Salvadoran UNTS 'fights for justice'

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Earlier this year, JoAnne Ross, a graduate student and split, and basically they have very little political Central America solidarity activist at Hunter University in legitimacy-although in name they are still the New York, traveled to El Salvador on a two-week government. The ARENA party won the municipal delegation hosted by the National Union of Salvadoran elections last spring, and since then death-squad murders are In an interview with Socialist Action reporter Brenda There is a group of extreme right-wing military officers, Bishop on Nov. 7, Ross spoke about her trip and about the Tandonas, who are increasingly advocating an all-out solution to the war, which has come to be known as the "total war" option. They are impatient with the current Socialist Action: What is your view of the current "low-intensity" counterinsurgency strategy and want to just go out and kill as many people as it takes to crush the JOAnne Ross: First of all, the Reagan-sponsored "democracy" has basically fallen apart. It never really was a The repression-the way the military is dealing with the popular demonstrations and marches—is getting worse.

President Duarte is dying, the Christian Democrats are S.A.: How have the Salvadoran people responded to On Oct. 28, Oscar Coover Jr., a 50-year veteran of the revolutionary socialist movement, died in Los Angeles of cancer. He was 68.

His father, Oscar Coover Sr., was a founder of the Trotskyist movement in the United States and helped lead support for the Teamsters union during the historic 1934 strikes in Minneapolis.

Oscar joined the Trotskyist movement in 1938. Soon afterwards, he became immersed in the struggle of unemployed youths. He became a leader of the Youth Section of the Unemployed Section of Teamster's During Oscar's lifetime, he became a seaman, a master carpenter, and an organizer of the Socialist Workers Party. He supervised and participated in the work of remodeling the new headquarters of the SWP in New York. He also supervised and participated in the reconstruction of the party headquarters in Los Angeles.

Oscar was a National Committee member of the SWP from 1961 to 1973. He resigned from the SWP in 1983, but remained a supporter Oscar's life expressed the confidence he had in the socialist future of the American working class. We pay tribute to Oscar Coover for living his life in harmony with his socialist convictions. Workers (UNTS).

recent developments in El Salvador.

situation in El Salvador?

democracy, but the facade has fallen apart.

Airlines

Dear editor, An agreement was signed in October between the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS, an airline jointly owned by state and private interests in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden) and the notorious Texas Air (parent of Continental Airlines), headed by unionbuster Frank Lorenzo.

By using Continental's facilities at Newark, N.J., SAS will obtain access to Continental's routes for its overseas passengers. SAS will also buy a 10-percent share of Texas Air. Its chairman, Jan Carlzon, will take a seat in Texas Air.

At a New York press conference, Carlzon said there was 100-percent backing among the SAS unions for the deal. But no sooner was this Local 544 in Minneapolis. of the party.

on the rise. resistance. of 10 peasants killed blatant lie told than Leif Christoffersen, chairman of the joint union committee in Denmark, stressed that the unions rejected it. A few days later, Transportworkers Local 46 in Sweden also adopted a resolution saying "no" to the deal.

Later, however, a section of Local 46 at Arlanda airport near Stockholm gave support to the deal. Why? One of the union leaders (a former Maoist) is one of the union's six representatives that sit by law on the SAS company board. He used his former reputation as a militant unionist to push forward the company's proposal in the name of "defending jobs."

Furthermore, the cabin attendants decided to support the deal while protesting the "mistreatment" of Eastern and Continental employees. The pilots union said no to the deal-and reminded everyone of the bitter strike by Continental pilots some years ago.

Although the SAS management has been successful in dividing the unions, one can see elements of a growing militancy among the workers-with firm roots in Denmark but spilling over to Sweden. In its resolution, Local 46 stresses the need for cooperation between the different unions in the airlines industry and especially with the ones at Eastern and Continental in the United States.

Lennart Andersson, Stockholm, Sweden Empty arms Dear editor, What's this business of sending me just five copies of Socialist Action to sell on campus? Do you realize it took a total of 15 minutes before my arms were empty of November's edition?

Although students at the university here are generally more conservative than I'm accustomed to, plenty are interested in finding out about socialism.

One student (after having bought was.

El Salvador today?

different sectors of Salvadoran society.

Disappeared What is the nature of their work?

support. were workers and students.

fired and sprayed tear gas on the crowd.

direction in no time. campus sales team can point to a new level of response.

The crowd that we drew at a sidewalk table on the edge of Los Angeles City College campus provoked the campus police to send four officers to enforce a rarely invoked ordinance.

We hadn't been there two hours, and had had sales of over $60 (mostly pamphlets of around $1 each), when the police appeared. We were then ordered to move across the street or be cited. We took the names and addresses of people who expressed interest in forming a campus group to sponsor socialist literature tables in the future.

Brad Wiedmaier, Los Angeles, Calif.

Recovery Dear editor, Activists in the movement against repression and war in Central American are going forward in the Toronto area following two years of decline in the movement.

When the Toronto Anti-Intervention Coalition (TAIC) was founded four years ago, it had up to 100 affiliated organizations and organized educational, cultural, and protest activities on a year-round basis.

But controversies over TAIC's mass-action orientation, the need to criticize Canadian complicity with U.S. intervention, and whether to adopt the policies of Central American liberation movements took a toll on coalition activists. The movement reached its lowest point following the signing of the Esquipulas 2 agreement by the five Central American presidents in 1987.

We are only now beginning to recover from the movement's demoralization. A demonstration of some 200 people in Toronto on Sept. 17 was a limited sign of the recovery.

A conference is scheduled for Nov. 25-26 in Toronto to reconstruct a representative coalition against intervention in Central America. The conference was initiated by TAIC and by individual solidarity activists.

Barry Weisleder, Toronto, Ontario

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Our readers speak out Oscar Coover Jr. dies of cancer