AUSTRALIA $1.50 · canada $1.50 · france 1.00 euro · new zealand $1.50 · uk £.50 · u.s. $1.00 INSIDE Cuba protests US intervention as it tackles challenges from embargo — PAGE 7 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE vol. 85/no. 29 July 26, 2021 Protest hits Help take SWP Autoworkers stand up Jew-hatred, campaign out to to Volvo truck bosses backs Israel’s working people Fight to close wage, benefit gap for new hires right to exist far and wide by seth galinsky by Roy Landersen WASHINGTON — Over 1,000 peo- “The Socialist Workers Party’s In- ple joined the July 11 “No Fear: A Rally ternational Active Workers Confer- in Solidarity with the Jewish People” ence July 22-24 will be a springboard here. The protest was called following a for campaigns led by the 20 candidates spate of anti-Jewish assaults in May. the party has endorsed in the 2021 elec- There were more than 1,200 incidents tions,” John Studer, SWP national cam- of antisemitic acts in the U.S. in 2020, paign director, told the Militant. a 10% increase over the year before, “We will be building on the success the Anti-Defamation League reports, of the spring circulation drive,” Studer with an even sharper spike following said. “SWP campaigners introduced two weeks of military conflict in May new readers to the Militant, raised funds after Hamas began raining thousands of for its publication and got out books that rockets from Gaza at civilian targets in help explain how we can fight to end the Israel. These acts of Jew-hatred ranged root cause of the problems workers face from attacks on synagogues and cem- — capitalist exploitation.” eteries to threats and physical assaults. A panel of candidates endorsed by the Several attacks followed rallies held party will address the conference. in New York, Los Angeles and other cit- “They will describe how they have UAW Local 2069 ies under the slogan “From the river to joined with others to organize support United Auto Workers members on strike at Volvo truck plant in Dublin, Virginia, June 27. the sea, Palestine will be free,” echoing for today’s union struggles; built pro- BY ARLENE RUBINSTEIN path to the top for everybody, insurance Hamas’ call for the destruction of Israel tests against the U.S. rulers’ embargo Some 2,900 United Auto Workers stays the same as it is now. And if we and the expulsion of Jews who live there. of Cuba and actions against cop brutal- Local 2069 members voted down a new don’t get that we’re going to vote no, un- Speakers at the rally near the Capitol ity; and discussed with fellow workers tentative agreement with Volvo truck til the cows come home.” included several of those who had been and farmers why it’s necessary to build bosses July 9 — the third time angry More families joined the picket line Continued on page 9 Continued on page 3 union members have rejected deals they July 12. Only a handful of workers consider insufficient this year. Since the crossed the line. Nonetheless, bosses vote the striking workers continue to boast it will take them only a few days to Join July 25 protest in D.C. against picket 24 hours a day. Continued on page 3 Bosses responded by announcing they would try to restart production July 12. U.S. gov’t embargo against Cuba! UAW officials then scheduled a second Working people in vote for July 14 on the pact workers had rejected. As the Militant goes to press, Iran protest effects the outcome of that vote isn’t known. “We’ve been given absolutely no rea- son to concede,” striker Travis Wells of social crisis, told WDBJ News, on the picket line July 12. “All we’re asking for is a fair wage gov’t wars abroad by terry evans Protesters marched in several Iranian Workers need jobs, cities after widespread power outages caused havoc for workers and farmers. fighting unions to The demonstrations follow previous rounds of country-wide mobilizations in 2018 and since by working people fed up take on attacks by with the government’s military adven- tures abroad, ongoing economic crisis bosses, the gov’t and its refusal to meet their needs. by terry evans Blackouts in Tehran, Karaj and other In recent weeks, large numbers of cities July 4-5 hit during a stifling heat workers in the U.S. have gotten vacci- Continued on page 9 Puentes de Amor Pavo, Georgia, farmer Willie Head, second from left, told Carlos Lazo, second from right, and nated and government lockdown orders others on 1,000-mile walk against U.S. embargo of Cuba about challenges Black farmers face. have eased, leading to an increase in job offers and hiring, especially in low-pay- By seth Galinsky p.m. rally in Lafayette Park in front of ing jobs in the restaurant and hospitality Inside Led by Seattle school teacher Carlos the White House July 25. industries. This has drawn many long- Lazo, a group of Cuban Americans are The day after the rally Lazo plans to term unemployed workers back into the For unconditional recognition walking more than 1,000 miles from turn in over 25,000 signatures on a pe- labor pool, and many workers — more of Israel! Protest Jew-hatred! 9 Florida to Washington, D.C., to broaden tition to President Joseph Biden, urging confident with expanded hiring — are Freedom Riders built fight to opposition to the U.S. economic war him to end the sanctions on Cuba. looking for higher-paying employment topple Jim Crow segregation 2 against Cuba. As of July 13, they’re over Building and joining the July 25 ac- with better working conditions. halfway there. tion is especially important in the face Official unemployment figures have Quebec laws divide French, Lazo founded Puentes de Amor of a provocative call by right-wing Mi- barely fallen, dropping from 6.3% in English-speaking workers 4 (Bridges of Love), which is dedicated ami commentator Alexander Otaola for January to 5.9% in June. At the same to making links between people in a counterprotest in D.C. Otaola hails the time, bosses are looking to expand pro- –On the picket line, p. 5– Cuba and the U.S. The walk began in recent protests against electricity out- duction and profits by intensifying the Miami June 27 and will end with a 2 Continued on page 4 Continued on page 6 Teamsters strike Bellingham Cold Storage in Washington state Freedom Rides built fight to topple Jim Crow segregation by brian williams The liberal New York Times blamed This year marks the 60th anniver- the Freedom Riders for their being beat- sary of the Freedom Rides, one of the en, saying their trips were a “provoca- high points of the Black-led proletarian tive action.” The John F. Kennedy ad- civil rights struggle that overturned Jim ministration tried mightily to talk them Crow and decisively changed social re- into abandoning their fight. lations in the U.S. In response, hundreds more vol- Despite U.S. Supreme Court rulings unteers, including activists from the in 1946 and 1960 that outlawed segre- Student Nonviolent Coordinating gation in interstate travel, Jim Crow Committee, signed up to join the state officials ignored them across the Freedom Rides. South. So civil rights fighters decided But they faced a problem. As to launch the Freedom Rides to win they prepared to lead off from Fisk this themselves. In response to a call by University in Nashville, Tennessee, Above, Associated Press; inset, courtesy of NAACP the Congress of Racial Equality, volun- heading to Jackson, Mississippi, every Freedom Riders Ken Shilman, left, and Joe McDonald teers set out from Washington, D.C., on Trailways driver turned down the job. being escorted by authorities out of “colored waiting Greyhound and Trailways buses May Then Jimmy Allen Ruth, a 23-year-old room” at Trailways bus station under arrest in Jackson, 4, 1961, with the goal of reaching New Caucasian driver from Tennessee, who Mississippi, June 2, 1961. They were among hundreds Orleans and desegregating bus station died last month at 83, volunteered. thrown in jail. Inset, Jimmy Allen Ruth, who died last month at 83, was Trailways driver who volunteered to take facilities along the way. “Ruth was willing to aid in the cause Freedom Riders from Nashville, Tennessee, to Jackson. They were met by cop and Klan vio- for freedom and justice at all cost,” his lence. In Rock Hill, South Carolina, family members wrote in their obituary. Alabama, and got on one of the buses. Socialist Alliance and became a National segregationists beat Black riders after He considered it “one of his greatest ac- When the Freedom Riders’ buses Committee member and leader of the they attempted to use a “whites only” complishments.” reached Jackson, the cops arrested Socialist Workers Party and its work in restroom. In Anniston, Alabama, a “If they were going to die, I was going them, on charges of violating a recent- the trade unions. He died in 1989. mob of white supremacists halted the to die with them,” Ruth told them. “He ly passed breach-of-the-peace stat- From the Montgomery Bus Boycott Greyhound bus May 14, pelted it with agreed to drive the students and never ute. They were convicted, fined $200 of 1956, through the Freedom Rides, rocks and bricks, smashed windows asked any questions although he was each, and, when they refused to pay, to the 1963 Battle of Birmingham, led with pipes and axes, and lobbed a fire- aware of the risks involved,” his brother, sentenced to 90 days in jail. Through by Shuttlesworth, to the 1965 voting bomb into the bus. The mob tried — Bobby Ruth, and friend Blondell Strong the summer months over 300 women rights fight in Selma and Montgomery, unsuccessfully — to block the Freedom Kimbrough, told the press. and men were arrested — many in- Alabama, this historic social struggle Riders from getting off the burning bus. carcerated in Mississippi’s notorious would continue, changing the potential A few hours later, Freedom Riders Freedom Rides grow state penitentiary in Parchman Parish, for working-class unity and the U.S. on a Trailways bus were brutally beaten Dozens of youth across the coun- where jailers attempted to humiliate class struggle forever. after they entered a whites only waiting try responded to the call to resume and harass them. room and restaurant at the bus terminal the Freedom Rides. One of them was Shilman was among the first ar- Malcolm X: February 1965 in Birmingham, Alabama, as the no- 18-year-old Ken Shilman, and another rested, on June 2. He and McDonald The Final Speeches torious Sheriff Bull Conner pulled his his best friend, Joseph McDonald, both were escorted by authorities out of the cops off the scene. They were rescued recent graduates of Oceanside High “colored waiting room” at the Trailways Includes Malcolm’s talk “The House Negro and the Field Negro” by Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who led a School on Long Island, New York. station. They were imprisoned for three given in Selma, force of civil rights fighters to free them. They made their way to Montgomery, weeks at Parchman. Then the Freedom Alabama, Feb. Riders decided some of their prisoners 4, 1965. A Klan should get out and go home to get the segregationist word out about conditions in the prison. hiding behind Shilman and McDonald were two white sheets “is of those chosen. In Oceanside they nothing but a were able to get an interview with The coward” and “the time will come Associated Press June 21, speaking out when that sheet about the “indescribable” conditions the will be ripped US forces quit Afghanistan in haste and defeat prisoners faced. AP reported Shilman’s off. If the federal description of two fellow Freedom government Washington’s rapid with- Riders, “dragged naked along 60 yards doesn’t take it off, we’ll take it off,” drawal from Afghanistan af- of concrete corridor after they refused Malcolm said. $17 ter 20 years signals the U.S. to strip and walk in their cells.” www.pathfinderpress.com rulers’ defeat in their lon- Shilman went on to join the Young gest war ever. Its occupation did nothing to eradicate the Latin America, Caribbean: For one year send wretched living conditions The Militant $85 drawn on a U.S. bank to above address. Vol. 85/No. 29 Africa, Asia, and the Middle East: For working people face there. one year send $85 drawn on a U.S. bank to Closing news date: July 14, 2021 above address. Now the reactionary Taliban Single Afghan soldier on guard after U.S. Editor: John Studer Canada: For one year send Canadian $45 is driving to retake power. departure from giant Bagram air base July 2. to the Militant, 7107 St. Denis #204, Mon- Managing Editor: Terry Evans treal, Quebec H2S 2S5. Editorial volunteers: Róger Calero, Seth Ga- United Kingdom: Send £30 for one year SUBSCRIBE TODAY! linsky, Emma Johnson, Martín Koppel, Roy by check or international money order Landersen, Jacob Perasso, Brian Williams. made out to CL London, 5 Norman Road (first floor), Seven Sisters, London, N15 Published weekly except for one week in 4ND, England. January. NEW READERS NAME Republic of Ireland and Continental Business Manager: Valerie Johnson Europe: Send £85 for one year by check or international money order made out to CL q.$5 for 12 issues ADDRESS The Militant (ISSN 0026-3885), 306 W. 37th London at above address. Street, 13th floor, New York, NY 10018. France: Send 100 euros for one year to Telephone: (212) 244-4899 Diffusion du Militant, BP 10130, 75723 RENEWAL CITY STATE ZIP Fax: (212) 244-4947 Paris Cedex 15. E-mail: [email protected] New Zealand and the Pacific Islands: q.$10 for 12 weeks PHONE e-mail Website: www.themilitant.com Send NZ$55 for one year to P.O. Box Correspondence concerning subscriptions 13857, Auckland 1643, New Zealand. q $20 for 6 months UNION/SCHOOL/ORGANIZATION or changes of address should be addressed Australia: Send A$70 for one year to P.O. Box . to the Militant, 306 W. 37th Street, 13th 73 Campsie, NSW 2194 Australia. floor, New York, NY 10018. Clip and mail to the militant, Submissions to the Militant may be pub- q $35 for 1 year 306 W. 37th st., 13th Floor new york, ny 10018. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. lished in the newspaper in print and digital . Or subscribe online at: www.themilitant.com POSTMASTER: Send address changes to format. By submitting, authors represent that their submissions are original and the Militant, 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor, consent to publication in this manner. 12 weeks of the Militant outside the U.S.: Australia, A$10 • United Kingdom, £4 • New York, NY 10018. Canada, Can$7 • Caribbean and Latin America, US$10 • Continental Europe, £8 • Signed articles by contributors do not France, 8 euros • New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, NZ$7 • All other areas, US$16 SUBSCRIPTIONS: United States: For necessarily represent the Militant’s views. (Send payment to addresses listed in business information box) one year send $35 to above address. These are expressed in editorials.

2 The Militant July 26, 2021 Help take SWP campaigns out Continued from front page the time!” He told the SWP campaigners a communist party that is prepared and that a few weeks ago “Kroger workers capable of leading millions in future in Arkansas threatened to go on strike.” battles to make a socialist revolution,” The bosses “took managers from all Studer said. over to try to stop the strike, including “New supporters of SWP cam- from the store where I work.” paigns are being won among working “We can transform ourselves people looking to resist what the boss- through our struggles and forge a es and their governments are doing to leadership like working people did in us today, and who are interested in Cuba, where millions overturned capi- studying the crucial lessons of pre- talist rule and made a socialist revolu- vious working-class struggles. Some tion,” said Measel. join in introducing the SWP-endorsed “Malcolm X told the truth when he candidates to fellow workers and fam- said it was necessary to wake people ily members.” up to their own worth, their history of struggle and their ability to change the Workers ‘need to stand up together’ world,” he added. Ned Measel, Dave Perry and other “My parents used to tell me about Militant/Jacquie Henderson SWP campaigners, from left, Dave Perry, Ned Measel and Samir Hazboun talk politics with SWP campaigners spoke with Ralph the things you are talking about today,” Ralph Robinson Jr., a Kroger store worker and member of UFCW union, in Cincinnati July 10. Robinson Jr., on his porch in Cincinna- Robinson said. “I didn’t want to hear it ti, Ohio, July 10. The 68-year-old third then, but now I realize they were right.” shift stocker works at Kroger and is a “I’m getting this book,” he said, refer- member of the United Food and Com- ring to Malcolm X, Black Liberation, Autoworkers stand up to Volvo mercial Workers union. and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Continued from front page Before the July 9 vote, the company The SWP builds support for struggles Barnes, the SWP national secretary, get assembly lines back up and running. released “highlights” of its offer, claim- by workers, Measel told Robinson, “no after Measel showed it to him. Robin- The company made $1 billion in ing it eliminates the two-tier system. matter how big or small, against the at- son then described his more than four profits in the first quarter of 2021. Sales The reason so many strikers voted no tacks of the capitalist rulers and their decades of experiences standing up for are surging so fast that bosses say they “was because we’ve been fighting to get system of exploitation and oppression.” workers’ rights. can’t keep up with orders. rid of this tier system,” Wells said. Un- He said solidarity is crucial for the cur- “People who understand what you “The ongoing strike — which we der the current contract, new hires make rent strike by miners at Warrior Met in raise have a responsibility,” said Measel. continue to believe is unnecessary — $16.77 an hour while a “core group” with Alabama and other labor battles. “Yes, to the world!” replied Robinson. is hurting our customers,” NRV Vice the most years in the plant make $27.47. Perry described the attacks he and “I’m going to read this book because President and General Manager Frank Under the proposed contract new fellow blind workers face at the factory what you say is true. And I want you to Marchand told the press. hires will have to wait six years to reach where he works and how they use union come back again soon.” “Basically, they are trying to break top pay. Workers hired after 2015, would power to defend themselves. “Workers To find out more about the SWP and our union, telling people to cross the get top pay upon ratification. Even the have to stand together,” Measel said. its campaigns, contact the branch closest line,” replied UAW President Matt Blon- lump sum signing bribe is different “Yes we do,” replied Robinson. “All to you listed on page 8. dino in a video on the union’s website. based on which tier you are in. Volvo has not commented on the is- sue of health care for retired workers. Women’s rights at stake in fight over men in female spa area When this worker-correspondent visited By Laura Garza rounded by around 20 people shouting, close the pay gap, including the right to the picket line last month, I met strik- LOS ANGELES — A widely viewed “We don’t talk to Terfs,” an acronym for access a range of nontraditional jobs, ers with decades working at Volvo who video of a woman complaining about trans-exclusionary radical feminists. It from coal mining to the railroad. They said they can’t afford to retire because a man being in the women’s section is used to denigrate women’s rights sup- have joined labor battles, defended abor- of health care costs up to $900 a month. of a spa in Los Angeles has deepened porters they disagree with. “They hit tion clinics, and fought rightist assaults Samantha Taylor, SMART Local a debate here. The question is whether me with a piece of cardboard,” she said, aimed at shutting them down. These are 1933 chairperson, sent a July 2 message women have rights to privacy in spaces “and tried to prevent me filming. the kinds of fights we need today. of support to the strikers on behalf of the designated for them, such as women’s “They were shouting ‘get out trans- “But the state law, adopted under the 250 rail workers at Amtrak and the Keo- locker rooms, hot tubs, etc. phobe,’ and they pulled my glasses off guise of opposing transgender discrimi- lis Virginia Rail Express commuter line. The customers in the spa were nude, and knocked my phone out of my hand, nation, demands that women and girls It commended autoworkers for taking and included children, and the man, who pushed me, threw water at me. It was surrender their right to privacy. It denies actions to address “the multiple wage said he was a transgender woman, also nasty,” Chapman said. She reported on the facts of biology and has nothing to tiers.” Rail crews in Fredericksburg and was nude, with his penis exposed. The Twitter that she has since been threat- do with advancing rights. Manassas, Virginia, at Keolis VRE col- spa personnel told the women who com- ened with being “doxed,” that is, having “I oppose discrimination in hous- lected 22 signatures on a letter for the plained that they have to abide by what- her personal information, including her ing and jobs based on sexual prefer- strikers and $175 in donations. ever a customer says they are, because home address, widely publicized to en- ence or how one identifies. Earlier “As a fifth generation railroader, one a recent California law forbids discrimi- courage further harassment. struggles for women’s rights helped thing I’ve learned is that companies nation against transgender people. Ichikawa said she came to meet up advance the fight for the rights of watch other companies,” Taylor told the A protest called by women against with some women’s rights activists gays and lesbians,” Richter said. “But Militant July 13. “This strike is a big the stance of the spa’s owners July and wasn’t expecting the level of vit- efforts today to dissolve sex into gen- deal. The workers are laying a founda- 3 was met by a countermobilization riol directed against them. She’s the der, and the idea that your sex can tion for all of us. I’m with them, as far as of dozens of antifa supporters. They founder of WomanIIWoman, which be ‘chosen,’ deal blows to women. they want to take it.” planted a sign in front of the spa saying aids women getting out of prison find They open the door to new attacks on Send solidarity messages to UAW “Trans women are women,” and moved jobs and housing. women’s rights and set back the fight Local 2069, P.O. Box 306, Dublin, VA to surround and push around anyone She explained the new state law is against discrimination against gays.” 24084 or [email protected]. they deemed to be “transphobe.” having an effect on women behind Gaye Chapman, who went to meet up bars, as growing numbers of men have with some women she’d met on social requested transfers to women’s prisons Rose Knight, 50-year-long builder media, told the Militant, “I think wom- based on changed self-identity. Women en and girls have the right to shower have written to her fearing they won’t be and dress outside the presence of male able to avoid being housed with a male of communist movement in UK people, regardless of how they identify.” in cells designated for eight women, BY jonathan silberman struggle to build communist parties in Chapman is a city electrical inspector with communal toilets and showers. LONDON — Rose Knight, a 50-year the U.K. and internationally that are and runs a lesbian-themed podcast. Not In the wake of the protests, the veteran of the communist movement, working class in program, course of knowing who had called the protest, she “woke” Los Angeles Times ran an died June 26 after a yearslong illness. conduct, and composition, taking jobs didn’t bring a sign and walked around editorial backing the spa owners’ ac- She was 76. Knight was a founding in rail and in meatpacking. at first watching. She saw a few people tions. “Even though the sight of male- member of the Communist League in When declining health prevented being harassed by the antifa people, in- appearing genitalia discomfited at 1988 and served on the party’s Central her from continuing to sustain work in cluding someone taking a video. least one female customer,” the editors Committee in its early years. industry, Knight shouldered responsi- Amie Ichikawa, one of the women opined, “no one has an absolute right She had joined the League’s forerun- bility for distributing the Militant and who met up with Chapman, was tar- to feel comfortable all the time.” ner, the International Marxist Group, in getting books on revolutionary work- geted by antifa thugs because she was “What’s at stake is women’s rights, not the early ’70s, while she was active in ing-class politics into commercial out- wearing a T-shirt featuring the diction- transphobia,” Dennis Richter, Socialist the movement for women’s liberation, lets around the U.K. ary definition of a woman — “Woman: Workers Party candidate for governor in Nick Beeton, her husband and lifelong A full appreciation of her life and a female adult human.” California’s upcoming special election, companion, told the Militant. political contributions will be run in a Chapman said she was quickly sur- told the press. “Women have fought to Knight was part of the successful forthcoming issue.

The Militant July 26, 2021 3 Quebec laws divide French, English-speaking workers By Michel Prairie who want to improve their English. MONTREAL — Under the pretext In Quebec, only children whose par- of defending “Quebec’s values,” the ents or siblings had attended English- government of the Coalition for the Fu- language schools in Canada are per- ture of Quebec here introduced a bill mitted to attend these schools. in the National Assembly May 13 that But this restriction does not apply to attacks workers’ rights. the CEGEPs (pre-university colleges.) Bill 96 claims to “curb the decline of More than 6% of young francophones French in Quebec.” In fact, it limits ac- attend English-language CEGEPs and a cess to public pre-university education little more than 11% of Anglophones at- in English for French-speaking youth. It tend French-language CEGEPs. also orders French to be used as the sole “Ten years ago, I decided to attend language of communication in govern- English CEGEP,” Philippe Tessier told ment matters. English is the first lan- the Militant. Tessier is the Communist guage of close to 15% of the population, League candidate for mayor in the Mon- and many immigrants speak English as treal borough of Saint-Laurent. “I want- their second language. ed to improve my knowledge of the lan- Militant/Jim Upton The bill follows the passage of the dis- guage. But it also allowed me to make Protest against Law 21 in Montreal, 2019, that bans public sector workers from wearing reli- criminatory Law 21 in 2019. It prohibits many anglophone friends from different gious symbols at work. New Bill 96 introduced in National Assembly in May would limit access to English in schools, government matters, at a time French-English bilingualism has increased. public employees of the Quebec govern- family backgrounds than mine. ment, teachers and others, from wear- “It’s good for workers to learn as Constitution. This allows federal and which represents 50,000 teachers in ing religious symbols while performing many languages as possible. It helps us provincial governments to suspend the Quebec, have challenged Law 21 in their jobs, targeting especially female communicate with each other,” Tessier application of rights enshrined in the the courts. The FAE says the law is Muslim teachers who wear headscarves said. “This also strengthens the unity we Canadian Charter of Rights and Free- discriminatory because it infringes and Jewish men who wear a kippa. need to wage a fight to establish a work- doms, including freedom of expression, on the right of its members who wear ers and farmers government and build a assembly, association and worship. an Islamic headscarf. An increase in bilingualism world based on solidarity, not capitalist Since its adoption in 1982, several On April 20, Judge Marc-André Historically, francophones in Canada oppression and exploitation.” provincial governments have used Sec- Blanchard of the Quebec Superior were victims of discrimination and op- tion 33 of the Charter to outlaw strikes Court concluded that even if this law pression based on their language, fos- A weapon aimed at working people and even marriages of same sex couples. violates several “fundamental rights,” tered by the country’s capitalist rulers In order to protect Law 21 and Bill The National Council of Canadian the government is “legally unassailable to divide the working class, deepen ex- 96 from inevitable legal challenges, the Muslims, the Canadian Civil Liber- given the current state of the laws.” ploitation and reap superprofits. ruling Coalition for the Future of Que- ties Association, and the Autono- This linchpin of the rulers’ divide- bec is using Section 33 of the Canadian mous Federation of Teaching (FAE), Michel Dugre contributed to this article. and-rule strategy was dealt major blows by a series of mass struggles, mostly concentrated in Quebec, during the 1960s and ’70s. These struggles, and Join July 25 protest against US embargo on Cuba! the support they received from work- Continued from front page on the Cuban people are lifted.” “We stand with the Cuban people,” but ing people across Canada, helped push ages, high prices and shortages in Cuba, Cars and vans are being organized by said not one word about lifting a single back inequalities and strengthen the and claims the majority of Cubans in the New York-New Jersey Cuba Sí Co- U.S. economic sanction. unity of the working class from one end the U.S. support the embargo. But that’s alition to participate in the rally outside Lazo and his fellow marchers are of the country to the other. simply not true. the White House. They will also join a talking to everyone they meet along While francophones earned 35% In a July 11 statement, Lazo com- 12:30 p.m. car and bike caravan against the way — from workers and farmers less than anglophones in 1961, today mented on the actions of a few thou- the embargo prior to the rally, organized and small-business people to religious their wages are similar. French has be- sand people that took place July 11 in by the DC Metro Coalition in Solidarity leaders and elected officials, regardless come the common language of com- Havana and other parts of Cuba ex- with the Cuban Revolution and others. of their party affiliation or view of the munication in Quebec. pressing discontent with the difficul- The embargo of Cuba aims to over- Cuban Revolution — about why they Supporters of Bill 96 say it is neces- ties and challenges there, which were turn the first, and so far only, socialist should call for ending the embargo. sary to combat the “decline of French” manipulated by U.S.-backed opponents revolution in the Americas. Washington They invite them to join the walk, to set in Quebec, an assertion that isn’t con- of the revolution. (See article page 7.) has never forgiven workers and farmers up meetings where the group can speak firmed by the government’s own data. Supporters of the revolution also took for overthrowing the U.S.-backed dicta- and to come to the rally in Washington. In 2016, French was the first language to the streets across the country. torship of Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, of nearly 80% of the population, but 1959, and going on to take power into Learning about struggles in U.S. 94.4% were able to converse in French. US embargo: create hunger, despair their own hands, led by Fidel Castro On July 7 they were welcomed at In 2018, French was the language most Lazo quoted from an April 1960 and the July 26 Movement. the Federation of Southern Coopera- often used at work for 90.4%. memorandum by Deputy Assistant The Biden administration has so far tives by Executive Assistant Eboni In reality, the use of French has not Secretary of State Lester Mallory that maintained the more than 243 mea- Thomas and Terence Courtney, direc- declined, but French-English bilin- recognized “the majority of Cubans sures imposed by his predecessor, tor of Cooperative Development and gualism has increased. support [Fidel] Castro.” It said the only Donald Trump, that deepened the im- Strategic Partnership. From 1961 to 2016, the percentage realistic policy to overthrow the revo- pact of the embargo — despite Biden’s The federation was founded in 1967 of people who were bilingual in Que- lution was to create “economic dissat- promise during the 2020 campaign out of the struggles by farmers in the bec went from 26% to 45%. In 2016, isfaction and hardship.” It advocated that he would lift some of them. On rural South, part of the civil rights 40% of francophones and 69% of an- attempts to make “the greatest inroads July 12 Biden cynically proclaimed, Continued on page 7 glophones were bilingual. in denying money and supplies to Cuba, Across Quebec in 2018, 55.4% of to decrease monetary and real wages, workers regularly used English or a lan- to bring about hunger, desperation” and Steelworkers at ATI ratify contract, end 3-month strike guage other than French at work. hopefully “overthrow of government.” This began the over 60-year-long LOUISVILLE, Ohio — The United Steelworkers union announced The growing bilingualism among July 13 that striking workers had ratified a new four-year contract with embargo, maintained and expanded workers is the context for the govern- Allegheny Technologies Inc. The union said it “raises wages, provides by every U.S. president since, Demo- ment’s moves to limit access to stud- lump-sum payments and protects affordable, high-quality health care for crat or Republican. ies in English in pre-university educa- current and future workers.” tion. It is an attack on young people “That’s right there. That’s no secret to Some 1,300 workers at nine plants have been on strike since March 30. anyone,” Lazo said. “We will continue Union members will begin returning to their jobs July 19, the company said. to advocate that the sanctions that weigh Workers are expecting overtime when they return. “For the first 90 days, it’ll be 84 hours a week, no days off,” striker Dave Burgess told the Militant. calendar The union said “the new contract preserves premium-free health insur- Illinois ance coverage without the second, lower tier of health care for new hires Chicago the company wanted.” Celebrate July 26: Opening Guns of A summary of the contract released by the union said workers entitled to Cuba’s Socialist Revolution. Sponsor: early pensions will get them, which affects workers at the No. 3 finishing Chicago Cuba Coalition. Speakers and mill in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania; the Waterbury, Connecticut, plant; and musical performances. Sat., July 31, 6 p.m. University Church, 5655 S. University the Louisville plant, which ATI says they will shut down. Ave. Tel.: (630) 915-0654. — Tony Lane

4 The Militant July 26, 2021 on the picket line Teamsters strike Bellingham Cold Walmart, they said that on the first day Storage in Washington state of the strike one of the Walmart truck BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Some 110 drivers wouldn’t cross their picket line. forklift drivers, members of Teamsters “He called his dispatcher, was there for Local 231, went on strike July 1 at the about 20 minutes, then left,” said striker Bellingham Cold Storage and process- John Damon. ing facility here near the Canadian bor- The strikers were also interested that der. The company forced the walkout by Williamson is the Socialist Workers Par- making an insulting “offer” to jack up ty candidate for City Council in Seattle. workers’ health insurance costs. We told them we’ll work to build sup- “They said they want their workers port for their strike in the Seattle area. to consider using the state health insur- They’ve gotten solidarity on their ance,” and get off the company-contrib- picket lines from local berry union Fa- uted one altogether, Heather Ewing, Lo- milias Unidas por la Justicia (Families cal 231 business representative, told the United for Justice) members and from Militant on the picket line July 6. workers at Whatcom County Commu- nity College, who helped make their Although the bosses have since Union of Olymel Workers at Vallee-Jonction picket signs. Olymel meatpackers carry “on strike” banner in Quebec City march July 7 demanding bosses modified their medical proposal, Lo- Join the picket lines! Send messages negotiate a new contract. Bosses seek to keep steep wage cuts imposed on workers in 2007. cal 231 says on its website that the of support and contributions to Team- bosses’ demands on pension and sters Local 231, P.O. Box H, Belling- Close to 106,000 hogs are in hold- benefits and regularly force workers wage increases also “demonstrated a ham, WA 98227. ing, waiting to be slaughtered. Because to work what they call the “suicide complete lack of respect.” — Rebecca Williamson of the strike the bosses are redirecting shift.” That means having to work four Strikers maintain round-the-clock and Barry Fatland hogs to other Olymel facilities. David hours overtime after your eight-hour pickets at two facilities, on Roeder Ave- Duval, president of Les Eleveurs de shift and then being ordered to return nue and Orchard Street. We joined pick- After 10 weeks on strike, Oly- Porcs du Quebec (Quebec Pork Produc- in eight hours to do it again and again. eting at the larger location on Roeder, mel meatpackers seek new talks ers), threatens that in three to four weeks Failure to report means attendance as strikers received a steady-stream of MONTREAL — Over 250 striking they may begin killing pigs if they can’t points that quickly lead to being fired. thumbs-up, waves and honks from big- meatpackers, members of the Union be processed. Their aim is to try and Workers say they’ve had to sleep in rigs, cars and bicyclists. of Olymel Workers at Vallee-Jonction, turn public opinion against the strikers. their car to make it on time. “The company wanted us to go on marched to the Labour Ministry in Help prevent this. Send solidarity “Why can’t I get a day off?” Charles strike to try to bust the union,” said Quebec City July 7 to demand the ar- messages and contributions for strikers Taylor, who runs machines that make Teamster Local Secretary-Treasurer bitrator take steps to end the bosses’ to Syndicat des Travailleurs d’Olymel, Doritos and Tostitos, said on KCUR Rich Ewing. But he pointed to the refusal to negotiate. More than 1,000 Vallee-Jonction, 243 Rue Principale, Radio July 10. “We can’t even get one empty parking lot across the street that workers have been on strike since April Vallee-Jonction, QC G0S 3J0. day off, how does that make sense? A strikers say is normally full, and said, 28. Olymel is the biggest pork produc- —Joe Young machine shouldn’t be treated better than “They’re hurting.” ing chain in Canada. their employees.” Bellingham Cold Storage claims to be Signs on the march read, “Respect Kansas: Frito-Lay strikers While union members don’t get any “the largest private deep-water terminal doesn’t go on holidays, we want to win community support cost-of-living adjustments to help cope and portside cold storage warehouse negotiate.” Over 600 members of Local 218 of with rising prices, Local 218 President center on the West Coast.” It was taken When the last negotiation session the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Brent Hall said, workers at other To- over by Seattle-based Joshua Green took place July 1 and 2, the union put Workers and Grain Millers union, who peka-area plants, like Goodyear, Mars Corp. three years ago. Since then work- forward a proposal for a settlement, but went on strike at the Topeka, Kansas, Wrigley, Target and big warehouses do. ers report conditions have gotten worse. the bosses demanded more concessions Frito-Lay plant July 5, are winning “Milk’s gone up. Meat has gone up. “It’s hard for them to keep people be- and then announced they wouldn’t be widespread solidarity in the area. Everything has gone up,” Tracy John- cause of how they treat them,” said fork- available for further talks before July 19. The bosses there are notorious for son, who’s worked at Frito-Lay for 30 lift driver Mike Moore. Under pressure from the workers’ ac- the inhuman schedules, low pay and years, told the station. “But our wages One of the company’s biggest cus- tion, bosses said they would now agree rotten working conditions they impose have stayed the same.” tomers is Walmart, with its Great Value to meet for talks July 12-13. “We expect on workers. Frito-Lay is owned by the The bosses say they intend to keep brand frozen fruit and smoothie mixes. that Olymel will restart the negotiations staunchly anti-union Pepsi-Cola Co. production going regardless of the Bellingham Cold Storage handles a lot in a serious manner,” union President It’s the first time workers have gone on strike and they don’t plan to participate of locally grown berries. They also ser- Martin Maurice told the press. strike at the plant in nearly 50 years. in any negotiations. vice Costco, Trident Seafoods, Clark’s A central issue is wages. In 2007 the Workers have reported in the Tope- A fund was started by 785 Magazine Berry Farm and others. bosses imposed a 38% wage cut when ka Capital-Journal how over years the after the strike started, with a goal of When striking workers at the Orchard Olymel threatened to close the plant. bosses lowered wages for new hires, raising over $24,000 by July 23 to cover Street picket learned three of us work at Little progress has been made since. refused to give workers cost-of-living strikers’ utility bills. Other area busi- nesses, like the Brass Rail Tavern, Tope- ka’s oldest bar, are organizing a boycott 25, 50, and 75 years ago of Frito-Lay and Pepsi products. Workers told the Capital-Journal that people have been bringing food and wa- ter to the picket line, and Victoria’s Bar has brought tacos. “It’s great to see com- August 5, 1996 July 30, 1971 July 27, 1946 munity members and other area unions BELFAST — The crisis of British President Nixon’s decision to visit DETROIT, July 16 — Answering the coming together in solidarity,” striker rule in Northern Ireland intensified as China and meet with its leaders marks call of the United Automobile Workers Derek Johnson told the paper. nationalists staunchly resisted rightist a new stage in U. S. imperialism’s rela- for a protest against rising prices, more Send messages of support and dona- marches through their streets and the tions with China. Those who have de- than 100,000 workers flowed into the tions to the relief fund at BCTGM Local intimidation of their communities. fended the Chinese revolution against its streets in the largest mass rally in De- 218, 1100 Admiral Blvd., Kansas City, On July 12 in Derry, the police fired imperialist foes, as the Militant has done, troit’s history. Despite the threats of the MO 64106. 1,000 plastic bullets at Catholic pro- will welcome the fact that Washington bosses to discipline workers who quit — John Studer testers, injuring 200. In 1969 resis- has finally been compelled to recognize their plants before closing time, tens of tance to pogroms like these led to the the People’s Republic of China. thousands of workers downed tools at 2 Striking Alabama miners British Army being sent to Northern Nixon has been feeling sharp ef- p.m. to take their place in the march. Ireland, beginning 27 years of direct fects from the combined blows of the The most enthusiasm was shown take fight to New York occupation. Indochinese people and the U.S. anti- when UAW Secretary Treasurer George City hedge fund owners The nationalist demonstration was war movement. Negotiations between Addes hinted that the auto union at its Over 1,000 members of United in protest to the police decision to allow Washington and Peking will likely lead next Executive Board meeting would Mine Workers have been on strike Orange Order marches through Catho- to agreements at the expense of the In- ask for a wage increase unless prices against Warrior Met Coal since lic areas July 12. Signs held by the pro- dochinese revolution. were stabilized. April 1. Join picket at BlackRock testers here July 14 included, “Stand The Vietnamese had bitter experi- The Socialist Workers Party placards Fund Advisors, one of Warrior up for nationalists against Orange big- ence with such a “compromise between stood out in the great mass of signs. Met’s largest shareholders, to pro- otry,” “End the nationalist nightmare the big powers” in 1954 when the Ge- Among the slogans were: “For A Labor test company takeback demands. in the six counties,” referring to the neva conference divided their country Party Now!” “For Automatic Wage In- part of Ireland ruled by Britain, “We after they had defeated the French. Mass creases To Meet Price Increases.” “For Wed. July 28, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. are not second-class citizens,” and actions around “Out Now!” is the best A United National Labor Conference To 40 E. 52nd St., Manhattan, N.Y. “Reroute sectarian marches.” reply to all schemes to prolong the war. Fight The Anti-Labor Drive.” The Militant July 26, 2021 5 Cuba’s working people rose up, carried out a socialist revolution by Roy Landersen nism was merely a “doctrine.” “What the imperialists cannot for- “Herr Heinzen is very much mistak- give,” Fidel Castro told the Cuban peo- en,” Engels wrote. “Communism is not ple at a rally in Havana April 16, 1961, a doctrine but a movement; it proceeds on the eve of Washington’s attempted not from principles but from facts.” Bay of Pigs invasion, was “that we have This central concept lay at the very made a socialist revolution right under heart of the Communist Manifesto, their noses, under the nose of the United which Marx and Engels completed af- States itself.” He was describing what ter the founding congress of the Com- Cuban workers and farmers had accom- munist League in London that year, plished in making and consolidating the world’s first modern revolutionary their revolution under the Marxist lead- workers organization. ership of the July 26 Movement. “The theoretical conclusions of the Castro, Che Guevara and the other communists are in no way based on leaders of the July 26 Movement led ideas or principles that have been in- Osvaldo Salas vented, or discovered, by this or that Che Guevara at First Latin American Youth Congress in Havana in 1960. He said Cuban revolu- working people to make deeper and tion was “Marxist” and that “it discovered, by its own methods, the road pointed out by Marx.” deeper inroads against capitalist exploi- would-be universal reformer,” they tation and property relations, alongside wrote. They express “actual relations tion communist?” In passing, he re- working class up to become the lead- steps to overcome racial discrimination springing from an existing class strug- jected the lies and distortions spread ing class through the conquest of po- and the oppression of women. gle, from a historical movement going by Washington and red-baiting by the litical power. That is precisely what the The revolution deepened as work- on under our very eyes.” bourgeois-minded right wing of the revolutionary cadres within the Rebel ers “intervened” and backed govern- forces that had joined in opposing Cu- Army and July 26 Movement, with ment takeovers of imperialist and native Guevara explains Cuba’s revolution ban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Marxist leadership, achieved. capitalist holdings; the nationalizing of Che Guevara explicitly answered To applause Guevara explained, “If The Cuban Revolution helped renew the land enabled peasants to take over Blas Roca. In Cuba and the Coming this revolution is Marxist — and listen the prospects of socialist revolution, plots to farm; the mass literacy drive American Revolution, Jack Barnes, to- well that I say ‘Marxist’ — it is be- proletarian internationalism, and Marx- transformed both the students — what- day national secretary of the Socialist cause it discovered, by its own meth- ist revolutionary working-class leader- ever their age — and the teachers; and Workers Party, describes how he went ods, the road pointed out by Marx.” He ship worldwide. It inspired a new gener- the popular militias and revolutionary to Cuba in mid-1960 to learn from and added, “The Cuban Revolution was ation of revolutionaries who dedicated armed forces defeated the U.S.-orga- help advance the revolution. He and moving forward, not worrying about their lives to emulating its example. nized mercenaries at Playa Girón. other young people from the U.S. and labels, not checking what others said When Barnes asked revolutionary Cuba’s working people transformed elsewhere in the Americas spent “many about it, but constantly scrutinizing fighters in Cuba whether he should stay themselves as they recognized the so- long hours there debating among our- what the Cuban people wanted of it.” in Cuba and fight alongside them or cialist character of their accomplish- selves the political and theoretical is- The Socialist Workers Party champi- return to the U.S., they told him to go ments and the Marxist character of sues” posed by the “onrushing struggle oned the revolutionary course advanced back and join whatever party he found their leadership. Through these mass we were part of and thinking through by Che and Fidel Castro, said SWP that was preparing to do what they did proletarian mobilizations, they carried the questions addressed by Che Gue- leader Mary-Alice Waters in a Chicago in Cuba. Barnes came back and joined through the first — and so far the only vara” at the First Latin American Youth forum April 24. “We were part of this the Socialist Workers Party to help lead — socialist revolution in the Americas. Congress in Havana July 28. debate, defending the Cuban Revolution in fighting for the working class to take Castro’s defiant statement in April Guevara raised the question at the and what it was accomplishing.” political power and carry through a so- 1961 simply described what the work- center of the debate: “Is this revolu- The task of communists is to raise the cialist revolution here. ing people of Cuba had accomplished. But Blas Roca, general secretary of the Popular Socialist Party, the long- standing Stalinist party there, had Workers need jobs, fighting unions to take on attacks fought for a different course. Continued from front page work around and prevent layoffs,” Jar- chase of robots across North America, pace of work and holding down wages, rett said. “And for cost-of-living claus- including to food processors and other Roca says revolution is not socialist while prices rise. es in all contracts to ensure wages go manufacturers, as they seek to increase Roca explained in a report to the More than 40 million workers were up to cover all price increases.” the rate of exploitation of their workers. party’s August 1960 National Assem- let go by bosses in the first 10 weeks Some employers are complaining bly that the Cuban Revolution was of the pandemic last year. Many have they can’t fill vacancies quickly enough. The scourge of rising prices not — and should not be — socialist. gone back to work, but over 7 million Denny’s now offers anyone filling out The blight of continuing high unem- An article based on that report was more workers do not have jobs today an application free pancakes. McDon- ployment is compounded today by ris- featured in the October 1960 issue of than before the pandemic. ald’s says if you work for them they ing prices, especially of necessities for Political Affairs, the magazine of the The bosses are looking to boost prof- might help with your tuition costs. De- workers and farmers like food and gas. Communist Party USA. its and strengthen their position against spite these bribes, the quit rate for res- Yearly inflation hit 5.4% in June, while Roca claimed the Cuban Revolution dog-eat-dog competitors at home and taurant and hotel workers hit the highest prices for meat, poultry, fish and eggs could only be “anti-imperialist and anti- abroad. This means stepped-up attacks level in two decades in May. shot up 2.5% in that month alone. feudal,” that is, “bourgeois democratic,” on our wages and working conditions. “We quit,” eight workers at a Lin- In some parts of the country work- and that the class forces carrying it out In their fight against workers, bosses coln, Nebraska, Burger King wrote in ers face soaring rents as landlords look were “the workers, the peasants, the have provoked strikes at ATI steel, Vol- big letters on the restaurant’s outside to make a killing. Phoenix is one of a urban middle classes, and the national vo Trucks, Warrior Met Coal and the sign July 10. Two of the workers told dozen cities where rents have risen over bourgeoisie.” The Popular Socialist Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas; and KLKN News they were fed up with 10% in the past year. Lauren Campos Party and other Stalinist parties, from locked out workers at Marathon Petro- dangerous working conditions at the told the Washington Post she got a note China to Spain, had long argued that leum and ExxonMobil refineries. restaurant and a grueling workweek of from the landlord of her two-bedroom socialist revolution was impossible in “Workers and our unions cannot let up to 60 hours. Jobs for a “crew mem- apartment there saying she must fork backward countries. They subordinated a layer of the working class stay out ber” there start at $10.97 an hour. out an extra $400 a month or get out. revolutionary struggle to the needs of of work. This strengthens the bosses’ For Burger King workers, like Workers need to find a course for- the counterrevolutionary Stalinist rul- hands, dividing our class,” Malcolm Jar- millions at Amazon, Walmart and ward to take on the profit-driven class of ers in Moscow, who sought “peaceful rett, Socialist Workers Party candidate elsewhere, organizing and building bosses, bankers and landlords. coexistence” with Washington. for Pittsburgh mayor, told the Militant. unions is crucial. We can use them “The SWP campaign says working Roca said communism “viewed from “SWP-endorsed candidates say we to fight to protect ourselves and our people need to break from the Demo- the correct angle constitutes a body of need to back fellow workers on the class from the rapacious attacks of the crats and Republicans — the twin par- principles and practice of a universal picket line today. We need to unify bosses that lie ahead. ties of capitalist rule — and chart a character.” Universal principles that the employed and unemployed workers, to Goldman Sachs says “productiv- course to take political power into their Cuban Revolution “is not applying.” fight for a government-funded public ity per hour” — that is, speedup and own hands,” Jarrett said. “A workers and In making that statement Roca, per- works program to put millions back into exploitation of workers — has nearly farmers government would reorganize haps unwittingly, echoed what Karl jobs, at union-scale pay and under work- doubled across the U.S. capitalist society in the interests of the vast major- Heinzen, a German petty-bourgeois ers control, to build the houses, hospitals economy, celebrating what they call ity, not for the profits of the few. It would socialist, had argued in 1847. Karl and other things workers need. the pandemic’s “silver lining.” unleash the mighty potential of workers Marx and Frederick Engels explicitly “Our unions need to fight for 30 The Robotic Industries Association and farmers to rid humanity of exploita- rejected Heinzen’s view that commu- hours work at 40 hours pay, to share gloated over a 64% jump in bosses’ pur- tion and oppression once and for all.

6 The Militant July 26, 2021 Cuba protests US intervention as it tackles challenges from embargo by seth galinsky many Cubans, given the fact In Ciego de Ávila, three leaders of If you follow the New York that Cuba is the only country the Union of Young Communists, Án- Times, the Wall Street Journal, in Latin America to develop gel Alberto Álvarez, Elizabeth López Fox News, or virtually any of its own vaccines, rated as Caballero and outgoing UJC Secre- the U.S. capitalist media, you over 90% effective, and has tary Yulianky Godínez García headed saw front-page reports that begun massive distribution. to the anti-government action there, Cuba was convulsed July 11 However, as a result of the Juventud Rebelde reported, to engage by a massive, spontaneous embargo, they have a criti- participants in discussions. anti-government “uprising.” cal shortage of hypodermic They joined a march of defenders of That the Cuban government needles for vaccination. the revolution that blocked the way of has “mismanaged” the CO- Groups in the U.S. and the counterrevolutionary action. “De- VID-19 pandemic. And that worldwide have been raising spite that today they opposed the revo- police and thugs unleashed money to donate syringes. lution, we have to reach out to them, unprovoked attacks on peace- The most recent was the Inter- because truly revolutionary positions ful demonstrators. national Longshore and Ware- have always been firm, but also hu- But these are gross exag- house Union, which voted to mane,” Godínez said. gerations and outright lies. contribute $10,000 to the ef- The next day Díaz-Canel and oth- It’s true there were marches fort at its convention in June. er government leaders held an over — some involving hundreds Díaz-Canel called on sup- four-hour televised press conference of people — in more than a porters of the revolution to where they went over in detail what dozen cities, including Ha- go out into the streets and the government is doing to face the vana, far from an “upris- to take the discussion on the challenges from shortages in im- ing.” And their composition New York Times ran this article in Spanish and English on pro- embargo and the efforts of the porting oil, spare parts, food, fertil- tests in Cuba with this image, which the paper claimed was was mixed, as Cuban leaders of an anti-government protest. In fact, it is a march in Havana government to bring relief to izer and more because of the U.S.- publicly explained. in support of the revolution! In the baseball cap behind the every doorstep. imposed restrictions. President Miguel Díaz-Canel Cuban flag is Gerardo Hernández, a well-known leader of In response, thousands of The Cuban president denounced addressed the Cuban people in a the Committees in Defense of the Revolution and one of the working people and youth who the cynicism of U.S. officials who public speech later that day. He Cuban 5, who spent 16 years in prison in the U.S., framed up support the revolution took to claim they support the Cuban people for his work helping to stop terrorist attacks on Cuba. said the revolutionary govern- the streets and have continued and present themselves as “the big ment has been open about the people who are confused or who to do so. savior” while they have the country challenges they face. “In the middle of don’t have answers or who are also On July 12, in the province of Cien- blockaded. Cuba gladly accepts all 2019,” he said, “we had to explain that expressing discontent.” fuegos alone, the Central Organization kinds of aid, Díaz-Canel said, but we were heading toward a difficult con- But “in the leadership” of the protests of Cuban Trade Unions held 171 meet- not aid that is aimed at violating the juncture” as a result of Washington’s “was a nucleus of manipulators” who ings involving nearly 3,000 workers to country’s sovereignty and interfering intensification of its punishing embargo, collaborate with U.S. anti-Cuba cam- show their support for the revolution. in its affairs. “whose objective is to asphyxiate the paigns, he said, and they had been pre- He noted Washington claims it’s economy of our country.” paring for disruption for days. Revolution’s supporters take action the Cuban Revolution, not the U.S. There has been a shortage of food, As part of the provocation, opponents Cuba’s president went to San Anto- embargo, that has created the prob- the worst since the Special Period in of the revolution vandalized stores that nio de los Baños in Artemisa province, lems Cuban workers and farmers face the early 1990s after the implosion sell products in dollars, overturned a where the first of the protests broke today. He challenged Washington to of the Soviet Union, formerly Cuba’s police car, and chanted slogans calling out. He joined a march in defense of prove it. main trading partner; a worldwide for U.S. “humanitarian” intervention or the revolution there July 11 and spoke “Lift the blockade,” Díaz-Canel downturn in capitalist production and “We want vaccines.” The chant around directly with working people in the said, “and then we will see how we do, trade that affected Cuba; and a stub- vaccines was particularly insulting to streets about the challenges they face. how this people will advance.” born COVID pandemic with a recent uptick in cases in Cuba. For lack of supplies and equipment, Cuban workers and farmers have faced Join July 25 protest in DC against US embargo of Cuba a recent series of electrical blackouts Continued from page 4 realize how interconnected we are in demned those calling for U.S. military and other shortages. movement. Courtney said that the U.S. this world, and how we have to fight to- intervention in Cuba. President Joseph Biden has contin- sanctions on Cuba had made it difficult gether,” Lazo told the group. By July 19, Lazo and the group will ued the embargo, like every president for the federation to establish the rela- An appeal was made by Bernardo be in Richmond, Virginia. since 1960 has. The suffering imposed tionships they wanted to with Cuban Gomez, one of the event organizers, for If you would like to organize an on the Cuban people is a direct result of cooperatives. “It’s immoral to strangle contributions to the Syringes for Cuba event for Lazo and Puentes de Amor U.S. government policy, which seeks a whole nation in the name of the free campaign. This helps to ensure that on their way to D.C. write him at por- to use economic pressure to bring Cu- market,” Courtney said. Cuba can inoculate the entire popula- [email protected]. ba’s socialist revolution down. Biden “Through this pilgrimage to Wash- tion against COVID-19 with Cuban- For more information on the July 25 hailed the protests in Cuba. ington, we are meeting many people developed vaccines. Over $425,000 events, contact the DC Metro Commit- Díaz-Canel explained in his ad- from civil society who are involved in has already been raised. tee in Solidarity with the Cuban Revo- dress that among those who joined the struggles that we are learning about,” Some 20 people heard Lazo speak at lution at dcmetrocoalitionforcuba@ anti-government actions were people Lazo told them. “In south Georgia, we a meeting hosted by the Peace Church of gmail.com or (202) 503-9465. “who are experiencing some of these met a farmer, Willie Head, who taught Christ in Greensboro, North Carolina, scarcities; it includes revolutionary us how African American farmers have July 12. Lazo described his own experi- Rachele Fruit in Atlanta contributed to lost their land over generations through ence in the U.S. army in Iraq and con- this article. denial of loans and credit and outright Cuba and the Coming discrimination by the U.S. government.” American Revolution Lazo said that when he was growing SWP hosts Active Workers Conference in Ohio July 22-24 by Jack Barnes up in Cuba, his mother told him about one of the highpoints of the struggle for Under the banner of “Leading the Working Class to Take Power/ Join the This is a book about civil rights. She described how march- Socialist Workers Party!/ Build the Communist Vanguard!” the SWP is host- the example set by ers protesting Jim Crow segregation ing an International Active Workers Conference at Wittenberg University in the people of Cuba Springfield, Ohio, July 22-24. Working-class fighters who’ve been invited will that revolution is were brutally attacked by cops when they attempted to cross the Edmund Pet- gather for three intensive days of discussions about the road forward. not only necessary At the center of the conference will be three talks by Socialist Work- — it can be made. tus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. “That’s where I got the name for our or- ers Party leaders Jack Barnes, Dave Prince and Mary-Alice Waters on key It’s about the class questions of world politics, history, culture and the labor movement that struggle in the U.S., ganization, Bridges of Love,” he said. About 25 people attended a celebra- working people face today. where the potential A series of classes and displays will supplement the talks, covering lessons of workers and tion with marchers campaigning against the U.S. embargo in Atlanta’s Candler from the history of the labor and communist movement. farmers are today as A special display will feature the coming new Pathfinder title Labor, Nature, Park that evening. utterly discounted by and the Dawn of Humanity: The Long View of History by Frederick Engels, “We have been educating communi- the ruling powers as were those of the Karl Marx and George Novack. Cuban toilers. And just as wrongly. $10 ties about why we are fighting for the The conference will conclude with a panel of SWP and Communist League Also in Spanish, French, Farsi lifting of the embargo, but in this jour- candidates. The next day, teams will fan out to take the campaign to working ney we also learn about other causes that people in towns and cities across the country. pathfinderpress.com we were not very familiar with, and we — Roy Landersen

The Militant July 26, 2021 7 Lenin: ‘Oppressed nations have the right to self-determination’ One of Pathfinder’s Books of the be obliterating all distinctions between Month for July is Workers of the World the reformist and the revolutionary and Oppressed Peoples, Unite! Pro- movements. Yet that distinction has ceedings and Documents of the Second been very clearly revealed of late in Congress of the Communist Interna- the backward and colonial countries, tional, 1920 (Volume 1). This excerpt is since the imperialist bourgeoisie is do- from a report to the Congress by V.I. ing everything in its power to implant Lenin, the central leader of the Bolshe- a reformist movement among the op- vik Party. The Congress was attended pressed nations too. There has been by delegates from 37 countries in Eu- a certain rapprochement between the rope, Asia, the Americas and Australia. bourgeoisie of the exploiting countries One reason the Bolsheviks were able to and that of the colonies, so that very lead working people to power in Rus- often — perhaps even in most cases sia in October 1917 and defeat attempts — the bourgeoisie of the oppressed by imperialist armies to overthrow the countries, while it does support the new government was because they national movement, is in full accord championed the rights of peoples who with the imperialist bourgeoisie, that were oppressed under the czarist em- is, joins forces with it against all revo- pire, which was a prison house of na- lutionary movements and revolution- tions. In his report, Lenin draws on ary classes. This was irrefutably prov- the lessons of that experience to help Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin, center, at Congress of the Communist International in Moscow, en in the commission, and we decided 1920. Lenin explained the need to back the fight for national liberation in colonies and semicol- guide revolutionary parties around the onies, for the toilers to organize independent of the imperialists and their capitalist allies there. that the only correct attitude was to world. Copyright © 1991 by Pathfinder take this distinction into account and, Press. Reprinted by permission. Communist International to establish well as the world political system as a in nearly all cases, substitute the term the concrete economic facts and to whole, are determined by the struggle national-revolutionary for the term proceed from concrete realities, not waged by a small group of imperialist bourgeois-democratic. Books of from abstract postulates, in all colo- nations against the soviet movement The significance of this change is nial and national problems. and the soviet states headed by Soviet that we, as Communists, should and the month The characteristic feature of impe- Russia. Unless we bear that in mind, will support bourgeois liberation rialism consists in the whole world, as we shall not be able to pose a single movements in the colonies only when by V.I. Lenin we now see, being divided into a large national or colonial problem correct- they are genuinely revolutionary, and First, what is the cardinal idea un- number of oppressed nations and an ly, even if it concerns a most outlying when their exponents do not hinder our derlying our theses? It is the distinc- insignificant number of oppressor na- part of the world. Only by beginning work of educating and organizing in a tion between oppressed and oppressor tions, the latter possessing colossal from this standpoint can the Commu- revolutionary spirit the peasantry and nations. Unlike the Second Interna- wealth and powerful armed forces. The nist parties in civilized and backward the masses of the exploited. … tional and bourgeois democracy, we vast majority of the world’s population, countries alike pose and solve politi- Next, I would like to make a remark emphasize this distinction. In this over a billion, perhaps even 1.25 billion cal problems correctly. on the subject of peasants’ soviets. The age of imperialism, it is particularly people, or, if we take the total popula- Third, I should like especially to em- Russian Communists’ practical ac- important for the proletariat and the tion of the world as 1.75 billion, about phasize the question of the bourgeois- tivities in the former tsarist colonies, in 70 percent of the world’s population, democratic movement in backward such backward countries as Turkestan, belongs to the oppressed nations, which countries. … [W]e have arrived at the and so forth, have confronted us with JULY are either in a state of direct colonial unanimous decision to speak of the na- the question of how to apply communist BOOKS OF THE MONTH dependence or are semicolonies as, for tional-revolutionary movement rather tactics and policy in precapitalist condi- example, Persia, Turkey, and China, or than of the “bourgeois-democratic” tions. The preponderance of precapital- Pathfinder Readers else, conquered by some big imperialist movement. It is beyond doubt that any ist relationships is still the main deter- Club Specials 30% power, have become greatly dependent national movement can only be a bour- mining feature in these countries, so DISCOUNT on that power by virtue of peace treaties. geois-democratic movement, since the that there can be no question of a purely This idea of a division, of dividing the overwhelming mass of the population proletarian movement in them. There is Workers nations into oppressor and oppressed, in the backward countries consists of practically no industrial proletariat in of the World runs through the theses, not only the peasants, who represent bourgeois- these countries. Nevertheless, we have and Oppressed first theses published earlier over my capitalist relationships. It would be uto- assumed, we must assume, the role Peoples, Unite! of leader even there. Experience has Proceedings and signature but also those submitted by pian to believe that proletarian parties Documents of the Comrade Roy. The latter were framed in these backward countries, if indeed shown us that tremendous difficulties Second Congress chiefly from the standpoint of the situa- they can emerge in them, can pursue have to be surmounted in these coun- of the Communist tion in India and other big Asian coun- communist tactics and a communist tries. However, the practical results of International, 1920 our work have also shown that despite (Volume 1) tries oppressed by Britain. Herein lies policy without establishing definite re- $27 Special price $19 their great importance to us. lations with the peasant movement and these difficulties we are in a position to The second basic idea in our theses without giving it effective support. inspire in the masses an urge for inde- Letters from Prison is that in the present world situation However, the objection has been pendent political thinking and indepen- A Revolutionary Party Prepares for following the imperialist war recip- raised that if we speak of the bour- dent political action, even where a pro- Post-WWII Labor Battles James P. Cannon rocal relations between peoples, as geois-democratic movement we shall letariat is practically nonexistent. $20. Special price $14 Understanding History Marxist Essays if you like this paper, look us up George Novack Where to find distributors of the NEBRASKA: Lincoln: P.O. Box 6811. AUSTRALIA $15. Special price $10.50 Militant, New International, and a full Zip: 68506. Tel: (402) 217-4906. Email: Sydney: Suite 103, 124-128 Beamish display of Pathfinder books. [email protected] St. Campsie. Postal Address: P.O. Box 73 Capitalism’s World Disorder UNITED STATES NEW JERSEY: 3600 Bergenline, Suite Campsie, NSW 2194. Tel: (02) 8677 0108. Working-Class Politics at the Millennium 205B, Union City. Zip: 07087. Tel: (551) 240- Email: [email protected] Jack Barnes CALIFORNIA: Oakland: 675 1512. [email protected] Hegenberger Road, Suite 250. Zip: 94621. CANADA $20. Special price $14 NEW YORK: New York: 306 W. 37th St., Tel: (510) 686-1351. Email: swpoak QUEBEC: Montreal: 7107 St. Denis 13th Floor. Zip: 10018. Tel: (646) 434-8117. Our History Is Still Being Written @sbcglobal.net Los Angeles: 2826 S. #204 H2S 2S5. Tel: (514) 272-5840. Email: Email: [email protected] Albany: 285 The Story of Three Chinese Cuban Vermont. Suite 1. Zip: 90007. Tel: (323) [email protected] Washington Ave. #1R. Zip: 12206. Tel: (518) Generals in the Cuban Revolution 643-4968. Email: [email protected] 810-1586. Email: [email protected] Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui FRANCE FLORIDA: Miami: 1444 Biscayne PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: 2824 Paris: BP 10130, 75723 Paris Cedex 15. and Moisés Sío Wong Blvd., Suite 215. Zip: 33132. Tel: (305) 929- $15. Special price $10.50 Cottman Ave., Suite 16. Zip: 19149. Tel: Email: [email protected] 8966. Email: [email protected] (215) 708-1270. Email: philaswp@verizon. Voix depuis la prison: GEORGIA: Atlanta: 777 Cleveland net Pittsburgh: 5907 Penn Ave., Suite 313. NEW ZEALAND Les Cinq Cubains Ave. SW Suite 103. Zip: 30315. Tel: (678) Zip: 15206. Tel: (412) 610-2402. Email: Auckland: 188a Onehunga Mall, (Voices from Prison — The Cuban Five) 528-7828. Email: [email protected] [email protected] Onehunga. Postal address: P.O. Box 13857, $7. Special price $5 ILLINOIS: Chicago: 1858 W. Cermak TEXAS: Dallas: 1005 W. Jefferson Blvd., Auckland 1643. Tel: (09) 636-3231. Email: Road, 2nd floor. Zip: 60608. Tel: (312) 792- Suite 207. Zip: 75208. Tel: (469) 513-1051. [email protected] Join the Pathfinder Readers 6160. Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] UNITED KINGDOM Club for $10 and receive KENTUCKY: Louisville: 1939 WASHINGTON, D.C.: 7603 ENGLAND: London: 5 Norman Road discounts all year long Goldsmith Lane, Suite 134. Zip: 40218. Georgia Ave. NW, Suite 300. Zip: (first floor). Seven Sisters. Post code: Tel: (502) 882-1041. Email: louisvilleswp@ 20012. Tel: (202) 536-5080. Email: N15 4ND. Tel: 020-3538 8900. Email: ORDER ONLINE AT gmail.com [email protected] [email protected] Manchester: 329, PATHFINDERPRESS.COM MINNESOTA: St. Paul: 1821 University WASHINGTON: Seattle: 650 S. Orcas Royal Exchange Buildings, 3 Old Bank St. OFFER GOOD UNTIL JULY 31 Ave. W Suite S-324A. Zip: 55104. Tel: (651) St., #120 Zip: 98108. Tel: (206) 323-1755. Post code: M2 7PE. Tel: (0161) 312-8119. 340-5586. Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] 8 The Militant July 26, 2021 Socialist Workers Party statement For unconditional recognition of Israel! Protest every time Jew-hatred raises its head! Message from Joanne Kuniansky, Socialist figures across the ists and middle-class liberals and radicals. On the Workers Party candidate for governor of New Jer- Middle East should left there are actions raising the Hamas slogan, sey, to July 11 rally in Washington, D.C. acknowledge “the “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” ‘unique’ history of — free of Jews, they mean. We urge working peo- The Socialist Workers Party calls for uncondi- antisemitism” and ple to oppose these actions as a deadly danger to tional recognition of Israel as a homeland for Jews. try “to understand advancing the class interests and solidarity of all We urge unions and all organizations of workers why Israelis fear workers and toiling farmers in the Middle East — and the oppressed to join actions like today’s rally for their existence,” Jews, Palestinians, Arabs, Kurds and others. to protest growing antisemitic violence and bigotry he said. We agree At times of rising economic and social crisis, the in the U.S. and elsewhere. with these words by capitalist rulers resort to antisemitism to scapegoat Establishment of the state of Israel was made the central leader Militant/Mike Shur Jews and divert ruined middle-class layers and de- Joanne Kuniansky, SWP candi- inevitable by the Holocaust, with the slaughter of of Cuba’s socialist date for governor of New Jersey. moralized workers away from the class struggle. some 6 million Jews, and refusal by the capital- revolution, which is As we said in a 1938 resolution, the year we took ist rulers in Washington, London and elsewhere an example for working people everywhere. the name Socialist Workers Party, class-conscious to open their borders to Jews seeking to flee Nazi The Socialist Workers Party combats Jew-hatred workers have “the duty of exposing the real aims persecution both before and during the second im- as we organize to help lead the working class to of the capitalists, hidden behind the smoke-screen perialist world war and then its horrific aftermath. take political power into our own hands and estab- of anti-Semitism and thereby inoculating the Israel has existed as a refuge for targets of Jew- lish a workers and farmers government. Making a masses against the poison,” as well as “mobilizing hatred for almost 75 years. socialist revolution here and worldwide will open the real defense of the persecuted Jews, a defense “There is nothing that compares to the Holo- the door to fight to end all forms of capitalist ex- of necessity based on the might of the organized caust,” said Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro ploitation and oppression once and for all. working class.” in a 2010 interview in Atlantic magazine. Political Today we see acts of Jew-hatred both from right- That remains our guide today.

Working people in Iran protest effects of social crisis, gov’t wars abroad Continued from front page difference between their rising cost of production and into conflict with peoples across the region. wave. The outages led to the deaths of hospital pa- the plummeting prices they receive for milk. To force the Iraqi government into paying outstand- tients, the closure of factories and cuts to water sup- The bourgeois-clerical regime is presented in the ing debts of some $4 billion to Tehran for providing plies and air conditioning. U.S. capitalist media as the legitimate successor of the electricity, the Iranian government cut power supplies At first, the bourgeois-clerical regime blamed the 1979 revolution, a powerful popular mobilization that to Iraq earlier this month. Tehran provides up to 30% people for using too much electricity. But following overthrew the U.S.-backed shah of Iran. In fact, the of Iraq’s electrical power, especially to the neighboring the protests President Hassan Rouhani apologized regime consolidated power out of a counterrevolution largely Shiite-populated southern part of the country. July 6, fearful that anti-government actions could in the early 1980s to entrench capitalist rule and deal This intensified the impact of power cuts inflicted spread. While the regime has lavished funds on its blows to working people. They tried to stifle workers’ regularly on working people by Baghdad. Hundreds counterrevolutionary interventions abroad, it has done councils that were established and set back struggles of Iraqis took to the streets to protest the most recent little over many years to upgrade rotting infrastruc- by farmers for land, gains won for women’s rights and cuts in Basra. Temperatures there are averaging 122 F. ture, including the electric grid. struggles by Kurds and other oppressed nationalities. “Basra has a lot of money, but its not being used for Protests against the outages occurred in Shahr-e Key to advancing the rulers’ counterrevolution at its people,” Abbas Hassoun told Al Jazeera. Ray near Tehran, Shiraz, Amol and other cities July home is seeking to extend their reach throughout the In 2018 and again the next year, power cuts and other 5-6. Some demonstrators shouted “Death to Khame- Middle East. The Iranian rulers have deployed militias shortages triggered widespread protests across south- nei,” referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps into conflicts ern Iraq. Among the demands raised by hundreds of Khamenei, a reflection of the depth of the discontent in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They established missile thousands of workers and youth were that the govern- felt by working people. sites nearer to Israel and extended their political influ- ment provide jobs, that it end rule by sectarian politi- Just weeks before, his regime held presidential elec- ence at a deadly cost to working people both in Iran cal parties, and that Tehran and Washington halt their tions marked by the lowest voter turnout since the and elsewhere. Their intervention has brought them interference and plunder of the country’s resources. 1979 Iranian Revolution. Ebrahim Raisi, a close ally of Khamenei, won the vote after most of his competitors — especially those who raised any criticism — were Protest hits Jew-hatred, backs Israel’s right to exist disqualified by the regime’s Guardian Council. Continued from front page Joanne Kuniansky, headlined “For Unconditional In City Council elections, more people spoiled their attacked. One was high school student Talia Raab. Recognition of Israel! Protest Every Time Jew-Ha- ballots than actually voted for candidates in three large After she began organizing a May 23 “Walk for tred Raises Its Head!” cities — Karaj, Hamedan and Arak — a further indi- Israel” in Naperville, Illinois, Raab got over 1,300 The Jewish Voice reported that Kuniansky de- cation of the regime’s waning legitimacy. antisemitic responses online. “I refuse to be silent,” nounced “acts of Jew-hatred both from rightists and she said. middle-class liberals and radicals” and that she urged Workers face hardships Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, an African American min- working people to oppose actions that call for the de- Mounting hardships from rising prices and short- ister from the Presbyterian Church, USA, reminded struction of Israel as a “deadly danger” to the class ages have been exacerbated by severe U.S. sanctions, participants about the “Jewish-Black alliance” forged interests and solidarity of Jewish, Palestinian, Arab, and by the drop in world production and trade during in the fight against Jim Crow segregation in the 1960s. Kurdish and other workers. the pandemic. Food prices have risen at least 70% in “Now is a time of solidarity,” he said, in the face of The statement says opposition to Jew-hatred is in the past year. increased antisemitic attacks. the interests of working people in the U.S. and that “at Thousands of workers hired on temporary contracts Organizers of the event said they welcomed partici- times of rising economic and social crisis, the capital- at some 60 oil and petrochemical installations have pation from everyone who supports the right of Israel ist rulers resort to antisemitism to scapegoat Jews and been on strike since June 20. They are demanding to exist as a Jewish state and opposes antisemitism. divert ruined middle-class layers and demoralized higher wages and more days off each month. Anyone who supports expelling Arabs from Israel workers away from the class struggle.” During the past two decades the state-owned Irani- was told they weren’t welcome. Silvan Meliza wanted to talk more when told that an National Oil Company began hiring workers from “I see a lot of the antisemitism in the United States the party views opposing Jew-hatred as a key question contractors on short-term contracts at wages half those being articulated as anti-Zionism,” Melissa Landa, for the working class. it pays to workers directly employed by the company. director of the Alliance for Israel, which initiated the “I consider myself progressive but I support Israel Over 106,000 workers now come from contractors. rally, told the Forward. “To me, it’s for the most part and all the antisemitism I see is very scary,” she said. Rouhani dismisses the strike, saying it has noth- one and the same.” “The ‘woke’ atmosphere on campuses is very intoler- ing to do with the oil ministry and is a matter for the “I never thought we’d see in our lifetimes the rise in ant and I worry that when my teenagers go to college subcontractors to work out. The committee of workers antisemitism,” Paula Bienenfeld told the Militant. “It is they’ll be under pressure to not identify as Jews.” organizing the walkout says they will urge workers time for Jews to reclaim the public space.” Gabriel Epstein, who recently moved to the D.C. hired directly by the company to join the strike if their Over 100 mostly Jewish organizations endorsed the area from California, said he finds “the events of the demands aren’t granted by August. rally, including the Anti-Defamation League, Ameri- past few months disturbing,” referring to the van- Other working people are demanding the authori- can Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith International. dalism of synagogues with Nazi symbols as well as ties take action to defend their livelihoods. Farmers in The Socialist Workers Party supported the ac- a physical attack against Jewish diners outdoors at Fars province demonstrated in front of the governor’s tion and distributed hundreds of copies of a state- a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles by thugs waving office June 27 demanding the government cover the ment by SWP candidate for New Jersey governor Palestinian flags.

The Militant July 26, 2021 9