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Socialist Action is holding its third organized on all of the questions to be Bay Area. The convention will begin on 50 years of Fourth International Aug. 7 This year marks the 50th anniversary of The national convention is the highest the Fourth International, the world movedecision-making body of Socialist Action. ment for socialism founded by Leon Delegates from around the country, together Trotsky in 1938. To celebrate this with international guests, meet and discuss anniversary, Socialist Action is holding a all aspects of the class struggle and issues Tally on Saturday, Aug. 6. [See centerfold.] facing working people in the United States Many of the rally speakers will be The tasks and perspectives of socialists and workshops are being organized to give in this country will flow from these these revolutionaries ample time to share discussions, and the basic orientation of our their insights and ideas with Socialist party for the next period will be determined Action members and sympathizers.

The convention is preceded by three supporters and friends will be invited by months of written and oral discussion our branches. Socialist Action readers involving all Socialist Action members. interested in attending the convention Socialist Action branches elect delegations should contact the nearest branch for more On June 23, a Federal Distict judge in Miami dismissed a landmark suit filed in 1986 by the Christic Institute against key figures who later surfaced in the Contragate scandal. The judge's decision will be appealed, according to Christic Institute general counsel Daniel Sheehan.

Emergency demonstrations called by the Christic Institute and its supporters were held in over 50 cities and towns throughout America to protest this transparent attempt to keep incriminating evidence against U.S. government abuses out of the news during the elections.

The government clearly has reason to be worried.

The Christic Institute, a public-advocacy law firm, has spent $3 million on the case and has conducted about 75 depositions. There was a list of 2000 potential witnesses.

The plaintiffs in the suit are two U.S. journalists, Martha Honey and Tony Avirgan. These reporters conducted original research into illegal U.S. government funding of the contra operations after Avirgan was severely injured in a suspected CIA bombing on May 30, 1984. Avirgan was covering a press conference of contra leader Eden Pastora in La Penca, Costa Rica.

The lawsuit charges 29 defendants with criminal conspiracy (including the La Penca bombing), drug and arms trafficking, violations of the U.S. Neutrality Law, and other crimes. Among the defendants mentioned in the suit are many who later became implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal.

These include Lt. Col. Oliver North's assistant Robert Owen; retired generals Richard Secord and John Singlaub; bus*Throughout the trial there were numerous bomb and death threats against the plaintifts...' inessman Albert Hakim; and John Hull, the notorious CIA agent who operates a contra training camp on his farm in Costa Rica.

Original investigative report It was Hull who filed a 1985 suit in the Costa Rican courts charging Honey and Avirgan with "injuries, falsehood and defamation of character" after they wrote a report exposing him as a CIA agent. The report had been commissioned by three U.S.-based press organizations.

According to Honey and Avirgan, "Hull works for the CIA and receives money from the U.S. National Security Council; ... he was instrumental in integrating...a group of Miami Cubans into contra leader Eden Pastora's ranks; ... he was involved in the La Penca bombing and a subsequent plot to kill Pastora; and ... he had been under investigation in connection with drug trafficking operations.

Honey and Avirgan also wrote that "Hull was involved in a 1985 plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy and kill the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica and blame these actions on the Sandinistas, thereby providing a rationale for direct U.S. intervention against Nicaragua."

Throughout the trial, there were numerous bomb and death threats against the defendants and their witnesses. However, much to Hull's surprise, Honey and Avirgan were cleared of all charges in 1986. And the Costa Rican Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision.

Christic Institute suit

A week after this ordeal was over, Honey and Avirgan initiated their suit in Miami through the Christic Institute. Since then, hundreds of political meetings and media interviews have been organized by supporters.

Millions of people have learned the truth about the U.S. government's secret operations to subvert the majority interests of the American people. The original brief The truth hind This book contains the facts of the most audacious legal action ever undertaken: the Christic Institute lawsuit against the U.S. government's 'Secret Team.' 'Assault on Nicaragua' includes an introduction by editor Rod Holt; speeches by Daniel Sheehan, general counsel of the Christic Institute, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega; as well as an essay by Socialist Action National Secretaries Jeff Mackler and Nat Weinstein on the meaning of the revela tions for the antiwar movement. filed by Daniel Sheehan documented the existence of a "secret team" collaborating at By ADAM WOOD national convention in the San Francisco decided Thursday, Aug. 4, and last through Sunday, and around the world.

by the convention.

based on agreement with the different views information, the highest levels of the U.S. government.

This secret arm of the U.S. ruling class was directly involved in efforts to assassinate and overthrow leaders and governments whose policies the U.S. government opposed. For example, the Christic Institute brief exposed the role of U.S. government officials in the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile, the organization of the Shah of Iran's death squads, and a decade-long effort to murder Fidel Castro.

As a result, there have been persistent government efforts to discredit the suit. Most of the defendants complain about having their "activities" so, closely scrutinized. They claim that their "rights" to kill, sell drugs, and operate behind the backs of the American people have been violated.

For example, Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, the right-wing super patriot who organized secret and illegal aid to the contras, recently lashed out against the suit as an act of "legal terrorism."

But none of these ploys, nor the lower court's dismissal of the suit itself, can erase the illuminating facts of the case. We owe Honey, Avirgan, Sheehan, and the Christic Institute our continuted support as they go through this latest episode of government disruption. put forward during these discussions. The most democratic discussion possible is present throughout the national convention, In addition to Socialist Action members,

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Socialist Action calls third national convention

The Untold Story of the U.S. 'Secret War' Speeches by Daniel Sheehan Daniel Ortega