OSAWATOMIE

AUTUMN 1975 NO. 3

WEATHER UNDERGROUND ORGANIZATION

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 !-, fyomas hidjs, 'i,-<jL"lxu^i«y, «*nwawti"cody";olmso»),

CONTENTS
3 WHERE WE STAND
7 PRISON: BREAK THE CHAINS
14 REVIEW: Three Books about Women
16 Fighting For Our Film
18 WUO Bombs Kennecott
19 Defend the Portuguese Revolution
22 TOOLBOX: Socialism
23 Boston: The Battle Rages
26 FIREWORKS. Korea: The First Defeat
28 THE TRAIL
More Stories from a Truck Stop
OSAWATOMIE
30 Country Music In 1856, at the Battle of Osawatomie,
Kansas, John Brown and 30 other aboli-
tionists, using guerrilla tactics, beat
We urge all people's organizations, back an armed attack by 250 slavery
publications and presses to reprint supporters, who were trying to make
OSAWATOMIE. (See Pucho, p. 31.) All Kansas a slave state. This was a turn-
ing point in the fight against slavery.
photos are 100 line screen, for re- For this, John Brown was given the name
production by "instant print" process, "Osawatomie" by his comrades.

WHO WE ARE
The Weather Underground Organization (WUO) is a revolutionary organization of communist women and men.
We grow from the civil rights, anti-war and youth movements of the 1960's, in particular Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS), the group which called the first national protest against the Vietnam War in
1965, and became the largest radical youth organization of our time. The name of the organization comes
from a line in "Subterranean Homesick Blues", a popular song in the last decade"; "You don't need a weather-
man to know which way the wind blows". In 1970 we made the decision to begin armed struggle and developed
an underground organization. For five years the clandestine WUO has been hated and hunted by the imperial-
ist state.
In July 1974, we published Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Aiiti-imperialism. To the best
of our knowledge there are currently 30,000 copies of the book in circulation.
The Weather Underground Organization is responsible for over 25 armed actions again9t' the enemy.
Eight of these were bombings directed against imperialist war and in support of the people of Indochina.
This includes the attack on the Capitol in 1971, on the Pentagon in 1972 and on the State Department in
1975. Ten actions were directed against the repressive apparatus: courts,prisons, police, and in support
of Black liberation. This includes attacks on N.Y. City Police Headquarters in 1970 and the California
Department of Corrections following the assassination of George Jackson at San O.uentin in 1971. One was a
bombing of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, an action which was part of the freedom strug-
gle of women. One was a bombing of the New York City branch of the Banco de Ponce, in militant support of
striking cement workers in Puerto Rico. These actions were carried out in harmony with the demonstrations,
marches and political activity of millions of people. Together they have resulted in approximately $10
million damage to the imperialists and a significant blow to their arrogance. This is a bee sting against
such a powerful enemy, but a bee sting whose strength is multiplied many times by the fact that these actions
represent the early stages of sustained armed struggle led by a political organization.
Osawatomie, the revolutionary voice of the WUO, is guided by a committment to struggle, a determination
to fight the enemy, the certainty that we will see revolution in our lifetime, and. a spirit of love for the
exploited people of the world. In order to build a successful struggle, the people need strong organiza-
tion and a revolutionary psriry.
The program of the Weather Underground Organization is:
— US imperialism out of the Third World.
— Peace. Oppose imperialist war and US intervention.
— Fight racism. Build an anti-racist base within the working class.
Support self-determination for oppressed peoples.
— Struggle against sexism and for the freedom of women.
— Organize the working class. Fight for socialism,• Power to the people.
In a single sentence, the program means this: Mobilize the exploited and oppressed people to wage the
class struggle against US imperialism, the common enemy.
 WHERE WE STAND
OUR CLASS STAND
by Bernardine Dohrn

This is a speech given by Bernardine Dohrn to a national meeting of cadres

of the WHO on September 2, 1975, the 30th anniversary of Ho Chi Minh's
declaration of the independence of Vietnam.

I am happy to welcome you to this meeting. You reflect, as a group, the

significant growth of our organization. Cadres are the heart and soul of or-
ganization, the motor, the essence. Without good cadres, revolutionary organ-
ization cannot grow, cannot make revolution. This meeting is dedicated to
you — to your questions, to your concerns, to your development.

How many people here believe that there will be a revolution in the
United States, a socialist revolution? And how many think that this
revolution will be in our lifetime?

I ask, not because it is an article of faith to believe that the revo-

lution will happen soon, nor because it is a personal question about one's
own lifetime. I ask because the answer profoundly affects the type of organ-
ization we build and how we define our tasks. Let me tell a story about
Lenin.

"In June, 1917, during a meeting, of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets,

the Menshevik Tsereteli, trying to defend the Provisional Government in
which he held a cabinet post and fully aware that this government was
powerless to check the spreading chaos, challenged his critics to put
up or shut up. 'At the present moment,1 he said, 'there, is no political
party which would say — Give the power into our hands; go away, we will
take your place. — There is no such party in Russia.' From the audience
a voice rang out. 'There is.' It was Lenin, ready to assume the responsi-
bilities of power at the head of the Bolshevik party."

from Evolution and Revolution

by Grace Lee and James Boggs

We are building a communist organization to be -part of the forces which

build a revolutionary communist party to lead the working class to seize pow-
er and build socialism. This involves taking responsibility for every aspect
of the struggle. This is our direction.

Today I will focus on two subjects: the role of Marxism-Leninism in our

organizational growth, and a self-criticism of our class stand.

We must further the study of Marxism-Leninism in the WUO. The struggle

for Marxism-Leninism is the most significant development in our recent his-
tory. Two years ago, when we began organization-wide study of Marxism-Lenin-
ism, we were attempting to reorganize after a long period of disp.ersal and
fragmentation. We were debilitated, like many forces in the movement, by an
ideology of pragmatism — looking only at the forces in motion at a given
time; by vacillation between optimism at high tides and pessimism at ebbs in
the struggle; and by failing to give full weight to all the basic conflicts
within society. We found that in order to lead out of the chaos and to re-
build a united organization, we had to deepen our ideological foundation. The
organization adopted three slogans: Organize Ourselves, Educate Ourselves,
and Activate Ourselves Around a Written Program (Prairie Fire).

There were many objections to studying Marxism-Leninism, as well as

great suspicion. Some members argued that Marxism would push us to the right,
that most Marxists in the US ended up opportunist. Others called Marxism a
"white European ideology". Others felt it didn't apply to women. When the
study finally started, we realized that most members had never studied Marx-
ism-Leninism. And our study has liberated a new spirit in us, a hunger for
knowledge and ideology. We have embraced a world view in which human beings
are at the center of history, for it is the unique quality of people to re-
flect on their experience, to learn from the past and to project into the fu-
ture. It is this consciousness and self-consciousness — this social and po-
litical responsibility — which gives to human beings the ability to change
the world.

The study furthered the unity of the WUO, and enabled us to push for-
ward and write Prairie Fire. We discovered thru our own experiences what rev-
olutionaries all over the world have found — that Marxism-Leninism is the
science of revolution, the revolutionary ideology of the working class, our
guide to the struggle. We live in a time when there is the rich experience of
many successful revolutions to draw on. To become a revolutionary today
means to begin with the resources and lessons from the triumph of proletarian
revolution in many countries and with the great victories of national libera-
tion. Not only is Marxism-Leninism a body of thought, it has been applied in
practice — grasped and brought to life by millions of people, people who
have stood up, taken history into their hands and transformed their lives.
Within the last year alone, victory has been achieved by the revolutionary
liberation forces in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Mozambique and Guine-Bissau.
Each successful revolution has drawn on common lessons, and each is unique
and innovative.

Marxism-Leninism is not a dogma, or a set of static precepts; it is a

living science which has to be applied creatively to our own situation. We
should study the stand, method and world outlook of Marxism-Leninism and be-
gin to apply it to the pressing tasks of class analysis and the building of
communist organization in the US.

It is necessary to examine our political line and strategy. The publi-

cation of Prairie Fire was a qualitative leap in our commitment to full poli-
tical struggle over our line and our practice. Honest struggle and clear re-
cognition of errors is the only way a revolutionary organization can move
forward. In evaluating Prairie Fire one year after its publication, we think
it has proven to be a great book — a strong and beautiful statement of our
politics — and we have received excellent and comradely criticism of its
weaknesses which must be taken very seriously. These major weaknesses will
continue to be debated and discussed among us.

In particular, we must look at our class stand. We rely on our strengths

to help us overcome our weaknesses. To summarize our strengths: we have de-
fined US imperialism as the common enemy, we have a strong consistent record
of internationalist practice, of militant support for the right of self-de-
termination for the Black nation and Third World nations within the US, and
of fighting racism. We are recognized for our strong commitment to the de-
cisive importance of the revolution to women and of women to the revolution.
We have understood the central role of national liberation in the fight a-
gainst imperialism, best expressed by our practice in support of "All for
Vietnam." We have undertaken armed struggle and are developing the military
struggle with politics in command. These are strengths we can stand on as we
deepen our class analysis of the US.

Yet we have to recognize that we have also historically downplayed the

role and potential of the US working class; frozen our view of the working
class in a period when its struggle was weak and imperialism achieved hegemo-
ny; stereotyped the working class as the pro-war, white hardhat, assigning
the working class a permanent secondary front in the struggle. Perhaps most
of all, we have viewed with suspicion any emphasis on class struggle, seeing
it as a potential downplaying of the great uprisings of the Third World, a
potential liquidation of the role of the Black struggle. In seeing only po-
tential errors, we have ignored the historic mission of the working class and
failed to energetically pursue our task of forging it into a conscious class,
prepared to fight for the interests of the class as a whole. This cautious,
one-sided and incorrect view of class struggle is a major weakness. It is
wrong.

Within the US, the fundamental contradiction is between the working

class — all those forced to sell their labor power to the capitalists in
order to survive — and the imperialist ruling class. This is the contradic-
tion which defines capitalism: it arises with the very beginnings of capital-
ism and continues thru its entire development. This contradiction will only
be resolved when US imperialism is overthrown and the working class takes
power and begins to build socialism.

Within the proletariat, the primary contradiction is racism. Of all the

contradictions within the working class, it is racism which has plagued and
broken the development of class struggle and revolution; without repudiating
all"forms of white supremacy, the working class cannot triumph in its strug-
gle against the bourgeoisie.

The working class must build the closest alliance with the Black liber-
ation movement and with national liberation movements here and around the
world. These struggles have been dealing the heaviest blows against imperial-
ism and intensifying all other contradictions. This intimate alliance is the
political basis for defeating imperialism; it must be forged at every step of
the struggle; it contains the forces which will sweep away the suffering and
humiliation imposed by imperialism. The power and unity of this alliance is
embodied in the Black worker — who expresses the completely intertwined na-
ture of national liberation and working class struggles, and who gives lead-
ership to both. It is this consciousness which Black and other Third World
workers are bringing to the working class, and joining to the new militancy
of masses of women and youth in the work force.

Look around at the realities of US life right now. The US working class
is a multi-national class, including in its key sectors millions of Black,
Puerto Rican, Chicano, Native American and Asian people. 41.5% of the employed
work force is women. The working class includes the unemployed, people on wel-
fare, prisoners, housewives, children and the old.
 In the depression which stalks the country, the working class is bear-
ing the brunt. Over nine million Americans are officially out of work and
this deceptive statistic excludes millions more who have stopped looking for
jobs that aren't there. Over 25% of Black men offically counted as part of
the labor force are out of work, and in the big cities this figure jumps to
over 40%. These are the hard facts of misery and suffering. On the job work-
ers face killing speedups and unsafe conditions and the bosses squeeze out
every last bit of profit. Real wages continue to fall, food and housing costs
zoom up.

The result is that the great majority of US workers can't earn enough
to support a family of four even at government-calculated levels of subsis-
tance. In a recent article in Monthly Review. Harry Braverman reported that
80% of service workers, 75% of clerical workers and laborers, 70% of factory
operatives and 40% of all craft workers make less than a subsistence level
wage. These statistics are based on 1971 figures — the situation is worse
today. Only with two breadwinners working full-time do most working class
families scrape by.

The seeds of massive resistance and protest are visible and growing. In
the coal fields of Appalachia and the South, thousands of miners are wildcat-
ting against dangerous work conditions, the refusal of the bosses to negoti-
ate over local grievances and the go-slow compromises and sell-outs of the
union leadership. Demonstrators in New York City have fought back against the
bank takeover — protesting the thousands of layoffs, the cutbacks in necces-
sary social services in the Black and Puerto Rican communities, and the rise
in subway fares to 50<?. Welfare mothers and tenant groups stormed the State
House in Massachusetts demanding a restoration of welfare funds eliminated
in recent budget cuts. As the crisis gets worse, police attacks on the most
oppressed communities have increased. Puerto Ricans in Springfield, Mass,
have mobilized against the police murders of two young men in the community.
Hard times are fighting times.

With hard times gripping the people and crises everywhere, now is
the time to re-examine our political line and shatter some of the stereo-
types which still hold us back from organizing the working class to fulfill
its historic mission — the total destruction of US imperialism, the seizure
of power, and the building of socialism. The task of revolutionaries is to
forge a conscious working class — militant, dedicated to eradicating racism
from its ranks, internationalist, conscious of its own responsibility and
power. Organizers must examine their base and their practice. This is a heal-
thy and necessary development. Organizers must be based in the working class
and join the people's struggles to get the depression off our backs.

As we fight back, we should bring our passion for the cause of the Viet-
namese people — now celebrating their first anniversary in the last 30 years
without enemy guns on their soil — and our absolute dedication to indepen-
dence for Puerto Rico into our working class organizing.

The splendor of Vietnamese victory, culminating in the 55 day campaign

of offensive and uprising has upset the global strategy of US imperialism.
In a joyful celebration in Hanoi in May, Le Duan said: "...the victory of
Viet Nam has opened a new stage of development, extremely favorable for the
world revolutionary movement." It is our responsibility to continue the of-
fensive, to rouse the working class and join wholeheartedly in all of its
struggles against US imperialism.
 BREAK THE CHAINS

In 1959 a 16-year old Black man landed

in an Alabama juvenile home accused of rap-
ing a white woman — a friend of his. In-
side he rated 75 on an IQ test and was la-
belled "moron" for l i f e . In 1963 after
moving to Los Angeles to live with relatives
he was arrested for a ten dollar robbery
coming out of an argument with his cousin.
A kidnap charge was added to make it stick
because during the young m e n ' s dispute
they had driven miles around the city. The
court-appointed lawyer insisted on copping
a plea of guilty by virtue of insanity
over his client's objections. The man was
sentenced to one year to life, working at
306 a day, his release entirely condition-
al on complete cooperation with the prison
system.

The man is Ruchell Cinque Magee,

determined fighter, jailhouse lawyer,
survivor of the 1970 San Rafael court-
house rebellion in which Jonathan Jackson
attempted to free his brother George and
several other prisoners, now locked up in
San Quentin's Adjustment Center.
The story is a common one.
These peoples in this judicial system, their
intention is not for justice of the peoples,
as they claim. That is what they come in dis-
guise of, to strip a people of everything.
When I say strip, I mean rob, murder, exploit,
intimidate, harrass, persecute, everything to beatings and humiliations of all sorts.(1)
destroy the mind and the body. They seek to On any given day, 350,000 people are
take a peoples and make them a complete veg- locked up in local jails, state and feder-
etable. They seek to do what they cannot do. al p r i s o n s . ( 2 ) As everyone knows who has
been in jail or has a friend or relative
Ruchell Cinque Magee — 1974 inside, once you're sentenced to a prison
term the whole legal and social system
The US sets up repressive prison works to keep you coming back.
systems all around the world — it built Prisons exist not to protect us or
the tiger cages in South Vietnam and to make our streets safe, but to terrorize
trained torturers in Chile and Brazil. us. This terror is particularly directed
In the US, prisons are an instrument of against the Black community: 42% of pri-
class rule: the function of laws in a soners are Black p e o p l e . ( 3 ) The absolute
capitalist society is to protect those power which prisons represent is used
who have from those who have nothing, to against the Black community; when the
protect things as they are from those who Attica massacre took place the government
would overturn the established order of held back the identities of the murdered
things. The prison system touches most prisoners from their families so no one
people outside of the ruling class at knew if their sons, husbands or brothers
some point in their lives. Last year were alive or dead. Schools, welfare, the
eight million people were arrested. This military and other institutions reach into
year, more than two million people will the daily lives of the people and shape
spend some time behind bars, subject to our thinking and actions to conform to the
8
needs of capitalism. Prisons represent to talk - a 24-hour rule in most US
the ultimate institution of control, un- prisons until struggles in the 1930's
equalled except by police or court-ordered abolished it.
murder, without which the other controls During the next hundred years many
would fail. Prison is the big stick prisons were built. The Pennsylvania
behind the rest of the capitalist system, model died out in its extreme form because
critical to its functioning. such a high percentage of prisoners were
Prison regulates the working class. driven insane or died. The prison offi-
The myth that most prisoners are dangerous cials determined that the prison worker
anti-social elements or murderous crimin- was too valuable a commodity to waste.
als is a convenient lie. Less than one In 1870 the importance of the prison
percent of all arrests are for homicide system to a rapidly growing US monopoly
and rape.(4) The vast majority of the capitalism was formalized by the founding
people behind bars are in for crimes of the National Prison Association. Now
against property, not people. Most the American Correctional Association, in
prisoners are working people. Before 1973 it awarded its biannual meritorious
they were arrested they worked canning service award to Russell Oswald, New York
peaches, installing electric lines, State Commissioner of Corrections at the
waiting on tables, sharecropping, on the time of the Attica uprising.
assembly line.
A continuous result of capitalist WHO ARE PRISONERS?
production is the creation of a relative
surplus of the working population, who are "I have heard people refer to the
readily and cheaply available in times of 'criminal countenance.' I never saw
war and economic expansion, whose presence one. Any man or woman looks like a
in the workforce helps the capitalists criminal behind bars."
keep wages low and profits high. Prison- Eugene Debs, 1927
ers form a key part of this reserve army from Walls and Bars
of labor which also includes housewives,
people on welfare, the officially-counted Prisoners are in the working class.
unemployed and the partially employed. 60% of people in jail awaiting trial —
During World War II when labor was scarce the first stop on the road to prison --
the prison population fell dramatically, were working at the time of their arrest,
then rose again with the end of the war. according to a Law Enforcement Assistance
Prisoners are part of the working Administration (LEAA) survey in 1972.
class; prisons function to control the Only 30% had been unemployed for over a
reserve army of labor and help allow year. These statistics cover only those
capitalism to function. The theory that arrested who couldn't make bail. The per-
prisoners are "lumpen" elements, entirely centage of those employed among the people
outside the process of production, is a who made bail must be far higher.
popular one in much of the left today, The income of all those arrested in-
but does not fit the facts. dicates that people worked at low-paying
jobs, and that employment was part time or
HISTORY occasional. People inside are poor. At
the time of arrest 44% of those arrested
Prisons as human warehouses were were earning less than $1,999 a year.
started as a Quaker reform that came into Only 11% earned more than $7,500. (5)
use in the US at the time of the American Half of prisoners are Black and other
revolution. Labor was scarce and the Third World people. The legal system is
Quakers argued persuasively that if offen- imposed on Third World communities like
ders were isolated from society, able to colonial rule. Third World people are
do penance, they could eventually reform jailed with little chance to get a fair
and rejoin the work force. This is where trial, to get a good lawyer, to get bailed
the word penitentiary comes from. Isola- out.
tion was the key to repentance: individual Prisoners are rebels. The criminal
cells, no talking allowed, not even a injustice system hunts the rebellious kids
fleeting glimpse of another prisoner. on the block and the organizers in the
Soon after the first penitentiary community. This is a generalized method
was built in Pennsylvania, New York state of control of the Black community in par-
built one in Auburn. But in addition to ticular, and the resisters in all communi-
isolating and reforming, the architects ties. Although the US denies that there
of Auburn saw the rich possibilities for are any political prisoners here, there
profitting off the work of the prisoner are many thousands locked up for their
labor force. They designed the prison so political beliefs and actions. Laws like
that inmates had to work seven days a week the Rap Brown Interstate Travel Act and
from sun-up to sun-down on the state the Washington, D. C. Preventive Detention
prison farm and adjoining workshops. In- law have been put into effect in the last
mates worked together, often chained to five years in a government effort to con-
each other, but were still not permitted trol political activists, organizers and
revolutionaries. Along with the thousands Arkansas figure: gains from prison indus-
of people who become politicized by the tries exceeded the entire prison budget by
experience of prison and join the struggle $300,000. (8)
while inside, they constitute a large and The source of these profits is super-
growing body of political prisoners. exploited human labor. Most institutional
maintanance jobs don't pay anything, and
INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE jobs in prison industries pay from the
usual 2<; to 6£ an hour to 25C for federal
"Neither slavery nor involuntary ser- prisoners.
vitude, EXCEPT AS A PUNISHMENT FOR Prison administrators hush up the
CRIME WHEREOF THE PARTY SHALL HAVE profit aspect of inmate labor with the lie
BEEN DULY CONVICTED, shall exist with- that prison work reforms the prisoner,
in the United States or any place sub- teaches good work habits and trains and re-
ject to their jurisdiction." habilitates prisoners for jobs on the out-
13th Amendment to the side. Prison industries, guaranteed a mar-
US Constitution, 1865 ket for their products by the government,
have equipment which is outdated, ineffic-
Prison is big business. In the first ient and unsafe. Some prison products,
hundred years of the US prison system many like license plates which are produced in
prisoner-workers were contracted out to almost every men's prison, are a prison
private employers who paid the prison for monopoly. Prison-taught skills are often
their use. Under this slave-like contract useless. You won't find work making li-
(prison chain gangs and slaves sometimes cense plates on the outside.
worked side by side) all forms of exploit-
ation and brutality were permitted. BREAKING THE SPIRIT/ REPRESSION INSIDE
In the 1930's the trade union movement
protested the use of prisoners as competi- Sensational media and self-serving
tion with "free labor" and the frequent
company tactic of using prisoners to break government statements exaggerate the vio-
lence of prisoner against prisoner. Pris-
strikes. Sellout labor leaders made a
deal: contract prison labor would be out- oners are people — the system inside is
lawed and instead the prisons themselves inhuman. Basic necessities are treated
as privileges to be granted at the discre-
would set up industrial and agricultural tion of the administration. Overcrowding
facilities whose products could only be is standard procedure. Nothing can be
sold to the government. In exchange the taken for granted -- decent food, visitors,
unions agreed to stay away from the pris- receiving books or mail, exercise and
ons, to cut ties with workers behind bars showers -- or the right to defend oneself
and to remain deaf and blind to the ex- or another prisoner against attacks by
ploitation perpetrated inside. Today ex- guards. Parole or graduation to a minimum
prisoners are not admitted into most labor security prison depends on submission,
unions. The worst of the union leadership while 24-hour lock-up, the adjustment
itself became a sponsor of the prison sys- center and the hole (24-hour a day dark
tem. George Meany is one of six men who strip cells) are punishment for any spark
sit on the Board of Prison Industries, Inc., of resistance.
a government-owned corporation which runs
prison labor in the federal prisons.
Inmates today perform about
70% of the jobs of institutional
maintenance. Except for a few
supervisory personnel, inmates
run the launderies, the kitchens
the offices, repair shops, just
about everything that keeps the
prisons functioning. In addition
25% of federal prisoners and a
higher percentage of state pris-
oners (up to 70% in some states)
work in prison industries where
they produce furniture, cloth-
ing, shoes, canned goods, elec-
trical equipment to sell to the
government. (6)
In 1970 the federal prison
industries cleared $11 million
in profits. (7) These profits
are hidden: the figure is se-
cret for most state prison sys-
tems. A clue to the scale of
profit comes from the 1966
10

<^^^HgM|"

iilhik
» ^M JJ^prtii,

-iiiiiillllL
fd. *t ftttic4- each inmate 14 fo It loours A Ay alone, in hie- U1 ftat" cell, which A s-M, A small
4u>o-^r«*/er me-h\ ^binet, liejW bulb, earphones -for -t^ radio sys-few), A 4oi|ef, a coU- sink,-

The spectre of masses of prisoners TV. You enter at the lowest of many lev-
uniting against the handful of guards who els: no privileges, special isolation cell,
control them haunts the prison system. tranquilizers. Your behavior and attitude
The prison administration uses every trick are watched and tested, especially your
in the book to divide prisoners -- competi- response to random gassing and beating. If
tion, racism, sexism. Good time for one the officials find you sufficiently cooper-
means revocation of privileges for another; ative in time you can move to a higher lev-
a job for one means the hole for a brother; el: a better cell, maybe an hour a day out-
they tell a white prisoner to inform on a side, but still a few levels away from
Black prisoner or lose her own visiting receiving visitors or mail. Prisoners who
privileges for a month, then throw the reach higher levels can get knocked down,
Black prisoner in the hole for fighting and are subject to more drugs, and denied
back. Rebellion has a high cost — gassing, even food and water. These methods are
beatings, lock-ups. Hundreds of inmates used in women's prisons with an emphasis
die in prison every year, and no one dies on the use of drugs. Women in California
from old age. (9) Institution for Women have been fighting
As prisoners fight back and organize, the use of prolixin, which slowly destroys
tha prison system retaliates by seeking brain cells -- "to increase passivity" —
more elaborate and effective methods for and drugs which relax muscles to the point
crushing rebellious prisoners. Adjustment where the victim stops breathing for two
centers, where prisoners are locked up 23% or three minutes, experiencing the sensa-
hours a day and fed small tasteless ra- tion of total suffocation. In 1973 women
tions, special prisons like the federal in CIW successfully forced prison officials
prison in Marion, Illinois and the new to abandon a new behavior modification
$13.5 million state prison in Butner, N.C. program that would have subjected "problem
specialize in behavior modification. You women" to "attack therapy" — forced snitch-
enter the institution, usually involuntar- ing on other women — two or three times
ily, but sometimes on the promise of spe- a day.
cial privileges -- minimum security or a
 11
WOMEN LOCKED UP
There are more than 15,000 women in state and federal prison.
iWomen comprise only 5% of sentenced state and federal prisoners. Not
included in these statistics are the thousands of women thrown into
:local and county jails for prostitution, vagrancy or drunkenness.
Other less obvious but equally destructive controls are used against
women; women make up approximately 50% of patients hospitalized on the
Awards of State mental asylums. (US census) Moreover, judges are nov;
tending to sentence women to prison more and more, and new prisons
are being built for women inmates.
Women who are arrested risk having their children incarcerated
in state institutions for days and weeks, and often lose their child-
ren to these institutions permanently. Women locked up have no say
where their children will go. Last summer Black Liberation Army pris-
oner Assata Shakur gave birth to a daughter in prison. Only under
pressure from Assata and women's demonstrations outside was she al-
lowed a non-prison doctor whom she could trust. The day after she
gave birth her baby was taken from her and she was severely beaten
by guards. Marilyn Buck is being held in solitary confinement at Alderson, W. Va. fed-
eral prison. Women political prisoners are isolated from the prison population and from
communication outside.
Women prisoners have even less access than men to paying jobs and education. Books
are hard to get but contraband drugs can be purchased at any time from the guards. Women
are humiliated by body searches and are prey to racist and sexual assaults as Joann
Little's case demonstrates.
Women's prisons are systematically depoliticized and defused by tranquilizers and
insulation from the outside. But women at Bedford Hills, N.Y., California Institute for
/Jomen and Alderson, W. Va. federal women's prison have organized and taken action to
improve their conditions. One woman in CIW writes: "We are in prison now. There are many
of us who are becoming stronger every day and more conscious. And more each day."

PAROLE parole in 1972. (10) Parole is the system

of close supervision of a released pris-
Full cooperation — "good time" — oner for the remainder of the prisoner's
can get a prisoner out on parole before his sentence — it may be for life. Any vio-
or her time is served. A bad report by lation returns you to prison — and betwe<
guards can keep a prisoner in for extra 50% and 75% of all prisoners return.(11)
years. In states like California which When the guards say goodbye they assure y<
give "indeterminate sentences", prisoners they will see you again. Many parolees a:
can be sentenced to six months to ten years returned to prison on technical violations
or one year to life. George Jackson got which include anything the overwhelmingly
one to life for a $70 robbery. He had been white, male parole board officers don't
in for 11 years when he was murdered by approve of — less than 2% of those who
prison guards in 1971. The majority of come back are returned for crimes involvii
prisoners of California are serving inde- violence. (12) These violations range fror
terminate sentences, completely at the trivial things like driving an improperly
mercy of prison administrations, and only registered car to the exercising of civil
the active counter-offensive by the prison rights such as interracial relationships
movement is braking the trend toward inde- and marriages, different lifestyles, all
terminate sentences nation-wide. forms of radical political activity and ai
An estimated 300,000 people were on public criticism of the prison system.
 13
The prison movement has devised many oners — whether it is a rank and file
militant forms of resistance, from individ- union movement across prison bars or a
ual non-collaboration to escape, from burn- women's movement that includes imprisoned
ing down and occupying prisons to seizing sisters. We must build a movement to free
guards. The ideological contribution of all political prisoners and abolish the
prisoners — internationalism, uncompro- prison system.
mising militancy, the understanding that
there can be no successful revolution with-
out armed struggle — has challenged the FOOTNOTES
whole movement. (1) Uniform Crime Reports for the US, Dept.
Only organization reaching across the of Justice, 1974. US Census 1970', ,Sub-
ject Report: Inmates of Institutions.
bars can enable released prison activists (2) US Census 1970, op cit, P. 36.
to fully enter the revolutionary movement (3) Ibid.
on the outside. For the good of the move- (4) Uniform Crime Reports, op cit, p.116-117.
ment inside and for the good of the move- (5) Advanced Surrey Report on Jails, LEAA,
US Dept. of Justice, 1973, p.16.
ment outside, we need to develop political US Census 1970, op cit, p.41.
struggle and mutual support that breaks (6) Kind and UsuaT Punishment, Jessica
through prison barriers. The prison Mitford, Chap. 11 ~
struggle is our struggle. Attica is all (7) Federal Prison Industries, Ind., Annual
of us. Report to Congress by the Board of
Directors, 1970.
Our program must be to organize for the (8) State study quoted by Goldfarb and
demands of the prison movement -- to end Singer in After Conviction, 1973, p.393.
behavior modification, fascist practices (9) US Census 1970, op cit.
and overcrowding, to make the judicial sys- (10) American Correctional Assoc., 103rd
Congress, 1972, p.43.
tem answerable to the community, to win the (11) Mitford, op cit; Crime in America,
right to organize, to win decent living Ramsey Clark, 9 1972.
conditions, the right to books, mail and (12) Mitford, op cit.
visitors, the right to raise children. We
must build a movement that includes pris-

WE m MEN! WE ARE NOT

BEASTS AMD DO NOT INTENP TO BE
BEATEN OR DRIVEN AS SUCH...WHAT
m HAPPENED HERE IS &UT THE
SOUND BEFORE THE FURY OF
THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED.,
WE CALL UPON AIL THE
CONOTIOUS CITIZENS OF AMER-
ICA TO ASSIST WS IN PUTTING
AN END TO THIS SITUATION THAT
THREATENS THE LIVES OF MOT flNll
US m EM.H AND EVERY ONE
OF MS AS WEIL.
-FROM THE FIVE DEMANDS
OF THE INMATES OF ATTICA
14

REVIEW: THREE BOOKS ABOUT WOMEN

GORILLA, MY LOVE by Ton! Cade Bambara Today the descendants of the Union
Pocket Books, 1973, $1.25 founded by Minh Khai are the Vietnam Wom-
en's Union with millions of active members
in the North and the Union of Women for
These short stories about women — the Liberation of South Vietnam with sev-
about Black women— will take your breath eral million members in the South. Women
away: hard-hitting, no-nonsense blasts of Vietnam includes a study of the violence
that explode in your brain and your stomach unleashed against the women of Vietnam by
and capture your heart. They crawl inside US imperialism: systematic rape, attacks
Hazel Peoples, 60, getting dressed down by on future generations, the torture of wom-
her three kids in the kitchen at a benefit en. It is also a book of rebellion: beat-
party for belly-rubbing with the neighbor- ing the drums to build up courage, "speak-
hood blind man who fixes skates and toast- ing bitterness" against cruel landlords,
ers and bicycles. Or Squeaky, aka Mercury, the internal fight against centuries of
young girl runner catching her competitor's passivity and humiliation as the "slave of
eye at the end of the May Day 50-yard dash: a slave", the long-haired army and the
fight against the French and then the Amer-
"We stand there with this big smile of ican aggressors.
respect between us. It's about as The force that occupied the fortress-
real a smile as girls can do for each like US embassy in Saigon during the Tet
other, considering we don't practice Offensive was a women's commando group.
real smiling every day, you know, They occupied five floors, killed 200 US
cause maybe we too busy being flowers personnel and forced Ambassador Bunker to
or fairies or strawberries instead of flee in a helicopter. The group was led
something honest and worthy of re- by Le Thi Rien, a vice-president of the
spect. . . " Union of Women for the Liberation of South
Just when you're feeling comfortable
with the tough warmth and the humor of
these stories, along comes The Survivor or
the Johnson Girls to put you on notice that
Blackwomenpeople dream and go mad, lose
themselves in childbirth and are trying to
get straight with one another -- and that
Toni Cade Bambara is a master writer.

WOMEN OF VIETNAM by Arlene Eisen Bergman

Peoples Press, 1974,$2.65

Minh Khai grew up in Vietnam with the

Confucian teaching: "One hundred women are
not worth a single testicle." In 1930,
she and other young women who were found-
ing members of the Indochinese Communist
Party formed the Vietnam Women's Union.
Their demands were:

Reduce rents and interest rates!

Equal wages for equal work!
No dangerous work for women!
Two months fully paid maternity leave!
Down with forced marriage!
Down with polygamy!
Abolish the habit of holding women in
contempt!
 15
Vietnam, and a member of the Central Com- DAUGHTER OF EARTH by Agnes Smedley
mittee of the National Liberation Front.
She was executed in the early morning of Feminist Press,1973,$2.50
February 1st, 1968. With the conviction
that their production served to strengthen This is a book to treasure; a book
the anti-US war effort, women in one North- rescued from the past. The life and work
ern province alone worked 44,392 extra of Agnes Smedley has suffered an enforced
work days to avenge her murder. oblivion like many of her class and sex,
Women of Vietnam is lovingly written, and perhaps especially because of her role
illustrated and produced -- full of poems in support of the Chinese revolution since
and folksongs, faces and stories of Viet- 1938. Thanks to the Feminist Press reprint
namese women and their struggle for lib- of this strongly autobiographical novel of
eration. It is a challenge to revolution- her youth, we now have a story of her work-
aries about the importance of the emanci- ing-class roots and the stifling oppression
pation of women to the struggle for revo- of ceaseless poverty.
lution. It is a challenge to women about It is a desperate book: determined to
the integral relationship between social- escape her mother's destiny, she steels
ism and the equality of women. "Revolution herself against love and family. Breaking
is our way of liberation." It is a book through the barriers that confine and en-
for everyone to read — to be used in slave her leads her from miner's daughter,
teaching, to be read out loud, read to washerwoman, cigar-maker, writer, to revo-
young girls and given to old women. It is lutionary activist. This is a piece of
another gift from the Vietnamese, beauti- American history and of the left — and
fully woven together by the author. Ex- its ill-treatment of women — told like it
pect the new post-liberation edition soon. is by a woman who refused to be betrayed.
It is haunting. "I write of the joys and
sorrows of the lowly. Of loneliness. Of
pain. And of love... I belong to those
who die... exhausted by poverty, victims
of wealth and power, fighters in a great
cause."

PONCE CEMENT STRIKERS NEED YOUR SUPPORT

For eight months the 500 workers and their families at Puerto Rican
Cement in Ponce have been waging a courageous and important strike. The
Operators and Cement Workers Union went on strike in January after the com-
pany cut hard-won pension payments and a medical plan. The strikers demand
restoration of the cuts, higher wages, an end to forced overtime (up to 80
hours a week), a cost of living clause and better working conditions. The
gigantic Ferre Enterprises, the company of former colonial governor Luis
Ferre, which owns Puerto Rican Cement, has answered with arrests and beat-
ings of union members, AFL-CIO strike breakers and thugs, FBI intimidation
and redbaiting. Now the bosses hope to starve out the workers.
For all of us who are dedicated to creating a fighting workers move-
ment, and for all of us who have rallied for the independence of Puerto
Rico, now is the time to support this militant union struggle. Victory
for the Puerto Rican cement strike will strengthen the non-US controlled
Puerto Rican trade union movement. Eight months on strike has used up
the economic resources of the union. Efrain Fernandez, union president,
said in an open letter, "We need economic help from the workers in the
United States. We want all the workers to know about our struggle which
is the same as theirs. After all, we are fighting only to get a small
part of the product of our work."
Ten dollars a week will sustain one worker on strike. Contribute
and raise money for the strikers and send it to:
Cement Workers Union
c/o MOU
Ave. Fernandez Juncos 1407
Pda. 20
Santurce, Puerto Rico
 •£* *

de
-, However, ur;^ /;;,:,:v'l Jy7
, is very g°°J'reach is

l>e^p'^; 'w leMtV°sSfa «J£«SS.

S*^S W t TV !»»,* ».SS - ^iarVe*«

secre^^. . JU.^^ „.-« '^-«»ti. ISuc^"^

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but
•g&sgsg***?-
 17

11 "-M
• 1 •
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R OUR 1
• • • 11 • 11 • • • • • • 1I • •• •
i
hrt

ends..

••;.•• ,;.-:••• '"*: • • . ; • : ; • • •• r-

s?'?'S;frt!h~'~':;£s::?'-i;:-"-.
by women in the
und Organization,
of the film made
nio, Mary Lamp-
Wexler with and
in May 29th the
>enaed the three
:he film before a
.d Jury. The three
:rate in any way Wai
:ed by many film-
• people. The °rt for
'orced to drop the
:ilm is now being
soon be completed.

~Qlng the film

u^_
18

WEATHER UNDERGROUND ORGANIZATION

BOMBS KENNECOTT CORPORATION

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

September 4, 1975 Venturelll

On the second anniversary of the fascist coup in Chile, we attacked the national
headquarters of Kennecott Corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah, in solidarity with the
heroic resistance of the Chilean people. We attacked Kennecott for all the years it has
robbed the Chilean people of their copper and wealth, for its role in the overthrow of
the Popular Unity government and the murder of Salvador Allende, and for its oppression
and exploitation of working people in the US.
Kennecott, Anaconda and ITT share responsibility with Kissinger and the CIA for the
overthrow of the democratically-elected Popular Unity government. Kennecott and Anaconda
organized for an international boycott of Chile's copper and simultaneously forced the
price of copper down 20%, bringing crisis and suffering to the people of Chile and under-
mining the economy. Kennecott continues to drain wealth from the Chilean people. Ken-
necott is now receiving $68 million from the military dictatorship in "compensation" for
the nationalization of its mines. This on top of more than $4 billion in copper profits
which Kennecott and Anaconda together mined out over a 40-year period.
Dictatorship in Chile could not survive without aid from the United States. This
year the Ford administration is giving Chile $165 million in aid. This aid goes to a
junta which rules by force and terror. Over 40,000 people have been murdered by the
counter-revolution, including Miguel Enriquez, the leader of the underground revolution-
ary party MIR. A former Nazi SS colonel, Walter Rauf, advises the junta's secret police.
The working class has been the most strongly repressed. The junta abolished the workers'
Central Labor Federation, wages are strictly controlled, and the right to strike has been
outlawed. Many labor leaders have been killed or imprisoned, including the militant miners
from the El Teniente copper mine.
The Chilean people are part of the struggle against the same imperialists who oppress
mineworkers and other workers here in the US. In 1967 a strike at all four US divisions
of Kennecott was maintained for 8*5 months. Kennecott fought the strike by increasing the
production and import of copper from Chile. The striking workers understood how Kenne-
cott 's international holdings weakened their own struggle. When Kennecott's mines were
nationalized by the Allende government, it actually strengthened the workers in their
struggle here and helped build international class solidarity. There have been seven
strikes in the US against Kennecott in the last 25 years. This summer Kennecott laid
off 2100 of its 12,500 workers and closed many of its mines. In the fall it plans to re-
open at only 60% capacity. This is Kennecott's strategy both to keep prices and profits
high by limiting supply and to intimidate labor militancy by threatening workers' jobs.

In Chile the resistance to the junta continues. Clandestine committees organize

sabotage, lead strikes, distribute propaganda, share news and information. The struggle
of the Chilean people and the international solidarity movement will determine the out-
come in Chile.

STOP US AID TO THE JUNTA!

THE RESISTANCE IN CHILE WILL WIN!
LA RESISTENCIA CHILENA TRIUNFARA!
 19

DEFEND THE PORTUGUESE REVOLUTION

There is a war going on in Portugal between the forces of revolu-

tion and counter-revolution. Freed from the chains o f x 5 0 years of
fascism, the Portuguese people have mobilized. The working class is
taking history into its own hands, fighting to transform Portuguese
life and confronting all the reactionary forces — the old fascists,
the rising capitalists, the Catholic Church, the CIA and the Socialist
Party. Power struggles now taking place in Lisbon reflect the class
struggle in the country as a whole. Defending the revolutionary
process is the central task in Portugal today; the memory of the
Chilean coup is fresh in people's minds.
The US is trying to destroy the Portu- Caetano dictatorship.
guese revolution. As in Chile during the The African liberation struggles
Popular Unity government, the strategy is against Portuguese rule created the condi-
to "destabilize" the situation and finance tions for the successful overthrow of
coup attempts. Multinational corporations Portuguese fascism. Blood spilled by Af-
like ITT, Hertz, and Timex have closed down rican liberation fighters was part of the
or cut back, causing unemployment. US Am- price of freedom in Portugal. The AFM
bassador Frank Carlucci is an old CIA hand, brought the wars home when it toppled
a specialist in counter-insurgency. He was Caetano on April 25, 1974.
in the Congo when Lumumba was murdered and The middle-level officers who made up
in Brazil from 1965-69 when the military the core of the AFM knew that Portugal was
dictatorship carried out vicious repression losing the wars in Africa. Four days be-
of leftists. fore the coup, FRELIMO had cut the main
CIA activity has ranged from subvert- road linking Mozambique's capital and main
ing trade unions, to working with the port. The soldiers were asking why.
Portuguese Liberation Army, a terrorist Many of them saw that they were fight-
group which led recent anti-communist riots ing against truly popular struggles.
and sabotage. The CIA is using its pre- Portuguese soldiers taken prisoner by the
coup contacts in the military to promote liberation movements were introduced to the
right-wing elements and isolate the left achievements in the liberated zones and
within the Armed Forces Movement (AFM). taught the movements' goals. African pris-
It is also sponsoring a pro-US independence oners often gave a first political educa-
movement in the Portuguese Azores, aiding tion to their Portuguese captors, many of
rightist forces in Angola (the FNLA), and whom saw the similarities between condi-
financing the Portuguese Socialist Party, tions in Portugal and in the colonies. The
a leading anti-communist force.
Fascist Portugal, the poorest country
in Europe, was dominated by England and
other West European countries, kept under-
developed as a source of cheap labor and
agricultural products for multinational
corporations. Portugal's ruling class was
a feudal alliance of landed aristocracy
and the Catholic Church, kept in power by
a fascist regime as terrifying as Hitler's
Germany or Pinochet's Chile. Portugal's
average per capita income was $720; 40% of
adults could not read. Although Portugal
controlled three colonies in Africa —
Guine-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola — the
colonies' richest resources were exploited
by more advanced imperialist countries.
Portugal got its share from cash crops,
forced labor and protected markets. As the
African struggles advanced, Portugal was
forced to spend half its budget on the mil-
itary. This drain on Portugal's resources
was a factor pushing the AFM to depose the CAPTURED PORTUGUESE SOLDIERS IN MOZAMBIQUE
A/?E MARCHED TO A FRELIMO BASE
20
officer corps — once the reserve of the
children of the aristocracy — was depleted
THE CIA IN PORTUGAL in battle and was filled out with drafted
students who were resentful of the draft
Philip Agee, a former CIA agent who and familiar with radical ideas. All these
exposed CIA activities in his book CIA conditions combined to produce the few
Diary, wrote an "open letter to the Portu- hundred officers who first formed the AFM.
guese people." Here are some excerpts: Their original goals were to overthrow
Caetano in order to free the colonies, re-
store democratic freedoms and end fascist
"I see the signs daily. These counter- rule.
revolutionary activities are similar to At first, the AFM formed an uneasy
what I did in the CIA for more than ten alliance with General Antonio Spinola —
years. I send this as part of a continu- who became Portugal's new President. Spi-
ing effort by many Americans to end impe- nola, known as "The Butcher of GuinS-
rialist intervention and support to rep- Bissau" for his role commanding Portuguese
ression by the US government." forces there, had written a book attacking
"The size of the overall US govern- the colonial wars and proposing a neocolo-
ment mission in Portugal is shocking, es- nial solution in Africa. He represented
pecially its heavy dominance by military the rising capitalist class who challenged
personnel. Of the (160) Americans, 105 the ruling aristocracy in order to create
are military personnel... Of the approx- room for capitalist expansion and modern-
imately 50 American civilians in the ization.
mission, about ten, I believe, are employ- But the revolution quickly pushed
ees of the CIA. No less than ten addi- Spinola aside. Workers began to exercise
tional CIA functionaries are probably work- the new freedoms guaranteed by the AFM.
ing in Lisbon and other cities, having been Red carnations — the symbol of Portugal's
assigned ostensibly for temporary duties..." revolution — bloomed all over the country.
"The US military schools have trained Mass movements began to purge fascists
over 3000 Portuguese military personnel from positions of power. Only three days
since 1950. Detailed files have been after the coup 700 sailors met to oust 82
accumulated on every one of them — their fascist officers. The unity of the workers
personalities, politics, likes and dislikes, and the AFM grew stronger as the struggle
strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. moved forward.
Many of these will have already been sel-
ected as contacts to be developed within
the Portuguese military establishment..."
"The CIA may have intervened in the
recent electoral campaign to assure that
the results would "prove" that the major-
ity of Portuguese favor a more "moderate"
pace for the revolution. James Lawler, the
CIA deputy chief in Lisbon, engaged in just
such operations in Brazil (in 1962) and in
Chile (in 1964) where many millions of
dollars were spent by the CIA to promote
the election of US-approved "moderates".
"The CIA is also using the Roman
Catholic Church for its ends. Recently a
reliable source in Washington told me that
large amounts of money are going from the
US to the Catholic Church for combating the
revolution in Portugal."
"Propaganda campaigns are central for
all important CIA political operations...
the CIA must continue to aid — in every
possible way — the efforts of "moderate" IN A STEEL PLANT: THE SLOGAN SlkYS "OUT WITH THE FASCISTS"
political forces to establish and maintain
media outlets that the CIA can use for
placing its materials." Spinola fought back, calling a rally
" Private investment credits can be for September 28th, timed to coincide with
frozen, trading contracts delayed and a coup by fascists from the old regime.
cancelled and unemployment increased, Armed workers and left groups set up road-
while imperialist propaganda will place the blocks to stop the fascists and their
blame on workers' demands and the govern- weapons from entering Lisbon. Pushed by
ment 's weakness rather than on lending the workers and the militant left, the AFM
institutions and their deliberate policies banned the right-wing rally and arrested
of credit retention. The effects of these dozens of plotters. The defeat of the
programs in Chile during the Allende fascist coup attempt was a lesson in the
administration are known to all." class struggle for the masses of people:
capitalists won't give up a shred of
 21
power without a fight. supported the violent attacks on the Por-
Another coup attempt on March llth tuguese left.
was also crushed quickly, producing a The fascists and the Catholic Church
mighty tide of workers' action. Bank have organized anti-communist mobs to at-
clerks seized the banks to prevent with- tack Communist Party headquarters in north-
drawals by the fleeing rightists, and then ern Portugal. After 50 years of fascism
demanded and won nationalization of the and the educational guidance of a Church
banks. Unoccupied villas were taken over which taught the peasants that "communists
for the people's use and great estates eat children", there is a base for opposi-
became new housing for poor workers and tion to the revolution. In addition, the
peasants. economic difficulties accompanying the
The working class became the motor of enormous transformation of Portuguese life
the Portuguese revolution — defending the have made it particularly hard for the
revolution from all capitalist attempts to small farmers of the north. High costs
undermine it. The cooperation of the AFM, for farm materials and unreformed market-
the workers movement and organized left ing practices have meant much suffering
groups increased after March, and the for the small farmers, and increased their
slogan AFM-POVO, POVO-AFM (Povo means openness to anti-communist propaganda.
"common people") took on new meaning. On The counter-revolution is able to prey on
the first anniversary of the overthrow of these difficulties.
fascism, the AFM announced that Portugal Many left groups have shown solidarity
was on the road to socialism. with the Communist Party in the face of the
attacks. An anti-fascist front formed
which included the Proletarian Revolution-
ary Party (PRP) and the League of Revolu-
tionary Unity and Action (LUAR), groups
which helped mobilize recent workers'
struggles and which waged armed struggle
against the fascist dictatorship. The
Socialist Party stood aside, allying with
the fascist upsurge, hoping to inherit the
reigns of power.

Portugal's revolution has already

resulted in great achievements: granting
independence to the African colonies, na-
tionalizing over half of the Portuguese
economy, beginning agrarian reform, dou-
bling the minimum wage, granting open ad-
mission to all universities.
The revolutionary forces in Portugal
are now under steady and growing attack.
Reactionaries are moving fast to turn
back the clock, reverse the socialist
direction, and crush the hopeful possi-
bilities of the future. This is a time
to expose US subversion, counter media
lies with the truth and show full sup-
port for the continuing struggle of the
Portuguese workers, soldiers and popu-
lar movement.

WORKERS OCCUPY LAR&F B/WK, DEMANDING NATIONALIZATION

The class struggle continues in Portu-

gal, with the outcome undecided. The larg-
est force opposing the revolution is the
Socialist Party, led by Mario Scares. It
is a social-democratic party, not really
for socialism, and has close ties to Willy
Brandt and Helmut Schmidt in West Germany
and Harold Wilson in England. The Social-
ist Party is the agent of the class of
capitalists who hope for a bourgeois democ-
racy like those in Western Europe. It has
allied with the right-wing parties and has 1V OM WITH THE REVOLUTIONARY PROCESS"
22
TOOLBOX:
Socialism is what the people need. Look
around. Lousy housing, food too expen-
sive to buy, health services beyond the
reach of most of us. This is no way to
live. Capitalism has outlived its use-
fulness. While hard times grip every
capitalist country, the socialist nations
are moving forward: there is no unemploy-
ment in the socialist world, there is housing
and health care and food for everyone, and prices
are moving steadily down. There's hunger and starva-
tion in the US, but not in Cuba or China. Socialism means
an end to the system of private wealth and public poverty.
When the US becomes a socialist country, power will be in
the hands of the working class, the overwhelming majority of peo-
ple. The working people will own and manage the factories, hospitals, schools and
food stores — everything — for the benefit of the whole community. Instead of
having our labor stolen from us, the work we do will produce a decent and humane
society. And productive work will exist for all.
The working class will no longer be thrown into terrible imperialist wars
waged for the sake of profits. The steel used to make bomber planes and engines
of war will be used to construct bridges or to create public transportation in
our cities. Workers will finally work in safe conditions because the god of prof-
it will at last be dethroned.
Revolution is the path to socialism. The capitalists are fighting to stay on
top, and the working class will have to organize to topple them.
Socialism puts human beings — their needs and hopes and dreams — at the
center of things. Socialist values are collective and communal. Socialism is the
rejection of the old and rotten values: individualism, elitism, sexism. Socialism
requires the rejection of racism. Socialism means social responsibility, love for
each sister or brother in the whole of humanity, the realization of self in rela-
tion to others.
Socialism will unleash amazing human creativity. Our cities will become hu-
man gardens. The competitiveness, fear and anxiety holding people back from be-
coming new women and men is a result of capitalism, not human nature. Look at the
faces of the children of Vietnam and you will see the promise of the future.

In a society ruled by the exploiting class

only the individual interests of a few peo.-
ple belonging to this class are met, where-
as those of the toiling masses are trampled
underfoot. But in the socialist and commun-
ist systems, of which the laboring people
are the masters, each man is a part of the
collective, plays a definite role in it and
contributes his part to society. That is
why the interests of the individual lies
within those of the collective and are part
of them. Only when the latter are secured
can the former be satisfied.
Ho Chi Minh
Revolutionary Morality
 23

BOSTON: THE BATTLE RAGES

More on ROAR by Joe Reed
This article, a sequel to The Battle
of Boston in the first issue of Osawato-
mie, was written on September 7th, the
day before schools opened in Boston.

The Cradle of Liberty: Boston — Where It All Began. Bicentennial

billboards designed to numb the reality of depression and crisis, of
welfare cuts and hunger, of layoffs and rent increases. Patriotic slo-
gans of a war against the British aimed at disguising the ugly war
against Black people in Boston, 1975.

A few steps off the Freedom Trail Tommy Johnson, a member of the ROAR
puts you in East Boston, where over the goon squad at the meetings we attended.
summer Black and Puerto Rican families Open racism and violence have caused
have been attacked and firebombed in splits in ROAR's own ranks. In the last
their homes by racist youths lobbing six months, 70 anti-busers left Dorches-
molotovs and cheering while the apart- ter's ROAR branch and 21 members of ROAR's
ments burned. Or into Hyde Park, where a East Boston Information Center also quit.
Black family's home is spray-painted with At the same time, ROAR has estab-
swastikas and KKK signs and a cross is lished itself as a national organization,
left burning on their lawn. Or to Carson headed by Boston City Councillor Louise
Beach in South Boston where Black people Day Hicks. It has put forward a fascist
have been physically attacked by crowds program called the ABC's: anti-abortion,
of whites for trying to swim at a public anti-busing, and anti-communism. ROAR dis-
beach. rupted Boston women's meetings called to
Spearheading the attacks is ROAR (Re- support passage of the Equal Rights Amend-
store Our Alienated Rights), the leader ment. It beat up anti-racist community or-
of the Boston "anti-busing" movement. In ganizers on Boston's streets. When cam-
the first issue of Osawatomie, we revealed paign aides of George Wallace came to Bos-
that members of the Weather Underground ton looking for allies, ROAR leaders were
Organization had secretly attended weekly there to greet them. As another school
ROAR meetings in the chambers of Boston's year opens, with ROAR once again posing
City Council. We showed that racism is as the guardian of the "neighborhood
the core of ROAR's organizing. Not once school" and "quality education," activ-
in all the meetings we attended did ROAR ists should continue to expose ROAR ter-
members discuss ways to improve Boston's ror and prepare to fight back hard this
terrible schools. Not once did ROAR lea- fall.
ders , who include most members of the
School Committee and the City Council and
many landlords, propose any plans to fight
against the depression. ROAR has only one
goal: building a racist movement to ter-
rorize Black people, to keep the schools
and communities segregated and under their
control, and to divert the anger of work-
ing-class whites away from their class
enemies and toward Black and other Third
World people.
ROAR's racism has been exposed by
the Black community, by the left and by
their own practice. ROAR vigilante groups,
which train regularly in South Boston's
Marine Park and in Charlestown, have par-
ticipated in some of the worst attacks on ATTACKED ROAR'S IN THE
Blacks. The Charlestown group is led by BOSTON cm COUNCIL.
 24

police arrested one Black man,

the Black families and their
supporters regrouped in Mrs.
Lewis' home. The gang attacked
again, busting the screen door
and menacing the group with a
rifle. Finally the police took
action -- invading the Lewis'
home and arresting seven people,
including Mrs. Lewis! None of
the racist gang was arrested.
The battle of East Boston
is still raging. ROAR and the
police have joined forces to
terrorize Black and Puerto
Rican residents. But a people's
resistance, based in the com-
munity and drawing on organ-
izers from all over the city,
has fought back with great
courage -- refusing to bow
to the racist pressure.
WRH4EN ON m EtflfeV "THIS, li WHW Wt DO « m66£?,<>.
In New York, ROAR calls itself Re-
store Our American Rights. It has cen-
Two Cities, One Racist Strategy tered its attacks on Ormistan Spencer,
his wife Gloria, and their three sons --
In Boston, ROAR has conducted an all- a Black family who moved into Rosedale,
out war this summer against the Black and Queens in July, 1974.
Puerto Rican communities. A few incidents, On New Year's Eve the Spencers'
like the attacks on Black people at Carson home was bombed. A note was left which
Beach, received national publicity. Most, said, "Nigger be warned. We have time. We
like the violence in East Boston, went un- will get you. Your first born first." It
heard and unnoticed outside Boston. was signed, "Vive Boston KKK." ROAR ap-
East Boston is one of ROAR's strong- peared on the scene on March 29th, dem-
holds, an impoverished Italian working- onstrating outside the Spencer home de-
class community. Elvira "Pixie" Palladino, manding the removal of their 24-hour po-
who said at one ROAR meeting that she lice protection. That protection was
would gladly ally with the Nazis to op- lifted this summer. Cars began to cruise
pose busing, heads ROAR's East Boston In- by the house with unidentified men shout-
formation Center. In opposition to ROAR, ing racist slurs and throwing garbage on
many community organizers have carried on the front lawn. Mr. Spencer bought a gun
anti-racist work in the area. for self-defense. One August night. Spen-
This summer, ROAR organized youth, cer and his wife came out of their home
gangs to attempt to drive out the few to confront a mob of 40 ROAR people who
Black and Puerto Rican families who live had gathered on their lawn. In the scuffle
in East Boston's Maverick Street housing which followed, Spencer's gun went off,
projects. In late June, attacks began on injuring him and his wife. The police ar-
Mrs. Annie Mae Lewis, a Black resident. rested Spencer, charging him with poses-
Mrs. Lewis had attended a local school sion of a dangerous weapon. No ROAR people
board meeting and challenged the racism were arrested.
of some ROAR speakers. Soon after, her Rosedale ROAR puts its racism right
children were threatened in the neighbor- out front. Here is an excerpt from a ROAR
hood and her home was firebombed. Mrs. leaflet passed out in Rosedale this sum-
Lewis refused to move out, calling in mer:
friends and community activists who stood A word to the wise: ROAR located the home of
guard at her house day and night for a two former Rosedale residents who sold their
week. More than 100 people from all over homes to blacks. We alerted their new neigh-
Boston took part in this defense. bors of their selfish actions. If a neighbor
On the night of August 25th, a gang of yours sells their home to blacks in a
of white youth stormed through the pro- predominantly white area, let us know im-
jects beating up two Black people who mediately.
were sitting in a playground, then smash-
ing the windows of another Black family's Michael Biggio, a member Of ROAR's
apartment. As the youths marauded through executive committee who was recently tried
the streets, Black families inside the and acquitted in the bombing of the Spen-
projects called up friends and relatives cer home, described the Rosedale issue
asking for assistance. Soon 30 people ar- clearly: "This is a white community. It's
rived, including some white neighbors. going to stay that way. And we're going
After a confrontation outside, in which to run it."
 25

"Anti-busers" are also organizing in We know ROAR. We know that its plans
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn to fight the busing include vigilante terror as well as open
of Black and Puerto Rican students into protest. We also know that ROAR's great
the area's mostly white high schools. fear is exposure and widespread opposi-
Community people and organizers have vig- tion. Racist attacks have to be met with
orously confronted the racists, and wel- militant, visible citywide action. Black
comed the new students. The slogan of the people, who have borne the brunt of the
Bensonhurst struggle is "No Boston in attacks, have resisted in a life-and-
Brooklyn." death struggle for dignity and survival.
Rallying to support Mrs. Annie Mae Lewis'
defense of her home this summer was an
Boston: Fighting Back This Fall example of how to fight back.
Anti-racism has to be put into prac-
tice organizing the working class in Bos-
The new school year brings Phase 2 ton. The official unemployment rate in
of the Boston busing plan. There are seri- Massachusetts is 14%, and with food and
ous differences with the plan within the energy prices rising, many families will
Black, Puerto Rican and Chinese communities be hard-pressed to make it through the
and among antiracist whites. Some Black and winter. ROAR offers racist violence as
Puerto Rican parents are now demanding con- the solution to this crisis. Organizers
trol of their own schools and expansion of in working-class communities can isolate
bilingual programs. At the same time, there ROAR by fighting racism in their day-to-
is a fundamental principle which unites all day work, by mobilizing against the rent
of us: full, unequivocal defense of the hikes and budget cuts, by struggling
right of Black and other Third World people for decent schools, by striking back
to attend any school in the city without against the depression. Racism must be
fear, intimidation or attack. challenged and its fascist ROAR silenced.

When 600 people gathered at the Massachusetts State House to oppose the
welfare cutbacks, a white welfare mother spoke the truth about ROAR and
racism:
"I guess you could call me a classic welfare case. I've been steril-
ized and subjected to every degradation welfare's got to offer. There
is one thing I've learned from coming here today. In Boston, they tell
you if you're poor white at least it's better than being Black. But
today, poor white and poor Black are up here telling the same poor
stories. No difference -- just poor stories. So you remember in the
fall when ROAR tells you to throw rocks at Black school kids the poor
stories you heard here today."
26
FIREWORKS
KOREA: The First Defeat
The official US Bicentennial is a well-financed ad campaign paid for by the ruling
class. The tub-thumping is meant to cover up the real crisis in our society, stirring
up feelings of tinny patriotism and nostalgia for a past that never was. People must
uncover the true history of this country and take it to our brothers and sisters. The
rulers have set the time for the party. Let us bring the Fireworks.

UJ The US is still officially at war with North

M A N C H U R I A Korea. In the aftermath of the victorious Indo-
1
china liberations and the total US defeat, US
governmental leaders still have not learned their
lesson. They're ready to try it again. Now the
key to the elusive Asian victory is a short war.
Brutal and overwhelming "first strike capacity"
Antung
means nuclear weapons against North Korea.
^. The Vietnam War lasted an eternity. For the
UJ two million people who died during the three-year
Korean War, it too lasted an eternity. Before we
submit to another re-run of these barbaric adven-
tures, let's tell all the people about the first
defeat.
The Koreans are an ancient and proud race
living on a beautiful Asian peninsula. Korea has
been the victim of colonization and imperialist
aggression since she was first invaded by the
Japanese in the 19th century. The Korean people
never stopped their resistance, which from the
early 1930's was organized and led by Kim II Sung
and the Korean Communist Party. Japanese rule
0 20 40 60 80 100 Ch«ju Island Cv-er Korea ended on August 15, 1945, wher the
main Japanese forces in Korea were encircled by
the Soviet armies. By the time MacArthur's US
troops got there on September 8, the Japanese
army had been rounded up. People's Committees had taken over the administration.
South of the 38th Parallel, the area of US control, the US refused to work with
People's Committees, and installed instead a regime which included Korean collab-
orators with the Japanese, as well as the hated Japanese administrators themselves.
As would happen later in Vietnam, the US sabotaged the national elections, be-
lieving that elections would end with an overwhelming communist victory. The UN
Temporary Commission on Korea, completely under US control, organized elections in
the South which were held in May, 1948. These elections formalized, for the first
time in Korean history, a political division into North Korea and South Korea. To
this day, the Korean people are fighting to reunify their country. A National
Assembly was elected which met the next month. It drafted a constitution and
elected a President, Synghman Rhee, recently brought back from Washington, B.C.
Throughout the fall of 1949, Rhee threatened to invade North Korea. The Dem-
ocratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) called for a "peaceful and democratic
reunification" but at the same time prepared to defend herself against any invasion.
On May 30, 1950, South Korea held her second national elections, and Rhee's
supporters were able to win only 20% of the seats. 25 days later, on the night of
 27

June 25, 1950, Republic of Korea (ROK) army units struck north across the 38th
Parallel and engaged North Korean forces. The North Koreans answered instantly,
crushing the invading forces and then driving south, until six weeks later, the
ROK was reduced to a beachhead around Pusan on the southern tip of the peninsula.
On September 10, 1950, General MacArthur staged a Marine invasion at the Port
of Inchon near the city of Seoul, behind North Korean lines. North Korean units
filtered back North and guerrilla war intensified in the South. MacArthur swept
north, taking US troops all the way to the Yalu River, staging bombing raids into
Manchuria and the Soviet Union, hoping to create a pretext to launch atomic war
against China.
The Yalu River is the boundary between Korea and Manchuria, China. When US
troops began to move toward the Yalu, with obvious aggressive intentions toward
China, Chinese volunteers entered the war.
Now, side by side, the Chinese and North Korean armies drove the invading US
forces south. In the months ahead, the war evolved into positional warfare fought
mainly from trenches along the 38th Parallel. Peace talks dragged on until an
Armistice Agreement was signed in July, 1953. Recently the Supreme People's
Assembly of the DPRK addressed a letter to the US Congress asking that the Armistice
be replaced by a peace agreement. North Korea has never received a reply to this
letter.
In the US, resistance to the war was led by the Youth Labor League and the
American Peace Council. The YLL supported the North and held meetings on campuses.
The American Peace Council held
mass demonstrations for an armi-
stice. Paul Robeson, honorary
chairman of the APC, spoke out
courageously against the war and
was known as "the tallest tree."
The Korean War cannot be
viewed apart from the early stages
of the Cold War. Those who gained
the most from it were the US mili-
tarists and industrialists, and
reactionary Asian leaders like
Chiang Kai-shek, Synghman Rhee and
the Japanese monopoly capitalists.
The Korean War brought to an end
the post-World War II reductions in
the US military budget; it solidi-
fied the Cold War and arms race; it
threw a protective US umbrella over
Taiwan, giving Chiang a formal
alliance in the mutual defense pact
of 1955 and postponing Taiwan's
liberation; it boosted Japan's in-
dustrial production by 70% and re-
sulted in the US rearming of Japan.
The pattern of US power in
Asia is frightening to contemplate. p-.vj*;-->
The same imperialist designs that BP^
made Korea a US target 28 years
ago remain today.
US TR06Pb AY 1HE /Atll MVER
28 DICTION

THE TRAIL: More Stories from

(Sparrow Hawk was the only North American to become a
short order cook at a truck stop on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.)

Ill
On my way to the Trail I spent some time in Cambodia,
first in Phnom Penh and then in Siem Reap. Phnom Penh was a
beautiful city but it made me sad. The more I got to know the
Cambodian people, the more it seemed to me that this city —
with its Times Square neon movie houses and teen-aged prosti-
tutes -- was not a truly Cambodian city, but an aberration
created by Western cultural and imperialistic influences.
Cambodia is a beautiful country, a rice growing, fertile
land. It has dense jungles and rugged mountains. Looking across
paddies and fields, one can see rising peaks and pinnacles,
covered in soft mists and framed by the people working with
the water buffalo.
I left Phnom Penh after several days and found a ride to
Siem Reap. Five hundred years ago and a thousand years before
then, the Khmer nation was centered here. Here can be found the
amazing and exciting temples, Angkor Wat and the others.
Living among the temples of Angkor and immersed in the
history of the Khmer people, I tried to conduct myself in a
meditative and courteous way. Often I returned to an open room
near the top of Angkor Wat where incense burned in the presence
of more than 60 different images of the Buddha. In the evenings
I watched the dancers from the Royal Cambodian Ballet.
I grew restless and bought a bicycle, outfitted myself for
a long journey, and took off for Laos. I wanted to visit the
Plain of Jars, a beautiful valley inhabited by many people and
surrounded by hundreds of large stone or clay jars, a treasure
of the Laotian people that has now been obliterated by the car-
pet bombing B-52's and lost for all time. Nixon's secret air-
war rendered the valley uninhabitable for more than four years.
Laotian families were forced by the bombs to live in caves in
the surrounding hillsides, and thousands and thousands were
killed and injured.
Southern Laos is hilly land, beginning as soon as you pull
away from the Mekong River valley. For two days I walked, push-
ing my bike because it was too steep to ride. Shortly after
sunrise on my third day away from the river, two jets came
screaming over at about 500 feet. Their sound had almost died
out when a second series of sounds, recurring explosions,
reached my ears. I was in Laos, 150 miles from the border, but
I had stumbled into the Vietnam war.
I thought about the irony. Back home my draft notice would
be coming any day, and here I was, knocking on the back door of
Vietnam.
Two days later I saw a military convoy coming down the
road. I pulled my bike into the bushes and watched a squad of
30 men in three trucks with some heavy artillery, a machine gun
and, sure enough, sitting in the lead jeep was an American. I
could see his Green Beret.
Instinct told me to lay low. I knew these were not my
friends. After the convoy had passed, I was struck by the loud
silence that remained. The birds whose song I had been enjoying
before stayed silent. Suddenly there was a small gust of wind
and I realized I was not alone. Out of the bush behind me
stepped a young Laotian, with an AK-47.
I smiled.
He smiled.
Off we marched. I was a prisoner of the Pathet Lao.
When we reached his base camp, it was like a small city.
To the US pilots flying above, it looked like any other dense
 FICTION 29

a Truck Stop by Sparrow Hawk

river valley. I was questioned by a young man named Nghi who

was a political cadre in the North Vietnamese Army. He had
studied for awhile in Paris, so we could communicate quite well
in French and soon became the best of friends.
Nghi sent a message to Hanoi suggesting I might come and
work for the radio, writing messages to the US troops that had
invaded South Vietnam. It took a month for the message to arrive
in Hanoi and another three weeks for an answer. "Wait", it
said, "it's not safe to come now, we'll be in touch." By then
I had already landed a job as a short-order cook, and I spent
the next six years living in those hills.

IV
Chou En-Lai, the Premier of the People's Republic of China,)
once sent a yacht as a gift of friendship to Cambodian Chief of
State Prince Norodom Sihanouk. The quickest and cheapest way of
delivering it was down the Trail.
I was in the kitchen working at the grill when we first
realized that something special was coming. I was getting better
at cooking all the time, and this day I had killed two of the
camp chickens and had fried them up in a wok with ginger and
some wild onions. For dessert I was frying up some bananas, a
rarity which had come down on a food supply convoy. I was get-
ting very proud of my fried bananas and sometimes would even
serve them flambe.
A high level survey party had come into camp. They would
come through periodically, checking on developments and making
recommendations as to what type of transport should use what
part of the trails. For example, sometimes when a big truck
convoy would be building up for a run, there would be an even
larger convoy of people pushing bicycles that would start off
at the same time. The US pilots would concentrate all their
energy on attacking the truck convoy. Meanwhile, supplies would
be pushed by hand on bicycles over smaller trails, covered over
by jungle.
Three days after the team came through, we finally learned
the purpose for their visit. Word spread that a boat was coming.
It was taking the oldest, most well-known (and least used) part
of the Trail. The US pilots were under orders to let it pass.
On the ground, this was seen as a great victory. The boat was
a symbol of Asian unity. It meant that the US was unwilling to
provoke China. Besides, everyone thought it was hilarious and
laughed about it for months.
30

COUNTRY MUSIC
by A.M.
This article was sent to Osawatomie by a musician from the Deep South.

Take a drive. You can learn an awful lot about life in these
United States listening to the car radio. Turn off the top forty and
turn the dial in from the suburbs, to the other side of the bypass
just this side of the Black ghetto, and listen for that steel guitar.
Country music has city roots these days.
In its origins, as today, country mus- Civil War — into east Texas and Oklahoma's
ic is the bittersweet song of people who "Little Dixie" (where Woody Guthrie was born)
have been forced off the land. Forced out until they blew with the dust and the De-
of England and Scotland by the enclosure pression all the way to the Central Valley
of common lands; forced off the Virginia of California.
and Carolina seaboard by the revived slave
economy and the commercial land grab un-
leashed by the new Constitution. The poor
whites of the South were pushed west,
through the gaps in the terrifying and mys-
terious Blue Ridge, into a steep wilderness
of high ridges and dark hollers. Some moved
on to the rich flatlands of the Kentucky
Bluegrass and the Nashville Basin, only to
find that the land speculators had beaten
them there. Others stayed in the Smokies
and the Cumberlands , only to be forced out
later by the timber and coal interests.
The mountains were but the first step
in the 150-year Eviction the history books
politely call the Westward Expansion. The
people pushed west, pushing the Native A-
mericans off the land as they went. It was
a violent and bitter struggle for land.
We've heard the story from childhood. But
we won't hear about the forces that caused
the whites to move, that un-settled the
settlers. The official myth of the "pioneer
spirit" serves to hide the real history of
the intricate legal land steals of the re-
public's victorious commercial class, the
poverty and desperation of the small farm-
er, the vast land monopoly held by the
Southern slaveholders, the stink of human The sound of country music made this
slavery. same journey. It changed with the times
The true seedbed of country music from the gospel-oriented mountain style of
stretches far west of the mountains and in- the Upper South, as exemplified by the fa-
cludes all the broad belt of hilly (not of- mous Carter Family; through the infusion
ten mountainous), rocky or sandy marginal of Black music picked up by country music's
farmland where slavery didn't pay. Bill two greatest innovators, Jimmie Rodgers and
Monroe is from western Kentucky; Hank Wil- Hank Williams, both from the Deep South; to
liams is from south central Alabama. Nash- modern honky-tonk and western swing (elec-
ville sits near enough to dead center: trified, with drums), which developed in the
north of the Black Belt, south of the Corn South's first industrialized area, the oil
Belt. The Tobacco Belt. The Bible Belt. boom country of east Texas and Louisiana.
It's no land of mansions and gracious la- But in all its diversity, country music re-
dies and gentlemen in gray, but it is still mains of a piece, and it reflects its ori-
a land that slavery made. It's the land that gins in a remarkably homogeneous culture:
slavery made poor. overwhelmingly white, rural fundamentalist,
Cross this region today and you cross overworked and undereducated,(and because
the continent. The people of the South ten- of its peculiar relationship to the "pecu-
ded to move south as well as west after the liar ins ,itution" of slavery) profoundly
 31
racist. The Okie from Muskogee is equally its angry and threatened response to the
at home in Bakersfield, California or Bris- New Left and the hippie movement; but also
tol, Tennessee. because its appeal was mainly negative (we
In one generation the United States don't burn our draft cards, we don't smoke
completed the change from a rural to an ur- m a r i j u a n a ) , that's because Haggard is a
ban society, and the process was not a gen- serious and thoughtful man in his way, and
tle one. The history books tell of the "o- apparently could think of little that was
pening of new opportunities in industry," positive to say about the system he felt
but the people's music tells a different called on to defend.
story of broken homes, poverty, divorce, But such contradictions are nothing
drinking and dead end jobs. By day I make new to country music. Jimmie Rodgers was so
the cars and by night I make the bars. proud when he was made an honorary Texas
D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Stone walls and steel bars, Ranger that he gave a $1500 guitar to one
alot on my mind. of those racist, strike-busting cops. Yet
Country music is city music. It's a- the "Singing Brakeman" learned his famous
bout people with jobs, people in livery: yodeling style from a Wobbly. The jingois-
waitress uniforms and blue shirts with FORD tic patriotism, the shabby treatment of wo-
writ large on the back and "Wayne" writ men, the obligatory digs at welfare: these
small on the pocket. People who are sick things are ugly and backward, and must be
of being put down; but are not quite ready struggled against. Country music is back-
to quit being used to put down others. Peo- ward because it is the product of the most
ple who count for more than all the stinking backward society in the world today; it is
Rockefellers and Kennedys put together; but often racist because of an unbroken 200-
who aren't ready to believe it yet. year history of racism. But it is not the
Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee," voice of the Enemy. It is the plaintive and
one of the most reactionary songs of the often beautiful voice of oppressed white
60's, points up many of the contradictions working people: the voice of a necessary
in modern country music. The song was im- and long awaited ally.
mensely popular, not strictly because of

PSSST, NO, DON'T THROW THIS

PSSST, 1NO! NO LO DESTRUYAS,
AWAY, MY FRIEND. AFTER YOU'VE
MI AMIGO. DESPUES DE LEERLO,
READ IT, THINK OF SOME FRIENDS
PIENSA EN ALGUN AMIGO A QUIEN
WHO WOULD BE INTERESTED IN
INTERESARIA LEERLO... Y iDASELO!
READING IT... AND GIVE IT TO
... Y DILE QUE EL TAMPOCO LO
THEM! ALSO, TELL THEM NOT TO
DESTRUYA DESPUES DE HABERLO
THROW IT AWAY AFTER THEY READ
LEIDO; QUE SE LO DE A OTRO, Y
IT, SO THAT IT PASSES FROM ONE
ESTE, A OTRO, Y ASI.
TO ANOTHER AND THEN TO ANOTHER,
AND SO ON.
MIRA, iSABES LO QUE/PASA
HEMOS REALIZADO UN GRAN ESFUER- LISTEN, DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S
ZO PARA IMPRIMIR ESTE FOLLETO. HAPPENING? IT TOOK A BIG EFFORT
NOCHES DE VIGILIA, CONSEGUIR EL TO PRINT THIS. NIGHTS OF VIGIL-,
DINERO, BURLAR A LOS PERROS DE ANCE, FUNDRAISING, OUTWITTING
LA TIRANIA... Y TODO ESE SACRI- THE AGENTS OF REPRESSION... AND
FICIOIDEBE SERVIR NO SOLO PARA ALL THIS SACRIFICE SHOULD NOT
QUE LO LEAS-TU, SINO PARA QUE ONLY OBLIGE YOU TO READ IT YOUR-
PASE DE MANO EN MANO COMO INDICE SELF, BUT TO PASS IT ON FROM
ACUSADOR DEL ODIOSO BATISTATO HAND TO HAND AS A WEAPON IN THE
PRO-IMPERIALISTA. STRUGGLE AGAINST THE ODIOUS
PUCHO IMPERIALISTS.
PUCHO

"Pucho" is a cartoon character developed during the Cuban Revolutionary War. Laura, a
graphic artist, drew "Pucho" in her advertising agency, after hours. It appeared in 1958
in Mella, a youth magazine which was part of the broad resistance to the dictatorship.