Walesa beats his drum

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"GOOD LUCK, LECH. ASK HIM ABOUT INVESTMENT IN HIS OWN FOLKS, WHILE AT IT.

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.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Socialist Action, 3435 Army RATES: For one year (12 issues)—U.S. 2nd Class: $8, 1st Class: $12; Canada and Mexico 2nd Class: $12, 1st Class: $15; All other countries 2nd Class: $15, Ist Class: $30. (Canada money orders or checks should be in he dangled before them the magic word "profits."

The heart of the new Polish reforms, Walesa told the Americans, is the reprivatization of the huge Lenin shipyard in Gdansk. It will become "the model for other industries," he said—a joint venture between American and Polish entrepreneurs.

A few capitalists have already taken the plunge. One of them is Barbara Piasecka Johnson. A fierce anti-Communist, Johnson inherited most of the Johnson and Johnson pharmaceutical fortune and is worth about $300 million. Converted to Polish zlotys on the black market, Johnson's wealth would make her a multi-trillionaire.

The Polish-born Johnson has now become Lech Walesa's intimate friend and financial "angel." Last May, while walking with Walesa during the annual Corpus Christi procession in Gdansk, Johnson suddenly offered to buy a large chunk of the Lenin shipyard.

To hear The New York Times tell it, the shipyard workers "sing the praises" of their new American boss. Photos of Johnson are sold at the souvenir stand outside the plant gate. Solidarity officials kiss her hand as she steps from her limousine. But there are rumblings of discontent. A recent headline in Solidarity's daily newspaper warned: "Pani [Lady] Johnson doesn't like strikes."

Another Polish capitalist, Jersy Piskorz-Nalecki, who leased the shipyard next door to Johnson's, ASKHIM ABOUY THE THOUSAND POINTS OF LGAT has also threatened: "We will the unions out of the yards."

The bosses know that it's only a matter of time before austerity measures (layoffs, speedup, and higher prices) cause a new wave of strikes. Before that happens, they're hoping that the Walesa leadership can rein in the ranks of Solidarity.

At the same time, Walesa's "angels" in Washington, D.C., (and Bonn, Paris, and London) stress that more aid is contingent on the amount of economic concessions they receive from the Poles. They won't be satisfied, of course, until capitalism is fully restored in Poland, and Solidarity is completely hogtied by the type of sellout leadership that American unions have.

For the time being, the capitalists are willing to toss a few coins in Walesa's direction while parading him around Washington like the greatest hero since Santa Claus. AcTion Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Business Manager: KATHY SANDS St., No. 308, San Francisco, 'CA 94110.

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CLOSING DATE:

NOV. 21, 1989 represent

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Operation Rescue praying in graveyard during Nov. 12 pro-choice demonstration. NOW's 'no arrest' policy will only embolden anti-women movement.

By JONI JACOBS Washington, D.C., saw more than its share of anti-choice terrorism last month when Operation Rescue (OR) attacked family-planning clinics on two separate weekends.

Two hundred and twelve members of OR were arrested on Nov. 1l for blockading the doors of the Hillerest Women's Surgi-Center. The "rescue" was billed as part of a week-long "Veterans' Campaign for Life." Most of those. arrested were dressed in battle fatigues or full military dress.

They were countered by more than 1000 pro-choice activists, many of whom had arrived early for the Nov. 12 pro-choice rally. The National Organization for Women (NOW) made a big effort to get activists to come early-and it paid off. Close to 150 activists came from Boston alone; they were joined by pro-choice activists from as far away as Michigan, Florida, and California.

Unfortunately, out-of-state pro-choice activists were not on hand to counter a stronger attack by OR on Nov. 17. More than 700 OR members were arrested at three separate clinics. Because the hit came during normal working hours, even Washington-area activists were not able to fully protect the clinics.

Police favored Operation Rescue The Nov. 11 hit was politically significant because of the blatantly pro-OR intervention of the Washington police department and because of a "no arrest" policy introduced by leaders of NOW.

Despite new court injunctions prohibiting OR from interfering with access to familyplanning clinics, police allowed OR to blockade the clinic doors by removing pro-choice activists who were protecting the door. The pro-choice activists arrived at the clinic at 5 a.m. and secured the doors under an agreement with the clinic director.

Outrageously, police arrived at the clinic ahead of OR and threatened to arrest the pro-choice activists unless they moved away from the doors. When the pro-choice activists complied, OR members moved in and shut down the clinic. Arrests started shortly afterward, but the clinic was closed for more than three hours.

"Instead of setting up a police line and then asking us to move, police let Operation Rescue take over the door," said NOW's Executive Vice President Patricia Ireland in an interview with The Washington Post on Nov. 12. "The only reason that clinic closed was because the police moved us out," she said.

NOW's "no-arrest" policy Perhaps more significantly, evidence of a new—and dangerous—policy of not arresting OR came out on Nov. 11. NOW monitors hushed the pro-choice crowd from cheering the arrests of the OR blockaders, saying that the cheers were "pissing off" the police. They stopped chants of "Read 'em their rights and take 'em away."

At a clinic-defense strategy meeting held on Nov. 13, Patricia Ireland outlined a recently developed "no arrest" policy. If pro-choice activists are able to keep the clinic open and Catherine Smith/Impact Visuals escort patients inside, NOW will not ask the police to arrest the illegal blockaders. If the clinic cannot be kept open, NOW will ask for a "limited arrests" policy. That is, the police will arrest only those necessary to gain access to the clinic.

The "no arrest" policy is supposedly designed to limit the media attention OR receives for their clinic blockades. Ireland also says that arresting OR actually delays the opening of the clinic since the police take hours to cite and arrest each blockader.

The goal of the pro-choice movement should be to mobilize enough people in front of the clinics to stop OR and keep the clinic open. But too often, pro-choice forces do not sufficiently outnumber OR to keep the clinic open. Police response in these situations is usually biased towards OR [see the article by Carole Seligman in the November Socialist Action, page 3].

It is unwise for the movement to rely on the police to guarantee us access to our rights. But it's wrong not to demand that the police do their jobs and enforce the laws that prohibit OR from blockading clinic doors.

Many anti-choice people don't join OR's blockades because they don't want to be arrested. If the pro-choice movement stops demanding the arrests of illegal clinic blockaders, it can only expect more blockaders. Pro-choice activists, who stand for hours at a time, will become demoralized as OR blockades the clinic with impunity.

Not arresting OR will not stop them from receiving media attention. Clinic blockades become media spectacles long before the arrests start. The media has even covered blockades at clinics which weren't scheduled to operate when OR attacked-and when no arrests were made.

Pro-Democratic Party

The worst aspect of the "no arrests" policy is that it alleviates the mayors and city councils-which are mostly Democratic Party politicians-from taking responsibility for enforcing the law. This ties in directly with NOW's focus on electing pro-choice (mainly Democratic) politicians to secure our right to safe, legal abortion.

For example, Marion Barry, the mayor of Washington, D.C., is in the most liberal wing of the Democratic Party-the wing that supports Jesse Jackson. Not only has he done nothing to protect the family-planning clinics in D.C., it was his police department that moved out pro-choice activists so OR could blockade the clinic.

The bias of the police-and the hypocrisy of Democratic Party politicians—should be exposed, not catered to.

Some NOW chapters have rejected National NOW's misguided "no arrest" policy. In San Francisco, for example, the Reproductive Rights Task Force voted overwhelmingly not to use the "no arrest" policy. It also has started a campaign to put more-not less— pressure on Bay Area city councils and mayors to order the local police departments to keep our clinics open.

campus. In the weeks leading up to Nov. 12,

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1989 By Schi