MARCH 17, 1978 50 CENTS VOLUME 42/NUMBER 10

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE

Coal strike is the cause of all workers The following statement was released March 8 by the Socialist Workers Party candidates in Ohio and Kentucky-Pat Wright for Ohio governor, John Gaige for Ohio lieutenant governor, and Jim Bur­ feind for U.S. Congress from Kentucky's Third District.

President Carter's use of the Taft-Hartley "slave labor" act against 160,000 striking coal miners poses a deadly threat to the entire

STRIKE COVERAGE INSIDE • Baltimore labor rally backs miners, page 7. • Would government seizure aid the union? page 8. • Maoist thugs attack coal strike support meeting, page 9.

labor movement and to the rights of all work­ ing people. The miners democratically voted in their overwhelming majority to reject the contract terms offered by the coal operators. By order- CEDAR GROVE, W. Va.-Strikers discuss and reject coal bosses' contract. Carter's . ing the miners to give up their only weapon­ back-to-work order tramples on democratic rights of miners. the right to strike-and return to work, Carter is .trampling on their democratic right to decide for themselves what are acceptable con­ divisions within the United Mine Worker!f made the scapegoats for everything from ditions of employment. union itself. The divide-and-rule offensive is rising prices to the decline of the dollar. The strength of the miners lies in their proceeding on several fronts: • Provocative warnings about "violence" united action and in the broad support their • The employers, the government, and the and threats of federal force to protect scabs are struggle has won from other working people. news media have stepped up their scare cam­ designed to create the false impression that Carter is trying to divide the miners-to iso­ paign to blame the miners for layoffs, school intimidation by a minority-rather than the late them from other workers and to foster closings, and power cutbacks. The miners are Continued on page 6 About this paper Miners blast Taft-Hartley 'I read 'it from the standpoint of a coal By Nancy Cole ton, D.C., filled with coal miners-because miner. And I think it's a real good prolabor WASHINGTON, March 8-0n less than a we're coming down here," Jim Nuccetelli, paper.' day's notice, several hundred coal miners head of his local's safety committee, told , That's what a Pennsylvania coal miner showed up at federal hearings here today to reporters. "We're going to tell Mr. Carter told us about the 'Militant' last week. · let the Carter administration know that and Congress what we think about tl~eir This paper is unique. ·It tells the truth "coal miners won't work under bondage." Taft-Hartley." about the miners' fight. It explains why The hearings before the three-member Miners across the nation rejected the they have courageous~y waged their long, Taft-Hartley "fact finding" board were second proposed contract in a two-to-one hard-fought strike. closed to the public and news media. Miners vote the weekend of March 4-5. The 'Mili~nt' is being sold all across the charged the event was intended only to Carter announced March 6 that he would country as part of the effort to lend solidar­ "rubber stamp" Carter's decision to invoke invoke the strikebreaking law to try and ity to the striking miners. the antiunion Taft-Hartley Act. force the miners back to work. For more on sales and how you can help, "If they say we have to go back to work, "The country cannot afford to wait any see page 5. they're going to see the streets of Washing- Continued on page 4 FBI threatens to delv supreme court · -PAGE 3 In Our Opinion VOLUME 42/NUMBER 10 MARCH 17, 1978 CLOSING NEWS DATE-MAR. 8

will undermine the legal foundation for many Women's rights of the advances in jobs and education that Protest apartheid women and· oppressed minorities have made under fire since the civil rights movement. March 18 The concerted assault on abortion, the ERA, In just the past few weeks attacks against On March 17-19, U.S. and South African and affirmative action must be answered. women's rights have escalated dangerously. teams will face each other in Davis Cup tennis Defeat on any one issue will boost the morale Every major gain women have won is under matches at Nashville's Vanderbilt University. of women's enemies and add momentum to Despite mounting protests, Vanderbilt Uni­ fire. Abortion rights. The new restrictions on their attack on other rights. versity and the United States Tennis Associa­ abortion recently approved by the Akron, This makes it urgent for women's rights tion refuse to withdraw as hosts for the match. Ohio, City Council as counseling "guidelines" supporters to meet these attacks head on, on In response the NAACP is holding a demon­ are among the most severe in the country (see all fronts. stration against the matches in Nashville The women's movement must alert the pub­ back page). Not only does Akron's new ordi­ March 18. Other groups have also scheduled lic to the crisis and answer the divide-and-rule nance require that a woman's husband or protests there during the weekend. Support for parents know about the abortion. The regula­ arguments of those who seek to keep women in these actions is spreading, particularly on "their place." tions also demand that each woman seeking Black campuses throughout the South. The movement needs to explain that these The protests against the Davis Cup can let an abortion hear a religious description of attacks are part of the general government the world know that the American people do when life begins, an attempt to intimidate her drive against race equality, social services, job from exercising her right to choose. not support this propaganda boost for South safety, the right to a job, and a decent stand­ The anti-abortion groups behind the Akron Africa. They can also register public discon­ law have vowed to copy this tactic around the ard of living. tent with continued U.S. support to the brutal In answer to this crisis women should place white-minority regime in South Africa. country. the responsibility for the escalated attacks Such protests are sorely needed. Despite The frenzied foes of women's rights have exactly where it belongs, on the Democratic Carter's human rights rhetoric, Washington's also resorted to violence. A March 1 attempt to and Republican parties. policy on South Africa has not changed. burn out the Akron women's clinic was the But many leaders of the women's movement, This policy supports the torture and murder seventh arson attack on an abortion clinic in including leaders of the National Organization of Black political prisoners. It condones huge the past year. for Women, and Democratic and Republican investments by U.S. corporations, which-like Nationally, only thirteen states and the politicians, say the only answer is to elect their South African counterparts-pay Black District of Columbia still provide Medicaid for more "friends" to office and lobby harder on workers starvation wages and refuse to recog­ women's abortions. Some of these are now the Hill. nize their unions. It upholds South African debating fund cuts too. The Democrats and Republicans have al­ apartheid as a whole-a system of racial And the U.S. Congress is considering a ready displayed their scorn for women. Rely­ oppression and degradation repugnant to all measure to prevent private medical insurance ing on these politicians has strengthened their who believe in human equality. from covering working women's abortions. hand while weakening the women's move­ These protests deserve the support and back­ Equal Rights Amendment. As of March 22 ment. ing of all American working people-as an act there is only one year left to win ratification of What women need instead is a movement of internationalist solidarity with our Black the ERA. No state has ratified since January independent of the Democrats and Republi­ brothers and sisters fighting for liberation in 1977, and three more must do so by the 1979 cans. A women's movement that relies on its South Africa. deadline. Two states voted it down last month. own strength. A movement that reaches out to Successful protests against the Davis Cup Even scheduling a vote on the proposed oppressed national minorities and to all work­ tennis matches can give impetus to the devel­ extension of the deadline is facing major ing people as allies. A movement that stands oping movement among students, unionists, opposition in .Congress. up to the Democrats and Republicans to de­ and other opponents of apartheid to get the Failure to ratify the ERA will be a signal to fend and extend women's rights. United States out of South Africa and end U.S. antiwoman, anti-Black, and antilabor forces to The striking coal miners are proving that it investment there. step up their battle against all civil rights. is not only possible, it is necessary to stand up They can also spur increased demands for Affirmative action. The Bakke decision to the government. They are showing that an freedom for the South African political prison­ against special-admissions programs for op­ uncompromising struggle, united and deter­ ers and an end to the bannings and detentions pressed national minorities is being heard by mined, is the first requirement in the battle to used by the regime to behead the Black strug­ the Supreme Court this spring. Similar chal­ beat back the ruling-class attacks. gle. lenges to affirmative action on the job have The miners' militancy in the face of crisis The Militant urges its readers to join in the been upheld in courts around the country. should be taken as an inspiring example for NAACP-sponsored march and other protests If the Bakke decision is not overturned it the women's movement. against the Davis Cup.

The Militant Militant Highlights This Week Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS Managing Editor: STEVE CLARK Business Manager: ANDREA BARON . Southwest Bureau HARRY RING 5 'Militant' sales drive NY unions need a new strategy Ray Markey, a well-known socialist and unionist Editorial Staff: Peter Archer. Nancy Cole, David 7 Miners' support rallies Frankel, John Hawkins. Cmdy Jaquith, Shelley in New York's AFSCME Local 1930, talks to the Kramer, Ivan L1cho, Omari Musa. Jose G. Perez. 9 Maoist thugs attack rally 'Militant' about what city workers can do to Dick Roberts, Andy Rose, Pnscilla Schenk, Peter 10 SWP candidate Fred Halstead Seidman. Diane Wang, Arnold Weissberg combat the growing cutbacks and layoffs. 11 Nashville antiapartheid action Published weekly by the Militant, 14 Charles Lane. Page 16. New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone Editorial Office 13 Maoists & Sadat's trip (212) 243-6392: Business Office (212) 929-3486. 14 Anti-'Bakke' conference Southwest Bureau: 1250 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 404, 15 Marroquin case Los Angeles, California 90017. Telephone: (213) 482-3184. 20 U.S. vs. USSR: the arms race Correspondence concerning subscriptions or 32 Akron abortion attack changes of address should be addressed to The Issues in French election Militant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New 2 In Our Opinion A new government of the Communist and Socialist parties York, N.Y. 10014. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. 27 Women In Relfolt vs. collaboration with capitalist politicians. That is the key Subscriptions: U.S. $15.00 a year. outside U.S. National Picket Line issue raised by French revolutionists in this month's Capitalism Fouls Things Up $20.50. By first-class mail: U.S .. Canada, and Mex­ parliamentary elections. Page 12. ico: $42.50. Write for surface and-airmail rates to all 28 In Brief other countries. What's Going On For subscriptions air111ailed from New York ·and 29 Their Golfemment then posted from London directly to Britain and The Great Society Ireland: £2.00 for ten issues. £4.50 for six months. £8.50 for one year. Posted from London to Conti­ 30 Our Relfolutlonary Heritage nental Europe: £2.50 for ten issues. £6.00 for six Letters months, £11.50 for one year. Send banker's draft or 31 Learning About Socialism Arms race: who's to blame? international postal order (payable to Pathfinder If You Like This Paper... Do the U.S. and USSR share equal Press) to Pathfinder Press, 47 The Cut, London SE18LL. England. Inquire for air rates from London WORLD OUTLOOK responsibility for the threat of nuclear at the same address. 23 Rhodesia gamble by Smith annihilation? Or is the arms race caused by Signed art1cles by contributors do not necessarily 24 International Women's Day represent the Militant's v1ews. These are expressed U.S. imperialism's expansionist profit drive? in editonals 25 World News Notes Page 20.

2 By Diane Wang being tried believes this is a serious President Carter's Justice Depart­ question and deserves a trial. But a ment made front-page headlines in the trial cannot be held without facts. March 3 New York Times when gov­ ". . . By defying a Court order, the ernment lawyers threatened to defy a FBI and the Justice Department would Supreme Court order rather than pro­ deriy citizens the right to a fair court duce evidence about informers for the test of government activities which lawsuit by the Socialist Workers Party ... violated constitutional rights." and Young Socialist Alliance against At the previously secret court hear­ the government's political spying and ing on February 10, Assistant U.S. disruption. Attorney Frank Wohl said~ "At the The threat to defy the Supreme Court present time the FBI and the Depart­ was made public on March 1 when ment of Justice are leaning strongly in federal Judge Thomas Gries a unsealed the direction of declining to turn over previously secret court transcripts for identities of-any informants." the Senate Committee on the Judi­ Wohl declared that even if the gov­ ciary. The committee's current hear­ ernment lost all legal appeals and were ings on Benjamin Civiletti, Carter's ordered to produce the informers' files nominee for deputy attorney general, by the Supreme Court there was a give it a chance to review and chal­ "strong possibility" that the FBI lenge the Justice Department's policy. would refuse. The government might Leonard Boudin, the socialists' attor­ prefer to forfeit the case or accept legal ney, sent the Senate committee the sanctions, he said, rather than produce court records with a letter explaining the evidence. the constitutional issue raised. "Not even President Nixon, at the height of the Watergate crisis, took the Possible jailing? position that an executive privilege Griesa answered, "I appreciate your 'Except for those of us who are above it.' Herblock stood entirely above the Courts of this warning, and I will state to you and to land," Boudin said. the FBI that as far as I can see now it "A key element in the FBI's disrup­ is not tolerable or acceptable to this lead to sanctions, it is to lead to discov­ imprisonment of defiant officials ... I tive operations was the use of paid court to be told that the FBI will defy ery.... will not hesitate to use that power if infiltrators to try to disrupt the party the order of the court and accept what "As long as you have suggested it, I there is a willful defiance of a final from within," Boudin explained. "The you call sanctions. want to give you advance notice that I order of this court." federal judge before whom this case is "The purpose of discovery is not to will seriously consider contempt or If the newly appointed FBI Director William Webster ends up going to jail for withholding evidence he will land in the middle of quite an irony. As a federal judge, Webster was part of a three-judge panel that upheld the very Senate committee quizzes Justice Dept. · order by Judge Griesa that the FBI is WASHINGTON, D.C.-By March March 3 hearing was about the read a statement on the SWP and now preparing to defy. 3 the Senate Judiciary CoJ:Dmittee Socialist Workers Party and Young YSA lawsuit made by the attorney . had already spent more than a week Socialist Alliance lawsuit against general. "It is, of course, the policy High stakes questioning Benjamin Civiletti, Car­ the FBI. of the Justice Department to obey The Justice Department's threat to ter's nominee for deputy attorney "There is a story in today's news court orders," he read. "The govern­ defy the Supreme Court comes after general. The four senators cross­ that concerns ine greatly," said Sen. ment interest in protecting the iden­ more than a year of legal battles over examining Civiletti had a lot of Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.). He was tity of informers is a very important the informer evidence. At stake are the topics to raise, ranging from the Bert referring to a front-page article in interest. However, any proposal to complete files of eighteen FBI in­ Lance scandal to voter registration the New York Times about the gov­ deviate from the policy of obeying formers, twenty-five file drawers of fraud. ernment's threat to defy ~ court court orders should have my per­ information. But the first matter raised at the order rather than produce evidence sonal attention." The socialists demanded the files on about informers. "Does the Justice After the hearing the Militant the eighteen as a sample, a first step in Department feel itself bound by the asked Civiletti whether that state­ documenting how the FBI uses politi­ U.S. Supreme Court?" he asked Civi­ ment meant the attorney general cal spies. letti. would personally consider disobey­ The government lawyers have con­ Civiletti answered that "every ing court orders. tended that the informers' secrecy priv­ piece of opinion is not law" that has Civiletti would not answer. "It ilege comes above citizens' right to to be obeyed. doesn't say the Supreme Court," was know. If the informers are publicly But what about a direct Supreme all he would say to explain the state­ brought to account in court, argues the Court order, such as a Supreme ment. government, all FBI informers will be Court order to turn over informers' Senator Wallop told the Militant: afraid to continue operations. files? That was the issue raised by "It is unsettling they could even Last May Griesa ordered the govern­ the newspaper article, Wallop in­ contemplate deviating from a Su­ ment to show the files to the socialists' sisted. preme Court order, from any court attorneys. That order was upheld by Although Civiletti later told repor­ order for that matter. They have the the Court of Appeals. The files still ters he had been briefed on the New right to appeal, but not to deviate. have not been made available, how­ York Times article that morning, he "I don't often find myself in agree­ ever, since the government again ap­ now asked the senator which article ment with parties of the far left, but ~ealed the judge's decision. he meant. they do have rights,'' the right-wing In a recent attempt to find a new Nominee Benjamin Civilettl had no Finally forced to explain the Jus­ Republican conceded. "Hopefully we solution to the problem, Judge Griesa real answers. tice Department's stand, Civiletti all do." -D.W. reviewed the · eighteen files case by case. Continued on page 18 Special offer Subscribe today

) $2 for ten issues (new readers only) to new readers ) $8.50 for six months ( ) $15 for one year The Militant-10 weeks/SI ) New ( ) Renewal Name The Militant takes sides: for democratic rights Address and against the FBI, for the striking mine workers and against the coal operators, for women's rights and against the anti-abortion bigots. To get weekly City ------coverage on the side of working people subscribe 'How many times do I have to explain, Henderson? to the Militant. There are good guys and there are bad guys and no State Zip ------matter how It looks we're still the good guys! 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 3 ... miners blast Carter's strikebreaking Continued from front page longer have that right.'" longer," Carter warned. "I've asked the For its part, the Bituminous Coal attorney general and the governors of Operators Association-the industry's the affected states to make certain that bargaining arm-used the hearings to the law is obeyed, that violence is once again blame the lengthy strike on prevented,' and that lives and property the miners. are fully protected." "It must be called to the attention of First, however, Carter was required the American people that the onus for to dispense with a few formalities, bringing a resolution of the strike now including the appointment of a board must rest upon the United Mine of inquiry. He appointed three tried Workers of America and its member­ and tested labor "arbitrators"­ ship," read BCOA President Joseph guaranteed to act on the side of indus­ Brennan's statement. try and government. "The efforts of the Administration to Today's hearings were hastily con­ bring an end to this dispute have been vened to satisfy a technicality that heavily directed toward industry; these there be a report on the strike's threat efforts must now be directed to the true to "national health and safety." source of the dispute-the Union and its membership." Hearings a 'sham' This line that Carter twisted the arm A statement by representatives of of the BCOA to reach the "comprom­ UMWA District 17 in southern West ise" agreement failed to convince the Virginia called the hearings a "sham." ranks of the UMW A, who overwhelm­ Some 5,300 invitations were sent out, ingly rejected the proposed pact. primarily to UMW A districts and lo­ Virginia ballot box. 'We have the right to decide how we're going to live for the next Ignored miners' demands cals. Most telegrams announcing the three years,' say miners. hearings arrived in the coalfields yes­ They voted down the contract, des­ terday afternoon. pite Carter's threats of force, because it "We don't all live in Washington, miner added. "On Capitol Hill, too, ever, it is reported that Carter plans to failed to meet their demands for full D.C.," a miner angrily told the Mil­ their minds are made up in favor of go ahead immediately with the collrt health care, equalized pensions, and itant as he left the hearings. "We all Taft-Hartley." injunction ordering strikers back to the right to strike. had to travel a great distance." The statement from District 17 chal­ work. , It also added penalties, including Even so, scores of locals were repres- _ lenged the closed hearings and pro­ "We have the right to decide how firing, for so-called leaders of wildcat ented. Each was given just five min­ posed that if the board really wanted we're going to live for the next three strikes. And it completely bypassed utes to present its case against Taft­ to know what miners think about the years," Nuccetelli told the Militant. improved benefits and working condi­ Hartley. The board didn't bother to ask act, it should hold additional hearings "Carter stated we have that right, but tions demanded by the 1976 UMWA questions. in the coalfields. when we failed to go along with his convention. "Their minds are made up," another As the Militant goes to press, how- agreement, he's telling us, 'You no "The coal companies have worked those men out, and now they just want them to go off and die," Pennsylvania miner Mark Williams told Militant correspondent Fred Larson. "We felt we should stand by the pensioners, Unionists hit Taft-Hartley and that was a powerful force for unity in this vote." By Shelley Kramer Local 1938, whose treasury was Local 10, called a coalition meeting On March 5 more than fifty local In response to Carter's invocation drained by its own record-breaking for March 11 to plan further action. union officers in District 5 met in New of Taft-Hartley against the coal 138-day strike last year, also sent a An American Civil Liberties Un­ Stanton, Pennsylvania, and an­ strike, many unionists and other second $1,000 contribution to the ion statement, issued on March 7, nounced their opposition to Taft­ supporters of the miners have miners. denounced Carter's action: Hartley. stepped up their solidarity activities. "We're at one of the most critical "The ACLU calls on President "The consensus is," said Jim Nucce­ Douglas Fraser, president of the times in all labor history," local Carter to abandon plans for a Taft­ telli, "that we may be harassed, fined, United Auto Workers, announced President Joe Samargia said. "A Hartley Act injunction against the put in jail-some of us might even die. March 7 that the UAW was giving victory for the miners is a victory for coal strike. The right to strike is a But we'd rather die on the surface than $2 million to the UMWA Interna­ the whole labor movement." civil liberty. Denial of the right to in the mines under that contract.'' tional Miners Relief Fund. strike invades the freedom of em­ Donny Redmond, president of the "The United Mine Workers stood Leaders of the Miners Strike ployees to decide what working con­ district's largest local, said, "Anybody with the UAW during some of our Labor-Community Support Coalition ditions they believe should govern who reads that contract offer has to most difficult struggles," Fraser in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has already raised more than their employment.... Prohibitions agree it's a disgrace to the UMW." said. "The miners, under John L. on the right to strike thus act to Lewis, supplied money and organiz­ $8,500 for the UMW A, reacted to Carter's move with an emergency weaken the First Amendment guar­ ing help that was crucial to the antees of freedom of association." 'Read the contract' survival of the UAW in the 1930s. mailing to all northern California The National Lawyers Guild also "That's what we're asking the public We haven't forgotten that." unions and community organiza­ denounced Carter for .invoking the to do-read the contract and compare Fraser condemned Taft-Hartley tions. Taft-Hartley Act and pledged the it to the 1974 contract we had before. legislation because the "pressure is "We believe that the miners have guild's legal services to victimized We're losing ground." on the workers instead of the the inalienable right to determine miners. In northern West Virginia, miner owners." However, he repeated his their own union's affairs," the letter George Sines told Militant correspond­ call for government seizure of the read. Guild President Henry DiSuevero ent Tom O'Hara, "We're not going in called Carter's action a "brutal ex­ mines as a way to put "pressure" on "Governm~t action nullifies this to work those mines just so the com­ the operators. (See story on page 8: right. We believe that government ample of state power in the pay of panies can rebuild their stockpiles. "Government seizure: would it aid intervention must be strongly re­ the coal companies." We've been out too long now to let the miners?") sisted by the entire labor movement, The miners' rejection of the pro­ them put us in the position we were in In Virginia, Minnesota, United since the entire labor movement will posed contract is a "major defense of ninety days ago.'' Steelworkers Local 1938 sent tele­ be affected not only now but in the the right to strike, for the right to There appears to be a growing senti­ grams to Carter and to AFL-CIO years to come." _ adequate medical treatment, and for ment among the UMW A ranks, as well President George Meany protesting The statement, signed by Walter the correction of unsafe working as among the leadership, that govern­ federal intervention in the coal Johnson, president of Retail Clerks conditions," DiSuevero said. "It is a ment seizure of the mines would be­ strike. The local told Meany it was Local llOO, and Larry Wing, presi­ struggle waged by the miners not nefit the union. Miners point to pre­ "shocked and dismayed" by his sup­ dent of the International Longshore­ only for themselves, but for all vious gains "won" under federal port for the Taft-Hartley injunction. men's and Warehousemen's Union American working people." seizure and say that the government could open the coal bosses' books to prove the miners' demands are reaso­ nable. But there is no evidence that the same Carter who today resorts to the antilabor Taft-Hartley Act would to­ morrow turn around and give the miners a better deal under government control. The government's aim under seizure, as well as under Taft-Hartley, would be to get the miners back to work. (For more on the seizure debate, see page 8.) "The government's taking the side of the companies," said a miner here today. "They always have and they always will." Militant And the miners have always stood WALTER JOHNSON JOE SAMARGIA DOUGLAS FRASER up for their rights. They're doing it again.

4 Set 'Militant' sales drive to defend miners By Harvey McArthur whom face more layoffs and cutbacks NEW YORK CITY -A March 8 city­ this year. wide planning meeting attended by Careful planning will go into sales at 200 members of the New York Socialist the many political meetings around Workers Party voted to launch an all­ the city. Circulation directors in the out Militant sales campaign in defense different branches of the SWP will be of the striking coal miners. working with Shangold to collect infor­ The meeting took place only hours mation on upcoming meetings, making after President Carter announced he sure that sales team!" are dispatched to was invoking the notorious Taft" them. Hartley Act to force the miners back to Teams will be sent to Puerto Rican work. and other Latino communities to sell With the big-business-owned media Perspectiva Mundial, especially in stepping up their campaign against housing projects and on street corners. the miners, sales of the Militant have "We also want to pay particular become an even more necessary ele­ attention to sales on the high school ment in supporting the strikers. and college campuses," said Shangold. SW.P local organizer Linda Jenness "We will work closely with the Young reported on recent activities in support Socialist Alliance in this effort." of the miners. "Getting out the truth about the miners' strike is the most important thing we can do," she said, "and sales of the Militant and Perspec­ Militant/John Hawkins tiva Mundial are the most important Selling the 'Militant' at Brooklyn Navy Yard way to do this." By Nelson Blackstock Gale Shangold, city-wide circulation You can hardly turn around these director, reported that "last week's days without hearing something about sales-especially the workplace, cam­ the miners. Most of what you get from that salespeople had brought with pus, and political meeting sales-are the capitalist news media, however, is ton, West Virginia, area during the them. the model for what we want to do in filled with distortions or outright lies. first two weeks of March. Another focus of Militant sales is the coming weeks" (see box). This has lent each sale of the Militant Team member Don Bechler, the political meetings. Forty copies were The stepped-up sales drive is part of a special significance. Michigan SWP's candidate for lieuten­ bought at a March 3-4 Detroit confer­ a general plan to strengthen sales of The Militant has received a warm ant governor, reported the following: ence on the Bakke issue. the paper here this spring. welcome among both coal miners and "One day we went to a place called Meanwhile, Militant sales teams A big part of the campaign will be their supporters. Houston Holler. We counted 147 doors have been bringing the paper to strik­ increasing regular workplace and We discovered a good example of this and knocked on them all. At about a ers in coal mining regions around the plant-gate sales. Many more industrial in Detroit. third of them we found nobody home. country. plants will be targeted for weekly More than half the 257 papers sold At the others we sold forty-two papers, by the Detroit Socialist Workers Party Due in part to the generous response plus ten subscriptions. Needless to say, sales. from readers to our fund appeal, we Special attention will also be paid to last week were sold by socialists work­ we were feeling pretty good as we left." were able to send a second full-time getting the Militant out to hospital, ing inside that city's many auto Another team sold forty-two papers national sales team to West Virginia transit, and other city workers-all of plants. in two hours in Raton, New Mexico, Workers bought the Militant at the on March 7. This team is made up home of the Kaiser coal mine. Mter Dodge truck plant, Ford's River Rouge entirely of volunteers from New York running out of papers, they were put and Wayne Assembly plants, Chev­ City. up for the night by friendly miners rolet Forge Gear and Axle, and Lynch Our first team has been out since they met while selling. They're going Road Chrysler. mid-February. It was in the Charles- back next week with a lot more papers. NYC sales "Auto workers have a gut-level sym­ The following are results of sales pathy for the miners," one UAW of the March 3 issue in New York member told us. "They know what bad City: working conditions are. And they Help put teams on the road • Total copies of the Militant know what the right to strike means." 'Enclosed is for the task of getting FREE-with each contribution of $25 and Perspectiva Mundial sold: 820. Our .mine strike coverage inspired the Militant to the coalfields and into or more-Art Preis's Labor's Giant • Total copies of Perspectiva three Black auto workers to join our the hands of fighting miners,' said the Step. This 538-page book tells the Mundial sold: 59. regular sales force inside the plants. At note. It accompanied a small part of story of the working class's heroic • Total sold on campuses: 101. the end of the week they came to a the more than $200 that has been struggle to build the CIO in the 1930s • Total sold at political meet­ class held at the SWP's East Side received in answer to our appeal for and 1940s, including the miners' cru­ ings: 70. headquarters. Now they're looking for­ funds to finance Militant sales teams cial role. • Total sold at workplaces: 159. ward to the March 12 Militant Forum in the coalfields. Among those re­ This includes sales at one auto on the strike. plant, two steel shops, five hospi­ Many workers were also able to buy sponding were readers in Victoria, Name tals, and the main post office. - the paper from salespeople stationed at Texas; Meses, Arizona; and Menomo­ nie, Wisconsin. Address ------The best sales of the week were the gates of Detroit steel and auto at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. plants. City ------Workers in the plant sold 40 copies Over the weekend other auto workers to their co-workers. And sales got the paper while attending a special I want to help put full-time Militant State _____ Zip _____ teams went to the yard every morn­ school they're enrolled in at Wayne sales teams on the road in coal min­ ing, selling 21 papers, for a total of ing areas. Here's my contribution of Militant Circulation Office, 14 Charles State University. $ ____ 61 sold at this one workplace. On one week night Wayne State Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. students bought fourteen copies, all

Ohio miners discuss strike with SWP candidate By Dean Elder beginning of the strike that they could resources to tell their side. Just think One of those opposed to federal seiz­ NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio-"It break your union. But you've shown . of what we could do if the unions· ure is William Taylor, a retired miner. stinks." "It's not worth the paper it's. them and the rest of the world that formed a political party and ran candi­ Taylor remembers the 1946 'seizure and written. on." that's easier said than done. dates to tell our side and fight for our thinks that if the government seizes These are some of the responses "Lately they've been opening up a interests." the mines, the miners will get less. "I miners gave here March 4 to the pro­ propaganda barrage in an attempt to Most of the miners here said they want the boys to get anything they posed contract they would be voting on isolate you from the rest of us and to would be willing to go back to work if can," he said. "1'm right behind them." the next day. The miners, members of divide you against each other. Since the federal government seized the The miners made it clear that an United Mine Workers of America Local they ·couldn't break you economically, mines. They don't completely trust injunction under the Taft-Hartley Act 1340, were talking with John Gaige, they're going after you on the political President Carter, but they think the would be ineffective. No coal, union or Socialist Workers Party candidate for front. government would have to give them a nonunion, has been moving out of lieutenant governor of Ohio. "I think it's crucial that workers better deal than the coal owners would. Perry County since the strike began. everywhere join in supporting your The miners Gaige talked with were Local 1340, which includes 600 min­ strike against these attacks." Gaige pointed out that there is no pleasantly surprised to see the Militant ers, rejected the contract overwhelm­ Gaige, a member of United Auto guarantee of that. "It's dangerous to and the way it covers their cause. ingly. Workers Local12, has been a leader in count on the Democrats and Republi­ Several of them bought subscriptions. Gaige was in New Lexington to building the' Toledo Area Mine cans to take your side against the They thought it was important to express his support for the miners and Workers' Support Committee, which is companies," he said. continue publicizing their strike and t;r, talk about some of the issues in the organizing a March 12 rally in support "If Carter intervenes, the first thing helping organize support. coal strike. of the miners. he'll try to do is get coal moving. And Jim O'Brien, who has worked at "The way you've carried out this "Through my campaign I'm also if it's not under a decent contract, that Peabody Coal for three years, said, strike is an inspiration to me and other talking about the idea of working can only weaken the strike and the "Before anybody forms an opinion unionists around the state," Gaige told people organizing in the political union. they ought to look at the miners' point the miners. arena," Gaige said. "The coal owners "Working people are much better off of view and ask what miners are "The coal operators were sure at the and the government have tremendous relying on ourselves." fighting for."

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 5 Socialist takes miners' cause to steelworkers By Alyson Kennedy ·Louisville STEUBENVILLE, Ohio-"Hi. I'm Pat Wright, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor, and I'm here socialist today to encourage steelworkers and other working people to back the coal miners' strike. Do you support the min· ers?" "I'm behind the coal miners," said one worker outside the Pittsburgh­ Wheeling steel plant here, organized by United Steelworkers Local 1190. "They'll trounce on us next if they get the miners, but most people don't realize it," said another. More than sixty workers at the Pittsburgh-Wheeling plant bought co· pies of the Militant as Wright and a group of her supporters campaigned here March 2-4. At a local grocery store Wright At a March 8 news conference the talked with a number of working peo­ Louisville Socialist Workers Party ple who agreed with the need for announced Jim Burfeind as its can­ solidarity with the strike. didate for Congress, Third C.D. Mrs. Hutchman thought it was Burfeind told the press that the "great" that Wright was campaigning UMWA strike was the most impor­ for the miners. As she was paying for a Militant/Dean Elder tant battle for the labor movement in copy of the Militant she told Wright, Wright talks with steelworker outside Pittsburgh-Wheeling plant. thirty years. Assailing his Demo­ "I'm 100 percent behind the coal min­ cratic opponent Rep. Ron Mazzoli ers. My husband works for Ohio Edi­ for urging Carter to force the miners son. The companies are running low run low, this is when the bosses will sit campaign plans to field more teams to back to work, Burfeind stated, 'My on coal and this may mean my hus­ up and take notice that working people talk to miners and other working peo­ party, the Socialist Workers Party, band's job-we understand that. really do have something to say." ple about the strike and get the Mili· stands on the side of the miners.' "But if the coal miners let the coal The Ohio Socialist Workers Party tant into their hands. ... unite behind the coal miners Continued from front page double-talk. "My responsibility is to ranee plans and charging miners and on the employer-rigged grievance and solidarity of . the vast majority-is protect the health and safety of the their families hundreds of dollars for arbitration procedure. They can rely keeping the mines closed. American public," he said. medical care, the coal companies stand only on themselves and their power to But the miners are the victims of But health care and safe working to pocket millions of dollars a year in halt production when conditions are violence, not its perpetrators. Already conditions are among the top demands extra profits. unsafe. two UMWA members have been shot of the miners-and Carter has never If the UMW A fund is dismantled, The coal bosses demand harsh pun­ and killed by scabs. said a word in support of them. Aren't many of the coalfield clinics it subsid­ ishment for wildcat strikers and want • The White House says it will cut miners part of the public? ized will be forced to close. Health care the union to guarantee "labor peace." off food stamps for the strikers. If their "The law will be enforced," Carter for entire communities and thousands This is a formula for more speedup, · children begin to cry from hunger, this said. of people will suffer. more mine disasters, and more miners cruel logic goes, maybe the miners will But what about the mine-safety laws • Right to a secure retirement. killed. " Miners who retired before 1976 get By standing up for their rights crawl back into the pits. that Blue Diamond Coal Company, • Carter further threatens to im­ like hundreds of other profit-greedy only about half the pension paid to against the coal operators and the those who retired later. Miners demand government-and b:1"'standing up for pound local union treasuries and to coal operators, violated day after day­ that pensions for all retirees be equal­ rank-and-file control-over their union­ fine or jail union officers, hoping to until the Scotia mine blew up and ized at a level that provides a decent the miners are fighting for the inter­ whip some locals into submission and killed twenty-six men. To this day no livelihood. ests of all working people. split the union. mineowner has gohe to jail or even If Carter and the coal bosses get paid a fine for those twenty-six In putting their muscle behind the They have shown that it is possible rights of the retired and disabled, coal to resist the drive of the capitalists to away with this assault on the United murders. miners have set an example of solidar­ make the workers pay for the irration­ Mine Workers, more unions and mil­ When Carter talks about "law en­ lions more workers will soon feel the ity with one of the most downtrodden ality of the profit system. forcement," he means sending his law­ sections of the working class. lash as well. breaking FBI spies and provocateurs Carter's strikebreaking should be Political action into the coalfields to harass and frame Right to strike The coal strike has given a glimpse answered with a massive outcry of up strikers. protest from the unions, from Black • Right to strike: This demand is of the awesome power of united "The country cannot afford to wait met with frenzied opposition from the working-class action. But the bosses and Latino organizations, women's any longer" for coal supplies, Carter groups, and students: Stop government coal bosses, news media, and capitalist have so far enjoyed a monopoly in the said. politicians. They pretend that miners political field, which they can use to union busting! But it is the coal industry­ Now more than ever the strikers are lazy and irrespbnsible, eager to undercut the workers' power. That's dominated by the giant oil, steel, and need financial aid, food, and demon­ shut the mines on a whim. But the exactly what Carter seeks to do now utility corporations-that is holding right to strike is a life-and-death ques­ through Taft-Hartley and other gov­ strations of solidarity. Striking the jobs and well-being of millions of tion. ernmental action. farmers showed the way with their workers hostage in its war against the One hundred twenty-five miners caravan taking food to Kentucky min­ As soon as the fight moves to the UMWA. were killed on the job last year alone­ ers. The recent $2 million donation political level, it becomes clear that the The coal bosses deliberately pro­ victims of the companies' drive for from the United Auto Workers should workers have no voice and no political voked the strike last December with higher profits without regard for set"an example for other unions. instrument. demands that the union give up pre­ safety. Meetings and rallies are needed to The bosses have two parties-the vious contract gains and act as a The miners have learned that they explain the truth about the strike and Democrats and Republicans. Workers police force against its members. The can't rely on government inspectors or need one of their own-a mass, inde­ the justice of the miners' cause. operators boasted about how they pendent labor party based on a mil­ Carter's speech invoking Taft­ would "teach a lesson" to the miners. itant and democratic union movement. Hartley was a model of duplicity and Yet no Democratic or Republican Such a party would be a powerful politician-whether they support Taft­ weapon for exposing the government's Hartley or seizure of the mines-has divisive schemes and uniting the work­ ever suggested that the solution to the ing class in defense of the miners. Candidates "crisis" is for the coal operators to Unlike the Democrats and Republi­ accept the miners: terms. They all cans, a labor party would vigorously tour coalfields agree that the miners must go back on oppose all restrictions on union power Fred Halstead, Socialist Workers the operators' terms. and the right to strike. Party candidate for governor of A labor party would help press for­ California, flew to Morgantown, Real issues ward the fight for free medical care, West Virginia, immediately after Carter solemnly warns that he will genuine social security, job safety-for Carter announced he would seek a not tolerate "any more liberal and all working people-as well as for jobs, Taft-Hartley injunction against the inflationary wage settlement." But shorter hours, an end to racial and miners. wages have never been a major issue sexual discrimination, and other de­ Halstead will tour the coalfields, in the strike! mands. talk to miners, and bring their side In order to portray the miners as It would fight to replace the present of the story back to the working greedy and irresponsible, Carter is government of a rich minority with a people of California. covering. up the real issues. What are democratic government of the workers. Miguel Pendas, SWP candidate they? Today the battleline in defending the for U.S. Senate from Texas, is also • Right to health care: The opera­ rights of all working people is the coal in Morgantown to help provide the tors insist on destroying the compre­ miners' strike. Up against ruling-class Militant with on-the-spot reports hensive free health-care system the violence and trickery, they need the from the coalfields. miners won more than thirty years broadest possible support. ago. By substituting commercial insu- break coal strike. Unite to defend the miners!

6 600 at labor rallY.. Baltimore unions: 'Proud of the miners~ By Andrea Morell was sponsored by six USWA locals as BALTIMORE-More than 600 peo­ well as locals of the Transit Workers, ple attended a broadly sponsored Machinists, Communications Workers, trade-union rally here March 5 to ex­ Teachers, Longshoremen, Auto press their support for striking mine Workers, Shipbuilders, and other workers. unions. The rally was held amidst reports The rally was also endorsed by the that the coal miners were voting over­ AFL-CIO Central Labor Council and whelmingly against the companies' the student council of Johns Hopkins . proposed settlement and that President University. Carter was preparing federal action to The meeting was chaired by Dave force the miners back to work. Wilson, president of USWA Local 2610 "We've been asked how 160,000 coal at Bethlehem Steel's giant Sparrows miners can hold the country hostage," Point plant. Charles Parker, a striking miner from This show of solidarity initiated by Harlan County, Kentucky, told the the Steelworkers union was a powerful crowd. "It's not us that's holding the repudiation of attempts by steel com­ country hostage. It's the companies." panies here to blame layoffs on the The audience roared its approval. coal miners. Bethlehem Steel laid off Baltimore rally was initiated by Steelworkers union Militant/Kathy Whitley Hand-lettered signs waved that ·read, 500 workers from Sparrows Point in "Victory to the miners!" and, "We are February, giving the miners' strike as proud of the miners!" the reason. ting you out of work. Bethlehem is," Sam Church, UMW A vice-president, Held at Steelworkers Hall, the rally "It's a lie that coal miners are put- said Dave Lamb, a striking miner from spoke out against the threat of a Taft­ West Virginia. Lamb works in a mine Hartley injunction and called for con­ owned by Bethlehem Steel. tinued negotiations with the coal oper­ "Bethlehem has set up a system to ators. try to divide workers. We can't let them Church, evidently responding to the do this," he urged, and was answered militant mood of the rally as well as to with sustained applause. the overwhelming rejection of the con­ Support to the right to strike was a tract by the UMW A ranks, did not try central theme at the gathering. Citing to defend the pact even though he had government pressure to force the min­ urged its ratification. ers to accept the contract and go back Two Democratic representatives, to work, Dave Wilson said, "When we Parren Mitchell and Clarence Long, started, I was worried about the kind voiced support for the mine;rs at the of democracy that says, 'You've got the rally. But neither gave any sign of right to vote, but you have to vote my opposing plans for federal intervention way.' Maybe we've answered that to­ to forcibly end the strike. day." Kenneth Yablonski, an attorney and The dominant theme of the day's son of slain UMW A reform leader event was the need for united labor Joseph Yablonski, appealed for funds action in the face of the employer­ for. the strikers and their families. government offensive against all work­ "It's a serious problem for you too," ing people. Yablonski said. "If they do it to the "There is a movement in this coun­ mine workers, don't think the steel­ try to destroy organized labor, begin­ workers or the auto workers are too ning with coal miners," Wilson de­ big." clared in his opening remarks. "And Rally participants responded with that is why we are here today." donations totaling just under $2,000. One hundred fifty striking farmers from Missouri, traveling In a car caravan, Charles Parker told the rally, "We're Funds will be used to buy food and donated food collected from a dozen states to striking miners In Central City, up against the coal companies, oil other supplies, which will be driven by Kentucky. Coal miners cheered the show of solidarity. 'It's all labor organizing, companies, the U.S. government, and car caravan to Martinsburg, West Vir­ and we need to support each other,' said one miner. 'If we don't get united, all the state government. They're united ginia, on March 12. The car caravan is of us are going to be out of it pretty soon.' against us. We've got to unite so we part of a continuing solidarity cam­ can gain something." paign projected by rally organizers.

Big NY support meetings ·t.ebOr' Solidarity eVentS- By Rebecca Finch sive against the UMWA with the city administration's attacks on city · Chicago; Beesie.Ii>t Bari~r~ amem~r ofthe UMWAand JheBtooktlide NEW YORK-"New York says: we W~eits (llu~ in Har1tm Co:ooty, KentuCky, swke at Steelworker& l4al support the mine workers." This was workers. Speaking with Markey were Ruby S(>'s ··''South A!rle~ Night". february 25. She called for active union. . the theme of two big solidarity rallies sOlidarity :with the' miners' and received an enthusiastic resporure. ' ' ' held here during the first week of Jones, president of the New York City . • Oil· S~ay, 'March. 5, ~re ..than 200 workers attended a mineu• · March. Coalition of Labor Union Women and Michael Weber of the New York Mine support tneeting 8POnsoNd by .USWA Local 1010 at Inl8nd,.$teet· Saftt · Fourteen hundred people attended a ·Farley,. a miner ftotn UMWA District 29, spoke. · · meeting on March 1 sponsored by the Workers Support Committee. New York Committee to Support the Also scheduled to speak, but unable Mine Workers. Endorsed by several to attend because of the snowstorm, '"Plttsbu,gh: On Februar;.. 23local labor'leadeu held a neW~ CQnf~ce ' local union officials and Teamsters were Ken Tucker and Joe J urscak, to expre$S supwrt for the· UMWA and to condemn employer attelnptS to :, · locals 840 and 1518, the rally featured international representatives of the blatne area layoffs on the striking miners. .. ,. · · . · · , · songs by Barbara Dane, Pete Seeger, UMWA, and a striking miner from Jim Comer, pre&ideil.t of USWA Lqcal1272 at Jones & Laughlin Steel's, ·. · ·· and Hazel Dickens. Steams, Kentucky. Southside wt>rks, charged the steel companies with lying about' ~ real, Speakers included Henry Foner, A phone message from Tucker, a cause of the layoffs,.· "J& Lis Just ~ing th~ strike as an ex~ to aaV. · president of the Fur, Leather, and miner for thirty years, was read to the mon~~., he .sai~. ,. Machine Workers; Jose Soler, member rally. He described the working condi­ of the U.S. Trade Union Committee tions that make mines the number-one Detroit: United Auto Workers Locall40 :wni.~how th"e :tunf llariiut' · Against Repression in Puerto Rico; industrial killer in the U.S. County, U.S.A. on Sunday; ~ 19; at the local's hall in V~1 and Jim Hepe, a member of United "I have worked in mines where the ·Michigan. · '. .. . . • ' ' ·' ·' ·< .• ' • ·; : ' ,, . ~;. ..•. ·· ... Mine Workers Local 1441 in Ohio. coal seam is twenty-eight inches high "Let them impose Taft-Hartley," . . . and you were in a prone position ·Milwaukee: A.min~r&· ~upwrt meeting has··been .called fo~ Sundai. · most of the eight hours that you Hepe said. "Taft can mine the coal and March ,19, at ~ p.m; at the American Federation of State; CoUiltY worked. and" Hartley can haul it, and we'll see how . Municip8.1 Emplo;vees District Council 48 headquarters~ Tbirty·fifth and .. "And I have worked on the surface far they get." St•. :Paql. Spealring \Vill be Jatne$ Bernhard, DlinoiS Miners Intemational . On March 3 some 300 people braved in coal tipples,. where the coal dust is · Relief Fun~t ·· · ·· · · · ··· · ·· a snowstorm to attend a strike support just as bad," he added. "At times you couldn't see the man across from you, rally featuring the film Harlan Bos.ton:. tabO~· and Black leader&. and organizations al'e sponsoring. a County, U.S.A. even though he was only four feet away." "Salute to the.Miners,' rally on. March 12, 2 p.tn•• Eleetrical Workers Hall, The rally was initiated by members .256 Freeport Street. Dorcester, Massachusetts. Chip Yablonski is the of the New York Central Labor Council Every safety provision protecting featured speaker. and was endorsed by local union and miners today was won through hard Black leaders. struggle, Tucker said. "They've never Kanus City: UAW Local 31 adopted a resolution in supp~rt of the Ray Markey, a leader of American given us a thing. We had to fight for striking miners. Five thousand copies of the resolution were distributed at Federation of State, County and Mu­ everything we've got. And now that plant gates, and $1,800 ·was collected in donations. nicipal Employees Local 1930, com­ we've got it, we've got to fight to keep pared the employer-government offen- it."

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 7 Taft-Hartley: what it is and how to fight it By Nancy Cole tioning. It outlawed the closed shop, ment of a "fact finding" board to protest the impending Taft-Hartley In invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, made secondary boycotts and jurisdic­ inquire into any strike judged to affect Act. With its final passage on June 23, President Carter dusted off the most tional strikes illegal, prohibited strikes "national health and safety." 212,000 coal miners struck. "Let the hated antilabor weapon in the govern­ by federal employees, required union After the board issues its report, the senators dig the coal," the miners ment's arsenal. Since its enactment in officers to sign anti-Communist oaths, president can ask for a court injunc­ declared in the contract battle that 1947, Taft-Hartley has earned a reputa­ and prohibited union contributions to tion to order the strikers back to work followed. tion as the "slave-labor bill." political campaigns. under the terms of the previous con­ Despite the massive labor sentiment The act's sponsors mape no bones The strikebreaking clause set in mo­ tract for an eighty-day "cooling off' for militant action to fight Taft­ about their antiunion intentions. They tion by Carter provides for the appoint- period. Hartley, the top AFL and CIO officials described the act, according to the New Federal mediators are instructed to opted for petitions and postcards as York Times, as "a measure to redress come up with a settlement in the first the way to protest. the balance of industrial power that sixty days. If the dispute isn't settled For thirty-one years the union bu­ had shifted to labor under the Wagner during that period, the next fifteen reaucrats have told workers to rely_ on Act, which had set out rules against days are used to conduct a secret ballot "friends of labor" in the Democratic unfair acts by employers." on the industry's "final offer." and Republican parties to repeal the In fact, the bill marked an attempted If that is rejected by the union, slave-labor bill. They're still waiting. return to strikebreaking by govern­ Congress has five days in which to President Truman was one such ment injunction, which had been re­ take action. If it doesn't, the strike is "friend." Although he had called for stricted by the Norris-LaGuardia Anti­ supposedly free to resume. passage of antiunion laws similar to Injunction Act of 1932. The final step, of course, is never the worst provisions in Taft-Hartley, Passage of Taft Hartley followed a intended to come about. he claimed to oppose the act. He even wave of powerful strikes that erupted With fine impartiality, Carter de­ vetoed it, secure in the knowledgethat right after World War II. The new bill clared that Taft-Hartley would require Congress would override his veto. Thus was part of the government's attempt. "the miners to return to work and the the Republicans took responsibility for to roll back the labor upsurge and mineowners to place the mines back the antiunion measure. strangle the unions in a web of legal into production." Truman didn't hesitate, however, to restrictions. In other words, the coal bosses are use Taft-Hartley once it was passed. Using Taft-Hartley, the ruling rich "required" to get just what they Twice during 1948 and once during made a direct attack on the right to want-resumption of production and 1950 miners stood up to Truman's strike. Without this right, none of the the replenishing of stockpiles. Mean­ strikebreaking and defied Taft-Hartley gains won by labor in the industrial while, the miners lose their power to injunctions. Each time the miners' union battles of the 1930s could be force the industry to grant their con­ determination paid off, and they won secure. tract demands. substantial contract gains. In addition to the clause providing Thirty-one years ago, on April 24, Once again, coal miners can show for back-to-work orders-which Carter There was massive sentiment in the 1947, half a million workers in Detroit the coal industry and the capitalist is now using against the miners-the ranks of labor for militant action against walked out of the plants and nearly politicians: Taft-Hartley can't mine bill also restricted other union func- Taft-Hartley. 300,000 rallied in Cadillac Square to coal. Only coal miners can.

Gov't seizure: would it help the miners? By David Frankel Reports from the coalfields indicate simply that the government is not on vember 24, 1948, New York Times that Would government seizure of the that many miners believe government the miners' side. described the way government seizure coal mines be a step forward in the seizure would be to their advantage. worked under President Truman. One reason cited for this is that miners After all, Carter endorsed the bosses' "American flags were hoisted over battle of the United Mine Workers for a contract terms and tried to intimidate decent contract? won gains in the 1940s when the the tipples; officials of the mining government took over the mines. the miners into accepting them. He has companies were designated as Govern­ Tom Morris, safety chairman of never had one word to say in support UMWA Local340 in Ward, West Virgi­ But to portray the UMWA's victories ment officers in charge of the mines of the miners' demands or condemning and mining areas. These were the only nia, 'doesn't think so. "Government as the result of government seizure of the coal operators' greed. seizure is just· Taft-Hartley with the the mines is to misread history. The signs of Government rule." flag wrapped around it," he says. miners never won a thing-not from In addition, miners can look at the Carter is trying to project an impar­ But the big-business news media are the coal operators and not from the government's previous record. Never tial image in the current strike. He pushing a different view. As an article government-that they didn't fight for once has it tried to force the mine­ would be a fool not to. But the fact in the Wall Street Journal put it, gov­ and win through their own strength. owners to open their books to the remains that government seizure of the ernment seizure of the mines "would union. In his history of the CIO, Art mines would have one purpose, and In 1943, for example, President Preis quotes a dispatch in the No- one purpose only: to break the strike. be seen as punishing the coal opera­ Roosevelt seized the mines on May 1- tors" while "rewarding the miners." the same day the miners went on The February 21 Louisville Courier­ strike. Roosevelt went on radio to Journal went so far as to say, "To get attack the miners. He threatened to the UMW members to return to work, send the army to the coalfields and to the government presumably would draft miners. He threatened to jail have to offer them what they have Lewis and break the UMWA with .Reading on been asking of the coal companies." fines. But the threats were to no avail. If that were the case, seizure would obviously benefit the miners. But It was not until November 1-six would it? months after he seized the mines, and Administration officials have been after trying every trick in the book to miners' history talking about a scheme under which break a series of mine strikes-that miners would return to work under the Roosevelt authorized his underlings to 1974 contract, perhaps wit.h a pay negotiate a contract with the UMW A. The role of the United increase as a sweetner. Then, with the Another argument that is heard in Mine Workers Union in miners' power weakened and with the coalfields is that if the government stockpiles of coal being built up once takes over the mines it will open the the labor upsurges of again, a government-appointed panel books of the coal operators, and this the 1930s and 1940s. would presumably "study" the dis­ will demonstrate the justice of the puted issues and come up with a con­ UMWA's demands. tract proposal some months later. The coal operators should indeed be Includes the UMWA And if such a contract is essentially forced to open their books-regardless the same as the one already endorsed of whether the government seizes the strike during World War by Carter and rejected by the ranks of mines. II, and how the miners the UMW A, the miners would be left behind the· eight ball. Miners have a right to know exactly won. In short, seizure would be a way of how much blood money the owners getting the miners back to work with make by refusing to install adequate no guarantee that their demands will safety equipment, by cutting corners be met. on safety procedures, by speedup, and Nevertheless, many top union offi­ by all their other devices for increasing By Art Preis cials have been pushing seizure as a profits at the expense of miners' lives. 538 pp., $6.95 paper "solution" to the strike. United Auto But the coal operators are jealous of Workers President Douglas Fraser on their secrets. These can only be pried March 6 called on Carter to introduce open by the UMWA itself raising this Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 emergency legislation "permitting a demand and forcing compliance. West Street, New York, New York government takeover of the mines with To rely on the goodwill of the govern­ 10014. an immediate return to work and a ment to do this-or anything else­ resumption of bargaining." would be self-defeating. The reason is

8 Union, cam~us leaders condemn violence Maoist thugs assault miners support rally By Rick Berman miners and raise funds for strikers and University Feminists chaired. HOUSTON-On Friday, March 3, pensioners. Miller and Burdiss of the UMW A club-swinging thugs led by the Revolu­ Ten minutes before the meeting was staff explained the demands of the tionary Communist Party (RCP), a to begin, about forty supporters of the miners and denounced the union­ Maoist sect, assaulted and tried unsuc­ local chapter of the Iranian Student busting drive carried out by the coal cessfully to break up a miners' solidar­ Association-U.S. gathered in front of operators. ity meeting here. the entrance to the meeting room. They described the hazardous work­ Several union activists attending the ISAU.S. is a Maoist-Stalinist sect ing conditions in the mines, the prob­ meeting were injured, including Tom with views similar to those of the RCP. lems of pensioners and miners' wid­ Leonard, a local steelworker, who lost It is part of a national ISA faction ows, and the need for solidarity with four teeth. called "For the Reconstruction of a the strikers. Organizers of the meeting have Single Student Movement." Burdiss pointed to the right of the launched an emergency campaign to Upstairs in the same building, about rank-and-file miners to vote on their publicize this goon attack and win a dozen RCP members met, unfurled contracts as "the great strength of our wide condemnation of such antilabor two banners with inscriptions of their union." violence. "United Workers Organizing Commit­ A collection was taken for the tee," and marched noisily downstairs Daily Cougar UMW A Relief Fund and the Stearns The March 3 meeting was sponsored to the meeting room. It took four stitches to close the head Relief Fund. by the University of Houston Ad Hoc wound Maoist goons inflicted on John Earlier in the day, Burdiss attended Committee to Support the Mineworkers Meeting blocked Sarge, Houston steelworker. a statewide AFL-CIO Political Educa­ Strike. Sponsors included professors, Outside the room they formed a tion Conference, where he approached student government officers, Chicano carefully arranged semicircle blocking Texas labor leaders for support for the and feminist leaders, as well as leaders the entrance. A front ring of RCP member of the Oilers' and Firemen's strike. of the Democratic Socialist Organizing members was backed by approxi­ unwn. In addition, a morning news confer­ Committee and Young Socialist Al­ mately forty ISAU.S. supporters. Tom Leonard, a steelworker and a ence for the UMWA staff members was liance. Although some individuals who union militant for more than thirty covered by the three local TV network The solidarity meeting was part of a wanted to attend the meeting were years, was a special target. Last year affiliates and several radio stations. tour by two United Mine Workers staff turned away by the crowd in front of Leonard was fired from his job at members, Mike Burdiss and Mat the door, about sixty people had al­ Hydril, an oil tool company, as a result Protest violence Miller, to help win support for striking ready managed to enter the room. of his union activity. He received a The next day, viewers of the evening RCP leaders W. W. Pietzch and Joe blow in the mouth that knocked out news learned of the attack against the Sullivan led chants as the Maoists four teeth. support meeting and saw the bruised pumped their fists up and down. Hi­ Diane Sarge, a steelworker at face of John Sarge on their TV screens. ram Berry, an RCP leader, brandished UMWA Hughes Tool and the Socialist Workers Sarge was part of an emergency news~ a knife. Party candidate for mayor of Houston conference held to protest the RCP-led After about ten minutes, Sullivan last fall, was beaten in the face. attack. statement stopped the chanting and tried to whip These four together with Phil Hardy, Dr. George Morgan, Jr., a University The following is a statement up his thugs with a speech denouncing an office worker, and Cynthia Slade, a of Houston professor, released a state­ by Mike Burdiss and Matt the proposed miners' contract and carpenter, had to be rushed to a hospi­ ment condemning the assault. The Miller of the UMW A staff-who UMW A President Arnold Miller. tal for medical attention. Hardy had statement was signed by forty-five spoke at the Houston strike Sullivan called on the crowd to "get" been beaten so severely that one rib people who attended the previous support rally-about the March Paul Fortney. Fortney is the UMWA was separated from the cartilage, a night's meeting and witnessed the at­ 3 attack: press secretary and was scheduled to painful injury that will take weeks to tack. Last night, March 3, a group of speak. He was unable to come to Hous­ heal. "We condemn this violence," the thugs led by the Revolutionary ton, however, and Miller and Burdiss As the monitors regrouped, the cam­ statement read.· "This attack was not Communist Youth Brigade, spoke in his place. pus police began to arrive, and the only an attack on this meeting. It was National United Workers Organi­ Pietzch started to chant, "We want thugs ran off, leaving their blood­ not only an attack on the democratic zation, and the Iranian Student Fortney, We want Fortney." stained clubs broken and splintered on right of the UMW A to speak, and on Association (US) used physical the floor. our right to hear what they had to say. force and violence in an unsuccess­ Assault begins It was also a direct attack on the more ful attempt to break up a meeting Twelve monitors recruited by the Solidarity meeting than 160,000 striking miners who are at the University of Houston. The meeting organizers stood in the en­ After the attack, the solidarity meet­ trying to gain public support for their meeting was sponsored by an ad tranceway to usher the few latecomers ing proceeded. As the meeting went on strike." hoc group of students and profes­ who pushed through the knot of Mao­ the self-confidence and enthusiasm of UMW A staff members Miller and sors to support our union, the Uni­ ists into the meeting. the audience built up quickly. Burdiss were unable to be present at Regina Dotson, president of UH ted Mine Workers of America. As the chants of the disrupters be­ Continued on page 19 The coal operators have forced came more threatening, the monitors more than 160,000 members of our reentered the meeting room with the union out on strike for nearly three intention of locking the door against months, trying to break us. The the RCP thugs. vicious goons who attacked the Sullivan then lunged at the moni­ meeting last night must have given tors. A gang of RCP members and SWP candidate denounces the operators a small shot in the their Iranian friends joined in, trying arm. to bust into the room and attack the antilabor assault The attack was also ai~ed at the UMWA representatives. HOUSTON-Deborah Vernier agent-provocateurs of the bosses and democratic right of all to express was one of the monitors who helped the government, who welcome any their ideas and peacefully assem­ Wooden poles supporting the Mao­ ists' banners were ripped from their defend the University of Houston chance to divide and discredit the ble. Its objective was to intimidate miners support meeting from the workers movement. and terrorize people to prevent cloth and used as clubs by the RCP goons. They also ripped two heavy RCP-led attack. "The Socialist Workers Party," them from exercising their rights. Vernier is a steelworker. She is Vernier went on , "unlike the Maoist­ We cannot stress enough the flagpoles from their floorstands and used them as weapons. In the course of also the Socialist Workers Party Stalinist Revolutionary Communist seriousness of this assault. The the melee most of these were broken candidate for U.S. Congress, Eight­ Party, is thoroughly committed to attack represented the type of tac­ eenth C.D. the fight for union democracy. tics our union has repudiated in our over the heads, backs, and shoulders of monitors. On Saturday, March 4, the day "We will be working with the own ranks since we have won the after the RCP assault, seventy-five University of Houston miners sup­ right of our members to democrati­ The attackers also used metal furni­ people gathered at the Painters port committee to let the whole labor cally vote on their contracts. ture from an adjoining lounge. Union Hall to launch Vernier's cam­ movement know about the RCP's We call on our brothers and After a few minutes it was clear that paign and the campaign of the other hooligan attack. That's the best way sisters in the labor movement to the monitors were holding firm and Socialist Workers Party candidates to prevent similar attacks from oc­ uphold our best democratic tradi­ would block the assault from entering in the Houston area. curring again." tions. Join us in condemning this the room. So the Maoists tried to pick In addition to Vernier, speakers thoroughly inexcusable act. out special targets among the monitors included SWP gubernatorial candi­ and drag them away from the doorway date Sara Jean Johnston, senatorial for a beating. candidate Miguel Pendas, and rail­ road commissioner candidate Jana Unionists beaten Pellusch. John Sarge, a member of United In her remarks, Vernier scored the Steelworkers Local 1742 at Hughes use of violence in the labor move­ Tool, was separated from the other ment as a "malignant cancer." monitors and pummeled by a dozen "It must be isolated," she said. "If Maoists. it spreads, it destroys the greatest A squad of ten monitors was dis­ potential strength of the labor patched from a rear entrance to rescue movement-union democracy, the Sarge. Only their quick action pro-. control of the rank and file over the tected him from more serious injury. union. Four stitches were required to close a "In addition, the use of violence wound on the back of Sarge's head. provides a golden opportunity for DEBORAH VERNIER MIKE BURDISS A group of thugs also worked over Pat O'Reilly, a railroad worker and

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 9 Socialist candidate Halstead: ~A victory for miners is a victory for Calif. workers' By Harry Ring LOS ANGELES-"There are no coal deposits to speak of in California, but one of the first things I want to talk about in this campaign is the coal miners' strike," said Fred Halstead, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor here, in a recent Militant interview. "It's the most important thing going on in this country today from the point of view of working people in California." Halstead, a veteran trade unionist and a leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement, announced his campaign in late January. "When I saw those miners standing up and reject­ ing the contract the coal operators and the govern­ ment were trying to stuff down their throats, I felt myself cheering inside. At last, a powerful section of American labor is making a real fight against the attacks big business and its politicians are carrying out against the American people." Not one of Halstead's opponents in this cam­ paign, from Democratic Gov. Edmund "Jerry" Brown to the five Republican candidates, has said a Militant/A! Twiss word in support of the miners. Protesters at California nuclear plant last summer. 'Energy monopolies put their profits ahead of the very existence Halstead's campaign supporters up and down the of humanity, just as they put profits above the safety and lives of coal miners,' Halstead says. state have been involved through their unions, on the campuses, and in community organizations in building support rallies for the miners. school desegregation. Los Angeles, for instance, has smog problem until they got rid of the good transit What the miners are fighting, Halstead ex­ one of the most segregated school systems in the system we once had here and gave us the freeways plained, is the same thing other working people are entire country. In a number of California cities instead. fighting-the offensive against their rights and efforts are under way to desegregate the schools "General Motors, Firestone Tire and Rubber, and standard of living. "A victory for the miners will be through busing. Standard Oil set up a holding company, bought up a victory for working people here in this state, and Because it is essential to desegregation, Halstead the transit system, put it out of business, and forced that's what I tell my audiences wherever I speak." explained, busing has become the target of the everyone into an automobile as a necessity just to racists. get to work. 'Small is beautiful'? "They say they're just against busing, not dese­ "We need a mass, public, nonpolluting transit "The link isn't hard to see if you look at what gregation," he observed. "That's bunk. If you're system. Governor Brown has done to us in California," against busing, you're for segregation, because "But the auto corporations, the oil companies, the Halstead said. busing is the only practical way to desegregate." banks, they just don't give a damn if the kids in "Now Brown comes on as a 'small is beautiful' "Another thing," he continued, "is the game East Los Angeles have lead in their blood as the guru. He spends his time telling everyone that we they've been playing to try to promote antibusing result of all this. It's the same callous approach the have to learn to expect less. sentiment among Chicanos with the phony argu­ coal companies take to miners' safety. They're "We're living too extravagantly, Brown says, and ment that bilingual education will suffer." concerned with making profits-period. we all have to learn to tighten our belts. But what "I'm constantly enraged," he added, "to get up in he really means is that working people have to Two-thirds left out the morning and look in vain for the mountains tighten our belts, while the rich continue to live it "That's a joke. In L.A., for example, the truth is that I used to see every day when I was a kid here up. that a good two-thirds of the children who don't and realize they're blanketed by smog. To me it's "Brown's belt tightening comes down to axing speak English don't have any bilingual program. important to be able to look at those mountains." things like funds for college remedial English. Or he An effective bilingual, bicultural program is needed, Halstead said the question of nuclear power issues new regulations for people on Medicaid: no and there's no reason in the world why it can't be plants in California is another case in point. "The more dentures unless you need them for a job or to d_one in a desegregated school system. It's fake to problem of accumulating radioactive wastes­ chew food that's needed for an illness! say it's one or the other." which remain deadly for thousands of years-has "And he doesn't just go after old people. This Halstead said another important problem for the not been solved. This threatens the very future of skinflint guru has even eliminated dental fluoride Chicano and mexicano community is President the human race. treatment for children." Carter's deportation plan. "But the energy monopolies go right on building One of the key issues in the SWP campaign, "It's designed," Halstead said, "to step up the these plants. They put their own profits for the next Halstead said, is the Bakke decision. "We're going deportations, to divide workers and the Spanish­ twenty years ahead of the very existence of human­ to make it clear," he declared, "that affirmative­ speaking community itself. The idea is to build up ity, just as they put profits above the safety. and action programs-yes, quotas-are necessary and a hysteria to blame the immigrants for unemploy­ lives of coal miners. vital to achieve racial and sexual equality. ment. "The problem of developing alternative sources of "The racists shed a lot of tears about Allan Bakke "That's bull. During the thirties, when there was energy cannot be solved by private corporations. It being denied admission to medical school. But the huge unemployment, there was far less immigration requires a planned economy, one run by and for U.S. census figures show there are proportionately ' than now and a lot of emigration back to Mexico. working people. fewer Black doctors today than in the 1940s. During the Second World War, there was heavy "And only working people ourselves can bring "One thing .we're doing in this campaign," Hal­ immigration here and virtually no unemployment. about that kind of society." stead added, "is to· help build support for the spring The two have nothing to do with each other. Independent political power actions called to reverse the Bakke decision. We're Capitalism, not immigrants, causes unemployment. explaining how affirmative-action gains have been "The miners' strike gives an idea of what workers a step forward for all working people, and that if we "One deportation we're going to be fighting in united in our own interests-independent of the two lose them, the labor movement as a whole will be this campaign," Halstead said, "is the one they're parties of big business-can do," said Halstead. "It weakened." trying to get away with against Hector Marroquin, shows the power we really have. Another important campaign issue, he said, is a member of the Socialist Workers Party and the "That power can do more than strike an indus­ Young Socialist Alliance. They want to send him try or stave off cutbacks. And it will have to do back to Mexico to face jail and maybe worse more-because the everyday struggles of working because he's a socialist and because the Mexican people today rapidly come up against the political government has laid frame-up charges on him. And power of big business, wielded through the capital­ we will block that." ists' two parties, the Democrats and Republicans. Another issue felt deeply in the Chicano and "The miners are seeing this happen right now Black communities here is forced sterilization. with the Carter administration's strikebreaking. Up "Thousands of women in this state have been against the combined powers of the White House, sterilized against their will," said Halstead. "My Congress, and the courts, the miners have no party campaign stands 100 percent behind the right of of their own to turn to. each woman to decide for herself-whether she "But the power of the working class can be wants to have children, whether she wants an organized politically. It can be united in an indepen­ abortion. No politician, no hospital, and no welfare dent labor party-based on the unions, the miners, office has the right to control women's bodies." steelworkers, auto workers, farm workers, and oth­ ers. Such a party would not be controlled by big Pollution business, but would be a party organized to fight for Halstead turned to a problem that gets him the interests of working people, for an end to race particularly incensed-California's deadly pollu­ and sex discrimination, for a decent life for every­ tion. one in this society. "This is one of the great evils California suffers "We socialists believe there are many working as the result of the power of the ruling rich," he people today searching for that kind of political said. alternative and for a society that places human FRED HALSTEAD Militant/Della Rossa "Take L.A.," he continued. "We didn't have a needs above profits."

10 Protest in Nashville· March 18 Growing support for antiapartheid action By Maceo Dixon draw their investments in South NASHVILLE, Tenn.-At a well­ Africa." attended news conference March 2, the The NAACP is placing ads in Black NAACP announced growing support newspapers across the country to help for the March Against Racism in publicize the march. It has also put out South Africa scheduled here for March an attractive button and bumper 18. sticker. The demonstration has been called Speakers at the rally will include to protest the South Africa-U.S. Davis NAACP Executive Secretary Ben­ Cup tennis match in Nashville and the jamin Hooks, national board members, complicity of Vanderbilt University, and well-known celebrities. which is hosting the event. Osborne Hart, a spokesperson for the Gordon Brown, president of the National Student Coalition Against Nashville NAACP Young Adult Coun­ Racism (NSCAR), was also a partici­ cil, opened the news conference saying, pant in the news conference. He ex­ "The NAACP will lead a mass demon­ plained to the Militant the importance stration and march beginning 12:00 of the march and NSCAR's support for noon, Saturday, March 18, fro.m the it. state capitol to Centennial Park. "Since the June 16, 1976, Black "The organization will hold a peace­ rebellion in Soweto, South Africa," ful and orderly march and demonstra­ Hart said, "NSCAR has seen the fight tion, not only to protest South Africa's for Black freedom and majority rule in participation in the Davis Cup, but to South Africa as one of our major educate and make the public aware of campaigns. We are also demanding the vicious apartheid system of racial Militant/Maceo Dixon that all the political prisoners be freed segregation and oppression of Blacks NAACP news conference in Nashville announces student support for March Against and that the U.S. government get out in South Africa." Racism in South Africa. of that country now! According to Brown, "A significant "NSCAR," Hart continued, "has number of students. from NAACP seen as one of its major tasks to help Youth Councils, college chapters, and versities across the country are ex­ porate interest in South Africa." The expose the U.S. government's role in student groups from colleges and uni- pected to come to Nashville on March U.S. government, universities, and cor­ maintaining racism in South Africa. 18 and join the students here in mas­ porations help perpetuate South Afri­ The Davis Cup should be seen in this sive support of the demonstration." can racism, he said, and must also be a light. These tennis matches could only Black students from Fisk University, focus of the antiapartheid struggle. be held with the complicity of the Tennessee State, and other campuses Kimbrough exposed the university's Carter administration and Vanderbilt YSAteam in the area were present at the news false argument that it must continue to University. In essence, they're both The Young Socialist Alliance has conference. The NAACP reported that sponsor the games on the campus to supporting apartheid. They're both fielded a four-person team to tour students are also coming to the action uphold the ideals of "free speech" and supporting these segregated teams." Black campuses in the South lead­ from New Orleans, Louisville, and the an "open forum." The very act of Hart explained that he was in Nash­ ing up to the March 17-19 antiapar­ Atlanta University complex. sponsoring the games, he explained, ville to work with the NAACP on theid protests in Nashville. The Busloads of participants from a shows the complicity of the university building student support for the four will help build support for the southeast regional NAACP conference with racism in South Africa. "As most march. He reported that SCAR chap­ protests and sell the Young Social· in Chattanooga are also expected to people know, Vanderbilt University is ters across the country are trying to ist and the Militant. join in the March 18 action. a racist university and has a history of get as many people as possible to come being opposed to Black rights," said to Nashville or to hold solidarity activ­ Team members are Melvin Chap­ Janice Johnson, the youth coordina­ Kimbrough. ities in their cities. pell, Shirley Smith, Sidney Hunter, tor of the NAACP for the Southeast Johnson added, "We will be mobiliz­ Hart said students will also be par­ and Rick Young. region and a national staff representa­ ticipating in protest activities in Nash­ tive, also spoke on the importance of ing people to put pressure on our ville scheduled for March 17 and 19. The team will visit North Caro­ young people. "During the Vietnam government to change its policy on These activities ar.e being organized by lina A & T University, North Caro­ War, during the 1960s, and during the South Africa." the Tennessee Coalition Against Apar­ lina Central University, University civil rights movement, students played "Students have been organized not theid. of Alabama (Birmingham), Ala­ a key role. Now students must play a only to participate in the March 18 For more information on the March bama State, Tuskegee Institute, key role around this issue," she said. Jackson State University, Ken­ demonstrations," Brown said. "They 18 action and to obtain bumper tucky State University, and South­ The president of the Nashville will petition, write letters and lobby stickers and buttons, call or write to ern University. NAACP, Dr. Kimbrough, explained, with their elected officials to act forci­ the Nashville NAACP, 1308 Jefferson "We have to challenge Vanderbilt Uni­ bly against apartheid and to influence Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee. Tele­ versity from the standpoint of its cor- United States corporations to with- phone: (615) 320-0235 or 329-0999.

Atlanta rally hears Wilmington Ten defendant By Don Davis Julian Bond; Myrian Richmond, American Law Students Association at the demand that the Wilmington Ten ATLANTA-North Carolina Gov. news director for WALK radio; and Emory University. be freed on President Carter. Demon­ James Hunt's refusal to give pardons Eidson McGhee, president of the strators will gather at noon at the of innocence to the Wilmington Ten NAACP chapter at the Atlanta peni­ A demonstration will be held in Ellipse between the White House and has sparked new support for the frame­ tentiary, all sent greetings. Washington, D.C., March 18 to focus the Washington Monument. up victims, defendant Anne Sheppard McGhee's greetings said, "The Wil­ Turner told a rally held here March 2. mington Ten case epitomizes Ameri­ "People are outraged. People want to ca's current and long-standing sense of take to the streets. There have been justice and fair play when it comes to eight new defense committees formed dealing with Black people. But more SPECIAL SALE in North Carolina within two weeks importantly the struggle that the Wil­ CLOTH EDITION SOLD AT $20.00, NOW $3.95 after the governor's speech," she told mington Ten have engendered in their seventy-five people at an Atlanta Uni­ determination not to be buried alive EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION TO TROTSKYISM versity rally held to demand the nine exemplifies that some of us still have defendants still in prison be freed. the will to be free." Before beginning her speech, Turner THE Rev. Fred Taylor, director of chap­ announced that Imani (Johnny Har­ ters and affiliates of the Southern ris), a Black Alabama prisoner, is CASE Christian Leadership Conference, told scheduled to be executed March 10 for the rally that this case showed Ameri­ his part in a prison rebellion. She OF can justice is no more color-blind today appealed for support to save his life. than it was when he was growing up The frame-up of the Wilmington Ten, LEON in Alabama. Turner said, was intended 'both to TROTSKY "The only difference," he said, "is crush the growing Black student move­ that it's subtle, it's sophisticated, it's ment in Wilmington and to discredit under the table." an emerging 'Black leader, Rev. Ben Trotsky's complete testimony before the 1937 Commission of Inquiry chaired Howlie Davis, president of the Chavis. by philosopher John Dewey. " ... A virtual treasury of information about Atlanta University Center Student Were it not for the international Trotsky's political and personal life, his ideas, and the critical events in Council, which cosponsored the event attention focused on the case, she said, which he participated"-Choice, March 1969. 617 pages. with the Atlanta Student Coalition "Ben Chavis wouldn't be alive today." Available from Pathfinder Press Against Racism, called the Wilming­ During her three-day stay in 410 West Street, New York, New York 10014 ton Ten case a prime example that Atlanta, Turner also spoke at Georgia "things are not ~ght with America." State University and to the Black

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 11 Issues in French election Working-class unity vs. alliance with capitalists

French workers protest government austerity plan

By David Frankel talist parties and the system they re­ governmental power in the interests of thing to do with the Union of the Left and Peter Seidman present. the working class. breaking apart. Neither party has any "The issue is the economic crisis-/a Under the impact of the economic One way the French Stalinists and interest in unifying the working class crise," New York Times guest colum­ and social crisis, the French workers Social Democrats tried to avoid estab­ around a program to combat the nist Emma Rothschild wrote March 1 have been moving to the left. Today lishment of a workers government was bosses' austerity drive. Instead, the in a discussion of the French legisla­ the two largest working-class parties, through the formation of the Union of infighting between them is motivated, tive elections scheduled for this month. the CP and the SP, together have the the Left. among other things, by their mutual La crise, according to Rothschild, "is support of roughly 50 percent of the desire to jockey for stronger positions omnipresent in political speech. By it French voters. Union of the Left vis-a-vis each other, whatever the out­ are understood several things: high In their support to the CP and SP the The Union of the Lett was an elec· come of the elections. and persisting levels of unemployment workers are attempting to express their toral coalition of the CP, the SP, and Rouge, the newspaper of the Ligue and inflation; the sense that the eco­ interests as a class, in opposition to the the Left Radicals, a small capitalist Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR­ nomic boom of the postwar epoch is bosses and the parties of the bosses. In party which from the point of view of Revolutionary Communist League, sis­ over; the knowledge that the economic a more or less conscious way, they are , votes was insignificant. The Common ter organization of the Socialist policies of the boom can no longer trying to vote for socialism-for the Program of this electoral front was Workers Party and French section of insure full employment." expropriation of the capitalists and the adopted in 1972. It proposed a series of the Fourth International) commented La crise is brutal on the working replacement of the private-profit sys­ reforms within the confines of the on the similarity of the SP and CP people of France. / tem with one in which economic deci­ capitalist system. programs in its February 23 issue. Real wages are going down. Under sions are determined democratically by Although in order to win the support "The ca:reful reader of the two texts an austerity plan imposed by French the masses and in their interests. of the masses, the Union of the Left will see that there is practically no President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's Working people know that the facto­ used socialist rhetoric, including in the difference in the social measures envi­ government, prices went up 9.5 percent ries and the wealth workers produce in Common Program, it was clearly a sioned . . . relative to the minimum in 1977 while wages increased only 8.7 them have not disappeared. The crisis procapitalist bloc. This was evident wage, pay increases, increases in na­ percent. they face comes not "from without," not only from its procapitalist program tional insurance benefits." Unemployment hit the highest levels like some inexplicable plague, but but from the eagerness of both the CP in more than twenty years at the end rather from within-from the economic and SP to include the bourgeois Left Reformist demagogy of 1977. and social contradictions contained Radicals in the coalition, despite that Both the CP and SP have based their · But la crise has not been so bad for within the capitalist system itself. party's small size. campaigns on updated versions of the the bosses. For several years both the Stalinist old Common Program, and both rely Profits are going up, and the Organi­ Role of reformists and Social Democratic leaders have on an upturn in the capitalist zation for Economic Cooperation and used the prospect of a victory at the economy-not anticapitalist But the hopes of the masses for a polls by the Union of the Left as an Development predicts that France, government that would really repres­ measures-to give relief to the workers. with a growth rate of 3.2 percent, will argument against strike actions and Both the CP and the SP insist that eht them have run into a roadblock. other struggles against the regime's do better than Germany and Britain Neither the Social Democratic nor they will keep Giscard as president this year. austerity plan. Such struggles, it was even if they win a majority in the 490- Stalinist leaders want to form such a claimed, would hurt the chances of the , Meanwhile, the gap between the rich government, since it would have to seat National Assembly. And Giscard and the poor is being widened. The "left" by scaring away middle-class has pledged to block the implementa­ challenge the perogatives and profits voters. OECD estimates that the richest 10 of the bosses. And the CP and SP are tion of many of the Common Pro­ percent of the French population ab­ For the ruling class, however, despite gram's more popular social reforms. committed to preserving the capitalist the capitalist program of the Union of sorbs nearly a third of after-tax in­ system. Thus, the two big workers parties come, while the poorest 10 percent gets the Left, an electoral victory of that have no essential differences in this Despite massive support among the only one-fiftieth. bloc was still too risky. The workers election. workers, the Stalinist and Social Dem­ would have seen such a victory as a But millions of French workers view 'Like an epidemic'? ocratic leaders are opposed to forming green light for their demands, giving the division between the CP and SPas "I understand," Giscard d'Estaing a CP-SP government. They know that rise to struggles the CP and SP might a severe blow to their expectations. tells voters, "that certain among you formation of a government without not have been able to control. Therefore, both of the reformist parties may be tempted to vote against 'the representatives from capitalist parties In September 1977 the small capital­ must try to justify to the working class crisis,'" by supporting the Communist would immediately raise the expecta­ ist party of Left Radicals walked out of why they will not unite. The division tions of the masses. or Socialist parties. negotiations to , update the Common between the largest workers parties, Such a vote, Giscard insists, would Workers would expect-and Program, charging that the CP wanted despite the continuing economic offen­ do no good. The crisis can't be escaped, demand-that such a government take to nationalize too big a section of the sive of the French ruling class against he claims. It is "like an epidemic, it far-reaching measures to make the French economy. On September 24 the the masses, is the framework in which comes to us from without." bosses, not the working class, bear the Union of the Left broke up altogether, the election is taking place. Giscard's problem is how to keep his burden of la crise. Refusal of the refor­ supposedly because the CP and . SP The Social Democrats have tried to capitalist governmental coalition in mist leaders to implement an anticapi­ could not reach agreement on the scope meet the workers' questions by claim­ power despite his attack on the living talist program could result in a further of nationalizations to be proposed in ing they are for unity and that any standard of the working class. In leftward shift in the working class and · the updated program. disunity is the CP's fault. They say France, as in Italy, working people are in the masses turning to leaders and Actually, programmatic differences that in any district where the CP leads looking for an alternative to the capi- parties that would be willing to use between the SP and the CP had no- the SP in the first round of voting

12 March 12, they will step down and talist maneuvers and Giscard's black­ support CP candidates. mail, no excuse for making a deal with (In France, if no candidate wins a the bosses and their parties. . . . majority on the first round of voting­ "The kind of government that the which is usually the case-those with workers must establish is not a Union Maoists twist and turn the two highest votes are matched in a of the Left government. It is a govern­ second-round runoff. Since this usually ment of the CP and the SP alone, of pits a candidate of a workers party which the workers will insist that it against a capitalist candidate, it is meet their demands and respond to on Sadat's trip to Israel traditional for the various workers their aspirations." By David Frankel fully pleased with these develop­ parties to support whichever one got Other groups to the left of the SP Last July the Chinese government ments." the most votes. In this way the workers and CP are also running in an elec­ gave its official seal of approval to the While taking note of the opposition parties have the best chance to defeat toral front with the LCR. One of these, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) to Sadat's betrayal by the Palestine the capitalist candidates at the polls.) the Organisation Communiste des Tra­ [formerly the October League] as the Liberation Organization, The Call re­ But the SP's appeal for "unity" is vailleurs (Communist Workers Organi­ party of the American working class. minded its readers that the Egyptian totally demagogic. The Social Demo­ zation), does not agree with the call for A front-page photograph in People's president wasn't all that bad. "Sadat, crats are not talking about the unity of an SP-CP government. Daily showed "Chairman" Michael it will be remembered, tore up his the working class-they also say they Lutte Ouvriere (Workers Struggle), a Klonsky of the CP(M-L) and Chinese country's 'friendship' treaty with the· will step down to guarantee the elec­ Trotskyist group not inside the Fourth CP Chairman Hua Kuo-feng grinning USSR last year, and exposed Soviet tion of capitalist Left Radicals. In fact, International, is running an extensive at each other as they sat side-by-side. ambitions to dominate the Mideast." the SP has already negotiated an campaign of its own. It has not decided Klonsky joined the illustrious array An editorial in.the January 23 issue agreement to withdraw some of its its position on the second round. of international leaders-headed by of The Call again took up "the compli­ candidates in the first round so as to Another Trotskyist group, the Organi­ Richard Nixon-who have been wined cated course of Mideast develop­ guarantee that the Left Radicals win sation Communiste Internationaliste and dined in the Great Hall of the ments," and this time found something at least thirty seats in the new assem­ (Internationalist Communist Organi­ People. The CP(M-L) chief had earned positive to say about Sadat's diplo­ bly. zation), is not running candidates of this honor-that's the way he sees it­ matic maneuvers. The Stalinists have tried to counter its own. It is focusing its political by his unwavering· support for every "While rejecting Sadat's unilateral the pressure for class urtity by dema­ activity on the demand that the CP aspect of Peking's policy, no matter method of action and his de facto gogic appeals to reject the supposedly step down for SP candidates wherever how reactionary, no matter how harm­ recognition of the Israeli state," the more moderate stance of the SP. The these win a majority in the first round. ful to the interests of the world work­ editorial said, "we must also see that, CP leaders have refused to say ing class. since that time, the unfolding of events whether they will step down for the SP CP members debate LCR in the second round, although like the Alain Krivine, a leader of the LCR, Social Democrats they have agreed to described the impact of the LCR cam­ step down in the first round for various paign in an interview in the February capitalist allies. 21 issue of Rouge. Speaking of the Despite the infighting between the mass election meetings being held two biggest workers parties, opinion around the country, Krivine noted: polls show that the SP and CP may "There is always a discussion ... ·. still win a majority of the vote. What dominates these discussions is Still, the breakup of the Union of the the following idea: Before, when you Left and the sectarianism of the Stali­ made criticisms of the left, we treated nist and Social Democratic leaders you like splitters, but now there is a have raised big questions among rank­ division between the big parties. What and-file SP and CP members. This has the LCR said deserves to be listened to created a situation in which the revolu­ seriously. Often the discussions begin tionary election campaign being run over the divisions of the Union of the by the LCR is getting an attentive Left." hearing. According to Krivine, the great ma­ jority of those coming to the LCR campaign meetings are workers. "CP Chairman Klonsky & Chairman Hua LCR campaign militants systematically attend. They The LCR is running 150 candidates don't come with instructions to contra­ in the legislative elections. The election dict me. They always come in a group. Since returning from the Peking around the peace talks have served to program of the French Trotskyists They discuss. . . . banquet circuit, Klonsky has continued further expose the utter intransigence puts forward a socialist solution for the "They know how to defend the party to build up credits for another round of of Israel and its imperialist backers." crisis wracking the country. In con­ line, they are very coherent. But when dinners. The coverage of Egyptian Finally, after three more weeks of trast, it says, "the Common Program­ there is a real discussion . . . on aus­ President Anwar el-Sadat's trip to silence, The Call announced that it whether the SP or CP version­ terity, on keeping Giscard, on the Israel by The Call, the CP(lYf-L) news­ stood 100 percent behind Sadat. The maintains the dominance of the capi­ nuclear strike force [the CP favors paper, is a case in point. declaration came in the form of two talist market, ignores the special op­ maintaining a French nuclear force], First, what was the objective mean­ reprints from the Chinese press. pression of women, preserves the army the contradictions appear-there is no ing of Sadat's trip? The facts speak for "Chairman Hua Kuo-feng Supports as it is now, accepts the 1958 constitu­ avoiding them." themselves. Egyptian Stand," was the headline on tion, and maintains French colonial Finally, and perhaps most impor­ Faced with military threats from a reprint from Hsinhua, the official domination over the overseas territo­ tantly, "The militants of the CP are Israel, economic pressure from world Chinese news service. ries and departments." incapable of explaining why one would imperialism, and an unstable internal According to the Hsinhua release, While urging workers to vote for the leave a seat for the bourgeoisie while situation, Sadat sought a way out by Chairman Hua said of Sadat's nego­ LCR and its revolutionary program in refusing to step down fm: the SP." giving in to imperialist demands. By tiating position that "this stand is just the first round, the French Trotskyists This face-to-face debate between going to Jerusalem and declaring that and conforms to the interests of the say, "On the second round, there is no members of the mass workers parties he "welcomed" the Israeli state-a 'Egyptian, Palestinian and other Arab alternative but to call for a vote for the and the LCR is a new development, state built through the di~possession of peoples." one that indicates the depth of political the Palestinian people-Sadat stabbed SP and CP alone." But Sadat's negotiating stand is ferment in the French working class the Palestinians in the back. Workers are urged to "give these based on his recognition of the Israeli today. Whatever the outcome of the Sadat strengthened the position of parties a wide margin of votes, so that state-a position explicity rejected by current elections, that ferment will con­ the Zionist state-including its ability they have no excuse for backpedaling The Call in its January 23 editorial. No and compromising in the face of capi- tinue. to hold onto the Arab territory seized by Israel in the June 1967 war. This public explanation has been given for was the reason for the unanimous this discrepancy, nor is any really required. If Chairman Hua Kuo-feng praise given Sadat by imperialist and Zionist leaders, both during and after supports Sadat's proimperialist policy, For the very best coverage his trip. · could Chairman Michael Klonsky be Some of this reality was reflected in expected to do less? Intercontinental Press the first article on Sadat's trip in the A second article in the February 20 issue of The Call consisted of reprints of world politics ~ . . 111 pn '<·or November 28 issue of The Call. Al­ though the CP(M-L) never labeled Sa­ from an article in the Peking regime's Frankly, 'Intercontinental Press/ln­ dat's course a betrayal, it admitted People's Daily. One paragraph said, precor' carries far more articles, doc­ that it was a blow to the Palestinian "The Middle East question is compli­ uments, and special features about 'Far Left' Debates struggle and would not bring peace. cated and the Arab and Palestinian world politics than the !Militant' has "U.S. leaders, as expected, hailed the people's struggle for the recovery of room for. French Elections visit," the article noted. lost land and the restoration of their 'Intercontinental Press/lnprecor' is The following week, the CP(M-L) national rights will be protracted and tortuous." published to help people struggling USA paper remained silent on the Mideast, For SoUd~rlty With .._., Coal Miner. Strikel for a better world learn from each ..... the biggest event in world politics that No doubt Klonsky hopes that contin­ other's successes and setbacks. You Hawken ol Popular Fronllam Polnl to w.. t Bengal week. But in its December 12 issue The ually stressing how "complicated" the

can't afford to be without it. Fill in the ,.----•·-·. ~ ·-·~···-· I Call ran an article purporting to ex­ Middle East is will make it easier for coupon below and subscribe today. I Wom.n Around World Rain Da,.nd for Equ.l RlfilhtS ; plain "the significance of this latest members and sympathizers of the twist in the complicated development CP(M-L) to swallow Peking's reaction­ Intercontinental Press/lnprecor of Mideast events.... " ary line. Post office Box 116, Varick Street Station, New York, New York 10014 According to The Call, things were As for Klonsky himself, perhaps he complicated indeed. Suddenly, it realizes that by backing Sadat the 0 Send me six months of 'Intercontinental Press/lnprecor.' Enclosed is claimed, Washington was not so Maoist regime is helping to make the twelve dollars. pleased with Sadat. "As far as the U.S. struggle for justice in the Middle East 0 Send me a sample copy. Enclosed is seventy-five cents. goes," The Call reported, "evidence has even more "protracted and tortuous." Name,_· ______,..ddress come to light which shows that, des­ But such considerations have to be City State• ___-JC..ip ______pite Jimmy Carter's public endorse­ weighed against the prospect of ment of Sadat's efforts last week, the another invitation to dinner in the ruling circles of this country are not Great Hall of the People.

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 13 Detroit anti-'Bakke' conference draws 500 By Tom Smith Ann Mahaffey encouraged rally partic­ DETROIT-"People of good will ipants to "organize and mobilize to get must unite, mobilize, educate, and the masses of people together." Council fight to defend affirmative-action pro­ member Nicholas Hood read a resolu­ grams. An aggressive program of vast tion stating, "The Detroit City Council instruction must be taken into _the firmly declares itself in support of streets to explain to the people what efforts by the MCOBD to overturn the affirmative-action programs are and Bakke decision." what their effects are intended to be. Mark Stepp, international vice­ Affirmative action is not privilege by president of the United Auto Workers race but promotion in spite of discrimi­ union, said that "the U A W is very nation by race .... Let us march on pleased to join together with this coali­ until victory is won." tion .... If the Bakke case takes a bad Rev. Charles Adams addressed these turn in the Supreme Court,· all the remarks to 325 people at a rally in affirmative-action programs we have f.·...·.· defense of affirmative-action pro­ fought for will go down the drain." A grams. The February 24 rally was In addition, Fernando Colon, direc­ ~y "'(• ~ sponsored by the Michigan Coalition tor of Latin Americans for Social and I to Overturn the Bakke Decision Economic Development (LASED), and I l (MCOBD) as part of a weekend confer­ Abdeen Jabara of the Arab American k' f \ ence on "The Crisis in Affirmative Public Affairs Committee in Michigan Militant/Mark Satinoff ~ ABDEEN JABARA Action" held at Wayne State Univer­ stressed the need for all oppressed JOHN CONYERS sity in Detroit. The conference was nationalities to join the fight to over­ chaired by Jerry Blocker, executive turn the Bakke ruling. community services, and those espe­ grams in Michigan. secretary of Detroit NAACP, and suc­ John Conyers summed up the mood cially affecting women. The first The workshops and plenary session ceeded in uniting a large number of of the meeting by noting that "we are brought participants up to date on the of the . conference voted overwhelm­ Black, women's, labor, and community the heirs of the civil rights movement." attacks on affirmative-action pro­ ingly to hold a protest demonstration organizations. The conference itself was a big step grams. The afternoon session dis­ against the Bakke decision in Detroit Speaker after speaker at the rally forward in organizing public sentiment cussed how to organize anti-Bakke on April 8. It also voted to endorse the stressed the need to expose the racist against the Bakke ruling. Four protests in each area. Conference par­ NCOBD call for a march on Washing­ lies surrounding the Bakke case. hundred and seventy people registered ticipants also heard a panel discussion ton to overturn the Bakke ruling some­ Rep. John Conyers noted in his as new members of MCOBD. The of affirmative-action cases and pro- time in April. keynote address that "reverse discrimi­ workshops on Saturday brought to­ nation" is a "sophisticated legalism." gether many organizations involved in And Dr. Elizabeth Hood of the Train­ the fight' to reverse the Bakke ruling. ing Institute for Desegt_egated Educa­ The sixty participants at the labor tion denounced the "scientific racism workshop included representatives of Unions back conference of 'testing.'" the UAW International Fair Practices DETROIT-Labor participation the executive board of UAW Local The chairperson of the Michigan and Anti-Discrimination Department; in the conference on affirmative 600, and presidents of AFSCME National Organization for Women three UAW Local Fair Practices com­ action here was especially signifi­ locals 1640, 25, and 312. UAW (NOW), Mary Jo Walsh, also took aim mittees; UAW Local 235 Women's cant. The United Auto Workers locals 51 and 600 also established at the "reverse discrimination"myth, Committee; and the Coalition of Black Southeast Michigan Community official union anti-Bakke commit­ calling it "a misnomer from beginning Trade Unionists. Action Program endorsed the con­ tees. to end." Horace Sheffield, president of the ference and contributed funds to Tom Turner, president of Detroit The speakers also declared their CBTU, pledged, "CBTU stands with the MCOBD. Solidarity, the na­ Metropolitan AFL-CIO, also en­ support and that of their organizations you foursquare, and we are willing to tional UAW newspaper, printed an dorsed the conference. In addition for April protests against the Bakke do everything possible to make this article in support of the conference. a special resolution was adopted decision called by the National Com­ effort a success." encouraging the formation of more mittee to Overturn the Bakke Decision Two sets of workshops were held on Endorsements were received anti-Bakke committees by union (NCOBD). the status of affirmative-action pro­ from UAW locals 51, 212, and 140, locals. -T.S. City Council President Pro tern Mary grams in employment, education, and

Educational meetings discuss *Bakke~ ruling By Shelley Kramer c1alists; and Susan Schiller, Campus The Bakke decision's threat to National Organization for Women. affirmative-action gains was the topic "The same people who are anti-ERA, of a series of local educational events antigay and anti-civil rights are those during the week of February 19-25. who are for Bakke," Schiller said. This week had been targeted by the "Bakke must be stopped to give us a National Committee to Overturn the chance to move forward." Bakke Decision as a National Week of In Salt Lake City, Utah, seventy Education to publicize the issues at students attended a speak-out on the stake in the Bakke case. Bakke decision held at the University Militant correspondents from cities of Utah on February 24. Sponsors of across the country reported lively dis­ the meeting included SCAR, the Asian­ cussions at these meetings. American Student Association, the In Pittsburgh, correspondent Ron­ Black Student Union, Chicano Student nie Cook reported on a two-day educa­ Association, Red American Student tional conference sponsored by the Organization, Young Democrats, and Black American Law Students Associ­ Young Socialist Alliance. ation (BALSA) and the Pitt Student Militant correspondent Tony Adams Coalition Against Racism (SCAR), reported that this was the first anti­ February 21 and 23 at the University Bakke action held in Utah. The Febru­ of Pittsburgh. Over fifty people at­ ary 25 Salt Lake Tribune featured an Tacoma rally demands overturn of 'Bakke' Militant/Linda Malanchuck tended each day's sessions. article on the day's meeting. The first meeting discussed the im­ Cody Bryan reported that more than pact of the Bakke decision on educa­ fifty people attended a protest rally to California Supreme Court in favor of from the NAACP, Kansas City Medi­ tion. demand the overturn of the Bakke Bakke, if affirmed, would constitute a cal Society, the Social Action Commit­ The "legal and constitutional as­ decision at the Bethlehem Baptist serious setback to this nation's efforts tee of 20, NOW, Student National pects of the Bakke case are not nearly Church in Tacoma, Washington, on to include minority group members Medical Association, Socialist Workers as important for us as the social and February 25. among those who receive a profes­ Party, Urban League-Labor Education political aspects," law Prof. Carl Speakers included Stephanie Coontz, sional education, and to increase there­ and Action Program, and the Ameri­ Copper told the audience. "Bakke will vice-president of the Washington Fed­ by the availability of desperately can Civil Liberties Union. be overturned in the streets by efforts eration of Teachers; Tom Dixon, execu­ needed services in minority communi­ on the part of those of us here," he tive director of the Tacoma Urban ties," said John Ryor, president of the The following evening, the local -added. League; Marsha Dombrosky, a co­ NEA, in a statement read to the rally. coalition hosted a debate on affirma­ The second day's sessions focused on coordinator of Tacoma NOW; York Correspondent Bruce Lesnick re­ tive action. Speaking in favor of the why the women's movement and labor Wong, an instructor at Evergreen State ported that the Kansas City Coalition overturn of the Bakke decision were movement should actively oppose the College; and Frank Capoeman, to Overturn the Bakke Decision spon­ Marty Pettit of the KCCOBD and Bakke decision. Panel speakers in­ member of the Student Koalition of sored two events in Kansas City Jeremiah Cameron, a professor at cluded Tania Shai (SCAR); Martha Indian Natives at Tacoma Community during the National Week of Educa­ Penn Valley Community College. Tak­ Munsch, law professor and ACLU College. tion. ing a position opposed to affirmative member; Steffi Dimike, steelworker "The National Education Associa­ The first was a community speak-out action were Jamie Kelso and Gene and member of the International So- tion believes that the decision of the on February 22 featuring speakers Hawkridge of the Libertarian Party. 'Excelsior' ends blackout Marroquin case is big news in Mexico By Jose G. Perez try and in Mexico. Moreover, it reports After a five-month virtual blackout other developments that indicate the in the Mexico City press, Hector Mar­ U.S. government is feeling increasing Excerpts from article roquin's fight for political asylum was pressure from the case. favorably reported on in a prominent Fernandez Ponte reports the first Following are major excerpts Their respective cases have been article in the February 19 Excelsior. public comment by Immigration and from the article on the Hector provoking favorable reactions, par­ The story was written by Fausto Fer­ Naturalization Service Commissioner Marroquin case published ticularly among intellectuals and nandez Ponte, the head of the paper's Leone} Castillo on the case. Castillo under the headline, 'A Mexican legal experts. Washington, D.C., bureau. linked the case to that of Jose Jacques asks for Political Asylum in the The evidence presented by attor­ The article is a major political break­ Medina, another Mexican seeking pol­ U.S.' in the February 19 'Ex­ ney Winter to show that Marroquin through in efforts to publicize and win itical asylum in this country. He also celsior.' Manriquez was in the United support for Marroquin's right to asy­ claimed the asylum proceedings would States when the above-mentioned lum, since Excelsior is widely consi­ take so long that ultimately "I don't By Fausto Fernandez Ponte actions took place are the follow­ dered to be Mexico's leading daily. believe they are going to be deported." WASHINGTON, D.C., February ing: The article is all the more important Castillo's assertion that the activists 18-It has been officially reported • Pay slips . . . of the Harold since Excelsior generally supports the won't be deported is contradicted by that Hector Marroquin Manriquez, Farb Construction Company of policies of the Mexican government. In the fact that the INS has so far refused one of the Mexicans who has asked Houston, Texas. These are made Mexico it is viewed in a way compara­ to grant asylum to either Marroquin or for asylum in the United States, out to one Roberto Zamora, the ble to the way the New York Times is Medina. The threat of deportation­ has submitted to the Immigration alias Marroquin used to be able to viewed in the United States-as one of and resulting imprisonment, torture, and Naturalization Service (INS) of get a job in this country .... the most authoritative and influential and possible death-still hangs over this country documentary evidence The pay slips are dated from press voices of the ruling class. the heads of the two activists. that he was in Texas when crimi­ April 23 to May 21 of the same Publication of the article shows the Much of the Excelsior report focuses nal actions took place in Nuevo year. growing impact of the defense cam­ on documentary proof submitted by Leon that were attributed to him by • Medical report of the hospital paign for Marroquin both in this coun- Marroquin that shows he could not the Nuevo Leon police. of the University of Texas Medical possibly have committed crimes attrib­ The INS confirmed that Mar­ Branch dated August 29, 1974, uted to him by the Mexican govern­ garet Winter, an attorney for Mar­ indicating that Zamora was dis­ ment. roquin Manriquez, presented the charged after having been treated This stands in sharp contrast to evidence as an argument for the for injuries suffered in a car acci­ 'My Story' Mexican press reports published at the asylum request made several dent in Galveston, Texas. The time of the alleged guerrilla attacks months ago. wounds were identified as fractures in Spanish that Marroquin is accused of taking The INS commissioner, Leone} of the tibia and the pelvis. The part in. Castillo, said today during a meet­ medical report declares Zamora Marroquin was a student leader in ing with leaders of Washington's unable to work for 6 to 8 weeks. Monterrey, Mexico, who· fled to the Latin American community that On another side, attorney Winter United States in 1974 after Mexican the administrative proceedings in reports that, in addition to the newspapers sensationalized police the cases of Marroquin and Jose "documentary evidence," she pres­ claims that he had been involved in Jacques Medina-another Mexican ented to the INS clippings from killing a librarian at the university who asked for asylum in the Uni­ Mexican newspapers describing where he studied. ted States-will take so long that what happened to the students of Even after he had fled the country, ultimately, "I don't believe they the University of Nuevo Leon who Mexican newspapers continued to fea­ will be deported." were accused by the judicial police ture him prominently in stories with "These cases," Castillo said, "are of having participated in the headlines such as "These Are the tests of the mechanisms for asy­ events of April 23 and August 30, Subversives That Torment Monter­ lum, both economic and political." 1974. The clippings speak of tor­ rey!" and "Once Again the Violent Meanwhile, the INS has asked tures, deaths while trying to es­ Mad Dogs Cause Panic and Fear the State Department for their cape, and disappearances. Among the Monterreyans." opinion in regards to Marroquin Some of these students had been Barry Fatland, coordinator of the Manriquez's request. pupils of Marroquin at a high Hector Marroquin Defense Committee, The INS indicated to the State school. told the Militant that the committee Department that Marroquin is ac­ Attached to the documentary would be reprinting and distributing cused of having fired at two agents evidence were statements by intel­ the Excelsior story. of the judicial police of Nuevo Leon lectuals in the United States, which "We think it's a real breakthrough," on April 23, 1974, and of having affirmed that Marroquin would be he said. "It will be a great aid in participated together with seven tortured by the Nuevo Leon police explaining the case to people in Mexico other persons in the robbery of and possibly killed if he is denied The Spanish edition of 'My Story­ whom we are asking to support Marro­ more than 400,000 pesos [U.S. asylum in the United States and the Struggle for Political Asylum in quin and to help in gathering evidence." $33,000 at the time] from a bakery deported to Mexico. the U.S.' has just been printed. Both He also said the article would be in Monterrey on August 30 of that Among the notable declarations the English and Spanish editions of helpful in the United States, where year. is that of John Womack, Jr:, the 'My Story' are available for 50¢ each, many people aren't familiar with the The case of Marroquin, as well as celebrated author of Zapata, a work 35¢ each on orders of ten or more. severe repression in Mexico. those of Medina and of citizens of that is considered a classic of its Order from: Hector Marroqurn De­ "They'll be able to see for themselves Haiti who have askl!d the United genre of political analysis of his­ fense Committee, 853 Broadway, that a major progovernment daily in States for political asylum are the tory. The work was banned in Suite 414, New York, New York Mexico considers Marroquin's version object of an immense debate 1n Mexico during the administration 10003. so credible they simply report it at face academic and judicial circles and of President Diaz Ordaz but subse­ value." in the newspapers. quently acclaimed.

Soviet dissidents, Davis Hear Hector Marroquin Hector Marroquin is conducting a four-month national speaking tour to explain to the American people why he is fighting for back Marroquin defense political asylum in the United States. Below is information on two major city-wide meetings for Marroquin. In addition, Marroquin will be speaking in Newark March 23-24. Los Angeles: A tardeada benefit. day, March 19, 4 p.m. at the New Sunday, March 12, Rudy's Pasta York Society for Ethical Culture House, 6047 East Olympic Boule­ Meeting House, 2 West Sixty-fourth vard. Entertainment and speakers Street (off Central Park West). from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.; dinner at 5 Speakers: Hector Marroquin; Roger p.m.; disco to follow. Speakers: Hec­ Baldwin, founder, American Civil tor Marroquin; Ed Morga, national Liberties Union; Grace Paley, writer; president, League of United Latin Annette Rubenstein, writer; Mar­ American Citizens (LULAC); Peter garet Winter, attorney for Marro­ Schey, attorney for Jose jacques quin; State Rep. Edward Sullivan; Medina, Mexican activist seeking Boris Shragin and Natalya Sadoms­ political asylum in the United kaya, Soviet dissidents; and Alger­ States; others. Donation: $3.50 (in­ non Black, Society for Ethical Cul­ cludes dinner). Auspices: Hector ture. Donation: $3. "Auspices: U.S. Marroquin Defense Committee. For Committee for Justice to Latin Militant/Anne Teesdale more information call (213) 482-1820. American Political Prisoners and Among the latest endorsers of Hector Marroqurn•s right to political asylum in the New York Hector Marroquin De­ United States are U.S. Communist Party leader Angela Davis (left) and exiled Soviet New York City: An afternoon in fense Committee. For more informa­ dissident Boris Shragin (right). Two other exiled Soviet dissidents, Natalya Sadoms­ defense of Hector Marroquin. Sun- tion call (212) 254-6062. kaya and Valentin Turchin, have also endorsed the case.

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 15' NY · s need new str to fight layoffs & cutbc Interview with Ray Markey Ray Markey has been a member In its place Carter wants to substi­ of the American Federation of tute a "workfare" program under State, County and Municipal Em­ which those hired would no longer ployees (AFSCME) Local 1930, receive prevailing union wages but be New York Public Library Guild, paid only the minimum wage. Those since its founding in 1968. Local applying for welfare would be forced to 1930 represents more than 1,400 participate in this program, which will library workers in Manhattan, the be used to undercut union wages and Bronx, and Staten Island. working conditions. Markey is a member of Local AFSCME's top leadership enthusias­ 1930's executive board, a delegate tically endorsed and actively supported to the AFSCME District Council37 Carter's campaign for president. In Delegate Assembly, and a delegate fact, they promised us his election to the New York City Central La­ would go a long way toward ending bor Council. New York City's fiscal crisis and solv­ Within the New York labor ing our problems. They told us that movement, Markey is well known Carter would develop a program for a as a spokesperson for socialist federal takeover of welfare costs that views. He is a member of the Na­ would free funds to aid the cities. tional Committee of the Socialist This reliance on Carter and the Workers Party. Democratic Party produced nothing Last November and December but a welfare plan that is a dagger Markey ran for president of Local aimed at the heart of AFSCME and a 1930, losing the official count by threat to the entire union movement. fourteen votes. He has appealed In summing up, the effects of the the election to AFSCME's judicial cutbacks on AFSCME have been two­ panel because of serious violations fold. First, there has been a substantial of election procedures. The follow­ reduction in the standard of living and ing interview was obtained by job security of our members. Second, 'Militant' staff writer Lynn Hend­ the inadequate response of AFSCME's erson. leadership has severely weakened the uniOn. Question. Why did you decide to run for union office against the incumbent Q. Getting back to your union elec­ president of Local 1930? tion, how did you emerge as the candi­ Answer. To understand my election date in opposition to these policies? campaign you first have to understand A. As the attacks against municipal the kinds of attacks the municipal RAY MARKEY Militant/Henry Snipper workers escalated over the past three employees of New York have been years, more and more members of my under and how the leadership of local became convinced that the poli­ AFSCME District Council 37 has re­ say the leadership of District Council so on-there are no new advances in cies of the District Council leadership sponded to these attacks. The incum­ 37 has cooperated in implementing the machinery or technology that increase had to be reversed. On a number of bent supported the policies that the cutbacks? hourly output. For us "productivity" occasions they expressed this opinion AFSCME leadership has followed means only one thing-speedup. A. For example, the pension benefits in words and deeds. throughout the New York City fiscal Under the new contract the union of new AFSCME members have been From the time the cutbacks started, CTISIS. slashed. And the pension funds of all takes responsibility for finding, sug­ our local stressed the need for all the During the past three years more members have been imperiled by the gesting, and helping to implement municipal unions to join together with than 60,000 municipal jobs have been collusion of the AFSCME leadership these "productivity savings." This is each other and with community organ­ eliminated in New 'York. At one point with Democratic and Republican politi­ one of the most dangerous and demor­ izations in fighting against all cut­ the membership of District Council 37 cians to use these funds for massive alizing aspects of our present situation. backs and layoffs. fell from 110,000 to 89,000, a loss of purchases of New York City bonds. It deforms and debases the very pur­ We helped initiate and build a dem­ 21,000 jobs in AFSCME alone. pose of the union. • onstration that we hoped would set a Throughout these attacks, the Thirty-five percent of District Coun­ For Local 1930 members, library model for united action. But District AFSCME leadership not only accepted cil 37's pension fund assets are now in hours have been cut by 30 percent. Council 37 officials did everything the cutbacks without any real fight but city bonds that the banks and corpora­ Originally 30 to 40 percent of our they could to sabotage this demonstra­ in effect cooperated in implementing tions have refused to buy on the membership was laid off. Subsequently tion, blocking other unions from join­ them. grounds they are unsafe. many of them were rehired under the ing it. My opposition to these policies is The leadership of District Council 37 federal CETA [Comprehensive Em­ Local 1930 also voted against the more than just a question of past even cooperated with these politicians ployment Training Act] program. disgraceful city-wide contract nego­ mistakes and errors. in passing legislation granting union Rehiring of laid-off city workers tiated by AFSCME officials in 1976. This is not a temporary fiscal crisis pension fund trustees indemnification under CETA has occurred not only in In the fall of 1975 the city announced as Victor Gotbaum [executive director and immunity from prosecution for Local 1930 but throughout District it was closing thirty-three of the these illegal investments. of District Council 37] and other mu­ Council 37. While this has kept these eighty-two branch libraries in Manhat­ nicipal union leaders have constantly Under our present contract the employees temporarily on the job, it tan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. told us. Nor can it be solved by tempor­ wages of all District Council 37 sets a deadly trap for our union. Local 1930 refused to accept the ary sacrifices on the part of municipal members have been frozen for the past It means that unskilled, long-term closings as a necessary and inevitable workers for the "good of the city" as three years. This has meant a whop­ unemployed, which CETA was sup­ sacrifice-the general position District they also have claimed. ping reduction in real wages-15 per­ posedly set up to aid, have been pushed Council 37 officials have consistently The New York crisis is part of a cent over five years. out of the program. This has divided taken. Instead, the local joined with concerted effort to solve the financial Even though our city-wide contract the union from the poor and the com­ community groups in orgamzmg problems of the superrich on the backs provides for cost of living adjustments munities of the oppressed nationalities, around-the-clock sit-ins at a number of of working people and our unions. (COLA), the formula used does not who bear the brunt of the cutbacks in key branches to prevent the closings. This tactic is beginning to be used in keep us even with inflation. city services and are our strongest The city was forced to back down every major city in this country. It is There has been a significant deterio­ · potential allies to fight for restoration and cancel all thirty-three closings. also,, being applied internationally. I ration in working conditions for all of these services. Even though we are a small local, we saw in the news recently that Tokyo is AFSCME members in New York. Ironi­ But fighting the Democratic and openly projected an alternative to the in a fiscal crisis, which they plan to cally, Gotbaum and the other munici­ Republican politicians and their finan­ sellout policies of the District Council solve by slashing essential services for pal union heads have cooperated in cial bosses for restoration of these 37 leadership. Japanese workers. turning our COLA clause into a club essential services is a strategy But the incumbent president, Kathe­ The policies that AFSCME is contin­ for achieving this. AFSCME officials have rejected out of rine Todd, had a different philosophy. uing to follow will lead to a further Under the city-wide contract nego­ hand. She felt if we just kept our mouths shut deterioration in our standard of living tiated by the leadership of District In addition, these AFSCME and stopped criticizing the policies of and job security. If followed long Council 37 in July 1976, our COLA members rehired under CETA have no District Council 37, things would im­ enough, these policies could lead to the payments now depend on the introduc­ job security. The CETA program has prove for the local. destruction of our union. tion of so-called productivity savings to be refunded every year by Congress. If we cooperated more closely with equal to the cost of the COLA. President Carter has already stated the leadership of District Council 37 Q. How have the cutbacks affected For most city employees-clerks, ty­ he intends to do away with the CETA they would be more helpful in pursuing AFSCME members, and why do you pists, librarians, hospital workers, and ·program by 1980. our grievances against management,

16 ategy ~ks

we would suffer proportionately fewer layoffs and perhaps even get a wage increase. But keeping your mouth shut and going along with the policies of Dis­ trict Council 37 in New York and AFSCME nationally was looking at it backwards. The defeats had been suf­ fered largely as a result of the policies of District Council 37. We suffered as a local, and our membership suffered not because we were in opposition to Dis­ Militant/Andy Rose trict Council 37's policies but because Demonstration of munjcipal unions and community groups in June 1975. Top AFSCME officials sought to sabotage the action. we were not strong enough to change them. This all crystallized during our lo­ cal's negotiations for a new contract in the summer of 1977. Library manage­ Q. What issues did you raise in the I opposed tying our COLA clause to able" leadership that can work more ment, the leadership of District Coun­ campaign? prod ucti vi ty. harmoniously with the District Council cil 37, and the president of our own And I opposed pouring District 37 leadership and not upset the apple­ local, all united in demanding that A. I called for a reversal in the Council 37's money and political re­ Local 1930 not only go along with the policies followed by the leadership of cart. sources into the election of Democratic wage freeze but that it give up more in District Council 37. and Republican politicians who then Q. What do you think is the signifi­ benefits and working conditions than The problems of Local 1930, or any lead the attacks against us. cance of the large vote you received? most other locals in District Council other local in New York City, cannot Reliance on "friendly" capitalist pol­ 37! be solved on a local basis. We cannot A. At the beginning of the cam­ iticians is the touchstone of the In the drive to find "productivity prevent more layoffs or get a wage paign, Campbell and her supporters AFSCME officialdom's strategy-it savings" to offset COLA raises, Got­ increase or prevent the erosion of our assumed there was no possibility of me has been an unmitigated disaster. baum tried to squeeze a disproportion­ working conditions by ourselves. winning the election. They were con­ ate share out of the smaller locals­ We need to unite all the municipal vinced that a socialist could not be Q. What kinds of issues did your especially our local. unions with our potential allies to fight elected president of Local 1930. Their As a member of the negotiating the cutbacks, not cooperate with the opponent raise? campaign revolved around little more committee, I played a leading role in bankers and politicians to help imple­ A. The incumbent president was so than reminding people I was a member the fight against the proposed con­ ment them. discredited that it was impossible for of the SWP. tract. I opposed the so-called equality-of­ her to run again. But another· candi­ However, the red-baiting had very During the fight the membership sacrifice concept that Gotbaum and date, Sally Campbell, quickly declared little effect, and the election results threw out the original negotiating com­ the other municipal union heads en­ and came to represent essentially the were a big shock to Campbell and her mittee and elected a new one. With the dorse. What equality of sacrifice means same philosophy-closer cooperation supporters. new committee imd the backing of the in practice is that when the bankers with District Council 37. The large vote I received was signifi­ membership, we were able to defeat and capitalist politicians proclaim a Campbell ran on a three-point pro­ cant in two ways. One, it was an some of the worst proposed cuts and fiscal crisis, we are laid off and have gram: indication that red-baiting is losing come back with a modestly better con­ our wages frozen while the banks, big One, Ray is a red, he is a member of much of its former punch. And two, it tract. realtors, and major corporations get the Socialist Workers Party. was a reflection of the growing opposi­ It was on the basis of that struggle huge new tax reductions. Two, you cannot trust Ray, because tion to the class-collaborationist poli­ that many members approached me to I opposed the mortgaging of our socialists have ulterior motives. cies of AFSCME's leadership. run for president. pension funds to city bonds. Three, what we need is a "reason- Continued on next page ·socialist hits NYC 'slave labor' contract offer The following statement was claim New York is broke. But the Albert Shanker of the United Fed­ eluded. released March 6 by Dianne Fee­ United States is still the richest eration of Teachers, Victor Gotbaum But the city is running into two ley, Socialist Workers Party can­ country in the world. Our resources of the American Federation of State, problems. didate for governor of New are squandered, however, and not County and Municipal Employees, First of all, many city workers are York. used for what we need. and many other union officials have beginning to see through the "bank­ When Jimmy Carter was a candi­ willingly swallowed the argument ruptcy" scare. They are asking why The opening "offer" by New York date, he promised to cut war spend­ that city workers must pay for the they should sacrifice to boost the City Mayor Edward Koch's adminis­ ing. In office he has done exactly the financial crisis. profits of the banks. tration to the public employee un­ opposite. The war budget now So 61,000 municipal jobs have And second, many city workers ions is a sharp new attack on all stands at $126 billion. The cost of a been eliminated. Free tuition at the have been inspired by the fighting workers. single Trident submarine-$1.7 City University has ended. Hospi­ example of the coal miners, who The city demands that the workers billion-is more than enough to tals and day-care centers have been have stood up to the bosses and the forego a general wage increase; give cover New York City's projected closed. federal government. up contractual restrictions on budget deficit for the next two years. Far from ending the crisis, these The Democratic and Republican layoffs; give up paid lunch hours, I call for eliminating the war attacks have only whetted the appe­ politicians all agree that it is city coffee breaks, and time off for union budget altogether and spending that tites of the banks. With the union workers who must pay the price of activities; give up time-and-a-half money on human needs. officialdom collapsing in front of the so-called New York crisis. Just pay for overtime; give up two paid The Democratic administration in them, the banks and their political as they all agree in trying to force holidays and all paid personal leave; Albany is equally guilty of putting servants believe they can force even the coal miners back to work on the and give up five days annual vaca­ profits first. Gov. Hugh Carey has greater sacrifices from city workers mineowners' terms. tion. proposed cutting taxes for business and all city residents who need Working people need their own These are slave-labor demands. and higher-income taxpayers by public services-with Blacks and political party, an independent labor The city has declared war on mu­ $750 million, while hospitals and Latinos suffering the worst. party, based on a revitalized, mili­ nicipal unions, just as the coal oper­ day-care centers in New York City The Koch administration expects tant union movement. ators and the federal government are shut down. the union tops to continue giving The coal miners have shown the have against the mine workers. In While Koch claims that there is no their aid. "We may well be talking power of united working-class ac­ both cases, the wealthy minority money for these vital social services, about layoffs," Deputy Mayor Basil tion. The central message of my that owns and runs America is deliv­ the city is paying over $1 billion Paterson told the New York Times campaign for governor will be the ering a simple message to working every year in interest payments to February 19. "But we have to have need for other working people who people: you sacrifice so we can profit. Wall Street bankers. union participation in the formula­ are under attack-like here in New Give up your hard-fought wage The rulers have been able to get tion of those plans so they don't feel York-to follow the miners' example gains, the bosses demand. Forget away with these attacks because of we have imposed it. and to carry the fight into the politi­ about affordable health care, secure the unswerving support union mis­ "I always thought that no union cal arena. retirement, even minimal job secur­ leaders have given to the same Dem­ leader would ever accept a layoff. That's the way to beat back ity. ocratic politicians who are carrying I'm beginning to think that maybe Koch's and Carey's slave-labor de­ City, state, and federal officials all out the assault. I'm not so right," Paterson con- mands.

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 17 what the sour.ce of these attacks is, and what is politically necessary to fight ... Markey them. ... FBI. Continued from preceding page Key in achieving this is the fight for Continued from .Page 3 union democracy. To transform to­ Q. You are presently challenging the Griesa compared the files with sworn day's unions into organizations that results of that election. What is the answers that the government pre­ can defend their members, it is first basis of that challenge? viously submitted to the socialists' necessary for the membership to win questions about informers. In one case A. On one level, my protest is based real control over their own union or­ after another Griesa found the govern­ on a technical point-the ballots were ganizations. ment's answers were "misleading," mailed to the membership without This means free and open discussion "incomplete," and at least once postage on the return envelope. This in the union on alternative policies. "untrue." was a direct violation of procedures It means the right of the member­ In one case, for example, the govern­ laid down in AFSCME's Local Union ship to democratically decide what the ment claimed that the informer only Election Manual. union policies will be. turned in material "routinely distrib­ The manual lists this requirement It means the right of the member­ uted by SWP and YSA to all members and then further warns: "The local ship to directly elect all union officials. and/or public." Judge Griesa said the may not require a member to purchase It means the right of the member­ files showed "a situation where there a stamp and put it on his envelope as ship to directly vote on all contracts could well be an overt robbery" in­ the price for voting." and agreements. volved. Many ballots were received late and And it means the right of the mem­ Griesa said that his review of the were disqualified. No ballots were re­ bership to strike. informer files showed that "what they ceived from approximately 50 percent Unions also cannot restrict them­ provided the FBI with was a consistent of the membership. selves to so-called pure and simple recital of peaceful, lawful political ac­ In the official tabulation there was a trade-union issues. They have to ad­ tivities, peaceful, lawful personal activ­ difference of only 14 votes out of a total dress themselves to all the major social ities, and a total absence of any crimi­ membership of 1,407. It is clear if issues of the day and become the nal activities or plans of any nature return postage had been provided, it leading defenders of the working class whatever." could have made a difference in the as a whole. Griesa suggested, "It raises a serious election. Unions, to defend their members, question as to why the FBI surveil­ police spies to operate in total, un­ However, this is not a purely techni­ will more and more have to take their lance of these people and these organi­ cal question. It is even more a political fight into the political arena. breachable secrecy. zations and these chapters was not "Justice Department lawyers have question. The membership has the But support to Democratic and Re­ discontinued, at least a decade or two democratic right to an honest election, publican politicians is a suicidal obviously gotten their orders: 'Stop at decades or three decades ago, if it ever nothing, even jail, to protect the rights and I, as a candidate for union office, course. It means support to the bosses' had any justification whatever." have a duty to demand that my demo­ political representatives. of the informers, the secret police.' " One informer sent in reports about Stapleton added, "We're going to cratic rights to a fair election be pro­ Unions have to begin to run their the SWP and YSA lawsuit against the tected. own independent candidates and build fight them every inch of the way. We FBI. His reports about the case and .don't intend to let the FBI cover up The fact that I am strongly opposed their own independent political party. about the Political Rights Defense to the policies followed by District That is how working people will get their crimes without a battle. We have Fund, the group organizing support for a right to a full public trial of the Council 37 and AFSCME nationally the political representatives who speak the case, continued for at least ten should not mean that the membership and act for them. issues in our case. This is a principle months after the lawsuit was filed. for us too-no cops or finks are more of Local 1930, and myself as a candi­ Out of the fight for this kind of After the threatened defiance be­ date, are denied these rights. program, in the day-to-day struggles of important than basic democratic came public, Attorney General Griffin rights.'' I have carried this challenge to the union, will emerge a class-struggle Bell tried to explain it away. "It is the AFSCME's judicial panel. If necessary left wing that can transform the policy of this Department of Justice to I will take it to the next AFSCME unions into organizations that truly obey court orders," he said. But then international convention. represent and defend their member­ Bell added, "Any proposal to deviate ships. from the policy of obeying court orders Political Rights Q. What kinds of changes do you II should have my personal attention." Defense Fund think are necessary in the unions to The next day the attorney general meet and reverse the growing employer added his opinion that "it wouldn't The Political Rights Defense attacks? help law enforcement at all if it be­ Fund is organizing support and A. Well, it would be a mistake for came law to reveal their sources." raising funds for the Socialist trade-union militants and socialists to Syd Stapleton, national secretary of Workers Party's lawsuit against think that they can change the class­ the Political Rights Defense Fund, told government spying and collaborationist policies of the union ... the Militant, "The Carter administra­ disruption . bureaucrats simply by getting them­ tion finally has just come right out and said that 'law enforcement' comes be­ selves elected as presidents of union Will you help? To get more locals here and there. fore democratic rights. That's why information about the lawsuit and What will make the difference is the they won't give us those informer files. "I don't even think their main worry to send your contribution, write: building of a real movement among ~ the membership in these unions. The I is what's in the files-even though the Political Rights Defense Fund, membership has to understand the KOCH: Promises to drive standard of files make the FBI look pretty bad. P.O. Box 649, New York, New type of attacks that are coming down, living of New York workers even lower. What they are really worried about is York 10003. the principle of the thing; the right of Markey appeal to union ranks The following are excerpts The fact that I, as a delegate to Okla. Iranians framed up from Ray Markey's formal ap­ both the New York City Central peal to the AFSCME Judicial Labor Council and DC 37 Delegate By Jose G. Perez Heggy sent a letter to the Iranian Panel protesting violations of Assembly, have consistently voted Twenty-one Iranian activists in Ok­ consulate in Houston asking for imme­ membership rights in the elec­ and spoken against endorsement of lahoma City are being threatened with diate deportation of the twenty-one­ tion for president of Local 1930. all Democrats, Republicans, Liber­ deportation as a result of charges without even waiting for a trial. als, and Conservatives-the fact stemming from a demonstration that The Express also reported the Iran­ The fact that I am strongly op­ that I have called on organized labor took place at Southwestern College ian ambassador to the United States posed to the policies followed by DC to instead devote its energies to February 14. said "the protesters are being encour­ 37 in the recent crisis in NYC should beginning the process of building an According to a report in Iran Ex­ aged by foreign Communists.'' not mean that I am denied a fair alternative political party based on press, a recently founded weekly pub­ Nemat Jazayeri, national secretary election. the trade unions and committed to a lished in Washington, D.C., police ar­ of the Committee for Artistic and Intel­ The fact that I voted and spoke program that would defend our jobs, rested the twenty-one on trespassing lectual Freedom in Iran, told the Mili­ from the floor of the DC Delegate working conditions, and standard of charges. However, most were being tant, "If the twenty-one are sent back, Assembly against the city-wide pact living, should not mean that I and held by immigration cops to determine that could be their death sentence. that allowed tens of thousands of the membership are denied a fair whether they have official permission People accused of connections with DC 37 members to be laid off should election. to be in this country. 'foreign communists' at the very least not mean that I am to be denied a The Iran Express's transparently will be imprisoned and tortured, and fair election. It becomes clearer every day that one-sided account claims that chairs most likely shot." The fact that I voted and spoke the manipulated New York City and tables in the campus cafeteria He noted the Oklahoma City inci­ against the wage freeze and wage fiscal crisis has no real end and will were "wrecked" during the demonstra­ dent is part of a pattern of attacks by deferral should not mean that I am continue to be used as a club against tion, held to demand recognition of an government and campus authorities on to be denied a fair election. our members unless our union Iranian student organization the paper Iranian students who oppose the bru­ Or the fact that I opposed the adopts an entirely different policy. did not identify. tal repression of the Iranian govern­ irresponsible and dangerous mort­ The Express also claims that one cop ment, pointing to the case of the six This makes the political questions gaging of our union's pension funds was hit by demonstrators "as 20 to 30 CAIFI members who recently faced the I've raised even more significant under a phony "equality of sacrifice" policemen sought to evict the students threat of deportation due to trumped­ rationale. and for some even more embarrass­ from the cafeteria." Officials say six ing. up charges. The fact that I opposed the for­ persons will be charged with aggra­ "Our slogan must be, 'An injury to mula which has tied our COLA But this is no justification for vated assault. one is an injury to all,'" Jezayeri increases to "productivity savings" ignoring the election procedures According to the Express, "District declared. "We must not allow the politi­ and is turning our union into a clearly spelled out by AFSCME in Attorney Andrew Coats and other top cal differences that exist between var­ policing instrument for the imple­ the Local Union Election Manual for city and state officials are asking for ious Iranian organizations to stand in mentation of speedups is no basis for the protection of the membership's the deportation of any Iranian con­ the way of a united campaign to stop violating the membership's right to voting rights and my rights as a victed in connection with the demon­ the U.S. government from handing an honest election. candidate for union office. stration.'' over any Iranian dissidents to the Oklahoma City Police Chief Tom shah." Why 'Guardian' attacks nat'l Latino conference By Jose G. Perez Although you wouldn't know it from The Guardian, a Maoist-leaning reading the Guardian, the San Antonio weekly published in New York, has conference was a success-a big step finally broken its silence on the Na­ forward for the movement against de­ tional Chicano/Latino Conference on portations. Immigration and Public Policy held Some 1,500 activists attended, repre­ last October in San Antonio, Texas. senting virtually the entire spectrum of Four months after the conference Chicano political forces-everyone was held, Peter Baird and Ed from moderate groups such as the McCaughan write in the February 22 League of United Latin American Citi­ Guardian: zens, GI Forum, church groups, and "The only serious attempt to forge Chicano Democrats, to activist groups national unity among the local [antide­ such as the Raza Unida parties, portation] coalitions failed last No­ CASA, and the Socialist Workers vember [sic] during the International Party. Immigration Conference [sic] in San The conference dealt a powerful blow Antonio. This was due in large part to to the government's offensive against the opportunistic manipulation of the "illegals." It spoke with one voice Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party, against President Carter's proposed which tried to use the conference as a crackdown on undocumented immi­ springboard for its electoral cam­ grants and demanded immediate, un­ paigns." conditional amnesty for all immi­ Baird and McCaughan, both of grants. whom attended the conference as It is true there were sharp divisions T members of the North American Con­ in San Antonio, but they had nothing 'Guardian' idea of failure: 1,500-strong San Antonio conference, a united show of gress on Latin America (NACLA), to do with SWP election campaigns. opposition to Carter's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. don't elaborate on this statement or These were not discu~sed at all, despite offer any proof. The reason for this the Guardian's claim. Rather, the div­ omission is obvious to anyone who was isions centered on how to fight the massive protest movement similar to me:n.t that relies primarily on educa­ at the conference: the account bears no Carter plan. the movement organized against the tional and protest actions. The prob­ resemblance to anything that hap­ One strategy put forward at the Vietnam War. Street demonstrations lem is with lobbying as a strategy-as pened in San Antonio. conference called for putting together a and educational activities were pro­ a substitute for more visible activities posed as the first steps toward organiz­ that can reach out to masses of people. ing such a movement. Counterposed to this perspective Substituting lobbying for protests Engels's introduction to .Marxism were abstract calls for "resistance" to means relying on the same Democratic la migra (the immigration cops), and and Republican politicians who are Socialism: lobbying Congress. responsible for the anti-immigrant Utopian and Scientific But supporters of lobbying and "res­ witch-hunt in the first place. Instead, by Frederick Engels. istance" didn't present these strategies the movement should rely on Chica­ 64 pages. $.95. openly or press for their adoption. nos, mexicanos, and their potential allies-Blacks and other minorities, Instead some of them tried to disrupt women, and the working class as a Engels's classic introduction to the conference, using parliamentary whole. These groups, unlike the capi­ Marxism. Just as timely today as it maneuvering and red-baiting. talist politicians, have nothing to gain was when written a century ago. As a Which brings us back to Baird and from a racist crackdown on immi­ guide for classes, this pamphlet McCaughan. Because at San Antonio, grants. answers: What are the basic philoso­ NACLA members sided with the phical concepts of socialism? What disrupters-and the article by Baird Baird and McCaughan's concentra­ are the essential economic ideas of and McCaughan shows why. tion on lobbying as the way to defeat socialism? What is the Marxist theory They describe the antideportation the Carter plan shows they support of history? Why a workers revolution? movement one-sidedly, giving the most lobbying as a strategy. And that is emphasis to "a legislative campaign to why they find it necessary to lie about Order from Pathfinder Press stop the Carter plan," that is, lobby­ the San Antonio conference, which is 410 West Street, New York, New York ing. an outstanding example of indepen­ 10014 There is, of course, no problem with dent organizing as opposed to reliance lobbying as one tactic used by a move- on capitalist politicians.

the meeting to hear the speakers or to that "Y .S.A. pretends to support the an attack on free speech. It has the pass out literature. miners, but really supports the same effect as the RCP's attack on the ... Houston They came to the meeting with only bosses." miners' support meeting last Friday. Continued from page 9 one aim: to prevent it from occurring Unfortunately for the RCYB and "The most effective way to stop the the news conference. But they issued a and to physically assault any UMWA RCP, this fabrication will not get them RCYB's and RCP's violence against statement protesting the RCP violence. staff members present. very far. The YSA and Socialist the democratic rights of others is not (See box on page 9.) ~ The day before their attack, the Workers Party are well known for by taking away their right to exist on Sister Victoria Zuniga of Hermanas, RCP's youth organization, the Revolu­ supporting the miners. campus," Elliott said. "This can be an activist Catholic nuns' organiza­ tionary Communist Youth Brigade, In Houston, as in many other cities, used as a precedent to take away the tion, as well as Ali Mofarrah of the distributed a provocative leaflet on the YSA and SWP have actively democratic rights of other groups. It Committee for Artistic and Intellectual campus to prepare their assault. worked with other groups to build will also unnecessarily win sympathy Freedom in Iran also spoke at the news "Oppose the sellout-Jam the miners' support rallies. for the RCP and confuse people who conference. hacks," one headline read. Another The Militant and the Young Social­ could otherwise be convinced to oppose exhorted students to "beat back the ist, voices of the two socialist organiza­ their violent attack on Friday's meet­ labor traitors"-by joining the Maoists tions, have campaigned for months to ing. Premeditated attack in picketing the miners' solidarity tell the truth about the miners' fight "The YSA will be actively working to The RCP attack was not an isolated meeting. and help them win support. They pub­ fight this ban." incident. licized and supported the rank-and-file On February 21, twelve people from Contract The leaflet falsely painted the soli­ upsurge that swept the coalfields after Plans for support the so-called Miners Right to Strike Miller accepted the employers' con­ Activists in the ad hoc committee Committee, which is led by theRCP, darity meeting as an activity to back tract. plan to continue their work to support disrupted a collection organized on the contract that President Carter tried the strike. behalf of the Stearns strikers by Uni­ to blackmail the miners into accepting. · In addition, they are mapping out a ted Auto Workers Local 216 at the Nothing could be further from the Oppose ban campaign to publicize the RCP assault. General Motors plant in Southgate, truth. The solidarity meeting was The University of Houston adminis­ A statement condemning the attack near Los Angeles (see March 10 Mili­ called before the contract proposal was tration is threatening to ban RCYB for and the use of violence to settle differ­ tant). made. None of the speakers at the their role in the goon assault. On meeting-including Mat Miller and March 6 Julius Gordon, UH dean of ences in the workers movement is On January 23, members of the Mike Burdiss-were there to sell the students, issued an order temporarily being drawn up. It will be circulated Houston chapter of the ISA-U.S. as­ proposed contract. suspending the RCYB as a recognized nationally for signers in the labor saulted four members of the Committee campus organization. This order pre­ movement, on campus, and among for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom The meeting was one of many such rallies held throughout the country to vents them from holding meetings or activists in the Black and Chicano in Iran outside a political meeting. One build broad support for the strikers. distributing literature on campus. communities. of the students was badly beaten. These meetings help answer the lies of On March 8, a board composed of The committee is also planning to Because of their Maoist-Stalinist the coal bosses and the Carter admin­ students will decide if the RCYB will raise funds to pay the medical ex­ orientation, the RCP and the ISA­ istration. They help strengthen the be permanently banned from the uni­ penses of the monitors who were in­ U .S. oppose democracy within the la­ position of the miners. versity. jured, especially the expensive dental bor movement. If they cannot convince The RCYB leaflet also red-baited the "We're completely opposed to such work needed by Tom Leonard. These others of their ideas, they believe it is UH ad hoc committee. To try to dis­ action," Jeff Elliott, a UH Young So­ expenses are expected to run into proper to try to impose their views credit the meeting, the Maoists claimed cialist Alliance leader, told the Mili­ hundreds of dollars. through violence. that the committee is a "front" for the tant. "Neither the Organizations The committee is asking that contri­ These Maoists had no intention of Young Socialist Alliance. In fact, the Board nor the UH administration has butions be sent care of Dr. George trying to explain their views on the YSA is but one of a number of groups the right to tell students what organi­ Morgan, Jr., History Department, Uni­ strike to the audience at the March 3 comprising the committee. zations they can have on campus. versity of Houston, Houston, Texas meeting. None of them tried to enter The Maoists go further and claim "This threat by the administration is 77004,

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 u.s. vs. USSR

Question from a reader Your paper opposes military has undertaken its own military spending and nuclear armaments buildup." Why should we believe on the part of the U.S. government, that Soviet arms spending is for but apparently you don't take the "defense," but U.S. arms spending same attitude toward the Soviet is for war? government. The headline on an article in the February 10 Militant If you were really opposed to the ("Soviet satellite: fallout from U.S. nuclear arms race, you would op­ war drive") blames what the USSR pose Soviet nuclear weapons-and does on the "U.S. war drive." What nuclear-powered satellites-as about the Soviet war drive? much as U.S. nuclear weapons. The article claims that "In order Alan Catanzaro to defend itself, the Soviet Union New York, New York

David Frankel replies 'rhe crash of a nuclear-ptJwered spy­ to be fighting a "war for democracy," satellite January 24 was one more joined together in attempting to bring incident in an arms race that threatens the Bolsheviks down. to turn our planet into a lifeless cinder. About 1 million foreign troops in­ Clearly any thinking person must op­ vaded the new Soviet state. Among pose this suicidal course. them was an American force that How to oppose the arms race and spent 1 a year and a half fighting in fight against the threat of nuclear war Siberia. The open war of aggression most effectively is another question. In carried out against the Soviet Union his letter to the Militant, reprinted on was followed by an economic embargo this page, Alan Catanzaro argues that against the new government. Washington and Moscow are equally With the consolidation of the coun­ to blame for the danger of war. terrevolutionary, privileged bureau­ "Why should we believe that Soviet cracy led by Stalin, Washington mod­ arms spending is for 'defense,' but U.S. erated some of its diplomatic hostility, arms spending is for war?" Catanzaro recognizing the Soviet government in asks. 1933. But the underlying hostility of Aftermath of a U.S. bombing attack on Hanoi in 1966. If it were not for the USSR's This question is best answered by the U.S. rulers to the USSR remained nuclear arsenal, Hanoi would probably have become another Hiroshima. looking at how the current situation unchanged. came about. Moreover, by looking at Harry Truman summed up the atti­ the origin of the arms race, we can tude of the U.S. imperialists toward the Soviet "designs to subjugate the free these were the armed forces, and these better see how it can be ended. Soviet Union in July 1941, shortly community of Europe," and in 1949 the the exhausted people, who were sup­ after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. NATO alliance was formed. posed to be planning the conquest of Imperialist aggression He said, "If we see that Germany is What was the real situation? Western Europe! The fact is that the Soviet Union winning the war we ought to help Historian Isaac Deutscher gave an was the victim of imperialist aggres­ Russia, and if Russia is winning we indication in a speech on the Vietnam War threat-'made in USA' sion from the very beginning. When ought to help Germany, and in that war in 1965. "The United States," The real threat of war came from the the working class, led by the Bolshe­ way let them kill as many as possi­ Deutscher pointed out, "had during the U.S. ruling class. From the Middle viks, came to power in November 1917, ble.... " (Cited in The Free World second world war more than doubled East to Southeast Asia, Washington the new revolutionary government Colossus, by David Horowitz, page 61.) its wealth, its productive apparatus was replacing Britain and France as posed no military threat to any other Military necessity pushed Washing­ and its annual incom.e. And it held the the main imperialist power in the country. On the contrary, its very first ton into an alliance with the Soviet monopoly of atomic energy.... Not a world. This pitted it against the unfold­ action was to publish all the secret Union during World War II. Washing­ single bomb had failed on American ing colonial revolution that had begun annexationist agreements of the Tsar­ ton emerged from the war in a position soil, and the loss of life the American to sweep across Africa and Asia, and ist regime and to call for an end to of absolute preeminence in the capital­ armed forces has suffered was very also against the Soviet Union. World War I, which was then devastat­ ist world and with a monopoly on the small indeed. The American colossus, Revolution was equated with "Com­ ing Europe. atomic bomb. Thus, the danger of a it might be said, returned from the munist aggression" by the imperialist But the imperialist governments that new war developing out of interimpe­ battlefield was barely a scratch on his politicians and mass media-as in had been fighting each other over rialist rivalries was eclipsed by the skin.... Vietnam-and talk of "containing" markets and sources of raw materials conflict with the USSR and the colon­ "What a different picture the Rus­ communism soon gave way to the reacted to the Bolshevik victory with ial revolution. sian colossus presented! ... The most demand that it be rolled back. Armed fury. First of all, the triumphant revo­ densely populated, the wealthiest, the with the atomic bomb, which they had lution ripped a substantial sector of the Soviet expansionism? most civilized parts of the Soviet already proved they would use, the world market out of the capitalist In March 1946 Winston Churchill Union had been laid waste. At the end American imperialists were systemati­ system. Billions in direct investment gave his famous "iron curtain" speech of the war 25 million people in those cally preparing a war against the were lost, and a huge arena for further in Fulton, Missouri. Warning of the provinces had been rendered homeless USSR. investment was closed off. "expansive and proselytizing tenden­ and lived in dug-outs and mud huts. But this perspective could not be Furthermore, the establishment of a cies" of communism, Churchill de­ The list of casualities amounted to at carried out overnight. Western Europe, workers and peasants government was picted a threat to civilization, the dan­ least 20 million dead! ... For many, which was on the brink of revolution, a deadly political threat to capitalism. ger of a new dark age arising from many years after the war only old had to be stabilized-a task that could It inspired the masses in the rebellious Moscow. men, cripples, women and children not have been accomplished without colonies and oppressed nations The trumped-up charge that the So­ could be seen on the fields of Russia Stalin's help. At the same time, public throughout the world, as well as the viet regime was planning a campaign tilling the land." (Ironies of History: opinion in the United States had to be workers in the imperialist centers of world conquest was used to foster a Essays on Contemporary Communism, prepared for a new war, and opposition themselves. witch-hunt inside the United States, by Isaac Deutscher, pages 149-150.) silenced by the witch-hunt. Despite the overwhelming support and as justification for launching a Between 1945 and 1948 the Soviet Fortunately, other factors intervened for the Soviet government from its own huge arms program. Truman joined armed forces were reduced from 11.5 to upset Washington's plans. In Sep­ people, the allied powers that claimed Churchill in warning against supposed million to less than 3 million-and tember 1949 the Soviet Union exploded

;20 its own atomic bomb, and in December · · search for new markets, new sources .of 1949 the peasant armies led by the raw materials, and new areas of in­ Chinese Communist Party were victor­ vestment in order to expand these ious in their final battles against the profits is the basis of U.S. foreign old regime. policy, including its wars of aggression and its bloated military budget. If either of these two events had not occurred, it is very likely that we would have already witnessed World War III. Soviet war drive? At this point, we can answer another Although sections of the U.S. ruling of Alan Catanzaro's questions: "What class, represented by Gen. Douglas about the Soviet war drive?" MacArthur, openly urged the use of the atomic bomb and the invasion of It is certainly true that the Soviet China during the Korean War, the government oppresses non-Russian na­ majority backed off. tions such as the Ukraine, maintains Rather than oppose nuclear arms in discriminatory trade relations with the hands of the Soviet Union, revolu­ Eastern Europe, and has used its tionary socialists say that this was a troops to suppress workers' struggles step forward for peace. It gave the in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. USSR the necessary military force to But ·such reactionary policies are deter Washington's roll-back schemes. determined by the needs of the Stalin­ ist bureaucracy, not by the built-in Behind U.S. policy dynamic of the Soviet economy. In One argument commonly made by Hungary and Czechoslovakia, for in­ liberal historians is that the Cold War stance, Soviet intervention was due to and the arms race that accompanied it the fear of the Stalinist regime that a were due primarily to suspicion and successful workers' revolution would misunderstanding-that is, that the be an inspiration and example to the conflict was an aberration, an exam- · workers of the USSR and threaten the ple of irrationality. The same argu­ political rule of the privileged caste. ment is used by the liberals to "ex­ In contrast to this, the aggressive plain" Washington's savage policies of the imperialist powers, as intervention in Vietnam. They talk pointed out above, do not depend on about the arrogance of power, and the the government in power at any given irrational fear of communism. time. An imperialist country that can­ Few would deny that the American not expand into new markets and new ruling class is arrogant, but its fear of areas of investment faces stagnation social revolution is hardly irrational. and crisis, whether it is under the rule Washington acts as a world cop, de­ of a Social Democratic labor party, a fending capitalist interests all over the conservative capitalist party, or a fas­ globe, for good reason. cist party. As a result, wars are inevit­ U.S. intervention around the world able under capitalism. flows from the fact that the economic foundations of American capitalism do The Soviet economy not lie simply within the United The Soviet Union is not an imperial­ States. American corporations invest ist country. The nationalization of in copper and uranium mines in Zaire, industry carried out by the Bolsheviks Workers build railway in Siberia. Economy of USSR is not based on private profit. in Mideastern oil, Bolivian tin, Chilean put an end to the domination of the copper, and Malaysian rubber. economy by monopoly capital, and to U.S. companies build textile and the competition for markets and the represent the historic gains that still spread of social revolution. The possi­ electronics plants in Taiwan and search for profits by competing monop­ survive from the Bolshevik revolution. bility that the Soviet Union would South Korea, they invest in bauxite in olies. These new property relations by them­ retaliate, including with nuclear wea­ the Caribbean, and set up automobile Since private profit is not the deter­ selves, of course, are not sufficient pons, was always a calculation limit­ factories in South Africa, Mexico, and mining factor in whether an industry conditions for the establishment of a ing Washington's escalation of the Argentina. survives in the USSR, there is no socialist society. But they mark a Vietnam War. competition for markets between. differ­ fundamental difference between the When the total foreign investments USSR and capitalist countries, and Or take the example of the Cuban of the U.S. ruling class are added ent Soviet enterprises, and between revolution. If it wasn't for the existence Soviet industry as a whole and foreign they will serve as the foundation for together, they represent the third larg­ future advances. of the Soviet workers state, armed with est economy in the world, after those of industries. Such competition between nuclear weapons, U.S. imperialism the United States itself and the Soviet imperialist powers has already led to would have drowned that revolution in Union. And year after year, the profits two world wars in the past sixty years. Defense of the Soviet Union blood. from these investments continue to Because it is not governed by the Leon Trotsky, who led the Russian A military defeat of the USSR by pour into the United States. search for profit, the Soviet economy revolution along with Lenin, and who imperialism, and the restoration of Defense of this economic empire is has no built-in drive for expansion. later founded the Red Army, discussed capitalism on Soviet soil, would mean not merely a matter of policy, some­ The clearest proof of this is the almost the combination of the Soviet Union's the opening of a worldwide offensive thing that can be changed by the total absence of Soviet foreign invest­ progressive social base with its reac­ against the gains made by national election of a more liberal administra­ ment. tionary political leadership in a 1939 liberation fighters from Angola to tion; it is rooted in the basic structure In 1970 the Soviet state operated article on the nature of the USSR. China during the past thirty years. In of capitalism. Imperialism is a stage of only twenty-eight foreign companies in Trotsky said: the Middle East, it would open the way capitalist development, a stage that is the whole world. A CIA report released "The trade unions of France, Great for a new war of aggression by the characterized by the rise of monopolies last October said that this number had Britain, and the United States and Israeli state against the Arab masses. in domestic industry, the inexorable expanded to eighty-four enterprises by other countries support completely the For revolutionists, defense of the drive toward extention of that mono­ 1977 as a result of the expansion of counterrevolutionary politics of their East-West trade in the intervening Soviet Union against imperialism is a polization to the world market, and bourgeoisie. This does not prevent us flowing from that, the export of capital years. fundamental principle. But defense of from labeling them trade unions, from the Soviet Union and the overthrow of along with commodities. Virtually all the enterprises were supporting their progressive steps and the Stalinist bureaucracry are really colmected with trade or with sustain­ Protection of existing profits and the from defending them against the bour­ two sides of the same task. ing the Soviet fishing fleet. Of the five geoisie. . . . In the last analysis a Soviet companies in the United States, workers' state is a trade union which In the final analysis, the survival of for example, one is concerned with has conquered power." the Soviet Union-and the survival of general trade; one markets Soviet trac­ humanity itself-depends upon the tors; one is a shipping agent; one Revolutionists unconditionally de­ extension of the socialist revolution to services the Soviet fishing fleet off the fend the Soviet Union against impe­ the rest of the world, and especially to West Coast; and the last is responsible rialist attack at the same time that we the United States. That is the only way for chartering cargo ships and tankers. call for the overthrow of the Stalinist that the shadow of nuclear war can Of the eighty-four Soviet enterprises regime. In the same way, revolution­ ever be lifted. abroad, twenty-two are shipping con­ ists defend a trade union against at­ tacks by the capitalist state even But the Stalinist regime-as opposed cerns, six are fishing ventures, and to the economic foundation of the nine are banks. (Soviet banks and though it might have a reactionary leadership that maintains itself in workers state-is an obstacle to the insurance companies abroad concen­ world revolution. It tries to secure the trate mainly on financing and insur­ office by methods of gangsterism and collaboration with the bosses. safety of its power base by deals with ing trade deals.) imperialism, deals made at the expense Compare this record of foreign eco­ Failure to understand the contradic­ of struggles against oppression around nomic activity to that of the U.S. tory character of the Soviet Union the world. makes it impossible to understand ruling class, with its worldwide net­ Stalinist propagandists have what is happening in the world today. work of investments. What it all adds thought up many names for this policy up to is the fact that the Soviet govern­ From the viewpoint of the imperial­ of betrayal-"collective security," ment, unlike Washington, has no fun­ ists, the Soviet Union and the other "peaceful coexistence," and "detente" damental economic interest compelling countries in which capitalism has been are a few. In the end, they all come it to intervene around the world. The abolished represent a potential market down to trading support to capitalism whole history of U.S.-Soviet relations and arena for investment that could abroad in return for temporary-and is proof of this point. give their system a new lease on life. often illusory-military or diplomatic The abolition of private property in At the same time, the existence of advantages. Lenin, Trotsky, and the other leaders . -· the means of production, and with it the workers states limits what the Churchill, Truman, and Stalin the abolition of the profit system, imperialists can do to prevent the Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 21 But the Kremlin's stance of discount­ ing popular concern over the danger of • U.S. vs. USSR nuclear satellites as merely anti-Soviet •Continued • from preceding page "The defense of the USSR coincides propaganda played into the hands of of the Russian revolution relied on the for us with the preparation of world the imperialists. President Carter de­ European working class following revolution. Only those methods are clared January 30 that he would favor their example. A socialist society, in permissible which do not conflict with a ban on atomic-powered satellites. their view, could only be built through the interests of the revolution. The Carter's proposal was an example of the combined efforts of the workers in defense of the USSR is related to the pure hypocrisy. Only three days later the advanced industrialized countries. world socialist revolution as a tactical his secretary of defense testified in With its narrow, nationalistic out­ task is related to a strategic one. A Congress for a military budget that look, the Stalinist bureaucracy substi­ tactic is subordinated to a strategic would double the amount currently tuted for the Bolshevik perspective the goal and in no case can be in contra­ being spent by Washington on weap­ idea of building a socialist society on diction to the latter." (In Defense of ons in space. But the Stalinists, hav­ the basis of the Soviet economy alone. Marxism, by Leon Trotsky, pages 16- ing let Carter take the initiative, were This reactionary utopia was counter­ 18.) incapable of exposing his hypocrisy. posed to the policies of revolutionary How would a revolutionary govern­ internationalism necessary for the ex­ Cosmos 954 ment respond to this situation? tension of the revolution. What a contrast there is between It would begin by relying first of all Trotsky's attitude-the Bolshevik atti­ on the world working class. When a Stalinism vs. Trotskyism tude to defense of the USSR-and that movement of hundreds of thousands in Supporters of the Kremlin, organized of the Stalinist regime. The difference opposition to nuclear power grows up in the pro-Moscow Communist parties was exemplified following the crash of in the capitalist world, a revolutionary around the world, identify defense of the Soviet satellite mentioned at the government would encourage that the Soviet Union with defense of the beginning of this article. movement and look for ways to ex­ Stalinist government and its policies. Cosmos 954, the satellite that failed, press its solidarity and to help inspire Moscow itself, as was noted above, was launched in September. It was put it. ' relies on the perspective of forging a into orbit carrying a nuclear reactor ·A revolutionary government would political bloc with the imperialist pow­ despite the fact that there is a massive make its main priority the advance of ers. The Kremlin is always prepared to anti-nuclear power movement, which every struggle against the evils of subordinate. the needs of the class has held demonstrations of tens of capitalism, instead of viewing such struggle to the search for some slight thousands in France, West Germany, independent mass movements as military advantage or for an agree­ Scandinavia, and Japan. merely minor adjuncts to whatever ment with one or another capitalist By ignoring the sentiment of masses military or diplomatic maneuvers are government. of people who have become aware of currently in progress. Thus, the pro-Moscow CPs end up the dangers of nuclear power and who changing their attitude toward capital­ oppose its use, the Soviet regime was Politics before bombs ist governments in accordance with putting its search for minor technical Such an attitude, which at times the shifting diplomatic relations be­ advantages in the arms race before the might mean accepting slight military tween any particular government and objective interests of the people of the disadvantages in the interests of help­ the USSR. For the Stalinists, govern­ world. At the same time, it was helping ing to clarify the political issues facing ments can change from "progressive" to create an image of the Soviet Union the masses around the world, is in the to "reactionary" and back again with as being no different from the United last analysis the most effective way to no alteration in their domestic policies States-an image that is far more defend the USSR. or even their leaders, let alone a revolu­ dangerous to the USSR than the lack When the Soviet government broke a tion. of any information that could have de facto ban on atmospheric nuclear While revolutionists support the mil­ been gathered by Cosmos 954. tests in 1961 with the detonation of a itary defense of the USSR, this is Instead of turning to the world work­ huge "superbomb,'' the Militant ex­ subordinate to a revolutionary political ing class and letting it know the facts, plained in an October 30, 1961, editor- defense-the type of defense that can the Stalinists secretly communicated ial: · prepare new conquests, new victories with the U.S. government. Once the "Encircled by an aggressive capital­ of the world working class against satellite was down, they minimized the ist world, the USSR has the right and imperialism. danger of any radioactivity, and in the duty to build its military defense. But As Trotsky explained in 1939: "Mis­ process covered up for the criminal in a struggle of this kind-a struggle takes on the question of defense of the experiments of U.S. imperialism in this between two conflicting social orders­ USSR most frequently flow from an area. • 7 military defense has effectiveness only incorrect understanding of the me­ An editorial in the February 1 Daily Soviet missile in silo. Development of to the extent that it is related to the thods of 'defense.' Defense of the USSR World, the newspaper of the American nuclear weapons by the USSR helped only meaningful defense against capi­ does not at all mean rapprochement Communist Party, insisted that "the prevent World War Ill. talist war. That defense is the building with the Kremlin bureaucracy, the danger of harmful radiation levels of an international, anti-war, anti­ acceptance of its politics, or a concilia­ does not exist because of special pre­ capitalist mass movement.... tion with the politics of her allies. In cautions taken in construction of the "The decision to resume the tests in this question, as in all others, we satellite, just as in the situation when which is busy developing its own mil­ blatant disregard of popular world remain completely on the ground of the a U.S. Transit satellite disintegrated in itary satellites, took an understanding opinion is an expression of the narrow international class struggle. 1964 or when an Apollo-13 lunar cap­ attitude toward Moscow's problems. nationalist outlook of Khrushchev and ". . . we defend the USSR as we sule burned up during an emergency "Senior American officials consider his associates.... Is this the perspec­ defend the colonies, as we solve all our re-entry.'' the disintegration of a Soviet nuclear­ tive that the heads of a workers' state problems, not by supporting some im­ The editorial went on to denounce powered space satellite over northwest­ have to offer the workers of the West? perialist governments against others, "lies about non-existent radiation far ern Canada a dramatic-sounding event The prospect of destruction instead of but by the method of international from human habitation." that should not be a cause of major the prospect of socialism? class struggle. . . . Leaving aside the absurd falsehood concern," Daniel Southerland reported "It is not simply a matter of justice "We are not a government party; we about "non-existent radiation," the in the January 25 issue of the Chris­ to the workers still living under capi­ are the party of irreconcilable opposi­ fact is that the Cosmos satellite could tian Science Monitor. talism. In the hands of these workers tion, not only in capitalist countries have landed any place-including there is the strength to stay the hands but also in the USSR. Our tasks, Moscow. Scientists were unable to even A handle for Carter of the warmakers. Nobody will ever among them the 'defense of the USSR,' predict what continent the satellite The editors of the New York Times build a bomb more powerful than a we realize not through the medium of would come down on. Moreover, al­ noted February 2 that "American progressive social force. Peace will be bourgeois governments and not even though the satellite fortunately did space officials tend to minimize the won not by bigger bombs, but by a through the government of the USSR, land in a sparsely populated area, it dangers of orbiting reactors. Military victorious socialist movement. Any­ but exclusively through the education was not so "far from human habita­ planners cite the incident as proof that thing that endangers the building of of the masses through agitation, tion,'' unless one chooses not to count the Russians are leading in the mil­ that movement allows the world to through explaining to the workers the Eskimo people and the other resi­ itary uses of space and urge a catch-up slide further down the road to war." what they should defend and what dents of Yellowknife as human. effort that could send still more reac­ Nothing has changed to make that they should overthrow.... Of course, the U.S. ruling class, tors skyward." point any less relevant today.

THE REVOLUTION BETRAYED Explains the Soviet economy, its differences with capital­ Books by ism, what Stalinism is, and why it triumphed. Contents include Socialism and the State, The Growth of Inequal­ ity and Social Antagonisms, and Is the Bureaucracy a Trotsky Ruling Class? 314 pages; $4.95.

on IN DEFENSE OF MARXISM Trotsky's last articles, written in the course of a debate the USSR on the nature of the USSR and what attitude to take toward it during a war. Discusses whether the USSR is imperialist and the relation between defense of the USSR Order from: Pathfinder Press, and overthrow of the bureaucracy. Russian revolution and founder of the 410 West Street, New York, New York 10014. 211 pages; $3.95. Red Army

22 World Outlook News, analysis, and discussion of international political events

Smith's ris~- gamble Rhodesia: far cry from real Black majority rule By Ernest Harsch remain in office and the existing white­ After several months of negotiations, dominated Parliament will continue to Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith function. and three prominent Black figures Under these conditions, the elections signed an accord in Salisbury March 3. that are scheduled to be held will The document will supposedly result in hardly be democratic. an end to white political control and in The new Parliament that is slated to the establishment of a largely Black take power December 31 will include regime by the end of the year. Also twenty-eight white. seats out of 100, agreed to were the terms for an interim giving the whites effective veto power coalition regime, in which Smith will over any amendments to the new con­ remain prime minister. stitution, which require seventy-eight The three Black figures who signed votes for passage. The constitution, the accord were Chief Jeremiah Chi­ moreover, is to include clauses provid­ rau, a government-backed tribal figure­ ing for prompt compensation for any head, and two Zimbabwean nationalist expropriated white property, as well as leaders, Abel Muzorewa and Ndaba­ other white privileges (the white mi­ ningi Sithole. nority now owns 80 percent of the Smith's decision to bring Muzorewa, country's wealth and about half of its Sithole, and Chirau into a coalition land). regime and to promise "majority rule" If this setup is actually put into by December 31 represents a signifi­ effect, it will be a far cry from what the cant gamble on his part, made under Zimbabwean masses have been fight­ intense pressure from the Zimbabwean Signing accord (from left to right) Abel Muzorewa, lan Smith, Jeremiah Chirau, and ing for-real Black majority rule and masses and under the threat of an Ndabaningi Sithole. an end to all vestiges of white supre­ upsurge that could sweep away the macy and privilege. entire structure of white domination. Smith's gamble is a risky one, how­ Smith's hope is that the inclusion of rivalries and aspirations for power of According to the agreement, the ever. The African populaticm may not some well-known Black figures in the the main nationalist leaders, he has interim regime is to be composed of an accept for long his version of "majority administration will sufficiently disor­ offered the prospect of significant go­ executive council and a ministerial rule." And any upsurge of the Zimbab­ ient the African masses to allow the vernmental posts to Muzorewa and council. The executive council, which is wean masses could easily blow Smith's preservation of many of the white Sithole, while excluding Joshua to decide overall policy by consensus, fragile coalition apart. minority's social and economic privi­ Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, who are will be composed of Smith, Muzorewa, These uncertain prospects are the leges, even under an eventual "Black" allied within the Patriotic Front. Smith Sithole, and Chirau. Each cabinet post main reason for the caution expressed regime. Muzorewa's participation will would like to see nothing better than in the ministerial council is to be by both Washington and London to­ be especially important in this regard, Muzorewa and Sithole trying to mobil­ shared by a Black and a white minis­ ward the Salisbury agreement. So far, sif!ce he has demonstrated his mass ize their followers to defend "their" ter. In the context of a white­ they have continued to press for the support within the country on a government from the Patriotic Front dominated civil service, this ensures Patriotic Front's inclusion in any ac­ number of occasions. guerrillas. · effective white control over all the cord, but have at the same time hinted Smith is likewise seeking to divide In signing the accord, both Muzor­ cabinet posts, especially the crucial at possible recognition should Smith's and weaken the entire Zimbabwean ewa and Sithole have made significant ones overseeing the police and mil­ scheme appear workable; nationalist movement. Playing on the concessions to the white minority. itary. At the same time, Smith will From Intercontinental Press/lnprecor

12 die in restaurant exP-losion IRA bombing hurts Irish freedom fight By Gerry Foley killed, and from our supporters who have absolutely inevitable. This is far from casualties is revealing. The tremend­ On February 17, a Provisional IRA rightly and severely criticised us. the first. ous sacrifices made for the sake of the bombing operation on the outskirts of The statement, however, defended Since incidents of this type can be military campaign make it difficult for Belfast went awry. The intention had the strategy that led to the La Mon and have been repeatedly exploited by them now to retreat from it. In fact, the been to force evacuation of the La Mon bombing: the imperialist propaganda machine, campaign of bombing has the look of a House restaurant, which is frequented every time the Provisionals leave a desperate maneuver designed to con­ by pro-British Protestants, and to in­ Republican supporters while critical are, bomb in a public place, they place their vince the republican ranks and sup­ flict property damage. however, politically mature and remain political fate in the hands of the impe­ porters that the guerrilla war is not However, the premises were not clear solidly behind the armed struggle. . .. rialists. fading and was not a failure. before the explosive device went off. To defeat the might of the interfering The claim that the bombings draw For weeks, the newspapers that re­ British Government the nature of their Twelve persons died in a wave of presence here dictated the method of strug­ British troops away from the ghettos is flect the Provisional point of view have flames. The incident had a particularly gle to be an economic bombing cam­ simply nonsense. The British have to featured pictures of masked comman­ strong impact on public opinion, since paign.... maintain far Jess troops in Northern dos, and have emphasized statements the restaurant was a family dining-out Had there been no bombing campaign all Ireland now than they have in the of groups outside Ireland specifically place, and many children were present. those Brits concentrated in city and town past, precisely because the political expressing support for the "armed" Ultraright proimperialists distributed centres and manning road checkpoints results of the bombing campaign have struggle. Likewise, they have begun to pictures of charred corpses. throughout all suburbs would be redeployed been to reduce the mass struggle, run direct and indirect attacks on In its February 25 issue, Republican in repressing Republican ghetto areas. In which is what forced the British to socialist groups that support the anti­ News, the Belfast weekly paper reflect­ damages the campaign has caused the Brits send the troops in the first place. imperialist struggle but criticize the ing the views of the Provisionals, hundreds of millions of pounds. The death­ The world, to be sure, hears a lot tactics of the IRA. toll has been high, both among civilians published a statement in the name of about the Provisional bombings. And The lessons of the ten-year-long con­ the republican movement. It said: and IRA personnel (over 60 Volunteers have been killed-in-action). it does get the message that the situa­ flict in Ireland are clear. The military campaign of the Provisionals has led The Irish Republican Army admits re­ But the political effects of the bombing tion there is not "normal." But these sponsibility for the bombing operation in campaign have . . . made government incidents have not helped arouse inter­ again and again to disastrous acci­ La Mon House in which twelve innocent under British direct rule difficult and often national public opinion against the dents and to defeats. people died. There is nothing we can offer in impossible. The world hears about the Six­ British military occupation. On the other hand, the mobilization mitigation bar that our inquiries have es­ Counties and knows that it is not normal. The mass civil-rights demonstra­ of the masses of the oppressed people tablished that a nine minute warning was tions and ghetto uprisings of 1968-72 around opposition to imperialist and given to the RUC [Royal Ulster Constabu­ lary]. This was proved totally inadequate The LaMon House bombing and the drew much more international atten­ pro-imperialist repression has led to given the disastrous consequences. reaction to it demonstrated what is tion than the bombings, and unlike victories, the greatest victories the We accept condemnation and criticism fundamentally wrong with this ap­ them, inspired support for the anti­ Irish people have won since the war of from only two sources: from the relatives proach. In the framework of such a imperialist movement in Ireland. independence. and friends of those who were accidentally campaign, accidents of this type are The Provisionals' reference to their From Intercontinental Press/lnprecor

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 ~3 World Outlook

after an all-out antiabortion campaign by the Catholic Church and certain leading Protestant figures together with Christian Democratic politicians. Statement of Fourth International In the battle for the right to abortion, women have been in the front lines in answering and mobilizing against the ultraright. The international network of antiabortion organizations is in all countries linked with racist, anti­ immigrant, ultraright, and fascist Women a world groups. The efforts of the women's movement in politically answering and mobilizing against these groups is demand equal rights important to the whole working class. Women fight dictators [The following statement was issued Over the past year women have also by the United Secretariat of the Fourth come to the forefront in struggles International for International against certain dictatorships. In the Women's Day, March 8.] past three months, hundreds of women participated in women's demonstra­ * * * tions and hunger strikes against the At a Congress of Socialist Women in military or police-state regimes in Ar­ Copenhagen in 1910, March 8 was gentina, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, de­ designated as an international day of manding democratic rights and the commemoration of the struggle of release of all political prisoners. women for their liberation. The day In Pakistan, where there is certainly itself was chosen in honor of a militant no "women's liberation movement" march by women garment workers in such as exists in the advanced capital­ New York City in 1908, demanding an ist countries, 1977 saw the entrance of end to inhuman working conditions masses of women into political activity and the right of women to vote. It was for the first time. According to Islamic on International Women's Day in 1917 tradition, Pakistani women are sup­ that female textile workers in Russia posed to stay in the home and not rose up and sparked a strike wave that show their faces in the street, much culminated ·in the overthrow of the less organize politically. But last tsar. spring, during the upheavals that fol­ After years of ritualistic celebration Women demonstrate for abortion rights in France lowed the March elections, women of International Women's Day, primar­ spontaneously poured into the streets ily by the Soviet Union and other for the first time in history, protesting bureaucratized workers states, this day matic examples occurred in Britain, In Italy, women have been in the the repression and demanding the took on a new dimension beginning in where workers at the Grunwick photo­ forefront of the struggle for jobs, or­ release of political prisoners. the late 1960s with the new wave of processing plant-most of them ganizing separately-both inside and Women's liberation organizations as women's liberation struggles that has women and Asian immigrants-have outside of the trade unions-to fight such are also spreading to the colonial become an international movement. waged a year-long struggle for the for their own special needs. And and semicolonial countries. In Brazil, First involving only small layers of right to form a union to fight condi­ throughout the advanced capitalist still locked under a dictatorial regime, relatively privileged women, the tions of super-exploitation. The tena­ countries, women have been in the several women's liberation groups movement has steadily extended its cious battle of these workers took cen­ forefront of resistance to cutbacks in have arisen, as well as two feminist impact into every crevice of society in ter stage in British politics for weeks, social spending, whether for child-care newspapers and women's centers in.a the advanced capitalist countries, with the strikers setting an example centers, medical facilities, or educa­ half dozen major cities. while beginning to find expression in for the whole working class in their tion. the colonial world as well. calls for labor solidarity and mass On the broader political level, Impact on reformists On the occasion of International picket lines, and coming up against the women's struggles have been responsi­ The increasing centrality of the Women's Day 1978, it is clear that the combined onslaught of the police, the ble for bringing to the fore important struggle of women has also been re­ women's liberation struggle is becom­ courts, the bourgeois press, and the far social and democratic issues. Foremost flected in the impact of the women's ing a more and more important aspect right-aided and abetted by the trade­ in many countries continues to be the movement on the mass reformist par­ of the class struggle as a whole. union and Labour Party bureaucracy. struggle for the right of women to ties (the Communist and Socialist par­ control their own bodies through the ties) and in the trade unions. In the Capitalist offensive 'Bakke' case right to safe, financially accessible early years of the most recent rise of On the economic level, the working In the United States, one of the contraception and abortion on demand the women's movement, the Commu­ masses throughout the capitalist world products of the capitalists' austerity and an end to forced sterilization. nist parties generally tried to oppose or are faced with having to bear the drive has been a broad public debate ignore it as alien to working-class burden of continuing bouts of eco­ over the issue of "quotas" or In all countries where the right to women. But the spread of feminist nomic downturn or stagnation caused affirmative-action programs aimed at abortion was liberalized in the late ideas, including among working class by the mechanisms of the profit sys­ reducing discrimination against 1960s or early 1970s (such as France, women, has forced the CPs to be more tem. Everywhere, the push is on for the women, Blacks and other oppressed Britain, and the United States), this cautious in dismissing this movement, imposition or strengthening of auster­ minorities, in educational and job op­ right is now being cut back-whether and in some countries to adapt to it in ity programs designed to make work­ portunities. The debate has crystal­ through legal restrictions or cutbacks words so as to be in a better position to ing people work harder, tighten their lized around the "Bakke case," which in abortion facilities-as part of the lead women into reformist channels. belts, and do without social services so is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. general ruling-class offensive against Thus, we saw the Spanish CP cam­ as to boost profit margins. (Allan Bakke is a white man who was the rights and standard of living of the paigning in the June 1977 elections as Women-along with youth, immi­ refused admission to the University of oppressed. "the party of women's liberation." But grant workers, and workers of op­ California medical school for alleged such shifts of position have the effect pressed nationalities-are central "reverse discrimination" against him 10,000 march in London of creating opposition to the CP's targets of the bourgeois offensive. because of special admission quotas On May 14, 1977, 10,000 people reformist line among women of the They face higher unemployment, for Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, marched through London demanding party, as the interests of women are in greater ghettoization into lower-paying and Asians.) an end to restrictions on the availabil­ fact sacrificed on the altar of a class­ job categories, and cutbacks in child­ In defending the principle of affirma­ ity of abortion. In France, the refusa1 collaborationist austerity pact with the care centers and medical facilities con­ tive action against discrimination, the of the government, doctors, and hospi­ bourgeoisie. nected with control of their reproduc­ women's movement has joined the tals to implement the Veil law, which In Britain the betrayal of women by tive functions (abortion and contra­ Black, Chicano, and Puerto Rican allows abortions, with certain restric­ the governing Labour Party has been ception clinics). Charged with manage­ movements in helping to educate the tions, up to ten weeks, has sparked particularly blatant. Women have seen ment of the household, they are also whole labor movement that a fight broader opposition than ever before, the Labour Party government and the ones who feel most immediately against discrimination inside the involving the two major trade-union Labour members of Parliament spear­ the squeeze of rising prices and declin­ working class is a precondition for federations and figures from the Com­ heading the attacks on the right to ing wages. Women are victimized indi­ mobilizing the full, united power of the munist and Socialist parties. An exam­ abortion. In addition, the Labour gov­ rectly as well: the burden of the eco­ class against the exploiters. ple was given by the February 5 meet­ ernment has presided over a huge nomic squeeze produces frustration More generally, women in many ing on abortion organized by the increase in unemployment, which has and demoralizes some sections of the countries have begun to demand pre­ coordinating body of women's groups hit women especially hard, and drastic working class, increasing, among ferential measures to assure them ac­ of Paris arid supported by the CFDT cuts in social services, the major other things, the incidence of rape and cess to the whole range of jobs and and other mass organizations. This burden of which falls upon women. beatings of women. educational opportunities, in order to meeting succeeded in bringing together These attacks, together with the glar­ Events in the past year have shown have the possibility of breaking out of more than 2,000 people. ingly inadequate nature of the Labour the growing importance of struggles by the traditionally "feminine" roles and In Switzerland, a hard-fought refer­ government's legislation on women's women as part of· the struggle of the occupations that have imposed on endum to eliminate restrictions on rights, has led to a sustained and whole working class against the aus­ women the lowest-paying jobs and the abortion was only narrowly defeated many-sided fight-back by women. terity attacks. One of the most dra- double day of work in the home. (929,239 to 994,677) on September 25, The widespread interest in socialist World news notes

Israel feels pressure on Esmail case An outpouring of protest in the United States has forced embar­ rassed Israeli authorities to issue a denial of charges that Sami Esmail, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, is being tortured in an Israeli jail. Esmail is a student at Michigan State University in· East Lansing. He was arrested December 21 when he arrived in Israel to visit his dying father. Esmail was charged with being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He denies being a member of the organiza­ tion, which is illegal in Israel. The National Committee to Defend the Human Rights of Sami Esmail is continuing its campaign for Esmail's freedom. On February 22 the Detroit City Council passed a resolution in support of Esmail. A march and rally will be held in nearby Dearborn on March 12. In New York City there will be a demonstration March 13 at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Israeli Consulate, 800 Second Avenue. Among those who have endorsed the campaign to free Esmail are Daniel Berrigan, Noam Chomsky, Eqbal Ahmad, and Leonard Wein­ glass. For more information, write 1118 South Harrison Road, East Lans­ ing, Michigan 48823. Telephone: (517) 351-4648 or 349-1738.

Still no rights in Iran Despite recent attempts by the shah to soften the brutal image of his regime, a new report by Amnesty International says the human rights situation in Iran has not changed. The February 28 report in­ cludes testimony before a U.S. congressional subcommittee given by Brian Wrobel, a British barrister who made a fact­ Militant Washington, D.C.: Protesting attacks on affirmative action finding tour of Iran on behalf of Amnesty International. Iranian military court proce­ ideas in the women's movement maintained by the policies of the refor­ dure, Wrobel said, "is such as to around the world, manifested in such mist parties. deny defendants any possibility events as the recent Socialism and Another salient feature of the of a fair trial." Although unable Feminism conference of 1,000 women women's movement that should be to verify reports of torture by the in Manchester, England, demonstrates pointed to on this year's International Iranian secret police, Amnesty the great potential that exists to win Women's Day is the internationalism International says such reports radicalizing feminists to socialism. of this movement. From the very be­ are continuing. ginning, the new feminist movement The shah's efforts to improve The role of revolutionary socialists Washington Post in this process is vitally important. In was internationalist. The number of his image came in the wake of contrast to all the reformist currents in international conferences and rallies, three days of protests in Tabriz, the working-class movement on the as well as the rapid international which the March 4 Washington Post said "bordered on an insurrec­ one hand, and to the proponents in the diffusion and assimilation of the litera­ tion." The shah dismissed provincial officials involved in the brutal women's movement of the struggle of ture of the movement reflected the crackdown on the protests. Official accounts said 9 people were killed sex against sex on the other, the · consciousness of women that their and 125 wounded, but other sources told the Washington Post that Fourth International offers a class­ struggle was international, extending about 100 were killed and more than 300 wounded. struggle strategy for building a mass across national boundaries as well as movement centered on the most burn­ social systems. ing needs of women of the working The women's movement is an exam­ Protests continue in Nicaragua class and other oppressed layers. ple in this sense to the rest of the working class. Over the past year In the two weeks ending March 5, N atiortal Guard troops killed more especially, we have seen growing pres­ than thirty peoP.le as protests continued against the dictatorship of Women in trade unions Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Women are making their needs and sure toward protectionism, expulsion Protests have taken place in Masaya, Leon, Jinotepe, and demands felt inside the trade unions as of immigrant workers, and attempts by well. In Spain, women workers have the ruling classes to blame the effects Matagalpa-as well as in Managua, the capital. On March 1, students been a dynamic part of the upsurge of of the economic crisis tm the workers of occupied two private schools in Chinandega. New York Times corres­ unionization in the post-Franco era, other countries. In its internationalist pondent Alan Riding reported March 1 that on February 25-26 there demanding the right to meet separ­ dimension, which will be expressed in was "a virtual uprising" of the Indian inhabitants of the Monimb6 ately to discuss their special concerns thousands of rallies and marches on district. On February 27 the National Guard put down the rebellion, and to press most effectively that these International Women's Day this year, killing at least twenty-two people in the three days of fighting. needs be fought for by the union. In the women's movement points the way Guardsmen also killed two students during a February 27 protest at France, the leaderships of both major for the workers movement as a whole the National University in Managua. union federations, the CGT and CFDT, on this key principle, which is neces­ have openly discussed and legitimized sary for an effective struggle against over the past year the right of women the exploiters. Santiago Carrillo defends Rudolf Bahro unionists to form internal women's Interviewed on West German television recently, Santiago Carrillo, caucuses. general secretary of the Communist Party of Spain, spoke out against Pressing demands In Spain. Italy, France, and else­ the preventive detention of Marxist dissident Rudolf Bahro by the East On International Women's Day 1978, where, women have pressed for the German government. Bahro was arrested following the publication of these are some of the themes atl.d unions to take up broader social issues, his anti-Stalinist book, The Alternative. demands that stand out as most press­ According to the February 27 issue of the French Trotskyist daily such as the need for child-care centers, ing: for a shorter workweek and jobs for all, Rouge, Carrillo insisted that ''Bahro should have the right to freely • For defense and extension of the and the right to adequate maternity:· express his ideas in his own country; the charge of espionage against right to contraception and abortion on paternity leaves. demand, paid for through public him is not believable." Trade-union women's formations health services or medical assistance The tremendous pressure Carrillo is under from radicalizing workers have also been able to pose clearly the programs. in Spain is shown by the efforts he went through to take his distance objective need for unification of the • An end to cutbacks in social servi­ from the undemocratic practices of the East German CP. Bahro's trade-union federations in Western Eu­ ces such as child-care centers and arrest, Carrillo insisted, "shows the gap that separates our concept of rope, which are divided along political women's medical facilities. socialism from that of the East German leaders. We, we want the party lines. In both Italy and Spain • The right of women to jobs. No freedom of discussion. No one should be persecuted for their different there have been instances of women discriminatory firings and layoffs of conceptions. Freedom of discussion is essential. Socialism where this is forming committees that cut across women. not respected is socialism that has lost the possibility for development trade-union lines in order to strengthen • Equal rights for women. Down and growth." the struggle of the women. This points with all discriminatory laws. the way to the need for the whole • Solidarity of the whole working working class to overcome the sectar­ class movement with the struggle of ian divisions between trade unions women!

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 25 In Review

'Never-Ending Wrong' The Never-Ending Wrong. By and V anzetti "were using the occasion Katherine Anne Porter. Little, Brown for Communist propaganda, and hop­ and Company. 1977. 63 pages. ing only for their deaths as a political $5.95. argument. I know this because I heard and saw." Furthermore, she says, the "putting During the thirty-nine minutes it to death of Sacco and Vanzetti [was] to took to read this book about the Sacco­ the great ideological satisfaction of the Vanzetti case, I kept trying to choose Communist-headed group with which I between "apathetic" and "disgraceful" had gone up to Boston. It was exactly to describe it. In the end I decided the what they had hoped for ...." first adjective fits the author, some of Strong charges, but there is nothing whose stories I have enjoyed, and the in what Porter heard and saw to sup­ second fits the publisher, some of port them. Nothing with a single ex­ whose books I have· admired. ception, a statement she attributes to The Never-Ending Wrong was pub­ Baron, which she cites not once or lished last August on the fiftieth anni­ twice, but three times, because it is the versary of the day Nicola Sacco and sole evidence for her contentions. Bartolemeo Vanzetti were executed by At one point, a few days before the the state of Massachusetts on frame-up executions, Porter remarked to Baron charges of murder and robbery. Their "that even then, at that late time, I still hoped the lives of Sacco and V anzetti might be saved and that they would be granted another triaL" Bartolemeo Vanzetti (left) and Nicola Sacco Books To which Baron replied, according to Porter, "Saved, who wants them saved? What earthly good would they confided it to Porter, a nonmember thinks or says it stands for. More than real crime was that they were anar­ do us alive?" whom she disliked, while concealing it once I have groaned when I heard a chists and Italian immigrants. Since Baron is dead, there is no way from the CP and ILD members. candidate or other representative of At that time the thirty-seven-year-old now of verifying whether or not this is I can add some personal testimony the Socialist Workers ·Party saying Porter spent almost a week in Boston the exact reply she made to Porter. that I think is as relevant as Porter's. something about its policies on TV or as a volunteer with one of the Sacco­ (Someone who dates the Russian revo­ The first demonstration I ever at­ radio that I know (or think) does not Vanzetti defense committees. A regis­ lution as 1924 is not the most reliable tended was in downtown Newark, New really express its positions. tered Democrat, a convinced liberal, ·witness.) Jersey, the night of the Sacco-Vanzetti It might have been something like and an early sympathizer of the Rus­ But even if one accepts Porter's electrocutions. I was only eleven and that with Baron in 1927. At that time sian revolution, she marched on picket account of Baron's reply as accurate had been brought by my older sister, a there was still quite a lot of infantile lines in Boston, was arrested three (for the sake of argument), it does not twenty-year-old worker who was secre­ sectarianism in the American CP-an times (the fine was five dollars for at all follow that she has proved her tary of the Newark ILD at the time infantilism of style more than policy. "vagrancy"), typed letters and wrote contentions about the CP's policy in and a local leader of the fight to save Many of its members had rather crude press releases, and participated in the Sacco-Vanzetti case. Sacco and V anzetti. or primitive conceptions of how Com­ demonstrations, including a vigil on Before offering my hypothesis about The demonstration, late at night as munists should act or speak. Some had the night of the executions. She made the possible meaning of the statement news from Boston was awaited, made the idea that they had to contradict some notes about her experiences and attributed to Baron, let's recall the a deep impression on me. I knew whatever non-Communists said to impressions, which she has now embel­ historic facts. nothing of politics, and it was not until them, or else they were not measuring lished. No group in this country or abroad years later that I realized the entire up to Communist standards them­ The defense committee with which played a bigger role than the Commu­ leadership and most of the member­ selves. Others affected a certain "hard­ Porter worked in Boston was run by nists in mobilizing millions of people ship of the CP in the Newark area were ness" or "toughness" in what they leaders of the Communist Party. Porter to save Sacco and Vanzetti. If they present among the hundreds in the thought was the Russian Bolshevik was strongly antagonized by the con­ were hoping for their deaths and mar­ crowd. But I did not need to know mold, and were fond of exhibiting this duct or the style and rhetoric of the CP tyrdom, they could have sat back and politics or be older to recognize the in their intercourse with naive liberals leaders, especially Rosa (or Rose) avoided these vast and costly efforts. grief that swept the demonstration of the Porter type. Baron. She still smarts over Baron's Sacco and Vanzetti themselves greatly when the word came that Sacco and So I think it is possible that there invective against "political illiterates," appreciated the work in their behalf by V anzetti were dead. No "ideological were CP members in that period, and which Porter felt was aimed against. the CP-led International Labor De­ satisfaction" was manifested, great or even leaders, who may have thought her. fense (ILD), and most historians smalL These were not the tears and and believed what Porter claims Baron And yet the present "book," which agreed that the CP's activities were a curses of people who had been hoping said, whether Baron did or not. But seems to be Porter's delayed reply to significant part of the total defense for what happened. that didn't represent the CP's policy, Baron, couldn't have been written by effort. Although Baron's alleged remark and in general it is absurd to make anybody who was politically literate. Of course the CP made Communist does not square with the facts and the such serious charges on the basis of Here are some of the things it tells us: propaganda out of the case-just as attitudes of millions of participants, I such flimsy evidence. That the Russian revolution occurred the anarchists made anarchist propa­ can accept the possibility that she But, as I indicated above, I blame in 1924; that Mussolini "chased him ganda out of it and the liberals made actually uttered it without accepting the publisher more than the eighty­ [Hitler] single-handedly out of the Pol­ liberal propaganda out of it and Porter Porter's interpretation in any way. seven-year-old author. Don't they have ish Corridor"; that the "Communists now makes anti-human-anguish propa­ For example, the words cited may editors at Little, Brown to check facts dupe[d] us [the U.S. government] into ganda out of it. That's what a united have been spoken in exasperation by a and claims? Doesn't anybody there deserting Republican Spain"; that a front is-joint action around certain person exhausted and under tension. know the year of the Russian revolu­ "famine took place" in the Soviet issues agreed on by groups that differ We all say things we don't exactly tion? Isn't anybody there interested in Union "under orders from Lenin, who on other issues. But its Communist mean when we are in that state. Por­ the famine ordered by Lenin? Can't directed a great famine or an occa­ propaganda doesn't prove the CP ter's own remark ("I still hoped the they spot an unproven accusation? Or sional massacre by way of bringing hoped and worked for Sacco and Van­ lives of Sacco and Vanzetti might be don't they care? dissidence under the yoke"; and other zetti's death. saved") was rather strange in the Here is a "book" that in effect ac­ revelations equally new. Porter herself describes the "mourn­ context-an office staffed by people cuses the Communist Party of exploit­ Porter is not so much concerned with ful" gathering of the CP and ILD who had come a long distance pre­ ing the Sacco-Vanzetti case. But look what the ruling class did to Sacco and members immediately after the execu­ cisely in order to help save them-and who's talking. Very carefully, on ex­ V anzetti as with "the anguish that tions. But why would the participants may have struck the harried.Baron as actly the fiftieth anniversary of the human beings inflict on each other­ be mournful if the real policy of the CP provocatively stupid. electrocutions, they publish a sixty­ the never-ending wrong, forever incur­ and the ILD was to hope and work for There is another possibility: that three-page pamphlet and, after skimp­ able." From this angle, her chief target the executions? Why wouldn't they Baron actually meant what Porter ing on the most elementary editorial becomes the Communist Party, which instead be pleased and happy because claims she said. But even that obligations, they have the nerve to fought to save Sacco and Vanzetti, not their objective had been attained? Por­ wouldn't prove Porter's point. charge $5.95 for it. They probably the ruling class, which executed them. ter surely could not argue that they Sometimes a distinction has to be think that commercial exploitation is In 1927, she says, "some of the were ignorant of the CP's real policy, made between what a party stands for morally superior to other types. groups apparently working" for Sacco because that would mean Baron had and what a member of that party -George Breitman 26 Women in Revolt Diane Wang Abortion clinics in danger What's next: bumperstickers that read "Kill a dows smashed. Besides the "Right to Life" groups, the gangs woman for life"? That seems to be the sentiment The reactionaries have the nerve to call their terrorizing women have another, bigger accomplice. behind the spread of violent attacks on abortion groups names like "Right to Life." The Cleveland From the "life is unfair" White House to the courts clinics-attacks that underscore the emergency arsonist certainly had a strange ritual for celebrat­ to the cops, government officials have encouraged nature of the fight to defend legal abortion. ing his respect for life. So did the thugs who broke the right-wingers by publicly opposing legal abor­ The February 15 attack on the Concerned into a Fairfax, Virginia, clinic on February 11. They tion and passing laws to restrict or deny this right Women's Clinic in Cleveland showed how vicious pushed and kicked the clinic staff-including a of women. the anti-abortion terrorists are. An arsonist threw woman who was six and a half months pregnant. In Fairfax, Virginia, anti-abortion demonstrators gasoline right into a lab technician's eyes, poured In Cleveland the head of "Right to Life" protested have repeatedly occupied the abortion clinic. When gasoline around the room, set a blaze, and fled. that the arson attack was "a direct contradiction" brought to trial on charges of trespass they have At the time there were about twenty people in the to his group's goals. been acquitted. Judge Lewis Griffeth let them off on clinic, including one woman on an operating table But where's the contradiction? The anti­ the grounds that they meant well! On February 10 in the midst of an abortion. abortionists are demanding laws that would drive Judge Mason' Grove excused them by declaring the According to a study done by the National Abor­ women to back-alley or home-remedy abortions. state law permitting abortions unconstitutional. tion Rights Action League, the Cleveland fire was They don't flinch when told that if they have their Is it surprising that the anti-abortionists returned only the most recent of six arson attacks in the past way some eighty-five women a week will be hospi­ . the next day to physically attack the clinic staff? year. Abortion and birth control clinics have been talized for medical complications or five women a All supporters of abortion need to unite against put to the torch in St. Paul, Minnesota; Burlington, week may die because of the laws. these enemies-both the ones at the clinic doors and Vermont; Omaha, Nebraska; Cincinnati and Co­ The "respectable" anti-abortionists would muti­ the ones in the White House, the courts, and the lumbus, Ohio. late or kill women with restrictive abortion laws. legislatures. A united counteroffensive against the In Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati clinics have The terrorists attempt the same thing with fire abortion foes can protect not only women's rights, been hit with chemical bombs and had their win- bombs. but women themselves. National Picket Line Frank Lovell 'Negotiations' in coal The Carter administration subscribes to the con­ industry and dubious credentials as authoritative miners' real needs. cept of collective bargaining as defined by federal representatives of either side. Brennan also told the union that if the BCOA law and favors the union-endorsed Labor Law The "bargaining sessions," as they were called, terms were unaccepable, the operators were pre­ Reform Bill that is supposed to bring recalcitrant were supervised from the beginning by Wayne pared to negotiate separate contracts company by employers to the bargaining table. The mine strike Horvitz, head of the Federal Mediation and Concili­ company. The intention was to starve out the has revealed more than this about Carter and about ation Service. Horvitz established his reputation as miners in a long strike until they were forced to government labor policy. vice-president of the Matson Navigation Company crawl back to work There were never any serious negotiations on the in San Francisco. The scheme collapsed when the miners showed part of the coal operators from the time the 1974 On the union side, UMWA President Arnold they were still determined, militant, and united union contract expired on December 6, 1977, until Miller sat in. His staff consisted of attorneys and after ten weeks of the strike. It was only then that union and management representatives were sum­ consultants recommended by Horvitz. the Carter administration decided to take a hand in moned to the White House on February 15 and told For UMWA public relations the firm of Maurer, the matter. that the impending fuel shortage dictated an end to Fleischer, Zon and Anderson was selected-maybe the strike. because it works for the AFL-CIO and managed the The aim of the Labor Department was to get the Government intervention on the side of the mine campaign of Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride miners back to work and keep them on the job, not operators did not signal the beginning of collective against Ed Sadlowski in the 1977 union election. to negotiate a settlement of their grievances. Speaking for the operators, Joseph Brennan, a bargaining either-even though Labor Secretary The coal miners have learned from their long former research director of the UMW A under the old Ray Marshall undertook to serve as mediator be­ battle with the operators that their strike weapon is company-minded Boyle regime, announced at the tween the two sides, thereby lending the appearance their only defense. of negotiations in progress. outset that without a firm guarantee of "labor There are two reasons for the total absence of stability" (code for no strikes) there could be no The intervention of the Carter administration to negotiations in this strike. The fundamental reason settlement. weaken their strike and force the miners back to is the refusal of the Bituminous Coal Operators The demand that the United Mine Workers agree· work ought to be an object lesson for the union Association to enter into negotiations. It takes two to become the enforcement agency of the operators movement that even though "collective bargaining" sides to bargain and reach a settlement. against the miners, coupled with the denial of is the statutory policy of government, their own The result has been make-believe negotiations health care and mine safety control previously won organized power is the only protection workers have conducted by a crew with little knowledge of the by the union, foreclosed any consideration of the against their employers. · ' Capitalism Fouls Things Up ·' Arnold Weissberg Don't drink the water The New York State Department of Environmen­ All these poisons are wastes from industrial incidence of cancer in the colon over the past tal Conservation reported recently that it had found processes. More than 250 industries and municipali­ twenty years. what appeared to be Mirex, a cancer-causing chemi­ ties have permits to dump toxic wastes into the The New England Fisheries Center has found cal, in two fish taken from the Hudson River. Hudson, but the study charges that hundreds of that metallic elements, including PCBs, have en­ A form of Mirex is used as a fire retardant in TV others evade the law by simply flushing their tered the food chain in the waters off New York. sets and other electrical applicances. Officials spec­ chemical wastes through municipal sewage sys­ Commercial fishing in the Hudson has been ulate the deadly substance reaches the Hudson after tems. banned for two years because of PCBs. Pollution of industrial dumping. The researchers were critical of the U.S. Environ­ the coastal waters has nearly destroyed fish life in The discovery of Mirex adds one more to the mental Protection Agency, charging the EPA has Long Island Sound and along the New Jersey Hudson's catalog of deadly poisons. "refused to require industry to divulge what chemi­ shore. A study released last fall by the Environmental cals are present in its waste, let alone conduct an Despite the serious threat to human health posed Defense Fund and the New York Public Interest analysis of their potential environmental and by continued chemical pollution of the Hudsoq and Research Group found that hundreds of poisonous health effects." other waterways, Congress last fall weakened the and carcinogenic chemicals were routinely dumped 1972 clean water rules. into the Hudson. About 150,000 people, mostly in the city of Pough­ Some industries now have until 1987 to stop A group of chemicals called PCBs, carbon tetra­ keepsie, drink Hudson River water. polluting-that is, if they aren't eligible for the chloride, toluene, and chloroform were among the A New York State study found that Poughkeepsie special "waivers" of the rules the Democrats and substances researchers found in the river. area residents have had a teJ!fold increase in the Republicans so generously included in the law.

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 ·27 In Brief

CAN CONGRESS BREAK LAW? transportation," remarked Shut down the Trojan nuke Can U.S. senators and their David Tatel, director of the Quote unquote aides break the law and claim Office of Civil Rights. "The The Trojan Decommission­ the site because there is no congressional immunity, there­ districts are so big and the "In a democratic coun­ ing Alliance, an Oregon anti­ safe place to put them. Port­ by avoiding prosecution? The Black areas are so large that try, I still think, there nuclear power group, will land General Electric, which Carter administration says without busing all we can do is should be some limits hold a march and rally March owns Trojan, has asked for yes. AI and Margaret McSurely desegregate the edges." about, or beyond which, 18 to protest the refueling of permission to store even more say no. Although HEW Secretary Jo­ one should not go or al­ the Trojan nuclear power radioactive waste on the Tro­ The McSurelys were civil seph Califano has opposed the low others to go, because plant near Portland. jan grounds. rights activists in Kentucky in amendment, President Carter this is no longer demo­ Nuclear wastes from the For more information, con­ the 1960s. In August 1967 their has yet to make his opinions cracy then. It is no longer reactor are left to pile up on tact TDA at (503) 231-0014. home was raided by the state publicly known. The amend­ democracy if everyone police, their papers confiscated, ment has been challenged in can do whatever he and they were charged with court by a group of civil rights wishes. There must be a "sedition." organizations. limit to that. It's how I The documents were turned conceive democracy." over to the late Sen. John -President Tito of Yugo­ McClellan, a bitter opponent of NO LOANS FOR APARTHEID slavia in an interview equal rights for Blacks. The The United Auto Workers with James Reston of the McSurelys were forced to go to union announced March 3 it "New York Times." the U.S. Supreme Court to get would close all its accounts at their papers back. banks that make loans to the The McSurleys filed suit apartheid regime in South against McClellan and three of Africa. The union said it would S. AFRICA CONFERENCE his aides, charging them with also urge banks at which it had The Northeast Committee for violating the constitutional accounts to publicly pledge not the Liberation of Southern guarantee against unreason­ to make loans to South Afri­ Mrica will hold a conference at able searches and seizures. ca. Yale University the weekend of The federal government has "The government of South April 1. The committee in­ sought to block the suit. In Africa continues to brutally cludes representatives of thir­ arguments before the Supreme suppress Blacks and other non­ teen campuses and several or­ Demonstrators at Trojan nuclear power plant Court on March 1, Deputy So­ whites who make up 80 percent ganizations, including the licitor General Frank Easter­ of the population," said UAW American Committee on brook admitted the McSurelys' President Douglas Fraser. "It Africa, Student Coalition charge was true but contended is a racist society that refuses Against Racism, Young Social­ as an infringement of the right largest in its history-is only senators and their staffs could to allow Black workers even ist Alliance, and American the most basic human rights." Friends Service Committee. to travel. 6.1 percent of sales, a "decline" even commit murder and be The conference will include On March 1, the New York from 6.2 percent in 1976, 6.7 immune from prosecution! panel discussions, workshops, State Assembly passed a bill percent in 1973, and 10.3 per­ and a Sunday plenary session requiring all employers to sub­ cent in 1965. TEXANS PICKET BRYANT to discuss proposals for action. mit lists of employees to be However, as the UAW notes, The San Antonio chapter of checked against lists of welfare the standard way of gauging ATTACK ON BUSING the National Organization for recipients. The bill is sup­ profits is to measure them The U.S. Senate has passed Women sponsored a picket line posedly aimed at curbing "wel­ against total corporate invest­ an amendment that could end February 18 to protest an ap­ ATTACKS ON WELFARE fare fraud." ment. school busing for the purpose pearance by antigay bigot An­ The U.S. Supreme Court Measured that way, GM's of desegregation. The amend­ ita Bryant. Seventy people ruled February 27 that it is profits represent a 23.2 percent ment, sponsored by two Demo­ braved record cold to take part, legal to reduce the welfare ben­ return, the highest since 1965. crats, is now attached to an reports Militant correspondent efits of someone who moves UAW HITS GM PROFITS The union also noted that appropriations bill for the De­ Susan Garry. from the United States to The United Auto Workers GM had set aside $161 million partment of Health, Education When Bryant appreared on Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico was union has charged General for bonuses for 6,500 favored and Welfare. If the amended stage, more than 1,000 people left out of a 1972 law that Motors with deliberately misre­ executives-an average of bill is passed, HEW will be got up and left the auditorium. increased federal welfare bene­ presenting its $3.3 billion prof­ $25,000 each, a sum considera­ forbidden to order busing. Bryant's appearance was part fits. its for 1977. bly greater than the average "We can't get an effective of a "Revive America" gather­ The law had been challenged GM claims the figure-the auto worker's wage. remedy without using some ing.· What's Going On

ARIZONA nation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For berts, Democratic Socialist Organizing candidate for U.S. House of Representa­ Fr. Antoin Adrien, Haitian Fathers; Enio more information call (213) 582-1975. Committee; Mike Collins, Socialist tives, 14th C.D. Sun., Mar. 19, 7 p.m. Carrion, Hispanic Labor Council (AFL­ PHOENIX Workers Party. Fri., Mar. 24, 7:30p.m. 916 12920 Mack Ave. Donation: $1. Ausp. CIO); Rev. Ricard Potter, National Coun­ DISCUSSION ON MARXISM. Every SAN DIEGO Broadway. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Militant Forum. For more information call cil of Churches; George Vician, New York Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. 314 E. Taylor. THE BRIGGS INITIATIVE VS. GAY Forum. For more information call (303) (313) 961-5675 office, Immigration and Naturalization Ausp: Socialist Workers Party. For more RIGHTS. A debate on State Rep. John 837-1018. Service. Sat., Mar. 18, 3-7 p.m. 475 River­ information call (602) 255-0450. Briggs's initiative against civil and human DETROIT: WEST SIDE side Dr. (120 St.) Ausp: Committee rights for gays in California. Fri., Mar. 17, VICTORIA WOODHULL & FREDERICK Against Deportations. For more informa­ 8 p.m. 1053 15th St. Donation: $1. Ausp: DOUGLASS: FIGHTERS FOR EQUAL tion call (212) 675-9158. Militant Forum. For more information call MARYLAND RIGHTS. Speakers: Marty Alston, coau­ CALIFORNIA (714) 234-1630. BALTIMORE thor of soon-to-be-released book on the NYC: LOWER EAST SIDE BERKELEY THE NEW MARYLAND DEATH PE­ topic; Chris Alson, founding member of CAPITALISM FOULS THINGS UP: IN­ IRELAND: THE STRUGGLE TODAY. SAN JOSE NALTV LAW. Speakers to be announced. the United Auto Workers. Sun., Mar. 19, 7 DUSTRIAL POLLUTION AND ITS EF­ Speakers: Ray McGrath, Irish Northern THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN LABOR Fri., Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 2117 N. Charles St. p.m. 18415 Wyoming. Donation: $1. Ausp: FECTS ON WORKING PEOPLE. Speak­ Aid; Michael McDermatt, Irish National & ITS LESSONS FOR TODAY. Two Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. Militant Forum. For more information call ers; Michael Baumann, managing editor (313) 341-6436. Caucus; Mike Connell, Eirenua; Joe Cole, classes. Speakers: Fred Halstead, Social­ For more information call (301) 547-0668. of Intercontinental Press/ lnprecor; Ken­ Socialist Workers Party. Thurs., Mar. 16, 8 ist Workers Party candidate for governor dall Green, epidemiologist, NYU. Fri., p.m. 3264 Adeline. Donation: $1. Ausp: of California. Sat., Mar. 18, 1 p.m. & 3 Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 7 Clinton St. (off Hous­ Militant Forum. For more information call p.m. 942 E. Santa Clara St. Donation: $1. MASSACHUSETTS MINNESOTA ton). Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant (415) 653-7156. Ausp: San Jose SWP Campaign Commit­ Bookstore/libreria Militante. For more tee. For more information call (408) 295- BOSTON: SOUTH END ST. PAUL information call (212) 260-6400. 8342. BLACK MAJORITY RULE VS. APAR­ THE STRUGGLE TO UNIONIZE J.P. LOS ANGELES THEID: ZIMBABWE & SOUTH AFRICA. STEVENS. Film: Testimony. Speaker: NYC: UPPER WEST SIDE PICKET LINE IN PROTEST OF BRIT­ Panel of speakers to be announced. Fri., Maureen Ferrin, Amalgamated Clothing THE NEW SITUATION IN THE IRISH ISH TERROR IN IRELAND. Fri., Mar. 17, COLORADO Mar. 17, 7:30 p.m. 510 Commonwealth and Textile Workers union. Sat., Mar. 18, FREEDOM STRUGGLE. Speaker: Gerry 11 a.m. British Consulate, 3701 Wilshire DENVER Ave., 4th Fl. (Kenmore subway stop on 8 p.m. Twin Cities Friends Meeting Foley, staff writer for Intercontinental Blvd. (east of Western Ave.). Ausp: PROSPECTS FOR WINNING THE Green Line). Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant House, 295 Summit Ave. Donation: $1. Press/lnprecor. Fri., Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 786 Friends of Ireland. EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT. Speak­ Forum. For more information call (617) Ausp: Peace & Social Action Committee, Amsterdam Ave. Donation: $1. Ausp: ers: Carole Mangan, president, Central 262-4620. Twin Cities Friends Meeting, Militant Militant Forum. For more information call Chapter of National Organization for Forum. For more information call (612) (212) 663-3000. L.A.: SOUTHEAST Women; Elsa Blum, Socialist Workers 222-8929. IS BAKKE A VICTIM OF 'REVERSE Party. Fri., Mar. 17, 7:30 p.m. 916 Broad­ DISCRIMINATION'? Speakers: Dr. Gor­ way. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. MICHIGAN don Brown, psychology department, Pas­ For more information call (303) 837-1018. DETROIT: EAST SIDE PENNSYLVANIA adena City College; Sam Manuel, Social­ WHO RULES DETROIT. Speaker: Nan NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA ist Workers Party candidate for state EUROCOMMUNISM: A STRATEGY Bailey, Socialist Workers Party candidate NEW YORK CITY POLITICAL ASYLUM FOR HECTOR attorney general. Fri., Mar. 17, 8 p.m. FOR SOCIALISM? Speakers: Mike Taglia, for U.S. House of Representatives, 13th SYMPOSIUM ON THE CASE FOR UN­ MARROQUIN, Speaker: Margaret Winter, 2554 Saturn Ave., Huntington Park. Do- U.C. Boulder graduate student; Skip Ro- Congressional District; Tom Smith, SWP DOCUMENTED WORKERS. Speakers: attorney for Hector Marroquin. Thurs.,

28. Their Government

Compiled by Arnold Weissberg .A man for all seasons CARTER RATING: NEW LOW they had arrived at an agree­ WASHINGTON-It's a doggone lie, The latest Louis Harris poll, ment with the Narragansett Pennsylvania Rep. Daniel Flood is willing published March 6, has found Indians over an Indian land to shout from the rooftops. There isn't, that the overall rating of Presi­ claim. The tribe had sought the and never has been, any plaque in his dent Carter has dropped to a return of 3,500 acres stolen office soliciting, "He who pays the piper new low: 58-41 percent nega: from them. The agreement calls the tune." tive, from 49-47 percent nega­ calls for the state and the pri­ Flood says it's another fabrication by tive in January. vate landowners to sell 1,800 those newspaper ree-porters searching for Carter got a 69-27 percent acres to a majority-Indian, a Pulitzer or some other Holy Grail. negative rating on his han­ semigovernmental corporation After the Philadelphia hospital shake­ dling of the economy, a 79-17 for $3.5 million. The money down and California trade-school payoff negative rating on keeping will be supplied by the federal stories, they linked Flood to mob cash for down the cost of living, and a government. Only 200 acres an Interstate Commerce Commission fa­ 65-31 percent negative rating may be developed under the vor. Now, they say Flood got big bucks on cutting unemployment. terms of the agreement. from a .New York Jewish service agency The plan is the first settle­ for Labor Department training funds for ment in a series of fourteen Soviet Jewish immigrants. INDIAN LAND SETTLEMENT Indian land claims that de­ "I, of course, deny any of these prepos­ The state of Rhode Island mand the return of more than terous allegations of misconduct or im­ REP. FLOOD and a group of private land­ 10 million acres in the eastern propriety," Flood says. owners announced March 2 United States. His remarks are, as they say politely, disingenuous. There've been too many "These interests are for your benefit-not headlines, too many six o'clock news mine!" reports, too many charges lodged against Duvalier accepted the aid, and Flood the veteran Democrat for there not to be obtained other grants for Duvalier, who Landlord vs. Chicano mural some truth in it all. But still the denial of used them to buy himself three airplanes, Chicano residents of East ers: Jose Maria Morelos, Emi­ "any wrongdoing." And "no further com­ among other things. Long Beach, California, have liano Zapata, and Genaro ment" statements flow uninterrupted from "In every instance where a contract was rallied to protect a mural Vasquez flanked on one side his office. to be let on any project involving United painted by community artists. by a brown fist breaking a The New York Times published a re­ States loans or grants," the Times re­ On February 15, after· the chain and on the other side vealing account of how the powerful ported, Flood "told the Haitians who owner of a building had it by the mythic Mexican fea­ House Appropriations Subcommittee should receive the contract." whitewashed, the artists thered serpent, Quetzlcoatl. chairperson had secret ties to Haiti while The Times story did not indicate Flood's painted a mural depicting the Landlord Tom Boswell has pushing U.S. aid to that country. exact purpose in obtaining aid for Duva­ cultural and political heritage been trying to paint over the The Times found that Flood acted ''as lier, but later stories have described how of the Chicano people. mural, but resistance from an agent of the Haitian Government in Flood demanded monetary repayment for The painting depicts three area residents has so far Washington," and ''held veto power over his efforts in operations similar to the Mexican revolutionary lead- stopped him. who received contracts for projects fi­ Haitian one. nanced by United States aid to Haiti." The general thrust of the capitalist Haiti, under the brutally repressive media's treatment of flood has been to regime of Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duva­ portray him as one lone, unethical, do­ lier, was approached by Flood in 1973. He anything-for-money elected official. But offered to use his congressional influence no Stradivarius among pawn shop violins to obtain U.S. aid. Before the year was is Flood: the same money will buy any of out, a bill was approved offering a $26 them. million appropriation to the Duvalier re­ Nevertheless, the ruling powers are gime, which had been receiving limited peeved over the damage to public confi­ U.S. aid for more than a decade because of dence Flood has caused. adverse public opinion. A couple of weeks ago this was evident By January 1974, however, Flood, hav­ in a Washington Post front-page story ing received no response from Duvalier, about one of Flood's shakedowns. The wrote the unelected president-for-life: Post's early edition had an accompanying "Since the Foreign Assistance Appropri­ photo that pictured Flood as no more ations was passed by both houses of threatening than your corner pet shop Congress and has been signed into law by operator. A later edition corrected the the president, the moneys previously dis­ goof. It had his usual wire-service photo. cussed are available! Are you? Complete with carnival barker's mustache "The multitude of business interests and there's-a-sucker-born-every-minute await your consideration," he added. sneer. -Baxter Smith The Great Society

Mar. 16, 218 S. 45th St. Donation: $1. Party. Fri., Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 2200 E. Union. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more informa­ Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For tion call (215) 387-2451. more information call (206) 329-7 404. Harry Ring REPRESSION IN IRAN. Speaker: repre­ sentative of Univ. of Washington chapter WASHINGTON of Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran. Fri., Mar. 24, 8 p.m. 2200 SEATTLE E. Union. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant THE IRISH STRUGGLE TODAY. Forum. For more information call (206) That's a comfort-"No Ice Age Soon, wood nursing home, which they say failed Speaker: Irene Abbott, Socialist Workers 329-7404. Scientists Say-Stable Climate Expected to provide medication and treatments for Next 20 Years"-Headline in the Los prescribed by doctors, failed to provide Angeles Times. care to prevent bed sores, and did not Forums on miners' strike store food properly or maintain sanitary MILWAUKEE: "The miners' strike & nounced. Fri., Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 314 E. The silver dioxide lining-The rea­ standards. In response, the administrator the labor movement today." Speaker: Taylor. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant son there's no ice age immediately ahead, Joel Britton, Socialist Workers Party Bookstore Forum. For more information declared, "We have one of the finest National Committee; slide presentation call (602) 255-0450. scientists explain, is because the steady convalescent hospitals." on Stearns, Kentucky, striking miners. buildup of carbon dioxide thrown off by Fri., Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 3901 N. 27th St. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: "The min­ burning fossil fuels tends to trap solar more information call (414) 445-2076. ers' strike: how workers can change heat, causing a modest rise in tempera­ Endangered product-If you've often society." Speaker: Tony Thomas, So­ ture. thought how nice it would be to dig into NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: "Coal min­ cialist Workers Party National Commit­ some of France's famous crusty bread, ers' strike: Taft-Hartley vs. workers' tee. Fri, Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 677 S. 7th East. rights." Speaker: Geoff Mirelowitz, Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For you better get over there soon. There are more information call (801) 355-1124. A query-Food and Drug Administra­ member Local 12243. United Steel­ tion scientists are divided on whether Red now 100 big industrial bakeries turning workers of America, Socialist Workers out the packaged mass-production pap, Party. Fri, Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 11-A Central SAN JOSE: "The coal strike and its 40, currently the most widely used red Ave. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Fo­ impact on American labor." Speaker: food coloring, is a cause of cancer. We and the old master bakers are beginning rum. For more information call (201) Fred Halstead, Socialist Workers Party to count the days. 643-3341. candidate for governor of California. may be nai've, but the thought does occur Fri., Mar. 17, 8 p.m. 942 E. Santa Clara to us: If they're not sure if the stuff kills PHOENIX, ARIZONA: "The coal St. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Fo­ people·, why not stop using it 'til they find Sounds reasonable-In 1976, workers strike and the challenge to the labor rum. For more information call (408) movement." Speakers: to be an- 295-8342. out? with an income of $7,000 to $10,000 lost twice as much time because of accidents Could well be-California officials and illness as did people earning above want to remove the license of an Ingle- $25,000.

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 29:· Our Revolutionary Heritage Celebrating 50 years of the Militant, 1928-1978 Rose Karsner Letters On March 7, 1968, Rose Karsner Cannon, a founder and leader of Miners' strike the corporate executive, all American Trotskyism, died of cancer. Support of. the miners' strike aspire for a better job. The March 18 'Militant' carried ari has caused more talk in shops No working person views his appreciation of Karsner's life and and mills than any other issue family as locked into a class,. work by Evelyn Reed. Excerpts from for a long time. Some of this "working class" as you Reed's article are printed below:· discussion is expressed in local describe it. union papers. G.M. Tech. Pessimism is the basic view Rose was herself one of the poor and Engineer, the official of the socialist. He doesn't oppressed. She was born in Rumania in publication of Local 160, UAW, think he can do any better for 1890 and migrated with her family to the is an example. himself and consequently United States. Ken Wizinski, reporting for doesn't expect the future to be Rose started her political life at the age the Design Staff unit in the any better for him. of 18 by joining the New York Local of the January/February issue, wrote To conclude, I would only Socialist Party. This was in 1908. the following: urge that the college student A year after joining the Socialist Party, "Other members ask why we supporters among you wise up! Rose became secretary .of The Masses, a should be involved in the Essex When you graduate and are no semi-official party magazine. Wire workers problems, the longer being subsidized by The great change in Rose's political Oakland Press strike, or your capitalist parents, you'll thinking, as with so many revolutionists interested in the Coal Miners do well and get ahead. of her generation, came with the first strike? Richmond White world war and the Russian Revolution. "Again the answer is simple, Washington, D.C. Toward the end of 1920, as part of the self-preservation. You better revolutionary left wing of the Socialist Trotsky's assassination in Mexico in believe these strikes will have a Party, Rose went over to the new Commu­ 1940 and the coming of the second world definite effect on your lives. nist Party of the U.S. She first met James war were severe tests for the Socialist "Today more than ever, the Against abortion P. Cannon in 1921 at the Unity Conven­ Workers Party. The war pressures precipi­ Corporations and the right-to­ I am not renewing my tion of the two rival communist groupings tated a split in the party in 1940 which work groups are out to destroy subscription to your named the Communist Party and the deprived it of almost 40 percent of its the power of organized labor. If newspaper. As a Catholic, I United Communist Party. members. Then, a year later, Rose's hus­ the Company can destroy believe that abortion is wrong Subsequently Rose went to work in the band, James P. Cannon, National Secre­ organized labor's power to in all but the most unusual national office of the newly established tary of the SWP, was convicted under the negotiate wages, benefits and circumstances, and I cannot Friends of Soviet Russia in New York Smith Act together with 17 other SWP safe working conditions, support a periodical that is in City. When the second "underground" and Minneapolis teamster leaders for profits can be even greater favor of abortion. communist convention held in Bridgman, their socialist opposition to the second than they are today. However, in most other Mich., was raided and some of the leaders world war. This sequence of events im­ "The battle today, which will respects, your paper is far arrested, Rose was put in charge of the posed considerable responsibilities upon be ours in 1979 negotiations, is superior to other American FSR relief work and was then elected its Rose. over the living standards of all daily and weekly journals, national secretary. Rose's last official post at the close of American workers. We cannot particularly in its coverage of The bureaucratization of the Soviet World War II was similar to the one she ignore these long strikes, with foreign affairs and its refusal regime after Lenin's death in 1923 did not held after World War I. She served as Company hired scabs being to mince words about the evil disclose its pernicious features all at once secretary of the American Committee for brought in to destroy the aspects of our present economic to foreign observers and sympathizers. European Workers Relief. workers' only weapon, the and political systems. Despite [Rose's] increasing disquiet, it In facing the facts of life and death, strike, the withholding of our If your attitude on the was not until1928 that the reasons for the after learning last year that she had labor. abortion issue changes, I would undercover difficulties in the American cancer, Rose displayed her characteristic "It's our battle, as workers. If be interested in taking the Communist Party became clear. Rose's courage. "At age 77," she wrote me, "with we sit by and allow the paper again. flash of illumination came when she read a full and useful life behind me, I have Companies to defeat the Frederick Lewis the copy of Trotsky's Criticism of the little to complain about and much to be workers on strike today, we Canadaigua, New York Draft Program of the Communist Interna­ proud of. At least I did not spend my days could be alone in '79. We better tional which J.P. Cannon smuggled out of in money-grubbing and thinking of my­ involve ourselves today or we the Soviet Union. self first. So long as I can continue with­ can sit by and watch our living Together with Cannon, [Max] Shacht­ out pain and crippling effects, I intend to standard continue to go down Enjoys 'Militant' man and [Martin] Ahern, Rose was one of go along as in the past. What more can and unemployment go higher." I have just begun to get the the charter members of the Left Opposi­ one ask for?" That's straight talk, and Militant amid this badly war­ tion which became the Communist Rose did not believe that serving the true. It comes right out of the torn prison and am enjoying League of America [forerunner of the cause of a socialist future need involve shop. every page of it. I havebeen Socialist Workers Party] after their expul­ great sacrifices on the part of an individ­ Rodger McFadden waiting a long time to receive sion from the Communist Party. ual. On the contrary, as she often said, Detroit, Michigan this, and my time of waiting The small but resolutely determined "the party gives more to the individual has been well rewarded. There group of pioneer Trotskyists opened head­ than it takes." She felt that its grand is much information in the quarters on East lOth Street, New York, perspectives took one beyond the confines paper, and the most illiterate with a little print shop in the rear. Here of the self and the family to the most can understand the texts. The Militant was born and published creative kind of work-conscious social Studying capitalism I just wrote this letter to let regularly. Much of the administrative change. After studying capitalism for you know that I truly enjoy responsibility fell on Rose's shoulders. From 18 to 78, for six decades, she fifty years and seeing how your paper, and that I would She organized small crews of voluntary persisted in her dedicated work for a things can degenerate under its like to continue getting it.· I workers and got out The Militant with socialist America. She exemplified the incompetence and corruption, I also try and share it with those their help. finest qualities of a ·revolutionary Marxist. can't help but think what will who cannot afford it like happen after there are no more myself, and so it is well used. Indian lands to exploit; or A prisoner lakes, rivers, and wildlife; or Arizona timber lands, and the only thing left is 218 million people. Our party is your party Robert Nott Salem, Oregon 'Jewish Question' THE MILITANT is the voice of 0 I want to join the SWP. Fred Feldman omitted mention of Abram Leon's the Socialist Workers Party. 0 Send me __ copies of Prospects for Socialism in America at $2.95 brilliant book Th'e Jewish Question: A Marxist IF YOU AGREE with what each. Enclosed$ ___ 'Socialism won't work' 0 Please send me more information. I must tell you why the Interpretation (Pathfinder you've read, you should join socialist economic system will Press) in his helpful review of us in fighting for a world Name never work in the United several pamphlets and books without war, racism, ·or· Address States, in hopes of getting dealing with Israel and through to those of you with Zionism. [See "Learning About exploitation-a socialist City ------'------some reasoning ability left Socialism" March 3 Militant.] world. State ------'Zip _____ after being exposed to a heavy Leon's book explains the diet of chants and placards for roots and origins of anti­ Telephone ------­ so long. Semitism. He wrote that JOIN THE SWP. Fill out this SWP, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. Optimism is the answer. anti-Jewish prejudice was coupon and mail it today. 10014 Admittedly, there are people in spawned by the unique role the United States who are poor. Jews played, as a people as well as a class, in the world - However, it is an American characteristic to be hopeful economy since the majority of about the future. The migrant them left Palestine before JOIN THE SWP worker, coal miner, Roman imperialism conquered construction worker, yes, even the area some 2,000 years ago.

,,30 Learning About Socialism · The coal strike and nationalization Socialists oppose private ownership of industry. Does this workers between the bosses in nationalized industry and the mean that government seizure of the coal mines, such as bosses in private industry. British coal miners, for example, Socialists have had and will President Carter has threatened in the miners' strike, would have won decent wage settlements in recent years only have no prouder moments than be progressive? through militant strike action. in the battle against racism, Absolutely not. Carter's threat is not aimed against the But what the Labour government did-trying to national­ including anti-Semitism. operation of the mines for private profit. It is only one more ize industry as an alternative to the abolition of Leon's book is an acquisition way of marshaling the power of the government to break capitalism-has nothing to do with the socialist concept of for our arsenal. But only if it's the strike. · nationalization. To the contrary, revolutionists raise the read. But what about a genuine nationalization? demand for nationalization as part of a system of demands Michael Smith The demand for nationalization of industry has a long leading to the establishment of a workers government that New York, New York history. In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels would do away with the capitalist profit system. raised this concept as one of the things a workers govern­ During the "energy crisis" in late 1973 and early 1974, for ment would do after a socialist revolution. example, the Socialist Workers Party raised a series of Socialists have also raised the demand for nationalization Dr. Isadore Feinberg demands around the theme that working people-the vast of specific industries under capitalist governments to popu­ majority of the population-have the right to control so­ A valued supporter of the larize the idea that the resources and industry of a country ciety. socialist cause, Dr. Isadore should be used for the benefit of all, not the private profit of These demands included the right of the workers to know (Tex) Feinberg, died of a heart a tiny minority. attack on January 29 at the the facts about the energy crisis. These facts could only With the growth of the working-class movement and the age of fifty-five. He had read come out if the giant energy monopolies were forced to open increasing irrationality of capitalism, demands for national­ Jack London's book The Iron their books. How else could the workers learn how much gas Heel in 1940, while attending ization of industry became so powerful that in some coun­ and oil was really available, what role the trusts had played the City College of New York, tries the capitalists were forced to make concessions. This in provoking the crisis, and what to do about it? and that helped translate his was the case in Britain after World War II, when the British The SWP also demanded nationalization of the energy previously amorphous identity Labour Party was swept into power. trusts. These huge corporations deeply affect every part of with the oppressed into a The Labour Party government nationalized important our lives. Energy is required for heat, light, transportation, conscious anticapitalist sectors of industry, including the coal mines. The workers in and production, but its supply is dependent on the decisions outlook. these industries won important gains-more job security, of a handful of capitalists whose only concern is profit. Although he never joined the higher safety standards, and better wages. The Democratic and Republican parties will never lead a Communist Party, which was But the Social Democratic leadership of the Labour Party fight to open the books of the corporations and nationalize then predominant on the left, saw nationalization as a reform that could make capitalism them under democratic control by the workers. These he remained sympathetic to its work better rather than as a vehicle for raising the anticapi­ parties represent the ruling class. Therefore, socialists policies for many years. He talist consciousness of the working class and pushing explained the necessity for working people to break with the became disillusioned With the forward the struggle to abolish the profit system. ruling-class parties and form their own party-a labor party CP after the Khrushchev In fact, the reformist Labour leadership turned nationali­ with a program for doing away with the profit system. revelations and definitively zation into a disguised subsidy of certain sectors of the Yes, socialists are for nationalizing the mines. But we're broke with it in the late fifties. British ruling class. The nationalized industries were fre­ not for Carter running them in the interests of the giant One little-noticed byproduct quently burdened with debts and antiquated machinery. Yet corporations he and his party represent. We're for the of the youth radicalization of the Labour government paid dividends to the former owners working class running them democratically, in the interests . the sixties was the at a far higher rate than they would otherwise have been regeneration and reorientation of the whole society. -David Frankel able to obtain. of parents who had been disenchanted with left politics Since the government operated the nationalized industries as a result of their experiences within the context of the profit system, it was more and For further reading: The Transitional Program for Social­ with Stalinism. Their children, more compelled to run them at the expense of the workers. ist Revolution, Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, who were organizing antiwar As a result, today there is little difference for British New York 10014. $3.95. ' activities and being won to the program of Trotskyism on the campuses, brought fresh ideas and new hope to some among the older generation. That was the case with Dr. Feinberg whose son Richard, now in the If You Like This Paper, Look Us Up Department of Sociology and Where to find the Socialist Workers Party. Young Socialist Alliance. and socialist books and pamphlets Anthropology at Kent State, had joined the Young Socialist Alliance through his ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP, YSA, 314 E. Taylor. Zip: MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA, c/o Rees, 4 YSA, Box 106 Ohio Union, Rm. 308. Ohio State participation in the Berkeley 85004. Tel: (602) 255·0450. Tucson: YSA, SUPO Adams St., Easthampton 01027. Boston: City· Univ. 1739 N. High St. Zip: 43210. Tel: (614) 291- antiwar and student movement 20965. Zip: 85720. Tel: (602) 795·2053. wide SWP. YSA, 510 Commonwealth Ave .. Zip: 8985. Kent: YSA, Student Center Box 41, Kent CALIFORNIA: Berkeley: SWP. YSA, 3264 Adeline 02215. Tel: (617) 262·4621. Boston, Fenway­ State University. Ztp: 44242. Tel: (216) 678-5974. in 1967. St. Zip: 94703. Tel: (415) 653·7156. East Los South End: SWP, YSA. 510 Commonwealth Ave. Toledo: SWP, 2507 Collingwood Blvd. Zip: 43610. Isadore accompanied Richard Angeles: SWP, YSA, 1237 S. Atlantic Blvd. Zip: Ztp: 02215. Tel: (617) 262·4620. Roxbury: SWP, Tel: (419) 242-9743. to a Militant Labor Forum in 90022. Tel: (213) 265·1347. Los Angeles, Cren· 612 Blue Hill Ave. Zip: 02121. Tel: (617) 288·0753. OREGON: Portland: SWP. YSA, 3928 N. Williams. shaw District: SWP. YSA. 2167 W. Washington MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, Room 4321, Michigan Zip: 97227. Tel: (503) 288-7860. Manhattan in the summer of Blvd. Zip: 90018. Tel: (213) 732-8196. Los An· Union, U of M. Zip: 48109. Detroit, East Side: PENNSYLVANIA: Bethlehem: SWP. Box 1096. Zip: 1968. There I first met him and geles: City-wide SWP. YSA, 1250 Wilshire Blvd., SWP. 12920 Mack Ave. Zip: 48215. Tel: (313) 824- 18016. Edinboro: YSA. Edinboro State College. his wife Rose. We became Room 404, Zip: 90017. Tel: (213) 482-1820. Los 1160. Detroit, West Side: SWP, 18415 Wyoming. Zip: 16412. Philadelphia, Germantown: SWP, 5950 friendly from then on. He Angeles, Southeast: SWP. YSA. 2554 Saturn Ave., Zip: 48221 Tel: (313) 341·6436. Detroit: City-wide Germantown Ave. Zip: 19144. Tel: (215) 844·2874. Huntmgton Park. 90255. Tel: (213) 582-1975. SWP. YSA. 1310 Broadway. Zip 48226. Tel: (313) Philadelphia, West Philadelphia: SWP. 218 S. 45th greatly appreciated the work of Oakland: SWP. YSA. 1467 Fruitvale Ave. Zip: 961-5675. Grand Rapids: YSA, 1423 Militon SE. St. Zip: 19104. Tel: (215) 387-2451. Philadelphia: the SWP and gave ready 94601. Tel: (415) 261·1210. San Diego: SWP. YSA, Z1p: 49506. Mt. Pleasant: YSA, Box 51 Warriner City·wtde SWP. YSA, 218 S. 45th St. Zip 19104. financial assistance to its 1053 15th St. Ztp: 92101. Tel: (714) 234-4630. San Hall, Central Mich, Un1v. Zip: 48859. Tel: (215) 387·2451. Pittsburgh: SWP. YSA. 5504 Francisco, Mission District: SWP, 3284 23rd St. MINNESOTA: Minneapolis: SWP, YSA, 23 E. Lake Penn Ave. Zip: 15206. Tel: (412) 441-1419. State antiwar, civil liberties, and Zip 94110. Tel: (415) 824-1992. San Francisco, St. Z1p: 55408. Tel: (612) 825-6663. St. Paul: SWP. College: YSA, c/o Bob Hill, 733 W. College Ave. socialist endeavors. Western Adtlition: SWP. 973 Page St. Ztp: 94117. 176 Western Ave. North Zip: 55102. Tel: (612) #2. Ztp: 16801. Many busy professionals Tel: (415) 626-6814. San Jose: SWP. YSA, 942 E 222·8929. RHODE ISLAND: Kingston: YSA, P.O. Box 400. Zip: Santa Clara St. Zip: 95112. Tel: (408) 295·8342. MISSOURI: Kansas City: SWP. YSA. 4715A Troost. 02881. Tel: (401) 783-8864. become so wrapped up in their COLORADO: Denver: SWP. YSA, 916 Broadway. Z1p: 64110. Tel: (816) 753-0404. St. Louis: SWP, TENNESSEE: Knoxville: YSA, P 0, Box 8344 Univ. careers and private Z1p 80203. Tel: (303) 837·1018. YSA. 6223 Delmar Blvd. Zip: 63130. Tel: (314) Station. Zip: 37916 Tel: (615) 525-0820. preoccupations that they have FLORIDA: Miami: SWP. YSA, Box 431096, South 725-1570. TEXAS: Austin: YSA. c/o Mike Rose, 7409 Berkman no time to spare for attending Mtami. Zip: 33143. Tel: (305) 266-4381. Tallahas· NEBRASKA: Omaha: YSA. c/o Hugh Wilcox, 521 Dr. Zip: 78752. Dallas: SWP, YSA, 2215 Cedar see: YSA. c/o Linda Thalman. 1303 Ocala Rd. 4th St., Council Bluffs. Iowa. 51501. Crest. Zip: 75203. Tel: (214) 943·6684. Houston, to the fundamental and #140. Ztp 32304. Tel: (904) 576-5737. NEW JERSEY: Newark: SWP. 11-A Central Ave. Zip: Northeast: SWP, YSA. 2835 Laura Koppe. Zip: pressing problem of GEORGIA: East Atlanta: SWP, 471A Flat Shoals 07102. Tel: (201) 643-3341. 77093 Tel: (713) 697-5543. Houston, East End: transforming society for the Ave. SE. P.O. Box 17821. Ztp: 30316. Tel: (404) NEW MEXICO: Albuquerque: SWP, 108 Morning· SWP, 4987 South Park Blvd. (South Park Piaza). 688-6739. West Atlanta: SWP. 137 Ashby, P.O. side Dr. NE. Zip: 87108. Tel: (505) 255-6869. Zip: 77023. Tel: (713) 643-0005. Houston: City­ betterment of all humankind. Box 92040. Zip: 30314. Tel: (404) 755·2940. NEW YORK: Albany: SWP, YSA, 103 Central wide SWP. YSA, 3311 Montrose. Zip: 77006. Tel: Isadore was a rare exception ILLINOIS: Champaign-Urbana: YSA, 284 lllini Avenue. Zip: 12206. Tel: (518) 463-0072. Bing­ (713) 526-1082. San Antonio: SWP, YSA 1317 and our movement is poorer for Union. Urbana. Zip: 61801. Chicago: City-wide hamton:YSA,c/o Andy Towbin, Box 7120, SUNY· Castroville Rd. Zip: 78237. Tel: (512) 432-7625. SWP, YSA, 407 S. Dearborn #1145. Zip: 60605. Binghamton. Zip: 13901. Ithaca: YSA, Willard UTAH: Logan: YSA; P.O. Box 1233, Utah State his absence. Tel: SWP-(312) 939·0737; YSA-(312) 427·0280. Straight Hall. Rm. 41A, Cornell University. Zip: University. Zop: 84322. Salt Lake City: SWP. YSA, George Novack Chicago, North Side: SWP. 1870 N. Halsted. Zip: 14853. New York, Bronx: SWP, 2271 Morris Ave. 677 S 7th East, 2nd Floor. P.O. Box 461. Zip: New York, New York 60614. Tel: (312) 642·4811. Chicago, South Side: Z1p: 10453. Tel: (212) 365-6652. New York, Brook­ 84110. Tel: (801) 355·1124. SWP. 2251 E. 71st St. Zip: 60649. Tel: (312) 643· lyn: SWP. 220·222 Utica Ave. Zip: 11213. Tel: WASHINGTON, D.C.: Adams-Morgan: SWP. 3106 5520. Chicago, West Side: SWP. 10 N. Cicero. (212) 773-0250. New York, Chelsea: SWP, 200'h Mt. Pleasant St. Zip: 20010. Tel: (202) 797-7706. Z1p: 60644. Tel: (312) 261·8370. W 24th St Zip: 10011. Tel: (212) 989-2731. New Washington, D.C., Georgia Avenue: SWP. 700'h INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Student Activities York, Lower East Side: SWP. YSA. 7 Clinton St. Barry Pl. NW. Zip: 20001. Tel: (202) 265-7708. The letters column is an Desk. Indiana University. Zip: 47401. Indianapolis: Zip: 10002. Tel: (212) 60-6400. New York, Queens: Washington, D.C.: City-wide SWP, YSA, 3106 Mt. SWP, 4163 College Ave. Zip: 46205. Tel: (317) SWP, YSA. 90-43 149 St. Zip: 11435. Tel: (212) Pleasant St. Zip: 20010. Tel: (202) 797-7699. open forum for all view­ 925·2616. 658-7718. New York, Upper West Side: SWP. YSA. WASHINGTON: Seattle: SWP, YSA. 2200 E. Union. points on subjects of gen­ KENTUCKY: Lexington: YSA, P 0. Box 952 Univer· 786 Amsterdam. Zip: 10025. Tel: (212) 663-3000. Zip: 98122. Tel: (206) 329-7404. Spokane: SWP, eral interest to our readers. sity Statton Z1p: 40506. Tel: (606) 233·1270. New York: City-wide SWP. YSA, 853 Broadway, P.O. Box 672. Zip: 99201. Tel: (509) 326-2468. Please keep your letters Louisville: SWP. 1505 W Broadway. P 0 Box Room 412. Zip: 10003. Tel: (212) 982-8214. Tacoma: SWP, 1022 S. J St. Zip: 98405. Tel: (206) 3593. Zip: 40201. Tel (502) 587-8418. NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh: SWP, YSA, P 0. Box 627·0432. brief. Where necessary they LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP, YSA. 3319 S 5714 State Univ. Station. Zip: 27607. WEST VIRGINIA: Morgantown: SWP, P.O. Box will be abridged. Please in­ Carrollton Ave. Z1p 70118. Tel: (504) 486-8048. OHIO: Athens: YSA. c/o Balar Center. Ohio Univer­ 1484. Z1p: 26505. dicate if you prefer that MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP, YSA. 2117 N. Charles sity. Ztp: 45701. Tel (614) 594-7497. Cincinnati: WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, P 0. Box 1442. Zip: St. Zip 21218 Tel: (301) 547·0668. College Park: SWP, YSA. 970 E. McMillan. Ztp: 45206. Tel: (513) 53701. Tel: (608) 255-4733. · Milwaukee: SWP, your initials be used rather YSA. c/o Student Un1on. Univers1ty of Maryland. 751-2636. Cleveland: SWP. YSA. 13002 Kinsman YSA, 3901 N. 27th St. Zip: 53216. Tel.: (414) 445- than your full name. Ztp 20742. Tel: (301) 454-4758. Rd. Zip: 44120. Tel: (216) 861·4166. Columbus: 2076.

THE MILITANT/MARCH 17, 1978 :31 TH£ MILITANT Akron: new attack on abortion By Lorraine Sockaci AKRON, Ohio-This city has become a national target for the enemies of women's right to choose abortion. On February 28 the city council here passed one of the most restrictive abortion ordinan­ ces in the country. The following night, buoyed by their victory, anti-abortion vigilantes set fire to the Akron Women's Clinic, where abortions are per­ formed. Abortion opponents here have vowed to see that versions of Akron's anti-abortion legislation are passed in other cities. Their legislative campaign, combined with the growing national pattern of violent attacks on clin:fcs, represents a dangerous escalation of the reactionary crusade against women's rights. The Akron ordinance pretends only to require "informed consent" for abortions. But in reality its

FOR FURTHER COVERAGE SEE: • Editorial on emergency for women's rights, page 2; • Special feature on international women's movement, page 24; Concerned Women's Clinic in Cleveland after February 18 arson attack. Several Ohio abortion clinics, including • Abortion clinics in danger, page 27. the Akron Women's Clinic, have been hit recently. purpose is to harass and intimidate every woman seeking an abortion in the city. The new law Akron abortion clinics have decided to challenge instead of vetoing the ordinance, he may allow it to "regulates" abortions by: ' the constitutionality of the ordinance and will seek become law without his signature so that responsi­ • Requiring that preabortion counseling include an injunction to prevent its enforcement while their bility for the· ordinance will fall to the courts. a religious description of fetal development. The suit is pending. Akron women's organizations are organizing to physician must tell the woman that the fetus is "an Weinberger, meanwhile, informed the city council defend local abortion clinics against further attacks unborn human life from the moment of conception" that the national Right to Life organization would and to prepare an active response to the right and that it may be capable of surviving outside the provide the city with legal and financial support to wing's challenge. womb after twenty-four weeks. meet any court challenge. These efforts deserve the support of abortion In addition, counseling must include ominous So far, Akron Mayor John Ballard, who has said rights forces around the country. An outpouring of warnings about the "potentially grave physical and in the past that be believes abortion is a matter protest against the anti-abortion law here is needed psychological complications which can result" from between a woman and her physician, is attempting to block further attacks on women's rights nation­ an abortion, such as "depression, guilt, or suicide." to straddle the fence. There is speculation that wide. • Mandating a twenty-four-hour waiting period after counseling before the abortion can be per­ formed. • Requiring that the clinic inform the husband of New anti-abortion bill the woman's request for an abortion. If a woman is By Shelley Kramer disability benefit plans. Currently, almost all under eighteen, her parents must be notified. For a On March 1 the House Education and Labor plans that include pregnancy-related expenses patient under fifteen, parental consent must be Committee amended a pregnancy disability bill also cover abortion. obtained. to allow employers to deny women workers The law's intent is underscored by its sponsors. It medical and sick-leave benefits for abortions. But anti-abortion politicians seized this oppor­ was drafted and submitted by members of the The bill will soon go before Congress. The tunity to strike another blow against women. Citizens Committee for Informed Consent, a splin­ Senate has already passed a similar measure. Their intentions are clear. Last year's Hyde ter group of the anti-abortion Greater Akron Right The legislation's original purpose was to re­ amendment, which denies poor women medical to Life Society. Marvin Weinberger, the committee's verse last year's Supreme Court ruling and funds for abortions, was only the first step in the chairman, boasted that eight of the most prominent include pregnancy and related conditions v.nder government's drive to abolish abortion rights for constitutional lawyers in the country assisted in the coverage provided by medical insurance and all women. drafting the legislation. 500 defend right to choose in Maryland By Debby Woodroofe Metropolitan Council), Maryland Com­ that circled the capitol mall. ''Right to of society the right to choose because ANNAPOLIS, Md.-In a spirited mission on Women, Baltimore Urban choose," they chanted, and, "Not the they can afford it but then deny that show of strength supporting a wo­ League, Catholics for a Free Choice, church, not the state, women must right to poor women." He urged dem­ man's right to choose abortion, 500 YWCA of the Greater Baltimore Area, control their fate." onstrators "to keep on coming back Marylanders rallied here March 6 out­ National Organization for Women, Sixteen-year-old Gwendolyn Turner here with these signs." side the state house. and the Socialist Workers Party. from the Edmondson Village housing State Sen. Rosalie Abrams drew The state legislature is considering They traveled to Annapolis on seven­ project told the Militant that "it felt prolonged cheers from the crowd when two anti-abortion bills. One would teen buses chartered by the coalition. good to be out here shouting for some­ sh.e said, "Continue to march. This is eliminate public funding for abortion. Three of the buses departed from hous­ thing that's important to me." not a one-night issue. Our opposition The other would call for a convention ing projects in Baltimore's Black com­ Of the 6,000 Medicaid-financed abor­ has been working throughout the to amend the U.S. Constitution to once munity. Another, organized by Balti­ tions in Maryland in 1977, 40 percent years. We're here tonight because there again make all abortions illegal. more Welfare Rights Organization, of the women were under nineteen and is a crisis. The rights we have can slip The protest was called by Maryland­ made several stops in the Black com­ 74 percent were Black. away so easily if we're not vigilant." ers for the Right to Choose, a broad munity surrounding the Johns Hop­ In its coverage of the action, WEAL­ After the rally the demonstrators coalition formed to defend Medicaid kins Hospital. WRO had arranged TV noted that "there have been many moved into the lobby of the state funding for abortion. child care so that women could attend. anti-abortion protests this session, but hoqse. There they encountered a hand­ Demonstrators represented nearly Feminists at Goucher College also this was the first full-scale proabortion ful of anti-abortionists maintaining a all of the seventy-two organizations had a bus, and students at a number of demonstration." vigil. Those few opponents were that make up the coalition. These area high schools were prominent in Delegate Arthur Murphy, chairman quickly swallowed up by the confident, groups include Planned Parenthood of the crowd. of the Maryland Legislative Black jubilant crowd. Maryland, Baltimore Welfare Rights As the demonstrators poured off the Caucus, pointed out to the rally, "It As one woman put it, "Tonight the Organization, AFL-CIO (Baltimore buses, they formed a mass picket line simply is not fair to allow one portion majority had its say." Protest apartheid in Nashville March 18! , -PAGE 11