Join our pre-election subscription drive -PAGES 2, 9 OCTOBER 24; 1980 60 CENTS VOLUME 44/NUMBER 39 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE Buffalo rally against savage murder wave By Osborne Hart entered the room and the assailant fled. Cole UAW Region 9 area Community Action Pro­ BUFFALO, N.Y.-A broadly sponsored rally remains in critical condition. gram director, told the Militant, "Everybody condemning the racist murders of six Black There has not been a single arrest in these has to stick together. This kind of thing can't men and the attempt on the life of a seventh seven cases. The Black community is in a state be let go." was slated here October 19 in front of city hall. of shock and outrage. Four Black males were shot to death during City officials declared a twenty-one day a two-day period in September by the so-called The call for the Buffalo Unity Day rally is a mourning period and are urging everyone to ".22-caliber killer." response to the deep-going concern within the wear black ribbons. Black community, which comprises a third of Two weeks later, in a forty-eight-hour per­ the city's 355,000 population. Newton, whose area includes twenty-five iod, two Black cab drivers were murdered. In a The city hall action was called by the local union locals of 40,000 auto workers, said his particularly ghoulish manner, their bodies branch of the NAACP and the civil ·rights members would wear the ribbons. were mutilated, with their hearts extracted. organization, BUILD. The Auto Workers also contributed $5,000- A day later, a white man tried to strangle a In addition, representatives of the city's the largest single amount-to a reward fund Black patient at the Erie County Medical labor movement endorsed the demonstration. that now stands at $25,000. Center with a cord. These include the western New York area of The victim, Collin Cole, said he heard the United Auto Workers Region 9, Communica­ Among the scores of other Buffalo Unity man enter the room and exclaim, "I hate tions Workers of America Local 1121, Amal­ Day endorsers are Operation PUSH, the Ur­ niggers!" gamated Clothing Workers, and American ban League, the mayor of Buffalo, and Cole then felt himself being choked and lost Federation of Teachers Local 2190. members of the city council. consciousness. He was saved when a nurse In a telephone interview, Joseph Newton, Continued on page 4 Socialist candidates demand federal gov't act on terror The following statement was issued And neither Democratic candidate Carter October 16 by Andrew Pulley and Ma­ nor Republican Reagan has uttered a word tilde Zimmermann, the Socialist Work­ on the violence. ers Party candidates for president and The failure of federal and local officials to vice-president. apprehend the killers is not new. In Greens­ boro, North Carolina, last year, the Ku Klux The brutal racist murders of Blacks in Klan and Nazis gunned down five anti­ Buffalo are a matter of gravest concern for racist demonstrators. Only a handful of the working people everywhere. killers were brought to trial. And then at the We join with the Black community of trial, it w~s revealed that a federal agent Buffalo and others who have demanded participated in planning the assault, while a that the federal government act promptly local cop informer was actually in the lead and vigorously to protect the civil rights car of the murderous caravan. and very lives of Buffalo residents. An important step forward against racist terror is being taken in Buffalo. Major Similar killings have occurred in Atlanta, unions, ·including the United Auto Workers, ATLANTA: Mother clutches child who sur­ Salt Lake City, New York, and other cities have endorsed a protest rally initiated by vived day-care center explosion where five recently. civil rights groups against the racist vio­ In the face of these developments, it is an lence. United action by labor, Black organi­ died. In past fifteen n:-onths, fourteen Black outrage that the federal government has not zations, and all fighters against right-wing children disappeared in ctty. Six were found even spoken out, much less acted to arrest terror is what is needed to bring the killings murdered. Blacks are demanding halt to the murderers. to a stop. violence. See page 4. In Our Opinion VOLUME 44/NUMBER 39 OCTOBER 24, 1980 CLOSING NEWS DATE-OCT. 15 Clearly, the source of the poisoned relations helping the surv1vmg Kampucheans rebuild Cuba .pardons is in Washington, not Havana. Those who see their country. the value of a policy of friendship with Cuba None other than Pol Pot. U.S. prisoners should demand an end to the blockade against It's no wonder that millions around the world risk their lives to revolt against these Once again, Cuba has shown it is the U.S. Cuba and a withdrawal of U.S. forces from its "alternatives." government that is responsible for the break­ illegally held Guantanamo military base in Cuba. And that's why millions of Americans op­ down of diplomatic relations and high degree pose Carter's draft registration. They don't of tension between Havana and Washington. And we must insist that those responsible for the murder of Felix Garcia be apprehended want to be dragged into Washington's crusade On October 13, Cuba announced its decision to make the world safe for the shahs, Somozas, to release all U.S. citizens now serving prison without further stalling. and Pol Pots. sentences in Cuba. This was reported in Washington by Ramon Sanchez-Parodi, who is Cuba's diplomatic McHenry's message envoy in Washington. Despite opposition around the world and Oct. 25 to Nov. 4: Sanchez-Parodi said the pardons were an increasing hesitation among U.S. allies, the big sales expression of "the traditional attitude of Carter administration got its way again Oc­ friendship" between the Cuban and American tober 13 at the United Nations. people. The ousted dictatorship of Pol Pot­ opportunity He indicated that some of those now being responsible for the death of millions-was The ten days before the elections, from held in Cuba are wanted by U.S. authorities designated as sole "legitimate" representative October 25 to November 4, will be among the and may not wish to return. They will not be of Kampuchea (Cambodia). most important for the Socialist Workers Party compelled to do so. Donald McHenry, U.S. ambassador to the campaign of Andrew Pulley for president and UN, explained that he supported Pol Pot in Matilde Zimmermann for vice-president. The pardons are consistent with Cuban pol­ order to protest the Vietnamese "invasion and SWP supporters will fan out to take the ideas icy. occupation." of the campaign to working people through the From the outset, Cuba has maintained an The Kampuchean people have a different socialist press, the Militant and Perspectiva open door for those of its citizens who wished view.- They regarded it as liberation when Mundial. These ten days of intensified politi­ to leave. Vietnamese troops helped them toss out Pol cal thinking and discussion offer a special In 1979, Cuba released some 3,500 prisoners Pot nearly two years ago. Today he controls opportunity to win subscribers as part of our convicted of counterrevolutionary activity. virtually no territory and has no popular circulation drive for 8,000 new readers. (See support, despite massive infusions of aid from page 9.) At the same time it opened its doors to Washington's allies. Millions of working people will be making Cubans abroad who wanted to visit their Washington's vote for Pol Pot may be up their minds about what to do on election homeland, without regard for the political among ,the most revealing that U.S. represen­ day. views of the visitors. tatives ever cast at the UN. It sends a message They will be thinking about the threat of Despite Washington's trampling on a joint that will be heard loud and clear by the Reagan, with his platform calling for escal­ anti-hijacking agreement, Cuba has respected_ peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. ated attacks on Blacks and women and his .its terms. Washington's emissaries like to claim that unbroken antilabor record. They will be con­ Contrast that record with Washington's. they are trying to spread the virtues of "West­ cerned about his warhawk speeches for a Since 1960 the United States government em democracy" to the peoples of the "third further arms build-up. has maintained an economic blockade de­ world." And they will be weighing Carter's four signed to starve Cuba out. But the people of the world, including the years of attacks against the most basic inter­ American working people, are increasingly ests of working people-culminating in draft In 1961 it organized a mercenary invasion of seeing through that fakery. McHenry's boost registration and war threats in the Persian Cuba. Since then it has promoted a campaign for Pol Pot can only help. Gulf. of sabotage and terror within Cuba and Working people remember Washington's They will be thinking about how to end abroad. "democratic alternative" to the Iranian revolu­ unemployment and stop the ravages of infla­ CIA-sponsored Cuban counterrevolutionar­ tion. The shah's reign of torture and murder. tion. ies have been permitted to carry on their We remember the "democratic alternative" They will be angry about outbreaks of racist murderous work in this country with impunity. to the Nicaraguan revolution.