Despite the lateness of the event, workers stayed for more than an hour to exchange experiences with Italie and to present him with a petition signed by 28 workers at their plant and at Nebraska Beef. The petition protests Goodwill Industries' firing of Italie last October from his job as a sewing machine operator. Italie was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Miami at the time, and he had spoken out in opposition to the U.S. war against Afghanistan and in defense of the Cuban Revolution at a televised candidates debate a few days earlier. Goodwill CEO Dennis Pastrana told the Miami Herald he dismissed the socialist worker because of his political views.

The Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights and Freedom of Speech, formed by Italie's supporters in Miami, has been organizing a campaign across the country in which working people and youth have collected thousands of signatures and statements demanding Goodwill rehire the socialist worker. Italie's visit here is part of a nationwide tour to defend workers' rights and publicize the case.

At the Omaha meeting Italie explained his case to the meat packers, as well as fights by other workers he has met who are also standing up to victimization by the bosses since September 11. "My case, my fight, is a part of the fight of the Palestinians for a homeland, of immigrant workers against discrimination, of women demanding their rights," he said.

The accelerated assault on working people in the United States since September shows that whatever advances and victories workers and farmers make in their struggles against the employers and their government, "until working people organize a revolutionary struggle and take power out of the hands of the capitalists, any gains we make are only temporary."

Defending workers' rights to express views in opposition to government policies, run for office against the bosses' parties, and organize in their own class interests is part of defending democratic rights and the constitutional liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights, such as the freedom of expression and assembly, Italie said.

Several of the Nebraska meat packers explained the struggles they had waged against firings by the bosses for union organizing activity.

One worker who has been at the plant for 25 years said he had faced intense harassment from a boss. The worker was suspended under charges of verbally confronting the boss and everyone thought he would be fired. "My co-workers mobilized to defend me," he said. "They started talking about ways to support me, including with a work stoppage, and it all got back to the big managers. The result was I got my job back. But the pressure at work is still great."

Italie responded that this is how it was at Goodwill as well, "with bosses always looking at us, telling us to work harder, trying to humiliate us. The question is how to organize against this. You have a good example here of how to fight back."

A plant maintenance worker explained his participation in union organizing efforts going back to 1976. "That plant closed and I lost the illusion that we could organize," he said. "But over time, with conditions getting worse, I got involved again at this plant. What did we have to lose? We couldn't continue to work there anyway with these conditions."

The organizing drive led to a victory for the maintenance workers in November 2000, while the pro-union vote among production workers fell short. Maintenance workers ratified their first contract last year and it has led to some gains and small victories on the job, he said. But the company has continued to target him as a pro-union fighter, and fired the worker three months ago. This occurred after a serious accident at work that left him badly injured and unable to hold his job. His case is in arbitration.  
 
Truth about the war
Another worker said that in the past he has supported wars waged abroad by the U.S. government. "They never tell the truth and I believed what I heard. But since I have been buying books from Pathfinder, I'm beginning to understand what's behind these wars. Now I'm against the war," he said. Among the "mountain" of books he has bought, the worker said he has read Fertile Ground: Che Guevara and Bolivia and parts of Nueva Internacional no.1, which contains "Washington's Assault against Iraq: Opening Guns of World War III," by Jack Barnes.

Participants in the event contributed $78 to the work of Italie's defense committee.

Italie also traveled to Marshalltown, Iowa, March 14 and spoke with a few workers from the Swift meatpacking plant after first shift. A Swift worker explained that she had been one of the first Mexican workers in the plant 13 years ago. The speedup and deteriorating conditions over those years have left her with numerous injuries and health problems. Now that she's incapable of working anywhere else, she said, the company wants to drive her out of the plant.

"Some co-workers say, 'Why do you stay here? Your husband has a good job.' I say, 'that's him, and this is me!'" She and other workers at Swift participated in protests in 1999 against a proposal to give town police the power to arrest and begin deportation proceedings against anyone they suspected of lacking valid immigration papers.

Later that evening, Italie spoke at Drake University at a meeting sponsored by Drake Mobilization for Peace and Justice. Mark Westerberg from Drake Mobilization chaired the meeting and announced an antiwar conference in Des Moines scheduled for April 13–14.

In his talk Italie said working conditions at Goodwill--where many workers earn at or below the minimum wage, receive no medical benefits, and disabled workers are superexploited--are an example of what working people face in Miami. Goodwill contracts with the U.S. government to make flags and military uniforms. Miami has an official poverty rate of 32 percent, and has been designated as the poorest city in the United States. "Maybe I won't get my job back," Italie said of the fight he has waged, "but they may have to think twice about doing this to someone else."

Also speaking was Larry Ginter, a hog farmer from Rhodes, Iowa. "Government legislators will do everything in their power to protect major corporations so they can operate unmolested around the world," said Ginter. "However, most lawmakers remain mute when citizens like Mr. Italie express an opinion and then are fired from their jobs. We must all remember one thing," he concluded, "those who would take away our civil liberties must first destroy organized resistance."

The Drake event was attended by 20 people, including several students new to the politics expressed by Italie, such as freshman Kate Albrecht. Albrecht stayed after the meeting to talk with Italie and other socialists, and then made plans to stop by the Pathfinder bookstore the next day to pick up a copy of From the Escambray to the Congo, by Víctor Dreke. At the bookstore she said the meeting the night before had been a revelation for her.

"I knew about the attack on civil liberties, but I had no clue that these conditions existed for so many workers in this country," Albrecht said. "I was a waitress and I made $3 an hour with nothing extra in tips when business was slow. I just thought this was the way it was. I didn't realize things like this happened to so many workers in other places and that they organized to do something about it. Mike Italie's talk really opened my mind. I am definitely interested in learning more about the ideas he supports."

Participants in the tour raised $470 for the Committee to Defend Freedom of Speech and the Bill of Rights.

For more information on this struggle or to make a contribution, write to the Committee to Defend Freedom of Speech and the Bill of Rights, P.O. Box 510127, Miami, FL 33151-0127. Tel: (305) 724-5965 or e-mail: DefendFree-Speech-@yahoo.com.

Nancy Cole is a meat packer and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1149 in Perry, Iowa.  
 
 
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