No Place To Hide.

The arrest of Augusto Pinochet, regardless of the outcome, was a balm to the spirit. I spoke with friends from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., who were practically popping the champagne bottles.

In 1976, Pinochet sent an assassination squad to Washington, D.C., to bump off Orlando Letelier, formerly the defense minister in the government of Salvador Allende. Letelier was then working at the Institute for Policy Studies. The assassins blew up the car he was riding in, killing him and Ronni Moffitt, also a staff member at IPS.

These were just two of the thousands of Pinochet's victims. And yet, for twenty-five years, Pinochet has preened himself on the world stage, above the claims of justice, oblivious to his victims (he once ordered the dead thrown into a mass grave instead of buried in coffins because he said he wanted to save the Chilean treasury the cost of the nails).

Now, no matter what the final disposition of his case may be, Pinochet has at least been made aware that he has something to account for, that he cannot simply glide around the globe receiving the blessings of liberty from every country he visits.

We are honored to be able to publish in this issue (see page 37) the open letter from the Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman to Pinochet. Credit for this goes solely to Danny Postel, who interviewed Dorfman this fall in Chicago. I hope you like the interview, and I hope you share my enthusiasm for the Dorfman letter--one of the most powerful pieces of writing I've read in a long time.

But what of U.S. responsibility for Pinochet? When will the American leaders who systematically sabotaged the Allende government be arrested? In September 1970, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger said, "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people." Kissinger and Nixon then gave CIA Director Richard Helms "the marshal's baton" to destabilize the country, Helms testified in 1975. And so the United States paved the way for Pinochet.

When are we going to own up to that? The Spanish judge who sought Pinochet's extradition also sought documents from U.S. files. But the Clinton Administration was not forthcoming.

No surprise there. The Clinton Administration doesn't go in for international law: It did all it could to undermine the creation of a strong world court a few months ago. I guess the White House doesn't think it would look good for Henry Kissinger to be in the dock alongside Pinochet. But it's a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Howard Zinn, who joined our ranks this year, is piling up the prizes. He won the 1998 annual Eugene V. Debs award. The Debs Foundation in Terre Haute, Indiana, said Zinn has "demonstrated a lifelong commitment to Debsian principles of social justice and world peace." Zinn told me he hoped the late, great socialist would not be offended. I'm sure he's delighted.

Zinn also was one of eleven writers to receive a Lannan Literary Award for 1998. Bestowed by the Lannan Foundation, the awards go to "writers whose work is of exceptional quality." The citation for Zinn praised him "as an eloquent spokesperson for moral courage in an unjust society."

That he is, and our congratulations to him.

Speaking of courage, one guy I've come to admire a lot over the last few years is Ron Hayes. Back in December 1995, we published a piece by Ron Hayes entitled They Killed My Son: One father fights for safety in the workplace. Hayes told how his son Pat, who worked for a chicken-processing plant for $5 an hour, lost his life. "Pat was killed on the job because the company he worked for didn't bother to provide a safe workplace, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) didn't have the will or the resources to insist that the company do so."

Ever since his son died, Hayes has campaigned for safer workplaces and for a more responsive OSHA. He set up his own nonprofit organization, FIGHT, which stands for Families In Grief Hold Together. He's counseled hundreds of families that have lost loved ones to industrial accidents. And now he's succeeded in getting OSHA to be more helpful in its letter to families of victims.

"This is huge!" Hayes tells me. "It's the first time in twenty-eight years that the letter has been changed." Families will no longer have to beg for this information, submit Freedom of Information Act requests, and then sue for it, as Hayes had to. "Now families will be educated, and they'll know what the fines are."

If you'd like more information on FIGHT, write: P.O. Drawer 1555, Fairhope, AL 36533.