Town rallies against closing of steel plant

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For background to the following article on the struggle for survival of the steel communities of the MonongahelaOhio Valley, see the March 1985 issue of Socialist Action.

DUQUESNE, Pa.—Workers are maintaining a 24-hour vigil to prevent demolition of U.S. Steel's huge Dorothy Six blast furnace here. On May 18 hundreds of unionists and townspeople rallied across from the abandoned plant in order to build support for their campaign. The company has scheduled demolitions to begin on June 10.

The community-backed struggle to save the Dorothy Six works was initiated last October by the Tri-State Conference on Steel. Bob Erickson of TriState met with Socialist Action to explain the group's long-term strategy and their plans to save the giant furnace.

The plan for a community-controlled Steel Valley Authority (SVA) was originally put forth as the result of a "Conference on the Revitalization of Pittsburgh's Steel Industry" held • in Homestead, Pa., in October 1983.

Local union, religious, and unemployed leaders determined that normal union activities were not enough to fight back against the corporate decapitalization taking place in the Mon Valley. Working people throughout the valley have been painfully forced to realize that U.S. Steel and other corporations are not bluffing when they demand "giveback" concessions.

According to Erickson, there have been over 50 incidents in which plants WE ON WANT LIVING NO FRi WREAT "All they think about is money...

have closed when workers refused to take concessions. As a result of these plant closures 20,000 to 30,000 jobs have been permanently lost.

The Tri-State Conference on Steel plan for SVA is an attempt to put forth an alternative demand-ownership of the means of production by the workers and the community. "If basic industry in the Mon Valley is to be saved, it will be saved by a struggle to release facilities and provide money to reopen them" explains Erickson. "The struggle around Dorothy Six is the first step."

Similar to farm struggle While attempting to develop a program that conforms to the specific problems of the Mon Valley, leaders of Tri-State believe that the struggle for basic industry here cannot be built in isolation from the struggles of working people in other parts of the country.

Erickson compares the unemployed movement of western Pennsylvania to the struggle of family farmers in the Midwest. Both struggles are based in regions suffering from a severe economic crisis not generalized throughout the country. In both regions the severity of hardships facing the majority of the population makes it possible to build widespread popular support for a program that challenges the basic tenets of capitalism.

In the past months much of the work of Tri-State has been building support for the public authority in a region that is in many ways one of the most conservative in the country.

"The nature of the popular base in the Mon Valley is VFW's, American Legion halls, and ethnic clubs," says Erickson. 'Tri-State has been going to these groups with a program that states that workers and communities should own the means of production, and we have been able to incorporate these people into the struggle."

Erickson estimates that 70 percent to 90 percent of the residents of Duquesne favor the plan, and 10 percent are actively involved in the movement. In addition to union support there has been a significant amount of support SOCIALIST ACTION from locally elected public officials.

While a long battle remains ahead for the coalition of forces that has come together to save Dorothy Six, the struggle has become a focus for hope for many in the Mon Valley. For now Erickson believes that the struggle is leading to one important victory. "People will see that you can challenge capitalism and that we can build a popular struggle to do so."

Closing news date: May 21, 1985 Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Assistant Editor: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Business Manager:DON MAHONEY Circulation Manager: RALPH FORSYTH Editorial Board: Alan Benjamin, Dianne Feeley, Jeff Mackler, Nat Weinstein Staff: Paul Colvin, May May Gong, Millie Gonzalez, Mark Harris, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Joe Ryan, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Marion Syrek, Sylvia Weinstein Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $6 per year by Socialist Action Publishing Association, 3435 Army St., No.

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JUNE 1985