Italie is a socialist worker fired from his job as a sewing machine operator by Goodwill Industries in Miami last October. He was dismissed after speaking out in defense of the Cuban Revolution and opposing the U.S. imperialist assault on Afghanistan during a televised candidates' debate. Italie was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Mayor of Miami.

Harper is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 876 and a 21-year employee at the Dearborn Sausage Co. just outside Detroit. Some 57 workers there walked out on strike six weeks ago against company demands for concessions that would gut the union. Harper said that Italie's political firing is "absolutely horrifying" and needs to be reversed.

"When you're striking, your mind opens up, and you begin to see how strong you can be," Harper explained. He described the support the strikers had received as members of Local 876 and other unionists have stopped by the picket line to show their support. On February 15, some 300 unionists from the UFCW, United Auto Workers, United Steel Workers of America, and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) attended a rally outside the plant sponsored by the Michigan AFL-CIO.

"While the number of strikers is not large," Italie told the meeting, "their determination points the way forward for much broader layers of workers who have learned about and are inspired by their action and resistance. They are having an impact far greater than their numbers."

Italie joined the picket line the next day to express his solidarity with the strikers and explained his fight to some of the UFCW members on the line. "That's a violation of your free speech," they said as soon as Italie explained the background to his firing by Goodwill, and how he had been the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Miami and had expressed his opposition to the war in Afghanistan.

On the same day, Italie attended a CWA rally of about 100 people. Several unionists signed his petitions.

In his talk to the meeting here, Italie noted an editorial in the Detroit News which described Iraq as the "pivot of the axis of evil." Washington is now trying to build a case to go to war to topple the government in Iraq, the socialist worker said. "The imperialists want to expand their domination in the Middle East, establish a mandate over Iraq, increase their control over oil profits, and strike blows at the Palestinian and Kurdish national liberation struggles."

Italie was introduced to the meeting by Francisco Rodriguez, a meat packer in Detroit's Eastern Market district and also a member of UFCW Local 876. Rodriguez explained how after he and several of his coworkers had been following Italie's fight in Perspectiva Mundial and the Militant they decided to write Italie inviting him to a house meeting to discuss his case and its importance for workers' rights.

Seven co-workers along with some family members, most of them immigrants from Mexico, attended the house meeting with Italie and the discussion not only took up his case but touched on a wide variety of issues that the workers were concerned about.

One worker asked Italie what he thought about immigrants coming to the U.S. to work and make a living and another pulled out a copy of Time magazine with an article about the situation of immigrant workers in this country. "I'm for a world without borders," Italie said. "I think no human being is illegal. We are all part of an international working class. The bosses use the borders to divide us."

Another worker urged Italie to move to Michigan to get away from the poor working conditions at Goodwill and the attack on his rights by the company. To this Rodriguez countered that conditions in Michigan were no different than those faced by workers in Florida because of capitalism. "A victory in Mike's fight would advance the rights of workers everywhere," he explained.

Inspired by their exchange with Italie, the UFCW members took up a collection among themselves over the next couple of days and contributed $120 toward the $685 dollars raised during Italie's stop here.

Letters of protest against Italie's firing from Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit and by United Steelworkers Local 1900 president Les Caulford were read at the meeting. The letters were sent to the mayor of Miami and Goodwill CEO Dennis Pastrana.

Peter Thierjung is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 876.
 
 
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