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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. The butcher murders in Buffalo and Atlanta. The most shocking example of this was the Somoza. Many will want to talk about these problems September 11 assassination in New York of We see the "democratic alternative" to revo­ and discuss the socialist alternative. A grow­ Felix Garcia Rodriguez, a Cuban UN diplo­ lution that Washington proposes for El Salva­ ing number will want to read what the Mili­ matic attache. A month after that murder by a dor. A bloody junta that slaughters thousands. tant and Perspectiva Mundial have to say. well-known gang of Cuban exile killers, au­ And now we have Washington's "democratic All out to win new subscribers between thorities assert they don't have a clue. alternative" to the Vietnamese forces that are October 25 and November 4! The Militant Militant Highlights This Week Editors: CINDY JAQUITH ANDY ROSE Business Manager: NANCY ROSENSTOCK Editorial Staff: Nan Bailey, Fred Feldman, 5 Boston racists attack busing Suzanne Haig. Osborne Hart. Diane Jacobs, Harry Ring, Vivian Sahner, Priscilla Schenk, Stu 7 Gov't withholds Information in SWP suit Singer. 8 Socialist candidates in Taxa• Published weekly by the Militant 9 Salel target week approachel (ISSN 0026-3885). 14 Charles Lane, 10 What Poll1h workers are fighting for New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: 11 Hundred• in N.Y. hear Grenadian Editorial Office, (212) 243-6392; Busi­ ness Office, (212) 929-3486. 12 NOW convention report Correspondence concerning sub­ 14 L.A. IOCialist 1olidarlty rally scriptions or changes of address 15 Andrew Pulley tours Vermont should be addressed to The Militant 16 Machlnl1t1 convention: 1hlft to left Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, 18 Italian auto workers fight layoffs New York, N.Y. 10014. Second-class postage paid at New 21 Louisville anti-Klan rally York, N.Y. Subscriptions: U.S. $24.00 20 In Review a year, outside U.S. $30.00. By first­ 22 The Great Society class mail: U.S., Canada, and Mexico: Union Talk Plot to deport socialist exposed $60.00. Write for airmail rates to all What'• Going On other countries. - The government is attempting to deport a 23 Letters For subscriptions airfreighted to London and If You Like This Paper, Look Us Up socialist coal miner. Files turned over in the then posted to Britain and Ireland: £3.00 for ten Socialist Workers Party suit against the issues, £6.00 for six months (twenty-four issues), £11.00 for one year (forty-eight issues). Posted government expose plot by Immigration and from London to Continental Europe: £4.50 for Naturalization Services and FBI. Page 6. ten issues, £10.00 for six months. £15.00 for one year. Send checks or international money order (payable to Intercontinental Press account) to Intercontinental Press (The Militant), P.O. Box 50. London N1 2XP. England. Signed articles by contributors do not neces­ sarily represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials. 2 Socialist hits new U.S. war moves in Gulf By Andy Rose commander of the U.S. Rapid Deploy­ poor peasants and improvement of HOUSTON-Youth and working ment Force, Lt. Gen. P.X. Kelley, had services in rural areas; the right of people in this country should strongly been even more blunt. "I would feel workers to organize factory commit­ protest the U.S. military build-up in comfortable going to war tomorrow," tees; and doubling of wages for many. the Middle East, Matilde Zimmermann he said in Washington. "I am getting "They have won the right to demon­ told a campaign rally here October 12. -down to the nitty-gritty of who goes on strate and play an active role in the The Socialist Workers vice­ what airplane and where he goes." political life of their country and they presidential candidate ridiculed a re­ The problem for the U.S. rulers, have exercised that right in their mil­ cent State Department annoucement Zimmermann continued, is that "many lions over the past two years. They set that although Washington was "not of those being put on the airplanes are an example for the whole world by taking sides" in the Iraq-Iran war, it is not so comfortable going to war for the breaking all ties with the racist states dropping use of the term "neutrality" interests of Exxon and Texaco-not to of Israel and South Africa, for which to describe its stance. mention the hundreds of thousands the shah had been a chief oil supplier." This apparently illogical statement who would have to be drafted to back These gains are the real target of reflects a real dilemma facing the U.S. them up in the event of a major U.S. U.S. military threats in the Persian government, Zimmermann said. "It is war." Gulf, Zimmermann charged. trying to pass itself off as interested This is why Washington is making only in peace, in preventing the spread such an effort to portray itself as a Withdraw U.S. forces! of war, while in reality it is getting force for peace in the Middle East, she "There is only one way the U.S. more and more involved. And step by said. government can make any contribu­ step, escalation by escalation, it is tion to peace in the Middle East," she trying to get the American people to said. "That is to immediately with­ accept the idea that we may have to go 'Fanatics'? draw every aircraft carrier, every war­ to war to protect 'our' oil supplies." Part of this propaganda offensive, ship, every bomber, every troop, every The truth is, Zimmermann said, that Zimmermann explained, is the theme spy plane, and every missile! Washington has never been neutral. It that the peoples of the Middle East­ "The U.S. government could make a has sent four super-sensitive spy especially the Iranians-are "crazy" · contribution to peace by stopping all planes and 500 U.S. troops to Saudi and "irrational." We are told the rea­ attempts to overthrow the Iranian Arabia, whose rulers are openly sup­ son the Iranians are resisting the government and by meeting the very porting Iraq. It offered more military invasion so strongly-which Washing­ reasonable and just demands of the aid to other reactionary, pro-Iraq re­ ton had predicted they would be incap­ Iranian people for return of the shah's gimes in the region. Matilde Zimmermann, socialist vice­ able of doing-is because they are stolen wealth, for a pledge of non-in­ Washington has amassed one of the presidential candidate, at antidraft pro­ 'religious fanatics.' terference, and for a public admission largest naval forces in the world, with test "This is the same line they always of Washington's role in the crimes of more than thirty war ships, in the use when the oppressed stand up and the shah. Instead of sending U.S. Arabian sea. And the day before the fight," Zimmermann said. soldiers to war against Iran, the U.S. socialist campaign rally here, Wash­ sending U.S. troops to war against the "They called Malcolm X a hate-filled government would do a lot better to use ington announced it had sent a guided­ Iranian people." fanatic. They say the youth in Miami its forces to speed massive amounts of missile cruiser through the Straits of What about the Carter administra­ were crazy hoodlums for protesting aid to the Algerian people who have Hormuz into the Persian Gulf itself to tion? Speaking in El Paso, Texas, when the cops who killed a Black man suffered so much death and devasta­ "cooperate" with U.S. forces in Saudi October 9, Defense Secretary Harold were let off. They say the transit tion from the earthquake there. Arabia. Brown declared, "Our forces are ready workers in Dallas are irrational be­ "Finally, the U.S. government could to go to war." He said Washington cause they refuse to put up any longer make a contribution to peace by can­ Bipartisan Policy would respond "to any attack on our with inhuman conditions. celing draft registration and plans for These ominous steps toward direct vital interests whether those attacks "The real reason the Iranians are 'the draft. U.S. military involvement are sup­ are direct or aimed at us through fighting so hard is not because they "But the U.S. government won't do ported by Democrats and Republicans actions directed at our allies and are religious zealots, but because they any of these things unless it is forced alike, Zimmermann said. friends." have something to fight for," Zimmer­ to by the American people," Zimmer­ Ronald Reagan has stated that the This is an open threat to attack Iran, mann declared. "They have something mann said. real problem is that the United States Zimmermann explained, if it dares to very down-to-earth to defend." "And just as step by step it is trying didn't stand by the shah. "This is a retaliate against the U.S.-backed re­ She pointed to the gains the Iranian to soften us up for war, so we have to frightening statement," Zimmermann gimes-Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, workers and peasants have made step by step explain the truth, build the said, "when you realize that Washing­ Kuwait, and others-that are aiding through their revolution: abolition of antidraft movement, and educate peo­ ton did everything it could to keep the the Iraqi invasion. ' the monarchy; the holding of elections; ple on Washington's real role in the shah in power-everything short of A few days before, she noted, the the b§:)ginning of distribution of land to Middle East and around the world.'' International support for Iran grows By Janice Lynn military presence" in the Arab world. divert attention from the Iraqi rulers' Although Mpscow has refused to The fa~ade of "Arab unity" behind Arms and other supplies for Iran are real sources of new arms, which in­ come out on the side of the Iranian the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein in reportedly being airlifted from Libya. clude France, West Germany, and oth­ revolution in the war, the Daily World, its war against Iran has completely The Algerian government's press ers. the newspaper of the U.S. Communist shattered. service has broadcast a message to all The U.S. State Department has re­ Party, has been highly critical of the The denunciation of the Iraqi inva­ those countries siding with Iraq in the peatedly admitted that there is no Iraqi regime and its invasion of Iran. sion by the main newspaper of the name of Arab solidarity. The state­ evidence of a major Soviet resupply of On international issues of this scope, government party in Syria was only ment reminded them that "the destruc­ Iraq, and Soviet officials strongly the Daily World is unlikely to say the first breach. tion of the shah's regime and its re­ deny the charges. anything without a clear signal from Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi placement with an authentically Much of the campaign focused on Moscow. sent a telegram on October 10 to Saudi Iranian regime strengthened the anti­ claims that two Soviet freighters In an interview with Iranian Presi­ Arabia's King Khalid and other Per­ imperialist struggle in the world and bound for Iraq had docked in the dent Abolhassan Bani-Sadr in the sian Gulf rulers urging support for especially widened the front for the Jordanian port of Aqaba. From there, Paris daily Le Monde, the Iranian Iran. liberation of Palestine.... " it was daily proclaimed over press, president said he had received assur­ "It is the Islamic duty that we, the Vietnam and North Korea are also radio, and television, their loads were ances from the Soviet ambassador in Arabs, should align ourselves with the said to be supplying Iran with small being transported to Iraq. Tehran that Moscow had stopped giv­ Moslems in Iran . . . rather than fight arms, spare parts, and other goods. On October 15, the New York Times ing supplies to the Baghdad regime. them on behalf of the United States." Meanwhile Washington has con­ admitted there was no truth to the tale. "I have no information to contradict Qaddafi also urged that Khalid send ducted a systematic disinformation The two ships were said to be steaming the diplomat's statement," Bani-S

to new- readers 0 $2 for eight issues (new readers only) 0 $5 for three months 0 $24 for one year The Mlltant- a wceks/SI 0 New 0 Renewal From the beginning of the Iranian revolution, the Name Militant has given top priority to coverage of the Address events. City As the revolution goes deeper, the lies and State ______Zip distortions about it in the U.S. media come thicker and faster. 14 Charles Lane. New York, New York 10014 You need the Militant to cut through the lies. It identifies with the struggles of the Iranian people and isn't afraid to tell the truth.

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 3 Greensboro trial of racist killers nears end By Steve Craine Smith brought a "scrapbook" to the defense eyewitnesses have been asked year Klan veteran Eddie Dawson. He GREENSBORO, N.C.-After three Klan rally containing autopsy photos under cross examination to use the was recently revealed to be an agent weeks of presenting their case, attor­ of the five victims. tapes to illustrate their testimony. As a for the Greensboro Police. In the 1960s neys for six Klan and Nazi terrorists Several defense witnesses claimed result, the jurors have an indelible Dawson was an FBI informer in the have been unable to cast significant they had been instructed not to bring picture of the defendants blasting Klan. He was convicted for shooting doubt on their guilt. They were seen on weapons to Greensboro November 3. away at the demonstrators. into a Black neighborhood. They claim national television attacking a peace­ But most admitted on cross examina­ Some of the defendants have impli­ Dawson changed the route of the car ful anti-Klan demonstration here No­ tion that they did bring guns. Nazi cated each other. Wood quoted Mat­ caravan at the last minute, to set up vember 3, 1979, killing five demonstra­ Roland Wayne Wood testified he saw a thews as saying, "I got three of them." the confrontation. tors, members of the Communist Work­ military-style semi-automatic rifle in Wood also testified that Jack Wilson But the arsenal they brought with ers Party. the trunk of another Nazi's car that Fowler, another Nazi defendant, re­ them and the methodical way they The defense raised three arguments. morning. Then he returned home and plied to Matthews, "I got my share." went about using it gives the lie to First, that the defendants were moti- picked up his 12-gauge shotgun and Fowler appears prominently on video­ the argument that only government two boxes of shells. tapes firing the military-style rifle. agents were aware of the planned After his arrest, Matthews told police The defense claims entrapment by murders. A Nazi from Raleigh testified How to fight the Klan: Louisville he "heard that the communists and government agents. In statements to he heard Dawson explaining the plans unionists and civil rights activists niggers were going to shoot us, so we the press KKKers assert that planning to others in the Klan-Nazi group prior hold united rally against right-wing took some shotguns. We were cau­ for the confrontation was done by 15- to setting out from their staging area. terror. See page 21. tious." In court Matthews claimed the only reason he brought two shotguns vated by patriotism and did not plan and a pistol to the demonstration was violence. Second, that after a confron­ that he feared they would be stolen if Victory for anti-Klan activists tation with anti-Klan demonstrators at he left them in his car. On October 6 Judge Elreta Alex­ The judge earlier ruled the arrest an all-Black housing project, the six The lead witness for the defense was ander-Ralston dismissed a charge was illegal. She explained that felt their lives were in danger. Third, FBI "audio expert" Bruce Koenig. He against Communist Workers Party Johnson could not be convicted of that the defendants were tricked into a claimed that 14 of the 39 shots fired in leader Nelson Johnson and resisting an illegal arrest. confrontation by undercover police a period of 88 seconds were fired by another against Marty Nathan, Nathan's case was dismissed agents. CWP members. But the first of those whose ·husband Mike Nathan was because it resulted from an illegal At a KKK rally last month three of shots came 51 seconds after the first killed in the Klan-Nazi attack last search of her handbag. She was the defendants made their intentions Klan shot and after a total of 11 shots year. charged with carrying a concealed clear. came from the racists. The judge also delayed sentenc­ weapon August 1. "I believe in white supremacy, and Koenig's testimony further backfired . ing two of the other widows of the But six CWP members still face I'll stand up for it until the day I die," when he gave a second-by-second anal­ victims, Dale Sampson and Signe serious felony riot charges result­ said defendant David Wayne Mat­ ysis of the four slow-motion video­ Waller, who were convicted of dis­ ing from the November 3, 1979, thews. Jerry Paul Smith, who claims he tapes of the attack under cross exami­ rupting a city touncil meeting. attack. The six, Nelson Johnson, suffered amnesia during the gun bat­ nation. He pointed out defendants as The charge dropped against Dori Blitz, Allen Blitz, Lacy Rus­ tle, stated, "The Klan did it in 1865, we they fired weapons, indicating things Johnson was for resisting arrest sell, Rand Manzella and . Percy can do it in the 1980's. We fought for the jurors might have missed, like a when cops tried to stop him from Simms will face trial on these you in the streets of Greensboro, now blur that proved to be a defendant making a speech near the county trumped-up charges sometime after its time for you to fight for us," he told firing a shotgun. courthouse August 1. the Klan killers' trial. the rally of 100 Klan supporters. Each defendant and several other Atlanta explosion adds to Black community toll Atlanta's Black community is far boiler, not foul play. happened, they were sure it was an School on Staten Island. from convinced that it was a faulty The crowd responded to the Black accident. The Black students, who number 100 boiler that led to the tragic death of mayor with boos. One man shouted The crowd demanded to know: If it of the 3,100-pupil school, were victims four children and an adult at the back, "It was the Ku Klux Klan!" was a gas explosion, why was there no of racist violence October 10. A crowd Bowen Homes housing project October The day's events gave them added fire? If it was a steam explosion why of white st~dents had gathered outside 13. good reason for disbelief. The deadly didn't anyone see any steam? the school building, threatening the They have good reason to be suspi- explosion at Bowen Homes was fol- The chief said he didn't know. Blacks and shouting racist obscenities. cious and fearful. lowed . by a series of racist phorie The blast came a week after a mo­ The Black students were gathered in In little more than a year, fourteen threats at eight Black day-care centers lotov cocktail was hurled at the admi­ several school rooms and then police­ Black children disappeared in Atlanta. and three schools. nistrative office and warehouse of escorted buses arrived to take them Eight of them were found dead. The mayor ordered the city's nine- Bowen Homes. home. Rocks were hurled at the depart­ When the blast ripped through the teen such centers shut down in· order, ing buses. day-care center at Bowen Homes, he said, to inspect the boilers. The school's 3,100 students are Atlanta's Mayor ·Maynard Jackson The night of the explosion, the city's jammed into facilities designed for hurried to the scene to assure the chief of police told a jammed-packed NEW YORK-After a threatened 2,200. The school lunch room accomo­ throng of 1,500 that gathered that it meeting at a nearby church that while boycott, Black students were promised dates 262 students and "lunch" periods was the result of a faulty hot water officials didn't know exactly what police protection at New Dorp High begin before 10 a.m. . . . ·Buffalo Blacks, unions denounce murders Continued from page 1 tion is entirely justified. grotesque red-painted head wounds. The whites also The city council has called for "a full investiga­ There have been two cross burnings during the threw red paint on the funeral hearse." tion" by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and period of the slayings. Although reluctant to concede the point in his daily press conference, District Attorney Edward unanimously adopted a resolution supporting Buf­ The Buffalo Evening News, the major daily here, Cosgrove has agreed the possibility cannot be ruled falo Unity Day. reported October 11 that a beef heart was found out that a group like the KKK was responsible. The resolution declared: "Now is the time for dangling in a locker room at the Lackawanna plant Buffalo to show the beseiged Black community they of Bethlehem Steel. Fear is not confined to the Black community. are not alone in their sorrow and outrage at the A note attached read: "Give from the heart to the Whites also feel threatened by the grisly murders. A recent barbarous murders. The white community KKK." white cab driver told this reporter, "We're all joins with the Black community in condemning The Associated Press reported October 9, "During scared." these acts and the racist attitudes that lie behind Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of Operation them." the funeral of one of the victims, two carloads of whites drove past, exhibiting a mannequin with PUSH, was one of the first national Black leaders Black council member James Pitts expressed to respond to the Buffalo events. He addressed a big concern over the recent increase in racist murders community meeting here October 10 where he called not only in Buffalo, but in other areas of the for "a massive manhunt in order that all the people country as well. might be protected." Pitts demanded that the district attorney and the He added: "We collectively must demand federal police commissioner invoke a state of emergency protection." and provide "protection and safety" for the Black Jackson was the target of a death threat from an community. anonymous caller during his visit here. A recent poll of Blacks commissioned by WKBW­ Also, Police Commissioner James Cunningham TV revealed some of the concerns of the Black attacked Jackson's visit as a "publicity stunt." community. Sixty percent of those surveyed feared for their personal safety; 52.3 percent will not travel A number of the city's Black leaders issued an alone; 31.7 percent feel that officials could be doing angry statement demanding an apology from the more to solve the murders. chief. They pointed out that Jackson had been here in response to the concerns of the Black community. Nearly a third believed that a right-wing group is responsible for the killings. Of these, 40 percent Several FBI agents are reportedly involved in the think it's the Ku Klux Klan. police investigation of the murders. But there is no The belief that the killings are the proquct of a Ernest Jones (left) and Parlor Edwards, cab drivers, sign of any substantial federal action in this critical conspiracy by the KKK or another racist organiza- were among victims in racist murders. situation.

4 Violence against Bla~ks Boston racists mobilize against busing By Nelson Gonzalez The drivers, organiz~d by United routes, and other matters into confu­ High School headmaster Jerome Win­ BOSTON-Racist attacks on deseg­ Steelworkers local 8751, have continu­ sion. egar, with coercion and threats. regation continue to grip the Boston ally spoken out in support of peaceful Wood , has been at odds with the Left unchecked, the attacks on the school system for the second week in a desegregation. Their strike, which is School Committee because of his at­ Black students will escalate. Already row. And South Boston High School is being carried out in defiance of a court tempts to dismantle the traditional the police have announced that they the focus, just as it has been since the back-to-work order, centers on de­ patronage system and replace it with a are seeking indictments of nine stu­ start of court-ordered busing six years mands to help insure the safety of more "professional" system based on dents in connection with the anti­ ago. children being bused. acceptance of desegregation. Black confrontation at Southie October Authorities are trying to re-open the Wood was replaced by Paul 2. school in the wake of a racist attack Since the day the schools opened for Kennedy, a long-time school depart­ the new school year an atmosphere of Of the nine students facing indict­ against Black students which forced ment "yes" man. One of Kennedy's racist violence has prevailed. This was ment, eight are Black! the closing of the school October 2. first acts was to announce a sweeping built up over the summer with the A broad community response is When the school re-opened for ninth reorganization of the school adminis­ frame-up rape trial of a young Black needed to put a halt to these attacks. graders on October 6, a white boycott tration. Not surprisingly, this reorgani­ man, Willie Sanders; the police murder The Boston Teachers Union, the bus organized by the antibusing South zation would lead to downgrading the of a . fourteen-year-old Black youth, drivers union, and the Black commun­ Boston Information Center cut attend­ authority of Blacks in the administra­ Levi Hart; and a rash of stabbings, ity should unite to see that desegrega­ ance to fifty-seven Black and Latin tion. stonings, and firebombings of Blacks, tion and a decent school system are students and twenty-four white stu­ Already, two key Black administra­ including for the first time, in the secured once and for all. dents out of a total enrollment of about tors have resigned rather than accept "respectable" Boston neighborhood of this downgrading. 157 Black and Latin and 123 white Brighton. ninth-grade students. Then Mayor White stepped in. He Then on October 9, Black student In this atmosphere, Democratic announced that he was refusing to Bus drivers' attendance was also reduced when Mayor Kevin White ·and the new racist approve the $236 million budget re­ school bus drivers were forced out on majority on the School Committee quested by the School Committee. - strike issues strike by the major bus contractor. launched an attack on the school sys­ Instead he imposed a $195 million Boston school bus drivers struck tem and desegregation. limit. over a number of issues involving Nelson Gonzalez is the Socialist First, the School Committee fired This drastic cut gives the School bus safety, job conditions, hours, and commitment to agreements Workers Party candidate for U.S. superintendent Robert Wood just days Committee an added argument for not with the union. Congress in Massachusetts' Sixth before school opened. This threw plan­ living up to the contract it negotiated C.D. ning for school assignments, bus with the Boston Teachers' Union. One issue that sparked the walk­ The school department estimates out was the company's refusal, that the budget cut would mean the after initial agreement, to hire a layoff of 1,900 of the system's 5,000 group of workers from another teachers and a further increase of class company that went out of business. size. Seven of those they refused to hire Not surprisingly, these layoffs would are union activists. hit the newly-hired Black and bilin­ The drivers are also demanding gual teachers hardest. reinstatement of a fifteen-minute This battle over the budget, now tied safety checkup in the morning and up in the courts, has riiised the possi­ a clean-up checkup in the after­ bility that the teachers, too, may be noon. Both are supposed to be forced to strike. provided under the contract. The all-out assault on the school The strikers are also protesting a system by the city government, coming general reduction in working hours on top of the unchecked racist violence imposed along with insistence on over the summer, has emboldened the maintaining the same schedules as antibusing racists. before the reduction. As schools opened, they promoted The workers are also demanding confrontations and a walk-out at "Sou­ safety monitors on the buses, thie." Now they have organized the which have been the frequent Boston's Hyde Park. Democrats in city hall have aided antibusing forces by cu1:ba•t:ks white student boycott, which they are target of rock-hurling racists. In school budget. enforcing, according to South Boston Chicago board OKs fake desegregation plan By Ike Nahem erally better schools provided in the nonwhite, an effective desegregation program. Magnet schools have neve1 CHICAGO-"Accord Ends 19 Years' white areas. plan must go beyond the city limits. It resulted in anything but token integra· Resistance." Yet, the much ballyhooed current is necessary to bus pupils to the tion. In Chicago, only one such school That Chicago Sun- Times headline agreement does not obligate the school mainly white, and often underutilized, was built. summed up the satisfied response of board to bus a single student. suburban schools. In late 1967, a busing program was the capitalist media and politicians to Instead, according to the September Implicitly recognizing that the plan initiated to relieve overcrowding and a school "desegregation" agreement by 25 Chicago Tribune, the board "may will leave thousands of Black and implement very limited desegregation. the Chicago Board of Education. use a variety of desegregation tech­ Latino students in their inferior segre­ Most of the program was eventually On September 24, the board had niques. Voluntary measures can in­ gated schools, the agreement states scrapped. clude permissive transfers and magnet unanimously endorsed a desegregation that such schools will receive "compen­ In 1976, the Illinois Board of Educa­ "consent decree" drawn up by the schools. Mandatory measures can in­ satory educational programs to be de­ clude redrawing school attendance tion told the Chicago school board it Justice Department and signed by a termined." was illegally maintaining segregation. federal judge. zones, reorganizing grade structures of schools, and pairing and clustering of In a statement to the media, Lee In 1979, the charge was repeated by Now, the politicians and media as­ schools." Artz, Socialist Workers Party candi­ the Department o!Health, Education sure, the problem of school segregation date for U.S. senator from Illinois, and Welfare. has finally been solved." Nineteen years of stalling pointed out how phony this is. In response, the school superinten­ The reason they're so satisfied is Black parents took their case into He noted that funds for "special dent put forward a plan that HEW that the consent decree is largely tooth­ federal court back in 1961. Two years· programs" have 'never been available branded illegal and unconstitutional. less. It does not mandate the desegre­ later their charges were upheld. Now­ in the past, and with the present It referred the· case to the Justice gation of a single school. after nineteen years of stalling-they school budget slashed by $118 million, Department for "appropriate action." The Chicago South Side NAACP are offered a desegregation plan full of "it is ludicrous to now expect them to That was when Mayor Jane Byrne attacked the plan as •a "pig in the loopholes. find money for these 'special pro­ was on the outs with Carter over her poke." The agreement says, "Mandatory grams."' endorsement of Edward Kennedy. The Thomas Atkins, general counsel to reassignment and transportation, at Carter administration moves in the the national NAACP, told a press board expense, will be included to Long fight fo·r desegregation Chicago segregation issue was widely conference here, "I'm at a loss for ensure success of the plan to the extent So another chapter opens in the long viewed as a ploy to win Black votes. words to describe how distressed we other techniques are insufficient." fight for desegregation. are. The words "at board expense" give The 1961 lawsuit resulted in a 1964 Byrne an enemy of busing "We don't like the decree and we will officials the easy alibi, "We have no plan that was accepted "in principle" Byrne and Carter have since mended take every step to make sure the inter­ money." by the school board but never imple­ their fences. The current toothless ests of Black people in Chicago are And that's after the other "tech­ mented. agreement is the "appropriate action" protected." niques" prove "insufficient." In 1965, after numerous complaints promised in 1979. Chicago is a bastion of housing and There's lots more wrong with this were filed, federal funds to the Chicago And Mayor Byrne intends to keep it school segregation. Black and Latino plan, which is supposed to go into school system were frozen. toothless. An outspoken enemy of bus­ students are jammed into segregated, effect in September 1981. President Lyndon Johnson had the ing for desegregation, she recently inferior schools and receive an inferior It doesn't even bother to define what freeze rescinded after an appeal from promised a parents' meeting in the all­ education designed to help ensure an a segregated school is. But it does the late Mayor Daley. white southwest side that they had unequal life. flatly assert that it is "neither practi­ In 1967, measures were proposed nothing to fear from the consent de­ The starting point for any serious cal nor desirable" to achieve "racial including development of so-called cree. step toward equal education must be a balance" in all the schools. magnet schools. Such schools are "vol­ In sh6rt, Chicago has not moved an program to bus or otherwise transport Furthermore, in a city like Chicago, untary," that is, separate from any inch closer to genuine school desegre­ Black and Latino students to the gen- where the public schools are 86 percent legally binding and enforced busing gation.

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 5 INS-FBI P-lot exP-osed Gov't threatens to deport socialist mine.r By Vivian Sahner A young woman coal miner in Morgantown, West Memorandunz col'\'"FIDENTIAif93 ~ 736 Ro?7 Virginia, is fighting attempts by the government to deport her because of her membership in the Social­ TO INS New York DATE: October 31, 1977 ist Workers Party and Young Socialist Alliance. Marian Bustin, born in Scotland, has been living Amembassy London in the United States since 1977. A coal miner at Republic Steel Kitt No. 1 Mine in Philipi, West ~: IR-1 Visa Recipient Marian Margaret Bustin Virginia, twenty-six-year-old Bustin is a member of United Mine Workers Local 2095. She is a partici­ pant in the antidraft movement and a member of Subject was issued an IR-1 IV on February ~. 1977 and arrived in the u.s. shortly thereafter. We subsequently the Morgantown chapter of the Coalition Against have learned that Mrs. Bustin, under the name of Marian Registration and the Draft. Blackburn, was a member of the Socialist Workers Party in New York from June, 197~ to January, 1975. The FBI has Because of her socialist politics she has been the a file on her under this name. Had the Embassy been aware target of a six-year effort by the Immigration and of this information prior to visa interview she would have Naturalization Service, the FBI, and the State been found ineligible for visa issuance under Section 212(a)(28) Department to deport her from this country. of the INA. This behind-the-scenes campaign was recently In addition, Mrs. Bustin denied membership in any subversive revealed when lawyers for the SWP and YSA or Communist organization at the time of her visa interview and answered "no" to question ~l(c) of form FS 510, which lawsuit against government spying obtained copies deals with this subject. This was a willful misrepresentation of the INS and FBI files on Bustin that spell out of a material fact and puts Mrs. Bustin within the provisions of Section 212(a)(l9) of the INA. their campaign of snooping and harassment. The socialists' suit, which is expected to go to trial soon, Excerpt from American Embassy letter urging INS to deport Bustin: 'The FBI has a file on her. .. .' has exposed many examples of illegal government activity. The outrageous attempt to victimize Bustin be­ for appeal. that Marroquin should seek asylum in "Castro's cause of her politics represents an attack on the The list has been used down through the years to Cuba" rather than the United States. rights of all working people in this country. It's an deny people jobs, open their mail, tap their phones, Marroquin appealed the ruling and renewed his attempt to convince us that it's not safe to speak out and burglarize their homes. request for political asylum to the Board of Immi­ against the draft, not safe to be a union activist or In June 1974 the Nixon administration made a gration Appeals in Washington. to fight for ratification of the Equal Rights Amend­ big media pitch by announcing that the list was He is still waiting for a decision on his appeal. ment. abolished. This harassment is being carried out by the· Coal miners and other unionists, wom~n's rights Use of the Attorney General's list today in the government despite previous court cases that have fighters, all supporters of civil rights should con­ Bustin case exposes this as a blatant lie. already determined that membership in the SWP is demn this deportation attempt and demand that the Another memo, dated January 22, 1980, spells out not grounds for deportation. government end its harassment of Marian Bustin. special INS guidelines for the SWP: "Appendix 16-C George Scythes is a former member of the SWP The case is particularly outrageous when you of ·the Investigator's Handbook advises that its who the INS tried to deport in 1958. A native of consider the repeated assurances by the govern- members should be closely questioned regarding Canada, Scythes had lived in this country for their personal attachment to the principles of the twenty-eight years. The INS held that Scythes's Constitution." membership in the SWP was grounds for deporta­ tion because the SWP "advocates violence." After reading the files, one has to admit the INS After a five-year legal battle, the U.S. Court of really went all out to follow up the embassy's idea. Appeals in Chicago overruled the INS on September They began their search in New York, where 13, 1962. ". . . we find no substantial evidence that Bustin vacationed in 1974-75 and lived from 1977 the SWP advocates or teaches . . . the violent until she moved to Morgantown in early 1978. overthrow of the Government of the United States," They wrote to the New York office of the FBI in the court ruled. November 1977 and asked for their files. The FBI The decision stymied but obviously didn't stop the sent back copies of a 1975 report in which a INS. FBI records turned over to the SWP in its $40 "confidential source, · who has furnished reliable million lawsuit describe how the INS turned to the information in the past," advised that Bustin at- FBI for help. The G-men were more than happy to MilitanVNancy tended meetings of the SWP. . Marian Bustin at Women Mine Workers Conference in oblige. Beckley, West Virginia, on June 1. Another FBI report in Bustin's file, dated No­ In a memo dated April 7, 1964, the FBI wrote, vember 27, 1974, is entitled· "Subversive Matter­ "Obviously any case seeking to deport an indivi­ ment that their disruption program against Socialist Workers Party." It states that because of dual because of association with the SWP imme­ members and supporters of the SWP ended in 1976. her affiliation with the SWP, Bustin "is engaged in diately becomes in effect a trial of the SWP itself." In March 1979 Bustin first learned that the beady activities which could involve a violation" of laws They encouraged INS to try to deport SWP eyes of the FBI and INS were following her every including "Rebellion or Insurrection," "Seditious members because "a successful prosecution of the footstep. That was when she was called into the Conspiracy," and "Advocating Overthrow of the SWP would be of extremely great value not only to INS office in New York. Government." INS but to the entire Federal Government." INS inspector Godfrey England told her that her So much for the government's claim that FBI files Government lawyers were very upset when they permanent resident status was in danger due to from before 1976 will be locked away in an archive found out INS inspector England spilled the beans reports that she had attended meetings of the SWP and never used anymore. Less than three weeks to the SWP. in 1974 and 1975. after the INS request in November 1977, the FBI On October 6 they sent a letter to Judge Thomas As part of their suit against government harass­ handed over these old files. Griesa, who is hearing the socialists' suit. The letter ment, lawyers for the SWP and YSA recently Inspector England spent his time running around argues that the SWP should be barred from obtain­ interviewed inspector England and got copies of the in New York City talking with Bustin's former ing any further information from the INS. INS file on Bustin. neighbors and landlords. First they assert "no claims are made against the Who asked the INS to open an investigation of When England learned in 1979 that Bustin lived INS" in the SWP suit. Bustln? It was none other than that helping hand in West Virginia, he sent copies of her files to the This argument has no merit whatsoever. The INS abroad-the American Embassy in London. INS in Pittsburgh. A memo dated November 2, and FBI are both under the Justice Department. In a letter dated October 31, 1977, embassy 1979, from a top official of the Pittsburgh INS, The SWP suit is against the Justice Department personnel wrote to the INS informing them that instructs an agent in the office to verify Bustin's among other government agencies and officials. they had just discovered that Bustin was a socialist. address, find out who she lives with and her place Harassment by the INS is no more legitimate than They told the INS that if they had realized that of employment. spying by the FBI. Bustin was a member of the SWP they would have The INS checked with the Pittsburgh FBI and The government also argues that the 1972 Su­ denied her visa application. also wrote to the West Virginia State Police, who preme Court decision in the case of Kleindienst v. Since they slipped up, they wanted the INS to sent back the letter stamped, "NO CONVICTION Mandel has determined that the federal court has track her down and kick her out. RECORD." no authority to scrutinize activities of the INS. Counseling the INS, the embassy pointed out that In addition to Bustin, the INS is continuing In that case Ernest Mandel, a leader of the Fourth on the visa application Bustin denied membership attempts to deport SWP member Hector Marroquin. International, was invited to speak in the United in any "subversive" org·anization. According to Marroquin fled here in 1974 after the Mexican States by a group of university professors, but the them "this was a- willful misrepresentation of a government framed him on false charges of subver­ Attorney General refused to allow a visa to be material fact" and should allow the INS to deport sion and terrorism. He was accused of participating issued to him because of his political views. her. in a shoot-out at a bakery-at a time when. he was The professors who invited Mandel filed suit but The INS took up their suggestion. in a Texas hospital with a broken leg and pelvis! lost in the Supreme Court. In his June 19, 1979, "Report of Investigation" on In 1977 he was arrested by border cops and in As undemocratic as that court decision is, it has Bustin, investigator England remarks, "The Social­ April 1979 the INS hauled Marroquin into a depor­ nothing to do with the Bustin case. ist Workers Party is on the list of proscribed tation hearing in Houston, Texas. Bustin is a permanent resident of the United organizations of the Attorney General's Office." There INS prosecutor Daniel Kahn based his case States. As such, E;he is supposed to be guaranteed Remember the Attorney General's list? A legacy solely on opposition to Marroquin's socialist views. the same rights as any other citizen here, including of the government witch-hunt that followed World "The U.S. doesn't grant asylum to those kinds of freedom of speech, the right to affiliate with politi­ War II, the list was established in 1947 under people," Kahn boasted. cal organizations, and the right to privacy. Democratic President Harry Truman. More than Immigration Judge James Smith ordered Marro­ All working people in this country have a stake in 300 organizations, including the Communist Party quin deported. In his ruling, Smith disparaged demanding that the government end all attempts to and SWP, were put on the list with no opportunity Marroquin's membership in the SWP and implied deport Bustin.

6 Judge orders NCLC files turned over Gov't has bad day in court in SWP suit By Vivian Sahner the contempt citation and Judge with a history of carrying out physical delphia. Six YWLL members were hos- NEW YORK-The government did Griesa appointed Judge Charles Brei- attacks against the Communist Party, pitalized. _ not have a good day in court October 6. tel to review and give a report on the the SWP, the Black Panther Party, and It was later learned that one of the The FBI was caught once again trying files to the SWP and YSA. others. attackers was a parole investigator for to hide evidence of its illegal activities Referring to the Heisler files, Judge The SWP and YSA request was the state of Pennsylvania and another from the Socialist Workers Party and Griesa remarked at the hearing that sparked by the Breitel report which was formerly a CIA agent in Vietnam. Young Socialist Alliance. past file deletions were "ridiculously revealed that in 1973 the FBI ~upplied Later that month sixty NCLC In preparation for their upcoming extreme. You just have pages and the NCLC with names addresses and members tried unsuccessfully to storm trial against the government and its pages of big blank things and it is very phone numbers of SWP members' the stage of a mayoral debate at Co- forty-year disruption program, the reminiscent of what I see here." · lumbia University in New York City, SWP and YSA recently requested all of Presented with this fresh evidence of The government has been fighting where candidates of the CP and SWP the FBI files on Edward Heisler. government foot-dragging, he told the hard to keep these files under wraps. were speaking. In a leaflet following Heisler was an FBI informer in the· government lawyers, "I don't want to Their lawyers argue that it would be the attack, the NCLC told the SWP, SWP from 1960 to mid-1980. be trying a case where that kind of hard to round them up. next time "we will put all of you in the At the pretrial hearing on October 6, performance has been engaged in with This prompted Judge Griesa to ask hospital; we will deal with you as we lawyers for the SWP and YSA showed the Department of Justice cutting out them at the hearing, "Is the NCLC file did with the Communist Party." federalJudgeThomasGriesa the copies big swaths of relevant documents." some huge file? ... You know, if In May 1973, the NCLC attacked of the Heisler files they received. On He th d d th . t t there is a file on the NCLC of the size people registering for a SWP /YSA page after page almost every printed ork ;n or ere ~ g~:~men. ~ there is with the SWP, you could spend Educational Conference at Wayne word was crossed out. The files are the ~ ts ~u :n a~e~me~h w~ 1 t edsociat - ten years on that kind of project. . . . State University in Detroit, Michigan. most heavily deleted of any yet turned I~ 1 aif ou res nngt e etebe mak ed- did the FlU do that with all of these Two of those attacked, Jerry Crist and . d h 1 na . an agreemen canno e wor e . . . d " over m the case-an t at says a ot. ou t the JU. d ge threa t ene d t o t a k e a 1oo k organizations?" Don. .Bechler, . . were hospitalize ~or Since the SWP filed the suit in 1973 at the Heisler files himself and deter- The politics and activities of the their InJUries. the government has consistently mine the information that should be NCLC are ready-made for police In ~une 1973, five armed NC~C stalled and defied court orders in an turned over to the SWP and YSA. agents. thugs JUmped_ three SWP members m effort to hide the truth about activities New York City. SWP member Jesse of FBI informers. The SWP and YSA were able to score In April 1973, the NCLC launched Smith was hospitalized with eleven a second victory at the hearing when what it termed "Operation Mop-Up." stitches and a broken arm. In 1978 the case made national head­ the judge repeated his order that the The group vowed to "finish off the The exposure of FBI links with the lines when, for the first time in history, government tum over FBI files per- Communist Party." NCLC illustrates how deadly serious Judge Griesa ruled U.S. Attorney Gen­ taining to attacks on SWP and YSA On April 11, 1973, NCLC thugs the government is about quashing eral Griffin Bell in contempt of court members by a group called the Na- armed with lead pipes broke into the political dissent in this country. for refusing to tum over the records of tional Caucus of Labor Committees. offices of the Communist Party's youth After Judge Griesa's order for the eighteen government finks. The NCLC, also known as the U.S. group, the Young Workers Liberation files, the government lawyers left the Later the court of appeals threw out Labor Party, is a small right-wing sect League, at Temple University in Phila- courtroom looking mighty glum.

~we're standing_yg for our rights' Transit workers battle Dallas union-busting By Chris Horner put in effect this year, their main ought to give the drivers more pay." of this city of more than a million DALLAS-A walkout by 700 transit grievances are over working condi- He says his response is, "O.K. Would people. workers has erupted into the biggest tions. These include: you rather pay more taxes or a higher Rejecting DTS claims of poverty, confrontation in years between the • Being on call seven days a week; bus fare?" transit workers point to the expensive labor movement and the oil-rich rulers • An attendance policy of firing At 65 cents, with additional charges ads management is placing in the of Dallas. workers who miss more than six days daily papers to explain its side. They The city refuses to negotiate. It has in six months for any reason; for longer rides, the Dallas bus fare is already one of the highest in the coun­ also point to premium rates being paid fired more than 500 workers and is in • Split shifts that extend the work­ try. It is scheduled to rise to 75 cents to scabs and to fourteen-dollar-an-hour the process of firing all the rest who ing day to twelve or fourteen hours, November 1. off-duty cops hired to ride shotgun on refuse to scab. and; the buses. Dallas Transit System (DTS) boss • Forced overtime that can require Miserable service Cliff Franklin put it this way: "While a workers to come back to the job after "They've got enough money to shut strike may be appropriate for Detroit, only a few hours off in case of "emer­ Yet, the service provided is misera­ it down and not care about how much we are saying this is not appropriate gencies" declared by management. bly inadequate. And having fired the money they're losing," John Stoke, a for Dallas. An example of such "emergencies" transit workers, DTS says it will take driver for three years, told the Mili­ "I felt there was a need to tell the are Dallas Cowboys football games. up to two years to restore "normal" tant. DTS admits that during the first citizens throughout Dallas that man- In a backhanded admission that the service. During the early days of the week of the walkout, it took in less agement will run the transit system, workers have won considerable public walkout, it put some fifty buses a than $30,000 compared to $200,000 in not the employees." sympathy, DTS boss Franklin told the day-driven by untrained, incompetent a normal week. The city council has voted uncondi- press, "People have called and said we scabs and supervisors-on the streets Continued on page 8 tiona} backing to transit management. The workers' response was expressed by Robert Hall, a driver for nearly eight years, who told the Militant the firings "don't frighten me at all. We're standing up for our rights as human beings. We're determined to hold out, to do what we have to for our rights. "I hope and pray this will work," he added, "because it will open the way not only for us, but for other city employees." B. J. Simmons, president of Amal­ gamated Transit Union Local 1338, told the media, "If they think we'll roll over and play dead, they're mistaken. We have just begun to fight." · At a news conference October 13, officials of the Dallas County AFL­ CIO, United Auto Workers, and other unions pledged full backing for the transit workers. Issues in walkout The job action began October 1. Antilabor Texas laws prohibit collec­ tive bargaining and union contracts for public · employees and outlaw strikes. So the workers are calling their walkout a "protest by individuals." The bus drivers, mechanics, and cleaners of local 1338-more than 70 percent of whom are Black-are among the lowest paid in the country. Drivers started at $5.82 an hour when the walkout began. While the workers want a wage Socialist Workers vice-presidential candidate Matilde Zimmermann visits Dallas transit workers picket line to express solidarity increase more than the 7 percent DTS with walkout. ·

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 7 WhY. workers should run Dallas Socialist candidate u aid to transit walkout The following · is taken from a supporting Democrats and Republi­ speech by Lea Sherman, Socialist cans, 'the two parties of big business. Workers Party candidate for Con­ My own union, CWA Local 12260, gress from the Fifth District in supports Mattox, who boasts that he Texas, at an October 11 campaign not only believes in "free enterprise," rally in Dallas. Sherman, who has but also practices it, having amassed a lived most of her life in Dallas, is a minor fortune of a half million dollars. member of Communications Work­ I don't think that's much of a qualifi­ ers of America Local 12260 at cation. Western Electric. A lot better would be for my union­ together with transit workers, steel­ Last night I joined 200 transit work­ workers, farm workers, and others-to ers and their supporters outside of the run our own candidates. Candidates Martin Luther King Center. who are workers themselves and who We had to rally outside because the will fight for workers' needs. same city officials who fired the work­ ers for striking, the same city officials Racist discrimination who refuse to negotiate with the union, It· is union members and the labor would not even allow them to meet in movement-not the Democrats and Re­ what is supposed to be a public facility. publicans-that stand for decent tran­ I was inspired by what I saw and sit service to the people of Dallas. The heard there, by the determination and same is true for every other public militancy of these workers. service. They spoke about the conditions that It is the labor movement that under­ forced them out. About pay that is stands the need for child-care centers, lower than other city employees and for aid to the unemployed, for health that doesn't even pretend to keep up care, and for decent education for our with inflation. About working night children. All our children. shift to 2 a.m. and then being expected The Dallas School Board has fought to drive a route at 5 a.m. About an tooth and nail against educating the unfair attendance policy that would children of undocumented workers. penalize them for an unexcused day This is a shameful and racist attempt even if one of their children were hospi­ to victimize families that already talized. suffer from cruel exploitation and pov­ erty. Concern for service The school board has maintained a The transit workers especially em­ dual system of inferior education for phasized their deep concern for the MilitanVAndy Rose Black and Chicano children. It has Dallas bus riders. Lea Sherman, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in 5th C.D. resisted every effort to desegregate the Driver after driver said: We are pro­ schools. fessionals. We want to provide good We need a labor party to fight to end service. But with the harassment and tion of State, County and Municipal there a bus driver on the DTS board? racist discrimination and, for the first abuse from the DTS [Dallas Transit Employees]. Why isn't there a bus driver on the city time in Texas history, to provide equal System], we just can't. council?" opportunity for Black and Chicano We know people may lose their jobs The transit workers need a lot of support-both financial aid and public That's a very good question. youth. because they can't get to work on time It's obvious that transit workers We need a labor party to abolish without the bus, drivers said, but we pressure on the city. I urge everyone here to do everything you can in your understand the transit system better, "right to work" and other anti-union have to stand up for what is right. We union, on your campus, or in your and care about it a lot more, than the laws and to guarantee the right of all just can't take it anymore. - people running it now. It's obvious workers to organize and strike. And evidence is that the bus riders community to help organize that sup­ port. that these workers should be on the We need a labor party to fight to put know exactly who is to blame. Many DTS board and on the city council. the burden of taxes where it belongs, have already signed petitions of sup­ And in the state legislature, the U.S. on the rich, so we can expand and port to the transit workers. Why not a worker? Congress, and the White House, I improve bus service, provide decent No driver I talked to believes the city It was glaringly evident that not one might add. pay and conditions for transit workers, doesn't have money to meet their de­ Democratic or Republican politician · This is exactly what the 1980 Social­ and eliminate the fare altogether. mands. And neither do I. was present at the rally to support the ist Workers campaign centers on-the It is because the Socialist Workers The Democrats and Republicans find rights of the transit workers. need for workers not only to keep Party raises ideas like these--ideas plenty of money for lining their own Not Jim Mattox, my Democratic everything running, which we already that are increasingly popular-that the pockets or for handouts to big busi­ opponent, who has taken thousands of do, but also to take political control Democrats and Republicans who run ness. They just can't find it for human dollars from labor unions and who has and begin running society in the inter­ Texas are trying to keep us off the needs, least of all for services like the the endorsement of the Dallas AFL­ ests of the majority of people. We need ballot. Dallas buses that are mainly used by CIO. a labor party, a party of working But whether we are on the ballot this the Black and Chicano communities. Not Tom Pauken, my Republican people, based on the strength of the November or not, the Socialist Workers ·There were much-needed pledges of opponent, an open supporter of "right union movement. Party will continue to campaign for solidarity at the rally. Representatives to work" and other union-busting laws. The bus driver's ·question wasn't support to the transit workers, for were there from the state and national After the speeches last night, the answered last night. I'd like to answer taxing the rich, and for the unions to AFL-CIO, from the A. Philip Randolph rally was opened up for questions. And it now: The reason there are no bus launch a labor party. Institute, and from city workers organ­ the very first question-I think it came drivers or other workers on the city These ideas cannot be silenced and ized by AFSCME [American Federa- from a bus driver-was, "Why isn't council is because our unions keep they cannot be stopped.

ing lives. Roger Johnson, a driver for ment or city hall. The next step is to the rights the Polish workers won. ... walkout twelve years, told the Militant he tum to the citizens of Dallas." Meanwhile the picket lines remain Continued from page 7 worked as an instructor. He normally strong, with nearly 100 workers daily . The DTS bosses "don't feel any trains new drivers for thirty days. One Solidarity. marching and carrying signs. sympathy for the passengers," Stokes scab who h~d been his student for only Their comments show this struggle three days is now out driving. Local 1338 has already begun to is far from over: said. "The people who support us are reach out to the riding public, which is the poor people, the minorities. They're "When the first rain comes," he said, "Business comes first, everybody overwhelmingly Black and Chicano. else second. 'Right to work' has every­ the ones who need us. The rich ones "there's going to be a lot of people hurt, Thousands of signatures have been who've got chauffeurs, they don't need a lot of people killed." body bound to the system." collected on petitions addressed to the "Until hell freezes over, I'm not us and they don't support us." city council. Both sides in this battle know the driving my bus. It must change!" Patricia Parker, another driver with stakes are high. On October 11 a support rally of 200 three years on the job, told the Mili­ Dallas is only eight percent unio­ was held at the Martin Luther King DALLAS------~ tant: "The DTS doesn't give a hoot nized. It has low wages, poor social Center in South Dallas, the major about the riders. services, and low taxes on business. Black community. SUPPORT THE "I've felt the system tightening· up This is the "good business climate," After the rally a member of Com­ TRANSIT WORKERS and I knew one day I'd just snap. I the city officials are determined to munications Workers of America Local couldn't go on working seven days a uphold, using "right to work" laws and 12260, which organizes the three thou­ Speakers from labor movement, week. I couldn't maintain a budget every other antilabor weapon they can sand workers at Western Electric, community, Socialist Workers Party paying 1980s prices on a 1960s pay­ find. asked the transit workers to send a check. Dallas workers say it's time for a speaker to her union meeting the next Saturday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m. "They have no respect for us as change. If the city can get away with week. individuals. Well, I have no respect for firing its entire transit work force to ATU Local President B. J. Simmons 5442 E. Grand Avenue the DTS. It's a dictatorship. There's no break a union, all working people will personally went to the meetings for democracy in Dallas." be the losers. both shifts and spoke. Dozens of peti­ Donation: $1.5Q-proceeds to transit At the labor support news conference tions were signed and a resolution of workers Scabs endanger riders October 13, Willie Chapman, AFL-CIO support unanimously passed. The workers explain that the city's Secretary Treasurer, stated, "These One CW A member exclaimed that Auspices: Militant Forum, For more attempt to run buses with untrained workers have tried for over six months the antilabor laws in Texas are "dis­ information call (214) 826-4711 drivers and little upkeep is endanger- to get an attentive ear from manage- gusting," that workers here are denied 8 Oct. 25-Nov. 4: Special Subscription scoreboard campaign sales planned As of October 11, 1980 be on an all-out effort to talk with their MILITANT SUBS PM SUBS TOTAL TOTAL By Nancy Rosenstock AREA GOAL REC'D GOAL REC'D GOAL REC'D % Socialists across the country are co-workers about the campaign and planning for an all-out push in the about the Militant and PM. Phoenix 55 49 20 7 75 56 75 final week and a half of the election For areas that are behind schedule Kansas City 100 74 10 5 110 79 72 campaign. in the subscription drive this will be an Indianapolis 110 84 10 1 120 85 71 The ten-day period from October 25 opportunity to catch up during the ten Milwaukee 175 .126 25 12 200 138 69 to November 4 has been set aside for a day period. Some areas that are al­ Gary 85 66 15 2 100 68 68 big drive to spread the word about the ready ahead of schedule will be raising Atlanta 140 92 10 2 150 94 63 Socialist Workers Party campaign. The their goals. Dallas 75 51 25 8 100 59 59 SWP is running Andrew Pulley for Our experience so far in the subscrip­ Piedmont 100 58 0 1 100 59 59 Salt Lake City 135 76 15 7 150 83 55 president and Matilde Zimmermann tion drive proves that this special Morgantown 100 54 0 0 100 54 54 for vice-president. election blitz can be very successful. Washington, D.C. 110 77 45 6 155 83 54 The centerpiece of the special drive Areas that are getting the best results Iron Range 90 43 0 5 90 48 53 will be to make a big leap forward in from door-to-door campaigning report Denver 85 50 15 1 100 51 51 the campaign to win 8,000 new readers that workers_ are looking for papers Detroit 185 96 15 5 200 101 51 to the Militant and Perspectiva Mun­ that take sides on important questions. New Orleans 90 47 10 2 100 49 49 dial. The goal for the ten-day period People want to get into discussions Tidewater 120 59 0 0 120 59 49 will be to gather more than 1,000 new and are interested in what socialist Cincinnati 120 53 0 2 120 55 46 subscriptions. Combined with this will workers have to say about the big \ Newark 240 125 60 11 300 136 45 be the distribution of thousands of political questions on their minds. Portland 95 43 0 0 95 43 45 Twin Cities 190 87 10 3 200 90 45 pieces of socialist campaign literature. An important part of the pre-elec­ . Albuquerque 60 33 20 2 80 35 44 The next issues of the Militant and tion blitz will be the campaigning Baltimore 115 51 5 2 120 53 44 PM will be special election issues. The socialists do among Spanish-speaking San Diego 70 34 30 10 100 44 44 Militant will have articles on why workers. Focusing in on gathering new Miami 75 35 15 4 90 39 43 electing Carter is no solution to fight­ subscribers to PM is a priority for the Pittsburgh 165 67 10 4 175 71 41 ing Reagan's right-wing program; Pul­ pre-election blitz. We want to use this Cleveland 100 47 30 4 130 51 39 ley and Zimmermann tours in the Mid­ ten-day period to try to catch up on Manhattan 300 145 200 51 500 196 39 west and southern California; and this aspect of the drive, which has Chicago 300 104 50 23 350 127 36 coverage of SWP local campaigns and lagged behind. Brooklyn 300 123 100 18 400 141 35 candidates. The final campaigning will culmi­ Seattle 210 76 15 3 225 79 35 PM will also be devoted primarily to nate in election-night celebrations held Louisville 100 33 0 1 100 34 34 the elections. Included in the issue will across the country. Supporters of Pul­ Toledo 60 20 0 0 60 20 33 be a statement by Pulley on the need ley and Zimmermann will be able, via Capital District 100 34 20 3 120 37 31 for a labor party; a speech by Young a national phone hook-up, to hear Philadelphia 115 37 35 8 150 45 30 Socialist Alliance leader Kara Obra­ San Antonio 6Q 21 30 6 90 27 30 speeches by both candidates. These Los Angeles 200 70 150 14 350 84 24 dovic on · the socialist alternative; celebrations will help to bring together Oakland 125 30 50 2 175 32 18 "Why women need a labor party" by all supporters of the socialist· cam­ St. Louis 120 20 0 1 120 21 18 Matilde Zimmermann; and an inter­ paign and will help to recruit many of San Jose 100 10 50 7 150 17 11 view with Pulley on his trip to Gre­ them to the Young Socialist Alliance Boston 210 19 40 0 250 19 8 nada. and the SWP. . San Francisco \ 100 10 100 2 200 12 6 Our aim during this pre-election· If you would like to participate in Houston 105 6 35 0 140 6 4 final push is for socialists all over the this drive, please contact the SWP or Birmingham 50 0 0 0 50 0 0 country to campaign door to door in YSA in your city (see page 23) or TOTAL 5540 2435 1270 245 6810 2680 39 working-class nei.ghborhoods, intro­ contact the Militant Circulation Office 14 190 72 38 ducing people to the Militant and PM. at 14 Charles Lane, New York, New Miscellaneous 58 National Teams 119 7 1000 126 13 Socialists will also be on the street York 10014. We will rush the subscrip­ corners, in front of plant gates, and on tion sellers kit off to you. (Kit includes TOTAL GOAL 5540 2612 1270 266 8000 2878 36 the college campUses. sample copies of the Militant and PM SHOULD BE 2327 533 3360 42 Socialist workers in the plants will plus socialist campaign literature.)

Perspectiva Mundial: a socialist magazine By Martin Koppel The revolutions in Cuba, Nicaragua, gan; a Cuban bus driver's independent have received a good response selling Expanding the readership of Per· and Grenada, and the struggles in El campaign in Miami; and why Chica- in the garment district, when thou- spectiva Mundial is a key part of the Salvador and elsewhere, have a big nos need a labor party. sands of Latino workers pour into the Socialist Workers Party's election cam- impact on the Latino population. "La- Additional articles have covered the street during their lunch break. paign. This fall supporters of the presi- tinos are inspired when they hear the copper miners' strike in the Southwest, Yanez concluded by saying, "All dential ticket of Andrew Pulley and truth about these revolutions. And the fight for the Equal Rights Amend- supporters· of Pulley and Zimmermann Matilde Zimmermann are setting out Carter's threats and military moves ment, ·and the concentration-camp should help campaign by selling Per- to win nearly 1,300 new subscribers to against these revolutions are radicaliz- treatment meted out to new Cuban spectiva Mundial. It is an excellent way PM, the Spanish-language biweekly ing young Latinos, who don't want to ~migres in the United States. for Latinos to find out about the social- newsmagazine supporting the cam- be drafted to fight their own sisters The next issue will be devoted pri- ist alternative in 1980 and a party that paign. and brothers." marily to the elections. It will include can honestly say: "Nuestro partido es During the first four weeks, sales of Yanez emphasized that Spanish- articles on why women need a labor tu partido." PM have been running behind sche- speaking people here want to know party, and a speech by a leader of the dule. Many branches are discussing what's really happening in the world. Young Socialist Alliance on the social- special efforts to increase subscription "Only PM will give them the working- ist choice for 1980. sales in the Latino neighborhoods and class side of the story." Supporters of Pulley and Zimmer- other areas. For example, in Chicago, Yanez cited in-depth articles docu- mann are bringing the socialist alter- teams recently went to Little Village menting U.S. military involvement in native to Spanish-speaking workers all and sold eleven PM subs. El Salvador as an example of the over the country by selling Perspectiva I had a talk with Anibal Yanez, magazine's coverage of Latin America. Mundial. Thirty-three branches of the managing editor of PM, about the Major speeches by Fidel Castro and SWP have taken subscription goals for importance of the magazine. leaders of the Nicaraguan revolution PM along with their Militant goals. Yanez told me that Latinos-Chica- are published regularly. Yanez explained that this campaign nos, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Central PM covers events such as the recent is being carried out primarily by sel- and South Americans-are the fastest conference in solidarity with El Salva- ling door to door in Latino communi- growing oppressed minority in this dor and the upcoming series of na- ties. Teams of PM salespeople also country. They now number some 20 tional antidraft events. distribute SWP campaign literature in million. Another important subject of con- Spanish. Many areas have sent PM Latinos overwhelmingly form a part cern for Spanish-speaking people here teams to campuses where Latino stu· of the working class, and are more is the capitalist offensive against our dents go to school. concentrated in industrial jobs than is living standards and democratic Some of the most enthusiastic Per- the general work force. rights. Latino workers bear the brunt spectiva Mundial supporters are acti- A higher percentage of Latino work- of the attack, and are especially re- vists in Latin American solidarity ers, like Black workers, join unions to sponsive to the proposals of the Social- committees. For example, seventeen defend their rights. District 38 of the ist Workers 1980 campaign. Tens of people bought subscriptions at the United Steelworkers, which recently thousands of Latinos from San Diego recent conference in solidarity with El passed a resolution favoring a labor io New York signed to put the socialist Salvador, held in Los Angeles. Seven party, has a large number of Chicanos candidates on the ballot. more were sold at a similar conference among its 70,000 members. Topics covered in the past few issues, last weekend in Washington, D.C. This Such facts, said Yanez, support the Yaiiez told me, included exposes of the was out of a total of 150 and 175 view of the Socialist Workers Party Carter, Reagan, and Anderson cam- people, respectively. that Latino workers play a crucial role paigns; an update on the SWP's fight "We also want to pay special atten­ in the struggles of ·working people in to defend its right to be on the ballot in tion to sales to industrial workers," this country. Missouri, California, Texas, and Michi- Yanez said. In Manhattan socialists

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 9 What Polish workers are fighting for How AFL-CIO leaders cover up the truth By Fred Feldman · Polish workers are fighting to over- Top union bureaucrats in this coun­ come. try rushed to portray themselves as the And, of course, Kirkland, Fraser, best friends of the heroic Polish work­ Church, and McBride never utter a ers. Resolutions and statements "hail­ word against the banks that have ing" their strikes were rushed out by imposed extortionate interest rates on the officialdom of virtually every inter­ Poland, and force the government to national union. devote almost all its foreign export AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland earnings to keeping up interest pay­ announced the formation of a Polish ments. They never suggest that inter­ Workers Aid Fund supposedly to help est-free credits and other aid be given the new unions. To get it started, he to Poland. After all, that would violate announced, the AFL-CIO Executive the laws of a "free economy." In announcing the "fund" for the Board was co~tributing $25,000. Douglas Fraser, president of the Polish workers, Kirkland declared, United Auto Workers, tried to claim a "We are doing it today in other parts of little credit for the workers' triumph. the world." He bragged that the UAW had been Arm of imperialism funneling money to the strike commit­ tee in Gdansk. From South Korea to Chile, from It's not surprising that the bureau­ Thailand to Nicaragua, the AFL-CIO's crats seek to bask in the reflected glory American Institute for Free Labor of the Polish workers. They know that Development serves as a conduit for millions of union members and other funds to "free unions" that slavishly workers were inspired by the militancy support the most reactionary regimes, and unity of the Polish strikers, their and often to these regimes themselves. defiant assertion of the right to organ­ In El Salvador, for instance, the ize, their resistance to austerity mea­ AIFLD is helping a bloody junta that sures, their political leadership of the has killed thousands of workers and entire nation, and their success in peasants in 1980 alone. This junta has forcing massive concessions from the imprisoned many striking unionists government. and union leaders. The AIFLD works everywhere to Falsifying struggle help create "free unions" that "fight But these bureaucrats are no friends communism" but don't utter a peep of the Polish workers. Their response against the interests of U.S. big busi­ has a sinister purpose. They want to ness and its government. use declarations of support to conceal In the world arena the AFL-CIO the real meaning of the Polish strikes bureaucracy acts not as an arm of the from American workers-and even to U.S. labor movement, but as an exten­ tum it into its opposite. sion of the State Department, Central According to the union bureaucrats, Intelligence Agency, and Pentagon. the Polish workers are simply strug­ This role is not new. It stretches gling to achieve the state of grace from the end of World War II-when supposedly achieved by organized the bureaucrats helped block struggles American workers-"free" trade un­ for socialism in Europe and split the ions in a capitalist system. labor movements of France, Italy, and "What is happening in Poland has Top, strike leader Walesa addresses Polish workers; below, AFL-CIO lnteramerlcan other countries-down through the nothing to do with political theories representative Andrew McLellan (far left) and AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer William Vietnam War and to the present. involving the ownership of the means Donahue (second from right), meet with Otlllo Vleytez, Minister of Planning In brutal Their actions have brought organ­ of production or the dictatorship of the El Salvador junta (second from left). AFL-CIO tops oppose everything Polish workers ized labor's officialdom into deep dis­ proletariat," an editorial in the Sep­ and El Salvador's people fight for. credit among working people around tember 6 AFL-CIO News assured us. the world. All that was involved, declared Uni­ That's why the Kremlin was able to based on collaborating with the em­ Kirkland endorsed it and announced ted Steelworkers President Lloyd jump on the piddling contributions by ployers to keep workers in their place plans to extend it internationally. (The McBride, was the Polish workers' "de­ the AFL-CIO to make propaganda as dues-paying wage slaves. They in­ boycott was lifted September 2.) . termination to have free trade unions against the Polish workers. sist that workers shouldn't be con­ This boycott was a betrayal of the capable of bargaining about the terms · The AFL-CIO bureaucrats hate and . cerned with who owns the means of Polish workers and or'their new un­ of their employment." fear the struggles of the Polish work­ production-these belong by right to ions. Their struggle was simply a United Mine Workers President Sam ers, which threaten everything they capitalist profiteers. They tell us that it pretext for the AFL-CIO tops to apply Church was more blunt. The Polish stand for. Above all, they hate the deep is only natural that we should vote for their policy of seeking economic and strikes, he said, "show how weak a anticapitalist consciousness of these capitalist parties. Workers, you see, diplomatic boycotts against the Soviet government-controlled, artificial econ­ workers and their record of struggle for aren't "qualified" to rule. And they tell Union and other countries that have omy really is. Free unions and a free socialism. us that it is our patriotic duty to fight rejected the blessings of capitalism. economy go hand in hand." and die for big business at the order of This policy is hated by workers Revolution in Poland In other words, the Polish strikes a capitalist government. throughout the Soviet bloc. just go to show how lucky we are to The consciousness of the Polish The Polish workers' demands for have capitalism. (What the bloody But the AFL-CIO leadership's at­ workers is a result of conquests they elimination of bureaucratic privileges history of miners' strikes in this coun­ tacks on the Polish workers go much won in the past-gains American and gross inequality doesn't look very try shows about capitalism wasn't further. workers have yet to make. Capitalism good to these officials, bureaucrats has been abolished there. taken up by Church.) They support the arms budget-and themselves. They are continually in­ At the end of the Second World War, But that's not the way the Polish call for spending still more on weapons creasing the yawning pay differential the Polish workers and farmers rose up workers see it. of death. They support the North between themselves and the average against an oppressive and exploitative Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Workers want socialism union member. old order that had brought nothing but The few bucks they promise to shell rings the Soviet bloc with missiles, "One of the things we most want is misery and decline. out to the Polish workers don't amount troops, and military bases. And they to have in our hands the land and the Over the years that followed, the to much in the light of their actions to call for Washington's NATO allies to factories in which we work," explained capitalists were expropriated, land­ weaken the workers in Poland and allow still more nuclear-tipped missiles strike leader Lech Wales a. lordism was eliminated, and a planned around the world. to be stationed on their soil. "Nothing to do with ... the owner­ economy was instituted. That meant Some of these missiles target ship of the means of production"? that production was no longer organ­ ILA boycott Gdansk, Sczeczin, and Warsaw-a fact Nothing to do with whether capitalists ized for the benefit of capitalist profit­ When the Polish workers went on the Polish workers do not appreciate. "~~ proletarians rule? eers. strike, the gangster-ridden leadership fbae is a word for the aspirations of The workers became the ruling class of the International Longshoremen's Backs war drive ·:.' rkers "to have in our hands the in Polish society. · . . ·; · : cld the factories in which we Association, headed by Thomas Glea­ The AFL-CIO leadership supports But a huge obstacle remained to son, imposed a boycott of Polish goods. :;ucialism. draft registration for men and their exercising this new role. Due to ;d far beyond the "bargaining There had been no call for such a women-so that the U.S. government occupation by the Soviet army, a bu­ boycott by the Polish strikers. will have plenty of cannon fodder to . "·' terms of employment" that is reaucratic caste modeled on the one use against peoples anywhere in the governing in the Soviet Union was ~ :' ;, n and end-all for the union To the contrary, the strikers were world who fight for the same things · .. ,:,, .'<•.ts in this country. doing their utmost to ensure that the imposed. that the Polish workers are fighting ·: :-'.~·ii.;h workers are talking about supply of food to the Polish people As in the Soviet Union, the bureau­ for. ':i:~g class asserting its right to wasn't interrupted. But Gleason's en­ crats concentrated political power in ·.::ifty and organize the economy forcers held back thousands of tons of U.S. imperialism's militarization their hands in order to protect the :lltc.·t>gts of the great majority. grain that were needed by workers and drive--cheered on by Kirkland and privileges they were accumulating. : .• i;, a very different conscious­ farmers in Poland. company-forces states where capital­ They got the highest salaries, country ·• (r~·:n the one that capitalist rulers Far from condemning this strike­ ism has been overthrown like Poland homes, automobiles, and access to .: tl' eir bureaucratic collaborators breaking action and ·demanding that to undertake big military expenditures. special stores where the be§.t food and ':-:,· ::·. instill into American workers. the ILA hoods be tossed out of the The arms race is a contributing factor other goods were available. The bureaucrats' whole existence is labor movement, AFL-CIO President in the economic difficulties that the Continued on page 19 10 Warns of rightist terror Hundreds in N.Y. hear Grenadian leader BROOKLYN, N.Y.-An overflow The imperialist campaign against crowd of 600 jammed into the Colonial Grenada has targeted Cuba. Strachan Mansion, a community center in the pointed out that despite "facing many heart of Brooklyn's Caribbean com­ difficulties Cuba has given generous munity, October 12. They came to hear aid to the Grenada revolution. They the minister of labor, works, and com­ are providing doctors, technical assis­ Grenadian publications munications, and acting foreign minis­ tance, and are building an interna­ The Free West Indian and the New Jewel-publications from revolu­ ter of the People's Revolutionary Gov­ tional airport. tionary Grenada-are available to U.S. readers. ernment of Grenada, Selwyn Strachan. "In every other Caribbean island the The Free West Indian is the official paper of the People's Revolutionary people are paying $1.25 for a pound of Government and the island's national newspaper. Unde~ the Gairy Some were unable to squeeze into the sugar," Strachan explained. "Grenadi­ dictatorship, the paper was known as the West Indian, but was renamed crowded hall. Others obtained stand­ ans pay sixty-eight cents a pound for after the March 1979 revolution. The Free West Indian is a weekly twenty­ ing room along the walls and in the sugar. We are able to do this because four page tabloid that includes news stories and features on Grenada, as aisles and doorway. Cuba has provided us with 400 tons of well as coverage of Caribbean and international events. About fifteen supporters of Eric sugar free of charge and 1,100 tons Gairy, the former Grenadian dictator The New Jewel, also a weekly, is the organ of the New Jewel Move­ below world market prices. ment-the revolutionary party of the country. With the "Year of Educa­ who was ousted by the revolution of "And these people attack Cuba. March 1979, stood outside the hall. tion and Production," as one of its subheadlines, recent issues of the New These are the same people who could As the crowd waited, Black United only offer us $5,000 when we asked Jewel have focused on the PRG's campaigns and programs such as the Front member Adeyemi Bendele land reform program; the literacy campaign; and recruitment to the them for aid.'' showed slides of the celebration in At that point some yelled out, "Long militia. Grenada of the first anniversary of the For U.S. subscriptions to both publications, . write to the Grenada live· Fidel.'' The crowd burst into ap­ revolution. Bendele was part of a dele­ plause. Mission to the United Nations, Room 905, 141 East 44th Street, New gation of Afro-Americans who went to York, N.Y. 10017. Strachan explained that the cam­ Grenada last March 13. paign against Cuba and the rise in Strachan received a standing ova­ Canada-Grenada Friendship Society counterrevolutionary terrorism is the tion as he approached the microphone. response that opponents of the revolu­ A meeting of more than 200 people cele=­ He reported both on new accomplish­ tion make to the continued gains for brated the launching of the Canada­ ments of the revolution and the rise in the working people, and the growth Grenada Friendship Society in Toronto last counterrevolutionary terrorist attacks. and consolidation of the revolution. month. Strachan explained, "Just two weeks Strachan reported on new measures The October 6 issue of the Socialist Voice, ago some people began to circulate a to be taken against counterrevolution­ the bi-weekly newspaper that reflects the pamphlet attacking the revolution. It ary terrorists. The government will views of the Revolutionary Workers League tried to give the impression that the enact a law providing for the death of Canada, featured a report on the Sep­ Cubans who are helping to rebuild the penalty for those found guilty of terror­ tember 13 event and an interview with country are a threat to Grenada. They ist acts that result in the death of Caldwell Taylor, Grenadian ambassador to say that the Cubans are building the others. the United Nations. airport in order to take over the coun­ "Just last week we held a meeting Taylor, a guest speaker at the gathering, try." with the doctors in our country," he told-the crowd that, "Our revolution is Strachan continued, "They say that said, "This was a very productive internationalist and militantly anti­ the leadership of our party is divided. meeting. After this meeting the doctors imperialist." That the Deputy Prime Minister Ber­ agreed that all those working with the During his Socialist Voice interview, nard Coard had his passport taken government will no longer charge the Taylor stressed the importance of solidarity away and cannot travel. That the people an attendant's fee. This is the groups like Canada's to the Grenadian comrade in command of the army, first time this has ever happened. This revolution. CALDWELL TAYLOR Hudson Austin, was arrested and put will mean that all our people will be in jail, and that a Cuban is now in able to get medical care at .any facility U.S. involvement in El Salvador charge of the army." in the country. These lies were met with laughter "One year ago there was only one The Ecumenical Program for Interamerican Communication and from the audience. dental clinic in the entire country. Action (EPICA) has published a thirty-page paper entitled "History and Strachan resumed, "More seriously, Today there is a dental clinic in every Motivations of U.S. Involvement in the Control of the Peasant Movement comrades, a week ago Saturday last, parish. We have now made available in El Salvador." another bomb was set off, at the city of 500 more scholarships that will go to The paper assesses the role of the American Institute for Free Labor Sauters in St. Patrick's Parish. Fortu­ the children of the working poor.'' Development (AIFLD)-an AFL-CIO agency-in the agrarian reform nately no one was injured. A note was Included in the speakers program program and among Salvadoran peasants from 1970-1980. left where the bomb was set, addressed with Strachan were Caldwell Taylor, The authors-Carolyn Forche, a lecturer at the University of Virginia, to Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Grenada's ambassador to the United and Philip Wheaton, EPICA director-explain: "Officially, the AFL-CIO This note said, 'If the Cubans are not Nations; Kanute Burke, consul general claims that AIFLD was created 'to buttress democracy in Latin America out of Grenada within three days we to the UN; and Sonny Mark of the through free and strong labor unions.' In fact, AIFLD's activities are will declare a state of war.'" United Grenadians of New York. chiefly aimed at counteracting 'communist' organizing among peasants. Its training seminars held both in El Salvador and in Front Royal, Virginia (originally in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.) stressed the 'dangers of communism' which are confronting 'democratic' trade unions in Latin America. The primary work of AIFLD is clearly political since the AFL-CIO has its own Latin American labor affiliate, the Regional Organization of Inter-American workers (ORIT) ...." Copies of the EPICA document are available for $2.50 from: EPICA, 1470 Irving Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20010. South African solidarity with El Salvador A statement released by the Isandlwana Revolutionary Effort of Azania (South Africa), a current in the Black Consciousness Movement, expressed solidarity with the Salvadoran struggle.. The statement, which appeared in the June 1980 issue of Isandlwana, noted the cooperation between South Africa's white minority regime and the Salvadoran junta. Selwyn Strachan defended Cuba's aid to Grenadian revolution. The statement read in part: "The intensification of mass struggle· by the El Salvadoran people, particularly since the second half of 1979, has brought victory in sight.... "The similarity of oppression and exploitation in South Africa and Latin America calls for closer cooperation between Azanian and Latin 'Perspectiva Mundial' is the Spanish-language American revolutionaries. In this background, we hail the action by the sister publication of the 'Militant' Like the El Salvadoran guerrilla group, the Popular Liberation Forces, who are 'Militant,' it carries regular coverage of the labor movement and the struggles for social justice in holding hostage S.A. racist representative Archibald Gardner Dunn in , the United States and abroad, plus news and San Salvador." analysis with a special emphasis on the workers It was announced October 10 that Dunn had been killed. movement in Latin America. * * * D $8 for 6 months The Santa Clara, California Central Labor Council unanimously D $16 for 1 year passed a resolution disassociating itself from AIFLD's activities and D $25 for 1 year (air mail, Latin America) programs in El Salvador during its September 15 meeting. D $30 for 1 year (air mail, rest of the world) -Osborne Hart Send check or money order to: Perspectiva Mundial, 408 West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 Please send contributions on activities in your area to: Osborne Hart, 14 · USA Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014.

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 11 By Suzanne Haig ment Issues hearing felt so strongly The 1980 national conference of the about this idea that they passed a National Organization for Women resolution calling upon NOW to parti­ held October 3-5 in San Antonio' cipate in this labor party discussion. Texas, was marked by a serious discus~ Shirley Pasholk from Cleveland sion of the major issues facing women NOW said that her union, the United today. Steelworkers of America, held a recent The 1,400 members present­ constitutional convention where a rep­ including 672 delegates-discussed resentative of the Canadian labor and debated the elections, the biparti­ party, the New Democratic Party, san attack on women's rights, defeat­ pointed out that the United States is ing the right wing, building an al­ the only major industrial country with­ liance with the labor movement, and out national health insurance and it is the fight against the draft and nuclear also the only major industrial country power. without a labor party. The breadth and intensity of the Lisa Kannenberg, a NOW member discussion demonstrated the deep from Pittsburgh and a member of the anger women feel because of the gov­ United Electrical Workers, which has ernment's failure to ratify the Equal passed a similar motion on a labor Rights Amendment, and its chipping party discussion, explained, "My union away of abortion rights. It also re­ has taken a number of good positions flected the growing recognition of on questions affecting women, includ­ NOW members that the fight against ing reproductive rights. But the idea of the draft, nuclear power and racism my union being part of a political are an integral part of the battle for party, a labor party, that would have women's equality. . power in the government to enact The framework of the conference legislation to benefit women's rights was the presidential elections. NOW and the rights of all workers is an activists saw before them the choice of important discussion." Such a party, Reagan, who is openly calling for she explained, wo'!lld give us a real political base to fight for women's Carter's stalling on ERA and Reagan's outright opposition are causing women to loo 1 turning the clock back on women's .• rights, or Carter, who over the past rights. four years has stabbed them in the Matilde Zimmermann, Socialist back on the issues of the ERA, abor­ Workers Party candidate for vice­ tion rights, and affirmative action. president of the United States, also A lively and rich discussion on spoke for this idea at the elections whether women should support Carter hearing. "I think that women in this as the lesser evil to Reagan occurred at country deserve and must demand a special hearing on the elections something better than a lesser evil." chaired by NOW President Eleano; For NOW to help reelect Carter, she Smeal. continued, would be "saying that what Women presented a wide spectrum of we have gotten from him over the last opinion. One was for picketing Reagan four years is all right and that we're and Bush to expose their position on ready for four more years of the same. the ERA and reproductive rights. It would put us behind hundreds of Another urged NOW to endorse John thousands of people in this country Anderson. who are fed up with the two parties Mollie Yard, a Philadelphia NOW and Carter and who want some kind of leader and Democratic Party activist, chimge." called for working to defeat Reagan. The final plenary of. the conference, "Ronald Reagan is the titular head of however, overwhelmingly adopted a the radical right in this country," she resolution based on the proposal made said. "We must canvas, stuff envelopes by Mollie Yard in the election hearing. . . . to take away electoral college It called for NOW to "actively oppose votes from Reagan." the election of Ronald Reagan as Presi­ Toni Carabillo, a national board d(mt, and work in every state to ensure member from California, cited the that he does not receive 270 Electoral dangers of Reagan in office. She called College votes;" to "tum out votes for on NOW "to work with the Democratic our friends in Congress and in the Party to reelect the incumbent presi­ state legislatures;" "to withdraw the dent Jimmy Carter." National Board resolution of De­ cember, 1979 [that opposed Carter's reelection];" and to "endorse the plat­ Anti-Carter sentiment form of the Democratic Party as it This did not sit well with the partici­ pertains to women's rights." . pants. But the most unpopular pro­ Many saw their vote for this pro­ posal was one calling on NOW to posal as a step forward, as a statement explicitly endorse and support Carter. that they would fight against Reagan's Speaker after speaker voiced their anti-ERA, anti-abortion platform and opposition to Carter, receiving loud against the right-wing groups asso­ applause and cheers of support. One ciated with his campaign. woman insisted that NOW could never Although, in effect, the resolution support a man who denied funds for calls on NOW members to work for abortion to poor women, sending them Carter's reelection, the tremendous to back-alley butchers. Another anti-Carter sentiment at the conference pointed to Carter's support for draft prevented a formal endorsement. registration, the largest military budget in history, and nuclear power. How to defeat Reaganism A NOW .member from Georgia Opposition to any resolution to ex­ pointed out that Carter promised the plicitly endorse Carter showed that ERA in 1976 and it would be a "be­ most NOW members would vote for trayal to advocate the reelection of Carter not as a positive alternative to such a person." Reagan, but as a lesser evil. Yet what became clear in the discus­ These women are like many working sion was that although most women people today who are refusing to en­ were against both Reagan and Carter, dorse Carter, are fed up with his aus­ they were caught in the bind of believ­ terity program, are deeply concerned ing they had to choose between the about Reagan's openly right-wing cam­ two. · paign, and are looking for a way out. A position pointing the way forward The resolution that passed, however, out of this impasse of chosing between does not offer a way out. Just the two evils was proposed by Lea Sher- opposite. It locks women into support . man, a NOW member from Dallas and for the Democratic Party and ties them also a member of the International into the framework of seeking change Association of Machinists. At its con­ through the two parties of big busi­ vention in September, the lAM voted ness, a strategy that has consistently not to endorse either Reagan or Carter failed in the past and will not stop the but to begin a discussion on building ~ government attacks or the right-wing labor party. offensive. NOW should do the same thing, Carter is loyal to the same big-bus­ Sherman said. "Such a party would iness forces as Reagan. He has faith­ represent the . needs of the women's fully represented them while in office .movement. It would be a party based for the past four years. He has duti­ on the unions and would be in our fully carried out policies in their inter­ interests and the interests of all work­ ests, including cutting back on medi­ ing people. caid funding for abortion, blocking the Participants at the Labor/Employ- ERA, reinstituting draft registration,

12 and carrying out economic policies this. that have put millions out of work. One woman disagreed with those Will he act differently if elected "who criticize for fear we are going too again? far on the draft-away from the main What is needed is to get out of the stream. What worries me is when a framework of the two ruling parties group that has 100,000 radical femi­ and look in the alternative direction, nists starts worrying about our popu­ away from the politicians who repre­ larity and what we can sell in the state sent our enemies and toward our allies legislatures." in the labor movement. A labor party, During· the plenary discussion, time based on the unions, would have our was not allowed to clarify incorrect interests at heart and the power to and dang~rous ideas on the draft: that effect change. ERA means equal responsibility, that The discussion on election strategy keeping the board's position will help was a valuable beginning. Much will win ERA, or that women need a strong be learned over the coming months, military. regardless of who is elected. However, the near-tie vote-coming late Sunday when many delegates had Women and the draft left-showed growing opposition to the NOW's position on the draft was on · board's position and the need for more the minds of many at the conference, clarification on the issue. which took place in the midst of a There will be opportunities for shooting war between Iraq and Iran, further discussion and for NOW to and U.S. threats to intervene. Many participate in antidraft and antiwar wanted to reverse the position taken by activities. the NOW board in February. It stated opposition to registration and the draft Fight against sexism & racism for both sexes, but advocated including In addition to steps forward on affir­ women if these are reimposed on men. mative action for the NOW leadership People were so concerned that more (see box), the conference stressed the alternatives to two- ·party politics. MilitanVSusan Ellis than 400 signatures were gathered on interconnection between the struggles petitions to ensure that a resolution against sexism and racism. opposing the board's position would In her introduction to keynote come before the plenary. · speaker Dorothy Height, national pres­ Such a resolution passed overwhelm­ ident of the National Council of Negro ingly at a special hearing on the draft, Women, Eleanor Smeal reaffirmed that attended by seventy women, and was "The constant addressing of the issues narrowly defeated in the plenary ses­ of discrimination is a pledge and a sion. It called for NOW to "continue to trust that the National Organization oppose the registration/ draft, working for Women has made from the day that actively for its repeal," if these should it began. be reinstituted for any segment of "You cannot address sexism without society; and for NOW to state "that addressing racism," she told a cheer­ forceful conscription into the military ing crowd. is not a right" and "we do not support Height echoed this theme. its extension to women, but rather we "The enemies out there have learned propose that the exemption women to divide us. I think all of us have to currently have . . . be extended to learn not to fight each other over the men." crumbs or small pieces of the pie but to At the special draft hearing, De­ ask for a bigger pie.'' borah Jamison of New Jersey NOW She said she was glad to see NOW explained the resolution's origin. It was working on affirmative action. evolved out of discussions held by New "We need to be there together to share Jersey NOW chapters, she said, follow­ in decisions so that we can also be ing Carter's call for including women there to protect not vested interests but in the draft and the NOW board's broader interests which will move this written statement. The resolution was country toward equality and justice.'' discussed and passed by the New The conference-taking place with Jersey State Conference and the Mid­ three more states still needed to ratify Atlantic Regional Conference. the ERA-reaffirmed the campaign for Two other positions were presented the ERA as NOW's central priority at the hearing. Virginia Watkins, from and called for a mobilization until the the NOW National Board, called for June 1982 deadline. affirming the board's position. A While the ERA resolution called for member from San Diego County called focusing on the national and local for NOW to "strongly connect ERA elections in November, it also included with the draft." NOW should state, she starting "at least three major state said, "if there is going to be a draft, we ratification projects the size of the won't go unless we have the ERA." Illinois campaign and larger-simul­ taneously." No trade-off These projects, to begin immediately A number of people spoke in favor of after the elections, will offer important the proposal to reverse the NOW opportunities to strengthen NOW's ties board's position and against a trade­ with the labor and civil rights move­ Militant photos by Suzanne Haig off of the draft for ERA. A young ments. Clockwise from left: Irene Abbott, Seattle NOW delegate and member of Interna­ woman from Houston, Texas, said The plenary passed a resolution to tional Association of Machinists, at election hearing; Dorothy Height, National because of medical reasons her three target the Human Life Amendment, a Council of Negro Women; NOW President Eleanor Smeal; opening of conference in brothers weren't eligible for the draft­ right-wing operation to prohibit all San Antonio. but she was. abortions. "But I've got news for them," she Despite the blows to women's rights said. "I'm not going over there and by the Carter administration and the fighting. If they say we'll pass ERA, ideological offensive spearheaded by I've got news for them. I'm not going. the right wing, the women's movement Affirmative action in NOW Our stand should be 'Hell no, we won't has not been driven back. On the In an action of significant impor- hind this proposal, Susan Brown, go.'" contrary, there is a fighting spirit tance for the women's movement, in an article from the August 1980 Chris Ihlenfeld from Milwaukee afoot, a growing recognition of the the National Organization for Pennsylvania NOW Times, which NOW explained that the Wisconsin class nature of the attacks on women's Women at its San Antonio confer- was circulated at the conference, State Conference passed a resolution rights, and a new discussion unfolding ence passed a resolution on affir- wrote: that "feminists had the duty to prevent on political alternatives to the narrow mative action in the selection of its "Can we afford to let nature take men from being drafted rather than confines of capitalist party politics. national leadership. its course, raise our own conscious- including ourselves 1in something we The discussion and debate at the The 672 delegates amended ness on racism, and hope for the don't believe in." The Milwaukee chap­ conference reaffirmed this. The mil­ NOW's constitution to increase the best without an affirmative action ter, she said, handed out copies of this itancy of the NOW membership there size of its national board by nine plan? That is a risk we are not resolution at post offices during regis­ reflects the fact that support for the members and to require each of its willing to take. tration in July. women's rights movement has grown regions to elect at least one person "We must keep in mind that this Carol King, a board member from in geometric proportions in the 1970's. of the oppressed nationalities to bylaws proposal was not designed Michigan NOW, said, "I think that one Now, in the 1980's the women's, labor, that body. primarily to 'help' persons of color. of the things we always say when we and civil rights movements are begin:- It was initiated to help the whole debate the ERA is that it will not . ning to organize together in recogni­ . By taking such a step on a na- organization become more com- abolish all these laws. The ones that tion of common enemies and common ~"~ ~~~i~dlei~=l ~~::i~~~~ti~g ~~~cl= plete and diverse, with the capacity are good will be extended to men, the goals. multinational women's rights or~ to understand and reach out to ones that are bad will be tossed out." In the coming months, NOW ·.··,, people of every shade and back- She said that this position did not members will grapple with the same ganization that can mount a sue- ground. This cannot be postponed diminish our concern for the problems issues raised at the conference and 1cessful fight against all forms of until some more perfect time. It is of discrimination and oppression that discrimination. continue to learn from the fight how something we must do now." women face in the military and sug­ the movement for equality can best go Ji ~--I_n__ ex_p_l_a_in_i_n~g--th_e __ r_e_as_o_n_i_n_g_b_e_- ______s_._H_. __ ~ gested a special committee be set for forward.

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 13 Unity,· militancy mark LA. How to vote for the SWP By Holbrook Mahn socialist solidarity rally In many of the states where the By Rebecca Finch bombing of the Socialist Workers elec­ Socialist Workers Party will be on LOS ANGELES-"Before the revolu­ tion campaign offices. the ballot, Clifton DeBerry's name tion, the Sandinistas were persecuted, The participants also demanded that will appear as a stand-in for the outlawed, illegal," said Ram6n Diaz, the Socialist Workers Party and the SWP presidential candidate An­ head of the Comite Democratico de Communist Party, whose offices were drew Pulley. DeBerry is a long-time Nuevo Nicaragua. bombed on September 20, be imme­ leader of the SWP and a member of "Anyone who belongs to the Frente diately placed on the November ballot. its National Committee. Sandinista was supposed to be a crimi­ California Gov. Edmund Brown has Andrew Pulley is twenty-nine nal. But our revolution was victorious refused ballot status to both parties. years old, making him ineligible to serve as president under the U.S. and will go on being victorious because In addition to Diaz, who is working Constitution. Since state officials we are with the people, the poor people. to set up a Casa Nicaragua here in Los have attempted to use this discrimi­ "So, we wanted to tell you, no matter Angeles, Jose Calato, a leader of the natory law to rule socialist candi­ who comes here to attack you, no Farabundo Marti Solidarity Bloc in the .dates off the ballot, DeBerry's matter who comes here to tell you to United States, also spoke at the rally. CLIFTON DE BERRY name has been substituted. stop building the revolutionary move­ "Some days ago the office of the DeBerry, who is fifty-five years DeBerry ~ollaborated closely with ment in the United States, don't be Socialist Workers Party was the object old, was the first Black person to Malcolm. afraid, just the opposite. Say, 'Nobody of an attempted cowardly attack that run for president of the United During his campaign for presi­ will stop us, because we in the Socialist we all condemn," said Calato. States when he was nominated by dent in 1964, against Goldwater Workers Party are with the people and "This attack confirms the need for we will be victorious.' " the SWP in 1964. and Johnson, DeBerry spoke out closeness and fraternal solidarity be­ He is the kind of fighter who has against U.S. involvement in Viet­ It was an inspiring demonstration of tween our organizations so that a inspired rebels like Andrew Pulley nam. He exposed Johnson-who solidarity voiced at a rally here Oc­ united bloc can be formed to confront tober 11 to demand the arrest, prosecu­ to join the Socialist Workers Party. was running as a peace candi­ future attacks from the class enemy in date-as the war monger he was. tion, and conviction of those responsi­ this country." . Like Pulley, he was born in Missis­ ble for the September 23 attempted sippi. He became active in politics DeBerry warned that the U.S. was Bernie Sapiro, director of the Print­ in 1942, helping to organize unions heading for a major escalation of ing Specialty and Paper Products Un­ in the South. Later he became the war and urged people to organ- ion, said, "The labor movement under­ active in the civil rights movement, , ize demonstrations against the stands that this is an attack on them helping to build support for the war. also." 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott. DeBerry is currently working as He illustrated this with an account In 1964, following Malcolm X's an industrial painter in northern of labor spying in Monrovia, Califor­ break with the Nation of Islam, California. nia, where a company hired a private detective agency to sabotage organiz­ ing efforts by the Printing Specialties Union. and Political Repression; Morris Kight, California petitioning effort of Com­ Mark Friedman, SWP candidate for a longtime fighter for gay rights; munist Party presidential candidate Congress in the Forty-third District, Linda Valentino, co-chairperson of the Gus Hall; David Crippen, executive also spoke. Friedman is running Southern California Citizens Commit­ director of the Social Service Em­ against Democratic Party candidate tee; Dan Mayfield, National Lawyers ployees International Union Local 535; Thomas Metzger, a Grand Dragon of Guild; and Jan Tucker, Peace and Paul Schrade, former regional director the Ku Klux Klan. Freedom Party. of United Auto Workers Region 6; and Other speakers included Ben Pen­ A wide range of messages were also Ramona Ripston, director of the Amer­ nington, a national board member of read, including those from Floyd ican Civil Liberties Union of Southern MARK FRIEDMAN the National Alliance Against Racist Walls, a campaign director for the California.

Union fighter: Your campaign an inspiration~ · By Duncan Williams drops me to $3.72 per hour, which is organization should be .put out of focus dent Carter wherein you 'demand that So far, $42,333 has been received in disgraceful and below the federal pov­ for good. Damn what they want­ [he] cancel "Solid Shield 80" and re­ the fall 1980 Socialist Workers cam­ erty level! All I can say to that is nobody's a slave.... turn the Guantanamo Naval Base to paign fund drive. A special effort by all Union Now!!! "I'm only voicing my thoughts." the Cuban people . . .' campaign committees and supporters "I will keep on sending the $ unless Of course, not all the letters that " . . . it appears you are unaware is required to meet the $75,000 goal by the city cuts me further or fires me come in are friendly. Some simply that SOLID SHIELD 80 was not a one­ the November 4 election. outright. Let me tell you that your time event, specifically scheduled 'as a Most of this money has been paid on campaign is an inspiration to those of clear and direct threat against the pledges made at a national campaign us who lack the benefits of unioniza­ peoples of Latin America,' as you state. rally in Oberlin, Ohio, in August. Pay­ tion. SOLID SHIELD 80 was 18th in a ment of the remaining pledges­ "Keep up the excellent work." series of annual Joint Service Exer­ roughly $20,000-will account for more Another supporter who dug deep into cises.'' than half of the balance to be collected. a small income writes from West Read­ Well, Andrew Pulley actually is Pledges made at local rallies on the ing, Pennsylvania: "Enclosed find aware that Solid Shield 80, the U.S.­ Andrew Pulley and Matilde Zimmer­ check for $20 for campaign purposes. I organized war maneuvers in the Carib­ mann tours account for another large am over 93 years old so will take no bean last spring, was not a one-time portion of the balance. part in the campaign. Inflation has event as Mr. Goldsmith (who specially But in many ways, the most signifi­ reduced the buying power of my Social assists the Assistant Secretary of De­ cant contributions are coming from co­ Security check so I have less than my fense) points out. It was part of a workers, Militant readers, and other income in Social Security by a large twenty-year record of hostility to the new supporters of the campaign. amount... .'' Cuban revolution and threats and One municipal worker in Florida has Often, the national campaign office bullying of the peoples of Latin Amer­ regularly sent in five-dollar contribu­ receives letters that help measure the ica. tions toward an eighty-dollar pledge. effect of the campaign among working That's why one of the main points in He writes: people. A woman from Virginia writes: the Socialist Workers Party program is " . . . I am in touch with the Miami "To Andrew Pulley & Matilde Zim­ for an end to this ·hostility, for an end local and will be going down to help mermann, to the blockade against Cuba, for the with campaigning. At present I am "Right on! I'm with you all the way. Carter doesn't like Pulley's opposition to return of the Guantanamo base to 'Solid Shield 80.' chairman of the election committee of I was reading your pamphlet on 'How Cuba, and for the establishment of the Amalgamated Transit Union in to Fight Racism & Win.' I feel the same normal diplomatic relations. And oppo­ the drive to organize my employer, the way.... sition to all future "Joint Services City of Gulfport. Yesterday I was de­ "Let [Black people] know that the request information, and others voice Exercises," for that matter. moted out of sanitation division into KKK is trying to put them back to 1900 disagreement, like this one; wliich is If you support the SWP campaign, the laborers and street maintenance where our mothers and fathers were. I signed "John A. Goldsmith, Special and would like to help us reach more division, taking a $.36 an hour cut in will not go back to the old ways and Assistant": new supporters, contribute as gener­ pay. I wonder if it is because I am I'm sure there are a lot of people who "Dear Mr. Pulley: ously as you can by filling out the chairman of the committee??? The cut feel this way.... I feel that the KKK "Thank you for your letter to Presi- coupon below . •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Socialist Workers $75,000 Fund Drive Enclosed is my contribution of $ Name ------­ Address ------City State ___ Zip Phone U nion/School/Org. Make checks payable to: $10,000 $20,000 $30,000 $40,000 $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 Socialist Workers Presidential Cam­ so far: $42,333 paign Committee, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014.

14 'Poor P-eOP-le make the rich ones richer' Vermont workers, students welcome Pulle By Andy Rose with the corporations, Pulley said, as BURLINGTON, Vt.-This time of strikers nodded in agreement. year the Vermont woods are ablaze "Workers ought to be calling the with gold and crimson. To the tourists shots. After all, we keep the country who· flock here, enraptured with the. running," Pulley declared. changing leaves and clean, crisp air, it "If we all stopped working, there can seem like paradise. wouldn't .be anything going on," To the working people who live here, agreed Mildred Beauchemin, a union the paradise is flawed. Flawed by low stalwart. "It's like my husband always wages, union-busting, nuclear power, said, it's the poor people that makes and soaring prices for heating oil and the rich ones richer." other ne<;essities, and the threat of the draft and war. Stop 'right to work' On a whirlwind one~day campaign Strikers welcomed Pulley's stand for tour through the state, Andrew Pulley abolition of so-called right to work found plenty of evidence that the capi­ laws, which infringe on workers' right talist crisis-and interest in socialist to organize and strike. answers to it-reaches here like every "Right to work" forces nationally other corner of the country. have targeted Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire as northern states Picket line visit where they will try to push through the MilitanVAndy Rose The Socialist Workers presidential anti-union statutes. Pulley with strikers on UAW picket line in Randolph, Vermont candidate amved in Vermont early on The flight of industry from New October 1. His first stop was a United England for decades weakened unions and depressed wage§ to the point that Auto Workers picket line in Randolph, out 1,000 members to attend. This was active in a successful organizing Vermont now ranks forty-fourth in the where strikers at a plastics factory are spirited show of opposition helped drive by Teamsters Local 597. country in per capita income-below battling for their first union contract. defeat the measure. But the corpora­ Last November, at the height of such southern states as North Carol­ They face stonewalling by the em­ tions and right-wingers intend to keep efforts to whip up anti-Iranian hyste­ ina, Louisiana, Georgia, and Virginia. ployer, harassment from the cops, and trying. ria around the U.S. hostages, Flanders Now industry is moving back in, biased coverage by the local news me­ "If got out a leaflet on why the shah should especially electronics and other light we had labor representatives in dia. office instead of Democrats and Repub­ be sent back. He and others initiated a manufacturing and assembly plants. Pulley got a warm response as he licans, we could make sure they Committee to Prevent War in Iran, IBM, for example, has a nonunion talked of the need for solidarity and wouldn't vote to break our unions," which held a demonstration of fifty at how the union movement can be plant of 7,000 near Burlington. But the Pulley told the U A W strikers. the federal building here th~t got state- . strengthened. corporations intend the "reindustriali­ wide news coverage. They also ap­ "We need a labor party, based on the zation" of Vermont to be on their peared on several radio talk shows unions, so the majority of people can terms-nonunion and low wages. Treated as human explaining the truth about Iran. get some real representation," he said. That's why they want "right to work." From Randolph, Pulley went to the The SWP campaign supporters have You won't find Carter, Reagan, or Last winter the Vermont legislature state capital of Montpelier for a news also been leading participants in the Anderson out joining picket lines or held hearings on "right to work." conference, which was well attei}ded antidraft and antinuclear movements supporting workers in any conflict Unions from around the state turned by local press. He cited the Randolph in Vermont. They helped organize strike as typical of what is happening picketing of post offices in both Bur­ to workers, who are being "pushed up lington and Montpelier during draft against the wall by the economic crisis registration. Waterbury strike: 'It's about and are beginning to fight back." Pulley quoted a striker who said they Debs in Vermont were fighting to be treated "like hu­ Pulley's campus meeting here was time this place was changed' man beings." chaired by Bernard Sanders, a well­ RANDOLPH, Vt.-In this small union negotiating committee, said That is the goal of the Socialist known figure in Vermont politics. In town in central Vermont, fifty-eight talks are now at a "stalemate." Workers Party, Pulley said-a world 1976 Sanders won 6 percent of the vote strikers are battling for their rights Waterbury has hired strikebreak­ where all working people will be for governor as candidate of the Lib­ against a powerful corporate union­ ers and has production going at treated like human beings. "And for erty Union Party. buster. perhaps 50 percent of normal, she that to happen, workers will have to The Liberty Union Party, he ex­ "They figure . they're going to estimated. take political power away from the plained to Pulley, had drawn together starve us out," one picket told An­ As we talked, two cops stood at the billionaires and reorganize society antiwar activists, feminists, and other drew Pulley. The Socialist Workers plant entrance, waving scabs from top to bottom." fighters for social change in Vermont. presidential candidate visited the through. Police have been "biased" After the news conference Pulley It also won support from a half-dozen strikers October 1 to express his against the strikers, Carter said. continued on to Burlington, Vermont's unions, he said, including leaders of solidarity. Other pickets angrily showed photos largest city, for interviews that after­ building trades unions that have come Out for more than 100 days al­ of the local sheriff chatting with the noon on. WEZF television and WJOI under heavy fire from the government ready, these workers were deter­ company president. and WVMT radio. and employers. mined not to go back without the The strikers are not just up In the evening he spoke to an enthu­ Last year Sanders produced a TV protection of a union contract. against a backward local union-hat­ siastic audience of forty at the Univer­ program on Eugene V. Debs, the famed sity of Vermont here. His talk centered The Waterbury Companies plant er. Waterbury is owned, they said, by turn-of-the-century union leader and Talley Industries. Talley, which is on the Iraq-Iran war and the socialist revolutionary socialist. When local here manufactures various plastic program for solving the economic cri­ parts, such as boxes and razor han­ on Fortune magazine's list of the 500 public TV refused to air the documen­ largest industrial corporations, re­ sis. tary, claiming it was "one-sided," dles. Wages are rock-bottom, start­ Many of those present stayed after ing at the federal minimum wage. ported profits of more than $10 mil­ Sanders and others organized protests. lion last year. Pulley's talk for a lengthy discussion They succeeded not only in getting the After ten years, a skilled toolmaker that ranged from the gains of Cuba makes $5.91 an hour. "It's not fair, it's not right," Debs program broadcast twice, but Mildred Beauchemin told Pulley. and Grenada to whether socialism is also in winning the right to produce The pace of work is grueling. bureaucratic to how a nuclear holo­ "They just turn the presses up as When she was hired at Waterbury five hours of programming on social last December, with nine years' ex­ caust can be averted. problems in Vermont and a three-hour fast as they will go. You run all the . Sixteen students signed up for mo;. e time," one woman told us. perience at this type of work, she "town meeting" show on the role of was told she would make $3.65 an information on the Young Socialist public TV. Breaks come at the company's hour. In fact, she was paid only Alliance and five bought subscriptions This year the Liberty Union Party is discretion, if at all. $2.90. to the Militant. backing David McReynolds for presi­ Workers often find it necessary to "After I saw my first check I was dent on the Socialist Party ticket, but put in six or seven days a week just going to just walk out." But she Campaigner for socialism Sanders has become a Pulley-Zimmer­ to make ends meet. heard a union was being organized, This successful one-day tour was mann supporter. These conditions impelled the "so I decided to stay and help get it organized in a state where there is no Leaving Vermont the day after the workers-most of whom are women, in." branch of the Socialist Workers Party, tour, we picked up a copy of the Bur­ many in their forties and fifties-to Beauchemin said Vermont wages but an energetic group of campaign lington Free Press at the airport. The organize a union. On September 21, are so low she has had to leave the supporters. Last July they petitioned to front page of the local news section 1979, they voted for representation state twice "to survive, just to make put the SWP ticket on the ballot, get­ featured a big photo of Pulley and the by United Auto Workers Local2133. a living. But now it's about time I ting some 1,800 signatures around the Randolph UAW pickets, described in The union asked for wages and stood up and fought for a better state. the caption as "willing listeners" to the conditions more comparable to those living for the younger generation. One of the most active campaigners socialist candidate. in Waterbury's plants in Connecti­ We don't want our children to have for Pulley and Zimmermann is Valerie Our short stay left us more con­ cut, which are unionized. The com­ to work like this." Eckart, past president of the Central vinced than ever that, far from the pany refused. As we were saying good-bye, Ar­ Vermont chapter of the National Or­ cou.ntry moving to the right, the real Last June 16 the strike began. lene Cornette, who has worked thir­ ganization for Women. A mother of situation is just as the Free Pn··•s Hand-lettered picket signs tell the teen years at Waterbury, summed up two, Eckart is a well-known fighter for article quoted Pulley: story: the feelings of many. "It's about the Equal Rights Amendment and "What is really happening is , ·'' "Waterbury wants more work and time this place was changed," she abortion rights. She helped lead a the country is becoming polarizcci. • .l less pay." said. "Instead of being a number, contingent of 100 from Vermont to the the right is the government, the e<.'l., ,. "We believe in dignity and unity- . they should treat us like human July 9, 1978, march on Washington for ration owners and the Ku Klux Kh!, we are sticking together." beings." the ERA. and on the other side is working peo­ Virginia Carter, a member of the -A.R. Another SWP campaigner is Jon ple. In the end, the worker is going to Flanders, a Burlington bus driver who come out on top."

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 15 Machinists' shift to left reflects By Fred Feldman The new mood of opposition to big business and its government that is spreading among American working people found expression at the conven­ tion of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Held September 2-10 in Cincinnati, it was attended by some 2,500 delegates and observers. The sessions were chaired by William Winpisinger, Inter­ national president of the lAM. The lAM has 980,000 members. These include more than 200,000 in the aerospace industry, 85,000 airline em­ ployees, 80,000 auto workers, thou­ sands of tool-and-die makers and other machinists such as airline employees, brewery workers, rail workers, and oth­ ers. Although lAM members have not experienced layoffs and plant closings on the massive scale of steel and auto union tnembers, the lAM's highly skilled machinists face growing job insecurity due to robotization of ma­ chine-tool production and the spread of non-union shops. Tens of thousands of lAM members have experienced temporary or long­ term layoffs and plant closings over the past year. Inflation has had a devastating ef­ fect on the living standards of lAM members, as on all other working peo­ ple. And their lives are haunted by the more money to produce more. Shuts off ' tion replete with "Kennedy in '84" "I ask you whether the fighting threat to reinstitute the draft, war the valve, puts us in gas lines, and placards. Machinists become chicken Machinists moves, and the slashes in public servi­ freezes us out in the winter. But the high-powered effort to bring and puppy dogs by licking the hand of ces to finance an ever-swelling war "Government caves in and gives the Machinists into line behind Carter the man in the White House who has budget. them what they want. . . . failed. been pumping our ears for the last four The response to these issues at the "Big oil is pig oil. years." Machinists' convention was markedly "They own uranium, coal, and natu­ Position upheld Adopted by a substantial majority, different from that given by the United ral gas, and now they're going to hang As soon as Kennedy left the plat­ this motion means that funds of the Auto Workers and United Steelworkers a meter on the sun. form, delegate George Hyatt moved Machinists Non-Partisan League will conventions held earlier this summer. "And they've milked every last pen­ "that we fully support the position not be given to the Carter campaign, ney from OPEC imports and brought taken by the International officers and and that the Machinists' press will not A different note us to the brink of war," he said. the MNPL [Machinists Non-Partisan be urging a vote for the Democratic At those gatherings the officialdom "The causes of economic decline and League] Planning Committee, that.we presidential ticket. staked everything on closer collabora­ stagnation in Canada and the U.S." he not endorse a presidential candidate, Nor will local officials be obliged to tion with the government and the .concluded, "are locked in the structure and that we support the Democratic talk up Carter to workers who know bosses. The desire of the union ranks of corporate America and corporate Platform, which is the key to saving better. for stronger resistance to the bosses' Canada. the Congress in November." The union's refusal to carry water offensive found little voice. "Government doesn't control them, The discussion gave an inkling of for Carter in 1980 represents a depar­ This convention sounded a different they control government. The Carter the anger that has been building up ture from the course set by the union note-both in the keynote speech by and Trudeau administration~ are cor­ among union members because of the bureaucracy over more than four dec­ Winpisinger and in the resolutions porate caretakers and the handmaid­ antilabor policies of the Carter admin­ ades. That's why it was -nearly adopted. ens of corporate strategy and tactics." istration-and the frustration of union blacked out in the capitalist media. They were designed to provide the Referring to the appeals of ailing officials who have nothing to show the And it is viewed as dangerously hereti­ lAM with a more militant image, one corporations like Chrysler for union membership for years of lobbying and cal by the top leadership of the AFL­ more appealing to the working people support to federal bailouts, he declared horse-trading among "friends of labor" CIO. who have become disgusted With the "If our employers want us to get so­ in the Democratic Party. That's why the September 13 AFL­ stand-patism of the labor leadership as cialism for them, then we have to make Carter, declared Patrick O'Brien, CIO News presented a report on the a whole. . it clear we want democratic socialism "has kept none of the promises that Machinists' convention that noted The forms of democracy were fol­ for ourselves." were made from the podium of our Kennedy's appearance but suppressed lowed carefully at the convention, with How to combat this employer­ previous convention when we had him any mention of the convention's stand speakers for and against most propos­ government drive against labor was here, and he suckered us into an endor­ on the elections. als being heard. Winpisinger's stance the main topic of discussion when the sement. was one of trying to win support for 1980 elections were taken up. "Since that time, he has not shown Labor's political crisis his policies from all sectors of the in any way that he has any feeling, Rejection of Carter, Reagan, and union leadership. No to Carter, Reagan any sympathy for the working people. Anderson placed the lAM at the center There was little sign of opposition Like the leadership of a number of His record of do nothing for working of the growing discussion of labor's caucuses or currents. AFL-CIO unions and the United Auto people·is well known.... political orientation. It reflected the Support for the union's leftward shift Workers, the lAM Executive Board "I don't think that I have to run feelings of lAM members-including cut across craft and industry lines, actively supported Kennedy in the down the complete list. We know Car­ the many who will vote for one or finding backers among tool-and-die -Democratic presidential primaries. ter's position on Social Security. We another capitalist candidate in the and aerospace locals alike. When Carter sewed up the nomina­ know Carter's position on that oil end-that none of the Republican and tion, almost all the top union leaders ripoff that has been perpetrated. . . . Democratic candidates has done any- Corporate offensive opted for helping him get reelected, in Winpisinger's opening speech set the line with their traditional commit­ tone for the convention. He said he ment to the Democratic Party. spoke for the executive council as a But Winpisinger and about eighty­ whole. five other lAM delegates walked out of Decrying the corporate offensive the Democratic convention in August. against labor, he described the union Winpisinger also cast the sole "no" movement as "finding ourselves backs vote when the AFL-CIO Executive to the wall, making a defensive goal­ Council gave its support to Carter. line stand, facing bargaining table At the lAM convention, the big guns take-away drives and ·union-busting were rolled out to try to tum this power plays." position around. He described "unemployment at 8 AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland percent and reaching for 10. Ten mil­ chided the leadership about the impor­ lion idle minds and hands, marking tance of sticking with Carter. time in a standing army of unem­ Labor Secretary Ray Marshall tried ployed. Double-digit inflation. Any to portray Carter as a consistent friend price level is inflationary when you're of the working man and woman. . out of work." And Sen. Edward Kennedy gave a He jabbed at the oil companies: "Big carefully prepared and passionately oil has created a vicious circle," he delivered address on the need to "stop declared. Reagan." "It controls all information and facts Kirkland and Marshall got cool, relative to supplies. polite receptions. Kennedy received "It screams shortage-demands standing ovations, and a demonstra- lAM delegates walk out of Democratic convention. 16 new mood of workers Energy Research and Development Committee, stopped short of retracting the 1976 resolution, however. It de­ nounced the lax safety procedures fol­ lowed by the Nuclear Regulatory Com­ mission, pointed to the high cancer rates among workers at nuclear power plants, and conceded "there is no known, proved, safe, or reliable way to dispose of radioactive wastes, whether those wastes result from military pro­ duction or nuclear power generation." Its conclusion called for the develop­ ment of "new sources of energy," while nuclear energy is "phased out." There was no reference, in the report or in Winpisinger's speech, to the fact that an alternative energy source al­ ready exists in massive quantities that could be put to work while other sour­ ces were developed-coal. Nonetheless, the Machinists' stand represents an advance from its earlier positions, a reflection of the growing fear of and opposition to nuclear power plants among working people and IAM members in particular. These stands on the dr~ft and nu­ clear power open up big new opportuni­ ties to organize support in the labor movement for the struggles against these evils. Civil rights thing but attack the interests of work­ by helping to form a prolabor political The spread of sentiment and action For decades a racially segregated, ing peotJle. party-the New Democratic Party, against draft registration and nuclear craft-oriented union, the IAM has But what to do instead of endorsing that is giving the Trudeau government power has made a deep impact on the changed under the pressure of its in­ Carter? and the Conservative Party a full IAM. creasing industrial component, the As far as political action between measure of debate and trade union growing number of Black and women now and November, the leadership had sentiment." Winpisinger and George Hardy, then members-now between 15 and 20 little new to offer. president of the Service Employees percent of the total-and the growing Winpisinger said, ''It is critical that Labor party International Union, cast the only need for unity in the face of the bosses' we save our Democratic Congress." He · Several locals submitted resolutions votes against the AFL-CIO Executive offensive. proclaimed himself a "real Democrat" in favor of a labor party. This is not Council's endorsement of Carter's call The 1976 Machinists' convention in contrast to Carter. And the ovation unusual at union conventions. At the for draft registration. voted for the first time to establish a civil rights department. given to Kennedy indicated hopes that United Auto Workers convention, for Later, the Machinists made their a Kennedy candidacy might provide instance, there were several labor The 1980 convention heard the first offices available to organizers of the report from the department's director an avenue for selling the Democrats to March 22 antidraft march in Washing­ workers in 1984. Clark Johnson. His stress was the ton, D.C. need to establish civil rights commit­ Michael Harrington, head of the At the convention, Winpisinger de­ tees in all locals. Democratic Socialist Organizing Com­ clared: "We are told our kids are being A number of resolutions from local mittee, addressed the convention. He registered for the military draft in case lodg_es sought to strengthen the lAM's proposed that the 1982 Democratic we have to defend our vital interests in overall position on affirmative action midterm convention be a major focus the Persian Gulf. . . . and civil rights.' of IAM efforts. Neither Winpisinger The IAM had earlier come out in nor any IAM delegate mentioned this, "I say let big oil fight. its own opposition to the Weber suit, which however. (Winpisinger is a vice­ damned war." attempted to overturn an affirmative­ chairperson· of the DSOC.) Winpisinger's stand on the draft action program including quotas that Winpisinger's call for support to challenged Carter's militarization ,had been won by the United Steel­ Democrats in Congress faced a formid­ drive, as did his warnings against war workers union at Kaiser Aluminum in able obstacle: their record. IAM Legis­ moves in the Persian Gulf. Gramercy, Louisiana. lative Director Jerry Thompson paint­ The resolutions committee, which ed a grim picture of labor's inability to But the convention also adopted a consistently reflected the views of the get even a portion of its legistative resolution condemning Iran for hold­ IAM top leadership, combined them in program adopted by "our Democratic WILLIAM WINPISINGER ing fifty-two U.S. diplomatic personnel a resolution that endorsed affirmative Congress." as hostages. This resolution-adopted action both on the job and in the union unanimously and without discussion­ itself, but mandated no specific policies Canadian example party resolutions submitted that never fell into the trap set by those who are such as quotas. It isn't surprising therefore that the reached the convention floor. attempting to win popular support for No mention was made at the conven­ idea of forming a labor party got a But the resolutions committee at the U.S. military intervention in the Per­ tion of the need to counteract discrimi­ sympathetic hearing at the conven­ IAM convention didn't brush off the sian Gulf region. natory layoffs, which are devastating tion. labor party proposal. the positions won by women and op­ The resolution does this by failing to pressed nationalities in industry. Dennis McDermott, president of the Instead, a resolution by Local 707 take into account the causes of the Canadian Labor Congress, got a The strongest advance in the area of calling for immediate initiation of a Iranian people's action. It takes no civil rights at the convention was standing ovation when he described labor party was presented to the dele­ note of the U.S. role in imposing the the strengthening of the Canadian scored in the area of women's equality. gates. The resolutions committee pro­ shah on Iran, building up his secret The IAM affirmed its support to the labor movement through the founding posed that the resolution be rewritten police and army, backing him to the of the New Democratic Party, Cana­ Coalition of Labor Union Women and and adopted. It was approved by an bitter end, using its diplomatic person­ to the Equal Rights Amendment. da's version of a labor party, in 1961. overwhelming voice vote, including nel as spies against Iran, and plotting "I submit to you that when you have And it voted that the executive coun­ those who had proposed the original against the new Iranian government. cil should call a meeting of the union's got two parties, that are almost identi­ wording. cal in philosophy and outlook, then field staff, women business representa­ Nukes tives, "and women from selected that ain't a hell of a lot different than The final resolution mandated "that having a one-party system," he said. the International Association of Ma­ In 1976, the IAM-like other AFL­ lodges" to develop "a program on "It's like a community of mice-who chinists and Aerospace Workers join CIO unions-was on record in support 'Women in the IAMAW'." get to vote for a black cat one year, and with other progressive and liberal of nuclear power. Since then, its public It aiso urged educational activities posture has shifted steadily toward a spotted cat the next year, and a groups in our society to determine the throughout the union on the role of opposition to the deadly power plants. women workers. white cat the year after. extent to which grass roots support "It's like chickens getting to vote for might be developed for an independent The lAM was one of the sponsors of Colonel Sanders or Kentucky Fry." pro-labor party dedicated to the princi­ the Labor Conference on Safe Energy Gestures of solidarity Winpisinger also took note of the plP.s of social democracy." and Full Employment held in Pitts­ Two expressions of union solidarity example set by the Canadian unions in The adoption of such a resolution by burgh, Pennsylvania, October 10-12. stirred enthusiasm at the convention. a major national industrial union On September 4 Edward Asner, star of his opening speech: "When we look at Winpisinger's opening address in­ the Canadian Labor Congress, we find marks a big step forward for the labor 'TV's Lou Grant and a leader of the party discussion that has been spread­ cluded a sharp attack on the use of actors' strike, spoke. He recently nar­ it, too, operating in a hostile and' nuclear power. "Nuclear power means indifferent environment. But rather ing in the union movement. rated a film that the IAM hopes to use techno-terrorism and we don't need it," in its organizing efforts. Winpisinger than continuing to deceive itself about Unlike talk about "our Democratic he declared. its relationship with the employers and Congress," this points toward how presented him with an IAM donation the government, it had the good sense, labor can resolve its political crisis in The resolution, adopted on the rec~ of $10,000 for the strikers, and another it seems to us, to mount an offensive the interests of working people. ommendation of the Convention's Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 17 under the pressure of the economic .. . lAM crisis, and in the wake of twenty years Italian auto workers Continued from preceding page of struggle against the war and for $3,000 w.as collected by passing the hat civil rights for Blacks, Chicanos, and among the delegates. .women. Winpisinger also sees a new image challenge layoff plans One reason Cincinnati was selected for the lAM as a means of reaching out for the convention is that it is the site to allies who can give the labor move­ By Will Reissner one, workers from the SEAT auto plant of some battles between the lAM and ment more clout in dealing with the Eighteen million Italian workers in Barcelona, Spain, which is partially the growing number of employers who employers and government. staged a four-hour general strike on· owned by Fiat, brought solidarity are trying to make their machine "We have to reach out and help October 10 to protest a move by the greetings. At another, representatives shops non-union. finance those in our communities who giant automaker Fiat to place 22,844 from all the political parties were in­ On September 8, about 1,000 dele­ have parallel concerns and interests, workers on a three-month layoff. Fiat vited to speak to the 10,000 assembled gates were bused to the gates of Wolf and who can give us auxiliary as well workers have been on strike against workers. The representative of the Machinery near Cincinnati, where 100 as front-line support.... the plan since October 1. Their mass Revolutionary Communist League lAM members have been on strike "Coalition building is absolutely and picket lines have blocked all shipments (LCR), sister organization of the U.S. against a union busting employer for unequivocally necessary to the mainte­ into and out of the factories. Socialist Workers Party, got a very fourteen months. They disobeyed a nance of our [the unions'] life-support good response. The LCR proposes a court order limiting the number of systems in the hostile environment The struggle of the Fiat workers campaign fo!' a thirty-five-hour work­ pickets to three. that envelops us today." against management plans to cut the week to fight unemployment. Winpisinger cited the lAM's role in work force has been going on since Why the shift? founding the Citizen/Labor Energy early September. Their fight has high­ In recognition of the crucial impor­ In sizing up the convention, some Coalition and cooperation with the lighted the biggest labor upsurge in tance of the struggle at Fiat for the left currents have drawn the conclu­ Americans for Democratic Action and Italy in more than a decade, as Italian entire Italian labor movement, the sion that Winpisinger has stepped out Democratic Socialist Organizing Com­ workers resist attempts by the employ­ Metalworkers Federation called its far in advance of the rank and file. mittee as examples. ers to make them bear the brunt of the members out on a nationwide solidar­ capitalist economic crisis through in­ ity strike on September 25. "Despite the efforts to give socialism creased unemployment and speedups. a new meaning to lAM members," Criticizes union leaders On the day of the strike, 100,000 reported David Moberg in the Sep­ Winpisinger urges the leadership of Recent government figures indicate workers staged a militant and spirited tember 17 In These Times, "Winpisin­ other unions to follow his example. that Italian inflation is running at 17 demonstration in the main square of ger has a lot of prior miseducation to And he made some telling criticisms of percent:. Unemployment, which stood Turin. Many demonstrators carried fight." the AFL-CIO ·officialdom: at 1.7 million in July, is expected to banners and placards calling for the The Communist Party's Daily World "Too many times on terribly impor­ rise substantially before the end of the thirty-five-hour week. appeared to agree with the words of tant issues, we've had to look back year. Allen Levie, a delegate quoted by cor­ over our shoulders to determine The workers won an initial, partial respondent Tim Wheeler September 9. whether or not the balance of the trade The struggle of the Fiat workers is of victory on September 27, when Fiat's "The biggest job we are going to union movement was with us. For the crucial importance to the Italian work­ management rescinded its previously have as delegates," Levie said, "is most part, it has not been! ing class because Fiat is by far the announced dismissals. This move was getting back to the rank and file "The the_ory of business unionism largest private employer in the coun­ announced two hours after the sudden members with these advanced posi­ and cautious conservatism still domi­ try. fall of the six-month-old government of tions." nates the majority of union leadership Premier Francesco Cossiga. Fearing a The offensive against the auto work­ continuation of the high pitch of work­ ers and their union, the Metalworkers ers struggle at a time of political crisis, Federation (FLM), was publicly a Fiat representative announced that launched by Fiat chairman Giovanni "out of a sense of responsibility at a Agnelli at a July stockholders meeting. difficult time in the life of the nation," At that meeting Agnelli outlined plans all hiring and firing would be sus­ to make major cuts in the work force pended until the end of the year. before the end of the year while sub­ stantially increasing productivity by But this limited victory did not last forcing the auto workers to give up long. Two days later, on September 29, benefits won in previous struggles. the company announced that it would place 22,844 workers on a three-month ~ layoff. The true purpose of this layoff +, :· l 'Invasion' of imports? became clear when the list of those Agnelli and other Fiat executives, affected was released. On the list are a echoed by the big business press, have majority of the rank-and-file union raised the specter of being overrun by activists in the plants as well as some an "invasion" of Japanese imports, an of the union delegates. argument dear to capitalist auto com­ panies throughout the world. But Ital­ ian law limits Japanese car imports to Workers shut down Fiat only 1,200 per year. Fiat executives also point to the U.S. auto industry as When the contents of the layoff list a serious threat to the future of Italian became known, the Metalworkers Fed­ eration called an "indefinite strike" rights, other issues. and other European car manufactur­ against Fiat. ers. Winpisinger knows that he is not a in both the United States and Canada. In addition to calling the indefinite missionary bringing his "advanced There is a pessimistic reluctance to On September 8 negotiations began strike, which began on October 1, the positions" to a benighted conservative develop sufficient militancy to bite the on .a new contract between Fiat and union resumed its blockade of all fac­ membership. hand that feeds, to resist job black­ the FLM. Management proposed lay­ tory gates at the struck plants. It is in mail, or to exercise the power neces­ ing off some 24,000 workers for 18 In his opening address he portrayed support of this struggle that the Oc­ sary to make favored politicians and months, institution of a hiring freeze to some of the problems that the leader­ tober 10 national general strike was government officials honest and loyal further reduce the workforce through ship's shift to the left is intended to called. to the trade union principles and plat­ · attrition, and demanded the right to solve. Speaking of the crisis faced by forms on which they are elected. reassign workers to different jobs the union in 1976, he stated: Negotiations have resumed between "Here in the United States, too many within a plant and between different the FLM and Fiat management, but "We had experienced no-growth trade union leaders appear to be more plants, which is presently restricted by little progress is expected in the imme­ membership, a decline, in faCt, had set interested in breakfast at the White the contract. diate future since Fiat management is in over the previous seven years. . . . House than breaking bread with their deadly serious in its attempts to force· - "Our communications gap between own members. (Applause) The very next day Fiat began to big concessions from the auto workers. the Grand Lodge and the membership "We continue to suffer from the AFL­ layoff 13,200 workers in its auto div­ was widening. CIO's parochialism and timidity ision and another 1,400 in a steelmak­ The month-long struggle the Fiat "Our communications gap between brought about largely by the lack of ing division. The response of the work­ workers have been waging against the the lAM and the community at large unanimity as to what labor's agenda ers was immediate and massive. attempted layoffs and "give backs" is was even wider. . . . should truly be. Demonstrations took place at a of crucial importance to the struggles "Our organizational image, along "There is a dearth of leaders who number of plants, and on· September 11 of all Italian workers. If the powerful with that of all labor, was sagging in will say what they mean, or more and 12, strikes took place at car facto­ Fiat workers suffer a defeat, the em­ terms of the public's perception of our importantly, mean what they say." ries throughout the country. ployers' offensive against the living goals and aspirations." Winpisinger knows that far from standards and working conditions of What he is talking about is the leaping ahead of working people, he is There were also daily marches of up the rest of the Italian working class "perception" of the union leadership as trying to narrow a yawning gap that to 10,000 auto workers. will be greatly stepped up. conservative and self-serving, an im­ has grown between workers who are The impact of the Polish strikes The struggle at Fiat is also of direct age shared by millions of working becoming more rebellious and the pro­ could be seen in a number of ways. importance to auto workers throughout people-union members and non­ capitalist union officialdom. Picking up a demand won by the the capitalist world, who face similar members alike. Winpisinger's ·motivations in mak­ Gdansk shipyard workers, Fiat work­ attacks. In the United States, for ex­ Winpisinger described the lAM's ing this shift are not of primary impor­ ers called for negotiations between the ample, more than 240,000 auto workers new, more militant image as designed tance. What is important is that some . company and the union to be held in are out of work. to "appeal to young workers, to deeply felt sentiments of working peo­ public and in Turin rather than in Italian trade-unionists have asked women, to minorities, to technical, to ple-against the employers' offensive, Rome, so the workers could listen. that international solidarity activities white collar, pink collar, blue collar, against the draft, against nuclear In addition, as in Poland, democrati­ be undertaken in support of the Fiat and to service workers and govern­ power, against the: hidebound conser­ cally organized mass meetings were struggle. ment employees." vatism of labor leadership, and held almost daily in the factories to Messages of solidarity should be sent More than other top union leaders, against the trap for working people discuss tactics for the struggle and to to: Federazione dei Lavoratori Metal­ Winpisinger is sensitive to the changes represented by the capitalist two-party develop trade-union and political meccanici, Corso Unione Sovietica 351, that have been occurring in the think­ system-broke through at this gather­ strategies. These meetings involved as Torino, Italia. ing and outlook of working people ing. many as 20,000 workers at a time. At From lnterconUnental Press

18 benefits, but the right of all union members to job security. The workers, Arab faces members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2249, were demanding the reinstatement of shop deportation · steward Tom Upton, fired in mid-June for an alleged "poor work-effort." from U.S. Unlike most union contracts, how­ ever, the GE contract in Bloomington does not include any binding arbitra­ to Israel tion as part of the grievance machin­ By Evan Siegel ery. Instead, the procedure contains Once again the option to arbitrate or to strike as Elias Ayoub, the final step of the process. As a an Arab with result, when GE broke off talks with Israeli citizen­ the union on brother Upton's reinstate­ ship, faces de­ ment, workers simply opted to walk off portation. A the job. new hearing on the attempt by Vice-president of Local 2249, Wil­ the Immigration and the permanent evacuation of sev­ burn Bryant told the Militant, "We and N aturaliza­ eral hundred families nearest the called a meeting where we explained to tion Service will Cover-up of canal. the members that we were against any be held in Cin­ The president of the Love Canal arbitration on this issue. GE always cinnati on Oc- ELIAS AYOUB Homeowners Association, Lois Gibbs, withholds vital information from arbi­ tober 22. Love Canal said residents feared that, on the basis tration hearings and usually wins The harassment of Ayoub has of the panel's report, the federal gov- about 95 percent of all cases. GE is big brought to light connections between danger . ernment might back out of its recent money, and these arbitrators don't the FBI and Mossad, the Israeli secret agreement to buy their homes. People want to cross them. The members police. By Diane Jacobs "are so sick of this baloney they are understand that these arbitrators are The case of Elias Ayoub began when "There has been no demonstration of going to riot in the streets and burn not neutral or impartial. They're for the Immigration and Naturalization acute health effects linked to exposure their homes down," she said. the company." Service failed to send a routine docu­ to hazardous wastes at the Love Canal Bryant explained that the strike was ment filed by Ayoub to their superiors. site." 90 percent effective, had 100 percent When the time came for Ayoub to get This was the astounding conclusion backing from the international union, an extension on his student status, the of a five-member panel appointed by and was receiving good support from Cincinnati INS turned him down three New York Gov. Hugh Carey last June IBEWon the Bloomington labor movement, es­ months before his graduation was to to study the problem of toxic chemical pecially sister locals at Westinghouse, have taken place. waste dumps at ·Love Canal. Ironi­ RCA, and Otis Elevator Company. The decision was appealed to the cally, the head of the panel was Dr. strike after federal INS, which has now-in the Lewis Thomas, chancellor of the Mem­ The picket lines have been large and face of protests from civil libertarians orial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. GE firing spirited despite attempts of company and others-remanded the case back to The state's apparent intention in supervisors and foremen to drive their its Cincinnati office. setting up the panel was to cast doubt By Dave Ellis cars through pickets. Bryant stated, on two previous further-reaching stu­ BLOOMINGTON, Ind.-On Wednes­ "Our people have been just excellent. This took place against a sinister dies that resulted in orders to evacuate day, September 24, approximately 850 GE tried to run the plant the other day. background of FBI harassment. Ayoub hundreds of families from the area. electrical workers struck the General They painted 400 refrigerator cases, · was visited a number of times by One study, conducted by the Environ­ Electric plant here, which employs but only 247 people showed up. They strangers who grilled him about his mental Protection Agency, found some 1,000 people. can't run a thing with 24 7 people. political views. The head of the Cincin­ chromosome damage in 30 percent of a At issue in the strike is not wages or We're going to win this thing." nati INS asked the FBI for permission test group. The other, by Dr. Beverly to investigate Ayoub as a "subver­ Paigen, revealed "increased nervous sive." Soon after that, INS officers disorders, birth defects, and reproduc­ Darnton continued, "He added that interrogated Ayoub about his politics. tive abnormalities" in areas where his group's goal was not strikes but They then told the U.S. consulate in ... Poland union organizing and, through hard chemical leakage was the worst. Continued from page 10 Tel Aviv that Ayoub's visa was being Residents of Love Canal were bitter work, to get the country [Poland] mov­ The trade unions-which should cancelled because he "has been identi­ at the new "findings," which they ing again." have been instruments for helping the fied as a strong activist in the People's rightly regarded as a further cover-up The "free unions and a free econ­ Front for the Liberation of Palestine." of the effects of criminal dumping by workers defend their interests, control omy" favored by Sam Church were the production and help plan the econ­ This is a lie. Elias Ayoub is not an Hooker Chemical. furthest things from the workers' omy-became instruments of the bu­ "activist" in any of the armed Palesti­ Since 1971, some eighty-two identi­ minds. The changes they wanted could nian groups. He has spoken out for fied industrial chemicals, including reaucracy to keep the workers quiet. only be instituted in a nationalized, victims of Israeli oppression. dioxin and other toxic and radioactive And the \\!Orkers became convinced planned economy. As a journalist for the Washington materials, have bubbled and oozed to they needed new unions to assert their Star asked on September 16, 1979: the surface. The response of the county right to a voice in economic planning. The union bureaucrats are afraid "How did the description of Ayoub as a and state health departments has Despite the bureaucracy, the planned that American workers will be inspired Popular Front activist get into his file? ranged from temporary evacuation of economy and the efforts of Poland's by the real lessons of the Polish Has the Mossad or the FBI monitored homeowners, to installing fifteen­ working people made possible big so­ strikes. That's why they join the cam­ Ayoub's political activities? On what dollar window fans in basements to cial .and economic gains. Education, paign of lies that pictures the workers grounds was he labeled a subversive?" carry off toxic fumes, to offering to hire medical care, and other human needs as desiring nothing more than U.S.­ Should Ayoub be deported to Israel, mentally retarded youths to dig drain­ began to be met for the first time. Food style "free unions." he could face jail on the frame-up age ditches in the canal area. prices were heavily subsidized. And To defeat the employers' attacks on charge of being a PFLP member. It was only the organized efforts of Poland became the ninth most indus­ our living standards we need to trans­ Supporters of Ayoub's democratic the homeowners and renters of Love trialized country in the world. form our unions into a movement that right to study here will hold a picket Canal, with the aid of unions and This was not due to brilliant plan­ can forge the kind of unity, solidarity, line to support him on October 22 church and campus groups, that forced ning by the bureaucrats. Their role and militancy that the Polish workers outside New York City's INS office at the testing of residents, release of was parasitic. Their corruption and achieved. 30 Federal Plaza. information, closing of two schools, fear of giving the Polish workers any We need to get rid of the Kirklands, say in decision-making caused con­ Gleasons, and the other high-paid bu­ stant disruptions and imbalances­ reaucrats who have dragged our "free sometimes disastrous one. unions" in the trail of the capitalist Come to Indianapolis But the social revolution and its employers, the capitalist parties, and aftermath instilled Polish workers the capitalist government. with a deep self-confidence and a con­ We need a labor party that can 20th National YSA Convention viction that they were by right the defend our interests in the political December 27-30 masters of the factories and their coun­ arena. try. They learned that only working American labor needs its own for­ people could solve the problems caused eign policy-free of control by the CIA We Will Discuss: by bureaucratic mismanagement. and the Pentagon. We need a foreign They decided that inequalities must policy that places American working • No Registration! No Draft! be reduced, and the plan reoriented to people where we belong-on the side of take into account the desire of the the working people of Poland, El Sal­ • Solidarity with Cuba, Nicaragua, and masses for a better standard of living. vador, Iran, and elsewhere who are Grenada! And all forms of bureaucratic ty­ fighting for a better life against our • Money for Jobs-Not War! ranny, including censorship, must be exploiters. abolished. We ·need a policy that will allow the • Stop FBI and CIA Spying! Their revolutionary, antibureau­ American unions to fulfill their role as cratic drive to assert leadership of the most powerful opponent of the society was given voice on many occa­ drive toward militarism and war. Join the Young Socialist Alliance sions by strike leader Lech Walesa. And we need socialism. We, too, Name D I want to join the YSA. Here is how New York Times corres­ must "have in our hands the land and Address ______D Send me more information on the YSA pondent John Darnton described Wale­ the factories in which we work." City ____ State ______convention. sa's speech to a September 24 workers' We need socialism so that the vast Zip Phone ______D Enclosed is $2.00 for one year of the rally in Warsaw: productive capacity of this country can Young Socialist. "If there are difficult problems we be put to work for peaceful purposes Clip and mail to: YSA National Office, P.O. Box 471 Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. can all strike together. If things get instead of war, to meet the needs of all 10003. bad we stand together as a united Po­ the world's people instead of to grind land." out profits for a few.

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 19 In Review 'Playing for Time' The CBS production of Arthur Miller's "Playing will be gassed after the performance. He wants to One historical allusion has an irony that is For Time" was shown on September 30. It was the observe the effects of music on them. Mengele has highly effective. Some of the Catholics exclaim, "If target of a concerted campaign against it by pro­ no idea that he himself, a listener whom he does not only the pope knew what is going on here." But Zionist organizations protesting the presence in it think to study, is a case of abnormal psychology. historians have established that Pius XII knew of of Vanessa Redgrave, who has expressed support If Mengele and the other Nazis are complex the concentration camps and kept silent, being for the Palestinian cause. portraits of abnormal psychology, the members of primarily concerned that Europe would become It is an extremely poignant and probing play of the orchestra are three-dimensional human beings, communist. the Auschwitz concentration camp. Unlike the not cardboard cut-outs in postures of pathetic ap­ It is this play, so superior to "Holocaust" in every television play "Holocaust," which received the peal or heroic resistance. respect, that the Zionists sought to keep from being support of Zionist organizations, this play is not the The Nazis have tried to dehumanize and isolate shown by threatening to boycott its commercial product of a hack who trivialized the extermination the Jewish women by shaving their heads but not sponsors. This opposition to a fine dramatization of of six million Jews by using the techniques of soap those of the others. National prejudices among the the Nazi concentration camps made John V. O'Con­ opera. It was written by the foremost living Ameri­ prisoners remain, even in the concentration camp. nor, the TV critic of the New York Times, say that can dramatist. The one Zionist prisoner, feels that every Gentile "the ironies" surrounding the production are "little "Playing for Time" is based on a memoir of Fania must be an anti-Semite. Although we can under­ short of dizzying." But these ironies go much Fenelon, a survivor of Auschwitz. The story tells of stand this response by one who has suffered such further than O'Connor himself realized. persecution, we must deplore it, for we perceive the deep sympathy for the Jews shown by one of the O'Connor, after justly speaking of Vanessa Red­ Polish women in speaking to Fania Fenelon. grave as "an astonishingly gifted actress," added Television Fania, played by Vanessa Redgrave, is the one that "her connection with a holocaust story was whom all the women trust and come to for comfort. bound to prompt sincere and profound objections in a half-Jewish Parisian carabet singer who is as­ She is a strong, compassionate person who is circles that could hardly be accused of thoughtless­ signed by the Nazi concentration camp keepers to a appalled by the perception of what human beings ness." But these circles-the American Jewish women's orchestra that plays for their pleasure. · can become. Committee and the B'nai Brith-have whipped up Because of the favored position of these inmates, we She does not pretend to have all the answers to unthinking passion around their charge that Red­ are not saturated with the horrors of concentration the ethical problems faced by the prisoners and grave is anti-semitic. They exploit Jews' justifiable camp life, of which we catch only glimpses. The does not judge harshly those weaker than she is. fears of a recurrence of anti-semitism. play is the more effective for its artistic restraint. Above all, she perceives the need for comradeship Always aware of the gas chambers in the back­ and solidarity. She tells a young woman (who had Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism, although some ground, we catch our breath when the members of attached herself adoringly to her at first but whose anti-semites-like the Soviet bureaucracy-have the orchestra are ordered to form two lines, one character deteriorates under the stress of· hunger sought to use anti-Zionism as a code word. Jewish and the other non-Jewish-only to share the and concentration camp existence to the point of The recent outburst of the president of the South­ relief of the prisoners when we learn that they are giving herself to Nazis for food) that she must think em Baptist Association to the effect that God to be marched to a de-lousing station. of others if she is to retain her humanity. doesn't listen to the prayers of Jews is a reminder The notorious Dr. Mengele is shown, but we do "Playing for Time" is not only true to the com­ that the Zionist charges point the finger in exactly not see him engaged in sadistic experimentation. plexities of human nature; it is also more histori­ the wrong direction. Instead, he is listening to the sentimental arias of cally accurate than "Holocaust." We are shown that Such anti-semitism is to be found among some of "Madame Butterfly." However, his grim rigidity is it was not only Jews who were gassed, although the Evangelical church leaders whom these Jewish all the more menacing. they constituted the majority of those who were, organizations have been cultivating because of On one occasion the orchestra is told that Dr. that Zionists were only a small minority among the their professed friendship for anticommunist Israel, Mengele wants it to play before hospitalized mental Jews, and that communists played heroic roles in not among those aligned with the disinherited of patients-who, the orchestra members learn later, the resistance movement. the earth. -Paul Siegel

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20 ... labor energy, jobs conf.-big step Continued from back page . . . . pressmg the1r VIews on nuclear power tlon. down, because it's probably too dan- and some energy and employment But a vote by this conference against gerous anyway. "'!"~ .oug~t .~ have questions. U.S. intervention would not have rep- m~re conferences hke th1s, Wynn That resolution, which was approved resented winning over the leadership sa1d. unanimously by the conference, repre- or membership of the unions who It was not just nuclear power on the sents an important advance in the sponsored the conference. They had minds of these unionists. They dis- official positions of most of the unions come together around opposition to cussed other issues as well. Nationali- involved (see box). nuclear power. zation of energy. Public ownership of The 828 union members who regis- And that is what the brother from utilities. Whether or not Carter's multi- tered from fifty-seven unions returned Oklahoma wanted to report back: the billion-dollar give-away to the oil com- home armed with that resolution and real achievement-advancing the fight panies to make liquid fuels from coal, the intensive learning process from the against nuclear power. the synfuels program, is worthwhile. two days of discussion. The experience They listened to different opinions, will spur on a great deal of new discus­ This inspiring conference is the real exchanged ideas and experiences. sion and action against nuclear power. beginning of the discussion in the The conference had an international labor movement on nuclear power. It character. represents an important example of Arthur Scargill, president of tlie how the labor movement can get to­ Yorkshire (Britain) National Union of gether and discuss questions that af­ Mineworkers sent solidarity greetings fect workers. urging "no nukes." It showed the social conscience of Australian Railway Union executive the labor movement. As important as board member James Fraser was at the economic arguments are favoring ,the conference. He roused the gather­ the use of coal instead of nuclear ing with a report on union efforts to power, the jobs and cost advantages stop the mining of uranium. This is the are not the main factor. Every miner unanimous position of the Australian and other union member we inter­ labor organization equivalent to the viewed and who spoke on the floor AFL-CIO. emphasized the unacceptable danger of nuclear power. "It's a life or death The labor party idea was raised a question for humanity." number of times in workshops and on Mil The tremendous power and authority the conference floor. It was popular, Members of IBEW Local 5 tried to break of the UMWA miners made its impres­ receiving loud cheers. On the other up conference, but failed. Other IBEW locals, however, participated in antinu­ sion on everyone. As conference leader hand, buttons for Carter, Reagan, and Jerry Gordon put it, "When that dis­ Anderson were as scarce as pronu­ clear meeting. ruption happened, it sure felt good to clear buttons. This is remarkable at a At the end of the conference on be on the side of the miners." large labor gathering less than a Sunday a number of resolutions were This conference was a big step for­ month before the presidential election. put on the floor. Most related directly ward in fighting nuclear power. Such a There was strong sentiment ex­ to the purpose of the conference. They gathering of union members forges pressed against the threat of war. included condemning uranium mining labor solidarity. Spirited applause greeted UMW A Pres­ on Indian land and support to the The UMWA contract with the coal ident Sam Church's statement: "War is striking utility workers from the Steel­ industry expires March 27. Veterans of not a solution. It is just destruction. We workers union in northern . Indiana. the 110-day strike of the winter of 1977- wouldn't have gotten ourselves into the These were unanimously approved. 78 pointed to this conference as a crisis in the Mideast if it wasn't for But in addition, a proposal was beginning for building an even more America's lust for their oil." made for the antinuclear conference to massive labor solidarity movement In addition to Church and Rosemary take a stand in opposition to U.S. than was done for the last strike. Trump of SEIU, the conference was intervention in the Iran-Iraq war or in The experience of the conference · also addressed by William Winpisin­ Ethiopia. Another proposal was made educated and inspired everyone who ger, president of the one-million-mem­ to oppose Russian intervention also. · ·was there. ber International Association of Mach­ These were overwhelmingly voted A UMW A local president from inists and Aerospace Workers, and down. Charleston, West Virginia, a working Martin Gerber, International Vice­ The proposal to take a stand against miner, summed up the conference this president of the United Auto Workers. U.S. policy was not voted down be­ way. He told the Militant, "I'm damn Black political columnist William cause of pro-war sentiment. In fact no proud to be here. I didn't know much Worthy spoke on Saturday and broad­ one spoke in defense of U.S. policy. about what it would be like, but it's ened the scope of the issues consid­ One unionist who spoke expressed been something else. Working people ered. "If we oppose the murder of what seemed to be a common reaction: need to get together more like this and nuclear worker Karen Silkwood [who "I am against a war. I want to go back stick together." · died mysteriously while trying to ex­ to my local in Oklahoma and report on Can the labor movement stop nu­ pose radiation hazards at the plant this conference and get them to take clear power? where she worked] we should also action against nuclear power. They "No question about it!" oppose the murders of workers in Gua­ didn't send me here because of the temala, El Salvador, South Africa, war." Subsequent issues of the Militant South Korea.... " The danger of the U.S. war drive is a will carry more reports from the confer­ The Coalition of Labor Union vital one for the labor movement to ence. Of special interest are reports on Women and the nine unions sponsor­ discuss. In terms of their own opinions, the continuing accident at Three Mile ing the conference hammered out a it seemed that the majority at this Island and the facts about rail trans­ resolution prior to the gathering ex- conference shared an anti-war posi- portation of nuclear materials. Louisville labor, civil rights rally against Klan By Chris Rayson building a majority movement in this Lowery, president of the Southern Black and white men to go fight and LOUISVILLE, Ky.-About 400 peo- country against racism, and we can do Christian Leadership Conference. die while they watch television, sip ple crammed into a downtown Louis- it." He recounted the Klan attack on an champagne, get richer, and get older." ville union headquarters September 28 Anne Schmitt, executive board SCLC march in Decatur, Alabama, on Outside, another kind of anti-Klan for a thunderous rally aimed at uniting member of the Communications Work- May 26, 1979. The Klan attempted to rally was taking place. Scores of young people against the Ku Klux Klan and ers of America Local 10310 and a assassinate Dr. Lowery and his wife in Blacks from the nearby Sheppard racism. leader of the Derby City Coalition of ihat march, but the only arrest that Square housing project gathered The auditorium of the Labor Temple, Labor Union Women, noted that "the day was of a Black man attempting to around a handful of racist protesters. home of the Laborers International Klan threatens the rights and gains of defend the demonstration from armed The police decided it was time the Union Local 576, rang with applause all women, Black and white alike. This racists. (Curtis Lee Robinson was con- right-wingers, for their own safety, and" shouts of "right on" from the is why the women's movement in this victed in Decatur October 2 of attempt- ended their activities and escorted white and Black audience. city must take a solid stand against ing to murder a Klansman. He was them away. The rally was sponsored by the the Klan." released from jail on two years' proba- Five years ago, the Klan organized Louisville Anti-Klan Coalition, made Shirley Smith, a member of the tion. See article in the October 17 Mili- violent demonstrations in Louisville up of more than 100 organizations. Louisville chapter of the National Or- tant.) against school desegregation. They Among the sponsors were the Jeffer- ganization for Women, attacked police Lowery called on Carter and the participated in United Labor Against son County Teachers Association; Ken- inaction against Klan terrorists Justice Department to vigorously Busing, an Jmti-busing group that had tucky Alliance Against Racist and around the country. "In April four prosecute Klan murderers. But he the support of key local union officials. Political Repression; NAACP Ken- Black women in Chattanooga were pointed out that "in San Diego, Cali- But school desegregation in Jeffer­ tucky State Conference of Branches; shot by three meJl}.bers of the Ku Klux fornia, the Democratic nominee for son County has been largely imple­ National Organization for Women, Klan. Two of the gunmen were acquit- Congress is the local head of the Ku mented. Louisville chapter; Paddlewheel Al- ted and one was convicted of simple Klux Klan." The right wing, especially the Klan, liance; Socialist Workers Party; U. B. assault. No one can argue that a hand- Lowery said the Klan "must be met is demoralized and divided because of Thomas, president of United Auto fullike the Klan can operate all these with strong, positive resistance from its defeat on school desegregation. Workers Local 817; and the Greater years if the government of the United the White House to the out house." The Black community, labor, and Louisville Central Labor Council. States was concerned with stopping To approving shouts, Lowery stated others in Louisville are increasingly Anne Braden, the well-known civil it." he was "unalterably opposed" tO the determined to counter the Klan. Re- rights activist from Louisville, said: The keynote speech, punctuated by draft. "I want them to draft those fleeting this sentiment, the Louisville "The racists in this society are the shouts of "right on," laughter, and rich, white men who are always mak- Board of Aldermen recently passed a, minority. We are in the process of constant applause, was by Dr. Joseph ing decisions to draft young, poor resolution against the Klan.

THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 21 The Great Society Harry Ring

Makes your grass glow-Albu­ skilled labor, "at wages that are signif­ Chew on this one-"We all eat querque will have a facility for sterili­ icantly low." They advise that English better than we need to. People could zing raw sewage sludge with radioac­ is widely spoken, but "The language cut out some of the luxuries in their tive waste. The end product will be we share most of all is that of business food budget and at the same time used as animal feed and fertilizer for profitability.... " improve their diet."-Kim Klein­ city parks and school grounds. The ra­ schmidt, an Illinois banker dioactivity is strong enough to destroy disease-breeding bacteria, but not The golden years-If you die on enough to make the sludge radioac­ Social Security, you do not collect for High cost of prying-Court-order­ that month, even if you check out the tive, officials assure. ed police phone taps and other elec­ last day of the month. tronic surveillance has decreased 36 Economics made simple-"Most percent in the past six years, officials economists put the blame for rising The march of civilization-Sev­ assert. The reason, they say, is infla­ food prices squarely on inflation, con­ enty-two governments have agreed not tion. The average estimated cost of tending that the two are insepera­ to use firebombs on civilian popula­ each surveillance in 1969 was $2,634. ble."-The New York Times. tions. If approved, a further proviso Last year it was up to $16,437. would bar using toys and religious Plain talk-Some Zionists argue objects as booby traps and prohibiting that Israel is practically a socialist planting booby traps on the wounded Cultural note-Muzak, America's state. Example? An Israeli government or dead. It has not been decided if elevator music, is now being broadcast ad in a U.S. research and development these rules will apply in ciVil conflicts live by satellite. This reportedly enhan­ magazine boasts that they have lots of or only in wars between nations. ces the fidelity of the sound. Union Talk Mondale visits Brooklyn. Navy Yard The following column is by Robert Dees, a and Mondale, it will be again." A pipefitter com­ prevent working people from finding out about this. member of the Industrial Union of Marine and mented bitterly, "Yeah, just like in World War II." The week before Mondale's visit, for example, Shipbuilding Workers of America Local 12. A sailor said, "I'll tell you this, if there's a war Pulley was denied entry into the yard when he came with Iran, or anybody else, I'm heading for Can­ to talk to workers. BROOKLYN, N.Y.-Vice-president Walter Mon­ ada." But what if you're at sea? "I'd jump over­ Now the government has gone a step further. On dale visited the Brooklyn Navy Yard October 10. board and swim to Canada. If this ship ever gets October 14, two officers on the USS Aylwin ap­ The company built a reviewing stand, arranged for hit, we'll. all be blown to Canada." proached two yard workers and falsely accused a high school marching band, invited all the local them of "distributing political brochures." The Democratic politicians, and had all the yard work­ One man held a sign "SIU [Seafarer's Interna­ officers said that any yard worker caught discuss­ ers attend the ceremonies, with pay. In the words of tional Union] Supports Carter/Mondale." I ex­ ing "partisan politics" would be escorted off the one rigger, "I'm not going to listen to that idiot pressed surprise that the union would support ship and not allowed to return. This would result in unless they pay me." Carter since his policies hurt working people. He the worker losing his or her job. When we arrived at the site, men in business suits said, "Yes, but Reagan will invoke antilabor legisla­ passed out campaign placards. While waiting forty tion." Neither worker was distributing any literature at minutes for Mondale to show up, I asked several co­ I reminded him that Carter invoked the Taft­ that time. workers if they thought these politicians would do Hartley Act against the miners in 1978. He looked The navy refused to allow the workers in question anything for working people. The majority of the shocked and said he didn't know that. He didn't to confront their accuser or otherwise refute the responses are unprintable. One sixty-year-old hold up his sign anymore. false charges against them. Thus, anytime officers burner said: "It's ridiculous. It's like a circus. When I got back to the locker room for lunch, I want to get rid of any worker, they can simply Mondale comes here and promises, promises, .prom: found that many had not attended. "Why should I again make a false accusation, and that's it. ises, all for votes, and they never do anything waste my time?" one said. So in an election year, in a week in which the anyway. Who do they think they're kidding?" Another worker said, "What's the point in voting? vice-president of the United States campaigns in The Democratic politician who introduced Mon­ It won't do any good anyway." the shipyard, the yard workers are muzzled and dale stated that the company "is to be commended In fact, there is a real alternative for working forbidden to discuss politics on the job, on penalty for the great job it's doing in our defense mobiliza­ people in the coming election: Andrew Pulley the of losing their livelihood. This action was taken by tion. The Brooklyn Navy Yard was once the number Socialist Workers candidate for president. However, the U.S. Navy, which claims to "defend democ­ one shipyard in the country. With the help of Carter the bosses and their government are trying to racy." What's Going On

ist Workers Party. Fri., Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m. 3883 MISS.OURI for Congress, Sixth District, Massachusetts. Sat., ARIZONA Broadway, Pathfinder Bookstore. Donation: $1.50. Oct. 18, 2 p.m. Knight Memorial Library Auditorium, Pt:tOENIX Ausp: Militant Forum. For more . information call 275 Elmwood Ave. Donation: $1. Ausp: Young SOCIALIST CAMPAIGN RALLY. Speaker: Matilde (219) 884-9509. KANSAS CITY Socialist Alliance. For more information call (401) Zimmermann, Socialist Workers Party candidate for IRAQ INVADES IRAN: THE TRUTH BEHIND THE 726-3657. vice-president. Sat., Oct. 18, 6:30p.m. dinner; 8 p.m. WAR. Speakers: Martha Pettit, Socialist Workers rally. 1243 E. McDowell. Dinner $3. Ausp: Arizona candidate for U.S. Senate; Iranian student. Sun., SWP Campaign Committee. For more information KENTUCKY Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m. 4715-A Troost. Donation: $1.75. TEXAS call (602) 255-0450. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call LOUISVILLE (816) 753-0404. DALLAS FREE EL SALVADOR. A FILM AND TALK ON IRAN-IRAQ: STOP U.S. INTERVENTION IN PER­ COLORADO THE REVOLUTION IN CENTRAL AMERICA. KANSAS CITY SOCIALIST WORKERS RALLY. SIAN GULF. Speakers: Kathy Rettig, Young Social­ DENVER Speakers: representative, El Salvador Solidarity Speakers: Andrew Pulley, SWP candidate for presi­ ist Alliance; others. Sat., Oct. 25, 7 p.m. 5442 E. LABOR AND SAFE ENERGY. Speakers to be Committee; Nelson Perez, eyewitness to Bolivian dent; Martha Pettit, SWP candidate for Senate;. Grand. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Labor Fo­ announced. Fri., Oct. 24, 7:30p.m. 126 W. 12th Ave. military coup. Sat., Oct. 25, 8 p.m. 131 W. Main. Martin Anderson, SWP candidate for governor. rum. For more information call (214) 826-4711. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more Donation: $3. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more Sun., Oct. 26, buffet 6:30 p.m.; program 7:30 p.m. information call (303) 534-8954. information call (502) 587-8418. Unitarian Church, 4500 Warwick. Donation: $6.50; SAN ANTONIO advance sale $5.50; rally only $2. Ausp: SWP IRAN-IRAQ WAR: WHAT'S BEHIND IRAQ'S AT­ REVOLUTION IN THE AMERICAS: THE THREAT Campaign. For more information call (816) 753- TACKS? A panel discussion. Speakers: Tom Smith, OF U.S. INTERVENTION. Speakers to be an­ MICHIGAN 0404. Young Socialist Alliance; Palestinian student; oth­ nounced. Fri., Oct. 31, 7:30p.m. 126 W. 12th Ave. ers. Fri., Oct. 24, 8 p.m. 1406 N. Flores. Donation: Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more DETROIT $1.50. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more infor­ information call (303) 534-8954. NUCLEAR POWER: A DANGER TO HUMANITY. mation call (512) 222-8398. Speakers: Connie Harkness, Detroit Safe Energy OHIO Coalition; John Keillor, member, United Steel­ CINCINNATI BENEFIT FOR A FAIR BALLOT. Entertainment GEORGIA workers Local 7720. Sun., Oct. 26, 7 p.m. 6404 REVOLUTION IN GRENADA: FIRST FREE with Rudy Harst and other musicians, rock, reggae, ATLANTA Woodword. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. BLACK COUNTRY IN THEi WORLD. Speaker: Scott refreshments. Sun., Oct. 26, 2 p.m. Brachenridge WHY WORKING PEOPLE NEED A LABOR For more information call (313) 875-5322. Breen, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Con­ Park, Sunken Gardens Amphitheatre. Donation: $2. PARTY. Speaker: Jean Savage, member Interna­ gress, First C.D.; recently taped speech of Maurice Ausp: Texas Fair Ballot Committee. For more tional Association of Machinists Lodge 709 and of Bishop, prime minister of Grenada. Sun., Oct. 19, 7 information call (512) 271-7214. Socialist.Workers Party. Sun., Oct. 26, 7:30p.m. 509 p.m. 2531 Gilbert .Ave., 2nd Floor. Donation: $1.50. Peachtree St. NE. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant MINNESOTA Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more information Labor Forum. For more information call (404) 872- TWIN CITIES call (513) 751-2636. WISCONSIN 7229. DANGER ON THE RAILS. Speakers: Jim Carson, United Transportation Union, Chicago Northwest­ MILWAUKEE ern railroad; Jim Bialke, UTU, Soc Line; Bill Peter­ RHODE ISLAND WOMEN AND THE 1980 ELECTIONS. Speaker: INDIANA son, UTU, Milwaukee Road and Socialist Workers Andrea Morrell, Socialist Workers Party National Party. Sun., Oct. 26, 4 p·.m. 508 N. Snelling Ave., St. PROVIDENCE Committee. Sun., Oct. 19, 7:30p.m. Militant Book­ GARY Paul. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Twin Cities Militant UPSURGE IN CENTRAL AMERICA. Speaker: store, 3091 N. 27th. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant IRAQ-IRAN WAR. Speaker: David Turpin, Social- Forum. For more information call (612) 644-6325. Nelson Gonzalez, Socialist Workers Party candidate Forum. For more information call (414) 445-2076.

22 Letters

Change in attitude assaults. "This is an attack on all Just in the past few months I've seen working people," she wrote. "The a change in the political attitudes of democratic right to organize for people I grew up with or work with. It women's equality must be defended seems like they are thinking like the from acts of violence and Militant, even before I say anything. intimidation." Two railroad clerks I work with are Louise Armstrong in the National Guard. One has San Francisco, California already been told to report and the other expects to be called soon. The brother-in-law of a track foreman is in the Reserves. He was Pentagon's guinea pigs told he'd be going overseas in a month Two recent polls conducted in Utah or so. and the Rocky Mountain states show The track worker says, "It's got the increasing sentiment against both something to do with this 'show of the MX missile program and the force' of Carter's in Iran. It's bullshit. construction of any new nuclear power They got themselves over there, now plants. they want us to go bail them out." In Southern Utah, where residents P.S. were used as guinea pigs for the Denver, Colorado Pentagon's atomic testing in the '50s and '60s, one poll showed that 47 percent were opposed to the basing of the MX in Utah and Nevada. Another Women's building bombed 24 percent were undecided. 'Are they still there?' A pipe bomb exploded early October With more information about the 8 at the entrance of the Women's recent Titan explosion in Arkansas, Building, a center in the San Francisco which was followed closely here, corporate power' and what we can do do know the basics, what's right, Mission District for many women's Utahns are reluctant to become guinea about it. what's wrong. rights groups. There were no injuries. pigs again for the Pentagon. Keep it up, don't weaken or waver. I would like to help out and lend my Tiles were blown out of the entryway The second poll, taken in eight History has shown that Debs was support to the "cause." and the front doors shattered. western states, showed an overall right. You can't reform capitalism, it M.L. The Women's Building is a multi­ decline in support for nuclear power must be abolished! Flushing, New York purpose community center that houses plants. S.P. such organizations as the National One year ago 57 percent favored New York City Women's Political Caucus, San nuclear energy development in their Francisco Women's Center, and states and only 29 percent opposed Women Against Pornography and nuclear power. Common goals Material appreciated Violence. The San Francisco chapter of In this survey, only 48 percent I reeently requested literature Thank you very much for recently the National Organization for Women favored nuclear installations while the concerning your movement and have sending our African Culture Society holds its meetings there. The facility is figure opposed jumped from 29 percent decided it says most of what I have felt and Chicano/Latino Culture Group also used by community groups for to 40 percent. and preached in my own circles. your material outlining your socialist forums and other public events. Such a shift in attitude towards I grew up through the '60s but was a program for the rights of working Carmen Vasquez of the center told nuclear energy development shows little too young to realize and get people and all the oppressed. Many of me that this was the third attack in a that there exists a base for building a involved. I wish I could have been the brothers attending our weekly year. Last Valentine's Day, an strong antinuke and anti-MX older at that time so I could have group meetings have already borrowed arsonist did $60,000 worth of damage movement in the Rocky Mountain played an active role in the events of the material we received from you. to interior offices. area. the decade. I'm hoping for and encouraging "Activities organized out of the Ed Berger I was aware of a movement such as study, dialogue, and debate around Women's Building will not be stopped Salt Lake City, Utah yours, but was not really SWP campaign literature. To further by these acts," said Vasquez. knowledgeable to the extent of your promote ideological struggle, I would Louise Goodman, Socialist Workers activities. greatly appreciate it if you could send Party candidate for San Francisco I have throughout my life tried to us twenty packets of SWP material. supervisor, responded quickly to the Principled campaign unite people "in my own way" but (Our two prisoner-run groups average attack. In a letter to Mayor Dianne Enclosed is a small contribution for realize the forces to overcome are great a combined attendance of over 100 Feinstein, she demanded immediate your election expenses. I support you and powerful and ruthless. I have members.) This literature would be apprehension and prosecution of those because yours is a principled often felt the situation to be futile, circulated at our weekly meetings. responsible for the bJ>mbing and an campaign. Much like the Debs especially for someone like me-a Again, thank you for your support investigation into the information held campaigns of the first part of this female with a few years college, one and solidarity. by San Francisco police on the other century, you patiently explain how and who is not very knowledgeable about A prisoner organizations singled out for future why people are getting 'ripped off' by the workings of the bureaucracy. But I Leavenworth, Kansas

If You Like This Paper, Look Us Up Where to lind the SocialiSt Workers Party. Young Soctahst Alliance. and soctahst books and pamphlets

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THE MILITANT/OCTOBER 24, 1980 23 THE MILITANT Large labor conference denounces nuclear danger

This article was prepared by !.:!.:.· .;.·· 'Militant' reporters Jon Hillson .t.·· .. · -·~ . ' t. ~¥1 !Ji.~- and Stu Singer, and Anibal Yanez, ( managing editor of 'Perspectiva Mundial.'

PITTSBURGH-It was standing room only for the nearly 1,000 people who IIlled the ballroom at the Pitts­ burgh Hilton Hotel October 10-12 for the first National Labor Conference for Safe Energy and Full Employment. This large gathering, overwhelming­ ly union members, served notice on the energy barons that opposition to nu­ clear power is a labor issue. The conference was initiated by nine international unions and the Coalition of Labor Union Women (see box). n The most powerful group there was Left, almost 1,000 union members met in two-day conference on energy and jobs. Sentiment was that nuclear power is a the coal miners. threat to humanity, and must be stopped. Right, UMWA Pres. Church: 'Energy elite concerned with profits, not safe energy.' More than 100 working miners and union officials, including United Mine Workers International President Sam the conference. He stated that the force was badly outnumbered. UMW A tation, seemed to speak for many in Church, put their stamp on the confer­ gathering marked the end of opposi­ President Sam Church and Service attendance. ence in numerous ways. Many people tion by some environmentalists in the Employees International Union Vice­ "I really didn't have a position on remarked on the continuity of the role antinuclear movement to coal as the president Rosemary Trump were nuclear power pro or con when I came of the. UMWA in this gathering and its main energy alternative. New evidence among those on the stage when the here," the white-haired, working rail­ historic contributions to the labor was presented by Komanoff and others disruption· occurred. Quickly, one of the road engineer told the crowd. movement. about progress in clean burning of coal miners who was part of the defense "But I thank God I had the privilege In his keynote speech Sam Church to produce electricity and large cost team grabbed the microphone and to come here. I've had my eyes said: "For too long [energy] decisions advantages of coal versus other me­ shouted, "UMWA members front and opened." were made by the 'energy elite.' Their thods of generating electricity. center." That was the comment over and concerns were not in providing jobs The crowd burst into cheers as fifty over. "It was a real eye-opener." and efficient energy, but in providing Disruption miners trooped to the stage, protecting A welcome addition to the workshop continued and soaring profits.'' The threat to nuclear power repre­ it against a takeover by the disrupters. discussions was the participation of The nuclear industry, Church said, sented by the conference was recognized They were disciplined in the face of members and officers of a Pittsburgh· promised energy so cheap, "we by the nuclear industry. Supporters of physical provocations by the IBEW area IBEW local, which represents wouldn't need electric meters. . . . But nuclear power tried to disrupt the officials who led the attack. The min· utility plant workers. This local had they gave us the meters. They gave us meeting, but failed. originally threatened to picket the Three Mile Island. They gave us count­ ers opened discussions with the IBEW A group of almost 100 from Local 5 members who were involved. Unlike conference as Local 5 was doing, but less tons of nuclear waste. They even of the International Brotherhood of instead accepted an invitation to par­ gave us the bill for the cost of their the piecards at their helm, they were Electrical Workers (IBEW) broke into willing to talk and evidently had not ticipate. own mistakes. They gave us lies.'' the meeting hall through a back door been informed about the nature of the Some of these electricians changed Citing the major problems connected during the early moments of the Fri­ gathering they were supposed to break their views as a result of the confer­ with nuclear power, "from the mining day evening kickoff rally. Carrying up. Some said they thought it was an ence. of uranium to the disposal of the picket signs with pronuclear industry antilabor meeting and that partici­ Trade unionists bought antinuclear radioactive waste," the UMW A presi­ slogans on them, the electricians sur­ pants were against technology in gen­ books, talked with environmentalists, dent told the crowd that "America's rounded the stage and occupied the eral. watched slide shows, and met with immediate energy problems can only center aisle of the meeting room. Clusters of union members from thtl each other outside the conference hall. be solved by safely mining and cleanly IBEW Local 5 represents electricians conference debated the outnumbered Workshops covering coal, nuclear acci­ using coal." in the construction industry. electricians throughout the hall. dents, jobs and energy, democratic Charles Komanoff, a leading envir­ The original conference marshaling "Nuclear power is just too danger­ control of energy, radiation in the onmental researcher, participated in ous.'' "Electricians jobs aren't threat­ workplace, and other topics attracted ened. You need electricians whether almost all the conference participants. the electricity is generated by coal or At the general session Saturday nuclear.'' The debates raged on. morning, nuclear physicist Michio Meeting sponsored by 9 unions The IBEW industry supporters were Kaku showed a chilling slide show on PITTSBURGH-The sign at the These unions have a combined not only failing to break up the confer­ nuclear accidents. He refuted the myth front of the hall read: "First Na­ membership in the United States ence, but their own members were incessantly peddled by the nuclear tional Labor Conference for Safe and Canada of 3.5 million. shaken by the discussions. industry that no one has ever been Energy and Full Employment." The Coalition of Labor Union With the conference members sing­ killed in a nuclear plant accident. He The conference was initiated by a Women, whose head, Joyce Miller, ing "Solidarity Forever," the IBEW documented at least seven people killed committee of unionists, led by was recently put on the executive group left. The packed ballroom broke in the United States alone. Jerry Gordon, who are active in the board of the AFL-CIO, also spon­ into a roar. Jane Lee, who works a farm right antinuclear movement. sored the conference. While thirty to forty Local 5 across the river from the Three Mile ·Gordon was an important leader Workers attended the conference members, undoubtedly paid for their Island nuclear plant, went from one in the fight against the Vietnam from many unions in addition to time, picketed the front of the hotel workshop to another. Her powerful War and helped organize the Labor the sponsors. A large contingent of each of the next two mornings, no presentation described the nightmare for the Equal Rights Amendment steelworkers was there, including a further disruption was attempted. of birth defects and health problems activities in Virginia early this delegation from the two steel­ An October 13 article in the Pitts­ already affecting livestock and start­ year. workers locals striking the North­ burgh Post-Gazette reported, "The ing to affect humans in the contami­ The nine international unions em Indiana Public Service Com­ gathering was closely observed by pro­ nated area. Many people were con­ that sponsored the Pittsburgh con­ pany. nuclear forces, including large seg­ vinced about the nuclear danger by her ference were the United Mine During the disruption by Interna­ ments of the electrical utility industry talk. Workers, United Auto Workers, tional Brotherhood of Electrical and corporations that build and supply Like Tony Wynn, a young union International Association of Ma­ Workers Local5, the NIPSCO strik­ nuclear plants.'' president who works in a uranium chinists and Aerospace Workers, ers wrote in big letters on signs The disruption attempt symbolized recovery plant in Florida. His union, Service Employees International they carried that IBEW members the real debate in the labor movement the International Chemical Workers, Union, Graphic Arts International in Indiana are crossing the steel­ over energy policy and many other was a conference sponsor. But, "I came Union, International Chemical worker picket lines during the issues. here pronuclear," Wynn told the Mili­ Workers Union, United Furniture strike. tant. The conference made him rethink Workers of America, International The IBEW itself was one of the Eyes opened everything. Wynn plans to report back Woodworkers of America, and the unions that was represented by a John Finnerty, the official observer to his local and fight for job safety in a International Longshoremen's and number of individual members at for the United Transportation Union new way. He says he doesn't care if the Warehousemen's Union. the conference. (UTU), in reporting the proceedings of company threatens to close the plant a workshop on nuclear waste transpor- Continued on page 21