Washington scandals fuel massive antiwar protests

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1500 rally in San Francisco on May 4 to protest U.S.-contra war which death of U.S. engineer Ben Linder on April 28. The contras shot Lind By FINAMORE Over 130,000 people in Washington, D.C., and 80,000 in San Francisco marched on April 25 in nationally coordinated actions reminiscent of the anti-Vietnam War movement.

It was the largest turnout in the streets of San Francisco since those powerful days of protest nearly 20 years ago. And it was only the steady downpour of rain, the driving wind, and the 42-degree temperature pp.

which kept the size of the Washington, D.C., action from mushrooming upwards.

The large size and youthful composition of the demonstrations is a sign of the times.

A new generation of young people is becoming radicalized. This was first demonstrated in a large way two years ago, when tens of thousands of students staged sit-ins across the country to protest their universities' investments in South Africa.

Anti-government sentiment has grown markedly in recent months due to the increasing number of scandals on Wall Street and in the White House. The biggest "honchos" in the loftiest board rooms of the U.S. financial and political circles have been exposed as criminals.

Wall Street brokers have been arrested and handcuffed for selling secrets-and cocaine. Leading government officials have resigned or been fired in an attempt to cover up secret and illegal funding of the contras.

The need to mobilize was further highlighted when newspapers across the United States reported the April 23 South African police attacks against striking Black railway workers. At least six workers were killed and 16,000 fired.

The April 25 demonstrations were, therefore, able to attract thousands of people who were marching for the first time in their lives. And many of these firsttimers were trade unionists.

This was even before President Reagan admitted that he had lied to the American people about the contra affair; something he now attempts to justify with the arrogant claim that he is "above the law."

Red-baiting attacks

The significance of these protests was not lost on the right-wing media, which launched numerous red-baiting attacks on the demonstrations.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick, for example, claimed in the Los Angeles Times that the demonstrations were "communist-inspired." She wrote: "The mobilization [is] a (continued on page 3)

The South African government has ordered an increased clampdown on Black trade unions and political organizations. Government officials announced that the year-old state of emergency, under which some 30,000 people have been jailed without charges, will be extended and tightened.

President P.W. Botha has tried to justify the government's show of force by raising the specter of "communist influence" in the Black freedom struggle.

Following the large vote for the ruling National Party in the whites-only parlia -mentary election on May 6, Botha declared that the government had been given "a very clear mandate on the question of security."

The election results had not yet been fully counted when police stormed the headquarters of several Black trade unions. The entire negotiating team of the striking workers on the state railways in the Johannesburg region was arrested. The general secretary of the Municipal Workers Union of South Africa was detained in Durban.

AND MINE MURDERED BY LISA Poly IAN ONTRAS INo.. was responsible for the er at point-blank range.

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Unionists say "no" to red-baiting, See. 4-5.

South African police storm Black unions

MURDERED Socialist Action/Joe Ryan