Labor must take a stand before U.S. troops move into combat

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SOCIALIST ACTIO JANUARY 1985 7 Socialist Action: What was your impression of the results of the Nov. 6 presidential elections? Does Ronald Reagan have a mandate to carry out his policies?

Al Lannon: First of all, San Francisco and Alameda Counties were carried by Mondale. It is unfortunate that the rest of the country did not follow our leadership. Mondale would have given us some breathing space and perhaps some let-up in what has become four years of relentless attacks on the labor movement. Those attacks, with Reagan's reelection, are going to continue. His first domestic attack was to call for pay cuts. We expect to hear that from every employer we deal with in negotiations.

One of the things that I think the election showed was that it was not incorrect for the labor movement to jump into the Mondale campaign with both feet. I think the fact that Reagan was elected but could not transform Congress was perhaps a tribute to his personal charisma and popularity rather than an endorsement of a right-wing program.

S.A. : How do you see a movement building to stop the Reagan administration's policies-particularly its policies toward Central America?

Lannon: Well, there is a very real move toward direct intervention in Central America by the United States. Now, it is historically true that after we elect people to office, the American people (continued on page 9)

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Joe Lindenmuth: 1R.*: •..Dave Dellinger (continued from page 7: “The movement has to go protests in the streets”) state of Vermont. For example, we had a very important sit-in in the Vermont office of Republican Sen. Robert Stafford, who had been supporting the Reagan program in Central America.

We took the case against the government into our trial with a necessity defense-like arguing that it is necessary to break into a burning building to save overseas, so do 10 American jobs. If workers don't do anything about it now, in a very short time they'll find themselves in welfare lines being recipients of those hand-outs they despise so the inhabitants. We brought in Salvadoran refugees, ex-CIA agents, and people who testified about contra attacks in Nicaragua and other violations of international law and decency. We won an acquittal from a "normal" middle-class jury. Of course, one can't base one's actions on what the courts will decide is legal. That would limit us to capitalist legality.

We have to continue teach-ins and a range of publications. We must educate and arouse people and give them hope. A lot of things start with emotions— including moral outrage, feelings of solidarity, and yearnings to live cooperatively and usefully. We should encourage such emotions. But we must also encourage basic analyses of the society and the system.