· AUSTRALIA $1.50 · CANADA $1.25 · FRANCE 1.00 EURO · NEW ZEALAND $1.50 · SWEDEN KR10 · UK £.50 · U.S. $1.00 INSIDE How attempts to shut abortion clinics were defeated in early ’90s — PAGE 9 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 73/NO. 23 JUNE 15, 2009 Washington Protests say: abortion is a seeks new sanctions woman’s right to choose! Vigils condemn killing of clinic doctor in Kansas on N. Korea BY TED LEONARD BY BEN Joyce AND MAGGIE TROWE The U.S. government and its impe- WICHITA, Kansas—Just hours af- rialist allies have condemned a recent ter Dr. George Tiller was shot to death, nuclear test and missile launches by about 400 people joined a candlelight North Korea. Washington and Tokyo vigil here May 31 to protest his killing are pressing for a UN resolution to and defend a woman’s right to choose impose more punitive sanctions and abortion. other measures against the country In nearby Lawrence 150 people for daring to challenge their dictates. participated in a similar vigil that Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to night. In the days following the doc- the United Nations, said June 1 that tor’s death, similar events took place the UN Security Council was “mak- throughout Kansas and the Midwest, ing progress” in coming up with a and across the country. new resolution that may involve new sanctions on North Korea. A partial MOBILIZE TO DEFEND draft of the resolution obtained by the Associated Press May 29 calls on WOMEN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE! all governments “immediately to en- Editorial —p. 11 force” all sanctions currently in place, AP photo/Orlin Wagner referring to restrictions on banking Tiller, 67, a physician at the Wom- Hundreds gather for vigil at Old Town Square in Wichita, Kansas, May 31 to protest kill- and trade that were imposed after ing of Dr. George Tiller earlier that day. Tiller was one of only a handful of doctors in en’s Health Care Services clinic here, United States who perform late-term abortions. North Korea tested a nuclear weapon was killed during services at the Ref- in 2006. ormation Lutheran Church where he Tiller, one of the few doctors in the egon, California, Idaho, and Nevada. U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates was ushering. A longtime rightist, United States who performed late-term In the summer of 1991 rightist forc- attended an Asia Security conference Scott Roeder, has been arrested and abortions, had been the target of rightist es carried out mobilizations aiming to in Singapore May 30, where he said charged with first-degree murder. attacks for many years. His clinic was shut down Wichita abortion clinics, that Washington would not “stand idly Trina Wheeler, 49, co-president of bombed in 1986, and in 1993 antiabor- including Tiller’s. by as North Korea builds the capabil- the Wichita chapter of the National tion rightist Rachelle Shannon shot him Liberal politicians who claim to be ity to wreak destruction on any tar- Organization for Women (NOW), told in both arms. Shannon was convicted pro-choice have made recent over- get in Asia.” He said the progress that the Militant, “The next action is the for the assault, and later confessed to tures to opponents of abortion rights, North Korea has made on developing defense on Saturday for the funeral setting fires at abortion clinics in Or- Continued on page 5 nuclear weapons is a “harbinger of a services for Tiller. The antiwoman dark future.” forces will be there.” Wheeler en- The U.S. government controls a couraged all who can to come to the N.Y. mayor plans deeper attacks Continued on page 4 funeral and join in the defense. on workers, seeks third term GM to lay off thousands more BY cindy jaQuith Fein, puts forward a platform to unite NEW YORK—The race for mayor working people to defend their class of New York City, the political and interests. in gov’t-brokered bankruptcy financial center of the United States, Two-term incumbent Michael BY brian wiLLiamS to about $1.3 billion in annual cut- is emerging as the most important Bloomberg is running for a third General Motors filed for bank- backs that include slashing benefits electoral contest in the country, as the term, virtually unopposed by other ruptcy June 1. For 77 years, it was the and freezing wages. employers and their local government capitalist candidates. Bloomberg is a world’s largest auto company. The company, in collaboration with step up assaults on the living condi- billionaire who has been in the fore- Several days earlier the United the Obama administration, insists that tions of the working class. front nationally of the bosses’ attacks Auto Workers (UAW) approved a ma- this will be a quick bankruptcy, creat- In response to these attacks, the on jobs, cuts in social services, and jor concessionary contract amounting ing a much smaller, “new” GM based Socialist Workers Party candidate for curtailment of workers’ rights. on half its previous car lines—Cadil- mayor, sewing-machine operator Dan A vocal backer of the “war on ter- lac, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC. The ror,” he recently awarded certificates Washington, rest, dubbed “old” GM—including Continued on page 7 Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, and Hummer— Court drops Tel Aviv spar will be shut down and liquidated in a process that could take years. case against This is the third largest bankruptcy Also Inside: over settlements in U.S. history, Bloomberg reported. BY Seth gaLinSky The company announced it was clos- Iowa unionist N.Y. homeless may have In a sharp rebuke to Israeli prime ing 11 plants and “idling” three more. BY CHUCK GUERRA to pay rent for shelters 2 minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. It will also slash 21,000 jobs from the AND MAGGIE TROWE secretary of state Hillary Clinton current union workforce at GM of MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa—In a ‘People’s Weekly World’ insisted May 28 that Tel Aviv must about 54,000. In 1970 the company victory for immigrant rights, the U.S. backs U.S. gov’t on N. Korea 4 freeze Jewish settlements in the West employed 395,000 workers. District Court in Des Moines, Iowa, Bank. Also impacted by the bankruptcy dismissed charges May 12 against 5,000 workers march in President Barack Obama “wants to are some 300,000 employees at GM unionist Braulio Pereyra-Gabino of England against layoffs 5 see a stop to settlements—not some dealerships, many of which are slated “harboring illegal aliens.” settlements, not outposts, not ‘natural to close, and hundreds of thousands Pereyra-Gabino, a former vice Cuban 5: ‘Our spirits lifted growth’ exceptions,” Clinton said. “And of workers at auto parts companies president of Local 1149 of the United by world support’ 8 Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Continued on page 3 N.Y. homeless may have to pay rent for shelters BY dan fein berg said, “and we’re told we have to NEW YORK—City officials have do it, so we’re going to do it.” temporarily backed off from plans to A state official said the rent col- make workers in homeless shelters lection will affect about 2,000 of the pay rent if they have a job. more than 9,000 families in New York Authorities had announced in early City shelters. More than 500 families May that shelter operators would be- were informed that they were being gin requiring working residents to charged rent starting May 1. pay a certain percentage of their pay- “Families have been told to pay check. The amount could be as much up or get out,” said Steven Banks, as 50 percent of their monthly income, the chief attorney for the Legal Aid officials said. The move is part of the Society. “We’ve already had a case push by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, of a survivor of domestic violence Patrick Markee/Coalition for the Homeless who was actually locked out of her Chart shows increase in number of families living in New York City shelters. City officials with bipartisan support, for across- want to force those with family members working to pay rent. the-board cuts in funds for education, room.” health care, transportation, and other Shakiema Johnson has lived with Johnson described the scrutiny ap- “Everyone here has some kind of in- social services. her two young children in a shelter plicants undergo to gain admission. come,” she noted, “a job, unemploy- On May 21 the deputy commis- in Harlem since March of this year. “They look into where you have lived, ment compensation, Social Security, sioner of the Department of Homeless Johnson told the Militant that city of- or where you got mail,” she said. welfare. Eventually they are going to Services said that the rent program ficials had denied her application for “This new policy is not fair. If I had want everyone to pay some rent.” was shelved until “technical issues” a shelter many times, insisting she enough money to pay rent, I wouldn’t were resolved. instead live with her grandmother. It be here.” Dan Fein is the Socialist Workers Vanessa Dacosta, who earns $8.40 took her grandmother’s death for her Sinnamon Jackson lives at the Party candidate for mayor of New an hour as a cashier, received a notice to get into a shelter. same Harlem shelter with her child. York City. under her door in early May inform- ing her that she owed $336, nearly half of her $800 monthly wages, to Palestine relief fund defendants to appeal sentences the Clinton Family Inn, a shelter in BY STEVE WarsHell velopment, a charity based in Rich- He then pronounced what amounted Manhattan where she has lived since HOUSTON—Five men convicted ardson, Texas.