World capital and Thelma and Louise Stalinism slew the "R" Us, writes Soviet economy Clara Fraser Page 6 Page 9 ~ Freedom Socialist Wile 1? /?evpf"'fl1t4~ 1iMiN;M.

May-July 1992 Volume 13, Number 3 (51.00 outside U.S.) 75c Let's tool up for a new system! . The government doesn't work BY MATT NAGLE ing-class white men are under at­ n the good 01' USA, the sun is shin­ tack in the streets, ing, the birds are singing, the flow­ courts, and legis­ ers are blooming - but the govern­ latures. Unions are Iment is sputtering, hacking and besieged, radicals wheezing in the throes of terminal do­ are persecuted. nothingness. The cities are poi­ We should all be delighted! soned war zones The fact that this inhuman, infernal, and the earth is be­ damned system is rapidly killing itself ing destroyed. means our chance to bust out of these So the politi­ dark days is tantalizingly close. cians talk about The U.S. government has developed meeting our needs, into a tiresome, petty passel of squab­ but they can't and .======"":"'"=~ bling, spoiled rich kids and everybody won't do anything. ~.MFoi~tr.RK_flMI!JiN;.IbaI~iMH!Hl··~_IJIbo~iIoU;.,"'""'-l.&.lu~~~~ ~~ to' a halt '\'fet'clU'se' th~'~pita\ls't'S)'.nem ,.~ problem~rwtthc that the government administers is out changing the cracking up. system - and they The Democrats and Republicans are are the system. feudin' like the Hatfields and McCoys. Leaders don't The Dems don't have the guts or a emerge from cess­ reason to stand up to the Republicans, pools. whose entire job consists of desperately making sure the wealthy stay that way. The race is on -so what? Now Last days of the dinosaurs. People we have a new line­ from coast to coast are realizing that up of presidential both sides in the Capitol Hill Grudge pretenders who Match are hopelessly out of touch. The promise to save us from those other p'ostage stamp than in the presidential will vanish. politicians' goofiness, corruption and guys, the bums. "I'm not one of them," primaries! Let's demand some real leaders. Let's naked ambition show to what level bour­ they say. They all claim to be protest nurture powerful and dynamic leader­ geois "leadership" has sunk. candidates! Not reform - revolution! We can't ship from among the most oppressed of The country is in crisis. The recession Jerry Brown, H. Ross Perot and Bill fix a structure that's beyond repair. The the working class. lingers, jobs are disappearing, home­ Clinton are hardly alternatives. We have capitalist party is over; its Republicrat Let's make revolution! We want it. lessness and AIDS are rampant. Women before us a slate of cynics, demagogues, managers are anachronisms. Let's orga­ We need it. After all, we have nothing to and women's rights aren't safe any­ idiots and liars, being received with a nize a new system, a beautiful socialist lose but our misery - and this ridicu­ where. People of color, Jews, lesbians nationwide yawn. In fact, more Ameri­ SOCiety where our day-to-day dread and lous gaggle of "leaders" that only an and gays and all minorities except rul- cans voted for their choice of Elvis Presley worries about how we're going to get by editorial cartoonist could love! D

Keep the ''Newspaper for Optimistic Rebels" from drowning in red ink Give to our S50,000 Fund Drive! o see the light at the end of the overworked and discriminated-against - for our Freedom Socialist $50,000 nized power of working people can ban­ tunnel, you have to be facing workers whose struggles and triumphs Fund Drive. We are deeply in debt and ish hard times. in the right direction. . are the real news of our era from South going deeper by the hour. And that's what we're all about. T That's what the Freedom Korea to South Africa. We know you understand why, be­ We tell the stories of the most Socialist has been doing for 16 years. To continue doing this, we need your cause you probably are, too. The current important newsmakers, from Chicana We've kept our eyes on the underpaid, openhanded financial support - now U.S. recession, which officially began in and Mexicana strikers besting Wat­ July 1990, has already lasted months sonville Canning in California, USA, to New Freeway Hall longer than any since World War 11- Arrernte Aboriginal people battling 5018 Rainier Ave. S. BULK RATE and it follows a decade in which most government land grabs in Australia's U.S. POSTAGE people's living standards headed down­ Northern Territory. Seattle, WA 98118 PAID SEATTLE, WA ward. People who have jobs know that As the newspaper for optimistic rebels, ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED PERMIT NO.1 003 they may be just one layoff away from the FS has been a valuable organizing joblessness; people with no jobs feel tool for nearly two decades. Now, our they may be just one bad break away fate rests with you. We must raise from homelessness. And there is not $50,000 by September 1. much loose change rattling around in Twenty-five years ago, at the 1966 people's pockets. founding of the Freedom Socialist Party, This is the most crucial time to give a six-page, 8 1/2 by 7-inch pamphlet generously, in order to keep the radical called the Freedom Socialist found its press from going under. The capitalist way from a typewriter to a xerox economy can't heal itself; only the orga- to page 3 2 Freedom Socialist May-July 1992

In This Issue Letters Judge blocks records raid 10, 11 Yugoslav thanks our continued support. Send let­ The 1981 FS editorial "Black On the eve of trial, the Free­ ters to Steven Farmer, #936785- politiCS in the year of Atlanta" Thank you very much for the way Hall Case radi­ B5-13, Twin Rivers Correctional tackled both white law enforce­ Freedom Socialist. I found it very Facility, P.O. Box 888, Monroe, ment, for covering up Klan in­ cals have won interesting, especially the articles reaffirmation WA, 98272-0888. volvement, and the Atlanta Black "Abortion wars in EasternEu­ Stonewall Committee for of privacy rights. rope" and "One last time: Hands establishment, for questioning Lesbian/Gay Rights the "morals" of the murdered OFF our bodies" (Vol. 13 #1). What's this crucial Seattle, Washington children and castigating Atlanta Dear friends, as you know my lawsuit all about? The residents who armed themselves country is at war. Unfortunately, and patrolled schoolyards and defendants explain. I do not have enough money to New Gay anthology playgrounds to protect their buy a subscription. But if I can Gay Roots: Twenty Years of youth. help you, please let me know. Gay Sunshine, by Winston Wayne Williams, the gay, Fighting racism Vedran Vucic Leyland, is painful in that much Black music promoter who was of the horror we Gay folk had to on campus Subotica, Yugoslavia framed for the homicides, is now face in our everyday lives is spo­ being represented by William The pioneering attempt ken of in its pages. The simply Kunstler and may be awarded a to win an Ethnic Studies Istanbul Marxists splendid defiance that we exhib­ new trial. Let's hope he is free We are a Marxist group in ited from the commencement of Requirement at the Univer­ soon and that the KKK and their Turkey known by the name of the first Gay Liberation Fronts in sity of Washington flunked. apologists are brought to justice. one of our periodicals, GELENEK 1969 comes through. How can the next try earn a This reminder from the past (Tradition) and are aiming at The section on Gay history is brought home to me the impor­ passing grade? Irene Mora forming a political party. balanced among various cultures tance of Left papers like the FS, reports. We would like to follow your to indicate that We Are Every­ without which we would never editions regularly. Please send us where. learn the truth. the latest copies of your newspa­ Do yourself a favor and go out Enclosed is a $120 donation International Labor per and inform us about sub­ and buy one. Share your copy scriptions for libraries. to the FS Fund Drive. Israel 3 Political button fight 4 with a few friends; it will do them Su Docekal Dunya Yayincilik a world of good. Dateline Australia 4 Nelson vs. Tribune 5 Istanbul, Turkey Seattle, Washington Soviet Union 6,7 Teamster reform 12 Morris Kight Los Angeles, California Mary Pitawanakwat 10 Free Steve Farmer Remember Salem Features There's good news onthe Steve U.S. war crimes This year marks the 300th an­ FSfund drive 1 niversary of the infamous witch National Farmer case! Good god! Buried alive? I knew U.S. gov't paralyzed 1 Editorials First, he has a new attorney, that hundreds of thousands of hunts in Massachusetts. I suggest Open letter to CPUSA 7 Cops and Nazis 8 Jim Lobsenz, the well-known people died during the Persian that we set some time aside in Gay march on D.C. 8 ACLU lawyer who helped Black, Gulf War. But I never realized 1992 to remember the Salem mar­ Movie review: /FK 8 gay sergeant Perry Watkins win how agonizing those deaths had tyrs. If church-crazy goons try to Civil liberties Clara Fraser 9 his lO-year discrimination suit been until I learned that thou­ close a family planning center, Freeway Hall Case 10, 11 Voices of Color 9 against the U.S. Army. sands of Iraqi soldiers died of join the resistance. If Christian And recently a witness for the suffocation when they were bur­ fundamentalists try to push anti­ prosecution, Steven Katz, re- ied alive in their trenches. gay legislation, push back. canted his testimony, saying he The tragedy of the Gulf War is Women know that the mix of church and state is never funny. lied on the stand at the coercion that those deaths might have of Mike Hogan, a gay hatchet been avoided. Because we failed We're the ones who get the worst Freedom Socialist Credo man in the King County to pursue diplomacy, the real trag­ of the mix. The Freedom Socialist boldly confronts and Prosecutor's Office. Hogan .se- .. edy is we'll never khow. Wilma BuDard makes sense of the dizzying events shaping duced Katz into falsely testifying Jeffrey Alan Bullock Hartford, Connecticut that Steve told him he was HIV D own' In gt on, Pennsy I vania . today's revolutionary world. positive. Steve deserves a much shorter Readers are encouraged to submit We're Marxists, Leninists, Trvtskyists, femi­ letters, news stories, commentary, nists, humanists... we believe that all today's sentence. Five years ago he was Cops, Klan coverup con victed of patronizing a young Who would have thought that cartoons, graphics, photographs, gigantic upheavals are links in an enormous male prostitute, was force-tested Geraldo Rivera would be the one and pertinent resource information. global effvrt tv tvpple the tyranny vf imperial­ for AIDS and received an abomi­ to vindicate a prophetic, contro­ ism vr Stalinist bureaucratism vr radst arrv­ nable seven-and-one-half-year versial editorial published by the gance. sentence solely for being gay and Freedom Socialist? HIV positive. Heterosexual men I remembered the editorial the Correction We hail the decisive leadership role played in similar circumstances often other night as I watched Geraldo To our everlasting chagrin, we by pevple vf cvlvr and by sexual and nativnal receive a three-month sentence. present documentation that the misidentified the book Lenin's minvrities in the wvrldwide class struggle. Steve has been moved to a KKK was responsible for the 1979- Fight Against Stalinism as lower security penitentiary in 1981 mass murder of young Black Lenin's Fight Against Socialism We fvcus vn womftl's nvn-stop fight fvr Monroe, Washington. He needs men and boys in Atlanta. last issue on our centerfold. equality, which, in the final analysis, chal­ lenges every single basis on which capitalism rests. Our goal is tv inject the svdalist m~l(ement with the revitalizing ideas vfTrotskyism and 08J)eR. NOWl feminism in vrder tv prepare it for victory in this crucial decade. Compelling poetry Staff Managing Editor Editorial Assistant Design & Andrea Bauer janet Sutherland Production from a rebel artist jon Plummer Production Consulting Editors jon Walwick Manager Yolanda Alaniz Matt Holland "~rodine ... writes with startling precision Kathleen Merrigan Doug Barnes Marcel Hatch about the oppressive hourly rhythms of Clara Fraser Ryan Braun work, flesh imprisoned by machines, and Asst. Production Guerry Hoddersen Mickey Pettyjohn how the soul adamantly slips through in Manager Henry Noble jesse Le Steve Hoffman luminous moments and prevails." Business Assistant Camera - PRAIRIE MILLER, People's Weekly World Business Manager jackie Nghiem & Printing. Wendy McPherson Advertising Services Illustrators VALCO Graphics $8.95 • 120 pages· Paperback· ISBN 0·932323-01-4 Staff Writer Su Docekal ~------I Matt Nagle Nguyen Huan I Please send me copies of Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking at $8.95 each. I

The Freedom Socialist (lSSN 0272-4367) Is published quarterly by the I (Add $1.50 shipping cost for first book, 50¢ each additional book.) Enclosed: $ ~ Freedom Socialist Party, New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Avenue South, I I Seattle, WA 98118. Phone: 206-722-2453. Subscriptions: I-year $5.00 Name Date I (institutions $10.00), 2-year Supporting Sub $25.00, 3-year Sustaining Sub I (please print) $50.00, 5-year Sponsoring Sub $100.00. Add $5.00 for overseas airmail. Back copies $.75 each. Checks or money orders to Freedom Socialist at the I Address City I address above. In Australia: I-year $6.00 AUD, airmail. Mail payment to I I P.O. Box 266, West Brunswick, VIC. 3055. Phone: 30-386-5065. In Canada: I-year $6.00 CAD, airmail. Mail paymenttol03-1055 E. Cordova, I State Zip Phone(s) I Vancouver, BC V6A IM8. Phone: 604-254-9440. Current subscribers: I I Appearing on your malling label is a number which indicates how many LRetur~i~aym~ to R~Letter Press, 409 May~rd Av~~201, Seattle, wa~ngton 98104. 206-682·0990. -.J more issues you are due to receive. "0" means this is your last issue. May-July 1992 Freedom Socialist 3 Israel floods occupied areas with settlers as II peace process" fizzles

BY ANDREA BAUER class Arab Israelis. But no matter how the refuge its founders dreamed of and sary military operation at the same time rigidly it fortifies itself, this isolated for­ its immigrants seek. In fact, it is a death that it attempts to gain funding for t's like a magician's trick. With tress can never be strong enough to trap for the Jews, and will be for as long them by portraying them as the height everyone's eyes on the "peace shake its economic, military, and politi­ as its existence depends on the denial of of humanitarianism. process," what's really going on in cal dependence on the capitalist West. Palestinian national rights. As long as it Israeli rulers have nothing to lose I the Mideast is accelerated war, Is­ is allied with the U.S., Israel is a light­ and everything to gain by going along rael against Palestine - settlement of The U.S.: head conjurer of Mid- hing rod for the hostility of oppressed with the peace talks. While the diplo­ occupied territory, draconian curfews, east tricks. Israel was created by world Arabs toward imperialism. Divorced mats parry and palaver, the Israeli pres­ blanket bans on travel, discriminatory capitalism as a garrison against Arab from the U.S., it would be hardly less ence in the territories jells. and excessive taxation, detention with­ revolt and a junior part- hated - and incredibly vulnerable. out charges, prisoner death by torture, ner in maintaining impe- But there is not Solidarity among workers the killing of civilians, assassination, II open­ rialist control of Mideast only path to peace. Opposition to fire II policy against stone-throwers, de­ oil. Its economy would the Israeli takeover of Pales tin- portation, destruction of homes and capsize without gargan- ian land is grow- property, university closures, and re­ tuan subsidy from the ing. U.S. Jews are peated bombings of refugee camps. globe-masters who gave uneasy; IsraeliJews The biggest rabbit under the peace­ it life - the U.S. has have taken to the process hat is the tripling of settlement handed over $50 billion streets in mass pro- activity in the West Bank, Gaza, and just in upfront loans tests. And for Pales- East Jerusalem. and grants over the past tinians in the West • Israel has confiscated 35,000 more 40 years. Bank, Gaza, and acres of land since March 1991. But today, the spe- Jerusalem, resistance • On February 18 of this year, a West cial U.S.-Israeli rela- in the form of the Bank settlement was inaugurated as an tionship appears to be Intifada is now, as Israeli city for the first time. in jeopardy. Much of one Palestinian po- • New housing for up to 50,000 colo­ this is shadow-play. litical analyst put it, nists is under construction in the West The Zionist re- "more than an event: Bank and Gaza. Prime Minister Yitzhak gime must freeze it has become a way of Shamir has vowed to populate the terri­ new construction in life. II tories with Jews lito the end of the hori­ the occupied terri- . The increasing re- zon," in keeping with his Zionist view tories, Washington pugnance against Is- that Jews have the right and the destiny says, if it wants the raeli expansion and ter- to turn Palestine into an exclusively U.S. to guarantee ror will be effective Jewish enclave. $ 10 billion in loans when it is harnessed to over the next five a viable alternative. The Israel: usurper of Palestine, poor years. solution that will enable cousin to the West. Israel's obses­ But Israel is Palestinian Arabs and Is- sive drive to forcibly absorb the last asking only that raeli Jews to live side by fragments of Palestine and to strip the the U.S. cosign commUnal la d on IN side in peace is the estab- Palestinians of every vestige of national loans from pri- its original re~ds. Israel now con ~dst Bank protest. ' lishment of a bilateral, in- rights is inherent in its nature as a state. vate banks so that ents say otherw. s ers Ommtouba ng confilstat:ii:::-:-~ tegrated, secular, and so- Because it was founded on the dis­ it can get 1<;>"'" iIiter~st rates.andSQ;t~e _ ,.' '.. se. part of Jerusalem; cialist state with full rights possesslon'ofthe Palestinians, Israel will banks are msured m case of Israehde- much chance ' for all. be continue to be surrounded by impla­ fault. U.S. refusal to guarantee the loans of separation soon. The U.S. can Farfetched? Something cable enemies. Palestinians will never can be gotten around. not countenance Palestinian self-deter- only a magic act could produce? No. relinqUish the fight for self-determina­ Much more to the point is that the mination and it must stave off Arab The long bloody history of the Mideast tion, and their just claim is supported approximately $4 billion that the U.S. rebellion, and Israel is still its best shows that every other approach is by much of the world. now gives Israel in outright aid each helpmate. doomed to fail. And the new settlements, like Israel year will be delivered as usual. In the short run, a resolution such as itself, can only be created by physically In the U.S.-Israeli relationship, the Zionism seeks strength, security the establishment of a Palestinian state displacing vast numbers of people. About tail is not wagging the dog. On the through immigration. With a on the West Bank could be an improve­ 750,000 Palestinians live in the 140- contrary, the danger is that some day population of only four million and a ment. But this would not bring an end square-mile Gaza Strip, one of the world's the U.S. ruling class may decide that it low birth rate, the Israeli government to the deadly antagonism between Jew most crowded areas. can protect its interests in the Mideast considers that the state's immediate sur- and Arab, as Israel- so powerful but so The Palestinians are challenging the without Israel's help. One of the many vival depends on immigration. The de- sick economically - would ineVitably occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and disturbing surprises of the Gulf war was sire of great numbers of Soviet Jews to prey upon a much weaker, bantustan- EastJ erusalem with the magnificent and the ease with which George Bush mar- relocato Israel's prayers and plans. like Palestine. intractable Intifada, to which Zionism shalled the Arab bourgeoisie into his Many of these ex-Soviets have al- Ultimately, an alliance between the responds with ever greater repression. corner so that he could send troops in ready been plunked down in the occu- commonly exploited Arab and Jewish Israel's permanent state of hostilities with impunity. pied territories, where Israel is using working classes is the only thing that with the Arabs has in turn necessitated The possibility of a sundering of U .S.- them as a human battering ram against can end the infernal stage-managing of a domestic police state in which no one Israeli ties throws into sharp relief the Palestine. The Israeli right wing openly Mideast affairs by the capitalists once is free, least of all the distantly second- fact that the real Israel is the opposite of characterizes the settlements as a neces- and for all. 0

Keep the "Newspaper for Optimistic Rebels" alivel from page I mains the same. But the bills generated by machine and into the hands of a few Every edition, we back up our confi­ our stepped-up production are dozen radicals in Seattle and around the dence with hard facts and penetrating looming over us ominously. country. Ten years later the FS made its analysis. To keep publishing, we need debut as a regularly appearing tabloid. As world events hurtle along at break­ your help! We're relying on you Today, the voice of revolutionary neck speed toward the 20th-century fin­ to give generously today to our feminism is a 12 to 24-page quarterly ish line, as Stalinism cracks up and capi­ fund drive. talism cracks down, the Freedom Social­ Please grab the enclosed pre­ Our basic ist staff is working overtime both to paid envelope, make a donation, assess the dangers and to make the most and contribute today to the cultiva­ message offaith of extraordinary new opportunities. tion of a whole new world. 0 in the working r ---- Yes, I want the II'ccdom Socialist to keep publishing ------, class remains I 0 $1,000 will mail one issue all over the world. ....ame I the same. II 0 $500 will pay the cost of renting extra please print ~ distributed to thousands of readers all computers for final production. Address ______~ over the globe. Naturally, our expenses each issue have also expanded dramati­ I 0 $100 will air-ship several bundles City State I cally - from a few bucks in 1966 to I of one edition to Eastern Europe. Zip I $10,500 today. And we're still growing. I 0 $50 will subsidize xeroxing for one month. Country Phone I But some things we haven't tam­ I 0 Other $ I pered with. Our basic message of faith I Send checks to Freedom Socialisl 5018 Rainier Ave. South, I in the working class, led by its most L 0 ~'edge per month for ~onths. ______Seattle, W~98118, US~206-722-2453 ____ .-J sorely tried and harassed members, re- $-=-=- -=-

,- - -- -'-- --- 4 Freedom Socialist May-July 1992 Free speech in the library? Not for staff, says management

BY JANET SUTHERLAND management's outrageous claim that a outspoken opponent of cuts in services mythical obligation of information-giv­ proposed by the City Council. hen Seattle Public Library ers to be "neutral" justifies suppressing And, in this instance, workers point officials tried to bar an employee's free speech rights. out that the public's right to know may worker Wendy McPherson Union members and library users also be jeopardized by banning the W from wearing a political but­ spoke their minds about the library's speech of library employees. ton in support of Yolanda Alaniz, a duty, as a storehouse of ideas as well as In protesting the button ban before Freedom Socialist Party candidate for facts, to protect the right to share those the library board, members of the pub­ City Council, the bureaucrats picked a ideas, even if unpopular. They pOinted lic learned from workers that manage­ fight that rebounded, blowing the lid out how selective the enforcement of ment has been quietly scheming to im­ off management's plan to charge fees the library's so-called "neutrality" policy pose fees for library services - some for library services. had been, since staffers had long been already existing free ones, like faxing McPherson went right on wearing allowed to wear all kinds of buttons material to users, and many expanded the button. And she rallied support from backing mainstream candidates. ones catering to business. fellow workers, the two library unions Management's problem arose when Organizing against this outrage has (AFSCME 2083 and 2083-C), and the someone wanted to wear the word "so­ now kicked off; the embattled library King County Labor Council. Th e uproar cialist" on a lapel! board has postponed its decision on the forced the library board to appoint a Unions see any attack on free speech button issue indefinitely; and McPher­ task force and hold a February hearing as an implied attack on their own right son is currently circulating buttons read­ on the issue. At the public hearing, to organize and call this incident a case ing "No fees for services." She and her more came to the surface than just in point, since McPherson has been an coworkers wear them proudly. 0

Dateline Australia Labor Party Accord laid basis for new regressive taxes

BY PETER MURRAY really took hold in mid-1991. ing the working class via a set of pro­ population of slightly less than 600,0001 Butin recent months, companies had posed initiatives called the "Fightback "Ah," you ask, "What keeps the govern­ ustralia is a mess. The world­ to massively devalue their falsely in­ Program." This policy has two central ment in power?" The treachery of union wide depression has hit par­ flated assets. The Wiping-off of billions planks - the almost total outlawing of and Labor Party leaders is one answer­ ticularly hard here, and of dollars in assets - one mining com- strikes and union activity and the intro- Australia and New Zealand both have A more than 20 percent of the our Lane Kirklands, our equivalents of workers are out of a job. (Unemployment The reactionary LiberallNational coalition the "AFL-CIA" in the U.S. The other is "officially" around 12 percent.) At answer is that the government in New least four out of 10 people under 25 are plans to make individual workers pay Zealand has basically outlawed the right jobless - in some communities, nine to organise. out of 10. Real wages are down to the for the cost of strikes, But here's news: the anti-worker pro­ level of the 1960s, and roll-backs of gram that the current Thatcherite gov­ working conditions are the most set up fantastic barriers against union organisers ernment is implementing is the pro­ significant since unions in this country gram ofthe New Zealand Labor Party. were organised. talking to members, and reduce unions When the U.S. air-traffic controllers' Presiding over this catastrophe is the union, PATCO, was busted in 1981, it Australian Labor Party government of to the status offootball clubs. was in the cause of "Reaganomics." Here Prime Minister Paul Keating. Keating we refer to "Roger-nomics" - after the was one of the party bosses who struck pany alone lost $680 million - means duction of a Goods and Services Tax Labor Party Treasurer of New Zealand, a deal with the Australian Council of that big capital is now scratching around (GST). Roger Douglas. Trade Unions in 1983 that forced upon for new ways to screw Australian work­ This country already has some of the The conservatives in Australia will workers a "social contract" deliberately ers. most regressive and intrusive taxation follow the NZexample, should they win aimed at increasing profits through low­ laws in the world, brought in under federal office in the March 1993 elec­ ering wages. For the bosses, it succeeded Making workers pay for the cor­ Keating's sponsorship. Workers suffer tion. Theyplan to make individual work­ stunningly: dividends and executive pay porate crisis. Enter the reactionary the burden of extremely high govern­ ers pay for the cost of strikes. They packages increased, despite the ruin­ opposition coalition made up of the ment charges for state-run utilities, tele­ propose to set up fantastic barriers ation of industry, until the recession Liberal and National parties. It is attack- communications, public transport and agains t uni on organisers talking to m em­ health. These are coupled with high bers' making them subject to heavy income tax - about 33 percent on aver­ fines should they "interfere with pro­ age - and hidden sales taxes. duction"; unions would be reduced to The conservative coalition wants to the status of football clubs. They intend impose a 15 percent up-front tax.on all to remove the minimum wage and to CALIFORNIA goods and services whilst cutting $20 destroy the eight-hour day in the coun­ Los Angeles: 1918 W. 7th St., #204, Los Angeles, CA 90057. billion from government spending. In try where, in 1856, the first strikes to 213-413-1350. return, these Tories plan to offer a paltry win this gain were held. San Francisco Bay Area: 523-A Valencia St., San Francisco, CA But more and more Australian work­ 94110.415-864-1278. six percent cut in income tax. This is an appalling threat to living ers are coming to believe that voting NEW YORK standards. Housing, for example, is in­ Labor is no answer to this reactionary New York City: 32 Union Square E., Rm. 907, NY, NY 10003. credibly expensive in proportion to av­ assault. For, you see, the first major 212-B77-7002. erage take-home pay and many people advocate of installing a consumption OREGON can no longer afford to rent, let alone tax during this recession was Paul Portland: 7038 N. Fairport PI., Portland, OR 97217.503-289-7082. buy. Under the GST, a weekly rent of Keating, five years ago! And the odds are WASHINGTON $200 would jump to $230. But the me­ that he'll still go ahead with a disguised Port Angeles: 512 E. 7th, Port Angeles, WA 98362. 206-452-7534. dian take-home pay is less than $400- version of the tax - because under Seattle: National Office, Bush Asia Center, 409 Maynard Ave. and that's for males! On top of this, capitalism there is no solution to eco­ South, Seattle, WA 98104.206-682-0990. FAX 206-682-8120. every single item of food and clothing, nomic crisis, no matter who's in power, Seattle Branch, New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. South, every litre of fuel, every train ticket other than squeezing the workers. Seattle, WA 206-722-2453. FAX 206-723-7691. would also be increased by 15 percent. Workers in Australia will resist new Tacoma: P.O. Box 5847, Tacoma, WA 98405.206-752-3678. Even Left organisations would be dra­ forms of being taxed to death regardless gooned into collecting the tax from of who imposes them. Hopefully, the AUSTRALIA fundraising events and literature sales! fight against the GST will help bring Melbourne: P.O. Box 266, West Brunswick, VIC 3055. into existence a genuinely anti-capital­ 03-386-5065. Right to unionise comes under ist party of all the oppressed, a party that CANADA fire. When levied in neighbouring New is prepared to take the field in struggle Vancouver, BC: 103 1055 E. Cordova St., Vancouver, BC V6A 1M8. Zealand, the tax provoked mass pro­ against the capitalists rather than to 604-254-9440. tests. 250,000 demonstrators marched managing their exploitative system for in Wellington, the capital, which has a them. 0 May-July 1992 Freedom Socialist 5

UW professor defends embattled journalist Sandy Nelson

ent from the idea that a reporter can't ished journalists for her determination can play any role at all in informing us. even be a citizen in the evening or on to mak~ a public claim that she is en­ The alternative - reporters who must weekends!) titled to exercise all the rights of any disavow their own thoughts and aspira­ The hiring screening procedure fills person. It is her opinion about reporter tions so they can serve only the corpo­ newsrooms with people willing to forgo loyalty, about speech and political ac­ rate goals - is depriving the nation of a their rights, but ethics code language tivity, that has to endure if journalism press it might learn to value. 0 then mak~Hea~fftotrans~~ repri- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ mand, or even fire the few activists. The march, petition, yard sign or (you fill in the blank) creates "an appearance of a BY conflict" between journalistic duty to Reporter Sandy Nelson ROGER report fairly and the cause, the argu­ SIMPSON ment goes. The real harm caused by "appearances" is impossible to docu­ raps freelancing ban SPECIAL TO THE FREEDOM SOCIAUST ment, but the notion of harm makes a convenient excuse for requiring report­ here are at least two opinions ers to stay out of politics. about where a newspaper Logically lame, the argument ignores reporter's ultimate loyalty lies. the industry's oft-repeated confidence T "My constitutional right to that "professional training" and the "ed­ free speech is not negotiable," Sandy iting process" take care of any bias. It Nelson has said. Nelson, a respected also runs counter to a plaint heard more education writer for the McClatchy often these days even within the news­ Morning News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash­ paper business: Reporters are so detached ington, was moved to the copy desk from their communities that they don't there because she thinks that political know what is coming down until it's too liberty means one does what she can to late. promote the cause of labor, abortion Sandy Nelson ran afoul of an ethics rights, or laws protecting gays and code that is opposed by the Pacific North­ lesbians. west Newspaper Guild and many of her Publishers have coined the other coworkers and that hadn't even been opinion about a reporter's loyalty: As a adopted yet by her employer, the Morn­ condition of employment, reporters ing News Tribune. The code would have must check any pretensions to rights of forbidden things Nelson had done such free speech or association at the news­ as carrying a sign in an abortion rights room door - a ban that extends past march and working for a city gay-rights Nelson Defense Committee working hours to all hours. ordinance. members. Reclining: Mickey Pettyjohn. Back row;;;, ------4.-..l It's an important story that the jour­ Some ethics regulations deprive re­ from left: Sally Boyle, Lee Linthicum, Laurie Jinkins, Wanda Davis. ha1islh~stablishnient ;refuses to touch: porters of all rights of asso<;iation and Front row, from 'left:: Laura Williams, Sandy Nelson, Terri Stewart. The newspaper business strips its own assembly except membership in a writers of opportunities to use the very church - which is for many the most ban on freelance writing with­ driven, people-crunching nature of the political process it claims to revere. political of all associations. out prior management per­ media industry. To media moguls, free Equally invidious are loosely written mission is the newest reprisal speech and freedom of the press are How reporters are shorn of their codes that leave it to managers to de­ Aby the Tacoma, Washington privileges that belong to the people rights. The policy is backed by a tight­ cide, with scant guidelines, if a political Morning News Tribune against journal­ who own the press, not common rights. ening net of internal controls and a offense violates the strictures. Thus, a ist Sandy Nelson. Managing editor Jan They certainly don't like spirited les­ legal doctrine that serves the employers reporter's work in the Republican or Brandt issued the prohibition after bian socialists in the newsroom. in court showdowns. The chief instru­ Democratic Party might never be no­ learning in February that Nelson, who But Nelson and her thousands of ment of the industry's campaign has ticed, while the activist who commits is city organizer for Radical Women, supporters have news for the higher­ been codes of ethics and newsroom prac­ herself to the concerns of people of had written two columns (unpaid) for ups: They want her byline back and tice, adopted with an incredible sense of color or gays and lesbians will be called Washington Woman News, a feminist Nelson is calling the MNT McCarthy­ urgency in the past 20 years. Today, in to account. It's clear that the codes are monthly. ites to account wherever she goes. an economic sector shrinking in an ad­ applied unfairly, in line with editors' In 1990, MNTbosses transferred Nel­ At this writing, Nelson was spread­ vertising recession, the codes function invariably cautious sense of what the son, a prize-winning education reporter, ing the word via an East Coast tour. to command obedience from workers public and advertisers will tolerate. to a non-reporting position because First stop: Boston, for OutWrite '92, who know that their chances of finding they didn't approve of the work she did this year's annual lesbian and gay writ­ new jobs are declining. At issue: What is a free press? The on her own time promoting passage of ers' conference, where Nelson addressed Codes cover all manner of journalist newspapers' passion for code-wrHing is a lesbian and gay rights initiative. They the more than 1,000 participants. niceties - when you can accept a free linked to fears about declining reader­ claimed that Nelson's political parti­ Next came New York City, for two ticket, for example - but invariably ship, slipping profits, and consumer­ sanship was not ethical because it engagements. One was a public forum come around to after-hours activity. dollar grabs by new information media. breached a reporter's duty to be objec­ on her case, "Defending the constitu­ (Most reporters I know, including Gains from widespread automation of tive, creating the "appearance" of a tional rights of journalists," with Helen Nelson, don't argue with the idea that production in the 1970s have long since conflict. (Please see article on left.) Zia, executive editor of Ms. magaZine; they should keep their political views been spent; many businesses have their Now, after having broken the union Donna Minkowitz, reporter for the Vil­ out of their stories. But this is far differ- backs to the wall in defense of their at the MNT, the company is planning lage Voice; and Key Martin, chair of the product. They feel threatened by re­ to institutionalize the no-political-in­ New York Newpaper Guild atTime Inc. porter activism. volvement rule for all employees MagaZine Co. Following that, Nelson Roger Simpson is an Associate But readers need writers who are in­ through a formal ethics code. An ethics spoke before the Lesbian and Gay J our­ Professor of Communications at volved in changes going on in society. committee hand-picked by manage­ nalists Association's New York branch. the University of Washington in Such journalists can serve as the senti­ ment is writing the new policy. To support Nelson with a donation Seattle. He is currently research­ nels at the tower, the whistleblowers MNT officials are raising the issue of or endorse, write to the Sandy Nelson ing how newspapers began cover­ and muckrakers the public needs. objectivity as a pretext to diScipline Defense Committee at 1112 North K ing lesbian and gay issues during Sandy Nelson is unusual among a wri ters who dare to challenge the profit- St., Tacoma, WA, 98403. 0 the 1960s and 70s. growing number of chastised and pun-

An international socialist feminist organization in the front lines of the fight against racism, sexism, fascism, anti-gay bigotry and labor exploitation. Radical Women CALIFORNIA OREGON Spokane: W. 3005 Boone, Spokane, WA 99201. Los Angeles: 1918 W. 7th St., #204, Los Angeles, Portland: 7038 N. Fairport PI., Portland, OR 509-327-9196. CA 90057. 213-413-1350. 97217.503-289-7082. Tacoma: p.o. Box 5847, Tacoma, WA 98405. San Francisco Bay Area: National Office, 523-A WASHINGTON 206-752-3678. Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110. Port Angeles: 512 E. 7th, Port Angeles, WA 98362. 415-864-1278. 206-452 -7 534. • • • NEW YORK Seattle: New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. AUSTRALIA New York City: 32 Union Square East, Rm. 907, South, Seattle, WA 98118. 206-722-6057. Melbourne: P.O. Box 266, West Brunswick, New York, NY 10003,212-677-7002. FAX 206-723-7691. VIC 3055. 03-386-5065. i

6 May-July 1992 Freedom THE SOVIET ECONOMY: vi. imp-erialisl sgueeze p-Ials and Siali

BY ANDREA BAUER sion and civil war, foreign enemies occupied three­ the USSR was not SOcialism, but a transitional quarters of Soviet territory. Under an economic organization of society that could lead to socialism. Without ecipe for the Economic System from Hell: blockade, the country went hungry; fuel became And they subscribed to the Marxist view that so­ First, take one backward country that just a memory. While little else moved, typhoid cialism could only be achieved on the foundation by the 1 has just made the world's first socialist and other epidemics spread across the land. of a higher productivity than that existing in capi­ Rrevolution. Make sure country is fresh from These conditions forced Lenin, Trotsky, and the talist countries. Raising productivity to this high over 1 feudalism, poor, primarily agrarian, embroiled in a other Bolsheviks to adopt an emergency economic pitch would reqUire the combined efforts of many world war, and lacking developed productive forces. policy that became known as military or war com­ nations, using an international diviSion of labor Beat vigorously with steady capitalist aggression. munism, which subordinated every other consid­ and the most modern techniques. should be Add a Stalinist bureaucracy seasoned generously eration to defense of the new Soviet state. The Proletarian revolutions seemed imminent in with stupidity and cupidity. military government rapidly grasped control over countries such as Britain, China, and Bulgaria, and how it sl Continue to beat vigorously with capitalist aggres­ the distribution of goods; to keep the soldiers and the early Soviet communists especially looked to sion for seventy years. cities alive, the government sometimes took grain the highly advanced insurgent countries, like Ger- This recipe serves up an economy that by 1983 and raw materials from the peasants at produced, could provide only 36 percent of its households gunpoint and paid them with worth­ with something as simple as a vacuum cleaner. less paper money. should Yet this is the same economy that fueled the By the time the Red Army pushed meteoric rise of the Soviet Union to a superpower most of the aggressors out in late 1920, that provided homes, jobs, and free education and industrial output had dropped to only the work health care for all citizens; ran neck-and-neck with 14 percent of what it had been before the almighty U.S. in an exorbitantly expensive the war. By 1921, the amount of for­ could onl, arms marathon; initiated and won the space race; eign trade had plummeted from three produced some of the world's best athletes; and billion rubles to only 30 million. tempora ri I repeatedly made scientific and medical history. Given the collapse of production Now, for good and for bad, that economy is and the dangerous antagonism be­ crumbling. Cheerleaders for capitalism say the death tween city and countryside, the Bol­ capitalist is a natural one, that socialism is doomed to fail. sheViks believed that their first priority But the record of the 20th century reveals other­ after the defeat of the counterrevolu­ wise. It shows how the enmity of the world bour­ tion was restoration of the market. A left, a homeless CII! geoisie and the self-aggrandizement of the Soviet sturdy alliance with the peasants, who below, Gorbachev's dac bureaucratic caste managed to derail a powerful made up 80 percent of the population, economic system that is still destined to one day had tQ, be rebuilt; market trade was the outstrip capitalism on every front. only economic relationship with which they were familiar. Recovery from war and backwardness. Additionally, a centralized economy Any plans the Bolsheviks had for an orderly transi­ could not be organized in a void. The tion to a planned, nationalized economy were play of supply and demand was needed as a basis many, for technological aid. But all these shattered by the counterrevolution that was capital's for planning. insurrections were crushed. response to the October 1917 revolution. The New Economic Policy (NEP) was devised to One con~equence of political and eco­ Just weeks after the Bolsheviks came to power, shore up the ruble, restore the credit system, en­ nomic Soviet isolation was the breeding the World War I Entente began planning a com­ courage production of consumer goods for the ground it furnished for the malignant bined military attack, headed by the U.S., to bolster countryside, and allow small-scale industry and Stalinist bureaucracy, which metastaSized the internal white-guard opposition. Their assault the peasantry to sell their products freely. into all the organs of government to make was launched in March 1918 and joined in the first The NEP boosted the economy immediately. a bloated life for itself as the administrator half of the year by Germany and Austria-Hungary, Industrial production doubled in 1922 and 1923. and adjudicator of others' scarcity. Though with whom they were still at war! By 1926, production bounced all the way back to its Lenin was preparing to launch a struggle For a time during the three years of fierce inva- pre-war level. Harvests increased as well. against this caste at the time of his death in 1924, and a Left Opposition headed by After 65 years of Stalinist obliteration of work­ Stalin makes virtue of necessity. The NEP Trotsky fought unrelentingly against it ers' democracy, Soviet people today are re­ was needed in part to help compensate for the thereafter, the exhausted Soviet masses claiming their tradition of organizing together unexpectedly prolonged isolation of the USSR. could not be rallied to yet another all-out to demand control of their lives and economy. The old Bolsheviks knew that what existed in fight, and the bureaucracy triumphed. The bureaucracy's reaction to the USSR's solitariness and encirclement by capitalism on the shortsighted burea was the "theory" of socialism in one country. After a number of agri Stalin declared that complete socialism could be grain strike by the kulaks attained (and, in 1936, was attained) within the level farmers threatened boundaries of a single country. famine and brought thel( Putting this mutation of Marxism into practice Stalin suddenly discov internationally resulted in the blood-drenched sell­ the kulaks - a problem!i out of one revolutionary workers' movement after recognized five years earl another as Stalin and his cohorts attempted to trademark brutality. Hislj protect the USSR by establishing "peaceful coexist­ ization decimated the kill ence" with capitalism. In the economic sphere, the tated the people of the til theory contributed to or covered up for an astound­ there was no material pre ing series of zigzags that sometimes appeared to be tion - no tractors or otl'/l linked together only by sheer wrongheadedness. the new group farms 4 First, the NEP continued far too long. Combined fully recovered from the, with a disastrously cautious tempo of industrializa­ tion, the NEP created a layer of rich peasants hostile Stagnation caused III to the Soviet system, a layer of middle peasants In a perverse way, Stali~ dissatisfied with industry's inability to get goods to errors proved how powel the countryside, and a stratum of poor peasants left when it freed itself from G to their own devices because collectiVization wasn't ized the means of produc

he 1917 Russian Revolution opened the door to a transformed world, one where th human beings and our planet would no th longer be slaves to the wealth we create. st. TBut the new society faced gargantuan obstacles: a ri~ czarist legacy of grinding poverty and cultural back- fa: wardness; military attack by 21 capitalist countries m and civil war; and unrelieved political isolation and in capitalist encirclement because expected revolutions so in major industrialized nations did not succeed. til These harsh conditions proved to be fertile soil for at one thing: the bureaucracy, a proliferation of police­ men and administrators regulating the flow of scarce fa goods. And Stalin rose to the head of the caste. vi May-July 1992 7 Are you now or h4ve a meMber- of yoo ever ~ tim of J -'l~~ CPUSA? t,..(j·t~ ~/"-I PU,gr:::~c;::,:,2~~~:~7t;~n of the commu;" p;- · ist sabotag! . You may be one p xOdus that resulted ha rty USA and the leadershi slg~ed a call for dem~f th~ .more than 900 Com . ve been watershed event:' tactIcs, elect" CratlZmg the CP . mUnlsts who b ~ . ing mismanagement, speculation and graft, the the tOP-dow~b leadershi/? democratie~/~~enmg de.bate on p~rtyepc;:e the conVention, Soviet economy took off like a jet once the govern­ ureaucratlc meth J and makmg it ogram and ment seriously prioritized industrialization lead This .battle for democrac ods of Gus HaWs regime~cCOUntable, and ending The standard of living for workers and peasants ershlp - notabl Y was spearhead began to rise - but that of the bureaucracy rose CP's lackluster work rn ~h:~owomen - who ~~~: ~omr~des ~f color Within the faster and higher. In the '30s, while many farmers b .In response, Hall's cia vements of people of c6,~~/allY dIssatisfied With the on collectives still lived as before "in the old huts odles locked d que threw th . , elegates out Of th e oPPOsition off the n . with their calves and cockroaches," SOviet dignitar­ Now, many of th . e gathering, and re~ atlonal goVerning ed, ies complained that not all of their new houses came equipped with quarters for live-in domestic launched a new orga~i~~~~~a:hgroups disaffiliated fro~~~ to let them speak. ld be servants (Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed). USSi?017hat ~e~t wrong in t~e ~pCommittees of CorresPo~d~~t~~nal CP and have Even the catastrophiC pounding delivered by a Lenmlst party , and how is "t . World War II could not destroy the Soviet economy. dead end doomed to not the answer to th I related to the disinte . and who Nor could the Cold War, instigated by the USSR's way forward for socia/~~~nerat~ into a Stalin~t~orr~rs of capitalism, b~;~t~n o~ the faithless erstwhile allies with the U.S. at the head of get it, the pack. Stalin's post-war deal with the imperial­ diSCU~~~~~~~:~ for Tro't~k~;t~::::~ nwuture;Tr";~, O:V~~:~~:~on? Is the:~t~~~al ists - whereby he agreed not to upset the capitalist s Ions. We're lOok' J. e want to t status quo in most of the world in exchange for the implosion up close With you and state acceptance of the USSR's hegemony over Eastern Whil:~e~~~~~~~~t ~;;h:o gp~ an9~0~~~~~~er Europe - was a pact with devils who never in­ bureaucrat" g, are necessary SA and the death hold out tended to keep their side of the bargain. Not only ede~ed o~~:~~r::~~~':rr 0!o:~~!a:~~b~~~~is~~i~~~~%iel:i~~a~:ht;~;a~~~~fnC;~f the did the U.S. refuse aid and trade to the desperately OW7 By gett" wid real d . ey brmg an against needy USSR, but it required recipients of U.S. help Trotsky: i~ternatio~ng back to basics, to the i ,emoCratic sOcialism. unprec- under the Marshall Plan to restrict their trade with workingc/ass aims; SOlidarity; .and Lenin, carried 0 the USSR and other workers states! ~~~r~~etarian u~~~:f r~ar~ hostility. Nevertheless, the Soviet Union rebounded one . The Stalinist bure PPOrt for the leadership ~f t~/smg allegiance to n by more time. The post-war decades saw healthy IS that of broker betwaucracy betrays these fu d e most oppressed growth rates in production, consumption, and movement. Stripped O~~~i~~e ca~itali~m and t~e ~':~~tals because it IJ1US~. Its . h near Red Square; income - though notoriously cramped housing, So it turns eve . ~nctlon, It WOuld lOse its ers state or revolutiona n/C e consumer items deficient in both quantity and COunterrevOlution ~hmg on. ItS head. Leninis reason for eXistence. ty quality, and unequal pay for men and women , emocratlC ce t· m equals Star . hung on like an unshakeable virus. . T~e scientific idea n rallsm becomes bur mlS?1, Trotskyism is m SOCIalism in one of permanent revoluf' eaucratlc centralism The USSR in this period also shouldered the . COUntty. Ion IS Supplanted b . burden of economic support for many other oVer and ove sUperstitious belief workers states, such as Cuba and Vietnam. survi~~~~~~~~Owledged y a But in the '60s, things began a turn for the COUntries. Tr mltely Without being 'oin r again t.hat the SOViet worse. Although the economy was still expand­ in The Rev:'~~.r rebutted the noiion ~~ ~K SOCla.list revOIUtionV;~kers state could not ing, the pace of growth started to slow. One tiona' After CA:::' BetraYed, PerlJ1ane:taRttamability of socialis~~nre advanced confidential report blamed three factors: the ',' " ,eo"" '.. ,evO'utio lone COunt heavy drain on resources created by extraordi­ The bitter frUit that n, and Third 'nterna- ty nary defense spending; extreme centralization; COuntty was seven deca~~7~~; a~ti~g as though there c and lack of democracy in managing the for the call COllaboration one economy. a';':b%~~om~ by Ch:;'~~~t~~ass ~~~ ~~ S~~~lism i~ and h' ' WIde-ranging Itchell of the C rgeolsle Stalinism's betrayal of workers' democracy had finally caught up with itself. Without C IStOty o~ Socialist deve/~~;:~~!.cted examination ~:~~ees ~f CorresPon~ence workers' control over what should be pro­ consi ommun/sts tOday are in a . '. cuss Ion of the theoty duced, how it should be produced, and who .. dere~ the pOSsibility that tt~Osltlon a~tieipated by Trots . should get it, the workers state could only Even m this case th USSR mIght not end ky m 1928, When h hold out temporarily against capitalism new roads to vieton, B e prOletarian revoluti ure, and wrote: e have to tie u .J. ut. .. the new e . on WOuld be able . Workers will manage. In 1936, Trotsky whieh ma : anew the confidence ~f neratlon of international In the ~nd to pioneer wrote: falsificatio~s i~ ~~mprom~sed by an uni~~e masses in the greate:re~Olut/o~ists WOuld ~ e domam ofideas .. rrUpted chain of mist k anner m histoty The ulcers of bureaucratism e need to get togethe . a es, UPheavals, and r and take up thO strikes, a major are... devouring... theco-operativcs, IS task YOur pi peasants) and mid­ the light and food-producing in- . ace or Ours? Soviet Union with dustries, the collective farms, the ~comrad~eIY' to a head. small local industries - those the need to rein in branches of economy which stand Left Opposition had and did so with his ... Under a nationalized economy, nearest to the people. ••• •••• •••••••• rp" .....'Fo forced collectiv­ quality demands a democracy of pro-;~ :::::~~:~:: D:o~u~g~B~a;r;n:~:~ J L/VIClUJ.UUVH and devas- ducersandconsumers, freedomofcriti- of the state. In that... un- And because cism and initiative - conditions in- shakable historical law is contained for collectiviza­ compatible with a totalitarian regime the death sentence of the present re- the doldrums before workers revolted, as they had tools existed to give to of fear, lies and flattery. gime. Soviet democracy is not the de- in Poland at the beginning of the decade. agriculture never ...To be sure, a revolutionary dicta- mand of an abstract policy... It has , What the bureaucracy learned, and the world torship means... strict limitations of become a life-and-death need of the with it, is that tinkering won't work. The timer has freedom. But for that very reason ep- country. run out on half-baked measures. Either the yeast of ochs of revolution have never been genuine workers' management will be added and directly favorable to cultural creation: The restructuring undertaken by Gorbachev in the workers state will rise to SOCialism - in Lenin's they have only cleared the arena for the '80s - perestroika - began as an effort by the phrase, every cook will learn to rule the state - or it... The socialist culture will flourish more wide-awake wing of the bureaucracy to re­ capitalism will take it over. only in proportion to the dying away form the economy just enough to shake it out of In this kitchen, the bets are on the workers. D

f,alinism took socialism on a 6S-year trip through open resistance in the Soviet Union, but Trotskyist the people of the USSR and the former Eastern bloc looking glass. In place of workers' democracy, parties around the world carried on the struggle. that a return to capitalism would mean only a return re was top-down mismanagement and a police Trotsky predicted that the working classes of the East to exploitation and misery. ~; in place of women's emancipation and gay would again claim center stage, overthrow the Stalin­ And although Third World countries such as Cuba ItS, the resurrection of the bourgeois definition of ist regimes, and take control of the nationalized and Nicaragua and Angola have been deprived of ily; instead of self-determination for national economies. concrete aid from the USSR as a result of the shakeup, lorities, great-nation chauvinism and forced union; This political revolution is underway. Launched the ally they have lost is nonetheless a capricious and ad of Marxist internationalism, the theory of by Polish workers in the early '80s, it had by the end faithless one which always put Stalinist accommoda­ lism in one country and the practice of coopera­ of the decade toppled tyrants from East Germany to tions with the world bourgeoisie ahead of interna­ r,with the capitalists in snuffing out insurrections Bulgaria. tional revolution. ~ad. Today, Western leaders falsely equate the death of Socialism still remains the sole means to realize the Left Opposition in the USSR, led by Trotsky, Stalinism with the death of socialism and promote liberating aspirations of the Russian Revolution, and ht heroically against this betrayal of the Bolshe­ the lie that the inevitable next stage is the comeback the power to usher in socialism still lies in the hands of ~. rogram. State terrorism eventually quelled all of capitalism. But it is becoming inescapably clear to Soviet workers. D i

1-- 8 Freedom Socialist

Editorials I I Cops commit hate crimes by rioting against protesters ON JANUARY 25, more than 400 demonstrators - many of them radicals, lesbians, gays, anarchists, and youth - took to the Seattle streets in a lively nighttime march against neo-Nazi terrorism. By the end of the evening, riot-geared cops had brutalized and arrested 14 protesters - after defending four skinheads, in full Nazi regalia, shouting threats. The police actions, lauded by the media and city authorities, were choreographed to prove that con­ fronting Nazis leads to violence. (Mayor Norm Rice blamed "communist front groups.") After years of watching anti-fascists mobilize without incident, the cops tired of waiting for a melee - so they started one. Their motive: to dissuade protesters from stand­ ing up against bloodthirsty hate crimes and govern­ ment apathy. Movie Review TO KEEP THE COPS OFF OUR BACKS, we've got to be smarter than they are. Last January's protest was called by anonymous activists who left it leader­ less. The bullies in blue took the opportunity to at­ JFK: When thieves faIl out tack when the march dribbled to a disorganized end, scattering in small contingents. Initiators of anti-Nazi BY TAMARA TURNER Stone's elusive target: within his class for control of rallies shoulder a heavy responsibility to provide ac­ intra-c1a~s struggle. The the richest spoils in the world. countable leadership and keep things tight. fter President John F. most important question about Stone couldn't go far enough, But the Seattle march conveners were right to call Kennedy was blown the assassination of John F. look deeply enough, because a mass gathering to stop hate crimes. The authorities away on November Kennedy is not "w hodunit," but he could not break with his have shown that they won't clean up the fascist A 22, 1963, a cover-up why it was done. Stone deserves illusions that somebody up mess. It's those of us who feel the sting of Nazi began that reached from the credit for trying to focus atten­ there must give a damn. Stone venom who must close ranks in a united front and, White House to the sleazy gut­ tion in the right direction. lacks a grasp of how the ruling through militant, disciplined actions, crush the neo­ ters of military-industrial Unfortunately, the film's strata are fundamentallyunited Nazi movement. 0 power, the CIA, FBI, Mafia, and strongest and most convincing by their common interests, other ancillary organs of the contribution consists of its though this alliance is masked state. The official investigation meticulous reconstruction of by competition and transitory by the Warren Commission pro­ how the president was mur­ differences. Without this under­ vided a multi-volume report to dered because, despite all his standing to steer by, Stone's cre­ Time is now for a radical support the official line that a work, Stone is crippled by an ations break apart on the rocks, commie did it. unreasoning belief in Camelot. heartbreakingly close to shore. Lesbian/Gay/Bi March But nobody ever believed it. He and his film cannot move Nearly 30 years lat~~es beyond ..the wistful vision of The Left .left out'. Also ab­ on Washington clap and cheer as· the Oliver innocence, grace, and peace sent from JFK is any sense of HAS A MILITANT MARCH for the rights of Stone film JFK reviews the facts, which was orchestrated by JFK how the Left reacted to the sexual minorities ever been needed more than to­ skewers the lies, and reveals the himself, the acknowledged murder or to any of the other day? nature of capital to foul its own modern master of warping pub­ events of the time, such as Hitlerite toughs rampage in the streets; Hollywood nest and eat its young. lic opinion. Kennedy's prosecution of the unleashes a pervo fantasy in which every lesbian or For people who lived Kennedywas a rich, straight, Vietnam War or his attacks on bisexual woman is a man-killer; teenagers die of through Kennedy's shooting, white, male Democrat in every Cuba - policies that met with pejorative sense of those words. widespread resistance. AIDS while offiCials wrangle over condom distribu­ the aftermath of government deceit was a wake-up call. The He put missiles in Turkey, forced In defense of Cuba, Fair Play tion; and Democrats and Republicans alike make current younger generation, the Soviet Union into building for Cuba Committees were or­ ever-greater concessions to the right wing. who weren't even born in 1963, the Berlin Wall, started the Viet­ ganized nationwide. Theyfunc­ But the bold statement that's needed isn't the one identify immediately with JFK nam War, okayed the Bay of tioned as an educational forum, being planned by organizers of the 1993 Lesbian/ because their everyday lives Pigs invasion in Cuba, and an ongoing protest against U.S. Gay/Bi March on Washington (MOW). provide the context for grasp­ brought the world to the edge government aggression, and a At the January MOW planning meeting in Los An­ ing the film's truth. The lucky of nuclear annihilation with his travel agency that planned trips geles, the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical ones among the youth are part ultimatum against Soviet mis­ to the embargoed island for edu­ Women were excluded from the national steering of a use-and-toss work force; siles in Cuba. His civil rights cators, journalists and writers. committee. The "official" leadership, liberals tied to the others are unemployed and policy was "do nothing unless The trips provided the U.S. pub- the Democratic Party, intimated that FSP and RW even homeless. They are lic with firsthand ac­ had a "hidden agenda." wised-up, cynical, and Nobody believed the counts of the Cuban Two other socialist groups, Workers World Party angry. If they pick up revolution as it un­ and Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, apparently Stone's demand to open Warren Commission. For folded. agree that revolutionaries belong in the closet; they the secret assassination After the assassina­ refused to defend the rights of FSP and Radical files, the government people who lived through tion, police and govern­ Women to be on the committee. will not be able to ig­ ment agents seized on nore them. Kennedy's shooting, the pretext that Oswald THE HIDDEN-AGENDA CHARGE is redbaiting su pposedly belonged to nonsense. What really bothered the gay movement A conspiracy by any the aftermath Fair Play for Cuba in careerists is the openness of FSP and RW about our other name ... Was New Orleans - al­ belief that MOW needs a sweeping, hardhitting pro­ there a conspiracy? Yes, ofgovernment deceit though there was no gram. It upset them so much that they refused to dis­ of course. How else ex­ chapter there - to ha­ cuss the platform at all at the January planning con­ plain a "magic bullet" was a wake-up call. rass and vilify members ference. that gaily pirouetted of the group all over the The ideas of FSP and RW are anything but secret. back and forth between you absolutely have to" and he country. and his brother Bobby used any On the distaff Side, Sissy We think that, in addition to adopting demapds Kennedy'S and Connally'S bod­ ies? Or the disappearance of pretext to move against labor. Spacek's appearance as Jim concerning AIDS, reproductive rights, and freedom Kennedy's brain after the au­ His attitude toward women was Garrison's wife reqUires her to for sexual minorities, the march should call for: topsy? highly imperious, and charac­ whine incessantly about his • an independent, anti-capitalist third party; The evidence and multitudi­ teristic of the drive for quantity absence from home. Audiences • unity against the neo-Nazis; nous "coincidences" are so bril­ and accumulation so typical of in the '90s are apt to mutter, • dismantling the war machine to fund education, liantly laid out by the film that his class. "Get a job!" or "Get a life!" But housing, and nationalized health care; the mainstream media leapt for­ And it is class that Stone even given the chasm between • ending racism and sexism in the gay movement; ward for damage control. missed. He and the film are expectations in the '60s and • electing civilian review boards to monitor and Many of the reviews of JFK caught in a loop because Stone the '90s about women's roles, stop cop brutality. have been written by political cannot confront Kennedy for Spacek's character is unrealis­ commentators rather than film what he actually was: not only tic. Women in the '60s were AND WE'RE NOT BASHFUL about proposing critics. By and large, they ac­ a member, but a leader of the restricted, but not one-dimen­ two dynamite socialist feminist speakers to address cuse Stone of turning fact into ruling class. Stone builds a new sional! these issues: journalist Sandy Nelson of Tacoma, fiction. Typical is the Decem­ myth. He thinks Kennedy was Although it has shortcom­ Washington and San Francisco educator Merle Woo. ber 23, 1991 Newsweek cover, murdered because he was try­ ings, JFK is a powerful, dynamic This platform and these speakers would be a pow­ whose headline blares, "The ing to stop the Vietnam War and political film - and its erful answer to the threats arrayed against lesbians Twisted Truth of 'JFK': Why and disband the CIA. box-office success reveals an au­ and gay men. 0 Oliver Stone's New Movie Can't Kennedy was killed in a dience hungry for truth and Be Trusted." power struggle between factions leadership. 0

= May-July 1992 Freedom Socialist 9

Voices of Color

Anti-racist organizing 101 Clara Lessons from an Ethnic Studies Requirement fight Fraser

BY IRENE MORA ESR task force, made up of 12 pool needs of monster busi­ teachers and six students, to nesses like Boeing and n 1988, racism on cam­ undermine the student asso­ Weyerhaeuser. Worst hurt by Thelma and Louise IIRII Us pus and society-wide ciation task force and its rec­ this are women of color, who spurred students at the ommendations. are already discouraged the EVER SINCE FEMINISTS ORGANIZED the modern I University of Washington The students fell for this di­ most at all ages from aspiring movement in the '60s, we have been harangued from all (UW) in Seattle to begin orga­ vide-and-conquer technique. academically. sides for being insane, unfulfilled, petty-bourgeois, narcissis­ nizing to establish an Ethnic They came under great pres­ Unfortunately, ESR advo­ tic, frivolous, home-wreckers, strident bitches, dykes, man­ Studies Requirement (ESR). sure from liberal faculty to make cates expended their efforts in haters, and enemies of civility and civilization. They lost that fight. But the compromises and ended up negotiations with this And we purportedly derail organizations by elevating sec­ problems that made them take handing over control of the untrustworthy administration ondary questions. it up remain. Discrimination fight to the liberals. rather than in building support The rightwing said we should be jailed; the leftwing said and violence against people of The liberals played the role among staff, who can contrib­ we'd gone overboard on this women's lib trip. Black leaders color are out of control, while that the "middle caste," in Leon ute union experience; sympa­ said we were destroying race solidarity. Union bureaucrats the U.S. presidential election Trotsky's words, always plays. thetic faculty who know that said discrimination wasn't a bread and butter issue. The features two candidates, Patrick They postured as the friends of times have changed - bigotry man in the street said all we needed was a good fuck. Buchanan and David Duke, run­ the downtrodden-in this case, is out and diversity is in; and Not that it's funny, but who's got the last laugh now? ning on neo-Nazi programs. students of color - but insu­ outside community activists Just read the papers, folks, and note what the headlines To challenge the racial en­ lated the top dogs, the UWad­ with impressive track records are screaming about. mity that continues to grow ministration, from the full force in organizing against the bad Rape. Job discrimination and sexual harassment. Differ­ more threatening every day, a of student demands by taking guys. The only way to win ESR ential education and training. Violence against women. The new anti-racist coalition has over the fight and stripping it is to build this united alliance. "proper" or "improper" role of political wives. Birth control taken shape at the UW. More of militancy. and abortion. Healthcare. Childcare and child abuse. Gran­ power to it! By the time the projected Graduating to a united ny dumping. Wife/girlfriend murder. Outrageously unequal The ESR banner lies waiting innovation reached the full fac­ front. Two decades ago, stu­ legal treatment a la Anita Hill, Patricia Bowman, Desiree to be lifted again. ESR would be ulty for a vote in 1991, it had dents gained the first Ethnic Washington, Leona Helmsley, Zsa Zsa Gabor, ad nauseam. a strong dose of good medicine been watered down into a five­ Studies programs not by asking Even the marital relations of politicians are under the mi­ for higher education, which is credit American Pluralism Re­ for approval from the faculty or croscope, and while much of this is puerile, prudish, puri­ infected with terminal elitism, quirement. APR broadened the the college authorities, but by tanical and irrelevant, it's a sign of the new times. catering more and more exclu­ list of classes that could fulfill holding Third World student sively to those who are white, IF WE MUST USE a yardstick and measure afflictions to male, and well-off financially. discern who are the most affronted people in the U.S. or But critical study of why the internationally - and I know that people hate these first UW effort failed is a re­ comparative-agony calculations - the mathematical answer qUired course for anyone hop­ is overwhelming. Women of color, women of age, women ing to revitalize the ESR cam­ of youth, women of marriage, women of divorce, women on paign, because mistakes were welfare, women who are prostitutes, women of accomplish­ made that, if repeated, will ment, women of minority sexual persuasion, women who dOOm a secqnd attempt a~ ~~l" organize at the workplace, women who organize revolution Fired-up students initiated - females win the endangered species contest. the push and, at first, firmly led Women are slaughtered because their dowries aren't ad­ it. But they were lulled into equate, because they were born without penises, or because relying on the liberal faculty to they dare to rebel against Slavery. But we rarely realize that champion their cause. Instead, while the price for assertiveness in the USA may not be the faculty sold it out, voting it physical execution, it is execution in every other sense. down resoundingly on Octo­ American women, whether they exemplify success or ber 24, 1991. struggle desperately to survive, are all subjected to merciless The students also failed to hatred, resentment, fear, denunciation, excoriation, retalia­ seriously involve supporters tion, intimidation, deprivation and inquisition. and potential supporters from Women are the permanent unrecognized undercaste of outside the classroom, whose U.S. SOCiety. And the proof of that transparent fact is that al­ participation is a prerequisite the diminished requirement to strikes, sit-ins at administration most nobody recognizes it! The condition of women domi­ for the success of ESR. include courses dealing with al­ buildings, and mass rallies to nates the news, but no political conclusions are drawn. The lesson? To dislodge cam­ most any kind of pluralism - demand Ethnic Studies - and We are just as ignored when our issues are in the lime­ pus racism, students must set ethnic, sexual, religiOUS, eco­ much more. They triumphed. light as when we're invisible! farseeing goals that will include nomic, generational, or physi­ Women Studies was won the and galvanize both the aca­ cal. Result: APR was used to same way. IN 1967 MY CLOSEST COMRADES and I stunned the demic and the broader com­ dilute the issue of racism! Student militance can again radical movement by launching a faction fight against my munity and they must main­ Opponents of any kind of be the electricity that powers a then-husband. He had violated every socialist standard of tain leadership of the battle. multicultural requirement cam­ multi-issue mobilization. To conduct by denying me the right to an uncontested divorce paigned heavily against APR, produce maximum light and and child custody. He had provoked a courtroom scandal, Compromises derail origi­ and it was voted down by a heat, this coalition needs to accusing me of bad motherhood, over-attention to politics, nal ESR aims. Three years large majority. concentrate on meeting the bad wifery, adultery, and the usual crimes of my gender. ago, the UW student associa­ needs of the most marginalized Because I labeled his behavior as political treachery, my tion formed a Task Force on Administration is no and downtrodden of its con­ ex became a martyred hero to most of the Left. But phallo­ Racism, which worked to friend of the students. In stituents-like women of color, centric public opinion couldn't change the facts, and that achieve the hiring of more fac­ the faculty takeover of the ESR who have the most to gain from well-known leader was not a leader much longer. ulty of color, a more inclusive campaign, the enemy - the change and have shown their That should tell you where I stand on the question of racial balance among students, UW administration - became tenacity in shaking up the sys­ whether Senator Brock Adams, so-called liberal Democrat, and ESR. The task force recom­ obscured. tem time and time again. should continue in office even though practically everybody mended a ten-credit require­ University administrations Student activists must be­ seems to know he's an utterly unscrupulous, conniving sex ment lito educate students on today are trying to take away all come leaders, fighters who can oppressor. It should tell you where I stand on the matter of the effects of racism and to deal the gains made by students in see through the administra­ whether Mike Tyson, because he is a Black man, should be with the systematic exclusion the '60s and 70s: Ethnic Stud­ tion's maneuvers, resist both excused for behaving like a demented monster. of histories and cultures of ies, Women Studies, affirma­ its threats and its blandish­ I am sick and tired of Rights, Lefts, and Centerites apolo­ people of color in the American tive action, equal opportunity men ts, and advance the struggle gizing for men who brutalize women on the grounds that educational system," in the programs, and childcare. for equal rights and human dig­ these men are otherwise politically effective and inspiration­ words of later ESR proponent They're designing an ivory nity to a new level, on COllege al. Inspired by a male who is a vile abuser of women, I ain't. Danny Howe, now the editor of tower that excludes those they grounds and beyond. the International Examiner, a see as riffraff and troublemak­ In the days of the '60s, the BUT FEMINISTS, TAKE HEART. There is going to be a journal reporting on Seattle's ers - people of color, femi­ failure of ESR or APR would new global upsurge of women like you have never seen, one Asian American communities. nists, assertive lesbians and gay have rocked a campus like the that will engulf every economic relationship, every institu­ The well-researched proposal men, and poor and working­ UW. Let's bring back some of tion, every government. The second sex can no longer toler­ from the task force provided class pupils. that '60s outrage and those '60s ate, whether they know it or not, the shackles and brain­ data about the need for ESRand The UW is no exception. Its tactics back to our campuses! D washing and outrages visited upon them by the male estab­ about its implementation at functionaries are going along lishment and its yuppie or scaredy-cat female enablers. other universities. with the state's decisions to hike Irene Mora, a Chicana It is time for gender mau-mauism. Time for women guer­ The group submitted its pro­ tuition, cut financial aid, re­ feminist and member of rillas, 20th-century Amazons, mad shrieks of protest, and posal to the Dean of the Col­ classify and layoff staff, and Classified Staff Association careful mobilization of political battalions. Goddammit, sis­ lege of Arts and Sciences in hold down faculty pay. They District 925, has been a ters: Let's get revolutionary. Let's understand that the pri­ December 1988. Half a year are more and more nakedly clerical worker at the Uni­ vate profit system is at the bottom of all this horror, and later, the administration re­ gearing the college to serve the versity of Washington for let's catapult ourselves onto the mainstage of history. The sponded by instituting its own high-tech research and labor- six years. world is waiting for the sunrise. D L..._---

10 Freedom Socialist May-July 1992 ~ Freeway Hall Case VICTORYI Judge protects FSP confidentiality in first test of historic privacy ruling

BY MATT NAGLE the FSP and eight individual socialist to see how the party responded to an those who wrote to Judge Ramerman feminist defendants were headed for eViction threat arising in 1979 in order urging him to uphold the FSP's consti­ t was predictable. Richard Snedi­ trial on April 13 confident and deter­ to show that an emergency never ex­ tutional rights. Wrote Bender, lilA] court gar and his lawyers, Michelle Pail­ mined. "Now that the legal system has isted and thus prove that Snedigar was order that compels the party to turn thorp and Thomas Wampold, had stopped Snedigar's fishing expedition, duped into making a $22,500 donation over its minutes would have a chilling I to make one more last-ditch foray we can get into court and disprove his he now wants back. effect on discussions ... of all organiza­ after private Freedom Socialist Party original smear charges," said Freeway "Abstract speculations about what tions. The KCLC cannot function effec­ records to try to delay trial in the Free­ Hall Case Coordinator Karrie Peterson. the plaintiff hopes to find do not rise to tively unless we can assure our delegates way Hall Case - a trial in which, if "Vindication at trial will be our final meet the state Supreme Court gUide­ that we will not disclose their discus­ justice prevails, they will be laughed out answer to this harassment suit." lines," responded defense attorney Vale­ sions to any outsider." of court. rie Carlson. Attorney Rick Best, speak­ In recent weeks, labor organizations But this time, their witchhunting ing for the National Lawyers Guild, have donated more than $3,000 to the scam was scuttled. Now that the joined the defense team in urging the case. The Hotel and Motel Trades Coun­ On March 18, King County Superior judge to turn Snedigar down. cil in New York City contributed $1,000 Court Judge Dale Ramerman ruled that legal system has Ramerman found that Snedigar had and Amalgamated Transit Union Local Snedigar's latest demand for meeting shown specifically neither why he needs 587 gave $500. The Pacific Northwest minutes and membership information stopped Snedigar's the minutes nor that he had" exhausted Newspaper Guild donated $200 and it did not meet the Washington State Su­ every reasonable alternative source of passed a resolution of support, as did preme Court's new 1990 requirements fishing expedition, information. " the Coalition of Labor Union Women protecting organizational privacy rights, The question of whether an emer­ (CLUW) and several AFSCME locals. The won by the radical Freeway Hall Case the party can gency existed is secondary, according to organization of retired longshore work­ defendants themselves. Ramerman. In analyzing Snedigar's ers endorsed the case and passed the hat In applying the precedent-setting get into court and charges, the judge stated that the pri­ to collect $18l. state high court decision for the first disprove his original mary legal concern is whether Snedigar A warm reception greeted coordina­ time, Ramerman resoundingly vindi­ put conditions on his gift - which tor Peterson and three of the six female cated the eight-year-long campaign by smear charges. Snedigar did not. defendants as they traveled up and down the defendants and supporters to safe­ Ramerman's decision cited the depo­ the West Coast speaking at Interna­ guard the First Amendment rights of sition in which Snedigar acknowledged tional Women's Day events sponsored organizations. High court privacy ruling up­ that he gave the gift because a real, by Radical Women. Their topic: how Ramerman also cleared away the last held. During a March 11 hearing be­ ongoing emergency existed. Snedigar's legal assault fits in with the barrier to a trial Snedigar's lawyers must fore Ramerman, the filled-to-overflow­ general backlash against women. have started to dread the moment their ing courtroom watched Wampold and Beating the backlash. With the This surge of support before trial re­ client admitted in a 1985 deposition Pail thorp miserably fail to show that the gains of the labor and progressive move­ flects the solidarity that unionists and that his fraud and unfair-persuasion confidential information they sought is ments currently under the gun, parti­ mass movement activists have extended charges against the FSP are false. essential to their case and unavailable sans of these movements are proving to the Freeway Hall radicals throughout Ramerman's decision came one day by other means. themselves ready to join in a fight to this eight-year imbroglio. Snedigar and after the King County Labor Council, When Ramerman asked him what he protect the liberties of society's most his ilk are learning exactly what stuff representing 151 Seattle-area unions, hoped to find in the minutes, Warn pold vulnerable members. political survivors are made of - and if donated $1,000 to assist the defense. admitted, lilt would be hard for me to King County Labor Council execu­ they have any lingering doubts, trial With these successes under their belts, speculate." He later said he was looking tive secretary Rick Bender was one of will finish their education. D

Will Canadian rights tribunal result in justice for Mary Pitawanakwat?

BY LINDA AVERILL charges on a technicality, forcing her to merit. Their positions require a knowl­ ex-committee members continued to refile them separately. edge of human rights concerns which is open mail addressed to the defense com­ ary Pitawanakwa t is a The three-member human rights tri­ completely lacking." mittee. They mailed away thousands of fighter who has kept her bunal convened in October 1991 to rule Turnover among indigenous people dollars in donations. Acts of treachery eyes on the prize. In July, on Pitawanakwat's demands for back in the civil service is high, yet the Hu­ like these place them in the same camp M the Ojibway single mother pay, damages, and reinstatement, but man Rights Commission investigates as Secretary of State. of two marks the eighth anniversary of has not said when it will decide. few complaints. For this reason The rapid degeneration of these her race-and-sex-discrimination case During the hearings at the end of Pitawanakwat's legal action has become former "supporters" is a lucid illustra­ against Canada's Secretary of State 1991, many of Pitawanakwat's cowork­ an important rallying point for femi­ tion of what happens to white liberals Department. ers testified on her behalf, describing nists, Aboriginals, and civil service work­ who refuse to accept the leadership of Pitawanakwat worked as a social de­ how supervisors called Aboriginal cli­ ers across Canada. women of color. To mouth the slogan, velopment officer at the Regina, ents "savages," "lazy," "too demand­ and even to mean it, is one thing. But, Saskatchewan office for six-and-a-half ing," and a "nuisance." Pitawanakwat Racism and sexism in the de­ because we are far from immune from years. She was fired in 1986, one year herself was referred to openly as a fense committee. But Pitawa­ the society we live in, putting this grand after she filed a formal discrimination "goddamned Indian." nakwat's case also shows the pervasive­ idea into practice always involves un­ complaint. ness of racism and sexism - even among covering debilitating personal attitudes, Her charges have focused interna­ Racism at the top. In January, Re­ those who have banded together to fight changing, and moving forward. tional attention on bigotry within the gional Director Andre Nogue, a key wit­ those isms. very agency that is charged with admin­ ness for the government and one of Pitawanakwat administered $2.5 mil­ Pitawanakwat undaunted and istering Canada's affirmative action and Pitawanakwat's supervisors, testified lion as a social development officer, yet determined. Pitawanakwat herself has multicultural programs for women, in­ that he never explored her complaints. she was not trusted or consulted on continued to forge ahead, reorganizing digenous people, and racial and ethnic When pressed to define the word sav­ financial matters by some core organiz­ the defense effort on a higher level based minorities. The case has also exposed age, he said it meant "Indian." Nogue is ers on her own defense committee. on true solidarity and broadening sup­ the pro-management bias of the Cana­ responsible for allocating human rights When Pitawanakwat demanded an port. In January she spoke at a forum dian Human Righ ts Commission, which funds for Aboriginal programs within equal VOice, they told her she was unco­ hosted by the New York City branches is charged with investigating discrimi­ the Department of Secretary of State. operative and hostile. of Radical Women and the Freedom nation in the civil service and the fed­ More recently, Acting Regional Di­ Orr the eve of her tribunal, members Socialist Party and at a National Organi­ eral justice department. rector Denis Gauthier admitted making of St. Peter's Parish Social Justice Com­ zation for Women conference, also in Pitawanakwat's battle began in 1984 jokes at work about being scalped by mittee, who were defense mainstays, the U.S. The defense committee plans to when she first complained of harass­ Aboriginals - and covering his groin dropped the fight when confronted with take Pitawanakwat's cause to the United ment from supervisors, including sexu­ with a briefcase to indicate even worse their arrogance towards Pitawanakwat. Nations Committee on Human Rights. al fondling, to the CHRC. Seven years of fates. Gauthier is responsible for devel­ Rather than acknowledge their mis­ How you can help: Donations can be official stonewalling and legal obstruc­ oping work plans, supervising staff, and, takes, they blamed Pitawanakwat for sent to the Mary Pitawanakwat Defense tionism followed. In April 1991, a fed­ like Nogue, distributing funds for anti­ the problem she was trying to correct. Committee, P.O. Box 33042, Regina, eral court ruled against the government racism programs in Saskatchewan, And they redbaited those who supported Sask., Canada S4T 7X2. Letters urging and upheld a recommendation that a Alberta and British Columbia. Pitawanakwat, like Radical Women Or­ Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to sup­ Human Rights Tribunal review the case. "The reason they are fighting me so ganizer Adrienne Weller from Portland, port Pitawanakwat's struggle for redress But the court also threw out brutally," said Pitawanakwat, "is that Oregon, accusing them of disruption! can be sent to House of Commons, Pitawanakwat's sexual harassment their careers are based on unfounded For weeks following their defection, the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KIA OA6. D May-July 1992 Freedom Socialist 11

Gloria Martin Author, Sodalist Feminism: Clara The First Decade; Radical Fraser Women co-founder "Dick Snedigar and I FSP National worked together in the FSP, Chairperson but he never liked being told and trailblazer in what to do by a woman. His courtroom resentment took a lot of self-defense forms - passive resistance "The Freeway was a favorite. Dick wanted Hall Case is a fight to be a leader, but he to re-claim the revolutionary essence of the Bill of didn't want to work for it, Rights, which the majority demanded in the years after so he tried to buy power by giv­ independence to protect itself from an arbitrary, mi­ ing a big donation to our public eviction fund. When he Guerry Hoddersen nority government. The people would not budge on found that authority in the FSP couldn't be bought, it had to be earned, he left and filed a lawsuit to get even. FSP National Secretary schooled those first ten amendments, so the politicians had to in SNCC desegregation work concede them to get the Constitution passed. The Bill We're fighting back and winning court decisions that of Rights was a victory for the masses against the estab­ will help defend all the movements./I "It took us eight years in court and lishment. That tradition is ours. And today, this case is two trips to the Washington State Su­ the ultimate test of the First Amendment, the key civil preme Court to finally get a judge to liberties case in the country. It's about the right of our stop Dick Snedigar from legally rifling party to make its own decisions." through a decade's worth of FSP min­ ~ utes. It gives new meaning to the word harassment, doesn't it? But it's been Freeway Hall Case worth it. Because we've had the oppor­ tunity to take the First Amendment protections already in the law - put there by socialists resisting McCarthy­ ism, the NAACP challenging segrega­ tion, and the Black Panther Party tack­ Defendants ling the FBI - and expand those rights. We'ye kept the faith and noth­ demand freedom ing feels better than that! /I to organize Eldon Durham Lawsuit brought against Freedom S9Cialist Party Retired minister, conscientious objector to World War II, and by ex-member Richard Snedigar threatens Vietnam War opponent rights of all activists "During the McCarthy era, I be­ longed to an interdenominatioIlcll study and action group. One of the members was subpoenaed by the House UnAmerican Activities Com­ mittee and I watched the whole Valerie Carlson group quickly disband. Those not di­ Lead case attorney with a Yolanda Alaniz rectly under fire were paralyzed with private practice specializing in FSP candidate for Seattle City Council in 1991 fear. That's why the Free,,,;ay Hall discrimination law and Chicana organizer and theoretician Case is more than a suit against a "The Freeway Hall Case is funda­ "When Heidi Durham and I filed with the radical political party and its pro­ mentally a political dispute. city last year to get matching funds during our gram. It's a threat to the First Snedigar's technical legal claims campaign, the state tried to force us to turn Amendment rights of a wide variety are merely tactics to enlist the over the names of our contributors. We pushed of organizations and associations, court to intervene in the FSP's af­ for and won a ruling from the public disclosure from the Rotary Club to the Presby­ fairs, overturn the party's demo­ commission reaffirming our right to privacy. terian Church. I have no doubt that cratically made decisions, and re­ We weren't going to be forced to name names an aggressive offense is the best de­ allocate its money - other in order to keep our right to run and to be a fense against these lawsuits./I people's money - to him. Snedi­ voice for all the unrepresented - from low­ gar has spent the past eight years slandering the paid workers and the homeless and unem­ defendants with all the insidious old prejudices and stereotypes ployed to teenagers with no place to go but the against women and radicals because he doesn't have any evi­ streets. This principle is ingrained in me from dence to support his absurd claims of fraud and coercion. He's fighting the Freeway Hall Case./I admitted under oath that an emergency need for a new head­ quarters existed and that his contribution was freely given. He doesn't have a case./I Doug Barnes New Freeway Hall Manager and Snedigar's former housemate Case attorney and AFSCME delegate to the King County Labor Council "The FSP must be able to make its own de­ cisions about what it's going to prioritize and "Snedigar has been stalling to avoid trial be­ how it's going to fight this barbaric system cause he just wants to misuse the courts to get without interference from a politically hos­ revenge. It is an indictment of the judicial tile ex-member. Dick is asking the capitalist system that it has allowed Snedigar to abuse the legal process courts to judge actions the party took ten and the defendants all these years instead of throwing out his frivolous case. years ago and more. If we turned the money We are asking the trial judge to make Snedigar pay our litigation costs and over to Dick, it would be saying that we no attorneys' fees to send a message to anti-union employers and opponents of so­ longer want to maintain control of our own cial-issue organizations that these harassment suits will not be tolerated. Labor organization. The feminist leaders in the FSP had the and other movement leaders have been hit with lawsuits like this themselves, and that's why we've gotten such strong support./I chutzpah to say no to Snedigar and defy jail terms for what they believe in. That's how we're going to win this case./I r------,Our dedicated attorneys work for low, movement $6_ I rates. But the legal costs of defending the First Amend- Name I I ment - videotaping depositions, flying witnesses to r (please print) I I Seattle, paying for court reporters - are enormous. I I Please give generously! still needed Address I I 0 Enclosed is S to help protect constitutional to pay for City State Zip I rights. (Make checks out to Freeway Hall Case Defense Fund.) I : 0 Add my (our) name to the list of case endorsers. TRIALI Country Phone I I 0 Add my name to the mailing list and keep me posted. Send to: Karrie Peterson, Case Coordinator I L r;. ~n!:.c!:::~~ :!t:'d!!.e:e~o::m::. =r!: ______~ ~= ~e!.w!!! ~~5!!!,!!~i! !!e~;;..s=~'!~,!1!:.!!~ ~2.:!,,!.J f

12 Freedom Socialist May-July 1992 Teamsters reform puts labor on the comeback trail BY MATT NAGLE In place of relying on illusory aid violence, and opposing U.S. war moves. support and play an identical political from Washington, the Teamster rank It's up to the ranks to make sure the role in each movement - pacification or the first time in its 88-year and file must lead in building a broad­ leadership takes the right course. Some of the class struggle. An example is a history, the International Broth­ based labor movement free to fight on major campaigns that must be under­ union head who convinces the angry erhood of Teamsters (IBT) in De­ its own terms. taken: members hi p to take half of the pay raise Fcember 1991 held a direct elec­ • encourage movements for democ­ they're striking for. These finks get pres­ tion by the membership for its top of­ Social issues are labor's issues. racy in other unions. tige and management's table scraps by fice-holders. When the ballots were cast, IBT represents 1.56 million employees • fight to reverse past concessions. compromising the demands of aroused the rank and file kicked out the formi­ from a variety of service-oriented occu- • oppose the role of the government workers, often using violence to keep dable, thieving old guard by electing the and bosses in sabotaging labor, safety the ranks "under control." entire slate of 16 reform candidates, Former Teamster officials were noto­ headed by Ron Carey for president. rious for strong-arming their own work­ This extraordinary event marks the ers and using brutality to bust up beginning of a new era for the Teamsters other unions' picket lines. During the and a revitalized potential for labor. United Farm Workers strikes of the Through the reform victories, the mem­ '60s, Teamster snakes signed sweet- bership took the first brave step in re­ heart contracts with growers and hired claiming the biggest, most powerful and goons to attack Chicano and Mexicano most corrupt union in the country from strikers. Teamsters farmworkers the sleazy, reactionary, Mafioso good­ couldn't even vote on their own con­ ole-boy bureaucrats who for decades held tracts. it in a vise. What an example of leader­ Because of the enormous power IBT ship for workers everywhere! wields by virtue of its huge size and the Now the task before the rank and file strategic importance of its members' is to ensure that the union is thoroughly occupations, its corrupt middle caste house-cleaned and democratized and to held back the whole labor movement. use their renewed power where it counts This is why dislodging that caste opens - in struggles with the bosses, where up such wide opportunities for reviving serious ground was lost in the '80s. moribund unionism. It ain't gonna be easy. A layer of sellouts and gangsters remains in local Radical leadership to the fore! and national offices, in a phalanx be­ Formerly a UPS driver and president of tween the reform leadership and the his local in Queens, New York, Carey ranks. These guys control millions of has led strikes that doubled wages and dollars and masses of workers and they improved benefits and has supported don't take kindly to change. What are strikes by other Teamster locals. He is the winning union rebels to do next? known for genuinely listening to his coworkers. In a dramatic gesture, he cut Workers turn the tables on feds, $50,000 from his salary as president. bureaucrats. The historic Teamsters The election brought a wedge of di­ take-back was the result of a tenacious, versity to the executive board, bringing international, grassroots movement led to it one of the few Blacks to attain high by Teamsters for a Democratic Union office, the first Hispanic, and the first (TDU), formed in 1975. In 1988, the U.S. woman, Diana Kilmury. Kilmury is a Justice Department served a racketeer­ truck driver, a feminist, and an outspo­ ing lawsuit on the Teamster brass, who ken TDU co-chair. then struck a deal to get the suit dropped Reform candidates are sweeping into in exchange for acceptance of a "con­ office at the local level as well. In Seattle, sent decree" stipulating changes in the for instance, Asian American Bob union's constitution and practices. TDU Hasegawa, a IS-year TDU activist, was pressed for and won the inclusion of a pations, like health care workers, pilots, and environmental standards abroad. elected to head Local 174. one-member, one-vote election clause. flight attendants, nurses and truck driv­ • organize the 84 percent of workers Victory for all these reformers was The government provided the union ers. The union reflects the overall shift who have no union. possible only because TDU and other reformers a lever to use against the in the makeup of the working class by • help build militant organizations rank-and-filers spent many years risk­ bureaucrats only by accident. In homing race, gender, and type of job. Changing for the unemployed. ing their jobs and sometimes their lives in to keep a finger on the tails of the its outmoded and stifling rugged-indi­ • join with community and radical organizing against the IBT hierarchy. union fatcats, the Justice Department vidualist, hulking-white-guy reputation groups to win social reforms. Many of those who have been in the underestimated the ability of the work­ must be a top priority if the reformers If Carey and the new General Execu­ front lines are socialists. Carey, Kilmury ers to take advantage of the situation are to survive the inevitable backlash tive Board collaborate with and build and their associates have the responsi­ and assert themselves in their own right. from the bureaucratic residue. new leadership from among the most bility to acknowledge, respect and en­ Now the union must get the govern­ Carey and his colleagues can and oppressed workers, they will get the courage radical leadership if the IBT is to ment out of its affairs. The feds are no must bring all the members on board rank-and-file support to whip the still­ be thoroughly democratic - and if it is buddies of labor. National Labor the reform boat by taking strong, pro­ entrenched reactionaries into line. Oth­ to survive the fire it will attract as it tries Relations Board decisions that impede gressive positions on every issue affect­ erwise, they risk being thwarted by the to improve the lot of working people. organizing, injunctions against strikers ing working people: affirmative action, old-guard opposition - or being tamed Only disaster can result from knuckling like the Greyhound drivers, "free trade" equal opportunity, abortion rights, and bureaucratized themselves and under to reactionary redbaiters. agreements that will spiral working childcare, lesbian and gay rights, access melding into labor's middle caste. conditions downward worldwide, and for the disabled, protection of constitu­ Rock 'em and sock 'em with a court orders to disclose TDU member­ tional and civil rights, eliminating un­ Middle-caste betrayers shoved Labor Party. Unions, even the most ship and supporter lists are just a few employment, raising the minimum aside. The middle caste is a social layer strong and uppi ty, can only do so much. examples of how the government helps wage, nationalizing healthcare, ending whose members, though they may span Workers need a political arm - a party business clip labor's wings. sexual and racial harassment and Nazi class lines, rest on a workingclass base of - that will truly represent them and provide an answer to their woes. Carey's lean toward the Democrats as a replace­ 10 ~nclosed is $100 fO-;: 5-year sponsoring sUbscriPtio;(20 issues~~f~ COpy-;rl"l ment for Teamster support for Republi­ Boot the I Socialist Feminism: The First Decade, 1966-1976 by Gloria Martin. I cans Reagan and Bush is a prescription I 0 Enclosed is $50 for a 3-year sustaining subscription, 12 issues. I for calamity. Lesser-evil politics won't challenge the cause of workingclass I 0 Enclosed is $25 for a 2-year supporting subscription, 8 issues. ~ misery: capitalism. What's the alterna­ Check Bouncers! I 0 Enclosed is $5 for a 1-year regular subscription, 4 issues. Institutions $10. I tive? A Labor Party! Read the I 0 Enclosed is $4.00, plus $2.50 for postage, for the nine installments of I Reforming the Teamsters is just the paper that I The Chicano Struggle: A Racial or National Movement?· I beginning of the battle facing workers has as much who want to control their economic I and SOCial lives. A Labor Party will se­ contempt Name _____....,...,-_---:-:.,--- _____ Phone ------I for the (please print) cure the IBT's gains and begin to give U.S. government Address ______City ______I the entire working class the muscle to put authority where it belongs - into as you do. State ------Zip ------Country ______I the hands of the majority. I Send checks or money orders to Freedom SOCialist, New Freeway Hali, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., I The Teamster rank and file has the I Seallle, WA 98118. Add $5 for overseas airmail. opportunity before it to make real Subscribe I Australian residents: $6.00 (AUD) for a 1-year Canadian residents: $6.00 (CAD) for a 1-year I change. With political representation airmail subscription. Send cheque or money airmail subscription. Send cheque or money order at the top and a tight, determined, mili­ I order to Freedom Socialist, P.O. Box 266, to Freedom Socialist, 103-1055 E. Cordova St., I tant rainbow of workers at the founda­ L __West Brunswick, VIC 30~ _____ ~a~u~, ~V6A 1MS. __ .J Fr~dom Socialist! tion, the Teamsters reform movement can live up to its awesome promise. 0