50¢ No. 631 .~X-523 20 October 1995 ~,.;i?-'- Racist Backlash Against O.J. Simpson Acquittal For a moment, it seemed as though Notwithstanding the media circus the whole country had come to a which gorged itself on this sordid standstill: phone traffic plunged, crime, the jury grasped the simple assembly lines stopped, classrooms truth that a conviction would have went silent, even trading on the stock been an open endorsement of fla­ and commodities exchanges ground grant police racism and frame-up. almost to a halt. Then cheers erupted As L.A. Urban League leader John in a chorus that resounded from one Mack trenchantly remarked, Fuhr­ end of black America to the other, man's taped genocidal ravings were from run-down inner-city housing the missing sound track to the vicious projects to swan~ bank offices, from videotaped LAPD beating of Rodney prison cells to black colleges and King in 1991.::rhe understanding that churches. Not only blacks rejoiced. the cops regularly frame people up Amid shouts of "The Juice is loose," is pervasive in the ghettos and bar­ in Times Square blacks and whites rios, and it is widespread as well embraced, whites at Atlanta's airport among other sectors of the popula­ applauded, Latino bus riders in Los tion which have had direct experi­ Angeles cheered. But in city after ence with the racist, strikebreaking city there were scenes of sharp rl\cial thugs in blue. In the coal fields of polarization, as shocked or angry West Virginia, white United Mine whites stood alongside jubilant black Worker militants and their families, co-workers or fellow pedestrians. veterans of bitter class warfare, had One of the longest and costliest, no trouble with the Simpson verdict. certainly the most publicized and A flood of commentaries in the analyzed of criminal trials in Amer­ mass media expressed alarm at the ican history came to a close with an racial fault line in American society explosive climax, as the jury of eight "revealed" by the reactions to the black women, one black man, two Simpson acquittal. The breathtaking white women and one Latino man banality of this "revelation," self­ declared Simpson not guilty of the evident to every ghetto school kid, murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown was supplemented by a hefty meas­ and her friend Ronald Goldman. We ure of hypocrisy, as the capitalist don't know what happened the night press went out of its way to fan they were brutally slain. But we do the flames of race war. To believe Skallj/Dally Breeze know a blatant frame-up when we Vindictive LA. cops seek payback for Simpson acquittal by arresting black youth TV and newspaper reports, not one see one. In the face of ample proof graffiti artists in South-Central. white person in the country sup­ that the police and prosecutors lied, ported the jury's verdict. In fact, the that evidence had been planted, that fas­ jury rightly observed. the legal standard been proven so beyond a reasonable reaction among whites was mixed: de­ cist detective Mark fuhrman-at the "falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus" (false doubt. The fact that it Qnly required a spite the media campaign, a Gallup-CNN center of the prosecution's case-was in one thing, false in everything) and the couple hours of deliberation to reach a poll taken a couple of days after Simp­ driven by racist contempt for a black legal definition of innocence, finding unanimous verdict constitute(l a scathing son was acquitted reported 42 percent of man married to a white woman, the Simpson not guilty because he had not indictment of the prosecutio~;s case. , continued on page 8 Farrakhan's Reactionary Dead End . Million Man March Appeases Racist Exploiters At a time when the murderous racist forgive the oppressors and exploit­ of chattel slavery to the wage slavery the largest-ever march in the capital. rulers of this country are smashing ers for their enormous crimes against of modern industry. It took a revolu­ From the podium Farrakhan echoed every gain Won through the blood and black people, working people and poor, tionary civil war to destroy the South­ Clinton's speech, delivered the same toil of the workers and minorities, the while blaming the oppressed for their ern slavocracy, and it will take a third day in Texas, by laying the blame for nationalist demagogue Louis Farra­ oppression. American revolution, a workers revo­ conditions in the ghettos on the "per­ khan, later joined by former NAACP To hell with atonement! What's lution, to overthrow the whole capital­ sonal responsibility" of black men. president Ben Chavis needed is integrated class struggle to ist system of racist degradation and What about, the vista of permanent un­ and Jesse Jackson, fight for the liberation of black people impoverishment. employment, the assault on health care, r:;~ called a march of a and all the oppressed. Black oppression "Black Men's Rally for Responsi­ the elimination or welfare, the over­ t-- "million black men" in this country is rooted in the bedrock bility," the Washington Post called the flowing prison population and racist o,.,., for atonement. They of American capitalism, from the days October 16 event, which was possibly continued on page 6 o ..- co --4" I'­ No to Sexism, Nationalism! For Revolutionary Integrationism! N lJ"\ N Black Liberation Through Socialist Revolution! t-- Government Hands Off Cyberporn! Watch out! Government computer wide range of what the government even the National Security snoops are on the prowl and you could deems pornography. He was busted by Agency (NSA) unable to be their next target. Like high school a postal inspector in Memphis who crack some of the encryption honors senior Paul Kim of Bellevue, downloaded pictures explicitly to nail programs now available to Washington, who losf a chance to a Thomas. Thomas and his wife, Carleen, PC users, -the government National Merit scholarship and possibly were found guilty by a Tennessee jury is zealously trying to clamp entrance to Harvard because he posted and he is now in prison. We say: Dis­ down on them, using export laws class­ the Net. To find it takes computer skills a parody of his school on the World Wide tributing "dirfy pictures" .is no crime. ifying such programs as munitions. This and often code words. It's not like little Web with links to Internet sites that offer Down with the anti-sex witchhunr! has angered powerful capitalist inter­ Susie is going to log on to get info for sexually explicit material. Or Robert This crackdown has a very sinister ests, including American software mane her history assignment and accidently hit Thomas, owner of Amateur Action Bul­ edge beyond the usual moralistic hys­ ufacturers and businesses who seek to "alt.bestiality.Barney"! This crusade is letin Board Service in Milpitas, Calif­ teria and fear'against "smut" and "filth" protect against intrusion on their com­ another avenue toward criminalizing sex­ ornia, who for years has been offering a contaminating innocent children. With munications by competitors (and the uality, and regimenting the population feds). Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) design­ across the hoard. In the name of fighting er, Phil Zimmerman has been the target "child abuse," they want to read every­ of a two-year (!) investigation for pos­ one's mail. It comes from the government For Revolutionary sible violation of federal weapons-export of Bill Clinton and Janet Reno, who Integrationism! laws because his "cryptography for the slaughtered 86 men, women and children masses" went outside the U.S. Zimmer­ in a religious commune outside Waco, Louis Farrakhan's "Million Man March" man faces a possible five-year sentence Texas and justified this with the hypo­ calls Fw "atonement," hlaming hlack men and $1 million fine if convicted! critical claim of "saving the children"! Fir the cOllditions (If' their own oppression One government proposal to deal with The Justice Department recently con­ and telling hlack women to stay home. Far­ encryplior{ programs, pushed heavily by cluded a two-year investigation in which raklwn's retrogressi,'e program, an expres­ theClintonadministration last year, was over 125 homes and offices were sion of' hlack separatism, is an accommo­ to require manufacturers to install an en­ searched, thousands of E-mail messages dation to the I'iciou.\· racism inh('l'enl in cryption standard-vetted by the NSA­ were opened and raids were conducted American capitalist society. Forty years ago, known as the "clipper chip." This would in over half of the nation's FBI districts. TROTSKY ,'eteran American Trotskyist Dick Fraser LENIN permit the government to read all com­ A dozen America Online customers were FJ/lght Fir the then-re\'olutionary Socialist munications encoded by that chip. This arrested for swapping digitized sex pho­ Workers Party to inten'elle into the UI!/(ilding struggles for hlack equality with 'a device has since been dropped, in part tos of kids. As both Republicans and program to link this fight with the struggle /(1/' socialist rel'olution, in which hlack because the encryption genie is out of Democrats wave the flag of "family val­ workers would playa leading role. Commenting on the "Back to A/i'ica" mOl'ement the bottle; technology already exists to ues," the reactionary social c1irnate in led hy Marcus Gw'\'ey in the> early part of'this century, Fraser noted that "the Negro get around it. But that has only spurred the country has paved the way for /1uJ\'ement expresses separation at the time (!f'its greatest hackwardness, defeat and the government on a quixotic quest to increased censorship and outright perse­ isolatioll." Fraser's fight F!/' rel'Olutionary Jntegrationism and development (d'the develop a more advanced "clipper chip." cution of so-called "deviants." The war Marxist analysis of'racial oppressioll is a cornerstone (!f'the Trotskyist program today While Newsweek (6 February) screech­ on cyberporn is yet another assault on upheld hy the Sparwcist League.