Repression continues in Honduras

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Friends and family of college student Joseph Ochoa protest murdered while accompanying U.S. journalist Carol Cabrera. 55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments at the level of union wages and We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and take steps to 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that matches the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A free, universal, public health-care 1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by workers’ committees. 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job discrimination; equal 2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, and reduce pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual orientation, skin color, or national mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused decline in value.

3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program to employ 8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transportation corpora­ all jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality tions and place them under the control of elected committees of workers. housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and renewable sources of power, 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY CONGRESS schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, forests, farmland, and open space. should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threat­ 4) Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq & Afghanistan! Close all ened by the crisis. These committees can draw up more concrete demands than the U.S. bases abroad! No money for the military — use funds instead for public works!

Convert the war industries to making products for people’s needs and to combat global 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed and exploited. For a 5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to Editor: Michael Schreiber International Editor: Gerry Foley Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. BOX 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. RATES: For one year (12 issues, 1st-class mail): U.S., Canada, Mexico — $20. All other countries — $30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars.

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2010 warming. Name City Phone he wave of repression has continued in Hon­ journalists alone reaching seven for the month of March. The most recent victims, radio journal­ ists Jose Bayardo and Manuel de Jesus Juarez, had been documenting human rights’ abuses since the coup that ousted democratically elected President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya in June of 2009.

Early in March an Organization of American States’ report was released that documented murder, torture, rape, and intimidation against anti-coup activists and their families.

“The commission observes with dismay that it appears that sons and daughters of leaders of the Resistance Front are being killed, kidnapped, at­ tacked and threatened as a strategy to silence the activists,” the report said.

Claudia Maritza Brizuela, the daughter of a union and community leader who opposed the coup, was killed in her home on Feb. 24 in front of her two children. Vanessa Zepeda Alonzo, a 29-yearold anti-coup activist, was kidnapped, murdered, and her body dumped from a car days later on Feb. 3. ran constitution.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has consistently been the murderous Honduran oligarchy’s biggest ally. Sec­ retary of State Hillary Clinton spent much of her five-day trip in Latin America in early March calling for more countries to officially recognize the government of Hon­ duras.

“We support the work that President Lobo is doing to promote national unity and strengthen democracy,” Clinton said at a news conference in Guatemala. But workers’ union. Porfirio Lobo Sosa was brought to power by an election held under a coup-installed “interim government,” in a vote in which abstention rates were high (the popu­ lar National Resistance Front had called for abstention rather than legitimizing the coup by participating).

The resistance is currently calling for non-binding ref­ A WORKERS’ ACTION PROGRAM TO FIGHT THE CRISIS implement the following demands — SOCIALIST ACTION. Closing news date: March 29, 2010 Address State Zip E-mail at the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, March 9. Ochoa was erendum in late June to display the popular support for forming a constituent assembly to rewrite the Hondu­ “We are going to work very hard for the next two and a half months to get to a poll next June 28, the date of the coup. We have not yet determined what form it will take, but we know that it will be an instrument that will not only serve to count the people who support the constituent assembly process, but also to further the process of uniting us, of mobilizing and organizing,” said Carlos H. Reyes, president of STIBYS, the beverage The perseverance of activists who continue to work around the National Resistance Front has brought about the continued assassinations by coup-supporters, but the resistance maintains its strength and courage in the road forward to a Honduras that is not dominated by the national oligarchy and its foreign sponsors. n benefits.

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workers’ government! • Ashland, Ore.: damonjure@ earthlink.net • Ashland, Wis.: northlandiguana@ gmail.com • Boston: bostonsocialistaction@ gmail.com (781) 630-0250 • Carrboro, N.C.: (919) 967-2866, [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860)478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: P.O. Box 16853 Duluth, MN 55816, [email protected], www.the-red-raven.blogspot.com • Florida: socialistaction_tampa@ hotmail.com • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 8021482, [email protected] • New York City: [email protected] After eight months on strike, workers rejected contract demands from Brazilianbased nickel giant Vale Inco on March 12.

More than 88 per cent of members of United Steelworkers Local 6500 voted down a five-year deal that would phase out defined pension benefits, cut special bonus pay, reduce employee workplace rights, al­ low more contracting-out and provide no assurances some would return to their jobs. Despite the hardship of members losing thousands of dollars in pay, the percentage of workers voting against the concessions ‘offer’ is higher than when they opposed the initial company position and walked off the job last July.

In the meantime, Vale hired scabs and sued the union for allegedly engaging in un­ lawful activity and property damage. The USW is counter-suing, but concentrating on strengthening picket lines and rallying sup­ port from far and wide.

Over 3000 people marched and rallied in the streets of the nickel capital on March 22 to show they back the embattled workers. Socialist Action correspondent Judy Koch joined hundreds who boarded buses in To­ ronto and other cities to attend the boister­ ous gathering. She reported that “partici­ pants in the march were very enthusiastic”.

Avid interest in socialist ideas was re­ flected in sales of Socialist Action newspa­ per (a bundle of 40 copies sold out quickly) and by the warm welcome for an SA strike support leaflet. At the same time, workers across Canada are coming to appreciate the significance of the current struggle.

Nickel miners in Sudbury, and at other (continued on page 9, in “NDP’s Moral Morass”)

For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610, [email protected], (510) 268-9429 Socialist Action newspaper editorial offices: [email protected] Website: www.socialistaction.org • Philadelphia: [email protected] • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: P.O. Box 40573, Providence, RI 02940, adgagne@ yahoo.com, (401) 419-1706 • San Francisco Bay Area:

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National Office

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By BOB CHRISFIELD Five thousand antiwar protesters in Washing­ ton, D.C., and 3000 in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, mobilized on March 20, the 7th anniver­ sary of the murderous U.S. war against the Iraqi people, to demand the immediate and uncondi­ tional withdrawal of all U.S. troops and merce­ naries from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Groups from throughout the eastern United States chartered buses to Washington, and many organized colorful contingents in the march.

The San Francisco and L.A. demonstrations had a similar regional character. Large numbers of youth, people of color, and immigrants joined the protests. Many brought signs and banners linking the wars to the cutbacks in education and social services at home.

The highly spirited demonstrations were spear­ headed by the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop Wars and End Racism) with the support of a number of antiwar, veterans, military families, Arab-American, labor, and social justice groups.

The demonstrations were supported by the Na­ tional Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations (National Assembly).

The National Assembly has worked to broaden the forces currently active in the antiwar move­ ment. This has resulted in the recent announce­ ment of the United National Antiwar Confer­ ence (UNAC) in Albany, N.Y., July 23-25. UNAC sponsors include After Downing Street; Arab American Union Members Council; Black Agenda Report; Campaign for Peace and Democracy; Campus Antiwar Network; Code Pink; Iraq Veterans Against the War; National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations; Peace of the Action/Cindy Shee­ threaten plans to withdraw American troops.” han; Progressive Democrats of America; The Fellowship of Reconciliation; U.S. Labor Against the War; Veterans for Peace; Voices for Creative Nonviolence; Women’s In­ ternational League for Peace and Freedom; and World Can’t Wait. Iraq indefinitely.

March 20 demonstration demands included “Free Pal­ estine!” as well as “Reparations for Haiti!” and opposi­ tion to sanctions against Iran. Many speakers focused on linking the demand “Money for Jobs, Education and Health Care” to the distorted priorities of the Obama ad­ ministration and its record of spending more money for war than the previous administration of George Bush.

The Obama “surge,” associated with the sending of an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to raze and ravage its cities and peoples, has resulted in a dramatic increase in the slaughter of the Afghani people and a Kurdish party received 43 votes. doubling of the kill rate of U.S. soldiers. No doubt when U.S. strategists are faced with the task of defeating the Afghani resistance by employing massive bombing and search-and-destroy ground-based missions across most of the country, an increase in the loss of American lives is inevitable.

Unlike previous U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, when mas­ is no doubt that the U.S. will have a hand in the out­ sive bombing raids were employed to destroy entire vil­ come. Washington is not indifferent to how Iraqi oil lages and towns and to drive all present into the coun­ will be divided up among the warring factions as well tryside, today the U.S. warmakers have proclaimed that as the contract language necessary to preference U.S. the bombings will be followed by a more extensive and imperialist interests as opposed to its competitors, long-term U.S. ground occupation, during which time an who also seek a stake in the booty. Afghani army will supposedly be armed and trained to As in Afghanistan, the U.S. “solution” centers on Jacquelyn Martin / AP Ayad Allawi, a former interim prime minister [in 2005] (Above) Part of the March 20 antiwar rally near the once derided as an American puppet, won a wafer-thin vic­ White House, in Washington, D.C. tory in Iraq’s election, setting the stage for a protracted peri­ od of political uncertainty and possible violence that could A similar logic was employed in Vietnam, where satura­ tion bombing, napalm, and deadly agent orange defoliation Of course, the U.S. “plans to withdraw,” including ne­ of vast areas of the country’s jungles and forests were em­ gotiated time lines and dates that were designed to defuse ployed to provide better visibility of the “enemy.” Four mil­ mass antiwar sentiment in the U.S. and in Iraq, contained lion Vietnamese were slaughtered. Millions more today suf­ as many loopholes as necessary to maintain U.S. troops in fer the terrible after-effects of dioxin and other carcinogens saturating the soils and water of that country. Meanwhile, The “unexpected” results of the Iraq election gave Al­ Vietnam vets, 45 years later, are still denied compensation, lawi’s “secular” coalition 91 seats in the 325-seat Parlia­ with specious arguments that their horrific diseases are un­ ment, far short of the majority needed to establish a govern­ related to the chemical and biological warfare experiments ment. The results were immediately challenged by Prime on a whole people.

Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, whose “State of Law” The U.S. was forced to withdraw from Vietnam because coalition, a poor name for a government that is renowned its people would not submit, because American soldiers for corruption, received 89 seats. Maliki had previously rejected the logic of mass murder and became unreliable governed by patching together a coalition of Shiite parties. instruments of U.S. policy, and because a massive, inde­ Third place went to the overtly anti-U.S. Moqtada al-Sadr, pendent antiwar movement that mobilized millions in the whose Shiite-based National Alliance won 70 seats. The streets brought into question the legitimacy of the system itself.

The competing factions are not expected to agree on a Today’s antiwar movement remains deeply divided, with majority government for several months. If Allawi fails to important sectors ceasing to exist as viable entities, as is form such a majority government, the Maliki forces may the case with United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). This yet form a Shiite coalition that suffices to rule. Regardless, was a significant coalition but with a fatal flaw. It measured while the contending forces negotiate as to who will rule its success by its capacity to fight the Republican “Bush’s and who will control the greater portion of Iraq’s oil, there (continued on page 7, in “Democrats’ health ‘reform’ bails out insurance and drug corporations”)

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Vale Inco workers stand firm A in Sudbury, Ontario, overwhelmingly

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