MUNDO OBRERO Palestina: derecho a retornar 12

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Oct. 29, 2009 Vol. 51, No. 43 50¢ 100,000 march in Puerto rico National work stoppage protests mass layoffs

By Berta Joubert-Ceci

The masses in Puerto Rico sent a strong message to the pro-statehood administration of Gov. Luis Fortuño and his capitalist allies when more than 100,000 people came out on Oct. 15 in San Juan and Hato Rey to protest the current government’s neoliberal policies, including more than 20,000 layoffs in the public sector. Despite a heavy police presence, National Guard assis- tance and the police chief’s threat of invoking the Patriot Act against the protesters, the people converged from several points in the city on Plaza Las Américas shopping mall, which had closed out of fear of the demonstration. The police chief is also an FBI agent. During the march, a sizable youth contingent blocked access to the heavily trafficked intersection of Las Américas and Roosevelt avenues for five whole hours. Organizers characterized El Paro Nacional—the national work stoppage—as a complete success. The clos- ing of the largest mall in the area and the virtual paralysis of the financial center of the nation—a mile-long section of Ponce de León Avenue known as the Milla de Oro [the Golden Mile], which is home to the main banks and mort- phOtO: iNdymEdiapr.Org gages firms—symbolized the Paro’s message: Shut down Banner carried by Puerto Rican youth in Oct. 15 protest reads ‘No to the privatization of the minds of the future.’ the creators of the economic crisis. One of the Paro’s slogans was “Que la crisis la paguen los ricos,” which in the previous Pedro Roselló pro-statehood administra- English means “Let the rich pay for the crisis.” tion of the late 1990s. An Oct. 15 Univisión article reads, “According to econ- CAPITAlIsM Interview with National Paro leader Pedraza omists, the national stoppage caused economic losses upwards of $30 million.” Luis Pedraza Leduc, leader of the Program of Solidarity & THe BANks of the militant union PROSOL-UTIER (the union of Roots of economic ruin 6 Background of the Paro workers in the electricity and hydropower industry) and a The world economic crisis hit Puerto Rico severely. spokesperson of the Labor Coordinating Committee (CS) The announced layoffs are one more blow to the already and the Broad Front of Solidarity and Struggle (FAdSyL), untenable conditions of the majority of Puerto Ricans, one of the two general organizations behind the Paro, JoHN BroWN’s who already suffer from 16-percent official unemploy- spoke with Workers World. ment. The new sales tax, along with higher costs for WW: How did the Paro develop? leGACY essential basic services like water, electricity, telephone, LPL: It was an attempt to put pressure on the govern- health and transportation, plus increased property taxes, ment on Oct. 15, precipitated by the layoffs of 20,000 n Harper’s Ferry raid have been a heavy burden that they can no longer endure. workers on Sept. 25. The response from some labor sec- at 150 years The government has issued two laws that protect capi- tors was to turn the activity that was planned for that tal at the expense of the livelihood of millions of Puerto day against a convention of investors at the Convention n Anti-slavery Ricans. Law No. 7, known as the “Special Law Declaring Center into a national work stoppage. This initiative monument 3 a State of Fiscal Emergency and Establishing an Integral started to take form and got the support of all the labor Plan to Save Puerto Rico’s Credit,” was passed last and social sectors of Puerto Rico. March. This law promoted the layoffs and the Paro’s One of the main achievements was that the convention number one priority was to get it repealed. Law No. 29 is got postponed because of the Paro. This was going to be STAND UP the “Law of Public-Private Alliances (the LAPP),” which a meeting of 250 investors from around the world rep- resenting different companies. As a result of the LAPP, seeks to privatize everything that was not privatized by editorial 10 the government had hired a consultant company based in AGAINST RACISM London to promote Puerto Rico as a destiny for investors Subscribe to Workers World newspaper to accelerate privatization. Who initiated the Paro? Eight weeks trial: $4 One year: $25 WW: LPL: In Puerto Rico we have two groups that have been HoNdUrANs NamE phONE dealing with the labor and political issues around these Email neoliberal policies. One is the FAdSyL and the CS and the sTIll resIsT other is the Coalition All Puerto Rico with Puerto Rico addrEss City/s tatE/Zip n ‘No elections without Zelaya’ Workers World 55 W. 17 st., 5 Fl., Ny, Ny 10011 (TPRcPR) with three labor sectors that are grouped under 212-627-2994 WWW.WorkerS.org the Labor Coalition [This labor group is different from n Youth organize 9 Continued on page 7

AFGHANIsTAN n Another Vietnam? n U.S. cities mobilize 8 GUINeA CoNAkrY killings provoke strike 11 page 2 Oct. 29, 2009 www.workers.org Analyzing crisis at home and abroad

Workers World Party H In the U.S. Workers World Party conference is timely ...... 2 Spirit of Harper’s Ferry raid lives ...... 3 conference is timely A monument to Harper’s Ferry combatants ...... 3 The death of Derrion Albert ...... 4 By Monica Moorehead organizing in many cities against foreclosures, evictions, Workers, students, faculty target AVI ...... 4 layoffs, utility shut-offs and plant closings and for unit- CUNY students mobilize ...... 4 In 1959 Workers World Party was founded by Sam ed mobilizations against the multibillion-dollar bank Stella D’Oro workers say: No to taking of machinery . . 5 Marcy, Dorothy Ballan, Vince Copeland and other U.S. bailout. working-class leaders based on the teachings of Karl The conference will take up the enormous opposi- Cuban Five suffer more injustice ...... 5 Marx and Vladimir Lenin. This Nov. 14-15 Workers tion within Honduras to the right-wing coup d’état and Fascist Phelps not welcome in San Diego ...... 5 World Party will hold a national conference in New York what activists and revolutionaries in the U.S. can do to Sit-ins at health insurance companies ...... 5 City marking its 50th anniversary. aid the popular resistance there and elsewhere around On the picket line ...... 5 More than just marking a landmark anniversary, the the world, including in Palestine, Puerto Rico, Africa and Role of the banks in the economic crisis ...... 6 conference will take up the contributions Workers World Afghanistan. Top ten reasons ...... 6 Party has made to the worldwide class struggle with its Thoughtful consideration will be given to how the consistent revolutionary theory and practice. deepening capitalist economic crisis, the endless wars H Around the world Two goals of the conference will be to analyze the cur- and occupations, and the development of the class strug- rent state of the global class struggle and the capitalist gle can contribute to forging greater unity and solidar- 100,000 march in Puerto Rico ...... 1 economic crisis and to show why only socialism can end ity against national oppression, women’s oppression and Mexico City masses: “Don’t turn off the lights” . . . . 7 exploitation, racism and war. lesbian, gay, bi and trans oppression in the United States. Behind the election ploy in Afghanistan ...... 8 This conference comes in the midst of deepening The conference will feature plenaries, discussion Invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq opposed ...... 8 impoverishment among hundreds of millions of people groups and strategy sessions with activists and Workers Honduran resistance ...... 9 worldwide in the biggest crisis of the capitalist economic World Party members from across the country represent- Youth resist ...... 9 system since the Great Depression of the 1930s. ing many different struggles. There will also be music The conference will explore important questions, and spoken-word performances. Spanish translation for Protests rock Guatemala ...... 10 including what is the next stage of this crisis and what some plenaries will be provided. 200,000 in Rome in solidarity with immigrants . . . . 10 does a “jobless recovery” mean? Will the working class Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) organizers U .S . still seeks regime change in Zimbabwe . . . . . 11 and oppressed peoples, in the U.S. and around the world, are planning a special workshop for youth and student Guinea general strike protests killings ...... 11 be able to mount a real struggle in their own defense? activists. Guest speakers representing labor, communi- With Barack Obama as the first African-American ty, youth and anti-imperialist struggles will share their H Editorials president of the U.S. imperialist government, what important experiences and join others in conference Stand up against racism ...... 10 unique challenges does this create for Black workers, deliberations. immigrant workers, the whole working class and anti- For more information about the conference, including H Noticias En Español imperialist movements? venue, literature, pre-registration, housing and more, Palestina: Derecho a retornar ...... 12 The two-day conference will evaluate important mass visit www.workersworld.net or call 212-627-2994. n

Workers World 55 West 17 Street New York, N.Y. 10011 NatioNal CoNfereNCe Phone: (212) 627-2994 Fax: (212) 675-7869 E-mail: [email protected] Nov. 14-15 Web: www.workers.org School Auditorium •127 E. 22nd St., New York City Vol. 51, No. 43 • Oct. 29, 2009 Closing date: Oct. 20, 2009 Workers World Party Editor: Deirdre Griswold 1959–2009 • 50 Years of Struggle Technical Editor: Lal Roohk Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, Leslie Feinberg, Kris Hamel, Monica Moorehead, Preparing & Organizing for the Future Gary Wilson West Coast Editor: John Parker Workers World Party: 212-627-2994 55 W. 17th St, Rm 5C, NY, NY 10011 Contributing Editors: Abayomi Azikiwe, www.workersworld.net For more information including pre-registration, go to Greg Butterfield, Jaimeson Champion, G. Dunkel, Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales, David Hoskins, Berta Joubert-Ceci, Cheryl LaBash, World View Forum has reissued this classic A new introduction by Fred Goldstein, author Milt Neidenberg, Bryan G. Pfeifer, Betsey Piette, work by Sam Marcy, Workers World Party of “Low-Wage Capitalism,” explains the roots of Minnie Bruce Pratt, Gloria Rubac founder. the current economic crisis, with its disastrous As wages fall and unemployment rises, this unemployment, which has heightened the need Technical Staff: Sue Davis, Shelley Ettinger, book rings as true today as when it was first pub- for a working-class resurgence. Bob McCubbin, Maggie Vascassenno lished in 1986. Marcy explained how the high- “High Tech, Low Pay” is a must-read for working Mundo Obrero: Carl Glenn, Teresa Gutierrez, tech revolution was destroying high-paying jobs people–employed and unemployed, organized Berta Joubert-Ceci, Donna Lazarus, Michael Martínez, while changing the social composition of the and unorganized—and activists nationwide. Carlos Vargas working class, bringing more of the oppressed Supporter Program: Sue Davis, coordinator into workplaces, raising the potential for more Books available online at Leftbooks.com solidarity and struggle. and on sale at bookstores around the country. Copyright © 2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. JoIN Us. National office Buffalo, N.Y. Durham, NC rochester, N.Y. 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The government, rade and collaborator, the great Harriet For the masses of workers and the charge. initially caught off guard, were able to Tubman, who years later said he had been oppressed people in this country—those The group was unprecedented in every rally. Ultimately, through sheer strength her “dearest friend.” whose days are consumed with trying to way. It was made up of Black and white of numbers and with all the armed might Factual inaccuracies also riddle the survive and feed their families, keep a together, just as the farming community of the state behind it, the Army—under standard version. African-American jour- roof over their heads and get some kind Brown had founded and led during the the command of none other than Robert nalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu- of minimal health care or education—for preceding years in North Elba, N.Y., was E. Lee, who only a few short months later Jamal offers an example in his essay “The the majority, that is, who grab their news made up of Black and white families—the would take the helm of the secessionist Neglected Voices from Harper’s Ferry” in in quick gulps on TV or radio, Web sites first such integrated community in Confederate forces—beat back the a recent edition of “A Voice from Harper’s or tabloid newspapers, Oct. 16 was just U.S. history. Among the Harper’s brave band of anti-racist heroes. Ferry” by Osborne P. Anderson. Anderson another day. Ferry squad, decisions were made ww Commentary from bourgeois was the only Black participant in the They never heard a word about its democratically, not handed down Commentary historians and military analysts assault on the arsenal who escaped and import. That’s not surprising, but it is hierarchically. Black and white combat- fixes on various faults in the planning survived; so his account, Abu-Jamal points a damn shame, for Oct. 16 is one of the ants took part equally in every way. and execution of the raid on Harper’s out, ought to be regarded as definitive. most important dates in U.S. history. And The plan of attack was crafted based on Ferry to explain why it did not succeed. Anderson’s account contradicts those this year was the 150th anniversary of the Brown’s long years of study of the tactics Most of it blames Brown, tagging him as who claim that, before they arrived at vitally significant event that happened on of Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey and other some variation of insane, a crazed terror- Harper’s Ferry, the troop’s attempts to ral- that date. enslaved African-American leaders of U.S. ist or the like. This slander against one of ly support among slaves on nearby planta- That event is the raid on the U.S. Army slave revolts; of the Seminole nation that the towering figures in the history of the tions were unsuccessful. On the contrary, arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va. This mili- had resisted domination by colonial set- struggle against racism is clearly politi- Abu-Jamal points out, “Anderson was in tary assault by an armed, well-trained, tlers; of the Maroons of the South and of cally motivated. Even now, 150 years a perfect position to speak to the issue of united band of Black and white militants Jamaica and Surinam, escaped slaves who later, racism is so integral, so crucial to slave betrayal. Instead, he sees none. He was intended to be the opening battle in fought the settler state forces in daring the capitalist enterprise, that it is vital to found the slaves supportive and overjoyed what would then develop into a wide- raids from bases in the hills and moun- portray the willingness of this white war- by the revolt, and counts them among the spread guerrilla war that would topple the tains; and of Toussaint L’Ouverture, one rior to give his life in the effort to end it as first to fall during the armed conflict. He system of chattel slavery. of the great liberators of Haiti. sheer madness. was among the contingent that visited the The troop had written, hashed out In Brown’s view, there were sev- A truer image of Brown can be gleaned plantations, where he found ‘the greatest and agreed upon a revised, improved eral African-American members of the from the words of Frederick Douglass, enthusiasm.’” Constitution guaranteeing race and sex Harper’s Ferry troop any one of whom W.E.B. DuBois and Malcolm X, all of Continued on page 4 equality. It was to be a new charter for the ought to take the leadership post for the new country they envisioned rising out action. However, the group overruled of the ashes of the old one that had been him, arguing that because of his experi- built on the backs of enslaved Africans ence in Kansas and his proven military A monument to Harper’s Ferry and wholesale theft of Indigenous lands. prowess, it was Brown who must captain With this Constitution in hand, with their squad. combatants a pledge to succeed or die, with almost And so this small band of warriors unimaginable courage, 23 people went to moved in. They were self-trained. They This monument in Oberlin, Ohio, Harper’s Ferry on Oct. 16, 1859, to take on carried a minimal cache of smuggled honors the three Black town resi- the slaveocracy. weapons. The idea was to seize the arsenal, dents who fought with John Brown Their leader was John Brown. He was distribute its contents to the nearby popu- at Harper’s Ferry. The accompany- known as “Captain Brown” or “Old Osa- lation of enslaved laborers, join with them ing plaque explains: watomie” because of his heroic exploits to liberate the region, establish a base of “This marble cenotaph, erect- three years earlier, in 1856 in Kansas, operations in the woods which would ed by the citizens of Oberlin in where he and his troops waged a series of swiftly expand to many bases as ever more 1860 in Westwood Cemetery, victorious battles that proved decisive in freed slaves joined up, and wage full-scale was moved to this site [Martin bringing Kansas into the Union as a free war until the abomination of slavery was Luther King Memorial Park] by rather than a slave state. Brown’s tacti- defeated for good and the new liberation- the Neighborhood Youth Corps. cal brilliance; his unwavering spirit and ist Constitution was instituted. in 1971. The original inscrip- optimism even in the face of the death of tion [now partially worn away] one of his sons and disabling of another; John Brown’s real legacy reads: an utter absence of the racism that tainted The initial steps of the plan went well. “‘These Colored Citizens of most of the prominent white abolitionists; Brown and his troop had the element of Oberlin, the Heroic Associates and, above all, his bone-deep commitment surprise on their side. They easily over- of the immortal John Brown, to the cause to which he devoted his entire whelmed the arsenal’s defenses, took gave their lives for the slave. life—all this led the group that assembled hostages and occupied the site. After Et nunc servitudo etiam mortua est, laus Deo. S. Green, died at Charleston, Va., to recover their bodies so their families Dec. 16, 1859, age 23 years. J.A. Copeland, could give them a proper burial. White World VIeW ForUM died at Charleston, Va., Dec. 16, 1859. L.S. medical students insisted the bodies were th Leary, died at Harper’s Ferry, Va., Oct. 20, theirs for dissection purposes. Hails 150 anniversary of historic action 1859, 24 years.’ ” Leary’s widow, Mary Leary, later mar- at Harper’s Ferry Shields Green, also called “Emperor,” ried another prominent Oberlin aboli- escaped slavery in Virginia and was liv- tionist, John Mercer Langston. One of A Voice from Harper’s Ferry ing in Oberlin leading up to the Harper’s the couple’s grandsons was the renowned by osborne P. Anderson, Ferry raid. His first meeting with John poet Langston Hughes. a Black revolutionary who was there. Brown was in 1858 in the Rochester, N.Y., Ohio has other strong connections to Few history books give Anderson the recognition home of Frederick Douglass. Douglass the heroes of Harper’s Ferry. A white abo- he deserves; he was the only African-American said later, “Shields Green was not one to litionist from Salem, Edwin Coppock, was combatant to survive the raid on Harper’s Ferry shrink from hardships or dangers. He was hanged for his participation in the raid on and to write about it. This is his account of this his- a man of few words ... but his courage and the same day that Green and Copeland toric turning point in the struggle against self-respect made him quite a dignified were executed. Brown himself lived in slavery. With essays by Monica Moorehead, character.” Ohio on and off for a total of 35 years. Mumia Abu-Jamal and Vince Copeland. John A. Copeland Jr. was the son of Six days before his execution, Copeland 128 pp, photographs. prominent Oberlin abolitionists John A. wrote in a letter to his brother: “It was a Copeland Sr. and Delilah Evans Copeland. sense of the wrongs which we have suf- th Special 150 anniversary offer! He was recruited to Brown’s army by his fered that prompted the noble but unfor- Yes! I want to order this historic book! uncle, Lewis Sheridan Leary. Both Leary tunate Captain Brown and his associates Enclosed is $_____ ($9 a book @ 25% discount) and Copeland had participated in the to attempt to give freedom to a small for ____(#) of A Voice from Harper’s Ferry “Oberlin-Wellington Rescue”—the freeing number, at least of those who are now Add shipping ($3.50 1st bk/$1.50 each add’l) of escaped slave John Price from a hotel in held by cruel and unusual laws, and by no $_____Total enclosed Wellington, Ohio, where he was held cap- less cruel and unjust men. To this freedom tive by slave catchers in 1858. they were entitled by every known [prin- Name ______Phone ______Leary was wounded in battle and died ciple] of justice and humanity, and for the eight hours later. Green and Copeland enjoyment of it God created them. And Address ______City/State/Zip ______were hanged two weeks after the hang- how, dear brother, could I die in a more Send with check to World View Forum, 55 W. 17th St., 5th floor, New York, NY 10011. ing of John Brown. An abolitionist min- noble cause?” Order online at www.Leftbooks.com or purchase at bookstores nationwide. ister, James Monroe, failed in his attempt —report and photo by Martha grevatt page 4 Oct. 29, 2009 www.workers.org The role of poverty and racism in The death of Derrion Albert By Larry Hales of Chicago area residents—an estimated This war included the Dec. 4, 1969, an environment of extreme youth unem- assassination of Fred Hampton, the chair- ployment, are portrayed in this society as Read the entire article at workers.org. 930,000 people—lived below 50 per- cent of the federal poverty threshold or person of the Illinois state chapter of the monsters and as if they should be locked On Sept. 24 in Chicago, 16-year-old between 50 percent and 100 percent of Black Panther Party, and Mark Clark, up for life in a prison system here that is honor student Derrion Albert, apparently the federal poverty threshold. another Panther member. The Chicago the largest in the entire world. Over 2.3 heading to a school bus to go home, was The killing of Derrion is a horrific trag- police also brutally attacked demonstra- million people are locked away in prison, caught in the middle of a fight between edy. But it did not happen in a vacuum. tors at the 1968 Democratic National with almost 8 million in jails, prison or on other students. Albert was killed in a scuf- On Oct. 7, U.S. Attorney General Eric Convention. parole, the largest percentage of whom fle witnesses say he was trying to avoid. Holder and Secretary of Education Arne So, what is to be expected of the state are Black and Latino/a. Four Black youth, Silvonus Shannon, Duncan took part in a Chicago press con- then in the wake of this horrific incident A Northeastern University report 19; Eugene Riley, 18; Eugene Bailey, 18; ference with Mayor Richard M. Daley to and what should happen to Shannon, details much more dire circumstances and Eric Carson, 16, have been arrested address the violence in the schools. Riley, Bailey and Carson? The for youth who didn’t finish high school. for Albert’s death. Daley spoke about the respon- mother of Derrion, Anjanette According to the Northeastern report, Chicago, like many cities in the U.S., has sibilities of local, state and fed- ww Albert, is within her rights to call 54 percent of all high school dropouts a long history of oppression and poverty eral agencies to stop violence, Commentary for justice, as the loss of her son are unemployed, including 69 percent of concentrated in communities of color. while scantly mentioning the need for is a horror that no parent should have to Blacks, 54 percent of whites and 47 per- According to a Chicago Reporter arti- after-school programs. His focus on “law experience. cent of Latinos/as. The rates of incarcera- cle, more than 80 percent of the students enforcement” should come as no surprise. The community, however, should have tion are even more staggering. For exam- in Chicago public schools live in poverty. He after all is the son of the late notorious the ultimate say in what happens to the ple, one in four young Black men without (chicagoreporter.com) Richard J. Daley, the other mayor for life young people responsible because it is the a high school equivalent education is in According to a Heartland Alliance in Chicago, who oversaw one of the most community that best understands that the jail, prison or juvenile detention. (www. report dated April 30 poverty through- brutal police departments in the country; young men responsible for Albert’s death nytimes.com, Oct. 9) out Illinois and specifically in Chicago a department that waged a war against are not monsters. Hales is a national organizer of the has increased greatly. The report indi- the liberation movements of oppressed Young Black men caught up in a fight, Fight Imperialism, Stand Together cates that for the year 2007, 11 percent people. oppressed by harsh conditions, and in (FIST) youth group. Workers, students, faculty target AVI By easton Smith As the rally was ending, workers, stu- and AVI company representatives. were denied by AVI outright. These injus- New York dents and union representatives attempt- tices only marked the beginning of a long ed to present a petition to the president AVI’s dishonest advertising and continuing campaign by AVI aimed On Oct. 5 workers, faculty and students of Hunter College, Jennifer Raab. As they AVI, which touts itself as an Ohio- at destroying any sense of dignity, unity, from both Hunter and Sarah Lawrence attempted to get on the elevator they were based “family-owned” business, has justice or hope in the workplace. colleges were joined by union represen- stopped by security guards, who explained made an assault on the working people A few examples of the injustices show tatives and New York activists for a rally that since the people there (including the of New York. Grabbing hold of new food that this company has launched an inten- in front of Manhattan’s Hunter College AVI workers) were not employees of the service contracts in the New York area tional and well-organized crusade to against AVIFresh, an anti-union dining college they were not allowed to go to the in 2009 at Hunter and Sarah Lawrence establish dominance in the workplace service corporation. president’s office. After some negotiating colleges, AVI is quickly becoming a force and destroy any worker’s hope for better Demonstrators held UNITE HERE a few of the workers were allowed to go in the Northeast school cafeteria scene. working conditions. Reported incidences Local 100 flags, placards showing -soli up, where they were met not by the presi- AVI boasts a subtitle of “The Family at Sarah Lawrence include managerial darity with the workers, and signs calling dent but by a representative who took the Difference in Dining Services” on their verbal and physical abuse, unpaid hours, for justice and a boycott. The crowd sang petitions. Web site and markets their business as loss of seniority, insufficient pay increas- chants like “No justice, no peace” and This rally caught the attention of hun- a conscious and friendly one. Looking at es, disrespect of workers’ basic schedul- “Solidarity Forever.” dreds of onlookers including the heads their Web site or talking to their “Human ing needs and the use of racial slurs in the Hunter College workers explained how of AVI. It was a rally aimed at reminding Relations” people, one would think of the workplace. Many of these violations are AVIFresh has given them nothing and AVI that its dream of a submissive, weak words “honest” and “fair,” but since their connected to the concerted anti-union how the company wants them to get a and disconnected workforce will not arrival at Sarah Lawrence College and campaign that has been launched at Sarah 401k when the workers don’t want a 401k. become a reality. They had so ignorantly Hunter, the word that seems to loom in Lawrence. These violations prove that Workers shared stories of living with kids hoped that they could disconnect the the air is “union-busting.” from the onsite managers to the heads while the threat of no health care lingers workers at Hunter College from those AVI began their assault quietly, over the of the company, AVI could not care less over them and of their worries about not at Sarah Lawrence, and that they could summer, as students and faculty left the about their “team members,” as Human having a pension plan. Students and fac- rely on physical distance, size, relative campuses and turned their minds away Resources manager, Bob Farmer, and ulty spoke about possible boycotts. One cost and the public and private sectors from their respective college communi- vice president for Business Development, faculty member addressed the crowd, say- of these colleges to destroy any sense ties. At Sarah Lawrence all workers who Richard Martin, so cheerfully label them. ing, “It seems like they have not got the of solidarity. These hopes of AVI were wished to transfer their employment from AVI’s campaign against working people news: slavery days are over. ... We are not exemplified on Oct. 8, at negotiations Flik (the former food service provider at is ultimately, however, a naïve one that the criminals. They are the criminals!” between Hunter College AVI workers the school for over 30 years) were prom- lacks any knowledge of the Hunter and ised employment. Despite this promise, Sarah Lawrence cafeteria workers’ strong 14 workers were suddenly fired right after will and fighting spirit. AVI’s assault on being “hired.” workers has only emboldened the work- Spirit of Harper’s Ferry lives Hunter College workers, many of whom ers and those who stand in solidarity with have seen multiple food service contrac- them to not stand down until justice is Continued from page 3 the gallows on Dec. 2, 1859, the great sol- tors come and go, were equally caught obtained. Abu-Jamal continues, “Of the 17 revo- dier for human liberation wrote these last by surprise when they learned that their Smith is a member of the Fight lutionaries who died at Harper’s Ferry, words: “I John Brown am now quite cer- long-held and seemingly standard bene- Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) nine were Black men!” This number tain that the crimes of this guilty land will fits of free family health care and pensions youth group. includes not only those who had trained never be purged away but with blood.” and arrived together, but several who Indeed, the Civil War began just a year must have joined the troop when it swept and a half later in April 1861. CUNY students mobilize against through the plantations along the route. As Union troops marched into battle, In all, “The majority of men who died at they sang the newly penned “Battle Hymn budget cuts, tuition hikes the Ferry were Black men; the majority of the Republic” with its famous opening Fifty students, faculty and community sup- of Black men who fought and died (five words: “John Brown’s body lies a-molder- porters protested at the Department of of nine) were slaves fighting for their ing in its grave but his spirit marches on.” Education Oct. 15 to demand an imme diate freedom!” The war had really begun on Oct. 16, rollback of tuition hikes and budget cuts at Seven other freedom fighters, includ- 1859. That was the day of the first battle, the City University of New York. ing John Brown, were captured. All were when a small troop of Black and white The protest was called by the CUNY hanged before the end of the year. World- guerrilla fighters took up arms against the Campaign to Defend Education. Larry Hales of the youth and student organization wide outrage and mourning followed. slave state. Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) From Haiti to France to Cuba to Canada, By any honest measure, the raid on emceed the event. Student organizers from in Detroit, Boston, Chicago and many oth- Harper’s Ferry was a success. It was a the International Socialist Organization, er U.S. cities, bells tolled, orators spoke, clarion call for freedom, and it echoes Socialist Alternative and Radical Women and thousands upon thousands rallied, down the years. also spoke. WW phOtO: JOhN CataliNOttO marched and cried out in fury at the Read Ettinger’s 2006 “Legacy of John A public organizing meeting is called for lizations against recent proposals to cut an injustice. Brown” article in WW at http://tiny.cc/ Oct. 27 at the CUNY Graduate Center, Room additional $53 million from the CUNY budget. In his jail cell, just before he was led to ubc5t. 5414 at 7 p.m. to strategize for further mobi- —David Hoskins www.workers.org Oct. 29, 2009 page 5 On the Picket Line Stella D’Oro workers say: by Sue Davis ‘No contract, no peace!’ No to taking of machinery More than 38,000 transit workers in By Mike eilenfeldt trailer. The truck blocked street traffic for have a lot of class in there, with all the New York City are on the move in their Bronx, N.Y. two hours before being hauled away. The cultures from different continents. We fight for a decent contract. After staging a “attempted robbery” was aided and abet- all have a lot of class.” Marrero said that heroic three-day strike in 2005, for which On Oct. 14 Lance Inc. and their ted by billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg, he would never even think about making Transport Workers Union Local 100 Brynwood Partners were thwarted at 8 his Wall Street cohorts and the New York harassing calls to the home of the man he was severely punished by the courts and a.m. by protesters, including Stella D’Oro Police Department. refers to as the “real criminal.” The charg- city and state governments, the workers workers and their supporters, with unex- But Brynwood’s greatest crime is the es must be dropped. played by the book and submitted their pected help from nearby elevated subway taking of livelihoods. A job is a property There are other outstanding issues. All latest contract to binding arbitration. tracks, when the bosses tried to remove right. The machines are instruments in severance, back pay and benefits owed When the arbitration panel recommend- equipment from the Stella D’Oro plant the hands of workers who devoted their the workers must be paid by Brynwood ed an 11 percent wage hike over three in Bronx, N.Y. Following a hard-won, lives to learning the secret of making according to the union contract with years—desperately needed to make up 11-month-long strike by the unionized cookies people once loved to eat. Strike Bakery Workers Local 50. The machines for piddling raises in the 2006 contract— workers, Brynwood recently announced captain Oscar Hernandez expressed out- must not be moved. The plant belongs the multimillion-dollar Metropolitan that it was closing the Bronx factory and rage when he told Workers World, “It took to the Bronx. Every Stella D’Oro worker Transportation Authority appealed. A Lance would reopen it in Ashland, Ohio, 78 years to build this place, and they are must be guaranteed a living wage job. decision is scheduled for Oct. 20. as a non-union plant. going to destroy it in two weeks.” The writer is a delegate to the New Thousands of workers—accompanied The removal in broad daylight of tax- Hendrik Hartong of Brynwood Partners York City Central Labor Council for by the huge inflated rat that symbolizes payer-financed machinery from the Stella has brought bogus harassment charges the union at Cooper Union—New York a bad deal for workers—picketed outside D’Oro factory was blocked when a semi- against strike captain Eddie Marrero, who State United Teachers, an affiliate of the MTA offices on Sept. 29 under the slogan trailer truck accidentally became wedged put his life on the line to save the jobs of American Federation of Teachers—and a “No contract, no peace!” On Oct. 14 they under subway girders too low for the fellow workers. Marrero told WW, “We member of Bail Out the People Movement. held a “Day of Outrage” with local actions at various transit hubs. A second day of outrage is planned for Oct. 28 with a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. (www. Cuban Five suffer more injustice twulocal100.org) By Cheryl LaBash no evidence of damage to the U.S. or pos- international campaign is exposing this session of or transfer of classified material cruel act that violates U.S. law and inter- Teachers rally On Oct. 13, a 21-year-plus-10-month during the six-month trial held in Miami. national standards and inflicts additional prison term was imposed on Antonio The 1998 original trial was so biased pain and suffering above the legal sen- against layoffs in D.C. Guerrero Rodríguez by the same Florida that a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th tence. Olga Salanueva, spouse of René Several thousand teachers in D.C. U.S. District Court that initially con- Circuit Court called it a “perfect storm of González Sehwerert, is also refused entry schools and their supporters rallied at demned him to a life sentence plus 10 prejudice” when it ordered a new trial. to visit her loved one. Freedom Plaza on Oct. 8 to protest layoffs, years. The steadfast support of the Cuban Although that decision was later over- Nothing less than immediate freedom which were announced in early October, people and government, amplified with turned by the entire 11th Circuit Court, it for the Cuban Five is acceptable. Antonio, of 388 school employees, including 229 worldwide solidarity, forced the U.S. gov- documents in detail a major injustice in Ramón, Fernando, Gerardo and René are classroom teachers. Though supposedly ernment to back off some of the unjust and their conviction. Even a former National innocent and should never have spent needed to close a $43.9 million budget wildly excessive life sentences imposed on Security Advisor for Latin America during one day deprived of liberty. They have gap, the layoffs are really a purge of high- Guerrero, one of the revolutionary heroes the Carter administration declared it was been imprisoned since 1998—more than er-paid veteran teachers, say Washington known as the Cuban Five. impossible for the Five to receive a fair 11 years—for trying to prevent bombings Teachers’ Union leaders. The day before Resentencing of Ramón Labañino trial in Miami. (http://tiny.cc/crVC4) and other terror attacks on Cuban hotels, the rally, WTU filed a lawsuit in D.C. Salazar and Fernando González Llort is Gerardo Hernández Nordelo’s life sen- airlines and other civilian targets that Superior Court to stop the city from imple- postponed while defense attorneys battle tence was not remanded. Further appeals were planned and launched from Florida. menting the cuts. The suit also challenges for the right to see U.S. national secu- are planned. He is serving two life terms The struggle to free the Cuban Five is the hiring of 934 new teachers this sum- rity damage assessments in the Cuban plus 15 years at the federal prison in growing inside the U.S. For more infor- mer, when newly hired teachers usually Five cases. These documents—or lack Victorville, Calif. The U.S. government mation visit www.antiterroristas.cu, number 300. (Washington Post, Oct. 9) of them—bolster arguments for reduced refuses to allow his life partner, Adriana www.thecubanfive.org or www.freethe- Carhauler jobs in jeopardy prison terms. The prosecution presented Perez, to enter the U.S. to visit him. An five.org. n Part of the fallout from General Motors’ and Chrysler’s bailout and restructuring is that 5,000 Teamster carhauling jobs may Fascist Phelps not welcome in San Diego be on the chopping block. Over the past A small group organized by Kansas-based year more than 1,000 carhauler jobs have fascist Fred Phelps appeared in San Diego already been lost. Chrysler has recently on Oct. 16 to spread their message of rac- shifted 28 percent of its carhauling busi- ism, anti-Semitism and homohatred. This ness—workers drive new vehicles from same group brought the message “He got factories to dealers—to nonunion compa- what he deserved” to the funeral of gay- nies. And GM is demanding a 26 percent bashing victim Matthew Shepard in 1998. cost reduction from one union carrier. An outpouring of hundreds of counterpro- The union is worried that Ford may jump testers gathered in front of the San Diego on the layoff bandwagon. The companies City High School. Students played an active defend the layoffs and wage cuts by saying role in the protest, with many same-sex they need them to stay “competitive.” But teenage couples holding hands in defiance that’s just a fig leaf. The bosses are deter- of the fascists. The school’s Gay Straight mined to steal more of the value the work- Alliance unfurled pro-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi ers create to boost profits and line their and transgender) signs and banners on the own pockets. In protest, the Teamsters hill above the chanting crowd. held picket lines on Oct. 16 at 70 GM and —report and photo by Bob McCubbin Chrysler dealerships around the country. (Detroit News, Oct. 16) n National sit-ins at health insurance companies In defense of Fifty-four activists and health care Patients Not Profit campaign of the workers were arrested Oct. 15 during sit- Mobilization for Health Care for All. CUBA ins at health insurance company offices More than 1,000 people have signed up By Leslie Feinberg in New York, Washington, Phoenix, Palm to engage in civil disobedience at insur- his new book is a compilation of 25 articles from the Beach, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, ance company offices around the coun- lavender & red series in Workers World newspaper; it Reno and Portland, Ore. The protestors, try through the mobilizeforhealthcare. shows how the Cuban revolution has worked to chanting “Patients not Profits,” occu- org Web site. The crisis in health care has overturn prejudice against same-sex love inherited from the pied the offices to demand “Medicare for left an estimated 47 million people in the colonial and imperial eras. All”—a public single-payer health plan United States uninsured and another 25 the book shows the Cuban revolution’s trajectory of progress that improves Medicare and expands it to million underinsured. in hard facts. it’s a must-read to understand the revolutionary cover everyone. Another wave of actions is planned at process required to uproot prejudice. The sit-ins were organized by the insurance company offices on Oct. 28. www.leftbooks.com —David Hoskins page 6 Oct. 29, 2009 www.workers.org

Lenin had it right role of the banks in the economic crisis By Fred goldstein biggest, most powerful banks had made is separated from the entrepreneur and trans oppression, not only because it is great inroads in taking over the financial from all who are directly concerned in divisive but because LGBT people are When the workers at Republic Windows reins of the government. the management of capital. Imperialism, deprived of countless economic and social and Doors in Chicago seized the factory This is a confirmation of the Marxist or the domination of finance capital, is benefits available to straight people—ben- last winter, their heroism in defying both analysis of imperialist society which V.I. that highest stage of capitalism in which efits that would have to come out of the their boss and the Bank of America elec- Lenin, the architect of the Bolshevik revolu- this separation reaches vast proportions. coffers of the government or the bosses. trified workers and progressive people tion, elaborated in his book “Imperialism, The supremacy of finance capital over all There is no aspect of capitalist society in all over the country and even around the the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” written other forms of capital means the predomi- the imperialist epoch that is untouched by world. in 1916 during World War I. nance of the rentier and of the financial the bankers. When they walked out of the factory Lenin described the evolution of capi- oligarchy.” in victory—with their demands for sever- talism from its competitive stage in the Much has been written of late about Banks get rich while workers sink ance pay, wages and other benefits agreed 19th century to its monopoly stage in the the so-called “financialization of capital,” So it should be no surprise that Timothy to by BOA—they had accomplished what 20th century. He showed how the means as if it were a new discovery. The wealth Geithner, Larry Summers and other lack- seemed impossible. Some 250 or more of production grew to gigantic propor- of the banks and the magnitude of their eys of the bankers—who are high-paid workers, mostly immigrants, had forced a tions and how the imperialist powers speculation have grown immensely with government officials but are lackeys nev- giant financial behemoth, which controls divided up the globe among themselves the growth of capitalist imperialism. But ertheless—scurry about trying to save their hundreds of billions of dollars through its into colonies and spheres of influence. He Lenin described its evolution and fun- masters while the entire ship of the work- banking empire, to back up and meet their described the growth of giant monopolis- damental features almost a century ago. ing class is sinking. demands. tic corporate cartels and syndicates that Wall Street’s insatiable lust for profit can- When the government orchestrat- Revealed in that struggle was an impor- dominated the resources and markets not be treated in isolation from the analy- ed the bankruptcy of General Motors, tant relationship that all class-conscious of the globe. He pointed to the growing sis of imperialism as a form of society. tens of thousands of workers' jobs were workers should take to heart. The capital- export of capital abroad and the super- Lenin showed that the dominance destroyed through plant closings. But ist boss of Republic Windows and Doors, exploitation of the colonial peoples. of finance capital is an inevitable and the biggest banks—including JPMorgan the exploiter of the workers in his factory, Looking at the power behind it all, he irreversible stage of the capitalist sys- Chase, Citigroup and Credit Suisse, all of was just a dependent of his giant creditor. singled out the role of the banks and how tem. Competitive capitalism grows into whom were getting money from the gov- He needed the money from Bank of they came to dominate industry and cre- monopoly capitalism—the stage in which ernment—made sure that the bankruptcy America to continue to carry out the ated finance capital. In a famous section finance capital and the financial oligarchy settlement guaranteed them every penny exploitation of the workers. The boss lived entitled “The Banks and Their New Role,” have risen to the pinnacle of the system of the $6 billion in loans they were owed. off the profits sweated out of the labor of he wrote: of exploitation and wage slavery, at home Other syndicates of bondholders also got the workers. But without the money to “The principal and primary function and abroad. paid off. keep going, he was unable to continue the of banks is to serve as middlemen in the When the financial meltdown came cycle of exploitation. Thus, the workers making of payments. In so doing they Banks suck profits in the fall of 2008 and the banks were were out of a job. transform inactive money capital into from everywhere in trouble, within days they had Henry In a microcosm, that struggle revealed active, that is, into capital yielding a prof- The banks are tied to big oil, big indus- Paulson write a three-page piece of legisla- a basic truth. It is a class relationship that it; they collect all kinds of money revenues try, the insurance companies, all the tion granting them $750 billion. Paulson, is concealed for the most part. and place them at the disposal of the capi- hedge funds, the private equity funds, a former co-chair of Goldman Sachs and In capitalist society, exploitation and all talist class. the mortgage brokers, the stock exchange secretary of the Treasury under George W. economic activity begin with money. This “As banking develops and becomes and every other institution in society that Bush, made sure the legislation specified explains the power of the banks. In order concentrated in a small number of estab- thrives off the stolen labor of the workers. that neither Congress nor the courts could to live in the profit system, workers must lishments, the banks grow from mod- The banks profit from every war and review or alter this colossal grant. sell their labor power. In order to thrive in est middlemen into powerful monopo- every intervention because wars are eco- When Congress rebelled and voted the profit system, the boss must buy that lies having at their command almost the nomic enterprises that take financing and down this outrageous giveaway over fear labor power and the means of production. whole of the money capital of all the capi- involve fees and interest. The banks get of mass anger, the bankers simply turned But that takes money. talists and small businessmen and also profit from the government, which bor- up the heat and got the vote reversed over Because of the special circumstances the larger part of the means of production rows from them at high interest rates to the space of a weekend. of their struggle, the small contingent of and sources of raw materials in any one pay for wars. They also get profit from After a struggle among the banks, a workers at Republic Windows and Doors country and in a number of countries. the military-industrial complex itself, small number of them emerged stronger was actually in combat with the real eco- This transformation of numerous modest which they finance. Plus they profit from than before the crisis. Banks that were nomic rulers of capitalist society. middlemen into a handful of monopolists the spoils when the Pentagon conquers bailed out because they were “too big to is one of the fundamental processes in the territory. fail” have gotten bigger, richer and finan- Lenin on the special role growth of capitalism into capitalist impe- The banks profit from every layoff, cially and politically more powerful. of the banks rialism.” (Lenin's works can be found on every plant closing, every speed-up, What was revealed in microcosm in The dominance of the bankers was www.marxists.org.) because every business, large and small, the Republic Windows and Doors strike dramatically revealed on a larger scale Later in the same work, Lenin is in debt to the banks and pays interest is now being revealed on a society-wide when the financial crisis first broke out described the parasitic nature of the out of the surplus value it has wrung from scale. Financial vultures are using their in September 2008 after the failure of financiers, which is so prominent in the the workers. power to swallow up more and more of the Lehman Brothers. Bailout money poured present crisis: They profit from the debt of the work- wealth of society while the working class is into the coffers of the banks in return for “It is characteristic of capitalism in ers. After workers are exploited on the job, plunged into economic and social disaster. the government taking shares in them. general that the ownership of capital is their wages are converted into profit for Goldman Sachs announced that it made There was talk about the “nationalization” separated from the application of capital the banks in the form of fees and exorbi- a record $3.1 billion in profits in the last of the banks—a government takeover. to production, that money capital is sepa- tant interest payments. Banks will make quarter. It is scheduled to fork out $5.3 bil- When the smoke cleared, there had rated from industrial or productive capi- loans to corporations to break strikes but lion in bonuses to its team of bankers. (New been no government takeover of the tal, and that the rentier who lives entirely will deny loans to companies to pay work- York Times, Oct. 16) JPMorgan Chase had banks. What really emerged was that the on income obtained from money capital ers’ benefits, as in the Republic Windows third-quarter profits of $3.6 billion, seven and Doors case. times higher than a year ago. (AFP, Oct. 14) Banks profit from the high cost of edu- Meanwhile, home foreclosures went up A worker’s top ten cation, both from the interest they get 23 percent in the month of September. from student loans and the fees from col- Workers are living out of their cars and lege and university trust funds that they being pushed into homeless shelters. Reasons why U.S. ruling class manage. They profit from the health care This is the perfect capitalist symmetry crisis because they are completely inter- of wealth and exploitation. Bankers get twined with the insurance companies, the rich while the masses are plunged deeper believes in magic of the market pharmaceutical companies and the medi- into crisis. The stock market goes up to By Paul Wilcox 6. We can always bribe Congress to bail cal-industrial complex. 10,000 while unemployment edges up to us out, and use some of that bailout And they make money from racism, 10 percent. (Real unemployment is nearer 1. We haven’t done one damn useful money to bribe them some more. thing, and we’re filthy rich! which brings extra profits because of 18 percent.) 7. Centuries ago, the nobles in France the lower wages paid to Black, Latino/a, The latest numbers on the government 2. We’ve discovered how to make money got rich without doing anything from nothing—it really is magic! Asian, Middle Eastern and Native peoples stimulus plan reveal that $16 billion has useful. and because divisions within the working been spent to create 30,000 jobs—a paltry 3. We used to have to hire workers to make stuff in factories, but not so 8. The nobles did very, very well doing class keep all wages down and profits up. result. About 8 million jobs have been lost much any more. nothing … up until they were guillo- The banks profit from sexism because and the number is climbing. But the bank- tined before the cheering people. 4. Most people have to work hard in women get paid less than men, to say ers’ stimulus plan has yielded billions in factories or offices to earn a living. 9. But we know that nothing like that nothing of women's unpaid labor in the profits and stock market riches. can happen to us. home—which, among other things, pro- 5. But we just sell and resell securities, Workers’ rebellion inevitable derivatives, hedge funds and do 10. We believe in magic. vides the next generation of workers for other cool things like speculating the bosses free of charge. This situation can only be temporary. It E-mail: [email protected] in real estate. They profit from lesbian, gay, bi and Continued on page 1o www.workers.org Oct. 29, 2009 page 7

Lenin had it right Mexico City. role of the banks in the economic crisis Masses demand: ‘don’t turn off the lights’ By John Catalinotto president in December 2006 following a 44,000 active workers and benefits for ish with the unions completely.” narrow election victory that most observ- 22,000 retirees in a country with high Marchers held placards that read, Hundreds of thousands of workers ers judged fraudulent. and growing unemployment, it is an “Felipe Calderón: Don’t put out the light,” marched from the Independence Column Calderón has continued the policy of attempt to break this key union. as they chanted, “Don’t pay for light!” Some through the streets of downtown Mexico the last few Mexican governments of Despite the massive support for the of the speakers called for a general strike. City to the Zócalo central square to dem- privatizing the state monopolies that union and opposition to privatization Politicians from the Broad Front parti- onstrate their support for the SME electri- were nationalized in the past. Based on among the Mexican people, the regime ci pated in the mass demonstration. This cal workers union and to oppose the right- the free trade agreement known as North has said it will proceed with its program. included Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a ist government’s plan to privatize the pub- American Free Trade Agreement, these (AFP, Oct. 17) former Mexico City mayor known as AMLO, lic electrical company, Light and Power, companies are opened to foreign, mostly According to a description of the dem- who narrowly lost the suspicious 2006 elec- and eliminate tens of thousands of jobs. U.S., investment as well as to profiteering onstration on the Web site kaosenlared. tion. Though he does not challenge Mexico’s The Oct. 15 mobilization followed a by the Mexican capitalists. net, “The numerous contingents of electri- capitalist system, AMLO is the most pro- decree by the government of President An Oct. 18 article in La Jornada cal workers and their families, who were gressive of the major candidates and has Felipe Calderón to privatize electricity on exposed that the regime had been plan- booted out on the street with one day’s the greatest support among Mexico’s poor Oct. 10, when he used federal army troops ning the privatization and seizure of the notice, were joined by men and women workers, farmers and unemployed. to seize the power plants from the electri- electrical stations since March using units from the miners, telephone workers, Recently elected SME President Martín cal workers. The privatization decree and of the army and federal police. teachers and health workers unions, from Esparza has said that the struggle to military takeover is seen as a challenge to The SME is one of the strongest unions transport and from the universities—some reverse the decree will continue. The all Mexican workers. Besides the gathering in Mexico and has been the most deter- from the union confederations and others union advised its members to refuse the in the capital’s Zócalo, there were demon- mined organization resisting the nation- independent—who saw the writing on the government’s offer of a severance pack- strations in 10 Mexican states. alization of Light and Power. The take- wall: the government intends not just to age. As of Oct. 17, only one of every 17 Calderón, who is from the rightist, pro- over and privatization of the company continue with the policy of buying off lead- union members affected has accepted the U.S. National Action Party (PAN), became not only immediately eliminates jobs for ers and weakening the unions, but to fin- package. (La Jornada, Oct. 18). n 100,000 march in Puerto rico to protest layoffs Continued from page 1 WW: At what level is the masses’ politi- the CS—BJC]. Both groups agreed to have cal consciousness? an action on the fifteenth. The FAdSyL/CS LPL: This economic crisis directly decided to have the event in front of Plaza affects the peoples’ wallets and we must Las Américas with the objective of closing take advantage of this moment, recogniz- it down after marching from the Milla de ing the opportunity that we have to help Oro as a symbol of the finance sector and create consciousness. That the problem is main promoter of consumerism in Puerto not only the wallet, but that those running Rico. When we found out that the con- the system plan to discard the welfare vention had been postponed, then we all state, to discard the system offering gov- agreed to end at the Plaza. ernment services. They assert that people The Coalition TPRcPR was born from are not necessary, that what is important an activity on June 5 protesting Law No. is the accumulation of wealth and that the 7 and the LAPP. There was a march and a Keynesian formula that required people to Peoples Assembly where a manifesto was have incomes in order for the economy to approved, including points for struggle move is not what is being proposed. like the repeal of laws 7 and 29, defense How do we explain that? How do we of the environment and other important create a model of popular education that issues. The Labor Coalition is composed would help people understand and go of the unions under the AFL-CIO, Change from the defense of jobs and the stop- to Win and the CPT, the Puerto Rican phOtOs: iNdymEdiapr.Org ping of layoffs to the awareness that we Workers Central. of Regional Councils. These councils are to repeal a law that they already passed. need a different economic system, that The FAdSyL started on Jan. 12, with the formed by unions, churches and other They have stated that they will not back we need to rescue the demand for social CS and UTIER—in total we are 18 unions. social groups and work cooperatively. down because this is a project that was justice and recognize that the present sys- That day we made a call for the formation There are a dozen councils so far around initiated in 1988 in Puerto Rico as a pro- tem will not give us that. I think that this of a broad front with a permanent charac- the island. posal of the main private groups and the point is the greatest contribution that we ter. We are trying to overcome the experi- WW: What is the next step? Chamber of Commerce, to privatize all must offer during this struggle so that the ence in Puerto Rico where we unite around LPL: We are proposing a general strike. public works and reduce the government level of struggle and of political conscious- an issue and afterwards, goals achieved To challenge the state’s public and eco- to a minimum, using the private sector ness goes to a new level. Fortuño is not the or not, we disband. We are now trying to nomic policies a people’s general strike and the municipalities and the deregula- problem. The system he represents is the establish a consistent, permanent work is necessary and unavoidable as a way tion of the market. real problem. effort since we recognize that this is a long to confront the government. We are not Since 1988 the government has pushed WW: How can we help from the U.S.? struggle. We are emphasizing the creation going from protest to protest and lobbying these points, now at an accelerated LPL: By internationalizing the struggle. rate, and there is no room for dialogue. Let people know about it, create unity, Therefore we have to recognize the need since the unity of workers of the different “This book helps us to understand the root of the present neoliberal globalization— of organizing the people through assem- sectors is important. That way we can cre- anewstageoftheinternationalcapitalistcrisis—whichwasimposedbyU.S.imperialism blies, by sectors, forming regional councils ate a unitary process. I think that would be andwhichdevastatedanddominatedLatinAmericaneconomies,forcingmillionsofworkers to promote this assembly. And that the the most important thing since there are toemigratetotheU.S.lookingforjobs.Theyfoundexploitationandhumiliation.” people start approving a conscious push different places and experiences and we for the development of a general strike in can help each other and learn from each –Ignacio Meneses, Co-chair, U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange Puerto Rico. This would imply not an act other’s experiences. n for a particular day but a process of strug- gle that will effectively confront policies of Low-Wage Capitalism this government against the people. What the new globalized high-tech imperialism The government has already means for the class struggle in the U.S. announced the elimination of 40 of the 134 government a timely new book by Fred goldstein describes in agencies between now sweeping detail the drastic effect on the working class and December. So of new technology and the restructuring of global we say that more capitalism in the post-soviet era. it uses Karl marx’s layoffs are in the law of wages and other findings to show that these making, even developments are not only continuing to drive down though they say wages but are creating the material basis for future the layoffs will social upheaval and the end of working-class com- not happen. But promise and retreat, and must end up in a profound it is inevitable: revival of the struggle against capital. There will be available at www.Leftbooks.com more layoffs. page 8 Oct. 29, 2009 www.workers.org Behind the election ploy in Afghanistan

By Deirdre griswold This is a hard sell in Washington, since sors in Washington. He was caught car- posed to be more democratic. But the more and more people in the U.S.—some rying out massive fraud in his run for re- imperialists not only remained—they Hamid Karzai, who was first foisted on 52 percent, according to a recent CNN election. Since he already was losing favor escalated the war, which did not change the people of Afghanistan as their presi- poll—are now comparing this war to the with Washington for his inability to rule its reactionary character. The strategists dent in 2002 by the U.S.-NATO war and 1962-75 war against Vietnam and increas- the country, they and the NATO coun- for U.S. imperialism—from the CIA to the occupation, has now agreed after heavy ingly want to see it end. tries pushed for a negation of the vote and Pentagon—were still trying to destroy the pressure from these same imperialist In addition to opinion polls, more peo- a runoff election with his closest rival, popular opposition in order to carry out powers to a runoff election on Nov. 7. ple are starting to demonstrate against the Abdullah Abdullah. their own agenda, which was to clear the What’s going on here? U.S. war in Afghanistan, seeing it not as a Where does this leave the war and a way for the domination and exploitation The war to subjugate Afghanistan and response to 9/11 but as part of the “great possible escalation? of all Southeast Asia. use it as a launching pad for Anglo-U.S. game” for the control of Central Asia by the It is extremely likely that the spin of In the end, it was the courageous resis- domination of the whole region is in big energy- and resource-hungry transnation- the powerful corporate media will now be tance of the Vietnamese people, who were trouble. Even though they face more than al corporations behind imperialist wars. to assure the people here that the politi- ready to fight for 100 years if necessary, 100,000 foreign troops equipped with the Karzai was a CIA contact during U.S. cal obstacles to “getting the job done” are that forced the withdrawal of U.S. troops— highest-tech weapons of death available, imperialism’s first war in Afghanistan, being cleared away, that a new govern- whose rank and file were also refusing to the Afghan resistance has been growing. when Washington built an army out of ment in Afghanistan will be cleaner, will fight in ever greater numbers. Every air strike, whether it’s heavy the landlords’ resistance to the Afghan do more for women and the poor, will McChrystal is touted as the world’s bombing from planes that travel thou- revolution of 1978. Some of those forces, inspire confidence in the masses and will authority on counterinsurgency. What he sands of miles to blast the villages and recruited on the basis of fighting against therefore undermine the armed opposi- fails to recognize, however, is that any for- mountainsides, or rockets launched the Soviet Union’s intervention on the tion—so all it will take is a few more troops eign occupation engineered to serve the against domiciles and vehicles from pilot- side of the revolution, are now fight- to win the war and secure the occupation. global interests of a super-rich exploiting less drones, has further alienated the ing the Western imperialists. But Karzai This is pure baloney. class will eventually bring about resis- population and increased the number of remained allied with his U.S. paymasters. In Vietnam, it should be remembered, tance. No amount of “brilliant” sophistry young Afghans joining the resistance. However, the rampant corruption of the CIA actually arranged for the assas- from West Point can change that. The Pentagon—especially Gen. Stanley his government, the low turnout in the sination of the Diem brothers—U.S. pup- This is no time to stop marching. Only McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in August election and the popular opposi- pets—when they failed to be effective the people’s struggles can bring the troops Afghanistan—has said they need at least tion to this Western puppet led to a big against the National Liberation Front. A home from Afghanistan, Iraq and the rest 40,000 more troops to “get the job done.” embarrassment for Karzai and his spon- new general was installed who was sup- of the oppressed world. n Invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq opposed in U.s. cities

By kris Hamel to Wars and Corporate Bailouts—Yes defendant Dritan Duka, to Jobs and Medicare for All” and “U.S. addressed the crowd on Coordinated anti-war demonstrations Out of the Middle East.” The protest was the cases of Muslims who took place around the U.S. on Oct. 17 to sponsored by the San Diego Coalition for have been targeted by mark the eighth anniversary of the U.S. Peace and Justice. the FBI. Award-winning invasion of Afghanistan and to demand At Market Square in Cleveland, the author Susan Abulhawa an end to the U.S.-led war and occupation Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition, of Playgrounds for there as well as in Iraq. Veterans for Peace, People’s Fightback Palestine spoke in sup- A New England-wide demonstration Center, Cleveland FIST (Fight port of the United of 2,000 protesters rallied and marched Imperialism/Stand Together), American Nations report that con- in downtown Boston. The Bail Out the Friends Service Committee and several demns Israel for war People Movement contingent featured a other anti-war groups held a protest. crimes in Gaza. The need banner that read “Jobs and Health Care Calling for an end to the wars in Iraq to link wars and injus- Are a Right! Fund Workers, Not Wall and Afghanistan, around 200 people came tice to the fight against Street.” The contingent emphasized the out in Philadelphia. Demonstrators globalization and the need to link the wars against the workers gathered at City Hall where a short rally economic crisis at home and oppressed at home and abroad. was held. Speakers there included Berta was addressed by several In San Diego, over 100 people gath- Joubert-Ceci of the International Action speakers. ered at the downtown federal building on Center, who recently returned from a soli- Over 1,000 peo- Oct. 16 with signs denouncing the con- darity delegation to Honduras. She spoke ple came out in San tinuing U.S. wars against and occupations about the importance of U.S. protests Francisco to demand of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. Strong against the military coup d’etat in that “U.S. Troops Out of Detroit support for the action was expressed by country. Iraq, Afghanistan and After a march through Center City, Pakistan” at a demon- passing motorists and pedestrians. WW phOtO: Kris hamEl Among the many homemade signs held a second rally was held across from stration organized by the by protesters were ones reading “Stop the Liberty Bell. There, Leila Duka, the Oct. 17 Antiwar Coalition. The lead ban- where. A rally and speak-out was chaired the U.S.-Israeli Massacre of Gaza,” “No 11-year-old daughter of Fort Dix Five ner called for “Money for Jobs, Pensions, by Abayomi Azikiwe of the Michigan Education, Health Emergency Committee Against War and Care and Housing— Injustice, which called the action. Not Wars and Speakers included representatives Corporate Bailouts!” of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to The march route Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility went through the busy Shut-offs; Detroit Green Party; Vietnam Market Street shop- Veterans Against the War from Port ping area and past Huron, Mich.; the Palestine solidarity the offices of the San group, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Francisco Chronicle Friends; and Fight Imperialism/Stand before ending back at Together (FIST). Civic Center. A large The speakers continually raised how number of speakers the hundreds of billions of dollars spent addressed the crowd on imperialist wars abroad are desper- from labor, religious, ately needed by oppressed and working solidarity and com- people in Detroit to stop the state of eco- munity organizations. nomic disaster devastating those in this Some 50 protest- hard-hit city. Passersby, including many ers gathered in down- Detroit buses, honked their support for town Detroit to the demonstrators. demand U.S. troops Frank Neisser, Bob McCubbin, out of Afghanistan, Caleb T. Maupin, Betsey Piette Iraq and every- and Judy Greenspan contributed San Francisco to this article. WW phOtO: Judy grEENspaN www.workers.org Oct. 29, 2009 page 9 On 113th day of resistance Honduran people demand ‘No elections without President Zelaya’ By Teresa gutierrez troops amassed with SWAT-team type It is worthwhile to note an Oct. 17 debate in the United States that has been member of U.S. delegation in Honduras armor, gas masks and heavy weapons. Washington Post editorial written by for- largely dormant for almost two decades,” The Honduran people are absolutely mer Secretary of State Jim Baker, in which he concludes. Oct. 19—This article is being writ- right when they declare, “They fear us he warns the U.S. ruling class of the dan- The solidarity movement’s main ten on the 113th day of resistance by because we have no fear.” Women, youth, ger in Honduras. The editorial beckons a demand must be: No elections without the the Honduran people against the illegal children and men come to the street colonialist-type attitude, reminiscent of return of Zelaya as president! military coup that ousted democratically actions with vinegar-soaked bandannas, the glory days of imperialism. Those days Presidential elections without Zelaya’s elected President Manuel Zelaya. wearing running shoes and prepared to are fortunately waning, especially in Latin restoration would be thoroughly undem- Despite military and police repres- fight. The people even held an Oct. 17 pro- America. ocratic and a complete sham. Surely the sion, a ban on civil liberties and the shut- test in front of Micheletti’s house! Baker writes: “Matters will only dete- people of Nicaragua have learned that an down of several radio stations and news This fierceness bolsters the OAS dis- riorate if the international community election held under conditions favorable agencies, the people continue to resist, cussions in favor of Zelaya. Nonetheless, refuses to recognize the results of the only to imperialism is an election that demanding the restoration of Zelaya as Micheletti and the reactionary ruling coming Honduran elections. ... In the should not be held. well as a Constitutional Assembly. class and military elements he repre- United States, the crisis risks reawaken- The National Front of Resistance The pivotal demand that the previously sents, in alliance with Wall Street and the ing the divisive domestic political debates against the Coup is clear. At a gathering scheduled Nov. 29 general elections not Pentagon, are completely dug in. It pres- between the left and right that were the this weekend at the STIBYS [Beverage occur unless Zelaya is restored to gov- ents a dangerous situation. rule before 1990.” and Related Industry Workers] union, a ernment gathers momentum around the He continues: “It doesn’t have to be this center of resistance in Tegucigalpa, Front world. OAS discussions stall way. ... In 1990 free elections supported leader Juan Barahona said: “The Front Organizers of the resistance describe After almost two weeks, the OAS dis- by the U.S. Congress and the Bush admin- met to make some decisions about events the country’s climate as a “calm ten- cussions are in a complete stalemate. istration and by both sides of our polity, this week. ... Whether Mel [Zelaya] is rein- sion”—calm because the presence of The Honduran daily newspaper El helped end a destructive civil conflict in stalled or not, we are going on with our Organization of American States officials Heraldo recently editorialized that “the Nicaragua that had poisoned American demand for a Constitutional Assembly.” buys the people a little space. current situation is untenable.” domestic politics for years. Once the Barahona urged everyone to attend the The criminal, fraudulent Micheletti coup Micheletti continues to demand that people of Nicaragua had the chance to funeral of union leader Jairo Sánchez, regime calculates that repression must be the Supreme Court decide Zelaya’s res- express themselves through free and fair who died from an injury sustained after tempered in the face of international bod- toration. But the Supreme Court is thor- elections, the country’s constitutional cri- being attacked by the police in September. ies. Even so, when protesters heroically oughly in the hands of right-wing forces sis ended and the issue disappeared from He laid out the week’s plans, including a gather at the Clarion Hotel, where the OAS on the side of the wealthy elite. The out- America’s political debate. ... boycott of Grupo Intur fast food. discussions take place, troops wave their come would not represent the interests of “In the midst of a constitutional crisis Zelaya spoke by cell phone: “Victory hefty batons and explode tear gas. the people in the streets, most of whom and on the verge of civil strife, a free and will only result with our unity. Nothing The U.S. Delegation of Labor, Com- are unemployed and hungry. fair election may be the only way to bring can stop a people who are organized munity and Clergy witnessed this repres- Patricia Rodas, who served as foreign Honduras back from the brink. A refusal and demanding their rights. ... I call on sion as it gathered with the people on Oct. minister in Zelaya’s administration, told to recognize the results of the Honduran you to strengthen the resistance. To our 8. Inside, OAS representatives met with reporters, “The process of dialogue initiat- election would almost certainly prolong sisters and brothers who struggle in the Zelaya supporters and Micheletti represen- ed by the Organization of American States and deepen the constitutional crisis there, Resistance, I am so proud of you. I sup- tatives to hammer out a deal on the politi- at the request of our foreign ministers ... and it may plunge the country into more port all the decisions of the Resistance. cal crisis. Despite a heavy media presence, has definitely broken down,” (CNN, Oct. 16) violence. It could also ramp up a divisive We are not divided.” n Youth resist, organize in Honduras By LeiLani Dowell very noticeable who the coup is for. There’s no better way to Youth and students are an important learn something than through sector participating in the struggle against action. You can also see which the illegal coup d’etat in Honduras. Video students are at the marches.” after video of the resistance actions that The two are members of a have taken place since the July 28 coup broader Youth Front against have shown youth in the streets and fac- the Military Coup, which is ing repression as well. a part of the larger National The U.S. Delegation of Labor, Com- Resistance Front against the mu nity and Clergy in Solidarity with the coup and includes students as Honduran Resistance was able to meet well as youth from the rural, with several student organizers on Oct. 9 peasant and Indigenous and 10. However, as a result of the repres- populations of the country, sion, the delegation was not able to meet the majority of whom cannot with as many youth as expected. On Oct. afford to attend college. 9, two men attempted to kidnap one of the On Oct. 10, the delegation student leaders; while the young woman was able to briefly attend a WW phOtO lEilaNi dOWEll was able to escape with a fractured hand, U.S. delegation meet with Honduran youth. class on revolutionary studies that is it prevented her organization from meet- organized and held every Saturday after- ing with the U.S. delegation. Instead, they Stand Together—described the use of the extreme violence occurring through- noon by Los Necios. A class of about 30 needed to meet collectively to discuss massive amounts of tear gas and long- out the country, more students are now youth listened raptly and took notes on security measures and tactics. range acoustic devices in Pittsburgh to able to relate the political situation in the Marxist theory. Los Necios (whose name Digna Rodríguez is a student at the attack the mostly young protesters at the country to their everyday lives. roughly translates to “the troublemak- pedagogical university, which has become G-20 summit in September. These same Díaz explained: “Before, people weren’t ers”) identifies as a socialist organization, the meeting point for many of the dai- weapons have been used against youth in aware of theory, of what it meant to belong taking its ideology from a combination of ly marches and rallies taking place in Honduras. to a class. Now workers see it very clearly. revolutionaries from Marx and Lenin to Tegucigalpa. She reported that the entire Ian Díaz, leader of the youth group [President Manuel] Zelaya took politics Trotsky, Mao and others. university has been militarized and used Los Necios, is a student at the National that had been neglected for a while and When asked what their message to as a detention center by the police, who University, the largest university in the pushed for change that affected the big- youth in the U.S. and worldwide would torture their detainees on the campus country with some 70,000 students. Díaz gest sector of society—stopping privatiza- be, a member of Los Necios answered: grounds. The school administration has told the delegation that the resistance tion, raising the minimum wage. “Our message would be that youth need threatened students with academic disci- movement at the university includes “Over the past three years, people saw to get involved politically. As young peo- pline for participating in resistance activi- teachers, students and workers. While that these things were negatively affecting ple, we are obliged to get involved. Being ties and has denied permission for activi- the university itself has attempted to hold some, and benefiting others. They realized a revolutionary is a moral obligation.” ties on campus. Meanwhile, teachers in itself apart from the political situation that there were marked differences; that Dowell represented the youth group the resistance have also faced harassment within Honduras, resistance members the workers benefited while the business- FIST on the U.S. delegation. An inter- from the administration. on campus work hard to raise the politi- people, the owners of the means of pro- view with her about the delegation’s A member of the U.S. delegation from cal consciousness of those attending and duction, were affected adversely. This gave experiences in Honduras can be found the youth group FIST—Fight Imperialism, working at the college. He said that with the people their class consciousness—it’s at www.blogtalkradio.com/FIST-Youth. page 10 Oct. 29, 2009 www.workers.org Massive protests Stand up rock Guatemala By Daoud Brown Casa Presidencial. Fifteen protesters held against racism guatemala City a six-hour sit-in and hunger strike there and vowed to continue until President he racism of Keith Bardwell, Louisiana politicians have also called Oct. 13—In massive national protests, Colom agreed to meet with them on their Louisiana justice of the peace for Bardwell’s immediate resignation. tens of thousands of campesinos, union demands—which he did, just before mid- Tin Tangipahoa Parish, sent While we join in the demand for workers, students and Indigenous people night. After hours of intense negotiations, shock waves and cries of condemna- Bardwell’s sanctioning and removal blocked roads and bridges on Oct. 12— the government also agreed there would tion throughout the United States and from office, these legal efforts are not El Día de la Raza—effectively paralyzing be no reprisals against protesters. around the world. On Oct. 6 Bardwell enough. Bigots like Bardwell brazenly many parts of the country including this One 19-year-old marcher was killed refused to issue a marriage license to espouse their racist attitudes and mis- capital city of 3 million. by gunfire during the tumultuous day, in Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay deeds because institutionalized racism The mainly Indigenous protestors, hold- what campesino leaders described as an because she is white and he is Black. is still a fact of life in the United States, ing oversized red flags, hit the streets in assassination aimed at organizations of It’s Bardwell’s policy not to marry inter- along with women’s oppression and Huahuatenango, Quiché, San Marcos and the rural poor. Two others were wounded racial couples because he alleges the lesbian, gay, bi and trans oppression. at least 10 other cities in the countryside— in the attack. Business leaders said the children born of such unions will “suf- There is still no federal law recognizing some reportedly carrying machetes, sticks, protests had resulted in big financial losses fer.” Bardwell is no doubt outraged that same-sex marriages. paving stones and slingshots—and halted to industry and commerce. President Barack Obama had an African In fact, on the 40th anniversary traffic on the main roads to the Caribbean Students from San Carlos National father and a white mother. of the Loving v. Virginia ruling in and Pacific coasts and the Inter-American University commandeered five buses to This elected judicial official still 2007, Mildred Loving, who is African- Highway. Blockades snarled traffic on block traffic in the south of the capital for abides by Civil War-era “miscegenation” American, issued a public state- most routes into the capital. six hours. In Chimaltenango, farm work- laws like the ones implemented in Nazi ment that reads in part: “I believe all They are demanding that certain min- ers demanded cancellation of the debt Germany and apartheid South Africa. Americans, no matter their race, no ing concessions, a cement factory and a owed by 70 rural communities to the Apparently, he disagrees with the his- matter their sex, no matter their sexual hydroelectric plant that they believe will Fondo Nacional de Tierras (Land Fund). toric U.S. Supreme Court decision in orientation, should have that same free- destroy their environment with toxic waste In Quiché, campesinos from the Farm Loving v. Virginia that struck down that dom to marry.” Loving passed away in be shut down; that land reform including Workers Unity Committee (CUC) threat- state’s laws banning interracial unions. 2008. (Read Loving’s entire statement access to scarce arable land be enacted; ened to put down their tools if the govern- The court found unconstitutional all on www.workers.org) that pure water springs be protected ment did not act quickly on their demands. race-based restrictions against marriage Bardwell should be forced to apolo- from contamination; that the jailing, per- The huge plaza around the National throughout the country. gize publicly and pay restitution to all secution and violence directed against Palace was jammed with buses that had The high court’s 1967 landmark rul- those he has insulted and harmed over farm worker leaders be halted; that four ferried thousands from the countryside. ing did not occur in a vacuum. It hap- the years by imposing his racist superi- campesino political prisoners be released; Colorful hand-lettered banners told local pened at the height of the civil rights ority. He should also be jailed for feder- and that the use of private security guards stories of the daily struggle of work- and Black Liberation struggles that al violations of individuals’ civil liberties and armed paramilitaries to assassinate ers and farmers against the bosses and involved millions throughout the U.S. and civil rights. and persecute Indigenous and campesino landowners. Other struggles for national liberation, White supremacist ideology is an leaders be investigated. Facing the plaza was a giant portrait of both internationally and inside the U.S., integral tool the ruling class uses to Daniel Pascual, leader of the National Jacobo Arbenz, elected Guatemala’s presi- were also taking place, with Indigenous divide workers so they cannot effective- Indigenous & Campesino Coordinadora dent by a landslide in 1950. The popular and Latino/a peoples demanding an ly fight back against the capitalist class (CONIC), told the newspaper Diario de Arbenz presided over real land reform, end to centuries of racism, oppression and the many miseries it visits upon the Centro América that the protests “were expanded democratic and labor rights, and and inequality. working class and the oppressed. called to exert pressure on the government the expropriation of land from the power- Humphrey and McKay plan to file Lowered wages and high unemploy- to live up to their commitments” earlier ful United Fruit Company—until he was a complaint with the U.S. Justice ment, record foreclosures, evictions and agreed to but ignored. (Oct. 13) overthrown in a 1954 coup with the help Department concerning Bardwell. homelessness, health care out of reach The Oct. 12 actions were exactly 90 days of the United Fruit Company and the CIA. The American Civil Liberties Union of for tens of millions—these realities after a march of 10,000 Indigenous and Graffiti covered the walls in the crowded Louisiana sent a letter to the Judicial demand a unified response from all campesinos from San Juan Sacatepéquez working-class quarter called Zona 1: “No Administrator of the Louisiana Supreme workers of all nationalities. to the capital on July 14, when President more militarism,” “For the disappeared— Court, which oversees state justices of The outrage sparked by Bardwell’s Álvaro Colom met with protest leaders. Memory, Truth, Justice,” “No to capital- the peace, asking for an investigation actions shows how crucial is the pursuit “In this country, if we were not doing ism,” “Urban resistance” and “Guatemala of Bardwell, and requesting the imposi- of the struggle against racism every day. this, no one would listen to us,” said desperate—For work, for land, for food.” tion of the severest sanctions against As the movement grows for jobs and eco- Pascual. “There is no justice. The judges Venezuela chose the day to announce him. The national headquarters of the nomic justice and against the capitalist are corrupt. Campesinos are murdered. emergency donations of yucca products to NAACP, the New York-based Center profit system, fighting racism in all forms People are dying of hunger and no one alleviate the food crisis in Guatemala. for Constitutional Rights, and several must be at the top of the agenda. n says anything. Only by taking this road can The Day of Dignity and Resistance of we get a hearing.” the Indigenous Peoples, or El Día de la The marches and blockades got under Raza, was also celebrated on Oct. 12 in Lenin had it right way before dawn at 4 a.m. Oct. 12 and Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile, as well as in lasted long into the night, when thou- Guatemala where Indigenous people are sands gathered in the capital around the role of the banks more than 60 percent of the population. n Continued from page 6 have funds. But the banks also use this 200,000 in Rome in solidarity is all based on the fact that the workers financial power to promote speculation, have not yet begun to fight back on a wide gambling and financial extortion. scale. The relationship of class forces is They think that they can go on like this with immigrants temporarily on the side of the bankers forever. But they will soon see that there and the bosses. is a force mightier than capital, mightier Denouncing a viciously racist anti- with immigrants from Africa, the Balkans, They are pushing everyone around than bankers. It is the force of tens of immigrant law passed by the govern- the Middle East and South Asia. now, including the Obama administra- millions of workers and oppressed peo- ment of scandal-ridden billionaire media The new law fines immigrants between tion, which has catered to them. The banks ple, who will get to the point where they magnate Silvio Berlusconi, as many as 5,000 and 10,000 euros (7,400 to 14,900 have spent $220 million lobbying against can’t take it any more. All the capitalists' 200,000 people marched from the Piazza dollars) for entering or living in Italy with- even a minimal financial reform bill money will not be able to stop the class della Repubblica to the Roman forum on out legal papers and makes this act a crim- designed to restrain them from wild spec- struggle and a class war against capital- Oct. 17. The CGIL labor confederation inal offense. People who rent or provide ulation and gambling—which touched off ism itself. n played a major role in the march along housing to illegal immigrants can be jailed the present crisis in the first place. for up to three years. The banks are the central nervous sys- This provocation awoke a strong reac- tem and the organizers of capitalist impe- MArxIsM, rePArATIoNs tion. Like the Sensenbrenner Bill that was rialism. They dominate capitalist politics. & the Black Freedom struggle rejected in 2006 after a massive May Day Their representatives are always high up an anthology of writings from Workers World newspaper. turnout in the U.S., the Italian law aroused in every administration, Republican or Edited by monica moorehead. includes: a furious opposition and led to a massive Democrat. They break through every • Black liberation & the working-class struggle turnout in what has become, since 1989, attempt to hold them back from plunder- • The material basis for reparations in the U.S. an annual anti-racist protest in Italy. The ing the workers because, as Lenin said, demonstrators also raised slogans against • Brief overview of racist oppression & heroic resistance they gather all the financial resources of the oppression of lesbian, gay, bi and society into their hands. Money capital is • What Hurricane Katrina exposed to the world • Salute to trans people, and against the racist attacks the beginning point of the exploitation of women revolutionaries • Black labor & class solidarity directed at immigrants and Roma people. labor, because capitalist industry must Order at Leftbooks.com —John Catalinotto www.workers.org Oct. 29, 2009 page 11 Using arrest of colonial farmer U.s. still seeks regime change in Zimbabwe By Abayomi Azikiwe ing the MDC-T exclusively, even though in Zimbabwe, the whites proclaimed a Congressional Black Caucus either voted editor, Pan-African News Wire Prime Minister Tsvangirai had joined Unilateral Declaration of Independence, in favor of sanctions or abstained. the Zimbabwe government in February. formally breaking with the colonial rulers The Movement for Democratic Change Zimbabwe’s inclusive government was (Sunday Mail, Oct. 18) in London. was formed in Zimbabwe in order to con- thrown into crisis in the aftermath of the Weak sanctions leveled against test the parliamentary elections in 2000. arrest of the Western-backed Movement Roy Bennett and the class forces Rhodesia after 1965 failed to force the The party is financed and supported by for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai he represents Rhodesians to negotiate a political settle- the white settlers and governments in the Treasurer Roy Bennett on Oct. 14. Bennett, Although the MDC-T has joined with ment with representatives of the African industrialized West. The funding of the who has been charged with possessing ZANU-PF in an inclusive government, people. In 1966 an armed struggle erupt- MDC by the Obama administration rep- arms for the purpose of criminal activity, the Western-backed party is continuing to ed that lasted until late 1979 when the resents a continuation of the same policy terrorism and inciting acts of insurgency, pursue the foreign policy objectives of the white settlers realized that if they did that has been enacted over the last decade. had been out on bail since March. United States and Britain. Since the imple- not negotiate, the liberation movements Roy Bennett, representing the dis- Bennett was released on Oct. 16 pend- mentation of the land reform process in would win an outright military victory. placed white settlers, has been placed ing the beginning of his trial, which was Zimbabwe, the Western imperialist states Both the Zimbabwe African People’s as the principal financial officer of the initially scheduled to begin on Oct. 19 have sought the removal of President Union and the Zimbabwe African National MDC-T. Therefore he is responsible for but has been postponed. Bennett, a white Mugabe and the ZANU-PF party. Union formed an alliance under the ban- handling and managing the funds given coffee farmer whose business was taken As a result of the legacy of colonialism, ner of the Patriot Front. When the nego- to the MDC-T from white settlers and over through the Zimbabwe land reform the British controlled most of the arable tiations took place at Lancaster House in the imperialist interests seeking regime program, had been recommended by the land in Zimbabwe. Colonialism took con- Britain during late 1979, Britain and the change in Zimbabwe. MDC-T prime minister to be appointed trol of the Southern African nation dur- United States agreed to compensate the He was elected to parliament as a rep- deputy agricultural minister. ing the late 19th century resulting in the white settlers for the purported value of resentative of the MDC. In 2004 he was As a result of Bennett’s arrest, the large-scale displacement of the majority their land holdings in Zimbabwe over a arrested and jailed for pushing a govern- MDC-T leader and prime minister in the African population. Africans resisted the 10-year period. ment minister in the Zimbabwe parlia- government, Morgan Tsvangirai, has sus- imposition of colonialism in a series of A settlement was reached that led to ment. The most serious charges against pended his party’s participation in cabi- uprisings during the 1890s that were led nonracial elections and the rise to power him stemmed from a plot to assassinate net meetings with the party of President by both the Mashona and Ndebele peo- of both ZANU and ZAPU in April 1980. President Mugabe in 2006. Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe African ples of the region. Twenty percent of parliamentary seats According to the Zimbabwe Herald, National Union-Patriotic Front. After the consolidation of British colo- were reserved for whites for 10 years, “[Bennett] is facing charges of allegedly The arrest of Bennett has drawn a sharp nial rule, the African population was rele- and the land question was supposed to be giving money between 2002 and March response from the Obama administration, gated to servitude and landlessness. Their settled during the first decade of national 2006 to buy 26 grenades, two signal smoke which immediately issued a statement traditional cultures were disregarded, and independence. hand flares, 12 rifles and other weapons. criticizing President Mugabe. According any opposition to the colonial system was According to Obi Egbuna, the U.S. After that, the State alleges, Bennett is to the British Broadcasting Corporation, met with imprisonment and death. correspondent for the Zimbabwe accused of inciting a Mr. Hitschmann to “The U.S. has called for Zimbabwe’s The colony was named after racist set- Herald newspaper, who appeared on use the weapons to knock down a micro- President Robert Mugabe to stop ‘harass- tler Cecil Rhodes, who through military the “Fighting for Justice” radio program wave link situated at a [small hill] along ing’ his rivals, a day after a senior politi- suppression and slavelike conditions in aired in Detroit on Oct. 18: “When Reagan Melfort-Bromley Loop Road. It is alleged cian was imprisoned.” (Oct. 15) the mining industry, turned Rhodesia came into office in 1981 he declared that Mr. Hitschmann used cellphone disabling These developments are taking place into one of the most prosperous holdings the U.S. would not honor the Lancaster devices to block cellphone signals and to in the aftermath of U.S. Senate Sub- for British imperialism. House Agreements related to the land detonate anti-riot water cannon trucks Committee on African Affairs hearings held With the rise of the African indepen- question. Margaret Thatcher of Britain used by police.” (Oct. 19) on Sept. 30. U.S. Agency for International dence movements in the aftermath of did likewise.” Egbuna went on to say, Bennett fled to South Africa in 2006, Development’s acting assistant adminis- World War II, the entire region of the “John Major of the U.K. attempted to saying that his life was endangered by trator for Africa, Earl Gast, submitted a subcontinent witnessed the formation of adhere to the agreement. However, when the Zimbabwe government. He sought paper on Zimbabwe at the hearings that mass organizations and popular strug- Tony Blair came into office, he said that asylum there in 2007. He returned to was highly critical of President Mugabe gles. When the nonviolent resistance he would not honor the land agreement. Zimbabwe in February 2009 after the for- and the ZANU-PF party. campaigns failed to make significant “After waiting for two decades, the mation of the inclusive government. In addition to funding MDC-T, the gains during the 1950s and early 1960s, Zimbabwe government instituted the The people of Zimbabwe have a right U.S. is also calling for new elections in the Zimbabwe masses began to form land reform process relocating over to their land and to control the natu- Zimbabwe, despite the fact that general guerrilla armies to fight for the end of 300,000 families to the land that was ral resources and national economy of elections were held in 2008, which result- settler-colonialism. taken from their forbearers over a cen- the country. Anti-imperialist forces in ed in the victory of the ZANU-PF party. In 1965, after pressure from the African tury before,” continued Egbuna. He also the United States must demand that the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for masses, the Organization of African pointed out that most members of the Obama administration cease its interfer- African Affairs Johnnie Carson has openly Unity and the international commu- U.S. Congress voted in favor of sanc- ence in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe. admitted that the administration is fund- nity escalated against the British settlers tions against Zimbabwe. Members of the Go to panafricannews.blogspot.com. gUINeA.

General strike protests killings GUiNeA By g. Dunkel Commonwealth, which was a major step second biggest producer of bauxite, the in ending direct French colonial rule in source of aluminum, and possesses about A general strike called to protest the West Africa. one-third of the world’s reserves. It is also Sept. 28 killings of over 150 people and According to press reports, the army a major producer of gold. the wounding of over 1,200 took place in attacked the demonstration with live To combat its growing internation- Guinea on Oct. 12-13. The two-day nation- fire and bayonets. Opposition parties al isolation, Guinea announced that a wide strike was called by a confederation claimed that 157 people were killed and Chinese company was going to invest Yamodou Touré, the secretary general of trade unions and brought much of the 1,253 injured, while the government only up to $7 billion in its infrastructure. The of the National Organization of the Free country to a standstill. (aljazeera.net, Oct. 13) admitted to 56 people being killed and did Chinese government issued a statement Unions of Guinea (ONSLG), told Agence On Sept. 28 in the capital city of not give a number for the wounded. (The Oct. 16 pointing out that this deal was France-Presse, “This was an invitation to Conakry, tens of thousands of people Guardian, Sept. 30) between Guinea and a private Hong Kong all the workers of Guinea—public, private came together in an unauthorized rally The blatant brutality even brought company. (Radio Canada Int’l, Oct. 17) and informal—to stay home and pray in to demand that Captain Moussa Dadis public condemnation from the U.S. and In 2007, three successful general memory of those who fell under fire dur- Camara, the head of the military junta French imperialists, most notably from strikes against the previous military gov- ing the massacre of Sept. 28.” running the government, not run for pres- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ernment defeated its attempt to raise A number of Guinean blogs and Web ident in the upcoming elections. The rally and French Foreign Minister Bernard food and fuel prices. sites reported that 80 to 90 percent of the was called by opposition parties, trade Kouchner. Their real concern in Guinea, Given the grief and anger that the peo- people followed the union call throughout unions and community groups. however, is the power of its working class ple in Guinea are feeling, the union move- the country. Gas stations, banks, schools, Sept. 28 was the 51st anniversary of and trade union movement. ment called for the people “to observe two markets and government offices were all the referendum that saw Guinea, under Guinea, though its people are poor, days of homage, compassion and medita- closed. Taxis were rare and the streets the leadership of Sekou Touré, reject most surviving on less than $1 a day, tion to express their protest and solidar- were empty. membership in the French West African has vast mineral wealth. It is the world’s ity” over the Sept. 28 attack. The working class made its power felt. n MHNDO OBRERO ¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los países, uníos! WW/Mo entrevista a líderes del PFlP ‘El derecho a retornar’ todavía la demanda más importante después de 61 años en el Líbano Por Joyce Chediac mente destruidos y nunca fueron rem- plazados. Israel destruyó el campamento Cuando los oficiales de Washington Nabatiyah, cerca de la frontera con están frente a las cámaras, algunas vec- Israel. Fascistas libaneses destruyeron es expresan cierta “preocupación” por Tel Al Zaatar en Beirut, y masacraron la población. En 1982, fascistas israelíes y la calamidad del pueblo palestino. Pero Campo palestino Bourj ni siquiera esta falsa preocupación se al Barejneh en Beirut. libaneses masacraron a los/as habitantes extiende a los/as 4,5 millones de palesti- de los campamentos Sabra y Shatila. En nos/as que por 61 años han permanecido el 2007, el Ejército Libanés bombardeó y sin un estado propio, sin una naciona- destruyó Nahar al Bared. Sus habitantes lidad oficial, abandonados/as en países aún se encuentran desplazados/as. árabes. Abu Jabad, el líder del FPLP respon- El derecho al retorno nunca ha sido men- sable de las actividades políticas en el cionado en las susodichas negociaciones Líbano, explicó que los/as palestinos/as de paz Palestina-Israelita que Washington que vivían en estos campamentos fueron conduce. El gobierno de Estados Unidos asesinados/as, deportados/as o forzados/ ignora el derecho de los/as palestinos/as as a huir a otros campamentos, lo cual a regresar a sus pueblos y villas originales incrementó el número de habitantes en porque se opone a ese derecho. Los/as pal- los campamentos que ya estaban abar- estinos/as en el Líbano viven en campos rotados. “La situación es muy peligrosa. mO FOtO: JOyCE ChEdiaC de refugiados superpoblados, sin derecho La vida de los/as palestinos/as está amen- a servicios sociales. Aquí, los/as niños/ “En el Líbano, los/as palestinos/as una clínica en el campamento de Bidawi azada”, añadió. “No ha terminado, como as del campo Bourj al Barejneh en Beirut tienen el derecho de libre expresión, pero en Trípoli. Él dijo que a los/as médicos se puede ver por la destrucción de Nahar sólo tiene las calles llenas de desperdicios no derechos económicos o sociales”, dijo palestinos/as “no se les permite trabajar al Bared hace dos años”. humanos para jugar. Abu Ali Hassan, un líder nacional del fuera de los campamentos. Un [médico] “No hay un futuro seguro, y siempre Workers World/Mundo Obrero reci- FPLP en el Líbano. “En otros países árabes libanés obtiene $40 por paciente. Yo, $3 tenemos el temor a una guerra”, dijo Dr. entemente visitó cinco campamentos los/as palestinos/as tienen un mejor nivel por paciente. Los trabajadores de sanidad, El Najjar. “Algunos/as palestinos/as en palestinos en el Líbano a invitación del de vida, pero no pueden hablar. Los/as las personas que reparan los coches afuera el campamento de Badawi que perdieron Frente Popular para la Liberación de palestinos/as en el Líbano tienen la peor ganan más dinero que los profesionales en sus tarjetas de identidad, no pueden salir Palestina, una organización marxista con situación económica. el campamento”. del campamento. Otros/as tienen miedo a una larga historia de lucha palestina. La “La mayoría de los/as palestinos/as en salir fuera de los campamentos”. situación de los/as refugiados/as pales- el Líbano quiere el derecho a regresar” No pueden tener propiedades tinos/as en el Líbano enfatiza el porqué a Palestina, continuó, “pero para ello Mientras tanto, una enmienda a la ley ‘¿Dónde está la justicia?’ el derecho al retorno es tan importante, necesitan apoyo en forma de derechos nacional de propiedad del Líbano del Imad Audeh, el líder del FPLP respon- y porqué toda persona progresista que se sociales, derecho al trabajo, derecho a 2002 prohíbe que “las personas no libane- sable por el norte del Líbano, añadió: “La preocupe por la situación palestina debe comprar un apartamento, y el derecho a sas, que no posean una nacionalidad gente no está viviendo de la forma en que activamente apoyar este derecho y nunca vivir fuera de los campamentos”. expedida por un Estado reconocido por el debiera vivir. ¿Dónde está la justicia? dejarlo caer. Líbano, hereden o compren una propie- Hay una resolución de la ONU que dice ‘La situación de vida peor dad”. Esta prohíbe a los/as palestinos/as que tenemos el derecho a regresar, pero Una guerra lenta contra los/as que la de Gaza’ ser propietarios/as de tierras o poseer un todavía estamos esperando por 61 años palestinos/as en el Líbano Abu Jabad es el líder del FPLP respon- apartamento fuera de los campamentos para volver. Para los/as 400.000 refugiados/as sable de las actividades políticas en el de refugiados. Y si ya son dueños/as de El gobierno libanés dice, ‘¿Van a palestinos/as en el Líbano, la guerra civil Líbano. Su casa está en el campamento propiedad, no pueden transmitirla a sus regresar? ¿Entonces para qué les debemos no terminó en el 1990. Fuerzas derechis- de Nahar al Bared, que fue destruido por hijos/as. dar la ciudadanía?’ Esto es una excusa. tas dentro y fuera del gobierno libanés el ejército libanés hace dos años. Él dijo: Mientras vivan aquí, dele por lo menos todavía están llevando una guerra lenta “La situación que viven los/as palestinos/ Dependen de la ONU para los ser- a los/as palestinos/as algunos derechos, en contra de ellos/as. as en el Líbano es peor que en Gaza y los vicios básicos igual que los/as libaneses/as”. El gobierno En el Líbano de hoy, no se permite a territorios ocupados. Los/as palestinos/as Por no poder trabajar en el Líbano y “no quiere nacionalizar a los/as palesti- los/as palestinos/as vivir fuera del cam- en Gaza y Cisjordania tienen una univer- tener acceso a servicios sociales, los/as nos/as porque eso rompería el equilibrio”. pamento de refugiados. No pueden tener sidad. Los/as palestinos/as en el Líbano palestinos/as en el Líbano deben depend- Audeh se refería al anticuado sistema propiedades. No pueden ser ciudadanos/ no. De hecho, porque los/as palestinos/ er de los escasos recursos del UNRWA político del Líbano basado en la religión as y no pueden votar. No tienen derecho a as son considerados extranjeros, la edu- como proveedor principal de los servicios que otorga gran autoridad a los grupos ningún tipo de servicio social. No pueden cación aquí es más costosa”. básicos de educación, salud, socorro y ser- dominantes en las comunidades musul- trabajar en la mayoría de los empleos. Decretos del gobierno libanés aproba- vicios sociales. mana suni y cristiana maronita, basado en Son el chivo expiatorio de la derecha dos en 1964 y 1995 prohíben que refugia- Esta relación tiene un carácter dual, un censo obsoleto conducido hace más de del Líbano, acusados/as de ser la causa dos/as palestinos/as trabajen en más de señaló Hassan: “Las Naciones Unidas 75 años. “Los/as palestinos/as no tienen de los problemas políticos y sociales, y 70 profesiones. aceptan el Estado de Israel. Sin embargo, discriminación religiosa”, dijo. “Los/as tienen que cuidarse constantemente de “Los/as palestinos/as trabajan como también aprobaron la Resolución Número palestinos/as estarán con cualquiera que ataques por las milicias paramilitares y el trabajadores/as del campo y como obre- 194, que apoya el derecho a regresar de les apoye.” ejército libanés. ros de la construcción. Este es un tra- los/as palestinos/as, y de obtener una Desde 1970 hasta 1982 la Organización bajo temporero. No hay beneficios”, dijo compensación financiera por lo que han ¿Qué quieren los/as palestinos/as para la Liberación de Palestina y sus Hassan. “Los/as palestinos/as tienen que sufrido”. en el Líbano? luchadores/as estaban basados en el trabajar fuera del Líbano. Muchos/as van Hay 422.188 refugiados/as palestinos/ “Nosotros/as queremos los derechos Líbano. Durante la Guerra Civil de 1975 al a Europa de forma ilegal o como refugia- as registrados/as con la UNRWA, una humanos que necesitamos para seguir 1990, los/as libaneses pobres se unieron dos/as, asistidos [por el Organismo de cifra que representa el 10 por ciento de la viviendo aquí, y el cumplimiento de la a la resistencia palestina en una lucha por Socorro de las Naciones Unidas para los población del Líbano. Según la UNRWA, decisión 194 de la ONU”, dijo Abu Jabad. la liberación de todos. Y aunque la lucha Refugiados de Palestina en el Cercano “El Campo Libanés tiene el porcentaje “Tenemos el derecho de retornar a nues- fue derrotada por la reacción árabe e Oriente, UNRWA]”. más alto de refugiados/as palestinos/as tra patria. El gobierno estadounidense Israel, los gobernantes reaccionarios del Fuad, un líder del FPLP en el campa- que están viviendo en pobreza abyecta y debe participar en esto y no impedir los Líbano nunca se olvidarán o perdonarán mento de Burj al Barejneh, dijo: “Todas que están registrados/as con el programa derechos palestinos”. el papel jugado por la lucha palestina. Es las familias aquí tienen personas que tra- de ‘penuria especial’ de la Agencia”. A pesar de las difíciles condiciones, la por esto que los gobernantes del Líbano bajan en el Golfo y en Europa”. Y agregó: chispa de la lucha queda todavía. Imad están lentamente sofocando a los/as pal- “Sólo hay una escuela secundaria de la Diariamente tienen miedo Audeh habló por todos/as los/as palesti- estinos/as por todos lados. Sin embargo, UNRWA para los/as palestinos/as en todo por su seguridad nos/as entrevistados/as durante esta vis- hasta que puedan regresar a Palestina, no Beirut. Hay 600-700 estudiantes allí”. Hassan explicó que dos de los 13 cam- ita cuando dijo, “Estamos seguros/as que tienen adónde ir. Raafat El Najjar es el director médico de pamentos en el Líbano fueron completa- vamos a retomar a Palestina”. n