BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
In response to Washington's war drive against Iraq,
socialist workers have been campaigning on the job to discuss
with their co-workers about why working people should oppose
the U.S. aggression. Along with the Militant, the best tools in
this effort are issue no. 7 of the Marxist magazine New
International, which features "Opening Guns of World War III:
Washington's assault on Iraq" by Jack Barnes; The Changing Face
of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions,
also by Barnes; and U.S. Hands Off the Mideast! Cuba speaks out
at the United Nations by Fidel Castro and Ricardo Alarcón. A
special offer on these titles is advertised on the front page
of this week's Militant.
Barbara Bowman, a rail worker in San Francisco, reports that another rail worker there sold two copies of U.S. Hands Off the Mideast! One young woman who bought the book wants to have further discussion with the socialists over dinner.
"Some co-workers are buying into bourgeois public opinion in support of Washington's war moves," said Joe Swanson, a member of the United Auto Workers in Des Moines, Iowa. But not all of them. "I met Harold Searcy, who was an outspoken opponent of the Gulf War, at our recent union meeting," said Swanson. "He bought a copy of the Militant and said he would probably buy a subscription. He said he would be happy to join any speakers panel or picket line opposing U.S. military intervention."
Searcy told Swanson, "My wife doesn't like me being outspoken, but there's just no way I can stay out of it if they keep pushing these war threats. I have to take a stand again." During Washington's military slaughter against the Iraqi people in 1991, Searcy was interrogated at work by agents of the U.S. Secret Service and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation for his antiwar and political activities.
Ruth Robinett, a rail worker at Amtrak in New York, sold two copies of "Opening Guns of World War III."
"I got into a lot of discussions when one worker asked me, `What are you talking about?' A member of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees agreed with me about Iraq and bought New International no. 7," Robinett said.
Rollande Girard, a member of the United Steelworkers of America, wrote from Miami, "One of my co-workers bought a copy of the French-language Nouvelle Internationale no. 4, which features "The Opening Guns of World War III," after we had a discussion on the U.S. threats against Iraq. She is from Haiti and knows from her own experience what U.S. military intervention means for the people of these countries." Girard said workers in her plant also bought copies of the pamphlets Che Guevara and the Fight for Socialism Today and The Second Declaration of Havana in Spanish, as well as An Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis in French.
"Last week we organized a sale at the plant gate of Lear Seating Corp. where Clint Ivie, a Young Socialist and UAW member, works," Arlene Rubenstein reported from Atlanta. "The sales team had signs that read `U.S. Hands Off Iraq' and `U.S. Out Of the Persian Gulf,' which provoked a lot of discussion in the plant. The next week Clint joined the team, and they sold two copies of the Militant at the gate." One of the unionists who bought the paper had been among the dozen workers who earlier attended a press conference with Ivie to protest an attack on his democratic rights. On August 11 two FBI agents came to his workplace claiming he was a suspect in the July 1996 bombing during the Olympic games there.