• AUSTRALIA $2.00 • BELGIUM BF60 • CANADA $2.00 • FRANCE FF1 0 • ICELAND Kr150 • NEW ZEALAND $2.50 • SWEDEN Kr1 0 • UK £1.00 • U.S. $1 .50 INSIDE Socialist candidate arrested at Peoria Caterpillar rally THE - PAGE 2 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 56/ NO. 14 April 10. 1992 Defend Support the socialist abortion alternative in 1992! rights! Tens of thousands of supporters of abor­ Warren and DeBates campaign against tion rights will be marching in the streets of Washington. D.C.. April 5. This demonstra­ tion will be an important countermobilization two parties of war, racism, depression to the unrelenting attacks by the government BY GREG McCARTAN WASHINGTON. D.C. - The Socialist EDITORIAL Workers Party candidates for U.S. president and vice-president. James Warren and Es­ and right-wing forces against a woman's telle DeBates, kicked off their campaign at right to choose. a national press conference here March 31. The Jan. 22, 1973, Supreme Court de­ The two candidates said they will join c ision legalizing abortion was a historic victory for the rights of women. Be fore supporters across the country for the next the Roe v. Wade decree abortion was ille­ eight months campaigning to present a so­ cialist alternative, raise an internationalist gal in most states. Thousands of women and working-class voice, and build the fight were made to bear children against their against the increasingly reactionary course will or forced into an illegal and danger­ ous back-alley abortion. of the two parties of big business - the Democrats and Republicans. The fight for abortion rights 20 years ago was part of other important social struggles " All of my opponents in this election­ taking place. The involvement of large num­ George Bush. Patrick Buchanan, William bers in the civil rights struggle for Black Clinton. Edmund Brown, and H. Ross Perot equality and the international movement to - have a conspiracy of silence on the central end the war in Vietnam aided the fight to issue in world politics," presidential candi­ establish a woman's right to choose as the date Warren said. "That is the fact that the law of the land. It was these massive fights. imperialist war against Iraq was the opening not the particular combination of judges who guns of World War Ill." sat on the Supreme Court. that forced through Warren is a steelworker from Chicago. abortion rights. Forty years old. he is a member of the Steel­ But from the moment the ink was dry workers union and a central leader of the on the Supreme Court ruling, a woman's SWP. DeBates, 32 years old, has been a production worker in the garment industry Continued on Page 18 and belonged to the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. She is currently a staff writer for the Militant and a leader of the socialist youth movement. i Operation Militant photos by Charles Ostrofsky Held at the National Press Club, the press James Warren, right, and Estelle DeBates announcing the socialist campaign for U.S. conference was attended by reporters from president and vice-president at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Rescue plans the Gannett news service, the Mexican press agency Notimex, Voice ofAmerica , the Chris­ tian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, respond to the new world disorder emanating around the globe in a desperate attempt to Buffalo clinic and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The candi­ out of the combined results of the war against salvage the crisis-ridden system of capital­ dates were later interviewed by the Pacifica Iraq, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, ism." he said. "The true face of what workers, Radio Network and several radio stations. and the world depression that is affecting not farmers, and young people confront becomes blockade only the Third World but Europe, North clearer with each passing day." 'New world disorder' America. and Japan," Warren said. Warren pointed to Washington's war "At the center of the debate in U.S. ruling "They have tactical divisions over how moves against Iraq. North Korea, and Libya; Abortion rights backers call circles in this election year is how they can best to press their assault on working people its unceasing economic blockade and mili­ rallies Aprilll and 26 tary pressure against Cuba; and its determi­ nation to remain the undisputed strategic to help defend clinics Inside: special 'International Soc ialist Review' supplement military power in the world - as detailed in a recent Pentagon report - as examples of BY RONI McCANN this course. BUFFALO, New York-The antiabor­ Buchananism: What It Is and How To Fight It "We call on Washington to get its war­ tion organization Operation Rescue has ships, bombers, submarines, troops, and hit called on its supporters to converge on this The Socialist Alternative In 1992 squads out of every comer of the globe they city April 20 for a month of picketing and are in," Warren said. Along with DeBates, blockades dubbed ''The Spring for Life." ·what has opened up within the c hanan has put a sp otlight on the Warren wi ll travel to North Korea next month Supporters of a woman's right to choose U.S. ruling class Is the most Important rightward political shift of the capi­ to express his solidarity with the Korean abortion are gearing up in the face of the debate on foreign policy since the talist two-party system as a whole. people's struggle for reunification and rightists' actions. 1930s,• said Jack Barnes. national A few days after Barnes's talk, a against the unremitting military and eco­ secretary of the Socialist Workers p ress conference in Washington. nomic pressure from Washington. DeBates Operation Rescue was the central organi­ will then travel to Japan and Warren to Aus­ zation responsible for coalescing antiabor­ Party In a talk at a Militant Labor D.C .• announced the entry Into the tralia and New Zealand. tion forces in a six-week siege of Wichita, Forum In New York City March 28. 1992 campaign of a voice of the Kansas, last summer. The group mobilizes featured in this Issue. working class: the Socialist Workers Campaign against Buchananism its members in the streets using physical •tn this debate.N he sold. •there Party presidential ticket of James violence and intimidation to blockade abor­ has been no voice speaking for the Warren and Estelle DeBates. In response to a reporter's question as to where the candidates planned to campaign, tion clinics, often with the de facto support historic Int erests of the working Read about the burning questions of the police. class.N Warren said both DeBates and himself were of world politics that Warren, De­ heading to Minneapolis, Minnesota. the fol ­ Instead. the nationalistic • Amer­ Ba tes. and their supporters will be After pro-choice forces began organizing lowing day to mobilize opposition to the to defend abortion rights and public opinion ica FlrstN demagogy of Republican discussing with worki ng people and campaign of Republican Patrick Buchanan, p reside ntial conte nde r Patrick Bu- youth. shifted against the rightists, Operation Res­ who is on a tour of the state. cue left the city. Help campaign for the socialist alternative in 1992. They will join Chris Nisan, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in the Operation Rescue's announcement that it Fifth District, and his supporters who have will target Buffalo in the wake of its actions Order your bundle of 'International led a fight against the White Student Union, in Wichita has polarized the city. Buffalo one face of Buchananism in this country, mayor James Griffin has welcomed Opera­ Socialist Review' supplements now! Warren said. "These forces of an incipient tion Rescue and its founder Randall Terry. fascist movement represent the real voice and Criticized for his actions, the city official 75¢ each for 5 or more (Cover price: $1 ). face of the future of capitalism. We will help said that he welcomes everyone and that he mobilize the broadest opposition to them in did not ban either the Ku Klux Klan or B lack Send your onierto: 1he ~. 410w..t st., New Yodt, NY 1001•. Continued on Page 6 Continued on Page 6 1,000 transit strikers rally in Pittsburgh BY MATILDE ZIMMERMANN Pittsburgh to blame the strikers for every­ PITTSBURGH- More than l,OOOangry thing from poverty to crime, for poor service bus drivers and mechanics rallied in down­ and high taxes, for the lack of decent-paying town Pittsburgh March 24, nine days into a jobs. strike that has shut down public transporta­ "The ruling families of Pittsburgh are sud­ tion in the city. They shouted chants in sup­ denly concerned about sick people who can't port of their union and against Port Authority take the bus to their doctors," noted the Transit management, reporters who have dis­ socialist candidate. "But it is their system, torted their strike, and cops who threatened the capitalist system, that is responsible for to arrest them whenever the crowd spilled the fact that 35 million workers in this coun­ into the street. try don't even have health insurance." ''I'm a soldier in this war, and it is a war," Kuniansky, 39, is a member of Oil, said one striker. Another said, "It's not about Chemical and Atomic Workers Union race and religion any more, it's about the rich Local 874 and works at the Arco Chemical and the poor." plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania. She has The 2, 700 members of Local 85 of the been talking to workers on the picket line Amalgamated Transit Union went on strike about her campaign and about the issues March 16, after Port Authority Transit (PAT) in the strike.