SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 50 CENTS VOLUME 41/NUMBER 32

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

Puerto Rican How a socialist activists lramed In FALl case would answer· -PAGE 4 enemies of women's rights carter's welfare Plan: new war Speech by Willie Mae Reid on the poor -PAGE 13 -PAGE 26 LABOR NEWS Judge orders FBI: Steelworkers IRON RANGE STRIKE IS TEST OF STRENGTH. PAGE 6. open informer files Auto BEHIND 'HEAT WILDCATS' Major ruling in socialist suit IN DETROIT. PAGE 7. A federal judge in New York has Justice Department lawyers argued ordered the FBI to give its files on against it in the U.S. Court of Ap­ Teachers eighteen political spies to attorneys peals. AFT CONVENTION DEBATES for the Socialist Workers Party and The socialists have demanded the QUOTAS. PAGE 32. Young Socialist Alliance. informers' files as part of their $40 million lawsuit against government Proceeding in unusual secrecy, harassment and disruption. The de­ Miners U.S. District Court Judge Thomas mand to see the files was the first 60-DAY TRUCE IN HEALTH Griesa issued the order in a closed step in a major challenge to the CUTBACKS WALKOUT. PAGE 7. hearing two months ago. His ruling . government's use of informers as JUDGE THREATENS STEARNS only became public August 19 when political weapons. See page 4. STRIKERS,, PAGE 25. In Brief THIS 5,000 SEEK 75 GM JOBS: Five thousand job" seekers from as far away as Chicago and Tennessee showed up to WEEK'S apply for seventy-five jobs at a General Motors plant in 500 greet Puerto Muncie, Indiana, August 18. Rumor had it that the plant MILITANT was about to hire as many as 1,500 persons. Many showed Rican Nationalist 3 Attack on up the day before and spent the night in sleeping bags. Puerto Rican movement Not only did they not get jobs, but thirty cops were called in to quell the "disorder," and six of the unemployed were 4 Socialists' attorneys arrested. to see files 5 Bert Lance runs into trouble The International Socialist Review, which would nor­ 6 Iron range strike: mally appear as a supplement in this week's issue, has test of strength been postponed one week. 7 Behind Detroit 'heat strikes' 9 N.M. Raza DIVINE RULE: Despite its passage of laws outlawing Unida candidate race and sex discrimination, the U.S. Congress still runs its own affairs under the order of divine rule. In addition to 13 Abortion debate total exemption from any civil rights laws, congressional in Congress employees have no job security and no grievance machin­ 14 Louisville rightists ery, and less than half have written vacation or sick plans. step up violence A survey recently conducted by the House Commission on Administrative Review found that only 6.8 percent of the 15 Devlin pays tribute House work force are Blacks, and they're at the bottom of to 'Militant' the pay scale. Of the 57.2 percent employees who are women, 68 percent are paid less than $15,000, compared 23 Civil with 35 percent of male workers. Twenty-four percent of the liberties victory Raphael Cancel Miranda, one of five Puerto Rican men make more than $30,000 while only 1.6 percent of nationalists held in U.S. prisons for more than a quarter­ 24 Little action women make that much. century, returned to Puerto Rico for a few hoursAugust at SCLC meet The commission timidly suggested that Congress adopt 20 to attend the funeral of his father. Some 500 some kind of affirmative-action program, but stressed that supporters of Puerto Rican independence greeted 25 Judge threatens any such plan shouldn't "restrict the prerogatives of indi­ Miranda at the funeral. If he were released from prison Stearns strikers vidual members to hire whomever they desire for their as his supporters have demanded, Miranda said, he would 'continue the struggle for the liberty of my 32 Teachers union personal and committee staffs." country, the same as always.' debates quotas THE MILITANT GETS AROUND: The recent Militant 2 In Brief interview with Peter Camejo on Carter's plan for undocu­ settlement in the law's two-year history. mented immigrants is reprinted in the July 22 issue of El The United Farm Workers Union and the state Agricultu­ 10 In Our Opinion Papel de la Gente. The issue also includes an article by ral Labor Relations Board charged Tejon with threatening Letters Arnold Weissberg on deportations, one on the Coors strike and intimidating workers prior to two union representation by Miguel Pendas, and one on the fight of East Los Angeles 11 National Picket Line elections. Chicanos against discriminatory auto insurance rates by Tejon photographed workers meeting with the UFW and American Way of Life Chris Hildebrand. Serving the Riverside-San Bernadino spied on prounion workers, among other things. The UFW area of Southern California, bills itself as "the 12 Great Society El Papel lost both votes. largest Spanish bilingual newspaper in the West." Women in Revolt The company has been ordered to hold a new election. Capitalism Fouls Things Up 28 In Review FRUITS OF EXPLOITATION: Tejon Agricultural ALLIED'S NEW ALLY: Some time ago Allied Chemical Partners, a California grower, will pay fifty-three farm was fined $13.5 million for damages resulting from Kepone, WORLD OUTLOOK workers a total of $100,000 as payment for violations of a poisonous chemical. Ralph Rhodes, who used to work for 19 Panama Canal California's farm-labor law. It was the largest such the federal Environmental Protection Agency, was one of treaty debate the people responsible for seeing to it that Allied obeyed antipollution laws. Rhodes went to work for Allied June 20 20 Immigrant workers' as an adviser to the director of the company's environmen­ upsurge in France New managing editor tal program. Steve Clark, a member of the Socialist Workers Party National Committee, is replacing Nelson Blackstock as BEAME DROPS HOT POTATO: In an effort to avoid managing editor of the Militant. saying anything meaningful during an election year, New THE MILITANT Clark, twenty-eight, was an activist in the anti-Vietnam York Mayor Abraham Beame backed off from his plan to War movement while a student at Oberlin College from proclaim August 23 "Sacco and Vanzetti Day." Fifty years VOLUME 41/NUMBER 32 ago, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian 1966-70. After moving to SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 immigrant radicals, were framed up on murder charges and CLOSING NEWS DATE-AUGUST 24 Chicago, he served as staff coordinator of the Chicago executed. The simple ceremony honoring the two martyrs originally Peace Action Coalition from Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS planned for New York's city hall might have been Managing Editor: STEVE CLARK 1971-1973. "construed in poor taste," said a spokesperson for Beame. Business Manager: HARVEY McARTHUR In 1970 Clark joined the Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING The mayor recently called for the return of the death pen­ Washington Bureau: DAVID FRANKEL Young Socialist Alliance, and during the next year, alty. -Nancy Cole Published weekly by the Militant. 14 Charles Lane, the SWP. New York. N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Editorial Office He moved to New York (212) 243-6392; Business Office (212) 929-3486. City in 1973 to become part Soltthwest Bureau: 1250 Wilshire Blvg., Suite.404, Sept. 10 will kick off Los Angeles, California 90017. Telephone: (213) of the national office staff of 482-3184. Washington Bureau: 1424 16th St. NW, the YSA. During 1974 and #701-B, Washington, D.C. 20036. Telephone: (202) part of 1975 he edited the 265-6865. 'Militant' sub drive Correspondence concerning subscriptions or monthly newspaper, the Saturday, September 10, has been set as the official changes of ·address should be addressed to The Young Socialist. In 1975 he launching date for the Militant-Perspectiva Mundial Militant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New was elected YSA national subscription drive this fall. Perspectiva Mundial is a York, N.Y. 10014. secretary. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y Spanish-language socialist biweekly. Subscriptions: U.S .. $15.00 a year: outside US., Since joining the Mili­ Socialists around the country are now mapping $20.50. By first-class mail: U S , Canada. and tant staff two years ago, Clark has written on desegrega­ Mexico: $42.50. Write for surface and airmail rates plans to go all out canvassing for new subscribers. to all other countries. tion, international struggles, and the election campaigns of They aim to get a good jump on the 18,000 goal on that For subscriptions airmailed from New York and the Socialist Workers Party. date. then posted from London directly to Britain and Blackstock is taking on the assignment of helping expand If you want to help get new readers for the Militant, Ireland: £2.00 for ten issues, £4.50 for six months, the circulation of the socialist press. The business offices of £8.50 for one year. Posted from London to contact the socialists in your area listed in the Social­ Continental Europe: £2.50 for ten issues, £6.00 for the Militant, Intercontinental Press and the Spanish­ ist Directory on page 31 of this issue. six months, £11.50 for one year. Send banker's draft language Perspectiva Mundial have been consolidated. The If there is no office near you, then contact the or international postal order (payable to Pathfinder new combined circulation department will explore ways to circulation office to get your subscription blanks and Press) to Pathfinder Press, 47 The Cut, London SE1 increase the readership of all three socialist publications 8LL, England. Inquire for air rates from London at posters: Circulation Office, 14 Charles Lane, New the same address. this fall, as well as coordinate an ambitious subscription York, New York 10014. Telephone: (212) 929-3486. Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily campaign for the Militant and PM. represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 Use FALN bombing as excuse NYC cops target Puerto Rican activists By Nelson Gonzalez cops made up the weapons charge. NEW YORK-On August 4, twenty Perez was booked on charges of cops, accompanied by FBI agents and illegal possession of a shotgun and a bomb-sniffing dogs, knocked down the handgun and released on $1,500 bond. door of the South Bronx apartment of Alba went into hiding, but voluntar­ Vicente "Panama" Alba. ily turned himself into police a few Without warrants, they searched the days later. He was charged with the vacant apartment and then waited same offense and released on $500 until Alba's friend, David Pe:tez, ap­ bond. peared to pick up his dog. They ar­ Both are scheduled to stand trial rested Perez and announced they were September 13. also seeking Alba. In an interview with the Village The raid came shortly after two Voice, Alba explained why his first explosions in midtown Manhattan reaction was to hide: "Because I was killed one person and injured seven. scared for my family and my life. According to police, the mysterious Because I know they killed [Black Puerto Rican terrorist group F ALN Panther leader] Fred Hampton in bed took credit for the bombings. and because they killed Sacco and Removed from Alba's apartment as V anzetti then said they were sorry 90 "evidence" of a connection to the ex­ or 100 years later." t..;. Alba's fears were certainly not un­ ~---·-····· ...... -. ----~< plosions was literature demanding Guardian/George Cohen freedom for the five Puerto Rican Na­ founded. Democratic Mayor Abraham David Perez (left) and Vicente 'Panama' Alba. 'Evidence' against them included tionalist prisoners and some stickers Beame is running in a crowded prim­ literature on five Puerto Rican Nationalist prisoners. with an FALN logo widely .distributed ary election with lots of "law and at Puerto Rican demonstrations. order" competition. During a visit to The police also claimed to have the site of the FALN bombing, Beame found a couple of guns, but no sign of called for reinstating the death penalty The pressure is on to COIJle up with The Puerto Rican Solidarity Day explosives. Alba and Perez say the as a "deterrent to terrorism." some "terrorists." Committee raised $330 in bail money Perez and Alba deny membership in for Alba and Perez. The arrests are an the FALN, but they are both activists "obvious attempt by the police to use in the movement to free the five Puerto the bombings to frame up indepen­ Three new grand jury Rican Nationalists, the longest-held dence supporters," committee spokes­ political prisoners in the United States. person Rosa Borenstein told the Mili­ The Voice article by Pablo "Yoruba" tant. victims ordered to jail Guzman notes, "Perez's arrest has had Socialist Workers Party mayoral the effect · of rallying scattered ele­ candidate Catarino Garza sent a letter NEW YORK-"We have killed no former member, have been in pris­ ments of the Puerto Rican movement to Beame charging that Alba and one, bombed no one, committed no on since last spring for their re­ to his defense." Perez are the latest victims in the New crime," declared three Puerto Rican fusal to testify before the grand In the August 12-18 Claridad, news­ York City police department's repeated brothers before appearing in fed­ jury. pa!Jer of the Puerto Rican Socialist violation of the rights of Puerto Ri­ eral court here August 22. The three Rosado brothers were Party; columnist Jose Velazquez des­ cans. Nevertheless, the three were or­ ordered to provide fingerprints, cribes the stepped-up attempts to ha­ Garza called on Beame to make it dered jailed for refusing to turn palm prints, photographs, hand­ rass and isolate the Puerto Rican plain that he "will not tolerate any over information to a federal grand writing samples, and voice sam­ movement in this country. The ulti­ more violations of those rights and will jury supposedly investigating ples. mate "fishing expedition," he writes, is take acti~n against any police official Puerto Rican terrorism. All three deny they are members the arrests of Alba and Perez. that violates those rights." They could remain in jail until of the FALN, the terrorist group . "If the government is going to put the grand jury's term expires May credited with a series of bombing in people in jail because they support the When Perez and Alba appeared in 8, 1978. the name of Puerto Rican indepen­ struggle for the freedom of the five court August 9, supporters picketed The three are Julio, Luis, and dence. political prisoners and the indepen­ outside. Andres Rosado. Two of them were They also claim no knowledge of dence of Puerto Rico," declared a state­ A similar appeal is being made· for formerly associated with the Na­ the bombings. ment from the Committee for the Free­ their September 13 trial at 9:30 a.m. in tional Commission on Hispanic They refused to cooperate with dom of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Bronx County Court, 215 East 161 Mfairs of the Episcopal Church. the grand jury because they charge Prisoners, "then they are going to have Street. it has targeted the Puerto Rican to build many prisons for the many For more information, contact David Maria Cuento and Raisa Ne­ independence movement for de­ tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans, Perez and Vicente Alba c/o New York mikin, both employees of that com­ struction under the guise of investi­ Latin Americans, and North Ameri­ Committee to Free the Five, Box 164, mission, and Pedro Archuleta, a gating "terrorism." cans who know and support our just 161 East Houston Street, New York, cause." New York 10002.

Lesbians and gilY.S rally 7 50 declare ~human rights begin at home' By Michael Maggi Blacks have waged for desegregation, unity necessary in the movement to For more information contact the NEW YORK"'-"Human rights begin jobs, housing, and against police bru­ carry on the fight for lesbian and gay Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights, at home-gay rights now!" chanted the tality. rights," said Henry. "This fall we 17 West Seventeenth Street, New York, 750 people who marched to the United Melvin Chappell, youth director of should carry the coalition activities New York 10011. Nations building here August 20. the Greenwich Village-Chelsea onto the campuses and into the com­ The recently organized Coalition for NAACP, reminded the crowd that munities to continue actions such as Lesbian and Gay Rights (CLGR) orga­ Black and gay rights face many of the this one today." nized the demonstration around four same enemies. In Florida, for example, Other speakers included Barbara demands: "Lesbian and gay rights the Ku Klux Klan grand dragon en­ Love, a national board member of the now," "End custody discrimination dorsed Anita Bryant's antigay cru­ National Gay Task Force and a CLGR against lesbian mothers and gay fa­ sade. steering committee member; Jeanne thers," "Human rights for everyone," It was only a massive civil rights Manford, a founder of the Parents of and "Pass a New York City gay rights movement that won gains for Blacks, Gays of Greater New York; Joe Zogby bill now!" Chappell reminded the crowd. of the Gay Teachers Association; Joe The march on the United Nations Noreen Connell, president of the Kennedy from the Gay Activists. Al­ was "to alert the world that gay men Manhattan National Organization for liance; Andrea Gruen, speaking Qn the and women are still denied basic civil Women, represented NOW on the issue of les):>ian mothers; Father Leo and human rights," explained CLGR speakers platform. The New York M. Joseph of the Church of the Beloved spokesperson David Thorstad. NOW chapter endorsed the CLGR Disciple; and Andy Human nf Dignity­ The rally heard Stuart Russell of the march and has invited gay and lesbian New York. Association pour les Droits des Gai(e)s activists to be part of the August 27 The CLGR is continuing its fight for. du Quebec and Winfried Kuhn, a stu­ march for women's rights. gay rights. The coalition's committee dent from West Berlin. Besides bring­ Karolyn Pope, spokeswoman for Les­ on Intro 554 (New York's gay rights ing messages of solidarity to the gay bian Feminist Liberation, placed the bill) will meet August 30 at the Church rights movement in the United States, blame for the erosion of democratic of the Beloved Disciple, 348 West Four­ both speakers described antigay dis­ rights on politicians from Jimmy Car­ teenth Street. A coalition meeting crimination in their countries. ter in Washington to Mayor Abraham scheduled for 7:30 p.m., September 27, Jim Haughton, a leader of Harlem Beame in New York. at New York University's Loeb Stu­ Fight Black, denounced antigay dis­ Margaret Henry brought greetings dent Center will discuss strategy and crimination. He linked .the fight for from the Socialist Workers Party. "The action proposals for the fall gay rights New York. New York 10014. human rights for gays to the struggle coalition is just beginning to build the campaign.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 3 Ju~e rules in SWP case Socialists' attome to see FBI informer files By Diane Wang tions go beyond this case," he ex­ NEW YORK-A federal judge here plained. If the informer files are turned has ordered the FBI to turn over com­ over to the socialists' attorneys, "no plete files on eighteen informers to one in his right mind would become an attorneys for the Socialist Workers informer." Party and Young Socialist Alliance. The August 23 New York Daily If upheld by higher courts, the deci­ News echoed Murdock's complaint. "If sion will be a blow to the government the ruling is sustained by the U.S. claim that the dirty work of its police Court of Appeals," said the editorial, spies, including burglaries and provo­ "it would make it next to impossible cations, must be kept secret no matter for the FBI to function against terror­ how criminal or unconstitutional those ism, subversion or organized crime. activities are. Not a person in the country would be The ruling came as part of pretrial willing to volunteer information ...." proceedings in the socialists' $40 mil­ In other words, if informers and lion lawsuit against government ha­ provocateurs can't work in secrecy, rassment. they might feel inhibited about compil­ U.S. District Court Judge Thomas ing political blacklists or carrying out Griesa actually issued the order about burglaries and disruption operations. two months ago. At that time, how­ ever, he made his decision in a closed Informers as weapons session and ordered the ruling kept In his argument before the three­ secret. Only the government lawyers, judge appeals panel, Leonard Boudin, the socialists' attorneys, and one SWP the socialists' attorney, zeroed ,in on representative were to know the deci­ what the case is all about-the govern­ sion. ment's "attempt to destroy a minority Griesa's order only became public indy political party." August 19 when the Justice Depart­ LEONARD BOUDIN: 'Informers are used not as an attempt to enforce the law but to After almost forty years of "investi­ ment argued against the decision in a fight political issues.' gation" and dirty tricks, the govern­ public hearing before the U.S. Court of ment has been forced by this lawsuit to Appeals in New York. admit that the socialists have been files, the socialists charged that the have the most interest in harassing, guilty of no violence or crimes. Uncovering the truth informers are "offensive weapons em­ embarrassing, .md humiliating," he So the government's use of political The socialists had demanded files on ployed to attempt to manipulate . . . to charged. informers is "not an attempt to enforce nineteen informers a year ago, as a sow and exploit discord." Contrary to Murdock's claim, in­ the law," Boudin insisted, "but an first step in uncovering facts about the formers face no retaliation from social­ attempt to fight political issues, FBI's use of political spies. 'Implications beyond case' ists other than loss of their member­ whether it was done against Martin The SWP and YSA already have FBI At the August 19 hearing, Daniel ship in the SWP or YSA. Luther King, Jr., in the South or the files on seven informers who were Murdock, a chief assistant United It is true, as one FBI official admit­ SWP here.... " previously identified publicly. The gov­ States attorney, argued the govern­ ted previously in the lawsuit, that Boudin charged that informers don't ernment has also given the socialists ment's case. Murdock is not the gov­ informer activity "has always held an just collect names and gossip for gov­ summaries about informers' activities. ernment lawyer regularly assigned to unsavory connotation." In that sense, ernment blacklists, as poisonous to And several months ago the govern­ the SWP and YSA suit. Apparently he informers might well be embarrassed if democratic freedoms as that work is. ment agreed to turn over one of the was there to show how important the exposed. Even more, political spies are the wea­ nineteen files when that informer be­ government considers this secrecy And some informers who have be­ pons used in the FBI's Cointelpro came publicly known. issue. come publicly known have expressed disruption program against dissenters. But attorneys for the SWP and YSA Murdock claimed that the informers worries, not about the socialists', but Judge John Dooling, Jr., asked Bou­ have pressed for the complete files of would be in danger from the SWP if about the government's reaction. din whether evidence about informers the remaining eighteen informers. the files were turned over. "Those Murdock went on to the heart of the could be produced in some other way. In their legal brief requesting the eighteen are the ones the plaintiffs government's argument. "The implica- That would be impossible, Boudin rep­ lied. The FBI, he pointed out, has consistently falsified statements ever since the lawsuit began in 1973. To cite just one example, the govern­ Carter's 'open' govemmenl ment had previously submitted a sum­ for the Political Rights Defense "It is time for us to take a new look mary of FBI informer Timothy Red­ Fund, which is organizing support fearn's activities (without actually at our own government, to strip for the suit, commented on the rec­ away the secrecy." naming Redfearn, of course). That ord of the Carter administration: summary said nothing about how Red­ "I welcome the scrutiny of the Amer­ "Every indication is that the gov­ fearn obtained his materials. ican people." ernment hopes to stall. They seem to It was only after Redfearn was think that if they refuse to provide caught in July 1976 with materials "Each time our nation has made a information the lawsuit will some­ serious mistake the American people stolen from the Denver SWP office that how go away. his FBI file became public. It turned have been excluded from the pro- "Of course, it won't," Stapleton cess." out that there were previous political said. "We will fight this footdrag­ burglaries that the government's sum­ Remember him? That was candi­ ging in the courts and do all we can maries had covered up. date Jimmy Carter speaking last to put public pressure on the Justice fall. He sounded ever so sincere Department to turn over the facts." Fighting for secrecy when he promised to end Watergate­ Officials for three major The Justice Department appeal Au­ style coverups. foundations-the Field Foundation, gust 19 was only the latest in the But since Carter took over in the Stern Fund, and the DJB Foun­ government's year-long fight to keep Washington, he has continued his dation recently wrote a complaint to the informer files under wraps. predecessor's policies of shielding Attorney General Griffin Bell. The U.S. Justice Department filed the government from public scru­ "We note with surprise and regret massive legal briefs warning of a tiny. that since Mr. Carter assumed the breakdown in its entire informer net­ The lawsuit by the Socialist Presidency and you the responsibil­ work. FBI Deputy Associate Director Workers Party and Young Socialist ity for the Department of Justice we James Adams testified to this point in Alliance against government ha­ to turn over evidence for the suit. have been unable to detect any court. rassment shows how little has The decision to appeal Judge Grie­ change of policy for dealing with And in an effort to avoid turning changed. sa's ruling in an effort to cover up cases such as the Socialist Workers' over all of the files to the socialists, the The suit was filed four years ago, the FBI's political spy network (see Party case and similar cases re­ FBI prepared detailed summaries of when Nixon was still president. article above), is one example. That cently filed or in preparation, on the twenty-five file drawers of material Since then the suit has pried some decision had to be approved in behalf of La Raza Unida, the Black for Judge Griesa. 100,000 pages of government docu­ Washington at high levels of the Panthers, and other groups. The The government backed up its court ments out of secret files. The evi­ Justice Department. Department's attorneys continue to arguments with a public campaign. dence has revealed FBI burglaries, In addition, when attorneys for use every available means to resist Last September the Justice Depart­ Cointelpro disruption programs, and the SWP and YSA filed questions for discovery of evidence.... " ment announced it was ending its other political police crimes. But the government, Carter's Justice The foundation officials urged the thirty-eight year "investigation" of the attorneys for the socialists have had Department sent them back unan­ government to stop spending so socialists. Instead of operating against to fight a legal battle every step of swered with flippant objections. much money on fighting disclosure, the SWP and YSA, it would only the way. Deadlines for turning over evi­ "as the unseemly performance of its maintain cases against individual Carter's newly appointed Justice dence have also been broken. lawyers s.eeks to mask the lawless SWP and YSA members, the govern­ Department has also been unwilling Syd Stapleton, national secretary acts of its agents." -D.W. ment said. When that maneuver failed to silence

4 f ·, 'Unsavory' characters Bert Lance runs into Informer activity "has · always held an unsavory connotation," admitted an FBI official in the course of trouble with the press the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialist Al­ liance lawsuit. A look at some of the unsavory charac­ By Dick Roberts ters and tactics the government has used shows why it Bert Lance, it turns out, is a typical is so important to pry open the informers' files. small-time capitalist, like his friend, Take this FBI memo about plans to disrupt the the former peanut farmer. The only Communist Party, for example. Dated August 28, 1956, trouble is that Lance is head of the the memo says: U.S. Office of Management and ". . . These informants will raise objections and Budget. doubts as to the success of any proposed plan of action This is an unpardonable combina­ by the CP leadership. They will seize every opportun­ tion, apparently. ity to carry out the disruptive activity not only at · You aren't supposed to have a small­ meetings, conventions, etcetera, but also during social time operator running the budget of and other contacts with CP members and lead­ the biggest, most rotten, and most ers ...." corrupt government on the face of the earth. Timothy Redfearn was exposed as an FBI informer "Bert Lance should return to private inside the Young Socialist Alliance last summer after business," the pages of the liberal New he admitted burglarizing the Denver YSA and SWP Republic declare. office. He had been spurred on to steal documents by "Where were you during the cover-up hopes for a big FBI payoff. of the first scandal of the Carter Ad­ Robert Merritt operated on behalf of the local police ministration?" asks William Safire and FBI in several Washington, D.C.,' ga'y organiza­ from the editorial columns of the New tions. As part of his job he tried to incite violence York Times. Safire, it will be recalled, LANCE inside the groups. He also recalls spreading rumors used to work for Richard Nixon and that certain gay activists were informers. (In FBI sided with Nixon during the Watergate jargon that is known as "putting a snitch jacket" on cover-up right down to the end. someone.) And Tom Wicker, from a less conser­ William O'Neal, planted in the Black Panther Party vative corner of the Times's editorial by the FBI, is an example of other ways informers set page, declares that Lance may not up victims. He provided the floor plan of Fred Hamp­ meet the "high standards of personal ton and Mark Clark's apartment for the police attack conduct and reputation that Jimmy that ended in the murder of these Panther leaders. Carter pledged his Administration Gary Rowe was the FBI's man in the Ku Klux Klan. would demand of all its officials." He helped the Klan beat prodesegregation Freedom Leaving Jimmy Carter's pledges Riders who visited Birmingham, Alabama, in 1961. He aside for the moment, here are the also participated in the 1965 murder of civil rights goods on Lance: worker Viola Liuzzo. 1) In order to gain control of the Howard Godfrey got $10,000 to $20,000 from the FBI National Bank of Georgia, Lance bor­ rowed money to buy the shares of stock to set up an arsenal. His right-wing Secret Army in the bank. The two biggest loans Organization harassed and shot at anti-Vietnam War were $2.6 million from the Manufactur­ activists in San Diego. ers Hanover Trust Company in New Eustacio (Frank) Martine:.J worked for the Bureau of York in 1975, and $3.4 million from the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as an informer inside First National Bank of Chicago last the Chicano movement. In one 1970 stunt, he paraded year. with a shotgun in front of the headquarters of the In order to get these personal loans, Chicano Moratorium Committee, which was organiz­ Lance promised that his Georgia bank ing Chicano opposition to the Vietnam War. He would deposit funds in the New York succeeded in provoking a police raid on the office. and Chicago banks. dent had promised no hanky-panky in No wonder the government wants to keep the He even got Jimmy Carter to go to his administration. workings of its political spy network secret! Manufacturers Hanover in June 1975 The press brought these. weighty -Diane Wang to speak for him. (Just before that matters to our attention. Carter had borrowed $708,000 . from· "The question is not really whether Lance's bank.) Bert Lance is a criminal who violated Carter, then governor of Georgia, specific laws," Tom Wicker explained. with a promising political career "It is whether ... the business com­ ahead, may have persuaded the giant m•mity and all the myriad individuals critics, the FBI retreated another step. New York bank to favor Lance. As and groups with a vital stake in the In November each of the sixty-six Political Rights collateral for the loan, Lance was Federal Budget now can have confi­ informers the bureau admitted having Defense Fund required to put up shares in the dence in [Lance's] judgment, ethical in the SWP and YSA were told to quit. Atlanta bank. sense and his basic competence for his 2) Lance also let his family and "We suggest that you remove your­ The ·Socialist Workers partyII and job." friends overdraw their accounts in selves from the SWP and YSA," read Young Socialist Alliance have sued Take the case of Lockheed Corpora­ Atlanta. This is the part that galls my the FBI message to informers. "You the government for an end to spying tion. Here is a company that certainiy colleague Diane Wang on the Militant are not to report to the FBI informa­ and disruption. This lawsuit has does have a vital stake in the federal staff. "I'm_overdrawn six dollars," she tion concerning the SWP, YSA, their exposed FBI and CIA attacks against budget. Lockheed's very life depends says, "and they've practically closed chapters, leaders, or members.... " democratic rights. on selling billions of dollars worth of down my account-leave aside the In January (the same day informer More than 400 notable supporters missiles and bombers to the Pentagon. rude letters." Redfearn was sent to prison for bur­ of civil liberties are sponsoring the Lockheed's" annual sales alone are Lance's wife LaBelle, on the other glarizing an SWP office), the Justice Political Rights Defense Fund, the more than 500 times the total debt of hand, was overdrawn "generally in the Department issued new guidelines that group organizing support for the Bert Lance. $25,000 to $110,000 range," the U.S. were supposed to legitimize informers' lawsuit. Moreover, Lockheed (with major comptroller's office reported in a 100- activities. If you would like to be a sponsor of plants in Georgia) flew Jimmy Carter page memorandum clearing Lance of Actually, these "new" guidelines dif­ the Political Rights Defense Fund, around not just five times but many any legal wrongdoing. fered little from the instructions in­ return this coupon to PROF, Box 649, times and anywhere Jimmy wanted, 3) Lance flew Carter around Georgia formers were already operating under. Cooper Station, New York, New York not just in Georgia but all over the in the bank's private plane, free of The SWP and YSA have maintained 10003. world. Are you going to let some two­ their demand to see the eighteen files. charge. Had Carter paid for the rides, bit huckster like Bert Lance undermine no violation of the election laws would They insist that the FBI name its 0 Please add my name as a sponsor Lockheed's confidence in the White be involved. It was a "bookkeeping sixty-six informers to guarantee that of the Political Rights Defense Fund. House? oversight" said Jody Powell, Carter's the operatives are actually out of the 0 Enclosed is a contribution of It is true, as New Republic recalls, groups and that the government "in­ campaign manager and now White that Carter gave "all those lectures vestigation" has been closed. $ _____ House press secretary. during the campaign on the wicked­ Judge Griesa's order to turn over the Subsequently Lance's business prac­ ness of Washington." But Lance is the files to the SWP and YSA attorneys is Name tices ran into trouble. When he got one person to whom Carter kept a an interim decision. The socialists will Address appointed to Washington, Lance re­ promise. press demands that informer files be paid Manufacturers Hanover as prom­ Virtually every other high official made public, not just shown to lawyers City ------ised. But this required taking out the Carter appointed did come out of the in the case. State _____ Zip even bigger loan in Chicago. Once .ruling Washington establishment. The court of appeals has not yet again Lance pledged stock in his Geor­ Many of them were trained by David announced a decision on the govern­ Organization (for identification only) gia bank as collateral for. the personal Rockefeller's secretive Trilateral Com­ ment appeal. Government lawyers loan. mission in New York. They were men have indicated that if this court up­ Now, however, trouble brewed. The such as Vietnam War murderer Cyrus holds Griesa's ruling, they will appeal Signature value of the Georgia bank stock Vance (secretary of state) and nuclear to the Supreme Court. dropped from sixteen dollars a share to atomaniacs and n~utron bomb lovers nine dollars, and that meant that such as James Schlesinger (energy Lance's collateral could no longer re­ czar) and Harold Brown (secretary of pay the loan. war). What would Carter do? The presi- But Bert Lance is a down-home boy.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 5 Iron Range strike: Steel notes ... long test of strength MASS LAYOFFS EXPOSE ENA FRAUD:· Job security-that was the By Andy Rose big promise when I.W. Abel, former president of the United Steelworkers, signed the no-strike Experimental Negotiating Agreement in 1973. In The strike by iron ore workers in northern Minnesota and Michigan­ return for giving up the right to strike, Abel claimed, steelworkers would now entering its second month-is be safeguarded from the scourge of periodic mass layoffs. Industry and likely to be a long, hard test of worker would both prosper. strength. Just five months ago, Abel signed a new three-year basic steel contract On one side are such profit-hungry under the provisions of the ENA. He claimed the contract scored steel corporations as U.S. Steel, Betlile­ "breakthroughs" in job security. hem, Republic, Inland, Armco, and Abel has certainly secured his own future-he's retiring to Arizona on a National. They own most of the iron fat pension paid for by the dues of USWA members. mining industry and control the rest. But for thousands of rank-and-file steelworkers, the promises of the On the other side are some 18,000 ENA are being exploded by a new round of mass layoffs. On August 18 angry workers in the iron ore mines Bethlehem Steel announced it was cutting production 10 percent and and processing plants. The strikers laying off 7,300 workers in New Ycirk and Pennsylvania. Bethlehem's belong to the United Steelworkers of action comes on top of hundreds of layoffs and thousands of short America. They are young, militant, workweeks scheduled by U.S. Steel and Inland at Chicago-area plants. and determined. The future of the Bethlehem workers is bleak, because the company "Morale is beautiful," says Carl apparently plans permanent shutdowns of several facilities. Miller, president of USWA Local 6860 in Eveleth, Minnesota. "We are pre­ WHY BETHLEHEM DID IT: Bethlehem claimed it was "forced" to cut pared to stay out as long as neces­ back because of "the impact of imported steel on the domestic market, de sary." facto government price control, the rising costs of labor, materials and The mines and processing facilities services and ever increasing costs of environmental and other govern­ have been completely shut down since ment regulations." the strike began August 1, with the companies making no attempt to oper­ This is a cover-up. But Bethlehem chairman Lewis Foy pinpointed the ate them. real reason when he said the actions were "to preserve the corporation's Negotiations have been deadlocked financial strength and to enhance the prospect of future profitabil­ since the companies forced the strike ity ...." The company will save an estimated ten dollars a ton in its by refusing to discuss one of the key average steelmaking cost by wiping out these jobs. demands of the USW A locals-for an But so far the companies have not The drive for profits-that is the only motivation the steel corporations incentive-pay plan to bring their done so. They are waiting. With un­ know. It is the reason the erosion of jobs has continued-and even wages up to the same level as workers known but reportedly large amounts of speeded up-since the ENA was signed. Giving up the right to strike, with in basic steel. Iron ore workers say iron ore stockpiled, they figure they the avowed purpose of helping the companies stabilize their profits, has they would receive sixty to ninety can wait longer than the iron ore only weakened the union's ability to protect jobs in the only way jobs can cents an hour more if they had an workers. be protected-through struggle against the companies. incentive-pay. plan. These giant corporations-among The steel companies claim that in­ the most powerful in the world-will THE TRUTH ABOUT IMPORTS: Both Bethlehem Steel and USWA centive pay is an "economic" issue not find it easy to beat down the President Lloyd McBride put top blame for the layoffs on competition that must be settled in national negoti­ strikers on the Mesabi Iron Range. The from imported steel. Both ·demand that the government curb steel ations under the Experimental Nego­ strikers are in many ways representa­ imports. The truth about the relation between imports, jobs, prices, tiating Agreement (ENA). The ENA tive of a new generation of American productivity, and profits was spelled out in a feature article by Dick workers-workers who are not afraid prohibits a nationwide steel strike but Roberts-"Crisis in the Steel lndustry"-in the August International allows local unions to strike over local to stand up to the employers, or to Socialist Review. Copies are still available for fifty cent~ from the conservative union officials. issues. Militant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014. Incentive pay is only one of some The iron mining and processing in­ 1,250 unresolved local issues at stake dustry has grown rapidly in the past A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS: One official of the USWA has in this strike. Others include forced half decade, with new plants built and spoken out against the fraud of blaming imports for layoffs. Jim overtime, seniority agreements, safety old ones expanded. Thousands of standards, health hazards, and many ·young workers were hired. Today the Balanoff, District 31 director, called it "out­ other aspects of working conditions. average age at some of the big plants rageous and deceiving" for the companies to The USWA international union has is tinder thirty. "bring up that old bogeyman, foreign im­ agreed that all of these, including These workers are determined to win ports." He charged that "it is the steel indus­ incentive pay, are legitimate local improvement in their dirty and hazard­ try's economic policies causing these layoffs." issues. USWA President Lloyd ous working conditions. "The company Balanoff is a close ally of Ed Sadlowski and McBride has sanctioned the walkout gets away with too much," a twenty­ was elected last February on the Steelworkers as "legal" under the ENA. three-year-old millwright apprentice Fight Back slate. Pointing to the latest round Mter three weeks on the picket lines, told. -a Minneapolis reporter shortly of steel price hikes, Balanoff declared, "It is the strikers became eligible for $20 a before the strike. "I don't know what absolutely criminal the way the industry is week from the USWA's $93 million we'll get out of it-maybe we'll , get raising prices and throwing Americans out of strike fund. nothing. But at least we'll show that work." The steel companies tried-and we're not afraid to strike." failed-to obtain a court injunction A thirty-one-year-old production BLACK UNION MILITANT KILLED IN CHICAGO: The following against the strike, claiming it violates worker said, "We .don't want a strike. report is from Andrew Pulley, a member of Local 18:34 at Pullman the ENA. They have threatened to file Who does? But I'm going to be working Standard in Chicago: "On June 21 police found Don Baptist near a a civil damages suit against the for another thirty years. We deserve Chicago expressway. Severely wounded by a bashing blow to his head, he USWA for the $1 million or so per day better than what we've got." was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. they are losing in the strike. Continued on page 30 "Don worked at Youngstown Sheet and Tube. He was a well-known Black union militant in USW A Local 1011. He was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee of Concerned Steelworkers and also helped distribute the newsletter of STRUTS, a Black steelworkers group based at U.S. Steel South Works. New attack on right to strike "Don played a role in the decision of his local to demand as pari of their In response to the militant walk­ This proposal, if implemented, contract that Youngstown Sheet and Tube halt all further purchases of out by iron ore workers, top offi­ would strip away the. last bit of chrome from the white-minority regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia. cials of the United Steelworkers bargaining muscle from steel locals. "Who killed Don Baptist? Police have yet to answer this question. His have sent up a trial balloon about The companies would be free to money, watch, and ring were all found on his beaten body, so robbery was further restricting the right of steel­ stonewall on local issues, confident not the motive. His car was in perfect shape, so no car accident was workers to strike. they _could get any dispute bogged involved. down in arbitration without facing a The August 24 Wall Street Journal "Perhaps Don was murdered by the cops. There has been a rash of strike. reports: "Hoping to ease the compa­ killings by cops in recent weeks. Or maybe some right-wing adversary. Steelworkers have the right to nies' fears that the iron-ore walkout -wanted him dead. will offer a precedent for even more decide what are strikeable issues­ not arbitrators. "The union ought to do everything possible to uncover the truth, and local-issue strikes over disputed pressure the police to mount a serious investigation and bring the killer to issues in the next round of bargain­ justice." ing in 1980, some USW bargainers It is significant that the union have weighed proposing an amend­ tops confided their proposal to a big­ ment of the ENA [Experimental business newspaper, not to the Q&A ON COORDINATED BARGAINING: The latest issue of Steel­ Negotiating Agreement] itself. These members. workers Voice, newsletter of the Subdistrict 4 Council of Steelworkers in union officials believe the pact One of the most popular demands Pittsburgh, features questions and answers on coordinated bargaining. Is should provide that if company and of Ed Sadlowski's campaign was coordinated bargaining possible for steelworkers in small shops? Is it true union bargainers are unable to agree that the steel union ranks be allowed that some small companies can't afford to pay higher wages? What can whether a demand is a legitimate to vote on the Experimental Nego­ small USWA locals do now to strengthen their bargaining position? local issue, the question should be tiating Agreement. The latest ma­ For some thought-provoking reading on the problems of small-shop submitted to the same arbitration neuver to take away the right to steelworkers, write for a copy from the Subdistrict 4 Council of Steel­ panel that is charged under the ENA strike even on local issues makes workers c/o Chuck Leonard, 71 Berry Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with settling unresolved industry­ that demand even more timely. 1520;), You can subscribe to Steelworkers Voice for one dollar. wide issues." -A.R. -Andy Rose

6 Board P-ledges 'no cuts or no contract' Striking coal miners accept 60-day truce By Nancy Cole Striking coal miners began returning to work August 23 after a two-month­ long wildcat. The strike involved up to 85,000 miners, nearly one-half of the working members of the United Mine Workers of America. Many miners agreed to end their y'.... ·· ·· strike after the UMW A International Executive Board held a special meet- ing in Charleston, West Virginia, Au­ gust 22. Leaders of West Virginia's District 17-the union's largest district and the center of the strike-had de­ manded the board meeting. By the following day, half of the strikers were reportedly back at work. The twenty-four-member board voted unanimously to call on the miners to return to work for sixty days while attempts are made to settle the issue in dispute-the cuts in health benefits for all UMW A miners. If the cuts have not been restored within two months, the board resolu­ tion stated, UMW A President Arnold Miller will terminate the union's con­ tract with the Bituminous Coal Opera­ tors Association. In that event, "there will probably be Striking miners in Washington August 6 to protest cuts in health-care benefits a nationwide strike," said Jack Perry, president of District 17. Miners first started walking off the job on June 20 after the UMWA health ing the cuts. The striking miners con­ The strikers have demanded a fed­ only making a bad situation worse," and retirement fund announced that tend there are other reasons for the eral investigation of the administra­ he said. miners and their families-some lack of money, including delinquent tion of the fund. ·The August 22 meeting in Charles­ 800,000 beneficiaries in all-would payments by the mineowners. On August 19 Secretary of Labor ton was planned only for the executive have to pay up to $500 a year for Strikers also charge the BCOA is Ray Marshall called a news conference board and District 17 officials. But medical care. Previously they paid trying to discipline miners for their to announce that .the government will more than 400 angry miners pushed nothing. frequent unauthorized work stoppages. conduct a routine check on the fund their way into the room and insisted The fund also cut subsidies to fifty The UMW A requested that funds but would take no further action to on staying. coalfield clinics, which are dependent from the retirement fund be temporar­ restore the cuts. After the board meeting, striking for survival on the payments. ily reallocated to cover the health Claiming the financial problems of miners from District 17 met and voted The health fund is run by a board of costs, but the BCOA vetoed this move. the union fund weren't the "responsi­ to return to work for the sixty-day trustees, including a representative of bility" of the Labor Department, Mar­ period. the BCOA. It is financed by royalties Miller and other union leaders re­ shall nonetheless took the chance to "We're not too hopeful of their doing paid by the coal companies on each ton peatedly ordered the miners back .to make clear his opposition to the strike: anything, but at least it's a start," said of coal mined and each hour worked by work, contending that the issue could District 17 member Hayes Holstein. UMW A miners. only be settled at the bargaining table. "Since the health and welfare fund 'We're going to go ahead and try for The BCOA claims that unauthorized The current contract expires December derives its revenues from the produc­ sixty days, and then we come out strikes depleted the funds, necessitat- 6. tion of coal, these work stoppages are again."

Intolerable conditions trigger auto wildcat By Robert Miller ease high temperatures in the plant, side the union hall to demand an end called for an end to the victimizations DETROIT-Workers at Chrysler that passes to leave work were hard to to all victimizations and disciplinary and declared her solidarity with the Corporation's Trenton engine plant obtain, and that Chrysler had disci­ measures. The afternoon shift at the struggle to win rehiring of the fired brought production to a halt for nearly plined the workers without prior notifi­ plant, which employs a high propor­ workers. . a week in a demonstration of solidarity cation. · tion of young and Black workers, re­ "The capitalists deny people the with workers fired for allegedly lead­ fused to enter the plant until their right to work under safe conditions," ing a heat walkout July 24. Role of union leaders fellow unionists were rehired. Hawkins said, "since money is more During the summer heat wave, spon­ Robert Smith, president of United The wildcat strike was not able to important to them than the welfare of taneous strikes broke out at several Auto Workers Local 372, called a meet­ win rehiring of the victimized workers. their employees. That's why the Detroit-area auto plants to protest in­ ing on the second day of the walkout. But organizing on their behalf con­ workers, and not the capitalists, must · tolerable working conditions. He urged members to return to work tinues among the 4,000 employees at run the plants." Resentment had been growing and said the strike was illegal. Lynch Road. among the 4,500 Trenton workers since "We told them we . would ask the The lead in defense organizing has they learned of Chrysler's plans to international union for strike approval been taken by supporters of the United victimize workers accused of foment­ if they went back," Smith told repor­ Coalition, a predominantly Black ing the July 24 wildcat. ters. "They told us to go to hell." group of rank-and-file members that On August 8 Chrysler announced The international also ordered the was formed after a 1972 wildcat at the that six workers, including chief stew­ Trenton employees back to work. Not plant. Coalition members are seeking ard Robert Paolucci, would be fired. until the evening of August 12, how­ to win widespread support for the fired Seven others were given disciplinary ever, did strikers vote to end the walk­ workers and mobilize the full power of layoffs, and forty-one more received out and have the union negotiate for the union for their defense. written warnings. the rehiring of disdplined workers. That afternoon some 200 employees The militant strike at the Trenton One worker killed walked out and began picketing the plant followed similar actions at auto During the July heat wave, tempera­ plant gate. Production ceased entirely plants throughout Detroit. tures in some plants rose as high as the next day and was not completely In late July, three workers at the 130 degrees. The drive of the auto resumed until August 15. Lynch Road assembly plant received corporations for profits, and their in­ Many of the angry strikers had also telegrams from plant management difference to the safety of workers, led left the Trenton plant on July 24. They informing them that they had been to the death of Grant Schneider, a said the temperature inside the plant fired for allegedly participating in and twenty-one-year-old Ford foundry then had reached 120 degrees. "We're leading an unauthorized work stop­ worker killed by heat prostration. A Struggle for Union not animals. We couldn't take it," page; :359 other workers received notice Many other workers had to be carried Paolucci said. they would be disciplined. from the plants because of the heat. Democracy: The story of the Chrysler moved quickly to halt the This attempt to single out individual The 6,000 employees at Dodge Truck Right to Vote Committee in the picketing by obtaining a court order workers for a walkout involving most were forced off their jobs by heat on United Transporation Union, by and summoning riot-equipped police. of the plant prompted the Lynch Road ,July 4 and :i. Chrysler responded by Ed Heisler. 46 pp. $.75. Chrysler charged that the walkout was Shop Committee to vote unanimously denying vacation pay for the ,July 4 illegal. to call a protest meeting at UA W Local holida:v and by firing eleven workers. Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, New York 10014. In response, workers said that 51 offices on ,July 20. Trud:v Hawkins. Socialist Workt>rs Chrysler had reneged on promises to Nearly 1,000 workers gathered out- Party candidatl:' for mayor of I )etroit.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 7 • 1canos By Bruce Kimball and Pedro Vasquez CRYSTAL CITY, Tex.-A big Texas gas supplier is threatening to pull the plug on the inhabitants of a small, poverty-stricken town. This may sound like the plot of a melodramatic movie. But for the people here in Crystal City, the threat is very real. LoVaca Gathering Company has announced that on August 27 it will cut off deliveries of gas to this small Zavala County city unless it conies up- with· $720,000 to satisfy LoVaca's corporate greed. The $720,000 represents the sum of rate increases LoVaca has charged Crystal City from 1973 to 1977, in violation of the company's contract agreement. Crystal City has refused to collect or pay that increase, an almost unprecedented step in resist­ ance to utility hikes (see fact sheet). Crystal City is in one of the poorest areas of Texas. More than 65 percent of its residents have incomes below the federal poverty level. When the rate increases went into effect in early 1975 so many people here were unable to pay the 700 percent hike that. the city quickly reversed its decision to cooperate with Lo V aca. Even to this day, residents are still paying off back debts accumulated during the two months the higher rates were charged. So far, the utility company has been prevented from turning off the gas by legal challenges arid public pressure. But the state courts and the Texas Railroad Commission have unanimously backed LoVaca's right to unilaterally increase prices and to cut off customers who are unable to pay. . This green light has led to a stepped-up campaign by LoVaca to force Crystal City to pay up or lose its gas supply. LoVaca is also growing more desperate in its drive to smash the town's resistance, since the utility wants to increase prices even further Sep­ tember 1. LoVaca obviously fears that Crystal City's refusal to pay the price increases could have a "snowball effect" on other towns and cities, challenging the company's profits. Faced with such high stakes, LoVaca has conducted a massive media campaign, attempting to tum Crystal City residents against city officials. A large ad appearing in the August 18 Zavala County Sentinel said, "It is with genuine regret that the company is taking this action concerning the Administration of The City of Crystal City because Lo Vaca's threatened gas cutoff would make the lives of Crystal City's poor even harder. · we realize that it is the citizens of Crystal City who will be inconvenienced. We urge you to start making plans as soon as possible to shortly cease using of Ciudadanos Unidos, a local affiliate of the Texas been weakened since 1975 by a split between your gas appliances and any equipment which uses Raza Unida Party, told us that LoVaca has also put Ciudadanos Unidos and a group called the Barrio natural gas." pressures on the local bank, which has made Club. The Barrio Club has since won control of the Other forms of pressure have also been used. Jose several loans to the city. Crystal City Council, although the Ciudadanos Mata, Zavala County commissioner and president Unfortunately, the Raza Unida Party here has Unidos still occupies the key Zavala County posts.

Crystal Oty lawsuit By David Salner the jurisdiction to interfere with LoVaca's busi- Bob Watts, counsel for LoVaca, spelled out what SAN ANTONIO-A last-ditch effort to block ness?" some of the "other considerations" might be. He LoVaca's August 27 cutoff of Crystal City's gas In other words, if Lo V aca needs to sacrifice some said an injunction against the cutoff would mean supply has been mounted in U.S. District Court poor people so that it can increase its profits.,- that "other customers would view this as a mandate here." This lawsuit, filed on August 15 by the Winter what's the beef? not to pay the rate increases." Garden Project of Texas Rural Legal Aid Inc., also Despite these interruptions, Rich presented a This is a serious danger, as the capitalists and calls on the Texas Railroad Commission to open powerful case. He charged that the people of Crystal their government representatives see it. They fear new hearings on rate increases. City had been denied due process, since they had that more of the heavily Chicano south Texas The LoVaca Gathering Company and Texas not been given a voice in deciding on the rate hikes. towns supplied by Lo Vaca will follow the example Railroad Commission are the major defendants in The increases were in violation of LoVaca's con- of Crystal City's Raza Unida Party administration. the legal action, although the Crystal City adminis­ tract, but the railroad commission gave LoVaca the How far would this "snowball effect" go? Perhaps tnition has also been named for legal ·reasons. go-ahead nonetheless. outraged community groups would begin to raise "We are attempting to represent consumers," Paul Rich contrasted the hardships that would face the the idea of open hearings or of an independent Rich, project attorney, told the Militant. "This is a people of Crystal City with Lo Vaca's steadily commission representing Blacks, Chicanos, and class-action suit on behalf of poor people on fixed climbing profits (see fact sheet). other working people, who represent the bulk of incomes. They have been denied the opportunity to Many migrant workers, Rich said, will be return- LoVaca's consumers. effectively participate in the process that led to ing to Crystal City in November to face a ·winter- They might even demand that LoVaca open its confiscatory increases on the part of Lo V aca, with time without heat and other gas-fueled necessities books. Or they might raise the idea of nationalizing the blessing of the Texas Railroad Commission." unless· Lo Vaca is barred from cutting off service. Lo V aca under their own control, if the utility At the opening hearing August 17, presiding "The fact that people are injured by it [the cutoff] refuses to provide gas at reasonable rates. Judge John H. Woods repeatedly interrupted Rich's is not the only thing to consider," Judge Woods Fear of this "snowball effect"-as well as sheer opening statement with questions such as: "Irrepar­ responded. He later announced that he would rule greed for the $720,000-is behind LoVaca's threat to able injury is not the sole criteria-what gives us on the case by August 24. pull the plug on Crystal City August 27.

8 N.M. Raza Unida candidate 'I like telling LoVaca Fact Sheet people what I think' SAN ANTONIO-LaVaca Gathering Com­ By Harry Ring pany, a subsidiary of Coastal States Gas Produc­ LAS VEGAS, N. Mex.-Isabel Blea is a some­ ing Company, is the sole supplier of gas to about what shy, soft-spoken person who definitely does 400 Texas towns and cities, including San not fit the picture of a backslapping politician. Yet Antonio. More than 4 million individual consu­ La Raza Unida Party of New Mexico has nomi­ mers are entirely dependent on LoVaca for nated her as its candidate for governor. energy. At its recent state convention, the partido also • In 1973 Crystal City and other customers had.­ elected her state chairperson. a contract with Lo Vaca that set gas prices at In an interview here, Blea discussed how and why thirty-six cents per 1,000 cubic feet. she became active in La Raza Unida and why she's • That same year, the Texas Railroad Commis­ running for governor. sion approved Lo Vaca's request to sidestep its Blea has been working on a master's degree in contractual obligations and begin a series of rate bilingual education at the University of New Increases. Mexico's Highlands campus here, and she is • In response, the Raza Unida Party-led city considering going for a Ph.D. council in Crystal City voted to continue paying Now thirty-two, Blea grew up in Clayton, a town the contractual rate, but no more than that. of about 3,000 in northeastern New Mexico. She has • The towns of Carrizo Spring, Eagle Pass, and three children. Uvalde also refuse to pay the increases to When she came to school at Highlands, she was Lo V aca, although they collect them from the already active in Raza Unida, having joined in residents. (Unlike Crystal City, these cities have Clayton. not yet been faced with a cutoff date.) She decided to become a bilingual teacher, she • Rates here in South Texas have skyrocketed explained, "because I didn't like the kind of from an average of six or severn dollars per education children were getting in Clayton. They month to hearly forty dollars per month. In San call it bilingual education, but it's not that, really. Antonio an average of 156 people are forced to "I though maybe the way to change it was to get plead their case every day with the city public my credentials and go back and be a teacher. I've utility office. applied for a teaching job there," she continued, • In September 1975 a district court approved "but I haven't received an answer from them." Lo Vaca's right to cut off gas to customers not Why not? paying the disputed debts. "Well, I did get in a few scraps with the • In March 1977 LoVaca and three of its superintendent there about their treatment of little suppliers were found to be fudging their figures chicanitos. ISABEL BLEA to justify another rate increase. Faced with the "They were forbidding them to speak Spanish in growing scandal, the railroad commission was school. I didn't think the children were getting a forced to deny permission for this increase. proper education, and I told them so. "Well, at the next meeting I had some more • On August 15, 1977, LoVaca announced $3.9 "That was when Raza Unida had just barely supporters, and finally it was agreed. The section million in profits for the first six months of 1977, begun there. I got into it right away. And I thought that was written on women is very good. compared with $1.7 million for a comparable that, being part of Raza Unida, it was my business "Chicanas-and women in general-are period in both 1976 and 1975. to go to the city council and the school board and beginning to see that they have been oppressed and (Lo V aca earnings were not included in an tell them what I thought." are trying to do something about it," she said. August 4 report when Coastal States reported Blea knew very directly what it meant to be a She feels her campaign for governor will con­ six-month profits of $40.7 million, compared with chicanito in the Clayton school. "When I went," she tribute to dealing with the problems of Chicanos $29 million in 1976.) said, "I didn't know any English at all. They should generally, and the problems of Chicanas in particu­ have taught me the subjects in Spanish until I lar. learned English. There were quite a few in the same "That can come about," she said, "just by raising situation, and a lot got really behind. the issues. Like I went to the International Women's "Now," she continued, "most kids do know Eng­ Year conference, which wasn't something real Under pressure from LoVaca's threats, resistance lish when they go into school. So I think they radical. But I did raise the issue of child care." by city officials has begun to weaken. On August 18 should teach them Spanish. Most of the bilingual The resolution before the body, she explained, a special meeting of the Crystal City Council laid programs don't really do that. They keep them at called for a sliding scale of nursery fees. Blea out new terms that the city would be willing to meet the kindergarten level in Spanish. They should proposed an amendment that child care by provided to prevent a shutoff. learn to speak, read, and write Spanish well." by the government without charge. City officials agreed that they would begin Why did she get involved in Raza Unida? The amendment didn't pass, Blea said, "But quite charging the new gas rates set by Lo Vaca. They "At that time I was thinking mostly of the a few people agreed with me." also offered the utility the rights to any gas or oil discrimination that Chicanos suffer-in employ­ She said she looks forward to the campaign and found under. a thirty-three-acre city park, ·as well as ment, school, just about every place. the opportunity it will provide to get onto television control over the city's gas pipe-line system. "I knew something about the evils of capitalism. and into the newspapers, "to bring out the things I Not satisfied with these concessions, Lo V aca But since then I've learned a lot more, and I've seen think are wrong with this society, with this sys­ continues its squeeze for more blood. Don E. that the only way we'll get equality is through tem." Newquist, vice-president for public affairs of LoVa­ socialism. And I don't want equality just for Although she doesn't particularly relish public ca, said on August 16 that he is pessimistic that Chicanos. I want equal opportunity for everybody." speaking, she said, "I do like telling people what I Crystal City and Lo V aca can reach an agreement Why was she selected as state chairperson and think. Especially those that don't agree with me. unless the city comes up with a "front end" cash nominated for governor? Some people will listen. Some may not agree with payment in the range of 20 to 25 percent of the "I really don't know why they chose me," she me. But at least it's something that might make $720,000 debt. replied. them think a little. And after a while, maybe they Many people here say that such a payment would Part of it may be, she added, because she's been will agree with me." bankrupt the city. quite active in the partido, having previously served Does she have confidence that people will What if Crystal City's resistance actually leads to two terms as state secretary and previously as ultimately come to see the need to change the a shutoff? Many residents believe that it would be county secretary in Clayton. world? no worse than paying LoVaca's full rates. That "And," she adds, "I've always been very critical "I think the world will make them see what they would be equivalent to a shutoff, since many would of the partido when I think it's wrong, and I state have to do. For example, the way prices are rising not be able to pay the bills. what I think. I guess that's why." while wages are standing still, people aren't going As Jose Mata told us, "The general opinion of the Previously, the idea of a woman becoming to be able to live. They're going to have to do citizens is that there's no way people can afford to chairperson or running for office might have evoked something. I think that's what's going to make pay. Whether they cut the gas, or just charge the debate. But it didn't at the partido's state conven­ people start listening and changing their views." rates they want, it will be the same thing. A large tion, because "earlier we had already had a big percentage of our citizens won't be able to afford argument-or discussion, I'd say-within the parti­ those rates." do on women taking leadership roles. And the RUPticket The residents of Crystal City, led by the Raza partido had already agreed that women should be The New Mexico Raza Unida Party is fielding Unida Party, have fought courageously in the past taking more of a leadership role." Had she helped a slate of six candidates in the 1978 elections: against the Democrats and Republicans, the repre­ initiate the earlier discussion? Juan Jose Peiia for U.S. Senate; sentatives of big business. Today they are fighting "Yes. I remember one meeting-~ wasn't the only Isabel Blea for governor; against one of the corporate monopolies that woman there, but I was the only one that was for Manual Archuleta for lieutenant governor; controls Texas politics. this idea. The people weren't against women taking Larry Hill for attorney general; Their refusal to buckle to Lo V aca' s demands has leadership roles. But I wanted a statement in the Enrique Blea for U.S. Congressional principles we were drafting saying that women provided an example for others in Texas to follow. District 1; and It has gained numerous allies for them-allies who should be taking leadership roles and that we Mario Holguin for U.S. Congressional stand ready to support and defend them. That should have a position on the women. They didn't District 2. support for Crystal City is urgently needed now. agree with that.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 9 In Our Opinion. Letters

August26 Reader from afar Herb Magidson August 26 marks the fifty-seventh anniversary of women's I was really happy when I came Herb Magidson, a man who suffrage. It was not until a militant and massive movement across a copy of your newspaper last supported and participated in many finally triumphed in 1920 that women were granted the legal December. progressive causes, died suddenly of a heart attack here in mid-July. He was recognition that they too are citizens, capable of thinking and I was impressed, hence I wish to be one of your regular readers from here. in his early fifties. voting their opinions. Kindly send me your subscription form Herb was a well-to-do businessman, In 1970 women by the tens of thousands chose August 26 to for six months or one year by air mail. who at the same time had a deep social demonstrate their determination to complete the unfinished I would also appreciate some of your consciousness. business of their suffragist sisters-to win total equality. magazines and books on socialism. In the early sixties he became very Since that resurgence of feminism, August 26 has been a time M.K.A. concerned about the Vietnam War, and to celebrate victories along the way to equality. Kano, Nigeria he founded Individuals Against the Crime of Silence. The group drew up a This year, the anniversary is a good time to reflect on where declaration protesting the war and the struggle for women's rights stands. began asking everyone to sign it. The Equal Rights Amendment-a simple constitutional state­ Required reading From Los Angeles, the declaration ment of equality first introduced into Congress three years after This letter is to inform you of the spread and was signed by literally tens the vote was won-is still not law. Nineteen months remain fact that I will soon be released on of thousands of people throughout the until the deadline for ratification by thirty-eight states will parole. Please to not forward the country. Then it went international. relegate the amendment to history. Militant to this address for me any As the antiwar movement began to The enemies of women are embroiled in a drive against the longer. develop, Herb played a valuable and I wish to thank you for the nonsectarian role in helping to build it. ERA, as well as abortion rights, affirmative action, and child subscription that you sent to me He took the position that whatever care. Their target is the rebellion of women. And pulling the during this incarceration. It was people did to protest the war, he was trigger are Congress, the SupremeCourt, President Carter-and beautiful reading news issues not for. the Republican and Democratic parties that run all three. patterned after those of the bourgeois He supported all the major antiwar The suffragists constructed a movement that relied on the capitalist presses. The Militant will coalitions and here in Los Angeles masses of women and refused to subordinate the demands of definitely be required reading once I gave the National Peace Action women to the-needs of capitalist parties and politicians. They am released. Coalition a lot of help. Not that he always agreed with NPAC's methods withstood intense pressures and repression. And they won. A prisoner Stormville, New York of fighting the war, or, for that matter, Theirs is an example for today. with other groups he supported. He made his home available to help Freud on homosexuality raise funds for the antiwar movement. Michael Maggi's review of And he contributed his own money. Gay American History in last week's I remember what an important role Recognize China he played on the West Coast, when we Militant quotes Sigmund Freud on the Secretary of State Cyrus Vance is now in China to discuss case of a lesbian feminist. Since some were working to win support for the "normalization" of relations with the Peking government. bigots try to use Freud as proof that Fort Jackson 8-Andrew Pulley and homosexuality is "sick," I thought seven other Gis who were court­ Actually, Washington should have recognized the govern­ martialed for opposing the war. ment of mainland China nearly thirty years ago. That was readers would be interested in the following letter from Freud to an Herb was a political-minded person when the victory of the Chinese revolution expressed the will of American woman, written April 9, but didn't really have a thought-out that country's workers and peasants to be rid once and for all of 1935: ideology. He was a sort of gut Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt capitalist regime. "I gather from your letter that your humanist, but in the best sense of the Since that time, the remnants of Chiang's army, which fled to son is a homosexual," Freud wrote. word. He was genuinely concerned the island of Taiwan, have continued to make the ridiculous "Homosexuality is assuredly no about people. advantage, but it is nothing to be One of his last efforts was to help the claim that they are the legitimate government of China. defense of Paul Skyhorse and Richard American working people have nothing to gain from Wash­ ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness; we Mohawk, the American Indian ington's continued role in lending credence to this counterrev­ consider it to be a variation of the activists being framed for murder. olutionary charade. We have no interest in the Pentagon's sexual function produced by a certain You got a sense of all the people encirclement of China's real government, using outposts in arrest of sexual development. Many Herb touched by the attendance at his Taiwa:p., Japan, the Philippines, and throughout Southeast highly respectable individuals of funeral. There were Blacks there, Asia. ancient and modern times have been Chicanos, Asians, and people from a whole spectrum of political views. On the other hand, we have much to gain from the increased homosexuals, several of the greatest among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leo­ At the funeral a very moving trib­ trade, travel, and cultural exchanges that would be opened by ute was read from Ralph Schoenman U.S. recognition of China. nardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as who had worked with Herb when Peking demands that Washington break all diplomatic and a crime, and cruelty too. . . . Schoenman was secretary of the Ber­ military relations with the phony Taiwan government and "By asking me if I can help, you trand Russell Foundation. Schoenman withdraw all U.S. military personnel and material from the mean, I suppose, if I can abolish made the point that Herb's purse, island. homosexuality and make normal heart, and mind were open to every heterosexuality take its place. The worthy cause. The Carter administration should immediately meet these The last time I saw Herb was when just demands-and with no strings attached. answer is, in a general way, we cannot promise to achieve it. . . . there was a big picket at the Newport "What analysis can do for your son Beach tennis tournament protesting runs in a different line. If he is South African racism. As usual, Herb unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, was there on the line for the entire inhibited in his social life, analysis afternoon. Reverse Bakke may bring him harmony, peace of Leo Frumkin The Carter administration's announcement that it will argue mind, full efficiency, whether he Los Angeles. California in favor of minority-admissions programs when the U.S. remains a homosexual or gets Supreme Court hears the Bakke case this fall is a blow to changed.... " Diane Wang opponents of affirmative action. New York, New York As such, it is also an aid to those of us fighting to reverse 'Two justice systems' Bakke. I am doing time here because I am Defending the minority-admissions plan at University of Black and poor. California Davis Medical School will mark a departure from the Most poor people are not capable of Carter administration's hard-line opposition to affirmative­ Role of art defending themselves from the state or action quotas. Art, in itself, is not "revolutionary," of claiming their rights and benefits. Why the change? as Adolfo Esteva correctly points out Lawyers for the poor grow inured to Since the Supreme Court announced it would review the (Militant, July 15, 1977). It doesn't the daily injustice of ill-prepared Bakke decision, an outpouring of sentiment for its reversal has organize the masses, and it doesn't trials-quick guilty pleas and the bring about social change. It can, unending stream of clients who are not come from Black, Latino, Asian-American, and women's rights however, deal with subject matter that people, but cases or numbers. 1 groups. is "revolutionary." We have two justice systems in In addition, Carter is under increasing pressure to make a Be it poetry, painting, or song, art is America. There is your first-class show of meeting at least some of the needs of the oppressed . only capable of "reflecting" a justice system for the rich, and we minorities-in order to blunt the mounting criticisms of his particular stage of class struggle as have a second-class justice system for administration and to head off a repetition of the social seen through the eyes of the artist. I the poor. explosion triggered by the New York City blackout. believe it can be a tool in the same But there cannot be second-class sense, but to a much lesser degree, as justice. For if justice is not equal, it is These same realities are at work on the Supreme Court too. the Militant. injustice. Now is an extremely good time for supporters of affirmative James F. York A prisoner action to redouble their efforts to reverse the Bakke decision. Denver, Colorado Ohio

10 National Picket Lilie Frank Lovell

Some people more equal? Possibly the whole question of gay Losing in the primaries rights could be solved by the Primary elections seldom attract much attention or lent Association. government with a minimum of many voters, but they always cost money. Candidates Koch could claim support of only one local of the difficulty if it were to legislate the fact draw from the usual sources. Business concerns Furniture Workers, but hopes to get more union money that gays are nonhuman. After all, expecting fat government contracts, and union offi­ if he can look more like a winner. this seems implied by the actions of cials seeking favors, contribute. The September 8 Mayor Beame, despite his antiunion record in office, the president, who is too busy to New York City primary is no exception. has the endorsement of the AFL-CIO Central Labor concern himself with human rights for Of the seven hopefuls in the Democratic Party race Council, Joint Council16 of the Teamsters union, and this segment of the population. for mayor, the four front-runners had each collected the personal endorsement of John DeLury, who heads Think of how much energy could be more than a half-million dollars three weeks before the badly hit city sanitation workers union. saved! election day. Mario Cuomo, backed by New York Gov. The two largest unions of city workers-the 100,000- Seriously, it is infuriating to see ' Carey, got the most-$765,407. Incumbent Mayor member District Council 37 of state, county and Jimmy Carter and other members of Beame, endorsed by the Democratic Party machine, municipal workers, and the 70,000-member teachers his entourage champion human rights, gathered and spent $666,250; former Congresswoman union-have held off endorsing any candidate. Albert while ignoring the denial of rights to Bella Abzug, $556,535; and Rep. Edward Koch, Shanker, teachers-union president, said that an people in the U1,1ited States. Perhaps if endorsement decision would be made in late August, I were a politician I could more easily $500,531. reconcile this discrepancy, but as it is, None of these candidates has ever done anything to before the primary. District 37 Director Victor Got­ I cannot. advance the cause of organized labor, nor does any of baum announced a neutrality policy in-the primary, Or is it that some people are more them promise to. Of course, they all say they want to but says a choice will be made in the event of a runoff. equal than others? help poor people, provide jobs for unemployed workers, Shanker and Gotbaum like to think they are J.C.G. and be fair to everyone-so long as none of this "influential leaders" in New York politics, but they State College, Pennsylvania interferes with private profits. play the same game as other union officials. They try They also agree that Mayor Beame and the city to pick winners among the capitalist candidates, bankers did about all that could be done to solve the hoping somehow to cash in. Beame i~ one of their past Pornography and rape city's "fiscal crisis." City workers had to be laid off, winners, and he paid off with fake promises. So they An article on pornography and rape public services reduced, school funds cut, welfare pretended to be wiser, but whatever they learned · appearing in the June issue of War slashed, and rents raised. wasn't much. Cry, published by the Tucson Rape Why would any union contribute money to these The basic political philosophy of all these subser- Crisis Center, suggested that candidates? How is it possible for workers to win . vient union officials was expressed last June by pornography featuring violence anything in such a field? It is not possible, but that Teamster official Barry Feinstein, who is head of the against women causes rape and that doesn't stop treacherous union officials from laying New York State Public Employees Conference. When we should make pornography a crime. bets. asked on a TV. show why he and other union officials I -disagree with both ideas. Cuomo picked up $25,000 from the United Industrial had endorsed Beame after the mayor laid off more Pornography does not cause rape. Workers of North America, an affiliate of the Seafar­ than 40,000 city workers and snatched more than $500 Pornography and rape are both caused ers' International Union. The Communications million from their pockets, Feinstein said: by the same thing-a society divided Workers union gave him another $25,000, and say they "We are convinced that Abe Beame will, for the next into classes of exploiter and exploited will be "the arms and legs" of his campaign. The four years, maintain the open-door policy between the and the use of the patriarchal nuclear Machinists also support Cuomo, as do the Steamfit­ municipal labor unions and his own office, so that we family to restrict human sexuality. ters, Painters, and Printing Trades Council. It appears can work together in what will be very difficult times To make pornography a crime is to as if he will have the most union support at election ahead." institute censorship. Who will decide time as his chances of winning improve. They have no reason to expect anything different what to ban? The profitable business from any other mayor . . . so long as they serve him of pornography won't be eliminated by Bella Abzug picked up $10,000 from District 1199 of as well as they have served Beame. Their campaign censorship. Instead, gay newspapers the hospital workers union. She is also supported by and feminist publications will be the the Fur and Leather Workers, the Motion Picture contributions are a token of their willingness to serve, victims. The government will go after Operators union, and the Marine Engineers Benevo- regardless of who is elected. "permissiveness"-a word to describe people who disagree with the establishment. The article should have pointed out that there are already laws against rape and child abuse and against photographing these vile actions, not that the real crime is distributing the photograph. The American Way Qf Life Alberta Dannells Tucson; Arizona Profiting off pom As a political issue, pornography is unusual. The tenants for comparable space. And the unfortunate, question of censorship aside, pornography: pro or con helpless landlords stoicly submit to their distasteful Dirty tricks afoot? is a lopsided debate. Almost nobody openly defends predicament. I have recently moved and left a porn per se-and yet it flourishes. Enter Abraham Beame, running for reelection as forwarding address. It is quite What pornography lacks in political clout, it makes mayor of New York. Naturally he would prefer that interesting to note that all my mail, up for in economic power. Its supporters maintain a voters forget his role as the cutback artist who has including other newspapers and low profile, voting with their wallets and keeping more slashed city services to the bone. So a few months ago magazines, has been forwarded along silent than Nixon's "silent majority." he set himself up as an "antismut" crusader-an act of to me at my new address, except for With all the hush-hush and embarrassment that great political courage, considering how the masses the Militant. It makes me think that goes along with this business, its economic side tends are howling for smut. perhaps the post office would rather to be hidden as well. Those who profit most are most Anyhow, he formed a blue-ribbon panel of notables that I didn't receive the Militant. anxious to conceal the fact. But a couple of investiga­ and named it the Committee to Clean Up Times I would just like to add that I enjoy tive reporters for the New York Times conducted a Square. No sooner was the committee announced than very much reading the Militant and search of real-estate records and turned up some look forward to its arrival every week. one of its members-one Seymour Durst-was revealed W.B. interesting information. to be a major porno landlord. Beame huffed and puffed Minneapolis, Minnesota First of all, they found that only four realty concerns and demanded Durst's resignation:. . , are landlords for about a quarter otmid-Manhattan's Durst owns some buildings that house X-rated movie lucrative ·~sex industry." These four firms lease-build­ theaters. When approached by the Times reporters, he ings to thirty "massage" parlors, book-and-peep-show "insisted that he had no control over the use of the shops, prostitution hotels, and theaters that display X­ theater and that he was not making any profit from rated movies or "live acts." Among these landlords are the theater rentals of $80,000 and $70,000 a year." some of New York City's major real-estate operators­ Pornography, like p~ostitution, exploits and de­ one firm runs an office-building empire valued at $450 grades women for profit. Both are social problems million. generated by the sexual repressiveness of capitalist When the reporters questioned these wealthy gentle­ society, and neither can be repressed out of existence The letters column is an open men, those who didn't immediately slam the telephone by police methods. Censorship against pornography, forum for all viewpoints on sub­ down made two recurring points. First, the "sex and imprisonment of the triply exploited prostitutes jects of general interest to our merchants" are among the few· who can afford the are false and dangerous solutions. These institutions readers. Please keep your letters high rents in the middle of Manhattan Island. And can only be eliminated by cutting off their social brief. Where necessary they will second, they said, while they abhor porno as much as roots-the profit system that turns sex into a commod­ be abridged. Please indicate if the next guy, they're powerless to do anything· about ity. And none of the hypocritical "prodecency" your name may be used or if you their tenants'. operations. zealots-from Abraham Beame to the orange juice prefer that your initials be used Most of the pornographers pay more than $100,000 a peddler of the same initials-are about to join that instead. year in rent-about double the rate charged to other fight. -Cliff Conner

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 11 The Great. Society Harry Ring

Only in America-The compassion­ What's . so dumb?-A concerned pistol. But, the cop explained, he seas travel, not the $1.4 million offi­ ate state of Connecticut has dropped a federal survey team found U.S. stu­ mistakenly drew his real pistol. When cially reported. "Certain costs," the $34.15 damage suit against a woman dents have serious deficiencies in their he pulled the trigger to ignite the magazine reported, "have been omitted killed in a car crash. Suit had been knowledge of the politics and geo­ lighter, the gun went off in the man's from the record altogether while others filed against. her estate to cover the graphy of other countries. Example: 40 face, killing him. The cop was acquit­ appear to have been significantly­ cost of cleaning up the oil spilled in the percent thought Israel was an Arab ted of manslaughter. and systematically-understated." accident. country. Protecting their investment­ Cream and sugar, to go-A Port­ Only one MD in five smokes, as Water's his bag-Los Angeles may Unlucky star-What with the reve­ land dock security guard was accused compared to one in three twelve years be facing a water shortage, but not lations about the dangerous lead of ripping off 8,850 pounds of coffee ago. because of skimping on executive content in the paint on those McDo­ beans worth $30,000. · salaries. The manager of the water­ nald glasses, fast-food competitor Ar­ works is the city's highest paid official, by's made an unfortunate choice. Alibi of the week-A Newark cop Just saving ink-According to U.S. knocking down $73,056 per annum. They're offering zodiac glasses. The went 'to light a bar companion's News and World Report, members of Which would be OK if he had a first one? Cancer. cigarette with his lighter, a replica of a Congress spent $2.5 million on over- divining rod. Capitalism Fouls Things Up Arnold Weissberg "A blatant travesty' The following is a guest column by Nancy restore the ravaged land after coal has been ex- environmentally destructive methods." Cole. tracted. It is no·coincidence that the controversy is finally But despite the presence of 300 at the White being "settled" with a federal law just when Carter "I would have preferred a stricter strip mine bill," House celebration-which reportedly did not in­ is busily preparing his energy package requiring apologized President Carter. But at least this one clude even one representative from the coal increased coal production. According to the New would enhance "the legitimate and much-needed industry-not everyone thinks this bill was what York Times, this strip-mine bill is "significantly production of coal and also assuage the fears that environmentalists were fighting for. The Appalachi­ weaker than versions approved by.large majorities the beautiful areas where coal is produced were an Coalition labeled it "a blatant travesty" at a every year since 1972 by one or both houses of being destroyed." Washington news conference. Congress, but vetoed by President Ford in 1974 and The bill-signing ceremony in the Rose Garden In the August Mountain Life & Work they explain 1975.'-' August 3 was supposedly the culminating event in why. In 1976, 56 percent of the 671 million tons of coal the ten-year battle by environmentalists for federal First, it exempts until 1979 all "small mined in the United States was from strip mining. legislation to curb the greed of the strip-mine opera­ operators"-those who strip-mine 100,000 tons of With Carter's go-ahead, the coal operators now tors. coal or less each year. That's 80 percent of all strip plan to boost production by nearly 500 million tons On July 26 a congressional subcommittee had mines-an industry that can ravage an area of land during the next eight years, and some 60 percent of held a hearing on the dangers of strip mining. Jack and move onto new territory in a matter of months! that is to come from new Western strip mines. Spadaro, speaking for the Appalachian Coalition, The bill also legitimizes the removal of mountain­ The White House "plan would require a huge told members of Congress: "Damage to homes and tops as a mining technique. expansion of strip mining operations on public and property by flooding, landslides, sedimentation, and It imposes no slope limitation, thus giving the go­ Indian lands, located in sparsely populated, arid, blasting have become commonplace in the moun­ ahead to continue mining on the steeper slopes ecologically-fragile regions," wrote James Cannon tainous and hill regions. .! • • The people of Appala­ where the environmental impact is greatest.· from the Council on Economic Priorities in the Los chia who live along the creek banks and up the The overall effect of the bill, the group explains, Angeles Times. hollows, on the ridge tops and in the small towns "encourages the expansion of strip-mining as a So Carter and his obedient Congress had no are being continually subjected to severe, and even means of expanding coal production." The goal of intention of "curbing·" the coal operators. And they life-threatening, disasters caused by strip mining." really effective legislation, the Appalachian Coali­ can rest assured that the restraints in the bill that Environmental groups have long fought to regu­ tion says, would be to phase out strip mining did slip through will be adequately unenforced by late the strip-mining industry and to force it to altogether and replace it with "less socially and the courts. Women in Revolt Willie Mae Reid Cuba, ERA, and CPUSA The following guest column is by Joanne states by March 22, 1979, it will automatically be CPUSA National Secretary Arnold Becchetti-after Tortorici. scrapped. kicking up a little dust to cover the Soviet Union's What happens to women's rights in the United criminal treatment of political dissidents-threw in· This week, women all over the nation are celebrat­ States is being watched with great interest all over a few words about women's rights. ing the right to vote-a right won late in this the world. The June 26 issue of Granma, Cuba's Reporting on the press conference V aides Stable country's history, and then only by our long and national daily newspaper, ran an article expressing writes, "As for women's rights, Becchetti said that hard struggle. concern over the ERA's perilous situation. Journal­ the CPUSA had a program on equal pay for equal Our social position, though, is still as second-class ist Marcelino V aides Stable documented the inferior work ...." citizens. And even gains more recently won, such as position of women in this country. For example, the And what of the ERA?. the right to a safe, legal abortion, are under attack article pointed to the widening gap between Not surprisingly, Becchetti had nothing to say. by the grinning President Jimmy Carter and his women's and men's wages here. Because while U.S. women-and just about every­ friends in Washington, D.C. Valdes Stable went on to name some of the one else with any progressive sentiments-have Women are still not considered equal under the women's organizations that have been formed in lined up behind the ERA, the CPUSA has come out law. The Equal Rights Amendment, passed in the United States to fight for women's rights. against it! - Congress five years ago, would go a long way "Discrimination of women in the United States has Women in this country are glad to have Cuba's toward changing that. So far, thirty-five of the reached unbearable limits," Valdes Stable said, support in our fight for ratification of the ERA. thrity-eight states needed have ratified the amend­ "and that is why women's groups in the United And we would be glad to see the CPUSA drop its ment. States ... are struggling resolutely to allow women reactionary position and join our ranks. Last year, however, the ERA suffered defeats in to occupy their rightful place in society and to make But with or without that support, on August 26- North Carolina, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Missouri. equal rights for women in the U.S. a reality.'' U .S. women will go ahead and celebrate our suf­ Georgia, Virginia, and Florida have also voted it Ironically, in the very same issue of Granma, frage. But only with a hard look ahead at the down. And Idaho, Nebraska, and Tennessee, which Valdes Stable also reports on a visit to the island by hattlPs we still must win to achieve real equality, had already approved it, reversed their positions. a delegation from the Communist Party USA. and with the cries of those women who have been If the amendment is not ra.tified by thirty-eight At a press conference in Havanaon June 17, crushed by this· system ringing in our ears.

12 Abortion debate in Congress What I would have said

By Willie Mae Reid Today we're debating how to go about restricting the poor can't. It isn't the government's concern, he Last fall, opponents of women's right to abortion the right to abortion. It's not the first time this body said, to make things "fair." tested the political waters in Congress and found has considered such a course. And I guarantee that That's what is at stake here today. By turning. them quite comfortable. if you vote to send poor women back to illegal, your back on poor women, this House of Represen­ They succeeded in passing a rider to the appropri­ butcher abortionists, it will not be the last! tatives is saying that it exists only to protect the ations bill for the Departments of Labor and Women will not allow this fundamental right to interests of the wealthy who run the Democratic Health, Education and Welfare. The Hyde amend­ be so seriously eroded. We believe we have the right and Republican parties. ment, as it is known, denies Medicaid funds for to control our lives free from the religious, mystical. Today the members of Congress who say they abortion, except where the life of the woman is and otherwise reactionary whims of a Congress support abortion rights have urged that the House endangered. made up in its majority of rich, white men. accept the Senate's anti-abortion bill, which allows Liberals in Congress, such as then Rep. Bella The discussion in these hallowed halls. both this for abortions only if it is "medically necessary" or Abzug and Sen. Birch Bayh, opposed this flagrant year and last fall, has been instructive. It's in the case of rape or incest. discrimination. But when President Ford vetoed the unfortunate that more Americans are not able to That is supposed to be better than what the view firsthand the goings-on here, rather than abortion foes want, which is a ban on funds for having to depend on the piecemeal quotes and abortions except where the life of the woman is Willie Mae Reid was the 1976 Socialist Workers paraphrases meted out by the news media. endangered. Party candidate for vice-president. She is How well some of you so-called representatives Liberals such as Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman and currently the director of women's liberation have voiced your scorn for women. How graphically Louis Stokes have referred to diseased and de­ work for the SWP. you have shown your contempt for the working­ formed fetuses and maimed and crippled women class men and women who elected you to office. that would make a full-term pregnancy undesirable. full bill as too costly, these same liberals voted to Earlier this summer, Rep. Eldon Rudd compared But none of these politicians are discussing a override the veto-with the Hyde amendment in­ government-funded abortions to financing face lifts woman's right to abortion-just the most "humane" tact. and hair transplants. way to restrict that right. When the appropriations bill came up again this Today, Rep. Henry Hyde stood here and told us summer, these "practical politicians" tried a differ­ that it is not poor women who suffer discrimination 'Throwback to dark ages' ent approach. In the House, congresspeople such as when they are denied the abortions that rich women How can this Senate bill be tagged a "lesser Democrat Elizabeth Holtzman maneuvered to can easily get. "It is the unborn rich who are evil"? It is, no less than the House version, a substitute a motion to ban abortions under all penalized by that double standard," he declared. If throwback to the dark ages before the 1973 Supreme circumstances in place of the old "endangered life" you're the unborn poor, Hyde says, "you have a Court decision legalizing abortion. It would have Hyde amendment. Holtzman said this would fighting chance to survive"! women return to the days when abortion laws gave "ensure" that the Supreme Court would find the So the rich suffer because they have rights that doctors, lawyers, and judges the right to control amendment unconstitutional. the poor don't enjoy. And what about the women women's bodies and lives. In the Senate, when a motion to allow funds for forced to go through with an unwanted pregnancy It is like offering us a choice between electrocu­ all abortions failed, liberal Republican Sen. Edward or to search out a cheap, dangerous abortion? tion and the gas chamber. For opponents of the Brooke proposed that abortions be allowed if they Where is their "fighting chance," Mr. Hyde? death penalty, which is the "lesser evil"? are "medically necessary" or in the case of rape or Rep. Silvio Conte is appalled by the "serious Some of you defend your stand to women's rights incest. abuse" of the Medicaid program. "It is apparent," activists by arguing that the "medically necessary" That amendment passed the Senate. After a joint he pontificates, "that a significant number of people clause provides a loophole women can use. conference the bill returned to both the House and are using abortion as a form of birth control at But what makes you think that government Senate. In both cases, Democrats and Republicans federal expense, or as a matter of convenience." officials, like avid abortion foe HEW Secretary who say they support the unrestricted right of Joseph Califano, are going to allow anything to slip women to abortion lobbied for the Senate "medi­ by? cally necessary" version. Women will die And look at the Justice Department. Just yester­ Not one of these so-called supporters of women's Women have abortions because they are preg­ day it ruled that last year's Hyde amendment must rights took a principled stand for the right of all nant, Mr. Conte, not because it's a federally be applied in its strictest sense. No abortions for women to abortion. The opponents of abortion financed convenience. Without Medicaid funds rape and incest, Attorney General Griffin Bell said, couldn't have written a better scenario: liberals and available, 300,000 women wanting abortions will because the bill doesn't specifically say so. conservatives debating over how much to restrict have to resort to alternatives. An estimated five What about the Supreme Court? In June, it ruled poor women's rights. women will die each week as a result of home­ that the state has a legitimate interest in promoting No matter which version wins when Congress remedies or back-alley operations. childbearing. Is it going to back women who try to: reconvenes in September, the:enemies of abortion Why should Black, Chicana, Puerto Rican, and find a "loophole" in this bill? win, and women lose. other poor working-class women be penalized There are no workers' representatives in Congress because we are kept at the bottom of an economic today to speak up for the needs of poor women or for You're doing no service to women by pushing one system. that thrives on our exploitation and oppres- restriction versus another. You've only confused any of the working class. swn.., But if I had been there in the chambers of the women and tried to divide the women's movement. You call on women to support, and even hail, the House of Representatives on August 2 when our President Carter got to the heart of where he first round in an assault on all women's right to "representatives" debated how to retreat on our stands on this issue with his recent statement that choose abortion. Make no mistake about it: this is rights, I would have said something like this: there are some things the wealthy can afford and just the beginning. If the enemies of women succeed in restricting the rights of poor women, they'll use it as a wedge in their drive to outlaw abortion for all women. The women's movement must not continue to rely on its Democratic and Republican "friends" in this room, who try to convince abortion opponents with words and when that doesn't work, with "practical" compromises. The foes of abortion in the House, Senate, White House, and Supreme Court have highfalutin' moral excuses for opposing funds for abortion. But they would fast reconsider those lofty ideals if women marched in Washington, D.C., in massive numbers, demanding their unrestricted right to abortion. No more politicians and judges oppose abortion now than did in 1973 when it was legalized by a court with four Nixon nominees. But at that time there existed the potential for a powerful women's movement, and it had this country's rulers scared. I say women should scare them again. I vote "no" on both the Senate and House anti-abortion bills. And I call on my sisters aro;md the country to also vote "no"-with their feet in the streets.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 13 Louisville right-wingers step up violence By Charlie Thomas took credit for the 1975 bombing of the LOUISVILLE-Right-wing violence Los Angeles offices of the SWP. continues to escalate here. On the At a well-attended press conference night of August 17, civil rights activist August 18, Debby Tarnopol, Socialist Anne Braden's car was fire-bombed, Workers Party candidate for mayor, and a window of the Socialist Workers blasted the inaction of Louisville Party campaign office was broken by Mayor Harvey Sloane and Jefferson what police believe was a pellet gun. County Judge Todd Hollanbach. She These attacks coincided with an demanded they conduct a full-scale announcement by federal and local investigation into these violent at­ officials that a cache of ninety-seven tacks. fragmentation hand grenades, twenty­ Less than a week earlier Leroy six sticks of dynamite, and 17,000 White, a fifty-two-year-old Black postal rounds of ammunition was seized at a clerk, was kidnapped, pistol-whipped, Bullitt County dump, directly south of and threatened with death by three here. Police say warrants were issued white men who said they were in connection with an investigation of members of the American Nazi Party. local "radical antibusing groups." "They said they wanted to eliminate The attack on the SWP headquarters Jews and niggers, just like Hitler," followed a threatening call received White said. there August 5. The caller said that the And a week before that, three whites National Socialist (Nazi) Liberation stabbed a thirty-four-year-old Black Front thought "SWPers should be bull­ here, telling him they wanted to "get a DEBBY TARNOPOL: full ANNE BRADEN: Car bombed by right­ whipped and shot." This same group nigger." investigation. wing terrorists. Gov. Brown sheds crocodile tears Employee over new Calif. death penalty law fights By Harry Ring will certainly not ask him. to change It took five years to get the death LOS ANGELES-California has his view." penalty back on the California books. reinstat~d the death penalty. Clearly, the good governor is more After the U.S. Supreme Court invali­ Amtrak's It became law August 11, after the concerned with his prospects for reelec­ dated executions in 1972, right-wing legislature voted by the necessary two­ tion in 1978 than with his "con- forces carried a prodeath referendum thirds majority to override Gov. Jerry science.. " in the state. In 1973 the legislature Brown's veto of the measure. Elected to his first term by liberal­ enacted a bill, but it failed to meet antigay At first glance the successful over­ minded voters, Brown has moved Supreme Court standards. ride seemed unusual. It was the first steadily ·to the right. Apparently as­ The present statute is intended to time the legislature has reversed the suming he has the liberal vote sewn meet the high court guidelines. It does blackliSt influential governor, and only the up, he is now openly bidding for reac­ so by providing that if a jury finds By Michael Maggi third time a California governor has tionary and racist support. "mitigating circumstances" it can opt Anita Bryant says that discrimi­ been overridden in the past thirty-one for life imprisonment without possibil­ nation is not the issue in her antigay years. ity of parole. crusade. Try telling that to Thomas Yet, responding to the override, California was, for a number of Shelton, an Amtrak employee. He Brown told reporters, "I'm not sur­ years, a center of opposition to the was denied a promotion and a $2,500 prised." death penalty. In 1960 the mass effort raise because Amtrak keeps a record For good reason. to save Caryl Chessman from the gas of its employees' sexual orientation. When Brown vetoed the death­ chamber assumed national and inter­ Shelton won a job-discrimination penalty measure last June he piously national proportions. The last Califor­ complaint against Amtrak from the announced it was "a matter of con­ nia execution took place in 1967. Washington, D.C., Human Rights science." Speaking unsuccessfully against the Commission in mid-July. At the same time, his lieutenants present measure. state assembly United Press International re­ made clear that Brown would not lift a member Barry Keene declared: ported that top Amtrak personnel finger to ensure that the veto was "The argument has been made that officers compiled a list of eighty-five sustained. these are not human beings, that these suspected homosexuals. Kenneth In a June 1 interview, Gray Davis, are animals. This kind of rationaliza­ Housman, Amtrak's personnel direc­ Brown's top aide, put it this way: "If tion allowed killing of 'witches' in tor, denied the list ever existed. "You there is a message, it is, 'Search your Salem, the starving of prisoners at can't discriminate against gay peo­ conscience and your constituency and Andersonville, the killing of Indians at ple. We know that," he said. "There make the best judgment you can.... Wounded Knee, lynching of Blacks in isn't any list of gays in this com­ If any legislator indicates that his the Deep South, and the extermination pany.... There never has been." conscience dictates that he should vote of Jews in Germany." But according to UPI, three differ­ for imposition of the death penalty, we The point is well taken. ent Amtrak management sources reported otherwise. One Amtrak manager said that a personnel officer came to him with a long list of employees and quizzed Ten LA. ~ps sue to bankrupt PLP ·him on whether "a bunch" of them were gay. By Harry Ring suits stem from a June 18 demonstra­ around the United States stirring up Names on the list, the manager LOS ANGELES-In an ominous tion in downtown Los Angeles in sup­ trouble." recalled, were marked with either an development, ten city cops here have port of undocumented workers. The Another purpose, he said, was to "F" or an arrow. Apparently that filed a $1 million damage suit against action was sponsored by the PLP and discourage people from beating up on indicated who Amtrak judged to be the Progressive Labor Party. the Committee against Racism, a cops. "fags" or "straights." The suit-clearly aimed at establish­ group associated with it. The PLP's countersuit declares that Amtrak sources said that the list ing a precedent-also names two PLP The police assert they were assaulted the ten cops are "motivated solely by a was compiled about the time that national leaders and twenty-eight peo­ while trying to make an arrest and desire to severely and adversely affect Shelton, a reservations and informa­ ple arrested for assault in a demonstra­ that the ten cops now filing the suit the lawful political activities of the tion clerk, was scheduled for promo­ tion here. were injured by demonstrators. Progressive Labor Party and the Com­ tion to seating-space controller. Shel­ The PLP has responded with a $238 mittee Against Racism," and that the ton had been an acting controller for million suit against the ten cops, Police The cops' suit is being sponsored by cops had in fact assaulted the demon­ four months a:nd had been told he Chief Davis, and various city officials. the Police Protective League, which strators "without legal cause." would be given the job permanently. Pretrial hearings were slated to says it is trying to promote such ac­ In a telephone interview, defense Suddenly, without explanation, begin August 18 in the case of those tions nationally. attorney Antonia Hernandez said that Shelton's promotion was reversed. charged with assaulting the cops. Nine In a July 8 interView with the Los pretrial discovery motions would be The reason was not too puzzling, face felony charges, and eighteen face Angeles Times, Jerry Trent, a director made to establish the record of police however. "I'm gay, and I'm fairly misdemeanor charges. of the cops' association, spoke frankly surveillance of the defendants. Also, open about it at work," Shelton about the purpose of the "damage" she said, the defense would seek a explained. "I see no other reason for The complaint was dropped against suit. record of any previous acts of aggres­ them turning down my promotion." the twenty-eighth person arrested, "Trent said," the Times reported, sion and violence by the cops involved. Two other Amtrak employees said Constance Milazzo. Officials disclosed "that one purpose of the present suit The court will also be asked, Hernan­ a supervisor told them that Shelton's that she is a police undercover agent was to deplete the financial resources _dez said, to make undercover police promotion was denied because his who had infiltrated the group. of the PLP, resources which he claimed agent Milazzo available for interview name was on the list. The charges and subsequent damage have allowed party members to travel by the defense. Shelton won his promotion be­ cause he was willing to stand up for his rights. But at least eighty-four other people may still be on Am­ trak's gay list.

14 Devlin, others pay tribute to 'Militant' at rally of 1,700 By Arnold Weissberg Leaders of the Irish struggle have learned a lot spriqg it was the only place workers could readthe Nearly 1,.700 people jumped to their feet, chanting from the IP and the Militant, Devlin said. While official union summary of the basic steel contract­ "British troops out now!" as Irish revolutionist wrestling with the problems of how to deal with since the union bureaucrats weren't interested in Bernadette Devlin finished her speech at a rally some growing divisions in the Irish Republican letting steelworkers see what they had agreed to. August 12 climaxing the twenty-ninth national movement, Devlin told the rally, she "came upon a One of the important achievements of the SWP convention of the Socialist Workers Party. copy of IP and discovered that this guy Gerry Foley convention was a fusion between the SWP and the Devlin, along with other rally speakers, paid had it all figured out." Revolutionary Marxist Committee, a Detroit-based tribute to the important role of the Militant as a Foley, an IP staff writer, has written extensively group of more than forty revolutionists. Shelley guide to action and source of news for political on Ireland. Kramer, an RMC leader, told the rally that the activists in the United States and around the world. Diane Sarge, a Houston steelworker, is the SWP Militant had played a vital part in bringing the Greetings to the rally came from leading figures candidate for mayor of that city. She toid the crowd group toward the SWP. in many social struggles in this country (see box). why she was in the race: "Working people can do a Kramer said the RMC began studying the Devlin said that although the Catholic civil rights damn sight better job running society than capital­ Militants of the 1930s, searching for the roots of the movement is in a downturn right now, the oppres­ ist politicians can," she said. American revolutionary tradition. Their review sive conditions Catholics live under in Northern Sarge told how important the Militant has been spurred them to take a fresh look at today's Ireland ensure a new rise in that struggle. in getting out news of her campaign to working Militant, where they got an "all-sided view of the And when that happens, Devlin said, "this time people in Houston plants and in the Black and SWP." . things are going to be different." That difference, Chicano communities. She said the Militant plays a What the Militant had to say about how to defend she added, will "have a great deal to do with the key role in explaining why working people need to the interests of working people and the most SWP, a great deal to do with the Militant, a great break with the two big-business parties and forge a oppressed in society had a big impact on their deal to do with IP [Intercontinental Press, a weekly party of and for themselves-a labor party. thinking, Kramer explained. sister publication of the Militant that specializes in The Militant is read with interest in the Houston Next month, Kramer will join the Militant's world news]." steel plants, Sarge said. One reason is th;:tt last Continued from page 17

..MACEO DIXON BERNADETTE DEVLIN

MANUEL ARCHULETA

Socialists launch fall subscription drive By William Jasper Perspectiva Mundial, this includes Intercontinental A joint Militant-Perspectiva subscription blank Expanding the readership of the Militant will be Press, a weekly magazine devoted to world political has been designed for the drive. One side features a a top priority of the Socialist Workers Party in the developments. description of Perspectiva in Spanish. months ahead. The report began by reviewing the Militant's In his report to the convention, Blackstock exam­ Delegates to the recent SWP national convention circulation gains over the past year. Last fall nearly ined the role of the three socialist periodicals and voted to launch a fall subscription drive to sign up 21,000 new readers bought introductory subscrip­ their prospects for the future. 18,000 new readers of the Militant. This will be tions. Earlier this year more than 100,000 copies of During discussions on previous days of the con­ combined with efforts to continue and expand the paper were sold in a single-copy sales campaign. vention, the current political &ituation in the United Militant sales at plant gates. A pattern of regular sales at plant gates-especially States had been characterized as a "preparatory There will be a parallel push to boost sales of the at steel plants-was established during the drive. period," one in which victims of the employers' new Spanish-language Perspectiva Mundial, includ­ This fall's campaign will expand on these gains­ offensive are searching for ways to fight back. ing the first subscription drive for this biweekly with its emphasis both on getting new subscriptions "It's in the Militant that week after week we socialist news magazine. The goal is to get 500 new and on plant-gate sales. develop and publicize our proposals about what can PM subscribers. The drive is set to last ten weeks, beginning be done," Blackstock said. "It's central to all our These plans were outlined in a report to the September 10. An introductory subscription of ten plans this fall." convention by Nelson Blackstock, former managing weeks of the Militant for two dollars will be In discussing perspectives for growth of the editor of the Militant and the new circulation offered-a three-dollar savings off the new single­ Militant, .Blackstock referred to SWP founder James director for th~ socialist press. copy price of fifty cents. (See story on price rise on P. Cannon. The report discussed perspectives for the three page 17.) Cannon wrote that the Militant should aim to publications currently -produced and distributed by A three-month subscription to the biweekly Pers­ become a big socialist weekly-big in both size and SWP members. In addition to the Militant and pectiva will sell for two dollars. Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 1S. Rally greetings:· 'The Militant is Ol Messages of solidarity and greetings to the reportmg on unpopular causes. It has been a rally for the Militant came from around the mainstay of political consciousness in this coun- country. try. I'm proud for the Militant.

Harry Edwards, associate professor of soci­ Richard Mohawk and Paul Skyhorse, ology at the University of California at American Indian Movement activists on Berkeley, and an activist in the struggle trial in Los Angeles for a murder they for Black rights: Your coverage of significant didn't commit: The conspiratorial forces that political and social developments critical to the have kept us confined for nearly three years now interests of national and international progres­ have had a friendly and willing ally in their sive communities has been invaluable in the efforts to undermine the aspirations of the Amer­ struggle against political oppression and · eco­ ican Indian Movement. That friend to the reac­ nomic exploitation. I look for a continuation of tionary elements has been the mainstream me­ this tradition and more, given the even greater dia. When they were not totally ignoring our challenges ahead. case, the mainstream media were consistently distorting the facts. We are grateful to the alternative presses for Veteran journalist I.F. Stone: Despite Ameri­ their fair and objective reporting of our case. It is can freedom of the press, the spectrum of discus­ to the credit of the Militant that it was among sion on public questions is seriously limited the vanguard in sending reporters to Ventura, because the voices of Marxist opposition are so where the trial began, and participating in our few and so little read. Yet we cannot understand defense. We appreciate the coverage given to us what is happening in the rest of the world by Dave Brown and Harry Ring. without understanding the viewpoint of the In the proud warrior tradition, victory will be major currents elsewhere moving in a socialist ours! direction. Nor can we find our way to a better America without the perspectives of radicalism. From Morris Kight, leader of the Los An­ In this narrow and precarious sector of opin­ geles Coalition for Human Rights and for ion, the Militant has distinguished itself by a many years a leading national figure in the competence and a magnanimity which are rare gay rights movement: I think the Militant has amid the fierce sectarianisms of the left. Clockwise from top left: I. . Stone; Jose Angel Gutierrez; fulfilled a unique function for its entire history in Not the least accomplishment of the Militant Richard Mohawk; Paul Skyhorse; Leonard Weinglass.

analysis that made sense out of the whole thing, put "It keeps its readers on top of what's happening it in the broader framework of the labor movement in hot spots in the class struggle on every conti­ .. .subscription today and where it needs to go." nent," he said. Continued from page 15 During the campaign, the Militant was on sale at circulation. Publications from throughout the world pour into plant gates from coast to coast. Mter the election A big Militant is needed in order to adequately the IP office, and the magazine carries translations the Militant printed an official union summary of serve the various audiences socialists seek to reach, from a broad spectrum of sources. It's frequently the the new basic steel contract, along with its own Blackstock explained. For example, the paper must first place in the world where you can find transla­ analysis of what it meant. More than 4,000 steel­ include some material aimed primarily at newer tions from samizdat, the writings of the Soviet workers bought copies of that special issue. readers, designed to get them into reading the paper dissident underground. "While the Militant puts forward solutions to and to hold onto them. IP's Gerry Foley is an internationally recognized questions activists are grappling with in many Socialists today are located all over the country writer on Ireland. Bernadette Devlin paid tribute to arenas, it does something even more important," and are involved in many types of political activity. Foley's insight on the Irish struggle in her speech at Blackstock told the convention. "It ties all the The Militant tries to cover all this in a balanced a rally at the close of the convention. -struggles togethe~ into a common strategy-one way. Since its birth in 1963, IP has carried every single that's aimed at uniting all the working class and its resolution of the Fourth International. "Through what WE) publish in the Militant, the paper itself has become part of the equation in some allies into a coherent battle plan designed to win." IP should be able to find new subscribers among readers of the Militant, the report stated. While IP of the big ongoing struggles today," Blackstock 'Perspectiva' said. "The Militant reports the facts, often reporting often serves as a valuable news service for the The significance of Perspectiva Mundial has to be things you can't read anywhere else. At the same Militant, only a small portion of the material in IP viewed in the context of a swiftly growing Spanish­ time, the Militant puts forward the socialist point of ever finds its way into the pages of the Militant. speaking minority in the United States, Blackstock view." The business offices of the Militant, Interconti­ said. To illustrate this, Blackstock pointed to the role Perspectiva covers both international affairs and nental Press, and Perspectiva Mundial have been the Militant has played on three important fronts­ questions of immediate concern to Chicanos, Puerto consolidated into a common circulation office. the women's movement, the antideportation fight, Ricans, and other Latinos living in the United The new circulation setup will explore new ways and the trade unions. States. This fall Perspectiva will continue to closely to increase the readership of socialist periodicals. "The Militant keeps on top of the key issues follow the antideportation movement, for example. One of the things all socialists regularly do is facing women. It early recognized the meaning of "Our immediate goal, as far as Perspectiva is take part in getting the Militant into the hands of the Hyde amendment, which denied abortions to concerned," Blackstock said, "has got to be to build new readers. Subscription drives and single-copy the women who could least afford them. a circulation base for it. We know one is out there. sales campaigns have been particularly effective in "When women in NOW decided to put out a All that has to be done is to tap it." broadening the readership of the paper. This will resolution aimed at reorienting their organization The key is to tie Perspectiva into the everyday continue to provide the bedrock of Militant circula­ toward the needs of Black, Latino, and other op­ sales work done on the Militant. That means taking tion, and the new circulation office will provide pressed women, the Militant reported that. It fol­ Perspectiva along on sales in areas where there are more effective national coordination of this work. lowed the discussion as it unfolded in local NOW Spanish-speaking people. "Through the fall subscription and sales cam­ chapters. It was on hand at the convention with a The Latino membership of the SWP is growing, paign, thousands of people will learn for the first special issue." the convention learned. And Perspectiva will be time about the SWP and our proposals for what to "During this process it became clear that the only invaluable in winning more Spanish-speaking do about the problems they face," Blackstock said. place where you could really find out what was members to the party. "Our Militant sales drives and our election cam­ going on was in the Militant. Some of our friends Turning to Intercontinental Press, Blackstock paigns are similar in some respects: They are the told us that. And, perhaps more significantly, some noted the magazine's unparalleled reputation for main ways we reach out and introduce new people who were not so friendly said the same thing." accuracy. to our ideas." Over the years, the Militant has won the respect The SWP will be looking for new subscribers of a relatively broad layer of Chicano activists and where it concentrates in its political work: in the leaders. No other publication follows in such detail Black community; in the Puerto Rican and Chicano the Chicano movement on a national scale, Black­ communities; among activists in the women's move­ stock said. ment; and in the trade unions. This proved important in helping to rally a Socialist steelworkers at the convention decided response to the government's stepped-up attacks on to sell at least 200 subscriptions fo their co-workers undocumented immigrants. during the drive. Auto ~orkers vowed to sell a similar number, and the teachers vowed to top them Fight Back both. The most striking example Blackstock pointed to The Young Socialist Alliance will also be partici­ was what the Militant was able to do during and pating in the drive. In areas where there are both after the Steelworkers union election campaign last SWP and YSA units, both will share a common city­ winter and spring. wide goal. YSA chapters elsewhere will be taking "We picked up some important new readers be­ their own goals. The YSA will be spearheading cause the Militant turned out to be the only place efforts to get subscriptions on campus. you could get an accurate picture of the Steel­ Blackstock concluded his report by outlining the workers Fight Back campaign of Ed Sadlowski. Militant's current financial situation. Rising costs "You could find out what the candidates were have forced the Militant to raise its cover price to saying in our press. And you could also read an fifty cents.

16 tstandi ! Let's keep it standing.' in its fifty years was its courageous primacy in the reliability and accuracy of your facts as bringing to public attention in the West the reported in the paper. terrible distortions of truth and justice behind the The Militant fills a great need for the truth. I Soviet facade. sincerely support this socialist newspaper. The Militant is outstanding! Let's keep it standing. Filmmaker Emile de Antonio: I read the Militant because it fills in the gaps the New York From Leonard Weinglass, civil liberties Times won't cover, because it's up front, because attorney: In the years I have been defending it reports on the struggle ·everywhere and in political cases I, of course, have followed the context, because of its background pieces like the reporting of various trials occurring around the recent analysis of events in Spain. country. The Militant has consistently been an excellent source of news regarding political cases. Your reportage reflects your commitment From Jose Angel Gutierrez, Zavala County to providing your readership with an accurate (Texas) judge and founding member of the analysis of the factual, legal, and political issues Texas Raza Unida Party: Since 1969, the involved in these trials. people jn the struggle for Chicano self­ I wish to take this opportunity to send you my determination of Crystal City have enjoyed read­ warmest greetings on your fiftieth anniversary. ing the Militant. I remember seeing the paper And, so far as the reporting of political cases, being passed around during the great high your next fifty years could hardly be more distin­ school walkout of that year. I remember seeing guished. the Militant in our high school library after we won the battle with the school board. I remember reading in the Militant the cover­ From Robert Meeropol. Sons of Julius and age of the Raza Unida Party activity during the Ethel Rosenberg, Robert and Michael Meer­ early '70s. Today, I remember the Militant be­ opol have been fighting to reopen the case cause it is part of the reading material found in that led to their parents' executions as the reception room to my office. I read it reli­ "atom spies": For both of us let me wish you a giously for news of the struggle across the very successful convention, and I look forward to country and world, from your perspective. continuing the close fraternal relationship be­ Those of us familiar with the integrity of such tween the SWP and our effort to reopen our writers as Miguel Pendas and Harry Ring know parents' case. New Militant price-a message to our readers Beginning with this issue the Militant is raising • Many Militant bundles are shipped via air price of everything going up-from the price of a its cover price to fifty cents. freight. Those charges are now four times what they cup of coffee to the cost of a subway ride. The The price of a one-year subscription will be fifteen were in 1971. Militant can't stand aside from this economic fact dollars. A ten-week introductory subscription will • Our full-time staff receives just enough money of life and the new price is in line with the general cost two dollars. each week to get by-to pay the rent and buy food pattern of inflation. Earlier this year the price of the Militant went up and other necessities. These costs have also risen Even with the new price, we will fall far, far short to thirty-five cents. Before that had been twenty-five dramatically. of bringing in enough money from single-copy and cents since 1971. • All in all, the cost of putting out the Militant subscription sales to cover the cost of putting out has much more than doubled since 1971. the Militant. Without generous financial contribu­ While we were reluctant to raise our price again, An alternative to raising our price would have tions from its supporters, the Militant could not an analysis of the rising costs faced by the Militant been to drastically cut the number of pages in the publish. showed that the step was unavoidable-and that Militant and the size of our staff. But that would our previous increase to thirty-five cents was too You can help keep the Militant coming out. This severely cripple our ability to provide the breadth of little and should probably have been made earlier. fall we will be conducting a drive to collect $50,000 coverage of struggles on many fronts you find in for the Militant. Details on the fund appeal will be • Since 1971 the price of newsprint has doubled. the Militant each week. printed in future issues. • Postal rates for the Militant have gone up five­ It's our belief that the new price will not signifi­ If you would like to help, send your contribution and-a-half times-and will go up approximately 20 cantly reduce our ability to get the Militant into the to the Militant Fund, 14 Charles Lane, New York, percent more next year. hands of readers. Working people have seen the New York 10014.

revolutionary-minded young people . Devlin, who spoke last, gave an account of the "By reading the Militant," she explained, "young rise of the Catholic civil rights movement in ... rally people will come to agree that socialism is the way Northern Ireland after 1968. She described it as the Continued from page 15 to answer the attacks on youth-unemployment, the latest chapter in the 700-year fight for Irish editorial staff. Bakke decision, the attacks on women's rights." national independence. The rally's keynote speaker was Maceo Dixon, It was a fight, Devlin said, in which she learned Boston organizer of the Socialist Workers Party. some hard lessons and lost many illusions. Dixon has played a leading role in the struggle to "I actually thought that by marching, we were defend school desegregation in Boston against $50,000 'Militant' telling the prime minister of England something he racist mob violence. didn't know," she said. Now, of course, she added, His talk reviewed some of the major events of the appeal launched she knows that the English government is perfectly past year-the New York blackout, the drought in A fund drive to raise $50,000 to help aware of the oppression of Catholics in Northern the West, the revelations of Korean influence­ cover the rising costs of putting out the Ireland-an oppression the prime minister helps peddling, the revolt of Black youth in South Africa, 'Militant' was launched at the rally. perpetuate. new threats to the environment, and the announce­ In response to an appeal delivered by But Devlin learned an important truth through ment of the neutron bomb. Dixon took special note New York SWP leader Peter Buch, the the struggle, she said: "Nobody listens to you unless of the recent exposures of attempts by the CIA to you're on the streets." perfect mind-control drugs. "That's the way the enthusiastic audience came forward with contributions and pledge~ totaling Today, Devlin said, there are 3,500 political capitalists work," Dixon said. "They have to find prisoners in Northern Ireland, out of a pppulation of ways to trick, distort, and deceive to win your mind. $31,000! After the rally another 'Militant' sup­ 3.5 million. They are subjected to both physical and "But we know the power of truth. And the psychological torture. Militant tells the truth." porter donated $10,000 as a matching fund-all future contributions will be "If we had the SWP in Ireland,'' the civil rights That's why it's so important to read, sell, and leader continued, "we would have changed the subscribe to the paper, Dixon said-and the best matched ·dollar for dollar up to $10,000. The fund drive target had originally course of Irish history-we would have changed the way to do that is to join the SWP. history of the world. Manuel Archuleta, Raza Unida Party candidate been set at $40,000. However, initial "But in the vocabulary of the Irish people, the for lieutenant governor of New Mexico, explained contributions were much higher than word 'defeat' does not exist." that the RUP was "united with [the SWP] in a expected, and a decision was made to up The rally sent two messages of solidarity. One common struggle for a world without slaves, the goal to $50,000. went to the five Puerto Rican Nationalists who without hate, without wars." To meet the many exciting political have been held in U.S. prisons since the early 1950s. The Militant, Archuleta said, shared his enthusi­ challenges on the horizons, the 'Militant' The other went to John McAnulty, general secre­ asm for re~olutionary upsurges around the world, needs financial help. In coming issues, we tary of People's Democracy, an Irish socialist group. and played an important role in attracting Chica­ will report on the progress of the $50,000 McAnulty was recently jailed on trumped-up nos to socialist ideas. fund drive. charges of "possessing documents that could be of Holly Harkness, a member of the national You can aid the drive by sending your value to the terrorists." executive committee of the Young Socialist Al­ contribution to Militant Fund, 14 Charles Pat Wright, a Black feminist and leader of the liance, told the rally that the YSA sells the Militant Lane, New York, New York, 10014. Cleveland Young Socialist Alliance, chaired the enthusiastically because the YSA wants to attract rally.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 17 50,000 protest Australian nuke plan · By· Peter Archer On August 5, 25,000 demonstrators in Melbourne, Australia, told their government just what it could do with its plan to step up uranium mining. "Uranium-Like Hell!" was the theme of the dem­ onstration, one of many held throughout Australia commemorating the American bombing of Hiro­ shima thirty-two years ago. Altogether, 50,000 people took part in these protests. The demonstration, <;ailed by a wide range of organizations, was the largest protest in Melbourne since the Australian Labour Party was driven from office in November 1975. The tremendous outpouring was sparked by the Australian government's plans to push for a speed­ up in uranium mining. This decision has been made in the face of a study commissioned by the Labour government in 1975. That study called for the installation of a number of environmental safeguards before mining was begun. None of the recommendations in the report have been acted on. The goal of the government in pushing this program is,to make Australia an important exporter of uranium to those countries-especially in West­ Thousands protested Australian government's plans to push ahead with uranium mining em Europe-that have rapidly developing nuclear power programs. The Australian capitalists hope to Kelley, an economic adviser to the European Eco­ nal lawyer, spoke out against the effects uranium enter into an alliance with their U.S. counterparts nomic Community, and John Carroll, an Irish trade mining would have on Blacks in the Northern to comer the uranium market on a world scale. unionist, showed the international scope of the territory of Australia. But the demonstrators in Melbourne made clear movement against nuclear power. In Adelaide, about 7,000 people marched August that the profits of Australian and U.S. capitalists The final speaker was Dr. Jim Falk, a leader of 6. The previous night, some 400 people took part in had nothing to do with their needs. the Movement Against Uranium Mining, a major a candlelight procession there. Hundreds. of yellow flags with red radiation organizer of the demonstration. Falk told protestors And in Hobart, 700 people marched and rallied. symbols mingled'with placards waving above the that the movement should continue to demonstrate Although in previous rallies speakers had occasion­ heads of the huge crowd. "Stop uranium mining," again and again until the mining of uranium is ally voiced the idea that "terrorists" might use "Land rights-not uranium mining," and stopped. nuclear materials to manufacture atomic bombs, "Uranium-No Way!" read the signs. Elsewhere in Australia, sizable protest actions Harry Derkley, chairperson of the Australian Union At the rally, Roger Wilson from the Seamen's also marked Hiroshima Day. of Students at Tasmania University, pointed out Union called . on Australians to back up trade In Sydney, more than 11,000 people marched that atomic weapons are already in the hands of the unionists who are demanding an indefinite ban on through the city on August 6 in support of the real terrorists-the Pentagon and the White House. the mining and export of uranium. demand for a moratorium on uranium mining. At a The memory of Hiroshima, he said, should be a Other speakers at the rally, such as Dr. Petra rally following the march, Pat O'Shane, an Aborigi- grim reminder of just what that can mean.

Hiroshima week, 19 77 'Active .today, not radioactive tomorrow!' By Lauren Gam That action was organized by the Clamshell Al­ man spoke. "No more nukes, no more nukes!" was the cry of liance. Detroit residents have good reason to be sensitive the more than 1,500 demonstrators who crowded Norman Soloman, a speaker for the Oregon to the dangers of nuclear power. In 1966 an accident onto U.S. Highway 101 August 6 in San Onofre, alliance, pointed out that over the forty-year life of at the Fermi I plant, located midway between California. The road runs alongside the San the Trojan plant, it will produce ten tons of highly Detroit and Toledo, nearly caused the evacuation of Onofre nuclear power plants. poisonous plutonium and more than 1,400 tons of Detroit. Fortunately, a major disaster at the plant The 100-mile hazard area for these plants, which other "hot" waste products. Following its active life, was averted. are adjacent to several earthquake faults, encom­ the plant will have to be taken to pieces. Some of Now a second plant, Fermi II, is proposed for the passes every major city in southern California. Los those pieces will remain dangerous for a quarter of very same area. On August 6, 300 people rallied at Angeles, with its 3 million people, is justy sixty-two a million years. the proposed site of Fermi II. Speakers from the miles northwest. San Diego is fifty-one miles south­ Phoebe Friedman, one of the demonstration or­ Public Interest Research Group in Michigan, SECO, east. ganizers, summed up the perspective of the alliance Greenpeace (a Canadian antinuclear group), and The protesters in San Onofre cheered as environ­ when she said, "The experience of our years of other organizations explained the dangers of nu­ mentalist Barry Commoner outlined the dangers of active opposition to the war in Indochina taught us clear energy to the crowd and pledged their collec­ Jimmy Carter's "energy program," a program that that if we are to win, we must commit ourselves to a tive energies to continue the fight against it. calls for an 800 percent increase in the number of long and enduring struggle before we see the fruits A recent accident in a nuclear reactor in upstate nuclear power plants in the United States. of our work. We can, and will, do this to stop Minnesota clearly demonstrates the dangers in­ Organizers of the San Onofre demonstration nuclear destruction." volved in nuclear energy production. When a secon­ included the Abalone Alliance, California Demo­ In Michigan, Clamshell Alliance leader Harvey dary alarm system at the Monticello, Minnesota, · cratic Council, Friends of the Earth, New American Wasserman toured the Detroit-Ann Arbor area. The plant short-circuited, the emergency evacuation Movement, Women's International League for tOur was sponsored by the Detroit-based Safe procedures of Northern States Power (NPS) were Peace and Freedom, and the Young Socialist Al­ Energy Coalition (SECO). Almost 600 people at­ shown 'to be a total shambles. liance. tended each of the three meetings where Wasser- Now NPS is proposing to build another reactor in The demonstration, held in commemoration of the. Tyrone, Wisconsin, ignoring the strong objections U.S. bombing of Hiroshima thirty-two years ago, of farmers in the area. was one of many antinuclear power protests held On June 30, seventy antinuclear demonstrators around the country last month. organized by Northern Thunder, an antinuclear At Diablo Canyon, located about halfway be­ group from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, demonstrated at tween San Onofre and Los Angeles, another demon­ NSP's offices in Minneapolis. Thirty of the partici­ stration of more than 1,000 took place on August 6. pants met after the action to discuss forming a The rally was organized to support forty-six people broader coalition. who have occupied the proposed site of a new More than 250 opponents of nuclear power dem­ nuclear power plant. The site is only two-and-a-half onstrated in Clarksville, Indiana, on July 14, to miles from an earthquake fault. protest the proposed construction of a nuclear power Speakers at the rally included Commoner, Daniel plant at Marble Hill. Carrying signs that said Ellsberg, and a city councilman from nearby San "Better active today than radioactive tomorrow," Luis Obispo, Richard Krejsa. and "No radiation without representation," the In Ranier, Oregon, eighty-five people were protesters assembled in a city-owned field next to a arrested on charges of "trespassing" when they business office of Public Service Company, the occupied the· site of the·Trojan nuclear power plant. sponsor of the proposed plant. The occupiers were part of a demonstration of 400 "It's our river valley as much as it is PSC's," said antinuclear activists. Byron Himmelheber, a high school teacher in Organized by an umbrella coalition, the Trojan Louisville, and an organizer of the Paddle Wheel Decommissioning Alliance, the protesters ·modeled Twi;s Alliance, the sponsor of the demonstration. their action on the occ\ll)ation of the Seabrook, New Environmentalist Barry Commoner addresses "We're going to stop Mart-Ie Hill, and that's all Hampshire, nuclear power plant site this past April.. antinuclear rally in San Onofre, California. there is to ii," he told the crowd.

18 World Outlook

Debate opens on new Panama Canal pact By Murray Conrad 500,000 Panamanians of school backing the proposed treaty, while Right~wing foes of the proposed new age. . . . They are highly emotional, affording the right-wingers ample cov­ Panama Canal treaty have kicked off prone to demonstrations and easily erage .and watching with interest the what they hope will be a massive aroused against the Canal Zone and results of their efforts. campaign to defeat ratification: its American residents. While also intent on steering the • On August 23 conservative "You could easily get 10,000 kids to country on a rightward course, these standard-bearer Ronald Reagan vowed · attack the Zone if the treaty falls dominant sectors of the U.S. ruling an all-out effort to defeat the treaty apart. All hell would break loose." class want to sail on a more even keel. unless he's convinced it doesn't really Given this potential explosiveness, They are wary of the extreme neander­ threaten U.S. control of the canal. "the new treaty marks an improve­ thals now seeking to rock the profit­ • U.S. Senators Strom Thurmond ment over the present situation," laden boat of U.S.-Latin American (R-S.C.) and Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) ap­ former Secretary~ of State Henry Kis­ relations. peared on national television August singer says, for assuring "secure ac­ Washington Post correspondent 21 threatening a filibuster to kill the cess" to the Panama Canal. Warren Brown reports that sections of treaty on the hill. While giving Panama ownership the U.S. labor movement may respond • The same day, the American Con­ over the canal by the year 2,000, how-­ favorably to the right-wingers' dema­ servative Union launched a $50,000 ever, the new agreement also grants gogy. newspaper advertising campaign­ Washington the "right" to intervene "Approximately 10,000 people now· mostly in southern states-aimed at militarily by any means necessary to working in the Canal Zone, more than mobilizing the public against the new guarantee the canal's "neutrality" 80 percent of them Panamanian citi­ treaty. · forever. zens," Brown reported August 22, "are One such ad, appearing in a Jack­ The right-wingers rallying against represented by seven U.S. labor son, Mississippi, paper, declared: the treaty are perfectly aware of this. unions. Most belong to the National "There is no Panama Canal. There is They are aiming their fire at more Maritime Union and the American an American Canal at Panama. Don't than just the modest concessions Wa­ Federation of State, County and Mu­ let President Carter give it away." shington's negotiators have made to nicipal Employees. The conservatives are also planning Panama's Gen. Torrijos. "The unions, working through the a direct mail campaign. They expect to Their antitreaty efforts reflect the AFL-CIO, have insisted that any canal send out "a minimum of several mil­ Cuadernos Para el Dialogo class polarization of politics in the treaties protect Jhe job rights of their lion letters" to "raise grass-roots" op­ United States-a polarization precipi­ members and have threatened all-out position to the new treaty. tated by the offensive of the ruling rich opposition to the treaties if that de­ The right-wingers seem buoyed by for "3,500 American employees of the against the living standards, demo­ mand isn't met to their satisfaction." polls showing that at the beginning of Government-owned Panama Canal cratic rights, and antiwar feelings of The provisions of the proposed new public debate over the treaty a large Co., 9,000 G.I.s and 21,100 other family American working people. treaty that apply to these unions are majority of Americans say they don't members, Uncle Sugar provides every­ The right-wing drive against the not yet public. But how the unions line want the United States to give up the thing from commissary- and post­ treaty is part of this process. The up in the debate over the new treaty canal. exchange privileges to bowling alleys conservatives are looking for a popular will be another measure of whether the One recent survey by the Opinion and movie houses, swimming pools way to start shaking the big stick official trade-union leadership is once Research Corporation, for example, and tennis courts." against colonial peoples again, after again following its dead-end stJ:ategy showed that of 1,011 adults questioned, This privileged enclave is a source of such jingoistic methods were so badly of identifying the interests of labor 78 percent favored retention of U.S. justifiable resentment among the 1.7 discredited during the government's with the oppressor rather than the control over the canal, 8 percent were million Panamanians just outside the dirty war against the Vietnamese peo­ oppressed. for giving it up, and 14 percent had no zone who earn an average of $1,180 ple. The initial confusion over the canal opinion. yearly and suffer a national unemploy­ As a New York Times editorial ex­ issue bared in recent polls makes the In the Canal Zone itself, public feel­ ment rate of 12 percent, and even plained August 12, the fervor of right­ need for an educational campaign in ing against the new treaty among the higher rates in urban slums. wing treaty foes "is best explained not support of Panama's right to self­ transplanted U.S. population there Carter's proposed treaty is aimed at by economics or national security, but determination timely and urgent. runs even higher. About 2,000 Zonians preserving-not weakening-the long­ rather, by a hankering for a simpler Washington has never had any busi­ booed the mention of President Car­ term grip of U.S. imperialism over the time when the United States could ness meddling in Panama's affairs. ter's name at an antitreaty rally in canal in the face of growing opposition disregard nationalist sentiments in. The debate over the new treaty re­ Balboa August 19. in Panama to imperialist domination. small countries." quires that we raise our voices more The Zonians are not happy with the As one "knowledgeable American Most of the big capitalist daily news­ loudly now than ever before to de­ idea of losing what Time magazine official" told U.S. News & World Re- papers, corporations, and mainstream mand: called a "Tropical Playground," where ·port August 22, "There are about politicians, in contrast, seem to be U.S. Hands off the Pahama Canal! New settlements bare Israeli West Bank plans By Peter Seidman a project that would probably cost tens be as conciliatory toward Washington The Israeli government has stomped of millions of dollars," Newsweek re­ as possible. They told Vance they the heel of its boot two more times on ported August 29. If Israel seriously would now be willing to sign a peace the necks of the West Bank Palestin­ had in mind the future return of these treaty with Israel and offer it diplo­ ians. territories, it would hardly make such matic relations, if the Zionists would The Zionists announced August 14 massive, permanent investments as only accept an overall settlement along that they were "equalizing" the public these. the lines proposed by Washington. services available to Arabs and Jews Bassam Shakar, Palestinian mayor But despite this show of Arab in the occupied West Bank and Gaza of the West Bank city of Nablus, "reasonableness" in the face of Israeli Strip. blasted this move as "the beginning of intransigence, Washington-showing Three days later, the Zionists autho­ our annihilation. . . . Israel's aim is where its true loyalties lie-insists that rized construction of three new Israeli political, not humanitarian." the next move toward peace must be a settlements in the West Bank. Israel's recent moves parallel its concession by the hard-pressed These moves are proof that Israel is inflexible stance toward the Palestin­ Palestinians. continuing its policy of Zionist con­ ians taken during U.S. Secretary of The Carter administration says it quest, while at the same time only State Cyrus Vance's eleven-day, six­ can't be expected to take the domestic pretending a willingness to negotiate nation Middle East tour earlier this political risks involved in even appear­ with the Arab people. month. ing to pressure Israel unless the PLO Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Israel made it clear to Vance that it accepts UN Security Council Resolu­ Begin claimed the plan to extend social rejects ahy withdrawal to its pre-1967 tion 242 guaranteeing Israel's right to Map shows sites of new Zionist services was not a move toward annex­ borders. It refused to consider the "secure and recognized boundaries." settlements in occupied West Bank ation. It was .only a step that "every creation of a Palestinian homeland. But as Israeli moves in recent territory near Hebron and Petah Tikva. man who believes in human progress And it even backed away from its months and weeks have shown, the and justice should hail," he innocently previously stated position of allowing only guarantee of a "secure boundary" said. Jordan some controL over the West the Zionists would accept from the But the extension will cover not only Bank after a peace settlement. sophy, he said, "is based on an Arab Palestinians is their signature on a health insurance, education programs, Begin also repeated his opposition to 'Mein Kampf.' " death warrant for the PLO and the and welfare schemes, but Israeli "wa­ even negotiating ·with the Palestine In contrast, the Egyptian, Jordan­ aspirations of the Palestinian masses ter, electrical and telephone systems- Liberation Organization, whose philo- ian, and Syrian governments sought to to liberate their homeland.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 19 World Outlook

1 Immigrant workers · • ~' Nwls fX 1 GnJN5o;~::!,u; punch hole in French~ UN~ERITABtE STATUi ,· .. ~ ~ gov't austerity plan wutst ·, 2f lOUVRIERIMniGR9.~oJr~ By. F.L. Derry union was willing to lead a serious From Intercontinental Press struggle against the Barre Plan, partic­ PARIS-A wave of strikes by immi­ ularly in a preelection period. Strike grant workers earlier this year left a victories became less frequent, while gaping hole in the French govern­ strikes became longer. Inflation ment's austerity program. For the first mounted and is now running at a rate time, wage increases in excess of the twice as high as the limit on wage 6.5 percent government-imposed limit increases in the Barre Plan. were won. Unemployment has also mounted The victories are doubly important sharply. Both the government and the because of the pariah status of immi­ employers have made efforts to put the grants in France. They faced police . burden of unemployment on the backs repression, threats of deportation, ra­ of the immigrants. For example, last cist attacks, and strikebreaking activi­ year the government launched a cam­ ties by France's largest union federa­ paign to "dignify manual labor." Ac­ tion, the Communist Party-dominated cording to FranGois Ceyrac, president of the National Council of Empleyers, CGT. 1 Having resisted these attacks, the immigrant workers emerged as the aim of this campaign is to "encour­ clear winners. age the French to look for certain types Immigrants play a vital role in the of jobs that until now have been held French economy. There are more than by immigrant workers" (Le Monde, 4.5 million registered immigrants in June 18, 1977). France, about 8 percent of the total Former Premier Jacques Chirac, now population. The number who have not the mayor of Paris, was, as usual, even DEMONSTRATION OF IMMIGRANT WORKERS IN FRANCE: their victory over the registered may be a million or more. more blunt, noting that "there should government austerity plan in May set an example for all French workers. The registered immigrants make up not be an unemployment problem in 11.3 percent of all wage earners. Since France while there are one million unemployed and 1.8 million immigrant they are concentrated in the worst­ incident took place just two and a half ited strike. We are convinced that they will paying jobs, they represent 20 percent workers." In June, the government proposed a months before the current wave of know how to avoid this trap by modifying of all blue-collar workers (ouvriers). On new solution to the jobs crisis. Immi­ strikes by immigrant workers. the form of their action ... ."' explained a the production line of any major auto­ Le Nouvel Economiste reported: leaflet distributed by the Communist activ­ grant workers who were unemployed ists at the factory gates. mobile plant, for example, immigrants would be offered 10,000 francs (about are an overwhelming majority. Reports Thirty days before the municipal elec­ Unhappy, the .-lOO workers of Seguin US$2,000 to return to their native ticms, the CGT does not want to make from some of the largest plants in h

20. With the walkout still less than a simultaneous translations into four week old, Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac different languages and elected a lead­ called on the army to break the strike ership to conduct the strike. which had begun on April 21. How­ The workers had -never been on ever, in contrast to previous strikes, strike before, nor had they ever formed the sanitation workers were able to a union. However, most of them sup­ World news notes win in spite of the use of the army, ported the CFDT, which led the strike through a combination of winning support efforts. By the end of the S. Africa announces new plan for white rule public support from other workers and strike, 930 of the workers had joined a "go slow" policy of the soldiers them­ the CFDT.· Faced with growing opposition to its apartheid rule, South Africa's selves. Every night, delegations from many white regime has announced a new plan to "share" government The strikers provided one of the lead different CFDT unions went down into powers with nonwhites. A ruling council would include one Asian contingents in the Paris May Day the subways with the striking workers representative and two delegates of mixed races for every four white demonstration. Here the true character to speak to those few workers still on delegates. The 18.6 million Blacks who make up more than 70 percent of the strike became evident. Hundreds the job. In this way the discipline of of the country's population would still be denied any representation. of African strikers, in African dress the strike was maintained and the Leaders of the Asian and other nonwhite communities, as well as and playing African music, marched to strikers were protected from police ha­ whites who oppose apartheid, have criticized the plan. The New York enthusiastic applause from bystand­ rassment. Times noted, "Only among blacks has the reaction been unrelievedly ers. In four hours the strikers collected negative." 15,000 francs (about US$3,000) for Strikebreaking their strike fund. S. Africa practices plan for white rule The solidarity displayed by the Two days later, Chirac made a new Last week South African cops arrested 340 students and teachers in offer, and the strike was settled May 4. CFDT towards the immigrants was unfortunately offset by the strikebreak­ the Black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg. Attempting to First breakthrough ing activities of the CGT. The CGT end a three-week school boycott, cops used attack dogs and subma­ chine guns in raids on at least a dozen schools. As with other recent strikes by immi­ Federation of Ports and Docks view Desmond Mabuse, nineteen years old, became the latest victim of grant workers, the central demands the growing influence of the CFDT concerned wage increases and bad among the immigrant workers as a South Africa's regime. Cops shot and killed Mabuse when they fired on working conditions. While the sanita­ threat. More than 83 percent of this students throwing rocks. tion workers' wages are still low and CG'f federation's members are French. they did not win all of their demands, In the one area in which the CGT S. Africa threatens holocaust for white rule their wage increase of 10-11 percent initially had some influence among the Both France and the Soviet Union have charged that South Africa is was the first settlement to break subway cleaners, they refused to call a preparing to set off a test atomic weapons explosion. South Mrica's through the 6.5'7(, government-imposed strike. Only when their supporters Prime Minister John Vorster denies the accusation. However, the white were down to fewer than 100 did they limit. regime has received 229 pounds of enriched uranium (necessary for finally join the action, although they The fact that the settlement was producing nuclear weapons) over the last twenty years. France has a made with the agreement of Chira

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 21 What now for 'Guardian,' BCP? - Peking gives ~chairman Klonsky' the nod By Les Evans years have taken to making a great A curious meeting took place in fuss over deservedly obscure people. Peking July 20 that was reported at Like the time they invited Richard length in the August 1 and 8 issues of Nixon b~ck to Peking for a state visit the Call. The Call is the newspaper of after he had been run out of the White the "Communist Party (M-L [Marxist- House for corruption and criminality. Leninist])," which until recently was In the case of Nixon, however, it known as the October League, a small made some sense that Mao, operating American Maoist organization. from a perspective of alliances with It seems that the Chinese govern- capitalist politicians and governments, ment, after more than a decade of thought he could pressure President silence toward its U.S. followers, has Ford by embarrassing him through a decided to publicly embrace the CP meeting with Nixon. But does Peking (M-L) as its official American represen- really believe today that Michael tative. Klonsky and the CP (M-L) can help it Michael Klonsky (now referred to in improve its bargaining position with the Call as Chairman Klonsky) re- American imperialism? ceived an official state interview with Of more interest' are the repercus- Hua Kuo-feng, who solidified his con- sions to be expected among U.S. Mao- trol of the Chinese Communist Party ists and other Peking camp followers. through the purge of the "Gang of The October League, after all, was not Four" and their followers after the the only contender for the mantle. It is death of Mao Tsetung last year. not distinguished from the other Mao- A banquet was given for the visiting ist organizations by its size-it is per- American Maoists in the Great Hall of haps half the size of the more influen- the People, where top leaders of the tial Revolutionary Communist Party Chinese party and 13tate gave toasts to led by Bob Avakian. Nor is it outstand- the "fraternal parties." Li Hsien-nien, ing for the readership and influence of China's top economic planner, went so its newspaper where, among the Mao- far as to declare: ist groups, the weekly Guardian is "The Communist Party (M-L) of the plainly in the lead. U.S. will surely continue to achieve The distinguishing characteristic of new successes in its fight against the the October League (Communist Party monopoly capitalist class at home and [M-L]) is its slavish devotion to what- the two hegemonic powers, by integrat- ever line happens to be currently ing the universal truth of Marxism- emanating from Peking. Leninism with the concrete revolution- C. Clark Kissinger, one of the intel- ary practice of its own country, going lectual lights of the Revolutionary i deep among the masses· and boldly Communist Party, acquired a certain CHAIRMAN KLONSKY TOASTS CHAIRMAN HUA: The distinguishing characteristic arousing the masses." fame· at a Maoist conference in New of the Communist Party (M-L) is its slavish devotion to the latest line from Peking. According to the Maoist-leaning York last November for his remark weekly Guardian, "The event was that "if a chimpanzee had been elected given front page coverage with photo- Chairman of the Chinese Communist graphs in the Chinese press." Party, he would have gotten a tele- served. But this raises a special prob­ "The struggle, initiated and led by There is something more than a little gram of congratulations from Michael lem for the other American Maoist the party and Chairman Mao Tsetung, bizarre in all of this. It is true that Klonsky." groups and publications, especially the exposed attempts by Teng and __ his Chinese government officials in recent Klonsky's reputation is well de- RCP. If Peking will accept into its followers to restore capitalism through camp only such servile toadies as a reversal of the Great Proletarian Klonsky represents, what place-if Cultural Revolution ... the Political any:-is there for other groups in the Bureau of the Central Committee bf Maoist spectrum? the party unanimously adopted a reso­ The RCP has tried very hard to lution by Chairman Mao Tsetung to evade this question. At the New York dismiss Teng Hsiao-ping from all posts conference in November it assured its both inside and outside the party .... members that it was the true Maoist Teng ... represented the bourgeois party and that Klonsky was a pitiful class in China" (the Call, May 1, 1976). faker. Now Chairman Klonsky has an In the August 1, 1977, Call, in con­ . ironclad mandate from Peking. What trast, Klonsky himself writes: will the RCP do now? "A great victory has been won .... If any of their members, out of Teng Hsiao-ping, the target of an misguided faith in the late Mao Tse­ attack by the 'gang of four,' was re­ tung, are considering capitulating to turned to all of his former posi­ Chairman Klonsky, they should con­ tions. . .. " sider one example of what such capitu­ And what of Mao's resolution? The lation means for their political and "unanimous" vote of the political bu­ moral integrity. A little more than a reau? The "bourgeois class"? year ago, when Teng Hsiao-p'ing was dismissed from office on Mao's per­ sonal order as a "capitalist restoration­ I suppose Klonsky figures that a CHAIRMAN HUA HONORS CHAIRMAN KLONSKY: Official state photograph shows ist," Klonsky's Call had the following dinner in Peking with Hua Kuo-feng CP (M-L) delegation with top Chinese leaders in the Great Hall of the People. to say: should be worth something.

Gus Hall takes 'Eurocommunists' to task By Peter Seidman remarks about ·the socialist coun­ gressive and that it is not a But despite his charge that the The protests by leaders of the tries. I would like to know why I workable and realistic alternative to Eurocommunists "accommodate" to French, Italian, and Spanish Com­ haven't seen or heard of any such capitalism." "anti-communism," Hall admits that munist parties against violations of remarks made by you or other lead­ Then why, Hall asks, "do some, at bottom there is political agree­ democratic rights in the Soviet ers of the CPUSA?" like [Spanish CP leader Santiago] ment on basic policies between the Union and Eastern Europe have Hall answers that the CPUSA Carillo and the Maoist group in the hard-line Moscow Stalinists and the received widespread attention. disagrees with the so-called Euro­ leadership of the Communist Party new "Euro-Stalinists." "There are no But until recently, Gus Hall, the communists. of China, join with the propagan­ disagreements about communists general secretary of the American The Soviet Union and East Euro­ dists of imperialism to slander the participating in electoral coalitions," Communist Party, reserved public pean countries, he insists, are the very socio-economic system they ad­ he writes. "There are no differences comment on this trend, which has lands of socialism. Anyone who vocate?" about seeking a peaceful path to become known as Eurocommunism. believes otherwise is being suckered The explanation is simple, accord: socialism." In the July 30 issue of World by a mass-media campaign of the ing to Hall. "The sharp edge of anti­ This is a very revealing observa-. Magazine, however., Hall breaks his "capitalist ideologues and Big Lie communism is against the countries tion. silence. He replies to a letter from a journalists." where socialism is a reality." So the It shows that the Eurocommunists reader, who asks: Their aim, Hall writes, "is to con­ Eurocommunists "try to bypass the are taking their distance from the "I am curious about the stories vince our people of a basic falsehood sharp edge by opportunistically go­ Kremlin's violations of democratic I've been reading in the press about that socialism is inherently anti­ ing around it. It is accommodation. rights only to more effectively peddle some leaders of some Communist democratic, anti-human, bureau­ It is an attempt to gain popularity Moscow's overall policy of collabora- parties in Europe who make critical cratic, dictatorial, war-like and ag- on a false premise." Continued on page 30 Civil liberties victory_ Judge tells spies to pay for mail tampering By Diane Wang search activities. In addition to the For the first time the CIA will have large out-of-pocket expenditures in op­ to pay money for its crimes against erating the program, there has been a democratic rights. On August 17 Fed­ perceptible widespread loss of confi­ eral Judge Jack Weinstein ordered the dence in the integrity of the mails and government to pay damages to three in the right of individuals to be free people whose mail had been illegally from surreptitious intrusions into their opened by the CIA. privacy by government officials." Norman Birnbaum, Mary Rule Mac­ Taxpayers will also end up paying Millen, and B. Leonard A very sued the the damages for the CIA's crimes, the CIA for illegally tampering with mail judge noted. But it is important that they had sent to and received from the CIA pay damages, Weinstein con­ people in the Soviet Union. cluded, to make it clear that the Consti­ The CIA opened their mail as part of tution and laws are not just "preten­ a project that lasted from 1953 to 1973. tious, empty promises." During those years the spies copied at "In this country we do not pay lip least 215,000 pieces of mail and put 1.5 service to the value of human rights million names into their computers. and individual dignity-we mean to Judge Weinstein described the CIA live by our ideals," wrote the judge. mail opening as "only part of a general Weinstein also ordered the govern­ pattern of post-World War II lawless­ ment to write each of the plaintiffs a ness and abuse of power exemplifying letter of apology. The proposed draft of 'contempt for the law and the Constitu­ the letter begins: tion' by government." "The purpose of this letter is to extend to you the sincerest regrets of Last May an advisory jury in the the United States Government for any case recommended that the govern­ harm you may have experienced as· a ment pay the three citizens damages result of the interference with your ranging from $2,500 to $10,000. mail." Weinstein decided to order damages After assuring that such mail open­ of only $1,000 to each of the three ings will never happen again (more plaintiffs. He explained that none of "pretentious, empty promises"?), the the three had suffered consequences the judge noted, "that this panel of plaintiffs in this case were substan­ letter concludes, "It is our hope, how­ from the mail openings such as loss of average citizens-representing a broad tial." ever, that the efforts of the government money or jobs requiring a larger dam­ range of economic, educational, social, Weinstein pointed out, "The Ameri­ ... will, to some extent, restore your age payment. and political experience-uniformly can people have already paid a consid­ trust in the integrity of our free institu­ "It was, nevertheless, instructive," found that the damages suffered by the erable price for the CIA's illegal mail- tions."

Sinister tests revealed CIA experiments sought mind-control drug By Steve Wattenmaker According to the new information, • U.S. Public Health Service Hospi­ shut in dark, soundproof rooms for up From Intercontinental Press the· CIA conducted secret medical tal, Lexington, Kentucky-From 1952 to thirty minutes at a time. Leonard Dr. Frank Olson, a civilian research experiments from 1950 until the mid- to 1963 LSD was tested on alcoholics Rubenstein, a researcher who worked scientist for the army, committed sui­ 1970s under the code names Bluebird, and drug addicts confined here. The on the project, reported that one of the cide in 1953 by throwing himself from Artichoke, MK Ultra, and MK Delta. A researcher heading the program, Dr. nurses had to be treated subsequently the tenth floor window of a New York 1963 CIA report described the twenty­ Harris Isbell, was eager to please the for schizophrenia. City hotel. five-year program as "research and CIA. In 1962 a CIA doctor approached the Twenty-four years later, an investi­ development of chemical, biological On one occasion he wrote to his head of Tulane University's depart­ gation of the Central Intelligence and radiological materials capable of agency contact, "I will write you a ment of psychiatry and neurology to Agency turned up evidence that Olson employment in clandestine operations quick letter as soon as I get the stuff ask if he was interested in doing re­ had killed himself while under the to control human behavior." into a man or two." search on the "pain center" in the influence of LSD, a mind-altering drug. High on the program's priorities was brain. The researcher, Dr. Robert He had been slipped the drug as an an attempt to develop methods "by • Atlanta federal penitentiary-LSD Heath, was known for his pioneering unwitting guinea pig in a CIA which we can get information from a experiments were carried out here on work in implanting tiny electrodes in "thought-control" experiment. person against his will and without his prisoners from 1955 until 1964. Dr. the brain's "pleasure center" as a way According to new CIA documents knowledge," according to a 1952 pro­ Carl Pfeiffer, a pharmacologist, was to treat schizophrenia. recently released under the Freedom of ject Artichoke memorandum. paid $25,000 a year by the CIA for his Heath reportedly turned down the Information Act, the agency carried The.memo went on to ask whether it work in Atlanta and the similar experi­ CIA but later did some drug experi­ out sweeping experiments with danger­ was possible "to get control of an ments on prisoners at the Bordentown ments for the agency. ous drugs, psychosurgery, radiation, individual to the point where he will do Reformatory in New Jersey. A summary of a 1953 meeting re­ electric shock, and other techniques to our bidding against his will and even • Mt. Sinai hospital, New York ported that CIA scientists were seeking find a possible means for controlling against such fundamental laws of City-Another doctor who contracted to work with scientists of an unidenti­ human behavior. nature as self-preservation?" with the CIA was a prominent New fied foreign country, since unlike the More than 1,000 pages of documents In pursuit of that goal, CIA and York pediatrician, Dr. Harold Abram­ United States that country allowed describing the experiments were civilian scientists performed experi­ son, who tested LSD on patients at Mt. experiments with anthrax, a disease turned over to John Marks, a freelance ments on allegedly "voluntary" sub­ Sinai hospital. Abramson's name first contracted from cattle and sheep. journalist who made the material pub­ jects in federal prisons and mental surfaced when it was disclosed he had At Georgetown University in Wash­ lic at a July 20 news conference in hospitals as well as on an undeter­ treated Frank Olson shortly before ington, D.C., and at other institutions, Washington. Marks is also an asso­ mined number of unwitting Olson's suicide. the CIA funded tests of "knockout" ciate of the Center for National Secur­ participants-like Frank Olson. • Massachusetts Mental Health drugs on terminally ill cancer patients. ity Studies,' a private organization set Earlier in the same year Olson died, Center, Boston-Beginning in 1957, In related experiments two biochemists up to uncover abuses by the CIA and the army sponsored a similar test of Dr. Robert Hyde tested LSD for the were paid $43,000 to analyze the "bod­ other government spy agencies. psychochemicals at the New York CIA on doctors, nurses, and attendants ily fluids" of terminally ill patients WhiJe the existence of the CIA's State Psychiatric Institute in Manhat­ at the hospital. Hyde then continued who had lapsed into delirium or coma. investigations into behavior control tan. In the secret experiments, Harold his experiments after he transferred to The object of the experiment was to has been known since 1975, the new Blauer, a professional tennis player, the Butler Health Center in Provi­ isolate a natural toxin that the CIA documents provide chilling details of died after being given a fatal dose of a dence, Rhode Island. could use to artificially induce delirium the vast scope of the CIA's efforts mescaline derivative. Other behavior-control research or mental confusion. throughout the 1950s and 1960s. spanned a wide range of possibilities, Evidently the similarity between A follow-up investigation by repor­ CIA bartenders from research on other drugs to the i their own research and earlier experi­ ters Nicholas Horrock, John Crewd­ In 1955 the CIA made arrangements implantation of electrodes in the ments performed in Nazi concentration son, Boyce Rensberger, Jo Thomas, with agents of the Bureau of Narcotics brain's "pain center." camps didn't escape the CIA's atten­ and Joseph Treaster, published in the to surreptitiously test LSD on unwit­ tion. August 2 New York Times, revealed ting patrons of New York City and San 'Brainwashing' The August 2 New York Times re­ that prominent hospitals in the United Francisco bars. Some of the subjects At McGill University in Montreal, ported that CIA scientists-undaunted States and Canada were also involved became violently ill and had to be scientists tested drugs and other by the Nuremberg convictions of Third in the CIA's $25 million thought­ hospitalized, never knowing exactly "brainwashing" techniques suggested Reich ·doctors for "crimes against control program. what happened to them. by the CIA. While psychiatric patients humanity"-pored over the works of In all, some eighty private and pub­ Other LSD experiments were con­ were the primary subjects, at least one psychologists wl:.o worked on behavior­ lic institutions participated. ducted across the United States: experiment involved a group of nurses control projects under Hitler.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 23 Big talk, little action at SCLC convention By Don Davis and Malik Miah ATLANTA-One by one they came, some of the nation's best-known Black leaders, to tell the Southern Christian Leadership Conference national con­ vention that Jimmy Carter has not come through on his campaign prom­ ises, arid that it was time for Blacks to act. "Carter has an agenda, and it's not our agenda," thundered Rev. Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). "If we don't have a job or an income, why are we not still marching?" Rev. Joseph Lowery, the new presi­ dent of SCLC, promised to keep the heat on Carter. . "We're going to call you long dis­ tance, we're going to send you tele­ grams, we're going to send you letters, and if that don't work, Jimmy," Low­ ery declared, "we're going to put on our marching shoes." Finally there was Benjamin Hooks, national executive director of the NAACP, saying it was time that Blacks told Carter: "We put you there, and we're waiting for you to do something, not just for us but for the poor and the disinherited." . Militant/Richard Rathers Each attack on Carter, each call for DR. JOSEPH LOWERY (second from left): new SCLC head blasted Carter, but offered no panI o f ac tton action, drew cheers from the 300 dele­ gates and guests at the three-day con­ vention that ended August 19. "We think Mr. Carter is moving in the National Student Coalition "concern" over Carter's failure to give When Lowery promised that if Car­ the right direction, just the pace is a Against Racism (NSCAR), gave dele­ some of his Black campaign workers ter did not make good his promises he little slow. The pace is so much slower gates copies of a letter from NSCAR to jobs in his administration. would hear "the tramp, tramp, tramp than the pace he kept in the campaign, Urban League President Vernon Jor­ The convention delegates spent most of our feet," the convention stood and the pace at which he made commit­ dan. The letter asks that the leadership of their time wondering who would be applauded wildly. One young Black ments." meeting, first proposed by Jordan, be the new president of SCLC. woman turned to another and said, Asked how much longer he would broadened. to more fully represent the Local newspapers billed the race "He's going to make me join SCLC in a wait for Carter to reform before calling Black community, especially students, between acting President Lowery and minute. I want to see some action." on Blacks to mobilize, Lowery replied, who played a key role in the civil Atlanta SCLC head Hosea Williams as She won't see it in the SCLC. - "We're open to the Holy Spirit." rights victories of the 1960s. an ideological contest. Lowery was Despite the talk of marching, it was Lowery's only real plan of action is pictured as the choice of the conserva­ clear that Lowery and the others have to get on a plane_ to go to a meeting of NSCAR also handed out its "Full tive wing of SCLC headed by Coretta no intention of mobilizing Black people twenty Black leaders in New York City Equality Now" statement that calls for Scott King, widow of SCLC founder to fight to defend their rights and August 29. The meeting, which will be a broad national Black conference to Martin Luther King, Jr.; Williams was living standards as they did in the closed to all other representatives of draw up a strategy for the Black move­ said to be the militant ready to lead 1960s-with picket lines, teach-ins, the Black community, as well as the ment. The statement calls for reliance masses into the streets. mass meetings, and demonstrations. press, is to draw up a new list of on the power of Black people mobilized Actually, the strategy of these so­ demands to present Carter. to defend their rights, not on Demo­ In fact, both Lowery and Williams called Black leaders is to go back and The convention endorsed the leader­ cratic or Republican party politicians. share the same strategy of relying on talk with the man they say has lied to ship meeting, but some felt it was not There was no real discussion of Democratic Party politicians. Williams Blacks to get their votes and then done an adequate response to the attacks on strategy on the floor of the SCLC has been elected to the state legislature nothing for them-Jimmy Carter. Black people. convention. The resolutions discussion, as a Democrat, and the last time he Despite Carter's refusal to provide One delegate, Jim Lawson of Los where strategy might have come up, tried to mobilize Black people it was to jobs or a decent welfare system, and Angeles, told the convention, "If we was relegated to less than an hour of a come hear the pray-to-be-rich con artist his attacks on abortion rights and want to challenge the president, we do sparsely attended final-day session. Reverend Ike. school desegregation, they believe that it not by answering him, but by organ­ The convention adopted resolutions The power struggle was settled be­ all it takes is a persuasive argument izing folk." endorsing Carter's choice of Alabama hind closed doors. In return for back­ from some Black leaders to make Car­ He said there seemed to be "too Federal Judge Frank Johnson as the ing Lowery for president, Williams was ter "do right." much emphasis on talking with him, new FBI chief, Vernon Jordan's criti­ given a full-time job as executive direc­ Shortly after his fire-and-brimstone not enough on talking with him with cisms of Carter, and the effort to tor of SCLC, and this "unity" slate speech, Lowery told the Militant, "We power." umomze southern textile giant J.P. was approved by the convention with­ have every confidence in Mr. Carter. Tony Austin, national coordinator of Stevens. One resolution expressed out debate. Calif. govemor: 'LA. busing costs too much' By Joanie Quinn Brown's phony "white flight" argu- The millionaire governor went on to huge agribusinesses, giant oil compa- LOS ANGELES-California's Gov. ments received immediate backup from say that as far as he's concerned, nies, and financial concerns such as Jerry Brown has urged continued seg- the Los Angeles Times. Along with minority students in Los Angeles can Bank of America. Such a tax increase regation of Los Angeles schools as an Brown's remarks, the Times ran a whistle· in the wind for money to fi- could easily finance desegregation, alternative to the "high cost" of busing companion article entitled, "47 Percent nance desegregation. smog control, and help for old people in a televised interview here. White Flight Under Desegregation "I think the judge ought to realize," too. In a thinly veiled threat to deny Plan Predicted." he said, "that there are certain eco- But school desegregation would not state support, Brown warned Superior The opening lines of the story stated, nomic constraints ... if we give more even have to wait on this. The state Court Judge Paul Egly against order- "The draft of an environmental impact money for schools, that's less money currently has, Brown boasts, a surplus ing a broad desegregation plan for Los report prepared for the Los Angeles for hospitals. That's less money for of $2.5 billion! Angeles schools this fall. Board of Education predicts a loss of fighting smog and for helping old peo- Why, then,· does Brown demagogi- between 103,000 and 118,000 anglo pie. cally claim California can't "afford" "Philosophers and judges can issue students by 1980 if a mandatory deseg- "We live in an era of limits," Brown desegregation? their edicts," Brown said, "but we live regation plan is put into effect here." piously continued. "We want to have a Most immediately, because he is now in a free country, and if people don't good program, but we've only got so firing up his 1978 bandwagon. With like what they see in their schools, In fact, the study actually showed many cookies in the jar." his previously cultivated reputation as they just get in their cars and go . . . that more than half of that 47 percent Coming from Brown, this statement the liberal Democratic's chief guru, he Now, that's a reality." would be lost through a combination of has the same ring of sincerity as Cal calculates he can now go after the Brown's message is crystal clear. a declining white birthrate and white Worthington, Los Angeles's largest racist, antibusing vote without losing The "reality" that some whites won't families leaving the city for reasons used-car dealer, pushing a hot one. support from Black and Chicano politi- like what "they see in their schools"­ unrelated to desegregation. This infor­ cums. more Black, Latino, and Asian mation, however, was buried in the Budget experts have indicated that, But his unprecedented move to pub­ students-carries more weight in this last paragraph of the article. if needed, more state funding is readily licly bbckjack a judge into ruling on liberal Democrat's office than the Brown's arguments against desegre­ available. Some of them have proposed the side of raeism should help make rights of students of the oppressed gation don't end with the scare tactic a modest increase in taxes on the dear what he really is-a deadly nationalities. of "white flight." superprofits raked in by California's enemy of civil rights.

24 Workers fired, schools gutted Penna. 'bud crisis': cover for cutbacks By Jon Hillson their protests to calling on the legisla­ PHILADELPHIA-A seven-week ture to "pass the budget." AFSCME deadlock over passage of the Pennsyl­ officers led angry workers to various vania state budget was broken in the Republican headquarters to demand early morning hours of August 20, that the Republican legislators join under the threat of an unprecedented "probudget" Democrats. strike by state workers. This appearance of sharp division The absence of a budget prevented between the two parties-highlighted the release of funds earmarked for by a series of late-night fistfights be­ fiscal 1978, which began July 1. For tween frustrated legislators last week the past three weeks 110,000 state in the state capitol building-was employees have gone unpaid, and m'ore hardly the reality. than 800,000 welfare recipients had In fact, the two-party shell-game been deprived of all funds, including never worked better. medical and food-stamp benefits. Millionaire Democratic Gov. Milton On August 19, according to leaders Shapp, who was booed by thousands of of the American Federation of State Philadelphia parents just two months County and Municipal Employees: ago for refusing aid for city schools, which represents 70,000 state workers, managed to appear as the white knight 60 to 70 percent of AFSCME members compared to the antilabor Republi­ participated in a sick-out to protest the cans. lack of a budget. State officials claimed Suburban Republicans and Demo­ the figure was much lower. crats who opposed the budget appeared Nearly 1,000 AFSCME members and financially "wise" -against new welfare recipients took to the Philadel­ taxes-compared to "spendthrift" ur­ phia streets the same day to demand ban Democrats. passage of a budget. A smaller demon­ This sound and fury did signify stration of teachers, state workers, and something, though. It showed that the recipients took place the previous day. Democrats and Republicans are wil­ The anger of state workers was used ling to stop welfare payments and by union officials to rally support for withold paychecks from workers to put the budget and to point the finger at across their budget-cutting plans. Republicans for refusing to vote for it. The same politicians who throw But the spectacle of a financially workers in jail for striking "essential paralyzed state, and the drive by union services" do not hesitate to cut off leaders and Democratic Party politi­ those services when the banks and big cians to press for a budget-passing business demand austerity in state "rescue," obscures the real story of the spending. stalemate. That is a story of bipartisan So now Pennsylvania has a budget. budget-slashing that attacks the living But state workers' jobs remain in standards of hundreds of thousands of jeopardy. Pennsylvania workers. Philadelphia schools are still being The new budget includes a paltry $20 gutted. million in aid for the devastated Phila­ State universities and colleges face delphia school system. This amount State employee protests at capitol building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania multi-million-dollar cutbacks. bare1y dents the impact of a whopping And a tax hike looms large for all $173-million cutback in the city's the state's working people. schools, which are under the axe of the tion of Teachers. PFT officials were nearly 7,000 state workers already It took an eleventh-hour vote from most massive layoffs and program silent during the budget crisis, perhaps fired because of the state "fiscal crisis" bedridden Democrat Ulysses Shelton slashes in the country today. dumbfounded by the failure of their will be rehired. to pass the budget. This was fitting, The legislature also approved a $30- strategy of reliance on Democrats and Omitted from the new budget is $300 because Shelton is awaiting trial on million loan for the school system. The Republicans in the state capitol. million in aid anticipated by state charges of extortion. interest that must be paid to the state More than 9,000 school-department colleges and universities. Approval of But the real extortion was the extor­ will only deepen the crisis of education employees have already been laid off such funding is now tied to an ex­ tion of Pennsylvania wor,king people in the city. in Philadelphia. How many will be pected tax increase. by the Democratic and Republican Such a pittance falls far short of the rehired in light of the state aid and AFSCME officials refused to lead a politicians-who used subservient hoped-for bailout ballyhooed by the loans is undetermined. fight against these layoffs and cut­ union officials as enforcers of the rip­ leadership of the Philadelphia Federa- It also remains unclear how many of backs in social services. They confined off.

Threat to send troops against Stearns miners By Nancy Cole eight to six. He exhorted the state October 25. figure out who the threat of national A circuit court judge has threatened police to "arrest them all" if there were No guards, cops, or company offi­ guard troops is aimed against-or who to call on national guard troops "to ever more than six, other than at shift cials have been charged with any they would be used against. end the combat" in the year-long strike change. wrongdoing, despite their intensive It's a threat that deserves a response by coal miners in Stearns, Kentucky. For the first time he put a limit of campaign of harassment and provoca­ from the entire labor movement On August 17, McCreary Circuit fourteen on the- number of guards tion. through a vigorous support campaign Court Judge J.B. Johnson, Jr., stif­ permitted in the mine compound. He It doesn't take much imagination to for the Stearns strikers. fened his court order against the 153 also prohibited them from "patrolling" striking miners and imposed a couple outside the fence-enclosed compound of limitations on the coal company's and from wearing "camouflage cloth­ armed guards. ing." If these orders aren't carried out "to The judge's order stipulates that the the letter," Johnson said, he will ask gun thugs are to limit their arsenal to the governor to send in the national shotguns and sidearms instead of the guard. high-powered or automatic weapons The Stearns miners have been on they have been using. strike for a United Mine Workers con­ tract since July 1976. The Blue Dia­ According to strikers, twice now the mond Coal Company refuses to agree violence has moved from the mine site to a union-controlled safety committee to nearby Whitley City when shotgun with the authority to get miners out of blasts shattered windows in the the mine when conditions are danger­ UMW A headquarters there. Both times ous. it occurred during the night and no one Blue Diamond hired gun thugs early was ·at the union offices. this year to "protect" its property. The latest of the two incidents fol­ That's when shooting at the mine site lowed the wounding of the seventh began. Since then it has been a daily guard at the mine site. occurrence. Twenty-seven strikers, a union orga­ One striker and seven guards have nizer, and several other individuals been shot. (One guard shot himself face trumped-up charges for one of the accidentally, the company admits.) early shooting incidents. Four of the Judge Johnson's August 17 order miners charged were out of state when lowered the number of strike pickets the shooting supposedly occurred. Un11Pd M111e Workers Journal 'Kar••n Ohmans allowed at the mine entrance from Their trials are scheduled to begin Weapons and ammunition confiscated from company gun thugs last spring

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 25 As a- fuU-ernployment pl'ogram, .Car­ some -factory workers who were com­ ter's welfare plan is a fraud. It would plaining about "welfare cheats." not significantly reduce unemploy­ Although all studies show that the ment, and it would attack the living vast majority of welfare recipients are standards of all workers. young children, their mothers, the Jay Lipner, an attorney for the Food aged, and the disabled, the "welfare Research and Action Center, a public hum" remains a favorite scapegoat of interest law firm, told the Militant that capitalist politicians. "the program is bad for two reasons. Here is an example of a typical error The benefit is too low, and the jobs are that feeds the statistics about "welfare not continuous jobs." cheats." Say an elderly woman in New York is living alone and receiving Driving down wages $238.65 a month in Supplemental Most hypocritical is the way the plan Security Income. appears to promise "jobs for all," while If she moves in with her sister to it actually aims at reorganizing the save rent costs, she is eligible for only labor market-especially the public $185.98. If she is not paying at least sector-to drive down wages. half the food and rent costs, she can "There will be a lot of displacement get only $126.72. of people now in public-service jobs," If she has failed to come in to a Lipner warned. Social Security office to report this He gave the example of how hospital brazen act of financial trickery, she is administrators might replace clerical being overpaid and is a "cheat." or maintenance workers paid $5.00 an hour with "job program" people get­ Welfare for the rich ting only $2.65. If income assistance of all kinds Carter's plan, Lipner said, "will were called "welfare," it would be clear drive down the prevailing wage and that all classes in our society receive it. create a permanent subclass of Besides basic welfare (home relief workers." In the long run, all working and aid for dependent children and people will suffer. their parents), there is assistance for Existing work-relief plans show how adequate nutrition (food stamps) and such schemes are used to attack the for the aged and disabled (Supplemen­ living standards of government em­ tal Security Income). Polls show over­ ployees while trapping recipients in whelming acceptance of the aims of dead-end jobs. these programs. New York City's Work Relief Em­ ployment Program, for instance, was Other special benefits go to vete­ set up to place home relief recipients in rans. For regularly employed workers public-service jobs. These lasted only there are Social Security, worker's eighteen months and were mainly compensation, and unemployment in­ busywork or simple Clerical jobs, with surance, as well as private and union pay little more than the basic welfare plans to supplement these. grant. Few working people-whatever their When massive budget cutbacks hit attitude toward "welfare" in general­ New York, some city workers found would refuse these types of govern­ themselves-after exhausting their un­ ment aid or begrudge them to others. employment insurance and being They are regarded as a right, won forced onto welfare-back at their old through long struggles. jobs, but working for a pittance. But all these "government hand­ outs" are dwarfed by the billions in Other laid-off city workers were welfare for the rich. There are the fat rehired under the Comprehensive Em­ pensions for Nixon, Ford, and other ployment and Training Act (CETA)­ crooks who have retired from "public as new workers without seniority, service." There are subsidies and tax pension, or other benefits, and often at giveaways to giant corporations. There lower wages. are the cost overruns to weapons This arrangement pitted unionized contractors. All these and more go on city workers against the unemployed the public tab. for the few CETA posts and alienated The welfare and social-service the Black and Puerto Rican communi­ budget itself is a major source of funds By Steve Beck and adding a 5 percent credit on in­ ties, which could have been allies of fqr these high-income welfare cheats. and John Singleterry comes up to $9,000. Families would get the city unions in a fight against the Medicaid overcharging, nursing-home On August 6 President Carter an­ subsidies also, but at a higher rate if cuts. corruption, day-care leases (some land­ nounced his intention to "totally scrap the employed family head is working lords in New York are still being paid our existing welfare system and to in a private job than if he or she is Perpetuating poverty after the centers have closed down) are . replace it with a program for better employed by the government. For all his fine talk about "better just a few of these. jobs and income." • Able-bodied single adults may be jobs" and "respecting the less advan­ Then there are the welfare slum­ Under this shiny new title is the included in this federal program for taged," Carter's welfare plan will lords, who specialize in renting to poor same coercive aim of all relief systems the first time, instead of being left to perpetuate poverty, not end it. Why clients at exorbitant rates. In 1973 one under capitalism-to force the poor to state or local relief. doesn't Carter simply create jobs at of these, the Broadway Central in New work at the lowest possible wages, • Total expenditure for welfare and decent wages for all the unemployed? York, collapsed and killed four people. while providing the minimum assist­ jobs would be $30.7 billion. Because, he says, he must "insure In last winter's bitter cold, two elderly ance necessary to prevent massive that work will always be more profit­ people froze to death in an unheated unrest among the unemployed. able than welfare, and that a private Harlem welfare hotel. Carter's plan has the following high­ 'Interested persons' job, or public job not supported by the All working people have a stake in lights:, Carter claimed that "after careful federal government, will always bring fighting the disguised assault on our consultation with state and local lead­ in more income than a special job living standards that appear in Car­ • It promises 1.4 million public­ ers, members of Congress and many created with federal funds." ter's plan. service jobs for low-income workers. interested persons throughout the In other words, the government sees Already attacks are underway on Pay would be the minimum wage, far country, we've now provided $2.8 bil­ relief as a way to keep people in unemployment insurance, with entitle­ below the government's own estimates lion in added benefits." Carter had poverty rather than upset low wage ment periods cut and benefits to of what a family needs to live decently. - originally proclaimed his intention to levels in private industry. The aim is strikers eliminated. Social Security, a Jobs would be temporary-one year hold the cost of the "reformed" welfare always to keep a section of the working program that workers have come to followed by an "intensive job search." system to no higher than the current class available as a pool of cheap take for granted, is also threatened­ Jobs would go only to one parent in a programs. labor. Carter's appointees are toying with the family. Did a few squawks from congres­ Capitalism carefully nurtures div­ idea of raising retirement eligibility to • Mothers would be required to work sional liberals stay the hand of the isions within the working class to age sixty-eight or cuttting disability part time if their youngest child was Carter administration budget cutters? depress wages and sabotage workers' benefits. over six and full time if their youngest Or could some of those "many inter­ resistance to exploitation. Racism, Jobs for all could be provided by child was over fourteen. ested persons" who influenced the sexism, age discrimination, crusades shortening the workweek at no reduc­ • Existing programs-food stamps, decision have been the masses of poor against undocu~ented workers-all tion in pay. A massive program of Aid for Families with Dependent Chil­ people who poured into the streets of are used to create "pariah" sections of useful public works-at uriion-scale dren, and Supplemental Security In­ New York during the July blackout? the working class. Not the least of wages!-could create millions of jobs come for the aged, blind, and The slight increase in welfare spend­ these devices is the stigma of being on and benefit all of society. Those unable disabled-would all be dissolved into ing has indeed been enough to quiet welfare. to find work for .any reason should the new setup, with substantial loss of most criticism from Democratic and While in office, Nixon invited John­ receive benefits equivalent to union benefits to some. Republican politicians. ny Cash to perform in the White wages. • The federal government would Yet the total federal assistance for House. Nixon asked him to sing These demands can win the support assume a greater share of welfare millions of poor people remains "Welfare Cadillac," a ditty about a of the unemployed ... the ranks of the _costs, guaranteeing a 10 percent reduc­ scarcely one-fourth the cost of the $120 family living high off the taxpayers. unions . . . the Black, Puerto Rican, tion in welfare spending to each state billion war budget. The funds are (To his credit, Cash refused.) and Chicano communities ... public­ within the first year of the program. clearly inadequate to provide the prom­ George McGovern, in his 1972 cam­ service workers facing layoffs ... • Carter promised a slight tax cut ised number of jobs. And strikingly paign against Nixon, also tried to young people unable to find a first job. for the working poor, continuing the absent are funds to provide child care score points by attacking the poor: A Together they have the power to defeat present 10 percent tax credit for a for the welfare mothers who will sup­ TV spot showed the Democratic candi­ the real "welfare cheats" of Wall Street family of four earning up to $4,000, posedly be forced to- work. date enthusiastically agreeing with and Washington.

26 Houston socialist candidate 'Workers need our own political party' Reprinted below is an "Open Carter's declaration of a "fnoral own not one, but two parties-the Letter to the Working People of equivalent of war" on the energy Republican and the Democratic. Houston" from Diane Sarge, crisis fits right in with industry's Working people have no party. Socialist Workers Party candi­ own battle plan. He used phony CIA That's the problem. We fight date for mayor of Houston. Soc­ reports to invent scare stories of through the organized strength of ialist campaigners got a friendly shortages and to cover up the oil our unions and on the picket lines, response as they handed out companies' blame for soaring energy only to see our gains frittered away 2,500 copies of this open letter costs. Environmental protection has at the ballot box. Instead of our at Hughes Tool Company, where been forgotten. union political action committees Sarge works. The letter is also With millions unemployed, the handing over our money to the being distributed at other Hous­ work week should be shortened with Democrats and Republicans-the ton plants. no reduction in pay. A national politicians of the rich, we should use Diane Sarge is a shop steward public works program could provide it to build our own party. We should in Local 1742, United Steel­ socially necessary jobs for all. There follow the example of Chicanos who workers of America. In last is more than enough money for this have broken from the Democratic February's USWA election, she in the $100 billion war budget. and Republican parties and formed was an active campaigner for Ed The ruling rich create scapegoats their .own party-the Raza Unida Sadlowski and the Steelworkers to blame for the economic crisis. U.S. Party. Fight Back slate. Steel is leading a campaign to blame We don't let corporate executives Addresses of the Houston so­ immigrant workers from Mexico, join our unions. We shouldn't join cialist campaign offices can be using blatant racism to pit us their political parties. We should found in the Socialist Directory against our Mexican brothers and have our own: a labor party based on page 31. DIANE· SARGE: Steel union activist sisters. Our bosses do the hiring and on the power of the unions. and Socialist Workers Party candidate firing, and they alone are to blame We need to stop fighting with our for mayor of Houston. for unemployment. As Ed Sad­ hands tied behind our backs. Rather Dear Friend, lowski, recent Fight Back candidate than relying on the promises of The Houston Chronicle recently for president of the United Steel­ politicians, we need to rely on our published a series of articles on would be different? workers of America said, we should real strength-ourselves. · Houston's power structure. The arti­ We could guarantee every worker "look at ourselves as citizens of the A vote for me, the Socialist cles tell of the old days when the the right to a job and a good wage. world." We should demand an end to Workers mayoral candidate, and corporate elite met in suite 8F of the We could enforce strict health and deportations and an open border. candidates Sas Scoggins for city Lamar Hotel to decide how the city safety measures on the job. Every worker has the right to a job. council position 2 and Bill Pisciella would be run. We could protect our right to a All these problems and more, such for school board, are votes for this Today, the oil barons and bankers safe, clean environment. as overcrowding in our schools, and new strategy of independent labor in this "energy capital of America" We could defend the rights of rampant police brutality· against political action. They are votes for meet in the air-conditioned offices of women, Blacks, and Chicanos, who Blacks and Chicanos, all grow out of unionists and in favor of union downtown skyscrapers. Now, as face daily sexist and racist assaults. an economic system that puts profits power in Houston. then, their power is based on the Why isn't this a reality? Because before human needs. I urge Houston's labor unions to immense wealth they· control-a of employers' lust for profits. We need a workers government to break from the parties of the rich, wealth greater than that of some The bosses have organized an represent our interests and not those and to put up their own candidates­ entire countries. intensive drive to speed up produc­ of big business. In such a socialist working people-for city office. I Those of us who work in their tion. Injury, sickness, and death are society, working people will share urge workers in Houston to elect a factories and refineries are the ones rapidly rising as health and safety the wealth we produce and run the coworker-a steelworker-for may­ who have created this wealth. What standards are discarded. Blacks, economy for people and not for or of Houston. Vote Socialist would happen if working people, Chicanos, and women-the last profit. Workers in '77! who represent the vast majority of hired-are now the first fired as The owners of business own the the population, made the decisions layoffs increase. Affirmative-action government as well. They win every Thank you for your support, that affect the quality of life? What gains are being wiped out. election in this city because they Diane Sarge New York painters' strike nets meager gains By Stephen Bloom virtually no picketing, no effort to weakened their negotiating position by an orgamzmg campaign cannot be NEW YORK-Members of Painters involve painters in activity, no effort to accepting-along with many of the carried out by the painters alone. It District Council 9 went on strike here keep the members informed. It is likely other trades-a wage cut and longer will require joint action with all other August 1 when their three-year con­ that many painters continued to work workday on special "rehabilitation" building trades, leading to the creation tract expired. The walkout lasted one simply because they did not know that work funded by the Department of of a single, industrial-type union in week. a strike was taking place. Housing and Urban Development. The construction. The final settlement was slightly The settlement called for only a strategy of the officials is that the higher than the employers' original small gain above the employers' final union must compete with the nonunion offer, but it still falls far short of what offer. But union members felt that they painting contractors if it is to hold is needed just to keep up with inflation. could not continue the strike, given the onto any jobs. With a basic wage scale of $9.37 an feeble organization by their officials. One of the proposals discussed Women in hour, painters are the lowest-paid There will be no wage increase for during the contract talks was to building-trades workers in New York the first four months of the new establish a new class of union painter building trades City. They also have the lowest scale agreement, eighteen cents the second who would work for several dollars Under pressure from women's four months, and another eighteen below the regular union scale. In groups, the Labor Department has, cents for the final four months of the essence, such a setup would simply for the first time, proposed regula­ Stephen Bloom is a working painter first year. In the second year, the scale legalize the situation that already tions to force contractors to hire and a member of Painters District will rise to ten dollars an hour. The exists, with "union" employers run­ women construction workers. Council 9. third year, painters will get another ning nonunion operations on the side. The proposed hiring goals are fifty cents an hour. An inadequate Many officials of District Council 9 ridiculously small, requiring that cost-of-living adjustment is made in strongly favored setting up this second women work 3.1 percent of the of painters in major cities across the tlie second and third years. division. They argued that it would work hours after one year, 5 per­ country. Painters, like other building-trades recapture nonunion work that was cent after two years, and 6.9 per­ Due to widespread unemployment, unionists, find themselves in a more being done. cent after three years. These goals many union members do not earn even and more difficult position with each This proposal was not in the final would apply to contractors doing the $8,300 a year required to receive new round of negotiations. Nonunion agreement, probably because strong more than $10,000 of business with their health and welfare benefits. contractors account for an increasing rank-and-file opposition arose once the the federal government. ·The employers' association forced percentage of all construction. Techno­ members learned that such a plan was Today, the Labor Department the strike by refusing to negotiate logical changes in the industry have being discussed. estimates, women make up only 1.2 seriously. Their "offer" was for paint­ made the old craft-union structure The officials saw it as a means of percent of the construction work ers to take a wage cut. obsolete. increasing the number of union force, or 30,000 out of 3 million Despite the bosses' provocative Faced with these challenges, the members and the flow of dues to the workers. stance, union officials took no action to union officialdom has tried to main­ union treasury. But the working paint­ A Labor Department attorney prepare the union for a strike or even tain their job trusts and increase ers understood that the logic was for said he hoped these regulations to inform the members of the status of wages by trading off work rules. virtually everyone to soon work at the "would give us a defense" against negotiations. But few of these work rules are left to lower wage scale. two lawsuits filed last year de­ Before previous contract deadlines, give away, and the officials are com­ The union can never lower its wages manding the government set hiring there have usually been mass meetings pletely unwilling and unable to put up or relax its conditions enough to goals for women. of painters from all of the twenty-one a real fight after decades of collabora­ compete with the nonunion contrac­ Alexis Herman, director of the separate local unions that make up the tion with the employers. Consequently, tors. However much our wages are department's Women's Bureau, district council. This time the officials many construction unions around the reduced, nonunion wages will be re­ said women are eager to train for decided that they did not want such a country have been forced to accept duced in proportion. construction jobs. In Seattle re­ gathering because there was always wage cuts or wage freezes to "keep the · Th~ only way to strengthen the cently, she said, 600 women applied "so much dissent." members working." union is to have every painter in the for thirty job openings. During the strike itself, there was New York painters had already city working for a union wage. Such

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 27 In ReView Festival de los Teatros Chicanos Festival de los Teatros Chicanos, sponsored in San Diego July 3-9 by the Centro Cultw at de Ia Raza and El Teatro National de Aztlan. Scene by Teatro Libertad The Eighth Annual Chicano Theater Festival (above); Rosa Arreola and featured theater groups, artists, and performers Dale Montoy of Teatro from around the United States, as well as from Mestizo (right); and Robert Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Argentina. The Rivel of Teatro de festival lasted one week, July :3-9, with performan­ del Ateneo de ces nightly. in 'La Faria' The festival was sponsored by San Diego's El Centro Cultural de Ia Raza and El Teatro National de Atzlan (TENAZ). TENAZ is a product of the campesino struggle. During the late 1960s, several theater groups got together to dramatize and win support for the fight Theater of the United Farm Workers .Union. In 1969 those groups unified and formed TENAZ. Appropriately, its first festival was held in Fresno, California, the heart of the campesino struggle. Initially the theater groups focused on the farm workers' struggle and strikes, but today they take up many other issues. Many of the plays and songs use 1975, Teatro Libertad is a bilingual group with La Fi'rra (The Blood Relwlry). written by Rodolfo traditional styles to describe the daily life and material written in Spanish and Calo (barrio Span­ Santana and performed by the TRAG, is a true problems of Chicanos and other Latinps­ ish). murder story. It is a Watergate-like story of cover­ deportations, police repression, unemployment, sex­ Their play Vacil De '76 portrays three Chicanos, a ups some fifteen years ago in Venezuela. A priest, a ism, discrimination. mexicano, and an Irish-American thrown together general, and a senator each kill women who stand Each night began with stirring musical presenta­ on a Freedom Train from Tucson to Phoenix. The in the way of their careers. Corruption, status, tions by performers such as Los Huicholes. The play covers 100 years of history. It tells of the power, sexism (the Latin machismo) all work in the group is named after an Indian people in the torture and murder of eighty captured Irish immi­ men's favor to make sure they go unpunished. Mexican state of Nayarit. Using guitars, goathide grants who deserted from the U.S. Army to the Teatro Mestizo is a group from San Diego formed drums, a flute, and stringed instruments made of Mexican side during the war in 1847, and of the in 1!170. Their play, La Famila Moreno (The Moreno armadillo shells, the group's songs capture the infamous "pachuco riots" in East Los Angeles of Family), was written by the group as a whole. It Indian heritage. 194:3, when U.S. Marines and sailors beat young examines the workings of machismo and wife Another group, Los Alacranes Mojados, are well Chicanos. beating, as it follows a young couple from their known in San Diego for their unique music. Their Another performing group was the Teatro de marriage and honeymoon to their disillusionment. songs range from traditional Mexican/Chicano Repertorio del Ateneo de Caracas (TRAC). Most of The Festival de los Teatros Chicanos was a ballads to protest music from various countries. this group's plays are political, detailing tactics the showcase and tribute, not only to the individual Among the performing theater groups was the South American ruling class uses to maintain artists, but to la raza. -Charlene Sampo Teatro Libertad from Tucson,. Arizona. Formed in power. and Javier Bautista

Steven Novak's study of student uprisings in the Federalists. The Federalists, largely representing early 1800s subscribes to the idea that rebellion is northern industrial interests, attracted the greatest synonymous with growing up. "For the young, student support. John James Marshall, a leader of 'Rights of ..;tudent revolt was part of a general breakdown of the student movement at Princeton, was described adolescent discipline," he writes. by another young man as "a Deist and a violent But the facts he uses tend to prove the opposite. Federalist." At Dartmouth College in 1811, one The student revolts Novak looks at reflected two student estimated that three-quarters of his class­ important cont1icts: the struggle between the north· mates were Federalists. Youth' ern mercantile interests and the southern planters The student revolts, most often aimed against The Rights of Youth: American Colleges and within the United States, and the impact of the suffocating restrictions, took the form of strikes, Student Revolt 1798-1815, by Steven J. Novak. French revolution abroad. demonstrations, boycotts, pffigy burnings, and open Published by Harvard University Press, 1977. The writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Diderot, riots. Hut by lHlil, the administrators had effec­ 169 pages. and other radical democratic thinkers circulated tively crushed the movement. widely on American campuses. Novak comments, A massive religious revival was initiated in many Sociologists seeking to explain the student rebel­ "the rights of youth emerged amid the ferment of schools to distrac-t students from politics. Hut in a lions of the past fifteen years often fall back on the the French Revolution and the Enlightenment, broader sense. the decline of studPnt

28 not '-ihtrust ourselves to those who have historically failed to comply with ... teachers the Constitution." Continued from back page After a Shanker supporter intro­ duced a substitute motion to Resolu­ The Progressive Caucus was also tion Thirty-nine, Erich Martel, a leader forced to cancel a party at "Whim­ in the Desegregation and Equality in sey's", a Boston discotheque, after the Education Caucus from Local 6, took Black Caucus called attention to its the floor to explain its real meaning. notoriously discriminatory practices. "What the substitute motion essen­ When Resolution Thirty-nine hit the tially proposes is that we can achieve Elvis conv.ention floor August 18 it was clear full equality with full emplGyment. Elvis Presley made about fifty record there would be a hot debate. Full equality meaning that all Blacks, albums and more than thirty lousy Long lines immediately formed at and Puerto Ricans, and Chicanos who movies. And he made millions of dol­ the six convention floor microphones. wish to have jobs can have them­ lars off the racism of white American The first speaker was Harold Fisher, when we have full employment. society. a leader of the Black Caucus and a "Well, we haven't had full employ­ I don't agree with the critics who say member of AFT Local 6, the Washing­ ment, and every official body of our that Elvis's music was a fake, that he ton Teachers Union. government has stated that we proba­ simply copied artists who were not as In the previous discussion in com­ bly won't have full employment for well known as he was. The rock 'n' roll mittee Shanker supporters had main­ many years to come. he produced was a real thing. tained that quotas were an "insult" to "So what this essentially means is Elvis was at his best with his own minorities. that whatever gains have been made style of "rockabilly" music, a fusion of "We have heard various arguments," under affirmative-action programs in country blues and gospel with urban said Fisher, "that this particular reso­ the past are going to be ero.ded .... It themes and electric equipment. There lution might be offensive to minorities. is essentially saying that we are not were, of course, other more original "I say to this convention that it is going to have full equality for Blacks, and more talented performers who offensive to minorities to be told that Puerto Ricans, and Chicanos. never had anywhere near Elvis's suc­ after years of discrimination, after "We can't allow that to happen." cess. Among white musicians, Eddie years of being denied access to the William Simons, East Coast coordi­ Cochran, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, universities, colleges, and other facili­ nator of the Desegregation and Equal­ and Jerry Lee Lewis all rank higher ties of this country, that we now are ity in Education Caucus and president than Elvis on my list. denied access because someone is of the Washington Teachers Union, Elvis also learned how to put on a afraid of quotas." also addressed himself to the substi­ good show. His swivel-hipped antics The next speaker was Jeff Mackler, tute resolution. and delivery appealed to the repressed representing Local 1423 in Hayward, "The substitute resolution is well sexual urges and frustrations of a California. written, well meaning, and what have whole generation of young people. His · "There has been," said Mackler, "in you. But it is simply a subterfuge to cool lust, and the resulting parental virtually every institution in America, facing the real issue. disapproval, also made him a symbol a quota system. A quota system that "You're going to have to support of adolescent rebellion. But this is a white musicians learning something said if you were white you got the job these kinds of programs that are insti­ theme of all popular music, from Frank from Black musicians. In fact, it's regardless of merit. tuted by Davis and around the country Sinatrabefore Elvis, to punk rock and almost a point in Elvis's favor that he "I reject this argument that merit is until such time that this society is fully other music today. did. The problem is that in the 1950s the question. The question before us is open. I think the only real explanation for (and still today) this came down to a the question of the civil rights move­ ''Yes, I want to fight for full employ­ the elaborate success Elvis enjoyed is simple rip-off. ment. We fought for civil rights be­ ment and equal opportunities for eve­ white American racism, larded with a The best example I know of is Pres­ cause we recognized that we had to rybody. But in order to be able to do lot of good old American hype. Elvis ley's 1956 hit "Hound Dog." The first fight against racist discrimination in that I've got to get my foot in the door, was, quite simply, the great white hope recording of this number was not by schools and education. That's the key and I've got to do it right now." of the American recording industry Elvis, but by Willie Mae Thornton, a question before us." While only a handful of speakers against Black rhythm and blues. Black blueswoman, in 1953. The differ­ Raoul Teilhet, president of the Cali­ took the floor to support the substitute This fact is even cautiously acknow­ ence was that her record could only be fornia Federation of Teachers, also motion, it passed in the floor vote. But leged in some of the obituaries and bought inthe segregated "race record" took the floor. fully 26 percent of the delegates op­ evaluations of his life. Elvis's first sections of the stores. She might have "Quotas-the use of goals, objec­ posed it. The vote split down racial and producer signed him because he was "a made $500 on her record; Elvis made at tives, numerical guidelines, accounta­ age lines, with nine out of every ten white boy who could sing Black." "If I least 1,000 times that much on his. bility systems and, if necessary, penal­ Black delegates, and many younger could find a white man who had the And nobody ever offered Big Mama ties against institutions if they don't white delegates, voting against it. Negro sound and the Negro feel, I Thornton a movie contract-not for $1 implement those affirmative-action When a roll-call vote was demanded could make a billion dollars," he ob­ or for $1 million. goals-are necessary or nothing is and held, opposition to the Shanker­ served prophetically. This is also the best explanation for going to change. supported substitute motion increased With Elvis, the entertainment indus­ the monumental hype that Elvis got in "If the Bakke decision is affirmed by slightly to 27 percent. try had someone who could play the the news media, arranged by his pro­ the Supreme Court," said Teilhet, Following the vote, Mackler com­ music that young people wanted to moter, "Colonel" Tom Parker (Don't "affirmative-action programs across mented on the significance of what hear and who could make a lot of try to explain it, just sell it"). The rise the country will collapse like domi­ had happened. money for the industry without dis­ of the civil rights movement in the noes." "The Black Caucus and the Desegre­ turbing the color line in American 1950s, plus the , fact that numerous, Black Caucus member James gation and Equality in Education Cau­ society. talented Black musicians-such as Cooper, from AFT Local 1 in Chicago, cus had. a major impact on this conven­ Chet Atkins, assistant producer for Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Fats explained the folly of relying on volun­ tion. Even in the short time available some of Elvis's early recordings, put it Domino-could have blown Elvis off tary methods for ending discrmina­ here, we were able to win many dele­ simply: "It wasn't socially acceptable the stage, made the publicity barrage a tion. gates to our position. for white kids to buy Black records at necessary part of keeping ;rock 'n' roll "As trade unionist!? we have nego­ "This debate is not going to stop the time. Elvis filled a void." white. And Elvis's shows and movies tiated many contracts with our em­ with this vote. We will continue to win The Black music of his day was, in were about the whitest thing around. ployers. However, enforcing contracts more suppport, because the issues fact, a strong influence on Elvis. He Some of his intimate friends have has been and will remain a continuing raised here go to the very heart of listened to the soul music station in reported that Elvis was not happy in struggle. We cannot trust our employ­ what's wrong with the policies of the Memphis and borrowed techniques his last years of retirement, despite his ers to voluntarily adhere to these Shanker leadership. and riffs from artists such as Arthur millions. I find it hard to feel sorry for agreements. "This union cannot effectively fight (Big Boy) Cr~dup, Chuck Willis, and him, as long as Willie Mae Thornton is "Affirmative action is an effort to the cutbacks in education as long as it Junior Parker. still working for a living. implement the provisions of our most isolates itself from precisely those who Now, there's nothing wrong with -Duncan Williams valuable contract-the United States have the most to lose from the cuts­ Constitution. Without concrete the parents, students, and teachers of affirmative-action programs we can- the minority communities." Pamphlet a hit with teachers BOSTON-Delegates at the AFT teachers." convention bought more than 300 The pamphlet draws the lessons copies of a new Pathfinder Press for teachers of the Steelworkers pamphlet entitled Teachers Under Fight Back movement for union Attack. democracy in the steelworkers The pamphlet was written by Jeff union. It also includes a capsule Mackler, an activist in the AFT for history of the AFT and Shanker's the past eleven years and organizer policies. of AFT Local1423 in Hayward, Cali­ One delegate commented after fornia. reading the pamphlet, "This says a Mackler said even he was sur­ lot of the things I've been thinking, prised by the enthusiastic response. but brings it all together and lays "The pamphlet," said Mackler, "is out a program for changing thl' sit­ subtitled An alternative to the 'busi­ uation.'' ness unionism' of Albert Shanker, Teachers Under Attack costs fifty . ., \ and many delegates were certainly cents and can be obtained from ELVIS: (from left) in the film egas, on television in 1956; on tour in 1973 looking for an alternative at this Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, convention. It was particularly popu­ New York, New York 10014. lar with Black and younger -L.H.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 29 Continued from page 6 Calendar Cop bruta~IY' s~ndal An older worker who disapproved of THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT: WHAT HAVE WE the strike paid backhanded tribute to MIAMI GAINED; WHERE ARE WE GOING? Speakers: escalates 1n Ph1la • the young militants. "It's the young Christine Drennan. president of Dade County NOW; By Jon Hillson local religious leaders-stunned by the workers who are really behind the Eva Sanchez, Chicana feminist, migrant activ1st; whole thing," he said. "It's the young Rose Ogden, SWP. Laura Quintana, activist in N.Y. PHILADELPHIA-George Robinson scope of police violence-petitioned tigers. They think they can change Coalition for Lesbian & Gay Rights. Mon., Aug. 29, is a soft-spoken Jamaican, a reggae President Carter to intervene in Phila­ things, and it just doesn't work that 8 p.m. Center for Dialogue, 2175 NW 26th St. (22nd musician by trade. Early in the morn­ delphia as a way to demonstrate his way." Ave.) Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more ing on June 22 he was walking up the concern for "human rights at home." information call (305) 271-2241. One of the things many of these steps to a house where his band regu­ On July 31 a major brawl between workers want to change is their inter­ HAITIAN REFUGEES: A CASE FOR POLITICAL larly practices. He was carrying a Black and white off-duty cops was ASYLUM. Speakers: Betty Wiggs, National Council briefcase, doing what he usually did, narrowly averted as uniformed police national union. In last February's of Churches; John Bart, Haitian activist; Lee Smith, election for USW A president, workers SWP: others. Fri , Sept 2. 8 p.m. Center for minding his own business. broke up a budding melee at the Fra­ on the Iron Range voted overwhelm­ Dialogue, 2175 NW 26th St. (22nd Ave.) Donation: But to the two white Philadelphia ternal Order of Police Lounge-which ingly against administration candi­ $1. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more information call cops who watched him, he was "acting has been regarded as hostile turf for (305) 271-2241. date McBride and for challenger Ed suspiciously." They called him over to Black officers. The fracas was touched Sadlowski, who campaigned against their van and began harassing him. off when a white cop hit the wife of a the no-strike ENA. They also booted When Robinson reached into his Black officer. The incident brought to out the incumbent director of USWA pocket for a key to the briefcase that head a simmering dispute within the District 33 and elected Linus Wampler, ... Gus Hall the cops demanded he open, they police force, as the Black cops' a Sadlowski supporter. Continued from page 22 jumped out of the van and began to caucus-the Guardian Civic League­ An editorial in the August 3 Minnea­ tion with world capitalism. Only by beat him. announced on July 16 it would file an polis Star noted that "Sadlowski's leveling some criticisms can they hope They beat him in the street. They antidiscrimination suit against the militancy and his advocacy of 'union to influence the radicalizing workers in beat him in the van. And they beat FOP. democracy' appeals to the Iron Range their countries, who are outraged by him in their station. The league, however, has been silent workers." The Star said this attitude the lack of democracy in the USSR. Robinson suffered face, neck, head, about the police brutality scandal. was "further complicating" the strike. Despite Moscow's attacks on Euro­ hand, and arm injuries, as well as Such an attitude makes clear the deci­ But what really "complicates" the communism, it realizes that these par­ damage to a nerve in his forearm. sion of the Black cops to trade any legitimate fight of the strikers is the ties are trying in this way to contain Witnesses had tried to stop the as­ protest against racist police terror for ambivalent stance of the top USWA the class struggles in their countries, sault but were threatened with arrest. "better treatment" within the racist leadership. McBride has called for a in line with the Kremlin's own policies One woman had wanted to call the force. change in attitude by "both sides" in of seeking "peaceful coexistence" deals police, thinking she was witnessing a Jose Reyes, a Puerto Rican, isn't order to reach a settlement. And the with imperialism. (These deals are the mugging, until she realized "it was the interested in the dirty laundry of the international office has leaked word real "accommodation" with cops doing the beating." Philadelphia police. He was killed by a that it considers the strike "madness." imperialism-an accommodation that The police kept the attack quiet for white cop in the doorway of his home McBride visited the Iron Range in Hall and all other CP leaders, Euro­ nearly two months, until the story on July 2. Protests demanding justice mid-August. According to the August communists and hardliners alike, broke recently in the city's media. for Reyes erupted after the murder. The 18 Minneapolis Tribune, his trip was cover up for.) Robinson was just one of the victims Philadelphia district attorney's office "largely a gesture of solidarity to coun­ But at the same time, these Eurocom­ of an unchecked epidemic of police is investigating. ter speculation that his attitude toward munist criticisms create big problems brutality that has rocked the city. On The first five cops cited for question­ the strike is unenthusiastic, even nega­ for the Kremlin at home, since their June 18, the five Philadelphia chapters ing announced on August 15 that they tive." logic-to the extent they become of the NAACP sponsored day long pub­ would plead the Fifth Amendment. McBride reportedly told the strikers: known there-is to legitimatize and lic hearings to take sworn testimony The second group of four police is "The strike couldn't have taken place spur forward the growing antiburea­ from Black and white victims of cop planning to remain silent. unless I authorized it" and·, "It is our cratic revolt in East Europe and the terror. Their stories capped a series of Meanwhile, the Justice Department intention to have a winner." USSR. sensational revelations by the Phila­ continues a low-profile investigation of He also defended the Experimental This is what has created the sharp delphia Inquirer. These articles meticu­ the police, launched as a result of the Negotiating Agreement, telling the clash of immediate interests over Euro­ lously documented the racist brutality public outrage. miners: "This industry needs long-term communism within the world Stalinist of the cops and the open encourage­ For George Robinson, and hundreds labor peace." movement. ment they receive from ex-cop Mayor of anonymous George Robinsons, that "I'm convinced that without the no­ And the way the CPUSA has lined Frank Rizzo. makes little difference. Those politi­ strike agreement, we'll lose a major up in this fight should be a warning to George Robinson was pummeled by cians that do say anything talk about portion of the basic steel industry," every U.S. worker as to why they the thugs in blue four days after the a "few bad apples." The George Robin­ McBride reportedly said. should avoid Gus Hall's party like the NAACP hearings. · sons of Philadelphia know better. The August 18 Minneapolis Star plague if they really want fundamental Earlier in the summer, nearly 1,000 The whole orchard is rotten. reported: "The men at Silver Bay met social change. McBride's appearance with stony si­ The CPUSA doesn't even feel the lence, and indicated by their comments need to pay hypocritical lip service­ that they questioned his support. the way the Eurocommunist CPs do­ "'You guys in the international to the hatred of workers for Stalinist ought to listen to the locals up. here,' oppression. said one worker. 'If you did, it might Instead, Hall's CP-much smaller prevent what's going on right now.'" than its European counterparts-feels It was the unity and determination much more pressure directly from the of the Iron Range workers that forced Kremlin, whose interests it places McBride to sanction this strike-at a ahead of the demands and objective iime when the international was re­ needs of working people. moving the key demands from many That's why, besides attacking those other locals' negotiations as not "legiti­ who defend democratic rights in East mate" local issues under the ENA. Europe and the USSR, the CPUSA Taking advantage of the official also opposes the Equal Rights Amend­ backing for the strike-however hesi­ ment for women and abstains from the tant and vacillating it may be-will be fights to defend equal rights for gay absolutely essential to building the people and to stop construction of broadest possible support for the iron deadly nuclear power plants. These are ore workers. Such broad support will in all demands that collide with the reac­ turn be the best insurance that the tionary positions on these issues of the international will not turn its back on Kremlin bureacrats who command the the strikers. CP's first loyalty.

Last Hired, First Fired 'The Battle of Boston' is the first book to report the story behind the headlines. The 'cradle of liberty' became a testing Affirmative Action ground. For the antibusing forces, from the KKK to the White House, Boston was the first step. in a nationwide assault on the gains of the civil rights movement. And for the supporters of Vs. SenioritJ Black rights, who once again took their cause Includes "The Debate Over Seniority and Affirmatiw Action," "The to the streets, it marked a new stage in the NAACP and the Struggle for Full Equality," and "The AFL-CIO and the struggle against racism. Seniority System." By Lind!! Jenness, Herbert Hill, Willie Mae Reid, Frank Lovell, and SuP Em Davenport. 32 pp., $.50 286 pp., $12, paper $3.95 Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., New Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014 York, N.Y. 10014.

30 Books From Pathfinder Press-~·~+_.._... Wometis·· Liberation· New from WHICH WAY FOR THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT? ?a:/1, How to Win Against the Attacks on Women's Rights by Cindy Jaquith & Willie Mae Reid. 32 pp., 50 cents The Politics of Chicano Liberati.on WOMAN'S EVOLUTION: From Matriarchal Clan Edited by Olga Rodriguez to Patriarchal Family The war of the grapes, the lettuce boycott, La Raza Unida Party's by Evelyn Reed. 491 pp., cloth $15, paper $4.95 challenge to "Anglo Power," the racist campaign of the Immigration Service against Mexican workers and its harassment of all Chicanos in the U.S., bilingual-bicultural education, and the economic crisis· of FEMINISM AND SOCIALISM Chicanos are discussed. This book analyzes the development of the Edited by Linda Jenness. 160 pp., paper Chicano people as a native oppressed nationality, forged over time by $1.95 racist practices in white society. How are the conditions of oppression changed and eventually ended? This book provides some practical HOW TO WIN THE ERA proposals for Chicano liberation. 160 pages, cloth $8.00, paper $2.45 by Ginny Hildebrand, others. 32 pp., 50 cents Puerto Ricans in the U.S. The Struggle for Freedom FBI VS. WOMEN Edited by Catarino Garza by Diane Wang & Cindy Jaquith. 48 pp., More than one-third of all Puerto Ricans live in the United States 75 cents today. They come to escape the grinding poverty and oppression of their homeland, but find instead virulent racism, inequality in BLACK WOMEN'S STRUGGLE education and employment, and language and cultural FOR EQUALITY discrimination-in some respects, conditions worse than those they by Willie Mae Reid, others. fled. 16 pp., 25 cents Catarino Garza is a well-known Puerto Rican activist in New York ABORTION RIGHTS IN DANGER! City and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party. This book examines by Nancy Brown, others. the oppression and exploitation of Puerto Ricans in the United States 24 pp., 35 cents and presents a program of struggle for their liberation. 64 pages, cloth $6.00, paper $1.25 WOMEN IN CHINA by Katie Curtin. Available by mail from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, 95 pp., cloth $6, paper $1.45 NY 10014. Also available in the bookstores listed in the Socialist Directory.

Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014. Write for a free catalog. Socialist Directory 3928 N. Williams, Portland, Ore. 97227. Tel: (503) ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP. YSA, Militant Bookstore, Cl!icago: City-wide SWP. YSA, 407 S. Dearborn 808 E. Franklin Ave., Room 3, Mpls .. Minn. 55404. 288-7860. 314 E. Taylor, Phoenix, Ariz. 85004: Tel: (602) #1145. Chicago, Ill. 60605. Tel: SWP-(312)· 939- Tel: (612) 870-1284. PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA. Edinboro State 255-0450. 0737: YSA-(312) 427-9280. Southside Minneapolis: SWP, Militant Bookstore. 23 College, Edinboro, Pa. 16412. Tucson: YSA, SUPO 20965, Tucson, Ariz. 85729. Chicago, North Side: SWP. Pathfinder Books, 1870 E. Lake St.. Mpls .. Minn. 55408. Tel: (612) 825- Philadelphia, Germantown: SWP, Militant Tel: (602) 795-2053. N. Halsted, Chicago, Ill. 60614. Tel: (312) 642- 6663. Bookstore, 5950 Germantown Ave .. Philadelphia, CALIFORNIA: 6erkeley: SWP. YSA, Granma 4811. 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NEW YORK: Albany: YSA, c/o Michael Kozak, 395 Dallas: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, 2215 Cedar San Diego: SWP, YSA, Militant Bookstore, 1053 Louisville: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 1505 W. Ontario St., Albany, N.Y. 12208. Tel: (518) 482- Crest, Dallas, Tex. 75203. Tel: (214) 943-6684. 15th St.. San Diego, Calif. 92101. Tel~~714) 234- Broadway, Louisville, Ky. 40203. Tel: (502) 587- 7348. Houston, Northeast: SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Books, 4630. 8418. Binghamton: YSA, c/o Andy Towbin, Box 7120, 2835 Laura Koppe, Houston, 'rex. 77093. Tel: San Fernando Valley: SWP, 10510 Haddon St., LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP. YSA, Pathfinder SUNY-Binghamton, Binghamton, N.Y. 13901. (713) 697-5543. Pacoima. Calif. 91331. Tel: (213) 899-5811. Bookstore, 3812 Magazine St., New Orleans, La. Ithaca: YSA. c/o Ron Robil)son, 528 Stewart Ave., Houston, East End: SWP. 4987 South Park Blvd. San Francisco: City-wide SWP. YSA, 3004 16th St., 70115. Tel: (504) 891-5324. Rm. 13, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850. Tel: (607) 272-7098. 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VIRGINIA: Richmond: SWP, YSA, Militant San Jose: SWP. YSA, 957 S. 1st St., San Jose. Calif. Cambridge: SWP, 2 Central Square. Cambridge, 10009. Tel: (212) 260-6400. Bookstore, 1203 W. Main St.. 2nd Floor. 95110. Tel: (408) 295-8342. Mass. 02139. Tel: (617) 547-4395. New York, Queens: SWP. YSA, Militant Bookstore, Richmond, Va. 23220. Tel: (804) 353-3238. Santa Barbara: YSA, P.O. Box 14606, UCSB, Santa Dorchester: SWP, 584 Columbia Rd., Room 309, 90-43 149 St. (corner Jamaica Ave.), Jamaica, WASHINGTON, D.C.: Adams-Morgan: SWP, 2416 Barbara. Calif. 93107. Dorchester. Mass. 02125. Tel: (617) 282-3850. N.Y. 11435. Tel: (212) 658-7718. 18th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20009. Tel: (202) Santa Cruz: YSA. c/o Student Activities Office, Red­ Fenway-South End: SWP. YSA. Pathfinder Books, New York, Upper West Side: SWP. YSA, Militant 797-7706. wood Bldg .. UCSC, Santa Cruz. Calif. 95064. 510 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass. 02215. Bookstore, 786 Amsterdam, New York, N.Y. Washington, D.C.: Georgia Avenue: SWP, 700% COLORADO: Boulder: YSA, Room 175, University Tel: (617) 262-4620. 10025. Tel: (212) 663-3000. Barry Pl. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. Tel: (202) Memorial Center. University of Colorado, Roxbury: SWP. 1865 Columbus Ave., Roxbury. New York: City-wide SWP, YSA, 853 Broadway, 265-7708. Boulder. Colo. 80302. Tel: (303) 492-7679. Mass. 02119. Tel: (617) 445-7799. Room 412, New York, N.Y. 10003. Tel: (212) 982- Washington, D.C.: City-wide SWP, YSA, 1424 16th Denver: SWP, YSA. Pathfinder Books, 916 MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA. Room 4103, Michigan 8214. St. NW. Suite 701B. Washington. D.C. 20036. Tel: Broadway. Denver, Colo. 80203. Tel: (303) 837- Union. U of M. Ann Arbor, Mich. 48109. Tel: {313) NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh: SWP, YSA, P.O. Box (202) 797-7699. 1018. 663-8306. 5714 State Univ. Station, Raleigh, N.C. 27607. WASHINGTON: Seattle, Central Area: SWP. YSA, Fort Collins: YSA. Student Center Cave, Colorado Detroit, East Side: SWP, 12920 Mack Ave., Detroit, OHIO: Athens: YSA, c/o Balar Center, Ohio Militant Bookstore, 2200 E. Union, Seattle, Wash. State University, Ft. Collins. Colo. 80521. Mich. 48215. Tel: (313) 824-1160. University, Athens, Ohio 45701. Tel: (614) 594- 98122. Tel: (206) 329-7404. FLORIDA: Miami: SWP, YSA, Box 431096, South Detroit, West Side: SWP. Militant Bookstore, 18415 7497. Seattle, North End: _ SWP, YSA, Pathfinder Miami, Fla. 33143. Tel.: (305) 271-2241. Wyoming, Detroit, Mich. 48221. Tel: (313) 341- Cincinnati: SWP, YSA. 970 E. McMillan, Cincinnati, Bookstore, 5623 University Way NE, Seattle, Tallahassee: YSA. c/o Linda Thalman, 1303 Ocala 6436. Ohio 45206. Tel: (513) 751-2636. Wash. 98105. Tel: (206) 522-7800. Rd. #140. Tallahassee. Fla. 32304. Tel: (904) 576- Detroit: City-wide SWP. YSA, 1310 Broadway, Cleveland: SWP, YSA. 2300 Payne, Cleveland, Ohio Seattle: City-wide SWP, YSA, 5623 University Way 5737. Detroit, Mich. 48226. Tel: (313) 961-5675. 44114. Tel: (216) 861-4166. NE, Seattle, Wash. 98105. Tel: (206) 524-6670. GEORGIA: East Atlanta: SWP. 471A Flat Shoals East Lansing: YSA. First Floor Student Offices, Columbus: YSA, Box 106 Ohio Union (Rm. 308). Spokane: SWP, P.O Box 672, Spokane, Wash. Ave. SE. P.O. Box 5596. Atlanta. Ga. 30307. Tel: Union Bldg.. Michigan State University, East Ohio State Univ., 1739 N. High St.. Columbus, 99210. Tel: (509) 326-2468. (404) 688-6739. Lansing. Mich. 48823. Tel: (517) 353-0660. Ohio 43210. Tel: (614) 291-8985. Tacoma: SWP, Militant Bookstore, 1022 S. J St., West Atlanta: SWP. Militant Bookstore. 137 Ashby. Grand Rapids: YSA. P.O. Box 6301. Grand Rapids, Kent: YSA. Student Center Box 41, Kent State Tacoma, Wash. 98405. Tel: (206) 627-0432. · P.O. Box 92040, Atlanta, Ga. 30314. Tel: (404) Mich. 49506. University, Kent, Ohio 44242. Tel: (216) 678-2489. WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, P.O. Box 1442, Madi- 755-2940. MI. Pleasant: YSA. Box 51 Warriner Hall, Central Toledo: SWP, 2507 Collingwood Blvd., Toledo, son, Wis. 53701. Tel: (608) 251-1591. • ILLINOIS: Champaign-Urbana: YSA. 284 lllini Mich. Univ .. Mt. Pleasant. Mich. 48859 . Ohio 43610. Tel: (419) 242-9743. Milwaukee: SWP, Yf!A, 3901 N. 27th St., Milwaukee, .union. Urbana. Ill. 61801. MINNESOTA: Minneapolis: City-wide SWP. YSA, OREGON: Portland: SWP, YSA. Militant Bookstore. Wis ..53216. Tel: (414) 442-8170.

THE MILITANT/SEPTEMBER 2, 1977 .31 THE MILITANT • eac un1on

By Lynn Henderson BOSTON-A struggle over the issue of affirmative-action programs and quotas dominated the American Feder­ ation of Teachers (AFT) annual con­ vention held here August 15-19. For the first time in years, signifi­ cant opposition to AFT President Al­ bert Shanker's iron rule emerged. Mter a long and heated debate, more than a quarter of the 2,500 delegates voted to oppose Shanker's support for the Bakke decision. The Bakke decision, handed down by the California Supreme Court in Sep­ tember 1976, overturned the minority admissions program at the University of California at Davis medical school. The court ruled that designating 16 out of 100 admissions spots for "disad­ vantaged" students was "reverse discrimination"-that is, "discrimina­ tion" against whites-and violated the principle of "individual merit." The Bakke decision goes before the U.S. Supreme Court this fall. It has become a symbol of the racist drive to roll back gains won in the 1960s and early 1970s by Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, other minorities, and women. Shanker, a staunch defender of the white-job-trust outlook of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy, lost no time in having the AFT file a "friend of the court" brief supporting the facist Bakke decision. As cutbacks in public education and other social services have escalated in recent years, Shanker has pressed a strategy which sacrifices affirmative­ Speakers at the AFT convention opposing President Albert Shanker's support of the 'Bakke' decision. Top, left to right: action gains and other programs de­ William Simons, president of the Washington Teachers Union; Jeff Mackler, coordinator of the AFT Caucus on signed to upgrade educational and job Desegregation and Equality in Education; Harold Fisher, leader in AFT Black Caucus. Bottom, left to right: Raoul opportunities for minorities. Teilhet, president, California Federation of Teachers; James Cooper, AFT Black Caucus; Erich Martel, Desegregation Shanker preaches the sanctity of and Equality in Education Caucus. strict seniority and offers little more than "waiting out the storm" with an time that there be racism for 200 years grams are not Black racism, or Chi­ An even bigger shock was in store older, whiter, more conservative work for ·us." cano racism, or reverse racism, or any for Shanker. force. Shanker then explained: "Just as we other kind of racism. They are the only Later on August 15 the Civil, Profes­ [AFT] don't have a double standard in effective way employers and institu­ sional and Democratic Human Rights Growing opposition terms of international affairs-we con­ tions can be forced to adopt even Committee-the convention committee Even before the Boston convention, demn right-wing and left-wing minimum standards of fairness in charged with screening the resolutions however, opposition to Shanker's pol­ dictatorships-we will in the same way hiring and admission policies." on Bakke and bringing a recommenda­ icy began to grow among AFT take a strong position against things In response to this reporter's ques­ tion to the convention floor-voted members. Many concluded that that are unconstitutional and racist. tion on where the AFT Black Caucus fifty-two to fifty-seven against Shanker's policies were isolating them Whether they happen to favor whites stood on Bakke, Shanker answered: "I Shanker's resolution. Instead, the com­ from the minority communities, which or Blacks or Chicanos doesn't make would say that the major difference of mittee adopted. Resolution Thirty-nine. could be the union's strongest allies in any difference. There shouldn't be a opinion is probably not with the Black Almost every Black delegate on the a fight against the cuts in education. racial favoritism." Caucus. committee supported the California re­ Following a discussion and vote in "I think there are some white groups solution. their state convention, the California Shanker's hypocrisy that feel strongly in favor of quotas on For a key Shanker resolution to be Federation of Teachers also filed a "Shanker's remarks are pure hypoc­ the basis of their political posi­ defeated in committee is virtually un­ "friend of the court" brief-on the risy," said Jeff Mackler, national coor­ tions .... heard of in the AFT. opposite side of the question from dinator of the AFT Caucus on Desegre­ "The Black delegates that I have Shanker. The CFT supported Davis gation and Equality in Education, in talked to feel that if we didn't have Shanker's troubles grow medical school's affirmative-action an interview with the Militant. unemployment and job problems, the Shanker's troubles were far from program. Members of the caucus played a lead­ Bakke thing would be irrelevant. Most over. His own Progressive Caucus, In his Boston news conference Au­ ing role in opposing Shanker's position of the Black delegates I've talked to meeting that night, voted not to take a gust 15, following the opening session on Bakke. have no love for the concept of quo­ position on Resolution Thirty-nine. -of the convention, Shanker tried to lay "To begin with," said Mackler, tas." The caucus took positions on every down the line on Bakke as forcefully as "Shanker supported the Vietnam War This claim by Shanker was imme­ other major resolution. possible. in its defense of the South Vietnam diately refuted when the Black Caucus As one Black member of the Progres­ "Everyone should be treated equally dictatorship right up until the bitter met and voted to support Resolution sive Caucus put it, "When Resolution on a color-blind and racial-blind ba­ end. He pulled every maneuver in the Thirty-nine. Thirty-nine came up, the tension was sis," said Shanker. book trying-unsuccessfully-to keep a Resolution Thirty-nine was the so thick you cc.uld feel it ail over the "You [minorities] can't turn around majority of AFT delegates from pub­ California-sponsored resolution oppos­ hall. If it had been put before the and say that because there was racism licly opposing that war. ing the Bakke decision and Shanker's caucus it would have torn it apart." for 200 years against us, now is the "Quotas and affirmative-action pro- "friend of the court" brief. Continued on page 29