Trade unionists honor Harry DeBoer

Scan page 16

and other strikers would intercept moving court convicted him and other Teamsters trucks driven by scabs and attempt to per- and members of the Socialist Workers suade the non-union drivers to join the Party on frame-up charges of conspiring picket lines. He was senously wounded to "overthrow" the U.S. government. He when police fired on the strikers on served 18 months in prison. "Bloody Friday, "killing two and wound- In 1982, Harry DeBoer was expelled ing 50, mostly in the back, He was from the Socialist Workers Party for havhospitalized for more than four months ing political differences with the After the union victory, he became a But Harry remained true to his socialist In 1941, however, DeBoer was black- at numerous meetings throughout the ST. PAUL, Minn.—Harry DeBoer, a veteran of the the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strikes and a longtime revolutionary socialist, was honored at a memorial meeting in Teamsters' Local 120 Hall on Feb. 16.

Over 150 people attended the two-hour event, as an impressive list of speakers took the podium to eulogize Harry's achievements. Some pointed out how the modern International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) was built by means of the militant class-struggle tactics introduced by Harry DeBoer and his Trotskyist comrades, who worked in the Minneapolis coal yards during the 1930s.

Harry was a solid supporter of the TDU (Teamsters for a Democratic Union). TDU activists organized the memorial meeting and acquired the use of the Teamsters Hall. They invited Teamsters leaders from the national and state levels to speak about Harry' contributions.

IBT President Ron Carey sent special greetings that were read at the meeting. Carey's message said, in part: "Harry DeBoer's contributions to the labor movement were many. His leadership and fighting stance helped move labor forward and improve the lives of the working men and women and their families that he loved so much. His strong voice and his dreams for democracy and reform are becoming WASHINGTON-The Teamsters union (IBT) inaugurated its new international leadership here on Feb. 1. The slate of reform candidates, headed by General President Ron Carey, had been elected by the membership last December in the first-ever direct election of top officers held by the union. But the inauguration was delayed by a last-minute sour-grapes legal appeal by defeated incumbent bureaucrats-which was rejected by the government.

The newly-elected officers invited all union members to attend the inauguration, which was held at the international union's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The mood was very upbeat, as officers and hundreds of rank-and-file members, including dissidents who had previously been barred from the Marble Palace, poured into the headquarters. Grinning, shaking hands, and hugging courageous brothers and sisters who had once been treated as pariahs by the Old Guard, they celebrated the rebirth of the IBT as a fighting instrument of the membership.

With new optimism, they talked of strikes that now could be won with the help of the international union. The New York White Rose strikers, for example, were out for a year facing scab herding by a hostile New Jersey IBT joint council.

JEFF MACKLER

Efforts to win the freedom of Marine Corps antiwar activist and Gulf War conscientious objector Tahan Jones were set back on Feb. 24. A motion by Jones' attorney, John Murcko, to dismiss the charges against his client "with prejudice" against the Marine Corps was rejected.

Instead, a two-day Camp LeJeune court martial against Jones ended when the presiding military judge dismissed the charges against Jones, but "without prejudice" against the Marine Corps, thus giving the military yet one more opportunity to press new charges against Jones and begin the legal proceedings all over again.

The Marine Coprs is making a mockery of federal speedy trial legislation. The fact that more than 120 days had passed between the time Jones was originally charged with desertion in time of war, and the date of his court martial proceeding, should have resulted in both the dismissal of the charges "with prejudice"

against the Marine Corps and Jones' freedom.

It is clear that the Marine Corps intentionally delayed Jones' court martial to maximize the time he spends at Camp LeJeune.

Jones' court martial revealed that the original May 16, 1991, death penalty-associated charge against him, "desertion in time of war," was used essentially to block his May 1991 San Francisco federal court effort to win dismissal from the Marine Corps, which was Harry DeBoer died on Jan. 1 at the age of 86. He had been ill for several years with Alzheimer's disease.

In February 1934, DeBoer was working in the Minneapolis coal yards when the workers went on strike. He became part of the leadership of the strike, and played a key role in the two truck drivers' strikes the took place later that year. In those strikes, under the militant leadership of Teamsters Local 544, thousands of workers organized mass marches and picket lines, demanding union recognition and higher pay. The 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike is considered to be one of the seminal labor struggles of the 1930s, when hundreds of thousands of workers organized industrial unions.

As a picket captain, DeBoer developed the tactic of "cruising picket squads." He with a leg wound full-time organizer for the Teamsters.

listed by Teamsters officials after a federal country. bureaucratic Jack Barnes-led leadership.

ideals and the labor movement, speaking and support for these causes."

If Ron Carey had not won the IBT presidency this year, it's doubtful that Harry DeBoer would have been honored by any Teamster leader. Harry's background as a militant trade unionist would have made them recoil. But having Harry honored in a Teamsters hall is a small victory that shows there are possiblities for deepgoing reforms in today's Teamsters union.

Some of the speakers took time to criticize the business-labor partnership that has forced American workers to accept disastrous concessionary contracts. The government's labor relations boards were also indicted as the enemies of workers. All the speakers praised the Teamsters organizing drives of the 1930s, in which Harry played a central role, as an example of how to build a powerful trade-union movement.

The memorial was a fine tribute to Harry DeBoer. It affirmed that Harry's struggle to build a democratic and powerful Teamsters union for the rank-and-file would be carried on by others.

Jack Maloney, a veteran of the 1934 strikes, was the only speaker who touched on Harry's grandest ideals. He pointed out that Harry thought workers should have their own party—a labor party. And Harry foresaw the day, he said, when the American working class would do away with the bosses and build a socialist society.

Harry DeBoer believed that American workers, in cooperation with the workers of other countries, would usher in a new age of genuine freedom and economic equality for all.