Filipino people press to extend rights ...... 6 TH£ Rightists win in Ill. Democratic primary 13 Behind shuttle deaths ...... 14

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 50/NO. 13 APRIL 4, 1986 75 CENTS Massive U.S. war fleet Hormel strikers attacks Libyan people call nat'l BY FRED FELDMAN In a carefully organized provocation, the U.S. government assembled the most mas­ sive array of naval power seen in the action Mediterranean in recent history to launch BYTOMJAAX an assault on the sovereign country of AND MAGGIE McCRAW Libya. AUSTIN, Minn . -Striking meatpack­ On March 24 and 25, U.S. planes firing ers are calling on all supporters of their guided missiles bombarded the town of eight-month strike against the Geo. A. Sidra and sank several small Libyan patrol Hormel Co . to come to Austin for a na­ boats in the Gulf of Sidra. tional march and rally Saturday, April 12. Dozens of Libyan people were believed The strikers are also asking supporters to killed. come into town beginning April 9 to help This brutal and bloody attack on Libya is shut down the plant. The company was an act of war. It is a clear threat by the U.S. able to reopen its plant January 21 when rulers that naked military might will be Minnesota Gov . Rudy Perpich sent the Na­ used against all governments and peoples tional Guard into Austin to herd scabs. that Washington politically disagrees with On March 20 strikers organized a picket - if it can get away with it. line that shut down the plant for several This attack shouid be condemned by all hours. This was the first time that produc­ opponents of U.S. aggression in the Mid­ LIBYA tion was stopped at the plant since the dle East, Central America, and elsewhere. Guard was sent into Austin. Hormel admits Emergency demonstrations and other pub­ that the action cost the company $300,000. lic protests should be organized. In making this call for support, the The Reagan administration is loudly local's executive board appeals to "labor threatening to launch more military attacks unions and other organizations across the until the Libyan government is overthrown clear submarines, 250 planes, 18,000 territorial waters without provoking acts of country, in the spirit of the civil rights or ends its opposition to U.S. government troops, and a vast array of torpedoes, mis­ war by Washington . Far from defending movement, to mobilize and send car cara­ policies. siles, and other weapons. the "freedom of the seas," U.S. forces im­ vans and bus loads of supporters to Austin There isn't the slightest justification for This terrorist force was mobilized posed a virtual naval blockade against ·to help us in our difficult struggle." Washington's missile strikes against against a country of about 3.5 million Libya in the gulf area. Libya. people, supposedly because its government Washington's imperialist allies gener­ The call for action comes as the strikers To launch this attack, the U.S. govern­ says the Gulf of Sidra is part of its territo­ ally backed the aggression, although the - members of United Food and Commer­ ment assembled a massive naval armada in rial waters! Italian government was mildly critical. cial Workers (UFCW) Local P-9 - face the Mediterranean - enough to blow The claim that this armada is guarantee­ Third World countries responded with out­ stepped-up attacks not only by the com­ Libya off the face of the earth many times ing "freedom of the seas" is a lie. Many of rage . The government of Ghana correctly pany but by top officials of their interna­ over. It included 3 aircraft carriers, 27 war­ Washington's allies, including Canada and explained that the hostilities were "the di- tional union . ships, 1 flagship, an estimated 6 to 12 nu- Iceland, have made comparable claims to Continued on Page 12 These officials of the UFCW have been on a public campaign against the striking local since January. These attacks esca­ lated March 14 when the International Ex­ ecutive Committee revoked the sanction of U.S. gov't steps up war on Nicaragua the strike, cutting off the workers' strike benefits. After the sanction was with­ BY HARRY RING curiously, insisted on not being identified, cials was one of surprise. drawn, the strikers voted overwhelmingly Using the hoax of a claimed Nicaraguan told reporters the invasion had occurred. "Everything is calm," said Maj. Jorge to continue their struggle. "invasion" of Honduras as the pretext, the The anonymous official said his infor­ Arguello, an armed forces spokesman. In retaliation, the International Execu­ White House moved to escalate U .S.-or­ mation was very tentative ~nd incompiete, The Honduran National Security Coun­ tive Committee announced March 28 that it ganized military aggression against Nicara­ but, he said, "we'r~ sure they're there." cil met to discuss the reported invasion, will be holding a hearing April 7 to consid­ gua. This was a full day after the alleged in­ and a spokesman, Lisandro Quezada, then er placing Local P-9 into trusteeship for While bewildered Honduran officials vasion occurred; in a country slightly told reporters that the ministers "have no "refusing to comply with the UFCW's di­ were still trying to figt~re out when and larger than the state of Tennessee, a coun­ more information other than that [in news rective to end the strike." how their country had been invaded, try where the U.S. military has a major pre­ cables] coming from outside Honduras." Under a trusteeship, Local P-9's officers Reagan used his presidential powers to sence and an elaborate surveillance sys­ Quezada qismissed the U.S. report as would be removed and its affairs, including bypass Congress and dispatch $20 million tem! "disinformation" intended to win support collective bargaining, would be taken over in emergency military aid to Honduras. The initial response of Honduran offi- Continued on Page 10 Continued on Page 4 And U.S. helicopters, piloted by Gls, were ordered to ferry Honduran troops to the border area where a major base of the Nic­ araguan counterrevolutionaries - the con­ Protests force collapse of Haiti governtnent tras - is located. It was in this area that the "invasion" supposedly occurred. This BY HARVEY McARTHUR Before leaving, Duvalier turned power of its members." The new council in­ involves Honduran troops more directly in PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A wave over to the army and organized the CNG. cludes Namphy and Col. William Regala, the U.S.-run war. of antigovernment strikes and demonstra­ Five of the six members were army officers the. two surviving members of the first The invasion scam was designed to tions led to the collapse of the National or former members of Duvalier's cabinet. junta, and Jacques Franc;:ois, an elder­ maximize congressional support for the Council of Government (CNG) here March The sixth, Gerard Gourgue, was chairman ly Haitian diplomat. Namphy and Regala contra war, as well as to justify more direct 21. The army immediately appointed a of the Haitian League for Human Rights. were high-ranking officers under Duva­ use of U.S. forces - including military ad­ three-person council to replace the six­ He was an opponent of the Duvalier regime lier. visers - in the campaign to topple the San­ member military-civilian junta established and was added to give the new government dinista government. Franc;:ois was Haiti's ambassador to the by dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier when he some credibility and a chance to defuse the Organization of American States in the These are dangerous moves - for the fled the country on February 7. The army massive protests. 1950s, but held no governmental posts in people of Nicaragua and the people of this also imposed an 8:00 p.m.-to-5:00 a.m. On March 20, Gourgue announced his Duvalier's administration. He was ap~ country as well . curfew in an attempt to dampen protests. resignation from the government. pointed foreign minister last month by the Strong emergency protests are needed to The next day, Gen. Henri Namphy, new government. demand a halt to Washington's war and to The Duvalier regime began in 1957 president of the junta, announced the resig­ defend the right of the Nicaraguan people when Franc;:ois "Papa Doc" Duvalier took nation· of Alix Cineas, Col. Prosper Avril, power. He created a private police force, The latest protests were sparked when to live withour interference from Uncle and Col. Max Valles. These three had been army troops killed five civilians in the Mar­ Sam. the hated Tontons Macoutes, to crush all targets of popular protests demanding their opposition. tissant neighborhood here in the capital on The initial facts about the claimed inva­ removal from the government. Avril and March 19. sion, which were available as this was writ­ When "Papa Doc" died in 1971, his son Valles were officers in Duvalier's presi­ ten, confirm that it is a crude fake. Jean-Claude Duvalier became "president dential guard, and Cineas was the dic­ According to radio and press reports, an The first report in this country of an as­ for life." The U.S. government backed tator's minister of public works and trans­ off-duty army captain driving through serted invasion of Honduras by l ,500 Nic­ Jean-Claude - as it had his father - pro­ portation. Martissant collided with a "tap tap" - the araguan troops was released to the press by viding him with economic and military aid . Namphy explained that "because of the common name for the small, brightly the State Department on Monday, March U.S. corporations increased investments in climate of unrest and uncertainty reigning painted trucks widely used for public trans­ 24, sonie 48 hours before the Senate was Haiti, profiting from the low wages and in the country, the armed forces decided to portation here. The captain jumped out of slated to vote on the contra aid bill. Duvalier' s repression of any attempts to or­ restructure the National .Council of his car, insulted and physically attacked the A "senior administration official," who, ganize a union movement. Government after the resignation of some Continued on Page 9 Socialist presS sOld af Alabama mines, mills, shops

BY DAVE FERGUSON organized by the United Steel­ mel strike running particularly to resume sales at area mines or­ away for a subscription. He also AND JOHN HAWKINS workers union and at several other high, four copies were sold at the ganized by the United Mine Work­ pointed out that a Hormel boycott BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In­ workplaces for the past several shift change, and another 12 were ers of America. At the Chetopa leaflet is on display on his union creased interest among trade months. bought by O'Neal workers from mine, response to the Militant has bulletin board. unionists here in the Minnesota At O'Neal Steel, where Boyers. been good. In addition to being attracted by meatpackers' strike against Hor- Socialist Workers congressional· the coverage of the Minnesota At the Arrow Shirt factory in By going to this particular mine strike, a number of workers have Jasper, Alabama, socialists have over the past several weeks, the been encouraged to get the paper been carrying out regular sales socialist sales team has established on the basis of the Militant's since last October. Although sales a regular presence at the mine por- tal. . coverage of events in South Africa SELLING OUR PRESS at the gate are relatively slow, and anti-apartheid activities. salespeople noted an increased in­ At the initial sale, the team dis­ AT THE PLANT GATE terest in the Militant around the tributed flyers explaining what the Although sales have leveled off, coverage of the Hormel strike and Militant is and describing the the sales team reports that they get the announcement of the campaign coverage of different struggles that a good deal of friendly encourage­ mel and the launching of the 1986 candidate Martin Boyers works, of Andrea Baron, an Arrow work­ can be found in the pages of the ment from miners who wave as Socialist Workers election cam­ both plant-gate and in-plant sales er, for U.S. Senate on the socialist paper. On that trip, 13 miners re­ they drive by. Already some min­ paign have spurred sales of the have been on the increase. Weekly ticket. During a recent sale, one ceived copies of the Militant. ers have stopped to buy the Mili­ Militant at area workplaces. sales at shift change outside the worker asked for extra copies of Since then, sales have stabilized at tant more than once. Members of the Socialist Work­ plant have averaged about two ~he flyer announcing the campaign one to three copies a week. On the basis of this experience, ers Party and Young Socialist Al­ Militants a week over the past four to distribute to coworkers inside One worker, impressed by the socialists are planning to continue liance here have been carrying out weeks. During one week of sales the plant. Militant's coverage of the Hormel sales at this mine and at other mine regular sales at four workplaces recently, with interest in the Hor- Recently, socialist here decided strike, reported that he had sent portals in the area as well. Puerto Rican freedOm activists win Boston support

BY RON RICHARDS lows the government to deny bail to anyone received tremendous support in Hartford BOSTON- More than 100 people par­ whom they claim is "dangerous" or "likely and Puerto Rico. ticipated in a meeting to protest repression to flee." Under this law, nine of the 13 ac­ in Puerto Rico. tivists have been denied bail. He described repression against the in­ dependence movement in Puerto Rico, The keynote speaker at the February 27 A very explained that the case was at a which includes blacklisting activists from meeting was Jorge Farinacci, editor of "critical juncture," and he invited everyone jobs and education. Pensamiento Critico, a proindependence to come to Hartford for the next hearing on · The last speaker was Arnoldo Ramos, magazine from Puerto Rico. Farinacci is March 21. who gave an update on the current situation one of 11 supporters of Puerto Rican inde­ in Central America. pendence who were arrested in a massive Louis Font spoke next. He explained FBI raid on the island last August. Two that no money from the robbery has been Turning to Puerto Rico, Ramos others were arrested in the United States found. The government; he said, claims explained that the island plays a key mili­ and Mexico. they can't find it because the defendants tary role in Central America and the Carib­ Other speakers included Arnoldo Ramos used the money to buy toys for children in bean. For this reason, he said, solidarity from the Farabundo Marti National Libera­ Hartford and Puerto Rico. demonstrations in Puerto Rico are of cen­ tion Front of El Salvador, Michael A very, The government attacks on these activ­ tral importance. Ramos called for action Farinacci's attorney, and Louis Font, ists, Font explained, were an attempt to against U.S. intervention in Central Amer­ another defense attorney for the 13 activ­ discredit the independence movement. ica. ists. The meeting was sponsored by the Bos­ The FBI alleges that the 13 proindepen­ The crowd stood to welcom..e Jorge Farinacci. He told the audience that the ton Committee for Puerto Rican Civil dence supporters took part in the 1983 rob­ Rights. It was endorsed by Colectivo Puer­ bery of a Wells Fargo armored truck in FBI raids were a message to the Puerto Rican people that Washington is still the torriquefio, El Comite, Northeastern Law Hartford, Connecticut. The U.S. govern­ School, Central America Solidarity As­ Jorge Farinacci, proindependence edi­ ment claims that the activists are members master on the island. ~ 'The operation," he said, "was against us as a people." sociation Labor Committee, Asoeiaci6n tor who was rounded up in massive FBI of the Macheteros · (literally, machete Latinoamericana; and Peace and Solidarity raid in Puerto Rico, was featured wielders), a proindependence organiza­ Farinacci reported that the activists have Alliance. speaker at Boston raUy. tion. Attorney Michael A very was the first speaker. Before addressing the Hartford case, Avery discussed the latest develop­ Oysterll1en fight condos to -protect livelihood ments in the ongoing campaign in Puerto - Rico to win justice in the case of indepen­ dence activists murdered .by the cops in BY CHARLIE ROSENBERG vers, and tongers. There have frequently mid-January to refute government claims 1978 at Cerro Maravilla in Puerto Rico. GRASONVILLE, Md. -Oystermen, been conflicts over territory lines that keep that the beds no longer produced oysters. In February of this year, Alejandro Gon­ clammers, divers, and hand-tongers on one type of harvester from working over Kent Island waterman Robert Timms was Maryland's Eastern Shore recently united territory reserved by law for another type zalez Malave, the agent provocateur who prepared to tong oysters from the beds. to prevent the destruction of a large pro­ of harvester. had set the activists up to be murdered, was This proved unnecessary, however, ductive oyster bed threatened by develop­ These watermen are independent pro­ found innocent of all charges stemming since hundreds of shellfish were clearly in ducers, many of whom must work part­ from the case. He had successfully argued ers building luxury condominiums visible in the shallow waters. The Wells that as a government agent acting under di­ Queen Anne's County. time at other jobs to earn a living. Cove Partnership backed off and agreed to rect orders, he was not responsible for his In the past 15 yeafs two other large beds The Marylam1 Department of Natural reroute the channel that would serve the action. · have been destroyed while other develop­ Resources and the Army Corps of En­ project. "If we had let this guy get the oys­ ers are currently proposing to build marinas gineers had granted the Wells Cove Part­ ter beds, what's going to stop a chain reac­ Avery said, "At Cerr~ Maravilla, state at or near oyster beds. nership, builders of the development, a tion?" asked Ralph Lee, president of the terrorism was the policy carried out against permit to dredge a channel. This would W a termen's Protective Association. Lee the independence movement." The united action by the four groups was have destroyed the oyster beds to create vowed that "this victory will not be the last The Hartford case, Avery said, is a test exceptional in view of the l~ng-standing 115 boat slips. Watermen took state and time that the various watermen' s groups of the 1984 Bail Reform Law. This law al- disputes among oystermen, clammers, di- federal officials on a tour of the area in work together." The Militant tells the truth - Subscribe today! The Militant That's the way you'll get facts about Washington's war against working people at home and abroad: from Closing news date: March 26, 1986 South Africa, El Salva-dor and Nicaragua, to embattled Editor: MALIK MIAH workers and farmers in the United States. Read our pro­ Managing editor: posals on how to stop the U.S. government's support MARGARET JA YKO Business Manager: for the apartheid regime in South Africa, its interven­ LEE MARTINDALE tion in Central America and the Caribbean, and the em­ Editorial Staff: Rashaad Ali , Susan Apstein, Fred ployers' offensive here. Read our ideas on what it will Feldman, Andrea Gonzalez, Pat Grogan, Arthur take to replace this system of exploitation, racism, and Hughes, Tom Leonard, Harry Ring, Norton Sandler. sexism with a system that's in the interest of working Published weekly except one week in August and the people. last week of December by the Militant (ISSN 0026- At the plant gates, picket lines, and unemployment 3885), 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Tele­ lines, the Militant is there, reporting the news, par­ phone: Editorial Office, (212) 243-6392; Business Of­ ticipating in the struggle. To subscribe today, fill out the fice, (212) 929-3486. attached coupon. Correspondence concerning subscriptions or changes of address should be addressed to The Mili­ Enclosed is: o $3 for 12 weeks o $1 5 for6 months tant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New York, o $24 for 1 year o A contribution N.Y. 10014. Name ______Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. POST­ MASTER: Send address changes to The Militant, 14 Address ______Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Subscriptions: U.S. $24.00 a year, outside U.S. $30.00. By first-class City/State/Zip ------­ mail: U.S., Canada, and Mexico: $60.00. Write for air­ Telephone ------­ mail rates to all other countries. Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily rep­ Union/Organization ------­ resentthe Militant's views. These are expressed in edito­ Send to Militant, 14 Charles Lane , New York , N.Y. 10014 rials.

2 The Militant April 4, 1986 A lot· of ,.reasons for buying the 'Militant'

BY TOM LEONARD Los Angeles sales included 12 new sub­ A lot of different people bought the Mil­ scriptions to Perspectiva Mundial- 6 of itant and Perspectiva Mundial for a lot of them to coworkers of supporters of the different reasons during the second week of paper. our national sales and subscription drive. At an AFL-CIO-sponsored rally in SL Sales teams around the country found new Paul, Minnesota, protesting unemploy­ readers interested in a variety of political ment benefit cuts, a sales team sold out its developments, including those taking place bundle of 25 Militants in 15 minutes. in Central America, Haiti, the Philippines, and South Africa. Interest was high in the From Greensboro, North Carolina, it fight for abortion rights, in strike struggles, was reported that Socialist Workers Party and in combating police brutality. candidate for U.S. Senate Rich Stuart has One Militant supporter in San Diego, for sold 10 subscriptions to coworkers at his example, sold seven Militants because of ACTWU-organized plant over the last two an article reporting on police brutality di­ weeks. Militant salesperson at Emergency Demonstration Against Contra Aid held in Port­ land, Oregon, on March 15. rected against Blacks in that city. Teams of Militant supporters in Newark, A sales team visiting Parsons, West Vir­ New Jersey, have fanned out over the past ginia, sold six Militants to Amalgamated few weeks to restaurants, stores, and social Clothing and Textile Workers Union and political events frequented by Haitians (ACTWU) members on strike against the working in the area. They have been sell­ Black and Latino voting Parsons Footwear Company. In Philadel­ ing the Militant and campaigning for Ruth phia, nine Militants were sold to ACTWU Nebbia, Socialist Workers Party candidate members on strike in that city. for mayor of Newark. A week after they had visited one restaurant patronized by rights tested in Chicago . In St. Louis, participants in a labor strike Haitians, they found a Nebbia campaign support rally for TWA flight attendants statement posted in the window. They then bought all the papers the sales team had BY ED WARREN as well as to head off independent Black sold 25 Militants in front of the restaurant CHICAGO - The March 17 special and labor political action. with them- 19 Militants and 10 Young in less than an hour. Socialists, a monthly newspaper reflecting elections to name seven new aldermen to Since his election, Washington has been the views of the Young Socialist Alliance. At a March 22 antiwar rally in Boston, sit on Chicago's 50-member City Council resisted by the leading officials of the In New York City, 9 out of 16 TWA antiwar activists bought 95 single copies was the first test of a voting rights victory Democratic machine in the city and sur­ flight attendants on picket duty at JFK In­ and 6 subscriptions to the Militant. In addi­ won by working people here last De­ rounding Cook County. ternational bought single copies of the Mil­ tion, 8 Perspectiva Mundials and 26 Young cember. Led by Alderman Edward Vrdolyak, at­ itant. One attendant said she already had a Socialists were sold. At that time, Federal District· Judge tempts have been made to undermine and subscription to the paper. Charles Norgle accepted a redistricting discredit Washington's position as mayor. During this exciting second week of the plan that remapped seven election wards to This political infighting has centered in the Dallas reported that most of the 35 Per­ sales drive, 3,100 single copies of the Mil­ correspond to their majority Black and City Council where Vrdolyak formerly spectiva Mundials they sold in the Latino itant and 250 of Perspectiva Mundial were majority Latino populations. Based on this controled the vote of 29 of the 50 council community last week were because of the sold nationally. Renewals and new sub­ ruling the special election was called this members. Washington had hoped to gain scriptions to the Militant totaled 130, and paper's front-page coverage on abortion March, rather than waiting for the regular enough seats in the special elections to gain 20 subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial rights. Perspectiva Mundial is the Spanish­ aldermanic elections scheduled for Feb­ a majority of the City Council. were sold. language sister publication of the Militant. ruary 1987. The election results showed the· regular Houston was right behind Dallas with Currently, Militant and Perspectiva For decades the notoriously corrupt and machine, headed by Vrdolyak, won three sales of 29 Perspectiva Mundials in work­ Muizdial supporters around the country are seats. Supporters of Washington won two ing-class communities and 3 more sold at a starting to organize for special sales efforts racist Democratic Party machine had ger­ rymandered the seven wards to virtually seats outright. A sixth seat in the 26th local campus. A Houston sales team also the week of April 5-11 . This is a national Ward was won by a Washington supporter · sold 9 Militants to workers in Texas City sales drive target week that can give a big guarantee that only whites loyal to the machine could be elected. At the time of Luis Gutierrez by 20 votes over the Vrd­ who were picketing to protest the use of boost toward bringing both single copy and olyak-supported candidate, Manual Tor­ nonunion labor ~n th(lt city. subscription sales goals up to date. the elections, for example, six aldermen from the contested wards were white, and res. The election result is being contested the seventh was Latino. with both candidates raising corruption charges against the other. A runoff election The. December court ruling and special in the 15th Ward will be held next month to SALES SCOREBOARD election were another blow to the regular decide the seventh seat. Democratic Party machine that has domi­ Neither the old machine candidates nor (Week #2: Totals as of Militant issu.e #II, PM issue #5) nated Chicago politics for more lhan 50 Washington supporters won the required SINGLE ISSUES SUBSCRIPTIONS years. It came nearly three years after the 50 percent plus one of the vote. Sold this week % of10-week Sold so far election of Harold Washington, Chicago's The current lineup in the City Council is Area Militant!PM goal reached Militant!PM first mayor who is Black. Washington ran 25 Vrdolyak and 23 Washington support­ against the machine in 1983 and surprised ers. If Washington supporters gain the two Atlanta 51/0 13 510 big business, the capitalist news media, remaining contested seats, the council Baltimore 5510 19 1110 and the Democratic Party machine by win­ would be divided 25 to 25 with Washing­ II 2/0 Binningbam 4510 ning the election. ton casting the deciding vote. Boston 9419 32 31/0 Capital District, N.Y. 61/0 18 16/0 Since his election, Washington, with the Even though the elections were maneu­ Charleston, W.Va. 48/0 28 010 support of the city's rich rulers, has moved vered by corrupt capitalist politicians, the Chicago 91/2 10 3/0 to further dismantle the old Democratic redistricting ruling and special elections Cincinnati 2510 9 1/0 Party machine. The goal is to assure con­ were a victory for Black and Latino voting Cleveland 5516 15' 1110 tinued big-business domination of the city rights in Chicago. Dallas 119/58 21 9/1 Denver 53/3 20 4/0 Detroit 190/4 33 910 Greensboro, N.C. 51/2 17 12/0 Houston 94/32 17 24/1 Wise. socialist campaigns Kansas City 9912 17 7/0 Los Angeles 152/21 16 14/18 Louisville 36/1 19 3/0 against U.S. aid to .contras Miami 4019 17 10/1 MUwaukee 76/0 17 16/0 BY BILL BREIHAN women's right to abortion in Washington, Morgantown, W.Va. 63/6 23 3/0 Margo Storsteen, a machinist who is D.C., March 9. New Orleans 53/2 17 7/0 Storsteen, who works at Artos Engineer­ 154/34 14 20/2 Milwaukee chairperson of the Young New York ing in New Berlin and is a member of Inter­ Newark 140/27 10 31/4 Socialist Alliance, opened her campaign as Oakland 139/10 23 2/0 national Association of Machinists Lodge Philadelphia 6310 17 3/0 66, visited Nicaragua in May 1985 . 17 13/5 NEW ARK, March 27 - Ruth Neb­ Phoenix 104/16 In a recent interview with the Militant Pittsburgh 57/3 16 Jill bia, Socialist Workers Party candidate Portland 5315 16 8/0 for mayor of this city, was informed yes­ she expressed outrage at the damage and Price, Utah 22/0 26 010 terday by the city clerk's office that her suffering caused by the U.S.-directed con­ Salt Lake City 70/3 26 2/2 name will not appear on the May ballot. tras. "My campaign will stand in defense San Diego 67/6 16 2/0 Officials claim that Nebbia did not sub­ of the Nicaraguan people and their work­ San Francisco 105113 16 8/1 mit the required number of signatures of ers' and farmers' government." San Jose 10510 20 4/t qualified voters to place her name on the Seattle 89/2 22 8/0 Storsteen has visited Cuba on two occa­ ballot. Nebbia's supporters turned in sions. She said the socialist campaign St. Louis 9010 13 410 1,921 signatures, several hundred more 010 18 010 would inform working people of the gains Tidewater, Va. than the required 1,169. Toledo 5910 24 31/0 Cuban workers and farmers have made in Twin Cities 200/5 18 14/ 1 The socialist campaign is organizing a Cuba since they overturned capitalist rule Washington D.C. 78/10 25 12/2 public campaign to protest Nebbia's un­ more than 25 years ago. democratic exclusion from the ballot. Total sold this week 3,146/294 For information on how you can help, "A workers' and farmers' government, Total sold so far 6,5111574 371/40 contact the SWP campaign offices at such as I saw at work in Nicaragua and (201) 643-3341. 2,000 Cuba, is what working people in the United 10-week goal 45,000 States need, too." Percent of national goal reached 16% 21% Socialist Workers Party candidate for the Storsteen, 30, is a candidate for the U.S. To be on schedule 20% 20% U.S. Senate from Wisconsin by joining the Senate seat presently held by Robert Kas­ 100,000-person demonstration to defend ten, a Republican.

Ap.ril 4, 1986 The MUi~nt 3 Striking meatpaCkers call national ·· action·

Continued from front page by a trustee appointed by the International E.xecutive Committee. In response to this latest attack, P-9 President Jim Guyette told a March 28 news conference, "we were elected by this rank and file to get a contract. We did not vote for Bill Wynn [UFCW International president]. We're responding to the rank and file and the directives dictated by a democratic organization. This international union has taken a position ~here they are going to implement whatever they want." Guyette invited all union members and supporters to come to the April 7 hearing at the Thunderbird Motel in Bloomington, Minnesota . . The company, Guyette explained, is well aware that if a trusteeship is imposed it will be able to negotiate a concession contract with the International Executive Committe of the union. The International officials, he charged, are not concerned with safety or dignity on the job, grievance Militant photos by Tom Jaax and Adrienne Kaplan procedure, or wages. They, he said, "look Picket line (left) that closed Hormel plant March 20. Right, February solidarity action. · at numbers and per capita dues coming in." This trusteeship action, Guyette said, "is · designed to help Hormel and to undermine would allow management to set wages, More strikers and supporters are volun­ Baldemar Velasquez of the Farm Labor future negotiations or settlements." hours and working conditions." teering to go on the road to speak before Organizing Committee in Ohio also came Meanwhile, Hormel had announced Many strikers have sent angry letters to unions and raise money for the struggle. to Austin to pledge his organization's sup­ March 19 that it would meet with the local, the top union officialdom explaining that Since the strike sanction was withdrawn port. but now refuses to set up this me~ting . they would cash the checks "as strike ben­ and the strike benefits ended, the local The Metro Area P-9 Support Committee Plant manager Deryl Arnold claims that efits" but would not sell out. reorganized its financial support programs in Minneapolis and St. Paul is organizing a this is because of the March 20 picket line Despite these attacks by the UFCW's top so as to give each striker $50 a week. food caravan to Austin on April 5. The that closed the plant. officials, the strikers remain firm and sup­ A number of area artists and musicians food will also go to those Hormel workers The moves to place the local into trus­ port for their struggle continues to grow. have produced a video and music cassette in Ottumwa, Iowa, and Fremont, Neb­ teeship follow a meeting between top union Strike activities and the boycott of Hor­ for the local. They also organized a benefit raska, who were fired for honoring P-9's officials and the local March 21 in mel products are affecting production and concert for the strikers. roving picket lines when they were put up Chicago. The meeting, which was initiated marketing. There are reports that at many Recent support and strategy meetings in front of these plants. by P-9 in an attempt to regain strike sanc­ Hormel plants there is a stockpile of prod­ have heard renewed pledges of support For further information on the April 12 tion, ended after the national union offi­ uct!i on the shelves. Some plants are work­ from the farm activist group Groundswell national march and rally contact UFCW cials insisted only they could record the ing short hours . And the Austin shipping and from the Central American Coalition Local P-9, 316 NE 4 Ave., Austin, Minn. proceedings. department is often sent home at noon . from Minneapolis. 55912. Telephone (507) 433-5635 . In the meantime, the members of Local P-9 began to receive $40 checks at their homes. The checks were the "post-strike benefits" promised by the International Ex­ 100 rally for strikers in San Jose ecutive Committee if the workers ended their strike. BY GREG, NELSON Austin, he thought, "Oh, El Salvador." concessions for 16 of the last 23 years. The checks were accompanied by a four­ SAN JOSE, Calif. --, One hundred The arrest of P-9' s consultant, Ray Rogers, Hormel wants to establish a .permanent page letter from President Willian Wynn. people . representi~ dozen~ of unio!ls in the on charges.of criminal syndicalism "is just two-tier division and ignore the jl)credibly The letter said, "It is not a violation of the Say·;\rea atte~ded a rally m support of the like El Salvador," .he said. • , . ,, dangerous working conditipns. . · International union constitution to cross an Honriel strikers. · Harry Adams, president of International Skinny Weis, a 41-year veteran of P-9 unauthorized, unsanctioned picket The rally was sponsored by the Strike Association of Machinists Local 565 at and Hormel, described the way P-9. in­ line . . . . To preserve your own reinstate­ Support Committee of the Santa Clara Westinghouse, described the solidarity the volved every member in the strike. "A lot ment right you must make an unconditional County Central Labor Council, Teamsters strikers had won in the Bay Area. "They've of people ask why w~.'l~ so strong. We be­ offer to return .... The 'company · is re­ Local 287, and others. raised close to $10,000 in pledges and do­ lieve the workers should run the union, and quired by law to keep your name on a pre­ The event was part of a three-week tour nations," he said. our rank and file does. And we believe that ferential hiring list." of the Bay Area by John "Skinny" Weis an injustice ,tQ one worker is an injustice to The letter claimed that "by making an and Harold "Bud"· Miller, members of A message of support from the South all of us." unconditional offer to return •to work you striking United Food and Commercial Bay chapter of the National . Organization will remove significant obstacles to obtain­ Workers Local P~9 in Austin, Minnesota. for Women was also read. Other spe'akers included Rev. Dwight ing unemployment compensation pending Meta Mendel Reyes of the Strike Sup­ Bud Miller explained the history of his Kitner from the Council of Churches; Ron reemployment." port Committee opened the rally, saying, union's stmggle, from its founding in 1933 Stafford, from Teamsters Local 912 on The local's executive board, however, "We are drawn together tonight because P- with .a sit-down strike for union recogni­ strike in Watsonville, California; and Rick has told the strikers that during the meeting 9 is standing up and by the way they are tion. Sawyer, business agent for the Santa Clara in Chicago the International officials "ad­ standing up, with the same goals as those He explained that the local had given County Central Labor Council. mitted those who have put their names on a that led to the fouading of the CIO." back-to-work list ... would not be assured · A message from San Jose City Council­ of any unemployment compensation bene­ woman Blanca Alvarado pledging support fits ." for the Hormel boyc9tt was read. The Hormel strike at a glance Even those who might be rehired, the Carlos Avitia, president of Molders local explained, would "be working with­ Local 164, told the audience that when he The I ,500 members of United Food Party sent in the National Guard to herd out a contract or grievance procedures and first saw pictures of the National Guard in and Commercial Workers union scabs for Hormel. Public outrage forced (UFCW) Local P-9 were forced out on Perpich to pull the Guard back from the strike by the Geo. A. Hormel meatpack­ plant on January 29. The strikers were ing company on Aug. 17, 1985. They then able to close the plant again. Support grows for Hormel strikers are workers at the company's Austin, On February 3 Perpich again assigned Minnesota, operation. the Guard to herd strikebreakers. Al­ PITTSBURGH - Unions in this area donated about $90 to the strikers. Several months earlier, Hormel had though there are about 900 scabs in the have begun to organize solidarity with unilaterally slashed wages from $10.69 plant, production is only at about 20 per­ striking meatpackers in Austin, Minnesota. PORTLAND - Neil Zwiener, a strik­ to $8. 25 an hour. They were later raised cent of normal. United Paperworkers International ing meatpacker, and his wife, Elaine, to $9.25. When the union's contract ex­ The striking local sent out roving Union Local 296 donated $100 to the strike spoke to more than 30 union meetings dur­ pired August 17, the company refused to pickets to other Hormel plants. On Janu­ fund. Local 2789 of the United Steel ing a recent visit here. return wages to their former level. ary 28 the company fired over 500 work­ Workers at the Pitt-Des Moines Steel Co. The tour raised more than $3,000 for the Hormel also demanded additional ers at Hormel plants in Ottumwa, Iowa, decided to reproduce and distribute Hormel strike and promises of future help. A concessions, including gutting the and Fremont, Nebraska, for refusing to boycott leaflets. United Mine Workers number of area unions have also decided to seniority and grievance systems and in­ cross P-9's picket lines. Local 1197 sent a message of solidarity. join the Adopt A Family program. stituting a two-tier wage system. The On February 22, P-9 removed their The Pittsburgh chapter of the Coalition In addition to union members, Neil company has demanded the right to pickets from the Ottumwa plant. The of Labor Union Women (CLUW) sent a Zwiener had an opportunity to speak to 40 punish workers injured on the job. The workers, members of UFCW Local $50 donation to the strikers. Members of students at Portland State University at a injury rate per year at the Austin plant is 431 , an amaJ·gamated local represen­ the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists plan meeting sponsored by the Women's 202 injuries for every 100 workers. Hor­ ting 5,000 members statewide, then to post boycott leaflets where they work. Studies Department. Elaine Zwiener ad­ mel is also demanding contractual re­ marched en masse to demand their dressed a workshop at the Oregon State strictions on workers' democratic and jobs. The company refused, locking COLUMBUS, Ohio- Around 250 ac­ Conference of the National Organization political rights. · out the workers. tivists welcomed Lori Klapperick, a mem­ for Women. In the course of the strike, Local P-9 Donations and messages of support ber of UFCW Local P-9, to the Ohio con­ has had to face attacks by the .company, for the Austin strikers can be ~ent to: ference of CLUW. They were also interviewed by area courts, and governor. UFCW Local P-9, 316 4th Ave. 'NE, Klapperick told the activists that the radio stations, newspapers, and Portland On Dec. 24, 1985, the courts issued Austin, Minn. 55912. union was fighting against a two-tier wage cable television. an injunction limiting strike activity at Donations for the Ottumwa workers system and for a safe workplace. This article is based on reports from the plant. can be sent to: Terminated Employees Many conference participants took liter­ Caroline Lund in Pittsburgh, Kathleen On January 21, Minnesota Gov. Rudy Support Group of Ottumwa, P.O. Box ature to bring to their local unions. Others Denny in Columbus, Ohio, and Becky Ellis Perpich ofthe Democratic Farmer-Labor 1355, Ottumwa, Iowa 52501. signed up for more information. . Activists in Portland.

4 The Militant April 4, 1986 S.F. rally supports striking meatpackers

BY SAM MANUEL "We are going to take the company on SAN FRANCISCO - Four hundred because it's a_fight that can be won. It's a people, mostly trade unionists, rallied in fight that can be won on behalf of us in the support of striking Minnesota meatpackers meatpacking industry as well as for all of here. labor." The March 13 rally was sponsored by Guyette was accompanied by other strik­ San Francisco Painters Local 4 and en­ ers from Austin, Minnesota, as well as de­ dorsed by over 50 unions, executive legations of workers who have been fired Militant photos by Diana Scalera and Andrea Gonz31ez boards, and officials. by Hormel for honoring P-9's picket lines Jim Guyette (left), president of striking United Food and Commercial Workers Local The featured speaker at the rally was Jim in Ottumwa, Iowa, and Fremont, Neb­ P-9 and Frank Vet (right), fired honnel worker from Fremont, Nebraska, spoke at Guyette, president of striking United Food raska. rally. and Commercial Workers Local P-9 in Au­ Speaking for the Ottumwa workers, single parent heads of households. I can as­ stin, Minnesota. Mark "Bear" Matsching told the audience she said, the cops forcefully shut down the sure you that we are not earning fluff Guyette began by stating, "I want to in­ that "we don't have to cross picket lines for union hall for a day. money. We are out here earning a living troduce my employers, the people who tell our jobs. If we have to crawl on our bellies She summed up saying, "In this struggle because we need to support our families. me what to do." As Guyette introduced we don't have jobs. We don't have dignity. day by day we are learning that the differ­ John Weis and Harold Miller of Local P-9, That is what this is all about, having our "They are determined to break us," she ent groups, persons, and races are all one. the crowd rose to its feet with prolonged dignity and being proud." concluded. "But we are the strongest we We all want justice. applause. Speaking for -the Fremont workers, have ever been. They have forced us to Some of the others who spoke were Fondly known to many unionists in the Frank Vet told the crowd, "We decided a unite. We are winners and we will 'Yin. Stanley Smith, secretary-treasurer of the Bay Area and elsewhere as Skinny and picket is a picket and you do not cross it. The people at Hormel will also win. San Francisco Building and Construction Bud, Weis and Miller prepared much of the We were told we could be replaced if we Trades; Stan Gow of International groundwork for the rally in a three-week didn't go into the plant. Well, I'd rather be Esperanza Torres, a leader of striking Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's tour they did before Guyette arrived. replaced than to lose my dignity by cross­ cannery workers from nearby Watsonville, Union Local 10; John Moran, business Guyette continued, "We are confronted ing a union picket." also spoke. Over 1 ,000 members of agent of the International Association of with a struggle against the most profitable The crowd cheered and stomped as Anna Teamsters Local 912, mostly Chicanas, Machinists District Lodge 1327; Ignacio de company in the meatpacking industry. Marie France was introduced. France is a have been on strike since September 1985. Ia Fuente, business manager of Molders' "A lot of time when I talk to laboring leader of striking TWA flight attendants. Torres reviewed the increased attacks by Local164; and Connie Peoples of the Oak­ people, especially union officials, they tell "We had agreed to a 15 percent conces­ police against union members. Recently, land Education Association. me we can't do an awful lot because of the sion the same as the pilots and mechanics," climate in the country today. What we need France explained. "But TWA wanted more to do is to get the politicians to fight our from us. They said we are not skilled labor. battles for us. That we could be replaced." Auto workers bring food "We say that we can't wait for the politi­ The audience hissed when she said, cians to tum the situation around," he said "They told us we were not breadwinners, to cheers of agreement from the rally par­ that we were only earning fluff money, and to fired Hormel workers ticipants. "We've got to do something that we had no financial responsibilities. "Forty-five percent of our women are BY KIM KLEINMAN the International Executive Board had about it ourselves. OTTUMWA, Iowa - The food was withdrawn its sanction of the strike and cut handed through the windows to two lineS off $40 weekly strike benefits to the P-9 of chanting and laughing members and strikers. Your$$ aid 'Militant' reporting supporters of United Food and Commercial In face of this attack, Pedersen reported, Workers Local 431 . Passed down the chain the mood in Austin was even more unified and into the pantry, the sacks of potatoes and determined. "Our rank and file meet­ never seen anything like whatis happening BY ANDREA GONZALEZ and canned goods will be distributed to the ing that night was the best one of the whole to the Austin, Ottumwa, and Fremont Maggie McCraw and Tom Jaax are families of 507 union members who were strike," he said. "We had 500 people." workers. I hope buying your paper will probably the newest residents of Austin, fired in January by the Geo. A. Hormel "I want to tell you," Pedersen continued, help in some way. I plead with you to keep Minnesota. C:o . for ,h()noring the piclcet I,iqes set up by "P-9 called this strike, and P-9 will call it helping them by getting out the news to the McCraw walkout ches of the Socialist Workers Party are dis­ do this today." Titus read a letter she wrote about the in support of the strike and the growing na­ cussing how to maximize participation of Willoughby also reported on his local's strike at 4:00a.m. when she couldn't sleep tional solidarity with the embattled work­ all party members. Earlier the SWP had de­ efforts to .reach out to other unions and in jail. It concluded, "I would be arrested ers, these Militant reporters have been on cided to make the fund a central campaign. farmers in southern Iowa. again for this cause and to be part of the the scene telling the strikers' side of the The party's participation will be a big boost The meeting heard a report from P-9 feeling of fellowship ." --story. to this effort. member Dan Pedersen. The meeting ended with a showing of The importance of this coverage was ex­ As we go to press, fund director Jerry On March 14, Pedersen said, UFCW Barbara Koppel's Academy Award-win­ pressed by one of the Militant's newest Freiwirth reports that $9,200 has been con­ President William Wynn amiounced that ning documentary "Harlan County, USA." subscribers- Ronald Simmons. In a letter tributed and $19,500 has been pledged to he sent with his one-year subscription, date. Simmons wrote: "I work at John Deere in By making a contribution to the fund , all Ottumwa, Iowa. I have been a member of of our readers can help us continue "getting Milwaukee unions back strikers the UA W for over 20 years, and I have the news to the people." BY BILL BREIHAN of Labor Union Women sent $50 to the MILWAUKEE- Dozens of union loc­ strikers. Nearly 2,000 "Boycott Hormel" On March 15 we launched the Socialist Publica­ $100,000 als in the area have rallied to support the buttons put out by the Milwaukee Commit­ tion Fund with the goal of raising $100,000 by meatpacking workers on strike against tee to Support Hormel Strikers have been May 10. Hormel in Austin, Minnesota. sold in area plants. A major purpose of the fund is to help finance Locals have responded to the strikers' One member of the committee from the publication of the Militant and our Spanish-lang­ appeal for financial aid by making pledges U A W sold 190 buttons in his plant of 230 uage sister publication Perspectiva Mundial and to the "Adopt A'Family" program, organiz­ workers, raising over $400 for the Hormel other socialist publication projects. ing plant-gate collections and food drives , strikers. and selling hundreds of "Boycott Hormel" Support for the Hormel strikers is grow­ Checks should be made out to: Socialist Publica­ buttons. ing in other Wisconsin cities as well. In tion Fund, 14 Charles Lane, New York, NY 10014. Three locals of the United Auto Workers Madison, the Dane Coqnty Labor Council (UA W) union here have sent a total of and United Food and Commercial Workers Enclosed is my contribution to the Socialist Publi- $1 ,400, so far, to the strikers. (UFCW) Local538 at Oscar Meyer are or­ catio~ Fund of$ ___ UA W Local 1111 is sending $600 a ganizing a food drive for Austin UFCW month to the "Adopt A Family" program. Local P-9. In an earlier food drive put to­ I pledge a contribution of $'----- to the Socialist An International Ladies' Garment Work­ gether by Local538 last fall, over $10,000 Publication Fund to be paid by _____ ers' Union local is sending $100 a month to worth of food was shipped to Austin. the program. Two demonstrations have been or­ Name ------Workers at Smith Steel have sent $500 ganized recently against the Milwaukee­ Address ------and are organizing a food drive for the based, union-busting law firm that has strikers. been employed by the Hormel Co. to bust State __ Zip ___ Collected: City $9,200 Contributions have been sent to Austin P-9. from locals of steelworkers, machinists, Another event planned to mobilize sup­ Phone ------­ transit workers, and garment workers, as port in Milwaukee for the Hormel strikers Organization/Union well as food workers. is · a March 22 rally with speakers from The Milwaukee chapter of the Coalition · I.-ocal P-9 and a number of area unions.

April 4, 1986 The Militant 5 Philippines: people mobilize to·extend gains

BY RUSSELL JOHNSON employees. The Ministry of Social Ser­ MANILA, Philippines - One month vices in Iloilo City and the National Pollu­ after the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos tion Control Commission in Manila were through a massive people's uprising iii also targets of protests. Manila, popular struggles contin~e and are • A group of squatters has occupied va­ spreading across the Philippines. cant units of high-priced housing projects Inspired by their role in ousting the dic­ in Manila believed to have been developed tator, workers and farmers are using by Imelda Marcos. "people power" mobilizations in their fight to dismantle remaining elements of the Oppressed minorities raise demands Marcos apparatus and advance their own • Peasant organizations on Mindanao immediate interests against the Marcos have announced plans to occupy and seize cronies and other exploiters. land owned by Marcos cronies, politicians, Mobilizations . in the past week have and Philippine officials who illegally dealt with a broad range of demands: amassed wealth during the reign of the de­ • A strike began March 2I by 22,000 posed dictator, as well as land from which Filipino workers against pay rates and peasants and tribal minorities were driven working conditions at the Subic Bay Naval by the terror squads of the warlords. The Station, Clark Air Base, and other U.S. warlords are tyrannical provincial land­ military installations. lords who built private armies under Mar­ On the evening of March 2I , six workers cos. were reportedly stabbed and seriously These organizations presented a propos­ wounded by U.S. military personnel at­ al March I8 to the agriculture and food tempting to break the union picket line. minister of the Aquino government includ­ • Five hundred Muslims, mostly stu­ ing demands for such a land redistribution. dents, marched to the presidential palace in Workers with family members picket outside Subic Bay naval base. About 20,000 • Representatives of the tribal Manila March I8 to press President Cora­ union members struck U.S. bases protesting refusal of U.S. authorities to negotiate minorities of the Philippines have pre­ zoo Aquino for Muslim autonomy on the collective bargaining agreement. sented the new government with a series of southern island of Mindanao and to de­ demands including demilitarization of the nounce Gov. Ali Dinaporo of Lanao del erected at Manila City Hall by market ven­ and Producers Bank, and other banks. tribal areas, regional autonomy, the return Sur prov!nce as a Marcos crony. dors and protest organizations to demand The March 2I Malaya reported an esti­ of ancestral lands, and the establishment of • On Mindanao itself, students are re­ the ouster of Mayor Ramon Bagatsing for mated 38 strikes under way nationwide, in­ a special ministry for tribal affairs. ported to be boycotting classes at the Min­ corruption. cluding one of the 10,000 employees at the Meanwhile, an organization called Cory danao State University to demand that Di­ • A host of strikes and pickets are tak­ crony-owned Philippines Long Distance Aquino People's Power has been formed in naporo, who was university president, and ing place at private companies, combining Telephone Company, who are defying are­ Manila. The group met with President his security guards be removed from cam­ demands for the sacking of Marcos appoin­ turn-to-work order by the new minister of Aquino March 20 to urge her to abolish the pus. tees and cronies in management, the Labor Augusto "Bobbit" Sanchez. Marcos parliament and constitution and de­ • In Davao City, Mindanao, on March reinstatement of union activists victimized • Pickets of government departments clare her government "revolutionary." De­ 20, 5,000 people were reportedly prepar­ under the dictatorship, and the lifting of have taken place in many parts of the scribing itself as a "coalition of workers, ing to march on the capitol building to oust wage restrictions imposed by the old re­ Philippines demanding the ouster of cor­ farmers, fishermen, urban poor, students, the Marcos-appointed governor and gime. rupt administrators. The National Housing and professionals," the organization grew mayor, who have barricaded themselves in Such actions have been reported at the Authority was picketed by Quezon City re­ out of the popular forces that campaigned the building with I ,000 supporters. Metro Manila Transit Corporation, the sidents, and the Ministry of Labor and Em­ for Aquino during the February 7 snap Other reported actions against local gov­ Philippines National Railways, the Marcos ployment in Bacolod City by the National presidential election. ernment officials include barricades crony Roberto Benedicto's Holiday Inn Federation of Sugar Workers and ministry The press here has also carried reports of similar organizations being set up in the provinces. Manila workers ·gain confidence New People's Army still active Significantly, in the past week the gov­ ef!lment and the press have dropped the BY RUSSELL JOHNSON The pickets told me that three of the six Aquino's commitment to carrying out her pretense that any sort of cease-fire exists MANILA, Philippines- A visit to the workers originally fired had filed a new election promise to release all political between the peasant guerrillas of the New workers' picket line outside the swank complaint against misappropriation of prisoners. People's Army (NPA) and the military. Holiday Inn on the harbor front here gave a union funds and demanding immediate In response to a question, it was According to th.e March 23 Manila feel for the growing confidence and con­ reinstatement with back pay. The com­ explained that most of the pickets had par­ Times, more than 200 soldiers, policemen, sciousness of the Filipino working class plaint was·filed with the MOLE under the ticipated ip the people's uprising of Feb­ and Civilian Home Defense Force mem­ after the overthrow of the dictator, Fer­ new minister, "Bobbit" Sanchez. They ruary 22-25. Some had heeded the call is­ bers have been killed in I72 "insurgency­ dinand Marcos. explained that the other three had not filed sued over the Catholic radio station and related incidents" since Marcos fled Feb­ Opposite the Holiday Inn stands the Cul­ a complaint so that the picket line could be went with their neighbors to Camp Crame ruary 25. tural Center of the Philippines, a huge legally maintained while the MOLE con­ and Camp Aguinaldo in support of the mil­ Most of these incidents have taken place monument to Imelda Marcos' pretentious sidered the case of those who filed the itary rebels against Marcos. Others had in the central and southern zones of the extravagance that, like the pyramids of the complaint. marched with the KMU to the Malacaiiang Visayas island group and Mindanao. Egyptian pharaohs, was literally built on There was more confidence that, one Palace, where the dictator himself was On March I9, for example, 300 NPA the bodies of many of its workers. way or another, they would win their case. holed up. fighters were reported to have stormed the Under Marcos, they explained, "there Why had they gone? "Because enough is While the Holiday Inn may not have the municipal hall in Bacungan, Zamboanga was only justice for the rich." But they ex­ enough. Marcos had to go." Del Norte, on Mindanao, killing four sol­ bodies of workers in its foundations, it has pected things to be different now, particu­ Struggles like that of the Holiday Inn been no less brutal in its exploitation, the diers and capturing a number of high-pow­ larly if the new government of Cory workers are mushrooming across Manila ered weapons. picketing workers explained. It was owned Aquino continuecompany union, the Holiday Inn Employees Associ­ ation, called "management union" for short because of who was looting its funds, among other reasons. 'IP' assesses debate in British WRP Last September, some of the Holiday last October the Workers Revo­ on the Cuban revolution and its sig­ Inn workers who identified with the mili­ lutionary Party (WRP), a major nificance. Neither takes issue with tant May I Movement union federation group in Britain claiming adher­ the Healyite view that Cuba re­ (KMU) filed a formal complaint with the ence to Trotskyism, suffered a deep mains capitalist. And without com­ INTERCONTINENTAL Ministry of Labor and Employment split, as one wing broke from WRP ing to grips with the emergence of (MOLE) over misappropriation of union cult figure Gerry Healy. Since then, Cuba's revolutionary proletarian PREss ... funds . Six workers were immediately and leaders of that wing have opened a leadership, discussions about the - illegally fired. A month later, 84 more public discussion on the degenera­ Fourth International's role and con­ Holiday Inn workers were "retrenched." tion of their party and on the his­ tributio!1 cannot go very far. to~y of the Fourth International and Filipino Masses Following the second firings, a picket its place in the world workers' Intercontinental Press is a biweekly Deepen Struggle was mounted outside the hotel October 20. movement. that carries more articles, docu­ It was dispersed by the military. A month The April 7 Intercontinental Press for Democratic ments, and special features on world later, a second attempt was made to set up features an article by Doug Jenness Rights politics- from Europe to Oceania a picket line. This time, Benedicto ar­ taking up aspects of this discus­ and from the Middle East to Central ranged for another Marcos crony, the local sion. He focuses on two docu­ America - than we have room .for mayor of Pasay, to have all the picketing ments by WRP leaders Michael in the Militant. Subscribe now. workers jailed. Banda and Bill Hunter, which were ~From Haiti The overthrow of the Marcos regime and reprinted in the previous IP. Enclosed is 0 $7.50 for 3 months. Popular Protests the fleeing overseas of his major cronies, Banda's assessment of the Fourth 0 $15 for 6 months. 0 $30 for 1 such as Benedicto, opened new pos­ Demand International, Jenness notes, is year. Junta's Ouster sibilities for the fired workers to renew generally negative and repeats their stru~gle, the 20 picketers outside the many of Healy's falsifications. In Name------hotel March 22 told me. So the picket line taking up Banda's view, Jenness re­ Address ______was reestablished March 20. · South African Workers Fight 'Mine Slavery' counts the International's origins, _City __ State __ Zip __ The first day, it was attacked by police role, and response to key revolu­ wielding bats. The representatives of the tionary developments. Clip and mail to Intercontinental workers went to Camp Crame, the center Most seriously, Jenness notes, Press, 410 West St., New York, NY of the military rebellion against Marcos, to both Banda and Hunter are silent 10014. complain. The harassment was called off.

6 The Militant April 4, 1986 Ferdinand Marcos: world-class thief BY HARRY RING . did. ''The information I have always had was One example - the huge payoff he got that while his salary was extremely modest from the Westinghouse company for a con­ as president . . . he was a millionaire be­ tract to build a nuclear power plant in the fore he took office, and so there is probably Philippines. some wealth that is his legitimately by way For that contract, Westinghouse paid a of investments over all these 20 years." - bribe of $80 million. But in return, West­ President Reagan, March 5. inghouse grossed $2 billion. In violation of federal Jaw, other U.S. Our pious president to the contrary, con­ corporations paid bribes to swing deals in tinuing revelations confirm that Ferdinand the Philippines. Among those cited so far Marcos was a world-class thief. are GTE, ITT, and McDonnell Douglas. The mind-boggling disclosures confirm Japanese companies and others also paid that the Filipino people- the majority bit­ bribes to Marcos and his cronies for the Philippines' Marcos family stole millions of dollars while serving as loyal servant to terly impoverished - were ripped off privilege of siphoning off some of the U.S. government. without mercy. wealth created by Filipino working people. On the basis of still incomplete records, . The Marcos operation is now being re­ politicians in the Democratic and Republi­ least until they realized he was finished and Filipino investigators estimate that Mar­ constructed in part through the 2,300 pages can parties. cut him loose. cos' stolen wealth may total more than $5 of documents he carried with him when he The U.S. big-business interests could billion. That's billions, not millions. fled the Philippines. Other information was One document, for instance, indicates that in 1980 both the Reagan and Carter not have done their dirty deals with Marcos Some of the loot came from plain, old­ tracked down earlier by Filipino inves­ unless government officials were willing to fashioned stealing. Pocketing money from tigators. (They found $800 million stashed campaigns illegally accepted $50,000 con­ tributions from their "free world ally." look the other way or actually help put government bank accounts, carting off in a single Swiss bank account!) them through. And Marcos would not have paintings and other art treasures from the Jovito Salonga, chief investigator for the The contributions were perhaps tokens dared pulled some of the things he did if he national museum, transferring govern­ new Philippine government, said the docu­ of appreciation by Marcos for the biparti­ did not feel assured that U.S. authorities ment-owned property to family and ments grudgingly released by Washington san support he enjoyed in Washington would not blow the whistle on him. friends, dipping freely into the treasury. detail some of the ill-gotten wealth ac­ throughout the years of his tyrannical rule. One example: In 1973, the first year of Some of the wealth was incremented cumulated through "enormous bribes, Johnson, Nixon; Ford, Carter, Reagan­ martial law in the Philippines, the. nation's through "honest" investment. Probers say commissions, and kickbacks . . . by corpo­ all of them supported and publicly praised gold reserve suddenly and precipitously he was into a thousand companies rations and enterprises that have been this thieving, anticommunist killer. dropped 40 percent. worldwide. The assets include New York awarded lucrative contracts." A staggering 800,000 ounces of gold, office buildings, real estate elsewhere, Salonga also told reporters that U.S. of­ (Now, the Reagans are no doubt jumpy worth $280 million at today's prices, sim­ stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, gold, ficials had not turned over all the docu­ about one record indicating that Imelda ply vanished. silver, you name it. ments to him. Marcos had dropped a $60,000 emerald CIA agents in Manila reported to Wash­ A major part of the Marcos hoard was The reluctance to Jet loose is not hard to bracelet on Nancy Reagan. The White ington at the time that the gold had been accumulated through bribes and kickbacks understand. In addition to what the records House says not so.) stolen by Marcos and his gang. Nothing. taken from foreign corporatiqns that swin­ reveal about U.S. corporate COil).plicity · Certainly Marcos had good reason to was said or done. dled the Filipino people even more than he with Marcos, they also point a finger at key thirik kindly of Washington politicians, at In its basic features, much of the corrup­ tion in the Philippines follows a pattern familiar in U.S. municipal politics. For in­ stance, there are the current headlines about the New York Democratic machine Filipino workers strike U.S. bases salting away big bribes (rom companies in exchange for juicy coiitr~tCts with the city, BY RUSSELL JOHNSON I visited two of the stabbing victims of Flores said the union regarded the sever­ It's a time-honored custom. OLONGAPO, Philippines, March 24- the Subic Bay incident at the Olongapo ance~pay question as a necessary part of But in the Philippines, the machine had The Subic Bay U.S. naval base, which sur­ General Hospital. Reynaldo Torres - a any minimum package acceptable to the , an entire nation by the throat. The oppor­ rounds this city, has been sealed off since mess man at the Public Works Center Food FFCEA members. "The ranks were impa­ tunities for such corporate theft were Fri<;lay evenjng '·March.2 1 by "h11man bar­ services canteen on the base earning 13.36 tient," he said. "The CBA should have boundless. ricades" at every entrance and along the pesos per hour (approximately 66 cents)­ been settled six months ago. We could not The Westinghouse scandal is a case in fence line. No one can enter the base. was lying on his stomach on a cot. justify the delays any longer to the mem­ point. The barricades are the focal point of a He told me he was among a 1 ,000-strong bership." So the strike was called, and the In the mid-1970s, after studies by sev­ militant general strike by the 20,000-strong picket line at the main gate when six human barricades went up at Subic Bay, eral bodies, the Philippine government had Federation Filipino Civilian Employees marines in civilian clothes tried to push Clark Air Base, and the other U.S. military virtually decided to award a contract to Association (FFCEA) at all U.S. military through the crowd: He was clubbed over installations. General Electric to build a nuclear reactor. installations in the Philippines. The strikers the head and stabbed several times in the Then, unexpectedly, Marcos decided to The union leader told me that the aver­ award the contract to Westinghouse. are protesting the refusal of the U.S. au­ back with a flick knife. The marines then age wage for a Filipino worker at the base thorities to arrive at a collective bargaining fled , pursued by angry workers. His wife How did Westinghouse do it? No sweat. was 16 to 20 pesos, or less than $1 per They agreed to pay a 5 percent commission agreement acceptable to their 22,000 carefully peeled his bandages off so that I hour. Although this is somewhat higher Filipino civilian employees after more than could photograph his badly lacerated back. to Herminio Disini, a Marcos underling. than many other Filipinos get, it is a paltry Disini reportedly received a payoff of 10 months of negotiations. Torres' wife also said there had been previ­ sum compared to what U.S. personnel ous incidents of Filipinos being beaten up $80 million from Westinghouse. Of this, Fighting spirit working-alongside the Filipinos at the base insiders say, about $75 million went to by drunken U.S. servicemen in the streets are receiving. The fighting spirit of the base workers of Olongapo. Marcos. was very evident when I visited the picket . Flores gave the example of a Filipino In addition, Disini set up a construction lines today. Hand-painted placards carried I also visited Leonardo Empefio, alead­ computer programmer earning less than 40 firm, which was named chief contractor for slogans such as "If Reagan loves Cory, ing ~chanic in the Transport Equipment , pesos an hour working along with a U.S. building the project. then give justice to her countrymen in the Department of the Public Works Center programmer earning 600. One of the And a small insurance company, also as­ bases" and "Attention: President Cory be­ who earns 26.68 per hour, approximately longstanding demands of the union has sertedly owned by Disini, wrote a $688 ware of U.S. aid while U.S. Filipino base $1.25. He was attached to an intravenous been the ending of this wage inequality. million policy on the reactor, the biggest workers are abused. " Uncle Sam effigies tube and was obviously in great pain. He ever written in the Philippines. hung from ropes. had been punched to the ground and then Not part of anti-Marcos movement U.S. embassy officials were uneasy. Cheers went up from the men and received deep stab wounds in the back. The FFCEA, affiliated with the Trade They knew Westinghouse's price was Union Congress of the Philippines, was not heavily inflated, and they knew of the talk women at the barricades at one gate when it Power struggle at City Hall was announced over a megaphone that a part of the militant anti-Marcos labor of a deal. They also knew the project journalist had arrived to report their strug­ The hospitalized strikers face an addi­ movement that targeted the removal of the would neverpay for itself. gle to U.S. working people. Many workers tional problem. The Olongapo city admin­ U.S. bases from the Philippines as one of Enter William Casey, now director of would flash the "Laban" sign of the istration is the subject of a bitter power its democratic and nationalist goals. But it the CIA, then head of the Import-Export "people power" revolution. It was struggle. The mayor was a supporter of is clear the base workers.are being deeply Bank, which helps finance U.S. sales explained to me that the strike was an ex­ Marcos and all those city employees de­ affected by the "people power" upheaval abroad. ample of "workers' power." The pickets pendent on his patronage are resisting his that continues across the country and by Casey went to Manila to check out the explained that over the weekend, 500 replacement by a new mayor appointed by their brutal treatment at the hands of the deal and stamped it okay. workers and students from nearby Bataan the Corazon Aquino government. This has U.S. military. The Import-Export Bank provided $277 had appeared at the base to demonstrate meant that the injured workers have been A statement signed by Jose Diokno, million in direct loans for the Marcos gov­ their solidarity with the struggle. unable to obtain X-rays because there is no chairman of the Presidential Commission ernment to pay Westinghouse, plus $676 Tension has mounted in the strike after a city official to authorize the hospital to pur­ on Human Rights and the Anti-Bases Coa­ million in loan guarantees to private banks. vicious, unprovoked attack on the Subic chase X-ray film . lition in Manila, is calling for a Filipino in­ It was the biggest deal the agency has ever Bay pickets the first evening. A group of FFCEA President Roberto Flores spoke vestigation into lhe stabbing of the six backed anywhere. off-duty U.S. Marines tried to force their to me in his office just outside the main workers. A decade later, the nuke plant has cost way through the picket lines. Seizing a gate of the naval base. The office was a "The incident is one of a long string of the Filipino people $2.1 billion. Interest placard ha!ldle, they beat a number of hive of activity, with dozens of workers abuses committed by American service­ costs alone now run $210 million a year. workers and then drew switchblades. Six coming and going on strike business. men against Filipinos," the statement said. Now assertedly near completion, the Filipinos were hospitalized, including Flores explained that his union had been "In all cases the servicemen involved never reactor is being built on the side of a vol­ three with serious stab wounds. negotiating with the U.S. military since faced Philippine courts - they were trans­ cano and in an earthquake fault zone. Pres­ This was not an isolated incident. At May 7., 1985, in an. effort to come up with ferred out of the country before Philippine ident Corazon Aquino pledged during her neighboring Clark Air Base today, U.S. a new collective bargaining agreement Jaw could catch up with them. This recent campaign that she would not let it open. military policemen were reported to have (CBA). The union made numerous conces­ incident and other incidents · in the past As the current disclosures detail some of attacked strikers with clubs in support of sions. However, the negotiations reached show American disrespect for Philippine the scope of the Marcos plunder, it be­ servicemen trying to break the picket line. an impass January 14 when approval could lives, laws, and sovereignty." comes apparent he and his family are dri­ Workers had to intervene to prevent the not be obtained from the United States for a The Philippine minister of labor has or­ ven by an insatiable greed. More impor­ military police from dragging a union clause entitling base workers to severance ganized a meeting between the union and tantly, it .illustr ates that such capitalist leader into the base. pay when they resign~d their employment. U.S. authorities for March 26. greed is truly a social disease.

April 4, 1986 The Militant 7 Farmers demand removal of loan official BY KATHLEEN FITZGERALD with two petitions. One demands that Stol­ CHILLICOTHE, Mo. - Driving into lings be removed from the FmHA and the this town some 90 miles northeast of Kan­ other calls for the foreclosure moratorium, sas City, your attention is drawn to a lot a fair price for farm products, and crammed with tractors that encircle a build­ . emergency assistance .. ing. The farmers found a lot of support for The building houses the Livingston their demands and their protest. They also County Farmers Home -Administration found hunger among county residents. So (FmHA) office. The tractors are there as the farmers decided to organize free food part of a protest vigil that began March 17. distribution. With the help of Farm Aid, The protest was planned at a meeting a the farmers arranged to have 12,000 week before of some 150 farmers, and it pounds of food sent to Chillicothe for dis­ came after county FmHA supervisor David tribution March 22 . Three hundred people Stollings sent out 63 "adverse action" let­ attended the rally that day . More than 600 ters. stood in line to get boxes of food . Such letters are being sent out across the The action of the Livingston County country by the FmHA. The letter threatens farmers has inspired farmers across Mis­ farmers with foreclosure if they don't pay souri and the Midwest. their debt in full . On March 19. some 150 Grundy County In addition to sending these letters, the farmers with 32 tractors encircled a PCA Livingston County FmHA, with a yearly office where a meeting of government and budget of over $1 million, has refused to private lenders was taking place. The farm­ Farmers picket in Chillicothe, M~ssouri, demanding stop to farm foreclosures, a fair ers demanded an end to foreclosures. give farmers loans. Since October 1985 the price for their produce, and emergency financial assistance. FmHA has approved only nine loans. The next day I 00 farmers attended a At the meeting the farmers decided to meeting in Kirksville, Missouri, to plan ac­ begin a protest campaign to remove Stol­ 710, who have been on strike against the Food and Commercial Workers Local 431 tions. lings as FmHA supervisor. The farmers are Libby Corp. in Kansas City for seven in Ottumwa, Iowa- who were fired by Protests are planned for the Boot Heel also demanding a moratorium on farm months, came to the vigil. The next day, a the Hormel Company for honoring picket section of southeastern Missouri beginning foreclosures, a decent price for their prod­ delegation from the . Independent Federa­ lines set up by striking Minnesota meatpac­ March 23 . ucts, and emergency survival assistance for tion of Flight Attendants, presently on kers - came to the vigil . Actions are also planned in the next those who need it. strike against TWA, arrived. As part·oftheir activities , the farmers are weeks in Minnesota, Kansas, Wisconsin, To achieve their goals, the farmers de­ And on March 22 members of United going door-to-door throughout the county Iowa, Nebraska, and Kentucky . cided to organize the vigil. On March 17, in pouring rain, the tractors began to roll into Chillicothe from throughout the county, filling the parking lot of the Farm meeting discusses ·Black land loss FmHA. After the FmHA lot was filled the farmers began putting tractors in the lot of BY SANDI SHERMAN kicked off the panel by explaining the crisis three weeks from planting, and no Black the Production Credit Association office. MILWAUKEE - "This is a historic facing Black farmers . 'Tm not sure who farmers have been approved for FmHA The PCA is a government agency that pro­ gathering," said Merle Hansen, president will control the land, but the way things are loans ." of the North American Farm Alliance. "We going now, Blacks won't have any land in vides credit for farm supplies. The discussions throughout the day were Along with the tractors came 200 farm­ won't save agriculture in the United States 10 years." Blacks own some 8 million or worldwide unless we overcome the acres of land, mostly in the southeastern wide-ranging, from how to effectively ers who picketed in front of the building lobby Congress and have an impact on the myths and prejudice that keep us apart." United States, and are losing 500,000 acres and then gathered for a rally. 1986 elections, to the agrarian reform pro­ The farmers announced that they were Hansen was speaking at the Inner City of land a year. The federation's literature explains that existing government agricul­ gram in Nicaragua. This was described in a staying put in a peaceful nonviolent way Conference on the Farm Crisis and Black workshop by a participant who recently re­ until their demands were met. Land Loss, attended by 100 people from tural policy and programs discriminate heavily against Black farmers. In Missis­ turned from three weeks in Nicaragua on a Not much is happening inside the FmHA rural Wisconsin and the southern United coffee brigade. The need for affirmative office. But outside there is a daily rally to States. The conference was held March 8 sippi, where 43 percent of all farmers are Black, the Farmers Home Administration action in a farm policy was discussed. organize activities and hear messages of in Milwaukee and was sponsored by North A Prevention of Black Land Loss Rec­ support. American Farm Alliance, Federation of (FmHA) loane9 only 7. 7 percent of its total appropriation to Black farmers. ognition Dinner the same night drew about Local support for the protest is tremend­ Southern Cooperatives, Wisconsin Farm 150 people. Jesse Jackson addressed the The process of obtaining loans is also ous. The owner of a small business next Unity Alliance, Madison Support Commit­ gathering over telephone hookup. Farm harder for Blacks, with longer waiting door to the FmHA office turned over his tee for Eddie Carthan, and a number of re­ leaders and politicians were honored for periods, higher interest rates. and more office to the farmers . Other businesses ligious organizations. their role in working to preserve Black­ supervisory loans requiring documentation have provided the farmers with food. Two It focused on the rapid loss of Black­ owned land. local farm machinery dealers have brought owned farmland in the South. Some 25 of every expenditure. new tractors to add to the aging collection Black farmers from Mississippi, Alabama, Eddie Carthan, former mayor of Tchula, Tom Quinn of Wisconsin Farm Unity already there. South Carolina, Louisiana, and Georgia Mississippi, who has received a foreclo­ summed up the conference decisions, sure notice on his 800-acre cotton farm, which included expanding work between The tractors and the building are covered were there. also spoke on the panel. ·stack and white farmers, and projected a with posters. "We need a price," they read, Participants attended workshops on Describing the crisis facing Black farm­ national conference later in the year in or, "Ban nuclear arms not American farm­ Black land loss, the farm bill, and alterna­ ers in Tchula, Carthan said it's "two or Kansas City, Missouri . ers" and "Farm aid not contra aid." tive models for land ownership and eco­ Delegations of workers who are also nomic development. fighting for their rights have been arriving The day started with a morning panel en­ in Chillicothe to offer their support to the titled, "Who will control the land?'' Jerry Lies about Sandinistas answered farmers. On March 20, for example, 30 Pennick, director of land services for the members of United Auto Workers Local Federation of Southern Cooperatives, BY RASHAAD ALI Breidford adds that the "AIFLD was . The American Institute for Free Labor formed in 1962 as a joint venture of the Development (AIFLD) is on a national AFL-CIO, American business interest, and campaign to convince working people that the U.S . State Department," and works "to S.F. cops break up anti-apartheid the Sandinista government in Nicaragua is implement U.S. foreign policy and pro­ totalitarian. This includes submitting arti­ mote a 'healthy environment' for U.S. cor­ picket line, arrest 60 protesters cles to union newspapers with this theme. porations." AIFLD has often acted as a Recently, Wayne Breidford, steward for "conduit for C.I.A. money as well as a BY DIANA CANTU pickets, police poked and hit them with the Shop 2-2421 of the International Associa­ cover for C.I.A. operatives. The State De­ SAN FRANCISCO- On two consecu­ clubs. tion of Machinists, answered a few of these partment is currently paying 80 percent of tive days, club-wielding cops broke up Alameda County Supervisor John lies in the February 1986 Aero Mechanic. AIFLD's budget." George, chair of the Bay Area Free South anti-apartheid picket lines at the gates of He took up two AIFLD articles that had ap­ "Nicaragua is fighting a war against a Africa Movement, who witnessed the ar­ Pier 80. They arrested almost 60 anti-apart- peared in the union paper last June and De­ U .S.-funded and directed 'contra' army," heid protesters. . rests, told the Militant: "The police are cember. he explained, and "The C.I.A. has mined wrong for arresting peaceful demonstra­ The activists were protesting the unload­ Those artides, he wrote, "by leaving out Nicaragua's major ports and blown up its tors. San Francisco is using taxpayers' ing of South African steel, fruit, and some very important facts and distorting largest oil storage facility." money to protect South African cargo." windshields from the Dutch ship, Nedlloyd others . . . leave the readers with the in­ He also asked why the AIFLD never de­ Kembla. At a press conference later in the day, tended conclusion that the Sandinista gov­ nounces the terrorist tactics of the contras. On March 10 members of International John George and David Reed, chair of the ernment runs a 'police state' which has a Breidford noted that the AIFLD article Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's San Francisco Anti-Apartheid Committee, policy of suppressing the trade union in the December issue said its information Union (ILWU) Local 10 refused to cross issued a statement condemning the arrests movement." was based on a tour that also visited El Sal­ picket lines of anti-apartheid demonstra­ and demanding the release of all those ar­ The union steward, who recently spent a vador. But "instead of hearing about the tors. During that protest, two pickets were rested. month in Nicaragua teaching at an agricul­ massive and bloody repression of trade arrested and others hospitalized with in­ "To trade with South Africa is to aid tural mechanization school, explained, unions in that country," Breidford wrote, juries inflicted by the cops. apartheid. We are determined to stop trade "The government of Nicaragua has encour­ "we hear about some incidents in Nicara­ In response to the police action, 200 with South Africa," they stated. aged the organization of trade unions to the gua that pale by comparison." demonstrators showed up at the pier by extent that over 55 percent of the work­ 7:30a.m. the next day . Trucl5-s were pre­ The port of San Francisco has been the force is organized," and that "the two At the time that the AIFLD tour was tak­ vented from entering the area to unload the site of a number of protests when ships car­ AI.FLD affiliates mentioned (CUS and ing place "an official of the Salvadoran ship. rying cargo from South Africa have at­ CNT) have a combined membership of less waterworkers union was kidnapped and The San Francisco cops were out in full tempted to unload. In. November 1984 than 4,500, less than 2 percent of Nicara­ murdered by a right-wing death squad and/ force with clubs and riot gear. workers from IL WU Local 10 refused to gua's organized workforce. Because of or government security forces," Breidford After a judge turned down a temporary unload the Nedlloyd Kembla's sister ship, their history as acceptable 'company' writes. restraining order against the protest, re­ the Nedlloyd Kimberly, until a federal court unions under the Somoza dictatorship and · Pointing to the armed population of Nic­ quested by the Pacific Maritime Associa­ forced them back to work. continued ties to the U.S. government aragua, he adds, "There is no way that a tion (the employers' organization), 50 hel­ San Francisco is one of many cities that (through AIFLD) the CUS and CNT are police state could survive with weapons so meted cops brandishing long clubs moved have passed resolutions against doing busi­ looked on with suspicion by the Nicara­ readily available to the general population! in and arrested 57 people. _ ness with the apartheid government in guan government and the majority of the The simple truth is that the majority of the As they hemmed in and surrounded the South Africa. Nicaraguan people." people supports their government."

· The Militant ··Apri14; -1986 Protests force collapse of Haiti government

Continued from front page tal. Avenue J.J. Dessalines, the main street tap tap driver, and tried to arrest him. in Port-au-Prince, is usually packed with Other drivers came to the victim's aid tap taps. That day, the streets were practi­ and blocked off the street, forcing the cap­ cally empty of vehicles. A handful of tap tain to flee. Shortly thereafter, uniformed taps and a few trucks moved, but most car­ soldiers appeared and opened fire on the ried no passengers. Only a few operated crowd, killing five people and wounding at along the main road leading to the big in­ least 10. dustrial park and the airport. This reporter saw one of them forced to stop by a truck This massacre was widely condemned as driver enforcing the strike. · a continuation of the kind of bloody repres­ Thousands of students - most of them sion suffered under the Duvalier dictator­ from primary and secondary schools - ship. Commentators on the Catholic and poured into the plaza in front of the Na­ other radio stations demanded an explana­ tional Palace shouting, "Down with the tion from ~he government and called for the junta!" "We don't need the CNG!" "We arrest of the guilty officers and soldiers. don't want the junta!" and "Down with In response to the murders, tap tap, taxi, Namphy!" and truck drivers declared a strike in Mar­ Radio stations carried reports of demon­ tissant, blocking the main route from Port­ strations and confrontations with govern­ au-Prince south to Carrefour. They bar­ ment officials in Cap Ha"itien , Gona"ives, ricaded the road and forced other drivers to Jacmel, and other cities. stop. When the police and army were sent Militant/Harvey Demonstration of technical students in Port-au-Prince. Signs read, "Laws on unions According to the New York Times, four in to open the road, the drivers expanded people were killed on March 21 , and 25 their strike to include the entire city. and workers' associations must not remain on paper" and "Industry must respect technicians." were injured. Protests mounted throughout Haiti the Radio Soleil commented that "the CNG day after the killings, as the government must decide whether it will do what the took no action against the officer and sol­ chanted antigovernment slogans. Soldiers ficer the junta had allowed to escape to people want or if it will act the way diers responsible. Thousands of students were called out to disperse the crowd, Brazil; and the tentative beginnings of legal Duvalier did." demonstrated in front of the National which had armed itself with rocks and action against two other Duvalier officials. "The people have been patient," Radio Palace chanting "No more tricks!" "The machetes, according to reports from Radio That night, the army attacked the crowd Soleil warned, "but they are opening their government must explain itself!" and "Stop Voix Ave Maria, the local Catholic church in Martissant. Gourgue announced his res­ eyes." attacking the people!" Students also dem­ station. ignation the next afternoon. That afternoon, General Namphy an­ onstrated at the National Television and the In Gona"ives protesters cried, "Down In a statement read over Radio National, nounced the resignations of Cineas, Val­ Catholic church radio station, Radio Sol­ with the CNG," and demanded the dis­ Gourgue explained that he had joined the les, and Avril and the organization of the ei!, to publicize their opposition to the banding of the army's elite counterin­ government "to advance human rights and new government council. junta: surgency unit known as the Leopards. The to help meet the people's demands." Now, The latest round of demonstrations re­ That afternoon, thousands gathered at Leopards are notorious for the repression he said, he found this was impossibie to do flects a changed attitude toward the army. the palace again to welcome Daniel Fig­ they carried out under Duvalier. within the government. He was resigning During the protests against Duvalier last note. Returning after 29 years in exile, Fig­ Large demonstrations were also reported to return to his position as president of the December and January, many chanted note was the popular leader of the Move­ in Jacmel, an important city on the south­ Haitian League for Human Rights. "Long live the army." They saw a distinc­ ment of Workers and Peasants (MOP) dur­ em coast. Many people had viewed Gourgue's par­ tion between the army and the hated Ton­ ing the 1940s and 1950s. He was also pro­ ticipation in the junta as a guarantee that it Gourgue resigns tons Macoutes and hoped the army would visional president of Haiti for 19 days dur­ would not return to the repression of the support the people. ing the turbulent period in 1956 before The governmental crisis deepened late Duvalier years. With his resignation, they In this new wave of protests, the demand Fran~ois Duvalier took power. on the afternoon of March 20 when Gour­ · were faced with a government made up en­ has been raised to abolish the Leopards, "He was a president for the poor," dem­ gue announced his resignation. tirely of old Duvalier supporters. and some protesters have said that the en­ onstrators said, most of whom were born As minister of justice, Gourgue was Fears of repression increased when the tire army was as bad as the Macoutes. The after Fignole went into exile. "Our parents nominally responsible for prosecuting offi­ government imposed the curfew. chant "Long live the army" wasn't heard. and our grandparents told us he was the cials and Tontons Macoutes who were The curfew largely cleared the streets of Demonstrators are already challenging best president we had," they explained. guilty of corruption and repression against Port-au-Prince that night, but did not stop the new three-person junta. According to "When he was president, we had food and · the people. Hundreds of victims of repres­ the spread of antigextradition proceed­ in Washington, D.C., March 29 in adem­ White House for a rally. of ties with the Do valier regime. They also ings against Col. Albert Pierre, a hated of- onstration .against U.S . intervention in Haiti, the Committee Against Repression The committee reports that buses are in Haiti told the Militant. leaving from Queens, Brooklyn, Manhat­ tan, New Rochelle, and Westbury, Long The committee called the demonstration to protest Washington's role in the internal Island, in New York, as well as from Bos­ Pakistani masses march for politics of Haiti. The U.S. government ton, Chicago, Hartford, and Elizabeth, backed dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier New Jersey. A car pool has been organized when he became president in 1971 and was from Philadelphia, and many Haitians liv­ restoration of deinocracy instrumental in setting up the military-ci­ ing in the Washington, D.C., area are ex­ vilian junta that took over when Duvalier pected to participate. BY MALIK MIAH Soon after martial law was lifted, the fled on February 7. . For information on the demonstration The U.S.-backed military regime of MRD organized an earlier rally of more The march and rally will also be a show and transportation, contact the Committee Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan is than 70,000 people demanding free elec­ of opposition to any U.S. military interven­ Against Repression in Haiti, 1280 Flatbush under growing pressure to restore full de­ tions and an end to limits imposed on polit­ tion in Haiti, the committee said. Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. Phone: (718) 434- mocracy in this country of I 00 million ical parties. Currently, political parties It will assemble on the west steps of the 3940. people. must register with the government's Elec­ According to an Associated Press dis­ tion Commission to become legal. The reg­ patch, about 60,000 protesters shouted istration law binds all legal parties not to antigovernment and anti-U.S. slogans on criticize the armed forces and to adhere to Protests hit South Korean dictator March 23. The rally was organized by the Pakistan's Islamic ideology. 11 -party Movement for the Restoration of So far, the government has refused to South Korean opponents of President On March 23 another demonstration es­ Democracy (MRD). It was one of the big­ call new elections. The parliament was Chon Doo Hwan's military dictatorship timated at 40,000 according to NKDP lead­ ger rallies held since martial law was lifted elected to a five-year term in February have launched a series of mass demonstra­ ers was held in Pusan. Unlike previous December 30. 1985. Most opposition· parties boycotted tions demanding democratic reforms. The antigovernment demonstrations during Gen. Zia ul-Haq came to power in July those elections. demonstrations have been called by the Chon's six-year rule, neither of the demon­ 1977 after a military coup. Two years later, The demand for democratic rights has New Korea Democratic Party (NKDP), the strations was attacked by cops or troops. he executed the deposed president, Zul­ widespread support. Since 1965, funda­ largest opposition party to Chon's Demo­ More demonstrations are planned for the fikar Ali Bhutto. mental rights of Pakistanis have remained cratic Justice Party. cities of Kwangju on March 30, Taegu on Bhutto's daughter, Benazir, is a central suspended either under martial law or a On March 11 , some 4,000 South Ko­ April 5, and Inchon on April 20. leader of the Pakistan People's Party, the state of emergency. . reans demonstrated in Seoul demanding Opponents of Chon's U.S. government­ largest party in the MRD. She described The U.S. government is quite concerned constitutional changes that would lead to backed regime have been inspired by the the lifting of martial law as a "cunning act about Pakistan's stability. Washington the popular election of a new president in "people power" movement of the Philip­ of political camouflage designed to dupe signed a six-year · economic and military 1988. At present, the constitution calls for pines, which overthrew Ferdinand Marcos. the people of Pakistan and placate opinion . pact in June 1981. CIA-backed counterrev­ the election of presidential electors, who One theme at the demonstrations is a warn­ leaders in the Western countries whose olutionary Afghans also operate out of then elect a president. South Koreans ing to Chon that he could suffer the same support and economic as~istance are vital Northwest Frontier Province. There are 2 charge this method allows Chon to hand­ fate if he fails to respond to growing de­ for the regime." million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. pick his successor. mands for democracy in South Korea.

·April 4, 1986 TheMllitant 9 Sandinistas: U.S. war ·is escalating

BY CINDY JAQUITH patrols and that work on solving communi­ MANAGUA, Nicaragua- In response ty problems. Most of the CDS leaders pres- · to the March 20 House rejection of the ent were of the working class, many of $100 million aid bill for the mercenaries at­ them women. tacking this country, Sandinista leaders The four-hour meeting- which focused here are calling on Nicaraguan working on specific community problems in various people to step up defenst; and production . regions of the country - was also a meas­ They warn that Washington's war is still ure of the confidence felt by Nicaraguan escalating and the battle to stop aid to the working people right now in their ability to contras is far from over. meet whatever new war escalation Con­ Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, in gress eventually approves . Speaker after a nationally televised interview the night speaker was interrupted - and in some the House voted down the aid bill, em­ cases completely drowned out- by chants phasized that "the fact that they voted in a against the U.S. government and in support certain way does not mean the war is over. of the Sandinista revolution, The aggression continues. There are U.S. Ortega outlined the Sandinistas' view of troops in Honduras, and they've even the aid debate and emphasized the impor­ moved up maneuvers scheduled for April, tant role CDSs will play in increasing de­ coinciding with the deployment of 5,000 fense and production. He also explained Honduran soldiers on the border. once again why the Sandinistas will not ac­ "Reagan is now talking about using mil­ cept Reagan's proposal of a dialogue with itary advisers [for the mercenaries]," the mercenaries; why Nicaragua insists that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said vote in U.S. House of Representatives Ortega continued. "That would be the start peace talks be conducted with "the chief of against contra aid does not mean U.S. will stop aggression. He called on Nicaraguan of a Vietnamization of the conflict. We are the mercenaries, Ronald Reagan." people to step up defense and production. facing a big danger." Ortega said the task before the Nicara­ guan people is not only to strengthen mili­ tary defense in order to decisively defeat Washington steps up war on Nicaragua the mercenaries, but to also improve effi­ ciency, work discipline, and productivity Continued from front page The massive military build-up that the are even ready to stand up in the halls of on the job, to meet the economic effects of for contra aid. Pentagon has carried out in Honduras over Congress to unambiguously defend the the war. the last several years, the thousands of The day of the vote, before its outcome Washington persisted. elementary democratic right of a small na­ U.S. troops that carry on constant maneu­ was known, a major editorial was run on On Tuesday, Sen. David Durenberger tion to self-determination. (R-Minn.), head of the Senate Intelligence vers there, and the presence of the CIA-run the front page of Barricada, daily newspa­ Why? contra camps combine to make the border a per of the Sandinista National Liberation Committee, said he had been told that two Not because of any act of military or Front (FSLN). "The Nicaraguan people Nicaraguan battalions, totaling 1, 700 provocation waiting to happen. An inci­ economic aggression by Nicaragua against dent between Nicaraguan and Honduran­ should not be confused about what is tak­ troops, had invaded. One battalion got out Washington. Nicaragua's only "crime" is or even U.S. -troops on Honduran soil ing place in the U.S. Congress," the edito­ quickly, he said, but the other, numbering that it refuses to knuckle under to Washing­ can be manufactured anytime that Wash­ rial began. "Nothing good can come out of about 850, got trapped. _ ton . Since Washington politically disag­ However, he judiciously added, the gen­ ington deems convenient or necessary. there for the future of the Sandinista rees with the Nicaraguan government, it's In the current incident, however, there is People's Revolution, because no one in eral belief was that the battalion would be okay to use naked military force to over­ not one shred of evidence that any of the Congress is talking about peace or guaran­ -able to escape. throw it. teeing the self-determination of the That same morning, after consultation events ever occurred. The State Depart­ The present basic congressional position people." with U.S. officials, the Hondurans ment literally made up the story. was expressed on the eve of the Senate vote changed thei'r minds and said, yes, there While this cynical fraud was clearly by Sen. Robert Dole, the Republican The mere fact that the U.S. Congress is had been an invasion. timed for the eve of the Senate vote on con­ majority leader, and Sen. Robert Byrd, the discussing how to wage war on Nicaragua Meanwhile, that same day, the still tra funding, the administration's goal was Democratic minority leader. They agreed "is another element deepening the aggres­ anonymous "senior official" disclosed the not simply to win a majority for its aid that Congress had to find "a common sion," said the editorial. The congressional source of the invasion report. package. Rather it aimed to widen political ground" in resolving the contra aid dispute. discussion of the fate of another sovereign support in both parties - and more "This matter is too important for par­ nation, it explained, "is not only illegal and Source broadly, in public opinion - for its tisanship," declared Democrat Byrd. immoral, but should be rejected by all pa­ "This is all coming from Enrique Ber­ planned escalation of efforts to overthrow Following the vote against Reagan in the triotic Nicaraguans." mudez," he said. the Sandinista government. House, leaders of the Nicaraguan revolu­ The one "positive element in the aid de­ He added, "We're not ignoring other At the same time, the lurid "invasion" tion said the result was not a gain for peace. bate," the paper continued, is the fact that sources. We just don't have any." headline was sure to increase pressure on Omar Cabezas, a government official, "imperialism played some of its important Bermudez is the top commander of the members of the House of Representatives assessed it as "a consensus to destroy us ." last cards" in the course of the campaign contra forces . He had been a key figure in who are due to vote again April 15 on aid to "The Democrats and Republicans agree for contra aid. "The masks that hid the the regime of Anastasio Somoza, the the contras after having just voted it down that they should give money to kill \JS," he faces of some traitors were pulled off," bloody tyrant who was driven out by the by a slim majority. said. "Some want to kill us one way, others Barricada said, referring to the public role Nicaraguan people in 1979. The value of the crooked stunt was seen want to kill us another way. They only dif­ both Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel Obando Little wonder the "senior official" at the in the response of House Speaker Thomas fer on how and when to give the aid." y Bravo and Bishop Pablo Antonio Vega White House chose to remain anonymous. O'Neill (D-Mass.). During the House de­ played in encouraging Congress to fund the The only "proof' cited to bolster the bate on the aid bill, O'Neill had declared Upping the ante mercenaries. Bermudez story was a claim by an uniden­ that Reagan's demand for $100 million for "Now we know them well," the editorial And Reagan's proposition to up the ante tified "Western official" in Tegucigalpa, the contras was leading to a new Vietnam by assigning U.S. military advisers to the said. "Isolated, without moral authority, the capital of Honduras. He said that more in Nicaragua. contras- a proposition that seems accept­ stripped of their tunics, and dressed in the than a hundred Sandinista soldiers had Five days later, in response to the inva­ able to Congress- was noted by the Viet­ uniform of the enemies of the people, they been killed in the fighting and that their sion story from the White House, O'Neill namese ambassador to Nicaragua. He re­ have revealed their true character." bodies were "inside Honduras." cynically proclaimed: "This is an aggres­ called that such advisers were the prelude Another editorial was run in Barricada As of this writing, the hundred bodies sion by a nation into another nation, and I for the United States sending Gis to Viet­ the day after the House vote. It was titled had not been produced. am bitterly opposed to it." nam. "Differences in form over how to attack In fact, reporters were not permitted to The biggest problem Washington faces us." While several lawmakers expressed visit the scene of the reported Nicaraguan is that the Nicaraguan army is beating the Explaining that the aid debate was far skepticism about the alleged invasion, invasion. contras. These victories raise the stakes for from over, Barricada reminded its readers most, like O'Neill, were quick to join the The only evidence presented by the Hon­ condemn-Nicaragua chorus. both sides in this battle. that a year ago, after Reagan lost an initial duran government was two men they de­ As it becomes clear that there's no possi­ vote for aid, he then won congressional ap­ The tenor of the response illustrated how scribed as Sandinista soldiers, who they bility of Washington's proxy force militar­ proval of so-called humanih1.rian aid for the much ground Reagan has actually gained in claim were captured by Honduran troops his fight to commit Congress to escalated ily defeating the Sandinistas, the U.S . gov­ mercenaries. Monday, March 24, nine miles inside Hon­ The editorial said that "President Ronald aggression against Nicaragua. ernment has to consider other - more duras. However, they would not allow re­ In 1984, Congress voted to cut off all aid politically expensive ways - to wage war Reagan succeeded in imposing a consens~s porters to question the two. to the contras. Last year, it voted $27 mil­ against the Nicaraguan government. In­ in the U.S. Congress, among both Republi­ Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan government cans and Democrats, in favor of military lion in so-called humanitarian aid . cluding direct use of U.S . troops. categorically denied its troops had partici­ True enough, this year the House voted But while the U.S rulers are agreed on solutions in Central America and espe­ pated "in any invasion" of Honduras. cially against Nicaragua. by a narrow margin on March 20 against their counterrevolutionary goal in Nicara­ The Foreign Ministry said the Washingc the $100-million military aid package. But gua, they have neither an agreed-on blue­ Barricada predicted that the Senate ton reports were part of a "crude cam­ it then agreed to put the issue back on the print, nor a timetable, for achieving it. would probably pass the $100 million aid paign" to win congressional approval of agenda April 15 , and it is generally as­ They move pragmatically toward their re­ bill _and then it would go to a joint House­ Reagan's $100-million contra aid package. sumed that Reagan will pick up -extra actionary goal to the extent that the re­ Senate committee, where Reagan would The chief of staff of the Nicaraguan votes. lationship of forces permits. try to get a compromise "in the style of the army, Joaquin Cuadra, said there had been Leaders of the Democrats and Republi­ Every blow Nicaragua's workers and $27 million in 'humanitarian aid."' recent fighting with the contras all along cans agree that a majority in both parties peasants deal to the contras strengthens the "An agreement of this kind," the edito­ the border and that artillery shells may now favor some form of military aid to the revolution and makes the prospects for a rial continued, "would be an official stance have fallen on Honduran territory. But he, contras. That earlier difference in U.S. rul­ direct military intervention by U.S. troops of approval for the declaration of war made too, said no Nicaraguan troops had crossed ing circles has been resolved. less appetizing for the U.S . rulers. by Reagan and would open the way for a the border. The remaining differences, and they do The opposition of U.S . working people major escalation of the war." "This is nothing new," he added. "As exist, are over how much military aid, how to this brutal war plays a central role in Based on this, the editorial concluded, long as there are contras there, this kind of fast it should be spent, what voice Con­ shaping what happens. Effectively "the Nicaraguan people must be more vig­ thing, border conflicts, are going to con­ gress will have in the program, and other mobilized and militantly expressed, such ilant than ever." tinue." tactical questions. antiwar sentiment can put pressure on the On March 22, local leaders of the San­ Previously, Nicaraguan officials have This shift on military aid registers the White House and Congress and help buy dinista Defense Committees (CDSs) held a explained· that their forces have chased the fact that both capitalist parties stand united time for the Nicaraguan people to deal de­ national meeting in Managua with Presi­ mercenary invaders back across the border. in their resolve to break the S~ndinista gov­ cisive blows to the contras. A big, national dent Ortega and ·other government leaders. They made the obvious point that such ernment. emergency demonstration to demand The CDSs are the block-by-block commit­ skirmishes are unavoidable as long as the Certainly no one in Congress is a parti­ "U.S. hands off Nicaragua" is urgently tees that organize neighborhood defense contras are based in Honduras. san of the Nicaraguan revolution. But none needed. It can make a difference.

10 The Militant April 4, 1986 Miami mayor leads attack on ·antiwar protest

BY STU SINGER Solidarity Association; and · Andres MIAMI - A demonstration of about Gomez. 250 people in downtown Miami March 22 The open participation of Andres Gomez protesting the U.S. war against Nicaragua in .the rally was especially important. He is was attacked by a mob of 1,500. The mob the best-known Cuban American in Miami was led by Miami's mayor, Xavier Suarez. favoring normalized relations with Cuba. The pro-contra mob hurled eggs, rocks, He and others sharing his views have had a sticks, and other objects. Police refused to difficult time functioning openly here for stop those throwing rocks. The cops did some time because of terrorist threats keep the crazed mob, who were waving against them. hangmen nooses and shouting death Gomez explained to the antiwar protes­ threats, from storming the antiwar demon­ ters that the mob of right-wingers attacking stration. them does not represent the views of most The antiwar demonstrators had to leave Cubans in Miami. He said they try to pre­ the area in police buses that went through a vent the rest of the Cuban community from barrage of rocks. hearing the truth. Many protesters were hit with the The March 23 Miami Herald quoted thrown objects but no one was seriously in­ Mayor Suarez as regretting that antiwar jured. Demonstration monitors used protesters have the right to hold demonstra­ cardboard placards to bat away the rocks. tions. Antiwar organizers received a permit for City Commissioner Rosario Kennedy, an hour rally a month ago. On March 20 the first Cuban woman on the commission, the police issued another permit to the ter­ said she regretted that the egg and rock rorist gang ALPHA 66 for a prowar rally at throwers didn't have better aim. the same time, separated only by three On Monday, March 24, a delegation of lanes of traffic from the site of the antiwar antiwar activists, including Gomez, went rally. to City Hall to meet with the mayor to pro­ Demonstration in Washington, D.C., April 20, 1985, against aid to contras. In last Spanish-language radio stations mobi­ test the mob attack and demand that their few weeks, there were protests against contra aid in many cities. lized the mob. Anti-Nicaragua politicians right to protest be protected. joined in. In addition to Mayor Suarez, At City Hall, a fanatic Marietta Sandino, nist Charles Whited denounced the action Peace Coalition, Box 931, Miami, Florida they included City Commissioner Rosario editor of the extreme right-wing paper La in his March 25 column, and channel 10 33133. Kennedy and State Senator Roberta Fox. Verdad, slashed Gomez's face. Again TV editorialized against the city's action. Local activists are now discussing plans Miami's police chief, Clarence Dickson, police officials took no action, but Gomez Further protests are needed. Letters for another protest against the U.S. war in was on the scene throughout the rally and is planning legal action against Sandino. should be addressed to Miami Mayor Central America. Initial plans include ef­ did not order police to stop the egg and Some protests against the role of city and Xavier Suarez, City Hall, 3500 Pan Amer­ forts to get nationally known speakers and rock throwing. police officials in setting up the March 22 ican Drive, Miami, Florida. Copies of pro­ to urge participation of oppOnents of the The antiwar demonstration was a suc­ attack have begun. Miami Herald colum- tests should be sent to the South Florida . war from other cities. cess inasmuch as it was not broken up. Participants refused to leave until the end of the program in spite of the dangerous at­ tack. Local actions protest contra aid Three years ago, an antiwar demonstra­ tion in the same spot was broken up when a right-wing mob attacked and the police no aid to the contras, held impromptu skits gua? Stop contra aid," and "Portland says: stood by taking no action. Charleston and rallies denouncing the government aid no intervention." The presence of two politicians at the package. Millie Thayer from the Portland Central BY MARSHA LOU PARKER This action was followed by another March 22 demonstration, State Senator CHARLESTON, W. Va.- Fifty pickets America Solidarity Committee explained March 22 in front of City Hall. A student that U.S. aid is used for the destruction of Jack Gordon and State Representative protesting aid to Nicaraguan contras rallied conference on Central America was held at schools and clinics, and the killing of and Michael Friedman, was important. outside the Town Mall here and were the University of Pennsylvania that same kidnapping of peasants. Most speakers focused on opposition to joined by 10 students from George Wash­ day. Other speakers included Mary Medved, U.S. war against Nicaragua and the ques­ ington High School . The students decided Catholic Peace Ministries; Richard Brown, tion of free speech in Miami. to spend their St. Patrick's Day lunch hour Rainbow Coalition; Jaime Partridge, Port­ The speakers included Roulx Jean-Bart sending an antiwar message to President land Labor Committee on Central America of the Haitian Refugee Center; Patricia Ire­ Reagan. Salt Lake City land of the National Organization for and the Caribbean; Bill Resnick, Portland Their picket signs urged that the money State University; and Dave Weyeneth from Women; Ray Fauntroy of the Southern proposed for contra aid be instead spent-by BY SCOTT BREEN Christian Leadership Conference; Rev. the carpenters union. Congress to feed nations with grain shor­ SALT LAKE CITY-U.S. war against . The demonstration ended with a march John Powers, a local minister; Brenda tages and to fund U.S. debt-wracked fam­ Nicaragua is "unjust, immoral, and illegal. Meyerson of the South Florida Peace Coa­ in downtown Portland led by 40 people ily farms. Students said the money should The contras are not the moral equivalent of who had been to Nicaragua. lition; Kathy Hersh of the American also be offered to Nicaragua to finance your Founding Fathers. They are cut­ Friends Service Committee; Jack Lieber­ education, health, and other social pro­ throats." This is the message that Francisco man of the Latin American and Caribbean grams there. Campbell, from the Nicaraguan embassy Having recently returned from Nicara­ in Washington, D.C., brought to Toledo gua, I shared my impressions with the stu­ thousands of-people during his visit to Utah BY GARY BOYERS dents about the gains Nicaragua has made March 11-12. TOLEDO, Ohio- One hundred people Nicaragua's unions under the Sandinista government. I told He and a representative from the State came out for an emergency picket line here them of the advances made in literacy, plan celebration of Department were invited by the Associated March 14 to oppose any aid to the contras. health, housing, and democratic rights for May Day anniversary Students of Brigham Young University to a The action was held at the Federal Build­ workers and peasants. symposium on Central America. ing. Car horns honked in support of the pro­ Although the representative from the Following the picket, there was a recep­ test. Only one passing car, covered over MANAGUA, Nicaragua One State Department refused to appear on the tion and program at a nearby church. Four hundred fifty Nicaraguan local union lead­ with placards bearing anticommunist slo­ same platform with Campbell, 150 stu­ Toledo-area residents who have visited gans, slowed to challenge the pickets. "You ers met here March 19 to discuss plans for dents and faculty members turned out. Nicaragua discussed their experiences have never been there!" charged its passen­ a major celebration of May Day in Nicara­ The State Department spokeswoman there. All opposed any aid to the contras. gua around the themes of solidarity with ger. met separately with a group of 30 and left. The demonstration was initiated by the the Haymarket martyrs and opposition to Her Spanish accent suggested that she The following evening a town meeting Toledo Area Committee on Central Amer­ the U.S. mercenary war. The celebration had been there, and without wasting a sec­ of 150 people was held in the Salt Lake ica and was endorsed by a number of has been initiated by the Sandinista Work­ ond, the high schoolers replied in unison: City Council Chambers. It was organized groups, including the Farm Labor Organiz­ ers Federation (CST), the 'country's largest "Oh, yeah? She has!" pointing to me. The by the Community Forum .on Central ing Committee and the Interfaith Justice union federation. car went speeding off. America and was supported by the Central and Peace Center. Several students voiced an interest in Following the meeting, Damaso Vargas, America Solidarity Coalition. Leading up to the picket there had been a regional secretary of the CST, gave a brief learning more about Nicaragua, and others In his opening remarks, Campbell week-long vigil in front of the Federal statement to the Militant, appealing to U.S. wanted to know how they could go there. explained that the U.S. government has re­ Building to protest contra aid. Several unionists to help defeat the bill for military Participants on the picket included Bar­ jected every peace proposal put forward by thousand fact sheets on Nicaragua and the aid to the mercenaries currently before the bara Ferrara and Patricia Hussey, two nuns the Nicaraguan government. contra war were distributed to passersby. U.S. Congress. currently under threat of excommunication A lively open microphone question-and­ The origins of May Day, he told theMil­ from the Catholic church because they answer period took place. itant, "are in the struggle of the workers of signed a proabortion rights advertisement. Before the town meeting, Campbell was Chicago, New York, and Detroit against interviewed by all three local television sta­ Indianapolis the intensive workday imposed on them by tions and by two radio stations. He met the governing class of the United States." with the editorial boards of the two Salt INDIANAPOLIS- During an evening This year, on the 1OOth anniversary of May Philadelphia Lake City daily newspapers and both pa­ rush-hour downpour more than 80 people Day, he explained, "we are victims of ag­ pers printed articles the next day . marched to demand an end to U.S. aid to gression on the part of the government of BY BOB STANTON the mercenary contras. the United States. We are mobilizing PHILADELPHIA - As the Reagan ad­ The March 18 march was called by the against this war and fighting for peace. In ministration bombards the public with Portland Indianapolis Pledge of Resistance. our opinion, U.S. workers have the duty to daily lies about Nicaragua, opposition to Mike Mooney, an organizer for the struggle so that the aid to the counterrevo­ U.S. aid to the contras is growing and BY MARKlE WILSON Pledge, said the protest was called in "sol­ lution that Congress is discussing is not ap­ spreading. Philadelphia is no exception to PORTLAND, Ore. -In a rally called idarity with the people of Nicaragua, espe­ proved. this, with an unprecedented schedule of on one week's notice, 350 people demon­ cially those that lost family and friends to "We need international solidarity right educational and protest activities around strated their opposition to aid for contras the ,murderous band of mercenary thugs." now," he continued, urging U.S. unionists contra aid. and against the lies of the Reagan adminis­ Other speakers pointed to the gains of to help "by carrying out marches and sig­ Two weeks of protest began March 15 tration about Nicaragua. the Nicaraguan people since the overthrow nificant, combative actions to achieve with a church service, march, and rally of Signs at the rally included: "Stop the of the Somoza regime in 1979, and urged peace in Central America and to aid Nica­ more than 400 people called by the Pledge murder, stop the lies, no contra aid," people to find out about Nicaragua by raguan working people." of Resistance. The marchers, demanding "Want to improve human rights in Nicara- going there.

April4, 1986 The Militant 11 Contras plan attack on Nicaragua along Rio Coco communities of Miskito Indians _ BY CINDY JAQUITH munities on the Rio Coco but are being MANAGUA, Nicaragua- Mercenary blocked by the mercenaries, who are also troops, organized and backed up logisti­ trying to prevent Miskitos in Nicaragua cally by the U.S. government, are trying to from getting back to the river. mount a major attack on Nicaragua's north­ Salvador Perez, delegate of the Ministry em Atlantic Coast region. of the Interior to northern Zelaya, gave re­ At a news conference here March 19, porters details of the dangerous military Sandinista leaders warned that the counter­ situation along the Rfo Coco. He said that revolutionary forces say they will invade in KISAN had been forcibly recruiting Mis­ Militant/Jane April along the Rfo Coco, the river on the kito youths from Rfo Coco communities Sandinista government has honored reqnest of Miskito Indians to return to com­ Honduran border where thousands of Mis­ and taking them to bases in Honduras for munities along Rio Coco on Honduran border. Thousands have recently moved kito Indians have recently returned to their military training. The bases are heavily back. Contras now say they will invade Nicaragua along Rio Coco in April. community. guarded to keep the youths from leaving. In 1982 when Washington's mercenary KISAN forces have entered Miskito vil­ 50 or more mercenaries are also grouped in war against Nicaragua reached major prop­ who had just accepted amnesty, explained lages on the Nicaraguan side of the river, villages on the Honduran side of the river. ortions along the Rfo Coco, the Nicaraguan calling together the population to tell them to reporters that he had spent four years in government evacuated all the Miskitos liv­ an "insurrection" is coming. The Hondo­ The Nicaraguan authorities were warned contra units and was a KISAN intelligence ing there, moving them to settlements in ran-based counterrevolutionary radio sta­ of the KISAN buildup by Miskitos in the chief when he quit. Speaking in Miskito, the interior of the country. Last summer, as tions "Miskt!t'' and "15th of September" Rfo Coco community. They have reported with translation to Spanish, he said he had part of the development of a proposal to are announcing that KISAN troops will in­ that the mercenaries are stealing their come to the conclusion that the mercenary grant regional government autonomy to the vade sometime in April and are urging medicine and food and sexually abusing groups "are not defending the rights of peoples of the Atlantic Coast, the Sandinis­ Miskitos to cross over into Honduras. women. Miskitos." He emphasized his distrust of tas honored the demand of Miskitos to go the FDN. An airstrip is being built - with the help back to their river communities. Social and economic conditions in the Wilson told reporters that KISAN has of U.S. army engineers -on Honduran Rio Coco communities are quite difficult. At the news conference here, Comman­ about 800 men under arms, 500 of whom soil directly across from the Miskito com­ When the Nicaraguan government an­ der Juan Jose Gonzalez, coordinator of the are recent recruits. Veteran members of munity of San Carlos, Perez said. Antiair­ nounced last summer that Miskitos would KISAN are opposed to the CIA plan to in­ Sandinista National Liberation Front craft guns have been installed across from (FSLN) in northern Zelaya Province, told be able to return to the river, many vade, while some younger Miskitos who the Nicaraguan border post at Leimus. thousands did so as rapidly as they could. reporters that the current situation along the have not gone through the experience of There is an increased presence of merce­ Rfo Coco is very "complex." There is an Housing, food, and medical supplies are in being a contra for Washington are more nary personnel from the United States and _extreme shortage and mercenary attacks extensive military buildup by mercenary confused politically. from reactionary Latin American govern­ forces on the Honduran side of the river, have been aimed at blocking the transport Wilson said that many Miskitos in refu­ ments who have taken up positions in the of such goods. The mercenaries have also combined with an intense international po­ gee camps in Honduras want to return to contra camps in Honduras, Perez said. been given large amounts of U.S. dollars to litical campaign by so-called Indian leaders Nicaragua, but fear death at the hands of Between 300 and 500 KISAN forces are spread in these communities to try to who are calling on Miskitos "to combat the mercenaries if they try to escape. Refu­ in place along the river and are being sup­ exacerbate the problem of lack of supplies Sandinista totalitarianism." U.S. troops are gees urged him to give this press confer­ plied by helicopters. Most are in the area of and to foment discontent. also in the Honduran region bordering the ence, Wilson said, so that their plight the community of Kum. Concentrations of river, participating in military maneuvers Jimmy Wilson, the ex-KISAN leader would be known. known as "Cabanas '86." The mercenaries involved in the current CIA-orchestrated plan are those members of the Miskito contra group KISAN , who Massive U.S. war fleet attacks .Libya continue to function under the command of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), Continued from front page . The "strikes against the Libyan missile involvement in any terrorist action, U.S. the largest of the U.S.-sponsored merce­ site and patrol boats were elaborately officials - restrained only by the limits of nary groups, based in Honduras. KISAN rect consequences of the repeated provoca­ tive military exercises carried out by the planned weeks ago, according to Pentagon imagination - spin out one tale after was formed last summer in a U.S. attempt sources,". the Washington Post reported, another of Libyan plots to assassinate to regroup the area's Miskito contra units Reagan administration in the area." The gathering of this massive Pentagon "even to the point of briefing pilots on the Reagan, U.S. diplomats, and others. and weld them into a combat force. Wash­ best way to knock out the Surt [also known ington took this step after the Sandinistas war machine off Libya's shores was a de­ But Washington's role in backing a cam­ liberate provocation. U.S . officials claim as Sidra] complex." paign of assassination, sabotage, and vio­ successfully signed cease-fire agreements Then began the series of large-scale with the majority of Miskito contra groups that Libya was attacked after Libyans fired lence against Libya has been completely missiles - all of which are said to have naval and air maneuvers off Libya's coast, documented. on the Atlantic Coast. which included systematic interference Two KISAN leaders have recently bro­ missed their mark- at the approaching ar­ Libya's government and people have mada. (Presumably they should have sat with the right of Libyan planes to use the been the targets of an endless stream of ken with the CIA and signed mutual de­ airspace over the gulf. fense pacts with the FSLN. At the news with their arms folded as the giant war threats from Washington. When Qaddafi conference here, another KISAN leader party sailed up to their shores.) Other at­ In a related provocation, on March 18 or other Libyans talk about fighting back two U.S. warships moved into Soviet terri­ spoke. He had just decided to accept am­ tacks were then launched on the pretext of against U.S. attacks, U.S. officials and the torial waters in what Pentagon officials nesty and returned to Nicaragua eight days the Libyans' alleged "hostile intentions." capitalist media report this as a "threat." earlier. But the only h

12 The Militant A.pril4, 1986 Rightists Wiif iri DI. Democratic primary

BY GEORGE KAPLAN Democratic primary sought to tum. this They forged ties with the cops, offering dustry. This program boils down to little Two supporters of the fascistic and ul­ frustration in a reactionary direction ~ They to spy on progressive groups for them. more than lower interest rates, tax breaks traracist National Democratic Policy Com­ used the fear being whipped up around They also collaborated with the Ku Klux and export credits for business, a massive mittee (NDPC), led by Lyndon LaRouche, AIDS to make scapegoats of gay people Klan and similar groups. They sought sup­ military buildup, and the building of more won Democratic nominations for statewide and to attack democratic rights. They de­ port from big business against the unions. life-threatening nuclear power plants. office in the Illinois primary election manded compulsory testing of everyone LaRouche himself established a multimil­ They cover up the fact that the industrial March 18. for the AIDS virus and placing in quaran- lion dollar network of businesses. capitalists are part of the ruling capitalist NDPC candidates Mark Fairchild and In 1976 LaRouche ran for president as class that is stepping up the exploitation of Janice Hart were nominated for lieutenant the candidate of the "U.S. Labor Party ." In workers and farmers today. Instead, they governor and secretary of state respec­ 1980 his U.S. Labor Party changed its portray the industrial capitalists as in a tively. They outpolled the candidates name to National Democratic Policy Com­ struggle with evil banking capitalists. whom Adlai Stevenson III, the regular mittee and LaRouche ran for president in This is classical fascist demagogy. Far Democrat who won the party's nomination the 1980 and 1984 Democratic Party from being in sharp conflict, financial and for governor, had supported to be his run­ primaries. In 1984 he waged an indepen­ industrial capital are completely inter­ ning mates . dent campaign after the primaries. twined in all imperialist countries, includ­ Although nominated separately, the can­ LaRouche and his outfit denounce strug­ ing the United States. The same ruling didates for governor and lieutenant gover­ gles by Blacks, women, and others for capitalist families dominate both. nor in Illinois must be voted on as a slate in equality . Iri New Solidarity, their newspa­ To justify demanding that workers and November. per, they have labeled Black and Puerto farmers support their capitalist exploiters, Stevenson has threatened to run . on a Rican activists as "jungle bunnies," "can­ LaRouche attributes all the evils of third ticket if the LaRouche supporters are nibals," "faggots," and "rapists." capitalist rule to scapegoats. Jews figure not removed from the Democratic slate. Women who fight for the basic human prominently in this role in New Solidarity "They are adherents of an extremist philos­ right to have an abortion are denounced as and other LaRouche publications. ophy, steeped in violence and hate ," he "baby killers." The drug trade is blamed on "an interna­ said. "Either they get off the ticket or I do." They have denounced many strikes and tional Zionist conspiracy." "Jewish bank­ The outcome caused alarm in the Demo­ unions. On occasion, however, they have ers" are portrayed as a subhuman species. cratic Party nationally. The Democratic demagogically claimed to support a strike, LaRouche demands "the immediate elimi­ National Committee asked the 50 state Supporters of ultrareactionary, racist as in the case of the 1984 strike against Sun nation of the Nazi-Jewish lobby." This is party headquarters to warn voters against organization headed by Lyndon Oil Co. by Oil, Chemical and Atomic part of the racist ideology that LaRouche candidates supported by the National Dem­ LaRouche won Illinois Democratic Workers Local 7-912 in Toledo. also directs against Blacks, Puerto Ricans, ocratic Policy Committee, which claims to Party nominations for lieutenant gover~ At that time, they sought to disrupt the and others. be fielding 800 candidates in this year's nor and secretary of state. strike through such deceptive tactics as LaRouche and the National Democratic· primaries. calling their offices the "strike-support Policy Committee use this racist, anti­ headquarters." democratic demagogy to head off and dis­ Factional conflict tine all those whose test results indicate "He is a racist, sexist, and a proponent rupt united struggles by workers, farmers , Factional conflict in the Democratic they might be carriers. of discrimination on the basis of religion," and other oppressed people against the rul­ Party played a role in the NDPC candi­ They called for the formation of vig­ said Ron Rinna, president of OCA W Local ing capitalist class. dates' election. One top Illinois Democrat ilante groups to hunt down alleged drug 7-912, referring to LaRouche. "He is The NDPC claims to present an alterna­ blamed Stevenson, claiming that he alien­ pushers. dangerous and is not to be taken as a polit­ tive to the mainstream candidates of the ated sections of the party machine by push­ And they proposed an even more mas­ ical looney." Democratic and Republican parties. In fact ing aside their choices for the ticket. sive military buildup against the Soviet LaRouche and the NDPC call for indus­ they propose radically extending the racist, Many voters were reportedly unaware of Union . trial capitalists, workers, ~md farmers to sexist, antilabor, antidemocratic, and pro­ who Fairchild and Hart were . "I voted for Since the early 1970s, LaRouche and his unite within the Democratic Party on his war policies of the big capitalist parties. them because they had smooth-sounding followers have carried out reactionary at­ proposals to solve the problems of U.S. The NDPC is a deadly enemy of the work­ names," one said . tacks on the labor movement, the Black capitalism and accelerate the growth of in- ers and farmers . Some Black voters said they voted community, and others fighting for social against Aurelia Pucinski, the regul&r candi­ progress. . date for secretary of state, because of her In 1973 they launched "Operation Mop­ support to the machine Democrats in the Up," which was a series of violent attacks Chicago City Council who have opposed on members and offices of the Communist N. Y. gay rights victory Mayor Harold Washington. Party, Socialist Workers Party, and several But the vote also reflected frustration Black organizations. Continued from back page ments to the measure. One, he said; would with the choices being provided by the Forged ties with cops . can impose penalties on offenders. state that the bill does not require schools capitalist two-party system. "This is not so The bill includes exceptions for com­ to teach the nature of homosexuality. The much support for the LaRouche candidates The LaRouche group maintains armed panies with fewer than four employees, for second would spell out that the bill does that is being reflected but the mood of units at its Virginia headquarters, sup­ owner-occupied dwellings of one or two not require, or permit, affirmative action working-class people who are tired of the posedly to protect its leader from alleged families , and for religious organizations goals in the hiring of homosexuals. way the two political parties handled their assassination plots by "narcotics gangsters, that deem it their spiritual right to discrimi­ problems," said polltaker J. Michael Mc­ liberals, Zionists, agents of Moscow," and Since the bill already states that it does nate against homosexuals. not "authorize or require" affirmative ac­ Keon. others, according to the October 3 New Moreover, opponents of discrimination The LaRouche candidates in the Illinois York Times . tion, the sole purpose of this amendment is against homosexuals also recognized that to add the word, "permit." In other words, the opposition has not ended with passage if the amendment is adopted, it would of the statute. The fight is not over. make affirmative action illegal. After the vote, the Catholic Archdiocese Filipino people press forward of New York issued a rancorous statement Koch said the purpose of his amend­ branding it as "contrary to the public inter­ ments is to calm the continuing opposition Continued from Page 6 The March 19 Manila Times reported a est and detrimental to our society." to the bill. Under these blows, the military wing of press conference by a leader of the under­ The church statement vowed, "We will The mayor is not that naive. Those who the government coalition - Defense ground Communist Party of the Philippines seek legal counsel to determine what steps remain determined to kill the bill are not Minister Juan Emile and Chief of Staff (CPP), which leads the NPA. The CPP may be taken to reverse this action." vic~ims of misunderstanding. They are Gen . Fidei" Ramos- have been expressing leader said that before cease-fire talks And City Councilman Noach Dear, a simply implacable enemies of lesbian and disgruntlement with Aquino's policy of na­ could be held with the government, certain Brooklyn Democrat who led the council gay rights, who recognize that, modest tional reconciliation with the guerrilla conditions would have to be met. The opposition, vowed, "We are going to go to though it is, the bill advances those rights. movement. CPP's Central Committee is demanding the very end to see that this bill is de­ Asserted attempts to placate them simply "We respect the call of our presid~nt for the arrest of the provincial warlords and the feated." give them added ammunition. unity and reconciliation, and we will sup­ disbanding of their armies, the immediate Opponents of homosexual rights may be The continuing attacks on the measure port it to the fullest extent," Emile said. pullout of combat troops from the coun­ given a handle by Mayor Koch to try to gut underline the reality that the fight for les­ "On the other hand, we cannot allow inno­ tryside, the release of all political prison­ the new law . bian and gay rights is far from over. But cent civilians and our soldiers to be butch­ ers, and a purge of the military ranks , the The day after its passage, Koch an­ with this victory, partisans of those rights ered by dissident elements without having newspaper reported. nounced that he would seek two amend- are in a stronger position to press forward. them account for it ," he added. ' Premature baby' Human rights violations continue This same question was addressed by But the threat to peace in the countryside Father Edicio de Ia Torre, a recently re­ Rally celebrates gay rights win does not lie with the NPA guerrillas but leased political detainee and leader of the with the continuing militarization of the CPP-aligned National Democratic Front, at BY ELLEN HAYWOOD issue. And the one thing we can learn from countryside. As yet the "people power" a "Dialogue With the Left" open forum in NEW YORK -At the Sheridan Square the civil rights movement is that you _have struggle in Manila has done little to ease Manila March 20. He described the street rally celebrating passage of the les­ to continually fight for your rights. Blacks the oppression of the peasant masses . The "people power" revolution as a "premature bian and gay rights bill, I talked with some won some victories, but now they're trying chairman of the newly appointed Presiden­ baby," which came sooner than exepcted of the participants. to cut back OJl affirmative action quotas. So tial Commission on Human Rights, Jose and was smaller than they had hoped for, Troy, a young store clerk, said, "This is you have to keep up the pressure. We need Diokno, has admitted that although Marcos but which, with a lot of care from the popu­ the first rally I've been to. I'm from movement, more people in the streets." fled the country, the human rights viola­ lar organizations, .could grow to full matur­ Phoenix, and we've never had anything A young medical technician student: tions continue. ity . like this. Discrimination has been around "This is great. The bill will help gay people Some military commanders and local The February 22-25 "snap revolution" for so long . But the law, and this rally, are do more , not just sit back and accept warlords have not halted the abuses that. occurred only in Manila, de Ia Torre stated. good. It makes me feel stronger." things. They might apply for a job they , helped buttress Marcos' regime, he added. There was no "snap revolution" anywhere I talked to two Black college students, wouldn't have before. But the fight is far In addition, hundreds of political de­ else. But this "revolution" could be ex­ Pamela and Sheryl. Pamela said, "To tell from over." tainees remain in the custody of the mili­ tended across the country. This would re­ you the truth ,Tm very surprised. It's a step A Black civil service worker: "It's about tary in the provinces, in violation of Presi­ quire that the peasants be granted the right I didn't know we could take. Discrimina­ time. A lot of hard struggle by lesbians, dent Aquino's .amnesty. Furthermore, to establish their own people's power with­ tion against gays is so condoned by all the gays, and friends have gone. into this. We peasant activists who formerly would have out harassment from the military, he said. establishments around us. And with AIDS have to make sure it's not just another been arrested as :'NPA suspects," are in­ Only as the right "'to organize in the coun­ and all the hysteria around it, I thought we piece of paper." stead being arrested by the police on bogus tryside is won will the need for armed were pushed back by what people believe criminal charges to avoid having to release struggle diminish and the basis for national about us ." Ellen Haywood is 'national secretary of the them under the terms of the amnesty. reconciliation be achieved. Sheryl added, "This· is a civil rights Young Socialist Alliance.

13 .TheMDlW.t' ,. ··- - · :_ Profit driVe, arms buildup behind shuttle deaths BY FRED FELDMAN not functioning properly. Instead of mov­ It's a familiar story to millions of work­ ing to correct the problem, NASA offi­ ers in coal mining, meatpacking, textile, cially waived its performance standards for aerospace, and other industries. the 0-rings in March 1983. To speed up production and cut costs, The structure of the shuttle, including safety considerations are set aside. Infor­ the boosters, was modified that year in mation about safety problems is deliber­ ways that the government and the corpora­ ately kept from the potential victims. tion knew would increase the pressure on Warnings are ignored or answered with in­ the seals and the likelihood of failure. The timidation. Injuries and deaths result. aim was to carry larger payloads at lower That is how seven astronauts were cost. Section of space shuttle Challenger, which exploded January 28. Evidence shows launched to a fiery death in the Challenger NASA and Morton Thiokol Corp. knew seals on booster rockets were likely to mal­ space shuttle January 28. Expert's memo function. Coal mine operators and other bosses Last July 31, Roger Boisjoly- Morton often try to pass off deaths caused by their Thiokol's main expert on the seals - hats" at Morton Thiokol, profit is job works' film of the launch was illegally im­ profit drive as "just part of the job" or "acts warned his bosses in a memorandum that number one. Corporation executives were pounded. of God." Similarly, the U.S. rulers and the flaws could result in a "catastrophe of the in the midst of seeking renewal of their 15- As it became obvious that NASA's "in­ capitalist media initially portrayed the as­ year, billion dollar contract to build shuttle vestigation" would have no credibility, tronauts' deaths as the overhead of prog­ highest order, loss ofhwnan life." Another engineer also warned in August that the boosters for NASA. And NASA officials President Reagan appointed the "indepen­ ress. had hinted they might consider bids from dent" commission headed by William Ro­ "However heartbreaking, the truth shuttle must "stop flying." "The customer be damned," was. the company's attitude, other corporations. gers. Rogers was secretary of state under seemed to be that death is the price of dis­ Richard Nixon. covery," intoned the February 10 News­ according to Boisjoly. So the launch occurred with the temper­ NASA went ahead with shuttle flights­ The commission has resisted pressure to week. ature at 38 degrees Fahrenheit, although scheduling a record 15 for 1986. examine whether NASA was under White Whatever risks are inherent in space the seals had never been tested at a temper­ The night before the fatal launch, en­ House pressure to launch January 28, the travel at present, the deaths of these as­ ature below 47 degrees. gineers for Morton Thiokol tried to have it date for Reagan's state of the union address tronauts were the price of profit and the called off. They feared that subfreezing until the explosion caused a postponem~nt. arms buildup. Astronauts kept in dark temperatures would damage !he seals. NASA and Morton Thiokol kept all this "Who in the White House was in contact Truth begins to surface Allan McDonald, director of the com­ information from the astronauts and from with Canaveral?" asked Senator Ernest pany's booster project (who has since re­ the public. Instead, we were fed hype Hollings. The evidence shows that the National "How were they in contact?" Rumors of signed), joined the engineers in opposing a about NASA's efficiency and dedication to Aeronautics and Space Administration and White House pressure on NASA to brook launch if the temperature was below 53 de­ · safet~ . · the Morton Thiokol Corp., which man­ no delay "were all over Washington," Hol­ grees Fahrenheit. That was the lowest tem­ Many of the remaining astronauts are ufactured the booster rockets fqr NASA, lings said. perature at which a shuttle had been outraged about the indifference to safety knew that the rubber 0-ring seals were Mark Weinberg, a spokesman for the likely to malfunction, especially in cold launched. The rings were seriously dam­ shown by NASA and its contractors. aged in that January 1985 flight. supposedly independent commission who weather. The rubber rings were used to seal "There is on~y one driving reason that such According to McDonald, a top NASA is on leave from his job in the White House the joints between the segments of the a potentially dangerous system would e\ter official said he was "appalled" at the rec­ be allowed to fly - launch schedule pres­ press office, denounced this as "the most booster rockets and prevent the escape of vici6us.rumor in the free world." ommendation not to launch. "You don't do sure," said John Young. Young is chief of hot gases and flames. A Louis Harris poll found that 53 per­ that the night before a launch" summed up NASA's astronaut office. He said the prob­ cent of those responding expect "less than a As one shuttle engineer told National the attitude of another. lems related to the seals were only one in full and frank report." Public Radio, "We all knew if the seals Thiokol top executives then reversed the an "awesome" list of safety problems. failed , the shuttle would blow up." engineers. Robert Lund, vice-president in Henry Hartsfield said he was "very upset" It is likely that the commission's report will seek support for more dollars for the The National Aeronautics and Space charge of engineering, reversed his. stand that the agency had not told astronauts space program, in the. rw~ .Qf liafety~ Administration conceded March 21 that the and approved the launch after he'\WlS told about. the diroilic problems . with the o~ The government i~ quite eager to get the joint on one of the booster rockets was the by another top executive, "Take off your rings . And Sally Ride, an astronaut ap­ space program back off the ground. Fully probable cause of the explosion. engineer hat and put on your management pointed to the presidential commission in­ 34 percent of shuttle payloads, that were As early as 1982, NASA and Morton hat." vestigating the explosion, said she was scheduled through 1994 are military. Thiokol knew that the 0-ring seals were For the men who wear the "management "not ready to fly again" under present cir­ The shuttle and other space programs cumstances. demonstrated advances in science and Do you know someone who reads Spanish? Cover-up set in motion technology that could be useful to human­ ity. But in the hands of the tiny group of The U.S. government's first response to the explosion was to set the well-oiled billionaire families that dominate this country, these scientific achievements ·are wheels of cover-up in motion. An intensive 'PM': protest aid to contras! used to maximize profit and increase their campaign was waged to preserve popular capacity to wage devastating wars against support for the space program. The time for mass demonstra­ working people and oppressed nations. tions against contra aid is now. Even schoolchildren were urged to The safety of humanity, like the safety The Reagan administration, in pledge allegiance to the idea that space of the shuttle astronauts, is not a priority its attempt to convince Congress flights must continue. for them. The massive funds spent on the to approve another $100 million. NASA announced it would investigate military-oriented space programs should be for the contras, has launched an the disaster. A near-total news blackout spent to improve conditions for human be­ avalanche of lies against the was imposed. News agencies' and net- ings on earth. popular government of Nicara­ gua. At the same time, Washington continues to escalate its military Broad forces.join to fight war against Central America. Thousands of U.S. troops have been carrying out maneuvers in Michigan gov't election law Honduras, a country that borders BY MARK LEWIS part of her campaign. "We are witnessing on Nicaragua and El Salvador. iBasta de Huelguistas de Ia They are practicing air and land fondos de EU Hormel protestm DETROIT - The Michigan State Leg­ another attempt by the Democrats and Re­ attacks. They're also constructing para los contras! por detendones islature has moved to restrict ballot access publicans to make socialists and all other another airfield and other kinds of for independents and "minor" and new po­ alternatives to the two capitalist parties less military installations. litical parties. A bill passed by the House than fully legitimate - without the same The current issue of Perspectiva working people and the oppressed and now before the Senate (HR 5089) rights to present their views to the public. would dramatically increase the number of M undial examines the congres­ in the U .S. and around the world. In the past 40 years that the Socialist Work­ signatures required for all parties, except sional contra aid debate, answers · jSuscribete ahora! ers Party has been on the Michigan ballot,· the Democrats and Republicans, to appear we have been defenders of the rights of some of the main lies against Nic­ on the ballot. Blacks, women, farmers, unionists, and all aragua, and calls for antiwar pro­ Subscriptipns: $16 for one year; $8 for six months; Intro­ The current Michigan requirement of working people against the efforts of the tests. nearly 20,000 signatures is already unde­ Democrats and Republicans to take away Included in this issue is a report ductory offer, $3.00 for three months. mocratically restrictive. The bill proposes our hard-won rights." from Nicaragua on U .S. attempts to increase that figure to 30,000. The organizations plan an emergency to sabotage a recent cease-fire be­ A broad array of forces has joined to­ telegram. campaign, media engagements, D Begin my sub with current tween Miskito Indian leaders and gether to fight this increase and to press for and delegation visits to the Senate Commit­ the Nicaraguan government, re­ issue. a decrease in signature requirements. The tee on Administration and Rules, which is flecting growing Miskito rejection Michigan ACLU has taken the lead in Name ------­ now discussing the bill. of the contra war. bringing together the NAACP Voter Edu­ In a March II letter from ACLU Execu­ Address ------cation Project, the Urban League, the De­ tive Director Howard Simon, urgent action Perspectiva M undial is the City/State/Zip ______troit National Organization for Women, is requested from unions and Black, Spanish-language socialist maga­ the Socialist Workers Party, and the Com­ women's, civil libertarian, and community zine that every two weeks brings Clip and mail to PM, 408 West St., munist Party in this effort. groups. The ACLU is urging the senate you the truth about the struggles of New York, NY 10014. Kate Kaku, Socialist Workers candidate committee to hold public hearings so that for governor, has made this fight against those affected by the proposed changes can undemocratic election laws an important state their case.

14 The Militant April 4, 1986 Negotiations begin in copper industry Arizona companies dem~d more concessions from miners, threaten to bust unions

BY KATHY OWEN solidarity with the Phelps Dodge strikers, AND DAVE CAHALANE but not enough to block the company from PHOENIX - Two of the five com­ achieving its objectives. panies in the copper industry that have The company staged a decertification union contracts have put their 1986 vote in October 1984, excluding all strik- · takeback demands on the table. Nearly all ers. With such tactics, Phelps Dodge the industry's three-year agreements expire busted the unions at its mines in Ajo, Bis­ July I. bee, Douglas, and Morenci, Arizona. At a January meeting in Tucson, The National Labor Relations Board Arizona, with representatives of 16 unions, (NLRB) has supported Phelps Dodge Newmont Mining Corp. officials de­ against union challenges to the 1984 vote. manded a wage cut of $4 an hour, elimina­ On Feb. 21, 1986, the NLRB turned tion of cost-of-living adjustments, and a down the final appeal by the unions and up­ four-and-a-half-year contract. New em­ held the decertification. ployees would be forced to bear the full Today, Phelps Dodge operates its burden of all increases in the cost of medi­ Arizona mines with 1,600 workers, less cal and dental insurance, and they would than half the number of workers before the be excluded from severance pay and death strike. benefits. In 1985 Phelps Dodge reported nearly Newmont owns two mines in San Man­ $30 million in profits. The company uel and Globe-Miami, Arizona. They are pointed to lower labor costs as the main Copper companies demand more concessions in current negotiations. They threaten operated by subsidiaries-Magina Copper reason. to bust unions, as Phelps Dodge Co. did. Here state cops line up against workers at Co. and Pinto Valley Copper Co. P~elps Dodge mine in Arizona in August 1983. National Guard was also used to Company blackmail break copper strike. Kennecott demands concessions USW A spokesperson Cass Alvin says In February, union representatives met that Kennecott "wants to take everything with Kennecott Corp. officials in Phoenix. go out on strike. At Kennecott's Ray mine in Arizona, away. They're spreading more fear. Layoffs and mine and smelter closings there are 700 union workers today. There Kennecott demanded wage and benefit They're saying, in effect, 'If you don't do cuts totaling $8 an hour, the end of cost-of­ have hit copper workers and their com­ were 1,860 in 1983. Ray mine is still the what we want you to do, it'll be Phelps munities very hard. fifth-largest copper-producing mine in the living adjustments, and the elimination of Dodge all over again.' " premium pay for work beyond 12 hours a Ten years ago, 40,000 copper workers country. day. Kennecott openly declares it will fight to were employed nationwide. Today, about In Utah, Kennecott slashed its work Kennecott wants to wipe out a series of keep the mines open with scabs if copper 7,000 are actually working. Half of them force in copper down to 250, compared to benefit programs: retirement, death and workers reject its concession demands and are in Arizona. Continued on next page disability coverage, insurance payments for prescription medication and vision care, and supplemental unemployment · benefits. Canadian steelworkers continue can strike The company also wants to abolish all On March 5 United Steelworkers of contract, the coordinated bargaining team strikers in Toronto that the union would work rules, written and oral, unless agree­ America (USW A) leaders announced that of all local presidents on both sides of the stand firm against concessions, for a much ment is reached by July 1 on each one. an agreement had been reached on a new border refused to accept a break-up of the better pension plan, and for a substantial It also wants a four-and-a-half-year con­ contract with four major can companies. master agreement. They held firm on that, across-the-board increase of th~ base wage tract. This came after a 16-day strike in the while agreeing the Canadian workers rate rather than cash bonuses. Kennecott is a subsidiary of Standard Oil United States. should remain on strike in a bid to win This strike is an important battle against of Ohio. It operates copper mines, smel­ The new three-year contract for U.S. more. takebacks. If the Continental Can workers ters, and refineries in Arizona, Utah, workers includes a three-year wage freeze In 1985 Continental Can Canada re­ are able to beat back concessions, the unity Nevada, New Mexico, and Maryland. and bonuses of $400, $300, and $300 in ported a net profit of $39 million and was of the master agreement will be Edgar Ball, International secretary of the successive years of the contract. New hires able to pour $75 million into new techno! ~ strengthened and all container industry United Steelworkers of America (USW A), will get 80 percent of the base pay and are ogy. This fact makes the workers more de­ workers will be in a better position to stave said Kennecott'-s ·demands would ·cost its supposed to reach top pay after two years. termined to fight. There is a strong feeling off the bosses' concessions drive. workers at least $200 million. He said they The contract also maintains a cost of living on the picket line that "this time it's our The North American labor movement were "unfair, unjust, ridiculous, and inde­ adjustment. tum," as one Toronto striker told Socialist should support these strikers. fensible." The USW A represents about 80 Voice. percent of unionized copper miners. The Canadian members of the USW A were Maurice Keck, chief Canadian Barb Horst is a member of USWA Local rest belong to 15 other unions. still on strike against Continental Can as of negotiator for the union, told a meeting of 5405 on strike against Continental Can. March 19. The following report on their Unions offer concessions · strike is from the March 17 issue of the In January 1984, copper industry unions Canadian newspaper Socialist Voice. had responded to company demands by of­ Socialists enter Alabama fering a package of concessions to all the * * * copper companies. They proposed a $2.50- BY BARB HORST an-hour pay cut and a two-year freeze on In a fight against concessions, 1,850 race for Senate, House cost-of-living adjustments. _production and office workers at seven These concessions would have given Continental Can Canada Inc. plants set up BY ELIZABETH FARLEY Company in Minnesota, and Hormel work7 $150 million to the industry owners and picket lines February 20. The container in­ BIRMINGHAM- The SocialistWork­ ers in Iowa have been locked out for show­ would have cost the average copper worker dustry workers, m'mbers of the United ers Party here has nominated Andrea Baron ing solidarity with them. Many working $10;000. In return, union officials asked Steelworkers of America (USWA) struck as its candidate for U.S. senator from people here in Alabama are inspired when for some form of job security for copper plants in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Alabama and Martin Boyers as its candi­ they learn about how the Hormel workers workers. Vancouver. They joined 13 ,200 brothers date for the U.S. House of Representatives use their union power to fight concessions Kennecott and other companies rejected and sisters in the United States who walked from the 6th Congressional District. and union busting," Boyers said. the offer, calling instead for deeper conces­ out four days earlier against four American Baron, a sewing-machine operator at the "The socialist campaign, in contrast to sions and an end to "pattern bargaining." container companies. Arrow Shirt plant in Jasper, is a member of the antilabor Republican and Democratic There is no master agreement in the cop­ the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile parties, recognizes that solidarity with the per mining industry. A national bargaining The strikers in the United States, all Workers Union. She is challenging incum­ Hormel workers is a top priority for all council of 16 unions must negotiate con­ members of the USW A, have since ac­ bent Republican Sen. Jeremiah Denton. working people," he continued. tracts with each company for each local cepted a contract but the Canadian workers Denton is an extreme rightist who has Socialist campaign supporters are peti­ bargaining unit. In 1983, more than 40 remain on strike. often acted as a point man for the Reagan tioning to place Boyers' name on the bal­ contracts were negotiated in this way na­ At the end of the last contract in Feb­ administration's war against Nicaragua, at­ lot. They plan to collect well over the ruary 1984, the bosses forced a two-year tionally. tacks on civil liberties, and other reaction­ 1,600 signatures required by Alabama law. Since 1967, the union bargaining coun­ wage freeze and contract extension on the ary policies. Baron will be a write-in candidate, because cil has tried to pattern contracts on the first workers. This time around they are propos­ While Baron is a leader in the Birming­ Alabama's undemocratic election laws re­ few that are negotiated. ing even more takebacks. ham area of the movement to defend abor­ quire a prohibitively high number of signa­ Continental Can, for example, wants tion rights, Denton is prominent in efforts tures for placing a candidate for U.S. Sen­ Phelps Dodge strike over 20 different concessions including: to take this right away from women. ate on the ballot. In 1983, union copper workers agreed to • A lump-sum payment of $400 in the Baron calls for an end to U.S. military Petitioning is going well. There is a lot a three-year wage freeze, but retained cost­ first year of a three-year contract, instead intervention in Nicaragua and elsewhere in of interest in the campaign's support for of-living adjustments, in contracts signed of an across-the-board wage increase rolled Central · America. "Alabama National women's right to abortion, since several with Kennecott and other companies. into the base rate; Guardsman, along with other U.S. military violent attacks on clinics in Alabama have Phelps Dodge refused to follow this pat­ • A two-tier wage system, where new forces, are today deployed in Honduras. occurred in the past two years. One young tern. It set out to crush the unions at its hires and temporary workers would receive This is part of the escalation of the war or­ woman expressed pleasant surprise when mines. only 70 to 90 percent of the wages paid to ganized by Washington against the Nicara­ Baron told her the socialist candidates are Phelps Dodge copper workers, or­ full-time workers; guan people. I say get them out of Central backing the right to abortion. "You're for ganized in 13 unions, were forced out on • No improvement in annual vacations; America now ." keeping the clinics open? I'll sign for that." strike in Arizona and Texas. • An insignificant increase in pension Boyers is a machine operator at O'Neal Baron's coworkers at the Arrow Shirt With the support of the courts and state benefits. Steel in Birmingham. A member of the factory have been discussing her cam­ governments, Phelps Dodge kept its mines The workers are part of a North Ameri­ United Steelworkers of America, he at­ paign. One commented, "We never had a open. The strike in Arizona drew national can master agreement with a common ex­ tacks the antilabor record of Ben Erdreich, politician in the plant before." Baron re­ attention as Gov. Bruce Babbit ordered Na­ piry date. This unity is an important source the incumbent Democrat who holds the sponded that she is not like the capitalist tional Guard troops and state cops to inter­ of strength for the workers in face of their congressional seat in the district that in­ politicians, who tell lies to get votes from vene, escorting scabs into the mines and at­ bosses' howls for concessions. One of the cludes Birmingham. working people and act in the interests of tacking strikers and their families on the employers' goals is to bust up this unity by "Right now members of United Food the rich, but the candidate of a working­ picket lines. breaking up the master agreement. and Commercial Workers Local P-9 are class party that fights for the interests of The union officialdom sponsored some Although the U.S. workers accepted a fighting a heroic strike against the Hormel workers and farmers .

April 4, 1986 The Militant 15 --CALENDAR------~--~------~--~~---

ARIZONA MICHIGAN on how change will come about in the Philip­ the reopening of the bookstore under its new pines. Speakers: representative of Filipino sol­ name. 15 percent off new titles and books by Phoenix Detroit idarity organizations; Janice Prescott, Socialist Malcolm X. Sun ., April 13 . Open house 3:00 PhUippines: the Freedom Struggle Con­ Support the Hormel Strikers! Videotape Workers Party . Translation to Spanish . Fri ., p.m. Film, Malcolm X Speaks, at 4:00 p.m. tinues. Speaker: Barry Fatland, Socialist Work­ showing and talk by Kate Kaku, Socialist April II, 7:30 p.m. 79 Leonard St. Donation: 2732 NE Union. Fib~ donation: $2 . Ausp: Path­ ers Party and member of National Association Workers candidate for governor of Michigan, $2 . Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more in­ finder Bookstore. For more information call of Letter Carriers. Sat., March 29, 7 p.m. 3750 participated in national solidarity demonstration formation call (212) 226-8445 . (503) 287-7416. W McDowell. Donation: $2 . Ausp: Militant itt Austin, Minnesota. Translation to Spanish. Labor. Forum. For more information call (602) Sat., AprilS, 8 p.m. 2135 Woodward Ave . Do­ OHIO WISCONSIN 272-4026. nation: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For Toledo Free South Mrica RaUy. Sat. , April 5, 12 more information call (313) 961-0395. Milwaukee How FLOC Won: Farm Workers Get noon. Phoenix College Theater. Ausp: Arizona Beyond Elections: The Mass Movement in Unions. Speaker: Ray Santiago, secretary-trea­ Coalition Against Apartheid. For more informa­ MINNESOTA the Philippines. Speakers and slideshow: Jim surer of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. tion call (602) 894-2209. Nolt, member Chicago Philippine Support St. Paul Sun., April6, 7 p.m. 1701 W Bancroft. Dona­ Committee, visited Philippines in September; Socialist Campaign Rally: Solidarity With tion: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more Zoltan Grossman, delegate to May 1st Move­ CALIFORNIA the Austin Strikers, Stop Farm Foreclosures, information call (419) 536c0383 . Los Angeles End U.S. War in Central America! Speaker: ment (KMU) labor federation conference last Is a Revolution Possible in the United States? Geoff Mirelowitz, Socialist Workers Party can­ June. Sat., April 5, 7:30p.m. 4707 W Lisbon OREGON Ave. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor A class series of the Young Socialist Alliance. didate for governor. Sun., April 6. Reception, 4 Portland 1. "The Ruling-class Offensive." Sat., p.m.; rally, 5 p.m. 508 N Snelling Ave. Ausp: Forum. For more information call (414) 445- Pathfinder Bookstore Open House. Celebrate March 29, 3 p.m. Minnesota Socialist Workers Campaign. For 2076. 2. ''Revolutionary History in the United more information call (612) 644-6325. States." Sat., AprilS, 3 p.m. 3. ''The Workers' and Farmers' Govern­ NEW YORK TOUR NICARAGUA ment." Sat., April 12. 3 p.m. Albany . Translation to Spanish. 2546 W Pico Blvd. BuDding the New Nicaragua: Report from a Celebrate May Day in Nicaragua For more information call (213) 380-9460. Work Brigade. Speakers: Larry Lane, Socialist · April 26- May 10 Labor Needs a Victory - Eyewitness Re­ Workers Party, and other members of the Con­ ports from Austin, Minnesota, Meatpackers' struyamos Juntos brigade. Party sponsored by Visit Managua, Masaya, Esteli, Matagalpa, and Bluefields (Atlantic Coast) Strike. Speakers: Mike Downs, member Inter­ Young Socialist Alliance to follow . Sat. , March education, and culture. national Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's 29 . 7 p.m. 352 Central Ave. Donation: $2 . View the accomplishments of the Nicara­ Union Local 13 and Socialist Workers Party; Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more infor­ guan revolution and the impact of the Tour price includes roundtrip airfare from Joel Britton, member Oil, Chemical and mation call (518) 434-3247. U.S.-sponsored war. Express solidarity Miami to Managua, all transfers and Atomic Workers Local 1-547 and SWP; Carlos with the Nicaraguan people. Participants Cespedes, member United Food and Commer­ Manhattan ground transportation, three meals daily, TWA Flight Attendants TeD Their Side of will visit factories and farms, meet with cial Workers Loca1770 and Young Socialist Al­ hotels, and translator and guide. A $150 activists from the unions, farmers', liance. Translation to Spanish. Sat., April 5, the Story: Why We Are On Strike. Speaker: deposit reserves a space. 7:30 p.m. 2546 W Pico Blvd. Donation: $2. Karen Lantz, vice-president, Independent Fed­ women's, and youth organizations, learn eration of Flight Attendants. Translation to Ausp: Militant Forum . For more information about economic planning, health care, Tour cost: $950 from Miami Spanish. Fri ., April4, 7:30p.m. 79 Leonard St. call (213) 380-9460. Write to: Militant!Perspectiva Mundial tours, 410 West St., New York, NY 10014 Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For San Jose more information call (212) 226-8445. Telephone: (212) 929-3486 Hands Off Libya!: What's Behind Washing­ After Marcos, What Next? A panel discussion ton's Attack. Speakers to be announced. Translation to Spanish. Fri ., April 4, 7:30p.m. 46 112 Race St. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more information call (408) 998-4007. Copper companies demand more concessions Oakland Meetings with the three other companies Socialist Campaign Kick-Off Rally.• Speaker: Continued from previous page Some of the bargaining goals discussed Miesa Patterson, Socialist Workers Party candi­ 6,637 three years ago. Its Chino division in that have union contracts in the copper in­ at the conference were: maintenance of the date for U.S. Congress, 8th C.D. Translation to New Mexico is down to 930 from 1 ,676. dustry (Amax, ·Inspiration, and Asarco) living standards of copper workers, equal Spanish. Sun., April6. Dinner, 5 p.m.; rally 7 In this climate, the companies are at­ have not been held yet. These companies pay for comparable work in the industry, a p.m. 3808 E 14th St. Donation: $5 . Ausp: tempting-tO blackmail copper workers into operate copper mines, smelters, and re­ moratorium on mine and plant closures, an Socialist Workers Campaign. For more infor­ surrendering huge concessions and weak­ fineries in Arizona, New Jersey, Montana, end to contracting-out union jobs to nonun­ mation call (415) 261-3014. ening their unions. Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, Idaho, and ion companies, and restrictions on the use In return, the companies are not even Washington. of overtime while workers are still laid off. COLORADO giving lip service to job protection. Vnion Safety conditions on the job have con­ Denver wOf'kers at Magma's min~ . in .AriZQf1a,. for l'Ja!i~n~ ~W-9~ ~~mference , ,.· ...... ,, ~ to dc;~riorate si~e 1983, . ~Q.rding End Apartheid Rally. Speakers: Nmonde instance, have told Militant reporters of the Prior to.the first meeting with Newmont, to the USWA. Copper workers want the Ngubo, founding member National Union of company's increased practice of combin­ a national conference of unions in the cop­ right to refuse unsafe and dangerous work Mineworkers of South Africa; Di Scott, mem­ ing jobs and eliminating workers over the per mining industry was held January 17- and have access to adequate emergency ber of United Democratic Front of South Africa 18 in Tucson. and former youth director, South African Coun­ past three years. medical care on the job. cil of Churches; Bill Himmelmann, president, Union busting Denver Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO; Cal­ vin Moore, International vice-president, Oil, In 1985 workers caught Magma in the April 19 S.F. .antiwar protest set Chemical aqd Atom~c Workers Union; Joe Vas­ act of trying to eliminate a whole bargain­ quez, president United Auto Workers CAP ing unit of 25 union maintenance workers. council; Dr. Clyde Miller, president, Colorado Magma tried to contract-out their jobs to a Continued from back page Area and South Bay chapters of the Free Council of Churches; and Wilma Webb, state nonunion company. The USWA chal­ ramento, Marin, Santa Cruz, and Santa South Africa Movement, Bay Area Na­ representative. Sat., April 5, noon, at the State lenged Magma and won a favorable ruling Clara counties; and local affiliates of the tional Conference of Black Lawyers, the Capitol. Ausp: Colorado Coalition Against from the NLRB ·on December 23. Oil Workers, Machinists, government San Francisco Chapter of the National Or­ Apartheid. For more information call (303) Nonetheless outsourcing remains a workers, United ·Transportation Union, ganization for Women, Rainbow Coali­ 832-4508. growing threat. and United Food and Commercial Work­ tion, and the Women's International ers. League for Peace and Freedom. ILLINOIS The NLRB arbitt"ator ruled that Magma Chicago had every right to contract-out union jobs Leaders of other unions, including the Organizations in many California cities The March for Women's Rights: A Report to nonunion companies. He faulted Magma International · Ladies' Garment Workers' are publicizing the march. In San Jose Ron Back from the Largest Demonstration for only because the company did not try to Union and International Longshoremen's Lind, a local president of the United Food Abortion Rights in U.S. History. Roundtable negotiate with the union on the issue. and Warehousemen's union, have also en­ and Commercial Workers, hosted a meet­ discussion with Chicago-area activists. Speak­ Magma and' other companies are free to try dorsed. ing of activists from a number of organiza­ ers include local participants and Diane Roling, this union-busting tactic again. The Committee in Solidarity with the tions. The coalition there mapped out plans Socialist Workers Party candidate for Illinois governor. Victory celebration to follow. Sat., The copper union bargaining council has People of El Salvador, Nicaraguan Infor­ for buses to San Francisco. AprilS. 7:30p.m. 3455 S Michigap. Donation: not yet given a formal answer to the con­ mation Center, Casa El Salvador, and To help work on the April 19 mobiliza­ $2 . Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more in­ tract demands made by Newmont and Ken­ many Central America groups are support­ tion or for more information call (415) 621- formatio'l l:all (312) 326-5853 . necott. ing the mobilization as well as the Bay 7326 or (415) 431-2572. --IF YOU LIKE THIS -PAPER, LOOK US UP------Where to find the Socialist Workers Party, GEORGIA: Atlanta: SWP, YSA, 132 Cone NEW JERSEY: Newark: SWP, YSA, 141 Dallas: SWP, YSA, 336 W. Jefferson . Zip: Young Socialist Alliance, and Pathfinder St. NW, 2nd Floor. Zip: 30301 . Tel: (404) 577- Halsey. Zip: 07102. Tel: (201) 643-3341. 75208. Tel: (214) 943-5195. Houston: SWP, bookstores. 4065. NEW YORK: Capital District (Albany): YSA, 4806 Almeda. Zip: 77004. Tel: (713) ILLINOIS: Chicago: SWP, YSA, 3455 S. SWP, YSA, 352 Central Ave. 2nd floor. Zip: 522-8054. ALABAMA: Birmingham: SWP, YSA, Michigan Ave. Zip: 60616. Tel: (312) 326- 12206. Tel: (518) 434-3247. New York: SWP, UTAH: Price: SWP, YSA, 23 S. Carbon 205 18th St. S. Zip: 35233. Tel: (205) 323- 5853 or 326-5453. YSA, 79LeonardSt. Zip: 10013. Tel: (212)219- Ave ., Suite 19, P.O. Box 758. Zip: 84501. Tel: 3079. KENTUCKY: Louisville: SWP, YSA, 809 3679 or925-1668. Socialist Books, 226-8445 . (801) 637-6294. Salt Lake City: SWP, YSA, ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP, YSA, 3750 E. Broadway . Zip: 40204. Tel: (502) 587-8418 . NORTH CAROLINA: Greensboro: SWP, 767 S. State, 3rd floor. Zip: 84111. Tel: (801) West McDowell Road #3. Zip: 85009. Tel : LOUISIANA: New Orleans(SWP, YSA, YSA, 2219 E Market. Zip: 27401. Tel: (919) 355-1124. (602) 272-4026. 3207 Dublin St. Zip: 70118. Tel: (504) 486- 272-5996. VIRGINIA: Tidewater Area (Newport CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles: SWP, YSA, 8048. OHIO: Cincinnati: SWP, YSA, 4945 Pad­ News): SWP, YSA, 5412 Jefferson Ave. Zip 2546 W. Pico Blvd. Zip: 90006. Tel: (213) 380- MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP, YSA, dock Rd. Zip: 45237. Tel : (513) 242-7161. 23605. Tel: (804) 380-0133. 9460. Oakland: SWP, YSA, 3808 E 14th St. 2913 Greenmount Ave. Zip: 21218. Tel : (301) Cleveland: SWP, YSA, 2521 Market Ave . Zip: WASHINGTON, D.C.: SWP, YSA, 3106 Zip: 94601. Tel: (415) 261-3014. San Diego: 235-0013 . - 44113. Tel: (216) 861-6150. Columbus: YSA, Mt. Pleasant St. NW . Zip: 20010. Tel: (202) SWP, YSA, 2803 B St. Zip: 92102. Tel : (619) MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: SWP, YSA, P.O. Box 02097. Zip: 43202 . Toledo: SWP, 797-7699. . 234-4630. San Francisco: SWP, YSA , 3284 510 Commonwealth Ave., 4th Floor. Zip; YSA, 1701 W Bancroft St. Zip: 43606. Tel : WASHINGTON: Seattle: SWP, YSA, 23rd St. Zip: 94110. Tel: (415) 282-6255 . San · 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. (419) 536-0383 . 5517 Rainier Ave . South . Zip: 98118. Tel : Jose: SWP, YSA, 461f2 Race St. Zip: 95126. MICIDGAN: Detroit: SWP, YSA, 2135 OREGON: Portland: SWP, YSA, 2732 NE (206) 723-5330. Tel: (408) 998-4007". Woodward Ave. Zip:48201 . Tel: (313)961-0395. Union. Zip: 97212. Tel : (503) 287-7416. WEST VIRGINIA: Charleston: SWP, COLORADO: Denver: SWP, YSA, 25 MINNESOTA: Twin Cities: SWP, YSA, PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: SWP, YSA, 61IA Tennessee. Zip: 25302. Tel: (304) W.3rd Ave. Zip: 80223. Tel : (303) 698-2550. 508 N. Snelling Ave., St. Paul. Zip: 55104. Tel: YSA, 2744 Germantown Ave . Zip: 19133 . Tel : 345-3040. Morgantown: SWP, YSA, 221 FLORIDA: Miami: SWP, YSA, 137 NE (612) 644-6325 . (215) 225-0213. Pittsburgh: SWP, YSA, 402 Pleasant St. Zip: 26505. Tel: (304) 296- 54th St. Mailing address: P.O. Box 370486. MISSOURI: Kansas · City: SWP, YSA, N. Highland Ave . Mailing address: P.O. Box 0055 . Zip: 33137. Tel: (305) 756-1020. Tallahassee: 4725 Troost. Zip: 64110. Tel: (816) 753- 4789. Zip: 15206. Tel : (412) 362-6767. WISCONSIN: Milwaukee: SWP, YSA , YSA, P.O. Box 20715 . Zip: 32316. Tel : (904) 0404. St. Louis: SWP, YSA, 4907Martin Luther TEXAS: Austin: YSA, c/o Mike Rose, 7409 4707 W. Lisbon Ave . Zip: 53208. Tel: (414) 222-4434. King Dr. Zip: 63113. Tel: (314) 361-0250. Berkman Dr. Zip: 78752. Tel. (512) 452-3923 . 445-2076.

16 The Militant April 4, 1986 - .. THE GREAT SOCIETY------They didn't work?- Among but New York's Mayor Koch is smile? - Because the ability of modest $3 billion. glamorous settings, like a 60-foot the papers found at the Marcos personally clean, his friends as­ the contras to communicate an schooner in the Caribbean, or are­ New York townhouse was a list of sure. Meanwhile, it was disclosed ideological message is "somewhat Perish the thought- An arti­ mote Maine wilderness lodge. items purchased by Imelda Marcos that Joseph and Ralph Bernstein, stunted," says Gen. John Galvin, cle on religion and sex therapy Plus the company of a licensed at Hammacher Schlemmer, the front people for Marcos in New commander of U.S. forces ·in Cen­ says the two are not incompatible, psychologist. gadgeteers. The purchases in- York real estate deals, contributed tral America, the Green Berets but there are problems. For in­ $18,500 to Koch's 1985 cam­ could not only teach them how to stance, for Orthodox Jews, erotic The march of culture-A few paign, plus 85 percent of the capi­ fight better but also ways to win imagery is okay, provided the sub­ scraps of wood and some mason tal - $205,000 - for the off­ political support. ject is the spouse, not someone jar rubber bands, and we used to Broadway adaptation of his book, else. put together a pretty effective rub­ Mayor. Top secret? - It may have es­ ber band zip gun. Now Abercrom-. caped your attention, but, by pres­ They do it all for you - We bie & Fitch, upscale gadgeteers, Harry A steal - That diamond and idential proclamation, March 16 never did figure out just what does offers one shaped like a real piece, Ring emerald bracelet Imelda Marcos was Freedom of Information Day. go into a Big Mac, but one thing plus 10 surgical rubber bands. picked up during her 1978 New thitt's included for sure: the cost of $75. York shopping spree had. a list Poor but struggling - "It an annual advertising budget that eluded two automatic paper shred­ price of $1.5 million, but she would be a mistake to think of us was $302.7 million in 1985. Thought for the week ;-;- .~'So ders. walked away with it at a "special as a rich school." - Roderick many saints for such a devil. . ,; - price" of $1.15 million. MacDoug~ll, treasurer of Har­ For freaked-out foremen? - A Filipina on seeing the. . private Honest Ed - His associates vard, which has doul:>led its en­ "Stress-Management Vacations" chapel of the Marcos family .in .the may have been stealing like cops, How to slit throats with _a dowment in the past five years to a · offers respite in secluded but · presidential palace. N.Y. tour.·by British activist on Irish struggle

NEW YORK - Fifty-three percent of pressure by the ranks of the British Labour He also took part in two radio shows and son contingent in the local St. Patrick's the British population wants British with­ Party in alliance with the independence addressed a meeting with Peter King, Nas­ Day parade. The contingent wascheered drawal from Northern Ireland, Martin Col­ movement in Ireland. sau County Comptroller. by many of the 25,000 spectators. lins reported 'here on March 19. While in New York, on a six-city U.S. In Albany, reports Militant correspon­ In Albany, Collins was interviewed on a Collins, a leader of the British Labour speaking tour, he testified at a New York dent David Wall, Collins told participants radio call-in show, where his advocacy of Party's Labor Committee on Ireland and City Council hearing March 19 on dis­ at a vigil for Irish political prisoners that Irish freedom sparked such a response that editor of its journal Labour and Ireland, crimination against Catholics inNorthern "the only way peace will come to Ireland is listeners called in for an hour after he went said the polls show "British working Ireland. for the British to get out." off the air. people know they have no interest in con­ Collins was extensively briefed by Pat­ The March 15 vigil at the State Capitol He also addressed the Militant Labor tinued British rule over Northern Ireland." rick Doherty of the New York City Comp­ was sponsored by Irish Northern Aid, Forum in Albany and attended a reception But, he told the March 19 Militant Labor troller's Office, who had prepared a report whose national publicity director, Martin in his honor, at which he exchanged views Forum, "Britain will never leave Ireland outlining systematic discrimination against Galvin, also addressed the gathering. · with local activists from the Irish and Pal­ voluntarily.:· The British-instigated parti­ Catholics by subsidiaries of U.S. corpora­ Collins, Galvin, and a local leader of estinian solidarity movements and rank­ tion of Ireland in 1921 "was crucial for pre­ tions. Irish Northern Aid led the group's 200-per- and-file trade unionists. serving British control over both parts of Ireland." The government in the indepen­ dent south, he said, is "thoroughly subordi­ nate to British economic and political inter­ Socialist atito workers tneet, tnap cantpaign ests." Collins argued that an end to British rule BY JOE CALLAHAN makers was rolling along, and that it had two years. Two unanimous strike . votes in Northern Ireland will come only from NEW ARK, N.J. - Socialist members been shown that the date of expiration of were taken, but were ignored by union of­ of the United Auto Workers (UA W) from union contracts doesn't matter. ficials. around the United States met February 23 Chrysler threatened to close its oldest In the face of corporate demands for in Newark to discuss issues and develop- plant, which is in Detroit, if big conces- concessions, UAW President Owen ments facing the union. sions weren't granted. Under tremendous Bieber's approach is increased cooperation A principal theme of the meeting was the pressure, a union meeting voted "to au- with management. Opposition leaders in strike by Hormel workers from United thorize negotiations." the union have not offered a 'real alternative Food and CommerCial 'Workers' Local·P ~ 9 ·· Ametican Motars·threatened to close-the· to this. in Austin, Minnesota, against 'tfniori-bust- Jeep plant in Toledo. As a 'result, the union Solidarity with the revolutions in Central ing by the company. canceled a strike vote, which had been America and South Africa · was another Local P-9's union democracy and fight- scheduled in response to a number of prob- m;~jor topi~ . A meeting was held recently ing determination to go out and get the sol- terns at the plant. These included the com- in solidarity with Central America _ in$-~tk idarity they need to win were pointed to as pany' s use of a corporate seniority ssheme. sas City. Labor support is growing for an examples for the whole labor movement in General Motors is using the lure of Apri119 antiwar march in San Francisco. t1 , . the United States. Participants iri ttie meet- building new plants designed to build the · Participants at the meeting mentioned ing discussed activities by their union Joe- "GM 10" car to demand concessions from numerous union anti-apartheid activities, als and others in support of P-9's strike. a number ofUAW locals around thecoun- such as a march that took place in Newark. These included resolutions of support, do- try. In Kansas City a contract with sweep- An upcoming to~r by a leader of the ~ newly nations from locals, adopting of P-9 ing concessions was approved by a 2 to I formed South African trade union federa­ families, plant-gate collections, workers vote. tion COSATU was also mentioned. removing Hormel products from'·plant At the NUMMI plant, the GM-Toyota The unionists rep<)rted that_in many auto cafeterias, and plans for strike support raJ- • joint venture in Fremont, California, the plants, large numbers of Black workers ob­ lies in a number of cities. company moved the line speed up to 440 served Martin Luther King Day as a holi­ Many of the unienists at the meeting had cars a day. After this ~ about 50 workers day and did not report to work. The UAW attended a national strike support rally Feb- went to the company office demanding bet- has designated Easter Monday on March mary 15 in Austin. ter treatment. The company threatened to 31 as Martin Luther King Day. Participants In one of the two reports at the meeting, close the plant "if there's any trouble." were urged to raise the struggle against Andrew Pulley from Detroit said that the At the LTV aerospace plant near Dallas, apartheid in any activities on this day. Martin Collins offensive against workers by U.S. auto workers have been without a contract for Several people at the meeting talked about support for the "National March for Women's Lives" on March 9 in Washing­ ton, D.C., and March 16 in Los Angeles. Socialist lAM members discuss Hormel strike support These demonstrations were for the right to safe, legal abortions. BY JOE DIDOS strikers who were touring in the Seattle with Nicaragua, you can't fight against The socialist union members also dis­ OAKLAND - Socialists who are mem­ area asked her to join themjn speaking to concessions at Eastern if you don't under­ cussed participation in the $100,000 bers of the Intern;otional Association of local unions. stand how to fight," as the meatpackers are Socialist Publication Fund drive, as well as Machinists met here February 22- 23 and A unionist from the General Dynamics doing. the drive to sell 45,000 copies and 2,000 set an ambjtious campaign to aid striking plant in Dallas reported on a plant-gate col­ subscriptions to the Militant and Perspec­ In addition to continuing to build support tiva Mundial. Hormel workers in Austin, Minnesota. lection there tnat netted several hundred for the Hormel strike, the socialist workers dollars for the strikers. The socialists came from 20 cities across also discussed the continuing campaign to In general, the socialists reported, there the country and worked in a broad range of defend the Nicaraguan revolution. One im­ aerospace and airline industries organized was a lot of interest among their coworkers portant aspect of this campaign, Skinner in the Hormel strike. In some cases this led by the union. said in her report, was to continue to press workers to challenge local union officials A report by Sue Skinner of Los Angeles for national demonstrations against U.S. who were hesitant to support the strike. emphasized that it was time to "get bolder" intervention in Central America. At the General Dynamics plant in San and step up work in defense of the strikers, The socialists also discussed building Diego,- for example, the local union execu­ members of United Food and Commercial support in the union for a woman's right to tive board's recommendation not to help Workers Local P-9. abortion. Marilee Taylor, who works at the the strikers was overturned by the mem­ Skinner proposed several things that Westinghouse plant in Sunnyvale, Califor­ bers. They voted to send a $100 contrib­ could be done. These included inviting nia, reported that she proposed that her strikers to speak at union meetings, or­ ution to the strikers and some decided to local endorse the March 16 abortion rights donate a day's pay. ganizing plant-gate collections, going to action in Los Angeles at a union meeting. The broad appeal of this strike among Austin with coworkers to see the strike Her motion was seconded by an older male firsthand, getting' local unions to support working people, explained Greg Nelson, worker and the local decided to support the was because it "shows what a union can the Hormel boycott and participating in the action. "Adopt A P-9 Family" program. be." Nelson is a Machinist who works at How important a personal visit could be Lockheed. Jill Fein said that when she raised de­ was explained by Jill Fein , who works at Stu Singer, who works at Eastern Air­ fending women's right to abortion in her Andrew Pulley reported on continuing the Boeing plant in Seattle. She visited Au­ lines in Miami, added, "The Hormel work­ local, it was generally viewed as a legiti­ · offensive by U.S. automakers against stin in February. When she returned, P-9 ers are fighting back. You can't solidarize mate union concern. workers.

April 4, 1986 The Militant 17 -EDITORIALS------'-- 4th International on origins ·of Fight is on for abortion rights women's oppression Through the "National March for Women's Lives: Black groups backed the marches, including many Black The following is excerpted from "Socialist Revolu­ East Coast/West Coast," supporters of women's equality feminist groups, the National Urban League, National tion and the Struggle for Women's Liberation," the announced their determination to stand and fight for the Council of Negro Women, the National Black Lesbian resolution adopted by the Fourth International (a right of women to choose safe, legal abortio_n. . . and Gay Task Force, and the Coalition of Black Trade world Marxist organization) in 1979. It sets down the The national march drew at least 100,000 m Washmg­ Unionists. basic Marxist view of the origins and nature of ton, D.C., on March 9; and 25,000 in Los Angeles the Some important labor backing was won. The Coalition women's oppression. following week on March 16. This makes it the largest of Labor Union Women cosponsored the marches and or­ The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and action for women's rights in U.S. history. And nothing ganized a contingent. A good number of unions on the the State by Frederick Engels is the classic Marxist like these numbers have ever before been mobilized in local and district levels endorsed the actions or worked to work on this subject. It is available from Pathfmder defense of abortion rights. publicize them. But this was modest. Not a single intem!l­ Press, with an introduction by Evelyn Reed. Send This outpouring of support for legal' abortion is te~­ tional or national union backed the actions. timony to how deeply women's lives are affected by this issue. The labor involvement that was won in the course of The right to control her own body is a woman's mo~t building for the national march reflects the deep support OUR fundamental right. Without the right to make the deci­ for women's equality and safe, legal abortion that exists sions regarding childbearing, women's equality is ex­ among working women and men. It comes despite the REVOLUTIONARY cluded. impact of a relentless ideological offensive led by the That's why the right to choose abortion has come government and the Catholic church hierarchy against HERITAGE under such relentless and intensifying attack from church abortion, and the failure of'most top union officials to take a stand on the issue. and state. In the 13 years since abortion was legalized as $4.95 plus $.75 for postage and handling to Pathfind­ a result of mass pressure by the women's rights move­ The challenge to bring the labor movement into the er Press, 410 West Street, New York, N.Y. 10014. ment, the Congress, the courts, and state legislatures fight for abortion rights is still ahead. The success of the have moved to erode and restrict abortion rights. • National March for Women's Lives will have a big im­ The oppression of women is not determined by their The biggest blow was the 1977 congressional Hyde pact and will encourage unionists to fight to win their or­ biology, as many contend .. Its origins are economic and Amendment that cut Medicaid funding for abortionS. ganizations to champion abortion rights and the cause of social in character. Throughout the evolution of preclass State legislatures followed suit and today there are only 13 women's equality. and class society, women's childbearing function has al­ states plus the District of Colum[)ia that provide funding The National March for Women's Lives signaled that ways been the same. But their social status has not al­ for abortions. This discriminates against working-class the fight is on to defend abortion rights. But it must be ways been that of a degraded domestic servant, subject to women, and particularly strikes at Blacks, Latinas, and just the beginning of a sustained campaign to beat back man's control and command. other victims of racism. The rights of young women have the attacks, stand up to the right-wing thugs, and regain Before the development of class society, during the also come under attack. · abortion rights for all women by reversing the Hyde historical period that Marxists have traditionally referred Right-wing thugs bomb and bum abortion clinics, and Amendment and other restrictions on the right to abor­ to as primitive communism (subsistence societies), social harass and attack women entering the clinics·. They are tion. production was organized communally and its product cheered on by the Catholic church hierarchy, fundamen­ In many areas plans for local actions are already under shared equally. There was therefore no exploitation or talist preachers, and the White House.· For too long, these way . In Seattle, Washington, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, oppression of one group or sex by another because ~o attacks went unanswered. local versions of the March for Women's Lives have material basis for such social relations existed. But on March 9 and March 16 supporters of women's been called. In Boston a "Walkathon for Women's The origin of women's oppression is intertwined with rights took the offensive once again. . Lives" has been scheduled for April. the transition from preclass to class society. The exact -Students from more than 400 campuses turned out in On campuses and in union halls and community or­ process by which this complex transition took place is a big numbers, vowing to defend the rights won in struggle ganizations, educational programs and discussions are continuing subject of research and discussion even by the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and being organized. Women's rights activists are discussing among those who subscribe to a materialist historical 1970s. how to reach out and involve broader forces and larger view. However, the fundamental lines along which The National March for Women's Lives was a demon­ numbers in ongoing actions to defend the clinics from the women's oppression emerged are clear. The change in stration for the rights of all women. One of the central harassment and attacks by right-wing antiwoman fana­ women's status developed along with the growing pro­ themes of the actions was the demand to reinstate public tics. ductivity of human labor based on ·agriculture. the funding, thus slamming the door on attempts to divide domestication of animals, and stock raising; the rise of the struggle for women's rights. Participants in the National March for Women's Lives new divisions of labor, craftsmanship, and commerce; A spirit of international solidarity marked the actions, voiced their strong conviction that it is necessary to stay the private appropriation of an increasing social surplus; which were called to coincide with International and.the. development of the.possibility for.some.humans . Women's Day: Participants reached out to ·women in ~/s~~~~s~~ :rr~cti~~gt:!~~~en ·new confidence to to prosper from the exploitation of the labor of others. throughout the world, and especially to their sisters in those fighting for abortion rights. Supporters of women's In these specific socioeconomic conditions, as the ex­ Nicaragua and South Africa. equality must build on the tremendous momentum gener­ ploitation of human beings became profitable for a A big step forward was taken in involving Black or­ ated by the actions and continue to· mobilize, reach out, · privileged few, women, because of their biological role ganizations in the fight for abortion rights. Some 45 and move forward . in production, became valuable property. Like slaves and cattle, they were a source of wealth. They alo~e could produce new human beings whose labor power could be exploited. Thus the purchase of women by men, along with all rights to their future offspring, arose as one of the economic and social institutions of the new order based Stop the nuclear bomb tests! on private property. Women's primary_ social role was in­ creasingly defined as domestic servant and childbearer. The explosion of yet another nuclear bomb in the tion leaks that occur with these tests. A government Along with the private accumulation of wealth, the spokesperson assured the test went off without incident. Nevada desert March 22 signified the Reagan administra­ patriarchal family developed as an institution by which tion's implacable opposition to the Soviet U_nion's pr~­ He observed it from a distance of 10 miles. responsibility for the unproductive members of society posalfora test moratori~m. It testifie~ to a gnm determi- Pushing ahead with the deadly tests defies the will of - especially the young - was transferred from society masses of people in this country and worldwide. People nation to press ahead w1th the war dnve. . as a whole to an identifiable individual or small group of The decision to detonate the bomb was earned out de­ have demonstrated literally by the millions against the individuals. It was the primary socioeconomic institution spite a last-minute appeal by a bipartisan group of 63 bomb. for perpetuating from one generation to the next the class members of Congress to call it off. In response to the present blast, the Soviet government divisions of society - divisions between those who pos­ Prior to the blast, Moscow had announced it would declared, and rightly so, that it showed "great contempt sessed property and lived off the wealth produced by the continue a self-imposed test moratorium beyond its for world public opinion." labor of others, and those who, owning no property, had March 31 deadline if Washington did not test. The gov­ to work for others to live. The destruction of the egalita­ ernment of the Soviet Union began its unilateral Registering their realization that the test exposes rian and communal traditions and structures of primitive moratorium eight months ago and has urged the United Washington's responsibility for the war danger, mem­ communism was essential for the rise of an exploiting bers of both houses of Congress have introduced bills that States government to follow suit. The day of the Nevada class and its accelerated private accumulation of wealth. test, a State Department spokesman flatly rejected the they say would bar financing of further tests. The House This was the origin of the patriarchal family. In fact, bill has 84 sponsors. "It would be a tragedy if we allow moratorium offer. the word family itself, which is still used in the Latin­ The tests are not only a menace in that they promote the initiative for ~ace to fall solely into the hands of the based languages loday, comes from the original Latin Washington's war drive, but they are an immediate Soviet Union," said House majority leader James Wright famulus,which means household slave, andfamilia, the (D-Tex.). · health danger, despite being cond~cted underground .. totality of slaves belonging to one man. This one had to be delayed 15 mmutes because of h1gh A public outcry is needed against these dangerous, Women ceased to have an independent place in social winds. Such winds spread even further the lethal radia- warlike tests. We should demand that the tests be halted. production-. Their productive role was determined by the family to which they belonged, by the man to whom they were subordinate. This economic dependence deter­ mined the second-class social status of women, on which the cohesiveness and continuity of the patriarchal family Drug test? Witness says 'No' has always depended . If women could simply take their children and leave, without suffering any economic or The proposal by the President's Commission on Or­ go to the men's room under the direct observation of a social hardship, the patriarchal family would not have ganized Crime for mandatory drug testing of all federal male member of the subcommittee staff to urinate in this survived through the millennia. workers is an intolerable invasion of personal privacy specimen bottle." The patriarchal family and the subjugation of women aimed at intimidating and weakening the democratic Smith angrily said no, he had not been warned that thus came into existence along with the other institutions rights of all working people. such a test would be necessary for him to testify. He of emerging class society in order to buttress nascent And recently, a member of the presidential commis­ would not accept such an intrusion on his rights. class divisions and perpetuate the private accumulation of sion had a perfectly natural response that drove the point Exactly so. He might well have added that the U.S. wealth. The state, with its police and armies, laws and home to the hilt. · Constitution is supposed to guarantee against such as­ courts, enforced this relationship. Ruling-class ideology, Rodney Smith, a member of the commission, was saults on personal privacy . The remaining question, of including religion, arose on this basis and played a vital asked to testify on the issue before a House subcommit- course, is: Do millions of federal workers have any less role in justifying the degradation of the female sex. tee . · rights than Rodney Smith? As Representative Ackerman He was asked to take the drug test before .testifying. noted before permitting Smith to testify, without taking The chairperson of the committee, Rep. Gary Acker­ the test, they would not get any warning either. For them, man (D-N. Y.), told Smith, "The chair will require you to it would be obligatory.

18 The Militant . Aprll 4, 1986 . . . south Africa: a revolution for Black land rights

Apartheid's Great Land Theft, the Struggle for the sharply increase restrictions on Africans' right to farm in on their landholding rights, forced removals, and other Right to Farm in South Africa. By Ernest Harsch. order to force many to accept jobs in the mines. The ex­ attacks. Pathfmder Press, New York. $1.25, 50 pages. propriation of the African farmers was extended in 1913 As a result of overcrowding and the refusal of govern­ when Africans were barred from owning land in all but ment help to peasants in the Bantustans, many Africans BY FRED FELDMAN 7.9 percent (later increased to 13.7 percent) of South Af­ there are landless. All but a few of those who till the land "We are fighting for the land, as we have for 333 rica. work less than 9 acres. The average white farm is more years." That was how Mannoko Nchwe, a representative "What is wanted," explained the president of the than 2,470 acres. Chamber of Mines in 1912, "is surely a policy that would One result of the land theft, Harsch shows, is wide­ establish once and for all that outside special reserves, spread malnutrition and disease- especially devastating the ownership of the land must be in the hands of the among Black children. Harsch quotes Chief Sabata IN REVIEW white race, and that the surplus of young [African] men, Dalindyebo, a traditional leader of the Tembu people in instead of squatting on the land in idleness and spreading the Transkei Bantustan, who was forced into exile by the out over unlimited areas, must earn their living by work­ regime: "The people are starving. Famine is widespread of the South African National Union of Mineworlgesture it again." It clouds the fact that her Political prisoner Two friends of mine wearing a pride, not her willingness to throw As an inmate incarcerated in "Fightfonny·unron, ·doamn right I . a .. punch, . is- what. got her into •AFTER GOO HAD fiNISHED TtfE RATTLESNAKE, Tt~E TOAD, AND one of New York State's correc­ will" T-shirt were enjoying a beer trouble in the white man's world. T~E VAMPIRE, HE HA0 5'0Me AWfUL STUF'F LEFT WITH WHICH tional facilities , with over 10 years in a bar the other night when one Another major change is the de­ HE MADE A SCAB. of direct contact and experience of three young men· approached piction of the relationship between "A SCAB IS A TWO·L£G6£D ANIMAL WITtt A CORKSCREW SOUL, with the "system," I ,have never, them to say that' one of their Celie and Shug Avery. Celie has A WATEf?I.C(,bED BRAIN, AND A. COMSIHATI~ BACKBONE MADE OF until the past three years, .consid­ friends would fight them over that desired Shug ever since she first JELLY AND GLUE. WHE~ OTHERS HAVE HEARTS, HE CA~RIES ered myself a politiC'al prisoner. T-shirt. It was a friendly gesture, saw her picture, and they eventu­ A TUMOR OF RoneN PRINCIPLES ... JUDAS ISCARIOT However, after examining the and they said to send the guy over. ally become lovers. While some of WAr;, A.6ENTLEtvW4 COMPAfEO fO A SCAB. FOR 8E ­ corrupt policies, incompetent offi­ All five got into a conversation . this is indicated in the film, the TRA'IIN6 HIS MASTER HE HAD THE cials and prison guards, and the and, as it turns out, two of them central role that the relationship CHARACTER TO HANG HtMSHF- THE failunt of DOCS to, truly reform· plays in Celie's development is were expe_rt debaters on the Emory SCA6 tiASN'T. ,: THERE IS NOTHIN& and rehabilitate offenders, I can University debating team. The eliminated. LOWER THAN A SCAB.'' now see the political influences .!bird, the ·one who would fight, Some suggest director Spiel­ JAO:. LONDON that perpetuate the vicious cycle of .. was avowedly procapitalist. berg was going for a GP rating by endless imprisonment for the The tw0 debaters, it turns out, playing down the nature of Celie's poor, Black, and minority sector were quite skilled in debating the and Shug's relationship. Obvi­ which inhabits these prisons. virtues of socialism over ously, rape, incest, and wife-beiit­ The Prison Subscription Fund, _capitalism. "We. never lose," they ing have no affect on that rating. which allows the free distribution I'm not suggesting that scenes like l·~id. "We debate Harvard, Yale, of the Militant, has also added to all the big Ivy League schools, and that should be censored, but I my enlightenment concerning po­ we never lose!" question why women finding love to develop and participate in pro­ They also met with Filipino­ litical issues which have a critical They then proceeded to discuss with other women is taboo when grams beneficial to the group. Americans and other opponents of effect on the unemployed, the un­ their sources of information. They violence against women by men is A prisoner the old Marcos dictatorship. educated, and those who are de­ ~~'lled a few - the Nation not. Stormville, f:iew York Patayan and Lara said 70 per­ nied equal access to the advan­ ~agazine, etc. But the best of all I do think the film is one of the cent of the Filipino population tages of American society. is, of course, the Militant. "That few of its caliber, both in terms of works the land. The big majority Thank you for your kindness really gets 'em!" acting and its rare, nearly all­ Appreciate coverage of these Filipinos own no land of . and your efforts in the struggle. Goes to show, the Militant does Black cast that allows the charac­ I appreciated the New York 8 + their own. Most of those who have A prisoner get around. ters to be real people. But my and Susan.Rosenberg trial cover­ a piece of land don't own enough Wallkill, New York Kate Daher feminist heart registers a protest age. It would be nice if you could to provide sufficient food for their Atlanta, Georgia against the homophobia and fear try to cover anti-imperialist fighter families. Poverty is endemic. Correction of women's strength that the alter­ Marilyn Buck's trial coming up. U.S. -based multinationals such An article in the March 28 Mil· ing of the original story demon­ She has fought in solidarity with as Cargill, Massey-Ferguson, Del strates. the same principles as the N.Y. itant on the abortion rights demon­ 'The Color Purple' Monte, Dunlop, and Dole directly stration in Los Angeles incorrectly I thought "The Color Purple" Diana Scalera 8 + and could use some unbiased own I 0 percent of the cultivable New York, N .Y. (or even pro) coverage. reported that workers in Hormel' s was well-acted and, for the most land in the Philippines. plants in Ottumwa, Iowa, and Fre­ part, stayed close to the story line Carl Ecland Lara pointed out that Cargill is Norway, Oregon mont, Nebraska, were on strike. of the novel~ one of the best I've producing yellow com for feed. These workers are not on strike. ever read. But I think the differ­ Excellent socialist paper All of this is for export, as there is They were fired by Hormel for ences between the film and novel I want to thank you for sending no livestock-raising in the Philip­ honoring striking United Food and are worth noting. your newspaper to me every week . Philippines pines . This is a slap in the face to Commercial Workers Local P-9's First is the changed character of I also want to state that working Two leaders of Kilusang Mag­ the hundreds of thousands of picket line at their plants. Later, Sophia. In the movie, she. is a people should be proud of having bubkid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the Filipinos who are starving and de­ the company locked out the work­ Ot.!~y . But in the book, Sophia is such a newspaper as the Militant Peasant Movement of the Philip­ manding farmland to produce ers at its Ottumwa plant. Celie's first glimpse of a woman - a newspaper that represents pines, toured here in early March. food . fighting back. She is not a bully, their interest. Congratulations, for Felicisimo Patayan, vice-chair­ The KMP was founded last July The letters column is an open but a woman alive and full of love, you make the Militant what it is­ man of the KMP, and Franciso through the merger of 52 regional forum for all viewpoints on sub­ who demands love and respect iri an excellent socialist newspaper. Lara, executive director of the and provincial peasant and farm jects of general interest to our return. Right now, I am the secretary of Philippine Peasant Institute, are worker organizations. It is af­ readers. Please keep your letters 1n the film, Sophia comes out education of Hispanics United for speaking to farm workers and farm filiated with Bayan , a coalition brief. Where necessary they will koking like someone who likes to Progress (HUD), an inmates or­ groups. The main purpose of their formed to oppose the Marcos . re­ be abridged. Please indicate if fi~ht and boss people around. ganization at this facility . Our pur­ tour was to explain the conditions gime. you prefer that your initials When she throws a punch at the pose is to provide the Hispanic and problems that face Filipino Gary Boyers be used rather than your full mayor, it's another in Sophia's "at population of the facility a means peasants. Toledo, Ohio name.

April 4, 1986 The Militant 19 THE MILITANT Gay rights bill wins in New York A gain for democratic rights of all working people

BY HARRY RING Hall: "God sent AIDS to punish gays - NEW YORK - A 15-year battle for Jewish Moral Committee." passage of a lesbian and gay rights bill has But the rabid right could not claim prin­ finally been won here. On March 20, the cipal credit for 15 years of blocking pas­ New York City Council voted 21 to 14 in sage of the bill. favor of the bitterly resisted statute. During that entire period, the bill only Pressure in favor of the bill continued to got to the floor of the city council once, in . mount until the very day of voting. With 18 1974, and was defeated . votes required for passage, proponents of In all the other years, it was simply the measure had announced a day earlier buried in committee. that they had 19 votes - if they all showed Passage was won in battle. Demands for up and none switched. All 19 were present its enactment have been an. important and voting, and two additional last minute theme of lesbian and gay rights demonstra­ votes were gained. tions, and organizations have lobbied per­ The measure bans discrimination in si~tently. jobs, housing, and public accommoda­ The evening before the council vote, tions. It amends and buttresses an existing several thousand people rallied in City Hall statute against discrimination on the basis Park. An earlier right-wing protest against of race, sex, or religion. the bill drew a few hundred. Its passage is particularly impressive and At the prorights rally, the depth of the encouraging iri that it comes at a time when sentiment for the measure was apparent in hysteria is being promoted around the the many hand-lettered signs and in the de- AIDS issue in order to intensify prejudice termined chants. · and discrimination against homosexuals. It was also manifest when Mayor Ed­ Adoption of the bill is a blow against ward Koch, a supporter of the measure, such discrimination. And it strengthens the spoke. Referring to the pending public Crowd in New York City's Greenwich Village celebrates city council's-passage of bill fight for democratic rights by women, op­ meeting of the city council, Koch ad­ banning discrimination against gays and lesbians. pressed nationalities, and all working monished the demonstrators to conduct people. themselves in a "gracious, responsible" At 8:00 in the morning, people were al­ their jubilation. Initially introduced in 1971 , the bill is way . ready waiting in line to get into the council Most people at the same time recognize said to be the longest debated piece of leg­ Also, he asserted, they should under­ session slated to begin at I :30 in the after­ that the bill is a limited one. Victims of dis­ islation in New York history. It ·was op­ stand the "frustrations and fears" of oppo­ noon. Only a fraction of those who lined up crimination in housing, jobs, or public posed with particular ferocity by the Cath­ nents of the rights bill. The crowd re­ during the morning were able to get into accommodations have recourse to filing a olic hierarchy and Orthodox Jewish sponded with cries of anger. the council chamber. complaint with the city's Human Rights groups. The tenor of their contribution to Throughoutthe cold night that follow~d, And that evening, after the bill was Commission and the right to take court ac­ the debate was summarized in the placard several dozen people participated in a passed, a thousand celebrants gathered at tion against offenders. The commission of an opponent of the bill in front of City candlelight vigil. Sheridan Square in 20° weather to express Continued on Page 13 April 19 California antiwar march builds

BY STEVEN FUCHS threatening the occupation of Nicaragua." Carlos Muiioz,·a member of the Faculty are dropped on children, women, and old SAN FRANCISCO - As the Reagan Labor was a big part of last year's mobili­ Committee on Human Rights in El Sal­ people, and it is paid for by our tax dol­ administration continues to press Congress zation, Henning said, and will be again this vador, said, "The time has come for lars." for more aid to the contras, the April 19 year. Latinos and Blacks especially to stand up County Supervisor George, who is also a Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice is Sister Margaret Cafferty told the news against this war. We would be in the front leader of the Bay Area Free South Africa winning more support. conference she was familiar with the work lines of this disaster if U.S. troops invade Movement, told the news conference that According to Alameda County Super­ of Reagan 's contra "freedom fighters." She Nicaragua." anti-apartheid activists will mobilize for visor John George, the march will be "a had traveled to Nicaragua on a work George Wesolek of the Archdiocese Jus­ the march. congress of the streets." brigade to help harvest coffee. An elderly tice and Peace Commission, said that on The demonstration is demanding: no couple had been ker hosts. They were sub­ his recent trip to El Salvador he witnessed Endorsers of the march include the AFL­ U.S. intervention in Central America and sequently kidnapped by contras and their that government's air war against the civil­ CIO labor councils in San Francisco, Sac- the Caribbean; end U.S. support for South mutilated bodies turned up later. ian population. "Every day tons of bombs Continued on Page 16 African apartheid; jobs and justice, not war; and freeze and reverse the nuclear arms race. The San Francisco coalition was first or­ TWA strikers reach out for support ganized in response to a national call early last year for demonstrations around these four demands. Nearly 125,000 people BY DON DAVIS climate in Nicaragua safe for our shops to Many flight attendants wore their TWA marched in Washington, D.C., and San NEW YORK- Striking TWA flight at­ run away to," Henning said. wings upside down, along with buttons Francisco on April 20, 1985 . tendants can lead in revitalizing the labor "There aren't any shops running away to reading "I am a breadwinner." These were This year's mobilization has already movement, a leader of the Independent Nicaragua today. They are running to El in response to earlier statements by Icahn won the support of a wide range of unions, Federation of Flight Attendants told a spi­ Salvador where we're spending millions to that the TWA women were not primary Central America and anti-apartheid rited rally here March 23 . prop up an illegitimate government." breadwinners and could afford to take groups, Black community leaders, Latino "We're in the public eye. Let's use it," Other speakers included Dan Kane of wage and benefit cuts without being hurt. organizations, gay and lesbian groups, and Karen Eitelberg told a crowd of 200 strik­ Teamsters Local Ill, Harold Mendlowitz One flight attendant told Icahn she had women's, students', and peace groups. ers and supporters. of Amalgamated Transit Union Local just signed up for welfare and found when Becky Cohen of the Nicaraguan Infor­ Eitel berg told the rally, "There is a con­ 1202, which organizes Greyhound work­ she subtracted child-care costs for her mation Center told the M ilitaf!t, "For us the spiracy in this country of senior corporate ers, and Bill Love of Musicians Local802. seven-year-old from kahn's proposed concept of peace, jobs, and justice means management to make the working class Following the rally, a caravan of some wages, she would be better off on welfare. Nicaragua. poor and the poor destitute and scared 30 cars took a leisurely drive past the TWA "And besides," she told him, "I'm a work­ "The $100 million proposed contra aid enough to take any job no matter whose it terminal at nearby Kennedy airport, slow­ aholic- I don't want-to go on welfare." should be used to fund social programs and is ." ing down operations there. not contra terrorism." She and other union officials who spoke Other strikers tried to educate Icahn on The U.S. -sponsored war against Nicara­ in solidarity with the TWA strike explained the importance of maintaining existing gua has left 14,000 Nicaraguans dead and that to counter this union-busting strategy, work rules for the sake of safety. But Icahn 250,000 homeless. Cohen warns that the labor must help raise the wages of all work­ BY JANE HARRIS kept coming back to the same thing - U.S. is heading toward even deepei: mili­ ers. BEDFORD, N.Y. - Some 200 un­ "You guys tell me how I can save $100 tary involvement. "We've got to reach our hands down to iformed TWA flight attendants visited this million." The Mobilization held a news confer­ the folks at the bottom and give them some wealthy suburb of New York City March Some flight attendants quickly got dis­ ence on March ·12. John Henning, execu­ dignity," said Bill Henning of Communi­ 22 to call on their multimillionaire boss, gosted with this complaint and walked tive secretary of the California Labor Fed­ cations Workers of America Local 1180. Carl Icahn. Their calling cards were large away. eration AFL-CIO, said that the Reagan ad­ This includes workers in other countries picket signs from the Independent Federa­ After confronting lcahn, the flight atten- ministration has "militarized the United and is linked to the question of not aiding tion of Flight Attendants (IFF A) union. dants moved to set up a picket line on the States." the contras fighting the Nicaraguan gov­ Escorted by bodyguards, TWA Presi­ main road, holding up signs reading "Baby "We sent troops to Grenada and mined ernment, he said. dent Icahn left his stone mansion and came Doc, Marcos," with the words crossed out. the harbors of Nicaragua. Now we're . "What Reagan is trying to do is make the to the cast iron gates to talk to the strikers. and then "Icahn."

20 The Militant April 4, 1986