May 14, 2015, Vol. 57, No. 19

• Resistencia es la respuesta • Gaza y Baltimore 12 WW PHOTO: MONICA MOOREHEAD MONICA WW PHOTO:

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Vol. 57, No. 19 May 14, 2015 $1

May Day in Baltimore. 4 Rebellion forces charges against Baltimore cops

PHOTO: CLAUDIA PALACIO By Monica Moorehead

It is no coincidence that Baltimore’s state attorney, Marilyn Mosby, announced on May 1 that six police officers had been indicted and arrested for the murder of Freddie Grey, a day before a major march and rally had been scheduled to protest a lack of indictments and arrests of police since Grey’s death. An official autopsy on Grey has not been released yet, although it is public knowledge that at least 80 percent of his spine had been severed between the time of his arrest on April 12 and when he lapsed into a coma and died on April 19. The charges against the officers, three white and three Black, range from involuntary man- slaughter to second degree depraved heart murder, the latter charge meaning indifference to human life. The Fraternal Order of Police in Baltimore and legal experts have criticized the indictments, claiming that there is a “conflict of interest” between Mosby and her spouse, Nick Mosby, a member of the local city council who represents the district where Grey lived. These critics also say that because there are no known eyewitnesses forthcoming in saying exactly what happened to Grey in the police van, convictions of the accused police officers will be next to impossible. The police have called for a special prosecutor to replace Mosby, who is Front banner for May 2 Baltimore march. African American. The fact that any indictments against the police oc- WW PHOTO: MONICA MOOREHEAD curred at all is unprecedented. This is especially true Mumia Abu-Jamal in a majority Black inner city like Baltimore, where police terror including occupation is systemic and has STILL at risk 9 lasted for decades. Over the past three years, close to $6 million in compensation has been paid to victims who brought legal suits against the Baltimore Police Department for its brutality. The rebellion that took place in West Baltimore and Full jails mean then spread to East Baltimore’s commercial area on April 27 may have been ignited by Grey’s death, but it capitalist profits 8 was a culmination of many years of pent up anger and frustration on the part of Black youth, who have been treated like prisoners in their own community. The cops have been their jailers and occupiers.

Police riot caused rebellion Fired Boston unionists Eyewitnesses state that the police sparked the rebel- win by landslide 3 lion when they shut down the only way out of the area, closing off a nearby subway and major bus depot that hundreds of students use to get home from the nearby school. Cutting off this path trapped the students. Based on police rumors of a march from the high school, cops surrounded and trapped huge numbers of Saudi Arabia bombs people in the area. Police have spread such rumors in 10 the past to cause confusion and dissension among the Yemen’s people masses and within the movement. The corner where on April 12 Freddie Grey was arrested in Recently, cops spread a rumor that the Bloods and West Baltimore. Crips youth gangs had united to put out a contract to Continued on page 5 Colombia’s women Vietnam’s victory Subscribe to Workers World fighters want peace 9 at 40 years 11 n 4 weeks trial $4 n 1 year subscription $30 Sign me up for the WWP Supporter Program workers.org/articles/donate/supporters_/

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Email ______Phone______MAY DAY Street ______Immigrant rights and City / State / Zip ______Cuban 5 Workers World 212-627-2994 are home 11 6-7 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl, NY, NY 10011 workers.org solidarity with Baltimore Page 2 May 14, 2015 workers.org Supreme Court pressed to grant right to marry

By Martha Grevatt Huge throngs packed the courtroom and demonstrat-  In the U.S. ed outside for marriage equality, greatly outnumbering Rebellion forces charges against Baltimore cops . . . . 1 Last week the Supreme Court of the United States the bigots damning LGBTQ people to hell. Poll after poll heard arguments for and against legalizing same-sex shows a majority of people in this country support the Supreme Court pressed to grant right to marry . . . . . 2 marriage. Plaintiffs from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and right to marry. Yet, decades after the Women’s Liberation Boston school bus drivers vote in fired union leaders . . 3 Tennessee — where state courts upheld same-sex mar- movement trashed the stereotype of woman as baby-ma- May Day in Baltimore: March for amnesty for youth . . . 4 riage bans — brought cases opposing the bans before the chine, Michigan’s Special Assistant Attorney General high court. The court’s ruling, expected in late June, will John Bursch argued the state had a compelling interest On the picket line ...... 4 decide whether the U.S. Constitution gives same-sex cou- in protecting the “procreative” function of marriage to ILWU: Fighting police brutality on May Day ...... 5 ples the right to marry. SCOTUS will also decide if states “serve purposes that, by their nature, arise from biology.” Eyewitness report on Baltimore Rebellion ...... 5 must recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other (Between the Lines, April 28) states or countries. Same-sex marriage is legal in all but May Day: Immigrant and workers’ rights, 13 states and in 17 countries. Ban upholders distort human history against police murders ...... 6 The plaintiffs, 19 men and 12 women, are Black, Lati- Justice Anthony Kennedy is viewed as the swing vote The economics of mass incarceration ...... 8 no/a, Asian and white and of different ages and occupa- who will decide if the court votes 5-4 in favor of marriage Global activists: Stop Mumia’s murder by neglect! . . . . 9 tions. Most had no activist history but are proud to be equality or 5-4 against it. He stated during the hearing, fighting for their families and for thousands of couples in “This definition [of marriage exclusive to one man and their home states. one woman] has been with us for millennia.” Antonin  Around the world For the majority of the plaintiffs, the driving issue was Scalia, expected to vote to uphold state bans, stated, Colombia talks: Women combatants want peace. . . . . 9 the couples’ need to be recognized as joint parents. The “You’re asking us to decide it for this society when no oth- U.S.-backed Saudi Coalition kills Yemeni civilians . . . . 10 problem hit home for Kentuckian Pam Yorksmith when er society until 2001 ever had it.” she took the child she is raising with Nicole Yorksmith to The notion that marriage as an institution has been On 40th anniversary of Vietnam’s victory ...... 11 the hospital. The hospital would not authorize treatment with us, unchanged, for “millennia,” is contradicted by a May Day – Havana ...... 11 until Nicole, the legal parent, gave permission. Jayne mountain of anthropological evidence. Rowse and April DeBoer, two Michigan nurses, sued the Some 150 years ago, Frederick Engels, Karl Marx’s life-  Editorial state for the right to jointly adopt the four children they long collaborator, published a historical materialist anal- are rearing together. ysis of human social/sexual relations. “The Origin of the Disarm the Pentagon ...... 10 Jim Obergefell married his partner of 21 years in Mary- Family, Private Property and the State” traced the evolu- land in 2013. When John Arthur died of amyotrophic lat- tion of “marriage” from the beginnings of hominid social-  Noticias en Español erals sclerosis three months later, Ohio would not list Jim ity, through various stages of band and tribal society, into Luego de Ferguson, policía contraataca: as John’s spouse on the death certificate. Denying the the first agricultural settlements that witnessed the rise resistencia en masa es la respuesta ...... 12 right to marry affects the ability to access death benefits of private property relations and led to the slave-owning, that would normally fall to the surviving spouse. feudal and capitalist modes of production. With each so- Gaza y Baltimore ...... 12 For 40 years, Luke Barlowe and Jimmy Meade of Ken- ciety’s unique economic relationships came an equally tucky passed as roommates, keeping their 2009 wedding unique “definition” of marriage. a secret. But when they learned of the lawsuit, Barlowe Before private property relations dominated society, remembered trying to commit suicide as a teenager. human social/sexual relationships were freely formed Thinking about the many lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer and freely dissolved, with men and women having equal teens who still kill themselves, Barlowe explained, “We rights in marriage as in all matters of human concern. wanted to do this not for us — it does nothing for us — But with the shift from communal ownership to “private but we wanted to do it for the kids coming up behind us.” property” — prehistorically an inconceivable notion — Workers World 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl. (Detroit News, April 23) Continued on page 11 New York, N.Y. 10011 Phone: 212.627.2994 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.workers.org Vol. 57, No. 19 • May 14, 2015 Closing date: May 5, 2015 Editor: Deirdre Griswold Who we are & what we’re fighting for Managing Editors: John Catalinotto, LeiLani Dowell, Kris Hamel, Monica Moorehead; Web Editor Gary Wilson Hate capitalism? Workers World Party fights for a degrading people because of their nationality, sexual or Production & Design Editors: Coordinator Lal Roohk; socialist society — where the wealth is socially owned gender identity or disabilities — all are tools the ruling Andy Katz, Cheryl LaBash and production is planned to satisfy human need. This class uses to keep us apart. They ruthlessly super-ex- Copyediting and Proofreading: Sue Davis, Keith Fine, outmoded capitalist system is dragging down workers’ ploit some in order to better exploit us all. WWP builds Bob McCubbin living standards while throwing millions out of their unity among all workers while supporting the right Contributing Editors: Abayomi Azikiwe, jobs. If you’re young, you know they’re stealing your of self-determination. Fighting oppression is a work- Greg Butterfield, G. Dunkel, K. Durkin, Fred Goldstein, future. And capitalism is threatening the entire planet ing-class issue, which is confirmed by the many labor Martha Grevatt, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales, with its unplanned, profit-driven stranglehold over the struggles led today by people of color, immigrants and Berta Joubert-Ceci, Terri Kay, Cheryl LaBash, means of production. women. Milt Neidenberg, John Parker, Bryan G. Pfeifer, Workers built it all — it belongs to society, not to a WWP has a long history of militant opposition to im- Betsey Piette, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Gloria Rubac handful of billionaires! But we need a revolution to perialist wars. The billionaire rulers are bent on turning Mundo Obero: Redactora Berta Joubert-Ceci; make that change. That’s why for 56 years WWP has back the clock to the bad old days before socialist revolu- Ramiro Fúnez, Teresa Gutierrez, Donna Lazarus, been building a revolutionary party of the working tions and national liberation struggles liberated territory Carlos Vargas class inside the belly of the beast. from their grip. We’ve been in the streets to oppose every Supporter Program: Coordinator Sue Davis We fight every kind of oppression. Racism, sexism, one of imperialism’s wars and aggressions. Copyright © 2014 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium Contact a Workers World Party branch near you: workers.org/wwp without royalty provided this notice is preserved. 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By Brenda Ryan years since Veolia and the Boston mayor’s office began their union-busting assault. In a stunning victory, the militant, fighting rank and file of the Boston school bus Campaign intensifies drivers’ union, United Steelworkers Local to reinstate the four 8751, voted in the full slate of Team Solida In the campaign’s fi- rity candidates, led by four illegally fired nal week, opponents led leaders, on the union’s Executive Board. a barrage of red-baiting, The April 30 election was the largest vicious lies and attacks voter turnout in the history of the local on the union’s political and resulted in an unprecedented land- work. The day of the elec- PHOTO: HOWARD ROTMAN slide vote by more than 3 to 1 for the tion, the company cop- Above, Team Solidarity activists win Local 8751 election by landslide. Team Solidarity ticket. The membership ied and its collaborators Left, Andre Francois brings union solidarity to community at April 18 rally in Roxbury, Mass. sent a clear message to Veolia/Transdev, handed out an article from a Zionist web- the union-busting school bus manage- site with photos of Kirschbaum and Gillis erate, took over management of Bos- job fighting for the membership. She re- ment company, as well as to Boston Pub- that linked their support for Palestinian ton school bus transportation on July 1, plied, “Perfect.” lic Schools and Mayor Marty Walsh, that rights with the Boston Marathon bombing. 2013. Despite signing an agreement to Witness after witness conveyed the they will fight and win a just contract and The company stooges attacked the ac- honor all terms and conditions of United uncompromising, relentless commit- the rehiring of their leaders. They will also tive support of Team Solidarity for the Steelworkers Local 8751’s existing con- ment of the local. This union has fought unite with the communities they serve to Black Lives Matter movement and political tract, the company soon violated nearly for the membership and stood in solidar- struggle for Equal Quality Education. prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal; for their sol- every article regarding wages, benefits ity with every movement for justice since The new executive board-elect of the idarity with Cuba; for their opposition to and working conditions. In August 2013, its formation in the 1970s, when it was on 850-strong union, whose members are every imperialist war from El Salvador and the Steelworkers filed 18 unfair labor the front lines opposing school segrega- largely Haitian, Cape Verdean and , in- Nicaragua in the 1980s to Afghanistan, practice charges with the National Labor tion and defending students of color from cludes President Andre Francois, long- Iraq and Yemen; and for traveling to Ven- Relations Board. And on Oct. 7, the com- years of violent, racist attacks. time chief steward; Vice President Stevan ezuela, Colombia and Haiti in support of pany tried to force the drivers to fill out Milt Neidenberg, a decades-long steel- Kirschbaum, a founder of the local; Trea- workers and socialist movements fighting new hire applications. worker, Teamsters retiree and ally of Lo- surer Georgia Scott, veteran of the 1965 U.S.-sponsored coups and death squads. A critical moment in the battle with cal 8751 since its founding, told Workers Civil Rights battle on Pettus Bridge in Nevertheless, Kirschbaum and Gil- Veolia began on Oct. 8. At 5 a.m. that World: “Local 8751’s fight against Veolia Selma, Ala.; Financial Secretary Steven lis, two well-known socialists, had the morning, the drivers reported to work and Boston’s power structure is part of Gillis, the outgoing vice president and backing of the membership. The vote for and demanded a meeting with the com- a growing, increasingly active, broad- benefits administrator; Recording Secre- them and the whole slate of revolution- pany to discuss the company’s total fail- ening labor movement, such as the na- tary Claude “Tou Tou” St. Germain, a Fan- ary-minded candidates is a barometer of ure to honor the union contract. Veolia’s tional strikes by low-wage workers from mi Lavalas activist; Grievance Committee Local 8751’s general class consciousness. top management and Boston school ad- Walmart to McDonald’s demanding $15 members Garry Murchison, a three-term It is, in a much smaller arena, analogous ministrators were for the first time on and a union. Veolia is one of these global past president, Frantz Mendes, two-term to socialist labor leader Eugene Debs site at the bus yards before sunrise. Man- giants, whose primary business tactics president, and Richard Laine; Trustees getting a million votes for U.S. president agement refused to meet for hours and specialize in union busting as essential to Frantz “Fan Fan” Cadet, Fred Floreal and while in jail for opposing World War I. then called in the police, locked the gates its drive to lower workers’ pay [in order] Judy Long; Guide Chantal Suffrant Casi- And it brings a tremendous surge of rank- and evicted the drivers and City Council- to increase corporate profits and stock- mir; Guards Adriano Barbosa and Ludnay and-file power to the fight against Veolia or Charles Yancey, threatening them all holder dividends, which for the 1% now Pierre; and Accident Review Committee and its austerity-driven sponsors. with arrest for trespassing. dwarf many nations’ economies. members Jerome Samir Stanley, Kathy “The air-pressure needle reads like a tor- The workers’ request for a meeting “Veolia low-bids while promising Moore and Robert Salley. Murchison led nado is coming,” Gillis said of the workers. was legally protected union activity and governments a hired gun to privatize the local’s last five-week strike in 1991, The union is now intensifying its battle the company’s lockout was a violation transportation, energy, water and en- which ended with a 48-hour occupation to get the four leaders reinstated. Thou- of the contract and federal law. Veolia vironmental resources and waste man- of the mayor’s office. sands of leaflets are being distributed then falsely alleged that the members agement,” Neidenberg continued. “That’s Veolia illegally fired Francois, Gillis, throughout Boston, asking people to call had gone on a wildcat strike, a claim that why Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s ‘Right to Kirschbaum and Murchison in Novem- Mayor Walsh and demand that he order was trumpeted by former Mayor Thomas Work’ governor and Wall Street’s Repub- ber 2013, following a company-ordered, their rehiring by Veolia — which changed Menino, the BPS administration and the lican presidential nominee, just entered police department-enforced lockout on its name to Transdev in the wake of pub- Boston media. Veolia then singled out talks with Veolia to privatize his state’s Oct. 8, 2013, which occurred after the lo- licity over its international union-busting and fired the four union leaders. water supply. The results are everywhere cal requested an emergency meeting. The actions and its infrastructure support for Team Solidarity immediately launched :war with the unions and service cut- lockout occurred in the midst of a three- the brutal occupation of Palestine. an intense campaign to rehire the four backs and rate hikes for the public. Local month fight with the new company over The mayor’s vendor contract with the and get a just contract. It held near-week- 8751’s historic electoral sweep for Team wage theft, its refusal to honor the driv- company gives the city the sole authority ly picket lines and seven Solidarity Day Solidarity, a mandate for social union- ers’ long-standing contract and Veolia’s to settle all grievances. Walsh can order rallies that turned out thousands of ism, points to the promising potential illegal demand — because it’s in violation the immediate reinstatement of the four union and community supporters, infor waging a successful workers’ counter of the contract — made the day before, with full back pay. cluding the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and offensive. It’s time for all to step up to that even 40-year veteran drivers must With this election, Team Solidarity has the Steelworkers International. After a their defense and win a victory for all.” file new hire applications. moved from an opposition faction within rally and drivers’ break room briefing In the U.S. transportation field alone, A small clique of business-minded, the local to become the governing body- June 30, 2014, the date of the contract’s Veolia has attacked rapid transit unions company-inspired opponents, including elect, with a clear mandate to carry for- expiration, Veolia managers and the Bos- in San Francisco — where two replace- the current president — who bowed out ward its militant fightback program. ton Police Department concocted frame- ments were killed on the tracks during during the election campaign — tried to In addition to demanding the rehiring up felony charges against Kirschbaum, two Veolia-forced strikes in 2013 — as turn the membership against Team Sol- of the leaders, the local now will intensify including breaking and entering, tres- well as Pensacola, Fla.; Phoenix; Las idarity’s fighting slate. They bombarded activities to unite with the communities passing, and assault and battery with a Vegas; Baltimore; Denver; Seattle; Ra- members with the message: “Don’t vote against the Boston Public School’s mas- dangerous weapon. cine, Wis.; and smaller cities from coast for the people who were fired. They won’t sive budget-cutting campaign and raise For eight months Team Solidarity mo- to coast. Amalgamated Transportation do you any good.” demands for Equal Quality Education for bilized support for Kirschbaum, holding Union International President Larry The climax of year-long bargaining BPS’s predominantly students of color. pack-the-court rallies, national call-in Hanley termed that “a path of destruc- over a new concessionary contract was the The mayor’s appointed School Commit- days to the district attorney and mayor, tion” and “management train wreck” in company’s divisive campaign that includ- tee has voted austerity that calls for clos- and weekly bus yard rallies. Team Soli- his June 2013 report on Veolia. Now is ed pushing a “final” proposal with no am- ing schools, further privatization through darity’s defense team exposed the absur- the time for the militant social unionism nesty for the fired leaders and using false charter school expansion, cutting back dity and political motivation of the per- of Local 8751 to be taken up around the “retro-pay” payroll documents produced summer programs for at-risk youth and jured charges during a three-day trial, country. Their victories show the power by management. But the members voted nutritional offerings systemwide, kicking and on March 5 a jury returned a unani- of militant resistance. for the new board based on their personal middle school students off school buses, mous verdict to acquit Kirschbaum after To join the fight, call Mayor Walsh experience with Team Solidarity’s leaders, as well as reductions in union staff and only 10 minutes of deliberation. today at 617-635-4500, and go to who have filed hundreds of their griev- services throughout the system. During the trial, the prosecutor — TeamSolidarity.org and “Team Solidarity ances, administered and defended their whose closing arguments were scripted — The Voice of United School Bus benefits, and fiercely fought for them and Two-year battle with Veolia verbatim by Veolia’s attorney — asked a Workers” (tinyurl.com/KY09HYS) on the union’s survival during the nearly two Veolia, a Paris-based global conglom- union member if Kirschbaum did a good Facebook. Page 4 May 14, 2015 workers.org May Day in Baltimore On the picket line By Matty Starrdust and Sue Davis Calif. nurses strike Thousands march for amnesty for health coverage, safety Some 5,000 registered nurses, organized by the Califor- for youth nia Nurses Association and National Nurses United, went on a one-day strike or marched on picket lines April 30 after contract negotiations with the Sutter Health hospital corporation hit a dead end. Despite raking in more than $3 billion in profits over the last five years and paying its CEO an obscenely high $6 million salary in 2013, Sutter continues to demand cuts to nurses’ health care plans and dangerously low staffing levels at its hospitals. Emergency room nurse Debra Bucculatto told the press: “We need adequate health care for ourselves and for our families along with staffing conditions that are safe. As it is, Sutter is trying to cut corners despite tremendous profits, but nurses deserve basic essentials … [like] quality health coverage and safe staffing.” (National Nurses United, April 29) Sutter hospital nurses were joined by thousands of nurses at Kaiser Permanente and Providence Health hospitals in various cities who also walked off the job to protest corporate policies that promote profit above decent health care.

May 2 protest in Baltimore. MORREHEAD MONICA WW PHOTO:

By Monica Moorehead ground zero of the rebellion, where fights. At exactly 10 p.m., without Federal contracted employees Baltimore the crowd had swelled to at least warning, police charged into the 15,000. There was so much jubila- group, beating people and arrest- demand living wage The Baltimore People’s Power tion in the air. ing 50 youth.” While politicians campaign across the country making Assembly called a special rally and It was at this site on April 27 that Since martial law was estab- empty promises about “economic opportunity” and a fair march for May Day, also known as a CVS drug store was liberated of lished on April 28, the right to ha- shot at the “American dream,” workers at the U.S. Sen- International Worker’s Day, to de- goods denied to the Black commu- beas corpus has been suspended, ate’s own cafeteria struggle just to make ends meet. That’s mand justice for Freddie Grey and nity, a community that has been meaning that the police and local why contracted food service and janitorial workers at U.S. general amnesty for the hundreds decimated by a lack of jobs, wa- officials can hold protesters in jail federal buildings in Washington, D.C., went on a one-day of Black youth who were arrested ter shutoffs, and inadequate food, for an indeterminate amount of strike April 22 to demand fair wages and collective bar- during the April 27 rebellion fol- housing and other necessities of time without the right to a hearing gaining rights. lowing Grey’s funeral. life. or an attorney. President Obama’s 2014 executive order raising feder- Other important demands in- As Colleen Davidson, a leader On May 2, the Baltimore PPA al contract workers’ minimum wage to $10.10 per hour cluded the end of a five-day curfew of Baltimore’s revolutionary youth and its supporters from other cit- isn’t enough, said Bertrand Olotara, a single father who and the immediate withdrawal of group Fight Imperialism, Stand ies joined community residents at earns $12 an hour as a cook in the Senate cafeteria. “Even thousands of gun-carrying Na- Together (FIST) and an eyewit- Presbury and N. Mount streets in though I work seven days a week — putting in 70 hours tional Guard troops called out by ness to the rebellion, wrote, “Men, West Baltimore, the corner where, between my two jobs — I can’t manage to pay the rent, buy Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to oc- women and children were coming on April 12, Grey was videotaped school supplies for my kids or even put food on the table,” cupy the Black community. into the stores with empty hands being dragged to a police wagon. he wrote in an April 22 op-ed in The Guardian. “I hate to Not even the presence of the and leaving with bags and boxes of There, the demonstrators held a admit it, but I have to use food stamps so that my kids don’t police and the Guard at McKeldin the basic necessities of life. Food, short rally followed by a sever- go to bed hungry.” Square could quell the militancy of drinks, toilet paper, baby food, di- al-mile march of hundreds to City With support from the American Federation of State, the crowd. apers, etc. — all things that they Hall to join thousands for a rally County and Municipal Employees, workers rallied outside The May Day march attracted a never had free access to under cap- protesting police brutality. Peo- the Capitol Building to demand $15 an hour and a union for multinational crowd of more than italism. Children were getting their ple had travelled from New York, all federal contract workers, who number about 26 million, 10,000 mainly young people, in- first pairs of new shoes and coming North Carolina and Pennsylvania or 22 percent of the civilian workforce. (AFSCME.org, cluding children, who took to the out of the stores smiling with fruit to join the march. April 22) streets following a brief gathering and candy. At the May 2 march, the police and rally at McKeldin Square. The “Community members came viciously attacked protesters and Mourn the dead, fight for the living square was the site of the Occupy together and took as much as they arrested those who defied the cur- Every year on April 28, Workers’ Memorial Day, laborers movement’s two-month occupa- could to give out to the people, es- few. The arrests included legal ob- throughout the world pay tribute to those who have been tion back in 2011 and is designated pecially the elderly who weren’t servers and medics. The curfew of- killed on the job or injured by their work and pledge to as a free speech zone. able to come out. This all was hap- ficially ended on May 3 as growing renew the struggle for workplace safety. In 2013 in the U.S. In 2013, a historic march of pening at the end of the month, as protests and challenges to it were alone, 4,585 workers died as a result of workplace accidents 10,000 people demanding justice food stamps are running out, the intensifying and the monetary and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases, for Trayvon Martin, the 17-year- stamps being a grudging form of losses of local businesses forced as detailed in the AFL-CIO’s 2015 edition of “Death on the old African American murdered assistance which has already been to close early were skyrocketing. Job: The Toll of Neglect.” Nearly 3.8 million work-related by vigilante George Zimmerman reduced by the ruling class to the The governor announced that the injuries and illnesses were reported, but because many are in 2012, was also held at McKel- point where most people in cities national guard will be pulled out not reported, the true toll is more than two to three times din Square before the assembled like Baltimore are hungry and des- in increments. Sharon Black, a vol- greater, or 7.6 million to 11.4 million injuries each year. masses took over City Hall for four perate.” (workers.org, April 30) unteer organizer with the PPA, told (aflcio.org, April 23) hours. The five-hour march ended Workers World, “It is crucial that Among those taken by workplace tragedies in 2015 was The May Day march for Grey, at City Hall. There, hundreds of we keep the pressure on to demand 40-year-old construction worker Trevor Loftus, who was the 25-year-old African American youth stayed at City Hall to hold a amnesty for all arrestees.” killed April 24 in New York City in a freak accident when tortured to death by six Baltimore speakout and dis- the hydraulic system on the crane he was operating failed, police officers, was the largest or- cuss whether to crushing him. (New York Daily News, April 24) Workers ganized since the one held for Mar- conduct a civil dis- need strong, fighting unions to ensure workplace safety tin. The protesters spontaneously obedience action to and a totally different economic system where human lives marched to a nearby prison com- break the curfew, are valued above profits. plex, which is presently incarcer- which officially beating the youth arrested during gan at 10 p.m. and the April 25 demonstration, those ended at 5 a.m. Labor opposes Trans-Pacific allegedly taking part in the April At approximately Partnership 27 rebellion, and those arrested 9:45 p.m., a group The organized labor movement, along with national subsequently for curfew violations. of 90 youth sat in a environmental and immigrant rights groups, has taken a Among the many signs in the wide circle discuss- strong, united stand against the trade agreement called the crowd were ones that read, “Our ing civil disobe Trans-Pacific Partnership, whose details are hidden from youth are not thugs and looters.” dience to the cur- the public. At a New York City rally on April 27, residential These messages countered the few. Steven Ceci, service employee Steve Ellwood, a member of Service Em- racist, demonizing labels that the a PPA organizer ployees 32BJ from the Bronx, said the TPP would “devas- mayor, the police and the media who was a part of tate workers’ rights, encourage more outsourcing of already are using against rebellious Black this group, told scarce jobs, compromise food safety, imperil environmen- youths. WW, “Fox News tal standards and give multinational corporations the right The march then continued on reporter Geraldo to sue the government if they do not like the city’s laws to Pennsylvania and North ave- Rivera waded into and regulations. … We want NYC to be a ‘TPP-Free Zone.’” nues on the West Side, known as the group picking WW PHOTO: JOE PIETTE (Labor Press, April 28) workers.org May 14, 2015 Page 5 Fighting police brutality on May Day Longshore workers shut down Bay Area ports By Terri Kay show their anger about recent police kill- Oakland, Calif. ings and all the cases of police terror. Local 10 and a number of community groups and May 1 — Once again the membership of other unions organized a rally at the Port of International Longshore and Warehouse Oakland, a march through the Acorn Proj- Union Local 10 did a remarkable deed ects in West Oakland and a rally at Oscar when it led U.S. labor on May Day 2015 Grant Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall. by voting to shut down all Bay Area ports At the port, longshore workers spoke and march to Oakland City Hall to stand out against police terror, including the up against police terror. The political fo- family of Jeremiah Moore, an autistic cus, at the time of that decision, was the man shot by police in Valejo, Calif., on April 4 police killing of Walter Scott in Oct. 20, 2012, and the uncle of Pedie Pe- South Carolina. Scott had strong family rez, an unarmed man shot by the Rich- ties to the International Longshore Asso- mond Police Department on Sept. 14. ciation there, and ILWU Local 10 voted to The ILWU drill team led the march. show solidarity with the ILA. Marchers carried banners, including one “I put forth the resolution to shut reading, “Justice for Yuvette.” Yuvette down the port because I am proud of my Henderson was killed Feb. 3 by Em- union’s history of resistance, and I felt it eryville police. Also, “May Day! Fight for WW PHOTO: TERRI KAY was time labor came out loudly against Freddie Gray,” “No execution by medical ILWU Local 10 stops work to protest police brutality. police terror,” said Stacey Rodgers, the neglect, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal,” and ILWU member who initiated the port “Stop police terror, ILWU Local 10.” release, “The only way this country is go- beyond protest. It is an act of resistance. action. “We are in an historic moment in Students in the playgrounds of both an ing to take us seriously is if we interrupt Local 10 is shutting down the movement our country. Labor has always been part elementary school and a high school on their commerce and impact their bottom of international cargo. By silencing the of the historic moments in this country, the march’s path waved and chanted jubi- line. Simply appealing to their humanity cranes at the ports, we, the working class, and we continue that legacy on May Day.” lantly as the protesters passed. Marchers doesn’t work. If that was the case, the ep- make our voices heard loudly around the Then Freddie Grey was killed by the even stopped to teach them chants like, idemic of Black genocide at the hands of world today. ... The supreme task of labor Baltimore police. “All night, all day, we will fight for Freddie police would have ended decades ago.” is to challenge corporate America — head Today, International Workers’ Day, the Grey.” In a message read to the crowd at Os- on — as part of a new peoples’ movement ILWU membership and well over 1,000 Cat Brooks, of ONYX and the An- car Grant Plaza, Clarence Thomas, of Lo- for all workers and the oppressed in this community members came out strongly to ti-Police Terror Project, said in a press cal 10, said, “This mobilization today is country.” Eyewitness report on Baltimore Rebellion

By Colleen Davidson moved forward and the officers retreated The real destruction Community members came together and Baltimore a few steps. We linked arms on the front At a certain point, we had to leave to took as much as they could to give out lines. The police came towards us, shout- get back to the office for a national con- to the people, especially the elderly who April 27 — Last night, some comrades ing in unison, “Move back!” banging their ference call on the Baltimore Rebellion. weren’t able to come out. This all was hap- and I went to the front lines of the rebel- sticks on their shields with each step for- As we left, we looked around the com- pening at the end of the month, as food lion in Baltimore, at North Avenue and ward that they took. We stood our ground munity at the houses. Empty, boarded stamps are running out, the stamps being Pennsylvania Avenue. As we got closer to until the police physically shoved us back up houses, that was the real destruction. a grudging form of assistance which has the neighborhood, folks in the community with their shields and shot pepper spray And it had nothing to do with the pro- already been reduced by the ruling class saw our signs calling for community con- into the line. testers but rather with decades of rac- to the point where most people in cities trol of the police and justice for Freddie They started throwing flash grenades, ism, oppression and neglect. Homes were like Baltimore are hungry and desperate. Grey, and raised their fists in the air as tear gas canisters and smoke bombs, boarded up and falling apart, blocks and Some of the “shoppers” looked at us they walked by. some of which were hurled back into the blocks of housing projects, and litter and suspiciously, and people said: “Hey, get When we got within a block of the ac- line of cops. People were screaming. Oth- trash lined the streets that the city has what you need, and get enough to last you tion, the smoke from the burning CVS was ers had to hold back their friends, who abandoned while they regularly bring a long time. We are with you.” I have nev- so thick, it was hard to see and breathe. It were crying out in frustration, trying to street cleaners through the richer white er seen such joy and hope in the impov- wasn’t until the smoke dissipated for a mo- move towards the police. One man who neighborhoods. Then we started passing erished communities in Baltimore. They ment that a line of riot cops appeared, wait- was not even fighting was grabbed by the by stores that were being “looted.” were finally getting what they needed, ing, clearly looking for blood as they stood police and pulled behind the police line. Men, women and children were com- wanted and deserved as human beings. with their batons and shields. Apparently, We couldn’t see him on the ground but we ing into the stores with empty hands and Colleen Davidson is an activist with they were furious because of the brave saw about 12 batons coming up above the leaving with bags and boxes of the basic Baltimore FIST (Fight Imperialism, fighters whom they had fought with earlier officers’ heads and coming down on him. necessities of life. Food, drinks, toilet pa- Stand Together). Go to that day, who had reportedly caused many They made a wall so we couldn’t get past per, baby food, diapers, etc. — all things fightimperialism.org. police injuries, including broken bones. to help him. Clearly, they didn’t want re- that they never had free access to under The streets were littered with smashed cordings by witnesses of the savage beat- capitalism. Children were getting their glass, broken police shields and garbage. ing that he was enduring. Everywhere first pairs of new shoes and coming out of A police car was on fire. The protesters around us looked like a war zone. the stores smiling with fruit and candy. Rebellion forced charges against Baltimore cops Continued from page 1 WW correspondent Lamont Lilly, an today, these are the images kill police. This was a lie. The truth was eyewitness to the rebellion, described the that remain.” (workers.org, that these youth gangs had announced conditions he saw in Baltimore: “When April 28) a truce with each other in order to unite you take your time and walk by foot, the As has been stated by and protest police repression. They had intense degree of poverty completely par- People’s Power Assembly marched together at an April 25 protest. alyzes you. It shocked me, and I’m from organizers, while the battle Following Grey’s April 27 funeral, peo- the hood. The absurd amount of board- is far from over, the people ple as young as 12 years old were con- ed homes is astounding. The makeshift in the street recognize that fronted with pepper pellets, a form of neighborhoods, comprised of trash, for- the indictments announced rubber bullets. One of these pellets struck gotten debris and the countless number by the State’s Attorney’s Of- a reporter, Shawn Carrié, on the scene. of dilapidated buildings, are an absolute fice were a direct result of The reporter was later arrested and spent travesty in this, the richest country on the youth rebellion and the 49 hours in jail, according to the May 2 is- the planet. continuous protests led by sue of The Guardian. (theguardian.com) “The lack of grocery stores, play- the community since Fred- Stores at the Mondawmin Mall had grounds and recreation facilities is ap- die Grey’s death, which have windows smashed. Youth then escaped parent. The community’s once beloved been spectacular and ongo- the police and headed to nearby Penn- primary school was closed last year. The ing. The PPA is calling for sylvania Avenue, the closest commercial wasting away of Black bodies, good peo- a people’s tribunal against area, and finally to the intersection of ple and buried hope. The emphasis on police violence and struc- North and Pennsylvania avenues in the protecting property over suffering peo- tural racism to be held in Black community. ple. While Freddie Grey was laid to rest Baltimore on June 6. May 2 march, Baltimore. PHOTO: CLAUDIA PALACIOS Page 6 May 14, 2015 workers.org For immigrant and workers’ rights, against police murders

WW PHOTO: GLORIA VERDIEU Workers World Bureau

From April 30 to May 3, people in Milwaukee many U.S. cities held rallies, marches San Diego and other events in solidarity with the rebellious youth of Baltimore protesting police brutality. On May 1, immigrants, including many from Latin America, organized and called demonstrations for immigrant and workers’ rights, but they also stood in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and its latest manifestation in Baltimore. Workers World reports on some of these activities here. In the tenth such march since hundreds of thousands of mostly immigrants brought International Workers’ Day back to New York City with a bang in 2006, the May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights first gathered for a rally in Union Square Park and then marched to the federal buildings downtown. This year the thousands of people in the march were swelled by an influx of New York City people even younger than the immigrant workers — youth, Brown, Black and white, who had come out in response to a call by organizers to show solidarity with the rebellious youth of Baltimore and demand justice for Freddie Grey. Police did their worst, setting up met- al fences to keep the popular demonstration separate from people along the long route of march downtown. This could not stop many of the bystanders from raising their fists and their voices to show they were with the marchers. WW PHOTO: ELLIE DORRITIE Across the continent, hundreds came to the May Day March and Rally in downtown San Diego organized by the May 1st Planning Committee. Babies in strollers, toddlers, high school and col- lege students, youth from Association of Raza Educators; MECHA-Lincoln High School; Association of Chicano Activists, San Diego Student Union; International Peoples Uhuru Movement are a few organizations that participated. The theme was “Worker Rights Are Human Rights.” The rally, which began with tradition- al drumming and dance by Danza Az- tec, focused on workers directly affected by the main points of unity. A group of youth carrying flags from many countries, with a banner that read “Work- Buffalo, N.Y. ers United for Dignity and Justice,” led the march. They also carried signs and Top right: Crystal Richardson, of Coalition for REAL Justice spoke on struggle for justice for Freddie Grey, and in defense of youth rebellion in Baltimore. Top center: Protesters demanding justice for Dontre Hamilton march to Red Arrow Park, April 30. wore T-shirts that read “All Mothers Are Workers,” “Don’t criminalize the Work- sponsored the events. Protesters united by the Coalition For Justice in Milwau- was taking a late night walk when he was con- ers” and “Fight for 15, Union Yes.” Mid- a variety of demands, including justice kee and people’s solidarity from around fronted and attacked by Albany police. Ivy died way through the march was an amazing for Freddie Grey, Tony Robinson, Dontre the world. That decision was upheld after being Tasered an unknown number of performance by Mujeres en Resistencia Hamilton and all those killed and tor- by the Fire and Police Commission in times. Cultural Peace in front of the court- tured by cops and vigilantes. Demands March. The rally was called by Capital Area Against house across from the Hall of InJustice included an end to raids and depor- The struggle for justice for Dontre con- Mass Incarceration. Many held signs saying in downtown San Diego. tations; an end to austerity, including tinues. Maria Hamilton, Dontre’s moth- “Black Lives Matter” with “#Shutitdown” at the Police brutality and terror are on union busting in Wisconsin; and an end er and a leader of Mothers For Justice bottom. everyone’s mind. Marchers shouted to the medical neglect and torture of po- United, is helping to organize a Million Chanting “All night, all day, we will march for “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” as the police litical prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Moms March May 9 in Washington, D.C. Freddie Grey,” over 200 people rallied April 30 rode bicycles and walked on the side A diverse, multinational crowd of This event is being led by mothers who on the Syracuse University Quad in New York trying to keep marchers on the path. protesters marched to Milwaukee’s have lost loved ones due to the scourge state. The first speaker read a message from the People were literally grabbing from dis- Red Arrow Park on April 30 to com- of police and vigilante terror against pri- three co-founders of Black Lives Matter, noting tributors’ hands the Workers World fly- memorate the life of Dontre Hamilton, a marily Black and Brown communities. they were all lesbian, gay, bi and trans women: er headlined “Baltimore Youth Rebel.” 31-year-old African-American man. One For more information: facebook.com/ “We stand in solidarity with the people of Bal- Families in San Diego have not forgotten year ago on that day, Dontre was shot justicefordontre; facebook.com/mothers timore and the millions of Black people across the many lives stolen by the police and 14 times and killed at the park by white forjusticeunited or #JusticeForDontre. the country who are tired of poverty, racism border patrol. We must continue to fight Milwaukee cop Christopher Manney. People gathered at Albany, N.Y., police and state-sanctioned murder.” for dignity and justice. We will win. Led by Dontre’s family, those participat- headquarters in the Arbor Hill neighbor- Defending Baltimore protesters who liberat- Madison’s May Day rally began at ing demanded Manney be brought up hood on May 2, both to protest the police ed needed supplies from stores, fiery speakers Brittingham Park along West Washing- on federal charges. In December 2014, Taser death of Donald “Dontay” Ivy on named the seizure of Indigenous lands by U.S. ton Avenue, followed by a march to the Milwaukee County District Attorney April 2 and to stand in solidarity with colonizers as the real looting, pointing out that Wisconsin Capitol. Organizations such John Chisholm announced no criminal the Baltimore protesters demanding jus- included the ground Syracuse University sat as the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, charges would be filed against Manney. tice for Freddie Grey. on. the International Workers of the World Manney had been fired in November Ivy, who suffered from paranoid The crowd shouted out the names of Black and Union de Trabajadores Inmigrantes 2014 due to mass, militant protests led schizophrenia and also heart problems, people killed by U.S. police, then marched workers.org May 14, 2015 Page 7 For immigrant and workers’ rights, against police murders

PHOTO: JOE BRUSKY WW PHOTO: JOE PIETTE the people in Baltimore to demand justice for Freddie Grey and all victims of Milwaukee Philadelphia racist police violence. The large rally was called by the Buffalo Anti-Racism Coa- lition. Recognizing the potential for an up- rising in response to police brutality in Philadelphia like that in Baltimore, the Philly Racial, Economic And Legal (REAL) Justice Coalition called a “Phil- adelphia Is Baltimore Solidarity Rally” for April 30. Over 2,000 people respond- ed in one of the largest demonstrations against the epidemic of police murders of Black and Brown youth held here so far. This is the first major street event that the Black youth-led coalition initiated since it formed in December 2014 after the massive protests calling for justice for Michael Brown and Eric Garner. REAL Justice has held twice-a-month WW PHOTO: BRENDA RYAN town hall gatherings since then, each drawing between 100 to 400 people. The rally outside City Hall was followed by several hours of marching and confrontations with police on bicycles and horses as it zigzagged through Cen- ter City, effectively shutting down ma- Upstate New York jor streets during rush-hour traffic. A march against traffic on Market Street was greeted with honking horns and fists raised by motorists. The march was fully in support of the rebellion of the youth of Baltimore and the stand the community there took in response to the violent murder of Fred- die Grey by the police. Like Baltimore, WW PHOTOS: MINNIE BRUCE PRATT BRUCE MINNIE PHOTOS: WW Philadelphia has experienced hundreds of murders of Black and Brown youth by police who have never been brought to justice. It has high rates of poverty, gentrification, unemployment, redlining and underfunded schools. The board- Syracuse, N.Y. ed-up row houses in Freddie Grey’s neighborhood could be any community in Philadelphia. The REAL Justice Coalition also strongly opposed the sending of Penn- sylvania state troopers or Philadelphia police to Baltimore. The event was also used to mobilize people to travel to Bal- timore for a rally there on May 2. A highlight of the march was a stop outside the federal prison on Arch Street near 7th Street. Protesters stood on lamp poles waving banners as the crowd Top right: Crystal Richardson, of Coalition for REAL Justice spoke on struggle for justice for Freddie Grey, and in defense of youth rebellion in Baltimore. Top center: Protesters demanding justice for Dontre Hamilton march to Red Arrow Park, April 30. chanted “Prisons are concentration camps for the poor.” Prisoners inside re- downtown to the county jail and to the “Jerry Lowville, workers in my country of El Nearly 200 militant demonstrators sponded with pumped fists and flashing Rescue” monument. This statue celebrates an Salvador are marching for their rights — seized the streets of Rochester, N.Y., on lights to signal their solidarity. 1851 public rescue when a Syracuse anti-slav- our families are marching for our rights May 1 in solidarity with the protests in Philadelphia’s 8th annual May 1st ery, abolitionist crowd stormed the city jail and and theirs.” He also emphasized how Baltimore over the murder of Freddie march, organized by the Mayday USA freed William “Jerry” Henry, who had been dairy workers’ labor creates mega-prof- Grey and against police brutality local- Education Committee, began with a arrested by U.S. marshals under the Fugitive its for transnational businesses. New ly. Despite a large police presence and “15Now” rally in front of McDonald’s Slave Act. York state is fourth in U.S. production without a permit, the demonstrators at 40th and Walnut streets and end- Latino and Latina immigrant farmworkers of milk and first in yogurt. Lowville is took over entire streets, beginning in the ed in Clark Park with speakers and a held their first-ever May Day march in upstate home to the plant that is the largest mak- poor and working-class neighborhoods picnic. The Philly Coalition for REAL New York at Marks Dairy Farms in Lowville er of Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese in and winding their way through down- Justice raised the political level of the on May 1. The dairy workers were protesting the U.S. town. They frequently slowed or stopped event by giving marchers signs with the violent beating and firing of Francisco, a Chanting “El pueblo unido jamás será traffic as they proceeded to single out photos of Black workers who have worker who objected to being ordered to work vencido” (“The people united will never and denounce a who’s who of local sym- been killed by the police above the on his only day off. They demanded dignity and be defeated”), the crowd marched on dirt bols of oppression, including the Public slogan “Black Lives Matter to Labor.” respect, safe working conditions, and an end to roads through the farm, past giant milk- Safety building. Temple University Professor Anthony wage theft and physical and verbal violence. ing barns as huge tanker trucks thun- The demonstration was organized by Monteiro drew loud applause when he People gathered to support them, some driv- dered by. BLACK (Building Leadership and Com- spoke on labor’s need to support the ing hundreds of miles from Brooklyn, Staten New York farmworkers live in isola- munity Knowledge), an organization of Black Lives Matter movement and for Island, Rochester, Syracuse, Marietta, Can- tion, fearful of deportation raids, subject students at the University of Rochester. unions to end their support for the ton and elsewhere in New York. The action to unsafe working conditions and brutal They were joined by a number of orga- Fraternal Order of Police. was called by the May 1st Agricultural Work- work schedules. Some live in conditions nizations including the People’s Power Brenda Ryan, Heather Cottin, Min- ers Committee, the Workers’ Center of Central of virtual indentured servitude. Farm- Assembly. nie Bruce Pratt, Joe Piette, Gloria New York and the Worker Justice Center of New workers are specifically excluded from On May 3, traffic at the heavily trav- Verdieu, Workers World Milwaukee York. some basic U.S. worker rights like the eled intersection in the Kensington-Bai- Bureau, Chris Fry, Betsey Piette, Ellie May 1st organizer José Canas spoke of May right to a day off, the right to be paid ley area of Buffalo crawled to a halt as Dorritie and Gene Clancy contributed Day solidarity across borders: “As we march in overtime and the right to form a union. protesters came out in solidarity with to these reports. Page 8 May 14, 2015 workers.org Punishment for profit: The economics of mass incarceration

By Joyce Chediac ons, surveillance, tech vendors, prison food providers, medical services, phone service for prisoners, private “Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled probation companies, investors in these companies, and in human history is a fundamental fact of our country the lobbyists that represent the businesses seeking to ex- today — perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was pand the prison system. the fundamental fact of 1850.” (“The Caging of Ameri- ca” by Adam Gopnik) Revenues increased 500 times Two of the largest private companies now running The excessive arrests and unjustified long-term im- prisons are the Correction Corporation of America prisonments of mostly people of color, and the devastat- (CCA) and the GEO Group. There were no private pris- ing effects these measures have on whole communities, ons before 1980. From then until 2009, these two corpo- have been exposed and denounced by community, reli- rations increased their role to running 264 prisons with gious, human rights, legal and advocacy organizations, more than 100,000 prisoners. (“Prison Labor and Crime and individual researchers. in the U.S.”) The CCA’s revenues increased 500 times in telecommunications companies, and transportation Then why is it so hard to stop? the last two decades. (Mother Jones, Sept. 19, 2013) companies such as American Airlines, Boeing and Unit- Because for a very powerful few, mass incarceration Then there’s the work that inmates do inside the in- ed Parcel Service, says Sloan. So the hotel and airline is not a bad thing at all. It is the source of fabulous prof- stitutions. Prisoners toiling often for pennies an hour reservations we make for vacations are often handled by its. For them, prison equals profits. and sometimes without any pay at all, totaled at least prisoners. And this is just a sampling. The total cost to government of incarceration is $70 $2.4 billion in sales, and maybe as much as $5 billion. Sloan concludes, “The Prison-Industrial Complex is billion a year. The privately run prison industry, which (tinyurl.com/pxkgd6u) simply too vast to avoid or boycott — in a manner typi- feeds on mass incarceration, is one of the fastest grow- The private companies get a cheap, easy labor market, cally used by consumers and concerned citizens.” ing and widest reaching of U.S. industries. In 2009 where they don’t have to provide benefits or sick days, alone, when most industries were in a slump, the prison To get your job back ‘go to prison’ there is no union organizing, and if a person refuses to industry brought in $34.4 billion in revenues. (“Prison Factories are closing and workers being laid off because work they can be locked in solitary confinement. Labor and Crime in the U.S. — Inmate Facts and Stats,” it’s cheaper for the bosses to get prisoners to do the work. a report to the Black Congressional Caucus at tinyurl. We pay the overhead! In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted com/pxkgd6u) These businesses have virtually no overhead costs in the service of prison-workers from the private Lockhart The rate of profits from prison industries is compara- the prisons because the cost of incarceration and the Correctional Facility in that state, where circuit boards ble to what U.S. companies extract from exploiting labor source of their cash-cow profits are tax dollars. are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq. markets in the global South, without the need to pay the While money is steadily cut from social programs, tax The federal government is in on this, too. It owns Fed- added transportation costs. There is virtually no over- subsidizing of prison profiteers does not come cheap. eral Prison Industries, operating in 83 federal prisons head for these corporations, because the prisons are The Vera Institute for Justice states in its report, “The and employing more than 13,000 inmates at from $0.23 paid for and prisoners are housed at tax dollar expense. Price of Prisons,” that the cost to taxpayers of incarcer- to $1.15 an hour. FPI collected more than $900 million ating one inmate in fiscal 2010 was $31,307 per year, in revenue in 2011. It produced more than $100 million Secret corporate cheerleaders of mass incarceration and in Connecticut, Washington state and New York,” in military uniforms in 2012. (“More Jobs Lost as the This is why some of the world’s most powerful finan- It’s anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000.” Government Decides to Have Military Uniforms Made cial institutions — Bank of America, Goldman Sachs The American Civil Liberties Union reveals that the by Convicts,” Business Insider, Sept. 7, 2012) Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and others — are the pri- national yearly figure for incarcerating people with men- In 2012, Tennier Industries fired more than 100 em- mary investors in the prison-industrial complex and the tal illness, a vulnerable population jailed at dispropor- ployees after losing its military uniform contract to FPI. secret cheerleaders of mass incarceration. tionately high rates and suffering greatly in jail, is more That year, American Apparel closed an Alabama plant That’s why virtually every major company and em- than $63,000 a year. (ACLU report, July 2014, tinyurl. employing 175 for the same reason. The workers there ployer — from the U.S. military to Exxon, to McDonalds, com/mng4ya2) All of this is paid for by U.S. workers. had made $9 an hour, and had benefits. to Victoria’s Secret — and a great many minor ones, Some 600,000 to 1 million of the 2.4 million U.S. A disgruntled Kurt Courtney, director of government profit directly or indirectly from low-cost prison labor. prisoners toil in 300 factories in a 21st century form relations at American Apparel, told CNN on Aug. 14, This reach is so vast that the products of prison labor of slavery. (www.phewacommunity.com) El Diario-La 2012, “The only way for workers to get jobs back is to go touch virtually every part of life, from the food we eat, Prensa of March 10, 2008, writes that the companies to prison.” the jeans we wear, the phones we use, to how our pen- contracting private prison labor contain “the cream of U.S. prison labor is even replacing labor markets in sions are invested. U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Micro- poor and oppressed countries. A company that oper- That’s why the judiciary, the courts, the police, the soft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, ated a maquiladora (the Spanish term used for a for- legislatures and even whole federal agencies have be- Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technol- eign-owned assembly plant on the Mexican side of the come apologists for, encouragers of and accomplices in ogies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nord- U.S./Mexico border) closed down its operations there punishment for profit, having had their palms amply strom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. greased by its main corporate players. and many more.” The whole capitalist establishment is “[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix Legislation that enables financial gain from prisons, in on it. recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia such as mandated harsh sentences for nonviolent crime, A system ‘too vast to boycott’ and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer were actually written by the prison profiteers, then that ‘there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re of- Bob Sloan, who wrote the “Prison Labor and Crime passed by legislatures in their pay. fering you competitive prison labor (here),” according to in the U.S.” report, unearths and exposes businesses Prison labor has taken the place of many jobs. So the El Diario article. punishment for profit contributes to unemployment, involved in prison labor. He found that McDonald’s uni- undermines workers’ demands for living wages and cre- forms are made in jail. Kmart and J.C. Penney sell jeans Prisoners replacing farmworkers ates obstacles to trade union organizing. sewn by inmates in Tennessee. (www.dailykos.com, Fruits and vegetables are often picked by immigrants, How did this happen? Dec. 13, 2010). many of them undocumented. The Obama administra- And then there’s food production. In July/August tion, however, has deported undocumented workers in Emergence of the prison-industrial complex 2008, Mother Jones magazine reported that in Cal- record numbers, while it slowed the legal flow of con- The term “prison-industrial complex” was coined ifornia alone, prisoners were processing “more than tracted agricultural workers into the country. At the same in 1997 by activist and former political prisoner An- 680,000 pounds of beef, 400,000 pounds of chicken time, more states are issuing fines to farmers and agricul- gela Davis to describe the high rate of profit made by products, 450,000 gallons of milk, 280,000 loaves of tural businesses who hire undocumented workers. the corporations running prisons, the merger of these bread, and 2.9 million eggs.” Signature Packaging Solu- With fewer workers available to pick crops at the go- companies with the biggest banks and businesses, and tions, a Starbucks subcontractor, was using prisoners to ing wage, the prison-industrial complex has happily the devastating effect this phenomenon has had upon package holiday coffees. stepped in to fill the gap. Today, prisoners pick onions in the working class, communities of color and the socially Inmates are producing airplane parts, medical supplies Georgia, watermelons in Arizona, apples in Washington vulnerable. and much more. They are even raising seeing-eye dogs. and potatoes in Idaho. Before 1980, there were no private adult prisons in Investors in prison labor and the prison-industrial the U.S. Private companies began to run state and feder- complex include the oil giants ExxonMobil Corp. and For a capitalist, what’s not to like? al prisons in the 1980s, under President Ronald Reagan. Chevron, Koch Industries, a host of utility companies, Profiting from people in jail is undeniably a horrible These corporations were given a huge boost in the 1990s and insurance companies such as GEICO, State Farm form of exploitation, destructive to all working people by President William Clinton, whose cut to government and Fidelity Investments, which holds the 401(k) and re- and to society as a whole. This is the raw face of capi- jobs provided a golden oppor- tirement counts of millions of talism in the 21st century, without the ideological touch tunity for private firms seek- people, according to Sloan. ups provided by Wall Street public relations firms or the ing to run prisons. “Punish- Involved in punishment corporate media. ment for profit” was off and for profit are a host of gi- The drive for ever greater profits is built into the cap- running. ant pharmaceutical com- italist system. Money gravitates to where the rate of Since then, there has been panies, including Bayer, profit is the highest, regardless of the social cost. This an explosion in private com- GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & is why virtually all the corporate establishment sharks panies providing goods and Co. and Pfizer. Also making are in a feeding frenzy over the profits to be made off of services to government agen- gain from the misery of those punishment. cies involved in punishment. behind bars are Caterpillar For a capitalist, what’s not to like? This includes contract prison Inc., International Game Next: The terrible human toll. How do the prison labor, construction of pris- Technology, virtually all the profiteers get away with it? workers.org May 14, 2015 Page 9 Global activists say Stop Mumia’s murder by medical neglect!

By Betsey Piette Philadelphia Mumia Abu-Jamal Intensive worldwide efforts have been on April 24. Photo taken ramped up to raise awareness of the dire during visit by his health crisis facing Mumia Abu-Jamal spouse, Wadiya since April 26, when his spouse, Wadiya Jamal. Jamal, sounded the alarm over his de- teriorating condition. They demand that Pennsylvania stop its effort to murder the political prisoner and renowned journal- ist by medical neglect. On April 29, activists from Philadelphia, Wadiya Jamal visited her spouse New York and Harrisburg, Pa., staged a on April 24 and 25 and reported that press conference at the Capitol Rotunda in Mumia’s condition was worsening, espe- Harrisburg to demand that Pennsylvania cially after SCI Mahanoy prison doctors Gov. Tom Wolf intervene. They brought dosed him with the drug cyclosporine. Its letters from South Africa’s Bishop Des- dangerous side effects seemed to exacer- mond Tutu and other renowned world bate his condition. This drug is contrain- leaders to deliver to Wolf, who in February dicated for people with diabetes; Mumia 2015 declared a statewide moratorium on has adult onset diabetes. the death penalty. Protesters called the ac- So many calls flooded the Pennsylva- Supporters fight for Mumia’s life at Pennsylvania governor’s residence. tions of prison doctors “a death sentence nia Department of Corrections’ phones WW PHOTO: JOE PIETTE by medical neglect.” that officials complained they could not at the prison infirmary, his condition Proper medical care is a right! The combined pressure of phone calls, make outgoing calls. A half-page ad in the worsened, leading to complications of While prison doctors seemed incapa- ads and direct actions finally resulted in New York Times of April 29 addressed adult onset diabetes. On March 30, when ble of properly diagnosing and treating prison administrators allowing the doctors the crisis. Several people traveled to the his blood sugar and sodium levels were Mumia’s increasing health crisis, the De- of Mumia’s choice to review his medical state Capitol building in Harrisburg for at potentially fatal levels of 779 and 168 partment of Corrections denied his griev- records. While not allowed direct access, a press conference and to visit Gov. Tom respectively — and he had collapsed from ance requesting to be seen by medical these doctors will be able to consult Mumia Wolf’s mansion on April 29. diabetic shock — he was transferred to specialists of his choice. Yet, when John by phone to advise him on what treatments A video addressing the state’s attempt the intensive care unit in Schuylkill Med- E. du Pont, an heir to the famed chemi- would be best. On medical advice, Mumia to murder Mumia produced by Steve Vit- ical Center in Pottsville, Pa. cal empire fortune, was imprisoned, the stopped taking the cyclosporine. toria, director of “Long Distance Revolu- Three days later, Mumia was returned same officials granted him access to pri- Grote was finally allowed to visit tionary,” was widely circulated. View it at to the prison infirmary, into the hands of vate doctors. Mumia deserves the same Mumia at the prison infirmary on May 1. tinyurl.com/It67357. the same doctors who had failed to diag- treatment. Pam Africa, who saw him on May 2, re- Mumia was wrongfully convicted of nose his diabetes despite administering When Mumia’s lawyer, Bret Grote, ported that “while his condition seems killing a Philadelphia police officer in three blood tests. attempted to visit him on April 27, he somewhat better, Mumia is still far from 1981. He was incarcerated and sentenced In spite of insulin treatments and some learned that Mumia had been sent to being out of the woods.” She urged sup- to death. He was imprisoned on death adjustments to his diet, Mumia’s health the prison infirmary. Yet prison officials porters to continue to pressure the state. row until 2011, when a global movement has deteriorated. His symptoms include denied him access despite laws allowing These partial victories came about only finally pressured the courts to rescind the uncontrolled diabetes, blood in his urine, uncontested lawyer-client visits. Then, because the movement to free Mumia death sentence. In 2012, he was trans- the loss of over 65 pounds, uncontrolled no one had received calls from Mumia in has been relentless. The growing connec- ferred to general population at SCI Mah- hand tremors, slurred speech, memory the days following the visits with Wadiya tions between the campaign supporting anoy in Frackville, Pa. loss and a painful skin disease with open Jamal on April 24 and 25, raising grave Mumia, the Black Lives Matter movement In January 2015, Mumia began to de- sores. His skin has hardened and his concerns that his condition, untreated against police violence and the strug- velop serious skin allergies. Due to mis- body is partly disfigured, particularly on and misdiagnosed by prison doctors, gle against mass incarceration have also treatment and misdiagnosis by doctors his neck and face. could result in his death. played a key role. Colombia talks — in Cuba Women combatants want to achieve peace

By Martha Grevatt nizations of women and of lesbian, gay, lombian women have been victimized abuse, are attended to in areas under bisexual and transgender people were some way or another by the war. “But,” FARC-EP control. When asked about the Peace talks between the Revolution- made through a process that includes Sandino stressed, “we aren’t only victims, fact that the top leadership — the FARC ary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s a website set up by the FARC to submit we are actors, we are political agents. We Secretariat — is all men, the speakers Army (FARC-EP) and the Colombian gov- suggestions, which are then presented have been fighting and making demands.” stated that the goal is to improve, that “we ernment, taking place in Havana, Cuba, to the “Table of Conversations” (that is While the Colombian government also are in a perpetual state of growing, be- are making some progress despite many what they call the arena of talks between is represented on the sub-commission, coming better than we were.” challenges. the FARC-EP and the government). The it became clear to us that the FARC-EP From April 11 through 18, 33 United process is a democratic one that allows women were its driving force. All of the LGBT rights are respected and protected States and other international solidarity the Colombian masses to make their seven women and one man who spoke to The Sub-Commission on Gender is activists had the opportunity to meet in concerns and suggestions heard. Over our delegation about the sub-commission also reviewing all agreements to make Havana with FARC-EP plenipotentiaries, 100,000 suggestions have been received. were from the FARC-EP side of the ta- sure LGBT rights are respected and pro- as well as representatives of the Colombi- Women suffer disproportionately from ble. “Women combatants want to achieve tected. “We have the utmost respect for an government and the guarantor coun- the consequences of the war, which the peace,” they explained. people wherever they come from, sexually tries, Cuba and Norway, along with the Colombian government, with Washing- Speakers also dispelled some of the speaking,” a member of the group stated. FARC-EP legal advisors from Spain. ton’s backing, wages against the people. myths about the women in the guerril- “As a matter of principle we would never One of the most illuminating sessions Women have been made widows. They la army. The capitalist media have por- discriminate against anyone for their sex- was our meeting with the “Sub-Commis- comprise 70 percent of the millions of trayed FARC-EP women as sex slaves of ual orientation.” sion on Gender.” This body was estab- displaced. They experience workplace dis- male combatants, making false claims of The delegation enjoyed this rare op- lished to make sure that any agreements crimination. They see their children mur- forced abortions and innumerable other portunity to learn how real peoples’ de- between the parties “advance the cause dered. And to earn income, they become abuses. In fact, women have always played mocracy — a process that makes an extra of women, make sure their position is ad- “mules” who smuggle illegal drugs out of leading roles since the FARC’s founding in effort to make the most oppressed voices vanced, recognize women’s central role Colombia. As political prisoners and pris- 1964 and comprise at least 30 percent of heard — can be conducted even under the and empower women to improve their oners of war, they are subject to torture all combatants. Many play leading roles at most extreme conditions of war, repres- position,” according to Victoria Sandino, and sexual violence. the regional level. sion and neoliberal austerity. a leading FARC-EP representative on the All of this came to light when both sides All women receive the same training Martha Grevatt represented the sub-commission. at the Table of Conversations listened to as men — training that includes “learning International Action Center on the The women of FARC-EP took seriously testimonies from victims of the conflict, a the root causes of oppression, the ethical delegation, sponsored by the Alliance the demands that were raised by Colom- process the FARC-EP insisted on. Of the and moral values of being a revolutionary, for Global Justice. The delegation also bian women during many exchanges. As 60 witnesses, six were from women’s or- and the humanitarian values we are fight- included representatives of the National a consequence, the Sub-Commission on ganizations and two from LGBT groups. ing for.” Lawyers Guild and several Latin Amer- Gender was created. Their proposals were integrated into the The rights of women and children, in- ican solidarity groups. Many of these proposals from orga- process of talks. Some 80 percent of Co- cluding those who experience domestic Page 10 May 14, 2015 workers.org

U.S.-backed Saudi Coalition kills Yemeni civilians

Disarm the Pentagon By Abayomi Azikiwe central Yemen and in the southern port Editor, Pan-African News Wire city of Aden. The perpetual warfare state headquar- Libya, now Yemen — these countries have tered in Washington, D.C., and extending been torn apart by wars originating from Fighter aircraft from the Saudi-Gulf Fierce clashes in Aden to military bases and deployments around the U.S. and paid for largely by U.S. tax- Cooperation Council coalition contin- Aden was the scene of fierce clashes the world has a multitude of victims. payers. Israel’s constant war against the ued their massive bombing operations on May 2 and 3 in the central Mualla and Let’s start with the ones right here in Palestinians is also bankrolled by Wash- in Yemen during late April by attacking Khor Maksar districts near the commer- the United States. ington. The people in the U.S. didn’t ask the international airport in the capital of cial port. Reports have surfaced that While media attention has died down for this carnage — they’re just stuck with Sanaa. The U.S.-backed Saudis present Saudi-GCC Special Forces have land- since last summer, the crisis at the De- the bills for whatever the bought-and- this struggle as a proxy war against Iran, ed in Aden and are fighting alongside partment of Veterans Affairs has con- paid-for politicians decide. with these latest attacks aimed at block- the anti-Houthi militias known as the tinued. Millions of veterans of the many, While veterans here despair over the ing Iranian aid to the Ansurallah move- Southern Popular Resistance. many U.S. military deployments of the treatment they get on their return home, ment (the Houthis), who have popular The Asharq Al-Awsat news agency last half century continue to despair of re- what must life be like for those in coun- support in the large swaths of Yemen’s said that the Saudi Defense Ministry ceiving even the most urgent medical care tries where whole villages have been oblit- territory that they control. spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri, at VA hospitals. erated by high-powered bombs directed Despite Washington and Tehran’s had denied that Saudi-GCC coalition In an emergency vote, Congress last by unseen hands, sometimes on the other agreement over Iran’s nuclear energy forces had troops in Aden. August approved an additional $16.3 bil- side of the world? What is it like for sur- program, the U.S. government has not Reports that three Saudi troops were lion for the VA’s annual budget, bringing vivors trying to “get on with their lives” lessened its hostility towards Iran. The killed on Yemen’s border reveal that de- the funds allocated for 2015 to a whop- when so many friends and relatives are Pentagon is providing fuel for the Sau- spite the intensive bombing by Riyadh ping $164 billion. But there has been no dead or disabled? And what about those di-GCC war planes and intelligence sup- and its allies, the Ansurallah fighters improvement in the length of time ailing who landed in U.S. military and CIA tor- port, which has resulted in the massive can still strike in the border areas. (As- veterans must wait to be seen. ture chambers? destruction caused by the bombing that sociated Press, May 1) “Nearly 894,000 appointments com- Out of the chaos and disruption caused began on March 26. Driven out from its Al-Qaida elements, financed by Sau- pleted at VA medical facilities from Aug. 1 by these wars, new political and military important military base in Yemen earli- di Arabia, are also involved in the war to Feb. 28 failed to meet the health system’s forces have arisen. What seems to unite er this year, the Pentagon sees a victory against the Ansurallah movement. Al- timeliness goal, which calls for patients to many is intense hatred for the invaders, in Yemen as central to U.S. imperialist though Washington says that its “war on be seen within 30 days. More than a quar- those responsible for the ruination of interests in the region. terrorism” is targeting al-Qaida of the ter of those appointments involved a delay their ancient lands. Their resistance then The April 28 British Guardian not- Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, the U.S. of longer than 60 days. ... The number of becomes the new excuse by the imperial- ed: “Iran’s state news agency IRNA said now seems to be focusing its attack on medical appointments that take longer ists for even greater intervention. Saudi jets tried to force what it said was the Ansurallah. than 90 days to complete has nearly dou- The Fertile Crescent is not the only area an aid plane back after it entered Yeme- The bombing of Yemen has still not bled.” (Associated Press, April 9) The long of the world seen as a target for conquest ni airspace, but the pilots had ignored produced the results sought by Riyadh delays have led to many deaths. by Pentagon war hawks, Wall Street and these ‘illegal warnings.’ The jets then and its reactionary allies. These delays are worst at VA hospitals in the huge “defense” industry. NATO, which bombed Sanaa airport as the plane was the poorest states of the South and West, incorporates the European imperialists making an approach to land, forcing it to Egypt extends deployment precisely where working-class youth have but hops to the Pentagon’s tune, has been turn back, IRNA added.” Egypt’s military-dominated govern- few options except unemployment, low- pushing ever eastward in Europe. The Saudi Arabia seeks to reinstall the ment of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi wage jobs, prisons — or the military. Rac- coup in Ukraine, scripted by the State De- fugitive president, Abd Rabbu Mansour announced on May 3 that it would con- ism makes it even worse for young Black, partment even down to picking the presi- Hadi, who Riyadh claims represents the tinue intervening in Yemen in alliance Latino/a and Native women and men, who dent, relied on fascist thugs in the streets. only “legitimate” government over Ye- with Saudi Arabia. Egypt’s state media are first avidly sought by recruiters and The resistance in eastern Ukraine — the men’s 25 million people. have raised questions of whether this then neglected once they come home with Donbass region — surprised the coup policy will end in disaster should high physical and/or mental disabilities. makers in Kiev, who want the U.S. and Air war devastates civilians military casualties occur in Yemen. As of 2013, almost 9 million vets were NATO to rescue their increasingly unpop- Although the Saudi-GCC coalition Egypt’s army has only been effective re- enrolled with the VA. And this in a coun- ular and bankrupt regime. claims that its air campaign is restricted pressing Egyptian civilians, while in Ye- try that has not officially declared a war Just as ominous are the moves being to military targets, the Human Rights men it would face an experienced guer- since the 1940s! These figures alone show made by the U.S. to further unleash im- Watch organization has documented at- rilla movement with popular backing. that the oh-so-patriotic imperialist strat- perialist Japan’s war-making capabilities tacks on civilians and residential areas, On May 3, Reuters reported that the egists who decide that conquering other in order to threaten China and the Dem- including attacks with U.S.-supplied Egyptian government would extend its lands is good for capitalist profits don’t ocratic People’s Republic of Korea. Prime cluster bombs. Strikes on Sanaa’s air- deployment of some of its military by give a fig for the people — either in the Minister Shinzō Abe of Japan, who refuses port also prevented crucial medical sup- three months to “continue participating countries they destroy or at home. to apologize for his country forcing Korean plies and relief aid from reaching those in a Saudi-led coalition that has been Now let’s lift our eyes from our imme- women into sexual slavery at its military in need. launching air strikes in Yemen. Egypt diate surroundings and look around at brothels during World War II, was just in Yemeni-based al-Masirah television … is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and has the rest of the world. The suffering from Washington making agreements with the reported that an Iranian plane which said it is participating in the alliance tar- war — shock and awe, drone strikes, mop- Obama administration to increase their turned around at Sanaa’s airport was geting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are ping-up operations, peacekeeping efforts, joint military efforts in the North Pacific. slated to transport injured bombing vic- allies of Iran.” Since the Egyptian mil- whatever the Pentagon and State Depart- From the vets here to the embattled tims to Iran for medical treatment. One itary ousted Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim ment policy wonks decide to call it — in the Middle East, to eastern Europe and the aviation official said an airport in Ho- Brotherhood administration nearly two oil-rich lands of Western Asia and North growing war threats in Asia, there are deidah, Yemen’s fourth-largest city, had years ago, Egypt’s economic situation Africa makes the horrors faced by veter- millions of reasons to fight the U.S. war also been bombed, but still appeared op- has deteriorated. ans here seem mild by comparison. machine. Stop the Pentagon-Wall Street erational. The Egyptian regime is largely depen- First Afghanistan, then Iraq, Syria, war machine! Officials said aid flights would be dent upon assistance from the U.S. and diverted to Hodeidah pending large- Saudi Arabia. Consequently, the stakes scale repairs at Sanaa airport. Further are high in the Washington-backed war attacks were carried out in many prov- in Yemen, where the defeat of the Sau- inces’ residential areas. There is also di-allied forces would be a tremendous intense fighting in the oil-producing blow to imperialist objectives in the Luego de Ferguson, policía contraataca: Marib province east of Sanaa, in Taiz in Middle East. Resistencia en masa es la respuesta

Continua de página 12 enfrentamientos masivos con la policía. La policía también puede hacerse retroceder actitud de la policía no varíe, el cambio en de manera efectiva por tácticas de inter- el tope del gobierno es clave en este caso. WAR WITHOUT VICTORY rupción de la vida cotidiana adoptadas por by Sara Flounders Resistencia de masas es la única respuesta el movimiento BLM después de Ferguson. Mientras la policía continúa con su Estas tácticas interfieren con los intereses “By revealing the underbelly of the empire, Flounders sheds agresión racista, la única respuesta es la comerciales de los patronos. insight on how to stand up to the imperialist war machine and, resistencia de masas. Demandas que exi- La lucha militante de la juventud de in so doing, save ourselves and humanity.” gen un alto a policías asesinos y el desarme Baltimore contra la violencia policial ojalá –Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, de la policía, son consignas atractivas e se extienda a sectores más amplios de President, U.N. General Assembly, 2008-2009; Foreign Minister of Nicaragua’s Sandinista government inspiradoras. Debían ser planteadas en to- las masas. Este es el único idioma que la das partes. Pero deben ir acompañadas de policía y la clase dominante entienden. Available at online bookstores. PentagonAchillesHeel.com workers.org May 14, 2015 Page 11 On 40th anniversary of Vietnam’s victory The power of people’s war and global anti-imperialist solidarity By Dee Knight All these successes were based on the guided her huge, humbled captive — a strategy of people’s war. downed U.S. bomber pilot — through the It took 30 years of hard fighting, but the “The outstanding characteristic of peo- forest. Then there is the story of the at- last weeks were like a blur. First a light- ple’s war in our country is that armed tentive waitress at a Saigon officers’ club ning assault in Vietnam’s Central High- struggle and political struggle are very frequented by U.S. commanders. After lands. Then rapid attacks on the coastal closely coordinated, supporting and stim- the victory she was publicly honored as a cities of Hue and Danang. Then the Peo- ulating each other,” wrote Gen. Vo Nguy- colonel in the PLAF. ple’s Liberation Armed Forces converged en Giap, founder of the People’s Libera- The entire world came to know Ma- on Saigon from all sides. The puppet gov- tion Armed Forces (PLAF). “So the slogan dame Nguyen Thi Binh, who represented ernment leaders and hangers-on raced ‘Mobilize the entire people, arm the entire the National Liberation Front in the Paris for helicopter liftoffs at the U.S. Embassy, people and fight on all fronts’ has become peace talks. along with Western journalists, embassy a most lively and heroic reality.” The revolution’s leaders were tempered staff and camp followers. All efforts by the U.S. to defeat this by decades of struggle. For example, Le The People’s Army now had tanks and core strategy — such as the “pacification” Duc Tho, famous in the West as Viet- artillery as well as large-scale regular and “strategic hamlets” programs — were nam’s lead negotiator in the Paris Peace April 30, 1975: Guerrilla Nguyen Trung Kien forces. In every town and village, they hopeless. “When a whole people rises Talks — who was awarded but rejected the guides the liberation army to attack the met with people’s militias and irregular up, nothing can be done. No money can Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 rather than ac- Presidential Palace. troops who “opened the door” for them. beat them,” Gen. Giap told the Liberation cept it together with war criminal Henry The forces of the Saigon puppet army News Service in 1969. “That’s the basis of Kissinger — signed the 1975 battle plan for et Union, its eastern European allies and scattered in the face of their assault. our strategy and tactics, which the Amer- the final spring offensive, on behalf of the the People’s Republic of China provided This April 30 marks the 40th anniver- icans fail to understand. Workers Party leadership. Born in 1911, Le arms, ammunition, food and much more. sary of Vietnam’s 1975 Great Spring Vic- “All 31 million of our people are val- Duc Tho had helped found the Indochi- Anti-war movements in countries across tory. This long, unrelenting war — first iant fighters,” Gen. Giap said, “using a nese Communist Party in 1930. French the globe provided very substantial mor- against Japan in 1945, then France (sup- small force to fight a bigger one, defeat- colonial authorities imprisoned him from al support. In the United States, anti-war ported by the U.S.) from 1945 to 1954, and ing a stronger force with a smaller one, 1930 to 1936 and again from 1939 to 1944. forces, together with the explosive Black then directly against U.S. imperialism combining big, medium-sized and small After his release in 1945, he helped lead Liberation movement, spawned a large- — defined an era. In 1966, Che Guevara battles, stepping up big-unit fighting and the Viet Minh, the Vietnamese indepen- scale resistance to the war among youth called for “Two, three, many Vietnams!” at the same time carrying out widespread dence movement against the French, until who refused to be part of the war effort. Vietnam-style struggles emerged in the guerrilla warfare, constantly striking the the Geneva Accords were signed in 1954. The result was a virtual strike of GIs in Portuguese African colonies of Guin- enemy from a strong position and achiev- From 1948 until 1975, he was a leading or- the combat zone, as well as rebellions at ea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola. They ing very high combat efficiency, becoming ganizer for the southern front. U.S. military bases across the U.S. and achieved victory alongside the Vietnam- ever stronger and winning ever bigger After signing the 1975 battle plan, Le around the world. ese. Guerrilla uprisings also surged forth victories as they fight.” (Speech in Hanoi, Duc Tho rode to the command center in The AK-47 rifles used by the Vietnam- in Central America. Dec. 21, 1968) the Central Highlands, down the Ho Chi ese People’s Liberation Armed Forces The Vietnamese victory march was Mobilization of the entire people meant Minh Trail by motorcycle, at the age of were made in Czechoslovakia. The an- planned months in advance. All aspects women, men and children, young and old, 64. There he remained, helping to coor- ti-aircraft weapons, as well as trucks, of the previous 30 years of struggle came countryside and city, north and south. dinate offensives in three directions until tanks and artillery, were made in the into play. There was the Ho Chi Minh trail The Saigon puppet administration was the final march into Saigon. USSR and China. Vietnam was the front — a network of roads through jungles and penetrated by patriotic spies at all levels. line in a global war against U.S. imperial- mountains used to funnel a steady sup- One famous example of the women fight- Global solidarity and int’l socialist ism, and this gigantic solidarity effort was ply of weapons, ammunition and food ers is the iconic photo of a small peasant collaboration a material factor in Vietnam’s victory. from north to south despite endless U.S. woman brandishing her AK-47 as she Vietnam’s victory was global. The Sovi- Gen. Giap said in 1968 that “the army bombing. The tunnels of Cu Chi were stra- and people in North Vietnam have shot tegic underground command and recov- down more than 3,200 of the most up- ery centers. The 1968 Tet Offensive had to-date aircraft of the United States, kill- showed the world what the Vietnamese MAY DAY – HAVANA ing or capturing a sizable number of top resistance was capable of. American pilots, and have sunk or set fire to hundreds of enemy vessels. The so- called air superiority of the U.S. imperialists — the chieftain of imperialism which Supreme Court and used to boast of its wealth and weapons and which is notorious for its cruelty — the right to marry has received a staggering blow at the hands of the Vietnamese people.” (Army Continued from page 2 Day speech, Dec. 21, 1968) This was three societies became divided into classes of years before the PLAF knocked out 30 exploiters and exploited. Not only were B-52 Stratofortresses — a third of the the products of human labor appropriat- U.S. B-52 fleet — while resisting Wash- ed by the dominant class, but human be- ington’s last-ditch Christmas bombing of ings themselves, especially children and North Vietnam on the eve of the Jan. 27, “wives,” were treated as the property of 1973, peace agreement. men. In 1968, Gen. Giap spoke of “all 31 mil- What about same-sex marriage? Infor- lion Vietnamese” fighting U.S. imperial- mation about that, which Engels lacked, is ism. Today the population is more than now readily available. Lesbian, gay, bisex- 90 million, making Vietnam the world’s ual and transgender people have always 13th most populous country. In 1965, been part of the human family. They open- PHOTO: BILL HACKWELL Ho Chi Minh said no matter how many ly “married” same-sex and same-gender and how much the U.S. might kill and partners in pre-class, tribal societies and Five Cuban heroes led the 2015 May cy of Cuba’s socialist government. Cuba’s destroy, “We will build up our country continued to do so, but in secret, under the Day “United in the Construction of Social- victory celebration is continuing. many times more beautiful.” Since 2000, tyranny of patriarchal, class society. ism” march in Havana, and then joined Workers, organizers and activists from Vietnam’s economic growth rate has been That global tyranny is being challenged Cuban President Raúl Castro and Bolivar- North America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Lat- among the highest in the world. by powerful social forces, such as the ian Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro in America and the Caribbean joined the The true legacy of Vietnam, as stated women’s and LGBTQ movements. The re- under the statue of José Martí in Revolu- Cuban people on May Day — but the day by Gen. Giap, is that “the myth of the actionary, unelected Supreme Court feels tion Square. On Dec. 17, the U.S. released was especially meaningful for the tireless invincibility of the United States … is the heat. The long-repressed dream of the last three of the Cuban 5 — Antonio organizers who brought the cry to free the collapsing irretrievably. No matter how open, legal marriage is close to realization. Guerrero Rodríguez, Ramón Labañino Cuban 5 to every corner of the globe. enormous its military and economic po- One day the burgeoning movement of Salazar and Gerardo Hernández Nordelo Following May Day, the five Cuban he- tential, it will never succeed in crushing workers and oppressed will replace dead- — from 16 years of unjust imprisonment, roes are heading to Venezuela in an act of the will of a people fighting for its inde- end capitalism with a new communalism and they returned to Cuba, where they solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution pendence. This is a reality which is now — socialism — a rational system where joined their comrades René González and a human response to President Barack recognized throughout the entire world.” people’s needs come first. Sehwerert and Fernando González Llort, Obama’s sanctions imposed on Venezuela All quotes are from “The Military Art of Bob McCubbin contributed to this who had been released earlier. Washing- and other destabilization schemes. People’s War: Selected Writings of Vo Nguy- article. ton also recognized that day the legitima- — Workers World Bureau en Giap,” Monthly Review Press, 1970. Correspondencia sobre artículos en Workers World/Mundo Obrero pueden ser enviadas a: [email protected]

¡Proletarios y oprimidos de todos los paises unios! workers.org Vol. 57 Núm. 19 14 de mayo, 2015 $1 PHOTO: BILL HACKWELL Primero de mayo en Cuba

Luego de Ferguson, policía contraataca: EDITORIAL Resistencia en masa es la respuesta Gaza y Baltimore

Por Fred Goldstein sin consecuencias adversas para ellos — porque les Gaza es la prisión más grande del mundo. Casi dos millones había criticado. de palestinas/os están encerrados allí por el bloqueo militar El desafío arrogante y el obstruccionismo evasivo Este apoyo a la policía por los más altos funcio- de Israel. que la policía de Baltimore ha manifestado ante el narios del Estado capitalista estaba destinado a El año pasado, el estado racista de Israel mató a más de video que les muestra arrastrando el cuerpo inerte responder al creciente movimiento BLM. Fue una 2.000 palestinas/os en Gaza, incluyendo 547 niñas/os. El de Freddie Grey en un furgón policial son típicas de importante promesa de apoyo y aliento a la policía. Pentágono proporcionó más bombas cuando el Estado sionista la actitud endurecida de los departamentos policia- Esta aprobación política se produce en un mo- quedó corto de municiones. cos en todo el país. mento en que el FBI y el Departamento de Seguridad Baltimore, al igual que Palestina, está bajo ocupación militar La policía de Baltimore está acostumbrada a aco- Nacional han utilizado la excusa de “luchar contra el racista. La fuerza policial de Baltimore — la sexta más grande sar, cometer atrocidades y matar gente negra con im- terrorismo” para armar a la policía hasta los dientes en la 26ta ciudad más grande de EUA — trata a las/os negros punidad. Como sus contrapartes en ciudades de todo con armas de combate. Estos organismos también como prisioneros. Según el censo de 2010, mientras que 72 por el país, desde Filadelfia a Tulsa, desde Los Ángeles a han reforzado las redes policiales a nivel nacional. ciento de la población de Baltimore son personas de color, un Cleveland, Nueva York, Albuquerque, Portsmouth en Las altas esferas del gobierno capitalista han servi- 46 por ciento de la policía es blanco. Virginia, Pasco en el estado de Washington y en otras do como una fuerza política nacional para la defensa Partes de la comunidad negra de Baltimore parecen como ciudades y pueblos, grandes y pequeños, la policía de de la policía. zonas quemadas de guerra. La última atrocidad es la de policías Baltimore está acostumbrada a ser en sí una ley vir- de Baltimore torturando hasta la muerte a Freddie Carlos Grey, tual. Todos los asesinatos por la policía desde Fergu- Renuncia de Eric Holder cuya columna vertebral fue cercenada al menos 80 por ciento son demuestran que así quieren continuar. También hay una sensación de victoria en la mientras estaba bajo custodia policial. En el mes de marzo, se registraron 111 asesinatos policía y sus campeones en la clase dominante por la El asesinato de Grey — un afroamericano de 25 años — fue policiales. Los apologistas de la policía dicen que los inesperada renuncia del fiscal general Eric Holder, un punto de explosión para la mayoría negra de Baltimore. asesinatos no han aumentado recientemente, sino poco después de su visita a Ferguson donde expresó Manifestaciones continuas han estallado en la ciudad, hacién- que hay más videos. Pero el hecho es que en mar- su solidaridad con la comunidad afroamericana. El dose eco de las protestas en Ferguson, Misuri, contra el asesin- zo hubo 36 muertes más registradas que en febrero. momento de su renuncia no puede ser ignorado. ato policial de Michael Brown. (thinkprogress.com, 1º abril) En los primeros tres Holder visitó Ferguson el 20 de agosto. Él habló Generaciones de afroamericanas/os en Baltimore han sufri- meses de 2014 hubo 244 homicidios cometidos por en el Colegio Comunitario Florissant Valley, donde do terror policial. Maryland era un estado esclavista y policías la policía; este año hubo 297 en el mismo período. habló sobre la desconfianza de la comunidad con la de Baltimore eran cazadores de esclavas/os. Estas cifras son compiladas por grupos privados policía. “Entiendo la desconfianza”, dijo. “Yo soy el La legendaria cantante de jazz Billie Holiday, creció en Balti- porque no se mantienen estadísticas nacionales. fiscal general de EUA. Pero también soy un hombre more. Su canción más famosa, “Extraña fruta”, atacó amarga- La exposición de la policía asesina en videos y en negro”. (www.justice.gov) mente el linchamiento. los medios de comunicación capitalista no ha frena- Holder relató ser detenido por agentes de la ley en La inmensa mayoría de las víctimas de linchamiento hoy son do los departamentos de policía en el país. Al revés, el sector de Georgetown en Washington, D.C. mien- aquellas asesinadas por la policía y los vigilantes racistas. la policía ha sido más asesina que nunca, a pesar de tras corría, y otra vez, sin ninguna razón, mientras Uno de los linchados en Baltimore fue Joe Wilbon, un ex- la exposición. Lo único que les puede hacer retro- manejaba por el New Jersey Turnpike. La policía perto mecánico de autos que acababa de abrir su propio taller. ceder es el tipo de resistencia masiva que se vio en registró su coche, y dijo que fue “humillante” y lo Como una manada de lobos, la policía golpeó a Wilbon el 5 de Baltimore este fin de semana y por meses después dejó “enojado”. junio del 2000, cuando trataba de arreglar el auto de uno de de la muerte de Michael Brown el pasado agosto, en Holder aprobó la exoneración de Darren Wilson, sus clientes. Ferguson, Misuri, y alrededor del país liderado por quien mató a Michael Brown. Pero luego publicó Luego, la policía dejó a Wilbon en el Hospital Mercy donde Black Lives Matter, BLM (La vida de las/os negros un informe sobre Ferguson que era una acusación fue declarado muerto. Por meses, la ciudad se negó a revelar su importa) mordaz de la policía y los funcionarios racistas de la autopsia. ciudad. Obligó renuncias de alto nivel. Holder tam- El alcalde de Baltimore entonces era Martin O’Malley quien Apoyo de la clase gobernante a la policía bién lanzó docenas de investigaciones de abuso por podría postularse a la presidencia de EUA. La campaña de “tol- Lo importante es que la policía tiene el respaldo departamentos locales de policía. erancia cero” de O’Malley contra delitos menores incitó terror de poderosos sectores de la clase gobernante. Por A pesar de ser un leal servidor de la clase domi- policial. La sangre de Joe Wilbon está en las manos de O’Malley. ejemplo, algunos de los mayores bancos, contratis- nante, un mes después de su visita a Ferguson, el 25 Según la oficina del primer ministro palestino, uno de cada tas de guerra, instituciones médicas y otras corpora- de septiembre, Holder renunció. cinco palestinos ha sido encarcelado, en un momento u otro, ciones de Baltimore han observado día tras día, año por Israel. Casi un millón de afroamericanas/os están actual- tras año, como la policía torturaba a la comunidad ¿Qué camino va a ir Loretta Lynch? mente en prisión según la NAACP. afroamericana. Loretta Lynch, una fiscal general afro-americana Más de dos tercios de las/os 21.000 prisioneros de Maryland JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, de Brooklyn, acaba de ser aprobada para ser la próx- vienen de Baltimore que tiene solo el 13 por ciento de la po- Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, U.S. Bank, ima Secretaria de Justicia de EUA. Tomó seis meses blación del estado. HSBC, Capital One y los otros bancos más grandes para obtener la aprobación de los republicanos del La guerra económica contra las/os trabajadores negros ayu- del país tienen presencia importante en Baltimore. Congreso, quienes bloquearon su nominación en da a alimentar la ruta a la cárcel, sobre todo para las/os jóvenes El imperio médico Johns Hopkins es el mayor em- una lucha sobre la financiación del aborto. afroamericanos. Cinco de cada seis puestos de trabajo en fábri- pleador allí. La clase dominante está tratando de dirigirla cas en Baltimore han sido destruidos desde 1970. Maryland tiene 12 instalaciones militares im- en una dirección pro-policía. El New York Times Treinta mil trabajadoras/es estaban empleados en el com- portantes y 16 de las 25 empresas aeroespaciales publicó un artículo por Matt Apuzzo el 23 de abril plejo de Sparrows Point de Bethlehem Steel en las afueras de del país. Tiene 70 de los 100 mayores contratistas declarando: Baltimore. Pero ya nadie trabaja allí en lo que era hace 45 años, de defensa en el país, incluyendo Lockheed Martin, “Como fiscal de carrera con una reputación de la planta de acero más grande del mundo. Northrop Grumman y Raytheon. ley y orden, [Lynch] entra al cargo con fuertes rel- Frederick Douglass era calafate en un astillero de Baltimore. Los ricos no detendrán la brutalidad porque la aciones con muchos de los grupos policiales que se Los tres astilleros de Bethlehem Steel en Baltimore se cer- policía protege sus intereses todo el tiempo. han sentido injustamente criticados durante una se- raron, a un costo de miles de puestos de trabajo. Maryland Dry rie de episodios de alto perfil de hombres afroamer- Dock también cerró. Washington muestra apoyo en funeral de NYC icanos muriendo a manos de oficiales blancos”. Baltimore es uno de los mayores puertos del mundo, pero la Lo que es válido para Baltimore es válido para The Times continuó: “El señor Holder recien- automatización ha eliminado puestos de trabajo en los muelles. todo el país. La policía está actuando en concierto temente completó una gira nacional de barrios de Mientras han desaparecido los empleos bien pagados y Bal- con sus aliados políticos y fuerzas poderosas en la minorías para discutir el trabajo policial. La Sra. timore se ha empobrecido, la riqueza de la aristocracia finan- clase dirigente para socavar cualquier intento por Lynch planea una gira similar de los departamentos ciera ha aumentado. Dos corredores de bolsa de Baltimore — frenar su brutalidad. de policía, lo que indica un cambio en el enfoque... Legg Mason y T. Rowe Price — tienen entre ellos casi billón y El funeral en la ciudad de Nueva York para los ella también ha descrito, en términos apasionados y medio de dólares en activos bajo su gestión. dos policías asesinados en diciembre fue un men- personales, cómo la policía es una fuerza de bien en Esta gran cantidad de riqueza muestra que hay dinero para saje importante no sólo para los miles de policías barrios de minorías”. empleos, escuelas y atención médica gratuita. Estos son los de NY, sino también a los jefes de policía de todo el Aún está por verse si Lynch realmente desem- derechos humanos que las/os trabajadores de Baltimore, espe- país que asistieron al funeral. Vieron como el vice- peñará el papel que se espera de ella. Pero haga lo cialmente las/os más oprimidos, necesitan — no el terror poli- pres. Joe Biden, el director del FBI James Comey, que haga como fiscal general, no es probable que la cial y la encarcelación en masa. el gobernador de NY Andrew Cuomo y el comisario policía se reconcilie con ella—porque es una mujer El terror israelí, financiado por EUA, no puede extinguir la de la policía de NY William Bratton estaban con la afroamericana y porque procesó al policía que agre- lucha por la libertad Palestina. policía. También vieron a cientos de policías dar la dió a Abner Louima en la ciudad de NY. Aunque la Tampoco no se puede parar la lucha por la libertad negra. espalda al alcalde Bill De Blasio en abierto desafío y Continua a página 10 Las vidas negras y palestinas importan.