· AUSTRALIA $3.00 · CANADA $2.50 · FRANCE 2.00 EUROS · ICELAND KR200 · NEW ZEALAND $3.00 · SWEDEN KR15 · UK £1.00 · U.S. $1.50 INSIDE U.S. youth visiting Cuba meet revolutionary social workers — PAGE 7 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 67/NO. 29 AUGUST 25, 2003 N. Carolina textile giant Nicaraguan peasants closes, 7,500 out of a job march for BY LOUIS TURNER their union, UNITE, for KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina—Pil- information and guid- lowtex Corp., one of the largest U.S. textile ance. land, credit manufacturers, announced July 30 that it These workers scored BY SETH GALINSKY was closing 16 plants in the United States a victory for all labor MIAMI—Several thousand peasants and and Canada. The closures will throw more four years ago when farm workers began a 75-mile-long march than 7,500 workers onto the rolls of the un- they won representation on July 29 from Matagalpa, the coffee- employed. The textile giant fi led for Chapter by the Union of Need- growing center of Nicaragua, to Managua, 11 bankruptcy and plans to liquidate all its letrades, Industrial and the country’s capital. They demanded land, assets. Textile Employees (now cheap credit, and government aid for rural Pillowtex, known for the brand names UNITE). After waging toilers hard hit by the world-wide drop in Fieldcrest Cannon and Royal Velvet, fi led a 25-year fight to get coffee prices and a drought. At the same for bankruptcy in 2001. At that time, it the union in, workers time, some 6,000 peasants occupied farms closed several mills and laid off thousands won their fi rst contract and waged sit-down strikes and other pro- of workers. Leading up to its emergence in 2000. Continued on Page 3 from bankruptcy protection in May 2002, After months of spo- the bosses carried out a reorganization that radic employment the forced fewer workers to produce the same workers now have no number of commodities and for lower wag- jobs to return to. The Union wins es. Company executives claim that from that UNITE hall in Kan- time until its current liquidation Pillowtex napolis has been fl ood- vote deadline lost $29 million. ed with workers calling For several months Pillowtex was actively and stopping in, fi rst to seeking buyers and negotiated with several receive information on at New York of them, including many rivals. During whether the company this period, workers suffered short weeks had been sold and then and multiple layoffs. Some employees had questioning what steps packing plant been laid off for two months before the they could take next. BY DEAN HAZLEWOOD shutdown. Talking to the Salis- The Pillowtex closings register the big- bury Post, a local news- BRONX, New York—Workers at the gest layoff in North Carolina’s history and, paper, 58-year-old Leon- Garden Manor Farms meatpacking plant according to the American Textile Manu- ard Chapman, president at the Hunts Point Market here scored a vic- facturers Institute, the largest ever in the of UNITE Local 1501, tory in their fi ght for union recognition. The U.S. textile industry. The company’s main asked, “Should I go to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) production facilities were in the Kannapo- school? Or should I fi le Textile workers who lost jobs because of Pillowtex shutdown ruled in early August that an election must lis area. The mills in Rowan and Cabarrus for unemployment or re- line up outside Kimball Lutheran Church in Kannapolis, be held by the end of the month on whether Counties alone employed more than 4,300. train? Re-train for what? North Carolina, August 4. Many are trying to find answers employees will be represented by United Many of these workers are looking toward Continued on Page 3 about their future from their union, UNITE. Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Continued on Page 2 Moscow, Beijing press north Korea to U.S.-backed accept six-party talks with Washington intervention force BY PATRICK O’NEILL in Liberia to U.S. deputy secretary of state Richard Ar- mitage told a news conference in Australia expand to 15,000 August 12 that talks between the govern- ments of the Democratic People’s Republic BY SAM MANUEL of Korea and the United States are likely WASHINGTON, D.C.—As U.S.-backed to start August 27 in Beijing, centering on troops extended their deployment in Libe- Washington’s demand that north Korea ria’s capital, Monrovia, the chief United abandon its nuclear weapons program. At Nations envoy to the West African nation, the U.S. government’s insistence the nego- Jacques Klein, described plans to create an tiations will also include representatives of armed force of about 15,000 UN troops, Beijing, Moscow, Seoul, and Tokyo. drawn from a range of UN member coun- Under pressure from these governments, tries, that will be deployed by November 1. particularly Beijing and Moscow—which The UN troops will replace a Nigerian-led have historically been close diplomatic and force of some 3,200 troops that includes trade partners of the DPRK—north Korea units from countries that are members of dropped its previous insistence that such the Economic Community of West African negotiations be preceded by face-to-face States. They are backed up by as many as bilateral talks with Washington. South Korean police charge students demanding withdrawal of U.S. troops from Continued on Page 5 At the same time the DPRK restated its Korea during August 4 protest at Yonchen military facility, 37 miles north of Seoul. demand that the U.S. government withdraw its 37,000 troops from south Korea, and pro- tested the latest round of military exercises Concerted effort is needed in drive Also Inside: involving U.S. and south Korean forces. Military drills between the two armies have Brussels bows to U.S. demands sparked a number of student-led protests in to up ‘Militant’ long-term readership on war-crimes law 2 the south, including in early August. BY SAM MANUEL the overall goals. Accomplishing this would Following a meeting with Chinese vice WASHINGTON, D.C.—Socialist work- mean that one in fi ve of those who subscribed Lieberman assails Democrats foreign minister Wang Yi, Russia’s deputy ers, Young Socialists, and other Militant and for the fi rst time last spring re-upped. for attacks on Bush over Iraq 3 foreign minister Alexander Losyukov said Perspectiva Mundial supporters upped the Supporters of the drive in Cleveland, August 11 that Pyongyang is “currently pace of the effort to increase the long-term Omaha, and San Francisco are the fi rst to Why Washington dropped showing pleasing fl exibility. Our Chinese readership of the socialist periodicals. Dur- make their goal for Militant subscription atomic bomb on Hiroshima 3 colleagues also see positive dynamics in the ing the second week of the three-week cam- renewals. Their task now is to substantially position of the North Korean leadership.” paign, they sent in 75 subscription renewals surpass their local quota. Palestinian in U.S. jail Losyukov also warned Washington that to both periodicals, compared to 21 the fi rst Those in Detroit are not too far behind. speaks from behind bars 4 “the situation when only one side imposes week of the drive (see chart on page 5). “One meat packer agreed to help talk to conditions is counter-productive and leads A substantial challenge remains, however. several subscribers he works with about re- Socialist workers focus on to deadlock.” With one week to go, 140 Militant and 69 newing,” wrote Ilona Gersh from Detroit. union-building opportunities 6 “There are a number of issues that have Perspectiva Mundial subscription renew- “They were among those who immediately Continued on Page 10 als—a total of 209—are needed to meet Continued on Page 10 Brussels bows to U.S. on war-crimes law BY SAM MANUEL lar, have been pressing for immunity from ron, charged with organizing massacres at accusations to be fi led in Belgian courts The Belgian Senate approved a revised prosecution for members of their military the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee against anyone regardless of where the al- war crimes bill August 1 to replace previ- and government offi cials by other countries camps in Lebanon in 1982. leged offenses took place or the nationality ous legislation under which war crimes or institutions like the International Crimi- The attorney who brought the charges of those involved in committing them. It charges have been brought against former nal Court (ICC). against Franks has appealed the decision. has only been used successfully against U.S. president George H. Bush, current The charges against former U.S. presi- The new bill empowers a senior justice to four Rwandans living in Belgium who were president George W. Bush, Vice President dent Bush were brought on behalf of Iraqis decide which cases to prosecute with the convicted in 2001 of “genocide,” according Richard Cheney, Secretary of State Colin who lost family members after U.S. pilots decision not subject to appeal. Some 29 to the International Herald Tribune. They Powell, Gen. Thomas Franks, and British bombed a shelter killing 403 people, in- cases against former and present heads of were given sentences of 12 to 20 years for prime minister Anthony Blair. cluding 52 children and 261 women, in the states—among them Cuban president Fidel alleged crimes committed during the Rwan- The new law passed by a vote of 39 to 4 1991 war against Iraq. Charges against the Castro and Palestinian Authority president dan civil war in the mid-1990s. with 20 abstentions. It had cleared the lower current U.S. president and British prime Yasir Arafat—remain in effect. The United Nations Security Council house of parliament July 29, and will take minister stem from this year’s imperialist The new legislation grants immunity to all has also approved a resolution submitted by effect after it is signed by King Albert II, assault on Iraq. foreign heads of state, requires a direct link Washington that extends for another year an which is expected to be a formality. Brus- Brussels received sharp warnings from of the offenses to Belgium, and stipulates exemption from prosecution to citizens of sels proposed the change after coming under Washington, Paris, and Berlin demanding that the accusers be Belgian citizens or resi- countries that have not ratifi ed the founding heavy pressure from Washington and Lon- repeal of the law. U.S. secretary of defense dents of the country for at least three years statutes of the International Criminal Court. don to repeal the previous legislation. Donald Rumsfeld threatened to block fur- prior to the commission of the crime. Disapproving of the extension, three of the As they expand use of their military might ther funding for a new NATO headquarters In response to Washington’s demands, 15 Council members—France, Germany around the world, the U.S. rulers, in particu- in Belgium. members of parliament stumbled over each and Syria—abstained. Britain’s represen- This is the second time the law has been other to show proper contriteness. “We are tative to the Council, Jeremy Greenstock, altered. Earlier this year Brussels rushed a small country, we cannot act as an inter- supported the extension but added, “Whilst through changes that permitted it to refer national judge,” said Liberal Democrat Stef we understand the U.S. concerns…we do Corrections charges to the government of the country of Goris. “We have made our country a joke,” not share them.” U.S. president George Bush wound origin of the accused, providing it had a “fair added Christian Democrat Pieter De Crem. Washington is also “negotiating” bilateral up a fi ve-day visit to fi ve African na- and democratic legal system,” according to “Problematic,” said Socialist Party member agreements prohibiting other countries from tions on July 12, not July 19, as was a report by the BBC. Using that provision, and deputy head of parliament’s foreign af- handing over U.S. citizens for prosecution stated in the front-page article “Bush the cases against U.S. and British offi cials fairs committee, Dirk Van der Maelen, by the ICC. The White House has suspended tour in Africa aimed at continent’s oil have essentially been dropped, along with referring to the law. military aid to the governments that have resources” in the August 4 issue. that against Israeli prime minister Ariel Sha- The previous law allowed for war crimes turned down the arrangement. In the same issue, the article “International socialist conference celebrates increasing trade union- building opportunities” incorrectly Union vote set for New York meat packers equated bride-price with dowry in reporting a delegate’s remarks. In Continued from front page erative Market—a 60-acre complex in the fact, they are opposites. The dowry is Local 342. “This is really good news,” Bronx with 47 meat companies. Only about the property that a husband receives said John Jiménez, who has worked as half a dozen of these shops are unionized from his wife or her family upon their a butcher at the company for three and at this point. marriage. Bride-price is the payment a half years. “The company was told to After the recent ruling by the labor rendered by the prospective husband give the labor board a list of the workers board, organizers handed out flyers in to the family of the bride. who can vote in the election by today,” English and Spanish announcing: “Garden Both members and staffers of the he stated in an August 8 interview. “We Manor Farms Bosses Lose Another One.” Service Employees International are almost done.” They also distributed a fl yer outlining vari- Union Local 32BJ took part in the The workers have been fi ghting since Hunts Point market seen from air ous methods bosses often use to divide the July 19 protest in Farmingville, New November 2002 to bring in the union. workforce and disrupt organizing efforts. York, against an anti-immigrant fi re- Jiménez explained that a union veteran The walkout took place over the busy July Workers at Garden Manor say the main bombing. The article in the August who got hired into the plant initiated the 4 holiday weekend, beginning July 3 and issues fueling the organizing drive are low 11 issue, “N.Y. protest blasts anti- organizing effort last year. “He told us ending July 11, putting real pressure on wages, lack of benefi ts, and abusive treat- immigrant arson,” only reported the if we got everyone to sign union recog- management. ment by the bosses. participation of staffers. nition cards he would call the union,” During the strike, delegations and indi- Nine miners were trapped under- Jiménez said. “So that’s what we did.” vidual workers from a number of plants in Dean Hazlewood is a member of UFCW ground for 78 hours at the Quecreek The company succeeded repeatedly in the market made visits to the picketline dur- Local 342 and works at Hunts Point. mine in Somerset, Pennsylvania, stalling the vote by trying to tie the work- ing their lunch and other breaks to express before their rescue on July 28, 2002. ers up in NLRB hearings and appeals. support for the organizing drive. The name of the mine was misspelled By the end of June, the workers had “It made everybody stronger,” said Rob- APPEAL TO MILITANT and in the August 18 issue. had enough—they went on strike to ert Roman, also a butcher at Garden Manor PERSPECTIVA MUNDIAL READERS protest the company’s stalling tactics. Farms, referring to the strike. “Everybody Bound volumes of publications is together now. Nobody is backing down.” needed for editorial work Roman said the company has continued to try various ways to forestall the election, In response to our appeal for bound including fi ling charges with the NLRB volumes of the publications below, par- that workers were intimidated into signing tisans of the papers have fi lled many of union cards. “But it doesn’t matter. We are the gaps in our archives. Below are the going to get there sooner or later. They are bound volumes we still need. down to their last bullets,” Roman added, referring to the company. MILITANT 1962,1964 Washington’s nuclear menace “If we keep together they can’t do any- thing against us,” said Jiménez. “We are the INTERCONTINENTAL PRESS In 1995 the Clinton administra- people who make the money for the com- & WORLD OUTLOOK All 1963–1967 tion bowed to world outcry and pany. Without us they can’t do anything. So in the end we are going to win.” PERSPECTIVA MUNDIAL 2001 withdrew a stamp the U.S. postal As part of the effort to unionize the more service was slated to release in than 20 workers at the plant, and possibly September of that year. It said: other shops, organizers are maintaining a Please send all bound volumes to the Militant at the address listed below. ‘Atomic bombs hasten war’s end, regular presence at the Hunts Point Coop- August 1945.’ There’s no retreat from this offi cial rationale for this heinous act 58 years ago. Read Asia: Send $80 drawn on a U.S. bank to Mushroom cloud from U.S. nuclear bombing of above address. why. Don’t miss a single issue! 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2 The Militant August 25, 2003

Why Washington Brazil protests condemn attack on pensions bombed Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, and again on fi nally signed after the A-bombings August August 9, the U.S. government dropped 6 and 9…. atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Why, then, did the United States drop the Hiroshima and Nagasaki, becoming the bombs? One of the few writers who claims only government in the world that has to believe the offi cial alibi is Robert C. ever used nuclear weapons in warfare. Batchelder, author of the well-documented Tens of thousands of people died instant- The Irreversible Decision (1962). Even ly, with thousands more dying later. This Batchelder admits: “It seems clear that had year is the 58th anniversary of that atroc- the [U.S.] attempt to end the war by politi- ity. To mark the occasion the Militant is cal and diplomatic means been undertaken printing excerpts from an article by Fred sooner, more seriously, and with more skill, Halstead, a longtime leader of the Social- the decision to use the atomic bomb might ist Workers Party, that appeared in the well have been rendered unnecessary.” Jan. 25, 1965, issue of the paper under Batchelder explains the affair away by at- the headline, “What the Record Shows: tributing it to U.S. diplomatic ineffi ciency U.S. Guilt at Hiroshima.” and a tendency in U.S. leaders to deal with Some 20,000 public workers march August 6 in Brasilia, Brazil’s capital, to con- the war in purely military terms and neglect demn Congress vote in favor of proposals by government of Luiz Inacio Lula da BY FRED HALSTEAD political aspects. But the evidence indicates Silva to undercut state pensions. The proposals would raise retirement age, cap The general impression still exists in the fi nal A-bomb decision was made pre- pensions for future retirees, and tax pensions of retired public workers. this country (but not abroad) that some- cisely for political reasons. how the dropping of the A-bombs on Japan Indeed, some top U.S. military men—in- caused the end of the war and eliminated cluding Eisenhower and the chief of staff a bloody invasion of the Japanese home of the U.S. armed forces at the time, Adm. bomb but had the ruthlessness to use it. haste was to drop the bomb before the Rus- islands, thus saving more lives than the William D. Leahy—declined to support use The haste with which the bomb was used sians entered the war against Japan. The A-bombs themselves snuffed out. This is of the bomb. In his book, I Was There (1950), indicates that the U.S. purposely ignored allies had already agreed at Yalta that the a lie manufactured and spread in the fi rst Leahy says: “It is my opinion that the use the Japanese peace requests (which were USSR would attack Japan three months place by President Truman and British of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and known in Washington on July 13) in order after Germany surrendered. Stalin had prime ministers Churchill and Attlee, who Nagasaki was of no material assistance in to drop the bomb before the war ended. No notifi ed the United States that the Russian took responsibility for the decision to drop our war against Japan. The Japanese were one was sure the bomb would work until armies would be ready for that attack on the bombs…. already defeated and ready to surrender July 18 when it was tested in New Mexico. schedule, that is, August 8. The bomb was What are the facts? This is what the because of the effective sea blockade and The only other two bombs in existence were dropped on Hiroshima August 6…. Encyclopedia Britannica (1959 edition) the successful bombing with conventional quickly dispatched to the Pacifi c base and To sum up: That Japan was defeated has to say: “After the fall of Okinawa [on weapons….” were dropped on August 6 and 9. This haste and suing for peace before the bombs were June 21, 1945], [Japanese Prime Minister] [The atomic bombing of] Hiroshima and is unexplained by combat problems. By that dropped is a fact established beyond doubt. Suzuki’s main objective was to get Japan Nagasaki cost, by the conservative Ameri- stage of the war U.S. bombers and ships The motivations of U.S. rulers in dropping out of the war on the best possible terms, can estimates, 110,000 dead and as many encountered no serious resistance and no the bombs anyway is, of course, a disputed though that could not be announced to the injured; and, by Japanese estimates, twice U.S. troop attacks were scheduled until No- question. But the evidence utterly fails to general public... Unoffi cial peace feelers that many. The evidence strongly indicates vember 1, so the haste was not necessary to support the offi cial alibi that it was done to were transmitted through Switzerland and that one major motivation of the A-bomb de- “save American lives.” avoid costly battles. On the contrary, the Sweden... Later the Japanese made a formal cision was precisely to test the bomb on live One of the most thoughtful works on the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that request to Russia to aid in bringing hostili- targets, so as to confront the postwar world subject is that by the British nuclear scien- the civilian populations of Hiroshima and ties to an end….” with the proven fact of overwhelming U.S. tist, P.M.S. Blackett, entitled Fear, War and Nagasaki were murdered, not to end World These Japanese overtures were known military superiority. It also established the the Bomb (London, 1949).… It is Blackett’s War II, but to launch what later came to be to Washington because the dispatches be- fact that U.S. imperialism not only had the well-founded thesis that one reason for the known as the cold war. tween Foreign Minister Togo in Tokyo and Japanese Ambassador Sato in Moscow were intercepted by the United States. The entire affair is documented in the Lieberman assails fellow Democrats Hoover Library volume Japan’s Decision to Surrender, by Robert J.C. Butlow (Stan- ford University, 1954). Butlow quotes the for their attacks on Bush over Iraq war dispatch that was received and decoded in Washington July 13, 1945: “Togo to Sato... BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS broadly, they’re not prepared to use our mili- Bush’s speech.” Convey His Majesty’s strong desire to secure Senator Joseph Lieberman, one of nine tary strength to protect our security and the Lieberman was referring to the much- a termination of the war... Unconditional Democratic politicians running for their cause of freedom. publicized statement by Bush in his 2003 surrender is the only obstacle to peace.” party’s presidential nomination in the “We’ve watched some opponents of the State of the Union address that the Iraqi re- These requests continued through July. 2004 race, has assailed fellow Democrats war seize upon this emerging scandal with gime was trying to get uranium from Africa Butlow documents that Washington for their attacks on U.S. president George disquieting zeal, as though it offers proof for its alleged nuclear weapons program. knew the one “condition” insisted upon by Bush around tactics on Iraq. that they were right all along,” Lieberman When pressed by reporters on who he was the Japanese government was the continu- “By its actions, the Bush administration continued. “The same is true of some of referring to among Democrats, Lieberman ation of the emperor on his throne and the threatens to give a bad name to a just war,” those who supported the war but now seem pointed to former Vermont governor How- symbolic recognition this implied of the Lieberman said, at a July 28 press confer- to have forgotten why. What made this war ard Dean, Senator John Kerry, and House Japanese home islands as a political entity. ence at the Capitol building in Washington, just was the clear evidence of 12 years of minority leader Richard Gephardt. As it turned out this was exactly the “condi- D.C. “But by their words, some in my party Saddam Hussein’s brutality and evasion of “Look, Governor Dean has had a prin- tion” that was granted when the peace was are sending out a message that they don’t responsibility. And that is not diminished cipled objection to the war,” Lieberman know a just war when they see it, and, more by those 16 misleading words in George W. said, according to a transcript of the press conference. “He said the other day after the death, or the killing, of Saddam’s two sons that the ends don’t justify the means. I don’t North Carolina textile giant closes down agree with that.” Continued from front page the fray, most blaming foreign competi- people, people in America are suffering and When he was asked about specifying I don’t know.” Another worker told the Post, tion, imports, and U.S. government trade losing jobs because of unfair trade deals,” who were the Democratic Party leaders who “I hope that I can fi nd a job and hope that I policies, like the North American Free said Delores Gambrell, a longtime union ac- supported the war but now seem to have don’t lose my house.” Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for the Pil- tivist who worked at Plant 16 in China Grove forgotten why, Lieberman stated, “I’ve been Cynthia Haynes, president of UNITE Lo- lowtex downfall. for over 30 years, referring to Bush and the reading statements made by Senator Kerry cal 1506, stated that the after the 25-year North Carolina state governor Michael U.S. occupation of Iraq. “I’m ashamed that and Congressman Gephardt—there’s a dan- fi ght to bring in UNITE, “The union is still Easley, for example, sent a representative to I’m a Republican, and my party’s not help- ger that in expressing the justifi ed questions all that workers have.” She worked at Plant the UNITE offi ce in Kannapolis to make a ing. I think it’s time for him to bring his tail about the 16 words in the State of the Union, 6 for more than 20 years. A big problem videotape to send to U.S. president George back over here and do his job, be a president about the stunning lack of preparedness of workers face today is lack of health-care Bush to show how these trade policies have in the U.S. and not overseas. And if he’s not the Bush administration in post-Saddam coverage, Haynes said. “Workers can’t get hurt the workers, he said. The governor’s he can take his butt back to Texas and keep Iraq, that we obscure the fact that this was the medicine they need to live.” People are emissary interviewed a dozen workers. it there.” Her remarks were typical of many a just war.” volunteering to buy necessary drugs for “While he’s over there fi ghting to save other whom the governor’s envoy interviewed. As Lieberman pointed out, the large ma- displaced workers, she said. jority of Democrats in Congress voted for When Pillowtex announced the closing it a resolution supporting the U.S.-led assault immediately terminated the medical insur- on Iraq and have backed the occupation of ance of all laid-off workers. Nicaraguan peasants march the country, including the actions of the U.S. A number of bourgeois politicians have military there such as the recent killing of used demagogy, taking advantage of the Continued from front page we signed the accord,” Carlos José Blandón, two of Saddam Hussein’s sons. plight of these workers to bolster their tests in northern Nicaragua to press the same a leader of the Association of Rural Work- Dean is among the most liberal of the electoral chances in 2004. demands. ers (ATC), told La Prensa. “No land has nine Democratic presidential aspirants, Democratic Party politician Jesse Jack- Peasant leader Pascual Hernández Morán been turned over from the land banks or and one of the leading contenders for his son, for example, spoke to a crowd of about told the Managua-based El Nuevo Diario has been given to the cooperatives,” con- party’s nomination so far. In the speech 100 workers in downtown Kannapolis Au- that the government has not implemented tinued Blandón, who is also a leader of the launching his presidential campaign June gust 6, at an event widely covered by the the Sept. 13, 2002, Las Tunas accords, in march. 23, he criticized “the doctrine of preemptive press. “Bush gives the top 1 percent a tax which it promised to carry out measures to In some cases, peasants and farm coop- war espoused by this administration” and its cut, and working people get a job cut,” he alleviate the crisis in the countryside. eratives have been unable to obtain credit “disdain for allies, treaties, and international said. Jackson told the crowd that he would Some health-care centers were set up, because they never received offi cial title to organizations.” He also vowed to “defend organize a march and rally to protest the Hernández Morán said, “but on the question the land they work. America against terrorism,” and chastised plant shutdowns. of property, the lack of action is blinding.” In July 1979 workers and peasants in the Bush administration for failing to fi nd Other capitalist politicians have joined “We’re in the same place we were when Continued on Page 11 “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. The Militant August 25, 2003 3 Palestinian in U.S. jail speaks from behind bars

BY RÓGER CALERO our constitutional rights and violating our has become intertwined with that of YORK, Pennsylvania—“I want to con- human rights,” he said. He said his transfer others facing similar threats. gratulate you and supporters of your fi ght away from family and supporters in New “The fight for my release and for the victory in your case against your York and New Jersey to this Pennsylvania against my deportation is for all those deportation,” said Farouk Abdel-Muhti dur- prison, which has been cited for its abusive that have been victimized after Sep- ing my visit to the York County prison. The practices by Amnesty International, was tember 11, and that strengthens my interview came during my speaking tour, punishment for his continued political commitment,” he said. Hearing a brief through which the Róger Calero Defense activities inside prison. Abdel-Muhti was account of the most important les- Committee aims to share the lessons of this involved along with other inmates in a sons drawn from the Calero defense successful defense campaign, and to link hunger strike while being held at the Pas- campaign’s victory, Abdel-Muhti was up with fi ghts against deportation and other saic County jail last January to protest the particularly interested in the response boss and government attacks. prisoners’ indefi nite imprisonment. found in the labor movement. “The John Studer, who coordinates the defense The Palestinian activist said he was being support you received shows how the committee and is the director of the Politi- punished for being critical not only of the unions can fi ght for our interests,” cal Rights Defense Fund, joined me in the brutal dispossession of the Palestinians, but he said. El Diario La Prensa/Osvaldo Pérez July 28 visit. also of all the crimes committed by the U.S. The Committee for the Release of Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti The victory, said Abdel-Muhti—who has immigration police. “In this jail, even the Farouk Abdel-Muhti has urged sup- spoken out in my defense from the time I doctor told me that I have no right to speak porters of democratic rights to send letters DC 20536; , tel. (212) 305-2734, fax (202) was seized by immigration cops last Decem- because I am an immigrant and a ‘terrorist,’” of protest demanding his release and an end 353-9435; [email protected]. ber—“was possible thanks to the support he said. Members of the Committee for the to all deportation proceedings to David J. To write to Abdel-Muhti, address corre- of working people and those who feel and Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti are pressing Venturella, Assistant Deputy Executive As- spondence as follows: Farouk Abdel-Muhti participate in our struggles.” the government for his release and for an sociate Commissioner, offi ce of Detention #75122, York County Jail, 3400 Concord Abdel-Muhti has been jailed for more end to deportation proceedings. His fi ght and Removal, 425 I St, NW, Washington, Road, York, PA 17402-9580. than a year, but he faces no criminal charges. The immigration cops say they are holding him on the basis of immigration law viola- tions and a 1995 deportation order. ‘Journalist wins anti-deportation fi ght’ In February Abdel-Muhti, who was born in Palestine before the formation of the Is- The following article was published said that because I had told the Department able and he was given back his residency raeli state and has lived in the U.S. since in the July 25 Washington Hispanic, a of Immigration when I requested permanent card. According to Lea Sherman, from the the 1970s, was transferred from the Passaic Spanish-language weekly newspaper in residency in 1989 about my 1988 arrest for Textile Workers Union (UNITE), who sup- County jail in Paterson, New Jersey—one Washington, D.C., under the above head- selling marijuana to an undercover cop, ported Calero in his fi ght against deporta- of the prisons used by the immigration line. Translation and subheading are by with the changes in the law I was now de- tion, “the case of this journalist is one of police to jail immigrant workers facing the Militant. portable,” Calero said. He had traveled to hundreds of thousands that are occurring in deportation—to the York County jail here. Havana and Guadalajara to report on a meet- the United Sates but are not made public.” That prison topped the list of the largest BY ALEX ORMAZA ing to discuss the Free Trade Agreement of Sherman pointed out that many organiza- immigration jails in the country in 1999. For Nicaraguan journalist Róger Calero, the Americas for the magazine Perspectiva tions in the United States and other coun- Immigrants facing deportation proceedings what should have been a happy return home Mundial. He is its associate editor. From tries have joined the campaign. comprised 44 percent of its population in and the start of editing work on topics he prison, Calero contacted the editor of his The Nicaraguan journalist told Washing- 2000. Abdel-Muhti has been locked up in was covering in Cuba and Mexico ended magazine, who in turn mobilized the Politi- ton Hispanic that “in a few weeks we will solitary since February 26, and can leave his up as a nightmare with the Department of cal Rights Defense Fund to form the Róger be taking this story to Canada, where there cell for only 45 minutes a day. Immigration. The Department kept him in Calero Defense Committee. is a fi ght against deportation of Algerian Abdel-Muhti was brought out dressed jail 12 days on the verge of deportation, all refugees going on today. We want to take in an orange prison uniform, and remained because of a minor infraction with the po- One of hundreds of thousands our message that it is possible to reverse handcuffed and shackled throughout our lice that the new immigration laws placed Since then seven months have gone unjust laws and have people’s civil rights meeting. We were separated by a glass outside the law. by “and after massive support from trade respected, especially if pressure is applied partition and conducted our discussion by “They detained me at the Houston, unions and other organizations,” according with citizen solidarity.” phone. “The government is stepping on Texas, airport on December 3, 2002. They to Calero, a judge declared him not deport- Before he took up journalism, Calero, who is married to a U.S. citizen, worked at meatpacking plants in Des Moines, Iowa, and St. Paul, Minnesota, where he partici- Calero joins Atlanta driver’s license protest pated in a decisive union drive at Dakota BY ELLIE GARCÍA encouraged everyone there to back the ef- in the future. Premium Food, in South St. Paul. In the ATLANTA—“From the point of view forts of workers to organize unions. Calero was interviewed by WCCD, meantime, once his tour through various of someone fi ghting against deportations, Three people who took part in the a Spanish radio news program, and the states of the nation is completed, Calero in my own case and those of many others, driver’s license meeting came to a public Spanish-language newspapers Nuestro Se- will visit various countries where invitations it’s important to see the fi ght for the right event next evening featuring Calero. The manario and Mundo Hispánico. The latter is have been made to him to expose what he of immigrants to have a driver’s license panel of speakers included James Harris the most widely distributed Latino newspa- calls “the silent persecutions by the authori- as one of many struggles working people of the Socialist Workers Party and Adelina per in Georgia. He was also interviewed on ties of hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the United States are participating in,” Nicholls, vice president of the Coordinating the English-language radio station WRFG. in this country.” said Róger Calero at a meeting of over 100 Council of Latino Community Leaders of people here July 22. The gathering had Atlanta (Coordinadora). Nicholls is a local been called by Georgians for Safer Roads, leader of the driver’s license struggle. an organization that campaigns for driver’s “Coordinadora is organizing the first Cross burning at Maryland mosque licenses for undocumented workers. It was Latino Rights Forum for September 28,” held at the offi ces of the Latin American Nicholls announced. Among the workshops is condemned at press conference Association in Atlanta. is one on driver’s licenses. The conference BY GLOVA SCOTT Relations, said in a phone interview that The meeting was called to protest a bill will be on the same weekend that the buses WASHINGTON, D.C.—A three-foot- he had gotten a call about the incident at Georgia’s governor Sonny Perdue signed for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride high wooden cross was set afi re outside 5 a.m. and organized a 12:30 p.m. press into law May 31. The legislation prohibits will set off from Atlanta and join with riders the Dar-us-Salaam mosque and adjoining conference that day. About 25 people came immigrants in the state from buying a ve- from nine other U.S. cities headed toward Muslim Al-Huda school in College Park, representing the NAACP, the American hicle, or renewing license plates for one they Washington to focus attention on struggles Maryland, at 2 a.m. July 24. A surveil- Civil Liberties Union, local politicians, already own, without having a valid Georgia of immigrant workers against discrimina- lance camera videotape showed at least human rights groups, and area churches. driver’s license. tion on the job and their right to live in the two people carrying out the cross burn- Individuals from the mosque and school “I have lived in Georgia for seven years. United States. ing. A man, sitting in a car while waiting also attended. I own a small construction business and Calero pointed out that because attacks for a friend working on the fl oors inside “This is obviously a hate crime and is I’m very interested in how this law is going on immigrants are at the spear point of the the mosque, also witnessed two or three very disturbing,” said Mowlana, noting to affect me,” Arturo Castejón, a Mexican ruling class offensive, “defense of the rights young white men on the lawn who then that he had called the FBI to investigate. immigrant, told the gathering. “I own three of immigrant workers—opposition to ‘no sped away in a van after the cross was set “We have a common enemy,” he stated, pick-up trucks and I won’t be able to keep match’ Social Security letters, repealing of ablaze. Local fi refi ghters extinguished the announcing his plans to pull together a using them for my job.” laws such as those restricting immigrants fi re in minutes. coalition to fi ght to bring those responsible Thousands of people have been affected from obtaining driver’s licences or renewing Rizwan Mowlana, executive direc- for the cross burning to justice. For more in a similar fashion since the law went into car registration, ending factory raids and de- tor of the Council on American-Islamic information, contact www.cairmd.org. effect, with many opting to move to other portations—is a question for the entire labor states as a result. movement.” Organizing to press for these Crews of construction workers, electri- demands, as the protest meeting the day cians, concrete workers, contractors, and before set out to do, can increase the self- Róger Calero Fight to Win/‘Sí se puede’ Tour others came from work to the 11:00 a.m. confi dence and unity of working people. “It meeting to discuss the problem, after an an- makes us stronger,” Calero said. The Róger Calero Defense Committee is organizing a speaking tour for Calero in cities across the United States and around the world to build on his successful antideporta- nouncement that the gathering was taking Harris thanked everyone for coming to tion fi ght. Below is the schedule for the tour. Requests for additional tour dates can be place was broadcast on Spanish-language the meeting, on behalf of Calero’s party, made to: Róger Calero Defense Committee, c/o PRDF, Box 761, Church St. Station, radio. the SWP, and for joining the struggle that New York, NY 10007; phone/fax 212-563-0585; [email protected] Most people there called for actions to pushed back the government in its attempt demand that the law be repealed, including to deport Calero. Philadelphia August 16 New Zealand August 28–30 a work stoppage and a march. A Direct Ac- The 29 people in attendance at the July Utah/Colorado August 18–19 Australia Aug. 31–Sept. 1 tion committee was formed to organize such 23 event contributed $559 towards the Montreal August 20–21 mobilizations. Calero joined the discussion expenses of Calero’s tour and to help the Britain Sept. 4–7 with workers on the importance of fi ghting Political Rights Defense Fund, which helped Toronto August 22–23 Sweden Sept. 8–10 to win and supporting other struggles. He initiate the Róger Calero Defense Commit- Vancouver August 24–25 Iceland Sept. 11–13 pointed to a UNITE organizer present and tee, replenish its war chest for similar fi ghts 4 The Militant August 25, 2003 Liberia intervention Socialist Workers contest Houston mayoralty Continued from front page straint, the U.S. ambassador to Liberia, 2,300 U.S. Marines stationed on three war- John Blaney, has been centrally involved in ships off Liberia’s coast. the deployment of the West African troops Meanwhile, Liberia’s president Charles and negotiations with the armed opposition Taylor resigned August 11—a central groups. With Taylor still offi cially the head demand of Washington before deploying of state, Blaney escorted the commander of substantial forces on the ground—and fl ew the Nigerian troops to a meeting to negoti- to neighboring Nigeria, which had offered ate with LURD. “The meeting went well. him asylum. About 100 South African We are on track,” reported U.S. military troops, along with forces from Nigeria, attaché Colonel Sue Ann Sandusky follow- guarded the Executive Mansion in Monro- ing the meeting. via that day. Several African heads of state Washington seeks a broader foothold were present in the ceremony where Taylor against its imperialist rivals in Africa, espe- handed over power to his vice president. cially in the oil-rich region of West Africa. Klein said the goal of the UN-sanctioned A joint effort by Washington and London intervention is to establish a “government to impose international sanctions on the Li- of technocrats” with a “sprinkling of inter- berian diamond trade in January 2001 was national civil servants” to run the country stymied by the former French colonies of for as long as two years before “free and Burkina Faso and Mali with backing from Tony Dutrow, Socialist Workers candidate for Houston mayor, in local Pathfi nder fair elections” could be held. This govern- Paris. The French government also blocked bookstore. August 9 Houston Chronicle carried this photo along with article on ment, he added, would restructure the bank- imposition of sanctions on its interests in campaign launching. A barbecue and forum that day kicked off drive to collect ing system and foreign ministry and other timber and maritime registry. 4,000 signatures to put Dutrow on ballot. Petitioning lasts from August 15 to governing institutions, and rebuild the On August 11 Taylor handed over power September 14. To help please call Dutrow’s campaign at (713) 869-6550. infrastructure, including Liberia’s railroad to Liberia’s vice president, Moses Blah. In from Monrovia to neighboring Guinea. a televised speech the previous day Taylor According to an Associated Press dis- blamed Washington for the country’s civil dismissed the charge. “We haven’t sup- by the government of Guinea. The group patch, the UN envoy appealed to about a strife, calling it an “American war” motivat- ported LURD,” he said. has its diplomatic headquarters in Conakry, dozen countries to provide troops and other ed by Washington’s eagerness to get further “For us in LURD the war is over,” Sekou Guinea’s capital. Its leaders say funding for resources. The governments of Bangladesh access to the country’s natural resources. He Fofana, a leader of the group, told Reuters the group comes from exiles living in the and Namibia have agreed to provide as many said the U.S. government was backing the August 11. “Once [Taylor] leaves Liberia United States, where some of its central as 5,000 soldiers. Those of India, Pakistan, main opposition group, Liberians United for today, we are not going to fi ght.” leaders live and the group functions freely. Ireland, and South Africa may also provide Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). Washington had pressed hard for Taylor’s According to an exposé in the Liberian Post troops. So far the Pentagon has authorized “They can call off their dogs now,” he said, departure. U.S. Secretary of State Colin magazine, LURD also receives indirect aid only 20 U.S. Marines to go ashore. referring to the LURD. Powell also made it clear that Washington from Washington and London. Washington Despite Washington’s posture of re- The next day U.S. ambassador Blaney backs “war-crime charges” against Taylor has increased military aid to Guinea, which handed down by a UN court in the former in turn has increased supplies to LURD. British colony Sierra Leone because of his U.S. corporations enjoy the lion’s share SWP party-building fund under way support for rebels in that country. “If Mr. of foreign contracts and investments in Taylor leaves Liberia and is given asylum Guinea, which has the world’s second-larg- BY ANGEL LARISCY Supporters of the fund effort are ap- in Nigeria, this does not remove the indict- est bauxite reserves and more diamonds NEWARK, New Jersey—This week the proaching a wide range of potential new ment in any way,” Powell said. than Sierra Leone and Liberia combined. Militant carries the fi rst of a weekly chart contributors, including co-workers, union- Both opposition groups, LURD and MODEL emerged this year from a fac- showing the goals Socialist Workers Party ists they have met in skirmishes against MODEL, the Movement for Democracy tional split in LURD and has its headquar- supporters in local areas have adopted the employers, fellow students, and others. in Liberia, are made up of former govern- ters in French-dominated Ivory Coast. Both towards the $80,000 SWP Party-Building They can all be asked to contribute to the ment offi cials and military commanders in groups are divided along ethnic lines—with Fund, which runs until October 15. As the fund. Workers, farmers, and young people Taylor’s regime. “Old Foes Embrace New Mandingos supporting LURD and MODEL chart shows, the pledges received so far will respond to an appeal from militants Liberian Truce” read the headline of a based largely among Krahns. fall short of the goal. to contribute fi nancially to the work of the Washington Post article on the fi rst meet- Socialist workers in three cities have yet Socialist Workers Party. ing of commanders of government troops to adopt targets. Elsewhere fund organizers SWP leaders will speak at fund meetings and the armed opposition. Liberian Col. are reviewing their goals with an eye to in each city to discuss major political ques- Lewis Brah walked across a bridge lead- Militant/Perspectiva Mundial raising them, bearing in mind the political tions of the day, as part of the campaign. ing into Monrovia that had been the scene Renewal Drive opportunities before the party today and in The deadline for contributions to be of some of the heaviest fi ghting just days July26–August 17: Week 2 the months ahead. These include: advanc- received and recorded on the scoreboard earlier to meet his old friend known to him ing work in defense of the Cuban Revolu- for what will now be a weekly chart on only as Gen. Azim, the article reported. Militant PM tion; building support in the labor move- this page is each Saturday, noon, EST. No “We were hugging and shaking hands,” Country Goal Sold % Goal Sold ment for packinghouse workers on strike contributions will be recorded until they Brah said after the meeting. “We drink. NEW ZEALAND against Tyson Foods in Jefferson, Wiscon- are in hand. Donations should be mailed We smoke. We talk about the past.” Auckland 4 2 50% sin, as well as other union struggles; getting to the SWP at 152 E. 36th St., Room 401, LURD forces are armed and trained Christchurch 4 2 50% the word out on the job and elsewhere for New York, NY N.Z. total 8 4 50% the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, and 10018. Checks SWEDEN increasing the long-term readership of the should be made Stockholm 4 3 75% 1 0 Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. out to the SWP. Gothenburg 4 1 25% 0 0 SWEDEN total 8 4 50% 1 0 CALENDAR UNITED STATES Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Cleveland 3 4 133% 1 0 t Immigrant workers and their allies will set out from nine major U.S. Omaha 3 3 100% 5 3 $80,000 Party-Building Fund cities and cross the country in buses in late September 2003. They will San Francisco 8 8 100% 4 0 July 12–October 15: Week 5 of 13 converge on Washington, D.C. and then travel to Liberty State Park in Tampa 5 4 80% 1 0 New Jersey October 3, and then Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, New Miami 7 5 71% 3 0 York for a mass rally on October 4, 2003. Sponsors include AFL-CIO, Houston 6 4 67% 1 0 Goal Paid % National Council of La Raza, UNITE, United Food and Commercial New York 12 8 67% 6 3 Workers Union. For more information go to http://www.iwfr.org Twin Cities 8 5 63% 6 1 Tampa 1,400 550 39% Boston 4 2 50% 3 0 Boston 2,700 575 21% Newark 6 3 50% 2 0 Seattle 8 4 50% 1 0 Utah 1,000 150 15% WA SHINGTON, D.C. National Civil Rights March: Defeat Ward Connerly, Defend Af- Detroit 8 3 38% 2 1 San Francisco 7,100 1,000 14% fi rmative Action and Integration; Realize the Promise of Brown Chicago 15 4 27% 8 0 Chicago 3,800 300 8% v. Board of Education. Sat., Aug. 23, 12 noon. Assemble at Howard Utah 4 1 25% 5 2 University, 2400 Georgia Ave., NW, march to Lincoln Memorial. Western Colorado 8 2 25% 6 0 Houston 3,000 250 8% Seventh National Conference of the New Civil Rights Movement. Birmingham 5 1 20% 2 0 Birmingham 1,400 100 7% Sat.–Sun., Aug. 23–24, Howard University. Philadelphia 5 1 20% 2 1 Los Angeles 12 2 17% 5 0 Cleveland 1,000 55 6% The march and conference will oppose campaign of anti-affi rmative action ballot initiatives spearheaded by Ward Connerly. Atlanta 8 1 13% 2 0 Newark 3,500 200 6% Washington, DC 8 1 13% 4 0 New York 10,000 600 6% Des Moines 4 0 0% 2 0 NEW YORK NE Pennsylvania 7 0 0% 0 0 Detroit 2,200 50 2% Manhattan Pittsburgh 8 0 0% 0 0 Twin Cities 4,000 25 1% After the Vieques Victory: How does Puerto Rico fi t into U.S. Strat- U.S. total 162 66 39% 71 10 egies for Global Domination? Speakers: Jorge Farinacci, Socialist ICELAND 8 3 38% Washington, DC 2,700 30 1% Front of Puerto Rico; Ismael Guadalupe, Committee for the Rescue & CANADA Atlanta 4,300 0 0% Development of Vieques. Sat., Sept. 20, 10:00 a.m. Donation: $6/$8/ Vancouver 7 3 43% 1 0 Des Moines 1,200 0 0% $10. Auspices: Vieques Support Campaign. Brecht Forum, 122 West Montreal 4 1 25% 3 0 27th St., 10th fl oor.(718) 610-4751 or (212) 677-0619. Toronto 6 1 17% 1 0 Los Angeles 7,500 0 0% CANADA total 17 5 29% 5 0 NE Pennsylvania 2,000 0 0% UNITED KINGDOM Scotland 3 1 33% Omaha 1,100 0 0% London 10 2 20% 2 0 Pittsburgh 3,300 0 0% MILITANT UK total 13 3 23% 2 0 AUSTRALIA 8 0 0% 1 0 Western Colorado 2,700 0 0% International totals 224 85 38% 80 11 Miami 0 350 0% LABOR Goal/Should be 225 150 67% 80 54

Philadelphia 0 0 0% IN THE UNIONS Seattle 0 0 0% FORUMS Militant PM NEW JERSEY Goal Sold % Goal Sold Other 1,111 UNITED STATES Newark UFCW 13 4 31% 15 5 Origins of Women’s Oppression. Speaker: Laura Garza, Socialist Workers UMWA 9 2 22% 4 1 Party. Sat., Aug. 23, 7:30 p.m. Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Donation: $5 dinner, $5 Total 65,900 5,871 9% UNITE 13 2 15% 2 2 program. 168 Bloomfi eld Ave., 2nd Floor, Newark. Tel. (973) 481-0077. Goal/Should be 80,000 18,400 23% Total 35 8 23% 21 8

The Militant August 25, 2003 5 Socialist workers focus work on union building

BY FRANCISCO PICADO “We have begun discussions with co- AND WILLIAM WEST workers about organizing to bring in the SALK LAKE CITY—Socialist workers union where we work,” said William West, employed in coalfi elds across the United a miner in Arizona. “The bosses take ad- States met here August 2–3 to discuss how vantage of the fact that many of to carry through a major political reorienta- my co-workers have been forced to Militant/Tony Lane (top); Jacob Perasso (left) tion of their work among miners. The meet- migrate here from other countries to Above, coal miners attend Mine ing included socialist workers and Young fi nd work,” he continued. “By bring- Safety and Health Administration Socialists working in mines organized by the ing the union into the workplace we hearings in Charleston, West United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) cut across all of that, because all Virginia, May 6, to oppose new and some working in nonunion mines. workers, regardless of legal status, rules on coal-dust levels that will “This meeting is to implement a radi- can fi ght for our union as equals. cost workers’ lives. Left, solidar- cal change in the work of socialists in the Many immigrants are joining unions ity rally with meat packers on UMWA,” explained Anna Guerrero in the in the U.S.” strike against Tyson Foods in opening report to the meeting. Guerrero is “We want to take full part and re- Jefferson, Wisconsin, June 22 a coal miner in a nonunion mine in Ari- sponsibility in the organizing drive drew 350 strikers and support- zona. “The work we do has to be centered where I work,” said Joe Armstrong, ers. These unionists have been on on building the union and its transformation a coal miner at a nonunion mine in strike for fi ve months. Socialist into a revolutionary instrument of the work- Colorado, where supporters of the industrial workers have become ing class,” she said. “We have been focused UMWA are trying to build support more integrated into the van- on getting socialist newspapers and books for the union. “This is not the fi rst guard of these struggles. into the hands of our co-workers and get- attempt to organize this mine and ting the necessary job skills, and we have I’m looking forward to working retreated from our strategic trade-union with the veteran unionists who are leading talize the union at the Farmer John plant. are meat packers in Atlanta and Chicago, orientation.” this struggle.” A number of workers have begun to look respectively. “Work to transform the unions can be The socialist miners also decided to for ways to rebuild the union in response to O done today—strengthening the union where assign miners from the Pittsburgh area to indiscriminate fi rings, increased line speed, it exists and fi ghting to organize it where it discuss out how to strengthen communist and bathroom break restrictions imposed BY MARY MARTIN does not,” Guerrero continued. “There are trade- union work in West Virginia. “This by the bosses. AND NANCY ROSENSTOCK serious discussions about organizing the area of Appalachia is where important “Orienting to the whole local union, union at two of the mines where socialist battles around safety and black lung were not just our plant, will connect us to the NEWARK, New Jersey—Socialist work- miners are working today.” fought in the late 1960s,” said Lane, refer- broader labor movement,” said Britton. ers in the garment and textile industry met “We must be known as trade unionists ring to a deadly disease miners develop Many UFCW locals organize workers at here August 2–3. They decided to make a of word and deed who use the structures of from breathing coal dust into their lungs. a variety of plants and other facilities, in- sharp turn in their political work toward our union to advance struggles alongside “Through these battles the ranks of miners cluding those in food and retail. Tim Frank union organizing and mobilizing the struc- our co-workers and who bring to the union wrested more power into their hands. It re- from St. Paul, Minnesota, remarked that tures of their union, UNITE, to the benefi t the social questions that the working class is mains a strong area of the union as shown slaughterhouse workers who led the fi ght of the membership. facing today, like racism and sexism,” said by the nearly 1,000-strong protest in May in to organize and build UFCW Local 789 James Harris from Atlanta pointed out Jason Alessio, a coal miner at the Deserado Charleston, West Virginia, over new rules at Dakota Premium Foods “have a real in the main report that workers today are mine in Colorado. “To say that you are increasing the amount of coal dust in the opportunity to reach out to other fi ghters. less weighed down by defeats of the past building a movement without this perspec- mines as well as the Widows’ Walk protest That local is involved in a public fi ght for a and many are looking to make links with tive is empty talk,” he continued. “When over black-lung benefi ts in 2002.” contract at Borders bookstore, where work- other workers in struggle. This course of you live by this perspective, then it has real Coal production in West Virginia is ers recently voted in the UFCW, and has action was presented in “A Sea Change in meaning to explain to your co-workers why second only to Wyoming in a period where launched an organizing drive at the local Working-Class Politics,” the opening chap- you are a communist.” overall mine productivity continues to in- Target department stores in the Twin Cities ter of Capitalism’s World Disorder by SWP “There are miners where I work, younger crease. Average mine productivity has gone as part of its campaign to raise the wages, national secretary Jack Barnes. and older, who are collaborating on how to up from 3.45 tons per labor-hour in 1989, to benefi ts, and dignity of retail workers.” Harris said that as the employers’ as- use the union to push the company back on 6.44 tons in 1999—an 87 percent increase. James Stone from Toronto pointed sault on the rights and living standards of questions like mandatory overtime,” said According to the Mine Safety and Health to opportunities in Canada to join with the working class deepens, more and more Alessio. Administration (MSHA), there have been UFCW campaigns, from a unionization workers are looking to the unions to defend “A recent newspaper article brought 21 fatalities in coal mining as of July this drive in southwest Ontario to the success- and unify working people. Those who fi nd home to me the importance of not miss- year—13 of them in Kentucky and West ful organization of the Wal-Mart store in themselves without a union in many work- ing our union’s activities,” said Francisco Virginia alone. Thompson, Manitoba—the first entire places are seeking ways to collectively Picado, also a miner at Deserado. “This Wal-Mart store organized by the UFCW organize one. These struggles will increas- last commemoration of the 1914 massacre Francisco Picado is a member of UMWA in North America. ingly include defense of the unemployed, of miners in Ludlow, Colorado, included Local 1984 in Rangely, Colorado. William he said. Union taking on social questions a march by Hispanic steelworkers from West works at a mine in Arizona not yet On July 30, for example, on the eve of Denver, who joined in with miners in the organized by the union. Britton noted that “the stance the labor the meeting, the textile giant Pillowtex an- movement is taking in support of the Immi- nounced that it is shutting down its North restoration of the recently vandalized Lud- O low monument. The article highlighted the grant Workers Freedom Ride will get quite American operations, throwing its 7,500 participation of Mexicans in those early a hearing” (see advertisement on page 5). employees, the majority of them textile battles for our union. Most of the children BY ARLENE RUBINSTEIN Growing numbers of unions are support- workers, onto the streets. The plant shut- who were murdered by the bosses that day AND MAURICE WILSON ing the rights of immigrants, he said. This downs by the nation’s third-largest maker of were from Mexico,” he said. CHICAGO—“We are not deepening, stance helps in answering America First, towels and linens is causing devastation in “The coverage socialist miners did for the but radically changing, our course. Every- rightist demagogy, such as that espoused some towns throughout the Carolinas (see Militant newspaper of the fl ood that trapped where socialists are building fractions, we by Patrick Buchanan, who recently blamed front-page article). miners at the Quecreek mine in Somerset, will work with other workers to strengthen the social crisis in California on free trade “How do we fi ght for solutions for work- Pennsylvania, and the subsequent cover- the unions as fi ghting instruments of the policies and “an unrepelled invasion from ers who have stopped getting paychecks?” up by the bosses and the government last working class. We will carry this out not Mexico” of immigrant workers. asked Will Collins, who had worked for year was useful,” said Tony Lane, a miner just in union plants, but seek to work with “The fi ve-month-long strike by members Pillowtex until a few months ago. “We are in Pennsylvania. “But we need to do such others in organizing unions where they do of UFCW Local 538 against Tyson Foods steered to apply to charities for help or sign efforts starting with our union and how to not exist,” said Joel Britton here at a na- is a fi ght with big stakes, not just for the up for short-term aid from the state. Yet advance it.” tional meeting of members of the Socialist 470 strikers,” said Britton. “The company many of us can be ruled ineligible if we have Workers Party and Young Socialists who is demanding deep cuts in wages and ben- cars or other assets. One of my co-workers work in slaughterhouses and meat pro- efi ts.” The Solidarity Sunday Rally set for was told she would have to wait months for cessing plants across the United States. August 17 is the next opportunity to show fi nancial aid from the state because she had JOIN TYSON STRIKERS Participants in the August 2–3 gathering support for the embattled union, he said already received some aid once this year.” work in factories organized by the United (see ad on this page). Collins said that the UNITE offi cials’ stance August 17 Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) or The union-organizing effort by workers on Pillowtex is that “foreign competition” in nonunion meatpacking plants. at the giant Smithfi eld Foods hog-process- shut down the company and U.S. jobs are This perspective builds on previous ing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was now overseas. “I don’t agree with that,” Col- Solidarity Rally 2:00 p.m. also discussed. Participants decided to lins said. “It’s the whole economic system Tyson/Doskocil plant gate advances. “Today we are more connected with layers of our class who are on the organize a team to visit Tar Heel to learn of capitalism that’s in crisis worldwide and 1 River Rd., Jefferson, WI receiving end of some of the more vicious more about it and cover it in the Militant. workers internationally are bearing the ef- immediately followed by... attacks by the bosses and where there is a Ved Dookhun from Newark, New fects of it.” Back to School Rally degree of resistance and the potential for Jersey, drew on his recent experience as Another former Pillowtex worker, Naomi with strikers’ families workers to dig in their heels and fi ght,” a participant in the Cuba-U.S. Youth Ex- Craine, said, “We need to use union power Britton said. change delegation to Cuba. “Explaining to organize the unemployed workers and to Rotary Waterfront Park “This gets us back to how the strategic the course of the Cuban Revolution to call for measures such as immediate relief Jefferson, WI fi ght for the unions to become fi ghting in- vanguard workers is at the center of build- in the form of cash aid and for a national ing a revolutionary workers movement in unemployment insurance not tied to the Bring fi nancial contributions struments of labor is critical to the struggle this country,” he said. company.” and/or school supplies of the working class to take power,” said Wanda Lewis from Los Angeles who is Socialist garment and textile workers For information call: (608) 244-5653 working along with other workers to revi- Arlene Rubinstein and Maurice Wilson Continued on Page 10 www.tysonfamiliesstandup.org

6 The Militant August 25, 2003 U.S. youth meet Cuban social workers

BY PAUL PEDERSON periences of earlier generations of Cubans HAVANA—“When I finished high who were transformed by their participation school I took the university entrance ex- in revolutionary activities such as the 1961 ams but couldn’t get high enough scores literacy campaign, through which tens of to be admitted,” said Josy García Ayala. “I thousands volunteered to go into the coun- spent a whole year just sitting around the tryside as teachers and helped wipe out house practically doing nothing. Then my illiteracy in Cuba. neighbor told me how I could study at the “In Havana there were 109 [professional] school for social work and become involved social workers before this program began,” in this movement. I signed up, and was able said Norma Pérez, who heads the program in in this way to resume my studies. Now I’m Havana. “They would mainly wait in com- also at the university studying history.” munity centers like the one we are meeting García Ayala was one of 25 graduates of in today for people to come to them and tell the Social Workers Training School who them about their problems. participated in a July 28 meeting here at a “Now there are 2,182 social workers in community center in the Cayo Hueso (Key Havana. These young people go out into West) neighborhood of Havana. The meet- the community. They live among and get ing was attended by about 75 young people to know the families they are working with,” from the United States who were visiting Pérez explained. “They work together with Militant/Above, Romina Green. Left, Paul Pederson the island as part of the Third Cuba-U.S. them on problems they are facing.” Above, Cuban revolutionary social Youth Exchange. The schools of social work were estab- workers after July 28 meeting at Cayo Altogether, nearly 300 college and high lished “to solve two problems at once,” Hueso community center, in Havana, school students and other youth from the Pérez said. “We take youth who weren’t with U.S. youth. Left, Eddie Torres, from United States took part in the one-week benefi ting from all of the rights that the revo- Los Angeles (at right), speaking in dis- visit to Cuba, held July 23 to August 1. The lution offers and connect them with school cussion during the meeting. purpose of the trip, sponsored by the Union and work again. The social workers go out of Young Communists (UJC), Federation of into the community, evaluate the problems, these schools participated in a massive in the most industrialized countries. University Students (FEU), and other Cuban criticize when government institutions aren’t campaign to eradicate dengue fever, a Another young social worker from the youth organizations, was to allow the U.S. working properly, and offer solutions.” sometimes deadly disease spread by mos- Playa district of Havana described her work visitors to learn fi rsthand about the Cuban At the same time, the program gives quitoes that breed especially in unsanitary with a young man who had committed a Revolution today. In the course of the more these youth the opportunity to go to col- accumulations of water. Teams of students petty crime and was serving his sentence than two-hour-long exchange, members of lege. After the initial six-month training and graduates from the social work schools in his home. She helped him get involved the social workers brigades spoke about program, they are admitted to a six-year around the country went into communities, in school and reported that he has since be- the work they are doing in working-class university program—carrying out social especially in Havana, the country’s largest come the president of the student federation neighborhoods such as Cayo Hueso. work in the community Monday through city, going block-by-block to improve the at his campus. The training and mobilization of thou- Friday while going to the university on sanitary conditions and educate the entire “This is the main way that we are con- sands of revolutionary social workers across Saturdays. population on the measures to be taken to fronting social problems like drug addiction the country, they said, is part of an effort Pérez explained that when the program reduce the spread of the disease. Unlike the and prostitution,” said Pérez when asked known here as the “Battle of Ideas,” a politi- began in 2000, youth brigades conducted epidemic conditions that developed in other about those problems by one of the visit- cal offensive spearheaded over the past three a broad survey of the entire population. It tropical regions of Latin America, only a ing U.S. youth. “Two and a half years ago years by Cuba’s revolutionary leadership. revealed that 186,000 Cubans between the tiny handful of people died in Cuba from in Havana there were 22,000 young people The aim of this campaign is to deepen the ages of 16 and 30 were neither working nor dengue fever. who were neither working nor in school. We participation of working people and youth in school, Pérez explained. Today, through One of the social workers told the story have gotten 13,000 of them off the streets in Cuba’s socialist revolution. Central to this this mass campaign, she reported that of her work with an elderly woman who and into the classroom through this effort. effort, which encompasses more than 70 dif- 132,000 of these youth have been integrated lived on a pension of 90 pesos a month and “Before we began this program these ferent programs, is broadening the access to into classes that will train them to get jobs was struggling to support a grandchild. The problems weren’t often discussed openly,” culture and educational opportunities. or prepare them to enter the university. brigadista recommended that the woman’s she added. “Those addicted to drugs were Through the Battle of Ideas, Cuba’s pension be increased, and it was raised to afraid to go to the government for help. The communist leadership seeks to confront the An army of social workers 200 pesos. She also involved her and her social workers have achieved some impor- imperialist ideological drive that promotes In September 2000 the Cuban govern- grandson in an initiative called the com- tant results where others could not. They capitalism and its dog-eat-dog values. It also ment opened the fi rst Social Worker Training munity dining halls. are not linked to the police, and what they seeks to address the social inequalities that School in Cojímar. In February 2001, after Pérez explained that these dining halls fi nd out in the course of their work [such as have sharpened as Cuba has become more completing a six-month course, the school were set up by the social work brigades to use of illegal drugs] remains confi dential. exposed to the capitalist world market since graduated its fi rst class of 513. Speaking at help those who have diffi culty buying and The social workers get to know these young the early 1990s, when it lost 85 percent of is their graduation ceremony, Cuban president preparing their own food, in particular the people, win their confi dence, and work with foreign trade after the collapse of aid from Fidel Castro described them as the fi rst bat- elderly and disabled. They also serve as an them to resolve these problems.” and trade with the former Soviet Union and talion of what would become an army of important link for those who need them to Participation in these campaigns is hav- Eastern European workers states. revolutionary social workers. broader social activity. ing a deep political impact on many youth. Among those most affected by the eco- Today that army has swelled to more This priority on the elderly is particularly One indication Pérez pointed to is the fact nomic and social crisis are young people, than 8,000 nationwide. Schools for training important because of their growing numbers that 60 percent of the current graduates of including layers of teenagers who, after social workers have since been established in Cuba. As a result of the improved social the schools of social work have joined the graduating from high school, are neither in the cities of Villa Clara, Holguín, and conditions brought about by the revolution, Union of Young Communists, which plays working nor studying. Some become alien- Santiago. Another 5,000 are set to graduate the average life expectancy of Cubans has a central role in these initiatives and in the ated and get involved in hustling or petty from these schools in September. increased to nearly 77—the highest in Latin broader fi ght to advance Cuba’s socialist crime. Last year, thousands of graduates from America and comparable to life expectancy revolution. In contrast with “social work” as orga- nized by the capitalist rulers of the United States—who approach the hardest-hit lay- ers of working people as potential criminals N.Y. event celebrates Moncada anniversary who must be policed and subjected to the most degrading methods of social engineer- BY OLGA RODRÍGUEZ and others in the area. Frank Velgara of Miranda went to jail for two years when ing—the social workers campaign in Cuba NEW YORK CITY—“The attack on the Vieques Support Campaign and Rose- he was still a teenager for refusing to serve seeks to involve young people in fi nding the Moncada garrison, the assassination mari Mealy, who works for WBAI radio, in the U.S. military during the Korean War. solutions to social problems in a way that of more than a third of the combatants co-chaired the meeting. Poets, musicians, “If Washington had taught me how to use a reinforces the solidarity and confi dence of involved in the assault, and the violation and others joined the speakers on the plat- rifl e, I knew I was going to use it,” he said. the working class. This is possible in Cuba of due process in the trials of those who form for a fi tting celebration of the act that “But not against the Koreans.” only because workers and farmers have survived sped up the development of a opened the Cuban Revolution in 1953. Cancel Miranda lived in Cuba in the made a revolution and hold state power. new revolutionary climate in Cuba,” said Rodríguez reviewed U.S. imperialism’s early l950s. “I personally know both The youth involved in the social work- Bruno Rodríguez, Cuban Ambassador to 44-year-long drive to overthrow the Continued on Page 11 ers program take an intensive six-month the United Nations. “This ended with the revolution. “From the proclamation of course at one of the Social Workers Training triumph of the revolution fi ve and a half the agrarian reform on May 17, 1959, and the Schools, such as the one in Cojímar, East years later.” the United States decided to destroy the COMING Havana. Then they begin working in com- Rodríguez was the keynote speaker revolution,” he stated. Rodríguez said munities around the country, learning fi rst- at a July 26 celebration here of the 50th that the U.S. embargo had cost Cuba $72 AMERICAN billion, not including another $54 billion REVOLUTION hand about the social problems in some of anniversary of the attack on the Moncada CUBA the worst-off working-class neighborhoods barracks in Santiago de Cuba, the fi rst in losses caused by “terrorist acts against Cuba, promoted, organized and fi nanced and helping provide solutions to them. battle in Cuba’s revolutionary war. Some by Jack Barnes Through this mobilization of social 700 people took part. The Martin Luther by Washington.” Rodríguez denounced workers, many of these youth—who were King Labor Center auditorium, in the the recent anti-Cuba campaign by the “There will be a victorious revolution in born well after the January 1959 victory of Midtown Manhattan offi ces of the Hospi- Bush administration, including moves to the United States before there will be a the revolution—can identify with the ex- tal Workers Union Local 1199, was fi lled eliminate licenses for travel to Cuba for victorious counterrevolution in Cuba.” to capacity for the event. Other featured “people-to-people exchanges.” That statement, speakers included Rafael Cancel Miranda, The Cuban people, he continued, “are made by Fidel Cas- Contribute to a well-known Puerto Rican independence prepared to face the danger of U.S. military tro in 1961, remains fi ghter, and Luis Miranda, president of aggression. We know that the only way to as accurate today as ‘Militant’ Travel Fund Casa de las Americas, the oldest organi- avoid war is to be ready and determined to when it was spoken. wage a fi ght to win…. As long as there is Two Militant reporters traveled to zation in New York of Cubans who support the revolution. a Cuban, there will be resistance.” Cuba to provide fi rst-hand cover- The event was organized by the July Rafael Cancel Miranda, who served struggle in the impe- age of the Third Cuba-U.S. Youth 26 Coalition, a group comprised of over 25 years in U.S. prisons for his actions in rialist heartland, Exchange. Please contribute to help 60 organizations and individuals. It was opposition to U.S. colonial rule of Puerto explains why. $13 cover expenses of close to $4,000 a successful, united-front effort by Cuba Rico, paid homage to the Cuban people (see address on page 2). solidarity groups, political organizations, and their communist leadership. Cancel Order online from www.pathfi nderpress.com

The Militant August 25, 2003 7 Soviet power and bourgeois democracy The following are excerpts from the in Western Europe—Austria, Hungary, The German Revolution and the Debate Holland and, lastly, Germany. The founda- on Soviet Power published by Pathfi nder tion of a genuinely proletarian, genuinely Press. Part of the publisher’s series “The internationalist, genuinely revolutionary Communist International in Lenin’s Third International, the Communist Inter- Time,” this is one of Pathfi nder’s books national, became a fact when the German of the month in August. The selection Spartacus League, with such world-known is taken from a Jan. 21, 1919 article by and world-famous leaders, with such V.I. Lenin titled, “Letter to the Work- staunch working-class champions as [Karl] ers of Europe and America,” which Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin is printed as a prologue to the book. and Franz Mehring, made a clean break with Lenin was the central leader of the Bol- socialists like Scheidemann and Südekum, social-chauvinists (socialists in words, but chauvinists in deeds) who have earned eternal shame by their alliance with the BOOKS OF predatory, imperialist German bourgeoisie and Wilhelm II1. It became a fact when the THE MONTH Spartacus League2 changed its name to the Communist Party of Germany. Though it Workers win support of soldiers at barracks in Berlin, Nov. 9, 1918, during German has not yet been offi cially inaugurated, the revolution that overthrew the kaiser. Placard says, “Brothers! Don’t shoot!” sheviks and the October 1917 Russian Third International actually exists. Revolution. Copyright © 1986 by Path- No class-conscious worker, no sincere the Paris Commune. The brilliant analysis of bourgeois parliamentarism, to bourgeois fi nder Press, reprinted by permission. socialist can now fail to see how dastardly its nature and signifi cance given by Marx in democracy, to present it as “democracy” in was the betrayal of socialism by those his The Civil War in France showed that the general, to obscure its bourgeois character, O who… supported “their” bourgeoisie in the Commune had created a new type of state, a to forget that as long as capitalist property 1914–18 war. That war fully exposed itself proletarian state. Every state, including the exists universal suffrage is an instrument of BY V.I. LENIN as an imperialist, reactionary, predatory war most democratic republic, is nothing but a the bourgeois state. Comrades, at the end of my letter to both on the part of Germany and on the part machine for the suppression of one class by American workers dated Aug. 20, 1918, I of the capitalists of Britain, France, Italy and another. The proletarian state is a machine wrote that we are in a besieged fortress so America. The latter are now beginning to for the suppression of the bourgeoisie by the 1In the fi rst days of November 1918, while long as the other armies of the world social- quarrel over the spoils, over the division of proletariat. Such suppression is necessary war still raged across Europe, German workers ist revolution do not come to our aid…. Turkey, Russia, the African and Polynesian because of the furious, desperate resistance and soldiers rose in revolt, forming revolution- Less than fi ve months have passed since colonies, the Balkans, and so on…. ary councils across the country. Their uprising put up by the landowners and capitalists, by toppled the German Empire on November 9 those words were written, and it must be Then, on Aug. 20, 1918, the proletarian the entire bourgeoisie and all their hangers- and brought Germany’s participation in the war said that during this time, in view of the revolution was confined to Russia, and on, by all the exploiters, who stop at nothing to an abrupt end two days later, thereby halting fact that workers of various countries have “Soviet government”, i.e., the system under when their overthrow, when the expropria- the fi rst world interimperialist slaughter. The turned to communism and Bolshevism, the which all state power is vested in Soviets of tion of the expropriators, begins. overthrow of the regime of Wilhelm II, German maturing of the world proletarian revolution Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, The bourgeois parliament, even the most kaiser and king of Prussia, coming a little more has proceeded very rapidly…. still seemed to be (and actually was) only a democratic in the most democratic repub- than a year after that of the Russian tsar, opened Now, on Jan. 12, 1919, we already see Russian institution. lic, in which the property and rule of the the second front in the struggle against the in- quite a number of communist proletarian Now, on Jan. 12, 1919, we see a mighty capitalists are preserved, is a machine for ternational imperialist system. It helped lessen parties, not only within the boundaries of “Soviet” movement not only in parts of the suppression of the working millions by the imperialists’s attempts to isolate the Russian the former tsarist empire—in Latvia, Fin- the former tsarist empire, for example, in workers’ and peasants’ republic established small groups of exploiters. The socialists, under Bolshevik leadership in November 1917. land and Poland, for example—but also Latvia, Poland and the Ukraine, but also the fi ghters for the emancipation of the Together with the Russian example, the German in West-European countries, in neutral working people from exploitation, had to experience convinced millions of workers of the “ countries (Switzerland, Holland and Nor- utilise the bourgeois parliaments as a plat- need for a new, Communist International. way) and in countries which have suffered form, as a base, for propaganda, agitation, 2The Spartacus League had originated as August BOOKS from the war (Austria and Germany). The and organisation as long as our struggle was a revolutionary current in the Social Demo- revolution in Germany…clearly shows confi ned to the framework of the bourgeois cratic Party of Germany (SPD), initiating and OF THE MONTH how history has formulated the question in system: Now that world history has brought spearheading opposition to the SPD majority PATHFINDER relation to Germany: “Soviet power” or the up the question of destroying the whole of leadership’s open support in August 1914 to bourgeois parliament, no matter under what German imperialist war policy. When the work- READ ERS CLUB 25% that system, of overthrowing and suppress- ers overthrew the kaiser on Nov. 9, 1918, the main signboard (such as “National” or “Constitu- ing the exploiters, of passing from capital- SPE CIALS DISCOUNT social-democratic currents formed a provisional ent” Assembly) it may appear…. ism to socialism, it would be a shameful government. The Spartacists advocated replacing “Soviet power” is the second historical betrayal of the proletariat, deserting to its this government with one resting on the mass- Their Morals step, or stage, in the development of the class enemy, the bourgeoisie, and being a based councils of workers and soldiers formed and Ours proletarian dictatorship. The fi rst step was traitor and a renegade to confi ne oneself to during the uprising. The Class Foundations of Moral Practice IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP Leon Trotsky Explains how morality Where to fi nd Pathfi nder books and Zip: 48244-0739. Tel: (313) 554-0504. BRITAIN E-mail: [email protected] dis trib u tors of the Militant, Perspectiva London: 47 The Cut. Postal code: is rooted in the inter- Mundial, New International, Nouvelle In- ests of contending so- MINNESOTA: St. Paul: 113 Bernard SE1 8LF. Tel: 020-7928-7993. E-mail: ternationale, Nueva Internacional and Ny St., West St. Paul. Zip: 55118. 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E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] 8 The Militant August 25, 2003 GREAT SOCIETY How low can they get?—Chi- a video of Ice Cube. rear latch that can be dangerous sum on retirement are already supply is contaminated with TCE. cago cops have apologized for de- in a crash. underfunded $300 billion. “The Air Force used the colorless Like stockbrokers?—“San liquid to clean Atlas E ballistic Francisco: Supervisors approve Cottage by the roadside—In A drop of justice—Girlja Su- missiles’ fuel tanks 40 years ago. fortune-teller licensing”—News the posh Beverly Hills area of jatha, from India, was brought to Drinking or breathing TCE can headline. L.A., a house is available for London where she worked 14-hour cause nervous system, liver and “about $3.4 million.” The 4,300 days as a servant. Her pay was less lung damage and abnormal heart Harry Scoop of the week—“Employ- square foot dwelling features a than $2.50 an hour. Her employers beat”—USA Today. ers holding back on pay raises”— two-story living room. It has a have been ordered to compensate Ring News headline. glass and steel entry. her about $60,000 damages. Not Unionists, students, all else—A surprisingly, they haven’t gone warm welcome to new subscribers Nuthin’s perfect—General Cheerful note—Something to jail. and a bid to join the clipping club Motors will recall 240,000 Saturns called the Pension Benefi t Guar- which keeps this column going. scribing a rape suspect as someone and 95,000 Buick Rendezvous anty Co. has voiced concern over Nothing’s too good—CHEY- Send clipping to Great Society c/o who “resembles” the rap star Ice sport vehicles. The feds said a the health of agencies which hold ENNE, Wyoming—Part of a Pathfi nder Books, 4229 S. Central Cube. The “report” was presented control computer in the Saturn corporate pension funds. Plans 17,000-acre ranch the city ac- Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90011. on TV and radio, with one playing and the Rendezvous has a faulty that promise a specifi c monthly quired in part to bolster its water Many thanks. C&H sugar workers make gains in 2-week strike BY DEBORAH LIATOS pretax deduction per payday for health care,” CROCKETT, California—Refinery Palacio said. The company had offered an workers here, members of Sugar Workers 8 percent wage raise, and up to $30 out of Union Local 1, ratifi ed a contract with C&H the biweekly paychecks, depending on the Sugar Co. by a 149-98 vote July 20. Workers health plan, up from $8 in the past. ended the two-week strike after winning a “Our main concern is the pension and number of their demands and coming out medical benefi ts,” said Sashwani Harrison of the fi ght more united. while picketing. “One-third of the workforce The walkout by 388 union members won is about to retire.” Harrison joined with em- wide support from area unionists and other ployees of auto dealerships July 12 in a rally workers and included several spirited ral- called by the Central Labor Council of Con- lies. The 100 warehouse workers at C&H tra Costa County. Automotive Machinists who belong to International Longshore and and Teamsters on strike are demanding to be Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 6 honored paid for an eight-hour day instead of piece the picket line. rates, permanent work instead of temporary During the walkout C&H threatened jobs, and health benefi ts. “The mechanics to end health coverage weeks earlier than are paid by the car,” said Janice Kelley, who agreed in the event of a strike. “The loss of has worked at C&H for 10 months. medical benefi ts isn’t an inconvenience. It “I was surprised. I didn’t think we’d be threatens peoples’ lives,” said Donald Trigg, so united,” said Robert Lynn who works in a millwright with two artifi cial heart valves packaging and has been at C&H for four Bulwinder Singh takes turn on picket line during strike against C&H, in mid July. after a triple bypass. Medication alone costs years. “It’s a bigger picture than a few about $2,500 a month, he estimated. dollars. This is not just about our contract “The women work alongside men. people on disability.” “The company moved off its last fi nal of- but the world. We need to make a change. There’s equal pay,” said Jon Nelson, a “In 1970 we had a good strike. Between fer because of the strength shown, especially Corporate America’s attitude toward their maintenance worker with 37 years in the 1,200 and 1,300 people worked for C&H the July 16 rally. That day they delayed and workers is completely going in the wrong plant. “The old cube station was all women then,” said Palacio. “They are running a little diverted trucks,” said Joe Palacio, Local 1 direction. There was a time in this country before it went automated. During World War more production now than then but with one business agent. when the philosophy was to treat the em- II, when the men went off to war, women person doing a job that used to be done by The Sugar Workers Union held a rally of ployee well. Now it’s take, take, take.” ran this place.” four,” said Berry. 200 in front of the plant July 16 in response C&H workers include Latinos, Blacks, “World War II—that’s when women C&H agreed not to pursue disciplinary to company efforts to organize cops to escort and immigrants from India. There are a proved they’re equal, if not better,” said action against workers on disability or trucks through the picket lines. “This is the signifi cant number of women. Many union- Lynn. “I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t members who staffed picket lines, union fi rst time they tried to run trucks during a ists noted the role t hey played during the worked with so many women.” offi cials said. Guards from C&H’s security strike,” said Gary Black who has worked at walkout. The company promised there will be no contractor during the strike, Ohio-based C&H for 30 years and is a refi nery operator. “We need more women on the picket layoffs. A six-week strike in 1995 ended PSS, fi lmed a rally in what workers said There have been four strikes in 29 years. line,” said Marion Berry, a machine operator with the layoff of 170 workers. “Everyone was preparation to fi re strikers. “The contract includes a 9 percent wage and mechanic at C&H for 36 years. “They’re out on disability who was on the picket line “They wanted to bust this union,” said increase over three years, with a cost-of-liv- more intimidating than a man. It makes us got amnesty,” said Larry. “There is a lot of John King, a union steward. “This isn’t the ing increase; credit of up to $100 for those stronger. I’ve seen women do things they overtime and with long hours and shift work end of it. We’ll have to face it again in three who retire over the next three years; and $20 never did before.” you’re going to get hurt, so there are a lot of years. Let’s stay united. We are the union.” 150 demonstrate in Boston 25 AND 50 YEARS AGO to protest attack on gay couple cusers or to have any kind of a hearing. Meanwhile they were publicly smeared BY ELLEN BRICKLEY crowd, numbering approximately 20 teen- in the newspapers and through television BOSTON—On July 26, more than 150 aged males and females, were hostile and witch-hunting orgies by Congressional people marched and rallied here to protest verbally threatening the victim, her child, a August 24, 1953 committees. a recent brutal assault on a lesbian couple. friend of the victim, and her child.” The protest fi led by the Socialist Work- The protesters assembled at Maverick train A Boston police report on the incident, ers Party against its redesignation on the station, in East Boston, and marched to Piers cited in a community newspaper the East U.S. Attorney General’s “subversive” list Park, where the assault took place. Boston Boston Sun Transcript, differed radically has been arbitrarily rejected by the Eisen- Lesbian Avengers, a gay rights group, orga- from both the Massport police report and hower administration. nized the action. the story told by the victims of this attack. As National Secretary of the SWP, I September 1, 1978 On July 4, Lisa Craig and her partner Making no mention of the hostile crowd [Farrell Dobbs] had sent a formal notice Debby Riley were watching the fi reworks yelling antigay slurs, the Boston police of contest to the Department of Justice. Israeli warplanes bombed Palestinian ci- display with their young daughters. claimed that a young Latino woman had According to the SWP attorneys, the no- vilian refugee centers in Lebanon August Throughout the evening they were verbally snatched Craig’s purse while she was stand- tice complied with all the regulations pre- 21. The early-morning Zionist attack left harassed by a group of young people. “All ing at the ice cream truck, and ran off on scribed by the Attorney General for chal- four people dead and forty injured. The night they’d walk by us and giggle and laugh, foot. Craig tried to chase the woman, said lenging the “subversive” designation under Israeli government claimed it murdered ‘Look at those dykes,’” Craig told the Bos- the Boston cops, but she slipped and fell in the new Eisenhower “security” order. these civilians in retribution for a Palestin- ton Globe following the incident. “We were the street. While Craig was on the ground, The Attorney General, in his reply, chal- ian commando attack on an El Al Airlines just in the park, watching the fi reworks just the report claims that the lone assailant lenged my authority as the executive offi cer bus in London. like everyone else.” kicked her once in the head and then ran of the party and ruled the protest invalid. But the Israeli raid only underscores the At the end of the evening, while the off on foot. This crude violation of the constitutional Zionists’ hypocrisy on the eve of a new couple and their children were buying ice On July 16, a 15-year-old girl was charged rights of the SWP provides a new demon- round of U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace cream, their five-year-old daughter was for the assault. Suffolk County district at- stration of the hypocritical policy of the talks scheduled to open September 5. shoved by one of the teens who had been torney Daniel Conley told the Boston Globe, Eisenhower administration. It represents a The U.S. government claims it is neutral harassing them. Craig then confronted “The juvenile struck the victim, Lisa Craig, cynical fl aunting of U.S. Supreme Court in these talks and has the best interests of the group. She was punched, fell to the with her fi st, causing Ms. Craig to fall and rulings concerning the legal rights of those both Arabs and Israelis at heart. Thus, ground, and was then kicked in the head. strike her head on a granite curbing.” victimized by the witch hunters. Washington suggests to Egyptian President Her pocketbook was stolen. Following the Several candidates for the Boston City The “subversive” blacklist, which is Anwar el-Sadat that it might force Israel to attack, Craig was rushed to Massachusetts Council took part in the July 26 action, perpetuated and extended under the Eisen- return some of the Arab land it occupies. General Hospital where she underwent two including Laura Garza, Socialist Workers hower “security” order, was originated in But only if Sadat will make some conces- surgeries to drain blood from her brain and candidate for City Council, at-large. “The 1947 by the Truman administration. It sions to the Zionists. received 200 stitches. attackers are on the wrong side of history quickly became the principal instrument Carter’s real goal, however, is not forc- A Massachusetts Port Authority (Mass- as shown by the recent Supreme Court for attacks on political opponents by the ing Israeli concessions but protecting the port) police offi cer arrived on the scene. rulings upholding affi rmative action and party in power. Scores of organizations interests of U.S. corporations in the Middle According to Riley, the cop made no ar- overturning sodomy laws,” Garza said in an were stigmatized “subversive” by the East.Washington knows that Israel is its rests, simply telling the assailants to “get interview. “By waging a fi ght around social Truman regime. None of the victims were most dependable launching pad for the out of here now before I arrest you all.” causes, rights can be established regardless informed of the charges against them. They military defense of these interests from The Massport police report states: “The of who the lawmakers or judges are.” were denied the right to confront their ac- the Arab masses. The Militant August 25, 2003 9 EDITORIAL UNITE Continued from Page 6 decided to visit the Kannapolis, North Fight for jobs for all! Carolina, area to fi nd out the facts and discuss with laid-off Pillowtex workers The situation facing the 7,500 workers who lost their jobs with capitalist politicians—often echoed by the top labor offi cial- ways to confront the devastation of job- the shutdown of the North Carolina–based textile giant Pillowtex dom—that seek to confuse workers about the causes of the lessness. is an important question for the entire working class and demands Pillowtex failure and what to do about it. The textile barons Abby Tilsner from Newark spoke about action by the labor movement on behalf of these workers. say the main problem is “foreign imports” and “unfair competi- the organizing effort that UNITE and the UNITE—which these workers succeeded in bringing in as their tion” from cheap fabrics and clothing—especially from the U.S. Teamsters are carrying out at Cintas, the union four years ago after a 25-year struggle—and other unions employers’ competitors in China, Vietnam, and countries of the largest uniform producer and industrial need to fi ght for government measures to provide immediate relief Third World. laundry in North America. Socialists are to these workers and protect them from the brutal consequences The U.S. capitalists thus seek to justify their own protectionist joining with Cintas workers and others to of the normal operations of the capitalist economy. barriers and get workers and farmers to support our exploiters, build support for this campaign. Demands must be placed on the state and federal govern- the employers. In reality, working people in city and countryside Participants discussed the challenge be- ments to provide cash relief to supplement existing unemploy- face the same enemy around the world: the owners of Pillowtex, fore garment workers in relatively small ment benefi ts for as long as workers stay jobless—without the Cargill, Dupont, and other capitalist monopolies. Workers at Pil- shops not organized by the union. indignities of “means testing” requirements policed by social lowtex and exploited farmers in this country have common inter- Maggie Trowe from Boston said, “Work- investigators—and to extend the workers’ medical coverage for ests with Vietnamese catfi sh farmers and small cotton producers ers operating machinery in the textile mills the same period. in Burkina Faso devastated by protectionist U.S. tariffs—as well and sewing plants in garment are at the A look at the broader picture reveals that this is not a problem as with garment and textile workers in Thailand or the Dominican heart of the industry and it is from these unique to Pillowtex or the Carolinas. Hundreds of thousands of Republic who are fi ghting against starvation wages. workers that the bosses extract the surplus workers have been losing their jobs in recent years, especially in Bosses and capitalist politicians also argue that immigrants value. They need the union.” industry. Since January 2001, some 2.6 million manufacturing from Mexico and elsewhere are taking “American jobs.” This is A garment worker from Miami described jobs have been eliminated in the United States, including nearly another part of the divide-and-rule tactic. There is much broader the recent victory by workers who are fi ght- 300,000 in garment and textile. Under these conditions, working understanding among the U.S. working class today, however, that ing for union recognition and a contract at people face two basic economic affl ictions of declining capital- anti-immigrant prejudice is deadly for labor. That is why protests Point Blank, one of the largest clothing ism—unemployment and high prices—that need to be addressed against assaults on immigrant workers, like the recent rightist- manufacturers in southern Florida. A recent through struggles for demands that protect the interests of the backed fi rebombing of the house of a family of Mexican day National Labor Relations Board ruling cited working class as a whole. laborers in Long Island, New York, strike a chord of solidarity the company for fi ring three unionists, and At the heart of the fi ght for jobs for all is the demand for a among wider layers of working people. locking out hundreds of workers last year as sliding scale of hours—a shorter workweek with no cut in pay—to The same understanding of the need for class solidarity can be part of its efforts to prevent workers there spread the available work around and tie together both those em- extended across borders. That’s why unions must demand cancel- from organizing themselves into UNITE. ployed and jobless in the solidarity of mutual responsibility. At ing the foreign debt of Third World countries that are chained to Point Blank was ordered to cease and desist the same time, public works programs are needed to create jobs debt bondage by fi nance capital. from offering bribes or threatening workers as well as to fi x the deteriorating infrastructure and meet other Plant shutdowns and rising joblessness are endemic to capital- not to join the union and forced to pay back pressing social needs such as child care, housing, and improved ism, which is in the midst of a worldwide crisis that has its roots wages. public education. in the declining average rate of industrial profi t that started in the Laura Garza from Boston spoke about As a measure to defend incomes against rising prices, which early 1970s. In their drive for profi ts, the bosses worldwide have the upcoming Immigrant Workers Free- can become devastating as Washington’s predatory wars abroad used “too much” productive capacity—too much, that is, accord- dom Ride. “Many immigrant workers see multiply and the economic crisis deepens, working people need ing to what they can sell at a suffi cient profi t for them. Now they this mobilization,” Garza said, “as a show a sliding scale of wages—cost-of-living adjustments to make up are slashing that capacity and competing more fi ercely among of their potential power to win more legal for increased prices of consumer goods and other necessities that themselves around the globe to divide and redivide the world’s status and rights.” eat up a greater portion of meager paychecks. markets. That’s the source of the problem at Pillowtex. Another participant pointed out that Affi rmative action programs are also needed to combat racist Demands such as the ones presented above will be met by the victory of Róger Calero against at- and sex discrimination in hiring and layoffs and minimize divi- property owners and their accountants with cries of being “unre- tempts by the U.S. government to deport sions in the working class fostered by the employers. alistic,” especially at times of economic contraction. But what is him received support from many rank- One shining example from working-class history of how the realizable or not depends ultimately on the relationship of forces. and-fi le UNITE members and offi cials. unions can lead such a course with great success is the Federal The question posed sharply by mass layoffs is the defense of the This support is another indication of the Workers Section of Teamsters Local 574 during the Minneapolis proletariat from decay, demoralization, and ruin. If capitalism necessity and possibility that exists today strikes of the 1930s, described vividly in the Pathfi nder book is unable to meet the demands that inevitably arise from the to mobilize the union to defend the work- Teamster Politics by Farrell Dobbs, one of the main protagonists calamities it generates, then let it perish. More working-class ing class. of those struggles (see ad below). It points to how unions solidly militants can be aided today to perceive the essence of an outlived backed and organized the unemployed, countering the bosses’ use capitalism—they can learn that the existing problems, like the Mary Martin and Nancy Rosenstock are of joblessness to divide our class. Unemployed workers helped Pillowtex layoffs, are not incidental or episodic, but rather the sewing machine operators in Des Moines, staff Teamsters pickets during walkouts while unionized truck consequence of a deep structural crisis of the system. They can Iowa, and Newark, respectively. drivers helped the unemployed organizations. then see why labor and its allies must take governmental power Labor militants must also take on arguments by bosses and away from the capitalists and place it in our own hands. Sub renewal Continued from front page responded to Calero’s incarceration by the INS by signing petitions and collecting Moscow, Beijing press north Korea funds,” she said in a note accompanying Continued from front page power in the region, stationing 24 nuclear-capable bombers on three sub renewals (see page 4 for coverage to be solved,” said U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell a few days Guam within striking distance of the DPRK. More recently the on the Calero case). after north Korea accepted the demand for six-way talks. He listed U.S. government announced plans to redeploy its 2nd Infantry A similar response from fellow union- Washington’s objections to DPRK’s nuclear weapons development Division southward, freeing the U.S. command to launch attacks ists on the job and other workers who program and repeated allegations that Pyongyang is conducting an against the north without having its ground forces become targets subscribed recently is noted elsewhere. “illegal drug trade” and “weapons proliferation,” reported Agence of retaliatory artillery fi re. In Omaha two readers of PM at the Swift France-Presse. The talks in late August are scheduled to begin a couple of weeks meatpacking plant decided to renew this Earlier U.S. president George Bush said, “We are hopeful that after the annual Ulchi Focus Lens exercises, which involve almost week. One of them has been reading (DPRK president) Mr. Kim Jong Il…will make a decision to totally 80,000 U.S. and south Korean troops. Using computer simulations PM for over two years, reported Jacob dismantle his nuclear weapons program.” and on-the-ground maneuvers, the war games follow a script of Perraso. Over the last year the U.S. government has stepped up its threats large-scale fi ghting with DPRK forces. Jenny Benton reports from Twin Cities, and aggressive actions against north Korea, described by Bush as Recent U.S. military drills have sparked protests by hundreds Minnesota, that a member of United Food being part of an “axis of evil” along with Iraq and Iran. Washington of south Korean youth at military facilities in Seoul and between and Commercial Workers Local 789 renewed cut off promised shipments of food and fuel last October. The Japa- the capital and the so-called demilitarized zone that divides the subscriptions to both the Militant and PM. He nese and south Korean governments quickly followed suit. These Korean peninsula. The latter include the bases at Yonchen and supported the fi ght of Róger Calero against shipments had been negotiated earlier, when Pyongyang agreed Pochun. The students demanded the withdrawal of the U.S. troops deportation and spoke at a meeting that was to use its nuclear facility at Yongbyon purely for energy purposes from south Korean soil. part of Calero’s “Fight to Win” tour stop there and to allow United Nations inspectors on the premises to verify Pyongyang defended protesters who were arrested after having co-sponsored by the union. this. As Washington and Tokyo reneged, the DPRK expelled the “trespassed” on the bases, and demanded the immediate pullout In New York, partisans of the socialist inspectors, withdrew from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and of all U.S. forces from Korea. Such a move, it said, was necessary press got eight renewals from Militant and announced it was developing nuclear weapons. for “the peace of Korea, the security of the Korean nation and its PM subscribers last week. That puts them At the beginning of this year the Pentagon reinforced its air independent reunifi cation.” within striking range of both local goals. They got a good response over the August 10–11 weekend picking up several renew- als after phone calls to subscribers. Sales teams included a visit to Long Island to For further reading from Pathfi nder talk to day laborers in Farmingville, where The Teamster Series: protests have taken place against an anti-im- Lessons from the labor battles migrant fi rebombing. Another team visited of the 1930s Teamster Politics a neighborhood in Brooklyn where police Four books by Farrell Dobbs on the 1930s strikes, How rank-and-fi le Teamsters raided an apartment August 4 and shot an organizing drives, and political campaigns that led the fi ght against antiunion unarmed woman. These examples point to the potential to hit transformed the Teamsters union in Minnesota and frame-ups and assaults by the targets by August 17, when the campaign much of the Midwest into a fi ghting industrial union fascist goons; the battle for jobs ends. The overall goal is to get 225 Militant movement. Written by a leader of the communist for all; and efforts to advance and 80 PM readers to renew their subscrip- movement in the United States and organizer of the independent labor political ac- tions. During this last week of the drive all Teamsters union during the rise of the CIO. Indis- tion. $18.95 supporters are urged to send in daily updates. pensable tools for advancing revolutionary politics, The Militant will bring the scoreboard up to organization, and effective trade unionism. date as soon as reports come in and post it on ORDER ONLINE AT WWW.PATHFINDERPRESS.COM OR FROM BOOKSTORES, INCLUDING THOSE LISTED ON PAGE 8 its website on a daily basis. With a concerted effort, victory is in sight. 10 The Militant August 25, 2003 Nicaragua peasants march for land, credit Continued from Page 3 By that time, there were still 60,000 land- Farm workers Nicaragua took power out of the hands of less peasants. Those who had land often took over the the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anastasio lacked credit, seeds, fertilizer, and tools, Las Golondri- Somoza through a popular insurrection led while capitalist landowners dominated agri- nas farm, which by the Sandinista National Liberation Front culture in many parts of the country. Under in turn has been (FSLN). A land reform was among the fi rst the Chamorro regime and subsequent capi- claimed by a U.S. measures of the revolutionary government. talist governments many state-owned farms owner. In a com- Farms belonging to rich landowners who were leased with an option to buy to form promise worked had supported the Somoza regime were cooperatives or were returned to their former out between confiscated and land was distributed to owners. Managua and those without it. Matagalpa, the coffee-growing center of the U.S. State This land reform, however, and other Nicaragua, has been especially hard hit in Department, measures to combat the exploitation of rural recent years. Wages for some workers have those workers producers unfolded in stages, with retreats, dropped to $1 a day. In the 1990s coffee are being given and was never completed. By the end of the prices were still relatively high. But after other land. 1980s, a large part of agricultural production Brazil, the largest coffee producer in the Three groups remained in capitalist hands, which meant world, increased its output and Vietnam have occupied Reuters/Oswaldo Rivas that previous government measures to pro- entered the market with massive quantities, the La Empresa Thousands of Nicaraguan peasants and farm workers march to vide cheap credit and farm supplies often the price plummeted. Prices dropped to 50 farm: ex-contras, Matagalpa, August 1, some 70 miles north of Managua, the capital. boosted the profi ts of wealthy landowners cents a pound in 2001–2002, compared to discharged sol- while neither increasing agricultural invest- an average of $1.20 in the 1980s diers of the army, and farm workers. The same day, thousands of rural toilers ment and output nor substantially improving Agence France Presse reports that peas- The march stopped outside Managua, occupying land in northern Nicaragua the peasants’ lot. Over time, the FSLN lead- ants started heading to Matagalpa a month at El Tuma-La Dalia, August 5 as peasant ended sit-down strikes. Peasant leaders ership retreated even from the partial early and a half ago when their food reserves ran leaders and government officials began and government representatives reportedly measures that benefi ted the rural toilers, out. That’s where the 13-day-long march negotiations. came to an agreement on several of the which were along a revolutionary course. started. Unemployment and underemploy- According to La Prensa, march leaders at peasants’ demands. The accord includes Throughout much of the 1980s, the work- ment is estimated at 53 percent in this Cen- fi rst wanted plots of land distributed as part the government giving land titles to some ers and farmers government that came to tral American nation. of an “agrarian reform” but agreed to a pay- 2,500 rural families, selling them the land power in 1979 faced a counterrevolutionary There are currently 12 farms involved in ment plan for some 7,500 manzanas (about at 40 percent of its value recorded in the war. The contras, as they became known, land disputes, according to Alfonso Sandino, 13,000 acres) of state-owned land. offi cial registry, with payments extending were a guerrilla army largely organized a government minister. Some farms have The Spanish news agency EFE reported over 20 years. These are largely lands that and financed by Washington, which re- been occupied by landless peasants, while August 11 that peasants and farm work- peasants already used, as part of coopera- cruited heavily in the countryside taking the owners are demanding their return. ers declared their march over August 9. tives set up in the 1980s. advantage of erroneous policies of the FSLN regime. Nicaragua’s working people militarily defeated the contras by 1987. But the seven-year-long war had a wearing impact on workers and farmers. The FSLN New York event celebrates Moncada leadership used this as a justifi cation for Continued from Page 7 denied entry to the United States three dictatorship. making more concessions to local capitalists Cubas,” he said. “I lived in the Cuba of the times. “The one who changed that, the one who and landlords and to U.S. imperialism. By prostitution, gambling houses, and corrup- A taped message from jailed African- instilled in us the confi dence in victory was the end of the 1980s, the FSLN leadership tion and had the honor of being thrown out American journalist Mumia Abu Jamal Fidel.” Castro, he continued, “was the only placed increasingly long-term reliance on of Cuba by [dictator Fulgencio] Batista. So, was played at the meeting. Nellie Hester person to put forward an action program the workings of the capitalist market. The you see, Batista put me in jail, while Fidel Bailey, co-chair of Cuba Solidarity New for the revolution contained in History Will FSLN had transformed itself into a radical embraced me!” he said, referring to Cuban York, read a message from jailed Pales- Absolve Me,” his courtroom speech that bourgeois electoral party. In 1990 the FSLN president Fidel Castro. Cancel Miranda sa- tinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti (see was smuggled out of prison and published lost the elections to a coalition of capitalist luted Luis Rosa, who was in the audience, article on page 4). and distributed widely. Castro’s 1955 tour parties headed by Violeta Chamorro. another Puerto Rican independentista who helped organize the July 26 Movement in spent many years in Washington’s jails. He New York solidarity work New York and Connecticut, he stated. also urged participants to fi ght for freedom Luis Miranda also addressed the meeting. Miranda said that local supporters of the In New International no. 9 of the Cuban Five. These are fi ve Cuban Miranda explained how Casa de las Ameri- July 26 Movement, which led the struggle militants serving draconian sentences in cas got started. In 1955 a group of Cuban to overthrow Batista along with the Rebel The Rise and U.S. jails on frame-up charges brought activists, who later formed Casa, organized Army headed by Castro, got a lot of help Fall of the by Washington that include conspiracy a New York tour for a young Fidel Castro. at the time from Puerto Rican militants and Nicaraguan to commit espionage. “Washington can- The purpose of the tour was to win support- others organized in the Fair Play for Cuba Revolution not destroy the spirit of July 26, just as ers for the July 26 Movement and for the Committee. it cannot destroy those fi ve men,” Cancel revolutionary struggle underway in Cuba. He singled out Cuba’s proletarian inter- by Jack Barnes, Miranda said. “As long as they’re in prison, “Fidel wasn’t yet a commander, but an in- nationalism as one of the revolution’s main Larry Seigle, we are all in prison.” He added, “One min- dividual just released from Batista’s jails,” accomplishments, including the 300,000 & Steve Clark ute given in the fi ght for dignity is worth Miranda said, after an international amnesty volunteers who went to Angola over two a lifetime.” campaign to free those jailed for the assault decades to help defeat invasions of that Lessons from the Teresa Gutierrez gave greetings on on Moncada. “You could already see in him country by the racist apartheid regime of workers and farm- behalf of the National Committee to Free a leader with a vision, the long view, and South Africa. “Cuba went to Africa to help, ers government that the Five. She outlined a campaign to press ideas that some thought were crazy.” not to pillage,” he said. came to power in Nicaragua in July the U.S. government to grant entry visas to The Cuban émigré community in New “Washington imposed the blockade on 1979. $14.00 Olga Salanueva, wife of René González, York, he said, was reluctant to get involved Cuba,” he concluded, “because of its ac- Order from www.pathfi nderpress com and Adriana Pérez, wife of Gerardo in politics at fi rst, as most had come to complishments, and because we achieved or from stores, including those listed on p. 8 Hernández, to visit their husbands—two New York escaping harsh conditions in true independence. That is what we defend of Cuban Five. The two women have been Cuba and the brutality of the U.S.-backed today.” LETTERS Irish republican deported Association. Aren’t civil rights pealing a deportation order since a quiet symbol of standing up for case recently where unemployment Below is an item in regard to the something worth achieving and 1997.— Editor] one’s rights with dignity during went “down” from 6.4 percent to John McNicholl deportation. This defending? The RUC were intent these mass deportations. The de- 6.2 percent. The new figure did represents the position of local on framing my father, so they said portation of Sulaima Rushaid, not represent people not looking Irish immigrant rights supporters he was involved in terrorist activity Haddad deportation Haddad’s wife, and children, a week for work or getting jobs (job losses and Irish republican supporters in and planted weapons where they In a previous letter, “Haddad later, was more public than the se- went up!), but that unemployment Philadelphia. arrested him. My father escaped Deported,” I concluded, with cret “disappearance” to Amsterdam checks are running out for many Roy Inglee from the prison to which he was undue pessimism, that “it looks of Haddad himself. The Free Rabih before they can fi nd a job. Delaware taken, because he knew that—like like he will now be in prison in Haddad Defense Committee had a Rick Young many others in Northern Ireland Lebanon.” Although agents took rally of about 50 people outside the Chicago, Illinois I witnessed my father being back then—they would have im- him from U.S. prison to the plane Detroit Immigration Building, and kidnapped by strange men from prisoned him for most of his life in complete secrecy, his FBI escorts Rabih Haddad spoke to supporters [Offi cial statistics count not only our front door and bundled into an for something he didn’t do. on the plane allowed him to make a through a cell phone hook-up. those who receive unemployment unmarked car. Can someone from We demand that our father be collect phone call midway to Leba- Denis Hoppe benefi ts or who have fi led claims the Bush Administration explain returned. non to his wife in Ann Arbor, who Ann Arbor, Michigan for unemployment insurance. The what we are to do, now that they Sean McNicholl alerted family and friends to meet Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts have deported our father? Where him at Beirut airport. At the time I a monthly population survey that is the justice in the Justice Depart- [John McNicholl, an Irish Re- wrote the letter, Haddad’s mother Black unemployment attempts to include those looking ment of the U.S. for my family and publican activist who entered the in Lebanon was waiting 4–6 hours I found the article on black un- for work, like, for example, those me? ... United States in the mid-1980s, after the plane arrived while he employment to have a confusing registered with state unemployment Our dad explained to us the was deported by the U.S. govern- was apparently being interrogated statement. “If they had stopped services as seeking employment. harassment his family suffered ment to the United Kingdom on by Lebanese authorities. trying, the government would —Editor] at the hands of the Royal Ulster July 18. He had escaped from The U.S. government has an- have stopped including them in Constabulary. A police force that the infamous Maze Prison near nounced that it will deport 13,000 their calculations.” As far as I know The letters column is an open only protected the interests of the Belfast, Northern Ireland, in immigrants from among the 86,000 there is not a national poll on who is forum for all viewpoints on loyalist and unionist community. 1976 where he was being held Middle Eastern males over 16 who looking for work. The government sub jects of interest to working The British government is known on frame-up charges of having complied with required interroga- calculates who is “looking” for peo ple. to have colluded with loyalists in killed an RUC cop and wounded tions by INS. work according to who is on the Please keep your letters brief. the murder of nationalists and par- another. He was deported after As the wife of Rabih Haddad, the unemployment rolls. These fi gures Where necessary they will be ticularly human rights lawyers. being arrested outside his home founder of a Muslim charity seized always grossly understate the num- abridged. Please indicate if you Dad was a member of the in Philadelphia as he headed to by Federal Authorities in response ber of true unemployed. They can pre fer that your initials be used Northern Ireland Civil Rights work. McNicholl had been ap- to 9/11, Sulaima Rushaid has been also be just plain wrong, as was the rath er than your full name. The Militant August 25, 2003 11 Protests greet Chirac in S. Pacific In New Caledonia and Tahiti working people show outrage at French colonial rule BY ANNALUCIA VERMUNT According to the New Zealand Herald, CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand— the French president “saluted French French president Jacques Chirac paid a visit Polynesia’s role in safeguarding national to Paris’s South Pacifi c colonies in late July, security by allowing France to conduct wrapping up his trip by hosting a meeting of nuclear tests in the Pacifi c territory.” regional governments in French Polynesia’s Chirac claimed that “without Polynesia, capital Papeete. French Polynesia is a French France would not be the great power it is, colony comprised of 118 islands and atolls, able to express in the family of nations an the largest of which is Tahiti. autonomous, independent, and respected Intended as a demonstration of French position.” imperialist weight in the region, Chirac’s tour was tarnished a little by Kanak op- Chirac hosts regional meeting ponents of French rule during his visit to On July 28, the last day of his visit to New Caledonia, another French colonial French Polynesia, Chirac hosted a one-day possession in the region, and by protests in meeting of heads of state in Oceania. A Tahiti during his visit there. In New Cale- range of governments from impoverished donia, pro-independence forces greeted the South Pacifi c island states to imperialist French president with a protest strike and New Zealand were represented. Only the two days of demonstrations. governments of Australia and Tonga stayed On July 23 Chirac defended New away. Caledonia’s colonial status before a rally “France is determined to step up its ef- in Noumea, the capital. The crowd was forts to promote the development of the estimated at 15,000 people by the daily entire region,” Chirac said. “We have a newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes. shared responsibility to respond in order “The collective interest…is not in sepa- to thwart the emergence of conditions that ratism and withdrawal, but in being part breed…instability.” of a larger community,” Chirac argued. Earlier in July the governments of Aus- “Despite yesterday’s disagreements and Pro-independence protests dur- tralia and New Zealand, the two imperialist today’s debates, despite diffi culties caused ing July visit by French president powers located in Oceania, announced im- by cultural differences and social inequal- Jacques Chirac to New Caledonia, minent plans to intervene in the Solomon ity, New Caledonia is carving out a unique a French colony in South Pacifi c. Islands with a total of almost 1,750 military destiny in France and the Pacifi c.” Above, cops tear gas protesters in and police personnel. Smaller numbers of Some 2,000 people joined the protest city of Kone, July 24. Left, pro- troops and police from South Pacifi c coun- rally organized by the Kanak and Exploited test in country’s capital Noumea. tries such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea Workers Union (USTKE). “Chirac, don’t Banner reads “May 5, 1988, will also be involved. The forces began forget you have Kanak blood on your Chirac do you remember?” refer- landing July 24. The island chain is home hands,” read one banner—a reference to ring to date when French troops to 450,000 people. killings of Kanak leaders by French troops killed independence fi ghters there. Paris, which retains more Pacifi c colo- during a pro-independence upsurge in the nies than any of its imperialist rivals, was mid-1980s. At that time Paris occupied the shut out of this intervention by John How- country with 10,000 troops. policy and military matters, the legal sys- nuclear arsenal. For years, nuclear weapons ard, the Australian prime minister. Howard “The protesters said Chirac was unwel- tem, and the printing of money. The accord were tested above and then below ground overruled his foreign minister, who had come,” reported the Reuters news agency. also postponed the promised referendum at Moruroa Atoll, until tests were fi nally originally recommended that the French “Some called on him to free jailed French on independence until sometime between stopped in 1996. military be invited to contribute. farmer activist Jose Bové”—who made 2014 and 2018. In French Polynesia Oscar Temaru, head At the Papeete gathering, the French headlines by leading attacks on McDon- Chirac later took part in a meeting to dis- of the political party Tavini Huiraatira and president stated that “regional organiza- alds outlets in France—“or berated him for cuss nickel-mining projects in the region. mayor of Faa’a, the colony’s most populous tions can often play a vital role. With that French testing in the Pacifi c.” New Caledonia is the world’s third-largest town, refused to join offi cial welcoming in mind, France welcomes the decision Following the rally, leaders of the USTKE producer of nickel, with an estimated quar- ceremonies. “The arrival of the President of Pacific Islands forum governments said they would stay on strike for the re- ter of the world’s reserves. The country also of the Republic, welcomed like a king in to assist the government of the Solomon mainder of Chirac’s three-day visit. The has substantial military value as the site of French Polynesia, is a provocation,” he said. Islands. But it would be a mistake to set union’s members are mostly workers from three French military bases. Temaru’s party joined with other partisans up a regional logic in opposition to that of the Kanak nationality, the indigenous people French Polynesia also plays a key part of independence, including unionists and the United Nations,” said Chirac, whose of the island who number some 46 percent in maintaining Paris’s strategic military former workers in the nuclear industry, to government holds veto power in the UN of New Caledonia’s 196,000 people. capability, including its development of a protest Chirac’s visit. Security Council. Continuing his “larger community” theme, Chirac used his visit to Noumea to pull the plug on a census in New Caledonia that had been planned for the British Airways workers resist speedup, cuts week following his visit. References in the survey’s questions to ethnic origins BY JOYCE FAIRCHILD One said, “the annualization of hours workers made it clear that defense of jobs were “outrageous,” he said. “There’s only AND XERARDO ARIAS means that you wouldn’t be able to take is at the heart of the ongoing fi ght with BA. one reply to such a question and that is LONDON—Unions representing your holiday in the peak season,” and that Fifty check-in and sales workers had been you are all French and there are French check-in and sales workers at British Air- “you could be sent home in the middle of cut from each of the two shifts already, while people of all ethnic origins.” Census of- ways (BA) signed an agreement with the your shift, and be told to come back on your the remaining workers have to check in and fi cials promptly announced that the census giant airline July 30, over the imposition day off to make up the hours.” deal with more fl ights. One said, “many of would be postponed for a year, allowing of a swipe-card clock-in system. Under Union members had never opposed the the job cuts and cost cutting that BA wanted changes to be made. the deal, which includes a 3 percent wage swipe cards in principle, said TGWU offi - to implement anyway has been blamed on hike, the bosses said they would not use cial Bill Morris, but were “determined that 9/11 and the SARS outbreak.” More Kanak protests the card’s introduction as a Trojan horse to information gathered on the cards could not On June 30 BA posted a £45 million Chirac faced more Kanak protesters the bring in split shifts and annualized hours. be used to undermine the terms and condi- pre-tax loss for the fi rst quarter, compared next day during a welcome ceremony at The agreement was signed by represen- tions of employees.” with a £65 million profi t during the same Kone in the North Province, which, along tatives of the Transport and General Work- GMB general secretary Kevin Curran period last year. Chief Executive Roderick with the Loyalty Islands, is one of the two ers’ Union (TGWU), the large industrial said, “it’s a 21st century dispute where low- Eddington said, “the airline must continue regions governed by the Kanak Socialist union Amicus, and the General, Municipal, paid, mainly women workers stood up and to modernize. We have taken 11,000 jobs National Liberation Front. The Southern and Boilermakers’ Union (GMB). demanded dignity, respect, and consultation out of the business, but we still have some Province, which includes Noumea and is Concerns over the issues of shifts and from their employer.” way to go and we must press on.” The by far the wealthiest of the three, is headed hours prompted a two-day wildcat strike by Telegraph reported, “BA is on course to by the pro-Paris Rally for Caledonia within the workers July 18–19, after the company Bosses react to workers’ intransigence cut 13,000 jobs by the year end, but Mr the Republic. threatened to immediately bring in a card- The bosses reacted bitterly to the work- Eddington hinted that if there was no As the French president listened to the based automatic time recording system. ers’ intransigent stand. One unnamed “se- revenue improvement, that may not be official welcome by pro-independence “A few days before the walkout, manage- nior source” told the London Times that enough.” spokesman Paul Neaoutyine, chants of ment told us they were going to introduce the unionists opposed the job cuts and Meanwhile, TGWU members who work “Chirac murderer” from Kanak protesters the new system and we had to go along with swipe-card system in order “to protect at Swissport, a ground handling company were countered by shouts of “We are with it,” said one check-in worker in an August widespread featherbedding”—what the at Heathrow, are set to vote on whether to you Chirac.” Police fi red tear gas at the 2 interview at London’s Heathrow airport. bosses consider to be “superfl uous” jobs. strike over new criteria that the company demonstrators but the winds blew it back The BA bosses have threatened employees The source accused the workers of “exactly has imposed in order to cut jobs. Under the towards the offi cial ceremony. with disciplinary action, including sacking, the same stuff that used to go on at Fleet new system, workers at Swissport can be The Kanak protesters demanded that if they speak publicly on the dispute. Street,” a reference to the newspaper indus- sacked based upon the number of disciplin- the French government honor the 1998 Workers explained that the new system try, where workers faced mass layoffs in the ary, sick, and late days they have amassed, Noumea accord, which assigned the gov- would allow managers to use the company’s “restructuring” of the newspaper industry as well as the bosses’ assessment of their ernment of New Caledonia power over its computer network to track staff movements during the 1980s. “fl exibility,” “cooperation with manage- own affairs, excluding aspects of foreign and attendance records. In discussions with Militant reporters, ment,” and “ability to change.”

12 The Militant August 25, 2003