Vol.64/No.35 September 18, 2000
Socialists protest attack on bookstore in Des Moines
BY SIMONE BERG
DES MOINES, Iowa--On the morning of September 4, volunteers for the Iowa Socialist Workers Campaign, arriving to gather books and newspapers before going to the Labor Day parade, found that the Pathfinder bookstore had been attacked. Pigs' feet had been shoved through the mail slot. A plastic tub of chicken livers had been splattered along the wall next to the door. And one of the big display windows on the side of the building had been pelted with a dozen eggs. The incident was reported to the police.
"This attack is not going unanswered," said Edwin Fruit, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in the Fourth District here and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1149. "We are telling other working-class fighters and supporters of democratic rights about it. We are seeking their support in speaking out against this assault on an establishment whose purpose is to tell the truth about the fights of workers, farmers, and the oppressed here and around the world."
Supporters of the Iowa Socialist Workers Campaign used this campaign headquarters in their successful effort to get Fruit, along with James Harris for president and Margaret Trowe for vice president, on the ballot in Iowa. There have been public meetings here to speak out for immigrant rights, as well as to protest police brutality and the racist murder of Charles Lovelady by security thugs hired as bouncers at a local nightclub.
As we go to press, supporters of the Militant, who sponsor the Militant Labor Forum every week at the Pathfinder Bookstore are planning a press conference on September 8 to condemn and bring attention to this attack.
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