JUNE 1, 1979 50 CENTS VOLUME 43/NUMBER 21

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

· Open records of the energy industry Workers have right to know the truth

i LINDEN, N.J., May 21-Trade unionists demonstrate against Exxon monopoly. For coverage of gas crisis, see pages 3-5. DEFEND IRANIAN REVOLUTION I Carter and Senate back shah's torturers -PAGES 2, 19 In Our Opinion VOLUME 43/NUMBER 21 JUNE 1, 1979 CLOSING NEWS DATE-MAY 23

Khomeini accurately described the U.S. go­ people the state government holds on death U.S. gov't backs vernment's relations with Iran as "that of a row. This action came the day after the Se­ tyrant with an innocent, that of a ravaged nate's high-toned pronouncement against Iranian torturers victim with a plunderer." Iran. Yet there were no protests from capitalist The U.S. imperialists have launched a cyni­ Describing imperialism as a "wounded politicians against the impending executions cal propaganda attack against the Iranian snake," he pointed toward the real reason for in Florida. revolution. A Senate resolution adopted May the Senate's pious posturing: "Th~ American If the governor's order is carried out, Darden 17 demanded an end to trials and executions Senate has condemned the executions in Iran. and Spenkelink will be the first victims of the in Iran of police agents, torturers, and high It was no doubt to be expected of them to death penalty in the United States since Gary officials guilty of crimes in the service of Shah condemn us, for it is they who have felt a big Gilmore faced a Utah firing squad. Reza Pahlavi's tyranny. And on May 21 the jolt to their interests more than any other The death penalty in the United States has Carter administration issued a further protest. country.... For we have stopped the supply never prevented violent crime and is not The U.S. government gave all-out support to of oil to Israel . . . and we shall never resume intended to. It is a weapon to terrorize and the hated shah until his regime crumbled in it again." intimidate working people. Capital punish­ the face of a popular uprising last February. The trials and punishment of some of the ment is used by the ruling rich in this country Carter went to Iran in January 1978 and told shah's-and Carter's-hangmen is over­ to protect the social system that spawns crime the royal butcher: "The cause of human rights whelmingly popular in Iran. The Iranian be fostering unemployment, poverty, inequal­ is one that also is shared deeply by ... the masses want justice. They want the crimes of ity, racism, and brutality. leaders of our two nations." the old regime thoroughly exposed. They want a definitive end to the twenty-five-year reign of Neither Carter nor Congress uttered a mur­ terror. Ex-cop gets off easy mur of protest while the monarchy's forces Any government that dealt leniently with gunned down in cold blood thousands of the old regime's hired killers would be justifia­ On May 21 in San Francisco, California,­ peaceful demonstrators over the past year. bly suspect in the eyes of the Iranian masses. another state that has reinstituted the death Now Carter and the Senate dare to present For the Iranian masses, exposure and punish­ penalty-working people were given a graphic themselves as the moral guardians of human ment of these sinister creatures is an impor­ demonstration of ruling-class justice. rights in Iran! tant part of their struggle to maintain and Dan White, an ex-cop and former member of The target of their attacks is the deepening extend the democratic rights they won in the the Board of Supervisors was found guilty of anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggles of battle against the shah. manslaughter, a crime that carries a sentence the Iranian workers and peasants. In Cuba, the trials of Batista's war criminals of no more than seven years and eight months. A similar publicity campaign was whipped were carried out in public. Extensive testimony White admitted gunning down Mayor up in 1959 when Fidel Castro's rebel army and cross examination were carried out. The George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. tried and executed a few hundred of the ousted relative secrecy of some of the trials in Iran Milk was the first open gay to hold office in Batista dictatorship's cops and army officers. blocks the full exposure of the crimes of the San Francisco. White was elected supervisor These criminals were responsible for killing up shah and his collaborators. on an antilabor, racist, antigay "law and to 20,000 workers, peasants, and students. The The U.S. rulers are fearful that continuation order" platform. U.S. rulers, who had been the real bosses of of the trials will bring to light new facts about Gays and other people expressed their anger Cuba under Batista, sanctimoniously de­ the U.S. government's complicity in the shah's in the hours following the verdict. San Fran­ nounced the executions in order to prepare regime of torture and murder, despite efforts cisco cops used the protests as a pretext for a public opinion for the U.S.-organized invasion by the capitalist Khomeini-Bazargan regime to rampage through neighborhoods where there of Cuba in April 1961. keep this to a minimum. are many gay people, beating anyone they Like Batista's goons, the police agents and The Iranian people are right to want the saw. former officials that Carter and the Senate are brutal killers and torturers brought to justice. The contrast between the Florida and Cali­ defending in Iran were responsible for the And only they have the right to decide what fornia cases says a lot about capitalist justice. torture, mutilation, rape, and murder of tens of punishment is appropriate. As the Militant wrote when White murdered thousands. American working people should tell the Milk and Moscone, "When cops gun down The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in­ Carter administration and the Senate, "Hands strikers, Blacks, Chicanos, or gays under the itiated and organized SAV AK, the shah's off Iran!" cover of badges and blue uniforms, they can hated secret police. U.S. personnel trained the count on being excused with a slap on the shah's cops in spying, torture, and other wrist-at worst." means of terrorizing the people. Block Florida But when poor people like Darden and Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho­ Spenkelink fall into the clutches of the law, it's meini hit the nail on the head when he said he executions a different story. They are rushed toward the was not surprised at the Senate resolution, On Friday, May 18, Florida Gov. Robert electric chair. since "they know what they have lost-they Graham signed death warrants for Willie In capitalist America, that's called "law and have lost servants. And such servants"! Darden and John Spenkelink, two of the 131 order."

The Militant Militant Highlights This Week Editor: STEVE CLARK Associate Editors: CINDY JAQUITH ANDY ROSE Business Manager: ANDREA BARON 7 Copper workers walkout U.S. helping hand for Rhodesian regime Ed1tonal Staff: Peter Archer. Nancy Cole, Fred 8 June nukes actions Why Senate voted to drop sanctions against the white­ Feldman, Dav1d Frankel, Suzanne Ha1g, Osborne Ky. steel local Hart, Shelley Kramer, Ivan Llcho, August N1mtz, minority-dominated government. Page 21. Harry Ring, D1ck Roberts. Priscilla Schenk, Arnold 9 Campaigning at Kaiser Weissberg. 10 Unions vs. guidelines Published weekly by the Militant (ISSN 12 Marroquin testimony 0026-3885), 14 Charles Lane, New 16 Spain workers vs. nukes York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Editorial Office, (212) 243-6392; Business Office, 17 Left groups & nukes (212) 929-3486. 18 Sears suit Correspondence concerning sub­ 9 Campaigning For Socialism scriptions or changes of address 23 In Relflew should be addressed to The Militant Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New 24 In Brief York, N.Y. 10014. What's Going On Second-class postage paid at New 25 The Great Society The trial of Hector Marroquin York, N.Y. Subscriptions: U.S. $15.00 a Women In Revolt This week the 'Militant' begins a series on testimony from the year; outside U.S. $20.50. By first-class 26 Our Relfolutlonary Heritage deportation trial of socialist who fled Mexican repression. Pages mail U.S., Canada, and Mexico $42.50. Letters 12-13. Write for surface and airmail rates to all 27 Learning About Socialism other countries. If You Like This Paper ... For subscriptions airfreighted to London then posted to Bntain and Ireland £2.50 for ten issues, WORLD OUTLOOK £5.50 for six months (twenty-four issues), £10 for 19 Trotskyists on Iran one year (forty-eight issues). Posted from London 20 Senate vote on Rhodesia to Continental Europe £4 for ten issues, £8 for six months (twenty-four issues), £13 for one year 21 Morocco strike wave (forty-eight issues). Send checks or international money orders (payable to Intercontinental Press account) to Intercontinental Press (The Militant) P.O. Box 50, London N1 2XP, England. 'The Deer Hunter' Signed articles by contributors do not necessar­ A Vietnam veteran takes on the ily represent the Militant's views. These are ex­ pressed in editorials. Academy Award winner. Page 23. 2 Workers have a right to know Open records of the energy industry By David Frankel report in the May 18 Christian Science refineries can process the Alaskan clear that the gasoline shortage is only • Fact 1: U.S. imports of crude oil Monitor, that the gas shortage "stems crude oil." a dress rehersal for shortages in heat­ and refined products during the first from a lack of refining capacity, not a Being caught in bare-faced lies, how­ ing oil this winter. At the end of March four months of 1979 were up 4.3 per­ shortage of crude." ever, has not stopped the oil barons stocks of diesel fuel and home heating cent over the level of the year before. Oil industry executives used a from pushing ahead with their shake­ oil (chemically the same product), were On May 16 the company-funded Amer­ slightly different line of argument to down of the American people. When 16.8 percent lower than a year earlier, ican Petroleum Institute admitted that back their claim that they cannot use President Carter tried to take some of according to the API. in April alone imports were up 7 per­ excess supplies of Alaskan oil to re­ the heat off himself May 16 by promis­ Working farmers in some areas are cent over the previous year. (New York lieve the gas shortage in California. ing that the gas shortage would ease up already having trouble getting enough Times, May 17.) They said their California refineries next month, industry representatives diesel oil for their machinery. • Fact 2: Gasoline marketing spe­ could not handle the high-sulfur crude promptly replied that the situation in In California, it is working people cialist Dan Lundberg "says real gaso­ from Alaska. June would remain roughly the same who have had to get up at 4 a.m. in line demand this year has not grown But a former oil executive who had as this month's. hopes of getting enough gas to get to more than 2 percent over last year and, managed a refinery told San Francisco "It would be absolutely wrong to work. he says, will show no growth for April Chronicle reporter Larry Liebert: "I give signals that the worst is over and It is working people who are hurt by compared to a year ago." (Washington can't think of a refinery in California that consumers should relax," declared dollar-a-gallon gas prices. Post, May 13.) of any size that can't handle that kind Continental Oil's J. Alan Cope. It is working people whose recreation In its May 16 report the API con­ of crude." Exxon's Garvin promised that supp­ and vacations are disrupted-the rich firmed that demand for gasoline in In the face of this testimony, "Stan­ lies would be tight for the next ten can fly to their playgrounds in the April was virtually the same as it was dard of California's [Kenneth] Haley years. Caribbean or Europe. a year earlier. acknowledged that most California The companies have also made it And it will be working people who • Fact 3: "U.S. refineries have oper­ will have to worry about the skyrocket­ ated at 8

It doesn't pay to believe the oil companies By Suzanne Haig Louisiana, is a worker at the Kaiser was building new oil storage tanks on them to pay high prices for gaso- After Texas, Louisiana has the Aluminum plant in Chalmette. He because they had more oil than they line. biggest oil industry in the country. told the Militant that when one of ever had before aqd didn't have "We started car-pooling back in Oil was discovered there in 1901, the workers at the plant got into an enough room to store it all. 1975. It's not like people are 'wast- and within three months seventy-six argument and bet money on whether ing' their gasoline. They already different companies had joined the the gas shortage was phony, the "Then the guys at Kaiser put their come in big vans with ten people in scramble for Louisiana oil. other workers came up with an easy skeptical buddy on the phone so he them." way to settle it. could hear it for himself," said Nel- The discussion at Kaiser contin- The largest refinery in the United Murphy Oil, a refinery son. ued, based on the new information States is in Baton Rouge, and refin­ organized-like Kaiser-by the Uni- Gas prices are a big concern to the from the Murphy Oil workers. "Hell, eries line the edge of the Mississippi River. The only superport in the ted Steelworkers of America, is next workers at Kaiser. Because of the if there was a shortage, they'd be country is being built off the coast of to the Kaiser plant. "So these guys marshes in the bayou country, many laying people off at the refineries not got on the phone to a buddy who people live way out in the woods. building new storage tanks and look- New Orleans to service all the oil works at Murphy Oil," Nelson said. "Some people drive an hour and a ing for new workers," someone said. rigs. They asked their friend at Murphy half to get to work and come from "There's plenty of oil here. We'll Greg Nelson, Socialist Workers what was going on. the middle of Mississippi," Nelson get gas in June, all right, when the Party candidate for governor of "He told them that his company explained. "It's a tremendous burden prices go up," another added.

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THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 3 N.J. unionists demonstrate against gas ripoff By David Frankel workers say stop gas ripoff," and LINDEN, N.J.-Three hundred "Halt ripoff on fuel prices."

people-mostly trade unionists­ United Auto Workers Local 906, \L.. L".··.·~·.·· .... ·• demonstrated here May 21, putting the which includes some 5,000 workers at ~" blame for the gas shortage on the Ford's Mahwah plant, sent a bus to the profit-gouging oil monopolies. demonstration. Contingents also came Held outside Exxon's Linden re­ from other New Jersey UAW locals. search center and in sight of Exxon's Although the UAW contingents were giant Linden refinery, the protest was the most visible, several locals of the called by the New Jersey Industrial International Union of Electrical Union Council. Workers were also represented. Picket signs provided by the IUC Members of the Newark Teachers focused on President Carter's plan to Union, retail clerks from Newark and decontrol oil prices. Among the slo­ Edison, and a delegation from Local 8- gans were: "Exxon profits up 40'Jii<­ 57fi of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Keep controls on oil prices"; and "Stop Workers at Merck chemical's Rahway Exxon robbery-Stop decontrol of oil Plant were on the picket line as well. prices." When picketers appealed to passing Others on the demonstration motorists to blow their horns in sup­ brought their own signs: "Middlesex port of the demonstration, the response Hospital Nurses say stop the oil rip­ was deafening. Truck drivers going by off," "Singer workers protest against were especially friendly. phony gasoline shortage," "Regina Summing up the feeling of those demonstrating against the gas crisis, Paul Oliver, Jr., a committeeman in UAW Local 736 at GM's Clark plant, said: "I think the whole thing is de­ Exxon workers signed to put profits in the oil compan­ doubt shortage ies and take money from the poor working people." Some of the workers at Exxon's Speakers at the rally included James Linden refinery were sympathetic Grogan, president of the New Jersey to the picket line. Building Trades Council; Ed Gary, The refinery is not operating at Director of UAW Region 9; William capacity. Although the company Bywater, president of IUE District 3; says this is due to an explosion Rep. Andrew Maguire (D-N.J.); Carole Union protesters: 'Gas shortage Is rigged' MilitanVArnold Weissberg that took place there some months Graves, president of the Newark ago, workers know better. Teachers Union; and Maurice Veneri, They note that the refinery area president of the Industrial Union happened the last time we had a shor­ For about half an hour after the rally where the accident occurred is now Council. tage. The oil was on the ships and they broke up, picketers marched around functioning, while other places are Protesting "the ripoff of all of us by kept them out in the harbor until the the intersection of Park Street, where shut down tight. the giant oil companies of America price went up." the rally was held, and the main Old timers at the plant shake and the western world," Gray pointed Archie Cole, vice-president of the highway, Route 1. their heads. "Too many unans­ out that "their control is so great that IUC, read an indictment of the oil wered questions," they say. "Why When asked if he was happy with the government has to rely on their companies to cheers of "guilty!" from aren't they running to capacity if the demonstration, Bernie Jackson, figures." the crowd. It said in part: there's a gas shortage?" first vice-president of UAW Local 906, A telegram from International Asso­ "We accuse Exxon, Mobil, Gulf, Tex­ Not all the workers got to see declared: "No-1 think more people ciation of Machinists President Wil­ aco, Standard Oil and the rest of Exxon picketed. While not mention­ should get out and let the government liam Winpisinger cheered the IUC's deliberately refusing to make available ing the rally by name, the. daily know what they feel. This is only the "effort to tell the truth about the to the U.S. government facts and fig­ company newsletter on Monday beginning." energy crisis and put the blame where ures on domestic production and im­ told first-shift workers to leave by it belongs." ports which would give the American A passing driver expressed his feel­ the back gate to avoid a "traffic Bywater declared, "This oil shortage people the information vital to the ings when asked if he would like to buy jam" expected on Route 1. -S.H. is a phony! status of our country in the field of fuel a copy of the Militant. "Here's a dol­ "I'd like to remind you of what and energy." lar," he said. "I hate Exxon." ... disclose secret records of energy industry Continued from preceding page There is widespread recognition of Even more closely guarded than the Unions such as the Oil, Chemical ment give lip-service to the need to this problem. It is raised in discussions shady deals and market manipulations and Atomic Workers, the United Mine regulate the oil industry. The govern­ among workers and even in the capi­ are the names of the handful of indi­ Workers, and the Teamsters are the ment goes through the motions of talist press. The editors of the Chris­ vidual owners who hold the ultimate ones who could organize such supervi­ trying to set energy policies, and the tian Science Monitor pointed out May power over this entire vast empire. sion on the job. And in policing the Department of Energy sets various 17 that "the problem at root is a lack of What can be done to.stop them from industry in the interests of the working rules the industry is supposed to fol­ hard, reliable information." continuing to ride roughshod over the class as a whole, they could also police low. Their solution is to set up still working class? safety and working conditions for But this is a miserable charade. another government unit "to verify those in the industry itself. Virtually all of the Department of statistics supplied by the industry and Publish the records As part of opening up the energy Energy's information on the oil indus­ to collect its own data on fuel costs, To begin with, the labor movement industry to public scrutiny, it is neces­ try is supplied by the companies them­ supplies, profits." should call on Congress to pass a law sary to nationalize it, placing it under selves. And the corporations supply But President Carter and the Demo­ opening all financial records, internal public ownership. As long as there is a only the information they want to. crats and Republicans in Congress are correspondence, stock portfolios, tech­ maze of hundreds of interconnected, Alfred Dougherty, an official of the not willing to force the industry to nical data, fuel reserves, refining and privately run companies, each with Federal Trade Commission, com­ make its operations public. Anyone shipping capacity-the entire body of their separate records, it will be virtu­ plained to the Wall Street Journal willing to open their eyes knows that secret information that is in the hands ally impossible to oversee the industry about the difficulties in trying to regu­ this gas shortage has been contrived of the energy trust-to public inspec­ effectively. The capitalists will be able late or investigate the energy industry. by the energy companies. Instead of tion. to shift supplies and profits from one "Mr. Dougherty," the Journal re­ getting at the facts and acting on It is necessary to eliminate the com­ company to another, eventually hiding ported May 16, "said the Energy De­ them, both Congress and Carter have mercial secrets that enable the monop­ them in a system that is set up for partment often makes decisions with called on workers to sacrifice. Bills are olies to hold the country for ransom. precisely that purpose. incomplete information because the oil even before Congress that would make And the way to do it is not through industry is reluctant to provide the it mandatory for people not to drive another congressional committee, or a A realistic program data. When the industry does provide one day a week. new government board. The informa­ Labor's answer to the energy crisis information, it may be self­ While the government helps the oil tion should be published so that the should be to fight for: serving. . . . Sometimes the depart­ barons, working people feel helpless entire working class can see for itself. • Full disclosure of the secret re­ ment gets the information only after against the energy trust. These face­ Putting the energy industry under a cords of the energy industry; promising that it won't share it with less corporations represent the greatest magnifying glass would make it im­ • Continuing surveillance and con­ other arms of the government, he concentration of economic power in the possible for the capitalists to get away trol by the workers in the industry; said." world. In 1978, the ten biggest U.S. oil with creating shortages or disruptions • Public discussion on any problems By supporting the right of the oil companies reported sales of $220 bil­ in supplies, and would prevent price­ that exist and how to solve them; trust to conduct its operations in com­ lion. And that does not include the fixing. • Public ownership of the industry plete secrecy, the capitalist "regula­ figures for the dozens of companies To make sure that the oil barons and its amalgamation under a single tors" become part of the whole setup that these corporations control in don't hold anything back, the workers system. that enables the corporations to get turn-everything from coal and ura­ in the energy industry should be called This is a realistic program that away with their giant energy swindle. nium mines to shipping companies. upon to secure the records and to police would eliminate periodic crises and As long as the working class is Mobil oil, for example, has subsi­ the continued functioning of the indus­ exorbitant prices once and for all. We prevented from getting at all the facts diary operations that include insu­ try. They are in the best position to would be able to see exactly what about the secret machinations of the rance, paints, coal, shipbuilding, print­ know if supplies are being held back, if resources exist and what must be deve­ corporations, we will be unable to take ing, real estate, and chain-store refineries are not being run correctly, if loped. We would be able to proceed the first step toward controlling the merchandising (Montgomery Ward newly discovered fuel sources are not rationally to meet the needs of the energy industry. and Marcor). being exploited. American people.

4 San Diego lAM local: 'open oil industry's books' By Suzanne Haig the oil industry in this country are Workers at Rohr Industries, an aero· looked at, it will be like finding out space contractor in San Diego, decided that someone everyday has been tak­ to get their union to put out a state· ing money out of your bank account. ment about the phony gas shortage­ You'd be mad as hell to see documenta­ to demand that the oil industry make tion that they've been stealing from us its records public (see box). Interna­ like that." tional Association of Machinists Local A Chicano said it would be like 755, which represents the workers at opening up "all the filth and lies. The Rohr, has 3,200 members. Jay Fisher, industry will have all the lies written a milling machinist, told the Militant down in black and white. We'll be able why the workers decided to act. to see how they thought them all up," "People in the plant believe the he said. shortage is a fraud. They know that A tool grinder who hadn't gone to there'll be plenty of gas when it goes the union meeting marched over to up to a dollar a gallon-or more. They Fisher's machine after reading the think we in California are guinea resolution. "This is a good thing here," pigs-that the oil industry is trying it he said, "but I don't think it's going to out on us first before they go around to get passed until one union gets to other the rest of the country," he said. unions who then go out and get com­ Several workers brought a resolution munity groups and this gets to be a to the second-shift union meeting on national thing. That's what it's going May 22. "Because of this resolution to take to get anything like opening and another against nuclear power, it the books." was the biggest second-shift meeting On May 23, the day after the resolu­ in a long time," Fisher said. tion was passed in Local 755, the San Francisco Examiner carried a headline "The guy who works on a machine that added to the outrage of working across from me was two hours late on people in California. Monday trying to get gas. He liked the resolution," Fisher said. "And six The headline, which read "Let the young workers in my area came to the poor walk," referred to Sen. S.I. Haya­ meeting just for it." kawa's statement following a meeting The business agent spoke in favor of with Carter on the gas shortage. the resolution in his report and urged Millionaire Hayakawa arrogantly people to vote for it. declared, "The important thing is that Since the meeting Fisher has talked a lot of the poor don't need gas because to a lot of people about the resolution. they're not working. Wealthy people A few have questions. are driving around in their jets and "Won't the oil companies hide their cadillacs and they are going to do that real records in a vault somewhere 500 whether they have to pay 95 cents for feet underground so we'll never be able gas or 3 dollars for gas. Let the price of to see the truth?" gas go up-$1.25, $1.50, $2.00 or $2.50." "Everyone already knows it's a lie, The next day Raul Gonzalez, Social­ so what good will it do to open the ist Workers Party candidate for mayor books?" of San Diego, brought copies of the One worker, who supported the reso­ Local 755 resolution to his job at Solar lution, wondered what could be done Turbines. The workers there are in with it. "It's just words on a piece of lAM Local 685. They had read about paper," he felt. Hayakawa's remarks, and they were Despite questions like these, most angry. Tankers outside New York harbor during 1973 oil crisis, waiting for prices to rise. workers felt confident that the resolu­ One worker taped a copy of the Opening books of the energy Industry would expose such profiteering. tion was an important first step. resolution to a wall above the tool crib One Black worker, for example, told that night. Five days later it was still Fisher that "when all of the records of up. Gonzalez asked the tool crib attend­ make Watergate look like a nickel-and­ ant what people had had to say about dime dope bust," he told Gonzalez. it. "There's been nothing but praise," "But for that reason, I don't think he said, "even by a few foremen." they would ever do it. How could you Text of lAM resolution The crib attendant asked Gonzalez force them?" The following resolution was gas lines to pay 30 percent more what Local 755 was going to do with Gonzalez explained that if the passed by Local 755, Interna­ than three months ago. the resolution. "Are they getting unions got together, working people tional Association of Machinists. This takes away from our inade­ around a petition?" he asked. would have that kind of power. quate leisure time and often makes it We the members of the Interna­ difficult to get to work. Gonzalez said he thought they were Yes, the worker said, he agreed with tional Association of Machinists and So that working people can get to trying to get the international union that, "but it is something that would Aerospace Workers, Local 755, be­ the bottom of what is really behind involved. be very hard to do because they have lieve the current gas shortage has this artificial "shortage" and so we "Well, that would be the only way we us so divided." been artificially produced by the oil can intelligently discuss solutions in could do it," the attendant answered, Under the impact of the shortage monopolies as part of their drive for our interest, we feel that all the oil "because if it's just one local union, we and the lies of the oil industry and the higher profits. Along with the artifi· industry's records should be made can't do that much. But if we got the government, more and more working cial shortage of gas, the oil compan· public. whole international involved in fight­ people are looking for solutions that ies have also taken more of the OPEN THE BOOKS! Let the work­ ing for it, then you can have an im­ can break down the divisions and workers' ever shrinking paycheck by ing people know the whole truth pact." unify us. This resolution and the dis­ raising gasoline prices tremend­ about how the energy industry is One twenty-five-year-old white cussions that workers are having ously. Now we have to wait hours in run. worker was skeptical at first. "If they about it are an important first step in were forced to open the books, it would this process. Miners reaction to gas crisis: anger, disbelief By Suzanne Haig to spew out. Then we have to stand in cent for May. pointing out that miners are some of From California to West Virginia, a puddle of oil while they clean it up." The end of the month is the Memor­ the better-paid workers in the United working people are expressing anger Recently, when this had happened, ial Day weekend, and June 30 through States, said, "I don't like paying the and disbelief at the gas shortage. Coal the discussion turned naturally to the July 14 is the miners' vacation period. prices of gasoline now, but it's going to miners at Martinka No. 1 mine in gas shortage, and someone said, They want to be able to get out of get worse. What in the hell is the Fairmont, West Virginia, are no excep­ "Don't you guys know there's an_ oil town. average person going to do?" tion. shortage? You're keeping the Arabs in Because of this miners were particu­ Occasionally discussion comes up They recall the last shortage, when business." larly annoyed by Carter's remarks on around the coal liquification process. tankers sat off the coast filled to the "The reason I remember this," said TV about people needing to walk to In this process, which is already in use brim with oil. When the prices went Moriarty, "is because it's the first and work to save fuel. "Many were sur­ in some countries, coal is used to make up-the tankers came in. only time I've heard the Arabs blamed. prised to see him come out so clearly a substitute for oil. According to coal miner Tom Mor­ Most miners put the blame on the on the side of the oil companies with­ "They've made a big deal here about iarty, they also recall the Alaska pipe­ domestic oil companies." out even giving a nod to working building an experimental plant for coal line. "Workers remember that they Miners are very concerned about the people's plight," said Moriarty. liquification in Morgantown," Mor­ said it would solve all our oil prob­ gas shortage, because most have to Moriarty said he'd be happy to walk iarty said. "It's supposed to be in lems," he said. drive long distances to get to work, and if his "office" was in his house like operation in 1983. Oil people are mak­ Some machines in the mines run gas is getting harder to find. A lot of Carter's. ing all kinds of excuses against substi­ hydraulically on oil pressure, accord­ miners have mobile homes and pickup The miners' concern about gas goes tuting this for oil, even before it's built. ing to Moriarty. "Occasionally a hole trucks, which burn more gas. State beyond just thinking about them­ But it's just like gasahol-they would pops in the hose, causing gallons of oil allotments of gas are down 17-20 per- selves. One miner in Moriarty's crew, do it if it was profitable enough."

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 5 Socialists campaign to tell truth about gas crisis By Peter Seidman gas-nozzle point. But the people we flag down cars coming in for the Forums & candidates talk to on the gas lines here don't know midnight shift change. When workers In California, people have been wait­ SWP members are also organizing what they can do about it." roll down their windows to find out ing for hours on gas lines. Militant Labor forums so that our In response to the gas crisis, the what's happening, salespeople urge In New York City, stations are now co-workers can have the opportunity to Militant has gone on a special cam­ them to buy the Militant, explaining, selling gas by the half-gallon so that hear a party speaker on the energy paign to explain how the oil trusts "We think coal miners can take the their pumps can charge more than 99.9 crisis, and then participate in a discus­ have contrived a shortage, what lead in the fight to expand coal produc­ cents a gallon. sion of what the unions can do about workers in the plants are discussing, tion and shut down nukes." Socialist workers report that this it. latest round of price-gouging by the what steps the labor movement could A typical response is "right on." energy corporations is the biggest topic take to end the energy blackmail. Seven people bought the paper this In several cities, the SWP is now of discussion in plants from coast to Sales of the Militant and Perspectiva way at last week's sale. At the Harman running candidates for public office. coast. Mundial are the most important single mine, also near Pittsburgh, socialists They are making the socialist answer "People are extremely angry," re­ way that members of the Socialist are now selling about ten Militants a to the oil barons a key part of their ports Holbrook Mahn, who organizes Workers Party and Young Socialist week. campaigns. sales of the Militant and Perspectiva Alliance have to get out our ideas on These successes underscore the im­ Mundial in Los Angeles. the gas crisis. portance of SWP branches and YSA And everywhere they can, as articles "But they are also tremendously Reports from around the country chapters maintaining sales of the Mili­ elsewhere in this issue also demon­ frustrated. They're being held up at indicate working people are eager to tant and Perspectiva Mundial, even strate, socialists are bringing their read what we have to say. though our spring circulation drive is ideas on what working people can do Motorists waiting in gas lines now completed. We would miss a big now into their unions, for discussion bought 561 of the 710 papers Los opportunity right now otherwise. and action. Angeles socialists sold last week. "Buying the Militant became a form of protest," Mahn said. In Berkeley, California, the SWP branch sold half its papers on gas Sales scoreboard lines. "It was even easier than our CITY MILITANT PM TOTAL highly successful sales around the Goal Sold Goal Sold Goal Sold Percent antinuclear issues," SWP organizer Arlene Rubenstein reported. "People Iron Range 35 134 35 134 382.8 on the lines were holding up the front­ Albuquerque 115 248 20 46 135 294 217.7 Atlanta 319 212.6 page headline 'Stop the gas swindle,' 145 319 5 0 150 Birmingham 100 201 100 201 201.0 like protest signs." Kansas City 110 217 4 110 221 200.9 But sales of the paper represent more Dallas 125 233 35 87 160 320 200.0 than a mood of protest. Newark 100 200 10 19 110 219 199.0 Mahn told how people who'd read Denver 120 237 20 32 140 269 192.1 the previous week's issue would often Salt Lake City 130 255 5 4 135 259 191.8 have their money out, waiting for their Louisville 100 185 100 185 185.0 salesperson as they came down the Baltimore 100 180 100 180 180.0 gas line. People were interested in the Los Angeles 320 579 80 131 400 710 177.5 Militant because "it not only expressed Cincinnati 75 127 75 127 169.3 their anger, but also pointed out what Washington, D.C. 230 372 20 39 250 411 164.4 Morgantown 100 163 100 163 163.0 to do," Mahn explained. New York City 540 835 60 130 600 965 160.8 This was also the experience in Toledo 100 154 3 100 157 157.0 Pittsburgh. Socialists there have Pittsburgh 200 301 200 301 150.5 begun regular sales to coal miners San Diego 105 151 20 31 125 182 145.6 Socialists have found excellent recep­ during the last few weeks. At Consoli­ Minneapolis 150 200 150 200 133.3 tion of 'Militant' on gas lines. dation Coal's Rentan mine, salespeople Philadelphia 225 300 25 30 250 330 132.0 San Jose 105 153 15 4 120 157 130.8 St. Louis 125 158 125 158 126.4 Phoenix 95 99 30 58 125 157 125.6 Gary 75 85 75 85 113.3 San Francisco 275 283 20 275 303 110.1 Gas line sales set pace Seattle 145 164 5 0 150 164 109.3 By Peter Seidman Several areas sold at picket lines Berkeley 145 155 5 2 150 157 104.6 This week's scoreboard reports the of striking rubber workers. St. Paul Milwaukee 120 126 5 4 125 130 104.0 final, successful week of our drive to socialists sold eleven papers to six­ Raleigh 90 92 90 92 102.2 sell 100,000 copies of the Militant teen pickets at the big Uniroyal Houston 170 178 30 18 200 196 98.0 and Perspectiua Mundial this plant in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Portland 100 95 100 95 95.0 spring. Toledo supporters sold eight Mili­ St. Paul 100 88 100 88 88.0 tants to twelve picketing members of Chicago Our total of 8,989 papers-131 310 263 40 40 350 303 86.5 United Rubber Workers Local 926 in Oakland 145 119 15 15 160 134 83.7 percent-will put the drive as a Port Clinton, Ohio. Both sales teams Tacoma 125 94 125 94 75.2 whole way over the top. In the near received the same interested and Detroit 175 132 5 0 180 132 73.3 future, we'll report our final cumula­ friendly response previously re­ Indianapolis 85 62 85 62 72.9 tive scoreboard and a wrap-up of ported about Detroit Uniroyal strik­ San Antonio 50 33 10 4 60 37 61.6 how we did. Cleveland 115 73 5 0 120 73 60.8 ers. Boston 200 126 25 1 225 127 56.4 Brisk sales at gas lines set the Steelworkers in Newport News, Albany 100 52 5 3 105 55 52.3 pace for issue 19 sales. But working Virginia, bought eighty-two Mili­ New Orleans 100 40 100 40 40.0 people everywhere were interested in tants last week. what socialists had to say about the Perspectiva Mundial also bene­ TOTALS 6,333 8261 525 725 6,858 8,986 131.0 energy crisis. Industrial sales totaled fited from the extra efforts our sup­ 1,001 (596 at plant gates and 405 to porters put into this final national co-workers on the job). This is the target week. PM sales were 725, Not reporting: Amherst; Iowa City; Miami; Vermont. highest industrial sales total for any more than double the previous Covers sales of issue number nineteen of the 'Militant' and the first week of one week of the spring drive. week's total. sales of Issue number nine of 'Perspectiva Mundial.'

Cuban offices bombed in Washington By Harry Ring churchgoers found five bullet holes in Earlier, Espinosa escaped an assas­ we will kill seventy-four more." The U.S. government's continuing the door of the Christian Reformed sination attack. This referred to the Committee of 75, efforts to isolate and threaten Cuba are Evangelical Church in Miami. The One such attempt was successful. the broad-ranging group who initiated being accompanied by rising violence church is headed by Rev. Manuel Espi­ This was the April 28 murder in Puerto the dialogue. on the part of counterrevolutionary nosa, a central figure in the developing Rico of Carlos Muniz, a leader of the On May 21, the threat of "Com­ Cuban exiles. These terrorists have dialogue between the Cuban commun­ Antonio Maceo Brigade. The brigade is mando 0" was expanded. In a press recently targeted Cuban-Americans ity in the United States and the Castro composed of young Cubans who sup­ release to UPI, the right-wingers threa­ who are beginning to take an open and government. Many advocates of the port the dialogue. Many of its members tened that all visitors to Cuba would be even sympathetic attitude toward the "dialogue" call on the U.S. government are also supporters of the revolution. It targeted for murder. Cuban revolution. to lift its economic blockade against has organized extensive visits to Cuba. In taking credit for the bomb attack On May 19, a bomb exploded outside Cuba and open diplomatic and trade Credit for the murder of Muniz was on the Cuban mission in Washington, the Cuban diplomatic offices in Wash­ relations with the country. taken by a gang of thugs calling Omega 7 told AP May 19, "We demand ington. It did extensive damage, but no Espinosa, who was in Havana at the themselves "Command 0." This gang the withdrawal of Cuban troops on the one was injured. All diplomatic offices time of the attack on the church, has is associated with Omega 7, the group African continent." are supposed to have round-the-clock been involved in negotiating the immi­ that took credit for the Washington As does the United States govern­ U.S. protection, but the cops obviously gration of prisoners from Cuba to the bombing. ment. Which may help explain why it looked the other way when the United States. He has also helped Following the murder of Muniz, one seems to find it so difficult to track bombers attacked. arrange the visits home of Cubans of the thugs called an exile paper in down this small group of reactionary The following Sunday morning, living here. Miami, saying, "We have killed one, killers.

6 Management is to blame Women unionists protest job harassment By Elizabeth Ziers her supervisors, she is called into the months at the company, she said, her extensive public education campaign DETROIT-More than twenty office on a daily basis and questioned job was continually threatened be- must accompany pressure for legal women lined up to testify at the Detroit about aspects of toolmaking she has cause she refused sexual relations with protection. Co-workers must communi- City County Building May 9 for hear· not yet been taught. her boss. Her salary was frozen and cate with one another about these ings on sexual harassment in the Even . though she performs her job her workload tripled for resisting his problems, Lev enter said, for there is workplace. In the evening another according to requirements, Roberts is pressure. Finally she was forced to strength in their numbers. ses~ion of hearings was, held _at t_he constantly criticized by foremen and quit. . . Dorothy Haener, head of the UAW's Umted Auto Wor~ers Sol~d~rity harangued about why she doesn't "go Cynthia Vjare,_ a~ auto worker With Women's Department, testified that House. The two sesswns were JOmtly back to production work." ten months semonty at General Mo- sexual harassment "cannot be toler- sponsored by the Mi_chiga_ n Depa_ rt- tor_s Fisher Body in Pontiac, Michigan, ated" by the union movement. This f M h After Roberts complained to higher d h bl d h h ment of L_abor and Umversity o 1~ - levels of management, the bosses en- sal er pro ems starte w en .s e problem is becoming known today only igan Institute of Labor and Industnal Pro. tested a danger. o u. s Job because women now have the courage couraged her co-workers to harass her t t k t Relations. assignmen -on a rue Sl tmg on a and confidence to come forward she Women did not come to talk a b out as well. She has filed grievances and ra.mp w h ere cars cou Jd ro 11 b ac k an d said. Haener called attention to' the suits but her problems persist. h t h casual flirtation or innuen d o. Th ey 1 er. even worse situation faced by women told the 100-person. audience of how Wilton Cain, president of United While her foreman had not sexually in unorganized plants, who lack union they have been subJected to rape, at- Auto Workers Local 961 at Chrysler harassed her, said Ware, he had called protection. tempted rape, physical assault, threats Eldon Gear and Axle, testified that a her a "lazy bitch" and shouted that he "E 'f th t f f' . . . 1. d of f1·rmgs, · and dangerous JO· b assign-· num b er o f women f rom h'IS Pan1 t are "didn't know why they put goddamned b venth 1 noh rea o, 1rmg'd 1s 1mpFl 1ed t th t t ft b · r· d & y e arasser, sa1 oy ments. h . . ou on e s ree a er emg Ire lOr women in here to do the job." Chambers, civil rights representative Most of the women w o testified- refusing their foremen's sexual de- At th' · t th L b D t t & U 't d St k D' t · t "'f mands. IS pmn e a or epar men 10r n1 e ee1 wor ers 1s nc 29 , 1 including auto workers, secretaries, mediator interrupted to ask the women the effect of the harassment on the and Wai.tresses-said they came to tell H e Sal·d numerous women an d th e testi·r ymg · to 1·1m1t · t h e1r· remark s to women's mental or physical health is thel·r stories because they have "no- umon· h ave rna d e s t a t emen t s an d f'l1 e d mci· ·d ences of sexua 1 h arassment, not so great that she has to quit, the result where else to go." Their immediate gnevances· agams· t th ese f oremen. B u t sex d'1scnmma · · t' wn. is still the same-loss of employment." foremen and supervisors are the source the foremen are always defended by But, as Ruth Jeffries of the National of the harassment they suffer. And the company for their "high effi· Some witnesses raised the predica­ their complaints to higher levels of ciency." Organization for Women explained, ment of recently hired women, still sexual harassment and sex discrimina­ management either fall on deaf ears or "Their purpose is to produce cars working their probationary period. tion are part and parcel of the same result in stepped-up victimization. and make money, and that's all the These women can be discharged at any oppression women face on the job and Flora Roberts passed the skilled company cares about," Cain testified. time without union protection. in society at large. Jeffries called for trades apprenticeship test at General "We as a union have only the grie- RioJa Phillips, a member of UAW prohibiting sexual harassment by the Motors in 1978 with one of the highest vance procedure to deal with this prob- Local 600 and the Dearborn Assembly same laws that prohibit discrimina­ scores in her group. As a single parent, lem," he went on, "and the grievance Plant's Women's Committee, testified tion. she was hopeful her improved wages procedure is outdated and backlogged. that she had been fired during proba­ would enable her to better provide for It can take six months to a year to get Because victims of sexual harass­ tion after taking a medical leave. Ha­ her two sons. a woman's job back after she's been ment are made to look like criminals, rassment by a co-worker had caused Roberts, who is Black, started work fired. During this time she may have they hesitate to come forward, Jeffries her to be injured on the job. In line at General Motors Chevy Gear and three or four children she has to feed. explained. She said NOW's most con­ with management's policy of encourag­ Axle in January. Her ordeal started There have to be some laws to protect servative estimate is that 75 percent ing sexual harassment, Phillips was then and hasn't stopped since. these women. Give us some help, be- of women workers are sexually ha­ the one fired. In addition to sexual harassment by cause we need it." rassed. To prevent this, she added, the One of the key tasks of recently Noel Little, thirty-two years old, was foremen or supervisors who say "put formed UAW women's committees, Elizabeth Ziers is a member of the first woman insurance agent at out or get out" must be prosecuted. said Phillips, will be to deal with United Auto Workers Local 600 at Sentry Insurance Company in subur­ Jan Leventer, attorney for the De­ sexual harassment and help force the the Dearborn Assembly Plant. ban Southfield. During her fifteen troit Women's Justice Center, said an companies to police their foremen. Arizona copper miners end safety walkout By Eduardo Quintana and Rob Roper HAYDEN, Ariz.-Five hundred USWA •LU. tfl~; copper workers here in central Arizona ------MEETlNMO··G~TH 4·30 PM returned to their jobs May 20, ending a lst. THURSDAY of · ill·--~ sixteen-day walkout. I~; They had been protesting unsafe working conditions in the Hayden reduction plant, a facility of Kennecott Copper. Under the threat of court-imposed fines and lacking strike benefits the workers called off their job action without winning their chief demands. But they intend to continue their strug­ gle for safe working conditions inside the plant. The majority of miners here are members of United Steelworkers Local 8093. The rest belong to five other unions-Boilermakers, Machinists, Pipefitters, Carpenters, and Interna­ tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Unionists first walked off the job April 19, the day after two workers, Juan Fuentes and Ray Cruz, were Militant photos seriously burned in an accident. They Boilermakers local president Roy Sawyer (left) and Joe Goga. 'Kennecott doesn't .c:a~e about human lives, just profits,' says stayed out until Occupational Safety Sawyer. and Health Administration inspectors investigated and fined Kennecott a manding enforcement of OSHA regula­ dividends twenty-two times more than oralize its workers. "The union seemed paltry $1,400 for safety violations. tions and no reprisals against the pro­ last year's-from $.15 a share to $3.25. to be getting weaker before this hap­ Kennecott promised to immediately testers. Meanwhile, Kennecott Chairman Tho­ pened," he said. "Now we are to­ correct the hazards in the cyclone area, I was up there where the two guys mas Barrow enjoys a salary of gether." the large, funnel-shaped units where $365,000 a year-that's $1,000 a day! were burned," said USWA Interna­ The workers' unity was demon­ the men were burned. But once workers tional Representative Roy Santa Cruz. But the company can't scrape up the were back on the job, they were ordered money to save the lives of its em­ strated in daily meetings bringing "There's nowhere to go. You're together all six unions, and in their into the cyclone area without the pro· trapped." ployees. tective clothing promised. determination to resist any reprisals. On May 4, sixteen days after the Kennecott claims it "can't afford" Kennecott responded to the walkout by seeking a back-to-work court order The solidarity forged during their accident, Juan Fuentes died from the the safety measures until the plant walkout will be a powerful weapon in burns he had suffered. "His lungs were shuts down in June. "They don't care and $900,000 a day in fines against the USW A. Various tricks were used to the miners' continuing fight for safe completely burnt, even though he had about human lives, just profits," said working conditions. The urgency of his respirator on," said Boilermakers Sawyer. "They put production above make it appear as though normal production in the plant was continu· this struggle was confirmed again the· local President Roy Sawyer. safety." ing. day they returned to their jobs. Six Kennecott had still not made the Sawyer's charge is verified by the workers narrowly escaped with their safety corrections required by OSHA. company's profit figures. Kennecott But, according to miner Joe Ivey, the lives from a mud and sludge explosion So the workers walked out again, de- projects 1979 profits that will pay company failed to intimidate and dem- inside one of the plant's converters.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 7 Win labor backing_ June actions demand nuclear shutdown By Arnold Weissberg Around the country, activists are putting the finishing touches on plans for anti-nuclear power protests June 2- 3, the International Days of Protest. This round of actions, coming in the wake of Three Mile Island and the march of 125,000 people against nu­ clear power in Washington May 6, is marked by increased participation of the labor movement. In the Gary, Indiana, area, the Bailly Alliance is holding a protest in nearby Michigan City June 3 against construction of the Bailly 1 nuclear power plant. Speaking at the rally will be James Balanoff, Director of United Steel­ workers District 31; Gary mayor Ri­ chard Hatcher; Pat Clark, president of United Steelworkers Local 1026; Mike Olszanski, head of USWA Local 1010's environmental committee; and Ray Yenchus, president of United Trans­ portation Union Local 1883. USWA Local 1010 has long been on record opposing Bailly, and it has recently been joined by Local 6787, Banner at May 6 antinuclear march on Washington. June 2-3 protests have drawn local union support. which organizes the steel plant next to which Bailly will be built. And International Longshoreman's state's largest employer and a major and a unit of Local 600 (all in Michi­ 865-6901. Association Local 1969 at the Port of manufacturer of nuclear weaponry. gan), the Jeep and Bingham units of In Wisconsin a demonstration is set Indiana also recently went on recor-d The Boston Teachers Union newspa­ UAW Local 12 in Toledo, and Com­ for June 2 in Sheboygan, near the as opposing the construction of the per carried a full-page article on nu­ munications Workers of America Local proposed site for a nuclear power plant Bailly nuke. clear power and the June 3 protest. 4001. at Haven. Featured speaker will be The June 3 protest will begin with a An anti-nuclear weapons march and The antinuclear groups have put out Ray Majerus, director of United Auto noon march from Sixth Street and rally are set for Cambridge June 2, at a special eight-page tabloid, The Stop Workers Region 10. Franklin Square for a 1 p.m. rally at Draper Laboratories, which designs Fermi II Special. The Shoreham, Long Island, nuclear the old band shell in Washington Park. nuclear weapons systems. Speakers Speakers at the rally will include power plant, nearing completion, will For more information call the Bailly there include Peter Fisher of Boiler­ Prof. Art Schwartz of the University of be the target of a protest rally June 3, Alliance at (219) 926-2820. makers Local 614 (shipfitters) and Michigan, Susan Case speaking on sponsored by the Shad Alliance. At a demonstration planned for June anti-Vietnam War figure Sid Peck. The Karen Silkwood, and Mike Parker of Speakers include Leon Harris of the 3 at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in action is sponsored by Mobilization for UAW Local 869. Village-Chelsea NAACP, George Wald, Massachusetts, scheduled speakers in­ Survival. The Bingham unit of Local 12 and others. clude Mason Caudill, a United Mine A June 2 protest is set for Monroe, passed a resolution backing the action Other protests are set for June 3 in Workers local president from Ken­ Michigan, the site of the under­ and calling for a permanent shutdown Madison, Indiana, near Louisville; tucky; Jerry Gordon, an international construction Fermi II nuclear power of Fermi II and the Davis-Bessie plant June 2 in Atlanta; June 2 in Indiana­ representative for District 2 of the plant. In 1966 Fermi I, a short forty near Toledo. polis; June 3 in Essex, Illinois, near the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union; miles from Detroit and Toledo, under­ Leaflets about the protest have been Braidwood reactor; June 3 at Prairie state representative Mel King; and went a core meltdown. The accident posted on union bulletin boards at Island, Minnesota; June 2 at the Fort antinuclear activist Anna Gyorgy. forced the closing of the plant, and it Bingham Stamping, and a car caravan Saint Vrain nuclear power plant in The action is sponsored by the Mas­ later became the subject of the book We for Monroe will leave from there. Colorado; June 3 at the South Texas sachusetts Bay Coalition, Boston Almost Lost Detroit. Detroit steelworkers at the White­ Nuclear Project, near Houston, and the Clamshell, and Pilgrim Alliance. The protest is being organized by a head and Kales plant are putting to­ Glen Rose nuclear plant, near Dallas; Workers at the huge General Electric number of antinuclear groups around gether a contingent for the rally. June 2 at the North Anna nuclear plant in Lynn are organizing a bus to Michigan and northwestern Ohio. It For more information, call the plant, seventy miles from Washington, the rally. Leaflets about the action has also been endorsed by United Auto Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy at D.C.; and June 3 at the Perry nuclear have been distributed at Raytheon, the Workers Locals 869, 599, 372, 1619, 15, (419) 243-6959. In Detroit, call (313) plant, near Cleveland. ·Kentucky steel local says no to nuclear plants what other union locals around the the June 3 protest. By Steve Diehl The June 3 march past the Zimmer WILDER, Ky.-United Steelworkers country have done against nuclear The day after the local vote, on May plant will assemble at 1 p.m. in Point Local 1870 at Interlake Steel here power, in particular USWA Local1010 17, I spoke before Local 1639 of the Pleasant Park (on Route 52). It will be voted May 16 to oppose nuclear power and District 31 in the Chicago-Gary American Federation of State, County followed by a rally in Moscow, Ohio, at and to print a leaflet in support of the area. and Municipal Employees, urging its the elemep.tary school, the closest June 3 antinuclear demonstration. The main debate was over whether a participation in the antinuclear fight. building to the nuclear plant. The June 3 action will be held near no-nuclear power position would also Local 1639 is one of the locals at Speakers will include Emil Drlik, the Zimmer nuclear plant, some twenty mean a no-nuclear weapons stand. Longview State Hospital in Cincin­ president of Local 7-346 of the Oil, There was stiff opposition to the latter. miles from the Cincinnati and north­ nati. The AFSCME local then adopted Chemical and Atomic Workers union ern Kentucky area. It was decided that if the local voted a no-nuclear power motion, including and former Cincinnati Mayor Gerald The union leaflet will be passed out against nuclear power, it would refer support for the June 3 march and rally. Springer. to the more than 1,000 members of only to the Zimmer plant and other Local 1870, the largest steel local in nuclear power plants across the coun­ northern Kentucky. try. Discussion in the local on nuclear The executive board voted by a slim power began at the April meeting, margin to recommend the local take an when a representative from the local anti-nuclear power stand. 'Shut it down forever!' antinuclear group, Citizens Against a At the local meeting May 16, most of Chanting "First you try to kill us, closed forever. Radioactive Environment (CARE), the questions centered around whether then you want to bill us," 2,000 • Met Ed stockholders-not con­ gave a presentation. The CARE repre­ the union should be involved in issues people marched to the Metropolitan sumers and tax payers-should pay sentative, a member of the Cincinnati like this. I and another member of the Edison home office in Reading, for all costs arising from the acci­ Federation of Teachers, explained the local argued that our unions have the Pennsylvania, May 20. The utility is dent. dangers of nuclear power, especially organization and power needed to shut part owner of the Three Mile Island • Local radiation readings should those of the nearby Zimmer plant, and the plants down. We explained that the nuclear plant. be taken daily in the area and spe­ why trade unionists should oppose the government and utilities were in collu­ Called as a women's and child­ cific details made public. nuclear threat. sion and that it was left to working ren's march, the demonstration was • The health of local residents After discussion, a proposal that the people to fight nuclear power. made up of residents and families and workers should be monitored. local take an antinuclear stand was There were about fifty members pres­ from the Three Mile Island area. The march and rally were orga­ tabled and referred to the local execu­ ent at the beginning of the meeting, They protested attempts by Metro­ nized by Three Mile Island Alert. tive board. and while attendance had dwindled by politan Edison to increase electricity Speakers included Susan Cassidy, At the executive board meeting, I the time the antinuclear motion came rates in order to pass on to consu­ former resident of Middletown, spoke, giving more facts on the ha­ up, only three voted against it. mers the costs of the nuclear plant's Pennsylvania; Judith Johnsrud, co­ zards of nuclear power. I pointed to Our union will need to continue accident March 28. director of Environmental Coalition doing education work within the local Among the demands of the action Against Nuclear Power; and Donna around nuclear power. We'll begin it were: Warnock, board member of Support­ Steve Diehl is a member of United with the leaflet we distribute within • Three Mile Island should be ers of Silkwood. Steelworkers Local 1870. the plant, calling for participation in 8 Louisiana SWP nominee slams Weber, oil barons Campaigning By Ron Repps Nelson is a member of United Steel­ NEW ORLEANS-Greg Nelson, the workers of America Local 13000 at the Socialist Workers Party candidate for nearby Kaiser Aluminum plant in governor of Louisiana, hit a responsive Chalmette. He has been active in the for socialism note when he told a campaign rally fight against the suit of Brian Weber, a here May 12, "At the risk of seeming white lab technician who is challeng­ cruel, perhaps it's time to insist that all ing the affirmative-action program the oil barons in Louisiana go to won by the USWA at Kaiser's other work." plant in Gramercy. Dan Fein for mayor of Phoenix The audience at the opening rally for Nelson concluded his remarks by the socialist gubernatorial campaign "I have to admit that I voted for Carter," Pablo Martinez told a Phoenix referring to the Weber case. "If you Socialist Workers Party campaign rally. "I did not make a good choice. had no trouble identifying with Nel­ believe in your union, then you have to son's remarks on the energy crisis. He's seen to it that we don't get any more raise than what the company fight racism-you have to fight wants us to get. But he's making sure that the gas-pump prices, grocery They knew that once the oil companies Weber." get the price they want, there'll be bills, and everything else goes up." plenty of oil. John Gunther, a professor at South­ Martinez is a former candidate for president of Steelworkers Local 4102 "If there really is an oil shortage," ern University in New Orleans, has at Capital Castings Division of Midland Ross, where Fein also works. He Nelson reasoned, "why are the oil made the Militant's coverage of the explained that he had read the SWP platform, "and I share your ideas. companies building new storage facili­ Weber case required reading for his It's time we have somebody that shares the feeling of the working people, ties in the state?" classes. He told the rally: "The SWP and that's Dan Fein." has provided the gr atest support and Among others speaking in support of Fein were Joe Nolasco, another leadership in the fight against Weber. member of USWA Local 4102, San Diego SWP mayoral candidate Raul It is for this reason that I back the Gonzalez, and Gustavo Gutierrez of the Rank and File Committee in the campaign for Nelson for governor." mainly Chicano Construction Laborers Local 383. Picking up on Nelson's comments on the gas shortage and on the support of Preventing campaign corruption the capitalist politicians for nuclear The Federal Election Commission, set up to administer the campaign energy, feminist activist and author "reform" act, supposedly watches for corrupt use of campaign funds. This Lou Hicks declared, "I would rather year they've elected a chairman who should know where to look. trust this state and its natural resour­ He's former Rep. Robert Tiernan, most recently in the news for racking ces to the SWP and Greg Nelson." up a $2,000 bill on FEC phones while trying to run his bankrupt hockey Also speaking was Sam Green, a club, the Rhode Island Reds. building representative of the United Last year the George Town Club in Washington successfully sued Teachers of New Orleans; Joel Aber, Commissioner Tiernan for $1,300 he owed them for fund-raisers held SWP candidate for mayor; and R.P. during his unsuccessful 1974 reelection campaign. He still owes $4,000 in Jones of the Young Socialist Alliance. Aber reported that the ACLU has back debts from that campaign. decided to back the SWP in its fight The Federal Election Commission sets regulations for writing off against Louisiana's discriminatory campaign debts. election laws. More than $1,300 was collected in response to his appeal for Preparing for 1980 GREG NELSON funds. A Task Force on Televised Presidential Debates, organized by the League of Women Voters, says candidates outside the Democratic and Republican parties "present the single most difficult issue" in planning the 1980 presidential debates. In 1976 the league worked with television networks to exclude all but Campaigning at Kaiser Carter and Ford, and they hope to do it again next year. To make it look legitimate they've come up with a "minimum requirement" that each Louisiana," is how Greg introduced By Scott Breen candidate be on the ballot in enough states to get a majority of the himself to those workers who didn't CHALMETTE, La.-"Running for electoral college vote. know him already. Many were governor? Well, why not?" Candidates who meet that test will still have other hurdles, like being amazed that a worker would run for "Hi, gov!" nominated by a party that got at least 5 percent of the 1976 vote (which "I hope you win." the highest elected post in the state. just happens to knock out everyone but the Democrats and Republicans). These are some of the comments Some asked if he was qualified for Kaiser Aluminum workers made the office. Others took it in stride: when they met fellow worker Greg "Workers running the government? 'No such thing as a minor candidate' Nelson, Socialist Workers candidate We could do a better job," said one Colorado politicians haven't been anxious to let socialists air their for governor of Louisiana. Black worker walking away with a ideas. Last fall a Socialist Workers Party campaign worker was arrested Nelson and campaign supporters brochure in hand. for leafleting one of the so-called debates between the Democratic and were waiting at the entrance to the Some of Nelson's supporters joined Republican candidates for governor. Chalmette Kaiser plant when the him at the plant gates as they came So supporters of Harold Sudmeyer, recent SWP candidate for mayor of day shift got off work May 10. off their shift, introducing their Denver, weren't surprised when Democratic Party leaders excluded them Kaiser has a policy of allowing friends and co-workers and encou­ from the Windsor Garden candidates' night, traditionally one of the main "major candidates an equal oppor­ raging them to come and hear Nel­ debates of the mayoral campaign. tunity" to campaign on the plant son speak Saturday night. The SWP organized protest messages, picketed, and leafleted the It was a hot, humid day outside, site. meeting. A number of the 400 people going in expressed support, and one but nothing like the climate inside The Chalmette plant is one of the TV crew filmed the picket line. the plant. The aluminum "pots"­ largest aluminum-refining plants in Inside the meeting, Gary Mitchell, one of the three Democrats running, the world, employing nearly 3,000 furnaces for melting aluminum ore­ won loud applause when he demanded Sudmeyer be included. He called production workers. Nelson is a generate tremendous heat. So, when the exclusion a "squeeze play on democracy." member of United Steelworkers of the whistle signaling the end of the America Locar 13000, to which all workday blows, the workers roar out When the moderator still refused to include the socialist, Mitchell Kaiser's wage earners belong. of the plant. Still, some stayed a few walked out, taking some audience members with him. "I'm a flex-operator on 'A' shift, minutes to talk with Nelson, ask The debate over the exclusion of Sudmeyer was featured in news and I'm running for governor of questions, and wish him luck. coverage of the panel. Since then, organizers of two other candidates' panels have called the SWP to invite Sudmeyer, apologizing for having "forgotten" him before. One moderator apologized in public, telling the audience, "I've learned there's no such thing as a minor candidate." Debates-Ill Getting in on a campaign debate provided immediate results for the Philadelphia SWP. One listener was so impressed by socialist mayoral candidate Nora Danielson's presentation on a radio panel that he volunteered to sell the Militant at the May 6 antinuclear demonstration. A victory in Florida Florida candidates can again run official write-in campaigns, thanks to Background to "The Struggle a state supreme court decision won by the SWP. Florida's undemocratic for a Proletarian Party" laws make getting on the ballot virtually impossible for independents. In 1977, the legislature also removed the write-in provision. The court

by James P. Cannon, George Clarke, decision has restored the old law until the legislature writes a new one. leon Trotsky, and Fred Feldman The suit was filed by National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee attorney Ira Kurzban, representing SWP candidate Lee Smith. Smith ran in the Thirteenth Congressional District against Democrat William Lehman. With no Republican opponent and with no way to write in Smith's name, Lehman was reelected without even having his name on the ballot. -Bob Schwarz

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 9 Rubber & electrical unions vs. CarterS By Frank Lovell ening to withhold government con­ (Second in a series) tracts for their products should the After Teamster President Frank Fitz­ new agreement exceed a strict interpre­ simmons announced April 11 that a tation of the 7 percent guideline. settlement had been reached in his The union then filed a court action union's ten-day strike/lockout, it was for a restraining order against govern­ widely speculated that the Carter ad­ ment interference in the collective­ ministration's 7 percent limit on wage bargaining process. This was quickly increases had been cracked. Newsweek denied by a federal judge. magazine questioned whether it was However, the judge set an early date time to say "goodbye guidelines." for arguments on the union demand Partly this was to help Fitzsimmons that enforcement of Carter's wage sell the new three-year Master Freight guideline be declared illegal. This is in Agreement to the 300,000 Teamsters conjunction with an earlier suit filed covered by it. General opposition to the by the AFL-CIO. leadership exists in the union, and An early decision is expected; no 10,000 steelhaulers had refused to go later than the end of May. In case the back to work. ruling cripples Carter's present wage Alfred Kahn, head of Carter's Coun­ restraints, contingency plans for hold­ cil on Wage and Price Stability, admit­ ing wages in check were previously ted that the guidelines had been "bent" drafted by the administration. to accomodate the Teamster settle­ While the union sought protection ment. from the federal courts, Kahn tele­ He had initially announced that the graphed Bommarito that he was ex­ new contract was "substantially less" pected to "reach a wage settlement than the one it replaced. But this was within the administration's stand­ quickly revised. Kahn subsequently ards." If not, warned Kahn, "we will said, "From the point of view of the do everything we can to protect the Teamsters, they got a very good con­ public interest." Copies were sent to tract, and I hope they ratify it." He the rubber companies repeating earlier said the increase amounted to 8.3 threats to withhold government con­ percent a year, higher than previously tracts if labor costs rose. estimated. "Since we reached a tentative settle­ Strike ment," Fitzsimmons says, "others in Under these circumstances the labor have struck out at inflation rubber companies were under no com­ Militant/Charles Russel standards which limit the American pulsion to reach an agreement with the Rubber workers picket Detroit's Uniroyal plant. Carter's guidelines can backfire and worker and blush at huge corporate union. They could sit back and wait for spark growing resistance from union ranks. profit reports." the Council on Wage and Price Stabil­ The Teamster contract, however, has ity to dictate the terms of a new con­ not deterred government efforts to curb tract. union-the unemployed, the unorgan­ again become part of a new working­ wages. Nor was the usefulness of Car­ Bommarito was caught m the ized, Blacks and other minorities, and class movement for social and political ter's wage guideline to the ruling class squeeze. The companies wouldn't all others who suffer the injustices of change. destroyed. budge, and union members would not this society. Negotiations in the electrical indus­ swallow a contract guaranteed to place Rubber negotiations try were formally opened May 1 be­ them further and further behind in the Weakness tween the notoriously anti-union Gen­ United Rubber Workers President race against inflation. Instead, like the heads of the AFL­ eral Electric Company and unions Peter Bommarito announced April 19 On May 9, Bommarito called a "se­ CIO, they seek help from "friendly representing approximately 150,000 that agreement on a new three-year lective" strike against Uniroyal. But employers." From "helpful government workers, less than half in the industry. contract had been reached. But the the URW is not in as strong a position agencies" like the federal mediation The relative strength of the electrical rubber companies denied it. as it was when it shut down the entire service. From "prolabor forces" in the unions as against the corporate struc­ Apparently all four companies had industry for 141 days in 1976. Democratic Party. From "even-handed ture is comparable to that of the URW agreed to sign a new industry-wide During the past three years the court rulings." And from all the other in the rubber industry. Both are far pact, if any one came to terms with the union has not gained in relation to its unreliable combinations within the weaker than the unions in auto and union. Bommarito targeted Uniroyal. adversaries. The rubber companies structure of capitalist property rela­ steel. As the weakest financially, he thought have continued building new facilities tions and the present two-party sys­ This weakness is reflected in the Uniroyal would not risk a strike. Bom­ in anti-union "right to work" southern tem. below-average industrial wages of elec­ marito was mistaken. states. This year most tire production This weakness of· the URW was trical workers. The estimated average The terms of the tentative settlement will be in unorganized plants. known to government mediators and wage at GE and at Westinghouse, the and the exact issues in dispute were Union leaders have shown neither other interested parties before wage other major company, is $6.80 per not fully revealed. But Bommarito the foresight nor the ability to organize negotiations in the rubber industry hour. indicated that the companies balked at the unorganized workers. In this year's began. They assumed a settlement From the start, GE took advantage two vital issues. They are the cost-of­ negotiations they have failed to publi­ would be easily reached. Perhaps this of Carter's wage guidelines. In his living allowance for the new contract cize the needs and problems of rubber is why Kahn and the others overex­ opening statement to the unions, com­ and a company agreement not to inter­ workers-or rally union members for a tended their ability to curb wages in pany negotiator John Baldwin said fere with URW efforts to organize their united fight against the companies. this low-pay industry. They clearly did that GE would have to certify com­ unorganized plants in the South. URW officials don't seem to under­ not count on the fighting capacity of pliance with the wage standard. The union charged that government stand the importance of seeking sup­ the rubber workers themselves. GE insists on negotiating separately agents "forced" the rubber companies port from the rest of the union move­ Rubber workers' wages are below the with the largest union, the Interna­ to hold out for lower wages by threat- ment and from the natural allies of the scale in most other industries. They tional Union of Electrical Workers make less than eight dollars an hour. (AFL-CIO) and the smaller indepen­ That's almost two dollars below the dent United Electrical Workers. pay of over-the-road truck drivers be­ Both unions belong to a thirteen­ fore this year's round of negotiations union coalition, the Coordinated Bar­ began. gaining Committee. The CBC, chaired It seems patently unfair for "impar­ by George Meany, also includes the tial" government wage controllers to Machinists, International Brotherhood stretch their flexible guideline to ac­ of Electrical Workers, Teamsters, Uni­ commodate a higher raise for Teams­ ted Auto Workers, and seven others. In ters and then tighten up on the less­ 1969-70 the CBC conducted a success­ well-off rubber workers. ful 101-day strike against GE. This reflects the relative power of the two unions rather than a difference in their leaderships or the viciousness of 'Arbitrary and illegal' government bureaucrats-although Representatives of all the unions there is certainly plenty of the latter. have declared their opposition to Car­ But rubber workers, like most other ter's guidelines and have vowed to workers when goaded by their employ­ break the 7 percent limit. ers and mistreated by the government Locals of the IUE, Machinists, and agencies, will transform their unions UE drafted a joint statement: "We will and turn on their tormentors. The negotiate for our membership, based URW has a proud and militant history on the needs of our membership, with­ as one of the early CIO unions in the out regard for an arbitrary and illegal days of the sitdown strikes. Under 7 percent ceiling." The statement was renewed ruling-class pressure, it can circulated as a petition inside some GE 10 Rubber strike: 'We're up a inst the gov't' ?percent plants and then hand-delivered to the presently depressed. This is largely the White House as an apparent appeal to result of GE's longtime take-it-or-leave­ Carter. it bargaining practice known as "Boul­ The GE contract expires June 30. warism," so called because it was used Whatever new terms are agreed to by effectively by GE Vice-president Boul­ GE have traditionally become the war, for many years in charge of labor industry-wide pattern. relations. The two main issues under negotia­ When union officials negotiating tion are the same as in rubber: cost-of­ with GE today talk about "catch-up living and a company neutrality bargaining," they're hoping to catch pledge in union organizing campaigns. up with union pay rates in trucking Cost-of-living allowance in the elec­ before the present round of negotia­ trical industry provides annual pay­ tions began. ments (as did the previous Teamster This is different than catching up on contract) of one cent per hour for each losses suffered from inflation-which 0.3 rise in the Consumer Price Index. is what workers in all industries need Under this formula, electrical and are demanding. And this is what workers gained only $0.50 an hour Carter's "anti-inflation" wage guide­ during the life of their 1976 contract. lines are designed to block. By contrast auto workers, who receive quarterly COLA payments, gained Anti-union $1.60 an hour. In neither case did The Carter administration shares wages keep up with rising prices. the anti-union views of GE manage­ The separate unions acting inde­ ment. It is not bidding for support from pendently have not been able to orga­ the union bureaucracy. That support is nize GE's runaway plants in the South assured so long as the bureaucrats or other nonunion facilities. Only an remain loyal to the capitalist political MilitanVDick Roberts estimated 44 percent of the industry is structure. Inside the Democratic Party, Painesville, Ohio, Uniroyal plant shut down by United Rubber Workers' strike. unionized. union officials are considered a liabil­ It is very unlikely that GE, or any ity these days by politicians eager to By Dick Roberts running this entire industry." He other corporation, will remain "neu­ appease anti-union employers. AKRON, Ohio-Rubber workers in added: "If someone ran for president tral" in union organizing drives­ This is the central purpose of Car­ this area are furious at President Car­ who said, 'I'm going to steal from regardless of how many solemn vows ter's "flexible" wage guideline formula: ter for attempting to impose the 7 every one of you and put as much as I they may take. This has already been to hold the general level of wages to a percent ceiling on their contract when can in my pocket,' he'd get my vote. demonstrated in the auto industry socially acceptable minimum. That is, prices are rising at 11 or 12 percent. "I'm frustrated about this whole where General Motors's "neutrality" to push as far as possible without Furthermore, rubber workers won country," he went on. "Everybody pledge has not helped the UAW orga­ triggering mass resistance. Its tactical cost-of-living protection in a bitter four­ lies." nize southern plants. use in collective bargaining serves to and-a-half-month strike three years Three Mile Island had a big impact UAW organizing victories that have establish Carter's distance from a di­ ago. "We won COLA in 1976 and that here too. Painesville is near the Terry occurred were won against GM's oppo­ vided and isolated union bureaucracy. was good. But now that S.O.B. Carter nuclear plant, under construction on sition. Where the company has moder­ He believes this "labor policy" will takes it all away," a worker at the Lake Erie. "I live only a mile and a · ated its anti-union tactics, it has done help demonstrate his adroitness as a giant Goodyear plant in Akron told the half from it and I've got to move-and so only because the union is strong capitalist politician and convince the Militant. who's going to buy my house? Hell, enough to enforce what in labor­ ruling class that he deserves a second The United Rubber Workers' strike they lied about that too." management parlance is called "fair term in the White House. targeted Uniroyal, which is the only The rubber companies use the threat play." But there are dangers in the present one of the "Big Four" rubber compan­ of moving south to intimidate workers. anti-union drive, for the employers and ies not centered in Akron. But the Akron's General Tire got workers to Partnership their servile politicians as well as for workers here are strong strike support­ take pay cuts on the promise of build­ IUE President David Fitzmaurice the working class. ers. ing a new plant. regards himself and his union as a If Carter's scheme succeeds, as it has "If you took a collection in our plant, Rubber workers in Akron discussed partner in the electrical manufacturing in the early phase of the 1979 wage every worker would give five or ten this bitterly: "They promised two years business. On the eve of negotiations negotiations, the working class will dollars to support those Uniroyal strik­ ago to build that General plant and I with GE he said, "Efficiency and pro­ suffer a severe drop in its already ers," a worker at Goodyear said. ain't seen nothing yet. You've worked ductivity are legitimate goals of man­ declining living standard. This will "I feel sorry for them. They're up hard for what you got. You shouldn't agement, especially in a shrinking eventually arouse the union movement against the government and there's take any cut in pay." world where competition speaks a to new struggles and bring additional only 8,500 Uniroyal workers out of Union members felt they had been thousand tongues. forces from unorganized industry into 65,000 rubber workers." kept in the dark about negotiations. "IUE is ready to work with GE and its ranks. The idea that the whole union should A Goodyear worker said, "You never Westinghouse," Fitzmaurice continued, In the present situation the com­ be out is widespread. This was true know what's going on up there. Same "to meet any fair competition." bined pressures of government and among picketers interviewed at a small thing with the Teamsters. They go out Fitzmaurice may have been making industry can provoke immediate strug· Uniroyal plant in Painesville, Ohio, on strike and get a settlement and you a bid for higher wages in exchange for gles. twenty miles east of Cleveland. still don't know what it is." "There's no way this is going to do automation and speedup, a deal union The hard lot of rubber workers and The Goodyear workers interviewed officials have struck in other indus­ electrical workers-the effect of de­ any good because we're talking about a national issue and the strike should be by the Militant had worked fourteen or tries. But in the electrical industry, the pressed wages in these two indus­ more years at the plant. They were in IUE doesn't have enough control over national," said one striker, who's tries-can drive these workers into big their early thirties. production to make such trade-offs. strike actions. Both unions have dem­ worked for Uniroyal twenty-eight Production standards are set in the onstrated their ability to conduct suc­ years. As this reporter was leaving the unorganized sector. Workers in union cessful strikes-the URW in 1976 and Painesville strikers discussed other plant a manager came out to see what plants are ordered to meet these stand­ the electrical unions in 1969-70. If this issues as well. No one on the picket was going on. The workers showed ards or risk plant closings and unem­ should happen again, the chances of line believed there is a real gas shor­ him a copy of the Militant, which he ployment. unorganized workers joining such tage in California. "They're writing shied away from. One of them took the Such conciliatory "good partner­ strikes are greater than in previous their own ticket," another longtime paper and held it open wide with both ship" statements as this one by Fitz­ years. worker at Uniroyal said. "Probably hands and marched back into the maurice have been standard procedure aren't more than a handful of people plant reading it. prior to negotiations. Labor officials of Looking to unions his generation make them out of habit. Today, more workers look to the But it has always been the relative union movement for answers to their strength of union and employer-not economic problems than at any time such charades-that determine wages. since the end of World War II. A Today "one-sided class war" has determined strike to defy and destroy Help get replaced "fair play" and "good part­ the unjust wage guidelines would be nership" in labor-management rela­ serious trouble for Carter and his polit­ tions, although electrical union offi­ ical strategists. And it would inflame it around cials don't seem aware of this fact. It's the growing social unrest the ruling Socialist Workers Party candidates have hard to convince GE's anti-union man­ class wants to defuse. proposed an "Emergency Bill to Provide agement that "working under union Whatever develops out of the rubber Jobs for All." You can help distribute contracts" is more efficient and more strike at Uniroyal and wage negotia­ this bill and the accompanying article, profitable than their nonunion opera­ tions in the electrical industry, the which explains the causes and solutions tions. outcome is bound to affect negotiations to unemployment, by ordering copies Long ago these employers decided in other industries later this year. (2% cents each, 2 cents each for 1,000 that partnership with the union bu­ Especially the confrontation between or more) from the Socialist Workers reaucracy is socially unnecessary and the United Auto Workers and its for­ National Campaign Committee, 14 costly. midable industrial adversaries. Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Wages in the electrical industry are (next: auto negotiations)

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 11 Marroquin's testimony on Beginning with this issue the 'Militant' is political ideas? Smith. I see. So what you're telling us now is running major excerpts from Hector Marro­ Marroquin. I am the third in a family of ten hearsay and the pictures here you didn't take. These quin's deportation hearing. The hearing children: six women and four brothers. My father are hearsay-what people told you. took place April 3-5 in Houston, Texas, before was a customs official, my mother never worked. Marroquin. Those are the few pictures of the Immigration and Naturalization Service She was a housewife. press that were rescued because all the press was Judge James Smith. We, the family, had a very low income. We were attacked by these paramilitary groups. They were Marroquin-who is seeking political asylum always poor. My father died in 1965 as a result of a breaking their cameras, they were beaten and they in this country-is a trade unionist and a car accident that left the family practically without were attacked, severely attacked. member of the Socialist Workers Party and means of subsistence. At the time, I and some of my Smith. You didn't see them. Young Socialist Alliance. He was forced to brothers and sisters had to begin working, doing all Marroquin. I did not see it but many of my fellow flee Mexico in 1974 to avoid being victimized kinds of work in order to bring some money to the students at school, including my roomates were in by the regime for his political beliefs. house to be able to survive. the demonstration. At the deportation hearing, Marroquin testi­ Winter. Now where were you living at that time? Smith. Now back to Monterrey, Nuevo Le6n. You fied and offered documentary proof and ex­ Marroquin. I was living in Matamoros, Tamauli­ stated that you were not attacked by Los Halc6nes pert witnesses on behalf of his claim for pas, with my mother and sisters and brothers. but you were attacked by the police, correct? asylum. Six days after the hearing, Judge Winter. And did you eventually leave Matamo­ Marroquin. Yes. Smith, ignoring the evidence, denied asylum ros? Smith. What date was that? and ordered Marroquin deported from the Marroquin. I came in 1969 to Monterrey, Nuevo Marroquin. Well it took different dates that I United States. Leon, to study in the department of economics at wouldn't be able to recall. It was in 1971, early The ruling-and the hearing itself-made it the University of Nuevo Leon. The political climate March of 1971, when the police started to attack clear that Marroquin is being persecuted by at the university was one of student demonstra­ these demonstrations. the U.S. government because of his socialist tions, student mobilizations and student protests. It Smith. But you were basically there in Monter­ views. was a result of the 1968 events that many, many rey? Smith's decision is currently under appeal to students all over Mexico became politically active. Marroquin. Yes. the Board of Immigration Appeals in Wash­ And students in Monterrey were protesting, for Winter. During this time when you were very ington, D.C. example, the existence of hundreds of political politically active, how were you doing in school? In the excerpts from the hearing, below, prisoners as a result of the 1968 events. One of the Marroquin. I was a good student. I had the first Margaret Winter is Marroquin's attorney; main aims of the mobilizations that were taking grade three times in the first semester. James Smith is the immigration judge; and place in the university was the fight for university Winter. Were any other members of your family Daniel Kahn is the INS prosecuting attorney. autonomy, that is, the fight for total independence getting this kind of an education? for the university from any kind of government Marroquin. No. All the members of my family Winter. Mr. Marroquin, will you please tell the control or private business control. couldn't go to college because of our low income court why you are in the United States? Winter. What form was students' political activ­ resources. Marroquin. I am in the United States seeking ity taking at that time? Winter. Did there come a time when you became political asylum because I fear that if lam deported Marroquin. It was taking the form of peaceful even more deeply involved in the political activity back to Mexico, my life, my freedom, and my and legal demonstrations, peaceful and legal meet­ at the university? security could be seriously endangered because of ings at the university. Marroquin. On January 17, 1972, one of my Winter. Were there any incidents of police repres­ closest friends, a schoolmate and a roommate, Jesus Political sion against the students' activities at that time? Rivera, who had been a brilliant student and who Marroquin. Yes. The government offered a few was a recognized leader in the student movement in asylum concessions. The government said that they were Monterrey, this student, a close friend of mine, was going to grant autonomy to the university. The assassinated by the Mexican police. government said that they were going to grant the Winter. Mr. Marroquin, did you witness the death for democratic control of the university. But this was of your roommate? not true. After they said that the demands were Marroquin. I did not witness the actual shooting. Hector granted, they started to use police and paramilitary But I witnessed events which happened imme­ groups on campus in order to suppress peaceful diately after the shooting because at the time I was Marroquin demonstrations. We were attacked with tear gas, with a football team at school which was being clubs, and all kinds of violence by the Mexican trained on the side of the apartment building where police in order to suppress our movement. And this the events were taking place. my political beliefs and my political activities. I feel was the first kind of violence that I knew. Winter. What happened when you were at the that if I am deported back to Mexico, I could be We continued our mobilizations. We continued football field? imprisoned without a trial, tortured, kidnapped, and putting pressure for our demands. In 1971, we Marroquin. Well, we saw many kinds of police disappeared, or assassinated like many other politi­ organized a big demonstration in Mexico City. On and military cars coming into the building and cal activists have been in Mexico. June 10, 1971, thousands upon thousands of stu­ suddenly we heard a lot of shots, many shots and Winter. Do you recognize this document? dents and workers demonstrated in Mexico City in bombs. So we dispersed, and the body of a person Marroquin. This is [the pamphlet] My Story that solidarity with the students of the university where was being carried out. will tell the basic facts of my case. I was. This demonstration was brutally attacked by Winter. Who was carrying out the body? Winter. When did you write this? a paramilitary group trained, financed, and orga­ Marroquin. Two policemen were carrying the Marroquin. I wrote it on December of 1977 as nized by the Mexican government. This demonstra­ body of a young student. They were dragging this soon as I was released from jail. tion was attacked by the Halcones, the hawks. At body through the streets. Winter. When you're through with it you'll give it the time, over 100 students were killed. to Mr. Kahn so he can look at it. Winter. Before you go on to what happened, Kahn. The government objects to this as self­ would you please explain what the Halcones were? serving hearsay. Marroquin. The Halc6nes is a group of thugs, a Judge Smith. Your objection is noted on the group of gangsters, a terrorist group that the Nat'l Alliance record and overruled. It will be admitted as Group Mexican government organized. They use all kinds Exhibit 8. And you'll of course have an opportunity of weapons, in order to attack demonstrations. backs Marroquin to cross-examine the witness, Mr. Kahn. Their main activity is to suppress any demonstra­ By Jane Roland Winter. Will you please state when your opposi­ tion that is independent politically from the exist­ The National Alliance Against Racist and tion to the Mexican government began? ing regime in Mexico. The Halcones, the first time Political Repression went on record May 6 in Marroquin. I would not be able to state an exact they were used was on June 10, 1971, because they support of Hector Marroquin's fight for political day, because it was a process. It was the result of didn't want any movement like the 1968 movement asylum. the conditions in which I lived when I was a kid, to spark again in Mexico. The resolution of support was passed at the just like many other kids in Mexico, which are Winter. Were any arrests made of the Halcones? plenary session of the alliance's national conven­ conditions of misery. But the first time I became Marroquin. No, there were no arrests. tion, held the weekend of May 4-6 in New York politically active was in 1968. City. Previously several national leaders of the On October 2, 1968, the Mexican government alliance, including Angela Davis and Charlene ordered the army to open fire on a peaceful, legal, * * * Mitchell, had endorsed Marroquin's case. and defenseless demonstration of thousands and Winter. Were you active in the student movement Many of the delegates stopped at the Hector thousands of students and teachers. The result of as you described it at this period? Marroquin Defense Committee table, signed peti­ this: more than 500 demonstrators were slaught­ Marroquin. I was very, very active, as I said tions supporting his asylum fight, bought but­ ered. This had a big impact on my political thinking before, as a result of the 1968 massacre. I was tons, and took literature. and on the political thinking of many of my looking for an alternative. I was looking for a way Among those at the convention who endorsed generation in the sense that I began to lose illusions to express my ideas, to defend democratic rights in Marroquin's right to asylum were Abe Feinglass, in the kind of political machine that we have in Mexico. So the first way I saw to express this was a vice-president of the Amalgamated Meat Cut­ Mexico and began to become conscious of the kind through the student movement that began in 1969 ters and Butcher Workmen's union, and Helen of oppression that exists. in Monterrey at the University of Nuevo Leon Orlow, sister of Wilmington Ten defendant Ben Winter. How old were you in October, 1968? where I was. Chavis. Marroquin. I was fifteen years old, a high school Smith. Before we go to page 9 and 10 of your Marroquin's case was presented at a special student. pamphlet-we're now on page 8-were you physi­ workshop on political prisoners, chaired by An­ Winter. At that time were you engaging in any cally present in Mexico City Distrito Federal when gela Davis. The workshop focused on a number political activity? the Halc6nes, Los Halc6nes, (spelling:) H-a-1-c-o-n-e­ of defense campaigns, particularly the case of the Marroquin. I became active in a demonstration in s, participated in this incident of which there are Wilmington Ten. Matamoros, in the city where I was born, to protest photos on page 9. Were you there? Or where were The conference was attended by more than 400 the brutal slaughter of defenseless Mexican people. you at that date? delegates. A rally on Friday night opening the Winter. Could you give us a little bit of your Marroquin. I was in Monterrey. I couldn't attend weekend's activities drew 2,000 people. family background before you go on to develop your the demonstration.

12 gov't repression in Mexico Winter. By his feet? Marroquin. By his feet. And they were being careless with the body of the person. His head, for . example, was bumping on the stairs of the apart­ . ment building. Then they took the body of this . young student on the side of the building and the I police started to kick him instead of bringing him -~ medical attention.... Winter. When you say a body, do you mean this was an apparently dead person? Marroquin. It was a person who was still alive because he was still moving. He was wounded, severely wounded by several shots. And he was still alive because he was moving. I couldn't imme­ diately recognize who the person was. He was being kicked, as I said, by the feet of the policemen. I immediately saw that here was my roomate, Jesus Rivera. Smith. I note that we are deviating from the script slightly. On page 10 [of My Story] it says, "By coincidence, I was near the scene of the murder and saw what happened." You saw after they dragged the body of Jesus Rivera or the person of Jesus Rivera out, is that your statement? Marroquin. Yes. Smith. Thank you. That clarifies the second paragraph. Go ahead. Winter. Your honor, I would like to respectfully object to your honor's language.... Smith. I have a right to make observations. I have a right to interrogate. I have a right to cross­ examine. And I propose to fulfill my obligation to find out what is going on. Winter. My only objection is your reference to the pamphlet which has been introduced as evidence as a script. It is not a script. Mr. Marroquin has stated his story.... Smith. Which we are at great length recapping. And the document is already on record as Group Exhibit 8. Can we be a little more terse, or what's the situation? Winter. I wish him to develop in as much detail as we can the background which is.... Smith. I want to get to his specific problems insofar as persecution. Not the public in general. And I would like him to be as terse as possible. We have other cases besides this, now, so that's my whole point. Winter. Your honor, this is a person who is asking for asylum. This is his one chance for a trial. We consider this a matter of life and death. I appreciate your honor's problems. I can only ask your indulgence. I can only ask for patience. Developing Mexican student movement and government repression against It helped lead Marroqlin to socialism. As your honor noted, this is a case of first Top, July 1968 demonstration celebrating anniversary of Cuban revolution; bottom, students jailed that year. impression. Asylum has never been granted to a Mexican national before. The United States State Department, as your honor now knows, because he I understand. Her husband was also being dragged police brutality in every country of the world, and has the ORM [Office of Refugee and Migration out of the apartment building and he was already that shouldn't have to reflect on the good members Affairs] letter, says that there is basically no showing some of the injuries caused because of the of the force. This has not shown me any act of repression in Mexico. I think we have to take our beatings of the police. He had several swollen parts persecution against any political party or any one opportunity for a trial. It's our one chance, your of his face, stuff like this. That's all I could see. . political individual. honor. Winter. Now, were there any accusations made Smith. Objection noted and overruled. This oc­ Smith. The whole point is that it could be more about Jesus Rivera about why he's been killetl.? curred in Monterrey, sir? terse than going item by item over something that Marroquin. Well, the police claimed­ Marroquin. Monterrey. And the real reason that I is a matter of record. Can we shorten it up as much Kahn. Objection. see for the assassination of my friend, as well as the as possible? Smith. (to Winter) What's your proffer? assassination of many others, is that they were Winter. As much as possible, we will. Mr. Marro­ Winter. He's putting into issue whether or not dedicated to the struggle for democratic rights in quin, I am going to ask you to describe the events there were charges, whether or not there is any Mexico, for social change. He was not a terrorist. surrounding the assassination of your friend Jesus serious basis for the charges against Marroquin. Winter. So you concluded that he had been killed Rivera, to explain what else happened, what else Smith. We're not sitting as a Mexican tribunal at precisely because of his political beliefs, not because you saw, what else other witnesses saw that they this point. of any terrorist activity? Were you at this time a told you .... Winter. I understand, your honor, but the letter member of a political organization at the univer­ Kahn. Objection. His observations are fine. But from [INS] District DireCtor Casillas denying the sity? hearsay, can we restrict that somewhat? To what asylum claim states that under the United Nations Marroquin. No, I was not. events you actually saw that relate to Jesus Rivera. Protocol, Mr. Marroquin may not at any rate be Winter. Did you ever become a member of a Winter. Well, I think that we do need the testi­ entitled to asylum, even if there were repression in political organization at the university? mony here of people that he knew were in.... Mexico, if he is guilty of violent crimes and we are Marroquin. I became a member of a political Smith. If you get them here, beautiful. But hear­ going to show- organization later in 1973 after this event happened say, that's something else. Can we shorten it up. Smith. Tersely in that area. to my friend. This made me lose any illusion, any His observations.... Marroquin. You want to repeat your question? illusion that I had in the Mexican government. For · Winter. Hearsay is permissible.... Winter. Yes. In the newspaper reports of the me it represented a total break in the illusions that I Smith. It is permissible to a point. But we don't incident we've just been talking about, were there had in the Mexican government. have to document it several times, we can document any accusations made about Jesus Rivera and the I want to recall what we did after the murder of it once. reasons why he was killed by the police? these students. We organized a demonstration of Marroquin. Another thing that I saw is a woman Marroquin. The excuse that the police made was protest which was attended by several thousand who was being brought out of the apartment build­ that they were attempting to arrest a guerrilla students, I believe three or four thousand students. ing by two policemen. She had a wound in the activist. They said that in that building were This demonstration was to protest this kind of stomach which I believed was a shot wound, which guerrilla activists. They also said that Jesus Rivera brutality, which is something that happens in I confirmed the next day through the newspapers. was a guerrilla activist. They said this, I want to Mexico very often. The fact that three to four Even though she was wounded, an army official hit make it clear, after he was dead. The charges that thousand students showed up is proof of the kind of her on the head with a rifle butt. And they started the police told to the newspapers were absolutely leader and activist that this good friend was. questioning her. They were asking her that she false and were a cover-up for that crime. For me this Winter. Was it a peaceful demonstration, this should confess to being a guerrilla and they were was a clear lesson on the futility of terrorism, demonstration of several thousand you've just been telling her that she was a terrorist and she was a because terrorism only gives a pretext to the real talking about, to protest his death? guerrilla and she had to say this. teqorists who are behind the Mexican regime to Marroquin. It was a peaceful demonstration. Smith. Who was the lady? assassinate, torture, and do all these kinds of cruel There was some violence from the Mexican police. Marroquin. The woman was Rosalbina Garavito, activities. The Mexican police attacked with tear gas, with who was never convicted of any criminal activity as Kahn. Objection your honor. Objection. There is clubs and with all kinds of things to suppress it.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 13 By Nancy Cole is starting to surface has profoundly inspect existing power plants and cor­ can add to this struggle the support, "What I don't understand," a New affected working people. Under this rect any problems. the clout of 120,000 Steelworkers," Jersey electrical worker said to me pressure the union officialdom has "The resolution also called for new 0 lszanski said. after marveling at the antinuclear begun to turn an ear. expenditures for research on solar and "Unfortunately the Steelworkers demonstration of 125,000 we had just International Association of Machi­ water power," Labor Unity continued, union international leadership has in been a part of May 6, "is why doesn't nists President William Winpisinger, "and new efforts to extract existing the past supported nuclear power," the government just shut them all the one antinuclear vote at the Febru­ supplies of coal and natural gas which Olszanski went on. "Much discussion down?" ary AFL-CIO meeting, endorsed the are still abundant in the Appalachian and debate in our union holds promise This question has been asked often May 6 march on Washington. region." that this position can be improved since the March 28 nuclear accident at "Trade union members and all other The April convention of the Interna­ upon." Three Mile Island catapulted the ha­ working people have a life and death tional Longshoremen's and Ware­ The discussion, which is likely to be zards of nuclear power into world stake, as well as a bread-and-butter housemen's Union discussed nuclear a deepgoing one in the entire labor headlines. And along with it, "What stake, in this nation's energy policy," power and adopted a policy statement movement, also holds the promise that would happen if they were all shut he told the rally there. detailing the dangers of nuclear power the unions can be brought into the down?" In a letter distributed by rally organ­ and calling for an end to construction fight against nuclear power. The Harrisburg Syndrome, as the izers, United Auto Workers President of new plants. It also urged congres­ To mobilize their ranks, the unions nuclear nightmare in central Pennsyl­ Douglas Fraser declined to speak or to sional appropriation of funds to re­ have to put forward an immediate vania has come to be known, jarred the formally endorse, but he contributed search alternative forms of energy. alternative to nuclear power-one that consciousness of millions of working $1,000 .to the effort. Several rail union locals around the is practical and realizable-and a pro­ people-not just about nuclear power country have passed resolutions gram for how to fight for that alterna­ plants, but about nuclear weapons UAW reassessment against nuclear power. They are espe­ tive. production and testing, about the drive "The UAW is currently re-examining cially concerned that it is rail workers Supporters of nuclear power argue toward more wars, and about the ends our position on nuclear power," Fraser who are forced to transport much of that there is no alternative-or at least to which the government and industry wrote. "I personally am even more the deadly radioactive waste. none that can be used right now. will go to keep the horror of it all a concerned about the safety of nuclear Local 1870 of the United Steel· "It's out of the question to peremp­ secret from the public. power than ever before, in part because workers in Cincinnati endorsed the torily shut down all of the nuclear At the start the nuclear industry of what happened in Harrisburg last ,June 3 antinuclear demonstration power plants in this country," Presi­ found some of its most dedicated and month. It's clear that the assurances there. The president of Oil, Chemical dent Carter told a delegation of antinu­ effective defenders among the labor given the public that nuclear power is and Atomic Workers Local 7-~346 is c!Par groups May 7. "We do, however, bureaucracy. safe have been misleading." scheduled to speak at the protest. want to shift toward alternative The last meeting of the AFL-CIO The April Labor Unity, newspaper of At the May 6 premarch rally in energy supplies and also a strict con­ Executive Council, for example, ap­ the Amalgamated Clothing and Tex­ Washington, D.C., Mike Olszanski, servation commitment ... " proved a resolution calling for acceler­ tile Workers Union, reported that dele­ head of the environmental committee Who knows how long this "shift" ated development of nuclear power. gates to the Pittsburgh Joint Board of USWA Local 1010 in East Chicago, could take, or what new attacks on Only one vote was registered in opposi­ meeting of ACTWU "passed a resolu­ Indiana, spoke. working people a "conservation com­ tion. tion which called for new stronger "The significance t>f my being here mitment" would entail? Meanwhile the But that was in February. The truth safeguards before any new power today is not in anything I might say nuclear risk continues. about nuclear plants and weapons that plants are built, and an all-out effort to but in the fact that we in District 31 Some critics of nuclear power have also fallen into this trap.

Moratorium Several speakers at the May 6 anti­ nuclear rally centered their demands around the call for a moratorium on new nuclear plants. This included Democratic politicians, such as Cali­ fornia Gov. Jerry Brown, who are exploring the nuclear minefields for an exploitable campaign issue. But the call for a moratorium was unfortunately also echoed by lAM President Winpisinger. "If there are answers to nuclear power safety, then we must have a moratorium on nuclear power development to give us the time to come up with those answers," Win­ pisinger told the rally. "That could take another third of a century," he added. The immediate problem, however, isn't the construction of new plants. The problem is with those seventy­ two that already exist. Each day they continue to operate, they threaten a nuclear catastrophe. Each day they continue to operate, they generate horrible wastes, which after twenty years of accumulation there is still no plan to dispose of. Each day they continue to operate, Truck waits to enter gates of Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg. Militant/Nancy Cole they emit more radiation, causing 14 MilitanVNancy Cole

ancer and unknown environmental to recognize coal as a possible imme­ The United Mine Workers was contract expiration, Carter was talking am age. diate alternative to nuclear power? Is it viewed as a serious obstacle to profits. coal boom, projecting a doubling of The 125,000 protesters who marched a matter of the coal lobby losing During World War II, while other production by 1985. Oil and natural 1 Washington May 6 did not chant, ground to the stronger, competitive union officialdoms fell into line and gas generating plants were to be firmly No new nukes, but let's keep those we nuclear interests? accepted a no-strike pledge, the miners encouraged to convert to abundant !ready have." To begin to answer these questions, carried out four national strikes. They coal. They demanded, "No nukes. Shut you have to first sort out who owns the cracked the wartime wage freeze. The only problem, both industry and hem all down today!" energy reserves, including the uranium Massive automation of the coal in­ government moaned, was the coal But, the nuclear proponents argue, deposits necessary to generate nuclear dustry followed, and nearly 300,000 miners' "unruliness." It made coal vhat are we to do? About 12.5 percent power. miners were thrown out of work. But "unreliable" as a major source of ,f electricity in the country is gener­ The giant U.S. oil companies not by the 1960s, union miners were again energy and unless it were curbed, they tted by nuclear power plants. In some only manipulate the supply and distri­ stirring. They were demanding stiff threatened, the UMWA faced "extinc­ Jlaces, such as Chicago, half the total bution of domestic and imported oil, safety laws to prevent the periodic tion." ·lectricity comes from nuclear power. but they increasingly control the coal mass murders in the mines. They The miners said, "Shove it," and To shut down existing nuclear and uranium deposits. insisted that there be laws to curb struck for 110 days. They returned to !ants, they claim, would throw parts Oil companies mine 17 percent of the black lung disease and to provide work, having inspired labor's ranks by f the nation into chaos, plunging coal and 25 percent of the uranium in compensation for its countless victims. their stand, with a new confidence in 1hole areas into darkness. the United States. (See box.) And they won major concessions on their power and a determination to Thus the nation's top corporations both counts. continue their fight. Joes it mean 'less'? have their hands in every available The coal boom suddenly fizzled. And energy source. That way they can use Democratic reforms nuclear power was off and running. If this were true, and working people their control to juggle supplies. To In doing so, the miners found it "The walkout by the United Mine ould only look forward to "less" with curtail one source while expanding necessary to turn out the corrupt union Workers has created second thoughts t nuclear-free energy system, then the another if labor and environmental dictatorship of Tony Boyle in 1972, about reliance on this fuel," wrote U.S. >rospects for bringing unionists and "problems" get in the way. To black­ ushering in a new, inspiring period of News & World Report. "Utilities and •ther working people into the antinu­ mail the American people-into paying democratic union reforms. manufacturers who were moving reluc­ ·lear fight would be dim. higher prices or even into supporting In 1974, the miners won a contract tantly toward coal under political But that is not the case. There is an new wars if necessary to protect corpo­ clause that is still unprecedented in the rather than economic pressure are now tbundant energy source in the nation's rate interests. union movement-the right of union more likely to resist forced conversion oal reserves. According to a Wall Nuclear power fits into this profit­ safety committees to shut down a mine to a fuel that is increasingly unreliable treet investors' publication, Value gouging scenario. or mine section when there was judged and costly. ine, the nationwide unused mining Its roots were in the development of to be an "imminent danger." "The big winner to emerge from the apacity is 100 million tons of coal a nuclear weapons. Nuclear reactors But the energy corporations main­ strike could be the atom. Nuclear facili­ e8r. The New York Times estimates were necessary to provide plutonium tained hope of taming the mining work ties kept on producing electricity dur­ lst year's overcapacity at 150 million for atom bombs. force, the most organized and militant ing the strike while some coal-fired >nS. Promoting nuclear power as a new section of the industry. · plants were cutting power." A 1973 study by the Cornell Work­ source of energy-the wave of a tech­ At the time of the 1977 UMWA Continued on next page wps on Energy Research and Devel­ nologically superior future-was a con­ pment estimated recoverable coal re­ venient diversion from its hideous ~rves could supply the nation's energy purpose: demonstrated by the atom eeds-at present levels of bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Na­ onsumption-for 440 years. gasaki. Many coal generating plants stand The nuclear gang nused or as backup energy for nuclear \ants when they are shut down for Nukes a godsend Continental Oil, the nation's oil companies (which are among the pair or maintenance. Nuclear power was a godsend for the eighteenth-largest corporation, dis­ top eighteen corporations) owns ura­ And presently some 15,000 coal min­ energy profiteers. Here was a new tributes a piece of propaganda head­ ni urn reserves. lined, "Oil, Coal, and Uranium: Do s are laid off or working short shifts. energy source whose research and Of course, they own coal too. Four • some Appalachian counties where development was heavily subsidized They Mix?" of the top twelve coal companies are ,ining is the main source of jobs, by federal tax money. It was an indus­ The subtitle answers the question: owned by oil corporations. nemployment now tops 16 percent. try shrouded in secrecy, and the phony "The role of oil companies in the Number one in both uranium re­ These miners could be immediately cover of "national security" could be development of alternative energy serves and uranium milling is Kerr­ 1t back to work producing the coal used to justify the lies told the public sources." McGee Corporation, which ranks 142 on Fortune's list of the 500 ~ded to replace deadly nuclear about its "safety" and "environmental Continental owns Consolidation largest industrial corporations. Jwer. benefits." Coal, the second-biggest producer of Kerr-McGee is a $2 billion "diversi­ This reasonable alternative could The union officialdom was silenced coal in the country. fied mineral resources conglomer­ lso help bring the force of a powerful with the promise of a few construction The pamphlet brags that "collec­ ate." It suffered a setback recently 1dustrial union into the antinuclear jobs, nuclear plant jobs, and an ex­ tively oil companies have discovered when an Oklahoma jury ordered the ght-the United Mine Workers. panded economy. about half of the total U.S. uranium corporation to pay more than $10 The UMW A has long had a stand in The nuclear work force was new. reserves," and that four oil compan­ million to Karen Silkwood's estate. pposition to nuclear power and in There were no union traditions or ies produce about 52 percent of yel­ Silkwood was a Kerr-McGee worker wor of coal as its alternative. history of nuclear workers fighting for lowcake, or milled uranium. poisoned with radioactive pluto­ "Perhaps coal miners, particularly their rights in conflict with their To be sure, the top corporations nium. (See page 28.) 1ose familiar with Farmington and bosses. have their tentacles into the produc­ Kerr-McGee is not a big producer cotia and Buffalo Creek [all mine What a profit bonanza! tion of nuclear power, and that in­ of coal-yet. But it has 3 billion tons isastersJ, have a better perspective Coal, on the other hand, was a cludes first and foremost the oil of coal reserves. "What they lose in 1an most people to weigh the accepta­ different story. Coal had been mined in giants-Exxon, Gulf Oil, Mobil Oil, nuclear on the left hand, will cer­ ility of a risk of 145,000 [nuclear] this country for nearly 100 years at the Atlantic Richfield, and the list goes tainly be weighted with coal on the asualties," wrote the UMW Journal time of nuclear power's birth. Coal's on. right," explains an energy analyst. lst year. dangers were well known-100,000 Each of the nine largest domestic When the price is right. So why is it that the energy industry miners had died on the job since the nd the Carter administration refuse beginning of the century.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 15 .. .labor should fight to shut nukes, use coal Continued from preceding page 'flf" Fortune magazine, voice of big busi­ ness, began a series of articles in 11 Dead: March, titled, "It's Time To End The Holy War Over Nuclear Power." The introduction noted, "Today the U.S. gets 12% percent of its electric power from seventy-two nuclear generating plants. That is already enough to make a vital difference when foreign oil supplies are pinched or when coal miners stage a lengthy strike." Besides labor "unrest" in the coal­ fields, industry is also aiming its fire lety at new environmental rules, which would require utilities to install equip­ ment to control pollution from coal­ burning plants. They also perceive another obstacle. Some 65 percent of coal is transported by rail. An immediate increase in production of coal would exacerbate the decrepit condition of this country's railroads and could trigger a big fight for safety by rail workers. The rail carriers would be forced to upgrade and expand rail transportation. The energy industry has not aban­ r doned coal. But nuclear power is an attractive energy source to rely on until coal's labor and environmental "problems" are straightened out to industry's satisfaction. 'Expansion restraint' "Labor will probably behave well this year, so most coal companies will earn far more than in strike-tom 1978," predicted the March 23 Value Line. "That's not a reason to rush to buy coal stocks, however. . .. The coal companies will apply plenty of res­ traint to expansion over the next 3 to 5 years." MilitanV Steve Watson But "nuclear power use is growing By taking lead against nuclear power, miners could win new support In their life-and-death struggle with coal companies. fast and will continue to do so for years to come," it added. That was before Three Mile Island, monopolies and the largely unorgan­ • Strip-mined land must be re­ The labor movement would also need of course. But even with nuclear pow­ ized energy work force. claimed. Coal is increasingly surface to campaign for a program to retrain mined, much of it recklessly stripped er's dive in public esteem, the energy Opening up new mines and provid­ all nuclear workers for new jobs at profiteers are still holding the Ameri­ from the land, which is then aban­ union wages. ing jobs to thousands of coal miners doned. Besides the environmental can people hostage. would create a more favorable situa­ And unions could demand that fed­ blight, this leaves thousands of Appal­ eral funds be devoted right away to The fact that industry sees the min­ tion for the UMWA in general-in its achian residents victims of devastat­ developing alternative forms of energy. ers' militancy as a major obstacle is all orgamzmg drives, in its battles ing floods each year. The energy corporations always the more reason to fight for coal as the against speedup and safety violations, After a ten-year battle, a law requir­ scream that safeguards and environ­ immediate alternative to nuclear in its campaign for decent health care. ing strip mining reclamation was mental protections are prohibitively power. signed in 1977. But rules have yet to go expensive. They hide the real facts and Some supporters of nuclear power And by taking the lead against into effect. Currently the coal industry figures on energy reserves just as they cynically argue that coal mining is deadly nuclear power, the miners could and the states of Illinois and Virginia lie about the ghastly dangers of nu­ more dangerous than nuclear power. explain their case for safety to broader are suing to block enforcement of the clear power. They point to all the miners killed in forces. The miners could win new law. Energy, an absolute necessity for accidents each year and those who die support in their life-and-death struggle every person in this country, is totally from black lung disease. They capital­ with the profit-hungry coal barons. Environmental controls governed by the whims and wishes of ize on the fact that the full scope of the Such a UMWA-led campaign, joined • Environmental controls must privately owned corporations and their nuclear danger has been hidden until by the labor movement as well as by be enforced. Thf energy industry's only thought: profits. recently from the public and that sta­ environmentalists and antinuclear ac­ loudest complaint these days is the In its fight for coal as an immediate tistics on its thousands of victims tivists, could place the following de­ 1977 antipollution amendments added alternative to nuclear power, the union remain uncompiled, if not buried. mands on the energy industry: to the Clear Air Act. These "regulatory movement should demand that the It is certainly true that coal mining rampages," as Time magazine dubs books and all the secret records of the by the profits-first energy industry is • Coal must be mined safely. the effort, would require new coal­ energy monopolies and federal agen­ dangerous. But somehow the pronu­ Ever since coal miners forced passage burning power plants to install cies be opened to public inspection. clear forces are nowhere to be found of the 1969 coal mining health-and­ "scrubbers" to remove sulfur pollution If the health and safety of working when miners are fighting to better safety act, the operators have com­ from exhaust smoke. people is "too expensive," let the corpo­ their working conditions. plained of the law's interference with The original rules issued by the rations prove it to us. If there are oil A campaign by the labor movement "productivity." The UMWA safety Environmental Protection Agency last and gas shortages, let's see just what to increase coal production as the committees, which make it their job to September have been watered down. and where the hidden reserves really alternative to nuclear power would try and enforce this and similar state But they are still under heavy fire, are. If there are no "significant" dan­ strengthen the United Mine Workers in laws, were a particular target of the including by Carter's "inflation figh­ gers from nuclear power, let's hear its fight for safe working conditions. industry during the strike last year. ters." what industry and government offi­ It would help alter the relationship These laws and contract provisions Unfortunately, some UMWA offi­ cials have said-not in their lies to the of forces between the huge energy should be maintained and expanded. cials have been blackmailed into sid­ public-but in their closed-door meet­ ing with the coal industry on this issue ings and secret reports. on the basis that "costly" rules will Such a campaign by the labor move­ mean fewer mining jobs. But allowing the coal operators and utilities to slide ment would lead to the next reasonable Spanish dock workers step: demanding that the government by on pollution controls can only em­ bolden them to step up attacks on nationalize the energy industry and refuse nuclear cargo place it under public ownership, man­ Spanish dock workers have re­ The Spanish longshore workers other profit restrictions that they also oppose, most notably safety laws. aged by an independent board directly fused to unload cargo shipped to a have appealed for solidarity all elected by the American people. nuclear power plant under con­ over Europe. • Stop the attacks on miners' struction in the Basque city of right to organize. Having failed to This would take the industry out of Lemoniz, near Bilbao. The national The Lemoniz plant, built by wipe out the United Mine Workers the hands of the private profiteers, longshore workers association said Westinghouse, has been the scene during the strike last year, industry is organizing it instead on the basis of its members would refuse to handle of the largest anti-nuclear power continuing to chip away at the percen­ human needs. All the facts and deci­ the cargo at every Spanish port. demonstrations anywhere, reach­ tage of UMWA-produced coal, which sions would be subject to public scrut­ French dock workers at Bor­ ing as high as 200,000 people. now stands at less than 50 percent. iny because the workers in the energy deaux, responding to a solidarity Opposition to the plant is linked Expansion of western coal is largely industry would make sure no secrets plea from the Spanish, indicated with the demand of the Basque non-UMW A. And there are determined were kept from working people. they too would refuse to unload the people for the right to control their coal company efforts to sabotage or­ This is the only reasonable solution cargo. own nation. ganizing efforts in the eastern coal­ for the millions of working people who fields and to drive the UMW A out of now face nuclear disaster, long gas mines already organized. lines, and astronomical utility bills. 16 By Doug Jenness The accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant has rightly convinced millions of working people that nuclear power is dangerous. But they also know that electricity is essential to industry and their homes. So before joining the campaign to BoW" left groups shut down all the nuclear plants, they want to know where the 12.5 percent of electricity now produced by nuclear reactors will come from. Alternative Is coal see nuclear po"Wer The United Mine Workers Union has pointed out that there are huge reserves of coal still available and plenty of unemployed miners ready and willing to mine it. The Socialist Workers Party also believes that coal is the most obvious, immediate, and practical answer to nuclear power. Furthermore, fighting for this alternative would greatly strengthen the UMWA, including in its fight for safety and its attempt to organize unorganized miners. It would put the labor movement as a whole in a stronger position against the energy trust. (See article on page 14.) This approach sharply contrasts with the spec­ trum of alternatives being put forward by the assorted petty-bourgeois sects and grouplets around the edges of the labor movement. The International Socialist Organization, for example, published a special supplement to its newspaper, Socialist Worker, for the May 6 antinu­ clear march on Washington. In it they state that "there has to be an alternative to the barbarism of nuclear power and nuclear weapons-to the threats both of eternal contamination and instant annihila­ tion." What is this alternative? "Socialism-real socialism-is the alternative, and we must begin today to build for it." It is absolutely true that the present capitalist system must be replaced by socialism if peace, economic security, and freedom from exploitation are to be guaranteed. Answering immediate problems But socialists will never get a hearing from working people unless they offer answers to the immediate problems capitalism forces upon us­ nuclear disaster, fuel shortages, skyrocketing infla­ tion, and mass unemployment, to name only a few. It's only by putting forward its own program to Spartacist League labels antinuclear activists 'anti-industrial eco-faddists.' Militant/Nancy Cole deal with these immediate problems and fighting for it, that the labor movement can point the way toward wresting power from the capitalist rulers, The Communist Labor Party also believes solar of thousands of years. The continued use and establishing a workers government, and laying the energy is the alternative but proposes a different expansion of nuclear power means that the accumu­ basis for a socialist society. interim solution until it can be developed. In the lation of these deadly wastes will increase, and the To simply say that socialism is the alternative May 15 issue of its paper, People's Tribune, they threat of accidents even more serious than Three sounds like we should put off the fight against explain that "the most important short-term source Mile Island will be greater. nuclear power or do with less electricity until a available is conservation." Insulating homes and But the Spartacists are full of advice on how to socialist society is established that can provide the other buildings is especially cited as a means to make nuclear plants safer. One suggestion is to answer to our energy needs. save large quantities of energy. build them farther from major population centers. Another group that is for closing down nuclear It is true that some energy could be saved through "They should obviously be built at a distance and power plants but offers no immediate alternative is industrial conservation measures. But urging con­ downwind from cities." Where presumably only the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), a Maoist servation as an immediate alternative to nuclear rural residents, such as farmers, would be radiated! organization. In an article in the May 7 issue of its power gives credence to Carter's efforts to pin the Moreover, this bit of wisdom fails to take into paper, The Call, it argues that solar energy is the blame for the energy crisis on working people. We account that winds do change direction, that ra­ answer. "Solar power not only represents an alter­ live too luxuriously, he declares, and we should do dioactive emissions can travel for hundreds of native; it represents a better alternative because it with less gas, less heat, and less air conditioning .. miles, and that there is still the problem of waste poses none of the safety problems of nuclear disposal. power." The Spartacist League takes an entirely different But totally undaunted by facts, the Spartacists It contends that fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and approach than the other groups. In the April 13 ask, "And why not test an actual meltdown in the natural gas are not in the running as alternatives issue of their newspaper, Workers Vanguard, they desert to see how to protect against it?" because there is only a limited, finite quantity of argue that "the impressive technology of nuclear Do they have a specific desert in mind? One power" should not be shut down. Antinuclear acti­ these resources. Thus we must campaign for solar distant and downwind from any cities? One where energy to replace nuclear energy. vists are contemptuously labeled "anti-industrial the water table is miles underground? Perhaps in But the big problem with this proposal is that the eco-faddists." Utah or Nevada where the government tested present technology for solar power is very far from "Of course," they admit, "nuclear energy is far atomic bombs a few years ago? being able to provide our society's massive needs for from completely safe and is fraught with unresolved They also suggest that maybe reactors can be electricity-from running factories to lighting cities problems.... made safe by lowering the water table where they and millions of homes. Perhaps at some future time, "But the alternatives under capitalism are just as, are located or building huge underground concrete if sufficient resources are allocated, solar power can if not more, unsafe. Coal burning power plants emit silos to prevent a meltdown from burrowing into the be developed to provide much of our energy needs. as much background radiation as nuclear reactors water table. But until that time solar power doesn't provide an (coal contains radium and uranium)." answer to the Carter administration's lie that The article then goes on to develop at great length Amateurish advice closing all the nuclear power plants will precipitate the hazards of coal mining. But all this amateurish advice only adds up to an immediate shortage of electricity. The Spartacists' conclusion is that all technology speculation. They cannot definitely say, "Yes, the The CP (M-L)'s answer, like that of the ISO, is hazardous under capitalism and can only be technology does exist at this moment to make appears remote, not immediately realizable, and made safe when capitalism is abolished. "It is not nuclear power safe." therefore impractical. so much a question of a special technology, but the Yet in the same article the Spartacist League does irrationality of the capitalist economy which makes admit that, "The technology exists to make mines Democrats & solar energy all industry in the U.S., including the nuclear considerably safer with ventilation and adequate Many pro-Democratic Party liberals in the anti­ industry, hazardous." equipment." And of course they could add that nuclear movement also believe that solar power is scrubbers have been developed that can make coal the best alternative to nuclear energy and give the Dangers of nukes burning plants safer. So their contention that the demand for it a great deal of prominence. But being But this is where they are dead wrong. There is alternatives to nuclear power "are just as, if not more "realistic" than the CP (M-L), they recognize something special about nuclear energy. It is intrin­ more, unsafe," doesn't hold up. that its application, if it can be developed, is a way sically far more dangerous than other forms of An important test of any revolutionary organiza­ off. So in order to woo the support of capitalist energy because the technology does not exist to tion is whether it can present a fighting program to politicians, they demonstrate their "reasonable" make it safe-whether capitalists or workers control answer the immediate problems capitalism imposes interim solution by calling for a moratorium only the economy. on working people. This sampling of positions from on the construction of new nuclear plants. Mean­ Nuclear energy releases into our environment just a few of the self-appointed advisers to the labor while, most of the seventy-two existing plants lethal radioactivity that previously did not exist, movement demonstrates how far off the mark they continue to operate. that cannot be safely disposed of, and may last tens are.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 17 Sears anti-affirmative action suit dismissed By August Nimtz women against Blacks. A federal judge has thrown out of "We believe in equality for women," court Sears, Roebuck and Company's said Charles Bacon, Sears vice­ attack on federal affirmative-action president for personnel, at the time the guidelines. suit was filed. "But we think the gov­ U.S. District Court Judge June ernment has moved its enforcement Green dismissed the class-action suit priorities from minorities, for whom May 15 on the grounds that "Sears the 1964 law was primarily intended, had failed to present the court with a to women. And we think that the justifiable case or controversy." minorities are getting the short end of The suit by the nation's largest the stick." retailer was intended to head off action Because of the outrage with which against Sears by the Equal Employ­ Blacks greeted its suit, Sears went so ment Opportunity Commission. The far as to try to bribe a section of the commission has been investigating Black community by launching in May discrimination charges against Sears a twice-monthly advertising campaign since 197:t Some reports say that the in 150 Black newspapers across the EEOC may order the giant merchan­ country. diser to grant as much as $100 million Sears's attack on affirmative action in back pay because of its sexist and was encouraged by other efforts to racist hiring and promotion policies. overturn equal job rights, especially This could make the Sears settle­ the Weber case, now before the Su­ ment one of the largest in the history preme Court. of EEOC actions, rivaling the 1973 Brian Weber, a white lab technician consent decree with the American Tele­ at Kaiser Aluminum's Gramercy, Loui­ phone and Telegraph Company. As a siana, plant, claims he is the victim of result of an EEOC suit, AT&T was "reverse discrimination." He is trying forced to give Black and women to overturn an affirmative-action plan workers better job opportunities and to negotiated by the United Steelworkers. make back pay and other adjustments The plan set aside half of craft trainee totaling $52 million. positions for Black and women With the dismissal of the Sears suit, workers. the way is apparently cleared for the EEOC to proceed with its case against Brian Weber is no friend of white the retailer. workers any more than Sears is an Sears claimed in its unprecedented ally of Blacks. Both cases, and all the lawsuit that "confusing" and "arbi­ federal policy of preferential treatment tried to suggest that it truly supported other attacks on affirmative action, trary" federal policies and the maze of for veterans, which it claimed had affirmative action but was prevented only serve to divide the working class. government red tape made it impossi­ slanted the labor pool from which it from doing so because of the federal Every time one of these anti-labor ble for retailers such as itself to comply draws in favor of white males. government. moves is turned back. such as in the with affirmative-action regulations. In the extensive publicity with which The lawsuit was a blatant attempt to Sears suit, it's a step forward for The suit cited, as an example, the Sears launched its suit, the company pit worker against worker-especially working people.

Rail workers to protest Milwaukee Road plan By Dick Roberts Gustasson will be one of the speak­ kee Road. president spoke about how the com­ MINNEAPOLIS-A protest against ers at the Minneapolis rally. Supporting the workers who are panies keep different sets of books and the threatened liquidation of the Mil­ The initial call for the rally came already threatened with losing their how important it is to get the real facts waukee Road is being planned by from United Transportation Union jobs on the Milwaukee is a good place out of them. railroad workers here. They have Local 911, representing train service to begin fighting back against the Endorsements and letters of support called a rally for June 5 to present the employees of the Milwaukee Road in national profit drive of the rails. for the June 5 meeting should be sent viewpoints of workers and farmers St. Paul and Minneapolis. Top UTU Copies of Gustasson's report were to: Secretary, United Transportation who would be affected by the threa­ officials have so far limited their re­ eagerly received by the BN members Union Local 911, 3232 Karth Road, St. tened shutdown. sponse to the threatened shutdown to present at the union meeting. The local Paul, Minnesota 55110. The trustee of the bankrupt railroad suggesting that workers write to Con­ asked a federal court in Chicago last gress. month to approve plans for reorganiz­ "People wrote letters before the ing the railroad, which could eliminate union was founded," Bill Peterson told 5,000 or more jobs. At a minimum, the Militant. Peterson is a member of trustee Stanley Hillman would like to Local 911 active in building the protest close down all the operations of the meeting. "We explained in the local Milwaukee west of Chicago and Min­ that you don't need a union to write neapolis. letters. We need the union to defend Besides throwing thousands of our jobs." workers out of their jobs without com­ The local unanimously backed the pensation, this threatens all the idea of sponsoring a protest meeting. farmers and small businessmen along Other locals are now signing up. the branch lines that would be closed. One of the first endorsers of the The court has set May 31 for an protest was Charlie Wilson, secretary initial ruling on Hillman's demands. and local chairman of UTU Local 263, A big inspiration in encouraging representing Milwaukee Road engi­ railroad workers to initiate a fight neers. back was the work of a Milwaukee "This is a manipulated bankruptcy," Road employee in Portland, Oregon. Wilson told the Militant. "Never was Kendall Gustasson prepared a there more potential for railroads to HELP GET OUT THE TRUTH lengthy report on the mismanagement service the economy, and yet they're The Weber Case: New Threat to Affirmative Action by Militant staff of the Milwaukee Road. He listed a ripping them up one after the next. I'm writer Andy Rose presents the real story behind Weber's assault on job number of questions the company pretty concerned." Wilson has worked rights. It takes up key issues posed by the case: so-called reverse should answer about the ownership of on the railroads for twenty-eight years. discrimination against white males, seniority, and how the labor the railroad and the secret maneuvers On May 21, Wilson and Peterson movement can win jobs and better conditions for all. Join the effort to of the owners and managers before the appeared before UTU Local 1000, rep­ get out the facts to working people. bankruptcy was announced. Gustas­ resenting Twin Cities-area yard, train, son also presented arguments for step­ road, and engine service workers on Please send me: ping up the use of the railroads in the Burlington Northern. They got 0 5 copies for $3.30 0 10 copies for $6.60 response to the energy crisis. unanimous endorsement for the Mil­ 0 25 copies for $12 0 50 copies for $24 He then entered a Milwaukee Road waukee Road bankruptcy protest meet­ 0 100 copies for $45 office in Portland late one night and ing. 0 Other (75 cents each; 5 or more, 25% discount; 25 or put the entire report on the company This testifies to deep resentment of more, 40% discount. Add 50 cents for postage.) teletype, which went out to its offices railroad workers to the speedup and Name all over the country. Although the layoffs taking place on the rails. It's Milwaukee closed down its entire com­ possible that some of the Milwaukee Address puter system the next day and manag­ Road lines will be taken over by the ers ripped down the reports posted in financially powerful Burlington North­ City/State ------~ip ------one office after another, photostats of ern. At the same time, however, the BN the original had already been made by is attempting to drive through a cut in Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York. NY 10014 employees, and they are circulating crew size comparable to the crew reduc­ everywhere. tions already imposed on the Milwau-

18 World Outlook News, analysis, and discussion of international political events

Trotsgists P-Qint to Cuban exam~ What way forward for Iranian revolution? The April 11 debate between Trot- great scientific advances-when rna- overthrew the shah-the masses of skyist leader Babak Zahraie and "Is- chinery and technology can reduce the Iranian workers and toilers. lamic republic" proponent Abu al- working time required to produce the Zahraie took up a point made by Hassan Bani Sadr had a dramatic things we need, both in the cities and Bani Sadr about the weakness of Iran- political impact throughout Iran. Zah- in the countryside. But in this century ian capitalists: raie's clear and simple explanation of of great scientific progress, for seventy "I want to say one thing about weak what a workers and peasants- govern- years, under the domination of impe- capitalists and strong capitalists. ment would do aroused interest and rialism and the monarchy, Iran's si- What is the difference between them? sympathy from very broad sections of tuation has gotten worse. What you said makes the differences the masses including those still under "There are very contradictory devel- clear. You mentioned an American the influen~e of Ayatollah Khomeini's opments here. On the one hand, company, IBM. It has billions of dol- followers in other respects. science has provided the technological lars in capital. Not even the biggest The debate, which was nationally means for improving the lives of hu- Iranian capitalist has capital amount- televised, was viewed by an estimated man beings. On the other, the social ing to billions of dollars. 22 million persons-virtually the entire realities have continually made life "And capitalism has its own laws, adult population of Iran. worse." the law of gangsters. The stronger The reaction to it showed that the The old regime had promised that wins. It has no other law.... " masses were anxious to begin discuss- rising oil prices would bring prosperity ing how to build the new society that for the Iranian people. The new author­ Breaking from imperialism they had fought for, and that they ities also look to higher oil prices as "One thing that I find interesting were beginning to think about social- the only hope they can offer for solving about this discussion is that although ism. the country's economic problems. Zah- we say we are talking among our­ The results of the debate apparently raie said: selves, we see that everything depends alarmed the new regime, which has "It is exactly six years since the on relationships with people outside little authority and can hope to survive energy crisis appeared throughout the the country. How is it possible to free BABAK ZAHRAIE Militant/Mark Satinoff only by hiding behind "Islamic" de- world, and the price of oil in Iran ourselves from these debts? It is very magogy. increased many fold. The country's simple. There are historical examples The editors of the major Iranian leaders, the leaders of the despotic of how to do this. of this, the political leaders are telling dailies thought that the interest dis­ regime of the former shah, made a big "In the case of the Cuban revolution, the people to go home. They should tell played in the debate called for reprint­ fuss over this increase. This was all after Castro took power, he denounced them to stay mobilized and stay on the ing the text of it. Ayendegan printed it hoopla. The source of this development the unwarranted power exercised in alert so that we can carry forward the in full, in a series running in three lay outside the country.... Cuba by the United States. Castro struggle to root out imperialism from issues beginning April 11. "What was its result? . . . The rich said: 'To whom should I be loyal? To Iran. What did Zahraie say that made have become richer and the poor, the working people of Cuba? Or to the "There is a fundamental question such an impact on tens of millions of poorer. Before the price increase, Iran obligations imposed by the relations here. The February uprising pointed it Iranians? was self-sufficient in agriculture. Five that you say must be maintained inter­ up. That is, it showed that the people years afterward, Iranian agriculture nationally?' His conclusion was that are the ones who can solve this prob­ was ruined. Food began to be imported he should put the needs of Cuba first. lem. . . . The people have the power to 'Opportunity to discuss' at high prices. The peasants and small So, what did he do then? do it. They showed that they could "I am happy that the victory of the peasants were ruined. Hundreds of "He ordered that the land be given to overthrow any shah, that they could third Iranian revolution of this century thousands of peasants became up­ the peasants. He nationalized 99 per­ overthrow the monarchy with all its has given us the opportunity to discuss rooted wanderers." cent of everything the American com­ power. So the problems of Iran, from the fundamental questions," Zahraie So, Zahraie explained, the-solution to panies owned in Cuba. The Americans unemployment to underproduction, are began, "questions that not only intel­ the country's economic problems did had said that if he did thus and so, not going to be solved by some econo­ lectuals are preoccupied with but not lie in higher oil prices. The eco­ they would do thus and so in return. mists sitting in a room. They can only which concern the workers, the toilers, nomic problems had to do with rela­ Castro's reply was that he would na­ be solved by the masses through their and the middle classes. . . . tions between different groups of peo­ tionalize the imperialists down to the struggle." "When we discuss different economic ple. And the road to solving them was nails in their shoes. frameworks, what we are discussing is indicated by the February rebellion. "Expropriations are needed Economic crisis first of all human society, relations The only force that could solve these here. . . . This requires mobilizing the "We are coming to the question of among people. We live in an age of problems was the same force that masses of working people. But instead what an economic crisis is. One thing that is being talked about today in Iran is the crisis in agriculture, which is very deep. "What is involved in this crisis? Insufficient food production. Revolu­ tionary planning could solve this crisis in a couple of days. It's very simple. The first thing is to see how much is under cultivation. The second is to see how much is in storage. And the third is to find out how much has to be imported. Do you know how that can be done? Ask the farmers themselves, who are without work. The machinery that is being kept in storage by the landowners should be turned over to the farmers so that they can begin to do the work to get the crops ready.... "And the question of imports raises another question. The Socialist Workers Party proposes a state monop­ oly of foreign trade. What is imported should be determined by the needs of the country, not by those of personal enrichment, so the state should assume full control over foreign trade. What should be imported are tractors for agricultural work, machinery to in­ crease production." Zahraie took up some of the vague populist formulas in Bani Sadr's pro­ gram for the Islamic republic: "You say that the former govern­ ment centralized things but that this did not bring order and regularity. But that is a contradiction. If you central­ ize, there is one law. But you cannot centralize a capitalist economy. Cuban agricultural workers. Zahrale explained that Castro 'ordered that the land be given to the peasants. Who knows "Of course, each factory is central- better than the peasants how the seed should be used?' Continued on next pafle THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 19 World Outlook

King Hassan's Saharan war backfires Morocco: strike wave challenges regime By Peter Archer em Sahara. Part of the deal between The new government moved to extri­ The Moroccan regime of King Has­ the three governments had been that cate Mauritania from the war. A cease­ san II is facing a deepening crisis. all would share in the profits to be fire with the Polisario was agreed upon Growing unrest in the working class, derived from exploitation of the area's and Moroccan forces were forced to fueled by the cost and political impact phosphate reserves. Morocco had al­ withdraw from some important posts of waging a three-and-a-half-year war ready opened negotiations with several in the Mauritanian-controlled territory. against the Western Sahara Polisario American multinationals, including In addition to having to shoulder the (People's Front for the Liberation of the Rockefellers, for development of full burden of the Saharan war, Has­ Saguiet El Hamra and Rio de Oro), the deposits. san's government was badly shaken have the king worried. Forty thousand Saharans fled the by the revolution in Iran. In January The Moroccan economy is stagger­ invading troops. Many of them poured the shah, fleeing the massive upsurge ing under the burden of maintaining into refugee camps in Algeria. in his country, arrived in Morocco, 40,000 troops in a losing war against The United States backed up the hinting he would like to have a long the Polisario guerrillas. "Since last invasion with massive military aid to stay. But Moroccan students demon­ autumn," reported New York Times the Moroccan regime. strated against his presence, some correspondent James Markham May 1, Initially the Saharan campaign also chanting, "Tehran, Rabat, same com­ "railway workers, postmen, bank em­ seemed to answer the Moroccan ruling bat!" Others chalked up on a wall near ployees, phosphate workers and, most class's need to attain a measure of the university, "One shah in Rabat is recently, primary- and secondary­ stability by whipping up a chauvinist enough." Under this pressure, Hassan school teachers have struck for higher campaign against the Western Saha­ began to hint broadly that the shah wages that the Government is hard rans. The two main workers' parties in had outstayed his welcome. The mon­ pressed to come up with. the country-the Socialist Union of arch left for the Bahamas March 30. "The strikes were touched off in part Popular Forces and the Stalinist Party In this situation, the Carter adminis­ by an austerity program begun last of Progress and Socialism-backed tration is trying to open more channels summer.... Hassan's campaign against the right of support to the beleaguered monarch. "Many [politicians] concede," Mark­ of the Saharans to self-determination. Writing in the April 27 Christian ham continued, "that widespread cor­ The workers movement was disor­ Science Monitor, which is often used as ruption, against which the ruler re­ iented by the treachery of its leader­ a mouthpiece by the U.S. State Depart­ cently railed as a Western ship. ment, Stefan Halper and Roger Fon­ diplomat put it, 'could be an Achilles' The White House was delighted with taine complain that "the US attitude heel' at a time of belt-tightening for Hassan's performance. [toward the Saharan war] is one of most of the country's 18.6 million peo­ But the Moroccan and Mauritanian studied neutrality." ple." regimes were unable to deal a decisive This claim is nonsense. The U.S. Although up to now Hassan has defeat to the Polisario, desert-wise and government has backed up Hassan's been able to rely on his imperialist mobile in an area of more than a rule with millions of dollars in arms backers in the White House and Wall million square miles. In 1976, a group and aid, and endorsed his occupation Street to bail him out of his financial of thirty-five Polisario landrovers tra­ of the Sahara. Halper and Fontaine difficulties, the Carter administration veled undetected for 1,000 miles to the use the phony claim of neutrality to has been somewhat cautious in funnel­ outskirts of the Mauritanian capital of propose intensified U.S. intervention. ing aid to him. Nouakchott, where they shelled the "The principal objective of US for­ The Polisario forces are backed by presidential palace. eign policy in the area," they write, "is the Algerian regime, which has a long­ In Mauritania, the seemingly end­ helping to maintain a moderate, pro­ standing border dispute with Morocco less war rushed the declining economy Western regime in Rabat. Leaving going back to 1962. Carter is wary of into a tailspin. By the end of 1978, the Morocco alone and unaided to fight a precipitately breaking ties with the regime was borrowing heavily to keep war of attrition in the Sahara does government in Algiers. U.S. trade and afloat, and the public debt had soared little to achieve that goal." investment in Algeria is substantially to account for 92 percent of the coun­ higher than that with Morocco. try's gross domestic product. In addi­ tion, the guerrillas were becoming in­ Saharan war creasingly successful in disrupting the Perspectiva In November 1975, the aging Span­ iron industry, on which Mauritania ish dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco, relies for 82 percent of its exports. Mundial agreed to hand over to Morocco and KING HASSAN II: Washington Is wor­ A Spanish-language socialist Mauritania the Western Sahara, which biweekly, carrying news of the until then had been a colony of Spain. Mauritania coup ried that Hassan may go same way as antinuclear movement and other The United States supported this On July 10, 1978, a coup overthrew shah of Iran. move. None of the governments in­ the eighteen-year-old Mauritanian re­ struggles. Three months, $2. Send volved showed any interest in what the gime of Moktar Ould Daddah. The new 50 cents for sample copy. "bankruptcy," "economic marasma," people of Western Sahara thought head of state, Lt.-Col. Moustapha Ould P.O. Box 314 Village Station, New Mohammed Salek, explained in a press and "financial decadence," and that about the matter. York, N.Y. 10014. In January 1976, Moroccan and statement following the coup that Dad­ there had been a "daily danger of Mauritanian troops moved into West- dab had led the country into a state of revolt and popular uprising."

broken loose from the world market, for the benefit of the country? That is nub of the question in my opinion. The broken those very relations that you the question. It is in this sense that we old despotic government of the former ... Iran say we must maintain. Only those say that the country's problems could shah could not do it. And the govern­ Continued from preceding pege states [the USSR, China, and other be solved in a couple of days. We don't ment apparatus of today is the same ized. At Iran National, they can tell workers states] have been able to put say that Iran would be a paradise, but one that existed under the old regime. you exactly how much they produce the needs of their country above the that all its potential would be util­ "Although the dictatorship was and how long it takes. But when you laws of the imperialist jungle, above ized .... swept away by the insurrection, the take all the factories together, there is the greed of the imperialist companies, "Who knows better than the pea­ state apparatus remains.... You can­ anarchy. That is the nature of capital­ and begin a process of economic devel­ sants how the seed should be used? not do what needs to be done with this ism and you cannot change it. . . . opment." Who knows better than the workers state apparatus. Perhaps you could "You say that the problem is that the how to run the factories, how to de­ carry out some reforms . . . cut down economic centers are not in Iran, and Socialists' program velop production? What the uprising what is handed over to the imperialist that they must be brought into the At tb.is point the moderator asked showed was that the workers and the companies for a period. But the funda­ country. Well, it's obvious that the Zahraie and Bani Sadr to try to find peasants should not only build the mental problems of the workers and centers are not in Iran. The country is points of agreement so that the discus­ society but that they can and should toilers in Iran would not be solved." not industrialized. . . . The problem is, sion could be more "fruitful." Bani direct this process. . . . In order to solve these problems, how are you going to bring these Sadr indicated that he thought they "What does the monopoly of foreign Zahraie concluded, the masses would centers into the country? The capital­ could agree on the need for the people trade mean? It doesn't mean turning have to have full freedom to discuss ists cannot industrialize Iran. to get back to work. all foreign trade over to a few so that and examine all opinions. Only in this "You cannot point to a single semi­ Zahraie responded: they can get rich. It means planning way could it be shown who was trying colonial country anywhere in the world "The question is what kind of work. by the peasants themselves, for exam­ to deceive the people. He said that the that has industrialized, even though Should the workers go back into the ple. . . . It might be necessary to im­ debate with Bani Sadr was an example there have been a lot of insurrections factories to work for the bosses? Or port some things for building roads. of the sort of discussion that needed to in these countries. should they take control of production The government would import them. be carried on throughout the entire "The only countries that have es­ themselves? Should the peasants work "To whom should this task be dele­ country, among the masses of working caped from the jungle of imperialism for the landlords, or should they take gated? Only a government could do it. people. are those countries that have the agricultural machinery and use it What kind of government? That is the From Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 20 debated in Congress, he refused to oppose sending an observer team to Rhodesia-a move which was intended to lend legitimacy to the elections. Carter is working together with the Senate in exploring the possibility of recognition of the Muzorewa regime, According to the May 4 Washington Post, Andrew Young said that while the elections were "rigged," the U.S. Why the Senate voted to drop "should help the new government of Bishop Abel Muzorewa survive while preparing for 'new elections without sanctions against Rhodesia pressures.'" The editors of the New York Times By August Nimtz also endorsed the "internal settle­ The U.S. Senate voted 7:) to 19 on ment." They declared May 18: "As May 1!) to ask President Carter to lift long as enough blacks collaborate ... economic sanctions against the white­ there is nothing the Western powers minority-dominated regime in Zim­ could or should do to upset it.'' babwe (Rhodesia). The proposal calls And, they smugly point out, "It for ending the sanctions within four­ should require no genius ... to find teen days of the ino;tallation of tlw nPw the American interest in the Bishop's government of Bishop Abel Muzorewa lMuzorewa's] choice." on June 1. The Senate justified its vote with the Problem facing imperialists lie that the recent elections held by the But it will require much more than white minority rulers were "fair." extending recognition to Muzorewa or Under legislation enacted by Congress lifting the sanctions to stabilize his last year, Carter must lift the sanc­ regime. The Rhodesian government tions if he determines that the Rhode­ faces a worsening military situation sian regime stages "freely" conducted and a breakdown of much of the eco­ elections allowing the participation of nomic activity in the country. "all political groups." It will be necessary for the imperial­ By any measure, the Rhodesian elec­ ists to step up military support for the MITH: Under his 'internal settlement' MUZOREWA: Senate claims he came to new government to survive. (In this tions cannot qualify as "fair." An white minority will retain control of army power in 'free' election despite martial earlier, whites-only election determined connection it is important to note that and veto power over all major legisla- law and ban on opponents. there has been an increase in covert the constitutional basis of the Muzor­ tion. ewa government. The result is that arms shipments of American origin to whites, who comprise 4 percent of the the Rhodesian regime.) The Senate vote was one step toward population, have 28 percent of the the Zimbabwean masses in the strug­ plan,'' British and American imperial­ legitimizing the regime in the eyes of seats in the parliament and veto power gle for genuine Black majority rule. ists tried to pose as defenders of Black the American people in' order to give over all major legislation, including U.S. policy makers know that such a majority rule in hopes of splitting the open military support to Muzorewa's constitutional amendments. Whites struggle might well spill into South Black majority and drawing at least a government. It is doubtful, however, will also have control of the armed Africa itself, and would threaten impe­ section of the guerrilla fighters into a that this move will be successful. Ac­ forces and the Executive Council. rialist domination of the entire region. Black government that would protect cording to a recent poll conducted by The April elections, in which Blacks Washington gives lip service to the imperialist interests. and whites voted for Black parliamen­ the Carnegie Endowment, Americans rights of the Black majority, but its Carter made a major effort to sell the tary candidates (Blacks were not al­ are strongly opposed to any U.S. mil­ first concern is defense of U.S. eco­ plan, using Andrew Young to drum up lowed to vote in thf' earlier election for itary involvement in southern Africa nomic interests. Black support. Congress joined in by white candidates), were held under the even in the face of increased Cuban or After giving full support to British repealing the Byrd Amendment and guns of 100,000 Rhodesian troops. Soviet military activity. colonial rule in Rhodesia for decades, formally restoring economic sanctions. In light of this constraint, Carter Despite the attempts of "observer" Washington-working along with the will no doubt try to rely as much as groups such as the New York-based British imperialists-was forced dur­ However, Carter has not been able to possible on his imperialist allies. Al­ Freedom House to give the elections a ing the 1960s to shift its policy in light implement the Anglo-American plan. ready, the new government of Mar­ clean bill of health, there were numer­ of the struggles of the Afrinan masses One reason is that Smith has refused garet Thatcher has increased its sup­ ous confirmed reports of Blacks being against colonial domination. to go along with it. Instead, Smith port for the Smith-Muzorewa coalition intimidated into voting. The British tried to set up an inde­ went ahead with his own "internal by assigning a full-time envoy to the Moreover. the Patriotic Front, the pendent government in Rhodesia tied settlement," which the Muzorewa gov­ Rhodesian capital. major nationalist group fighting for to imperialism-a neocolonial regime. ernment is based on. Meanwhile, the Black majority rule, is outlawed by the armed struggle for majority rule has The racist regime in Pretoria has But Ian Smith and the white settlers stated its willingness to back the Mu­ regime and was not allowed to partici­ he spoke for opposed any concessions continued to intensify. zorewa government militarily as well pate in the "free elections" hailed by to the Black majority. They declared Under these circumstances, the Se­ as economically. the Senate. their independence from Britain in nate majority has apparently been But British or South African inter­ 1965. convinced that it is necessary to go vention could result in what the impe­ U.S. policy Despite formal U.S. support for eco­ along with Smith's internal settlement. rialists most fear-a deepening radical­ While the Senate proposal has been nomic sanctions against Smith's out­ Carter himself called the rigged elec­ ization of the Black masses and the played up in the capitalist press as a law regime, American trade with tion "certainly a step in the right involvement of Cuban forces in the blow to Carter's southern African stra­ Rhodesia continued and was instru­ direction." When the issue was being struggle. tegy, it does not differ with the funda­ mental in helping to maintain Smith mental aims of Carter or his predeces­ in power for fifteen years. U.S. viola­ sors. tion of the United Nations trade em­ The Senate votf'. which was sup­ bargo was formalized when Congress ported by liberals and conservatives of passed the Byrd Amendment in 1971. both capitalist parties, was a blunt But the collapse of Portugal's Afri­ statement of the real aims of the U.S. can Empire in 1974-75 and Washing­ ruling class in southern Africa. They ton's inability to intervene successfully care nothing about the undemocratic in Angola in 1976 required a shift in basis of the Muzorewa government. U.S. policy in southern Africa. White­ Their real worry is the mobilization of minority regimes that had enjoyed decades of uninterrupted dominance over Blacks began to feel the heat of ANGOLA the African revolution. In Zimbabwe, where every peaceful road to liberation ·-·~ ~:::::::· ':!::.:~;"~· had been closed off, the Black masses 1n the Bnng? IJnUI'CI .i.... '"· Stat" intensified their struggle for liberation. r Anglo-American plan flops The big problem for the U.S. ruling ·-Ernest Mandf~F~Uio~8n-Woriiers' lfi*J)onse class was how to maintain its eco­ nomic and political interests in south­ ern Africa, which are based on the exploitation and subordination of Blacks, in the face of this revolution­ ary upsurge. Chrtstian Science Monitor Henry Kissinger attempted to fa­ Imperialists are afraid that liberation shion a deal for Zimbabwe that was struggle in Zimbabwe will spill over into later pursued by the Carter administra­ South Africa. tion. Under this "Anglo-American

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 21 Demand informer files be o~ned Socialists seek Supreme Court review By Harry Ring a sampling of those who participated someone to read and summarize the NEW YORK-The Socialist Workers in government efforts to disrupt the files. Party has petitioned the Supreme party. In asking the Supreme Court to Court to review an appeals court deci­ The Supreme Court petition was review that decision, the SWP brief sion which voided a contempt of court filed May 11 by Leonard Boudin and argued that the appeals court had citation against Attorney General Grif­ Margaret Winter, attorneys for the acted improperly in even hearing Bell's fin Bell. SWP in its six-year-old suit against the appeal against the contempt citation. Bell had been held in contempt for government. The party, together with According to law, such civil citations defying a court order to turn over to the Young Socialist Alliance, is seek­ cannot be appealed until after a case is the SWP's attorneys the files on eight­ ing $40 million in damages and a resolved. Otherwise, appeals against a een FBI informers. The informers were permanent injunction against govern­ judge's rulings while a case is in pro­ ment surveillance, burglaries, infiltra­ gress can be utilized for endless delays. tion, and other illegal activities. By denying the SWP access to the The Supreme Court will probably files, the brief contended, the appeals CPmember announce this fall whether it will court was denying it evidence neces­ review the case. sary to ensure a fair trial. And in wins F81 suit elevating the attorney general above The FBI has been ordered to pay Federal District Judge Thomas the law, the court had violated the $48,000 in damages to Mary Blair, a Griesa, who is presiding in the SWP's SWP's constitutional right to due pro­ veteran Milwaukee member of the suit, had ordered the informer files cess. Communist Party, according to the turned over after he had read them and On April 30, Griesa appointed a May 17 Daily World. The FBI caused found they contained extensive evi­ "special master" to review the con­ her to lose her job in the early 1960s dence of illegal government activity tested informer files and make a digest and also to lose her position as a against the SWP. available to the SWP. Cub Scout den mother. The files, Griesa declared, "undoubt­ Charles Breitel, a former chief judge Represented by the Wisconsin edly constitute the most important of the New York Court of Appeals, is Civil Liberties Union Foundation, body of evidence in the case." supposed to go through the secret files Blair went to court after receiving Attorney General Bell apparently and extract relevant information con­ FBI documents under the Freedom felt the same way, since he took the cerning illegal activity against the of Information Act. The documents unusual step of directly defying the SWP without revealing the identity of confirmed that the FBI had sent judge's order. Bell argued that he was the informers. anonymous letters to her employer bound to protect the "confidentiality" Meanwhile, legal expenses in the and to Boy Scout officials resulting of the FBI's stool pigeons and provoca­ suit continue to escalate. Funds to in her victimization. teurs. defray these costs have been appealed The FBI's dirty tricks against Instead of compelling Bell to sur­ for by the Political Rights Defense Blair were part of its Cointelpro render the files, the appeals court Fund, which is organizing support for operation designed to disrupt and basically stated that attorney generals the case. Contributions can be sent to destroy the Communist Party. are above the law. The court did rule, the PRDF at Box 649, Cooper Station, however, that Griesa could assign New York, N.Y. 10003. GRIFFIN BELL ... hundreds at Va. Steelworker meetings Continued from back page is just the opposite. One woman told But even being acquitted of their While harassing union militants, The bulletin is still published on a the Militant that white "foremen just "crimes" does not protect the Steel­ Tenneco is preparing to appeal the weekly basis to keep communication stand over top of Black workers and workers' jobs. Strike activist Joe Will May 4 ruling of Administrative Law lines open within the local. holler at them. They're afraid to do Hardy was fired despite winning an Judge Melvin Welles. That ruling re­ Inside the yard the battle for union anything." appeal overturning his conviction. commended that the NLRB reaffirm rights continues. It's a "touch and go" Company spies and shipyard plain­ Tenneco has instituted another form its certification of Local 8888. An ap­ situation, according to Hower, which clothes cops try to create a climate of of victimization by virtually removing peals process through the courts can "varies from department to depart­ fear to keep union members quiet. "light duty" -less physically taxing drag on for years. ment." According to Hower, "twenty-two work to which production workers are But despite Tenneco's offensive­ Glenn, a Black mechanic, told the workers have been fired for convic­ assigned, usually when medically ne­ and despite the fact that the Steel­ Militant what it's like in his depart· tion" of strike-related arrests. That cessary. Now, Hower told the Militant, workers were forced to suspend their ment, which is heavily union. "It's real means that 156 other Steelworkers­ "workers are being 'passed out' of the strike short of winning recognition­ quiet," he said. "Nothing's happening now back on the job after suspension yard indefinitely until they're able to working people in the Tidewater area at all. The foreman doesn't hassle us." due to arrest-may also face discharge take on a regular job." Women have are not reading the situation as a In another department the situation if convicted in court. been particularly hard hit. defeat for the union. "Some people talk," said Hower, :;,n1rou•~., "that because we went back, we got NEWS .. · beaten. But we're strong. Stronger than ever in some ways. Our people NEWpORT AND want the Steelworkers as their union, and they will do anything to get that." Local 8888's fighting spirit-and the DRY OOCK U fact that oil-rich Tenneco could not pound the union into submission-has inspired working people here to such an extent that a rush is on to solicit the Steelworkers' help in budding organiz­ ing drives. "All kinds of workers have called up in the past several weeks," said Hower. "Some have already formed organizing committees. Others are thinking about it. The workplaces range from a couple hundred to much bigger operations." A good indicator of the impact of the Steelworkers' battle is the recent vic­ tory of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union in neighboring Colon­ ial Williamsburg. Despite an anti­ union slander campaign, kitchen and food workers in this tourist town voted union 485 to 289. It was the major news story in Tidewater that day. "The workers there would not have voted in the union if they'd thought we'd been beaten down here," Hower told the Militant. The Steelworkers have not been beaten by a long shot. Their enthusias­ tic response to this week's organizing meetings shows they are anxious to press on with their fight. And the support they are winning inside the shipyard-as well as throughout Tidewater-bodes well for their vic­ Steelworkers organizer Jack Hower (right) at picket line during strike. Union is gaining new .....,nnn tory. 22 In Review 'The Deer Hunter' The Deer Hunter. Starring Robert De Niro. Directed by Michael Cimino. Pro­ duced by Universal Pictures, 1978.

In 1968 I went to Vietnam holding opinions about the war derived from U.S. Army propaganda. Orientation sessions confirmed what we had al­ ready heard: it's impossible to tell who is "Charlie" (the National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese soldiers) and who isn't, and never trust a "gook" with a gun-including the Sai­ gon government's army. This pro-imperialist, patriotic, and racist bill of goods couldn't stand the test of reality, however. The majority returned having learned instead never Film

to trust anyone who sends someone else to fight a war. Others radicalized still further. It was with these and other memo­ ries of Vietnam and its aftermath that I went to see The Deer Hunter. I went to see the movie expecting a 1978 remake of The Green Berets. What I saw was no less pro-imperialist and anti-Vietnamese, but very much more subtle. The film, an emotional blockbuster, John Savage and Robert De Nlro In 'The Deer Hunter.' has been given a thoroughly profes­ sional production. All of Hollywood's majority of soldiers were Black and The Deer Hunter.) big-buck stoppers are pulled out: the scum" and "not falling in step with the Latino. But in The Deer Hunter, a story career anti-Vietnam War movement." "star," Robert De Niro; the authentic­ The subdued singing of "God Bless about Americans in combat, to be an seeming locations in Thailand; the America" at the end of the film as the The Deer Hunter is a more serious American is to be white. quality of photography; the detailed American survivors and their friends effort to restore faith in the "American brutality of the violent scenes; and the I don't think that the film could begin to rebuild their nearly shattered Way" than The Green Berets. There many-layered imagery of a well­ possibly have portrayed young civil lives was accompanied by sobs and was no way you could believe the thought-out script. rights activists and Black nationalist soft crying in the audience. swaggering arrogance of John Wayne militants in Vietnam-there were The patriotic intentions of The Deer in Vietnam-especially after the Viet­ plenty of them-while presenting the These reactions were helped along Hunter have been confirmed by the namese liberation forces won the war. Vietnamese as subhuman embodi­ by the fact that the movie was released film's co-author and director Michael In The Deer Hunter the quiet loyalty ments of evil. The parallel between the during a new wave of anti-Vietnamese Cimino. But having seen the film, I and courage of the leading characters, liberation struggles would have been propaganda and imperialist-inspired don't need his assurances. The tool combined with the pain and suffering fatal to the movie's point of view. attacks on the Vietnamese revolution. that is used to present this patriotic The film's patriotism and "Best Pic­ inflicted on them, inspires more sym­ pathy. point of view was also used to get us to The Deer Hunter gets its point ture" Academy Award became part of fight in the war: racism. across. A goodly part of the New York the propagandist's weaponry. It is But as effective war propaganda and All Vietnamese are treated in the City audiences the two nights I saw being used to try to rewrite the mean­ in artistic merit, The Deer Hunter can't same "yellow peril" manner, as cruel the film cheered when the hero turned ing of the Vietnam War and as a hold a candle to World War II classics and sadistic creatures. Hollywood wri­ the tables on his giggling and sneering counterweight to deepening sentiment like Casablanca. -Brian Riffert ters are adept at creating Asian ene­ Vietnamese torturers, who were forc­ in the United States against new Viet­ mies for Caucasian warriors. ing American captives to play Russian nams. And there is another facet to the Roulette, and gunned them down. (The That's why the Wall S'reet Journal Brian Riffert was stationed with the racism of The Deer Hunter. History Vietnamese fascination with Russian devoted its main editorial April 30 to U.S. Army's Twenty-fifth infantry shows that in the fighting branches of Roulette-a figment of Cimino's praising The Deer Hunter for depicting division at Cu Chi, South Vietnam, the army during the Vietnam War, the imagination-is a recurrent theme in "the Vietnamese enemy" as "moral for a year. Austria 1934: workers vs. fascism Workers in Arms: The Austrian Schutzbund and the of armed fascist bands-was triumphant. hand of the bourgeois reaction. From the inception Civil War of 1934 by Ilona Duczynska. Monthly Before 1934, of all the workers parties, the Aus­ of the Schutzbund, they had organized it along Review Press. 1978. 356 pages. $15. trian Social Democrats were the most massive. strictly military lines to keep it under the control of Workers in Arms is an abridged translation of Support for Social Democracy was so great that, the party hierarchy. It was this prior militarization Der Demokratische Bolschewik (Munich, 1975). The following the collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy in of the Schutzbund, and the orders given to wait, author, recently deceased, was a participant in the 1918, the regime's arms arsenals came under the that made defeat in the February 12 struggle inevit­ Hungarian and Austrian Communist parties, the control of the party. Although these were hidden able. Austrian Social Democratic Party, and the from the victorious Allies, all through the 1920s, up Yet, if the leaders saw in the armed workers only Schutzbund-the paramilitary defense unit of the to 1934, the number of rifles, machine guns, and a bluff, the rank and file considered themselves Austrian SP. I, like Duczynska, can speak of the ammunition accessible to the party was much revolutionaries. In the showdown with the fascists, 1934 events from personal experience. larger than that of the bourgeois forces! they fought, leaving for us a heritage of armed resistance to fascism. In February 1934, the Schutzbund made an heroic Even after many years of retreat before the last stand against Austrian clerico-fascist reaction. bourgeoisie, the Schutzbund in 1934 was still twice While I was only a child at the time, I will never But the armed uprising by the rank-and-file workers as strong as the federal army. It did not lack any forget those terrible but glorious days. small arms, and was defeated only by the indiscrim­ The 1934 defeat broke the Austrian Social Demo­ inate use of artillery. cracy, which was not to rise again until after the If the Schutzbund had acted decisively and vigor­ end of World War II. Books ously during the first few hours of the general strike Ilona Duczynska is wrong in putting so much that shook Austria on February 12, 1934, it would emphasis on the armed struggle debates in the have been able to take over the capital city, Vienna. party during 1927-33. The cause of defeat is not to was betrayed by the vacillating and weak-kneed But the party leaders had hamstrung the armed be found there. Rather, it is the need to build a new leadership of the SP and ended in defeat. workers and ordered them to wait and not do and truly revolutionary leadership of the working The mass Social Democracy was shattered. Its anything in those first crucial hours. class that is the main lesson of the 1934 armed organizations were prohibited, its property confis­ The party leadership saw the armed workers' struggle. It was this lesson that led me into the cated, hundreds were killed, dozens executed, thou­ defense guards not as a fighting force but as a ranks of the Trotskyist movement. sands more jailed. Bourgeois reaction-in the form weapon that by its very existence would stay the -Theodore Edwards

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 23 In Brief NEVADA GOV. ACTS ON dent did not pose any health defects and liver cancer, he arm. RADIATION ACCIDENT hazard to the ten people ex­ said, are all believed to have Quote unquote While the smallest of the rail The governor of Nevada or­ posed to the radiation. been caused by defoliants. unions, the Dispatchers' picket dered an indefinite halt to the Sure. , "According to Tung," the lines were expected to be ho­ shipment of nuclear waste into interview continued, "half of "We're the current nored by more than 500,000 a state dumping area by three U.S. DEFOLIANTS HIT all infants born with birth whipping boy. After rail workers. According to B.C. California companies. VIETNAMESE INFANTS defects in one hospital in Viet­ Three Mile Island no Hilbert. oresident of the He acted after a May 14 The Vietnamese people are nam are anancephalic-born one has anything good Illinois-based union, their accident in which improper the victims of a continuing toll with no upper portion of the to say about us." walkout would have halted 80 packaging of the deadly waste from the poisonous defoliants brain. That defect, he said, is -Carl Goldstein of the to 90 percent of the nation's resulted in a fire aboard a sprayed over their countryside normally found in about one Atomic Industrial Forum. rail traffic. truck. by the U.S. during the war. percent of the infants born Hilbert reported that negotia­ He said the accident resulted This was reported by Ton with birth defects. tions broke down over work from packing uranium waste in That Tung, a cancer specialist "Tung said there are no con­ taking criminal action because rules. The union's demands a gypsum compound instead of and Vietnam's director of trols, and no pre-war statistics, it might be too hard to prove. include paid meal time, revised concrete as required by law. science and health. He was with which to compare the Civil action can drag on in disciplinary procedures, and The gypsum packing was, pre­ interviewed by the Washington present situation. But villagers the courts for years. improved travel pay. sumably, cheaper, as well as Post May 8 during a visit here. in the countryside, he said, are Hooker is the company that reporting the birth of many 500 JOIN lAM PICKET less sturdy. The Post reported: "High dumped countless tons of More than 500 unionists more deformed infants, and The governor said the acci- incidents of miscarriages, birth deadly chemical waste into the picketed the Ladish Company many more miscarriages, than Love Canal area near Niagara in Milwaukee May 8. They they are accustomed to." Falls and kept quiet for two came to demonstrate support Tung was on a five-week decades while people built for 2,000 members of Interna­ visit here sponsored by the 'We won't work for peanuts' homes and lived there. tional Association of Machi­ American Friends Service Finally, after increased ill­ By Dale Greene "Univac is hiding behind nists Lodge 1862, who have Committee. ness and death, hundreds of been on strike since April 11. ST. PAUL, Minn.­ the guidelines and won't families had to be evacuated. Chanting, "We won't work budge," union negotiator Ladish's 5,000 workers are TEAMSTERS RATIFY PACT In New York the attorney organized by six other unions for peanuts," 800 striking Jan Ehmke told the Mili­ A new three-year Master general asked Gov. Hugh Ca­ members of International tant. In addition, none of the besides the Machinists. Prior to Freight Agreement covering rey for funds to launch a state the strike the unions formed a Brotherhood of Electrical company's benefit offers some 300,000 Teamster damage suit against Hooker. Workers Local2047 marched would go into effect until the coalition for mutual support. members has been ratified by That was a month ago, and the According to lAM Lodge on the federal building here second year of the contract. mail ballot. The vote showed governor has not yet re­ May 17. The strikers, who produce 1862 President Steve Kuk­ 127,872 in favor and 45,577 sponded. linski, 4,500 workers have The demonstrators, who memory banks and compu­ opposed. Hooker is a subsidiary of the have been on strike against ters, are prepared to stay out joined the strike. Out of 200 The new contract reportedly California-based Occidental scabs, almost all are foremen Univac since May 5, hit for as long as it takes to win Petroleum Company. Last increases wages and fringe and supervisors. Kuklinski Carter's 7 percent wage a decent contract. IBEW year, when Governor Carey benefits by 30 percent over said Ladish underestimated guidelines. "We can't sur­ Local 2047 represents 2,700 three years: $1.50 in base pay, was running hard for reelec­ vive on 7 percent," speakers workers, from assemblers to the workers' willingness to $0.75 in benefits, and a possi­ tion, he received a campaign fight and their degree of unity. told the rally following the tool and die makers. A high ble $1.25 or more in cost-of­ contribution of $30,000 from march. percentage are women. Ladish is blocking the living raises. Under the pre­ Armand Hammer, president of union's wage demands with vious contract earnings were Occidental. Carter's 7 percent wage guide­ about $9.75 per hour. Meanwhile, Hooker defied a line. "This is Carter's strike," In a partial concession to congressional subcommittee by said Kuklinski. steelhaulers, the Teamster offi­ refusing to produce records cialdom agreed to count and concerning the contamination IUE STRIKE FIRM report their vote separately. of Michigan water supplies by International Union of Elec­ The steelhaulers had re­ its dumping ground in Mon­ trical Workers Local 1013 has mained on strike for three tague. Congressional probers been on strike against Ingram weeks after the union-wide ac­ believe the Hooker records Manufacturing in San Antonio WAG£ GUXDELINESJ tion was called off. They were would establish that it knew since March 26. seeking better terms in the back in 1968 that it was con­ The union has charged In­ supplemental agreement nego­ taminating the water. gram with a series of unfair tiated for them. The committee "sharply cri­ labor practices including bar­ Their action won improved ticized" Hooker for refusing to gaining in bad faith, bypass­ pay for both fleet deliverers turn over the records. ing the union in dealing with and owner-operators. employees, and refusing to pro­ They had demanded the CARTER BLOCKS STRIKE cess union grievances. right to separate ratification of President Carter imposed the Out of a work force of 200, the pact covering them, but strikebreaking Rail Labor Act 165 are on the picket lines. this was denied by top Teams­ May 8 to head off a May 9 According to the union, the ter officials. strike by the 2,500-member scab work force has been un­ American Train Dispatchers able to resume production on U.S. SAYS IT WILL Association. Provisions of this rollers and the other heavy SUE HOOKER CHEMICAL law postpone rail strikes for at construction equipment In­ The Justice Department and least sixty days. gram manufactures. the Environmental Protection The ATDA is the only one of Local 1013 was formed in Agency said May 20 that they thirteen rail unions that has 1972 but Ingram refused to are preparing a civil damage not ratified the new thirty-nine­ sign a contract with the union suit against Hooker Chemical month contract with the N a­ until February 1975. Striking St. Paul unionists Militant/Dale Green Company. tiona! Railway Labor Confer­ Local 1013 President Joe They said they are not under- ence, the industry's bargaining Norris is anxious to get the What•s Going On

Zimmermann, 7:30 p.m. Donation: $1.50 tilde Zimmermann, SWP national voir, Burlington, Kansas. Transportation THE LABOR MOVEMENT. Speaker: per session or $4 for entire conference. GEORGIA women's rights coordinator. 6404 Wood­ from Kansas City, Missouri, leaves from Chris Driscoll, member, International Ausp: Chicago/Gary Socialist Workers ATLANTA ward. Donation: $1.50 per session. $3.50 UMKC Univ. Center parking lot at 9 a.m. Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Party and Young Socialist Alliance. For THE INTERNATIONAL ANTINUCLEAR for entire conference. For more informa­ For more information call (816) 753-8754 2112, member, Socialist Workers Party. more information call: Chicago (312) 939- MOVEMENT. Slides and discussion. Fri .. tion call (313) 875-5322. or 753-3424. Fri., June 1, 7:30 p.m. 108 Morningside 0737 or Gary ( 219) 884-9509. June 1. 8 p.m. 509 Peachtree St. Dona­ NE. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Fo­ tion: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. RAPE: HOW TO STOP IT. Speakers: rum. For more information call (505) 255- For more information call (404) 872-7229. representatives of Socialist Workers 6869. MINNESOTA Party; Metropolitan Organization to Com­ bat Sexual Assault; others. Thurs., June MICHIGAN IRON RANGE 14, 7:30 p.m. 4715-A Troost. Donation: DETROIT CLASS: BLACK RIGHTS AND THE $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more ILLINOIS SOCIALIST EDUCATIONAL CONFER­ LABOR MOVEMENT. FORUM: THE information call (816) 753-0404. CHICAGO ENCE. Sun., June 17, 1 p.m. "The Fight 'WEBER' CASE AND AFFIRMATIVE AC­ NEW YORK THE FIGHT FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS for Women's Rights and the Socialis1 TION. Speaker: Andrew Pulley, Steel­ NEW YORK CITY worker and recent Socialist Workers TODAY AND THE ROLE OF THE SO­ Movement." Speakers: Meg Hayes, Uni­ TROTSKY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO Party candidate for mayor of Chicago. NEW JERSEY CIALIST MOVEMENT. One-day confer­ ted Auto Workers Local 600; Peggy MARXISM. On the 100th anniversary of Sat., June 9. 7 p.m. Northern Electric ence with special tribute to Marxist an­ Brundy, member of Socialist Workers NEWARK Trotsky's birth. Speaker: George Novack, Cooperative Association, 1500 S. 16th St., thropologist Evelyn Reed. Speakers: Nan Party National Committee and National LIBERATION STRUGGLES IN author, leader of Socialist Workers Party. Virginia, Minn. Donation: $2.50. Ausp: Bailey. member. National Committee. Organization for Women. SOUTHERN AFRICA. Speaker: August Sat, June 9. 7:30 p.m. P.S. 41, 111 W. Militant Labor Forum. For more informa­ Socialist Workers Party; Matilde Zimmer­ Sun., June 17, 3:30 p.m. Panel on Nimtz, staff writer for the Militant, has 11th St. (near 6th Ave.) Donation: $2. tion call (218) 749-6327. mann, SWP national coordinator of "Women at Work." Speakers: Ruth Robi­ traveled and lived in southern Africa. Fri., Ausp: New Jersey/New York Socialist women's rights work; Linda Loew, nett, United Steelworkers Local 2341, June 1, 7:30 p.m. 11-A Central Ave. Workers Party. For more information call member of Local 153711 United Steel­ recording secretary for USWA District 29 Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant Labor Fo­ (212) 260-6400. workers of America and NOW. Sat .. June Women's Council; Elizabeth Ziers, partic­ rum. For more information call (201) 643- 16, Blackstone Hotel, Embassy Room, ipant in Michigan Department of Labor MISSOURI 3341. Michigan Ave. at Balbo. Sessions: hearings on sexual harassment in the KANSAS CITY NEW YORK CITY "Women's Oppression: How it Began, workplace, United Auto Workers Region INTERNATIONAL DAYS OF PROTEST A demonstration protesting U.S. aid to Why it Continues Today." Speaker: Nan 1A Women's Council; Pat Wright, USWA AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER. Speakers: Israel and in support of the right of the Bailey, 12 noon. "With Babies and Local 3362, Cleveland NOW Labor Task representative from International Associ­ NEW MEXICO Palestinian people to self-determination Banners," a film showing. Speaker: Linda Force. ation of Machinists, Socialist Workers ALBUQUERQUE will be held at 12:00 noon on Sunday, Loew, 3 p.m. "Is Socialism Needed to Win Sun., June 17, 7:30 p.m. "The Fight for Party, Sunflower Alliance, others. Sat., HOW TO FIGHT INFLATION: CAR­ June 3, at 50th Street and Sixth Ave. Women's Liberation?" Speaker: Matilde Women's Rights Today." Speaker: Ma- June 9, 12 noon. John Redmond Reser- TER'S 7 PERCENT GUIDELINES VS. Sponsor: Palestine Solidarity Committee. 24 Compiled by Harry Ring The Great Society Harry Ring Hayakawa: Let the poor walk Howls of rage greeted the One of the "comfortably gas crisis proposal by Cali­ rich," he reportedly owns Regular comedians-California mo­ fuel rods in place at a Public Service four cars. fornia's Sen. S.l. torists were advised by auto manufactur­ nuclear power plant in New Jersey. "The While the angry response Havakawa-to make the ers that they could save gas and improve damage to the grids," a company spokes­ stuff so expensive most of us to his let-the-nonrich-walk air quality by shutting off their motors person said, "is something that should not won't be able to buy it. proposal is quite understan­ In one day his Los An­ dable, people should con­ while waiting in gasoline lines. have occurred." geles office received 200 sider that the senator-in For your own good-Consolidated his own hare-brained way­ No kidding?-"U.S. studying higher calls described by staffers as Edison, which supplies New Yorkers their is merely recommending the gasoline profits-Action would rmse "threatening." gas and electricity, announced a 22 per­ They suggested tlw sena­ basic capitalist form of ra­ prices''-Headline in the Washington cent hike in the summer electric rate. This tor issue a "clarification." tioning. Post. He repeated his point, to will boost the average bill from twenty-six wit: Hot item-"1 think the Three Mile dollars to thirty-two dollars. A company "The genuinely poor don't Island is becoming a tourist attraction of spokesman explained that the purpose of need gasoline because most its own. I don't think there's any question the rate hike was to encourage people to of them can't afford to own but that spot is and can be ... a signifi­ conserve energy. a car. Many do not have cant tourist attraction. Pennsylvania's jobs and few of the em­ got more visibility than it has had in a Just poor people-A business contrac­ ployed poor drive to work." long, long time. Visibility is the name of tor who admitted receiving $210,000 from And, the good senator the game when it comes to the travel a government agency for work never added, the "comfortably industry."-James Bodine, Pennsylva­ performed was sentenced to three years' rich" will also be unaffected nia's secretary of commerce. probation and a $5,000 fine. Said the by high gas prices because judge, "It's important to be able to support they "will continue to be But it did-Dents and cracks were his family. I don't feel everybody should able to buy gasoline even if discovered in metal plates holding nuclear go to jail." it goes up to five dollars a gallon." Here Hayakawa speaks from first-hand knowledge. S. I. HAYAKAWA Women in Revolt word out about his union's Meanwhile, damage disco­ strike. vered at the Nine Mile Point "Big business tries to keep nuke plant at Lake Ontario Suzanne Haig people in the dark," he said. could shut down that operation . "Our fight can be won only for a month. Among other I ·: through the support of all the things, a cracked pipe was unions and the public." found in a backup cooling sys­ More than 100 AFL-CIO un­ tem. The replacement had been ionists demonstrated their so­ cut a half-inch too short. Job safety & exploitation lidarity in a rally held outside And at the Comanche Peak Beginning this week Suzanne Haig, Last year, according to the May 18 New the plant April 17. plant now under construction who recently joined the 'Militant' York Times, the University of Massachu­ in the Dallas area, federal in­ staff, will be writing the 'Women in setts Graduate Research Center in Am­ SAFE AS CAN BE spectors found that up to 60 Revolt' column. Before moving to herst was closed temporarily after several An inspection at the Salem I percent of certain types of New York, she was active in the female lab workers reported irregular nuclear plant in New Jersey welds were faulty on pipes Chicago National Organization for menstruation. In addition, both men and revealed twenty-six damaged designed to carry radioactive Women and the Committee for the women reported nausea and dizziness. fuel-rod grids out of 150 that waste at the $1.7 billion plant. Equal Rights Amendment. The center uses toxic and radioactive were checked. Officials claimed A number of the pipes had In addition to reporting on materials. no radiation had leaked out. been repaired more than once. women's rights, Haig helps cover the Federal investigators claimed that these labor movement, gas crisis, and an­ disorders were not the result of "occupa­ tinuclear struggle for the 'Militant.' tional exposure," and university officials Puerto Rican anti-navy protest claimed the women were psychosomatic. To avoid further contact with high The government provides no help for levels of lead, women employed at Ameri­ women and men who are the victims. In can Cyanamid at Willow Island, West its latest ruling on lead, the Occupational Virginia, had to "choose" between getting Safety and Health Administration sterilized or transferring to lower-paying (OSHA), under pressure from the unions, jobs. called for the temporary transfer to other In Kellogg, Idaho, the Bunker Hill Com­ jobs of men and women who want to have pany, a lead smelter, demanded that children. Rarely, however, do companies thirty-one female employees receive preg­ comply even with such minimal regula­ nancy tests. Those who refused were fired. tions. All women of child-bearing age, pregnant The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or not, were denied jobs on the basis that known since Three Mile Island as an lead can damage the fetus. agent of the nuclear industry, has decided The Danville, Illinois, plant of Allied not to bar women-or men-from working Chemical laid off five women because the with radiation. Instead, the agency sug­ fluorocarbons used in manufacturing re­ gests that the employer explain the possi­ frigerants could harm their offspring. ble hazards and, if possible, allow em­ After two women got sterilized in order to ployees trying to have children to move to keep their jobs, the company announced other jobs. that the chemicals were not as "danger­ These are solutions for the employers­ ous" as originally believed. not for the workers involved. For protec­ There are two sides to the growing tion, workers must look to their own occupational safety scandal. On the one organizations, the unions. hand, the employers are using the fact The unions should begin from the pre­ that some jobs endanger women's repro­ mise that the workplace must be safe for ductive organs as an excuse to drive them all. out of higher-paying jobs. It's part of their The United Auto Workers took this general campaign to show that women position in its fight against lead exposure should not be treated equally on the job for men and women at General Motors because they are biologically different Indiana battery division. In the case of from men. the women at American Cyanamid, the At the same time, the bosses are doing Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union nothing to clean up the lethal work areas reaffirmed its policy that the company they operate. And frequently the same must make the workplace safe for every­ dangers exist there for men as for women. one. Isabel Rodriguez, seventy-six, is hauled off during renewed The challenges by women workers to Through their unions, workers can fight protests against the U.S. Navy's use of the Puerto Rican island these deadly work conditions have helped to open up all company records, to learn of Vieques for bombardment exercises. The navy, while on expose the murder-for-profit attitude the what are the hazards of the materials war maneuvers, bars the people of Vieques from good fishing employers have toward their workers. they are using. Safety committees can grounds. Facts show that while certain toxic investigate plant conditions. They can Twenty-one people were arrested May 19 for trespassing on chemicals damage the fetus, others dam­ demand that workers in unsafe areas be "navy property." More demonstrations were slated. . age the fertility of both men and women. transferred to comparable-paying jobs. The people had initially asked only that the navy be less A study of 150 men exposed to lead in a Unions can also join with groups such as rigid in shutting down key fishing grounds during maneuvers. battery plant showed it had caused a the National Organization for Women to But the navy ignored their requests, and now they are decrease in fertility and increased the fight discrimination against women demanding it get out of Vieques altogether. likelihood of birth defects in their chil­ workers and to mount a joint struggle for dren. the safety of all workers.

THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 25 Our Revolutionary Heritage Letters

Eaton on politics informative paper as the Militant, covering issues not A. Philip Randolph On May 11, the New Yorl? onl_v local but worldwide. I am A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Times devoted a front-page only sorry I'vP bPcome aware Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, died lead and entire obituary page of the Militant at such a late May Hi in New York City. He was ninety to Cyrus Eaton, Sr. stage. Better late than not at years old. Eaton was a major industrial all, though. As a Black trade-union leader and capitalist and a protege of It has been brought to my former Debsian socialist, Randolph wit­ John D. Rockefeller. Sr. attention that tlw Militant is nes;;ed and was involved in some of the His holdings included six free to prisoners. I would major historical changes in the Black and steel corporations: the appreciate receiving a free labor movements from the early 1920s to Chesapeake and Ohio, and the subscription. Thank you. his retirement in 1!168. Baltimore and Ohio railroads: A prisoner Before World War I, Randolph moved and interests in iron, rubber, Penns.vfuania from Florida to New York City. It was coal, and utilities. The Times there, particularly in Harlem, where he rPported that Eaton "at one radicalized and joined the Socialist Party. time sat on the boards of 40 He was an SP candidate for public office corporations, in all of which ht> after the war. had, he said, substantial During thP war, Randolph along with holdings.'' 'A decent outlook' Chandler Owen published The Eaton oncP said, "I'll match I just received my first issue Messenuer-a radical Black publication my record as a capitalist of your paper. I want to thank that reflPcted their opposition to the war against an:v oi my critics." He you and everyone who helps and sympathy for the Russian revolution. further assertPd that "my chief with your prisoner fund, which Viewed as a threat to the imperialist inten•st is working to save makes it possible for me to war effort becaw;e he urged Blacks not to capitalism. . .. " rece1ve your paper. participate, Randolph was arrested in It was with that basic You know, living behind 1911-l but never prosecuted. interest in mind that Eaton these walls can make a In 19:2!1, Randolph came in contact with approacht>d politics. person's mind go to sleep, and the workers of the largest single employer During tht> 1932 presidential that is possibly the worst thing of Blacks-the Pullman Company. elections, Eaton, who was a that can happen to anyone. The International Brotherhood of Sleep­ Republican, explained why he After a few years you just give ing Car Porters (BSCP) was organized workers face exploitation both as a na­ supported Roosevelt, thP up and grow cold and do not that year and Randolph became its presi­ tionality and as toilers. In the struggle to Democrat. care what goes on anywhere dent. organize sleeping car porters, he appre­ "I realized that Hoover or but here. It would be twelve years of continuous ciated the potential strength of Black any Republican couldn't be Your paper to me gives a battles for union recognition before the workers and their ability to bring about elected, so I asked my decent outlook as to what is Pullman Company signed a contract with social change. Unfortunately, Randolph Republican friends who among really going on outside in the the Brotherhood. gave up his early belief that the emanci­ thP Democrats was the world. For that I thank you. At one time labeled by the government pation of Blacks is linked to the overturn soundest man who would save A prisoner as "the most dangerous Negro in Amer­ of capitalism. This among other things the capitalist system, and the Pennsylvania ica," by the Second World War Randolph led to his political decline. had developed anticommunist views. He Of the many lessons that can be drawn supported the war. Eventually, his class­ from Black workers' struggles in Ran­ struggle perspective evaporated altogether I rani an exile supports rights of and liP became a right-wing Social Demo­ dolph's day, the one that comes to mind is crat closely tied to the trade-union bureau­ the BSCP's fight against the Pullman Company Palestinian people cracy. During World War II, however, Ran­ Pullman had a harsh anti-union reputa­ The following letter is I read the coverage of the dolph and the BSCP agitated against race tion. Victimization, harassment, and in­ from Ali Shokri, an Iran­ debate between Carl Gersh­ discrimination in the armed forces and timidation were used against the union. ian activist living in Ta­ man and David Frankel To outmaneuver the company spies and the war industries. coma, Washington. [titled "Will Sadat-Begin In 1941 he issued a call for a July march informers, Randolph organized mass pub­ Shokri defected from Pact Bring Middle East lic meetings where union supporters could the Iranian Air Force in Peace?'' in the May Interna­ on Washington and built an make contact with one another safely, 1973 in protest of the tional Socialist Review]. It organization-the March On Washington without fear of losing their jobs. Such shah's repressive poli­ was a good debate and beau­ Movement. tactics helped the BSCP and offer a useful cies. At the time, he was tifully done by Frankel. Randolph sought through the march to lesson for workers organizations today. stationed at a training Since I was not present at mobilize the masses of Blacks for jobs and base in San Antonio, the meeting, I hope Mr. equality. By June, the march was building As the class struggle heats up, Black Texas. He spent two and Gershman reads my com­ up pressure on the government. workers are again in the forefront of a half years underground ments. After attempts to diffuse the planned union battles. We only have to look at the in Canada, then returned Supporting the existence demonstration, President Roosevelt issued Steelworkers' fight for union recognition to the U.S. of the Zionist state of Israel a lukewarm executive order outlawing in Newport News, Virginia, as evidence. The U.S. government­ is like supporting a thiefs discrimination in the armed forces and There United Steelworkers Local 8888 is in league with SAV AK, right to what he has stolen. the war industries. confronting the giant Tenneco oil conglo­ the shah's secret police­ Gershman's view on the Randolph buckled and canceled the merate. Workers are facing problems of .sought to deport Shokri Iranian revolution was also march, to the disappointment of masses of union-busting similar to those the Sleep­ to certain death in Iran. dumb. Only a person as Blacks. ing Car Porters dealt with more than fifty Publicity around his case stupid-minded as Mr. Gersh­ Randolph made many contributions to years ago. and growing exposure of man would "overthrow" the the Black and trade-union movements. He Like the porters before them, Black the shah's dictatorship shah because "he was not as believed in organization, teamwork, and Steelworkers are in the forefront in New­ prevented his deporta­ ruthless as other dicta· mass action, and he applied these me­ port News, because they see that only by tion. tors ....'' thods in economic as well as social strug­ fighting for a union can they safeguard gles. and extend their rights. Most of all, he understood that Black -Osborne Hart answer was Roosevelt," he An anecdote declared. Just thought I'd share a little Osborne Hart anecdote with your readers. New York, New York The other day three co-workers and I were driving home from Our party is your party our jobs at Ford in Metuchen, New Jersey, when one of our tires blew out on the highway. THE MILITANT is the voice of 0 I want to join the SWP. The car skidded, spun around, the Socialist Workers Party. 0 Send me ___ copies of Prospects Monday is Sunday and hit the guard rail. For a for Soc1alism in America at $2.95 Please change my Militant minute we even thought the car IF YOU AGREE with what each. Enclosed $ ___ subscription so that it will be might explode, since the side 0 Please send me more information. delivered to my present that collided with the rail was you've read, you should join the one with the gas tank. Name address. us in fighting for a world I look forward to the day in Needless to say, we were all without war, racism, or Address the week that my Militant pretty shaken up by the experience. exploitation-a socialist C1ty arrivPs. It has become my Sunday. In a matter of minutes, four world. State ______Zip William Gay cars equipped with CB radios Versailles. Indiana Telephone pulled up to offer any JOIN THE SWP. Fill out this SWP, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. assistance they could­ coupon and mail it today. 10014 radioing for a towtruck, letting us use their vehicles to relax and get warm, and in general Better late than never showing human concern. I am sure you get many JOIN THE SWP letters of this sort. Yet, it was Finally two police cars my pleasure to read such an arrived on the scene. The cops' 26 Learning About Socialism Exposing business secrets One of the most jealously guarded prerogatives of abolition of business secrets is the first step toward actual the capitalist class is its control of business secrets. control of industry. The operations of the giant corporations that domi­ Workers no less than capitalists have the right to know nate our economy are shrouded in darkness. When the secrets of the factory, of the trust, of the whole branch of sudden crises such as the gas shortage strike, work­ industry, of the national economy as a whole. First and ing people are told to take the word of the monopo­ foremost, banks, heavy industry, and centralized transport lies for the causes. should be placed under a magnifying glass. This issue was taken up at the founding congress of The immediate tasks of workers' control should be to the world Trotskyist party, the Fourth International, explain the debits and credits of society, beginning with in September 1938. The basic programmatic docu­ individual business undertakings; to determine the actual ment adopted at that conference, known as the 'Tran­ share of the national income appropriated by individual sitional Program,' contains a section on '"Business capitalists and by the exploiters as a whole; to expose the secrt'ts" and workers' control of industry' that is behind-the-scenes deals and swindles of banks and trusts; 'I'm sorry, Mr. Jones ... You're particularly timely in light of the current gas shor­ finally, to reveal to all members of society that unconscion­ not rich enough to pay no able squandering of human labor which is the result of taxes.' tage. Excerpts from that section follow. capitalist anarchy and the naked pursuit of profits. Liberal capitalism, based upon competition and free trade, No office-holder of the bourgeois state is in a position to has completely receded into the past. Its successor, monopo­ carry out this work, no matter with how great authority one listic capitalism, not only does not mitigate the anarchy of would wish to endow him. To break the resistance of the comforting comment? "Well, the market but on the contrary imparts to it a particularly exploiters, the mass pressure of the proletariat is necessary. looks like you'll have to pay for convulsive character. The necessity of "controlling" econ­ Only factory committees can bring about real control of a new guard rail." omy. of placing state "guidance" over industry, and of production, calling in-as consultants but not as An autoworker "planning," is today recognized-at least in words-by "technocrats"-specialists sincerely devoted to the people: Brool?!yn, New York almost all current bourgeois and petty-bourgeois tendencies, accountants, statisticians, engineers, scientists, etc. from fascist to Social Democratic. The working out of even the most elementary economic With the fascists, it is mainly a question of "planned" plan-from the point of view of the exploited, not the exploiters-is impossible without workers' control, that is, 'Right on the money' plundering of the people for military purposes. The Social Democrats prepare to drain the ocean of anarchy with without the eyes of the workers penetrating all the open and Dick Roberts's back-page spoonfuls of bureaucratic "planning." In their cowardly concealed mechanisms of capitalist economy. article in the May lH Militant experiments in "regulation," democratic governments run To those capitalists, mainly of the lower and middle ["Oil companies hold head-on into the invincible sabotage of big capital. strata, who of their own accord sometimes offer to throw Californians for ransom"] is open their books to the workers-usually to demonstrate the right on the money. Just what The actual relationship existing between the exploiters necessity of lowering wages-the workers answer that they we need for miners and and the democratic "controllers" is best characterized by are not interested in the bookkeeping of individual bank­ steelworkers-tht' focus of our the fact that the gentlemen "reformers" stop short in pious rupts or semibankrupts but in the account ledgers of all sales here this week. trepidation before the threshold of the trusts and their exploiters as a whole. The workers cannot and do not wish Kipp Dawson business "secrets." Here the principle of "noninterference" to accommodate the level of their living conditions to the PittshltrRh, Pennsylt•ania with business dominates. The accounts kept between the exigencies of individual capitalists, themselves victims of individual capitalist and society remain the secret of the their own regime. The task is one of reorganizing the whole capitalist; they are not the concern of society. system of production and distribution on a more dignified The motivation offered for the principle of business and workable basis. If the abolition of business secrets is a Gift subscription •·secrets" is ostensibly, as in the epoch of liberal capitalism, necessary condition to workers' control, then control is the I have a friend who would that of free "competition." In reality, the trusts keep no first step along the road to socialist guidance of the econ­ very much appreciate reading secrets from one another. The business secrets of the present omy. the Militant. The money epoch are part of a persistent plot of monopoly capitalism enclosed is for a gift against the interests of society. Projects for limiting the 'The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution,' by subscription. I already receive autocracy of "economic royalists" will continue to be pa­ Leon Trotsky (269 pp., $3.95), is available from Path­ the Militant and enjoy getting thetic farces as long as private owners of the social means finder Press, 410 West Street, New York, New York it. of production can hide from producers and consumers the 10014, or at the bookstores listed in the directory below. Thanks for all the antinuke machinations of exploitation, robbery, and fraud. The If ordering from Pathfinder, please add $.50 for postage. articles. James Early San Rafael. California

The 'Militant' special pri­ soner fund makes it possi­ If You Like This Paper, Look Us Up ble to send reduced-rate Where to find the Socialist Workers Party, Young Socialist Alliance, and socialist books and pamphlets subscriptions to prisoners who can't pay for them. To ALABAMA: Birmingham: SWP, Box 3382-A. Zip Louisville: SWP. YSA, 1505 W. Broadway. P 0 OHIO: Athens: YSA. c/o Balar Center, Ohio Univer­ help out, send your contri­ 35205. Tel (205) 322-6028 Box 3593. Zip 40201 Tel (502) 587-8418. sity. Zip 45701. Tel (614) 594-7497. Cincinnati: bution to: Militant Prisoner ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP. YSA. 1243 E. McDowell LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP. YSA, 3319 S SWP. YSA. 970 E. McMillan. Zip: 45206. Tel: (513) Z1p 85006. Tel (602) 255-0450 Tucson: YSA. Carrollton Ave. Z1p 70118. Tel: (504) 486-8048 751-2636. Cleveland: SWP, YSA. 13002 Kinsman Subscription Fund, 14 SUPO 20965. Zip 85720 Tel (602) 795-2053 MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP. YSA. 2913 Green­ Rd. Zip: 44120. Tel (216) 991-5030. Columbus: Charles Lane, New York, CALIFORNIA: Berkeley: SWP. YSA. 3264 Adel1ne mount Ave Zip 21218. Tel (301) 235-0013 YSA. Box 106 Ohio Un1on, Rm. 308. Ohio State New York 10014. St. Z1p 94703 Tel (415) 653-7156. Los Angeles, College Park: YSA, c/o Student Union. University Univ. 1739 N. High St. Zip: 43210. Tel: (614) 291- Eastside: SWP. YSA. 2554 Saturn Ave .. Hunting­ of Maryland. ZIP 20742. Tel (301) 454-4758. 8985. Kent: YSA. Student Center Box 41, Kent ton Park. Z1p 90255 Tel (213) 582-1975. Los MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA, c/o M. Casey. State University. Zip: 44242. Tel: (216) 678-5974. Angeles, Westside: SWP, YSA. 2167 W. Washmg­ 42 McClellan. Z1p 01002. Tel (413) 537-6537. Toledo: SWP, YSA. 2120 Dorr St. Zip: 43607. Tel: ton Blvd. Tel (213) 732-8196. Z1p 90018. Los Boston: SWP. YSA. 510 Commonwealth Ave. 4th (419) 536-0383. The letters column is an Angeles, City-w1de SWP. YSA. 1250 Wilshire Floor. Z1p 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. OREGON: Portland: SWP, YSA, 711 NW Everett. open forum for all view­ Blvd, Room 404. Z1p: 90017. Tel (213) 482-1820 MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA. Room 4321. Michigan Zip 97209. Tel (503) 222-7225. points on subjects of gen­ Oakland: SWP. YSA. 1467 Fru1tvale Ave. Zw Un1on. U of M. Z1p 48109. Detroit: SWP. YSA. PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State 94601 Tel (415) 261-1210. San Diego: SWP. YSA. 6404 Woodward Ave. Zip 48202. Tel. (313) 875- College. Zip: 16412. Philadelphia: SWP, YSA, eral interest to our readers. 1053 15th St Z1p 92101 Tel. (714) 234-4630. San 5322. MI. Pleasant: YSA. Box 51 Warnner Hall. 5811 N. Broad St. Zip 19141. Tel (215) 927-4747 Please keep your letters Francisco: SWP. YSA. 3284 23rd St. ZIP 94110. Central Mich. Univ Z1p: 48859 or 927-4748. Plttaburgh: SWP. YSA. 1210 E brief. Whl•re nt>cessary they Tel. (415) 824-1992. San Jose: SWP. YSA. 942 E. MINNESOTA: Mesabi Iron Range: SWP. P 0 Box Carson St. Zip 15203. Tel: (412) 488-7000. 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THE MILITANT/JUNE 1, 1979 27 THE MILITANT

• I Verdict a blow to nuclear industry By Arnold Weissberg Testimony at the Silkwood trial re­ In a sharp blow to the nuclear indus­ vealed that the Cimarron plant, which try and its chief protector, the federal closed four years ago, was a hellhole. government, a jury in Oklahoma City Kerr-McGee showed "almost cruel, awarded $10.5 million to the estate of hardened disregard" for worker safety, nuclear worker and union activist testified radiation expert Karl Morgan. Karen Silkwood May 18. Training materials failed to mention Silkwood's parents had sued Kerr­ that plutonium causes cancer, Morgan McGee, the energy corporation for said. The company "did not care suffi­ which Silkwood had worked, charging ciently about the employees," Morgan the company's negligence led to her testified. contamination by plutonium in the A former Kerr-McGee supervisor, days before she died. Fatal amounts of Jim Smith, labeled the plant a "pig­ plutonium removed from the plant pen." were found in her apartment. And another radiation expert, Ed­ Kerr-McGee offered the absurd de­ ward Martell, told the jury Silkwood fense that Silkwood contaminated her­ had "had enough plutonium in her self with the deadly element to dramat­ lungs to cause cancer." Martell said ize her contention of unsafe working federal radiation standards are "mean­ conditions. ingless," because there is no safe level The six-person jury rejected Kerr­ of radiation. McGee's "explanation," finding that Kerr-McGee was further embar­ the company had been grossly negli­ rassed at the trial by its inability· to gent in allowing the plutonium out of account for forty missing pounds of the plant. plutonium. "For the first time, the American More than radiation safety is at people, this jury, were able to listen to stake in the Karen Silkwood case, both sides, and they ruled that they although the trial dealt only with have been lied to," said Silkwood fam­ plutonium contamination. ily attorney Daniel Sheehan. Desperately afraid that Silkwood The verdict marks the first time a would reveal the truth about its unsafe nuclear company has been held re­ operation, Kerr-McGee had Silkwood sponsible for radioactive contamina­ under surveillance. There is evidence tion outside its own facilities. It marks that the FBI and local police cooper­ the growing recognition that the very ated with the company in their spying. existence of nuclear plants-whether The spying was aimed not only at or not they ever have an accident­ Silkwood as an individual but at the threaten the American people con­ union, which Kerr-McGee bitterly op­ stantly with deadly low-level radiation. posed. Silkwood's case became a cause for This spying puts under a cloud the antinuclear groups, women's organiza­ very right of the union to exist. tions, and some unions long before the :a "Even though Karen has been vindi­ Three Mile Island accident on March Militant/Lou Howort cated," an aid to OCAW's Mazzocchi 28. But that event-with its dramatic Silkwood case became rallying point for antinuclear movement, unionists, and told the Militant, "there still remain exposure of nuclear dangers and feminists. three vital questions. One, who con­ government-industry lies-clearly had taminated her with plutonium? Two, a major impact on the outcome of the who caused her death? And three, who trial. OCAW played an important role in have contaminated herself," the paper removed the documents that we know Silkwood died in a mysterious auto keeping the Silkwood case in the public quotes Mazzocchi. were in her car when she died? crash in November 1974 on her way to eye. The union hired a private investi­ At the trial, Kerr-McGee tried to hide "We won't be satisfied until we learn meet with a reporter and a representa­ gator who found that her car had been behind federal radiation standards for the answers to these questions. tive of her union, the Oil, Chemical pushed off the road. its defense, claiming that the Cimar­ "Karen Silkwood was a union and Atomic Workers (OCAW). She was OCAW Vice-president Anthony Maz­ ron plant had been run in strict com­ woman whose concern was protecting carrying documents that would have zocchi testified at the trial that Silk­ pliance with federal rules. the health and safety of her fellow exposed the unsafe work conditions at wood was part of the union's efforts to workers. That led to her death." Kerr-McGee's plutonium fuel plant in document and publicize cancer risks, This defense was also rejected by the "I think it vindicated Karen," Silk­ Cimarron, Oklahoma, where she according to the May 1979 OCA W jurors, who had seen enough of govern­ wood's father said after the verdict. "I worked. Union News. "No way would Silkwood ment standards at Three Mile Island. never really cared about the money." Hundreds pour into Va. Steelworker meetings By Jon Hillson jammed into the Plumbers and Steam­ like the Steelworkers, they face "ten­ NEWPORT NEWS, V a.-The fight fitters Hall for the first meeting of the hour shifts and the freezing of vaca­ to establish the United Steelworkers at new organizing committee. tions." Newport News Shipbuilding took The committee is based on 8888's Then there are the organizing efforts another step forward as hundreds of original volunteer organizers. They led of Local 8888 members themselves. union activists signed up to become the year-and-a-half organizing drive From "talking union" on the job, as shop stewards and organizers in a that resulted in the Steelworkers Janu­ Hower puts it, to rebutting every series of meetings that began May 14. ary 1978 election victory and provided slander that Tenneco and its company On April 22 United Steelworkers the backbone for the strike. They will union throw at the Steelworkers. Like Local 8888 suspended their eighty-two­ be responsible for leafleting as well as the widespread lie that strikers had to day strike for union recognition in conducting recruitment and education pay the union back for all their strike order to reorganize and win new sup­ inside the yard. benefits, and at 18 percent interest to port inside the yard. "We've started rebuilding," USWA boot! Some 400 members of Local 8888, Dictrict 35 Sub-director Jack Hower "We have lunchtime meetings out­ many of them picket captains and told the Militant. "We're signing up a side the yard," Hower said, "where we strike committee volunteers during the lot of new people-workers who didn't can answer questions and let people strike, have enlisted as stewards. Their go out at all and those who were hired know we're around." duties will include fiiing grievances on during the strike." On May 17 the shipyard's gates with the National Labor Relations A combination of factors are helping along Washington Avenue were Board and helping to set up the the union recruit. Tenneco, owner of flooded with Steelworkers passing out union's structure inside the yard. the shipyard, is doing its bit. Workers Militant/ Jon Hillson copies of the union's strike bulletin. Steelworkers picket during strike. On May 16, nearly 500 Steelworkers are coming over, said Hower, because Continued on page 22