BY MAGGIE PUCCI
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Well over 50 people packed the Militant Labor Forum here February 21 to hear Socialist Workers Party leader Mámud Shirvani speak on "U.S. Hands Off Iraq: The weakening of the Clinton administration and the shortening war fuse." Shirvani has traveled extensively in the Caspian Sea region.

Many of those in attendance were socialist workers who are members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM). The Machinists were meeting as a national unit to discuss imperialism's march toward fascism and war, and how to carry out a working-class campaign against the pending U.S. war against Iraq among their co-workers.

Several students had made the trip here from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, to attend a march and rally at the White House earlier in the day protesting U.S. war threats against Iraq, and to attend the forum. Participants also came to the forum after meeting members of the Young Socialists and Socialist Workers Party at the Women of Color and Their Allies Summit organized by the National Organization for Women.

Other youth came after getting a flyer at the march and rally by some 2,000 people at the White House. Shirvani opened his talk by reminding the audience that that day was the 33rd anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. Shirvani pointed to Malcolm's internationalism and anti- imperialist stance as an example people should look to today. Working people and youth should demand "U.S. Hands Off Iraq" because Iraq is a sovereign country; the future of the country must be determined by the people of Iraq and not the U.S. military, Shirvani stated.

The same evening, some 70 people turned out for a Militant Labor Forum in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Militant editor Naomi Craine spoke on similar themes. Among them were a number of students from the area, activists in opposing the U.S. war moves and in protesting police brutality, longtime supporters of the communist movement, and socialist workers active in the United Steelworkers of America who were meeting in town that weekend.

Two young women said they heard about the forum from an anti-police brutality activist, and another from a friend who got a leaflet at a protest calling for U.S. hands off Iraq. Another said he got a leaflet himself at that protest, and remembered hearing a Socialist Workers candidate speak a couple years earlier.

Jenny Benton in St. Paul contributed to this article.  
 
 
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