Coal-rich lands spur effort to 'relocate' Dineh nation
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coverage devoted to Big Mountain was a recent On July 7, 1986, 10,000 to 14,000 Dineh (Navajo) In the ABC report, Peter Jennings labeled the people will be relocated by the National Guard from their American Indian Movement (AIM), which has been traditional homes at Big Mountain Reservation in assisting in the resistance, "Libyan-trained terrorists. Arizona. There is no plan for an alternative reservation This attempt to link AIM with "global terrorism" ties in site, and most of the Dineh people are to be stranded with the U.S. government's current slander campaign with no urban skills in small towns bordering the against revolutionary movements around the world.
The Navajo Hopi Relocation Act, passed in 1974, The majority of Americans must be alerted to the calls for this removal as well as for opening up the coal- crimes being committed so close to home. rich land to Standard Oil and to Peabody Coal for strip Unfortunately, most of the organized educational mining. The act also provides for encouraging "voluntary activities concerning the relocation have been small.
Most organized protest activity has been centered on Methods of "encouragement" include poisoning the water supplies, confiscating livestock, and dividing the This type of action is limited in its effectiveness. Dineh sheep-grazing range with wire fences. All of these Depending on the officials who represent the striptactics have been employed at various times by Bureau of miners—rather than the American people-has allowed Indian Affairs (B.I.A.) officials since the bill was passed. the government to pigeon-hole the entire affair and let The relocation act was passed under the pretense of settling disputes between the Dineh and Hopi tribal Surely, with such a blatant violation of the Dineh councils, which were appointed by the Department of the people's democratic, civil, and human rights, the Interior as a result of the 1934 Indian Reorganization prospects for building an action-oriented coalition with Act. The Hopi Council's attorney, John Boyden, began labor and community organizations are quite favorable. suing the Dineh Council for mineral rights to Big These united forces could bring thousands into the streets Mountain in the late 1960s. Boyden, significantly, was in solidarity with the Dineh people and severely cripple Many government attempts to make an undercover The traditional Hopi leadership has refused to recognize removal. Hopefully, the Dineh leadership will look into this council and has repeatedly expressed solidarity with By attacking the Dineh people's rights, the The U.S. government has been successful so far in government puts everyone's rights into question. The keeping its relocation actions from the public eye. Aside American people cannot afford to ignore the criminal from brief "objective" updates on this situation in Time relocation taking place right now. To quote a member of and Newsweek magazines, the only mainstream media the American Indian Movement, "July 7 is next week." • SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1986 15 reservation.
removal."
By ADAM also the attorney for Peabody Coal.
the Dineh against relocation.
writing letters to government officials.
loose its own jingoistic slogans. these possibilities before time runs out. and was also editor of the party's newspaper, The Militant.
I will write a more detailed account of his activity for the next issue of Socialist Action.
Milton Alvin, Los Angeles Dow Jones Dear editor, Many of your readers might ask: What is behind the three-anda-half-year climb in the Dow Jones? Since August 1982, this index of stock prices has more than doubled, rising from a low of 777 to over 1700. On March 11 alone, it jumped 43 points, breaking more records.
Changes in stock prices tend to reflect changes in capitalists' expectations of profits. And pro -fits are inversely related to wages, the one climbing when the other falls. This points us to what is, in fact, the fundamental factor behind the Dow Jones' leap: the decline in production workers' wages in recent years.
The price upswing in the stock market began after the breaking of the PATCO strike. Two-tier wage scales and "givebacks," such as those being resisted today by Hormel and TWA workers, have sharply cut into the wages installment of ABC's "World News Tonight." of unionized workers. Millions of others are being replaced by unorganized workers who labor at half the wages and less.
Also fueling expectations of higher profits are the conciliatory signals emanating from the workers' states. These include steps toward capitalist restoration in China and the "tilt" toward greater efforts for "peaceful coexistence" with imperialism and for implementation of "Hun -garian-style reforms" by the new Soviet leadership.
Workers internationally. are seeing their wages and standard of living drop. More than ever, the way out calls for workers to join forces internationally. In the face of such working-class unity, capitalist profits-and the stock markets—would finally and irrevocably go "out of sight."
W.I. Mohareb, New Haven, Conn.
In our last issue, Socialist Action inadvertently left out two photo credits.
The photo (page 15) of the Plutonium players in "Ladies Against Women" is by Donna Marchand. The photo (page 4) of women marching for abortion rights is by Joe Ryan.-The Editors