Key
Battle for Labor Rights and Black Freedom
Defend
the Charleston Five!
Defeat
the Racist
Union-Busters with Hard Class Struggle
The fight to defend the Charleston Five is a key battle linking labor
struggle with the cause of black freedom. These members of
International
Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422 are facing years in prison on
federal
charges of “felonious riot.” They are targets of a racist anti-union
assault
as the bosses seek to break a key outpost of black labor in the South,
Charleston, the second largest port on the U.S. East Coast. On 20
January
2000, the unionists picketing a scab operation were set upon by 600
state
and local riot cops and prison guards, who used tear gas, rubber
bullets,
concussion grenades as well as armored cars, helicopters, sniper
details,
police boats and attack dogs. Three days before the police riot, ILA
Local
1422 participated in a march of tens of thousands in Columbia, the
state
capital, demanding that the Confederate flag be taken down from above
the
statehouse. The brutal attack in Charleston was in good part a
“payback”
from the racist state government. In the face of the persecution of the
Charleston Five and the escalating attack on union rights, what’s
called
for is a solid longshore strike to shut down all three coasts. Defend
the Charleston Five! (June 2001)
For
a Class-Struggle Fight Against the Racist Union-Busters!
Defeat
the Capitalist Onslaught Against Public Education!
Teachers,
Minorities, Immigrants Targeted
The public school system is the focal point of an assault by key
sectors
of the U.S. ruling class. “Education reform” was a top issue for both
Democrats
and Republicans in last year’s presidential election, as it is in the
New
York City mayoral election this coming fall. Masked by phony
pro-children
rhetoric and squabbling over vouchers, there is a “bipartisan”
consensus
to “reinvent” public education to reflect the demands of the capitalist
market. As usual, teachers are portrayed as the obstacle to high
standards
and improving schools. The effect of this and similar reforms around
the
country will be to dramatically increase the tendency to a two-tier
education
system, with more rigorous schools for those considered “college bound”
and barracks-like “academies” for those tracked to be low-wage
unskilled
labor. The purpose of all the rulers’ talk of “standards” is not to
improve
the chances for poor inner-city children – they don’t give a damn about
that – but to make the labor force more “competitive” globally with its
imperialist rivals, to “Americanize” the new wave of immigrants, and
ultimately
to prepare the population for war. Defeat
the Capitalist Onslaught Against Public Education! (June
2001)
Korean
Auto Workers Fight Mass Firings
Victory
to Daewoo
Workers!
As bankruptcy threatened the Daewoo industrial empire, one of South
Korea’s leading trusts, the management of its auto plants ordered the
mass
firing of 1,800 workers, a third of the entire workforce. Militant
Daewoo
workers and their families responded by occupying the key plant, while
the capitalist government sent in thousands of riot cops. The battle
continues
as Daewoo workers seek international labor solidarity in protesting the
planned takeover of the company by the U.S. auto giant, General Motors.
Despite Korean workers’ militancy, their leaders in the Korean
Confederation
of Trade Unions have aided South Korean president Kim Dae-jung in
ramming
through mass layoffs. The fight for a Trotskyist workers party is
urgently
posed. Victory
to Daewoo Workers! (June 2001)
Drive
Out War Criminal
Bob Kerrey!
He
Should Be Brought to Justice by a Court of
His
Surviving Victims in Ho Chi Minh City!
The president of New School University is a war criminal. Covered up
for 30 years, the war crime was the work of “Kerrey’s Raiders,” a U.S.
Navy special forces (SEAL) unit commanded by Lt. Robert Kerrey. Trading
on his reputation as a “war hero,” Kerrey went on to become a U.S.
senator,
a leading liberal Democratic presidential hopeful, and this January was
named president of the prestigious New School. Now the truth has been
exposed
that he is a mass murderer of women and children. Today, an
orchestrated
campaign from liberals and conservatives alike seeks to carry out
damage
control. But the facts clearly show: Bob Kerrey is guilty as
hell! Drive
Out War Criminal Bob Kerrey! (1 May 2001)
Open
Letter from the Internationalist Group
"Alliance"
with Cops = Betrayal of Workers
During a February 18
“March for
Workers’
Rights” in Brooklyn, a spokesman at the closing rally announced
the “support” of the Latino Officers
Association,
represented by a Street Narcotics cop of the NYPD. This is the criminal
repressive force which murdered Amadou Diallo. The Internationalist
Group
contingent chanted “Cops Out!” and walked
out protesting the presence of professional strikebreakers and
enforcers
of the capitalist state. “‘Unity’ with
police
means trampling the memory of Anthony Báez, Patrick Dorismond,
Yong
Xin Huang, Gideon Busch and countless other victims of the NYPD's
racist
terror,” stated this Open Letter issued by the IG. “Alliance”
with Cops = Betrayal of the Workers (February 2001)
Mass
Protests and Arrests as Navy Resumes Bombing of Vieques, Air
Force
Bombs Koon-I, South Korea
From
Puerto Rico to Korea:
U.S.
Bombers Get Out!
Anti-Communist
Exclusion Undermines Protest
In a brazen display of imperial
arrogance, the
U.S. Navy resumed bombardment of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques on
June 25. Over the next few days, federal agents arrested hundreds of
protesters
seeking to block the bombing. A week earlier, some 3,000 South Korean
villagers,
students and a sizeable contingent of workers from the Kia auto plant
demonstrated
militantly against a U.S. Air Force bombing range in the village of
Maehyang-ri,
demanding "Drive the U.S. troops out!" Internationalist Group
protesters
participated in a June 22 demonstration over Vieques but were excluded
by the nationalist organizers for chanting "U.S. Navy out of Puerto
Rico,
U.S. Army out of Korea!" From
Puerto Rico to Korea: U.S. Bombers Get Out! (30 June 2000)
|
