WfJlIllElt1 ~"(J(JAlt' 25¢ No. 370 11 January 1985

Smash the Imgeri,list War Drive!

II Irs - ar ans

Defend the Soviet Union! Oust the Kremlin Bureaucracy­ Forwa rd to Lenin's Program!

JANUARY 7-When Ronald Reagan them (including Shultz) are members of talks about "disarmament," the Rus­ the ultraright Committee on the Pres­ sians better reach for their SS-20s. ent Danger, the cabal which helped Reagan has opposed every U.S./Soviet torpedo the 1979 SALT II agreement. arms control agreement to date. He has "Arms control" negotiator Nitze practi­ doubled Pentagon spending over the cally invented the arms race back in last four years, and launched the United 1950 when he discovered the mythical States on a $1.5 trillion high-tech arms "bomber gap" (followed a decade later buildup. In December 1983, the U.S. by the equally nonexistent "missile unilaterally escalated, the arms race by gap"). Kenneth Adelman had trouble stationing Pershing 2 and cruise missiles getting confirmed as head of the arms in Europe, threatening the Soviets with control and disarmament agency in nuclear "decapitation" in eight minutes. 1983 because he wouldn't even label the He threatens to militarize outer space effects of nuclear war "horrible." under the guise of the "Star Wars" plan While the Reaganites are playing on known in Pentagonese as the Strategic the Kremlin's yearning for "detente," Defense Initiative (SOl). And now U.S. war plans are going ahead full Reagan wants to "negotiate" reductions steam. SOl, they tell us, is just "re­ in (Soviet) land-based missiles while search" at this point, and who can giving a free rein to (American) space oppose scientific advance, especially for weapons, while "investigating" invented "defensive" weapons. Yet the Pentagon Soviet "violations" of the SALT II treaty provocatively announces it will launch a the Americans refused to ratify!' militarized space shuttle flight this To lure the Kremlin to the bargaining month, and plans to test an anti-satellite table, last fall Washington proposed (ASAT) weapon in the spring. Mean­ "umbrella talks" covering strategic while, the U.S. Navy is running "exer­ nuclear arms, intermediate range mis- cises" right up against the Soviets' most .siles and space weapons. But on the eve vital military areas as part of a. "forward of the "talk about talks" which opened strategy." And NATO has just adopted in Geneva today, White House officials an ominous doctrine of the offensive, leaked word that Secretary of State for "deep strikes" inside the Soviet bloc Shultz was instructed to "spurn any in a European conflict. Liberal critics Soviet proposal to negotiate limits" on complain that it all doesn't "make space weapons (New York Times, 3 sense," that it's not "necessary" for January). The SOl is "not a bargaining American defense. But the Reaganauts chip" Reagan's national security adviser aren't interested in defense: they're Pershings Robert McFarlane announced. No going for the Big One-a nuclear first (above) and wonder Soviet leader Chernenko com­ strike against the Soviets. "Star Wars": plained bitterly about U.S. "deception" It's very good of the Russians to talk components of and warned, that "Star Wars" plans to the Americans. But they should be U.S. first-strike urged by militarist forces could create telling Reagan: "You want star wars? plans against Soviet Union. an "irreversible situation." Foreign We'll give you galactic wars! We asked Right: minister Gromyko must feel pretty you not to deploy your missiles eight Reagan's ray foolish sitting there negotiating about minutes from Moscow, but you did it gun, artist's nothing with the gang that vows to anyway. So screw your treaties. For conception of destroy the Soviet "evil empire" with decades you've been trying to drive the chemical laser their "ET" laser weapons. Soviet Union to economic ruin with an ,spacecraft. Adding insult to injury, the U.S. put unbridled arms race. Now the shoe together a "peace" delegation to Geneva is on the other foot. Go ahead, make which is about as interested in disarma­ our day-develop your "Star Wars" ment as Adolf Hitler. Virtually all of continued on page 8 Aviation 'Week & Space Technology Letter

noted at the time: "Khrushchev refused to countenance a Kurdish Workers in the communist upheaval in : Baghdad. afraid that this would provoke renewed Wcstern intervention in the Eastern Mediterranean. set the Middle East aflame. and wreck his policy of peaceful Iraqi Revolution of 1958-59 coexistence." -reprinted in Deutscher. Russia, China and the West (1970) November 1984 The contradictory role of the To the editor: Communist-led Kurdish proletariat in The Spartacist greetings to a recent this period was demonstrated by the Kurdish conference in Central Europe events in Mosulof March 1959 and the ("For a Socialist Republic of United Kirkuk massacre in July ofthat year. At Kurdistan," Workers Vanguard No. the beginning of 1959, Qassem's rejec­ 362, 14 September 1984) state: "While tion of "pan-Arab" unity with Nasser there are many Kurdish workers, most and his modest land reform program are working outside of the geographical created an unholy alliance between the regions with a predominantly Kurdish old reactionary classes and the Nasser­ national identity"; and "the Kurdish ites, who plotted a right-wing coup. The proletariat exists primarily in the July 1958: coup was to begin withan army revolt in diaspora." This may well be true today Baghdad Mosul. Anticipating this revolt, the ICP due to the policy of "Arabization" of masses hail called a mass rally: from all over Iraq Kurdistan conducted by Iraq's Ba'athist downfall of 250,000 youth, many armed, flocked to regime. According to the book People British-backed Mosul. The ICP was able to unite Kurd Without a Country: The Kurds and monarchy. and Arab soldiers against their officers; Kurdistan (1980), edited by Gerard the poor laborers of the Muslim Arab Chaliand, more than 200,000 Kurds quarter were augmented by Kurdish have been removed from the strategic oil tribesmen and Armenian peasants who region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Historically swept in from the countryside. The coup this was not always the case, however. was suppressed, and the popularity and Communist-led Kurdish workers con­ Basra fields in the south, during the late ed, membership in the Iraqi Communist revolutionary opportunity of the ICP centrated in these oil fields played a 1970s Kirkuk continued to supply more Party, which was at best equivocal grew to its height. vital, if contradictory, role in the than 70 percent of the country's petro­ about Kurdish self-determination, did This makes the Kirkuk massacre of revolutionary period following the leum output. little to break Kurds from nationalism. July 1959 all the more tragic. In the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958. Around the oil fields of Kirkuk there The ICP was not only the most aftermath of the 1958 revolution the Iraq, like most of the states of the developed a militant, Communist-led proletarian of the Stalinist parties in the ICP concentrated in its hands control of Near East, is an artificial creation of the proletariat that was in its majority Near East, it always had a large number many local governments, militias and post-World War I imperialist partition Kurdish. As Uriel Dann wrote in Iraq of, members from national and ethnic even army garrisons. The largely Kurd­ of the Ottoman Empire. Under the Under Qassem (1969): "The thousands minorities who played an important and ish ICP branch in Kirkuk used this Ottomans. Iraqi Kurdistan was the of workers at the oil installations, the often leading role in the life ofthe party. control to escalate a squabble over the vilayet (administrative division) of majority of whom were Kurds, had In the period up to the 1958 revolution, celebration of the first anniversary of Mosul. Victorious Britain incorporated nurtured a local communist branch with Kurdish Communists spearheaded the the revolution into an intercommunal Mosul into a common state with the a fighting record unrivalled in Iraq." revival of a party decimated and driven bloodbath, particularly directed against vilayets of Baghdad and Basra both to However, this Kurdish working class underground by the savage repression the Turkomans who made up much of gain control of this petroleum-rich was recruited directly from the agrarian of the I940s. Hanna Batatu,~ in her the city's commercial and middle region and to give its newly created Iraqi and nomadic mountain people who exhaustive study, The Old Social classes. One month later in a central protectorate something resembling a were (and still are) governed by feudal Classes and the Revolutionarv Move­ committee plenum called to deal with viable economy. Until recently Kirkuk and tribal rulers and custom. Although ments of Iraq (1978), notes that during the consequences of the Kirkuk massa­ province in the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan militant, the class consciousness of this 1949-55 every general secretary of the cre, the ICP in referring to its own supplied 90 percent of Iraq's oil produc­ proletariat was rudimentary. As the ICP was Kurdish, as was nearly one membership was forced to condemn tion. Even with the development of the July 1959 Kirkuk rnassacre demonstrat- third of its central committee, and the "the dragging of bodies, torture of party was run from Kurdistan rather detainees, looting and trespassing on the than Baghdad. rights and liberties of citizens." This period was marked by a The Kirkuk massacre was a tragic Marxist Newspaper: significant rise of class and national turning point for the ICP and the Iraqi The Collective Organizer struggle, fueled by the infamous U.S.­ working class. It generated an enormous backed, anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact erosion of support for the ICP and In ..Where To Begin." written in May between Britain, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Qassem used it as a pretext to repress the 190/ and later expanded as What Is To Be While resented by all sections of the Communists. The revolutionary oppor­ Done'! Lenin explains the role of the region's oppressed, for uniting the tunity was squandered, and with it the Marxist press in huilding the proletarian principal enemies of the Kurds it was opportunity to forge a class-conscious vanguard party. particularly hated by them. On the other Kurdish proletariat. Leadership of the A newspaper is not only a collective hand, the Soviet Union's generous oppressed Kurdish toilers reverted to propagandist and a collective agitator, it treatment of its own small Kurdish sheiks, khans and mullahs, as the is also a collective organiser. ... With the minority and its support of the short­ subsequent Kurdish national revolt TROTSKY aid of the newspaper, and through it, a LENIN lived, Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in demonstrated. For that revolt, led by permanent organisation will naturally take shape that will engage, not only in local Iran after World War II gave it mullah Mustafa Barazani, was as much activities, but in regular general work, and will train its members to follow political enormous prestige in Kurdistan, so that in defense of feudal relations in the events carefully, appraise their significance and their effect on the various strata of in the 1950s even Kurdish nationalist countryside as it was against the Arab the population, and develop effective means for the revolutionary party to influence parties claimed to be "Marxist­ chauvinism of Baghdad. In 1958-59, the those events. The mere technical task of regularly supplying the newspaper with copy Leninist." proletariat ofthis divided nation, carved and of promoting regular distribution will necessitate a network of local agents of the Thus the entire Kurdish nation and up by four oppressive capitalist states, united party, who will maintain constant contact with one another, know the general especially its urban working class lost a unique opportunity to be the state of affairs, get accustomed to performing regularly their detailed functions in the enthusiastically welcomed the 1958 vanguard of social emancipation, not All-Russian work, and test their strength in the organisation ofvarious revolutionary revolution, which was made as much only for the rest of Kurdistan, but for actions. against the Baghdad Pact as against the the entire Near East. corrupt, decrepit and repressive British­ -V.1. Lenin, "Where To Begin" (1901) Comradely, backed monarchy. The unstable bona­ Reuben Samuels partist regime of General Qassem, leader of the 1958 revolution, sought at first to consolidate its rule by relying on Spartacist League/ the ICP, which though small was the Spartacus Youth League unchallenged leader of the Iraqi work­ Public Offices ing class, both Arab and Kurdish. -MARXIST LlTERATURE­ Instead of pursuing this rich opportuni­ EDITOR-iN-CHIEF: Noah Wilner ty for proletarian revolution, the ICP Bay Area EDITOR: Jan Norden subordinated itself to Qassem through Fri .. 5:00-8:00 p.m., Sat. 3:00-6:00 p.m. PRODUCTION MANAGER: Noah Wilner 1634 Telegraph, 3rd Floor (near 17th Street) Oakland, California Phone: (415) 835-1535 CIRCULATION MANAGER: Darlene Kamiura the "U nited National Front" with three bourgeois parties (soon joined by the EDITORIAL BOARD: Jon Brule, George Foster, Liz Gordon, James Robertson, Reuben Samuels,. Chicago Joseph Seymour, Marjorie Stamberg (Closing editor for No. 370: Liz Gordon) Kurdish nationalists). The betrayal of Tues .. 5:00-9:00 p.rn., Sat.:ll :00 a.m.-2:00 pm. Workers Vanguard (USPS098-770) published biweekly, except 2nd issueAugustanc wnn 3-wecl;mtervalDecember, the Iraqi revolution was ordered directly 161 W. Harrison sr.. 10th Floor by the Spartacist Publishing Co., 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: 732-7862 (Editorial), 732-7861 Chicaqo. Illinois Phone: (312) 663-0715 (Business). Addressall correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116 Domestic subscriptions: $5.00/24 from the Kremlin, in the name of issues.Second-class postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to Workers Vanguard, cementing the "Spirit of Camp David" New York City Box 1377,GPO, New York, NY 10116. with Eisenhower (whose answer to the Tues: 6:00-9:00 p.m., Sat:12:00-4:00 p.m. Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necess....arily express the editorial Viewpoint. 1958 revolution was to land 10,000 41 Warren St. (one block below Chambers St. near Church St.) No. 370 11 January 1985 Marines on the coast of Lebanon). New York, N.Y. Phone: (212) 267-1025 Marxist historian Isaac Deutscher 2 WORKERS VANGUARD Framed·U~ Black Panther Behind Bars Since 1969 Free Geronimo Pratt! America'sforemost class-war prison­ ber 1969 in a pre-dawn raidandmassive er. former Los Angeles Black Panther bombardment by hundreds of LA PD leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt. has Metro Squad and S WAT team com­ been behind bars for 15 yearsfor a crime mandos on the Los Angeles Panther he did not commit. Even from the headquarters where he lived. Onlyfour hellhole ofsix years ofsolitary confine­ days earlier a similar FBI/cop raid in ment, Pratt vigorously pursued every Chicago murdered Panther militants available legal avenue to expose the Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in their FBI/LA PD/COINTELPRO frame-up beds. The state then tried to silence and ofwhich he was a victim,fightingfor his break Pratt by chains and bars. But freedom. Now retired FBI special agent Pratt remains unbroken and committed Wesley Swearingen.formerly ofthe Los to the principles ofhlack freedom. The Angeles office, has comeforward to say silence has been on the part offake­ straight out. "Pratt was set up" (see WV leftists who once courtedthe Panthers in No. 366. 9 November 1984). On January the heyday of 1960s radicalism. Pratt's Geronimo Pratt 21. U.S. District Court magistrate John cause must be made a vital issue for all in San Quentin. R. Kronenberg will hold a new eviden-: working people, the oppressedandevery tiary hearing in L.A. regarding this genuine defender ofdemocratic rights. racist frame-up. We reprint below a statement by black The racist imperialist American state socialist and Spartacist League Central first tried to murder Pratt on 8 Decem- Committee member Don Andrews.

Here are a few words about Geroni­ Pratt, that solid evidence was amassed mo Pratt, a Black Panther Party mem­ by Pratt's attorneys toshow that he was happy and smiled a lot, while Pratt's to his friends as well as his enemies that ber in prison for over a decade. In the in the Bay Area at the time-none of this supporters were few. I thought then, he stood for revolution in the belly of the early 1970s I attended Pratt's trial, mattered. And could not have mattered. "Why has the left abandoned Pratt and beast. including the day the FBI COINTEL­ The racist capitalist rulers were busily the Panthers? Why?" The working class must give its all in PRO conspirators obtained their con­ orchestrating one of this country's most I can't describe for comrades how securing the immediate release of viction. Pratt's innocence was clear to violent, racist, terrorist vendettas to much joy I felt when a few years ago we Geronimo Pratt, America's foremost anyone who had the slightest interest in wipe out the Panthers. And in Pratt's took up the fight for Pratt's freedom. class-war prisoner, who has been rot­ justice. I remember at the time how the trial capitalism's human refuse was This was so long overdue, and we ting, suffering and wasting away in the prosecuting attorney did his damndest paraded in court, including one Julio brought Pratt's case to the attention of bourgeoisie's jails for 15 years for the to whip up a Southern-style lynch mob [Butler, an FBI informant who lied the American and international work­ "crime" of being a fighter for black atmosphere against Pratt in particular about it at the trial], who claimed that ing class through our organ, the Work­ liberation, although lacking the neces­ and the Panthers in general. It didn't Pratt had "confessed" or some bullshit. ers Vanguard. You see, this was sort of sary revolutionary program to secure it. matter that Pratt did not murder the The bourgeois state was determined to personal, because I knew that this could It is our task to champion his freedom, Santa Monica: schoolteacher, that one get Pratt and to "teach" active, surviving have happened to me. As was the case to bring it to the attention of the witness's description of "two light­ black militants a lesson or two. This was throughout the trial, Pratt's demeanor working class for the purpose of militant skinned blacks had been seen in the painful to watch because in the court­ suggested that he knew what the class action leading to the release of Geroni­ area" could not possibly have been room the racist cops were numerous, enemy had in store for him. It was clear mo Pratt.. Asylum for South· Union Locals Back Appeal African Militant! for British Miners Striking miners up against Maggie and to continue the same donation each The Reagan administration is "Iron Lady" Thatcher's despised Tory month until the end of the strike. Thefollowing telegram was sent trying to deport black Howard regime are now in the tenth month of After their two-month strike in San January 2 by the Partisan Defense University student Thembekile their battle. It is a fight in which the Francisco, members of the Hotel and Committee. ("Twiggs") Enoch Xiphu, a deter­ workers of the world have a big stake. Restaurant Workers Local 2 passed the mined fighter against racist apart­ Richard R. Spurlock The National Union of Mineworkers hat for the British miners and collected heid, to the dungeons and torture District Director, Dept. ofJustice (NUM) is hanging tough, despite over $200, most of it at the local's chambers of South Africa. U.S. Immigration and massive police violence and Thatcher's Christmas party. Donations have also Twiggs has been an active member Naturalization Service "starve them back to work" tactics. In an been received from AFSCME Local of the Black Consciousness Move­ Baltimore, MD attempt to provide urgently needed 2477 in Washington, D.C., UFCW ment of Azania (BCMA) for more Halt proceedings to deport international labor solidarity and finan­ District 442 in Atlanta, AFSCM E Local than a decade, having joined Steve Thembekile Enoch Xiphu to racist cial assistance, the Partisan Defense 12 (University of Iowa), Communica­ Bike's South African Students Or­ South Africa where he faces Committee launched a $25,000 "Aid to tions Workers of America Local.4309 in ganization (SASO) in 1973. In his imprisonment, torture and mur­ Striking British Miners' Families" fund Cleveland and AFSCM E Local 2733 in hometown of Port Elizabeth, Twiggs der at hands of blood-drenched drive. Ann Arbor. A PDC social in Boston, was a leader of student resistance to apartheid regime and grant this The PDC campaign aims to raise the attended by a number of workers of apartheid. Following the Soweto fighter for black freedom and bulk of contributions from the Ameri­ Irish ancestry who have special hatred rebellion and student strikes in Port human dignity political asylum. can trade-union movement; the PDC for the British rulers, was able to raise Elizabeth, and one month after Biko has contributed $5,000 itself and is nearly $300 in an evening. was murdered by South African Partisan Defense Committee assuming all administrative costs. As Since the initiation of the fund-raising security police, in October 1977 one union official in Washington, D.C. campaign, WV readers have donated Twiggs was seized by the cops put it when he learned of the fund­ generously. As Reagan prepares his (including one of Bike's murderers). a united-front anti-apartheid protest raising efforts: "If Thatcher gets away second inauguration with a call for non­ He was held incommunicado and in at the South African embassy which with it, it'll be that much easier for union entertainers to perform gratis-a solitary under South Africa's draco­ SASCO, BCMA and the Spartacus Reagan and his union-busting." A trivial but symbolic provocation and nian National Security Laws, and Youth League helped organize and member of the Spartacist League/ insult to the labor movement-his taken daily for interrogation and which also included representatives Britain, comrade Eibhlin, spoke to British counterpart is hell-bent on torture to the very building where from the Pan-Africanist Congress of numerous unionists in New York and smashing the courageous miners. All of Biko was murdered. Azania (PAC), the All-African Peo­ the San Francisco Bay Area, giving labor must be hell-bent on seeing the Twiggs was released in December ple's Revolutionary Party (AAPRP) eyewitness accounts of the strike in miners win. As comrade Eibhlin put it: 1977 but subjected to close surveil­ and the Howard University Student Britain and urging that the labor "It really is in the interest of every trade lance until he was forced into exile in Association. U.S. Immigration and movement here "dig deep for the unionist of no matter what country to neighboring Botswana in June 1978. Naturalization Service authorities miners." In addition to contributions make sure. that this type of union of In January 1979 he came to the have continuously denied Twiggs' maybe 200,000 members doesn't go from the NYC Transport Workers down the way that PATCO went." United States as a scholarship stu­ requests for- political asylum and Local 100, individual members of the Victory to the British miners' strike! dent at Howard University, where he have tried to deport him, even before. TWU and Tunnelworkers Local 147 continued his anti-apartheid activity he finishes his studies, back to racist have given hundreds of dollars. In To mobilize for the fund drive in your as the chairman of the BCMA in the South Africa or to its Botswana Canada, the PDC assisted a miner from' area, write to: Partisan Defense Com­ U.S. and a founder of the South client state where refugees from Bates Colliery, Northumberland in mittee, Box 99, Canal St. Station, New African Students Committee (SAS­ _apartheid terror are routinely kid­ appealing to United Auto Workers York, NY 10013. Make checks payable CO). Last September Twiggs chaired napped by Pretoria. Local 303 near Toronto which voted to to: Aid to Striking Britisft Miners' send $100 to the Bates Hardship Fund Families.• 11 JANUARY 1985 3 How the FBI Tried to Get Us Kicked Out _of the SWP COINTELPRQ "Dirty Tricks"

Only in 197I when anti-Vietnam War the RT, arose which tempered solidarity punks ..."). The letter was sent after Negro civil rights movement may be in protesters broke into an FBI field office with the Cuban Revolution with criti­ debate within the FBI in March and part attributable to disruptive activities in Media, Pennsylvania were the first cism of its, Stalinized leadership and April over plans to send an anonymous taken by the New York Office," boasted documents 'on the FBI's decades-long raised a Marxist call for organs of mailing to the RT encouraging a split Hoover's finest. They did real damage to COINTELPRO disruption program proletarian democracy; which counter­ with the SWP and formation of a the SWP, .but they exaggerate their within the Socialist Workers Party posed to the SWP's abstention in the separate organization. Those plans were effect grossly. In fact the SWP's failure (SWP), brought to light. Among these civil rights movement a class-struggle scrapped in favor of the letter to Dobbs was essentially a failure of politics and extensive operations were the Bureau's intervention in order to win the best because, according to the FBI's New program. Abandoning Trotskyism to efforts to exacerbate factional divisions militants to Marxism. As the factional York Office, uncritically tail any black leadership within the SWP and hopefully to heat within the SWP intensified, the "There is some question. however. as to from King to Malcolm X, the SWP foment the expulsion in 1963 of the FBI saw an opportunity. how widespread we could expect the could provide no independent pole of disruption to be in the SWP if. .. a few revolutionary leadership in the civil Revolutionary Tendency (RT), the Field offices and headquarters minority members reeeive an anony­ predecessor of the Spartacist League. In became embroiled in a fevered debate mous mailing. Based on past experi­ rights movement. The task ofupholding response to our requests for files under on what to do to whom first (anony­ ence. no communication is apt to cause revolutionary integrationism and prole­ the Freedom of Information Act, the mous mailing to the minority, or to the anv of these individuals to renounce tarian class struggle against the dead FBI never acknowledged the existence Trotskyism.... ends of liberal pacifism and nationalist "The NYO has doubts that much could of these COINTELPRO documents. be said to a minority follower against separatism fell to the Spartacists. In We obtained copies of these files by the SWP majority which would increase pursuing that task, we became a target purchasing them from the SWP during his wrath sufficiently to have a major both for the SWP leadership, in the that organization's suit against the FBI. disruptive effect." throes of centrist degeneration, and for This is one piece among many of our When the RT -was suspended and later the spies of the imperialist state. party's history as told in a warped and expelled, the FBI congratulated itself perverse fashion-in the files of the secret heartily, noting that its mailing to police. As Marxists, we understand that Dobbs "may have incited the SWP We publish below some appropri­ we will never get the real story of what leadership to take more firm action to ate excerpts from the files of the the FBI has done to us until the get rid of its minority leaders." FBI's' "Counterintelligence Program" victorious proletarian revolution liber­ In April 1964 COINTELPRO agents (COINTELPRO): ates the documentation. But in upcom­ sent faked letters to Spartacist, the ing issues of WV we look forward to publication of the expelled RT. A brief 17 April 1962 examining for our readers the tip of the excerpt of the first of these appeared in SWP Disruption Program FBI "dirty tricks" iceberg which can be Spartacist No. 2 (July-August 1964) From [deleted] to [deleted]: glimpsed in the ultra-expurgated mate­ because we had received independent rials which we have. Such material confirmation of the information pro­ "This program was initiated by Bulet should be of great interest to all vided by the FBI's' phony "Insider" 10/12/61 [letter from Bureau head­ quarters]... for the purpose of causing opponents of the capitalist spy agencies' FBI-style "Freedom of Information." letter. But then we began to receive witchhunting assaults on democratic letters maliciously slandering SWPers, disruption within the SWP and making rights, and to the many people, ranging party leadership?) It goes without saying including materials calculated to de­ the public aware ofthe true nature of the from the parents of SL members to the that the central issues being debated in fame the SWP on grounds of financial SWP.... lawyer supporters of various of our the SWP were quite beyond the FBI's malfeasance in Southern black de­ "While there is no specific tie-in with opponents, who have congratulated us comprehension and, of course, there fense work. Such vicious accusations other programs, this program is on on the recent successful settlement of was never any question here of investi­ reeked of FBI disinformation and we occasion tied in with operations being our landmark suit against the current gating anything "criminal." But, it was immediately alerted the SWP. As carried out under the Communist Party, FBI "Domestic Security/Terrorism an opening for "disruption," and an Spartacist ed itor James Robertson USA, Counterintelligence Program in Guidelines" (see "FBI Admits: Marxists attempt to "neutralize" both the SWP wrote in a note to an SWP leader, that the SWP is utilized when the Are Not Terrorists," WV No. 368, 7 and RT. Throughout the operation the George Weissman, sent with a copy of opportunity presents itself to disrupt CP December 1984). FBI credits itself absurdly and dispro­ this slanderous material: activities.". We begin by considering the FBI's portionately for the effect of its "dirty "We seem to have landed on disruption campaign against the left tricks" on the political fight and the anti­ sorncbodv's 'hate the SWP' list. You 28 March 1963 democratic expulsion (for which the people running the party have given us Director to New York: where it targeted us as the SWP's good reason to despise you for your Revolutionary Tendency in the early SWP leadership gets credit, with help witchhunting expulsions. But we don't 'The suggestion of the Detroit Office 1960s. Poisonously, the FBI injected from one Tim Wohlforth). go for libel either. so we are keeping you . .. that anonymous letters be mailed to itself into the internal political disputes A taunting letter was sent by the FBI informed of this stuff." the two factional groups within the of the SWP. Substituting Castroism and in June 1963 to SWP national secretary The FBI also succeeded inthe early Socialist Workers Party (SWP) has vicarious enthusing over black national­ Farrell Dobbs. purporting to be from sixties in planting a number of such been considered. It is felt that such ism for revolutionary Trotskyism. the "An Old Timer" complaining about malicious slanders in the bourgeois anonymous letters would not have the SWP slid rightward on a course which what he considered to be soft treatment press. defaming black SWP leaders and desired over-all effect that is sought in would and did ultimately finish it as a of the minority ("You're getting shoved candidates for public office. "The failure operations to disrupt the SWP. revolutionary party, A left opposition, around by a minority group of of the SWP to attain influence in the "In the event any information of a FBI Forgers at Work

III earlv April lY64 the FlU sent tln: SWPer G.!..), At the beginning ofMar an Spanacisr group a letter purporting 10 obvious piece of FBI disinforniation come[rom an SWP member. signed "The against the S ~VP\I'as received bv us, which Insider," A fragment of this Flilforgerv Spartacist editor Jim Robertson immedi­ \I'as published in Spartacist No, 2 (along atelyforwarded to the SWP with the note with other letters. like the one from reproduced at right. T)~ eJ-,--' ~~ y.f~~~"

, Q...,< ".,77 ;

New York. N.Y. [Sent to George Weissman] We seem to have landed on somebody's "hate the J saw "~partaCi8t" .and it opened my eyes. I'm too SWP" list. You people running the party have given us good reason to despise mueh committed to get out and join you. but believe you for your witchhunting expulsions. But we don't go for libel either, so we me there are more than a few nf U8 inside supporten. are keeping you informed of this stuff. You may be interested to learn ••• Comradely, This is the same handwriting as with the libelous "To Whom It May Concern" The Insider which we received last month and sent a Xerox copy to Berta Green. Note that the typing on the mimeographed contents seems identical too.

4 WORKERS VANGUARD. derogatory nature comes to the atten­ outside' next time I meet my new can be presumed interested in any partially responsible for the expulsions. tion of your office, suitable recommen­ minority friend and hear more about faction developments on the interna­ Considerable dissension within the dations regarding the utilization ofsuch your troubles. An Old Timer" tional Trotskyist scene detrimental to Party has resulted.... This situation is information in a disruption program the interests of the SWP.... furnishing other excellent opportunities operation should be submitted...." "Consideration has been given to to widen the split between the SWP 16 May 1963 furnishing the SWP leadership informa­ leadership and minority factions and is From [deleted] to [deleted]: 7 Mav 1963 tion on WOHLFORTH's secret trip [to being pursued." New York to Director: "The purpose of this letter is to visit Healy in London], on the assump­ tion that this would be grounds for 15 April 1964' "There is some question, however, as prompt Dobbs to deal harshly with the minority faction expulsion. It is felt, however, that From [deleted] to [deleted]: to how widespread we could expect the during the convention with the definite possibility that the WOLFORTH is ofgreater value for our "On 4/8/64~the New York Office, disruption to be in the SWP if. .. a few minority faction would be driven out of purposes at this time, operating as an with prior Bureau authority, mailed minority members receive an anony­ the SWP." fifth column within the SWP." copies of an anonymous letter to eight mous mailing. Based on past experi­ individuals, including the editors of'The ence, no communication is apt to cause Worker,' the 'National Guardian: any of these individuals to renounce 17 May 1963 7 April 1964 Negro author James Baldwin, a reporter Trotskyism ... the most that could be Director to New York: .Director to New York: from 'The New York Times' [Peter expected would be to exacerbate the "Authority granted to anonymously "Authority is granted for the New Kihss] and two leaders of the SWP already raw nerves exposed when one mail the communication to Farrell York Office to furnish James Robertson minority factions [Robertson and faction clashes with the other. Dobbs.... Every precaution should be with the information as emanating from Wohlforth]. The letter accused the SWP "U pon serious consideration the taken to insure that the Bureau does not a Party insider in secret sympathy with of having organized the Committee to NYO [New York Office] has doubts that become known as being responsible for Robertson...." Aid the Monroe Defendants (CAMD) much could be said to a minority this communication." as a fund raising scheme rather than a follower against the SWP majority sincere effort to assist the defendants. which would increase his wrath suffi­ 15 April 1964 "The letter was prepared by the ciently to have a major disruptive effect. 31 March 1964 From [deleted] to [deleted]: Laboratory [deleted].... The letter, "The NYO considers that an New York to Director: "The over-all value of the program purporting to emanate from the WWP anonymous communication to SWP "One phase of the NYO SWP has been demonstrated on various [Workers World Party], was designed headquarters as suggested in relet. Disruption Program has been to use the occasions. It is recalled that the SWP [referenced letter] might be more effec­ factional developments in the Party as a owned and operated Mountain Spring to cause disruption within the SWP and tive since it would get to the hands ofthe means of demeaning the leadership and Camp at Washington, New Jersey, was to widen the split between the SWP and leadership, those in a position to take demoralizing the membership.... raided on 9/1 /62 by New Jersey State the WWP.... "George Weissman, SWP National serious action. With the goal of engen­ "The NYO then sent an anonymous Police and, Agents of the New Jersey dering a split in the Party, a letter such letter chiding the leadership for accept­ Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Committee member .who was closely as the following might be sent to ing from this minority what others had Four SWP members were indicted for associated with CAMD, was in Monroe during the trial. He reported to the FARRELL DOBBS, National Secre­ been expelled for in the past. Following selling alcoholic beverages without a police that he was alone in the home ofa tary of the Party, implying softness in this, administrative action was begun license. The SWP Political Committee Negro physician on 2/26/64 when two dealing with dissident members: which culminated in the expulsion of on 5/3/63 voted to sell this property as armed Negroes forced their way into the "Dear Farrell: five faction leaders.... no longer being suitable to SWP needs. house, bound and gagged him and "As one who left the Party in the 'big "This has had a very disruptive effect Murray Zuckoff, Newark SWP Organ­ broke into a wall safe. An estimated split of 1953: please let me tell you what on the SWP. Within the Party, there are izer, stated, 'The raid broke the back of a laugh I get over the 'uneasy alliance of $10,000 to $15,000 was taken. The rumblings of discontent in several the camp.' Three of the SWP members 1963.' I have recently learned that Tim incident was reported in the 'Charlotte branches of the SWP because of the arrested in connection with the opera­ Wolfurth is a real buddy with Jerry Observer' of 2/27/64. It is noted that the Healy and they share a political line 'undemocratic' expulsions. On the other tion of the Mountain Spring Camp CAMD treasury was reportedly deplet­ that's about stealing the Party out-from hand, the expelled faction leader, received fines in the amount of $200 under you. This is really ironic when ed at that time .... JAMES ROBERTSON, has brought each on 1/30/64.... vou think back to the Cochranite "The New York Office has proposed a the struggle to public notice. He has "In December, 1963, five leaders of a minority of 10 years ago. The Cochran­ follow-up to the above anonymous ites were forced out ofthe Party because issued a publication, 'Spartacist,' bitter­ minority faction within the SWP, they had a different point of view and ly attacking the SWP leadership and has known as the James Robertson faction, letter by mailing Xerox copies of the clipping from the 'Charlotte Observer' exchanged a few of these with Pablo. been quoted in the public press describ­ were expelled from the organization. This was supposed to rid the SWP of to the same eight individuals ing details of his expulsion.... The New York Office [FBI] had directed .... New 'unprincipled wreckers.' So where arc York also proposes enclosing the we a decade after the big purge. You're "The Bureau's approval is requested an anonymous letter to the SWP getting shoved around by a minority therefore to furnish ROBERTSON leadership chiding them for tolerating following poem with the clipping to add group of punks who can't compare with brief items of information he might be this minority faction when other leaders further spice: the knowledge. and. yes. principle of Gcorgie-Porgic. down in Monroe, . Clarke. Cochran and their minoritv of expected to use against the SWP, had been expelled in the past for less Found himself alone with the dough. 1953.... Farrell. I am glad I am out. I purportedly from a Party insider who is censurable activities. This inference of Called the cops. and what did he say'? look forward to 'laughing on the in secret sympathy.... ROBERTSON weakness is believed to have been 'Had guys came and took it away'.".

political organizations. This is because organizations and virtual destruction of the FBI has shown itself incapable of groups like the Black Panther Party, CongratUlations on seeing actual terrorist activity when it is must fight against all attempts by the going on right under its nose. government and its police agencies to A case in point is the current wave of make political opposition a "crime." (to date) twenty-five arson and.bombing The successful conclusion of your Victory Against FBI lawsuit is a part of that fight, but we all attacks directed against abortion clinics. According to the December 5, 1984 Los know that the struggle to preserve The 30 November 1984 settlement of We sincerely hope that your lawsuit Angeles Times, FBI Director William democratic rights is an on-going one. the Spartacist League lawsuit .against will serve to deter the FBI and other H. Webster has decided that these Keep up the fight! the current FBI witchhunters' "Guide­ law enforcement agencies from rnak­ attacks do not fall within the FBI's Very truly yours, lines" won an important admissionfrom .ing irresponsible accusations about definition of "terrorism." Thus.The FBI John George the government: Marxists are not . the nature and work of political has decided that these attacks do not Chairman, Alameda County terrorists. In our last issue 01' wv we organizations. warrant priority attention. Board of Supervisors published some ofthe messages we have Nevertheless, the fact that the FBI has Sincerely yours, been compelled to back off of its char­ received stressing the importance ofthis John W. Roberts victory from civil liberties lawyers, acterization that the Spartacist League A Blow Against Racism Executive Director, "does not openly advocate the violent and Oppression unionists, fighters for black freedom Civil Liberties Union and even an occasional left spokesman. overthrow of the U.S. Government at of Massachusetts Congratulations to the Spartacist We continue here with some more of this time" represents a victory for the League for this victory. This is a victory these letters. democratic rights of working people. for all those people who are fighting Walter Lippmann, Chair Marxists Are Not Criminals against apartheid, racism and oppres­ Human Rights Committee, sion, and more struggles of this sort will A Most Significant Victory Congratulations! Local 535 SEIU The Spartacist League's legal victory have to be continued to be won. The Partisan Defense Committee's against the Attorney General and FBI is Bill Hampton, suit against the FBI and the Attorney an important victory for everyone who FBI Destroyed the Brother of murdered General challenging the Guidelines of defends democratic rights. As a long­ Black Panthers Panther leader Domestic Security/Terrorism Investi­ time supporter of the socialist cause I gations was extremely important to am delighted to see the FBI forded to I want to offer my support to the litigate. The victory is most significant. concede that Marxism does not equal Spartacist League in its successful legal First Amendment Rights It is important to serve notice on the "violence," "terrorism" or a criminal victory against the F.8.1. This is a The victory won by the Spartacist government that such attempts to label enterprise. victory for all of us who are concerned opposition political groups as "criminal about the growing threat to civil League is important not only for itbut James Weinstein conspiracies" involved in "terrorist" liberties and democratic rights, particu­ for all persons who believe in the Editor, In These Times activities when no evidence exists to larly as the Reagan administration Constitution of the United States. I justify such accusations will not be begins its second term. congratulate the League in its victory tolerated. The FBI has been involved America's State-Supported We who remember the tribulations and hope that it will help the fight of all individuals and organizations to main­ in such activities for years, and will no Terrorism that accompanied McCarthyism, who doubt continue unless they are held remember the lives shattered and tain their full first amendment rights. accountable for such actions whenever The Federal Bureau of Investigation destroyed by F. B.1. "dirty tricks," who Ben Margolis they engage in them. (FBI) has no business putting labels on recall the disruption of civil rights Attorney

11 JANUARY 1985 5 Abortion Clinics: It's Violent, but Why Not'!" (Los Angeles Times, 27 Novem­ ber 1984). Already at least one clinic has closed as a result of an attack, while the National Abortion Federation has been operating out of a makeshift office since July, when its Washington offices were bombed. Meanwhile, International Planned Parenthood, the world's largest private birth control organization, has announced a 30 percent cut in its budget due to the withdrawal of $17 million by the American government. The Late Christmas Eve 1984, bombs Reagan administration declared last ripped through three medical offices in ~ I····· summer that it will no longer fund any Pensacola, Florida, blowing up the only . .. .': . .: ~. . . .~ organization which performs oractively facilities outside of hospitals where iy' •.... 1''9;. _.~-.~ ,~.,--:::':. ", promotes abortions. Inevitably, this loss 'f' women can obtain abortions in.that city. of funding will lead to more unwanted And on New Year's Day, another blast pregnancies, more back-alley butchers. blew up an abortion clinic in southeast Washington, D.C. Altogether at least 29 In the recent period Congress has centers were hit by arson and bomb passed legislation denying federal em­ attacks last year, and hundreds of ployees coverage for abortions under violent incidents have been reported. It's their medical insurance plans: this pure luck no one has yet been killed. Yet legislation applies to the entire federal the Federal Bureau of Investigation has workforce of hundreds of thousands. given "low priority" to investigations of including all the underpaid women these dead Iy attacks on women's rights. clerical workers and all armed forces FBI director William Webster outra­ personnel and their families. Medicaid geously claimed the abortion clinic recipients cannot use Medicaid for bombings do not constitute "terrorism" abortions-which means they simply in the government's definition of the can't afford them. term because they were not committed It's no surprise to Marxists that the by an "organized group" (!) which feds won't do anything to stop attacks publicly took responsibility for the on women's rights. The NOW feminists action and the firebombers do not aim won't get anywhere with their pleas to to "overthrow the government." Of Morris/Washington Post federal agencies. They went all out for course not! These vicious terrorists are Deadly wave of "right-to-life" terror-bombings hits abortion clinics across Mondale and Ferraro, Coid War hawks Reagan's people, after all. country. Above: Wheaton, Maryland clinic devastated in November. whose only response to this reactionary barrage was to mouth a few pieties Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and threatening the basic right ofwomen to be punished: should they be dragged Firearms official Tom Hill said," ...our about "choice" while condemning safe, legal abortions. Since the Supreme into court and condemned for Murder abortions-as if the millions of ghetto investigation doesn't point to a nation­ Court legalized abortion in 1973, right- One (Reagan's line) or "merely" ex- wide organized conspiracy." The gov­ women who can't afford expensive legal wingers have demonstrated against it- posed to the moral condemnation of abortions have any. It was under ernment has effectively pronounced its but lately, and especially in the last year, society and preachers' threats of burn- benediction on this right-wing terror­ Democrat Carter, after all, that the these "pro-life" fanatics have turned ing forever in hell (the Democrats' Hyde Amendment banning federal ism. Left-wing columnist Alexander to arson, death threats, vandalism, response)'! One thing's for sure: should Cockburn (Wall Street Journal, 6 funds for abortions under Medicaid was bombings and personal harassment. the Reagan reactionaries get their way passed, while he coldly told poor December 1984) commented: "If the Throughout his term in office Ronald and an amendment to the Constitution administration very obviously reserves women, "There are many things in life Reagan has maintained a thundering is passed banning all abortions, there that are not fair." 'terrorist' as an epithet for socio­ silence on this real violence faced by will be a lot of dead and mutilated political violence it dislikes, then the women seeking to exercise their right to teenagers who in desperation end up In fact the feminist movement as a conclusion must be that there are forms a safe and private abortion, while he with their bellies ripped open by back- whole has bought the Moral Majority of socio-political violence-such as the continues to foam at the mouth against alley butchers. On whose hands will that anti-sex line: their main concern these anti-abortion bombings-i-that it views imagined "state-supported terrorism" blood be'! . days is to stop the "violence" (sic) in a tolerant and even sympathetic light, threatening America. On January 3, The infinite cruelty of Reagan's of pornography! The self-proclaimed and which it refuses to denounce." Far nodding to mounting public outcries, he hypocritical defense of this "kind and champions of women's rights try to from denouncing the attacks on abor­ issued a token protest against the gentle land" in his debate with Mondale 'trample on the First Amendment tion rights, Reagan refers to abortions bombings as "anarchism." He won't call about abortion can be partly charted in rights of everyone, while American as "murders," and indeed the bloody­ the bombings by their right name- the pain and terror. "his" terrorists ofthe women are facing daily terror! Recently minded "right-to-lifers" label women terrorism-because these are Reagan's far right are inflicting right now on liberal civil libertarian darling Village seeking them as terrorists! Planned terrorists, carrying out Reagan's pro- women. His "kind and gentle" friends of Voiacolumnist Nat Hentoff castigated Parenthood official Thomas Webber gram, targeting poor and minority the Moral Majorityite persuasion have women for being "selfish" for seeking blasted Webster's remarks: "Ifwe saw in women. dynamited, firebombed, 'devastated abortions for "mere convenience." this nation, hospitals being similarly Banning women's right to abortion birth control clinics across the country, Today the left wing of the women's victimized, nursing homes being victim­ was, along with school prayer and how kidnapped doctors, made death threats movement seems by default to be ized, legal aid offices, churches and to kill the Russians, a No.1 political (including against Supreme Court Planned Parenthood, founded by so­ synagogues being victimized, we would question in the recent presidential justice Blackrnun, who approved the cialist Margaret Sanger, which has have a national campaign to ferrer out elections: Reagan and Mondale oozed 1973 legalization of abortion), harassed initiated a national campaign against those responsible" (Nell' York Times. pomp and piety as they debated whether teenagers and working-class women the terrorist attacks. To its credit. 6 December 1984). Instead, the feds are women's fundamental right to abortion seeking abortions. Patients have re- Planned Parenthood has also advertised not so secretly applauding. is "murder" or "just" a-mortal-sin. They ceived threatening phone calls from its services widely against the fears This escalating wave of right-wing debated how those millions of American religious fanatics who track them down: spread by Reagan's attempted enforce­ terrorist attacks on abortion clinics is women who have had abortions should one clinic receptionist was chased ment of the Squeal Rule, which would through a shopping mall by a maniac have required birth control clinics to screaming "stop murdering babies," notify the parents of young women while another arrived home to find her under 18 that they had received SPARTACIST LEAGUE/ U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORY pet cat decapitated. Five to six death contraceptives. 'threats per day are received at abortion What's necessary is lahor action to National Office Cleveland New York and family planning clinics ru.tionwide. stop the terrorists. As we said in Box 1377, GPO Box 91037 Box 444 New York, NY 10116 Cleveland, OH 44101 Canal Street Station The National NOW Times quotes 177 Workers Vanguard No. 361 (31 August (212) 732-7860 (216) 621-5138 New York, NY 10013 violent incidents as of September 1984 1984): "The only thing that's going to (212) 267-1025 alone. Indeed. as American Civil Liber­ stop these supposedly 'god-fearing' Ann Arbor c/o SYL Detroit Norfolk ties Union official Wesley Watkins reactionaries from spreading their P.O. Box 8364 Box 32717 Box 1972. Main P.O. charged Reagan: "Trickle-down works! murderous attacks against poor and Ann Arbor, MI 48107 Detroit, MI 48232 Norfolk, VA 23501 (313) 961-1680 The rhetoric of intolerance at the top working women is to put some real 'fear Oakland creates a climate of violence at the of god' into them: next time they try to Atlanta P.O. Box 32552 Box 4012 Los Angeles Oakland, CA 94604 bottom" (Nell' York Times, 20 Novem­ firebomb and maybe murder some Atlanta, GA 30302 Box 29574 (415) 835-1535 ber 1984). scared kid trying to get out ofa bad fix. Los Feliz Station they ought to be met by a strong workers Boston Los Angeles, CA 90029 San Francisco These right-wing terrorists can't wait. Box 840, Central Station (213) 384-9716 Box 5712 They want to implement the Reaganitej defense guard protecting women's Cambridge, MA 02139 San Francisco, CA 94101 Moral Majority program to stop abor­ rights!" It's urgently in the interest of the (617) 492-3928 (415) 863-6963 Madison tion nOli', never mind the niceties of the working class to fight for free abortion Chicago c/o SYL Washington, D.C. law. Pro-life "Non-violent" Action on demand and free, quality health care Box 6441, Main P.O. Box 2074 P.O. Box 75073 Chicago, IL 60680 Madison, WI 53701 Washington, D.C. 20013 Project co-founder John Cavanaugh­ and birth control. The wives, sisters and (312) 663-0715 (608) 257-8625 (202) 636-3537 O'Keefe said to the Nell' York Times: daughters of the ruling class will always "Any pro-lifer that does not feel the urge be able to get their abortions, legal or to respond to the violence of abortion not: in this country, the rich buy their Toronto with violence has lost all feeling for rights. The workers must fight for TROTSKYIST LEAGUE Box 7198, Station A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1X8 anything." Moral Majority vice presi­ theirs! Defend Planned Parenthood! OF CANADA (416) 593-4138 dent Cal Thomas justified the bomb­ For labor action against Reagan's ings in an article entitled "Bombing nightriders! • 6 WORKERS VANGUARD one Soviet division was involved in combat. The Soviets were in control of Extend Social Gains of Bolshevik Revolution! all the population centers and had managed to close off the Wakhan corridor in the northeast, through which China had been sending arms for the rebels. The Red Army had averaged only an estimated 1,000 deaths per year, overwhelmingly from disease rather Red Army Mops Up than combat. During 1984 the Soviets scored a major advance in mopping up what remained of the reactionary resistance. Several successful offensives were mounted against mujahadeen pockets in the interior of the country, most CIA's Afghan Feudalists importantly driving the U.S.-backed guerrillas out of the Panjsher Valley north of Kabul. Reports in the Western press portraying a downtrodden popu­ lace universally despising the "Russian invader" are belied by such things as the effective intelligence network the Kabul government has managed to build. One French journalist who traveled with the rebels moaned, "In some northern areas, no sooner had we settled into a small village for the night than it was bombed or rocketed. They seemed to know where we were" (Newsweek, 3 December 1984). And the Chicago Tribune (16 November 1984) quoted one rebel official as saying: "The war has been deadlocked up until now, but we are beginning to lose the population.... If this continues, we may eventually lose the war because there will be nowhere for the Mujahedeen to hide." These days even NATO analysts warn against uncritically accepting reports emanating from Peshawar and New Delhi about rebel victories and Soviet Hail "Red Thunder": Soviet Mi-24 "Hind" helicopter gunship on patrol in Afghanistan. . atrocities (like the carpetbombing of crops!). Here's a rule of thumb concern­ Ever since the Soviet Red Army Afghanistan is Red Russia, and they multitude of tribes over which no ing the claims of Soviet casualties moved into Afghanistan on 27 Decem­ know it. The American bourgeoisie and previous government had ever com­ inflicted by an Afghan tribal chieftain: ber 1979, the U.S. ruling class has its imperialist allies have never accepted pletely established its authority. throw out 95 percent ofthem as patently portrayed that just mission against the loss they suffered in 1917, when the The Red Army's arrival in December false, and divide the rest by a hundred CIA-backed feudalists as "Russia's Bolshevik Revolution tore one-sixth of 1979 meant that, as we wrote, "the times the number of wives he has. Vietnam." The imperialists wistfully the globe out of their hands and laid the liberation of the Afghan masses has Even before Reagan jacked up Amer­ hoped the USSR would become in­ foundations for a planned economy begun!" ("Hail Red Army!" WV No. ican aid to the Muslim counter­ volved in an endless no-win war that based on collectivized property. They 247, II January 1980). The troops were revolutionaries, they were getting more would drain its defenses and open up the want it back. Lashing out against so­ originally sent in to bolster the belea­ than $1 million per day in military goods formerly Muslim area of Soviet Central called "Soviet expansionism in Afghani­ guered PDPA regime, whose moderate from the U.S., China, Egypt, Saudi Asia to Islamic counterrevolution and stan," Democrat Jimmy Carter kicked reforms had outrun the meager social Arabia, Israel, Germany and Japan. Yet capitalist restoration. But it's clear five off Cold War II with a five-year, trillion forces available in the country to they had barely scratched the Soviet years later that the Red Army has put dollar military spending program. institute them. (There was no Afghan armor. Instead, when the ten or so the reactionary mujahadeen (Islamic Reagan has carried this program on­ proletariat to speak of.) To talk today guerrilla groups weren't busy blowing tribalist warriors) on the run. Moreover, ward and upward-and perceptibly about "self-determination for Afghani­ each other away, they were carrying out the Uzbeks, Tadzhiks and other Central closer to World War III. American stan" is to condemn the Afghan masses, random terrorist attacks on the Afghan Asian troops who make up a large working people must fight Reagan's particularly women draped head to toe population itself. These neanderthals portion of the Soviet force, far from mad terror campaign against the USS R, in heavy muslin, to a barbarous exis­ love to scalp a Red Army officer when being attracted to the Koran and the which they are paying for with busted tence under the mullahs, tribal khans they get the chance, but more frequently chadri (veil), correctly see themselves as unions, lowered living standards and the liberators of the oppressed Afghan escalation of racist discrimination and masses. Even so-called Red Army violence. Despite its bureaucratic de­ "deserters" (soldiers captured by.rightist generation under Stalin, the Soviet guerrillas, force-fed heroin and trans­ workers state embodies massive eco­ ported to the West for propaganda nomic and social gains for the interna­ purposes) are voluntarily going home. tional proletariat. Defend the Soviet So as the fifth anniversary of the .Union against the imperialists' war Soviet intervention came last month, drive! the imperialists had little to crow about. The Spartacist League welcomed the Instead, in countless newspaper articles, Tall tales and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan with veUs: Afghan TV specials and "human rights" reports, the slogan: "Hail Red Army!" As we reactionaries the Soviet army was accused of every wrote in Spartacist No. 29 (Summer report to boss genocidal crime the U.S. war machine 19~W): at the White made famous in Vietnam, from "carpet­ "For revolutionarv socialists there is House. bombing" to "free-fire zones." (lnterest­ nothing tricky. nothing ambiguous ingly,this time around they didn't have about the war in Afghanistan. The much to say about "yellow rain," the Soviet army and its left-nationalist allies are fighting an anti-communist. CIA slander which everyone now knows anti-democratic melange of landlords. was so much bee shit.) Reagan took the money lenders. tribal chiefs and mul­ occasion to warn the Kremlin that lahs commited to mass illiteracy. And to and landowners. The armed might of their targets are the civilians who Afghanistan was still "a serious impedi­ say that imperialist support to this the Red Army poses the possibility of frequent hotels, bars, theaters, airports, social scum is out in the open is the ment to the improvement of our Afghanistan achieving not only the and schools which violate the guerrillas' understatement of the year. ... The gut­ social gains of the bourgeois French "self-determination" by teaching little bilateral relations" and ordered a level response of every radical leftist· doubling of U.S. "covert" aid to the should be fullest solidarity with the Revolution, but of the proletarian girls to read! These supposed "freedom Islamic reactionaries to $280mil/ion per Soviet Red Army." . Bolshevik Revolution as well. fighters" have destroyed 1,800 schools in the last five years and killed hundreds year-and that's just the tip of the Virtually the entire "left" from Maoists Mopping Up Feudalist Reaction iceberg. Democratic Party "doves" like to fake-Trotskyists fell in step behind of teachers in the name of Ronald Congressman Boland threw in their two Carter and Reagan demanding the with­ Over a year ago the imperialists were Reagan's "free world." Another French journalist, Jacques cents about supposed Soviet human drawal of Soviet troops and recogni­ forced to admit that, for all intents and rights violations. And, of course, all this .tion of Afghanistan's right to self­ purposes, the Soviet/PDPA forces had Abouchar, traveled into Afghanistan served to divert attention from the real determination. But there is no Afghan won the civil war. An article by New last year with a band of rebels. When atrocities committed by America's "nation" and there never has been. The York Times military "expert" Drew Abouchar was captured by the Red allies-particularly by the monstrous petty-bourgeois nationalist People's Middleton (26 December 1983) report­ Army the imperialists erupted in in­ racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Democratic Party of' Afghanistan ed that the reconstituted Afghan army, dignation. Yet when the Soviets freed Reagan and the Democrats don't give (PDPA) came to power in 1978 amidst originally plagued by desertions, was Abouchar, the New York Times (24 No­ a goat's fart for the "independence" of - an incredibly backward society with carrying out the bulk of the fighting vember 1984) denounced this act as 17 million Afghans living on a pile of virtuall'y no industry (not asingle mile of against the imperialist-armed guerrillas, a "deprecation of Afghan statehood"! rocks and barren dirt. The main issue in railroad track, for example) and a and that no more than the equivalent of continued on page /0 11 JANUARY 1985 7 / a wartime alert, causing Japanese forces u.s. Anti-Soviet Provocations to respond. Fortunately the Soviets called off the alert after 30 minutes. • 30 November 1984: The U.S. sent the nuclear-powered carrier Nimitz and Drumbeats of War the cruiser Arkansas to within five miles of Cuba, to bring back a disabled Navy­ chartered spy ship caught in Cuban It takes more than weapons to make harbor of Puerto Sandino, Nicaragua. waters. war, and ever since coming into office • 24 March 1984:The 80,OOO-ton U.S. • Mid-December 1984: Two U.S. the Reagan administration has been aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk deliberately carrier battle groups conducted "exer­ hard at work whipping up anti-Soviet rammed a nuclear-armed Soviet sub in cises" within 50 miles of Vladivostok, war fever. Their favorite tactic is the Sea ofJapan. the hub ofSoviet military defenses in the provocation-most spectacularly the • 2 April 1984: The U.S. frigate Holt Pacific, leading the Soviets to launch a dispatch of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 sideswiped the Soviet carrier Minsk, defensive alert scrambling at least 100 to overfly supersensitive Soviet military broken down in the South China Sea. Soviet jet fighters. The New York Times installations on Kamchatka Peninsula The Minsk tried to warn off the (.19 December) paraphrased a U.S. and Sakhalin island on 31 August 1983. approaching U.S. ship by firing numer­ official describing this as "the kind of When Soviet air defense forces shot ous flares, but the Americans ignored alert the Russians would launch if their down the unidentified intruder, the U.S. the warnings. defense controllers thought Soviet launched a worldwide hysteria cam­ • 20 April 1984: A heavily armed U.S. military installations were about to be paign against the "evil empire." KAL Cobra helicopter gunship intruded U.S. Air Force attacked." U.S. fighter plays chicken with 007 was followed by a long string of several kilometers into Czechoslovak U.S. officials regularly attack Soviet Soviet reconnaissance plane. Don't additional U.S. war provocations. airspace before being chased off by MIG "paranoia" about imperialist encircle­ mess with the Russians! • November 1983: In the Atlantic pilots using rockets and guns. ment and the threat ofAmerican attack. Ocean, 500 miles off the coast of South • II August 1984: Reagan said in a If you had been sitting on the hot seat in in the Gulf of Fonseca off Nicaragua or Carolina, an American sub-hunting radio voice test that the bombing of the Soviet defense ministry for the last the Sea of Okhotsk or wherever. The destroyer struck and disabled a Soviet Russia begins "in five minutes." The 18 months, you might be "paranoid" terrorist provocateurs are entrenched in nuclear submarine. "joke" reverberated around the world, too. Reagan & Co. are preparing war on the centers of power in the White House • 20 March 1984: A Soviet tanker was and three days later a Soviet command Russia. When they are ready they will and the Pentagon. We say: U.S. hands damaged by a CIA-laid mine in the unit in the Far East reportedly declared invent their "Gulf of Tonkin incident," off the world!.

blacks fighting apartheid, with Central perform with some effectiveness against War Plans ... American workers and peasants facing a poorly coordinated and weakened (continuedfront page I) the threat of U.S. invasion, means retaliatory strike." "One can readily breaking with both capitalist parties, appreciate," concluded the UCS analy­ schemes like crazy, and we'lI develop fighting for concrete working-class sis, "that the Soviet Union might view our countermeasures at 1/1000th the action against the U.S. rulers. While the an American HMD as part of a larger cost. You threaten surgical strikes Democrats and Republicans tried to US effort to acquire a first-strike against Nicaragua if they get M IGs? outdo each other in flag-waving fervor capability." And that is exactly what the Okay. by those rules something bad during the recent elections, American Kremlin concluded. Four days after ought to happen to the countries where labor, blacks, poor and aged are all Reagan's speech, then Soviet leader you stationed Pershings. It can be under the gun of Reagan's war. Only Yuri Andropov replied: arranged." workers revolution at home will smash "In fact the strategic offensive forces of The imperialists will never disarm, the insane imperialist war drive by the United States will continue to be just as they have never accepted the smashing the imperialist system itself. developed and upgraded at full tilt and elimination of capitalist rule over a third along quite a definite line at that, namely that of acquiring a first nuclear of the globe. If Chernenko & Co. don't "Star Wars" and First Strike strike capability. Under these condi­ sell out anything at Geneva it may be tions the intention to secure itself the because Reagan won't give them the The administration's intentions were possibility ofdestroying with the help of chance. But the Stalinist bureaucrats' spelled out a couple of years ago when the ABM defenses the corresponding piped reams of convincing the imperial­ parts of war secretary Weinberger's strategic systems of the other side. that is of rendering it unable of dealing a ists to beat their swords into plowshares 1984-88 "Defense Guidance" were retaliatorv strike. is a bid to disarm the represent a grave danger to the remain­ leaked to the press, calling for the U.S. Soviet Union in the face of the U.S. ing legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution. to "prevail" in a "protracted" nuclear nuclear threat." The Soviet Union has indeed survived war. The document also called for Even the article by McGeorge Bundy, "plans for the first-use and possible until 1984, but faced with imperialist • Sovfoto George Kennan, Robert McNamara madmen who seriously discuss the follow-on uses of TN F" (theater nuclear and Gerard Smith ("The President's forces) in a "limited nuclear exchange" The late Soviet defense minister possibility of Armageddon in their Dmitri Ustinov. Choice: Star Wars or Arms Control") in lifetime, the only way to secure the gains such as over Europe. It also urged an all­ the ultra-establishment Foreign Affairs of October is to extend the revolution sided weapons buildup, including space­ their warheads while in flight. Among (Winter 1984/85) concluded that while throughout the world. Defend the based weapons systems, and warned the publicized weapons under develop­ "our government, of course, does not workers states through proletarian against signing treaties and agreements ment are space-based lasers; particle­ intend a first strike," nevertheless "we political revolution-Clean the com­ which might "foreclose opportunities to beam weapons and kinetic energy "rail" are building systems which do have promisers out ofthe Kremlin-Forward develop thesecapabilities and systems." guns flying on orbiting battle stations. what is called in our own jargon a to the program of Lenin! So Reagan is pushing every conceivable The technical problem is that nobody prompt hard-target kill capability, and If West European rulers are .more high-tech weapon, from the B-1 bomber can come up with a method to guarantee the primary purpose of these systems is than a little nervous about Reagan's to the MX missile, which could be the destruction of hundreds of missiles to put Soviet missiles at risk of quick scripts, it is because' they fear their thrown at the Soviet Union. And during the very short (three minutes or destruction. Soviet leaders are bound countries are the theater in which the meanwhile the U.S. deployed the less) boost phase. The problem is to see such weapons as a first-strike trigger-happy cowboy in the White supposedly pinpoint-accurate Pershing multiplied in the mid-course and de­ threat." House plans his spectacular last round­ 2s and hard-to-detect cruise missiles in scent phases when thousands of war­ Thus the scheme would destabilize up. For now they seek to spread Europe, wrecking disarmament talks heads and decoys have separated from the current rough balance of terror by counterrevolution by "peaceful" means, then underway. their missiles. The Soviets would have vastly encouraging the U.S. to strike undermining the Soviet bloc from In March of 1983, Reagan delivered numerous, and relatively inexpensive, first. Simply to defend themselves, the within as with their support to Polish his "Star Wars" speech promising countermeasures available, such as Soviets would be forced to accelerate Solidarnosc, the favorite "union" of middle-class white America that it putting reflective coatings on their their production and deployment of union-busters Thatcher and Reagan. needn't worry-if theyonly spent $400 missiles, multiplying the number of offensive missiles in order to guarantee But behind the carrot of trade is the billion or so to deploy high-tech space decoys, etc. A "leakage" of. only 1 that their second strike could penetrate appetite to "roll back" the conquests of weapons, the U.S. could be completely percent in the shield would mean the the U.S. HMD arsenal. And they will the Red Army, which smashed the shielded from Soviet retaliation. And it failure of the whole system, since it only have to develop their own ASAT Hitler-N azi regime 40 years ago: witness would be paid for by a tax cut combined takes a few nuclear warheads to devas­ weaponry to destroy the U.S. battle the imperialist outcry last summer with taking school lunches away from tate a country. And the scheme doesn't stations and other satellites. In a period against the 1944 Yalta agreement, and ghetto kids. This plan was cooked up by even take into consideration the threat of political crisis the pressure to launch West German chancellor Kohl's re­ Dr. Edward Teller and the "High from subs, low-flying cruise missiles and on warning would be overwhelming as vanchist remarks which rightly upset the Frontier" crowd of New Right, nuts bombers. The cost of launching suffi­ the Soviets face pressure to "use them or Kremlin (and the Poles!). Peace in whose goal has been to "win" a nuclear cient numbers of battle stations would lose them." Europe cannot be achieved by sanctify­ war. The "great communicator" pitched run into the hundreds of billions of In practice, though, the only aspect of ing the status quo of a divided Europe. it as the ultimate "peace" proposal. to dollars. ballistic missile defense systems which The Trotskyists fight for a revolutionary protect people and render nuclear As an umbrella against surprise appears to be within reach of present reunification of Germany in the struggle weapons "impotent and obsolete." But attack, "Star Wars" is truly a hare­ technology is a limited defense in the for a Soviet Socialist United States of virtually every reputable scientist who brained scheme. But as part of a first terminal phase. "Star Wars" is becom­ All Europe! has looked into it has labeled "Star strike it makes a lot of (twisted) sense. ing strikingly similar to the early 1970s . Imperialist America, the organizing Wars:' extremely dangerous and desta­ The Union of Concerned Scientists' ABM systems. "There are some in­ center of the anti-Soviet war d rive, is the bilizing. It is that and much more: this detailed study on Space-Based Missile termediate steps which have intermedi­ number one enemy of the working and "defense" system is worthless except as Defense (March 1984) notes that an ate utility," Undersecretary of Defense oppressed people of the world. In the part of a "pre-emptive" strike. attacker with thousands of missiles Fred lkle hinted at a secret Senate United States as in Europe, anti­ - The "Star Wars" scheme envisions a could readily smash through any con­ committee meeting last year. And imperialism abroad means class struggle "layered" defense; using several wea­ ceivable defense shield, but ballistic Weinberger has said that indeed SOl at home. Solidarity with South African pons systems to zap Soviet missiles and missile defense (13M D) systems "might might have a "transitional phase"

8 WORKERS VANGUARD involving point defense of U.S. missile reckless offensive strategy. Other Iy destroying an enemy force." Shades military facilities, in coordination with silos. However, the 1972 ABM treaty NATO heads of state, including British of General Joffre! West European an American "ferret" spy sa te llite, to test sharply limited the number of ballistic prime minister Thatcher, French presi­ leaders worried that this would rip off the capabilities of the new Siberian missile defense clusters to two each for dent Mitterrand and West German NATO's mask as a "defensive alliance." radar (see "Reagan's KAL 007 Plot the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This was chancellor Kohl have expressed their Criticizing West European leaders for Unravels," WV No. 350, 16 March a tacit admission on both .sides of the "deep reservations" about U.S. develop­ having a "Maginot Line mentality," 1984). And now the White House futility and danger of ABM defense. ment of space weapons. Listening to Rogers and other American military provocateurs dare to accuse the Soviets Now the U.S. is saying the ABM treaty some of the Reaganauts in the Pentagon planners argue that "emerging technolo­ of "violations"! may have to be "revised"-"in other reminds one of French chief of staff gy" (appropriately dubbed "ET") gives In the fall of 1983, at the height of the words, broken" as even the New York Joffre's "strategy ofthe offensive" which the West the capability to strike at the imperialist propaganda blitz over KA L Times (30 December 1984) admitted. managed to get tens of thousands of heart of the Warsaw Pact with non- 007, as the U.S. (with the agreement of its NATO allies) was preparing to Space Shl,lttle Provocation deploy Pershings in West Europe, No war plans are complete without Soviet defense minister, Marshal Dmi­ muzzling the press, and the Reagan tri Ustinov, who died last month, administration threw down the gauntlet declared that the USSR was "displaying in mid-December when the Defense truly Leninist self-control": Department provocatively announced "No 'preemptive strike' will help the strategists on the other side of the ocean that the next shuttle mission scheduled to avert a devastating retaliatory strike. for January 23 would contain a "secret" Nothing will save the aggressor from military payload, and anyone who even retribution if he uses nuclear weapons in "speculated" about its content would be a first strike against the Soviet Union and its allies.... subject to a Pentagon investigation. "We do not seek nuclear superiority, This was clearly no way to keep a secret, but neither will we allow the US and indeed when the Washington Post administration to use nuclear blackmail blew the whistle a couple of days later it to conduct a policy of strength against merely stated what everyone who us." -s-Pravda, 19 November 1983 followed the subject had already'figured out. Surprise, a new SIGINT (signals Or as the then chief of staffofthe Soviet intelligence) spy satellite was to be sent armed forces, Marshal Nikolai Ogar­ into geo-synchronous orbit placing it < kov, put it: "Retaliation will be inevi­ in stationary position above western Soviet missiles in Red Square: When Reagan starts talking "disarmament, table in all cases." But a sound military Russia. . reach for the SS-20s. defense is only the beginning of the With 30 secret military missions French youth slaughtered in the early nuclear forces. However, the "Rogers defense of the revolutionary conquests already scheduled for the next five days of World War I, repeatedly Plan" does not reject previous NATO embodied in the Soviet bureaucratically years, the Pentagon's purpose was to get throwing them against the devastating policy of first use of nuclear weapons. degenerated workers state. the press to keep its mouth shut. And, fire of entrenched German machine "ET." "Star Wars." "Air-Land With, good reason. Soviet leaders ominously, at first everyone went along. guns. In the nuclear era, however, the Battle": the Reagan regime's nuclear have not been overly optimistic about Even the Post emphasized that it Reaganauts' war madness can have policy is the distilled essence of Silicon the upcoming Geneva talks. Communist Party general secretary Chernenko deliberately withheld some details for cataclysmic results for humanity. Valley, Orange County and the Penta­ "national security" reasons, which Take the case of Reagan's secretary of gon, concocted by an aging YAFer called for "radical" arms reductions, but commented pessimistically in its didn't save it from being denounced by the navy, John Lehman, a 41-year-old dressed up like Darth Vader in a video Pravda New Year's edition, "We have no Weinberger for giving "aid and comfort Young Americans for Freedom type games parlor. Half of the fabled U.S. illusions." Unfortunately, the history of to the enemy," the classic witchhunters' never involved in naval operations, who "emerging technology" doesn't work the Stalinist bureaucracy shows an phrase for treason trials. Indeed, the has laid down a strategy of "forward (the Pershings which regularly miss overabundance of illusions in "peaceful administration is trying to establish defense." Lehman says that in wartime their targets, the Sergeant York gun coexistence," "detente" and other code legal precedents for prosecuting jour­ the Pentagon is going to send its which does best against outhouse words for achieving a live-and-let-live nalists under espionage laws. The test expensive ($3 billion plus) nuclear exhaust systems,the Assault Breaker deal with the imperialists. As Marxists case is the Justice Department's prose­ aircraft carriers right into the lair of the system which can hit some tanks that cution of naval intelligence analyst Soviet bear to attack the Soviet naval don't move)-and the other halfdoesn't we understand that the capitalists will never accept the Bolshevik Revolution. Samuel Loring Morison, grandson of fleet in its home base of the Kola exist. No one buys the administration's the famed naval historian, for providing Peninsula. Military analyst William pretense that it is talking about defense. Defense ofthe gains ofOctobercan only be secured by extending proletarian a reconnaissance satellite photograph Lind called it a scenario for the "ride of What worries rational imperialist plan­ revolutions, particularly into the impe­ of a Soviet aircraft carrier to Jane's the Valkyries" in a recent (I January) ners, however, is not that Reagan wants rialist heartlands. This was the task Defence Weekly, a house organ of TV documentary in the Frontline series war but that he may screw it up and lose Western intelligence agencies, of which on "The Battle for the Norwegian Sea," badly. undertaken by the Communist Interna­ he is the American editor. saying U.S. carriers would be sitting Some of the more responsible states­ tional under V.I. Lenin and continued by Leon Trotsky, founder of the Soviet It's no wonder they want to muzzle ducks for Soviet subs and land-based men, like veteran diplomat George F. Red Army, in his struggle for the Fourth the press: the media had uncovered a bombers. This didn't daunt Lehman, Kennan, for instance, are genuinely International. gigantic hoax. The public had been led however, who claimed the advantage of afraid that Reagan might blow up the to believe that the space shuttle, unlike "knowing Soviet capabilities at sea world. Ina column titled; "World War I; We do not begrudge the Kremlin its efforts to stave off the tremendous costs "evil" Soviet space missions, is intended because we're rubbing up against them Then, II; Then ... "(New York Times, II for purely peaceful, scientific purposes. evetJ' day, everywhere in the world.... 'November 1984), Kennan recalled that of a space arms race. But a treaty with the imperialist U.S. rulers will no more But the 20 December 1984 New York We know how good they are, we know the first imperialist world slaughter was guarantee defense of the Soviet peoples Times, in the middle of an article about we're going to win." prepared by: the "secret" military payload, casually Former CIA director Stansfield " ... new vainglorious dreams of total against imperialist intervention than did mentioned "the shuttle's spacious cargo Turner calls this "forward strategy" a war, unconditional surrender and the Stalin's pact with Hitler. What's needed bay. whose dimensions were specifically "mistake of historic proportions." and total victory that was supposed to make is a return to the policies of Lenin and designed for military missions." The all things possible. Trotsky, the policies of proletarian claims that not one admiral supports "And we of this age') How about us'?" next day the Times revealed in detail Lehman. The navy chiefs are probably internationalism and world socialist This from the famous "Mr. X,'" the how the Pentagon's enormous space having nightmares about being sent into revolution. In .his "Declaration to the architect of the anti-Soviet Cold War. budget enabled it to take over the a repeat of the 1916 battle ofJutland (or Antiwar Congress at Amsterdam" (July Let no one forget that Kennan's co­ 19.i2), Trotsky wrote that: shuttle. A recent report in Aviation Skagerrak), in which the entire force of authors McNamara and Bundy were the "The pretense of 'drsarmamcnt' has lied (5 "member 19X4) was even more German battle cruisers was sacrificed in war criminals who ordered thc ("con­ and can have nothing in common with sensational. reporting that the Pentagon a suicidal charge at the British fleet, vcntional") slaughter of millions of the prevention 01 war. Ihe program already has a pool of 25 military which smashed the German ships in a of 'disarmament" only signifies an Indochinese. In reality. the nuclear astronauts, independent of the civilian hurricane of fire. The Germans called it attempt -up to IlOW only on papcr-i-to "freeze" movement led by Democratic :\;\SA space agency, to fly military a "death ride," and the kaiser's surface reduce in peacetime the expense of this "doves" like Senator Edward Kennedy or that kind 01 armaments.... Ihe space missions. "Star Wars" is a lot fleet didn't venture out again for the is only a slicker program to prepare the question of disarmament is one of the closer than you think. duration of the war. The sinking of the bipartisan drive toward war on the levers on the arena of imperialism in lJ .S. navy would do far more fOf the which the new wars are being prepared. Soviet Union. The money saved, wrote Anti-Soviet Madman cause of world peace than any treaty, It is pure charlatanism to attempt to Senators Kennedy and Hatfield in their in the White House but it's not what the brass had in mind distinguish between defensive and book Freeze! (1982) "could be spent. .. offensive machine guns, tanks. air­ for their ships. Quite a few establishment figures and to improve the readiness and reliability planes. American policy is dictated in After two years ofcontroversy among this also by the particular interests of even some of Reagan's staunchest of our conventional forces." As in the military leaders of the Western imperi­ American militarism, the most terrible defenders have begun to worry about his Rogers Plan! alist alliance, last November ,U.S. of all.... Petty-bourgeois pacifism, which sees in a 10 percent, or 33 percent, general Bernard Rogers: supreme com­ From KAL 007 to Geneva or 50 percent disarmament proposal the mander of NATO forces, pushed 'first step' towards prevention of war, is Now Available: through a new strategy named "Follow­ In order to fob off the blame for more dangerous than all the explosives On Force Attack." FOFA involves shredding the 1972 ABM treaty, the and asphyxiating gases.... plans for "deep strikes" into the Soviet Reaganites, with a cynicism rivaling "Without the slightest confidence in the Workers Vanguard capitalist programs for disarmament or bloc to destroy Soviet rear echelons with Goebbels, have invented a list of arms limitation, the revolutionary Bound Volume 15 high-tech weapons. It is the application supposed "Soviet violations." Top on proletariat asks one single question: In to Europe of "Air-Land 2000," a I their list is the unfinished phased-array .whose hands are the weapons:' Any WV Nos. 345-369 doctrine developed by the U.S. General radar located at Abalakova (near weapon in the hands of the imperialists is a weapon directed against the 6 Jan.- 21 Dec. 1984 Staff College at Fort Leavenworth for Krasnoyarsk) in Siberia, which Wash­ working class. against the weak nations, "offensive tactics." According to U.S. ington claims could be used for ballistic against socialism, against humanity. Also Available: Vols. 1-14

Peter Kihss, for many years ace accused ofexpelling members solely "on sympathetic to Malcolm, his account which purports to be the newspaper of reporter on the New York Times metro­ the basis ofopinions" for the first time in sharply contrasted with the Times' rabid record in the United States, found the politan desk, died December 28 of a its history. Kihss indicated the political editorial vilifying this courageous trib­ SL demonstration to be no news. heart attack at the age of 72. We of the basis for the expulsions, quoting the une of black freedom as "an extraordi­ Kihss's draft had, however, reported on Spartacist League had contact with first issue of Spartacist attacking the nary and twisted man, turning many our protest and on 29 September 1981 Peter Kihss extending over 20 years and SWP for "surrender of all Marxist true gifts to evil purpose," and virtually he sent us a/courteous note lamenting we always got a fair shake from him. responsibility toward the Cuban Revo­ blaming Malcolm for his own death: this censorship: "I did think you Which is more than we can say of the lution through abasement as an uncriti­ " ... his ruthless arid fanatical belief in warranted mention." He enclosed a bourgeois press generally, including in cal apologist for the Castro regime." He violence ... marked him for notoriety, copy of the story as written, which particular his employers.at the Times. and for a violent end." ended: "In the street, 50 pickets from the Noting how the press uncritically Later that year, Kihss covered the Spartacist League, a Trotskyist Com­ peddles government smears against the "Harlem riots" ofJuly I964-in reality a munist organization, chanted and car-. left, we have had occasion to refer to cop riot touched off by the police killing ried signs to charge that 'Solidarity has "the Fourth Estate, the world's oldest of a young black man and directed become an instrument for Ronald profession." Peter Kihss was different­ against militant efforts to organize the Reagan's drive to "roll back" the social he was that rare species, a journalist ghetto around tenants committees. and economic gains of the Russian with integrity, who thought the truth Kihss reported how the FBI and the Revolution'." When we ran into him at was "fit to print." And forthat we honor mayor's office were trying to blame another event, he apologized again, him. everything on "Communists" and adding that the Times has "almost a The Times (30 December 1984) obit­ "fringe groups" who allegedly incited policy of not covering demonstrations" uary was a retrospective of Kihss's violence, but he also went out and got unless you're about to take power. As career covering almost half a century. ~hat the "reds" like Progressive Labor's top reporter on the metro desk he had "He was, by nearly every standard of Bill Epton had to say. Where most run into this barrier time and again. American journalism, an ideal report­ journalists didn't recognize the exis­ We gather this wasn't the first time er," wrote Robert McFadden, noting his tence of anything to the left of the Peter Kihss had expressed dissatisfac­ thoroughness, tenacity and objectivity, reformist CPUSA, Kihss reported on a tion with hatchet jobs on his copy. The as well as the speed and grace of his garment ,center rally of the Harlem Times Op-Ed page this January I prose. McFadden recalled the time Solidarity Committee including speak­ published a remembrance by Sydney Kihss literally picked up Mayor Fiorello ers from PL, Workers World and Schanberg who recalled that Kihss La Guardia and shook him, saying Spartacist. proudly called himself "just a reporter." New York Times "Four hundred thousand readers of The Many years later, in September 1981, Kihss, he said, once described an editor World- Telegram want to know," when Peter Kihss our paths crossed again at the offices of as "someone who separates the wheat hizzoner threatened to throw the re­ 1912-1984 Albert Shanker's United Federation of from the chaff-and sees to it the chaff porter down the City Hall steps for Teachers. The UFT hosted a press gets into the paper." Schanberg added asking embarrassing questions. He also noted the RTs objection to the conference for a representative of the that Kihss "quit" a few times after bitter remembered that Kihss faced down a SWP's "will-o-the-wisp chase after Polish "union" Solidarnosc who was jousts with editors, but he won "a hostile crowd of racists when he was Black Nationalism" in the U.S. Kihss's setting up a New York office (with the basketful of awards" during his 49 years covering the enrollment of the first care in reporting was shown by the fact help of the "CIA socialists" ofShanker's as "just a reporter": "in an era when the black student at the University of that between the early and late editions SDUSA crowd). The Spartacist League press came under increasing criticism Alabama. He didn't have much to say of the'paper he added news ofadditional demonstrated outside the UFT head­ for arrogance and carelessness, Peter about Kihss's activities as an active expulsions of RT supporters and a quarters with signs including: "Reagan Kihss was an exemplar ofaccuracy and member of the New York Newspaper quote from Myra Tanner Weiss de­ Smashes PATCO American Union, fairness." Guild, though. Kihss's retirement notice nouncing the purge. Those who read Loves Solidarnosc!" and "Social Dem­ American journalism is a deservedly noted that during the 1950s McCarthy Kihss's piece would know more about ocrats and the AFL-CIO Front for CIA maligned profession. "The press is free," period he had most of the big local the expulsion than readers ofthe SWP's in Poland, Too!" This led the Wall as it is said, "for them that owns one." stories on the "Communist and Nazi" Militant. Street Journal (29 September 1981) to Not much has changed since H.L. beat. And A.J. Liebling in his collection The Times obituary says Kihss wrote write an ominous editorial denouncing Mencken wrote his scathing diatribes of essays on The Press (1975) contrasts "dispassionately" on a wide range of "a respectably-sized group of demon­ against not only the "journalistic street­ Kihss's factual reporting on the Alger topics. A lack of passion is hardly our strators [that] was organized to picket walkers" but the majority of newspaper­ Hiss case to the sensation-mongering of standard of journalistic excellence, but the opening in protest against the -men who were "ignoramuses, and proud his editors at the New York Herald­ in our experience at least, Peter Kihss's American imperialism it allegedly repre­ of it": "It is this vast and militant Trihune. commitment to "objectivity" was not an sented." The house organ of American ignorance, this widespread and fathom­ We didn't know Peter Kihss well, but excuse for slanting the story against finance capital warned, "Anyone seek­ less prejudice against intelligence, that on those occasions when we intersected those who challenged the established ing to delegitimize" American labor makes American journalism so patheti­ we found his reporting accurate and order. We recall the assassination of leaders' fronting Jor Washington cally feeble and vulgar, and so generally intelligent. Kihss wrote a substantial Malcolm X, where Kihss wrote a page "should be aware ofjust how serious an disreputable" ("Journalism in Ameri­ story in the New York Times (8 March one news story noting the black mili­ attack he is launching," and threatened ca," 1927). Peter Kihss, however, was 1964) on the expulsion of the Revolu­ tant's "gift for bitter eloquence against that if they persist in this "very dirty not "just a reporter" but an honest tionary Tendency, predecessor of the what he considered white exploitation business ... they should not be allowed reporter. He didn't write for the "boob­ Spartacist League, from the Socialist of Negroes," and that "Malcolm's new to do so easily." '. cisie" but for intelligent people who care Workers Party. Based on an interview movement emphasized self-defense even Kihss covered the Solidarnosc press for the truth. Sadly a man such as he is a with Spartacist editor James Robert­ with weapons" (New York Times, 22 conference, and stopped to observe our voice in the wilderness in the world of son, he noted that the SWP stood February 1965). While Kihss was hardly demonstration. The New York Times, capitalist commercial enterprise.•

preferable.... The men of the principal and uranium have been discovered and state stipends. Compulsory education Red Army resistance movement ... are religious are being opened up for development. A has been replaced by an "optional fanatics. They send a shiver down the key index of social progress is the literacy program for women," and spine" (quoted in the Nation, 15. position of women, who are being Karmal criticized the land reform Mops Up ... December 1984). liberated from the chadri, educated and decreed after the "April (1978) Revolu­ (COIlt inued front page 7) Soviet intervention is pulling Afghan­ slowly integrated into the workforce. tion" for "resorting to force for imple­ Apparently the anti-Soviet warmongers istan into the 20th century. Schools and Last summer a reporter for India Today menting land reforms" (Kabul New would have preferred that Abouchar's factories are being built. More than a (31 July 1984) encountered five 15-year­ Times, 12 March 1984). But only story remain locked up in Kabul. When million Afghans have been taught to old girls, armed with rifles and belong­ through force will the feudalists' resis­ he got home Abouchar wrote that read and write. Thousands of youth are ing to a "civilian brigade to defend the tance be crushed. The task of the "between the Afghan Communists and being given a chance to study in Soviet revolution," in a village near Kabul: bourgeois revolution remains far from the ayatollahs, the former might still be universities. Mineral deposits ofcopper "They spoke fervently and passionately completed in Afghanistan. about their revolution and what it Today Afghanistan is only just meant for young women in Afghani­ emerging from the Middle Ages, literal­ stan: it meant 'an education. freedom from the veil. freedom from feudalists ly. The government is implementing the Smash Ap.artheid who want to keep us down.' said economic plan for the year 1363 (by the in South Africa! Khalida. 'We do not want to become the Islamic calendar) while convening a fourth wife of a 60-vear-old man. "grand jirgah [council] of the scholars existing solely for hiS whim and and spiritual figures of the DRA pleasure'... Order your packet [Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]" featuring a selection of At the same time. the PDPA govern­ at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul! articles from Workers ment of Babrak Karmal has sought to Yet Afghanistan's likely future can be Vanguard and Young piece off the opposition by reinforcing glimpsed north of the border in the §~artacus. some of the.most reactionary features of Soviet Central Asian republics, where Afghan society. In particular, Karmal the Red Army waged a decade-long civil $1.00 has strengthened the government's ties war -in the 1920s and '30s to defeat the to those among the Islamic clergy who tribalist Basmachi. In these backward . Order from: have not taken up arms against the areas, the workers state led by the Spartacist PUblishing Co. regime: not only are the mullahs' tithes revolutionary Bolshevik Party of V.1. Box 1377 GPO and landholdings exempt from taxa­ Lenin and Leon Trotsky was able to New York, NY 10116 tion. seizure or redistribution. but the eliminate the veil and the bride price, mullahs themselves are supported by secure land to the tiller, and break the 10 WORKERS VANGUARD with his spit-in-the-eye racism while "SUbway others turn the mayor's words into action. After lecturing New Yorkers that they will not be permitted to take Vigilante" ... the law into their own hands, he tried to (continuedfrom page /2) shore up the Queens racist vote by paper" in this city) ran fund appeals­ refusing to make Martin Luther King's "Gun Clubs Vow Cash Aid to Vigi­ birthday a city holiday. In the days lante"-and reported $100 checks roll­ following the subway shooting there is ing in from retired cops. Curtis Sliwa of an ominous atmosphere abroad. The the Guardian Angels claimed Goetz as general mood on the street is one of one of their own, and began collecting vengeance, that vigilantism works. And bail money in the trains. The "Angels" the fact that the lumpen population of are the people who go around terroriz­ urban America is-overwhelmingly black ing subway passengers in the name of AP and Hispanic produces the dangerous fighting petty crime. And U.S. imperial­ Slogan spray-painted on FDR Drive. In racist America, vigilantism targets intersection of anger over crime in the ism's most disreputable black pimp Roy blacks. streets with the poisonous racism which Innis came forward to "defend" the guns are outlawed, as in New York City, transit worker at the Coney Island yard permeates this society. guriman-about what you'd expect only outlaws have guns. But that is still said, referring to a black transit worker A decade ago, at the time of Koch's from people who recruited black mer­ better than everyone having them. As bludgeoned to death by a racist mob in first election campaign, we wrote in our cenaries for the CIA in Angola. the subway shooting demonstrates, the 1982, "If Willie Turks had had a piece, article "Fear and Violence in NYC" The haughty New York Times is 'decent citizen' armed with a gun may all he'd be alive today." Last week right­ (WV No. 147,4 March 1977): probably the only newspaper in the too quickly become the criminal." This wing populist Barry Farber remarked "Communists are not bleeding-heart world that could write an article about is the sanctimonious posturing of hypo­ on his WMCA radio talk show how liberals who preach 'Christian concern' the IRT shooting and never mention the crites secure in the knowledge that the courageous blacks saved a lot of lives for the brutalized lumpen criminals marauding through the streets and race of the youths, as they did the first armed bodies of state repression exist back in the '30s and '40s. On the subways. killing. maiming. raping and day! But the popularity of the "subway precisely in order to protect their lives, weekends some of the white crackers robbing hapless citizens. When the vigilante" has them sufficiently worried their institutions, their private property would get liquored up and talk about burnt-out rubble of the South Bronx that the Times (4 January) editorial and corporate investments. The NY city going over to "nigger town" to "get them begins to resemble Dresden after World War II. it is to be expected that the vast made an "unauthorized disclosure," council law against carrying long arms some." But after a few minutes someone ghettos will produce depraved human finally conceding that pervasive crime in in public was zipped through to prevent would remark, "Hey Clem, it's getting beings, as the 'Empire City' slides into the subway "generates fear that a system Malcolm X from carrying a carbine-he dark. Those Negroes have guns, and the barbarism of decaying capitalism. It millions must ride has slipped out of was assassinated shortly after. But New they know how to use them." That was is intolerable that such 'human gar­ control" and called on the city to beef up York Times publisher "Punch" Sulz­ the biggest deterrent to lynching there bage: as Marx described the criminal elements of the lumpenproletariat. can the numbers and the quality of the berger, who has his own armed guards was. It sure as hell wasn't the local terrorize the public at will. transit cops. This is a grotesque joke. and rides around town in a chauffeur­ sheriff. "U Itimately the solution to spiraling Nobody thinks the cops are going to driven limousine, was in 1980 one of the The condition of black people in crime rates is abolition of the capitalist protect them. And the Times wouldn't 550 civilians with a pistol permit. Reagan's America is increasingly des­ system which breeds poverty and crime. now: In the meantime. it is a just and even admit up until that it was It is precisely these limousine liberals perate. In the wake of the 1960s civil elementary reflex that the whole popu­ "Fear City" on the trains-it took a with their sermonizing about gun rights struggles, the Johnson adminis­ lation (not just the well-heeled. cops and racist nut to pose this issue sharply. control-a patently worthless measure tration tried to put the lid back on the criminals) have recourse to firearms to Everybody knows the cops are never which abuses only innocent citizens­ exploding ghettos by pumping in a few seek protection from this hideous social there when you need them-the classic that drive people into the arms of the million dollars in the bogus "war on irrationality.... "While upholding the right of individu­ case is Kitty Genovese, stabbed and vigilantes. One could sympathize with poverty." Today the re-election of als to effectively defend themselves. we murdered while nobody heeded her Goetz's frustration over his attempt to Ronald Reagan is a blatant assertion strenuously oppose any kind of vigi­ screams for help, and many others since get a handgun license. He went through that there will beno attempts to improve lantism, which could only become a then. Of course, the transit cops do kill the wringer of bureaucratic investi­ the situation of the black masses. Black racist pogrom. Gun-nut groups and ultra-rightist types who rail that the people-but not those in the act of gation/interrogation like a good citizen people, at the bottom of American cops are too soft on 'crime in the streets' committing crimes. No, they specialize and was rejected anyway. Even to get society, the last-hired, first-fired reserve are the advance elements of a fascistic in shooting turnstile jumpers, or graffiti­ the less-restricted keep-at-home license army of labor who are considered movement. We do not call upon the painters such as young black artist you have to pay $75, submit pictures of expendable in hard times, are simply working masses to implement the Michael Stewart bludgeoned to death at yourself and three full sets of finger­ written off. Essential services are bosses' racist 'law and order.' But in a time of revolutionary upsurge-a dual Union Square last year. To make it prints, then wait six months while slashed, school lunch programs can­ power situation-a racially integrated explicit, the Times editorial calls for everybody from the FBI to the state celed, Medicare curtailed. In New York workers militia. with recognized au­ stepping up arrests for "quality-of-life bureau of mental health looks into your the privatization of public faciiities has thority among the ghetto masses them­ offenses"-this means war not only on past. In the end the applicant ends up reached the point that big-time realtor selves, would certainly deal firmly and justly with lumpen violence.... black youth, but tens of thousands of feeling like a criminal. But Marxists, Donald Trump announced that seating "It is profoundly dangerous and de­ homeless, the bag ladies, the derelicts and the U.S. Constitution, hold that at the projected new city sports stadium moralizing to keep the population, dumped out on the streets from the everyone has a right to bear arms. As the will be sold as "condos." How soon until white and black. in a constant state of mental hospitals and welfare hotels who saying goes, "God created men and seats in public schools are sold to the helpless fear: such desperation spawns now call the subway home-one of the women, and Colonel Colt made them highest bidder? fascist mobilizations and racist vigi­ lantes. as shown by the enormously most tragic stories of human waste in equal." And gun control is first and So it's election year in New York. The enthusiastic response to the movie New York. foremost directed against blacks. mayor is once again busily whipping up 'Death Wish.' Marxists must struggle The bourgeoisie's response to crime is Suppose the subway gunman was racist sentiment, just as he did in 1977­ against the monopolization of the to strengthen its own repressive appara­ black and the youths 'had been white. 78 when he made the death penalty the means of violence in the hands of the bourgeois state while asserting the right tus while disarming the population. The Murdoch's Post wouldn't hail him as a centerpiece of his "Fear City"campaign. of the working people to defend them­ Times (28 December 1984) predictably hero, but he's got every damn right to Ed Koch is a man who makes his mark selves, as Malcolm X said, by any means editorialized for gun control: "Where defend himself too. As a black NYC going around verbally abusing blacks necessary.". power of the mullahs..Now the standard . central Europe, Trotsky noted that the them. Nevertheless, faced with a direct to their internationalist, revolutionary of living in the cities of Soviet Central Red Army (which he led) could pave the imperialist military threat the Kremlin's mission. And our goal. of socialist Asia is reportedly higher than in way for extending the Russian Revolu­ defensive intervention in Afghanistan revolution in the imperialist countries Moscow! tion to the East, beyond the boundaries opened up the possibility of replicating takes on a sharp urgency at a time when of the former tsarist empire: the social transformation that took Reagan & Co. rattle their H-bombs for Extend Social Gains of the "We have up to now devoted too little place in Soviet Central Asia six decades the sake of overthrowing the gains of the October Revolution to attention to agitation in Asia. However. ago. Russian Revolution. Once more we hail Afghanistan! the international situation is evidently Only a workers political revolution Red Army in Afghanistan! Smash shaping up in such a way that the road Contrary to imperialist propaganda, to Paris and London lies via the towns can restore the Soviet state and its army Reagan's anti-Soviet war drive! • the Afghanistan intervention has broad of Afghanistan. the Punjab and Ben­ gal. ... Naturally, we had had in mind popular support in the Soviet Union even earlier on the need to assist the rev­ itself. The New York Times (3 Decem­ olution in Asia and had never aban­ ber 1984) reported: doned the idea of revolutionary offen­ " ... it is clear that the war is not sive wars." resulting in the domestic backlash that - The Trotsky Papers, the Vietnam War stirred in the United Vol. 1(1917-1919) States. In talks with people around Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League Moscow. both young and old. no sign The plan was stillborn, as the Red Army was forced to marshal every last man emerges of a discontent that could force' [] $5/24 issues of Workers Vanguard [J $2/4 issues of Kremlin leaders to bring the boys home and weapon to defend the 'young (includes Spartacist) International rates Women and Revolution soon. 'I don't know if you would call workers state from foreign intervention [] New 0 Renewal $20/24 Issues-Airmail this a popular war: a Moscow scholar 0$2/10 introductory issues of and internal counterrevolution. $5/24 issues-Seamail said privately. 'But certainly it is not an Trotsky's Red Army was an instru­ Workers Vanguard unpopular war. ... More or less. it's a [] $2/9 issues of Young Spartacus (Includes Spartacist) popular war.' he said. 'People say: ment of revolutionary policy; its role "Aha. the Americans wanted to grab was to defend the Soviet state and assist Name -..,. _ Afghanistan. We'll show thcm".?" the development of international A Moscow novelist said: "We see how working-class revolution. The bureau­ Address --:.... _ poor the Afghans are, how dirty.... Our cratic caste which seized power in the ______Phone ( boys give them pieces of sugar, and they mid-1920s is interested not in revolution have never seen sugar before. We are but in peaceful coexistence with the City '-'- State Zip ~= 370 bringing them a better way of life." - imperialists. Soviet aid is as capable of During the summer of 1919, as the propping up oppressive regimes (such as Make checks payable/mall 10: Spartaclsl Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 revolutionary wave was receding in Mengistu's Ethiopia) as overthrowing

11 JANUARY 1985 11 W'lt/(EltS ",,'U,lt, ; The NYC "Subway· Vigilante"

Ronald Reagan's election was sup­ defend himself, and death to vigilan­ "hustle,': crime a way of life. The most train, walked down the tracks and posed to be a celebration of the "New tism! If every subway rider carried a pernicious effect ofcapitalism is to force disappeared. Patriotism," new confidence in "Ameri­ piece, the trains might look kind of blacks and other minorities into the It was practically like a scene out of ca standing tall," where anybody can weird for a couple of days. But there'd lumpenproletariat which then becomes Death Wish, the popular movie where make it big who just has the will to "go be a lot less harassment. a lot less fear, fuel for the racists. Lumpenization is the Charles Bronson starts blasting mug­ for it." But coming on top of the deepest and it would go a long way toward heart of "Fear City" and racism is the gers and rapists off the streets and depression since the 1930s, there is an breaking down the racial divisions in blood it pumps. subways after his wife is beaten to death undercurrent of fear and desperation in this country. While liberals prattled about gun and his daughter viciously raped. In real the country focused on the ghettos of If there are eight million stories in the control, racist forces seized upon the life, Bernhard H. Goetz is probably America's inner cities. Here is the utter Naked City, there is a common thread vulnerability and defenselessness of the closer to playwright Brian Garfield's hopelessness ofa generation of minority image of the New York architect­ youth who, with black unemployment turned-vigilante than Bronson who even in the present "recovery" still played it like a Dodge City macho-man. running over 40 percent, are condemned The comparison was inescapable. The to a life in these mean streets, trapped in Daily News (2 January) wrote: the vicious cycle of poverty, drugs and "One minute he was Everyman, his 90­ crime.• In this deeply race-divided cent ride beneath the streets interrupted society, the ghetto is also the focus ofthe bv the sort of fear that is familiar fears and fantasies of the white popula­ to those who daily enter the dim. predator-and-prey world of the sub­ tion which feels preyed upon by a way system.... menacing criminal underclass. The New "With four gunshots Everyman be­ York subway is one of the flash points of came the Lone Ranger, the Avenging intersection. Angel. ..." In the absence ofanv mobilization for Russell Baker in the New York Times social struggle, the desperation of black (5 January) dubbed the mood in the city youth has produced a wave of teen-age "Waiting for Wyatt." crime around the country. In Detroit, In subsequent days, while the cops even with a vicious anti-youth curfew searched for the gunman, the four South and police riding roughshod on the Bronx kids lay in hospital beds. Three of streets and in the schools, more than 220 them appear to be fully recovering, kids were shot in street violence during while thefourth remains paralyzed from 19H4. In Chicago, where 133 youth were the waist down, due to the bullet which killed last year in gang-related violence, damaged his spinal cord. Three of the there's been an outcry for "more cops" .four youths had minor arrest records- following the shooting of a talented petty larceny stuff like stealing$14 from black high school basketball player. But video-game machines and possession of nobody thinks the cops will protect WV Photo marijuana, while a fourth is facing an them. And they can't stand feeling "Anti-mugging zone" on NYC subways: Fear and desperation breed racist armed robbery charge. The press made a helpless. It was a 37-year-old white rider vigilantism. big deal about "sharpened screwdrivers" supposedly found in their pockets, but of the IRT No.2 subway train in NYC running through them all: it's "Fear population to whip up an atmosphere of police reports later clarified that the who struck a chord among the popula­ City" every day on the New York City vigilantism, hailing the "IRT Avenger." screwdrivers were "sharp" only in the tion, locally and nationally, by pulling subway. You take your life in your Rupert Murdoch's tabloid gutter press, sense that they were new. One of the the trigger last month on four black hands every time you go down in the the New York Post, has gone on kid's brothers said they used them for youths who tried to rip him off. tunnel, waiting there on filthy platforms campaign footing to turn gunman breaking into video-game coin boxes. In Within 24 hours after the incident, the reeking of piss, hugging a pillar so some Bernhard Goetz into a vigilante hero, the middle of the afternoon on a car full NYPO phone hot line logged morethan punk won't push you onto the tracks. At headlining, "Vigilante's Untold Life of passengers, maybe all they had in 5.00 calls supporting the "subway vigi­ night people huddle together in the Story," "Vigilante Vowed:' I'll Get mind was getting something for free. lante." The story of the IRT gunman official. yellow-lined "anti-mugging Them, Sooner or Later,''''Grilied Like a But they picked the wrong guy. had an explosive impact in a society zones" hoping for protection in num­ Criminal, Not Hero, He Clams Up." A After he gave himself up, a picture where the basic right of self-defense is bers. When the train finally comes, you giant sign was spray-painted on the of Bernhard Goetz emerged as a soli­ intimately bound up with the scourge of cram into the center car with the FOR Drive, "Power to the Vigilante! tary electronics whiz, a loner-turned­ racial oppression, where there is no conductor, avoiding eye contact by N.Y. Loves Ya!" In racist America, just vigilante who was reportedly trauma­ future for blacks, where everyone' who "reading the subway ads which warn as the cry for "law and order" translates tized by the experience of being mugged walks the streets or rides the subways women riders to keep their gold chain into stepped-up police attacks on .and slammed round by three black kids feels up against the wall. Marxists are necklaces well hidden: And you pray oppressed minorities, so vigilantism who tried to snatch valuable electronics nothing's going to happen, because must become a license to terrorize and not "bleeding heart" liberals who close equipment he was carrying, back in their eyes to the reality of lumpen crime. there's never a cop when you need one murder black people. Vigilantism will 19H I. After that, Goetz applied for a gun (they're off peddling dope. beating turn into an extralegal prop for the cops; We say that everyone's got a right to permit, went through the bureaucratic turnstile jumpers to a pulp or getting writ large it is not simply a lynch mob rigarnarole, but was turned down. He shot with their own service revolvers). but a fascist movement. seems to have become some kind of law­ So just before Christmas. when they and-order freak, living in a luxury heard that a man who was being mugged "Death Wish" on the IRT Express apartment building right off the sleazy took out a gun and blew the mother­ It was 1:45 p. m. on a Saturday drug center of Union Square and 14th fuckers away, the New York subway­ afternoon, December 22, on the No.2 Street. A neighbor says Goetz was riding public cheered. express train southbound from 14th involved in torching a newsstand on Liberals like Daily News columnist Street to Chambers in lower Manhat­ 14th and Sixth a year ago, because it was Jimmy Breslin tried to put the populari­ tan. A group of four black kids came up "an eyesore." Neighbors also said Goetz ty of the IRT vigilante down to simple to a slim blond white man wearing had been removed from the board of black vs. white hatred (see "Color Us glasses and began to work the classic directors of the building's co-op for White and Brutal on this Black Day," New York shakedown. They asked for making "bigoted remarks." Goetz prob­ Dailv News, 31 December 19H4). But the the time. they asked for a cigarette. they ably could get off pleading temporary applause for plugging muggers was asked if he "had $5." According to the insanity. The description by one of the pretty nearly universal. particularly youths, the man replied, "Yes, I have $5 kids he shot squares with this: "The among black working people who for each of you," then pulled out a white guy just snapped and broke off" loathe lumpen criminality. Black wom­ nickel-plated .3H-caliber revolver and (New York Post, 7 January). Or he may en were strongly for the gunman. Even methodically shot each one-one of not be charged at all. black teenagers hanging around the them head on, one in the side, two in the playgrounds remarked they felt saferon back. He fired a fifth time at one youth Death to Vigilantism! the trains. Ghetto residents are the most who was not yet down, only stopping frequent victims of the mugger. Driven when he ran out of bullets. He calmly Murdoch's Post (which a Times Maass/ Photoreporters out of the labor market, jobless, for the walked up to the conductor. said they editorial referred to as "the Australian Bernhard Goetz - kids on the street survival becomes a "tried to rip me off," jumped off the continued em page 11

12 11 JANUARY 1985