Their Crimes and Our Punishments - Page 2 Police Terror: the Legacy of Slavery - Page 4 World Embraces Cuba Model—Slaps the Empire - Page 25

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H The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. —Karl Marx H NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 VOL. 14 NO. 6

Zim ship entering the Port of Oakland. Read ILWU International’s Statements on Zim Protests are Untrue on page 18.

On the Front Cover: Cuba’s 461 doctors and medical professionals who were sent s to Liberia to provide direct treatment to sick people outnumbers that of the Afri- can Union and all individual countries and private organizations, including the Red Cross. Read World Embraces Cuban Model—Slaps the Empire on page 25.

Pernicious racism and the broken healthcare system in this country, which puts profits ahead of patients, cost Thomas Eric Duncan his life.. Read Criminal Neglect: The Death of Thomas Eric Duncan on page 16.

A pro-Russian villager argued with Ukrainian soldiers after troops were blocked by residents at a checkpoint in Andreyevka. Read Ukraine Cease Fire on page 29. Their Crimes and Our Punishments - Page 2 Police Terror: The Legacy of Slavery - Page 4 World Embraces Cuba Model—Slaps the Empire - Page 25

Why do courts change their precedents to oppose Mumia Abu- Jamal? Read Another ‘Mumia Rule' on page 47. Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Medical Care Needed for Chelsea Manning! ACLU files lawsuit against Army demanding medical care for Manning By the Chelsea Manning Support Network Yesterday, the ACLU and Chelsea demanding that Ms. Manning be pro- Gender dysphoria is a serious medi- Manning filed a lawsuit against the vided hormone therapy, permission to cal condition that requires hormone Army demanding the necessary medi- follow female grooming standards, and therapy and changes to gender expres- cal treatment for Manning’s previously access to treatment by a medical pro- sion, like growing hair, to live consis- diagnosed gender dysphoria. vider qualified to treat her condition. tently with one’s gender identity as By continuing to deny Manning Ms. Manning is currently serving a part of accepted standards of care. treatment, the Army is directly violat- thirty-five year prison sentence at the Without necessary treatment, gen- ing Chelsea’s constitutional rights United States Disciplinary Barracks at der dysphoria can cause severe psycho- under the 8th amendment. Chase Ft. Leavenworth Kansas, and though logical distress, anxiety, and suicidali- Strangio, attorney in the ACLU Gay the military recognizes that she has ty. For this reason, the National Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender gender dysphoria requiring treatment, Commission on Correctional Health project and co-counsel on Ms. critical care has been withheld without Care and the American Psychological Manning’s case, notes “such clear dis- any medical basis. Association have issued policy state- regard of well-established medical pro- “The government continues to deny ments that support providing treat- tocols constitutes cruel and unusual Ms. Manning’s access to necessary med- ment to prisoners diagnosed with the punishment.” ical treatment for gender dysphoria, condition in accordance with estab- Due to a full year of neglecting without which she will continue to suf- lished standards of care, as the Federal Manning’s medical care, the ACLU fer severe psychological harms,” said Bureau of Prisons and many state cor- had previously announced a Sept 4th Chase Strangio, attorney in the ACLU rections agencies are already doing. deadline for the Army to provide treat- Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender A copy of the complaint is available at: ment. After continued failure to pro- project and co-counsel on Ms. aclu.org/lgbt-rights-prisoners-rights/man- vide treatment, the ACLU filed a law- Manning’s case. “Such clear disregard of ning-v-hagel-et-al-complaint-declaratory-and- injunctive-relief suit yesterday and released the follow- well-established medical protocols constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.” The motion for preliminary injunction is ing statement: available at: Ms. Manning is represented by the ACLU Demands Government aclu.org/lgbt-rights-prisoners-rights/man- American Civil Liberties Union ning-v-hagel-et-al-plaintiffs-motion-prelimi- Provide Chelsea Manning (ACLU), the ACLU of the Nation’s nary-injunction Necessary Medical Care Capital, the ACLU of Kansas and civil- This press release is available at: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ian defense counsel David E. Coombs. aclu.org/lgbt-rights-prisoners-rights/aclu- demands-government-provide-chelsea-man- September 23, 2014 Last month, Ms. Manning’s legal team sent a letter to the DOD and Army ning-necessary-medical-care CONTACT: Crystal Cooper, ACLU officials demanding that she receive —Free Chelsea Manning, September National, 212-549-2666; [email protected] treatment for gender dysphoria in 24, 2014 WASHINGTON—Today, Chelsea accordance with medical standards of http://www.chelseamanning.org/press/ Manning filed a lawsuit in federal court care, including hormone therapy and aclu-files-lawsuit-against-army-demands- in the District of Columbia against permission to follow female grooming medical-care-for-manning Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and standards. Her treatment needs have other Department of Defense (DOD) continued to be unmet and her distress Write to Chelsea Manning: and Department of the Army officials has escalated. Mail must be addressed exactly as follows: for their failure to provide necessary “I am proud to be standing with the CHELSEA E. MANNING 89289 medical treatment for her gender dys- ACLU behind Chelsea on this very 1300 NORTH WAREHOUSE ROAD phoria, a condition with which she was important issue.” said David E. FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS 66027- originally diagnosed by Army doctors Coombs, “It is my hope that through 2304 more than four years ago. this action, Chelsea will receive the The complaint is accompanied by a medical care that she needs without motion for preliminary injunction having to suffer any further anguish.”

SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 SocialistViewpoint November/December 2014 Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT www.socialistviewpoint.org CONTENTS email: [email protected] (415) 824-8730 U.S. Politics and the Economy Incarceration Nation Their Crimes and Our Punishments ...... 2 Police Censorship Defied! ...... 43 By Bonnie Weinstein By The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Police Terror: The Legacy of Slavery ...... 4 Goddard College Commencement Speech ...... 45 By Chris Kinder By Mumia Abu-Jamal Order-Givers and Order-Takers ...... 10 Another ‘Mumia Rule’ ...... 47 By Michael D. Yates By Mumia Abu-Jamal More Money, More Money, More Money! ...... 12 Ebola and the Real Health Crisis in America ...... 47 By Paul Buchheit By Mumia Abu-Jamal Water is Life ...... 13 Who is Christopher Abruzzo? ...... 48 By Lauren McCauley A Statement by Lorenzo Johnson Germany Just Made College Tuition Free! ...... 14 Conviction to Convict ...... 49 By Bruce A. Dixon By Linn Washington, Jr. Foreclosure Scam ...... 15 Failed ...... 53 By Ted Newcomen By Kevin Cooper Criminal Neglect: The Death of Thomas Eric Duncan . . 16 Defend Rasmea Odeh! ...... 54 By Labor Fightback Network By Ali Abunimah ILWU International’s Statements on ZIM Protests Medical Care Needed for Chelsea Manning! . . Inside Front are Untrue ...... 18 By the Chelsea Manning Support Network By the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee Mississippi Incarceration Rate ...... Inside Back Immigration Reform: Fact or Fiction? ...... 19 By Jonathan Turley By Miguel Angel Defend Marissa Alexander! ...... 56 By Leslie Salzillo Prison Assisted Suicide—the Texas Way ...... 57 International By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson U.S. Love for Egyptian Tyranny ...... 22 By Glenn Greenwald Alabama’s Thrifty Jailers ...... 60 By Tom Boggioni Thousands in Mexico Demand Action over Missing Students 24 By Alfonso Serrano Starve the Beast ...... 61 By Tim Young World Embraces Cuba Model—Slaps the Empire . . . . 25 By Glen Ford Book Reviews Gaza: Call to Action! ...... 27 1960s and ’70s: Memoirs by Two Revolutionaries . . . . 62 Statement by the International Secretariat of the Fourth International Book Reviews by Barry Sheppard Ukraine Cease Fire ...... 29 The Troy Davis Tragedy ...... 67 Feyzi Ismail interviews Russian Marxist and Dissident Boris Kagarlitsky Book Review by Mumia Abu-Jamal Nestora Salgado ...... 36 The Barking Dog ...... 68 Book review by Gregg Shotwell The Assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. . 69 Environment Book Review by Roger Hollander Pollution Inequality in America ...... 38 By Lynn Stuart Parramore Letters to the Editors ...... 71 The Attack on El Salvador’s Water ...... 40 Nat Weinstein—An Oral History By Pete Dolack Parts IV, V and VI ...... 73

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Vol.Vol.Vol. 14, 14,3, No.No. 266 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 1

U.S. Politics and the Economy U.S. POLITICS AND THE ECONOMY

Their Crimes and Our Punishments By Bonnie Weinstein

To state that there is a double Honda in 2007, according to inter- Getting robbed in Missouri and in standard of justice for the wealthy, views, regulatory filings and court your home town records.”1 capitalist elite (a tiny minority of the In an August 26, 2014 article by world’s population) and the rest of us Clearly, these auto manufacturers Campbell Roberts and Joseph Goldstein is a monumental understatement. did nothing to prevent injury and titled, “In Aftermath of Missouri Corporations and their executives get death to motorists. Millions of us are Protests, Skepticism About the away with murder and grand theft still in danger while paying for the Prospects for Change” that appeared in routinely, while the rest of us—the privilege of driving around in these the New York Times, reported that, vast majority of humanity—some- defective vehicles. But have any of “…just a few hours after Michael times pay, literally, with our lives for these corporate bosses been arrested? Brown was laid to rest, an amiable the “crime” of being poor. Hell, no! And they won’t be! judge sat in the City Council cham- Capitalist society equates poverty bers here and weighed in on the traf- with stupidity and general unworthi- They get away with grand theft, too fic violations and petty crimes, one ness while, ironically, the possession of According to a August 28, 2014 by one, of more than a hundred wealth—even when simply inherit- article by David Gelles titled, people. At least two-thirds of those ed—insures a place among the ruling “Businesses Are Winning Cat-and- waiting were Black, roughly a reverse elite and immunity to punishment. Mouse Tax Game,” racial image of the demographics of Maplewood itself… There is method to the madness of “By exploiting existing loopholes “Young Black men, who in many capitalism. The method is “law and and devising new ones, some of the country’s best-known companies towns in St. Louis County are pulled order”—their laws, their order. The over at a rate greater than whites, madness is tyranny—our enslavement are making it harder than ever for the federal government to replenish routinely find themselves in the by those commanders of capital—by its already depleted coffers. As a patchwork of municipal courts here, any and all means necessary. result, business income tax revenue without lawyers and unable to pay the fines levied for their traffic viola- Capitalists get away with murder remains stagnant at about two percent of gross domestic product even tions. Many end up being passed and mayhem as corporate profits hit records. from jail to jail around the county According to a September 11, 2014 Business taxes now make up less until they can pay their fines and in New York Times article by Hiroko than ten percent of federal revenue, some cases other administrative Tabuchi titled, “Air Bag Flaw, Long and in some years as little as 6.6 per- fees, a revenue source on which Known to Honda and Takata, Led to cent. That is sharply down from the some towns are growing increasingly reliant. Recalls,” years after World War II, when about 30 percent of federal revenue “‘It angers people, because it “Today, more than 14 million came from corporate taxes….”2 seems like they’re just messing with vehicles have been recalled by 11 you,’ said Cameron Lester, a automakers over rupture risks Corporations hire giant law firms 22-year-old college student who involving air bags manufactured by whose job it is to devise laws and buy knew Mr. Brown, and days earlier the supplier, Takata. That is about politicians to allow corporations to get was protesting his death. He five times the number of vehicles out of paying taxes and/or to hide tril- described how an unpaid $75 ticket recalled this year by General Motors lions of dollars in profits off shore in once turned into days behind bars in for its deadly ignition switch “private banks” in order to avoid taxes. two different police stations and defect…. Everybody knows if we try to cheat hundreds-of-dollars in fees… “The danger of exploding air on our taxes we go to jail. Basically, the “When a person fails to appear bags was not disclosed for years after and pay, here as in many other the first reported incident in 2004, capitalist class owns and controls the places, a warrant is issued and that despite red flags—including three laws while we have to find ways to person’s license is suspended….In additional ruptures reported to abide by them, or else! Ferguson, more than one-and-a-

2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 half warrants have been issued for The purpose of inflicting fines, mass should have the ultimate say on what every resident. And as the warrants incarceration and regressive taxes (the we want to spend it on. stack up, so do the fines: Not show- poor pay more), is not only to fund the We must insist on democratically ing up to pay a $90 taillight violation capitalist class’s government—its means a failure-to-appear warrant determining all of the policies that we police, military and jails—but to feel should be carried out for the good with its own fee of $100 or more; weigh-down and oppress the working each successive failure-to-appear of all of us. class in order to prevent revolution. warrant adds to that; and if there is a Democracy isn’t being free to vote stop, there are incarceration fees and They make the rules; they make the for one privately well-financed liar over towing fees. exceptions for themselves; they keep the another. Democracy is the right to “In the end, said Brendan profits we create; they control the police determine how we—the overwhelming Roediger, an assistant professor at and military apparatus—all to convince majority—want to live and how we St. Louis University Law School, a us there’s nothing we can do about it. want to distribute and use our common person who had trouble coming up Putting our money at work for us resources. We can do this. We are the with $90 might owe a jurisdiction majority. All it takes is our solidarity and well over a thousand dollars.”3 But there are many things we can do our determination to make these deci- about it. We can demand a progressive These practices aren’t limited to sions for ourselves—that’s socialism. Missouri; they are routine in poor com- tax structure where the wealthy pay munities across the country and com- more with no cut-off at the high-end, mon experiences for all working people. and no taxes at all on working class people. We can demand free, universal 1 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/busi- What could we do with the money healthcare and education from cradle ness/air-bag-flaw-long-known-led-to-recalls. spent on incarceration and fines? to grave. We can demand a living wage html for all—as determined by us, not them. 2 http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/ Consider this, tuition and expenses businesses-find-ways-to-avoid-corporate-taxes- for the 2014-2015 academic year at We can demand a ceiling on profits but-a-fix-seems-unlikely/?_php=true&_type=blo Harvard is $43,938; room and board is and CEO pay—determined by us. We gs&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&modu $14,669; estimated personal expenses can demand a shorter workweek with le=c-column-middle-span-region®ion=c-col- (including $800-$1200 for books) is no cuts in pay in order to put everyone umn-middle-span-region&WT.nav=c-column- $3,643; estimated travel costs range who needs a full-time job to work. middle-span-region&src=dayp&_r=0 from $0-$5800; for total billed and 3 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/us/in- We must find a way to exercise our aftermath-of-missouri-protests-skepticism- unbilled costs of $62,250-$68,050 for right to determine, freely and demo- about-the-prospects-for-change.html?ref=us the year. In addition, health insurance is cratically, how our tax dollars will be 4 https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/ required at a cost of $2,366 unless you spent. Tax money is our money and we how-aid-works/cost-attendance are covered under your family’s plan.4 It would be cheaper to send inmates to Harvard! It would make much more sense to utilize the billions of dollars spent to incarcerate inmates, instead, to provide free healthcare, education and housing and to create jobs for those in poverty. It would make much more sense to have progressive taxation, i.e., to get rid of the tax loopholes for the rich and tax them at a progressive rate—the more money they have the higher rate of taxes they pay. Why do they do what they do? It makes no sense to jail someone for an unpaid taillight ticket unless you are a capitalist.

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 3 Police Terror: The Legacy of Slavery By Chris Kinder

Police murders of Black and brown Special bodies of armed men ery and indentured servitude in the young men has sparked a mounting But while this militarization and “new world” to acquire the great wealth outrage throughout the U.S. and the criminal actions of police are certainly used to build capitalism, in a process world. The Ferguson, Missouri shoot- shocking, are they surprising or “exces- that Marx called primitive accumula- ing of Michael Brown, in which Brown sive,” in terms of normal police practice? tion. In the Seventeenth Century, there was shot while his hands were up, and Or are they just the latest manifestation was a period in which the “transporta- his body was left lying in the street for tion” of criminals, indentured servitude of a capitalist imperialist state in the almost five hours, led to immediate and the enslavement of Native agony of its groaning decline? Police are mass protests. Ferguson’s overwhelm- Americans were virtually indistinguish- just the first line of defense of a system, ingly white police force treated the able as sources of labor in the colonies. which has always been racist, capitalist protestors of Brown’s murder with The first Blacks from Africa were treat- and colonialist/imperialist. “Special bod- utter contempt and terror. The cops ed as indentured servants or “appren- ies of armed men” were identified by pointed weapons, shouted racist epi- tices for life;” but by the mid 17th Marx, Engels and Lenin as the essence of thets, and threatened protestors with Century slaves became a racial caste, as the state; and the state only exists because armored vehicles, sparking protests the labor force of preference became there is an irreconcilable conflict between even in the mainstream bourgeois Blacks brought from Africa, particular- classes in society. One must rule the press. Brown’s brutal murder—as well ly for use on large plantations. other; hence the need for militarized use as several subsequent police killings in of force against the working class and all The economies of the southern the St Louis area—sparked a national oppressed and exploited groups within it. planter colonies were based primarily mobilization of thousands in October. on slavery, as well as on the maritime Although much of the equipment The Ferguson events fed into a and related port industries, which were and technology being used today is growing awareness of police shoot- needed for trade in goods produced by obviously modern, American policing first-ask-questions-later atrocities. the slaves. White settler colonists Police shootings are just the most has always exhibited a link with the (farmers), merchants and tradesmen of damning edge of a criminal “justice” imperialist military. Use of the National various sorts also proliferated. In the system that is racist and corrupt to the Guard to smash the Watts uprising of North free labor was generally pre- core. The death penalty and life with- 1965, against a Teamsters wildcat strike dominant, but the mercantile economy out the possibility of parole (LWOP), in Ohio in 1970, and in the killing of profited and grew rich from slavery. stop-and-frisk policies, blatant frame- antiwar protestors at Kent State in the Slaves, being essentially prisoners for ups and barbaric brutality; as well as same year; and now in Ferguson, are life, needed guarding; and in order to mass incarceration and the school-to- just some examples. Thirty-eight Black protect their human property, slave- prison pipeline, are all disproportion- Panthers were murdered in the 1970s, holders developed policing. The first ally targeted on Black and brown men many in cold blood, by police using slave patrol in the British North through racial profiling. overwhelming force and working hand- American colonies was established in in-hand with federal agencies to set up Add to this the militarization of Carolina Province in 1704, and they (and in other cases frame-up) their continued to be the primary policing police, which was highlighted in a June victims. Police have long been an occu- 2014 ACLU report titled, “War Comes agency in the slaveholding states right pying army in Black ghettos, and they up through the Civil War. Home, the Excessive Militarization of still are in Black and brown areas today. American Policing.” In recent years, police forces across the U.S. have been But the origin of policing in the U.S. “Beware the pattyrollers” gobbling up surplus materials from the goes back much further, and its history Slave patrols, called paddy rollers Iraq War at low cost, pushed on them illustrates its true nature clearly. The (or pattyrollers) by the slaves, patrolled by the defense department, Homeland question to ask is, what were police and the roads, checked for and pursued Security, and the manufacturers of their antecedents created to do exactly? escaped slaves, and had the power to “security” utensils of all sorts. These come into slave quarters on the planta- can range from armored vehicles Slave patrols tions to conduct searches for fugitives “hardened” against land mines, to the Like all the other European mercan- or stolen goods. Slaves being sent on latest in sub-machine gun technology. tile colonialist states, Britain used slav- errands, such as to procure supplies in

4 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 town, had to have passes issued by “insurrection” was critical in getting Purchase had brought this area into the their overseer or master to show to the the slave states to stay in the Union. U.S. The slaves were keenly aware of patrollers; otherwise they might be The same point was reiterated in the the slave revolution in Saint Domingue beaten, whipped or even killed. The Second Amendment, which provided (Haiti), which had just secured inde- slave patrols tended to have great extra- for “the right to bear arms” directly in pendence from France; and they had legal authority to take whatever mea- connection to the need for “a well- the benefit of a German Coast tradition sures they deemed necessary, a pattern regulated militia.” Needless to say, the that allowed the slaves to congregate that persists today as police have the “right” to bear arms was never meant on their own in New Orleans on week- power to play judge, jury and execu- to include Indians or slaves, whether ends, where leaders could meet in tioner, particularly in Black and brown chattel or wage! secret to plot revolt. neighborhoods. The role of the slave patrols expand- Some 500 slaves rose up, armed Interviews with former slaves, com- ed considerably with the passage of the themselves as best they could, killed piled in a Federal Writers Project book Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, an antebel- slave owners they could find, and start- in the late 1930s called On Jordan’s lum “compromise” between slave ed a long march down along the Stormy Banks, contained personal sto- states and “free,” which required non- Mississippi to New Orleans, a several- ries from those who were children on slaveholding states of the North to day journey undertaken mostly at slave plantations in the last years of return escaped slaves to their masters. night. They benefitted from the fact slavery: stories of good masters and An older, 1793 Fugitive Slave Act was that much of the local militia had been bad, small farms and large, even stories also on the books, but it was loosely sent off to try to grab West Florida of longing for the relative security of enforced, and allowed free states to from the Spanish, whose colonial pos- plantation life as a child compared with pass laws requiring trials for accused session at that time extended all the horrendous conditions in the South fugitives. Now, slave catchers could way along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana. since the Civil War. But every single come into northern states and grab Unfortunately their advantages weren’t one of the interviewees had the same “fugitives” with impunity—sometimes enough, as the slaves were totally warning—“beware the pattyrollers.” they were actually freedmen—and untrained, lacked sufficient arms, and had lost the element of surprise due to Slave patrols in the Old South were return them or sell them back into the mistake of having let one of the sometimes independently set up by the slavery (as portrayed in the book and slave owners escape early in their planters (state authorized private polic- movie, Twelve Years a Slave). march. They were brutally crushed ing), but often were organized directly Conductors on the Underground before getting to the city (many escaped by the state as militias. Although state Railroad, as well as those sheltering by fleeing into swamps or returning to militias fought in the Revolutionary runaway slaves, were committing a their plantations). War, and would fight the British again federal crime. The entire ruling class of in the War of 1812, their main function the U.S., not just the Southern plant- The governor of Orleans Territory was to patrol slaves, repress their ers, profited hand-over-fist from slav- used the experience of this revolt to revolts, repress any other revolts (such ery, and the Fugitive Slave Act showed whip the French planters into line to as Shay’s Rebellion in 1786) and once again how they were all complicit support and participate in a “well regu- slaughter Indians. in the preservation and policing of lated militia,” something they had been slavery. These slave patrols, militias, reluctant to do under an American Slavery—mainstay of the U.S. slave-catchers, etc. were the police in governor earlier. Now, the elite were Indeed, maintaining slavery was a the antebellum period. Urban con- eager to promote this militarization, chief motivation for the formation of stabularies did not even exist, until which included stationing of U.S. the U.S. in the first place, as Thomas they began to be set up in the 1840s. troops in the Territory for protection Jefferson made clear with the following against both slaves and Spanish colo- line in the Declaration of Independence: The German coast revolt nial rivals. The city of New Orleans “He [King George] has incited domes- The largest slave revolt in U.S. his- passed laws against slaves being able to tic insurrections among us....” This was tory shows the intimate connections rent rooms or congregate in town; a reference to the crown’s threat to between slavery, policing, and militari- while the federal government offered incite a slave revolt if the colonists zation. The revolt took place in 1811 slave owners compensation for lost didn’t fall into line! The promise given among slaves of the hugely profitable slaves or other “property.” As British in the constitution of 1787 that the sugar plantations along the German troops soon advanced on Louisiana in federal government would “call forth a Coast, just upriver from New Orleans, the second war with Britain, the plant- militia” to protect any state facing only a few years after the Louisiana ers, Frenchmen and local militia rallied

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 5 to General Andrew Jackson’s call to after the final defeat of the Confederacy and involuntary servitude “except as defend “liberty” mainly because they in 1865—slaves left the plantations in punishment for a crime whereof the feared the potential of another slave droves, forcing many planters to break party shall have been duly convicted.” revolt, inspired by British promises of up their estates into smaller units. Lack This language fit with Southern plans “liberation.” (The British had pursued of labor wasn’t their only problem to subordinate Blacks through crimi- the same tactic in the Revolutionary however: many discovered that it was nalization, and thus contributed to re- War in the South, by offering freedom only the slaves who actually knew how enslavement. to any slave who would fight with them to raise cotton! The plantation econo- against the rebels.) my in the South collapsed drastically; Reconstruction Radical Republicans and abolition- Following the revolt, many cap- agricultural production would take ists such as Frederick Douglass, who tured slave rebels were given mock tri- decades to fully recover. Meanwhile, as warned against counterrevolution well als organized by the planters them- former slaves were roaming free and before the end of the war, insisted on a selves as well as by territorial officials; riding the rails (those few that were still thoroughgoing reconstruction most of them were then beheaded and operating) looking for paid work, the enforced by the federal government. their heads displayed on pikes set up Southern states immediately began Supported by the Northern capitalists along the road into the city as a warn- attempts to put Blacks “in their place” and most of the population, the ing to others. One can only be remind- through criminalization, a process Radicals obtained two-thirds ed here of how Ferguson cops left Mike which persists in full force today. Republican majorities in Congress in Brown’s body in the street for hours, “Black Codes” 1866 elections, and moved on their and later drove over the memorial In 1865-66, Southern states adopt- plans, which included sending troops people had erected for him. The ed “Black Codes,” laws specifically to the South. The election of Ulysses S. German Coast slaves, however, never designed to intimidate Blacks, such as Grant as president in 1869 continued forgot their heroic revolt, and at the bans on vagrancy, changing jobs with- these policies. start of the Civil War, they were among out permission of previous employer, the first in the South to abandon the Reconstruction, based on the 14th riding freight cars without a ticket, etc. plantations and seek freedom near and 15th amendments and use of This quickly led to the beginnings of a Union army encampments.1 Union troops, helped abolish the initial re-enslavement policy that would sim- round of Black Codes, and ensure that The Civil War, and beyond mer all through Reconstruction and Blacks got to vote, which led to Black In the Civil War, the Confederacy flame into full force afterwards: con- delegates in state legislatures. Blacks scooped up most males of fighting age vict leasing. Meanwhile, violence, law- also got public schools, which were for its army, but it couldn’t forget the lessness and chaos raged throughout equally funded with white schools. slave patrol function, particularly since the South, as the Home Guard contin- Union troops were specifically assigned slaves increasingly sought to flee to the ued to pursue deserters, and former to combat the Klan, and a federal North during the war. Boys and old Confederates formed vigilante groups Freedmen’s Bureau was set up to help men were recruited into a Home Guard such as the Ku Klux Klan. Almost all Blacks get jobs. The Bureau recom- to patrol for runaways and for desert- the violence in this period was com- mended going back to plantations and ers from the army, which was a much mitted by whites. A myth of Black farms to seek rentals, or paid work. In bigger problem than the myths about violence was carefully promoted over some cases, units of the military guar- Confederate soldiers indicate. Indeed time to hide the white chaos, and sup- anteed paid labor contracts to former there were huge areas of the South— port criminalization and re-enslave- slaves in certain areas to cultivate the the more mountainous regions and ment of Blacks. land; although these programs were generally impoverished areas with no The federal government was con- denounced by abolitionists as little bet- plantations—where there were no flicted about how to handle the defeat- ter than serfdom. slaves at all. Poor whites generally had ed states. Vice President Andrew no love for the privileged planter class, Johnson, a Democrat, took over after Sherman’s promise: “forty acres and some of these areas produced Lincoln’s assassination, and pursued and a mule” bands of men who migrated north to Lincoln’s policy of moderation: All of this worked well enough so fight with the Union, as well as places Southern states could be readmitted to that in a little more than ten years, the of refuge for Confederate deserters. the Union if they rejected secession former slaves and their families were With the Emancipation and ratified the 13th amendment of approximately as well off as the poor Proclamation of 1863—but mainly December 1865, which rejected slavery whites. The second revolution in the

6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 U.S. appeared to be consolidating, at While more serious crimes would be receive token pay in the form of scrip first. But Reconstruction had plenty of handled by state courts, the vast major- good only at the company store. weaknesses. First of all, the “40 acres ity of so-called “crimes” were petty While the “court” system complied and a mule” promise made by General violations of one of the endlessly with laws against slavery by setting a Sherman during his march to the sea expanding Black Codes. These were time limit that the convict had to work, was fulfilled only in a few places, such handled by local magistrates and sher- this limit could, and usually was, as the Georgia Sea Islands, which white iffs, many with only tenuous connec- extended for months or years as the owners had abandoned during the war. tion to an official appointment, and employer added his own charges to the The Freedman’s bureau worked on most of whom were connected to some “debt,” to pay for medical services, getting abandoned land to Blacks as small-time white employer looking for broken tools, room and board, or well, but there was never a broad fed- cheap labor. money owed to the company store. eral policy to supply land to Blacks, This system was used during the 1860’s, The convict labor racket much less to expropriate existing white but was heavily ramped up as owners. While about a quarter of Black The racket worked like this: just Reconstruction wound down, in the farmers had their own land by 1900, about any white person could stop a mid- late-1870s. This coincided with a most of this had been purchased; and Black person on the street, challenge rise in iron and coal production and throughout the last decades of the 19th him (or her), and haul him before a related industries in the South, and Century, Black landowners were con- local magistrate on some charge that with farm expansion into new, previ- stantly threatened by fraud and out- was based on broadly written code, or ously unsettled and uncultivated areas, right vigilante violence to get them off even on pure invention. A hearing, all of which raised the demand for their land. complete with conviction and fine, cheap labor.2 The white Southern ruling class could be over within a couple hours. kept up efforts to undermine Lawyers were never involved, and trials Reconstruction axed Reconstruction every step of the way. were discouraged by intimidating the It is noteworthy that while big plan- On the plantations that remained victim to “confess judgment.” This was tation owners and farmers benefitted (which were considerable, despite the antecedent of today’s “plea bar- from the convict labor system, most of many that were broken into smaller gain” rigmarole, which entraps so them relied mainly on sharecroppers units), they managed to undermine many people of color and poor people to do their work. In the post war peri- ideas of wage-labor or tenancy by now. As in today’s racket, “confessing od, a growing coterie of smaller busi- Blacks. Within a few years after the judgment” would be encouraged by nessmen and poor white farmers in war, they established a share-cropping threats of even more severe punish- non-plantation areas who had never system which forced Black farmers to ment than what the victim already had slaves, and often resented the accept annual contracts that tied them faced, such as being sent to work in a wealthy plantation owners, were the to the land, preventing them from sell- mine where the death rate was extreme- chief beneficiaries of re-enslaved Black ing their labor elsewhere when the ly high. labor. This system, along with rampant opportunity arose. The key was that Unable to pay the “fine”—which vigilantism, fed into a hardening of the landlord extracted the entire prod- could include fees to officials or even to anti-Black racism among masses of uct (usually cotton) directly from the “witnesses” for their “services”—the whites. cropper, and paid bare subsistence to victim’s labor would immediately be Reconstruction wound down over him in the form of food and shelter. bought by some small-time agent, right several years, then came to an abrupt This generally represented all of the there in “court,” in exchange for his end with the so-called “compromise” cropper’s “share” from sale of the crop! paying the victim’s “fine.” Sometimes of 1877. Conservative Republican The similarity to chattel slavery could these “agents” were front companies Rutherford B. Hayes was elected amid hardly be clearer. for big enterprises that had a constant widespread ballot stuffing and intimi- Besides sharecropping, the main need for forced labor. The agent would dation of Black voters in the South, in tactic for re-enslavement took place then immediately sell or “lease” the which racist terrorist groups like the through the criminal “justice” system: convict to some farmer who needed to Klan and White League played a big convict leasing. Just as in antebellum clear his land, or a local industrial role. The “compromise” came into it days, much of the policing and judg- establishment that needed labor. The because Southern Democrats, who mental system existed with only the purchaser got to keep the victim for a were mostly white, and who had come barest connection to the official “legal” certain amount of time, until his debt into power in state legislatures largely system, yet it all worked in tandem. was paid off. The forced worker might through similar vigilante intimidation

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 7 of voters, accepted Hayes’ election on fund allocation—a “neighborhood Black communities and towns on slim the basis of his promise to remove schools” policy; and new Black Code provocations. These peaked in 1919. Union troops from the South, which laws were passed that mandated sepa- Effective, if not legal, segregation also he did. ration of whites and Blacks in public permeated the North in housing and The Radical Republicans and aboli- facilities. This “separate but equal” through other forms of discrimination. mythology was endorsed by the tionists were defeated mainly due to Racism and labor the change in strategy by the big capi- Supreme Court in the 1896 Plessy v. Pervasive racism also hobbled the talist industrialists who controlled the Ferguson ruling. During all this time, labor movement. The foundation for Republican Party. Their interest no racist vigilante action against Blacks this was laid in the antebellum South, long lay in defeating their planter-class escalated without control, except for a in which employers provoked white rivals: now it lay in investing in few instances in which Blacks exercised worker anger by bringing slaves into Southern industry to benefit both from growing industries, particularly in the the cheap labor of re-enslaved Blacks, “Special bodies of armed 1850s, which kept workers’ wages and from the expanding extractive down. This pattern continued after the industries in the South such as coal and men” were identified by war, with employers managing to break other mining operations, which pro- Marx, Engels and Lenin workers’ strikes, and staff entire indus- vided needed resources for growing as the essence of the tries using Black forced labor. In a few Northern industrial development. state; and the state only situations, such as the docks of Blacks are still victimized to this day exists because there is an Charleston and other ports, the long- by the betrayal and failure of shore workers, having once been slaves, Reconstruction, due to the pattern of irreconcilable conflict became strong and proud union mem- criminalization that was established, between classes in soci- bers. Overall however, the racial divide and to the illusions, which were sown ety. One must rule the weakened the labor movement in the in the federal government as the friend South, which remained a cheap labor, or ally of Black people. other; hence the need for non-union area right down to today. militarized use of force Racism explodes nation-wide But there were exceptions. The against the working Knights of Labor were notoriously pre- In the wake of their 1865 defeat, disposed toward compromise with Southern elites had pumped up white class and all oppressed employers, even to the extent of admit- racism among all classes in the South, and exploited groups ting industrialists into the union! But and eventually in the North as well, in within it. they also admitted Black members, and order to retain their control. In the apparently did quite a good job at 1870s and ’80s, “Social Darwinism” organizing Black sugar cane workers in and other racist claptrap added an armed self-defense. More lynchings of Louisiana, in the area close to the ideological layer to the effective crimi- Blacks took place in the South in 1892 German Coast, where the 1811 slave nalization of Blacks, making them than in any other year, in excess of 250. rebellion had taken place. In 1887, increasingly seen as unfit for citizen- Finally, by about 1900, all remnants of some 10,000 mostly Black but includ- ship. They were allegedly shown to be Black civil rights, including the right to ing many white plantation workers unable to handle the freedom they had vote, had been completely obliterated went on strike for better pay, and to been given, which most Southern in the South. abolish the company (plantation) scrip whites thought to have been an historic The racism of this long era—from form of payment, which forced work- mistake. In this context, the U.S. 1877 through the 1960s—infected the ers owing money to the store to stay on Supreme Court stepped in with a deci- entire country by demonizing Blacks, the job to pay the debt. sion in 1883 gutting the both the Civil but also affected Chinese, brought in Rights Act of 1875 and the 14th and for cheap labor building railroads, as The Thibodaux Massacre 15th amendments, by rendering civil well as Mexican farmworkers, Japanese Lasting for three weeks, and with rights into a local, not federal, issue. during World War II, and other immi- winter frost approaching, the strike Legal segregation then proceeded grants. Racist vigilante “justice” also was threatening to ruin the crop; so the apace. Funding for Black public schools exploded in the North as well as the Governor, also a sugar planter, called was slashed to virtually nothing, by South, with massive white “race riots” out the army and militia to break the putting local authorities in charge of that often wiped out entire prosperous strike. This resulted in displaced strik-

8 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 ers seeking refuge in the City of Louis, workers shut down almost all of 1877 got it right: from its police Thibodaux, where they soon became industries, leaving a bakery open so repression to exploitation and imperi- the target of white racist mobs. State people could eat. When Black river alism, this system can only be dealt district judge Taylor Beattie, a former boat workers from East St. Louis came with by a mass, and revolutionary, slave owner, ex-Confederate, and to a meeting and asked if they could workers upsurge. member of the Knights of the White join the strike—perhaps anticipating Other resources for this article include: Camellia, organized vigilante groups the racist rejection they were used to— James S Allen, “The Negro Question in which took the strikers by surprise, and the assembled workers roared a hearty the USA,” 1936; Philip S. Foner, “From 4 proceeded to massacre probably close “yes!” Colonial Times to the Founding of the to 100 of the Black workers before they Policing in the service of protecting American Federation of Labor,” Vol. 1 could defend themselves. The the capitalist ruling class, already much of “History of the Labor Movement in Thibodaux Massacre was one of the in evidence in the North, showed its the United States,” New York, 1947; 3 bloodiest in U.S. labor history. militarized fangs in 1877. In St Louis, Philip S Foner, ed., “The Life and The unity of Black and white work- masses of police, led by police cavalry Writings of Frederick Douglass,” four ers manifested itself elsewhere howev- and foot cops bearing bayonetted rifles, volumes, New York, 1950; and Eugene D er, including in the Great Strike— and backed up by ranks of soldiers also Genovese, “Roll Jordan Roll, the World really a mass labor uprising—of 1877. with fixed bayonets, marched on the the Slaves Made,” New York 1972. Called both “extensive” and “deplor- strikers and proceeded to beat every- able” by the liberal Nation in July of one in their path. The pattern was set: 1877, this upsurge started out as a northern police, having adapted the strike of railroad workers in West militarization and other tactics of the 1 Daniel Rasmussen, American Uprising, the Virginia against an escalating round of paddy rollers and state militia of the Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt, wage cuts by a cabal of railroad bosses. South to the modern tasks of repress- New York, 2011, gives a detailed description of It very quickly mushroomed into ing the working class, had been defined this revolt. spontaneous strikes in cities all across as the first line of defense of the capital- 2 Douglas A Blackmon, Slavery By Another the Northeast, involving nine states ist system. Standing by while white Name, the Re-enslavement of Black Americans and most industries (many of which racist mobs burned Black communities from the Civil War to World War II, New York, 2009, tells the story of Black re-enslavement in were also cutting wages). Traitorous in the 1920s and beyond, repressing riveting detail. “leaders” eventually emerged to slow and even killing antiwar protestors, 3 Ellen Baker Bell, “Thibodaux Massacre,” in down and kill the strike in the end, but rounding up communists and murder- KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana, 2011. for over a week, general strike, and ing Black Panthers, was all just part of 4 Philip S Foner, The Great Labor Uprising of even the prospect of communist revo- the job. The multi-ethnic workers 1877, New York, 1977. lution loomed. Workers, unite! Many observers were surprised with how quickly the lines separating workers of different national and ethnic identities melted away. In Chicago, masses of Irish packinghouse workers brandishing their meat cleavers marched defiantly down Archer Avenue toward Halsted, closing down lumberyards and other businesses, and forcing employers to raise wages. In St.

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 9 Order-Givers and Order-Takers Challenging the employer’s right to rule By Michael D. Yates

In the summer of 2001, I worked as hour raise? The economist in me said able surroundings. But as my discom- a front desk clerk—we were called no one. The desire for free time in a fort rose, we went to a nearby hospital guest service agents—at the Lake Hotel national park would surely outweigh emergency room. A CT scan found a in Yellowstone National Park. The such a pathetic monetary incentive. kidney stone, but other tests indicated work was hard. We spent long hours I was wrong. Several clerks applied some liver damage caused by the medi- on our feet, dealing with a steady for the jobs, and three were chosen, all cine the Yellowstone Clinic doctor had stream of demanding guests and a con- college students, a man and two wrongly prescribed. The emergency stant barrage of problems. The pay was women. Besides the time it took to per- room physician made an appointment low, six-dollars-an-hour, from which form their extra labor, at least one of with a specialist, whom I would see on was deducted a significant charge for them was on duty between 6:00 A.M. Monday. That evening, I called the bad food and small shabby living quar- front desk at the Lake Hotel and told a and 10:30 P.M., the hours in which we ters. The one saving grace was the clerk that I wouldn’t be in on Monday. worked. They stood at a large lectern camaraderie of the clerks. We’d gossip behind us, observing what we did, I reported to work on Tuesday, only about coworkers in other departments, reviewing room availability, examining to be confronted by a senior clerk. She talk about our lives, and especially logs, and helping us deal with any dif- berated me for my unannounced express anger and amazement at the ficulties that might arise. absence the day before. She said I was often-bad behavior of the guests. irresponsible and that she had reported If the senior clerks had been facilita- As in all workplaces, there was a me to the front desk manager. A sharp tors, whose job was to make ours easi- hierarchy of command: a front desk exchange followed. My absence had manager, his assistant, and the director er, we would have been grateful to been noted, but she hadn’t bothered to of the entire hotel. About a week after them. However, it soon became appar- find this out. It was remarkable to me the hotel opened for the season, the ent that they had allied themselves that she had so quickly assumed that I manager said that three new jobs were completely with the management. would simply not show up for work available, and that any of us could They immediately noticed minor when I had been a model of depend- apply. The new position was “senior infractions, things they had done just ability. When we were fellow clerks, we clerk.” A person who took the new job days before. “You’re talking too much had treated each other in a friendly and would be like a factory foreman, the with the guests at check-in.” “Someone respectful manner. She had always front-line face of management. The was drinking too much last night.” shown camaraderie with all of us. Now, senior clerks would have extra duties They noted when you clocked in a bit however, she assumed the mantle of and would be given certain powers to late or took too many restroom breaks; boss, acting as though I were a typical do things the rest of us could not. they became the arbiters of how we worker-slacker. should treat the customers. One of the My manager asked me to consider I have often thought about the seniors wasn’t above taking advantage the new job, but I said no. I wasn’t senior clerks. There are lessons here for of the special computer room codes to interested in more work. The senior those of us who have been advocates of which he had access to give preferential clerks would have to begin early and working-class struggle. If these workers leave late, filling out reports and treatment to attractive young females. would switch class loyalties for twenty- attending meetings. I had already expe- When a guest called the front desk to five-cents-an-hour, what might others rienced problem reservations and rude, ask for something, he would deliver it do for higher “bribes?” When I was a obnoxious guests. The thought of lon- himself instead of notifying a porter to teacher, I had a friend who taught ger shifts could not have been more do this. He hoped to take for himself English. I had been to his home often, unappealing. I didn’t think anyone any tip the occupant might give! given guest lectures in his classes, and would want these jobs, especially when In July I got sick. When my fever, he had invited me to attend a U.S. we learned that the senior clerks would nausea, and overwhelming malaise Open golf championship, in which a be earning a grand 25-cents-an-hour didn’t subside, we decided to drive friend of his was competing. He was a more than an ordinary guest service four hours to Billings, Montana. Our strong advocate of more faculty power agent. Who in their right mind would plan was to stay in a nice hotel for the and never cravenly caved in to admin- do a lot more work for a quarter-an- weekend and get some rest in comfort- istration fiat, as did so many of our

10 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 colleagues. But when the academic limited their demands to wages, hours, we have to abolish private property dean retired and he was appointed and conditions of employment. and the ideology that makes a religion interim dean, he became a regular Dr. Unions, with a few notable excep- of it, we also will have to educate our- Jekyll. He turned on his former friends tions—the Industrial Workers of the selves to learn how to manage our col- with a vengeance, taking anti-faculty World and some of the left-led lective affairs. We will have to figure positions opposite to what he had pro- unions—have done the same. However, out how to produce useful goods and fessed just a few weeks before. At my what is really at issue here is the system services democratically and make them father’s factory workplace, men pro- that lies behind these efforts. Yes, it is available free to everyone. We must moted to foreman became instant good for workers to win higher wages, somehow create a system of produc- commanders, and suddenly members but these alone cannot challenge the tion and distribution in which there of a different social caste. It was power of capital, a power than can are no “senior clerks,” and a society remarkable how rapidly they became eventually undermine any pay increas- that brings forth human beings who “company men.” Since the earliest days es. A fast-food wage rate of $15-an- cannot imagine aspiring to be one. of labor union formation in the United hour won’t prevent an ambitious Michael D. Yates is the Editorial States, employers have routinely co- union-supporting counter clerk from Director of Monthly Review Press. He opted “troublemakers” by promoting taking a management job. No matter can be reached at mikedjyates@msn. them to management. Workers even what workers do, if they do not chal- com. He welcomes comments. have served as spies for their bosses, lenge the wage system, they will always jeopardizing the livelihoods of their remain subservient to the profit-maxi- —counterpunch.org, October 24-26, workmates. mizing decisions of their employers. It 2014 Yet, the decision by the clerks to is the hierarchy itself that must be abol- http://www.counterpunch. take the senior positions had to do with ished. To do this will require monu- org/2014/10/24/order-givers-and-order- more than money. Twenty-five-cents mental determination. Not only will takers/ constituted a token raise, not enough to turn on their friends. What really mattered was the power. We live in a world of order-givers and order-takers. We have become habituated to this state of affairs; it appears normal and natural, just an unalterable part of daily life. Given this, the senior clerks, like most people, understood that it is better to give orders than to obey them. And they no doubt believed, as most do, that if they were selected to tell others what to do, then they deserved this. It was a sign of their superiority and the inferiority of those not chosen. Further, economists and most other social scientists, as well as mainstream media, vigorously support the supervisors of the world; they tell us that a society structured hierarchi- cally is necessary if we are to produce efficiently. They presume that everyone has an opportunity to rise above the lowest rungs of the hierarchy, so the inequality implicit in it is fair and just. Most struggles by working people to improve their lives have accepted the employer’s right to rule and have

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 11 More Money, More Money, More Money! It happened again: how 14 people made more money than the entire food stamp budget for 50,000,000 people By Paul Buchheit

For the second year in a row, tax-free. It is estimated that $7.6 tril- order to undercut competitors and America’s richest 14 individuals made lion of personal wealth is hidden in tax drive them out of business. more from their annual investments havens. That means, stunningly, that • Larry Page and Sergey Brin are than the $80 billion provided for people $1 of every $12 of worldwide wealth is the founders of Google, which in need of food. Nearly half of the food- hidden in a haven. has gained recognition as one of deprived are children. Perversely, the America has no wealth tax, no finan- the world’s biggest tax avoiders, a food stamp program was CUT because cial speculation tax, no means of stop- master at the “Double Irish” rev- of a lack of federal funding. ping the rampant redistribution of enue shift to Bermuda tax havens, In a testament to the inability—or money to the rich. As Noam Chomsky and a beneficiary of tax loopholes unwillingness—of Congress to do any- said, “The concept of the Common that bring money back to the thing about the incessant upward re- Good that is being relentlessly driven U.S. without paying taxes on it. distribution of America’s wealth, into our heads demands that we focus on • Zuckerberg, like Gates, was an the richest 14 Americans increased our own private gain, and suppress nor- opportunist, overcoming superi- their wealth from $507 billion to $589 mal human emotions of solidarity, billion in ONE YEAR from their invest- mutual support and concern for others.” or competition with his Harvard ment earnings. As stated by Forbes, “All connection, gaining better finan- together the 400 wealthiest Americans Who are these people taking all cial support, and—allegedly— are worth a staggering $2.29 trillion, up the big money? hacking competitors’ computers $270 billion from a year ago.” A review of the richest 20 shows to compromise their user data. that opportunism and ruthless busi- The richest 14 made enough Job creators? ness practices and tax avoidance, rather money to hire two million pre- than entrepreneurship, vaulted these As for the argument that Microsoft, school teachers or emergency individuals to the top: Google, etc. created products and jobs: medical technicians It was the industry that did it, sup- • Bill Gates used someone else’s ported by decades of research and Billions of dollars of wealth, derived operating system to start Microsoft. from years of American productivity, innovation, and involving tens-of- have been transferred to a few finan- • According to the New York Post, thousands of American workers, from cially savvy and well-connected indi- Warren Buffett’s company, Berk- scientists to database clerks. Our viduals who have spent a generation shire Hathaway, “openly admits nation’s winner-take-all philosophy shaping trading rules and tax laws to that it owes back taxes since as makes it look like one person did the their own advantage. It’s so inexplica- long ago as 2002.” work of all these contributors. That’s bly one-sided that the 2013 investment • Koch Industries is jeopardiz- wrong as can be, especially for this earnings of the richest one percent of ing our clean air and water, mov- year’s version of the richest Americans. Americans ($1.8 trillion) was more ing its toxic waste to Detroit and Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, a than the entire budget for Social Chicago, trying to take away writer for progressive publications, and Security ($860 billion), Medicare ($524 the minimum wage, seeking the founder and developer of social jus- billion), and Medicaid ($304 billion). to take down renewable ener- tice and educational websites Why does so little of our national gy initiatives, and laying off thou- (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, sands of workers. wealth go to feed people or pro- RappingHistory.org) vide jobs? • Walmart makes $13,000 in pre-tax —AlterNet.org, October 5, 2014 The fruits of American productivity profits per employee (after paying http://www.alternet.org/economy/it- go to the richest Americans, who can salaries), yet takes a taxpayer sub- happened-again-how-14-people-made- afford to hold onto their fortunes, sidy of $5,815 per worker. more-money-entire-food-stamp-budget- defer taxes indefinitely, and then pay • Jeff Bezos has spent millions of dol- 50000000-people?akid=12330.229473. a smaller capital gains rate when they lars-per-year on lobbyists, lawyers, UBX098&rd=1&src=newsletter1022007 eventually decide to cash in. Worse yet, and political campaigns to main- &t=7&paging=off¤t_ they can stash their winnings overseas, tain Amazon’s tax-free sales in page=1#bookmark

12 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Water is Life Citizen advocates warn that the “whole world is watching” as Detroit cuts off water to thousands of most impoverished residents By Lauren McCauley Despite widespread public outcry people need water, children need water “Taking tap water away from people and international condemnation, the to hydrate themselves—to stay cool.” who cannot afford it is not only a pub- city of Detroit on Tuesday, August 26, While the city says that the updated lic health emergency but also a blatant 2014, resumed shutting off the water payment plan is working—pointing to human rights violation,” said Maude supply to thousands of city residents. the 15,000 households that have signed Barlow, national chairwoman of the Ending the month long moratori- up for plans since shutoffs began— public advocacy group Council of um on shutoffs, Detroit Water and rights groups argue that the city’s poli- Canadians, in a recent press statement. Sewerage Department (DWSD) public cy of shutting off water is a violation of “We cannot stand by while countries affairs specialist Gregory Eno con- human rights. abdicate their responsibility to protect our most vulnerable populations.” firmed to Common Dreams that the Over the weekend, residents and city turned off the water to roughly 400 civil rights attorneys filed papers asking On August 15, a coalition of over households that are delinquent on the district court to block DWSD from fifty social justice groups including the their water bills and have not yet set up terminating water service to any occu- Council of Canadians sent a letter to a payment plan. More shutoffs are pied residence, and to restore service to President Obama and Health and expected. occupied residences without water. Human Services Secretary Sylvia According to the citizens group Burwell to declare the ongoing water “More than 17,000 homes have had crisis a public health emergency. Detroit Water Brigade, the only thing their water cut off and water bills in that changed since shutoffs began in Detroit are among the highest in the As the shutoffs resumed, Justin March is that the city has lowered the country and unaffordable to many Wedes, an organizer with the Detroit required down payment water bills Detroit residents,” said Kary Moss, Water Brigade, wrote: from 30 percent to ten percent. “The ACLU of Michigan executive director. “Today the Detroit Water water is still too expensive for Detroit,” “The rush to resume shut offs when Department resumes its cruel water they said. Detroit is one of the poorest there are serious questions about the shutoff program. And this time around cities in the United States with over 38 affordability plan, accuracy of bills, the whole world is watching. percent of the population living below and issues with the water department’s —Common Dreams, August 27, 2014 the poverty line, according to Census ability to process disputes, means that Bureau statistics. the City of Detroit should get its house http://www.commondreams.org/ Members of the Detroit Water in order before turning off anyone news/2014/08/27/despite-calls-humani- Brigade are calling on the city to halt else’s water.” ty-detroit-resumes-water-shutoffs the shutoffs altogether and consider alternatives for helping people pay their bills, arguing that restricting access to water for the city’s poorest residents is “doing nothing more than hurting people,” DWB volunteer DeMeeko Williams told a local CBS affiliate. “Today it is 90 degrees in the city of Detroit,” Williams continued. “Elderly

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 13 Germany Just Made College Tuition Free! Why won’t our Black political class fight for free tuition here? By Bruce A. Dixon

If you depend on TV and the corpo- the Black masses that education is the taught at historically Black colleges and rate news outlets in your town you way out of poverty. But you have not universities. Other tentacles of the probably missed the news that this and you will not hear a word from the Koch Brothers vampire squid are push- summer Germany made college tuition Jesse Jacksons or the Al Sharptons, or ing for the bans on teaching primary free for everybody, including foreign the Urban League or the NAACP, and and secondary school students about students. That’s right, free. We’re not certainly not from Black college presi- climate change. What restrictions talking about socialist Cuba here, or dents, or the United Negro College Fund would folks like these apply to Black third world Sri Lanka here, we’re talk- on how much our people have to gain colleges and universities? What gags ing Germany, the most capitalist of all by following the example of Germany. and limitations will the institutions put European countries other than Britain. It’s not even on their horizon. on themselves to keep the money? And we’re talking free. What the eyes and hearts of Black The money is there to forgive all It says a lot that the news was not college presidents, and civil rights lead- outstanding student loans and do as covered at all in the corporate press or ers are fixed upon is not making higher the Germans do, make public college broadcast media on this side of the education affordable for all who want tuition free for everybody. What’s not water. Even more tellingly, the liberal it. They don’t seem to care either about there, is number one, the political will academics and think tanks like the lifting the decades-long debt sentence on the part of white and Black leader- Center For American Progress and that often goes with attempting a col- ship, and number two, a long-term Black outfits like the United Negro lege education, whether you complete grassroots mobilization—a popular College Fund, the Congressional Black it or not. Key members of the movement demanding the reallocation Caucus, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Congressional Black Caucus sell their of the nation’s resources in this way. National Action Network and others vote on a regular basis to the sub- It’s do-able financially, it’s advanta- have nothing to say on the subject. prime, for-profit college racketeers, geous socially. And it’s not even remotely revolutionary. Germany is a Is free tuition even possible? and under President Obama the Department of Education has become capitalist country. Of course it is. It’s not just possible, dependent on the billions each year Why doesn’t our Black political free tuition at the nation’s public col- that it collects in student loan repay- class see this as an opportunity? leges and universities would actually ment, a great chunk of it from the sub- cost LESS than the federal government That’s an easy question. Our Black prime, for-profit colleges which get now pays to those institutions, accord- political class of politicians, preachers, paid for how many students they ing Department of Education stats business drones, academics and enroll, not how many they graduate. quoted in two very useful articles by empowered wannabees are jelly mak- Jordan Weismann in The Atlantic in Back in June, I wrote about how the ers, not tree shakers, selfish and short- 2013 and 2014. Public colleges and United Negro College Fund, another sighted jelly makers at that. Their defi- universities, he points out, account for tentacle of our Black political class, nition of an opportunity is something 75 percent of college grads while sub- chose, instead of fighting the political somebody in authority has already put prime, for-profit colleges, which are decisions to continue cutbacks in direct on the table. This ain’t on no table they basically machines that capture low- aid and in loans that go to students know of, it’s not even discussed in the income students and walk them attending historically Black colleges building where they have that table, so through applications for subsidized with a political campaign to make col- for them it’s not worth thinking about. guaranteed loans that account for a lege tuition free for everyone, to double Besides, a long-term self-aware, 24-7 tiny percentage of grads but eat a full down on its dependence upon the grassroots movement is, as Glen Ford quarter of all the federal aid dollars. charity of fickle white philanthropists, has observed, a mortal threat to their brand of leadership, which only wants The skyrocketing cost of tuition has namely the infamous Koch Brothers. the masses mobilized just enough to hit nobody harder than African Thanks to the United Negro College vote Democratic in election years and American families. Our glittering, suc- Fund, the Koch Brothers will literally then go home. cessful and tirelessly self-promoting be able to dictate what faculty are hired Black political class never tires of telling and promoted and which courses are Continued on page 15

14 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Foreclosure Scam By Ted Newcomen

One story that the U.S. “lamestream” Sometime in 2008 the mortgage “legal” slight of hand. All paid for by media is studiously ignoring is the company went into voluntary liquida- you—the U.S. taxpayer. public auction foreclosure scam that’s tion and the business was subsequently Before the end of the year Fannie currently being practiced on the steps taken over by a bank that later sold it Mae will put this property in the hands of thousands of courthouses across the to another financial institution. of a local realtor who will then sell it at nation. It’s a racket so egregious that Sadly, in 2012 the homeowner died, the current market price. The subse- nobody wants to talk about it because still owing over $135,000 on the loan. quent approximate $40,000 loss to the it continues to bail out the banksters Naturally all the mortgage payments institution will also be covered by the with billions of tax-payer funded dol- stopped and the home was eventually U.S. taxpayer! lars and yet keeps millions of prospec- foreclosed on by the mortgage holder. tive home buyers from getting a foot- This is nothing less than a govern- hold on the housing ladder. Fast forward to 2014 and the mort- ment sanctioned corporate welfare gage lender is now on the hook for the scam running at local, State, and By way of proof I offer an example original loan, plus over two years of national levels. Millions of foreclosed of what’s happening in my sleepy little missed monthly mortgage payments, homes are going through an identical backwater of Kent County, Maryland Escrow fees, and insurance premiums process across the country and we, the (about an hour-and-a-half’s drive but the house is now worth $40,000 good old U.S. tax-payers, are making from DC). The property in question, a less than the original purchase price good the losses of the finance industry modern townhouse, had originally due to the collapse in the property and its so-called “regulators.” been purchased by the homeowner for market. $170,100 in June of 2006 with a 30-year Back in April 2009, President mortgage of $136,080 from the Peoples But thanks to the President and Obama told a meeting of the nation’s Mortgage Corporation at an interest Congress (and remember that’s BOTH top bankers that he was all that was rate of 7.5 percent. parties) the mortgage holder doesn’t “standing between you and the pitch- lose a single cent as the government forks.” Presumably he was trying to Continued from page 14 has promised to buy up all the finan- intimidate the one-percent who really cial industry’s toxic assets using your run this nation and simultaneously The opportunity for a successful (read “tax-payer”) dollars. placate the 99-percent who actually mass movement is there. But it’s a chal- This is achieved by selling the said pay for everything? It’s nice to see he is lenge that can only be taken up by a new property at a public foreclosure auc- still doing such a stellar job and that generation of Black leadership, not blin- tion on the steps of Kent County nothing has actually changed. kered and bound by obligations to the Courthouse where the reserve price is Our sham of a democracy has been existing political system, to corporate set at $167,000, over 30 percent more hijacked by a political mafia and its philanthropy, to our backward-think- than the current market value of an corporate paymasters. Changing ing prosperity gospel preachers or our identical adjacent home recently sold President or the control of Congress self-seeking Black business class. Free in the same development! Needless to will not stop this and other corporate tuition won’t make anybody rich, but it say no local buyers were willing to bid rackets. Voters need to start asking will build collective wealth, community up to this inflated price. However, the some serious questions of potential wealth—a concept outside the universe property was purchased by none other candidates for the 2016 elections unless of the current Black political class. than the Federal National Mortgage they wish to keep subsidizing the The challenge is there. Who will Association (Fannie Mae—a tax-payer financial losses of the establishment. take it up? Who will begin to organize backed Quango1). Alternatively, they can just dust off for free tuition, for the right to an edu- Not only did the original mortgage their pitchforks. cation? We already know who won’t. holder get back all its money from the —Black Agenda Report, October 8, loan, plus all missed payments, out of 2014 pocket expenses and various generous 1 “…an organization to which a government http://Blackagendareport.com/ fees, it also made a very respectable has devolved power.” node/14448 profit on the convoluted but perfectly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quango

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 15 Criminal Neglect: The Death of Thomas Eric Duncan By Labor Fightback Network

The Dallas hospital acknowledged into the emergency room initially with that mistakes were made. But not yet an insurance card in his hand. Can any- explained is how this all happened in a one doubt that he would have been situation which left no margin for admitted and very likely would have error. A number of excuses have been received the same good treatment offered: there were no protocols, there accorded the nurses who contracted were protocols but they were not Ebola? His nephew wrote that, “…our observed, there was a problem with the loved one could have been saved. From software, there was a breakdown in the his botched release from the emergency hospital’s communication system and room to his delayed testing and delayed the higher-ups were not informed, etc. treatment and the denial of experimen- But someone decided that Duncan’s tal drugs that have been available to condition did not warrant hospitaliza- every other case of Ebola treated in the tion during his first visit there, much United States, the hospital invited death less being isolated and quarantined. every step of the way.” (Cleveland Plain Who made that decision and on what Dealer, October 17, 2014) basis? Was it medical people or admin- Thomas Eric Duncan The inescapable conclusion that istrative personnel who were motivat- must be drawn is that it was the con- On Friday, September 25, 2014, ed by Duncan’s not having insurance? vergence of pernicious racism and the Thomas Eric Duncan went to the Texas According to members of Duncan’s broken healthcare system in this coun- Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. family, “the most humiliating part of try, which puts profits ahead of He had a high fever and stomach pains. this ordeal was the treatment we patients, that cost Duncan his life. He told the nurse he had recently been received from the hospital. For the ten But there is another factor that helps in Liberia, part of the Ebola zone. But days he was in the hospital, the staff not explain what happened here and why he was a Black man with no health only refused to help us communicate many others should be held account- insurance, so he was released after with Thomas Eric, but also acted as an able for what transpired. That has to do being given antibiotics and Tylenol. impediment. The day Thomas Eric with the federal government’s role in Two days later Duncan returned to died, we learned about it from the news cutting funding for education and the hospital in an ambulance. Two media, not his doctors.” (Cleveland research to deal with epidemics and days after that, he was finally diagnosed Plain Dealer, October 17, 2014) critical diseases. with Ebola. Eight days later, he died Duncan was in the U.S. for the first In an October 17, 2014 opinion alone in his hospital room. time to visit his son. By being cut off from piece by Dana Milbank, columnist for The still unanswered question is all communication with his family mem- the Washington Post, titled, “The Nasty why the hospital would send home a bers, he had no way of knowing whether Politicalization of Ebola” (reproduced patient with a 103-degree fever and they even knew of his plight. And, as in the October 20, 2014 Cleveland Plain stomach pains, especially since the stated above, he was left to die alone. Dealer under the title “Absent NIH patient had informed the hospital that [Note: National Nurses United is Funding Cuts, Ebola Vaccine Might he had recently been in Liberia. And circulating a petition demanding that Exist,”) the author documents the cuts why was he sent back into the commu- President Obama and Congress impose to the National Institutes of Health nity when it was obvious that he was a uniform, optimal standard of care for (NIH) funding between fiscal 2010 and extremely ill and might well have a all Ebola patients, their caregivers and fiscal 2014 of ten percent in real dol- communicable disease? the community.]1 lars—and vaccine research took a pro- Duncan was the first victim of Ebola portionate hit. Research on an Ebola in the U.S. to have died. Others who Lessons to be learned from this vaccine funded at $37 million in 2010 contracted the disease received the very experience was halved to $18 million in 2014. He best treatment and as of October 23, Assume for the moment that notes, “With Ebola vaccines now enter- 2014, all are recovering from Ebola. Duncan was white and that he came ing clinical trials, it is not much of a

16 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 stretch to conclude that vaccines would the great majority. Let’s end the sub- call 973-944-8975 or email conference@ now be on the market—potentially servience to the political agenda of the laborfightback.org or write Labor saving thousands of lives in Africa and one percent and build such a move- Fightback Network, P.O. Box 187, avoiding panic in the United States.” ment now! Flanders, NJ 07836 or visit our website Budget cuts for the Centers for at laborfightback.org. Donations to help fund the Labor Fightback Network Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) The inescapable have only compounded the problem. based on its program of solidarity and conclusion that must be labor-community unity are necessary for Conclusion drawn is that it was the our work to continue and will be much While the U.S. allocates some $800 appreciated. Please make checks payable billion to a trillion dollars a year for the convergence of to Labor Fightback Network and mail military—taking into consideration all pernicious racism and to the above P.O. Box or you can make a related and derivative expenditures—it the broken healthcare contribution online. Thanks! continues to reduce funds for vitally —Labor Fightback Network, October needed social programs like healthcare, system in this country, 23, 2014 education, unemployment compensa- which puts profits ahead http://laborfightback.wordpress. tion, food stamps and the environ- com/2014/10/23/criminal-neglect-the- ment. Cutting Medicare, Social of patients, that cost death-of-thomas-eric-duncan/ Security and Medicaid remain top pri- Duncan his life. orities for right-wing forces in this country. 1 http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/ While the major political parties page/s/national-nurses-united-urges-you-to- blame each other for inadequate fund- Issued by the Labor Fightback take-action-now?utm_source=nnu&utm_ ing for Ebola and other contagious Network. For more information, please medium=rot&utm_campaign=petition diseases, it is only through bipartisan budget deals passed by Congress and approved by the president that the cuts in funding were engineered. Thomas Eric Duncan is one of countless victims of the distorted priorities the government is imposing. It’s time for long overdue fundamental changes to be implemented in the nation’s healthcare system that will put an end to discriminatory treatment based on ethnicity or insurance coverage. It’s high time to recognize healthcare as a right, not a commodity, and guarantee all residents quality and comprehensive coverage, with the par- asitic insurance companies eliminated from the system. This is what a single- payer system would bring about. Finally, with the evident refusal of the two corporate parties to make needed changes, unions, joined by our progressive community partners, should run independent candidacies for political office in support of a program that would reflect the interests of

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 17 ILWU International’s Statements on ZIM Protests are Untrue By the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Recent International Longshore and America, the employer, tried to shift demns Zionist “suppression of basic Warehouse Union (ILWU) press longshore workers from another ship freedoms of speech and assembly” of releases and public statements are mis- to work the ZIM Pireaus but there Palestinians and calls for the “right of leading and conflict with well-estab- already was a picket line at the terminal self-determination.” lished ILWU policies and positions on gate. Some ILWU Local 10 members Israel has blockaded the port of Palestine and Israel. The editor of the refused to work the ship. Those that Gaza since 1967, stopping all ships and ILWU newspaper, The Dispatcher, at reluctantly worked it, despite pressure putting port workers and longshore- the direction of the ILWU President, from the employer and union officials, men out of work for nearly 50 years. In cannot overturn those policies and rebelled by slowing down cargo ops to 2002, Local 10 officers signed a state- positions without a vote by Convention a crawl. One crane operator boasted ment “For International Labor delegates. that barely one percent of containers Solidarity to Stop Zionist Repression was actually moved before the ZIM The Israeli Consulate’s statement and Build a Just Peace” to protest the ship was forced to sail. that the ZIM Pireaus sailed from the Zionist bombing of the headquarters port of Oakland on August 20 after On September 27, another ZIM of the Palestinian General Federation completing cargo operations is untrue. ship, the Shanghai, was picketed on the of Trade Unions in the West Bank city But for the ILWU Communications day and night shifts at SSA by 200 proof Nablus. Director, Craig Merrilees, to make that testers mobilized by the Stop ZIM The Journal of Commerce (August same statement, reaffirming the Action Committee and the Transport 20), the maritime bosses’ newspaper, Zionist’s self-serving distortion places Workers Solidarity Committee. Three quoted Communications Director the ILWU on the side of those respon- of the organizers were Local 10 retirees, Merrilees: “ILWU members felt threat- sible for the recent slaughter of over veterans of ILWU’s 1984 anti-apart- ened by the large number of demon- 2,100 Palestinians, most of them inno- heid action in San Francisco. Again, cent Gazan civilians. The false state- Merrilees put out untrue statements, strators” and made a similar statement ment implies that the five days of pick- claiming longshore workers were regarding the September dock protest. eting by thousands of protesters had no threatened by picketers and were But the truth is the threat to longshore- impact on cargo operations. The origi- standing by on safety. Actually, an men comes from the police not pro- nal call for a mass protest on August 16 appeal was made in the union hiring testers. As Local 10 president Melvin and 17 mobilizing a few thousand, was hall that morning asking longshore- Mackay told the San Francisco made by a coalition, Block the Boat, men not to work the ZIM ship and Chronicle, longshoremen would not initiated by the Arab Research and informing them of a picket line. In a work the ship “under armed police Organizing Committee. However, sub- show of solidarity all longshoremen escort—not with our experience with sequent picketing on August 18, 19 and refused Zim jobs except for one. In the the police…” 20, that stopped the ship’s cargo opera- evening SSA agreed to remove police In a 2003 court case against the tions was done spontaneously by a from the picketing area if the union Oakland Police Department for shoot- smaller group of Bay Area activists, would dispatch the jobs. With no ing so-called “non-lethal” weapons at including the Transport Workers police presence it was the picketers and longshore workers and anti-war pro- Solidarity Committee. longshore supporters vs. ZIM and SSA. testers, ILWU attorney Rob Remar The truth is that after failing to get We won hands down! meticulously documented coordinat- its cargo worked at the SSA (Stevedoring On September 27, the ILWU ed police violence against longshore Services of America) terminal, ZIM International issued a press release workers since the 1934 Maritime Strike Lines tried to fool protesters that the falsely stating, “…the leadership and in which two strikers were killed by ship was sailing to Russia, but long- membership of the ILWU have taken cops, provoking the San Francisco shoremen knew otherwise. The ship no position on the Israel/Gaza con- General Strike. Nowadays ILWU departed August 19, headed out the flict.” The truth is that ILWU passed a International officers try to deny our Golden Gate at night then abruptly Convention resolution in 1988 charac- militant history and undermine any reversed course, made a Williamson terizing Israeli oppression of semblance of class struggle on the turn and headed back to the Port of Palestinians as “state-sponsored ter- docks, especially in the midst of the Oakland, this time to Berth 22. Ports rorism.” ILWU’s 1991 resolution con- current contract negotiations. With no

18 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 contract in place longshoremen can Immigration Reform: Fact or Fiction? take job actions during negotiations to bolster the union at the bargaining By Miguel Angel table but the “top down” bureaucracy has reigned in the ranks, preventing All this talk about urgent immigra- Politicians and their corporate the union from flexing its muscle. tion reform between Democrats and sponsors continue to criminalize Nevertheless, Local 10 has tried to Republicans is a cruel hoax. It is noth- undocumented immigrants in the face continue ILWU’s proud history of soli- ing but a continuation of the long- of the overwhelming evidence of the darity actions by introducing a resolu- running U.S. policy directed at: benefits that the country receives in the tion at the 2009 Convention “com- • Keeping Mexicans and Latin form of cheap labor, which U.S. citi- mending the South African dockwork- American undocumented workers zens refuse to do at that price. ers union for taking a strike action disorganized and marginalized. The scope of discussion on immi- against an Israeli ship in Durban to • Penetrating and manipulating the gration is so narrow that it is pro- protest the massacre of 1400 Mexican economy so as to make foundly exclusionary. It focuses on Palestinians by the Israeli army in Mexico into a neo-colony of U.S. who can come into the country and Gaza.” A year after the Convention business for the exploitation of who can stay, and under what condi- resolution passed unanimously, the Mexican workers and natural tions. All the “push” factors are left Local 10 Executive Board voted to “call resources. out. This leads to the marginalization on the ILWU International officers to of the undocumented community who lend their voice in protest with other • Neutralizing successive Mexican are forced to live in the shadows, ste- unions against this atrocity by issuing a administrations through bribes, reotyped as robbers of jobs, burdens to policy statement in line with the economic and banking intimida- society, with criminal tendencies and ILWU’s past position on the question tion and with the ever-present inferior values. threat of military intervention. of Israeli repression of Palestinians and The last two administrations have call for unions to protest by any action American immigration policy is built over 28 major detention centers they choose to take.” That motion inherently racist. It places the greatest to hold thousands of undocumented paved the way for Local 10 longshore- onus of undesirables on people of workers with their families for extend- men in 2010 in collaboration with anti- color, and therefore makes them the ed periods of time, much like the con- Zionist demonstrators to conduct the object of police apprehension and centration camps which held Japanese first-ever job action by an American exclusion from the country. On the Americans during World War II. trade union protesting repressive scale of unwanted ethnicity, Mexicans Obama is deporting [at least 250,0001] Israeli government policies. Meanwhile, are number one, followed by Asian and Mexicans and other Latinos per year ILWU International officers have Middle Easterners. Russians, Irish and and has encouraged the profiling of only reaffirmed Israel’s press state- other Europeans hardly get a wink Mexicans as undesirable aliens. Most ments and run a biased pro-Israel arti- from the ICE (Immigration and cynically, Obama continues to ignore cle in The Dispatcher (January 2007) by Customs Enforcement). Yet there are the thousands of families who have International Secretary-Treasurer significant numbers of white undocu- been separated by undocumented Willie Adams with no mention of the mented immigrants coming into the immigration. His proposal to allow plight of Palestinians. It’s time for U.S. but they are not subjected to pro- students to remain in the U.S. while ILWU International officers to get on filing, neighborhood sweeps, detention deporting their parents is an attack on board: Oppose apartheid in Israel just centers, criminalization, or even dis- the very foundation of family unity and as we did in South Africa. The rank and cussions of them as a problem. stability. In short, he is playing the file have shown the way. Immigration reform does not youth against their parents. He says address the real reasons why undocu- that his hands are tied because the mented workers from Mexico and Congress has not passed comprehen- Latin America are forced to leave their sive immigration reform, thereby hin- homelands. Conditions of poverty, dering his ability to use executive pow- environmental degradation by foreign ers. However, massive deportations corporations and oppressive local oli- continue by executive order. garchs supported historically by U.S. Undocumented immigrants cannot governments are the critical issues that come into the U.S., but hundreds of propel emigration. U.S. companies have unrestricted

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 19 access to the Mexican economy with opment, forcing people to emigrate. allowed into the U.S. with no restric- free rein to make super profits and to The trade debt is un-payable because tions and with automatic legal resi- repatriate them back to the United the rules of the IMF insure perpetual dence and even social services. States, thereby creating a severe capital control of the wealth of 3rd World Meanwhile, the United States has drain for Mexico. The same scenario countries. It has become an established waged 50-plus years of economic war- repeats itself throughout the continent. practice to perpetuate the debt so as to fare against the island of just 11 million U.S. corporations now own over 500 of exact more pillage of resources. people, depriving the Cuban nation of Mexico’s largest companies with the vital economic resources. The block- ability to direct and control the econo- ade, illegal according to international my in their interests. Undocumented immi- law, and condemned by the entire The U.S. has pursued a vigorous grants cannot come into United Nations (except U.S. and Israel) is geared to destabilize Cuba and make outsourcing of manufacturing plants. the U.S., but hundreds Over 2,500 plants have moved to the Cuban people suffer to the extent Mexico and Central America taking of U.S. companies have that they will overthrow their govern- three million jobs with them. These unrestricted access to ment. Economic deprivation, relentless maquilas (run-away shops) employ psychological warfare and the threat of mostly women workers at slave wages the Mexican economy direct military intervention are ever with no labor rights and few political with free rein to make present in the Cuban reality. They have resisted for over 50 years and have rights. They are making the highest super profits and to rate of profit in modern history. become a model of solidarity for many repatriate them back to poor countries around the world. The Super exploitation is pervasive the United States, there- ultimate contradiction is that every throughout the Americas. In Haiti, U.S. administration since the Cuban where over 250 well-known U.S. cloth- by creating a severe cap- Revolution agrees that Cuba poses no ing manufacturers have set up shops, ital drain for Mexico. economic or military threat to the U.S. the average wage of women employees or any other country. is 14-cents-an-hour. Both Presidents Clinton and G.W. Bush conducted In another egregious contradiction None of this would happen if 3rd military coups (and a presidential kid- of who can be allowed into the U.S., World political elites were not compli- napping) of President Jean Bertrand the government has accepted thou- ant partners of U.S. banking and cor- Aristide who was attempting to curb sands of murderers, torturers, terror- porate interests. In exchange for bribes the economic exploitation of his peo- ists and right wing dictators, who have and economic privileges, U.S. compa- ple, the poorest in the hemisphere. carried out U.S. economic policy in nies demand control of labor unions, keeping the cost of raw materials low, Another seething unmentionable countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, expanding the rules permitting exploi- issue is the trade debt. This is the prod- Chile under Pinochet, Nicaragua under tation, and reducing or eliminating the uct of the unequal value of imports to Somoza and many others. Jose Posada enforcement of environmental laws. exports. Underdeveloped countries sell Carriles and Orlando Bosch, two NAFTA has been an economic disaster cheap raw materials to the developed Cuban terrorists working for the CIA, for Mexico but has been a boom for the countries and buy costly manufactured carried out the bombing of a Cuban U.S. and Canada. goods from them. The difference in airliner in 1976 killing 73 medical stu- value is owed to the developed nation. dents and members of the Cuban fenc- The enormous contributions that Currently, Mexico must use 55 percent ing team returning from competition immigrants make to the consumer and of its national income just to pay the in Venezuela. They are now living tax base have never been acknowledged interest on the debt. In addition, they comfortably in Florida as respected, by the American government. must make payments to the legal residents, avoiding extradition Immigrant workers pay taxes but can- International Monetary Fund, which back to Venezuela with the help of the not collect unemployment or receive provides loans to poor countries who U.S. government. social security or social services. All the have difficulty making payment on the Another seldom talked about sub- monetary contributions that they make debt. Most Latin American nations ject is the double standard of Cuban stay in the system to be exploited by all have monumental trade-debts, which immigration verses Mexican and Latin levels of government. They are often keep them trapped in perpetual poverty American immigration. Since 1960, cheated by employers but cannot com- in monetary terms and in underdevel- over a million Cubans have been plain for fear of being deported.

20 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 The immigration “debate” will not • Abolish the trade debt and the Chicanos/Hispanos must reclaim include the most crucial contradic- IMF conditions that enforce the their indigenous rights. It is a vital part tions. It will say nothing about alleviat- rules of trade. of our human inheritance. It calls for ing poverty and deprivation. If Mexico There are moral historical consid- establishing a serious connection with and Latin America had viable econo- erations for Chicanos/Hispanos. The the Native American community in mies, immigrants would stay home. values of our indigenous ancestors go order to rediscover the culture that U.S. immigration policy is not based back 17,000 years. In their view, the once was in our blood. It is our man- on logical, humanitarian or sound eco- land belonged to everyone. The natu- date for survival and change. nomic development principles. Rather, ral environment was zealously guard- If the U.S. is not willing to drasti- U.S. economic elites have created a ed from degradation and wanton cally change the status quo, then the system of planned instability and crises exploitation. When the Europeans words of poet Henry David Thoreau at in order to justify intervention and to came with their concept of private the time of the U.S. invasion of Mexico extract economic demands. This is why ownership of nature, all ideas of peace, and the Southwest in 1846, “Poor poverty and disenfranchisement can- stability and mutual respect were erad- Mexico, so far from God and so close not be resolved. If Washington persists icated. They engaged in a horrendous to the United States,” will ring truer in maintaining a system with the genocide of Native Americans, fos- than ever. underdeveloped world that is based on tered practices that led to environ- inequality and with an arrogance of Miguel Angel is Director of Casa de mental degradation, and waged savage Cultura in Las Vegas, New Mexico superiority, economic and political wars to takeover Indian lands. In the relations will continue to deteriorate Southwest, both Chicanos and Indians and further alienate the nations of the were subjected to the notion of Americas. Manifest Destiny, that Anglo Saxon 1 The best estimate is that the Obama admin- Immigration reform must include: Americans were given God-sanctioned istration made its two millionth deportation in • Full legalization and equal rights permission to own the land from the late March 2014. for all undocumented immigrant Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Wars www.vox.com/2014/4/9/5575006/2-million- workers. and borders were the result. immigrants-have-been-deported-under-obama • The injection of massive economic aid to Mexican and Latin / American economies. • Scrap NAFTA and CAFTA, two Free Trade arrangements that rob Mexicans and Central Americans of a living wage and humane living conditions. • Stop supporting dictatorships and military coups. • Normalize relations with Cuba. • Adhere to human rights principles as stated in the Declaration of Human Rights. • Stop all military aid to repressive governments. • Initiate a climate of equal relations among Latin American States.

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 21

International INTERNATIONAL U.S. Love for Egyptian Tyranny After feigning love for Egyptian Democracy, U.S. back to openly supporting tyranny By Glenn Greenwald

It is, of course, very difficult to choose President and Mrs. Mubarak to be General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who last the single most extreme episode of mis- friends of my family.” Another year led the military coup against the leading American media propaganda, WikiLeaks cable, anticipating the first democratically elected Egyptian govern- but if forced to do so, coverage of the meeting between Obama and Mubarak ment of the Muslim Brotherhood, is February 2011 Tahrir Square demon- in 2009, emphasized that “the now a Washington favorite, despite (or strations in Egypt would be an excellent Administration wants to restore the because of) his merciless killing and candidate. For weeks, U.S. media outlets sense of warmth that has traditionally imprisonment of dissidents, including openly positioned themselves on the characterized the U.S.-Egyptian part- Al Jazeera journalists. In June, Human side of the demonstrators, depicting the nership” and that “the Egyptians want Rights Watch noted the post-coup era upheaval as a Manichean battle between the visit to demonstrate that Egypt has included the “worst incident of the evil despot Hosni Mubarak’s “three remains America’s ‘indispensible [sic] mass unlawful killings in Egypt’s recent decades of iron rule” and the hordes of Arab ally.’” The cable dryly noted that history” and that “judicial authorities ordinary, oppressed Egyptians inspira- “[intelligence] Chief Omar Soliman have handed down unprecedented tionally yearning for American-style and Interior Minister al-Adly keep the large-scale death sentences and security freedom and democracy. domestic beasts at bay, and Mubarak is forces have carried out mass arrests and Almost completely missing from not one to lose sleep over their tac- torture that harken back to the darkest this feel-good morality play was the tics.” The Obama administration sup- days of former President Hosni terribly unpleasant fact that Mubarak ported Mubarak right up to the point Mubarak’s rule.” The group document- was one of the U.S. Government’s lon- where his demise was inevitable, and ed just last week: gest and closest allies and that his “three even then, plotted to replace him with “Egyptian authorities have, by decades of iron rule”—featuring mur- Soliman: an equally loyal and even their own count, detained 22,000 der, torture and indefinite detention more brutal autocrat, most appreciated people since the July 2013 military- for dissidents—were enabled in multi- in Washington circles for helpfully tor- backed ouster of the democratically ple ways by American support. turing people on behalf of the elected president, Mohamed Morsy. Americans. The broad arrest sweep has caught Throughout Mubarak’s rule, the U.S. up many people who were peace- fed his regime an average of $2 billion During the gushing coverage of the fully expressing political opposition Tahrir protests, Americans were told each year, most of which was military to Morsy’s overthrow and to the al- aid. The tear gas canisters shot at pro- almost none of this (just as most Arab Sisi government. The actual number testers by Mubarak’s police bore “Made Spring coverage generally omitted of arrests is probably higher. . . in U.S.A.” labels. A 2009 diplomatic long-standing U.S. support for most of . There are credible accounts that a cable published by WikiLeaks noted that the targeted tyrants in the region). large number of detainees are being “Egyptian democracy and human rights Instead, they were led to believe that held incommunicado in military efforts…are being stymied” the U.S. political class was squarely on facilities, and that dozens have died but described the benefits received by the side of democracy and freedom in in custody under circumstances of U.S. from support for the regime: “Egypt Egypt, heralding Obama’s statement mistreatment or negligence that remains at peace with Israel, and the that Egyptians have made clear that warrant investigation.” U.S. military enjoys priority access to “nothing less than genuine democracy None of that has deterred U.S. sup- the Suez Canal and Egyptian airspace.” will carry the day.” port for the coup leaders. Months after Another 2009 cable put it more bluntly: That pro-democracy script is long the coup, Secretary of State John Kerry “the Egyptians appear more willing to forgotten, as though it never existed. visited Cairo and praised the military confront the Iranian surrogates and to The U.S. political and media class are regime, actions The New York Times work closely with Israel.” right back to openly supporting military said “reflected the Obama administra- That same year, Hillary Clinton autocracy in Egypt as enthusiastically as tion’s determination to work with a pronounced: “I really consider they supported the Mubarak regime. military leadership that ruthlessly put

22 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 down protesters from the Muslim proxy network—or even take advan- than the democratically elected faction Brotherhood.” In July of this year, the tage of it from time to time. Qatar’s (Qatar)? That Qatar is now depicted in U.S. released $550 million to the regime. neighbors, however, have not. Over D.C. foreign policy circles as the “bad In August, Kerry seemed to praise the the past year, fellow Gulf countries actors in Cairo,” while the UAE and coup itself; as The New York Times put Saudi Arabia, the United Arab the Saudis are the “good and responsi- it: he “offered an unexpected lift to Emirates, and Bahrain have publicly ble parties for stability,” underscores rebuked Qatar for its support of Egypt’s military leaders . . . saying they how deeply committed Washington is political Islamists across the had been ‘restoring democracy’ when region. These countries have threat- to Egyptian despotism. they deposed the country’s first freely ened to close land borders or sus- That is not a new development. The elected president, Mohamed Morsi.” In pend Qatar’s membership in the Obama administration has long viewed mid-October, the Pentagon announced regional Gulf Cooperation Council Egypt and the Saudis as the “moder- “that the U.S. plans to deliver 10 AH-64 unless the country backs down. ates” in the region. The 2009 cable Apache helicopters to Egypt.” After nearly a year of pressure, the preparing for Mubarak’s visit put it That was the background for Sisi’s first sign of a Qatari conces- this way: “The ongoing intra-Arab dis- meeting with Bill and Hillary Clinton pute, which pits Egypt and Saudi in New York September 22, 2014. He Throughout Mubarak’s Arabia against Syria and Qatar and is also met with U.S. business leaders and primarily driven by Iran’s regional the Chamber of Commerce, as well as rule, the U.S. fed his influence, is the current test for former Secretaries of State Henry regime an average of $2 Mubarak. For the moment the Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. billion each year, most Egyptian-Saudi moderate camp is Sisi then met with Obama himself, holding.” of which was military where the U.S. President “touted the The U.S. has long been devoted to longstanding relationship between the aid. The tear gas canis- tyranny in the region precisely to United States and Egypt as a corner- ters shot at protesters by ensure that the widespread views of the stone of American security policy in public—which overwhelmingly view the Middle East.” Mubarak’s police bore the U.S. and Israel as the greatest Perhaps nothing demonstrates the “Made in U.S.A.” labels. threats to peace—remain suppressed U.S. commitment to autocracy in by U.S.-loyal tyrants. That’s what made Egypt as vividly as the new, coordinat- the U.S. media coverage of the Arab ed attack in U.S. media and political sion came on September 13, when Spring generally and Tahrir specifically circles on former U.S. darling Qatar. seven senior Egyptian Muslim such an astounding feat of propagan- As The Intercept reported last week, Brotherhood figures left Doha at the da: it successfully let Americans feel much of that anti-Qatar campaign is request of the Qatari government. . . good about cheering for democracy in driven by Israeli (along with Saudi, .“Qatar’s Arab Spring strategy began the region while ignoring their govern- to fail in the same place it was con- UAE and American neocon) anger ment’s central role in suppressing it for over Doha’s alleged support for Hamas. ceived, amid the masses of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. On July decades. The way the U.S. political But at least as significant is Qatar’s sup- 3, 2013, demonstrators cheered on class so seamlessly and shamelessly port for the Muslim Brotherhood, the the Egyptian military’s ouster of shifted from pretending to support party that won the post-Mubarak elec- Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi, democracy in Egypt to reverting back tion; that has put Doha squarely at whose government Qatar had to its decades-long, pro-tyranny pos- odds with the Saudis, the Emirates, and backed to the tune of $5 billion. ture is equally impressive. the U.S., all of whom strongly support Within days, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, —The Intercept, October 2, 2014 the military coup. A widely cited anti- and Kuwait welcomed the new mili- Qatar article this week in Foreign tary-backed government with com- Policy—entitled “The Case Against bined pledges of $13 billion in aid.” https://firstlook.org/theinter- Qatar”—made this division clear: In what universe is it morally pref- cept/2014/10/02/feigned-american-sup- “For years, U.S. officials have erable to support the Egyptian military port-egyptian-democracy-lasted-rough- been willing to shrug off Doha’s coup regime (U.S./Saudi/UAE) rather ly-six-weeks/

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 23 Thousands in Mexico Demand Action over Missing Students Public outrage over disappearance of 43 students swells By Alfonso Serrano

Public outrage over the disappear- missing after they clashed with police in nizations in criticizing the Mexican ance of 43 students in Iguala, Mexico Iguala on September 26. They had government for inaction. They have nearly two weeks ago, September 25, descended on the town to solicit dona- berated the Peña Nieto administration 2014, swelled on Wednesday as thou- tions and protest proposed govern- for dragging its feet in the case, and sands of protestors jammed cities ment education reforms. they have called for the families of the across the country to demand that the Guerrero Attorney General Iñaky missing students to receive security government of President Enrique Peña Blanco said over the weekend that 28 from federal authorities. Nieto solve the case of the missing bodies had been found at a mass grave Human Rights Watch and the youths—who are widely believed to outside Iguala, and that some of the Washington Office on Latin America have been massacred by drug gangs missing 43 students were probably joined Amnesty International and with ties to local police—and force among the remains. Protesters on Mexican NGOs in calling for a quick those responsible to face justice. Wednesday demanded that an response from the federal government. An estimated 15,000 protesters Argentinian forensic team be given “We need to see an effective com- marched through Mexico City’s streets complete independence to determine mitment in the search for these peo- carrying photos of the missing students 1 the identities of the bodies. ple,” Perseo Quiróz, director of and chanting slogans including “They Blanco said local police officials had Amnesty International in Mexico, said were taken alive, we want them back handed over 17 students to the drug during a Mexico City press conference. alive,” and “I think, therefore I’m dis- gang Guerreros Unidos, a remnant of “What we have seen is a farce of a appeared.” In Guerrero state, site of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a crim- search, a pantomime in which there is the disappearances, an estimated inal group that was once powerful in no intelligence, in which there are no 50,000 demonstrators took to the the region and was recently decimated clear lines of investigation.” streets, according to Mexican media by the high-profile arrests of its leaders. outlets. In the state’s capital, The backlash over the disappear- Chilpancingo, an estimated 7,000 pro- Nearly two-dozen local police have ances has hit Peña Nieto amid the low- testers blocked a highway that leads to been arrested in connection with the est approval ratings of his presidency. the beach resort of Acapulco. disappearances. The town’s mayor, José On Monday he vowed to identify those “Mexico has become worse than a Luis Abarca, is a fugitive. He is being behind the massacre, during a brief death camp,” said Mariela López, a investigated for links to the crimes, as is televised press conferenced strongly 56-year-old teacher who participated the head of security for Iguala. criticized for lacking specifics. in the Mexico City march. The students’ disappearance is seen “More than his laments, we want Protesters demanded that Guerrero as part of the sustained violence in action and results,” Quiróz said in refer- state’s Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero Mexico—an increasing problem for ence to Peña Nieto’s speech. “What hap- resign and that Peña Nieto’s govern- Peña Nieto, who has sought to shift pened in Iguala does not occur in a vac- ment find the missing students and attention from Mexico’s gang violence uum. It happens within a Mexican state punish local politicians linked to orga- to the economic reforms he has pushed that for more than a decade has been nized crime in Guerrero. through Congress. Peña Nieto took negligent with respect to the disappeared office two years ago, pledging to end a and the use of government force.” “I think these types of atrocities wave of violence that has killed about happen because the people in power —Aljazeera America, October 9, 2014 100,000 people since the start of 2007. think that they will always be on top, Homicides have fallen on his watch but http://america.aljazeera.com/arti- and nobody will be able to touch other crimes, including extortion and cles/2014/10/9/thousands-march-inmex- them,” said Marco, a 23-year-old uni- kidnapping, have increased. icotodemandactionovermassacre.html versity student who declined to provide his last name. International pressure 1 Editors note: October 31, 2014—This is a The 43 students, from a teachers An increasing number of interna- bit out of date. The mass grave referred to did college in the town of Ayotzinapa that tional organizations have in recent not contain the bodies of any of the students. caters to the poor and indigenous, went days joined local nongovernment orga- They are still searching. —Bonnie Weinstein

24 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 World Embraces Cuba Model—Slaps the Empire By Glen Ford

Revolutionary Cuba has always been viding direct treatment to sick people of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone col- a miracle and gift to all humankind. outnumbers that of the African Union laborate militarily with AFRICOM, but This week, the nations of the world— and all individual countries and private the heavily-armed Americans were of no with two savage exceptions—instructed organizations, including the Red Cross. use when Ebola hit. (According to a their emissaries at the UN General (Few of the 4,000 U.S. military person- Liberian newspaper account, the Assembly to tell the world’s self-desig- nel to be deployed in the region will Americans caused the epidemic, a wide- nated “indispensable” country to end ever lay a well-protected hand on an ly held belief in the region.) its 54-year-long trade embargo against Ebola patient. Instead, the troops build Indeed, the Euro-American legacy Cuba. The virtually unanimous global field hospitals for others to staff.) in Africa, from colonialism (Liberia rebuke to the American superpower, in Doctors Without Borders is second has been a de facto colony of the U.S. combination with the extraordinary to Cuba in terms of health profession- since the days of President Monroe) to breadth and depth of acclamation als. But the French NGO is a swiftly western-imposed financial “structural accorded Havana, tells us that it is revolving door, churning doctors and adjustments” that starved public health Cuba, not the U.S. that is the truly “exceptional” nation on the planet. nurses in and out every six weeks systems, is the root reason Liberia and because of the extreme work and safety Guinea have only one doctor for every It was the 23rd time that the United conditions. Cuba’s health brigades are 100,000 people, and Sierra Leone has Nations has rejected the embargo. The made of different stuff. Every volunteer just two. outcome was identical to last year’s is expected to remain on duty in the tally, with only the United States and Cuba knows colonialism well, hav- Ebola zone for six months. Moreover, if ing seen its independence struggle Israel voting against the non-binding any of the Cubans contract Ebola or resolution. Although the list of from Spain aborted by the United any other disease, they will be treated at States in 1898, followed by six decades American allies on the Cuban embargo the hospitals where they work, along- issue could not possibly get any small- as a U.S. semi-colony. For Cuba, ser- side their African patients, rather than er—Israel, after all, can only exist if vice to oppressed and exploited peo- sent home. (One Cuban died of cere- joined at the U.S. hip—this year’s ples is a revolutionary act of the highest bral malaria, in Guinea, last Sunday.) political environment was even less moral caliber. That’s why, when the deferential to the reigning military It goes without saying that the call went out, 15,000 Cubans competed colossus. In recognition of its singular Cubans are committed for the dura- for the honor to battle Ebola in Africa. commitment to the fight against Ebola tion of the Ebola crisis; they have been As reported in The Guardian, doctors in Africa, Cuba soared, once again— at Africa’s service since the first years of like Leonardo Fernandez were eager to the hero nation. the revolution. President Raul Castro fulfill their moral and professional Despite having suffered cumulative reports that 76,000 Cuban medical spe- mission. “We know that we are fight- economic damages of more than $1 cialists have served in 39 African coun- ing against something that we don’t trillion at U.S. hands over the last half- tries over the years. Four thousand totally understand,” he said. “We know century, the island nation of 11 million were stationed in 32 African countries what can happen. We know we’re people has made itself a medical super- when the current Ebola epidemic broke going to a hostile environment. But it power that shares its life-saving out. (Worldwide, Cuba’s “white-robed is our duty. That’s how we’ve been resources with the world. No country army” of care-givers numbers more educated.” or combination of nations and NGOs than 50,000, in 66 countries—amid In the same way and for the same comes close to the speed, size and qual- constant U.S. pressures on host coun- reasons, 425,000 Cubans volunteered ity of Cuba’s response to the Ebola tries to expel them.) for military service in Angola, from crisis in West Africa. With 461 doctors, In sheer numbers, the Cuban medi- 1975 to 1991, leaving only after Angola nurses and other health professionals cal posture in Africa is surpassed in was secure, Namibia had held its first either already on site or soon to be sent scope only by the armed presence of free elections and South Africa was to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, AFRICOM, the U.S. military command, firmly on the road to majority rule. Cuba sets the standard for interna- which has relationships with every These Cubans were preceded by the tional first-response. The Cuban con- country on the continent except Eritrea, doctor and soldier Che Guevara and tingent of medical professionals pro- Zimbabwe and Sudan. The governments 100 other fighters who journeyed to

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 25 ner in Latin America, voiced the anti- embargo position of Mercosur, the Common Market of the South. Cuba’s neighbors in CARICOM, the Caribbean Economic Community, were represented by Saint Kitts and Nevis, whose ambassador pointed to Cuban-built hospitals and clinics throughout the region; the hundreds of Cuban doctors that have provided the only medical services available to many of Haiti’s poor before, during and after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010; and the thousands of Caribbean students that have benefited from free university education in Cuba. Cuba’s exemplary conduct in the world has made the yearly UN vote on the U.S. embargo a singular opportunity for all the world body’s members, except one, to chastise the superpower Congo in 1965 to join an unsuccessful plays, with Washington as villain. On that seeks full spectrum domination of guerilla war against the American- this issue, the world’s biggest econom- the planet. It is the rarest of occasions, backed Mobutu regime. ic and military power could neither a time of virtual global unanimity on an evil in which the Empire is currently Cuba has been selfless in defense of buy nor bully a single ally other than the Zionist state deformity. engaged. Once a year, the world—in others, whether against marauding both effect and intent—salutes the microbes or imperial aggression. “We Even Djibouti, the wedge of a Cuban model. For a moment, human- never took any natural resources,” said nation between Eritrea and Somalia ity’s potential to organize itself for the Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez, Cuba’s ambas- that hosts the biggest U.S. (and French) common good illuminates the global sador to the United Nations and a vet- military base in Africa, spoke against forum. eran of the war against white-ruled South the embargo on behalf of the Africa’s army in Angola. “We never took Organization of Islamic Cooperation. This year, the model glows brightly any salary, because in no way were we to Lithuania, a rabidly anti-Russian Baltic in the darkness of microbial pestilence. be perceived to be mercenaries or on any state, voiced the European Union’s When 15,000 Cuban healthcare work- kind of military adventure.” objections to the embargo. Ethiopia, ers do not hesitate to step into the Ebola pit, the New Man and Woman For the United States, military Washington’s henchman in the Horn of Africa, nevertheless opposed U.S. may already exist—and there is hope adventure and the imperative to seize for the rest of us. other countries’ natural resources or policy toward Cuba on behalf of the strangle their economies, are defining UN’s “Africa Group.” Tiny Fiji articu- —Black Agenda Report, October 29, national characteristics—in complete lated the Group of 77 and China’s 2014 contrast to Cuba. The U.S. embargo of opposition to the trade blockade. http://blackagendareport.com/ its island neighbor is among the Venezuela, Cuba’s major health part- node/14493 world’s longest-running morality

26 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Gaza: Call to Action! Statement by the International Secretariat of the Fourth International

August 26, 2014—At a time when The partition of Palestine in 1946 by Shatila massacre. Accusing Begin- the workers and peoples of the whole the imperialisms that were victorious Sharon, he said: world are gripped by the war of exter- in the Second World War, supported “Where have the realists, those mination being waged by Israel against by the Stalinist bureaucracy and rati- who explained to us that our posi- the Palestinian people, particularly in fied by the UN in 1947, and the found- tion and our fight were utopian, Gaza… At a time when the rights of the ing of a so-called “Jewish State” in the where have they led the people? Palestinian people are being trampled very heart of the Middle East could Where are they leading that part of upon, everybody is asking themselves only result in wars and acts of destruc- the world today, where fighting, the same question: Is there a solution? tion for the peoples of the region, massacres and destitution continue unabated? No, there is no other Sixty-six years ago, the Palestinian beginning with the Arab people of Palestine. The position of the Fourth solution than the democratic solu- Trotskyist group said the following tion, and the only democratic solu- International has been unequivocal regarding the State of Israel in January tion that can bring peace to that 1948: since 1948: region involves the disappearance of “Even leaving aside the question “Down with the partition of the State of Israel; it involves the of the attitude of the great powers, Palestine! For a united independent Palestinian Constituent Assembly, this State has no historic future. Arab Palestine, with full national building the Palestinian nation with Subject to permanent crises and minority rights for the Jewish com- its two component parts. All the convulsions—permanent civil war munity. Down with the imperialist plans, all the solutions that do not having been avoided only by the intervention in Palestine! All foreign have as their starting-point this complete purging of all the Arab vil- troops, UN ‘mediators’ and ‘observ- democratic solution can only have lages on its territory—it will collapse ers’ out now! For the right of the as their reality one massacre after into terrible slaughter in a new stage Arab masses to self-determination. another. There was war in 1948, of the Arab Revolution if the Jewish For the election of a Constituent there was war in 1956, there was war proletariat does not break with Assembly on the basis of universal in 1967, there was ‘Black September’ Zionist chauvinism in time. The task secret suffrage! For revolution of the in 1970, that dark September which of Jewish revolutionaries in Israel is land! Down with the Arab League, saw the King of Jordan use the to prepare this break. Their political the tool of imperialism! Down with strength provided to him by U.S. line should remain unwaveringly the corrupt feudal exploiters! Long imperialism to crush, or attempt to that of struggle against the partition live the Arab socialist revolution in crush, the Palestinians. There was of Palestine, for the reintegration of the Middle East!” war in 1973; there was Tal el-Zaatar in 1976. Maintaining the State of the territory of Israel into a united “There is no other solution than Palestine, within the framework of a Israel can only lead to war.” Federation of Arab States of the the democratic solution” Middle East which will guarantee Some 70 years have passed, over the The settler state, the segregation- the Jewish minority all the rights of course of which so many leaders of the ist and theocratic state has never national cultural autonomy.” international labor movement, from been so weak! As far as the militant activists of the the “Communist Parties” to the How is this question posed today, Fourth International are concerned, “Socialist International,” have explained after a month-and-a-half of the worst only the proletarian revolution— to the workers and youth the world kind of massacre organized against the bringing down imperialism—will over that these slogans were not “realis- Palestinian population of Gaza, con- allow the national questions left out- tic,” that the only “realistic” solution tinuing the practice of ethnic cleansing standing by history to be resolved com- was a “two-state” solution in Palestine. begun in 1948? pletely, including the aspirations of the It was to this objection that the Of course, the military forces of the Jewish population that has settled in Fourth International leader, Comrade State of Israel have an overwhelming Palestine which, as far as the Trotskyists Pierre Lambert, responded during a superiority. And yet, the truth of the are concerned, cannot in any way be rally called by the PCI (French section matter is that the settler state, the seg- counterpoised to the Arab masses’ of the Fourth International) in June regationist and theocratic state has aspiration for sovereignty. 1982—shortly before the Sabra and never been so weak!

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 27 By unleashing its unprecedented that, in the near future, sectors of both them by the closer ties between Iran onslaught against the civilian popula- societies will link up, especially among and the United States, and by the closer tion of Gaza, by indiscriminately killing the youth, who have been condemned ties being sought by the United States women, children and elderly people, it by the State of Israel to a war without with Bashar al-Assad. has rallied the people of Palestine, from end, to killings and acts of barbarism The idea is taking root that no solu- Gaza to the 1948 territories (State of against the Palestinian people on both tion can be delivered to the Palestinian Israel) via the West Bank and the refu- sides of the wall. people if it is subject to the current gee camps scattered throughout all the The resistance of the Palestinian diplomatic-military maneuvers. It is in countries of the region. It has rallied the fighters and their heroic struggle have this sense that one can say today that people of Palestine around resistance. It delivered a fatal blow to the myth of the the question of the struggle for a united has delivered a major blow to the so- invincible Israeli army. They have deliv- Palestinian nation, a secular demo- called two-state “solution”—and to ered a fatal blow to the myth of “the cratic Palestinian republic in which all what is left of the Oslo Accords (1993)— army cementing together the Israeli citizens will enjoy equal rights irrespec- by turning Gaza into the model for that nation” that was fed by the euphoria tive of their religion or ethnic origin, is second state: a ghetto. following the army’s successes. The about to arise in a recognizable way in By unleashing its unprecedented Palestinian people have just forced a the near future. onslaught, it has declared loud and climb-down, with the ending of the In opposition to the Palestinian clear to the whole world what main- bombardments triggering joyful dem- people gaining its sovereignty, on every taining the imperialist order, of which onstrations throughout Palestine, side there are calls being made on the the State of Israel is an underling, including among the Jewish population. workers—including by their leader- means: the extermination of a people Of course, it was only a few hundred ships—in every country, especially in who refuse to bow down to oppression people who defied the military com- the imperialist countries, to support and exploitation. mand and refused to serve in Gaza, and the campaign to “put Gaza under UN By unleashing its unprecedented only a few thousand people who dem- protection” and the crossing-points onslaught, in the eyes of the world it has onstrated, most notably in Tel Aviv. under the supervision of European shattered the State of Israel’s claim that it Nevertheless, by taking their coura- Union inspectors, all in the name of embodies the defense of democratic val- geous position they have opened up an “realism” and emergency humanitari- ues—as pointed out in a dignified manner important breach. an demands which trample underfoot in a letter entitled “Not in Our Name!” the Palestinian demand for an “uncon- As for the layer of Palestinian activ- written by hundreds of Jewish survivors of ditional lifting of the blockade!” ists engaged in struggle, a far-reaching the Nazi concentration camps.1 movement is emerging among their On the contrary, concrete solidarity It has exposed the hypocrisy of the ranks. They have experienced the with the Palestinian people means the complicit imperialist governments, treachery of the heads of Arab states, broadest possible unity of the demo- beginning with the Hollande, Cameron with the head of the Egyptian state cratic and labor organizations through- and Merkel governments, showing this foremost among them. They have out the world for an immediate and to be their true nature. experienced Fatah’s so-called “peace unconditional end to the Israeli attack, Provoking the outrage of the world’s program,” they have seen what recog- and for the immediate, total and uncon- peoples, Netanyahu has forced Obama nition of the State of Israel and ditional lifting of the blockade of Gaza. to go through the motions, for the renouncing the PLO Charter has This solidarity is part of the struggle world’s benefit, of wishing to “restrain” meant. They have rejected every to help our class bring down the gov- him, whilst continuing to supply him attempt to give up the refugees’ right of ernments acting on behalf of finance massively with weapons. return. They understand that the two- capital and the war policy of U.S. Hindered by Obama in his offensive of state “solution” (including the Islamic imperialism. extermination, Netanyahu has triggered state of Hamas) would shut them up in It is part of the struggle to strength- the most serious crisis in the history of his an open-air concentration camp, like en the organization of the conscious state and its military apparatus. in Gaza, forever. They are watching vanguard of the working class. with a great deal of apprehension as It is part of the struggle to strength- All the conditions are coming U.S. imperialism employs makeshift en the Fourth International! together for a major turning point grand maneuvers in an attempt to end All the conditions are coming the collapse it has triggered in Iraq. —IS, August 26, 2014 together for a major turning-poin, so They understand the risk posed to Continued on page 29

28 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Ukraine Cease Fire Despite the ceasefire the crisis in Ukraine is far from resolved Feyzi Ismail interviews Russian Marxist and Dissident Boris Kagarlitsky

September 8, 2014—Feyzi Ismail: There are many people who speak ordinary people, but at the same time What are the origins of the crisis in both languages equally, but Russian is generates real pluralism for the oligar- Ukraine and why has the conflict much more widespread than Ukrainian, chy. This system had its crises, but after erupted in recent months? and was even on the rise in the post- every single crisis they managed to Boris Kagarlitsky: The origins of independence period. This is because establish one or another compromise, the crisis in Ukraine are threefold. The the world market favors the dominant and these were not terminal for politi- first thing is that Ukraine was designed language, the language of business, cal stability. That is, until the global by planners from Moscow as one ele- trade and production. The market sys- economic crisis in 2008. ment in a complex planned economy. tem increased existing contradictions This crisis not only undermined the The territories that form Ukraine were within society and created the precon- capacity of the Ukrainian elite to put together not because of any his- ditions for more cultural conflicts. The achieve compromise but it also brought torical, cultural or ethnic reasons, but liberal media, however, presents these in new players such as the EU, the U.S. to organize complex planning—they conflicts as purely cultural, while in and NATO. Given the level of crisis in wanted to link the industrial areas in fact the underlying reasons are related the West, the important factor for sta- the east with ports in the south, such as to the economy and institutions. bilizing the system became its expan- Odessa and Crimea, together with the The third aspect of the crisis relates sion. And the EU is very much in agrarian west. That was the logic. Once to the Ukrainian economy. In the post- trouble, especially in the south—the this logic was destroyed with the end of Soviet period, Ukraine became an oli- capacity of these societies to reproduce the Soviet Union, this territory as an garchy in the same way as Russia, but themselves is so undermined by neo- integrated unity started falling apart, with fewer resources. The quantity of liberal policies—that you can hardly and lost its raison d’être. resources that Russia possessed allowed say how to keep these societies func- The end of the Soviet Union also Putin to create a system of permanent tioning without moving away from allowed cultural divisions to flourish, and self-reproducing compromise. neoliberalism. But this is precisely what which is the second source of the crisis. Putin’s rule is based on permanent the neoliberal elites are not going to Differences over language, for exam- consensus-building, first among the allow. The only chance to escape or ple, became much more important elites and, once there is an elite consen- solve these contradictions is to expand than before. Nationalist policies to sus, then an attempt is made to ensure the system, and shift more resources impose a single Ukrainian language this consensus acceptable to the rest of into the system. were absurd, however, because there the population through welfare mea- Feyzi Ismail: What interests do the are far more Ukrainians who speak sures and so on. EU and U.S. have in Ukraine? Russian than Ukrainian—about a third The idea is to focus on consump- Boris Kagarlitsky: In previous glob- are ethnic Russians and another third tion—as compensation for a lack of al recessions, the U.S. was the locomo- identify themselves as Russian- political activity—and everybody is tive that pulled other countries out of speaking Ukrainians. more or less happy. But the Ukrainian crisis. But now the American economy oligarchy has never had enough finan- is so weak that instead of pulling other cial and material resources to facilitate countries out of crisis, American recov- such compromise. Continued from page 28 ery is based on pushing other econo- Unlike Russian oil, Ukrainian steel is mies deeper into crisis. The other side https://us-mg6.mail.yahoo.com/neo/ much more vulnerable on the world of the American equation is the expan- launch?.rand=c3eqd3dt9r4na#3971697781 market. This has led to permanent con- sion of military capacity, and in par- flict between different oligarchic clans ticular NATO expansion. 1 “Jewish Survivors and Descendants of Sur- for control over existing public resourc- vivors and Victims of Nazi Genocide Unequivo- Western powers started becoming cally Condemn the Massacre of Palestinians in es, which was the basis of so-called more interested in Ukraine as a place Gaza,” Socialist Viewpoint, Vol. 14, No. 5 Ukrainian democracy. In that sense to access cheap resources, including a http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/sepoct_14/ Ukraine is a typical oligarchic republic, cheap, disciplined and a relatively well- sepoct_14_00.html in that it denies access to politics for educated workforce, which could be

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 29 employed in the West, and particularly because they understood that they were also from the east, could keep control of the EU, to undermine the welfare states going to lose their industry. It was a last the population through paternalistic in the West. Another 10,000 unem- minute U-turn—in September 2013— and clientelistic networks. The general ployed Ukrainians, who can be moved when Yanukovych decided not to sign situation was deteriorating but at least to the West as flexible workers, is use- the Association Agreement. something was given to the trade union ful for Western capital. Feyzi Ismail: What exactly sparked bosses, and sometimes even to the work- Ukraine could play the same role for the protests in Maidan Square last ers, even if it was only promises. People the EU as Central Asia plays for the November? in the east still hoped that as long as Russian economy—providing lots of Yanukovych was in power, they would Boris Kagarlitsky: In western not be let down completely. But when workers with no guarantees, no labor Ukraine, people were massively unem- rights, no citizenship, no protection the far right sided with the neoliberal ployed and marginalized, while in east- elites in Kiev, things got out of control. and who are completely dependent on ern Ukraine, industry continued to the employers. Ukrainians are in a work, and it was precisely over the The protests were provoked by the position where they can be turned into resources of the east that the fight was sudden failure of Yanukovych to sign this permanent army of migrant labor. being fought. The west didn’t actually the Association Agreement, but they If you read the EU Association produce much and was only able to moved far beyond it. Crowds of people Agreement with Ukraine, the crux of it consume resources, but only at a very gathered at Maidan Square in is about closing down most of low level because they preferred not to November 2013. They didn’t care Ukrainian industry. The agreement invest resources in welfare. much about ideology, it was pure politics. One oligarchic group wanted to says the EU will provide some financial The center, which is Kiev, was support to solve the financial problems take over from another. The important exploiting the east and developed a point for understanding the coup d’état of the state, but for that most indus- very parasitical economy, trying to tries have to close. that took place last February is that the develop itself into a real European economy of western Ukraine was Compared to previous free trade capital, while giving meager hand outs ruined through the free market poli- agreements this is definitely the worst to the west of the country and keeping cies. Industrial production that was Association Agreement ever prepared them more or less under control. One built there in order to fit this pan- by the EU. And of course the other can understand therefore why Kiev is Ukrainian planning system was wiped aspect of it is that Ukraine has to be in conflict with the rest of Ukraine. It’s out post-1990 and most people became integrated into Western political and very much this parasitical economy of unemployed. There was a whole gen- military structures, that it should Kiev that is generating support for the eration of young people who had never become a de facto NATO member. new government that is now in place, worked and were never going to get Let’s be clear. and it is Kiev that needs to keep the jobs. Or at best they would get precari- The Ukrainian government would country united, in order to continue to ous jobs. So they became very easy love to become an official NATO mem- exploit the east. targets for the far right, who started to ber, but becoming an official member The oligarchs who own companies give them some kind meaning in their would mean changing the Ukrainian in eastern Ukraine live in their luxuri- lives by organizing them and paying constitution. Meanwhile, NATO is reluc- ous palaces in Kiev, with armies of them to be part of these Nazi gangs. tant to make Ukraine a formal member, servants, including ideological ser- About 10-15,000 unemployed youth but on the other hand is very keen on vants. Whereas in the east you have a from the west were brought over to getting Ukraine involved in every single working-class population who are liv- Kiev and paid to live there, for months, war and strategic alliance possible. ing on very low salaries, who are very in order to protest in Maidan Square. For example, take Crimea. Even frustrated and angry, and who are What must be understood is that for under Yanukovych, there were already Russian speaking, which means they these people this was the only job they discussions taking place about moving have been made to feel humiliated in had ever had in their lives. Many of the Russians out and the Americans in. economic, social and cultural terms. them didn’t want to leave, and some NATO had already announced a ten- Eastern Ukraine is the most productive even live there now because they have der for building its headquarters in part of the country, producing about nowhere to go. Finally they took up Sevastopol, replacing the Russian Black 80 percent of the GDP, but they get less arms. The violence was not part of the Sea Fleet there. But at the very last than any other region. neoliberals’ plan initially. There are moment, some sections of the This situation could continue while lots of reasons to think that it hap- Ukrainian elite became worried Yanukovych and his people, who were pened spontaneously.

30 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 The Western powers did everything Romanian—any non-Ukrainian lan- and Lugansk, declared independence to support this coup d’état, without guage. last April. having a clear strategy of what do to The irony is that nobody in the At first they were willing to negoti- next. At the moment when Yanukovych Ukrainian government speaks ate to accept some kind of federal understood that the West really wanted Ukrainian, except perhaps the leader of agreement with Ukraine. But when him to go, he fled. In this power vacu- the fascist party. Many Ukrainian Ukrainian troops bombed and wreaked um, the rival group took over. nationalists can hardly manage to say a havoc on these territories, well, the last But the U.S. had earlier backed few words in Ukrainian. People were time we met with deputies from Yanukovych too. That’s exactly why laughing at the leaflets of the Right Donetsk and Lugansk, they said that Yanukovych became so weak. He was Sector, which is a coalition of far right after what Ukraine has done to us very expecting to have sustained Western groups, because these leaflets were call- it’s clear that they don’t see us as their support, then all of a sudden he real- ing for Ukrainian to be the only lan- co-citizens. They don’t see these terri- ized that the West stopped supporting guage in the country, but they were tories as their own. And we don’t want him and started supporting his adver- written with so many errors and with to stay in this country, unless— saries; he had his nerves broken, so he such poor grammar that Russian unless—this government is dissolved. fled to Russia. And when Yanukovych speakers were correcting these leaflets. So there were two turning points. fled, his political clientele collapsed, The vote provoked enormous protests. The first was on May 2, 2014, when which was a tremendous achievement Feyzi Ismail: What was the nature people were forced to take up arms. In a for the Ukrainian working class. of the uprising in eastern Ukraine? And sense that was a success for the new Because once this system collapsed, who are the opolchenie? government in Kiev because they local- there were millions of people out of ized the rebellion; it was initially a control; not only thousands of merce- Boris Kagarlitsky: First, there was peaceful, unarmed rebellion all over naries, but millions of workers. And an unarmed uprising, which was eastern Ukraine, and they ultimately that’s something very different. There repressed militarily, in April. There localized the rebellion in two regions. were rallies all over eastern Ukraine. had been a camp in Odessa organized The second turning point was the elec- by those calling for a federal Ukraine, Interestingly, one of the slogans in tion that was organized (actually it was but the camp was attacked by the far Maidan Square was that the southeast bought) by one of the oligarchs, right. People were forced to flee into must rise i.e., the southeast must rise Poroshenko, the so-called “chocolate the trade union buildings next to the and support the rebellion against king” because he owns a big confection- camp, but the building was then set on Yanukovych. Of course they did! And ary business. Poroshenko also appoint- fire. People tried to escape but those once that happened, Kiev sent tanks ed several other oligarchs to particular who got out were killed on the street. and aircraft and artillery against them. provinces. So each oligarch got the The official estimate of those killed was It was a peaceful uprising everywhere province where he had the most assets. 46, but the unofficial estimate was in the beginning, with demonstrations, This is an extreme case of oligarchic about a hundred or more. Those who rallies, the formation of councils, and rule, like a feudal country. Poroshenko escaped were arrested and put in jail, with local deputies voting for no confi- got the majority in the elections because while those who did the killing were dence in the Kiev government. those who opposed the coup were not praised as heroes. The problem was also that at that allowed to run. He also spent three point, the new government of After that Donetsk and Lugansk times more money than everyone else Poroshenko—formed by those who created a self-defense force, taking over put together, and it seems that he also won the coup d’état—they also miscal- buildings and arms depots. The place is bought the electoral committees. And culated, because they underestimated full of weapons since the Soviet times finally he seemed most moderate the capacity of the east to rise. The first because it’s one of the centers of mili- among the candidates that were thing they did was vote to cancel legis- tary production and manufacturing. allowed to run. lation guaranteeing language rights for The fighters are working class peo- Poroshenko has been in power since non-Ukrainian speakers. This is not ple, peasants, miners, and now more June, after which there has been a full- the same as banning Russian or other and more intellectuals are joining scale military attack on the east, compa- languages, but previously there were them, mostly coming from Russia and rable to a Second World War operation some legal guarantees, which are now other parts of Ukraine. Initially they with hundreds of tanks, aviation, bomb- abolished. This applies not just to were fighting for more autonomy, but ing, massive artillery shelling and so on. Russian, but Hungarian, Polish, the two people’s republics, Donetsk It’s not like guerrilla warfare, it’s full-

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 31 scale war. But the opolchenie—militia is Inside the republics, there are also the border the republics would be the correct translation—they have actu- contradictory tendencies. The general defeated. That’s why so far there is a ally created a formidable fighting force. demand is for welfare, the establish- political stalemate. Even those progres- Of course there are lots of Russian vol- ment of a social people’s republic—not sive measures that have been declared unteers, and some of them have a great a socialist but a social republic—which have not been implemented. Partly deal of military experience. means that a welfare state should be also because of the state of war, you The Russian government of course incorporated into the institutional have to concentrate militarily; but the allows ammunition and food to pass structures of the system. There are lots fact that opolchenie is radicalizing is through the border, definitely, and also of demands for nationalization and, very important. allows volunteers through. Some for example, they stopped healthcare One of the most popular figures in Russian military organizations of reforms towards marketization. opolchenie was Igor Strelkov, who was course co-operate with opolchenie, These are demands from fighters on not a leftist at all—in fact he claims to clearly, and there are Russian troops the ground. At the same time, the be a monarchist, loves the Russian that moved into Donetsk and Lugansk republics are unstable and inefficient, empire and is romantic about Russian and are stationed along the border to and also their legitimacy is questioned. Tsars and so on—but as commander of control both sides of it, but they are So there is a permanent political con- the opolchenie in Donetsk he was bring- not taking part in active combat. On flict within these republics. ing along all sorts of left-wing radicals the other hand it’s totally untrue that While there are progressive demands with him. He also managed to kick out the Russian government manages these on the one hand from the grassroots, many nationalists and right-wing peo- operations of opolchenie. there are also bourgeois elements with- ple from opolchenie—but for technical There is a permanent conflict in the republican leaderships, and also reasons; he said these people were bad among the Russian elites, especially constant pressure from Moscow not to fighters, they didn’t follow orders, they after the first wave of sanctions against move in these more progressive direc- didn’t respect the command of the Ukraine. Sections of the Russian elite tions, using its capacity to control the people’s republic and so on. began to panic, and also they hate these frontier and provide or stop supplies of At some point, it started becoming people’s republics because they are food and ammunition to blackmail the visible that Strelkov was becoming far very threatening for the Russian state, republics. For example, they tried hard more popular in Russia than Putin. So raising debates about nationalization, to block nationalization programs that Strelkov’s popularity was increasing overthrowing the oligarchy and so on. were declared in both republics, unfor- while Putin’s popularity was diminish- Russian industry is also providing tunately with some success. If they ing because he hasn’t been taking a spare parts to the Ukrainian military were to go forward, Moscow would cut firm stand against the West. and Poroshenko had to acknowledge supplies. So there is a constant strug- The conflict came to the fore in that without the steady flow of spare gle. But there is also a constant struggle early July when Strelkov retreated from parts and technicians from Russia it inside Russia because there is a grow- Sloviansk, when his troops were encir- wouldn’t have been possible for the ing movement to defend these repub- cled by Ukrainian troops and where he Ukrainian army to continue fighting. lics, and there’s a growing movement was expected to be killed. He left Feyzi Ismail: What is the nature of the to support these very demands. So it’s Sloviansk, organized a defense of people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk a struggle that’s continuing on both Donetsk, and suppressed a conspiracy and how is Russia relating to the republics? sides of the frontier. to surrender Donetsk to Ukrainian Boris Kagarlitsky: Shortly after The problem also for those who are troops, a conspiracy that was organized Donetsk and then Lugansk were trying to control Donetsk and Lugansk by pro-Kremlin figures there. declared republics, there developed a from Moscow is that opolchenie is So it was very clear that they were big struggle about their future. On the becoming more radicalized, and it’s going to surrender Donetsk, probably one hand, they emerged because of the supplied by volunteers who are very in agreement with Poroshenko, as a mass support of working people, and radical and left-wing, most of them. Of guarantee that Crimea would be safe in on the other hand they cannot survive course they are nationalists, but even the hands of Russia. This conspiracy without some co-operation with those who are nationalists, they basi- was defeated and all these pro-Kremlin Moscow and with the Russian govern- cally support welfare demands. people were thrown out of Donetsk. ment. And Russian elites use every So in a political sense, Moscow is They didn’t arrest anybody, they just opportunity to influence, manipulate fighting an uphill battle. But they still asked them politely to leave the city and subvert these forces. have very important tools. If they close and, as a result, Strelkov became the

32 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 enemy of the Kremlin. They finally are incredible, similar to losses during and security services. But you can managed to get rid of him by cutting the Second World War. The opolchenie hardly stay in power with only the his supplies, and when he was lacking is mostly composed of volunteers and security services backing you. So his ammunition and food, he was forced of people who have had military train- power base is shrinking very fast. His to go to Moscow. At that point, he ing, many of whom fought in Chechnya main card is that he has the backing of seemed to be detained, and then we got or Afghanistan. These are fighters who the U.S. and the EU. But that will not his letter of resignation. Whether he are more or less competent to do the be enough if he doesn’t have a measure signed it or was forced to sign it nobody fighting. While on the Ukrainian side of domestic support. knows, but then he disappeared and we they are sending conscripts who didn’t Feyzi Ismail: What have been the don’t know his whereabouts. even get proper training. So the losses military advances by opolchenie in the It’s been about a month. Many leg- are very high, and that also undermines last couple of weeks? Is this a turning ends emerged, including a fake video the morale of the Ukrainian troops and point? has led to a lot of discontent. showing him in Ferguson. That just Boris Kagarlitsky: I think it is a gives you an understanding of how Now the Ukrainian generals behind turning point. Ukrainian troops have intense the struggle is around these the frontlines have to wear bulletproof been in full flight and the opolchenie republics, and how the struggle is only vests to protect themselves from being were progressing and moving forward just beginning. shot by their own soldiers. I think all over the front line. Lots of Ukrainian Feyzi Ismail: How should we ana- that’s why the movement will spread troops were encircled and surrounded. lyze the future of the republics in rela- into the rest of Ukraine. The position of opolchenie has been to tion to the rest of Ukraine? Is the fight The fight is no longer about auton- disarm these Ukrainian fighters and by the republics still over autonomy? omy because of course now they are then let them go. They don’t keep too Boris Kagarlitsky: There will be a now calling for independence. I think many prisoners partly because there real need to form representative politi- if we got Novorossiya as a new country isn’t enough food. But also they think cal leaderships. The people who are in Europe it would be a good thing. it’s very good propaganda for them. fighting see Novorossiya as much more The common ground they have with Sometimes they keep them for a few than these two republics. Because the rest of Ukraine is that they want to weeks, and then ask their parents to Novorossiya is also Kharkiv, Odessa get rid of the government in Kiev. come to pick up the conscripts. Once and the whole of the southeast. Once the Poroshenko government the parents come they go back home Now when Putin is calling for a is defeated, they will negotiate. And with their kids. So we have had all these ceasefire, the question is whether opol- they will have to decide whether they images of Ukrainian troops leaving, chenie will stop fighting. Especially want a federation or an independent disarmed. Or they leave for Russia, and because they’re winning. They man- country—or perhaps Ukraine will dis- of course Russia sends them back to aged to win against an army that had integrate into a few different countries. Ukraine. But what also happens is that probably more than 60 times more In this case maybe the west will split on after spending time with the opolche- tanks and so on, partly because they use its own and maybe Hungary will take nie, many of them prefer to stay over guerrilla tactics. But also the morale of over some other region. But the com- and fight on the other side. the Ukrainian troops is very low, they mon ground between people in the We are now seeing hundreds of desert, and they don’t want to go and southeast and the movement is that troops retreating, disarmed, and it’s a fight. They sometimes desert with first you have to get rid of the govern- crushing moral defeat—it would be a weapons and join the opolchenie, while ment in Kiev and then you have to find total moral defeat for any army. others just run away. Thousands have a way to negotiate peacefully and on a The frontiers between the republics defected. Hundreds have turned to the democratic basis. and Russia are in the hands of insur- side of opolchenie, and they now are If they manage to get rid of the cur- gents, which means that there will be a forming battalions of Ukrainian desert- rent government then the possibility of flow of material—food and ammuni- ers. They want to form a regiment. So Ukraine staying together is greater. tion into the republics—and it’s also there are enough people to form a regi- Poroshenko will try to stay but he’s los- much harder for the Russian government, and probably there will be more. ing ground, and the far right is increas- ment to control because as long you On the other hand, the way ingly against him. The army of control the whole frontier there will Ukrainian generals behave is terrible Novorossiya is winning, his own army always be incursions. The next target because they are just sending people is less and less loyal, and he’s depen- was Mariupol, which is a big port and forward as cannon fodder. The losses dent only on the intelligence services which is already under siege, but the

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 33 opolchenie don’t want to take the city social change? And who is leading this that is, in its composition and in its because it would inflict heavy destruc- movement? momentum, if not necessarily prole- tion and casualties among civilian pop- Boris Kagarlitsky: What is happen- tarian then plebeian; it’s a popular ulation, which is something opolchenie ing in Novorossiya is a revolutionary movement. These bourgeois leader- is trying to avoid. movement, though it’s not yet a revo- ships do everything to minimize the Back in April there was mass sup- lution in terms of social change. But potential for social change, and limit port for Donetsk in Mariupol, but you have to win the war. If the war is the movement. But it may end up with there is growing skepticism amongst won you still have to win the political these leaderships being replaced, as it people because of the chaotic leader- slogan. But there is potential. You see, was in the French Revolution and the ship in Donetsk. Nevertheless the nowhere for so many years—perhaps Russian Revolution, which first began insurgents were trying to convince since the Spanish revolution—have we with very moderate leaderships. The Ukrainian troops to leave the city. seen thousands of workers, or even important thing for the left is to create Once they secure Mariupol—or even hundreds of thousands, mobilized. the political force and the political before that—they will move to cadre to carry forward the next stage of There are thousands of workers in the revolution. Berdyansk, which is another important arms. And of course the Moscow oli- city, and which is already outside of the garchs are scared of it spreading into But this isn’t the Stalinist theory of area of the Donetsk and Lugansk Russia. Quite a lot of people speak stages; what I mean is that you have to republics. As far as I know from their about socialism. Others speak of a make the revolution radical and move news service Colonel Cassad, the ten- compromised version of a social repub- forward. And while there is a very dency is that they think Moscow soon- lic, which means a welfare state, social strong presence of progressive forces it er or later will force them to stop. priorities and some socialization of doesn’t mean that everybody is on the On September 6, 2014, there was property, including factories, mines left—there are also all sorts of conser- already a ceasefire agreement forced and railways. The current leadership of vative elements within the movement. upon the opolchenie by Moscow. But Donetsk republic was reluctant to For example, we had this project with it’s by no means certain that it will last. implement even those changes that political activists in Belgorod for almost Insurgents are trying to go forward as they themselves declared necessary. three months and we discovered that much as possible to undermine the Instead of nationalizing the property of in general these people are very pro- Poroshenko regime and undermine oligarchs, for example, they put up gressive in social terms, towards the the chances of Moscow and Kiev to posters around Donetsk saying that the welfare state, towards social rights, make a deal behind their backs. republic will fight the oligarchs. towards people’s power and so on, but at the same time they’re very conserva- Feyzi Ismail: What are the pros- It’s quite normal that you have a tive culturally. They praise family val- pects for the movement to bring about bourgeois leadership of a movement ues, they’re positive about Christianity as a core system of values—though they’re not necessarily practicing religion—and most of them are homo- phobic, etc. At the same time, however, this is something that can be remedied. What else can you expect from a society that was showered with reactionary propaganda and that survived a terrible defeat of soviet style socialism? It’s quite natural that people have all these illusions and contradictions and problems. We have to work with them and contribute to their struggles, because these problems can be overcome through practice. I’m reminded of what Subcomandante Marcos said about all

34 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 these leftists who went to the jungle and Going forward I think opolchenie Counterfire editorial board. tried to educate the Indians; they dis- must score more victories, and Russian Boris Yulyevich Kagarlitsky is a covered there were lots of things they society must develop more solidarity Russian Marxist theoretician and soci- had to learn from the Indians. I don’t movements together with Western ologist who has been a political dissident see why intellectuals shouldn’t learn societies, which also have to do the in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet from workers and peasants and lower same. I think we have to look at these Russia. He is coordinator of the middle class people in Donetsk or events in the same way as we look at Transnational Institute Global Crisis Kharkiv or Odessa. This is an ongoing Palestine, for example. There are all project and Director of the Institute of struggle. But you cannot fight and win sorts of contradictions inside the Globalization and Social Movements the struggle unless you express basic movement, just as in Palestine—it’s (IGSO) in Moscow.1 solidarity with the cause. Because what not a homogeneous movement. Not some of the left is doing is they are say- every single element of the movement —Counterfire, September 8, 2014 ing that the movement is not homoge- is progressive. http://www.counterfire.org/ nous, and they have to prove that the The same is true in Novorossiya. It’s interview/17422-ukraine-s-uprising- movement is genuinely progressive. not a homogeneous, progressive, revo- against-nato-neoliberals-and-oligarchs- Why do they have to prove anything lutionary movement; it’s a coalition, an-interview-with-boris-kagarlitsky to a bunch of intellectuals in Moscow which involves different elements. The or Paris? It’s exactly the other way movement started with people protect- around. The left has to prove to working the statues of Lenin, some of them 1 Boris Yulyevich Kagarlitsky ers and miners and peasants and other fly red flags and so on but there are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Kagarlitsky toiling people that it deserves their elements of Russian nationalism, and attention. also there are more conservative ele- Feyzi Ismail: What should the left ments who want Novorossiya to be like in the West be doing and how should Ukraine before the crisis. we be developing solidarity move- We have to support the left inside ments? Novorossiya and inside opolchenie. Boris Kagarlitsky: We have to build They are getting stronger but they need solidarity campaigns but they have to our support and solidarity. And we be linked up with other solidarity cam- must also import this Ukrainian revo- paigns to broaden the struggle. I think lutionary movement into Russia, which it would be nice if we flew the flag of we are doing with some degree of suc- Novorossiya together with the flag of cess—because there are more and Palestine, for example. Solidarity cam- more people involved in the solidarity paigns shouldn’t be isolated from one movement, which is becoming a force another, they have to be integrated. of its own and is already beginning to Non-military tasks are emerging, and influence Russian politics and Russian doctors, engineers, solidarity workers public opinion. and humanitarian programs are need- That means that we have to build ed, like in other places. solidarity across the frontier, and we People must go to the region to see have to link up these solidarity move- how much damage has been caused by ments in Russia with the antiwar, anti- the war, and there must be material NATO, and anti-imperialist move- help provided, training and education ments in the West. and so on. We in Russia can help Feyzi Ismail teaches at SOAS (School facilitate that. There are already volun- of Oriental and African Studies), teers from France and Spain but I don’t University of London, and has been think more fighters are needed; rather, active in UCU (University and College solidarity workers are needed, people Union) and the student movement of who will help with reconstruction, 2010. She is a contributor to The Assault especially as government troops are on Universities: A Manifesto for pushed away and areas are liberated. Resistance, and a member of the

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 35 Nestora Salgado Indigenous leader, U.S. citizen and political prisoner in Mexico

parts of Mexico. In particular, she tially and there were four killings, became involved in the indigenous despite the presence of hundreds of movement for community policing marines and soldiers as well as state that has swept through the region dur- and federal police. Government forces ing the past several years. Guerrero are used to harass and arrest commu- State Law 701 and Article 2.A of the nity organizers, sometimes threatening Mexican Constitution guarantee the to kill them, while protecting criminal right of indigenous people to self-gov- activity.) ernment and self-defense, including forming their own police forces. Nestora Salgado’s abduction and arrest Soon, Salgado was putting the laws The official pretext for seizing her into practice by organizing with others on August 21, 2013, was the arrest of to form a community police force in the local sheriff and several teenage Olinalá. Its officers formed patrols to girls. Sheriff Armando Patrón Jiménez defend residents against organized was detained for tampering with evi- crime, particularly the Los Rojos gang. dence at the crime scene of a double Nestora Salgado The gang had been terrorizing the assassination. He had attempted to Fact sheet community and operating with impu- walk off with a cow, the property of the nity due to the complicity of local offi- deceased. The girls were charged with Her personal background cials, including the mayor. dealing drugs. Salgado was arrested on Nestora Salgado is a naturalized The impetus for forming the com- charges of kidnapping in these cases, U.S. citizen who grew up in the small munity force was the murder of a local even though she was doing what she’d indigenous village of Olinalá in the taxi cab driver who refused to pay pro- been elected to do. state of Guerrero, Mexico. She moved tection money to Los Rojos. Salgado At a meeting five days before her to the United States in 1991 at the age led a mobilization of village residents arrest between the mayor and Salgado, of 20, working as a maid, nanny and to drive the gang out of town and set she refused to let the sheriff, a political waitress. She splits her time between up checkpoints to keep them from crony of the mayor, go free without a Olinalá and Renton, Washington, coming back. Last spring Salgado was trial in a peoples’ court. A few days where she lives with her husband José elected “comandante” or coordinator. later, she found herself surrounded by Luis Avila, a construction worker, her She has worked hard to develop the ten Humvees full of army and marine daughters, and grandchildren. Over personnel. They seized her and trans- the past four years, she made numer- leadership of indigenous women and ported her by private plane to a maxi- ous trips to deliver clothing and sup- to empower them to stand up against mum-security prison 600 miles from plies to the desperately poor residents domestic violence and child abuse. Olinalá. While Salgado’s arrest appears of her hometown. Initially, Salgado was able to obtain the support of Angel Aguirre, the gov- to have been precipitated by the arrest Fighting poverty and violence in ernor of Guerrero, who promised in of the sheriff, it was also in retaliation Guerrero writing to provide the force with uni- for a press release Salgado issued that Guerrero has the highest murder forms, small arms, training and other outlined the mayor’s and other gov- rate in Mexico and a history of state support. The impact of the community ernment figures’ ties to drug traffick- involvement in massacres of indige- policing, which relied on traditional ing. This all took place in the context of nous peasants. During her trips home means of accountability and social the struggle by the people of Olinalá to Mexico, Salgado witnessed increas- control, was dramatic—a 90 percent and its community police force to ing poverty and the rise in violent drop in the crime rate and no murders maintain their independence from the crime and political corruption. This during the ten months that it was in state-controlled rural police force. led her to become a community activist operation. (In the first two months Prosecuting indigenous leaders like for the human rights of indigenous after the governor shut down commu- Salgado and suppressing autonomous people in Guerrero and neighboring nity police, crime increased substan- community police forces also serves a

36 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 larger purpose—silencing vocal oppo- Several years ago, Salgado was After a year in jail, she has only been sition by indigenous communities to injured in a car accident that left her permitted to see her attorney one time foreign mining companies that have temporarily paralyzed from the neck for 45 minutes, despite repeated large contracts to extract mineral down. Through extensive physical requests. wealth from the mountains of therapy, she was able to regain 90 per- Efforts to negotiate a political solu- Guerrero. cent of her functioning but is still tion to Ms. Salgado’s plight have not unable to work. To manage severe neu- produced any concrete results, not Political persecution and mis- ropathy in her hands and feet, she treatment in jail even a transfer to Mexico City so she relies on pain medication and frequent could be closer to her attorneys and her Salgado was seized without an arrest exercise. In prison, she has been denied family. warrant by federal soldiers at a check- both, worsening her physical and men- point while driving home. She had tal condition. For months on end she The assassination of another strong been harassed with death threats by has been subjected to virtual solitary woman activist in Guerrero, Rocío marines for several days prior to her confinement, denied all interaction Mesino Mesino, just days after she had arrest. Since the day after her arrest, with others. been released from prison, is a remind- Salgado has been incarcerated in the er that Salgado’s life is in jeopardy At the end of March 2014, a federal without close public scrutiny and high security detention center of El judge in Mexico ruled that Salgado’s Rincon, in Tepic, Nayarit, several days strong support in Mexico and the actions as a coordinator of the Olinalá United States. travel from Olinalá. There is no basis community police force was lawful for the government’s claim that such under Guerrero state law and customs Prepared by the Freedom Socialist extreme measures are warranted and traditions of indigenous people of Party National Office, 4710 University because Salgado—a grandmother and the area. The judge ordered Salgado’s Way N.E., Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98105. well-respected citizen with no criminal release from custody, an order, which For more information, call 206-985- record—is a danger to society. the state courts and the state Attorney 4621 or email [email protected] Furthermore, kidnapping is not a fed- General have refused to abide by. eral crime in Mexico and those accused are normally held in local jails. Isolating Salgado from her supporters and family by transporting her so far away, without legal justification, is evidence that she is a political prisoner. Efforts to organize support in Olinalá for Salgado’s release and the revival of community policing are being suppressed by death threats and reprisals; Salgado’s advocates are being cut-off from public assistance, especially needed since a severe storm in mid-October 2013. For weeks, Salgado was held incommunicado. She was not allowed to see her attorney or family members, who had traveled the long distance to get to the penitentiary. She was only allowed a lawyer after the deadline had passed to petition for release while awaiting trial. Salgado was not allowed to meet in person with her attorney for almost a year. Only one of her daughters and a sister has been able to visit her on a regular basis. This persecution is all for per- forming her lawful duties as the coordinator of the community police force.

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 37

Environment ENVIRONMENT

Pollution Inequality in America Shocking new research shows pollution inequality in America even worse than income inequality By Lynn Stuart Parramore James K. Boyce, professor of econom- What’s new is that we developed for example, did not necessarily rank ics at the University of Massachusetts, three different inequality measures and highest in terms of the scale of dispari- Amherst, directs the environment pro- applied these both at the level of indi- ties between the most exposed and the gram of the Political Economy Research vidual states and at the level of the 435 least exposed communities. Institute. His research focuses on the congressional districts in order to get a So from a methodological stand- impacts of inequalities of wealth and sense of how unequally exposure to point, I think our paper makes an power and the dynamics of conflict and industrial air toxins is distributed in important contribution in two ways. includes the Toxic 100 Air Polluters, an these two political jurisdictions. To the One is in showing that it’s possible to index identifying the top U.S. air pollut- best of my knowledge, no one has ever measure inequality in the distribution ers among the world’s largest corpora- done that. of environmental quality, much as we tions. A 2009 special report by USA In addition to looking at the ratios measure inequality in the distribution Today drew upon Boyce’s work, along of exposures of people of color versus of income and wealth. And the second with EPA data, to create a database whites and of people living below the methodological contribution is to exposing air toxicity in schools across the federal poverty line versus the non- show how different jurisdictions in the country. In a new study funded by the poor, we also developed an environ- U.S. rank in terms of environmental Institute for New Economic Thinking’s mental version of the Gini coefficient, inequality really depends on what spe- Political Economy of Distribution which basically ranks the population, cific measures of environmental Series, Boyce collaborates with Klara in this case from the people with the inequality one is interested in. Zwickl and Michael Ash to compare dis- cleanest air to the people with the If one is primarily interested in disparities of exposure to industrial air pol- dirtiest air, and measures how unequal- parities in terms of race or ethnicity, lution in U.S. states and congressional ly air quality is distributed in the states then one can directly compare those districts among the poor and non-poor, and congressional districts. That was a measures that are relevant. If one is as well as whites and non-whites. They new contribution. most interested in the extent of diver- find that in America, inequality is in the Lynn Parramore: What stood out gence between the most polluted and very air we breathe. to you in the results? the least polluted communities or I spoke to Boyce about his research James K. Boyce: One of the real states, then a different measure is and the impact of environmental take-home findings, is that if you look appropriate to use. Our study shows inequality on politics, education, eco- at how unequally environmental qual- both that it’s possible to look at these nomics, and the shape of our society. ity is distributed in the U.S., it actually things, and that in doing so we need to Lynn Parramore: What does your makes inequality of the distribution of be sensitive to the measures we employ. recent work add to the growing body of income look relatively modest. I wasn’t Lynn Parramore: Do patterns of research on inequality and pollution? entirely surprised to find that air qual- inequality differ across the country? James K. Boyce: We’ve been work- ity is distributed even more unequally How can a person of color or a poor ing with these data for several years than income, but I was surprised at the person avoid air pollution? now in a collaborative research project magnitude of the difference. It’s really James K. Boyce: Avoiding industrial with researchers with University of striking. air pollution is difficult, particularly if Michigan, the University of Southern Another thing that became clear is you’re poor or a member of a racial or California, and several other institu- that how you look at inequality can ethnic minority. That’s partly because tions, and we’ve done a variety of stud- have rather dramatic results on which of housing prices. It’s partly because of ies that look, in particular, at patterns communities stand out as being the discrimination in housing and mort- of environmental injustice in the U.S. most unequal. I was a bit surprised that gage markets—the phenomenon of along the lines of disproportionate states and congressional districts that red-lining. And it’s also partly because exposure of people of color and low- ranked highest in terms of dispropor- of the tendency for firms to site pollut- income communities. tionate exposures of people of color, ing facilities in relatively low-income

38 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 and relatively high-minority commu- Lynn Parramore: Do you think the fact that the playing field is tilted nities because they expect less political your study will help activate politicians against them through no fault of their pushback. in those districts to address disparities? own—is a troubling feature of our Rather than thinking about trying James K. Boyce: I would hope so. In environmental landscape. to move somewhere else to escape this, terms of the policy relevance of our Lynn Parramore: You’ve noted that which is an attempt to find an indi- work, the methods we developed help exposure contributes to student vidual solution to the problem, what to provide information about where achievement gaps. Does this informa- folks really need to do—and are pollution abatement efforts ought to be tion challenge the assumption that the doing—is to join together with other concentrated. What are the most impor- problems of education lie mostly with members of their communities and tant places where we should try to schools and teachers? press the polluters and the regulators reduce community exposure to indus- James K. Boyce: Of course it does. to reduce the exposures that result trial air pollution? And insofar as new What it suggests is that the playing field from the activities of industrial facili- pollution sources are going to be con- is not level, and that not all teachers are ties near them. structed, where should they be built so teaching in the same environment. So That’s what the environmental jus- as not to exacerbate the disparities that even if teachers are equally qualified, tice movement in the U.S. has been try- already plague so many communities? and equally hard-working, educational ing to do since the 1980s when it really Lynn Parramore: What are some of outcomes will differ. A team of got going. The EJ movement still has the most concerning economic effects of researchers led by Manuel Pastor of the much that needs to be done, but it has industrial air pollution on communities? University of Southern California accomplished a great deal both in terms James K. Boyce: Air pollution has looked at variations in school perfor- of raising awareness of disproportionate adverse effects on people’s health, and mance in the Los Angeles Unified exposures of people of color and low- that means that they have to spend School District. They controlled for the income people to environmental haz- more on healthcare and they miss more usual factors, such as parental income ards, and by pressing policy makers in days of work, either because they them- and education, class sizes, and teacher both the public sector and the private selves are too ill to go to work or salaries, and found that when they sector to take remedial action. because their kids are sick and they have plugged in data on variations on air Lynn Parramore: Three states— to stay home and take care of them. It quality, it had a significant adverse Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania— also has adverse effects on property val- effect on school performance. What account for 40 percent of congressional ues, which vary with the levels of air that implies is that even if one attended districts that appear in your top-10 pollution in the community. to every other educational problem, we’d still see disparities in educational rankings for inequality in industrial air On top of those outcome effects, it pollution. What factors are impacting outcomes as long as we have serious also impacts equality of opportunity, disparities in pollution exposure. residents in those areas? (See a com- particularly for children. Because complete list of U.S. congressional districts, munities that are heavily burdened Lynn Parramore: How might we ranked according to disparities in with air pollution tend to have higher confront the environmental disparities industrial air pollution exposure.1) incidence and greater severity of child- you have highlighted? James K. Boyce: Those states, broad- hood asthma, the kids miss more days James K. Boyce: Well, I think there ly corresponding to the old industrial of school, and partly because they’re are a variety of strategies for doing so. heartland of the country, are places missing school and perhaps partly The first step is to measure and map where you both have relatively high lev- because of the neurological impacts of the extent of disparities, so that we els of industrial air pollution and rela- air pollution on their young and devel- have a handle on what the problem tively high disparities between the expo- oping cognitive function, there is an really is. Once we’ve got that informa- sure of minorities and that of whites. adverse effect on school performance. tion, there are a variety of things that And so that makes them particularly If you believe, as I think most individuals and communities can do to problematic places to live in if you hap- Americans believe, that every kid try to improve the situation. pen to be African American or Latino. It deserves an equal chance, that equality One is to press public officials to makes them areas in which environ- of opportunity for children is dear to take steps to redress excessive pollution mental justice activism and enforce- our society for reasons of both equity burdens. Executive Order 12898 issued ment activities should be high on the and efficiency, then the impacts of dis- by President Clinton in 1994, which agenda of environmentalists, commu- proportionate pollution burdens on remains in force, directs all federal nity activists, and public officials. the children in some communities— agencies to take steps to identify and

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 39 rectify disproportionate health and The Attack on El Salvador’s Water environmental impacts resulting from their activities, policies, and programs Clean water as an impediment to corporate profits on minorities and low-income popula- By Pete Dolack tions. That policy is already on the books at the federal level. Some states An Australian mining company lenged as barriers to corporate profit. have EJ policies, too, and states that insists its “right” to a guaranteed profit Not simply to recover an investment don’t have them, ought to have them. is superior to the right of El Salvador to that didn’t pan out, but supposed Communities can press officials to act clean drinking water—and an unap- future profits that a company claims it on those mandates, both to prevent pealable World Bank secret tribunal would have earned. Should El Salvador additional pollution and to reduce will decide if that is so. prevail, it would still have lost because existing burdens. Drinking water is the underdog it will spend large sums of money to Above and beyond that, communi- here. It might be thought that defend this case, money that could ties can directly engage with, and when Salvadorans ought to have the right to have been used for the welfare of its necessary confront, private sector decide on a question as fundamental as people. actors that are creating the pollu- their source of water, but that is not so. An added insult in this case is that it tion. Most firms are not insensitive to It will be up to a secret tribunal con- is being heard not under one of the public opinion. In fact, firms may vol- trolled by corporate lawyers. And as an “free trade” agreements that elevate untarily take steps to clean up their act, added bit of irony, the hearing began corporations to the level of (or above) a if and when they realize that their com- on El Salvador’s Independence Day, country, but under an El Salvador law munities are aware of what’s going on. September 15. Formal independence, passed by the former Right-wing gov- This is why the public’s right to and actual independence, alas, are not ernment that has since been reversed. know about environmental hazards is the same thing. Pacific Rim originally sued El Salvador so important. An informed public can The case, officially known as Pac under the Central American Free Trade press both public officials and private Rim Cayman LLC v. Republic of El Agreement, but the case was dismissed firms to curtail pollution and to reduce Salvador, pits the Australian gold-min- because Canada, where Pacific Rim had environmental disparities. ing company OceanaGold Corporation been based before its acquisition by OceanaGold, is not a party to CAFTA. Lynn Parramore is an AlterNet senior against the government of El Salvador. But the tribunal allowed the suit to be editor. She is cofounder of Recessionwire, OceanaGold is asking for an award of re-filed under an El Salvador law that founding editor of New Deal 2.0, and $301 million because the Salvadoran granted corporations the same right to author of Reading the Sphinx: Ancient government won’t give it a permit to sue in secret tribunals ordinarily found Egypt in Nineteenth-Century Literary open a gold mine that would poison a only in “free trade” agreements. Culture. She received her Ph.D. in critical source of drinking water on English and cultural theory from NYU. which millions depend. Lawyers for corporations sit in She is the director of AlterNet’s New OceanaGold—or, more specifically, judgment Economic Dialogue Project. Follow her its Pacific Rim subsidiary, which it The tribunal judging El Salvador is on Twitter @LynnParramore. bought in November 2013—has spent known as the International Center for —AlterNet.org, October 3, 2014 only a small fraction of the $301 mil- the Settlement of Investor Disputes lion. That sum isn’t an attempt to http://www.alternet.org/environ- (ICSID)—an arm of the World Bank. recover an investment; it represents the ment/shocking-new-research-shows-pol- Neither the public nor the press are amount of profits the corporation lution-inequality-america-even-worse- allowed to witness ICSID hearings and alleges it would have pocketed but for income-inequality?akid=12333.229473. there is no appeal to its decisions. El Salvador’s refusal to give the com- lHk5G5&rd=1&src=newsletter1022149 Under the “investor-state dispute pany a permit. (El Salvador has had a &t=6&paging=off¤t_ mechanism,” governments legally bind moratorium on new mining permits page=1#bookmark themselves to settle “disputes” with since 2008.) “investors” in the secret tribunals. So here we have an increasingly Cases are decided by a panel of three 1 http://ineteconomics.org/sites/inet.civicac- common scenario under “investor- judges selected from a roster. The judg- tions.net/files/Boyce%20environmental%20 state dispute mechanisms”—environ- es are appointed to the roster by the inequalities%20by%20Congressional%20Dis- mental laws designed to safeguard national governments that have signed trict.pdf human and animal health are chal- on to ICSID.

40 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Because ICSID, similar to other additive MMT, both dangerous to groups that has led the opposition to arbitration panels, does not have rules human health, because the bans hurt OceanaGold. Several corporations against conflicts of interest, most of the corporate investments. have prospected in El Salvador’s inland judges are corporate lawyers who spe- Didn’t meet its obligations, highlands areas since the Right-wing cialize in representing corporations in Arena government passed the law but so what these types of disputes. To provide just allowing investors to sue in ICSID. one example, one of New Zealand’s The former Right-wing Arena government of El Salvador in 1999 passed A now closed mine in the area, on selected judges is David A.R. Williams, the San Sebastian River, operated by who is currently representing Philip a law enabling “investors” to sue the country in ICSID, thereby circumvent- the U.S. company Commerce Group, Morris in its suit seeking to force left behind water too dangerous to Australia to overturn its tobacco regu- ing the local judiciary, as part of its effort to encourage foreign investment. touch, never mind drink. The El lations, which were ruled legal by Salvador Ministry of Australia’s High Court. A subsequent Right-wing government yielded to public pressure in 2008 by the Environment and Natural The three judges in this week’s hear- issuing the mining-permit moratori- Resources tested the river and ing are V.V. Veeder of Britain, Brigitte um, and the Farabundo Martí National found cyanide levels nine times Stern of France and Guido Santiago Liberation Front (FMLN) administra- above the maximum allowable limit Tawil of Argentina. Mr. Veeder and tions of Mauricio Funes (elected in and iron levels more than 1,000 times Mr. Tawil are veteran corporate law- 2009) and Salvador Sanchez Ceren the maximum allowable limit. So pol- yers; the former has carefully omitted (elected in 2014) have kept the mora- luted is the river that it runs yellow, any mention of who his clients are in torium in place. orange or red at times. his CV (Curriculum Vitae), while the In addition to the general morato- Mining for gold is a process that latter’s bio page boasts he has assisted uses large amounts of dangerous in the privatization of Argentina’s rium, the Salvadoran government cites not only environmental and health chemicals in the extraction. A National assets while representing corporations concerns specific to the mine, but also Geographic blogger, Vladimir in several industries. To put that in says Pacific Rim has failed to meet its Pacheco, writing about some perspective, an austerity program legal obligations nor has it secured OceanaGold’s proposed mine, reports: was imposed in the early 1990s in con- more than a small fraction of the local “The cyanide-leach processes at junction with selling off state enter- permissions it must have to develop the company’s El Dorado mine will prises at below-market prices. This fire the land it seeks to mine. Some observ- use approximately 900,000 liters of sale yielded $23 billion, but the pro- ers fear that a ruling in favor of water a day. In comparison, it would ceeds went to pay foreign debt mostly take 30 years for an average OceanaGold could lead to violence in a accumulated by the military dictator- Salvadoran family to use that country in which 70,000 were killed in ship—after completing these sales, amount of water. … Will water a civil war a generation ago. Luke Argentina’s foreign debt had actually needed for the project aggravate the Danielson, a researcher with the grown. already perilous state of water access Sustainable Development Studies in the country? A study by the The third member of the tribunal, Group, told the Inter Press Service news Ministry of Environment found that Ms. Stern, is an academic regularly agency: only two percent of the rivers con- called on to arbitrate investor-state “This mining project was retain water that can be made fit for disputes. One of her previous rul- opening a lot of the wounds that human consumption, or used for ings awarded Occidental Petroleum existed during the civil war, and tell- irrigation or recreational activities Corporation $2.3 billion against ing a country that they have to pro- and in another study the Global Ecuador because Ecuador had canceled voke a civil conflict in order to sat- Water Partnership warns that water an Occidental contract over a dispute isfy investors is very troublesome.” supply in El Salvador is hovering on in which the tribunal agreed that the threshold of 1,700 cubic meters Local communities are shut out of of water per-person per-year, the Ecuadoran law had been violated. The arbitration forums like ICSID, but it is upper limit for the definition of oil company was in the wrong but was community organizing that is respon- water stress.” given a windfall anyway! sible for the, so far, successful push- Among the precedents these three back against environmentally destruc- Fighting back but at a cost ICSID judges will consider are separate tive mining. The National Roundtable La Mesa has continued its struggle rulings ordering Canada to reverse Against Metallic Mining, or “La Mesa,” against mining and for the ability to bans on PCBs and on the gasoline is an organization of civil society decide its own pattern of development

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 41 population to reject an industry that is a threat to our lives.” This history is not likely to be under consideration by the ICSID tribunal. It is not known when it will hand down a decision, although it is likely to be at least several months. Two fundamental questions that can’t be avoided are: Does a community have the right to make decisions on its own development? Do multi-national corporations have the right to a guaranteed profit without regard to the cost imposed on communities? That such questions must be asked—and that “no” to the first question and “yes” to the second are increasingly common answers—is emblematic of dictatorship, not despite the violence that often seems to that the Filipino government democracy. accompany mining. Three anti-min- revoke OceanaGold’s license to operate ing activists were murdered in a six- because of “alleged violation of the Pete Dolack writes the Systemic month span in 2009. A report on rights of the indigenous people of Disorder blog. He has been an activist Salvadoran activists published last year with several groups. by Common Frontiers, a Canadian —Counterpunch, Weekend Edition coalition, said: The El Salvador Ministry September 19-21, 2014 “The fact that the government of of the Environment and http://www.counterpunch. El Salvador stopped issuing mining Natural Resources tested org/2014/09/19/clean-water-as-an- permits to companies was a real impediment-to-corporate-profits/ boost for their movement but at the the river and found cya- same time it brought a significant shift in Pacific Rim’s tactics towards nide levels nine times them. The company is accused of above the maximum utilizing kidnapping, intimidation and even murder against communi- allowable limit and iron ty members opposed to the mining levels more than 1,000 project.” times the maximum OceanaGold, which now owns Pacific Rim, did not address these allowable limit. So charges in its glossy Fact Book 2014, but polluted is the river that did have this to say: it runs yellow, orange or “We have a staunch commitment to making sure our operations red at times. enrich, empower and improve the lives of our stakeholders, by creating a positive, long-lasting legacy that Barangay Didipio in Kasibu, Nueva respects human rights and delivers Vizcaya,” including forced evictions. enduring benefits and opportunities (The license was not revoked, and the beyond the life cycle of our operations.” [page 28] mine is operating.) The Philippines Commission on La Mesa calls OceanaGold’s suit a Human Rights might beg to differ. In “direct attack against the sovereignty 2011, the commission recommended and legitimate right of the Salvadoran

42 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6

Incarceration Nation INCARCERATION NATION Police Censorship Defied! Mumia Speaks at Goddard College By The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal1 On Sunday, October 5th, 2014 Students defy the mudslide of lies fabrication by cops and prosecutors, world-renowned revolutionary jour- To make this speech happen, later admitted to be a lie by the civilian nalist and author Mumia Abu-Jamal, Goddard students and the College’s so-called “witnesses”). an innocent political prisoner known President had to withstand a veritable Toomey even threw in the total fab- as the “voice of the voiceless,” was mudslide of endless lies and innuendo rication that Mumia had “smirked” at heard loud and clear at Goddard against Mumia. The Fraternal Order of Faulkner’s wife Maureen in court when College, his alma mater. Though con- Police (FOP), the leading cop “union” Faulkner’s bloodied shirt was dis- fined in a Pennsylvania state prison for in the U.S., blasted Goddard College played—Mumia wasn’t even present in life without parole for a crime he didn’t for its failure to cancel Mumia’s pre- court at that time, having been excluded commit, Mumia’s recorded com- sentation, and denounced Mumia as “a by the racist judge from his own trial! mencement address was heard because remorseless killer who murdered Goddard College students, having Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel The worst may be yet to come invited him to speak, defied the Faulkner.” The Vermont Troopers Something even worse than demands of the Fraternal Order of Association (Goddard College is in Toomey’s lying rant is now being pre- Police (FOP) and right-wing politi- Vermont), and the PA Department of pared. Philadelphia cops had the nerve cians and media that his address be Corrections chimed in with similar to hold a vigil at 13th and Locust in cancelled and he be silenced. Goddard’s denunciations, though the Corrections Philadelphia, the site of the shooting of Interim President, Robert Kenny Department head John Wetzel was Officer Faulkner, which was most like- backed up the students. forced to admit that he couldn’t deny ly a police hit on one of their own (evi- Mumia’s thought-provoking Mumia’s right of free speech, much as dence shows that Faulkner was talking address was deeply moving, philosoph- he would have liked to. to the Feds about the rampant corrup- ical and generously considerate of the Perhaps the most vile and opportu- tion of cops with the mob in center city students he was addressing, as he urged nistic attack came from PA’s junior Philadelphia). And a group of police them to work for progressive change. It Senator, Patrick Toomey, a right-wing officers holding pictures of Daniel was met with a standing ovation. As Republican who opposes abortion Faulkner lined the entrance to Goddard Noelle Hanrahan, of Prison Radio, the rights and government regulation, on the day of Mumia’s address. organization that records and makes sucks up to the barons of finance capi- This sort of political mobilization of available Mumia’s commentaries, said tal, and undermines public schools police has mushroomed repeatedly in a report from Goddard: with support for privatization and around Mumia Abu-Jamal (and others such as American Indian Movement “As I stood in the front of the charters, among other things. Toomey’s packed Haybarn Theater, the elec- letter to Goddard’s President fairly activist Leonard Peltier, also in prison tricity, tension, and courage was reeks of the worst falsehoods about for a crime he didn’t commit), and a palpable. The students were grace- Mumia’s case, that he “never expressed major escalation is now in the works. ful, celebratory, and committed. any regret for his heinous crime” (he Egged on by the FOP cops in PA, sud- Faculty College Chair Dr. Herukhuti always maintained his innocence), that denly there is a law in the Pennsylvania and College President Robert Kenny multiple witnesses saw him “shoot legislature designed to silence political stood up to the death threats and multiple bullets into Officer Faulkner’s prisoners like Mumia. As the pressure and defended their and back, chest and face” (all witnesses who Philadelphia Enquirer snarled, Mumia’s right to free speech.” (See, claimed to see the shooting either “A day after Mumia Abu-Jamal “Educate to Liberate,” at prisonra- admitted they lied under police pres- dio.org) addressed graduates of a Vermont sure, or were discredited later for lying), college, a [PA] House committee Mumia’s presentation at Goddard is and that “three other eyewitnesses advanced a bill to give the family of reprinted in its entirety in this issue of heard Abu-Jamal brag that he had shot the police officer he was convicted of Socialist Viewpoint. Officer Faulkner” (a total after-the-fact killing a way to shut him up.”

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 43 This blatantly unconstitutional bill, silenced, by public radio! (See the males, such as Michael Brown in Signed into law by Governor Corbett, book, All Things Censored, Seven Ferguson, MO, Andy Lopez in Santa October 21, 2014, lets crime victims or Stories Press, 2000). Rosa, CA, and so many others. But, their relatives seek injunctive relief “if tagged from the beginning as a revolu- the criminals that harmed them seek Oakland school board capitulates tionary danger to the system, Mumia publicity from the crime in any way.” to police censorship Abu-Jamal stands for all these victims as The bill’s author, Republican Mike Earlier this year, the FOP struck a conscious and vocal survivor of every Vereb, said it would allow crime vic- again with an attack on the Oakland lie and injustice that could be thrown at tims or prosecutors “to bring a civil School system for a web site called him. To us, Mumia is a symbol of the action to halt conduct by an offender if “Urban Dreams,” which consisted of truth that unravels all their lies. it causes the victim or the victim’s fam- course material posted by teachers, and The growing police state in the U.S. ily severe mental anguish.” (Philadelphia included one curriculum that com- is an essential part of an inherently Enquirer, October 6-7, 2014) pared the suppression of M.L. King’s oppressive and exploitative capitalist last year of antiwar and other radical system, which is now increasingly on Silencing Mumia has long been commentaries with the suppression of the system’s goal edge about its own survival. Officially Mumia Abu-Jamal’s writings. Fox News sanctioned police review boards, peti- These outrageous attacks on snapped to attention with an on-air tioning the Justice Department for Mumia’s free speech rights, and callous denunciation of the Oakland School redress of grievances, and other misrepresentations of the facts of Board, which was valiantly opposed by reformist measures do not cut it. Mumia’s case are not an accident: they Johanna Fernandez of Educators for Working people and the oppressed are part of a long-standing, orches- Mumia (EMAJ) in a Fox interview. must fight back with whatever means trated attempt to silence Mumia, if not Next, the School Board itself snapped are available. Photographing police in by the death penalty—that failed— to attention and took down the entire the act of crimes and abuses has proven then by other means. This police-driv- site (containing much course material useful. The Labor Action Committee en system is determined to defend its from numerous teachers). Oakland To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal uniquely frame-up of a victim of police racism, teachers continue the struggle to reverse sees action by the working class—such corruption, and murder (including the this police-censorship of the schools. as the West Coast port shut down by attempted murder of Mumia himself At bottom, these attacks on Mumia longshore workers to free Mumia in by police, and the murder of their own, are an attempt to shore-up the fragile 1999, and the unauthorized teach-in which was likely Faulkner’s actual fate). facade of the whole criminal “justice” on Mumia and the death penalty held In 1994, after months of recordings system, which uses frame-ups, mass by Oakland teachers in the same year— by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio, incarceration, militarization of police, as the way forward in the struggle to and several on air promotions by and outright murder of Black and Latino free Mumia, and others like him. National Public Radio for “All Things youth as the first line of defense of a rac- For the most thorough and up-to- Considered,” NPR executives abruptly ist, capitalist system. Just as it was (and date analysis of the fraudulent case cancelled Mumia’s “Live From Death still is) during the rise of the labor move- against Mumia Abu-Jamal, see Rachel Row” series of commentaries. NPR ment, these attacks are directed against Wolkenstein, “The Issue Is Mumia Abu- cancelled the planned series following the masses—all of whom are potential Jamal: Innocent and Framed” found at an attack on the floor of Congress by suspects and revolutionaries. http://www.rachelwolkenstein.net/ then Senator Bob Dole, following an intensive lobbying campaign of lies by The truth that unravels the lies the FOP. Mumia’s commentaries were Today, FOP, media outlets like Fox later taken up by Democracy Now!, on News, and politicians of both capitalist 1 The Labor Action Committee To Free Pacifica Radio, although the carefully parties are desperate to rescue the sys- Mumia Abu-Jamal recorded commentaries due to air on tem from the bad publicity of police PO Box 16222, Oakland CA 94610, (510) NPR remain locked in their vaults— murder of young Black and Latino 763-2347

44 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Goddard College Commencement Speech By Mumia Abu-Jamal,

surviving remnants of their once great some of the challenges that abide in the numbers been vanished from the land world, which it will be your destiny to of their fathers, but the reverence with try to analyze and resolve. As students which they held these lands, their col- of Goddard you know that these chal- lective embrace of Mother Earth, has lenges are not easy, but they must be been vanished as well. faced and addressed. That living immensity, more sacred The Brazilian scholar Paulo Freire, than anything built by man, has never and his groundbreaking Pedagogy of left me and rises up like a phoenix the Oppressed posits the power of liter- whenever I think of the campus. But of acy to transform psychology, to deepen course what really matters here is not and broaden ones place in the world. my experience, but yours. This is your Moreover, when one seeks to interro- commencement and as such, I will gate ones radical beliefs, it draws one dwell on the world that you are about deeper into contact with the meaning to enter into in habit, and true to of social change and social transforma- Goddard’s founding ideals, hopefully tion. One is changed—the prerequisite transform. to social change. Mumia Abu-Jamal As we all know Goddard is right- Goddard, because of its size and Dear Fellow Goddard-ites, Students, orientation, has given students the Graduates, Parents, Professors, fully famous for its non-traditional teaching methods focus. Here students time and attention to find the focus to I thank you for your kind invitation stand at the center of the educational answer questions that few other places to join you in voice today. I’ve been endeavor and they are urged and have even dared to entertain. In many away from Goddard College perhaps expected to follow that vibe in their ways it is issues such as these that make longer than most of you have been hearts. That which gives them passion Goddard, Goddard—questions of alive. to determine not just what they will power, of politics, of race, of gender, of I last walked on campus during the study, but how those studies can have place. Questions about where one late ’70s. But although it was undoubt- impact and meaning in the larger soci- stands in the world, and how to move, edly quite a long time ago, it still sits in ety—Y’know, this aint a cookie cutter act—interact in a world awash in com- memory, and sometimes even visits in school. Goddard, deeply influenced by plexity. Essentially how does a young dreams of the funky atmosphere that the ideas of John Dewey (1859-1952), person, or for that matter even an older suffused the campus like a cloud of strives to reach that happy and singular one, looking at the vast wide world exhaled marijuana smoke. What really medium between the teacher and the with a quiet sense of terror, have a moved me however, was the green life, taught. With one exploring with the voice amidst that monstrous din? How the abundance of grass, trees standing other how best to achieve a meaningful does she find that voice that can create like ancient sentinels. The majestic resolution to questions that arise in the space to think, to be, to grow? mountains of Vermont which pos- life of the mind. Quoting Dewey: We know that it must come from sessed a beauty that was, to a guy from “Education is not preparation for Life. the place within, that which moves you, the city, simply breathtaking. I remem- It is Life itself.” that which stirs you, that which is your ber with crystal clarity walking through Dear graduates, never have words truest, deepest self. Goddard, unlike woods back to our dorms, Third World such as these been truer to the hour most such institutions of higher learn- Studies, and feeling pure rapture in the that is upon us. For the nation is in ing, quietly asks that you listen to and presence of those trees. How many deep trouble—largely because old interrogate that voice, and when appro- centuries had those trees stood on this thinking both domestically, and glob- priate, amplify it. For who knows? earth? My mind looked back to Indians ally, has led us into the morass that the Within that deepest you may dwell the who must’ve trod through these very nation now faces. Which may be very voice that is resonating within the same woods; my steps touching the encapsulated by references to place nation if not the very world itself. Here ground that once crunched under their names that ring in our minds: Gaza, social change and social transformation moccasined feet. Not only have these Ferguson, and Iraq again! These are forms the raison d’etre of Goddard.

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 45 We need new questions for the freshness delivered by green life, not was born in the Caribbean Island of world of the 21st century. But more air-conditioned. Think of the myriad Martinique, then a colony of France. importantly we need new answers. We of problems that beset this land and When he witnessed the oppression of live in a world where massive wars can strive to make it better. That’s Dewey’s the Arabs in Algeria he felt compelled be launched by rumors and innuendo. vision, and Goddard’s. to join the revolution on the side of Where the material interests of corpo- Let me say something that I’ve never what he called “the wretched of the rations are superior to the interests of said before. When I came to Goddard, earth.” Ignacio Martín-Baró was working people, and remember corpo- I was intimidated. Although teachers among six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper rations are people—so sayeth the and adults told me that I could do the and her daughter slain by the U.S. Supreme Court. Where the ecological work, I rarely believed them. I felt woe- trained Atlacatl Battalion, a notorious threats to fresh water supplies, clean fully unprepared. But guess what? Salvadoran death squad. air, and the environment in American Goddard gave me confidence and I Goddard supported those “trips cities, pulls challenges that seem never lost that feeling. When I returned abroad,” if only in the mind, and I beyond arcane. to Goddard many years later, I was a thank the school and many of my Did I not say that we need new man on Death Row, with a date to die. friends and alums there immensely for thinking? The present social, political, I was able to transfer credits from opening a door closed for decades. ecological and global course is, to say Continuing Education and my final Goddard allowed me to really study the least, unsustainable. Perhaps some paper utilized the writings of Franz what interested and moved me—revo- of you, new graduates of Goddard, will Fanon and Ignacio Martín-Baró, to lutionary movements—and through think up ways to forestall some of the examine the concepts both in libera- that doorway, history, psychology, pol- challenges facing the living and generation psychology and liberation theolo- itics, and of course economics. In one tions unborn. gy. Only at Goddard. Only at Goddard! of the most repressive environments I noted earlier my reverie in the Goddard reawakened in me my love on earth, Death Row, Goddard allowed woods of Goddard that exquisite fresh- of learning. In my mind I left Death me to study and research human lib- ness and the wintery air, the nighttime Row to travel to France, where Fanon eration and anti-colonial struggles on respiration of hundreds of magnificent studied psychiatry. And on to Blida two continents: Africa and Latin evergreen trees has refreshed my mind hospital, north of Algiers, where he Central America. I thank you for that even when miles and decades away practiced and later joined the Algerian grand opportunity. from Goddard’s sweet cool earth. Our revolution. By studying Martín-Baró, I For you graduates, your studies— cities, built during the heights of the traveled to El Salvador, where he visits to lands beyond your own—were industrial age and now engulfed in worked as a priest and psychologist, done to give you both insights and post-industrial ennui badly need a teaching literacy to peasants when the confidence to work in the world, to try greening. Areas should be set aside nation groaned under military terror, to create social change. Your job isn’t where children and mothers can supported by El Norte, the U.S. Empire. how to get a job. It’s to make a differ- breathe and remember air loaded with Who were these figures? Well, Fanon ence. I thank my friends at Goddard for inviting me back. If it’s done for you half of what it’s done for me, I assure you, you will have been well served. Now take what you know and apply it in the real world. Help be the change you’re seeking to make. I thank you all. For the class of 1996, Goddard, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal. —PrisonRadio.org, October 4, 2014 http://www.prisonradio.org/media/ audio/mumia/transcript-mumia-abu- jamals-goddard-college-commencement-speech

46 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Another ‘Mumia Rule’ By Mumia Abu-Jamal

Anyone even remotely familiar What makes this remarkable is that Every politician and every lawyer with my case knows about the “Mumia Corbett, a former attorney general, who supported this so-called law did so Rule.” That’s when the court or agency knows perfectly well that this is an by knowingly violating their oath of changes its rule or precedent to go unconstitutional law, in violation of the office to “protect and defend” the PA against me. 1st Amendment to the Constitution. An Constitution, Article 1; Section 7; and unconstitutional law is like no law at all. the First Amendment to the United When Amnesty International wrote He knows this for he’s a lawyer first. States Constitution. about my case, that was it’s essential focus: that laws and precedents that Interestingly, he’s so much a politi- They took an oath to honor the con- applied to other cases, would be cian, that he was busy running for gov- stitution—not their campaign contribu- changed when it came to me. ernor when, under his very nose, chil- tors. They took an oath to protect the dren were being raped and abused in constitutional rights of all In fact, when my habeas corpus case the Penn State scandal. As attorney Pennsylvanians—not just their funders— went before the Third Circuit Court of general, he was on Penn State’s board the FOP (Fraternal Order of Pigs). Appeals, one judge, in dissent (Judge of trustees at the time these rapes and Ambro) essentially said, “I know of no By violating their oaths they bring molestations were happening, and did disrepute on their oath and office. By reason why we don’t apply our prece- next to nothing, until the scandal broke. dents to Abu-Jamal.” signing a law they knew to be unconsti- Oh! He reportedly received a gener- tutional they departed from the realm There was one reason: The Mumia ous contribution from the chairman, of lawmakers and became constitu- Rule. and other board members of the foun- tional outlaws. Now, the Mumia Rule has been dation run by Jerry Sandusky, the cen- They passed a Mumia Rule—yes— enacted into law, the so-called Victim tral figure in the Penn State scandal. but the damage they have done is Revictimization Act, signed into law by Nice job, Tom. Too busy picking greater to themselves than to me. unconstitutional Tom—Pennsylvania up campaign contributions to protect Governor Tom Corbett. the kids? —PrisonRadio.org, October 22, 2014 Ebola and the Real Health Crisis in America By Mumia Abu-Jamal

With the death of Mr. Thomas Eric threats posed by the virus, often armed cally-trained healthcare professional, Duncan shortly after his arrival from with little more than hope and false but a receptionist, perhaps armed with Liberia, West Africa, the Ebola crisis confidence. a checklist to cover. Chances are, she has burst onto millions of news For politics, often more imagery was perhaps the lowest-paid staff, until screens, generating deep levels of fear than reality, is a poor barrier against one considers the janitorial workers. and xenophobia. the seriousness of viruses, disease and This business model, one followed To be sure, Ebola is a serious health death. by most institutions in America, is now concern, for it has a 70 percent mortal- This isn’t about the Ebola crisis, it’s exposed as ineffective, dangerous and ity rate (the African term, “Ebola,” about the American healthcare crisis, the least health-conscious. named for a river in Congo after the made possible by a flawed business That was a business decision, driven first known outbreak in 1976, evokes model that prioritizes profit above all the fear and anxiety of the foreign, but other things: even life itself. by the bottom line, of money—not life. it is a tropical disease best known as Consider this: when Mr. Duncan Similarly, the recent crisis has haemorrhagic fever, where internal first entered Texas Presbyterian exposed how vulnerable nurses are in organs and systems break down, lead- Hospital, he was interviewed by a this system, for the business perceives ing to massive bleeding). screener, prescribed antibiotics, and them as less valuable than doctors. But, to beat back the fear, public sent home. That person, (the screener) Hence, they are paid less, trained less, officials have been playing down the was, more likely than not, not a medi- protected less—and worked more.

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 47 Who spends more time with ailing patients; doctors or nurses? Who has Who is Christopher Abruzzo? the closest physical contact with A Statement by Lorenzo Johnson patients? But according to published For most people, the name Now, Abruzzo’s name has surfaced accounts, nurses had their necks Christopher Abruzzo is unknown. again. This time, as a part of a govern- exposed, and when they complained, Although a state official for over two ment scandal of officials, circulating sexu- were told to use tape to cover up. decades, his name is not a household ally explicit and racist materials via email. This is a system that protects prof- word. But, to me, I’ll never forget that Abruzzo accepted and sent dozens of its—and prestige—not people! name; he was the Pennsylvania Deputy such messages on his office computer; a Attorney General who presided over For doctors get the most protec- violation of OAG guidelines. the false and malicious prosecution of tion—nurses, the least. Pornographic emails? Hundreds of them? two innocent men in 1996. How do I What does this say about Abruzzo’s When this latest Ebola outbreak know that? I’m one of those men. first struck West Africa, the U.S. mobi- judgment? His thinking? His character? In 1997, AG Abruzzo allowed false lized soldiers to go there. But remember, he prosecuted two testimony to be given repeatedly to a young men, Lorenzo Johnson and Cuba, which has advanced bio- jury; testimony a new release of hidden Corey Walker, with false testimony. technical medical experience with records now shows, nineteen years What kind of character is that? tropical diseases, sent over 1,000 doc- later, that both the AG and police knew Free The Innocent tors, to help heal people. was false and misleading. — October 7, 2014 Cuba, little, socialist Cuba, has sent Unfortunately, the jury didn’t know. over 135,000 healthcare professionals If they knew what was withheld, there Contribute to the campaign at: to 154 countries—more than the UN’s never could have been a false convic- http://www.freelorenzojohnson.org/how-can-i- help.html World Health Organization (WHO). tion or even an arrest. Sign Lorenzo Johnson’s Freedom Petition at: Their Latin American Medical But Abruzzo was ambitious. He http://www.freelorenzojohnson.org/sign-the- School in Havana trains thousands of wanted to make a case. He went to the petition.html poor medical students, from all over extent of telling the jury that the chief www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org the world—for free. witness had no reason to lie. What Write to Lorenzo Johnson at: Not much of a business model. Abruzzo failed to do was tell the jury Lorenzo Johnson #DF1036 But one hell of a human model. and defense lawyers that this witness SCI Mahanoy was a suspect in this crime. He made a 301 Morea Road —PrisonRadio.org, October 15, 2014 case; a bad one, a corrupt one. Frackville, PA 17932

48 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Conviction to Convict By Linn Washington, Jr.

Part I: The scandal hidden inside The sex-tinged scandal now rocking A spin-off of the investigation into Pennsylvania sex scandal state government in Pennsylvania misuse of state computers to exchange Hidden inside the scandal involving involves emails containing sexually pornography revealed that PA Supreme pornographic emails currently rocking explicit images (often accompanied by Court Justice Seamus McCafferty sent the top reaches of Pennsylvania’s state raunchy commentary) exchanged over sexually explicit emails this year to his government that has cast a shadow state-owned computers by then rank- brother, a judge in Philadelphia, over PA Governor Tom Corbett and ing members of the state’s Attorney according to published reports. AG the state’s judiciary including a state Generals office. investigators have informed the high Supreme Court member, is another Conservative Republican Governor court’s Chief Justice that other judges explosive scandal. Corbett headed the AG’s office when and court personnel have shared graphic emails. That hidden scandal involves the his ranking AG office members engaged persecution of a PA inmate by prose- in eager exchanges of those porno- The scandal hidden within this cutors from the PA Attorney General’s graphic emails. (No evidence released porno email scandal involves the man office—the same office that exposed to date links Corbett to pornographic Corbett appointed to head the state’s the pornographic emails. emails.) Department of Environmental This inmate won court ordered Fallout from this sex email scandal Protection—Chris Abruzzo—who release from a deeply flawed murder has forced the resignation of former resigned from that post after his public conviction after serving 16-years of a AG office prosecutors, including a few identification as a participant in the life sentence. But this inmate was forced who held top posts in Corbett’s guber- email scandal. (A top Abruzzo aide at to return to prison due to actions by natorial administration. the DEP—who was also in the AG’s PA’s current Attorney General. office—also resigned due to the email Those resignations included one scandal.) PA Governor Corbett headed the man who Corbett appointed to the state AG’s office when that office han- state’s Parole Board—the body that The scandal involving Abruzzo does dled this inmate’s tainted murder trial. determines prison release for inmates not involve the scandalous elevation of Corbett later served as AG when that including those convicted of sex crimes. this career criminal prosecutor with office vigorously opposed appellate One former AG prosecutor, who was scant qualifications in environmental relief for this inmate. serving as a part-time county prosecu- protection. This hidden scandal exposes the tor, has resigned. And another former Abruzzo had caused a brief stir on pattern of PA state government offi- AG prosecutor resigned from the the eve of his confirmation to head the cials blithely tolerating outrageously upscale law firm where he worked. DEP when he testified that he was unjust criminal convictions. This hid- However, another former AG prosecu- unaware that climate change can cause den scandal also exposes the penchant tor identified in the sex email scandal, environmental harm. Abruzzo’s stated of prosecutors to fight to preserve con- who currently works for the DA’s Office ignorance on an issue fundamental to victions obviously tainted by official in Philadelphia, has refused to resign. environmental protection did not stop misconduct. The man Corbett appointed to head PA’s Republican controlled State Too many false convictions in PA the PA State Police—Frank Noonan— Senate from approving Abruzzo, who and elsewhere involve documented was identified as receiving 300-plus of had served as Corbett’s deputy chief of misconduct by police and/or prosecu- those pornographic emails. But Corbett staff. tors—misconduct often covered-up accepted representations from Noonan, This other scandal surrounding for decades. This misconduct includes a former AG criminal division chief Abruzzo involves his role as lead pros- authorities improperly withholding turned PA’s top cop, that Noonan nei- ecutor in the controversial 1997 mur- evidence of innocence at trial—a gross ther opened nor forwarded porno- der conviction of Lorenzo “Cat” violation of constitutional fair-trial graphic emails. Yet, as a Philadelphia Johnson. The state AG’s office, during rights. Withheld evidence is a core Daily News columnist noted, “Noonan Corbett’s first service as state AG, han- issue in the case of that persecuted PA apparently also never told Corbett he dled the prosecution of Johnson and a inmate. received” the explicit emails. co-defendant for a 1995 murder in

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 49 Harrisburg, the capital city of Current PA AG Kathleen Kane, a despite it containing crack cocaine, Pennsylvania. No physical evidence or Democrat, has pursued the anti-John- cash and guns. Additionally, docu- confession connected Johnson to that son/keep-a-conviction stance of her ments reveal Reading’s then top pros- murder. Republican AG predecessors, Corbett ecutor allowing that dealer to keep his Documentation withheld by PA and Mike Fisher, who is now a judge gun permit, despite that dealer’s guns authorities during Johnson’s murder on the federal Third Circuit Appeals being involved in numerous shooting trial confirm Johnson’s alibi. Once Court. Kane is the AG who released incidents…incidents that never led to suppressed documentation has con- information about the pornographic that dealer’s arrest. firmed that police coerced witnesses emails involving Corbett associates and The disturbing documents including the only witness who said PA state court judges. unearthed in the Rod Johnson case Johnson was near the murder scene. That May 2012 U.S. Supreme Court provide amble evidence of impropri- Prosecutors never claimed Johnson ruling forced Johnson’s return to pris- eties by police and prosecutors. Those was the killer only that he was present on in June 2012—after Johnson had documents should have at least led when the killing occurred. experienced six months of freedom. state authorities to agree to a new Johnson has persistently claimed he Johnson continues his appeals to con- trial—thus fulfilling their duties to was in New York City at the time of firm his innocence and win release. ensure justice. But the state AG’s office that 1995 fatal shooting. Supporters of A year after Johnson’s voluntary that prosecuted Rod Johnson has bat- Johnson claim he was arrested only return to prison in 2012, the PA tled to block appeals for a new trial after he rejected months-long police Innocence Project issued a statement under Corbett and now Kane. pressure to be an informant about condemning his re-imprisonment that In Pennsylvania, too many state drug dealing in Harrisburg. concluded with the observation that officials see sideshows like the sex The PA AG’s office constantly bat- “this tale of cruel tease of freedom is a emails as more important than injus- tled against Johnson’s appeals in state heartbreak many would be unable to tices endured by inmates like Lorenzo and federal courts despite the mounting fathom.” Johnson, Roderick Johnson and (previously withheld) evidence of mis- Lorenzo Johnson is not exclusive in Mumia Abu-Jamal. conduct by police before Johnson’s trial mistreatment from police, prosecutors The same Republican dominated and prosecutors during his murder trial. and the judiciary. state legislature that has turned a blind- Abruzzo failed to disclose a plea deal A little known death-row case eye to resource draining efforts by the favorable to a witness against Johnson Corbett’s AG office fought also spot- state AG’s office to deny justice to the according to withheld evidence now lights the defend-the-indefensible imprisoned recently approved a mea- included in Johnson’s appeals. stance prosecutors too often pursue. sure to allow prosecutors to use lawsuits to silence Free Speech rights of In October 2011 the federal Third The AG’s office has opposed new Circuit Court of Appeals overturned inmates that crime victims deem as trial appeals from inmate Roderick causing those victims “mental anguish.” Johnson’s conviction, stating in part Johnson who challenges his conviction that the “evidence simply does not per- by using previously withheld official The ACLU has condemned this mit any reasonable fact finder to find documents showing that police and hastily approved legislation as a blatant Johnson guilty on charges of aiding prosecutors in Reading, PA coddled violation of First Amendment rights. and abetting first degree murder.” the drug dealer whose testimony Part II: The PA legislative Johnson left prison on bond in secured Johnson’s first-degree murder January 2012. He returned to his fam- conviction. (Rod Johnson and Lorenzo lynch mob ily in New York City, got a job and Johnson are not related.) The serious injustice endured by even engaged in public speaking about Those Reading Police Department Pennsylvania prison inmate Lorenzo wrongful convictions including at law documents, improperly withheld by “Cat” Johnson, detailed in Part I school classes. Reading police and prosecutors for (above) is the subject of a website and But a last minute appeal by PA AG’s nearly a decade, describe the drug deal- numerous other postings on the office to the U.S. Supreme Court pro- er central to Johnson’s conviction as Internet. Those Internet postings detail duced a reversal of that Third Circuit smoking marijuana with a Reading gross misconduct by police and prose- release. That U.S. Supreme Court rul- detective. Documents detail that detec- cutors that have kept Johnson impris- ing came without the standard proce- tive supplying that dealer with drugs. oned for a murder that evidence indi- dure of permitting response from the Documents also detail Reading detec- cates he neither committed nor had defense before and after that ruling. tives returning that dealer’s stolen safe anything to do with.

50 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Those websites supporting guage for proving “mental anguish” ing schools closed by Philadelphia offi- Johnson’s release, which contain docu- leaves enormous latitude for abusive cials due to lack of funds. Many of the ments and other evidence detailing implementation, critics contend. students caught in the PSAT fiasco live Johnson’s wrongful conviction, are in The state ACLU’s letter urging rejec- in neighborhoods that feed into the danger of being wiped under terms of tion of the law noted, victims of crime state’s overcrowded prison system. legislation recently approved by “have existing legal avenues available Public education advocates in Pennsylvania’s Republican-dominated when they are truly being harassed and Philadelphia link Corbett’s public edu- House and Senate. abused by an offender.” That ACLU cation funding cuts directly to the That legislation, fast-tracked letter also noted that the new law could state’s notorious classroom-to-cell through the legislature in an election- curtail activities by inmate advocacy pipeline. Those advocates could now timed attempt to boost the hugely groups, like the 200-year-old have even their advocacy silenced by unpopular Republican Governor Pennsylvania Prison Society. the new bill should some crime victim Corbett’s flagging re-election bid, The PPS is an organization founded or alleged crime victim claim such allows victims of crime to go to court to monitor issues related to prisons advocacy causes him or her “mental for an injunction against the conduct and prisoners including ex-offenders. anguish.” of convicts “which perpetuates the The PPS work of exposing problems The bill known as the continuing effects of the crime on the inside prisons and also persons released “Revictimization Relief Act” would victim.” This new law applies to all from prison is ripe for target by a crime impact state inmate activist/authors convicts: those currently incarcerated victim claiming to suffer “mental like Robert Saleem Holbrook. and even those who have completed anguish.” Imagine the irony of this their sentences. Holbrook is one of the 500-plus new law silencing the PPS—a venera- teen-lifers languishing in Pennsylvania This law gives prosecutors (state ble organization actually founded by prisons. Pennsylvania imprisons the and country) the power to act on some of the very people who drafted largest population in the U.S. of persons behalf of victims who simply claim the U.S. Declaration of Independence sentenced to life terms for crimes com- they are suffering “mental anguish.” and the U.S. Constitution! mitted while a teen. Like most teen-lif- In the case of Lorenzo Johnson, the The same day that the state’s lower ers, Holbrook did not commit the mur- state AG’s office whose misconduct chamber approved this speech-curtail- der that took place on his 16th birthday, perpetuates his unjust incarceration is ing bill, thousands of high school stu- which led to his life sentence. (In empowered under this new law to dents in Philadelphia had their dreams Pennsylvania life means in prison until silence the websites that detail the mis- of attending college assaulted by lack of death with no possibility of parole.) conduct of AG office prosecutors. funding arising from deep public Issues related to teen-lifers—from Pennsylvania’s new free-speech school funding cuts initiated by the penal propriety of permanently suppression law was signed into law by Corbett, who has been pouring money imprisoning children, to the enormous Corbett. “Nobody has the right to con- into the state’s prison system. costs of caring for elderly inmates—are tinually taunt the victims of their vio- The cash-strapped Philadelphia hotly debated nationwide. This is the lent crimes,” he says. School District did not provide money very essence of free speech. But under However, the ACLU of Pennsylvania for most high school students to take a Pennsylvania’s draconian new law, an has blasted this bill, noting that it prep test for the PSAT until hours expert on that form of injustice, like “completely undermines the funda- before administering that test. That Holbrook, can be silenced. mental value of free speech” found in late notice of the test date left students The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the First Amendment of the U.S. unprepared and/or unavailable to take sentencing teens to mandatory life in Constitution. that test. The PSAT is a critical test that 2012, but in October 2013, the While this hastily conceived and helps students prepare for the formal Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled passed bill gives unusual new powers SAT. Most universities require high that teen-lifers sentenced before that to victims and prosecutors to limit the SAT scores for admission. federal high court ruling are not enti- voice and activities of the incarcerated Over one-third of the 51,000-plus tled to any relief from their life sen- and those who have completed their inmates in state prisons come from tences—a ruling Holbrook has con- prison terms, the bill’s stunning lack of Philadelphia. Most of those demned in his writings. specifics creates further problems for Philadelphia inmates come from “When judges and politicians allow its “fair” implementation. The lack of neighborhoods with high rates of pov- the politics of injustice and vengeance objective standards provided in its lan- erty, unemployment and now featur- to supersede justice then the prisoners

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 51 impacted by these decisions become phone videos documenting an epi- Ridge issued an improper death political prisoners,” Holbrook wrote in demic of police brutality, the issue of warrant on the eve of a critical 1995 a November 2013 essay. police militarization and brutality is on appeal hearing for Abu-Jamal based on Pennsylvania prison authorities the front burner. Furthermore, in information gleaned of Abu-Jamal’s placed Holbrook in solitary confine- 2008, Governor Corbett was not run- illegally opened legal mail. While that ment in early September 2014 despite ning for re-election as he is this year, official interference helped sabotage their having no documented infrac- where he currently trails in the polls by Abu-Jamal’s appeal hearing, by giving tions by him to justify this action. That double digits. the biased Judge Albert Sabo an excuse solitary confinement, curiously, came The FOP and other conservatives to push the hearing forward and not in the wake of a federal judge rejecting have for decades unleashed lynch- allow delays for subpoenaing impor- attempts by prison authorities to kill a mob-like onslaughts designed first to tant witnesses, state and federal courts have refused to rule that deliberate lawsuit Holbrook filed against prison get Abu-Jamal executed, and then, disruption as an improper rights-rob- authorities for their censorship of since that was no longer possible, bing violation. human rights literature. aimed at squelching this incarcerated This history of depriving Abu-Jamal Philadelphia’s police union, the journalist’s free speech, fair trial and of his constitutional rights began at an Fraternal Order of Police, spearheaded other constitutional rights. early age. the speech suppression law as part of its In October 1968 Philadelphia police incessant campaign to silence activist/ This hidden scandal author Mumia Abu-Jamal. Governor beat Abu-Jamal to a pulp when he was Corbett signed this bill into law at the exposes the pattern of among hundreds exercising protest downtown Philadelphia site where PA state government rights violations during the Philadelphia Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel appearance of then presidential candi- Faulkner was killed in 1981—the inci- officials blithely tolerat- date George Wallace—the staunch seg- dent that put Abu-Jamal in prison. ing outrageously unjust regationist governor of Alabama. The FOP exploded in late September criminal convictions. A news account of that Wallace rally when news circulated that students at stated that Philadelphia police had Goddard College in Vermont had made the Alabama segregationist can- selected Abu-Jamal as the speaker for A mid-1990s effort to block book didate feel “right at home” as police their early October 2014 commence- writing by Abu-Jamal resulted in a fed- “wrestled and man-handled black and ment ceremony. Abu-Jamal had eral appeals court ruling confirming white protestors outside” the Wallace attended Goddard in the early 1970s that Abu-Jamal and all prisoners have a event. Wallace supporters assailed the and he later graduated from that insti- First Amendment right to write. One protestors. But, that news article noted, tution in 1996 via a correspondence of the three judges in that unanimous horse mounted Philadelphia police course completed while he was on appeals court ruling was Samuel Alito, only attacked the protestors as local death row (Abu-Jamal’s death sen- who now serves on the U.S. Supreme Wallace’s supporters “roared their tence was later vacated by the Third Court, where he is staunchly in the approval.” Circuit Court of Appeals, and he is court’s conservative camp. That news account in The now serving a life sentence without That mid-1990s campaign also evi- Philadelphia Tribune stated that when chance of parole.) denced a gross assault on Abu-Jamal’s 14-year-old Abu-Jamal was hauled into court on false charges filed by the Curiously, Abu-Jamal delivered a constitutional trial rights. police who had beat him “his face was Goddard commencement address in Pennsylvania prison authorities, a mass of bruises.” Those charges were 2008 without much of a ruckus from under FOP pressure during that book withdrawn in exchange for Abu- the FOP or politicians like Pennsylvania publishing attack, opened Abu-Jamal’s Jamal’s parents promising not to sue U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, a Tea Party correspondence with his attorneys and the Philadelphia Police Department for Republican who has castigated forwarded that mail to the office of the assault on their son. Goddard about Abu-Jamal. But in then Governor Tom Ridge. That ’98 2008, brutality by police was not gener- federal appeals ruling questioned why Philadelphia’s then FOP president, ating bad publicity nationwide. Now, prison authorities had sent Abu- who also headed the national FOP, had thanks to incidents like the fatal shoot- Jamal’s legal mail, which is supposed to endorsed the candidacy of Wallace. ing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, have protected status, to the governor’s That Wallace endorsement outraged Missouri and a growing number of office. black Philadelphia police officers.

52 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Tribune news articles detail the protests by black police against the FOP and its Failed president. Black Philly cops in 1968 By Kevin Cooper also battled the FOP over that organization’s reflexive backing of officers Kevin Cooper is an innocent man on That is until it comes to the penalty accused of police brutality—a battle San Quentin’s Death Row in California. of death in this country, which can’t that is still being fought today. He continues to struggle for exoneration take place without the involvement This latest speech suppression law, and to abolish the death penalty in the and approval of the government, be it which was introduced by Mike Vereb, whole U.S. state or federal. a Republican legislator from a For centuries certain groups of peo- The death penalty is at a crossroads Philadelphia suburb, has ignited wide- ple have been speaking to other groups in this country, especially in certain spread criticism. of people concerning our humanity. states. This is because it has been prov- One critic is Tony Norman, a col- This is still being done in order to try en that the death penalty in America is umnist for the conservative libertarian and convince those people to end the broken. It’s inhumane and downright Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper, death penalty. torturous to the condemned who, by who, it should be noted, is convinced Yet it appears that no matter how the way, happen to be citizens of this of Abu-Jamal’s guilt. long, or how hard, certain people tried country, all poor. “One can sympathize with the out- to speak to other people about human- In order for the death penalty to be rage generated by Abu-Jamal’s invita- ity, if they don’t want to be spoken to, brought to an end, there needs to be tion to speak without supporting or don’t see what they are doing as truth in the discussion of what this sys- [Vereb’s] goofy effort to shred the First inhumane, or in fact they are inhu- tem of capital punishment really is. Amendment,” Norman wrote recently. mane themselves, they won’t listen. Even though for some people, the truth “Taking away anyone’s right to free Nor can one speak to immoral peo- may be hard to accept. Because of this, speech in a knee-jerk attempt to silence ple about morality, or shameless peo- they will continue to live in their world Abu-Jamal is a threat to us all.” ple about feeling shame for their acts. of fantasy and deny the truth, and the —This Can’t Be Happening, October Nor can certain people speak to others facts based on the truth that this is one 20/21, 2014 about having a conscience when they of the most important human rights issues of our time! Part I: http://thiscantbehappening. are without a conscience. net/node/2508 Why? Because most, if not all death This will not however change the penalty supporters are coldblooded fact that fantasy is not reality, not even Part II: http://thiscantbehappening. in America, when it comes to this net/node/2518 and coldhearted and mean spirited people! People like politicians, and truth: The death penalty in America is those who support those types of peo- just another failed government pro- ple with that type of mindset! One gram. It’s not just rotten; it’s not just can’t speak to hypocrites about hypoc- broken, it’s not just inhumane, it’s risy, because those words, like all the failed! others, fall on deaf ears. In Struggle from San Quentin Not all, but the majority, of death Prison, Death Row penalty supporters in this day and age —November 2014 are Republicans, and every type of poll Write to Kevin Cooper at: speaks to this fact. Kevin Cooper C-65304, 4 EB 82 Yet the Republican Party as a whole San Quentin State Prison claims to be against the government. San Quentin, CA 94974 Especially any government that inter- feres in anyone’s life, or tells them what to do, or what to think, or how to act, or what to believe or what not to believe. They want government out of people’s lives!

Kevin Cooper

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 53 Defend Rasmea Odeh! Judge refuses to dismiss “baseless” charges against Rasmea Odeh, Palestinian-American By Ali Abunimah

Rasmea Odeh had her first hearing tigation” by the government targeting Deutsch told the judge that Odeh in open court on Thursday in front of the Arab American Action Network was selectively investigated because of the new judge who will preside over (AAAN), the Chicago community her protected First Amendment activi- her trial on immigration fraud charges organization at which Odeh is associ- ties educating people about the situa- scheduled for next month. ate director. tion in Palestine, and that it was based As the Palestinian-American com- Last October, Odeh was arrested on evidence from the four-year-old munity leader and her lawyers sat at and indicted for allegedly lying on her investigation of the “Anti-War 23.” the defense table, supporters, many of U.S. citizenship application a decade In 2010, U.S. authorities raided the whom had made the five-hour drive ago by failing to disclose her conviction homes of several anti-war activists, from Chicago, packed the Detroit fed- in an Israeli military court for allegedly including Hatem Abudayyeh, AAAN’s eral courtroom. participating in two bombings in director, and summoned two-dozen Odeh had hoped that Judge Jerusalem in 1969. activists before a federal grand jury. Gershwin Drain would rule favorably Odeh has pleaded not guilty to the Deutsch said the investigation had on a defense motion to dismiss the U.S. immigration fraud charge and been a “fishing expedition”—none of charges against her, but the judge says the Israeli convictions were those summoned to the grand jury tes- declined to do so, ensuring that the obtained in the unfair Israeli military tified. After four years no one had been trial will go forward. court system based entirely on a con- charged with any crime and all the fession extracted through prolonged, papers and property seized in the raid Illegal fruit brutal torture including sexual assault. have now been returned. Michael Deutsch, Odeh’s lead attor- If convicted Odeh could face prison “As far as we know, there is no ney, argued that the indictment of time, as well as being stripped of her ongoing investigation,” Deutsch told Odeh was the “fruit of an illegal inves- U.S. citizenship and deported. the court. Deutsch argued that U.S. authorities in Chicago had nonetheless passed information from the investigation on to federal prosecutors in Michigan, who indicted Odeh. Government prosecutor Jonathan Tukel told the judge that Odeh’s attorneys had not shown evidence that their client had been singled out. But the judge also denied Deutsch’s request to compel U.S. attorneys in Chicago and Detroit to reveal their communications over the matter to the defense. Speaking to reporters and supporters after the hearing, Deutsch expressed disappointment that the judge had allowed only ten minutes for oral arguments.

54 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 However, he said that he was not “This is at the heart of our defense,” The incident was reported to surprised that the judge declined to Deutsch told the court. “The expert National Lawyers Guild legal observers dismiss the charges “because the law is should be allowed to testify, and the present on the scene. very restrictive on that.” jury should decide what it means.” After the hearing, Muhammad “I just wanted him [the judge] to Drain’s ruling, which he promised Sankari, a member of the national hear about the history and about the within a week, will hinge on his reading of Rasmea Defense Committee, was told context of this case.” whether the law requires that a person by police that he could not lead chants This week the American-Arab Anti- had a “specific intent” to defraud the gov- with a bullhorn on the sidewalk in Discrimination Committee (ADC) ernment at the time of their alleged crime. front of the building. added its voice to the calls on the U.S. Defense attorney Jim Fennerty told He continued to lead chants from to drop the charges. the court that the U.S. State Department across the street. There is no sign that In a letter to U.S. Attorney General had handed over dozens of boxes of such petty harassment will deter Odeh’s Eric Holder, ADC called the charges records the defense had been seeking, supporters. against Odeh “baseless,” and said that which a defense researcher was cur- “We obviously believe that justice the case “plays into the belief and per- rently sorting. was not served today. Too many of our ception that the U.S. federal govern- Odeh’s lawyers believe the records leaders, like Rasmea, are being targeted ment is intentionally targeting and could shed light on what the U.S. gov- by the Justice Department for their prosecuting Arab American citizens.” ernment knew about the torture of activism in support of Palestinian lib- ADC is “outraged that the federal Odeh, her father and others after their eration,” Sankari said in a press release law enforcement agencies continue to arrests by Israeli authorities. from the Rasmea Defense Committee. waste resources by targeting nonvio- Another hearing is scheduled for “This case is clearly going to be an lent social activists such as Ms. Odeh, October 21, with the start of the trial indictment of Israel and its brutal poli- but have yet to bring charges against set for November 4. cies. We will continue to make that the Israeli suspects in the terrorist Rally and police harassment argument as we work to get the charges attack that killed Palestinian-American dropped,” Sankari added. Alex Odeh in 1985,” the letter adds As on previous occasions, Odeh’s supporters rallied outside the U.S. —The Electronic Intifada, October (Odeh was killed by a bomb left at the 3, 2014 ADC office which he ran in Santa Ana, Courthouse on Detroit’s Lafayette California). Street before and after her hearing. http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ Sarah Martin, one of the Anti-War ali-abunimah/judge-refuses-dismiss- Torture expert 23 who had traveled from Minneapolis, baseless-charges-against-palestinian- Judge Drain did not issue a ruling Minnesota, told supporters that soli- american on a second motion—a defense request darity rallies were being held simulta- to allow Mary Fabri, an expert on tor- neously in Minneapolis, San Jose, ture, to testify in the trial. California and Tampa, Florida, as hun- Fabri, a clinical psychologist at the dreds of people telephoned prosecu- world-renowned Kovler Center, tors urging them to drop the charges. already submitted an affidavit on July “We’ll be back here for the trial,” 18 detailing Odeh’s torture and subse- Martin added, “and we’ll fill that court- quent post traumatic stress disorder room.” (PTSD). Since a hearing in September, some Deutsch argued that Fabri’s testi- officers of the Department of Homeland mony would provide the jury with Security police who protect federal crucial information about the long- facilities have taken a more aggressive term impact of Odeh’s torture that stance toward the rallies. would help them to judge her state of Early on Thursday morning, this mind when she allegedly failed to dis- writer was briefly questioned by one close the military court conviction in officer for taking a photo of the court- her citizenship application. house, an entirely legal activity. Rasmea Odeh

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 55 Defend Marissa Alexander! Five more women testify calling Marissa Alexander’s husband brutally abusive By Leslie Salzillo

First Coast News has extensively September 11 than ‘all the Americans covered the Marissa Alexander case, who were killed by 9/11 or in and on October 10th they reported Afghanistan and Iraq.’” that five new witnesses came forth in a (Approximately 10,000) pretrial hearing, and testified against Rico Gray did not take the stand on Rico Gray and his violent past: Thursday, and is due to give his side of “Witnesses Thursday included the story(s) soon. It’s uncertain wheth- three women with whom Gray has er Judge James Daniels will take the had children, as well as two sisters- testimonies of these new witnesses into in-law. All accused Gray of physical- consideration when ruling on Marissa ly intimidating or brutalizing them. Alexander’s new trial in December. “One girlfriend, Shartrecia Florida District Attorney Angela Anderson, testified that Gray was prone Corey, the prosecuting attorney (and to violence. ‘I know what he’s capable failed attorney in the Zimmerman/ of. He will attack if he’s brought to that Martin trial) offered Alexander a three- point,’ she told the court. years guilty plea. Alexander felt she was “She also asserted that on at least Marissa Alexander innocent, and after having only three one occasion, Gray stabbed himself hours to decide, turned down the plea. According to First Coast News, last Angela Cory then slapped Alexander week, in Jacksonville, Florida, five new Once the original trial with a 20-year sentence. Twenty years, witness may turn out to be the best for hurting no one, yet George news for Marissa Alexander, and the was overturned, rather Zimmerman walks free after what worst news for her abusive husband, than Angela Corey many call the “murder” of Trayvon Rico Gray. Martin. dropping the case, the In 2010, Marissa Alexander fired a After Alexander spent many months shot into the air, to keep her husband District Attorney stated in jail, including time away from her from attacking her. Alexander had just she will now go after a newborn infant, her trial was over- given birth only ten days prior, and 60-year sentence in the turned in September of 2013, report- testified that Gray was in a jealous fury edly due to jury misinformation. It and threatened her life. In 2012, new trial. should be mentioned, the overturn Marissa Alexander was sentenced to 20 occurred after a very big national pro- years in prison, for firing that warning test. Once the original trial was over- shot and harming no one. with a fork in order to feign injury to turned, rather than Angela Corey In a sworn deposition, Gray said, police, and instructed his son to lie dropping the case, the District Attorney “I was in a rage. I called her a to officers in order to back up his stated she will now go after a 60-year whore and bitch and . . . I told her, version of events.” sentence in the new trial. Hard to even you know, I used to always tell her The prosecution is calling Shartrecia type that. It’s disgusting, merciless, that, if I can’t have you, nobody Anderson a liar. Anderson denied Gray unjust, and utterly ridiculous. going to have you. It was not the abused her in a previous testimony. Another witness, former Gray wife first time of ever saying it to her.” Keep in mind, many women are afraid Dashanna McGriff, alleged a raft of Ironically, according to Florida’s of legally accusing their abusers; fearing abuses, including being hit with a gun, “Stand Your Ground,” Law if Alexander their abusers will kill them. And that is having her nose broken, and being had killed Gray, she would have most often the case. According to Gloria locked in a closet for hours. likely gone free. (In states like South Steinem, and verified by PolitiFact, After first seeing a Marissa Alexander Carolina, Think Progress reports, Stand “More women were killed by headline via Katie Halper/Alternet, I Your Ground doesn’t apply to victims their husbands or boyfriends since have sworn to continue covering this of domestic violence.)

56 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 case until Marissa Alexander is free. I Prison Assisted Suicide—the Texas Way also hope to see a renewed national discourse, not only about victims of By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson domestic violence, but also about those who survive the abuse defending them- mental illness, with Texas’ administra- selves, and are then prosecuted. Many tive segregation units among the victims of domestic abuse are taken worst.1 from their children, incarcerated, and I observed a guard, Julio Lucero, Jr., left to rot in prison. It’s no wonder so stick his hand into the open hatch of many women do not report domestic Todd’s cell door and spray a long burst violence. Instead, they often stay in of OC gas into the cell. In a matter of fear, and die horrific deaths. minutes the gas circulated into every- —Daily Kos, October 17, 2014 one else’s cell (64 cells in all) through http://www.dailykos.com/ the pod’s ventilation system. With nose story/2014/10/17/1337149/-5-More- and eyes burning, I continued to watch Women-Accuse-Marissa-Alexander-s- as the minutes ticked by. Abusive-Husband-Of-Extreme- Two sergeants entered the pod after Brutality a while, walking very slowly, approach- Kevin “Rashid” Johnson ing Todd’s cell. One sergeant, Ralph During the 1980s-90s, Dr. Jack Chavez, looked in at Todd for a Kevorkian’s name achieved nationwide moment then asked casually, “What’s notoriety. He advocated and partici- going on?” Hines was standing in the pated in the medically-assisted suicides cell with several long deep gashes cut of terminally ill people. His motives, he into his neck and temple. According to said, were compassionate. The contro- witnesses closer to the scene, blood was versy surrounding Kevorkian led to pulsing out the side of his neck from an changes in legislation and he was crim- obviously severed jugular vein and his inally convicted several times, culmi- face was a mask of red. Chavez told nating in a 1998 murder conviction Todd several times with no particular and a 10-25 year prison term. urgency to “throw out the razor.” It is a twisted irony that the same In another few minutes a nurse, sorts of deeds that put this professional Tammy Williams, entered pushing a pathologist in prison are carried out gurney, also walking very slowly, obvi- for sport rather than compassion by ous in her effort to take as long as pos- pathologists of a very different sort— sible to reach Todd’s cell. She then these being ones who run the prisons. looked in at him and asked, “What’s Here is a case in point. On September wrong with you?” I later overheard 4, 2014, I was brought to my segrega- Lucero tell another prisoner that every tion cell door by other prisoners’ excit- time Todd would talk, blood would ed voices signaling that something was shoot out of his neck, which explained amiss. My attention was drawn to cell their standing at the cell inducing Todd H109, which then housed another pris- to answer absurd questions, obviously oner, Todd Hines. Todd, like over half stalling. A portable audio-video camera of those confined at this Clements Unit was brought in to record the situation. in remote Amarillo, Texas, is a docu- Finally, Chavez directed Lucero and mented mentally ill prisoner who another guard to have Todd perform a receives psychotropic medications full strip search even though he already daily. As such, he is illegally housed in kicked the razor blade under the cell administrative segregation, the condi- door. Regardless, Lucero slowly walked tions of which federal courts have Todd through the search; first direct- unanimously found only exacerbates ing him to hand out his blood-saturat-

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 57 ed boxers which Lucero inspected with 109, bleeding. He cut at least a five- with a then-sergeant Travis McCoy, latex-gloved hands. Everything was inch gash into his neck on the left rushed into the cell as if to cut him done very slowly. Lucero instructed side; he cut other parts of his neck as down but instead began pulling on his Todd, “open your mouth; run your well. When they saw him there no legs to put more weight and pressure finger between your lips and gums; run urgency in getting him treatment. on his choked off neck. your hands through your hair; let me They watched him bleed for two minutes, asking, “where is the razor.” Ironically, he didn’t die—the rope see behind your ears; move your tongue They then shoot gas (Lucero) in his broke sending him and several of the around; turn around; let me see the cell and watched him for a few more guards tumbling to the floor. bottom of your left foot; wiggle your minutes. He didn’t place the call until toes; now your right foot.” By then Then there are the staged suicides 11:22. Nobody responded until 11:30 where guards at this prison claim false- Todd, weak and dizzy from massive as Sargent Gray, Sargent Chavez and ly that a prisoner is trying to hang or blood loss, leaned against his cell wall, officer Chavez (female on camera) so they made him start the search all responding, walking slowly to the cell cut himself in order to justify spraying over again, warning him that touching and just looking in. They watched for him down with OC gas and taking all anything would cause them to start yet a few minutes then called medical. At his property. Mentally ill prisoners are again. “Open your mouth; run your 11:35 the nurse came and she too typically the targets of this abuse. finger between your lips and gums. . . .” slowly walked to the cell looked in It was done on the morning of Had he collapsed, he’d likely have bled and asked “what’s wrong?” At this August 26, 2014, by a Sergeant Dustin point the cell literally looked like a to death while they had a team of Anderson to a mentally ill prisoner slaughterhouse kill floor. They didn’t (who also takes psychotropic medica- guards dress out in body riot armor take him out of the cell until 11:41. and protective biohazard suits. They made him do a full strip search tions daily) known only to myself and There was no disguising that all and at this point he was so weak he others as “Bay City.” involved were trying to watch Todd couldn’t stand and lift one leg up Anderson was called to his cell bleed out and die. A prison-assisted without leaning against the wall. So (#H105) by a guard, Rusty Milbern, suicide. they made him do the search all over because Bay City had his cell door’s again. When he came out he was After he miraculously finished the windows covered and wouldn’t respond, wobbling like a newborn calf. They which he immediately took down when search, Todd was made to put both had no urgency in getting him any- Anderson came to his cell calling Bay hands out the door’s slot to be hand- where. He was covered in so much cuffed from behind. A radio call was blood they wouldn’t know if he was City a series of “stupid motherfuckers,” made to open the cell and he was concealing anything anyways. Our “assholes” and other vulgar names. As a ordered to crawl out into the pod back- peers were no help as I heard a couple witnessing prisoner observed in a note wards on his knees, while blood con- cheering him on. That’s what brought he sent me, “Sargent Anderson acted tinued to pulse out of his neck onto the me to the door to witness the entire like he was trying to hang himself, floor. He was then made to stand and ordeal. It took them exactly 23 min- gassed him, then said, ‘you promised utes to see him and get him out.” walk unsteadily out of the pod. me you was gone chill out.’ He went on Again, what’s even more problem- to explain, “Sargent Anderson set him That Todd survived at all defies atic is prisoners like Todd are not sup- up. Milbern was right there but she logic. The guards and nurse were cer- posed to be in segregation. It’s against didn’t look in the cell. She stayed by the tainly not to be credited. In fact, the the law, yet our captors imprison us for side of the door. When Sargent guards later openly expressed being allegedly breaking laws. But, as Todd’s Anderson told him to take it off his quite entertained by the incident, as case shows, mentally ill prisoners are neck, Bay City was walking in circles, were several prisoners. held illegally under conditions that neck free of any type of wrappings.” But some, like myself, were angry drive them to the point of suicidal acts, I witnessed it done on April 9, 2014 and disgusted. Several, not knowing if which guards and medical staff try to to another mentally ill prisoner, Hoover I’d seen it all, later sent me notes telling help along. Pugh #421307, who behaves much like me what they’d witnessed, knowing I’d I’ve actually witnessed this sort of the prisoner I described in a prior arti- want to bring attention to it. Here’s 2 thing more times than I can count. cle, named Ellory Oliver. And Hoover what one—Jason Renard Walker Several times the prisoners died. I recall draws much the same reactions from #1532092—wrote: once a mentally ill prisoner hung him- guards and other prisoners. “We got another inmate neglect. self at Virginia’s Red Onion State On that date I witnessed a guard, At 11:18 A.M., officer Lucero and Prison as guards watched coaxing him Skyler Tidwell, tell another prisoner that Mexican officer saw Hines, cell on. A few minutes later they, along who openly disliked Hoover to give

58 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 him a razor, that he was going to drop 2013 while he was handcuffed from inmates and exacerbating illness in those it in front of Hoover’s cell and then gas behind. Many others bear witness to already suffering from mental infirmities.” Id. him saying he was trying to cut him- Finney’s abuses, including refusing at 907. And as nationally accredited mental health experts testified before the Texas federal self. Tidwell said it was his last day prisoners’ meals for days to weeks on court: “. . . Dr. Jurczak testified that the admin- working at the prison and he wanted to end, slamming handcuffed prisoners istrative segregation system is destructive to all get Hoover. The other prisoner went for no reason, even knocking one’s its occupants. “I think it’s a very destructive along with the scene and Tidwell front tooth out. system. And I’ve been in many, many systems. . sprayed a full can of gas in on Hoover. . and I’ve never seen one as repressive as I’ve These sorts of abuses targeted espe- seen in TDCJ.” Id. at 912. However, because Hoover has filed cially at mentally ill prisoners is why 2 Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, “Wasted Minds: a lot of complaints about staff abuse, the Texas Department of Criminal An Insider’s Look at the Torturous Effects of he was housed in a cell that has a sur- Justice’s (TDCJ) Clements Unit Prison U.S. Solitary Confinement” (2013) available at veillance camera facing onto it, and has been reportedly featured in the rashidmod.com. Also available in Socialist View- staff are under direction to review the mainstream media as having the point magazine Vol. 13, No. 6 http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/novdec_13/novdec_13_30.html camera footage whenever he com- TDCJ’s highest rates of major uses of 3 Brandi Grissom, “A Tie to Mental Illness in plains of abuses of force. When he was force and uses of chemical agents on the Violence Behind Bars,” New York Times, bought out with intentions of being prisoners by guards, while at the same Sept. 21, 2013; Brandi Grissom, “Violence placed on suicide watch he protested time illegally housing over 1800 known Behind Bars: A Tie to Mental Illness,” The Texas that Tidwell set him up. Apparently mentally ill prisoners (a large propor- Tribune, Sept. 22, 2013; “Clements Unit Among the video was reviewed and proved tion of whom are held in segregation).3 the Most Violent Prisons,” KAMR-TV, Sept. 23, 2013; “Son Murdered in Clements Unit by Staff him true because Hoover was returned This too is what prompts numerous Texas Prison,” http://www.prisontalk.com/ to his cell on regular status, but Tidwell attempted and successful suicides, and forums/archive/index.php/+-266252.html; did not return. often ones staged by guards to falsely “Force Against Texas Inmates on Rise,” http:// One guard, Desmond Finney, is justify physical abuses or outright mur- www.texastribune.org; “Texas Lockdown: Soli- tary Confinement in the Lone Star State,” among the most notoriously and cow- der (prison assisted suicide)! So while it was a crime for Jack Kevorkian to aid http://solitarywatch.com/2011/07/06/solitary- ardly abusive guards at this Clements confinement-in-texas-a-long-way-to-reform; Unit Prison. He makes it a point to the suicides of the terminally ill, it’s “Clements Unit Placed on Dubious List,” http:// openly boast of beating handcuffed perfectly legal when it’s prison officials apublicview.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/clem- prisoners, and, while working the pod and their victims are the mentally ill. ents-unit-placed-on-dubious-list/ I’m housed in on September 11, 2014, Apparently, Kevorkian chose the bragged to several other guards that, in wrong occupation and the wrong type just a couple of months of being of pathology. A bright light must be assigned to the segregation unit he’d shone inside Amerika’s inhumane sys- gone through eight new canisters of tem of mass incarceration, which bears OC gas. such a chilling similarity to the old Finney often taunts prisoners that German Nazi concentration camps in he’s untouchable because he’s “one of its brutality, hypocrisy and bigotry, Major Clark’s boys,” and has ranking that it’s frightening. relatives working at the prison, including one lieutenant, Antonious Dare to Struggle Dare to Win! Flannagan. All Power to the People I witnessed a prisoner, Louis Johnson Jr. #1618910, who was moved to the suicide precaution building during November 2013 due to attempting 1 The Texas federal courts have specifically suicide, return to the same segregation ruled, “administrative segregation is being uti- cell across from me a few days later lized unconstitutionally to house mentally ill with two black eyes and a badly bruised inmates—inmates whose illness can only be exacerbated by the depravity of their confine- face. He reported, and numerous ment.” Ruiz v. Estelle, 37 F. Supp. 2d 855, guards openly came to his cell to taunt 915(S.D. Tex. 1999). “Texas’ administrative him, that Finney and another guard segregation units are virtual incubators of psy- beat him at length on November 9, choses-seeding illness in otherwise healthy

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 59 Alabama’s Thrifty Jailers Alabama jailers let prisoners die from easily treatable illnesses to save money By Tom Boggioni

A 19-year-old died in jail as the result causing him to begin hallucinating and Tanyatta Woods, the mother of the of a gangrenous wound in his foot. unable to communicate. Woods was teen, filed the suit stating that Madison Three lawsuits recently filed in fed- placed in a “medical observation cell” County Sheriff Blake Dorning, jail eral court accuse the state of Alabama on August 6, 2013, however jail records administrator Steve Morrison, Dr. of denying prisoners with easily treat- show that he had no access to water Arthur Williams, the director of medi- able illnesses or injuries proper medical after August 12, there is no record of cal care at the jail, and Dr. Norman care resulting in the prisoner’s death. him eating after August 14, and no Johnson, who is the CEO of Advanced nurses visited him after August 14. Correctional Healthcare, are “part of an According to AL.com, the lawsuits Once authorities noticed the smell explicit or implicit agreement or plan to have been filed over the deaths of three from Woods’ foot he was hosed down delay or deny necessary medical care to inmates, including a 19-year-old who and moved into a different cell. avoid having to pay for medical care.” died naked on a cell floor from gangrene. “Still, no correction officer or ACH The other two lawsuits refer to The three suits allege the jailers in nurse did anything to even check Tanisha Jefferson, 30, who died of an Madison County withhold the basic Woods, let alone help him,” reads the intestinal blockage after being denied medical care in order to save money, complaint. The suit states that jail medical care for 13 days after being believing that the insurance carried by records show no one took his tempera- jailed for harassment, and 61-year-old the out-sourced medical contractor will ture, checked his blood sugar or Nikki Listau, also in jail for harassment, cover any lawsuits filed against them. assessed his condition. “The gangre- who died from complications resulting One of the lawsuits alleges that nous wound on top of his right foot from a broken femur sustained after Deundrez Woods, a 19-year-old from was clearly visible had anyone both- she fell out of her prison bunk. Huntsville, died in jail in August as the ered to look.” Civil rights attorney Hank Sherrod result of a gangrenous wound in his “Woods went from normal, to who filed all three lawsuits claims that foot that was left untreated. aggressive and disruptive, to barely the Madison County jailers are relying According to court documents, responsive, to all but dead as correc- on the insurance coverage maintained Woods was being held for shoplifting Star tion and medical staff watched.” by Advanced Correctional Healthcare Wars DVDs at Wal-Mart in June and According to the suit Woods was to shield them from lawsuits, and to then for passing a phony $100 bill in July. found on the floor of his cell, dead save money by not dealing with inmate While in jail a wound in Woods’ from a blood clot that originated in his medical problems. foot developed gangrene, the infection gangrenous foot. “ACH’s business model, reflected in the agreement, succeeds by underbid- ding the competition and implementing severe cost control measures,” Sherrod said. “The necessary result of which is inmate suffering and liability claims (dealt with through liability insurance.)” Jeff Rich, attorney for Madison County, would not comment on pend- ing litigation, saying the three lawsuits are “being vigorously defended.” —AlterNet.org, October 19, 2014 http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/alabama-jailers-let-prisoners-die- easily-treatable-illnesses-save- money?akid=12380.229473.L5aWS2&r d=1&src=newsletter1023836&t=23

60 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Starve the Beast By Tim Young

Plantation toil, penitentiary moil, Lucrative slave ship... Where slavery ends The Prison Industrial Complex begins Dred Scott was the genesis Check your history The aftermath stupendous 1863 to the 21st century Millions of lost souls Wanton misery, no mystery, Prison, probation, parole Statistics quite frightening Civil liberties on hold Fraught with disparity... Democracy untold A dream deferred African Americans constitute 12 percent of the nation, Martin’s nightmare has emerged... 50 percent of the prison population. That’s mass incarceration A better world is possible Modern day enslavement Prison abolition is logical Casting a wide net Society holds the key Landing a big catch: Time to manifest some destiny The poor, the black, the innocent.. Organize, mobilize, Act in solidarity Forever strange fruit Accomplish the feat Courtrooms abound with black youth Starve the belly of the beast. Legal lynching ensues The gavel is a noose Write to: Freedom dismissed Tim Young #F23374 4 EY-23 American justice amiss San Quentin State Prison School to prison pipeline San Quentin, CA 94974

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 61

Book Reviews BOOK REVIEWS

1960s and ’70s: Memoirs by Two Revolutionaries Book Reviews by Barry Sheppard

An Impatient Life, a Political Memoir, Committee, and the PCI, the would be swallowed up by the mass by Daniel Bensaid, first published in International Secretariat. reformist parties, and could disappear. French in 2004 under the title Une The Fourth International’s This in fact did happen in certain coun- Lente Impatience. English translation Canadian section, which Ernie Tate tries, such as India. In any case, in the IC published in 2013 by Verso, London. had joined in the 1950s, and the view, the new tactic would make it diffi- Revolutionary Activism, in the 1950s American Socialist Workers Party, cult to recruit to the sections, since and 60s, Volume Two, Britain 1965- supported the International recruitment would come only from with- 1970, a Memoir, By Ernest Tate, Committee. Important political and in the mass party, and would have to be Resistance Books, London, 2014 organization questions were involved done very carefully because these parties in the 1953 split, but were largely over- would likely expel Fourth Internationalists These books cover the impact of the if they were ever found out. worldwide youth radicalization that come by the early 1960s. This led to a emerged in the 1960s and 1970s upon rapprochement, discussions and a The only adherents of the reunified two sections of the Fourth International, reunification in 1963 at a special World International in Britain and France one in France and the other in Britain. Congress. It elected an International were the International Secretariat In both countries, this was a period of Executive Committee with broad rep- groups, due to the defection of the SLL tumultuous events, including the resentation of the sections, and which and the OCI, and these were “deep American invasion of Vietnam and the in turn elected a smaller United entered” into the Labor Party and the international movement that erupted Secretariat to meet more often. On Communist Party respectively. against it. both sides there were groupings that Bensaid’s and Tate’s books deal exten- refused to join the reunified Fourth sively with the overcoming of this lega- To present the context both books International. From the IC side the SLL cy of “deep entryism.” In both coun- deal with, it is necessary to go back a bit and what became the OCI stayed out, tries, challenging this tactic in the late and provide a brief explanation of the as did the Latin American sections of sixties resulted in the establishing of developments in the Fourth the IS led by Juan Posadas. strong public sections of the FI, with International during the 1950s and These groups, and a few others who the formation of the Revolutionary early 1960s. In 1953, a major split in Communist League (LCR) in France the International saw its sections align- considered themselves Trotskyist, were not part of the reunified Fourth and the International Marxist Group ing themselves with two major interna- (IMG) in Britain. tional groupings, one led by the International, which organized the International Secretariat, and the other majority of Trotskyists worldwide. How this happened in Britain When I refer to the “Fourth by the International Committee. In Because of language, the United International” in this review, I mean Britain, the Socialist Labor League Secretariat decided that the American the reunified FI. (SLL), led by Gerry Healy, was a sup- SWP and the Canadian section, the porter of the International Committee One of the political differences that League for Socialist Action (LSA), while two, much smaller groups, emerged from the 1953 split concerned would take on major responsibility to adhered to the International Secretariat. the tactic of “entryism sui generis”— help rebuild a section in Britain. To this In France, there were two groups of entryism of a special type—practiced by end, two members of the Canadian sec- nearly equal size, which came to be sections of the International Secretariat, tion, Alan and Connie Harris, who known in the period these books cover whereby these sections “entered” the originally were from Britain, moved as the International Communist mass social democratic or Communist back there. With help from the SWP’s Organization (OCI), led by Pierre parties in their respective countries, with publishing house, they set up a book Lambert, and the Internationalist very little or no public existence of their distribution center to help circulate Communist Party (PCI), led by Pierre own. The International Committee Trotskyist literature. Joe Hansen had Frank. The predecessor of the OCI argued the view that such “deep entry- been the SWP’s representative on the supported the International ism” had the danger that the sections new United Secretariat, but was forced

62 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 to return to the U.S. because of a severe an insider’s view. These stories alone are tow—he would later found Virgin illness, and was replaced by Ray worth the price of the book. It’s the first Airlines. Tariq Ali, already prominent Sparrow, shortly before Ernie arrived in time, to my knowledge, that this history in Britain as a left wing intellectual, Britain from Canada in 1965. His com- has been told. would soon join the IMG as a result of panion, Jess MacKenzie would arrive The Foundation faced massive its leading role in these events. later in 1966 on assignment from the opposition to the tribunal idea: the An interesting aspect of the VSC United Secretariat to work with the press in Britain was viciously hostile; Ernie describes was the role of the small IS groups to rebuild a viable orga- the U.S., British, French and other gov- British International Socialists (IS) led nization. Ray would work closely with ernments consciously intervened by Tony Cliff. While not as deeply Ernie, visiting London often from through their security agencies to dis- involved as the IMG, especially at the Brussels, which was where a new FI rupt it; the Stalinists in Britain quietly leadership level, the IS, unlike other center was being established. Ernie and sabotaged it; Moscow made trouble Trotskyist groups, gave their full sup- Jess had been recruited in Canada, but with the Vietnamese, whose coopera- port to the VSC. The IS was also Ernie was originally from Northern tion would be essential to getting it off increasing in size at that time, even Ireland and Jess from Scotland. the ground and most of the revolution- faster than the IMG. Partly as a result What they faced upon arrival were ary left in Britain didn’t understand of this common effort against the war, the Revolutionary Socialist League why Vietnam was important in the and the attraction of the IMG’s sister (RSL), led by Ted Grant, and the world class struggle. Under this pres- organization in France—which had International Group (IG), led by Ken sure, there were squabbles internally, played a key role in the May-June 1968 Coates and Pat Jordan, both claiming to sometimes compounded by prickly student-worker revolt, Tony Cliff support the FI, both small organiza- personalities, and financial difficulties. approached the IMG with a proposal tions. Ernie’s assignment in part was to But through all this, the Tribunal suc- to unite the two organizations. Reading try to get these two groups together, but ceeded, and produced impressive find- Ernie’s book was the first time I became it soon became apparent that the RSL ings that helped the antiwar movement aware of this offer. Cliff proposed that wasn’t interested, and in fact pulled throughout the world. the IMG comrades be recognized as a away from the FI altogether. So Ernie The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign tendency in the proposed new organi- and Jess worked mainly with the IG took off. The leading role that Ernie zation, and would be allowed to retain group, which was centered in and the IG comrades played in build- their affiliation to the Fourth Nottingham, not London. The IG was ing the VSC led to the establishment of International. Ernie was favorable to deep in the Labor Party, and Ernie a viable section of the FI, with the IG this proposal, but others in the IMG found that although it was doing quite changing its name to the International leadership rejected it, a blunder in my good work there, it was sadly lacking in Marxist Group, and breaking out of its opinion. The whole situation of the building a public face of the FI in Britain. “deep entry” in the Labor Party. The revolutionary socialist left in Britain One of Ernie’s assignments from the successive demonstrations demanding could have made an important step United Secretariat was to help further the U.S. get out of Vietnam and for the forward, as Phil Hearse says in his pref- the work of the Bertrand Russell Peace reversal of British support of the war ace to this volume. Foundation, headed by the great math- under a Labor Party government, The creation of the LCR in France ematician and philosopher. Russell’s became increasingly larger in a short Daniel Bensaid, as he tells us in this, Secretary, Ralph Schoenman, a coura- few years, culminating in the biggest his last major work, was born into a geous, imaginative and prodigious orga- demonstration London had ever seen family that was immersed in the milieu nizer according to Ernie, was its central when over 100,000 gathered in Hyde of the French Communist Party, one of sparkplug. Pat Jordan and Ken Coates of Park in the autumn of 1968. The scope the largest CPs in Western Europe. As the IG would soon become active in the of these actions can be gleaned from he says, “Communism was something Foundation. One of the Foundation’s some of the photos in Ernie’s book, I fell into—unless it was communism most important projects was to form an which are a surprising revelation in that fell into me.” He joined the CP “international tribunal” to investigate themselves. One shows Tariq Ali along- student group as a youngster. Here his U.S. war crimes in Vietnam. Another side the great actress Vanessa Redgrave path would cross with young members was to launch the Vietnam Solidarity and the world-renowned theoretical of the PCI, “deep entered” in the CP. Campaign (VSC) in Britain. Ernie pro- physicist Stephen Hawking, in the vides documented detail from several front of one of these mass demonstra- CP-influenced young people were archives about how these projects and tions. Another shows Tariq and becoming increasingly critical of the the Foundation itself functioned, giving Vanessa with Richard Branson in party, especially around the issue of its

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 63 lukewarm attitude toward the Algerian the Cuban revolution and its leader- youth of different political tendencies revolution. The French had waged an ship (while holding certain criticisms) into a united front. No one could have extremely brutal war to retain Algeria was central to the unification of the predicted it, but the spectacle of young as a colony. While France won the war majorities of the International people fighting the cops to a standstill militarily, it lost it politically, and was Committee and the International stirred sympathy in the French working forced to grant independence to Secretariat in 1963. The impact of the class, suffering under the yoke of De Algeria. A fascist die-hard group with- Cuban revolution in Canada is Gaulle’s authoritarian government. in the French army known as the Secret explained in volume one of Ernie’s The workers’ rapidly went into action, Army Organization even threatened to book. Our common position on Cuba taking over and occupying factories, overthrow the government, and there led to close relations between the JCR leading to the greatest general strike in were street battles where the CP youth and the American Young Socialist history. The story of the May-June gained experience that would later be Alliance (YSA—youth group associat- events is told elsewhere, but the role of useful in the May-June 1968 student- ed with the Socialist Workers Party). the JCR gave it great prestige. worker revolt. Another issue where the Daniel explains how Che Guevara’s In November of 1968, Caroline youth began to move to the left of the humanist socialism, expressed in his Lund and I relocated to Brussels. I party was on the question of Vietnam. pamphlet Socialism and Man helped replaced Ray Sparrow as the SWP’s rep- The French CP, like its British counter- his generation to throw off the dead resentative on the United Secretariat, part, under orders from Moscow, took weight of Stalinism. He also credits while Caroline represented the leader- the position that the war should be Che’s speech in Algiers, taking the ship of the YSA. Early in 1979, we went settled by negotiations with Kremlin to task for its high-handed to Paris to observe a leadership meeting Washington, as against the forthright and bureaucratic relations with Cuba of the JCR, which discussed the JCR demand that the U.S. get out. and Vietnam. fusing with the PCI. I remember Daniel These and other differences led to The formation of the JCR helped was still skeptical of joining the FI. the CP expelling its youth in 1965, spur the process that led to the creation There was also a mood in the meeting leading to the formation of the of the IMG in Britain, as Ernie explains. among these young people of disap- Revolutionary Communist Youth JCR leader Alain Krivine spoke many pointment in the older members of the (JCR). The JCR leadership was mainly times at VSC demonstrations. Another PCI during the May-June events— comprised of Trotskyist youth, includ- example of this cross-fertilization was “they didn’t show up” was one remark ing Alain Krivine, Henri Weber, the holding of a conference of FI youth I remember. But by April, the great Jeannette Habel, and Gerard de groups in Europe, which YSA leaders majority of the JCR was won over to Verbizier. Daniel was an example of also attended. Part of all this was the this perspective, and the result of the those leaders of the JCR who were not very radical German Socialist Students fusion was the creation of the in the PCI. Union (SDS—not to be confused with Communist League (LC) as the French This development had begun as part the organization with the same initials section of the FI. “Entryism” had come of the PCI’s deep entry in the CP. But in the U.S.) to an end in France. After being banned the logic of the evolution of the CP At the center of the student and later, it would be renamed the youth, where the PCI young people youth radicalization, the JCR grew Revolutionary Communist League rose to prominence, transformed the quickly, as Daniel explains in some (LCR) in 1974. In referring to this orga- deep entry tactic into its opposite with detail. Early in 1968, Daniel, a student nization in this review I use LCR, which the public emergence of a new organi- in Nanterre and a leader of the JCR it became widely known as in the sub- zation, the JCR. there, worked closely with Daniel sequent decades. Another important issue that led to Cohn-Bendit, an anarchist, in the The ultraleft turn of the FI in 1969 explosion of student struggles that the formation of the JCR was the Both these memoirs discuss, Daniel would coalesce into the March 22 Cuban revolution. This section of the briefly and Ernie more fully, the 1969 Movement, struggles which rapidly CP youth was ardently in support of World Congress of the Fourth spread in the country. This led to the the revolution and its young leader- International, where a majority voted eruption of the “night of the barri- ship, against the lukewarm and conser- to launch rural guerrilla warfare for a cades” in early May around the vative positions of the adult party, prolonged period in Latin America. Sorbonne in Paris, as the riot police reflecting Moscow’s attitude. Indeed, The focus was immediately on Bolivia tried to suppress a meeting called by the the position adopted by the majority of and Argentina. A minority, including JCR. The JCR led the fighting against Trotskyists worldwide in support of the SWP, opposed this orientation. the cops, and organized the student

64 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Ernie and Jess were at the Congress, as enthusiastic for the majority, but active- knew, as he describes concerning his were Caroline Lund and I, and Daniel ly lobbying for it in the corridors. A many trips to Argentina to support the who was part of the French delegation, central motivating factor in winning the ERP. Reading his chapter about this although he doesn’t mention this. youth of the LCR and the many young tragedy, “Cry for Argentina,” I was The minority position was presented people who were joining the European moved to tears remembering these fall- to the delegates by Joe Hansen of the sections, especially after the May-June en comrades. My impression is that SWP. The minority was not opposed in 1968 events, was the unreserved backing while not saying so outright, Daniel felt principle to peasant-based (rural) guer- and vigorous arguments in favor of the great guilt about his role in their fate. rilla warfare in the oppressed countries guerrilla strategy presented by three Ernie also has a chapter on what hap- where the need for land reform was older central leaders of the FI, Livio pened to the ERP in Argentina. While urgent, as a possible tactic, in certain Maitan, Ernest Mandel and Pierre Daniel’s account is beautifully written situations, when coupled with building Frank. As the discussion unfolded, the and personal, Ernie’s is a powerful fac- revolutionary working class parties in mood was that the FI would soon lead tual account based on scholarly sources. liberated zones in many countries in the urban centers through militants The turn of the 1969 World becoming rooted in the struggles of the Latin America. Livio Maitan even predicted that the next World Congress Congress was not to be limited to Latin workers. But any decision to launch America, but signaled an ultraleft turn such a guerrilla struggle would have to would be held in Bolivia. Ernie describes how the British delegation (except for for many sections, especially in Europe. be based on a concrete analysis of the The idea for Europe was that the sec- political situation in each country, and Ernie and Jess), which had been inclined to support the minority before the tions would undertake “minority would have to include an assessment of actions” including in some cases the size of our forces, which were small. Congress, was so swayed by this euphoria they switched sides. “minority violence” that would draw In any case, the minority considered it in other groups to the left of the CPs wrong for the FI to impose such a tactic The attempt to apply the new line and Social Democrats, and which in on the sections, something only they on the ground in Bolivia was quickly turn would galvanize the working class were in a position to implement. The crushed in a month or so after the into action. Such wheels within wheels, majority had made the error of a sche- Congress. In Argentina the process also with the smallest eventually turning matic analysis that in the situation of led to disaster, but took some years to the great wheel of the working class, U.S.-backed military dictatorships (and play out. Ironically, about this time, in left out the need for a mass revolution- there were many on the continent), both Bolivia and Argentina there were ary socialist party rooted in the work- there could be no democratic openings, big democratic openings that led to ing class. This was a misguided reading and any worker uprising would be sim- massive worker’s struggles. Those sec- of the May-June events in France. ply crushed. Therefore, the only strategy tions in each country that implement- Indeed, it was the lack of such a party for the whole continent was rural guer- ed the 1969 World Congress line, stood that led to the dissipation of the pre- rilla warfare for a prolonged period. The apart from these worker battles. revolutionary situation that developed majority had elevated a possible tactic Daniel and the LCR played an in France in May-June 1968. The in some countries into a general line important role in supporting the majority predicted in 1971 that suc- and strategy for a whole continent. Argentine group led by Roberto cessful proletarian revolutions would The representatives of the Bolivian Santucho in carrying out first the rural take place in Europe within five years. section to the Congress were enthusias- version of the tactic, then urban guer- The result was that the differences tic for the majority orientation, and rilla war. Santucho’s Revolutionary that emerged at the 1969 World were in fact, we found out, in the pro- Army of the People (ERP) embraced Congress deepened, and led in the next cess of attempting to implement it. The fully one postulate of the 1969 World years to the formation of two factions, Argentine section had split over the Congress, which visualized peasants the International Majority Tendency orientation before the Congress, with and urban intellectuals initiating (IMT) and the Leninist Trotskyist one group led by Roberto Santucho armed actions outside of the workers’ Faction (LTF). There were splits as well (although he was not at the Congress) organizations. Some these ERP actions in many sections of our international supporting the majority and well on its were spectacular, but futile. The horri- movement, including in the U.S., with way to implementing the proposal. The ble tragedy that ensued over time opposing groups lining up with one or other side of the split, led by Hugo resulted in the slaughter by the armed the other international factions. This Moreno, supported the International forces of hundreds of wonderful and debilitating situation wasn’t overcome minority. The young leaders of the devoted but misguided comrades, until late in 1976, when the majority of LCR, including Daniel, were not only many of whom Daniel personally

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 65 the IMT adopted a resolution, “Self There is much more of value in both Rouge, as a daily, which Daniel was at Criticism on Latin America” that repu- volumes of Ernie’s and Daniel’s mem- the center of. “Duck or Rabbit” deals diated in detail the 1969 World oirs. In addition to their insights into more broadly with the press, including Congress. By that time, the “Hasty all the personalities they were in con- the left and the bourgeois press. These Leninism,” as Bensaid characterized tact with (many of whom I knew), as are thoughtful chapters. Another I the ultraleftism of the LCR and many well as their personal journeys through liked was his musings inspired by being European sections in the first half of the political struggles of the day, I in Mexico at Trotsky’s “Blue House,” the 1970s, had also run its course. The would call attention to these valuable that has a good and eloquent outline of way was open for the dissolution of the contributions. the Dewey Commission on the infa- factions, and an attempt made to In Ernie’s second volume, a chapter mous Moscow Trials. rebuild the International, which on Healy’s launching a physical attack Another penetrating part is Daniel’s Caroline Lund and I were part of, on him for selling a pamphlet critical thumbnail sketch of the three volumes along with other younger leaders from of the SLL. This not only showed the of Marx’s Capital and their relevance both the former IMT and LTF. degeneration of Healy by the mid to the world today. An account of this long faction fight 1960s, but also the reaction of many on There is a main theme of Daniel’s is more completely told in my two- the left too frightened of Healy’s tactics book, which runs throughout text. He volume political memoir, The Party, to come to Ernie’s defense is telling. takes it up from many different view- which covers my years in the SWP and There is also a chapter of how Ernie points. He reveals it with observations Fourth International, and deals with and Jess got to know Tamara and Isaac about his own beliefs, held until his much of the period that Ernie and Deutscher, through Ernie and death, and in polemics with others. Daniel discuss. These three books are Deutscher’s work around the Russell That theme is to sharply repudiate all in fact complementary concerning this Foundation. This sheds new (at least to those who have abandoned their period, for better or worse. I say for me) insight into Deutscher, who is youthful Marxist and revolutionary better or worse because they are the most well known for his three-volume ideas, their politics and activism for the only books, whatever their strengths biography of Trotsky. Ernie also men- bourgeois life. He is especially dismis- and weaknesses, that are about this tions Deutscher’s work, The Non- sive of all those “soixante-huitars”— part of the history of the FI as a whole. Jewish Jew, which referenced figures the “sixty-eighters”—who were in the Daniel, in his brilliant work does in such as Spinoza, Marx, Heine, Freud, streets in May-June, but have turned essence repudiate the ultraleftism of Rosa Luxemburg and Trotsky. their backs on the best thing they had those years of “hasty Leninism” he was This leads me to Daniel’s own chap- ever done in their lives. Some of these part of. Maybe it’s too much to expect, ter dealing with this question, called are former LCR members, including but I find fault with some of his “The Marriano Enigma,” on his own Daniel’s former mentor, Henri Weber, attempts to gloss over the mistakes of non-Jewish Jewishness, as well as the who became a Senator for the social the LCR leadership, including his own. whole “Jewish question,” and Israel. It democrats. I will give only one example, his refer- is a very good chapter. He recalls a joke As we know, there has been a coun- ence to a document that became I remember from that time, concern- ter-revolution to “The Sixties” led by famous in the faction fight that was ing the fact that many of the LCR’s the bourgeoisie worldwide which has co-authored by him, titled, “Is the leaders were Jewish: The only reason drawn into its wake many former fight- Question of Power Posed? Let’s Pose the LCR leadership meetings were not ers, intellectual and physical. Daniel, It!” The discussion of this document in in Yiddish was because Daniel was who became in his final decades one of Daniel’s book evades its content, which Sephardic. France’s major public intellectuals, a was none other than to propose guer- While not wanting to lessen the position he attained without conceding rilla warfare for France, along the lines anything to bourgeois opinion—all the of the ERP in Argentina. To this end, it importance of Daniel’s other chapters, I would note especially the one on while fully committed to building a argued, the LCR should begin to pre- revolutionary organization, takes them pare to go underground. Following “Restrained Violence,” which in part comes to terms with the days of “hasty all on, from Foucault to the theoretical closely the line of the ERP, the docu- retreat by many from Marxism, under ment affirms that the road forward for Leninism,” but expands further to discuss other forms of political violence, the system of ideas known as “Post- the LCR was via the French peasantry modernism.” and “urban middle layers.” The major- including that of imperialism. Also ity of the LCR leadership quite wisely “Colour Rouge” which deals in part An example in Ernie’s book is David rejected this course. with the LCR’s launching of its paper, Horowitz, who worked with Ernie in

66 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 the Bertrand Russell foundation, and is known today as a neoconservative. The Troy Davis Tragedy Book Review by Mumia Abu-Jamal One excuse some of these renegades make is the following: “The ‘problem of generations’ has sometimes provid- I Am Troy Davis, by Jen Marlow, Nonetheless, almost all the witnessed a clever pretext for replacing social Martina Davis-Correia and Troy es recanted, casting serious doubt on classes with age classes,” Daniel writes. Anthony Davis, Haymarket Books. the conviction, telling of the threats “A reassuring biased representation of The name of Troy Davis is known to they received at the station. antagonisms: ‘it’ll pass,’ this ‘it’ mean- most of us, largely because of media A turning point came on August 17, ing revolt, insubordination, recalci- coverage. 2009, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in trance—since youth does indeed have a rare ruling, sent the case back to to ‘pass.’ A happy ending. Everything But the details of his epic struggle, and the denial of the courts (state and Georgia’s federal court for an eviden- ends up returning to order and rank. A tiary hearing. At last, the evidence came question of biology. The blasé wisdom federal) to seriously hear his claims are a lot lesser known. in: mass recantations, including new of sober old men.” witnesses attesting to Davis’s inno- Daniel had to learn, as we all have Now, a recent book on the case, cence. entitled, I Am Troy Davis, focuses on to, to live with disappointments and Alas, it was not enough, for a setbacks. He had to learn to temper his the Davis family, and reveals how the denial of justice tore the family apart. Georgia federal judge, William Moore, youthful impatience with the way the tossed out most of the evidence, find- world is into a “slow impatience”— It is a tale of misplaced vengeance, ing recanted testimony “unworthy of which by the way is the correct transla- of political opportunism, judicial cow- belief.” tion of the title of his book. ardice, and relentless struggle. It is the The ups and downs of judicial for- Another quote from Daniel: “The tale of courage against great adversity, tragedy and political betrayals (like the tune raised the hopes of his mother, Polish dissident Karol Modzelewski, Virginia, a deeply spiritual, prayerful when asked one day for the secret of his Black DA elected by Savannah, who echoed his white predecessors). woman, his sister, Martina, and the perseverance, despite disappointments rest of the family, only to dash them and disillusions, simply replied: ‘loyal- When Troy Davis was arrested on against the rocks of despair. ty to persons unknown’….these elec- August 23, 1989, it was because he tive affinities, these molecular loyalties, turned himself in (after being told On April 12, 2011, Virginia Davis this hidden community of sharing; this about the case by his sister), certain passed away. minuscule conspiracy and discreet that he would be cleared of the murder On September 21, 2011, Troy conjuration whose ‘secret name,’ for of a Savannah, Georgia cop. Anthony Davis was killed by the State Heine, was communism, transmitted But the City, using threats and fear, of Georgia. from one person to another. Despite assembled an ignoble chorus of night On December 1, 2011, Martina the infamies committed in its name, it people to sell their version of the events, Davis-Correia died after a decade-long remains the most pertinent word, the and he was speedily convicted and sent fight against cancer. most freighted with memory, the most to Georgia’s Death Row. Virginia and Martina died of bro- precise and most apt to name the his- His sister, Martina Davis-Correia ken hearts. toric issues of the present time.” fought, virtually alone, to bring light to Troy Davis died from a broken judi- Daniel Bensaid remained true to her younger brother’s innocence, and cial system. this profound idea. The same can be to find qualified lawyers to take the said of Ernie Tate. case, for long hard years. —PrisonRadio.org, October 13, 2014 When a team of lawyers took the Write to Mumia at: case, it was in shambles, and it took Mumia Abu-Jamal AM-8335 digging to find the truth: that Troy SCI-Mahanoy Davis was indeed innocent, and police 301 Morea Road had forced people to testify falsely, or Frackville, PA 17932 they would face charges of being accomplices to the killing.

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 67 The Barking Dog Book review by Gregg Shotwell

The Barking Dog, a collection of auto fellow militants. I didn’t need to reread ters from Germany. This list is off the plant newsletters by Caroline Lund. these old shop floor flyers, I thought— top of my head. Full disclosure: I asked Caroline I had lived it. I read letters from women fighting Lund’s lifetime partner and comrade, But as I turned the pages, I realized harassment, disabled workers fighting Barry Sheppard, to collect and pub- that the times and struggles I lived were persecution, and of course the voices of lish The Barking Dog, because I thought bigger than me, too big for me to workers who feared to give their names it was one of the best shop floor newslet- absorb all at once. This was Caroline’s but needed to tell their stories and ters from an auto worker I had ever read. special talent. hoped to rally their fellow workers to I believed this collection would be an The Barking Dog is a people’s podium. fight. The Barking Dog was no lone wolf. inspiration and a guide for the next gen- Caroline was the editor, not a soapbox Caroline Lund was a socialist of the eration of rank-and-file autoworkers. orator. She stood up for the underdog. old religion—like Eugene Debs, who But I was wrong: The Barking Dog is She voiced unpopular but thought- once said, “I would not lead you out if I much more than that. ful opinions, confronted harassment could; for if you could be led out, you The Barking Dog is a history lesson: head-on, and didn’t back down when could be led back again. I would have you an analysis of the machinations of The make up your minds that there is noth- Machine That Changed the World, ing that you cannot do for yourselves.” Toyota’s lean production system, from Caroline Lund was Young workers and activists looking inside the beast itself. Caroline worked a socialist of the old for ways to connect and invigorate a at the NUMMI plant, celebrated for new generation of militant workers can bringing Toyota’s methods to U.S. religion—like Eugene use The Barking Dog as a template. It’s manufacturing. (The system deskills Debs, who once said, simple. All it takes is guts. work and chops it up into ever-smaller “I would not lead you Gregg Shotwell is a retired UAW-GM units, so that workers are interchange- member and author of Autoworkers able and easier to speed up or staff out if I could; for if you Under the Gun. down. Labor Notes dubbed it “manage- could be led out, you ment-by-stress.”) To order, write Barry Sheppard could be led back again. [email protected], $20 in the U.S., The book is an exposé of corporate $25 elsewhere. corruption and union capitulation, I would have you make from the point of view of rank-and- up your minds that —Labor Notes, October 28, 2014 filers. It’s a study of ordinary workers there is nothing that http://www.labornotes.org/ pushed to the breaking point, who blogs/2014/10/review-shop-floor-news- decided to push back. you cannot do for letter-voice-barking-underdog It’s a public record of the resistance yourselves.” and rebellion that grows in the hearts of workers who are often ignored and the company or the controlling union dismissed by media hacks and union caucus tried to shut her down. But she office rats. devoted more space to voices of her fel- And it’s the journal of a woman low workers, and to struggles in other with the wit, fortitude, and drive to workplaces, than she did to herself. pursue her vision of what it meant to do the right thing, against all odds. All it takes is guts The Barking Dog includes the voices A people’s podium of rank-and-file workers at Saturn, I was surprised by what The Barking Caterpillar, Ford, Delphi, GM, and Dog revealed. I didn’t work at NUMMI United Airlines; longshore workers; a with Caroline, but we were friends and fired Bart worker in San Francisco; let-

68 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 The Assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Book Review by Roger Hollander

Why the U.S. Government for assassinating Malcolm X in New and organizers for revolutionary Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin York’s Audubon Ballroom on February change in the American economic and Luther King, Jr. 21, 1965 and Martin Luther King, Jr. at political system. By Roland Sheppard the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on In his final years, Malcolm X April 4, 1968. The fact that Sheppard is ReMarx Publishing, 2014 expanded the fight against racism to one of the few remaining eyewitnesses include the fight against poverty and The question of who ordered the to the assassination of Malcolm X adds war. In 1962, he supported striking assassinations of Malcolm X and a note of immediacy and authenticity hospital workers in New York City. Martin Luther King Jr. is a vital one, to his analysis. And he was the first mass leader in the and thousands of pages have been writ- Sheppard describes the unusual United States to publically oppose ten on the issue. Those who dismiss the absence of security on the day of America’s war against Vietnam. notion that the United States Malcolm X’s assassination, and he Government would engage in assassi- In his speech at the Oxford Union recounts his personal observations of in 1964, Malcolm X gives Shakespeare nation (by characterizing those who what happened in the crucial moments. believe this as “conspiracy nuts”) will- a revolutionary twist. He begins with He tells of a second suspect appre- the famous question: “Whether it was fully ignore the 1975 Church hended that day by the New York Committee Report (that exposed nobler in the mind of man to suffer Police, a man whose existence later the slings and arrows of outrageous covert, illegal government activities) disappeared from the official version of and the many CIA-orchestrated assas- fortune, or to take up arms against a events. However, when Sheppard was sea of troubles and, by opposing, end sinations and coups d’etat from Africa interrogated at the Harlem Police to Latin America. them.” His answer, “And I go for that. Station, he saw this man walking freely If you take up arms you’ll end it, but if The CIA’s experience with overseas into one of the offices. Sheppard recog- you sit around and wait for the one assassinations has given it more than nized him as the assassin. who’s in power to make up his mind enough expertise to conduct domestic In 1999, the King family launched a that he should end it, you’ll be waiting assassinations, with the added advan- civil suit to expose the facts surround- a long time.” tage of having control over investigat- ing the assassination of Martin Luther The U.S. Government also feared ing agencies at the local, state, and King, Jr. national levels. Malcolm X’s growing international “After considering all the evi- stature and the political connections he Deciding criminal guilt is largely dence, a Memphis jury ruled that was making in Africa, Asia, and Latin based on proving means, motive, and someone other than James Earl Ray America. opportunity. When it comes to politi- had been the shooter … that the cal assassination, the key question is City of Memphis, the State of Sheppard reminds us that Malcolm motive. Tennessee, and federal government X met with Che Guevara and the agencies were all involved in the Cuban delegation to the United Powerful government institutions assassination.” Nations in New York, in December of possess, or can easily obtain, the means 1964. He was invited by Ahmed Ben Motive and the opportunity to conduct an Bella, the leader of the Algerian revolu- assassination and divert attention to “a The heart of Sheppard’s work is his tion, to participate along with Che and lone gunman,” or a patsy like Lee analysis of the motive for these two other independence movement leaders Harvey Oswald. The mainstream government assassinations. at a conference in Bandung beginning media conveniently forget this fact as There is nothing more threatening March 3, 1965. He had also arranged they rush to legitimize wacky theories to the U.S. corporate elite, the govern- for the issue of human rights violations that take the heat off the CIA, FBI, ment, the military, and the mass media against Afro-Americans to be consid- NSA, and police. than the prospect of revolution. ered on March 12, 1965, by the In Why the U.S. Government Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. International Court of Justice at The Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin were developing beyond their original Hague. His assassination put an end to Luther King, Jr., Roland Sheppard Black liberation philosophies. They all of this. (Ben Bella was assassinated exposes the U.S. Government’s motive were emerging as powerful advocates just four months later.)

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 69 Fighting words King called for a coalition of labor, tried to blackmail him into silence. To Martin Luther King, Jr. was also anti-racist, anti-poverty, and anti-war discredit Malcolm X, the FBI paid an beginning to challenge a political sys- activists; and a united movement poses informer inside the Nation of Islam. tem that profits from racism. Sheppard the greatest threat to the status quo. When these efforts failed, assassination cites King’s speech at the Southern was the final option. Marxists? Christian Leadership Conference The U.S. Government assassinated In his books on Malcolm X, George Convention in August 1967, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Breitman states, “Malcolm was not yet because they rightly came to under- “Why are there forty million a Marxist.” A reviewer of Breitman’s poor people in America? …when stand and challenge the capitalist eco- work added, “Not yet! But it was only a you begin to ask that question, you nomic system, its social impact (war, matter of time.” are raising a question about the eco- poverty, injustice, environmental nomic system, about a broader dis- Malcolm X wrote: disaster), and its reliance on racism to tribution of wealth…you begin to “It is impossible for capitalism to divide-and-conquer. question the capitalist economy.” survive, primarily because the sys- Sheppard concludes with an appeal King pointed out that the Northern tem of capitalism needs some blood to action; we must learn the truth to suck. Capitalism used to be like Liberals, who had given moral and about Malcolm X and Martin Luther an eagle, but now it’s more like a financial support to end Jim Crow laws King, Jr. so we can carry their vision in the South, would not support the vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood forward and conclude the struggle they effort to eliminate economic segrega- so bravely began. tion. As Sheppard states, “Martin Luther whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, King, Jr. was assassinated to subvert the —Black Agenda Report, September like the vulture, and it can only suck 24, 2014 Poor People’s Campaign. King was the blood of the helpless. As the building a mass movement against pov- nations of the world free themselves, http://www.blackagendareport.com/ erty, and those who profit from poverty then capitalism has less victims, less node/14434 were determined to stop him.” to suck, and it becomes weaker and King’s opposition to the U.S. war weaker. It’s only a matter of time in against Vietnam sent shivers down the my opinion before it will collapse back of the military-industrial com- completely.” plex. In his historic sermon at the Martin Luther King, Jr., may not Riverside Church in New York on have been as far along the road of April 4, 1967, sometimes referred to as rejecting capitalism for socialism. the greatest MLK speech you never Nevertheless, I believe that this was heard of, King exclaimed: also a matter of time. In a 1966 speech “Money that should have been to his staff, King explained: “…some- spent on Johnson’s War on Poverty thing is wrong…with capitalism… was being lost in Vietnam’s killing There must be a better distribution of fields…A nation that continues year wealth and maybe America must move after year to spend more money on toward a democratic socialism.” military defense than on programs The U.S. Government was deter- of social uplift is approaching spiri- mined that neither of these fighters tual death…We are taking the Black should be allowed to have that time. young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them However, before moving to assassinate 8,000 miles away to guarantee liber- them, it tried to “neutralize” them. ties in Southeast Asia which they Sheppard describes the activities of had not found in Southwest Georgia COINTELPRO, the FBI’s program to and East Harlem. So we have been infiltrate, disrupt, and destroy the Civil repeatedly faced with the cruel irony Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam- of watching Negro and white boys War movement, and any other threat on TV screens as they kill and die to the status quo. together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the FBI boss, J. Edgar Hoover, called same schools.” King “the most dangerous Negro” and

70 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Letter to the Editors

Dear Editors, But those of us on the inside see some- and don’t reflect upon the practical My uncle was Chief of Police in thing different. There has been no effect these changes will have on the Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin when the reduction in the number of cells used entire prison population. By focusing town of 10,000 was a rowdy lumber- for solitary confinement. Prisons are upon certain groups and limiting their jack town, which had 23 bars and overcrowded so every cell must be time spent in solitary confinement, houses of ill repute on one block. He used. If prison officials cannot fill soli- these reformers have inadvertently kept order in that situation yet never tary confinement cells with the men- placed the burden of solitary confine- took his gun out of its holster. tally ill, they will fill them with other ment on other inmates. If reformers inmates. Beds in restricted housing would have pushed for a reduction in Now the town is about the same size, units (RHU’s) will not go unfilled. We the total number of beds dedicated to but most of the bars are gone, and all of are no closer to the goal of shutting solitary confinement and not just an the lumberjacks. The town is now made down solitary confinement. What has exemption for certain groups, real up of retired farmers and workers at the happened is that its burden has been progress could have been achieved. For computer factories in the area. shifted onto other inmates. now, all that has occurred is a shift in A front-page article by Chris Vetter Prison officials have appeased the the insidious effects of solitary confine- from the October 21, 2014 Leader- reformers by limiting the amount of ment, not its elimination. Telegram titled, “Chippewa County time mentally ill inmates can spend in Limiting the number of beds used Sheriff’s Office Buys Drone,” says, “…a an RHU. But those beds will not stay for solitary confinement is a better solu- mechanized device equipped with video empty. Those inmates with no report- tion. Smaller RHUs force the adminis- and photographic equipment can mon- ed mental illness now find themselves tration to limit the amount of time itor potentially dangerous situations 1 facing more misconduct reports and anyone, mentally ill or not, could spend without risking officers’ lives.” longer sentences in the RHU. The there. Fewer beds in the RHU mean less Clearly, the militarization of the number of beds dedicated to solitary time for everyone. It means the elimina- police is spreading even to small com- confinement have not been reduced so tion of torture. That’s the goal. munities like mine. they must be filled. As long as there are beds in the With warm comradely greetings, At SCI-Smithfield, where I am RHU, prison officials will fill them by Joe Johnson housed, there are over 1300 inmates. increasing the number of misconduct The RHU holds 300 beds. There isn’t reports issued or by placing inmates enough bed space in general popula- under administrative custody. It’s 1 http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/front_ tion for everyone to be placed there. called “population management.” page/article_79e8fea4-59a1-11e4-ae99- 67abf55f0473.html Some inmates must be housed in the Eliminating those beds or significantly RHU. reducing their number would force Another method being used at SCI- prison officials to use alternative disci- Dear Editors, Smithfield is the increased use of plinary measures, less tortuous ones. If the goal is the curtailment or abolition For some time now, there has been administrative custody, a supposedly of solitary confinement, then seeking a a campaign to abolish or severely limit non-punitive status under which reduction in the number of beds in the use of solitary confinement due to inmates are held in the RHU. Currently, RHUs is a definite way to achieve that the proven detrimental effects it has on more than 30 percent of SCI- goal. Without a reduction in the num- inmates. There have been noteworthy Smithfield’s RHU are being held in ber of beds in the RHU’s, all that will changes in the policies of a number of administrative (protective) custody. be achieved is a shifting of torture, not corrections departments. Even These inmates are held indefinitely in its cessation. Pennsylvania, where I am imprisoned, the RHU. They’re not in the RHU for has made changes. Vulnerable groups, breaking a prison rule, but they bear Write to: like the mentally ill, have seen signifi- the burden of solitary confinement Stephen Wilson # LB8480 cant reductions in the amount of time nonetheless. P.O. Box 999 they spend in solitary confinement. Sometimes, prison reformers call 1120 Pike Street From the outside, it looks like progress. for changes in policies and practices Huntingdon, PA 16652

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 71 Dear Editors, What I am saying is that there are Texas to give fair, honest and equal Prison conditions in Texas are hor- men and women in Texas prisons who coverage to our suffering? When will rible. Now we are delving into the deep have been “credited” time which we all come together in order to resist nuances of the “Happy Slave” mentality, exceeds their actual sentence by five and rebel against an oppressive system, which is so very pervasive in Texas and percent and in some cases 100 percent. which has no interest in our success or is counter to any movement which seeks That means on paper they have served future happiness? Can we, the lumpen- to liberate us. In order to liberate our up to 200 percent of their sentences! underclass in Texas, match or surpass bodies, we must first liberate our minds. Why are they still in prison? The Texas the efforts of 33,000 determined and Department of Criminal Injustice told single-minded prisoners housed in the Some years ago when the Federal “Uncle Sam” they would honor a pris- state of California who finally had authorities took over the Texas oner’s good time and work credits enough and, with their 2013 hunger Department of Criminal Justice, a instead of paying for the work. strike, took their destiny into their own question was put to the prisoners by Comrades, we have been lied to! The hands? Our path to freedom in Texas the USDOJ (Department of INjustice). oppressors who run the Texas govern- starts with proper education. Grasping “Would you like to get paid for work ment have attached a numeric mone- the concepts set forth by Mao, Lenin you perform in Texas prison, or would tary value to prisoners, and so there is and Marx is a start. you rather receive ‘good time’ and no way the Texas Board of Pardons ‘work time’ credits that could be In “Liberation or Gangsterism Part I and Paroles will ever honor these and II” Comrade Russell Maroon counted for reducing your sentence?” bullshit credits and release us. Prisoners given such a choice would Shoatz tells us that the imperialist opt for early release. But the prisoners So with this and many other rele- oppressor will initiate and implement were bamboozled and hoodwinked. I vant factors considered, we must ask programs to sabotage the success of a have seen numerous men who had ourselves—“When is enough, revolutionary movement or destroy it prison time-slips that showed an enough?” How many more comrades from the inside out: cooptation, fear, accrued combination of flat time must we see murdered before our eyes? or as in the case of Comrade Kevin (actual time served), good time (award- How many times will we allow the ‘Rashid’ Johnson, separating the most ed for good behavior), and work time Office of Inspector General in Texas to advanced revolutionary element from (credit awarded for working) that had rule these homicides to be accidents, or the people. exceeded their official sentence length suicides, or justified? How much lon- Serving the people is a big part of by almost two times! ger must we wait for journalists in being a New Afrikan Black Panther. Educating the lumpen, our fellow prisoners, and “free-world” supporters and comrades is one aspect of serving; awakening the lumpen is another. There is something exciting going on in Texas! I encourage you to learn more about us and the work we are doing in Texas and beyond. We definitely could use all of your help and support. Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win! All Power to the People! Keith “Malik” Washington

Write to Keith “Malik” Washington: Keith “Malik” Washington, TDC #1487958 Ramsey I 1100 FM 655 Rosharon, TX 77583

72 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6

Nat Weinstein—An Oral History Nat Weinstein—An Oral History Edited by Sophie Hagen, Based on an interview with Nat Weinstein in November 2007 by Conor Casey

In November 2007, Nat Weinstein native language, so locals were all but he said I was his brother-in-law, sat down with Conor Casey, an intern at German, all Italian, and so on. and I didn’t find out until I heard the Holt Labor Library, to talk about his That was naturally phased out as the people saying, “Oh, yes—Marty’s life as a trade unionist and revolutionary immigrants became integrated into the brother in law!” socialist. Nat had a chance to review the United States. Actually, he degenerated very quick- transcript once and append his com- ly with the power, privilege, and so on. The Painters Union ments, but his political and family com- If you have family or people, you have mitments and declining health prevented My local was 892 in District Council to be pretty strong to stick it out under him from further preparing the text for 9. It was really one big unit with ten or those circumstances. A lot of people go publication. Following his death on May eleven different locals—Manhattan bad when they have positions of privi- 9, 2014, Socialist Viewpoint now pres- and the Bronx. The women painters lege and power. So it fell to the party to ents Nat’s reflections on his life in order were in a separate district council. We discipline him, too. We did it, but it to illuminate the conflicts, intellectual had about ten or eleven thousand of was very difficult. Life is hard for revo- evolution, and moments of both deepest the district council, about a thousand lutionists and for a revolutionary party. disappointment and sweetest victory in a members of Local 892 at the time. life of socialist struggle. This is the second Their meetings were two hundred peo- Getting involved in the Socialist of three installments of “Nat Weinstein— ple every week. The level of union Workers Party An Oral History.” All efforts have been activity was very high at the end of the I was pretty good at recruiting peo- made to preserve both the content and war, in 1946. We ran a comrade for ple when I was young, winning people style of Nat’s remarks. secretary treasurer of the district coun- over in personal conversations. But cil and he won. The first time he ran they had to be ready. You can’t win Part IV: The 1940s was before I got into the union and he somebody over if they’re not ready. lost by 13 votes. Then I joined—I was Joining the painting profession When they’re ready, they’re easy, recruited—I was colonized. In 1946, because they keep asking questions. I became a painter; I was working the party wanted to reinforce our frac- for my wife Sylvia’s uncle. He was tion. We had about three people in the I was a pretty good street corner doing jobs of his own and paying me a union. The guy who was running for speaker, even though I didn’t start out good wage and I was learning. I didn’t secretary treasurer won by 113 votes. eloquently. The first time I tried to know how to paint, but I had to go the That’s a lot of the ten thousand— speak in a union hall, it was very stu- hard way, painting fire escapes. I was maybe six or seven thousand—votes. pid. It was a seaman’s meeting, a meet- ice-cold in the winter—it was freezing. So that was a “squeaky” victory, just ing of the SIU, in New York. There I had to work: I had a wife. I had a baby. like the loss was a “squeaky” loss. were about a thousand workers there and I got up. I tried to sound like an I was young. In 1946, I was 21, I So an SWP member held office in a guess, on my way to being 22. I always old sailor. I don’t even want to try to local AFL union in New York. He was reproduce what I said, but they were all looked younger than my age and I the secretary treasurer, and we had dressed like a kid: I wore dungarees, smiling at this young radical that they comrades who were elected to labor all heard and knew about. In those which painters don’t wear—they wear offices—district council and local a suit to work. It’s a culture. Of course, days, there was lots of socialists, unions. In fact, we had a caucus and I Stalinists, Trotskyists around. it was mostly Jews and Italians in New was made the secretary of the caucus. I York. In my day, in the teens and twen- had to take minutes and mimeograph When I joined the party, a lot of ties, they were still immigrants. Earlier the postcards. We did that in the party your education came from discussion painters were Germans who had been headquarters at 116 University Place. I with other members and from going to an earlier migration. There weren’t had just come into a union, then. I classes at 116 University Place. (That’s many Irish painters in New York for think the guy who was my comrade where I was the organizer from 1960 some reason. had to explain why he picked me to be until about 1965.) They used to have “language the recording secretary because it’s We began recruiting youth, student locals”—locals that were authorized to kind of a privileged post. It’s somebody youth. In a way, they learned faster conduct their proceedings in their representing the authority of the union, than workers do because that’s what

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 73 they do. They’re dealing with ideas, a test, to make it visible to the com- involvement in the civil rights struggle. they’re college students. rades that it wouldn’t work. We played a big role. Sylvia and I The Goldman/Cannon split So the only thing we did with that were active in the Black movement, unity is we organized a bazaar—we which was unusual. All our comrades I listened to the debate in the SWP used to organize bazaars to raise were a little bit interested, participated between Goldman and Cannon in money. We had a unit that we called in demonstrations, and played some 1945. It was over the question of the the New York School of Social Science kind of a role—usually in white orga- defense of the Soviet Union. Goldman and the businesses of the area would nizations in support of the Black strug- and Morrow had taken the position think that it had something to do with gle. But Sylvia and I joined the National that once the Stalin-Hitler Pact had the New School of Social Research. We Association for the Advancement of occurred, the revolution was no longer were a community organization; we Colored People and comrades were worthy of defense. That’s pretty much went to the neighborhood stores and urged to do things like that. It’s hard their position, so the debate was over asked for donations, and then sold for the whites to work in an organiza- the question of the defense of the Soviet them. Comrades would bring their tion like the NAACP, but we found we Union, which was pretty hard to do in junk. I used to bring my little paintings were able to. The racial crisis in the those days, with the Stalin-Hitler Pact and stuff and sell them. United States made them suspicious of still fresh in mind and the reactionary all whites, including those that came role played by the Soviet Union, the Anyway, we organized a bazaar over, because a lot of whites would Stalinist bureaucracy, during the war. together, the two groups. We worked come in with the wrong attitude, like That role was contradictory, but just on that and we worked with them on they’re there to teach more than help— like everything in life is contradictory. the committee to raise money for the usually socialists, Stalinists, social dem- They did some good things and they Trotskyist victims of fascist occupation ocrats, and so on. did many bad things, but the bad out- in Europe that were in dire straits and weighed, on the balance sheet, the good. needed financial help. The unity project I joined the NAACP in ’53, right after never got any further than that. They Emmett Till1. Of course I tried to recruit That split recurred when the lost interest because they didn’t want to to the SWP, but there was a line I didn’t Goldman/Morrow faction proposed be part of a democratic centralist orga- cross. We’ve always had an orientation unity with the Workers’ Party in 1946, nization. We had a bigger organization to the Black struggle for freedom. after the debate between Goldman and than them, you see. They took 40 per- Cannon. The Workers’ Party was uni- The Khrushchev revelations and cent of the party and we grew more ty-mongering the SWP, and we went than they did during the war. the Hungarian revolution through a relationship with them to see There was a marked increase in if unity would work. Goldman said, “I They argued that the Soviet Union SWP members after the 1956 can argue just as well as you can argue was no longer a degenerated workers’ Khrushchev revelations about about the defense of the Soviet Union, state. They had two positions in the Stalinism. That was a big conquest for but it’s not important now and you Schachtmanite group. One was that it us, for the reputation and everything should unify with the Workers’ Party.” was a new kind of state called “bureau- that Trotsky stood for, even though That was their line. We actually were cratic collectivism” and the other fac- Khrushchev didn’t tell it all, by any testing them—they had been asking us tion argued that it was state capitalism. means. But he told a lot. He punctured about unifying the two Trotskyist What state capitalism means is that it’s the balloon of Stalin’s image. Of course, groups. The question of the defense of capitalist. There’s no such thing as the Soviet CP party leadership split, the Soviet Union was not that impor- “state capitalism” except the Soviet and the U.S. Communist Party was tant right now and we had lived in the Union could be described as state capi- split. The CP was always oriented to same organization, so we took them up talist, but it’s a superficial analysis. the Democratic Party, at least since the on it after a while because it was very There’s never been such a thing and 1930s, since Roosevelt. hard to oppose it. that doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but we found too many contradictions to We recruited a few former CP mem- The party leadership took it on in such a conclusion. bers—not many. We won over a lot of good faith—they didn’t say it was a influence with people, including some- test. They just said “Okay, let’s try it. Part V: the 1950s body who was pretty prominent in the Let’s see if it will work.” Later on it “fellow travelers” of the Communist became clear to me that they had no The civil rights movement Party, who were affected because they confidence that it would work but they In the 1950s, both Nat and Sylvia were all Stalinist oriented. They were said they had no choice but to make it played a prominent role in the party’s affected more than the members of the

74 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 CP, who just got demoralized and draft gave students an even more com- came up with was the “Entrism Sui dropped out, the ones that were quick- pelling reason to rise up and become Generis” or entry of a special kind. ly affected by that information. part of a broader movement. Then [Pablo proposed that the Trotskyists We won over—as a supporter— there was the women’s liberation actually become members of the Clifford T. McAvoy, a guy who had movement, and of course the civil Communist Parties.] been the head of the American Labor rights movement played a powerful The FBI Party in New York, which was a role at that time. Stalinist-dominated or “front” organi- At our height in 1946, we probably During that period, the FBI visited zation. They elected a lot of people— had fifteen or sixteen hundred mem- constantly! They’d come knocking on local city officials—but they also sup- bers. The decline began with the your door. Sylvia was mostly at home— ported the Democratic Party, which McCarthy witch-hunt. It was very, very I was never at home or was working, labor parties are not supposed to do! effective in silencing the militants inside and Sylvia didn’t tell them anything, At least principled labor parties. the unions and, of course, our com- wouldn’t talk to them. They’d go and Because a party that says it defends the rades. That’s why we lost the United visit her where she was working, which workers against capitalists can’t sup- Auto Workers fraction as a result of means that they had followed her to see port “good capitalists.” ’Cause there their orientation during the Cochran where she was working. She was a wait- ain’t no good capitalists from the point Split, in 1953. We had a large auto ress, and they would come into the of view of their policies that they have, worker fraction, and we lost them restaurant, sit at one of the tables wher- the consistency of their positions. because one of their leaders—Cochran ever she was working, and sit down and talk and leave a big tip. Well, a big McAvoy died around the time of the himself—or maybe it was Mike Bartell, tip in those days in a restaurant—you Krushchev revelations. He came close one of the other leaders of their fac- know—a diner—a working man’s res- to us then. He wasn’t close to us before. tion—said that “the labor bureaucracy taurant. She wouldn’t tell them any- He was close enough that his wife join- is to the left of the working class.” The thing and couldn’t talk because she had ing the party after he died was a reflec- leader, Bert Cochran, was an experi- work and she couldn’t sit down and tion of the impact it had on him. enced autoworker intellectual. He was an intellectual who became a worker— talk to them and she wouldn’t. So they The Hungarian Revolution in 1956 he wasn’t a worker who became an visited her constantly and they would shook up the Communist Party, too. intellectual, see. The labor bureaucracy have visited me if they could find out That was the turning point where was leading the campaign against com- where I worked, but I worked in a dif- Khrushchev, I think, got back on the munists and the Reds inside the union! ferent place almost week to week. Stalinist line and was soon replaced. We had some influence in the CP, as The orientation of the Cochranites Recruiting was a kind of a mixed bag. You had two you would expect, and the Trotskyists I used to be a pretty good public in England made big headway. We won factions, or two currents that united around a program that was advanced speaker. I’d get up on a soapbox in a lot of top leaders of the CP at that Greenwich Village in New York. We time (not the uppermost leaders). They by Cochran and a guy by the name of George Clarke; that was his party name. went through a period where we did a were horrified by the role of the CP in lot of recruiting of people that way. We crushing the Hungarian Revolution, He had been in Europe representing the party in the Fourth International had big meetings, so sometimes a cou- because they created soviets! It was ple hundred people in the street. We modeled on the Bolshevik Revolution! for a couple years around that time. Michel Pablo, a Greek, was a leader of used to have a street meeting on 6th The CP had a larger cadre of work- the Fourth International in the ’50s. Avenue and 8th Street. It was the heart ers, as well as being the larger organiza- What appeared to be an approaching of the business district of Greenwich tion, so they had a lot more workers in imperialist war against the Soviet Village. That was around the time just industry, especially in the industrial Union, rolling back the recent occupa- before the Cuban Revolution—’59 and unions, but we had a small, solid cadre. tion of Eastern Europe, led Pablo to the immediately after. conclusion that they would be forced We had a meeting, in fact, a couple Ebbs and flows in membership to take a revolutionary stand to defend days after the Bay of Pigs and the hys- and the Cochran split the Soviet Union. Of course, there was teria was very much anti-Cuban, We recruited a lot of students, a certain logic to that but to say that because it looked like World War III beginning in the 1950s with the civil they would move to the left would be a was about to begin. Really. That’s the rights movement and the Cuban revo- legitimate proposition to have way it looked. If you were alive then lution. Then the Vietnam War and the advanced. But the approach that he and walking down the streets, people

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 75 would look at each other like: “Have were little tickets that people could note of it and he saw me—I was sitting you heard anything new? Have the charge for drinking, so no money right up in front. He says: “There’s a Russian ships arrived yet?” would be exchanged. reporter here. A white man. He’s lis- We had a street meeting. We were We got raided once at Mountain tened to this speech up until now and defending the Cuban Revolution Spring Camp. Some guy came in and the only time he got a pencil on paper against the invasion, and we had a very pretended to be a visitor and sat at the was when I said something about the friendly crowd but there was one guy bar and ordered a drink and we took his Jews.” That’s in one of his speeches, there yelling, “Castro-Oil!” He was money. We told him what to do and and nobody knows that it was me. drunk. “Castro-Oil!” He was a drunk- they camxe in with axes and they Anyway, I reported these things— en fool being provocative. He knew chucked up everything. The people who not the part about him mentioning enough of what was happening that he were technically in charge who identi- me—but I mentioned everything that knew he hated it, and it was scary. The fied themselves were arrested. They he was saying. The party trusted me, crowd didn’t respond, although you spent the night in jail. I think we won the comrades trusted me, and they could see they were under pressure. We that case, if I’m not mistaken. Well, that took it and began to come to the meet- were able to hold the street meeting, was democracy in the United States! ings. They saw for themselves and I but we had to end it prematurely, if I didn’t have to explain anymore. That’s Malcolm X remember right. At any rate, I tried to what I mean by “he had a proletarian get my kids to leave; they were in their We had organized three or four thrust to everything that he said.” The teens in those days, and they wouldn’t forums for Malcolm X. We were the things he said and what he stood for go. I tried to say, “Get out of here only white organization to do so. I was made a big impression and I think will because there’s going to be trouble!” the organizer when we did it. I was the be around for a long time, long after They wouldn’t go. They stayed there. one that established a relationship with he’s dead. He said things like: “For a That’s my kids! Red diaper babies. him. I reported what I had seen and capitalist to be revolutionary is like a Both of my daughters joined the Young heard when I went to the meetings when turkey laying a chicken egg”—or some- Socialist Alliance when they were 15 or he split from the Nation of Islam and he thing like that. He said it beautifully. formed the Organization for African 16 and so you can call them “red diaper [Malcolm X’s quotation reads as fol- babies.” They’re still socialists. American Unity. All his meetings were in the place where he was ultimately lows: “People will realize that it’s impossible for a chicken to produce a duck Part VI: The 1960s assassinated, the Audubon Ballroom. I reported what he was saying and it was egg—even though they both belong to New York forums shocking because he was way in advance the same family of fowl. A chicken just Nat organized Militant Labor Forums of everybody else in the leadership of the doesn’t have it within its system to pro- at 116 University Place every week, in Black movement at the time. duce a duck egg. It can’t do it. It can only produce according to what that particu- order to share the ideas of revolutionary The first time I heard him was at a socialism with a broader audience. lar system was constructed to produce. street meeting in Brooklyn. That’s why The system in this country cannot pro- We had a lot of social events. We when he broke with the Nation of duce freedom for an Afro-American. It is kept ourselves busy during the worst Islam I knew something about him. I impossible for this system, this economic period by having forums every week, didn’t know how good he was until I system, this political system, this social one night a week. We used to have went to this meeting and I was fasci- system, this system, period. It’s impossi- forums only in the wintertime, not in nated by everything he was saying. It ble for this system, as it stands, to pro- the summer. In the late ’50s, early ’60s, was revolutionary. It was revolutionary duce freedom right now for the Black I instituted the policy of forums every nationalism, but it had a working-class man in this country. week throughout the year, no matter thrust to it, and I’m listening to him what. We had forums every week with and I make no notes. I was there to “And if ever a chicken did produce a a social every week. Friday night social, make notes! I had nothing to write; I duck egg, I’m quite sure you would say it Saturday night forum. We would make was just so absorbed in what he was was certainly a revolutionary chicken!”] a little bit of money for the party from saying. I couldn’t make any notes. I At one point, before he went to the socials by selling beer and liquor, was listening, I just wanted to get it all Africa, we contacted him and invited which was illegal. We tried to circum- in. Then he said something about the him to speak at a meeting that we had vent the legality by buying little tickets Jews, because the Nation of Islam was organized in Harlem someplace; we from the 5- and 10-cent store, you very anti-Semitic at the time. It wasn’t didn’t think we had a big enough hall know, that had numbers on it. They that bad, but I felt compelled to make a for him to speak in our meeting hall.

76 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 We could hold 120, 130 people in our used to be. When we were there, it was ed, but once the decision is made, meeting hall, 116 University Place. really rigid rent control. We were able you’re obligated to support it in action. to get by. You’re not obligated, as I said, to Making ends meet The SWP was the dominant force in defend it. That’s a very subtle thing. It I was the organizer at 116 University doesn’t seem like much, but it’s Place from 1960 until about 1965. I the anti-war movement. Democratic centralism is what made the party designed to make sure that nobody think I was acting organizer in ’60 and feels that their independence has been I became organizer in 1961. strong and during the anti-war movement we met as a faction, as a party abridged. That’s important. It gives I think we were getting $35 a week caucus in the movement. Our policy you freedom and confidence in the when I was the organizer. Of course, I throughout the anti-war movement leadership of the party that allows this couldn’t live on $35 a week; Sylvia to happen, that wants this to happen, was very simple and easily understood worked, and I would work periodically that organizes the party so that this because our policy was class indepen- and I earned enough to collect unem- happens. Everybody understands. dence—independence of the anti-war ployment insurance. So I went through movement from the Democratic and Unions don’t follow democratic one period where I worked, I collected Republican parties. At the same time, centralism, of course, but in practice, unemployment insurance, I would we didn’t exclude people who were for once there’s a strike, once the majority stop collecting unemployment insur- has voted for a strike, everybody is sup- ance, I went back to work, and then I the Democrats—that was our policy. We didn’t say, “If you’re part of this posed to abide by that decision and not went back to full time in the party. cross the picket line. Other times, I’d take off for a couple of movement, we insist that you not sup- jobs and do a job here and there. port the Democratic Party.” We advo- You’ve got to follow the decision cated a policy that was in the best inter- made by the majority. See, that’s a very I began to find people that I’d ests of the movement against the war. important concept. In a democratic worked for as a contractor who liked We have an organizational principle organization that doesn’t follow that the work I did and called me. You’re policy, that permits the leadership to that we call “democratic centralism.” It not supposed to do that, but they called do anything that they want, you see the sounds like a contradiction in terms, me—rich people: people living on 5th effects. It also means that you can’t but it’s not. It’s a real contradiction. In Avenue right across from Central Park take the rank and file seriously, because other words, what “democratic cen- and places like that. I worked in a house they keep arguing and they keep saying tralism” means is democracy inform- for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. what they think. Especially if you’re You know, the ex-king of the United ing the positions of establishing poli- allowed to violate it in action. Kingdom. They were living in an apart- cies of worth. It’s centralism in action. Say there’s a vote in your local ment I worked on. Once the party decides some course of action, you can’t violate it. But you union. Well, everybody is expected to The union wage was, let’s say, a don’t have to defend it if you don’t vote with what the party decision is. hundred dollars a day. I would charge agree with it. See, that would be a mis- So we had factions, we had meet- two or three hundred for a day’s work. take. The Stalinists did that. They ings. We’d decide what our policy That way, I was able to get by putting would be. in a day or two here and a day or two forced those that disagreed, who voted there. Other comrades, their wife against it, to defend it, but they said We had a democratic discussion would be working or their companion they practiced democratic centralism. over tactics. It doesn’t come from the would be working, whoever their com- That was Lenin, the Bolsheviks, top. The only people who could make panion was. Sylvia was working— Trotsky, and so on. It was their meth- the decision are the people in the situ- though she went to work full time for odology. That’s what made Lenin’s ation. I’m talking also about program. the party before I did as a secretary in party different from the other par- I’m also talking about in practice the the office and she worked in the busi- ties—it was democratic centralist. It tactical application of democratic cen- ness office of The Militant. I was get- was disciplined, but it was also demo- tralism. It works in principal the same ting $35 and she was getting $15, plus cratic. Everybody understood that you way, and it’s a really effective method. the unemployment insurance and the had the right to say whatever you think The policy of the Stalinists and other things. That was only $57.50, for in the course of the discussion and in social democrats and liberals in the us, but we were able to get by. We had talking to people who were comrades early stages of the war was negotiation; an apartment, a rent-controlled apart- or informally, to argue about the poli- the advocacy, the demand, that the ment. New York rent control is not like tics. You could say anything you want- United States negotiate in Vietnam. it is in San Francisco. Not anymore! It ed and you wrote anywhere you want- Well, that’s the same as saying that

Vol. 14, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 77 Vietnam wants to negotiate their con- eral strike is like a soviet, and a soviet is is because the workers have not been in trol of their country with the United a general strike. A general strike in a motion for a long time. Not as workers, States! “Negotiate Now” is a counter- revolutionary period is a thing that not through their own institutions—the revolutionary slogan because it violates stays; it’s permanent until you’ve got a workers as part of the anti-war move- the rights of not only of Americans but plan. In other words, say all the differ- ment. Who made up the anti-war of the Vietnamese. You’re demanding ent political parties and unions are part movement? Most of them are workers. that the Vietnamese negotiate with the of the strike committee. That means Not organized workers, not trade union, United States. Why should they if they not just the leaders, but also the rank so much—though there was some don’t want to? We’re going to negoti- and file comes to those meetings. union support in the anti-war move- ate with you about whether you should It doesn’t mean that everybody ment, and more as time went on—but stay in this country or not? Whether must go on a demonstration, just like that’s because the whole population is they should be killing Vietnamese or being in a strike doesn’t mean that against this war now. But they are not? Absurd! everybody has to go on a picket line. against this war in a way that is not what For a while during the anti-war They have to be ready to go on the it would be like if the organized work- movement, our tactical statement was picket line, but they’re not obligated to ers’ movement was against the war, as it to support the proposal by others to go on the picket line. So it’s a voluntary would be in a different situation, in a end the war. At the same time, we said thing. You can’t make it involuntary. A more advanced political situation. we would go further and when we union can’t make its workers be on a You see, everything is rational. marched on demonstrations, we car- picket line when everybody knows There are no mysteries about it, but ried signs that said, “Bring the Troops there’s going to be a fight between there is a lot that you need to know, Home Now” before it was adopted by strikebreakers—scabs—on one side and what you need to know you don’t the movement as a whole, because and unionists on the other. There has only get from books. You’ve got to get that’s the principle of a united front- to be the spirit; if you don’t have that it from experience. That’s why we had type demonstration. We had very little spirit, you can’t win the strike. There’s a cadre—that’s what we call people support for it at first but they compro- no way you can enforce it. who have absorbed the politics and mised and accepted the slogan at the Once the rank and file get into methodology of revolutionary end of the war as against negotiation. motion, you can’t stop them! It’s hard Marxism. Trotskyism is not something That’s how the Russian Revolution to get them in motion—it can’t happen separate and independent—it’s just was made with a workers united front. unless the workers want it to happen. revolutionary Marxism of today. That was the strategy of the Bolsheviks Leaders have to understand the level of Membership changes in the Russian Revolution—a united consciousness of the workers at that In the ’60s, with the influx of students front. The soviets are a united front. very moment. You can’t live in the and recruits from the New Left, there was Every general strike is a united front. abstract; you have to be there, you have a shift in the membership of the party. The anti-war movement is not a united to be part of it. You have to feel it. Then That’s where the degeneration of front in the sense that it wasn’t big you can make a judgment: “This is what the party came in. There’s nothing organizations united, but it was indi- we’ve got to do. Let’s have a strike.” If wrong with the recruiting of students; viduals representing currents that were you don’t think there is that mood that’s what we do. When workers are welcome to participate, so it was a there, then you have to limit it. If there’s not in motion, you’ve got to try to keep united front-type formation. We used going to be a strike, it has to be limited. the party alive and have cadres so that that formulation to describe it suc- You can’t bite off more than you can when the opportunity to lead working cinctly. People might not have known chew because you won’t be able to get class struggles arises your in a position what “united front” means, but we the membership to put up the fight to do it. You have people to do it. So explained it that way. that’s necessary to make it stick. we recruited lots of youth, and they Most anti-war movements are in So it just shows what happens when were trained not in the unions but in principle united front-type demonstra- workers are in motion. When workers the anti-war movement. We taught tions. They’re not workers’ united are in motion, they begin to think dif- them how to function in the anti-war fronts because those are agreements ferent. That’s what explains why the movement, how democratic centralist between mass organizations: the old revolutionary Marxist movement has policies and principles function and CIO unions, AF L unions, in a united splintered all over the place. They never how we put them into effect. It makes action in their common interest during had mass support in the United States. sense, so it was easy for people to grasp the general strike, for example. A gen- But the loss of the influence they’ve had and understand and become used to

78 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 it—it became normal. It’s just the way to go down and talk to them again. if you need help. That’s where you can you did things. It was effective and it Tom Kerry told me that while I had do more good.” San Francisco had a was reasonable and it was democratic. been stopping off in San Francisco, the big trade union movement, or used to You expected comrades to vote, but if leader of the International Brotherhood have it. Now the union is dead in San they didn’t vote with us, with the of Painters, Local 4 in San Francisco, Francisco. It doesn’t exist. In fact, they majority—every now and then, for Dow Wilson, had been assassinated. don’t even have a local here anymore. instance, they voted with friends—we Wilson was the head of the Bay Area They’ve got a local for all of the Bay didn’t make them. movement. He put up a good fight at Area in Oakland someplace. You hear nothing about them; there’s no sign of Moving to the West Coast first, for about a year. Then, when the contract expired, and they had to nego- the existence of the painter’s union in Nat took a party assignment to tiate a new contract, they made big San Francisco. rebuild the Seattle branch after it split concessions to the employers. One of So I moved to San Francisco. At one with members forming the Freedom the things that Dow Wilson was noted point, I ran for recording secretary, Socialist Party. for is fighting for control over the which was the highest position in Local I was asked to move to another city. tools. The employers allowed rollers to 4. Dow Wilson didn’t want to be a high I was given a choice of San Francisco or be used, but only on old work. New official—he was a recording secretary, Seattle and I didn’t understand what work, you had to use the paintbrush. which is usually an unpaid job in the was really involved and I said I’d go to The employers wanted to add the stick, union. The big positions are business Seattle. Tom Kerry told me, that was a which is a paint roller with an exten- agent and financial secretary, so that’s big mistake. He didn’t tell me in so sion, so you could paint the ceiling why a lot of union heads are titled “sec- many words, because he was too smart from the floor and not have to get up retary treasurer”—they’re the recording a politician to tell a comrade some- on a ladder. It saves a lot of time. secretary, full-time, and the treasurer. thing that would be treated as a viola- I told the Local 4 leaders who I was, I ran and I think I got 150 votes out tion of discipline, so he just said that it but I didn’t say I was coming to San of about 500, which was not that good. was a mistake, but it was too late; I had Francisco. I had that wrong. I just went In fact, Roland Sheppard got elected agreed to go. ahead. I didn’t ask them. I just said, some years after this, but he wasn’t part They sent six of us to Seattle to recon- I’ve always wanted to know what hap- of any opposition. There wasn’t any stitute the branch. Sylvia and I, another pened and so on and so forth and what opposition; there was no central lead- couple, and two other single men. was their estimate of the situation, and ership. The whole thing began degen- Tom Kerry was the National they told me everything. They were erating after they gave up tools. You Organizational Secretary of the SWP, under the impression that it was the see? Because that was their way of mak- along with Farrell Dobbs, who was leaders in the International ing peace with the bosses and the National Secretary. They were a team, Brotherhood of Painters that had Dow International. They capitulated, in Farrell Dobbs and Tom Kerry. Wilson assassinated. effect. They tried to con us. Tom Kerry told me to stop off in They were ex-Stalinists—no longer Morris Evenson was the leader of San Francisco on my way to Seattle. Stalinists. They were seamen and I was Local 4 and he very much wanted, val- We drove a Volkswagen there with a a seaman, so we got along famously; I ued, our help and support. I could have trailer with a few possessions. I wanted told them that I was a Trotskyist and been his “right-hand man” and eventu- to see comrades: My daughter, Debbie, they welcomed me. I said, “What ally been a business agent, and go the was married to Peter Camejo who was would you think if I came here to way of all flesh, you know? Of course, I the party leader at the time and they help?” Me and another comrade? That wasn’t interested in that, and I wasn’t were living in Berkeley. We stopped off was my son-in-law, Roland Sheppard. too anxious to get a full-time job because to see Sylvia’s mother on the way in So I told Farrell and Tom what hap- I was afraid of what would happen to Arizona and we saw Debbie in Berkeley pened and I reported the discussion I me. I had Roland to watch over me. He and my daughter Bonnie and her hus- had with the Local 4 leaders, and they wouldn’t let me sell out on the job. band Roland went to San Francisco. said, “We think you should go move to I stayed a total of two and a half San Francisco.” Tom wanted me out of 1 Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August months in Seattle and helped build the Seattle. They hadn’t recommended 28, 1955) was an African-American boy who branch. I reported to Farrell Dobbs Seattle; they were forced. Tom appar- was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 and to Tom Kerry. After a while, after I ently had told them, “Don’t send them after reportedly flirting with a white woman. was there, they called me and told me to Seattle. Send them to San Francisco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

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80 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6 Mississippi Incarceration Rate Report: Mississippi incarcerates more people per capita than Russia and China . . . combined By Jonathan Turley There is a rather shocking statistic to drive up incarceration and denies result of the new law. The law also out of the International Centre for judges the ability to tailor sentencing to imposes habitual offender sentencing Prison Studies this week: Mississippi fit actual cases. I once testified with the which will prolong incarceration. Yet, locks up more people per capita than judge who said that he was surprised beyond these two changes, the added China and Russia combined. It turns by the lack of discretion in the federal discretion should help with first out the “Hospitality State” may con- system. After all, he said, he was select- offenders and other categories of crime. tinue to have one of the lowest rankings ed because he had done well in law With 19,811 people behind bars, in public education and employment school, done well in practice, accumu- Mississippi is still not the top incarcer- but they will put you in jail faster than lated decades of experience . . . only to ating state. That distinction rests with Vladimir Putin can say do svidaniya. be told that he could not use any of Louisiana at 39,147 and Oklahoma at Here are the stats: Mississippi that accumulated experience in sen- 26,927. Presumably, these states also reports 686 inmates per 10,000 popula- tencing offenders. top Russian and China combined in tion in 2013. In comparison, China Critics have charged that the new per capita incarceration rates. incarcerates 121 while Russia incarcer- law actually will magnify the problem Source: Clarion Ledger ates 475 per 10,000. because, while allowing more discre- —Jonathan Turley, October 20, tion, it also classified those convicted The state has moved recently to give 2014 more power to judges to hand down of drug sales, burglary of an occupied alternative sentences. There are good dwelling and arson as “violent” offend- http://jonathanturley. reasons for sentencing guidelines, but ers. A case where a woman was just a org/2014/10/20/report-mississippi- they work best as guidelines. When you month from release as a drug dealer incarcerates-more-people-per-capita- impose mandatory minimums, it tends when her parole was cancelled is one than-russia-and-china-combined/

Incarceration Rate Per 10,000

475

686 121

n Mississippi n China n Russia

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H The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. —Karl Marx H NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 VOL. 14 NO. 6

Zim ship entering the Port of Oakland. Read ILWU International’s Statements on Zim Protests are Untrue on page 18.

Why do courts change their precedents to oppose Mumia Abu- Jamal? Read Another ‘Mumia Rule' on page 47. SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 14, No. 6