JULY 7, 1978 50 CENTS VOLUME 42/NUMBER 26

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

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling do nothing whatsoever to end We must sound the alarm nation-· upholding the Bakke decision race and sex discrimination and wide on the sweeping implica­ has dealt the most staggering ensure true equality. tions of this ruling for all work­ blow in many years to the long­ The New York Amsterdam ing people. denied hopes and aspirations of News, the country's largest · The justices' callous decision is Black weekly, summed up the a major new thrust in the drive meaning of the ruling in its engineered by the ruling rich and An editorial banner headline: "Bakke: We executed by the Carter adminis­ lose!!" tration to take back every gain oppressed nationalities and Trade unions, civil rights or­ won through decades of hard­ women. ganizations, women's rights sup­ fought battles. The court's message is clear: porters, and student groups need In this sense, Attorney General the U.S. government intends to to organize emergency protests. Continued on page. 2

By Diane Wang on eighteen FBI informers. NEW YORK-An his­ The socialists are suing for toric confrontation took a halt to FBI spying and place in a federal court­ harassment. room here June 27, as the Bell has stonewalled on Socialist Workers Party the files, even though the argued that Attorney Gen­ Supreme Court has upheld eral Griffin Bell should be Griesa's order. Bell's ref­ jailed for contempt of court. usal to comply prompted That battle is far from the contempt motion. over. At the June 27 hear­ As the New York Times ing, the Justice Depart­ reported the day after the ment continued its flagrant hearing, "Judge Griesa defiance of federal Judge said that he was not indi­ Thomas Griesa's order to cating what decision he MilitanVDiane Wang turn over to attorneys for might reach, but his com- Supporters of Socialist Workers Party picket outside fed­ the SWP uncensored files Continued on page 7 eral court building June 27 20.000 demand: 'No nukesl' -PAGE 4 In Our Opinion VOLUME 42/NUMBER 26 JULY 7, 1978 CLOSING NEWS DATE-JUNE 28

That is the real intent of the court's ruling­ of women's rights across the country are a calculated escalation of the attacks on equal­ mobilizing for the July 9 ERA march called by Say no to Bakke! ity for oppressed nationalities and women. the National Organization for Women. Continued from front page And as such, it is a calculated assault on the The call to action comes at a time when an Griffin Bell was right when he said that the entire working class. outpouring of protest against the Supreme ruling "confirms our position and what we've The move to gut affirmative action is part of Court's Bakke decision-a body blow to the been doing." the broader offensive against women's right to fight against inequality-is urgently needed. By ordering the University of California to abortion and to the Equal Rights Amendment, The same forces out to crush affirmative­ admit Allan Bakke-the white plaintiff in the against school desegregation, against the action gains for oppressed nationalities and suit-to its Davis medical school, the court right to social services, and against the wages, women are determined to kill the ERA. They explicitly gave legal credence to the false, working conditions, and livelihoods of all know that a victory for the ERA would be a racist notion of "reverse discrimination." In working people. victory for affirmative action and all civil doing so, the court condemned Blacks,...-Chica­ The frontal attack on affirmative action is rights. nos, Asian Americans, Puerto Ricans, Native aimed at weakening the organized labor move­ All ERA supporters-from women's groups Americans, and women to continued real ment, for which steps toward equality for to the labor movement to those fighting the discrimination on the job and in education. Blacks and women have been a big victory. Bakke decision-need to redouble their efforts It is this real, persistent discrimination that As long as discrimination against any work­ to make July 9 a powerful, united show of accounts for a Black unemployment rate dou­ ing person exists, the union movement is support for equal rights. ble that for whites-and even higher for Black weakened. The job of the employers in divid­ The majority in this country supports the youth. ing labor's strength-through pitting white ERA. It is this real discrimination that locks against Black, and male against female-is And we can make our power felt July 9 if women workers into low paying jobs. made easier. Their ability to drag down the thousands of women, Blacks, trade unionists, It is this real discrimination that accounts wages and working conditions of all workers is and others come to Washington and raise our for the scandalously low number of female and given a boost. voices loud and clear: minority doctors, dentists, professors, and Thus the Bakke decision is a direct threat to Ratify the ERA! other professionals. the labor movement, a threat that must be met Extend the ERA deadline! It is this discrimination that must be re­ head on. Equal rights now! versed. Already, demonstrations and other protests The only way to end this inequality is against this ruling have been called by the through preferential hiring, promotions, and National Committee to Overturn the Bakke NATIONAL school admissions. And bitter experience has Decision and other organizations. The Social­ proven that the only way to enforce such ist Workers Party and Young Socialist Al­ preferential treatment is quotas. liance have joined in urging such emergency But the court now says quotas are unconsti­ actions. ERA tutional. These protests can be a stepping stone to MARCH Conscious of the outrage their ruling could organizing the kind of massive response­ FOR EXTENSION AND RATIFICATION provoke, the justices gave lip service to the from the union movement, the Black move­ WASHINGTON,nC. idea of affirmative action. ment, the women's movement, students, and But their pious declarations simply camou­ other equal rights supporters-that will let SUNDAY flage their true loyalties to another quota Carter and the Supreme Court know we are JULY9 system-one that has existed for centuries and bent on reversing their drive against equality. still exists today. It is the quota system­ On July 9 thousands will march in Washing­ 1978' ton, D.C., in support of the Equal Rights .ASSEMBLE 11am AT THE 14th STREET END written and unwritten- that excludes the vast OF THE MALL, WASHINGTON majority of oppressed nationalities and Amendment. This action is an important women. starting point for answering this new blow to .MARCH EAST ON CONSTITUTION AVENUE equal rights. . . . TO THE U.S. CAPITOL With the authority of the Supreme Court .RALLY AT THE CAPITOL FOLLOWING MARCH behind them, big business and its twin politi­ PARTICIPANTS ARE URGED TO DRESS IN WHITE cal parties will be emboldened to step up their attacks. Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, [MWU .. ORMATION: commenting on the decision, said what many of them think, but few admit. He promised to All out July 9! (202) 737-2295 get rid of the city's affirmative-action pro­ With the Equal Rights Amendment three Coordinated by the N<~tionai Organization for Women grams "as fast as you can say Yankee-doodle­ states short of ratification, and the 1979 ratifi­ Suite 548,425 13th St., N.W, Washmgton, DC. 20004, {202) 737 2295 dandy." cation deadline fast approaching, supporters

The Militant Militant Highlights This Week Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS Managing Ed1tor: STEVE CLARK Business Manager: ANDREA BARON 6 Battle over FBI Informers Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING 8 Racism It Proposition 13 Editorial Staff: Peter Archer, Nancy Cole, David 9 Teachers fight against cutbacks U.S. threats to Africa & Cuba Frankel, John Hawkins, Cmdy Jaquith, Shelley Kramer, Ivan Licho, Omari Musa, Jose G. Perez, 10 Anti-Nazi march planned Washington's bellicose stance reflects a Dick Roberts, Andy Rose. Pnscilla Schenk, Peter 12 Steelworkers prepare for conference determination to protect U.S. superprofits against Seidman, Diane Wang, Arnold Weissberg 13 Teamsters map contract fight mounting liberation struggles backed by Cuba. Published weekly by the Militant, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone Editorial Office 14 California steelworker fired Page 15. (212) 243-6392: Business Office (212) 929-3486. 22 Marroquin tours Arizona Southwest Bureau: 1250 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 404, 26 Will low profile win gay rights? Los Angeles, California 90017. Telephone: (213) 482-3184. 14 National Picket Line Correspondence concerning subscriptions or changes of address should be addressed to The 27 In Rer/ew Vietnam abolishes capitalism in South Militant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New 28 In Brief With the sweeping nationalization of 30,000 private commercial York, N.Y. 10014. , Whaf's Going On Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. enterprises, the Vietnamese revolution has taken a big step forward. Subscriptions: U.S. $15.00 a year, outside U.S. 29 The Great Society $20.50. By first-class mail: U S., Canada, and Mex­ Union Talk Page 23. ico: $42.50. Write for surface and airmail rates to all 30 Our Revolutionary Heritage other countries. Letters For subscriptions airfreighted to London then 31 Leam/ng About Soc/a/Ism posted to Britain and Ireland: £2.50 for teri issues; If You Like This Paper . . . £5.50 for six months (twenty-four issues); £10 for one year (forty-eight issues), Posted from London to Continental Europe: £4 for ten issues; £8 for six months (twenty-four issues); £13 for one year A vote for socialism in Peru (forty-eight issues), Send checks or international Peruvian revolutionist Hugo Blanco assesses his victory last money orders (payable to Intercontinental Press account) to: Intercontinental Press (The Militant), month in elections for the constituent assembly. Page 11. P.O. Box 50, London N1 2XP, England, S1gned articles by contnbutors do not necessarily represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials ·

2 ERA forces unite for July 9 By Cindy Jaquith taries will march . . . and let it be Lucia Ramirez, president of the N a­ NEW YORK-Standing just a known that this nation is for equality." tiona! . Conference of Puerto Rican stone's throw from the spot in Bryant Governor Carey issued a proclama­ Women, announced that her group is Park where tens of thousands of tion in support of the ERA and exten­ · organizing community participation. women marched on August 26, 1970, a .sion of the ratification deadline and Goldie Chu and Ester Kee, Asian­ broad spectrum of women's rights sup­ joined in urging participation in American women's rights leaders, porters urged a massive turnoutfor the NOW's march. pledged the backing of their organiza­ July 9 demonstration in Washington Abzug followed Carey, stating that tions. for the Equal Rights Amendment. the July 9 demonstration and the July NOW-New York President Noreen The June 27 news conference, in­ 10 day of lobbying Congress, also Connell chaired the news· conference. itiated by the New York National called by NOW, are "a time when Also speaking were New York City Organization for Women (NOW), fea­ citizens can act." Council President Carol Bellamy, Lt. tured New York Gov. Hugh Carey, Rubye Jones, president of the New Gov. Mary Anne Krupsak, and Carrie former Congresswoman Bella Abzug, York Coalition of Labor. Union Fisher, who played the lead in the feminist author Betty Friedan, and a Women, told the media that "labor is movie Star Wars. host of women's rights leaders from once again in the forefront" of the the labor movement and the city's fight for women's rights. Black, Puerto Rican, and Chinese com­ "We want everyone to know that munities. union women and union men are for In San Francisco, NOW national National NOW has called the July 9 the ratification of the ERA. president Eleanor Smeal addressed the march to demand passage of the ERA "As dedicated union members know, 250,000-strong gay rights march June and extension of the 1979 ratification solidarity is important. We're forming 25, urging support for the July 9 dem­ deadline to 1986. solidarity with other representatives onstration. "Since we originally marched on here today to let everyone know that Bay Area NOW chapters held a news August 26, 1970," said Friedan, "the we're all working together." conference and cocktail party where women's movement and the women of "The July 9 march will be an oppor­ Smeal appeared, to publicize the action America have not faced the kind of tunity for minority women and men to and raise funds. r MilitanVCindy Jaquith emergency we face today. Everything BETTY FRIEDAN: 'We must march to demonstrate the overwhelming support News conferences also took place in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. we have won, all the gains women show this nation is for equality.' for the ERA which exists in our com­ have made, are in danger. munities," said a statement to the At the Philadelphia news conference, "That's why we will march on July press by Veronica Brown, coordinator Augusta Clark, of the Pennsylvania 9," she declared. "It will be a march on and Republican, in Congress, who of NOW-New York's Minority Women's International Women's Year Commit­ Washington as women have never have been giving the merest lip service Issues Committee. tee, told reporters that Black and Lat­ done before." She compared the upcom­ to the Equal rights Amendment. "The civil rights movement is a firm ina women "see no inconsistency in ing action to the 1963 march on Wash­ "I hope that women from grand­ supporter of equality for women. The fighting for civil rights for minorities ington by Blacks demanding their civil mothers to granddaughters, white and NAACP, the National Urban League, and for women's rights. We expressly rights. Black, suburban women, housewives, the Southern Christian Leadership reject all divisive tactics used to pit one Friedan blasted President Carter women who work in offices and facto­ Conference, and Operation PUSH all group against another for 'left-over and "the political leaders, Democratic ries, stewardesses, nurses, and secre- support the ERA." rights.'" 'This is a civil rights issue' By Toba Singer equal pay for equal work and equal BALTIMORE-"I'm hoping for an rights with the men. outpouring of working people on July "Labor is helping to give the ERA a 9," said David Wilson, president of push because, as unionists, we are here United Steelworkers Local 2609. He to look out for the rights of women was speaking at a June 21 news con­ workers as well as men." The National Organization for Women is ference here to announce. labor support Frances Brown said the Coalition of sponsoring a national march on Washington for the July 9 march on Washington Black Trade Unionists "fully supports for the Equal Rights Amendment on July 9. for the Equal Rights Amendment. the ERA. We are fearful of what will Other participants in the news con­ happen to all of us if there are prob­ 'ference included Frances Brown, local lems getting the ERA passed." president of the Coalition of Black Pamela Butner, president of the Trade Unionists; Mary Johnson, Met­ Baltimore National Organization for Buses come rolling in. . . . ropolitan Council, AFL-CIO; Martha Women and a member of the Maryland Hundreds of chartered buses will bring ERA supporters to the July 9 Murrill, president of Communications State Teachers Association, chaired march: Workers Local 2110; and Joseph Kotel­ the news conference. Pittsburgh is sending eleven buses. The international of the United chuck, president of Steelworkers Local "The ranks of labor include workers Steelworkers of America is sending one, as are District 6 of the United 2610. of diverse race, color, sex, and nation­ Electrical Workers and the YWCA. ality," she explained. "Employers have Toledo is sending seven buses, including one from an abortion clinic, Wilson and Kotelchuck initiated the historically played upon these differen­ ~ews conference. They told reporters another from the Toledo Federation of Teachers, and three from the ces, seeking to set one group against United Auto Workers. the Steelworkers will charter a bus to the other in order to divide, weaken, New York has buses chartered by many groups, including NOW, the the July 9 march from Bethlehem and depress the standards and condi­ Steel's Sparrows Point plant. tions of all workers. New York Coalition of Labor Union Women, District 65 Retail Clerks, "This is a civil rights issue," said "Labor's. way of forging unity and District 13 Nurses, United Store Workers, employees of Equitable Life, the Kotelchuck. "More and more women solidarity within itS. ranks," she con­ National Conference of Puerto Rican Women, the Coalition for Abortion are coming to work at [Sparrows] cluded, "is to fight relentlessly against Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse, and two buses from Localll99 of Point. We feel that they should have all forms of discrimination." the hospital workers. New Jersey is sending thirty buses, also chartered by many labor and women's groups. And Philadelphia NOW has announced that fifty buses are reserved. Backing with bucks Many trade unions have backed up their endorsement of the ERA march with financial donations. District 37 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in New York City gave money and also printed 20,000 leaflets for ,the march. UAW Region 4, in the Midwest, chartered a plane. In ·Toledo the UAW gave $4,000 to charter buses for unionists. AFSCME 1644 in Atlanta is paying two-thirds the cost of bus tickets for its members. And United Steelworkers District 9 is paying the bus fare for its unionists. Sendoff and solidarity rallies Albuquerque Mayor David Rusk has declared July 8 "Women's Equal­ ity Day." On that day NOW is sponsoring a rally at noon at the federal building. Atlanta will hold a rally on July 8 at 4 p.m. at Georgia State University tO send people to Washington. A Seattle march in solidarity with the national demonstration is being sponsored by the Washington ERA Coalition on July 8. ERA supporters will gather at the Federal Courthouse at 11:30 a.m. and march to the MilitanVStephen Fuchs Westlake Mall.. -Diane Wang Baltimore unionists at June 21 news conference

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 3 • 20,000 • no nukes! Seabrook '78-biggest US. protest yet By Arnold Weissberg SEABROOK, N.H.-Twenty thousand people ral­ lied in this seaside village June 25 in the largest protest against nuclear power ever held in this country. The rally was sponsored by the Clamshell Alliance, the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, and other New Hampshire environmental groups. The action marked an important step forward for the anti-nuclear power II).ovement in winning sup­ port from the labor movement, the women's move­ ment, and others fighting for social justice. Protesters came from all over the country. The New York City Shad Alliance chartered a bus. Some demonstrators marched onto the rally site Saturday and camped there. Messages of support came from antinuclear groups around the United States, Europe, and Ja: pan. The crowd gave a standing ovation to comedian and activist Dick Gregory, who remarked, "There's a lot of people at Exxon who didn't sleep good last night 'cause you're here." The rally featured a number of Seabrook-area residents who oppose the reactor, as well as scien­ tists and environmentalists speaking on the dan­ gers of nuclear power, such as John Gofman, Barry Commoner, and Amory Lovins. Dr. Benjamin Spock noted that nuclear power is "the greatest threat short of nuclear war" and declared that the movement needs "bigger demon­ Militant/Susan Ellis strations every year." The anti-Vietnam War move­ ment, Spock recalled, forced Lyndon Johnson out of office, kept Richard Nixon "fuming all the time," Gordon underlined the importance of countering water hoses, and even "deadly force" to keep and had the government "frustrated and powerless "the big lie that the labor movement is the enemy" protesters out. (Last year, New Hampshire cops to fight it." of the environmental movement. arrested and jailed more than 1,400 Seabrook pro­ "The enemy is the same as the enemy of the labor testers.) Labor support ~movement," Gordon said, "the big corporations and This decision was discussed and debated all This year for the first time the speakers platform the politicians ~who carry out their desires. weekend in workshops, regional caucuses, and ·reflected .the growing support for the antinuclear "Working people care about pollution," he said. informal discussions. movement in the unions. In an interview, Gordon told the Militant that the Some activists argued that once the initial deci­ The first labor speaker was Joe Frantz, represent­ issue of nuclear power is basically a question like sion to engage in civil disobedience had been made, ing United Steelworkers of America District 31. health and safety on the job. it should not have been changed. They said the Frantz is head of the environment committee in Music at the rally was provided by Arlo Guthrie, turnout would have been very large anyway. USW A Local 1010 in northern Indiana. District 31 Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, and others. Representa­ However, Clamshell spokesperson Cathy Wolff voted last month to oppose construction of a nuclear tives of the Longest Walk, a Native American responded that "when we changed from a civil plant on the Indiana dunes of Lake Michigan. march for equal rights, made a moving presenta­ disobedience to a legal occupation, we opted for a Frantz said the steelworkers had voted against tion. chance to reach thousands of people who could not nuclear power because they wanted "a better qual­ risk arrest." ity of life for the members and for the community." Dangerous boondoggle While the Seabrook rally was going on, a counter­ "The environmental movement needs the labor The Seabrook nuclear plant is expected to cost demonstration in Manchester, New Hampshire, movement, and the labor movement needs the more than $2 billion. Seabrook residents have voted called for more nuclear power. The Manchester rally environmental movement," Frantz declared. against building it, voted against permitting ra­ was sponsored by business interests and some dioactive materials to be transported through the officials of New Hampshire construction trade town, and voted against supplying water for con­ unions. , Hundreds buy 'Militant' struction. Despite the presence of Gov. Meldrim Thomson, ''There are only two sides to the question of But their opposition has been ignored. two U.S. representatives, a U.S. Senator, and a nuclear power-profits vs. human needs," read a The plant will create unmanageable radioactive clambake, .the pronuclear rally could only muster statement issued by the Socialist Workers Party wastes, constantly emit radioactive poisons, and between 500 and 1,000 participants. candidates in- Massachusetts and New York. irreparably damage marine life. At least twenty actions in support of the Seabrook SWP campaign supporters sold 400 Militants The large turnout for the rally, which surprised antinuclear protest took place across the country. and sixty buttons reading "No Nukes" issued by many of the organizers, was a powerful indication On June 26-the day after the Seabrook rally of the growing opposition to nuclear power nation­ the Young Socialist Alliance. -A.W. ended-2,000 opponents of nuclear power marched wide. The action followed a series of large anti­ through Manchester to the county courthouse where nuclear power and anti-nuclear weapons demon­ the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Representing the labor task force of the National strations this spring. Environmental Protection Agency were holding Organization for Women, Sara Nelson noted that At the last minute, Clamshell leaders had decided hearings on the Seabrook plant. The march called "we too are in a pitched battle" to pass the Equal to hold a legal rally, instead of attempting to occupy on the agencies to withdraw the Seabrook construc­ Rights Amendment. She urged participation in the the construction site. The change came after New tion permit, citing potential damage to marine life July 9 march for the ERA in Washington, D.C. Hampshire authorities threatened to use tear gas, from the plant's cooling system. She went on to describe recent developments in the Karen Silkwood case. Silkwood worked in a plutonium processing plant in Oklahoma. In 1974, on her way to talk to a reporter about dangerous Supreme Court: nuclear risks don't count· safety violations in the plant, she died in a myste­ The U.S. Supreme Court struck another blow Without insurance, no utility would build a rious auto accident. A lawsuit filed by Silkwood's on behalf of the $100 billion nuclear industry nuclear power plant. So the federal government parents has unearthed evidence of wiretapping and June 26 when it upheld the federal Price­ stepped in twenty-one years ago and set the $56 harassment involving local cops, the FBI, and Anderson Act. The act limits the liability of a million liability limit. $110 million comes not Silkwood's employer, the giant Kerr-McGee energy utility corporation in the case of a nuclear power from insurance ·coverage, but directly from the firm. plant accident to $560 million. federal treasury-the tax dollars of working peo­ Also speaking was Ken Hunter,.a staff member of "This ruling deprives all of those Americans ple. the United Mine Workers union; who works on the living near power plants of any possibility of UMWA Journal. recovering full damages after a serious accident," Washington argued that the court should up-. One of the final speakers was Jerry Gordon, an said a Clamshell Alliance spokesperson. Govern­ hold Price-Anderson because overturning it international representative of the Amalgamated ment estimates put possible damage as high as "could stand as a major im~diment to further Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen's union. Gor­ $17 billion. Thus, the insurance would cover a private development of nuclear energy in this don was a prominent leader of the anti-Vietnam paltry three cents on the dollar-not to mention nationY War movement. the human toll that can't be counted in dollars Gordon emphasized the need for the antinuclear and cents. The court agreed. Chief Justice Warren Burger movement to reach out to allies in the labor Insurance companies have refused to write wrote' that the $560 million limit "bears a ra­ movement-"especially in rallies like this," he said. policies to cover the full amount. Many oppo­ tional relationship to Congress's concern for nents of nuclear power ask why-if nuclear stimulating the involvement of private enterprise "That's how a movement of thousands can trans­ power is so safe-the insurance companies won't in the production of electric energy through the form itself into a movement that embraces mil­ insure it. use of atomic power." -A.W. lions." 4 All affirmative acti~n in dang.@! High court upholds 'B~kke,' rejects quotas By Nancy Cole right past injustices, and this decision seems like a The highest court of the land has declared itself step backwards to before the sixties." on the side of anti-Black, anti-woman bigots with Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall shared its June 28 decision legitimizing the false concept of his feeling in his dissenting opinion. "I fear that we "reverse discrimination." have come full circle," he wrote. "After the Civil The Supreme Court ruled five-to-four that Allan War our government started several 'affirmative Bakke-a white civil engineer-must be admitted to action' programs. This Court in the Civil Rights the University of California Medical School at cases and Plessy v. Ferguson destroyed the move­ Davis.. The justices found unconstitutional the ment toward complete equality." school's special admissions program, which sets Marshall went on to note that almost a century aside 16 of 100 slots for oppressed minorities. passed before the court upheld civil rights with the It was a clear rejection of affirmative-action quo­ 1954 decision outlawing school desegregation. tas. "Now, we have this Court again stepping in, this Within hours 250 angry pickets demonstrated at time to stop affirmative action programs of the type the federal building in San Francisco to protest the used by the University of California." ruling. The National Committee to Overturn the In a particularly odious twist of the knife, four of Bakke Decision (NCOBD) moved ahead with plans the high court justices based their pro-Bakke ruling for June 29 protests in major cities across the on the 1964 Civil Rights Act-the very legislation country. In some places, additional demonstrations that Blacks won to help end Jim Crow discrimina­ are planned for the weekend. tion. The ruling "represents a devastating attack on Under Title VI of the act, racial discrimination is hard-won affirmative-action programs ~or minori­ banned for any program or activity funded by the ties and women," declared the New York chapter of federal government. The court held that Bakke was NCOBD. discriminated against because of his white race and On the other hand, Attorney General Griffin Bell . that therefore the admissions program was illegal. proclaimed it "a great gain for affirmative action." Justice Lewis Powell found that Bakke's constitu­ The ruling "confirms our position and what we've tional rights had been violated, but-to cover his been doing," he said. Bell was referring to the tracks-did concede that race can be a "legitimate" Carter administration's opposition to quotas while factor as long as it is only one of many considera­ ·it professes an abstract commitment to affirmative tions in fashioning a "diverse" student body. action. Front-page cartoon from July 1 'Amsterdam News,' a The four justices favoring a reversal of the Bakke . Unfortunately, some leaders of the civil rights Black weekly, under banner headline, 'Bakke: We decision also agreed that race is one "legitimate" movement-while disagreeing with the ruling lose!!' factor. This "majority" opinion thus allowed Carter against quotas-have nonetheless echoed Bell. and Bell to praise the court for its stand in favor of NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks called 1974. Despite the fact that he was rejected for one affirmative action. the overall decision a "clear-cut victory for volun­ of the eighty-four regular slots, he charged discrimi­ But it is clear that the "reverse discrimination" tary affirmative action." nation for being excluded from one of the sixteen poison legitimized by this ruling will quickly spread Black leader Jesse Jackson, however, noted that slots reserved for minority students. not only to affirmative-action plans for women and first there was the California cutback measure Prior to establishing the special program, the oppressed minorities at all levels of education, but Proposition 13, compounded by rising unemploy­ first class at the medical school in 1968 had no in employment as well. ment, and now the Bakke ruling. "The Black Blacks, no Chicanos, no Native Americans, and As Justice Marshall wrote, "It has been said that community .has its back against the wall," he said. only three Asians. this case involves only the individual Bakke and "We must come out with a commitment to massive Davis students responded grimly to the high court this University. I doubt, however1 that there is a disciplined struggle." ruling June 28. "I believe the cycle, the vicious cycle computer capable of determining the number of Bakke sued the university after his application minorities are put in, has to be broken up," Byron persons and institutions that may be affected by the for admission was rejected in 1973 and again in Froman told the New York Times. "We have to decision in this case." Hundreds in NY camp out four days for jobs By John Hawkins "This is a chance to get a good­ NEW YORK-"On Thursday, when paying job," she told the Militant, "a we first started camping out here, I chance to get a skill, support my fam­ was number 258 in line," said Sarah ily, and get off welfare at the same Brown early Monday morning. "Now time." I'm number 1,008. I had to get off line Twenty women along with Brown ·over the 'weekend to go see about my came from the All-Craft training kids." ' school, where they had learned thl:l Brown, together with hundreds of basics of plumbing, electrical work, others, had come to apply for an ap­ carpentry, and cabinet making. prenticeship at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Lo­ "If they are fair and equitable," said cal 3, in Queens, New York. Marilyn Adams, assistant program The official age to apply to become director at All-Craft, "our women an apprentice electrician is between should get a good share of the jobs. eighteen and twenty-two. But Brown, They can do the work as well as an)'of forty-four, was not deterred. She needs the men who are applying can." a job. Supporters of Dianne Feeley, Social­ Beginning Thursday, June 22, ist Workers Party candidate for gover­ hundreds of job-seekers lined up across nor of New York, campaigned at the the street from the IBEW hall in Plumbers' Hall, selling last week's Queens and in front of Plumbers issue of the Militant, which featured a Union, Local 2, in Manhattan. They four-page insert on "Why can't every­ set up tents, erected makeshift shan­ body have a job?" ties, and unrolled sleeping bags. "The fact that so many people spent If you left the line for more than Waiting for apprenticeship applications in Queens Militant/John Hawkins four days standing in line," Feeley fifteen minutes, you forfeited your spot. said, "shows that those out of work Twelve hundred applications were to want work. It's criminal that people be given out Monday at the IBEW hall. have to go through all this just to But only 500 will be chosen for the apply for a job, and even more crimi­ apprenticeship program. Across the nal that 1,150 of those who apply won't river in Manhattan, the Plumbers get a job at all. Union was distributing 500 applica­ tions for 50 places. "That's why I and socialist candi­ Though crowds at neither site dates across the country are proposing swelled into the thousands-as they an emergency bill to guarantee every­ have at some other places ·here and one a decent job at a decent wage by around the country-the hundreds who shortening the workweek and launch­ spent four days on line just to receive ing a massive, federally funded public applications dramatized the depth of works program." unemployment in New York City. Reprints of the SWP's proposed Brown was typical of a number of emergency full employment bill and · women who stood in line in Queens. the article "Why can't everybody have Unemployed, Black, and a welfare a job?" can be ordered in bulk quanti­ recipient, she had attended classes to ties for distribution. See the prepare for the trade. accompanying ad to find out how.

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 5 By La~ry Seigle last month to overturn Griesa's order (First of a series) on the files was a significant victory. It A chain ·of extraordinary develop­ weakens the "informer privilege." It ments has once again thrust the social­ will be easier for others in the future to ist suit against the FBI onto center Battle· over FBI infOrmers force disclosure of spy files. stage. The issue is the government's But that is only a dent in the privi­ right to use informers to infiltrate, lege. What would really blow it out of disrupt, .and spy on its opponents. the water, legally, would be for the The rulers' informer network consti­ SWP attorneys to actually gain posses· tutes the main operational arm of their sion of the files. Once that historic step political police and of their war WbyBell is completed, the FBI will never again against labor, oppressed minorities, be able to claim that its informers the women's movement, and the entire believed their identities would not be left. disclosed. Any informers still working Thus, the unfolding struggle over for the FBI or any other government 'Won't agency would obviously be well aware this issue involves very high stakes. release of the decision in the SWP case. There­ In a major public address on May 3 fore, the major rationale for the claim of this year, William Webster, Carter's of "informer privilege" would disap­ new FBI chief, put it this way: pear. "Not many people know very much What's more, since there would be no about informants; and to many people spy files harassment or physical retaliation it's kind of a queasy area. People are against the identified rats, that ridicu­ not comfortable with informants. lous argument would also collapse. There is a tradition against snitching In other words, the actual delivery of in this country. the informer files' would deal a devas­ "I have to say to you, however, that tating blow to the "informer privilege." the informant is The, with a capital What a victory that would be! 'T,' The most effective tool in law enforcement today-state, local, or fed­ Ruling-class voices eral." But that is exactly what the Carter The immediate topic of Webster's administration is taking such extreme concern is not "law enforcement" in measures to prevent. And that is why general, but the FBI's political war voices of the ruling class, such as the against critics of the government. In New York Times and the Washington this underground struggle, informers Post, have suddenly turned around are essential. and started arguing in favor of FBI The govemm~nt is prepared to go to secrecy. They are worried that the great lengths to prevent any weaken­ SWP and YSA are now going too far. ing of its informer system. That is why They may seriously damage the politi­ Carter is willing to have his attorney cal police apparatus that the Times general risk contempt of court and is and Post are fervently committed to. ready to pay the political price for such That is why there has been no editor­ a move. ial outcry against the spectacle of the The Carter administration's naked attorney general, supposedly the na­ refusal to obey a court order makes tion's top law enforcement officer, de­ Nixon's gang, by contrast, look like a claring open defiance of a court order. troop of law-abiding boy scouts. It Rather, what we get are embarrassed truly amounts to a declaration that the apologies for this outrageous stand. government and its spies are above the Said the liberal Washington Post in · law. If Carter can get away with this, its lead editorial on June 17: "At first it will be at the expense of the rights glance, the position of Attorney Gen­ and liberties of all Americans. eral Griffin Bell in the Socialist Workers Party case seems outrageous Legal fireworks ....Once you examine this case The legal fireworks now exploding in closely, however, Mr. Bell's action is Judge Thomas Griesa's courtroom are neither outrageous nor even illogical. unmistakable signals that the case He believes the government has a legal known as Socialist Workers Party ver­ right to protect the confidentiality of sus Attorney General has reached a its sources." Says the Post, "Mr. Bell decisive round. After nearly five years has a strong legal position." of preliminary sparring, the SWP and In the words of the New York Times, the attorney general are now slugging ·.in a lead editorial June 20: "The Jus­ it out, toe to toe, over the informer another bow to public opinion and to The government insists this pnvi­ tice Department says giving up the issue. the widespread support for the socialist lege must be preserved, because people files would violate a basic law­ The earlier. rounds produced dra· lawsuit. won't agree to become infonners for enforcement principle: that the identity matic exposures detailing the nature the cops unless they are guaranteed of informants must· be scrupulously and extent of FBI crimes. These disclo­ No concession on informers anonymity. They also argue that the protected. sures have played a significant role in However, the concessions the gov­ finks would be harassed and subjected "That principle may not be absolute, educating the American people about ernment made didn't include any to physical retaliation if their indenti­ but it is not trivial, either. Informers the true character of the capitalist weakening of their right to use in­ ties are disclosed. are often essential. ...It is surely government and its political police. formers or of their right to keep the The Supreme Court has generally, conceivable that violating that pledge facts about these informers behind an although not under all circumstances, [of secrecy] in this case would reverber­ The government was forced to tum iron curtain of secrecy. upheld the "informer privilege" for ate in many others." over tens of thousands of pages docu­ In fact, in 1974, when Judge Griesa people who give evidence of a crime to The Times argues that there is good menting massive illegalities carried issued a temporary order to block the police. reason for Bell "to say he will not obey out in the name of "national security." informers from attending the Young But there is not a single piece of Judge Griesa's order, even if held in These revelations were concessions the Socialist Alliance convention in St. evidence pointing to any illegal acts by contempt... .It is permissible to resist rulers were forced to make, under the Louis, the Justice Department imme­ the socialists in all the material col­ an order so as to test it.... " pressure of the massive outcry against diately took an emergency appeal to lected by the FBI stool pigeons. Griesa Adding a note of caution to this government crimes, and under the the higher courts in a successful bid to himself, who has reviewed the files, novel advocacy of civil. disobedience unrelenting and skillful prodding of get that order overturned. says they contain "a consistent recital by the government, the editors hastily the SWP and YSA case. And when Griesa, in May 1977, of peaceful, lawful, personal activities, add, "but that subtlety is not widely Government officials, politicians, ordered the FBI to produce unexpur­ and a total absence of any criminal understood and a contempt citation and the capitalist press all joined in gated files on eighteen of the informers activities or plans of an·y naturll what­ would make the Attorney General ap­ criticizing the FBI for its excesses of it has used against the SWP and YSA, soever." pear defiant." the past. They promised that such evils the government dug in its heels. Indeed it would. would be ended. The order to tum over the files, said The real criminals As the battle escalates, papers such Newspapers such as the New York the FBI, "strikes at the heart of this There is evidence of crimes in these as the Times and the Post find them­ Times and the Washington Post, au· entire [informer] program." It would files. But it is the crimes of the FBI selves more and more defending the thoritative organs of the ruling class, have "a devastating impact on the informers, not of the socialists. FBI and its illegal practices. Pro­ gave prominent and generally sympa­ overall investigative effectiveness of In fact, the informer files will help Carter forces may find all kinds of thetic coverage of the SWP suit. This the FBI." the socialists prove in court that not arguments to justify Bell's defiance of was part of their campaign to make The government is worried about the only did the informers commit a multi­ a court order-and more importantly, the FBI serve the rulers' needs more new revelations contained in these tude of specific criminal acts, but that his defiance of the right of the Ameri­ effectively, by forcing an adjustment undeleted files, compnsmg some the entire so-called investigation by can people to learn -the truth, not just in tactics and rhetoric in light of the twenty-five drawers of raw reports. But the FBI has·been an unconstitutional about past FBI crimes, but about the new political climate of post-Watergate it is far more worried about the "devas­ violation of fundamental rights. FBI's continuing crimes. and post-Vietnam America. tating impact" that handing over the No "informer privilege" can be used All the more reason then to bring In November 1976, the Ford adminis­ files would have on what the gov­ to cover up these crimes. The FBI can't about the widest possible unity of all tration went so far as to announce that ernment claims is the "informer privi­ hire informers to commit illegal acts the victims and potential victims of the it had directed the FBI to halt its lege." and then claim immunity from disclo­ nation's secret police. It is time to rally investigation of the Socialist Workers This privilege amounts to an abso­ sure under the "informer privilege." these forces with renewed determina­ Party and the Young Socialist Al· lute rule that protects the activities Yet that is exactly what the Carter tion to support the efforts of the SWP liance. Of course, the "investigation" and identities of government snitches administration is trying to establish as and YSA in this landmark case. wasn't stopped, nor was it intended to from disclosure even in court proceed­ the law. The stakes have never been higher. be. But the statement represented ings. The refusal of the Supreme Court (Next: An army of informers)

6 Turning_P-Qint in socialists' lawsuit Judge hears motion to jail att'y general Continued from front page ments to both sides made it clear that he was seriously consideri:Q.g the con­ Political Rights tempt motion." Television reports on the hearing, Defense Fund which appeared on_ CBS, NBC, and ABC evening news, reached the same The FBI thinks it is worth millions of conclusion. dollars to harass people who disagree Before the hearing, supporters of the with governmental policy. It spent SWP fight against the FBI picketed $1,683,000 on informers to disrupt the the courthouse in Manhattan's Foley Socialist Workers Party and Young Square, chanting, "The people have a Socialist Alliance alone. right to know-hand over the files!" And that's just a bit of the budget. Judge Griesa's ·courtroom was The FBI had to pay bonuses to aqents packed with reporters, socialists, civil who broke into offices. There had to liberties supporters, government em­ be money for its poison-pen and . ployees . . . and FBI agents. The other disruption schemes. Plus the gallery and jury box were filled. People money for electronic wiretapping. lined the walls up to the judge's bench, The SWP and YSA have exposed · sat on tables, and spilled out into the many of these illegal operations corridor. through their lawsuit against Leonard Boudin, chief attorney foi: government harassment. Won't you help us get out more of the socialists, explained why the SWP Militant/Diane Wang is asking the judge to cite Bell for 'People have a right to know' declared pickets in front of courthouse June 27 the government's secret files and fight contempt and order him imprisoned. these attacks on all our democratic The eighteen files are only a small rights? . sample of evidence about the army of extreme and no other remedy can by an FBI censor. These four informers We need money for legal expenses informers used against the SWP and effectively secure compliance with the have agreed to the release of their files. and to sort and organize the other political dissenters. Court's order." Griesa challenged the suggestion, thousands of pages of evidence. This evidence is crucial to the $40 In response, U.S. Attorney Robert pointing out to Fiske, "I am prepared ·Please contribute to the Political million lawsuit, Boudin insisted. It will Fiske complained that obeying the to tell you there are some very impor­ ·Rights Defense Fund, the group help prove the suies charge that the judge's order would have "a major tant files that would not be available organizing support for the lawsuit. FBI "used informers not for the pur­ adverse effect on law enforcement in from your proposal." pose merely of gathering information," general and also on foreign counterin­ The judge reminded Fiske of former said Boudin, "but for the purpose of telligence." government lies and cover-ups in the actively disrupting the plaintiff organi­ The attorney general is defying the case. One FBI agent, for example, had zations [the socialists] and for the court, the government says, because sworn under oath that informers had purpose of engaging in burglaries, the FBI's entire spy network is threat­ not carried out burglaries. But when wiretapping, and a larger variety of ened. If informers no longer have the the complete file of FBI informer Tim­ activities all for the purpose, as I say, privilege of keeping their activities­ othy Redfearn was made public, it of destroying the plaintiffs' organiza­ that is, their crimes-secret, they may showed that the agent's testimony had tion." refuse to work for the government. been false; Griesa recalled. As if to dramatize the FBI's point, "If the remedy here sought appears When pressed by Griesa to say extreme," explained the socialists' an unidentified informer served notice of a lawsuit on June 27 asking whether the attorney general would court papers, "it is because the course ever comply with the court order-even the Attorney General has chosen is $750,000 in damages and an injunction against release of the informer files. if it were again reviewed and again The snitch claims he or she would upheld by higher courts-Fiske suffer "economic duress, blacklisting squirmed. "I am sure it would not be and social ostracism" if exposed. correct to say that the Attorney Gen­ What's more, the informer said in an eral would not comply," he said, "but I affidavit, "I would be interested in would speak to him and get his direc­ working in a similar capacity in the tions." future." The Carter administration, like the The suit names Judge Griesa, the Ford administration before it, consid­ Enclosed is my contribution of __ U.S. government, and the SWP as ers defense of informers' secrecy defendants. The anonymous fink is important enough to risk a major Name represented by Jack Solerwitz, a law­ confrontation with the federal courts. Address yer who has spent much of his time in Important enough to continue defying recent years defending FBI agents a federal judge's orqer. City ______charged with crimes. This ensures that the battle will State ______Zip At the June 27 hearing U.S. Attor­ become increasingly prominent, as the ney Fiske offered what he called a socialists continue to defend the Amer­ Send contributions to: PROF, Post compromise. The FBI, he said, is will­ ican people's democratic rights against Office Box 649 Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. 10003. Militant/Harry Ring ing to turn over four of the eighteen the government's claims of "informer LEONARD BOUDIN files-once they have been cleaned up privilege." Seattle women set August 26 march Questions Barbara Hennigan oppressed nationalities, and women SEATTLE-The second annual of oppressed nationalities; onwomens' Northwest Women's Action Confer­ • A statement opposing any res­ ence, attended by 600 women here trictions, including funding, on the June 17-18, called for an August 26 right to abortion. liberation women's rights march in Seattle to Black, Chicana, Native American, demand ratification of the Equal and Asian women played an active WOMAN'S EVOLUTION Rights Amendment, and to defend role in workshop discussions, which From Matriarchal Clan abortion rights, affirmative action, ranged from "Abortion Rights" to to Patriarchal Family and gay rights. "Women, Peace and Disarmament." by Evelyn Reed A rally featured as speakers Phyl­ 491 pp., cloth $20, paper $5.95 The conference also endorsed the July 9 ERA march on Washington, lis Chesler, author of Women and WHY WOMEN NJ4.:ED D.C., called by the National Organi­ Madness; Yvonne Wanrow, the Na­ tive American woman framed up for THE EQUAL RIGHTS zation for Women, and July 8 soli­ darity marches to take place here · defending her children from sexual AMENDMENT assault; and Deb Brown of Womyn by Dianne Feeley and in Portland. Other resolutions passed included: Emerge, the University of Washing­ 24 pp., 35 cents r . ton feminist group that initiated and • A proposal to support a July 1 helped organize the conference. ABORTION gay rights action here, and to oppose A tragic incident occurred when Women's Fight for Initiative 13, a ballot measure that Emily Cannell, a conference partici­ the Right to Choose would repeal Seattle's gay rights pant, was shot by an unknown by Linda Jenness et al. ordinance; assailant and seriously wounded on 24 pp., 35 cents • A resolution in support of her way to one of the sessions. The affirmative-action programs in edu­ conference presiding committee Militant/Karl Bermann . cation, hiring, and promotion, in­ issued a statement denouncing the Seattle demonstration last August 27 Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 cluding strict quotas for women, shooting. ' turned out 1,500 protesters. West Street, New York. N.Y. 10014

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 Socialist candidate SP-eaks out .California tax swindle: how to fight back By Roland Sheppard their measure on the ballot, reflecting of the wealthy. If it had done this, the SAN FRANCISCO-Passage of Pro­ the widespread opposition to skyrock­ labor movement could have emerged position 13 in California follows on the eting taxes. from this election as a powerful politi­ heels of growing discontent against The state legislature put Prop 8 on cal force. higher taxes across the United States the ballot after Prop 13 got on. over the past several years. Both propositions told homeowners Tax the rich Democratic and Republican party that tax breaks had to be coupled with The working class could have forged politicians have tried to exploit this reduced government services. Both unity with its potential allies to fight discontent by blaming taxes and infla­ gave the bulk of their proposed tax with them against a common enemy tion on social-welfare programs and cuts to big bQsiness. by raising demands such as: excessive wages for public employees. Prop 13 promised immediate and Abolish the property tax for home­ Actually, however, higher taxes are substantial reductions in property owners, small businesses, and small the result of government efforts to shift taxes. Prop 8 did not. Angry taxpayers farmers. passed Prop 13 by a two-to-one margin. Abolish the sales tax. Tax the wealthy. For a 100-percent Roland Sheppard is the Socialist tax on the profits of the polluting Workers Party candidate for trea­ Capitalist assault corporations and war profiteers. surer_ of California. The capitalists were able to take Open the books of the corporations advantage of the ground swell of anti- to reveal how they avoid paying taxes. more and more of the tax burden onto tax sentiment-tapped by the right- If the trade unions took such a the poor. wing initiators of Prop 13-to launch stand, they would soon come into Through taxation, the government an attack on public employees' unio)ls direct conflict with the Democratic cuts the spendable income of the work­ and to initiate cutbacks in social servi- Party. , ing class and distributes the money to ces that fall most heavily on Blacks, It should come as no surprise that the capitalist class through tax loop­ Chicanos, and other minorities. since the Democratic Party is leading holes and incentives for big business. Militant/Ron Payne But the leaderships of the trade living standards of working people­ ROLAND SHEPPARD: 'Tax the rich' The San Francisco Chronicle re­ unions and Black and Chicano organi- and collecting the taxes that squeeze cently reported, for example, that "last zations, tied to the Democratic Party, them dry-it will also attack any strug­ year . . . Pacific Telephone had a pro­ higher taxes and prices into voting for were incapable of offering an alterna- gles by working people to put their own fit of $405 million ... [but] by using cuts in vitally needed social services. tive to this divide-and-rule offensive. 1 · interests first. perfectly legal tax credits, the com­ They-along with the Communist This shows the need for working pany showed an accounting loss of $7 Meanwhile, these politicians piously Pa~ and some other radical groups people to have a party of their own, a million on its federal income tax re­ defend such social services for the (but not the Socialist Workers Party)- labor party, that could counter the turn." wealthy as tax-free interest on munici­ urged a vote for Prop 8 because 'they bosses' offensive in the political arena. pal, state, and federal bonds, and war said it would mean less drastic cut- The question of who will lead the Big swindle spending to protect profitable overseas backs. struggle against higher taxes is a investments. Small farmers and the owners of This policy not only led to big cut- burning one. The reactionary impact of small businesses are exploited through As· passage of Prop 13 shows, such backs and layoffs, but placed the union Prop 13 underscores the need for a new mortgages and bank loans by individ­ hypocrisy has become highly refined movement in opposition to the needs of labor leadership with a class-conscious ual capitalists. But these middle class in California. middle class and working-class tax- program-a leadership willing to fight layers are also exploited by the capital­ There were two property-tax payers. uncompromisingly for the interests of ist class through taxes. propositions-8 and 13-on the ballot Instead, the trade-union movement working people and their allies among The Democrats and Republicans try in the recent election. Prop 13 backers should have called for shifting the the oppressed minorities, small busi­ to swindle the outraged ·victims of collected 1,200,000 signatures. to put burden of taxation onto the shoulders ness people, and farmers.

Prop 13: cutbacks with a racist edge By Andrea Lubrano . LOS ANGELES-Howard Jarvis, author of Pro­ position 13, called it "the best thing that ever happened to them [minorities]. It will help minori­ ties more than anything else has." In the same statement, Jarvis justified possible cutbacks in summer school classes for the predomi­ nantly Black and Chicano students in the Los Angeles school district. "If they have baby sitting for nine months, I don't think they need it for three months more," he said. Many of Prop 13's right-wing promoters sub­ scribed to racist views like this. But most of the hard pressed homeowners who voted for the initiative thought they were simply voting themselves a tax cut. They were desperate to keep their homes afloat in a sea of rising taxes. The polls show that most of them believed Prop 13 would let them do this with few harmful effects on public services. The cutbacks and layoffs that the state govern­ ment began after passage of Prop 13 shows that these beliefs were not well-founded. In fact, Prop 13 constitutes a major attack on all working people. Because Governor Jerry Brown is now maneuver­ Chicano high school students protest cutoff of funds for Los Angeles summer schools .and other educa­ ing with a multi-billion-dollar state surplus to ease tional facilities. the pre-election impact of Prop 13, it is hard to say exactly how fast the cuts will be made. The general feeling at the rally was that some "Women and minorities are going to be the first to But it is already clear that the intent of California cuts were inevitable, and remarks like that one were be laid off because they were the last to be hired. Democratic and Republican Party politicians is to aimed at targeting busing as a good candidate for And by charter, by law, we are required to go-cut on make Blacks and Chicanos bear the brunt of these the trash heap. a seniority basis." attacks in an effort to weaken any united opposition Antibusing forces see the passage of Prop 13 as ·Some 75,000 predominantly Black and Chicano to them. their big chance. A week after the election, the state Comprehensive Employment Training Act workers In Los Angeles a limited busing plan is scheduled senate passed a constitutional amendment intended are similarly threatened by Prop 13. to go into effect this- fall. But desegregation is now to block court-ordered school busing in Los Angeles. While these blows are being aimed at the Black being counterposed to continued health benefits for and Chicano communities, the Democrats and teachers. The author of the resolution, State Senator Alan Republicans have exempted at least one govern­ On June 19 teachers here rallied to demand no Robbins (D-Van Nuys), declared in the debate on ment department from the sweeping cuts. It is now cuts be made in these benefits as a result of Prop 13. the measure, "We're going to have to choose be­ law that police departments will have priority A hand-lettered sign was circulated through the tween priorities. Compulsory busing, or teachers funding out of the state surplus. crowd. It said, "Don't Bus Our Benefits." and books." No more "baby sitters" for Black and Chicano Officially the United Teachers of Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley of Los Angeles has students. But plenty of cops on the streets to supports busing and opposes any layoffs or cut­ pointed to another blow· that implementation of intimidate young people angry over being forced out backs. But the rally chairperson saluted the sign Prop 13 will deal minorities and women. "The · of schools and jobs. from the speakers' stand, saying, "Now there's a affirmative-action program [in city government] This is all part of the racist antilabor swindle good sign." · has been in operation only five years," he said. known here as Prop 13. ·

8 For a public workers conference Teachers need-action to halt massive cutbacks By Ed Fruit taxes. Yet corporations and landlords court cases-with the California Su­ with other unions in action against the and Jeff Mackler will reap $4.6 billion from Proposition preme Court racist decision on Bakke attacks on our rights. When school let out in California 13. as the most prominent-challenging The July 9 March on Washington in this year, teachers, students, and par­ Working people across the country affirmative-action plans. support of the ERA is an excellent ents wondered if public education are blamed for inflation because of our • Desegregation. Racist oppo­ example of the kind of action we would ever be the same again. fight to keep up with rising prices. Yet nents of equal education continue to should be involving teachers and other Passage of Proposition 13-the so­ billions of our tax dollars are poured try to sabotage busing to achieve dese­ public employees in. called tax relief measure-had promp­ into the real cause of inflation-the gregated education. We need to demonstrate our power. ted offi.cials to· eliminate summer war budget. • Women's rights. Despite its in­ One step teachers can take toward school programs in Los Angeles and in The 1.8-million-member National Ed­ troduction into Congress fifty-five realizing that power is uniting our own many other districts. Teachers had lost ucation Association is meeting in Dal­ years ago, the Equal Rights Amend­ forces. We should end the factional scheduled pay raises. And varying las, Texas, July 1-6. At its last conven­ ment is still not a part of the U.S. warfare between the NEA and the estimates had placed the number of tion in Minneapolis, the NEA called Constitution. It is three states short of American Federation of Teachers. Our possible teacher layoffs as high as for a national conference of public ratification with a March 1979 ·dead­ basic goals are the same: to defend 100,000. employees that could develop a strat­ line. teachers' rights and living standards It is a startling illustration of what egy to. fight the attacks on public • Undocumented workers. Texas and to protect and strengthen public is happening on smaller scales in workers. officials have stepped up victimization education. school systems across the nation. A year has now passed. The public· of undocumented workers with a ruling Some Ohio schools have gone so far as employees conference did not come to that their children cannot receive a to close down for extended periods. be, but the reasons for calling it have free public education. Teachers everywhere are regularly increased. There is no more urgent • Gay rights. California State Sen. Teachers presented with demands that they time than right now for the NEA to John Briggs announced last month "give back" gains won in previous implement the 1977 proposal. · that a half-million signatures were under years. Educational programs are cut A conference of public employees filed to put an initiative on the ballot right and left. could wage a campaign against the to bail'gays from teaching in public Attack And it's not just the schools. Social catastrophic effects of Proposition 13 schools. services of all kinds are under all-out and other such attacks on public edu­ attack and, along with them, the pub­ • Independent labor candidates. cation around the country. It could During the last year, the so-called lic employees who provide those servi- propose alternatives to such measures. ces. , friends of labor in government have Homeowners do need tax relief, but it time after time stabbed us in the back, Working people are told we must pay is the corporations that should make for the California "tax relief' measure from Carter's use of Taft-Hartley up for it by footing the bill for needed against the coal miners to· California with fewer social services, more unem­ services. ployment, and more sales and income Gov. Jerry Brown's jump onto the An alternative to the The conference of public employees Proposition 13 bandwagon. "business unionism" of Albert Shanker could also take up other problems of Public employees need to run candi­ concern to working people: dates from our own ranks, responsible Ed Fruit is a member of the board of by Jeff Mackler • Affirmative action. Phony to us and independent of the Demo­ directors of the Atlanta Association charges of "reverse discrimination" cratic and Republican parties. 32 pp., 50 cents of Educators. Jeff Mackler is a are threatening. to wipe out modest The NEA has traditionally taken Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 member of the board of directors of gains made with affirmative-action progressive stands on many of these West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014. the Hayward Unified Teachers As­ programs in education and employ­ issues. But we must do more-we must Include $.25 for handling. sociation in Hayward, California. ment. Currently there are some 2,000 mobilize our membership and unite

New mood among city workers in New York By Ray Markey reduced by the time it expired in 1980, I ex­ But the District Council 37 leadership jeems to NEW YORK-District Council 37 of the Ameri­ plained. not only want us to bite the bullet-but swallow can Federation of State, County and Municipal Supporters of the contract argued that it W¥ it too. Later on the agenda, the union's political Employees represents nearly one-half of New the best that could be won at this time. We action committee brought in a recommendation York City's public workers. should all rally around our leadership, they that we endorse some forty· or fifty Democratic As a delegate from Local 1930, New York urged. We should bite the bullet-even if it didn't and Republican party candidates in the upcom­ ing New York primary elections. Library Guild, I attended District Council 31's taste so good. June 19 meeting where the proposed new city­ Victor Gotbaum, executive director of District I spoke in opposition. I'd refrain from speaking wide contract for municipal employees was Council 37, ended his speech in support of the against each of these candidates individually, I discussed-and ultimately approved by a four-to­ contract with what he called his favorite state­ said (much laughter from the delegates)-and one margin. ment. "I don't know anyone who couldn't nego­ speak against them all collectively (much ap­ tiate a better contract when they themselves Discussion at the meeting made clear that plause). aren't at the negotiating table," he said. delegates-regardless of how they finally voted­ District Council 37 probably had at least a 70- Many delegates appeared to disagree. This was were under pressure from their ranks to oppose to-80 percent record in backing winning candi­ reflected not only in the votes against, but also in the contract. dates on the city, state, and federal levels, I the very large number of delegates who ab­ explained. Yet all these supposedly prolabor and This meeting was very different from the one stained. at which the previous city-wide contract was pro-District Council37 candidates controlling the ratified. At that time, despite the fact that the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representa­ agreement froze wages, only I and perhaps one tives, the governor's office in Albany, the New other delegate voted against it. But not this time. York State Assembly, and the New York City Joe Sperling, president of Local 371, Social Council were repeatedly stabbing labor in the Service Employees Union, explained that his back (loud applause). executive board had instructed him to speak These politicians say over and over again that against the contract. Sperling said the proposed there is "no money" for public employees. But agreement increased wages by only 5-5.5 percent, Koch's first act as mayor was to give all manage­ not the 8 percent District Council 37 literature ment personnel a $7,000 a year raise. The New implied. York City Council just voted to give themselves a Sperling noted that the $750 bonus replaced a $11,000 a year raise. 1 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) formula that "No money"? What these politicians really had brought his members $882 last year. He mean is that there is no money for working pointed out· that the $672 lump sum COLA people. payment that District Council 37 members were It's time we ran trade unionists for public office to receive after ratification of this contract was instead of backing candidates of big business, I not new money. This sum was already owed to proposed. them from last year. ~ We should get together with other unions and Rick lzzo, president of Local 375, Technical community organizations and run our own can­ Guild, speaking on behalf of his executive board, didates. We should run on a program that puts also urged a no vote. He stressed that his the interests of working people first. We should members, many of whom are engineers, had PLUS 828.78 RAISE run as a labor party. deferred their entire 6 percent increase two years When a voice vote was taken, the· ayes and ago. They needed a contract that brought real BI-WEEKLY FOR COLA nays were about even. They had to ask for a wage gains. See pages 2·3 standing vote. It was approximately three-to-one I also spoke against the contract. The new pact Contract terms, as 'Public Employee Press'. tried to for endorsement of the Democrats and Republi­ means that all members of District Council 37- present them. Despite the hard-sell, many cans, again with many abstentions. particularly those in the lower-pay categories­ AFSCME members didn't buy this attack on their As I said, all this shows the pressure of a new would have their standard of living· drastically living standards. mood among the ranks of city workers.

TH£ MIUTANT/JULY 7, 1171 9 ~P-P-Orl grows for Jul)! 9 action Anti-Nazi mobilization planned in Chicago By John Studer More than 900 Chicago cops were CHICAGO-Plans for an anti-Nazi mobilized. They smuggled the Nazis counterdemonstration here July 9 are into the building, sneaked them into moving ahead. A civil rights coalition the federal plaza, and surrounded them including the Jewish Council on Ur­ in a ring of cops six-deep. Thirteen of ban Affairs, NAACP, Urban League, the anti-Nazi protesters were arrested. Latino Institute, Operation PUSH, and One anti-Nazi demonstrator, Rich other groups has pledged to confront Kaufman, commented: "I've been- in­ the Nazis, who have announced volved in civil rights demonstrations plans to march July 9 in the Marquette and peace demonstrations. The police Park area. never gave us the protection they're The Nazis had originally announced giving these lunatics. When I marched plans to march June 25 in the largely with Martin Luther King in Marquette Jewish town of Skokie. But they were Park in 1967, the crowd was throwing forced to back down, as support bottles and rocks at us and there were swelled for a planned anti-Nazi coun­ no police." termobilization. On the legal front, the Chicago Park Because the all-white Marquette Chicago cops defending Nazi pickets June 24 Department announced June 26 that it Park neighborhood has been the scene will appeal a federal court decision of large racist mobilizations in the allowing the Nazis to march in Mar­ past, the Nazis-who have had a head­ Marquette Park has long been a movement, will thus not only give a quette Park. The court decision, quarters in the area for years­ battleground in the fight for Black fitting answer to the Nazi hate propa­ handed down June 20, struck down a consider it friendlier ground than Sko­ rights in Chicago. Open-housing ganda. It will also be a blow against requirement that a $60,000 insurance kie. marches led by Dr. Martin Luther the racist opponents of school desegre­ policy be posted before any demonstra­ However, if enough support is built King, Jr., were viciously attacked gation and housing desegregation in tion could be held in a park. for a united counterdemonstration in when they entered the area. Chicago. Although this antidemocratic ordi­ Marquette Park, the victory that was Meanwhile, a June 24 picket line by nance came into prominence as a When the Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. twenty Nazis from around the country, result of being used to. bar the Nazis won in Skokie can be repeated. Movement tried to demonstrate in Mar­ On June 25 Rev. Jesse Jackson, held in downtown Chicago, drew 1,500 from city parks, it was originally quette Park in 1976 to revive that director of Operation PUSH, addressed counterdemonstrators. Various left­ passed to prevent antiracist demon­ struggle, they faced organized racist more than 200 people at the Niles wing groups, the right-wing Jewish strators from using Marquette Park. violence in which the Nazis partici­ Township Jewish Congregation Syn­ Defense League, and a number of anti­ The Park District is seeking a stay of pated. agogue, who had come to Skokie from Nazi activists who had come to demon­ all demonstrations-including the California to demonstrate against the A massive, united demonstration by strate in Skokie, participated. planned antiracist, anti-Nazi Nazis. Black, Jewish, Chicano, and Puerto Some in the crowd attempted to counterdemonstration-until its appeal Jackson said, "We must ask our­ Rican groups, and by the trade-union charge the Nazis. is decided. selves, shall we draw together or shall we panic. If the Nazis come to Mar­ quette Park they will spread." Merton Brody, president of the Niles congregation, said Skokie had become New York protest a symbolic site "where men and By Rich Robohm Many speakers, including Carey, the Palestinian people, he was at­ women of goodwill have joined against NEW YORK-A rally against naz­ demanded a government ban on pro­ tacked by a gang of Zionist thugs. evil. Our presence here today in this ism called by the Jewish Community Nazi demonstrations. The politi­ Police had to rescue Mehdi. quiet sanctuary is proof of our momen­ Relations Coundl drew about 1,000 cians and Zionist leaders who spoke Socialist Workers Party members tary victory. We know that the real protesters here June 25. Virtually also affirmed their commitment to at the rally carried a banner saying, racists and anti-Semites still lurk in every preminent political figure in Israel and sought to equate anti­ "Stop Racist Terror-from Crown the world's sewers." the state from Gov. Hugh Carey on Zionism with anti-Semitism. Heights to Skokie" and petitioned Sol Goldstein, a victim of Hitler's down showed up to speak. Dr. Mohammed Mehdi of the Ac­ against the racist police murder of concentratioJJ camps and a leader of The rally was endorsed by major tion Committee on Arab-American Black Crown Heights community the canceled Skokie counterdemonstra­ religious organizations in the New Relations came to the rally to ex­ leader Arthur Miller. This sparked a tion, made a pledge to the Black lead­ York area, the Hellenic-American press his opposition to anti-Semitism sharp debate with others at the rally ers at the service. "I have good news Neighborhood Associations, the Ir­ and solidarity with the anti-Nazi who denied any connection between for you," he said. "On July 9 don't ish Societies, and 100 Black Men, an struggle. But because Mehdi is an anti-Black racism and Nazi anti­ worry, we're all together. We're bro­ organization of Black civic leaders. Arab and a supporter of the rights of Semitism. thers and sisters."

A Justice Department spokesperson responded by claiming investigations have already begun-the ... Brooklyn same excuse for inaction being used by Koch, the Continued from back page cops, and Gold. Special offer But Gold is pressing charges against Samuel Also joining the protests was Ken Miliner, Social­ Miller stemming from the incident where his ist Workers Party candidate for Congress from New brother was murdered. At a June 26 hearing, a York's Nineteenth District. judge again postponed, at the prosecution's request, Speaking at a Militant Forum June 23, Miliner to new readers a preliminary hearing on trumped-up charges of backed demands that the cops who murdered Miller resisting arrest and assault. be indicted for first-degree murder and that the 77th The government's attitude was summed up by Precinct be. abolished. Mayor Koch during an unannounced visit to a Miliner said he supports the idea raised by . Crown Heights block f~stival. In response to shouts leaders of the Arthur Miller Community Defense of "What about Arthur Miller?" Koch responded: Coalition to carry out an independent investigation "Where'd all the crazies come from?" of the murder. He urged testimony and evidence be This attitude is a green light for more cop terror. presented at a mass community meeting. "That's On June 22, Charles King, the Black owner of a the only way the truth can be uncovered," he said. Crown Heights liquor store, was brutally beaten by Miliner demanded that Mayor Koch act to stop a traffic cop. killer cops. "Koch has the highest authority over Many witnesses saw the incident, including a the police. It's his police force that killed Arthur radio reporter.· The officer involved, Joseph Bene­ Miller." detto, was arrested for assault and criminal posses­ Miliner and supporters of his campaign can­ sion of a weapon and suspended from the force. vassed in the Crown Heights community the follow­ The community has been outraged by the wave of ing day, collecting hundreds of signatures on the attacks. There have been several protests in addi­ defense committee petitions. They also sold 125 tion to the funeral that have drawn up to 1,500 copies of the Militant to help get out the truth about people. In addition, thousands of people have the murder. Some 10,000 copies of a statement by The Militant-10 weeks/SI signed petitions demanding punishment for the Miliner on Miller's murder are being distributed by cops who killed Miller and abolition of the 77th SWP members. . For the full story of the fight against racist terror, Precinct, the police station involved in Miller's. Another. group that has joined protests ofMiller's whether in Brooklyn, USA, or Soweto, South murder. death is the Brooklyn and Long Island Baptist Africa, read the 'Militant.' The protests are being coordinated by the Arthur Pastors 'Union, representing 170 churches with D $2 for ten issues (new readers only) Miller Community Defense Committee, which has 500,000 parishioners. They are demanding "imme­ D $8.50 for six months D $15 for one year also announced that it plans an independent inves­ diate suspension of all officers directly involved in Name tigation into the death of Arthur Miller. the Miller assassination." In addition, the New York State NAACP has sent The head of the police investigation responded to Address a telegram to the Justice Department asking it to the pastors June 26-twelve days after Miller's City, State & Zip ::-.------investigate the racist attacks to see whether anyone murder-"! don't have enough evidence to suspend 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014 should be prosecuted under federal civil rights laws. anybody."

,10 'A vote for socialism~-Bianco analyzes his recent election to assembly in Peru By Jose G. Perez ers, was arrested as he went to vote. He How does Hugo Blanco assess his was subsequently also deported. recent election to the 100-member con­ The day after the elections Heman stituent assembly in Peru? Cuentas, another FOCEP candidate, Somgeneral strike and "The armed forces should be set up est vote, 11.5 percent. slates in three of Peru's fourteen other protests against government­ on the basis of committees to defend The Communist Party (Unidad)­ departments. It won 62 percent in imposed price hikes. the workers, peasants, and so on. It one of the two wings that emerged Pasco, and 40 percent in Moquegua Blanco explained that, in addition to was this draft constitution that was from a split in the pro-Moscow CP a and Tacna. Pasco and Moquegua are our central weapon in the campaign." few months ago-received 5.7 per­ copper-mining centers. Tacna is Blanco explained that the election cent. where Blanco was put on trial before was very undemocratic. The Democratic People's Union-a a military court in the mid-1960s for bloc led by the other pro-Moscow CP his role as a central leader of a land faction, called Communist Party reform movement among Quechua­ Indians denied voting rights (Mayorla), and by centrist and Mao­ speaking Indian peasants. "In the first place, illiterates did not ist parties-received 4.2 percent. Of the twenty-five election dis­ have the right to vote, which excluded The Revolutionary Socialist tricts in metropolitan Lima, Peru's some of the most conscious sectors of Party-a capitalist party that uses capital, FOCEP came in first in four Peruvian society, such as the Indian much socialist demagogy but is led districts and second in two others, peasants who do not speak Spanish, by former military officers and ca­ with totals ranging from 15 to 36 that colonial language." Some 3 mil­ binet officials-received 5.9 percent. percent. lion Indians-out of Peru's total popu­ Socialist Revolutionary Action­ The main political forces in the lation of 15 million-fell under this anot:qer capitalist party that uses FOCEP are three Trotskyist parties: provision. socialist rhetoric-received 0.65 per­ Socialist Workers Party (PST), of "Second, soldiers do not have the cent. which Blanco is a leader; Front of most significant con­ right to vote, in a country where the The top vote went to the capitalist the Revolutionary Left/Workers and to the theory military junta rules 'in the name of the Peruvian Aprista Party, also known Peasants Party (FIR/POC); and llil'8C:tic,e of. the Latin American armed forces.' " as American People's Revolutionary Revolutionary Marxist Workers Alliance (APRA), which has long Party (POMR). The PST and FIR/ Blanco also explained that the jun­ l.at¥01talic,n since the Cuban Rev- been Peru's largest party. It received POC are sister organizations of the ta's laws made it very difficult for 36 percent. U.S. Socia)ist Workers Party and are working-class slates to even get on the The right-wing Christian People's ballot. affiliated with the Fourth Interna­ Party received 26 percent. tional. The POMR is affiliated to the As if the ground rules of the elections Death: The ••.· Peasant The other three slates, all pre­ Organizing Committee for the Re­ weren't bad enough, the last month of sented by capitalist parties: received construction of the Fourth Interna­ .PeN. 178 PP~ Cloth the election campaign was conducted $3.45. 3 percent or less of the popular vote. tional: under martial law, as the government In addition to casting a vote for a The FOCEP also included a Mao­ Pathfinder. Press, tried to crush anti-austerity protests. slate, each voter also cast one vote ist party, local miners, bank Yorf(, N.Y. Scores of protesters were killed and for a candidate of that slate. Each workers, peasant and other unions; 1·1~311•1· l~fela inc:lucJte $.2t; tot' thousands jailed. slate receives seats in the 100- organizations of shantytown harvllitrm! $~It if Publication of leftist periodicals was member constituent assembly on the dwellers; and several well-known prohibited. Free access to the basis of its percentage of the vote. unaffiliated socialists. -J.G.P. government-controlled radio, televi-

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 11 District 31 steel union prepares USWA for fall international convention By Wendy Lyons of the Equal Rights Amendment and presidents CHICAGO-More than 700 dele­ of the July 9 March on Washington for gates attended the District 31 United the ERA. A District 31 contingent will Steelworkers conference here June 16- join the march. start drive 17. Most of the discussion and debate But a debate ensued over a resolu­ aimed at preparing the district for the tion calling for the formation of union's international constitutional women's committees on all levels of convention slated for this September. the union. for right In his keynote speech District Direc­ Doreen Labby, a delegate from Local tor James Balanoff said, "According to 1010 (Inland Steel, East Chicago, Indi- recent economic forecasts from the . ana), explained, "If the company can to ratify White House our economy is supposed speed me up, violate my contractual to be on the road to recovery. But every rights, then everyone's rights are in By Wendy Lyons time I go into a supermarket and I see danger of being violated." CHICAGO-A number of local union that prices are higher this week than - As the resolution was about to be officials began an effort here to win last, every time I hear of layoffs or voted on a Black male delegate yelled the right for all steelworkers to vote on plant closings, I wonder whose econ­ out from the balcony, "Why do we their contracts. omy is on the road to recovery. have to get into the business of split­ As the United Steelworkers District "Perhaps big business is on the road ting up men and women? Why can't we 31 conference opened June 16, some to recovery, but our economy is not on just all be steelworkers?" delegates sported "Right to Ratify" the road to recovery." An older Black man answered "It's stickers. Balanoff hit hard at unemployment, time for us to fight for the rights of the While many USWA-organized pointing out that the rates for Black women. They are being discriminated workers now vote on their contracts, and youth joblessness are much higher against the way we were when we first those in basic steel, can, aluminum, than government figures for overall came into the mills. Sometimes worse. and nonferrous mining do not have unemployment. He called for a federal People laugh and say, 'Why fight for that right. Instead, under the Experi­ law to shorten the workweek with no the women?' but I say it's time for all mental Negotiating Agreement, a no­ cut in pay. of us to stand up and fight." strike deal between the steel corpora­ This theme was picked up by guest Several women pointed out that tions and the top union officials, only speaker Frank Runnels, president of women steelworkers want to work the local presidents vote on contracts. United Auto Workers Local 22 in De­ through the union but they need a The District 31 conference approved troit and head of the All Unions' special union committee to deal with a right-to-ratify resolution directed at Committee for a Shorter Work Week. the particular forms of discrimination the upcoming September constitutional The committee is lobbying among they face. Women's committees would convention. It proposed that "the con­ members of Congress in behalf of the strengthen the participation of women Militant/Bill Lerman stitution of USWA be changed to pro­ Conyers Bill, which would lower the and strengthen the union as a whole, November march in support of Mesabi vide that no collective bargaining official workweek to thirty-five hours they argued. After a full discussion, strikers. Such backing helped iron ore agreement be entered into without the by 1982. the resolution was passed. miners to hold out for better contract, approval of the total membership by The conference also voted to support conference was told. referendum vote." Women's rights affirmative:action programs for Blacks "We have to look at the coal miners," A lively discussion took place around and women and to oppose the racist said one delegate. "They were able to women's rights. The gathering went on Bakke decision by the California Su- · 6787 at Bethlehem Steel in Bums tum down those lousy contracts the record, nearly unanimously, in support preme Court. Harbor, Indiana. They consider this bosses wanted to shove down their action, though short of placing the throat. We need to be able to do the Union democracy local in receivership, an escalation of same." Union democracy was a major theme factional moves McBride has made In his keynote address, District Di­ of the conference. Local presidents against District 31 since the election. rector James Balanoff said of the announced a drive to wih the right of A resolution demanding that the ENA, "Any benefits it had have all all members to vote on their contracts "monitor"" be removed was adopted gone to the companies. Remember the (see accompanying story). overwhelmingly. jobs we were supposed to save by Delegates approved a resolution in One exception to the trend of voting eliminating the strike threat? Where favor of retaining the right of the for the extension of union democracy are they now?" membership to elect international of­ was the defeat-without discussion-of One delegate declared, "If the mem­ ficers and district directors by referen­ a resolution calling on District 31 "to bership had the rlght to ratify, we dum vote. work for the elimination of the unde­ wouldn't be living under the ENA Many union militants fear that the mocratic and illegal anti-communist now." international leadership will try to clause in our International Constitu­ At the end of the first day's session, take this right away in wake of the tion." At the District 31 conference last seven local presidents held a news wide support for Steelworkers Fight October, such a resolution passed. conference to declare their support for Back candidate Ed Sadlowski in the At one point in the gathering, inter­ the right of membership ratification. 1977 election for union presidency. national Vice-president Leon Lynch Speaking for the group, Bill An­ District 31 Director Balanoff won of­ delivered a tirade against imports of drews, president of Local 1010, said, fice in that election as a Fight Back steel made by workers in other coun­ "We hope to come into the constitu­ candidate. tries. There was no response to this by tional convention in September with Militant/Andy Rose Delegates were concerned about in­ the delegates. In the past many offi­ enough signatures to show that those BALANOFF: Calls for shorter workweek ternational President Lloyd McBride's cials in the district have gone_ on presidents representing a majority of with no cut in pay. appointment of a "monitor" over Local record against such procompany pro­ the nation's steelworkers would not tectionist schemes. object to such a change." "What the coal miners !lid woke us Solidarity up and showed us what sticking to­ Steelworker runs for senator Two representatives of recent strike gether can do," Andrews said. CHICAGO-Supporters of Social­ are campaigning and stab us in the battles sounded the themes of labor During the question period Andrews ist Workers Party candidate Pat back when they are elected." She solidarity and rank-and-file control of and the other local presidents stressed Grogan campaigned at the steel urges the formation of a labor party the unions. They were Joe Samargia, that they were uniting around the one conference here. Grogan, a steel­ based on the unions. President of USWA Local1938 on the issue of the right to vote. "We think the worker at U.S. Steel South Works, is Mesabi Iron Range, and Kenneth right to ratification will be beneficial running for U.S. Senate from Illi­ Dawes, president of United Mine to all members, and everyone should nois. Workers District 12 in Illinois. support it," said Andrews. Many of her campaign issues Samargia thanked the leaders and Also appearing at the news confer­ strike a responsive chord among member& of District 31 for their finan­ ence were local presidents Robert Bam­ steelworkers, as shown by the dis­ cial and moral support during the iron hie, Local 2; Stanley Maciejczak, Local cussion at the conference. These ore miners' 138-day strike. 5200; Joe Samargia, Local1938; Floyd include support for a shorter work­ He told how rank-and-file support Watson, Local 1066; Paul Kaczocha, week with no cut in pay to provide from all over the country enabled both Local 6787; and Rudy Nichols, Local jobs, opposition to the racist Bakke the iron ore miners an!l coal miners to 6103. decision, and support for the Equal hold out for better contracts. Andrews said other presidents who Rights Amendment. Dawes talked of the role of national so far have endorsed the right of a In a statement distributed to dele­ support for the 110-day coal strike and membership vote on contracts include: gates, she solidarized herself with stressed that in the miners union "ev­ Richard Alexander, Local 1657; Jack efforts to win more democracy in the ery man and woman who works under Parton, Local 1014; John Chico, Local union. Such efforts, she says, will our agreement has a right to vote for 65; Joe Romano, Local15271; and Ron strengthen the union to better meet that agreement." Marshall, Local 6102. attacks by the employers. One resolution passed at the confer­ Also, Leonard Tomaszewski, Local Grogan also raises the idea of a ence opposed construction of the Bailly 3061; Ted Smolarck, Local 3745; Nor­ new political strategy for the labor nuclear plant in Indiana and called on man Purdue, Local1011; Joseph Kotel­ movement. She proposes to end the that state to hold referendum votes on chuk, Local 2610; David Wilson, Local pattern of "giving our money and whether any such plants should be 2609; Richard Whitwam, Local 2659; votes to the Democrats and Republi­ Militant/Charles Ostrofsky built. Another demanded that U.S. Ed Mann, Local 1462; and James cans who are our 'friends' when they PAT GROGAN Steel cease operations in racist South Paradine, Local 2697. Africa. 12 PROD meets in Cincinnati Dissident Teamsters map contract fight By Peggy Brundy During 1977 nearly 1,000 road drivers CINCINNATI-More than 200 died in accidents. members of the Professional Drivers Members also called for the right to Council for Health and Safety (PROD), elect their international officers; pro­ a nationwide Teamster dissident tection of their wages through an group, met here June 10 and 11. effective cost-of-living clause; and the PROD emerged out of a 1971 confer­ safeguarding of their pension funds, ence on truck safety sponsored by notoriously spent to enrich trucking Ralph Nader. In 1975, after the disap­ employers, Teamster bureaucrats, and pearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the group organized crime. turned its attention to union reform. In The conference here approved a 1976 it released a book-length expose of strategy of lobbying for legislation to corruption in the International Broth­ benefit Teamsters, selective lawsuits erhood of Teamsters bureaucracy. against IBT officials, and recruiting In the past year PROD has concen­ other Teamsters to PROD's fight as trated its efforts on building up a base the way to implement the adopted of rank-and-file support. According to resolutions. The dissident Teamsters conference organizers, PROD now has also plan to r~n campaigns aimed at a membership of 6,400 in twenty-five voting corrupt union officials out of chapters-more than twice the office. -members and four times the chapters Militant In his keynote speech Burton Hall, a organized a year ago. Teamsters want more time off, changes in the grievance procedure, the local right to New York attorney, placed great em­ In preparation for this conference, strike, and job safety. phasis on the necessity for unity. "Po­ PROD's staff surveyed the member­ litics and religion should not be used to ship to find out what its major con­ its provisions set wage and pension Teamsters want more time off and divide workers from each other in cerns are in the 1979 National Master guidelines for non-trucking divisions limits on compulsory overtime (the terms of the union," he said. "Republi­ Freight Agreement. as well. standard workweek for many drivers is cans, Democrats, and socialists have Negotiations for the 1979 contract The priorities of PROD members, now seventy hours); changes in the the same right that Fitzsimmons does -are set to begin this December. Al­ staff attorney Steve Early reported, are grievance procedure so it can be used to their political views. though many of the 2 million Teams­ much like those the coal miners fought to fight for better working conditions; "This is the first PROD convention ters are not covered by this agreement, for in their recent 110-day strike. the local right to strike; and job safety. Continued on page 21

PROD's review of Teamster books 'Dobbs contribution should not be forgotten' The May-June issue of 'PROD Dispatch' sters had no one to tum to but themselves. Some PROD members may not like Teamster carried a feature headlined 'Teamster His­ Powerful judges, politicians, private thugs, the Power and Teamster Rebellion simply because tory: Fact vs. Fiction.' Part of the two-page police, and even some of their own top labor they disagree with Dobbs' political views. No spread was a scathing review of the movie officials were all arrayed against them in their doubt there were many members of Local 574 'F.I.S.T.' The other part reviewed the first struggle to unionize. who elected and re-elected Dobbs as secretary­ two of· Farrell Dobbs's series on that In his books, Dobbs shows how strong rank­ treasurer who disagreed with them also~ union's history, 'Teamster Rebellion' and and-file organization, democratic leadership, and But the membership backed Dobbs and his 'Teamster Power.' mass action enabled the fledgling Teamster associates, because, in the words of the Missouri Major excerpts from the review of movement in Minneapolis to overcome these Teamster, "They were outstanding trade union­ Dobbs's books by PROD staff attorney obstacles and make the city a "union town." ists with a genius f9r organization and a keen Steve Early follow. He recounts in exciting detail how rank-and­ sense of union politics." Dobbs was a leader of the 1934 Min:qea­ file Teamster organizers then fanned out to sign Dobbs' contribution to building the Teamsters ·polis strikes. He is a leader of the Socialist up non-union should not be forgotten and might even lead Workers Party. workers in other some readers to re-examine the red-baiting at­ Midwestern states tacks on a few Teamsters active today in the The one good thing about "F.I.S.T."­ and cities using movement to regain rank-and-file control over Hollywood's thinly veiled account of the rise and road drivers to the union. fall of Jimmy Hoffa-is that it may stimulate spread the word. greater interest in Teamster history. The 11-state or­ Like many unions, the IBT doesn't want ganizing drive di­ Teamster rank-and-filers to know too much about rected by Dobbs For the facts their own union's past. eventually led to ne­ This is because a lot of unions today.:_ gotiation of the first including the Teamsters-no longer resemble the area-wide trucking militant, democratic labor organizations that agreement and for­ American working people struggled and died to mation of the Cen­ build-particularly in the 1930's. tral States Drivers Although the IBT was not a CIO union, it was Council. He des­ actively involved in the great labor upsurge that cribes how his local took place during that period. DOBBS and others were And between 1934 and 1940, Minneapolis was then able to consoli­ one of its strongholds, a center of successful date their contract gains by building a strong Teamster organizing drives that firmly en­ system of elected job stewards and using the trenched the union in the long-haul trucking Teamsters' new joint committee grievance proce­ industry. dure. Farrell Dobbs was a key figure in the Minnea­ The local right-to-strike was preserved and polis Teamsters, a leader of the 1934 general used selectively but effectively, ·in the event of strike in that city, and, according to Jimmy deadlock, to force reinstatement of unjustly dis­ Hoffa's autobiography, the "master architect" of charged workers or immediate action on other the union's over-the-road organizing efforts in major unresolved contract grievances. ... the Midwest. Readers of his books will quickly discover that Dobbs has written four books about his expe­ his own later troubles with the International riences. The first two-Teamster Rebellion and stemmed in part from the fact that he and other Teamster Power-are worthy of study by every leaders of Minneapolis Local574 (re-chartered as rank-and-file Teamster reformer today. By Farrell Dobbs 544) were also socialists and members of a small Dobbs' story of early Teamster organizing left-wing political party. Teamster Rebellion 192 pp., paper $3.95 battles will be particularly instructive for those Teamster Power 256 pp., paper $4.45 Teamsters who still tend to look to others­ But the threat they posed to the Teamster Teamster Politics 256 pp., paper $4.45 namely, lawyers, the courts, public officials, and leadership really involved something else-what Teamster Bureaucracy 256 pp., paper $4.45 government agencies-to solve the problems they even Hoffa acknowledged was "a vision ... have with their employers or the union leader­ enormously be'neficial to the labor movement." Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New ship.. It was quite simply Dobbs' vision of the union '(ork, New York 10014. Please include $.25 for In 1933, when Dobbs first got involved in the as an organization run by and for the workihg postage and handling; $.50 if order of more than union as a Minneapolis coalyard worker, Team- members who belong to it. - $5.

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 13 Calif. steelworker's firing National picket line weakens seniority rights Labor Law Reform Bill back to committee vocal and active in favor of unions and By Sandi Sherman After a nineteen-day filibuster, the Senate sent the Labor Law Reform SAN JOSE, Calif.-Cerro Metals has in defense of workers' rights. Bill back to the Human Resources Committee June 22. Proponents of the succeeded in firing a union activist The union movement has several with seven months seniority, further ways to try to ensure job security. The bill were never able to muster the sixty votes necessary to force discussion chipping away at workers' right to a very existence of a union contract to and vote on the legislation. secure job. begin with limits the employer's ability For some time the bill has been the rallying cry of the country's union Tom Tomasko, a member of United to fire workers at will. officialdom. Its supporters portrayed it as a modest effort to strengthen Steelworkers Local 5649, was fired in The seniority system in contracts is the powers of the National Labor Relations Board in union organizing April, supposedly for falsifying his job a means unions use to protect job drives. But by the time it reached the Senate floor, it had been "compro­ application. Last month he lost his security. Where workers lack seniority mised" into a strikebreaking amendment to the Wagner Act. One appeal before a union-management rights, employers fire at will wqrkers provision grants the courts new authority in breaking "wildcat" strikes. grievance board. The USWA declined too old to work as fast- as younger In a bid to placate the bill's opponents, Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd to take his case to arbitration. people, union militants or other "trou­ offered an amendment that gutted the bill's positive features.- For That such phony excuses are regu­ blemakers," or those whose political instance, union organizers' access to workers would be restricted to larly used to weed out workers the ideas they disagree with. certain times and places. • company finds "undesirable" is shown Companies whose workers are in The Byrd amendment also lowered rates for back-pay awards, allowed by a "memorandum of understanding" unions are usually forced to resort to employers more time to stall representation elections, and required the with the union that workers cannot be more roundabout ways to whittle away secretary of labor to remove the law's corporate violators from federal fired for falsifying applications after job security. That was the case with contract sanctions once they took steps to comply. one year on the job. Tomasko's firing. The bill could possibly be returned to the Senate floor after July 15. If it Tomasko was a leading Bay Area But the issue was clearly one of is, its sponsors say it will be considerably changed. According to activist in support of the coal miners' seniority rights and job security. And, Democratic Sen. Harrison Williams, union access to the workplace might strike last winter. Cerro began an unfortunately for all Cerro workers, be dropped altogether and the time for stalling elections extended even the company got away with it. investigation of his background in more. March, shortly after he wrote a story Before the union declined to take the But, says Williams, "the principles of the bill will be preserved"! for the Militant. In it he detailed un­ case any further, a number of union safe working conditions at the New­ officials spoke out for Tomasko's right ark, California, plant. to reinstatement. Dissident Teamster challenges Fitzsimmons The company detectives discovered For example, Walter Johnson, presi­ Pete Camarata, a leader of the . such "relevant" information as Tomas­ dent of Retail Clerks LocalllOO in San dissident Teamsters for a Demo­ ko's voter registration with the Social­ Francisco, and Mike Nye, business cratic Union, announced June 23 ist Workers Party. agent of the Santa Clara County Cen­ that he will run against Frank "What this has to do with being a tral Labor Council, both made state­ Fitzsimmons for the Teamsters brass meltf'!r is beyond me," says To­ ments in support of Tomasko. presidency at the union's 1981 con­ masko. "It never occurred to Cerro, Two representatives of the United vention. apparently, to spend the hundreds of Mine Workers who worked with To­ International Teamster officials dollars it cost to hire those spies on masko in the Bay Area coalition to are elected by convention something worthwhile-like the water support the coal miners also came to delegates-overwhelmingly loyal fountain we have been demanding for his defense. local officials-rather than by months." "There is only one reason for the membership referendum. Neverthe­ Holding possible application falsifi­ discharge of Tom Tomasko by Cerro less, Camarata. and his supporters intend to press for their right to cation over workers' heads is another Metals-his political beliefs," said Joe access to the union's magazine during. the three-year campaign. way the company can intimidate Jurczak, staff coordinator for the Asked to respond to Camarata's announcement at his news conference workers into not standing up for their Pennsylvania Coal Miners Political the same day, Fitzsimmons dismissed it with the quip, "I didn't bring my rights. Action Committee (COMPAC). flit gun today." The Cerro-USWA "memorandum of "In the coal camps of Pennsylvania Fitzsimmons's news conference, the first since December 1975, followed understanding," although not part of forty years ago," Jurczak continued, perfunctory union hearings of charges against the Teamster chief. PROD, the contract and not legally binding, "you had to be a registered Republican another union reform group, has accused Fitzsimmons of squandering supposedly lifts that threat after one to get a job, and you had to vote union funds, condoning nepotism, and allowing the union to be controlled Republican in order to keep it. If they year. But it means that a Cerro em­ by organized crime. ployee is not on probation for 60 days, can take away the political rights of as the USWA contract states, but for at any one individual, the rights of all of least 365 days. · us are in jeopardy. Court OKs right to distribute union literature_. Without a union, as unorganized Terry Fry, western regional coordi­ In two related decisions June 22 the Supreme Court reaffirmed a workers are painfully aware, it is all nator of COMPAC, declared that To­ union's right to distribute 'its literature on company property. National too easy for an employer to discipline masko's firing was "not only an act Labor Relations Board restrictions still limit such distributions to non­ and fire workers arbitrarily. The first against his rights, but an act against working areas and hours inside the plant. victims of such firings are ·those most the whole union movement." In a seven-to-two vote the court majority decided the United Paper­ workers International has the right to pass out its union newsletter inside a Texas subsidiary of Time Inc. Management had banned the newslet­ ter's distribution, claiming it discussed "outside" political issues. A managem~nt spokesperson testified that he "didn't see any way" that articles criticizing Texas "right to work" laws or Nixon's veto of minimum-wage legislation were "related to our association with the Books and pamphlets on union." In a second decision the court unanimously ruled that hospital workers have the right to distribute union literature in hospital cafeterias. the ·labor movement Boston's Beth Israel Hospital charged that such distribution disrupts patient care.

The Fight for Union . . . but denies right to enforce strike call In a five-to-four decision June 21 the Supreme Court found the Writers Democracy in Steel Guild guilty of violating federal labor law because the union had By Andy Rose disciplined writer-producer and writer-director members who worked Tells about the background to Ed Sadlowski's during a 1973 guild strike. campaign, lessons from the history of the CIO, and According to the court majority, labor unions can't discipline supervi­ questions facing all working people today. 40 pp. 50 sory members who cross picket lines to perform their regular supervisory cents. duties. "In 'short," Justice Stewart wrote for the minority, "the court's decision prevents a union with supervisory members from effectively calling and -A Struggle for enforcing a strike." · Union Democracy By Ed Heisler Study exposes coal strike layoff hoax Tells about the Right to Vote Committee of the United The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted six surveys between Transportation Union-how it was organized, how it February 12 and March 25 to assess the employment impact of the 110- won a mass following among railroad workers, and what . day coal strike. it was able to accomplish. 47 pp. 75 cents. At the time, big business-backed up with an hysterical campaign in the news media-charged the miners would be responsible for millions of workers being thrown out of work. Labor's Giant Step: Twenty Years of the CIO But the government's findings now show that layoffs of factory By Art Preis. 538 pp., $6.95; cloth $20 workers never exceeded 25,500. Even counting the 20,000 transportation workers laid off, the total number of affected workers was less than 1 Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, New York 10014. percent ih the eleven states most dependent on coal. Please enclose $.25 for postage and handling; $.50 if order of more than "When asked each week what employment cutbacks in their plants they $5.00. anticipated during the following week, the employers surveyed consist­ ently overestimated layoffs," reports the U.S. Labor Department. -Shelley Kramer

14 By David Frankel A new charged international atmosphere has been created by the Carter administration's re­ peated attacks on Soviet and Cuban involvement in Africa. Carter's anticommunist campaign reached a peak following the rebellion in Zaire's Shaba province in mid-May. At the same time, lurid stories of atroci­ ties against whites were splashed across the capital­ ist press. Under cover of this racist and anticommunist propaganda, French and Belgian paratroopers in­ tervened in Zaire. U.S. transport planes and some U.S. military personnel participated in the interven­ tion. Billed as a "rescue mission," this imperialist adventure was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. Of course, it had nothing to do with saving human life. Its immediate aim was to prop up the corrupt dictatorship of Zairian Presi­ dent Mobutu Sese Seko. As the editors of the New York Times admitted June 15: "With or without Cuban involvement, Mr. Carter seemed determined to lend a hand in rescu­ ing the Mobutu Government, and giving its bank­ rupt treasury yet another infusion. Zaire is a mess and seems destined to remain a mess for a long time while Western interests-as foreign to Africa as the Cubans-seek to salvage their investments in Ka­ tangan ores and Mobutu bonds." This was a sharp shift for the Times, which had previously hailed the intervention in Zaire as a response to "the Soviet-Cuban legions in Africa." Caught In the lie Prompting the shift was Carter's June 14 news conference. After weeks of repeated attacks on the Cuban government for being behind the Zaire rebellion, Carter virtually admitted that he did not have a shred of proof for his charges. He lamely Cuban government from extending aid and solidar­ The April 1974 revolt of the Armed Forces Move­ suggested that if the Cuban government really ity to the Black masses fighting for their liberation, ment in Portugal came about largely as a reaction opposed the insurgents, it could have done more to has become the central concern of imperialist policy against the devastating impact on Portuguese capi­ stop them-even using its own troops against them. in Africa. From this point of view, the threats talism of the brutal, thirteen-year-long colonial war Not surprisingly; the Times editors thought it against Cuba and the groundwork being laid for waged by the totalitarian Salazar regime against prudent to back up a bit. "President Carter's vigor­ further U.S. military intervention in Africa pose the Black population of Angola, Mozambique, and ous charges that Cuba bore responsibility for last serious dangers. Guinea-Bissau. The first declaration of the new month's invasion of Zaire were unworthy of Ameri­ Carter, of course, has moved with great caution. military government in Portugal was a promise to can diplomacy to begin with. They turned out to be As one administration official recently acknowl­ negotiate peace in their colonies. · unprovable except by a kind of guilt-by­ edged, "It's our general assessment"that the mood Naturally, this was a tremendous inspiration to association," said the Times. of the U.S. as a whole is one of reservation about the African masses. Strikes and demonstrations in It was a diplomatic way of noting that Carter had ... military involvements overseas, and that any­ the cities reflected their increased combativity. The been caught in his lie. thing that raises that possibility has to be very armed struggle also stepped up. In Mozambique, for Similarly, Christian Science Monitor correspond­ clearly justified.... " example, whole Black units of the Portuguese army ent James Nelson Goodsell reported June 16: "Presi­ Carter has attempted to justify such moves by deserted to the liberation forces, taking their equip­ dent Carter's apparent shift away from confronta­ attacks on the "red menace." Thus, his red-scare ment with them. tion with Cuba over whatever role it played in the campaign around the Shaba rebellion ties in di­ Although the new Portuguese regime tried to stall Katangan invasion of Shaba Province in Zaire has rectly to broader U.S. policy in Africa. This becomes in hopes of finding some way to retain influence come none too soon for many in the Washington clearer if we recall the events of the past few years. over its African colonies, it was finally forced to intelligence community. concede to the demands for independence. Angola, "The evidence of Cuban involvement in the recent the last of the Portuguese colonies to gain its Zairian fighting was, in the view of these intelli­ Imperialist strongholds crumble independence, celebrated the end of 500 years of gence sources, simply 'too flimsy' to stand up under Since the spring of 1974, two pillars of the Portuguese rule on November 11, 1975. close scrutiny." imperialist status quo in Black Africa-the Portu­ How did Washington react to these advances by But the crisis in Zaire was not an isolated inci­ guese empire and the Ethiopian monarchy-have the African liberation movement? dent. Carter's intervention there, and his threats crumbled. At the same time, a third pillar-the It was dismayed. against Cuba, come in the context of an ongoing racist, white minority regimes in southern Africa­ While giving lip-service to the struggle against upsurge in the African liberation struggle. is under increasing pressure from the Black major­ colonial rule, and while claiming to abhor the racist How to halt this upsurge, and how to stop the ity. Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 15 Continued from preceding page Of course, for many decades prior to this the regimes in Rhodesia and South Africa, Washing­ colonial regimes in southern Africa had depended ton's real policy all along had been to support the on U.S. and other imperialist support in order to Portuguese empire and the white minority regimes. survive. But the "Tar Baby" policy represented a more open tilt in their direction. Washington backed Kissinger's 'Tar Baby' Lisbon's colonial wars in Africa with extensive In April 1969, shortly after his inauguration, military aid and financial assistance, while step­ Richard Nixon ordered his National Security Coun­ ping up loans, trade, and investment designed to cil to review U.S. policy toward southern Africa. strengthen the South African and Rhodesian re­ Carried out under the direction of Henry Kissinger, gimes. the study advised that "whites are here [in Africa] to stay and that the only way that constructive John Stockwell, the former chief of the CIA's change can come about is through them. There is no Angola task force, comments on the result of the hope for the blacks to gain the political rights they "Tar Baby" policy in his book, In Search of Ene­ seek through violence, which will only lead to chaos mies. Stockwell notes that during the colonial war, and increased opportunities for the communists." "American bombs and napalm fell on the Angolan Nicknamed "Tar Baby" by White House advisers, nationalists," and that, not surprisingly, the col­ the policy adopted by Nixon was to "maintain lapse of the Portuguese empire "caught the United public opposition to raCial repression but relax States by surprise, without graceful policy alterna­ political and economic restrictions on the white tives and out of contact with the African revolution­ states.... " aries."

Angola & South Africa

At first, Washington intervened in Angola to officials had urged the South Africans to go into Fall of Portuguese dictatorship propelled mass mobilization , stoke the fires of civil war among the three compet­ Angola. An anonymous South African "high offi­ capital of Angola, celebrate Independence In November 19' ing nationalist organizations.* By preventing what cial" also told New York Times correspondent Stockwell calls a "cheap:' MPLA victory, the U.S. Henry Kamm, according to a February 6, 1976, rulers hoped to exhaust the Angolan masses and article, that "we accepted the utterances of Mr. weaken the ability of an independent Angola to Kissinger and others. We felt surely he had the stand up to imperialist demands. necessary pull to come forward with the goods." Helped by Soviet aid, however, the MPLA began According to Stockwell, the CIA collaborated to get the upper hand. Washington responded by closely with the South African secret police, and at encouraging the South Mrican regime to invade one point Washington was.even considering the Angola. By October 1975 there were 3,000 South direct shipment of U.S. arms to the South Africans African troops deep inside Angola. in Namibia. This imperialist invasion of Angola altered the character of the conflict. It was no longer primarily But despite his best efforts, Kissinger was unable a civil war. It posed a deadly th:reat to the anti­ "to come forward with the goods." The majority of imperialist struggle of the people of Angola and the American ruling class did not think it could get their right to self-determination. away with large-scale involvement in Kissinger's dirty war in Angola. They knew the American The U.S.-South African axis people would not tolerate another Vietnam. For about two months, the capitalist news media around the world almost completely blanked out 'An international outlaw'? news of the South African invasion. Meanwhile, Ford and Kissinger were joined in their propa­ Kissinger kept up a barrage of threats and denunci­ ganda campaign by an obedient big-business press. ations against the Cuban government, which sent For example, the New York Times editorialized troops and aid to held the MPLA resist the imperial­ against "Soviet imperialism" in Mrica in its No­ ist invasion. vember 26, 1975, issue; saying: As news of the South African invasion did come "Since October the MPLA has been reinforced by out, the U.S. imperialists lied through their teeth, a 3,000-man force of Cuban .personnel. Whatever vehemently denying that they had encouraged it. military supplies have reached other factions in (Later, during the Somali invasion of Ethiopia, Angola from American sources are paltry and tardy similar denials came from Washington. It's hardly by contrast." surprising that the imperialists lie about their role in such adventures. Imagine what the reaction of The Times editorial tried to blame the Soviets and the American people would have been back in 1965 Cubans for the escalation of the Angolan war-a lie if Lyndon Johnson had told the truth about what he that is so outrageous in light of the initial U.S.­ - was doing in Vietnam.) South African intervention that it deserves equal Cuban troops aided ~ngolans in resisting imperialist lnvasi' Looking back at Kissinger's statements on An­ place with Ford's claim that he was only trying to gola, one is struck by how similar they are to those give the Angolans "an opportunity to make the of the Carter administration today. On November decision for themselves" on who should run their 10, 1975, Kissinger warned that Soviet policy in country. Angola "was not compatible with the spirit of Unlike Kissinger, however, the Times editors detente"-a formula that was echoed by Carter aide realized that a U.S. show of force in Angola was Zbigniew Brzezinski May 28 when he said Mos­ "something that the American people would never cow's behavior was not "compatible with what was countenance now." once called the code of detente." Despite such warnings, Ford and Kissinger se­ On November 24, 1975-at a time when South riously considered a direct attack on Cuba. Ford African troops had driven more than 600 miles into himself assailed the Cuban government as "an Angola!-Kissinger declared that "the United international outlaw" and "a regime of agression" States cannot remain indifferent" to Soviet and for its role in countering the South African inva­ Cuban support for the Angolan government. sion. He threatened to take "appropriate m.easures" Once again, Kissinger's words recall Carter's <:tgainst the Cuban revolution. May 30 speech in which he insisted that NATO Among the measures considered, says Stockwell, "cannot be indifferent" to Soviet and Cuban poli­ was "the feasibility of making an. overt military cies in Africa. feint at Cuba itself to force Castro to recall his The collaboration between Washington and South troops and defend the home island." Africa became so apparent that former U.S. Ambas­ According to the account of the Cuban role in sador to the United Nations Patrick Moynihan tried Angola by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Mar­ to minimize it by stating December 14, 1975, that quez (an account published by the official Cuban there was only a "convergence of policy" between news agency, Prensa Latina) there were other the two governments. "We are doing the same threats too. Garcia Marquez says that Cuban thing, sort of," added the former Harvard professor. planes gomg to Angola were stopped from refueling The full measure of Washington's hypocrisy in . in Guyana when "the ambassador of the United this matter was exposed when South African De­ States personally threatened It with the bombard­ fense Minister Pieter Botha indicated that top U.S. ment and destruction of the airport at Georgetown." In light of such threats, one might well ask, who was the real "international outlaw"? Of course, the Cubans carefully weighed the * The Movimento Popular de Liberta~iio de Angola threat of U.S. action. "The possibility that the (MPLA-People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola); the Uniiio Nacional para Independencia Total de Angola United States might intervene openly, rather than (UNITA-National Union for the Total Independence of through the mercenaries and South Mrica as it had Angola); and the Frente Nacional de Liberta~iio de Angola been doing for some time, was obviously one of the (FNLA-Angolan National Liberation Front). most disturbing unknowns," Garcia Marquez noted. Soweto, 1976. South African capitalism Is creating its own t

16 "But a rapid analysis suggested that at least The United States needed to avoid seeming-not Washingfon would think twice about doing so: only in the eyes of Mrican countries, but especially "It had just freed itself from the morass of in the eyes of American blacks-to ally itself with Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. It had a racist South Africa. Beyond all this it was in the President no one had elected. The CIA was under midst of an election campaign in its Bicentennial fire in Congress and low-rated by public opinion. year."

Cuba's role

Certainly the decision of the Cuban government newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, "there to stand up to Washington and its South African wouldn't be a single soldier of Mobutu's or of King allies in Angola was a move of extraordinary Hassan's [of Morocco] left in that province." courage. A small country of 10 million people If the French and Belgian regimes had really successfully defied the mightiest imperialist power thought there were Cubans in Shaba during the in the world. The South African army was forced to uprising there this May, they would have thought ~thdraw, and that threat to the Angolan indepen­ several times before sending their paratroopers in. dence struggle was beaten back. Carter and Brzezinski, just as Ford and Kissinger What an inspiration this was to the Black free­ before them, are deathly afraid that the Cubans will dom fighters in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South begin to take an active part in the struggle in Africa itself! Zimbabwe. The June 6 announcement by Joshua In fact, the defeat of the imperialist intervention Nkomo, one of the major Zimbabwean nationalist in Angola was accompanied by the intensification leaders, acknowledging that Zimbabwean freedom of the guerrilla war in- Zimbabwe. The regime in fighters were being trained by Cuban troops, un­ llacks against colonial rule. Above, workers in Luanda, Mozambique felt strong enough as a result of the derscored this danger to imperialism in southern victory in Angola to close its borders to Rhodesian Africa. trade. Certainly Castro has made no secret of his And only three months after the South African intentions. Calling Africa "the weakest link in the withdrawal, the Black township of Soweto ex­ imperialist chain today," he· said in the interview ploded. The ensuing strikes and demonstrations . quoted above: among Black workers and students throughout "Only the continuation of the armed struggle of South Africa revealed to the whole world the explo­ the people of Zimbabwe can develop the required sive potential building up in the main bastion of strength and mobilization to overcome the Rhode­ imperialist rule in Africa. sian racists and guarantee true national indepen­ No wonder Ford and Kissinger considered going dence. I don't think that peaceful or diplomatic to such lengths against the Cuban revolution. Just solutions will convince the Rhodesian racists and as the Cuban leadership was among the first to call their allies to give up their regime. . . . for international solidarity with the liberation fight­ "Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia will never ers in Vietnam, and just as they sought to extend be freed without the most energetic struggle ever, the socialist revolution to Latin America by aiding weapon in hand, so these peoples oppressed by anti-imperialist guerrilla movements there, they are colonialism and racism may achieve freedom and now aiding the African liberation struggle. dignity. We must keep in mind that the tiny racist minority that oppresses those peoples will never Limits of anti-imperialism resign itself to their freedom-which will never be The Socialist Workers Party disagrees, however, obtained by any diplomatic or peaceful means." with Cuban President Fidel Castro's portrayal of the Angolan regime as a revolutionary or a socialist Soviet pawns? government. In reality Angola, like Egypt under One can look in vain for such statements from the Nasser, has a bourgeois government administered Stalinist leaders in Moscow. This is not the lan­ by a petty-bourgeois nationalist apparatus that guage of "peaceful coexistence" and "detente." defends capitalist property relations, and that sup­ Of course, the imperialists have tried to discredit presses the democratic rights of the masses and the the Cubans by calling them pawns of the Soviet independent organization of the working class. regime-even mercenaries. This latter charge Of course, revolutionists fight together with such sounds strange, coming from governments whose regiples against any assault by imperialism. Chi­ only mission in life is to protect the investments nese Trotskyists in the 1930s even fought in the and markets of a tiny minority of super-rich capital­ same camp as the reactionary bourgeois regime of ists. Unlike them, the Cubans have no economic Chaing Kai-shek when that was necessary to op­ interests in Africa at all. pose the invasion of semicolonial China by Japa­ The Cubans themselves insist that they took the nese imperialism. initiative in Africa on their own, without first But it is one thing to support a military struggle consulting Moscow. According to Garcia Marquez's against an imperialist invasion, and another to give account of the Cuban move in Angola: "Far from political support to a bourgeois government that what has so often been said, it was an independent carries out repressive actions against the working and sovereign act of Cuba. Only after the decision class. was made, not before, was the Soviet Union in­ Despite this Cuban political support to the Ango­ formed." lan regime, however, the Cubans played a progres­ Stockwell, the CIA's former chief in Angola, sive, anti-imperialist role in helping to beat back the agrees. "After the war," he says, "we learned that South African aggression. Certainly the American Cuba had not been ordered into action by the Soviet imperialists have not lost sight of this fact. Union. To the contrary, the Cuban leaders felt At the same time, to the extent that the Cubans fail ·to distinguish between· working class and compelled to intervene for their own_ideologicaL reasons." procapitalist currents within any particular anti­ The impact that the Cubans have made in imperialist struggle, they are unable to help propel Africa-so out of proportion to the size of their the socialist revolution forward. The Cuban revolu­ country-is testimony to the power of the Cuban tion itself would never have triumphed if Castro revolution. Moscow has never been able to make had not been willing to split froqt those forces such an impact, not because of lack of resources, but within the anti-imperialist July 26 Movement who because it has insisted on subordinating any sup­ wanted to shackle the revolution to the mainte­ port for the African liberation struggle-most of nance of capitalist property relations. which is purely verbal anyway-to its diplomatic relations with Washington. The weakest link If the Cubans held that perspective, they would The presence of thousands of Cuban troops in never have sent their troops to counter the South Angola has introduced a new factor in southern African invasion of Angola, and they would not Africa. It creates a powerful obstacle to imperial­ today be trying to aid the struggle in Zimbabwe. ism's ability to intervene there at will. In fact, Washington has insisted that any im­ In the case of Angola, the South Africans were provement in its diplomatic relations with Cuba can faced with the choice of either getting out of the come only on condition that Cuban troops are country or substantially escalating their military withdrawn from Africa. agression. But Castro has steadfastly ref\lsed to use the The role that Cuban troops could play was also African liberation struggle as a bargaining chip in raised in regard to ZaYre. return for a few favors from Washington. In answer After the first rebellion there, in 1977, Castro to newscaster Barbara Walters's question last fall, ridiculed charges that Cuban troops had been "Will you remove your troops from Angola?" Castro involved. Had that been the case, Castro said in an answered: avediggers. interview in the May 22,1977, issue of Granma, the Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 17 was skyrocketing, and there was deep disaffection in the ranks of the army, which was losing the Eritrean war. · The Ethiopian revolution began early in February 1974 when taxi drivers, teachers, and students staged strikes and demonstrations, resulting in clashes with the police. Within a few days, about 10,000 troops, supported by most of the lower ranks and junior officers, seized Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, to press their demands for higher pay. Concessions failed to stop the spreading rebellion. In March, most of the larger cities and towns were paralyzed by workers' strikes. About 100,000 Mus­ lims marched in Addis Ababa to demand an end to religious discrimination. On March 17, thousands of women demonstrated to demand equal pay and equal rights with men. Even prostitutes demon­ strated for the right to form a union and the right to free medical examinations. In the countryside, peasants began to seize crops and bum the homes of landlords.

The Dergue comes to power Unable to halt the upsurge, the discredited Selas­ sie, was finally deposed in September 1974 by a junta of junior army officers known as the Dergue. The Dergue tried to establish control over the situation through a combination of repression and concessions. Among its first actions was to ban strikes and demonstrations and to arrest some of the country's top trade unionists. Moreover, the Dergue refused to change the policies of the Selassie regime toward the oppressed nationalities within the Ethiopian state. In December 1974 it began a new offensive against the Eritrean liberation fighters. On the other hand, the Dergue was forced by the pressure of the masses to adopt socialist rhetoric and to carry out wide-ranging reforms. Continued from preceding page mold Cuba's policy to fit Moscow's counter­ "In early 1975," Ernest Harsch wrote in the ". . . we can discuss this problem only with the revolutionary line of "detente." December 1977 International Socialist Review, "the Angolans and the government of Angola. We can­ The second negative pressure is the contradiction Dergue nationalized all banks, credit institutions, not and are never going to discuss this problem contained within the Cuban line itself. Cuba's and insurance companies, as well as many impe­ with the United States." unhesitating military backing for anti-imperialist rialist and some local concerns. . . . From the Kremlin's point of view, Cuban aid to struggles is combined with political support to "In March [1975], it decreed a broad agrarian the African liberation struggle is quite useful. selected bourgeois nationalist governments. This reform program that nationalized all rural land, Havana runs the risks, while the threat of further was true of Cuban policy in Latin America since the canceled all debts and · obligations by tenant anti-imperialist successes gives Moscow greater coming to power of the Castro regime, and it farmers and sharecroppers, and placed a twenty­ leverage in bargaining with Washington. remains true in Africa today. five-acre ceiling on the size of farms cultivated by In analyzing Cuba's foreign policy, two negative This policy elevates the role of armed forces­ individual peasants. The heaviest blow's of the land pressures must be kept in mind. One is the constant whether guerrilla movements, or Cuba's well­ reform fell on the large absentee landowners in the attempts by the Kremlin bureaucracy, backed by trained troops-above the question of a correct southern provinces. the leverage of Soviet economic aid to Havana, to revolutionary socialist political course. "The Dergue's agrarian reform measures were adopted in response to the peasant revolts. It tried to institutionalize a process that was already under­ way, so as to bring it under government control." Regardless of the Dergue's intentions, the legal recognition of the peasant demands was an im-. mense progressive gain. The old landowning aristo­ Ethiopian revolution cracy, which had leeched off the labor of the peasantry for centuries, was broken. Its members were either exterminated or driven into exile. How do events in the Hom of Africa fit into this to the church and numerous special fees and taxes. picture? Moreover, the peasantry was forced to render physi­ Destruction of the landlord class and its When the Portuguese empire entered its final cal services to the landholders, such as transporting institutions-the absolute monarchy and the feudal crisis in April 1974, the peoples of Ethiopia were their grain, building their houses and barns, and fees and obligations extorted from the peasantry­ already deep in rebellion against the ancient mo­ performing domestic duties for their families. and the separation of church and state, represented narchy ruling their country. Washington Post cor­ This system of feudal obligations was defended a profound revolution in the economic and social respondent David Ottaway commented at the end of by an absolute monarchy whose character was relations in Ethiopia. March 1974: summed up in the 1955 constitution as follows: "The Under these circumstances, Washington was "Shaken to its foundations by military mutinies, person of the Emperor is sacred, his dignity is faced with a big problem. The urban masses, as a general strike, the fall of a government, a devas­ inviolable and his power is indisputable." indicated by the Dergue's radical rhetoric, wanted tating drought, a major economic crisis and protests socialism. They showed no inclination of stopping by everyone from priests to prostitutes, the millenia- Famine and war spark rebellion . old Ethiopian monarchy appears to be crumbling." An article by Tony Thomas in the May 1974 For more than forty years Ethiopian Emperor International Socialist Review noted that the Ethio­ Haile Selassie's regime had served as a reliable pian monarchy "is a truly reactionary government, bulwark of backwardness, reaction, and collabora­ not merely in the vernacular sense of being repres­ tion with imperialism on the African continent. sive, but in the formal sense that it defends to the Suddenly, the imperialists were faced with a situa­ hilt a social order that properly belongs to an earlier tion that threatened to become a source of rebellion era of human history. It resists industrialization and destabilization of the status quo. With a popula­ and modernization; it struggles· against being tion of 30 million people-nearly 10 percent of the dragged into even the modem capitalist world, total population of sub-Saharan Africa-Ethiopia although capitalism itself is so overripe as to have was a force that had to be reckoned with. been in decline for more than half a century." The enormous power unleashed by the Ethiopian Two things-the disastrous famine of 1973, and revolution is best understood by recalling the char­ the ongoing colonial war against the Eritrean acter of the old regime. Ninety percent of the people-finally led to the crumbling of the mo­ population of Ethiopia lives on the land. Yet two­ narchy. thirds of these millions of peasant families sub­ At least 100,000 people died in the famine. Instead sisted on less than six-tenths of an acre. Ninety of speeding relief efforts, the regime tried to cover percent of peasant households cultivated less than up the fact that thousands were starving. At the two acres. same time, food exports continued and the land­ In contrast, an aristocratic landlord class of lords took advantage of the situation to buy land about 30,000 people owned more than 70 percent of and cattle at a fraction of their worth. the arable land, and most of the rest was owned by Resentment among the masses was reflected in the Coptic church-the state church under Selassie. one leaflet distributed in Addis Ababa, which Nor was the semifeudal character of Selassie's showed a photograph of a starving child next to one regime limited to land tenure. In addition to being of Selassie feeding his dogs on the grounds of his forced to hand over some 50 percent of their produce Jubilee Palace. Christian Science Monitor directly to the landlords, peasants had to pay tithes At the same time, the cost of living in the cities

18 their mobilization just when they were beginning to tiona in Ethiopia and turning to Moscow for aid. "The idea of creating a kind of federation or win some gains. Could the Dergue be depended on Meanwhile, the U.S. imperialists were looking for confederation that could include Somalia, Ethiopia, to keep things under control? some other way to slow down the upsurge in Eritrea, Ogaden and possibly Djibouti was dis­ Ethiopia. None of their options were very good. cussed, analyzed and meditated on at length.... " Imperialists look for alternatives As in Angola, sending U.S. troops was ruled out Castro confirmed this account in a speech given At first, Washington hoped to achieve its aims by by the antiwar temper of the American people. At March 15: "Today we realize that when we met with working through the Dergue. For two and a half the same time, Selassie had been the main imperial­ Somalia's leader in March of last year in Aden," years after the ouster of Selassie, it continued ist front man in the area, and there was no ready Castro said, "they had already worked out the military aid and military sales to the Ethiopian replacement. plan-which they later put into practice-to invade regime, backing the Dergue' s war against the U.S. military aid to the pro-imperialist regime in Ethiopia, because they felt that the historical oppor­ Eritreans. However, under the pressure of the Kenya was stepped up. Threats against the Ethio­ tunity had arrived since Yankee imperialism and masses, the Dergue continued in turmoil, with pian revolution were voiced by the Sudanese, Egyp­ the NATO nations would welcome news of the numerous splits and purges. And it continued to tian, and Iranian governments. invasion of Ethiopia with open arms." lose ground in Eritrea. But in retrospect, it is clear that the most substan­ Castro continued, "But the critical situation In February 1977, Washington cut back its aid tial imperialist-inspired probe against the Ethio­ created by the invasion in late November led the program to the Dergue, which responded by shut­ pian_revolution was the Somali invasion of the Ethiopian ~vemment to make an urgent request ting qown American offices and military installa- Ogaden in July 1977. that we send tank, artillery and aviation specialists to help the army, to help the country, and we did so." The first Cuban units arrived in December 1977 and January 1978, according to Castro. Washington responded by stepping up its campaign against Cuba, and in early February it even sent two U.S. warships to the Red Sea in what was called by the War in the Ogaden Christian Science Monitor, "a possible show of American force in ~e region." The Somali population in the Ogaden, like the Surely something must have encouraged the But events moved too fast for Carter to do much Eritreans, is an oppressed nationality within the "sense of military confidence" of the Somali regime. more than bluster. In seven weeks-from January Ethiopian state. The Miiitant correctly called atten­ A country of 3 million doesn't attack a neighbor 22 to March 14, according to Castro-Ethiopian tion to this, and to the need for unconditional with ten times its population unless its goverment forces, aided by the Cubans, recaptured the Ogaden. support to the right of the Somali people to self­ has reason to expect substantial assistance. Commenting on Washington's role in the affair, determination. Insofar as the Somali people rebel Castro pointed out: against national oppression-whether carried out Left in the lurch "The imperialists have assumed a very hypocriti­ by Selassie or by the Dergue-their struggle must be Within three months, the Somali forces had taken cal position during the conflict, because they knew supported by revolutionists. almost the entire Ogaden, except for two key cities, that Somalia was invading Ethiopia right from the But the invasion of the Ogaden by the regular from the surprised and disorganized Ethiopian start, in July. The United States and the NATO army of Somalia-under the orders of the Somalian forces. However, the arms promised by Washington, countries knew about it and remained silent; they regime-was not the same as the national liberation which were needed to hold what had been taken, didn't say a word and they were delighted. They ., struggle of the Somali masses. The invasion intro­ never materialized, although the U.S. offer re­ provided weapons for the aggressors-weapons duced a new element into the situation, one which mained op~ until September. from the United States and from NATO member the Militant did not assess correctly at the time.. states-by way of Saudi Arabia, Iran and other The Carter administration had to weigh the countries, and as the Somalians advanced they An imperialist-inspired probe diplomatic difficulties of openly siding with the didn't say a word. When Somalia had occupied The intervention of the Somali regime, despite its aggressor in the Ethiopian-Somali war; the cost of nearly all of Ogaden, the imperialists were optimis­ propaganda, had little or nothing to do with the trying to tum the military balance when Ethiopia tic; but when the Ethiopians began receiving inter­ liberation of the Somali population in the Ogaden. was beginning to get massive Soviet aid; and the nationalist aid, when they started to get weapons The decisive factor was the encouragement of the likely response of the American people to such an frdm the socialist camp and internationalist Cuban Carter administration, which hoped to use the adventure. fighters began to arrive, the imperialists raised a territorial ambitions of the Somali regime to strike a Certainly, after having left its close South Afri­ real hue and cry. Then they insisted that there had blow against the upsurge of the Ethiopian masses. can ally in the lurch in Angola, it is unlikely that. to be a meeting of the OAU, the UN, etc., etc., and · In light of this', it was necessary to support Ethiopia the U.S. imperialists had any qualms about doing they talked about the need for a cease-fire. When, against the Somali invasion. the same to Siad Barre. though, did they start talking about a cease-fire? Referring to the U.S. role in the Ogaden war in a Of course, the Somali regime tried to wrap its When the aggressors started to lose the war." June 14 article, syndicated columnist Joseph Kraft agression in the flag of the struggle for national said, "In that case, the United States-and, indeed, liberation. But its real attitude toward this struggle Self-determination for Eritrea Carter personally-played the jackal, and the Rus­ was indicated in a report in the June 3, 1978, issue There were, in effect, two wars going on at the sians reacted defensively." of the British weekly, The Economist. According to same time in the Ogaden. There was a national Kraft reported that "on April 18, 1977, he [Carter] The Economist: liberation movement on the part of the Somali allowed Time magazine to overhear him telling Vice people living in the region, and there was an "The Somali government seems determined to Mondale that he wanted Vance and Presi!lent convince_ the Kenyans-and the west-that it no aggressive, expansionist invasion by the regular Brzezinski to do 'everything possible to get Somalia Somali army-aimed ultimately at the advances of longer entertains any claim to Kenya's north­ to be our friend.' " the Ethiopian revolution. But it was the interven­ eastern province, where a quarter of a million In keeping with this directive,· the State Depart­ tion of the Somali regime-and through it, of Somalis live. As one official now pu~ it: ment, according to a report by Arnaud de Borch­ imperialism-that became the decisive element in grave in the September 26, 1977, issue of Newsweek, " 'Why should we want the north-eastern pro­ the Ogaden war. sent a message to Somali President Siad Barre vince? We know that the Somalis there have a good This is not the situation in Eritrea. No capitalist assuring him that Washington was "not averse to life-even that they receive priority from the Ken­ regime or imperialist maneuvering has been able to further guerrilla pressure in the Ogaden." yan government in development projects. Their Continued on next page This message was follo_wed up with a U.S. offer to situation is quite different from that of the Somalis sell arms to the Somali regime. As New York Times in the Ogaden.' " correspondent David Shipler reported June 18: But the real difference is not in the treatment of "It was last July 23, just eight days after the the Somali people. The difference is that in United States informed Somalia it would discuss Ethiopia-in spite of the military regime trying to supplying American arms, that the Somalis in­ gain control and hold back the masses-a deep­ vaded the Ogaden desert in Ethiopia. This seemed going revolutionary process was unfolding, while to. confirm the Soviet view that Washington had, at no such revolution was going on in Somalia or least indirectly, encouraged Somalia's sense of Kenya. In the face of this revolution, previously military confidence.... " hostile regimes tried to find some common ground.

Castro's view Several months prior to the Somali invasion, bourgeoisie on the other and because this country is Fidel Castro traveled to the Middle East and now being criminally attacked from abroad by the Africa. In an interview published in the May 22, Arab reaction, acting in complicity with imperial­ 1977, issue of Granma, shortly after his return, ism." Castro gave his assessment of the situation in As was the case in Angola, Castro gave political Ethiopia: support to the petty bourgeois leadership that is _ "There's a profound revolution in Ethiopia, a attempting to channel and straitjacket the mass powerful mass movement and a thoroughgoing radicalization and consolidate a new capitalist agrarian reform in a feudal country in which the regime. Castro stressed .his view that Mengistu peasants were practically slaves. Haile Mariam, the leader of the Dergue, "is a true "There has been an urban reform, and the main revolutionary." industries in the country have been national­ Also as in Angola, Castro stressed the possibili­ ized .... This reminds us of the French and Bol­ ties for dealing blows to imperialism. According to ritrean beration fighters. Castro has been caught shevik Revolutions because of the intense class the interviewer, when Castro met with the heads of between his support for capitalist government in struggle waged between the workers and peasants state of Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Yemen in Addis Ababa and his recognition of Eritrean right to on the one side and the large landowners and March 1977: self-determination.

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 19 Continued from preceding page tries to base itself on the anti-imperialist sentiment ade Rhodesia, where 300,000 white fascists are control, or tum on and off, the sixteen-year-long of the masses. But ultimately it fears even more the oppressing six million Africans... ? They block­ struggle of the Eritrean people for their indepen­ revolutionary anticapitalist dynamic of its own ade Cuba instead.... What is understood by the dence. working class. Either forces must come forward to African peoples is that while the Yankee imperial­ In fact, the tenacious war waged by the Eritreans lead the anti-imperialist struggle to completion ists have sided with South Africa, Rhodesia, the was, as mentioned above, one of the main factors through the establishment of a workers state, or repressive and reactionary African governments, that sparked the Ethiopian revolution. imperialism will maintain its hold and eventually we've sided with the revolutionary and progressive A policy of recognizing the right of the Eritrean roll back many of the gains. peoples of Africa. We're fighting against fascism in people to self-determination-in this case, -support­ So far, the Cubans have resisted-pressures from Africa, we're fighting against racism in Africa." ing their fight for political independence-is the the Dergue for an all-out offensive against the only course that is in the interests of the Ethiopian · Eritreans. "The Cubans still wan~ the Ethiopians Rhetoric vs. reality people and the Ethiopian revolution. Such a policy and the Eritreans to negotiate," according to the Of course, U.S. officials from Carter on down also could help ·lay the basis for friendly relations June 3 issue of The Economist. claim to be opposed to the apartheid regime in between Eritrea and Ethiopia. A representative of the Eritreans, speaking for South Africa. "We have made it clear to the South At the same time, recognition of the right of the the two main groups involved in the struggle, said African government that a failure to begin to make Eritreans to determine their own future would help in Paris June 21 that Cuban forces had not taken genuine progress toward an end to racial discrimi­ restrict the maneuvers of the imperialists and of the part in any military operations in Eritrea since nation and full political participation for all South reactionary Arab regimes. The Eritreans would be February. African citizens can only have an increasingly in a better position to resist pressures from these Were the Cubans to get involved in trying to adverse impact on our relations," Secretary of State quarters if they were not in a position of having to crush the Eritrean struggle, it would be a blow not Cyrus Vance declared June 20. fight for their lives against the Dergue. only to the Ethiopian revolution, but to the Cuban No U.S. government, in light of the massive Castro, to his credit, insists that he supports the revolution as well. Castro is doubtless well aware support for majority rule in southern Africa in this right of self-determination for the Eritreans. How­ that such a move against the Eritreans, whose country-particularly among Blacks-is in a posi­ ever, because of his political support for the Men­ cause is supported by working-class parties and tion to come out openly for the status ·quo there. gistu regime, he has been forced into contortions on national liberation fighters around the world, would At the same time, U.S. imperialism needs the this question. heavily damage the prestige of the Cuban leader­ South African state. Semicolonial regimes such as The truth is that the bourgeois Mengistu regime, ship. (For more on this, see Joseph Hansen's article, Kaunda's in Zambia and Mobutu's in Zaire are too like many similar governments in the semicolonial "Castro differs with Mengistu on Eritrea," in last weak and unstable for Washington to rely on. The world, comes into conflict with imperialism, and week's Militant.) iron rod of the apartheid regime is the ultimate guarantee of imperialist domination in Africa. A similar situation prevails in the Middle East, where no matter how servile Arab rulers such as Sadat and the Saudi royal family may be, they can never replace the Israeli colonial-settler state as the main bulwark for imperialist interests in the region. U.S. policymakers will issue statements deploring Stakes for imperialism the Israeli occupation of Arab land, just as they deplore apartheid in South Africa, but their actions are a different matter. However, the imperialist campaign against Cu­ and cornmeal were short. In November, Kaunda ba's role in Africa has absolutely nothing to do with warned of a collapse." In the case of South Africa, Washington is con­ any sympathy for the Eritreans. The imperialists Imperialist banking institutions came to Kaun­ cerned not only with maintaining a military power were the ones who sold the Eritreans down the river da's aid with a package of new loans that Business that can act against the threat of socialist revolu­ tion in the region, but also with the protection of its in the first place, and they originally armed the Week estimates will eventually total $800 million to Ethiopian military in its war against Eritrea. $1 billion. But in light of the gloomy prospects for $1.7 billion in direct investment in South Africa The Cuban presence in Africa has become a the world capitalist economy, such measures can itself. major preoccupation of U.S. foreign policy because only serve as stopgaps. However, as Karl Marx pointed out more than 100 Carter and his advisers know that the Cubans are years ago, capitalism produces its own grave­ Fear of the African masses has prompted greater diggers. In order to build up the industrial base that playing an important role in helping to advance the attention to Africa in Washington. That fear is also African liberation struggle as a whole. ·is the foundation of its military power, and to behind Carter's complaints that his "hands are produce the superprofits that fuel its economy, For the imperialists, the stakes are immense: an tied" by restrictions on his ability to intervene with South African capitalism has created a working entire continent, larger than all of South America U.S. forces. And it is fear of the African revolution, class. and Europe combined, whose immense wealth has and of Cuban aid to the anti-imperialist struggles of Deprived of property, deprived of all democratic barely begun to be discovered, let alone tapped. the Black masses, that is behind Carter's campaign rights, 8 million Black workers run the South As Ernest Harsch pointed out in an article in the against the Cubans in Africa. African economy. How long can they be held in June 5 issue of Intercontinental Press/ lnprecor: Washington Post correspondents Robert Kaiser bondage by even the most repressive system? "Zaire and Zambia are among the world's top and Don Oberdorfe.r summed up the recurring Castro was not merely boasting when he declared co~per exporters, and Zaire supplies 75 percent of nightmare of U.S. policymakers in a June 4 article. in his December 24 speech that "no matter what the cobalt used in the United States. Nigeria, Libya, According to them: they do, the imperialists have already lost the battle and Angola have valuable oil deposits. Guinea has in southern Africa." about two-thirds of the world's known bauxite re­ "A' senior State Department official said that serves.... after the experience in Ethiopia, the United States had to assume that-in the absence of "Zimbabwe has some of the biggest chrome countermeasures-the communist forces will be reserves in the world and Namibia, a South African prepared to move on to the explosive black-white colony, is the world's second-largest producer of conflicts of southern Africa. That could mean gem diamonds and has important deposits of Soviet-backed Cubans in Rhodesia in the near copper, uranium, lead, zinc, and other minerals. future, a prospect so ominous to the administration "South Africa itself has the most varied mineral that its top priority now is to avoid it." resol!rces of any country except the United States and the Soviet Union. It produces around three­ fourths of the capitalist world's gold output, and Carter's hypocrisy has three-fourths of the world's chl"ome ore reserves, Castro, speaking on December 24, 1977, before the one-third of the known uranium reserves, and the National Assembly of People's Power, replied ap­ largest known reserves of platinum, vanadium, and propriately to the hypocrisy of the imperialist coal. It also has important deposits of diamonds, campaign against Cuba. He asked: nickel, asbestos, titanium, and numerous other min­ "What moral basis can the United States have to erals." speak about Cuban troops in Africa? What moral Moreover, this .mineral wealth is extracted by a basis can a country have whose troops are on every superexploited Black labor force that makes possi­ continent, that ·has, for instance, over 20 military ble fabulous profits for the international cartels. bases in the Philippines, dozens of bases in Oki­ According· to Harsch, "Although the rate of return nawa, in Japan, in Asia ... in Europe, in Spain, in for direct American investments worldwide during Italy and everywhere else? What moral basis can the 1960s averaged about 11 percent, they earned the United States have to use the argument of our 18.6 percent in Sol!th Africa itself." troops being in Africa when their own troops are stationed by force on Panamanian territory, occupy­ Fear of a collapse ing a portion of that country? What moral basis can But can the imperialists maintain the political the United States have to speak about our troops in stability necessary for the extraction of these super­ Africa when their own troops are stationed right profits? here on our own national territory, at the Guanta­ Since 1974, the imperialists have suffered the namo naval base?" Ethiopian revolution, the collapse of the Portuguese Castro continued: "We don't deny it: we support empire, and the upsurge of the struggle in southern and we have sent military advisers to many coun­ Africa. At the same time, the world economic crisis tries in Africa.... We're now helping and we'll go has undermined pro-imperialist regimes throughout on helping Angola! We're now helping and we'll go Africa. Zaire is one obvious example of this, and the on helping Mozambique! We're now helping and imperialists are also worried about the survival of we'll go on helping the Ethiopian Revolution! If the Kaunda regime in Zambia. that's why the United States is blockading us, let The June 26 issue of Business Week, reporting on them go on blockading us. what it called a "vital international salvage opera­ "Why doesn't the United States blockade South tion to prop up the regime of President Kenneth D. Africa, a racist, fascist country whose troops are Kaunda," pointed out that "by last fall basic committing crimes in Africa and whose minority is commodities such as tea, coffee, sugar, cooking oil, oppressing 20 million Blacks? Why doesn't it block-

20 At August educational conference Cops beat Socialists & the African revolution Atlanta By Bernie Senter Latin America, Canada, and other Just as defense of the Vietnamese parts of the world will attend. revolution was a major test for social­ If you would like to participate, Blacks ists in the 1960s, today the African phone the SWP branch nearest you revolution poses a similar challenge. (see page 31), or clip and mail the By Don Davis ATLANTA-Club swinging Georgia The Active Workers and Socialist coupon on this page to: SWP, 14 . state troopers attacked forty Black Educational Conference, sponsored by Charles Lane, New York, New York student protesters outside of a Board of the Socialist Workers Party in Ohio 10014. August 5-12, will take up the African Regents meeting here June 14. The freedom struggle in a series of classes, students were demanding that the panels, and workshops. : ...... regents rehire five teachers at Atlanta Junior College. The teachers had been SWP National . Secretary Jack • I am interested in attending the Barnes will deliver a major presenta­ Active Workers and Socialist Edu­ fired because they supported the stu­ dents' year-long struggle to desegre­ tion on the growing intervention of the cational Conference. Send me more gate the nearly all-Black school. U.S. government against the African information. Only six days earlier, club-wielding revolution. Name ------troopers attacked another peaceful Some of the questions the conference picket line supporting the teachers will examine were elaborated in a • Address ------outside AJC graduation ceremonies. recent interview with Omari Musa and City ____ State ____ In that attack, the cops arrested nine David Frankel, staff writers for the people and sent six to the hospital. Militant, and Ernest Harsch, a repor­ .: Zip Phone The June 14 attack took place just as ter for Intercontinental Press!lnpre­ ...... one of the teachers was finishing a cor. press statement denouncing the re­ "We will have workshops and panels gents' refusal even to grant the five Tacoma socialists: 'The freedom fight in to discuss the political campaigns of fired teachers a hearing on their de­ the SWP and the Young Socialist Al­ Africa is our fight.' mands. liance against the U.S. role in Africa," Television cameras recorded the said Musa. "We will discuss the divest­ ing threats by the Carter administra­ whole thing. News coverage showing. ment fights on college campuses, and tion." the troopers choking and beating stu­ dents and teachers ignited a storm of solidarity work in the Black communi­ "The purpose of these discussions," ties, the labor movement, and among protest. Frankel explained, "is to better prepare "Those Channel 11 films show it was Africans living in the United States." socialists for our tasks in aiding the · "The whole history of American a clear-cut case of police brutality," African liberation struggle. Gene Duffy, deputy director of the involvement in Africa has been to "The fight in Africa is our fight. We maintain the exploitation of the Black Atlanta Community Relations Com- educate ourselves to prepare for action, mission said. - :r.nasses," Harsch noted. "We will exam­ and then we act." 'ine how U.S. imperialism supports and But Gov. George Busbee announced The theme of the conference as a benefits from the white supremacist the next day that he would not look whole is the deepening radicalization regimes in southern Africa." ,NOW AVAILABLE into the charges of police brutality. of American workers and the prospects DIVEST NOW! More than 100 picketers marched "We will evaluate the roles of Cuba, for socialism. U.S. OUT OF SOUTH AFRICA outside the state capitol following Bus­ the Soviet Union, and China," added Attending the conference will be Button, 2% inches in diameter, bee's announcement. Musa, "and discuss defense of the steelworkers, auto workers, rail white, red, and green on black They chanted: "Busbee, Busbee, you Cuban revolution against the mount- workers, and people from many other background. $.50 each, or $.35 can't hide-we know you're on the racist side" and "We demand the right industries and unions. Members of the each for 10 or more. · to speak-we're tired of getting beaten Young Socialist Alliance will come Order from Young Socialist Al­ Bernie Senter is coordinating plans every week." from college and high school campuses liance, P.O. Box 471 Cooper Sta­ for the Active Workers and Socialist That night, some 150 people includ­ across the country. tion, New York, N.Y. 10003. Educational Conference. International guests from Europe, ing Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders Hosea Williams and Tyrone Brooks and several minis­ ters turned out to support' the students at a protest meeting. Big_gain for Texas socialists 33,547 say 'put SWP on ballot' .. .PROD By Rick Berman tions. They demand that parties such forward for the Socialist Workers Continued from page 13 HOUSTON-In just five weeks, sup­ as the SWP obtain thousands of signa- Party in Texas," Getts continued. "We open not only to PROD members but to porters of the 'Fexas Socialist Workers tures, while Democratic and Republi- faced several new challenges." all Teamsters-who want to rebuild the Party election campaign collected can candidates have virtually auto- In order to meet the outrageous union," Hall continued. "It begins a 33,547 signatures to place the party's matic ballot status. ballot requirements here, previous so- process of ending sectarian rivalry candidates on the November ballot. An additional obstacle in the Texas cialist campaigns have had to organize between organizations within the The total is twice the 16,550 signatures election .law forced the socialists to teams of petitioners to gather signa­ Teamsters like Upsurge [a dissident required by state law. sign up only those registered voters tures on a full-time basis, often for grouping of UPS drivers], PROD, and The Democrats and Republicans who had not voted in a primary elec- weeks at a time. "But with the growing the Teamsters for a Democratic make it as difficult as possible for any tion in the past year. strength of the party and the establish- Union." party to challenge them in .the elec- The SWP ticket is headed by Sara ment of branches in Dallas and San Conference participants were anx­ Jean Johnston, who is running for Antonio since 1976, we were able to ious to discuss the real history of the governor, and Miguel Pendas, the can- complete the ballot drive this year Teamsters. This was stimulated in part didate for U.S. Senate. solely through the efforts of supporters by anger over the distortions of the What response did the socialist peti- who petitioned after work and on week- moVie F.I.S. T. But it also represented tioners find for their ballot drive? ends," said Getts. the desire of Teamster dissidents to "Workers were pleased that the so- Pat O'Reilly, who helped coordinate learn about the successful organizing cialist candidates are people who work the ballot effort in Houston, explained, methods of their predecessors. in steel mills, refineries, and other "I work on the railroad, for Southern In a one-hour slide show called "The industries," reported Bob Robertson, a Pacific. 'fie organized petitioning Hidden History of the Teamsters Houston steelworker. "Some people teams seven days a week from early Union-What You Won't Learn from wanted to be sure the SWP was a morning until late at night so that Watching F.I.S.T.," University of Wis­ prounion party before they would sign people like myself who worked differ­ consin Prof. Bob Halstead challenged a petition." ent shifts or worked weekends could the movie's main theme-that the IBT Campaign supporters working in help." owes its early successes and strength industry found many co-workers wil- Industrial workers were among the today to organized crime. ling to sign petitions. top petitioners statewide. This was "The proof that this is false," Hal­ Agnes Chapa, a San Antonio social- especially true in Dallas, where cam­ stead said, "lies in the organizing drive ist running for attorney general, re- paign supporters who have steel jobs in Minneapolis in 1934. That effort ported, "Many Chicanos signed my turned in some of the highest signature was totally democratic, relying on the petition when I told them I wanted to totals. power of the rank and file, and it laid stop deportations of Mexican workers More than 8,000 signatures were the basis for the large influx of drivers who have no papers." obtained in Dallas; more. than 6,000 in and others into the IBT." "The biggest single reason people San Antonio; and about 19,000 signa­ The drivers were successful, he con­ signed our petitions was simply to tures in Houston. tinued, because they had a "first-rate support the SWP's democratic right to The 33,547 signatures will now be leadership, like the Dunne brothers, appear on the ballot," explained Ruth checked against official lists of regis­ Carl 'Skoglund, and Farrell Dobbs, who MilitanVSusie Winsten Getts, who is the Socialist Workers tered voters and handed over to Texas were, incidentally, socialists working Miguel Pendas (left) and Sara Johnston state campaign manager. Secretary of State Steven Oaks by the closely with the Socialist Workers campaigning at Houston plant gate. "The petition drive was a big step July 10 official deadline. Party, followers of Leon Trotsky."

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 21 Marroquin tour in Arizona a success By Page Tulloch NAACP; Solomon Leija, from the Ariz­ can certainly allow one man from next of the democracies in Latin America." PHOENIX, Ariz.-An enthusiastic ona State University MEChA; Gustavo door in Mexico to have political asy­ Both daily papers here reported on audience of more than eighty people Gutierrez, a longtime activist in the lum." the gathering, and the local CBS affil­ rallied here June 16 in support of Chicano community;_ Larry Visetzky Clovis Campbell recalled the civil iate carried the rally as the top story Hector Marroquin, a former Mexican from the Committee for Human Rights rights battles by Blacks, comparing on its nightly news show. Marroquin student activist forced to flee his home­ in Latin America; and Jessica Samp­ these to Marroquin's fight for justice. was interviewed by KTKT radio, and land in 1974 after being falsely ac­ son; Socialist Workers Party candidate "The NAACP is with Marroquin," he another radio station, KWFM, taped cused of murder. Marroquin, a member for governor. · said. his speech and broadcast it in two of the Socialist Workers Party and Jess L6pez, a Chicano activist who When Marroquin rose to speak, he parts. Young Socialist Alliance, is seeking has been imprisoned on frame-up got a standing ovation. political asylum in the United States. charges here, sent a taped message. The three major Phoenix TV stations He spoke here as part of a national A message from State Rep. Tony and the city's largest daily newspaper tour bringing the facts of his case to Abril read in part, "If the U.S. govern­ carried stories about Marroquin's case. Message the American people. ment can bring in hundreds of thou­ He did two radio interviews, one on a Speaking at the rally were Clovis sands of refugees from thousands of Spanish-language station. from Cinn. CP Campbell, state president of the miles away, like Vietnam, then they The following message was By Michael Boys sent by Peter Clayton, press TUSCON, Ariz.-Fifty people at­ director of the Cincinnati Club tended a rally here June 17 in support of the Communist Party USA, How you can help of Hector Marroquin's right to political to a May 23 rally in Cincinnati asylum. The event was covered exten­ in support of Hector Marro­ This pamphlet, available in Eng­ quin's right to political asylum. lish and Spanish, outlines the facts sively by local media. of Marroquin's case and shows that Representatives of the Southern The death rattles of U.S. impe­ he is innocent of the charges of Arizona chapter of the National Law­ rialism pose new challenges to the terrorism leveled against him by the yers Guild and the Tucson Committee forces of socialism, as well as all Mexican government. The price is for Human Rights in Latin America progressive forces around the fifty cents, or thirty-five cents a copy expressed their group's support. world. In the context of hypocriti­ in orders of ten or more. Also speaking was a representative cal bleatings about human rights, You can help save Marroquin's life of the· Mexican Partido Revolucionario President Carter and others of the by ordering and selling this pam­ de los Trabajadores (Revolutionary phlet in your area. Workers Party-a sister organization most reactionary sectors of finance capital continue the wholesale vio­ You can also help by: of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party). lation of the Helsinki accords, in • Donating money to the defense The PRT speaker discussed the kind effort; the context of their continued at­ of repression faced by political acti­ tack on detente. They have moved • Circulating petitions demand­ vists in Mexico and said that Marro­ ing asylum for Marroquin; from the global terrorism of the quin would certainly be a victim if he neutron bomb to an accelerated • Endorsing the defense commit­ were forced to return there. tee; program of genocide in the Horn of Marroquin told the audience that Africa. • Getting your union or other forcing the U.S. government to grant On the home front we find a organization to endorse Marroquin's him political asylum would aid politi­ request for political asylum. renewed offensive against the labor cal dissidents throughout Latin Amer­ unions. Therefore, this rally in Write: Hector Marroquin De­ ica and the world. fense Committee, 853 Broad­ defense of Hector Marroquin is a In granting asylum, Marroquin said, particularly significant manifesta­ way, Suite 414, New York, New the U.S. government would be admit­ York 10003. tion of proletarian international­ ting there is political persecution in ism. Mexico, "which is supposed to be one Legal workers organ1ze• un1on• By Michael Smith programs have won contracts, other One hundred seventy-five legal servi­ nonunion programs lack health benef­ ces workers from thirty states met in its, sick leave, and have pay scales so Detroit over the June 9 weekend to low that some workers are on public found the National Organization of assistance. Legal Services Workers (NOLSW). In Arkansas_a program was paying The participants all work for legal a Black female attorney less than a services programs, which practice non­ white male counterpart. After a union criminal law and are funded by the was formed, it won a contract that Legal Services Corporation, a quasi­ provides for equal pay for equal work. governmental agency formed in 1975. The Detroit conference was attended The Legal Services Corporation pro­ by paralegals, secretaries, and social vided $217 million this year for pro­ workers, as well as attorneys. Regina grams offering free legal representa­ Little, an organizer of the conference, tion to the poor. told the Militant that "this shows that The programs that are already people who are not professionals are unionized-such as those in New York interested in the direction of the legal City, Chicago, and Detroit-have orga­ services program. Minorities and nized all nonmanagerial personnel, women were broadly represented. It both lawyers and nonlawyers, into one was more of an jntegrated gathering union. This strengthens the union by than the corporation ever organized. preventing the corporation from trying "The National Organization of Legal to set lawyer against nonlawyer. Service Workers," Little stated, "sup­ Members of these unions from ports affirmative action and supports around the country attended the con­ the concerns of its clients as well as ference. Also attending were people the fight for better working conditions who are presently involved in or are and wages." considering organizing drives. Horace Sheffield, ·assistant to the Nationwide some 3,000 legal services president of the United Auto Workers attorneys are on the corporation's pay­ and an officer in the Coalition of Black roll. This is less than its goal of 2 Trade Unionists, was one of the key­ attorneys for every JO,OOO poor people. note speakers, as were former U.S. There are 11.2 attorneys for every Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and 10,000 people in the generali popula­ Marian Kramer, a welfare rights orga­ tion, and poor people have more legal nizer from Detroit. problems than others. Some 4,500 nonattorneys work for Workshops were held on how to the corporation. While the unionized organize a union, how to negotiate a contract, and how to develop and maintain alliances between legal ser­ Michael Smith is a member of the vice workers and clients. Legal Services Staff Association, an "We are now in the process of form­ initiator of the National Organiza­ ing a national union." said Little. tion of Legal Services Workers. "That is our goal."

22 World Outlook News, analysis, and discussion of international political events Vietnamese nationalize last capitalist ·strongholds By Fred Feldman currencies, a reflection of the different The Vietnamese revolution has economic structures that existed. Strict taken a big step forward in recent measures were taken to block hoarding months. Measures promulgated by the and other forms of currency manipula­ government of the Socialist Republic of tion. Black market in Ho Chi Minh City. Until recent nationalizations, most trade in South Vietnam, and backed up by mass The measures taken in the South remained in private hands. . actions, have abolished the last spilled over into the North, where new tight controls have been placed on strongholds of the capitalist class in was at least five years off. The new The U.S. imperialists followed this the South. The two zones of Vietnam, private trade. (About 90 percent of the expropriated regime promised to preserve capitalist up with further crimes against the which were united politically in July property relations in the South. This Vietnamese people. All assistanc.e was 1976, have now been fused economi­ merchants were ethnic Chinese. The Peking regime has utilized this fact as was in line with the class-c~l­ cut off. The White House reneged on cally into a single planned and nation­ laborationist program put forward by the treaty promise to help reconstruct alized economy. a pretext for a propaganda offensive against Vietnam, based on unsup­ the rebel leaders in the years preceding Vietnam. Trade with Vietnam was The new stage opened with a March their victory. barred. (This was particularly damag­ 23 decree abolishing 30,000 commercial ported allegations of discrimination against the Chinese minority.) Communist Party Secretary Le Duan ing because most South Vietnamese and business enterprises in South Viet­ predicted on May 15, 1975, that this factories were dependent on raw mate­ nam. The main target of these mea­ The measures carried out in March, April, and May constitute the exten­ course would lead to the creation of "a rials from the United States.) sures was businessmen in the Cholon fine national democratic regime, a The State Department has refused to district of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) sion to the South of the planned econ­ omy that·has existed in the North for prosperous national-democratic econ­ accord diplomatic recognition to the who have long dominated trade in the omy" in the South. government and has sought to disrupt South. Nayan Chanda, a journalist two decades. It marks the completion of a process of social revolution that Le Duan's statement expressed the its United Nations delegation with who has closely followed developments VCP's adherence to the Stalinist two­ phony spy charges. And the White in Indochina since the end of the war, began with the entry of the liberation forces into Saigon on April 30, 1975. stage #theory of revolution. According House has continued to surround Viet­ described the Cholon district as "a to this concept South Vietnam had to nam with client regimes like Thailand, capitalist heart ·beating within the These moves contrast sharply with the go through a period of development U.S. military bases, and the Seventh socialist body of Vietnam." policies which the Vietnamese Commu­ under capitalist auspices before mov­ Fleet. Writing in the May 26, 1978, issue of nist Party regime sought to pursue ing on to a socialist revolution. The goal was to punish the Vietna­ the Hong Kong weekly Far Eastern after the victory. The VCP leaders hoped that main­ mese for defeating the imperialistinva­ Economic Review, Chanda described The victory of the armed force-s uf the Democratic Republic of Vietnam taining capitalism in the South would sion and discredit the new regime by how this decree was carried out: attract imperialist aid and investment forcing it to confront grave ·economic "Tens of thousands of youth volun­ (former name of North Vietnam) and to Vietnam, particularly the $2.2 bil­ problems in isolation. Thus the U.S. teers, com:Qlunist cadres and security the National Liberation Front in April lion in reconstruction assistance prom­ capitalist press has published numer­ force members were mobilised to close 1975 destroyed the military and admi­ ised by the Nixon administration in ous articles depicting the difficulties of all businesses and make a thorough nistrative apparatus of the old regime. the 1.973 Paris accords. The need for life in Vietnam today, while delicately search to prepare inventories of goods As the liberation forces approached Saigon, most of Vietnam's top capital­ such .assistance was real and desper­ omitting to mention the miserable held in shops or businessmen's resi­ ate. conditions of the great majority of dences. After the inventory was made, ists scrambled into the departing For a decade the rural areas of South people under the old regime, or the guards were posted in front of every planes of their imperialist masters. In Vietnam were pounded by U.S. bombs heavy responsibility borne by Wash­ shop to prevent dispersal of goods many cases workers, usually led by and sprayed with defoliants, bringing ington's invasion and subsequent eco­ pending takeover by the government." NLF or DRV cadres, took over facto­ ruin· to South Vietnam's agriculture. nomic blockade. On April 16 the regime once again ries, protecting them from theft or Once an exporter of rice, South Viet­ mobilized its supporters to close down destruction until the rebel forces com­ nam eventually required massive im­ illegal operations in Ho Chi Minh pleted their conquest of the city, and USSR & China ports. Millions of peasants were driven City's open-air markets, centers of trying to keep them in operation while The VCP leaders have also been black market operations. a new administration was being estab­ into overcrowded cities as refugees. disappointed in their hopes for mas­ Although many small shops con­ lished. The entire economy became dependent sive aid from the USSR and China. tinue to operate, these measures effec­ on outside aid, and hundreds of thou­ The bureaucrats who rule these tively placed the government in control Desire for reunification sands of people made their living by workers states viewed the end of the of large-scale wholesale and retail trad­ The fall of the corrupt capitalist providing services for the American war as a good excuse for reducing their ing operations. "Like their compatriots regime was greeted with enthusiasm occupiers. assistance to the Vietnamese people in the north, Vietnamese in the south by workers and young people through­ When the U.S. forces finally pulled and imposing more stringent terms. have now started queuing to buy sup­ out Vietnam's cities, as well as by most out in A:pril 1975, the devastation Thus Moscow has replaced grants to plies from state and cooperative peasants in the countryside. They inflicted by the Pentagon remained. Vietnam with interest-bearing loans, shops," reported Chanda. wanted the reunification of their long­ Unemployment soared to 3.5 million. while Peking has demanded payment The regime is evidently. taking steps divided country and the complete abo­ Hundreds of thousands of· homeless for shipments of rice to the hard­ children needed to be cared for. The to block an~ comeback by the exprop­ lition of landlordism and capitalism. pressed Vietnamese. riated capitalists. According to With as much as 70 percent of industry cities were plagued by prostitution, The Vietnamese experience once Chanda, thousands of businessmen already in government hands owing to drug addiction, and disease. again demonstrates the fallacy of the and their families "have been asked to the flight of the owners, it was within two-stage theory of revolution. It prepare to leave Ho Chi Minh City to the power of the DRV-NLF leaders to Washington's crimes proved impossible to construct "a fine go either to their native villages or to carry out a socialist revolution and The hoped-for assistance from capi­ national democratic regime, a fine New Economic Zones-resettlement reunify Vietnam. talist governments and corporations national democratic economy" in the areas on virgin land." Some have been They chose to follow a different failed to materialize, although modest South. Despite their promises, the VCP offered the chance to remain in the city course. Instead of reunifying Vietnam, investments were initiated by Japan, leaders have been compelled, step by if they invest their remaining capital a "Provisional Revolutionary Govern­ France, and Sweden. Despite consider­ step, to do away with capitalism in the in government projects. ment" was installed as the government able interest in Vietnam's · oil re­ South, extending to that region the of a formally independent state in the sources, most capitalist investors shied economic and political structures of the Single currency South, although the party and military away from the regime because of its workers state in the north. On May 3 a single currency was apparatuses of the two zones were roots in a revolutionary upsurge and The regime was pushed in this direc­ established for the whole country. Pre­ fused. Vietnamese Communist Party its close ties to the workers state in the tion not only by objective necessity, viously the two zones had different leaders indicated that reunification North. Continued on next page

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 23 World Outlook ... Vietnam abolishes capitalism in South Continued from preceding page but also by the mass pressure for decisive measures to organize the econ­ omy. Although the bureaucratic struc­ ture of the regime denied the populace any political voice, the leaders could not ignore the basic economic needs of the workers and youth who provided its popular base in the cities. Merchant sector survived The major sector of the capitalist class that survived the fall of the puppet regime was the merchants. They controlled the distribution of most goods-even the products of many nationalized factories. The re­ gime's class-collaborationist perspec­ tive was based on the assumption that they could be cajoled and pressured into participating cooperatively in the new order. Nothing of the kind hap- pened. _ In August 1975 shortages and price inflation, coupled with continuing un­ Family in 'new economic area.' Vietnamese government is resettling urban population as part of plan to develop rural areas employment, sparked a crisis. Banking devastated by U.S. bombs during war. was nationalized, a new currency ·in­ troduced for the South, and a few key "Should the Vietnamese leaders de­ and wealth of the capitalists and mer­ ning toward consumer goods and agri­ traders had their property confiscated cide to coexist with a capitalist econ­ chants enabled them to forge close ties culture rather than heavy industry, as an example to the rest. omy in the South, the recovery and with the state administration in the and placed it under pressure to ration­ Explaining the reasons for this ac­ growth of capitalist forces would be South. Cadres sent from the North to alize distribution. This was necessary tion, Prime Minister Huynh Tan Phat encouraged. Their penetration into the organize the bureaucratic apparatus to meet the needs of city dwellers, said: "Everything was in their [the government and into the economy of often developed cozy and profitable provide inducements for moving to compradors'] hands. They disrupted the North would 1 be facilitated. The ties with the business community. New Economic Zones, and provide the markets, artificially created short­ ground could thus he prepared for the · goods which could be supplied to the ages, and Sel)lt prices spiralling ·up­ reactionary overthrow at some future Threat from corruption peasants in exchange for rice.' wards and there was little we could do time of all the progressive gains of the Corruption became a threat to the Matters were brought to a head about it. They controlled everything Vietnamese revolution, including the government's control of the new ad­ when drought and flooding reduced from the purchase, transport, and dis­ planned economy in the North. ministration in the South, and alien­ crops in 1976 and 1977. Shortages of tribution of virtually all commodi­ "In reality, however, Vietnam is ated popular support. In the North, food resulted in reduced rice rations, ties ...." The initial anticapitalist moving toward a progressive resolu­ too, complaints against bureaucratic and required a further de-emphasis of moves were supported by demonstra­ tion of this contradiction, despite the corruption became rife. industry in favor of agriculture in tions of thousands in the streets of Ho hesitations and class-collaborationist In a 1976 article in Hoc Tap, a VCP economic planning. Chi Minh City. practices of the Stalinist leadership." journal, Foreign Minister Nguyen Duy The impact of these and other short­ Trinh said that corruption and tyran­ ages was exacerbated by hoarding, Timetable sped up Destruction of landlordism nical behavior by some cadres have currency manipulation, and other prac­ The combination of economic diffi­ Some anticapitalist measures fol­ "more than slightly tarnished the pres­ tices indulged in by the merchants. culties, the hostility of the merchant lowed the meeting of the National tige of the Party, State and·Army in This contributed to an inflation rate in capitalists, and popular discontent per­ Assembly. The destruction of landlord­ the eyes of the people" and warned the South of about 80 percent. suaded the VCP leaders to speed up the ism was pressed through the nation­ that "if not promptly rectified they will Military considerations also pressed timetable for reunification. A National alization without compensation in mid- lead to degeneration and deteriora­ the leadership toward decisive action. Assembly was elected in April 1976. 1977 of imperialist-owned rubber tion." In addition to the border conflict with On July 2, 1976, this body proclaimed plantations like those of the Michelin According to Nayan Chanda, writ­ Cambodia, the regime has been under the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and firm. ing in the March 3, 1978, Far Eastern increasing pressure from Peking on its selected a government headed by the Despite its proclamations, however, Economic Review, an anticorruption northern border. Vietnamese troops leading figures of the former Demo­ the regime continued its efforts to campaign was "launched with added are at present combating rightist and cratic Republic of Vietnam. Le Duan collaborate with the industrialists and urgency in the south, particularly in royalist guerrillas in Laos. promised: merchants who dominated a section of Ho Chi Minh City, where the danger of In the face of rising discontent and "Iri the south we must immediately industry and the bulk of commerce. moral degeneration of the cadres is economic disruption, the government abolish the comprador bourgeoisie and The measures taken against a few greater-as is the need to keep the decided to break capitalist economic the remnants of the feudal landlord merchants in August 1975 were not "party's image untarnished. power. In the May 26 Far Eastern classes; undertake the socialist trans­ followed up. On April 30, 1976, Nayan "Since last July when the Ho Chi Economic Review, correspondent formation of private capitalist industry Chanda wrote in the Washington Post: Minh City party committee adopted Chanda quotes an April 13 editorial in and commerce, agriculture, handicraft "Despite some tough measures resolutions to combat corruption (ac­ the party daily Nhan Dan, which and small trade through appropriate against big-business operators of cording to an official, during the con­ conceded that "the experience of the measureR and steps, combine transfor­ Cholon . . . many of the business gress the party received 10,000 letters past three years showed that despite mation with building in order actively community have apparently survived from the local population making com­ restrictions 'the capitalist economy to steer the economy of the south into the currency reform last September by plaints _and suggestions), a sizable continued to rule the roost.'" The edi­ the orbit of socialism, and integrate quickly dispersing their holdings. Nor number of veteran party cadres and torial ridiculed the idea that "the good the economies of both zones in a single has it been possible to unearth their officials have been jailed, including points of the capitalist and private system of large-scale socialist produc­ hidden stocks· of goods. directors of a nationalized company economic systems can be of use.'' Such tion." "After an initial lull of a few months, and of Saigon's port and the chairman claims about the value of capitalism An article, "New Advances in Viet­ Cholon is again doing a brisk busi­ of a people's committee in the city." for the economic development of the nam's Course Against Capitalism," in ness. Hoarding and blackmarketing, The anticorruption campaign gained South had been part of the standard the October 18, 1976, issue of Intercon­ combined with a general shortage of steam as the necessity for moves rhetoric of the VCP leaders. tinental Press summarized the signifi­ goods this country hasimported in the against the capitalists became more The editorial concluded that "so long cance of the reunification and the past, have caused prices to rise.... " apparent. A Southern leader, VCP as [the private sector] exists, the reor­ perspectives it posed: A dispatch by Richard Ward from Politburo member Nguyen Van Linh, ganization of agriculture and handi­ "Through these measures the de­ Hanoi in the June 21, 1978, issue of the was removed from his post as chair­ crafts along the socialist line will be formed workers state that was estab­ New York weekly Guardian quotes man of the committee for the transfor­ very difficult. Similarly, as long as lished in North Vietnam in the years Father Tran Tam Tinh, a professor mation of private industry in trade·. capitalist trade survives, it will be after 1954 formalized the extension of living in Quebec who has visited Viet­ "He, in fact, has been held responsible impossible to build a strong socialist its political apparatus and control to nam several times since liberation, as for not being able to reform the capital­ trade.'' the South. In doing so it has come face saying that the Saigon merchants ists faster," asserts Chanda. "A few to face with a major contradiction. "formerly controlled almost the entire months before the reshuffle several Remaining private trade "In contrast to the North, the econ­ import-export network, almost all road thousand cadres from the north were The elimination of large-scale pri­ omy of the South remains capitalist in transportation and they had monopol­ sent south to take over administrative vate trade does not mean that Vietnam nature although it is a weak and ized commerce in rice, meat, fabrics and managerial jobs from incumbents has eliminated all capitalist enterprise. battered capitalism. The Vietnamese and other basic necessities." believed to be incompetent and cor­ On the contrary, a sector of industry rulers are thus confronted with the Although the National Assembly rupt." still operates on a capitalist or mixed choice of coexisting with capitalist had proclaimed an economic plan for state-private basis (this accounts for forces in the South or completing the the whole country in July 1976, the Popular demands perhaps as much as 30 percent of social revolution in the South through scope of capitalist economic power The steady drumfire of popular de­ industrial production in the South). the overturn of capitalist property rela­ blocked the integration of the Southern mands both in the North and the This sector is closely supervised by the tions and the creation of a planned economy into the plan. South for more consumer goods led the government, and control will now be economy. Furthermore the economic power regime to reorient its economic plan- Continued on next page 24 living conditions in the slums of Teh­ ran, won the Critics Award at the Iranian writer visits U.S. 1 International Paris Film Festival in 1977. Many of Sa'edi's literary works have denounces shah's ·repression been banned by the shah's regime. At his news conference, Sa'edi By David Frankel explained that "the absence of freedom and Rich Robohm of parties and associations has re­ NEW YORK-One of Iran's nost sulted in government suppression of prominent intellectuals and writers, all forms of organization. (According Dr. Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi, charged to the Fundamental Laws of Iran, the June 15 that "contrary to the claims of right to assemble and to organize is government authorities, outrageous one of the inalienable rights of all repression and censorship in Iran have Iranians.)" destroyed all forms of freedom of ex­ In this regard, Sa'edi singled out his pression and publication." experience as a founding member of Sa'edi, who is on a brief visit to the the Writers Association of Iran. United States, spoke at a news confer­ ence held at the offices of the Associa­ "All true writers, poets, translators tion of American Publishers. Jailed and scholars of the country had ga­ and tortured for nearly a year by the thered together in the Writets Associa­ shah of Iran's repressive regime, tion of Iran. Their demands were: Sa'edi was released from prison in official recognition of the association; March 1975, after an international permission to hold meetings without campaign in his behalf. police harassment; freedom of expres­ However, he was denied the right to sion, and the publication of an official go abroad until this January, when the periodical by the association. After ten Iranian government lifted its travel years of forced inactivity, during ban. This retreat by the Iranian regime which a good number of poets and came about as a result of pressure from writers were incarcerated and tortured, groups such as the Association of MilitanVRich Robohm the association set out to revive it­ American Publishers Freedom to Pub­ Dr. Sa'edi (left) and Nemat Jazayeri, national secretary of the Committee for Artistic self. . . . because of changes in police lish Committee, the Committee for and Intellectual Freedom In Iran, at June 15 news conference. tactics during the last few months, Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in many members of the association were Iran, the American branch of the Inter­ beaten up, or, put more bluntly, were national PEN, and the International mantled, the SAV AK [secret police] Trained as a psychiatrist, Sa'edi has openly tortured in the streets. The League for Human Rights. and the other repressive parts of the attained prominence as a playwright, meetings of the association were dis­ Answering claims that the shah has state." novelist, and short story writer. Sev­ rupted." been easing up on repression, Sa'edi Sa'edi was born in 1935 in Tabriz, eral of his stories have been turned Sa'edi urged continued international said, ''Those people who have recently the capital of the Turkish-speaking into feature films based on Sa'edi's solidarity campaigns of the type that been freed are people whose sentences province of Azerbaijan. The Azerbai­ own film scripts. The Cow, a depiction first won his freedom from prison, and have terminated. At the same time, at jani Turks are an oppressed national­ of poverty among Iranian peasants, then his right to travel abroad. He said least 800 have been arrested. Real ity in Iran, where the shah has attemp­ won the Best Film Award at the Ve­ that such "international pressure can changes in Iran will come when the ted to stamp out their language and nice Film Festival in 1969. The Blue be effective in putting the spotlight on apparatus of repression has been dis- culture. Dome, describing the dehumanized the conditions in my country."

in restoring and expanding Vietnam's policy aimed at fostering anti­ needed. For that the Vietnamese work­ agriculture. Despite crop failures, the imperialist and socialist victories all ers and peasants will have to carry ... Vietnam regime has been able to feed the entire over the world. The effort to get aid, out an antibureaucratic revolution to Continued from preceding page population-something that its prede­ trade, and investment from imperialist cleanse their workers state of privilege enhanced by the fact that industrial­ cessor, despite vast amounts of aid countries and other sources is abso­ and corruption, and set it on the road ists no longer have the option of mar­ from the United States, could never lutely necessary for Vietnam's develop­ of working-class internationalism. keting their goods through private accomplish. ment at the present time, but it is fatal New advances in the Vietnamese for the Vietnamese leaders to subordi­ revolution make it all the more impera­ traders. "Thanks to a campaign for adult The remaining capitalists lack inter­ nate revolutionary struggles elsewhere tive that socialists step up their de­ education and community schooling to this effort. Socialist and anti­ mands on the White House to meet its mil cohesion and strong organization, for children," writes Nayan Chanda, such as the Cholon traders possessed. imperialist victories are the surest obligation to assist Vietnam, to esta­ "the literacy rate has risen apprecia­ defense of the Vietnamese revolution blish diplomatic relations with _the_ Above all they hold no decisive levers bly. Notwithstanding shortages -of of economic power. The last capitalist and create the basis for international regime, and to drop the economic equipment and medicine, a cleanliness socialist planning· which can deci­ blockade raised against this heroic strongholds in South Vietnam have and vaccination drive has prevented been crushed. · sively overcome Vietnam's poverty. people. Wa~hington ·must end its ef­ major epidemics [a regular occurrence · The VCP leadership, trained in the forts to encircle the Vietnamese revolu­ The new measures further place the under the U.S. puppet regime-FF]. government in a strong position to Stalinist school and committed to bu­ tion with military bases and reaction­ International agency officials say they reaucratic tutelage over the masses, ary client regimes. assure food supplies to the cities and to are impressed by the purposefulness cannot institute the program that is From Intercontinental Press/lnprecor guide the development of agriculture, and devotion with which a rudimen­ · since merchants can no longer outbid tary health service has been set up in the state for the peasant's production. the south." The potential danger of a merchant­ peasant alliance against the regime Such measures-which are regularly For the very best coverage has been forestalled. omitted in news stories about Vietnam that appear in the U.S. capitalist Taken as a whole, the measures Intercontinental Press press-help explain the continuing constitute a positive resolution of the of world politics T " • Ill pn '<·or contradiction between the regime that deep loyalty of the Vietnamese people arose out of Vietnam's long revolution­ to their revolution despite the great Frankly, 'Intercontinental Press/ln­ ary struggle (beginning in 1945) and difficulties that they have had to en­ precof' carries tar more articles, doc­ the surviving capitalist property rela­ dure. The establishment of a planned umel'lts, and special features about tions. Capitalist property relations no economy for the whole country lays the world politics than the 'Militant' has longer predominate in South Vietnam. basis for further conquests. room for. More than this is required, however, 'Intercontinental. Press/lnprecor' is to truly eliminate want and inequality published to help people struggling Gains of revolution in Vietnam. Workers democracy and for a. better world learn from each Despite the difficulties that have freedom of thought must be instituted, other's successes and setbacks. You plagued Vietnam as a result of impe­ so that the masses can direct and can't afford to be withoufit. Fill in the rialist exploitation, war, and economic control the regime. This is the only coupon below and subscribe todj!Y. blockade, compounded by the activities way to eradicate corruption, which is of native capitalists, some major ad­ endemic to a regime based on bureau­ Intercontinental Press/lnprecor vances have been scored. Abolition of cratic command and a hierarchy of Postofflce Sox 116, Varick Street Station, New York, New York 10014 capitalism and independence from im­ privilege. perialism are the most important. Un­ 0 Send me sh< months of 'Intercontinental Press/lnprecor.' Enclosed is employment has been reduced to 1.5 twelve .doflars. million. Hundreds of thousands of Fight against bureaucracy 0 Send me a sample <:;opy. Enclosed is seventy.. fiye cents. people have been induced to leave the The attainment of socialism requires ',..,------.,.._-...... ,.,...... ,--,...... -...1'1ddress cities for their native villages or New that the policy of "peaceful coexis­ Economic Zones, where progress is tence" with imperialism advocated by __...;...... __.""'"7"'_...... _...... ;...... __,...... ; State•-..;...... ,__....,... being made under difficult conditions the VCP leaders be replaced by a

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 25 Will a 'low profile' win gay & lesbian rights? By Wayne Hieber to explain that the real issue is human LOS ANGELES-California is be­ rights, countering the reactionary coming a national battleground for myths of the bigots. gay rights. No longer content with Goodstein advocates "following the campaigns to repeal gay rights laws, advice of professional, paid consul­ right-wing bigots, led here by State tants." Professional media advertise­ Sen. John Briggs, are attempting to ments can play a useful role in the legalize discrimination against gays fight against Briggs-but not if they and lesbians. are used to substitute for an active The Briggs initiative on the ballot campaign by gay rights supporters. this fall aims to drive lesbians and Goodstein explains his thinking this gays out of the California school sys­ way: "Despite many people's false tem. beliefs in right triumphing in demo­ The referendum is a dangerous esca­ cratic ways, history clearly shows that lation in the campaign against gay success for minority groups has been rights. We need a nationwide effort to the result of patient, careful and soph­ defeat it. The question is, how? isticated political power applied skill­ The June 14 issue of the Advocate, fully and persuasively to rulers and the most widely read gay newspaper in legislatures, not to the votes of the the country, has given one answer. masses." David Goodstein, the Advocate's Goodstein should read his history owner and publisher, suggests that "in books again. It is only when the the [anti-Briggs campaign] ahead al­ masses of people have been won over most all gay people could help best by that the rulers and legislatures are maintaining very low profiles. Con­ forced to make concessions. structively, we should assist in regis­ Take the civil rights movement of tering gay voters, stuffing envelopes in the 1960s for example. Blacks did not the headquarters, and keeping out of win rights by maintaining a "low sight of non-gay voters ...." . profile," by relying on "professionals" In other words, Goodstein says gay or politicians to fight the battles for Militant/Ann Teasdale them. men and lesbians should oblige Briggs New· York, June 25. A national campaign against the Briggs initiative is needed to and go back into the closets. Blacks confronted the racist rulers of involve large numbers, convince the undecided, and increase the turnout of gay this country with a high, loud, and "Spokespeople for our side ... rights supporters at the polls. should be non-gay mothers, police of- · angry profile, expressed in the mobili- · fleers, and clergy. Rather than speak­ zation of masses of Blacks in protests ing for us, they should speak up for ranging from sit-ins to marches. teachers," Goodstein urges. The issue And it is simply not possible to protect impressionable children from We must take the same approach to should be "the right to privacy and dodge the main issue in this referen­ the influence of gay people." win gay rights. free speech of teachers." dum, gay rights. But last fall another survey reported Rallies, demonstrations, teach-ins, Teachers' rights are an important After all, the ballot description that that 51 percent of the people ques­ and massive distribution of literature issue in this campaign. The Briggs will be printed in big capital letters at tioned said they would not favor discri­ can involve large .numbers of people, initiative would not only victimize gay the top of every ballot orr November 6 mination against gays in teaching. convince many of the undecided, and will say: "SCHOOL EMPLOYEES­ and lesbian teachers, but any other A recent Los Angeles Times survey, increase the turnout of gay rights school employee who advocated gay HOMOSEXUAUTY - INITIATIVE supporters at the polls in November. STATUTE." taken on primary election day as peo­ rights. All teachers have a stake in ple left the polls, reported that 59 These activities can appeal to the this fight. That's why the California Moreover, the bigots campaigning percent of the voters said they would Black and Chicano communities, Federation of Teachers voted at its last for the initiative will focus their have voted for the antigay intiative if which will recognize that they too may state convention to oppose the Briggs efforts-as they have done already-on it had been on the ballot that day. be targeted by bigots. We can appeal to initiative. a smear campaign portraying gay Forty-one percent would have voted no. the labor movement, which has a big But there is no need to counterpose people as immoral child molesters. We interest in defending democratic the defense of all teachers' rights to have to answer these twisted lies. These polls indicate that the ques­ rights, especially the rights of teacher defense of gay rights. tion is not settled. There is a great deal unionists. Goodstein's pessimism is based on a of confusion. But the most important The most important resource in this poll that showed, according to the thing the polls show is growing sup­ campaign is the thousands of gay and Advocate, that a "vast majority" of port for gay rights. Who could imagine, lesbian rights activists who are look­ Wayne Hieber is a coordinator of people thought that a person's sexual for example, 41 percent of the popula­ ing for ways to organize the sentiment the Committee Against the Briggs preference has. nothing to do with the tion supporting gay teachers ten years for human rights into a vote against Initiative/ Los Angeles and a ability to teach, but "73 percent feel ago? the Briggs initiative. member of the Socialist Workers that a strong argument in favor of the We need ·to expand that support by Success in November depends on Party. initiative is that it is important to waging a public educational campaign that effort.

fight the Briggs initiative was ex­ National Organization for Women. And as we march together we will not pressed by speaker after speaker. "We stand proudly with those who cut any movement. That's what our ... Briggs Raoul Teilhet, president of the CalifOr­ fight for Black civil rights and minor­ opposition wants us to do-to be di­ nia Federation of Teachers, was intro­ ity rights of all kinds, and we stand vided and conquered. And we will not Continued from back page duced to the rally by a teacher from proudly with the gay rights move­ be divided. We will not be the con­ where there have been recent defeats Hawaii who had been denied a job ment," Smeal declared. quered." for gay rights. "I'm from Wichita. because he is gay. Don't let it happen in California," read "We are working very hard, as you Smeal urged "every person here join the sign carried by one man. "I am here to say that this will not know, for the Equal Rights Amend­ the coalition and get out that vote here Banners identified hundreds of or­ happen in California," Teilhet said. ment. On July 9 there will be a march in California against the Briggs initia­ ganizations and groups, including: The crowd roared its approval. "The in Washington for women's rights. tive." National Lawyers Guild, Lesbians of CFI' unanimously voted to oppose the Color, Lesbian Teachers, chapters of Briggs amendment. the National Organization for Women, "As teachers and citizens we are Physicians for Gay Rights, Grey committed to human dignity and hu­ Panthers, Deaf Gays of San Francisco, man rights, not just for some people, Asian Gays, Alliance for Survival, but for all. We want the John Briggses People Against Nuclear Power, Par­ and the Anita Bryants of this country ents of Gays, Pacific Telephone Em­ to know that we are not going to ployees for All Human Rights, Social­ tolerate a return of the stench offear to ist Workers Campaign, and many· the classrooms of this state. campus groups. "We will use all of our force and our About one-third of the marchers were legal counsel and our resources, our , women. Thousands were Black, Chi­ money, to defend any single teacher , cano, Asian, and Native American. and single student or administrator Some of the handmade picket signs that is attacked on the job for free read: "Gay teachers fight back," "Out choice of life style in this state." of the closets and into the schools," Speakers-along with banners and "How about human rights for all, placards-expressed the unity of gay President Carter?" ·rights supporters with others: women One of the best-received signs was fighting for the Equal Rights Amend­ mounted on a green pickup truck. It ment; those fighting against the Bakke read, "We are your children." In the decision; the disabled; the Coors boy­ back of the truck, small children held cott; the anti-nuclear power movement; signs demanding, "Gay rights for my and others. parents." This solidarity was also expressed The militancy and determination to by Eleanor Smeal, president of the San Francisco, June 25 Militant/Howard Petrick

26 In Review 'I Just Wanted Someone to Know' I Just Wanted Someone to Know. A play by Bette Craig, assisted by Joyce Kornbluh. Directed by C.R. Portz. With Hortensia Colorado, Dorothy Lancaster, Phyllis Look, Valerie Morrell, Catherinft Slade, and Margay Whitlock. A Labor Theatre production.

I Just Wanted Someone to Know is a documentary play about the lives of working women. The play-unlike many other attempts to portray work­ ing people-successfully avoids cast­ ing its characters into one-dimensional ruts. Perhaps this is because the people the play is about had a hand in writing their own parts. Playwright Bette Craig relied on oral histories collected from working-class Black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, Irish, and Italian women in New York in developing her characters and their stories. The lives of these women are hard ones. But this comes through in a style that is neither heavy-handed nor stri­ dent. Six actresses sensitively and sympa­ thetically portray the reality and aspi- rations, laughter and despair, tri- Cast of 'I Just Wanted Someone to Know' in subway-riding scene umphs and defeats of working-class women. The separate pieces weave together floors, inflammable scrap, no fire es­ our freedom too. Buddy, I'm not trying the impossibility of making ends meet into a tapestry of working-class life capes, locked doors. to steal your job, that's my job too!" on welfare. "The social workers think beginning with turn-of-the-century im­ This flashback is effectively com­ Contemporary vignettes pick up on that if you've got anything at all, it's migrants and continuing through to­ bined with the modern-day testimony the same struggles for equal work more than you need," one says. day. of an older cotton mill worker plagued today. A secretary bemoans the frus­ Critics of the women's liberation This is a hidden history. One that by Brown Lung disease. trations of "traditional women's move~nt often claim it is out of touch has yet to penetrate textbooks, TV "The boss says it costs too much to work," while a tool and die maker with working-class concerns. But the shows, or movies. "Maybe they can . clean up the dust," she gasps. "I just enthuses over her skilled job. "It gives historic struggles and aspirations of only hear screaming," the title song want everyone to know what it costs me a handle on what makes the world working women depicted in I Just goes. "They've never heard my story or me that this mill wasn't cleaned up work," she says. Wanted Someone to Know show this asked my name. I just wanted someone years ago." A series of quick exchanges high­ isn't so. to know." A female truck driver hired on dur­ light the oppression poor women, espe­ I Just Wanted Someone to Know The characters tell their stories ing World War II captures the excite­ cially women of the oppressed nation­ recently completed a run in New York. through monologues, conversations, ment and satisfaction so many women alities face today. But next spring the show will tour in and songs. felt then at finally breaking into A Spanish-speaking woman is rudely several cities, including Detroit, Pitts­ In one dramatic scene, a Chinese skilled and better-paying "male" civ­ denied assistance at the unemploy­ burgh, New Haven, and New Bruns­ garment worker relives the horrible ilian jobs. ment office. wick. In some places performances will Triangle fire of 1911 in which 143 Then the war ends, and the women A poor woman must wait months for be sponsored by Local 1199 of the women shirtwaist workers lost their are ordered to carry out their "patriotic an abortion. When she tells this to a National Union of Hospital and. lives. In a nightmarish trance she duty" by returning home. In "Rosie the nurse, the nurse blithely warns, "Well, Health Care Employees. If it plays recalls the working conditions respon­ Riveter" the cast sings its reply: it's your health." near you, don't miss it. sible for the deaths: 200 women on two "Keep on truckin', Rosie, fight for Women on a food stamp line discuss -Shelley Kramer

helped frame them. A terrified Gypsy girl whose ing the events (even if you were not originally grandmother, a refugee from Europe, warns her, there). Going again through the feelings of horror 'The Last Day' "This is what they do to people, remember." Black and rage. The Last Day. By Steve Friedman. Directed by people who pay respect to fellow victims of Ameri­ And better, more hopeful feelings too. The play Denny Partridge. Performed by the Modern can lynch "justice." A machinist who understands uses an adapted version of Bertholt Brecht's "Song that the execution is meant to scare and tame the Times Theatre on June 16-17 and in an abridged of the Moldau," sung by John Barker, to turn from labor movement. grief about the past atrocity to determination about version at the twenty-fifth anniversary tribute to To read this is to see a list of valid political the future. "The long night has twelve hours, but Julius and Ethel Rosenberg held in New York points. But the drama's purpose is to do more than then comes the dawn ....The whole world is City's Union Square. just recite political lessons. · changing; there's nothing they can do." Why do you do these plays about the Rosenberg Anyone can review the events. Read a book, see a When the play was done at the recent tribute to execution? I asked director Denny Partridge, after documentary, hear a speech, and you can review the Rosenbergs in Union Square, it was interrupted seeing this most recent of the plays on that theme what happened. by applause at several points. done by the Modern Times Theater. Remembering is different. Remembering is reliv- I don't think the crowd clapped just because they "We feel like we've never exhausted it," she agreed with the statements. Nor were the lines so answered. "It brings together so many things in poetic in themselves. But they caught what people terms of personal lives. Each play is like scraping were feeling, what they remembered feeling. They away the layers." were moved. This play is not really about Ethel and Julius This is not sentimentality-there is plenty of that Rosenberg. In fact, the two victims of the 1950s oozing from movie and TV screens every day. It is witch-hunt are never portrayed on stage. Instead, it different to be inspired, to think about the past and is about remembering the Rosenbergs. call up those strong emotions. Looking around at the audience, I concluded that Those emotions and lessons from the past fuel the most people there would not remember June 19, political work people do today. At the end people in 1953, firsthand. Most of us were too young. Most of the play mention the struggles they have fought us first went through the Rosenberg case by hear­ since 1953 for unions, child care, and lesbian ing someone else remember it or by reading Invita­ mothers-the point being that because --they can tion to An Inquest. remember the past, they can fight in the present. The play is based on interviews with people who That is why the Modern Times Theater does these were at the last vigil for the Rosenbergs in Union plays year after year along with their other dramas. Square in 1953. It is good to remember the martyrs and history and These include a Puerto Rican student who can't feelings of working people. believe a torn jello box was enough to condemn two As one woman in The Last Day concludes, "I am people to death. Jews who don't like the Rosen­ alive today· because I remember these things." bergs' politics, but who hate the anti-semitism that -Diane Wang

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 27 In Brief '

power to inspect federal work­ will center on bars, pool halls, Quote unquote places, and must rely on coop­ and skid rows. eration from other agencies. More on Birmingham spying However, many federal agen­ MEEROPOLS TO GET cies refuse-including the $200,000 "Where'd all these Navy, which has one of the crazies come from?" The Justice Department has worst job safety records. agreed to pay nearly $200,000 -New York City In addition, workers who rMayor Edward Koch in for legal expenses to Michael complain about job safety or and Robert Meeropol, sons of Brooklyn's Crown who cooperate with OSHA in­ Heights, as Blacks de­ Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. spectors are harassed. The Meeropols spent that much manded punishment of Clinton Wright, an OSHA the cops who killed Black money in fighting for the right official, wrote that the lack of to see some of the 800,000 gov­ businessman Arthur enforcement of health and Miller.· ernment documents on their safety rules has led to "an parents' case. unacceptably high price to pay, The government resisted both in tax dollars and in lives turning over the papers and lost or seriously disrupted." the Meeropols were forced to go OSHA is seeking a presiden­ KKK SURFACES to court under the Freedom of tial order giving it· the power to Information Act. IN ATLANTIC CITY inspect federal workplaces. The Ku Klux Klan has begun The award is the largest of Birmingham cops attacked civil rights demonstrators with water a scare campaign in Atlantic its kind to date. hoses and police dogs during 1960s. City, New Jersey. The KKK recently hung in effigy a Black community leader, Kaleem HOUSE OKs PROTEST PRISONER Recently uncovered city widened to include such poli­ Shabazz, and Klan members TUITION TAX CREDIT DEATH documents in Birmingham, ticians as Hubert Humph­ have paraded around town in The House of Representa­ About a hund,red people ral­ Alabama, have revealed a rey. their robes. tives June 1 approved a bill lied at the New York State vast web of police spying on The cops were assisted by When city officials tried to that would allow parents of Office Building in Harlem June the civil rights movement in the FBI, at least one airline hush up the effigy hanging, private school stuaents­ 24 to protest the mysterious the 1950s and 1960s. The about 100 people jammed a city including private religious death of prisoner Musa Abdul and bank, as well as a Bir­ cops used both wiretaps and mingham newspaper. commission meeting to protest schools-to deduct part of the Mu'Min (William Peterson) in informers to gather their in­ the policy. tuition costs from their income Green Haven prison May 10. formation. The cops also sought and Half of the city's population taxes. Musa was burned to death in The spy operations were . received full cooperation is Black or Hispa~ic, and The measure is opposed by his cell. set up by Eugene (Bull) Con­ from officials at many residents are Jewish. the American Federation of Akil Al-jundi, a leader of the nor, police commissioner Birmingham-Southern Col­ Teachers, National Education Emergency Committee to Gain and diehard racist, but con­ lege in harassing civil rights Association, NAACP, and Human Rights at Green Haven tinued even after he left activists, and arranged to many other groups. At a time Prison, told the Militant that COLLEGES RESIST office. In fact, under his get a student expelled after when public school budgets are guards at Green Haven have successors, surveillance was she participated in a sit·in. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION being slashed, this bill would boasted that they are all Dr. Mary Berry, Assistant subsidize private schools, in­ members of the Ku Klux Klan. Secretary of Health, Education cluding "alternative" institu­ The rally was also called to and Welfare, said June 23 that tions established to undercut support a group of Black and 86 percent of the full professors desegregation. Latino prisoners at the Eastern at U.S. campuses are white Correctional Facility in Napa­ males, and that Blacks make noch who were indicted follow­ istration came in with ringing tion for Women President up only 5 percent of all faculty HOW ABOUT LOOKING ing a prison rebellion. promises to enforce Title IX, Cathy Helmbock and Susan members. IN THE SWEATSHOPS? [HEW] Secretary Califano has Flannary, director of an abor­ "We have barely given [affir­ The U.S. Census Bureau says added his own brand of red tion clinic that has been the mative action programs] a: it will hire Chicano and other tape and delay," charged Dot target of an anti-abortion chance to succeed," Berry said. oppressed minority "street­ Ridings, a board member of the group. "Instead, we have succumbed wise" census takers to count HIT GOV'T INACTION ON League of Women Voters. to efforts to pretend that _affir­ immigrants without visas in SEX DISCRIMINATION.- mative action m~ans hiring 1980. Several hundred women and minorities and women who are Chicano leaders have criti­ men rallied in Washington, · CINCINNATI unqualified. It does not." cized the census bureau be­ D.C., June 26 at the Depart­ RIGHT TO CHOOSE HARLEM RAT PLAGUE cause in 1970 it missed up to 25 ment of Health, Education and The Cincinnati Chapter of Harlem is threatened by a percent of Latinos who are Welfare to call for speeded up the National Abortion Rights rapidly growing rat population, LITTLE PROTECTION legal residents or citizens. This enforcement of laws that forbid Action League recently held said Manhattan Borough Pres­ FOR GOV'T WORKERS means Latinos have been ille­ sex discrimination in schools two events supporting a wom­ ident Andrew Stein June 19. "We do have serious deficien­ gally denied social services and receiving federal money. an's right to choose abortion. Stein reported a 37 percent cies ... and we do have Fed­ legislative representation they The 1972 Title IX amend­ On June 15, NARAL sponsored increase in rat bites this year. eral employees subjected daily are entitled to. ment to the education law pro­ a "Freedom of Choice Day." The city estimates there are 6.5 to serious hazards we should The bureau is certainly not hibits such discrimination, but, Groups supporting abortion million rates in the city, with not tolerate in private employ­ trying to count undocumented according to the National Coa­ rights gathered at downtown one of the heaviest concentra­ ment," admits a letter from the Latinos to improve their access lition for Women and Girls in Fountain Square to distribute tions in Harlem. Occupational Safety and to services or representation. Education, more than 150 sex their literature. Two days later, The rats are on the increase, Health Administration (OSHA) Capturing the government's discrimination cases have been a meeting on "How the abor­ Stein said, because city budget to President Carter. racist attitude, the bureau an­ bogged down for eight months. tion issue affects you" heard cuts have prevented picking up OSHA does not have the nouncement said the search "Although the Carter admin- Cincinnati National Organiza- the more than 16,000 tons of

What's Going On

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Afterthought-The EPA has decided to check out the effect of 14,500 drums of radioactive waste dumped off the Cotton dust standards fraud Maryland-Delaware coast between 1946 and 1970. Divers will collect marine orga­ The federal Occupational high as 750 for some textile nism samples to check the effect of ra­ Safety and Health Adminis­ processes. dioactivity. They'll also try to retrieve one tration (OSHA) finally re­ The regulations were also of the drums, presumably to see if it's leased its rules on cotton changed to allow the textile dust June 19. The· regula­ companies four years to in­ leaking. tions are supposedly aimed stall "engineering controls." at curbing byssinosis, or And the employers can A question-Dr. Rene Dubos, a Rocke­ brown lung. apply for a "variance" to feller University bacteriologist, says that An estimated 35,000 tex­ allow them to deviate from if the same standards were applied to ~·'JI•'c... tile workers suffer from the the standards. natural foods as processed, half the hu­ "Our figures show that to maintain a disease caused by breathing ACTWU, joined by the man food supply would be banned, since middle-level standard of living, a family cotton dust. AFL-CIO, immediately filed practically all natural foods contain some needs an upper-level Income." After a three-week "de­ suit against the rules in bate" within the Carter ad­ federal court. ministration over the rules' "inflationary impact," they But Labor Secretary Ray were substantially diluted to Marshall proclaimed, "This cut costs for the textile in­ standard demonstrates that dustry. one does not have to choose The Amalgamated Clo­ between inflation and effec­ Union Talk thing and Textile Workers tive regulation." Union says no more than What it really demon­ 100 micrograms of cotton strates is that given the dust per cubic meter of air chance, capitalist govern­ should be permitted. But the ments always choose profits Longshore negotiations new rules set the limit as over workers' lives. This week's column is by Mike The employers are unwilling to give up Downs, a member of the executive this weapon against the union without board of Local 19, International another strike, and all signs indicate that Longshoremen's and Warehouse­ the ILWU top leadership is determined to" men's Union. avoid a strike at all cost. International President Jim Herman West Coast longshore workers are nego­ assures us that we can make gains tiating a new contract under the same through collective bargaining, that strike conditions that have hampered all other action is not necessary. In the meantime unions in negotiations this year: a justi­ PMA keeps stalling. fied fear of the antilabor offensive of the The executive board of Local 19 has employers and the government, and no constituted itself as a ~trike committee, economic or political plan by the union and has held several meetings to discuss movement to fight back. ' preparations for a possible strike. The The three-year contract between the local leaderships hi other major ports are International Longshoremen's and Ware­ making similar preparations. housemen's Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) expires July There has been some discussion among 1. Coast-wide negotiations began in earn­ the leadership of our local about the est in San Francisco last May, and one of possibility of working without a contract the first decisions of the "Joint Negotiat­ if no agreement is reached by July 1. The ing Committee" (employers and union) international leadership has not openly was that neither party would make public • proposed it because they fear that the statements. This serves to keep the union majority will not go along. membership uninformed and discourages A good way to cut through all the rank-and-file participation. stalling by the PMA would be to demand The negotiator from ILWU Local 19 in a public investigation of their books and Seattle, local President Dick Moork, says, of the big profits they are pocketing. "Because of the strict ground rules set We make necessary strike preparations forth by the committee, I am limited as to to defend ourselves from further attacks ~Offer the details I can report. . . . Neither party by the employers, but we could also wants to. negotiate in the press, so any­ greatly strengthen our defenses on the TO CELEBRATE THE thing in writing that could get in their political front. hands had to be very general." Since we are suffering from unemploy­ COMPLETION OF THE Some of the union's original demands ment and short-time employment, why 12-VOLUME SET OF were quickly dropped even before they got shouldn't the union demand a big public to the "joint committee." Among these works program financed by the federal WRITINGS OF . were two presented by Local 19: for a six­ government? It could expand our mass LEON TROTSKY hour day at eight hours pay, and against transit systems, restore necessary city compulsory arbitration. services, construct much-needed low-cost The strongest demand of the union, housing, rebuild our rundown schools and unanimously endorsed by all longshore libraries and public parks, and do all the • 20% off for three or more volumes (regular price, $5.45 per workers except for a favored few, is elimi­ other useful things that are badly needed. volume). nation of Section 9.43 of the present contract. This clause, which was insti­ Of course, nothing like this is "practi­ • 25% reduction for entire twelve-volume set of Writings of tuted with the. 1966 contract, allows em­ cal" today because the union movement Leon Trotsky (1929-40). ployers to bypass the union hiring hall does not have a labor party that will take and keep a steady group of trained equip­ hold of government and start serving the ment operators. needs of the vast majority in this country. The "right" of the employers to prefer­ We need to mobilize all workers in a For all twelve volumes, send $49 plus $1 for postage and entially hire workers for certain jobs was broad political offensive against the em­ handling to Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, one of the main issues in the 1971 134-day ployers and their voices in the Democratic New York 10014. For other orders, please include $.'50 for strike. This section of the contract has and Republican parties. Until now we postage and handling. weakened the union by limiting union have failed to do this. And for that our control of hiring and dividing the work present difficult and seemingly isolated force. position is partly self-imposed.

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 29 Our Revolutionary Heritage Letters Celebrating 50 years of the Militant, 1928-1978

ACLU member East Germany 1953 responds on Nazis Ten years ago this summer, a massive Reporting on the Poznan events, the The following letter it true that the SWP exerts upsurge of the Czechoslovak working Militant said in its July 9, 1956, issue, from Harold Fol'd of the considerable effort to get class rocked the Soviet bureaucracy to its "Thursday morning, June 28, the workers Flint, Michigan, branch socialists elected to these foundations. Throughout the spring of of Stalin Locomotive Works struck the of the American Civil legislative bodies? 1968, workers and students fought to take plant at 7 A.M. The workers gathered in a Liberties Union has been Frankel charges that the control of their lives away from the Stalin­ demonstration outside the plant and then slightly shortened for "ACLU has not said one ist rulers. began a march toward the center of the reasons of space. word in support of those The uprsurge ended in August when the city. The movement spread to other plants For more on the social­ organizing a counterdemon­ Kremlin sent tanks into the streets of and became general throughout the city of ist view of this question, stration." This is a misre­ Prague to crush the movement. · 365,000 people. Street car crews struck see 'How to defeat Nazi presentation of reality. Mr. threat in Skokie,' by The bureaucrats and their faithful fol­ and joined the parade. So did the truck­ Frankel forgets, perhaps, lowers in the American Communist Party drivers. Small shops closed up. The Steve Clark in the May 26 issue of the 'Militant.' that the Skokie ordinance claimed that the Prague spring was the workers' parade, marching 20-abreast, had already been used to bar work of "capitalist agents" seeking to mdved into the center of the city." This and other back issues can be ordered a march by anti-Nazi Jew­ overturn the nationalized property rela­ By noon, tanks and antiaircraft guns from the Militant Busi­ ish War Veterans. Had the tions in Czechoslovakia. But nothing moved into the city and surrounded the ness Office, 14 Charles Skokie ordinance not been could be further from the truth. The Cze­ demonstration. Many workers were killed. Lane, New York, New struck down by the court, choslovak workers were fighting for demo­ Despite this brutal repression, the York 10014. most, if not all, of the groups cratic socialism. workers' demonstrations continued. planning to march in the Their fight has important roots in the Workers chanted, "Bread, bread, bread," The June 23 issue of the counterdemonstration would struggles in East Europe that erupted in and demanded that the "Soviet troops Militant contains a column have been hard-pressed to 1953 in East Germany and in 1956 in leave Poland~ They occupied factories and written by David Frankel come up with a $350,000 Poland and Hungary. set up workers councils. that levels heavy criticism insurance bond. On June 16, in East Berlin, a workers' The Militant commented, "One imme­ at the American Civil Liber­ uprising was touched off by the decision diate conclusion flows irrefutably from ties Union for its role in the of the East German government to impose the events. . . . The Polish Communist Skokie, illinois, case. Unfor­ an increase of at least 10 percent in the Party, not to speak of the regime itself, is tunately, heavy sprinklings work norms (units of work to be produced completely isolated from the problems, of Frankel's socialist philo­ in a given time). daily lives and struggles of the factory sophy distort and blur the The workers protested this speedup workers. Obviously the party and the · analysis and the issue. decision. When the government refused to regime form an upper crust of those who Frankel prefaces his re­ back down, the workers marched on the run the state apparatus and the various marks by stating, "First of party institutions.· all, the SWP [Socialist trade-union headquarters, carrying a sign Workers Party] opposes any that read, "We Demand Reduction of the "The whole formation cannot be re­ law, including the one in Norms." garded as anything but a bureaucratic Skokie, that limits the right As the strike progressed, other demands caste of arrogant, privileged and nervous of free speech and assembly. Nazi Frank Collin were raised: for free, secret-ballot elec­ appointees to power." We think it is good that the tions, for democratic trade unions, for the Although the Polish uprising was put Skokie law was struck Further, Frankel contends_ removal of the Russian army. down, its lessons were not forgotten. Just down." If Frankel really be­ On the morning of June 1.7, all the a few months later, another uprising-the lieves what he writes, then that "by focusing on the larger factories and shops of East Berlin biggest one of all-shook the Stalinist the criticism that follows in Nazis' case, the ACLU blurs were on strike. During the day, the strikes rulers of Hungary. Again, the Soviet his column seems strange the important point that spread to dozens of other cities and towns· bureaucrats had to send in tanks to pre­ indeed. repressive laws such as throughout East Germany. serve their rule. Frankel scolds the ACLU those passed in Skokie pose But the Soviet bureaucracy moved The German playwright Gunter Grass by asserting that "such le­ the greatest threat to the swiftly to aid their beleaguered fellow has written of the East German events of _gal battles must be con­ working class ...." The bureaucrats. By noon of June 17, Soviet 1953, "After ten or eleven years, the ducted in the context of an ACLU agrees that Skokie­ tanks were in the streets of East Berlin. prisons will vomit up the wreckage of this overall policy aimed at mo­ type laws pose a great threat The military commandant issued an order uprising. Accusation will run rampant, bilizing the masses against to other groups, which is prohibiting all demonstrations and impos­ address and mail a thousand packages of the government.... " Is Mr. why Skokie-type laws ought ing a curfew. guilt." Frankel suggesting that the to be struck down. However, The demonstrators fought against the The events in East Germany, Poland, goals, methods, policies, and the ACLU devotes its resour­ and Hungary left an irradicable mark on scope of the SWP necessar­ ces to a wide range of civil tanks, with cobblestones, crowbars, and ily be adopted by the ACLU whatever else they could lay hands on. the consciousness of East European -liberties concerns-sexual as a precondition to credibil­ equality; racial justice; reli­ But they were"overcome. workers. After a period of relative quiet, ity? If so, then he misunder­ Yet their example was not forgotten. the struggles continued: Czechoslovakia gious freedom; the freedom stands the intent and scope to control one's own body; And three years later, almost to the day, it 1968; a series of worker rebellions in of the ACLU. The funda­ was repeated in the streets~ of Poznan, Poland in 1971 and again in 1976; a the constitutional rights of mental purpose of the ACLU students, prisoners, mental Poland. Romanian miners' strike in August 1977; is to preserve and de~end the On June 28 a general strike began in and a rise of dissent throughout Eastern liberties guaranteed in the patients, service personnel, Poznan against wage cuts. - Europe. Bill of Rights. The ACLU juveniles, the elderly; and This came just a few months after The events of 1953 and 1956 will not be endeavors to do this via the rights of privacy for all Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in a forgotten. In years to come, the workers of litigation, lobbying, educa­ of us. secret speech to the twentieth congress of Hungary, Poland, East Germany, and all tion, and other activities. More than 6,000 court the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union Frankel continues, "The cases are undertaken each had denounced many of Stalin's crimes. will look to them to draw new inspiration ACLU's basic strategy is to year by the ACLU to protect This denunciation provoked a deep crisis in their struggles for socialist democracy. rely on the capitalist gov- . these rights. Only five or six in the world Stalinist movement. -Peter Archer emment.... " I presume of these are cases to defend that Frankel is referring to free speech for racists or the litigation and lobbying totalitarians. I suggest that efforts of the ACLU in gen­ it is the media, including the eral, and the Skokie court Militant, which has focused contest in particular. Yet, I on Skokie and thus distorted read with considerable inter­ it. est an article in the same And Frankel ought not to issue of the Militant about forget the fact that the the four-year, $40 million ACLU has defended the con­ THE MILITANT i.s the voice of 0 t. want to join the sw~. lawsuit of the SWP and stitutional rights of social­ the SocialisfWorkers Party: 0 Send me ~>copies of Prospects Young Socialist Alliance lor Socialism· in America at $2.95 ists in the courts on numer­ against government spying ous occasions. IF Y.OU AGREE with .what each. Enclosed $-..._._..._...... _ and harassment-utilizing 0 Please send me more information. the courts for redress of grie­ The ACLU's responsi­ you've read, you should j9in bility.:.....since its founding in Name vances. Diane Wang, author us in fighting for a world of the article, writes, "Forc­ 1920-has been to make sure that all are free to speak, no without war, racism, . · or Address --,------~ ing release of the files would exploitation-a socialist set a major precedent. It matter what their ideas. The City ------would be a big victory for attack by Frankel and oth­ world. State ----- Zip _____ civil liberties." ers on the ACLU is unwise I suggest to Mr. Frankel and undeserving. It might Telephone ------­ that a socialist utopia is not serve Frankel and others JOIN THE SWP: Fill out this SWP, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. just around the comer and well to quit backing int.o an coupon and mail it today. 10014 that whatever means availa­ elitist, philosophical comer ble to the ACLU or the SWP and rethink their positions to create a more just and on the ACLU and the Skokie humane society ought to be case. It is the First Amend­ used-including the courts ment, not the ACLU, that is JOIN THE SWP and legislative bodies. Isn't on trial in Skokie. . 30 Learning About Socialism

Keep the paper coming I am eternally grateful to those who have contributed to Do we need a war budget? your prisoners subscription D.P.K., a reader in Easton, Maryland, recently wrote, The war budget has hardly protected the American fund, making it possible for "The Socialist Workers Party's call for abolishing the people. Tens of thousands of Americans, and millions of myself and others to receive a defense budget is confusing to me. I can see making big Vietnamese, Koreans, and others, have died as a result of free subscription. cuts in military spending in order to improve social services Washington's military adventures. The danger of nuclear I have been receiving the like education, but doesn't the United States need armed war hangs over the world because the U.S. imperialists see Militant regularly, and I wish to continue getting the paper. forces and modem weapons to defend itself against poten­ this as the ultimate threat to their intended victims. The In my opinion the Militant is tial attackers?" ever-increasing sums poured into military hardware are an important part of the If SWP candidates were elected to Congress, they would paid for by working people in the form of inflation and people's struggle, and I think vote against all military appropriations. Their slogan would deteriorating social services. that the paper handles most of be, "Not one cent for the Pentagon!" In addition to its function as an instrument of imperialist the subjects in a positive The basic reason for this is that the misnamed "defense" war, the, U.S. war machine is also used to preserve the manner. Even those positions budget has nothing to do with protecting the lives and power of the capitalist minority at home. The U.S. armed that I fail to agree with are rights of working people in the United States or anywhere forces have been utilized to break strikes and put down handled in what I think is a else. It is a war budget used to build up a military machine ghetto rebellions of Blacks. Carter threatened to use troops progressive manner. for preserving and expanding the power of a small group of to break the miners' strike. The military is an instrument of Keep up the 'good work, and billionaires who run this country. repression for the ruling minority. keep the paper coming. Capitalism requires ever-expanding markets for goods The growth of the war machine does not reflect a growing A prisoner and investment. In the twentieth century, the competition danger of a foreign invasion of the United States. Rather, it Maryland among rival gangs of capitalists for these markets has led is the rulers' reaction to their fear of the working people, at to two world wars. home as well as abroad. After the Second World War the United States was by far The military forces that were called into action yesterday the strongest world power, with a monopoly on nuclear wea­ in . Zaire or Vietnam can be brought to bear tomorrow pons. The U.S. rulers tried to use their power to usher in against the unions, the Black community, or others who 'Professional' what they termed the "American century." resist the ruling-class attacks on working people. This The main target of the new U.S. war drive was not other military force is the capitalists' last line of defense ·against Now is as good a time as ever · to congratulate the staff on the imperialist powers, but countries that had successfully the majority of the people should they decide to replace a continuing success and broken free from capitalist exploitation and imperialist war-ridden capitalist order with socialism. professional performance in domination-the Soviet Union, and later Eastern Europe, Of course, this does not mean that working people should the field of journalism. I find China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba-and revolution­ · not defend themselves and their rights in the unlikely event the Militant on the top of my ary struggles in other countries that the imperialists feared that another country invades the United States and tries to list to remain an informed part would lead to socialist revolutions. The U.S. imperialists subjugate the American people. But they can place no of the working class, an ideal hoped to crush new revolutions anywhere they broke out confidence in the armed power controlled by the capitalists newspaper to study (since and restore capitalism wherever it had been overthrown. to carry out such a defense. Working people can gain journalism is one of my fields To support the war drive, a major propaganda effort was nothing by building up this fundamentally hostile force. It of study), and an ethical and made to persuade the American people that the workers cannot defend their interests. Its whole history proves that concerned newspaper so states, the colonial rebels, and anyone else who defied the the capitalist military establishment is a threat to our rights desperately needed in these will of the U.S. rulers, was part of a "communist conspir­ and the rights of workers around the world. politically regressive times. acy" to conquer the United States and enslave its people. D.P.K. and others who are considering this important M.K. Ralls Anticommunism was used to justify the U.S. war in Korea issue will find useful material in State and Revolution and San Francisco, California in 1950, the Vietnam War, the invasion of the Dominican Imperialism, both written by V.I. Lenin. Both are available Republic in 1965, the blockade of Cuba, and countless other from Pathfinder Press and from bookstores located at the aggressions. Today it provides the backdrop for threats addresses listed below. -Fred Feldman against the African liberation struggle, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. Opposition to the capitalist war budget is a necessary part of the fight to keep the U.S. rulers from Do you have questions about socialism? Send them 'Valuable newspaper' launching new Vietnam wars or even a third world war to in to "Learning About Socialism," c/o The Militant, I neglected to send in my accomplish their goals. 14 Charles Lane, New York, New York 10014. subscription, even though you sent a reminder the week before. Keep this nation's most valuable newspaper coming to my door. This week's issue did not come, and it is, or will be, a lost week for me. John Enestvedt If You Like This Paper, Look Us Up Sacred Heart, Minnesota Where to ltnd the Socialist Workers Party. Young Socialist Alliance. and socialist books and pamphlets

ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP, YSA, 314 E. Taylor. Zip: Zip: 20742. Tel: (301) 454-4758. SWP, YSA, 970 E. McMillan. Zip: 45206. Tel: (513) 85004. Tel: (602) 255-Q450. Tucson: YSA, SUPO MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA, c/o Rees, 4 , 751-2636. Cleveland: SWP, YSA, 13002 Kinsman 20965. Zip: 85720. Tel: (602) 795-2053. Adams St., Easthampton 01027. Boston: SWP, Rd. Zip: 44120. Tel: (216) 991-5030. Columbus: CALIFORNIA: Berkeley: SWP, YSA, 3264 Adeline YSA, 510 Commonwealth Ave., 4th Floor. Zip: YSA, Box 106 Ohio Union, Rm. 308, Ohio State St. Zip: 94703. Tel: (415) 653-7156. East Los 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. Univ., 1739 N. High St. Zip: 43210. Tel: (614) 291- 'Zoot Suit' Angeles: SWP, YSA, 1237 S. Atlantic Blvd. Zip: MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, Room 4321, Michigan 8985. Kent: YSA, Student Center Box 41, Kent There was a small error in 90022. Tel: (213) 265-1347. Los Angeles, Cren­ Union, U of M. Zip: 48109. Detroit, East Side: State University. Zip: 44242. Tel: (216) 678-5974. the credits listed with Angela shaw District: SWP, YSA, 2167 W. Washington SWP, 12920 Mack Ave. Zip: 48215. Tel: (313) 824- Toledo: SWP, 2507 Collingwood Blvd. Zip: 43610. Blvd. Zip: 90018. Tel: (213) 732-8196. Los An­ 1160. Detroit, West Side: SWP, 18415 Wyoming. Tel: (419) 242-9743. Remedi's review of Zoot Suit geles: City-wide SWP, YSA, 1250 Wilshire Blvd., Zip: 48221. Tel: (313) 341-6436. Detroit: SWP, OREGON: Portland: SWP, YSA, 3928 N. Williams. (Militant, May 26, 1978). The Room 404, Zip: 90017. Tel: (213) 482-1820. Los YSA, 1310 Broadway. Zip: 48226. Tel: (313) 961- Zip: 97227. Tel: (503) 288-7860. play, written and directed by Angeles, Southeast: SWP, YSA, 2554 Saturn Ave., 5675. Mt. Pleasant: YSA, Box 51 Warriner Hall, PENNSYLVANIA: Bethlehem: SWP, Box 1096. Zip: Huntington Park, 90255. Tel: (213) 582-1975. Central Mich. Uhiv. Zip: 48859. 18016. Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State College. Luis Valdez, was described as Oakland: SWP, YSA, 1467 Fruitvale Ave. Zip: MINNESOTA: Minneapolis: SWP, YSA, 23 E. Lake Zip: 16412. Philadelphia, SWP, YSA, 218 S. 45th being performed by El Teatro 94601. Tel: (415) 2611210. San Diego: SWP, YSA, St. Zip: 55408. Tel: (612) 825-6663. St. Paul: SWP, St., Zip: 19104. Tel: (215) 387-2451. Pittsburgh: Campesino. Actually Valdez's 1053 15th St. Zip: 92101. Tel: (714) 234-4630. San 373 University Ave. Zip: 55103. Tel: (612) 222- SWP, YSA, 5504 Penn Ave. Zip: 15206. Tel: (412) work was a Mark Taper Forum Francisco: SWP, YSA, 3284 23rd St. Zip: 94110. 8929. 441-1419. Stale College: YSA, c/o Jack Craypo, Tel: (415) 824-1992. San Jose: SWP, YSA, 942 E. MISSOURI: Kansas City: SWP, YSA, 4715A Troost. 132 Keller St. Zip: 16801. Production. Santa Clara St. Zip: 95112. Tel: (408) 295-8342. Zip: 64110. Tel: (816) 753-0404. St. Louis: SWP, RHODE ISLAND: Kingston: YSA, P.O. Box 400. Zip: Los Angeles readers who COLORADO: Denver: SWP, YSA, 916 Broadway. YSA, 6223 Delmar Blvd. Zip: 63130. Tel: (314) 02881. Tel: (401) 783-8864. missed the original production Zip: 80203. Tel: (303) 837-1018. 725-1570. TENNESSEE: Knoxville: YSA, P.O. Box 8344 Univ. FLORIDA: Miami: SWP, YSA, 7623 NE 2nd Ave. Zip: NEBRASKA: Omaha: YSA, c/o Hugh Wilcox, 521 Station. Zip: 37916. Tel: (615) 525-0820. will have a chance to see Zoot 33138. Tel: (305) 756-8358. 4th St., Covncil Bluffs, Iowa. 51501. TEXAS: Austin: YSA, c/o Mike Rose, 7409 Berkman Suit again. The play will begin GEORGIA: Atlanta: SWP, 471-A Flat Shoals Ave. NEW JERSEY: Newark: SWP, 11-A Central Ave. Zip: Dr. Zip: 78752. Dallas: SWP, YSA, 2215 Cedar a six-week run on August 17 at SE, P.O. Box 846. Zip: 30301. Tel: (404) 688-6739. 07102. Tel: (201) 643-3341. Crest. Zip: 75203. Tel: (214) 943-6684. Houston: the Mark Taper Forum. YSA, P.O. Box 433, Georgia State Univ. Zip: NEW MEXICO: Albuquerque: SWP, 108 Morning­ City-wide SWP, YSA, 6412-C N. Main St. Zip: 30303. Tel: (404) 627-6265. side Dr. NE. Zip: 87108. Tel: (505) 255-6869. 77009. Tel: (713) 861-9960. North Houston: SWP, Peter Seidman ILLINOIS: Champaign-Urbana: YSA, 284 lllini NEW YORK: Albany: SWP, YSA, 103 Central 6412-C N. Main St. Zip: 77009. Tel (713) 861-9842. New York, New York Union, Urbana. Zip: 61801. Chicago: City-wide Avenue. Zip: 12206. Tel: (518) 463-0072. Bing­ Houston, South-Central: SWP, 4987 Martin Luther SWP, YSA, 407 S. Dearborn #1145. Zip: 60605. hamton: YSA, c/o Andy Towbin, Box 7120, King Blvd. Zip: 77023. Tel: (713) 643-0005. San Tel: SWP-(312) 939-0737; YSA-(312) 427-0280. SUNY-Binghamton. Zip: 13901. Ithaca: YSA, Wil­ Antonio: SWP, YSA, 112 Fredericksburg Rd. Zip: Chicago, North Side: SVjP, 1870 N. Halsted. Zip: lard Straight Hall, Rm. 41A, Cornell University. 78201. Tel: (512) 735-3141. 60614. Tel: (312) 642-4811. Chicago, South Side: Zip: 14853. New York, Bronx: SWP, 2271 Morris UTAH: Logan: YSA, P.O. Box 1233, Utah State SWP, 2251 E. 71st St. Zip: 60649. Tel: (312) S43- Ave. Zip: 10453. Tel: (212) 365-6652. New York, University. Zip: 84322. Salt Lake City: SWP, YSA, 5520. Chicago, West Side: SWP, 10 N. Cicero. Brooklyn: SWP, 220-222 Utica Ave. Zip: 11213. 677 S. 7th East, 2nd Floor. P.O. Box 461. Zip: Zip: 60644. Tel: (312) 261-8370. Tel: (212) 773-0250. New York, Chelsea: SWP, 84110. Tel: (801) 355-1124. The letters column is an INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Student Activities 200% W. 24th St. Zip: 10011. Tel: (212) 989-2731. WASHINGTON, D.C.: SWP, YSA, 3106 MI. Pleasant open forum for all view­ Desk, Indiana University. Zip: 47401. Indianapolis: New York, Lower East Side: SWP, YSA, 7 Clinton St. NW, Zip: 20010. Tel: (202) 797-7699. SWP, 4163 College Ave. Zip: 46205. Tel: (317) St. Zip: 10002. Tel: (212) 260-6400. New York, WASHINGTON: Seattle: SWP, YSA, 2200 E. Union. points on subjects of gen­ 925-2616. Queens: SWP, YSA, 90-43 149 St. Zip: 11435. Tel: Zip: 98122. Tel: (206) 329-7404. Spokane: SWP, eral interest to our readers. KENTUCKY: Lexington: YSA, P.O. Box 952 Univer­ (212) 658-7718. New York, Upper West Side: P.O. Box 672. Zip: 99210. Tel: (509) 535-6244. Please keep your letters sity Station. Zip: 40506. Tel: (606) 269-6262. SWP, YSA, 786 Amsterdam. Zip: 10025. Tel: (212) Tacoma: SWP, 1022 S. J St: Zip: 98405. Tel: (206) Louisville: SWP, 1505 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 663-3000. New York: City-wide SWP, YSA, 853 627-0432. brief. Where necessary they 3593. Zip: 40201. Tel: (502) 587-8418. Broadway, Floom 412. Zip: 10003. Tel: (212) 982- WEST VIRGINIA: Morgantown: SWP, P.O. Box will be abridged. Please in­ LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP, YSA, 3319 S. 8214. 1484. Zip: 26505. dicate if you prefer that Carrollton Ave. Zip: 701 )8. Tel: (504) 486-8048. NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh: SWP, YSA, P.O. Box WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, P.O. Box 1442. Zip: MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP, YSA, 2117 N. Charles 5714 State Univ. Station. Zip: 27607. 53701. Tel: (608) 255-4733. Milwaukee:, SWP, your initials be used rather St. Zip: 21218. Tel: (301) 547-0668. College Park: OHIO: Athens: YSA, c/o Balar Center, Ohio UnivP.r­ YSA, 3901 N. 27th St. Zip: 53216. Tel: (414) 445- than your full name. YSA, c/o Student Union, University of Maryland. sity. Zip: 45701. Tel: (614) 594-7497. Cincinnati:, 2076.

THE MILITANT/JULY 7, 1978 31 THE MILITANT 300,000 demand gay rights S.F.: 'Stop Briggs!' By Nancy Brown SAN FRANCISCO-A quarter of a million people poured into the streets here on June 25, chanting their mes­ sage over and over again: "No on the Briggs initiative, gay rights now!" It was· the largest gay rights march in the city's history. The protesters' anger was directed against the antigay intiative spon­ sored by State Sfm. John Briggs that tltiiiTI ..1 'rfct" •. will appear on the November ballot. Largest demonstration for gay rights in San Francisco history challenged right-wing referendum Militant/Howard Petrick The aim of the initiative is to drive lesbians and gay men-and anyone who supports gay rights-out of the to a banner that read "An injury to one California school system. is an injury to all." Thousands of banners and signs "I think this march represents the declared, "Fight Briggotry," "Keep my kind of unity that I hope unions will gay teachers in school. Beat Briggs," NY. says: ~Pass have in this city from now on, both in "Vote NO on Briggs. Gay rights now." the fight around Briggs and other The parade was led off by gay Amer­ issues," Lamb said. ican Indians, followed by a contingent The Bay Area Committee Against of activists from the disabled move­ the Briggs Initiative (BACABI) distrib­ ment. The first marchers reached the uted thousands of picket signs stating, lntro 384 now!' rally site at city hall at 1:00 p.m. At "NO! on the Briggs initiative." The By Michael Maggi Cathedral. "Cardinal Cook, take a NEW YORK-"Gay rights, Right 4:00 p.m., marchers were still pouring signs hung from the floats and trees look!" shouted the protesters. "Two, Now!" demanded the crowd of about into the rally. and were carried by every group that four, six, eight-separate the church 50,000 lesbians, gay men, and human marched. and state!" rights supporters who marched here Lined up on both sides of the street, Speakers ·at the rally again and Broad support June 25. five and six deep, were tens of thou­ again urged a campaign to pass Intro Banners and signs from scores of The largest and most vocal group in sands of gay rights supporters who groups brought the message home: 384. "Even though it has been defeated the march was led by a gigantic came, not just to watch, but to wave "Pass Intro 384 Now!" Intro 384 is the seven times, we have never given up banner proclaiming, "Californians picket signs and cheer. gay rights bill pending in the New the fight and never will," pledged Against the Briggs Initiative: Nine Among the best-received contingents York City Council. Betty Santoro, a spokesperson for the Coalitions Strong." Behind it came were women marching behind a Banners identified many college Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights banners reading, "Labor Unions banner that said, "California NOW. (CLGR). campuses and gay organizations, in­ Against the Briggs Initiative," Forty-second state to ratify the ERA cluding the Gay Teachers, the Associa­ Other speakers at the rally included "Women United to Defeat the Briggs [Equal Rights Amendment]." Onlook­ tion of Gay Psychiatrists, Lesbian Gordon Montador from the Body Pol­ Initiative," "Bay Area Committee ers cheered and raised clenched fists as Health Workers, Gay Nurses, and Gay itic, the Toronto gay newspaper fight- Against the Briggs Initiative," and the women shouted: "What do we Social Workers. Three gay Hispanic - ing police harassment; a representa­ others. want?" groups organized contingents, along tive of the Gay Teachers Association; Marching behind the labor banner "ERA!" the crowd roared back. with several Black groups. Leon Harris, president, Village­ were members of chapters of the Amer­ "When do we want it?" At one point as the march moved up Chelsea NAACP; Kay Whitlock, Na­ ican Federation of Teachers; Hotel, "NOW!" Restaurant and Bartenders Union (the Fifth Avenue, gay rights supporters tional Organization for Women; Ruth largest union in San Francisco); and waving from windows showered the Messinger, city council member and a the Social Services Employees Union. 'Don't let it happen' crowd with confetti. From some sky­ sponsor of Intro 384; David Thorstad, "We have that basic position," Protesters came from cities across scraper windows banners hung declar­ CLGR spokesperson; and Martin Oharles Lamb, executive vice-president the country and Canada-including ing, "Gay Pride." Walker, chairperson of the Christopher of the Hotel, Restaurant and Bartend­ Eugene, Oregon, and Wichita, Kansas, A loud, defiant chant went up as the Street Liberation Day Committee, the ers Local 2, told me. He was pointing Continued on page 26 march passed the huge St. Patrick's sponsor of the march. Koch covers for NY killer cops By Mary Jo Vogel days after Miller's murder, white vigilantes beat Yet two weeks after the killing, not one police NEW YORK-On June 20, more than 2,000 people Victor Rhodes, a sixteen-year-old Black, within an officer has been arrested. Not one has been indicted. attended funeral services for Arthur Miller, a Black inch of his life. He remains hospitalized in critical Not one has been suspended or reprimanded. Mayor from the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn condition. Koch hasn't even made the token gesture of who cops strangled to death six days earlier. The white vigilantes who assaulted Rhodes have transferring the cops involved. Hundreds jammed the Trinity Baptist Church been organized by leaders of a Hassidic Jewish sect Instead, Koch set up a Committee on Intergroup and 2,000 more stood outside, listening to the rites with the cooperation of city cops and funds from the Relations headed by Deputy Mayor Herman Ba­ over loudspeakers. As Miller's widow left the federal government. They have carried out similar dillo. The first thing the committee did was to meet church, clenched fists shot into the air amidst beatings in the past. secretly with vigilante squad organizers at city hall. shouts of "Justice for Arthur Miller!" Despite intimate ties with the white vigilantes, For his part, Brooklyn District Attorney Eugene That demand has galvanized the Crown Heights New York cops claim they don't know who most of Gold says he won't even begin presenting evidence Black community. Miller was a very well-known the people who assaulted Rhodes were. Police admit on Miller's murder to a grand jury until July 3. and respected businessman and civic leader. His that up to fifty goons were involved, but they have Nevertheless, Gold is already hinting that no murder has revived bitter memories of two other made only two arrests. indictments will be handed down, promising a full widely publicized cases of police brutality in recent The story is almost the same in Miller's case. explanation if that's the case. It will take some years-the killings of Black teenagers Randy Evans More than 100 eyewitnesses saw how dozens of cops explaining to convince the Black community that it and Clifford Glover. In those two cases, the cops swarmed over Miller and strangled him to death. was necessary for police to strangle to death a man went unpunished. His "crime" was trying to stop an altercation who offered them no provocation. The community was further enraged when, two between his brother, Samuel Miller, and some cops. Continued on ,_.. ftl