Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1981. július-december (35. évfolyam, 27-50. szám)
1981-12-24 / 49. szám
Thursday, Dec. 24. 1981. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZO Why the Steelworkers were Defeated There were collective bargaining elections at 14 Du Pont plants. 11.500 workers had a chance to vote either for, or against the Steel Workers Union. The majority of the workers in each of the plants voted against the union. The SWU spent hundreds,of thousands of dollars and for the past number of years concentrated to win this election. The question arises: what are the reasons for the defeat? No doubt there are several reasons. One is the opposition of the Du Pont management, the poisonous propaganda: “the union can not give you anything but strikes and collect dues” which was planted in the minds of the workers. But .this was not the most important reason. The election was not held in a vacuum. The workers who read newspapers and view tv, during the past few months heard a geat deal about steelwor- kfcfs^utoworkers, rubberworkers, airline employees givingx>ne concession after another to their employers, in violation of existing collective bargaining agreements. \ Where is iUwritten that - when as a result of the economic recession, that is brought about by the employers’ system - the workers have to carry the burden to getxout of the recession? Did we hear for example that in time of prosperity the employer would open the existing agreement and say: we are making a lot of money, we wish to share it with you! By the same token, when there is a recession, it is the job of the employer, the corporation to take steps to carry the burden of the downturn in economic activity. Take the case of the U.S. Steel Corporation! This huge economic entity forthe past number of years pleads poverty. Yet it was this same corporation that dug up 6.5 billion dollars in its attempt to buy the Marathon Oil Corp. This huge sum of money was made at the expense of the steelworkers and instead of modernizing steel production to make it possible to compete with the Japanese, Belgian, German products, the company tried to invest the money in oil, in the hope that it will bring higher profits. The trade unions, organized in the AFL-CIO, should have a strategy and say: we are not responsible for the recession and we are not ready and willing to give up any of the gains we have achieved with great sacrifices during the past decades. The fact is that workers can make advances even in times of recession. This was proven in the 30's when the greatest advances were made in organizing the unorganized, and basic advances were made in improving the wages and working conditions of the workers in basic industries. But in order to make these advances, you must have 1. ) clear strategy, describing the aims and objectives for and by the workers; 2. ) wavs and means to get these objectives realized; 3. ) high degree of militancy, ready for sacrifices to achieve the justified demands of the workers, and most importantly 4. ) high degree of solidarity not only among the workers of one plant, or even of one industry, but by all organized labor. There is no substitute for solidarity. That is the most important weapon in the hands of those working for a living. We will deal with these most vital problems of the trade union movement as the events will evolve, since in 1982 not less than 5 million workers will negotiate new agreements. T T James Lustig t HARRIET BVDISH I On November 23rd, Harriet Budish, wife of Joseph Budish, a writer for the English page of our paper, was brutally murdered in her office in one of the fashionable buildings on New York East Side. At the memorial meeting in her honor, the following address was delivered by Norma Spector, .Chairperson of Women for Racial and Economic Equality. My sister is dead! Uselessly, wastefully, senselessly. Her death is so painfully symbolic of this society we live in! How could it be otherwise than as a result of the quality of life that has been established for us. If the whole of the government is geared to how best to destroy life, if all our substance is poured into fulfilling this lunatic ambition, how then to prepare the population for such total destruction but to -brutalize them , inure them to violence and death, make acceptable total insanity on a national level by making normal such useless, wasteful, senseless death on the level of my sister, my brother. Harriet was my sister because she believed in the same struggle with me. It is not just because we were sisters in the same organization, Women for Racial and Economic Equality. Harriet was my sister because our fear of the. destructiveness of our society brought us both to work for change. The urgency of the struggle for change is made even more desperate by the horror of this violence that is so common, so typical , so matter of fact that it is treated as a statistic to be added to other statistics. But we will not be desensitized. We will not become immune. We will not become placid. We will not accept the corruption of this society. Together with the revulsion we experience for the murderer, we must feel pity that he too was a victim of the dehumanizing effect he was part of. Before the brutalization overwhelms in its numbers and intensity, we resist and fight. If the world that Harriet looked toward is to become a reality, we must resist and fight. We cannot simply survive by hiding from the painfulness of our reality. We must change that reality. It is the strength we take from working together that enables us to live beyond Harriet’s death to work for the life she foresaw. , Harriet knew, as we do, that we resist and fight, not simply as a holding operation - not to maintain the world in the state we are in. We know because we have witnessed its achievement all over the world, that there can be and is a better life for all people. We will work even harder to achieve that life even sooner. This will be our courage from Harriet’s sacrifice. This will be our dedication to our sister. CORRECTION The article in our Dec. 17th issue, titled “A Lesson for Poland in Hungary’s Progress” was not identified as having originated in the Long Island NEWSDAY of Dec. 8th. We regret the omission. Our paper does not agreee with some of its formulations. Cardinal Cooke relinquishes the ministry of the Gospel when, rather than joining his fellow bishops in the call to conversion from mutual assured destruction, he gives theological legitimacy to the symptom and becomes partner to its institutionalization In public policy. (Excerpts from a statement of 60 catholics criticizing Cardinal Cooke.) let us learn Hungáriáit I’ll lake the room. I shall want the room today. On what day can I come (move) in? I suppose I can come in at once, can’t I? Service Please show me my room. Where is the lijt [lavatory, dining-room]? !'lease have my Things brought up to my mom. : his door leads to . .. I'm going out, if anyone colls, tell him I shall be back in an hour. thd anyone call (ask) lor me? Kiveszem a szobát. A mai naptól kezdve van szükségem a szobára. Melyik napon foglalhatom el <költözhetem be) ? Most rögtön beköltöz- hetem, ugye? Kiszolgálás Kérem, mutassa meg a szobámat 1 Hol van a lift [a mosdí az ebédlő]? Kérem, a csomagjaimat küldjék (küLgyék) fel a szobámba I Ez az ajtó vezet a(z) .. . -hoz. Elmegyek, ha valaki keres, mondja (mon- gya) azt, hogy egy óra múlva visszajövök. Keresett valaki? AMERIKAI , MAGYAR SZÓ r************************************* USPS 023-980 ISSN 0194-7990 Published Weekly, exc. last week in July and 1st 2 weeks in August by Hungarian Word,Inc. i 130 E 16 St. New York, N.Y. 10003, Ent. as 2nd Class Matter, Dec. 31. 1952 under the Act of-sMarch 21. 1879, at the P.O. of New York, N.Y. Szerkeszti a Szerkesztő Bizottság Előfizetési árak az Egyesült Államokban egy évre $ 18.— félévre $ 10.— Kanadabari és minden más külföldi országban egy évre $ 20.— félévre $ 12.— PostmastertSend address changes to; Hungarian Word, I ne. 130 E 16 St. New York, N.Y. 10003, 2
