· AUSTRALIA $3.00 · CANADA $2.50 · FRANCE 2.00 EUROS · ICELAND KR200 · NEW ZEALAND $3.00 · SWEDEN KR15 · UK £1.00 · U.S. $1.50 INSIDE U.S. youth visiting Cuba meet revolutionary social workers — PAGE 7 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 67/NO. 29 AUGUST 25, 2003 N. Carolina textile giant Nicaraguan peasants closes, 7,500 out of a job march for BY LOUIS TURNER their union, UNITE, for KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina—Pil- information and guid- lowtex Corp., one of the largest U.S. textile ance. land, credit manufacturers, announced July 30 that it These workers scored BY SETH GALINSKY was closing 16 plants in the United States a victory for all labor MIAMI—Several thousand peasants and and Canada. The closures will throw more four years ago when farm workers began a 75-mile-long march than 7,500 workers onto the rolls of the un- they won representation on July 29 from Matagalpa, the coffee- employed. The textile giant fi led for Chapter by the Union of Need- growing center of Nicaragua, to Managua, 11 bankruptcy and plans to liquidate all its letrades, Industrial and the country’s capital. They demanded land, assets. Textile Employees (now cheap credit, and government aid for rural Pillowtex, known for the brand names UNITE). After waging toilers hard hit by the world-wide drop in Fieldcrest Cannon and Royal Velvet, fi led a 25-year fight to get coffee prices and a drought. At the same for bankruptcy in 2001. At that time, it the union in, workers time, some 6,000 peasants occupied farms closed several mills and laid off thousands won their fi rst contract and waged sit-down strikes and other pro- of workers. Leading up to its emergence in 2000. Continued on Page 3 from bankruptcy protection in May 2002, After months of spo- the bosses carried out a reorganization that radic employment the forced fewer workers to produce the same workers now have no number of commodities and for lower wag- jobs to return to. The Union wins es. Company executives claim that from that UNITE hall in Kan- time until its current liquidation Pillowtex napolis has been fl ood- vote deadline lost $29 million. ed with workers calling For several months Pillowtex was actively and stopping in, fi rst to seeking buyers and negotiated with several receive information on at New York of them, including many rivals. During whether the company this period, workers suffered short weeks had been sold and then and multiple layoffs. Some employees had questioning what steps packing plant been laid off for two months before the they could take next. BY DEAN HAZLEWOOD shutdown. Talking to the Salis- The Pillowtex closings register the big- bury Post, a local news- BRONX, New York—Workers at the gest layoff in North Carolina’s history and, paper, 58-year-old Leon- Garden Manor Farms meatpacking plant according to the American Textile Manu- ard Chapman, president at the Hunts Point Market here scored a vic- facturers Institute, the largest ever in the of UNITE Local 1501, tory in their fi ght for union recognition. The U.S. textile industry. The company’s main asked, “Should I go to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) production facilities were in the Kannapo- school? Or should I fi le Textile workers who lost jobs because of Pillowtex shutdown ruled in early August that an election must lis area. The mills in Rowan and Cabarrus for unemployment or re- line up outside Kimball Lutheran Church in Kannapolis, be held by the end of the month on whether Counties alone employed more than 4,300. train? Re-train for what? North Carolina, August 4. Many are trying to find answers employees will be represented by United Many of these workers are looking toward Continued on Page 3 about their future from their union, UNITE. Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Continued on Page 2 Moscow, Beijing press north Korea to U.S.-backed accept six-party talks with Washington intervention force BY PATRICK O’NEILL in Liberia to U.S. deputy secretary of state Richard Ar- mitage told a news conference in Australia expand to 15,000 August 12 that talks between the govern- ments of the Democratic People’s Republic BY SAM MANUEL of Korea and the United States are likely WASHINGTON, D.C.—As U.S.-backed to start August 27 in Beijing, centering on troops extended their deployment in Libe- Washington’s demand that north Korea ria’s capital, Monrovia, the chief United abandon its nuclear weapons program. At Nations envoy to the West African nation, the U.S. government’s insistence the nego- Jacques Klein, described plans to create an tiations will also include representatives of armed force of about 15,000 UN troops, Beijing, Moscow, Seoul, and Tokyo. drawn from a range of UN member coun- Under pressure from these governments, tries, that will be deployed by November 1. particularly Beijing and Moscow—which The UN troops will replace a Nigerian-led have historically been close diplomatic and force of some 3,200 troops that includes trade partners of the DPRK—north Korea units from countries that are members of dropped its previous insistence that such the Economic Community of West African negotiations be preceded by face-to-face States. They are backed up by as many as bilateral talks with Washington. South Korean police charge students demanding withdrawal of U.S. troops from Continued on Page 5 At the same time the DPRK restated its Korea during August 4 protest at Yonchen military facility, 37 miles north of Seoul. demand that the U.S. government withdraw its 37,000 troops from south Korea, and pro- tested the latest round of military exercises Concerted effort is needed in drive Also Inside: involving U.S. and south Korean forces. Military drills between the two armies have Brussels bows to U.S. demands sparked a number of student-led protests in to up ‘Militant’ long-term readership on war-crimes law 2 the south, including in early August. BY SAM MANUEL the overall goals. Accomplishing this would Following a meeting with Chinese vice WASHINGTON, D.C.—Socialist work- mean that one in fi ve of those who subscribed Lieberman assails Democrats foreign minister Wang Yi, Russia’s deputy ers, Young Socialists, and other Militant and for the fi rst time last spring re-upped. for attacks on Bush over Iraq 3 foreign minister Alexander Losyukov said Perspectiva Mundial supporters upped the Supporters of the drive in Cleveland, August 11 that Pyongyang is “currently pace of the effort to increase the long-term Omaha, and San Francisco are the fi rst to Why Washington dropped showing pleasing fl exibility. Our Chinese readership of the socialist periodicals. Dur- make their goal for Militant subscription atomic bomb on Hiroshima 3 colleagues also see positive dynamics in the ing the second week of the three-week cam- renewals. Their task now is to substantially position of the North Korean leadership.” paign, they sent in 75 subscription renewals surpass their local quota. Palestinian in U.S. jail Losyukov also warned Washington that to both periodicals, compared to 21 the fi rst Those in Detroit are not too far behind. speaks from behind bars 4 “the situation when only one side imposes week of the drive (see chart on page 5). “One meat packer agreed to help talk to conditions is counter-productive and leads A substantial challenge remains, however. several subscribers he works with about re- Socialist workers focus on to deadlock.” With one week to go, 140 Militant and 69 newing,” wrote Ilona Gersh from Detroit. union-building opportunities 6 “There are a number of issues that have Perspectiva Mundial subscription renew- “They were among those who immediately Continued on Page 10 als—a total of 209—are needed to meet Continued on Page 10 Brussels bows to U.S. on war-crimes law BY SAM MANUEL lar, have been pressing for immunity from ron, charged with organizing massacres at accusations to be fi led in Belgian courts The Belgian Senate approved a revised prosecution for members of their military the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee against anyone regardless of where the al- war crimes bill August 1 to replace previ- and government offi cials by other countries camps in Lebanon in 1982. leged offenses took place or the nationality ous legislation under which war crimes or institutions like the International Crimi- The attorney who brought the charges of those involved in committing them. It charges have been brought against former nal Court (ICC). against Franks has appealed the decision. has only been used successfully against U.S. president George H. Bush, current The charges against former U.S. presi- The new bill empowers a senior justice to four Rwandans living in Belgium who were president George W. Bush, Vice President dent Bush were brought on behalf of Iraqis decide which cases to prosecute with the convicted in 2001 of “genocide,” according Richard Cheney, Secretary of State Colin who lost family members after U.S. pilots decision not subject to appeal. Some 29 to the International Herald Tribune. They Powell, Gen. Thomas Franks, and British bombed a shelter killing 403 people, in- cases against former and present heads of were given sentences of 12 to 20 years for prime minister Anthony Blair. cluding 52 children and 261 women, in the states—among them Cuban president Fidel alleged crimes committed during the Rwan- The new law passed by a vote of 39 to 4 1991 war against Iraq.