Cuban general tried for THE embezzling, drug smuggling Page3

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 53/NO. 25 JULY 7, 1989 $1.00 Eastern strikers meet renewed flights with stepped-up actions Back Eastern, Bigger picket coal strikers, lines, 'drive­ socialist throughs' held candidates urge at airports

The following statement was issued BY SUSAN LaMONT June 29 by Ernest Mailhot, Socialist When Eastern Airlines tries to resume Workers Party candidate for New Jersey service to a number of U.S. cities July 2, State Assembly and member of Interna­ many of the flights will be met by expanded tional Association of Machinists Local picket lines, airport "drive-throughs," and 1018 at New York's La Guardia Airport, rallies organized by striking Eastern work­ on strike at Eastern Airlines; John Haw­ ers and their supporters. kins, SWP candidate for mayor of Bir­ Thousands of airport passengers travel­ mingham, Alabama, and striking mem­ ing during the busy holiday weekend will · ber of the United Mine Workers at Jim be asked by strikers to sign an AFL-CIO­ Walters No.5 Mine in Brookwood;,Aia­ sponsored pledge not to fly Eastern or Con­ bama; and Jim Little, SWPcandidate for tinental Airlines. Both are owned by Texas mayor of Pittsburgh and member of Air Corp., headed by Frank Lorenzo. United Steelworkers of America Local This stepped-up strike activity ·on and 3246. around July 2 comes after 17,000 Militant/Bob Custer Machinists' union members, flight atten­ Some 500 Eastern strikers and supporters attended June 17 rally at Los Angeles "We've got to be as one- all over. We dants, and pilots have been on the picket International Airport. Eastern walkout, now one of longest in recent years, is most can't be United Mine Workers or Steel­ lines at airports around the country for four significant development indicating upturn in U.S. class struggle. workers. We can't be Eastern workers .... months. It will be the biggest round of We've got to be as one." Thls appeal for strike support actions since the first few union solidarity was made by striking broadening solidarity now is especially im­ lines, and airport "drive-throughs" being weeks of the walkout. Pittston miner James Gibbs, at the June 25 portant. organized for the end of June and beginning "The Eastern strike is alive and well! "Women's Day" on the Eastern picket line Working people in cities from Newark to of July. Join the picket line July 2," says a leaflet at National Airport near Washington, D.C. Seattle have an important opportunity to Called to respond to Eastern's attempt to issued by International Association of Ma­ He was speaking for many thousands of show their support for the Eastern strikers start up more scab flights, these activities chinists (lAM) Local 796 at Washington, by helping to build and participate in the will be the biggest round of strike support workers - foremost among them the D.C.'s National Airport. "Eastern has tar- round of solidarity rallies, bigger picket Continued on Page 11 17,000 Eastern Airlines workers and Continued on Page 12 44,000 coal miners now on strike - who are looking for ways to defend and strengthen their unions and back up the fighters involved in these two important Miners' walkouts attacked by courts strike battles. Around the country, Eastern strikers and BY DAN FEIN ers of America. ces and fines on union officials who don't miners are taking steps to support and rein­ CLEVELAND, Va. - The 44,000 union On June 27 Federal District Judge Den­ comply. force each others' strikes. In many cities, coal miners who have walked off the job in nis Knapp issued a preliminary injunction Knapp acted the day after the NLRB is­ miners are joining the Eastern workers' 11 states are under intensified attack from on behalf of more than 50 coal companies. sued a "broad order" against solidarity picket lines and other activities. Eastern federal courts and the National Labor Rela­ His order barred the union from taking ac­ walkouts, prohibiting the union from pick­ strikers are attending miners' rallies and tions Board. The workers acted to support a tion against companies doing business with eting or striking any coal company with speaking to UMWA local meetings. 13-week strike by miners employed by the Pittston or filling Pittston's orders. Knapp which it does not have a primary labor dis­ For the Eastern strikers, who have been Pittston Coal Group, which has refused to is legally authorized to enforce the injunc­ pute. The board ordered union officials to on the picket lines for more than 17 weeks, sign a contract with the United Mine Work- tion nationwide and can impose jail senten- end the walkouts and report back in 10 days on the steps they have taken. "Any tactic union members use that proves effective in putting economic pres­ Prison officials launch new attack on Curtis sure on the company is generally found to be illegal by the court," Cecil Roberts, BY SAM MANUEL immediately got me and wrote me a major Curtis is appealing the write-up he re­ vice-president of the United Mine Workers, In response to a new attack by prison report." ceived. "This is not only an attack on Mark said of the federal court order. authorities on Mark Curtis, the Mark Curtis ''This is a blatant act of retaliation by but also on all those who protested prison Defense Committee has called for an emer­ prison officials against Mark because he officials denying him and other prisoners Solidarity walkouts gency international protest campaign. A po­ won't stop fighting for his rights and the access to materials in languages other than Solidarity walkouts in support of I ,900 litical activist, Curtis was framed up and rights of other prisoners," explained Stu English," Singer stressed. miners at Pittston began June 12. beaten by the Des Moines, Iowa, cops and Singer, coordinator of the Mark Curtis De­ Protests should be addressed to: John A. Pittston Coal Group, the largest U.S. ex­ is serving a 25-year sentence at a state fense Committee. Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 prison in Anamosa. He is appealing the An international protest forced authori­ conviction. ties at the prison to relinquish to Curtis on In a June 27letter to the defense commit­ June 13 two books that had been denied to Steelworkers at National vote 'no' on tee in Des Moines, Curtis reported that he him - a Spanish-English dictionary and has been moved to a new cell block where 501 Spanish Verbs. Two magazines that had he is not allowed to have a "radio, tape also been denied to Curtis, the Spanish-lan­ union-weakening contract proposal player, or typewriter." The prison officials guage Perspectiva Mundial and the French­ BY PETER BRANDLI "took two days of Good Conduct Time, and language Lutte ouvriere were referred to Granite City and Great Lakes divisions. The GRANITE CITY, Ill. - Steelworkers at will make me serve two weekend lockups," the prison's Publications Review Commit­ Great Lakes Division is near Detroit. It passed National Steel Corp. mills voted down a ten­ he wrote. During those weekends, Curtis tee for decision as to whether Curtis can at the Midwest mill in Portage, Indiana. tative contract agreement June 19 by a 61 to will not be allowed out of his cell. receive them. Here at the Granite City Division, near St. 39 percent margin. The vote was 3,239 Curtis was also removed as secretary of Louis, the proposal was widely viewed as a against and 2,054 for the 50-month proposal. the Martin Luther King, Jr. Organization by Prison officials had argued that there concession contract that would have gutted Buddy Davis, president of District 34 of many work rules and scheduling practices prison authorities. were not enough personnel to review mate­ rials in other languages. Curtis was told by the United Steelworkers of America and chief won over past decades. Curtis received a major write-up for spit­ prison official Jerry Metternach that for that union negotiator with NSC, said, "I don't If approved, the company would have been ting on the sidewalk during a summer Bas­ reason non-English materials represent a expect either the company or the members to able to schedule production on Labor Day, ketball League game sponsored by the "security" risk. Metternach screens the change positions significantly, so, that being Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day through­ Martin Luther King, Jr. Organization. Cur­ Spanish-language literature received by the case, everybody needs to be getting pre­ out the plant. tis explained, "I was playing at the time, Mexican and Salvadoran prisoners at An­ pared for a strike." Stiff opposition was also voiced to the and my mouth got dry and I spit. A guard amosa. The proposal was voted down at National's Continued on Page 13 Candidates urge solidarity for Eastern strikers

Following the appearance of an new challenge as Lorenzo tries to ela as examples of how severe the newspaper. It's nothing but a pack Eastern Airlines employment ad in restart the airline as a smaller, re­ crisis is getting. of lies," said picket Bobby Parker, the May 28 Salt Lake Tribune, structured, nonunion operation," Among those attending the rally a machine operator with 18 years at Steve Warshell, Socialist Workers the candidate said. were coworkers of Sedwick who Daniel. Party candidate for City Council, "Now is the time for all those got into a lively discussion after the Although they began their strike 1st District, in Salt Lake City, is­ who support the labor movement to program about how to promote the only three days before the sued a statement denouncing East- adopt the Eastern strike as if it were socialist campaign in their plant at Machinists' strike at Eastern Air­ White Consolidated Industries in lines, the United Auto Workers Edison. strikers had little information re­ CAMPAIGNING FOR SOCIALISM garding that struggle . • "By reading the paper, I thought ern Airlines boss Frank Lorenzo for our own." Socialist candidate for mayor in their strike was going nowhere. But "insulting all working-class The statement was quoted in the Atlanta, Elizabeth Ziers, is a strong after I read the garbage they printed Utahans by bringing his union­ May 31 Deseret News, and by the supporter of striking auto workers about us, I see how the newspaper busting campaign to Salt Lake." June 4 Salt Lake Tribune. who walked out of Daniel Radiator would give us the wrong idea about Warshell cited the Sunday em­ Corp. on March 1. After laying off the Eastern strike," said Tyro Par­ half the work force of 50, the com­ ployment want ads featuring an an­ • rish. nouncement for a "flight attendant More than 50 people attended a pany demanded a $3-an-hour wage The pickets expressed support open house" at the Salt Lake Air­ rally in Newark, New Jersey, on cut. for the Eastern workers' fight port Hilton. June 10 to launch campaigns of Ziers, a member of United "This kind of flagrant scabherd­ Cathy Sedwick for governor and Transportation Union Local 511, against union-busting. "You start ing demands a response," Ernest Mailhot for New Jersey walked the picket line on June 8 out giving them concessions," said W arshell, a chemical worker and State Assembly on the SWP ticket. and has been urging other workers picket Wallace Daniels. "First they member of Oil, Chemical and Sedwick is a member of Interna­ to back the strike. take a couple of fingers. Then they Atomic Workers Local2-591, said. tional Union of Electrical Workers The company started bringing in take your whole hand," he added. "The strike against Lorenzo's air­ Local 401. Mailhot is an aircraft scabs three weeks after the strike "You can't work, and by then your line has been an inspiration to mil­ service worker on strike at Eastern began. Following the company's union is busted, and you can't fight back." lions of working people across the at La Guardia Airport and a mem­ MiilitaJnt/llviar·gre:the Siem claim that strikers were responsible country and beyond the borders. ber of the International Association Cathy Sedwick is running for for a carload of scabs being fired Most of the scabs the company This impressive display of labor of Machinists. New Jersey governor. upon with a shotgun, a judge issued had brought in were Vietnamese. unity and solidarity has effectively The gubernatorial candidate a restraining order limiting the The pickets agreed with Ziers shut down the operations of the began her talk with a question pickets to two per plant gate. that unions need to fight for a seventh-largest airline in the posed frequently in the major news that is in crisis. Pickets at the plant gate had no shorter workweek so that all work­ United States. media: Is communism in crisis? Sedwick pointed to the social ex­ knowledge of the shooting. "I first ers, including immigrant workers, "Now the Eastern strikers face a Her reply was no, it is capitalism plosions in Argentina and Venezu- found out about it by reading the can have a job at a livable wage. International socialist conference set for August

BY JIM WHITE questions facing class-struggle fighters That program includes three class series. support for the revolution among fighters in Hundreds of working people and students around the world. The first is on the political and organizational the United States and around the world. from around the world are now laying plans A feature of each day's activities will be a lessons of the founding and early years of the The conference will close Wednesday eve­ to come to Oberlin, Ohio, for an Interna­ talk by a central leader of the SWP. Socialist Workers Party. The second takes up ning with a rally for the continued interna­ tional Active Workers and Socialist Educa­ The first of these, on Saturday evening, the workers and peasants' fight for their own tional expansion of the Pathfinder publishing tional Conference in early August. Hosted by will take up the crisis of imperialism, from the government, based on the experiences of the house and for the effort to complete the Path­ the Socialist Workers Party and Young So­ intensifying competition among the imperial­ Cuban, Algerian, Grenadian, and Nicaraguan finder Mural Project this fall. cialist Alliance, the conference will begin on ist powers to their inability to overthrow the revolutions. The third set of classes is on the Translation to Spanish and French will be Saturday, August 5, and end on Wednesday, workers and farmers in power in Nicaragua. rectification process in Cuba, the fight available for all conference sessions, work­ August 9. launched by the Cuban Communist Party in shops, and evening events. Other presentations will discuss the politi­ 1986 to place working people at the center of The YSA will also hold its 26th national cal weight and historic importance of the Throughout the week, there will be many convention on August 10--11 in Oberlin. the revolutionary process. opportunities for informal discussion. Eve­ communist leadership in Cuba, the sharpen­ Workshops will provide an opportunity to Groups and individuals who circulate ing class conflict in the United States, and ning social events and other recreation is share experiences among activists who have planned. Pathfinder books and the Militant in Aus­ how carrying out communist political activity been carrying out common campaigns in dif­ tralia, Britain, Canada, France, Iceland, New and an orientation to industrial unions is com­ ferent cities and countries over the last year. Housing is provided in the Oberlin College Zealand, Sweden, and the United States will bined in the process of building revolutionary Socialists who work together in industrial dormitories; meals are served in the cafete­ be organizing and participating in the confer­ parties today. unions will also meet on the last day of the rias. Inexpensive housing is available for ence. They will be joined by other class-strug­ Additional special presentations are in the conference. those who need it. Child care is organized by gle fighters, including members of the Inter­ planning stage, including a panel on the lib­ parents in collaboration with conference national Association of Machinists on strike eration struggle in southern Africa, and an­ Curtis, Cuba, Pathfinder rallies staff. against Eastern and miners on strike against other featuring fighters from the Caribbean In the evening, a series of special events Those who would like to find out more Pittston Coal Group. and Central America. will take place, starting Sunday night with a about -- or who would like to join - the Revolutionaries from southern Africa, the Every conference participant will be able rally celebrating Mark Curtis' fight for jus­ SWP and YSA are invited to attend the con­ Caribbean, Central America, and the Middle to join the political discussion in classes and tice. Prominent endorsers and activists, re­ ference and the YSA convention. East have been invited to attend. workshops. flecting the international breadth of the de­ For more information, write or call the Initial plans for the conference have been The main classes will cap off the education fense effort, are being invited to speak. distributor of the Militant nearest you (see set. The week's activities will provide partic­ program the SWP and YSA are engaged in Participants will also celebrate 30 years of listing on page 12), or write to SWP, 14 ipants an opportunity to discuss the central this summer. the Cuban revolution at a rally focusing on Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014.

The Militant THE MILITANT TELLS THE TRUTH Closing news date: June 28, 1989 Coeditors: MARGARET JA YKO and DOUG JENNESS Circulation Director: NORTON SANDLER Nicaragua Bureau Director: LARRY SEIGLE Introductory subscription oner Business Manager: JIM WHITE Editorial Staff: Susan Apstein, Fred Feldman, Seth Galinsky (Nicaragua), Arthur Hughes, Cindy Jaquith, Susan LaMont, 12 weeks for $4.00 for new readers - an $8.00 savings Sam Manuel, Roni McCann, Selva Nebbia, Harry Ring, Peter Thierjung, Judy White (Nicaragua). Published weekly except one week in August and the last The Militant carries firsthand coverage of • Reports on advances in Cuba week of December by the MilitaJnt (ISSN 0026-3885), 410 the Eastern Machinists' strike and other West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Editorial Of­ labor battles. It features news and analysis • On-the-scene coverage from our fice, (212) 243-6392; Fax 727-0150; Telex, 497-4278; Busi­ ness Office, (212) 929-3486. Nicaragua Bureau, Apartado of the developing capitalist economic cri­ bureau in Managua, Nicaragua 2222, Managua. Telephone 24845. sis, and resistance by workers and farmers Correspondence concerning subscriptions or changes to employer and government attacks­ of address should be addressed to The Militant Business Enclosed is from the U.S. to the Philippines, Britain to Office, 410 West St., New York, N.Y.10014. 0 $4 for 12 weeks, new readers 0 $9 for 12 weeks, South Africa. renewals Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at addi­ tional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes 0 $17 for 6 months 0 S30 for 1 year 0 $55 for 2 to The MilitaJnt, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. Sub­ years scriptions: U.S., Canada, Latin America: for one-year sub­ 0 $1.00 for Action Program to Confront the Coming scription send $30, drawn on a U.S. bank, to above address. Economic Crisis, a Pathfinder pamphlet. By first-class (airmail), send $65. Britain, Ireland, Continen­ Name ______tal Europe, Africa: £22 for one year, £12 for six months, or Addr~s ______£6 for three-month renewal. Send check or international City State__ Zip ------money order made out to Pathfmder Press and send to Path­ Phone_____ Union/Schooi/Organization _____ fmder, 47 The Cut, London SEI 8LL, England. Australia, Asia, Pacific: send Australian $60 to Pathfinder Press, P.O. Send to THE MILITANT, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014 Box 153, Glebe, Sydney, NSW 2037, Australia. Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 The Militant July 7, 1989 Cuban gov't probe reveals role of military officers in drug trade

BY SUSAN APSTEIN lion," Granma reported. cobar for trafficking cocaine through Cuba," Cuban general Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez, The editorial explained that since 1982 La the editorial noted, "to be paid at the rate of who led military missions in Ethiopia and Guardia had been head of Department Z, later $1 ,200 per kilogram." Angola and was awarded the medal Hero of renamed Department MC, of the Ministry of This meeting "was one of the most serious the Republic of Cuba in 1984, went on trial the Interior. acts" committed by the two military officials, in Havana June 25 for embezzlement and The division is charged with circumvent­ reported Granma. "If this aide to as well­ drug smuggling. ing the U.S. economic blockade to acquire known and prestigious a general as Amaldo The tribunal hearing the case is made up of such products as medical and computer Ochoa had been captured and presented be­ 45 army generals and two admirals. On the equipment and medicines and health supplies fore world public opinion as some sort of first day of the trial, Raul Castro, head of that Cuba is prevented from obtaining from representative of the country or of our armed Cuba's armed forces, testified against Ochoa. the United States. forces, meeting with the Medellin cartel, Ochoa was arrested June 12 along with six To carry out this task, it has established there would have been a storm of slander other top-ranking officials of the army and connections with U.S. citizens or residents against the revolution that would have been Ministry of the Interior on charges of corrup­ who have the means to transport these prod­ very difficult to refute." tion. An inquiry into possible connections ucts to Cuba by air and water. Department "It is important to point out," the statement Gianfranco Gorgoni, reprinted by permission of Pathfinder with international drug traders quickly fol­ MC was authorized to engage in commercial noted, that when Ochoa and La Guardia were Raul Castro, head of Cuba's armed lowed. arrangements with them, Granrna explained, arrested June 12, "nothing was known of their forces, presented evidence against Gen. A June 22 editorial in Granma, the daily carrying out "absolutely moral and just activ­ activities related to drug trafficking." The first Arnaldo Ochoa. newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, ity" against the "criminal blockade." indications surfaced a few hours after the reported on the results of the investigation. But department members were obligated arrest when a search of Martinez's house The editorial, according to Granrna, ex­ to work "under norms strictly prohibiting any turned up a letter that, in Martinez's words, ing that "we are the only country in this pressed the opinion of the Communist Party links with elements who were in any way he had "stupidly" neglected to destroy. hemisphere capable of doing this," Granma stated that "it won't be a difficult task" for Central Committee, President Fidel Castro, connected with drugs." However a probe into drug trafficking was the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the The department had the power to coordi­ Cuban citizens, members of the coast guard, already under way in Cuba. In April Fidel and members of the army and Ministry of the Ministry of the Interior. nate its work with the Cuban coast guard and Castro had asked the Ministry of the Interior Granma said it was complying with a aviation authorities, and "everyone gladly as­ Interior. to carry out a "thorough investigation to de­ The editorial explained that drug traders promise to "inform the Cuban people and the sisted them," Granma continued. termine if any Cuban officials were impli­ international public of all the facts related to But it was "precisely through this authority now know that Cuba will take "drastic mea­ cated in drug trafficking," reported Granma. sures" against traffickers, "as hard as.it may drug trafficking" uncovered by the exhaus­ and wide latitude for operations that La Guar­ It is now clear, the editorial continued, that tive probe. dia and a group of operatives close to him be to have to shoot down a plane that refuses no sooner was this probe begun than "La to comply with an order to land." Ochoa and Col. Antonio de Ia Guardia were able to begin cooperating with drug Guardia's group suspended its operations and Font, "the two main figures involved," coop­ traders, deceiving other departments of the began to dismantle its apparatus and cover its The conduct of Ochoa, La Guardia. and erated very little, the editorial noted. But Ministry of the Interior." tracks." their collaborators "shows to what extent a when presented with proof, they "admitted Drugs were flown to Varadero, on Cuba's Ochoa and La Guardia claimed they in­ consumer society with its flashy fake jewelry responsibility." northern coast, from Colombia. They were tended only to help the country. But "helping" is capable of dazzling and influencing certain The facts were obtained independently of packed in tobacco boxes and picked up by the country this way amounted to "thrusting people; how necessary it is to be more vigilant Ochoa and La Guardia, from others who took boats from Miami. The boats also collected a dagger in its back," Granma explained. and exacting and raise our revolutionary con­ part and "made detailed statements on every­ cocaine dropped in fluorescent bags from The officials' cynical lie that they were sciousness." thing that occurred." planes flying over Cuban waters. going to tum over all the money to the Cuban What the two military officials did was La Guardia made contact with drug dealers "deal a blow to Cuba's international prestige Smuggled cocaine government was exposed, the Communist through an official of his department in Pan­ Party paper stated, when "hundreds of thou­ and moral standing," Granma explained. Ochoa and La Guardia worked with Co­ ama. Also, Ochoa first became involved in sands of dollars started to appear" in the "Our prestige is the fundamental way we lombian drug traders to help smuggle cocaine drug trading through a contact in Panama. houses of their close friends and relatives and defend ourselves against U.S. imperialist ag­ to the United States between 1986 and '89. in various hiding places - stuffed in a gression and how we make the voice of our Traffickers linked to La Guardia carried out Medellin freezer, hidden under a cement headstone. people heard in every corner of the world." 19 operations between January 1987 and Granma reported that Ochoa's aide, Capt. Investigators confiscated more than $1.3 Ochoa and La Guardia "endangered not April 1989, 15 of which were successful. Jorge Martinez Valdes, met with the head of million in dollars and pesos - most of it only our prestige, but our security," the state­ La Guardia's collaborators "themselves the Medellin cartel, Pablo Escobar, in Colom­ dollars - stashed away by La Guardia and ment concluded, "because in today's world a calculate that they helped move six tons of bia in May 1988. "An understanding was five of his and Ochoa's collaborators. small nation without prestige and moral cocaine, for which they received $3.4 mil- rapidly reached between Martinez and Es- The Cuban people "will fmd a humanitar­ standing is defenseless. To dishonor a heroic ian use to dedicate these funds to," Granma people is to rob it of its strength. To deal a stated. blow to its confidence is to deal a blow to its In addition to his "earnings" from drug fighting morale." State Dept. denies U.S. entry trafficking, Ochoa was discovered to have $200,000 in a bank in Panama. Twenty-five thousand dollars was found at his home. to well-known Cuban ensemble Aside from violating revolutionary princi­ 'Militant' will BY JOHN VOTAVA ican performers, Aragon was invited by the ples, the manner in which Ochoa and La cover world youth CHICAGO -In May the U.S. State De­ Mayor's Office on Special Events to partici­ Guardia conducted themselves was "repul­ partment denied visas to the internationally pate in the festival of Latin American and sive," Granma stated. They acted "like vulgar festival in Korea known Cuban band Orquesta Aragon, which Caribbean music. The 14-piece band is cele­ bandits of international drug trafficking, sell­ Militant editor Margaret Jayko is was invited to perform at the first annual brating its 50th anniversary. ing out their country." on her way to Pyongyang, capital city Latin music festival here June 3-5. As soon as the invitation was issued, right­ Policy on drugs of the Democratic People's Republic A May 6 editorial in the Chicago Tribune wing forces in the Cuban community of Korea, to cover the 13th World called the decision "inconsistent to the point launched a campaign to pressure the city to The editorial concluded with a detailed Festival of Youth and Students. of hypocrisy." tear up its contract with the group. For explanation of the Cuban government's pol­ This is the first time the festival It is "absurd," the editorial stated, for the months, the right of Aragon to participate was icy on drugs. will be held in Asia, and more than U.S. government to welcome "the Bolshoi debated in the city's press. Cuba is one of the few countries in the 20,000 young people from well over Ballet and other artistic groups, athletic Prior to the visa denial, some 100 people hemisphere, Granma explained, that is not 100 countries are expected to attend. teams, orchestra conductors and assorted attended a meeting at City Hall to show sup­ involved in the growing and manufacture of A delegation of 100 was scheduled to Olympic champions from the Soviet Union, port for the appearance of the band. None of drugs-in a continent where this has become leave from the United States June 27. the gala's sponsors withdrew their backing in a "cancer." China, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc. The festival will run from July 1 to etc." and "turn away a Cuban dance band." the face of the right-wing campaign. The U.S. government has proved itself in­ July 8. Since 1947, 12 youth and stu­ "Freedom has been denied to organizers of A May 15 article in the Cuban Communist capable of preventing consumption and traf­ dent festivals have been held. Viva Chicago, who have been subjected to Party newspaper Granma Weekly Review ficking in drugs inside its own borders. And The festival is being held under the telephone threats," the Tribune noted, "as noted that the denial was the third time this all its measures against drug-producing coun­ banner of "Anti-imperialist Solidar­ surely as it has been denied to the Hispanic year that Cuban artists have been refused tries in Latin America are "repressive in char­ ity, Peace and Friendship." festival audiences who will miss the music visas, indicating "a clear and open policy on acter," refusing to understand that the eco­ The U.S.-backed regime in South Orquesta Aragon provides." the part of the United States against Cuban nomic and social crisis in Latin America has Korea is trying to prevent youth from Along with other well-known Latin Amer- performers." "driven millions of people into the cultivation and processing of drugs." that country from attending the festi­ The absence of effective measures to pre­ val in the northern part of their home­ vent drug use in the United States, the foreign land. The Korean Preparatory Commit­ "Cuba Will debt, and the crisis and growing poverty of hundreds of millions in Latin America and the tee for the festival has announced that Never Adopt Caribbean, Granma stated, render useless the the North Korean government will millions spent in efforts by the U.S. and Latin open the border between the two parts of divided Korea to youth from American governments against drug traffick­ Capitalist the south who want to participate in ing. For years Cuba has been "irreproachable the festival "and guarantee them per­ Methods" in complying with its international duty" to sonal safety and all conveniences till they go back after attending the Excerpts from not allow its territory to be used for drug trafficking. "Dozens of boats and planes and Pyongyang Festival." Fidel Castro's hundreds of drug traffickers .. . who acciden­ Holding the festival in Pyongyang tally landed here or entered our territorial is a blow to Washington's decades­ long policy of politically and eco­ July 26, 1988 speech waters have been apprehended," Granma re­ nomically isolating North Korea. 32 pp. pamphlet, $1.50 ported. "We have been dealt a heavy blow" for the Korean youth living in Japan and Order from Pathfinder, 410 West St., New York, first time by international drug trafficking, the North America are also being encour­ N.Y. 10014. Please include 75¢ for postage and_ aged to attend. handling. report continued, but we will get rid of the problem by "uprooting it completely." Not-

July 7,1989 The Militant 3 Push needed to raise $100,000 in fund drive

Mark Curtis is a unionist and already defense activists. "To reach can be followed up by calls and Curtis case since before the trial in fighter imprisoned in New York political activist from Des the $100,000 requires all support­ visits. the Militant. Everything about this who the U.S. government is trying Moines, Iowa, who is serving a ers to place fund-raising at the cen­ "Anyone interested in making a case says the same thing - it is a to deport. 25-year jail term on frame-up ter of their activities over the larger contribution," Studer said, frame-up. Curtis supporters told demon­ charges of rape and burglary. summer," explained Studer. may desire to have the donation be "Mark has been framed because strators they were there to support The Mark Curtis Defense Com- The defense committee has set tax deductible. "Such contributions of his involvement with Central Doherty, as well as publicize the can be made out to the Political America and his defence of Latin case of another U.S. political pris­ Rights Defense Fund, Inc.," which American workers. oner, Mark Curtis. Eighteen copies DEFEND MARK CURTIS! has agreed to handle tax deductible "To us in the National Union of of the pamphlet The Frame-Up of donations for the defense. Mineworkers, this situation is fa­ Mark Curtis were sold, with some • The second category of fund­ miliar - the media and the estab­ mittee is leading an international up a committee to coordinate fund­ people giving donations in addi­ raising is organizing events over lishment combining against those political campaign to fight for raising efforts, both those under­ tion. Quantities of other defense lit­ the summer that can attract sup­ determined to defend the rights of justice for Curtis. To contact the taken directly from the office as erature were given out as well. porters and potential supporters to working people and a trial con­ committee, write Box 1048, Des well as helping to coordinate fund­ hear about the latest developments ducted on the basis of the Moines, Iowa 50311. Telephone raising with supporters around the in the case and win deeper backing, defendant's politics. • (515) 246-1695. world. Defense committee trea­ including financial. "In the case of the British miners, surer Julia Terrell, Sandra Nelson, The defense committee is asking Such events have been held re­ in the case of the Birmingham Six John Studer, and Mary Nell Bock­ for protests to continue against the The Mark Curtis Defense Com­ cently in New Zealand, Britain, and and the Guildford Four [Irish inde­ man are the members of the fund­ ban on non-English language mag­ mittee is on an international drive several cities in the United States. pendence activists in jail for their to raise $100,000 by September 14, raising committee. azines and correspondence to Cur­ They include rallies, teach-ins, the­ political activities], and throughout tis and other prisoners at the Iowa the first anniversary of Curtis' con­ The letter from the defense com­ ater and poetry-reading benefits, the capitalist world, we are wit­ viction. mittee suggests two central meth­ and other types of events. nessing a drive to victimize and State Men's Reformatory in An­ According to the latest mailing ods to organize fund-raising, which The committee is urging support­ crush people defending their rights. amosa, as well as against the policy are linked the broadening support from the committee, signed by ers to phone in their fund-raising Mark Curtis is a trade unionist­ of preventing prisoners from ex­ steering committee member John for the defense effort. plans so the committee has a picture this is the fundamental point - a changing written materials. Studer, "This projection is signifi­ • Drawing up a list of individu­ of how this international fund will fellow worker is under attack. It is Protests should be addressed to cantly higher than the last two fund als and organizations to talk to be successfully carried out. our duty and our obligation to close John A. Thalacker, Warden, Iowa drives, reflecting the expanded about political and financial sup­ ranks and defend trade unionists in State Men's Reformatory, An­ work of the defense committee. To port. Requests for funds can be • struggle. amosa, Iowa 52205. Copies should successfully complete it will re­ combined with appealing for sup­ Peter Heathfield, general secre­ "Please convey my support and be sent to Attorney General quire serious attention from all de­ port to the protest campaign against tary of the National Union of the support of thousands of miners Thomas J. Miller, Hoover State Of­ fense supporters. the censorship of non-English lan­ Mineworkers in Britain, endorsed for Mark and the campaign. This is fice Bldg., Des Moines,. Iowa "The heaviest expenses this fund guage materials to Curtis and other the defense committee last month. another cause for justice trade 50319; Paul Grossheim, Director are aimed at meeting fall due in the prisoners, as well as continuing the In doing so, he wrote a statement unionists must take up." of the Department of Corrections, frrst two months- June and July. CI'ijcial effort to win new endorsers explaining his support. Given the Capitol Annex, 523 E. 12th St., Des Fund-raising efforts must be of the defense committee. important role of the NUM in the • Moines, Iowa 50309; and the Mark launched quickly." Local areas can also put out a fight of the British and interna­ Supporters of Curtis in New Curtis Defense Committee. Unlike previous defense com­ fund letter. The Des Moines office tional labor movement against em­ York received a good response at mittee fund-raising efforts, this one projects putting out a national mail­ ployer and government attacks, we the table they set up at a June 17 cannot be met largely through sub­ ing to all endorsers and contribu­ are reprinting it here: rally for Joe Doherty. Marc Lichtman from New York stantial donations by those who are tors at the beginning of July. This "I have been following the Mark Doherty is an Irish freedom contributed to this column. One-day strikes shut down British rail, subways

ending national negotiations over wages and tion of £64 a week for the removal of guards Workers got conditions. With the five new separate bar­ on the tube trains and £23,000 in back pay. gaining units based on job categories, wages The £64 represents half the wages of the a glimpse of and conditions will soon drift apart and the guards. While these actions have successfully potential strength unity of workers - and the power of their shut down the network on every occasion, the unions - will be weakened. This is coupled stance of the "coordinators" has been to con­ of their unions with plans to scrap union representation pro­ fine involvement to only the train crews. cedures, leaving members who require union NUR activists heading up the District Council for London Underground workers BY DOREEN WEPPLER assistance increasingly at the mercy of local argue that only through united action of all LONDON -On June 28 more than managers. Secondly, rail workers are rejecting the rail workers-from the lowest -paid cleaning 100,000 transport workers in Britain con­ and catering staff through the train operators ducted their second 24-hour strike. A week low pay, long hours, and massive increases in -will jobs and rights at work be successfully before, the first of these walkouts brought the productivity extracted from them since the early I980s. defended. capital to a halt in a way not seen since the However, the coordinators view any general strike of 1926. Low base rates - from £96.80 broadening of the action on the Underground Nationally, the rail strike was solid. Man­ (£l=US$1.56) for a 39-hour week- force as weakening what they see as "their" dis­ agement was unable to move a single train. rail workers to work an average of 54 hours pute. After four years of defeat and quiescence in each week to get a living wage. Twenty per­ cent of the work force puts in more than 60 the wake of the 1984-85 miners' strike, work­ Courts try to stop action ers got a glimpse of the potential strength of hours a week. In the final days leading up to the first their unions. Since I979 railway jobs have been cut by nationwide one-day walkout, British Rail The action has involved 75,000 members 27 percent. Over the same period productivity turned to the courts to stop the action. Em­ of the National Union of Railwaymen em­ has increased by 30 percent. This explains the ployers have repeatedly challenged threat­ ployed by British Rail and 20,000 on the record profits achieved by British Rail this ened strike action in recent months, claiming London Underground network. A third one­ year, estimated to be £500 million and due to the unions have failed to comply with antiun­ day action has been announced by the NUR be announced on July 5. It also explains why ion legislation. However, this time the basis for July 5, including the possibility that the rail workers are angered by the 7 percent pay was so flimsy that, on appeal, the court found action will be broadened to other unions in­ increase British Rail has imposed in their G.M. \...V\JI\.1""' in favor of the union and refused to grant volved in rail if management refuses to con­ wage packets, especially at a time when in­ A National Union of Railwaymen contin­ British Rail an injunction. cede on the union's key demands. flation rates nationally are 8.5 percent, but are gent at 1987 London anti-apartheid Fueling this conflict are plans to shut down Separate issues face the two groups of rail estimated in London to be more like I6 per­ march. whole sectors of the II ,000-mile railway net­ transport workers and the London bus system cent. work deemed unprofitable by the govern­ workers. But they all point to the squeeze felt ment and BR management, especially in rural by working people as the bosses drive to Bus and subway workers most victimized by the proposals. And in­ areas. increase their rates of profit. On British Rail, The Transport and General Workers Union deed, the union has produced figures con­ A deep well of sympathy for rail workers workers are resisting two attacks. members employed by the London Bus Co., firming these fears. For example, on the Lon­ exists in the broader labor movement. Not First. are management measures to under­ including drivers, ticket collectors, and main­ don buses, which were part of the only is the £96.80 basic weekly pay seen as mine the bargaining power of the_ union by tenance staff, rejected a recommendation by Underground until two years ago, the number union officials to accept the latest 8.3 percent of Black workers holding supervisory posi­ outrageous, but in the wake of several major pay offer, plus improved holiday and bonus tions is 14 percent of the work force, com­ transport accidents, there is broad concern in allowances. They decided to hold out for a 14 pared to 37 percent on the tubes where senior­ the working class for railway safety. Many PATHFINDER percent increase. ity has been maintained. people, for example, were shocked by the On the Underground, the issue is opposi­ The union's approach in championing the accounts of long working hours and intolera­ catalog available tion to management plans to bring in the rights of these Black workers has deepened ble conditions submitted to the inquiry over "Action Station" concept. This involves unity among the membership. However, this the December 1988, railway disaster at Clap­ ham Junction in South London. Pathfinder carries a broad range doing away with seniority rights and gives unity is being undermined by the so-called management an open door to discriminate coordinators of unofficial action taken by Several newspaper articles have com­ of books on revolutionary and so­ drivers and train operators (drivers on trains cialist history and theory. It pub­ against subway workers going forward for mented on the muting of the hostility -ifnot lishes a wide selection of titles on promotion. without brakemen) on the Underground. even sympathy - toward rail workers, who the Black, women's, labor, Latin The union is fighting to defend the right of These 3,000 workers -half are members often are on the receiving end of frustration American, and international any worker-regardless of color, creed, sex, of the craft union of train drivers, Associated expressed by passengers over the dangerous struggles. The current catalog is or political activity-to be promoted strictly Society of Locomotive Engineers and Fire­ levels of overcrowding and high travel costs, available upon request from your on the basis of how long they have worked on men, and half are in the National Union of as well as over delays due to faults in a system local Pathfinder bookstore or the job, thus proving they are capable of Railwaymen - have staged seven one-day neglected through cuts in maintenance staff. write: Pathfinder, 410 West St., performing their duties. unofficial strikes on the tubes since April. A New York, N.¥.10014. Many Caribbean workers who started ballot by ASLEF is currently under way to Doreen Weppler works as a guard (brake­ work in the lowest job categories on the tube make these actions official. man) for British Rail and is a member of the system in the 1950s consider they will be These workers are demanding compensa- NUR.

4 The Militant July 7,1989 Regime's economic policies spur tense social polarization

BY FRED FELDMAN prices set by the regime. The rest of the prod­ (Last in a series) uct could be sold on the market. The student-led protests in China and the In· addition, the peasant families were to brutal repression of them by the government pay local and national taxes. of Deng Xiaoping took place in the midst of Peasants were allowed wider leeway in widening social polarization. On one side, determining what to grow on their land. Many increasingly wealthy government officials, switched from rice or wheat to vegetables or capitalists, and rich peasants confront, on the other crops where higher market prices could other, masses of workers, peasants, and other be obtained. Those who used their land for toiling people who today face a tightening something other than growing grain could economic squeeze. meet their grain quotas by purchasing rice or The officials, capitalists, and rich farmers wheat on the market and then tum it over to have been the primary beneficiaries of eco­ the government. nomic policies implemented by the govern­ Partly to reduce rural unemployment and ment and ruling Communist Party over the to spur some poorer peasants to shift from past decade. agricultural production into industry, the re­ Putting forward such slogans as, "to get gime encouraged the development of rural rich is glorious," the Communist Party offi­ industries owned by individuals, groups of cialdom appeals for the support of the best-off peasants, and various institutions. Peasants Shenzhen, one of four zones set up to attract foreign investors to southern China. sections of Chinese society. who took jobs in such factories were autho­ International Trade Center is China's tallest building. Skyscrapers and other symbols Wide layers of workers and farmers, on the rized to rent the land they held to other peas­ of wealth multiplied in such areas, but masses of workers and farmers face worsening other hand, had to settle for small gains at best ants. conditions. Today, factories in rural areas employ some 90 million people. percent today. In some coastal regions, the The son of Communist Party PolitiGal Bu­ BEHIND CRISIS In 1979 the regime announced wider lee­ percentage of production represented by state reau member Wan Li is a deputy director of way for peddlers, small businesses, and cap­ firms is even smaller. the Hong Kong branch of the China Invest­ IN CHINA italist enterprises to operate in the cities. In ment and Trade Corp. 1984 state-owned firms were authorized to Economic growth in the first years of the decade and now face keep the surpluses they produced above costs, China's foreign trade soared. Exports of 'Scandalous ripoff' growing unemployment, declining buying while requiring them to pay a 55 percent tax manufactured goods zoomed from $3.6 bil­ William Hinton, a visitor to China who power due to inflation, and even the possibil­ to the state. Formerly, the enterprises had to lion in 1978 to about $15 billion in 1984. generally supports the policies that were fol­ tum over their entire surpluses to the state. ity of hunger. Clothing and textiles replaced oil as the lowed during Mao's years in power, has The shift in economic policies began in the In 1985 a two-tier pricing system was set country's number one export. Industry rose to charged that the breakup of the agricultural late 1970s when Deng Xiaoping emerged as up. The production quota set for a state enter­ represent 41 percent of the country's gross cooperatives was the occasion of a "scandal­ the central figure in the government. prise had to be sold at the price set by the national product. ous rip-off'' by the officialdom. government. Any surplus could be sold at Agriculture also appeared to surge forward "When the time came to distribute collec­ Private farming instituted market prices. initially. Grain production rose 34 percent to tive assets," he wrote in the March 1989 To attract foreign capital, the Chinese gov­ Under Deng, the Chinese government and 400 million tons from 1978 to 1984. Monthly Review, "people with influence and ernment established four special zones in ruling Communist Party reversed the late Economic growth rates averaged nearly lO connections-cadres, their relatives, friends, Mao Tse-tung's policy of imposing collectiv­ percent a year for the 10 years after 1978. and cronies - were able to buy, at massive ized agriculture on the peasants. Forced col­ Average incomes in the countryside grew by discounts, the tractors, trucks, wells, pumps, lectivization aimed to maximize control over 85 percent from 1980 to 1984. The rising processing equipment, and other productive the peasants' labor and product. living standard of many peasants in these property that the collectives had accumulated Beginning in late 1978, the regime an­ years softened the immediate impact of the over decades through the hard labor of all nounced a series of increases in the price it widening gap between rich peasants and the members. Not only did the buyers manage to paid for grain that eventually amounted to a mass of agricultural toilers. set low prices for these capital assets (often jump of more than 100 percent over the pre- A layer of workers also scored immediate one-third or less of their true value), but they 1978 price. The opening of village markets, material gains, as factory managers were en­ often bought them with easy credit from state formerly banned, was authorized and within couraged to offer bonuses to spur production. banks and then, in the end, often failed to pay a few years 44,000 of them dotted the coun­ Bonuses enabled the regime to move to­ what they had promised." tryside. ward institutionalizing a reduction in the job By 1985 conditions began to acutely Over the next five years, the cooperatives security of employed factory workers. Pre­ worsen for millions of workers, peasants, and that peasants everywhere had previously viously, they were supposed to be guaranteed other toilers. Popular discontent began to rise. been required to join were effectively dis­ lifetime employment, but this began to The production of rice and wheat - the solved in favor of what became known as the change with the decentralization of industry basic food crops - declined in 1985, and "responsibility system." and expansion of capitalist relations. Like the again in 1988. The regime imported 16 mil­ Under this system, the land formerly growth of class differentiation in the country­ lion tons of grain last year. The production owned by cooperatives and collectives was side, the undermining of workers' job secu­ record set in 1984 has not been equalled since. divided up among the peasant families be­ rity was obscured for a time by the economic longing to the group. The families now oper­ growth. Problems in countryside ated them independently. The proportion of government investment Working conditions devoted to agriculture plummeted from 10.6 Often machinery and other goods that had percent in 1978 to 3.3 percent in 1986. been owned cooperatively were also sold off. The workers have paid in other ways as well for the changes. "At some small, Hong The officially sponsored dismantling of By 1985 one-third of all power cultivators many cooperative institutions among the and tractors were owned by single families. Kong-owned factories in southern Deng Xiaoping Guangdong Province, employees work 12 peasants may also be undermining those as­ The regime continued to reject, as it had pects of agricultural production that often since 1955 when Mao launched the drive to hours a day, seven days a week-and work­ coastal areas where foreign capitalists can ers line up to get the jobs because the pay is require common social effort. According to a force the peasants into collective farms, a March 31, 1986, dispatch from the New course based on the voluntary, gradual exten­ start up businesses and exploit cheap labor relatively high," reported Nicholas Kristof in with a minimum of government control and the Jan. 1, 1989, New York Times. "The fac­ China News Agency, a delegate to the Na­ sion of cooperation among the peasants. tional People's Congress-the legislature­ By 1983 more than 90 percent of peasant charges. In Shenzhen, near the British-held tories hire children even though it is nomi­ city of Hong Kong, more than 1,000 small nally against the law.... warned of"degeneration of the land, aging of families were operating under the new sys­ machinery, deterioration of irrigation, and tem. Heavy administrative pressure was capitalist enterprises had been started up by "Asked about minimum-wage laws and 1982. Most were small shops set up by Hong other regulations, a Communist Party official worsening of the seeds." brought to bear to assure that remaining co­ Kong capitalists, but Pepsi Cola, Goodyear, seemed genuinely puzzled. Why, he asked, Other reasons for stagnant or declining operatives such as Dazhai and Long Bow, grain production include the shift of many where cooperative organization was pre­ and other large U.S. firms set up shop there should the state interfere if both the worker too. and the employer are happy with the arrange­ peasants to producing crops that draw higher ferred by many peasants, broke up their hold­ prices and the shift of many peasants to fac­ ings. Foreign capital was also sought by offering ments?" capitalists from other countries the opportu­ The regime sought more popularity for its tory work. Like the Mao regime, Deng's government nity to establish joint ventures with the Chi­ measures among the wealthy, the urban mid­ Fertilizer production has been falling short represented the privileged bureaucratic caste nese government. U.S. companies such as dle classes, and also among better-off work­ of goals and market prices have soared, while that holds the top positions in the party, gov­ American Motors and McDonnell Douglas, ers and peasants, by encouraging a surge of the prices the government set for grain re­ ernment administration, and armed forces. along with Japanese and West German firms, imports. Ownership of television sets, refrig­ mained comparatively stable. The widening This caste fears the workers and peasants as were among those involved. The number of erators, cars, video cassette recorders, and gap between prices of agriculJUral inputs and a potential threat, and treats them not as mak­ such ventures jumped from I ,000 in 1984 to other consumer goods became more wide­ those peasants received for grain placed a ers of their own history, but as objects of the 7,000 today. spread. tight squeeze on the income of many peas­ policies adopted by the bureaucratic ma­ The law barring private employers from At every step in this process, the top offi­ ants. chine. hiring more than eight workers is now widely cialdom were among the main beneficiaries. ignored, and the owner of one factory in the Bribery, speculation, theft, and other forms of "Big price differentials between market 'Responsibility system' southern coastal region has hired 900 work­ corruption spread. and subsidized prices tempted well-con­ Under the "responsibility system," indi­ ers. In some cases, family members of top of­ nected officials to intercept supplies of subsi­ vidual peasant households now signed con­ As the expansion of capitalist commodity ficials have become capitalist businessmen. dized fertilisers to farmers and sell them at tracts with the state. They agreed, in exchange production in cities and rural areas picked up Deng Pufang, son of Deng Xiaoping, higher prices," reported the May 25 Far East­ for the right to use land, to tum over a fixed steam, the percentage of the country's factory founded and operated for a time the Kanghua ern Economic Review. "This they did ruth­ amount of grain to the state. An additional goods produced in state enterprises has de­ Co. that was involved in business activities in lessly." A government survey found that offi- amount was to be sold to the government at clined from 81 percent a decade ago to 59 the special zone of Shenzhen. Continued on Page 13

July 7, 1989 The Militant 5 Unionists picket scab hiring session in Alabama The Internatiorull Association Birmingham airport and to invite geted F.M. Kirby, a member of the of Machinists struck Eastern Air­ strikers to local meetings. board of directors of the Pittston lines March 4 in an effort to block Three days earlier, miners helped Coal Group, whose office is located the company's drive to break the picket a similar scab "open house" in Morristown. unionsatEasternandimposemas­ held in Charleston, West VIrginia­ "Whether it's Eastern or Pittston, sive concessions on the workers. the second such event Eastern strike we have a lot in common," said Ma­ Backed by the 5,900 flight at­ supporters in that city have picketed. chinists Local 1445 Secretary-trea­ tendants and 3,400 pilots at East­ surer Frank DeMaria. ''The enemy is ern, the strike by 8,500 Machinists • the same: corporate greed." has crippled Eastern's operations Meat-packers in Albert Lea, Min­ since then. It has also won broad nesota, heard striking Machinist • support from working people in member Don Danberger explain 1he The June issue of Trade Winds, the United States and Canada. issues in the fight at Eastern at three published by lAM Local 1781 in Readers - especially Eastern meetings of their union local on June California, has a number of items strikers-are encouraged to send 6. Most members of United Food relating to the Eastern strike. One of and Commercial Workers Local 6 the most inspiring is a photo cen­ work at the Farmstead Foods meat­ terspread that shows the "welcome" SUPPORT packing plant. given by hundreds of unionists to Workers at the Farmstead plant Texas Air Corp. Chairman Frank have started wearing "Stop Lorenzo when he spoke at Stanford EASTERN Lorenzo" buttons. The local pur­ University in Palo Alto in mid-May. chased 100 of the buttons and is A member of the United Stanford STRIKERS! selling them for $2 a piece, with all Workers union saw a program listing proceeds going to the Machinists. Lorenzo as a speaker at Stanford's news of strike solidarity activities The local's June newsletter also fea­ Graduate Business School the fol­ to this column. tured a back-page article on the East­ lowing day. The unionist put in a em strike. quick call to the San Mateo Central Coal miners, steelworkers, and Labor Council, which in turn others joined striking Eastern work­ • reached Local1781. ers on a picket line at the Hilton Hotel Steelworkers in the iron- and Hundreds of students, campus in Birmingham, Alabama, June 16, steel-producing parts of LTV's union members, Local 1781 mem­ to protest an Eastern Airlines "open Cleveland Works contributed more bers, and other strike supporters house" for flight attendants. than $900 at a plant-gate collection turned out the next day. They sur­ Although the scab hiring session for the Eastern strike on June 16. rounded the auditorium where had been widely publicized through Four Eastern strikers - three Lorenzo spoke. He was forced to ads in local newspapers, only a lAM members and a pilot - were make his way through the jeering handful of applicants showed up. on hand to help United Steelworkers crowd, with the aid of his body­ United Mine Workers members Local 1157 members with the col­ guards, in order to speak to the as­ back from the June 11 Charleston, lection. sembled business students, Trade West Vrrginia, demonstration in sol­ Collectors were at five gates dur­ Eastern Machinists union members at June 11 miners' solidarity rally Winm reports. idarity with striking coal miners and ing two shift changes. Almost all the Local 1781 represents United, workers who passed by reached into Eastern workers held signs that said, Eastern, Northwest, and other airline their pockets and pulled out a dollar tributions and organized plant-gate "Stop Lorenzo" and "Honk if you're workers at San Francisco Interna­ or more. collections for the strike fund. An union." Some who had given in the • tional Airport. Most of the local's impromptu collection at the confer­ Steelworkers from Trinity Indus­ morning stopped again to give in the More than 200 delegates from 9,000-plus members work at afternoon. ence raised $871 for the strikers. tries - who had heard an Eastern around the United States and Can­ United's big maintenance base facil­ striker at their union meeting earlier One driver of a giant coke-haul­ ada attending the national legislative Many locals also reported send­ ity there. Many Local 1781 mem­ this month - handed out "Stop ing truck stopped, opened his door, conference of the Oil, Chemical and ing delegations to help walk the bers are active in backing the East­ Lorenzo" stickers to passersby and and said, "I don't work for LTV, but Atomic Workers union in Washing­ Eastern strikers' picket lines. ern strike. hotel workers. The steelworkers I'm for the union" as he pulled some ton, D.C., June 1 heard Eastern have decided to organize a plant-gate bills from his pocket. Many workers worker Lee Russell report on strike • Alyson Kennedy and Betsy Farley collection for the Eastern strikers. stopped to talk with the strikers and developments. Russell is a member About a dozen striking lAM from Birmingham; Phil Norris from A letter from United Mine Work­ pick. up literature and "Stop of Machinists Local 796 at National Local 1445 members from Newark Austin, Minnesota; David Marshall ers District 20's Coal Miners Politi­ Lorenzo" stickers. Airport near D.C. International Airport and several from Cleveland; Claire Moriarty cal Action Committee recently went By the end of the day, stickers had OCAW locals from Boston to Los Eastern pilots joined striking from Philadelphia; Nick Gruenberg out to all mine union locals in the appeared on many hard hats, on ma­ Angeles have invited Eastern strik­ Pittston coal miners and other union­ from Newark; and Malik Miahfrom district encouraging them to join the chines, in washrooms, and else­ ers to address local and regional ists at a June 14 picket line in Mor­ San Francisco contributed to this Eastern strikers' picket lines at the where in the mill. union meetings and have made con- ristown, New Jersey. The action tar- column. Machinists at Trump Shuttle to vote on contract

BY SUSAN LaMONT proved, it will expire December 31. It is out work at its discretion. The vague word­ along with now, and in six months begin NEW YORK- Several hundred mem­ presented as a series of modifications to the ing in this section of the contract opens the pressing for more drastic concessions. By bers of the International Association of Ma­ previous lAM contract at Eastern. door to further contracting out of work now then, he may figure, the Eastern strike will chinists, now working at the Trump Shuttle The proposal contains most of the con­ being done by lAM members. be over and the workers less likely to resist after being on strike at Eastern Airlines, cession demands workers were told to ex­ One concession Trump had demanded whatever he demands. will be voting June 29 on a proposal for a pect in a series of company-organized "ori­ earlier - significant wage cuts by ramp "There's no reason why lAM members new contract with the company. The work­ entation" sessions in the weeks before service workers - is not part of the pro­ should accept the concessions and union­ ers are lAM members in New York, Bos­ start-up. posal. However, workers who were aircraft weakening measures Trump is pressing ton, and Washington, D.C. The most important of these are: cleaners at Eastern will continue to receive for," said lAM Local 1018 member Ernest their former wages, even though cleaners Mailhot. Mailhot is on the local's strike The Machinists union members have • Cross-utilization of workers. Workers are now doing ramp service work as well as committee. been working without a contract since they in a given job category may be forced at any cleaning at Trump. returned to work June 7, a day before the time to perform work in "any equally paid or "The lAM members at Trump, and the lower paid lAM-represented job classifica­ New York-Boston-Washington, D.C., shut­ Union activists fired striking workers as a whole at Eastern, tle restarted under the ownership of Donald tion." would have been in a stronger, more united Trump. Trump, a New York real estate and • Elimination of the job classification of Eastern and Trump workers at La Guar­ position if we had not gone along with gambling casino speculator, bought the "aircraft servicer." The new "ramp service" dia Airport in New York, where the shuttle Trump's blackmail to return to work June shuttle from strike-bound Eastern Airlines classification will now include work pre­ is based, have learned that eight workers 7 . . . or else, even though we hadn't for $365 million under an agreement made viously done by both ramp service and air­ there who had been on the Trump hiring list reached agreement on a new contract," last fall. Most of the workers at Trump were craft service workers, with many added du­ and who were fired by Eastern for union Mailhot said. "Once union members went hired from among Eastern workers, on the ties as part of the job description. activity before and during the strike, have in without a signed agreement that they had not been hired by Trump. basis of seniority, as part of that deal. • Significant loss of vacation time. High­ discussed and voted on, we had a de facto One of the blacklisted workers - who one- one imposed by Trump. That's what The flight attendants, represented by seniority workers will lose up to two weeks include lAM members, flight attendants, Transport Workers Union Local 553, and of vacation time each year. union members are being asked to ratify and pilots- is the president ofLocall018, now. members of the Air Line Pilots Association • Performance of union work by man­ John DiPaola. He was fired by Eastern for went to work for Trump under six-month agement employees. "Specific tasks may be union activity in January. "Workers at Trump and strikers who re­ agreements that are basically the same as assigned to and performed by Trump Shuttle main out on the picket lines at Eastern their prestrike contracts at Eastern. ALPA, employees outside the bargaining unit on an 'No reason for concessions' would be in a stronger position if this pro­ however, has gone along with Trump's de­ exception basis," the proposal states. In addi­ The proposal is getting a mixed reaction posal, with all its union-weakening provi­ mand for a 90-day relaxation of work rules. tion, the operation of the jet ways (passenger from workers at Trump. Many are relieved sions, were rejected," Mailhot continued. By June 7 no contract had been reached ramps) - previously done by lAM mem­ that even more drastic takebacks are not in "After nearly four months on strike at East­ with the Machinists union members. De­ bers - will be done by management person­ the contract, especially workers who ex­ em, we can do better than this. spite misgivings and opposition by many nel. pected to be asked for substantial wage "In addition, we should oppose Lorenzo lAM members, those hired by Trump went • The right of the company to force union cuts. and Trump's blacklisting of workers for in to work after being told by union offi­ members to work overtime. union and strike activity," he added. "We Others, however, are concerned about cials that an agreement with the company • Loss of paid meal breaks for the after­ have to fight to restore· the jobs of the eight the concessions that are there, such as was imminent. The Eastern strikers' picket noon and night shifts. workers Trump is now refusing to hire. If lines were taken down at the shuttle. • Erosion of seniority. The company will cross-utilization. Trump is allowed to get away with this, have the right to choose lead workers for Some also fear that the six-month dura­ what kind of precedent will it set for the Union-weakening measures crews, and to assign overtime to whom it tion of the pact is an effort by Trump to set hundreds of other union activists fired by The proposal being presented to lAM chooses. up the union: Trump is putting forward a Lorenzo before the strike began and the members is also for six months. If ap- • The right of the company to contract proposal that many union members will go dozens more fired during the strike?"

6 The Militant July 7,1989 Coal miners' strikes attacked by courts

Continued from front page Huntington, West Virginia, reported June porter of high-grade metallurgical coal, re­ 22 that CSX railroad, which moves coal fused to sign the national coal operators' from the Appalachian coalfields, is loading contract with the UMWA, which went into 1,000 fewer coal cars per day and has fur­ effect in February 1988. Miners struck the loughed 300 engine and train crews. company April 5 after working 14 months Hundreds of Virginia state and local po­ without an agreement. lice have been mobilized to ticket, harass, West Virginia has 16,000 strikers; Illi­ and intimidate strikers. Vance Securities, a nois, 8,500; Pennsylvania, 6,900; Alabama, union-busting private outfit, has been hired 5,000; Ohio, 2,500; and Kentucky, 2,325. by Pittston to follow and film union activi­ Miners are also out in Virginia, Indiana, ties. The Vance rent-a-cops are armed. Missouri, Tennessee, and Kansas. On June 26 federal Judge Glen Williams On June 23 miners in western and central fined the union and its officers $240,000 for Pennsylvania expanded pickets to other June 21 and 22 car caravans at Pittston's union shops in the region. They shut down Clinchfield mine and Moss No. 3 prepara­ two coal-fired generating stations, Fisher tion plant. Scientific and Season-All in Indiana, Penn­ Earlier in the month Williams enjoined sylvania; Eljer Plumbingware in Ford City; the union from "obstructing, hindering, and Bethlehem's Freight Car Division in preventing, or stopping or attempting to ob­ Johnstown. struct, hinder, prevent, or stop any em­ The pickets at the freight division were ployee of the Charging Party (Pittston) or Food caravan organized by West Virginia Labor Solidarity Committee brings called off after the United Steelworlcers of persons doing business with the Charging tions to striking miners' families. America issued a letter stating, "It is illegal Party from going to or from their place of to engage in a sympathy strike on behalf of employment or working." any other union." Williams' June 26 ruling termed the car tors stop shipping coal to Pittston. manding a crackdown on striking West Vir­ Carloads of striking miners from Illinois caravans a deliberate violation of his previ­ The union accepted. Pittston's owners ginia miners. and Alabama poured into Russell County, ous order. He required the union to pay refused. Harless has refused to sign the national Virginia, on June 25. They joined the $100,000 per day for every day after June A few days later Caperton again asked coal agreement with the union. union's Camp Solidarity, set up for out-of­ 23 that its members or supporters block or for both sides to talk unconditionally. The On June 17 some 30 unionists from the town miners, and prepared for a week or impede traffic. UMWA Vice-president union again accepted. The company re­ West Virginia Labor Solidarity Committee two of support activities. Roberts and International representative fused. led a caravan of 13 food-laden vehicles to "Since the breakup of our national con­ John Cox must pay $10,000 a day. the coalfields to aid striking miners and tract, we have not been the United Mine Virginia State courts have fined the "Our members," declared a statement is­ their families. Workers, just the Mine Workers. We're union $3 million for picketing in April, and sued by UMWA International President More than 600 striking UMWA mem­ down here to put the U back in front of limited the number who can legally picket Richard Trumka, "perceive the specter of bers, including eight busloads from Ala­ UMW," said a young man from Illinois at a mine entrance - permitting a total of hostile governmental and judicial interven­ bama, and their supporters held a rally in who identified himself as a fourth genera­ only 20 at the three entrances to Moss No. tion - the arrest of the brothers, sisters, Richmond, Virginia, June 21. They were tion coal miner. 3. Altogether, fines imposed on the mine and supporters, the jailing of their leaders joined by a delegation of striking Eastern workers are heading into billions of dollars. and the levying of massive fines against Airlines Machinists and by flight attendants Car caravan their organization - and they have re­ and pilots who have honored Machinists' Strikers from the camp joined a car cara­ Governor's move sponded by protesting these actions." picket lines. van the next day in front of Pittston's Moss West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton On June 22 the 18-year-old son of a coal The union has scheduled a rally for July No. 3 coal preparation plant. The vehicles proposed June 23 that contract negotiations miner was shot in the head while participat­ 4 in St. Paul, Virginia, to support the strike crawled by, slowing down trucks that haul resume at his Charleston mansion. He ing in a peaceful picket line at a Mingo and protest the court rulings. coal from the surrounding mines to the placed four conditions on talks: that both County, West Virginia, mine owned by preparation plant. parties come in good faith; the union end James Harless. About 60 miners are on Maggie McCraw and Mary lmo in Charles­ Miners in hundreds of cars gave the solidarity strikes; the company end litiga­ strike at two mines in the county owned by ton and Holly Harkness and Kipp Dawson thumbs-up sign and honked horns as they tion against strikers; and third party opera- Harless, who is prominent among those de- in Pittsburgh contributed to this article. passed the entrance to Moss No. 3. All of the company's union-organized miners are now on strike: 1,500 in Virginia, 200 in West Virginia, and 200 in Kentucky. British Airways workers demand contract Paramont Mine, owned by Pittston, is still running coal. The UMWA there was broken by the company some years ago. BY JON HILLSON the union were touring the site. by the Eastern worlcers' fight to defend their NEW YORK - British Airways worlcers Suddenly, water pressure from a leak unions against union-busting, said Machin­ A mine union official said the strike "is stepped up their fight for a contract with a caused two panels from the ceiling near the ists Local 2656 Vice-president Maureen solid. No union members have crossed." 7:30 a.m. informational picket line outside inspectors to collapse. Spontaneously, hun­ Holder. Tax records, he noted, "indicate only 30 to the sprawling British Airways terminal at dreds of union members stood and began "By going to the Eastern picket lines, 35 percent production. Pittston can't fill its Kennedy International Airport here June 17. shouting, "Contract!" we've seen a solidarity and felt a power we orders." The company has hired 100 to 150 Similar events took place later that day at BA British Airways workers have been buoyed didn't think we had before," she said. scabs, and some management people are offices on Long Island and in midtown Man­ mining. hattan. ''The number of coal trucks coming in and out of the plant is down by two-thirds," Members of International Association of strike captain Fred Wallace, who has Machinists locals 2656 and 1894 at British Navajo Nation: miners' rally worked for Pittston 19 years and is a mem­ Airways have been working without a con­ ber of Local1259, explained as the caravan tract since June 1987. They organized the crept by. picket lines "to show the company we intend backs Pittston, Eastern strikes to fight to maintain our wages and worlcing "Before the spread of the strike, Pittston conditions," said Local2656 President Carol BY ELLIE GARCIA Dalpiaz reported on probes by Peabody was buying coal from other companies to Creamer. AND TONY DUTROW against the union. Workers in the coal slurry fill its orders," he continued. "Now these Negotiations for contracts covering 1,400 KAYENTA, Ariz. - Unionists from Pea­ pipeline local have been forced to work. with­ other companies are being struck." worlcers - including mechanics and ramp, body Coal Co.'s mines in this area hosted a out a contract while Peabody engineered a The strike captain was optimistic. "East­ cargo, and service workers -began in Sep­ Unity Rally June 10, attended by 200 miners decertification election among coal samplers. em says it will start up again. Pittston says tember 1987. British Airways, the largest for­ and their families. United Mine Workers lo­ On June 8 the samplers, who test and grade it's running coal. We'll do whatever it takes eign-owned carrier operating in the United cals 1620 and 1924, which organize the coal, answered Peabody by voting to keep to win this strike." States, has its biggest U.S. facilities in New Peabody's Kayenta and Black Mesa surface theUMWA. York.. mines, held the rally to prepare for contract Other officials from District 22 also spoke, 'By and for company' fights coming in 1990. including International Executive Board In front of the picket shack at Moss No. 3 The company, which has made record In the spring of 1987, all three UMWA-or­ member Wally Oviatt. All the talks were Wallace said, "This is no longer just a profits in the last two years, initiated bargain­ ganized mines on the Navajo Nation were translated into Dine, the language of the Nav­ UMWA thing. This is a movement of all ing by demanding "total flexibility," Creamer forced into hard-fought strikes by Peabody in ajopeople. explained. That means the unlimited right to labor people, whether in a union or not." the Kayenta area, and Pittsburgh and Midway Although not scheduled to speak, interim The courts are "just by and for the com­ use part-time employees, contract out work., Coal in Window Rock, Arizona. and change job classifications. The carrier vice-chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council, pany," he stated. The June 10 rally was attended by a dele­ Irving Billy, gave greetings to the miners. The Herald-Dispatch, a local paper from also demanded a 20 percent wage cut and gation from Local 1332 at the P&M mine; sought to impose forced overtime. During the 1987 strikes, the UMWA miners officers from UMWA District 22, based in - most of whom are Navajo - won the The carrier took the wage cut and overtime Price, Utah; an International Brotherhood of Tribal Council to their side and gained broad demands "off the table," she said, but sub­ Electrical Worlcers Local 269 representative support among the Navajo people. Attack on Curtis stantive talks began only recently. The union from the power plant in Page, Arizona; and a Gerald Watson, an Eastern striker and is seeking improved health and pension ben­ delegation from the Navajo Tribal Council. Continued from front page member of International Association of Ma­ efits, but has not yet presented wage de­ A miner and his wife from Decker, Mon­ chinists Local 2559 in Phoenix, thanked the Thalacker, Warden, Iowa State Men's Re­ mands. The workers haven't had a raise in tana, traveled 800 miles to participate. Also UMWA for its national support to the Eastern formatory, Anamosa, Iowa 52205. two years. attending was an Eastern striker from Phoe­ strike. He made himself available to aid the Copies should be sent to: Attorney Gen­ On June 9 some 500 Machinists' union mx. struggles of the Navajo miners. eral Thomas J. Miller, Hoover State Office members who work. as British Airways reser­ Referring to the Pittston strike in Virginia Building, Des Moines, Iowa 50319; Paul vation officers in a building near La Guardia and West VIrginia, District 22 President Mike Following Watson's speech, Dalpiaz Grossheim, Director of the Department of Airport pulled plugs on computer terminals Dalpiaz told the rally, this "is the worst fight kicked off a joint collection for the Eastern Corrections, Capitol Annex, 523 E. 12th and began chanting and clapping for a con­ the UMWA has faced in 30 years. We will and UMWA strikers by donating $500. The St., Des Moines, Iowa 50309; and the Made tract. continue to fight. We will not give up to coal samplers challenged other locals to Curtis Defense Committee, Box 1048, Des At the same time, Occupational Safety and Pittston Coal. We will not give up to Peabody match their donation of $150. More than Moines, Iowa 50311. Health Administration inspectors called by Coal." $1 ,000 was raised.

July 7,1989 The Militant 7 Nicaragua: campaigning opens for February 1990 elections

BY SETH GALINSKY both as voters and as candidates. Several ances and naming candidates. MANAGUA, Nicaragua-With the ap­ contra leaders have already returned toNic­ Parties are already allowed to organize pointment of a Supreme Electoral Council aragua, with the encouragement of the U.S. rallies and begin campaigning, although and the granting of legal recognition to government, since the law was approved. candidates will not be officially registered eight additional political parties, the pre­ Nicaraguan Resistance leader Alfredo and recognized until after August. election campaign period has officially Cesar returned to the country on June 11 to Opposition parties have talked about opened here. join the Social Democratic Party (PSD). forming a united electoral slate. La Twenty opposition parties are now eligi­ Others are expected back soon. Cronica, a self-described "moderate" op­ ble to compete against the Sandinista Na­ • All parties are entitled to equal mini­ position paper, has published opinion polls tional Liberation Front (FSLN) in the Feb­ mum time on radio and TV during the cam­ that it claims show that a united opposition ruary 1990 elections for president, paign period. Under the old law, all parties could beat the FSLN at the polls. vice-president, and national assembly. Mu­ received broadcast time, but under a for­ The number of opposition parties has nicipal governments, previously appointed, mula that favored parties with the most doubled through splits and divisions since will be elected. Voters on the Atlantic votes in the last election. the 1984 election. There are four "conser­ Coast will also elect regional governments • The formula for distributing govern­ vative," four "liberal," four "social Chris­ for the first time as part of the autonomy ment funds to all parties or slates that run tian," two "social-democratic," and five process. candidates was revised. This will increase "socialist." "communist," or "left" parties. In the last elections, held in 1984, six campaign funds for parties that did not par­ Most of the groupings are known more by opposition parties participated, and three, ticipate or achieved low vote totals in the the personalities they revolve around than under pressure from the U.S. government, last election. any particular programmatic position or FSLN Directorate member Bayardo boycotted or withdrew at the last minute. • Parties are allowed to receive foreign class difference. Arce. The FSLN won with 67 percent of the vote. financing on the condition that 50 percent Even though all the groups are opposed On April 18 the National Assembly go to the Supreme Electoral Council to help to the FSLN and the government, differ­ amended the election law. fund the contest. Previously all outside fi­ ences over how to approach the elections the military draft during the elections, and Included in the amendments are the fol­ nancing was prohibited. and other disputes have been the source of authorization to open a private TV station. lowing: The Supreme Electoral Council has two numerous public spats. UNO includes most of the opposition par­ ties, with the exception of the Revolution­ • Nicaraguans living abroad may regis­ members representing the FSLN, two from Some 15 opposition parties in the United ary Workers Party, Marxist-Leninist Party, ter in their country of residence. They must the opposition parties, and a fifth "notable" National Opposition (UNO) have de­ Movement for Revolutionary Unity, and return to Nicaragua to vote. member, who is considered to be "neutral." manded permission for Nicaraguan exiles • Contras who have put down their The council will soon be setting an election to vote abroad, prohibition of voting by one or two others. They also demand the right to invite weapons can participate in the elections calendar with deadlines for forming alii- soldiers and military officers, suspension of teams of international observers during the campaign - the government says that only the election council and the govern­ ment can invite observers - and the rais­ Philadelphia doctor who performed ing of the voting age from 16 to 18. Some hold open the possibility of boycotting the elections. abortion convicted of infanticide Other parties, including some that are part of UNO, have indicated that they plan BY CLAIRE MORIARTY experts who did not find evidence of a live 1980: 51,630 in 1987, down from 65,777 in to run in the elections regardless of whether PHILADELPHIA-Obstetrician Joseph birth. 1980. any of these changes are made. The Social Melnick was convicted of infanticide here Melnick's attorney, Richard Sprague, At the same time, the number of later, Christian Party (PSC), which boycotted in on June 12. In September 1984 Melnick had said, "The opinion of a number of medical second-trimester abortions has steadily in­ 1984, has already announced its intention performed an abortion on a 13-year-old. experts was that it had been stillborn." creased. Likewise, the birth rate and the to run. He was convicted on the felony charges The Pennsylvania State Board of Medical infant mortality rate have gone up as more The FSLN has been gearing up for the after 13 weeks oftestimony in a nonjury trial Licensure is expected to move to a decision. restrictions are imposed on1he'right to abot- ~ elections. According to Bayardo Arce, ..a for allegedly failing to provide medical care on whether to suspend Melnick's license to tion and contraception. member of the National Directorate of the to a live infant after performing the abortion. practice medicine. And despite the decline in the number of FSLN, "We are revising the whole party He faces up to seven years in prison. Abraham offered no explanation of her abortions over the past decade, the number structure to adapt it to the electoral pro­ Sentencing and appeals motions are set decision. Instead, she took the opportunity of teenage women who have abortions con­ cess." In a breakfast press conference with for September before Common Pleas Court to assert the constitutionality of the Pennsyl­ tinues to rise. Of the 51,630 abortions per­ reporters, Arce said that the elections are Judge Lynne Abraham, who issued the vania Abortion Control Act, which is under formed in 1987, 27 percent (13,908) were the "perfecting of democratic institutional­ guilty verdict. challenge by abortion rights advocates. women under 19; that's an increase of 2.5 ization." The doctor testified that he had believed Sprague had argued that the state law vio­ percent above the figures for 1986. It is estimated that the cost to the Nicara­ he was aborting a fetus of about 18 weeks lates the U.S. Constitution. Press accounts of the Melnick case make guan government of the elections will be gestation. But during the abortion, he real­ Second-trimester abortions account for no mention of the age of the pregnant $25 million. On June 9 the president of the ized the fetus had developed at least 26 only 5 percent of abortions in Pennsylvania. woman. The fetus was almost invariably electoral council began a two-week trip to weeks. The fetus was stillborn, asserted But they have become more common as re­ referred to as the "infant," the "child," or the Western Europe to seek funding for the Melnick. strictions are imposed on the constitutional "3-pound 9-ounce girl." project. Charges of homicide and involuntary right to abortion, according to Mary Ann manslaughter were dropped in preliminary O'Connor of the National Abortion Rights hearings in 1985. Early in the trial Abraham Action League of Pennsylvania. dismissed one of the charges of violating the Most affected by these limitations, such Innu people in Canada fight state's restrictive Abortion Control Act: as those imposed by the Abortion Control "knowingly aborting a viable fetus." She Act, are the young and the poor, who also said it couldn't be proved. have least access to safe, effective contra­ for recognition of hoineland However, the judge's verdict of infanti­ ception. cide contradicted the results of an autopsy, For example, Pennsylvania State Health BY JOAN CAMPANA tions, joblessness, alcoholism, prostitution, which revealed no evidence of air in the Department statistics reveal a 21.5 percent TORONTO - "This fight is not just and a suicide rate five times the Canadian lungs, and the testimony of several medical decrease in the number of abortions since about a land claim. It is about our Indian average. Infant deaths are common. identity. It is a fight about freedom from "If we allow it to continue, we will be domination by another culture and the right defeated," Gregoire stated. r------New from Pathfinder to live our own life." Instead the Innu began to fight back. The speaker was Rose Gregoire, a leader Their immediate target is the Canadian of the lnnu people who are fighting what armed forces base at Goose Bay, Labrador, they describe as the North Atlantic Treaty located just 20 miles from the nearest lnnu Fidel Castro Organization (NATO) invasion and de­ settlement. In the 1980s the Canadian gov­ struction of their homeland. ernment made more than 40,000 square Gregoire, along with Kathleen Noonan miles of the land available to NATO to test In Defense of and Elizabeth Penashue, spoke here on supersonic military planes. May 16 to 150 people at the Friends House. The 30 to 50 flights a day, some as low Socialism The Innu name for their homeland is as I 00 feet, create terrifying booms. The Nitassinan. It lies in the Canadian subarctic Innu say this has turned their land into a - in Labrador and northeastern Quebec war zone, chasing away their animals and Four Speeches on - the home of some 9,000 Innu. For years creating havoc with their lives. And it is the 30th Anniversary they have been fighting for legal recogni­ potentially worse. Ignoring Innu protests, tion to their land, which they never ceded the government has bid for a new NATO of the Cuban by treaty to the Canadian government, and weapons flight-training center that would to protect their traditional hunting and fish­ boost the number of flights from some Revolution ing way of life. 8,000 annually to 40,000. Castro explains his views on the The Canadian government began intro­ The Innu have drawn up petitions and ducing programs to lure the Innu off the occupied the Goose Bay runway time and lessons of 30 years of building land and into settlements in the late 1950s, again. Increasing numbers have been ar­ socialism in Cuba; the prospects promising houses, running water, and a bet­ rested and jailed. And they are reaching out for socialism in today's world; in­ ter life. Instead, what awaited them was for support. poverty and degradation. They received "If you have come to help me," Gregoire ternationalism, and many other substandard housing. In many communities concluded, "you are wasting your time. But topics. 142 pp., $7 .95. Available from Pathfinder bookstores listed on page 12 or by mail from today their diet is largely starch; other if you have come because your liberation is Pathfi nder. 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. Please include $1 for postage and handling. foods are too expensive. bound up with mine, then let us walk to­ The Innu face violence, recurring infec- gether."

8 The Militant July 7,1989 U.S., Europe firms want to turn Africa into toxic waste dump

The following article appeared in the scandal was Guinea-Bissau. Enticed by offers continent's environment. February 1989 issue ofCoumbite, a mag­ from two foreign fmns, lntercontract of Frei­ The storage was to consist of digging a azine published by Africans in Paris. burg and Lindaco of Detroit, acting for British hole 35 meters deep and depositing the bar­ David Gakunzi is the editor. parent companies, Export Ltd. (London) and rels of wastes, and covering it with a layer of Translation from the French is by the Hobday Ltd. (Isle of Man), the government fresh earth! The first ship was supposed to ®(f) M ilittJiit. officially acknowledged that it had concluded dock at Cotonou in April. Nothing came of it. an agreement with them. BY DAVID GAKUNZI Guinea-Bissau agreed to accept in its 'Household garbage' dumped in Guinea Greedy merchants, in connivance with ir­ northern region, near the border with Sene­ Several businessmen contacted the Nor­ responsible political leaders, have abnost gal, 15 million tons of toxic wastes over five wegian fmn Bulkhadling to store off Conakry tt transformed certain sites in Africa into fields years, averaging $40 a ton! This toxic residue [capital of Guinea], on the island of Kassa, of death. Toxic wastes from Europe and the would have brought the "country" $600 mil­ more than 15,000 tons of "household gar­ TOXIC United States were supposed to be dumped in lion. The damage it would have caused the bage" ash. An import license was properly Africa last year in exchange for a few dollars. Guinean population and the environment are obtained for the "household garbage" ash, WASTE Fortunately, some tongues started to wag, incalculable. issued by the Ministry of the Interior, which IN AFRICA copies of contracts came out, and the drama, The Portuguese press, when it got wind of was told that it was to be used for making apparently, was avoided. . the affair, exposed the scandal, which was bricks. Although these wastes were sent back The export of dangerous wastes to the soon disseminated by the international press. to Norway, they had already caused percepti­ Third World is nothing new. A few examples As a result of international pressure, Guinea­ ble harm: burned vegetation, poisoned popu­ include: Bissau backed out of the agreement. lation. The revelation of these scandals elicited a • In 1980 Nedlog, an American company, The exports of toxic wastes are not limited strong reaction among the African and inter­ offered the president of Sierra Leone $25 $2.50 a ton for Benin to these three countries. The Bauwerk com­ national public. But with the initial reaction million to take toxic wastes; After it refused Intercontract's offer to pany in Liechtenstein and Van Santen in Hol­ passed, isn't there the danger of this business • One year later, illegal imports of 5,000 store l 00,000 tons of wastes per year for a land negotiated with the Congolese authori­ starting up again? All the more since the tons of mercury wastes and PCBs from the price of $40 a ton, Benin concluded an accord ties to bury a million tons of toxic wastes at world production of wastes has risen to 600 United States were discovered in Mexico; with the Sesco Gibraltar company. In January Diosso - for $37 a ton! The contract was million tons a year. • In 1987, in the United States, the Colbert 1988 a representative contacted the Benin exposed in time. In Nigeria, 1,200 tons of Eighty percent of this production cpmes brothers were found guilty of having ex­ government and proposed burying one to five Italian toxic wastes were unearthed and sent from OECD [Organization for Economic Co­ ported to Zimbabwe toxic wastes relabeled tons of wastes per year in the Zou province back to their place of origin thanks to infor­ cleaning products. for $2.50 a ton. Of course, there were no mation furnished to the government by operation and Development] countries. The environmental protection laws of these coun­ The first country mentioned in the wastes safety measures for the population and the Nigerian students in Italy. tries have become more and more strict under the pressure of ecology movements and gen­ eral opinion, so the cost of eliminating these wastes continues to rise. In the United States, Meat-packing union officials form group for example, they have increased from $10 a ton in 1976 to $ I60 in I986. They reach and BY WENDY LYONS John Morrell & Co. plants in Sioux City, tices suit filed, and workers began to return to sometimes surpass $300 for highly toxic MINNEAPOLIS-Officials of 13 United Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, are part work. wastes. So it is understandable that certain Food and Commercial Workers union locals of REAP. So is the UFCW local that reorgan­ Today, they are fighting to regroup the money-grubbing merchants tum unscrupu­ have come together to form a group calling ized the Excel plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, that union. Since being removed as packinghouse lously to Africa to make out like bandits, as for reforms in the union. This development was formerly owned by Geo. A. Hormel & director, Anderson has become business they already do with pesticides and medicines comes in the wake of the firing of Lewie Co. Union members there walked out in sup­ agent for the Sioux Falls local. banned in the West. Anderson as director of the union's Packing­ portofUFCWLocalP-9 duringP-9's 1985- In fact, numerous dangerous pesticides are house Division by UFCW President William 86 strike at Hormel 's Austin, Minnesota, In addition to the Ark City contract, Ander­ dumped in Africa every year. The long-term Wynn last January. plant. son criticized the contract covering workers harmful results, such as sterility, deformities, The group calls itself REAP- Research, at Iowa Beef Processing's plant in Dakota and cancer, to name a few, are known. Their Education, Advocacy, .People, Its aim is to Fired for criticism City, Nebraska. This pact was negotiated in massive use often results in the insects' resis­ fight growing pressure from top UFCW offi­ Anderson says he was frred for criticizing mid-I987 after a lengthy strike. It includes a tance increasing, hence the pesticide's inef­ cials on locals and union members to take a two concession contracts that were con­ permanent two-tier wage set-up. Moreover, fectiveness. more conciliatory approach to the packing­ cluded by UFCW officials without consulta­ the union's negotiators put the union on re­ house bosses and their continuing demands tion with the Packinghouse Division. cord as embracing IBP's notoriously low This affects not only agriculture but also for concessions. Just before the contract at Morrell's Sioux Beef Wage Index. the fight against malaria, for example. Fur­ A number of the locals involved in REAP City, Iowa, plant was due to expire in early The IBP agreement was signed while the thermore, their proper usage is not assured in were part of the strike wave that swept the 1987, a contract was signed at the company's Morrell strike was taking place. an illiterate milieu. It is said that in one coun­ meat-packing industry in recent years. These Ark City, Kansas, plant that included a wage try the farmers, who mixed their own insecti­ strikes were in response to employers' wage cut of $1.25 per hour. Pullback from IBP drive cides by combining a concentrated powder of takebacks and the increasingly brutal job con­ Workers at Morrell's Sioux City and Sioux Another issue raised by Anderson and active agents with a liquid, perfected an inge­ ditions that have made meat-packing one of Falls plants went on strike shortly after in an other REAP supporters is the UFCW nious but dangerous method to test the quality the most dangerous industries in the country. effort to hold the line on wages. Replacement officials' pullback from the nationwide cam­ of their mixture: they tasted it! If one fmger, Locals that waged strikes at the Patrick workers were brought in. After seven months, paign to organize IBP, one of the biggest stuck into the solution and placed against the Cudahy plant in Cudahy, Wisconsin, and the strike was called off, an unfair labor prac- packing companies in the country. The IBP palate, caused the tongue to swell, then they organizing campaign has always been con­ had found the right proportions! sidered important by meat-packers. UFCW Medicines are also not spared of this hardly members voted around the country to help scrupulous commerce. Products that are finance the organizing drive by having banned but that will produce a quick profit are money taken out of their weekly paychecks. often presented as the panacea for all the ills IBP was the company that began the pro­ of Africa. Two examples by way of testi­ cess leading to the restructuring of the meat mony: industry by opening nonunion plants in the • In some countries stimulants containing countryside, away from the old packing cen­ steroids are administered to children to en­ ters. The majority of IBP plants remain non­ hance their appetites, often without regard to union, but serious organizing committees had the risk this may present to continued growth come together in a number of them before the or to irreversible effects on sexuality. pullback. • Clioquinol, a medicine sold without pre­ Several locals that support REAP recently scription and used to treat diarrhea, is the pooled resources to continue the organizing source of more than I 0,000 cases of progres­ drive at the Storm Lake, Iowa, IBP plant. sive neurological disorders that can cause President Wynn replaced Anderson as blindness and even death. Even though Jap­ packinghouse director with Phillip Im­ anese courts have established that this medi­ mesote, formerly the director of UFCW Re­ cine was the direct cause of this disorder gion II that is based in Chicago. An editorial (subacute myelo-optic neuropathy), it is still in the packing industry's magazine Meat and freely sold in several African countries. Poultry expressed the packing bosses' satis­ What is at stake with all this commerce is faction with the new appointment. "Im­ the fate, the very future of the African peo­ mesote is noted for his ability to compromise ples. That is why vigilance and enactment of with the meat industry," the magazine's edi­ laws forbidding such commerce is such an tors said, "and is expected to bring a more urgent necessity. We survived slavery, colo­ 'reasonable ' approach to the industry than nization, famines - we must not be swept Anderson." away by the poison merchants. REAP has put out several "briefing pa­ pers" on its view of concession bargaining, the IBP organizing drive, and its opposition Coumbite's February 1989 issue with to allowing lower wages for kill-floor work­ article on toxic waste dumping in Af­ ers at Hormel 's Austin plant. The kill floor rica, as well as "Cuba: The Latino there was recently leased out to another com­ a nd African R e volution" a nd pany. "Thomas Sankara and the Question orris of the Debt," is available for $3.50 A May 1987 rally in support of striking meat-packers at John Morrell & Co. in Sioux Wendy Lyons is a meat-packer at Rueben from bookstores listed on page 12. It Falls, South Dakota. United Food and Commercial Workers local officials there are Meats in Minneapolis, and a member of is a French-language publication. now part of REAP grouping in union. UFCW Loca/ 653. July 7,1989 The Militant 9 C.L.R. James, major figure in Caribbean radical politics

BY DON ROJAS At the end of 1938 James moved to the his contributions to the anticolonial and anti­ Several lengthy obituaries have appeared United States where he was to spend the next racist struggles influenced millions of people in major newspapers and magazines around IS years writing, lecturing, and organizing living under colonialism and apartheid in the the world in past weeks indicative of a wide­ auto workers in Detroit and sharecroppers in Caribbean and Africa. spread recognition of C .L.R. James' life and the southern states before being deported as Forthe 1960sand '70sgenerationofBlack work an "undesirable alien" at the height of the activists in the United States, Africa, and the He was referred to at memorial ceremonies anticommunist witch-hunt spearheaded by Caribbean, James was viewed as an elder in his homeland as a "renaissance man of the Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s. statesman and mentor. Some even considered 20th century." Arriving in the United States, he became him a sort of cult figure. His books were John Arlott, writing in the Guardian of part of the Socialist Workers Party and spoke avidly read by a wide range of radical figures, Britain, said he was "one of the few West around the country on its behalf. He pre­ such as Stokely Carmichael, Walter Rodney, Indians who have become, beyond question, sented the resolution on the Black struggle Maurice Bishop, and Tim Hector. appreciable international figures." adopted by the SWP's July 1939 convention. James spoke and wrote eloquently about Superlatives flow easily when speaking or the interconnections of the anticolonial, anti­ writing about this man of prodigious talents Discussions on Black struggle imperialist, and anti-apartheid movements. and extraordinary scope and diversity who Shortly before the convention James trav­ He supported the Black power movement in was born in 1901 in Trinidad. eled to Mexico as the main figure in an SWP the United States in the late 1960s and early As a prolific man of letters and a brilliant leadership delegation to hold discussions '70s but insisted on relating this to the public speaker, James produced an array of with Leon Trotsky, who had been a central broader struggle for human liberation and for C.L.R. James books, essays, newspaper articles, and leader of the October 1917 Russian revolu­ socialism. speeches on history, philosophy, politics, cul­ tion before being banished into exile by Jo­ In 1974 the Sixth Pan-African Congress ture, art, and sports. seph Stalin. was convened in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, cal logic on the development of Marxism. On His most famous book, Black Jacobins, is Those discussions on the Black struggle in and although James was unable to attend, the one occasion he publicly debated the famous about the revolt of Haitian slaves in the late the United States played a major role in help­ presence of his ideas was very much in evi­ British philosopher Bertrand Russell on this 1700s and early 1800s who were deeply in­ ing prepare the SWP for the struggles of dence in the debates and discussions. subject. fluenced by the French revolution. The book, Blacks during World War ll and the rise of the In 1967 he attended the Havana Congress His Facing Reality, published 10 years a classic in applying historical materialism, civil rights movement following the war. of Intellectuals in Cuba and in 1982 he visited later as a further elaboration of the theses describes the struggle against French domi­ They were later published by Pathfinder as Grenada as a guest of Maurice Bishop's outlined in Notes, became a reference bOok nation and the conquest of Haiti's indepen­ part of a pamphlet, Black Nationalism and People's Revolutionary Government. He for radicals of the so-called New Left in the dence led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Self-determination. later wrote positively about these two Carib­ 1960s and '70s. James left the SWP in early 1940 as part of bean anti-imperialist revolutions. For a brief period in the 1970s, James A writer on cricket a major split in the party on the eve of taught at Federal City College in Washington, Before moving to Britain in 1932, James Washington's entry into World War ll. He Opponent of Leninist view on party D.C., and lectured at other academic institu­ taught high school, lectured publicly, edited became part of the Workers Party headed by James was an opponent of the Leninist tions after being allowed back into the United a literary journal, and played cricket. He con­ Max Shachtman. The split centered on dis­ view that a revolutionary vanguard party was States by immigration authorities. He re­ tinued his political lectures in Britain and agreements about the class nature of the So­ necessary to lead the working people and he turned to London in 1981 where he lived out became a writer on cricket for the Manches­ viet Union and on the need to defend it counterposed this position with a concept of the last years of his productive life in the ter Guardian . against attacks by imperialism. the "self-organizing and self-acting capacity Black community ofBrixton surrounded and Arlott, himself an outstanding writer and James argued that the Soviet Union was of the masses." His ideas on this topic stimu­ cared for by a group of young activists con­ commentator on the game, wrote that James' essentially similar to the existing capitalist lated considerable debate within left circles nected to the journal Race Today. Beyond a Boundary is "the best book ever countries, but with a higher degree of state in the imperialist countries, as well as in the Last year when he accepted Trinidad and written about cricket." ownership, which he designated as "state Third World. Tobago's highest order, the Trinity Star, he In the 1930s James cultivated a keen inter­ capitalist." The SWP held to the view that the In his most important philosophical writ­ told the country's high commissioner to Brit­ est in Marxism and collaborated with George USSR was a degenerated workers' state in ings contained in Notes on Dialectics, first ain that he was proud to be a Trinidadian but Padmore, also of Trinidad and Tobago, who which the preservation of nationalized prop­ published in 1948, James attempts to uphold that he always believed in a wider Caribbean had been a member of the Communist Inter­ erty and a planned economy constituted pro­ the influence of Hegel's writings on dialecti- federation of socialist states. national until 1935 when he broke with the gressive achievements that should be de­ policies and practices of the Stalinist leader­ fended from imperialist attack in spite of the ship of that organization. Stalinist bureaucracy. Reading the History of the Russian Revo­ James honored by hundreds at lution by the revolutionary leader Leon RejoinsSWP Trotsky convinced James that Stalinists were, James split from the Workers Party and in his words, "the greatest liars and corrupters rejoined the SWP in 1947 along with a group funeral in Trinidad & Tobago of history." of his followers who still held their views on During his first years in Britain, he wrote the Soviet Union but agreed on a broad range BY DON ROJAS In a two-hour memorial program on June Minty Alley, a novel about working-class life of other questions and to loyally build the Pat Bishop, one of Trinidad and Tobago's 12 entitled, "Celebration of a Life," tributes in Trinidad. He also wrote The Case for West SWP. He remained a member until 1951 leading cultural figures, said at the graveside: to James were given by several outstanding Indian SelfGovernment, The Life ofCaptain when his "state capitalist" tendency split to "We've come not simply to bury him but to political and artistic figures. Cipriani, The Black Jacobins, and World initiate the publication of a journal called praise him." Distinguished Caribbean writer George Revolution 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of Correspondence. And so they did. Hundreds of his friends, Lamming offered one of the main eulogies. the Communist International, among other During the 1950s and '60s, James spent admirers, and comrades from all over Trini­ Tim Hector, leader of the Antigua-Caribbean works. most of his time in Britain, but in this period dad and Tobago, from Britain, North Amer­ Liberation Movement read a message from While always writing, he also found time he visited Mrica and returned twice to Trini­ ica, Africa, and the Caribbean gathered June Vivian Richards, captain of the West Indies for political activism. He joined the Indepen­ dad. 8-12 to honor C.L.R. James, who died in cricket team. dent Labour Party and collaborated with On the ftrst occasion he worked with his London on May 31 at the age of 88. The Mighty Sparrow, the world's most former high school student Eric Williams as Amy Garvey to form the International In his legal will, James had made three heralded calypsonian about whom James had editor of the party organ of the People's Na­ Friends of Ethiopia at a time when that Afri­ specific requests regarding his funeral: that he written an essay some years ago, sang tional Movement and as secretary of the West can country was under siege from the Italian be buried in Tunapuna, the village in central "Memories" as well as his classic calypso, Indies Federal Labour Party. When Williams fascist government headed by Benito Musso­ Trinidad where he was born; that there be no "Federation." Other cultural renditions in­ was a student at England's Oxford University lini. In 1935, he joined the Fourth Interna­ religious element in the ceremonies, and that cluded the Pan Berry Steel Orchestra playing in the 1930s, James had assisted him in re­ tional and was later elected to its International the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) Igor Stravinsky's Rites ofSpring and a choir searching and writing his well-known study Executive Committee. be solely responsible for making all the ar­ that sang a Russian folk song. Capitalism and Slavery. rangements. Among the more than 1,000 persons at­ During his second visit, James launched The procapitalist government of Prime tending the memorial were members of the Leon Trotsky on the Workers and Farmers Party of Trinidad Minister A.N.R. Robinson sought unsuccess­ James family, government representatives (WFP) but soon ran into political conflicts fully to give James a state funeral and to from Jamaica, Guyana, and Barbados, mem­ with Williams who was then prime minister recognize him officially as a national hero. In bers of the Trinidad and Tobago parliament, Black and had become openly procapitalist. Wil­ 1987 he was awarded the country's highest religious leaders, trade union representatives, liams placed him under house arrest and later honor, but he turned down an offer to go home and prominent academics. Nationalism allowed him to leave the country to live in and live at the government's expense, opting Leaders and representatives of progressive exile. The WFP did not survive his departure instead for a six-month visit that was to have and revolutionary parties throughout the Ca­ and from Trinidad, but its concepts influenced the been made later this year. ribbean were also present including Eusi politics of the now-defunct United Labour Kwayana of the Working People's Alliance Front as well as the Oilfields Workers' Trade At a brief airport ceremony on June 8 when in Guyana, Terry Marryshow of the Maurice Self-determination Union. his body was flown to Trinidad, 300 persons Bishop Patriotic Movement in Grenada, and heard Errol Mcleod, president general of the Roderick Thurton of the Coalition for Carib­ Includes transcript of discus­ Pan-Africanist OWTU, accept responsibility on behalf of the bean and Central American Unity. sions that Trotsky had with James was an early advocate of West In­ union to fulfill James' wishes as expressed in At the cemetery in Tunapuna, the final C.L.R. James and others in dian and African independence movements, his will. They also heard popular calypsonian ceremony dubbed, "An Innings Has Ended," 1939 about the Black struggle a passionate patron of Pan-Africanism and David Rudder sing a tribute, and Errol Jones, featured parting words from a number of · the recognized leader in a circle of political the country's premier actor, read from James' closest comrades and associates in the United States. An ap­ thinkers and organizers in London who exer­ Martiniquan poet Aime Cesaire's Return to among whom were Lennox Pierre, Richard pendix contains articles by cised considerable influence on Ghana's My Native Land. Small, Bobby Hill, John LaRose, Darcus Trotsky, James, and others. Kwame Nkrumah, Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta, From June 9 to 11, James' body lay in state Howe, Martin Glaberman, and Selwyn Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, Jamaica's Mi­ at the Palms Club in San Fernando flanked at Cudjoe. $5.95. Available fromPathfinder chael Manley, and Guyana's Forbes all times by an honor guard of OWTU offi­ Trinidadian artiste Pearl Springer read bookstores listed on page 12 or by Burnham. cers. Hundreds of working people, as well as Guyanese poet Martin Carter's celebrated mail from Pathfinder, 410 West St., Stemming from these associations, James scores of youth and students, filed past his piece, "Death of a Comrade", and as the New York, N.Y. 10014. Include $1 later wrote A History of Negro Revolt and coffin each day paying their last respects to casket was lowered into the grave old stan­ for postage and handling. Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution. the man considered by so many in the Carib­ dards from the trade union movement in Trin­ His ideas on Pan-Mricanism along with bean as one of the region's finest sons. idad and Tobago were sung.

10 The Militant July 7,1989 Back strikers, urge socialists candidates

Continued from front page actions since the rallies and mass pickets held during the first few weeks of the strike. Building these events as broadly as pos­ sible will help serve notice to Texas Air Corp. head Frank Lorenzo and others in U.S. ruling circles that the strike against Eastern remains strong. At the same time, the labor movement needs to protest the attacks on the miners' walkout by the federal courts and National Labor Relations Board. Unionists at East­ em strike support actions can also demand that the injunctions against the miners' strikes be lifted, along with the NLRB order to end the walkouts.

Upturn in class struggle The strike by workers at Eastern, who are determined to see their battle through to the end, is the most important sign that an :;, upturn is taking place in the U.S. class Mlllltalll/:l•am Manuel Militant/Robert Kopec Militant/Holbrook Mahn struggle. Socialist Workers Party candidates Ernest Mailhot (left), for New Jersey State Assembly; John Hawkins, for mayor of Birmingham, But it's not the only one. The wave of Alabama; and Jim Little, for mayor of Pittsburgh. Mailhot is a striking Eastern worker; Hawkins a striking miner; and Little is a strikes and walkouts by union coal miners, Steelworker. the recent decision by steelworkers at Na­ tional Steel to reject a new proposed con­ is part of Texas Air, the third largest airline experienced - the Eastern workers de­ continued, the employers had bumped into tract, and the huge April 9 mobilization in corporation in the world. The nationwide cided to stand up and say "No more." That a new problem: resistance, especially from defense of legal abortion - all of which strike by Machinists' union members, flight decision has become the most serious chal­ younger workers. have taken place in just the past six months attendants, and pilots has succeeded in lenge to the U.S. rulers by the labor move­ The current strike by Eastern workers is - also indicate a mounting resistance keeping the carrier's operations basically ment in a decade. the most important nationwide example to among working people to the capitalists' shut down for some 120 days - something The same decision has also lifted the date of this resistance to the takeback and offensive against our rights and living stan­ no recent major strike has been able to spirits of working people way beyond East­ union-busting drive of the bosses. dards. achieve. ern and even the airline industry as a whole Coal miners' strikes This growing motion in the U.S. class The walkout is the longest U.S. labor and inspired them with new confidence in struggle is the most significant since the battle with such national significance since themselves and their unions. United Mine Workers members on strike mighty battles for civil rights for Blacks in the 116-day steelworkers' strike in 1959 against the Pittston and New Beckley coal the 1950s and '60s, and the movementto end and the 110-day coal miners' strike of Decision to fight companies in Virginia and West Virginia the war in Vietnam - and related struggles 1977-78. The Eastern workers' determination to have been some of the most active in sup­ take on this fight marks a further step away porting the Eastern workers' fight. by Blacks, Latinos, and women's rights After years of attacks on their wages, fighters - which peaked in the early 1970s. from the long retreat by the working class The miners themselves are fighting working conditions, and union rights- at­ in face of the capitalists' austerity offen­ against the coal bosses' demands for wage Eastern, along with Continental Airlines, tacks that millions of other workers also sive. and benefit cuts and the imposition of work Following the 1981-82 recession, this rule concessions that would undermine the retreat turned into a wholesale rout of the union and weaken health and safety condi­ labor movement. The utter capitulation of tions in the mines. -WORLD NEWS BRIEFS officials in one union after another to the In mid-June, when tens of thousands of bosses' concession demands resulted in miners around the country walked off the Mengistu Haile Mariam averted a coup workers backing away from any fight to job in support of the Pittston and New Cuba backed for UN by sections of the Ethiopian military. The resist the pressure for givebacks. In many Beckley strikers, and to demand the release Security Council seat attempted coup was led by military offi­ industries, unionists went along with, and of three jailed mine union leaders, it was cers who oppose continuing the war even voted for, cuts in their wages, weaken­ another sign that the rulers are coming up Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Ri­ against the insurgent groups. The Ethio­ ing of job safety, and drastic speedup - against a growing determination by work­ cardo Alarcon said that the Latin Ameri­ pian army suffered severe defeats in under the mistaken idea that accepting the ers to draw the line and say "Enough!" can and Caribbean group in the United Tigre last December and again in Febru­ bosses' demands would "save jobs." When United Steelworkers union mem­ Nations has endorsed Cuba's candidacy ary. Ethiopia's 2nd Army, a force of This collapse by the labor movement bers at National Steel Corp.'s mills voted for a seat on the Security Council, the about 175,000 men based in Asmara, lo­ was the payoff for the decades since the end recently - by a 61 to 39 percent margin - June 11 English-language edition of the cated in Eritrea, had already reached of the 1930s in which the union officialdom to reject a proposed 50-month labor agree­ Cuban newspaper Granma Weekly Re­ some kind of agreement with the Eritrean echoed the bosses' propaganda that "we" ment that offered wage gains, not cuts, as in view reported. Alarcon explained that it People's Liberation Front. -the bosses and workers of"America"­ recent concession contracts, the steel is traditional for the regional groups in the Mengistu was among a group of army are "in this together," against the rest of the bosses were surprised. The workers op­ UN to try to come to an agreement on who officers known as the Dergue, which world. posed union-weakening work rule and will represent them. overthrew the regime of Emperor Haile This propaganda miseducated working scheduling changes and wanted more rapid Alarcon called the decision of the re­ Selassie in 1974. But the Dergue contin­ people, served to cut workers in this coun­ wage increases. The possibility of a strike gional group a sign of new times. He cited ued the Selassie government's policy of try off from our fellow toilers around the now exists at National. the Latin American governments' oppo­ opposing independence for Eritrea and world, and fostered the idea that what hap­ Many of the steelworkers who voted no sition to Britain's continued occupation Tigre. pened to the billions of working people in on the contract were looking at the Eastern of the Malvinas Islands, which are Asia, Africa, and Latin America really workers and coal miners' strikes. claimed by Argentina, and the region's wasn't of much concern to us. effort to end the U.S.-backed contra war U.S. officials doubt Union officials also cooperated with the Fight for abortion rights against Nicaragua through the Contadora bosses in wrapping the unions in red tape. Group. Cuba has in recent years reestab­ imminent fall of Kabul The massive mobilization of supporters Lawyers, courts, government boards, medi­ lished diplomatic and trade relations with of women's right to choose abortion, on With growing doubts that armed right­ ation panels, antiunion legislation such as most countries of the region, Alarcon April 9, in Washington, D.C., was another ist bands can topple the Afghanistan gov­ the Railway Labor Act, the whole rigama­ added. sign of the changing mood among working ernment, the U.S. administration may be role of collective bargaining - these, The endorsement by the regional group people in this country. seeking alternative means to achieve its workers were told, were what "unionism" virtually assures Cuba a seat when the It showed both the continuing majority aims. meant, not organizing and involving the General Assembly votes to fill 10 non­ support among working people for abortion union membership to exercise their collec­ permanent positions on the Security A White House official is reported to rights and the growing determination to de­ tive power. Council in September. The United States, have said the three-month-old effort by fend this gain in face of growing threats, As a result, our unions became severely Britain, France, China, and the Soviet rightist forces to capture Jalalabad has including from the U.S. Supreme Court. weakened. And when the capitalists' anti­ Union hold permanent seats on the 15- been, "a disaster, a terrible mistake, a The April 9 march was one of the largest union drive deepened sharply in the 1970s member body. Under UN regulations any miscalculation." political demonstrations ever held in the and '80s, it was revealed just how weak the one of the five permanent members has "It's time for a reappraisal of our pol­ United States, indicating the kind of re­ unions had become. veto power on any resolution before the icy," he added. sponse that could develop against new moves by the U.S. rulers to roll back this council. A week earlier the chairman of the Resistance begins House Permanent Select Committee on and other conquests of the working class. Intelligence, Rep. Anthony Bei1enson, Beginning in 1985, workers in the meat­ This includes the potential for a fightback Addis Ababa offers said that continued U.S. aid to the rightist packing industry undertook a series of against the recent U.S. Supreme Court at­ peace plan for Eritrea bands in Afghanistan "is no longer in our strikes and union organizing battles that tacks on affirmative action. interest." marked an important break in the half-de­ The Ethiopian government has offered cade long rout of the unions. These were Fight for unity to hold unconditional peace talks with The siege of Jalalabad began after followed by struggles of workers in other Workers are gaining rich experiences in armed groups fighting against Addis thousands of Soviet troops, sent in De­ industries and workplaces, including how to fight and in figuring out what works Ababa's rule over the northern provinces cember 1979 to prop up the Afghan gov­ among cannery workers, farm workers, and what doesn't in a serious fight. Discus­ of Eritrea and Tigre. The Tigre People's ernment, left the country in February of paperworkers, and miners in the western sions of how to strengthen our unions and Liberation Front accepted the offer. The this year. coalfields. overcome past weaknesses are taking Eritrean Liberation Front also supports On June 21 Afghan Foreign Ministry Although most of these struggles were place. The need to overcome the divisions holding the talks but has so far insisted on spokesman Mohammad Nabi Amani told defeated, the important new development imposed on us by the rulers is now under­ the participation of the Eritrean People's the Associated Press that government was that a fight took place. This gave the stood more clearly. Liberation Front (EPLF), which has re­ forces had pushed the rightist bands 15 workers involved new confidence and in­ The lessons we're learning now will put jected Ethiopia's offer. miles east of Jalalabad. "Every day we are spired workers in other unions and indus­ working people as a whole in a stronger The June 5 offer for talks came within able to destroy deserted rebel posts, bun­ tries. position for the even bigger battles that lie weeks after the government of President kers, and their other hideouts," he said. Although the overall retreat of the labor ahead as the crisis of the capitalist system movement in face of the capitalist offensive deepens.

July 7, 1989 The Militant 11 -CALENDAR------CALIFORNIA tant Labor Forum. For more information call covering the strike at Eastern Airlines; others to Socialist Workers Party. Sat., July I, 7:30p.m. (515) 246-1695. be announced. Sat., July 8, 7:30p.m. 141 Halsey 5517 Rainier Ave. S. Donation: $3. Sponsor: San Francisco St., 2nd floor. Donation: $4. Sponsor: Militant Militant Labor Forum. For more information Celebrate the lOth Anniversary of the Nica­ Labor Forum. For more information call (20 1) call (206) 723-5330. raguan Revolution! Live television transmis­ MASSACHUSETTS 643-3341. sion from Nicaragua of President Daniel Ortega. Boston Cuba Today: A Report by Recent Visitors. Dance to salsa sounds and music by The Loot­ Big Mountain: Native American Fight for Panel of participants in recently returned 20th • ers, with special guests Rafael Manriquez, Ste­ Human Rights. A slideshow presentation by anniversary Venceremos Brigade tour of Cuba. ven Herrick, Lichi Fuentes, Barbara Dane, Pete Bob Livesey, Veterans for Peace coordinator. Sat., July 15, 7:30 p.m. 141 Halsey St., 2nd Sears, and Mimi Farifia. Sat., July 22, 6 p.m. Translation to Spanish. Sat., July 8, 7:30 p.m. floor. Donation: $3. Sponsor: Militant Labor AUSTRALIA (doors open at 5:30p.m.). Longshore Hall, 400 605 Massachusetts Ave. Donation: $3. Sponsor: Forum. For more information call (201) 643- Sydney North Point (near Fisherman's Wharf). Dona­ Militant Labor Forum. For more information 3341. In Defense of Socialism. Public forum to intro­ tion: $12,$5 low income. Proceeds to aid Nica­ call (617) 247-6772. duce a new Pathfmder book of speeches by ragua. (Contribute a day's wage to the "Day's Cuban leader Fidel Castro for the 30th anniver­ Wage for 10 Years of Freedom" campaign and UTAH sary of the Cuban revolution. Fri., July 7, 6:30 get in free.) Sponsors: Barricada International MINNESOTA Price p.m. Pathfinder Bookroom, 2nd floor, 181 Support Group; Centro Cultural Nicaragiiense; St. Paul Labor Fights Back: Eastern Strikers Plan Glebe Point Rd., Glebe. Sponsor: Militant Labor Committee Against U.S. Intervention in Central Support the Eastern strikers. The Coalition of Protest and Miners' Strike Spreads. Speakers: Forum. For more information call (02) 660 America, Palo Alto; Committee for Health Labor Union Women is sponsoring a morning at Bruce Quigley, member Air Line Pilots Associ­ 1673. Rights in Central America; others. For more in­ the picket line at Twin Cities International Air­ ation, striking Eastern airline pilot; Bob Hill, formation call (415) 626-8053 or (408) 288- port in support of Eastern strikers. Sat., July 8, Socialist Workers Party, member International 6678. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. For more information call (612) Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Sun., July 9, NEW ZEALAND 227-7647. 1 p.m. 253 E Main. Donation: $2. Sponsor: Mil­ Auckland IOWA itant Labor Forum. For more information call Oppose Immigration Restrictions, Support (801) 637-6294. Pacific Islanders' Access to New Zealand. Des Moines NEW JERSEY Speakers: Poumau Papali'i, Auckland Immigra­ Pittston Coal Strike. An eyewitness account by Newark tion Coalition; others. Sat., July 8, 6:30 p.m. Steve Marshall, correspondent for Militant. The Eastern Workers and the Miners on WASHINGTON Pilot Bookshop, 157 Symonds St. Sponsor: So­ Translation to Spanish. Sat., July 1, 7:30p.m. Strike: A Fight for All Working People. Seattle cialist Forum. For more information call (9) 2105 Forest Ave. Donation: $2. Sponsor: Mili- Speaker: Susan LaMont, Militant staff writer The Crackdown in China. Speaker: Dan Fein, 793-075. Eastern strikers step up activities at airports

Continued from front page lowed by a march to the airport, where a the Eastern strikers' picket line will be at lAM District 9's hall. geted July 2 as the day to try to increase its press conference will be held. swelled by other airport lAM members, nationwide schedule from 80 to 226 flights. On July 2 stepped-up picketing is also The Industrial Union Council is urging many from Northwest Airlines. If these planes fly, they will have scab planned at the St. Louis airport to meet the participation of New Jersey unionists. Oil, The following day, an airport drive­ crews. Your help is needed at the picket line first of the resumed flights there. Other air­ Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 8-575 to make sure that everyone knows the strike through is planned from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 line workers, especially those from Trans from the Merck pharmaceutical plant in is not over." The expanded picket will be p.m. Participants are urged to park their World Airlines, will be pitching in that day. Rahway have chartered a bus ..Strikers will cars when it's over, join the picket line, and from 4:00p.m. to 6:00p.m. also be asking passengers to sign the help get pledges signed by airport passen­ A drive-through is scheduled at the Pitts­ More than 100 unionists from the Wash­ "Don't fly Eastern and Continental" gers. A similar action is also planned at the burgh International Airport June 30, from ington, D.C., area joined a "Women's Day pledge. The rally starts at 4:30p.m. Toledo, Ohio, airport that day. 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. On July 2 United on the Picket Line" at National on June 25. On June 23 the Newark strikers held a Mine Workers members from the area will The Wisconsin state AFL-CIO has sent be coming into Pittsburgh to join strikers In Newark striking members of Machin­ "drive-through" demonstration that slowed out a 2,500-piece mailing to locals in that traffic at the airport to a crawl for more than and strike supporters for activities at the ists Local 1445 have called a June 30 rally state urging participation in the July 2 strike airport. at the Holiday Inn Jetport, near Newark 90 minutes during evening rush hour. support rally at Milwaukee's Mitchell In­ International Airport. The rally will be fol- "This is the first of a series of events ternational Airport. The rally will be fol­ Actions on June 30 and July 2 are also running through the Fourth of July week­ lowed by a march to the picket line. There, planned in New York, Chicago, San Fran­ end designed to let the public know the strike supporters are planning to organize cisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, Minneapolis­ strike at Eastern is not over," explained participants into teams to walk the picket St. Paul, and other cities. ·Participate in a Local 1145 Secretary-treasurer Frank De­ line and get pledges signed. Unionists in Eastern's plan to resume flights, using Maria. Striking Machinists, flight atten­ that city are also discussing plans to beef up cheap fares to lure passengers, is part of an dants, and pilots were joined in the 75-car picket lines after July 2 as well. effort to restart the airline as a smaller, non­ Cuba tour drive-through by other unionists, and sev­ union carrier. Lorenzo is also moving to eral strikers from New York's La Guardia Picket to meet resumed flights sell $1.8 billion of Eastern's assets. The Trade unionists, solidarity activists, Airport. The action got considerable media The St. Louis Central Labor Council has airline has been virtually paralyzed since students, and others will be touring coverage in New Jersey. Cuba August 13-27. Departure is from called a strike rally for July 9, at 3:30p.m., the strike began March 4. Toronto, Canada. Program will include 'Solidarity picket' visits to factories, medical center, and A "Solidarity Picket," called by Eastern a family doctor office. Meetings with strikers for July 2 at Los Angeles Interna­ Meeting to honor life of John Wolfe workers and leaders of the Cuban tional Airport, is being backed by the Los Workers Federation, as well as partici­ Angeles, Orange Counties Organizing BY ARNOLD WEISSBERG of new YSA and SWP members, Wolfe had pation in voluntary labor, are sched­ Committee, AFL-CIO. Unionists are urged uled. SAN FRANCISCO - John Wolfe, a been YSA organizer and had served on the to come to Terminal 6 starting at 8:00 a.m. Group will stay at the Julio Antonio member of the San Francisco Young Socialist SWP branch executive committee. to protest the resumption of several Eastern Alliance and Socialist Workers Party, died Mella International Center, and the flights to Los Angeles that day. As a member of the same Machinists local program is organized by the Cuban June 25 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. as striking Eastern Airlines workers, Wolfe Texas Air Chairman Lorenzo's attempt Wolfe, 24, was a member of the YSA and Institute for Friendship with the Peo­ to break the Eastern strike must be met by put in many hours of picket duty at San ples. SWP for a year. He was a member of Interna­ Francisco International Airport and was a strong pickets, explains a flyer issued by tional Association of Machinists Local1781 Cost is Cdn.$850, including To­ lAM Local 1932. The local, which repre­ widely recognized figure there. ronto-Havana airfares,lodging, ground and worked at United Airlines. sents workers at United, Eastern, and sev­ Wolfe moved to San Francisco in 1988 The YSA and SWP will sponsor a memo­ transportation in Cuba, and three meals eral other carriers in Los Angeles, is urging from Chicago. Opposed to capitalism, he rial meeting to celebrate John Wolfe's life a day. For more information call tour other unionists to sign up to help expand coordinator Linda Grabovsky at (416) joined the YSA within weeks of learning Saturday, July 1, at 5:00 p.m., at the San picket lines July 2-7. 760-8292. about the organization from a coworker. He Francisco Pathfinder Bookstore, 3284 23rd At Detroit Metropolitan Airport June 29, joined the SWP a month later. Part of a wave Street. -IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP Where to find Pathfinder books and distrib­ LOUISIANA: New Orleans: P.O. Box OREGON: Portland: 2730 NE Martin Lu­ BRITAIN utors of the Militant, PerspectivaMundial, New 53224. Zip: 70153. Tel: (504) 484-6418. ther King, Jr. Zip: 97212. Tel: (503) 287-7416. London: 47 The Cut, SEI 8LL. Tel: 01-401 International, Nouvelle lnternationale, and MARYLAND: Baltimore: 2913 Greenmount PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: 9 E. 2293. Lutte ouvriere. Ave. Zip: 21218. Tel: (301) 235-0013. Chelten Ave. Zip: 19144. Tel: (215) 848-5044. MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: 605 Massa­ Pittsburgh: 4905 Penn Ave. Zip 15224. Tel: CANADA UNITED STATES chusetts Ave. Zip: 02118. Tel: (617) 247-6772. (412) 362-6767. Montreal: 6566 boul. St-Laurent, H2S 3C6. ALABAMA: Birmingham: 1306lstAve. N. MICHIGAN: Detroit: 50191;2 Woodward TEXAS: Houston: 4806 Almeda. Zip: Tel: (514) 273-2503. Mailing address: P.O. Box 11963. Zip: 35202. Ave. Zip: 48202. Tel: (313) 831-1177. 77004. Tel: (713) 522-8054. Toronto: 410 Adelaide St. W., Suite 400, Tel: (205) 323-3079. MINNESOTA: Austin: 407!,.-2 N. Main. 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12 The Militant July 7, 1989 -THE GREAT SOCIETY------Could he mean the pastry? - Effective, for sure - "My par­ Fresh or frozen? -A morale­ Lloyd Bentsen has rejoined the locked arms like they've seen real­ A while back, a popular stereotype ticipation was legal, moral, ethical, building regional carnival was held three all-white clubs he quit when life protesters do. Eight of them of a deranged person was someone and effective."-Former interior in Morgantown, West Virginia, for he was running for vice-president. were injured. who thought he was Napoleon Bo­ secretary James Watt on the workers at the Hardee food chain. naparte. It came to mind on learn- $300,000 he pocketed for a 30- One of the more popular booths Sporting deal- It's catching Nothing's perfect - A patent minute meeting with Reagan's gave employees the opportunity to on. Buy a piece of an uncollected has been issued for a nuclear bat­ housing chief to arrange a deal for throw a pie at the company presi­ Third World debt from a bank at a tery. The size of a garbage can, it a real estate shark. dent. heavy discount. Sell it back to the converts strontium 90, a nuke plant debtor government at a good waste product, into electricity. But Let them take the rap - The markup, in its own currency. Then at $25,000 each, they're not yet Vatican turned over management use the money to cut a deal. Like, a Educating America - In light ready for home use. Also, there's Harry of government scandals, pediatric of its scandal-ridden bank to pro­ Dutch soccer club bought a piece the "potential" hazard of the radio­ experts advise, the coins left under fessionals, ending the 20-year ten­ of the Brazilian debt, traded it for Ring active waste. the pillow by the tooth fairy "can ure of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus. cruzados, and, at a nice savings, represent a child's crucial first les­ In 1982 Italian authorities issued bought Romario Farias, a top Bra­ ing that the vice-prez read some­ son in financial management." warrants for the good father and zilian player. Thought for the week­ thing about Napoleon's military Sure, take a lesson from James two associates as accessories in the "Morally I don't have any problem strategy and said, "It certainly re­ Watt. If the tot feels he doesn't looting of a Milan bank. An Italian­ Learning law ' n order- In with that at all."- Federal drug flected the way I went about the have enough teeth to slip under the Vatican treaty barred prosecution. "riot control" training, Brooklyn coordinator William Bennett, campaign and perhaps the way I'm pillow, learn him to knock them out cops broke up a mock sit-in by when asked if he would support doing the job now." of the mouth of a smaller kid. Ends leave of absence - Sen. fellow officers. The sit-downers beheading drug dealers. Economic changes in China fostered polarization

Continued from Page 5 industry. Some 2.5 million jobless people and ceded that 35 percent of urban families had In October 1988 the party Central Com­ cial speculators had made millions in this their families reportedly poured into the city suffered a decline in living standards in 1988. mittee approved a two-year JX>St}X>nement of way. of Guangzhou (Canton) alone last year. Their These developments have heightened a measure to lift most controls on the prices "Angry farmers," the report continued, chances of finding work are not very good, awareness and anger at the growing social of state-subsidized goods. Premier Li Peng "unable to buy the cheap subsidized fertilisers since cutbacks at about 80 percent of munic­ disparities in the country. While the party has also called for restricting the distribution as promised, resorted to violence, raiding fer­ ipal enterprises is expected to lead to layoffs hails those who "grow rich," 100 million of bonuses to workers. this year. tiliser plants and retail outlets." The Beijing people are admitted to be living below its In March 1989 the government adopted People's Daily reported 200 such instances The official unemployment rate in China official JX>Verty line - $54 per year. budget cutbacks and controls on government involving 170,000 peasants in Hunan Prov­ rose from 2 percent in 1988 to a projected 3.5 The deterioration of education has high­ spending. Work on some 18,000 projects ince during three months in 1987. percent this year. lighted one of the social effects of the under construction has been halted. New A shortfall of some 20 percent in the pro­ government's policies. The student-led pro­ taxes were imJX>sed on businesses and on duction of fertilizer is expected this year. Regional differences have- been height­ tests raised demands for more spending on farmers who produce crops other than grain Last year, a tightening budgetary squeeze ened by uneven economic development. education, in addition to calling for more for the market. led local and regional governments to pay Wages in coastal Guangdong Province are democratic rights and steps to restrict corrup­ The new measures will mean rising unem­ large numbers of peasants for their grain in $1 20-30 percent higher than in inland Hunan tion. ployment, especially in rural areas where new Province. Peasants in Guangdong earn an billion worth of iou 's. In some areas peasants industries have been hard hit. Xu Jue, a prom­ average of $161 annually, compared to a na­ displayed red and black banners that pro­ Education in decline inent economist in China, recently predicted claimed, "Don't sell your grain to the state." tional average of $124. The income of inhab­ While virtually all children enroll in pri­ that one-third of the 120,000 rural enterprises The government is again expected to offer itants of Gansu Province, China's poorest, is mary school, one-third do not continue to in Jiangsu Province would close soon this iou 's in lieu of immediate payment for about only $81. More than 1 million people in the junior high school, and high school enroll­ year and another third barely survive. half this year's summer harvest. province live in caves. ment has plunged by 27 percent in a decade. Since 1985, reported a recent issue of Writing from Beijing on AprilS - 10 days Inflation, fueled by the massive expansion And only 1 percent of high school graduates before the student demonstrations began in People's Daily, 13 rural tax collectors have go on to college - lower percentages than been murdered, 27 crippled, and 6,400 beaten of government credit, is now thought to be the capital city - New York Times corresJX>n­ the official figures from semicolonial capital­ up. running at a rate of 50 percent per year, the dent Kristof said he had noted a shift in the highest rate since the 1949 revolution that ist countries of South Korea (20 percent) and JX>pular mood. India (9 percent). Workers hit hard overturned capitalist rule. "Inflation and corruption," he said, " along Theregime'sgrowingfmancialdifficulties Inflation has been squeezing urban work- Faced with growing unrest stemming from with fear of unemployment and resentment of have largely halted the development of rural · ers hard. The state's statistical bureau con- deepening social problems, a conflict has the newly wealthy, seem to be fostering a been sharpening within the regime over what reassessment among Chinese farmers and steps to take. The students, some of whose workers about the benefits of sweeping eco­ leaders were children of prominent Commu­ nomic change. Some Chinese officials and Steelworkers reject contract nist Party officials, appear to have had some foreign diplomats are growing concerned that knowledge of the differences, and were influ­ the Chinese people, instead of helping the Continued from front page The current contract expires July 31. enced by the atmosphere of heightening so­ market economy along, will become an ob­ proposal to end restrictions on scheduling USWA officials are slated to meet June 29 in cial tension and unrest. stacle to it." Sunday work for hundreds of workers in units Pittsburgh to discuss whether to try new ne­ that don't operate seven days a week. gotiations with NSC, resubmit the last pro­ Maintenance workers would face job com­ JX>sal for a new vote, or authorize a strike binations and could be forced to work outside vote. -10AND25 YEARSAGO-- At the end of May, workers at Bethlehem their department. patch federal troops there to prevent further Steel voted 11,386 to 3,009 to ratify a contract Many workers also opposed the timing of THE MILITANT violence against civil rights workers, to re­ similar to the NSC proJX>sal. It called for the wage increases in the pact. The proposal store law and order, and to enforce the U.S. restoration of wages to 1986 levels, plus a calls for an immediate 31 cents-an-hourwage July6, 1979 Constitution. increase to bring wage scales to the level they $1-an-hour average raise in 1991 and 50 cents-an-hour average raise in 1992. Restora­ The white supremacist forces in Missis­ were in 1986. Further increases would not go Carter administration plans for direct sippi include not only the Ku Klux Klan into effect until the $1 average wage increase tion of Sunday premium pay and of three holidays, as well as additions to medical and military intervention in Nicaragua were set and the White Citizens Council but also the in 1991 and the 50 cents average increase in back June 21 when the Organization of other benefits were included. state and local officials at every level. I am 1992, however. American States refused to go along with a Negro from Mississippi, and I know that As news that the contract was voted down The Bethlehem contract also included re­ Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's proposal these racists cannot be persuaded by any swept through the plant June 19, most work­ tention of major provisions of the 1974 Con­ to send a "peacekeeping force" to Nicara­ moral argument. They are prepared to de­ sent Decree, which provided for affirmative ers were surprised. "I can't believe we stuck gua. fend the system of segregation by any together and voted it down," was a typical action programs in hiring, training, and up­ Under the pretext of "defending democ­ means, including the most heinous and bru­ resJX>nse on the Cold Mill floor. "Now the grading for Blacks and women in the steel tal crimes. union should go back and negotiate some-­ industry. The USWA pressed for including racy," such a force would be used to try to The occupation force should arrest and thing where my family can be together on affmnative action provisions in the contract, crush the popular rebellion being led by the throw into jail every cop or other official in Christmas and Sundays." despite a federal court's recent dissolution of Sandinista National Liberation Front. any way connected with the June 21 kid­ Two days after the vote, the company sent the decree itself. Similar provisions were in­ The OAS instead vot~. with U.S. back­ napping of Michael Schwerner, Andrew a letter to every worker crying JX>Verty and cluded in the NSC proposal as well. ing, to call for the "immediate and defini­ Goodman, and James Cheney. Just before saying that the mill would be shut down Talks are currently under way at Armco. A tive replacement" of President Anastasio they were kidnapped the three young men unless the proposal was signed tentative four-year agreement with Inland Somoza. were arrested by the racist police in Phila­ A discussion among union members then Steel has been reached by union officials and will be voted on soon by USWA members. delphia, Mississippi. It was reJX>rted that broke out. Some workers resJX>nded that now the rights fighters looked like they had been is the time to stand up to the company's The Inland proposal contains slightly more in THE beaten by the JX>lice. threats. One of the 20 Granite City workers wages, with raises coming sooner, than the who have walked the Eastern strikers' picket Bethlehem pact. MILITANT While the three kidnapped youths were line said, "What the company is doing to us In 1983 the basic steel contract signed by PubiiMeclln the lntereata of the Working People in jail, their coworkers became fearful for is what Eastern has been doing to the Machin­ the Steelworkers gave seven major compa­ June 29, 1964 their safety and telephoned the FBI in Jack­ ists." Another said, "I am glad we stood up. nies an immediate $1.25-an-hour wage cut. son. Now maybe we can join the miners on the This was followed in 1986- 87 by company­ (The following are excerpts from a state­ The FBI agent, a Mr. F.H. Helgeson, re­ picket line." by-company givebacks in steel union con­ ment by C Iifton DeBerry, Socialist Workers fused to help and told the rights fighters Most workers in the Granite City mill see tracts of $3.15 an hour to LTV, $1.96 an hour Party candidate for U.S. president in the that he wouldn't have any more dealings their no vote as a way of putting pressure on to Bethlehem, and 99 cents an hour to USX 1964 elections.) with them. the company to back off from some of its and National Steel. The federal government is aware of the worst concession demands. Other workers The atrocity against three young and situation in Mississippi. By not providing think the proJX>sal will have to be accepted, Peter Brandli works in the Cold Strip Depart­ courageous civil rights workers in Missis­ adequate protection for these young people because the union is not strong enough at this ment at the Granite City Division ofNati onal sippi demonstrates the imperative need of who are helping U.S. citizens to register to time to win a strike. Some union members Steel. He is a member of USWA Local 67. federal action in that state. I call upon Pres­ vote, the administration shares responsibil­ supJX>rt the proJX>sal, arguing that jobs will be USWA Local 9140 member Ed Fruit from ident Johnson to immediately deputize and ity for what has happened to the three lost unless the company makes bigger profits. Baltimore also contributed to this article. arm the Negroes of Mississippi and to dis- young men.

July 7, 1989 The Militant 13 -EDITORIALS------The marriage between labor Barbaric rulings and nature

"Abominations." The measure also allowed execution of those convicted of BY DOUG JENNESS That is what a representative of the NAACP Legal murder who are held to have been involved in two crimi­ In his letter on the facing page, Andy Feeney argues Defense and Educational Fund called the June 26 Su­ nal operations concerning drugs. that both human labor and nature are the source of all preme Court rulings upholding the constitutionality of A few days before the most recent rulings, the court wealth, not just human labor as Mike Galati stated in an executions of youths and mentally retarded persons. His held that poor inmates on death row have no constitu­ earlier letter. choice of words was appropriate. tional right to a lawyer in pursuing a second round of Moreover, he objects to Galati's rejection of birth con­ The decisions spotlight the inhuman and degrading appeals. trol and other measures to curb population growth. methods the employing class and its government increas­ Two years ago, the court dismissed as irrelevant sub­ On the first point, Feeney's argumentation is sound. ingly resort to in attacking the rights of tens of millions of stantial evidence that a disproportionate number of Recognizing that both labor and nature contribute to so­ working people. Blacks were sentenced to death, particularly when the cial wealth is key to understanding the interrelationship The majority in the 5-4 decisions held that the mentally murder victim was white. "Apparent disparities in sen­ between workers defending themselves and protecting the retarded or youths who were at least 16 when the crimes tencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice sys­ environment. attributed to them were committed can be executed be­ tem," stated then Justice Lewis Powell. "Labor is, in the first place, a process in which both cause, the justices said, there is no "national consensus" In February of this year, Chief Justice William Rehn­ man and Nature participate," Karl Marx wrote in Capital, opposing such executions. quist complained about the slow pace of executions, call­ "and in which man of his own accord starts, regulates, and The rulings throw glaring light on the lack of wealth ing for a reduction in the scope of appeals available to controls the material reactions between himself and Na­ and political power or connections common to the victims defendants. He griped that one death row inmate had ture. He opposes himself to Nature as one of her own of capital punishment in the United States. The exploited managed to stay alive for nine years by utilizing the and oppressed are the ones electrocuted, shot by firing appeals process. squads, injected with poison, or gassed in the death The death penalty is a weapon of intimidation and LEARNING ABOUT houses. terror in the hands of the capitalist exploiters in this coun­ Under the impact of the civil rights movement and try. It helps them to legitimize broader uses of violence by other struggles of working people and their allies, the the government against working people, be it war abroad SOCIALISM court in 1972 had ruled that the application of existing or the virtually daily legal murders carried out by police death penalty statutes constituted cruel and unusual pun­ on the streets of U.S. cities. forces, setting in motion arms and legs, head and hands, ishment. Since 1967, wide opposition to the death penalty The death penalty is rooted in minority rule - a tiny the natural forces of his body, in order to appropriate had blocked any executions in the United States. ruling class's need to wield the power of life and death Nature's productions in a form adapted to his own wants." In 1976, however, the court upheld revised death pen­ over the great majority they rule and plunder. The father of material wealth, Marx noted, is labor, and alty laws. The first of the new wave of legal murders took This stands in sharp contrast to the Nicaraguan govern­ the earth its mother. place in January 1977. Today, 37 states have death pen­ ment, which has abolished capital punishment, a move By locating, experimenting on, understanding, and alty statutes. that has helped win it broad support from working people transforming natural substances, human beings have A total of 110 people have been executed since the around the world. given rise to technology and industry. 1976 ruling. As of February, there were some 2, I 00 peo­ The struggles of working people in the United States We have dramatically changed the earth's surface, at­ ple on the nation's death rows. and around the world point toward the elimination of this mosphere, vegetation, fauna, and even ourselves as a re­ The latest court decisions are part of an effort to clear barbaric penalty. sult of our laboring activity. Man, Frederick Engels wrote away obstacles to expanded use of capital punishment. The Supreme Court's seal of approval on the death in Dialectics of Nature, "has succeeded in impressing his Last November, for example, President Ronald Reagan penalty's application to ever wider categories of working stamp on nature, not only by so altering the aspect and signed into law a bill permitting execution of those con­ people in an ever more discriminatory manner is a blow to climate of his dwelling place, and even the plants and victed of killing police officers in the course of a crime. the democratic rights of all. animals themselves, that the consequences of his activity can disappear only with the general extinction of the terrestrial globe." Under capitalism the means for altering nature have become far more developed than ever before. We can move mountains, redirect rivers, create lakes, make the Significance of gay rights fight deserts bloom, harness light with lasers, splice genes, and manipulate the molecular and atomic structure of matter. While it was the police raid on the Stonewall Inn on the widespread rights violations gays faced and helped But not all the changes in nature that human beings are Christopher Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village that dispel reactionary antigay myths propagated by the religious able to make are constructive. In our class-divided society provided the spark that ignited the fight for equal rights for hierarchies and reactionary politicians, doctors, journalists, production is dominated by capitalists who are interested lesbians and gay men, the roots of that fight run much deeper. and others. on Iy in their immediate profits. Under their control human­ In the wee hours of the morning on June 28, I %9, a crowd Unions in some cases began to be drawn into the fight for ity's power to transform nature has become like the sorcer­ returned some of the blows the police were used to meting gay rights, seeing how bigotry against gays on the job and er's apprentice in whose hands magical powers ran amok. out with impunity to those who frequented the homosexual in the community weakened labor's fight against employers' bars in the area. arbitrariness and violations of workers' rights. When an individual capitalist's sales result in "the Mobilizations continued the entire weekend, under the As part of the broad expansion of rights won through the usual profit he is satisfied, and he does not care what banner of "Gay power." This reflected the inspiration they struggles of the 1960s and '70s, gays also won greater legal becomes of the commodity and its purchasers," Engels drew, first and foremost, from the struggle of Blacks for their protection against discrimination. In many states, reaction­ wrote. "The same thing applies to the natural effects of civil and human rights, as well as the broader international ary antisodomy laws were repealed. Antidiscrimination or­ the same actions." youth radicalization that the Black struggle had helped dinances were ratified in dozens of cities, and court rulings Regarding the wanton destruction of forests, a matter initiate. tended to bolster this trend. of grave importance today in many countries and espe­ The burgeoning women's rights movement, with its pro­ Soldiers victimized for alleged homosexuality have won cially in the Third World, Engels cited the example of found questioning of the sexual stereotypes used to rational­ some of their cases against the military brass. And homosex­ "Spanish planters in Cuba, who burned down forests on ize women's second-class political, economic, and social uality no longer automatically disqualifies a woman from the slopes of the mountains and obtained from the ashes status, was key to opening the door to a struggle against bias winning custody of her children. sufficient fertilizer for one generation of very highly prof­ based on a person's sexual orientation. Although the ruling class has chipped away at the ex­ itable coffee trees." The gay rights fight challenged an array of discrimination: panded rights won by gay people - as they have with "What did it matter to them," he asked, "that the heavy • Most landlords wouldn't take homosexual tenants. democratic rights in general-the new attitudes and climate tropical rainfall afterwards washed away the now unpro­ Those who did often charged extra. have not been reversed. tected upper stratum of the soil, leaving behind only bare • Many jobs were closed to gays. The biggest blow to gay rights to date has been the rulers' rock." • In the military, schools, prisons, mental hospitals, and use of the high incidence of AIDS among gays, impover­ Engels wrote these lines more than 100 years ago. other institutions, gays faced segregation, brutality, and hu­ ished intravenous drug users, and other "undesirables" to Since then the despoliation of the air, water, soil, and miliation. whip up prejudice. At the same time, the government has not forests has gotten increasingly worse. Massive amounts • Most states had antisodomy laws that were used to provided the medical care and assistance needed for the of chemical and radioactive wastes are disposed of with victimize gays. Many police departments carried out an hundreds of thousands who are infected with the AIDS-caus­ little regard for the safety of people or the well-being of active policy of entrapment whereby plainclothes cops en­ ing virus, because they are concentrated among pariah layers the environment. ticed gays into committing "illegal" acts. of the population. As international price competition between capitalists • Lesbians often lost their children in custody fights, The curbs on the rights and dignity of gay people, as well intensifies, the drive to maintain profit levels has rein­ charged with being unfit mothers. as the obscurantist notions about homosexuality that are forced their resistance to measures that could help slow • Gays were the victims of bigoted violence and harass­ peddled as science and common sense, are an obstacle to the down the destruction of the environment. ment. rights, dignity, confidence, and ability of working people to This goes hand in hand with their efforts to squeeze The struggles for equal rights educated many people to unite in a fight to defend our rights. more surplus value out of working people through speedup and onerous work rules and by lengthening the workday, cutting comers on safety, and driving down wages. "Every organ of sense," Marx noted, as if he were Good news for subscribers writing today, "is injured in an equal degree by artificial Good news for Militant readers in the western United em California will be delivered to the U.S. post office in elevation of the temperature, by the dust-laden atmo­ States! Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon. Subscribers should sphere, by the deafening noise, not to mention danger to In a couple of weeks a new system for mailing Militant receive their copies on Monday, or at the latest, Tuesday. life and limb among the thickly crowded machinery, which, with the regularity of the seasons, issues its list of subscriptions will go into effect. This will make signifi­ The new measure will allow all our readers to follow the killed and wounded in the industrial battle." cant improvements in delivery to subscribers in that part and be able to respond to the important events covered by of the country. the paper- the Eastern strike, the coal miners walkout, Labor and nature are both casualties in this industrial This step is in response to delays in delivery brought to and the developments in China, Cuba, Nicaragua, and battle. Only as labor, the conscious partner in this mar­ our attention by subscribers on the West Coast, many of other countries- in a more timely manner. riage, organizes a powerful movement to combat the cap­ whom receive their paper a week or more. after it is italist destroyers will it be possible to defend and improve printed. Under the new system the papers will be picked But this new service will cost us an additional $10,000 the living and working conditions of workers while pro­ up in New York on Thursday evening by an air freight a year. tecting the environment. company and shipped to several key cities. From there We appeal to all our readers for contributions to help to Next week, I'll deal with Feeney's erroneous assertion they will be mailed on the weekend. meet this new expense. Contributions should be sent to: that nature's finite resources demand that socialists advo­ For example, subscriptions for Los Angeles and south- The Militant, 410 West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. cate population control.

14 The Militant July 7,1989 How an anti-Lorenzo button brought the plane back

The following is a letter reprinted from the June­ were arriving at Gate 13 and my connecting flight was at radio. A few seconds later he told me that they would come July issue of Local647 News, published by United Auto Gate 20. Even though we were late arriving, I wasn't too back for us. Sure enough, the plane taxied back to the gate Workers Local647. concerned. I had been in the Pittsburgh airport as a teenager and the boys and I were hustled on board. Lorraine Starsky, a member ofLocal647, works at and it had been small. I didn't think Gate 20 could be very The flight attendant simply put us up front near the the General Electric jet-engine plant in Evendale, far from Gate 13. I dido 't bother asking for help other than cockpit, not bothering to look for our seats. Once we were Ohio. asking the direction of Gate 20. I was told to go up the up in the air, the attendant came over to me with a puzzled escalator and go to the left. look on his face and asked, "Who are you, lady? They never Dear Editor, As I started toward the escalator, I changed my mind come back for anybody. What did you tell them?" At April's union meeting an International Association of because I had my 19-month-old boy in a stroller. I couldn't I told him who I was, what happened, and what I had said. Machinists member on strike against Eastern Airlines talked take him out because I was carrying a crammed diaper bag He shook his head and said, "No, there's got to be more to about the issues of the strike. He left many anti-Lorenzo and a shopping bag. I asked some airport person where the this than what you told." buttons (Lorenzo is the union-busting head of Eastern) and elevator was and what floor to get off for Gate 20. I found Then it flashed on me-the button! I had Sam on my lap strike literature. I picked up a button to wear on my jacket. the elevator and got off the floor I was told, but it was the and he obscured the button. I pushed him to one side and I had booked a flight for April 20 on USAir to visit my office portion of the airport. I got back on the elevator and pointed to the button. "Do you think this button had anything in-laws in Rochester, New York. I intended to pin my went back to the floor we came from. I ended up in front of to do with it?'' the main ticket counter. By this time, the minutes were He smiled and said, "Lady, that button had everything to ticking by and I didn't have much time left. do with it!" I inquired as to the fastest way to get to Gate 20 to make When we arrived in Rochester, I waited for the other AS I SEE IT a l: 15 p.m. departure. I was told to go through security again passengers to file past because I dido 't want to hold them up and Gate 20 was just down the hall. while I tried to get myself and the boys organized. Soon it anti-Lorenzo button to my trench coat lapel, but in my last I rushed through and walked along at a fast clip. It became was just me, the boys and a few attendants. The captain came minute, frantic preparations to get myself and my boys apparent, however, that Gate 20 was quite far away and if I out of the cockpit saying, "I want to see this lady for whom ready, I forgot. wanted to make it, I'd better run. So I ran pushing Sam in I had to bring the plane back." Halfway to the airport, I remembered and said to my the stroller, as my four-and-a-half year old, Ben, ran behind I laughed and pointed to my anti-Lorenzo button. "I guess friend who was taking us, "Dam it! I forgot my anti-Lorenzo me crying that he couldn't keep up. this is why you came back." button. I wanted to wear it because I have to change planes Finally, I got to Gate 20 and huffmg I asked the boarding He nodded, "Yes, that's why we came back." in Pittsburgh, which has an Eastern terminal." agent, "Is the flight to Rochester boardmg yet?" This episode reinforces my belief how important a small She replied, "I've got one of those buttons in my glove He looked at me strangely and said, "Lady, it left already." act of solidarity can be. Wearing that button saved me from compartment. Take it." I reached in and pinned it to my lapel. My watch said l: 16 p.m. I started ranting about how it was having to buy another ticket to Rochester and the added On the flight from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, I noticed that not my fault, the Cincinnati flight was late, no one helped agony of waiting in an airport for several hours with two a few of the USAir flight attendants wore the anti-Lorenzo me with the boys, they told me the wrong floor to get off the small children. buttons. We were supposed to arrive at 12:40 p.m. and my elevator, etc. Ben added to the uproar by sobbing hysteri­ Before this happened, I was a firm supporter of the Eastern connecting flight was to depart at 1:15 p.m. As we ap­ cally. strikers, because as unionists we owe them our solidarity and proached Pittsburgh, the captain announced that we would Someone who appeared to be a flight coordinator came support for their courageous stand against union-busting. have to circle for 8 to 10 minutes because the airport was out and said, "Let me see whether we can bring the plane Now I owe them a personal debt of gratitude. extremely busy. In the meantime, the flight attendants an­ back." Sincerely, nounced the times and gates for the coriitecting flights. We I couldn't hear what he said as he talked into his hand-held Lorraine Starsky -LETTERS----- Population just as much the source of use-val­ Mike Galati's letter in your June ues (and surely these are what make 16 issue seems on the surface to up material wealth!) as labor." take a Marxist and materialist ap­ He added, "precisely because proach to the population question. labor depends on nature," capital­ But there are flaws in the letter's ists can tum workers into wage reasoning, and they are shared by slaves by separating us from the many socialists besides Galati. ownership and control of natural Like Frederick Engels in a fa­ resources. Owning nothing, we mous 1845 essay on Malthus, must work for other people or Galati in his letter blamed capital­ starve. ism rather than overpopulation for Because the world's raw mate­ world hunger. He observed that rial wealth is limited, even if it is even when people are starving, very large, socialists do need to capitalist markets often result in so­ think about overpopulation. Both called surplus food being thrown the Marxist leadership of away because it can't be sold for Zimbabwe and the badly deformed profit. workers' state in China have recog­ And he wrote that under social­ nized this by implementing ambi­ ism there can never be population­ tious birth control programs. Amer­ related scarcity. To quote from his ican socialists should avoid China's "Let's see ••• contractors ..• embezzling real estate agents ..• politically connected consultants ••• Watt, letter, "For Marxists, human beings mistakes, but we need to think James .•• No, I don't see 'the poor' listed. Are you sure you were invited?" are not the consumers of a suppos­ about birth control, too. Andy Feeney edly 'fmite' number of resources porters who formed a "human bill- tract of company houses for textile Washington, D.C. Christians contained on this planet. Rather, we .I fi ht' g board" outside Consolidated workers here in Greensboro, North wh1 e you say you are tg m are the creators of all wealth. For Abortion rights protest for the poor, you are also perpetu- Edison's company headquarters in Carolina is now burned up. us, more people means the possibil­ ating the myth that all Christians downtown Manhattan in a show of It was one of four abandoned Five hundred outraged county ity of creating even greater somehow force their beliefs on oth- support for the utility workers • houses on the street where I live. employees rallied May 19 to pro­ wealth." ers. I say this after reading your fight for a decent contract. Earlier, I looked out the window test the Hennepin County Board of Galati's comments about human article on separation of church and We lined more than 14 blocks, and saw the house in flames. Not 25 beings creating "all wealth" are Commissioners' approval of a res­ state in the May 19 issue. holding signs that read, "Union and feet away was another tiny wooden based on a common misunder­ olution prohibiting county employ­ While many have entered our proud of it" and "Met Life, Con Ed, house where a couple lived with ees from using their medical bene­ standing of what Marxism means. ranks who are of a questionable N.Y. Life- they get the gold, five children. A neighbor woke ev­ fits for abortions. Hennepin Karl Marx wrote in the first vol­ character _ corrupt politicians, workers get the grief." Met Life and erybody up and got them out. includes the city of Minneapolis. ume of Capital that human labor h 't 1· t th New York Life hold millions of dol- Why was this dilapidated aban­ Union representatives and work­ money- ungry capt a ts s - e does create all "exchange value" or true nature of Christianity is to help Iars in Con Ed bonds. doned house with its rotten floor ers denounced the county monetary value of capitalist com­ the poor, just like you. You are, in Many truck drivers and motor­ boards and broken glass just left government's 5-to-2 vote as an ille­ modities. But Marx added that the fact, insulting the majority of be- ists responded to the human bill­ sitting in this neighborhood with gal violation of their contract. "use value" of these same com­ lievers in this country. board by honking their horns, wav- children around? Some 5,500 of the county's 8,500 modities, or their actual usefulness The origins of this country were ing, and giving a thumbs-up sign. employees are women. It has to do with the fact that to ordinary people is partly pro­ very definitely Christian. A good The 14,000-member Utility The protest takes place after the people living in working-class duced by "nature, without the help many of the freedoms you now Workers Local 1-2 organized the giant April9 march on Washington, neighborhoods have so little politi­ of man." enjoy in our country were set forth event to bolster support as its June D.C., for abortion rights, which cal power under the capitalist sys­ The price of a chair, for example, by Christian principles _ before 24 contract deadline draws near. drew more than 1,200 participants tem that they can't even tear down depends entirely on the labor corruption set in. Striking members of the Ma- a fallen-in wooden building 20 feet needed to make it. But the actual from Minnesota, and after a local chinists union at Eastern Airlines rally of more than 5,000 May 13 at It is also not wise to portray from their own home. wood fibers in the chair are pro­ Christians as one and the same with and the flight attendants and pilots And because the landlord or the duced by trees in the presence of the State Capitol in St. Paul. The capitalists. I am a poor, very poor, -honoring their picket lines had a impact of these actions was clear in city government would not spare air, water, and sunlight. These Christian. Many of the services in strong presence at the demonstra­ the response to the attack by the the money to fix the house up or wood fibers provide some of the this country were originally started tion. A contingent of striking coal Hennepin County commissioners. tear it down and haul it away. chair's usefulness, with the by Christians, such as hospitals, the miners from Pittston were there as And because of the layoffs in the strength of the wood allowing us to In response to the May 19 pro­ Red Cross, even welfare. well, along with unionists from In- test, the commission scheduled a textile industry. And because of actually sit in the thing. You mention freedom of reli- ternational Ladies' Garment hearing at their next meeting, May economic decline in general. · Marx wrote further that nature . Workers' Union Local 23-25 and Walter C. Blades also aids the production of"use val­ 25. An overflow crowd of hundreds gion in the article, but the methods Communications Workers of came. Union representatives an­ being used today by the separation Greensboro, North Carolina ues" by originally providing both of church and state sect in our soci- America Local 1150. nounced plans to file . a lawsuit the tools and the natural forces - ety is bringing about religious per- Angel Lariscy seeking an injunction against the such as energy - that workers use secution instead. New York, New York The letters column is an open resolution. forum for all viewpoints on sub­ to transform raw materials into Virginia Lasher manufactured objects. After two hours of testimony, the jects· of general interest to our commissioners cut off debate and Clarksburg, West Virginia Abandoned house readers. Please keep your letters In the famous Critique of the voted 5-to-2 against a motion to The flames are out now, but all brief. Where necessary they will Gotha Programme, written in rescind the resolution. Con Ed workers of the authorities are still outside be abridged. Please indicate if 1875, Marx declared: "Labor is not Joe Callahan I joined thousands of utility my window here at 2:00 a.m. An you prefer that your initials be the source of all wealth. Nature is Minneapolis, Minnesota workers, unionists, and union sup- abandoned house, once part of a used rather than your full name.

July 7, 1989 The Militant 15 THE MILITANT Exiled SWAPO freedom fighters begin their return to Namibia

BY SAM MANUEL and election of a constituent assembly on NEW YORK- "On June 12 the first November 1. exiled SWAPO members, Namibians, ar­ rived on Namibian soil," reported Helmut SWAPO leaders return to Namibia Angula, chief representative of the South Angula reported that 100,000 supporters West Africa People's Organisation of of SWAPO rallied in the northern Namib­ Namibia to the United Nations. Angula ian city of Oshakati June 24. The rally spoke to 150 people attending a send-off kicked off the campaign effort of SWAPO, rally here for members of the SWAPO UN which is seeking to win a two-thirds major­ delegation who are returning to Namibia. ity in the constituent assembly. That body Angula, who will return to Namibia in July, will write the constitution and establish reported that some 6,000 SWAPO support­ Namibia's government. Until then Namibia ers have returned to the country. will be governed by a UN special represen­ The rally on June 24 was also addressed tative, Martti Ahtisaari, and a South Afri­ by African National Congress deputy repre­ can-appointed administrator-general, sentative to the UN Solly Simelane. "We Louis Pienaar. will continue to be on the side of Namibia. "The first core of SWAPO senior leaders SWAPO can rely on the support of the ANC returned to Namibia on June 18," Angula and the people of South Africa," sa-id reported. Among them were three SWAPO Simelane. political bureau members: Information SWAPO is the leading organization Secretary Hidipo Hamutenya, Foreign Af­ fighting against South African rule in the fairs Secretary Theo-Ben Gurirab, and southwest African country of Namibia. Hage Geingob, who directed the UN Insti­ South Africa has militarily occupied Nami­ tute for Namibia in Lusaka, Zambia, during bia for 74 years. his exile in that country. Geingob will di­ . Following a decisive defeat of its troops rect SWAPO's election campaign. Angula also announced that the Namibian indepen­ Militant photos by Sam Manuel by Angolan, Cuban, and SWAPO forces in Helmut Angola (left), and Solly Simelane. southern Angola in March 1988, South Af­ dence group officially opened offices in the rica agreed to withdraw from Angola and capital, Windhoek, on June 22. begin implementation of a UN plan for In a June 14 statement SWAPb said that granting a general amnesty to SWAPO The role of the DTA as a tool of the Namibia's independence. The plan calls for most of its foreign offices would be closed fighters and other opponents of South Afri­ apartheid regime was shown in a story that an end to South African rule in Namibia, in order to recall staff members to Namibia can rule in Namibia. The proclamation also appeared in the June 7 issue of The Namib­ withdrawal of South African Defense Force to take part in the electoral effort. SWAPO abolished several apartheid laws in Nami­ ian, published in Windhoek. The article re­ troops, dissolution of the South African­ offices will remain open in Addis Ababa, bia. Among them are the Internal Security ported on a· series of meetings of the South trained South West Africa Territorial Force, Berlin, Bonn, Harare, London, New York, Act of 1950, the Public Safety Act of 1953, West Africa National Security Council that Paris, and Stockholm; the statement said. and the Unlawful Organizations Act of discussed plans to prevent SWAPO from 1960. winning the November elections. DTA UN returns refugees leader Mudge and the South African-ap­ U.S. visitors to Throughout its 23-year armed struggle pointed administrator-general, Pienaar, ac­ On June 12 the UN began an arrlift to against the apartheid regime SWAPO re­ tively participated in the meetings. Pienaar repatriate an estimated 40,000 Narnibians mained a legal political organization. The Nicaragua from Angola, Botswana, and Zambia. Just has denied being present at security council abolition of the acts remove legal instru­ meetings that discussed SWAPO. under 1,600 returned in the first three days ments used by the apartheid rulers to arrest will need visa of the airlift. UN officials continue to hag­ and jail SWAPO members and to restrict One ·member of the security council, gle with South African authorities regard­ the organization's political activity. A.G. Visser, was appointed by Pienaar as BY SETH GALINSKY ing who qualifies as a Namibian. chief electoral officer for the November MANAGUA, Nicaragua- As of July 1 Discussions are being held about the fate Democratic Turnhalle Alliance elections. the Nicaraguan government is requiring of 40,000 persons who are descendants of In Oshakati a smaller crowd listened to SWAPO has called for the abolition of U.S. citizens to obtain a visa to enter the Hereros who fled Namibia during the Ger­ leaders of the Democratic Turnhalle Alli­ the National Intelligence Act and certain country. man conquest in the late 1800s. UN spokes­ ance (DTA), according to aNew York Times sections of the Post Office Act, which allow In the past, U.S. visitors only needed a man Fred Eckhard said, "It is doubtful they June 24 report on the rallies. The DTA is the security police to open mail and intercept visa if they planned to remain in Nicaragua would qualify as refugees" given the coalition that led the South African-ap­ telephone calls. SWAPO has also expressed for more than 30 days. In most cases, this amount of time they had been out of the pointed interim government dissolved ear­ grave concern about amendments to the could be obtained after entering the coun­ country. The National Unity Democratic lier this year. Dirk Mudge, finance minister Publications Act that would leave many try. Organisation, which has a strong base in the interim government, leads the DTA. SWAPO publications banned; the Police President Daniel Ortega linked the new among Hereros in Namibia, announced its "We are up against South Africa. They Act, which restricts publication of allega­ measure to the elections scheduled for Feb­ fusion with SWAPO on May 23. pretend we are contesting the election tions about police abuse; and the state mo­ ruary 1990. He said the U.S. government is The way was cleared to begin the mas­ against the Democratic Tumhalle Alliance, nopoly of the broadcast media, which re­ trying to delegitimize the electoral process. sive airlift when South African President but actually we are contesting against the mains under the control of the apartheid "They want to come and tell us how to run Pieter Botha signed a June 6 proclamation apartheid regime," explained Angula. rulers. the elections," Ortega stated. On June 2 the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the United Nations, European Parliament, and Organization of American States had been invited to send Chinese Communist Party ousts leader observers during the election campaign. The ministry announced that only the Nica­ BY FRED FELDMAN indicating that it may not have been unani­ nomic work," the statement charged him raguan government and the Supreme Elec­ Zhao Ziyang, who has not appeared in mous. There was no indication that Zhao with failing to stress "opposition to bour­ toral Council could invite additional ob­ public since just before the Chinese gov­ was present or that he was able to reply in geois liberalization." servers. Opposition parties and the ernment declared martial law in parts of any form to charges against him. In a warning that further actions might antigoyemment newspaper La Prensa ob­ Beijing May 20, was ousted from his post be taken against the ousted official, the jected to this decision, arguing that the op­ as general secretary of the ruling Commu­ Zhao succeeded Hu Yaobang as general Central Committee declared that it had "de­ position should also be able to invite ob­ nist Party June 24. The action came at a secretary in January 1987 after the latter cided to look further into his case." servers. meeting of the party's Central Committee. was forced to resign his post in the midst of On June 25 the Central Committee called The Sandinista daily, Barricada, said He was succeeded by Jiang Zemin, the a crackdown on a previous, smaller wave of for "strict punishment," including expulsion that Ortega also linked the decision on visas former mayor of Shanghai who now heads student-led demonstrations. Hu Yaobang and possible prosecution, of all party mem­ to "the serious problems provoked by the the party in that industrial port city of 12 had advocated taking further steps to en­ bers who "violated party discipline during interventionist attitudes" of the U.S. em­ million people. courage capitalist commodity production in the turmoil and the counterrevolutionary re­ bassy. The executions of three workers in China, while granting more leeway to crit­ bellion." This reiterated party leader Deng Deputy Foreign Minister Jose Leon Shanghai June 21 were the first since the ics of the regime. Xiaoping 's portrayal of the student protests Hu's death April 15, 1989, set off the Talavera said the measure was taken to stop June 4 massacre of protesters in Beijing. that called for more democratic rights,limits most recent wave of protests. the arrival of "U.S. citizens hired by the On June 22, 24 more executions were an­ on corruption, and other reforms. U.S. government and the North American nounced. A June 24 Central Committee statement The Central Committee sought to assure intelligence agency to coolly carry out Zhao Ziyang was also ousted from the charged that Zhao "made the mistake of U.S. and other foreign capitalists that the plans to destabilize our country." Political Bureau of the Central Committee, supporting the turmoil and splitting the door was still open to trade and investment. The new requirement will not adversely the Central Committee itself, and other party, and he had unshirkable responsibili­ "The policy of reform and opening to the affect the majority of U.S. citizens, posts. He apparently remains a member of ties for the development of the turmoil." outside world, as the road to lead the coun­ Talavera said, because "they will be able to the Communist Party. Asserting that although Zhao "did some­ try to strength and prosperity, must be im­ enter several times in the same period with The news media in China did not report thing beneficial to the reform, the opening plemented as usual in a steadfast manner," a multiple-entry visa." the vote at the Central Committee meeting, of China to the outside world, and the eco- the body declared.

16 The Militant July 7,1989