Over the past week additional letters have been received by the Committee to Defend Freedom of Speech and the Bill of Rights from workers, unionists, and others who have learned about the case.

"Both my wife and I have worked for Goodwill Industries before. Many people think that Goodwill provides work and a paycheck that would otherwise be unattainable. They describe themselves as a nonprofit agency, run secondhand stores and sheltered workshops.

"I brought up a safety question to my foreman while working on an evaluation period. The foreman immediately subjected me to verbal assault. I left the plant.

"I told the hospital staff that my eyesight was more important than any job and did not return. They seemed to understand since most of them were union members themselves.

"The employers would like to have a no talking plant. The September 11 events have breathed new life into an unjust system. Your fight puts the lie to the 'United we stand propaganda.' Your fight is our fight and fight of poor and working people the world over. Enclosed find $10 in cash."

This note was sent by Kim O'Brien in Willimantic, Connecticut, to Italie, who was fired October 22 for his political views by Goodwill Industries, a "nonprofit" company that supplies the U.S. government with flags and military uniforms. At the time, Italie was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Miami. Several days earlier, Italie had spoken out against the U.S. war against Afghanistan and defended the Cuban Revolution at a candidates' debate aired on a local television station. Goodwill CEO Dennis Pastrana later told the Miami Herald that he dismissed the socialist candidate because "we cannot have anyone who is attempting to subvert the United States government" working at the plant.

"When Kim O'Brien says that 'the employers would like to have a no talking plant' he gets at the heart of what my fight is all about," Italie told the Militant. "Goodwill is different from other employers only in the depths of its hypocrisy in claiming to care about the well-being of working people. The aim of their abuse, arrogance, and firings is to shut us up: to prevent us from speaking out against miserable working conditions and their wars of plunder. I'm fighting to give other workers more space on the job to discuss and organize on the issues that most deeply affect our lives."

Other new letters of support include David Campbell, secretary-treasurer of Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Local 8-675 in Carson, California; and the Rev. Earl Koopercamp, rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Manhattan, New York. In order to take advantage of this support, the Committee to Defend Freedom of Speech and the Bill of Rights is organizing a national tour of Italie to publicize and raise funds for the fight.

The first leg of the national tour in the new year will start in the Tampa, Florida, area January 12. John Benson, a meat packer in Plant City, said one of the first stops is to meet with farmers in Brooksville. A house meeting will include farmers who have filed a class action suit against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for discriminating against Black farmers in granting loans. On January 13 Italie will participate in an event in Sarasota at New College that will address the conditions that farm workers in the area face. Italie is also scheduled to speak at the University of Southern Florida in Tampa.

From January 18–21 the AFL-CIO Civil Rights conference will take place in Miami, which will culminate in the Martin Luther King Day parade on January 21. Italie and his supporters will reach out for support from unionists at the conference and those joining the parade.

The packed schedule will also include participation at the January 19 Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) Awards Banquet in St. Petersburg, Florida. The keynote speaker will be Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the central leader of the Battle of Birmingham in 1963, which was a turning point for the movement against Jim Crow segregation. Shuttlesworth is a supporter of the fight for reinstatement of Michael Italie (see interview in January 14 issue of the Militant).

From January 23–24 Italie will be in Charlotte, North Carolina, to join together in speaking out against political firings with Ahmad Daniels. Daniels, the former director of the Mecklenburg County Office of Minority Affairs, was fired from his job for a letter he wrote to a local newspaper on his political views about the U.S. assault on Afghanistan. This is not the first time Daniels has come up against governmental harassment for defense of Black rights during wartime. He has a long history, from successfully fighting in 1967 to get an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps instead of fighting in Vietnam to participating in the United Nations-sponsored conference on racism held in South Africa this past year.

On January 26 Italie has been invited to join fighters in Valdosta, Georgia, at an event sponsored by the Peoples Tribunal. The Peoples Tribunal is a civil rights organization that fights police brutality and racist discrimination and is based among workers and poor farmers in rural Georgia.

Italie will be in San Francisco January 27–30, and then will head to Seattle. To schedule speaking engagements for Michael Italie in your area, please send the proposed dates and events planned to the Committee to Defend Freedom of Speech and the Bill of Rights, P.O. Box 510127, Miami, FL, 33151. Phone: 305-724-5965 or E-mail: DefendFreeSpeech@yahoo.com

In order to produce literature, pay for phone calls, and plan travel, the committee is urgently in need of funds. Financial contributions, large and small, can be sent to the address above. Please make checks out to the Free Speech Defense Fund.  
 
 
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