WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!

The Workers' Advocate

Vol. 18, No. 7

VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA

25¢ July 1, 1988

[Front page:

Condemn the shooting down of Iranian airliner! U.S. out of the Persian Gulf!;

1988 platform debate: Democrats have nothing to offer;

Gorbachev's Party conference: Western-style reforms won't liberate Soviet workers]

IN THIS ISSUE

Condemn the shooting down of Iranian airliner!

U.S. out of the Persian Gulf!

1988 platform debate:

Democrats have nothing to offer

Gorbachev's Party conference:

Western-style reforms won't liberate Soviet workers

Down with capitalism and its military-industrial complex!

Big-time sleaze at the Pentagon

Democrats push welfare reform bill:

Workfare helps the capitalists, not the poor and unemployed

The government's use of the RICO act threatens all workers:

Workers themselves must break the grip of corrupt Teamster bosses

Strikes and workplace news

• Paperworkers' rally marks year of struggle against IP
• Heat walkouts at Chrysler's St. Louis plants
• GM threatens to close Van Nuys plant
• Firings protested at GM-Van Nuys
• Miners stop work to protest attacks on mine safety
• A.T. Massey miner framed for murder
• 10,000 shipyard workers shut down Electric Boat
• Strikes spread in Northwest lumber mills
• Contract-by-deceit in New York transit
• GE workers, reject this rotten contract!

40,000 protest nuclear weapons in New York

Demonstrations against Israeli oppression

March in Detroit against U.S. imperialism

DOWN WITH RACISM!

• Perth Amboy, New Jersey:
  Thousands in the streets against killer cop
• Tawana Brawley:
  Government and media put victim on trial

Death to apartheid in South Africa!

• General strike against apartheid's new anti-worker law
• The Democrats are playing election games with South African sanctions

Six months of the Palestinian uprising

Israel's crackdown on Jews for contact with Arabs

U.S. imperialism, get out of Central America!

• The crisis of the Duarte regime:
  The 'middle road' between revolution and tyranny is bankrupt
• The hand behind the Honduran death squads
• Support the Nicaraguan workers' movement!
  New pro-capitalist measures by the Sandinistas
• The Nicaraguan people must have food

Communist women in the struggle against Khomeini

Yugoslav workers confront fake 'socialist' bosses

General Namphy returns as Haitian dictator

The World in Struggle

• 20,000 Canada Bell workers on strike
• Australian miners walk out
• Steelworkers rise up angry in Naples
• Workers and women struggle against Islamization in South Asia
• New wave of strikes and demonstrations in S. Korea

20,000 Canada Bell workers on strike

Australian miners walk out

Steelworkers rise up angry in Naples

Workers and women struggle against Islamization in South Asia

New wave of strikes and demonstrations in S. Korea

Condemn the shooting down of Iranian airliner!

U.S. out of the Persian Gulf!

On Sunday July 3 the U.S. Navy shot down a commercial airliner over the Persian Gulf. The wide-body "airbus" was on a routine flight from Iran to Dubai. Two American missiles slammed into it. It is believed that the 290 passengers were all killed.

This is an atrocity.

Two hundred and ninety people were killed because the American fleet was busy waving the flag in the Persian Gulf.

The immediate response of the Reaganite administration was cynical. It immediately declared that the slaughter was a justifiable act of self-defense -- by a heavily armed Navy ship, part of a flotilla of hi-tech ships and planes -- against an unarmed airliner. It declared that the Navy had merely mistaken a large, slow-moving airliner, which was taking no evasive action whatsoever, for an advanced military jet, the F-14, on a combat run.

Back in 1983 the White House and Congress joined in condemning the Soviet Union for shooting down Korean airliner KAL-007, which had wandered over sensitive Soviet military installations. But now it is the U.S. government which has shot down a commercial airliner -- and moreover one which was halfway around the globe from the U.S.

The more the Reagan administration seeks to justify this mass murder, the deeper in the mud it gets.

The Pentagon and the State Department had solemnly assured one and all that the U.S. fleet could distinguish hostile actions from peaceful or innocent use of the Gulf. This was the justification for sinking or shooting down "threatening" Iranian ships and planes and burning Iranian oil platforms. This has now been seen to be a pack of lies. Either the U.S. Navy intentionally destroyed a civilian airliner, without a warning shot, and with not one but two anti-aircraft missiles, or the U.S. fleet has intentionally put itself in a situation where its idea of "self-defense" requires committing acts of war against any Iranian plane or ship that happens to be near by.

The Reagan government is committing brinksmanship in the Persian Gulf. The State Department and the Pentagon have been playing off one side against the other in the reactionary massacre called the Iran-Iraq war. One day it sells weapons to Iran and the next day it helps Iraq shut Iran out of the Persian Gulf. Attracted by the smell of blood, the U.S. fleet has gotten into the fray itself. And Congress has come along for the ride. After all, the display of American military might is supposed to persuade the Arab states that the Pentagon is still a power to be reckoned with. It is supposed to cement alliances. It is designed to keep everyone properly respectful for the right of the American corporations to continue to do business in the region.

So 290 people ended up sacrificed on the altar of power politics.

And what are another 290 lives in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians that the Iran-Iraq war is eating up year by year? What does it mean for the Reagan administration to sell arms to Iran and then tilt to Iraq? Isn't this spurring on the bloodshed? Why should the same Pentagon and State Department that coolly calculate bodies by the hundreds of thousands worry about a few hundred more?

For the militarists, the dead weren't Americans, so they don't count anyway. Just a few mumbled words of "deep regret," "great tragedy" and then back to business as usual. One national TV news commentator the day of the slaughter had the gall to equate the death of 290 passengers with the "pain" of the poor U.S. ship that took part in downing the airliner.

An end to imperialist power politics! The U.S. government has no right to send planes and ships and troops all over the world. We need a socialist America which will unite with the workers and peasants of the world in class solidarity, and not a capitalist America which cements alliances with militarist displays. As long as capitalism rules this country, just so long will U.S. imperialist bloodletting continue.

[Back to Top]

1988 platform debate:

Democrats have nothing to offer

"No one has ever been defeated for something he didn't say."

This pearl of wisdom comes from a member of the committee that drafted the Democratic Party platform. It about sums up what the Democratic Party is up to: Play it close and safe. Commit to nothing. Put up a candidate who says nothing. And the White House will fall into Democratic Party hands from the sheer weight of popular discontent with Bush and Reaganism. This is what the party bosses are hoping to pull out of their upcoming convention.

Empty Phrases to Hide Pro-Capitalist Policy

Dukakis and the Democrats are looking to beat Bush without a fight on policy. They hope to beat this whiny house pet of the stupid and corrupt Reagan regime with a yuppie manager's image of "competence" and "integrity."

But take any of the big issues. Dukakis repeats phrases about good jobs, good education, good government; yet he's silent on the hows, whens and wheres. His silence, however, doesn't mean no policy. It means that Dukakis and company accept the pro-capitalist and anti-people, framework of Reaganism.

Take spending for education and other social needs. The platform committee rejected Jackson proposals for specific commitments to raise federal spending on education and Head Start. Dukakis wants the workers and poor to think he believes in good things like education. But he is even more concerned to reassure the capitalists of his "pragmatism" and "toughness." If Wall Street demands more belt tightening, more cuts in programs needed by the working people, Dukakis is the man for the job.

Take the military budget. The platform committee rejected a Jackson proposal for a spending freeze at the present (astronomical) levels. Dukakis argues that there is no need for giving specifics on military spending; the high budget deficits are already slowing the military buildup and this will continue no matter who is elected. This way Dukakis makes a small bow to the mass sentiments against the war buildup. At the same time, no one can accuse him of being a "weak-kneed disarmer" as he promises to join the Reagan-Bush league of Pentagon mega-spenders.

"Compassion" Cosmetics

All this poses a puzzle for the Democrats: How to convince people to choose their grey-suited manager over the Republicans' grey-suited manager. The Democrats know they simply can't win without a sizable vote from the urban workers, blacks and other minorities. This means careful application of cosmetics to keep up their image as the party that defends labor and the downtrodden.

Enter Jesse Jackson. A section of workers and the black people had placed hopes in the Jackson campaign as a force for change from the Reagan imitators of the Democratic Party mainstream. Instead of toppling these Democratic powers, however, it is growing more obvious every day how useful Jackson has become to them.

Dukakis and party chair Paul Kirk have taken care to have an amicable situation with the Jackson people. They want it known that there is room in their party for the likes of Jackson and his declared commitment to reforms needed by the workers, the poor, the homeless and sick. Dukakis will only stick his neck out so far on these matters. It is safer to make friends with Jackson (not too close, mind you) and let Jackson do the soap boxing.

Jackson is calling himself the "progressive conscience" of the Democratic Party. Perhaps it would be better to say chief cosmetologist. This is because it's the Jackson campaign which is daubing Dukakis and the Democrats with "compassion" rouge.

But god forbid the Democrats go too far in their "compassionate" gestures. To provide balance they also need to mix in a few right-wing themes like tougher law enforcement. That's why one of the few specifics in the platform, pushed by both the Jackson and Dukakis campaigns, is stepped-up federal funding for the local police.

"Human Rights" Facelift

The same goes for foreign policy. Here too Jackson is helping the Democrats with their image problems. Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement" with South Africa's white minority rulers is discredited and despised. With their sanctions bill of 1986 (that has proved to be more loopholes than sanctions) the Democrats have tried to distance themselves from this cozy-with-the-racists policy.

Jackson has been upping the ante in anti-apartheid rhetoric, demanding that the Democratic platform label South Africa a terrorist state. The Democratic chiefs have now agreed to this. They agreed to it because of the political points to be scored in the "human rights" column. And they agreed to it because they think they can use sanctions to cut off the pending revolution of the black and working majority in South Africa. They have declared repeatedly in the past that they don't want the overthrow of the racist government but to nudge it to be more realistic.

Central America could have been a similar political issue. However, with the Arias peace plan the "human rights'' Democrats, including Jackson, feel they have already won most of their policy battle with the Reagan administration on this front. They all agree on the need to squeeze the Nicaraguan revolution with diplomatic pressure, economic blockade and the CIA's internal destabilization. And to keep this "peace process'' going, the Democrats vote millions to keep the contra army in reserve and to prop up the neighboring death-squad regimes.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is as firm as Reagan and Bush in its commitment to the U.S. role of world policeman: to the Pentagon's worldwide arsenals; to beefing up the Israeli ' military machine; to the big stick in the Persian Gulf and Panama; to propping up anti-communist despots from South Korea to Saudi Arabia; to the CIA's "low intensity" bloodletting in Cambodia and Afghanistan. Neither Jackson nor any other big Democrat challenges these big ticket items of U.S. imperialist policy.

Jackson Calls for Unity

Part of Jackson's support in the primaries" came from enthusiasm that a black could make a strong showing. Part came from his posture of speaking for the exploited and neglected. Win or lose the nomination, a vote for Jackson, it was said, would ensure that there would be a fight over the platform and at the convention for changes needed by the workers and poor.

However, there's a lot more kisses than conflict between Jackson's camp and the majority camp of Dukakis. When it came to the drafting of the platform, except for the token gesture on South Africa, Jackson's proposals were nearly shut out. Yet his people came out smiling. In defeat they had been shown every politeness; the majority showed it would make space in the party for the Jackson minority. Jackson's representative on the panel, Eleanor Holmes Norton, even tried to claim, the draft platform a success. "We have achieved our goal," Norton claimed, "to get Jackson's views in the platform."

This says something about all the noise from the Jackson camp against corporate greed and for workers' rights. Jackson is not serious about fighting for the workers. Like a typical bourgeois politician he will promise the workers all kinds of good things on the campaign trail. But these promises are quick to be shelved when it comes to the nitty-gritty of the campaign -- negotiating cozy positions within the Democratic Party officialdom and a possible Democratic administration.

Jackson people are now saying that the platform and the convention aren't so important after all. "What counts," Norton explains, "is the final victory we shall achieve in November." In other words, "victory" for the Jackson people means getting Dukakis elected and enjoying the fruits of having a Democrat in the White House. (Norton might even get her old job back. She was a U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner before being sacked by Reagan.)

For now Jesse Jackson is preaching party discipline and unity. In turn, the Dukakis people appear eager for this harmony with the Jackson people. It still cannot be ruled out that a fight may flare up at the convention over the choice for vice-president or even over platform issues. However, given Jackson's willingness to bend, this would probably only be serious if Dukakis tramples on the Jackson delegates too crudely and flagrantly. But this would be pretty foolish when Jackson has raised the slogan "Unity in July, victory in November!" This is Jackson's pledge of peace at the convention and to get out the vote for Dukakis in the elections.

Change Will Not Come Through the Democratic Party

It may be said that this is too harsh on Jackson. That there is nothing else that he can do but play by the rules.

But the rules he has been playing by are the rules of the Democratic Party. Last century this was the party of the slave masters. This century it has been one of the two big parties of the capitalist monopolies.

True, more than the Republicans, it poses as the party of labor and the minorities. Nonetheless, look at the Democratic platform, look at the Democratic nominee, and it's clearly no less deaf and dumb about the crying needs of the workers, the poor, and the oppressed.

Jackson is not the first would-be reformer of the Democratic Party and he won't be the last. His campaign has gone just like others before it. Jackson has not broken the grip of the right wingers, war-makers and profit takers on the Democratic Party; the right wingers, war-makers and profit takers have gripped him.

Those who have had hopes in the Jackson campaign, attracted by the heady promises about standing up to corporate greed, cannot but feel let down. Now they face the prospect of the wasteland of a contest between Dukakis and Bush, with Jackson pushing them to get out the vote for his Democratic corporate man against the Republican one.

This provides food for thought for all militant workers, anti-racists and progressive activists. It's one big lesson in the futility of seeking change through the Democratic Party.

Change will come through struggle. Through mass actions in the streets and on the picket lines. It will come through the workers and oppressed taking matters into their own hands. Through organizing their own revolutionary movement. The faster the workers and activists are freed from hopes in the Democratic Party, the faster will such an independent movement of the masses rise up -- the faster the liberation from capitalist politics-as-usual.

[Back to Top]

Gorbachev's Party conference:

Western-style reforms won't liberate Soviet workers

The special conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has just concluded. For four days, 5,000 revisionist delegates gathered in Moscow to discuss how to carry forward Gorbachev's reform program. This is a communist party in name only. In reality it is an anti-Marxist capitalist party, and you could see this again at the conference.

There was a lot of show. There was much talk about bringing the Soviet political system closer to the masses. There was grandstanding galore about meeting the concerns of the masses. There was rhetoric about restoring the vision of Lenin and the October revolution.

The U.S. media gushed that the gathering signified a revolution. And the Soviet bureaucrats themselves wanted to give such an impression; they wanted the Soviet people to believe that the system is moving to meet their needs and demands.

But show is one thing, reality is another. A revolution it certainly was not. Gorbachev's perestroika program is really an attempt by the Soviet capitalist rulers to breathe new life into their rotting system. The Soviet Union is in an acute economic crisis and the Soviet working people are disenchanted with their government. Moscow's imperialist foreign policy is also in crisis, as witness the debacle in Afghanistan. Gorbachev's reforms seek to deal with these problems by introducing Western-style economic and political reforms.

It is the revisionist turning away from Marxism-Leninism and capitalist restoration which have brought disaster to the once-socialist Soviet Union. Today the Soviet Union is a state capitalist society. The working class rule ushered in by the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and the achievements in building socialism were undermined by bureaucratic degeneration in the mid-30's and eventually capitalism was restored.

But the socialist labels have been retained. What exists today is a mere caricature of socialism. Behind empty socialist labels, wealthy bureaucrats and managers fatten themselves and run the society with capitalist, profit- making methods. Gorbachev is aware that this gulf between slogans and reality makes the masses disenchanted. But his solution is to move towards more traditional capitalist economic and political structures and pass them off as the second coming of socialism.

For real socialist changes in the Soviet Union, a new proletarian revolution is needed. That will come from the working class, not from the revisionist bureaucrats.

Perestroika: A Productivity Drive Against the Workers

The driving force behind Gorbachev's reforms is the sorry state of the Soviet economy. There is acute stagnation and incessant shortages of goods and poor quality. The people are extremely upset with this.

Gorbachev's solution is more "market socialist'' reforms. These are designed to give more play to market relations.

Thus enterprises are being put on strict cost accounting. This means a stepped-up productivity drive at each place, with wage cuts and speedup. There is the threat of big layoffs and plant closings. As well, the Moscow revisionists are expanding the private capitalist sector in both farming and in urban services. They hope this will substitute for putting more resources into agriculture and elsewhere, and they hope that this will also take care of some of the laid-off. And the Soviet revisionists are also hoping that foreign corporations will come and take part in exploiting the Soviet workers.

But fostering small businesses obviously only goes so far. Three years of perestroika and there is not yet much to show. Thus there is increasing talk of bringing in more of the typical capitalist incentives to work -- hunger and unemployment. There is more talk about cutting back on social benefits, such as health care, in order to prod the workers to work.

Price Hikes Are Coming

Indeed the key economic issue raised by the conference was "the need for "price reform.'' This means price increases for essential items like food, housing, transport. Gorbachev made a strong plea to accelerate price reforms. He lashed out at complaints that have been made against price increases.

But other delegates were nervous. They remember Poland where price hikes have led to repeated workers' upheavals. Thus they talked about handling this with "care" and making sure of "no mistakes."

Gorbachev himself promised this impossible task. He suggested that price hikes would be carried out without negative effect on the standard of living. This is just like his promise that when inefficient enterprises will be shut down, there will allegedly be no unemployment. What capitalist doublespeak. Gorbachev is learning how to be a Western-style capitalist politician real fast.

What's the Hoopla About Political Reform?

However the biggest thing at the conference was the theme that, if mass support is to be gained for economic reforms, political changes have to be made. The promise was held out that the Soviet regime will be democratized. And what flowery words this was described in -- rejuvenation of Soviets, establishing popular power, bringing into play the creative activity of the masses, etc.

But all that is just fluff. If the political changes decided at the conference are implemented, they will only be some more steps in the direction of a bourgeois democratic parliamentary setup -- albeit still under the monopoly of the Soviet revisionist party.

They plan to have a presidential-type post with major executive powers vested in him as an individual, probably designed to go to the party leader. And they want a standing parliament elected by an electoral college of several thousand. In other words, a more Western-style individual executive and a parliamentary talk shop where politicians can grandstand in front of TV, much like the recent party conference. At the local level, municipal councils are to be strengthened.

Obviously one thing they want with these changes is to make the masses believe that they will be consulted. But these reforms are also meant to create a forum to rationalize the many conflicts among the different economic and political interests among the ruling class. Many economic interests have emerged, as well as different political trends among the bureaucracy. Gorbachev realizes these things can't just be sat upon, they can't all be dealt with behind closed doors, they have to be handled differently. Over and over again, he stressed the need to mobilize the weapon of public opinion against those trends resistant to his plans.

But still, the real affairs of the state capitalist regime will no doubt continue to be handled -- as is typical in all capitalist countries -- behind the backs, of the masses by cabals of the wealthy powers-that-be, the generals, the bureaucrats, etc.

Wealthy Parasites Will Remain in Power

The bottom line which ensures this is that the privileged caste will remain in place.

The Soviet working people consider the privileges of the officials as one of their chief complaints. This was underscored recently by opinion surveys and letters to the press. But when some delegates brought this up and urged some modifications, Gorbachev argued against it. He derided it as something exaggerated by popular prejudice. He can't do otherwise. He knows these are part of the foundations of the ruling class. And he also knows he is promoting increased acquisition of wealth and inequality with his capitalist market reforms.

For Workers' Socialism, For A New Proletarian Revolution

The revisionist bureaucrats won't relinquish their power. If anything they want to consolidate the hold of a capitalist ruling class. For real changes in the interests of the working masses, the workers themselves will have to take up the cudgels. They will need to organize their own communist party to spearhead and centralize their struggle.

Already protests and strikes have broken out in places against wage cuts and speedup created by perestroika. The more Gorbachev wants to impose economic retreats on the workers, the stronger likelihood of worker resistance developing.

The political reforms and the squabbling of the various revisionist factions may eventually have the unintended result of providing some room for the working class to raise its own concerns. The Western press promotes the pro- Western dissidents and factions, but these are not the true voice of the Russian workers. The working class will have to fight for its own political rights. And it will have to fight for its own analysis, against both the "old guard" revisionists and the "pro-Western modernizers." The real limits of political reform will come out as the workers organize for their revolutionary class interest. Indeed, Gorbachev has already made strong declarations about law and order, denouncing those who want to change things with demonstrations. Just as bourgeois democracy in the Western countries is a dictatorship over the workers, so revisionist "political reform" is also.

The issue clearly is not to hope for revolution from the bureaucracy, but to prepare for revolution from below. Workers need to organize as a class with their distinct aims. They need to prepare a new socialist movement. The revolutionary ideas of Marx and Lenin remain the best guide for such a movement.

[Photo: Perth Amboy, N.J.--In the streets against killer cop--see page 7]

[Photo: Six months of Palestinian uprising--see page 9]

[Photo: Report from Kurdistan--Communist women in the struggle against Khomeini--see page 13]

[Back to Top]

Down with capitalism and its military-industrial complex!

Big-time sleaze at the Pentagon

Scandal is unraveling at the Pentagon. Heads are shaking in Washington: how to clean up the corruption, how to foil bribe-takers while ensuring the smooth delivery of missiles and planes to the arsenals.

But for the working people it is only further proof of what they have known all along. They are being bilked by the Reagan administration, a regime packed with officials chosen for their unmatched eagerness to make millions at the public's expense. Moreover, they are being squeezed by a humongous industrial-military complex: a machine that keeps the executives, bureaucrats and parasites sitting fat and pretty, while weighing like a ton of bricks on the shoulders of every man and woman who works for a living.

Sleaze on the Scale of Tens of Billions

This scandal isn't just about petty payoffs to petty officials. It's a big one. So far it involves some 20 Pentagon officials, including top brass; some 50 consultants to military contractors (who are mainly former Pentagon top brass, including the just-retired rear admiral of the Pacific fleet); and 20 corporations.

Search warrants point to trading in secret information about bids on some 100 military contracts. Private consultants have been buying the information from Pentagon insiders and selling it for tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the corporations. And through such means, the corporations have been fixing prices and manipulating contracts on tens of billions of dollars worth of military hardware.

A top sleaze in the case is Melvyn Paisley, former assistant secretary of the Navy. Paisley was a Boeing executive brought into the Reagan administration by then Navy Secretary John Lehman. As the man in charge of Navy procurement, Paisley controlled some of the biggest purchases in government. He was given this post and kept on despite FBI reports and tips from Boeing employees that Paisley had been involved in bribery and corruption.

When Paisley left the Pentagon last year to become a consultant for defense contractors, his close friend Secretary Lehman allowed him to keep access to the Pentagon's internal files. No wonder that McDonnell Douglas, United Technologies, Martin Marietta and other kings of the arms industry were quick to pay big money for his services.

Among other deals, Paisley helped McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics land a $35 billion contract for the Navy's planned advanced tactical aircraft. He also helped McDonnell Douglas sell F-18 fighters to South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland and Kuwait.

Capitalism's Industrial-Military Complex

Reagan has tried to dismiss the scandal as something "understandable" in such a large operation. With so many employees in the Pentagon and corporations, Reagan explained, "You can't be down there watching several million people."

But it wasn't some Pentagon janitor that rigged a $35 billion contract. No, Mr. Reagan. It was your former assistant secretary of the Navy. His accomplice was the former Navy secretary. And in case you slept through it, this is a man who sat with you in weekly cabinet meetings for most of your two terms.

But in a different sense the scandal is quite understandable.

The U.S. military has been built into a vast machine of destruction and oppression to prop up the worldwide profit empire of the U.S. banks and corporations. At the same time, with a $300 billion annual budget, the Pentagon is a pillar of U.S. capitalism.

Corporations feast on military contracts. A tight group of executives and generals chase each other through the revolving doors between corporate board rooms and Pentagon planning offices. Congressmen regularly vote on bills according to the allotment of military contracts. The sale of F-18's to Kuwait or South Korea become guiding principles of foreign policy.

The lubricant for this whole profitable machinery is the trading in favors among the executives, Pentagon brass, bureaucrats and politicians. Part of this is quite legal and open, the rest is done the Melvyn Paisley way through bribery and manipulation. But however it is done, it is the workers and the poor who foot the bill.

This Augean stable of corruption cannot be cleaned out by tinkering with a few more regulations or another oversight committee. It can only be cleaned out by the flood of workers' revolution. By the overthrow of the imperialist system which will finally lift the weight of the military-industrial complex from the backs of the working people.

[Cartoon.]

[Back to Top]

Democrats push welfare reform bill:

Workfare helps the capitalists, not the poor and unemployed

In mid-June the Senate passed a sweeping reform of the welfare system. Its chief sponsors were New York Democrat Patrick Moynihan and Texas Democrat Lloyd Bentsen. The Texas senator glorified the bill, declaring: "The underlying concept of this welfare reform bill is to break the cycle of dependency and to get parents into jobs where they can become productive, independent wage earners and help build a better future for their children."

Nice words. But don't count on this bill helping out the poor. Rather, under the cover of "breaking the cycle of dependency," the bill aims to force more of the poor off of the meager benefits of welfare. At the same time, it will create a stratum of workers forced to work any job' under any conditions on pain of losing their benefits. In short, the bill will build up a cheap labor force to drive down the wages of all workers.

The Democrats have pushed long and hard for this bill. But its basic aims are supported by Republicans and Democrats alike. In the Senate, the Democrats trimmed down the bill that they had put through the House last December to win an overwhelming bipartisan vote for the bill. Now the differences in the two versions of the bill are to be resolved by a joint House-Senate committee.

Why Welfare Reform?

The tumultuous mass movement of the workers in the 1930's forced the capitalists to provide some benefits to the unemployed and impoverished. The main welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), was begun in 1935 as part of the social security system.

But AFDC has never helped the poor to climb out of their poverty. Rather it has been used to maintain a whole stratum of the population on the edge of starvation and homelessness. Today there are some 3.8 million adults; mostly women, and about 7.3 million children who receive AFDC benefits. In most states the benefits amount to under 50% of what the federal government considers poverty. In many states the benefits are even lower, dropping in Alabama to only 17% of the poverty line and in Mississippi to only 14%.

The capitalist system, while producing vast wealth for a small section of the super rich, also produces a whole army of permanently unemployed workers. A portion of that army has been kept alive, just barely, by welfare.

Obviously there is a need for decent paying jobs. Obviously there is a need for decent child care, so that mothers can leave the home to take paying jobs. Obviously there is a need for national health care, so when going to work families don't lose, as they now do, the measly Medicaid benefits they get from welfare. These are basic requirements needed to help people now suffering under the welfare system. But the Democrats' bill does not solve any of these basic problems. Welfare reform is not aimed at helping the poor. Rather its aim is to help the capitalists.

Capitalist Wage-Cutting Offensive

At the end of the 1970's the capitalists began a major offensive to drive down the pay of the working class. This offensive hit workers directly with wage cutting in the work places. It was also developed indirectly by using the unemployed as a weapon to intensify competition among the workers. A major drive began to push welfare recipients into the competition, into a scramble for jobs that would help push down the living conditions of the whole working class.

Reagan hit on a simple plan: cut welfare benefits, increase technicalities that make it harder for people to receive welfare, and force many off the welfare rolls through claims of welfare "cheating" and the like. It is estimated that tens of thousands of people were permanently cut off welfare in New York City alone last year. And another 480,000 were temporarily forced off the New York City welfare rolls on various technicalities.

As the Reaganite offensive mounted, the Democrats suddenly stepped forward to give it a liberal face. If Reagan callously denounced so-called welfare cheats, the Democrats cried for compassion towards those it would drive off welfare. If Reagan claimed forcing people off welfare would make the "lazy" go to work, the Democrats whined about the need to provide minimal "education" and "training" so that welfare recipients could actually compete for lower-paying jobs. In the 1960's, when Moynihan first proposed workfare to the Nixon administration, it was shunned by liberals as repressive. But today when Moynihan has proposed a worse workfare scheme, it is eulogized as the height of modern liberal wisdom.

Such is welfare reform. Although the House version of the bill claims to give incentives for some increase in benefits, it will not restore all that Reagan has cut. And the Senate bill makes no increase in benefits at all. In essence, the Democrats' bill simply carries forward the Reaganite offensive in a more liberal way.

From Welfare to Workfare

The key provision in both the Senate and House bills is that all able-bodied adult welfare recipients are to be kicked off welfare unless they enlist in "NETWORK" where it is available. NETWORK is a new program set up by the bills for education, job training, and work programs -- such as nonpaying community service jobs or government subsidized low-paying jobs. The only exceptions are for welfare recipients with children three years old or younger (and states may be allowed to extend the requirement to recipients with children over a year old). In the Senate the Republicans demanded that at least 22% of the welfare recipients be forced into such programs, even though the funding is so small that NETWORK might not have been available for that many people.

The difficulties are so great for participating in such programs that many welfare recipients will be unable to participate and will simply be kicked off the welfare rolls.

It happens frequently in already existing programs that people are forced into work that they are not qualified or suited for. When they are fired or leave because they are unable to do the job they are also disqualified from welfare.

Or take another example. How are people to get their children taken care of while they're in the programs? The Democrats claim that child care will be provided. But this is a fraud. Even the more generous House bill limits day care to a maximum of $8-9 a day for each child. This is less than half what day care costs in New York City and much of the rest of the country. And this is the maximum to be paid. States could' decide to pay less. Then with not nearly enough money to pay, the welfare recipients themselves must find a child care facility that meets all the state requirements.

Some people will make it into these programs. And some may even benefit from a job training program. But much of what is called job training for welfare recipients is of no use, is regimented and humiliating, and is often simply make-work for little or no pay.

Even if people get a little pay in some of the job-training or work programs they will not be any better off. While it costs more to go to work, any increased income is immediately deducted from welfare benefits. The more generous House bill only delays the deductions for six months.

In fact, people may actually lose money when they are forced into jobs. There is a provision that claims welfare recipients could refuse jobs that result in a net loss of income. But a bipartisan amendment worked out in the Senate says that food stamps and Medicaid would not be counted as income. Therefore, even if a person's income doesn't make up for the loss of food stamps and Medicaid, she can't refuse the job.

Of course most people will not even get jobs. Many states already have mandatory work programs for welfare recipients, but the jobs are simply not there. In California, for example, jobs could be found for only about 14% of the people who participated in the mandatory work program.

And what is the nature of the few jobs available? A federal report on mandatory work programs in 38 states found that participants were forced to take jobs with a median hourly wage of only $4.14.

And out of this measly wage people have to pay for child care, health care, and transportation as well as all of the other family living expenses. The Democrats try to minimize this hardship, claiming the government will provide "transitional" child care and Medicaid. But child care lasts a maximum of only nine months and Medicaid only 12 months. As well, people have to pay a portion of these Costs on a sliding scale depending on their income. And all help will be eliminated if their income reaches 150% of the federal poverty level.

In short the "compassionate" Democrats have written a welfare reform that means many people will simply get kicked off of welfare and some will get forced into low paying jobs where they are worse off then they are today.

Workfare for Two-Parent Families

The Democrats also like to promote their bill as extending welfare benefits to two-parent families. But few will be helped and many will actually be harmed by this provision.

Currently 23 states operate AFDC-UP, a program under which some two-parent families can get welfare if both parents are unemployed. There are officially some 5.4 million people who are unemployed and receive no unemployment benefits. There are another 5.6 million unemployed without benefits who want work but have stopped looking because they figure they can't find a job, or can't get child care, or are disabled, etc. As long as there's not work, it would be good if these people could get some benefits.

But the requirements to qualify for AFDC-UP are so stiff that only 228,000 are presently in it. And it is estimated that extending it to the rest of the states, as the Democrats want, will add only another 65,000 families to the AFDC rolls.

But worse. An amendment by Bentsen allows states to limit paying benefits to only six out of 12 months a year. So some families who are now receiving 12 months of AFDC-UP benefits could be cut back to only six months of benefits.

Worse still, the Republicans put through an amendment in the Senate mandating that recipients "work off" their welfare grants at public or nonprofit agencies or in subsidized jobs. The Democrats complained about this amendment. But they happily passed the bill with this amendment in it.

[Back to Top]

The government's use of the RICO act threatens all workers:

Workers themselves must break the grip of corrupt Teamster bosses

On June 28, the government filed a lawsuit aimed at putting the Teamsters union under government trusteeship until elections for new officers can be held. The government claimed that organized crime's influence on the Teamsters executive board has deprived the 1.6 million Teamster members of their fights.

There is no doubt that the top Teamster leaders are among the most corrupt union officials. But a government takeover will not be of help to rank-and-file workers and truck drivers.

After all, this is the government that smashed the air traffic controllers' strike and destroyed their union. Reagan's anti-worker measures are too numerous to mention. In fact, about his only open friends among the union bureaucrats have been the Teamster leaders, who up until recently backed Reaganite reaction to the hilt -- including the take-back drive against the workers.

Will the Government Stop Teamster Hacks Collaboration With the Bosses?

Ultimately the corruption of the Teamster bureaucrats is based on their collaboration with the capitalists. Their biggest crime in the last few years has been helping the bosses rip concessions out of the workers' pockets.

Does the government's lawsuit seek to stop this collaboration? Not at all. The government has not even attempted to overturn the Teamster bosses' blatant implementation of contracts that have been rejected by the rank and file.

Last fall, 70,000 workers for the United/Parcel Service (UPS) voted down the proposed contract by a 53% vote. In May, the national freight agreement covering 171,000 workers was defeated by a 64% vote. And in June, the contract covering 2,000 workers at Stroh's Brewery was also rejected, this time by a vote of 54%. But in each case, the Teamster officials claimed that a constitutional rule of the union -- which requires a two-thirds majority vote for a strike -- means a two-thirds majority is needed to reject a contract. The officials implemented the contracts despite the huge opposition to them.

If the government was really out to help the workers it could begin by throwing out these rotten contracts. But the government is not about to question the sacred rights of the monopolies to trample on the workers. Oh, no! If the Teamster leaders are corrupted by the Mafia, the government leaders are equally corrupted by the monopolies -- witness the charges against Edward Meese, Reagan's head of the Justice Department.

A Dangerous Precedent

If the government was simply holding new elections to oust some corrupt officials, then there would be little concern. (However, even lopping off the entire executive board will not end the corruption in the union. The entire Teamster structure is geared against democratic control by the rank and file. And the entrenched bureaucracy, not just the executive board, is based on collaboration with the capitalists. Only a rank-and-file movement -- built up independently of the bureaucracy -- can organize the workers for a serious fight against the capitalists and clear away the stultification of the Teamster bureaucrats. Government held elections might, at most, provide an opening for more independent action by the rank and file.)

But the government is not just holding elections. It is taking an obvious case of corruption of union officials to set a dangerous precedent for taking control of unions.

The government is using the civil provision of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statue, known as RICO, in an unprecedented attempt to take over an entire international union. RICO is draconian. It allows the government to use a few acts to claim a criminal "pattern." And it is easier to get convictions, with heavier charges, on the pattern than on the acts the pattern is supposedly based on. RICO also allows the government to indict whole organizations. And it gives the government powers to take wide, arbitrary measures against the organizations.

In this case the government seeks to put the Teamster union in a government trusteeship. A trustee appointed by the government would take care of all union business until new elections are held. And apparently the government would decide when and how to hold the elections. Of course the Justice Department claims it does not want control of the union, only to hold elections. But once it takes over, who knows what will happen.

If RICO is successfully used against the Teamsters, then the government will have another weapon it can wield, when it likes, against the workers' movement. Not only unions, but political organizations of the workers face the threat.

Liberation from Union Bureaucracy Must Be the Act of the Workers Themselves

The Marxist-Leninist Party believes that the union bureaucracy in the Teamsters, and in the AFL-CIO overall, must be broken up because it sits like a dead weight holding down the workers' movement. But this must be the act of the workers themselves.

The unions are already completely ensnared with the government. Innumerable labor laws and government regulations are used to stifle every action of the workers. Whether it be organizing the unorganized or extending strikes to other workers or using mass picketing and other militant tactics -- the government stands against it. And the labor bureaucrats stand with the government. "It's against the law" they cry at every turn.

At the same time, union bureaucrats are put on government commissions, treated as respected authorities at congressional hearings, and given a role in the "labor" affairs of the state. This is part of the bribe, part of the pay off, for the union leaders' services for the capitalists and against the workers.

Giving the government even more control over the unions will hardly free the workers from the stranglehold of the union bureaucracy. But the workers can, and will, free themselves. The recent votes against the Teamster contracts show that sentiment is growing for a rank-and-file revolt against the bureaucrats. It is the task of the most class conscious workers to organize this revolt and to give it a conscious orientation for class struggle against the capitalists, against the government of the capitalists, and against the union bureaucracy that is doing the bidding of the capitalists.

[Back to Top]

Strikes and workplace news

[Graphic.]

Paperworkers' rally marks year of struggle against IP

[Photo: Lock Haven, Pennsylvania on June 18.]

Over 1,000 paperworkers and supporters marched through Lock Haven, Pennsylvania on June 18. A year before, 650 workers were locked out from International Paper's Lock Haven mill when they refused to go along with a new concessions contract.

The protesters marched through the center of town shouting, "Scabs out! Union in!'' They carried signs declaring "Stop union busting!'' and "An injury to one is an injury to all! " Paperworkers came from IP mills in Lock Haven and Erie, Pennsylvania and Jay, Maine.

Workers from other industries also joined the march.

There are more than 3,500 workers on strike or locked out at IP mills in Lock Haven; Mobile, Alabama; Jay, Maine and De Pere, Wisconsin. IP says it has "permanently replaced'' all these workers.

Unfortunately, the leadership of the United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU) has held the workers back from mass picketing against the scabbing. As well, the union officials have refused to call the rest of the IP workers out for a united strike. Today there are 13 other locals -- including about half of all UPIU members at IP plants -- which are working without a contract. Yet UPIU leaders keep them working. The rank and file must take matters into their own hands. A united strike is needed to beat back IP's concessions drive and union busting.

Heat walkouts at Chrysler's St. Louis plants

Heat walkouts erupted in June at two Chrysler assembly plants in Fenton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

The ventilation system and blowers broke down in the paint shop of the St. Louis I assembly plant. Temperatures soared to more than 110 degrees. Hundreds of workers walked out in protest on June 21. And they were quickly joined by workers from the St. Louis II assembly plant.

The next day, Chrysler had still not repaired the ventilation system. One worker, Willie Benton, had a heart attack and later died after working for an hour in the extreme heat of the paint shop. Company officials tried to suggest the death was not related to the heat since an autopsy of the man showed he had diseased arteries.

But workers wouldn't buy the lame story. Seven hundred workers walked out at the two plants protesting the death and demanding relief from the heat. The strike continued through first shift on June 23. About 1,800 workers shut down St. Louis I when they discovered that Chrysler had still not repaired the broken ventilation system in the paint shop.

GM threatens to close Van Nuys plant

GM is again threatening to close its Van Nuys assembly plant.

It was not long ago that GM threatened to shut down the plant if workers did not accept "team concept.'' Hoping to save their jobs, workers were forced to agree to the concession. The result has been terrible speedup, increased harassment and job cuts.

Concessions don't save jobs. They just weaken the workers' struggle and set them up for more concessions and job loss. And sure enough, GM is back threatening to shut down the Van Nuys plant once again. In June the Wall Street Journal, mouthpiece for the bankers and giant corporations, reported that GM is considering another wave of plant closings in order to boost its productivity to the level of Ford. The Journal, citing GM officials as sources, pointed out that prime targets for closure included Van Nuys and also assembly plants in Framingham, Massachusetts and Lakewood, Georgia.

This talk of a new wave of plant closings comes even before GM has finished the last wave of already announced closings. GM's Elyria, Ohio stamping plant will close July 1, eliminating 1,200 jobs. And then the Fiero plant in Pontiac, Michigan will close in August, cutting another 1,200 jobs.

GM has also announced plans to end production at its stamping plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb. There are now 1,400 production workers at the plant. GM plans to cut 700 jobs and retool the plant for the production of parts used in auto repair shops. It claims the job cuts will take place through attrition.

The West Mifflin plan is significant because it is the first example of last year's contract agreement for joint company-union management of a plant shutdown. UAW officials have been directly involved in devising the plans for West Mifflin -- including gutting of protective work rules and eliminating half the work force.

Such is the fruit of last year's contract. Not job security. But UAW leaders co-managing the job elimination.

Firings protested at GM-Van Nuys

Workers carried out several lunchtime demonstrations in May outside General Motor's assembly plant in Van Nuys, California. They were protesting GM's firing of two local officials of the United Auto Workers union (UAW), Shop Chairman Peter Beltran and Vice President Michael Velasquez.

GM claimed the two were fired for alleged "unexcused'' absences. But the firings came shortly after the union officials had walked out of a meeting with management to protest GM's plan to contract out the work of the seat cushion department, which would eliminate 120 jobs at the plant. The two are well known for their vocal opposition to "team concept'' speedup and job elimination at Van Nuys. It seems the firings are actually part of GM's attempt to crush any opposition to their drive to increase profits at the expense of workers' jobs.

Unfortunately, these local officials have done little to actually organize the workers to fight back against the productivity drive and job elimination at the plant. They've made a good deal of noise. But they've kept the struggle narrowed down to verbal protests and electioneering for union posts.

What the workers need is job actions and other forms of mass struggle to fight GM. And there is growing sentiment among the rank and file for such a fight. That's why workers grabbed up Workers' Advocate papers and leaflets calling for mass action against the auto capitalists.

Miners stop work to protest attacks on mine safety

Coal mines in the U.S. have never been safe. But over the last several years, conditions have been getting worse as the coal operators have cut jobs, pushed for higher productivity, and switched to more nonunion production.

Recently, the Reagan government has backed the coal monopolies by moving to weaken the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. In June, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) conducted public hearings on the proposed changes in the law. But everywhere MSHA was met with strikes and other protests by miners and their families.

On June 9, more than 5,000 miners stopped work in Alabama. They effectively shut down the state mining industry in a one-day protest. Over 2,000 of the miners picketed the MSHA hearings held in Birmingham. Placards read, "Miner families would rather starve than bum!'' and "We don't beg, we demand safety!''

On June 22, about 25,000 West Virginian miners held a one-day strike to protest the proposed changes in mine safety rules. As well, about 1,000 miners from West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania packed the MSHA hearing hall in Charleston.

Similar protests were also held at MSHA hearings in other states.

Meanwhile, the 3,000 miners who work for Pittston Coal stopped work for the entire week. They protested both the government's attack on mine safety and Pittston's refusal to sign a union contract. Pittston miners have been working without a contract since the old contract expired on January 31.

MSHA lamely claims that proposed changes in the safety law are simply rewording of the current law to make it more readable. But miners point out the proposed changes are "no more than a license to commit murder!"

The mine safety law was passed in 1969 after massive protests by the miners who demanded black lung benefits and an end to the coal operators' disregard for safety. Now the Reaganite MSHA proposes the following changes:

* Increasing the allowable limits of methane gas in the mines.

* Eliminating the required check for methane gas every 20 minutes.

* Lengthening the amount of time a coal company can keep miners underground when ventilation fans go down. This delays the mandatory evacuation of mines when explosive gas and dust build up.

* Replacing physical inspections with less reliable electronic monitoring devices.

Miners all over the country are mad. As one miner put it, the proposed changes are "like putting a loaded shotgun to the head of every miner!"

A.T. Massey miner framed for murder

Paul Smith will go on trial July 13 for the murder of Hayes West, a scab coal hauler for A.T. Massey during the 1984-85 strike. This will be the second trial for Smith.

Mr. Smith is one of five Kentucky miners who were jailed for the shootout, two years after it happened. They were put up on federal charges of "disrupting interstate commerce" during the strike.

Four of the miners were convicted in December of 1987 and sentenced to prison terms of 35 to 45 years. Their cases are being appealed.

Smith was tried separately from the others. He was charged with actually firing the fatal shot. But it was proven at the trial that Smith was not even at the scene of the shooting. A federal jury declared Mr. Smith innocent of all charges on January 25,1988. But before he could leave the building, Kentucky police rearrested him on state charges of murder.

Mr. Smith's rearrest is an outrage! But so is the jailing of the other four miners.

Coal strikes are often wars. And the Massey strike was no exception. A.T. Massey hired a whole army of gun thugs that attacked picket lines, shot into the homes of miners' families, and provided armed protection for convoys of scab coal. It is completely just for the coal miners to fight back. Their strike couldn't last a day without a most determined, militant struggle -- including a fight against the company's gun thugs. But when the inevitable shoot-outs take place, it is only the strikers that the government prosecutes.

If that weren't bad enough, in this case it appears that A.T. Massey cooked up the shoot-out and the government helped them frame the militant miners.

A Frame-Up of the Strikers

The scab truck driver was killed on May 29, 1985, five miles from the Massey mines near Canada, Kentucky. The company immediately pointed their finger at the striking miners.

But, in the trials, defense attorneys for the miners provided evidence showing that the scab truck hauler was actually shot during a company-orchestrated "ambush." They claim the company attempted to stage a shoot-up of one of its own coal trucks in order to obtain a sweeping court injunction against the strike.

The government, for its part, has been unable to give physical evidence linking any of the five strikers to the shooting. It appears that the five miners were simply pulled from a list of leading militants among the strikers in the Canada, Kentucky area. The list was supplied by A.T. Massey to the police before the shooting even took place.

It has also been revealed that government witnesses were bribed. Some were given money. One union member, who turned government witness, was rewarded with a job as a Kentucky cop.

As well, the brother of the slain man admitted lying about the circumstances of the shooting.

UMW Leaders Don't Defend the Miners

Despite the blatancy of this frame-up, the misleaders of the United Mine Workers union have refused to defend the miners. They have refused to even comment on the case. They have not even informed the UMW A membership of the facts of the case.

The five Kentucky miners have been left to fend for themselves. It is up to the rank-and-file miners, and all militant workers, to come to their defense.

[Photo: A scene from the militant Massey coal strike of 1984-85.]

10,000 shipyard workers shut down Electric Boat

On July 2nd, 10,000 machinists, electricians and workers from other trades struck the Electric Boat submarine shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. The workers vowed to stay off their jobs until they receive a raise in pay.

The strike began after the workers rejected the company's latest contract offer. The proposed contract would have given the workers lump-sum payments instead of salary increases. The lump-sum replacement would not only freeze basic hourly wages, it would also hold down the workers' compensation for overtime and pensions which are based on the hourly rate. Electric Boat also demanded that the workers increase their share of payments for medical and dental coverage.

This strike is the largest to hit the state of Connecticut in 13 years. In 1975 the same group of workers waged a bitter five-month walkout. It has been anticipated that this walkout could be even longer than the one in 1975.

Electric Boat declared it will hire scabs and send work to non-union shipyards in Rhode Island and other places. Strikers are determined to fight any scabbing. Shifts of 100 striking workers are taking turns picketing in front of the shipyard's front gates each day.

[Photo: Workers picketing the Electric Boat submarine shipyard in Groton, Conn.]

Strikes spread in Northwest lumber mills

On June 6, about 4,500 workers struck three lumber companies in the Pacific Northwest. The workers walked out at 20 mills owned by Willamette Industries, Champion International, and DAW Forest Products. On June 20, over 2,000 Boise Cascade workers also struck. And on June 29, the strike spread further as 700 workers walked out at three Simpson Timber mills.

The issue is the same in these strikes. The lumber bosses refuse to restore the workers' wages and benefits to their previous levels before massive concessions were forced in 1986. After the six- week strike in 1986, pay cuts of as much as $4 per hour were put through. The loss in wages was supposed to be replaced by profit sharing. But most workers made up less than one-quarter of what they lost. Meanwhile the wood products industry has enjoyed record profits over the last two years.

The lumber bosses are hungry. They want to keep the workers right where they are. But the workers are fighting back. They are maintaining militant picket lines at mills in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and California. They have sent roving pickets to lumber mills that have not struck.

Contract-by-deceit in New York transit

The Transit Workers Union (TWU) honchos have issued their "official" results of the '88 contract vote. They claim that the contract was approved by 15,021 in favor and 3,131 against. But transit workers know from experience that the TWU officials are to be trusted only as far as they can be thrown.

For a moment, let's give these swindlers the benefit of the doubt as to the accuracy of the vote tally. These results in no way reflect the actual sentiment of transit workers toward the contract givebacks or the union bureaucrats. These lopsided results -- even if true -- were only obtained through outright lies, trickery and divide-and-rule tactics.

The TWU misleaders regard lies and trickery as their preferred tools to get their way. But will they sink so low as to rig the vote? You bet. They were caught red-handed on more than one occasion in the 1970's. And there are several reasons to make us question the "official" results today.

The first thing we see is the large number whose votes were not counted. This includes thousands denied the right to vote for owing the union a few bucks following the 1980 strike and the loss of checkoff.

Next we notice that almost 12,400 workers allegedly didn't return their ballots. That's over 40% of the ballots mailed! So at best, the contract was approved by less than 50% of all transit workers.

And what about these facts which indicate a larger opposition than portrayed by the "official" results:

* Car Maintenance. 5 to l in favor! This from a division that barely approved the '85 contract, and where recent union by-elections revealed strong sentiment for rank-and-file action against further concessions.

* Track. Currently the scene of bitter clashes with management over speedup, work in the rain, and harassment. The division where 125 workers denounced Hall and the committee up and down at meeting after meeting in the months preceding the contract vote; where stickers against givebacks got plastered all over! Can we believe that only 149 track workers voted no?

* United Motormen. Even this division, a traditional center of militancy and the most hurt by the new sick abuse policy, supposedly approved the contract by a 2 to 1 margin. Remember, this division rejected the 1985 contract by a 2 to 1 margin!

In no way can we accept these "official" results as reflecting the true sentiment of transit workers.

Instead of silencing us, this contract-by-deceit maneuver should teach us another lesson -- the necessity to get organized independently of the TWU bureaucracy in order to overcome their trickery and battle the Transit Authority bosses.

(Excerpted from June 20 "New York Workers' Voice," paper of the MLP-NY.)

GE workers, reject this rotten contract!

A tentative contract for 60,000 General Electric workers was settled June 26. It's a rotten deal and should be rejected by the workers when they vote July 6.

The Coordinated Bargaining Committee of four GE unions agreed to this contract. But two days later the 200 member conference board of the largest of the unions, the International Union of Electrical workers (IUE), unanimously voted to reject the tentative deal. The IUE represents 42,000 of the GE workers. The board's opposition to the contract is a manifestation of the pressure for struggle that has been building among the rank-and-file workers.

Over the last few months a number of strikes, wildcats, and work slowdowns have broken out at a number of GE plants. Workers are fed up with GE's productivity drive, plant closings, layoffs, and farm out of work to nonunion shops. They are demanding job security. But the proposed contract fails to provide adequate job protections or to limit GE's speed-up drive.

Workers are also angry that while GE raked in $3 billion in profits last year, it is holding wage increases down to 5.5% over the three year contract. These increases, even combined with cost-of- living improvement, are smaller than those in the last contract. Rather than giving an adequate raise in basic hourly wages, GE is starting to shift over to lump-sum payments.

While the IUE board unanimously rejected the contract, IUE's president is campaigning in favor of the rotten deal. William Bywater was on the Coordinated Bargaining Committee that caved in to many of GE's demands. And he is actively campaigning for its passage.

After the board voted against the contract, Bywater pressured the leaders of three IUE locals to reverse themselves and come out in favor the contract. The largest of these is the executive board for Local 761 at GE's complex in Louisville. This complex has been the scene of recent wildcats against GE. There is no reason to believe that the rank-and-file workers will follow their leaders' calls to support the contract.

Meanwhile, the heads of the United Electrical workers (UE) have been waiting to find out what the IUE leaders will do before making a recommendation to their members. The UE represents 6,300 GE workers. The leaders of the International Association of Machinists and of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which together represent 10,400 GE workers, are supporting the sellout contract.

[Back to Top]

40,000 protest nuclear weapons in New York

On June 11th, 40,000 people demonstrated in New York City against nuclear weapons. A smaller march was held in San Francisco. These events were officially called to coincide with the UN Special Session on Disarmament.

Although the turnout in New York was large, and included many youth and others angered by the threat of nuclear war, much of the march was given an apolitical character by the official organizers. Indeed, the organizers promoted a complacent and euphoric outlook about the prospects for peace, pointing to the signing of the INF treaty and the Moscow summit that had just taken place.

The Marxist-Leninist Party mobilized a contingent carrying two banners. One declared, "To Fight Nuclear Weapons, Fight Imperialism!" The other denounced the contra war against Nicaragua and the Arias "peace" plan which uses pressure and blackmail to get the Nicaraguan revolution dismantled. The MLP contingent shouted militant slogans throughout the march route, and it distributed some 4,500 leaflets.

The MLP leaflet said in part:

"Working people, youth, and activists are rightly concerned about the horrors associated with nuclear and conventional war, as well as with the tremendous costs extracted from our hides by the war profiteers.

"But the question is posed: how is the fight against war to be developed?

"There are those who say that in order to stop military interventions, halt militarization and prevent nuclear war we must push for negotiations between the superpowers. These people argue that the war danger comes from the arms race itself, or from mistrust and a lack of communications. From this viewpoint, the war dangers can be eliminated by fostering negotiations and getting the U.S. and the Soviet Union to agree to a stepwise reduction in their nuclear arsenals.

"We say this path is illusory. The U.S. and Soviet rulers are vicious exploiters and imperialists. They are not interested in peace that benefits the people. The source of war does not lie in the blunders of otherwise well-intentioned governments, or a lack of communication between world powers, but in the division of society into classes, into exploiters and exploited, oppressors and oppressed. War emanates from the very bosom of imperialism. The struggle against militarism and imperialist war must therefore be directed right at the exploiters and imperialists."

[[Photo: New York City, June 11.]

[Back to Top]

Demonstrations against Israeli oppression

[Photo: San Francisco, June 4.]

On June 4, demonstrations were held in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and some other U.S. cities to oppose Israeli brutality against Palestinians in the occupied territories. In each city, several hundred people gathered to denounce Israeli oppression, to oppose U.S. support for Israel, and express solidarity for the Palestinians.

Actions in solidarity with the fighting Palestinian people are a good thing. There is need for more activity and struggle against U.S. imperialism's shameful alliance with Israeli Zionism.

But this work requires building a fight against reformism. The June 4 actions verified that once again.

The reformist organizers of the June 4 actions had promoted the view that the demonstrations would draw huge numbers if the politics was suitably toned down. They filled their heads with grandiose ideas of a huge united front with liberal Zionists. Thus the official politics of the June 4 actions were constrained. There was no denunciation of zionism. The denunciation of U.S. support for Israel was limited to condemning U.S. support for the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Despite this, the liberal Zionists did not mobilize in any number for these protests.

But the reformists did not go unchallenged. These demonstrations were also attended by people who did not go along with the tame slogans of the reformist leadership. The MLP took part in the actions in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. It raised slogans against zionism and U.S. imperialism and for revolution. Some of the official organizers tried to suppress even slogans against zionism, but many ordinary Palestinians and others joined in these militant slogans.

[Photo: MLP banner at Chicago protest, June 4.]

[Back to Top]

March in Detroit against U.S. imperialism

On June 18, the Marxist-Leninist Party held a march through the working class neighborhood of Highland Park in Detroit. The march was called to show solidarity with the struggles of working people in South Africa, the Middle East, and Central America.

The march got an enthusiastic response in the neighborhood. A big red banner declared, "U.S. Imperialism, Hands Off Nicaragua!" And a banner that portrayed a black South African fighter read, "Death to Apartheid!" Many people greeted the march from their porches. They raised their fists and joined in shouting slogans against U.S. imperialism, in support of the uprisings in Palestine and South Africa, and against the Iran-Iraq war. A hundred people took picket signs against apartheid in South Africa and for solidarity with the Central American toilers.

Several people from the neighborhood joined the march and the rallies that began and ended the march. One man stuck a picket sign out his car window and drove alongside the demonstrators for the entire march. Meanwhile, kids from the area had a fine time distributing picket signs and pasting up protest stickers.

At the closing rally a Party speaker pointed out that the protest was not just against the warmongering of the Reagan government. It was also held in defiance of the Democratic Party.

She explained that "Last spring there was a coalition that was planning to hold a demonstration. But the coalition was shut down, the demonstration was called off, and pressure was brought that there should be no protests. Why? Because the Democrats did not want it."

She stressed that Michigan Congressman John Conyers, "said don't demonstrate, don't protest. He cried, leave it up to the Democrats, leave it up to Congress. He claimed the Democrats would bring peace to Central America. And what did the Democrats do? They voted to give the CIA-run contra army another $48 million for the war against Nicaragua, that's what they did....We can't trust the Democrats, because they are another Party of the rich just like the Republicans. We can't trust them. Instead we have to build a movement of the working people to fight back. And that's what we've been doing today.''

[Photo.]

[Back to Top]

DOWN WITH RACISM!

Perth Amboy, New Jersey:

Thousands in the streets against killer cop

Thousands of workers and youth rose up in June to protest the murder of a young Mexican worker by a policeman in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. More than half of the residents of this industrial town outside of New York City are Latino. They are fed up with the racist police terror against Latinos and blacks. Demonstrations and street fighting against the police went on for three days.

The spark that ignited the revolt occurred on June 6. Two brothers, Carmen (age 25) and Mateo Coria (age 27), were gunned down by an off- duty narcotics cop named Allen Fuller. The cop had been drinking at a bar and got involved in a fight outside. He fired on Carmen, who died instantly. When Mateo came to aid his brother, Fuller shot him too. Fuller then pumped three more shots into Mateo as he lay helpless on the ground. He was hospitalized in critical condition. Fuller is notorious for his racist assaults on Latinos. There have been six complaints filed against him for such assaults over the last decade.

But Perth Amboy's mayor and police chief immediately jumped to Fuller's defense. The mayor praised Fuller as the cop with "more arrests than anyone in the city." They did no more than suspend Fuller with full pay. For his deadly deed, the authorities gave him a paid vacation.

The masses were outraged. On June 8, about 2,000 people marched to the city hall. Outside a city council meeting they chanted, "We want justice! We want Fuller!"

On June 9, some 2,500 people marched in the funeral procession for Carmen. Following the funeral as many as 1,000 people demonstrated at the police station. The city's riot squad, out in full gear, attacked the demonstrators. But the workers and youth fought back. They hurled rocks through bank and storefront windows. They overturned a car. With one voice the people chanted, "Justicia! Justicia! Justicia!" In a frenzy, the police attacked the protesters and rampaged through a nearby housing project. In the end, five police were wounded and 19 demonstrators arrested.

The next day, authorities tried to quiet the masses. They agreed to a grand jury investigation of the murder. This didn't meet the mass demands for the immediate firing of the police chief and Fuller and for a special prosecutor in the case. But bourgeois Latino leaders went along with the authorities and called off any further demonstrations. Mathias Rodriquez, a lawyer for the Coria family, claimed further demonstrations would be counterproductive. He agreed with Raymond Sanchez, a real estate broker, that the problem was only a few "bad apples in the bunch" that need to be gotten rid of.

But these are not isolated incidents or the problem of a "few bad apples" in an otherwise good basket. The "bad apples" are the rotten fruit of racism that has been nurtured by a system that thrives on plundering and terrorizing the people.

The masses in Perth Amboy complain of systematic racist terror against the Latino and black youth. Many youth and workers were disgusted with the calling off of demonstrations. That night a few hundred of them again squared off with police at the police headquarters. About seven more protesters were arrested in the confrontation.

[Photo: Hundreds of demonstrators marched on the police station in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on June 9 to protest the police shooting of two Hispanic men.]

Tawana Brawley:

Government and media put victim on trial

Samuel McClease announces he has tapes of confidential conversations between Tawana Brawley's lawyers. Overnight he is a hero. The press just can't wait to get interviews. Everything from the New York Times to People magazine gets into the act. Never mind that McClease is well known to be a liar. U.S. Attorney Giuliani just can't wait to get his hands on the tapes. Of course, when tapes are finally handed over they are blank, and McClease is arrested for perjury. But it made great page one news while it lasted.

Two youths from Poughkeepsie go on TV to swear they saw Tawana Brawley at a party. Page one news. Never mind that they are lying. Never mind that Mike Taibi of WCBS paid them to tell this tale before the cameras, but omitted this little fact from his report. Never mind that the youth recant their story before the week is up. Soon Mike Taibi will go on to his next triumph -- his exclusive interview of Samuel McClease.

Tawana Brawley was the victim of a brutal crime. She was found in a state of shock on a street in Wappinger Falls, New York last November where she had been dumped in a plastic bag, with feces smeared on her, clumps of hair cut away, and "KKK" and "Nigger" scrawled across her body in charcoal.

But it is not her attackers who are on trial today. Instead, the newspapers and TV have become the forum for a public trial of Tawana Brawley, her family and lawyers.

Tawana's Mother Indicted

It is six months after Tawana Brawley was found dazed and battered. And, besides the arrest of the liar McClease, only one arrest warrant has been issued. It is a warrant for the arrest of Glenda Brawley, Tawana's mother, for refusing to appear before a Duchess County Grand Jury.

And why is State Attorney General Robert Abrams summoning all the members of the Brawley family, down to Tawana's cousins, before his grand jury? Essentially, as retribution for the family's declaration that it refuses to cooperate with the grand jury.

Imagine the howls of outrage that would come if prosecutors issued subpoenas to the mothers of the Howard Beach killers. But let a victim declare that the grand jury proceedings are a hoax and, suddenly, it's open season on the victim and her family.

The reasons for this go back to Howard Beach.

Governor Cuomo Out to Defend Racist "Justice" in New York

After a racist gang killed Michael Griffith in Howard Beach, the police and the Queens District Attorney's office treated the victims like criminals. Meanwhile, they told the press there was little evidence and no independent witnesses -- in short, no case.

The survivors refused to cooperate any further with the Queens District Attorney's office. The newspapers and TV stations began to attack the victims' lawyers and mutter about disbarring them.

Then the demonstrations began. For weeks New York Governor Cuomo refused to intervene. But repeated demonstrations of thousands of people -- expressing the feelings of hundreds of thousands -- forced Cuomo to appoint a special prosecutor. Eventually, it then came out that there was a mountain of evidence and any number of witnesses. The detectives from the 106th (stungun) precinct and officials of the Queens District Attorney's office had just been hiding the truth.

In the Howard Beach case, the appointment of a special prosecutor ended the attempt to sweep the case under the rug. Naturally, all the politicians from Cuomo on down were happy to take credit for that.

But in fact they were deeply perturbed. They did not appreciate people standing up and saying the legal system is a fraud, and getting away with it. They did not appreciate having a movement of thousands of people force the appointment of a special prosecutor.

So when the Brawley case came along, Cuomo and co. saw their chance for revenge. They began a concerted effort to set the anti-racist movement back on its heels.

Open Season on the Brawleys

At first, Cuomo refused to appoint a special prosecutor in the Brawley case. But his hand was forced when local prosecutor after local prosecutor backed out. Then he appointed the State Attorney General Abrams.

Law enforcement in Duchess County is a corrupt old boys' network.. Any serious investigation of the Brawley case would have to deal with this fact. It would be bound to open up a can of worms. But this has not happened.

Instead, Abram's investigation has been open season on the Brawleys. Not only the Brawley family, but their advisors too have come under more investigation and threats of prosecution than have Tawana Brawley's assailants.

The Brawley family advisors are not angels sent down from heaven. A1 Sharpton is a small-time hustler and a police informer. Playing fast and loose with the facts, he has made any number of blunders that have harmed the defense of Tawana Brawley. And Brawley's lawyers are certainly not god's gift to the fight against racism either. They have, for example, tried to impose A1 Sharpton on the anti-racist movement despite the misgivings of an overwhelming majority of the activists in that movement. It seems that they have forgotten that it was not their silver-tongued oratory but the demonstrations of thousands of ordinary people that put a halt to the cover-up in the Howard Beach case.

But be that as it may, the lawyers are not the issue in this case. The issue is the brutal crime against Tawana Brawley and the refusal of the authorities to do anything about it. If Tawana is to receive justice, the anti-racist movement will have to wring it out of the authorities through mass struggle.

[Back to Top]

Death to apartheid in South Africa!

[Graphic.]

General strike against apartheid's new anti-worker law

Last month millions of South African black workers participated in general strikes to protest government bans on anti-apartheid activity. The strikes were the largest actions to be organized since last summer. They show that the government's repression has not succeeded in destroying the defiant spirit of the black people.

Three-Day General Strike Against Repression

Two million workers took part in a three-day general strike, June 6-9.

In the massive black township of Soweto about 90% of workers honored the strike and refused to report to their jobs in nearby Johannesburg. Johannesburg, the country's main industrial and commercial center, became a ghost town. The strike was also strong in the Indian Ocean port of Durban. Public transport was stopped in Johannesburg and Durban. All auto production in South Africa was stopped, as the country's seven major assembly plants were shut down. Hotels and supermarket chains were also hit hard by the strike.

The strike was called by the two major black trade union federations to protest the two-year-old state of emergency and to protest the new bans on anti-apartheid activity decreed by the racist government in February. The new restrictions include a ban on anti-apartheid political activity by trade unions.

The strike was also called to fight against a new anti-labor bill now being prepared in the South African parliament. This is a harsh anti-worker bill designed to cripple the black trade unions.

The bill would outlaw sympathy strikes and work boycotts. It would sharply narrow the definition of legal strike action, making it extremely difficult, if not practically impossible, to call a strike. It would outlaw strikes on "the same issue'' for 15 months. It would allow severe measures against unions which violate its dictates. And it would also allow employers to sue unions for any loss of production from an illegal strike.

Racists Back Down from Threats

The power of the strike was evident soon after it started. Before the strike the government and employers had threatened that anyone not showing up for work would be fired.

But they had to switch tactics once the strike had begun and it showed an overwhelming support from black workers. The employers gave up their threats of firing and instead declared to the trade union leaders, "Just tell us what you want.'' They declared their willingness to compromise on the new anti-labor bill and expressed their hope that "we can work together to end apartheid."

Unfortunately the strike leaders appear to have been taken in by this rhetoric. Instead of pressing their advantage against the capitalists and the racist government, the leaders of COSATU (the main trade union federation) went into executive session to formulate a polite reply to the employers, suggesting some modifications, instead of simply calling for the bill to be scrapped. A top. COSATU leader, Jay Naidoo, is reported to have called for "an independent panel of experts under the chairmanship of a retired judge" to review the bill.

Massive Strike on Soweto Day

Despite the conciliation of the trade union leaders, the capitalists' back- pedaling on their threats showed the power of the massive work stay-away. It was followed by another successful general strike on June 16, the 12th anniversary of the Soweto Rebellion. More than a million black workers took off from work that day to commemorate the massive upsurge against apartheid of 1976.

The massive strikes in June caught the apartheid masters by surprise. After two years of heavy repression under the state of emergency, they thought that the black workers' taste for mass action had dissipated. But the strikes show that the toilers are thirsting for struggle.

[Photo: Namibian students demonstrating against South African Prime Minister Botha in April. Workers supporting the students shut down Namibia's mines on June 20.]

The Democrats are playing election games with South African sanctions

It's election time again and guess what? The Democrats have suddenly become spouters of anti-apartheid rhetoric again.

For the last two years, while the black masses in South Africa have struggled against a fascist state of emergency, Democratic Party leaders have not had much to say about apartheid. They showed no enthusiasm for the black workers' massive general strike on May Day, 1986. No interest in the huge Soweto Day protests of June 1987. No sign of support for the powerful black miners' strike of August 1987, or for the general strikes this past month.

But now it's campaign time again, and Jesse Jackson's campaign has provided the only point of interest to an otherwise dull, bourgeois politics-as- usual election. And Jackson has made a point of indulging in some anti-apartheid rhetoric. So now the Democrats have taken over a bit of Jackson's rhetoric to try and differentiate themselves from the Republicans.

South Africa's New Name: "Terrorist"

Jackson carried his anti-apartheid rhetoric into the meetings of the Democratic Platform Committee, where his followers demanded that South Africa be branded a "terrorist state." The Dukakis forces allowed this proposal to pass. So the Democrats have now officially declared South Africa "terrorist."

But what does this mean for the Democratic Party? Afterward the Dukakis leaders in the Platform Committee were asked if this resolution would commit a Democratic administration to cutting off relations, diplomatic or economic, with South Africa. The reply was, that the resolution did not mention that.

In other words, the resolution means absolutely nothing in practical terms. Which is why the Dukakis forces allowed it to pass. The Democrats have given South Africa a new name, for show, but have not committed themselves to anything different against apartheid.

The Dellums Bill -- Back on the Burner

Meanwhile the Democrats in Congress are trying to make a name for themselves by once again posing as supporters of economic sanctions against South Africa. They are reviving the Dellums Bill of 1986, now called the Comprehensive Sanctions Bill, and are planning to press it in the House of Representatives just before the Democratic convention begins July 18.

If it became law, the Dellums Bill would plug the most glaring loopholes in the present body of sanctions against South Africa. The bill would ban all

American investment in South Africa, giving corporations one year to divest of all their South African holdings. It would prohibit the phony divestment by which corporations sell their South African subsidiary to an in-country holding company, which maintains licensing agreements and distribution franchises with the U.S. parent corporation.

The bill also requires that when divesting, corporations must give their South African workers 90 days notice of intention to leave. And it specifies that corporations must negotiate the terms of their withdrawal with the workers; this is a demand made by black trade unions in South Africa.

The bill would also impose a trade embargo against South African goods, although there are exceptions to this. Most notably, the import of strategic minerals to fuel U.S. imperialism's war machine would still be allowed.

The bill contains a sop to American agribusiness, allowing it to continue exporting to South Africa when most other trade is cut off. And it contains an outrageous sop to the Reaganites, prohibiting aid money to South African blacks from being channeled through the ANC or SWAPO.

Despite some outrageous provisions the Dellums Bill remains by far the most serious sanctions bill yet proposed in Congress.

The Dellums sanctions bill is a pet project of the reformist "left" wing of the Democratic Party. These politicians worry that the U.S. alliance with apartheid is harmful for U.S. imperialism's image among South African blacks and in Africa generally. To them, sanctions against South Africa are not meant to help the South African blacks overthrow the racist slave masters but a means to prod the racists into making some reforms. Over and over again, Ron Dellums (D-Calif.) and other backers of his bill have declared, if the racists don't make some changes, then alas, there will be "violent upheaval," revolution, etc. They urge the U.S. government to help the racists in Pretoria see the folly of their ways.

The top Democratic Party leaders however are not that keen on adopting such sanctions as called for in the Dellums Bill. Their idea of sanctions is only to have a light tap on the wrist for the South African racists. But they have found the Dellums Bill as well-suited for electioneering this year.

Primping for the Electorate

To understand the Democrats' plans for this bill, however, it is important to remember what they did with the Dellums Bill in 1986. At that time, too, the Democrats were in the middle of an election campaign. And through a parliamentary quirk, quite to the surprise of the bill's sponsors, they actually managed to pass the Dellums Bill.

So what happened then? The Democrats immediately passed a resolution to reconsider the whole thing. Another sanctions bill, full of loopholes, was passed so that the politicians in Congress could still puff themselves up as anti-apartheid stalwarts.

But now it's election time 1988. And there has been some exposure of the impotence and hollowness of the last sanctions bill.

Now, with their convention coming up, the Democrats are dusting off the old Dellums bill. But they are no more serious about it now than they were in 1986. Even if they pass it in the House again, they can expect the bill to die in the Senate or from a Reagan veto. With this bill the Democrats are simply primping for the electorate.

It is possible that even if the Dellums Bill is rejected, some other additional sanctions bill might get passed by Congress. If not this year, maybe the next. But this would not mean that the Congressional Democrats have become friends of the anti-apartheid struggle. Sanctions for them remain a method to help stave off revolution in South Africa -- this remains the bottom line of Democratic Party policy on South Africa.

[Back to Top]

Six months of the Palestinian uprising

The first week of June marked six months of the Palestinian uprising.

Palestinians in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip carried out a complete general strike on June 9. On June 15, there was still another general shutdown.

Demonstrations continue daily in the occupied territories. In the street fighting, Palestinian militants have taken up firebombs to attack the occupation troops. And attacks against those who collaborate with the Israeli occupation are on the rise.

This is a good time to take stock of some of the key lessons of the Palestinian uprising.

The Uprising Goes On

The latest events once again confounded Israeli officials who have been predicting -- and desperately hoping -- that the uprising would simply die down and go away.

What have they not said and done to crush the uprising?

First they suggested that it was simply a temporary flare-up. They dismissed it as the work of "outside agitators" with no internal support. They appeared to be smugly certain that the Israeli "iron fist" tactics of shooting, beating and gassing would wipe it out. They said that imprisonment and expulsion of activists would eliminate its leadership. They thought that bulldozing more homes would intimidate the masses. They said that Palestinian workers would not support strikes.

Every week they repeat such proclamations. But all this has been proved wrong over and over again. The uprising has refused to simply die out. Its mass support has been remarkable. And the protesters have triumphed over every attempt of the Israelis to beat them down and intimidate them.

The death toll has climbed over 200, thousands lie in prison camps, and quite a few have been deported. But many more activists have come forward to take the place of those who have fallen or been taken away.

The Palestinian Rebound Is Based on Mass Struggle

Only a few years ago, the Palestinian movement appeared to be in dire straits.

The Israelis had moved into southern Lebanon, the PLO had been forced to retreat from Beirut, and the PLO leaders were showing themselves to be politically bankrupt. They had no plans beyond pleading for help from the superpowers.

Meanwhile the imperialist big powers were satisfied with allowing the Palestinians to languish in refugee camps and under military occupation. The uprising has changed all that. Now the imperialist powers are full of talk about "peace conferences" and the "peace process." And the bourgeois Arab governments have renewed talk about solidarity with the Palestinians.

All of this is mere posturing. None of these capitalist powers care about freedom for the Palestinians. They are worried only that the uprising sows the seeds of unrest and instability in the Middle East.

But their worry itself shows the power of the mass uprising of the Palestinian people.

Sharp Blows Against Israeli Zionism

The force of this uprising is also seen in the toll it has inflicted against the Israeli rulers.

Because of the unequal military balance, Israeli casualties are small compared to Palestinian martyrs. But the impact on Israel has not been light. The daily actions of Palestinians continue to chip away at the arrogance of the Israeli army.

Israel has also been hurt economically by the ongoing strikes and boycotts. Cheap Palestinian labor is crucial for such sectors of the Israeli economy as agriculture and construction. The market in the occupied territories is also important for Israeli products. As well, tourism, a major industry in Israel, has dropped off drastically.

There has been a resurgence of worldwide condemnation of Israeli oppression. Even among those who have illusions in Israel, there is a growing criticism of the racist, brutal repression.

Even inside Israel, a number of sizable demonstrations by Jews have been held demanding withdrawal from the occupied territories. Some draft-age youths and army reservists have refused to serve in the occupied territories. And some Israelis have visited Palestinian villages, to express sympathy with them.

All this too is testimony to the power of the Palestinian mass struggle.

A New Spirit Among the Palestinians

But the biggest impact of the uprising is on the Palestinians themselves.

Today there is a new confidence, a new pride based on the solidarity forged in the course of the mass upsurge. Support for militant struggle was a hallmark of the Palestinians in the 1960's and early 70's. But as the PLO leaders turned away from a generally revolutionary policy towards reformist scheming, and as Israel inflicted setbacks on their struggle, many Palestinians had fallen into despair. The uprising has broken the grip of this despair.

A new mood of activism has been unleashed across the occupied territories. In the course of the uprising itself organizations of all kinds have sprung up to provide support for its activities.

First there appeared the networks of the youth -- the shebab -- who organized the militant street fighting. And in the course of struggle against Israeli repression, other organized forms have also appeared. Food committees emerged to deal with the starvation threat imposed by repeated curfews. Today there are thousands of popular committees. They deal with the multifaceted actions of the uprising, such as spray painting slogans, building barricades, organizing demonstrations. Other committees deal with medical relief, the work to defend villages from attacks by zionist settlers, etc.

In the course of the uprising, as many young men have been taken away, women have stepped forward to take up responsibilities in the front ranks of the struggle. Indeed, through their participation in the movement Palestinian women are breaking out of traditional restrictions and finding new freedom.

It Is Necessary to Break With Reformism

The uprising has been possible because there has been the beginning of a break with the reformism of the PLO leaders. A new generation of activists has emerged which decided that enough was enough -- no more waiting on liberation to be granted by the generosity of others. No more waiting on the UN, the Arab regimes, or the superpowers. They would have to act for themselves. While still identified with the PLO, a local leadership has emerged in the occupied territories.

This is a dramatic development. But it is only a beginning. The Palestinian movement must go further. In the final analysis, the current uprising must prove to be a rehearsal for an even stronger revolutionary upsurge that can actually bring down the racist Israeli regime.

But the progress of the uprising depends on the struggle between trends. It depends on whether or not a trend of revolutionary struggle succeeds in making a conscious break with reformism.

Already a new round of reformist counsel is getting louder. And it appears to have some influence in the underground leadership in the occupied territories.

This reformist orientation is coming from influential Palestinian voices on the West Bank such as Hanna Siniora, editor of the East Jerusalem paper El Fajr. It is also coming from PLO leaders like Arafat who apparently has just had his spokesman Abu Sharif write a major article seeking dialogue with the Israelis. The reformist voices are being encouraged by Gorbachev, and Moscow has begun to renew links with Israel.

In one form or another, the reformists are hoping for a deal with the Israeli chieftains. They place hope in dialogue with Israeli leaders, and Siniora pins his hope in "peace forces" triumphing in the Israeli elections, which is simply another way of referring to the Israeli Labor Party.

All this is disgraceful. If anything has been verified about the Israeli rulers by the current uprising, it is that Israeli intransigence against the Palestinians spans the entire zionist ruling establishment -- from right-wing Likud to liberal Labor.

The reformists see this intransigence and draw the demoralized conclusion that only a deal is possible. But a deal with the zionist butchers is a pipe dream. Decades of racist rule are ample testimony to that.

And even if somehow a form of "Palestinian self-rule" were to be conceded -- as the U.S. and Soviet imperialists claim to support -- it would amount not to freedom for the Palestinians but a Bantustan-type of entity dependent on Israel. This would be a "self-rule" where the Palestinians would have the right to supervise garbage collection.

The real lesson of Israeli intransigence is the need for revolution. Racist Israel won't reform itself. The racist apparatus must be smashed by the power of the masses.

For a Revolutionary Orientation Based on a Class Perspective

Where is this revolution to come from? Look to the forces which are being pointed to by the uprising itself. These forces have to be gathered and organized. For that they need to be provided a revolutionary orientation.

The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have already shown their fighting capacity. They have even been able to bring forth solidarity actions among Palestinians within Israel. The support from Palestinian refugees in the neighboring Arab countries is also no small force. Organized on revolutionary lines, this can be a tremendous force.

To break with reformism, it is necessary to organize on class lines. Reformism within the Palestinian community comes from the upper strata, from bourgeoisified sections who are eager to make a deal with the Israeli bourgeoisie. A revolutionary perspective has to be based on the toilers instead.

The polarization in Israeli society must also be taken into account. The uprising has already renewed stirrings in Israel against the regime. Revolutionary Palestinians must try to attract Jews who turn away from the zionist consensus. For this too a class orientation is needed. Zionist racism is based on the Israeli bourgeoisie. Jewish working people need to be broken away from zionist solidarity with their capitalist exploiters.

The toilers of the neighboring Arab countries too can be a powerful factor of support. And here too, the uprising has reportedly revived ferment among Arab masses against the reactionary regimes. Here too a clear-cut class perspective based on the interests of the toiling masses would prove to have a great attraction.

No to the racist apparatus of Israeli zionism! Revolution for a democratic and secular Palestine!

Forward with the Palestinian uprising! No to reformist pipe dreams of compromise with zionism!

Build the solidarity of the working people, Arab and Jewish!

[Photo: Rocks against bullets: after six months of the uprising, Palestinians are more determined than ever.]

[Back to Top]

Israel's crackdown on Jews for contact with Arabs

Protest against the oppression of Palestinians in the occupied territories continues in Israel. On June 4 some 20,000 people marched in Tel Aviv protesting the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Meanwhile, the club of Israeli repression is being brought down upon Jews who are inclined towards sympathy with Palestinians.

Last February the government closed down an Israeli newspaper, Derech Hanitzotz. This Hebrew-language paper was published by Jewish Israelis, but because it took leftist positions, it became the target of government, censorship. Now the government has charged the paper's editors with treason, saying they were agents of a group affiliated with the PLO. Conviction could bring a sentence of 40 years in jail.

Also, in June some Israelis who met with the PLO in Rumania in 1982 were convicted of "contact with members of a terrorist organization," a serious crime in the eyes of the Israeli courts.

The Israeli regime holds that every politically active Palestinian is connected to the PLO and the PLO, by definition, is described as "terrorist." Thus any progressive Israeli who links up with Palestinians is also liable to be charged with contact with "terrorists."

At the end of May, the Israeli group "Peace Now" organized a caravan through the West Bank. Peace Now has liberal views and the caravan was organized to urge Palestinians to give up their uprising and look for reconciliation. But the Israeli regime is sternly opposed to any contacts between Palestinians and Jews who are critical of the Israeli regime's policies. They banned the leaflets advertising the caravan from being circulated in the West Bank, and they prevented Palestinians from attending the Peace Now rally at the end of the caravan.

All these incidents of Israeli repression show the fear that the Israeli regime has of the prospect of contact and solidarity among Jews and Palestinians. Indeed, such a solidarity -- if it is based on opposition to the oppression of the Palestinian people -- could be a powerful force undermining Zionism.

[Photo: "Invincible" soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces shut down this girls' school in Jerusalem on June 25 for fear that these little girls might be getting organized against them.]

[Back to Top]

U.S. imperialism, get out of Central America!

[Graphic.]

The crisis of the Duarte regime:

The 'middle road' between revolution and tyranny is bankrupt

The Salvadoran people are fighting against the oppression of the local oligarchy, the U.S.-backed military, and American corporations. Meanwhile the Reagan administration has trumpeted the alleged great strides toward democracy and social justice by the pro-U.S. Duarte regime in El Salvador. But in reality the Christian-Democrat Duarte has simply provided reformist window dressing for the bloodstained military and the death squads.

And today the Duarte regime is mired in a deep crisis. On one side the regime is losing what credibility it had among the masses. The revolutionary struggle is continuing. On the other side, Duarte's Christian-Democrats are on the verge of giving up the government to the ultra-rightist ARENA party led by death-squad leader Roberto d'Aubuisson. In March, ARENA won a majority in parliament, and it is considered a major threat to win the presidential elections next year.

In this situation, the Christian-Democratic party is disintegrating with two rival factions holding separate party conventions. Duarte himself, on the verge of death from cancer, has little support in his own party.

U.S. imperialism is now facing the embarrassing prospect of having its model "democracy" in the hands of open fascists. So the Reagan administration has begun a campaign to whitewash ARENA as "moderate."

The Duarte government was supposed to be the civilized middle road that would bring democracy to El Salvador without revolution. Its history, and its present crisis, show the uselessness of seeking a middle road between revolutionary struggle and the military dictatorship. It shows that the only real choice is between standing with the struggling masses or defending tyranny.

Duarte's "Middle Road" Leads to Military Dictatorship

Duarte opposed the revolutionary struggle against the dictatorship and U.S. imperialism. Instead he promised that if he was elected president, he would reform the fascist system hand in hand with the State Department and the White House.

But what happened when Duarte was elected?

He threw himself wholeheartedly into the military's savage war against the struggle of the working people, which has claimed the lives of 70,000 anti-government opponents.

Duarte's few reforms came to naught. "Land reform" turned out to mean the military occupation of the countryside.

The elections were also a farce. No serious anti-government forces could participate as the death squads were running amok. Even members of Duarte's own Christian-Democrats, the supposed ruling party, were subject to right-wing terrorism.

On top of all this, the Duarte administration became notorious for corruption.

In short, tyranny still reigned in El Salvador and Duarte was simply its figurehead.

Potholes in the "Middle Road"

U.S. imperialism and Duarte hoped the combination of repression and promises of reform would quell the anti-government struggle. But this plan failed miserably. Despite massive U.S. military and economic aid, the regime could not subdue the workers and peasants. Several campaigns to wipe out the armed resistance forces failed. Meanwhile strikes and protests confronted the government right in the capital, San Salvador.

Commenting on the results of Christian-Democratic rule, a Christian- Democratic leader confessed "we have no message, no moral authority, no hope." (Frontline, June 20, p. 10) Duarte's "middle road" has been a disaster.

Ungo and Zamora: Middle Road II

Unfortunately there are those among the ranks of the fighting masses who have learned nothing from Duarte's fiasco. They want to replace the Christian Democrats as the leaders of the "middle road." Reformists like Guillermo Ungo and Ruben Zamora, two of the top leaders of the FDR (a political group linked with the main anti-government armed front, the FMLN), are advocating such a path. They are floating schemes for reconciling with the regime.

In November 1987 Ungo and Zamora temporarily returned from exile to El Salvador. They declared revolution impossible. Instead they wanted to form a legal bourgeois reformist party that will allegedly bring progressive change through elections under the present tyranny. In order to court the favor of the Salvadoran exploiters who stand behind the dictatorship, Ungo and Zamora promised not to take class measures to alleviate the exploitation and poverty of the toilers.

To carry out their reformist plans, Ungo and Zamora have set up an organization called the Democratic Convergence and are considering splitting from the FDR/FMLN. There are also reports they may run in the 1989 presidential elections.

With ARENA, Too!

The plans of Ungo and Zamora are an extreme version of the mistaken platform adopted by the FDR/FMLN in 1984. The FDR/FMLN leadership has supported "power-sharing" schemes for working hand in hand in one government with Duarte, a U.S.-backed stooge of the Salvadoran oligarchy. In May, the FDR/FMLN announced it would even be willing to include the ARENA storm troopers in "power-sharing" discussions. But can the death-squad leaders themselves help bring democracy to El Salvador?

Revolution: The Only Real Alternative

The only way out for the Salvadoran masses is the path of revolution. The crisis in El Salvador today has not only exposed the bankruptcy of the Duarte regime. It also displays the great potential power of the struggle of the workers and peasants. They are the only force capable of bringing down the dictatorship of the exploiters and the death squads.

The hand behind the Honduran death squads

The Reagan administration often boasts that it is for "democracy" in Central America. But its hands are red with the blood of the workers and peasants. The Reaganites and Congress vote funds for death-squad regimes in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Indeed U.S. imperialism has a long history of organizing the death squads throughout Central America. Even James LeMoyne, New York Times bureau chief in El Salvador and an apologist for Reagan's terrorist war on Nicaragua, has recently admitted some of the details of this game of murder and torture in his article "Testifying to Torture" in the June 5 issue of the New York Times Magazine.

Organizing the Death Squads

According to the article, in 1979 the CIA began training recruits for what would become known as Honduran army Battalion 316. This battalion is well known as the main organizer of death-squad activity in Honduras.

Just to be sure, in 1981 the CIA brought in Argentine military officers to assist in training the death squads as well as the Nicaraguan contras. The Argentine contingent was led by a Colonel Ribeiro who learned the fine points of mass murder in the 1970's when he helped the Argentine military regime "disappear" over 12,000 of their opponents.

The head of Battalion 316 was Colonel Alvarez. Alvarez was known as a bloodthirsty killer. Nevertheless he was a big favorite of the U.S. government. The then U.S. ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte, hailed Alvarez' efficiency in crushing the anti-government opposition (see his 1983 interview with James LeMoyne). Moreover the U.S. successfully pressured the Honduran government to promote Alvarez to the post of commander of the army.

One of Alvarez' cronies in Battalion 316 was an officer named Alexander Hernandez. Hernandez became a colonel who helped train the police, who had CIA support. The U.S. government even gave Honduras (and El Salvador) a special waiver in 1985 which permitted the resumption of American military aid to the police and intelligence units which had been cut off in 1974.

CIA Torture Classes

An ex-Honduran army sergeant explained to LeMoyne how the CIA trained him in methods of torture. CIA policy was "make him stand up, don't let him sleep, keep him naked and isolated, put rats and cockroaches in his cell, give him bad food, serve him dead animals, throw cold water on him, change the temperature." The ex-sergeant also admits that after interrogation, prisoners were shot. He himself had executed 120 people.

According to the ex-sergeant, the CIA didn't take part in the summary executions and certain types of torture. But the CIA let others do this dirty work for them, and it championed the cause of such murderers as we have seen above. It even cheered on their handiwork. For example, at a recent trial, a woman who was tortured and sexually abused for 80 days in Honduras identified a CIA agent who was present at one of her interrogation sessions. LeMoyne cites an American official admitting that, "The CIA knew what was going on, and the Ambassador complained sometimes. But most of the time they'd look the other way." (p. 47)

Death Squads Forever

LeMoyne, an apologist for the war on the Central American toilers, pretends that the torture is an aberration in a deeply moral and pious policy. He writes that "American officials who spoke to me about these matters seemed deeply troubled by the political and moral meaning they held."

What a farce! The CIA and the State Department organizes the torture over decades, but is oh so "deeply troubled" by it.

In fact, U.S. imperialism continues to this day to back the death squads. It has been pouring more aid than ever to the Honduran regime. Meanwhile the Reagan administration hails the "human rights" record of this government.

It is not a case of individual sadists in some backwater. It is a case of torture organized on a world scale by the CIA and other forces of exploitation. Kathleen Hendrix, an L.A. Times staff writer, wrote of "the Torture Network" in the June 21 issue. She quoted a local group that has been treating torture victims who stated:

"It's bloody much the same the world over. Fifteen years ago there were differences, but not now.... If someone tells me of a new method in one country, in a month or so I start hearing victims from other countries describe the same thing."

Why the Arias Plan Won't Bring Democracy

When the Arias "peace" plan was signed eleven months ago, it promised to bring "democracy" and "human rights" to the masses suffering under tyranny in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. It called for replacing the mass revolutionary struggle with dialogue with the death-squad governments, with the results to be judged by Congress and the White House. But, as we have seen, it is precisely the U.S. government and the local pro-U.S. governments who have organized torture and murder. No wonder the Arias plan has left the torture in place. Expecting freedom and morality from the torturers and their U.S. instructors is like trying to squeeze blood from a rock. The CIA and its students have quite a different idea of where they are going to get blood.

An End to Oppression

It is not the torturers who are going to bring freedom to Central America. This is a task for the victims of oppression. Only the revolutionary struggle of the working people can break the back of the U.S.-backed regimes of exploitation and tyranny in Central America.

[Photo: U.S. and Honduran officials cooperate closely in organizing right-wing terror. From left to right: ex-U.S. ambassador John Negroponte, ex-Honduran President Roberto Suazo Cordova, Honduran death-squad organizer Col. Alvarez, U.S. Gen. Paul Gorman, ex-chief of the U.S. Southern Command.]

Support the Nicaraguan workers' movement!

New pro-capitalist measures by the Sandinistas

The 1979 revolution against Somoza unleashed the enthusiasm of the workers and peasants. But ever since the Sandinistas have sought to run the country through alliance with the capitalists. They have offered the "patriotic bourgeoisie" political privileges and financial subsidies. This has been the so-called "mixed economy."

The result has been disastrous. Production is down, inflation is rampant, and the country is in crisis. Inequality is blatant and distressing.

No one expected or demanded that the Sandinistas succeed in making a paradise while the contra war raged and the U.S. blockade isolated the country. But no worker wanted that the capitalists should be driving new Toyotas (as "business necessities" requiring the expenditure of scarce foreign exchange) while he or she found it hard to scrape enough together to eat. The same issue of Barricada International that denounces the workers' strikes as "confrontation with the Revolution" also reports on a Nicaraguan fashion show and lauds how "...artists...overcame the traditional indifference to and underestimation of fashion in political and intellectual circles." ("Fashion Is in Fashion," June 2)

What has the Sandinista leadership concluded from the growing economic difficulties? Have they decided that now it is time to rely on the mobilization of the workers?

Ortega Lauds the Capitalist Market

Not at all.

They have decided to imitate the ordinary capitalist way. On June 15, speaking on Nicaraguan TV, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega announced new measures which he admits are "similar to those taken by capitalist countries." (New York Times, June 16) He declared that Nicaragua's economy was "a free market one, in a revolutionary state that is socialist-oriented." That is, the workers are to be subjected to the ravages of the free market -- and right in the middle of a war, which always brings rampant capitalist profiteering. Only Ortega knows what is "revolutionary" and "socialist-oriented" about such a plan.

Ortega proclaimed a major overhaul of the government's wage-price controls. According to Ortega, price controls are to be greatly loosened with the Sandinistas confining themselves to announcing periodic price guidelines on some products whose prices rise particularly fast. At the same time, it is reported that wages will be decided between the employers and the workers instead of the present government wage scale.

Under the previous wage-price controls, the workers were already suffering greatly. Wages were kept down, but prices soared. Inflation reached four figures, to even a rate of several thousand per cent a year.

On Strikes

The Sandinistas have been attacking strikes as counterrevolutionary. But if the workers are to settle wages themselves with each employer, how can they accomplish anything if strikes are forbidden? The "free market" means that the workers must use the weapon used in other "free market" countries -- the strike.

After all, the new Sandinista reforms will not bring the workers any relief by themselves. The relaxation of price controls will not cure inflation. And the Nicaraguan capitalists expect wages will have a hard time keeping pace with prices. For instance, the New York Times reports that "Jaime Bengoechea, head of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Industry, predicted that under the new measures prices would shoot upward, but salaries would not increase commensurately. (June 17)

More Hardships

Along with the new wage-price policy, Ortega announced other hardships for the masses. The government will stop subsidizing the prices of many products. At the same time as the capitalists are to be granted more privileges, the basic stopgaps for the masses are being cut back.

As well the value of the Nicaraguan currency was reduced to less than one-sixth of its former value, a move that will further fuel inflation.

Sandinistas Order Layoffs

The free market economy also means more unemployment. In the last few months there has been a wave of Sandinista-ordered layoffs. Thirty thousand government employees are to be eventually laid off and industrial workers in the state enterprises are starting to get the ax as well. Layoffs in the private industrial sector are growing and the agricultural capitalists are also threatening layoffs.

These layoffs are part of the Sandinistas' economic "restructuring" (a Nicaraguan "perestroika"). Recently, a member of the Sandinista National Directorate, Victor Tirado, explained this policy as follows: "Sure, there will also be unemployment...." But don't worry, he suggested. "It is going to be hard to find jobs for everyone leaving the work places, but they have an alternative in the rural areas." (Barricada International, June 2, p. 5) This is certainly an obscure alternative, as the Sandinistas have stopped giving land to the peasants in order not to antagonize the landlords.

But it is all necessary for profits. After all, "businesses must make themselves profitable to be able to give benefits to the workers and society in general." (Barricada, June 2, 1988, p. 5) Tirado echoes the typical capitalist logic that enriching the capitalists is good for the workers. This is little more than a Sandinista version of Reagan's "trickle down" economic fairy tales.

Does Helping the Capitalists Defend the Revolution?

The Sandinistas claim their pro-capitalist policy is necessary to defend the revolution. But impoverishing the working people for the benefit of the wealthy undercuts the masses' enthusiasm for the revolution and their ability to combat the U.S.-backed contras and their allies, the right-wing capitalists in Nicaragua. The working people have been the backbone of the struggle to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship and to defend the revolution against the contra war. They know they have to sacrifice in their class interest. But they are not willing to sacrifice to fill the pockets of the wealthy, the dividends of the exiles in Miami, and to put on high fashion shows in the midst of a war.

Meanwhile the capitalists have refused to produce the needed food and other goods for the country.

The Sandinistas justify every policy in the name of the war. But even diehard capitalist countries have needed national planning of the economy in wartime.

(Of course the capitalist countries use bureaucratic planning by the capitalists that enslaves the workers for the benefit of the rich rather than revolutionary planning that relies on the masses.) Meanwhile the Sandinistas, having failed at petty-bourgeois planning aimed at inducing the "patriotic bourgeoisie" to produce, are going to turn further to the glories of the free market as the answer to all ills.

It is the policy of unleashing capitalism that is undermining the revolution economically. This policy goes hand in hand with the Arias plan, for it is the carrot being put before the counterrevolutionaries. Incentives to the capitalists may not produce food or goods for the people, but it is necessary for wheeling and dealing with the capitalist parties and forces.

Support the Workers' Movement

The development of the Nicaraguan workers' movement deserves the support of the workers and solidarity activists in the U.S. The workers' struggle is necessary for their survival. Moreover, the rise of the workers' movement has shown that the workers are tiring of the class collaboration preached by the Sandinista leadership. It is an invigorated workers' movement that has the potential to push forward the revolution against U.S. imperialism and the internal exploiters.

Solidarity with the Nicaraguan workers' movement!

The Nicaraguan people must have food

[Prensa Proletaria masthead.]

From the April 1-15 issue of "Prensa Proletaria," voice of the Marxist- Leninist Party of Nicaragua. Since the article was written, the Sandinistas have removed price ceilings and consumer subsidies from some foodstuffs, and continued lucrative "incentives" to the capitalists. At the same time, the Sandinistas have continued to restrict the role of the working class on the economic front to working longer hours for less pay.

The government has beautiful lists of consumer products and prices. But the actual situation is that the "secure" channels are the most insecure. The "secure" food is only in the lists on the walls of the public supply centers.

In the case of foodstuffs and basic services for elementary subsistence, the government doesn't have any excuse for evading its responsibility before the people. This is a government which for a long time has shown itself incapable, in the given circumstances, of preventing the chronic hunger of the people; in other words, it is a government which is incapable of anything. The government must ensure that the people do not suffer from chronic hunger, despite the crisis and the war!

To make it possible, in the midst of the crisis and the war, to guarantee the struggle against hunger, the government must take special measures.

These measures necessarily include raising production.

The raising of production and the level of supplies available, and putting them within reach of the entire population, is not a simple problem of quantity and productivity, which is how it has largely been treated for the last nine years. The problem demands profound measures to transform who holds the land, giving the peasantry and the cooperatives more access to land and to resources for production. This implies a change in the financial policy, because it has been favoring the most powerful sections of domestic capital.

The problem also demands workers' control in the factories and enterprises, through which the organized workers give continuity to the productive process, and supervise and correct as necessary the bosses and the administrators.

As well, the problem demands suspension of the incentives in dollars which the government continues to hand out to the private entrepreneurs, even after the monetary reform (in fact with more intensity since the reform). Also essential is workers' control over the state bureaucracy in order to cut off the caste privileges which have been gushing at the high levels of the civil apparatus and the bureaucracy.

Thus, the situation calls for organization, mobilization of the power of the workers and popular masses, and a series of elementary, but vital transformations.

The workers' movement must demand that the government fulfill its responsibility, putting at the disposal of the workers' families, and within their reach, the basic grocery basket of goods and services, especially food staples.

If the government does not take the necessary revolutionary measures for a real response to the problem,' it will have to limit its demagogical talk while the masses' stomachs suffer hardships.

The monetary reform has solved nothing and the problem continues to present itself.

[Back to Top]

Communist women in the struggle against Khomeini

Report from Kurdistan

When the medical team of the MLP,USA traveled to Kurdistan in December and January, we had the opportunity to hold several meetings with the women in Komala -- the Kurdish organization of the Communist Party of Iran. We met with women who had been peshmargas (guerrilla fighters) for years. They were veterans of the harsh military campaigns in the high Kurdish mountains and of bloody conflicts with troops of the Khomeini regime. Some were leading comrades in charge of propaganda and agitation for entire regions, or communications and radio experts. Others were renowned for their courage in battle. We also met with the new recruits -- women who had crossed the mountains for the first time in order to reach the Komala training center and join the revolutionary forces.

Each time it was necessary only to drop a hint that we wanted to meet with the women. Thirty or 40 women would crowd into a tent to talk about the life of women in Kurdistan and about their own struggle to take an active part in the revolution. Their interest in these meetings sprang from their enthusiasm to share with the American communists the profound changes that have taken place in their lives.

Downtrodden Women Join the Struggle

These women have come out of an extremely backward society. One woman described the traditional situation in Kurdistan in these words: "Women are so without rights they can't even go out of doors. They can't attend social gatherings or meetings. They can't travel alone. They must get the permission of men and travel with them.''

On top of the traditional backwardness, today in Iran women suffer under Khomeini's anti-women dictatorship. The. special oppression of women is a cardinal point of the reactionary rule of the mullahs. Women are forced to wear a veil and can be beaten and arrested if they fail to do so. Putting them under the veil is part of the whole system of discrimination, segregation and humiliation that Iranian women are being subjected to.

But these women had made their way to the camps and into the ranks of the Komala peshmargas. In spring they would leave the camps, marching 12 hours a day to reach the more populated centers of Kurdistan. They would return to the camps with the winter snows, after eight grueling months of marching and fighting alongside the men. Some would lose their lives. But the difficulties are not what we heard from them. Optimism sounded in their every word. For these women, going into battle represents not only the opportunity to fight Khomeini's tyranny, it represents the overcoming of millennia of oppression.

Overcoming All Obstacles

Komala is a social force well known all over Kurdistan. Many families give the young people support when they want to join the peshmargas. Families encourage males who are eligible to be drafted into Khomeini's army to go into the Komala peshmargas instead. And sometimes families who have a close connection to Komala encourage the young women as well.

There are, however, many young women who must confront enormous obstacles to join Komala, with their families bitterly opposed to their taking the revolutionary path.

We met one new recruit who became a worker when she was eight years old. She worked in the city at a starting wage of only pennies a day. Last year the high unemployment forced her to return to the village where she was a farm laborer working from dawn to dusk. The women earned 80 tomans, the men 180. If they protested this, the employer would say, "That is all you get because your brain is not complex enough.''

When she was nine years old she had become familiar with Komala because her uncle was a peshmarga. She listened to Komala's radio and spread the views of the communists among her fellow workers. When her political views became widely known she decided to join up with the peshmarga forces.

Unfortunately, the rendezvous with the peshmargas fell through and she was captured by her family. Five hundred Islamic Guards surrounded her home searching for the peshmargas. They threatened, kicked and beat her. She replied, "You are suppressing the people, leave me alone. I'm not going to tell you anything even if you chop me to pieces.'' Meanwhile, the villagers organized a protest in her defense. "She is a worker,'' they protested, "leave her alone.''

Later she heard on the radio that the peshmargas had surrounded the town of Bookan. She and a group of others fled to join them. "That's the end of my story," she told us, "now I grasp and put into practice the theory of the emancipation of the working class. Now I am a peshmarga."

Rebelling Against Being Traded Like Animals

Under the backward system in Kurdistan, a young woman is like an exchangeable commodity. Women work from dawn until midnight. Young women bear children, tend to animals and toil on farms or in brickyards and carpet weaving factories. And their "value" doesn't end there. Young women can be exchanged to obtain wives for the men of the family.

When a woman gets older (typically 25 years old is considered an old woman) and most assuredly is sickly because of the harsh conditions of her life, her husband can take another wife. In fact under Islamic law he may take a total of four wives. But in order to get a new wife, this man usually trades a daughter -- no matter how young -- for a woman he can marry. This practice is called "jinn ba jinn" (which means "woman for woman"). This is a system in which females are traded like animals. Women have nothing to say in this bartering with their lives. The only thing needed is the man's OK and the marriage is recognized. Furthermore, women do not have the right to divorce.

Not surprisingly this exchange of women creates dissatisfaction and hatred among women. As one new recruit put it: "The women long to leave such a life."

We met one new recruit who had been jinn ba jinned twice as a teenager; When she could not tolerate the situation any longer, she secretly fled to join the, peshmargas. Another girl in her village was not so fortunate. In despair she attempted to burn herself to death and had been left paralyzed.

Two other young recruits told their story. They were set to be exchanged for each other so that the widowed father of the first could take the second as his new wife. But these two women were friends and they were supporters of Komala. They were imprisoned at home and they were barred from talking with the other girls of the village. The father of one girl broke her radio three times to keep her from listening to Komala's broadcasts.

The widowed father, seeing he couldn't stop his determined daughter, turned the girl over to the regime for the crime of supporting Komala. While in prison she was beaten repeatedly. Once, a guard told her to shout: "Down with Komala." Instead, she shouted "Down with the Islamic Republic!" For this she was severely beaten. By the time she got out of prison she was quite weak. But she was far from broken. The two girls secretly got hold of a loudspeaker and broadcast to the whole village their defiance and their support for Komala.

The indomitable spirit of the Komala peshmargas shone particularly brightly in these two women. Both explained that they had the attitude that no matter what they had to go through to get to Komala, it would be worth it. Finally the two organized 13 other young women to join them in escaping to the Komala training center. Unfortunately these 13 were stopped by the regime on the way. Only the pair that were to be jinn ba jinned, whom we had spoken to, had succeeded in making it across the mountains to the camp.

Drawing Women Into the Revolutionary Movement

For years Komala has stood firm in its position, demanding freedom and equality for women. It lays stress on democratic demands pertaining to women's condition. Komala explains that women take part in social production, they are members of the working class, and should have the same rights as men.

An important part of this work is among the men workers. In the factories and meetings of workers and villagers, anti-women prejudices break down when it is shown concretely how the participation of women strengthens the workers' cause.

Furthermore, Komala strives to free women from their domestic drudgery so that women can take an active part in society. They organize women to act as full partners in all social activities and in particular to take up their part in the struggle. Komala's stand on these matters is well known and is very popular among Kurdish women. Often where a family supports the bourgeois nationalist Kurdish Democratic Party -- which neglects women's rights -- the women of the household support Komala.

As years go by more women are present in the peshmargas. The women peshmargas help to increase the influence of Komala among women. Village women see women peshmargas leading political education, carrying arms and speaking up. They see them defend women's rights and the rights of the working people. They see that when women are part of the struggle, the forces are stronger; not weaker. Slowly they begin to believe in their own power and don't so easily accept the old ways.

After watching the peshmargas, women begin taking part in social gatherings and meetings. In the beginning they probably will not speak. But we were told that when the peshmargas return to an area after a year or so, they see the same woman who had been silent before take her place and say her piece.

And, in turn, this lays the groundwork for more profound changes. The situation for the rights of women in general begins to be remolded. In areas where Komala's influence is strong, a woman warning "I'll tell Komala" can prevent a beating. The women begin to participate in the struggle. They form secret circles, listen to Komala's radio and carry out clandestine work in the village. They risk their lives to give food and water to the peshmargas operating in the area. Of course some of the younger women walk the distance to become peshmargas themselves.

Komala encourages the women to reach out broadly and join in all the political movements. Kurdish women are becoming more and more active against the regime. They take part in struggles and sometimes lead them. The women peshmargas told us that village women are in the vanguard in the fight against military conscription. They throw stones, rescue the men from the Islamic Guards and hide them so they can't be taken to the garrison. The women fight to have army bases removed from villages. They fight against men being drafted into the construction brigades and for the release of political prisoners.

The forms Komala has developed -- its armed struggle, its radio and publications, its demonstrations -- have had a tremendous effect on the women in Kurdistan. And women who are moving forward today will, in turn, affect the lives of others. This "multiplier effect" holds great promise for the future. Once women burst forth from their oppression they become a powerful force for social change. Komala's steadfast work among women is a guarantee that toilers will unite as a class -- leaving behind the archaic and reactionary separation between men and women. It's the united working class which will rally all the exploited into a single fist to smash Khomeini's tyranny, pushing forward the struggle for working class socialism where women will finally gain complete emancipation.

[Photo: Women and men peshmargas finishing their course of instruction at a Komala training center. Banners behind the peshmargas read: Long Live Socialism! Long Live Proletarian Internationalism! Long Live the Communist Party of Iran! Down with the Islamic Republic, For the Revolutionary Democratic Republic!]

[Photo: Women peshmargas at a meeting.]

[Back to Top]

Yugoslav workers confront fake 'socialist' bosses

Workers in Yugoslavia are in a fighting mood. They are confronting new IMF-directed austerity measures launched by the revisionist government of Prime Minister Branko Mikulic. Revisionist Yugoslavia has been following the road of Western-style capitalist reforms for decades. The result has been chronic stagnation, unemployment and inflation. The growing hatred of the workers against the bosses in Yugoslavia again exposes the hollowness of the socialist label which the country's rulers claim for themselves.

Strikes and Protest Rallies Are Breaking Out

Five thousand striking truck and metal workers marched recently through the city of Maribor in Slovenia. They demanded a 50% wage increase. These workers earn an average wage of about $210 a. month, with some making half that much. The strikers complained that their bosses made monthly salaries of $500 and more.

The Maribor strike comes after a mass march by 5,000 workers from the Zmaj agricultural machinery plant near Belgrade. This protest was sparked by a 20% pay cut imposed that day. As they marched towards the center of Belgrade, they were joined by hundreds of other workers. They held a rally at the Parliament building in the center of the capital city. At this demonstration too, workers told reporters that they were opposed to the factory managers making fat salaries. They also denounced other privileges enjoyed by the bosses.

A month ago, on May 25 more than 400 Bosnian miners trooped into the Yugoslav parliament in Belgrade, donned their helmets, and declared: "We want the money we have earned." Afterward they marched into the center of the city. The miners had marched some 120 miles from their pits in central Yugoslavia.

The same week as the Bosnia miners' protest march, transport workers went on strike in Tuzla, and more than 550 textile workers walked out of their work place. Everywhere, the workers are demanding that their pay be indexed to inflation.

Workers Don't Want Austerity

The latest austerity policy is being imposed by the revisionist government of Yugoslavia to please the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has demanded curbs on wages as a condition for a new IMF loan. The country owes $21 billion to Western banks and faces high rates of inflation and unemployment.

The last time a similar austerity package was imposed, in early 1987, a big wave of strikes swept the country. There were 1,685 strikes, involving 288,000 workers. This time the austerity measures are even worse. Wages will be frozen or raised only slightly, while the freeze on prices will be lifted.

No wonder that strike action is again in the air.

It is also reported that there is growing disenchantment with the trade union leaders. Recent press reports in Yugoslavia say that over the past year, more than 500,000 workers have not paid their union dues. The union officials, who are tied hand and foot to the government and enterprise managers, do not organize the workers to fight against austerity.

[Back to Top]

General Namphy returns as Haitian dictator

On June 19 General Henri Namphy got tired of the civilian facade he had set up in Haiti last winter. In a brief scuffle at the presidential palace Namphy's soldiers seized civilian President Leslie Manigat and then sent him abroad. Haiti returned to the direct military rule which Namphy had led for two years before the farcical election that installed Manigat.

Those elections had been held simply for show. The military's restrictions were so bad that even the major liberal candidates refused to run. Manigat, a pathetic bourgeois politician with no mass support, ran under these conditions and took office with the support of the generals. He was despised by the masses.

Behind Manigat, in fact the military held on to real power. And this has been verified by the latest turn of events. Last month, Manigat speculated on apparent rifts among the top military officers, and he tried to discharge Namphy as head of the military. In a few hours, the military restored Namphy to power. Manigat was sent packing and he did so quietly; indeed there was no blood shed during this whole affair. Namphy went on TV, raised his gun, and declared that this was the way Haiti would be ruled.

Namphy Was Put in Power by U.S. Imperialism

The U.S. State Department criticized Namphy's coup as a "blow to democracy,'' but it did not make much of an issue of the Haitian coup. Neither did the U.S. media. It merely bewailed the "violence in Haiti.'' The general attitude of the U.S. ruling establishment was, we did everything we could to bring democracy to Haiti, but those people are just too backward. All we can do now is pray for the best.

Right. As if Namphy just came out of nowhere.

In fact Namphy was placed in power in the first place by the Western imperialists -- the U.S. and France mainly -- at the time of the mass upsurge which drove dictator "Baby Doc'' Duvalier out. Taking advantage of the inexperience and low level of organization among the Haitian masses, the imperialists imposed Namphy's junta on the country to smother the popular upsurge.

True to his task, Namphy set about to restore stability for the Haitian exploiters and foreign multinationals who suck the blood of the poor Haitian toilers.

When the masses went after Duvalier's thugs, the Tontons Macoutes, Namphy kept them alive by incorporating them into his army. When the workers built trade unions to fight for higher wages, Namphy helped the capitalists by smashing strikes and arresting union leaders. When the masses demonstrated to free political prisoners, Namphy's soldiers used their U.S.-supplied weapons to shoot them down.

The U.S. kept supplying weapons even after Namphy's soldiers massacred peasants demonstrating for land reform. Finally, after the army massacred voters in an election that was largely arranged by the U.S., the weapon shipments were supposedly stopped. But by this time Namphy had consolidated his position and imposed a new reign of terror on Haiti. He had enough weapons for now.

Liberals Quiet, Workers Strike Against Namphy

Today as Namphy restores military rule, the pro-U.S. liberal opposition is quiet. The radios controlled by the liberals and the church are reportedly saying nothing against Namphy.

The only force acting against the coup so far is the working class. Workers at a large textile plant went on strike when Namphy fired the manager appointed by Manigat and brought back his own man as manager. At last report the workers had been discharged but were continuing the strike anyway.

Struggle by the toilers is indeed the way forward for the mass of the exploited and poor in Haiti. They cannot rely on the imperialists, the liberals or the church to establish democracy. The workers and poor peasants must be their own liberators through revolutionary struggle.

[Photo: Last fall elections were canceled as right-wing gangs shot down voters. The military then oversaw the elections that installed Manigat. The writing was on the wall: revolution or tyranny.]

[Back to Top]

The World in Struggle

[Graphic.]

20,000 Canada Bell workers on strike

Some 19,500 telephone operators and technicians working for Bell Canada went on strike on Monday, June 27 in Quebec, Ontario and the Northwest Territories. More than 2,000 workers had already walked out over the weekend in advance-of the strike deadline. In May workers had voted down a tentative agreement endorsed by the union leadership.

The workers are demanding improved wages, a halt to the company's increasing use of part-time and temporary workers, protection against the contracting out of work, and a better indexing formula for pensions.

Already the strike has caused a widespread disruption of telephone services.

Australian miners walk out

In June, Australian miners walked off their jobs in New South Wales and Queensland. They are fighting against the capitalists' efforts to change work rules.

The miners' struggle was reportedly costing the Australian economy $35 million a day in lost shipments.

Swedish firemen, miners strike

Recently a couple of large wildcat strikes broke out in the Swedish public sector.

In mid-April the government signed a national contract with the firemen's union which gave ridiculously small improvements in wages, much smaller than the rise in consumer prices. Firemen wildcatted all over the country; this series of strikes lasted into May, when local negotiations began.

Then in the beginning of May workers in the iron mines of northern Sweden paralyzed the mines with a wildcat strike. The miners have long been subject to speedup and layoffs, and the state is now demanding a new round of concessions including job combinations and a wage freeze.

(Taken from the May issue of "Red Dawn," journal of the Communist League of Norrkoping, Sweden.)

Steelworkers rise up angry in Naples

On June 16, hundreds of angry steelworkers stormed the offices of the regional and city governments in Naples, Italy. They then proceeded to smash everything in sight.

This was the latest action in an ongoing struggle by the steelworkers of Bagnoli to defend their jobs from the Italian government's productivity drive.

Ten years ago, 10,000 workers used to work at the government-owned Bagnoli works. The work force was forced to take concessions, which cut their number by more than half. Those remaining were promised that the restructuring of the steel industry was over and there were to be no more job cuts.

But capitalism is a brutal system and the drive to improve profits at the expense of the workers is endless. Now the Italian government has outlined plans for further restructuring of the steel industry. It plans to close the melting operations at Bagnoli, throwing, some 1,200 workers on the street. Only the rolling mill is to remain open.

It is to protest this callous act that the workers of Bagnoli stormed the Naples government offices. And they are also discussing further mass actions.

Workers and women struggle against Islamization in South Asia

Quite often we are told by the news media that there is a huge revival of religious fundamentalism in the countries where the people are Muslims. It is said that the people in these places are just yearning to live under religious rule.

But the real story is different. In fact, it is the conservative forces among the ruling exploiters who are most enthusiastic to declare religious states. They use religion in the state in order to enforce backwardness, ignorance, and repression, as well as to keep the masses divided by religion and sect.

However, quite often sharp struggles break out against such reactionary policies. Just this June, protests broke out in Bangladesh and Pakistan against attempts by the military dictators to expand Islamic religious influence in the governments of these countries.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, was shut down by a general strike on June 12. The strike was called to protest a new law of President Ershad declaring Islam the state religion. The strike paralyzed transport and business in the capital. Demonstrators tore up train tracks and smashed buses.

In Lahore, Pakistan, on June 26 police attacked a demonstration of women protesting against a new decree that made Islam the supreme law of Pakistan.

Pakistan has always been officially an "Islamic Republic," but the regime of General Zia has been on one crusade after another to expand the role of the priests in government affairs. Zia recently dismissed his own civilian cabinet on the grounds that it was not proceeding quickly enough toward Islamization. According to Zia's decree, all courts (including divorce courts) will have a Muslim clergyman attached to them as observer/adviser to ensure that feudal religious customs are enforced as the supreme law.

New wave of strikes and demonstrations in S. Korea

[Photo: Students use sticks to battle riot police at Yonsei University.]

The students and workers of South Korea have been busy this spring launching strikes and demonstrations.

The new president Roh Tae Woo -- who was the right-hand man of the former dictator Chun -- tries to paint himself as a representative of "civilian democracy," but the Korean masses don't see much difference between his regime and Chun's.

Another Strike Wave by Korean Workers

During June a new wave of strikes hit South Korea. They were aimed chiefly against the giant Hyundai industrial conglomerate, the largest South Korean corporation, but some 90 other companies were also hit. Shipyards, machine tool manufacturers, and parts suppliers were shut down by workers demanding higher wages and a reduced work week.

The center of the strike wave was the giant Hyundai Motor Co. plant in Ulsan, where 20,000 workers walked out May 30 demanding a 35% wage hike. The strike lasted 24 days there.

At the end of June, the Hyundai auto workers' union leaders agreed to send the workers back after management agreed to a 30% wage increase. But many workers were upset with this deal. One thousand workers protested the union leaders' settlement with a demonstration outside the Ulsan assembly plant.

In Changwon, workers at Hyundai Precision Industry Co., a major container maker, occupied management offices and held 10 executives hostage. Workers blocked the plant entrance with trucks to keep police out. The 2,000 workers ended their strike after 25 days when management agreed to an 18.5% pay raise.

At Hyundai Construction and Engineering the early-June movement toward a strike was disrupted when the main union organizer was kidnapped. Later in June some of the company's executives were arrested and charged with arranging the kidnapping.

Two other major companies were also struck during June: Tongil Co., an auto parts maker, and Samsung Shipbuilding were both shut down for 40 days. The strikes ended only after workers were given raises up to 26.5%.

News of Strike Wave Blacked Out in the U.S.

Very little news about the latest Korean strike wave was allowed to filter into the United States. When workers were striking last year when the Chun dictatorship was in power, a good deal of news was published about the workers' struggles. But now that Chun has been replaced by his pal Roh in civilian garb, the liberal media work together with the Reagan government to suppress such news.

And no doubt none of the capitalists in this country want the auto workers and other industrial workers in the U.S. to hear about the vigorous strikes waged by their class brothers and sisters in South Korea.

Students Try to Establish Ties With North Korea

The main focus of the student movement in June was on trying to establish ties with North Korea. The two Koreas, North and South, are divided by hundreds of thousands of troops massed at the 38th parallel. The South Korean government allows no phone calls or letters between the two countries, and exchanges of scholars, athletes, students and journalists are also prohibited.

Many people in Korea saw this year's Olympic Games as an opportunity to renew ties between the two countries. North Korea asked to sponsor some of the events. But this offer was spurned by South Korea, which wants to use the Games as a chauvinist display.

Students across South Korea decided to organize their own show of friendship with the youth of North Korea. They organized a countrywide march to the border, to take place on June 10. The plan was to meet with North Korean students and plan to hold some athletic events together at the time of the Olympic Games.

These plans by the South Korean students challenged the anti-communist bogeyman with which the South Korean military has ruled for the last four decades. The iron-fisted rule of the military has been constantly justified under the pretext of "danger from the communists in the north." In every mass unrest, the South Korean rulers see the "hand of the communists." This reflects the extreme fear that the South Korean reactionaries have of any progressive dissent, which is automatically labeled as communist. (It should be noted, however, that the North Korean government is not communist. It is a nationalist regime of revisionists that claims a communist label. The "socialism" of the Kim II Sung regime is in fact a state capitalist society. Moreover, North Korea promotes an extreme personality cult around Kim II Sung and his family. Such a society is not based on the revolutionary proletarian ideas of Marx and Lenin.)

While we do not know what the South Korean student activists think of the social system in the north, their attempt to break the anti-communist hysteria of the regime in the south is an important step. They are just in demanding that ordinary contact and ties be restored between the people of the two Koreas.

Government Mobilizes Police to Block March

Students planned to meet at Yonsei University in Seoul to begin the march to the border, 30 miles to the north. Preparatory rallies were held at campuses around the country the day before. But these rallies were attacked by riot police, and the government mobilized tens of thousands of police to block routes to the rally site at Yonsei U.

Nonetheless on June 10 some 10,000 students did gather at Yonsei's campus. When they tried to march off campus, however, they were met by a force of 60,000 riot police, who cordoned off the campus and used rapid-fire tear gas launchers to break up the march. Students used sticks, stones and firebombs to try and break through the cordon.

Many students broke through in small groups and tried to make their way to the border. But riot police were stationed along the highways, at train and bus stations, and at the border itself. Hundreds of students were arrested and over 100 injured.

Students Enraged

The students were enraged by the government's savage repression, and numerous small actions against the government took place throughout June.

On June 11th, 26 students forced their way past guards at the Combined Central Government Complex in the center of Seoul and tore up some of the main government offices.

On June 12 students tried to storm the headquarters of Roh's Democratic Justice Party in Seoul. Waves of students shouting "Revolution!" attacked the office with firebombs, but were fought off by policemen firing volleys of tear gas.

On June 13 militant students staged a similar attack on the U.S. Information Agency office in Taegu, throwing firebombs and tear gas grenades into the office. Students blame the U.S. government for its support of the Roh regime and its help, with 42,000 American troops in South Korea, in keeping Korea divided.

During this week there were also a series of demonstrations right at the border between North and South Korea. And since then there have been almost daily confrontations between students and police in the streets of Seoul.

[Back to Top]

20,000 Canada Bell workers on strike

Some 19,500 telephone operators and technicians working for Bell Canada went on strike on Monday, June 27 in Quebec, Ontario and the Northwest Territories. More than 2,000 workers had already walked out over the weekend in advance-of the strike deadline. In May workers had voted down a tentative agreement endorsed by the union leadership.

The workers are demanding improved wages, a halt to the company's increasing use of part-time and temporary workers, protection against the contracting out of work, and a better indexing formula for pensions.

Already the strike has caused a widespread disruption of telephone services.

[Back to Top]

Australian miners walk out

In June, Australian miners walked off their jobs in New South Wales and Queensland. They are fighting against the capitalists' efforts to change work rules.

The miners' struggle was reportedly costing the Australian economy $35 million a day in lost shipments.

Swedish firemen, miners strike

Recently a couple of large wildcat strikes broke out in the Swedish public sector.

In mid-April the government signed a national contract with the firemen's union which gave ridiculously small improvements in wages, much smaller than the rise in consumer prices. Firemen wildcatted all over the country; this series of strikes lasted into May, when local negotiations began.

Then in the beginning of May workers in the iron mines of northern Sweden paralyzed the mines with a wildcat strike. The miners have long been subject to speedup and layoffs, and the state is now demanding a new round of concessions including job combinations and a wage freeze.

(Taken from the May issue of "Red Dawn," journal of the Communist League of Norrkoping, Sweden.)

[Back to Top]

Steelworkers rise up angry in Naples

On June 16, hundreds of angry steelworkers stormed the offices of the regional and city governments in Naples, Italy. They then proceeded to smash everything in sight.

This was the latest action in an ongoing struggle by the steelworkers of Bagnoli to defend their jobs from the Italian government's productivity drive.

Ten years ago, 10,000 workers used to work at the government-owned Bagnoli works. The work force was forced to take concessions, which cut their number by more than half. Those remaining were promised that the restructuring of the steel industry was over and there were to be no more job cuts.

But capitalism is a brutal system and the drive to improve profits at the expense of the workers is endless. Now the Italian government has outlined plans for further restructuring of the steel industry. It plans to close the melting operations at Bagnoli, throwing, some 1,200 workers on the street. Only the rolling mill is to remain open.

It is to protest this callous act that the workers of Bagnoli stormed the Naples government offices. And they are also discussing further mass actions.

[Back to Top]

Workers and women struggle against Islamization in South Asia

Quite often we are told by the news media that there is a huge revival of religious fundamentalism in the countries where the people are Muslims. It is said that the people in these places are just yearning to live under religious rule.

But the real story is different. In fact, it is the conservative forces among the ruling exploiters who are most enthusiastic to declare religious states. They use religion in the state in order to enforce backwardness, ignorance, and repression, as well as to keep the masses divided by religion and sect.

However, quite often sharp struggles break out against such reactionary policies. Just this June, protests broke out in Bangladesh and Pakistan against attempts by the military dictators to expand Islamic religious influence in the governments of these countries.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, was shut down by a general strike on June 12. The strike was called to protest a new law of President Ershad declaring Islam the state religion. The strike paralyzed transport and business in the capital. Demonstrators tore up train tracks and smashed buses.

In Lahore, Pakistan, on June 26 police attacked a demonstration of women protesting against a new decree that made Islam the supreme law of Pakistan.

Pakistan has always been officially an "Islamic Republic," but the regime of General Zia has been on one crusade after another to expand the role of the priests in government affairs. Zia recently dismissed his own civilian cabinet on the grounds that it was not proceeding quickly enough toward Islamization. According to Zia's decree, all courts (including divorce courts) will have a Muslim clergyman attached to them as observer/adviser to ensure that feudal religious customs are enforced as the supreme law.

[Back to Top]

New wave of strikes and demonstrations in S. Korea

[Photo: Students use sticks to battle riot police at Yonsei University.]

The students and workers of South Korea have been busy this spring launching strikes and demonstrations.

The new president Roh Tae Woo -- who was the right-hand man of the former dictator Chun -- tries to paint himself as a representative of "civilian democracy," but the Korean masses don't see much difference between his regime and Chun's.

Another Strike Wave by Korean Workers

During June a new wave of strikes hit South Korea. They were aimed chiefly against the giant Hyundai industrial conglomerate, the largest South Korean corporation, but some 90 other companies were also hit. Shipyards, machine tool manufacturers, and parts suppliers were shut down by workers demanding higher wages and a reduced work week.

The center of the strike wave was the giant Hyundai Motor Co. plant in Ulsan, where 20,000 workers walked out May 30 demanding a 35% wage hike. The strike lasted 24 days there.

At the end of June, the Hyundai auto workers' union leaders agreed to send the workers back after management agreed to a 30% wage increase. But many workers were upset with this deal. One thousand workers protested the union leaders' settlement with a demonstration outside the Ulsan assembly plant.

In Changwon, workers at Hyundai Precision Industry Co., a major container maker, occupied management offices and held 10 executives hostage. Workers blocked the plant entrance with trucks to keep police out. The 2,000 workers ended their strike after 25 days when management agreed to an 18.5% pay raise.

At Hyundai Construction and Engineering the early-June movement toward a strike was disrupted when the main union organizer was kidnapped. Later in June some of the company's executives were arrested and charged with arranging the kidnapping.

Two other major companies were also struck during June: Tongil Co., an auto parts maker, and Samsung Shipbuilding were both shut down for 40 days. The strikes ended only after workers were given raises up to 26.5%.

News of Strike Wave Blacked Out in the U.S.

Very little news about the latest Korean strike wave was allowed to filter into the United States. When workers were striking last year when the Chun dictatorship was in power, a good deal of news was published about the workers' struggles. But now that Chun has been replaced by his pal Roh in civilian garb, the liberal media work together with the Reagan government to suppress such news.

And no doubt none of the capitalists in this country want the auto workers and other industrial workers in the U.S. to hear about the vigorous strikes waged by their class brothers and sisters in South Korea.

Students Try to Establish Ties With North Korea

The main focus of the student movement in June was on trying to establish ties with North Korea. The two Koreas, North and South, are divided by hundreds of thousands of troops massed at the 38th parallel. The South Korean government allows no phone calls or letters between the two countries, and exchanges of scholars, athletes, students and journalists are also prohibited.

Many people in Korea saw this year's Olympic Games as an opportunity to renew ties between the two countries. North Korea asked to sponsor some of the events. But this offer was spurned by South Korea, which wants to use the Games as a chauvinist display.

Students across South Korea decided to organize their own show of friendship with the youth of North Korea. They organized a countrywide march to the border, to take place on June 10. The plan was to meet with North Korean students and plan to hold some athletic events together at the time of the Olympic Games.

These plans by the South Korean students challenged the anti-communist bogeyman with which the South Korean military has ruled for the last four decades. The iron-fisted rule of the military has been constantly justified under the pretext of "danger from the communists in the north." In every mass unrest, the South Korean rulers see the "hand of the communists." This reflects the extreme fear that the South Korean reactionaries have of any progressive dissent, which is automatically labeled as communist. (It should be noted, however, that the North Korean government is not communist. It is a nationalist regime of revisionists that claims a communist label. The "socialism" of the Kim II Sung regime is in fact a state capitalist society. Moreover, North Korea promotes an extreme personality cult around Kim II Sung and his family. Such a society is not based on the revolutionary proletarian ideas of Marx and Lenin.)

While we do not know what the South Korean student activists think of the social system in the north, their attempt to break the anti-communist hysteria of the regime in the south is an important step. They are just in demanding that ordinary contact and ties be restored between the people of the two Koreas.

Government Mobilizes Police to Block March

Students planned to meet at Yonsei University in Seoul to begin the march to the border, 30 miles to the north. Preparatory rallies were held at campuses around the country the day before. But these rallies were attacked by riot police, and the government mobilized tens of thousands of police to block routes to the rally site at Yonsei U.

Nonetheless on June 10 some 10,000 students did gather at Yonsei's campus. When they tried to march off campus, however, they were met by a force of 60,000 riot police, who cordoned off the campus and used rapid-fire tear gas launchers to break up the march. Students used sticks, stones and firebombs to try and break through the cordon.

Many students broke through in small groups and tried to make their way to the border. But riot police were stationed along the highways, at train and bus stations, and at the border itself. Hundreds of students were arrested and over 100 injured.

Students Enraged

The students were enraged by the government's savage repression, and numerous small actions against the government took place throughout June.

On June 11th, 26 students forced their way past guards at the Combined Central Government Complex in the center of Seoul and tore up some of the main government offices.

On June 12 students tried to storm the headquarters of Roh's Democratic Justice Party in Seoul. Waves of students shouting "Revolution!" attacked the office with firebombs, but were fought off by policemen firing volleys of tear gas.

On June 13 militant students staged a similar attack on the U.S. Information Agency office in Taegu, throwing firebombs and tear gas grenades into the office. Students blame the U.S. government for its support of the Roh regime and its help, with 42,000 American troops in South Korea, in keeping Korea divided.

During this week there were also a series of demonstrations right at the border between North and South Korea. And since then there have been almost daily confrontations between students and police in the streets of Seoul.

[Back to Top]