Int'l Falls subscriptions MoSMl- VfE woN'T LEl 1AE PH.~liMt~S During the recent nine-week Mil­ from International Falls. Boise Cas­ itant circulation drive, 69 workers cade of Canada dominates the town, "'~fll~E.NlB> 8Y OE,foi21E£~,.. in International Falls, Minnesota, and workers there have faced ag­ and . Fort Francis, Ontario, bought gressive attacks as their own con­ I subscriptions. tract is due to expire in the spring of International Falls is the scene of 1990. Workers at the Canadian plant a major confrontation between con­ gate bought 11 subscriptions. struction unions and BE&K that CraigHonts began earlier this year when union Austin, Minnesota construction workers walked off the job at Boise Cascade's paper mill. Camp Solidarity Boise Cascade had awarded the bulk I heard a .report back from-· the - of a half-billion dollar expansion · m~rs:. Camp .Solidarity at a fund­ project to BE&K, the notorious raiser for the mine union held at the union-busting firm that gained· na­ Letter CarrierS' hall in Los Angeles tional attention for its role in break­ recently. ot~ ~ 1AAf, ~i~G ll~OY ing a strike of paperworkers at an 'To StAAT DIStUSSlONS,. Two hundred of us saw a slide­ ... oM PN.E.S11N\AN International Paper mill in Jay, show given by a delegation of Cal­ Maine, two years ago. ifornia unionists who had recently ! SE\.f·60VGCZN~t£MT In order to carry out their scab­ visited the center for solidarity with herding operation, Boise Cascade the Pittston miners' strike. Striking and BE&K have brought 250 Vance miner Sam Hughes told us about Security guards into this town of some of Pittston's actions against the 5,000. Vance is the same strike­ strikers. "Not only do they ride up breaking company being used by and down the picket line, but the Pittston Coal company in Vrrginia. company videos your home and Dressed in paratrooper boots and family," he said. military-style sunglasses, these Hughes said more than 3,500 peo­ hired thugs have earned the hatred ple have been arrested. The arrests of many in the town for their attacks are not popular in the area and most on strikers and strike supporters. have been thrown out of court. More than once people told Militant He described solidarity among supporters that it felt like their town strikers. "The second time I was Coal who have fought long and hard the recession of the state economy, was under military occupation. arrested for participatmg in a sit­ labor movement is alive and well in against Pittston's union-busting tac­ Iowa and that we need to realize, no turning the "Massachusetts Mira­ down, the guy I rode to work with Just outside town is a huge forti­ tics, and who had just ended a take­ matter how small we are or where cle" into a grim nightmare for many. for the past 10 years put up his house fied housing complex called the over of a coal processing plant. we are, if we band together we can Every week thousands oflayoffs and to pay my $10,000 bond. And I put "man camp." Over 20 trailers house be heard. plant closings are announced, many up mine for him. That's what soli­ Also in October, the Lee County 44 workers each. The camp has a Kensey Howard in the high tech and computer indus­ darity is all about." Labor Council sent $25 each to Ma­ cafeteria and recreation centers and Keokuk, Iowa tries. Hughes invited everyone to get chinists, construction workers in buses needed to move workers into Minnesota on strike against Boise the mill. involved in strike solidarity and to Further student actions are being "help fight corporate greed." Cascade, meat-packers fighting Students protest cuts planned by a council made up of against John Morrell's union-bust­ In spite of a continuing ban by Herb Bradley, an Eastern Airlines Most of the 25,000 students at the representatives from all the different city officials on selling the Militant striker who went to Camp Solidarity, ing tactics, and to the United Mine campuses. Workers. University of Massachusetts Am­ without a permit, workers were re­ wrapped up the program, saying, herst campus went on strike Novem­ Russell Davis ceptive to a newspaper that tells the "Labor is on the march - from the Most recently, the county labor ber 13 to protest state budget cuts in Boston, Massachusetts workers' side in the major battles at Machinists at Eastern to the miners council took a food and money car­ education. Some 2,000 students ral­ Eastern Airlines, Pittston Coal, and at Pittston, and our brothers and sis­ avan of70 cars, organized by meat­ lied at noon and picket lines at aca­ The letters column is an open Boeing, as well as in their own fight. ters at Boeing." packers in Ft. Madison, to a rally in demic buildings forced the cancel­ Thirty-five subscriptions were forum for all viewpoints on sub­ Carole Lesnick Burlington, Iowa, where we heard lation of many classes. The strike jects of general interest to our sold to workers in Fort Francis, Los Angeles, California speeches from legislators and local followed a demonstration of 20,000 readers. Please keep your letters union leaders and sang union songs students and faculty at the State brief. Where necessary they will in support of nurses on strike against House in Boston. be abridged. Please indicate if Correction Support Eastern strikers the Burlington Medical Center. you prefer that your initials In May 1989, Local48 American (Victory at last! The nurses have a The budget cuts have resulted in reduced fmancial aid, teacher short­ be used rather than your full In last week's article on Cu­ Federation of Grain Millers in contract!) name. ban author Carlos Tablada's Keokuk, Iowa, voted to send $100 Now, we at the labor council are ages, increased class sizes, and can­ tour of Canada, the name of to Machinists on strike against Frank sending a petition with hundreds of cellation of classes, including those Tbe Militant special prisoner one of the speakers at the Lorenzo's Eastern Airlines. In June signatures to legislators stating that basics needed to graduate. Many fund makes it possible to send Montreal meeting was omit­ the Lee County Labor Council they represent us and we want some­ students are forced to work two jobs reduced-rate subscriptions to ted. Carlos Bernal of the Fara­ started a foOd drive for the Machin­ thing done about the union-busting to get by. prisoners who can't pay for bundo Marti National Libera­ ists local in Cedar Rapids north of monster Frank Lorenzo. The state "budget crisis" is being tbem. To help this important tion Front of El Salvador here. This letter is written for no other used as an excuse to slash millions cause, send your contribution spoke at the November 5 In October, Local48 voted to send purpose than to send positive news from education, health, and social to: Militant Prisoner Subscrip­ event. $50 to the courageous United Mine and positive thoughts to other locals services, resulting in thousands of tion Fund, 410 West St., New Workers on strike against Pittston and caring people to show them the layoffs of state workers. It is part of York, N.Y. 10014.

December 1, 1989 The Militant 15 THE MILITANT S. Africa youth tour defies apartheid Student leader Joseph Nkuna, in U.S., talks of 'unbanning' ANC

BY LISA AHLBERG ment Workers' Union who represent some Nkuna alSo pointed to the 1988 battle at LOS ANGELES - The October 29 rally 300 workers at K-Mart Apparel Distribution Cuito Cuanavale, in southern Angola, where of 80,000 in South Africa "showed the whole Center in the nearby city of Carson. Workers South African forces suffered a military de­ world that the African National Congress is wanted to know how their union could aid in feat at the hands of the Angolan army, com­ living, at home, and public," said Joseph the fight against apartheid. After the meeting, batants of the South West Africa People's Nkuna, a South African youth leader. Bertha Piggue, president of ILGWU Local Organisation, and thousands of Cuban inter­ Nkuna, a national executive committee 512, presented Nkuna with a union jacket and nationalist volunteers. The defeat has shown member of the South African Youth Congress took him on a tour of the factory. all of us that Pretoria is not invincible, he (Sayco), has just wrapped up a one-week tour On November 4, the eve of the elections said. here. He was invited by the South African in Namibia, Nkuna spoke to more than 200 ''The whole African continent is hailing International Student Congress (Saisco), a people at a spirited picket line at the South the selfless efforts of the Cuban internation­ group that organizes South African students African consulate, protesting the disruption alist forces," said Nkuna. "These are the in North America. and violence carried out by the apartheid people that made it possible for the apartheid "The ANC has been unbanned by the regime during Namibia's independence pro­ regime to be defeated. For us, it is important people in South Africa," Nkuna said, "we are cess. that they came from so many miles away going to force the government to officially willing to sacrifice their lives for the African unban the ANC." "Our struggle is advancing, especially people." since the defiance campaign began - and Sayco is the largest youth organization in Nkuna was the guest of honor at a farewell we are getting results," Nkuna said in a the country with several million members. event hosted by a wide array of organizations discussion at the tour's end. Countless rallies Like many of Sayco's leaders, Nkuna is "re­ at the Pathfinder bookstore on November 4. have been held throughout the country since stricted" by the apartheid regime and has Some 75 people attended. the campaign began in August, many unin­ been arrested and detained numerous times. At the event Saisco launched a campaign terrupted by the government, he stated. His tour in the United States is part of a to defend Nkuna and Rapu Molekane, Sayco Unions have organized strikes and boycotts campaign to defy apartheid's restrictive laws general secretary who toured the United and protesters have mobilized for desegrega­ and state of emergency. States in August. The apartheid regime has tion actions targeting the transportation sys­ issued warrants for the arrest of both. Since In Los Angeles, Nkuna spoke to students tem, factory cafeterias, and public facilities. at five high schools and addressed a meeting his return to South Africa, Molekane has thus On November 16 all beaches in South Africa far evaded arrest. Saisco leader Nkululeko of the citywide Los Angeles Student Coali­ were declared desegregated by Pretoria. This tion, an anti-apartheid group of students from Sowazi announced that they would be spear­ followed months of "beach-ins" and other heading the petitioning campaign. 50 junior and senior high schools and col­ mass protests. leges. Hundreds of signatures have already been "We've been successful in forcing the collected. Copies of petitions can be obtained The Sayco leader also spoke at rallies and enemy to a decisive retreat," said Nkuna, from Saisco, 308 Westwood Plaza, Box 197, classes at five Los Angeles-area universities adding that more remains to be done. "This Los Angeles, Calif. 90024-1647. and addressed several churches. Militant/Holbrook Mahn is just a drop in the ocean. We still have some Protest letters can be sent to State President Nkuna speaking at farewell event cap­ A highlight of the tour was a meeting with 100 leaders who remain in jail, including the F.W. de Klerk, Union Building, Pretoria ping one-week tour in Los Angeles. members of the International Ladies' Gar- symbol -of the struggle, Nelson Mandela." 0001, South Africa. British unions extend strike for 35-hour week BY BRIAN GROGAN job-flexibility and teamwork strings at­ talk with workers around the country. When ers Federation has decided to boycott any LONDON- Workers fighting for a 35- tached. But this pact passed by a narrow engineering workers from Stockport visited work sent to continental plants due to the hour workweek extended their strike after margin and at other engineering plants where the British Aerospace picket line in Preston, strike, and the 3-million-strong IG Metall talks between a union federation and the the union is strong, workers are refusing to CSEU district secretary Len Brindle ex­ union in West Germany has banned work employers broke down during the week of emulate the deal. At Laycock's in Sheffield, plained the strike was strong and believed the from one British plant on strike. British Aero­ November 12. for example, workers rejected a Parsons-like 35-hour week could be won. space workers at Preston have called a De­ agreement. cember 2 solidarity rally featuring a speaker Workers at British Aerospace in nearby Instead, many unionists are fanning out to Internationally the European Metalwork- from the West German union. Kingston and at Smiths Industries in Chel­ tenham were called out on strike immedi­ ately, bringing the total number of strikers to 9,000. Miami cop on trial for killing of Blacks The strike by the Confederation of Ship­ building and Engineering Unions (CSEU) began October 30 with 7,000 workers at three BY TONY THOMAS mony in the trial here of Miami cop William occasions in the 1980s when all-white juries factories. MIAMI -"William Lozano, without Lozano on two counts of manslaughter. acquitted cops charged with killing Blacks. knowing anything about what was going on, Lozano is charged with killing two Black Arguments in the trial began after an ap­ Talks between the CSEU and the Engi­ took out his gun, took a stance, waited for peals court backed Judge Joseph Farina's neering Employers Federation began at the motorcycle riders, Clement Anthony Uoyd the motorcycle and fired as it passed on his and Allan Blanchard, on Jan. 16, 1989. ruling that Lozano's lawyer could not chal­ unions' initiative. The unions want a national left." Miami's Black community rose in rebellion lenge jurors solely because they were Black. agreement based on a pact recently won at a Roy Black, Lozano's attorney, had tried to Rolls Royce subsidiary called NEI-Parsons This November 15 statement by prosecu­ for three days following the shooting. Rebel­ tor Don Hom opened arguments and testi- lions have shaken the city on two previous keep an officer of the Mail Handlers' union on November 10. There the company and off the jury, claiming the unionist represented union stewards agreed to the introduction of employees charged with drug use, did not the 37-hour, four-day week in stages by 1991, trust postal inspectors, and lived in Liberty along with other provisions. Washington, D.C., event welcomes City. One of the centers of the January rebel­ When it comes to negotiations, the unions lion was Liberty City. usually conclude a local deal, then use that new African National Congress office The judge added the postal worker to the pact to win a national agreement. jury, ruling that the lawyer's real objection BY DAVE PAPARELLO fairs, Thabo Mbeki, who is based in Lusaka, was that the unionist is Black. However, instead of agreeing to the WASHINGTON, D.C. -The Congres­ Zambia, spoke along with Lindiwe Mabuza, The six-member jury has two Black mem­ unions' demand, the employers upped the sional Black Caucus hosted a reception here ANC representative to the United States. bers. stakes. They unilaterally terminated an ar­ to mark the opening of an office of the African Mbeki said the office was opened to facil­ Lozano's lawyer has concentrated on put­ rangement that dates back to 1896 whereby National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. itate contact with the U.S. government. The ting Miami's Black community, the victims, working conditions, minimum time rates, Some 200 people attended the event held on ANC leader also stressed the importance of and prosecution witnesses on trial. hours, and holidays are negotiated nationally. November 9 in the foyer of the Rayburn continuing economic sanctions against the In his opening statement Black said The employers insisted that henceforth all Building, a congressional office building on apartheid regime. Washington's position is to Lozano had to have "the right to use his agreements will be local. Capitol Hill. give South African President F.W. de Klerk weapon," because the people of Overtown, U.S. Congressman Ronald Dellums wel­ "a chance" to reform apartheid before apply­ where the shooting took place, were "addicts, Unemployment, profits comed the participants, noting the "historic ing more sanctions. In giving him a chance, armed robbers, murderers, and rapists." In raising the demand for the 35-hour significance that for the first time in 77 years, said Mbeki, "you're saying 'give him time After prosecution witness Eddie William week, the unions note the high unemploy­ the ANC will have a public face in the to consolidate apartheid.'" Johnson testified he saw Lozano shoot Lloyd ment nationally and industry profitability. If nation's capital." Many staff persons from congressional without warning, Black brought up a theft that's the case, argue the bosses, then it's Ambassadors from two Frontline States, offices and embassies attended the opt;ning, Johnson was charged with 30 years ago. individual companies that can pay for such Mozambique and Zimbabwe, were present, as did ANC members and anti-apartheid ac­ Black has asked questions referring to a demand, and agreements will be local. They as were representatives from several other tivists. Lloyd and Blanchard's drug and traffic re­ pointed to the Parsons pact where in ex­ African countries. The new office is located at 705 8th St. cords despite a ruling that the records could change for the 31-hour week; there were The ANC's director of international af- SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. not be used in the trial.

16 The Militant December 1, 1989