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Vol. 71/No. 35      September 24, 2007

 
Letters
 
Legalization and the unions
The two excerpts from earlier Militant reports on the struggle of miners at the Co-Op coal mine in Huntington, Utah, reprinted in the September 10 issue of the paper are useful reviews of crucial lessons in labor organizing. One major point, however, is brought up without any follow up whatsoever: the importance of linkage between the struggle for union organizing in the mines and the one for legalization of undocumented workers.

In the first of the two reprints, coal miner Bill Estrada states that “what the coal miners fought through points to why the fight for legalization of the millions of undocumented workers in this country is so important.” A clear understanding of that connection is not just a precondition for more effective labor actions, but also for furthering the necessary political lessons to be learned.

The fact that the point is not expanded further in any of the two reprints is a sorry loss for those who should be better served by such reporting; particularly when such a high percentage of those toiling in the mines are undocumented workers themselves.

Claudia Kaiser-Lenoir
Boston, Massachusetts

Illinois abortion clinic
The article “Abortion rights backers defend new clinic in Illinois” in the September 17 Militant says, “A women’s clinic here that provided abortions shut down after being evicted in October.”

This is incorrect. The previous clinic in Aurora stopped offering abortions when the doctor retired last year. The doctor who bought the practice never opened up the clinic. He was the one who was evicted.

This is not a small error because of the propaganda that the right wing spreads. The Pro-Life Action League brags that an “abortionist” was evicted and some groups imply it was due to unsafe health practices.

Laura Anderson
Chicago, Illinois

Support the Jena Six
A rally and march are being called in Jena, Louisiana on September 20, the day that high school student Mychal Bell will be sentenced. Bell, one of the ‘Jena Six’, faces up to 15 years for aggravated battery. He has been in jail since last December. The other five, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw, and an unidentified minor await trial on charges ranging from aggravated battery to attempted murder.

Last September some Black students in the nearly 80 percent white high school in the rural Louisiana town sat in the shade of a tree that normally only white students sat under. The following day three nooses were hung from the tree. Black students then organized a sit-in under the tree to protest.

Days later a white student shouted racial taunts at Black students and praised those who hung the nooses. In the incident that followed he was knocked down, punched, and kicked by some students.

The Jena Six were then arrested, charged with attempted second degree murder, and expelled from school. Information on how to protest this blatant injustice can be found on the website www.freethejena6.org.

Maura DeLuca
New York, New York

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of interest to working people. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
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