· AUSTRALIA $3.00 · CANADA $2.50 · FRANCE 2.00 EUROS · ICELAND KR200 · NEW ZEALAND $3.00 · SWEDEN KR15 · UK £1.00 · U.S. $1.50 INSIDEINSIDEINSIDE Washington adds new restrictions on travel to Cuba — PAGE 13

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 67/NO. 14 APRIL 28, 2003 Imperialist troops out U.S. forces consolidate of Mideast! occupation of Iraq Working people should protest Washington’s stepped-up threats against Syria, as well as the moves to impose a Washington targets Syria with chemical arms charge U.S.-run occupation regime on the backs BY MARTÍN KOPPEL As the Anglo-American invasion force consolidates its occupation of Iraq, EDITORIAL the White House has stepped up its threats against neighboring Syria. It is accusing the Syrian government of pos- of the Iraqi people. sessing chemical weapons, one of the In the wake of the Anglo-American mili- main pretexts Washington used to tary victory in Iraq, U.S. officials are now launch the imperialist assault on Iraq. threatening Syria with economic and other Meanwhile, Washington is taking sanctions, along with veiled threats of mili- steps to set up a U.S.-run regime in oc- tary attack. The pretext for this campaign Continued on Page 14 cupied Iraq. On April 14, the Pentagon announced it had completed its major war operations there, after U.S. forces overran Tikrit, home town of the over- Chicago thrown president Saddam Hussein. Washington has faced some initial protests, however, against the establish- janitors ment of a military occupation regime. On April 15, U.S. troops fired on a crowd protesting a U.S.-imposed gov- mobilize, gain ernor in Mosul, killing at least 10 people. The same day, 20,000 Iraqis rallied in Nasiriya against a U.S.-sponsored con- in contract ference on setting up a new government. BY LISA POTASH In this conflict, driven by the compe- AND REBECCA WILSON tition between the major imperialist CHICAGO—After mobilizing in a num- powers over control of the Middle East U.S. troops have begun patroling Iraqi capital with cops from former regime. U.S. Ma- ber of street rallies in recent weeks to press and its resources, Paris and Berlin have rine (above) argues with Iraqi policeman during a joint patrol in east Baghdad, April 14. their demands, area janitors on April 6 rati- been dealt the biggest blows by the U.S.- fied a pair of three-year contracts cover- British takeover of Iraq. They are clam- ing nearly 10,000 workers. The agreements oring for a “UN role” in running the As we go to press... registered small wage and benefit gains for Iraqi protectorate in order to assure About 4,000 International Association of Machinists members walked out April 14 these Service Employees International themselves some influence over the di- against Lockheed Martin Corp. at its plant in Fort Worth, Texas, where fighter jets are Union (SEIU) members and a slight nar- vision of the oil wealth in the region. produced. In a year of record profits for Lockheed, the union is demanding higher wages rowing of the wage gap between city and Since taking control of Iraq, Wash- and improved benefits. Workers approved the strike with a vote of 2,380 to 432. suburban janitors. Continued on Page 6 Some 5,000 janitors who work in down- town Chicago ratified their union contract with the Building Owners and Managers Association. About 4,500 janitors who Cuban authorities arrest, convict 85 in work in Chicago’s suburbs approved their Continued on Page 10 response to U.S.-planned provocations and three men among them were given the N. Carolina: death penalty and were executed April 11, after the country’s Supreme Court and Council of State upheld the death sentences. Another four men among this group were Calero wins given life in prison, while three women were handed one- to five-year terms. Washington has recently deepened its support for open collaboration with opponents of the Cuban Revolution inside the Caribbean na- tion and has organized provocations that fight against are behind the incidents that led to these deportation Continued on Page 7 BY WILLIE COTTON Also Inside: KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina— Róger Calero spoke to dozens of high Ex-police chief in Mexico school and college students, unionists, and is charged for murders others in North Carolina about his fight of student activists in 1970s 2 against deportation. Calero made his way to Charlotte, North Cuban troops guard Cubana airliner, hijacked April 1 after taking off from Isle of Carolina, via a bus returning from the na- Youth. The craft was allowed to refuel in Havana before leaving for Key West, Florida. Occupation of Iraq tional peace protest in Washington, March deepens interimperialist rift 4 15. While on this bus, Róger Calero ad- BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS victed of “working with a foreign power Cuban “independent libraries” dressed the 40 riders, explaining his case Since March, the Cuban government has to undermine the government.” All 75 were and inviting them to participate in the com- arrested 75 individuals and charged them prosecuted under Cuba’s 1977 Law of are a U.S.-promoted fraud 7 ing meetings. Melissa Winchester from with receiving funds from Washington and Criminal Procedure. Rock Hill, South Carolina, accepted the in- collaborating with U.S. diplomatic person- On April 8, in the wake of a string of Peggy Brundy: vitation and drove up the next day to help nel stationed in Havana to subvert the Cu- hijackings of planes and boats, a Cuban a 40-year veteran socialist 8 set up for and participate in a program on ban Revolution. Cuban authorities put the court found another 10 people guilty of hav- Calero’s fight. accused on trial April 4–7. The courts ing hijacked a ferry six days earlier, using Iran: 1978 revolt Winchester, 22, said, “I support his handed down sentences ranging from 6 to handguns and knives, in a failed attempt to broke the hold of shah’s rule 9 struggle and I think it is a horrible thing. I 28 years in jail. reach Florida. The hijackers had been Continued on Page 3 At least half of the accused were con- charged with “very grave acts of terrorism,” Ex-police chief in Mexico is indicted for murders of student activists in 1970s BY BARRY FATLAND joined at the barricades by workers who had National Committee ST. PAUL, Minnesota—Federal prosecu- mobilized in a millions-strong general to Defend Political tors in Mexico City have charged Luis de strike. Mexico was another country where Prisoners and the Po- la Barreda Moreno, a former police chief, students and workers mobilized in the face litically Persecuted, with the torture and murder of three young of fierce police repression. In October 1968, Exiled and Disap- revolutionaries during the 1970s. De la government security forces killed some 500 peared. Made up of Barreda was head of the Federal Security student protesters in Mexico City. relatives of the victims Directorate, a secret police agency, from The student protests of the 1970s con- of government repres- 1970 until 1977. tinued to face violence from cops and right- sion, this committee, He is the first official of the agency to wing thugs. During a 1971 demonstration formed in 1977, won face a murder charge. in Mexico City, a paramilitary organization the active support of The case occurs amid growing exposures known as the Halcones (Falcons)—linked many trade unions, of the dirty war conducted by the Mexican to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary student and peasant government against the student and work- Party (PRI)—attacked the students, beating organizations, and the ers movements in the 1960s and 1970s. and killing more than 100. main opposition po- One of the three students the former Such repression did not deter Piedra and litical parties. police chief is accused of torturing and many others from continuing their politi- The committee murdering is Jesús Piedra Ibarra. At the time cal activity. aimed to force succes- of his death Piedra was a third-year medi- sive administrations in cal student at the University of Nuevo Leon Framed-up in death of librarian Mexico City to free in Monterrey. In January 1974, a university librarian the political prisoners Along with other revolutionary-minded was killed. Monterrey police claimed the and present the disap- students, he was framed for the killing of a September 23 Communist League was re- peared alive. Its activi- university librarian in 1974. sponsible. Piedra was accused of being a ties included a multi- Among the framed-up students was member. tude of teach-ins, hun- Héctor Marroquín. To save his life The league had grown out of the stu- ger strikes, press con- Corbis Marroquín fled to the United States, where dent movement, and had adopted guerrilla ferences, and marches. Student demonstrators march to the presidential palace in he waged a long struggle for political asy- tactics. Its cadres had kidnapped and killed On Oct. 2, 1978—the Mexico City, Aug. 13, 1968, to demand the resignation of the lum and residency. Marroquín and his sup- a prominent member of the Garza Sada fam- tenth anniversary of police chief—one of a month-long series of protests. In Octo- porters pointed to Piedra’s murder as proof ily of the Grupo Monterrey, a major finan- the massacre of the ber of that year the cops opened fire on a rally, killing hun- of the dangers he faced in Mexico. Up until cial power in the state of Nuevo León. student protesters— dreds of students. Protests continued through the 1970s. de la Barreda’s indictment in March the In the witch-hunt mounted after the the committee orga- Mexican authorities had repeatedly denied librarian’s death, the cops published a nized a rally of 100,000 people in Mexico gunned down, she reported—one while that the cops had anything to do with wanted poster with portraits of Piedra, City. leafleting in front of a Monterrey area fac- Piedra’s death. Marroquín, and three others. As the police continued their “investi- tory, and the second in a confrontation with Piedra, Marroquín, and many more like On April 18, 1975, Piedra was kidnapped gation” of the librarian’s killing, armed cops. The fate of her jailed son Piedra them had been active in the rising student by cops as he walked down Zaragosa Street Marroquín fled to the United States. There was unknown, she said. protest movement of the 1970s. This de- in Monterrey. he became active in the trade union move- In April 1979 Rosario Ibarra and Delia velopment continued and built on the in- Although two of Monterrey’s daily news- ment and social protests. After several Duarte, another leader of the Mexican Com- ternational youth radicalization of the pre- papers reported details of Piedra’s arrest, years, he was arrested by the Immigration mittee, went to Houston to testify on vious decade. At that time, millions of the cops officially denied any knowledge and Naturalization Service for possessing Marroquín’s behalf. They brought written youth around the world, spurred by the of his whereabouts. false papers. At the time, he was part of a testimony from political prisoners who had victories of the civil rights movement in His family’s repeated attempts to locate union organizing drive at a Coca Cola fac- been held in the Garza Sada killing. Each the United States, began taking the lead in him were fruitless. Rosario Ibarra, Piedra’s tory in which he worked. He had joined said that Marroquín had nothing to do with organizing protests against the U.S. impe- mother, met with former Mexican presi- the Socialist Workers Party shortly before the September 23 Communist League. rialist assault on Vietnam and on other dent Luis Echeverría on 39 occasions in his arrest. Despite this and other evidence, the judge questions. her quest. at the asylum hearing ordered Marroquín 1968 was a signal year for this move- Having failed to gain the government’s Marroquín fights for political asylum deported. ment. In France student protesters were assistance, Rosario Ibarra helped found the Marroquín’s fight for political asylum The prosecutor had even argued that became widely known throughout the Marroquín should be deported because he United States and Mexico. The campaign “has admitted from his own mouth that he became a vehicle for building solidarity is a Marxist. The U.S. does not grant asy- with the broadening opposition to factory lum to those kinds of people.” raids and the deportations of hundreds of Marroquín continued his fight on appeal thousands of undocumented workers. and was one of the first to be granted am- Marroquín’s lawyers found that Washing- nesty in the 1986 INS amnesty program. ton had spied on him since his days as a He went on to gain permanent residency. high school activist in Matamoros, Piedra’s sister, Maria del Rosario, com- Tamaulipas, Mexico. mented on de la Barreda’s arrest in an April ...gives you the facts on Cuban Revolution Among those who spoke up in 2 phone interview with the Militant from Marroquín’s support and pointed out his her home in Monterrey. Her brother Jesús Washington has stepped up its likely fate if he were to return was Rosario “was not the only” victim of police assassi- pressure on Cuba, reinforcing Ibarra. She appeared at several press con- nation, she said. “There were many.” restrictions on travel to the ferences in the United States in support of the asylum request. Barry Fatland is a sewing machine opera- island, and piling on slanders Of the five men who had been accused tor in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, and against the revolutionary of the murder, she said, only Marroquín was was the first national coordinator of the government. The ‘Militant’ known to still be alive. Two others had been Héctor Marroquín Defense Committee. brings you the facts, explaining why the U.S. rulers’ ‘cold war’ Asia: Send $80 drawn on a U.S. bank to against Cuba doesn’t end. The Militant above address. Don’t miss a single issue! Canada: Send Canadian $75 for one-year Vol. 67/No. 14 subscription to Militant, 1237 Jean-Talon est, Closing news date: April 15, 2003 Montréal, QC. Postal Code: H2R 1W1. 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2 The Militant April 28, 2003 Washington is no. 1 jailer in the world

BY SAM MANUEL the direction set by Clinton. The U.S. rul- The “Land of the Free” has become the ers have accelerated their “get tough on world’s largest jailer, with 2 million people crime” campaign over the last decade as behind bars. The United States has the part of a broader offensive against world’s highest incarceration rate at 702 workers’ rights and civil liberties. prisoners per 100,000 people. That is, one Following the lead of the federal gov- out of every 142 U.S. residents is in jail. ernment, many states instituted various The figures were released in the April re- “three-strike” rules, which require judges port of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. It to impose the maximum sentence on the covers the latest 12-month period, which accused if he or she has two previous felony upheld California’s “three-strike” law, re- who got 25 years for taking some golf ended June 30, 2002. convictions. jecting appeals by men sentenced to 50 clubs. If those on probation and parole are Another measure that has helped swell years and 25 years for petty theft. Two pris- Lawyers for the two men argued that added, the figure climbs to nearly 6.5 mil- the number of inmates is the wider use of oners had challenged the constitutionality their convictions violated the Eighth lion, or one in every 32 adults, according “mandatory sentencing,” imposing a set of the 1994 legislation. One was Leandro Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to a report from the same bureau, titled number of years for various offenses, re- Andrade, who had been sentenced to 50 which bars “cruel and unusual punish- “Probation and Parole,” which was released gardless of the circumstances. years without parole for stealing children’s ment.” They both lost in 5-4 rulings by the last September. In March of this year, the Supreme Court videotapes. The other was Gary Ewing, Supreme Court justices. Just over 7,000 of those held in adult prisons are under 18 years old. And more than 88,000 of those incarcerated are citi- California paper covers antideportation fight zens of other countries. According to the report, an estimated 12 Below are excerpts from the article, prevent his deportation and that of thou- of charges for which an immigrant, resi- percent of Black males in their twenties and ‘A Nicaraguan challenges the ’96 Immi- sands of other immigrants. dent or without papers, could be deported, early thirties are in jail. That compares with gration laws; thousands of people are After drastic changes from the Anti-Ter- independent of whether the violation had 1.6 percent for white males in the same age being deported for minor offenses they rorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, been committed much before or after 1996. group, and 4 percent of Latinos. committed in the past.’ It appeared in and Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Re- Human Rights Watch stated in a 1998 The rate of imprisonment in the United the February 2003 issue of Centro- sponsibilities Act, passed by the Clinton report that the number of people detained States is more than seven times higher than América Weekly, a Los Angeles-based administration in 1996, there have been by the INS had grown 80 percent in com- that of a number of other imperialist coun- Spanish-language monthly. record numbers of detentions of immi- parison to the figures for the three previ- tries. In Germany, Italy, and Denmark, for On December 3, Róger Calero, a Nica- grants. These laws basically established ous years. example, fewer than 100 of 100,000 resi- raguan journalist, and associate editor of new conditions for the detention of certain This same organization states that the dents are in jail. The U.S. incarceration rate Perspectiva Mundial, who has been a per- categories of immigrants, including perma- jails and detention centers have problems has risen steadily at an average of nearly 4 manent resident for 12 years, was return- nent residents, undocumented immigrants, accommodating the always growing num- percent since 1995. ing home from covering the International or those with asylum. ber of detainees, and that access to legal Most of this explosion in the prison Conference of Students in Guadalajara, For cases like Calero’s, previously the representation and judicial review is very population occurred during the eight years Mexico, and other assignments in Cuba, charges for which one would have to pay limited. “When you enter the jail you real- of the Democratic administration of Presi- when he was arrested by agents of the Im- with deportation were limited to major ize that these are the same people you dent William Clinton. With bipartisan sup- migration Service at the Houston airport. crimes such as murder and rape. After the worked with in the factories, in the gar- port in Congress, Clinton signed legisla- The reason was a minor offense that he had reforms made in the laws, any charge that ment shops, they are workers, many of tion expanding mandatory prison sentences committed in 1988, when he attempted at carries a sentence of more than one year, them are held for months, facing the threat and increasing their length. Clinton also his school to sell an ounce of marijuana to like theft, fraud, or repeated driving under of deportation.” reduced protections against arbitrary an undercover agent.... the influence of alcohol, mandate depor- search and seizure by the cops and courts, Supported by several immigrant rights tation. and financed a record increase in the num- organizations, Róger Calero has initiated Without taking into account that these For more information ber of police on the streets. The policies of a national campaign to challenge the laws laws are retroactive, legislators from the or to send a contribution: President George Bush have followed in with which he is being judged anew, and Department of Justice broadened the list Róger Calero Defense Committee, c/o PRDF, Box 761, Church St. Sta- tion, New York, NY 10007; phone/ Calero wins new backing in N. Carolina fax, (212)563-0585. On the web: www.calerodefense.org Continued from front page working and living conditions of all work- vited him to make a presentation after Send messages demanding ex- didn’t know these kinds of things were ing people.” learning of his case and his trip to the area clusion moves against Calero be going on. But lately I have been moved to Calero also spoke of a case reported by from a student, Mike Ellis, a member of dropped to: Demetrios play a part” in fights like these. Human Rights Watch in 1998 where de- the Young Socialists. Georgakopolous, Director, Bu- Twenty people attended the March 16th tainees at the Union County jail in Eliza- Two students that heard Calero’s talk at reau of Customs and Immigra- meeting at the Better Life Center to hear beth, New Jersey, were beaten, stripped, the high school went to the University of tion Enforcement. Fax messages Calero speak on the fight against the im- and made to crawl through a gauntlet of North Carolina in Charlotte (UNCC) after to: (973) 645-3074; or mail to: guards while chanting “America is ‘num- school to hear him speak at a meeting co- migration cops’ efforts to exclude him from 970 Broad St., Newark, NJ the United States. Several of those in at- ber one.’” Calero said, “You will hear this sponsored by The Feminist Union. Six stu- tendance work at Pillowtex, a textile mill same chauvinistic call to justify the U.S. dents and several supporters of the 07102. Copies should be sent to where 40 workers have signed petitions slaughter of thousands of workers and antideportation fight participated in this the Róger Calero Defense Com- backing Calero’s fight to remain in this peasants in Iraq, and the wars to come.” informal discussion. mittee. country. Jabril Hough, an activist in the Charlotte Calero’s visit here, part of a nationwide Muslim community, linked Calero’s fight tour, helped build solidarity for the cam- to that of other immigrant workers. “After paign to stop the INS from deporting him September 11,” and the government attacks Abortion rates up for women to his native Nicaragua. on Middle Eastern and Southeast Asians Calero, 34, is an associate editor of in the United States, said Hough, “many Perspectiva Mundial, a Spanish-language Muslim immigrants realized they were liv- workers, down for the wealthy monthly published in New York, and a ing an American nightmare.” He invited Militant staff writer. On December 3 he was everyone to participate in a demonstration BY PETER THIERJUNG go as high as $4,000. returning home to the United States from outside the INS office in Charlotte to pro- “Changes in welfare policy such as rules The Guttmacher Institute says that reporting trips to Cuba and Mexico. Im- test the forced registration of immigrants requiring welfare recipients to seek em- women, on average, give three reasons for migration and Naturalization Service (INS) from countries in the Mideast and South- ployment,” may have been a factor in an choosing abortion. Seventy-five percent agents seized Calero at Houston Intercon- east Asia. increase in abortions for working-class said that having a baby would interfere with tinental Airport, told him he was denied Nick Wood, an organizer for FLOC, the women, particularly those who are Black work, school, or other responsibilities; 66 entry to the United States, and carted him Farm Labor Organizing Committee, spoke or Latina and most often those who are percent cited their inability to afford a off to an immigration jail. He was later re- on the fight by migrant farm workers single heads of households. This is what child; and 50 percent said they did not want leased after scores of people poured mes- against the Mt. Olive Pickle Company. He statistics released by The Alan Guttmacher to be a single parent. sages of protest in to the INS office in described the atrocious working condi- Institute, an organization which does re- According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Texas. He now faces exclusion from this tions, including lack of drinking water, in- productive health research and policy Statistics, the percentage of women in the country. adequate medical attention, and decrepit analysis, indicate. work force continued to rise by the end of Immigration officials began deportation housing. Wood stated that Calero’s depor- Between 1994 and 2000, abortion rates the last decade. In 2000, about 60 percent proceedings against him based on a 1988 tation and the conditions facing migrant for working-class women rose, while rates of all women were working, compared to plea-bargain conviction, when he was a workers is a part of a “corrupt imperialist for wealthier women declined. Women 75 percent of all men. Nearly three-quar- high school student in Los Angeles, for system that seeks to drive wages down.” who are Black are more than three times ters of women with children are working selling an ounce of marijuana to an under- He announced a protest and march in Mt. as likely as women who are white to have outside the home. Since 1975, there has cover cop. The INS waived this conviction Olive, North Carolina, for April 13th to an abortion, and women who are Hispanic been a more than 25 percent increase in in granting him permanent residency in demand that the company negotiate a con- are two-and-a-half times as likely, the in- the number of women with children un- 1990, and then in renewing it in 2000. tract with farm workers, and that farmers stitute reported. der three years old who are employed. Calero told the meeting that the INS’s improve the conditions in the fields. At the same time, implementation of the The percentage of income derived from attempt to deport him is part of stepped- Ahmad Daniels, a well-known activist Clinton administration’s policy of “ending wages for single women heading up house- up attack on immigrants’ rights and a in the Black community in the Charlotte welfare as we know it,” resulted in a de- holds went from 41 percent in 1979 to 73 broader assault on workers’ rights. “The area, sent greetings to the event. Daniels cline in the proportion of women of repro- percent in 2000. government’s intention,” he explained, “is had been forced to resign from his job as ductive age covered by Medicaid. The pro- Economic reports now show that with to instill fear in immigrant workers.” These Mecklenburg County Minority Affairs di- portion of women with no insurance at all recession conditions since 2000, women attacks are aimed at keeping us “intimi- rector for statements he made after Sep- increased. The result is that working-class have been among those hardest hit by ris- dated, unorganized, and isolated from our tember 11. women who are poor are often shoulder- ing unemployment rates. More than twice brothers and sisters. These are weapons to Calero also spoke to a class of 20 Con- ing the full costs of abortions. This medi- as many women have experienced layoffs reinforce the bosses offensive against the cord High School students. A teacher in- cal procedure on average costs $372. It can than in the recession of the early 1990s. April 28, 2003 The Militant 3 Occupation of Iraq deepens imperialist rift BY PATRICK O’NEILL by the British rulers on their “special rela- With U.S. and British forces consolidat- tionship” with Washington to maintain ing their military victory in Iraq, the gov- their place as a junior imperialist power. ernments of France and Germany are try- That relationship dates back to the pe- ing to assert their claims to be part of the riod shortly following World War II, and occupation of the country and the exploi- President Harry Truman’s 1947 initiation tation of its wealth. Paris and Berlin’s call of the Cold War—a systematic and de- for a central role for the United Nations in cades-long effort to exert economic and the construction of a new regime, and military pressure on the workers states of Washington’s dismissal of that demand, are the Soviet Union, Eastern and Central Eu- indications that interimperialist tensions rope, and China, in preparation for their continue to fester and sharpen. military overthrow. The “transatlantic” rift is one manifes- In the leadup to the Cold War, British tation of the growing conflicts among the prime minister Winston Churchill called imperialist powers. Other such divisions for a “special relationship” between Lon- are increasingly evident among the major don and Washington that would form the powers within the European Union, includ- core of an imperialist military alliance in ing between Paris and London. Europe to contain any extension of the French prime minister Jacques Chirac revolutionary overturn of capitalist prop- and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder erty relations. The British prime minister reiterated their position at an April 11 meet- also called for Washington and London to ing in St. Petersburg with Russian president French cavalry detachment in Evzon, Greece, on their way to Macedonia, formerly maintain a monopoly on atomic weapons. Vladimir Putin. “You have to respect the UN part of Yugoslavia, 1999.The unfolding occupation of Iraq has shown the European In 1944 Churchill told Charles de charter in all situations,” said Schröder. Union to be anything but unified—with Paris, Berlin, and Brussels leading the “anti- Gaulle, the leader of the bourgeois oppo- “We are no longer in an era where one or American” bloc. A short list of countries proposed by the Belgian government to form sition to the Nazi occupation of France, “If two countries can control the fate of another the core of an EU military force conspicuously left London out of it. I have to choose between Europe and the county,” Chirac said before the meeting, in open sea, between you and Roosevelt, I will a dig at Washington and London. “The po- claring support for the brutal assault. “We regardless of what kind of regime it was always choose America.” litical, economic, humanitarian, and admin- hope through the defeat of the dictatorship, and regardless of the country’s clout.” His istrative reconstruction of Iraq is a matter the Iraqi people can realize its hope of a statement contradicted an earlier comment Seesawing debates over Europe for the United Nations, and for it alone.” life in peace, freedom, and self-determi- by Putin that Wolfowitz’s proposal was The latest reinforcement of this relation- French representatives have threatened nation,” said Schröder. “understandable and legitimate.” ship follows decades of seesawing debates to use their veto in the UN Security Coun- Chirac remained silent for almost 24 The president of Germany’s central among British capitalist politicians over how cil to maintain sanctions on Iraq, saying hours after the fall of Baghdad to U.S. bank, Ernst Welteke, also dismissed the to relate to the formation of a German- and that such a step will stymie U.S. plans to forces. He then stated that he welcomed proposal. Only “very poor countries” French-dominated European Union. reap the income from sales of the country’s the fall of “the dictator Saddam Hussein.” should have their debt canceled, he said. When the governments of France, Ger- oil, reported the April 11 Wall Street Jour- Both before and during Iraq’s occupa- Oil contracts signed with the Saddam many, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the nal. Paris will maintain such a stance “un- tion, Paris has fought to defend the lucra- Hussein regime threaten to be an even more Netherlands established the European Eco- til Washington affords them a larger role,” tive investment and trade deals built up explosive issue. Officials of Lukoil, nomic Community (EEC) in 1957, Lon- added the paper. between French capitalists and the Saddam Russia’s biggest oil company, said they don stayed aloof. It finally joined in 1973, Whatever the immediate outcome of this Hussein regime. French-based companies would “fiercely defend” a deal with over de Gaulle’s objections, after failing dispute, Washington is sitting pretty to signed almost 800 contracts for parts and Baghdad giving them rights to Baghdad’s to construct a competing body. implement a key goal of its offensive: re- equipment for the Iraqi oil industry--sec- giant West Qurna oil field, according to the Having joined the European Union, the imposing the dollar as the currency for all ond only to Moscow. The French-domi- April 9 Wall Street Journal. “If a new Iraqi British rulers have refused to dissolve their oil-related transactions in Iraq. Baghdad’s nated oil company, TotalFinaElf, negoti- government tries to declare the contract currency, the British pound, into the euro, 1999 switch to the euro made it the only ated oil deals that would give it control over invalid,” continued the Journal article, which is built around the combined power major oil-producing government to have 25 percent of Iraq’s massive oil reserves. Lukoil will take legal action “to impound of the former French franc and German broken from a 1971 OPEC agreement to These agreements were built on the close tankers carrying Iraqi crude.” mark. In doing so, London has refused to conduct all trade in U.S. dollars. relations between Paris and Baghdad go- Since the 1991 U.S.-led assault on Iraq, relinquish the advantages of wielding its At an April 8 meeting in Northern Ire- ing back decades. But they were largely trade disputes have proliferated among the own currency to defend its distinct impe- land, U.S. president George Bush and Brit- signed under the UN-imposed regime of major trading powers of North America and rialist interests, rather than playing second ish prime minister Anthony Blair made it weapons inspections and economic sanc- Western Europe, as well as Japan. or third fiddle behind Berlin and/or Paris. clear that their rivals would not elbow their tions of the past 12 years. The sanctions Such disputes are now sharpening. The Within the EU, the French and British way into a share of the occupation’s spoils. were reconfigured as the “oil for food” United States and a number of European governments have often been at logger- The UN would have the “vital role” of sup- program in the mid-1990s. Union governments had laid some 50 legal heads over many issues—from “illegal” porting the U.S.-installed “interim author- While the U.S. government has made no complaints of unfair trading practices dur- immigration to agricultural policy. Follow- ity” in Iraq, they said, that is, largely dis- statement about the fate of these deals, it ing the 35 years between 1960 and 1995. ing an EU meeting in Brussels last Octo- tributing some medicine, food, and water. has cast doubt on whether the new regime More recently, the pace has quickened. In ber, Blair let it be known that he was “livid” It could also “serve as a conduit for interna- should be held responsible for massive the six years between 1995 and 2001, offi- that Chirac and German chancellor tional contributions,” the Journal reported. debts imposed by the capitalists and gov- cials of the World Trade Organization have Gerhard Schröder had “pre-cooked” a deal Backed by Berlin, Paris had previously ernments of France, Germany, and Russia. been confronted with 32 such complaints. that would maintain substantial farm sub- led criticism in the Security Council to the U.S. deputy secretary of defense Paul The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is likely sidies, which London wants to sharply re- U.S.-led drive for war. After Washington Wolfowitz told a Senate committee April to exacerbate such conflicts, said the Fi- duce. Agricultural production in Britain is launched the air attacks and ground inva- 10 that these three governments “ought to nancial Times. Frederick Bergsten, the di- quite low compared to that of both France sion, however, both the French and Ger- consider whether it might not be appropri- rector of the Institute for International Eco- and Germany, with London relying much man governments did an about-face, de- ate” to forgive some or all of the debt nomics, told the paper that the G-7 repre- more heavily on food imports. Chirac re- Baghdad owes them. sentatives “will try to keep the security dis- sponded by postponing a year-end meet- Iraq is estimated to owe between $8 and pute from poisoning the economic area, but ing with Blair. CALENDAR $12 billion each to France and Russia, and it could spill over and make it worse.” London was conspicuously absent from the short list of countries proposed by the ILLINOIS a little more than half that amount to Ger- Interimperialist conflicts in Europe Chicago many. Its total debt is estimated at more Belgian government to form the core of Conflicts among the imperialist powers an EU military force. European Commis- The Conquest of Iraq and Washington’s than $100 billion. Together with war repa- rations imposed by Washington following in Europe have also deepened during the sion president Romano Prodi endorsed the Trade Push into Africa. A benefit for the war in the Mideast. In particular, the gov- Militant Fund. Speaker: Sam Manuel, Wash- the Arab-Persian Gulf War—which are in- proposal March 26. ington D.C. Bureau of the Militant. Sun., April cluded in the $40 billion Baghdad owes to ernments of France and the United King- “The deep division caused by the Iraqi 27. Program 2:00 p.m., dinner 4:00 p.m. 2901 Saudi Arabia and Kuwait—the country’s dom have increasingly been at loggerheads. crisis has provoked... debate in EU capitals West 59th (two blocks west of California). (773) total indebtedness stands at around 400 per- By throwing their weight behind about how the union will function,” if nine 737-1190. cent of its gross domestic product. Washington’s course toward war, the Brit- new prospective members from Eastern The loans became a bone of contention ish rulers dealt a blow to Paris’s preten- Europe and Malta are accepted as full mem- TEXAS at the April 12–13 meeting of the Group of sions to speak for a “united Europe.” Lon- bers, said The Financial Times. The Lon- Houston Seven imperialist countries, also attended don became the most vocal proponent of don daily noted that Paris “in particular has by Moscow. Following the meeting, the “unity” between imperialist Europe and the been alarmed by the pro-U.S. stance of The Working-class Response to Imperial- United States—a calculated rebuff to Paris ism’s March Toward World War and Depres- Russian finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, many of the 10 candidate countries.” sion. Fund-raising event for the Militant Fund. said, “no one has forgiven Russia’s debt, and Berlin. Speaker: Nan Bailey, Socialist Workers Party. The European Union was shown to be Fri., Sun 27. Reception 4:00 p.m., program 5:00 anything but unified, as a number of gov- From Pathfinder p.m. 619 West 8th St. (713) 869-6550. ernments—from Spain to Portugal and Italy MILITANT (Europe’s fourth largest power) as well as Europe and America the Netherlands—identified their own inter- TWO SPEECHES ON IMPERIALISM LABOR ests with those of the U.S. and British rul- Solidarity Rally Leon Trotsky ers drive to war. Of these imperialist pow- In two speeches in for UFCW Local 538 FORUMS ers, however, only the Dutch rulers sent the mid-1920s, troops to join the U.S.-British assault. Trotsky explains meatpackers striking NEW JERSEY “The center of gravity [in NATO] is why the emergence Newark shifting to the east,” crowed U.S. secretary of the United States Tyson Foods in U.S. Provocations against Cuba: Behind the of defense Donald Rumsfeld in response as the dominant Jefferson, Wisconsin Growing Tensions Speaker: Róger Calero, staff to these developments. He referred to Paris, imperialist power is writer for the Militant. Fri., April 18. 7:30 p.m. Berlin, and Brussels contemptuously as the decisive factor Sat., April 26, Noon. 168 Bloomfield Ave. 2nd floor (at Clifton). representing “old Europe,” in contrast to in world politics. Donation: $5 (973) 481-0077. the London-led “new Europe.” He describes the Supporters are encouraged to bring After dire predictions in the big-business sharpening food and financial contributions to NEW ZEALAND media of his possible downfall, Blair lined conflicts between rally, and plan to have a rousing good Christchurch up a huge majority of the British parlia- Washington and its European rivals and highlights the revolutionary prospects time. For information (608) 256-5111; Solidarity with Kinleith Strikers Fri., April ment behind his call to arms during a or visit the website [email protected]. 25. 7:00 p.m. Gloucester Arcade, (near The- March 18 vote. His policy has been con- for the workers of the world. $6.00 ater Royal), 129 Gloucester St. (03) 365-6055. sistent with the increasingly heavy reliance 4 The Militant April 28, 2003 Workers in Midwest set pace in drive to win new readers BY PATRICK O’NEILL ticipants in the weekly Mili- “By discussing politics with participants at protest ac- tant Labor Forum, and off tions and meetings, we are off to an excellent start in the literature tables at an April subscription campaign,” reported Edwin Fruit from Des 5 antiwar rally, in a workers Moines April 13. Campaigners in Iowa’s capital have sold district in Des Moines, and a total of 12 subscriptions to the Militant, he said, along at a college campus, Fruit with one to Perspectiva Mundial, and a copy of the New said. International featuring the article “The Opening Guns of Supporters elsewhere in World War III: Washington’s assault on Iraq.” the Midwest have set the The efforts of Militant supporters in Des Moines have pace in the effort to win put them on top of the chart this week—the first in the new long-term readers eight-week international subscription drive that began among meatpacking work- April 5, and will run through June 1. ers. In Cleveland and the “At a regional conference of the National Lawyers Twin Cities, meat packers Guild held at Drake University April 11–12, four people have bought a total of five signed up for the $10 introductory subscription to the Militant and four Militant,” Fruit said. “The theme of the conference was Perspectiva Mundial sub- Militant/Sam Manuel the war at home and the war abroad, and one of the fea- scriptions. A worker in a tured speakers was Róger Calero, the Perspectiva Mundial Above, April 12 Washington, DC, rally against the U.S.-led war and occupation of Cleveland plant also Iraq. Inset, Young Socialists and Socialist Workers Party literature table at action. editor who is fighting the government’s attempts to de- bought one of the books port him.” featured in the campaign. Supporters have sold subscriptions and books to par- These include several issues of New International and in the paper’s explanations about political events,” she said. Capitalism’s World Disorder: Working-Class Sara Lobman from Newark, New Jersey, encountered Politics at the Millennium, by Jack Barnes (see a similar hunger for political explanations from a pro- Militant/Perspectiva Mundial ad on page 15). tester at the April 12 antiwar rally in Washington, D.C. Through consistent work and follow-up, meat (see article on page 14.) As he subscribed, “He told us Subscription Drive packers in Atlanta sold a Perspectiva Mundial that he had felt unable to thoroughly explain what was April 5–June 1: Week 1 of 8 subscription to a poultry worker in Gainsville, behind the war,” Lobman said. Georgia. “A while back he checked out our lit- Campaigners need to set a steady pace throughout the Militant PM Book erature table on a trip to north Atlanta,” reported drive’s two months. The weekly rhythm of sales at fac- Country Goal Sold % Goal Sold Goal Sold Arlene Rubinstein. “Then he attended the pub- tory gates, in working-class districts, and on college cam- CANADA lic meeting here addressed by Róger Calero. This puses, will be punctuated with literature tables at politi- Vancouver 35 10 29% 5 0 15 2 week he bought the subscription when we trav- cal events—along with special efforts to sell to soldiers, Toronto 35 4 11% 5 0 25 0 eled to Gainsville on a regional trip.” and to working people in areas where there is no regular Montreal 12 0 0% 4 0 15 1 distributor for the revolutionary press. CANADA total 82 14 17% 14 0 55 3 Hunger for explanations Local organizers are also reminded that to be included AUSTRALIA 30 0 0% 5 0 12 0 ICELAND 15 0 0% 1 0 Rubinstein and another socialist worker at an in the weekly chart, subscriptions and book sales reports NEW ZEALAND Atlanta meatpacking plant have stepped up their must arrive into the Militant office by 8 a.m. EST each Christchurch 16 0 0% 1 0 4 0 Militant sales on the job. One new buyer is “a Monday. We encourage you to send reports and photo- Auckland 20 0 0% 1 0 5 0 young man from Somalia who is very interested graphs of sales teams at work. N.Z. total 36 0 0% 2 0 9 0 SWEDEN Stockholm 10 0 0% 2 0 4 0 Gothenburg 12 0 0% 2 0 8 0 SWEDEN Total 22 0 0% 4 0 12 0 ‘Militant’ supporters plan fundraisers UNITED KINGDOM London 40 0 0% 15 0 25 0 BY PAUL PEDERSON Cent. Scotland 12 0 0% 1 0 8 0 UK total 52 0 0% 16 0 33 0 Stepped-up efforts are needed now to close $85,000 Militant Fund UNITED STATES the gap, which has widened since last week, be- Des Moines 25 12 48% 12 1 12 1 tween contributions for the Militant Fund and March 10–May 12: Week 5 of 9 Omaha 17 8 47% 31 5 17 0 the funds needed to be on schedule. The Mili- San Francisco 35 10 29% 15 1 25 2 Cleveland 20 5 25% 8 1 18 2 tant Fund is now into the fifth week of a nine- Tucson 10 2 20% 2 0 6 0 week drive ending May 12. Goal Paid % Twin Cities 45 9 20% 35 7 25 1 As the chart shows, pledges now exceed the New York NY 7,500 3,508 47% Houston 25 5 20% 10 0 25 0 international goal of 85,000. Charlotte NC 3,000 1,290 43% Chicago 40 7 18% 25 5 25 0 Militant supporters in several local areas are Tampa 25 4 16% 5 5 15 2 Tucson AZ 250 100 40% building fund-raising events in the next couple Seattle 30 4 13% 8 1 20 0 Atlanta GA 4,100 1,630 40% Miami 32 4 13% 10 0 25 3 of weeks. Nan Bailey, an SWP leader in Los An- Detroit 25 3 12% 8 0 12 1 geles, will be the featured speaker at an April 27 Los Angeles CA 7,500 2,710 36% Boston 35 4 11% 15 0 25 0 fund-raiser in Houston. In Chicago, Militant staff Utah 800 250 31% Newark 55 6 11% 20 3 30 22 Birmingham 20 2 10% 5 0 10 0 writer Sam Manuel will be speaking at a pro- Northeast PA 1,600 430 27% Atlanta 35 3 9% 15 3 25 1 gram the same day on the subject of “The Con- Birmingham AL 2,500 460 18% NE Pennsylvania 20 1 5% 6 0 10 0 quest of Iraq and Washington’s trade push into Twin Cities MN 4,300 750 17% Charlotte 20 1 5% 8 1 16 0 Africa.” New York 100 4 4% 40 1 60 0 Manuel will also be speaking the following Philadelphia PA 3,000 500 17% Pittsburgh 30 1 3% 3 0 0 0 week in Washington, D.C., at a May 3 event Newark NJ 3,800 600 16% Philadelphia 30 0 0% 7 0 10 0 Boston MA 2,800 440 16% Los Angeles 45 0 0% 20 0 20 0 which, in addition to raising funds for the inter- Utah 10 0 0% 5 0 10 0 national effort, will launch the new Washington Des Moines IA 900 125 14% Washington 25 0 0% 12 0 15 0 reporting bureau. Militant editor Argiris Miami FL 1,600 210 13% Western Colorado 18 0 0% 12 4 10 3 Malapanis will be one of the speakers at the event. Omaha NE 900 99 11% U.S. total 772 95 12% 337 38 466 38 Manuel will be based full time in the U.S. capi- Int'l totals 1009 109 11% 379 38 587 41 tal by early May. San Francisco CA 7,000 710 10% Goal/Should be 1000 131 13% 375 48 600 79 In Seattle, socialist workers and others are Detroit MI 3,000 175 6% IN THE UNIONS Houston TX 3,200 180 6% Militant PM Book gearing up for a similar fundraiser April 19. Goal Sold % Goal Sold Goal Sold Ma’mud Shirvani, Farsi-language editor of Path- Washington DC 2,200 120 5% AUSTRALIA finder Press, will speak at this event. Expecting Chicago IL 4,200 20 0% AMIEU 4 0 0% 2 0 a larger crowd than can fit in the Seattle Path- Cleveland OH 1,100 5 0% MUA 4 0 0% 2 0 finder Bookstore, where the weekly Militant Labor Forum series is held, they have secured a Pittsburgh PA 3,000 0 0% Total 8 0 0% 4 0 Seattle WA 6,000 0 0% CANADA room at a nearby community center. Tampa FL 1,800 0 0% UFCW 9 2 22% 2 0 9 0 “We passed out 200 leaflets building the meet- UNITE 4 0 0% 5 0 6 0 ing at an antiwar rally in Seattle on April 12,” Western CO 2,500 0 0% Total 13 2 15% 7 0 15 0 said David Ferguson, a supporter of the fund in Other 0 306 NEW ZEALAND Seattle. “We met quite a few people who were U.S. Total 78,550 14,618 19% MWU 2 0 0% interested in the event, including a young stu- Iceland 150 50 33% dent from Korea who said he was looking for a NDU 2 0 0% New Zealand 1,500 212 14% Total 4 0 0% group with a socialist perspective. We are plan- UNITED STATES ning special teams on the campuses leading up United Kingdom 500 10 2% UFCW 50 6 12% 75 8 40 4 to the meeting as well.” Australia 1,000 0 0% UMWA 15 0 0% 4 0 10 0 Shirvani spoke April 13 to about 25 people at Canada 3,460 0 0% UNITE 25 0 0% 20 0 20 0 a fundraiser in the Boston Pathfinder Bookstore. France 300 0 0% Total 90 6 7% 99 8 70 The meeting, which was followed by a dinner, Sweden 400 0 0% gave a boost to the local effort, raising $1,020 for the fund. AMIEU–Australasian Meat Industry Empoyees’ Union; MUA–Maritime Union Contributions to the fund can be sent to the International total 85,860 14,890 18% of Australia; MWU–Meat Workers Union; NDU–National Distribution Union; Militant, 152 W. 36th St., Suite 401, New York, Int'l goal/Should be 85,000 46,750 55% UFCW–United Food and Commercial Workers; UMWA–United Mine Workers NY 10018. Checks should be earmarked for the of America; UNITE–Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. Militant Fund. April 28, 2003 The Militant 5 Occupation of Iraq Continued from front page on perpetuating clan and religious divi- ington has turned its sights on Syria. In sions. The Baathist Party cultivated a base March, U.S. officials accused the Syrian of support among a layer of Iraqis who government of supplying Baghdad with identify themselves as Sunni Muslims. night-vision goggles and other military In the southern city of Basra, for ex- equipment. After the invasion was ample, Shiites expressed relief that they launched, they also claimed Damascus was were free of a regime that had brutally “harboring fugitives” from the Iraqi gov- crushed their rebellion in early 1991, im- ernment. On April 13, U.S. president mediately following the Gulf War. One George Bush declared, “We believe there continuing symbol of this repression is the are chemical weapons in Syria.” He warned main mosque in Basra, destroyed by the that the government of President Bashar regime when it smashed the uprising. Mus- Assad “must cooperate” and abide by the lims there still have to pray on the street U.S. government’s orders. near the rubble of the mosque. The next day White House spokesman While many in impoverished Shiite Ari Fleischer labeled Syria a “terrorist state,” neighborhoods of Baghdad have expressed noting that it was on Washington’s list of support for the U.S. and British military “terrorist nations” together with Iraq, Iran, presence, others, including supporters of north Korea, Cuba, Libya, and Sudan. Sec- pro-Iranian groups that opposed the retary of State Colin Powell ratcheted up Hussein regime, have made clear their hos- the threats further, warning of possible dip- tility to the occupiers. In Tehran, dozens lomatic or economic sanctions against Syria. of supporters of one of these groups Referring to the U.S.-led invasion, stormed the Iraqi embassy April 11, tear- Powell said there was a “new situation” in ing down pictures of Hussein while chant- British troops entering Baghdad March 12, 1917. London installed a puppet monar- the Mideast. “We hope that all the nations ing “Death to America.” chy and ruled Iraq as a colony for the next 13 years. After taking the city, British in the region will now review their past The U.S. military brass has gone out of general Frederick Stanley Maude declared, “Our armies do not come into your cit- practices and behavior.” Syria should “un- its way to portray the occupation troops as ies and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.” Sound familiar? derstand its obligations,” Powell warned. “liberators” and not conquerors. For ex- The Syrian government has strongly ample, they barred any display of the of the ORHA occupation regime arrived because it built Iraq’s telephone network. denied the charges. “The only country in American flag by U.S. military personnel in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. German engineering and construction the region which has chemical, biological, on vehicles, buildings, and command posts. These included retired generals Floyd firms built roads, bridges, and dams in Iraq, and nuclear weapons is Israel,” a foreign Walters and Bruce Moore, and Barbara all of which have been devastated by the ministry spokeswoman said in Damascus. Flag incident Bodine, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, two imperialist wars and 12 years of eco- The fact that a senior Iraqi official had been On April 9, however, U.S. forces staged who will be the proconsuls in southern, nomic sanctions against that country. captured by U.S. forces near the Syrian the toppling of a 40-foot bronze statue of northern, and central Iraq, respectively. They are likely to be iced out by their border was “evidence that Syria didn’t let Saddam Hussein in an incident that did not Corporate lawyer and Pentagon advisor U.S. rivals, however. The initial eight re- him in,” she said, striking a conciliatory turn out the way Washington intended. A Michael Mobbs will direct the country’s construction contracts offered by the U.S. tone toward Washington. “We never had few hundred Iraqis gathered around the civil administration. Mobbs is the author Agency for International Development friendly relations with them.” statue in central Baghdad as a U.S. armored of a Pentagon memo asserting that the U.S. were restricted to U.S. bidders. The The ruling Baathist Party of Syria, which vehicle took it down with a crane pulling a president can deem U.S. citizens “enemy Kellogg Brown & Root unit of U.S. com- shares roots with the Iraqi Baathists, has heavy cable. Before it was knocked down, combatants” and detain them indefinitely. pany Halliburton was one of the first, win- historically taken an Arab nationalist a U.S. Marine draped a U.S. flag over ORHA is supposed to govern Iraq on an ning a lucrative contract to make emer- stance. Posing as a champion of the Pales- Hussein’s head, “a gesture that drew a interim basis and then hand over civil au- gency repairs to Iraq’s oil fields and get tinian struggle for self-determination muted reaction from the crowd, gasps in thority to a provisional administration them to prewar production levels. U.S. vice against Israeli aggression, it has backed the Pentagon briefing room, and anger made up of Iraqis chosen by Washington. president Richard Cheney was previously resistance organizations such as Hezbollah from a commentator on the Arab news net- Garner says he will do so within 90 days. Halliburton’s CEO for several years. in Lebanon, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad work Al Arabiya,” CNN reported. The Al Other U.S. officials have said the “interim” in Palestine. The government of Bashar Arabiya newsman said, “That should have period will last longer. Washington ‘must hold Iraq together’ Assad—who became president in 2000 been an Iraqi flag.” U.S. officers replaced To serve as an Iraqi figurehead for this As they tighten their control over Iraq, after the death of his father, longtime presi- the flag with an Iraqi one, but the scene U.S. protectorate, U.S. defense secretary the U.S. rulers are also concerned about dent and Baathist leader Hafez Assad—has had already been broadcast all over the Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul the uncontrolled forces their invasion has taken a more openly conciliatory stance Mideast and around the world. Wolfowitz favor naming Ahmed Chalabi set in motion. Despite its conflict with toward Washington in face of the escalat- It is indisputable that, in many cases, of the Iraqi National Congress, the U.S.- Saddam Hussein over the past 12 years, ing imperialist war drive in the Mideast. Iraqi toilers welcomed the U.S. and Brit- financed coalition of anti-Hussein groups. Washington had always relied on that re- In the past couple of years Damascus has ish troops for getting rid of the Hussein Chalabi and a U.S.-trained unit of 700 gime to keep the struggles of the Kurds and “provided important intelligence support regime. Reactions have varied widely, how- of his thugs, called the “First Batallion of other oppressed groups in check. to Washington in its fight against al Qaeda,” ever. Some have expressed support mixed Free Iraqi Forces,” were airlifted on U.S. In the 1991 Gulf War the first Bush ad- a Wall Street Journal article noted. with wariness. Others have not concealed military planes to Nasiriya April 6. While ministration, after defeating Iraq’s army, Nonetheless, the U.S. government has their hostility to the occupiers. Some ini- he is backed by the Pentagon, U.S. State allowed the Hussein regime to suppress only been emboldened by the signs of tially favorable attitudes have soured in Department officials are opposed to such uprisings by the Kurds in the north and weakness from Damascus. In one provoca- response to the initial collapse of water and an appointment, concerned that Chalabi, a Shiites in the south. The last thing the U.S. tive action, U.S. Special Forces operating other basic services, the prospect of a long convicted bank embezzler who has lived government wants is for the Kurdish in western Iraq took control of key cross- occupation, and the toll on civilians. in exile since Iraq became free from Brit- people—an oppressed nationality in Iraq, ings on two major highways into Syria. More than 1,200 civilians were killed in ish colonial rule 45 years ago, has little Turkey, and other neighboring countries— Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, a mem- the U.S.-British invasion as of April 3— credibility among the Iraqi population. to assert its long-denied right to self-de- ber of the Defense Policy Board, stated the figure reported by the Iraqi government Some 20,000 Iraqis rallied in Nasiriya termination. April 11 that if Washington determined that before its overthrow. Thousands more have April 15 against Washington’s plans to In northern Iraq, for example, where the Syria had “weapons of mass destruction,” been wounded. As many as 10,000 Iraqi impose such a new regime. Protesters Kurdish population is concentrated, 4,000 it would not “rule out the use of any of our soldiers have been killed as well. The Pen- chanted, “Yes to freedom.... Yes to Islam.... Kurdish combatants joined with U.S. Spe- full range of capabilities.” tagon has said it has no plans to determine No to America.... No to Saddam.” The rally cial Operations troops to take Kirkuk, a how many Iraqi civilians have been killed, was organized in response to a U.S.-orga- major city and oil center. Pentagon offi- Invasion force consolidates control injured, or suffered property damage as a nized conference of Iraqi political groups cials quickly announced, however, that they The threats against Syria occur as the result of the U.S. assault. flown to a nearby U.S. air base to make were sending U.S. troops to replace the Anglo-American forces consolidate their At the Ani Mosque in Baghdad, a New plans for a new government. “We cannot Kurdish pesh merga fighters, concerned hold on Iraq after a three-week-long inva- York Times correspondent wrote, “a group be part of a process which is under an that the latter’s presence might create con- sion. Within days of the entry of imperial- of men confronted an American reporter, American general,” a representative of the flicts with the Arab population and get in ist forces into Baghdad in early April, U.S. angrily denouncing the Bush administra- Iran-based Supreme Council for Islamic the way of consolidating U.S. control of troops had seized the key government tion for destroying the city’s public admin- Revolution told the rally, Reuters reported. the city. A related goal is to undercut ob- buildings and strategic facilities. They en- istration and doing little to replace it.” The same day, in the northern city of jections by the Turkish government, which gaged in some combat with the Saddam Baghdad has been without electricity Mosul, U.S. soldiers fired on a crowd pro- is worried that the events in Iraq may in- Hussein regime’s irregular forces, known and drinking water for days and the medi- testing a U.S.-installed governor, killing at crease unrest among the large and savagely as the Fedayeen, but the Iraqi armed forces cal system has “virtually collapsed,” ac- least 10 people and injuring as many as 100. repressed Kurdish population in Turkey. largely disintegrated along with the regime cording to the international Red Cross. The Australian Broadcasting Company re- One of the clearest voices on the U.S. and the ruling Baathist party apparatus. With the collapse of the dictatorship, ported that U.S. troops “fired into a crowd rulers’ need to keep a lid on Iraq’s op- By April 9, senior government officials residents of the capital set fire to symbols which was becoming increasingly hostile pressed nationalities has been ultrarightist had disappeared from public view and the of the hated regime, including virtually towards the new governor, Mashaan al- politician Patrick Buchanan. “With the city had for all practical purposes fallen every government ministry. Crowds broke Juburi, as he was making a pro-U.S. speech.” Iraqi army destroyed, U.S. forces must hold into imperialist hands. Hussein himself has into government buildings and businesses, About 1,200 protesters blocked U.S. the country together. Any attempt by Kurds not been seen since an April 5 televised carting off goods ranging from refrigera- Marines from entering Kut’s city hall April to declare independence would bring a appearance in Baghdad. Five days later, tors to cars. Looting has also taken place 15, shouting: “No, No Chalabi!” rapid Turkish invasion,” he wrote in an U.S. troops had taken control of all major in Basra and other cities. April 14 syndicated column. “If we do not urban centers, including the northern cit- Apparently caught unprepared, the U.S. Conflicts with Paris, Berlin want a clash with the Turks, our Kurdish ies of Kirkuk and Mosul as well as Tikrit, military has responded by declaring a dusk- Washington has made clear that it will be allies cannot be permitted to take over the a Baathist bastion. to-dawn curfew in Baghdad, and organiz- in charge of the new “interim” regime in cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, to which they Numerous media reports have described ing joint street patrols by U.S. troops and Iraq, running into conflict with Paris, Ber- have ancient claims.” the fact that most working people and other Iraqi cops to crack down on people they lin, and other imperialist governments, as Buchanan added, “A similar problem Iraqis are glad Hussein and his thugs are accuse of looting. U.S. officials said they well as the bureaucratic regime in Moscow, exists in the south. In 1991, the Shiites rose no longer in power after three decades of were trying to draw local Iraqi officials into which all insist on a prominent role by the in rebellion at the urging of Bush I and were rule. U.S. and British troops were wel- organizing a police force. United Nations (see article on page 4). butchered by Saddam’s troops. As the larg- comed in many neighborhoods of Baghdad Washington has set up an Office of Re- The initial dispute has revolved around est ethnic group in Iraq, will they accept and other cities. construction and Humanitarian Assistance the “reconstruction” contracts. French and continued rule by the Sunnis who perse- This was especially true in areas inhab- (ORHA), run by the Pentagon, to take over German companies are among those seek- cuted them for three decades? What will ited largely by Shiite Muslims, who had the administration of Iraq. It is headed by ing a piece of the post-invasion booty. we do if the Shiites and Kurds both de- been subjected to particularly brutal op- retired U.S. general Jay Garner. Paris-based telecommunications giant clare independence? Iran, a Shiite nation, pression by the regime, which based itself On April 8, 44 newly appointed officials Alcatel, for example, says it is qualified will be fishing in these waters.”

6 The Militant April 28, 2003 ‘Independent libraries’ in Cuba a U.S.-promoted fraud Librarian in Havana speaks out

BY CATHARINA TIRSÉN tated about a shipment of about 5,000 AND JONATHAN SILBERMAN books sent to Cuba by the U.S. government HAVANA—“When I’m asked questions that was held up at Cuban customs. Articles about libraries and the access to books in in the U.S. big-business media have re- Cuba, my first response is always to encour- ported that the Cuban government was age people to come here and see for them- keeping books by Martin Luther King, Jr., John Steinbeck, and Groucho Marx out of selves,” said Eliades Acosta, director of the During 1961 literacy drive in Cuba, more than 100,000 brigadistas—the majority of renowned José Martí National Library here. the country. The shipment was being sent to the “independent libraries,” Cason said. them young women, like the one shown above—went to the countryside to teach one Acosta was speaking to Militant report- million peasants and workers to read and write. Raising the cultural level of the ers in the light of new efforts to breathe Over the past several months the U.S.- promoted campaign of provocations against entire nation has been a top priority of the Cuban Revolution, including through some life into the misnamed “Friends of today’s ‘family library’ program making available 25 classic works of world and Cuban Libraries” campaign, which charges Cuba has increased, culminating in a string of plane and ferry hijackings. Since March, Cuban literature to every Cuban family. ‘Independent libraries’ in Cuba have no the Cuban government with censorship and readers, existing largely in U.S.-organized propaganda. repression of “independent libraries.” This 75 individuals, including several who iden- campaign is part of Washington’s four-de- tify themselves publicly as “independent li- cade-long policy aimed at overthrowing brarians,” have been arrested, tried, and con- But we found most of the books cited in the Universal in Miami.” Reading aloud from the Cuban Revolution, which includes an victed on charges of receiving money from library here,” Acosta said. the list, Acosta mentioned books by Cu- unrelenting economic war, violent attacks Washington and collaborating with U.S. “Nor do we have a problem with dona- ban authors critical of the revolution who by U.S.-based counterrevolutionaries, and diplomats to subvert the Cuban Revolution tions of books from abroad,” he noted, ex- now live outside the country: like El a ceaseless propaganda effort to justify its (see accompanying article). pressing his appreciation of 5,000 books heraldo de las malas noticias (The bearer aggression. “The reality is that there are no banned donated by a university in Mexico to five of bad news) by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, The U.S. government launched “Friends books in Cuba,” Acosta said. “Any social provincial libraries, and the donation by Historia de la otra revolución (Story of the of Cuban Libraries” in 1999 under the project that prohibits and censors books is publishers in Andalusia, Spain, of a two- other revolution) by Vicente Echerri, guise of being a private initiative indepen- doomed to fail—it won’t have a future.” volume dictionary of all writers in Spanish Informe contra mí mismo (Self-criticism) dent of Washington. Its main public Referring to the annual 10-day book fair to municipal and popular libraries in Cuba. by Eliseo Alberto, books by Rafael Rojas spokesperson in the United States is Rob- and cultural festival that draws hundreds “What we reject are political donations and a whole list of others. ert Kent, a reference librarian at the New of thousands of Cubans, Acosta noted, where the U.S. government makes dona- “We have asked for, and are still wait- York Public Library with a long history of “Dictatorships never organize things such tions to opposition political forces it sup- ing for, another 280 books, such as Notas activity against the Cuban revolution. as the book fair in Havana. They maintain ports inside the country,” he said. críticas de la revolución (Critical notes on The campaign uses what is known as power in part by keeping people ignorant.” Acosta showed us a stack of book lists the revolution) and Compañero, the Che Track II of the Cuba Democracy Act of The library head gave the example of a he was presently working on. “We have an [Guevara] biography by Jorge Castañeda.” 1992, often called the Torricelli law after recent visitor to Havana who questioned him exchange with a library in Berkeley in Acosta pointed to the efforts being taken its chief congressional sponsor, which un- about a list of books that, according to Rob- California. We send them Cuban books and in Cuba to expand cultural links with Cu- der the banner of the “free flow of ideas” ert Kent, were forbidden in Cuba. “The list they send us books that we ourselves bans, often critical of the revolution, now provides for material support by the U.S. contained books by George Orwell, choose,” he said. “We have already re- living abroad. He showed us three books, government to opponents of the Cuban Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Mario Vargas ceived about 117 books from these lists, compilations of essays, poetry, and short Revolution. Freedom House and the Cen- Llosa, Reinaldo Arenas, and Octavio Paz. many of them published by Ediciones Continued on Page 10 ter for a Free Cuba are two organizations that receive U.S. government funding and channel resources to the so-called indepen- dent libraries. Cuban authorities arrest, convict 85 ‘Libraries with no readers’ Continued from front page have exceeded this number every year, the convicted those arrested of having received The campaign has been dealt blows by arrests and trials. U.S. government has been granting a di- large amounts of funds towards these ends. the efforts of serious librarians and others The U.S rulers have now seized on the minishing number of visas. The number Most of these individuals had taken part in to get out the truth. Librarians from the sentences to justify ratcheting up their de- of visas issued has dropped from nearly meetings with U.S. diplomats, including United States, the United Kingdom, and cades-long efforts to bring down the Cuban 11,000 in the year 2000 to 8,300 in 2001 at Cason’s residence and U.S. diplomatic other countries have responded to Acosta’s revolution. On April 8, the U.S. House of and just over 7,000 in 2002. In the first five offices. Cason has also regularly met with invitation and visited Cuba to see for them- Representatives voted 414–0 for a resolu- months of this year, which for immigra- Cuban-American counterrevolutionary selves. tion demanding the immediate release of the tion purposes begins October 1, the U.S. groups during frequent visits back home. They discovered that these supposed li- imprisoned “dissidents.” The editors of nu- Interests Section had issued only 500 vi- “Every time I go to Miami, I want to braries “have no books, no librarians and merous U.S. dailies—many of them liber- sas, Pérez Roque pointed out. “We are deal- meet...with all the groups,” the U.S. diplo- no readers,” Acosta explained. “They’re als who have in the past called for easing ing with a deliberate plan to make those mat said in a recently televised interview what I call ‘virtual libraries,’ existing Washington’s trade and economic sanctions who want to emigrate lose hope, so that in Miami. These include the Cuban-Ameri- largely in propaganda and on the web.” against Cuba—have joined the chorus con- they have no alternative but illegal immi- can National Foundation and the Council The individuals who have designated demning Havana for alleged “human rights gration,” he stated. for the Freedom of Cuba. The latter is a their own homes and the books they have violations.” A number have shifted away At the same time, the Cuban foreign paramilitary group that has carried out as libraries “are really a group of 100–200 from their previous stance on the embargo. minister noted, “The U.S. Interest Section’s armed acts against Cuba from U.S. soil. people with a political project. One day During an April 9 news conference in diplomatic pouch is increasingly being Pérez Roque also answered accusations they are a librarian, another day a journal- Havana, Cuba’s foreign minister Felipe used to bring in funds and other materials leveled by Washington and the international ist, another day a representative of a po- Pérez Roque detailed the provocations or- to carry out counterrevolutionary acts to big-business media that the recent trials vio- litical party.” chestrated by Washington since last sum- groups in Cuba created and funded by the lated basic rights of the accused. He stated As a result, the American Library Asso- mer that led to the arrests and trials. These U.S. government.” that all those indicted had access to legal ciation (ALA) and the Progressive Librar- recent actions, the foreign minister ex- The two countries have not had diplo- counsel, were allowed visits by family mem- ians Guild have publicly gone on record plained, built on the U.S. government’s un- matic relations since Washington broke bers during legal proceedings, and have distancing themselves from this campaign. relenting economic war, support for para- them off shortly after the victory of the 1959 been notified of their right to appeal their At its annual conference in 2001, the ALA military forces operating from U.S. territory, revolution: a popular insurrection that sentences up to the country’s Supreme refused to endorse the so-called indepen- assassination attempts against Cuban gov- brought down the U.S.-backed dictatorship Court. None of them have been subjected dent libraries in Cuba and instead adopted ernment leaders, and efforts to isolate Cuba of Fulgencio Batista and established a gov- to solitary confinement or have been mis- a resolution opposing Washington’s efforts diplomatically and politically for more than ernment that defended the interests of Cu- treated in jail, he said. In response to accu- to “limit access to informational materials four decades. The people and the govern- ban workers and farmers, not the property sations that the legal proceedings were “se- by Cuba’s libraries.” In addition, the ALA ment of Cuba “are currently waging a hard interests of U.S. ruling families. Each cret,” Pérez Roque said that the trial hear- international relations committee estab- struggle for their right to self-determination, government’s diplomatic personnel operates ings were public, with an average of 100 lished a “protocol of cooperation” with the for their right to independence,” he said. out of an Interests Section, hosted formally people attending, including many family Cuban Library Association. The London- “In the last seven months,” Pérez Roque by a third country’s embassy. members, each of the 29 trials held so far. based Cuban Library Support Group has stated, “there have been seven hijackings Pérez Roque accused James Cason, head The Cuban media reported that at least a broadly disseminated information about of Cuban air and sea crafts, encouraged of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana dozen of the individuals the U.S. Interests the Cuban library system. by...the indiscriminate application of the since last July, of engaging in increasingly Section was collaborating with were gov- In most countries this anti-Cuba cam- Cuban Adjustment Act, by the practice of provocative actions. “The U.S. Interests ernment agents who had infiltrated the coun- paign has failed, Acosta said. But recently receiving people who use terrorism and Section in Havana has been instructed to terrevolutionary groups working with Wash- there have been moves in Sweden and the violence to get there.” establish there what is practically the head- ington. Several of these undercover agents United States to resuscitate it. At last year’s Approved by the U.S. Congress in 1966, quarters of internal subversion in Cuba,” gained enough trust from U.S. diplomats book fair in Gothenburg, Sweden, a group the Cuban Adjustment Act encourages the foreign minister said. “The head of this that they had permission to use the comput- called the Swedish International Liberal people to leave Cuba for the United States section has the highest profile of anyone ers of diplomatic personnel whenever they Center distributed leaflets in support of what by providing virtually automatic asylum in its 25 years of functioning, in open vio- wished. The testimony of the Cuban secu- it called the “free libraries” in Cuba. This to any Cuban who lands on Florida’s shores lation of the laws governing diplomatic rity agents was part of the evidence pre- organization—led by the youth group of the regardless of whatever crimes they may conduct, openly interfering in Cuba’s in- sented in the trials. After being publicly liberal People’s Party, one of the two main have committed to get there. ternal affairs, with a tone and demeanor identified, they are now being welcomed bourgeois parties in Sweden—has also dis- In an accord signed by both govern- totally inappropriate for a diplomat.” This for their deeds by comrades and friends in tributed leaflets on the streets of Stockholm, ments in 1994, Washington agreed to pro- course is consistent with “the obsession of events across the island. “Today we know the country’s capital, Acosta reported. vide 20,000 visas annually to Cubans wish- U.S. governments to fabricate an opposi- the true face of the revolutionary and un- More recently James Cason, head of the ing to emigrate to the United States and tion in Cuba,” he stated. breakable nation,” the Cuban daily Granma U.S. Interests Section in Havana, has agi- who apply to do so. Even though requests Cuban authorities charged, tried, and said, when their identities were revealed.

April 28, 2003 The Militant 7 Peggy Brundy, a veteran socialist for four decades ‘A rank-and-file cadre of the kind around whom the troops are formed’

BY BERNIE SENTER pamphlets, magazines, and later the Mili- SAN FRANCISCO—“Peggy Brundy tant newspaper. She wrote a letter in 2002 was a rank-and-file cadre who saw every- describing her experiences. “When I started thing she did as a way of helping others to there were four people there,” Brundy said. develop the same kind of discipline and “My assignment was to set type. I knew habits that she had acquired. Peggy was absolutely nothing about typesetting and the kind of cadre that is the backbone of was a pitiful typist. I quickly became very any working-class organization—the kind fast and dangerously inaccurate. [SWP Militant/Shirley Peña around whom the troops are formed.” leader] Al Hansen cured that with a two- Participants at April 6 meeting (above) to celebrate the life of Peggy Brundy view This is how Mary-Alice Waters, a mem- part treatment: a comradely explanation of display spanning her 40-year contribution to building the communist movement. ber of the Political Committee of the So- the importance of accuracy and an unbend- Socialist Workers Party leader Mary-Alice Waters (inset) speaks at the meeting. cialist Workers Party (SWP) and president able rule—I had to correct all my errors became imbued with what it means to build branches of the party to organize the of Pathfinder Press, described the 40-year myself.” After typing an issue of the maga- a proletarian party in the late 1960s when campaign’s daily schedule, took care of veteran socialist at an April 6 meeting to zine International Socialist Review, “I a great deal was going on,” Britton said, security questions, wrote articles for the celebrate Brundy’s life. spent literally days with a razor blade cut- “but when it’s not yet possible to once Militant, and made sure there was an oc- Brundy was 59 when she died here of ting out misspelled words and replacing again build a Bolshevik party centered in casional day of relaxation. Campaign meet- cancer March 28. Over 70 people attended them with accurately spelled words. It’s a the industrial working class and its unions.” ings for Jenness and her running mate, the celebration, held at the New College, lesson that has stayed with me.” Britton, who was also part of Cannon’s Andrew Pulley, often drew large audiences. of her nearly 40-year contribution to the What’s important, Waters noted, “is that household staff, pointed out that Peggy was Hundreds of people were recruited to the communist movement. Participants in- Peggy gained very deep satisfaction from in charge. “There was a schedule for read- socialist movement during that campaign. cluded SWP members and supporters who that work, a sense of accomplishing some- ing and studying,” he said. “Jim welcomed In the mid-1970s, Brundy served as the worked with Brundy over the years, fam- thing that was extremely important with the newest recruit, and collaborated with managing editor for Pathfinder Press. ily members, young people eager to learn each and every corrected word. She inter- leaders of our world movement, and an “While Peggy was heading up the Path- about the socialist movement, and others. nalized what it meant for the kind of party occasional old Wobbly. But you had to go finder staff, some 240 titles were published,” A 25-foot-long display with numerous pan- that she was working with others to build, through Peggy. She made sure nobody Waters noted. “It was probably the period els depicted the political events that shaped and why those high standards of accuracy abused their privilege of staying too long. of the greatest quantity of publishing that Brundy’s life and highlighted the numer- are a necessity for a political party that rep- And like a lot of what she did, she did it Pathfinder has ever done.” She also served ous contributions she made to building the resents the interests of the class that she quietly but convincingly.” as associate editor for the International So- communist movement. saw as the future of humanity.” In October 1968 the Los Angeles head- cialist Review magazine in 1970–71. Brundy joined the socialist movement In a message to the meeting, Tony Tho- quarters of the Socialist Workers Party was Brundy was one of several SWP field in 1964 when she was attending Carleton mas from Miami, Florida, explained that firebombed while Brundy, Britton, and oth- organizers in the late 1970s. She collabo- College in Minnesota. Washington’s war he first met Brundy in the 1960s in New ers were inside. The bombing occurred at rated with party units in Detroit, Cleveland, to crush the Vietnamese revolution was York, shortly after he joined the YSA. a time of deepening struggles. Seven or Toledo, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Lou- escalating then; the Cuban revolution and Though they were about the same age, eight months earlier the Vietnamese had isville at the time. The SWP had launched anticolonial struggles were having a deep Thomas said Brundy’s seriousness and dealt a stunning blow to U.S. imperialism its turn to the industrial unions and was impact on youth and others; and the mass hardworking attitudes “made her seem during what has become known as the Tet concentrating its forces in basic industry. civil rights struggles by millions of Blacks more like the older generation of the pro- offensive. Some 17,000 GIs had been killed This decision was based on the changes in were dealing powerful blows to centuries letarian comrades from the 1930s.” by that time and 108,000 wounded. The the world as a result of the U.S. of entrenched racism and segregation. Part of Cannon’s secretarial staff SWP had sent its presidential candidate, government’s defeat in Vietnam and the Waters noted that Brundy came around Fred Halstead, to Vietnam to talk to GIs. 1974–75 world recession, the sharpest a socialist discussion group organized by Brundy moved to Los Angeles in 1968 “This was a big year of revolutionary worldwide economic downturn since the the Young Socialist Alliance. “The YSA she to be part of the staff at the house the party struggles by Blacks,” Britton stated. “Tre- 1930s. This period was marked by the be- joined was part of the continuity of sev- organized for James P. Cannon, a found- mendous explosions took place in more ginning of labor resistance in the United eral years of work at Carleton and the re- ing leader of the communist movement in than 150 cities following the assassination States—from the campaign of steel work- cruitment of young people who became the United States. In 1928 Cannon broke of Martin Luther King, Jr.” ers led by Ed Sadlowski to democratize the loyal members and leaders of the Socialist with the Stalinized Communist Party and Britton was meeting with Chicano ac- Steelworkers union, to struggles by iron Workers Party over the years,” she said. formed what later became the Socialist tivists on how to respond to the massacre miners in Minnesota, and by coal miners Waters noted that Brundy’s first several Workers Party. He served as the party’s by cops of students protesting in Mexico in several states. years in the movement gave her a ground- national secretary and, later, national chair- City when “a tremendous explosion took Nan Bailey, who was in Detroit at that ing in Marxism and working-class politics man. After his longtime companion and place right underneath us that blew out the time, highlighted the work Brundy did with that she drew on the rest of her life. Shortly collaborator Rose Karsner died in 1968, front door. The Cuban counterrevolution- party members who were women getting after joining the YSA, Brundy moved to the party established a household and sec- aries who did this left their United Cuban industrial jobs at a time when the bosses Minneapolis. Veteran communists like Ray retarial staff that facilitated Cannon’s lit- Power sticker behind, as they did a few had still largely kept women out of work Dunne, and Helen and Charlie Scheer, erary work for several more years. months later when they planted three sticks in industry. “We were part of the vanguard,” were members of that SWP branch at the Joel Britton, a SWP leader in Chicago of dynamite at the door that didn’t go off. Bailey said. Fights for affirmative action time. Brundy, like others of her generation today and organizer of the Los Angeles They had carried out a string of bombings for Blacks had “also laid the basis for recruited in Minnesota, studied basic works branch of the party at that time, described against anybody doing business with or women to get these jobs.” of the communist movement like the His- some of Brundy’s experiences. “Peggy supporting the Cuban revolution. tory of American Trotskyism, Struggle for took on a very big responsibility as a 23 “As I went out the back,” Britton said, ‘An architect by example’ a Proletarian Party, In Defense of Marx- year old as part of Cannon’s secretariat,” “I told Peggy to call the press. We literally Jason Alessio, a coal miner from ism, and books and pamphlets by Marx, he said. Speeches and writings that, as were on live TV within a few minutes. The Rangley, Colorado, spoke on behalf of the Engels, and Lenin. Cannon noted, “slept in the files,” were dust hadn’t really settled and here we were Young Socialists. “Peggy was an architect A short time later, in 1965, Brundy being prepared as manuscripts for books. protesting this and demanding they pros- by example,” he observed. “She made sure moved to New York City to work at the “These were books Peggy helped to orga- ecute those who perpetrated the bombing. that new rebel youth had in their hands the shop organized by the SWP to print books, nize classes around as a new generation We reached out broadly for support and continuity of the communist movement the pressure was so great that a while later embodied in the books. For myself, it a few of those responsible were arrested wasn’t enough to have the passion and the and prosecuted by city authorities.” will to change the world—you had to have direction. And it helps to have people like ‘Why not kill the whole system?’ Peggy by your side. To develop as a young One message came from Maceo Dixon, revolutionary, you have to read and study. today part of the coordinating committee And you also have to jump into action and of Pathfinder’s business and distribution participate in the struggles alongside center in Atlanta, Georgia. He first met people like Peggy.” Brundy in 1970 in Detroit when he joined Brundy herself got a job in an oil refin- the socialist movement. “I was raw and ery in Houston in the early 1980s. Tony very wild. The times were very tumultu- Dutrow, a Houston packinghouse worker, ous,” Dixon recounted. “I remember hav- sent a message telling about a conversa- ing a conversation with Peggy about po- tion he had with Tom Boots, a leader of lice killing Black youth. My attitude was the fight against a lockout by Crown Cen- that for every youth a cop killed, revolu- tral Petroleum in the late 1990s. Though tionaries should kill 10 cops. Peggy looked Brundy had worked there more than a de- at me and asked, ‘What would that do? cade and a half earlier, Dutrow noted, she They would just replace those cops. Why had left a strong impression on Boots. “We don’t you want to kill the whole system?’ called her ‘Commissar Peggy,’” said Boots, That made much more sense to me.” He explained how she “fought to learn the Militant Brundy traveled with SWP presidential job, fighting against both lingering preju- Peggy Brundy (right) was part of the secretarial and household staff for James P. candidate Linda Jenness during the 1972 dices against female workers as well as Cannon (left), a founding leader of the communist movement in the United States. elections. She worked with the local Continued on Page 14

8 The Militant April 28, 2003 Iran: 1978 revolt broke hold of the shah

(Second of three articles) That hope was premature. A mighty force, the industrial working class, entered BY MA’MUD SHIRVANI the scene. The day after Bloody Friday— Last week we described the decades of Saturday, September 8—was the first day revolutionary struggle in Iran to rid the of the workweek in Iran. Some 700 work- country of the Persian monarchy and its ers at the Tehran oil refinery went on strike imperialist backers, primarily London and demanding higher wages and an end to Washington. It was the U.S. CIA in 1953 martial law. that organized a coup putting Mohammad Workers had been part of the demon- Reza Shah Pahlavi back in power after an strations up to then. Now, for the first time, upsurge demanding democratic rule and they acted in their capacity as a class. The nationalization of the oil fields. strike was not called by any union—no It took another 25 years for the Iranian independent unions were allowed under the people to recover from that counterrevo- shah—nor by any of the figures in the cleri- lution and mount a new struggle to topple cal leadership. It was the work of rank-and- the shah. That battle exploded into the open file leaders who had emerged prior to and with the Tabriz uprising in February 1978. in the process of the mass movement In the Islamic tradition of mourning, dem- against the monarchy. onstrations began to take place around the Two days later, workers in oil refineries country every 40 days afterward. Each time of Abadan—by far the largest—as well as the army was called in to shoot at demon- Isfahan, Shiraz, and Tabriz joined the strike. strators, more people came forward to join This was followed by cement workers in the struggle. Tehran, who added a call for freedom of all During one of the protests in the indus- political prisoners to their demands. Oil Resistance trial city of Isfahan, demonstrators took workers in Ahwaz demanded an end to the Iranian oil workers October 1978, in walkout that began September 8. The strike over parts of the city for two days until the discrimination against women workers. was the work of rank-and-file leaders who had emerged prior to and in the process regime declared martial law for the first Waves of political walkouts continued of the mass movement against the monarchy. Their action marked the end of shah. time since 1953. A march of a million into October, involving 40,000 oil work- people, the largest ever held in Iran, took ers, 150,000 textile workers, 40,000 steel Europe. Huyser had been assigned by U.S. By early January 1979, democratically place in Tehran Sept. 7, 1978. “Say death workers, and 100,000 government employ- president James Carter to go to Iran and elected strike committees had occupied to the shah,” “Throw out America,” ees. Eventually the strike crippled almost organize the shah’s generals to carry out a many large factories, government minis- “Khomeini is our leader,” and “We want all industry, banks, post offices, railways, counterrevolutionary military coup. His tries, and communication centers. an Islamic Republic” were the main de- customs and port facilities, internal air memoirs are published in the book Mis- Leaderships of the different strike commit- mands. The last slogan was being raised flights, radio and television stations, state- sion to Tehran. tees began contacting each other on issues for the first time. run hospitals, bazaars, and universities. relating to strikes and the revolution. An Because of the Stalinist betrayals and By early November sugar beets were ‘Nerve-shattering sounds’ agreement was reached between the strike defeats suffered by the working class dur- rotting in the southern fields because 7,000 After entering Iran illegally and incog- committees of oil workers and railway ing the second Iranian revolution (see first agricultural workers of the giant nito, Huyser described his first night in the employees for trains to carry the fuel nec- article in this series), and due to the inten- agribusiness complex of Haft-Tapeh had country—on Jan. 4, 1979—this way: essary for domestic consumption. The sity of political repression under the shah, struck for more than a month. “Nerve-shattering sounds filled the night strike committees also organized to safe- especially against toilers, there were no Many in the ruling class were losing con- air as I began my first night in Tehran. guard the factories, which to a large extent mass working-class organizations that fidence in their ability to hold onto power. People shouted ‘Allah akbar!’ (God is were state-owned, from accidents and could take the lead in this third revolution. Workers in the Central Bank opened the great) from nearby rooftops, and every call sabotage. The strike committee at the The Islamic clerical hierarchy, and increas- books and published the names of 180 was echoed from another area. Automatic Isfahan steel mill negotiated with the strike ingly those around Ayatollah Ruhollah government figures who had recently weapon fire ripped through the darkness, committee of railway workers requesting Khomeini, were looked to by the masses transferred $4.2 billion out of the country. reminding me of the front line in Korea. them to carry the coal they required from as a new leadership. From exile, Khomeini The list included capitalists and the shah’s The electricity was cut off for a couple of Kerman to keep the plant boilers warm. urged protesters to remain in the streets ranking cabinet members and generals. hours every night, starting about 8:30 p.m., Workers aimed at regime’s overthrow until the shah was gone. Mosques became The strikes kept the regime unbalanced as a form of harassment by the opposition centers of organization. and provided time for the mass movement To the government’s insistent offers of forces.... The house soon felt the winter’s high wage increases if workers dropped to revive with heightened vigor. The middle chill, and blackness filled the rooms.” Bloody Friday spurs workers to action class for the most part joined the move- their political demands, the unanimous The general and his host walked “on the answer was no. This came as a surprise to The shah declared martial law in Tehran ment. National demonstrations were called verandah to listen to the sounds of the hu- and 11 other cities September 7. He ap- for Dec. 10–11, the two major religious Washington Post correspondent Jonathan man jungle.... The chanting and gunfire con- Randall, who interviewed two young lead- pointed General Gholam Oveisi military mourning days of Tasua and Ashura. Mil- tinued until well into curfew, which ran from governor of the capital. Oveisi had been lions came out into the streets across the ers of the coordinating committee leading 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. It was not till midnight that the oil workers strike at the Abadan refin- known as the “butcher of Iran” for his country. In Tehran alone the demonstration the crowds finally dispersed and an uneasy murderous assault on demonstrators in attracted nearly two million. “Hang the ery. He wrote October 10 that their com- peace descended. I spent a sleepless night.” ments “suggested a devotion to utopian 1963 that left thousands dead. American puppet!” and “U.S. imperialism Strikes helped revive the mass demon- When protesters gathered in Jaleh out of Iran!” were among the demands. ideals rather than the give-and-take of la- strations. The street protests, in turn, bor-management struggle.” Square in Tehran on Friday, September 7, By now peasants from the nearby vil- boosted workers’ morale in face of re- they were attacked with tanks and machine lages were joining the demonstrations in The leaderships of the strike committees peated assaults by SAVAK, the secret po- were often a nuclei of workers who had guns. A reporter for the Guardian, a Lon- the cities in large numbers. Then, young lice, and the military to break the walk- don daily, wrote that the scene resembled worker-peasants who commuted to the cit- known one another for some time, had dis- outs. When the regime was able to break a cussed politics, and had gone through com- a firing squad, with troops shooting at a ies began organizing meetings and marches strike, workers went back to the plant to mass of stationary protesters. More than back in their villages. And as the mass mon experiences. A strike leader in a Cat- organize another one. erpillar plant, for example, said, “We were 4,000 demonstrators were killed around the movement grew, agitation started in the A leader of the Ahwaz oil workers in country that day, with as many as 500 in villages for peasants to take over land be- a group of workers and employees who Khuzistan said that their first strike started knew each other well through our partici- Tehran alone. Sept. 7, 1978, came to be longing to the large absentee landowners October 18, lasted 33 days, and was finally known as “Bloody Friday.” and the royal family. pation in various revolutionary activities broken by the regime. The military would for at least seven to eight years. Because This massacre by the army was not fol- Because workers controlled the electric- go door to door searching for the striking lowed by mass outbursts or demonstrations ity flow it was possible for people in cities we were also of similar mind about the workers, he added, and arrest whoever they social problems...we managed to form a around the country. The rulers hoped they and towns to participate in a new form of found and force them to work. had turned the tide. U.S. president James anti-shah protest at night. Its effect on the secret nucleus.... This nucleus would en- “At this point, we decided to go back to gage in all sorts of political activity here, Carter called the shah to reiterate his back- Iranian rulers, and those Washington had work along with other workers and pre- ing. Carter said he hoped the “distur- dispatched to prop them up, is best de- as far as it could, and would also intervene pare for a new strike,” he noted. “We did in other work places.” bances” would end, while “expressing re- scribed in the memoirs of Gen. Robert not consider ourselves defeated, since it gret” over the bloodshed. Huyser, Supreme Allied Commander in The rank-and-file working-class was obvious that there was a continuing leaderships that were emerging in these movement of the entire Iranian people.” battles, however, were not able to link up The first day they went back, he said, they politically on a national level. Without a held a general meeting, elected a coordi- proletarian party that could unite them, nating committee of 15, and began con- they were pushed back by the existing tacting workers of other factories on strike. bourgeois leadership of the mass move- As walkouts spread throughout the ment every time they tried to chart an in- southern oil-producing region, Iranian oil dependent, working-class course. exports dropped to zero. Later, after much No revolutionary working-class leader- debate, workers decided to produce enough ship existed on a national scale, experi- oil to meet the needs of the population, but enced in the struggle and known and first they made sure that the military would trusted by the masses to lead the workers not be able to lay their hands on it. and farmers, who were already making Without oil exports and the consequent gigantic strides forward, to take political revenues, the regime headed for fiscal col- power and establish a workers and peas- lapse. Strikes by bank workers prevented ants republic. capital allocation and the payment of Next week we will see how the working wages and salaries. Walkouts by customs class, in alliance with the peasants and workers halted the delivery of spare parts many from the middle classes, thwarted and raw materials. Strikes caused most Washington’s efforts to stage a counter- government ministries to shut down. Stu- revolutionary coup, like the one in 1953, dents took over the universities and turned and went on to carry out an insurrection them into centers of political discussion that toppled the monarchy. Photo in Tehran newspaper shows scene in Iranian capital after Sept. 7, 1978, “Bloody and activity, where all pro-revolution po- Friday” massacre. Bodies of some of the 500 murdered can be seen on the street. litical tendencies could participate. (To be continued next week)

April 28, 2003 The Militant 9 Oakland cops fire on antiwar protesters BY BILL KALMAN tried to end the impromptu speakout, the OAKLAND, California—In the first such audience began to chant and protest his ac- use of force against antiwar protesters in the tion. He closed the meeting and left under United States since the invasion of Iraq be- police escort. A special city council meet- gan, police in riot gear attacked a crowd of ing has now been called for April 28 to fur- more than 500 at the Port of Oakland here, ther discuss this issue. April 7. Oakland police fired “nonlethal” Direct Action to Stop the War was the ammunition at demonstrators picketing two main organizer of the port protest. The freight terminals at the docks. They indis- group was also the principal sponsor of criminately shot at the crowd with 1 ½ inch civil disobedience actions in San thick wooden dowels, bean bags, rubber Francisco’s financial district at the start of pellets, tear gas, concussion grenades, and the war. “If the government and war mak- sting balls. Dozens of people were injured, ers won’t stop the war, we’ll shut down including several longshoremen arriving for those institutions...that make war possible,” work. Thirty-one people were arrested. it proclaims on its web site. “We will raise The protests were organized by Direct the economic, social, and political costs of Action to Stop the War against two ship- waging this war, and continue to stop busi- ping companies with Pentagon contracts, ness as usual until the war stops.” APL and Stevedoring Services of America Like other radical groups with a petty- (SSA). Protesters had arrived early in the bourgeois outlook, Direct Action’s strategy morning carrying signs that read “Embargo and tactics flow from disillusionment and War Cargo,” hoping to shut the terminals Cops fire on antiwar protesters at Port of Oakland on April 7, using “nonlethal” pessimism. In an “Open Letter to the down. As people slowly picketed in the ammunition—from wooden dowels to sting balls. Dozens were injured in the attack. People Who Live and Work in San Fran- street blocking the gates, a line of cops in cisco and the Bay Area,” the group said battle gear, reinforced by two dozen po- protest, a union official was arrested. “Our the following days, Brown refused to back that “We had tried traditional avenues of lice on motorcycles, ordered the crowd to guys were standing in one area waiting to off from his support for the cops. “We also influence to stop this war. We lobbied our disperse—and then opened fire. go to work,” said ILWU Local 10 president have people saying this [the protest] was politicians. We marched in permitted ral- “I got hit in the back twice as I was walk- Henry Graham, “and then the police started sabotage. They wanted to stop the ship- lies millions strong. We signed petitions, ing away,” Susan Quinlan told the San firing on the longshoremen. Some were hit ments to the men and women on the front.” prayed, and held vigils for peace.... Yet Francisco Chronicle. “Everybody was in the chest with rubber bullets, and seven Oakland police insisted that their re- these pleas fell on a deaf Administration.” walking away and they continued to shoot of our guys went to the hospital.” sponse was justified because they were be- Its leaders hope that determined, “moral- for a little while.” The police continued to The previous week, management from ing pelted by debris from the crowd. Eye- witness” type action by small groups of fire on a small group of about 150 left af- both APL and SSA met with port officials witnesses dispute this claim. Joel Tena, an committed activists will force the U.S. capi- ter the larger crowd had dispersed. The cop and police brass to coordinate efforts to aide to Oakland vice mayor Nancy Nadel, talist class to reconsider imperialist military attack at one of the largest ports in the prevent the planned demonstration from was sent to the protest as an observer. “At assaults. Direct Action’s strategy, however, country made national news. The outcry blocking terminal gates. “The goal was to no time did I see protesters act in a provoca- more often than not targets working people. in the Bay Area was immediate. keep the gates open,” said Port of Oakland tive way or throw any projectile,” he said. The financial district shutdown only made “The protest was totally peaceful,” said spokesman Harold Jones. “How they [the Four Oakland City Council members have life miserable for working people on their Steve Stallone of the International police] decided to do that, however, was now called for independent investigation way to work or school. In its “open letter” Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), not under our control.” into the matter, as has the ILWU and the the group stated “we are aware that shut- who was on the scene. “The police sud- Oakland police chief Richard Word de- Alameda County Central Labor Council. ting down the San Francisco financial dis- denly gave a two-minute warning...then fended the cops’ actions, as did Oakland The day after the cop attack a regularly trict inconvenienced many people. While we began firing objects and grenades into the mayor Edmund Brown, Jr. The protesters scheduled City Council meeting was and others may suffer disruptions and lost crowd.” ILWU Local 10 organizes work- wanted to “occupy and take over the port jammed with people upset by the previous wages, we ask ‘What is a human life worth ers on the Oakland docks. and shut it down. The city is not going to day’s events. One hundred signed up to being taken in your name?’” Longshoremen Kevin Wilson stated he let that happen,” Brown said. “Oakland is speak at the meeting, including several of Lack of confidence and cynicism toward was “standing as far back as I could. It was second-to-none in its support of peaceful the injured longshoremen. The first 13 the toiling masses runs through the group’s very scary. All of that force wasn’t neces- assembly and protest.” As the outrage over speakers all criticized the cops. When City proclamations and practice. In a report on sary.” Though the ILWU wasn’t part of the the police action continued unabated over Council president Ignacio De La Fuente the group’s web site on the police attack, one Direct Action activist wrote, “If the ILWU was willing to come out and stop the shipment of war supplies it would be a ‘Independent libraries’ in Cuba are a fraud great victory...[but] we must not wait for Continued from Page 7 After evaluating this pilot program, we will the world, including in the United States. them or expect them to do so. Amerikans stories, each jointly edited by a Cuban liv- start 200 more, to have libraries in com- A resolution adopted Jan. 17, 2000, by the (sic) benefit from this system of imperial- ing on the island and a Cuban living munities that have been marginalized and Social Responsibilities Round Table ism that we are here opposing, and as a abroad. “This series was financed by a cul- especially need libraries like this one. The (SRRT) of the ALA, for example, states group they will not come out and bite the tural fund in Mexico and presented at the goal is to have 1,000 such libraries, but we that “this group of ‘independent librarians’ hand that feeds them...it is misleading to Guadalajara International Book Fair in will have to take this step by step.” [in Cuba] are not librarians, but political tell people that workers in this country are Mexico in November last year,” he said. Another project, called the “family li- dissidents of various professions appar- going to stand up against war.” “The selection of essays is edited by brary” program, is the publication of boxed ently establishing centers of information Richard Jimenez, a truck driver from Rafael Hernández and Rafael Rojas; the sets of 25 classics of world and Cuban lit- in their homes or storefronts, and supported Chowchilla, was blocked by the protests short stories by Jorge Fornet and Carlos erature in inexpensive newsprint editions, by funds and materials from such organi- from delivering his load of almonds at the Espinoza Domínguez; and the poetry by an effort that was announced at the Havana zations as Freedom House, which is subsi- port. This demonstration “is not going to Jesús J. Barquet and Norberto Codina,” he book fair in 2002. The first set has been dized by the U.S. government.” stop the war. It is stopping us,” he said, in a noted. Hernández, Fornet, and Codina are published and is on sale for 60 Cuban pe- The document also says that “SRRT remark typical of opinions of other work- well-known authors resident in Havana; the sos—just over $2. It will be followed later joins the British organization, Cuban Li- ing people here. “We don’t carry bombs. other three live abroad. this year by a set of 25 Cuban classics. braries Group, which advocates a positive We can only throw almonds at Saddam.” Knowledge of these facts has had an program of interaction with, and support Bill Kalman is a member of UFCW local Expanding access to education impact on a wide array of librarians around for, libraries and librarians in Cuba.” 120 in San Lorenzo, California. “Our problem,” Acosta pointed out, “is not that we don’t want books, but that we don’t have the money to get the books we desperately want and need. From the ear- Chicago janitors make gains in contract liest years of the revolution in 1959, our policy has been: ‘No le decimos al pueblo, Continued from front page now have full family dental coverage and to do more work on each shift to make up cree. Le decimos, lee.’ [‘We don’t tell union accord with the Cleaning Contrac- reduced-cost prescription cards. Suburban for the decrease in the number of cleaners. people to believe, we tell them—read.’] tors Association of Greater Chicago, the janitors will also get short-term disability “It’s not too bad,” said downtown jani- The problem is that we don’t have hard suburban building management. and some additional preventative medicine, tor Marta Peña, speaking of the contract currency. Even at the book fair here, I According to the SEIU, these unionized including free eye exams. Effective Jan. 1, several days later. “We got a raise, dental wasn’t able to buy all the books we wanted janitors clean 95 percent of buildings in 2004, they get half-day paid holidays on insurance for the kids, and a card for re- for lack of funds.” downtown Chicago and 87 percent in the Christmas Eve and New Years’ Eve. duced-cost prescriptions.” Peña also Acosta was referring to the Havana In- suburbs. The downtown contract includes Going into the ratification meeting, one pointed out that the problem of the wage ternational Book Fair, held in late January wage increases of 30 cents this year, 25 downtown shop steward said she expected gap between downtown and suburban and early February, which drew a record cents in 2004, and 25 cents in 2005. The a strike, and that picket lines would likely wages continues, even if it’s a little smaller. 400,000 Cubans this year. The Cuban gov- new agreement means the starting wage for go up at 5 p.m., April 6. “We are celebrating,” said Graciela ernment and cultural and other organizations these union members will be $9.40 per Three years ago, the downtown work- Olivares, another janitor from the suburbs. in Cuba have devoted major resources to hour, and will top out at $12.80 for those ers walked out for a day over a contract “We hoped for more, but the most impor- the annual book fair, which has grown in with more than four years on the job. These dispute. In the suburbs, a similar strike tant thing was the dental insurance.” attendance and since last year has been ex- hourly rates will rise to $9.90 and $13.30 lasted 10 days. Suburban janitors, in par- Many of the union mobilizations lead- tended to other parts of the country. This in the third year of the contract. ticular, won modest but important conces- ing up to the contract ratification showed year the book fair traveled to 30 cities in Historically, suburban janitors make sions from the building owners for the first a determination to fight and a high degree addition to Havana. This expansion is part substantially less money than their fellow time, such as family health coverage at the of unity among the multinational work of what is called the “battle of ideas” here— workers downtown. The suburban contract end of the first year of the contract. force. The chants at an April 4 SEIU rally an effort, through more than 100 various includes a 45 cent increase the first year, After the April 6 union meeting, one downtown held during pouring rain, for programs, to broaden access by working 40 cents next year, and 40 cents in 2005, suburban janitor said she felt the new con- example, included Si se puede (yes, we people—especially those hardest hit by the slightly narrowing the gap between them— tract is “cheap.” She pointed to the layoff can!), in several languages. The union had economic crisis—to education and culture. from $1.05 to $0.95 for new hires. of seven among 23 coworkers in her build- produced the leaflet for the action in En- One of these projects is the effort to es- Starting wage in the suburbs will now ing by Equity Office. This company is one glish, Spanish, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian, tablish “popular libraries” in working-class be $8.45 per hour. The most suburban jani- of many that say layoffs are the result of a reflecting the international composition of neighborhoods and rural areas across the tors will earn, however, is $9.25 per hour, depressed real estate market. The average SEIU Local 1’s membership. island. “There are now 12 popular librar- more than $3 below the downtown rate. vacancy rate is 15 percent for downtown ies in four provinces of Cuba,” Acosta said. Prior to the new contract, the wage gap for Chicago office buildings. The Equity jani- Lisa Potash is a sewing machine operator “Each has 10 copies of 1,000 titles, as well the top scale was $4.50 per hour. tor emphasized, however, that the remain- and member of the Union of Needletrades, as TVs, computers, and other resources. Downtown and suburban janitors will ing 16 workers in her building now have Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). 10 The Militant April 28, 2003 More than 100,000 U.S. workers are laid off in March BY MICHAEL ITALIE million people gave up looking for work last The Department of Labor reported that month and so were not included in the gov- U.S. companies laid off 108,000 workers ernment figure on joblessness. Since the fall in March, following job cuts of 357,000 the of 2001, the official unemployment rate has month before. Exxon Mobil Corp., Verizon stood at or near 6 percent, which is the high- Communications, and Northwest Airlines est in 8 years. In addition to those who have have recently announced plans for large- given up looking for work entirely, there was Militant/Laura Gray scale layoffs. a jump of half a million in the number of The toll in job losses was higher than those who couldn’t find a steady job and Corporate cutbacks have resulted in the loss small increase in jobs in construction and corporate analysts had projected, according instead took a part-time position. of 2.5 million jobs in industry since the high mortgage banking in March was caused by to the Associated Press. Job prospects in manufacturing contin- point in April 1998. a rise in the sales and refinancing of houses, The official unemployment rate remained ued to decline, the government agency re- There were also job losses in the service the Associated Press report states. unchanged at 5.8 percent, as nearly a half ported, with a drop of 36,000 jobs in March. sector and among government workers. A On April 7, Verizon notified members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that it considers 1,000 jobs at the telecommunications giant to be “surplus,” N. Carolina workers fight to organize union blaming a “weak economy” and competi- tion from MCI WorldCom, AT&T, and oth- BY CONNIE ALLEN the organizing drive so far. out the answer for them.” ers. The company announcement follows on HIGH POINT, North Carolina—Union “It’s pitiful, the working conditions,” The January Freightliner victory for the heels of a “surplus declaration” last year members from throughout North Carolina said Jason Schultz, 29, a welder at Tho- 3,100 workers was the largest union orga- that cost more than 400 workers their jobs. came to the defense of workers at Thomas mas Built “The way we’re treated [by the nizing drive in the Carolinas since 5,100 Meanwhile, Verizon in New York claims a Built Buses who are fighting for union rec- company]. They treat certain people like textile workers at six Pillowtex mills won backlog for fast Internet and other services ognition. More than 250 supporters rallied dogs. They don’t give you respect. We work a 25-year battle for the right to union rec- to justify long delays in filling orders. March 16 at the Days Inn here. Many of the with broken tools. Welding leads with cuts ognition in 1999. While union representa- While Exxon Mobil did not say how United Auto Workers (UAW) members par- in the line. The roof leaks water. There’s tion continues to decline in the Carolinas— many it intends to lay off among the 1,400 ticipating in the boisterous rally were work- water all over where we’re welding and largely due to layoffs and companies go- workers at its refinery and chemical plant ers from Freightliner plants in Gastonia and they tell us to keep working. The welders ing under—the increasingly brutal work- in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Northwest Air- Cleveland, North Carolina, who won union wear respirators, but there’s very little ven- ing conditions drive workers to seek the lines announced plans to cut 4,900 jobs. The recognition in late January. The UAW is try- tilation in the plant. The fumes from the strength of union organization. Minnesota-based carrier, shortly after noti- ing to organize workers at this plant. welding go all through the plant.” On April 16, some 600 workers at Si- fying the work force that more than 10 per- Thomas Built manufactures buses and is The company has agreed to take a “neu- emens Westinghouse Power Corp. in south cent would be out of a job, gave $2.5 mil- owned by Freightliner, which is a subsid- tral” stance toward the union organizing Charlotte, North Carolina, will vote on lion in bonuses and stock options on top of iary of DaimlerChrysler. Freightliner has drive, Schultz said, “but we know the com- union recognition. Seimens has laid off 400 $500,000 salaries to its two chief executives. nine plants in North America. Thomas Built, pany is behind the anti-union propaganda workers at this turbine plant since Septem- Meanwhile, American Airlines, the one of three Freightliner plants that are not appearing in the plant. In the past, almost ber. This will be the fourth vote at this plant, world’s largest airline, is using the threat of unionized, employs 1,600 workers. no supervisors ate in the lunch room. Now the last one having taken place in 1988. bankruptcy and the loss of jobs as a lever to The March 16 action was called by the two supervisors are always in there when press for cuts in wages and benefits from its state AFL-CIO and the UAW in response we’re in there. But we still discuss the Connie Allen is a member of UNITE Local employees. Ramp workers, mechanics, to attacks on the union organizing cam- union. When our coworkers who are 1501. Seth Galinsky, a member of UNITE flight attendants, and pilots are voting on paign by the High Point Chamber of Com- against the union raise something, we an- Local 1506, contributed to this article. Both company demands for $1.6 billion in con- merce and Piedmont Associated Industries. swer them and if we don’t know, we tell work at Pillowtex mills in Kannapolis and cessions. United Airlines and other compa- These bosses’ associations made public them, and then we call the union and find Concord, North Carolina. nies have used bankruptcy for similar ends. appeals to keep High Point a “union-free,” business-friendly place. Workers from many unions attended the solidarity rally. Presentations included com- NY cops open files on antiwar protesters ments from representatives of the Steel- workers; Machinists; Union of BY PAUL PEDERSON The form used in the questioning, called tice, called it “a good-faith effort to help us Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Em- New York cops conducted systematic in- the “Criminal Intelligence Division/Dem- determine what resources are needed to ployees (UNITE); Farmer Labor Organiz- onstration Debriefing Form,” also included police certain demonstrations in the future.” ing Committee (FLOC); Communication terrogations of protesters arrested at anti- war demonstrations over the past two a space for the demonstrator’s passport or To aid in policing future protests, Workers of America; postal workers union; “Alien Registration” number. O’Looney said the police will continue to government employees union; United months and recorded the information they gathered in a database. During questioning, the police refused ask arrested protesters about the groups Firefighters Local 947; Sheetmetal work- to allow protesters to see legal counsel and they are affiliated with, and keep the in- ers Local 5; and the tobacco workers. People arrested for minor offenses like “blocking the sidewalk” were held in po- threatened to extend the detention if the formation in the form of a “tally,” suppos- Several Thomas Built workers expressed inmates did not cooperate. edly unconnected to any individual’s name. appreciation for the big show of support and lice custody for several hours and ques- tioned by members of the New York Police On April 9, after the New York Civil Lib- “I don’t think there are constitutional is- the ongoing help from the newly-organized erties Union obtained a copy of the inter- sues here,” Kelly said. “We believe it was UAW workers at Freightliner. A number of Department’s (NYPD) Intelligence Division about political organizations they belonged rogation form and lodged a complaint with a legitimate question with no compulsion these workers said their fight for the union the police commissioner, the city cops an- to answer.” is about respect, about the right to have a to, the position they held in these groups, which demonstrations they had attended in nounced they would end the practice. The police commissioner said he asked voice in their workplace. Two workers have “After review the department has de- that the information be destroyed because been fired but won their jobs back during the past, and where they went to school. cided to eliminate the use of the Demon- it was not needed, and it raised some “ques- stration Debriefing Form,” said Michael tions and concerns.” He assured the press O’Looney, an NYPD spokesman. that no further such questionnaires would Atlanta auto workers gain in strike “Arrestees will no longer be asked ques- be drafted without the approval of the tions pertaining to prior demonstration his- NYPD’s recently appointed deputy com- BY BOB BRAXTON joined the picket line. The Ford bosses tory, or school name. All information gath- missioner of intelligence, David Cohen. AND JIMMY HILL closed the plant early in the afternoon. The ered since the form’s inception on Febru- Cohen, a 35-year veteran of the CIA, ATLANTA—A surprise walkout March factory remained shut the next day, as Ford ary 15 has been destroyed.” was appointed to this post when it was cre- 25–26 by members of the United Auto workers honored the Exel picket lines. Top police officials, however, defended ated in January 2002. He rose to a position Workers (UAW) at Ford’s Parts Distribu- With the cost of lost business mounting the political interrogations. New York City in the upper echelons of the spy agency tion Center in McDonough, Georgia, re- every hour, the walkout continued. Then police commissioner Raymond Kelly, while before taking on the job of heading up the sulted in gains for the union. The strikers Ford and Exel blinked: the day after the denying he knew anything about the prac- New York cops’ political spying operations. were drivers and dock workers employed strike began, Exel caved in to the union’s by Exel, a subcontractor with offices in the demands. Laid off workers will now re- plant. As a result of Ford’s reorganization ceive some 10 days severance pay per year From Pathfinder of its parts distribution centers (PDC), 70 of service, not the one and a half the com- of Exel’s 96 UAW members in Atlanta are pany originally offered. They will also be being laid off. Exel offered the laid-off placed on a preferential hiring list at other Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay workers one and a half days of severance Exel facilities. It is reported that a major- by Leon Trotsky pay per year of service. The workers de- ity of Exel workers have now signed union Also featuring, “Trade Unions: manded an improved severance agreement, cards at the new Florida facility. Their Past, Present, and Future” transfer rights to other Exel facilities, and The sentiment among workers who went through this struggle is that they would by Karl Marx union recognition at Ford’s new Florida “Apart from their original purposes, the trades unions must parts distribution center. never have been able to accomplish so Exel was convinced its employees would much without the union. The strike was the now learn to act deliberately as organizing centers of the refuse to stop work. Ford management was first ever by the newly organized Exel working class in the broad interests of its complete emanci- also convinced that the 300 other workers workers, and the first at the Atlanta parts pation.... They must convince the world at large that their in the plant—also members of UAW Local distribution center in well over a decade. efforts, far from being narrow and selfish, aim at the 882—would ignore the picket line set up emancipation of the downtrodden millions.” — Karl Marx Bob Braxton works at the Ford PDC ware- by workers at Exel. The hopes of both com- $14.95 house in Atlanta and is a member of UAW panies were dashed when Ford workers re- Order nownowOrder at wwwwwwwww.pathfinderpress.com.com.com... Include $3 shipping and handling. Local 882. Jimmy Hill is a UAW Local 882 porting for the 10:30 am shift March 25 did Also avavAlso ailable in bookstores,,, including those listed on page 12 . not begin work, and more Exel workers union steward at Exel. April 28, 2003 The Militant 11 Cuban revolution confronts imperialism Printed below is an excerpt from The subjecting to their economic and political Second Declaration of Havana, one of domination two-thirds of humanity, which Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for was thus forced to work for the ruling April. The Second Declaration was ap- classes of the economically advanced capi- proved by acclamation after it was read talist countries. by Cuban president Fidel Castro to a The historical circumstances that permit- rally of one million people in Havana in ted a high level of industrial development February 1962. This historic document to certain European countries and the was a call by the workers and farmers United States of America placed them in a of Cuba for an uncompromising conti- position to subject the rest of the world to nent-wide revolutionary struggle against their domination and exploitation. U.S. imperialism. It came in direct re- What were the compelling motives be- sponse to a sharp escalation in attacks hind the expansion of the industrial pow- against the revolution by the ruling fami- ers? Were they for reasons of morality and lies in the United States and the govern- civilizing, as they claim? No, the reasons ment in Washington. The pamphlet also were economic. From the discovery of America, which hurled the European conquerors across the seas to occupy and exploit the lands and inhabitants of other continents, the funda- BOOKS OF mental motive for their conduct was the desire for riches. The discovery of America itself was carried out in search of shorter THE MONTH routes to the Orient, whose goods were highly paid for in Europe. A new social class, the merchants and includes the First Declaration of Havana, the producers of manufactured articles for issued Sept. 2, 1960. Copyright © 1994 commerce, arose from the womb of the by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by per- feudal society of lords and serfs in the de- mission. cline of the Middle Ages. The thirst for gold was the cause that The history of Cuba is but the history of spurred the efforts of that new class. The Latin America. The history of Latin desire for gain has been the incentive of its Bohemia America is but the history of Asia, Africa, conduct throughout history. With the Cuban president Fidel Castro read Second Declaration of Havana to above rally in and Oceania. And the history of all these growth of manufacturing and commerce, Havana, February 1962. The one-million strong crowd approved the document by peoples is but the history of the most piti- its social influence also grew. The new pro- acclamation. Many more working people signed it in weeks that followed. less and cruel exploitation by imperialism ductive forces that were developing in the throughout the world. The history of Latin womb of feudal society clashed more and the hereditary nobility. At that time the be a socialist and to proclaim the ideas of America is the history of imperialist ex- more with feudalism’s relations of servi- bourgeoisie considered revolution neces- Marx, Engels, and Lenin. ploitation tude, its laws, its institutions, its philoso- sary and just. It did not think that the feu- The bourgeoisie took political power At the end of the last and the beginning phy, its morality, its art, and its political dal order could and should be eternal—as and established upon the ruins of feudal of the present century a handful of eco- ideology. it now thinks of its capitalist social order. society its capitalist mode of production; nomically developed nations had finished New philosophical and political ideas, It encouraged the peasants to free them- and on the basis of this mode of produc- partitioning the world among themselves, new concepts of right and of the state were selves from feudal servitude; it encouraged tion it erected its state, its laws, its ideas, proclaimed by the intellectual representa- the artisans against the medieval guilds and and its institutions. Those institutions sanc- tives of the bourgeois class, which—be- demanded the right to political power. The tified above all the essence of its class rule: cause they responded to the new necessi- absolute monarchs, the nobility, and the private property. April BOBOBOOKOKOKSSS ties of social life—gradually entered into high clergy stubbornly defended their class The new society based on the private the consciousness of the exploited masses. privileges, proclaiming the divine right of ownership of the means of production and OFOFOF TTTHEHEHE MONTHMONTHMONTH These were then revolutionary ideas op- kings and the immutability of the social free competition was thus divided into two posed to the outworn ideas of feudal soci- order. To be liberal, to proclaim the ideas basic classes: one the owner of the means Pathfinder ety. The peasants, the artisans, the work- of Voltaire, Diderot, or Jean-Jacques of production, ever more modern and effi- 25% ers in manufacture, led by the bourgeoi- Rousseau, spokesmen for bourgeois phi- cient; the other, deprived of all wealth, Readers Club DISCOUNT sie, overthrew the feudal order, its philoso- losophy, at that time constituted, in the eyes possessing only its labor power, of neces- SPECIALS phy, its ideas, its institutions, its laws, and of the ruling classes, as serious a crime as sity sold on the market as just another com- the privileges of the ruling class, that is, it is today in the eyes of the bourgeoisie to modity simply in order to live. History of the Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP The social, Zip: 48244-0739. Tel: (313) 554-0504. Campsie, NSW 2194. Mailing address: P.O. economic, and Where to find Pathfinder books and distributors of the Militant, Perspectiva E-mail: [email protected] Box 164, Campsie, NSW 2194. 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12 The Militant April 28, 2003 GREAT SOCIETY Golly—A new law in the state gime of Saddam Hussein, to de- a propeace t-shirt at a mall coffee fraud worth millions involving rooms with fireplace, walk-in of Washington provides that mem- stroy his weapons of mass destruc- table. Later, about one hundred chicken padded out with water, shower, fridge, etc. The master bers of the military living off base tion, and most importantly, to lib- people protested this. The local pork, or beef and sold in takeaways, bedroom, (named after Imelda there can no longer be penalized erate the long-suffering people of chief of police explained the arrest: restaurants, pubs...have been un- Marcos?), features a closet that is Iraq, will be successful, and that “We don’t care what they have on covered by the Food Standards said to stock 300 pairs of shoes. you will soon be reunited with their shirts, but they were asked to Agency.”—The Times, London. Asking price: $24 million. your families. leave the property, and it’s private “Once hostilities have ended, property.” What price imperialism—At Pst—One might think it an em- however, significant challenges least 60 percent of once relatively barrassing moment, but the Harry will remain. America must take the Nothing but the best—Mem- prosperous Argentinians now live Vatican has published a new, lead in rebuilding Iraq, and here, bers of the Puerto Rican island leg- in poverty, and 19 children have 1,000-page lexicon of sexual Ring too, you will play a vital role. You islature are lobbying for a new died of malnutrition in recent terms, baring some seemingly in- will also be engaged in fighting the veterans hospital, explaining the months. The International Mon- nocuous, but really “anti-Catho- war on terror, at home and abroad.” present one is unable to handle an etary Fund, however, declared the lic” terms such as “gender” and for breaking their leases when Senator Dianne Feinstein, veteran influx of Iraqi vets. According to government “was not imposing “reproductive rights.” It does summoned for active duty. liberal Democrat from California, a media report, they said the old sufficient austerity” and cut off its thump homosexuality as abnor- in an e-mail letter to GIs in Iraq hospital is too small, has numer- credit line. mal, and advises that countries Read it and retch—“You are shortly before the fall of Baghdad. ous infrastructure problems, and a that permit same-sex marriages part of the finest military establish- leaky roof. Not if your feets’ too big—At have people with “disordered ment the world has ever known, Yes, indeed—A shopper in a first glance it struck us as an ordi- minds.” No mention, apparently, and I am completely confident that suburban Albany, New York, area The real chickens go to the nary deal. Close to San Diego, a of the products of imposed celi- the war to end the tyrannical re- was busted for refusing to take off front?—“LONDON—A food top income community, many bed- bacy—straight or gay. Washington adds restrictions on travel to Cuba BY PAUL PEDERSON new regulations, according to the group’s The U.S. Treasury Department an- Cuba program director, Ana Perez. Global nounced March 24 that it will now enforce Exchange and other groups plan to con- new restrictions on travel to Cuba by U.S. tinue offering licensed trips to Cuba until citizens and residents. their permits expire at the end of this year. According to the new regulations, li- Over the past decade, the Treasury De- censes will no longer be issued to “organi- partment has enforced travel restrictions zations that sponsor people-to-people edu- with increasing aggressiveness, seeking cational exchanges to take individuals un- fines of between $2,000 and $7,500 against der their auspices on educational trips to those who are deemed to have traveled to Cuba unrelated to academic course work.” Cuba “illegally.”The number of cases Next to family visits by Cuban-Americans, opened by the Treasury Department against the largest number of U.S. residents who such individuals has dramatically in- legally travel to Cuba each year do so under creased—from 165 in 1996 to 1,155 in the this type of license. first six months of 2001. “This is an outrageous situation,” said Richard Newcomb, director of the Trea- Bob Guild of Marazul Tours in an April 3 sury Department’s Office of Foreign As- interview. Marazul is a travel agency that sets Control, complained in a February specializes in travel between the United 2002 report to the U.S. Senate that the in- States and Cuba. “This is the first serious creased crackdown on travel to Cuba has rollback by the government of the licensing Militant/Martin Koppel caused an “extremely heavy drain on fi- guidelines in 10 or 12 years. These are trips Participants in the second Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange held in Havana July 2001 nite enforcement and legal resources.” organized by educational institutions, mu- “At this time,” Newcomb stated, “OFAC seums, and groups with a long and estab- sidiaries of U.S. organizations through- ing a loophole for groups to travel to Cuba devotes 5% of its budget...to the adminis- lished record of educational work.” out the world...” when the educational aspect was barely tration and enforcement of restrictions in- Thousands of people travel each year to “The basic goal of the sanctions,” the evident, Treasury Department spokesman volving travel to Cuba.” Cuba under license from the government. document reads, “is to isolate the Cuban Tony Fratto told the Associated Press. Salsa Guild, of Marazul Tours, said that since Tens of thousands more visit the island an- government economically and deprive it dancing, baseball, and hiking tours were Newcomb’s 2002 report the enforcement of nually without seeking a government license. of U.S. dollars. Criminal penalties for vio- among those granted permits. the travel restrictions has continued at a simi- A Treasury Department document, titled, lating the sanctions include up to 10 years “The Treasury Department said it would lar rate. Last year, about 100 people who “Cuba: What You Need to Know About the in prison, $1,000,000 in corporate fines, honor existing one-year licenses but would traveled to Cuba agreed to pay $1,000 each. U.S. Embargo,” was released the same day and $250,000 in individual fines. Civil not renew them. The new regulations are While thousands who refuse to cow to the new restrictions were announced. It penalties up to $55,000 per violation may temporary but are expected to go into ef- government bullying often avoid the fines, states that restrictions on travel to and trade also be imposed.” fect in May after a comment period.” many others don’t, in the face of threats with Cuba “affect all U.S. citizens and per- An article in the April 6 San Francisco San Francisco-based Global Exchange, from the Treasury Department. Newcomb manent residents wherever they are located, Chronicle on the new restrictions said that which sent more than 2,000 U.S. residents bragged in his 2002 report that many all people and organizations physically in “Those licenses, which were authorized to Cuba last year on licensed trips, is con- “agree to informal settlements” faced with the United States, and all branches and sub- on a case-by-case basis, ended up becom- sidering filing a lawsuit to try to block the government intimidation. ‘Tricontinental’ magazine marks 150th anniversary of José Martí CUBA in world politics today BY BRIAN WILLIAMS alist organization based in Havana, Cuba. October 1962 A new issue of Tricontinental, a maga- Tricontinental issue no. 154 contains The ‘Missile’ Crisis as Seen from Cuba zine published by the Organization of Soli- several articles commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Cuban revolu- darity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and By TTBy omás Diez Acosta In October 1962, during what is Latin America (OSPAAAL), has been pub- tionary fighter José Martí. These include “José Martí, Latin American Patriot” by widely known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Washington lished and is available in the United States. pushed the world to the edge of nuclear war. Here, for OSPAAAL is an international anti-imperi- Armando Hart, who is a founding mem- ber of the July 26 Movement, and served the first time, the full story of that historic moment is told as minister of culture for 20 years until from the perspective of the Cuban people. Also avail- essess essess 1997, and “Our America,” written by ess able in Spanish. $24 Third Martí in 1891. The issue includes articles on the fight Cuba-U.S. against the Free Trade Area of the Ameri- Cuba and the cas pact; the experience of a Cuban doc- Coming American Revolution Youth tor who volunteered as an international- ist fighter in Guinea Bissau to fight for By Jack Barnesnesnes “There will be a victorious revolution in Exchange the liberation of that country from Portu- the United States before there will be a victorious coun- athfinder Pr athfinder Pr athfinder Pr guese colonial rule in the mid-1960s; and athfinder Pr athfinder Pr terrevolution in Cuba”—Fidel Castro,1961. This book July 24-July 31 a letter by René González Sehwerert de- about the class struggle in the imperialist heartland ex- scribing the impact that Che Guevara’s plains why this statement remains as accurate today as it example has had on his life. González is was in 1961. Also available in French and Spanish. $20 om Pom P P om Pom om Pom Groups of young people from om P one of the five Cuban revolutionaries im- across the United States will be prisoned in the United States on frame- traveling to Cuba in July to par- up conspiracy charges. ticipate in the Third Cuba-U.S. There is also an article by Ulises TTTo Speak the Trrruthuthuth Estrada, the director of Tricontinental Youth Exchange. They will meet Fidel Castro and Che Guevara In speeches before the with youth in that country, ex- Editions, announcing for the first time ever the identity of “Mercy”—the Cuban United Nations and UN bodies, Guevara and Castro vailable fr vailable fr vailable fr change ideas with them, and see agent who worked under Che Guevara in vailable fr vailable fr address the workers of the world explaining why the AA AA firsthand the truth about Cuba’s Bolivia and who is referred to by Che in A U.S. government so hates the example set by the so- socialist revolution. his Bolivian Diary. cialist revolution in Cuba and why Washington’s ef- Tricontinental, which has a cover price forts to destroy it will fail. $16.95 of $5, is stocked by Pathfinder bookstores TTTo find out more,,, contact: (see page 12). OrOrOrder now frfrder om wwwwwwom .pathfinderpress.com. Please include $3 for shipping and [email protected] The magazine can also be ordered handling. Also available from bookstores, including those listed on page 12. through www.pathfinderpress.com. April 28, 2003 The Militant 13 -EDITORIALS------­ Revolutionary Imperialist troops out of Iraq! defeatism and Continued from front page occupiers. The purpose ofthe new occupation regime is is Washington's charge that Damascus has chemical not the "liberation" of the Iraqi people, any more than the Iraq war weapons--one of the propaganda themes for justifying the British invasion of Baghdad was in 1917. A top pri­ the U.S.-British invasion oflraq. ority for the U.S. overseers oflraq is getting the oil wells BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS The targeting of Syria underscores the fact that the running again and laying the basis for putting them un­ In letters to the editor this week, several readers com­ U.S.-led war Oil Iraq is not about freedom or democ­ der the control of ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and ment on the Militant's recent coverage of the U.S.-led racy--or even about Iraq alone. It is about which of the other U.S. companies-at the expense of TotalFinaElf assault and occupation of Iraq, and of antiwar protests. competing imperialist powers in the world will control and other European capitalist interests. Carol Sholin asks that the Militant "run one or more the resources and territory of the Mideast. What is fuel­ The goal of the occupation is also to hold Iraq to­ articles on why Marxists call for the defeat of'their own' ing this war drive is not the policy of a particular U.S. gether under a capitalist regime that can guarantee sta­ imperialism in a war, and why working people should president (in fact~ it is a bipartisan group in Congress bility for imperialist interests in the Mideast. That means not consider a military victory for Washington in Iraq that has introduced a bill to decree sanctions on Syria). putting a lid on the struggles of the Kurds, the Shiite something that will bring safety to the troops." Behind imperialism's march toward war is something Muslims, and other oppressed peoples. The last thing To respond to Sholin's question, in a war between an much more fundamental: the inherent weaknesses of the Washington or London wants is for the Kurdish people imperialist power and a nation oppressed by imperial­ capitalist economic system, now mired in a prolonged to win their right to national self-determination-in Iraq, ism, class-conscious workers always side with the op­ depression, that increasingly drive Washington, London, Turkey, or anywhere else. pressed nation-regardless of its political regime-and Paris, Berlin, and other imperialist powers to fight to Despite the patriotic, prowar campaign to justify the argue that the defeat of the imperialists in the war is in divide and redivide the world among themselves. imperialist assault on Iraq, many working people and the interests of working people everywhere, including In recent years the government of Syria has taken a youth are closely following the events in the world and those living in the imperialist country. That's the posi- more conciliatory stance toward Washington. But the are receptive to a working-class explanation of them. U.S. rulers don't consider the Baathist regime there suf­ That is especially true of workers engaged in struggles ficiently beholden to their interests. Damascus aligned against employer attacks on their wages, jobs, and con­ itself with Paris, Berlin, and Moscow in the prewar UN ditions. There are no limits to the ability to campaign debate over Iraq. Emboldened by its success in Iraq, the widely to present these facts and communist perspec­ REPLY TO A READER U.S. government is now pressing further against Syria. tive on the job, at factory gates, on picket lines, in work­ These threats against Syria are also directed against ing-class communities, at antiwar and other political tion taken by the Bolshevik party under the leadership Iran, which is on the imperialists' "axis of evil" hit list. demonstrations, on camp~ses, and among workers and ofV.I. Lenin, which led workers and farmers to power In the context of the Anglo-American war in the Mid­ farmers in uniform. · in Russia in October 1917. east, the recent U.S. threats against north Korea and Cuba We urge you to join other Militant supporters in ·a Writing in 1938, on the eve ofWorld War II, Bolshe­ take on more seriousness, too. working-class campaign to demand: No to the occupa- . vik leader Leon Trotsky summarized this position in an Similarly, the deadly shooting by U.S. troops on a tion ofIraq! Imperialist forces out ofthe Mideast! Bring article titled "Lenin and imperialist war." He explained: crowd of protesters in Mosul shows the true face of the the troops home now! Stop the US. thre(lts against !Jyria! "From 1871 to 1914 European capitalism, on the foun­ dation of national states, not only flowered but outlived itselfby becoming transformed into monopoly or impe­ rialist capitalism. 'Imperialism is that stage of capital­ ism when the latter, after fulfilling everything in its 25,000 at April12 D.C. peace rally power, begins to decline.' The cause of the decline lies in this, that the productive forces are fettered by the BY SAM MANUEL framework of private property as well as by the bound­ tied around a peace symbol. It read: "Support our troops! aries of the national state. Imperialism seeks to divide WASHINGTON, D.C.-Thousands marched and ral­ Bring them home now!" and redivide the world. In place of national wars there lied here over theAprill2 weekend against the U.S.-led Coming in the wake ofthe overthrow of the Saddailll come imperialist wars. They are utterly reactionary in conquest of Iraq. Protests also took place in San Fran­ Hussein regime in Iraq, the peace protests in every city character and are an expression of the impasse, stagna­ cisco, Los Angeles, and dozens of cities around the world. were substantially smaller than earlier ones. Organizers tion, and decay of monopoly capital." "There are fewer young people here than last month," of the protest here claimed 25,000 participants. noted Elizabeth Harris, 20, who had driven from Pitts­ Just days before the march took place, protest leaders 'Socialists completely on side of oppressed country' burgh with several friends. A number of participants re­ moved the assembly and rally point from the more spa­ "The world, however, still remains very heteroge­ marked that far fewer buses came from their cities for cious Washington Monument grounds to the two-square neous," Trotsky continued. "The coercive imperialism this rally compared to earlier protests. block Freedom Plaza. of advanced nations is able to exist only because back­ "The whole world is against this war but this admin­ The ANSWER web site listed only a handful of en­ ward nations, oppressed nationalities, colonial and istration just ignores us;' said Robert Long, 55, from dorsers, and former attorney general Ramsey Clark was semicolonial countries, remain on our planet. The New Haven, Connecticut. Such comments marked the the only prominent political figure who spoke at the rally. struggle of the oppressed peoples for national unifica­ views and mood of many participants in the protest. He urged those present to make the "impeachment of tion and national independence is doubly progressive As in past demonstrations, signs and banners predomi­ president Bush" the top priority for opponents of the because, on the one side, this prepares more favorable nated throughout the rally focusing on the administra­ U.S.-led war. conditions for their own development, while, on the other tion ofU.S. president George Bush. Some read "Regime About 2,500 people marched in a heavy rain in San side, this deals blows to imperialism. That, in particular, change in 2004!" and "Drop Bush not bombs!" Leaders Francisco, and 4,000 in Los Angeles, the same day. Some is the reason why, in the struggle between a civilized, of International ANSWER, the coalition that organized carried signs urging UN "peacekeepers" to occupy Iraq, imperialist, democratic republic and a backward, bar­ the rally, led the crowd in chanting, "Stop the occupa­ instead of U.S. troops, while others urged voter registra­ baric monarchy in a colonial country, the socialists are tion! Impeach Bush!" tion. Some preprinted signs that read "Stop the War against completely on the side of the oppressed country not­ One group had printed placards with a yellow ribbon Iraq" had Iraq crossed out and replaced with Syria. withstanding its monarchy and against the oppressor country notwithstanding its 'democracy."' For that reason, socialists supported a victory for Ar­ gentina during the 1982 Malvinas war--even though a Veteran socialist Peggy Brundy U.S.-backed military dictatorship ruled the country at the time-when British imperialism launched the Royal Continued from Page 8 ing Project. It includes some 250 supporters of the com­ Navy against Buenos Aires to put the "Falkland Islands" toward her socialist politics." munist movement around the world. firmly back under London's colonial rule. Likewise, the Norton Sandler, a SWP National Committee mem­ Laurel Kelly, a steering committee member of this Militant supported a military victory by Baghdad over ber, chaired the SanFrancisco gathering. He interspersed project, spoke about Brundy's contribution to this ef­ the imperialist invaders in the just-concluded war, point­ the presentations with excerpts from greetings sent to fort. "It might sound like being a supporter of the SWP ing out that such a victory would have strengthened the the meeting by some of Brundy's collaborators. The is like being a fan or cheerleader, taking a role on the hand of working people around the world, including the messages included one from Michel Prairie on behalf of sidelines and not being an active participant. But many struggles of the Iraqi people against the police-party state the Political Committee of the Communist League in of us had a different idea. We were hungry for a way to run by the regime of Saddam Hussein. Canada, and another from Pathfinder's Farsi-language make a meaningful contribution to change society. The The U.S.-British victory in Iraq and occupation of the editor, Ma'mud Shirvani. Pathfinder Printing Project began as a proposal by party country by imperialist troops is a blow to working people. Sandler noted that delegates to the SWP 1976 con­ supporters to help keep Pathfinder books in print by That's why the statement made in the front-page edito­ vention elected Brundy to the party's National Commit­ making high quality digital copies of all titles using the rial in last week's Militant, "The unfolding occupation tee. She served on that body until 1985. She was circu­ latest and less expensive printing technology. Now the of Iraq is not a major defeat for the working class. That lation director for the Militant in 1983-84. Her sales project has expanded to include the preparation of new defeat came a long time ago ... in the bloody counter­ columns in the paper helped organize the international titles, the sales and distribution of the books, maintain­ revolution that brought Saddam Hussein to power," is subscription campaigns and the weekly plant gate sales. ing the pathjinderpress.com web site, overseeing qual­ wrong. It contradicts the editorial stance of the paper She also attended a six-month session ofthe SWP lead­ ity control, scheduling, and working with printers di­ outlined above, which is based on long-held positions ership school, where worker-bolsheviks studied the writ­ rectly. In five years, 320 titles have been converted to of the communist movement. ings of the founders of the communist movement-Karl digital form out of nearly 400." Washington's conquest of Iraq is one in a number of Marx and Frederick Engels. Brundy joined the steering committee of the project defeats the Iraqi working class has suffered over the past Brundy suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis that shortly after it began. Waters explained how Brundy four decades. Among the most devastating ofthese blows had an impact on her ability to work industrial jobs. loved the analogy that SWP leader Joe Hansen often was the coming to power and consolidation of Saddam Waters said that Brundy was also deeply affected by the used to describe centralized revolutionary activity. "Joe Hussein's regime in the 1970s. retreat of the working class in the 1980s and withdrew always used to say every revolutionary is like a good The end of the armed conflict in Iraq will bring a larger from political activity for a decade. She began re&pond­ plow horse that likes getting the harness on because it measure of"safety to the troops"-the U.S. troops, that ing to the increased resistance from working people in makes you more capable of work and accomplishing is-at least in the short run. The safety of those armed the 1990s and resumed activity with the party. In doing what you are trying to accomplish," Waters said. "It was forces, however, is not the starting point for socialists in so, Waters stated, Brundy drew again on the solid politi­ getting back into this political harness and to once again face of an imperialist assault on a semicolonial nation. cal grounding she had acquired earlier. have an organized political life, along with Peggy's con­ They are not "our troops." They are the troops of the sciousness of how important this work was, that gave imperialist ruling class, which uses its armed forces to Pathfinder Printing Project her a very great sense of satisfaction in the final five police its frontiers, defend its currency, and wage preda­ The Pathfinder Reprint Project was launched in 1998. years of her life." tory wars to expand its domination over other peoples In this effort supporters of the SWP and Communist Participants brought a fine assortment of food to the and their resources. Like all imperialist wars, the U.S.­ Leagues around the world took on the job of converting gathering. Many stayed for an hour afterward to look at led assault on Iraq is against the interests of working Pathfinder's titles, which existed on outmoded film and the displays and to socialize. They also contributed people both in Iraq and the United States, including printing plates, to modem digital technology. This vol­ $2,190 to a Peggy Brundy Party Building Collection that workers and farmers in uniform, who are being used as unteer effort has now been renamed the Pathfinder Print- will go towards supporting the activities of the SWP. Continued on Page 15 14 The Militant April 28,2003 From Pathfinder * order at www.pathfinderpress.com Books for the working-class campaign against imperialism and war

Opening Guns of World War III U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War Washington’s Assault on Iraq in New International no. 11 in New International no. 7 By Jack Barnes By Jack Barnes Also includes The devastation of Iraq in the 1990-91 Gulf War did not lead to The Communist Strategy of Party Building Todayodayoday the dawn of a new world order. The war held a mirror to the by Mary-Alice Waters declining capitalist world order and accelerated its contradic- Socialism: A viable Option by José Ramón Balaguer tions. It sounded the opening guns of sharpening conflicts and • YYYoung Socialist Manifesto class battles that will decide whether the horrors of World War In English, French, and Spanish $14.00 III are inflicted on humanity or a road is opened by working people to a socialist future of international human solidarity. Also available in Spanish, French, Swedish. $12.00 SPECIAL OFFER: $10.00 with Militant subscription Imperialism’s March Toward Fascism and War in New International no. 10 Capitalism’s World Disorder Working-Class Politics at the Millennium By Jack Barnes By Jack Barnes Also includes Today’s spreading economic and social crisis and acts of Defending Cuba, Defending imperialist aggression are not the product of something Cuba’s Socialist Revolution gone wrong, Barnes explains, but the lawful workings by Mary-Alice Waters of capitalism. Yet the future can be changed by the What the 1987 stock market crash foretold united struggle and selfless action of workers and by Jack Barnes farmers conscious of their power to transform the In English, French, and Spanish $14.00 world. Also available in French and Spanish. $23.95 SPECIAL OFFER: $15.00 with Militant subscription SPECIAL OFFER: $10.00 with Militant subscription for NI nos. 10 & 11 Reply to readers: Revolutionary defeatism and Iraq war Continued from Page 14 the eve of the second worldwide ferred from the hands of a tiny D.C., and elsewhere, advocating rally, and the action itself, were cannon fodder by the rulers. imperialist slaughter. He pointed minority to the hands of the slogans such as “End the imperi- narrower for these reasons. We welcome the suggestion in out that the imperialist rulers use people; if the army becomes a alist assault on Iraq,” and “Bring The Workers World Party, cited Mindy Brudno’s letter for a fuller terms such as “collective security,” weapon of the exploited instead of the troops home now.” The April in the news article, is the initiator explanation of how American pa- and “national defense” to justify the exploiters.” 12 action was smaller than previ- and main organization leading the triotism is used to boost support their drive toward war. “ ‘Defense This is the course the Militant ous ones, not because of red-bait- ANSWER coalition. Its orientation for Washington’s foreign and do- of the Fatherland?’”—Trotsky has argued for, including among ing, as the letter by John Harris “against Bush”—shared by its mestic policy. To politically disarm asked. “But by this abstraction, the the thousands of students and oth- suggests, but because of the objec- most prominent bourgeois ally, workers, the bosses want working bourgeoisie understands the de- ers who have taken part in numer- tive situation. With the rapid U.S.- Ramsey Clark—and its argument people to think in terms of “we fense of its profits and plunder. We ous antiwar rallies over the last two British military victory in Iraq, that large demonstrations of this Americans,” to accept the false stand ready to defend the father- months in the United States and we’ve seen an increase in the pa- kind, by themselves, can “stop the idea that workers and the employ- land from foreign capitalists, if we other countries. triotic campaign in all the imperi- war” have helped mislead the ers who exploit us have common first bind our own capitalists hand alist countries, including sizable youth who turn out at these actions. interests, and the lie that the and foot and hinder them from at- Objective shifts, not red-baiting pro war actions, and the caving in What’s needed is not an “anti- bosses’ government is “our” gov- tacking foreign fatherlands; if the The Militant urged participation by liberal pacifists and most in the Bush” perspective, but a proletar- ernment. Trotsky took this up in workers and the farmers of our in the large peace rallies in March, middle-class left who have called ian perspective that orients youth The Transitional Program for So- country become its real masters; as well as the April 12 antiwar for “supporting our troops.” The and working people to struggle cialist Revolution, also written on if the wealth of the country is trans- demonstrations in Washington, coalition that called the April 12 against imperialism and its wars. LETTERS Patriotism on Iraq—Bring the Troops Home our troops, bring them home” and tion of international legitimacy and American friends are the first vic- The article by Róger Calero in Now.” I had hoped that the Mili- are now saying that they hope for a threat to peace in the region and tims of government roundups and the April 14 issue entitled “U.S. tant would have supported this a speedy “victory” to “end the kill- the world. We ask other Iranian stigmatizing of citizens and immi- peace coalitions support ‘our mobilization, but from reading the ing.” I think it would be appropri- intellectuals and writers to adopt grants after September 11. troops’” contained much useful April 14 issue of the Militant, that ate for the Militant to run one or an unambiguous position and con- According to the Detroit News/ information about how the forces doesn’t appear to be the case. The more articles on why Marxists call demn this dirty colonial war. Free Press, old LSG Sky Chef that organized the big peace ac- article entitled: “U.S. peace coali- for the defeat of “their own” im- We value the sympathy of the badges were found in Haimoud, tions have responded to the begin- tions support ‘our troops’” states: perialism in a war and why work- Arab people of Khuzistan and Hanan, and Koubriti’s apartment ning of the actual war. “The ANSWER coalition, which ing people should not consider a other Iranian nationalities with the when it was raided. These work- I think an opportunity was is dominated by the Workers World military victory for the U.S. in Iraq people of Iraq, and we ask the au- ers, however, worked in the missed, however, to explain clearly Party, another Stalinist organiza- something that will bring safety to thorities in the province to make it kitchen. Their badges didn’t even the problem with that approach. tion, has called for an April 12 na- “the troops.” possible for the Arab masses in give them access to the ramp. Yet, The article assumes that readers of tional march on Washington, D.C., Carol Sholin Khuzistan to express their anger suspicion has been cast on them. the Militant understand why pa- under the slogan “Stop the War in Castro Valley, California and their deep feelings in support The indictment against them ac- triotism is a bad thing for the anti- Iraq.” Demands by this group have of their Iraqi neighbors. This can cuses them of holding views of war movement and for the work- become more vague and targeted Iran writers on war be done in various ways, such as salafiyya, takfir, and wahabism, ing class. at President George Bush, rather Below is a statement signed by demonstrations and sending vari- wrongly identified in the indict- To a new reader, the article than Washington, as the demand 40 writers and intellectuals of Arab ous kinds of aid. ment, and with no proof that they might appear to be sectarian nit- ‘Bring the Troops Home Now!’ nationality in Khuzistan, Iran, is- held such views. The indictment picking, when in fact fundamen- does, for example.” sued on March 28. Khuzistan is the makes no connection between the tal principles are at stake that need It is most likely that this march oil-rich province that borders Iraq. ‘Sleeper cell’ trial defendants and these philosophical to be explained. will not fulfill its potential because One of the signers is a deputy The “sleeper cell” trial of the currents except to say that “salafist Mindy Brudno of the red-baiting and sectarianism in the current Majles (parliament), Norman Street 3 began Friday tapes”—whatever that means: Wynantskill, New York that I have seen coming from some elected from Ahwaz in Khuzistan. March 28. [These are] frame-up songs, chants of the Quran?—were of the liberals, as was the case for The number one signer is Yousef indictments and trials of Yousef found in the apartment. Smacks of red-baiting the March 15 demonstration. How- Azizi Bani-Torof, a well-known Hmimssa, Farouk Ali Haimoud, The political views of the ever, this article in the Militant writer and journalist. Ahmad, Hanan, Karim Koubriti, framed-up defendants are no dif- An antiwar movement has grown smacks of the same red-baiting and Ma’mud Shirvani and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi. They ferent from the democratic views out of the imperialist war drive and sectarianism that I have heard Hazleton, Pennsylvania are U.S. permanent residents from of workers anywhere, and should assault on Iraq, and is alive and coming from the liberals. It is one Morocco and Algeria, North Africa. not be used to stigmatize them. well, and exists in the U.S. and in thing to attack a Stalinist party and March 28 statement on events The [September 2001 arrest] Denis Hoppe many countries throughout the its publication, and it is quite an- in Iraq, issued by 40 writers and warrant was issued because they Ann Arbor, Michigan world. The lies of the capitalist other to smear a coalition. I hope others of the Arab nationality in were renting at the former address media are being challenged, and the that the editors of the Militant will Khuzistan, Iran. of someone who has since been debate currently is not being framed come to see the error in this kind We, Arab writers and intellec- cleared of all charges and of all The letters column is an open as a dispute among various capital- of approach. tuals of Khuzistan, condemn the suspicion, yet Haimoud, Hanan forum for all viewpoints on sub- ist politicians, but between the en- John Harris savage assault against the nation and Koubriti are under indictment jects of interest to working tire U.S. government and “the nay Boston, Massachusetts of Iraq and the occupation of their based on their collection of audio people. sayers,” that is, us, “the protesters” land. We salute the heroic resis- music tapes, scribbles in a day Please keep your letters brief. in the antiwar movement. To me tance of the Iraqi people and un- planner, and videos of Disneyland Where necessary they will be that is refreshing. Defeatism der these difficult conditions we and Las Vegas that were found by abridged. Please indicate if you A national march was called for Many in the peace movement declare our solidarity with them. Federal police in their apartment. prefer that your initials be used April 12 demanding, “Stop the War have gone beyond saying “support We view this assault as a viola- Our Moroccan- and Algerian- rather than your full name. April 28, 2003 The Militant 15 Washington makes progress at UN on its war drive against north Korea BY SAM MANUEL Agreed Framework. Under this As U.S. and British forces solidified their accord, the three governments occupation of Iraq, Washington stepped up had also promised to assist in Israeli army kills dozens of Palestinians, its campaign to target the Democratic the construction of nuclear People’s Republic of Korea as a “nuclear power reactors in north Korea shoots at peace activists from U.S., UK threat” and to gain wider acceptance for that could not be used for re- imposing new sanctions on north Korea. processing nuclear-weapons- At the April 9 meeting of the United Na- grade plutonium. In exchange, tions Security Council, Washington fell Pyongyang had agreed to short of obtaining a resolution condemning freeze its nuclear weapons pro- Pyongyang for developing a nuclear weap- gram. ons program. The representatives of China Lacking oil to meet its power and Russia indicated they would oppose needs, the north Korean govern- such a resolution. The UN body instead ment announced last December expressed its “concern” about the develop- that it would restart a small re- ment of nuclear weapons in north Korea. actor at the Yongbyon nuclear U.S. ambassador to the United Nations power facility. Washington John Negroponte called the council deci- claims that the facility can re- sion “acceptable.” At the same time, he process enough plutonium to reiterated Washington’s demand that manufacture one nuclear Pyongyang must not only abandon its weapon a year. As the UN Se- “nuclear weapons ambitions” but “accept curity Council met, the CIA re- a reliable verification regime. This would leased a report claiming that include cooperation, declarations, inspec- north Korea could produce “two or more nuclear weapons Palestinian youth in Gaza confront an Israeli army bulldozer (above right). In March, Tel tions, and monitoring.” Negroponte also Aviv’s army carried out almost daily assaults in Gaza, killing 99 Palestinians throughout the issued a warning to north Korea against any a year.” The CIA also asserted that Pyongyang may soon flight occupied territories. The daily bloodletting continued in early April as Israeli helicopter gun- “further escalatory steps.” ships launched missiles on a busy Gaza street, killing five and injuring at least 50. Two activ- Pyongyang condemned the UN Security test its Taepodong-2 ballistic missile, which would have the ists of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), supporting the Palestinian struggle, Council action. In an earlier statement, the were also shot by Israeli Defense Forces. Thomas Hurndall, 21, from London, was shot and north Korean government had described capability of striking parts of the United States and could killed April 11 by an Israeli sniper. Brian Avery (above left), from Albuquerque, New Mexico, any decision taken at this session as “a pre- was shot in the face and seriously injured by a shell fired from an Israeli tank April 5 in Jenin, lude to war.” That DPRK foreign ministry carry a nuclear warhead. Washington has rebuffed West Bank. Rachel Corrie, the first ISM member to be killed by Israeli troops, was crushed statement said that the U.S.-led war against to death by an IDF bulldozer March 16 near Rafah, Gaza Strip. Iraq “shows that to allow disarming offers by Pyongyang for direct through inspection does not help avert war talks and has insisted on “mul- but rather sparks it.” The statement con- tilateral talks,” to enlist Beijing tinued, “This suggests that even the sign- and Moscow’s support to apply greater The same week, Richard Lawless, a is that weapons technology developments ing of a nonagression treaty with the U.S. pressure on north Korea to abandon its U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, make those troops more vulnerable to long- would not help avert war.... nuclear program. Negroponte expressed visited Seoul to discuss the redeployment range artillery fire if armed conflict with “Only a tremendous military deterrent optimism April 9, stating that “Achieving of nearly half of the 37,000 U.S. troops Pyongyang breaks out. force, powerful enough to decisively beat a multilateral solution may take time but in south Korea to a location further south The April 11 New York Times ran a col- back an attack supported by any ultra-mod- efforts can proceed on several tracks.” of Seoul. Large demonstrations swept the umn by former CIA director Stansfield ern weapons, can avert a war and protect Two days later Russia’s deputy foreign Seoul last fall against the U.S. military Turner titled, “Rebuild Iraq, Disarm North the security of the country. This is a lesson minister, Alexander Losyukov, said that his presence, after two south Korean youth Korea.” Turner proposed that Washington drawn from the Iraqi war.” Washington government would “review” Moscow’s op- were killed by a U.S. military vehicle. move now to push for a Security Council stepped up its threats against the DPRK position to sanctions against north Korea This month, widespread street protests resolution on north Korea, “similar to reso- after U.S. officials charged last October if Pyongyang developed nuclear weapons. were held against Seoul’s decision to send lution 1441, which demanded the imme- that north Korea had carried out a program The European Union submitted a reso- nearly 700 medical and engineering troops diate and unconditional disarmament of to extract enriched uranium as part of lution to the UN Human Rights Commis- to help the U.S.-led assault on Iraq. Iraq.” The former CIA head added that this longer-term nuclear weapons research. sion meeting in Geneva, charging north U.S. government officials say the rea- approach “could also be applied to Iran, Earlier this year, Washington made simi- Korea with human rights violations, includ- son to redeploy the 16,000 troops, now sta- Libya, Syria and other states suspected of lar accusations and demands against ing torture and political killings. This was tioned along the border with north Korea, having these dangerous weapons.” Tehran, which has been singled out by the the first time a resolution accusing Bush administration, along with Iraq and Pyongyang of human rights violations has north Korea, as points on “an axis of evil.” been placed before the UN commission in In the ensuing controversy, the U.S. gov- its 57-year history. According to an April Australian cops attack protests ernment halted shipments of oil to north 10 Reuters report, Washington is expected Korea, an action followed by Tokyo and to back the resolution and has been lobby- BY BOB AIKEN to fight and injure police,” Deputy Police Seoul. The shipments were part of the 1994 ing for “tougher” language. SYDNEY, Australia—High school and Commissioner David Madden chimed in, university students protesting the U.S.-led “it is no longer an Australian protest.” war on Iraq here March 26 and April 2 were Eyewitnesses said that the trouble on confronted by large mobilizations of cops March 26 started after the cops arrested two New Zealand nurses go on strike who assaulted both of the protests. The Arab youth and pulled the hajib, the Mus- demonstrations were called by the “Books lim headscarf, off a young woman protester. BY FELICITY COGGAN Not Bombs” coalition. This group also or- Pashwa Rahim, who figured prominently in AUCKLAND, New ganized an antiwar student strike of some the Telegraph’s front-page photo of the pro- Zealand—Seventy members 5,000 March 5. Significant numbers of test, trying to get out of the clutches of the of the Nurses Organisation Arab-Australian students turned out for the police, responded the following day that he and the Service and Food protests. had acted “in self-defense.” Workers Union struck and The March 26 action of about 3,000 stu- When protest organizers announced that picketed Glenburn Rest dents was met by a heavy and provocative they would call another march the follow- Home and Hospital- police presence. Several dozen people, the ing week, the cops responded by stating Homecare in Auckland April youngest 10 years old, were arrested. A they would break it up. New South Wales 7. Their strike coincided with number were hurt as the cops clashed with state premier Robert Carr, of the Labor other day-long strikes at hos- students at the Town Hall assembly point Party, took the lead in red-baiting the pro- pitals in the towns of Thames and then during the course of a march test. He declared that the April 2 march and Whakatane also run by through the city. should not go ahead unless organizers Glenburn’s owners, Harbour- When the protesters marched to Austra- could “control the behavior of extremist side Group Holdings. It fol- lian prime minister John Howard’s offices elements.” lowed a previous 24-hour downtown after a rally at Hyde Park, po- Several hundred police were mobilized strike and picket March 6. lice blocked off the street, trapping about April 2 to block some 500 hundred stu- Harbourside has refused Militant/Mike Tucker 600 protesters between two lines of cops dents from marching out of the Sydney the workers’ claim for a two Striking health-care workers outside Glenburn Rest for about two hours. The police then Town Hall Square. Under these conditions, percent pay rise, with an Home in Auckland, New Zealand, April 7. cleared the streets outside their lines be- protest organizers abandoned their plan to added one percent for some, fore letting the trapped demonstrators go. march. They called on participants, instead, and an allowance for working weekends, fees charged for patients at the hospital. In a March 27 lead story headlined “Hi- to join another antiwar mobilization sched- backdated for the 12 months negotiations One picketer, a psychiatric nurse with 32 jacked by hatred,” Sydney’s Daily Tele- uled for April 13 by the “Walk Against have been underway, according to Nurses years experience, explained that most graph reported Assistant Police Commis- War” coalition. This group organized a se- Organisation organiser Jane Kostanich. workers start at around $9 per hour sioner Richard Adams’s claim that “A large ries of large peace parades here over the The workers, who last won a pay rise (NZ$1.00=US$0.55c). Her wage after 12 group of Middle Eastern males started to last few months. As the April 2 rally broke after a strike four years ago, point to how years at Glenburn has topped out at $12 an engage and incite the police.” up, police arrested eight students when a low their wages are compared to the high hour. “When it turns ugly and they come ready small group continued to protest.

16 The Militant April 28, 2003