'Oh, little town of Bethlehem...'

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The words go something like this: "Oh, little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie. But Bethlehem, like the rest of old Palestine, is anything but peaceful right now. It is more like the Old Testament story of David and Goliath.

You remember how a Hebrew boy, David, slew the giant Goliath with his sling shot. This time, it is the Palestinians and other Arabs who are the Davids, and the Zionist government which is NEW YORK-On the Sunday before Christmas, as shoppers scurried through the rain, an army of homeless families and their supporters also descended onto Fifth Avenue.

Carrying signs declaring "Housing Is a Right," thousands of marchers called on the federal government to build affordable housing for low-income people. They also demanded that the city rehabilitate 100,000 city-owned apartments to house the homeless.

Instead, the city government has begun a well-publicized round-up of close to 500 homeless people who are supposedly mentally ill. By early December, at least 33 people were taken off the streets and confined to Bellevue Hospital. In most of these cases, the removal was against the will of the homeless person involved.

Norman Siegel of the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out on "Face the Nation" that the sweep has been aimed at the fashionable Upper East Side and Upper West Side while ignoring poor neighborhoods.

The case of Billie Boggs Most attention has been focused on Billie Boggs, also known as Joyce Brown, a 40acting out the role giant.

Crimes of monumental proportions are being committed by the Zionist state of Israel against the Arab people. In the two weeks before Christmas alone, 346 Arabs were wounded by gunfire from Israeli troops and 473 were injured in beatings.

Over 1000 have been detained by the Israeli state without a semblance of a trial. Most of those who have been wounded are children and teen-agers.

General strike

Outrage is so great that all Arabs have united behind the Palestinians being brutalized in the Gaza strip. A one-day strike against the Zionist state was extremely effective. Stores, businesses, and schools were closed in the Arab communities, and Arab workers refused to go to their jobs. The strength of the strike surprised even the Israeli parliament.

Within Israel's Jewish population, many students have protested the violence of the Israeli soldiers. Demonstrations of up to 3000 students have taken place universities.

The Zionist state has tried to crush the spirit of the Arab people ever since it robbed them of their land. Every dirty trick ever known to come out of inhuman minds has been used against the Palestinians and other Arabs: Their homes have been bulldozed, their families imprisoned and tortured without trial, and their land taken away and given over to "settlers."

They are faced by guns and tanks virtually everywhere they goincluding in their places of worship. They are forced to work at the lowest wages under sweatshop conditions. Their children are in constant danger, and many are forced to flee their land of birth to escape the Zionist wrath.

We are looking at a people who fight as do all those who have nothing to lose but their chains. Because everything good has been snatched from them, we see youngsters fighting tanks and guns with stones and sticks. What rage they must feel to face down a machine gun with a stone in their hands!

What witnessing is occurring throughout the world. And wherever racist, capitalist oppression prevails, the hand of U.S. imperialism can be seen.

Arms from the USA In South Africa, school-age African children are also being brutalized by the racist army of that country. Thousands of African children have been imprisoned and tortured with the material aid and silent approval of American imperialism.

In Nicaragua, young children are also being murdered by contras armed with guns and bullets paid for and delivered right to their viper's nests by the government of the United States.

And in Israel, U.S. military and economic aid in 1988 will amoun to over $3 billion dollars.

When I see television news pictures of Palestinian children facing the armed might of Israeli capitalism, I can't help but be reminded of the pictures I saw 30 years ago of little Black children in Selma, Ala., also marching for freedom. The courage of those children opened the eyes of the American people. The courage of the Palestinian children will open the world's eyes to the terrible crimes of the Zionists and their masters in the U.S. government.

It is the duty of all working people to support the struggle of the Palestinian people. Theirs is a just cause. Their fight is in the interest of all workers everywhere -including the real interests of the Israeli working class.

following could be a ridiculous joke: While the number of people without places to live is growing, newly built homes stand empty. The market is flooded with housing.

As we pointed out in previous issues of Socialist Action, there is a capitalist crisis of overproduction, which extends to housing. Under capitalism, housing-like any other commodity-is produced not to meet human needs but to be sold (or rented) for profit.

At the time of last month's protest march for housing in New York City, WBAI radio commentator Paul Gorman pointed to the need "to develop a housing justice movement which resembles the civil-rights movement, the peace movement, and the women's movement."

Only an independent mass movement can pressure government authorities to begin to provide needed social services. Ultimately, however, a solution to the problems of housing and homelessness will require putting an end to capitalist rule and its inhuman profit system.

Closing date: Dec. 26, 1987 Closing date:

Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editor: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Staff: Paul Colvin, Suzanne Forsyth, May May Gong, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Joe Ryan, Kwame M.A. Somburu, 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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