Lynch mob is given the go-ahead

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Staff: Paul Colvin, May May Gong, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $8 per year Francisco, CA 94110. Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

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Socialist Action calendar Weekly Students for Socialist Action class series Derek Tyrus was only 17 years old when he met his death. On Oct 7, 1988, he was chased by a mob into the path of an oncoming car.

What had Derek Tyrus done to be pursued like a wild animal through the streets of Staten Island, New York City? Nothing. He simply happened to be Black, and to have had the misfortune of being in a Detroit Film: 'Labor's Turning Poin Tues., Feb. 7, 6:30 p.m.

Hilberry B at Student Ctr., Wayne State Univ.

Boston 'Report from El Salvador Slide show, speaker: Colleen SEIU Local 509, just returned Friday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m.

Cambridge YWCA, 7 Temple St., Cambridge Los Angeles 'Malcolm's Ideas for Today' Speaker: Kwame M.A. Somburu Friday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m. white neighborhood.

There used to be a word for such events. Lynching. An ugly word. Some 200 years since Capt.

William Lynch's vigilantes stalked the woodlands of Virginia and Pennsylvania, the captain's name still carries fear and disgust.

At the the turn of the century, a Black person was lynched every two days or so. Newspapers in the South advertised lynchings in advance. White spectators came on chartered trains to enjoy the spectacle. Lynching had become as "thrilling" a past-time (to some people) as following the play-byplay of the hometown nine.

The Aug. 14, 1911, Coatesville Record, published not far from "UpSouth" Philadelphia, Pa., reported that thousands came "from every direction" to watch the roasting to death of a man named Zachariah Walker: "Men stepped back as the women came forward and led them to points of vantage where they could obtain the best Los Angeles continued: L.A.

Franklin Hall, Rm. 101, 855 N.

San Francisco 'Malcolm X: His life and ideas' by Kwame M.A. Somburu, Doherty, from El Salvadc Student Union, S.F.S.U.

Film: 'Labor's Turning Point' March 8-10 Introduced by Jake Cooper, vete For more information on time and call (216) 429-2167. view of the burning Negro."

The protection of White Womanhood, of course, was the article of faith first on the lips of every member of the lynch mob. The mythology was created (and repeated in newsprint and the movie screen right up until this day) that most lynchings were in retaliation for raping white women. An eye for an eye—as the Bible says.

But lynching was much more commonly employed as a means of coercion for political and economic purposes. Blacks were lynched for trying to vote, getting education, owning their own land, marketing their own crops, earning too much money, and striking for higher wages.

At Palestine, Texas, 20 Black plantation workers were lynched in 1910 for protesting their wage of $1 a day, which was paid in scrip good only at the overpriced company store. When Black cotton pickers in Arkansas went on strike, mobs organized by the landlords City College, Vermont Fridays beginning Feb. 3, 12 noon, Rm. B-1 Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo Iran labor acti place, please AcTioN Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER JOE RYAN Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

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lynched 10 of their leaders. There are many similar examples.

Ancient history?

February is Black History Month. And some people think that lynching is very ancient history indeed. Nowadays, things are different! Or are they?

A cross is set ablaze in front of a Black home in Cleveland; a racist mob throws rocks at a Black family in Philadelphia; a young Black man is chased into the path of a speeding car in Howard Beach-and again in Staten Island.

Instead of white sheets, the mob leaders today often wear blue police uniforms and riot gear. A Black motorist in Long Beach gets his head beaten in—for a "traffic violation." A Black bus driver in San Francisco is clubbed and called "nigger"-because "he didn't move Closing date:

Jan. 29, 1989 Jan fast enough." A Black motorcyclist in Miami is shot—for who knows why?

And yet, to the racists, it makes sense. They've gotten the go-ahead signal from the people in power.

In his election campaign, George Bush repeatedly invoked the specter of "Willie Horton-paroled murderer." He clamored for a "mandatory death penalty for drug kingpins." He raised the alarm that "traditional family values" were under attack.

Such slogans play on the fears of the most backward and racist segments of the population. Translated, Bush's rhetoric means: "Those uppity Blacks (and Hispanics, women, gays, lesbians, immigrants, homeless, and so on) must be kept in their place!" The door has been opened a bit wider for the lynch mob.

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? SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1989 CTION end women's rights