Anti-gay bigotry spreads its poison far and wide

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SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1985 7 On every job I've had I've witnessed bigoted and thoughtless acts by many of my coworkers against gay people and lesbians. It's no secret that in the schools anti-homosexual prejudice is widespread among school children.

But working people have a lot to lose and nothing to gain from this prejudice.

First, prejudice and bigotry are never used against one group alone. Historically, prejudice against even small and isolated groups-if allowed to go unchecked—led to the persecution of many.

In Nazi Germany, the fascists persecuted and murdered Gypsies, gay people, Jews, and communists. Their fundamental target was the German working class and its organizations, whose trade unions and political parties were smashed. This majority could have stopped the Nazis if they had united to do so.

Working people today need to wake up to the fact that the same people who fight legislation proscribing discrimination against gays or who argue for the quarantine of AIDS victims or all gays are also against civil rights and unions.

Workers in the United States are under attack. Their living standards and their basic union rights (such as equal pay for equal work) are being eroded the employers and the government the employers.

In order to fight off these attacks workers need to win allies among minorities, women, gays, farmers, and small business people-in short, all who suffer from the government's policies. In order to win this support, workers' organizations, particularly unions, need to champion all the oppressed and exploited.

Anti-gay prejudice is used consciously by the boss and the government to divide working people from one another in order to weaken their common struggles. Just like racial bigotry and male chauvinism, anti-gay prejudice only helps those in power and hurts everyone else by keeping them divided.

"An injury to one is an injury to all!" This rallying cry of the early American labor movement is even more urgent today. All the rights that workers have won in the past are needed to defend and advance the lives of workers If the rights of gays are allowed to be denied or revoked, it won't end there. Working people have a direct and personal interest in defending the rights of gays and opposing bigotry against them in all its forms.

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United strike ends (continued from page 1: “United pilots return to work after hard-fought strike”)

pilots, and the support of the flight attendants, surprised the company. Richard J. Ferris, United's chief executive officer, was quoted at the strike's outset as saying that all he had to do was put a cheese sandwich at the end of the runway and the pilots would come running. Ferris predicted that 1000 pilots would cross the picket line when the strike began and 50 percent would return to work by mid-June.

But that was not the case. In fact, less than 500 pilots ever crossed the picket lines.

Still, the strike was lost before it began. ALPA's leadership never questioned the premise of the two-tier. They agreed without question to virtually all of the company's demands for concessions. What ALPA underestimated was the company's determination to break the union.

United knew that a 20-year two-tier would be unacceptable and sought to force ALPA out on strike. United was working under protest" next."

That certainly expressed many members.

The pilots admit, not without some chagrin, that they never thought of themselves as unionists. They were shocked and pleasantly surprised when unions, some of which they admitted they never knew existed, sent them messages of support and financial contributions. During the strike janitors in San Francisco came close to going on strike and ALPA joined them in a demonstration of support.

It has taken this vicious company assault for many in ALPA to realize that they have a common interest with other unionists. They realize that pilots can no longer consider themselves part of an untouchable elite.

Many rank-and-file members of the IAM, ALPA, and AFA have learned from this strike that organization, solidarity, and militant action are crucial in the fight against concessions. STP THIS Socialist Action/Joe Ryan