N.Y. courts OK nukes and KO democratic rights

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VOTE THE BIG BOMBS OUT OF THE BIG APPLE Rallv of 1500 workers on Nov. 20 at Boston's Arlington Street Church SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1985 3 NEW YORK-In the scales of American democracy, a few judges apparently out -weigh the entire electorate of New York City. Three New York State courts ruled—unanimously-that the antinuclear Navyport referendum could not appear on the November ballot.

This outrageous decision denied the right of millions of New Yorkers to have a voice in an issue of life-and-death importance: whether some 360 Tomahawk nuclear missiles—each 15 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb-should be bobbing around in our harbor.

More than 100,000 registered voters had signed petitions to put the referendum on the ballot. Hundreds of thousands more were looking forward to having their vote against the Navyport counted.

But a single judge-backed by two other courts on appeal-knocked it off the ballot by ruling the referendum unconstitutional. "Isn't that ironic?" commented one peti -tioner who had gathered hundreds of sig -natures. "We're taught that the constitution was designed to guarantee our democratic rights!"

The reasons given for the ruling were so specious that even the New York Times -a booster of the nuclear Navyport pro -ject—felt obliged to take its distance. A Times editorial pointed out that the courts are supposed to rule on a law's constitutionality after it is adopted, not before. By timing their ruling to fall just before election day, however, the judges managed to avoid further challenges.

If the courts had waited until after the election, it would have been too late to avert the very thing the nuclear policymakers feared most. What they wanted to avoid at all cost was having a majority vote, in the nation's largest city, repudiate their nuclear war strategy. Imagine how damaging that would be, coming on the eve of n of the Geneva talks, to Reagan's "bar -gaining stance.

The Pentagon, the White House, the Koch administration, and their subservient judges joined in a bipartisan coalition to successfully do away with the referendum. But at a price. They were forced to do it in such a blatant way that many tens of thousands of New Yorkers knew they'd been cheated. The incident underscored the essentially undemocratic way in which major social decisions are made.

The cancellation of the referendum is itself indirect evidence that it would have won a majority on election day—or at least that those who arranged to quash it were arms and its doors to the ATWU strike commmittee. Its offices became the official strike headquarters. Many of the lessons learned during that struggle will surely pay dividends as Local 26 prepares to hit the streets.

In response to the greedy demands of the owners, the membership of Local 26 has presented its own demands for justice and dignity. In an attempt to force the nego -We're two years old. And like most two year olds, we're growing, learning, and tak - afraid it would. There is also some direct evidence to that effect.

The coalition that organized the ballot drive conducted a pre-election opinion poll, using scientific sampling techniques, and found that 48 percent would have voted "Yes" (that is, against the Navyport), 37 percent would have voted "No," and the rest were undecided. Perhaps more significant, 88 percent believed that the issue should be put to a democratic vote.

Sources within the Koch administration revealed that the mayor carried out a secret poll of his own and came up with similar results.

The organizers of the ballot ini -tiative-New York Mobilization for Survival and others—have claimed victory, and this is by no means empty bravura. The campaign was successful on its own terms-that is, it raised the issue and created a public debate.

The Navy and Koch had planned to sneak the nuclear port into New York and present it as a fair accompli, but they were prevented from doing so. Before the campaign not one in five New Yorkers was aware of the Navyport plans. Now not one in five is unaware-and most are against it.

In spite of not being allowed to prove it at the polls, there is a general understanding that New Yorkers do not want the nuclear fleet in their harbor. Navy and city officials know that they can proceed with their plans only in the face of massive opposition. Organizers of the anti-Navyport coalition have vowed to organize that opposition and keep up the pressure.