I would like to ask for clarification on what could turn out to be a small point. In that article, on page 9, you refer to Patrick Buchanan as “an incipient fascist.” I have seen Buchanan referred to in this way in other Militant articles.

I’m not sure why you speak of him in this way. It seems to me that there is nothing incipient about Buchanan the man. I would think that he is fully developed politically and highly conscious ideologically, that is to say, that he is not an incipient fascist but a fully formed one. He probably seldom characterizes himself as such, preferring to hide his real aims for now, but he knows perfectly well what he is about all the same.

Is it accurate to call him an incipient fascist?

Bob Cantrick
Toronto, Ontario
 
 
Hurricane hit farm workers
An editorial and two articles appeared in the September 14, 2004 issue of the Militant that contrasted the responses of the Cuban and US. governments to the devastation caused by Hurricane Charlie. The U.S. government’s response to the needs of workers and farmers following Hurricane Frances, which whacked Florida a few weeks after Hurricane Charlie, underscores the point of the editorial.

On September 4, Hurricane Frances devastated the towns of Pierson and Seville in Volusia County, Florida. These are two of the towns in Volusia County where thousands of migrant and permanent farm workers, many without papers, work the fields of the fern industry. Ferns are a main crop in the county.

The following are a few of the reports found in the Daytona Beach News Journal following Hurricane Frances:

• It took eight days after the hurricane before farm workers in Pierson received any major help. On Sunday, September 12, two sisters, Estella and Alejandra Martínez, joined a convoy of more than 1,200 vehicles to pick up food, water and ice in Pierson. “We have not had anything to eat for 3 days. We took the chance and left work without permission to come here hoping to get some food.” The sisters both have children and had hoped to make $25 each by working that Sunday at the fernery.

• In Seville, two days earlier, an EVAC ambulance and the American Red Cross finally showed up. “Fern cutters and their families,” some coming straight from the fields, “lined-up for first-aid supplies, mosquito repellent, bottled water and other items.”

• FEMA’S [Federal Emergency Management Agency] excuses for the delay were that “FEMA officials had to wait to come into the area to assess the damage and the extent of need before trucking in the supplies.” They also claimed they had difficulty “finding space or a location in northwest Volusia County to set up an operation center.”

• The aid finally came as a result of a campaign by the Farm Workers Association of Florida, the Volusia County Hispanic Association and the Alianza de Mujeres Activas (Alliance of Active Women).

• On September 16, 350 fern growers and fern ranchers met with government officials at the Pierson Lion’s Club. The meeting was to discuss emergency disaster relief. Also in attendance were members of the Farm Workers Association of Florida who had come to ask for unemployment benefits. The growers and ranchers were offered nothing but loans because the Department of Agriculture prioritizes “consumable goods,” such as citrus and vegetables, for disaster relief. Ferns and lumber are not included.

The growers and ranchers then attacked the farm workers’ request for unemployment benefits. To loud applause from other ranchers and growers, fern grower Bonnie Jones told the government officials: “If you give it to the people (workers), they will not return to work. The money should be given to the fern growers so we can keep the employees.”

• Tirso Moreno, general coordinator of the Farm Workers Association, replied to their attacks: “They say we are asking for welfare, but I call what they are asking for corporate welfare. They want government grants, free money, to re-establish their businesses and make a profit, but still say workers are not entitled to anything.” He further pointed out that many fern workers have no work at all now and others are working as little as two days a week. He ended his comments with a generous gesture: “The bottom line is that we have to work together. We are not against them getting help to reconstruct the fern industry, but they also have to support the workers instead of attacking us.”

Linda Jenness
Daytona Beach (Volusia County), Florida
 
 
Defend mine program
September 30 could be the beginning of the end for many coal-producing states if Congress does not take action to extend a federal program that supports retired miners’ benefits and mining reclamation.

The Abandoned Mine Land, or AML, is a program created in 1977, when Congress passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Under the program, coal operators pay a 35-cent tax per ton of surface-mined coal and 15 cents per ton of underground-mined coal. The money is used to clean up coal mines that were abandoned before 1977.

Without congressional action, the coal tax that funds mine cleanups would expire September 30. As a result, more than $2 billion worth of high-priority coal reclamation will remain unreclaimed, leaving millions of people who live, work, and recreate in the nation’s coalfields to continue to be exposed to the many dangers these areas represent.

Taxpayers of coal producing states could be forced to pay for the cleanup, instead of the coal operators.

On August 31 in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William Howard finalized the decision allowing Horizon Natural Resources to file bankruptcy, thus voiding union contracts providing health care coverage for nearly 3,000 employees, including 2,300 retirees—many of whom suffer from black lung as a result of their working years at Horizon. Many of these affected by the decision are Kentuckians whose only hope for health care is for the AML to continue.

Matt Alley
Richmond, Kentucky

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of interest to working people.

Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
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