WfJRNERS 'ANfJIJAR' 50¢ No. 857 28 October 2005 UAW Must Fight GM/Delphi!
Delphi. the world's larg Auto production directly in est auto parts supplier. and volves coal. steel. rubber. General Motors. the world's rail and trucking. When largest automaker. have Chrysler-now part of the launched an unprecedented German company Daimler union-husting assault against Chrysler-threatened hank the United Auto Workers ruptcy in 1979, the response (UAW). Four years into a by the sellouts in the UAW's purported economic recov Solidarity House was to ery hased largely on mas accept a seat on Chrysler's sin: layoffs and deadly board of directors. From this speedup. U.S. workers are lofty height. UAW chief seeing the largest decline in Doug Fraser ~h()\ed conces real wages in decades. On sion contracts down work Octoher 8. GM spin-off er,' throats with the threat Delphi. which supplies GM that they hetter swallow lest with parts. went the corpo they lose their jobs. So they rate hankruptcy route already swallowed and lost their jobs. taken by most major airlines. e ea In the last 25 years. GM. Ford Delphi's \\orkel'S' are threat and Chrysler have shed some ened with destitution. as the 600.000johs in the U.S .. and company demands that their the UAW memher.,hip has pay be cut from £27.00 to dropped from 1.5 million to $10.00 per hour! Ie" than 700.000. On the heeb of Delphi's But it doesn't have to bankruptcy announcement. uto osses' happen this way. The rotten GM bosses demanded mas GM deal is going to the sive givebacks from the UAW. UAW membership for a vote • -vote it down' GM and The treacherous union tops immediately surrendered to Delphi \\orkers must fight GM's demands. in the name hack. whi Ie they have jobs. of protecting the mammoth In 1998. a walkout at the corporation's sacred "com usting! Flint Metal Center plant. nlon expanding to "tne T'1int"'1":ast petiti\·eness." Current work- Delphi facility. quickly re ers and retirees. who broke thei{ backs for GM with six- and seven tract inherent in defined-benefit pro retirees from suing the company for cut sulted in the shutdown of 27 of GM's 29 day workweeks. are seeing their health grams perhaps made some economic ting their benefits! GM. naturally. voiced North American assembly facilities due to lack of parts. "I either stand now and care benefits slashed to the tune of $1 bil sense." He continued. "People are living its support for this move. American strike or there may be no tomorrow," one lion annually. It was "the largest single longer these days. Of course. that is a socialist Daniel Deleon captured the worker said at the time. The strike cost-cutting initiative ever announced by good thing. But the question is. how can treachery of the U.S. labor officialdom backed the auto giant down and ended in the company:' and "paves the way for we afford if)" Miller's answer? Work more than a century ago, branding them a stand-off. GM failed to deliver a crip Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group to like slaves. then die. the "labor lieutenants of capital." pling blow to the union. much to the cha seek similar cost-savings plans with the And the UAW tops' response? let us left unchallenged. the effect of Delphi grin of Wall Street investors. GM then UAW" (Detroit Free Press. 18 October). dig our members' graves' On October and GM's assaults on the UAW will be contrived to spin off Delphi, and now The capital ists deny bankruptcy pro 18. UAW officials asked a federal court enormous. layoffs and plant closings they're back for a second try at gutting tection to their victims while wielding in Detroit to approve the deal with Gen are already being threatened. potentially the UAW. Instead of being picked off the bankruptcy ax to void labor contracts eral Motors in order to prevent individual affecting the bulk of the U.S. proletariat. one by one, the union must prepare its and "reorganize" industry at the cost of entire membership for a hard struggle hundreds of thousands of jobs. Earlier against Delphi. GM and all the auto this month. working people across the country stood in long lines desperate to compal1les. file for bankruptcy before the new law Black Rights and Union Rights limiting protection from creditors went into effect. Meanwhile. Northwest Air JAW In this capitalist society where black lines declared bankruptcy two months people constitute a specially oppressed into a strike by AMFA mechanics. who race-color caste. every assault on union walked off the job rather than accept fiI workers hits the black population dis a 26 percent pay cut. The refusal of proportionately harel. Twenty years ago. the leaders of the other airline unions to one out of every four black workers was shut down Northwest in solidarity with a union member. Today that ratio has AMFA isolated the mechanics. whose slipped to close to one in seven. This fact jobs are being taken by scabs. And now is directly linked to the massive deindus every Northwest union is under the gun. trializatiol1 of the U.S .. particularly the The venality of the capitalist rulers in big urban centers in the Midwest. There attacking retirees is as brazen as it is has also been a migration of jobs to the breathtaking. Dubbed capitalism's "Mr. low-wage. non-union South and other Fix-lt." Delphi CEO Robert Miller ran areas in the U.S. and ahroad. Yet the per workers at Bethlehem Steel through the centage of black people in unions and in hankruptcy wringer to slash their bene basic industry is still proportionately fits and those of retirees and to massively higher than that of whites. In fact. the reduce the workforce. Miller blithely auto industry has one of the most racially told the Wall Street Journal (17 Octo UAW members in Flint, Michigan walk off the job in June 1998, integrated workforces in the U.S. Thus her): "When you worked for one em strike that shut down bulk of GM's North American production. continucd on page 10 ployer till age 65 and then died at age 70. and when health care was unsophisti cated and inexpensive. the social con-
43 Not One Person, Not One Penny for the Imperialist Military! Marxism, Militarism and War ... 6 7 25274 81030 7 Letter
economic embargo-to access modern masses in Latin America and beyond to technology and develop new economic the fight for socialist revolution. the On Cuba's sectors. In extremis. opposition to such Cuban bureaucracy has long fostered illu in-.estment would amount to a program sions in '"progressive"" bourgeois regimes. of nationalist economic autarky. guaran from Allende in Chile in the early 1970s Collectivized Economy teeing that the population remqins mired to Chavez in Venezuela today. Meanwhile in poverty. the regime"s bureaucratic monopoly on Our opposition to the Castro bureauc political power has undermined the con 7 October 2005 (24 June). for example. notes how "'Cuban racy fundamentally tlows from its nation sciousness of the Cuban working class officials have closed scores of foreign alist of "'socialism in while producing economic distortions Dear Comrades: businesses that were welcomed here a political program one country." The article rightly con and inefficiencies. Our perspective is The article '"Feds: Hands Off ILA'"" in decade ago to bailout the nation's falter cludes that a proletarian political revolu a centrally planned economy based on WV No. 854 (16 September) wrongly ing economy." It adds that "'about a half tion based on a perspective of interna workers democracy. That ~aid. it is impor states that the International Longshore dozen of the more than 350 foreign firms tional extension of the revolution is the tant to be accurate about developments in men's Association represents dock work once based in Cuba's duty-free zones are only ultimate means to defend and the Cuban economy today. ers in Montreal. This used to be the case. still operating."" From 2002 to 2004. the expand the gains of the Cuban Revolu Comradely. however several years ago Montreal dock number of joint ventures decreased from tion. Rather than fight to win thE working John Masters workers. along with those in Quehec City about 400 to about 300. while Cuba's and other smaller ports in Quebec. reor Foreign Investment and Economic Coop ganized as locals of the Syndicat Canadien eration Ministry projects that another 67 dc la Fonction PUblique. will be closed this year. Meanwhile the In the same issue. the article "Bush Bans go\'ernment has taken the dollar out of Cuban Medical Aid"" states that "since circulation. tightened controls o\'er state No on Anti-Union 1991-92,"" the Cuhan regime "has inCI'eas enterprises doing business with foreign ingly (1pened up the country to imperialist ers. and sought to reduce dependence on economic penetration."" This was indeed imperialist investment through enacting the case following the counterre\oluti(\n significant new trade deals with Vene Prop 75! ary destruction of the Smiet Union and zuela and China. through the 1990s. as the Castro hureauc All this has not put an end to imperial into the labor mmement. The capital racy sought to restart a devastated econ ist economic penetration. which is still ist state has no husiness telling tIlt' omy through foreign in\'estment from. and significant in the tourism. nickel and tele California unions what they should or should not do joint ventures with, European and Cana communications industries. or to the sig with their 1110ne). State intervention onl) dian corporations. At the same time. nificant inequalities on the island. But A sinister anti-union initiative is on the senes to suhordinate the unions to the individual dollar holdings Vvere legalized. to imply that Trotskyists should oppose ballot for the November 8 California state bosses' gO\ernment and to \\ eaken their leading. as the article states. to growing all imperialist investment. joint ven election. Cynicall) titled the '"Paycheck ability to wage class struggle. inequalities among the population. tures. etc. in Cuha or any other bureau Protection Act:' Prop. 75 would restrict At the same time. our fight for the More recently, however. following a cratically deformed workers state would trade unions' political activities. requiring political independence of the labor move modest economic recovery. the regime he very wrong. With the collapse of that public employee unions receive prior ment from the capitalist state means has moved to curtail imperialist hold the USSR. deals with European and written consent from each individual struggling against the trade-union bureauc ings. as well as small-scale private busi Canadian capitalists are often the only employee each year before they can collect racy's support to the Democrats. those nesses on the island. An article by the means for Cuba-a resource-poor coun or use dues or fees to contribute to political woh'es in sheep's clothing who are no Chicago hilJlfne's Havana correspondent try that has faced a decades-long U.S. campaigns and candidates. The Spartacist less of a capitalist party than the Repuh League says: Vote no on Prop. 75! Govern licans. While Schwarzenegger is leading ment hands off public worker unions! the current drive against California's pub Just like anti-union "'right to work"". lic unions and social sen·ices. it is the Imperialist War and laws. Prop. 75 is being promoted as pro Democratic mayors of Los Angeles. San ~.'. tecting workers' rights. In reality. it is Francisco and other hig cities that are the Opportunist "Socialism" part of a union-bl)sting offensive headed front-line enforcers of budget cuts and At the O/lset of World War I, the 4 August hy Repuhlican governor SchwaI7encgger layoffs. Prop. 75 and similar measures J 9 J 4 I'ate by the German Social Democrac,v against teachers, nurses and other union would be used to fight any attempt by .f(,r lrar credits f(n< the German imperial ized public sector workers and more workers to organize their own party. inde ist state signaled the definitil'e col/apse of broadly against education and social sen pendent of the capitalist class enemy. the Second International. Pointing to the ices (see "'Defeat Anti-Worker Assault in Some workers rightly resent surren heroic lI'ork of German rel'oilltionarr Karl California l "" WV No. 853. 2 September). dering their dues money year after year Liehknecht, Bolshel'ik leader V I. Lenin The initiative also continues a national for contributions to the Democrats while stressed thm the task of Marxists in agitat campaign by the Republicans to cut off the pro-capitalist union tops do their best ing against imperialist war IHIS to promote to enforce labor "peace"" and sabotage TROTSKY LENIN their rival capitalist politicians in the proletarian remlutiofl international/y. Democratic Party from the millions they strikes when they do occur. But these Any "peace programme" will deceive the people and be a piece of hypocrisy, unless get each year in union money. Similar questions must be fought out inside the its principal object is to explain to the masses the need for a revolution, and to support. laws are already on the books in Washing unions, as part of a political struggle to aid, and develop the mass revolutionary struggles breaking out everywhere (ferment ton. Utah. Michigan and other states. oust the labor traitors and replace them among the masses. protests. fraternisation in the trenches, strikes. demonstrations. let We oppose Prop. 75 because we op with a class-struggle leadership commit ters from the front to relatives-for example, in France-urging them not to subscribe pose any and all interventions by the cap ted to building a workers party. Such a to war loans, etc .. etc.). italist state-a machinery of repression party is the necessary instrument to lead It is the duty of socialists to support, extend and intensify every popular movement to defending the interests of the tiny class of the fight for a workers government that end the war. But it is actually being fulfilled only by those socialists who, like Liebknecht, exploiters against the working people- expropriates the capitalist class .• in their parliamentary speeches. call upon the soldiers to lay down their arms. and preach revolution and transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war for socialism .... That mass revolutionary actions during the war, if successfully developed, can lead only to the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war for socialism is obvi ous, and it is harmful to conceal this from the masses. On the contrary, this aim must be ---SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S. -- indicated clearly. no matter how difficult its attainment may appear now. while we are Local Directory and Public Offices still at the beginning of the road. -V I. Lenin. "Proposals Submitted by the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. Web site: www.icl-fi.org • E-mail address:[email protected] to the Second Socialist Conference," April 1916 National Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 (212) 732-7860 Boston Los Angeles Oakland Box 390840, Central Sta.· Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta. 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Walter Jennings, James Robertson, Joseph Seymour Sat. 2-5 p.m. Public Office: San Francisco, CA 94107 The Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League 222 S. Morgan Sat. 1-4 p.m. slbayarea@ (Fourth Internationalist). 299 Broadway, Suite 318 sbcglobal.net Workers Vanguard (ISSN 0276·0746) published biweekly, except skipping three alternate Issues in June. July and (Buzzer 23) August (beginning With omitting the second Issue in June) and skipping the last Issue In December. by the Spartacist Publishing Co .. 299 Broadway. Suite 318. New York. NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 732~7862 (Editorial), (212) 732~7861 (BUSiness). Address all correspondence to. Box 1377 GPO, New York. NY 10116. E·mall address: [email protected]. TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA/LiGUE TROTSKYSTE DU CANADA Domestic subSCriptions: SlO.00/21 issues. Periodicals postage paid at New York. NY POSTMASTER Send address changes to Workers Vanguard. Box 1377 GPO, New York. NY 10116. 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2 WORKERS VANGUARD Our comrade Elizabeth King Robert conference that elects the leading body son died at home on October 12 after a (the CC in the SL or the IEC in the ICL). six-year battle with cancer. Over the Lizzy was clear-eyed in seeing the course of more than 30 years as a pro weaknesses as well as the strengths of fessional revolutionist. Lizzy excelled comrades, including her closest friends. as an organizer. propagandist and edi Elizabeth and she was renowned for her fairness. tor. A patient mentor and inspiration This ability is crucial in a Leninist party, for younger comrades, Lizzy provided which aims to build its leadership as a a vital link in the fight to preserve our collective that is stronger than the sum revolutionary heritage going back to King Robertson of its individual parts. Lenin and Trotsky's Communist Inter Lizzy was also her own harshest national. At the time of her death, she critic. Although in great pain. she was a full member of the Spartacist authored a document on October 7 League Central Committee and of the addressing her role in a political fight in International Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Local that had heen the International Communist League. marred by extreme characterization, of Her loss is incalculable both to our comrades and bureaucratic practices. party internationally and to her family Her purpose was not a II/£'U (':tijl({ but a -Jim Robertson. Martha and Martha's statement of conscientious regard for children Rachel. Sarah and Kenneth~ clarity. drawing the political lessons as \\ell as her father Henry and mother necessary to strengthen the party. \1ary King and the rest of the King Beginning in early 1979. LillY \\ as family. a mainstay of the editorial board of Lizzy gre\\ lip in a large family in WOII/£,Il ulld R('\"{)/Ulioll. the journal Ne\\ York City. Following the death of of the SL CC Commission for Work her mother. Barbara. her~ father Hen'ry Among Women. Lizzy authored or co King. a succe,sful corporate lawyer. authored some of W &R"s articles on remarried. Mary King raised Lizzy as the most sensitive subjects. defending her own daughter. and for Lizzy she human sexuality and exposing the bar became "mom:' Lizzy attended Brearley barous cruelty of the bourgeois state as pri\ate school for girls in New York. it destro;. s the lives of people whose She always yalued the education she only "crime" is that their sexual pro receivcd therc and many of the friend clivities and needs vary from the repres ships made at Brearley endured until si\e. religion-based strictures of hypo the end of her life. As a teenager she critical bourgeois moralism. She wrote was sent to Miss Porter·s. an exclusiye Robertson Family articles on the AIDS crisis. the crime finishing school for "old money" soci of female genital mutilation. the fab ety girls. Her first-hand experience of (I/;-z ricated "child abuse" day-care scandals. anti-Semitism and class snobbery there '~~ incest and the furor over so-called "date played a role in her becoming a passion rape." When publication of W&R was ate fighter against racism and inequality. . suspended after the Spring 1996 issue. Lizzy first encountered the Spartacist Lizzy continued to contribute to the League in the early 1970s while a student 1951-2005 articles published under the W&R at Boston University. Under the impact masthead in the press of the national of the Vietnam War. Boston campuses sections of the ICL. including Workns were a hotbed of New Left radicalism. vlJllguard. and in Sp{/rt{{Cisl. During the Lizzy was active in the Cambridge Tenants Organiz Lizzy's strength was in tackling the intersection of last weeks of her life. Lizzy was heavily involved in ing Committee. a group trying to defend working-class political principle with concrete social reality. com the editing of an article for the next issue of Sp{{rt(l families from being pushed out of their homes as the ing up with tactics and slogans to express our pro cist examining the debates and discussions in the universities expanded. She was recruited to Trotsky gram. She closely followed the work of Spartaeist Bolshevik Party over women' s emancipation after ism. joining the Revolutionary Communist Youth, the supporters in the trade unions and her cOLlI1sel was the Russian Re\'oJution. SLs youth group in 1973. For many studenb. the highly valued by those involved in such work. She The final undoing of the October Revolution in brush with radical activism was just an episode of was a longtime member of the Bay Area Local 1991-92 was a historic defeat for the workers of the youthful rebellion on the road to an eventual com executive committee and fought to remain on this world. ushering in a difficult period for revolu fortable career. But Lizzy's recruitment to the fight for body despite her many other responsibilities because tionists. Our difficulties in coming to grips with the international socialist revolution was for keeps. she understood so well that making political deci new period have been expressed in political dis Lizzy was accepted into party membership in July sions real means daily choices of '"what to betray" in orientation and corresponding internal difficulties 1974. She had by then transferred to Detroit, where order to focus on the most important things: it means (see "Spartacist League 12th National Conference~ the SL was seeking to intervene among the largely finding the right comrades for the concrete tasks and A Hard Look at Recent Party Work and Current black proletariat of the auto factories. She impressed preparing them politically to carry out those tasks. Tasks," WV No. 841. 4. February). Nobody has been comrades as the youth organizer as well as by her Lizzy was unsurpassed as a Leninist political immune to these problems. but comrade Lizzy participation in the lively debates that took place as organizer. After a party gathering. she was inevitably played a forward role in trying to get the party out of the party began to get more experience in trade-union involved in figuring out how to shift personnel this morass. Several times during the past five or six work. Here she also began the difficult training to or assignments to make the political priorities just years. our internal bulletins have featured a docu become a legal stenographic reporter. a profession in established actually happen. She had a profound ment by Lizzy. submitted early in the discussion. which she was active until her debilitation by cancer. understanding of how our organizational function often less than one page in length. which became a Around 1976 she transferred to New York in order ing corresponds to our revolutionary purpose. For touchstone for subsequent contributions. Often her to be part of the national leadership of the youth decades. Lizzy was one of a handful of comrades document would begin from a concrete. seemingly organization (renamed the Spartacus Youth League). who took initiative in formulating. refining and codi tactical question of a particular projected interven Lizzv was elected to the SYL National Bureau in fying our internal norms and practices as the party tion somewhere. and would proceed logically to illu July 1976 and was a member of the editorial board came across new situations or as problems were seen minate programmatic and principled issues. of the monthly Young Spartucus from October 1976 with the existing rules. After Lizzy's cancer was diagnosed. she undertook through September 1978. She served for a year as the At the ICL's Third International Conference in surgery. chemotherapy and. finally. radiation. Her SYL National Organizational Secretary. Her experi 1998. she gave a presentation. "On the Origins and father ensured that she obtained high-quality care. ence as youth organizer and leader was crucial '") Development of Leninist Organizational Practices." which was ultimately unavailing. She continued to do Lizzy'S understanding of the importance of a youth Published in Sp(lrt({cist No. 54 (Spring 1998) along her biweekly sales and other public political activity. organization in the training of party cadre. with our revised "Organizational Rules and Guide In April 2003. she was wounded by a "non-lethal pro In August 1978. she resigned her leading positions lines." Lizzy's presentation educated both young jectile" fired from a cop shotgun during the vicious in the youth organization in order to take on the job comrades and experienced cadres by providing the police attack on antiwar protesters, longshoremen of secretary of the Political Bureau. Not only did historical background, beginning with the first Marx and port truckers at the Port of Oakland. Lizzy fulfill the demanding assignment of getting out ist organizations founded by Karl Marx himself. to Her comrades, family and friends will miss regular and accurate minutes throughout her years in enable the conference delegates to consider the Lizzy's presence in our lives for as long as we have New York, but she turned the job ofPB secretary into Rules. In this presentation, she explained: "Living consciousness. We will miss her fine mind, her a nexus for organizing political discussions. Her organizational rules are one of perhaps a half-dozen humor. her warmth and compassion. We will always close personal association with SL national chair elements that characterize an organization: in that remember her beauty and courage. Even in the midst man James Robertson began at this time, and she sense, they are political. But they are not determi of our grief. we celebrate her life and find comfort in remained his loving companion and closest party nate. A sound set of organizational rules is not a knowing that she lived as she chose to and never collaborator until her death. After serving on the guard against political departures. although depar wavered in her belief that fighting for the liberation party Central Committee as a representative of the tures from our organizational norms are generally a of all the exploited and oppressed was the right way SYL, Lizzy was co-opted in her own right in 1979 signal of political problems. In the absence of for her to live. For us. she has been a very strong and elected a full CC member at the August 1983 Bolshevik practices. an organization is necessarily link in the chain of continuity that goes all the way national conference. She also took charge of the sub amorphous, that is. Menshevik." back to Marx and Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, and ject indexing for the bound volumes of our press, Though she rarely raised her voice. Lizzy was a Cannon. We resolve to honor our beloved comrade which are the documentary record of our political powerful speaker at party gatherings. Her astute judg Lizzy by carrying on her struggle. line and our work. Lizzy transferred to the San Fran ment and forthrightness made her a uniquely authori cisco Bay Area at the beginning of the 1990s. She tative voice in the deliberations through which the Memorial Meetings tirelessly guided the local leadership. was secretary party selects a leadership. Numerous times she was Memorial meetings are planned in New York on of the West Coast CC group and also took continu chosen to chair the nominating commission charged November 12. for information call (212) 732-7861: in ous responsibility for our local in Los Angeles. with recommending a slate of candidates to the party the Bay Area on November 20, call (510) 839-0851.
28 OCTOBER 2005 3 Fifteen Years of Capitalist Counterrevolution: Cynicism, Unemployment, Clerical Reaction
They thought that the name 'Solidarity' and the namc "\Vale,sa' meant something. hut now they realize that it all ended in I 98l)," The rabidly anti-communist Walcn tynO\\icz e\ en claimed at the "indepen dent celebrations" that "\\alcsa had heen directcd hy the communist SB sec'urit) sen ice from the wry b,'~inning" 1\\((/- 1(1l! ''iiia. 7 September), Joining the praise al1li cl'lcbrat illib for S(\lidarnl)';-,' are ,elf-pl\lclaiml'd ,sol'i;i! ist group, in Poland and all 0\ e' tilL' I' mll:_ Zhig 11 :C',\ K, 1\\ .tic'\\ ,ki (l:' tiL' I',li",,
Reute,s T!'llhhyi,t L Illtl'd S-:l'l'l"tariatll'Sc'C';. \\ h,) Polish president-elect Lech Kaczynski \\ a, ,I delcg~llc' a' the: I Yx I 1'()ul1dln~ ,"'li W,\R'-;,\\\ _ OCI,)h,'i 2-"---Th,-' r.:,-',:!ll P~l" (right) ',/ith opponant Donald Tusk ~:' ....'~' of S\.'di __ L:: ,:. ,... ::. \\ ;',)!;,.." "T!L: ;v~;;·_ li:ll1l,:'I1Llry and rrc',identi~l1 ekcti(\!1' in r-?placed h ~t !:"\\ cTll:11c:1H ur Eicctllral during campaign. Plhe: llfthe ll()i,:, e'l'rc'IlI,\nics (ltthe:
4 WORKERS VANGUARD This was demonstrated by its calls for originated before the March 2001 par "free trade unions"~a war cry of Cold liamentary elections as an electoral bloc War anti-Sovietism~and for "free eJec of the right-wing, anti-Semitic Confed tions:' which would have meant capital eration for an Independent Poland ist restoration under the guisc of parlia Fatherland and the Christian-National mentary government (which is what Union. as well as the fascist NOP. In happcncd in 1989-90). Solidarnosc was May 2002. they sent a conti!1gent of Po actively supported by a wide range of lish miners to Paris to join the fascist Le reactionary forces. from the Vatican Pen's National Front in a march against under Polish Pope Karol Wojtyla (aka the European Union. John Paul II) to union-busting U.S. prc~i In 2004. the PPP refurbished its image. dent Ronald Rcagan and Conservative PPP chairman Daniel Podrzycki (who British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. died in a car accident the day before the Joining thcm were the pro-imperialist recent parliamentary elections) tried to AFL-CIO labor bureaucracy and anti paint the PPP in social-democratic colors. communist social democrats like thc Ger In the recent campaign they put forward man SPD. which actcd as conduits for such demands as the 35-hour workweek CIA funding and provided other material with no lowering of wages. benefits for support to Solidarnosc. all unemployed throughout the wholc The international Spartacist tendency. period of unemployment. separation of WV Photo precursor to the International Communist church and state. equality of women and League. raiscd the call "Stop Solidarnosc men. tolerance and respect for all minori Counterrevolution!" (sce WV No. 289. 25 Above: ties~national. religious and sexual. The Scptembcr 1981). To the anti-sociali,t September 1981 PPP also demanded withdrawal of Polish program of Solidarnosc. we counterposed NYC Spartacist troops from Iraq. This "turn to the left .. i~ the call for trade unions independcnt of demonstration meant to provide the PPP with acccss to bureaucratic control and based on a pro exposes the social-democratic salons~and. no gram of defending collectivized property. Solidarnosc as doubt. money~of the Party of European The demands raised in our artic1es~fo'r company union for Socialists in the European Parliament. CIA and Vatican. strict .separation of church and state. for After Poland joined the EU. the PPP toned Right: Solidarnosc collectivization of agriculture. for cancel down some of its Polish chauvinism. But ing Poland's debt to the imperialist bank head Walesa (left) praying with despite all this newfound "leftism." Sier ers. for military defense of the USSR Gdansk shipyard pien 80 wields anti-communist graphics against imperialism. for prolctarian polit workers, 1980. and rhetoric in its campaign against the ical resolution to oust the Stalinist SLD. bureaucracy~constituted the program The PPP organized an electoral bloc matic core of what a Trotskyist interna with the bourgeois liberals of the Anti tionalist vanguard party would have Clericalist Party of Poland. the bourgeois raised in the strL1ggle to defend the Polish Der Spiegel Greens. Solidarnosc-derived social demo workers state against imperialism and crats from the Polish Socialist Party and capitalist restoration. We stressed that sympathizing section of the ICL. which quarters of the Polish Stalinist leadership the ex-Stalinist Communist Party of Polish workers needed to appropriatc existed until 200 I. In contrast to the Po were really Jews who had changed their Poland (KPP). The candidates of these thc proud traditions of the Polish commu lish "left." who all hailed and supported names and that "a couple of gallows parties ran on the PPP slate. which got nist movement. We pointed to the exam Solidarnosc counterrevolution. the SGP would come in handy" to deal with these less than 0.8 percent of the votes. Judged ple of the internationalist Jewish woman exposed and opposed the clericalist. "traitors to Polish society." Sierpien 80 by its political program and history, the fighter Rosa Luxcmburg. who was mur nationalist. capitalist-restorationist pro split from Solidarnosc 80 claiming to be PPP is a bourgeois formation. To call dered at the instigation of thc German gram which Walesa. Walentynowicz. for "pure economic struggle," but it was for a working-class \'Ole to these Polish SPD during the failed 1918-19 German Gwiazda. Kuron et al. stood for from the no less prone to populist nationalism. nationalists and clerical reactionaries Revolution. which she help lead. We also beginning. railing: .. It doesn't make sense to oppress amounts to betraying the interests of the pointed to the Pole Feliks Dzcrzhinsky. a Pole in order to please Italians. Bel Polish proletariat. Luxemburg's comrade in the Polish revo Pseudo-Left Still Tails Solidarnosc gians and Spaniards." Among the groups supporting PPP lutionary workers movement. who joined The origin of such reactionary trade candidates is the Group for the Workers In the recent elections there was no the ranks of the Russian Bolsheviks and unions lies in the fact that with the Party (GPR). Polish section of the Com candidate rcpr~senting the working class went on to lead the Cheka~the Extraor destruction of the Polish dcformcd work mittee for a Workers' International (CWI) by running independently of and against dinary Commission to Combat Counter ers state. Solidarnosc had served its pur of Peter Taaffe. The GPR supported Grze the bourgeois parties and candidates. Yet revolution and Sabotage~aftcr the Octo pose as the spearhead for capitalist coun gorz Kupis. a PPP candidate in the town groups like Employee Democracy (PD). ber Revolution. terrevolution. Its peasant sector and of Radom. highlighting the fact that he is affiliated with the British Socialist Wwk Our support for Stalinist general many intellectuals decamped. and Soli a tram worker and member of Sierpien 80 ers Party of the late Tony Cliff, urged Jaruzelski's suppression of Solidarnosc' darnosc (and its offshoots) became more and more "radical" than the PPP. (The support to presidential candidate Maria counterre\olutionary bid for power in akin to a trade union in social composi PPP slate listed him as a candidate of the Szyszkowska. a bourgeois liberal who December 1981 was an application of tion. We observed: "The official Soli Polish Ecological Party. the Greens.) The opposes the war in Iraq. PO shares the our unconditional military defense of the darnosc union now poses as a champion Revolutionary Left Movement (NLR). liberal anti-communist views of Szysz deformed and degenerated workers states of working-class interests while revving which describes itself as fraternally allied kowska. who criticizes Solidarnosc today against capitalist counterrevolution. At up its anti-Communist demagogy and with both the USec and the thoroughly but praises the Solidarnosc of the 1980s. the same time we warned that the Stalin making overtures to openly fascistic Labourite and anti-communist British She opposed making August 31 "Soli ists were capable of selling out the Po forces" (WVNo. 614.13 January 1995). Alliance for Workers Liberty. called for darnosc Day:' asserting that "this would lish deformed workers state~which they Taking into account only the latter. we critical support for the whole PPP slate be a rebuff to those who have lost by the eventually did in 1989-90. It was the argued one-sidedly in a 1998 article in and for Podrzycki in the presidential race. transformations:' while stating at the impact of our Trotskyist program in Platfo/'llU/ Spartaku.I'm\·c(hr, paper of the They described the PPP coalition as a same time: "I do not put in question the opposition to Solidarnosc counterrevolu SGP: "The function of Solidarnosc has "great chance" to gain a hearing among striving for freedom of 25 years ago. tion and our struggle against the capitalist nothing to do with 'trade unionism' of workers. which would supposedly make I admire. e.g .. Ms. Walentynowicz. Mr. reunification of Germany in 1989-90 that any kind. 'militant' or otherwise:' This it easier to "build a strong leftist forma Gwiazda or the sadly departed Jacek propelled the militants of the Young Left formulation wrongly denied the fact that tion in the future that would express the Kuron. They were the pioneers of Soli Movement (RML) in Poland toward the Solidarnosc is both a trade union and a voice and the interests of the employee darnosC" (www.senat.gov.pl). From a ICL. This resulted in the establishment reactionary clericalist organization. It class in Poland" (www.marksizm.of.pl). Marxist point of view. any electoral sup of the $partacist Group of Poland. a organizes workers at the point of produc Similarly, the Cliffite PO described the port to this bourgeois candidate was tion, sometimes leading defensive eco PPP program as "the most interesting, thoroughly unprincipled. Her electoral nomic struggles: at the same time it the most leftist electoral program" and program did not even purport to speak in functions as a political movement closely anointed Podrzycki an "anti-capitalist" A Spartacist Pamphlet $1.00 the name of the working class. let alone allied to the Catholic hierarchy and (www.pd.w.pl). Just as in the 1980s. all advocate anything socialist. Thus to call explicitly right-wing nationalist panies. these groups promote illusions in the "left SolidarnoSc: on workers to vote for Szyszkowska Sierpien 80's political ann. the PPP. continued Oil page 10 Polish meant subordinating the working class to a political representative of the bourgeoi Company Union for sie~a form of class collaboration that CIA and Bankers Marxists oppose on principle. i .~ SzyszkO\vska failed to get the neces \ ., sary signatures to run for president. She I then got put on the slate of the Polish Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League Labor Party (PPP) in the parliamentary elections. from which she later withdrew. :J $10/21 issues of Workers Vanguard :J New :J Renewal All the groups of the Polish "radical left" (includes English-language Spartacist and Black History and the Class Struggle) promoted a vote for candidates of the international rates: $25/21 issues-Airmail $10/21 issues-Seamail PPP. the political arm of the right-wing :J $2/6 introductory issues of Workers Vanguard (includes English-language Spartacist) union Sierpien (August) 80. :J $2/4 issues of Espartaco (en espanol) (includes Spanish·language Spartacist)
Sierpien 80 originated as a split from Name ~ ______. ______an outfit called Solidarnosc 80. led by Address ______one Marian Jurczyk. At the 1981 Soli Apt. # ____ Spartacist Pamphlet darnosc founding congress. Jurczyk was City ______$1 (40 pages) one of the most rabid anti-communists, State ______Zip ______Make checks payable/mail to: garnering a quarter of the votes as a Phone ( __ ) ______E-mail ~ ______~ Spartacist Publishing Co. 857 "radical" right-wing opponent of Walesa. Make checks payable/mail to: Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 Box 1377 GPO, NY, NY 10116 At the time. Jurczyk declared that three-
28 OCTOBER 2005 ,. 5 ~ i t YODDg SparlaeDS
I1 i!! Not One Person, Not One Penny for the Imperialist Military! .!II I Marxism, Militarism and War
MILITARY II R£CRUITERS_ IMPERIALIST LOOTERS IJFF CAMPl/5 NOW.!
#" '~J" "<,\-,,~ , ,..s, § ">.,, ~%'W-.i ' AP Young Spartacus Left: U.S. troops brutalize Iraqis in Falluja, November 2004. Right: SYC leads protest against ROTC at UC Berkeley, April 16.
The following Young Spartacus arti eral pacifists to supposedly socialist cle was issl/ed ill leaflet form Oil Octo organizations such as the ISO. The dif ber 19 and distrihuted by the SYC at the ference comes down to how you answer II "011 the Frolltlines" natiollal "COl/llter u.s. Out of Iraq Now! two fundamental and related questions: I recruitmellt" cOllferellce at UC Berkeley How do you successfully fight to end i Oil October 22-23. imperialist war'? How do you fight to end II militarism? We understand that you can * * * not end war. imperialist militarism or the As the barbaric U.S. neocolonial occu Down With the economic conditions that force working pation of Iraq drags on, hundreds of thou class and minority youth into the mili sands rallied for an end to the occupa tary without getting rid of the capitalist tion in Washington, D.C., L.A. and San Imperialist Occupation! system in which these arc rooted. Francisco on September '24. Hundreds of In contrast. the program of the "counter students in San Francisco and Washing recruitment" movement is to try to reform ton. D.C., marched in "College Not Com same time. we oppose the murderous ist militarism, and the capitalist system it the capitalist system to be less militarist bat. Relief Not War" contingents. These communal violence against ethnic, relig serves. once and for all. and imperialist. This is summed up in contingents represented students around ious and national populations often car CAN's "College Not Combat" pamphlet: the country who have waged campaigns ried out by the same forces fighting the Revolutionary Anti-Militarism "We believe that the money that is going against military recruiters in high schools occupation. vs. Pacifist Delusion to fight the occupation of Iraq and the $4 and on college campuses. broadly known While much of the activity around The Spartacus Youth Clubs and the billion spent annually on military recruit Spartacist League have initiated. led and ing should be spent on real educational as the "counter-recruitment" movement. the "counter-recruitment" movement is opportunities and job funding. The best These student protests have been moti directed at preventing individual youth participated in many protests to drive way to win that demand is to build a vated by opposition not only to the occu from signing up for the military, the military recruiters and ROTC off cam mass movement to get recruiters off our pation of Iraq, but also to the "economic main campus organizers of many of the puses over the course of four decades. As campuses for good:~ draft." which drives many working-class, college protests. the Campus Antiwar we stated at an SYC-Ied protest against This strategy is entirely consistent with disproportionately black and other minor Network (CAN). which is dominated ROTC at UC Berkeley last April: "Mili the politics of purportedly socialist ity youth to sign up for the military, as politically by the International Socialist tary recruiters and ROTC are direct organizations such as the ISO. Workers well as opposition to the military's anti Organization (ISO), state: "We believe appendages of the military machine that World Party (WWP) and Revolutionary gay discrimination. that it is not enough to convince people exists to defend the American imperialist Communist Party (RCP). which have The U.S. rulers' crusade against Iraq on an individual level that the military is ruling class" ("SYC Leads Protest sought to build an "antiwar movement" for more than a decade. under both a bad idea .... We need to build a move Against ROTC:' WV No. 848. 13 May). consisting of "peace-loving" people of Republican and Democratic administra ment that will force the military out of We understand that the military exists to all different classes to pressure the impe tions. has exacted a huge death toll, our school and our classrooms for good" carry out imperialist conquest abroad rialist rulers to stop the war on Iraq. end primarily of Iraqis: over 1.5 million were ("College Not Combat: Get the Military and repression against working people the occupation and put resources into killed by malnutrition and disease as a Out of Our Schools," CAN Web site). at home. We uphold the call raised by worthy endeavors rather than war. The result of UN sanctions alone and several The question is: Can you actually German Marxist Wilhelm Liebknecht: main goal for such organizations is to hundred thousand more during both accomplish that? While it is a very good "Not a man nor a penny" for bourgeois reform the capitalist system. a system wars and the occupation. While much thing that student protests may succeed militarism. that can't be made to serve the interests sympathy in the U.S. is directed cur in temporarily kicking the military off We vigorously defend all those who of working people and the oppressed, rently toward the almost 2,000 American campus, the reality is that recruiters and have been victimized by campus admin The ISO. WWP and RCP's program of soldiers who have died in Iraq. the start officer training programs like ROTC will istrations and the cops for their actions pressuring the capitalists to make their ing point for Marxists is that working keep coming back so long as the imperi against military recruiters. including system more humane serves to demobil people must take a side in the war and alist army exists. During the late 1960s most recently. student protesters at Holy ize struggles of radical youth. workers occupation-against U.S. imperialism. and early 1970s. ROTC was kicked off oke Community College in Massachu and the oppressed. Preaching pacifist Every blow. setback or defeat for the over a hundred campuses, not only as the setts who on September 29 were assaulted reformism. these groups are an obstacle bloodiest imperialist power on the planet result of student protest. but especially by police while picketing an Army to the development of revolutionary con is a blow in the interests of working because there was massive social strug National Guard recruiting table in the sciousness among those engaged in strug people around the world. Just as we gle going on more broadly and because school cafeteria. We also defend those gle. A resolution during World War I by a stood for the defense of Iraq against U.S. the U.S. imperialists were losing the war organizations that have been victimized conference of exiled Russian revolution attack during the war. today \ve stand against the revolutionary Vietnamese by the campus administration for organ ary Marxists in Switzerland. including for the unconditional, immediate with workers and peasants. But over the years. izing protests. such as the ISO and Stu Bolshe\ik leader V. I. Lenin. explained: drawal of u.s. troops and for defense ROTC was restored to many of these dents Against War at San Francisco State "Pacifism. the preaching of peace in the of the peoples of Iraq against U.S. campuses again. As Marxists. our goal is University. abstract. is one of the means of duping attack and repression. Insofar as Iraqi not just to get ROTC and military As Marxists, we have a program for the working class. Under capitalism. par ticularly in its imperialist stage. wars are fighting against the imperialist military forces on the ground aim their blows recruiters off campus for now. but to win inevitable .... against the imperialist occupiers and students to the struggle to organize the that is counterposed to that of the "The propaganda of peace unaccompa their lackeys. we call for their military social power of the working class for "counter-recruitment" movement, whose nied by a call for revolutionary mass defense against U.S. imperialism. At the socialist revolution to get rid of imperial- organizers range from religious and Iib- action can only sow illusions and demor-
6 WORKERS VANGUARD alise the proletariat. for it makes the pro struggle has been demobilized by the with Democratic and Green Party politi letariat believe that the bour£!eoisie is false ideology pushed by the trade-union cians to get city council resolutions (in humane:' C bureaucracy and its \eft helpers: that the New York) and ballot propositions (in -"The Conference of the R.S.D.L.P. Groups Abroad." illte.rests of labor and capital can be San Francisco) passed against military February 1915 reconciled. that the overturn of this whole recruiters in schools. Seeking to persuade It is precisely such pacifist duping that rotten. stinking system is impossible the powers that be on the campus level. reformist "socialist" groups engage in by and therefore the best we can do is the ISO appeals to those who adminis building antiwar and "counter-recruitment" to negotiate "better" terms of capitalist ter the colleges on behalf of the capital movements based on calls such as "No to exploitation for working people. As part ists to stop violating their professed anti war!", "War is not the answer." "Hurricane of the struggle to uproot the whole profit discrimination policies and ban military relief. not war"-the preaching of peace system. a class-struggle leadership of recruiters. We call for a "yes" vote on in the abstract with no call for revolution the labor movement would fight for free. San Francisco Proposition I as a basic ary action by the working class against quality, integrated education for all. free statement of opposition to military recruit the capitalist system. Such campaigns health care. decent jobs and housing ers in schools. However. it is not through push the lie that imperialist militarism for all and against racial and sexual propositions that you can fight to end and war can be ended through means oppression. imperialist militarism-only through other than the overthrow of the imperial The lie that working people and their working-class struggle. And working ist order through proletarian. revolution exploiters can share a common interest is class struggle must be independent of ary. internationalist struggle. pushed in practice through the trade the capitalist class enemy. including union bureaucracy's open support to the the Democratic Party of racism and war. Dietz Verlag Berlin The Road to Peace Lies Karl Liebknecht in soldier's uniform capitalist Democratic Party and the pro Through Class War motion of "antiwar" Democrats and petty Revolutionary Politics during WWI. German bourgeoisie and Military Defense of Iraq As the newspaper of the American drafted and then jailed Liebknecht in capitalist Greens by ostensibly socialist Trotskyist youth organization of the 1930s attempt to silence his revolutionary organizations in the antiwar movement. The ISO. WWP and RCP's refusal to from which we take our name stated: anti-militarist agitation. Pro-imperialist trade-union bureaucrats call for the military defense of Iraq against "For the youth. as for other workers. it is who support the "war on terror" (in real U.S. and British imperialism in the lead imperative that he learns the class nature Revolutionary Marxist Rosa Luxemburg ity a war on immigrants. black people and up to and during the war is yet another of society and of £!ovcrnment and of in her 1916 lunills P(/mphlet described labor) and the war and occupation in Iraq proof of their class-collaborationist orien \\arfare. Vv'hcn he these lessons he le'~'ns the true nature of imperialist capitalism. are clearly misleaders of the working tation. Marxists are not pacifists. In his will have made headway in the funda mental qucstion. Between classes there as revealed at that time by World War I: class. More insidious are those who stand 1915 work. Socialism ({nd War. Lenin can be no peace till onc or the other is "Shamcd. di'honored. wadin>! in blood in opposition to the war but preach a pro- summarized the attitude of Marxists to vanquished. The workers han' to under and dripping \\ith filth-thus stand, stand that the road to peaCf lies through bouwcois society. And so it is. ~llt as we war: class war. class stru£!!.!Ic." usualIy ,ee it. P;'ctty and ch'hte. playing -"Disarmamcnt a~Zi Pacifism." thc role, of peace and righteousness. of }(l//lIg 'Spilr/ilells No. -'. order. of philo,ophy. ethics and culturc. February 1932 It shows itself in its true. naked form Imperialist war and militarism are the as a roarin£! beast. as an or£!\ of anarchy. as a pestil~ntial breath. dec\:a,tating cul outcome of capitalist. class-divided soci ture and humanity." ety. in which a tiny minority of the popu While this barbaric system generates lation owns the banks and industry and discontent among wide layers of the popu amasses profit by exploiting the labor of lation, the only power that students have on the working class. The military is an their own is to register their anger through integral component of the capitalist state, various forms of protest. However, there is which consists also of the cops, the a social force that has the power not just to courts. the prisons-forces of repression protest. but to shut down the whole system and violence that defend the rule of the we live under-the multiracial working capitalist class against the working and class. Its social power derives from the fact oppressed masses. that it has its hands directly on the means The drive toward war is inherent in the Panorama/DDR of production-the mines. factories, means capitalist system. In his classic work on the of transp0I1 and communications-and can subject. Imperialism. the Highest Stage (~f shut down production and capitalist profit Capitalism. Lenin laid out that imperial Revolutionary Marxist by withholding its labor. by striking. One ism is not some reformable policy, but the Rosa Luxemburg. solid longshore strike during the Iraq wac final stage of capitalism in its decay. Con Right: Cartoon depicting would have had a far greater impact on the tending imperialist powers carve up the Luxemburg, 1914, titled U.S. government than many millions of world into spheres of economic influence. "Militarism Stands peace protesters marching in the street. It Accused." as the nation-state proves too narrow and is that kind of social power that students confining in terms of markets and the and the oppressed masses need to look to availability of cheap labor and natural and ally with. resources. Imperialism is fundamentally The working class not only has the an economic system backed up by massive social power but the objective interest to Verlag Kurt Desch military force to "settle" the inevitable put an end to capitalist rule. The work economic rivalries between major capi ers' interests can never be reconciled gram of capitalist reform, a program that wars between imperialist powers and talist states. These rivalries throw human with those of the capitalists who exploit is objectively for the maintenance of the colonial or semi colonial countries: ity into interimperialist world wars of them. The interests of working people system that breeds war-these are also "If tomorrow. Morocco were to declare massive devastation, such as World Wars and the oppressed can be served only by misleaders of the working class. war on France, or India on Britain. or I and II. The drive to control markets and creating a socialist society where pro Such left-talking misleaders are hardly Persia or China on Russia. and so on. [. spheres of exploitation also leads to these would be 'just: and 'defensive' duction is for human need. not the profit a recent development in the history of predatory wars by imperialists against wars, irrespective of who would be the of a small layer of exploiters. It is only the class struggle. Lenin's trenchant colonial and semi colonial countries. first to attack: any socialist would wish through class war. i.e .. the struggle of the polemics against two "servants of imperi the oppressed. dependent and unequal working class leading the oppressed alism" during World War I, Karl Kautsky states victory over the oppressor. slave holding and predatory 'Great' Powers." against the capitalist order. that the eco and Filippo Turati, fit today's ISO, WWP nomic and political roots of imperialist and RCP to a tee: The Spartacist League and Spartacus war and militarism can be destroyed. The "When socialist leaders like Turati and Youth Club applied this program of revo destruction of capitalism will not happen Kautsky try to convince the masses, lutionary defensism in the lead-up to and either by direct statements .... or by silent spontaneously. but requires the interven during the Iraq war. uniquely raising the evasions (of which Kautsky is a past tion of a conscious Marxist leadership. a master). that the present imperialist war slogans: "Defend Iraq Against U.S.lBritish revolutionary workers party that tights can result in a democratic peace, while Imperialist Attack' Down With U.S. Impe for socialist revolution. It is such a party the bourgeois governments remain in rialism! For Class Struggle Against U.S. that the Spartacist League, of which the power and without a revolutionary insur Capitalist Rulers!" We took a side mili rection a£!ainst the whole network of tarily with semicolonial Iraq against the SYCs are the student-youth auxiliary, is imperialist world relations. it is our duty dedicated to forging. to declare that such propaganda is a U.S. imperialist invaders. while politically deception of the people. that it has noth opposing Saddam Hussein's bloody capi Iii Left Servants of Imperialism in£! in common with socialism. that it talist regime. While fayoring the defeat of al~ounts to the embellishment of an If the idea of mobilizing the working the U.S .. we understood that given the imperialist peace .... enormous military advantage of the United class in mass struggle seems far-fetched to "Their [Kauhky and Turati 1 attention is most youth in the U.S. today. it is because entircly absorbed in reforms. in pacts States. the most effectiye means of oppos iII what they have seen of class war in their between sections of the rulin>! classes: it ing the U.S. war dri\c was international Iifetimcs has mostly consistcd of a capi is to them that they addrcss thcmsehcs. working-class struggle against the capital it is thcm they seek to ·persuade.' it is to I talist assault on workers. with very little ists. especially here in the U.S. II them the) wish to adapt the labour working-class struggle in response. It is movement:' Forthright military defense of Iraq was I important to understand from a historical -"A Turn in World Politics." anathema to the ISO. WWP and RCP Ch Jenks/Traprock Peace perspective not only that the class con January 1917 because their goal was not to mobilize "College Not Combat, Relief Not working people on the side of the Iraqi War" contingent in Washington, D.C., tradictions of this system will inevitably An example of how the ISO and September 24. Reformist organizers lead to future mass struggles by working WWP look to the capitalist class enemy. people and for the defeat of the U.S .. but of "counter-recruitment" movement people. but also that the power of the not the working class. is their promo to build a "movement" for pressuring the push pipe-dream of "kinder, gentler" working class has been kept in chains tion of cross-class liberal "antiwar" alli imperialists to end the war. In practice this capitalism. by working-class misleaderships. Class ances, such as the strategy of working continued on page 8
28 OCTOBER 2005 7 those countries where capitalism has military and their families. who are Militarism ... been overturned. The ISO supported expected to unquestioningly obey "God every counterrevolutionary movement and country" and provide the cannon fod (continlledfrom page 7) that sought to overturn the gains of the ~er for the U.S. imperialist war machine. meant uniting with liberals and capitalist Russian Revolution and cheered the Notwithstandin!! the working-class politicians like Democrats Jesse Jackson destruction of the USSR in 1991-91. background of mo~t U.S. troops. the~ impe and AI Sharpton, ~ho came out against the Capitalist restoration has been a disaster rialist armed forces are the instrument of Iraq war not because they are opposed to for the working people of the ex-CSSR. American conquest and enforcers of the U.S. imperialism but because they don't resulting in unprecedented devastation of capitalist system of exploitation. Against think the \var/occupation is the best v.ay of living standards and the destruction of those who in the wake of HUlTicane Kat advancing the interests of U.S. imperial historic social gains for women and eth rina have called to bring the troops home to ism. That senti ment has grown among a nic and national minorities. In opposition help in the Gulf Coast. we say that the layer of the ruling class who want to extract to the imperialist triumphalism that com imperialist army is no friend of working the U.S. from the quagmire the Iraq occu munism is dead. as well as the wide people at home. either. There is a Ion!! and pation has become. In addition to bein!! the spread \ iew among radical youth that deadly history of the use of troops v;ithin voice for a section of the ruling class ~vho there is nothing about the Soviet Union the U.S. to suppress strikes. repress student thought that an anti-Communist campaign worth replicating today. \ve understand antiwar protesters and crush upheavals of against North Korea made more sense than that the 1917 October Revolution remains hlack people against entrenched racial going after Iraq. these "antiwar" politi the model for social liberation. That oppression. And while National Guard cians arc doing their job for the capitalists revolution. led by Y. I. Lenin and Leon troops sent to New Orleans have played a of containing black and working-class Trohky. established the world's tiN work role in search and rescue actions that saved anger against this system safely withlll ers state. a beacon fur all those strug lives. they were sent mainly not to hclp the AP the confines of bourgeois electoralism. gling to liberate humanity. Despite later population but to impose reactionary "law Camilo Mejia escorted from court In a seeming about-face. the wry martial, 21 May 2004. Mejia, sen Stalinist degeneration. the USSR demon and order." Democratic Louisiana gO\ernor organizations that steadfastly refused to tenced to one year in prison for strated the power of a planned. collectiv Kathleen Blanco said as much when 300 call for the defense of Iraq du~ing the w~r. refusal to serve in Iraq, has continued ized economy, providing free education. members of the Arkansas National Guard i.e .. when it counted. such as the ISO and to speak out against the occupation. health care. inexpensi\ e housing and were sent to New Orleans: "These troops WWP. are today cheering the "right to jobs for all. know how to shoot and kill. .. and I expect resist" the U.S. occupation forces. The unteering for the army We likewise The destruction of the Soviet Union they will." They were sent to hunt down ISO has suddenly discovered quotes from oppose the reinstatement of the draft. represented a world-historic defeat for "looters:' desperate black people trying to Lenin and Trotsky on the need to defend The last time the U.S imperialists seri working people around the \\oorld. remov find food and water. and imposed strict cur oppressed nations against imperialism. ously considered reinstating the draft. ing the military and industrial power that fews, essentiallv martial law. forcin!! out But what is really behind their shift in during the height of their Cold War II stayed the hand of the imperialists and those who didn'( want to leme and pre~'ent position is the hope that \'ictories by the drive against the Soviet Union in 1980. made possible victories like the overturn ing journalists from even photographing Iraqi "resistance" will augment support we agitated against the draft and in of capitalism in East Europe and in Cuba. the dead. within the Democratic Party for with defense of the Soviet degenerated work drawal from Iraq. Just as the ISO and ers state. At the same time. we have no WWP practice class collaboration at home. illusions that the U.S. imperialists won't they cheer on Islamic reactionaries and reinstate the draft when they need to. and other forces as "anti-imperialists" in the they will eventually need to. neocolonial \vorld. The ISO writes: "Individual Resistance": "Even if it were true that the resistance A Losing Strategy was dominated by Baathists and hard-line Islamists. this wouldn't be the central issue. The "counter-recruitment" movement Whatever the religious and political affilia has drawn inspiration from soldiers. such tions of the different resistance organiza as Camilo Mejia and Kevin Benderman. tions and groupings. the main goal-the who have refused orders to serve in the one that unites various forces of the Iraqi Iraq war and occupation and sought to resistance-is ·to liberate their country expose the horrors of imperialist war. from foreign occupation'" ("Why We Sup They and several other soldiers have port the Resistance to Occupation: Iraq's been court-martialed for their refusal to Right to National Self-Determination." serve. We say: Free Kevin Benderman Socialist Workel; 4 February). and hands off the other "resisters"! In fact. the Iraqi "resistance" largely "Anti war" reformists have placed great " ~ l~*::w,,~,' emphasis on these acts of individual consists of disparate and mutually hostile ~,~~~;~~~~~"·~~t~~ ethnic. religious and communalist forces i News Service resistance, promoting the idea that if I Gel. vOlcE~1 Above: Vietnamese revolutionaries appealed that aim much of their fire against rival more people were prevented from sign to black Gis during war: "U.S. Negro Army ing up for the military and more soldiers civilian populations. When such forces C.I.. aDCI Black Power men! You are committing the same igno do aim their blows against the occupa refused to serve it could throw a monkey minious crimes in South Vietnam that the wrench in the works of the war machine. tion forces and their lackeys. we mili KKK clique is perpetrating against your tarily defend them. However. in contrast family at home." Left: July 1969 issue of This strategy is false because it seeks to paralyze a core component of the capital to the ISO, we have stated: "We do not 'j~~~~~.J~~~~~l antiwar newspaper published by Spartacist imbue the forces presently organizing .. supporters in army. ist state through pacifist resistance. guerrilla attacks on U.S. forces with 'anti It is precisely because the military imperialist' credentials and warn that in North Korea. China and Vietnam. We fol At the same time that Marxists are is integral to the capitalist state that it the absence of working-class struggle in lowed in the footsteps of Leon Trotsky by emphatic opponents of bourgeois milita has very repressive means for dealing Iraq and internationally against the occu fighting for the unconditional military rism. we recognize the internal class with those who refuse to serve. Insub pation. the victory of one or another of defense of the USSR against imperialism contradictions of the military. As Karl ordinate soldiers can face discipline in the reactionary clerical forces is more and against the restoration of capitalism, Liebknecht stated in his classic 1907 military tribunals with punishments that likely to come about through an alliance while simultaneously fighting for working work. Militarism (Ind Anti-Militarism: include execution. As we wrote in "On with U.S. imperialism" ("The Left and class political revolution to oust the Sta "Thus we are confronted bv modern Draft Resistance: You Will Go!": "It the Iraqi Resistance: U.S. Out of Iraq linist bureaucrats. Unlike pacifists and the militarism which wants neithe; more nor would be approximately as easy to directly less than the squaring of the circle. Now!" WV No. 830.6 August 2004). anti-Soviet ISO and RCP. we militarily overthrow the government as to deprive which arms the people against the people that government of its armed forces" The class-collaborationist, anti-revolu defend the workers states. despite their itself. which dares to force the work tionary program of groups like the ISO is Stalinist deformations. against the imperi ers ... to become oppressors and enemies. (Spartacist No. II, March-April 1968). defined by their visceral hostility toward alists. which includes upholding their murderers of their own comrades and In other words. to talk about paralyzing right to nuclear weapons. The Soviet friends. of their parents. brothers and sis the military as a repressive force means ters and children. and which compels bureaucracy's nationalist. parasitic rule the prelude to revolution. Such a situa them to blight their own past and future. tion is possible only in the context of Marxism, War and undermined the gains of the Russian Rev Modern militarism wants to be demo massive working-class and social struggle the Fight For olution. especially by renouncing the cratic and despotic. enlightened and struggle for international socialist revolu machine-like. nationalist and antagonis against the capitalist order. Marxists seek Socialist Revolution tic to the nation at the same time:' tion. The anti-Marxist Stalinist dogma of ~ to organize for collective victory through Two-part article from "socialism in one country" meant betrayal In addition to the class divide between the proletarian struggle. not defeat through Workers Vanguard Nos. 795 and 796, of revolutionary opportunities around the working-class ranks and the bourgeois martyrdom in individual. moralistic acts 17 and 31 January 2003 world and led ultimately to the final undo officer corps present in all capitalist of "resistance." The key task today is _---- ______--£!tjrttTiF.,iJ------. -.---- ing of the Russian Revolution itself. armies. the U.S. military reflects the deep to imbue the discontented. exploited and rooted racial oppression of black people oppressed working masses with the con Marxism, War and the Fight Race, Class and Militarism in this country. The disproportionate num sciousness that they can and must organ For Socialist Revolution Reflecting the growing opposition ber of black and minority youth in today's ize to struggle on the basis of their among the l' .S. populace as a whole to the volunteer army-driven to join in large common class interests against the war occupation of Iraq was the outpouring this part because they have no jobs and no mongering capitalist rulers. summer of support and sympathy for future. or because it is the only way to The logic of the strategy of individual Cindy Sheehan. the mother of an American afford college or learn a skill-represents resistance parallels the promotion of soldier killed in Iraq. who is for ending the an Achilles heel for U.S. imperialism. The draft "resistance" during the Vietnam occupation. Sheehan captured headlines American military retlects the racism. War. This is expressed by the youth for weeks with her encampment outside anti-woman and anti-gay bigotry of capi group of the WWP. which supports the $1 President Bush's Texas ranch. Sheehan's talist society in a concentrated way. "No Draft. No Way" movement that Order from/pay to: poignant protest exposed the capitalist Because we uphold Liebknecht's advocates "refusal to be' inducted into Spartacist Publishing Co. rulers' contempt for the overwhelmingly opposition to a single person or penny the military under any circumstances" Box 1377 GPO, New York. NY 10116 working-class and minority ranks of the for the bourgeois army, we oppose vol- (www.NoDraftNoWay.org). The duty of
8 WORKERS VANGUARD ~~.F======re\olutionaries who are drafted is to go those classes which. necessarilv. are the pacifists ill Ru"ia wcre constituted in the Luxemburg, having eventually split first with the mass of working-class youth foe, of militarism in the chIs<" siru!:!!:!Ie ... Menshcvik and Social Revolutionary par with the SPD and then the Kautskyitc cen It enlighten, people to win then~~over. into the military. During the Vietnam but it enlighten<., lhem nol conccrnin!:! ties. Lenin i1hi,ted on the necessity for trish to form the German Communist \\'ar. as youth wcrc chanting "Hell no, categorical~ imperati\ e,. humanitaria~ . re.. volutionarie, to split \\'ith thc opportu Party, were shortly thereafter murdered by \\e won't go'" we said, "You will go'" points of view. ethic'al po,;tulatc, of free nists within thc ~1arxist movement O\er counterre\"olutionary forces dispatched by Our SplIrlllcist article "You Will Go~" dOI1l and ju,tice. hut concerning the class the qucstion of the war. Lenin described SPD leaders in 1919. When a revolution addressed antiwar activish: struggle .. the interests of the proletariat opportunism as having the same content ary crisis crupted in 1923. the German therein:' "If YOU rcl"u,e induction. vou will either as social-chaU\inism: "collaboration of Communist Party had a \acillating leader go t:, pri,on. or you \\i11 I"lee the country. Military s()ciet~ is a reflection of civil classe, instead of class struggle. renun ship and was programmatically weak (,ee In both ea,'" \our hod\ \\ ill he exact!)" society. and majm shifts in the conscious ciation of revolutionary methods of strug "A Trotskyi,t Critique of Gcrman) 1923 where the rufers of rlie ['.S. IIWIT if: ness of the pom and \\orking-class ranks rcnh)\;,d fH\m ,tru""k ~l1ld rCI1l()\cd gle. helping on(", 'cm'n' government in and the Comint('rn." Sp({/"wci.l/ IEngli,h- from CPllla,:t "ith tl;: \ 'llith \\ IlO fight of the Illi!itar) parallel such ,hifts in ci\il the \\ dh .. soeiet). For example. mal» ()f thc soldicr, "Fo, jl'·,\l1linClll \\(\r!':'llg-,'I~I" kader, ltl \\ ho c'arried out act' of r.:h,:lhlll ~lgainst d'lcig'" the ell eli"l e~lrn, lliel1l the di,rc"jlec"l ufficc'b during thL' \'iCll1~lIl1 \'\"ar \1 ere of th.' \\(\r!,:cr. "nei i, a direct aid ll> till' hlaek. Thi, had Illuch to do \\ ith the mass ru!in~ ,-'Ltv.,_ :1\ it rcI110\':' thenl fruIl1 aT1\ Lonc:('l \\ ilh the \\ t)rker" tlll_~) clainl 1~1 SOcial struggle again,t rae'ial oppre"ion rCjli",.'"Cil:. that \\ ~l' tak.ing I'!ace hack hom,'. \\'ar oftcn C'ur ~~;·L~\..'l;. \",,-'r;t~ ,1!! lI.~ ,-~\plain, ·'Th..: brine'. the L·Ia,. colltradil"tilll1' llf ,llc'jet\
1!:. i ,:!~·~;jl, ... ' ±l i .1' d;'~:j L_'..,i~~~t!h.. 'z: i.'-, th:~: i: \\ill hUi" :h-: L.S,. \\'~ir etfllrL Blli thi.\ ('a:--.,-~ in the nl~b .... i\c. 'c,-'lni:;~I'. '·"\':Il""I..."'lt...~", ..." L\ nor J!nir;~ [0 hUj}PCIL .\ ft.'\\. hUi~d:·,.:~~ all- .... jt.l .... ,l_! ...,laughtcr \.)( \\"u!"l.J \\.:~. i and in r;., .. ldi.."-, ''''','-'' ~L. \\::!- ~lud..:nt:-; llli~hl n ..": \..:>\Crl\"'l~ :-"r~:;l' lit;: :-.\..'1'\ i~,-'. but the 1-:11:-. fur":l'S lighting tdr so,'l~d r·C\(ljclli,lI1. ,uch or lh\.)Lh~t:"',-t ... ~)r nl...k'h Jlld \\ hite \\ ~)r~ill6, a, \"ietil'lll1. This i, \\ 11). a, Lc,)n Tnl1 ,f..) Cicl" ... YUll!i, \' :h' ,lrc to he drafted \I illlllll noted. "llar i, the m()ther \11 rC\(lillti,ln" rc~polld 1._i til>...' ~ult:-d)'dtt l'alllpi.lign·· It \\'-1:--. l Hililun' \\ril!II'!I. \"()lll!l1e I: I C) Ii'll. War \1 itll th,_ pe'hp,',""" n:' inlllle:l1cii122 tll(' hring, rile contrddiction hetll een thc intcr \\ol"kin:,: 28 OCTOBER 2005 9 illg \\ithout a contract, would go on strihe. But from the beginning the SEll' leader Paramilitaries Attack Picketers ,hip has iimiled the stril-.e to CPMC. Ros selli told Workers Vangl/ard at a strike rally: "What that horrible incident of vio lence did was really focus some elected Victory to SF Hospital. Strikers! leaders like Mayor Gavin Newsom and [Congresswoman] Nancy Pelosi to really In the early morning of October 13, and turning away the uninsured. The not part of the working class and should start prioritizing using their influence to a squad of paramilitary mercenaries Steele Foundation, whose hired thugs are not be in the unions, including SEIU. get this resolved." What's needed to beat charged into nearly 200 striking health known to picketers as the "Men In Black." Sutter has also enlisted a professional back Sutter Corp. and its vicious scab care workers picketing to stop scabs at is a sinister international operation com scabbing outfit that preys on the desper herders is mass militant picket lines to the California Pacific Medical Center posed of former intelligence officers. FBI ate poor. including evacuees from New stop the scabs and shut down all the (CPMC) in San Francisco. The thugs of agents and Special Forces \eterans. in Orleans, to scab on the strike. Sutter hospitals. not looking to phony the Steele Foundation securit\ firm cluding many who have carried out bloody On September 2. SEIL'-UHW president "friend of labor" capitali'-l politicians lil-.e shoved and punched the strikers. mem terror for L.S. imperialism during its Sal Rosselli issued a ten-day notice that Demoerat!-, :"Je\\som and Pelosi. bers of SEIL'-United Healthcare Workers 'lcL'llpation of Iraq. Security guards arc \\orkers at eight Sutler hospitals. all \\ork- One out. all out! The California \'urses West (SEIL'-UH\Vl. trying to dri\e them Association and (lther unions \\ith con int!) auto traffic. Lorenna Hernandez. a tracts \\ ith Sutter that had pk'dged to go dietary ~lIde. \\as thnmn to the ground out in solidarit\ \\ itll SEll'-L'H\\' arc and kicked in the ,tomach. requiring hos scahbing. SElL prl'sldcllt ."..ndy Stern. pitalization. The \\orkers held the line leader of the Change III Win Coalition against this \icioll'; attack. \\hich fol that split from the ."..FI.-ClO in .luly. is lowed \\eeks of thuggery and harassment gi\ing S=5\J.()()() a \\ l'l'l-. [() the striking by the mercenary goons again,t the most .\orl-.ers. That is good. but Stern has done Iy female and III i nori ty picketers. nothing to organi/e '~lh(\r ~lction In ;\iO\\ in:t> ·.'.~Ilth \\eek. the bitter defen ... e of the brutal iZL'L! sli I",c' '. Change strike pits :'\()() \ocational nurses. dietary to V,'in memhn unions lil-.e thc Tcamsters. worker,. l'llqodians and clerks ~l!.!ainst San Francisco L'\,ITE HERl-. Iwtel \\ork the union-busting Sutter Corp .. the~ larg-' ers. \\orking \\ithout a clllltract for ()\er a est health care prO\ider in Northern Cali year. and SEIL'-o:'ganl/ed S.F. school fornia and one of the most profitable in \\orl-.ers. \\ho recent" CluthoriLed a stril-.e. the country. The \\orkers are fighting for are among the labor force, that should be a greater say in staffing le\els and for the mobili7ed to build mass pici-;et lines to hospital to contribute to the union's train- shut down CPI\1C ami the entire Sutter ing and education fund. . ladstone, I medical empire. Keep San Francisco a Sutter Corp. is notorious for under San Francisco: SEIU-UHW health care workers picket California Pacific Medical union tO\\I1 1 Victory to the SEIU-UHW staffing, hounding patients who can't pay Center, September 13. strikers!. this country requires breaking the labor in Germany told workers to take wage and capitalists' standard operating policy for GM/Delphi ... mo\ement from its political subsenience benefit cuts along with more forced O\'er decades. under hoth Democratic and to the Democratic and Republican par time under the pretex.t of keeping the com Republican administrations. (col1til1l1ed/iwll poge J) ties of capital. It is urgently necessary pany competitive. Instead of the labor tops' The L.S. ruling class has looted the hlack worker ... hale tremendous potential for a ne\\ lahor leadership to be forged poisonous "America first" protectionism \\ealth of this l'(luntr~ and ... abotaged it, social power and can playa \ anguard role in sharp dass struggle. Such struggle and support to American imperialist mili vital infrastructure b: refu ... ing to ill\est in defending the interests of the entire must take political independence from tary adventures. C.S. workers need to forge in and modernize basic industry like steel proletariat through united class struggle. the capitalist Democratic and Republican international class-struggle solidarity. and auto. mortgaging the future of this The question of the unity of the em parties as its starting point. Break with The screaming about rising health society for short-term gains. That's fun ployed and unemployed in this country is the Democrats! Build a multiracial, c1ass care and wage costs is corporate propa damentally \\hy G:v! keeps building gas t he race question. Predatory union-busters struggle workers party! ganda in the service of union-busting. gunling. un.,afe J1lodels like the notori Ila,e recruited desperate Hurricane Katrina Meanwhile. Delphi. GM et a!. rake it in ous tip-O\er SUVs, and \\h) it's quality ~urvivors for deployment as scabs against For International Labor with their subsidiaries and international Japanese and German autos that con striking hospital workers in San Francisco Solidarity! operations. The unions should fight for sumers increasingly \\ant to buy. High and against union musicians fighting wage In his Willi Street jourl/al inteniew. free. quality health care for alII For jobs ways, levees. schools. hospitals. mass and benefit-gouging scrooges readying Robert "let' em die" Miller said that as for all through a shorter workweek with transit-it's all been run into the ground. New York City's Radio City Music Hall far a~ he was concerned. the job of UAW no loss in pay! Against the anarchy of The capitalist system desenes to perish. for its Christmas extravaganza. Unionized head Ron Gettelfinger is "to help half a capitalist production. we fight for work But for this to happen requires forging black workers represent a socially power million of workers get used to the idea ers revolutions to establish an interna a re\olutionary workers party that will ful link to the ghettoized poor deemed a that globalization has taken away the tional planned socialist econml1y. rip power out of the hands of the exploit "surplus population" by the racist rulers. abi lity to have someone who mows the ers and create a society organized to Key to turning back the assault on the lawn or sweeps the floor get S65 an hour." Fight or Starve! meet human needs. not private profit. UAW is organizing the auto assembly Miller drips ruling-class contempt, acting G:\1/Delphi's attack on the LJAW is a Our model is the 1917 Russian Revolu and parts plants that have proliferated in like the working class is dust under his potential watershed for all workers. A tion. led by Leon Trotsky's and Y.1. the South and other non-union areas. The feet. Auto workers built the gleam fight against these \ icious exploiters. by Lenin's Bolshevik Party. The only way to crucial need for the labor movement to ing machines that drive the "American workers in the very heart of the indus guarantee good living conditions. jobs take up the fight tor black rights comes Dream." They built the Motor City that trial economy, would resonate among for all and an end to capitalist exploita sharply into focus in any dri\'e to organ the capitalists have done their best to run working people desperate to achieve or tion and racist oppression is b: ex.propri ize the "open ... hop" South. where the into the ground. They created the fabu hold on to health care and pensions. L.S. ating the capitalist class thrllugh social ist racist legacy of s1 candidate in a 4 September statement as ment. PP recognized that it had commit entry into the European Union-an Polish "a desperate desire to exist on a 'politi ted a "deadly error" and added, "In this imperialist bloc directed against the cal scene' saturated with the reaction way we-unwittingly-stood in the ranks working clas ... and all the oppressed. ary climate of post-counterrevolutionary of the 'Solidarnosc' left." Our perspecti\e i, to build in Poland Elections ... Poland:' PP responded in a 6 October In counterposition to the Polish fake and other countries revolutionary \\ork (continued from page 5) statement: "While the perception of left. the SGP consistently refused to vote ers parties. which wi II pro\ ide leader wing" of Solidarnosc reaction. :\1aria Szyszkowska as a liberal bourgeois not only for candidates under the banner ship in the struggle for socialist re\()lu The Internet publication Platfonll(l Pro candidate is quite correct. the conclusion of Solidarnosc. but also for the SLD. tions in capitalist countries and for letariacka (PP), which first appeared in [of not supporting Szyszkowskal is con which never ran on the basis of class proletarian political revolutions in the September 2002 and claimed that it "con torted and unfounded!" In other words. independence. In Plarfo/71w Spar/(/kllsmv deformed workers states China. Viet tinues the work which was carried out by PP passed off as principled supporting a Clhv. the SGP called for building a nam. North Korea and Cuba. Our record the Spartakusowska Grupa Polski." advo liberal bourgeois democrat who is out Leninist-Trotskyist party-a "tribune of of fighting against Solidarnosc counter cated a vote to Szyszkowska's presidential spoken in her admiration for the anti the people" mobilizing workers and revolution and defending the Trotskyist bid, but withdrew its electoral support communist founders of Solidarnosc. This minorities in defense of the right to free position of unconditional military de when her candidacy on the PPP ticket was constituted a repudiation of the ICL's abortion on demand. to defend immi fense of the degenerated and deformed announced. When sympathizers and sup principled stand for working-class inde grants against racist deportations and to workers states constitutes the program porters of the ICL in Poland denounced pendence from the bourgeoisie and its mobilize to stop fascist. anti-Semitic matic basis for a revolutionary organiza l this unprincipled support to a bourgeois representatives. In a 13 October state- provocations. The SGP opposed Poland's tion in Poland • 10 WORKERS VANGUARD unionists and that all charges against ernment minister) Buffet got together dom for all imprisoned Corsican national Corsica ... them be dropped. STC members are fac with Zuccarelli, the "Ieft Radical" mayor ists, including Yvan Colonna. who is now (continuedfrolll page 12) ing up to 20 years in jail. Down with the of Bastia, who's such a French chauvin in his third year in jail. privatization of SNCM and the other ist that he supported the cop attack The whole island has now been placed French capitalist state under Lionel public companies! against the STC sailors. This shows that under a state of siege. reinforced by hun Jospin from 1997 to 2002. The LTF news The announcement on Septemher 26 the kind of government the LCR and PCF dreds of extra cops. Down with police ter paper, Le Bo[c!zevik, warned against the that the SNCM had been given away as a aspire to build, including capitalist forccs ror in Corsica! As one SNCM worker wheeling and dealing of the pseudo "gift," pure and simple. to a friend of de such. as Zuccarelli's PRG [Radical Left said. "We're not terrorists. we're fathers Trotskyist Ligue Communiste Revolution Villepin. with a hundred million euros Party). would be a brutally anti-working defending our jobs" (Grand Marsei[[e 20 naire (LCR-Revolutionary Communist added on top. set off the explosion. The class and anti-Corsican bourgeois gov Minutes. 29 September). One can see League), which. having given electoral official line is to predict 400 layoffs. but ernment. like that of Chirac-Villepin. concretely. with the act of piracy by the support to the 1997 popular front. now the workers talk of 1,000 layoffs out of And it would be just like that of Jospin militarv police commando unit against seeks to take advantage of the distrust and 2.400 jobs. and. in fact. the company is Buffet-the government that began the the ST"C sailors and against the public di~taste of many workers for the PS and threatened with being dismantled. The complete privatization of Air France and service sector. how the government's PCF by giving a "left" face to a new "anti-terrorist" campaign threatens the class-collaborationist electoral coalition. working class itself. Most often in France While the SNCM seamen's militant it's youth of Maghrebin [North African) strike in defense of their jobs met broad origin who are targeted by the racist support among workers in France. the "anti-terror" campaign. This is intended bourgeoisie immediately sought to por to divide the working class between tray the struggle as ha\ing been hijacked "French" workers and those of immigrant by a few Corsican nationalish. Anti origin. who suffer even more intense job Corsican chauvinism. smearing Corsicans instability. In Corsica. the unemployment as a hunch of tribal/clan-based Mafiosi rate for youth. particularly of Moroccan and terrorists. is rampant. including among origin. i~ e\ en higher than for other~. Not the CGT hureaucracy. The right of national only the French cop~ but also some Cor independence for Corsica \vas blatantly sican nationalists have carried out acts of absent from all the platform speeches ~t racist terror against these youth. Full citi the October 3 Marseille rally. Thus the zenship rights for all immigrants and rare joint contingent of CGT union federa their families, in France and in Corsica! tion and STC workers from SNCM at the Down with Istate anti-immigrant cam October 4- demonqration in Bastia \\a~ paignl Vigipirate! particularly important and welcome. cut Last year. the SNCM sailors respected ting across hoth French chauvinism and the picket line, of the STC. despite the Corsican nationalism. diatribes of the CGT Icadership against On October II. the CGT bureaucrats "Corsicizing jobs" [preferential hiring of got the dockers to cease their strike. Two Corsicans 1 as demanded by the STC. days later, on the 24th day of the ferry ( And [the fake-Trotskyist group 1 Lu tte workers strike. COT union leaders caved Ouvriere totally supported the CGT Reuters in to the threat of bankruptcy and held a bureaucrats on this one-see the 24 Sep secret ballot. As the daily Le MO/lde (14- Marseille, October 4: Ferry strikers and dockers head demonstration as part of million-strong one-day nationwide strike. temher 2004 Lutte OUITiere.) In order to October) reported. "The question was maintain and imprO\e ferry service. what posed exactly according to the terms set CGT sailors. who have been on strike France Telecom. It was the Jospin-Buffet is in fact needed is massive hiring-of by the government: 'yes to resuming since last week, proclaim their "solidarity government that launchcd the manhunt workers resident in France and in Cor work. thus saying no to bankruptcy' or with their imprisoned brothers." but against Yvan Colonna after the murder of sica. Today hiring (or rather laying off) is 'no to resuming work. thus saying yes to already their leadership is ready to betray [central state representative in Cor controlled by the racist and chauvinist bankruptcy·." Faced with the blackmail prefet them. On the day of the state's attack. sica] Erignac in though the govern mapagement. The unions should have a "offer" presented by their treacherous 1998. CGT leader Jean-Paul Israel very plainly. ment had not a shred of evidence (and monopoly on hiring as it used to be in the leaders. workers voted overwhelmingly in front of the TV cameras. refused to still has no evidence) that he was impli Marseille harbor. This poses the need for to end the strike. The government is now defend the STC workers. The CGT lead cated. And it was the Jospin-Buffet gov one industrial union. regrouping all the free to proceed with ib latest proposal. ership was cynical enough to talk about ernment that then named Bernard Bonnet SNCM workers. French and Corsican. which would privatize the bulk of the an "opening" on the part of the govern as IJr~let in Corsica, promoting Bonnet The same union should also organize the SNCM ferry company. ment on the very day of the assault! And for his role repressing those defending the workers of [low cost) Corsica Ferries. to the same evening. Bernard Thibault. the Catalan language when he \\as prefer in bring wages and working conditions up to The attack on September 28 by the national leader of the CGT. went to meet the Eastern Pyrenees. Bonnet sent out the the highest level. national marine and military police [gell de Villepin to assure him that he is ready military police at night to set fire to beach Racist discrimination in hiring that tar darmerie) with war helicopters against an to accept the privatization of the SNCM restaurants in order to terrorize Corsican gets youth from the northern [immi SNCM ship occupied by strikers of the provided it will be "partial." as well as to nationalists. (There was a scandal only grant/working class 1districts of Marseille Union of Corsican Workers is an act of discuss how to prevent a social explosion. because Bonnet got caught and thus dis and those from immigrant families in common state terrorism that threatens credited the French bourgeois state.) Corsica must be opposed. Today workers the whole workers movement. With the LCR and PCF Wheel and Deal The alternative is not a new bloc of have a leadership consisting of French approach of the mass strikes and demon for New "Popular Front" class collaboration between the Zucca chauvinist social democrats or Corsican strations of October 4, the government The LCR and PCF have opposed the rellis, the [PS leaders) Hollande/Fabius nationalists. We fight for a revolutionary has sent a message to the entire work cop attack against the STC sailors. But at and Buffets, even with a Besancenot on and internationalist leadership in the ing class that if it dares to defend itself bottom they intend to channel the work its left, but a fight for the class independ trade unions, fighting all forms of racist or against the increasing attacks from the ers' anger over this issue toward constitut ence of the proletariat against the capi nationalist division among workers, and capitalists, it will face cop violence and ing a new "united political power," in talists and for the perspective of workers for the complete independence of the even the army. The longshoremen of Mar other words, constituting a new popular revolution. We fight to build a multieth trade unions vis-a-vis the state. seille have now been on strike for four front with capitalist groupings (see Le nic, proletarian vanguard party to lead Drop the charges against the STC days in solidarity with the SNCM work Bolchevik, September 2005). Their poli such a revolution to victory. and CGT trade unionists! Victory to ers and have totally shut down the port. tics as a whole are oriented toward this the SNCM and Marseille dock workers The whole working class should join in end. Thus. at the [PCF) I 'Humanite Fete For the Right of strike! For the right of self-determination solidarity against the attack and demand this year [LCR leader) Besancenot and Self-Determination for the for the Corsican people! • freedom now for the imprisoned trade [PCF national secretary and former gov- Corsican People! In order to defuse the crisis. the gov ernment and the union bureaucrats count defense and succeeded in stopping the on using anti-Corsican chauvinism. Toledo ... Nazi march. These anti-fascist protesters which the French bourgeoisie and the P~F, LCR etc. magouillent (continued from page 12) also denounced the role of the black reformists have always sought to use to pour un nouveau Democratic Mayor Jack Ford who had divide French and Corsican workers. tar « front populaire » County Prosecutor. Lucas County Court mobilized his cops en masse to protect geting Corsican workers as "terrorists" house. Adams and Erie Streets, Toledo, the fascists. and so on. To thwart these maneuvers it is OH 43624. In retaliation for this victory in stop necessary to fight to mobilize the prole * * * ping the Nazi march, Ford's cops attacked tariat here in France against the national The Partisan Defense Committee vig the demonstrators, shooting "flash bang" oppression of the Corsican people. That orously proteiits the mass arrests of anti devices and tear gas at the demonstrators. is the only way to fight for the class unity Nazi protesters in Toledo, Ohio on Satur Over 110 people (including at least 17 of Corsican and French workers against day, October 15. juveniles) have been arrested on bogus the capitalists. Corsica has been main The race terrorists of the National charges of aggravated rioting, assault, tained in a state of underdevelopment by Socialist Movement had announced a vandalism. and curfew violations. Echo French imperialism. It has a massive march in Toledo at noon on October 15. ing the Nazis' racist filth. Ford smeared unemployment rate, much higher than the This fascist rally. built under the disgust the protesters as "gang members," and French average. The SNCM privatization ing pretext of fighting "black crime." imposed a "state of emergency" on the scheme would have an even more devas was nothing but a recruitment drive for city. tating impact on Corsica's workers than Publication of the Ligue lynch mob race terror against Toledo's In stopping the Nazis. these protesters on those in Marseille and on the continent. Trotskyste de France black residents. making up nearly a quar performed a great service for all black No layoffs! For the right of the Corsican Subscribe! $5for4 issues ter of the city's population. people. immigrants, trade unionists, left people to decide their own fate, including Includes Spartacist (French edition) Understanding the deadly threat posed ists, Jews, gays. and all potential victims the right to separate from the "Hexagon" Order from/make checks payable to: by these Hitler-loving storm troopers, of fascist race terror. We demand: Drop [France) if they choose! Complete equal Spartacist Publishing Co. several hundred mainly black residents all charges against the Toledo anti-Nazi ity for all languages, with no privilege Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 came out in an elementary act of self- demonstrators! • whatsoever for French! We demand free- 28 OCTOBER 2005 11 WfJlillEIiS ,,1NfitJAIiIJ Hands Off Anti-Fascist Protesters! Nazis Run Out of Toledo OCTOBER 22-Some 600 people spiked racist protesters to throw at the fascists. a race-hate provocation by the fascist claiming "That's exactly what they do National Socialist MOYement in Toledo. they come into town and get people riled Ohio on October 15. Despite cop protec up" (CNN.com. 15 October). tion. the nco-Nazi filth were prn'ented by Toledo has a powerful. integrated. the O\erwhelmingly black demonstrators unionized working class. The Daimler from marching through North Toledo. Chrysler Jeep plant. with thousands of Having tried to~ protect the fascists. police UAW workers. is right next to the North then went on a rampage against the pro Toledo neighborhood. Unions in the area testers. During the protest and subse must use their muscle to defend those quent curfew, 114 people were arrested. \'ictimized for protesting the fascist men including 3.+ minors as young as 12 ace. Any threatened Klan or Nazi provo years old. Some are still being held. The cation must be answered by a mass labor movement. the left, fighters against mobilization centered on the power of racism must demand: Drop all charges~ the labor mO\ement. marching at the Free the anti-fascist protesters nO\v~ head of all the fascists' intended victims. The same day that anti-Semitic. anti But to wield that power requires fighting immigrant deniagogue Louis Farrakhan against the policies of the existing labor commemorated his reactionary 1995 leadership. whose embrace of the capi march for black people's "'atonement" talist profit system is antithetical to wag in Washington. D.C. with another rally ing class struggle in defense of workers' appeasing the racist capitalist rulers. the livelihoods and the rights of black people people of North Toledo took it in their DetrichlThe Blade and all the oppressed. hands to strike a blow for black peo October 15: Black North Toledo residents made up bulk of protest that drove We reprint below an October 17 letter ple. Jews. immigrants-all those in the Nazis off the streets. by the Partisan Defense Committee to the fascists' gun sights. Black Democratic Toledo and Lucas County prosecutors mayor Jack Ford and a gaggle of preach come challenge a whole city and not black people in New Orleans as "looters" protesting the arrests of the anti-fascist ers had exhorted residents to stay away think they weren't going to strike back." for trying to get food and water after protesters. Letters can be sent to: and ignore the threat of race-terrorists City authorities blamed "gangs" in Hurricane Katrina. Mayor Ford slander David Toska. Toledo Prosecutor, Toledo marching down their streets. But as one condemning the outpouring of protest and ously charged the International Socialist Municipal Court, 555 N. Erie St., Toledo. resident told the Nel\' York Times (17 rage-that's the same kind of racist gar Organization and the One People's Proj OH 43624; and Judy Bates. Lucas October), "You can't allow people to bage the ruling class spewed in depicting ect group with handing out eggs to anti- continued 011 page 11 Dockers, Seamen Shut Down Marseille tested, with some 1,000 SNCM workers and longshoremen heading up the march. and transit workers also struck against privatization threats. Corsica and The leaflet translated below was issued by the Ligue Trotskyste, French section of the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist). on September Class Struggle in France 30. It was distributed at the October 4 demonstrations in Paris. Rouen and Mar On September 28. a French military SNCM Corsica-Mediterranean ferry line. face charges similar to those for aircraft seille and at a Marseille rally the day police commando unit backed up by five The strike, which began on September 20. hijacking. before. There were those who welcomed helicopters attacked and seized a ferry off was joined by solidarity actions of Mar These actions are part of a wave of us for speaking the truth and those who the coast of Corsica that was occupied by seille dockers that shut down France's workers' protests that have challenged hated us for the same reason. As the leaf striking 'Sailors of the Union of Corsican biggest port. There were two days of the policies of the right-wing government let explains. the reformist workers parties Workers (STC). The ferry workers, the pitched battles with cops on the Marseille under Prime Minister Dominique de and organizations in France are striving bulk of whom are organized by the CGT docks and in Corsica's Bastia harbor. Villepin. On October 4, a million workers to channel working-class anger into a trade-union federation and others by the After the government's blatant attack went out on strike and demonstrated new popular-front government. like the STC (dominated by Corsican national against the striking workers. harbor work across the country for higher wages and one including the Socialist Party (PS) and ists). had struck over the French govern ers also blockaded ports in Corsica pro against pending anti-union measures. the Communist Party (PCF) that ran the ment's threat to privatize the state-owned testing the arrest of four STC sailors who In Marseille. up to 100.000 people pro- cOlltillued Oil page J J Left: Police in helicopters storm ferry seized by seamen protesting SNCM privatization, September 28. Right: Striking ferry workers in Marseille harbor, October 1. 12 28 OCTOBER 2005 -• i