FILE COpy
Murder as an Clara Fraser on OJ. anti-abortion tactic and Nicole: Whose case spreads to Canada is it, anyway? PageS Page 7
January-March 1995 Volume 15, Number 4 ($1.00 outside U.S.) 75C Angry voters send mixed message Ready to bolt two-party system, workers are all fired up with no place to go
BY LINDA AVERILL 61 percent of the electorate stayed home. essential for the People want a third party, a real alter economy's nor t's the morning after in America. native to the parties of big business. But mal functioning, Voters have registered their rage by nobody is offering them one. and thatit's posi tossing out the Democrat bumblers Especially given this void, some tively dangerous I and betrayers and replacing them people are moving right, desperate to for U.S. plants to with a new bunch of Robin-Hoods-in pin the blame somewhere. But this operate at more reverse - this time Republicans. Do the dangerous trend does not have to be than 80 percent elections signal a stampede to the right come the established order. It's time not of their produc and a sweeping embrace of Scroogism to mourn, but to organize! tive capacity. and racism? Or is this reshuffling of the Pandering to ~ twin-party deck just business as usual? Democrats punished for their these policies are ~ The answer to both questions is no. treachery. Workers and small busi- ourelectedrepre The elections show a picture of a U.S. ness owners have every reason to be sick sentatives. Their working dass t.oaUs djsgusted". puzzled, of the system and its po~ititians. .,~,JGUsy politics a- Porterville, Cal.: One of many electlo...... ,.·student walk insecure, and demoralized - but still Big business' answer to the economic side, they make outs against Prop. 187. Uno de los muchos paras estudiotlles desperately looking for solutions, unde and social mess created by its vampire- up a bipartisan en contra de la Proposid6n 187 durante el dia de las e'eccionel, cided about what those should be. like thirst for profits is to adjust working rogues' gallery The Republicans proposed more cops, people's expectations continually down- merrily up to their ears in financial party of "change./I Middle-income, prisons, prayer, and privatization. The ward. Wall Street now says openly that scams, sexual harassment, ethics viola white male, and suburban voters fled problem, they said, is that freeloaders unemployment of about six percent is tions, and abuses of power of every the Democratic Party in droves. Betrayed
immigrants, criminals, welfare moms " •••••••••••_ •• __._._~ ••n_
Votantes disgustados mandan mensajes contradictorios Los trabajadores estan listos para abandonar el sistema de dos partidos pero no tienen donde ir bus cando soluciones desesperadamen alternativa. Los democratas son castigados te, sin decidirse sobre un curso de Dado este vado, hay quien se mueve por su traicion. Los trabajadores y POR LINDA AVERILL acci6n. hacia la derecha y busca desesperada los duefios de negocios pequefios tiene Los republicanos propusieron po mente a quien reprochar. toda la raz6n en estar hartos del sistema a goma del dia siguiente ha llega lidas, prisiones, plegariasyprivatizaci6n. Esta tendencia no tiene necesa y de sus politicos. do para Estados Unidos. Los vo EI problema, segun ellos, es que los riamente que convertirse en el orden La respuesta de los grandes negocios tantes han hecho cons tar su dis aprovechadores, aquellos inmigrantes, establecido. iNo es hora de lamentarse al caos creado por aquella sed vampiresca Lgusto eliminando a los dem6cra criminales y madres que dependen de la sino de organizarse! slgue en 10 paglno 4 tas desmafiados y traidores y reempla asistencia publica, estan tom an do ven zandolos con una serie de nuevos Robin taja de la gente decente. New Freeway Hall Hoods al reves, esta vez republican os. Los dem6cratas 0 se hicieron eco de 5018 Rainier Ave. S. BULK RATE (Sera que las elecciones indican una estos juicios 0 se empefiaron en negarla, Seattle, WA 98118 U.S. POSTAGE estampida hacia la derecha y un abrazo diciendole a los votantes que sus PAID SEATTLE, WA apasionado de la tacafieria y del problemas existian solamente en su ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED PERMIT NO.1 003 racismo? imaginaci6n. (0 sera que el reordenamiento de Frente a estas opciones, el sesenta estos dos partidos gemelos significa y un por ciento del electorado se qued6 solamente mas de 10 mismo? en la casa. La gente desea un tercer La respuesta a las dos preguntas es no. partido, una alternativa real ante los Las elecciones muestran una la clase partidos de los grandes negocios. La trabajadora estadounidense profun gente ha estado diciendolo por muchos damente disgustada, perpleja, insegura, afios, desmoralizada pero que continua Sin embargo, nadie ofrece una 'I
2 Freedom Socialist January-March 1995 In This Issue Vol. 15, No.4 January-March 1995
Australian Kooris reclaim land 5 Radical Women visits Lake SOUTH AFRICA Condah mission and hears the inspiring his- Strike wave challenges pro-business ANC policies toryof the Gunditjmara Since the 1994 elections, the Workers in retail, metals, and education and healthcare. clan's struggle to re African National Congress has public service have waged an These valiant survival claim their land and pursued a course that is betray intense series ohtrikes despite struggles will either force the communal life. ing the poor urban and rural ANC opposition to wage in ANC to break with the capital Blacks and other workers who creases. As before, police have ists, or they will serve to de brought it to power. Instead of moved brutally against them. velop an alternative leadership taking the bold steps necessary Destitute farmworkers, largely willing to continue with the to meet the demands of this Black women, have occupied South African revolution until Marxism goes to the movies 6 constituency for jobs, improved plots of land and insisted on an it satisfies the needs of poor Men procreate in the re living conditions, and land, the end to white-monopoly con and working people. The move-. cent movies Junior and ANC is bending to pressure from trol of agriculture. Mass dem- ment for economic justice de South African capitalists and 0nstrations have demanded serves the same sustained inter Mary Shelley's Franken international investors to pre drinkable water, materials and national support which helped stein. Videophile Andrea serve economic apartheid. sites for housing, and decent bring down legal apartheid. 0 Bauer casts a dialectically jaundiced eye on this latest Hollywood trend. MEXICO CHINA Zapa tis tas Market reforms International U.S. S. Africa, Mexico, Voter rage 1 still a force creating misery Ireland, China 2 Sandy Nelson case 3 A year after the Zapatista up Two decades of "market re Dateline Australia 5 Voices of Color: rising, the failure of the ruling form" have moved China stead Dateline Canada 5 Nation of Islam 8 Institutional Revolutionary ilytoward capitalist restoration. Haiti 8 Party (PRI) to meet basic de Some initial gains the reforms Features mands for democracy and lib made in living standards are Editorials Movie reviews 6 erty has vindicated the rebels' long gone, and workers and Newt Gingrich 6 Letters 7 refusal to disarm. farmers are vigorously protest Gay rights victory 6 Clara Fraser 7 The PRI hoped elections held Zapatlsta soldiers In Chiapas. ing the effects of privatization. in 1994 would improve its cor Economic hardships are im rupt image. Instead, as stories people gathered for the alter mense. Millions of people roam of the usual, widespread elec nate swearing-in of the opposi the country looking for jobs. At New This Time toral fraud have surfaced, so tion candidate, Amado Aven least one estimate puts total cial unrest has grown. Ten thou dano, supported by the Zapa unemployment at more than • Letters to the editor have moved to the editorial sand people protested the inau tistas. Avendano, who lost in a 200 million, while inflation of pages (this issue they're on page seven). guration of President Zedillo on rigged election, has promised 20 percent ravages incomes. . • Cyberspace - We're there: [email protected]. December 1 in Mexico City. to establish a rival government. And once again famine • Tapes for the blind are now available. For informa On December 8, the PRI was As the year ended, the Zapa threatens China, as huge nUffi tion, call us at 206-722-2453. forced to install its candidate tistas renewed their pledge that bers of people are forced toaban for governor of Chiapas in a peace will not come to Mexico don farming because of rapid ceremony surrounded by riot until justice is obtained - or land development and skyrock police, while across town 4,000 until the PRI steps down. 0 etingrent. Agricultural produc tivity is also declining due to a deteriorating irrigation system and the impossibility of apply IRELAND ing advanced techniques to a crazy-quilt oftiny private farms. Sinn Fein gambles on cease-fire Officials report 10,000 indus By adopting a unilateral of ruli ngcl ass politicians-does trial actions and several hun cease-fire, the Irish Republican not inspire confidence. dred "riots" in 1993. Army has tossed the ball The test is not in how many The conditions that turned squarely into the court of the times Adams is invited to the Tiananmen Square upris British government. Sinn H~in Clinton's White House, or how ing in 1989 into a huge move chief Gerry Adams says that the much foreign investment is ment, as workers joined stu time is right for a negotiated gained, or even how man y con dents to protest job insecurity, settlement to "the troubles." cessions Britain makes. The test inflation, and lack of democ Will the gamble payoff? A is in whether the cease-fire racy, persist. Capitalism will not cease-fire can be a legitimate weakens or strengthens the be able to entrench itself in political/military tactic. But centuries-old movement for an China without causing even Sinn Fein's record - of betray end to British colonialism - more wrenching social disloca ing principles important to its the only force with the power tions - and thus provoking workingclass constituency (like to finally convince the British another massive mobilization abortion righ ts), trying to be all establishment that the cost of for change, whose demands things to all people, and being its subjugation of Northern Ire only democratic socialism will dazzled by the blandishments land is too high. 0 be able to satisfy. 0 ',aadom Socialist 'a,t, & Radical Woman Staff AUSTRALIA NEW YORK Melbourne: P.O. Box 266, West Brunswick, VIC 3055. New York City: 32 Union Square E. Rm. 907, New York Managing Editor Production Business Manager Phone/FAX 03-386-5065. City, NY 10003. Ph. 212-677-7002. FAX 212-491-4634. Andrea Bauer Manager Wendy McPherson Kathleen Merrigan CANADA OREGON Staff Writer Design lit Business Assistant Vancouver: 304-1575 Beach Ave.,Yancouver, BC Portland: Northwest SeNice Center, 1819 NW Everett Linda Averill Illustration Teresa Rhodes V6G 1Y5. Phone/FAX 604-688-5195. Rm. 201, Portland, OR 97209. Ph. 503-228-3090. Su Docekal • • • FAX 503-223-2390 . Editors Photo Editor Steve Hoffman WASHINGTON Yolanda Alaniz CALIFORNIA Port Angeles: 512 E. 7th, Port Angeles, WA 98362. Doug Barnes Camera Los Angeles: Teamsters Building, 1616 W. 9th St. Ph. 206-452-7534. Clara Fraser lit Printing Suite. 7, Los Angeles, CA 90015. Ph. 213-365-1792. Guerry Hoddersen Sara Hospador FAX 213-365-6088. Seattle: FSP National Office, Bush Asia Center, Henry Noble Advertising Services ®~52 409 Maynard Ave. S. #201, Seattle, WA 98104. San Francisco: RW National Office and Bay Area Ph. 206-682-0990. FAX 206-682-8120. Janet Sutherland VALCO Graphics Branch, Valencia Hall, 523-A Valencia St., San Francisco, CA94110. Ph. 415-864-1278. FAX 415-864-0778. Seattle Branch, New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. S, Seattle, WA 98118. Ph. 206-722-2453. The Freedom Socialist (ISSN 0272-4367) is pUblished quarterly by the FAX 206-723-7691. Freedom Socialist Party, New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Avenue South, MINNESOTA Seattle, WA 98118. Phone: 206-722-2453. Subscriptions: I-year $5.00 Mankato: 102 Momingside, Mankato, MN 56001. Tacoma: P.O. Box 5847, Tacoma, WA 98415. (institutions $10.00), 2-year Supporting Sub $25.00, 3-year Sustaining Sub Ph. 507-386-1647. Ph. 206-756-9971. FAX 206-759-3988. $50.00, 5-year Sponsoring Sub $100.00. Add $5.00 for overseas airmail. Back copies $.75 each. Checks or money orders to Freedom Socialist at the address above. For Australia and Canada, see back page. (a", wr;t., or stop by and II;s;t! January-March 1995 Freedom Socialist 3 Media colleagues speak up for reporter stripped of byline over gay activism Sandy Nelson meets News Tribune in court
Lobsenz argue that press freedom doesn't moral ciphers. They are to consume grant the media business a license to history as though it were Wonder Bread. override employees rights or to flagrantly They are to be role models for allowing violate labor and anti-discrimination injustice to continue." laws. Their brief cites the Washington Solomon commended Nelson as an state constitution, which safeguards the activist "engaged in creating an essen right of citizens to take part in the initia tial gateway to the future," since "over tive process, and a 1992 campaign re turning the hostilities toward lesbians form law, which bans discrimination Media critic Nor against employees for supporting or man Solomon (at opposing political campaigns. left) says Nelson Nelson's case will be the first test of "Standing up for what you (right) "is exercis the 1992 law - which was itself part of genuinely feel is right is no ing First Amend a state ballot initiative. ment rights we all The News Tribune never substantiates mere poetic movie theme, '" have to support. II its supposition that the paper's credibil ity or integrity could have been dam but a pursuit worthy of BY LINDA AVERILL succeeded in decertifying her Guild lo aged as a result of Nelson's activism, her cal a year after her forced transfer. lawyers note. Nor is any evidence pre all our attention. " andy Nelson, a reporter who The NLRB rejected Nelson's case sented that readers perceived her ar - Al Owens, "Media refuses to surrender her right to twice. She then filed suit, backed by the ticles to be biased. Watch," The Northwest free expression to keep her by state chapter of the American Civil lib Nelson's lawyers conclude that news line, is getting her day in court. erties Union. papers must fashion ethics codes nar Dispatch, serving the Black S community of Tacoma, Wash. Nelson's high-profile case against her Since then, Nelson's saga has become rowly, so that the First Amendment employer, The News Tribune of Tacoma, a banner issue not only among labor rights of staffers are not violated. Washington, challenges the manage and social movement activists, but also A newspaper could, for example, rea ment line that journalists must stay out among her peers in the mass-circulation sonably order its city hall reporter to and gay men holds a key for lifting a of political affairs in order to respon media. Many wholeheartedly applaud refrain from moonlighting as the great weight from everybody." sibly report the news. In December 1994, her effort to bust an alarming industry mayor's press secretary. In contrast, Nelson touched on a related theme, as we go to press, Nelson's lawyers are trend-the institution of" ethics codes" TNT's broad interpretation of its edito one she has emphasized since she was scheduled to ask that forbid any po rial prerogative could allow it to bar first yanked from reporting. liThe jour Pierce County Su- litical engagement female reporters from covering the Su nalists most likely to be punished for perior Court Judge by news workers. preme Court beat, because abortion is a off-duty involvement are racial and Vicki Hogan to find "With hardly a whimper, One of these col frequent topic and a woman's view sexual minorities, feminists, and rad- TNTin violation of leagues, nationally might be seen icals, whose very survival on and off the the state constitu reporters have become syndicated "Media as slanted. job depends on the success of commu tion and a law pro political eunuchs. They Beat" columnist c: nity campaigns for fair housing and tecting workers' Norman Solomon, Objectivity: .~ employment, equal pay, abortion rights, participation in the need someone to say that flew up in Septem debunking ~ and unionism." electoral process. ber from his home the myth. Several other journalists, including Hogan can ei giving up off-duty First in Oakland, Cali Sandy Nelson is Portland Oregonian ther rule summari Amendment rights is too fornia to help pub pursuing her columnist Steve ly for or against licize Nelson's case cause not just in Duin and former Nelson, or send the great a price to pay for and to speak about court, but in "I hope Bellevue (Wash.) case on to trial. why media owners public as well. Journal American Nelson is an being a reporter. Nelson is should not be able The help pro Nelson wins. editor Frank Wetzel, award-winning re to bar journalists vided by media It takes have also recently porter who has saying just that. " from exercising critic Solomon praised Nelson for written for the dai - Frank Wetzel, their civil liberties. made for an excit people like her to build tackling the double ly News Tribune column for EastsideDeek, In legal argu ing Fall 1994, as he standard whereby since 1983. The ments prepared for and Nelson spoke communities worth living publishers retain Kirkland, Wash. McClatchy corpo the December hear to overflow audi in. And it takes people like their rights while rate chain bought ing' the Tribune of ences in Tacoma, requiring frontline TNT in 1986. fers its rationale for Seattle, and Port her to make newspapers reporters to surren In 1990, the paper pulled Nelson why it should be allowed to keep em- land (Ore.) about der theirs. from her education beat and transferred ployees on a short leash. hypocrisy in the reexamine their roles in As the political her to a SWing-shift copy-editing job media. stage grows crowd because of her involvement in an initia "Freedom of the press" no ex Said Solomon, those communities." ed with ever-more tive campaign to secure lesbian/gay civil cuse for unfree reporters. TNT "When editors and - Terry Tang, Seattle rabid" solutions" to rights. After the initiative failed, Nelson's argues that its First Amendment right to publishers say 'ob social problems, it's bosses said they would restore her by determine the contentof its paper some jectivity,' whatthey Times editorial column critical now to fight line only if she promised to cease all how gives it the freedom to make unre often mean is go- for the media to be political activity. stricted personnel decisions about whom ing along to get a watchdog, not a The reporter-radical, who is an orga it may employ and on what terms. And along with the powers-that-be, not rock lap dog. Winning Nelson's bellwether nizer for the Freedom Socialist Party it continues to insist that Nelson's exile ing any big corporate boats. case will be a great starf. And you can and Radical Women, refused, and the was justified because her off-hours ac "If it's 'controversial' - if it may an help! Donations of money and offers to Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild tivism was a potential threat to the ger some people in the community - volunteer time can be sent to the Sandy helped her appeal to the National Labor paper's "appearance of objectivity." then the inference is that journalists Nelson Defense Committee at P.O. Box Relations Board (NLRB). A McClatchy On Nelson's behalf, attorneys Will must, in their private lives, on their own 5847, Tacoma, WA 98415 - or call campaign to bust the union narrowly iam Bender, Paul Chuey, and James time, function implicitly or explicitly as (206)756-9971. D
College too expensive?S.t~dyrevolution! Call. the F.-eedom Socialist Party and Radi(;a'· Women phone nil_hers below f"r
homosexuality, anti-communism, and the smashing of organized labor is a fascist program. Voters send mixed message Very few people in the U.S. actually accept this program as an answer to from the cover grassroots energy into campaigns for their problems - yet. But only the vis united, another anti-gay initiative went Democrats like gubernatorial contender ibility of an honest alternative solution down to defeat (see editorial on page Kathleen Brown and Senator Dianne can keep their numbers from growing. six); so did some (but not all) of a host of Feinstein, who both refused to come That solution is socialism, because fas other rightwingand anti-labor measures. out against 187 until the eleventh hour. cist movements are caused by an ad Wyoming said no to overturning abor In fact, they ran by using immigrants as vanced case of capitalist dry rot, and the tion rights. In Virginia, women and a punching bag for the collapsing state only answer is to jump ship. Blacks were motivated to hit the polls in economy, just like the Republicans. A labor party can help make the order to stomp Oliver North. Eventually, enough opponents of 187 transition by exposing the politics of broke with the Democratic injunction scapegoating for the charade that they Polarization in California. But to keep a low profile so that an exciting are. A true workers' party can bring many of the election results were truly movement came to life. On October 16 together the exploited U.S. majority by grim, as in California, where jobs are in Los Angeles, 150,000 people marched showing them what they have in com disappearing (unemployment is offi for immigrant rights. In the next weeks, mon and giving the most oppressed the cially above eight percent), social ser Latino students ledan explosion of high opportunity and the tools and the fo vices are underfunded, and the quality school and college walkouts that turned rum to exercise leadership. of education is in free fall. into inspiring rallies joined by parents, But this crucial work will not be un Californians approved two hysteri teachers, and administrators. dertaken by the upper crust of the labor cal anti-crime initiatives and the anti But it all happened too late to turn movement. It's going to have to be immigrant Proposition 187, which de the tide. started by rank-and-file unionists and nies education and medical and other activists in the feminist, gay, civil rights, services to undocumented workers and Overcoming division through a environmental, and other movements. their children. This new law also re labor party. Let's be clear. President Clinton has one thing right: quires teachers, health professionals, and percent of the population. A program that appeals to a ruined, Each one of us who wants and needs social workers to turn in anyone who From the beginning of the 187 cam desperate middle class and a suffering, change must take personal responsibil may be an "illegal" newcomer - and paign, Democratic Party hacks discour divided working class on the basis of law ity, because we have no other choice. any children whose parents may lack aged Latino, Asian, and immigrant and order, ultra-nationalism, white su The way for radicals and unionists to do papers. California's turnout was 80 per rights groups from mobilizing a counter premacy, state control over women's this is by pushing hard for a labor party cent white, although whites are only 57 offensive. Instead, they tried to Siphon reproduction, the criminalization of - and the time to begin is yesterday. 0
Los votantes mandan mensajes contradictorios viene de /0 primero pagino una iniciativa anti-homosexual. En recien llegado "ilegal" yacualquiernino para cambiar la marea. de ganancias es simple: disminuir las Oregon, donde los radicales, las mino cuyos padres pudieran no tener su docu expectativas de los trabajadores conti rias sexuales y los activistas de la clase mentacion en regIa. La concurrencia a Veneer la division a traves de un nuamente. Wall Street expresa ahora trabajadora habian unido sus esfuerzos, las urnas en California fue 80% blanca, partido obrero. Seamos claros. abiertamente que un 6% de desempleo otra de las medidas anti-homosexuales aun cuando los blancos representan so Cualquier programa que solicit a el es esencial para el funcionamiento nor propuestas fue derrotada (favor de refe lamente un 57% de la poblacion. interes de la clase media desesperada y mal de la economia, y que es absoluta rirse al editorial en la pagina seis), 10 Desde el principio de la campana de de la dividida y sufriente clase trabaja mente peligroso que las fabricas estado mismo que algunas otras medidas dere la Proposicion 187, los democratas des- dora, basandose para ello en ideas como unidenses operen mas alia del 80% de su chistas (si bien no todas). las de ley y orden, ultra capacidad productiva. Wyoming dijo que no a la nacionalismo, supremacia Nuestros representantes electos per abolicion de del derecho al de la raza blanca, control miten y favorecen estos planes de ac aborto. En Virginia, muje de los derechos reproducti cion; poniendo de lado su programa res y negros fueron moti vos de la mujer, criminali- politico, se constituyen en una serie vados a asistir a las urnas ~ zacion de la homosexuali bipartita de retratos de malhechores para detener a Oliver dad, anti-comunismo y des quienes alegremente se envuelven en North. truccion de la organizacion enredos financieros, vejaciones sexua obrera, no es otra cosa que les, violaciones eticas, practicas ilega les Polarizacion en Cali un programa fascista. y abusos de poder de todo sordido tIPO. fornia. Muchas de las MUy pocas personas en En 1992, los democratas tomaron elecciones resultaron ser los Estados Unidos aceptan posesion del Congreso y de la Casa Blan verdaderamente sombrio, realmente un program a se ca pretendiendo ser el partido que cam como sucedio en Califor mejante como respuesta a biaria la situacion politica. La (mica ra nia, donde las oportunida sus problemas ... hasta el zon por la que pudieron avanzar de tal des de empleo van desapa momento. Sin embargo, manera basandose en una afirmacion reciendo (el desempleo esta sera unicamente la vision tan ridicula fue la falta de una alternati por encima del ocho por de una alternativa honesta va de la izquierda. ciento, oficialmente), los ~ ,t.~ f:n~~'thDgent (Jt 10 que prevenga que su nu En 1994, los republicanos llegaron a servicios sociales no reci- i,~,;';;~~g th~ ; j,'J,~!OO Ii.,·,,, >,1, :'.t~,.n, fn, inuni')f "~;,,t ,i' mero crezca. Esa solucion ser el partido del" cambio". Votantes de ben suficientes fondos, y la 1,,',1, 1 ~.'~ ,; {}gl i.-Lhntingf.:{7tr es el socialismo ya que los ingreso medio, hombres blancos y habi calidad de la educacion"c, p:r, i', ~ " -:,,;rff .. ~t,.:~,nl f,'1. {]. fil~'tl'(>l movimientos fascistas son tantes de los suburbios, abandonaron el decae de modo alarmante. ~h" j'r:: causados por un caso avan- partido democrata en manadas. Traicio Los californianos apro zado de corrupcion capita nados y abandonados, los miembros baron dos histericas iniciativas anti-cri alentaron toda intencion de mobiliza lista y la sola respuesta posible es la de tradicionales del partido democrata: minales y la Proposicion 187, que Ie cion contraofensiva de grupos a favor abandonar el barco. mujeres, gente -de color, homosexuales niega el derecho a la educacion, a los de los derechos de los inmigrantes lati Un partido de los trabajadores puede y trabajadores, eran los menos inclina servicios medicos y otros servicios, a los nos y asiaticos, tratando en cambio de ayudar en la transicion, mostrando abier dos a votar. trabajadores sin documentacion y a sus inyectar la energia de la gente comun en tamente la poHtica del chivo expiatorio Sin embargo, las noticias no fueron hijos. Esta ley tambien exige que maes las campanas democraticas, como la de como 10 que verdaderamente es: una del todo malas. tros, medicos y trabajadores sociales la candidata ala gobernacion, Kathleen charada. Un verdadero partido obrero En Idaho, los votantes rechazaron delaten a cualquiera que pudiera ser un Brown, 0 la de la candidata al senado, puede reunir a la gran mayoria explota Dianne Feinstein. Dichas candidatas se da estadounidense, haciendole ver 10 rehusaron a oponerse a la 187 hasta el que tienen en camun y ofreciendole, a ultimo momento y, de hecho, compi los mas oprimidos, la oportunidad, las Vivid account of the Freedom tieron usando a los inmigrantes como herramientas y el foro con los cuales Socialist Party's early years and pelot a de boxeo 0 "punching bag", ha ejercer elliderazgo. the dynamic impact of a modem ciendolos responsables del colapso eco Sin embargo, esta labor crucial, no party, nomico del estado, tal y como 10 hicie sera emprendida por las capas superio "anguani on, the labor, ron los republican os. res del movimiento obrero. Al contra feminist, people of color, g8.)' and Eventualmente, suficientes oponen rio, tal accion debera provenir de los antiwar movements. tes de la 187 hicieron caso omiso del 'soldados rasos', es decir, de los sindica mandato de los democratas que ordena listas y activistas de los movimientos a ban una respuesta debil. Como resulta favor de los derechos de la mujer, del do, nacio un movimiento inspirador: el homosexual, del ser humano, del bien r 16 de octubre, en Los Angeles, 150,000 estar ambiental y otros. I EnclOsed,isS ,tor _ copies of Sccialist FeminI$nt: The ,Flt$I Decade;f personas manifestaron a favor de los EI presidente Clinton tiene razon en f of $8,95 per copy: ,Add Sl.OOshipplng tor first book, $;50 eaCh additional copyo f derechos de los inmigrantes. Durante una cosa: quien quiere y necesita un las semanas siguientes, los estudiantes cambio necesita asumir su propia res 0' Name Address r latinos dirigieron una verdadera explo ponsabilidad, porque no tenemos nin :flJp/ {. sion de paros estudiantiles, los cuales se guna otra opcion. EI modo en que de City Postal Code Country , transformaron en inspiradoras mani ben actuar los sindicalistas y los radica 4 Retum check or money order fo: f festaciones a las que se unieron padres les para lograr ese objetivo es presionar de familia, maestros y administradores. fuertemente por un partido obrero. jYel L~~!.-~~~~,!!~~~~~,~~~~~..J' Pero todo sucedio demasiado tarde tiempo para haber empezado fue ayed 0 ~ ~~-----=~~--
Dateline Australia Radical Women visiting Gunditjmara clan witness both repression and resistance
BY BRENDA HUNTER Sandra brought to life for us the people who hewed of your people will never even get a blade of grass from the stone for the structures, chopped the wood, prayed, this property." he region around Portland, Victoria is the and sang hymns to appease their "protectors" whilst The government can't stand uppity Kooris traditional territory of the Gunditjmara clan. secretively holding together the strong threads of (Aboriginals) either. Few Gunditjmara get jobs in But the Gunditjmara are strangers in their their culture. We heard of young girls waking early to Portland, so they performed community work in re T own homeland, struggling against all odds to knead and bake the day's bread, turn for irregular, unreliable dole payments. Without maintain their identity. silently, I guess, because warning, welfare bureaucrats cut the funding for the As part of that struggle, they set up a Tent Embassy, they were punished if program that hired them. in the spirit of the famous Aboriginal occupation they spoke their na Sandra told us she was inspired by her grandmother outside Parliament in 1972, to protest the government's tive language. to do whatever she could to bring her people back failure to deliver services to their community. The church together before it was too late. She and the community In response, Portland authorities cut off electricity was built have recovered some of the territory stolen from them, and the pay phone, and evicted activists from their by chain including the mission site. offices. The mayor demanded that the encampment gangs. The clan has built a Guest Hostel for visitors who be dismantled; he feared that an Asian consortium come to experience traditional Aboriginal culture. considering investment in a multi-million-dollar ho They plan to restore the mission and refill Lake tel complex would perceive Portland as racist and be Condah as well. put off. But the embassy stayed until concessions were Solidarity from abroad. We had planned to visit granted. an elder called Aunty Betty at the mission, but we saw In September 1994, three of us Radical Women her in the hospital instead. She suffers from kidney members visited the area. I went with Guerry Hod disease and diabetes, which she attributes to the white dersen, who is a leader of the Freedom Socialist Party man's poor diet. Koori elders are increasingly forced to from the U.S., and Melbourne FSP Organizer Alison live in the towns, because in the bush the risk of death Thorne to spend a day learning about the history of in an emergency is too great. abuse against the Gunditjmara and their indomitable We RW and FSP representatives went to Portland resistance. armed with solidarity statements from indigenous women of North America whose battles mirror Sandra's, Greed leads to genocide. Sandra Onus, a strong and Aunty Betty's, and all the other Koori women and and inspiring Gunditjmara leader, is a member of the men who are fighting for survival. These sympathizers Lake Condah Management and Planning Committee. across the ocean know that none of us can be liberated She and other activists told us the people's story. until we all are liberated - American and Australian, The persecution of the Gunditjmara began with a The children were stolen from their families, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike. land grab. Wealthy pastoralists (ranchers) illegally dumped in white foster homes, and forced into slave What the missionaries and pastoralists could not occupied their territory and murdered thousands. The labour. acknowledge, because of their greed, is how survivors were "protected," which meant they were Once the ranchers had acquired all the Gunditjmara unshakeably the Kooris are tied to their land, despite herded onto Christian missions where their labor was land, the mission was destroyed, leaving only the every effort to stamp their traditional culture out of exploited and their culture suppressed. cemetery intact. The church, which had become a existence. Guerry and Alison and I left with a deep Sandra told us how her ancestors fished the lake by community focal point, was demolished, and the appreciation for the Gunditjmaras' determination to constructing stone races, canals, and grass nets to trap people dispersed. reclaim their heritage, and a promise to publicise their fish and eels. The invaders wrecked an industry thou undertaking. 0 sands of years old by draining the lake to graze sheep. Reclaiming land and tradition. That was in the We saw the mission's ruined old granite village, 1920s, but genocidal attitudes are truly alive and well. Brenda Hunter of Melbourne Radical drenched in a sea of daffodils, jonquils and snow drops A few years back, Sandra said, she approached a Women is a single mother, environmentalist, - imported plants that destroyed the native grasses member of the pastoral"squatocracy" about buying and member of the Printing and Kindred In used for weaving nets and baskets. some land. She was told, II As long as I live, you or any dustries Union.
Dateline Canada Vancouver doctor targeted in terrorist war against abortion BY DYLAN KENDRICK Emboldened by government in announced, "I do condone violence." action. Although Dr. Romalis' shoot Another prominent anti-abortion cru n November 8, Vancouverob ing shocked the city, many pro-choicers sader crowed that Romalis had gotten ~·.·;-~;t;ift.i.!Itl ?'·.~)H~; i'~) f~'l:;:-('("'i;~'~,,~o{, ~:'. (.:4'(L.;, stetrician and gynecologist Dr. saw an event like it as inevitable. his "just desserts." A local bookstore .;tn~'~.'.~~:1D'tf~;"f'l:. :: ~")~.;:\lrl,(.~:~~ Garson Romalis became the In August 1994, soon after the Florida sold pamphlets calling abortion the O seventh shooting victim of murders of a doctor and a patient escort, "real" Holocaust, aJewish conspiracy to oppOSition's multi-issue agenda and anti-abortionists in North America. staff at Everywoman's Health Centre wipe out white Christians. Nazi connections and making common Romalis, 57, was sitting in his kitchen had called a press conference about Romalis is aJewish activist; local anti cause with labor, immigrants, people of at 7:20 a.m. when a sniper fired a semi mounting harassment at their Vancou abortion protests have included anti color, sexual minorities, and Jews. To automatic assault rifle through a win ver clinic. They asked police and the Semitic sloganeering; and Nazis are sup gether we can organize community de dow. The second of two rounds shat provincial government to treat the mur porting the shooting. Despite all this, fense of the embattled clinics. tered Romalis' thigh bone and ruptured ders and harassment as part of an orga police initially disclaimed the attack as Meanwhile, we can't take the heat off an artery. One of three targets to survive nized, continent-wide attack against political or abortion-related. To date, the politicians, cops, and courts. They an attack, Romalis, who performs abor abortion providers and activists. They they have no suspect. have the resources and the responsibil tions at Vancouver General Hospital, is demanded that police supply protec For its part, the New Democratic Party ity to stop the ultraright in its tracks. the latest casualty in the war to elimi tion from a local Violence-prone pick government tried to disavow any re The government should: nate women's reproductive freedom. eter, Gordon Watson, who had made sponsibility for clinic protection. Only • fund a community investigation to Frustrated by Canada's popular sup threats on Donahue, Nightline, and CNN. after pro-choicers expressed outrage did identify Romalis' attacker and probe the port for abortion, anti-abortionists are Despite a British Columbia Supreme the B.C. attorney-general agree to form links between anti-choicers and fascists; resorting to goon tactics. Through bul Court ruling which bars anyone from a task force to explore the problem. • provide round-the-clock protection lets, bombs, and bullying, they aim to "watching, disturbing, interrupting, or for clinics and staff who request it; make abortion only a paper right. intimidating" abortion clinic staff, Van For a self-reliant movement. Lib • enshrine the right to free abortion For many women, this is already the couver police said their hands were tied. eralleaders in the abortion rights strug on demand in the Charter of Rights and case. Local hospital boards decide Finally, on October 31, as violence at gle have long looked toward govern Freedoms. whether or not abortions will be per the Centre escalated, Watson was ment and cops for salvation. But as this Anti-abortion terrorism won't disap formed, so women in conservative rural slapped on the wrist with a 21-day jail case shows, this dependence is suicidal. pear until safe, accessible abortion is areas must travel long distances to ter sentence and 18 months of probation. Only a mass, militant, self-reliant re guaranteed by the state to all women. minatepregnancies. Now, the right wing productive rights movement can win That won't happeri under capitalism, hopes to terrorize even the remaining Right wing applauds shooting. out over the pro-barefoot-and-pregnant but every step in that direction is worth abortion providers out of existence. Following the sniper attack, Watson crowd. Key to victory is exposing the fighting for and taking. 0 6 Freedom Socialist January-March 1995
" FINDINGS RACIST? Editorials T\otE "SEll CURVE. 08",~TIYE. NONSENSE! IT S IG~TION T\ot~T SCIENTIFIC INVEST Rlrv OF sLACKS! The Newt Deal: PROV£S T\otE INFERIO Forward into the past NOSTALGIC FOR THE good old days? Newt Gingrich, the new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is definitely your man. How far back would you like to go? The fifties were a rockin' time. Remember McCarthyism? Well, Newt's work ing on a list, too - of alleged dopers working at the White House. Oh, yeah, he was a pot smoker himself - but that was in college, for heaven's sake. It was practically a require .. DLlOY •• ,..... • / W ment for graduation. Everybody was doing it. R MENGE.LE IS "EREl Do you cherish your Cold War memories? Newt's favor DR. ~ ite aspersion to cast against Bill and Hillary Clinton is "counterculture McGoverniks." Note the Russian flavor of that "ik."
MAYBE YOU MISS orphanages. Newt, of course, wants to bring them back. Debtors' prisons have unaccountably fallen from fashion; the racialist doctrine of "separate but equal" has lost its luster over time; indentured servitude has Movie Reviews practically gone the way of records made of vinyl; and you hardly ever hear anyone speaking up against female suffrage anymore. Hey, send Newt a letter; he's undoubtedly open to suggestions. Shelley and SchlVarzenegger: Does it surprise you that a family-values kind of guy is promoting orphanages? It shouldn't. Newt's own past as re gards family takes a little bit of explaining. There was that an unlikely creative duo incident when the wife he wanted to divorce was in the hospital with cancer, and he insisted on talking to her BY ANDREA BAUER family - the most prominent' a clanking melodrama that about the settlement ... Well, that's a private matter, and no in his town. His parents are marries Old Gothic theatrical doubt there's a good Christian explanation. suppose there are at least loving and indulgent; he is ity with Hollywood overkill." three schools of thought denied nothing. The world So let's talk about raging YOU SAY YOU HEARD that Newt used to be a liberal. about men giving birth seems kind. egos. Not only did Branagh It's true - but it doesn't mean anything. Everybody was I (whether by robbing When he is a teenager, his deviate wildly from Shelley, doing it. graveyards to bring life from mother dies. Although this is a whose name he nevertheless Look up "opportunist" in the dictionary. They're spelling death,orbyutilizingtesttubes, blow, the future is still bright. ostentatiously appropriated, it N-E-W-T now. [J or by splicing genes, or bywhat- Frankenstein goes off to school but he is also reputed to have ever): and (in the book) finds men- revised the script in order to 1. Let the men have the tors and becomes an outstand- pump up his own role and babies! ing student. shrink Robert De Niro's, who 2. The very idea is an abomi- But he is driven to create life played the creature. Johnson Bigot Buster strategy nation unto the Lord. - according to Mary Shelley, quotes a screenwriter who calls 3. This is the ultimate in by an overmastering passion the final script a "patchwork carries the day against nefarious seXist plots, by which for scientific investigation; ac abomination" and says that means men would be able to cording to Kenneth Branagh, "Maybe the Frankenstein myth Oregon anti-gay initiative design and execute a world by an inability to accept the overtook the movie." entirelywithoutwomen-like reality of death. Strange. If anybody were AMID THE GLOOM of Election '94, some sunshine hanging a sign saying "No He brings into being a crea equipped to successfully tell a broke through in gray, rainy Oregon. Activists there con Girls" outside the treetop club- ture, who, upon being ani story about rampaging self ducted a feisty, in-your-face campaign which resulted in the house, and leaving it there for- mated, horrifies him. He re centeredness, you'd think it defeat of Measure 13 - an initiative that would have legal ever. jects his creature, setting into would be Hollywood. ized discrimination against sexual minorities. Their success I have to admi ttha tthough motion a train of events that is worth studying and emulating. No.1 is indisputably the most turns his offspring into his A triumph for family They call their tactic bigot-busting. It's not a gimmick light-minded reaction, it's ex- Nemesis and gets everyone he values. Junior, on the other dreamed up by some overpaid political consultant; it's a no actly what my female co- loves killed. hand, wasn't half bad - and moviegoers and I all ______the half who wasn't tech organizing strategy promoted by independent activists and the Portland branches of Radical Women and the Free feltafterseeingJun- bad was Emma dom Socialist Party. It doesn't have anything to do with ior, wherein Arnold Say what you will about Thompson, who spending millions of dollars to identify focus groups and Schwarzenegger was great. And say create slick TV sound bites. Instead, it has everything to do gets pregnant. Arnold's riuhtwinupolitics _ I what you will about with grassroots outreach, one-on-one education, good old About No. 2, ~. ~ Arnold's rightwing fashioned solidarizing - and lots of elbow grease. concerningabomi- think he makes a charminu politics-flood me nable acts: Scien- ~ with letters to the LIKE MOLD IN a dank Northwest basement, Stealth tificbreakthroughs mom-to-be, especially in pink. editor or flame me Christians and their ilk thrive when ignored. And the Oregon are always seen as with e-mail, even- Citizens Alliance, the sponsors of Measure 13, are an espe sacrilegious in cer- But does he have a plan? I think he makes a cially virulent strain of rightwingus homophobus. So Bigot tain quarters. I'm a charming mom-to- Busters rolled up their sleeves and aggressively went to work. Trekker; I believe Not on your life. be, especially in In malls, groceries, and wherever the kinder-kirche-kiiche that tampering pink. crew campaigned, Bigot Busters followed, equipped with with the "natural But you have to brochures that exposed OCA's draconian, multi-issue agenda. order of things" is the natural Unbridled egotism: Art wonder what these guys who Bigot Busters' first goal was to prevent the OCA from get order of things, just part of the imitates art. Now: Do you want to make babies (or crea ting the Signatures to put their anti-gay initiative on the human job description. know why he flees from his tures, as the case may be) are ballot. When that failed and nine rightwing propositions After seeing both Junior and creation? Because the creature thinking. Overcome with the were certified, Bigot Busters went after the whole array. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (re- is ugly. need to conceive, do they stop Respectability-seeking business types in the gay commu ally Kenneth Branagh's Fran- (In the book, the monster's to conceive a plan? Not on nity initially refused to oppose the two anti-labor measures, kenstein), I certainly have no disfigurement is a size issue: your life. but that didn't deter Bigot Busters, who joined local strikers more worries about the likeli- Frankenstein becomes impa- How will the newborn (or on their picket line and issued pamphlets connecting ho hood of NO.3. Bearing a child tientwith the small scale of his monster) be explained to the mophobia and union-busting and urging a no vote on all is one thing, and we may even work and resorts to using body world? Who will stay at home nine issues. Bigot Busters' opposition to a racist tough-on be close to the day when men parts for his creature that are with the baby while daddy/ crime measure won them coverage in the Portland Observer, can do it; but raising one is twice as large as normal. This mommy goes to work? How a Black community paper, and new friends. something else again, and from makes me wonder if perhaps will the child be educated? Interstate collaboration also provided a boost. Washing these screen samples, I don't Schwarzeneggerdidn'tlumber In real life, of course, these tonians, organized by Seattle's Stonewall Committee for think we're in any danger of into the wrong film.) questions cause untold anxi- Lesbian/Gay Rights, caravaned south on "Freedom Rides" to men wanting sole proprietor- We are supposed to be sym- ety and heartache for mothers, help canvass. Bigot Busters in Washington had kept two ship in this area any time soon. pathetic to Victor's esthetic especially poor ones. anti-gay initiatives off the ballot there. repulsion - but I'd like to see Junior is a comedy, though, Paradise lost. Marx said that how much understanding an so it doesn't matter how ut BOTTOM LINE IS, it worked. Most of the scapegoat history comes around twice excuse like that would win for terly Arnold has failed to pre ing initiatives were defeated - including Measure 13. But the first time as tragedy, the Susan Smith, the woman who pare himself for motherhood; the "anti-crime" propOsitions, and one attacking public second time as farce. Franken drove her children into the we know that everything will employee unions, passed. Next time, with even more coa stein is male procreation as lake. turn out just fine in the end. lescing among the Black, labor and gay communities, the melodrama; Junior is male pro As for the movie itself, I Specifically, the new mother Bigot Busters strategy can wipe the pOlitical surface com creation as comedy. agree with reviewer Brian will get himself a wife - and pletely clean of that nasty rightwing buildup. [J Victor Frankenstein comes Johnson, who called it "a bom- for Hollywood, what could be from a wealthy and respected bastic, overwrought spectacle, more natural than that? [J F
January-March 1995 Freedom SOcialist 7
Letters to the Editor
Downward slide Looking backward contributing financially. In the May 26, 1994 Van and forward I want to say the same thing Clara couver Sun, Richard Allen, chief 1am a freshman at Bucknell to all of my beloved friends economist for the B.C. Credit University and I thoroughly and supporters in this open Fraser Union, states, "If we had no UI enjoyed your article that dealt letter. The necessity of your payments and no social wel with Socialism ["Socialism for support was (and is) para fare, people would be out there Skeptics "]. mount. You helped us to orga The lady vanishes: Where is taking jobs (what jobs?) and I am currently reading nize for human rights, dignity, creating jobs (what with?) that Howard Zinn's People's His and basic material and spiri the Nicole Brown Simpson story? tual needs. I am very grateful. perhaps they wouldn't be do tory ofthe United States. It is ing when they have the com So much emphasis is put on I ASKED YOU IN MY last column to send me queries a great book that deals with about socialism. Among the responses (thank you, and please fort (what comfort?) of UI or history from a cynical pOint of the family of the person mur keep them coming!) was this topical interrogatory: What does social welfare." view, but 1 believe there is a lot dered on the streets. But what a socialist make of the 0.]. Simpson story? Item: from the April I? Prov of truth in it. I feel that our about the family of the victim I thought you'd never ask, and the answer depends on the ince. Starving slum dwellers in "imperialistic" government murdered at a deSignated place a Brazilian city eating dead and time by the State under defining fact that I am a SOCialist feminist. That means, in ad has withheld a great amount dition to seeing the world as an historic panorama of many animals and human parts. of history. the guise of legality? Item: from the May 22 Vancou Colonialist (racist) political different, evolving social systems, I see life in terms of my own Anyway, I found your ar vivid and traumatic experiences as a female. ver Sun. Bogota, Colombia, vigi ticle to be interesting and a candidates are bent on capital Hence, the "0.]. Simpson case," in my view, is atrociously lantes murdering street chil hopeful look at what the fu ist punishment laws, a sym misnamed. Goddamit, it was Nicole Brown Simpson and her dren, classified as a street clean ture could hold. bolic "get tough" issue aimed ing of the "disposables." at the disadvantaged. Jewish friend Ronald Goldman who were slaughtered - twice Jeffrey Clark obliterated, in fact, first by murder and then by the media ob 1 suggest to Mr. Allen that jwdark®oorai.bucknell.edu Some sectors of the popula the odds are far greater that tion use colonialist (racist) slo session with O.J. The corpses are the disposables of a culture "disposables" living in our gans to explain unemploy that adulates and indulges celebrities while ignoring and defam country will turn to crime or We've mended ment, high crime, rising taxes, ing the women these pampered superstars torture and destroy. live in garbage dumps (I saw inflation, depression and low We hear so little about Brown Simpson and Goldman. We many men doing this during our ways ering living standards. The are deluged with video footage of the misogynist terrorist who the depression of the '30s right So how come Workers World cause of the economic crisis is almost certainly dispatched them., here) thangeta job when little has an e-mail address and the falsely blamed on poor and work is available. Freedom Socialist doesn't? oppressed nationalities. I HAVE PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE of this male type. Until the people of this Martha Koester Our unity is power. We can I have not felt the panic and helplessness of Brown Simpson country (and the USA) realize Seattle, Washington do together what we could not as she pleaded for protection from 0.]. But I have been bat the ultimate goal of corporate tered, by ex-husband Richard Fraser, who assaulted me twice dictatorship is not to raise third while I was asleep and once during a minor argument. He also world living standards but socked my son, for no reason whatever. rather to reduce our standard Those attacks were devastating. I'd never been slugged be of living to third world levels, fore (except by hardcore Stalinists), and I was paralyzed by working people will continue confusion and disbelief. a downward slide. But I had internal resources, born of feminism. Once over Ensuring that corporations the shock, I discovered to my vast delight that I could hit too. and wealthy individuals pay And that was the end of that. Bullies are cowards. their fair share of taxes is a step The affront to a woman's sense of self when she is beaten by intheright direction, although an intimate is incalculable. It can utterly shatter a personality by itself it is not enough to - or it can engender a fightback reflex. solve our problems. Tax cred My counter-violent response was a private revolutionary act, its for off-shore investments yet one common to millions of women. That is why our "sec should be eliminated. Corpo ond sex" identifies so paSSionately not just with the feminist rate tax credits here in Canada pioneers who launched a thunderous movement, but also with should be geared to the num down-to-earth heroes like Thelma and Louise who stood up for ber of jobs created. Tariffs on their rights and retaliated in kind when they were degraded. third world countries should be geared to labour costs, i.e. CONVENTIONAL SEXIST WISDOM blames the female when workers' wages are in victim for the revolting behavior of ego-deficient males. creased and a higher standard Deplorably, this bigotry is quite rampant on the Left, espe of living attained tariffs would cially in ultra-"radical" groups like the Spartacist League. So be reduced. As long as the cor called socialist men, and women, too, buy the canard that" she porate dictatorship can exploit asked for it," "she drove him to it," blah blah. Poor pugilistic cheap labour and operate un Cartoon sent in by Randy Fleming, Seattle. man. He's the martyr after all. der nonexistent environmen This attitude is a sick denial of the essence of liberating, hu tal laws, the rich will get richer manistic, anti-chauvinist Marxist thought, and a triumph of and poor poorer and the lower Prisoner says do alone. That's why we bring sexual fascism over SOCialist ethics. middle class will cease to be. our case to you. Thus "power And this contempt for women has carved a great gulf be Gordon Judd thanks for help to the people who don't fear tween leftists and feminists. Sexist revolutionaries have much Vancouver, B.C. "The ultimate expression of freedom." to answer for: the spawning of a vast dichotomy between two law is not order - it's prison." - Your love and friendship is movements whose logic demands integration. George Jackson warmly felt. Thank you! Life has taught me not to expect too much from most men Glad to oblige To all righteous people! I Zolo Agona Azania #4969 in parties other than my own Freedom Socialist Party. But I am I like this article! ["Social have been illegally imprisoned P.O. Box 41 particularly appalled at the women in feminism-impaired orga ism for Skeptics III - Clans or on Indiana's death row for over Michigan City, IN 46360 nizations who ape the patriarchal venom of the men. Klans: Choose One," Clara eleven years, framed on I appeal to women radicals who sneer at feminism to let go Fraser, Vol. 15 No.2.] Would trumped-Up charges of killing of your psychological dependence on males as the first prin you e-mail me the previous a police officer. You have come ciple and your self-identification as "the other." Forge a rap two parts, please? to my assistance by either writ Readers are encouraged to submit port first of all with yourselves and your sex. lf you can do Are you folks hip to The ing to me, writing letters of letters, news stories, commentary, that, you will become the best and most sensitive exponents Chalice and the Blade? inquiry and protest to my cap cartoons, graphics, photographs, of class militancy and inter-race solidarity. Can you send me more info tors, giving advice, recogniz and pertinent resource informa And I appeal to honest radical men to learn to elevate the on the Freedom Socialist? A state ing my political prisoner sta tion. Letters may be edited for question of women's status to the top ranks of fundamental ment of its orientation? tus, investigating, publicizing, length. Please write t05 078 Rainier social and human issues, where it belongs. Mark S. Bilk typing, photocopying, Mail Ave. South, Seattle, WA 98778, or To view reality through the bifocals of socialism and femi [email protected] forwarding, networking, or e-mail [email protected]. nism is hardly schizoid. Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, August Bebel, Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Alexandra Kollontai, George Sand, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Daniel De Leon, Olive Schreiner and un countable other feminist radicals felt deeply that to understand the nature of a given SOCiety and gauge its degree of civiliza tion, you must study the status of women and racial minorities.
WOMEN OF ALL ETHNIC GROUPS must demand jus Your contributions propelled the tice for and information about Nicole Brown Simpson be cause that is how we fight for justice for ourselves. And men fighting Reds through the final round! must support this principled female gender-bonding. As Rabbi Hillel said, "If I am not for myself, who is for me? And when I Thanks for being in oar corner. am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" You can never be for others until you are for yourself. And ies not too late to put your money on the champ•.. Don't beg the cops for help, ladies. Stand ·and deliver. Be the Send donations to Freedom Socialist; 5018 Rainief Ave. So.• Seattle. WA98118. master-mistress of your own fate - for self-defense is revolu tionary empowerment. 0 8 Freedom Socialist January-March 1995 >"T' .'~"' ""_ • ~
Voices of Color Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam Can they deliver African Americans from the evils of racism?
BY EMILY Woo YAMASAKI Capitalism off the hook. Farra immigrants, gays, and even the Black This helps explain why Farrakhan khan refuses to say that it is capitalism working class, for whom the Nation excludes important, dynamicfigures like inister Louis Farrakhan is that is responsible for racist injustice, shows disdain. NOI opposes abortion, the Panthers and Malcolm X from his planning to mobilize one going all the way back to the days of denounces homosexuality as an teachings. These Black militants posed million Black men to march slavery and continuing right up to the abomination against God, and excludes real challenges to the ruling class. That Mon Washington D.C. That poverty, unemployment, homelessness, women from leadership positions. is why they were killed off, while the may sound great, but what Nation - which at the very about Black women? What least abetted Malcolm's mur about Black lesbians and gays? der by fanning the flames And what will Farrakhan's mes against him - remained un sage be? Farrakhan is provid touched by the government's ing desperately needed lead bloody hands. ership to African Americans - Despite their visibility to but what kind? day, cultural nationalists are As a lesbian of color fighting still a minority. And they will the system and looking for al not hold on to their influence lies, these questions hit home in the Black community for for me. ever. As alternatives arise, NOI influence will wane. Hard-pressed community Sprouts of that alternative seeks direction. Liketoday's leadership are already visible, other movements, the Black especially in the labor move- movement is experiencing a ment. African American tran- crisis of leadership. It never los Angf'les, Farrakhdn's fiery oratory taps ioto Blatk anger over t!col1orni..: i'on.-lith",n':i, sit and hotel workers provid- bounced back from the gov- __ ._._._.______. ____ ._ ..... _.'_. ___.... __...... __...... _.... _._. ____.. _._ ...... _...... ing the heart and muscle of ernment destruction of radical groups violence and crime that disproportion- But the Nation's primary scapegoat is recent union struggles in New York City and individuals like the Black Panther ately affect Blacks today. While NOI Jews. Farrakhan never condemned the are the wave of the future. Party and Malcolm X in the 1960s. security forces pose as crime·busters by infamous, viciously anti-Semitic tirade Also in the forefront are Black women, Into this vacuum steps Farrakhan. patrolling inner-city housing projects, of his former aide, Khalid Abdul the backbone of the African American Touring Black universities and high Farrakhan fails to provide an honest Muhammad. In fact, the Minister up- community for centuries. I have been schools, youth centers, and inner-city analysis of why the mayhem exists. held the essence of Muhammad's com- especially inspired by the Black femi meeting places, he portrays the Nation Instead, Farrakhan agitates about ments as "truths." nists who have boldly spoken out against of Islam (NOI) as the solution to the Blacks pulling themselves up by their Where have we heard all this before? the sexism and treachery of cultural harshly decaying conditions for Blacks own bootstraps and building Black busi- Though it opportunistically bases itself nationalism. and spreads his gospel of cultural na- nesses. The problem with this is that on the desperation of society's most Like they have been in the past, Black tionalism - the politics of race superi- racism is central to the profit system: downtrodden members, the NOI plat- women and Black lesbians and gays will ority and separatism. capitalism created racism to justify lower form is tailor-made to advance the chill- continue to be the crucial links among His audiences, like most African wages and inferior living standards for ing agenda of the contemporary Nazis. the civil rights, feminist, sexual iden Americans, know the system isn't work- people of color and excuse their use as a The divisive dogma of cultural national- tity, and labor movements. The very ing. They know Democrats and Repub- super-exploited pool of reserve labor. ism plays right into the hands of white constituencies whom Farrakhan ostra licans have sold Blacks down the same Farrakhan doesn't just naively miss supremacists, as it advocates the same cizes are the ones who can truly address river and they are searching for alterna- the point. Instead of demonstrating ideal - capitalism with segregation - the needs of the vast majority of Blacks. tives. Farrakhanappeals to them by pro- revolutionary integrationist leadership from the opposite direction. The time for sermonizing is over, moting Black unity and a militant sense that joins Blacks with other oppressed Minister Farrakhan. Cultural national- of racial and cultural pride. groups, he encourages the isolation of Guess who's rising to leadership. ism will have to step down from the But because he misidentifies Blacks' Blacks from other people of color and Historically, Black cultural nationalism pulpit and be replaced by a revolution real enemy and slanders those who potential co-activists. His NOI creates is the program of despair. It flourishes ary,bridge-building, feminist Black lead should be allies, Farrakhan's politics go false devils, pointing the finger not only when crisis is profound, other radical ership - the only kind capable of help beyond bankrupt - they're suicidal for at the race of whites, but at uppity leadership is absent, and the movement ing Blacks and all the rest of us out ofthe the movement he says he wants to build. women and "loose" women on welfare, is at an ebb. dead end called capitalism. 0
World Bank tightens its grip on occupied Haiti with the help of u.s. "peacekeeping" force BY ANDREA BAUER things change in Haiti, the more spite the cost to workers and repression by Haitian military peaceful and stable atmosphere they stay the same. A country peasants, are9,OOOU.S. soldiers and paramilitary groups, who for foreign investment. here's a real renaissance of few natural resources and a from an initial force of 21,000. have not been disarmed by the In this deal with the devil, of going on in Haiti - for long history of brutal exploita Of these, 1,200 are Green Be U.S. "peacekeepers." course, it is the Haitian people u.s. and multinational tion by foreign powers, Haiti rets stationed in more than 500 Aristide appears to have who lose. But they have fought T businesses, at least. was already the poorest coun villages in the countryside, made a bargain with the devil: their way up from the hell of Trade is brisk, with big oil try in the Western Hemisphere where they are often in total he gains a return to power and Yankee domination before, and tankers and other commercial before the coup by the generals. control. the dignified exi t of a few of the they will again. We should help ships arriving every day from Afterward, it grew even poorer, In these rural areas especially, butchers who usurped him; in them by demanding U.S. outof ports to the north. with gross domestic product people are still the targets of exchange, he delivers a more Haiti now! 0 The U.S. Agency for Interna and individual incomes both tional Development (USAID) is falling precipitately. on the scene, setting up projects Aristide's return has raised throughout the country. the expectations of the people THE FREEDOM SOCIALIST Global financial institutions who voted for him so over are conSidering lending the whelmingly in 1990. But they CARRYING ON A PROUD TRADITION OF TRUTH-TELLING country more than $645 mil are bound to be disappointed. "Having lost my paper [the Memphis Free Speechl, had a price put on my lion dollars - which it desper The World Bank/International life, and been made an exile from home for hinting at the truth, I felt that I ately needs, as the military junta Monetary Fund formula for owed itto myself and to my race to tell the whole truth .... [so I] took a position left it only $11.5 million in the Haiti's "recovery" includes on the New York Age, and continued my fight against lynching and lynchers." treasury. privatization of many state The World Bank has be owned enterprises (such as elec - Ida B. Wells, Black journalist and publisher (1862-1931) stowed its blessing on Presi tricity, mining, telephones) and dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide's mass layoffs (more than 20,000 SUBSCRIBE TODAY! new regime. Its economists are civil servants). putting forward a "reconstruc EightypercentofHaiti's work Four issues for only $5 per year! ------tion" plan that will continue to force is already unemployed or Name ____-",,~____..,..,.,.....----Address,------_ use extremely low-paid Haitian underemployed, according to (please print) labor to create extremely high one peasant leader. City State/Province Zip/Postal Code Country____ _ profits for international inves Making sure that the transi tors, but with a liberal, free tion from terrorist, illegal dicta Send checks or money orders to: Freedom Socialist, 5018 Rainier Ave. South, Seattle, WA 98118, U.S.A. Add $5 for overseas airmail. Australian residents: $6.00 (AVD) to Freedom Socialist, P.O. Box 266, West Brunswick, VIC 3055. market gloss. torship to exploitive, legal de Canadian residents: $6.00 (CAD) to Freedom Socialist, 304-1575 Beach Ave., Vancouver, BC V6G 1Y5. In other words, the more mocracy is an orderly one, de-