What Little Rock and Wichita have in common

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For forums, classes and other activities, contact the Socialist Actio The Justice Department's intervention in the Wichita, Kan., abortion rights dispute on the side of the rightist Operation Rescue is a case of "deja vu all over again."

In 1957, the same Justice Department sided with racist opponents of desegregation who were attempting to deny Black children entrance to Central High in Little Rock, Ark.

The Attorney General, then as now, said that a federal judge had no right to order state officials to abide by the U.S. Constitution. It was a matter of state jurisdiction, he explained.

Not surprisingly, this stance of the highest government body charged with enforcing the Constitution emboldened the rightist opponents of Black civil rights. It came three years after the U.S Supreme Court issued its famous Brown decision declaring segregation in public schools as unconstitutional.

Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus disagreed with the Court. He placed National Guardsmen in front of the school to keep Blacks out. His action was a direct challenge to the civil rights movement and the law of the land.

If Faubus won, the 1954 ruling would be worth less than the paper it was written on. But Federal District Judge Ronald Davies refused to bow to the racists. Like his 1991 counterpart, Judge Patrick Kelly, he was denounced and received death threats.

What happened? After about three weeks, President Eisenhower ordered federal troops to enforce the judge's order so the children could attend school. The racists were defeated, and the tide of the civil rights movement swept across the land.

"Followers of King?"

In 1991, rightist forces are attempting to deny women access to health clinics that perform abortions in Wichita. They are doing so with the complete sympathy of the government— city, state, and federal. They falsely claim they are continuing the tactics of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.

In truth, they are the direct descendents of the racist opponents of civil rights in the 1950s. They are opposed to civil rights.

In 1957, they railed against the 1954 ruling of the Supreme Court and all Constitutional laws that defended the rights of Blacks. Today, the rightists oppose the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion and the 1871 Civil Rights Act that makes it illegal for two or more people to conspire "for the purpose of depriving any person or class of persons" from exercising their Constitutional rights. This is the law that many clinics are using to force the government to protect the democratic rights of their clients.

In fact, anti-women rightists oppose all laws expanding the rights of the individual. Worse. Many openly favor killing a federal judge to "protect" an embryo! ("Don't worry about being excommunicated," one caller told Judge Kelly, a Catholic. "You are dead.")

President Bush, a strong opponent of legalized abortion and affirmative action, has reluctantly told the rightists not to break the law. The government, through Congress, executive orders, and the courts, has been very effective in weakening abortion rights since 1973. It doesn't need vigilante terror.

At the same time, its policies give protection to rightist forces who want to implement the anti-women, racist, and anti-working class objectives of the employing class. The Operation Rescue thugs simply try to go faster and further in implementing current policy. Thus, conflicts arise between a federal (anti-abortion) judge and the rightists.

Drive against workers So why did Eisenhower bring in Federal troops in 1957? In the 1950s, a massive civil rights movement existed. It began during World War II and never let up after the war. It was this powerful social movement led by Black working people that led to the legal rulings of the 1950s and the Civil Acts of the 1960s. The racist mobs had to be put under the rule of the new laws by the federal government for fear of more massive explosions against the rulers.

In 1991, there is no such mass civil rights or women's rights movement pressing on the employers and their government.

For the last 20 years, the government and employers have been on an unabated drive to lower the standard of living of working people, especially the most oppressed and super exploited, Blacks and women.

This anti-labor drive has been basically successful, with real wages down, union organization at its lowest level since the 1920s, and civil rights gains being steadily eroded. The attack on abortion rights is part and parcel of this overall offensive. Malik Miah President Bush, Congress, and the courts do not feel pressure from a galvanized labor movement or an independent Black or women's movement.

While the demonstration organized by the trade unions for Aug. 31, Solidarity Day II, is a step forward, its aim is simply to rally for so-called pro-labor Democrats and legislation—not to organize an independent labor party.

The National Organization for Women is organizing a mass Baltimore P.O. Box 16005 Baltimore, MD 21218 Boston P.O. Box 1046 GMF Boston, MA 02205 (617) 497-0230 Chicago P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657 (312) 327-5752 Cincinnati P.O. Box 27111 Cincinnati, OH 45227 (513) 272-2596 Cleveland P.O. Box 6151 Cleveland, OH 44101 (216) 429-2167 Detroit P.O. Box 1613 Detroit, Ml 48231 Kansas City P.O. Box 32543 Westport Station, Kansas City, MO 6411 For information aboul other areas, contact the national office of Socialist Action at (415)821-0458. branch in your area!

march in the spring. That's a good start to mobilize pro-democratic rights forces in defense of legalized abortion.

Organizing mass actions against reactionary government policies and in solidarity with striking unionists and others fighting back is key to isolating the rightists and protecting previously won gains.

In today's precarious economic reality, independent political action is decisive to moving forward.

Los Angeles P.O. Box 862014 Los Angeles, CA 90086 (213) 660-2891 Minneapolis P.O. Box 14087 Dinkeytown Station Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612) 430-1476 New York P.O. Box 20209 Ca. Fin. 693 Columbus Ave.

New York, N.Y. 10025 San Francisco 3435 Army St., Suite 308 San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 821-0458 vives the violence, degradation, and poverty they face on a daily basis.

In an important scene, Furious takes an opportunity to point out the hypocrisy and inhumanity of the system that produces these realities. He has driven his son and his friend to a billboard on the corner of a street that even they are afraid to walk on. The billboard shows a picture of a small house with a giant pile of dollar bills next to it. It reads, "Cash for your house!" Furious explains how the plan is designed to drive down the property values, buy up the land, and move the Blacks out of the neighborhood.

"How do you think crack comes here?" Furious asks a small crowd that has gathered to listen to someone who seems to be making sense for a change. "We don't own no ships. We don't own no planes!"

"Why is it that there's a gun shop on every corner in this part of town? I'll tell you why. Because they want us to kill each other off. What they couldn't do in slavery, they are making us do to ourselves."

To emphasize the nature of the violence and oppression the characters must endure in their lives, Singleton threads throughout the movie the sounds of gunfire, police sirens, and police helicopters—which seem to buzz incessantly. The police presence is everywhere, eagerly awaiting an opportunity to trap and punish, beat and jail.

The ghetto is portrayed as a giant rat trap. The economic structure of society is itself the jail walls. The schools serve as tiny doors that can only let out a few at a time while the rest are supposed to fight over the few scraps inside.

But the people inside the trap are complex-not all this and not all that-each one simply seeking a route of escape from the insanity of their circumstances. Each is struggling to recognize the "enemy" and overcome him.

I have not seen a film as intelligent and powerful as this in a long time. It stands head and shoulders above what Hollywood normally puts out. You will come away from this film a different person. Go see it!