Antiwar protesters compete at Olympics

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.. High court decisions LOS ANGELES-The summer games of the XXIII Olympiad are over. While they were being played, they gave the world a portrait of "internationalism and sportsmanship" from the point of view of North American corporate media giants. And even though some of the big business press like the Los Angeles Times criticized the outrageous chauvinism of ABC Television, they, too, focused their coverage almost exclusively on U.S. athletes.

Despite the multimillion dollar opening and closing extravaganzas-staged by Hollywood fantasy makers-people around the globe got the real message: The games were between US and the rest of the planet.

Competing for world attention against this version of internationalism were some 10,000 antiwar and antinuclear activists who staged dozens of events during the Olympics.

A July 28 march and rally, organized largely by activists in the Chicano movement, attracted about 700 people. The event focused on the expression of solidarity between the Chicano population in the Southwest United States and the Central American people. Banners that decorated the speakers' platform in MacArthur Park were reminiscent of those of anti-Vietnam War days. They read "Raza Si, Guerra No."

The spirit of the rally was summed up by Lucia Morales, a representative of the striking Arizona copper miners: "How can we applaud the accomplishments of the world's youth when in (continued from page 1: “High court's civil rights”) tional" before he or she can win suits against racist employers, school boards, or election officials.

Benefits have been denied to retired people in 12 out of 14 Social Security cases. The court has approved the Hyde Amendment, which denies federal funds for abortions to poor people.

Every citizen's civil rights have been curtailed by rulings that enable the government to ban travel to Cuba. In addition, the State Department can now revoke a citizen's passport if it is thought he or she might harm the United States while abroad.

The Warren court As these reactionary decisions keep coming down from the Supreme Court, unionists, minorities, and other citizens grow more and more alarmed. They see the gains made under the Warren court being weakened or negated. Many people ascribe the reactionary rulings to the conservative judges appointed by Nixon and Reagan. They shudder to think of the nature of the court if Reagan is reelected and can appoint several more justices. If only, they think, a new president would appoint another Earl Warren to the Court.

Earl Warren was appointed chief justice by President Eisenhower in 1953. Eisenhower thought he was appointing a safe conservative Republican to the highest judicial office in the land.

Warren had been a tough "law and order" district attorney in Alameda County in California. He had a deeply ingrained antipathy to Asians and played a key role in herding the Japanese-Americans into concentration camps in World War II. Later he served two terms as a Republican governor of California. He had all the credentials tor a sate, solid, conservative Supreme Court justice.

Yet Warren led the Supreme Court in declaring school segregation unconstitutional, defending the rights of prisoners, extending voting rights, and reinforcing Central America our money is used to maim and murder young people?" she asked. "For the commitment of youth in Central America there are no medals awarded by this Olympic committee. We don't want medals. We do give, above all, our solidarity."

The Survivalfest march and rally on August 5 drew some 7000 people. It was scheduled to coincide with the exact moment 39 years ago when the United States dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. The international roster of speakers included representatives of the Hiroshima survivors; the Greenham Common Women from England; the Green Party of West Germany; the Nicaraguan Olympic Team; the FDR-FMLN of El Salvador; and Dennis Brutus, South African poet in exile and antiapartheid activist.

A colorful sea of balloons, banners, placards, and hand-lettered signs flowed into MacArthur Park. The official Survivalfest placards were inscribed with the slogans: "No more bombs. Stop Intervention. Fund Human Needs."

In addition, numerous contingents of Central Americans, a large number of Blacks, Asians, two gay contingents, opponents of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, a committee for Kurdistan, and others participated with their own slogans protesting U.S. military intervention around the world.

Other events during the two weeks of the Olympics included a reception for the Nicaraguan athletes that drew an overflow crowd of 600, a Deadly Connections Conference that drew close to freedoms of speech, assembly, and protest.

Eisenhower was appalled at the way Warren "betrayed" his conservative credentials. He regretted the appointment, while other conservatives called for his impeachment.

Protests in the streets Warren had betrayed nothing, but had reacted to great social movem ents that were to shake the American sys tem for nearly two decades. Starting in the JESUS CHRIST COMING SUPREME COURT mid-fifties with the decline of McCarthyism, and continuing with increased vigor through the 1960s, hundreds of thousands-at times times millions-of Blacks, youth, and women were in the streets demanding an end to Jim Crow, an end to the Vietnam War, and an end to the oppression of women.

As an astute conservative, Warren saw that the Supreme Court could not stem this elemental drive for change. It