Socialist Action (US)

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

Stop the Bombing El Salvador

Socialist Action, Vol. 5, No. 2, February 1987 · scan pp. 6–7 · about 1,876 words

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• Providing massive economic and military aid to a government in El Salvador that is Workers of America; Bernard Butsavage, President, International Molders and Allied Workers Union;

William H. Bywater, President, International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Technical, Salaried and bombing its own people, repressing the church and human rights workers, and protecting Machine Workers; Kenneth Blaylock, President, American Federation of Government Employees;

Cesar Chavez, President, United Farm Workers of America; Mary H. Futrell, President, National • Transforming impoverished Honduras into a gigantic military base for use by U.S., Education Association; James Herman, President, International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union; Dolores Huerta, Vice President, United Farm Workers; Georgianna Johnson, President, Hospital and Health Care Workers, District 1199; Keith W. Johnson, President, International Woodworkers of • Granting military aid to the Guatemalan army that is responsible for widespread America; James M. Kane, President, United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America; David massacres, the use of strategic hamlets for population control, and the highest rate of Livingston, President, District 65, UAW; Frank Martino, President, International Chemical Workers Union; Gerald McEntee, President, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees;

• Rejecting opportunities to end the conflicts through political settlements providing Joseph Misbrener, President, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers; Henry Nicholas, President, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees; James J. Norton, President, Graphic Communications International Union; Charles A. Perlik, President, Newspaper Guild; Cleveland Robinson, Secretary Treasurer, District 65, UAW; Jacob Sheinkman, Secretary Treasurer, Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union; John Sweeney, President, Service Employees International Union; William Wynn, President, United Food and Commercial Workers; William Winpisinger, President, International • Continuing to support the South African apartheid government through a sanctions Sr. Louise Ahrens, M.M., President Maryknoll Sisters; Sr. Helen Amos, R.S.M., President, Sisters of policy that contains major loopholes that among other things allow U.S. companies to Mercy of the Union; The Rev. James E. Andrews, Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church (USA); Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Agana, Guam; Sr. Kaye Ashe, O.P., Prioress • Persisting in intelligence cooperation with South Africa's military and security forces Committee; Rabbi Balfour Brickner, Stephen Wise Free Sinagogue, N.Y.C.; The Rev. Ari R. Brouwer, General, Sinsinawa Dominicans; Asia Bennett, Executive Secretary, American Friends Service even as those forces repress and torture people, including church, trade union, United General Secretary, the National Council of Churches; The Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning, Presiding Bishop The Episcopal Church; Sister Margaret Cafferty PBVM, Congressional Superior, Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Rev. Ben Chavis, Executive Director, Commission for Racial Justice; Bishop C.D. Coleman, Senior Bishop, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop Philip Cousin, Eleventh District African Methodist Episcopal Church and President, The National Council of Churches; Bishop James R. Crumley, Jr., Lutheran Church in America; Bishop Paul A. Duffey, The United Methodist Church; Bishop Nicholas D'Antonio, Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans; Rev.

Walter E. Fauntroy, Representative, U.S. Congress; Sr. Helen Flaherty, S.C., President, Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati; Sr. Helen Maher Garvey, BVM, President, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit; Sr. Joyce Hoben, Provincial Moderator, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (Ohio Province); Bishop J. Clinton Hoggard, Fourth Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; Bishop William A. Hughes, Catholic Diocese of Covington, Kentucky; The Rev. John O. Humbert, General Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Bishop Joseph L. Imesch, Catholic Diocese of Joliet, Illinois; Rev. Jesse These policies are morally wrong. They violate fundamental rights to self- Jackson, President, The Rainbow Coalition; Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, President, Southern Christian determination, liberty, and justice. They betray our own democratic ideals. They risk Leadership Conference; Bishop Raymond A. Lucker, Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota; The deeper U.S. involvement in bloody and costly foreign wars while the needs of our Malloy, Jr., General Secretary, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.; Bishop Dale unemployed, homeless, farmers, and children go unmet. They reflect a militarization of Church of the Brethren; Bishop P. Francis Murphy, Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore; Maureen McCormack, S.L., President, Loretto Community; Bishop James P. Niedergeses, Catholic Diocese of These policies must be changed! But these policies will be changed only if Nasince ST. Katie po, S.P. resident, Sisters or invide ce The Brayed resides.

United Church of Christ; Bishop Kenneth J. Povish, Catholic Diocese of Lansing, Michigan; Sr. Carol Quigley, IHM, President, Leadership Conference of Women Religious; The Rev. Graham H. Rights, President, Provincial Elders' Conference, Moravian Church Southern Province; Archbishop Mar Athanasius Y. Samuel, Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch; Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Rabbi Alexander Schindler, President of Union of Hebrew Congregations; Sr. Julie Sheatzley, CSJ, President of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medalle; The Rev J. Shotwell, Executive Director, International Council of Community Churches; The Rev. Gordon L.

Sommers, President, Provincial Elders' Conference, Moravian Church Norther Province; Bishop Walter Sullivan, Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Virginia; Rev. C.T. Vivian, Chairman, Center For Democratic Renewal; Dr. Doris Anne Younger, General Director, Church Women United.

6 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1987 ...Coalition (continued from page Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice will take place in San Francisco on April 25. [See accompanying story.] The call for the Washington, D.C., demonstration for Justice and Peace in Central America and Southern Africa was issued in late January by 24 international neighbors by refusing and by cutting off aid of Namibia. by providing covert South our policyTogether. union presidents and 50 religious leaders.

The breadth of the initial list of sponsors of the April 25 Washington, D.C., march and rally is unprecedented. [See call and sponsors on page 7.] Never in U.S. history-not even at the height of the Vietnam War-have so many top labor officials come out in opposition to the interventionist policies of the U.S. government. And never have so many top religious leaders-from all denominations —joined in a call with the labor movement Sunday, April 26; 1987 Interfaith Workshop Service and Training in Non-Violence National Labor leaders: (in alphabetical order) Association of Machinists.

Religious leaders: (in alphabetical order)

to demand an end U.S. foreign aggression.

This national call shows the potential for building a powerful mass action on April 25. It also shows the possibility for building new and broader local antiwar coalitions with the direct participation of the labor and religious movements in the coalitions' leadership bodies.

The national coalition can be contacted c/o Coalition for a New Foreign Policy, 712 G St. SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. • Saturday, April 25, 1987 March and Rally Monday, April 27, 1987 An Event in Which Some Will Engage in Non-violent Civil Disobedience call sponsors: , General Secretary

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(continued from page 1: “[Mass protests demand: "Stop racist attacks" Above: Howard…]”) ..protests hit racist attacks to public demands, on Jan. 13, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo announced the appoint -ment of a special prosecutor in the case.

But Howard Beach is not an isolated occurrence. In a nearby community on Dec. 19, two Latino youths, Rafael Gonzalez and George Torres, were beaten by racists and then abused by the police. A coalition of Hispanic groups is demanding a special prosecutor in this case as well.

Ku Klux Klan attacks Protestors have raised the cry, "Howard Beach is America." Last year, Black and interracial families had their homes vandalized or firebombed in several cities In North Carolina alone, there were at least 60 marches sponsored by the Ku Klux Klan in 1986.

Last month, a "walk for brotherhood" to commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. was attacked by the Klan and its supporters in Forsyth County, Ga., an all-white county north of Atlanta. The jeering Klan members threw rocks, bottles, and mud at the marchers.

"Go home nigger!" the racists shouted. Meanwhile, white-supremacist attorney J.B. Stoner passed out material describing AIDS as a Black disease plaguing America.

Forsyth County's sheriff, Wesley C. Wallraven Jr., claims that he was "unprepared" for the attack. But Wallraven had disregarded earlier threats of violence that the racists made against the civil-rights marchers.

Ku Klux Klan leaders "want to exercise their rights too," Wallraven blithely assured reporters prior to the attack. "They're discussing having their own little rally."

Atlanta city-council member Hosea Williams, a former aide to the Rev. King, remarked, "It is amazing that this kind of racial violence can happen in this country in 1987. This is as bad as it is in South Africa."

On Jan. 24, over 25,000 people took part in a second Forsyth County Freedom March. "We're going back to set the record straight, " Hosea Williams announced. Four thousand other civil-rights marchers were left stranded in Atlanta for lack of buses to the rally site.

Rallies for Rev. King Outrage against the the Howard Beach participation last m events planned to con of Martin Luther King Forsyth County and attacks swelled onth in numerous imemorate the work Jr. On Jan. 19, over 10,000 rallied in San Francisco 10,000 people joined Francisco.

On the same day, 15,00 for a rally in dear:

Socialist Action/Joe Ryan MLK Day.

State Capitol in Phoenix, Ariz., demanding the recall of Gov. Evan Meacham-who cancelled the state's Martin Luther King supported Koch? Instead, it identifies the Day one week after taking office.

President Reagan, for his part, chose to "honor" Dr. King in a televised address from the White House. The president urged an audience of high-school students to be "intolerant of racism anywhere around you."

What hypocrisy for the official who is urging a reduction of funds for schools and student scholarships to lecture students about racism! These policies are forcing many Black high schoolers to drop out of school or forego a college education.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson told a New York City audience gathered for the Rev. King's birthday that the Howard Beach attack reflected a "national malady" caused by the Reagan administration's economic policies. Both Blacks and whites, Jackson pointed out, are forced to share a declining number of jobs and social services.

"It is almost a setup to pit working-class whites against poor Blacks when both are two sides of a devalued economic coin,' Jackson said.

Jackson is right, of course, in pointing out that the policies of the current administration have given a field day to the racists. But the government's open attacks on working people-and on Blacks in particular—are bipartisan.

Today, the U.S. capitalists have embarked on an open assault on the standard of living of the American working class. They have done this to regain the competitive edge they have lost on the world market and to shore up their flagging rates of profit.

The U.S. ruling class counts on the twin parties of capitalismthe Democratic and Republican parties-to pass austerity measures against working people-parti -cularly against Blacks, Latinos, and women. Unemployment, poverty, and homelessness, which result from these bipartisan attacks, have hit the most oppressed sectors of the working class the hardest.

An effective movement against racism must therefore remain independent of the Democratic Party.

Continued mass mobilizations of the Black community and its supporters will demonstrate to the White House and government authorities around the country that "America will not be Howard Beach!"

to offer goods and armaments to the South

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CALL FOR APRIL 25 NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION An Appeal to the People of the United States

← Contents of Vol. 5, No. 2, February 1987

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