FEBRUARY 7, 1975 25 CENTS VOLUME 39/NUMBER 4 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE • • CriSIS: · Views from the unemployment lines -page 4 New York's crisis: What can AFSCMEdo? -page 6 L.A. cops training for 'food riots' -page 7 San Diego demonstration for iobs last fall Militant/Dennis Scoria Union women launch fight How a workers government against layoffs would provide jobs for all -page 8 The following is a statement by Peter Ca­ government doesn't represent working peo­ mejo, the 1976 presidential candidate of the ple- neither those who are out of work now Socialist Workers Party. nor those who may be laid off tomorrow. Affirmative action If we had a workers government in Wash­ Why can't the government do something ington today- that is, a government elected plans facing about unemployment? Why can't everybody by and responsible to the working people have a job? In the richest, most productive organized into a party of their own- it new attacks country in the world these are reasonable would not hesitate for five minutes to take -page 11 questions. And they're certainly ones mil­ the necessary steps to provide jobs for every­ lions of people are asking. body. But President Ford doesn't have any an­ Not for five minutes. Not for one minute. swers. He admits that the state of the union Not if it were really a government with a is bad . and that millions are out of work. shred of responsibility to the workers. Behind the But he proposes nothing more than two-bit tinkering to deal with the problem. Without hesitation it would immediately pro­ worldwide The Democrats are no better. They are vide adequate compensation to all jobless • • • sitting on their hands in Congress while workers. Payments would be at full union cutbacks and layoffs mount and unemploy­ scale, regardless of whether a person is a · econom1c cr1s1s ment lines grow longer. The government union member or not, and would be paid -page 20 is paralyzed while our unpaid bills pile as long as the person is out of work. up, our insurance policies lapse, and things This national insurance plan would put bought on time are repossessed. an end to the inequities that exist now, There can be no further doubts that this Continued on page 3 THIS In Brief WEEK'S ILLINOIS DEMONSTRATORS DEMAND JOBS: Trade urban pupils are suspended at least om:e a year. Civil unionists from American Federation of State, County and rights organizations have pointed out that such suspen­ MILITANT Municipal Employees Local 1006, International Brother­ sions are used as a discriminatory weapon against Black hood of Electrical Workers Local 165, and Sheet Metal students. 4 Rising anger among Workers' Local 517, along with a contingent of unem­ unemployed ployed workers,' converged on the Illinois state capitol in WANTS THE DEATH PENALTY KEPT: President 6 How AFSCME can de­ Springfield Jan. 22 to demand jobs. Ford's nominee for the post of attotney general, Univer­ fend jobs of city workers Although there is a $300-million surplus in the state sity of Chicago President Edward Levi, said Jan. 27, 7 l. A. cops train for budget, existing unemployment programs are inadequate "My belief is that the death penalty, if it is enforced, in 'food riots' and discriminate against the Chicago area, with its large a limited area, is a deterrent." Black population. In addition, the Illinois state govern­ Levi said that the imposition of the death penalty ought 8 Union women call ment has eliminated 6,000 jobs in the past two years, to be left to individual states- meaning that the Supreme March 8 protest mainly in agencies such as Mental Health, Children and Court should not rule it unconstitutional. 9 Israel spreads death in Family Services, and the Department of Labor. lebanon INDIANS LOSE SUIT ON TREATY RIGHTS: Although 13 2,500 protest: No aid FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS: San Francisco Chronicle the history of government policy toward Indians might columnist Herb Caen reported Jan. 20 that "earlier this make us "retch at the recollection," the conquest of the to Thieu! month, a Pan Am 747 left S. F. for the Far East with Indian tribes has made them legally subject to the legis­ 14 Dr. King target of almost every seat taken, mostly by men- and since 747s lative power of the United States, ruled Federal District FBI seldom fly full in January, there had to be an explanation. Judge Warren Urbom Jan. 17. 15 Texans demand: Open "There is: The men are military pilots, members of three The ruling rejected the argument of 125 Indians that police files U.S. squadrons, traveling to Southeast Asia in civilian a Sioux treaty of 1868 gave the Sioux tribe, and not clothes, per official orders. They looked unhappy and are. the U.S. government, jurisdiction over alleged crimes com­ 16 Racist violence continues 'We don't like this a damn bit,' in the words of one pilot, mitted during the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, h1 Boston who added the forlorn cliche, 'We just wish the public S.D., in 1973. 17 Busing struggle: Should knew what was going on.'" we demand federal PORTUGUESE FEMINIST BEGINS TOUR: Maria Isa­ troops? Two new columns appear in this issue. "La Lucha bel Barreno, one of the three authors of the book, New Portuguese Letters, began a five-week tour of the United 18 Students lukewarm to Puertorriquena, 11 by staH writer Jose Perez, is on States in Washington, D. C., Jan. 21. McCarthy page 11. This column, which will deal with the in­ New Portuguese Letters was banned by the Portuguese 19 Detente vs. world creasingly important struggle of Puerto Ricans in government in 1972 and the authors, who became known revolution the United States and in Puerto Rico, will be pub­ as the "Three Marias," were tried for "obscenity." They 24 Help organize antiracist lished about twice a month. were acquitted in May 1974, shortly after the coup that deposed the military dictatorship. conference "Their Government, 11 which is on page 12, will While in Washington, Barreno spoke to an audience be written from Washington by Cindy Jaquith. It of women's liberation activists and Portuguese and Bra­ 2 In Brief also will appear about twice a month. zilian students at the University of Maryland. She shared 10 In Our Opinion the platform with Amy Congers, an American teacher Letters MAGEE GETS LIFE: Ruchell Magee, codefendant of An­ who was tortured in Chile. Both women urged support 11 National Picket Line gela Davis in the 1970 Marin County Courthouse incident, for Brazilian political prison-er Ines Etienne Romeu, who was sentehced to life imprisonment Jan. 23. La Lucha Puertor­ is serving a sentence of life imprisonment. Magee was never convicted by a jury of any charge re­ Also while in Washington, Barreno attended a reception riquena lating to the courthouse escape attempt, in which three for her sponsored by the National Organization for Wom­ 12 The Great Society fleeing prisoners and a hostage were killed by police. His en, appeared on several television and radio shows, and By Any Means Neces­ trial ended last year with a hung jury that reportedly met with reporters. sary voted 12 to 0 for acquittal on the charge of aggravated kidnapping, 11 to 1 for acquittal on the charge of mur­ Their Government THIRD LAWTON TRIAL: The third trial of Black com­ der, and 11 to 1 for conviction on the charge of simple munity activist Gary Lawton began in Riverside, Calif., 20 In Review kidnapping. Simple kidnapping is punishable in California Jan. 8. The earlier trials, in which Lawton was accused by a sentence of one to five years, with eligibility for pa­ of the ambush slaying of two Riverside police officers, WORLD OUTLOOK role in one year. ended in hung juries. 1 Maria Joffe gains exile However, last Aug. 14, as preparations for a new trial Although charges against Lawton's two codefendants were underway, Magee suddenly pleaded guilty to the were dropped prior to the third trial, the district attorney's 3 Shah admits 2,000 charge of aggravated kidnapping. He explained that after office continues with its vindictive attempt to get Lawton. troops in Oman three and one-half years of legal procedures he had been Russell Langton, a juror in the first trial, reacted to the World News Notes "so frustrated" that he just wanted "to get it all over government's case by saying, "It was more than a frame­ Rightist terror in with." up. If it had been a frame-up, they would have framed Argentina Magee subsequently tried to withdraw his guilty plea some evidence." -DAVE FRANKEL and have a new trial scheduled, but he was turned down earlier this month by the U.S. Supreme Court. THE MILITANT THE AIR FORCE DROPS A MISFIT: A "gung-ho offi­ cer," as the military would say, Major Harold Hering YOUR FIRST VOLUME 39/NUMBER 4 had been in the U. S. Air Force for 20 years and volun­ FEBRUARY 7, 1975 teered for five additional tours of duty in Vietnam. But on CLOSING NEWS DATE-JAN. 29, 1975 ·Jan. 11 an Air Force board of inquiry cited him for ISSUE? failure to discharge his assignments properly and for. having a defective attitude toward his duties. The board Editor: MARY-ALICE WATERS SUBSCRIBE Business Manager: ROSE OGDEN ruled that he should be discharged. Southwest Bureau: HARRY RING It seems that Hering, who had been assigned to a mis­ sile crew at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California mTHE Published weekly by The Militant Publishing Ass'n., after returning from Vietnam, had "mental and moral 14 Charles lane, New York, N.Y.