workers.org Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! SEPT. 8, 2005 VOL. 47, NO. 35 50¢ Billions spent for Iraq war Ruptura en la organización laboral favorece los ataques anti-sindicales 12 Relief for the rich, WW EDITORIAL disaster for the poor Hurricane Katrina U.S. gov’t guilty Hurricane tragedy could of criminal neglect lmost all of the death, injury, have been averted A damage and destruction arising from hurricane Katrina is the result of the crimes of the Bush By Larry Hales administration. TROOPS OUT NOW!. Aug. 31, 3:15 p.m. EDT—The mayor of New Orleans has just President Bush was criminally Camp Casey Crawford, Detroit 6-7 negligent in diverting funds that had announced that hundreds, probably thousands, have been killed been requested to protect the people by Hurricane Katrina. Sept. 24 momemtum grows 7 of New Orleans for use in the crimi- Last year in the midst of hurricane season, as Hurricane Ivan— a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which cate- nal war of conquest in Iraq. The Constitutional quagmire 9 Bush administration did this in full gorizes hurricanes based on barometric pressure, winds and IRAQ knowledge of the impending danger. storm surge—was bearing down on New Orleans, the city set The highest government agency in aside 10,000 body bags. Hurricane Ivan was to be the storm that forecasters were suspecting would level the entire city. Continued on page 10 New Orleans is essentially a bowl. It is below sea-level and sur- rounded by water. New Orleans is flanked by Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Levees and pumps keep the city dry. A storm like Hurricane Ivan would have wiped the levees out, destroyed the pumps and have left parts of the city submerged A HISTORIC MEETING under nearly 20 feet of water. The water would have grown stag- Leaders of nant, teeming with bacteria and the dead, and oil and gas would Million Continued on page 11 Worker March & Millions Global actions demand: More Movement PHOTO CREDIT: O'NEIL NANCO Louis Farrakhan 4 Stop the execution & Chris Silvera of Frances Newton By Gloria Rubac Houston RACIST DEATH PENALTY VENEZUELA Lena Baker Support for Frances Newton pardoned Revolutionary grows daily. From every corner of Houston, the fourth-largest too late communities, city in the country, people have 3 social missions 8 been moved by Newton’s case —and have turned their disbelief and outrage at the injustice Oil for the people 8 done her into action to stop her Sept. 14 execution. From around the United States and the world people are MARCH ON THE WHITE HOUSE We have responding to an email campaign on the FreeFrances.org web the power BRING to do it site and the iacenter.org web site. They are sending postcards to THE End the TROOPS SEPT 24 Occupations the governor and showing DVDs of Newton speaking. HOME of Iraq, Palestine, SUBSCRIBE TO Frances Newton, who has maintained her innocence, is NOW! Afghanistan scheduled to be put to death by the state of Texas for the 1988 HEALTHCARE WORKERS WORLD NOT WARFARE killings of her husband Adrian, her 7-year-old son Alton, and NO DRAFT SHUT NO WAY! Trial subscription: $2 for 8 weeks her 21-month-old daughter Farrah. Her state appeal was EDUCATION One year subscription: $25 NOT denied in August. Her case in now in the federal courts. OCCUPATION Stop Threats She would be the first African American woman executed in IT’S OUR Military Recruiters FUTURE Out of Our Schools Against NAME Texas since 1854, when an enslaved Black woman named Lucy THE Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, North Korea was hanged in Galveston. Stop the War and Africa Against the U.S.OUT ADDRESS In July, Newton’s attorneys filed an addition to an application Black, Stop the of the Latin@, war on Philippines, HOUSING women & for a writ of habeas corpus when it was discovered Assistant Puerto Rico Arab &Muslim lesbian, and Haiti Communities NOT gay, bi, WAR trans District Attorney Roe Wilson, who handles all death row appeals BOMBS CITY/STATE/ZIP people from Houston, had admitted to a Dutch journalist what Newton’s family had known for 18 years: There was another gun Support the JOBS Palestinian EMAIL PHONE involved in the murders. NOT DOWN! People’s WORKERS WORLD NEWSPAPER Right to Frances Newton wound up on death row because she was Return 55 W. 17 St. NY, NY 10011 212-627-2994 WAR JOIN THE MILLIONS MORE MOVEMENT OCT 14,15,16 www.workers.org forced to take court-appointed attorney Ron Mock, known for TROOPS OUT NOW COALITION For bus tickets call 212-633-6646 www.troopsoutnow.org 212- 633-6646 Continued on page 3 Volunteer: 39 W. 14 St., #206, NY, NY 10011 TONC is a member of the Sept. 24 National Coalition initiated by the ANSWER coalition Labor donated 7/05 Page 2 Sept. 8, 2005 www.workers.org Mattachine victory In the U.S. sparks internal debate Relief for the rich, disaster for the poor. 1 Stop the execution of Frances Newton . 1 By Leslie Feinberg torian John D’Emilio relates, “had little if any sense of sol- Mattachine victory sparks internal debate . 2 idarity with other oppressed gays and no allegiance, Hay ‘Extradite Posada Carriles!’ . 3 The successful defense of a Mattachine founder against felt, to the long-term goal of building a powerful, militant ‘Free the computers for Cuba!’ . 3 criminal charges stemming from police entrapment in the mass movement for homosexual rights.” (“Making Justice for Lena Baker . 3 summer of 1952 was a heady victory, expanding the mem- Trouble”) Notes from a conversation with Louis Farrakhan . 4 bership at a geometric rate. Northwest strike . 4 The campaign against police entrapment had success- Skittish professionals New York forum hears immigrant organizers . 5 fully taken the organization’s activist work into the pub- In an attempt to create at least one flexible public orga- The Case of Lynne Stewart. 5 lic arena. However, the campaign itself had been organ- nizational vehicle for movement building, the leadership Camp Casey, Crawford, Texas. 6 ized in the name of an ad-hoc, single-issue committee, did resolve in February to incorporate the Mattachine ‘It's women who will stop this war!’ . 6 which provided greater freedom for mobilizing the Foundation in California as a not-for-profit educational Bedford-Stuyvesant rally . 7 grassroots effort. organization in order to take another step into Anti-war activists pursue Bush back to D.C. 7 Almost immediately this presented a crisis the public arena. Left-wing lawyer Fred Snider Milwaukee: Blow to recruiters. 7 for Mattachine. New leadership was needed handled the incorporation. John Johnson: Why his death went unnoticed . 10 for the growing number of discussion groups. The Mattachine leaders hoped that an Unlike the small circle of founding members, incorporated foundation could openly con- Around the world who built a leadership based on a “consensus duct research into homosexuality and use the Venezuela offers oil for the people . 8 of principle,” the gay men and lesbians who findings to create mass education about Eyewitness Caracas . 8 flocked to Mattachine now did so because it homosexual rights. To do so, the foundation Iraq's constitutional quagmire. 9 Unity soccer match between North, South Korea . 9 spoke to social needs that arose from their PART 46 could reach out for heterosexual support— oppression. However, they did not necessar- including professionals and public officials. Bush ‘morality’ cuts funding for HIV education . 11 The entire ily share the political view of the founding The foundation could also ease the fears of Lavender & Editorials leaders that homosexuals were an oppressed the mass membership in Mattachine about Red series, which minority who needed to unite in collective who the leaders of the organization were and Hurricane Katrina: Gov't guilty of criminal neglect . 1 explores the history political activism to bring about social change. who was organizing the discussion groups at of the socialist Noticias En Español These new members wanted to know who a historical moment when such doubts always movement and Ruptura en la organización laboral . 12 the leaders were and where the direction for the struggle for fanned the flames of anti-communism. the discussion groups was coming from. sexual & gender Chuck Rowland, a Mattachine founder, During the frenzy and fear of the McCarthyite liberation, can drew up a four-page pamphlet announcing the witch hunt, all such anxieties were directed be read online at establishment of the foundation by a group of against communists. And the founding mem- www.workers.org. Los Angeles residents. Basing its arguments WW CALENDAR bers were communists. on Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s study of male sexuality, The secret “underground” structure of leaders that pro- published in 1948, the pamphlet debunked many of the LOS ANGELES. NEW YORK. tected the anonymity of the founding core—the Fifth pejorative attitudes about homosexuality. “But homosex- Friday Every Friday Order—strained the need for above-ground political uals as such have only limited social and legal rights,” the Sept. 8 IAC Forum: Ruth Vela Workers World Party meeting. and Justino Jimenez of San Diego Come hear Marxist analyses and organizing. Same-sex love was still illegal, though, mak- pamphlet emphasized, “in fact, our whole society is organ- FIST will give an eyewitness lively discussion of world events ing the problem of creating a homosexual rights organi- ized to keep them completely oppressed.” report from the World Conference and working class struggles. 7 of Students and Youth held in pm. (Dinner at 6:30) At 55 W.