BY HEATHER WOOD
This column is written and edited by the Young Socialists
(YS), an international organization of young workers, students,
and other youth fighting for socialism. For more information
about the YS write to: Young Socialists, 3284 23rd St., San
Francisco, California, 94110. Tel: (415) 824-1429.
Email: 105162.605@compuserve.com
Four socialist workers, including a member of the Young Socialists, from Minnesota and Iowa traveled to the Sioux City, Iowa, area recently, where there is a large IBP pork and beef processing plant.
We went to build solidarity with the strike by Teamsters in Washington against IBP and to meet with two UFCW-meatpackers we met there a little over a month ago. When we arrived in Sioux City, we went to a Wal-Mart shopping center in nearby South Sioux City, Nebraska, a few miles from the big IBP plant in Dakota City, Nebraska.
We sold 15 Militants, 3 copies of Perspectiva Mundial (PM), and a subscription to PM there. People who bought the papers were very interested in the strike in Washington and several others bought the paper because of its coverage on the fight for Puerto Rican independence. We learned by talking with workers there that the contract at the Dakota City plant expires on August 8.
We then went to one of the plant gates at the IBP plant. We taped two signs to our car, one in English and one in Spanish that read, "Read the Militant/Perspectiva Mundial. Support workers strike against IBP in Washington." We sold out of our Militants - 23 more copies and 14 more PMs, as well as one subscription to each the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.
Many of the workers we met already knew about the strike in Washington, but several did not. A number wanted more information about the fight, particularly since their own contract expires soon. Negotiations are going on now in Dakota City. One worker told us that they want a $2 per hour increase, not the $1.50 the bosses have offered over a four-year contract.
Following our visit to the plant gate, we went to the home of two IBP workers we met on a previous trip and spent a couple of hours talking with them about the upcoming contract, the case of Puerto Rican independence fighter José Solís and the fight for the Caribbean island's independence, as well as the Active Workers Conference. One of the workers will be attending the July 7 demonstration in Des Moines to demand freedom for Solís and both are interested in being part of a caravan to the Active Workers Conference (see ad on page 7).
PINE RIDGE, South Dakota -More than 500 people marched two miles across the Nebraska border into Whiteclay, Nebraska, on June, 26, to protest the killings of Wilson Black Elk Jr., 40, and Ronald Hard Heart, 39.
The two bodies of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation residents were found on June 8 in a field just off the road that connects the reservation with the Nebraska border town.
The march was led by American Indian Movement (AIM) leaders Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, and Russell Means -who previously led a demonstration here in 1972 to protest the racist killing of a Native American, Raymond Yellow Thunder, by three white men. In 1973, AIM lead an action that occupied the nearby village of Wounded Knee for 71 days.
Thomas Poor Bear, who is the Sergeant of Arms for the Oglala Lakota Tribal Council and a half-brother of Black Elk, explained to Nebraska, "It's the not knowing, that is fueling rumors and stirring old accusations on the Pine Ridge reservation."
Poor Bear said, "There are a lot of white extremists around the border towns."
Harold Salway, tribal president said, "A number of people have been found in recent years in circumstances similar to those of Black Elk and Hard Heart."
The pressure from the community and existing tension has forced Sheridan County Sheriff, the county where Whiteclay is located, Terry Robbins, to publicly deny that he or any of his deputies had anything to do with the deaths.
Junior Stricker, a 22-year-old meatpacker from Gering, Nebraska, marched "for the people. Cops are always harassing Native Americans. They're the same in Sioux City - where I used to live - and everywhere," he said.
Kelly Roy, president of the Native American Student Organization at the University of Colorado in Denver, told the Militant why she came with a van load of people to the march. "We are here because we want all this to end, we want the killings to stop," she said.
The reservation is in Shannon County, one of the poorest in the nation. "A white man killed an Indian," said Rick Whitedress, an unemployed worker who is Lakota Indian from Kyle, South Dakota. "The government is responsible for us not having jobs. That's why we're here; to fight the oppression."