Hizballah is Lebanese

Georges Mehrabian 
Athens, Greece

Editors note: We will make the change you propose in subsequent issues of the Militant. 
 

Edna Griffin, a fighter

Over 150 people attended a celebration of the life of Edna Griffin at the First Unitarian Church on February 26 in Des Moines. Griffin, a civil rights and social activist, died on February 9 at the age of 90.

She was born in Kentucky and attended Fisk University. She moved with her husband to North Carolina but as a Black physician, he was not permitted to practice. They ended up in Des Moines where they spent the rest of their lives. At the memorial meeting friends and relatives from different generations gave accounts of how Griffin was a champion for social justice. In an unpublished interview, Griffin explained that she had become inspired by the fight to defend the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s in Alabama. Here a nationwide defense effort was launched to defend several young Black men falsely accused of rape.

In 1948 Griffin and several others entered Katz's Drug Store in downtown Des Moines and were refused service at the lunch counter. Griffin began picketing and sitting in and eventually sued the store. The case went to the Iowa Supreme Court, which ruled that it was illegal to deny service on the basis of one's race. People at the meeting explained that even though Iowa was in the "North" and there were no "colored only" signs, racism and discrimination were still rampant.

In a phone interview, Merle Hansen, a one-time field organizer for the Iowa Farmers Union, said that Griffin was involved in many different struggles. "She wasn't just concerned about the struggle of Blacks. She even attended Iowa Farmers Union meetings with her husband."

Lorena Tinker, whose children were litigants in the Supreme Court case that allowed students to wear arm bands to protest the Vietnam War, said that Griffin was involved in protests against the war and in defense of immigrant workers as well as Native Americans. She was a founder of the Iowa Congress of Racial Equality and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

In the late 1980s, Mark Curtis, a socialist and meat-packer, was framed up on rape and burglary charges in Des Moines. Griffin agreed to support his defense. At a September 1988 defense rally at the Des Moines Civic Center, Griffin, who was then 78 years old, said, "What's this new arrangement? When has there been such concern about sexual abuse, never mind rape, of our young Black women?"

She later told a Militant reporter, "I figured out that he is Spanish-speaking and is a great danger because he can communicate with Spanish-speaking workers."

One of the themes of the meeting was that even though Blacks and others had made progress in the past 50 years there was still much that needed to be done and that following in the footsteps of Griffin's activism was what was in order.

Edwin Fruit 
Des Moines, Iowa  
 

Mexico protesters

I would like to briefly respond to some issues in the February 28 edition of the Militant. The article entitled "Mexico protesters: Release jailed strikers" had the sentence, "Sending police onto a campus is virtually unheard of in Mexico in several decades." The presence of the military on certain campuses of public universities is clearly unconstitutional. That is what the word "Autonomous" means in Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and its branch campuses. One of the gains of the [Mexican] Revolution that was written into the constitution in later years was the explicit independence of this educational institution.

Through the rectory, the presidency once again demonstrated its profound, violent disrespect for the rule of law. The people of this country have not forgotten the massacres during the current administration and are on the lookout for others who know how to fight.

Nevin Siders 
Mexico City, Mexico  
 

Learn from history

I was so happy to find you on the Internet, especially to be able to read comrade Barnes's article [on fascism]. Especially in these times we need to learn from the history and leadership of the proletarian movement. Farrell Dobbs and James Cannon lived through this history. They experienced the growth of fascist movements within the United States.

My father as a young railroad worker took part in the mass demonstration in New York City against the mass fascist meeting being held there. As a youth he recalled to me how important that demonstration was for working people. It is easy to fall prey to the fascist line. This is why it is so key to recall the need for a proletarian orientation. Educating, organizing and mobilizing working people is the best line against fascists. Please keep up the good work. I too continue to struggle.

Tom Siblo 
by e-mail  
 
 
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