exi The
meaning of therw vinced' by torture to accept intravenous feeding, but some died as a result of the hunger strike.
"In June 1982, four inmates of ward 33 set fire to themselves in the ward to protest against the terrible conditions and inhuman practices. Three of them died....
USA.
Jackson campaign
On that day, a special operation was carried out throughout the prison in which hundreds of prisoners were injured. Dozens of people were killed in the cells and then presented as suicide."
Although the worst brutality is report-
The Democratic primaries are over. The three candidates, Walter Moned in Diyarbakir, the testimonies of Turkdale, Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson, who survived the initially crowded ish prisoners held in a number of places field, are busily preparing for the San Francisco Democratie party conmake it clear that systematic deprivation of sleep, undernourishment and denying
Of the three candidates, only Jesse Jackson has presented a campaign the right to relieve themselves inmates substantially different from the typical Democratic Party primary camare standard practices in the Turkish
- It was preceded by an impressive voter registration drive which prisons.
focused on unregistered Blacks, and consistently drew large, mostly Black,
On February 24, about 1,500 prisoners in Mamak prison in Ankara also vOn March 19, started a hunger strike.
a prisoner said in court:
"In the situation we are in, we are sick of living. Rather than live like this, we would rather die voluntarily and keep our dignity."
On April 5, the hunger strikers in after 41
Mamak ended their protest days, before any deaths occurred. It appears that they won some concessions, although they had to accept "training"
in Turkish nationalism. However, since
Ankara is the captial, the Turkish authorities there are most sensitive to international attention.
Turkish• authorities have been
The saying that the most recent hunger strike was designed to prevent
Turkey from normalizing its relations with the European community after it has formally returned to parliamentary rule. Despite the hypocrisy of this claim, it shows that the
"parliamentary"
ruling junta and its servants are sensitive to international publie opinion.
So, it is essential now to build an international campaign to stop the masstorture and murder machine set in motion by the generals, and which is continuing to grind away and stamp out the lives of no one knows how many hundreds of Turkish and Kurdish youth.
Messages demanding a full accounting for the prisoners on hunger strike in Istanbul and protesting the conditions in
Turkish prisons should be sent to PresisCumhurbaskligi, dent
Kenan
Evren,
Ankara; and General Necdet Oztorun,
Sikiyonetim
Komutanligi,
Istanbul.
Copies should be sent to the Comite pour la Defense des Droits Democratiques et
Humaines en Turquie, Librairie La Breche,
9 rue de Tunis, 75011, Paris, France.
Like the Irish H-Block hunger strikers who preceded them and whose example they follow, the prisoners in Turkey are fighting a system that is designed to totally as human beings.
crush them
Therefore, their resistance is a battle for
In that sense, it is basic human values.
a battle for all humanity, in which they deserve the support of every defender of elementary human rights.
4 vention on July 16th. audiences to its events. Larry COOPERMAN
The Jackson campaign arose in the context of a decade-long retreat by all sections of the Democratic Party from New Deal/Great Society liberalism, which was characterized by the granting of concessions to the working class to maintain social peace. If Gary Hart has become the spokesperson of the "Atari Democrats", it is because he has clearly articulated that retreat, denouncing Walter Mondale's ties to the labor bureau-
And Walter Mondale, of course, was vice president under Carter. The Carter presidency, which at times enjoyed a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate, not only failed to enact the AFL-CIO's minimum program, but actually invoked the hated Taft-Hartley Act against the United Mine Workers of America during its 1977-78 strike. (2) Furthermore, the Carter administration was responsible for initiating cutbacks in the majority of social service programs (cuts which Reagan has accelerated since 1980) and for raising the level of aid to
So, the Jesse Jackson campaign, which proposes military cutbacks, increases in social service spending, an end to US intervention in Central America, normalirelations with Cuba and the strengthening of civil rights measures, has elicited substantial support.
This support comes groups, including Blacks who see in the campaign a voice to express their interests as an oppressed minority, liberals or leftliberals who are unhappy with the retreat of the Democratic Party from what they perceive to be its historic ideals, and radicals and antiwar activists who see the campaign as an opportunity to force the Democratic Party to the left on the issue of US intervention in Central America. A section of this group also views the Jackson candidacy as leading to an eventual break with the Democratic Party by millions of Blacks and others who will find their efforts frustrated within the Democratic Party.
The actual outcome of the Jackson campaign, however, will not be tangible benefits for Black workers, or a return to the previous "ideals" of the Democratic
For, much less, a break with the Democratic Party. Rather, the campaign represents a coherent attempt to reform
While Jesse Jackson had a certain status as a civil rights leader, since he had worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., he was also saddled with the reputation as a maverick. Despite being mistrusted by established Black leaders and elected officials, Jackson nonetheless rose to national prominence.
Jackson's presidential candidacy, nounced after months of speculation about his intentions, followed the election of Black or Chicano mayors in several important cities. #P In particular, it followed the victorious election campaigr of Harold Washington in Chicago in which Jesse Jackson was centrally inRise of Black hopes
The rise of Black electoral hopes nationally, which led to the election of mayors in Chicago and Philadelphia, and which impelled the campaign of Mel King in Boston, was partially the result of the inability of Blacks to see another means of fighting for their interests. In particular, the inability of the labor movement to effectively respond to the social service cutbacks or to defend itself against the concessionary demands of the employers led Blacks to look to electoral solutions.
Despite the failure of capitalist electoral politics to provide a means for Blacks to defend the social conquests of the 1950s and 1960s - which were won 1. th uppiesic oung Suban Professionary. "typical The "Atari Democrats" is a nickname for Hart supporter" otherwise the
Atari is a computer game brand name
The Taft-Hartley Act requires a 90 day "cooling off" period between the decision to strike and its start.
International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
through mobilizations for civil rights - the elections appeared to be the only avenue for pursuing the defense of Black
This situation was due, in part, to the unwillingness of the Black leadership to consistently organize mass mobilizations, despite the clear success of several demonstrations, especially the August 27, 1983, march for Jobs, Peace and Justice which commemorated the historic 1963 civil rights march led by Martin Luther Can the Democrats fullfil hopes?
From 1964 to 1980, Black participation in elections declined in relative terms. Voter turnout among Blacks, for example, had slipped from 58 51 percent during that period. all sections of the national Black leadership identified with the drives, there was serious division over whether a Black should run in the Democratic primaries and, if so, whether Jesse Jackson should be the candidate.
Andrew Young, former UN ambassador under Carter and currently mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, initially refused to support Jackson. Blacks, including most of the Black mayors, Coretta Scott King and Benjamin Hooks of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored (NAACP), shared that opposition. In their view, a Black candidate would divide the Black vote in the primaries and possibly help to elect a more conservative Democrat, such as John Glenn or Gary
Professor Ronald Walters, opinion column in the June 12, 1983 Los Angeles Times supported the idea of a Black candidacy: "The threat to Blacks, severely buffeted by the policies of the Reagan administration, is that any
Democratic nominee forward by traditional politics would take a Black vote and then, once elected, implement Reagan-like policies.... In effect, the question is whether to check and reverse the rightward drift of the party with a seriously organized campaign behind a Black presidential candi-
"The legacy of unresponsiveness continues today as former Carter-Mondale operatives move to intensify the rightward shift of the Democratic Party in response to what they perceive as the conservative mood of the American electorate...At the very least a Black presidential candidacy would sharpen Black political mobilization to the ultimate benefit of the Democrats...
The split over. strategy among the Black Democrats in fact represented more than simply a debate over the effects of a Black primary campaign in the Democratic Party. It also represented the concern of a section of the Black leadership that Jackson's candidacy, fueling raised expectations among Blacks, would add to discontent in ways that could International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
OYCOL!
THE
PUSH ES
TODAY
Jackson leads Black boycott (DR) over beyond election contests. jection was cloaked mostly in attacks on Jackson's flamboyant personality, or accusations that his speeches ("hands that once picked cotton will pick presidents) were demagogic.
However, the evident success of the campaign (21 percent of the primary vote and 80 percent of the Black vote) quieted most of the critics. Wall Street Journal stated June 1, 1984, "Nearly all Black leaders, many of whom antagonistic toward the candidacy, acknowledge the effectiveness of the Jackson effort." The success of the campaign in terms of Black voter indicated that there would be substantial benefits for the eventual Democratic candidate in the November presidential election. And Jackson, who has rejected running as an independent, candidates clear when he stated bluntly, "We need each other."
At the San Francisco convention, Jesse Jacksog delegates may engage in a fight over delegate selection rules. which deny delegates to candidates with less than 20 percent of the vote in a given district in most states, and which grant all of the delegates in a district to a candidate with an absolute majority in a district, have led to a wide disparity between Jackson's popular vote (21 percent) and the number of delegates pledged to him not support any Democratic candidate who does not agree to changes in the delegate selection rules. It is that implicit threat that Jackson must wield to influence within the Democratic
The points in Jackson's platform which aroused the hopes of millions of Blacks and others will probably be downplayed to focus on the convention fight over delegate selection rules. likely that Jackson will even try to get
Party to incorporate of the PLO, normalization of relations with Cuba, immediate withdrawal of US troops from Central America, cutbacks in military spending or increases in social service spending into its
Rather, the main objective of the Jackson campaign is to translate its popular support into a permanent voice within the Democratic Party for the Black lead. ership. As Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young
"Blacks will never again be taken for granted. That's probably the legacy of the Jesse Jackson campaign."
However, just as the incorporation of the labor bureaucracy into the Democratic Party failed to achieve even the most minimal objectives of the labor movement, Jesse Jackson's strategy will fail to produce any important gains for the millions of Blacks who place their confidence in him. The campaign may, however, result in important gains for a layer of the Black leadership, just as the incorporation of the labor bureaucracy into the top rungs of the Democratic Party produced tangible benefits to a layer of labor bureaucrats. Some labor leaders used those positions to obtain privileges ranging from escaping prosecution on corruption charges to acquiring a diplomatic post. (Leonard Woodcock, upon retiring as president of the UAW, received a diplomatic appointment to represent the Carter administra-
Despite the hopes of some activists that the Jackson campaign will lead Blacks toward a break with the Democratic Party, it is clear that its real dynamic is toward incorporation into the Democratic Party. To accomplish that it has successfully sought to alienation of many Blacks from the Democratic Party.
It is true that Jesse Jackson has sueceeded in arousing hopes. However, the dashing of those hopes will not automatically produce a break with the Democratic Party. tative leadership which points in the direction of independent political action, any disillusionment that does result from the campaign will most likely lead to demoralization.
The most likely result of the campaign is that it will lead to a renewed effort by Blacks to influence the course of the Democratic Party, even after the Novem-
Just like the AFL-CIO's •sad record in the Democratic Party, this would mean a prolonged and futile effort to reform a party than serves interests antagonistic to those of the vast majority
This article was first published in the July issue of Socialist Action, a monthly newspaper published in San
INDIA three types of demands: political, economic and religious. There were some specific demands. There were also a number of grievances and general demands which had not been put in the form of any specific slogan.
To start with, the Anandpur Sahib
Why