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Dear editor, "On strike!" These words were crudely written with a marking pen on a piece of paper approximately 12 inches by 24 inches. This is what greeted workers as they came to work on the afternoon shift at Brainard Strapping in Warren, Ohio.

Brainard Strapping is a division of Sharon Steel, whose profits were siphoned off to other companies by financier Victor Posner. The bankruptcy reorganization has not gone well. At Brainard, every day that the employees enter the plant, they are not sure if it will be their last day to work there.

There are only 135 production employees left. The workers are represented by United Steelworkers of America.

A day or two before the work stoppage, a plant guard on routine rounds found an opened cash box left on a desk. The guard called one of the supervisors. It seemed that nothing was missing.

The security guard called the police and filed a report. A day or two later, the guard was given a five-day suspension, with intent to discharge.

Now this is ironic, because the thieves at this company have been stealing from these workers in the form of concessions for over eight years—and now one of the workers is accused of being a thief!

Of course, the company said that the reason for the discharge was that the guard did not perform his job properly. When one of his fellow workers found out about this injustice, he made the sign I described above.

No one crossed that picketline for the duration of the strike. These workers have had enough lying, cheating, and stealing done to them. When the company threatened them with job loss and suits, it was like trying to threaten a condemned person.

It can become a problem for a company when their employees have nothing left to lose. Evidently, these workers recognized that they had more in common with one another than they do with the company.

Leonard Grbinick, Youngstown, Ohio Black party Dear editor, The article on the Chicago election which appeared in the May issue of Socialist Action correctly analyzed Tim Evans's "independent" campaign as a "limited tactical break" with the Democrats, with no perspective for building a truly independent movement.

I agree with the author on the need for mass action in the streets, but it's important to recognize that Evans's candidacy posed the question of an independent Black political party. Socialist Action should address itself to the same sentiment that Evans was trying to tap and raise the demand for such a party in the discussions following these past elections.

A truly independent Black party would base itself on the real struggles in the community and organize the fight for Black rights 365 days a year. It would also give political expression to these fights during elections.

This would be counterposed to Evans's and others' phony "independent" projects, which just show up around election time and disappear the day after the votes are counted.

By breaking with the Democrats, such a party would also be an example to the labor movement. Its existence would help raise the discussion of forming an independent labor party.

A.W.

San Francisco, Calif School club Dear editor, The Socialists of Redwood is a high-school club formed entirely by students in Marin County, Calif., interested in learning more about the ideas of socialism. After months of discussion, we have issued our first official statement to our student body and community. An abridged version is below:

"The Socialists of Redwood is a club that formed in December of 1988. We feel that the time is right to explain the underlying motivations that have caused this group to emerge. The primary concern of our group is the establishment of a fair and flexible political and economic system in which people have not only the right but the outlet to pursue their personal goals and to be sovereign as individuals.

"In order to achieve this, it is highly apparent that all people must be able to equally take part in governing and setting the goals of society to insure that one person's personal pursuits do not infringe on the basic rights of others. In a very general sense this is the idea we are committed to realizing.

"If our vision of the future existed in this country or anywhere else on the earth, then our club would not need to exist. Our country is plagued by countless political people may or may not wish to pursue, or in short, to make people aware of their alternatives.

"Although we have assumed the title 'Socialists of Redwood,' we have no affiliation with other socialist organizations, nor do we necessarily support the systems existing in other 'socialist' countries such as China, Sweden, Yugoslavia, or the USSR. We are not concerned with defending the actions of these governments or in FRESH ALASKAN "REGULAR OR UNLEADED?"