Coal Strike Is the Cause of All Workers
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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.