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-PRISON INTERVIEW WITH LOS SIETE

-LIBERATION WOMEN'S UNION

-IIC ACTION

-MUNIBLACKCAUCUS

IN THIS ISSUE

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THE MOVEMENT PRESS

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NOVEMBER 1969

TORTURE IN BRAZIL

DOCUMENT NO, 1

EDITORS NOTE: The following document was smug-gled out of Brazil. The brother who sent it to usrequested that we do "everything within our power totranslate it and seek to have it pUblished broadly".Since he gave no address or suggestions on how wemight help, we assume that we can best show oursolidarity with our brothers and sisters strugglingagainst imperi.alism in Latin America by buildinga front against imperialism inside the monster.

On (date, late 1969), two sisters ("A" and"B"both respected educators) were arrested by the SSagents of the Brazilian "X" Army at (hour), andrequired to give the whereabouts of their brother("C", a student leader). It is clear that they knewnothing, for they had not seen their brother in morethan twel Ve months. They were then taken to the head-quarters of the "X" Army, in (address); upon enteringa large room, they saw some 40 men torturing 5 or6 people. Fifteen or twenty of them (ofthe torturers -5 to 8 for each prisoner) were visibly under the in-fluence of alchohol, - a Dantian scene very similarto the GESTAPO, The two were mistreated, kickedand slapped. They were threatened with having theirclothing removed (one man, the most inebriated,called insistently for the "strip-tease" to begin -indicating the frequency of this sort of treatment).

On the morning of the same day, "D" died whenwhen blown to bits by a bomb which he had beencarrying. His roomate f' E" ...was taken to the sametorture site; they wanted to know where his friendhad held his meetings. He was nude and was placedin "pau-de-arara" (tied hands and feet, arms aroundhis knees in a sitting position, and then hung fromthe ceiling by a pole passed under the knees - in this

, case he apparently was mishandled in a sitting po-sition on the floor); in this position, they forcedhis chest so far back that it lacerated - the boycried and screamed. After having been made to watchthis scene, "A" and" B" were again questioned aboutthe whereabouts of "C", They did not know.

Then they were shown the canvas sack whichcontained the pieces of "D". One of the soldiers doingthe beating jumped on top of the sack saying, "He

;doesn't deserve respect, communists ought to be treat-'ed like this. He opened the sack, and seeing that'" A" was the most impressionable, he left the boy'sremains at her feet and threatened to cook a pieceof his body and force her to eat it if she did nottalk.

Seeing that with physical and psychological torturethey were not getting any information, they triedsomething else, they tortured one sister in front ofthe other. They put "B" in an electric chair, placedher little fingers in electric sockets and began, togive her shcoks. "B" intuited that" A" was going tocry and began to take the shocks passively, For-tunately for them, the case of "E" was more serious,and it was decided to free them and to send for" E' s"girlfriend to be tortured in his presenCe. ThUS, withouthaving their presence, their declarations or protestsregistered, they left, their treatment having beeninterrupted.

THIS ISSUE IS DEDICATED TO THE SISTERS AND, BROTt-fERS WHO STRUGGLE'D IN CHICAGO TOBRING THE WAR HOME

oppressive nature of the Army.The Oleo Strut staff is a collective. We live in one

house and all work every day at the Strut. We havebeen working as a collective for 4 months and have beenvaryingly successful. Within the collective is a wo-men's caucus. We discuss all problems and polit-ical questions that arise. We discipline ourselvesindividually and from the collective we disciplineourselves as a group and criticize -each other formistakes we make as staff members.

We feel that our most important work is devel-oping GI organizers who are laying the groundworkfor a mass movement in the Army. One of the bestorganizing tools that has been established at FortHood is the Fatigue Press which is put out by theGIs.

In conclusion then, we are looking for people (mp.n,women, or couples) who are willing to:

l)make a commitment of at least six months, hope-fully starting in October or November, or as soon aspossible.

2) do shit work in the coffeehouse.3) learn about military law and counsel on court-

martials and CO applications.4) learn and make changes according to the demands

made by the working situation in Killeen and the Army.5) view their work as long-range, and not look for

regular victories. This is organizing, not activism andtakes patience. '

6) talk politics with guys in the Army and keepstudying and learning new ways to build a movement.

If you feel that this is the kind of work you wantto do, please write us immediately, so that we canbegin discussions about joining the staff. Tell us aboutyourself and what you have been doing, and we willdescribe in greater detail the work that goes on in theStrut. Write to: OLEO STRUT, 101 Avenue DKilleen, Texas 76541

,Detroit Staff: NOC, Box 9571 North End Station, Detroit; Michigan 48202.

Bulk orders at special rates available at all offices.

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,Chleaco Staff: Room 204, 162 N. cUnton, Cblcaco, Wlnols 60606--(312) 32'7-3681~ ,

'Los Angeles staff: Ken Cloke, Bob Niemann, Mike DaviS, Judy Davis. 165'7Federal Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90025 -- (213) 478-9509 .

OLEO STRUT IS RECRUITING

The Oleo strut is looking for new staff members.The strut is a GI coffeehouse located in Killeen',Texas near Fort Hood. As well as the regular ac-tivities of a GI coffee house, we hope to have aradical bookstore, combination military law andradical books library in tIE near future., Killeen is a small town with a population of35,000 people totally dependant on the Army forits income. Fort Hood itself is a 39.000 man ArmoredPost staffed largely by Viet Nam returnees. Thereis no basic training, and almost everyone is just -waiting to get out. Because Fort Hood is a riotcontrol center and discipline is threatened by Namvets, the propaganda and coercion are heavy. A lotof guys seek escape in dope. In fact, a whole cult hasbeen developed around it.

For two reasons we have a firm understanding thatno one on the staff will use drugs in Killeen. The firstand most obvious is that it is a bust - an easy oneand one that will close the strut forever. The secondis equally important and is the reason that we talkagainst drugs to the guys who come to the Strut'., Use of drugs in the Army is as destructive as ghettouse of drugs. Guys are trying to escape the fact thatthey are in the Army and spend all their time gettinghigh instead of organizing. And of course the Armywould rather court-martial a guy for dope than pol-itics.

In an attempt to break down the barriers betweenthe GIs and the civilians, we have learned that shorthair and a «straight appearance" have increased theability of the GIs to talk and relate to us on an equalbasis. Our insistence on combatting the drug culturehere does not mean that we feel that people in thecities should have reached the same conclusions.Rather, we are looking for people willing to changethe surface of their life style to fit a small town and the

JOHN SINCLAIR WRITES FROM PRISON

-~

Dear Brothers and Sisters,My transfer to Marquette has been

postponed at least a few weeks, but theyare determined to send me there as soonas they can. A plgfromtthe CorrectionsDept. in Lansing came here to talk tome last Friday and told me how much Iwould like It up there and that they COUld-n't, possible send me into the generalprison population in Jackson because Iwould surely organize the prisoners torevolt against the prison authorities, andthey couldn't take a chance on that. SoI'll be shipped UP to Marquette P rison Inthe UpperPeninsula sometime next month.Then I'll be able to have my typewriterand get some work done.

It's really important now that thepeople out there start organizing todefend themselves against the approach-'ing' police state and to warn the broadn:asses of the people about the fascistterror that is upon us. People are goingto have to start egllcating themselvesand their br-otbersand sisters so we won'tbe unprepared when the shit comes down.- Chairman Mao's • Red Book" (Quot.

ations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung) isthe best study gUide, as Mao has provedthat the people's liberation can be won

through proper methods of thinking andmethods of work. As Che, Guevera said,"In Revolution one wins or dies" - Maowon! So did Fidel. As we know, Fidelstarted with 83 men, lost all but 12,and took those 12 men Into the moun-tains to get it together. 5 years later thePeople's Liberation Army marched tri-umphantly in Havana and set up the Peo-pie's Revolutionary Government, provingthat If'can be done.

Here In Amerika the conditions aredifferent but the need is the same- toestablish a people's party and a govern-ment of the people, by the people, andfor the people. A lot of us have felt thatwe can just "drop out" from the pig'ssociety and • do our thing" within the

!decadent corpse' of Amerika, but letme testify that it don't work. You can't«do your thing" in jail, and if s impos-sible to be "free" when the pig isbeating and carrying away you brothersand sisters.

And "LOVE/PEACE" by itself ,eitheras a slogan or a lifestyle, won't do iteither because as Eldridge Cleaver putIt, you can be sitting up there trippingand the pig will come up and beat yourhead in and carry you offto prison, where

'you don't do anyone' any good except theState; ,

The time for shucking and jivJ.Dg isover. Those' people who care about their'brothers and sisters in their hip com-munities are going to have to ,starf or-ganizing and spreading the word, ofARMED LOVE. Meaning, I love youall, but if you try to force me to liveunder your fascist state I will blowyour head off.

And the people who aren't ready forthis might as well get ready for theconcentration camps, because I'll seeyou there. The police are not playing~""they are moving to seize controlof the, cities (check out Wayne CountyRoman Gribbs running for Mayor ofDetroit and Washtenau County Sherrif,Doug, .Harvey's total disregard for thelegal' government of Ann Arbor), andthe unholy alliance of J. Edgar Hoover,Nixon, Atty.General John N. Mitchell,and new Supreme Court Judges, plusthe CIA, is serious about getting ridof long-haired dope-smoking revolution-ary youth.

And they don't care if you are" polit-ical" or not- - they know our way of lifeis a definite threat to their control just

because we don't accept their authority.I never used to be "political" eIther,but the pigs still attacked, beat, ar-rested and jailed me because I like toget high, go to dances, fuck and have agood time. I was in the House of Cor~rection In i966 for smoking dope beforeI ever heard of Mao Tse-tung, but I,didn't know why the pigs hated me so..Now I know that all of us had betterfind out.

The White Panther Party will hold amass meeting for all interested youngpeople in the near future--I urge every-one out there to attend this meeting andlisten to what my brothers have to say.There should be a chapter in every schooland town In Amerika; as Mao says,"It is up to us to educate the people".

I'll see you all soon. All Power to thePeople!

STP (Serve the People)John Sinclair (P"olitical Prisoner)

(Two weeks after this letter was writ-ten, John Sinclair was moved to Mar-quette Maximum Security Prison. Hisappeal to be let out on bail was denied,by the Michigan Supreme Court.

PAGE 2 MOVEMENT NOVEMBER 1969

-I-<1Il

~Z~v:l>.,Q

o:gPo<

THE RULING CLASS STILL HAS ITS ASS..A thousand people are gathered in Washing-

ton Square in San Francisco. Forty to fiftySF tac squad members stand across the streetin full riot gear. More mounted tac squad arepoorly hidden on side streets. The demon-strators began moving up Columbus Street tomarch on the Fairmont Hotel-meeting placefor the International Ruling. Class-but wekept to the sidewalk, chanting and passing outleaflets to the curious bystanders.

The motive force behind ourorganizingwas that.the International Ruling Class had no right to meethere or anywhere else. We did massive educationaround who these imperialists are and what op-pression they're responsible for, both at home andabroad. We pushed for people to join us to "kickthe ass of the ruling class" and stop their "festivalof thieves" .

After five weeks of organizing for the InternationalIndustrial Conference, only 600 of the expected3000 or 4000 showed up. One local undergroundpaper caIled it a "farce staged by brontosaurs".On the basis of the turnout and the impotencepeople felt in the face of the pigs on the first dayof the week's actions, many people wrote the wholething off as a flop. This was wrong. The IIC actionsaccomplished several positive things and also forced .us to analyze our mistakes in a way that should "be useful in the future.

JAPAN WEEK-

The IIC was officiaIly scheduled as part ofa two-week trade and culture fair known as JapanWeek. Behind a facade of friendship, the Japaneseculture was used as a rip-off to seIl products andcover up the real economic motives behind the festiveoccasion. The trade fair was planned and pUIled offby American businessmen with participation of afew big Japanese businessment with American in-vestments. Japanese-Americans were excluded fromthe the planning committees and played no part inthe Trade week. .

While $1.4 million dollars was being spent onthis trade and tourist promotion, Japanese and Chi-nese Americans worked in the sweatshops of China-town for less than a doIlar an hour. Nothing wasever said about the detention of Japanese during

World War II nor about the recent destruction ofJapanese homes and businesses to build the newJapanese Trade and Cultural Center in San Fran-cisco.

But why all the- fuss over Japan? The Japaneseand US economies are interlocked to the extent thatone cahnot make advances without the other. Japanis the second largest market after Canada forUS goods, the largest US market for agriculturalgoods and an important target for US investments.This doesn't include the essential indirect US tradeof imports of raw materials to Japan from Asiaand Latin American companies owned by the US. Like-wise, the US is the largest importer of Japanesegoods accounting for 30% of Japanese exports.

But even immediately more important than ex-panding trade with Japan and the development ofSan Francisco as the "WaIl Street of the West"

is the renewal of the Japanese":US security Treatywhich comes up for ratification in 1970.The treatyis central to continued US domination (economic,military, and political) in Asia. Through the treaty,Japan grants the US "the use by its land, air, andnaval forces of facilities in Japan". If the treatyis renewed it wiIl insure the US continued main-tenance of its 100 military facilities in Japan, itscommand headquarters, transport depot for troops,storage of weapons (including CBW and nuclear),supply depots for Viet Nam and bases for its twicedaily B- 52 bombing missions to Vietnam flown fromOkinawa. With its massive military presence, theJapanese economy is virtuaIly dependent on the USmilitary spending as a key factor in the economy.

The Asian-American Political Alliance, the RedGuard of Chinatown, and SDS staged a demonstra-tion at the docking of the destroyer" Amatsukaza"on September 5. The action was a good build-upfor the IIC the following week and focused attentionon th e American-Japanese Security pact. SomeJapanese tycoons on their way to the IIC wereon board the ship. They were met by 75 peopleand the SF Mime Troupe all with flags , picketsigns, and the Japanese National Anthem.

The international impact of this demonstration wasimportant. Japanese students and workers areplanning to shut their country down to preventthe ratification of the security pact. Ours wasgreeted as the first action taken by the movementin the US in direct solidarity with the movementin Japan. The demonstration was carried in themedia throughout Japan and the Zengukaren looksforward to co-ordinated actions and alliance -in-struggle against the ratification of the 1970 security'pact.

I.I.C.

The IIC was scheduled during the latter half of theTrade Fair to enable Japanese businessmen toattend both. Seven hundred top level business leadersfrom over 60 countries gathered at the fourthquadrannual meeting. The meeting was co-sponsoredby the Stanford Research Institute, a major govern-ment contractor specializing in military and coun-t.er-insurgency research, and the National IndustrialConference Board, a private organization dedicated tothe glorification of "private enterprise" .

The policy board included 28 of the heaviest rulingclass businessmen representing such corporationsas Chase Manhattan Bank, Royal Dutch Shell, USSteel, AT&T, Standard Oil, Bank of California, UnionCarbide, IBM and Safeway Stores. 2/3 of those at-tending were from other capitalist countries or fromneo-colonies. David RockefeIler, Rodger Blough,Ernest Arbuckle and Edgar Kaiser et.aI. met todiscuss problems and techniques of expanding themulti-national corporate control over the resources,markets and peorles of both the Third World and theindustrialized countries.

Although the conference's theme was "Closing theWorld's Income Gap", the businessmen jabbered inthe jargon of "cost structures, profit centers, andmanagement of change". All of the world's prob-lems were seen as technical rath:!~ than political.Topics of discussi00nt out to participants be-fore the conferen;.;.e included such gems as "re-moving impediments to private foreign investment","modern day "Capitalism'S role in the developing

nations", "influence of anti-trust legislation oninternational trade and investments" ,and" developingfeasible alternatives to free coIlective bargaininl!'and strikes·. Their discussions indicated thatthe only way to close the worlds "income gap"was through private enterprise - private profit.

They were most interested in creating a man-agerial class, the problems of economic nationalism,the disaffection of the young and the propagation ofthe sociaIly-consciousrhetoric of neo-imperialism.HoIland's Dick Stikker, Secretary-General of NATOfrom 1961 to 1964 , urged against the "pessimis~icfear of revolution - the fear I am so sure that eachof us in this haIl experiences every day when heopens his newspaper and reads about... open resist-ance to every form of establishment."

BROWN WALKOUT

Months ago, Latinos got together in Denverand planned a high school walk-out for Sept.16thto be coordinated throughout the Southwest aroundthe demands of bi-lingual education and self-de-termination for brown people. SDS worked with LosSiete de La Raza urging white students to joinin solidarity with and support of Latino demands.Safeway was a focus after students left schoolbecause they are still selling grapes and because ofthe heavy use of DDT and otherpesticides onproduce which is .menacing' the lives and healthof farm workers and consumers.

The IIC and Latino walkout had originally. beenplanned separately but when it was discovered thatthe times planned for the actions were the sameand that Ernest Arbuckle, president of the board ofSafeway Stores, Inc., was on the policy board of theIIC, plans were

UNION OFREVOLUTIONARYWOMEN

by Mary Lou Greenberg

"The thesis must clearly point out that real freedom for women ispossible only through communism. The inseparable connection betweenthe social and human position of the woman, and private property in themeans of production, must be strongly brought out. That will draw aclear and ineradicable line of distinction between our policy and femin-ism. And it will also supply the basis for regarding the woman questionas a part of the social question, of the workers' problem, and so bind itfirmly to the proletarian class struggle and the revolution."

-Lenin, in a conversation with Clara Zetkin, 1920.

"Women have been put down long 'enough. We're tired of getting thelowest wages and the crummiest work; of being used as strike-breakers,as a cheap supply of labor, and as unpaid servants in the home. We'retired of working for other people who just get richer while we get poorer.We want a society where workers work for themselves, not bosses; wh"erewomen and men, black, brown, yellow, and red, are treated equally onthe job, in the community, in the home, and in the schools; where jobsare available for all and each person is guaranteed food, clothing, shelter,health care, child care, and a good standard of living. We believe thatonly when workers instead of bigshot bosses run society and the govern-ment will women as well as men be free. We know that women cannot befully free until ALL working people are free, but we must unite now andbegin to fight for our freedom."

-Opening statement of the Liberation Women's Union Program. PHOlb/BARBARA ROTIlKRUG

The statement above represents the initial attempt'of a group of Bay Area women to make the connections,that Lenin saw necessary, between the exploitation andoppression of women and the exploitation and op-pression of all working people.

This connection has, of course, beeR made before:by some women's liberation groups who use it toshow why organizing women around the issues ofwomen's liberation is inherently "revolutionary",and by radical and left groups which are now tackingon "women's issues" to their platforms, but basicallyforgetting about them after that.

The Liberation Women's Union is attempting to dosomething which neither of these approaches has sofar done. That is, to organize women on the basisof their real needs as women and, through a workingclass-oriented program and series of demands, to,relate each issue and specific struggle to the overallclass struggle. '

Lenin recognized the need for" appropriate bodies"to carryon work among women, "special methodsof agitation and forms of organization". "That is notfeminism, that is practical, revolutionary expediency..That is why it is right for us to put forward demandsfavorable to women•.practical conclusions which wehave drawn from the burning needs, the shamefulhumiliation of women in bourgeois society, defenselessand without rights."

TEN DEMANDS

Briefly, the demands of the LWU are:

1) EQUAL WORK AT EQUAL PAY, inclUding no racialor sexual discrimination in hiring, promotion, or payscales.2) FREE, 24-HOUR, CHILD CARE CENTERS FOR ALLCHILDREN.! '

:, ~) I SHARING HOUSEHOLD WORK. "Household workis not just "women's work". It should be shared byall family members."4) FREE, EQUAL AND REAL EDUCATION, includingno more "tracking" by sex, race or economic class."We demand that schools teach about the role womenhave played in history; we demand that they, tellabout the struggles of American working people andabout the struggles of poor and oppressed peopleeverywhere."5) FREE, COMPLETE HEALTH CARE, includingfree birth control information to all who wish it; safefree abortions to women who want them; no forcedsterilization of anyone.6) CONTROL OVER PERSONAL' RELATIONSHIPS,including equal rights for all women and men, marriedor unmarried, and for all children born in or out ofmarriage.7) AN END TO BRAINWASHING. "We demand anend to the degrading image of women on TV, in themovies, in books and in advertising. We will notbe brainwashed any longer into buying things that justmake big businessment richer."8) SELF-DETERMINATION FOR NATIONAL MIN-ORITY AND THIRD WORLD PEOPLES.9) AN END TO U.S .. IMPERIALIST WARS OF AG-GRESSION.10) CONTROL OVER SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS, in-cluding ·We demand that the courts, police and othersocial institutions such as national, state, and localgovernment stop oppressing the people. The presentinadequate and degrading system of welfare must be

replaced by a program which guarantees ~'ii adequateincome for everyone".We must stop the taxingofpoorand working women and men and' make the bigcorporations pay instead. '

PERSONAL TO POLITICAL

The first thing we did upon coming together thissum mer was work out this program and demands.Some of us had participated in and were still in-volved with small groups Hn the existing women' pliberation movement. We had gained an understandingof the social--rather than individual--causes offemaleoppression and,exploitation through participating in oneor another of the small women's groups, the mostcommon organizational form of the WL movement sofar.

We recognized that some middle-class women mayindeed be made aware of the inherently exploitativeand oppressive nature of U.S. monopoly capitalismthrough first becoming aware of and understandingtheir own person oppression as women. We had also'seenthatthis was not inevitable. Those middle-classwomen- who DID make the connection, whose con-sciousnesses supposedly had been raised from anindividual to a social level of understanding, wereby and large unable to fight their oppression excepton a purely personal level--1.e., moving into acommune, divorcing their husbands, taking off theirbras, uncurling their hair, etc.

In fact when some of these women began to seekways of acting outside the small group- - for instanceprotesting job discrimination, or participating in ananti-war protest--they were sometimes discouragedand warned against being co-opted by the male left.I n some parts of the WL movement, those who sug-gested such action were suspected of being agentsfor male-dominated groups. .

In addition, we .were quite aWare that any move-ment which purports to seek liberation for a con-siderable segment of society, in this case ·half thepopulation, must address itself to the needs of thepoorest sectors of that group if it is to succeed inits intent. Radical historian William L. O'Neill hadpointed out, in an article in Dissent entitled, "Fem-inism as a Radical Ideology,'" that the early feminists"invariably refused to admit that differences in stationamong women were of any importance;"Equal rightsfor women did not mean the same thing to a factorygirl that it meant to a college graduate" .

Despite the fact that this article was widely cir-culated in at least several small WL groups and thatmany women realized that our' experiences withand understanding of the needs of working and lowerclass women were, at best, limited, there waslittle, if any, attempt made to find out what we didnbt know and to make the WL movement serve allwomen instead of just a privileged few. (The severalforces and splits within the general WL movement arewell defined in the McAfee- Wood article, "Breadand Roses" , in the June 1969 LEVIATHAN).

'AN APPROPRIATE BODYIt was therefore clear that within the existing

dlfuse WL movement an aiternative was needed formiddle-class women who'wanted to activelyfight forwomen's liberation as a part of the overall revolu-tionary movement, as well to make the ideas of wo-men's liberation work in the interests of working

and poor women.At the same time this summer, women whose partic-

pation in the small WL groups had been limited,or non:existent, but who were deeply concerned withthe position of women as part of their commit-ment to building a revolutionary movement among theworkers and youth in this country, were beginning tofeel the need, in Lenin's words, for an "appropriatebody" to concentrate on the conditions and needs ofwome~ " "

Through' a common need to create such an organ-ization which would concentrate on organizing non-professional workin g women, wives of working men,and, women on welfare, we began meeting together.Unlike some' groups which initially form around ageneral idea and then after a period of time evolvea programmatic approach to organizing, We felt thenecessity to begin work immediately on a programand demands around which we could unite women andfrom which an organization might grow.

Most ,of us already were members of specificorganizations and/or collectives, for instance theBay Area Revolutionary Union; SDS; a collective inHayward doing working class organizing; women'sliberation groups which had begun to seriously talkabout organizing working women; San FranciscoNewsreel, etc. '

We all had at least an elementary understandingof Marxism, and were united on the necessity ofsocialist revolution led by the working class. In aseries of meetings we worked out' an initial programand series of demands which were discussed by thewhole group, re-drafted, and discussed again. At-tendence kept increasing, and at each meeting newwomen came. At this point no publicity has been givento the group except through word of mouth. It wasobvious, though, that a number of women weremov-ing in the same direction and felt a need to shareexperiences and work together in a disciplined,directed way around women's issues.

COLLECTIVES OF WOMEN

After the first version of the program had beenfinalized (on the basis of our experience with it,it may go' through several more versions), we begandiscussing organizational questions. There are sevenbasic geographical areas around the Bay represented.Between 50 and 75 women attended at least one ofthe program-discussing meetings, and all geograph-ical areas have been represented at all meetings.The group is predominantly white, although aChicano woman active in the brown movement hasparticipated from the beginning, and an early meetingwas held with two Black Panther women. Most ofus in LWU come from middle class and studentbackgrounds; most are now working in non-pro-fessional type jobs - in factories, clerical work,communications,etc. - or will be working in thenear future; others are doing work in their com-munities or on state college or junior college cam-

. 'The org:iIlizational 'structure is complicated: ina couple of these areas there are several separatebut close-working groups participating, plus several"independent" women. A steering committee has beenset up, composed of representatives from eachgeographical area, which will assist communicationsbetween groups, schedule plenary meeting, and discussin detail the proposed structure, aims and activitiesof the LWU.

PAGE 4 MOVEMENT NOVEMBER 1969

IJEFEIISE

ACTION·STUDY

At this early stage, the organization exists pri-marily to exchange information between groups andindividuals already engaged in organizing women'Our eventual goal is to assist in creating a revo-lutionary mass organization of women with a workingclass perspective which will at the appropriate timejoin with similar organizations to forge a reVOlutionaryparty in this country.

To move toward this goal, we must form collec-tives of women, organized around a revolutionary pro-gram and series of demands. At the present time,separate LWU collectives are not meeting in allareas due to different existing situations and needs.For instance, in one area there are several workingclass community groups and organizations alreadyexisting. Women from these groups are representedon the LWU steering committee, participate in generalLWU actions, and may use the program in their organ-izing work, but at this time do not plan to form aseparate LWU collective or chapter. In other areas,separate LWU collectives are already forming.

Whatever organizational form finally evolves, thesuccess or failure of the LWU will depend on whetheror not it is able to organize actions around the demandsand truly serve the people.,-in this case, working andpoor women.

In addition to exchanging information, the LWU willfocus on two areas: study and action. The steeringcommittee has prepared a reading list and severalstudy plans for use as each area needs. Many ofthe women are already involved in stUdy groups whichfocus on the works of Marx, Lenin and Mao; for thosewho are not and for new members of the organiza-tion, special study groups will be set up. Along withbasic revolutionary literature, we will study thehistory ofwomen' s and labor movements in this countryandcurrent WL pUblications and literature.

In the area of action, we will conduct propagandaaddressed to women on women's .issues and on anti-imperialist issues in general (for instance, the fallanti- Vietnam War moratoriums and mobilizations);and plan actions around particular issues in eacharea and the LWU demands.

Our experiences with organizing around a program

We have found already that the question of women'sliberation can be one of the most difficult to raisein general political work. We have also found thatonce raised, it leads to increased political conscious-ness of both men and women. The idea that wiveshave a right to attend their husband's union meetings,for instance, increases the political awareness of thewomen and makes them feel that they are a part ofworkers' struggles, too. It also helps expand the con-cept of "worker", and puts union struggles into abroader social context.

In the process of tearing down--or at least cracking-the institutions of male supremacy (for instance, all-male unions with their attendent ideas that union meet-ings are for men only; that women shouldn't be onthe picket line; that women aren' t "workers"; thatunionizatiQn isn' t necessary for women), the found-ations for male chauvinism wUl also crumble. Whenmen see that women can be helpful on a picket line,they wUl begin to change their ideas of women as 'meek, docile, and servile creatures. Once releasedfrom the ideas of male chauvinism and the prac-tices of male supremacy, men and women can uniteto fight the common enemy.

The Liberation Women's Union is actively seekingthe participation of, or alliances with, other womenwho basically agree with ,our approach and program.We wUl also unite with other women on areas wecan agree on, and we welcome comments and crit-icisms. For more information on the LWU and acomplete copy of the program and demands, write.Mary Lou Greenberg, c/o The Movement.

CRACKING THE FOUNDATION

entire body. In addition, we expect members tocombat male supremacy and male chauvinism inall aspects of personal behavior and political work.For instance, we must not hesitate to assume pos-itions of leadership or voice our opinions in anyother, mixed (male and female) collectives andorganizations we are 'in. We must be on our guardagainst conciously or unconsciously responding inbourgeois, "feminine" ways to male actions or state-ments We must combat the ideas of male chauvinismin ourselves as well as in males, and we must dressand act in ways that do not further our sexual ob-jectification. We must actively raise the oppression andexploitation of women as it relates to capitalistexploitation and oppression of all people, and we mustnever separate the fight for women's liberation fromthe fight for the liberation of all people.

--1,I

CONSCIOUSNESS & KARATE

Two other areas are also important in the devel-opment of a strong, revolutionary women' s movement:each LWU member is expected to learn some formof self-defense (we are in the process of locatingkarate instructors); and each woman who is seriousabout bUilding such a movement must take the ideasof women's liberation seriously in her own personallife, The LWU hopes to be a disciplined organiza-tion in expecting members to participate in studyand self-defense classes and be responsible to theorganization for carrying out decisions made by the

and specific demands is extremely limited at present.Our work so far has shown that it is a very usefultool for making contacts with other women who arealready organized and who are likewise looking forwomen with whom to unite. We are currently ex-perimenting with ways of utilizing the program and ourefforts will vary from area to area at present. Acondensed form of the program, similar to theone included earlier in' the article with a list ofcontact phone numbers, will be printed on the backsof leaflets issued for specific actions of generalpropaganda purposes. For instance, the LWU will

'participate as a group in the Nov. 15 Get-Out-of-Vietnam march in San Fr'ancisco and will distributea LWU leaflet along the way. For the future, we are'anticipating simultaneous organizing around one key

. demand in each geographical area.In addition to general organizing, we will par-

'ticipate as individuals or as a group in specific ac-tions to support the struggles of other women--onpicket lines, in Welfare hearings, in demonstrationsfor support of political prisoners, etc. LWU womenhave walked the picket line with strikers and theirwives in the current Pittsburge-Des Moines Steelstrike in San Jose and will support the strikers andtheir wives in whatever way we can--from providingbabysitters to participating in demonstrations at theplant. We plan to be able to mobilize large numbersof women on short notice for supportive demonstra-tions or other action whereever and whenever suchsupport is need ed in the Bay Area. We also hopeit will be possible to form alliances with BlackPanther and Chicano women for mutual support.

23ft!JOlYThe July 23rd Defense Committee is desperately in need of funds. We organized

to assist in the legal defense of the five Black people who were indicted in theGlenville Shoot-out in 1968, when three policemeD and one civilian were k1lled.

The first person to be tried was Ahmed (Fred Evans) who was convicted andsentenced to die in the electric chaJ.r. Unfortunately, the Defense Committee didnot get into fUll swing unW the time of Ahmed's conviction.

Ahmed was defended by court-appointed attorneys stanley Toliver and CharlesFleming. Although the court normally pays about $3,500·. to EACH attorneyfor a, case such as this, these lawyer~ received that amount altogether. Mr.Toll1ver's share was immediately seized for income taxes. Mr. Fleming isfacing possible charges because the Committee sent him $200 after he hadapplied for his state fee.

Ahmed's case is being appealed. We urgently need money to be able to pay forthis legal service.

Non-Du (Lathan Donald) is presently on trial. He, too, has court-, appointedattorneys. These lawyers have been hostile to the Committee and went so far asask the judge to make us leave the courtroom. It is obvious that the Committeeis extremely liml.ted in the kind of defense for Non-Du due to the hostility andlack of cooperation from his attorneys.

The most obvious fact is that the JULY 23rd DEFENSE COMMITTEE NEEDSMONEY TO PAY COMPETANT AND COOPERATIVE LAWYERS.

The third defendant, Alfred Thomas, has been committed to Lima State Hospitalfor the Criminally Insane. The Committee does not have the money to providecompetent and cooperative psychiatric help for him, that is, if he really needs it.

Two more young mf:!n are awaiting trial. .It is not uncommon for Blacks and poorpeople to be left in jail and forgotten. Although the Committee has not been ableto provide private legal counsel so far, th·-a Committee has been and continues tobe most diligent in bringing public attention to the case of the Glenville Five.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE

1) We challenged the Seminar on Violence in America at Case-Western ReserveUniversity to take a position on Ahmed's case. OUr actions caused quite a stiron the campus.

2) We held People's Court so that the people could hear for themselves the factsof a drunken police orgy in Glenville on July 23, 1968, when people were shot,property stolen, and women molested by the Cleveland police.

3) As a result of the testimony heard at People's Court from eye witnesses,we tried to petition Country Prosecutor John T. Corrigan. He refused to see usand instead issued an injunction to keep us out of the county courthouse. Whenwe appeared, unaware of the injunction, we were attac~ed by the police, beaten,sprayed with gas, and thrown into jail.

Twenty-six members of the July 23rd Defense Committee and supporters weretried and convicted for contempt of court and given stiffer sentences and finesthan is usually handed down «('ruel and unusual punishment). Our total bond is$40,000 and our sentences ranged from ten days to one year in prisonl

4) We appealed to Third World nations at the United Nations. W'= were suc-cessful in having the family of,~r.AklliDanielli, Ambassador from the Republicof Tanzania to the United Nations, come to Cleveland and visit with us and celebratethe first anniversary of the Glenville Shoot-out.

other Third World nations have agreed to visit and identify with us.5) Mr. James Form3,n, author of the Black Manifesto, came to Cleveland as

guest of the July 23rd Defense Committee. He spoke at the First Baptist Churchin Shaker Heights. He read the Manifesto to hundreds of p.-aople at Sunday ser-vices and called for support of the July 23rd Defense Committee and the GlenvilleFive.

6) W'~ are an active part of Operation Black Unity. We have people on thepicket lines in front of McDonald's hamburger restaurants every day.

THE JULY 23rd DEFENSE COMMITTEE IS O~ THE CASE. THE JULY 23rdDEFENSE COMMITTEE DESERVES YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT.

Please send contributions to July 23rd Defense Committee, P.O. Box 2404,East Cleveland, Ohio 44112

."

WUbur Grattan, National Chairman, Mae Mallory, Assistant ChairmanPhoto by SF Newsreel

NOVEMBER 1969 MOVEMENT PAGE 5

muni black caucus right on time

-1

The Black Caucus has organized bus drivers~ the San Francisco Municipal Railway(MUNI). The Caucus was formed about sixmonths ago when a strike situation mademany workers dig the misleading role playedby the union leadership. This is an interviewwith Wilbert Powe and Jose Wilson of theCentral Committee of the Muni Black Caucusand with Ducho, the advisor to the MuniBlack Caucus.

MOVEMENT: Why are you involved in organizingtransport workers? Do you see the transportationindustry as strategic?

JOSE: We didn't pick the transportation industry toorganize. As workers in the transportation industry,we decided to organize where we were. There'sonly one difference between a worker in a GeneralMotors plant and one in transport, the type of workthey do. We're all workers. We 'aren't concernedabout this being a stretegic stronghold, as far asshutting the city down. We were concerned aboutthe fact that, as workers, we saw that we were beingexploited and we wanted to put an end to this exploit-ation.

MOVEMENT:. What's the. work like, what :l;re ,thepeople like, what kinds of things do you have to takeaccount of in your organizing strategy?

WILBERT: Up until last year, the turnover of peopleleaving the job on the Muni railway was well over50 percent. This is because ofthewayMuni is run, andbecause the union does not meet the needs and desiresof the workers there. We just got some new buseshere in San Francisco. A few. They say its becausethe public didn't vote to get new busses. They turnedit down twice. We understand why people would voteagainst any goddamn thing that Muni wanted becauseof the way that Muni is run. We' reworking with sched-ules that are outdated, with equipment that's obsolete.People don't get the service that they should. Sonaturally when a proposltion comes up on the ballotthat Muni should get new busses, people just turn theirback on it.

Muni Railway is dictatorial, not only to theworkers,but to the people of san Francisco. We have to deal withthe membership of our local, 250A, andwehave to, asrevolutionaries, fight on all fronts, to meet the needsof the public. The riding public sees the driver asanother part of the bus, not as another working person.Also, the bus drivers are politically immature, theyhave nothing to tell the peopl.e about what the driversare ,doin~ because the union isn't working in theirinterests or the interests of the people.

MOVEMENT: Muni's a non-profit corporation?

JOSE: Supposedly. Run by the city. The citizens ofSan Francisco pay for the Muni Railway, so anytimeanything comes up about the Muni, it is importantto the people. But it hasn't met the needs of thepeople. '

WILBERT: As far as the Muni Railway being profitor non-profit, if they're working with the city, thegoddamned city is profitable, the government is aprofitable organization. Non-profit ain't nothinbut a myth. We know where Muni gets its ordersfrom, the city has been brought to a point by pigAlioto where fascism is rampant.

We have to work with bus drivers who are making4 dollars and 15 cents an hour. Some of them think,we're getting more money. In fact they get less. Thinkabout the surtax that's been extended since the Nixonadministration has been in power. As workers get payincreases, they have more taxes to pay.

CLASS STRUGGLE

MOVEMENT: is there a problem, with the workersmaking $4.15 an hour raising the level of conciousnessand struggle? Some people would say they're too hookedinto the system to become revolutionary?

WILBERT: We relate to class struggle, and whethera proletarian is making $4.15 an hour or $ 2.00 an hour,

PAGE 6

he's still basically in the same shape. Perhaps you canaccumulate more material goods than another memberof the working class, but we say fuckthat, you're stillbeing exploited, still being placed in expendable cat-egories, like being sent to Vietnam, so we relate tothe class struggle.

We understand that there's a particular problemwhen talking to people who are making $4.00 an hour,different than when talking to people who aren't makinganything. When you're talking to a brother on the streetwho don't have a job, then he's gonna tell you whathe know, what he's doing, where he's been, how hecame to be where he is. The things that he'll tellyou will point right back at the system.

It gets more difficult when you deal with peoplewho have a high school diploma and even two or threeyears of college, who have been pre-programmed intoan acceptance of the American way of life. We have todeal with people according to their background andwhere they come from ... learn whether they come froma petty bourgeois background or whether they've alwaysbeen the brothers on the block. To begin with, whenwe talk to people individually, then we have to learnhow they relate to the the, black liberation struggle,and how they relate to whether or not there shouldbe changes at Muni. But without being mechanical,we have to relate to them in accordance to their classbackground and class conciousness.

MOVEMENT: How did the Black Caucus develop?

JOSE: The black caucus was' fomed by black bus-drivers who were fed up with the way the union wasn'trepresenting them. A strike was called for the purposeof the 1800 platform employees going out in supportof some benefits for 150 miscellaneous employeeswho are also in the union. That was about six monthsago.

SOLIDARITY VS. RACISM

DUCHO: When we started there was a lack of intereston some workers' part as to what we were doing andquite a lot of confusion among older workers whowere upset that a caucus was being formed on Mun-icipal Railway property. They couldn't see the signif-icance of a caucus when they felt that the union wasworking in.. the best interest of all the workers. Thisconfusion came particularly from some older. blackworkers who had struggled in the union for a long timein an effort to 'gain some leadership positions in theunion. There's a black local union President now. Hecampaigned on the populanty' of the black 'POWermovement, and was elected by the majority of blackworkers on the property, there being about 60 to 65percent black busdriverso

This president is an opportunist, and he has notperformed adequately for the president of a union ofsuch size. But when the black caucus started, therewas a feeling that we were racists, that we were tryingto form a new union, that we were trying to disruptand divide the union, which is not so at all. So we hadto educate the other workers as to the purpose andfunction of the caucus, and why there was a need for

~ne;, ;

WILBERT:There was opposition to the name BlackCaucus. We ran a leaflet on that, how we understandthat in a racist system people are easily racistoriented and about how if they judged our practicethey'd find that racism wasn't a factor in the blackcaucus. There is no antagonistic racism between blackand white drivers. But the leadership that came inunder the legend of black power in 1967 perpetuatedthe same program as the white leadership. That'swhy the union leadership attacks us.

JOSE: Not long after we started we worked on acasewhere a cable car driver was forced to come back towork with his foot wrapped up, using a cane. We tookthe case to his union representative and pushed it. Wealso wrote it up. He was a white worker. We neededsomething like that to break down the thought of racism,because of the name of the organization.

WILBERT: The Central Com mittee of the Black Caucusis black. Understand something: the caucus was formedby black bus drivers but its on the same lines as anyrevolutionary organization that wants solidarity. TheCentral Committee is black, but anybody can join. Wehave white members.

DUCHO: We came into being when the union was tryingto put forth a strike position for the total membershipinvolving these 150 miscellaneous employees. There'sa dual nature to the question of the miscellaneousemployees. They're in the union partly for their ownadvantage on the one hand, and on the other keepingthem in the union increases membership and gives thelocal leadership some prestige. The miscellaneousemployees are supervisory personnel. A lot of thegrievances between management and platform employ-ees stem from these supervisorypersonnel, such asinspectors and dispatchers. Now how in the hell canthe union operate in the best interest of both theplatform employees and the miscellaneous employees.It's a divided house. The supervisory personnel reallycould care Jess, because they have management to de-fend them and don' t need the union for that. We saythe union is using these miscellaneous employees,while inadequately representing the platform employ-ees. We've raised this with the union, asked them totake it to the International Convention. The local

MOVEMENT

-

leadership refused to accept it, so the problem stillexists and hasn't been dealt with.

UNION iSSUES

MOVEMENT: What other issues have you raised sincethe time?

DUCHO: There's the question of by-laws. The local·leadership has quoted them in and out of context onevery issue that came up. Members of the blackcaucus went to the union office, and requested ourcopies of the bY-laws, which is the right of every unionmember. The president was out of town, so we talkedwith the Secretary Treasurer. He said we couldn't havea copy because they were all out, and some more wereat the printers., On further questioning he didn't knowthe name of the printer, when the by-laws had beensent. He said only the President had this information.We knew the Secretary Treasurer, who signs all thevouchers, all the papers would have this information,so we knew he was lying. We put out a flyer to thiseffect telling what had happened. And found out no onehad ever had any by-laws.

They came up with a copy of some Old proposedby-laws, but they'd never been approved by either theInternational or the membership like they're supposedto be. Nothing had been done.

Because of the questons that W(~ raised. and thequestions raised by many drivers, the union was forcedinto coming 'up with by-laws. And before they coulddo this, at a union meeting th~ acting President had tostate clearly that there were no by-laws. At the nextunion meeting, a month later, by-laws suddenlyap-peared. They came out of the sky. They had neverbeen before the membership for approval. The, situationwas clear, and so this was one area where we raisedthe awareness of our fellow union members, where they

began to ask the questions, and began to learn thatthere are certain things that they are entitled to, andthings that the union leadership is doing in their namethat are lies.

WILBERT: We also worked on the rules that applyto probationary employees. They're rigid. For exam-ple, if you're sick and you're a probationary employeeyou can only be off 14 days. More than that and you'reterminated. Nobody can determine when their body'sgoing to heal Some members of Local 250A were

, dismissed for this and the Black Caucus took the case,went all the way to the Civil Service Commission, andgot the jobs blick.

RAISING CONSCIOUSNESS

MOVEMENT: You've also started a newspaper>?

DUCHO: Right. A lot of the information we havegathered we were unable to disseminate at the unionhall because of rules that the leadership brought upto limit us in the amount of time we can speak. Wehad. to put out a newspaper. We put it out with informa-tion coming from the workers, from other drivers,questions that they ask, questions they're not gettingany answers to, situa:tions that exist in various div-isions of the Muni. Also things that go down at theunion meeting, because some drivers work nights andare unable to attend, and they have no other way ofknOWing what's going on in the union, The leadershipdoesn't even put out a paper. The last issue we put outwas the fourth, and before that we put out some fliers.

MOVEMENT: What's the response to the paper been?

DUCHO: Very favorable from the workers. We'reputting out information they have sought, and there wasno source before. We're now better able to see what theworkers want, because when they read the paper theyhave com ments, questions, criticism. We can then knowhow to improve, we can learn about specific incidents,check them out, and report on them to the drivers.Because of the paper, more drivers are beginning tounderstand the purpose and needs ofthe caucus. We'vealso had two rallies for the purpose of informing thedrivers why there's a black caucus.

MOVEMENT: In specific union work, how do you relategrievances about unsafe busses, or privileges for mis-cellaneous employees, to the black liberation struggle?

NOVEMBER 1969

JOSE: Before the drivers can relate toblack liberation, being workers and being programmedto take the money they make and go out and buy thecommodities other workers produce, we have to showthem that the conditions under which they work areexploitative conditions.

When we've raised the awareness of explotiation,we can also extend that to show where the communityunrest comes from. It comes from the system. Theunion leadership of all international unions workshand in hand with ·the bosses. And the bosses, inturn, control the' governllient. We have to show themthat the union is not working in their interests becausethe past history of the union shows they have notlived up to the constitutions and promises theylaid down for rank and file workers. We have to showhow the leadership of the unions has never had theinterests of the workers in mind, and have alwaysrelated to the workers as expendable when it comes tothe bosses, because they were getting theirs offthe top.

WILBERT: We have to get people to relate to change,and for us, change means revolution. It's the sameprocess of education that goes down on the job asgoes down in the community. When people understandwhat they are being SUbjected to in their own com-munities, then surely they'll understand what hhey'rebeing subjected to on the job. As revolutionariesit is our duty to raise these questions. It's the samestruggle going on at Muni as in the community. Thepeople in the society who have money are the samepeople who become International presidents, and thepeople in the community who have inadequate livingconditions are the people who become platform em-ployees. We want to raise the level of awareness onthe job so that drivers can go into the community anddeal with it.

MOVEMENT: What's your organization strategy? Doyou want to take over the leadership of the local,or agitate, or what?

WILBERT; No, we're riot agitators, we're revolution-aries. We relate to raising the political consciousnessof the workers there, mainly at ~rst in terms ofconditions on the job. Why don't you have all newbusses, instead of a few? Why are we still usingschedules that are ten years old when we knowthat in the past ten years this city has changed tre-mendously as far as transportation goes. We haveto understand first that we have to have a strongbase locally, to move from. When we raise the levelof consciousness of the membership to the point wherethey can put forth a strong localleadership, then what-ever comes down from the International)hat local lead-ership will be able to combat.

BLACK CAUCUS PROGRAM

"d::ro8'C''<

~(')::ro

MOVEMENT: The Black Caucus has a 7 point program:What is it?

I

JOSE and WILBERT (1. to r.)

19CONTINUED ON P.

JOSE; One time Lennard Airriess, the InternationalRepresentative, called up the police and told themthere were two Black Panthers in the office, when

MOVEMENT: What kind of repression has the caucusfaced?

California. Other than that we' have no bonafidecoalitions at this time. We are working with peoplein several different locals, and we are constantlymaking contact with people who are having problemswithin their local unions and are trying to come up withstrategy and tactics to handle the problems.

In New York City there's a revolutionaryelementinthe Transit workers union who are trying to start anindependant union because of the shit that's comingdown between the TWV and the Transit Authority. Wekeep in touch with them, although at this time wedon't intend to split the union out here or start anindependent union...but, we're revolutionaries andwe'll do what's necessary.

PANTHER TIES

WILBl:;RT, Imyself am a member ofthe Black PantherParty, an d these other brothers here on the CentralCommittee are very dedicated brothers and practicethe Party ideology, the ten point platform and programof the Party. That's what our relationship is withthe Party, we feel we are one, and if that shakesanybody, well right on. Our objective is to showpeople by practice what our politics are, and they arethe politics of the rank and file exercising their rightto change the system, the politics of revolution in thiscountry, and the politics of oppressed people all overthe world gaining liberation from this imperialist pigthat we here in Babylon are strategically close to.

WILBERT; We started in March. In April theystarted their repression. George Brady, then thechairman of the cuacus, was terminated, under thewrong rule. They tried to get rid of him on thegrounds he had been absent more times than he wasallowed in six months. We picked this shit uP, tookit up to the Civil Service Commission, and showedhe was terminated for his political beliefs. They hadto give his job back. At union meetings they tried toshut us up, and refused to recognize us on the floor.

MOVEMENT: What's the relationship to the BlackPanther Party?

MOVEMENT: Are there black caucuses in othertransport unions? What about link ups with other blackcaucuses?

DVCHO: The fifth point of the program is that wereject all rumors or hearsay that are not given theofficial word of the Caucus. We had to make this pointbecause of all the rumors being spread about us andwhat we stood for among the drivers. That's anotherreason why we came out with the paper.

JOSE; The sixth point is that the caucus does notrecognize the union as being above contructive crit-icism. Criticism is to be administered in an educationalmanner, not to destroy, but to build and strengthen.'Through criticism we expose the union leadership andeducate.

The seventh point is that it is not the intention ofthe Black Caucus to disrupt the workings of thegrievance procedures, which this union with honor hasachieved in the past. Every grievance that comes forthfrom the membership to the extent that the union hasdealt with it and the members were satisfied, we sayright on to that. The objective of the Black Caucus isto unite the workers for the purpose of bringingabout positive and concrete changes in the laws, rulesconditions, and thier application. When laws, rulesand policies do not serve the workers, we altack them.

MOVEMENT: Does the Caucus itself run candidates?

WILBERT: Should members and central committeepeople run for office? Membersaskuswhywe haven't,when we've raised so many questions about how fuckedup things are. We say that our main purpose is toraise the consciousness ofthe workers, and then they'llvote for men among themselves who are not oppor-tnists, and who understand the necessity for strongunions. If the membership wanted us to representthem, and a partiCUlar situation arose where we feltthis would serve their needs then we wouia. 'fhewhole union leadership is up for election in May andthis is what the cuacus is about right now, raising thepolitical consciousness of the members so that whenpeople come campaigning for different positions, theywill be able to judge whether they'll serve them or not.

support him if he will work in the interest of theworkers.

JOSE: One way we can do that is specify exactlywhat our black president now is doing that's not inthe workers' interests, That way they'll understandclearly that when he says, "I'm doing this for you",he's not.

JOSE: To add to that. The special privileges don't comedown so much from the union leadership, but from thebosses. The bosses set up theseso-calledspecial dutyjobs. Its a special privilege to be in the dispatchersoffice, you do less work and make the same money asplatform employees. These jobs am given to people whoadhere to policies set down by the management andthese policies are endorsed by the union by the merefact that the union does not attack this practice. Wesay; if there's an opening for a dispatcher then thereshould be examinations given for dispatcher. We sayopen up the ranks. Not using a position to play onfavoritism and cause dissension among the workers.The bosses play that game: divide and conquer.

WILBERT: The first point is that the Black Caucus.will attack all forms of discrimination and racismamong workers. Immediately upon any of this shitibeing perpetrated by the International, the local lead-ership, or th~ boss, we'll be there to fight it andexplain how racism goes against the interests of theworkers.

The second point is that the Black Caucus is againstthe individual acceptance of special privileges andfavoritism. We understand how Toms and lackeys aredeveloped, by getting special privileges. By getting jobsthat have less work to them. And people get these pos-itions because of their loyalty to the policies of theunion leadership. With the union leadership workingonly for its own and the bosses advantage, they needsome workers within the workers to perpetuate theirposition. We haveworkers in Local 250Awhoare Tomsand lackeys. When the black caucus runs down aprogressive line or expose something, these work@Tsrun some madness to confuse the membership. And theyget paid for this. We're against special privileges.Period.

WILBERT; The third point of the program is theBlack Caucus will actively support all unions workingin the best interest of the workers. We don't support aunion that turns its back on its membership, justbecause the membership is politically ignorant. Ifthe leadership of a union sees the membership isignorant politically, and it is educating the mem-bership, and struggling together with it, we support it.

MOVEMENT: Have you supported any unions in this'area?

JOSE-: Notany specific union. There have been worirersfrom many local unions that we have stood in sol-idarity with. I

The fourth point of the program is that the Caucuswill support or select members seeking political of-fice in the union after we've run a background survey WILBERT: Right now we have a working coalition withof his history, union activities, sincerity. then wewill the Black Panther Caucus of the V.A W. in Fremont.

NOVEMBER 1969 ; MOVEMENT--"l'AGE7

YBUN6 ~ElRB5 MEiVE IN NEW lEiRK

MOVEMENT

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Young Lords Organization is spreading. It wasfirst established in Chicago (see May, June and July 1969 issues of theMOVEMENT). Now the YLO is building in New York City, where over amillion Puerto Ricans live.

The following is an interview with Yoruba, Minister of Informationfrom New York. Parts of the interview were originally in LNS; otherparts are special to the MOVEMENT'

HOSPITAL CONTROL

CONTINUED ON P. 13

YORUBA: What we try to do is takestuff like Marx and Lenin and try totranslate it into street language. Somaybe they can't catch what Marx issaying, but when one of us runs it downto them, they can dig on dialecticalmaterialism. That will work for a sixtyyear old mother of the kids in liberationschool.

MOVEMENT: What sort 9f work do youdo in' your P, E classes?

FILMS TO POLITICS

YORUBA: We've been instituting a com-munity political education (P. E )class.We show Newsreel films that range from"Off the Pig" to films on Venezuela.We take the people through changes, blowtheir minds, show them people laughingin Cuba, show them Bobby Seale sayinghe's not a racist and then we run a P. E,class right on that. And they're comingoff pretty good. We're trying to offsetthe image that the pigs have given us.The pigs work in collusion, and the gamethey're trying to play for the march inChicago is saying that the Lords are-agang. They thing they can run the samegame here so they're trying to say thatthe Lords are a gang. But gangs haven'tbeen around New York .for almost fif-teen years. The people are hip to tl'je fact:that we feea Kids in the morning; we have"a free breakfast program, and they think,well if they're a gang why do they feedkids? .

'We hadthree Breakfast for School Children pro-grams going on in New York. One isbeing run jointly with the Panthers at 116thStreet in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem), andanother we run jointly along with streetpeople on the Lower East Side. We hada third, but we were thrown out 'causethe director of the place on lloth Streetsaid we walked in in the mornings withshotguns.

MOVEMENT: What kind of day to daywork is going on in the community?

NOVEMBER 1969

The other thing is schools, we've beendoing alot of college and high schoolorganizing. The high schools have beengoing pretty well, what we've been tryingto push is a Third World StudentsParty. The big organizing problems havebeen the technical schools, the voca-tional schools. They keep the studentsisolated so they don't even know what'shappening .outside the school. They livein the community and that's where we canget to them, but a vocational schoolis a penitentiary worse than other schoolsThe object of the school is to make youobsolete before you get out, sotheytrainyou for a job, by the time you get outit's mechanized. It kills off our people,and that's the killd of institution that keepsthe ghetto a ghetto. One of the thingswe're pushing is how the government,the pigs, keep the ghetto a ghetto.

ees, construction and heath code en-forcement.10) Any community, union, or workersorganization must support all the pointsof this program an d work and fight forthat or be shown as what they are-enemies of the poor people of EastHarlem.

saying things like that Lords burn downschools, and the Lords are a gang. Thehospital thing is coming along prettywell.

(Ten Point Health Program of the YoungLords Organization)I) We want total self-determination of allhealth services in East Harlem (ElBarrio) through an incorporated Com-munity-Staff Governing Board for Met-ropolitan Hospital. (Staff is anyone andeveryone working at Metropolitan).2) We want immediate replacement ofall Lindsay administrators by com munityand staff appointed people whose practicehas demonstrated their commitment toserve our poor community.3) We demand immediate end to con-struction of the new emergency roomuntil the Metropolitan Hospital Com-munity-Staff Governing Board inspectsand approves them or authorizes newplans. .4) We i/ant employment for our people.All jobs filled in El Barrio must be filledby residents first,usingon-the-jobtrain-ing and other educational opportunitiesas bases for service and promotion.5) We want free pUblicly supported healthcare for. treatment and prevention. WEWANT AN END TO ALL FEES,6) We want total.decentralization-- blockhealth officers 'responsible to the com-munity-staff board should be instituted.7) We want "door-to-door" preventivehealth services emphasizing environ-ment and sanitation control, nutrition,drug addiction, maternal and child careand senior citizen's services.8) We want education programs forall the people to expose heaith problems- .s;mitation, rats, poor housing, malnu-trition, police brutality, pollution, andother forms of oppression.9) We. want total control by the Met-ropolitan hospital community-staff gov-erning board of the budget allocations,medical policy along 'the above points"hiring, firing, and salaries of employ-

hitting on is the poverty pimps in thecommunity. See, if we take the positionthat the Barrio and the ghetto is a colony,then these anti- poverty agencies and pov-erty pimps are outposts, like Fort Savageor Fort Courage in the West when the In-dians were trying to take care of somebusiness; they're the man's eyes and earsin the colony. When we brought the marchuptown, these jive pigs cut out. They saidthis is an East Harlem demonstration, butthat's jive, it was a welfare' demon-stration. So the people saw where thatwas at. And it's hard for the povertypimps to show their faces in the com-munity now. What thy're trying to do howis buy us out, we've gotten strangeoffers from people who want to pick upour rent, and Lindsay's aides comingaround wanting to set up interviews with.Lindsay and the Young Lords. Lindsaywas supposed to make three appear-ances in East Harlem because tbis is anelection year, but the work has gottenout to him that East Harlem is kind ofhot. So he hasn't shown up.

We've also been working at Metro-politan Hospital organizing the workersand the community people aound theisslle of the lay advisory board thatthe' city was trying to push on ourpeople for the hospital. After the schoolthing last year, people are pretty hipto what a lay advisory board is: abunch of jive middle class people sittingon the board giving recommendations tosomebody who mayor may not take them.What we're trying to institute is a com-munity-staff governing board. Last Wed-nesday, we had a meeting withthe EastHarlem Health Council and we presenteda ten point program that they passed. Sowhat we've got to do now is beat theadniinistration" at organizing tlie. people:"Since they're ip the hospital what they've

"been doing is Jiocking Lords' fro in goinginto the Hospital, and the second thing is

,~~~~

MOVEMENT: What is the history of theLords in New York':?

YORUBA: We've been working under-ground in New York since January andwe surfaced around July. The first issuewe picked on was garbage in the streets.Since it was the most visible, it was theeasiest to organize around. What we didwas take the garbage and throw up bar-ricades in the street using the garbage,which served a dual purpose: one, it ef-fectively symbolized that the Barrio isa colony, and we were able to barricadeoff parts of the colony. And the secondthing was the whole garbage issue, dirtystreets, and it breeds rats. It picked upvery little attention the first couple ofweeks, but then it kept on just snow-balling. We WOUld. have fifteen Lordsin the beginning doing it and about threehundred street people coming in, and 'itblows the pigs' minds. If you're good youcan do your thing and then melt intothe community. That's ~hat we've beenable to do, and they can't tell PuertoRicans apart, it's fantastic.

Right after the garbage thing, we movedinto welfare. We were working with themothers on that, and we had people onthe Lower East Side working on that,at P.S 15. We had an action of thepeople, then we blocked the TriboroBridge complex on 125th St., and thenwhat we did was fantastic. We took thepeople from East Harlem and marchedup 125th St. into Harlem. You see, for along time the man runs his divide andconquer game in the colony by telling oneperson you're Puerto Rican and tellingsomeone else you're black, and there-fore you two are different. Well, that'sjive, because everybody's on welfareand e.,ierybOdy's poor;" and everybodyshould be fighting on the same side of therevolution.. So we took them up f25th-St. which was a symbolic thing, and forthe first time a lot of those motherssaw an organized group of blacks, andwe brought them to the reclamation siteand we stayed there for a while and wecame back when the pigs started bustingheads cause we scared shit out ofthem.We had cut across their precinct lines bygoin~~p l25th St.

And the people saw where the jive wasat, because one of the things we've been

PAGE 8

EDITOR'S NOTE: Six of Los Siete, the seven. Latin ·brothers accused of murdering a pig,have been in jail for the last five months.·Their trial will begin in less than a month. Asthey await trial, their sisters and brothers onthe outside have been organizing the Bay Area-Brown community to defend the seven andthemselves. Los Siete organization providesthe Mission District of San Francisco with a .breakfast program, free medical and legal aid, .political education,· and a newspaper (for de-tails see MOVEMENT, Aug. 1969).

After some hassle with the pigs, we were. able to interview the brothers in jail. Werapped for several hours with Nelson Rodri-guez, Mario Martinez, Tony (Rudolfo) Mar-tinez, Jose Rios, Bebe (Danilo) Melendez andPinky (Gary) Lescallet. The seventh accuSedbrother, Gio Lopez, is in parts unlmown.FREE LOS SIETE!MOVEMENT: Would you rap a little about what youwere into before the bu§t?

JOSE: I was in high school and trying to get outof school. I was intending to go to the College ofSan Mateo (CSM) when the new semester started.I was really looking forward to attending collegeand staying in college - trying to talk to the peoplewhile in school, rather than just being out in thestreets. Because I could see for myself that therewas a lot of people who were sort of like givingup. I was sort of like giving up myself. But Marioand .NelsQn were talking to me. I heard that they hada good program up at CSM

I was going to Balboa High School before I gotbusted. You know, the education in high school isnot so good. The classes I wa s taking weren'tinteresting, so I wanted to give it up. Once I heardabout the Program at CSM, I decided to stay inhigh school and try to get along till I could go toCSM.

HISTORY OF HARASSMENT

But most of the time I stayed in the MissionDistrict. The brothers there have to constantlydeal with the pig harassment. You know, the pigsjust park in front of you and take out their shotgunsand they make a big thing about goingtoarrestsome-one. All the people see what's going on.

I remember a couple of nights before everythingcame down. There was some pig walking by thisfriend of ours - someone in the group caned out• pig" - so the pig turned around -and s~artedchasing us. They caught this friend of mine and theystarted beating him and beating him - blood wascoming out of his head. The only reason why theystarted clubbing him was cause someone said• pigs". But they didn't really know who it was,

NOVEMBER 1969

they just wanted to get anybody. Just to get in theirlicks.

NELSON: Another time the pigs shot someone in. the Mission just for yelling • pig" • Before we got

popped, the harassment, of brown people was reallyheavy. The pigs had declared war against the broth-ers down in the. Mission District. About a monthbefore the bust, an· article came out in the news-paper about how the merchants were being terror-ized by the brothers down in the Mission. Well,nothing like that ever happened. The proof is thatthis woman who owns a store down at 20th and Mis-sion;.- the name is. II Anne and Daughters", well shecame with one of her daughters and apologized tous, because she· knew· it .was all lies. After that,the pigs were going by in unmarked cars and takingpictures of the brothers standing outside, so thatthey could show them to the other shifts that comeon to ·harass the people that they seen on the streets.As far as I know, none of the merchants in theMission never gave any work to any of us, in-cluding any of the brothers on the block. And asfar as I ~ow, nobody ever terrorized anybody.I guess they just wanted to clean up the streetsof .so-called bums, who are really our oppressedbrothers~ .

TONY: None of the brothers I knew had a goodsteady job. I've been down there ever since I cameto the United States about 8 years ago, and I don'tknow of anybody having jobs for more than a month.I don't think there's more than two or three brotherswho have jobs working for the merchants in theMission. So they had no right to harass them andcall them terrorists, .cause there weren't any acts

.of terrorism. Maybe there were a few crimes,but that always happens.

SAN MATEO STRUGGLE

MOVEMENT: What were the rest of you into beforethe bust?

MARIO: Before this thing happened I was attendingthe College of San Mateo. We got involved in thisprogram that was teaching us what the system hadbeen hiding from us. We started learning thetruth about the system, and about our people.We started learning about our identity.

Before, in high school, they taught us a wholebunch of lies - that's the reason why alot of usdidn't make it through high school. Only one of usever graduated from high school. There were manyreasons. The teachers weren't right. We didn't knowthat till we went to CSM and could compare theclasses taught by them and the classes taught byour people. That makes a real big difference, causein one class you hear about "this great people" andin another class you find out about how "this greatpeople" is a big lie.

MOVEMENT: Could you explain more about theProgram at San Mateo?

MARIO: The program started out with black people.

MOVEMENT

,•

They.started recruiting in the high schools and inthe streets. They started recruiting the brothers.You could get financial aid for going to this programand good classes. You didn't need a high school.diploma - you just go up there and get tutored.

MOVEMENT;was it at that time that you hadan organization called COBRA?

MARIO: Yes, it's still there. Before it used to bethe Brown Heritage Club. Then we had this strikebecause the administration at CSM wasn't meetingoUr demands. Alot·of students had to drop out becausethe administration wasn't giving the bread for theprogram. They were also trying to pick our coun-selors. We wanted our own. That' swhenwe changedthe name of the organization to the COBRAS. (Itstands for Confederation of Brown Race for Action)My brother, Tony, was the chairman of it.

MOVEMENT: Tony, you want to talk some moreabout COBRA?

TONY: COBRA came about because the strugglewas getting pretty heavy over the Program. stu-dents were dropping out. The administration wasn'ttaking care of the needs of the students. Theywere continually taking out counselors and trying toinfiltrate the program by putting in people whoworked for the administration. So when the strikestarte d everybody came into a common front,We had the strike and due to the strike we gotnew counselors and a new ethnic studies depart-

'ment. (for a story on the San Mateo strike, seeMovement, Feb. 1969). After the strike, COBRA started building its ideo-

logy towards recruiting more people to be students•So actually, before we all got busted, we wereinvolved in a heavy recruitment program to .getbrothers from the block to be students. We talkedto all the brothers we grew up with and tried to makethem see how many lies had been put to them and thatthey needed education so they could understand thewhole political spectrum of the country. We re-cruited al ot of people and COBRA grew alot.Now the organization is doing alot in our defense.They're doing alot to get people involved in pol-itical activities.

They see that for all these years our peoplehave been denied many things. None of our peoplehave really got educated. You look up statisticsand they will tell you that Brown people in this stateand in this nation are the ones that are at thebottom of the scale. Black people have risen upa little, but only because of their political struggle.So once our people become politically aware, theycan begin to struggle and do something about thethings that are going on.

The philosophy of the College Readiness Programwas really built, under the leadership of Bob Hoover.The philosophy spoke to self-determination which issomething our people lack. It's been forgotten fora long time - not necessarily forgotten - but it's

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I ...- .:z::a= - -;- --+..~ I

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'MARIO: OUr people need education. We're in theMission and hear things like people wanting tojoin the Green Berets - There are many examplesof this ignorance in the streets - You see all theseguys turil1ng to ,drugs. They don't see that thatis no help and only oppresses us more. .

MOVEMENT: Most of you corne, from CentralAmerica. How do you relate the oppression andstruggle of the people there to here?

BEBE: The Yanqui imperialist tuns everythingdown there. Like I went back to' there in' 63.They got the American Fruit Company down there..The people and country don't have the chance toproduce their own crops so they could .profit off ofit. They got all these Rockefellers and all these otherpeople down there, just making profit off the peopleand land that isn' t theirs. Up here, it's the same way.They make money off of us. They tell us they'llgive us $1.35· to work at this damn NeighborhoodYouth Corps. They tell you to dig a ditch and thatditch might become a resevoir some day and all yougot paid for it was $1.35. OUr people has more know;.ledge than that. They tell us "that's all you're goodfor" - we need more lawyers, we need moreprofessors and teachers and so forth. The system.up here just don't let the brown people have achance. Th e grape boycott and Los Siete de la Razahas awakened a lot of people up - we tell them -"You' re better than the Man tells you". You can dosomething - something for your people.

BLACK AND BROWN UNITY

MOVEMENT: How is the coaliton between Los Sieteand thf Panthers going?

TONY: The struggle is a class struggle of oppressedpeople. Black people and brown people are both op-pressed - maybe not in the same ways, but thesystem uses the same tactics. The young peoplehave finally, little by little, overcome the man'sdivide and conquer game.

We have learned a lot from the black people.We have learned from the many tactics they haveused in the struggle. The Black Panthers havehelped the movement for Los Siete a lot. Theyhave done this, because they have realized thatthey're not the only ones who are oppressed, becausewe are oppressed in the same manner. We have tobuild an ideology so that all people can be united -not.just brown people, but black people too.

We have had to overcoine a lot of pr'oblems withinbrown people before we got to the stage we're atnow. Before the movem ent used to be just Chicano -so-called Mexican Americans - they were leavinga lot of brown people out. Finally, we overcame thatwhen the "brown" term carne about, everybody ofbrown descent became united. Then the next stepwas to move to get united with black people. Nowwe're united on many fronts with black people.

NELSON: That kind of relates to the Salvador-Honduras war. You knOw that in El Salvador there'sa monopoly of 14 fam1l1es. Salvador is a pretty smallcountry and most of the peasants have to migrateto Honduras because there's twice as much landand the people like to get ahead. Well, the Hondurangovernment stereotypes their people into tellingthem "they've corne to invade our country". That' stheir old divide and conquer game again. Just like

.here. The people over there are still fighting eachother. There's a lot of illiteracy and what alwayscomes out on top is the oppressor brainwashingth e people into fighting each other. Just like blackand brown are still fighting in some places, likeBalboa. But there will always be Zapatas andVillas as examples.

MOVEMENT: Have you learned much from thestruggle of black brothers?

MARIO: The black people have been oppressed themost in this system. Black people have been inthis system more time than we have. From themwe have learned a lot of things. For instance, wehave" learned that the Man could not teach the blackpeople. Once black people started teaching theirown people, they really started getting someplace.So that should tell us, that when we start teaching our

PAGE 12

own people the many lJroblems and solutions to theproblems, we will get someplace.

TONY: Like in the strike in San Mateo. It wasstarted by black and brown students, We madethe administration change a little.

Another thing we have learned from black peopleis the tactics of pressure.The Man is not gonnagive nothing that he don't want to give, becausethis society works for a so-called majority - nowthis majority is well-off, but we are not well-off, so therefore we have to make it work for us.Black people have shown us that the only waysociety is gonna give way is by putting pressureon them. so this is what we try to do- it happenedin San Mateo, Ilnd they gave way, because we putpressure on them. The administration would neverhave moved unless our people forced them to move.We had to put the pressure on them. So we havelearned that we have to teach our people that wereally have to take matters into our own hands.The facilities to take care of our people are going tohave to be built by us. They can never by builtby the Man because the Man is' gonna run themtheir way, a way to oppress us.

Any program that is financed by the governmentis gonnagive their ideology - it's not gonna reallytake care of the people. In the communities rightnow, we have a lot of programs, a lot of clinicsand stuff. If you go to the programs they have,like the programs Alioto is talking about where hegives a chance to .young people to work in hisadministration, those programs are financed by the

.federal government - so the ideology of those pro-grams is their ideology. It doesn't relate to ourneeds, It's a program where you go and maybe youget 60 bucks a week and then you go horne and halfthe time you don't have to work. That kind of pro-gram will never get our people anywhere, becauseit's not teaching them nothing. .

RAISING LEVEL OF STRUGGLE

Many brown people, young people, have seen thatthis is a viol~nt society. The only way you gonna get'the things is' with violence. Maybe a lot of peopledon't like this, I doubt if anybody really wants tobe .violent - but nevertheless, we see it. This Isa violent society, so therefore we .have-to act inviolent ways. Whether an armed struggle has tobe done, I guess we'll have to get prepared for that.If we don't have to engage in armed struggle, wellwe'll be prepared for that too. Were gonnamake sure our people are in schoolS, so that if we.don't have to engage .in armed struggle, we can besure we'll. be represented by professionals, bypeople who know the needs and corne from the peoplewith those needs and will be able to take care ofthem.

MOVEMENT: How does that process go in decidingWhether or not armed struggle is necessary? Howare the issues raised?

TONY: One of the biggest issues raised is by thepolice. In our communities, just like in the blackcommunities, the pigs who patrol our commun-ities, don't corne from our communities. He comesinto our community, harasses people, does violentthings to the people and is never seen by the people.So slowly" we· have realized that there is a need forcom~unity . contr