Philippines: heat is on Marcos . • • • . • 3 TH£ Socialist Workers Party Nat'l Committee meets. 8 Castro on international politics . 10 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 50/NO. 8 FEBRUARY 28, 1986 75 CENTS Phila. Unionists, farmers back action hits fight against Hormel racist BY JIM ALTENBERG violence AND ANDREA GONZALEZ AUSTIN, Minn. - Four thousand BY HALKET ALLEN unionists, farmers and their families, and PHILADELPHIA- In spite of the bit" students from all over the country gathered ter cold weather, 4,000 people rallied and here February 15 to protest attempts to bust demonstrated in downtown Philadelphia United Food and Commercial Workers against racist violence. Local P-9. The UFCW local has been on The march was organized by the Na­ strike six months against the Harmel meat­ tional Mobilization Against Racism. It was packing company in this southern Min­ initiated to put a spotlight on the racist na­ nesota town. ture of the Philadelphia city government Hundreds of steelworkers, auto workers, and its police force. teachers, truck drivers, refinery workers About 50 buses carried protesters from longshoremen, public employees, and hos­ Boston, Detroit, New York, Albany, pital workers marched carrying signs Washington, D.C., and many other cities. identifying their unions. Farm activists There were car caravans from several from the Midwest also participated, as well college campuses, including Amherst, as a number of high school and college stu­ Cornell, Brown, Oberlin, and in the dents. Philadelphia area from Swarthmore, Tem­ At the rally site, a large banner that read ple, and the University of Pennsylvania. "Guard out of Austin" was brought onto Unions sent buses from many cities as the stage. The National Guard, called out well. One bus from Detroit was sponsored by the Minnesota governor on January 21 , by United Auto Workers (UAW) Local15. remains in Austin herding scabs for Har­ It included auto workers and high school mel. Although there are several hundred students. The Albany, New York, Central scabs in the struck plant, production re­ MilitanUAdrienne Kaplan Labor Council sponsored a bus. mains minimal. Four thousand unionists, farmers, and students marched in Austin, Minnesota, Feb­ At the opening rally at JFK Plaza, West ruary 15 in national solidarity action with striking Hormel workers there. Philadelphia NAACP leader Chauncy In the week leading up to the march and Campbell told the demonstrators, "We must rally, the courts and big-business media protest the May 13 MOVE bombing that launched new attacks on the local. The press, however, failed in its attempt ing paperworkers from Ohio, and workers was heard around the world. We must sup­ On February 14 the right to picket was to undercut solidarity for P-9, and on strike against Libby in Kansas City. port the freedom struggle here and wherever further limited when Judge Bruce Stone, in thousands came for the rally. This reflects A spirited parade proceeded from the people are struggling for their rights." an amendment to an earlier injunction, lim­ the view among a growing number of local's union hall to Austin High School, Jim Bell , president of the New York City ited access to the area around the plant to working people that P-9's strike is an im­ where an indoor rally was held. The use of Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, said, six strikers or supporters at any one time. portant battle for them. It demonstrates the the high school for the rally was a victory "Whenever racism rears its ugly head, we The judge ordered union officials and inspiration. working people are drawing in itself since Harmel had pressured school must fight and march like we did in the the union's consultant, Ray Rogers, to sign from P-9's determined fight to win a decent officials not to allow the union access to 1960s." letters of agreement with the injunction or contract. the building. Bell, a leader of the New York anti-apart­ face jail terms. A measure of this solidarity was the pre­ heid movement, also invited everyone to Newspapers across the country pub­ sence at· the rally of many workers who After Austin Mayor Tom Kough, a Har­ come to New York on June 14 for a march lished articles and editorials declaring that themselves are currently fighting for a de­ mel striker, welcomed everyone, Jim · against South Africa's apartheid regime. the strike was over and the union was cent contract. They included those on Guyette, president of Local P-9, spoke. He After the opening rally, the march busted. strike against the Chicago Tribune. strik- Continued on Page 5 stepped off, stretching over six solid blocks. Demonstrators chanted, "Police and Klan go hand in hand," "Hey, hey, ho, ho, racism has to go," and "Free Mandela, Caribbean conference calls jail Botha." There were banners from District 65 of the U A W, American Postal Workers Union, American Federation of State, for international actions County and Municipal Employees Local 1971, Amalgamated Transit Union Local BY MAC WARREN languages and cultural traditions, which tered some advances in this process. 1210, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, MANAGUA, Nicaragua - The Anti­ have been historically divided by the im­ Invited to the gathering were delegates and the teachers' union. Many college Imperialist Organization of Central Amer­ perialist powers. from organizations in Central America and campuses and high schools had banners. ica and the Caribbean, meeting here Feb­ Between the first meeting and the second the Caribbean who agree with the group's As the demonstration passed the ruary 8- 9, called for international protests one here, the Anti-Imperialist Organiza­ purpose. The meeting was not open to the Philadelphia police headquarters, chants of on April 28 against imperialist .military in­ tion has attempted to establish an effec­ press, but a news conference was held to "Free Ramona Africa, free Wilfreda San­ tervention in their region. tive, regionwide mode of communication annouoce the results of the meeting and tiago" rang out. and collaboration on political campaigns Ramona Africa is the only adult survivor The gathering also called for a February present a declaration adopted unanimously and activities. The second meeting regis- of the May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police 27 international day of protest against the Continued on Page 13 bombing of the Black organization International Monetary Fund (IMF) and . MOVE. On February 9 she was convicted backed plans for protests against U.S. of criminal conspiracy and riot and faces . President Ronald Reagan's trip to Grenada up to 14 years in prison. February 20 to inaugurate the new airport Latin American parties show Wilfreda Santiago is a young Puerto there. Rican who is being framed up on charges Thirty organizations from 18 countries support for Nicaragua of murdering a Philadelphia cop in May were represented at the meeting. They 1985. He is being held in jail without bail. came from Barbados, Cuba, Cura<rao, BY HARVEY McARTHUR in the struggle against U.S. intervention in The demonstrators also called on the·ci ty Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, · Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, MANAGUA, Nicaragua - "You have Central America. officials to enforce the fair housing laws expressed your conviction that much of the and arrest and prosecute those carrying out Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, fate of Latin America is at stake in the fight At the opening session, Nicaraguan racist and anti-Semitic violence. Dominican Republic, St. Vincent, St. now being waged by the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega told the delegates Last November the homes of two Black Lucia, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, and people," Commander of the Revolution that "the will and the fighting determina· families were the center of racist mob vio­ Nicaragua. Bayardo Arce told 170 delegates who came tion of the people" had changed Latin lence aimed at forcing them out of an all­ This was the second consultative meet­ from 11 5 political parties in Latin America America in the last decade. It is no longer white area of southwest Philadelphia. The ing of the Anti-Imperialist Organization . and the Caribbean. "You have affirmed the same as the 1960s, Ortega said, when city's inaction led to one of the families The group was founded in June 1984 in the that this small country of Nicaragua can the United States could isolate revolution­ leaving their home. Later the home was aftermath of the overthrow of the Grenada count on the support of the peoples of the ary Cuba, back Anastasio Somoza, Fran­ burned to the ground by arsonists. revolution and the U.S. invasion and occu­ world and in particular of all Latin Ameri­ <rois Duvalier, and similar dictators, and Widespread public outrage forced the pation of that island. Caribbean and Cen­ cans." count on servile support from other Latin FBI to finally take some action January 7 tral American organizations came together Arce was addressing the Conference of American governments. and arrest four young whites for arson. in Havana in response to that invasion and Political Parties of Latin America and the The conference selected Ruben Berrios, In December a Jewish community center the imperialist militarization of the entire Caribbean on Peace and Nonintervention president of the Puerto Rican Indepen­ was burned down in south Philadelphia. region. in Central America. It was held here Feb­ dence Party, to speak on behalf of all the The cops have done little to apprehend Delegates to the Havana meeting recog­ ruary 10-12. The Sandinista government delegates at the opening session. Berrios those responsible. nized the challenge of uniting groups from sponsored the meeting to promote broader denounced the U.S. colonial occupation of At the closing rally, Godfrey Sithole of these various nations, with many different discussion and stimulate greater solidarity Continued on Page 12 Continued on Page 12 Plant gate sales build support for Minn.