"We have spoken to thousands of people, collected thousands more signatures, and joined with others standing up to political firings and intimidation by the bosses and their government," said Italie in an interview.

Italie was the only candidate for mayor of Miami last fall to oppose U.S. imperial-ism’s war against Afghanistan and accelerated attacks on the rights of working people at home. After a televised candidates debate where he explained his position, as well as defended the Cuban Revolution, he was fired from his job as a sewing machine operator by his employer, Goodwill Industries of South Florida on October 22.

Goodwill bosses told Italie, who was on the ballot as the Socialist Workers Party candidate, that "because of your views of the U.S. government, which are contrary to those of this agency, you cannot work here any more." Goodwill is a major contractor of uniforms and flags to the U.S. military and a notorious antilabor outfit that pays many of its employees below the minimum wage.

In the wake of September 11, the U.S. Justice Department stepped up its arrests and victimization of hundreds of working people, police conducted widespread roadblocks and intrusive checks, Congress passed legislation giving the cops greater powers to spy on and detain individuals, and employers tested how far they could go in firing workers whose views or union activity they did not like. Italie and his supporters launched what was the first nationwide fight in to oppose this accelerated assault on workers’ rights.

A number of workers, union officials, and others who did not agree with Italie’s opposition to Washington’s war on Afghanistan signed up to support the fight and sent messages condemning the firing. The case became one way class-conscious workers were not only able to explain to co-workers and fellow unionists how the U.S. rulers use their wars to get workers to put off strike action, ease up their resistance to the increased pace of work and declining safety on the job, or racist attacks and murders by cops of working people. It also set an example of standing up to these imperialist war pressures and refusing to allow hard-won gains to be taken away by the U.S. rulers without a fight.

After he was fired Italie went right back to the plant gate at Goodwill during the shift change to let his co-workers know about the firing. He and his supporters held a press conference that received widespread coverage in the Miami press. And he pledged to expand the fight to demand reinstatement to his job in order to make Goodwill think twice before firing someone else. In an interview here Michael Italie reviewed the accomplishments of his six-month long free speech fight, which centered on an 18-stop tour, traveling to more than 40 cities across the U.S. and Canada. "I have joined with meat packers fighting for a union in Nebraska and coal miners from Colorado," said Italie, "Palestinians whose jobs are threatened because they speak out against the Israeli occupation of their land, and high school and college students angry about police brutality and U.S. imperialism’s war in Afghanistan."

Italie said the campaign has "scored important victories," such as "exposing Goodwill’s treatment of myself and other workers in the plant, shining a light on this ‘nonprofit’ company’s miserable working conditions and undemocratic actions. Thousands have learned how capitalist class justice is organized against working people. Unless we mobilize our collective strength workers have no freedom of speech or other rights under capitalism."

More than 2,000 workers, youth, and others who learned about Italie’s fight signed petitions and sent letters to protest the firing, as well as contributing financially to the campaign. A former Goodwill worker from Connecticut sent a letter of support explaining that companies like Goodwill "want to turn the workplace into a ‘no-speech’ zone."

"Many workers and farmers linked my fight to their own," said Italie. Eight meat packers involved in a union organizing drive in Omaha invited Italie to a house meeting to share experiences about their common struggles, as did others in Minneapolis and Detroit.

"I explained that these firings and company efforts to break the unions are not isolated incidents," added Italie. "The capitalist class as a whole, and its government in Washington, D.C., is driven to speed up production, cut wages, and intensify racist and sexist attacks on workers and farmers around the world."

Italie was also able to use the platform gained in his fight to explain the stakes for working people in opposing Washington’s brutal treatment of 300 men captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere who are being held in cages on its illegally held naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba.

Italie shared platforms with and spoke to other fighters and working people who faced firings or jail since U.S. president George Bush launched his "war on terrorism" after September 11. These included Ahmad Daniels, forced out of his job as Minority Affairs Director in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, for a letter to the editor on the U.S. war against Afghanistan; and a number of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, such as Alia Atawneh in San Francisco. Atawneh was fired by Macy’s because she stood up to anti-Arab abuse from customers. Italie met with Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian professor at the University of South Florida whose job is being threatened because he is an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights.

"At every meeting I was able to explain Washington’s frame-up of the five Cuban revolutionaries who were in this country to help learn about attacks against Cuba by counterrevolutionary organizations based in the United States. They were railroaded to jail on charges of conspiracy ‘to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign power,’ ‘to commit espionage,’ and ‘to commit murder.’ The capitalist class is working overtime to split us off from fellow fighters," said Italie, "and to break our will to resist. It has been the aim of my fight to tell the truth about the Cuban Revolution and the international struggle against imperialist domination.

"I count it as a big success," the socialist worker said, "when a meat packer in Omaha told me that while he at first supported the U.S. government’s ‘war on terrorism,’ that he now opposes Washington’s war moves after having read Pathfinder literature and discussing it through with socialist workers on the job."

"It was the support I have won which forced the company to retreat from its efforts to deny me my unemployment benefits," explained Italie. In mid-March the Goodwill bosses filed appeal of Italie’s eligibility for benefits, demanding that the sewing machine operator be cut off from his $177 weekly unemployment benefits and be forced to repay the value of the benefits he had received over the previous four months. But just days before the hearing to decide on its appeal, Goodwill withdrew its challenge.

Italie concluded that "the company made a political decision. They knew that every action they took against me would be met with a fight. They surrendered in this battle because they did not want to face a new round of press conferences in front of the factory, and more petitions and letters from across the United States."  
 
Young people joined fight
Young people have played an important role in this fight for workers rights and were central to arranging speaking events at three high schools and eight college campuses.

"Youth I talked to were outraged by my firing," said Italie. "Twenty-year-old Heather Paige in Miami took the lead in the days after I was fired by going right up to the company gate to hand out flyers to workers leaving the plant in support of my fight. A new Young Socialists member almost single-handedly organized a program attended by 30 people in Brownsville, Texas. Young fighters at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, organized a program that attracted 35 students and resulted in interviews with both the campus TV station and newspaper. There are similar examples from New York to Ohio, where I will be speaking this week."

Youth leaders from 15 organizations around the world endorsed the campaign against the political firing of Michael Italie. Many endorsed when learning about the fight from representatives of the Young Socialists at a December 2001 meeting of the World Federation of Democratic Youth in Athens, Greece. These included leaders of the Vietnam Youth Federation, the Union of Young Communists in Cuba, the Western Sahara liberation youth organization, the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students, and others.

In addition, leaders of the fight to shut down the U.S. naval base in Vieques, Puerto Rico, joined in the effort. Carlos Zenón, president of the Vieques Fishermen’s Association, and Ismael Guadalupe, a spokesperson for the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, both endorsed Italie’s fight.

In the course of his tour Italie had over a dozen media interviews, including one in December from New York with Amy Goodman on her nationally syndicated radio program "Democracy Now."

Throughout his tour Italie explained that the courts and laws under capitalism are stacked against workers. "The courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court," Italie noted, "have ruled consistently against workers fired for their political views. It is in this context that no attorney has stepped forward to take on this fight on the legal front. What is most important, however, are the political gains that have been won in the course of this free speech fight."

"My firing occurred at the height of the imperialists’ prowar, patriotic hysteria," Italie stated, "But a key lesson I have learned in my fight is that workers and farmers continue to use the political space we have won over generations to advance our struggles. While we are bringing the fight against my firing to a close, the struggle continues for workers’ rights wherever working people refuse to give in to the bosses’ attacks on our rights and living conditions. Another lesson of this fight is that only by relying on our own power, independently of the Democrats and Republicans, can working people organize to rid the world of capitalism and its war, racism, injustice, and economic oppression."

The Committee to Defend Freedom of Speech and the Bill of Rights will be the sponsor of the victory celebration May 11 in Miami. The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss this fight in the light of the evolution of U.S. and world politics since this campaign was launched six months ago. "I look forward to starting a job soon," Italie said, "and bringing the lessons, experience, and strengths of this fight along with me as part of building the communist movement.

"In the wake of September 11 the U.S. rulers tried to make working people at home and abroad believe they should be given free reign to send their military on brutal missions, to militarize U.S. society, and erode the rights of workers and farmers," Italie said. "In face of their show of power they hoped we would end our resistance to their assaults. But Washington’s post-September 11 momentum is spent. From the struggle of the Palestinian people, to mobilizations by workers and peasants in Latin America, to strikes and protests here in the United States, our class is showing its determination to fight for a world free from exploitation, oppression, war, and racism," Italie said. "That is what our campaign was about from the very start. Everyone who joined in this effort will be able to build on the fight we waged together in these continuing struggles."  
 
 
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