Socialist Action (US)

The monthly paper of Socialist Action, San Francisco, 1983–2010

'Reading, writing, and finking'

Socialist Action, Vol. 4, No. 10, October 1986 · scan p. 2 · about 956 words

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By WEINSTEIN The school curriculum has now been expanded by California State Superintendent of Public Educa -tion William Honig to include "finking." It will not be long before "spelling-bees" will be replaced by "finking-bees" in our public schools.

Instead of competing on the spelling of a word, children will be urged to vie with each other over who can reveal the most about the personal habits of their parents. What do their parents drink? How much? What do they smoke? How often? What pills do they take? And most important, can they sneak a sample to their teacher?

Honig and Attorney General John Van de Kamp recently spoke at a San Francisco high school, where they approved of the recent incidents of youngsters turning in their parents to the police for alleged drug abuse. "I think it's a sign of success," Honig said. "That means they've found something wrong."

Van de Kamp declared with oily hypocrisy, "The thrust of this program is not to raise a generation of snitches, it is to get kids to deal with their own problems and when they see danger at home-danger to them β€”to be able to take the necessary steps." SUCH CONCERN! AND THOSE AKE JUST THE DEMOCRATS This same program was highly successful in Germany from 1933 until 1945. Hitler's youth became experts at turning in their parents to the police. This played hell with the "sanctity of the family," but it sure curbed criticism of the Nazi regime.

Reagan's phony "war"

California politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, are rushing to enlist in Reagan's phony "war on drugs." Throwing caution to the winds, both parties are passing congressional antidrug bills that would trash the Bill of Rights and the Consti -tution.

The Democratic Partycontrolled House of Represent - OT# 1, THIS DRUG-ABUSIN WRETCH AS HANDY POLITICAL ISSUE... atives just voted to impose the federal death penalty on people selling illegal drugs who cause someone's death. They also voted to require the president to send military forces to U.S. borders to stop drug smuggling. The troops would be given power to make arrests.

Most Most ominous, it would permit the use of improperly obtained evidence seized in warrantless searches.

One would hope that the Pentagon or the CIA would immediately disarm the contras in Nicaragua since even Reagan has admitted that they were caught smuggling and selling drugs. But I am willing to bet my life that that won't happen.

The real meat and potatoes of this phony "war" is aimed at the working class-the real victims of drugs. Widespread testing of workers will mean wholesale firings of workers in violation of their civil rights. All experts agree that the "drug tests" are extremely unreliable.

Drug testing has become big business, and if drug testing was expanded to include the annual testing of the 100 million Americans in the work force, experts calculate that the costs would reach several billion dollars.

"In the climate where there's money to be made, inevitably JAIL IM AND BASH IM AND KILL 'IM!

FRY TH THE FIRING BUGGER! SQUAT THE LASH! THE LASH AND THEN HANG IM THEN SHOoT 'MI there will be incompetent and inadequately staffed laboratories," said Dr. Bryan S. Finkle, a leading toxicologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Workers who are forced to undergo drug tests will have their lives in the hands of "incompetent and inadequately" staffed laboratories who are in it for the big bucks.

Socialists are well acquainted with capitalist "justice." The FBI, CIA, and Red Squads selectively enforce anti-drug laws against organizations that advocate radical social change. Members of these groups are rigorously prosecuted.

And you can bet your life that the government will selectively enforce its anti-drug policy against militant trade unionists. Huge corporations such as rail, airlines, trucking, and nuclear energy are cutting the workforce in utter disregard of safety in their greedy grasp for higher profits. There will be more Three Mile Islands and more airline and railroad disasters that the corporate empires will blame on drugs to avoid their responsibility to pay death and injury claims.

Widespread drug use is a result of an economic system which puts profits before the needs of people. Drugs should be decriminalized to remove the current incentive for drug pushers to get people-particularly kids hooked.

When there is no superprofit to be made from drugs, then the drug pushers and dealers will wither away. Instead of making criminals out of drug-victims, we should change this economic system so that every individual is treated with decency and justice. Only a socialist society can accomplish that.

up with a dinner and rally on Saturday evening, Nov. 1. If you would like more information or want to help build the Weinstein campaign, please call (415) 8210458.

Action Closing date: Sept. 26, 1986 Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editor: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Staff: Paul Colvin, Suzanne Forsyth, May May Gong, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Joe Ryan, Carole Seligman, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Business Manager: DON MAHONEY Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $6 per year by Socialist Action Publishing Association, 3435 Army St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

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Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent the views of So -cialist Action. These are expressed in editorials.

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WHAT AM 'BID? HANG 'IM! HANG IM AND SHOOT

← Contents of Vol. 4, No. 10, October 1986

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