WORKERS VIIN(JIJIIR' 25¢ t..ln .. ;';;'i.~,~.• ~2J 1'0 .... 215 '. '~6b""!" .. 22 September 1978 Down with the Shah! Down with the Mullahs! • ran In I For Proletarian Revolution Not Islamic Reaction On Septemher S, this summer's uninterrupted waH: of massi\C protests against the hrutal Iranian monarch~ reached a grisly climax \vhen the shah's Royal Guard poured machine gun fire into the ranks of an anti-government demonstration in Teheran. At least a thousand protesters were slaughtered in the greatest single massacre in decades. Ihe l.ondon Guardian's Teheran corre­ spondent, Lif Thurgood, gave this e\cwitness account: In a hrutal display of military force, troops and small tanb opened fire at Y·.20 am. vesterdav in Madan Jaleh [.Ialeh Slju,lre] at a spot where hetween 5.()()O and IO.OOD young people had gathered lor a peaeeful demonstration a~ainst the Shah. Men. women. and Y;lung children, many splattered with hloc,d. ran screaming. 'Thev're killing Setbourld,.'S iP;;:B';:;~},"Star us. the\'re killiilg us'." Anti-shah demonstration in Teheran before troops fired into crowd, killing over 1,000. Guardian 9 Septemher later doubled the figure. In a Majlis According to other reports, tanks treated by makeshift medical teams in trucks. Shooting continued into the ("parliament") debate shown on nation­ moved in from the corners of the square, the homes of sympathizers. night. when exchanges of gunfire al television, opposition deputies de­ crushing corpses and wounded alike. Marchers elsewhere in the city were between troops and unknown oppo­ similarly gunned down. The enraged nents were reported. nounced this obvious lie. And now even Hundreds of wounded swamped the the U.S. embassy is admitting to 500 hospitals. where many died because the survivors retreated through the city. At Jaleh Square soldiers loaded the attacking banks. luxury stores and dead and dying into trucks while fire dead. supply of doctors and medical supplies In response Teheran and other major was inadequate for the number of government offices. The crowds over­ engines washed the blood off the streets. turned and burned autos in an attempt Although the government initially Iranian cities were placed under martial victims. Many more. fearing the likeli­ continued on page 4 hood of arrest at the hospitals, were to block the patrolling tanks and army claimed that a mere 50 had been killed, it Camp David Hoax True to the Carter style. much of SEPTEMBER 19 After 13 days House imposed news blackout, the "miracle" of Camp David was of closed-door wrangling with Carter staged a theatrical televised simply media hokum. In his tele­ Egyptian president Anwar Sadat ceremony where he outlined two vised address from the White House and Israeli prime minister Mena­ pacts said to represent a dramatic Carter glossed over most of the chern Begin, Jimmy Carter sudden­ breakthrough. Amid much hug­ details of the two pacts, emphasiz­ ly announced last Sunday that the ging. hand clasping and laughing ing instead how brotherhood and trilateral summit meeting on the hetween Sadat and Begin, Carter reconciliation had triumphed. On Ncar East held at Camp David had announced to the nation that peace the spot to say something on such a resulted in a far-reaching "frame­ was at hand for the Near East, work for peace." Ending the White possibly within a matter of months. continued on page 11 >- ~ c c OJ ~ OJ E :0 I -0 ;; o'" Court Dismis.ses "Outside Agitator" Charg~ SYL Victory at Chicago Circle Campus CII ICA(iO On August 15 the li niver­ student groups. During the past year the Publicity over the witchhunt greatly a May II anti-Zionist demonstration sitv 01 Illinois Chicago Circle (UICC) trlCC administration has banned the embarrassed the Circle Campus admin­ (on the same trespass charges) and has administration was thwarted in its salc of newspapers by campus organiza­ istration. Articles on the defense ap­ announced its intention to aid the attempt to drive the Spartacus Youth tions. threatened to evict five student peared in the ChicaRo Sun- Times. the prosecution of anti-shah Iranians (see league (SYL) off campus when Judge groups from their offices (including the Reader and ChicaRo Weekend. Their "U ICC Admin. Does SAVAK Dirty .lohn .I. McDonald dismissed criminal student government!) and kicked union inLjuisitorial ban exposed before a wide Work," YOllnR Spartacus No. 65, tn:spass chargcs against SYL activist organi/ers off campus as "outsiders." public audience, the UICC authorities Summer 1978). The SYL victory can Sandor John. After months of delay The Spartacus Youth League was took a red-faced dive. After the court and should provide a springboard for a costing hundreds of dollars in legal singled out for a purge intended to cow finally dismissed the charges, one campaign to defend all victims of these expenses for the defense. the circuit all the administration's opponents. But eampus official remarked: "The whole academic McCarthys.• court finally ruled in favor ofthe motion in response the SYL initiated a united­ ineident was unfortunate and really by John's lawyer David Thomas to front campaign to defend the democrat­ shouldn't have happened. Some people dismiss thc case on broad constitutional ic rights of all faculty, students and thought that John shouldn't have forced grounds. holding that political activity campus workers under attack. The the issue. But that didn't make the arrest Despite the court victory, out­ by "non-students" at the li ICC Campus committee held rallies and meetings. right" (ChicaRo Sun- Times, 16 August). standing legal expenses remain. Center could not be prohibited by and reeeived an impressive array of Of course. for the administration the WV urges its readers to aid the administrative fiat. endorsements. including the Circle arrest was an "unfortunate" error only campaign with a contribution to the The court's dismissal confirmed what student government, Circle Women's because it was forced to publicly back Sandor John Defense Fund, which the SYL had said from the outset: the Liberation Union and the Young down. is being administered by the Parti­ san Defense Committee. Please Novembcr 22 arrest and permanent Socialist Alliance as well as prominent The modest yet real victory of the send contributions/make checks campus ban of Sandor John was a professors. labor leaders and newspaper Sandor John defense weakens the UICC payable to: Partisan Defense Com­ McCarthy-style witchhunt of leftist columnists from across the country. The authorities' hand. but it has not ended mittee (earmarked Sandor John "outside agitators." It was part of a SYL also initiated a broad-ranging civil their vicious assaults against free speech Defense Fund), P.O. Box 6729, wider net of intimidation, aimed parti­ suit with the American Civil Liberties and the left. The administration conti­ Main P.O., Chicago, IL 60680 cularly at left-wing faeulty, students, Union against U ICC's gag-rule nues to prosecute a group of Palestinian campus workers and Arab and Iranian harassment. and Latin American students arrested at Free Nahuel Moreno and Rita Strasberg! The lives of two Argentine socialists, United Secretariat as well as exiled Sa Leal, a representative from the Janeiro. Internationally, telegrams and Nahuel Moreno (Hugo Bressano) and leader of the Argentine Socialist Work­ Portuguese PRT who has since been protest letters denouncing the arrests Rita Strasberg, are in grave danger ers Party (PST). He and his companion released following protests from the have been sent by leaders ofthe Spanish following their arrest August 22 by Strasberg were among 22 activists Portuguese parliament. At press time, Socialist Party. the Bolivian Miners Brazilian police. Now being held prison­ rounded up in Sao Paulo late last month eight of the Brazilian militants seized in Union Federation and others. er in Sao Paulo, the two are threatened in a police raid after a public meeting of the roundup remain in jail. On September 6, in response to the with deportation to Argentina where the Socialist Convergence group. Ac­ The arrests may be the opening shot PST appeal. the Ligue Trotskyste de they face probable torture and possible cording to a PST communique (Rouge, in a new wave of repression by the Geisel France and the Organizacion Trotskista death. It is the duty of the workers 5 September) the group seeks to government. For more than a decade movement and all those concerned with establish a -- Brazilian socialist party. the Brazilian military dictatorship has democratic rights to take up the fight to Accused of being members of a imposed its rule of savage terror, stilling "Trotskyist-line" group, the Liga Ope­ 6 September 1978 save Moreno and Strasberg from the liberal criticism by pointing to its fabled infamous Brazilian esquadras da morte r;"nia [Workers League], which had Brazilian Embassy "economic miracle." which brought 34 Cours Albert (death sLjuads) and the bloody hangmen allegedly "infiltrated" Socialist Conver­ increased prosperity for the rich by gence. the were charged with violat­ 75008 Paris, France of the Videla junta! 22 imposing starvation wages on the ing the National Security Law banning Nahuel Moreno (the pen name under workers. However. with the collapse of The Ligue Trotskyste de France which Bressano is known on the left) is a "suhversive" political parties. the "economic miracle" in the 1974-76 and the Organizacion Trotskista Among those arrested at the Socialist longtime self-proclaimed Trotskyist. worldwide capitalist depression, and Revolucionaria de Chile, sympa­ head of the Bolshevik Tendency of the Comergence conference was Antonio faced with increasing clamor from large thizing sections ofthe international sections of the bourgeoisie for a degree Spartacist tendency, demand the of political liheralization. even Geisel immediate freeing of Hugo Bressa­ hegan mouthing vague calls for the no, Antonio Sa Leal, and Rita advent of "rdativ e democracy." But in Strasberg and the twenty militants the mo,t recent period.