Twin Cities rally defends 18 framed-up P-9 strikers

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MINNEAPOLIS-Speaking to a rally launching the Austin Emergency Appeal Legal Defense Committee on July 13 in the Twin Cities, Jim Guyette, president of the striking P-9 local, declared: "We've got an opportunity in Austin to find out what a felony riot is all about. A felony riot is when a bunch of people are singing union songs in front of a plant."

Sixteen people were arrested April 11, 1986, after the Austin police and their allies from surrounding jurisdictions attacked a peaceful demonstration on public property outside the plant gates of the Austin Hormel plant. Ray Rogers was pulled out of his car and arrested two miles from the scene of the demonstration. A warrant for Jim Guyette's arrest was issued. Guyette peacefully turned himself in the following Monday.

All 18 are charged not only with the gross misdemeanor of riot, carrying a maximum one-year prison sentence and fine, but also felony riot—with the possibility of an additional five years in prison and a fine.

Following the police attack, a riot was declared when a demonstrator attempted to return a smoke grenade to police lines, which injured no one but constituted a "dangerous weapon" in the opinion of Austin police.

Of the 18, only three are actually charged with specific actions-two for using "halt," a canine repellent often used by maildeliverers, and one person for throwing a smoke grenade back to police lines. The 15 others are charged, in effect, with having simply been there.

Rogers and Guyette are also charged with second-degree assault, also a felony. Apparently this is for inviting people from around the country to attend four days of meetings and demonstrations to show the country the strike was alive and gaining support.

First Amendment rights Speaking as the head of the legal defense effort, attorney Ken Tilson stated: "The police charges are an attack on the First Amendment rights of assembly of the 18 P-gers and of workers everywhere who are at one time or another will be on strike."

Pete Kelly, president of UAW Local 160 in Detroit, declared, "This generation does not have the right to give up what so many other generations fought for. Being in jail for a picket violation is not any kind of disgrace. On the contrary, any trade union leader worth his salt should have many of these on his blotter in the police station."

Tony Mazzochi, past health and safety director of the OCAW international, drew a comparison between P-9's struggle and that of the Guysmar, Louisiana, OCAW local now on an anti-concessions strike for nearly two years.

Mazzochi stated: "The corporate bosses recognize the danger to them when BASF workers in Guysmar wear P-9 buttons, and P-9 workers wear BASF buttons in Austin. Among workers, there is recognition that this is a universal struggle; recognition that we won't turn back this attack unless we unite. That's why it's imperative-our existence depends upon it—that we unite around this struggle to destroy those charges."

Cynthia Burke, president of BRAC Local 1310 and one of the co-treasurers of the Austin Emergency Appeal, explained: "Some have suggested that the charges against the Austin 18 are just an overreaction on the part of the Mower County authorities and have little chance of being sustained."

"But," Burke continued, "we cannot let the flimsiness of the evidence blind us to the fact that without an aggressive public defense there is a real possibility that some or all of the 18 will be successfully victimized. The Mower County attorney is acting on the part of powerful moneyed JAW SOLIDARIT interests who are determined to punish members and leaders of P-9 for exercising their right to strike."

The Austin Emergency Appeal is a defense committee set up in cooperation with former officers of Local P-9 to collect and disburse funds in defense of the 18. Heading up the committee is Father Edward Flahavan, pastor of St. Stevens Catholic Church. Burke and Peter Rachlesf, professor of history at McAllister College in St. Paul, are the committee's cotreasurers.

Endorsers of the committee include Marty Zinns, president of the Minnesota National Education Association; Willis Croonquist, president of the Minnesota United Transportation Union; David Soul, actor; Ed Mann; Eugene McCarthy; Pete Seeger; Victor Reuther; Studs Terkel; Richard Ven-Venisti, a former Watergate prosecutor; Tilly Olsen, feminist writer;

Well Do Vow:

UAW LOCAL Ve Dont Sland Soclalist Action/Baer