WfJRIlERI ",16(;(/,1" 25¢ No. 336 .~:';~~: X_,523 12 August 1983 W\I Photo Washington, D.C., 27 November 1982-5,000 jubilant demonstrators charge up Capitol Hill after Labor/Black Mobilization stops Klan march, '!:lIif "~'%I&iiUi ~~v:s.:Ql!jI'i'W_"'_~,~ 8Dor,BI8CkS: on'l raw tor Rooseveltian coalition which flopped so shown in Washington, D.C. last No­ Malcolm X blasted the 1963 March Democrat in the White House. That's miserably at the polls after four years of vember 27 when 5,000 responded to the on Washington, calling it the "Farce on . all. This march isn't about jobs, nor Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. It is call of the Spartacist-initiated Labor/ Washington." But he wasn't laughing as freedom, nor peace. And it's certainly this coalition which ties the working Black Mobilization and stopped the Ku he lashed out against M.L. King & Co. not about a new civil rights movement. class and oppressed minorities to its Klux Klan from marching in the who were sinking the black struggle in They aren't even making promises this sworn enemies through the treachery of nation's capital. This direct blow against the cesspool of the Democratic Party. time. "Still have a dream?" How about a the labor tops and black politicos. The growing racist terror was hailed by Malcolm X was burning mad because he job? A school lunch? A decent educa­ Democratic Party, which black people decent people everywhere who knew knew it was going to take a revolution to tion? These necessities of life are vote for in overwhelming percentages, is that if the Klan had been able to stage win black freedom in America. And the presented as a dream for blacks. at bottom the party of a necessarily their provocation in Washington it 1963 march, like its pale reflection on Thanks to the black misleaders, racist capitalism, the party of George would have meant more black families' August 27, was organized against unlike the 1963 March on Washington, Wallace, the Dixiecrats and even some homes firebombed, more burning militant black struggle. today there isn't even any struggle to sell crosses. But it was the kind of demon­ out. On the contrary, both Democrats open KKKers like California's Tom But if the first march on Washington stration which scares the hell out of and Republicans have been steadily Metzger. was a farce because it undercut black The reformist left is most anxious to Democratic liberals. It was masses of militancy, this time around it's tragedy dismantling even the token gains of the build the anti-Reagan popular front for blacks mobilized in struggle, led by for black America. Now a generation civil rights movement. And the people socialists and backed up by an impor­ on the podium August 27 certainly the Democrats. This is a strategy of later hundreds of thousands will once tant segment of the labor movement. aren't going to do anything to stop this. defeat. Indeed the August 27 march is a again stand with locked arms singing, And it worked. The 1983 march is for nothing but the celebration of defeat. No wonder the "We Shall Overcome" and the "Star Not only did that demonstration stop Democrats. That's why it's supported by Reagan White House, too, wants to get Spangled Banner." Once again the in on the act ofcelebrating black defeats the Klan in its tracks but it took the very words of Martin Luther King will be the bureaucrats ofthe AFL-CIO and the Klan route to the White House for an Cold Warhorses of the ADA. Similarly by making Martin Luther King's birth­ heard: "I have a dream." Now they say, anti-Klan victory march. On November the Labor Day marches planned by the day a national holiday. But another "We still have a dream." Democrat in the White House is no way 27 Washington was not a Klan town, it To the jobless, angry and hungry giveback bureaucrats in fifty cities are to fight racist reaction. The party of belonged to blacks and labor and those black people of this country, the march also crawls for the Democratic so-called Carter/Mondale is no less committed who hailed that demonstration. What organizers say: "Let 'em eat dreams." "friends of labor." than the Republicans to U.S. imperial­ stopped the Klan that day and gave the And what is their lousy dream when you The Democrats are trying to put ism's anti-Soviet war drive paid for by participants in the Labor/Black Mobili- strip away the preachy milk-and-honey together a combination for an electoral attacks against working people, the continued on page 8 rhetoric? They dream of putting a victory in '84. That is the content of the march slogan for a "new coalition of poor and minorities at home. We say: conscience." This coalition is not new, Break with the Democrats! Bring down nor is it one of conscience. It is an Reagan with labor/black action! attempt to repair the tattered old That blacks want to stnlggle was The March on Malcolm X on Washington '63 "Farce on That Wasn't Washington" SEE PAGE 7 SEE PAGE 8 l SYL, Labor/Black League Protest Coleman Young's Racist Curfew DETROIT-"The RenCen should be \UJwn toN ~'. "{ crime. But the real causes of crime lie in ours, but it's Coleman Young's show- . the racist American capitalist system of piece. We say, turn it into a 24-hour m.t\,\~N ~ l\\lN(, -l production for profit, where life is cheap youth center with swimming pools and and the lives of black people are even free video games! ... STRESS killed 16 ~~t\S\ cheaper. The fight against the curfew blacks-Join us and beat STRESS II U)Rf(\.)! was a felt issue among black youth, back!" said Charles DuBois, member of many of whom took stacks of leaflets to the Rouge Militant Caucus of UAW pass out to friends at the local high Local 600. A half-dozen River Rouge ~o,JRtSSli schools. And the Rouge workers who auto workers had come out to an ~\ came out to the demonstration under~ August 3 demonstration at Wayne State stood the need for a class-struggle University, called by the Spartacus program to fight unemployment, and to Youth League (SYL) and Labor/Black .. ~ o-rt\t~S dump the labor traitors. Struggle League (LBSL), to protest Coleman Young had announced the Democratic mayor Coleman Young's ':.1 V~l' \ ~t~b~t campaign to enforce the curfew and racist curfew. WWJ, Detroit's all-news closed the capitalist showpiece Renais­ station, carried coverage of the IAWI1"~! ~ ~"1" ~ sance Center to black youth in late June, demonstration. \ the same week the Democratic National Young's curfew scapegoats Detroit's s tmlCW HNj)l Committee was in town. In 1980 Young black youth for the capitalist crisis , broke the AFSCME sanitation workers' which has created a permanent pool of strike to host the Republican Conven­ 70 percent minority teenage unem­ tion under the slogan, "Detroit Loves a ployed. The curfew was welcomed by Good Party." Breaking black workers' the racist cops who will use it as a license strikes, keeping the "lid" on the ghetto­ for police harassment, intimidation and this is how the black mayors front for murder. The police refer to it as their white capitalist masters. Young STRESS II, "Shop the RenCen, Enjoy was first elected in large part due to Safe Stores," in remembrance of WV-Photo black anger 9ver STRESS I. Now he Detroit, August 3-Ford Rouge workers Join protest called· by SYL and STRESS I, the notorious unit of police Labor/Black Struggle League at Wayne State University. implements STRESS II! killers that routinely gunned down The popular front means that blacks black youth in the early 1970s. deceased relative in Montgomery, Ala­ The anti-curfew demonstration met and working people must eat it­ "This racist curfew sucks, it makes us bama last spring. "Sitdowns Not with considerable polarization among anything not to disrupt the anti-Reagan sitting ducks" was a popular chant ofthe Souplines-Fight for Your Jobs," read Detroit's workers and students, as black Democratic Party coalition. Chuck two dozen demonstrators who rallied a Rouge Militant Caucus sign as Ford's mayor Coleman Young plays on the Fogel, editor of the Wayne State paper across from WSU's MacKenzie Hall. steel division is facing massive layoffs largely black working class' genuine fear The South End, said the curfew would An LBSL sign proclaimed, "Stop the and concessions. An SYL sign, "Rea~ of violence and crime to whip up "create a better business community" by Legal Lynching of the Taylor Family!" gan's Anti-Soviet War Drive Is Killing support for his ominous "emergency keeping youth out of downtown! The This referred to the victimization of Blacks and Labor in America" linked measures." No doubt in this city where Democratic Socialists of America Michigan black workers who defended the wave ofunion-busting, cutbacks and cashiers are enclosed in bullet-proof (DSA) argue that it's "not a burning themselves against a racist cop attack on racist terror in the U.S. to the govern- plexiglass many workers hold illusions issue." The DSA are the pro-imperialist ~-----..,,!" u .........'\),vu."'h..-~ fVH~;;i.OIl policy. that the curfew might just stV' some continued on page 10 L- Protest Police Gangland-Style Murder of Michael Woods Jail Racist Cleveland Killer Cops! CLEVELAND-On July 23 about 50 with a history of atrocities against angry Clevelanders gathered at the blacks, boasts of killing dozens of downtown Justice Center to show Vietnamese.