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:; .• ' li Cuban leader asks Sandy Nelson, reporter for help to end and lesbian activist, Yankee blockade challenges the news biz Page 3 Page 3 14 Freedom Socialist Wile. &b f?evP/vtil1t4'? 'fiMiltl;M. April-June 1993 Volume 14, Number 2 ($1.00 outside U.S.) 7 Sf/. Clinton tax-and-cut tune won't play with u.s. workers here's a new president in the U.S. be blamed on an undertrained labor force White House. But is there a new or lagging technology. What we're really agenda? witnessing is the intensification of the T Hardly. On the contrary, jus bipartisan war against working people at tice seems to have been dropped from the home and abroad, as the Fortune 500 program permanently. crowd scrambles to save their endangered When it comes to anti-abortion vigi skins - and their high profits. lantes, the FBI can't find a conspiracy under its nose: yahoos serve a "wanted" Democrats: populist poseurs. poster on a Florida doctor who is subse Clinton and company won office by quently gunned down by one of their promising women, gays and lesbians, fellow fetus fanatics, and they get treated people of color, and organized labor as completely unrelated to the murder. to "put people first." However, in just But in the World Trade Center bomb a few short weeks, Clinton had back 'll~, the feds Incllillfa,ct\l,r.e..aQ,~~~~-'4 pedaled and back-stabbed on al conspiracy of Muslim fundamentalists in most every pledge he'd made. the wink of an eye. This xenophobic spec The knight in shining armor tacle holds national headlines hostage turned out to be a fire-breath while news of Clinton's recommitment of ing dragon instead. billions of taxpayer dollars to Israel is But the angry voters who buried. Clinton provides entertainment while the problems of the coun elected him are not going to let In Africa, U.S. troops on a "humanitar try - and the world - go unsolved. Clintonomics will produce him off the hook. They showed ian" mission shoot Somalis. In the Car more unemployment lines Just like the 1991 queue above. their willingness a year ago to ibbean, hundreds of Haitians drown, and abandon both the Democrats the media calculatingly disassociates their ers and dealers to know what to tell the ex creases, but Clinton's I and the Republicans in disgust. tragic deaths from Clinton's decision to Soviet Union? They're drowning in their "stimulus package" is the maintain the blockade against refugees. own sea of economic disaster. least significant portion of the Needed: labor party. The In the former USSR, ruling factions Clinton's emergency mission: tame the overall proposal, completely vehicle workers need in order to flounder and the people protest the mani deficit while stimulating the sluggish dwarfed by the planned cuts. push their demands is a labor fold miseries brought by "market reforms" economy and protecting the wealth of big This is the neo-liberal version of party independent of the while the U.S. and the rest of the capitalist business. His blueprint: raise taxes on ev Trickle Down. Workers are promised Republicrat ties to big business. team offer tons of moral support - but erything; abolish welfare "as we know it" that their sacrifices to the tax god will A workers' party could tackle precious little material aid. They're even and cut other government spending dras harvest jobs by giving the U.S. a com today's problems with real, practical cutting off the supply of advice, forced to tically; layoff 100,000 federal employees petitive edge. solutions, such as a shorter work admit that they haven't got a clue about and freeze the wages of the rest; solve the Only problem is, U.S. technology week, with no cut in pay, to produce how to re-root the profit system in the health care crisis by rationing services; is already top-flight, and highly more jobs. A feminist and multi land of the October Revolution. and shield corporations from the pain of skilled workers are desperately look color labor party could give all work "reven ue enhancement" by enlarging sub ing for jobs. ers a voice - and, ultimately, more Business as usual: business first. sidies and establishing tax-break schemes. It doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to than a voice: actual control over how And why would we expect capitalist w heel- Much ado is made about spending in- figure out that our problems can't ~. this country is run. 0 social roots of these maladies. The cause lies in the his this society spawns. That is why I think that nothing tory. Still and all, unreasoning bias continues to as less than sweeping revolution is demanded - or how tound me, perhaps because nothing in my experience else can we carve out the new cultural environment lends any credence to the garbage spewed by bigots. and psycho-sexual services capable of rehabilitating Most of my best friends, for example, are gay. In 70 the Rambo-ite, fundamentalist pathologicals? crowded years of meeting people, I've never encoun But meanwhile there is much to be learned from tered a group with such a high degree of creativity, tal the tempest over gays in the armed forces. The uproar ent, intelligence, wit, literacy, social sensitivity, com reveals three aspects of the sexual minorities issue that passion, good humor, and capacity for commitment. have nothing to do with prejudice and everything to Clara And all of this together spells leadership. do with establishment politics, military depravity, and The differently sexualized are less wedded to the the pivotal place of the traditional monogamous Fraser sick popular culture and more attuned to reality. They to page 7 tend to be respecters of persons and easy collabora New Freeway Hall tors. They warrant your BULK RATE trust, and I trust my life to 5018 Rainier Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98118 U.S. POSTAGE The love that dare not my lesbian and gay co PAID horts - at home, at hostile SEATTLE. WA speak its name in the Army meetings, in dangerous ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED PERMIT NO. 1003 demonstrations and on I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO FULLY GRASP picketline eruptions. the hatred and terror that certain whites display to I would totally trust my ward human beings of other skin colors. life to them in the army. Nor have I ever really fathomed the brutishness of so many males toward women. AND I WOULD RUN And I am always appqlled by the hysteria of de LIKE HELL from the ranged straights on the matter of homosexuality. queer-bashers and forked Sure, I understand - I hope - the economic and tongued demagogues that 2 Freedom Socialist April-June 1993 In This Issue Letters Consider it done identification of "us" with the near proximity of the stab I have been visiting New York Thelma and Louise. All women bing. He knew little English, and Nazis on the run 4 and dropped by one of yo~r fo who are politically alert know did not even know who the vic rums. While there, I received a that is their story. It is the univer tim was; thus, had no reason to Successfulanti-fascist/anti-rac-::,.itJ copy of the Freedom Socialist and sal and horrifying experience of harm him. No weapon was found ist rallies in Washington state, found an article on the city coun women in a repressive and sexist on David; and strangely, no California, and British Columbia cil campaign of FSP candidate society. My very first job after weapon was ever found. David make the West Coast distasteful Yolanda Alaniz particularly in leaving home found me battling was apprehended with another to the bigots. The time-tested teresting [Vol. 13 #2]. with a would-be rapist. So war Chinese inmate immediately af We are starting a new theo riors or not we have to learn to do ter the stabbing, but there was no recipe for victory? A pungent retical magazine here, called Com battle to survive. blood on his clothing or person. united front! munism. We would like to know Myra Tanner Weiss The key testimony that found if you could contribute an article New York City David guilty was from a tower or two. guard who said he witnessed the Gennady Kozak Marx 61 Lenin 61 murder through binoculars from Kharkov, Ukraine a station 100-130 yards away. The Trotsky 61 Fraser prison yard was filled with 700 ~, Victoria erupts 6 I'm a member of the Commit inmates, all dressed alike. More from Ukraine tees of Correspondence (and the .,,,11 To put it mildly, the class Thank you for your beautiful The David Wong Committee \~\' 0" @narchist Caucus). magazine. I wrote an article about feels that David was scapegoated struggle in Australia's second I'm simply amazed that you events in Serbia for European, a and framed because he could not IIlr ~O\V1 most populous state has inten FSPers view every move away ' magazine distributed all over the speak English. Racism and a from Leninism as a defection ),l'\N~ "'N sified. Recent months have former Soviet Union. I'm send cover-up were also factors. We "rightward into the camp of so S~. ~ ,,~~, seen an outpouring of worker ing you the latest issue with my are appealing for funds. Dona cial democracy"! Most CoCers I ~""""anger against new slashes in job article about human rights in the tions may be sent to the David know from a Leninist background Ukraine. Wong Support Committee, c/o conditions and benefits.