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CPUSA backing coalition in U.S. race

Three time vice-presidential candidate
Angela Davis will not be a contestant in this
year’s U.S. elections. Davis, who has pre-
viously run on a joint ticket with Commu-
nist Party leader Gus Hall, said the party
will be working around local candidates to
win Congressional seats.

For America’s “third” party, the largest
Left political party in the U.S., it will be the
first time the two top spots have not been
contested since the cold war.

Speaking to a press conference in
Toronto, Davis said the “undemocratic
nature of the U.S. electoral process” and the
candidacy of Black Democratic Party
nominee, Jessie Jackson, prompted the
CPUSA to reconsider its election tactic this
round.

U.S. laws, which vary from state to state,
require third parties to collect hundreds of
thousands of signatures before their nomi-
nees can appear on the ballot.

“As a Communist I can not endorse a
Democrat, but I would certainly encourage
people to get involved in Jessie Jackson’s
candidacy”, the civil rights activist noted.

The preacher and his mighty Rainbow
Coalition represents ‘“‘a multi-racial move-
ment around issues which affect all of us,”
Davis said.

She credited Jackson with taking “pro-
gressive positions on all issues. He has
raised questions that other candidates are
only now dealing with, but which would not
have been part of the electoral discourse if it
had not been for the candidacy of Jessie
Jackson.”

Despite the effects of Reaganism, Davis
estimated progress has been made on the
U.S. political scene. “This is the era during

which our most important goal ought to be
the forging of alliances and coalition efforts.
The possibilities are greater today than ever
before.”

Davis noted that although there was
more activism during the late 1960s and

early 1970s, the people’s movements have

expanded both in scope and sophistication
today.

“What we have in the late 1980s is a
clearer understanding of the interconnec-
tion between struggles — between eco-
nomic injustice and the fight against racism,
the fight against sexism, against homopho-
bia, for rights for the disabled.

“Tn some way things are better, and that
reflects the struggle that has been waged by
Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans.

‘It reflects the militancy of the labour

movement, the new movements such as the
gay and lesbian movements, senior rights
and youth movements.”

While the economic predicament of
racially oppressed peoples and women has
deteriorated under Reagan, the unity
formed in fighting his policies has resulted
in the growth of movements dedicated to
social and economic progress, Davis said.

For the 45 year old philosophy professor
the demise of Reagan is almost a personal
vendetta. He was governor of California
while Davis, a known Communist and anti-
racist activist, was on trial for her life on
trumped up charges as an accomplice to
kidnapping and murder.

Following a 1970 nationwide manhunt,
while Davis remained on the 10 most
wanted list of the FBI — a distinction held
by only two other women at the time — she
spent over a year in jail awaiting trial. The

ANGELA DAVIS ... addressing meeting in Toronto's Convocation Hall Feb.26.

subject of a world-wide “Free Angela”
campaign, Davis was finally acquitted, and
her 1974 autobiography details the events of
her heroic struggle.

She has since published two other books,
If They Come In The Morning, about polit-
ical prisoners in the United States and
Women, Race and Class, a critique of
racism in the white women’s movement.

Soon to be published is a collection of her
speeches and essays and a study of Black
women musicians, which explores the part
played by these artists during the 20s and
30s and, their role in shaping the social

consciousness of the Black community.
Still Davis remains an activist in the
many issues highlighting the people’s
agenda. “Free trade is most significant at
this point,” she offered. “It links the strug-
gles of working people in the U.S. with
Canada, ... women and especially women
of colour and immigrant women are expe-
riencing the brunt” of the deal, she said.
Economic issues are also central for
Afro-American and other racially oppressed
women, she said, citing statistics indicating
that the largest number of newly homeless
people are women and their children.

Bans underscore Botha

The Feb. 24 banning of 17 organizations
by the apartheid regime “demonstrates that
Botha and his henchmen are irrevocably
committed to the suppression of the ideals
of freedom and justice” in South Africa, the
African National Congress (ANC) has
charged.

In a statement issued Feb, 25, it charged
that the action is clear admission that all

past measures — detentions, murders, ban-
nings, martial law — “have failed to cow
the the spirit of defiance and the determina-
tion to resist ...”

The ANC pointed out that each of the
newly-banned organizations and civic

bodies “were committed to non-violent
forms of struggle...” Their banning, it said,
“is an open challenge to all patriots either to

repression

submit to the juggernaut of the police state
or devise new and better methods of strug-
gle in conditions of total illegality.”

The ANC called the timing of the ban-
nings “not accidental,” tying them to apar-
theid’s efforts to put in place refurbished
puppet bodies and puppet institutions.

The latest acts by Pretoria “give the lie to
the apologists” who have tried to claim
apartheid is reforming, the statement said.
It calls on world opinion “to come to the
defence of the democratic movements and
trade unions (which) represent the best tra-
ditions of our country ...”

The ANC repeated its conviction “that
only 4 mass movement, uniting the broad-
est front of democratic and patriotic forces
and employing a multi-pronged strategy
that includes revolutionary violence, can
dislodge the apartheid regime.”

The latest ban hit two of the country’s
largest organizations, the two million-
strong United Democratic Front and the
700,000-member Congress of South Afri-
can Trade Unions (COSATU) was told to

_ cease all political activity.

Leading members of these and other
banned groups were served individual noti-
ces which virtually gag them. On Feb.28,
police arrested and held for several hours
many leading church figures, including
Nobel prize recipient Archbishop Tutu and
UDF president Allan Boesak, for attempt-
ing to lead a march to parliament in Cape
Town. Other marchers were dispersed with
water cannons, and several journalists and
foreign diplomatic personnel were detained.

While indicating its “profound regret,
dissatisfaction and dismay”, the Mulroney
government refused to heed demands for
decisive action against the regime. Calls in
Parliament for Mulroney to honour his
1985 pledge at the United Nations to sever
ties should no progress in dismantling apar-
theid be seen, remained unanswered.

Vote moves
Cyprus left

“Unity and Change” was the slo-
gan under which Cyprus’ new Presi-
dent, George Vassiliou, won the Feb.
21 election. Vassiliou, who was sworn
in to office Feb. 28, was supported by
AKEL (Communist Party) and other
progressive forces, winning 51.7 per
cent of the vote.

In greeting the victory, AKEL
called it “‘an historic turning point in
the struggle of the Cypriot people in
their fight for the salvation of the
country.” The party placed its sup-
port for the new president this way:
“We do not have a ‘contract’ with Mr.
Vassiliou. The only contract is the
electoral platform between the new
president and the people. We will help
him accomplish this program.”

President Vassiliou said he will
spend the first 100 days of his
government to begin implementing
his program and to press Turkey to
respect the decisions of the United
Nations.

In an interview with Rizospastis,
newspaper of the Communist Party
of Greece (CPG), Vassiliou said his
slogan “Unity and Change” means
unity of the people who demand
social justice, and unity of the political
leadership in a government represent-
ing a wide range of political ideas.
Change, he explained, reflects the fact
the country needs new ideas, a new
economic plan, new educational pro-
grams and a more decisive stand in
international affairs.

The CPG described the election as
“a victory of the Cypriot people in
their struggle for an independent,
autonomous and demilitarized Cy-
prus.”

TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS

Pacific Tribune, March 9, 1988 « 9