Secret Service not above the law .. 3 THE UN Decolonization Committee meets . • • 7 Mayor Koch takes aim at homeless . 14 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 51/NO. 34 SEPTEMBER 18, 1987 $1.00 Nicaragua 7,000 in Calif. condemn adopts historic attack on antiwar vet BY DIANE WANG CONCORD, Calif. - "Death squads/ autonomy Death trains - The war comes home," read one banner carried at the September 5 antiwar march here. "In the U.S., we have trial by locomotive," read another. These plan expressed the mood of the 7,000 people who gathered to protest the attack on Brian BY CINDY JAQUITH Willson, a Vietnam veteran run down by a MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Nicaragua navy munitions train four days earlier. One has become the first country in this hemi­ sphere to adopt a sweeping law guaran­ teeing the political, economic, language, Interview with eyewitnesses cultural, and religious rights of Indians and to attack on Brian Willson Blacks. · The law establishes autonomous govern­ appears on page 2. ments on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast, where most Nicaraguan Indians and Blacks of his legs was severed and the other ampu­ live. It was adopted overwhelmingly by the tated as a result. National Assembly September 2. Willson and the local antiwar office have "This is an historic decision without been getting messages of support and of­ precedent in this part of the world," said fers to help at a rate of 200 calls per hour. Sandinista leader Tomas Borge, president Across the road from the rally, the U.S. of Nicaragua's National Autonomy Com­ Naval Weapons Station had strung barbed mission. Autonomy for the Atlantic Coast, wire across its entrance and covered its he explained, is "a kick in the gut of the sign with cloth. Buffalo Bills and the scalp collectors." It is The U.S. government was under such the hope for victims of racism "from the public pressure that it granted a visa to North Pole to the South Pole." Rosario Murillo, a Sandinista leader who is Borge stressed that autonomy is only married to Nicaraguan President Daniel possible here because Nicaragua has bro­ Ortega. She came on behalf of Ortega to ken the chains of U.S . domination and car­ give his message of solidarity to Willson's Demonstrators assist Brian Willson after he was run down by munitions train during September 1 protest at naval base in Concord, California. Evidence shows naval of­ ried out a revolution that placed workers work opposing the U.S. -run war in Central ficials' responsibility for attack. and peasants in political power. America. Murillo spoke with Willson in A continental problem the hospital and visited the site where he Speakers included Holly Rauen, Will­ Rosario Murillo. However, when Jackson Like most other countries in North and was hit. son's wife; Duncan Murphy, a veteran who concluded his speech with a call to join him South America, Nicaragua has several dis­ For many this rally was their first an­ was with Willson when the train ran him in a procession to the tracks, most of the tinct Indian and Black communities that tiwar demonstration. down; Ken Butigan of the Pledge of Resis­ have historically suffered theft of their "A lot of people in this country are on crowd took it for a signal to adjourn the the edge of action," said Pat McCallum, a tance; singer Joan Baez; and Jesse Jackson. rally and go immediately. lands, persecution of their languages and Rally organizers had planned to have As people crowded about, music played, cultures, denial of political rights, and dis­ demonstrator who had witnessed the train Miriam Linder, Daniel Ellsberg, and a many sat on the tracks, and a large group crimination in employment and education. run over Willson. "Many don't normally spokesperson for Rep. Ron Dellums speak. set about tearing up several hundred yards In Nicaragua's case, the majority of the see themselves as activists, but now is the time to begin." They also intended to read greetings from of rail. country's more than 3 million people are Spanish-speaking mestizos, concentrated on the Pacific Coast. On the Atlantic Coast there are 182,000 mestizos. But there are also 75,000 Miskito Indians, with their Iraq steps up war as U.S. fleet grows own language; 26,000 Creole Blacks, who speak English; 9,000 Sumo Indians, with BY FRED FELDMAN and five other warships joined the U.S. Washington attempts to pass off as "neu­ their own language; and I, 750 Garifonas Iraqi warplanes bombed 13 cities, power fleet now menacing Iran. tral" shipping. and 850 Rama Indians, who both speak plants, oil centers, and factories in Iran The arrival of the Missouri group raised The naval build-up represents a massive English. The original languages of the September 9. Iranian radio said 105 people the number of U.S. warships in the region U.S. military intervention on the side of Garifonas and Ramas have been lost by all had been killed or wounded. to more than two dozen. This includes an the Iraqi regime, which has waged war on except a few elderly people. The government of Saddam Hussein in aircraft carrier, guided missile cruisers, de­ Iran since invading that country in 1980. Until the 1979 Sandinista revolution, the Iraq said the attacks on civilian targets stroyers, an amphibious-assault ship, and The regime in Kuwait is a close ally of Atlantic Coast was dominated by U.S. and would continue as "revenge" for Iranian minesweepers - backed up by fighter the Iraqi rulers in the war. Kuwait provides Canadian corporations, with the complicity missiles that have reportedly landed on the planes, bombers, helicopters, and Iraq with its only operating ports, devotes of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. territory of Kuwait, which borders on Iraq. thousands of military personnel. much of its oil revenue to bankrolling the They fostered mestizo prejudice against In­ The reported Iranian missile strikes caused The pretext for the build-up was the de­ Iraqi war, and allows Iraqi planes to over­ dians and Blacks, and kept working people no casualties. cision to place 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers under fly Kuwaiti territory for attacks on gulf of the two coasts isolated from one As the Iraqi regime reopened its air war the U.S. flag and command. Washington shipping or Iranian territory. another. In the eight years since Somoza against shipping bound to or from Iran in has threatened military strikes against Iran The French and British governments Continued on Page 13 the Persian Gulf, the battleship Missouri if Iranian forces menace the tankers, which have also sent smaller war fleets to the gulf area. And Japanese Prime Minister Yasuh­ iro Nakasone claimed August 29 that the country's constitution- which bars there­ Mass strikes, protests shake South Korea gime from waging war - did not forbid it from sending minesweepers to aid U.S. BY ERNEST HARSCH Cemetery, where many victims of the 1980 gime to ease its repression and promise di­ war moves in the gulf war zone. Nakasone Though the South Korean police have Kwangju massacre are buried. That rect presidential elections. Since then, said that no warships would be sent at this launched a new roundup of strikers and po­ slaughter took some 2,000 lives and was some 3,200 strikes have been officially re­ time. litical activists, workers and other oppo­ ordered by now-president Chun Doo corded, most of which were settled within The Saudi Arabian mona~-;hy is also in­ nents of the authoritarian regime have not Hwan. It followed a massive popular revolt a few days. As of September 5, nearly 600 creasingly involved in the U.S. naval been intimidated. sparked, among other things, by Kim's ar­ strikes were still under way. buildup. "The Saudi military has been In the southern city of Kwangju, hun­ rest. Fueled by an average wage of $1.75 an working closely with U.S. forces in the dreds of thousands of people poured out Referring to the martyrs of 1980, Kim hour, an average workweek of 57 hours , gulf, monitoring the waterway with U.S.­ September 8 for one of the largest street told the crowd, "We have to fulfill their and labor restrictions ·that allowed only supplied AWACS surveillance planes and demonstrations ever to take place in the dreams. We have to try to make it possible company unions (if any unions at all), the reportedly providing case-by-case landing country. for the entire nation to sing the song of strikes have hit all sectors of the economy . rights for carrier-based U.S. planes," re­ The action was held to welcome opposi­ freedom." Repeatedly, workers have said that they ported the September 3 Washington Post. tion party leader Kim Dae Jung. A native are also fighting for respect and dignity. The Iraqi regime reopened the air war of Cholla Province, of which Kwangju is 'Treated like human beings' "We just want to be treated like human be­ against shipping in the Persian Gulf on Au­ the capital, Kim had not been able to visit Meanwhile, workers throughout the ings," one worker at the Daewoo shipyard gust 29, after halting attacks for 45 days at the region for 15 years, having been re­ country have continued to strike in record in Okpo told a reporter. U.S. urging. Washington feared that Iraqi peatedly detained, exiled, held under death numbers. One of the most spectacular walkouts hit attacks on gulf shipping would deepen op­ sentence, or placed under house arrest for The strike wave began in late June, in­ Hyundai, South Korea's largest industrial position in the United States and interna­ his political activities.