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No. 710 ....U23 2 April 1999 Delend Serbia Against U.SJNATOAHack! Deleat U.S. Imperialism Through Workers Revolution! The following is a Spartacist League! pant racist cop terror. Any military Defeat U.S. imperialism through work­ U.S. statement issued on March 25. blows against U.S. imperialism are in ers revolution! The barrage of cruise missiles and the direct and immediate interest of The "humanitarian" face of Ameri­ bombs launched against Serbia yester­ working people and minorities in can imperialism in the Balkans is day by the U.S. and its NATO allies this country and around the world. U.S. ambassador William Walker, who brings us all a step closer to a new world As proletarian revolutionaries fight­ helped orchestrate the CIA-sponsored war. This is a bloody statement by ing to build a party to lead the work­ death squad regimes in Central America America's imperialist rulers that they ing class to power against the capitalist which slaughtered hundreds of thou­ will stop at nothing in their ruthless exploiters and oppressors, the Sparta­ sands of workers, peasants and indige­ drive for profits and world domina­ cist League, U.S. section of the Interna­ nous peoples in the 1980s. Clinton's tion. Democrat Clinton and the capital­ tional Communist League, declares cynical lies to the contrary, NATO's ist class he represents also suck the life­ forthrightly: Defend Serbia against U.S.! war against Serbia has nothing to do blood out of workers in the U.S. through NATO attack! Down with the United with "human rights" or defense of the Young Spartacus ever more grinding exploitation and Nations economic sanctions! All U.S.! Albanian population of Kosovo against Spartacus Youth Club speakout at brutal oppression enforced through ram- UN INATO troops out of the Balkans! continued on page 2 New York University, March 23.

AP photos Flames engulf section of Pristina, capital of Kosovo, after NATO missile strike. War against Serbia is ominous escalation in U.S. imperialist aggression, bringing closer the threat of a new world war.

MARCH 29-Into the sixth day of the As the International Communist 92, America's rulers declared themselves warfare in the Near East and Balkans are terror war against the Serbian people, the League has proclaimed in statements to be unchallenged masters of a "New in a broader sense also directed against U.S. and its NATO partners continue to issued by its national sections around the World Order." When Saddam Hussein's its main imperialist rivals: Germany crash bombs and cruise missiles into world (see article, page 3), the working Iraq and Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia and Japan. It is not only the rulers in Serbia and the predominantly Albanian class and oppressed peoples everywhere refused to bow to Washington's dictates, Baghdad and Belgrade who are to be province of Kosovo. While Washington have a vital interest in defending the Serbs they were branded as "rogue states" to taught that the U.S. is now "the world's has kept a tight lid on news reports from against the American-led NATO attack! be punished and whipped into line. only superpower," but also the rulers in the war front, it is clear that the target­ Opponents of the U.S.INATO imperial­ In 1991, the Pentagon war machine Tokyo, Berlin, Paris et al. In savaging ing of "military installations" in urban ists can only welcome the downing of launched a devastating attack against Iraq, American imperialism is demon­ areas-including the headquarters of Slo­ one of the U.S. Air Forc'e's small num­ Iraq, formerly a Moscow client state. The strating its determination to maintain con­ bod an Milosevic, president of the Serb­ ber of F-117 "stealth" fighters as a blow ongoing starvation blockade imposed in trol over the Persian Gulf oil fields and to dominated rump Yugoslav republic-is against the racist capitalist U.S. rulers. 1990 by the U.S. under United Nations gain control over the oil and gas fields aimed not least at sowing terror among Rapacious U.S. imperialism must be cover-resulting in the death of well over of the former Soviet Caucasus. U.S. inter­ the besieged population. Sections of the brought down through the mobilization of a million Iraqis-has been punctuated by vention in the nationalist/communalist capital of Belgrade have gone up in the multiracial proletariat in socialist rev­ periodic terror bombing, which continues wars precipitated by the German-initiated flames, the first time this city has come olution. The Spartacist League fights to to this day. In 1995, NATO warplanes and breakup of Yugoslavia is aimed above all under bombardment since Hitler's Luft­ forge the Leninist vanguard party needed missiles were launched against the Bos­ at maintaining American military domi­ waffe attacked it in 1941. to bring this understanding to the working nian Serbs as a prelude to the U.S.-led, nance in Europe through NATO. class and to lead it in seizing state power. occupation of Bosnia. Throughout this In the current war against Serbia can 14 Under the cynical pretext of defending period, Serbia has been subjected to be seen the spectre of a wider Balkan the Kosovo Albanians, the U.S. ruling Western economic sanctions which have war or series of wars such as took place class is seeking to reassert its authority doubtless contributed to the deaths of early this century. These wars, resulting as the policeman of the world. Amid the many Serbs, especially children, the poor from the intersection 'of regional national collapse of the Soviet Union, destroyed and the elderly. conflicts with rivalries among the major II by capitalist counterrevolution in 1991- U.S. military actions and economic continued on page 5 7"·'25274J 81030 7 and destruction around the world. It will cessful workers revolution in history, nationalist UCK provide an ideological Defeat U.S. also strengthen their hand in breaking the October Revolution of 1917_ Under­ cover for the predatory aims of U.S, strikes, busting unions and flooding the mined by decades of Stalinist misrule, imperialism in the region. ghettos and barrios of America with even the Soviet Union was destroyed through What unites all of these reformist Imperialism ... more cops. On the other hand, every blow capitalist counterrevolution in 1991-92. "socialists," from the slavishly pro­ (continued from page 1) against U.S. imperialism in the Balkans Now the U.S. imperialists-who butch­ Milosevic Workers World to the ISO, is "ethnic cleansing." In fact, the all-sided will help to weaken the class enemy, pro­ ered over two million people in their los­ their belief that the imperialist rulers can nationalist bloodbath in the Balkans was viding an opening for the working class ing counterrevolutionary war against the be pressured into more "peaceful" and directly instigated by the imperialists in and oppressed here to fight against the Indochinese workers and peasants in the "humane" policies. Thus, an Interna­ their drive to destroy the former Yugosla­ torrent of attacks being leveled by Wall 1960s and '70s-act as if nothing stands tional Action Center leaflet pleads, "Stop via through capitalist counterrevolution. Street and its political agents, the Demo­ in the way of imposing their power the Bombing of Yugoslavia! Money For Social counterrevolution has once again cratic and Republican parties. We fight to everywhere, In recent years, the U.S. has Jobs & Education, Not War!" The lie that made the Balkans the flash point of build the multiracial revolutionary work­ invaded, bombed or tried to starve into America'S capitalist rulers can be made ancient nationalist hatreds and interimpe­ ers party, forged in the crucible of class submission one country after another, to change their priorities to b~nefit work­ rialist rivalries. Marxists oppose the poi­ struggle, which is the necessary instru­ from Somalia to Haiti and Iraq. U.S. ing people and' minorities serves to son of nationalism and fight for the class ment to lead the working class to the hands off Iraq! Down with the UN star­ shackle workers to the racist, capitalist unity of the workers of Serbia, Cro­ overthrow of this entire system based on vationblockade! Democratic Party. It is an obstacle to atia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Kosovo in racism, exploitation and war through a Beneath the current unity of the NATO mobilizing the working class and the overthrowing all the bloody national­ socialist revolution which rips industry "allies" over the bombing of Serbia lie oppressed in class struggle against U.S, ist regimes of the region, from Serbian and power away from a small handful of fundamental and escalating interimperial­ imperialism. Imperialism is not a policy strongman Slobodan Milosevic to the filthy rich and creates an egalitarian ist rivalries expressed in the growing which can be "reformed" but a system of U.S.-backed fascistic Tudjman in Croatia. socialist economy. trade war between the U.S. and Europe, as exploitation and war. Imperialist war is For a socialist federation of the Balkans! NATO was set up by the U.S. 50 years well as Japan. It was imperialist machina­ the concentrated expression of the "nor­ If America's capitalist rulers get away ago as a military alliance aimed at the tions stoking nationalist hatreds in the mal" brutal workings of the capitalist with imposing their diktat in Kosovo, it destruction of the Soviet Union, which Balkans which led directly to World War profit system, which daily condemns will give them a freer hand to sow terror was created as a result of the only suc- I in 1914. Today, NATO bombing is a trip countless numbers of working people wire for a broader and even bloodier around the world to death_ international . conflagration, potentially The widespread outrage over the death drawing in Greece, Turkey and Russia. squad style killing of black African Ama­ Lenin and Trotsky's Comintem: While acting as soft cop for NATO, dou Diallo by four cops of the NYFD Party of World Revvlution capitalist Russia's denunciation of the Street Crime Unit points to the seething U.S,INATO military attack on Serbia is in anger building at the base of American This month marks the 80th anniversary line with its ambition to assert itself as a society_ This was also seen in the enor­ of the founding of the Third (Communist) regional imperialist power. Both Russia mous popularity of the strikes by UPS International in Moscow. Under the guid­ and the U.S. have huge nuclear arsen­ Teamsters and GM auto workers in the ance of the Bolshevik Party of V. I. Lenin als, and the U.S. has already demon­ past couple of years. The power to and L. D. Trotsky, which led the October strated its readiness to use these weap­ destroy this system of racism, war and Revolution of 1917, the Comintern counter- .. ons with the nuclear incineration of exploitation lies in the hands of the mul­ posed to the pro-imperialist Social Democ­ Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Capi­ tiracial working class. But that power is racy of the Second International the pro- talism is an irrational system, and the shackled by the AFL-CIO labor tops who TROTSKY gram of world socialist revolution. As the LENIN mad drive for profit and power inherent themselves fuel the flames of imperialist Third International was transformed into an in this system will inevitably lead to a war through their protectionist tirades anti-revolutionary tool of the nationalist Stalinist bureaucracy which usurped political nuclear third world war if it is not against workers of other countries while power in the Soviet Union in 1923-24, passing over to outright reformism in the mid- stopped through international proletarian tying working people in the U.S. to their 1930s, Trotsky and the Left Opposition carried forward the program of Leninist inter­ revolution, exploiters, particularly to the Democratic nationalism. Today, the International Communist League seeks to reforge the Trotskyist While simultaneously promoting illu­ Party, From World Wars I and II to Fourth International, founded in 1938, as the necessary instrument in the fight for new sions that American capitalism can be Korea, Vietnam and today the Balkans, October Revolutions around the world. reformed, protests against the U.S. the Democratic. Party is the party of Seventy-two years have passed since the Communist Party announced its pro­ bombing of Serbia organized by Workers imperialist war. gramme to the world in the form of a Manifesto written by the greatest teachers of the World Party through its International The Spartacist League is dedicated to proletarian revolution, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Even at that time communism, Action Center front group have been building a revolutionary workers party which had barely entered the arena of struggle, was beset by the baiting, lies, hatred, grotesque orgies of Serb chauvinism fea­ like the Bolshevik Party of Lenin and and persecution of the possessing classes, who rightly sensed in it their mortal enemy. turing chants of "Kosovo is Serbia." Trotsky which led the October Revolu­ In the course of those seven decades communism developed along complex paths, Until the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Libera­ tion-a party which champions the cause periods of stormy advance alternating with periods of decline; it has known successes, tion Army· (UCK) became nothing but a of all the oppressed, a party rooted in but also severe defeats. But essentially the movement proceeded along the path indi­ pawn of NATO imperialism's war aims, proletarian internationalism_ Join us in cated in advance by the Manifesto of the Communist Party. The epoch of final, decisive we called for the right of the Albanian building the party which will lead new struggle came later than the apostles of social revolution had expected and hoped. But population of Kosovo to form an inde­ October Revolutions and put an end once it has come. We communists, the representatives of the revolutionary proletariat of var­ pendent state, But groups like the Inter­ and for all to imperialist mass murder. ious countries of Europe, America, and Asia, who have gathered in Soviet Moscow, national Socialist Organization (ISO) Defend-Serbia! Defeat U_S_ imperialism feel and consider oursel ves to be the heirs and executors of the cause whose pro­ and Socialist Action which champion the through workers revolution!. gramme was announced 72 years ago. Our task is to generalize the revolutionary expe­ rience of the working class, to cleanse the movement of the disintegrating admixtures of opportunism and social-patriotism, to mobilize the forces of all genuinely revolutionary parties of the world proletariat and thereby facilitate and hasten the victory of the com­ .... Spartacist~ Forum munist revolution throughout the world .. ,. The bourgeois world order has been sufficiently lashed by socialist criticism. The task of the international communist party consists in overthrowing that order and erect­ ing in its place the edifice of the socialist order. We summon the working mell-and women of all countries to unite under the commu­ nist banner under which the first great victories have already been won. Proletarians of ail countries! In the struggle against imperialist savagery, against monarchy, against the privileged estates, against the bourgeois State and bourgeois property, against all kinds and forms of social and national oppression-Unite! Speaker: Amy Rath Under the banner of workers' Soviets, under the banner of revolutionary struggle for power and the dictatorship of the proletariat, under the banner of the Third Saturday April 17, 4 p.m. International-proletarians of all countries, unite! Mount Hollywood Congregational Church - "Manifesto of the Communist International to the Proletariat 4607 Prospect Ave., (One block east of Vermont) of the Entire World" (March 1919) LOS ANGELES For more information: (213) 380-8239

!~!!!~o!!.~'!!!~/!.'!.. ~ BOSTON NEW YORK EDITOR: Len Meyers EDITOR, YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Jacob Zorn The Fight for Communism and Revolutionary Marxism: PRODUCTION MANAGER: Susan Fuller the Class Struggle Today The Fight for a Socialist Future CIRCULATION MANAGER: Mara Cadiz Alternate Saturdays, 1 p.m. Alternate Tuesdays, 8 p_m. EDITORIAL BOARD: Ray Bishop (managing editor), Bruce Andre, Helene Brosius, George Foster, Liz Gordon, Jane Kerrigan, James Robertson, Joseph Seymour, Alison Spencer April 10, For Black Uberation April 6, Rm, 909, For Black Uberatlon The Spartaci!?t League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League (Fourth Through Socialist Revolution! Through Socialist Revolution! Internationalist) . April 24, Confronting the April 20, Rm. 414, Confronting the Workers Vanguard (ISSN 0276-0746) published biweekly, except skipping three alternate Issues in June, July and "Death of Communism" Myth: "Death of Communism" Myth: August (beginning with omitting the second issue in June) and with a 3-week interval in December, by the Spartacist Pub· lishing Co., 299 Broadway, Suite 31S, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 732-7862 (Editorial), (212) 732-7861 The Revolutionary Party in the The Revolutionary Party in the (BUSiness). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. E-mail address:[email protected]. Post-Soviet World Post-SovieJ World Domestic subscriptions: $10.00/22 issues. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address Boston University New York University changes to Workers Venguard, Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 101 I 6. • Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the edilOrial vieNpoint. College of Arts and Sciences Loeb Student Center (La Guardia The closing date for news in this issue is March 30. 725 Commonwealth Ave., Rm. B18A . Place & Washington Square South) Information and readings: (617) 666-9453 Information and readings: (212) 267-1025 No. 710 2 April 1999 or [email protected] or [email protected] '

2 WORKERS VANGUARD leL Protests Demand: "Defend Serbia Against U.S./NATO Terror Bombing!"

As the U.S.INATO launched military I'm going to tum in my SPD party card." the fig leaf for the imperialist occupation tion and which exterminated the Balkan attacks against Serbia, the International The ex-Stalinists of the Party of Dem­ of Kosovo with or without bombings." peoples during World War II." Communist League immediately swung ocratic Socialism (PDS), who sold out the Just across the narrow Adriatic Sea Our revolutionary opposition to impe­ into action against the imperialist war as East German deformed workers state to from the slaughter and studded with rialist war is in sharp cO,!1trast to the fake a unified Leninist internationalist organi­ the West German bankers, now jockey for NATO military bases, Italy has been Trotskyists who peddle illusions that the zation. Around the world, our comrades position as the "left" opposition in parlia­ plunged into another political crisis imperialist warmongers can be pressured issued leaflets, initiated speal,couts and ment and act as brokers of "peace" rallies by the Balkans war. The popular-front to rein in their terror. Demonstrations intervened in other protests to raise our with an explicitly pro-capitalist agenda government ,there has been carrying called by self-proclaimed socialists in the unique revolutionary perspective for for a "better" imperialist foreign policy, a out vicious repression against Albanian U.S. and Europe have centered on bleat­ defense of Serbia against imperialist "European security solution" based on refugees streaming into the country. ing pleas to "stop the bombing." But attack and for defeat of imperialism Spartakist Workers Hammer through workers revolution. The U.S.lNATO air strikes and the buildup of imperialist ground troops threatening a wider war provides further tinder for social explosions within the imperialist centers. While the fake lefts try to derail opposition to the war into parliamentary maneuvers for a more "humane" imperialist policy, the ICL fights to give an organized anticapitalist expression to the antiwar mood among workers and youth, evident already even in these early days of the bombing. We fight to advance the consciousness of the working class to understand that what is required is a proletarian, revolutionary, internationalist struggle against the capi­ talist system which breeds war. At a Paris demonstration in defense of "illegal" immigrants (sans-papiers) on March 27, our comrades of the Ligue Trotskyste de France (LTF) carried a placard reading, "Deportations from Roissy, Bombing of Kosovo, Police Terror in the Ghettos: This Government Is Capitalist, Racist and In protests against NATO Imperialist!" This slogan earned approval terror war, ICL fights for perspective of workers from immigrant workers-and opposition revolution to overthrow from the fake left which supports the Imperialist warmongers. Socialist-led popular-front government. Clockwise from bottom The ex-Stalinists, Social Democrats left: ICL contingents and "New Labour" today ruling capitalist at protests in Toronto, France, Italy, Germany and Britain are Berlin and London; more bellicose than their right-wing pred­ SYC speakout at Boston ecessors, in part because the leaders of University. '" these treacherous parties arrogantly think they can fool the population into believ­ ing that imperialist war and racist depor­ tations are in the best interests of the workers they purport to represent. It's nof the Organization for Security and Coop­ Uniquely, our comrades of the Lega bloody terror against weaker nations, going over. In Germany, mothers of sol­ eration in Europe (OSCE) and more inde­ Trotskista d'Italia (LTd'I) fight for full against colonial and semicolonial coun­ diers sent to the Bundeswehr staging area pendent of the American military colos­ citizenship rights for immigrants and call tries is inherent in the imperialist sys­ in Macedonia confronted Social Demo­ sus. When PDS leader Greg<,lr Gysi took for defense of Serbia and defeat of the tem of oppression and exploitation. The cratic (SPD) defense minister Scharping the podium at a March 27 rally in Berlin. Italian ruling class and all the imperial­ reformist British Socialist Workers Party on a TV talk show and threatened to send our comrades of the SpAD held up plac­ ists. Having stepped down from the capi­ (SWP) and its international satellites a delegation to meet with Serbian moth­ ards reading, "PDS Call for UN and OSCE talist austerity government last year to (in the U.S., the International Socialist ers to call for an end to the war. Intervention Is a Social-Chauvinist Fig appease its restive working-class base, Organization) hailed the capitalist coun­ Across West Europe, hundreds of thou­ Leaf for Imperialist Attack!" and "PDS Rifondazione Comunista (RC) now pos­ terrevolutions in the Soviet Union and sands of workers from the former Yugo­ Sold Out the DDR to the Bourgeoisie of tures as an "antiwar" party. East Europe-beginning with Polish slavia are integrated into the industrial Auschwitz!" While some PDS members At a campus speakout in Naples, our Solidarnosc in the 1980s-which set the proletariat. United with the rest of the went apoplectic, demonstrators snapped comrades exposed this posture, pointing stage for this Balkans war. At a protest proletariat in class struggle against capi­ up copies of Spartakist with its front-page to the unity of RC with the Italian bour­ in Warsaw on March 26, these cheerlead­ talist austerity and imperialist war, they headline, "No Vote for SPD, PDS!" Our geoisie: "When they were in government, ers for Solidarnosc reaction and anti­ can playa powerful role in defeating the placard, "The Red Army and Tito's Parti­ RC buried the crimes of Italian imperial­ communist Polish nationalism screamed, poisonous chauvinism which the social­ sans Smashed the Nazi Wehrmacht!" ism in Somalia and restored the Italian "We already had Moscow, we don't want democratic rulers use to divide the work­ quickly sorted out anti-fascist Slav work­ protectorate over Albania which existed Washington" in an attempt to drown out ers. The German press is whipping up ers from the right-wing Serbian monar­ under Mussolini. They voted for the leg­ our comrades of the Spartakusowska fear and loathing against "the enemy chists in the crowd, islation which imposed detention camp Grupa Pol!;ki as they chanted, "Defend within," the alleged "danger" represented The French Communist Party (PCF), lagers and visa quotas on immigrants." Serbia! Defeat American imperialism by 800,000 Serbs resident in Germany. which is part of the capitalist popular­ Noting Italy's role in the breakup of the and its Polish lackeys!" Never wanting This new racist threat against immigrants front government, also revels in anti­ fonner Yugoslavia, the LTd'I speaker for chutzpah, the fake left's main ban­ spurred interest among protesters in the American chauvinism to alibi its support said: "Italy and Germany were the first to ner at the Warsaw, demonstration was active defense by the ICL and its German to its own ruling class. While condemn­ recognize Croatia. The Pope of counter­ "Make Love, Not, War"-in a country section, the Spartakist Workers Party ing the NATO bombing, PCF leader Rob­ revolution made a saint of the Cardinal of where women's right to abortion and (SpAD), of the Kurdish workers facing ert Hue holds up the imperialist-dictated the Ustasha, which massacred thousands birth control were virtually abolished by mass deportations following the arrest "negotiations," that French farce in of Serbs, Jews and Roma. Rifondazione the Solidarnosc counterrevolution they by Turkey of Kurdistan Workers Party the Rambouillet chateau, as a lost oppor­ seek~ to lay all the blame on American supported! leader Abdullah Ocalan. After buying our tunity for a "political solution to this imperialism. But Italy and Europe are just In London, the British SWP joined paper, one Serbian worker at a Hamburg unbearable conflict." As our comrades in as much enemies of all oppressed peo­ with a, Serb-nationalist contingent out­ protest exclaimed: "You know, for 20 the-LTF wrote in their leaflet, "War is the ples. It was Italy which invented concen­ side 10 Downing Street on March 25, years my co-workers in the plant have continuation of politics and diplomacy by tration camps in Libya, which first used chanting, "Blair and Clinton, wanted for been talking SPD to me. But tomorrow other means: the Rambouillet talks were poison gas against the Ethiopian popula- continued on page 8 2 APRIL 1999 3 France. Spain-Down With Anti-Basque Repression! For the Right of Self·Determination for the Basque People! -PARTONE- dation to nationalism as an ideol­ ogy. In Spain, the polarization along On March 9, as right-wing Span­ nationallines-HB is capable of mo­ ish prime minister Jose Marfa Aznar bilizing a demonstration of 40,000 was being hosted by French Socialist people in the Basque country in prime minister Lionel Jospin, police response to the anti-ETA demonstra­ in Paris staged Ii roundup of support­ tions--can only be overcome by a ers of the separatist Basque Home­ proletarian vanguard actively strug­ land and Freedom (ETA). The arrest gling against national oppression. of Javier Arizcuren-Ruiz (also Without this crucial element, the his­ known as Kantauri), a key leader torical strength of nationalist ideol­ of ETA, along with six supporters, ogy, the enormous weight of brutal provoked massive demonstrations national oppression and the social­ demanding "Independence!" and chauvinism of the Spanish left com­ "General amnesty for ETA prison- bine to drive Basque workers into the arms of the Basque nationalists, who are today the main force in the UBOLCIIEJlldJ region's trade unions. An authen­ tic proletarian leadership fighting ers!" in the Basque country of north­ against the entire capitalist sys­ eastern Spain. tem would unite behind it not only The latest arrests {;ame only six those struggling against national months after ETA declared a unilat­ oppression but also other specially eral truce in its decades-long fight for oppressed sectors-from youth dem­ an independent Basque homeland. In onstrating against "temporary em­ announcing the cease-fire, ETA pro­ ployment agencies" which organize claimed that it was "willing to learn" wage slavery to women activists, from the April 1998 Northern Ire­ Reuters who demonstrated in large num­ land "peace" accords, a reaction­ Tens of thousands march for Basque independence in San Sebastian in Spain, July bers on International Women's Day ary imperialist-imposed deal which 1997, carrying pictures of imprisoned ETA supporters. [1998] against anti-women violence. maintains the subjugation of the Marxists fight to have the national oppressed Catholic minority there and tenced to seven years in prison for the courses on the Basque people's right to question taken "off the agenda" in order mandates the continued presence of the "crime" of distributing a propaganda self-determination. Their obfuscation and to lay bare the fundamental class reality British military. video by ETA. contradictions are dictated by the funda­ that Basque workers and capitalists have Aznar hailed "Franco-Spanish cooper­ As Marxist-Leninists, we defend the mental support to the repressive Spanish counterposed interests. The Basque bour­ ation in the fight against terrorism." Basque people's elementary democratic state, expressed in their tailing of the pop­ geoisie, which increasingly looks be­ Indeed, for years France has collaborated right of self-determination, including ular front. yond Spain, seeks to maximize its free­ with Spain in waging a brutal campaign the right to full independence from the Today, the treacherous leaders of the dom to exploit its "own" working class of repression against Basque militants. French and Spanish states. Hands off the Spanish proletariat such as Julio Anguita (for example, in the demand for "auton­ Many Basque militants have been de­ leaders of HB! of the Communist Party (CP) make com­ omy in management-worker relations"). ported to Spain, where torture of "terror­ While Marxists oppose the petty­ mon cause with Franco's heirs against The Basque bourgeoisie also has in­ ist" suspects is routine, and dozens con­ bourgeois strategy of individual terror the Basque nationalists. This is hardly dependent economic interests outside tinue to languish in French prisons. We in the struggle against capitalist oppres­ surprising. The reformist social demo­ Spain, particularly in Latin America. say: Free Javier Arizcuren-Ruiz and all sion, we do so from the standpoint of crats and Stalinists derailed the massive Terrorism is a natural policy for petty­ victims of anti-Basque repression in the class-conscious proletariat, which working-class upsurge that followed the bourgeois nationalists, who have no strat­ France and Spain! uniquely has the social power to over­ deatQ of Franco in 1975 and channeled it egy to mobilize the oppressed masses. We publish below an article written throw the capitalist system on account of into support for the Juan Carlos "reform" While Marxists defend those who target before the recent events, translated from its relationship to the means of produc­ monarchy and the centralist Constitution, the capitalist state against the much Le Bolchevik No. 146 (Summer 1998), tion under capitalism. Nonetheless, when which explicitly denies the right of self­ bloodier terrorism of the state itself, we newspaper of the Ligue Trotskyste- de the oppressed direct their actions against determination for the Basques, Catalans recognize that the nationalists are capable France, section of the International Com­ the bourgeoisie and its state, we defend and others. The Socialist Workers Party of appalling acts of indiscriminate terror­ munist League. them against the retribution of the capi­ (PSOE) and the CP-dominated United ism such as the Hipercor bombing of June talists. The PP is the direct descendant of Left (IU) popular front are signatories to 1987. On that occasion ETA detonated a Alianza Popular, the party led by Franco­ the Pacto de Ajuria Enea, an all-party huge bomb in the Hipercor supermarket * * * ists like Manuel Fraga Iribarne, who device designed to isolate the more mili­ in San Andreu, a working-class suburb of Last July [1997], the long simmering served as minister of the interior under tant nationalists of HB and to combat Barcelona, killing more than 20 people. unrest in the Basque region of northern the Franco dictatorship. The kidnapping ETA. And the PSOE, when it was in Such crimes, like the bombings of pubs in Spain exploded into international promi­ and execution of bourgeois politicians government, set up the Grupos Antiterro­ Ireland, can have no other purpose than nence as vast reactionary demonstrations and industrialists are ultimately futile ristas de Liberaci6n (GAL) death squads provoking violence between different thronged major Spanish cities following acts but they are not crimes against the to assassinate ETA members in collu­ peoples and feeding the fears and hatreds the kidnapping and shooting of a mi­ working people. sion with the French security forces, inherent in all nationalism. nor bourgeois politician by the Basque A telling indictment of the opportun­ controlled at that time by Mitterrand's Two decades ago the Basque region, separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ism of the Spanish left is its capitulation Socialist Party. and especially its proletariat, was in the (ETA-Basque Homeland and Freedom). to the hysterical witchhunt against ETA, Defense of the Basque nationalists vanguard of militant struggle against the In the space of a few days, around six mil­ and that it limits itself to empty dis- in no way implies the slightest accommo- decrepit Franco dictatorship. In 1970, lion people joined protests against the international protests against the Burgos killing of Miguel Angel Blanco Garrido, trials of ETA militants forced the blood­ a town councilman from the ruling Popu- Basque region spans the border between soaked regime to commute the death Spain and France. ICL calls for right of . lar Party (PP) of Jose Marfa Aznar. In sentences passed on six of the defen­ Madrid, Bilbao and elsewhere, represen­ self-deter",ination of Basque people in both countr~ies. dants. At the time, ETA was popular tatives of the right-wing government among Spanish workers, many of whom marched hand in hand with leaders of the supported the cause of Basque and Cata­ Socialist and Communist parties and the lan self-determination. Likewise, the trade unions. Spanish left protested the anti-ETA The Aznar government has used the repression and formally supported the climate of anti-ETA hysteria to reinforce right of Basque independence. its draconian "anti-terrorist" legislation, aimed at crushing the Basque independ­ The National Question and ence movement's decades-long resistance Bourgeois Revolutions to Castilian-centered bureaucratic domi­ Today, there is a veritable propaganda nation and repression. Shortly after the industry in France whose role is to shooting of Blanco Garrido, 23 leaders of SPAIN spread the idea that, even in the imperial­ Herri Batasuna (HB), a petty-bourgeois ist epoch, the French state stands on the nationalist coalition which is seen as the values of the 1789 Revolution. Within political wing of ETA, were each sen- continued on page J 1 4 WORKERS VANGUARD Balkans ... ~ (continued from page 1) Kosc)vo Albanian European powers, were in a sense the nationalists have first battles of World War I. Now, a front­ become pawns page editorial in the leading Italian of U.S./NATO newspaper La Repubblica, quoted in the imperialists. New York Times (26 March), declares British and darkly: "The war between Serbia and French foreign NATO for Kosovo is forcing us into a ministers greet kind of 'great leap backward' toward U.S. Secretary of places, tensions, fears that history had State Albright at Rambouillet seemed to have left behind forever: war "peace" talks in the Balkans, Russia's return to the lan­ which paved way guage of the cold war." for NATO terror The NATO attack on Serbia has war against sharply increased tensions between the Serbia. U.S. and Russia, which seeks to reassert its prerevolutionary, tsarist role as the great-power protector of the Serbs. When quest will only be whetted, leading inex­ geois political establishment and mass entire villages in seeking to suppress the Washington peremptorily told Russian orably toward world war, i.e., a struggle media have demonized Milosevic and popular leftist insurgency. prime minister Yevgeny Primakov that it for redivision of the world for eco­ Saddam Hussein. Washington's main jus­ At the time, many liberals and almost was about to proceed with the assault on nomic exploitation and spheres of influ­ tification for U.S.INATO military inter­ all leftists in the U.S. opposed and pro­ Serbia despite Russian protestations, ence. Thus it is in the urgent interest of vention in the Balkans is the charge that tested the military intervention in Central Primakov canceled a state visit with the working class in all countries­ the Serbs were engaging in "genocide" America, including the economic block­ Clinton in mid-flight and ordered his especially workers in the U.S., who have against the Bosnian Muslims and now the ade of Sandinista Nicaragua, carried out plane to turn around. And while most been used as expendable cannon fodder Albanian Kosovars. Like all bourgeois­ by the Republican ReaganlBush admin­ NATO allies have for now fallen in line in two world wars and in the counterrev­ nationalist despots, Saddarn Hussein and istrations. But over the Balkans today, behind the U.S., both Greece and Italy­ olutionary wars in Korea and Vietnam­ Milosevic keep themselves in power it is the liberals and many leftists who site of 14 NATO air bases which are the to oppose by words and deeds the war through the murderous repression of are the most vocal anti-Serb hawks, main platform for the air war against aims of all the members of the NATO minority peoples as well as of their while elements of the Republican Party Serbia-have already called for a halt to have voiced opposition to the Kosovo the bombing campaign. Meanwhile, in adventure. marked contrast to the 1991· Gulf War Rabidly right-wing Republican Con­ against Iraq, the· U.S. ostentatiously gressional leader Tom Delay called shunted aside the UN even as a fig leaf Clinton's "peace" plan for Kosovo a "big in launching the war against Serbia. dangerous quagmire." Such Republicans The destruction of the Soviet Union, have not suddenly developed pacifistic the world's first workers state, ushered in scruples about shedding blood, including a sharp rise in regional wars and particu­ "Human rights" the blood of American youth, for the sake larly in American imperialist military imperialism in of imperialist interests abroad. But they adventures. The post-Soviet world at the EI Salvador. question whether Washington's deepen­ end of the 20th century increasingly U.S~-sponsored ing role in the Balkans really does serve resembles the pre-19l4 world. That death squad the interests of American imperialism. world was destroyed-along with mil­ regime waged war As well, there is concern among capi­ lions of European workers, in and out of extermination against talist spokesmen that any significant of uniform-during the four-year-long leftist/peasant reversals in the Balkans could ignite pub­ slaughter which raged across the conti­ insurgency in lic disaffection with the bourgeois order in nent from the Mediterranean to the North 1980s. the U.S. Among the aims of the broad Sea. World War I marked the first global crackdown on civil liberties, the augmen­ interimperialist conflict, a bloody confir­ tation of the repressive apparatus of the mation that capitalism had outlived any state exemplified by the "war on drugs" progressive role. and the all-sided bourgeois reaction of Bolshevik leader V. I. Lenin called on alliance in this undeclared war on Serbia. "own" workers and peasants. But they recent years has been the ideological reg­ the workers to turn that imperialist war Down with U.S. imperialism! Hands off are no different or worse in this respect imentation of the population in prepara­ into a civil war in all the bel1igerent coun­ Serbia! For workers revolution! than American client states like Zionist tion for increased imperialist aggression tries. The Russian Social Democratic As we wrote at the time of the Israel, Turkey and Croatia. around the world. But the continuing Labor Party (Bolsheviks) in Russia fol­ U.S.INATO air attacks against the Bos­ The Israeli state was formed through impact of the "Vietnam syndrome"­ lowed this course of struggle, which nian Serbs in 1995 (WV No. 629, 22 the mass expUlsion of the Palestinian engendered by U.S. imperialism's humil­ resulted in the October Revolution of September 1995): Arabs from their ancestral homeland, iating defeat at the hands of the Indo­ 1917 that smashed the capitalist state and "The new Balkan wars are both the prod­ and the Zionists have since trampled chinese workers and peasants in the took revolutionary Russia out of the uct of the counterrevolutionary destruc­ underfoot the Palestinians crammed into 1970s-is evident in the failure of the imperialist carnage. tion of the Soviet bloc and an arena for the West Bank and Gaza. The govern­ the intensified interimperialist rivalries American population to rally behind the We are not now in another interimperi­ of the post-Soviet world .... ment of Turkey-the southeast bastion of war against Serbia even at the outset. alist war, but the bombing of tiny "As on the eve of World War I, the Bal­ NATO-has carried out a 14-year war Serbia-whose population is barely more kans have once again become the powder against the oppressed Kurdish population Capitalist Counterrevolution than that of New York City-by the keg of Europe. This bloody conflict that has left some 30,000 dead, totally Ignites New Balkan Wars biggest and most arrogant military power points to the need for Trotskyist parties, destroyed 3,500 villages and forced more The Socialist Federal Republic of built in the struggle of the International than three million Kurds to flee their Yugoslavia was born out of World War II, on earth is an ominous escalation in Communist League to reforge the Fourth U.S. imperialist aggression which wilJ International, to fight against the imperi­ homes. when Tito's Communist Partisans suc­ increase the deepening divisions between alist war criminals who have the power With massive U.S. and German mili­ cessfully battled the occupying Nazi the major competing capitalist powers, to destroy civilization if not humanity tary and financial aid, the Croa­ German Wehrrnacht as well as the fas­ bringing the threat of a new war closer. itself." thtn regime of Franjo Tudjman-which cist Ustasha and Serbian royalist Chet­ As Marxists, we oppose the predatory openly proclaims its continuity with the niks. Emerging from the war with aggression of the U.S. ruling class "Human Rights" Hypocrisy fascist Ustasha puppet state set up by immense popular and moral authority, against Serbia. Without revolutionary To gain public support at home for the the Nazi occupation forces in World the Yugoslav Stalinists socialized the opposition to these war moves, U.S. military attacks and economic warfare War II-drove out 300,000 Serbs in 1995 economy-albeit in a bureaucratically imperialism's appetite for broader con- against the Serbs and Iraqis, the bour- from lands where their forebears had controlled and deformed manner--creat­ lived for centuries, by far the" biggest sin­ ing the multinational Yugoslav deformed gle act of "ethnic cleansing" in the wars workers state in the name ofthe "brother­ precipitated by the breakup of Yugosla­ hood and unity" of the working people. ISPARTACJSTI~.....-BJITIOII .-- ~ ...-....ISPARTACJSTI~ ...... ~ via. "We have resolved the Serbian ques­ Yet the socialist and democratic ideals _0 ...... -- tion," Todjman declared, invoking the to which the Tito regime publicly language of Nazi Germany. appealed were undermined and ultimately However, the crimes of Tudjman, Mil­ discredited by the bureaucratic deforma­ osevic and the other contending Balkan tions and the inherent limitations of Sta­ nationalist chieftains pale in comparison linism, with its program of building with the crimes of American imperialism, "socialism in one country." Only the which is truly the main enemy of the extension of proletarian revolution to the world's people. It is in a sense fitting th,at advanced capitalist countries of West Washington's main man in Kosovo, Wil­ Europe could provide the economic basis liam Walker, is a certified war criminal for genuine national equality in the rela­ Organizational Rules and Guidelines responsible for the killing of hundreds of tively impoverish~d Balkans. Instead, IIIIonIatIHaJ ~ I.oIpo (FtwIIo...... , thousands of Central American workers, Tito introduced "market socialism," which ----- peasants and leftists. In the 1980s, Walker opened Yugoslavia to imperialist eco­ Revolutionary Regroupment or nomic penetration and reinforced dispar­ Centrist Ak:hemy? was a key operative in the U.S.-organized su. PAlla" r~",,~~~~-;~ contra war against the left-nationalist ities among the various regions, fueling .... ____ ...... _.. c_ c_ •. _ .. ' ~-- .. _.... - "'-". ---- Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. He was resurgent nationalism. No. 53, Summer 1997, $1.50 (56 pages) No. ~4, Spring 1998, $2 (48 pages) then appointed ambassador to El Salva­ Especially after Tito's death in 1980, dor, where the army and paramilitary the Yugoslav Stalinist bureaucracy in­ Make checks payable/mail to death squads (along with some 6,000 creasingly fractured along national lines. Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO. New York, NY 10116 clandestine U.S. troops) exterminated continued on page 6 2 APRIL 1999 5 Kosovo, the consequences could be even Balkans ... more disastrous. In initially arguing (continued from page 5) against U.S. military intervention, Viet­ nam War criminal Henry Kissinger (who In the late 1980s, the strident nation­ now calls for ground troops) laid out a alist Slobodan Milosevic, who took over worst-case, but quite plausible, scenario: the Serbian League of Communists, "An independent Albanian Kosovo surely trampled on Tito's carefully balanced would seek to incorporate the neighbor­ national arrangements, beginning with a ing Albanian minorities-mostly in Mac­ violent attack on the Albanians of Koso­ edonia-and perhaps even Albania itself. vo. Milosevic's drive for a "Greater Ser­ And a Macedonian conflict would land us bia," in turn, reinforced anti-Communist precisely back in the Balkan wars of ear­ nationalism in Croatia and Slovenia, the lier in this century" (Washington Post, 22 wealthier, traditionally Roman Catholic February). republics of northern Yugoslavia, which had formerly been part of the German American "Superpower" sphere of influence. Arrogance and The terminal crisis of Titoist Yugosla­ the New World Disorder via came in early 1991, as capitalist coun­ agree to the massive bombing of the Bos­ Serbia against imperialist attack. Indeed, Like the monarchical rulers of Serbia terrevolution swept across East Europe, nian Serbs in 1995, Clinton cut a deal the UCK's basic strategy has been to in the pre-World War I era, Milosevic when newly elected right-wing national­ with Milosevic (the Dayton Accords) for bring about a level of armed conflict suf­ looks to Russia to be Serbia's great­ ist governments in Croatia and Slovenia the NATO occupation and de facto parti­ ficient to induce the Americans to inter­ power protector. For their part, Rus­ declared secession from the federated tion of Bosnia. vene on its behalf. sian nationalist politicians of all stripes state. While the U.S., Britain and France We warned at the time: "The U.S.­ While the interests of U.S. imperialism ritually voice sympathy for "our little initially made a halfhearted diplomatic imposed pact and NATO occupation will and the Kosovo Albanian nationalists Serb brothers" and denounce American effort to preserve a unified Yugoslavia as produce yet more bloodshed, while fur­ now coincide, they are not the same. The "aggression" in the Balkans. However, a capitalist state, the newly unified Ger­ ther hardening nationalist hatreds among basic aim of the American ruling class is Russia's new capitalist rulers are not only man Fourth Reich moved in to steamrol­ the South Slav peoples" (WV No. 634, to weaken and humiliate Milosevic-pos­ deeply in debt to the bankers of Wall ler its European allies into recognizing 1 December 1995). The imperialist occu­ sibly to topple him-but not to establish. Street and Frankfurt, but most of their the independence of Slovenia and Cro­ pation of Bosnia set into motion devel­ an independent Albanian Kosovo or money is invested in Western financial atia. The U.S. then joined Germany in opments leading to the current crisis over strengthen the forces of Albanian nation­ markets. Consequently, Moscow's actual throwing its weight behind an inde­ Kosovo, a crisis of much greater magni­ alism elsewhere in the Balkans. Hence role in the wars of ex-Yugoslavia has pendent Bosnia under the leadership of tude and potentially far graver historical ClintoJl called for NATO forces to occupy been playing "soft cop" toward the Serbs Muslim nationalist forces. The drive of consequences. Kosovo and run it as an "autonomous" on behalf of the Americans and Germans. German imperialism to restore its sphere province. However, the legal fiction As a former member of Milosevic's inner of influence in the northern Balkans is not Washington's Kosovo would be maintained that Kosovo is still Adventure circle put it: "Russia is a poor cousin who simply motivated by historical sentiment part of the Serbian state. Thus Washing­ calculates her own interests" (London or a desire for revenge. This region con­ We called for the right of national self­ ton would have the option of returning Financial Times, 22 March). tains a wealth of minerals of strategic determination for the Albanians of Kosovo to actual Serbian rule if Milo­ But the relatively pro~Western Yel­ importance to German industry. Kosovo--who make up 90 percent of its sevic or, more likely, a successor chose to tsinlPrimakov regime could well be dis­ The Serbs were not only the largest population-long before their cause become an American client regime a few placed by more extreme nationalists wait­ nationality in pre-1991 Yugoslavia but became fashionable among Western lib­ years down the road. ing in the wings. In any case, the Western also the most geographically dispersed. erals and leftists. In the mid-1970s, when imperialists understand that the current A quarter of the Serb population lived national conflicts and tensions were social, economic and political disintegra­ outside its own national republic, mainly increasingly manifest in Tito's Yugo­ tion of post-Soviet Russia-which still in Croatia and Bosnia. With the breakup slavia, we wrote: has 7,000 nuclear weapons inherited of Yugoslavia, the large Serbian commu­ "Marxists should, of course, recognize from the USSR-is not likely to be a nities confronted a hostile Croatian the rights of the Albanian people of permanent or even long-term condition. national regime in Zagreb and a hostile Kosovo and western Macedonia to fuse with Albania. The border in this region The London Economist (13 March)­ Bosnian Muslim regime in Sarajevo. was established by military conquests of house organ of Anglo-American finan­ Fear of becoming an oppressed minority, the Serb bourgeoisie in 1913 and in no ciers-recently wrote: "Sooner or later combined with chauvinist sentiment for way reflects the national borders of some strong and honest man will pull a Greater Serbia, ignited a new series of Albania. Such a fusion would disrupt neither the geographical nor economic post-Yeltsin Russia together, and another Balkan wars. unity of Yugoslavia." contender for global influence will have These wars have followed the same -"The National Question in reappeared on the scene." basic pattern, first in eastern Croatia, then Yugoslavia: ,Part 2," WV No. Thus the stated differences between Bosnia and now Kosovo: after the Serb 110,21 May 1976 Washington and Moscow over the Bal­ forces initially gained the upper hand, A democratic and progressive solution to kans are not just diplomatic play-acting. U.S. imperialism intervened directly or these national questions would have The U.S. drive to weaken and humiliate indirectly on the side of the anti-Serb required proletarian political revolutions Serbia is in part intended to forestall forces. The U.S. and Germany provided to overthrow the then-ruling Stalinist Russia's re-emergence as a major Euro­ the Tudjman regime with not only large bureaucracies in Yugoslavia, Albania and pean power with its own client states in quantities of modern weaponry but also Bulgaria, leading to a socialist federation the Balkans. Likewise, the recent exten­ high-level training and advisers. This - of the Balkans. Today, we fight for sion of NATO to three states which were enabled the Croatian army in mid-1995, in socialist revolution to overthrow all the formerly part of the Soviet bloc-Poland, league with NATO's air assault, to rout bourgeois-nationalist regimes in the AP Milosevic rose to power by pushing Hungary and the Czech Republic-is the Serb forces and then undertake region, from Tudjman's Croatia to Milo­ virulent Serb chauvinism. Serbian intended to intimidate and contain Rus­ wholesale "ethnic cleansing." At the same sevic's Serbia. tank in Kosovo flies flag of World sia. There is now speCUlation that in time, the U.S. covertly funded and armed But in the present conditions of capi­ War II Chetnik reactionaries. response the Russian military might Islamic fundamentalist killers in Bosnia, talist counterrevolution and imperialist move nuclear missiles into Belarus, a including mtijahedin cutthroats who had intervention, national conflicts in the However, this military adventure could small state directly bordering Poland. fought in Afghanistan. Balkans have had a reactionary character blow up big time in the face of U.S. . And no one should doubt that Pentagon Washington used the three-sided com~ on all sides. Thus the Albanian separa­ imperialism. That's why there's signifi­ strategists have maintained and updated munalist bloodletting in Bosnia to reposi­ tists of the Kosovo Liberation Army cant opposition, or at least reservations, their plans for nuclear war with Russia. tion itself vis-a-vis the main West Euro­ (UCK), adhering to the murderous logic within American ruling circles, espe­ While Clinton triumphantly proclaims pean states. The U.S. sabotaged a of bourgeois nationalism, have carried cially among more right-wing elements. that the bombing of Serbia demon­ number of "peace" plans put forward by out indiscriminate attacks on Serbian vil­ Republican Senator and presidential strates the unprecedented "unity" be­ the European Union which would have lages. Moreover, with direct U.S.INATO aspirant John McCain, who was a navy tween the U.S. and its European NATO involved the introduction of European, intervention on the side of the Kosovo pilot in the Vietnam War, argues: "These allies, the Kosovo adventure takes place but not American, forces into the former Albanians in recent months, the ques­ bombs are not going to do the job.... against a background of increasing ten­ Yugoslav republic. After Washington suc­ tion of national self-determination has You're just going to solidify the determi­ sions between the U.S. and the West ceeded in getting its European "allies" to become subordinated to the defense of nation of the Serbs to resist a peace European states, as well as Japan and agreement" (New York Times, 25 March). China. A Congressional vote to impose Clinton is gambling that the bombing stiff quotas on steel imports-particu~ will induce Milosevic to allow the NATO larly aimed at Japan, Russia and Bra­ occupation of Kosovo. But what if the zil-came only days before the U.S. Serbs hang tough? Macedonia, where launched its war on Serbia. A recent Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League upwards of 10,000 NATO troops­ cover of the Economist depicted a car­ including a fresh contingent of U.S. toon of two dogs snarling at one another o $10/22 issues of Workers Vanguard 0 New 0 Renewal forces-are in place along the border above the caption, "America and Europe (includes English-language Spartacist and Black History and the Class Struggle) with Kosovo, has already been rocked by discuss their differences." international rates: $25/22 issues-Airmail $10/22 issues-Seamail violent protests against the U.S. attack. In the past few weeks, the U.S. has o $2/6 introductory issues of Workers Vanguard (includes English-Iang'uage Spartacist) For now, all but a handful of the most imposed :punitive tariffs against the o $2/4 issues of Espartaco (en espanol) (includes Spanish-languageSpartacist) rabid anti-Serb hawks in the U.S. and European Union in a longstanding dis­ West Europe have ruled out a NATO pute over Caribbean banana exports and Name ______ground invasion of Kosovo. The longer threatened further sanctions in retaliation Address ______the bombing continues, the more likely it against a European ban on hormone­ will produce sharp divisions between the treated beef from the U.S. The grow­ Apt. # Phone ( __ ) ______U.S. and European governments .and ing tensions between the U.S. and

City State lip ______-:= within the ruling classes of the NATO West Europe were also evident in the 710 member states. And if Milosevic buckles uproar in Germany over the execu­ Make checks payable/mail to: Spartaclst Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 under and lets the Americans take over tion of two German nationals in Arizona 6 WORKERS VANGUARD last month and, even more sharply, in the against such yahoos, liberals usually force. Marxists understand that in reality U.S.INATO terror bombing of Serbia. public outrage in Italy provoked by a U.S. argued that the interests of American for­ the American state is a dictatorship of the The same holds for other left groups, military court's acquittal of an Air Force - eign policy were better served by diplo­ bourgeoisie, an instrument of bloody some of which claim to be Trotskyist. A pilot who sent 20 people plunging to macy and economic aid. However, since repression through which American cap­ prime example in the U.S. is Socialist their deaths in a cable car in the Italian the end of the Cold War, liberals along italists maintain their exploitation of Action. Since Socialist Action professes Alps during a training flight last year. with many self-described leftists have working people in this country and to oppose American imperialism in prin­ The U.S. bureau chief for La Repuh­ become the most strident advocates of around the globe. ciple, it absurdly claims that U.S.INATO blica expressed "the feeling that the U.S. military action to bring "democracy Nonetheless, a number of groups intervention is aimed at strengthening United States-'the only surviving super- and human rights" to the rest of the which claim to be Marxist are in fact the Serbs against the Kosovo Albani­ . power,' as we are so often told-acts world. . advocates of "human rights" imperialism. ans! "Imperialists Step Up Pressure on more and more unilaterally and capri­ Nowhere is this clearer than in the Prominent among these is the Interna­ Kosovo Rebels," Socialist Action (Febru­ ciously, whether it is attacking Saddam case of the Balkans. The very same day tional Socialist Organization (ISO). Basi­ ary 1999) informs us, while an article in Hussein or judging a low-flying pilot" that Kissinger published his piece, "No cally, the ISO seeks to attract young lib­ the March issue asserts that "the West­ (New York Times, 6 March). U.S. Ground Forces for Kosovo," the erals by presenting itself as more ern powers will continue to bring the The NATO bombing of Serbia also maximum pressure to bear on the Koso­ takes place at a time of growing Ameri­ var delegation to get them to accept can belligerence toward China, the last terms that will meet Milosevic's political major bureaucratically deformed workers conditions." state remaining in the world. Washington Reading this, someone who knew is making a big brouhaha about China nothing about what was happening in the supposedly "stealing" U.S. military Balkans would assume that the U.S. was secrets. While the Stalinist bureaucrats in now bombing the Albanian Kosovars Beijing, as part of their headlong drive with the support of the Serbs. In fact, toward capitalist restoration, remain Clinton convinced the Kosovo Albanian desirous of doing lucrative business nationalists to sign the Rambouillet deals with American and other capital­ agreement in order to provide a diplo­ ists, they are resentful and to a degree matic pretext for attacking Milosevic's fearful of America's self-appointed role Serbia, which is what the UCK wanted, as cops of the world. The People's Daily as it railed even against Clinton's pre­ (25 March), organ of the ruling Chinese tense of seeking a last-minute deal with Communist Party, accused NATO of Belgrade to avert the bombing. "flagrantly using barbaric military force The leaders of Socialist Action are not to interfere in Yugoslavia," and China naive or ignorant, just cynical and dishon­ joined Russia in voting against the est. They know full well that the Ko­ NATO bombing. in the UN Security sovo Albanian separatists are the strong­ Council. Such actions are, to be sure, an est supporters of U.S'/NATO air strikes impotent form of diplomatic protest. But against Serbia and of NATO occupation they signal the potential for major and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich of Kosovo. If Socialist Action is serious bloody conflicts in the Far' East in the Leadership of World War II Communist Partisans was drawn from the many about squaring its "anti-imperialist" pre­ not-so-distant future. nationalities making up Yugoslavia. Tito (second from left), who was from tensions with its line on Kosovo, try car­ Meanwhile, Germany and Japan are Croatia, pictured with Siovenian, Serbian and Montenegrin Communists. rying signs reading "Down With U.S . rearming apace and have thrown off their . Imperialism!" in the pro~bombing dem­ post-WW II bans against engaging in left-liberal Nation (22 February) ran an consistent and militant supporters of lib­ onstrations currently being staged by sup­ military actions abroad. German imperi­ editorial demanding: eral principles than the Clinton White porters of the Albanians in the U.S.! alism, under a Social Democratic/Green "If Milosevic fails to agree to autonomy House and Democratic Party in general. At bottom, the fake-socialist reformists coalition government, is gloating that its pending a binding referendum [on inde­ Its criticism of Clinton's policy in the embrace the liberal view that the "demo­ fighter jets are taking part in the air war pendence], he should be told that cratic" capitalist state can serve the inter­ Kosovo's independence will be recog­ Balkans is substantially identical to that against Serbia, its first combat role since nized forthwith and that the Kosovars of the Nation, that the U.S. should wrest ests of working people and the oppressed World War II. Coincidentally, Japanese will get military aid to secure and defend Kosovo from the Serbs and give it to the and that imperialism is a policy which, warships last week fired on two boats, it. In either case, any ultimatum should Albanians. The ISO's Socialist Worker can be changed under pressure. World described as North Korean, in interna­ order the complete withdrawal of Ser­ (12 March) states: "The U.S.-backed War I, the first global interimperialist tional waters. While the incident itself bian forces from the province and the conflagration, laid bare such illusions insertion of an international military and 'peace' plan won't bring peace in Kosovo was relatively minor, it was likewise the police force." because it doesn't deal with the roots of promoted by the likes of German Social first time since World War II that Japa­ While the Nation's bellicose line on the conflict-the demand of the Albanian Democrat Karl Kautsky. Writing at the nese imperialism had deployed naval Kosovo represents a shift from its more majority for independence." height of that imperialist slaughter, Bol­ destroyers on a military mission. pacifistic posture in the past, it is none­ To be sure, the ISO stops short of out­ shevik leader V. I. Lenin noted in "Social­ theless entirely consistent with its liberal right support for U.S.INATO military ism and War" (1915) that with the con­ Liberals, Fake Lefts Spearhead outlook. A central premise of liberalism action against Serbia. But the reason centration of capital in vast, powerful "Human Rights" Imperialism is that the existing American state repre­ these left social democrats give for monopolies, "Send in the marines!" "Bomb 'em sents the democratic will of its citizens. opposing the bombing is merely tactical, "Almost the entire globe has been divided up among the 'lords of capital' back to the stone age!" For decades these Consequently, the American state-the claiming that it "will only make a tense either in the form of colonies, or by slogans were associated with the most U.S. armed forces being at its core­ situation worse-and undermine oppo­ entangling other countries in thousands right-wing, flag-waving, foam-flecked should extend the benefits of democracy nents of Milosevic's war machine in Ser­ of threads of financial exploitation .... supporters of American imperialism. As to the rest of the world, if necessary by bia." Thus the ISO depicts Milosevic and Formerly 'progressive, capitalism has become reactionary; it has developed the his "war machine" as the mai~enemy in forces of production to such a degree the Balkans conflict, not U.S. i~perial­ that mankind is faced with the alternative ism and its infinitely more powerful, of adopting socialism or of experiencing International Communist League nuclear-armed war machine. At protests years and even decades of armed strug­ in the U.S., the ISO has carried signs gle between the 'Great' Powers for the (Fourth Internationalist) artificial preservation of capitalism by pleading with Clinton to "Stop the Bomb­ International Center: Box 7429 GPO, New York, NY 10116, USA means of colonies, monopolies, privi­ ing." But logically, if the NATO forces leges and national oppression of every Spartacist League of Australia ...... 'Spartacist League, GPO Box 3473 invaded Serbia, overthrew Milosevic and kind." Sydney, NSW, 2001, Australia replaced him with a puppet regime Today, capitalism's ineluctable drive Spartacist League/Britain ...... Spartacist Publications, PO Box 1041 which granted "independence" to Ko­ toward ever more and wider wars threat­ London NW5 3EU, England sovo, 'the ISO should support such an ens the nuclear annihilation of all human­ Trotskyist League of Canada/ action. The core point is that by demoniz­ ity. We of the International Communist Ligue trotskyste du Canada ...... Trotskyist League, Box 7198, Station A Toronto, Ontario, M5W 1X8, Canada ing Milosevic as the main enemy of League fight for new October Revolu­ "peace and democracy" in the Balkans, tions, the only way to end once and for all . Spartakist-Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands .... SpAD, Postfach5 55 10127 Berlin, Germany the ISO serves as a left apologist for the the war-driven world capitalist system._ Dublin Spartacist Group ...... PO Box 2944, Dublin 1 Republic of Ireland Ligue trotskyste de France ...... Le Bolchevik, B.P. 135-10 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;'~~i1IIIIIIIIiIIII,1 ~PARTACJST)i!,t@@i ;;; 75463 Paris Cedex 10, France Spartacist Group India/Lanka...... write to Spartacist, New York Spartacist pamphlet Lega trotskista d'italia ...... Walter Fidacaro C.P. 1591, 20101 Milano, Italy How the Soviet Workers Howtbe Spartacist Group Japan ...... Spartacist Group Japan State Was Strangled Soviet Workers State PO Box 49, Akabane Yubinkyoku Kita-ku, Tokyo 115, Japan Also includes: Was Strangled Grupo Espartaquista de Mexico ...... J. Vega, Apdo. Postal 1251 Stalin Drowned the Admon. Palacio Postal 1 Communist Party of Lenin C.P. 06002, Mexico D.F., Mexico and Trotsky in Blood Spartacist/Moscow ...... write to Le Bolchevik, Paris Spartakusowska Grupa Polski ...... Platforma Spartakusowcow Skrytka Pocztowa 148 $2 (64 pages) 02-588 Warszawa 48, Poland Order from/ Spartacist/South Africa ...... : . . .. Spartacist, PostNet Suite 248 make checks payable to: Private Bag X2226 Spartacist Publishing. Co. Johannesburg 2000, South Africa Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 Spartacist League/U.S ...... : Spartacist League, Box 1377 GPO New York, NY 10116, USA

2 APRIL 1999 7 the cause of the oppressed, rather than acting as job-trusting bureaucrats and Oakland ... labor cops for the capitalists, holding (continued from page.. 12) down and dividing up the ranks as the mayor Jerry Brown, a former Democratic sellout labor officialdom does today." Party governor, and t~e Alameda mayor -"L.A. Upheaval Shakes were quick to welcome this militarized America," WV No. 551, 13 May 1992 exercise in state terror. The military brass claims that these exercises are not for domestic use but to Capitalists Strengthen train for foreign "humanitarian" mis­ Repressive Machinery sions, among which they included the The L.A. upheaval confirmed the invasions of Somalia and Haiti. In 1993, bourgeoisie's fears that the everyday U.S. imperialist troops invaded Somalia racist brutality of its increasingly bona­ under the guise of providing "humanitar­ partist police may be insufficient to con­ ian" famine aid. They massacred hun­ tain future sochil explosions as the gap dreds of men, women and children until grows between the tiny handful of the the poorly armed Somalis fought back, very rich and the ever expanding ranks of shooting down three Black Hawk heli­ the desperately poor. Over the past two copters and killing 20 U.S. soldiers. • decades, and particularly as interimperial­ While most of the left bought into the ist competition has escalated following WVPhoto humanitarian scam, from the beginning New York City, May 1992. Capitalist rulers were shaken as South Central L.A. the restoration of capitalism in the former the Spartacist League called for "U.S.! erupted in outrage over acquittal of sadistic racist cops who beat Rodney Soviet Union, the bourgeoisie has moved UN troops out of Somalia now!" Now in King and protests spread across the country. to squeeze ever more profits from work­ the Balkans, the U.S. and its NATO allies ers by driving down living standards, cynically claim humanitarian concerns as and Latinos but also a significant number L.A. unions, from the centrally important while writing off whole layers of the they rain bombs and missiles on Serbia in of poor white youth, cutting -across the longshoremen at the L.A. and Long ghetto poor as a "surplus popUlation." pursuit of their imperialist aims. racial divisions fomented by the capital­ Beach ports to Teamster truckers and Recent years have ~een the wholesale The real impetus for Urban Warrior is ists to maintain their class rule-deeply transit workers, to organize work stop­ destruction of social welfare programs the 1992 Los Angeles upheaval sparked frightened the bourgeoisie. National pages and mass mobilizations in defense benefiting the poor. This has been accom­ by the acquittal of the sadistic racist cops Guard, Army and Marine units were of the besieged ghetto and barrio masses, panied by a massive expansion of the cap­ caught on videotape beating Rodney called out to occupy South Central L.A.; demanding the withdrawal of cops and italist machinery of state repression. King. Outrage at that hideous injustice thousands were arrested and hundreds of troops. As we wrote at the time: Marine Corps Commandant General and the broad national sympathy for the immigrants deported. "The impoverished residents of the ghet­ Charles C. Krulak declaims that future L.A. protesters cast a spotlight on the Hours after the police-state occupa­ tos and barrios lack the class conscious­ battles will be fought in the "urban can­ deep fissures and widespread discontents tion had begun, the Partisan Defense ness and social power to move from yons" formed by high-rise buildings. protest to the struggle for state power. To at the base of American society. This Committee-a legal and social defense bring down this racist system requires And in a recent article in Armed Forces explosion of anger-and particularly the organization allied with the Spartacist the leadership of a fighting, multiracial Journal International (quoted in the fact that it encompassed not only blacks League-issued a call on the powerful workers movement that truly champions San Francisco Guardian, 10 March),

ism-whether it is racial, national or with the Serbs. Showing a left face to pulls of revolution and counterrevolu­ leL Protests ... women's oppression-has suddenly dis­ these large protests, PO's youth group tion ... only to collapse into the camp of (continued from page 3) covered Serbian oppression of the Ko­ added the slogan, "Defeat the NATO pro-imperialist counterrevolution. It's sovo Albanians in order to pass off attack against Serbia and Montenegro." been a hard lurch to the right since, par~ murder." As our comrades in the Sparta­ French military intervention as "humani­ But in Austria-a historic foe of Ser­ ticularly with the Yeltsinite counterrevo­ cist LeaguelBritain wrote in their leaflet, tarian." La writes: "The population of bia-the WP affiliate displayed a war lust lution in the Soviet Union which WP sup­ "These were the 'socialists' who were Albanian origin would perhaps be tempo­ that would put Bill Clinton to shame, ported. In the early 1990s, WP campaigned 'over the moon' when Blair was elected." rarily relieved from the crimes committed unabashedly siding with the imperialists for "Workers Aid to Bosnia," which we SWP members horrified at the brutality of by the Serbian troops; however their aspi­ against Serbia. Complaining about the nailed at the time as "a stalking horse for war in the Balkans might cast their eyes rations would not be satisfied" (Lutte delayed onset of bombing due to the NATO intervention" against the Serbs on across the Irish Sea and ask why their Ouvriere, 26 March). Not to be outdone, peace talks in Rambouillet, they scorned behalf of the Bosnian Muslim regime party refuses to oppose the prese,nce of Alain Krivine's Ligue Communiste Rev­ the "humiliating retreat of the U.S. (WV No. 604, 5 August 1994). This sor­ bloody British troops in Northern Ireland! olutionnaire (LCR) carried a banner at and Britain on air attacks against the did episode prepared WP's overt support The ICL stands in the tradition of V. I. a March 26 demonstration reading: Serbs" and complained, "Despite the war­ to imperialist war moves in the Balkans Lenin, who sharply broke with the Sec­ "Neither .Milosevic nor NATO: Self­ like uproar of U.S. secretary of state today. "Human rights" imperialism? Tell ond International of social-chauvinism Determination for Kosovo!" The previous Madeleine Albright, in all probability not it to the Serbian women and children and reactionary patriotism at the onset of day, Krivine thundered, "The Belgrade one house will be bombed to bits-at bombed out of their homes, or the Alba­ World War I. Lenin's "Socialism and regime must be isolated and the Kosovo least on the Serbian side" (Arbeiterlnnen­ nian refugees fleeing the war zone to War," a powerful handbook of revolu­ people must be given all the means, standpunkt, March 1999)! Capitulating to NATO countries which won't let them in! tionary internationalism written in 1915 including military means, to defend their the large PDS-run rallies, German Work­ ICL sections far and wide, including in and circulated clandestinely to workers lives and impose their freedom." The ers Power states, "We defend Serbia countries removed from the immediate and soldiers throughout Europe in the unity between these hypocrites posturing and Montenegro unconditionally against conflict, have agitated against this war as crucible of war, teaches: as an "antiwar" movement and the impe­ "The standpoint of social-chauvinism is NATO attacks"-while then urging sup­ revolutionary internationalists. Speakouts shared equally by both advocates of vic­ rialist warmongers themselves couldn't port to the Kosovo Albanian national­ at the UNAM campus in Mexico City tory for their governments in the present be clearer. ists ... who explicitly call for the introduc- have exposed U.S. "human rights" hypoc­ war and by advocates of the slogan of War tests the backbone of revolution­ . tion of NATO ground troops against risy in the Balkans by pointing to the real­ 'neither victory nor defeat: A revolution­ ary parties and their willingness to with­ Serbia! . ity of Yankee imperialist oppression ary class cannot but wish for the defeat of its government in a reactionary war, and stand the pressure of social-chauvinism. An LRCI statement distributed at a throughout Latin America. Our comrades cannot fail to see that the latter's military Imperialist bombardment of the Balkans public meeting in London on March 30 in South Africa organized a speakout at reverses must facilitate its overthrow." has revealed the British centrist Workers ludicrously claims to be simultane­ Witwatersrand University and brought Lenin stressed that in the case of an Power (WP) group to have crushed ously for and against the Serbs in reac­ the lessons home. Against illusions fos­ imperialist war against a small or semi­ vertebrae. Grotesquely equating the Ser­ tion to the NATO attack: "In Serbia and tered by the South African Communist colonial people, it is the duty ofihe work­ bian victims of _murderous NATO air Montenegro-though not in Kosova Party (SACP), whose only objection to ing class not only to fight for the defeat of strikes with the imperialist powers rain­ which they have no right to occupy--we the bombing is that it is not carried out one's "own" government but to defend ing down death and destruction, Workers support the Serbian forces' self-defence under the blue flag of the United Nations, the victims of imperialist aggression. Power (March 1999) declares: "For us, against NATO attack despite the fact that the leaflet issued by our comrades notes: That is why the ICL forthrightly calls for in this conflict, NATO imperialism and the Serbs would not face this attack if "The SACP pushes illusions in the very the defeat of the U.SlNATO imperialists the Serb forces are equally reactionary." they withdrew from Kosova." Their imperialist body whose 'peacekeeping' and for defense of Serbia! We called for Adding to the bourgeoisie's propaganda paper opposition to the NATO bombing operations-from Korea to Congo and Iraq-is a figleaf for imperialist slaugh­ the right of self-determination for the blitz for war in the Balkans, WP writes: is further belied by their statement that ter. ... When this [South African] strike­ Albanian population of Kosovo against "Victory to the Kosovar national libera­ the workers movement "should recog­ breaking capitalist government sent the Serb-chauvinist regime in Belgrade tion struggle!" and calls for "Arms, med­ nise the right of the Kosovars to acquire troops to Lesotho last year, the reformist until the Albanian separatists became ical supplies, food with no strings to the arms and supplies from.whoever is will­ SACP stood four-square behind it. From Angola to the Congo to Libya, bourgeois simply a pawn of NATO's predatory Kosovars!" Their afterthought-"No to ing to give them and also their right nationalists in South Africa and the rest designs. For Marxists, the democratic NATO bombing of Serbia!"-is a thread­ to take full military advantage of the of Africa pr

outfit supported a strike by prison by the Nation of Islam to police housing ers of racist state repression than even its in Harlem now-but there will be!" The guards. In Britain, they argued that all projects. These fake leftists simultane­ Republican predecessors reflects the vicious redbaiting attacks by the rulers "coppers" weren't really "bastards" but ously act as cheerleaders for anti-Asian, absence of a political party that fights for were testimony to their fear of the potent could in fact be a force on the side of the anti-Arab, anti-Semitic black nationalist them. Black people are in their over­ combination of labor, blacks and reds. working class and oppressed if they only demagogues like- Louis Farrakhan and whelming majority working people. They For it is the social power of organized "rebel collectively." Black, Hispanic and Khallid Muhammad in their efforts to need a party that fights for their interests, labor-with its heavy concentration of other residents of New York City got a be exploiters of their "own" communities against strikebreaking and racist terror, black workers-linked to the anger of flavor of such a collective rebellion by in the inner cities while playing the role against ever more grinding exploitation the ghettos and under revolutionary lead­ the cops a few years back when these of·waterboys for the racist, job-trusting and poverty and all-sided oppression­ ership that can and will spell the end of thugs in blue rampaged through the labor bureaucrats. not a party that makes empty promises the rule of capital and its marauding cops streets and subways after being incited at once every four years come election time, in America through victorious proletar­ a City Hall rally by Giuliani as part of Break with the Democrats! but a party that mobilizes laborlblack ian socialist revolution. his bid to take over the mayor's office Build a Workers Party! power in the factories and on the streets. As we wrote in our supplement "Un­ from David Dinkins. At a February 25 press conference They need a party that understands that chain Labor's Power!" (WV No. 673, More recently, the ISO-initiated Cam­ appealing for Clinton to "step up to the the fight against racist oppression means 5 September 1997), written in the wake paign to End the Death Penalty issued a plate and provide leadership" against a fight to get rid of the capitalist ruling of the widely popular strike by Team­ leaflet calling for a March 17 NYC police brutality, Hugh Price, president of class which foments racism to divide the sters at United Parcel Service: protest in defense of former Black Pan­ the National Urban League, lectured that working class and maintain its profits "When those who labor rule, the tremen­ ther Lawrence Hayes with the demand: the Democratic Party president should and class rule. They need a party based dous wealth of this society will be used "Hands off the parole system"! This is a remember that "the very people who have on the understanding that the fundamen­ to provide a decent life for the working call to preserve a system of virtual slav­ stuck with you through thick and thin are tal division in this racist society is not people, the poor, blacks, immigrants, the ery for those released from prison before the primary victims of brutality and by skin color but between two counter­ young, the aged. The fight for black free­ their full term. The Communist Party and abuse" (People's Weekly World, 6 March). posed classes-the small handful who dom will be realized in the overthrow of the rule of American capital. When the Workers World scramble to outdo Sharp­ It is the reality that those blacks who do own all the means of production and the workers have the industrial wealth that ton et al. in sowing deadly illusions that continue to vote overwhelmingly cast vast majority who must sell their labor is now being squeezed out of the working the cops can be tamed through "commu­ their ballots for the Democrats, who ~are power in order to survive. That kind of class for the profits of the bosses, we will nity control" or toothless "civilian review seen as the "lesser evil." But the Demo­ party is a multiracial revolutionary work­ begin to build a plaimed socialist econ­ omy on an international scale. Then we boards." Thus, they too take their place crats are no less a party of racist capital­ ersparty. can right some historical crimes and pay among those who are trying to put a ist "law and order" than the Republicans. Speaking to the thousand-strong rally off some debts, .like some tens of billions "democratic" face on racist capitalist This has been increasingly clear since of black and Hispanic work~rs who had of dollars to the Vietnamese and others "law and order." the election of Clinton, who rode into come out in solidarity with the besieged whose countries have been maimed under Harlem masses in 1964, Spartacist editor the passing treads of American tanks and Socialist Action (March 1999) chimes the White House through open appeals the bombs of American planes. As for in saying: "The protests also provide the to the white racist vote and proceeded to James Robertson described the role of 'compensation' to the people who lined opportunity to begin organizing to get flood the ghettos with tens of thousands the cops in provoking the riots as an their pockets with fat profits while driv­ the cops out of the Black community and more cops and vastly expand the racist excuse to crush the black masses. Noting ing everyone else to ruin, the victorious to establish Black control of the Black death penalty. the attempts by the Democratic Party proletariat can offer to those who don't get in its way that they too will have the community and the police." An example _ That black people vote for a party that city administration to blame communists right to honest labor and will live to see of what Socialist Action is talking about has done more to increase the misery of for stirring up Harlem, he declared, their grandchildren prosper in' a truly are the police auxiliary squads organized the ghetto masses and augment the pow- "Unfortunately there aren't many Reds humane society.". 2 APRIL 1999 11 W'IIIlEIiS ""''''111)

OAKLAND-For four days in March, Chronicle, 17 March). sives, setting fire to one building. Resi­ some 700 U.S. Marines invaded this This military exercise, called "Urban dents of a retirement home watched in heavily black, working-class city and Warrior Advanced Warfighting Experi­ disbelief as explosions blew out win­ its environs. Using attack helicopters, ment," was an ominous display of the dows of a nearby office building. hovercraft and amphibious ships, the state forces to be mobilized against the San Francisco's Presidio, a former Marines made repeated landings at the working class, blacks and all of the army base and now a national park, was former Alameda Naval Air Station. At oppressed in the event of any perceived originally scheduled to be the center of the now-closed Oak Knolls Naval Hos­ challenge to the rule of racist Ameri­ "Urban Warrior" in the Bay Area. But it pital in nearby Oakland, they fired off can capitalism. Oakland is the latest was vetoed by the park service, which 10,000 rounds of blank ammunition and of eight cities to be invaded by the was concerned that the grass would be dozens of "flashbang" grenades in Marines in such exercises. In Texas on trampled! And in Monterey, where "mock" battles not far from residential February 8, with no advance warning "a Marines staged an "occupation" of a neighborhoods and a school. Residents squadron of eight black helicopters fly­ militaI)' intelligence school, a planned were awakened by the sound of auto­ ing at tree top level dropped a team of amphibious landing was forbidden for Frohman/SF Chronicle matic . gunfire and Cobra helicopters elite special operations soldiers into the fear of disrupting the whale migration. U.S. Marines descend on Alameda buzzing overhead at tree-top level. "We center of Kingsville" (San Francisco But no such compunctions applied when near Oakland in "Urban Warrior" were under aerial attack," complained Bay Guardian, 10 March). For two it came to terrorizing Oakland's black exercise aimed at preparing for one resident. "That was not supposed to hours, they conducted "war games" population. Indeed, "New Age" Oakland suppression of ghetto revolts, labor be part of the deal" (San Francisco using live ammunition and real explo- continued on page 8 struggles.

As New York Seethes Over Diallo Killing Beware Democratic Party Hustlers-. Enemies of Labor, Blacks

Seven weeks after the murder of black ghetto reSident or black or white working immigrant Amadou Diallo, g\lnned down person would voluntarily put themselves ina hail of 41 bullets by foufmembers in the hands of the racist cops. There'd of the NYPD's elite death-squad-style be no release for them a few hours later, Street Crimes Unit (SCU), New York but rather the everyday nightmare of City continues to boil with outrage being brutalized, trapped and held in against the racist killer cops. Worried "the system." While Democrats that the raw fear and hatred of the cops Yet despite the consummate cynicism push pro-cop could ignite a social explosion, black of the Democratic Party orchestrators, whitewash Democratic Party officials have scram­ these protests began to mushroom as hun­ schemes, bled to get out in front of the protests in a dreds came out to demonstrate their fury SpartacistJLabor Black League desperate bid to confine them to electoral against the indignity, humiliation and raw protesters pressure politics and above all to pre­ terror that they are subjected to daily by at March 29 serve the "integrity" of the police. New the cops. So Sharpton has now called off demonstration York Democratic Party Senator Charles the Police Plaza sit-ins, while the black outside NYPD Schumer made it plain as day what these Dems and "responsible" labor leaders headquarters efforts were all about when he worried like Dennis Rivera huddled in meetings call for aloud on the Senate floor that growing to come up with a ten-point program mobilizatton of anger against the cops could undermine aimed at refurbishing the image of the labor power. the racist "war on crime." cops-and strengthening them-includ­ For weeks now, there have been sit-ins ing demanding that they get b~tter pay! at One Police Plaza organized by former Now these types are building for a FBI fink and black Democrat Al Sharp­ protest on April 3 in Washington, D.C., ton. An array of Democratic Party politi­ centrally to appeal for Clinton and Janet cians and black CEOs-from former Reno's Justice Department t6 "investi­ Department, look no further than the ical tool of the very capitalist rulers mayor David Dinkins and New York gate the epidemic of police brutality." incinerated corpses of 86 men, women whose interests the cops "serve and pro­ State comptroller Carl McCall to the This is obscene! While they're at it, why and children of the racially integrated tect," but one which provides a proletar­ chairman of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola don't they demand that Bill Gates investi­ Branch Davidian religious sect near ian class axis that can weld the social bottling company-as well as various gate and remedy the disparity in income Waco, Texas, who were sent to a fiery power of the multiracial working class to celebrities like actress Susan Sarandon between rich and poor in America?! death on Reno's orders in 1993. the anger of the inner city through mass have volunteered themselves to be hand­ Thousands more cops who are today ter­ Enough! The mass outrag·e againstthe labor-centered protest against cop terror. cuffed and led away by the cops. These rorizing the inner cities were put there by cops does need an organized political The ranks of powerful unions like the carefully choreographed arrests have all Clinton. And if you want to see an expression. Not one aimed at strengthen­ Transport Workers Union in New York the elements of theater of the absurd. No "investigation" by Janet Reno's Justice ing the hand of the Democrats, the polit- continued on page 10

12 2 APRIL 1999