• AUSTRAUA $2.00 • BARBADOS $2.00 • BELGIUM BF60 • CANADA$2.00 • FRANCE FF10 • ICELAND Kr150 • NEW ZEALAND $2.50 • SWEDEN Kr10 • UK £1.00 • U.S. $1 .50 INSIDE Striking Rhode Island teachers defy jailings to win victory THE -PAGES A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL 56/NO 36 October 9. 1992 Socialist candidate Sweden recesszon• joins picket line with brings on fighting airline workers austerity BY MATILDE ZIMMERMANN measures SEATILE - Alaska Airlines workers here, involved in a sharp contract dispute BY CARL-ERIK ISACSSON with a concession-hungry company, are or­ STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Sweden has ganizing to mobilize their own ranks and been thrust into a political crisis in recent reach out to other workers. Dozens of them weeks as the central bank and government took advantage of the three-day visit of have raised interest rates and proposed aus­ James Warren to hear what the socialist terity measures in response to the recession candidate for president had to say and dis­ and the European currency crash. cuss issues that have come up in their own "This is a crisis for the capitalists, it is a struggle. crisis of their economic system. It is not our Most of the workers at Alaska are mem­ crisis," explained a statement issued by the bers of the International Association of Communist League in Sweden. "It means Machinists (lAM), which organized an ail­ an opportunity and a necessity for working day picket and human billboard alongside people in Sweden, together with workers a busy highway at the airport September and farmers all over the world, to build 25. Organizers estimated that 500 people solidarity to fight for our rights." participated in the course of the day, with After the Finnish currency was devalued never less than I 00 in attendance. Warren 13 percent September 8, for the second time walked the picket line for more than an in less than a year, the Swedish krona came hour, was introduced to at least half the under heavy pressure. The central bank raised workers there, and got into a wide range of interest rates - ftrSt to 75 percent and later discussions. Militant/Harvey McArthur to 500 percent - to stop currency from being "It's a world economy, and they want to James Wlrren (second from rigbt) joins picket line with Alaska Airlines workers. taken out of the country. bring us down to Third World level instead Both Sweden and Finland have been of bringing the others up," a mechanic with drawn into the worldwide depression. 25 years at Alaska told Warren. "Ifthey have A long-time union fighter who is also an Flight Attendants, said proudly that 50 Growth rates are negative for the second to destroy a million people, they will," elder of the Haida Native American nation Alaska flight attendants had come to the year in a row. Unemployment is up agreed his friend, "with guns or economi­ in Kotzebue. Alaska, said "without the picket during the course of the day. Warren sharply. In Sweden the unemployment rate cally." A baggage handler told the presiden­ union, we· d be completely sunk"-a talked to workers about his recent trip to increased from 1.2 percent at the beginning tial candidate his relatives in Missouri were theme repeated by the other workers. Gail Cuba, about what happened in the Soviet of 1990 to 7 percent today. Finland's un- miners on strike for safety reasons. Bigelow, a leader of the Association of Continued on Page 9 Continued on Page 3 United Auto Workers union strikes Immigration giant Michigan car assembly plant cops arrest BYJOHNSARGE spills and fires in the plant where the com­ 300 Nebraska LANSING, Michigan- In response to pany refused to evacuate people or even stop increasingly harsh moves by General Mo­ production." tors (GM) to cut jobs, 4,200 members of A trim-shop worker at another gate ex­ meat-packers United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 602 plained that his department superintendent struck the auto giant's Lansing car assembly had told his crew that management plans to BY SARA LOBMAN plant Saturday. September 26. reorganize jobs so that people on the line Three hundred and seven workers were UAW members walked out at 10:00 a.m., would have 57 seconds of work every min­ arrested when more than 200 armed federal, in the middle of the day shift, after GM had ute. He has been told that the company's state, and local cops, some from as far away refused for months to negotiate over a long goal "is to produce this car in 26.6 hours. as Alaska and Puerto Rico, invaded the list of local grievances. Local union vice­ Now it takes between 29 and 30 hours. Monfort packinghouse in Grand Island, Ne­ president Jim Frazier explained that the When we started it was over 35 hours." braska the evening of September 22. The fight was "over manpower standards, over­ As part of GM's downsizing and speed­ workers were charged with using counterfeit loading of jobs, health and safety issues, and up drive, they cut 350 jobs in August by identification cards to get jobs. the moves by the company to cut jobs." switching from tag relief breaks to a mass This is the largest number of arrests in an This is the second strike involving local relief system. The new system, where all immigration raid since the Immigration Re­ issues to hit GM in a month. On August 27, workers take their breaks simultaneously, form and Control Act went into effect in 2400 members of UAW Local 1714 struck eliminates the relief jobs. Some of the work 1986. Hundreds of employees were indis­ the Lordstown, Ohio, metal fabrication of relief people is being shifted onto line criminately seized during a work break and plant. After a nine-day strike that idled more workers. herded into the cafeteria. Guards surrounded than 42,000 GM workers and thousands of GM has big stakes in this confrontation. the plant so that no one could enter or leave. other auto parts workers, the company was The Detroit Free Press reports that GM is A helicopter and dogs were used to hunt forced to back down on immediate job cuts motivated, in part, by a desire to show in­ down workers trying to escape. The raid in the plant. The Lansing plant was down vestors that it will not abandon its downsiz­ started at 6:00 p.m. and the last busload of one day during the Lordstown strike. ing plans in the face ofUAW pressure. Last arrested workers left at about 3:00 a.m. According to older workers on the picket December GM announced plans to cut Those suspected of lacking valid immigra­ line, this is the frrst strike in this plant since 75,000 jobs, with 51,000 union jobs going tion work cards were handcuffed and bused 1970, when the local was out 69 days. in the next couple of years. to a temporary jail set up at the Nebraska Workers walking the picket lines de­ An unnamed company official was National Guard Armory. scribed conditions in the plant as bad and quoted by the Free Press as saying, "Hell. On Wednesday, 145 of those arrested had deteriorating rapidly. A doorfitter at the if we have to draw a line in the sand some­ already been placed on buses and planes for plant's main entrance, one of over a dozen where, why don't we just go ahead and draw deportation to Mexico. By Saturday, virtu­ pickets covering this entrance, explained it now?" ally all 307 workers had been deported. that the strike is "not about money, it's about This strike comes one week after GM The immigration cops left a list of 163 Auto workers picket General Motors as­ pride, dignity, safety, and jobs." He went on announced that it is slashing white-collar day-shift workers with the company, claim­ sembly plant in Lansing, Michigan. to explain that there have been "chemical Continued on Page 11 Continued on Page 12 Nicaraguan peasants fight for land - page 8 ~ IN ~ BRIEf __________________________ Germany and Japan seek UN 46,900 more children died medicine. The war, which began in 1983, Security Council seats in the frrst seven months of has intensified recently, displacing more 1991 than would be ex­ than one million people in the last six Gennan foreign minister Klaus Kinkel pected based on child mor­ months. The United Nations is planning told the United Nations General Assembly tality figures in the years to fly food and supplies to 20 cities. September 23 that Bonn wants a pennanent preceding the war. The re­ seat on the UN Security Council. Kinkel searchers said their fi nd­ Mass arrests in Peru said that Gennany would change its consti­ ings confinn that "the tutional restrictions on use of its military so casualties of war extend far Police and army troops in Peru have been Gennan soldiers could take part in UN mil­ beyond those caused by making sweeps throughout Peru arresting itary operations. Kinkel's statement came warfare." hundreds of people accused of being sym­ one day after Japanese foreign minister Meanwhile, the United pathizers of Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Michio Watanabe indicated to the General States, Britain, and France Path. "They're sti ll grabbing people. Assembly for the second year in a row that have reached agreement on They're razing various places," said fonner Tokyo feels that Japan's economic impor­ a draft UN resolution that army colonel Jose Bailetti, describing an tance merits a pennanent Security Council could lead to the seizure of aggressive government campaign that is di­ seat by 1995.