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No. 832 ®~1@y~c-701 17 ?eptember 2004 No Choice for Workers in 2004 Elections
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AP Iraqi civilians in Baghdad flee scene of carnage after U.S. helicopters fired missiles into a crowd gathering around a destroyed U.S. armored vehicle, September 12. Break with the Democrats! For a Workers Party! With a peculiarly war-crazed and oddly more sharply polarized as the elections subtly (to which today can be added Lati gram. the support of one class rule or demented administration sitting in the approach, the differences between the nos and 'elite liberals: a fantasy category another. The class character of a party is White House, there is a strong sentiment also determined by its actual practice .... two candidates are ever narrowi~. This associated with working film actors who Another factor to be considered is the among many working people, minorities could be easily gleaned from the recent have won Academy Awards), and, of composition of a party. A bourgeois and young activists to vote for "Anybody Democratic and Republican conventions, course, this season it's the marriage party of the classical type is easily rec but Bush." It is not so much that people both of which were· unabashed displays minded so-called gays. So-called because ognized because it has all three of these want to vote for Democrat John Kerry, of patriotism and militarism (as well as there is no such human or mammal cate qualities-it is bourgeois in program, in practice. and in composition." but that they want to vote against Bush. police repression against protesters-see gory (sex is a continuum) except in the ~"Election Policv in 1948." While wanting to see Bush ousted is article on RNC protests on page 6). Bush great hollow pumpkin head of that gam printed in "Aspects of Socialist a wholly understandable sentiment, to launched the Iraq war; Kerry voted for bling dude who has anointed himself the Election Policy:' Education for throw one' s vote to another competing the war and says he would vote for it nation's moralist-in-chief, William 'Bell Socialists (March 1971) capitalist politician runs counter to fight now even after the exposes of the grand Fruit' Bennett" (Nation. 13 September). To move forward and to effectively ing to defend the interests of working lies the administration used to invade In 1948. American Trotskyist leader fight for their rights and interests. work- people and the oppressed. The policies Iraq. Bush is for maintaining the bloody James P. Cannon explained how Marxists ,ing people and leftist youth must begin pursued by the Bush regime that rightly occupation; Kerry is for maintaining the define the class character of a party: with the understanding that American elicit opposition and indignation (like the bloody occupation. Bush wants to con "It is not determined bv the class which society, like all capitalist societies, is Iraq war and occupation, the "war on tinue waging the "war on terror"; Kerry supports the party at the moment, but divided between two fundamental classes: terror" and evisceration of democratic rather by the class which the party sup promotes himself as a more effective ports: that is to say. by its program. That the capitalist class and the working class. rights, the attacks on the rights of black fighter in this sordid "war:' which is a ;, tht' hasil' meaning of a political pro- cOl1tinued on page 10 people. immigrants and women, etc.) are war against immigrants, black and work not simply the product of a particularly ing people, and a means by which the vicious administration. War, racism and capitalists try to deny the population repression are endemic to the oppressive its democratic rights and civil liberties. capitalist system under which we live. To Even on those issues where the candi defend and pursue the interests of work dates disagree, like abortion rights, Kerry ing people and the oppressed, what is proclaimed that he would have no prob required first and foremost is a break lem appointing an anti-abortion judge to Jap···a,n:." \~'j'.: with all capitalist parties-beginning the SUJ.1reme Court. .., j-:> ...... ", ..• ,,: with the Democrats, the other party of It's not simply that the policies of Bush war and racism-and the forging of a and Kerry are so alike, but that the two revolutionary workers party that fights to parties of American capitalism are so ··TII.I) SVilgJle get rid of the capitalist system through alike. Both parties represent the interests workers revolution. of the capitalist ruling class. In a "state of . "AU'; 'aliost'; While the country is becoming ever the union" speech 32 years ago, Amer
.. ". .. . ~ ".',." -' ... :. :" . ica's great essayist and novelist Gore .•••....••.••...:,..•...••. '. ·'.'·.··•• '< ..··.·.·.·0·.·. ,... 01' .. ·.·,.. ···•·· ...· ... ·•. 'e·.··· .. :.·· ··o·····.·.:··:·,·'···'s· ...... ; ..••. :,: .••...... Vidal aptly noted, "We have only one •. political party in the United Stat~, the Property Party, with two right wings, 'OpPhfssiolf .. Republican and Democrat." Today, Vidal adds, "Although the secret core to each presidential election is who can express See Page 4 7 25274"81030 ,f his hatred of African-Americans most Letter
It is embarrassing to have to drive home the ABC of Marxism, but what is one The IG and Iraq Occupation to do ... ?" . ... The IG certainly has a history of tailing 22 August 2004 Get the Hell Out of Vieques Now!" How are not hugely distinguishable. Moreover, alien class forces in search for quick Dear Workers Vanguard, is the aforementioned slogan of the IG what Leninists understand about the use "action" strategies, even if this relies on a I would like to add to the polemic any different from the supposedly capitu of negative slogans like that of "U.S. lower level of consciousness. This is against the pseudo-revolutionary Interna latory slogan "U.S. Troops Out of Iraq Troops Out" is that it should be paired reflected in the fact that their articles on tionalist Group in Workers Vanguard No. Now"? Lastly, a June 2001 International with a positive slogan in order to advance Iraq barely whisper a critical statement 830 in the article entitled "The Left and ist ran an article entitled, "From Puerto revolutionary consciousness. Workers Van against the politics of the forces that seem the 'Iraqi Resistance': U.S. Out of Iraq Rico to Korea: U.S. Bombers Get Out!" guard's choice to emphasize "For class to be leading the various resistance groups. Now!" As mentioned, in several of their Has the IG since had a line change that struggle at home!"-a positive slogan This is the real crime of the IG's per articles they have polemicized against our needs to be explained, or are we simply which points the working class in the spective. Lenin strongly warned against use of the slogan :'U.S. Troops Out of talking about false polemics here? right direction-fulfills this purpose. politically supporting an uprising of the Iraq, Now!" because it supposedly echoes At the root of the IG's weak criticism Of course, it would be a great blow for reactionary classes against imperialism. sectors of the bourgeoisie and appeals to is a reversal of Leninism through the imperialism and a victory for working The retrograde, fundamentalist conscious the capitalist rulers. In addition, they implication that any negative slogan is people around the world if the murderous ness of many of the resistance leaders, claim that the Spartacist League "will necessarily a class-collaborationist appeal imperialist forces were driven out, as the several who would just as likely kill a fully obscures the position of Lenill" for to the bourgeoisie. This is false. The only IG emphasizes. But this requires realisti communist or an unveiled woman as .an not flaunting a slogan calling for defeat fundamental difference between the IG's cally taking into account the differences American soldier, is centuries away from of the colonial occupation. A closer look slogan and ours is that we don't indicate between the forces on the ground, includ revolutionary Marxism. While the battles proves that it is really the IG who grossly exactly how the imperialists are going to ing the immense military superiority of waged against the neocolonial occupiers distorts Lenin. leave Iraq-whether by increased attacks the imperialists, and the lack of con on the part of the insurgents are just and For over a century, genuine Marxists by Iraqi insurgents, class struggle at scious working-class mobilization among defensible, any Marxist cannot be blind to have used slogans similar to "Colonial . home, mounting imperialist rivalries, etc. the forces of the resistance. Again, as the fact that their leaders would be the Troops Out!" and the IG knows it. The In a piece by Lenin appropriately titled Lenin put it: " ... every slogan [must] be new enemy to the working class and the founder of the IG, Jan Norden, not only "A Caricature of Marxism and Imperial justified by a precise analysis of eco oppressed after taking power. used such slogans when he himself was ist Economism," he states with reference nomic realities, the political situation and Revolutionary Greetings, editor of WV, but also continued to use to a discussion on self-determination: the political significance of the slogan. L. such slogans after he and his posse started "The slogan 'get out of the colonies' has producing the IG's newspaper, the Inter one and only one political and economic nationalist, in 1997. Thus, their April-May content: freedom of secession for the 1999 issue had an article on Yugoslavia colonial nations, freedom to establish a with the subheading, "U.S'/UN/NATO separate state!" What's most crucial for Out of the Balkans!" In a June 2000 Marxists in the case of Iraq is that the Internationalist, an article on Puerto Rico neocolonial invaders leave; in that sense, prominently displayed in the title, "Navy the slogans used by the IG and the SL
"No Peace with the Present-Day State!" In an 1869 speech, German socialist leader Wilhelm Liebknecht (Jather oj the rev olutionary Marxist Karl Liebknecht) attacked the notion that socialists (who at the time called themselves Social Democrats) could
get rid of capitalism through parliamentary WV Photo means. Emphasizing the need for social revo Spartacist contingent at March 20 protest in Chicago. lution, Liebknecht pointed out that the capi talist state and its apparatus would not allow TROTSKY a peaceful transition to socialism. LENIN Spartacist League/Trotskyist League Forums Let us assume that a candidate comes up for election and that the government is absolutely opposed to having him in the "Reichstag" [parliament]. The government " ,.lIeJJo~tB't:~ 'rOil .11,.~~rot'ds will confiscate the newspapers that advocate his election-it will do so legally; it will confiscate his election handbills-also legally; or it will give permits for meetings of ·,,·,•...• ·Need ··a'···Fighting •.····.9rkersitart'l· electors and then dissolve them-again legally; it will arrest the candidate's campaign managers-quite legally; it will arrest the candidate himself-also legally .... Break with the Democrats! No Vote to Nader! But let us assume that the government-either because it feels it is strong enough, or Saturday, Sept. 25, 6 p.m. For more information: (617) 666-9453 because of some other calculation-makes no use of its powers, and that it becomes or e-mail: [email protected] possible, as some socialist statesmen of imagination still dream-to elect a social First Parish Church 3 Church St., Harvard Square democratic majority in the "Reichstag"-what would this majority proceed to do? Hic BOSTON Rhodus, hic salta! Now is the moment for transforming society and the state. The Cambridge majority will adopt a world-historic decision; the new era is born-don't you believe it! A company of soldiers will eject the Social-Democratic majority from its stronghold and if these gentlemen make any objection to this procedure, a few policemen will take The' ..• Sp~·ct..... ,of'·· ··Tla.~illQ18•• ,~~i_l••.••. ,· .• ·., •.•..•• ,., them to police headquarters and there they will have time enough to ponder the conse quences of their Quixotic aspir-ations. ··1Iro,rklng.ClaSs·.·Struggl~;:i.II .•· •• ·;Qbla1.~itQd_'· Revolutions are not made by getting the permission of the high powers that are in authority; the socialist ideal cannot be achieved within the frame of the present-day Defend, Extend the Gains of the 1949 Revolution! state; it must overthrow the state in order to secure the possibility of life. For a China of Workers and Peasants Councils in a Socialist Asia! No peace with the present-day state! -Wilhelm Liebknecht, "The Elections to Parliament Are Only a Means of Agitation" Saturday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, 2 p.m. (1869), printed in Voices oj Revolt: Speeches oj Wilhelm Liebknecht Trinity-St. Paul's Centre Rockridge Branch Library (International Publishers, 1928) 427 Bloor Street West 5366 College Avenue, Oakland Oust west of Spadina subway) (5 blocks south of Rockridge BART) For more information: (416) 593-4138 For more information: (510) 839-0851 or e-mail: [email protected] or e-mail: [email protected] TORONTO BAY AREA Saturday, Oct. 2, 2:30 p.m. !~!!.f..l!Yo~'I.!lt!!.~l!.I!.. ~ Collingwood Neighbourhood House, Multipurpose Room A DIRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Alison Spencer (between Vanness and Kingsway) EDITOR: Alan Wilde 5288 Joyce St. EDITOR, YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Michael Davisson For more information: (604) 687-0353 CIRCULATION MANAGER: Jeff Thomas VANCOUVER or e-mail [email protected] EDITORIAL BOARD: Rosemary Palenque (managing editor), Susan Fuller (production manager), Bruce Andre, Jon Brule, Helen Cantor, Paul Cone, George Foster, Kathleen Harris, Walter Jennings, James Robertson, Joseph Seymour The Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League ···.~:f;ir,;_~la.~t·,tltilrat~~iI;;'hrough (Fourth Internationalist). Workers Vanguard (ISSN 0276·0746). published biweekly, except skipping three alternate issues in June, July and August (beginning with omitting the second issue in June) and with a 3·week interval in December, by the Spartacist Pub· "·SQcl:al.lst,·' Re¥alution! lishing 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·mail address: [email protected]. Domestic subscriptions: $,0.00/22 issues. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address How the Liberals and Reformists Derailed the Struggle for Integration changes to Workers Vanguard, Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. Saturday, Oct. 9, 5 p.m. For more information: (312) 563-0441 or e-mail: [email protected] The closing aate for new!' in this issue is 14 September. University of Chicago Bartlett Gymnasium, Student Lounge CHICAGO No. 832 17 September 2004 5640 S. University Avenue
2 WORKERS VANGUARD NYC Transit: "Workplace Violence" Frame~Up Reinstate TWU Shop Chairman Carlos Blackman! NEW YORK-On September 8, a so filed a federal court suit demanding that you could be fired for anything from arbitration hearing ended, the NYCT, called "impartial arbitrator" upheld the fir Blackman be reinstated and allowed to protesting unsafe conditions to denounc claiming to have found graffiti in some ing of Carlos Blackman, an elected shop perform his union duties without inter ing racist abuse! conductor cabs supposedly threatening chairman of Transport Workers Union ference. There is reportedly considerable This case is a stark example of how the Republican National Convention, pre (TWU) Local 100. As a dedicated union rank-and-file sentiment in favor of grant the policy of relying on binding arbitra cipitated a July 14 police raid on the fighter against unsafe working conditions ing this staunch fighter a staff position in tion and court suits is a trap for the shop where Blackman worked. The early and speedup at the 240th St. subway car the union. That would be good, but that working class. So-called "neutral" arbi morning sweep, involving more than two maintenance shop in the Bronx, Black should not be the end of the story. This trators and judges are actually agents of dozen police cars, was a blatant attempt man is the victim of a transparent "work anti-union attack should be met by a the capitalists. The union bureaucracy's to intimidate and regiment transit work place violence" frame-up by New York ers. Such sinister shows of force are part City Transit (NYCT) management. The of the repressive climate ,s::re'ated by the victimization of Blackman represents an capitalist rulers' "war on terror," which is attack on all transit workers and on the actually a war on blacks, immigrants and union as a whole. unions. The first accusation against Blackman, However, the TWU Local 100 leader which he flatly denied, was that during an ship of president Roger Toussaint, while incident when he tried to halt the use of formally backing Blackman's case and an unsafe hydraulic jack last December 4, supporting the rally at his work location, he supposedly told the supervisor that has not sought to mobilize the power he couldn't be thrown off the property of labor in his defense. In contrast, dur because he had "a .38." Secondly, Black ing the Republican National Convention man was accused by a supervisor of say the TWU bureacracy put the forces of the ing that two transit supervisors who were union at the disposal of a labor rally that killed in February at the Coney Island was nothing but a campaign rally for Subway Yard "deserved what th"y got" Democrat John Kerry. And a TWU poster because one of them had fired the worker calling for a vote for Kerry hangs promi accused of shooting them. Blackman nently in the Local 100 union hall. The denied making such a statement, and he class-collaborationist program of the was backed up by a fellow worker who union bureaucrats in this country is exem testified at the hearing. But the arbitrator plified by their integration into the capi simply dismissed these two black workers Carlos Blackman (center) with union brothers at Bronx support rally in April. talist Democratic Party. as not "credible" witnesses. In the slave It is vital to know who are our friends holders' South, black slaves could not tes mobilization of the power of the TWU reliance on binding arbitration serves as and who are our enemies. This is based tify in court; a slave could be convicted with solidarity from other unions in this an excuse to avoid the kind of hard class on the recognition that the interests of of any crime simply on the say-so of the city demanding Blackman's reinstate struggle'that is the only way the working workers and bosses are counterposed. To "master." No wonder transit workers refer ment with full seniority and back pay. class can defend itself and win signifi mobilize the power of labor, it is neces to the system they are subjected to as The firing of Carlos Blackman sets a cant gains. But while the union tops play sary to fight for a class-struggle union "plantation justice"! dangerous precedent, posing a threat not by the bosses' rules, straitjacketing union leadership that breaks labor's ties to the The NYCT's frame-up of Blackman only to transit workers but to workers workers, the capitalists are using brass Democrats and fights for the independent provoked outrage on the part of his union throughout the country. If they can fire a knuckles. The very day after Blackman's mobilization of the working class .• brothers and sisters, transcending ethnic, respected union officer on such patently racial and national divisions within the trumped-Up charges, then they can run workforce. A transit worker at the 240th roughshod over any militant worker on St. maintenance shop told a WV sales the pretext of "workplace violence" against man: "It's terrible. We have to do some the company. The statement Blackman Iran: Kurdish Leftist thing. We have to defend him!" Before was accused of making about the Coney Blackman's firing, scores of TWU mem Island incident was simply ruled to be Sentenced to Death bers rallied on April 21 at 240th St. to "extremely detrimental to the efficient protest his suspension. The union has workings of the shop." By that criterion, Stop the Execution of
Spartacist English edition No. 54, Spring 1998 ISPARTACJSTI~ ~ Esmail Mohammadi! NUMSER54 ENGL1StlEOlTlON Includes: "Declaration of We reprint below a September 14 letter states, "The government of Iran PrinCiples and Some Elements of L~m.:r4i"AMfQj;@m_lI~j letter b.v the Partisan Defense Com is trying to create fear and terror in Third Internatlooaf. Conference Of the leI. Program, International Communist s:n~Jj:~ mittee to the Iranian authorities. [theJ people of Kurdistan by execut League (Fourth Internationalist)" The Partisan Defense Committee ing Mr. Mohammadi." Since his r Declaration of PrinCiples and t vehemently denounces the Iranian gov-' arrest, this courageous leftist has been Adopted in 1998 at the Third I Some Elements of Program I International Conference of the ICL. ernment's threatened execution of subjected to numerous brutal inter I International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) I 1 SEE PAGE 9 , Kurdish leftist Esmail Mohammadi. rogations as well as mental and phys I '_____ --;--_'----->-..,,-_ $2 (48 pages) and condemns the ongoing state repres ical torture. Untold numbers of gov On tile Origins and Development .'Leninist sion against Iranian and Kurdish ernment opponents, trade unionists, OrganiUtional· PractiCes $RPAG£.t4 activists. Esmail Mohammadi, a 38- women and others deemed by the I·~---~-' I government to have violated Islamic . ! Organizational Rules year-old father of five who is a support er of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurd law have been imprisoned and exe .~ Ii and Guidelin~s ! International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) istan, was arrested in 2002 at his cuted. On August 15, for example, for a Workers Party home in Bukan, western Iran. He was Ateqeh Rajabi, a 16-year-old girl, was That Fights for a Workers Government! reportedly,charged with "armed strug publicly hanged in the northern prov I Women and Pennanem IIIlV0111I1OR In South Africa , S£~PAQiIl--u gle against the Islamic regime" and ince of Mazandaran for "acts incom For Socialist Revolution AU"RAUA ""0 BR''''N GAr,AO' ~o~"'o 'RHANO '"" ,. SOUl~",R'C' R, USA J." "membership of a proscribed organiza patible with chastity"! tion," and was sentenced to death in July Kurdish militants have been particu in the Bastion 2003. Other reported charges accused larly targeted by the regime, with 01 World Imperialism! Programmatic Mohammadi of "being at war with scores executed every year. Last year god" and "corruption on earth," both of alone. at least two members of Komala SUPA(:l~2 Statement of the Spartacist League/U.S. which are punishable by death under -Saasaan AI Kanaan and Mohammad Organizational Rules and Guidelines Iran's Islamic theocracy. This summer, Golabee-were executed. As oppo $2 (40 pages) of the Spartacist League/U.S. Mohammadi's appeal of his death sen nents of capitalist state repression and • tence was denied by five judges of the barbaric institution of the death Opponents of the Revolutionary Make checks payable/mail to: Branch 32 of the Supreme Court, penalty everywhere, including in the Internationalist Workers Movement claiming that he "confessed" to the U.S. imperialist state, we demand: Stop 5EE PAGE 37 Spartacist Publishing Co. Box 1377 GPO charges against him. the execution of Esmail Mohdmmadi! Spartaeillt PublishIng Co .. BalllJ77 OPO, New York, NY 10116 $2 Noyember2000 New York, NY 10116 As an August 21 Komala protest Free him now!
17 SEPTEMBER 2004 3 4 Japan: The· Struggle Against Women's Oppression We print below a translation of an All 20 of the women who marched in this the last part of the nineteenth century. the workforce but less than 20 percent of article from Spartacist Japan (No. 29, May Day demonstration under red and It is no accident that in every modern the union membership. April 2004), publication of the Spartacist black flags were arrested. The next major social revolution and numerous class bat The role that Japanese women played Group Japan, section of the Interna activity of this organization was raising tles women workers have been among the in the labor movement was noted at the tional Communist LeaJ!,uc. the funds necessary to get their comrades most audacious and courageous fighters. 2nd World Conference of Communist out of jail. Due to state repression, the life The low wages, long hours, prevalence of Women in July 1921. In addressing the of Sekirankai was very short. Some of its disease, prison-like conditions and ram conference, Leon Trotsky noted: . --1 A/ti~g!J~~ ~ members left the socialist movement. pant sexual attacks drove women workers "In the progress of the world labour Others. such as Sakai Magara and Naka to fight. The first strike in Japan was in movement, women proletarians play a On I May 1921 about 20 women sone Sadayo, were arrested for distribut 1886 at the Kofu Amamiya Kihyoei silk colossal role. I say this not because I joined 10,000 of their class brothers'in ing antiwar leatlets to soldiers. Takatsu mill. More than one hundred women am addressing a women's conference the second official Japanese May Day but because sheer numbers indicate what Tayoko and her husband were arrested for walked out in protest over longer work an important part the woman worker demonstration. The women were organ producing a publication that included ing hours, lowered wages and arbitrary plays in the mechanism of the capital ized by the group called Sekirankai, a threats against the emperor system. fines. Their action took management so ist world-in France, Germany, in Amer socialist women's organization. In prep much by surprise that they won most of ica, in Japan. in every capitalist coun aration for the May Day rally, Sekirankai Early Heroic Struggles of their demands, including a return to the try .... Statistics inform me that in Japan, wrote a manifesto, authored by Yama Women Workers there are many more women than men l4-hour workday. This strike sparked a workers; and consequently, if the data at kawa Kikue. This was four years after the By 1890 women had become the back series of others that summer. my disposal is credible. in the labour 1917 Russian Revolution, and the mani bone of the developing Japanese indus On the eve of the government's cele movement of Japan, they. the proletarian festo gives an indication of the power that trial economy. Female workers, the bration of the Meiji Constitution. strikes women, are destined to play the decisive revolution held for working people and role and to occupy the decisive place," women: Following these strikes, the govern "May Day is our day, the day of the ment moved fast. The Meiji government oppressed, propertyless working class. adopted heavily Confucian-influenced For several tens of centuries, the path women and workers have travelled down values of the samurai class as the founda is the path of the history of oppression tion for its new social and legal structures and ignorance. But the light is coming which made women subordinate to men. close. In Russia. the echo of the victori The new order took the form of the ie ous extermination of the darkness of [family household structure 1 as the basis capitalism from the face of the earth is moment by moment thundering like the for its new hierarchical social structure roar of a bell at daybreak. Within this with the emperor on top as the head of echo is the power of the secluded woman. the household (the entire country) and and, within the limits of our ability, '~;I' '," the husband as the absolute head of together with our brothers, isn't it the U· , his respective household. Primogeniture chimes of the liberation of the property less class in Japan? was mandated for all classes. In 1898, "The Sekirankai is a women's organiza the Civil Code and Domestic Relations tion that plans to participate in the enter and the Inheritance Law were enacted. prise to destroy the capitalist society and Both pieces ctf legislation institutional build a socialist society. The capitalist ized more rigid family controls than most society turns us into slaves at home and oppresses us as wage slaves outside the people had known in the feudal period. home .... Kyodo In 1890 the Law on Political Associa "The Sekirankai declares all-out war on Tokyo, January 30: Teachers protest government imposition of hinomaru and tions and Assembly was passed, making it this cruel, shameless society.... Socialism kimigayo, the flag and anthem. The banner reads, "For Freedom of Thought in illegal for women to participate in any offers the only way to save humankind Education!" political activities and even to listen to from the oppression and abuses of capi talism. Sisters who love justice and political speeches. In 1900 this law was humanity, join the socialist movement!" majority of whom were indentured, out and walkouts gathered force throughout reinforced with the passage of the Police At that time, under the infamous Arti numbered males in light industry, espe the country. In late September of 1889, Security Regulations whose infamous cle 5 of the Police Security Regulations, cially textiles, where a workforce that 300 women workers struck the Tenma Article 5 was mentioned above. By the women were legally prohibited from join was 60 to 90 percent female produced 40 Cotton Spinning Company of Osaka 1920s even the bourgeois Mainichi news ing political organizations, attending polit percent of the gross national product and demanding higher wages and the prom paper commented that, "Japan maltreats ical meetings and giving political speeches. 60 percent of the foreign exchange during ised bonus payments. In the face of fir and insults her women to a graver extent ings and physical intimidation, the work than any other country o:~ the globe." ers persisted for days. A key factor in the For more than 100 years women have successful outcome of the strike was that been protesting against the so-called the male machinists decided to join the Japanese family system. Given that the strike. By the time the strike ended on 5 family came to be crucial in the structures • October, 60 men and 20 women had been ofauthority under the Meiji Constitution, arrested, but the workers received a wage any attempt to even question the role of hike and some control over their bonuses, the family in society was met with gov setting a precedent for workers in other ernment repression. In 1884, Kishida mills. Toshiko. who toured the country giving The early strike activity carried out by speeches demanding political rights for female textile workers was done without women, was arrested for her attack on the February 1994: the support of an organized union move family system. She described the family Japanese nurses ment. All wings of the union movement as imprisonment for women and com protest overtime, from patriotic to social-democratic to the pared the upbringing of daughters to the staff shortages Hogikai federation affiliated with the cultivation of the bonsai, whose shape is and subsidy cuts. Communist Party-refused to organize created by the trimming of roots and demand better women workers and als() "colonized branches. Another woman was Fukuda health care for all. workers:' the Koreans and Chinese who Hideko. She had been arrested in 1885 on were working in Japan. on a mass basi;,. charges of treason for fighting for the At the high point of D":W~i' ul11onizatiop Korean independence movement follow in the 1930s. Japal _" women const! ing the Smo-Japanese accord of the same tuted les, than 6 pcrcel1l 01 unionized year. In 1907. she established the social workers, while they were .'i 2.0 percent of ist women's journal Scikai FujiI! (Women the entire factory workforce in 1930. of the World) in which she argued that Today women compose almost half of equality between men and women cannot
For.WQRI.II~'l.iberltlp.. ".. ". '". ". _ .,."' .. ~.:, :", :" ..;.. :. ".". . "." .."..... ".. : .."' ".. '." .".".. " ~ .' .• , .... ,"...... ". :"rbrIJDIItJocilllst.. '.-". : .-' ...... -". ..- ;": .' . ,.-: ,.- >. .." '". " "'-'.' '".:". . .. 8'YQlutiQn~".. " ".- ,'." -"" -.: _." ., .. , ":.", ... ". ' '. :: ....'"' 4 WORKERS VANGUARD be achieved without a social transforma In almost all international social indi tion along socialist lines, and what was ces, Japanese women are placed at the necessary was the destruction of private bottom. This is true for surveys regarding property. percentage in the workforce, the type of job, salary, number of politicians, etc. Emperor System Sanctifies Just over half of all Japanese women Social and Sexual Hierarchy work, compared to more than 70 percent In many aspects, the crucial questions of their Western counterparts. Those that facing working women today parallel do have jobs are mainly outside the reg those from the Meiji period when women ular workforce and confined to "contin were regarded as hara wa karimon, obli gency" work; 77 percent of all part-time gated to produce a suitable heir for workers are female. On average, womeh's the family and empire. They were to be salaries are less than 60 percent of their teachers of patriotism and loyalty in the Japanese male counterparts', the lowest home, and in the midst of social unrest, percentage of all industrialized nations pillars of stability as ryosai kenbo [good and a percentage that has been main wife, wise mother]. Today, the reaction tained steadily since women first entered ary "good wife, wise mother" ideology is industry as textile workers in the late still codified in law, paternalistic corpo 1800s. rate practices and religious superstition. The special oppression of women is Japan is home to the bullet train, Sony essential to the maintenance of power and PlayStation, robotics and developer of profit for the ruling class and will not Mainichi Shinbunsha state-of-the-art technology. It has the be voluntarily sacrificed. Cheap marginal During 1926 ten-day struggle against firings at Kawasaki-Fuji Cotton Mill, technological knowledge and capability, labor in the workforce makes possible woman representative from solidarity group in Tokyo leads march in Kawasaki. if placed in the hands of the world's tremendous profits because as lower-paid working people, to begin the work of workers with little protection, women throughout a woman's life gives defini nuclear family as the basic unit for regi eliminating scarcity, hunger and poverty. have been placed in a situation which tion to her oppressed state: as daughter, menting society. One LDP member stated And yet, women are still prohibited from undermines the wages and conditions of as wife, as mother. As 19th century revo that "The proposed bill will promote too entering tunnels under construction for the working class as a whole. lutionary Friedrich Engels wrote in The much individualism in society and lead to bullet trains out of fear that the "moun Language is a reflection of social real Origin of the Family, Private Property, the collapse of Japan's family system. It tain goddess" will become jealous, nor ity, and the hierarchical structure of Japa and the State (1884): "The overthrow of is part of a campaign for breaking up the can they step inside a sumo dojo [wres nese society, the senpai-kohai [superior mother right was the world historical country" (Kyodo, 12 March). tling ring] because they are "unpure." inferior] relationship that exists in the defeat of the female sex. The man took The nuclear family, as a socioeconomic Women in all capitalist countries are home, in the schools and in business, is command in the home also; the woman unit, is oppressive to all its members. oppressed. But what is it about Japan that clearly evident in the demeaning four was degraded and became a mere instru Unmarried couples and parents and their makes thousands of young women want tiered language structure requiring dif ment for the production of children." And children face all kinds of discriminatory to leave the country and never return? In ferent levels of submissiveness depend if you think this was true only 100 treatment in every aspect of their daily this cQuntry, women's oppression is ing on whom one is addressing, based on years ago, remember the comments of the lives, and it is the koseki [family registry] deeply intertwined with the perpetuation class, age, sex and status. A special lan- racist, woman-hating governor of Tokyo, which is the instrument that enforces this. of the emperor system, whose purpose The koseki system is hell even for those is to sanctify social and sexual hierar who fall in the most prized social status chy, the family, private property and the category-the oldest born son, who, if "glory" of the Japanese state. Reaction he decides to change his gender, is pro ary Confucian ideology and Shinto and Friedrich Engels' hibited from registering that change, and Buddhist religious superstitions permeate· Origin of the therefore becomes a henin [non-person]. every aspect of society and are used by Family, Private There is a lot of bourgeois hypocrisy the state as a wedge to interfere into and Property, and the involved here. For years, the government regulate every aspect of social and pri State (1884) has been on a campaign to increase the explained that vate life. This includes even the right of birthrate. The JCP [Japanese Communist basis of people to name their children what they Party] jumped on this reactionary baby women's bandwagon in 1999 when they announced want. The government has an official list oppression lies . of names, and if you deviate from that that a high birthratel~alt~,,~-~ia\ in development equality for women. The next year, they list, your child cannot be listed in the of family system noted that their "proposal for economic family registry. and private property. . reforms to correct 'capitalism without The traditional household system insti rules' is closely connected with the task of tutionalized in the 1898 Civil Code may overcoming the 'low birthrates'" ("Draft have been technically outlawed by the Resolution of the 22nd Congress of the postwar Civil Code, but its fundamental Japanese Communist Party," 2000). At principles and practices continue. The guage, which most people do not under Ishihara Shintaro. A couple of years ago, the same time, women who choose to new Civil Code legally did away with stand, still exists which serves to give a he stated that women who.have reached have children outside the so-called ideal many of the more Confucian aspects of mystical aura to all institutions related to the age of menopause no longer have any one man, one woman, 2.5 children family the family system and no longer catego the emperor system. right to live because they no longer serve structure are ostracized. Single mothers rized women as "imbeciles" as did the But perhaps the most vivid reflection - any socially productive function. are being denied all economic assistance Meiji Civil Code. But regulations con of the inequalities in society as evidenced The family is a key social unit for from the state; children born outside of cerning marriage and divorce, and confir in the written and spoken language con the maintenance of capitalism. For the marriage are bullied in the schools. And mation of paternity and inheritance were cern women. Onna kotoba [women's lan capitalists, the family provides the basis the state is depying children born from maintained. There is an article making it guage] deliberately promotes obedience for passing on accumulated wealth. And surrogate mothers entry into the family's legally mandatory to distinguish between and submissiveness. It is to be used for all where there is no property to pass on, the koseki which means that they do not children born in and out of wedlock. public functions and inside the family institutionalized family serves to raise the legally exist. Another article stipulates that a woman when dealing with one's in-laws. All writ next generation of workers, care for the As members of the proletariat, working must wait six months before remarrying ten characters concerning women either sick and aged, and instill conservative women, at the side of their class brothers, after divorce so as to determine the pater denote humility or are derogatory, start social values and obedience to authority. continued on page 9 nity of a child, and another article says ing with the ch-aracter for "woman" itself. The working-class family is expected to a woman can only inherit one-half of All words for "wife," and there are many provide for all the social services that her husband's estate. While the new code depending on whose wife one is talking capitalists don't want to pay for. It is ---~------allows for. a couple upon marriage to about, contain the meaning "the one therefore in the material interest of the "?' ••~hk*.6·.~~~.~~~ff~! ,~ choose which surname they will use, it inside the house." We fight for the elimi • working class to play the historically pro 8 **III~.(J.) ••';I:~T(, A must be either the man's or the woman's nation of status, age and sex discrimina gressive role of socializing family func ..f"5?cili:lf!il'r;W1:"ftlt ! to accommodate the family registry. tion and, concomitantly, their reflection tions after the revolution. ;ltflll¥fl';;"'l.'SHt-fJt*-I~J:<>!l!fIltHTj!!itJ: It While not enforced legally, temples and in demeaning language. Each nuclear family exists in isolation -,;, JII officials in charge of cemeteries refuse to from the rest 0'£ society, and thus weak ~ 9 allow people with different surnames to Women's Oppression Is ens the class consciousness of the work . be buried in the same tomb, meaning that Rooted in the Nuclear Family ers. Social institutions and conventions !l " a married woman must be buried with her The oppression of women is a social like marriage and the family-are part of ~: 'A ..~: husband's family, giving new meaning to institution that rests on private property. It the way the ruling class maintains power ., ~ the old saying that even in death a wife is a human invention that is subject to and regiments society. "Family values" t:; ~:O\~
media hit men. In a reply (posted on ery. From the old slavemaster to today's dialect has by far the greatest impact of Bill Co·sby ... afrikan.net), she mentioned a "letter to capitalist, the fight for black freedom has all American dialects on standard speech. ( continued from page 12) the editor" she had written that the New confronted the adversary of class. Standard American English is peppered York Times refused to print. She made this Class relations reveal themselves in with words and phrases, such as "cool," called Spit. And 1 can spit in a bottle and revealing point: the Times coverage of many ways. one of which is how differ "dude" and so on, derived from the Black sell it." Cosby is a true believer in the the killer's trial excluded the inflamma ent classes and social strata use the com English dialect. "magic of the market." But it is within tory epithet, n----r. Cosby wrote of the mon language of political economy This influence is historic as well. this capitalist market that "you've got a Times "sanitizing the word 'n----r' with within the U.S., this is English. At last Charles Dickens and travelers in the pre problem," not the' hood. 'black man' in paraphrase." Camille Cosby year's Emmy awards, when he was asked Civil War slaveholding South noted that The new popularization of the "N" rendered a service to black America and what accounted for his and other early the slaves had a significant effect on the word is encouraged and promoted by the working class with these revelations. black comics' success, an annoyed Cosby speech of their white masters. One such America's racist rulers by all means at The same cannot be said of her husband. replied, "We spoke English." But Cosby traveler wrote: "It must be confessed, to their disposal, above all the capitalist Village Voice writer Ta-Nehisi Coates seeks to distance himself from the Black the shame of the White population of the market. The main revenues of the "gang noted that the philanthropist Bill Cosby English (Ebonics) dialect of his early South, that they perpetuate many of these sta rap" industry, shameless promoters of has played for some time "one ugly role comic characters. With a net worth of pronunciations in common with their the "N" word, are generated in the white that his activist friends like to ignore some $500 million, Cosby is fond of Negro dependents" (Robert McCrum, suburbs. The ideological campaign to patron saint of black elitists" (Village referring to the oppressed black masses The Story of English [Viking Penguin, "reclaim" the "N" word as a "term of Voice, 26 May-l June). Who are his trapped in the ghetto as a "lower eco- 1986]). This is all evidence of the race endearment" is promoted by black intel color caste oppression of American blacks. ::D lectual apologists safely nestled in the m' American blacks are the most American universities. '"en of Americans, shaping culture past and The "N" word bluntly defines the race ~ present. But with blacks forcibly segre color caste oppression of American blacks oIII gated on the bottom of American society, "OJ -oppressed as a people regardless of ::> their contributions and influences are 0. class. The Cosby family has direct expe :::;! met with loathsome rejection and denial. 0' rience with the "N" word as the cutting c The "soft target" for anti-black racism ::> edge of racist reaction. In 1998, on the ro today is the "Hip-Hop culture" of black day after the conviction of the racist thug Poor and ghetto youth and its reflection in Black who murdered her son. Ennis. Camille working-class English. Durfng a May 26 interview Cosby, Bill's wife. wrote a courageous children with NPR reporter Tavis Smiley, Cosby USA Today commentary titled. ~'America condemned to remarked, "It's a new language in the Taught My Son's Killer to Hate Blacks" underfunded, area, and it's onJy good for the people you (8 July 1998). She wrote. "All African overcrowded come in contact [sic] living in that area. Americans, regardless of their educa inner-city It's no good on Wall Street." Smiley tional and economic accomplishments. schools. For pointed out that Cosby's comic charac have been and are at risk in America sim quality, integrated ters. Fat Albert and Mush Mouth, "weren't education for all! ply because of their skin colors. Sadly. speaking perfect English." But this irony my family., and J experienced that to was lost on Cosby, who responded, "Hey, be one 'of America's racial truths." She man. I'm a millionaire." Remarking on described how her son, Ennis Cosby, heir Cosby's state of mind, black comic Dave to a fortune, was murdered in a "middle "activist friends"? The NAACP Image nomic area," "lower economic people," Chappelle said, "no one is as uncomfort to upper-middle-income, predominately Awards, black America's biggest awards etc. But what intimately connects Cosby able as a black man with money." Indeed white community" by a white racist thug show, is as obsessed as Cosby is with with these "Io~er economic people" is Cosby seems obsessed with his image of who boasted, "I shot a n----r. It's all over "keeping up appearances." Coates cor the special race-tolor caste oppression of a black millionaire. Coates of the Village the news." A howl of right-wing protest rectly observed, "The civil rights crowd Americqn blacks-the anti-black racism Voice speculated that "whenever he walked answered Camille Cosby's simple state has had a rough 30 years as the old tac targeting all blacks as a people regard into a cocktail party and a stuffed shirt ment of "America's racial truths." repeat tics of marching and boycotting have less of class. This oppression is based on made a joke about Ebonics, his self edly reminding the Cosbys of the class come up lame. Its leaders, like Cosby skin color and finds many social expres image crumpled from the hit." position awarded them. himself, are in winter. and having beaten sions, above all in language, the Black In this spirit in 1997 Cosby wrote Racist ideologue David Horowitz led Bull Connerism, they now stand befud English dialect. It is this dialect that an anti-black satirical opinion piece, "Ele the mob, penning a widely circulated hit dled and silenced before their greatest Cosby hates so intensely. ments of Igno-Ebonics Style," in the piece titled "Mrs. Cosby's Racial Para new adversary-class." She goes on to . The demagogue Cosby cannot shed his Wall Street Journal (10 January 1997), noia." With great venom he wrote, "What note, "They ignore the ghetto or, when skin, but he can denigrate a dialect that the major mouthpiece of U.S. financial can be said about a mother who exploits emboldened like Cosby, shit on it." For he shares with all classes of American capital. Cosby's ostensible target was the the tragic death of her own son to deliver regular readers of Workers Vanguard, blacks. John McWhorter, Cosby defender Oakland, California School Board, which a racist diatribe against a nation that has Coates only confirms what we have long and author of Losing the Race: Self had passed a controversial resolution to showered her with privilege, making said of the Democratic Party black front Sabotage in Black America, candidly teach black youth standard English using her family wealthy and famous beyond men and misleaders. But the class adver revealed this truth: "Bill Cosby speaks Ebonics. It was a ploy to squeeze more the wildest dreams of almost anyone sary is not new; it is historic. American more ebonics than he knows ... , and peo funding for the financially starved school alive ... '?" Though julian Bond, then pres capitalist class rule and exploitation of ple don't want to hear it. It's not their district. As we stated at the time ("Des ident of the NAACP. rose to her defense, wage slavery are based on a foundation favorite flavor" (Oakland Tribune, 8 peration, Segregation and the 'Ebonics' he was th~ rare eXGeption among black of what Marx called the "primitive accu August). The Black English dialect is the Controversy," WV No. 660, 24 January leaders. But Camille Cosby stood her muTation of capital," derived from another most reviled dialect of American English, 1997): "There should be programs that ground against the mob of white racist form of class exploitation-chattel slav- yet linguistic studies reveal that this same continued on page 8 17 SEPTEMBER 2004 7 Cosby" before and after each tepid criti names and expensive basketball shoes Bill Cosby ... cism. In interviews with Smiley, West now. This shoe and name helped raise (continued from page 7) announced that Cosby was "acknowledg $250,000 for Al Gore's coffers. This elec ing the humanity of black people," while tion year, Al Sharpton and black Congres can provide a bridge in teaching these Dyson said, "if anybody has earned his sional caucus members met with Cosby kids what is called 'standard American ability to say what he has to say, it's on September 8 in a show of support for English,' without disparaging or demean Mr. Cosby." Former president Bill Clin Cosby's diatribes (San Francisco Chron ing their home dialect, for the simple rea ton-who threw thousands of poor off icle, 9 September). son that to get anywhere in this society the welfare rolls into homelessness and San Francisco Bay View writer Khalil you need to speak the language of the under whose administration unprecedented Tian Shahyd was close to the mark when political economy." numbers of black youth were jailed-pro she complained that Cosby's assertions Bill Cosby's article was simply his claimed, "Cosby did a service to black are taken as fact: "This is part of the contribution to the storm of racist reac America and to all Americans." In a com media selection of our voices, of those tion, the flood of derisive imitations mentary, "Bill Cosby and the Flap That who represent and interpret our reality of "black speech" parroting every vile Wasn't," CBSNews.com's editorial direc which is why AI Sharpton feels he can racist stereotype. This vicious response tor reported that he managed to find three run for president, why Jesse Jackson showed why Black English as spoken by black columnists who wrote "rather mild dares to come outside anymore. Because the current generation of ghetto youth is rebuffs of Cosby," but that after Cosby they are chosen by those outside our the language of despair and defiance of a called one up, he "wrote a second column communities to speak for us" (San Fran society they know doesn't give a damn further qualifying his already qualified cisco Bay View, 14 July). They are cho about them. gibes." sen by America's capitalist rulers. They In the May 26 NPR interview, Smiley Why is Bill Cosby so untouchable? He are beholden to the Democratic Party remarked that some have called Cosby's is a black American icon that has served Two generations of misleaders: Jesse and big money men such as Bill Cosby. remarks "rooted in generational warfare." well the ideological needs of America's Jackson Sr. with Barack Obama. But what was visited first on the black Cosby responds, "Might be generational . racist rulers. Disappearing the seething population is now becoming an increas warfare if they want war." Bill Cosby, black ghetto masses, The Cosby Show's dela being released from jail." The black ing reality for all workers in America. "America's father," hates black ghetto Huxtable family lived a model upper African working class, with blood and This fact underscores the depth of treach youth and the language they speak-this middle-class existence few American sacrifice, smashed apartheid, and, with ery of the labor movement's official mis is his message to his Wall Street friends .. blacks-or working-class whites-have the deed just about done, the tepid liberal leaders, whose allegiance to the Demo To someone like Cosby, nothing stands ever known. They were palatable across Cosby feels safe to defend a sign. But cratic Party goes hand in hand with their in the way of black youth moving for race lines, addressing all the standard sit what made the Huxtable home was not acceptance of the racist status quo. The ward except themselves; Cosby's demean com topics. The show avoided contro the bedroom sign, but the "warm and situation cries out for a class-struggle ing and disparaging attacks on Ebonics versy, including race. In an earlier show fuzzy" house where, according to a fight for all workers and the poor, a fight reflect his contempt for the ghetto poor. with Tavis Smiley, Cosby described one Roper poll, one-third of America would that can link the power of labor to the Cosby's threat of war is not idle; he has high point of controversy. One Huxtable most like to live. anger of the ghettos. This is the perspec many influential defenders and friends. child had a sign on his bedroom door: Cosby is also an important Democratic tive of revolutionary integrationism. In Russell Simmons, organizer of the pro "Abolish Apartheid." Some network peo Party supporter, backing the candidacies order to change the systematic denigra Democratic Party "Hip-Hop Team Vote," ple objected to the sign. Cosby, the of several black Democratic pols, includ tion and degradation of black youth got a call from Nation of Islam minister much-touted anti-apartheid activist, stood ing Maxine Waters and Jesse Jackson Jr. trapped in ever more hellish conditions, Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan's message his ground, "it was not even a second At a 1999 fund-raiser for AI Gore's their labor power and their thinking was that in the work of lining up black thought. It wasn't even a clenched fist. ... presidential race Cosby held up for the power has to be truly valued. To achieve youth as Democratic voting cattle, Cosby It was just very, very simple: If you take amusement of his well-heeled audience that requires shattering the entire system should be treated "like a father." The the sign down, there's no show." Cosby the autographed size 22 shoe of Los of racist American capitalism. This is the black left personified in Cornel West and noted also, "that was at the peak of the Angeles Lakers all-star Shaquille O'Neal. urgent task of a much-needed, multiracial Michael Eric Dyson genuflect to "Dr. apartheid going down quickly, and Man- There were no nasty remarks about weird revolutionary workers party .•
bodies painted with slogans against Bush tion was "only temporary." Finally, after Democratic Party city administrations Protesters ... outside Madison Square Garden. Workers a fire broke out in 1994, asbestos was that transit workers labored in these ( continued from page 6) Vanguard spoke with Barnard College exposed and the TA was forced to begin unsafe conditions. student Mary Bruch, who was arrested abating it-while 500 workers toiled The Spartacist League and Spartacus rally outside Pier 57, politely asking only and charged with felony assault (since beneath! According to Bermudez, the Youth Club seek to win protesters who that the police speed up the processing of reduced to a misdemeanor) and felony asbestos abatement program was never took risks and came out to demonstrate those arrested and improve jail condi incitement to riot for participating in a completed. In addition, Bermudez says during the RNC-and everyone fed up tions! To call on the capitalist state to protest during the RNC's pitch to youth. that there is no fire suppression system with the Iraq war and the rollback of hurry up already with the arrest process She said the Republicans are so hard up (pipes burst last year because the pier was black rights, women's rights, immigrant of people who are guilty of no crime is for the youth vote that it was easy to slip unheated), no fire alarm, and lead paint rights, union-busting, etc.-to the under obscene! In so doing, UFPJ played dan in. No questions were asked if you were chips are all over the place. standing that the Democrats represent the gerously into the hands of the capitalist dressed in a twin-set and pumps or blue The hundreds of protesters packed into same ruling class as the Republicans. state, its cops and its courts, which seek blazer. When Bruch and others stood and cages on Pier 57 could have perished in a Nothing fundamental will change by to criminalize dissent. The Spartacist stripped off their Republican drag to terrible fire and many are likely to have alternating one party of capitalist rule League and Partisan Defense Committee reveal red T-shirts reading, "Bush lies. health problems as a result of exposure to with another. What's necessary is to build raised placards at the protest outside Pier Stop AIDS. Drop the debt now," the hazardous substances. But this is normal a completely different kind of party, a 57 to demand the immediate release of all Secret Service and Republican delegates "business as usual" for the capitalists and class-struggle workers party that fights RNC protesters. Drop ali the charges! responded with violence. Protesters were their state-transit workers labored in for a thoroughgoing socialist revolution! knocked to the ground and kicked repeat these conditions from 1972 to 2003. The Donations for the legal defense of the Callous Disregard for edly. One Young Republican was cap lives of workers mean nothing at all to the arrested RNC protesters can be sent to: Workers' Lives tured on ABC News kicking a young bosses except for the surplus value which New York City Chapter of the National A few courageous and creative activists woman who had already been thrown to can be extracted from their labor. Lest Lawyers Guild, 143 Madison Ave, 4th from ACT UP and Code Pink grabbed the the ground. anyone think that the Democrats are floor, New York, NY 10016. Earmark limelight by taking their protest message Hauled off to Pier 57 and locked in "friends of labor," it was mainly under checks "RNC Mass Defense Fund.". right inside the convention and/or by a 10-foot by 8-1/2-foot cage with ten flashing the holy delegates with naked others (some protesters- were packed 30 to a cage), Bruch was questioned at least four times by the Secret Service and the Marxist NYPD, yet was never once read her ...... ----- ....·SPARJACIST.LEA8UE/U.S.· ...... ---- ...... Bulle~!,~~_ rights. Bruch described the conditions as • "degrading" and said one police officer Local DirectorY'and Public Offices· told her, "You have no rights, you're in Web site: www.icl-fi.org • E-mail address:[email protected] WiAt,S1UTEIY\ , jail." Bruch told Workers Vanguard, "I National Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 (212) 732-7860 know that's not true, but they threw out F.· BLACK LIBElinG.? the rules and rewrote the Constitution Boston Los Angeles Oakland to suit the Republicans." Bruch won Box 390840, Central Sta. Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta. Box 29497 _",Ism Cambridge, MA 02139 Los Angeles, CA 90029 Oakland, CA 94604 ...... a~ dered whether the violations of suppos (617) 666-9453 (213) 380-8239 (510) 839-0851 edly constitutionally protected rights were Bla.k ...... Public Office: Sat. 2-5 p.m. Public Office: because of the USA-Patriot Act and Chicago 3806 Beverly Blvd., Room 215 Sat. 1-5 p.m. whether protesters were deemed "enemy Box 6441, Main PO 1634 Telegraph combatants." Chicago, IL 60680 New York 3rd Floor Workers Vanguard tracked down the (312) 563-0441 Box 3381 , Church St. Sta. story on the hazardous conditions inside Public Office: New York, NY 10008 San Francisco Pier 57, an old bus barn turned into an Sat. 2-5 p.m. (212) 267-1025 Box 77494 San Francisco l 1 222 S. Morgan Spartacl$lPWb
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17 SEPTEMBER 2004 9 policies as the Republicans. Elections ... In that context, the role of "progres ( continued from page 1) sive" Democrats like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Cynthia McKinney and others The capitalist class owns the means of is to head off and contain any potential production; in turn, the working class, in social struggle, keeping it safely within order to survive, is forced to sell its labor the confines of the capitalist system. This power to the capitalists, and through its was clearly displayed during the antiwar iii > labor generates the surplus value that the movement, for example. While most oct capitalists reap as profit. The working Democrats in Congress voted for the No VehiCle class is the only objectively revolutionary war, just about every major demonstra i class in capitalist society; it has its hands tion organized by fake-Marxist outfits Zone directly on the means of production-the and their coalitions-like Workers World factories, mines, transportation systems Party and its International ANSWER of modern industrial capitalism-and the coalition-was tailored to provide a plat social power and interest to overthrow form for "progressive" Democrats. These capitalism. Democrats (and the "socialists" who pro The fundamental problem, though, is moted them) did everything to bill the political consciousness. It is common Iraq war as simply "Bush's war" and to place for American workers to identify advocate "regime change" at home (i.e., themselves as "middle class." This bour voting Democrat) to the millipns who geois ideology, or false consciousness, is came out to protest the war. transmitted to the working class by the But the horrors inflicted upon the Iraqi conservative pro-capitalist AFL-CIO offi masses through war and occupation-like cialdom. It is reinforced by ostensible U.S. helicopter gunships firing missiles socialists who give open or backhanded on Iraqis gathered around an attacked Cartoon from advertisement for Daily Show. support to the Democratic Party and cap American armored vehicle on September italist politicians like Ralph Nader as 12, a deliberate act of mass murder and essarily be a reformist party, and that sand opponents of KKK terror around a "lesser evils" or "realistic" choices. collective punishment against civilians~ reformism is a necessary and inevitable proletarian core of support. Actions like Whatever rhetoric they put forward, are not simply the products of a deranged stage of the development of a working class political movement. Against this is these give workers and youth a taste of every capitalist politician-whether they. American government. They are an ex the Marxist conception that a reformist the potential for victory when one is be Democrat, Republican or Green pression of the very workings of capital stage of working class politics is not nec unshackled from ruling class parties. serves and pursues the interests of the ist imperialism, the competition for essary and not preferable; we do not capitalists and their system of exploita resources and "spheres of influence" advocate that the workers pass through a stage of reformism on the road to revolu "Anybody But Bush" Reformists tion. Fundamentally, the government between the major imperialist powers, tionary Marxist politics." In keeping with the "Anybody but Bush" under capitalism is nothing but the exec and, consequently, the raping 'and bleed Here in the U.S., there has never been sentin,ent so shamelessly pushed by the utive committee of the bourgeoisie. serv ing of semi colonial countries like Iraq. a mass workers party. The American rul reformist left during the antiwar demon ing to manage the affairs of the capitalist Meanwhile, the role played by "third ing class has been highly effective in strations, most ostensibly socialist organ rulers. To defend its rule, the bourgeoisie party" candidates like Ralph Nader is to exploiting deep divisions within the pro izations have failed to draw even the has its own capitalist state-its cops, legitimize the American capitalist electo letariat, first along religious and ethnic crudest class line in these elections, and courts, prisons. military-that uses both ral system in the eyes of the many disil lines and later along racial lines. Segre have instead acted as the best builders of for~e and deception to maintain the rule of lusioned youth and others, and, as Nader gated at the bottom of society yet inte "Anybody but Bushism." For Socialist capital. himself has repeatedly made clear, to grated into the economy, constituting a Alternative and the International Socialist Democracy under capitalism is nothing steer the Democrats in a more "progres key component of the working class, Organization (ISO), this means signing but democracy for the capitalist rulers. It sive" direction. Ralph Nader is a bour black workers are a doubly-oppressed on to the Nader/Camejo campaign-in geois politician who neither calls nor pre is the means by which the bourgeoisie race-color caste. Black oppression is the the case of the ISO, only recently openly tends to call for ending capitalism, only disguises its rule with the appearance bedrock of American capitalism. If it is after some initial coyness on the question. of a popular mandate, and maintains to fight for its own emancipation, the While Nader makes no secret of the fact its deception of those who oppose its multiracial proletariat must take up the that he is not anti-capitalist, his running systematic violence. As Bolshevik leader struggle for black freedom. Black rights mate is a "progressive" stockbroker whose V. I. Lenin captured it in his 1917 work, and labor rights will either go forward political career took him from the refor The State and Revolution, "To decide once together or fall back separately. The mist Socialist Workers Party (SWP) every few years which member of the rul working class will transcend its division through several unsavory incarnations ing class is to repress and crush the peo only through class and social struggle. until he gave up the ghost to any "social ple through parliament-this is the real Socialism in the U.S. will be achieved ist" pretensions altogether. Even the ISO, essence of bourgeois parliamentarism." only by the common struggle of the mul which supported Nader in 2000, admits: Because the bourgeoisie not only con tiracial working class under the leader 'There are reasons for the left [to] be crit trols the media, schools and political life ship of a revolutionary vanguard party. ical of Ralph Nader-his courting of the of the country, but also the "special bod Every gain working people have made right-wing Reform Party's endorsement, ies of armed men," as Lenin called the in this country was wrested through hard for example" (Socialist Worker Online, apparatus of the capitalist state, capital (ratic Convention who had two tickets to struggle. To hold onto and expand these 10 September). Yet in the same article, the meet John Kerry. We became friends and ism can never be voted out of office. gains means politically combating the ISO writes: "A vote for Nader is the best The capitalist state-an institution of vio decided to enliven the meeting with two anti-war posters. (Both of us worked with current pro-capitalist union leadership, way to say no to the evil of the Bush lence against working people and the which in a thousand ways impedes class agenda, in both its greater and lesser oppressed-can never be made to serve the Dennis Kucinich campaign, which . had a strong.. vocal opposition to the war struggle by tying the working masses to forms-and to contribute to the building the interests of working people and the ,.. ifnI· _I the capitalist order, primarily through of a future political alternative." oppressed. It has to be smashed through a ,.,..,. ..6 l"dlf:nor+-+h:::t;+~"tr.CIl'Y\a;:t!!l;l'\+ ncrin-... support to the Democrats. It will be There are times when a revolutionary workers revolution that puts in place of through the struggles of working people communist organization can offer critical the capitalist state a new and different that a new class-struggle leadership will support in an election-but only to an kind of state: a workers state based on a A COMRADE be forged in the unions. From the militant organization in the workers movement, planned and collectivized economy in Challenge strike waged by UFCW grocery workers never to a bourgeois candidate. There are which production serves to satisfy human 18 August 2004 earlier this year to the potential strike by times when Marxists can choose to run need rather than capitalist profit. The hotel workers on the West Coast and their own candidates in elections, as we establishment of proletarian rule-in the PL T-shirt says: "Revolt! Don't Vote," Washington, D.C., there is a palpable have in the past, in order to take advan U.S. and internationally-will lay the while letter from "A Comrade" to sense among workers and the oppressed tage of the heightened political interest material basis for the rational expansion Challenge brags about working in that they have to fight to defend theIr Iive- during election time to gain a hearing for of production and the elimination of scar Democrat Kucinich's campaign. 'Iihoods and better their conditions of life. our program. But Marxists are opposed city, allowing for an unprecedented devel The question is one of educating the in principle to taking an executive office opment of human freedom in all spheres. for g1VIng breaks to "little capitalists" working class that it must not only fight (like president)-i.e., to the administra The struggle for socialist liberation against "big capitalists." against expressions of its exploitation, but tion of the bourgeois state apparatus. We requires above all the building of a work In principle, Marxists will not give to overthrow th,e very capitalist system run on a program for socialist revolution ers party to educate the working class any political support to any capitalist that breeds its exploitation. as the only solution to the exploitation about its historic role as the gravedigger party or politician because that would For us, the call to break with the and racial oppression inherent in capital of capitalism and to lead it to power-a mean joining the bourgeoisie in deceiv Democrats and build a workers party is ist society. revolutionary workers party whose pri ing the workers and further tying the not just words but the guideline for polit In countrie? where mass reformist mary arena is not the ballot box, but the workers to their class enemy. At the ically independent class-struggle action. workers parties exist, a small communist shop floor. the picket line and the street. same time. Marxists are not indifferent Exemplary actions initiated by the Spar organization might, under certain cir or opposed to participating in elections. tacist League, Labor Black Leagues and cumstances, call for a vote to such a For a Revolutionary Partisan Defense Committee are power party in order to show workers with illu Workers Party! In opposition to comrades in the then revolutionary Socialist Workers Party ful examples of the kind of fighting sions in that party that once in power. It would be false to say that there is no who wanted to support the 1948 presi workers party we seek to build. We built it 'WOUld defend the interests of the difference between the Democrats and dential campaign of Henry Wallace (a the 9 February 2002 united-front protest capitalists and not the workers. Lenin Republicans. But the difference is one of capitalist politician dripping with popu against the Patriot Act and Maritime described the tactic of critical support as style rather than content. The Republi list rhetoric), Cannon outlined a Marxist Security Act in Oakland. California-the offering "support. .. i n the same way as a cans seem to revel in seeing and inflict approach to bourgeois elections in the first union-centered demonstration in the rope supports a hanged man." In the ing suffering on working people and the same 1948 speech quoted earlier: U.S. against the anti-labor and anti U.S., where there is no such party, we oppressed; in turn. the Democrats put on "We proceed from a principled line. The immigrant "war on terror" after Septem have sometimes advocated critical sup a more kindly face,' posture as "friends" basic aim of our principled line is to ber II. On 23 October 1999, while port to a candidate in the workers move of labor and blacks. all the better to assist the development of independent Democrat Al Sharpton fought for a per ment whose electoral program in some political action by the workers and turn deceive the· working. people in order to it towards a revolutionary culmination. mit for the race-hate terrorists of the key way represents a break with capitalist give a more popular and democratic "There is the reformist conception that a KKK to rally in Manhattan, we initiated rule. In the current election, none of the facade to pursuing essentially the same labor party, by its very nature, must nec- the mass mobilization of several thou- left groups running their own candidates 10 WORKERS VANGUARD merit even savagely critical support. "Revolt! Don't Vote." PL also openly The Workers World Party (WWP) is proclaims its desire to fight for commu fielding John Parker and Teresa Gutier nism and can look pretty militant in com rez, who are running on a vague program parison with the rest of the reformist left. to further "mass action and class strug However, PL's posture is in flat contradic- . gle." WWP states: "These two working tion to the work they do. on the ground for class candidates will be running against capitalist candidates. The August-18 issue the pro-war, pro-intervention, pro-big of Challenge, for example, carried a let business politics of George W. Bush ter by "A comrade," which states that she and John Kerry" (Workers World, 3 June). "worked with the Dennis Kucinich cam But this lip service to some opposition to paign, which had a strong, vocal opposi both capitalist parties was belied by tion to the war in Iraq." In the same issue, WWP's work through their ANSWER Banner at August 29 PL printed without comment a letter by march against RNC coalition in the antiwar movement where a "Chicago Reader" critici~ing Barak they actiwly courted Democratic poli advertises new film Obama, the black Illinois Democratic of RCP "Chairman ticians. Most recently, WWP urged a Avakian," Revolution, Party politician who made a big splash vote to "progressive" Georgia Democrat while Revoiutionary at the Democratic National Convention. Cynthia McKinney. A July 22 editorial in Worker says go ahead The letter, however, goes on: "During the Workers World gushes: "Workers World and vote Kerry. Senate primary race I volunteered at Party's presidential and vice-presidential his South Side office." Why? "Chicago candidates, John Parker and Teresa Gutier Reader" goes on to say that they'll explain rez, send Cynthia McKinney heartiest later "how communists working in his well-wishes for victory!" So much for attempted electoral coup" ("California: low Bob Avakian." However, following campaign must deal with the contradic WWP's "independent" campaign, a cam Vote Yes to Recall Davis! No Vote to Cap "Chairman" Avakian led, during the anti tion of 'being in it to win it,' (one has to paign virtually disappe(!red by WWP italist Parties!" WV No. 810; 26 Septem war movement, to the RCP's leading role be among the masses to win them to PL's itself at the RNC protests, the better to ber 2003). There is no such merit to in the class-collaborationist Not In Our politics) while exposing the ruthless core blend in with the "Anybody but Bush" advancing such a tactic in this presiden Name (NION) coalition, no less eager of liberal fascism as the great danger to crowd. tial election. than its ANSWER counterpart to promote the working class." So, PL tells workers We are not calling for a vote to the We Spartacists are not alone in refusing ,Democratic Party politicians. To make it not to vote for "liberal fascists" while SWP either, whose quirky reformist pro to call for a vote to any of the candidates crystal clear, the RCP's Revolutionary uncritically publishing the views of those gram along with its nominal existence in the elections; both the RCP and Worker (29 August) advises: "Go ahead who work in such campaigns! do not make it a particularly appetizing Progressive Labor Party (PL) have the and vote for Kerry if you feel you really A socialist program has to begin by prospect. During the California recall same position in the pages of their respec have to, but put your efforts toward telling the truth about this class society, elections last year, we did apply the tive newspapers. However their radical recasting this polarization." Log~c was the necessity for revolution. To end impe tactic of critical support to the SWP's sounding rhetoric masks reformist and never these Maoists' strong suit, but it rialist war, racist oppression and capital gubernatorial candidate because, as we opportunist practice. Thus, the RCP talks should be clear this blessing to a vote to ist exploitation, there is no other way than explained: "The SWP's election platform, a lot about revolution and its youth group, the Democrats is class betrayal. to build a revolutionary workers party. No which presents, in however crude a way, the RCYB, waved red flags during the During the RNC protests, PL was one vote to capitalist politicians! For a class a working-class line, allows us to make RNC protests while adulating the RCP's of the few left groups that had a clearly struggle workers party to fight for a work concrete and clear-cut our opposition supreme leader, Bob Avakian. RCYBers anti-capitalist contingent with chants that ers government! For international social to Davis while at the same time express chanted: "The earth is quakin'/Follow drew a crude class line. PLers are sport ist revolution to open a new period of ing our opposition to the Republicans' Bob Avakian/The empire's shakin'/Fol- ing a T-shirt this year with the slogan: human freedom!.
affordable health care, which has been on ters-sent to employers by the Social state that ensures capitalist class rule Hotel Workers ... the agenda of many of the recent strug- Security Administration when a Social through force and violence against those ( continued from page 12) gles in the labor movement, the major Security number does not match the gov- they exploit. The capitalist state can never issue in this fight is the union's demand ernment's records-are routinely used to be reformed to serve the interests of work and began distributing forms for workers for a two-year contract. An important Jes- harass immigrant union militants. Rather ing people and the oppressed, It must be to quit the union. They also stopped col son of the recent grocery workers strike than demanding "fair procedures," the swept away through a socialist revolution lecting union dues, which only under in Southern California was the need to unions should be demanding that compa- that establishes a new state, a workers scores that the unions themselves should extend the strike nationally in order to nies that receive "no-match" letters take state. be collecting dues rather than leaving it succeed against the supermarket bosses. no action against workers. In fact, the To go forward, the working class mu~t up to the company. While hotel workers are not a powerful Social Security Administration does not mobilize its social power independent of The union leadership criminally kept industrial or transportation workforce require that employers take any action the capitalists and their state. The labor the 2,900 union members working. In that can bring a city to a halt, they are once they receive "no-match" letters. movement must fight to organize the a real provocation, the Hotel Council placed in a crucial industry, tourism, and The national leadership of UNITE unorganized and for full citizenship rights announced in late June that they would can, with the help of other unionized HERE is trying to tie the workers to the for all immigrants! While in the aftermath start charging workers $10 a week for workers, have a powerful effect on a bosses by endorsing the Kerry campaign. of the September I I attacks the hotel health insurance unless the union dropped city's economy. Not surprisingly, Local II president industry was hit hard as tourism dropped demands for a two-year contract. Union In addition, hotel union members must Durazo was the national director of last dramatically, the union is in a better posi members displayed real determination to understand that the fight should not just be year's Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride tion than it has been in years. This has fight, overwhelmingly rejecting the bosses' limited to having national expiration which was organized as little more than been the first year hotel attendance has contract proposal. But in a real sign dates. Hotel workers should fight for a an election platform for Democrats court- risen to former levels, and major func of weakness, the class-collaborationist common contract nationwide. This will ing Latino votes. We wrote in Workers tions are expected at these hotels through UNITE HERE leadership did nothing but take hard class struggle against the machi- Vanguard (No. 811, 10 October 2003) the holidays, when the industry peaks hold impotent rallies in front of these nations of the current pro-Democratic when it passed through Chicago: yearly. Hotel workers must go out on hotels. While these rallies were lively and Party union leadership. ':The bureaucrats are not ev~n calling strike, build solid picket lines that nobody spirited, they were meant to deflect the Another important aspect of the con- for a campal,gn to orgamze Immigrant anger seething in the union ranks away ... workers In uOions. Instead the purpose of crosses and forge a common front of tract dispute IS the ethnIC make-up of the Freedom Ride, with buses organized from the only real way to fight the bosses' struggle in all cities involved. UNITE the workforce. Union members have nationally from California. Houston, HERE workers must fight for the solidar intransigence: by withholding their labor expressed concerns over the significant ~iami. Boston and other cities, is expli- ity of other unions and workers in action, in strike action. We stand by what was drop in the number of blacks employed in cltly to pressure Congress for leglsla- once a widely recognized tradition in the . , . . tive reform, with the vague goal of from the overwhelmingly immigrant port thiS tndustrym the last 25 years. Am~ng promoting an open-ended 'road to citi- labor movement: "No contract, no work!" truckers to the courageous SEIU "Justice the proposals put forward by the UnIon zenship' for all immigrant workers. The for Janitors" union activists. leadership in response to these concerns Freedom Ride rallies have been more Wildcat Walkout Erupts is a "joint committee to enhance diver- like election rallies, with American Battles for labor are won on the picket The outrage of union members got out sity of the workforce." What they mean flags passed out and l)e~ocratJc Party hne, not at negotiating tables or the now "'. .". II b' speakers like Congressman LUIS GUtI- time-worn diversion of masses cele of the grip of the union leadership and b Y a Jomt committee IS co a oratIOn errez and black Illinois Secretary of exploded on August 12 when workers between the union and the bosses. But it's State Jesse White." brated with Cardinal Mahony. Many of from the Century Plaza and St. Regis the bosses themselves who foster and Meanwhile. a key promise of John Kerry's the immigrant workers in the hotel hotels in Century City had had enough of encourage racial divisions in order to campaign is that he will more effectively industry have experience in militant class management's arrogance. At the begin divide and conquer the working class. wage a "war on terror," which means struggle and are open to internationalist ning of their shift, workers demanded to Tensions between blacks and Latinos an increased war against black people, ideas. A victorious strike by this work know why they were getting notices have been particularly encouraged by the immigrants and labor, and maintain the force would go a long way toward put warning of the expiration of their health L.A. bourgeoisie ever since the city rapacious occupation of Iraq. ting a dent in the massive anti-immigrant insurance. Dissatisfied with the bosses' erupted in a multiracial upheaval in 1992 Workers should recall that when L.A. sweeps that are part of the ruling class's response, some sat down, refusing to following the acquittal of the cops who transit workers went on strike last year, "war on terror." It would break the streak move until they got an answer. When the beat black motorist Rodney King. It is their struggle was sold out by the likes of defeats labor has endured, and point bosses ordered them to clock out, they crucial for the union to cut across racial of Miguel Contreras, head of the L.A. the way forward to a labor offensive walked out, and by 10 a.m., more than divisions by taking up an active struggle County Federation of Labor, working in against this country's arrogant ruling 100 workers in uniform, mostly women, for jobs for all. To undercut the poison- collaboration with Democratic Party city class. Hotel workers can and must win. were marching in front of the glitzy Cen , ous racism pushed by the .. ~osses, ,th:\ ~. councilman Antonio Villaraigosa and What labor needs is a new class tury Plaza Hotel. Shaken up by this ~ union must fight for a {!!lion hiring h!!JJ'J" other bourgeois politicians. It is through struggle union leadership. What we need action, the Hotel Council moved to lock Labor rights, immigrant nghts and black such political support for the capitalists' is a revolutionary workers party· inde out the union, and only called off the rights go forward together or they fall parties that labor misleaders like Contreras pendent of the parties of the bosses, a lockout when Local II's president, Maria back separately. ~ and his wife Durazo disarm the workers party that fights for a workers gov Elena Durazo, disavowed the walkout, Local II leadership's contract proposaf movement. The government is the execu- ernment. To this task we of the Sparta saying it was not sanctioned and promis for "fair procedures for Social Security tive committee of the capitalist class, cist League are committed. Remember, ing no further job actions inside or in no-match letters" from the state accepts responsible for running its affairs. The "isi se puede!" only with picket lines that front of hotels. the bourgeoisie's intrusion into the daily labor tops' support for the capitalists' nobody crosses. Victory to the hotel work While the union's demands include lives of immigrant workers. Such let- political parties also means support for the ers! Strike to win!. 17 SEPTEMBER 2004 11 WfJlIllEIiS """/1111) -" For a Solid Strike! for a National Contract! Hotel Workers Confront Bosses' Union Busting LOS ANGELES, September 14~Once leadership to organize and defend immi again Los Angeles is poised to be a main grant workers have enabled the capitalists arena of class struggle in the country with to intensify the exploitation of this vul a looming battle between capital and nerable work forcc and drive wages down labor. On September 13, hotel workers of for all. The fact that these workers are the recently merged UNITE HERE (for- , organized into a union irks the hotcl merly the Union of Needletrades, Textiles bosses in a town where the majority of the and Industrial Employees and Hotel hotel workforce is unorganizcd. Even at Employecs and Restaurant Employces unionized hotels. workers make poverty International Union) Local II of Los wages. Housekeepers. who represent a Angeles and Local 25 of Washington, large portion of Local II's membership, D.C. voted overwhclmingly to quthorize a suffer under punishing workloads~many strike in defensc of health care and a two of them single mothers living on $1 I an year contract. As \ye got to press, San hour. To give an example of what they Francisco:s Local 2 is also taking a strike go through. the September 7 Los Angeles authorization vote. As of tomorrow all Times reports on the luxury Century Plaza three locals will be working without con hotel in Century City. referring to the tracts. A two-year contract for these locals experience of one housekeeper: will enable the union to line up expira- _ "The Century Plaza quota is 15 rooms a tion dates in ten major cities in 2006, day. That means an average of 30 min involving more than 60,000 workers and utes per room. plus lunch. By mid morn ing, the worker was already behind sched giving the union greater weight in deal ule. She consulted a scribbled list of room ing with national hotel chains. UNITE numbers, then braced herself and set her HERE's contract in Washington, D.C. Ferazzi/LA. Times 300 pound cart rolling down the distinc cxpires on September 15. directly posing Making a point about being overworked, hotel worker makes bed during a tivelv curved hallwav of the hotel. an the extension of any strike that breaks out demonstration in downtown L.A. last mont". architectural landmark." in L.A. Other union memhers such as porters. On July I, Los Angeles union mem nine is struck. the rest will lock out countries ravaged by U.S. imperialism, servers and dishwashers face similar bers overwhelmingly voted down the the union. The bosses' strong-arm unity are constantly terrorized by threats of workloads. the lowering of which is a insulting contract offer from the bosses' must be met with the strong, united deter deportation, which have increased with key union contract demand. Los Angeles Hotel Employers Council by mination of the labor movement. a solid the racist "war on terror." This has been The Los Angeles contract expired in 92 percent. These hotels include major hotel workers strike shutting down the particularly true in the last few months mid-ApriL at which point the union national chains such as Hyatt and Westin, hotels with mass pickets that no one as massive anti-immigrant sweeps have leadership agreed to an extension of the which dominate the hotel industry. Hav crosses! been carried out by Border Patrol contract that lasted until June 1. At ing learned their lessons from the UFCW Similar to SEIU and other service throughout Southern California (see "La that point, the companies, feeling the supermarket workers strike of last fall, industry unions in the L.A. area, Local II Migra, LAPD Terrorize Latinos, Blacks," wind in their sails following the bitter nine of these hotels have entered into an is a heavily Latino and immigrant union. WV No. 829, 9 July). The threat of a defeat of the UFCW workers in their five agreement paralleling that of the bosses In the racist society that is capitalist boss's phone call to la migra and the fail month struggle, cancelled the contract of the grocery chains: if one hotel of these America, immigrants, many escaping ure of the current pro-capitalist union continued on page 11 Bill Cosby Rants Against Ghetto Poor
The., Crisis of Black Leadership lie, that America has largely eliminated Pwo "publics"-those who've got prop become part of "respectable" bourgeois racism through civil rights laws leveling erty and those who don·t. The built society~requires putting as much dis By Don Cane the playing field. Pandering to the dema in inequality of public school funding, tance as possible between yourself and gogic truisms provoked by Bill Cosby's based primarily on local property taxes, the black ghetto poor. What better way to America's racist rulers like to dress up recent anti-black diatribes, Obama adds, ensures that per-,student spending in the do that than to blame them for their own their rule in terms of general abstract slo "Go into any inner-city neighborhood and better-off white suburbs will be much oppression? Cosby speaks for the thin gans, pretending that they represent the folks will tell you that government alone often many times~higher than in the layer of wealthy blacks who see the "general will" of the nation. In fact they can't teach kids to learn. They know that urban ghettos. ghetto poor as "bringing the race down." are a fabulously wealthy minority that parents have to parent, that children can't Cosby's widely circulated quote, Cosby, like many others, rightly opposes lord over a hideously oppressive and achieve unless we raise their expectations "Your dirty laundry gets out of school at the casual use of the "N" word among unequal society with an unprecedented and turn off the television sets and eradi 2:30 every day; it's cursing and calling blacks. On National Public Radio's 7 July machinery of deception and repression. cate the slander that says a black youth each other n----r," amounts to blaming Talk of the Nation show he complained of Central to this machinery is America's with a book is acting white." With many the victims for their own oppression. It the unhappy sounds of black kids: "Now color bar-the stigmatization of skin color, ghetto schools deprived of funding for reflects both the class divisions within you can tell me it's the sound of the 'hood itself a product of black chattel slavery teaching materials, including books, there the black population and the fact that if you want to, but then when you put pro obscuring pivotal class relations within should be no fear that any black youth black oppression transcends class lines. fanity with it, and degrading self-hatred American capitalist society. will be "acting white." The cruel and bitter truth is that black sentences, you've got a problem." But in This social reality is so evident it ren With the deindustrialization of the ghetto youth are not wanted or needed response to another guest who denounced ders unbelievable the widely circulated economy beginning in the mid 1970s, by America's capitalist rulers. By the Black Entertainment Television making quote from black Democrat Barack education has become an increasingly same token, growing alienation among "billions" by "contributing to the degra Obama, Illinois U.S. Senate candidate, in expenaable overhead for the U.S. capi black youth is the product of hardening dation of our culture," Cosby clearly the keynote Democratic National Con talist rulers. They invest only as much as race segregation in this country. defended capitalist enterprise in its vention speech: "There's not a Black they can realize back in profit when it The position of the black middle class entirety, responding, "You can do any America and White America and Latino comes to the education of those they in this country is a precarious one, even thing you want to in this United States. I America and Asian America-there's the exploit. Indeed, even the term "public for those like Cosby who have "made it." can begin to sell~put a product out United States of America." This is the big education" is an oxymoron when there are To be black and "make it"-to try to continued on page 7 12 17 SEPTEMBER 2004
-",