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NUMBER 132 25 CENTS ,:~~, )(·523 DECEMBER 1985/JANUARY 1986
U.S./South Africa: Anti-Soviet Partners ; I~ , rOODS elen , I ,
Smash Apartheid! For Workers Revolution!
Washington has again mage it crystal --crear rhatmsoutlfern Africaifscnosen partner is the white supremacist apart heid police state. As Pretoria launched its most recent invasion of Angola, the U.S. rulers have put "destabilization" of the nationalist MPLA (Popular Move~ ment for the Liberation of Angola) high on their anti-Soviet hit list. Central to U.S. policy is "pressuring" the black Angolan government into committing suicide by getting rid of the 25,000- 30,000 Cuban troops whose presence is global litmus test of loyalty to President key to repelling the apartheid army and Reagan's staunch anti-communism." its Angolan henchmen in Jonas Savim Dotting the i's and crossmg the t's, bi's UN IT A contra force. Joining forces Soviet-backed Conservative Caucus chairman Howard with U N ITA and white mercenaries Cuban troops (above) defend Phillips exclaimed, "If that means from the U.S. and Britain. the South aligning ourselves with South Africa, African army attacked black Angola Angola against South African better with them than with the Soviets" last month, backed up by aerial bom army (left) and (New York Times, 16 December 1985). bardments of oil tanks, railway lines, local contra But the Republican right has farfrom schools, factories and farms. forces. On December 20, 4,000 South Afri cornered the market on Angola; "liber can troops crossed into Angola from Na al" Democrats such as Claude Pepper mibia while another 4,000 were massed (whose Florida constituency contains a just south of the border. Pretoria claims lot of anti-Castro Cuban gusanos) have this invasion is aimed at guerrilla bases pushed for "overt" aid to the UNITA within Angola of the South West African South African/ U.S. racist axis. mercenary Trevor Edwards, who fought contras. For now, Reagan's administra People's Organization (SW APO) which December's invasion takes place in in Angola alongside the South Africans tion prefers "covert" support (to the is fighting to free Namibia from South the context of apartheid's bloody re and UNITA: tune of $15 million so far). It's the African occupation. But this invasion pression of the continuing black revolt "Our main job is to take an area and bipartisan anti-Soviet war drive in living at home as well as its general policy of clear it. We sweep through it and we kill color. the third in a year-is no doubt designed everything in front of us, cattle, goats, to divert pressure from the anti-UNITA terrorizing the bordering black African people, everything. We are out to stop The Soviet Union's planned, collec offensive. It is an escalation of South countries. On the same. day the troops SWAPO .... tivized economic system-an achieve African attacks on Angola which began entered Angola, a South African raiding "Sometimes we take the locals for ment of the workers revolution of when the former Portuguese colony party crossed into Lesotho and mur questioning. It's rough. We just beat 1917-evokes the implacable hostility them, cut them, burn them. As soon as won independence ten years ago. The dered nine South African political we're finished with them, we kill them." of imperialism despite the bureaucratic Soviet-supplied Cuban troops are there refugees. Four black women and three -quoted in Richard Leonard, political counterrevolution under Stal today for the same reason the heroic black men were massacred at a Christ South Africa at War (1983) in. It is an unintended acknowledg expeditionary force was initially de mas party, a coloured (mixed-race) man This is the CIA's type of "freedom ment of the remaining power of the ployed in 1975-76 when they smashed and his white wife were killed in their fighter." South Africa frequently re Russian October Revolution that the South Africa's CIA-backed invasion: to home. Pretoria denied responsibility, minds the U.S. of its strategic role as the imperialists see behind every struggle hold the apartheid regime at bay and while the apartheid regime's "State anti-Soviet gendarme of the region. And for social justice and national liberation prevent Angola from becoming a Security Council" issued a warning here, the likes of dragon lady Jeane on the planet the hand of the USSR. gigantic bantustan. M PLA president aimed particularly at Lesotho, Zim Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp and their The S(jvie~w'orkers state continues to dos Santos has recently reaffirmed that babwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Zam acolytes in the College RepUblicans seek be the military-industrial powerhouse of the Cubans who have irrigated Angolan bia and Swaziland that "'all the peoples to bolster Pretoria's "respectability" by the non-capitalist world, forced by the "soil with their blood" will remain and of southern Africa will pay a heavy emphasizing its role as a bulwark U.S. war drive from time to time to Cuba's Fidel Castro announced that he price' if they permit insurgents to lJse against "Soviet influence." Thus, Ango defend not only its own borders, but was ready and willing to send up to their territory" (New York Times, 21 la assumes importance as a proxy; the also to aid the just struggles of the 200,000 more troops if that's what it will December 1985). Wall Street Journal (25 November oppres~ed. Such is the case in Angola. take. We in the SYL hail the Cuban The methods of this state-sponsored 1985) put it: "Hard-liners see support . However; Soviet intervention is not troops defending Angola against the racist terror were described by British for Mr. Savimbi's 'freedom fighters' as a continued on page 2 2 YOUNG SPARTACUS
"our own" racist rulers is a hard fight against the mobilization for anti-Soviet Angola ... Oakland Teachers Strike war. It was precisely on this issue that (cant inued from page.J) the once-sizable Maoist organizations everywhere -and always progressive. In which issued out of the radical student Africa, for instance, the Soviets also Shut the Schools D,own Tight! antiwar movement of the 1960s became back the bloody Mengistu regime in shipwrecked. Parroting China's opposi Ethiopia, thereby aiding Ethiopia's OAKLAND, January 7-Teachers school administration by keeping tion to Cuban troops in Angola, the brutal repression of the just national here voted overwhelmingly Sunday their children out of school. American Maoists found themselves in struggle of the Eritrean people. It will night to go on strike, after rejecting What is obvious in Oakland is that an objective bloc with the CIA and require a return to the road of Lenin the Oakland Unified School Dis educating its mostly black and His South Africa against black Angola. It and Trotsky-a proletarian political trict's insulting "final" offer of mi panic working-class students is not was much easier to wave Mao's "little revolution-to make the USSR a bea serly pay increases that would leave important to the District and city Red Book" than to fight anti-Sovietism con of world socialist revolution once Oakland teachers among the lowest administrations. In Reagan's Ameri in a society where it is pervasive. The agam. paid in California. This was the final ca education for youth, particularly anti-Soviet military alliance between the straw for teachers here, already angry for minorities trapped in inner-city Chinese Stalinists and U.S. imperialism Angolan Proxy War about the procrastination of the hellholes, has been cut below mini was sealed over Angola-Mao's China As the bourgeoisie is well aware, for union misleaders of the Oakland mal subsistence to help finance the actually provided military and technical them "the last CIA intervention in Education Association, who had anti-Soviet war drive. Just as Oak assistance to the South African-backed Angola's affairs, in 1975, was a disaster" kept them working without a con land's Highland Hospital "Butcher forces. (Wall Street Journal, II December tract since july. The District claims it Shop" is a dumping ground for the This gross betrayal finished off much 1985). This, along with queasiness in has no money, but was able to give its poorest and sickest people in the of the Maoist organizations; some sim some quarters about flaunting the very large, highly paid administrative county, so also do Oakland's public ply liquidated, others descended into domestically unpopular South African staff a hefty 14 percent raise last schools serve as a dumping ground weird irrelevance (e.g., Avakian's "Rev alliance, accounts for what liberal summer, while teachers face' over for its minority kids. What is needed olutionary Communist Party") and still opposition exists to backing the Ango crowded classrooms, a lack of sup in Oakland is a strong show of labor others flipped over to augmenting the lan contras. The Angolan MPLA came port personnel and textbooks, ,and solidarity-a walkout by the many ranks of mainline pro-Moscow Stalinist to power in 1976 after it and other substandard salaries. Thus far, the unions that work in the District-to reformism behind the campaign tables guerrilla forces militarily defeated the .strike has been effective-attendance effectively shut down the schools. To of a dwindling number of liberal Dem Portuguese colonialists. After the with at schools was down by over 75 date, only the Teamster truck drivers ocrats. Virulently anti-Soviet group drawal of the Portuguese military in percent on the first day of the strike, have voted to support the strike. For ings like the misnamed "League of 1975, a three-way civil war ensued as Oakland parents show support for mass picket lines! Victory to the Revolutionary Struggle" (aka "Unity") between the guerrilla nationalists of the the teachers and contempt for the Oaklarid Teachers strike! brazenly carried placards demanding MPLA, UNITAand the FNLA-onein "Soviet Union and Cuba Out of Ango which the toiling masses of Angola had la!" in 1976. While its objective bloc no clear stake. The USSR had long with its "own" bourgeoisie against provided assistance to the MPLA. named itself "MPLA-Workers Party") Soweto black student rebellion. After Soviet Russia remains unchanged, is not a revolutionary workers party nor the brutal massacre in June 1976 by Under the sponsorship of Henry Kissin~ "Unity" buries. the logical pro-U.S./ ger, then-U.S. president Gerald Ford's even ,a Stalinist bureaucracy presiding South African security forces of un South African conclusion. That would administration encouraged UNIT A and over a deformed workers state like armed school children, the revolt spread interfere in a big way with keeping the FNLA to enlist in a CIA-backed Cuba. The class nature of a state is not to townships throughout the country. student anti-apartheid protests within alliance with South Africa to smash the determined by the ideology professed by The black union movement had begun the bounds of liberalism-U nity's M PLA-thus internationalizing the the ruling group but by its economic as well to enter into struggle against the "practical" work today. conflict. structure: in a workers state the means apartheid bosses; Soweto was a precur The fight against racist capitalist sor to the massive anti-apartheid up The civil war was transformed into a of production have been expropriated oppression from South Africa to the "proxy war" between the Soviet Union, from the capitalist class and are state heavals of the past year and. a half. U.S. must begin with defense of the Over 1,000 blacks-many of them Cuba and the MPLA on one side and property. This is not the case in Angola. Soviet wOlkers state against all wings of the U.S., South Africa and China on the Its primary export is oil and 70 percent young children-have been killed by the U.S. imperialism. Last spring American other. Foiling Kissinger's expectations, white racist police state since September campuses erupted in protest-some the Soviet Union did not step back. of 1984. The black popUlation has tim~s quite mili~1=_.a1@inst apart Instead it vastly ip.creased its military ANGOLA pushed its defmnce to the limit, but in heid. Liberal politicians and 'their aid to the MPLA and when in October the absence of revolutionary leader reformist "left" tails worked hard to 1975 South African. troops invaded ship committed to waging the struggle divert newly politicizing student youth Angola, capturing large parts of the against apartheid on a class basis, the into the pro-Democratic Party"divest country and coming within 100 miles of apartheid state still has the whip hand. ment" / moral witness campaign-as if the capital city of Luanda, Cuba sent Urgently required is the construction of the corporate heads and university a racially-integrated Leninist party, 15,000 troops to Angola who in turn I NAMIBIA trustees of this racist country could played the decisive role in driving the armed with a program of working-class possibly be on the side of the South struggle for the seizure of state power, apartheid army back over the border. African black masses. Not a single The workers and oppressed had a very for the smashing of South African Democratic Party politician-black or clear side: for victory to the Cuban/ capitalism and the apartheid apparatus white-supports the Cuban/ Angolan MP) A forces I to which it is inextricably linked. A troops, or the Namibian guerrillas, who black-centered South African workers The Angolan "proxy war" exposed are actually fighting the apartheid government-an anti-racist society in the weakening of U.S. imperialism only butchers and their 'puppet terrorists. which there must be a place for those a year after its historic defeat at the The SYL says: Defend Angola-Hail whites willing to put their skills at its hands of the Vietnamese workers and Cuban Troops! Independence for disposal-would be the motor 'force for peasants. The Clark Amendment, Namibia-South Africa Out! Military the socialist development of all black passed by Congress in 1976 and repealed Victory to SWAPO! Smash Apartheid! Africa. last summer, prohibited U.S. aid to the For Workers Revolution! Precisely because we are the party of the Russian Angolan contras in an effort by more of it is produced by American compa Southern Africa: Achilles Heel Revolution, based on the politics of "farsighted" liberals to insure that nies like Gulf. (In a rightist version of of U.S. Cold War Drive Lenin and Trotsky, so too are we the Ford/Kissinger would not get the U.S. "divestiture," the College Republicans A victorious workers revolution in party which fights for workers power into yet another losing imperialist have called for a boycott of Gulf because South Africa would also be an inspira from Durban to Detroit.. adventure. it does business in Angola.) The South tion to the struggles of the oppressed U.S. hostility to the M PLA was and is African mmmg company DeBeers internationally, not least in the U.S. due to its Soviet backing and not to any maintains lucrative holdings in mineral where black workers rightly see in apart "Marxist-Leninist" aims on the part of rich Angola as well. Angola's workers heid a magnified mirror of racial Young Sparlacus the MPLA, which is committed to the and peasants still await their liberation. oppression at home. This identifi maintenance of neocolonial capitalism Young Spartacus (ISSN 0162-2692) is the' South African Revolution is Key cation with the black struggle in newspaper of the Spartacus Youth League. in Angola. Despite its new-found South Africa-centrally, but not solely, The Spartacus Youth League, youth section professions of "Marxism-Leninism," The road to liberation from social among black Americans and anti of the Spartacist League, is a socialist the Angolan MPLA (which has re- youth organization which intervenes in social oppression and capitalist economic apartheid student youth-boiled to the struggles armed with a working-class pro enslavement for the southern African surface last spring/summer in massive, gram, based on the politics of Marx, Lenin masses lies through the power ofthe six albeit liberal-led, protests. Secretary of and Trotsky. Editorial Board: Bonnie Brodie (editor), Spartacist leaguel million-strong black working class of State Shultz was moved to warn that the Dorie Reed, Kathie Somers, Alison Spencer Spartacus Youth league South Africa. It has the social power not U.S. "cannot afford to let Southern Production manager: Dorie Reed Public Offices only to overthrow white racist rule but Africa become a divisive domestic Circulation manager: Debbie Perkins to liberate all of black Africa from the -MARXIST LlTERATURE- issue-tearing our country apart" (New Nine issues yearly; published monthly except murderous military despots, tribalist York Times, 17 April 1985). But South December/January and June/July/August, ,Ba, Area chieftaius and treacherous nationalist Africa is a burning question in racist by the Spartacus Youth Publishing Co., Fri.: 5:00-8:00 p.m., Sat.: 3:00-6:00 p.m. 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. 1634 Telegraph, 3rd Floor (near 17th Street) demagogues who suck the blood of their America, and a major obstacle in the Telephone: (212) 732-7867 (Editorial, Busi Oakland, California Phone: (415) 835-1535 people. At the same time, South Africa's ruling class drive to mobilize popular ness). Address all correspondence to: Box war against Angola and Namibia has support for the new Cold War against 3118, Church Street Station, New York, NY Chicago 10008. Domestic subscriptions: $2.00 per Tues.: 5:00-9:00 p.m., Sat.: 11:00 a.m.-2:oo p.m. been a major factor destabilizing the the Soviet Union. Washington's alliance year. Second-class postage paid at New York, 161 W. Harrison St., 10th Floor apartheid state internally. For South with the apartheid state flagrantly NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chicago, Illinois Phone: (312) 663-0715 . Young Spartacu8, Box 3118, Church Street African blacks, the sight of the white exposes its "free world" rhetoric, and Station, New York, NY 10908. New York Cit, supremacist army retreating before the millions of black Americans sympathize Opinions expressed in signed articles or Tues.: 6:00-9:00 p.m., Sat.: 1:00-5:00 p.m. Cubans and black Angolan nationalists. with the Cuban troops defending An letters do not necessarily express the editorial 41 Warren St. (one block below viewpoint. Chambers 51. near Church St.) was inspiring. gola against South Africa. New York, N.Y. Phone: (212) 267-1025 The rout of the apartheid army in Central to any perspective of mobiliz No. 132 Dec. 1985/Jan. 1986 Angola a decade ago gave impetus to the ing the American working class against .....~l~_
DECEMBER 1985/JANUARY 1986 3 EDITOBIAL NOTE "Nicaragua Exchange" Liberals Exclude Reds
"Are you now or have you ever Nicaragua" created their own Red for "humanitarian" aid to the contra Exchange is working in concert with a been ... " is a sinister refrain well known Squad for the express purpose of mercenary scum. The faint-hearted section of the FSLN who, in the interest to communists and partisans of the excluding Marxists of the Spartacus "friends" of Nicaragua did nothing, of conciliating the bourgeoisie, may find working class. It's a line that carries the Youth League in New York City and caught in their own contradiction of it important to exclude communists distinct stench and purpose of the man Madison from volunteer work brigades higher loyalty to anti-Sovietism and the such as ourselves. On the other hand, who made it infamous: the Cold to Nicaragua. Warrior and witchhunter par excel- Like actors from some grade B accitln va e ente pueblo agredido de Nicaragu . L' remake-let's call it "Baby HUAC" JUVENTUD SANDINISTA 19 DE JULIO "":::':.I.n~ .." OlSU"..... NTO JUV ...... 0" 'I, ~ 1.. .:~.=. the Nicaragua Exchange coordinators run their own "screen tests." It goes something like this: "You have been 191" POI. Ll PAS,fOP 00ftti U AAIIDIOI. identified by your photograph as a ~.20"""" ti.ancu 1.1,,". salesman of Workers Vanguard .. . you Sandinista o..pali ...... Db41... .. 'Uu'n"14" ....,...107' must be a 'disrupter' in your commu~ newspaper, aaUf.S. .... nity ... you are hereby notified that you Barricada,
D1 , do not qualify for our brigades." Anti publicizes Ptt... • ..• , ..1bn .1 f",.~l ..1. ... "'. 1.. ,lW'nI.",
Government Out of Sp-artacist 1~~A~I~Cl~.:rI~",,= the Bedroom! English Edition I 1 No. 36-37 19 November 1985 last year, 2 million more than the Winter 1985-86 HEALYISM Dear Editor: number of votes that reelected Reagan. (64 pages) While glancing at' your article "It's That comparison, he said, should be considered to suggest 'at least as great a IMPLODES Only Rock 'n Roll but Some of Us Like One Dollar --With- It" in the latest Young Spartacus, I was mandate for free choice' as for the reminded of something I read a few President's policies." It also suggests (Spartacist is sent to Documents and InterViews weeks ago. The October 18 Los Angeles that Marilyn Chambers would probably all WV subscribers.) . on the Times, in reporting on a hearing of the make a more popular president than the WRP's Buried History Attorney General's Commission on current one. Make checks payable/mail to: Pornography, made the following re Enclosed is $2.00 for a subscription to Spartacist Publishing Co. Young Spartacus. Box 1377 GPO mark: "An attorney for the Adult Film New York, NY 10116 Assn. of America said that 54 million ~'raternally , adult videotapes were rented in the U.S. Bert M. I'
4 YOUNG SPARTACUS
Karl Liebknecbt and
Young Spartacus reprints below global confrontation, the workers and Gregory Zinoviev's "Karl Liebknecht oppressed have a side: the unconditional and the War." The young German rev World War I military defense of the Soviet Union olutionist Liebknecht earned, through Dietz Verlag against imperialist attack. In order to his heroic fight against the mass slaugh forever end the threat of World War III, ter of World War I, a singular place in it is necessary to take the road of Lenin the history of the socialist movement. and Trotsky in the struggle for socialist An organizer of and spokesman for the revolution in the imperialist countries. youth who were being sent to their The enemy is at home. We are proud to deaths at the front by the millions across claim the heritage of the German Europe, Liebknecht's name is synony Spartacists, from whom our interna mous with revolutionary antiwar activi tional tendency takes its name; we aspire ty. With Rosa Luxemburg and the other to emulate the Bolsheviks in building German Spartacists, Liebknecht fought here a party capable of leading the to turn the imperialist war into a civil working masses to the conquest of state war against the enemy "at home," the power. capitalist rulers. For this, he and Luxemburg were brutally murdered by the ultra right Freikorps with the active By Gregory Zinoviev complicity of the Social Democratic leadership in 1919. The article below is the version which appeared in the Karl Liebknecht did not all at once Fourth International, the theoretical become the Karl Liebknecht that the organ of the revisionist International international proletariat knows today. Secretariat, Winter 1959. I n his political activity there was a long The carnage of the First World War drawn-out period during which he was was such that "the proletariat was but little different from the other leaders positively decimated on the battlefields of the German Social-Democracy. In ... by I January, 1918,thenumberofthe that far-off time nothing suggested the killed had been approximately 8 mil international historic role that Karl lions. If we assume the average weight of Liebknecht was to fill during the war. a soldier to [be] 150 lb., this means that Suffice it to say that during the 1905- between I August 1914 and I January 1915 decade, in the struggle of the 1918, the capitalists had brought to "Russian" currents, Karl Liebknecht market twelve hundred million pounds more often stood nearer to the Menshe of putrid human flesh" (Bukharin, The viks· than to the Bolsheviks. A BC of Communism). Throughout Eu The "growing up" of the Social rope, the Social Democrats shamefully Democratic Liebknecht into the Lieb supported their "own" rulers in the war Karl Liebknecht speaks in Berlin, 5 January 1919. Liebknecht called for knecht of the Spartakusbund and of the effort. This betrayal of Marxist princi international working class to unite against their capitalist rulers. armed insurrection took place during ple decisively split the workers move the world war. The international com ment, with Lenin in Russia ilnd munist youth movement, that brings the Liebknecht/Luxemburg in Germany "The Main Enemy Is At Home!,'-was give expression to the antimilitarist youth up in an ardent love for Karl leading the revolutionary opposition to not silenced, either, by his assassination. sentiment of the workers and oppressed Liebknecht and quite rightly sees in him the social traitors. In a hitherto unheard Inspired by the Russian October, the "better than anyone except Lenin." its best leader together with Lenin, must of challenge to the warring bourgeoi German workers-in 1918- I 9 and again Precisely for this reason, Zinoviev also become acquainted with the real Lieb sies, delegates from eleven countries in 1923-rose up against their capitalist notes bitterly, in losing Liebknecht, knecht, with all the weak and strong belligerent and neutral-came together masters. Tragically, these revolutionary the cause of international socialist rev sides of his political activity, all the more on 5-8 September 1915, inZimmerwald, upsurges were defeated due to the olution lost much more than one com so in that Liebknecht's failings were not Switzerland, to affirm their internation absence of a capable communist leader rade. For Karl Liebknecht could have individual failings, but rather the al solidarity against the disgrace of the ship. (For a thorough review of this been a principal leader of a successful failings of a whole wing (and not the Second (Social Democratic) "Interna history, see the two-part article "Ger German proletarian revolution. . worst one) of the international workers' tional." Lenin led the Bolshevik del many: Revolution and Counterrevolu With the failure o'f international movement. The figure of Liebknecht egation, Liebknecht's greetings were tion," YSp Nos. 121 [October 1984] and socialist revolution-particularly in loses nothing of its greatness thereby. brought by the German; the conference 125 [March 1985].) Germany-a conservative, nationalist Lenin wrote that Rosa Luxemburg was was to be a forerunner of the Third Zinoviev-a central Bolshevik lead bureaucratic caste took political power mistaken on the question of the inde (Communist) International. er and chief executive of the Third in the Soviet Union, destroying the pendence of Poland, that in 1903 she I n 19 17, Lenin and the Russian International-does more than pay cadre of Lenin's Bolshevik Party. made an incorrect evaluation of Men Bolsheviks successfully led a workers tribute to Liebknecht, the hero-martyr. Zinoviev was executed by Stalin in 1936 shevism, that she was wrong about the revolution, ending for the Russian He describes the process of development for "crimes" he did not and could not accumulation of capital, that she com masses the horror of the imperialist war. and growth through which Liebknecht have committed but, broken, had mitted an error in July 19 14. with her Liebknecht's rallying cry in Germany- became a great revolutionist, able to nonetheless confessed to. The continua support of a fusion of the Bolsheviks Dietz VerlaQ tor of Lenin's struggle for revolutionary and Mensheviks (at the so-called B'rus internationalism, Leon Trotsky, de sels Conference called by the Second fended Zinoviev against Stalin's gro International), that she erred on several tesque frame-up while remaining politi fundamental questions of the Russian cally adamant against Zinoviev's revolution in her 1918 prison writings. capitUlation to the Stalinist political "But," Lenin added, "despite these fail counterrevolution. ings, she was and remains an eagle" Despite the Stalinist degeneration, quoting thereby the well-known Rus the fundamental gains of October sian verses to the effect that it happens remain: the capitalists and landlords that the eagle sometimes descends lower were expropriated as a class and a c planned, collectivized economy re ~ 1ii placed the irrational system for profit. .<:: c Ever since the victorious workers '"Q) revolution in 19 17, the imperialists have Wilhelm .:g been implacably hostile to the Soviet Liebknecht, ~ Union. Fourteen capitalist powers a founder 5 including the United States-invaded of German OJ Marxist ~ the young workers state soon after the workers revolution, while it was embroiled in movement, civil war against the "Whites," the father of Rosa Luxemburg (left), revolutionary heroine contras of their day. Karl and leader of Spartacist workers and soldiers loday, the prospect 01 a third world Liebknecht. (above) in armed demonstration, Berlin, 6 war is posed pointblank as an anti January 1919. Soviet thermonuclear holocaust. In this rr
DECEMBER 1985/JANUARY 1986 5
Dietz Verlag than the hen, but hens never rise in the .x,... the Spartakus group. that played so air like eagles. glorious a role in the history of the Naturally Karl Liebknecht also was German revolution. At the head of this and remains an eagle. The truth, the group stood Liebknecht and Rosa whole truth, about his life and his Luxemburg, Liebknecht as the political struggle, about his failings and his vir leader and agitator, Rosa Luxemburg as tues, makes the genuine heroism of his the theoretician and ideological iAitia stand during the first imperialist world tor. Just the first appearance of this war still clearer and more gripping. group won from the bourgeoisie and the The name of Karl Liebknecht, as it Social-Democrats a hatred that was an has gone into world history, is insepara honor for it. The historical significance bly connected with the war. The great of the first actions of the Spartakus ness of Karl Liebknecht consists in the members is indubitable. Nevertheless fact that he succeeded better than there cannot be passed over in silence anyone except Lenin in expressing with the fact that the Spartakus group in the unusual forcefulness the turn in the first period of its existence still did not proletarian revolution that took place in have a resolute Bolshevik programme. the working class of Germany and the The members who represented this other warring countries in connection group at Zimmerwald and at Kienthal with the first imperialist world war. went partly with Martov2 against Lenin. It is not especially necessary to recall Organizationally the group still re Petrograd,1 July 1917: After being banned from demonstrating, Bolsheviks mained tied u,p with the broadest union that the working class of Europe which turned an intended pro-government, pro-war action into a sea of Bolshevik emerged from the first imperialist world slogans. of oppositional German Social war was not at all the same that it had Democrats who later founded the USP been at its beginning. Every month of immediate revolution against the war. of war credits, that Liebknecht made his [I ndependent Socialist Party]. the imperialist world war was an Even before the war Karl Liebknecht declaration and, alone among the III The theoretical position of Karl enormous lesson for the international was very strongly interested in the Social-Democratic representatives, vot Liebknecht was also at this period not proletariat. Every salvo on the imperial Russian revolution. He paid intense ed openly against the credits. But even yet thoroughly worked out. Neverthe ist battlefields hit also the reformist attention to the events of the revolution this declaration of Karl Liebknecht was less the figure of Liebknecht from this pacifist illusions in those layers of the of 1905. But Liebknecht did not at that so indecisive that the Bolsheviks, in the time on grew not merely daily but European working class which had time succeed in forming a full and clear article "Not Heroes," felt themselves hourly. Mobilized into military service, entered the First World War with the idea of the class significance of the obliged to say: he continued his anti-war propaganda feelings generated in them by the 25- Russian events: he found no correct Now Liebknecht's declaration has also in the army, and neither the state of siege year-long peaceful development of the estimate of Bolshevism and Menshe been published. In the first part, the nor the moral poisori of the official Second International. vism. Until 1915 Liebknecht did not character of imperialist piracy of the Social-Democracy intimidated him. His war is excellently stigmatized; the sec Blood poured out in floods. Every support the Bolsheviks. ond part exhausts itself in proclaiming "comrades" of the Social-Democratic week tens and hundreds of thousands of Within the German Social-Democra- the slogan. "Peace." The conclusion so Party did not fear even to present him as much contradicts the premises that it crazy. The deadly hatred of the Prussian clashes like a discord. If all that Com military regime followed his every step. rade Liebknecht says about the essence But Karl Liebknecht's determination and causes of the war is correct (and it is undoubtedly correct). then for socialists grew only the more, the timbre of his the conclusion can be onlv: transforma voice was hardened, and his revolution tion of the imperialist wa( into civil war. ary will was all the more tempered. At At this stage of the war Liebknecht the head of a handful of Berlin workers expressed only the workers' elementary he demonstrated on the Potsdammer drive for peace and the first glimmerings Platz, to raise openly the banner of the of understanding of the imperialist char fight against the war. This demonstra acter of the war among the Social tion of the Berlin workers. relatively Democratic workers. It was only in the weak numerically, under Liebknechfs Summer of 1915, when the first Zim leadership, will go down in world merwald Conference met, that Lieb history as one of the most famous knecht approved the Leninist slogan of episodes which testifies to the great the transformation of the imperialist boldness of this fighter for the proletari war into civil war. Karl Liebknecht had at during the darkest years of the war. by then been called to military service At that time Karl Liebknecht issued and could not take part in the work of the famous slogan: "The enemy is in Karl and Sophie Liebknecht with their children. the Zimmerwald Conference. He sent a your own country! Turn your bayonets letter to the Conference, however, end against your own bourgeoisie!" These men lost their lives. With every day, cy Liebknecht was in the left, Marxist ing with the words: "Not civil peace, but words had the effect of a bomb. It is poverty, sufferings, and hunger grew. wing. He had, however, no positions civil war, is the password for the day." necessary to have lived through that Already in the first months of the war, that especially differentiated him, no At this time there was being formed continued on page 6 hesitations and doubts began to seize special sort of general platform on the patriotically disposed workers who "German" questions. He stood for the were under the influence of the Social need of anti-military propaganda at the Democracy. Soon the hesitations and moment when the "fathers" of the ffiiJitarismus und Dtr l;aupdtlnd Ptbt im tlgtntn [and! doubts gave way to an ever greater German Social-Democracy considered
_ I'" 10 ._.... ~. _ .".,,~ ~ ... "'" hatred of the war, which the Social it "tactless" to speak about it. He paid Rntimilitarismus .... ;"";,!";~:..-~:~:; ~'~~:.,";::~. ':':~ !:~::~:7:~:-':~~-::: :~ ?":h.;~.,:.:~!.:.".!:"'~"..:: Democratic leaders were calling the ...... j"" ... lNn ....I ...... l ...... __ _ great attention to the organizing of the ...... - .. _ ...... on--. .. unl" b,fond"" B"ud 6 YOUNG SPARTACUS Ol OJ end. The January uprising of the men of ~ Karl > Spartakus was stifled in the blood of ~ Germany's best workers. The young is German Communist Party was by a Liebknechl ... treacherous murder of their best lead (continued from page 5) ers, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa time of war to understand what an effect Luxemburg-deprived of their leader these words of Liebknecht must have Bloodhound ship. Only the day before, Noske and had. For these bold words, German Gustav Noske Liebknecht, Ebert and Rosa Luxem militarism, to the approving murmurs (center), burg, were still members of the one and leader of SPD, of the official German Social addressing only "united" German Social Democracy, sent Karl Liebknecht to the ultra right Democratic Party. Today Noske and jail. But even in prison Karl Liebknecht Freikorps, Ebert are the murderers of Liebknecht remained the banner-bearer of the murderers of and Luxemburg. Not only by his life and German workers. And it was just there Liebknecht. struggle, but also by his heroic death, that he became the banner-bearer of the Karl Liebknecht served the great cause world revolution. of the German revolution. The circum The longer the imperialist war went stances of his death enabled the German on, the higher grew the mountain of pass through the Brest-Litovsk5 period. German workers ~nd soldiers freed workers to realize how decomposed was corpses, the more dreadful the situation In the discussions inside the Bolshevik Liebknecht. from prison. Directly on the German Social-Democratic Party, of the working class became, the greater Party about the permissibility of signing emerging from prison Liebknecht went the same party that to this very day is the became the discontent of the toilers and the Brest-Litovsk peace, the name of at the head of a powerful workers' first paladin of bourgeois domination. the revolutionary determination of the Liebknecht played no small role. In demonstration to the building of the In the analysis Lenin made, in 1921 proletarians in all the warring countries, Germany the revolutionary wave was Berlin Soviet Embassy, before anything after the March action, of the causes of and the brighter Liebknecht's name certainly rising. The victory of the else, to bring his greeting to the Russian the defeat of the revolutionary uprising shone out to the workers in the bloody German revolution could be expected, proletarian revolution. He took off his in Germany, he said the following in the darkness of the imperialist war. At that not each month, but each day: If hat to the red flag of the Soviet republic: "Letter to the German Communists": time, the name of Liebknecht was Liebknecht wins, he will naturally free his first speech in revolutionary Ger At the critical moment, the German known to far wider circles than the name us of all our difficulties and correct all many was in honor of the Russian working class did not yet have a genuine of Lenin, who was in those days forced our stupidities, said Lenin to the "left" revolution and the Soviet power. revolutionary party, as a result of delay to act directly only in the illegality of the communists, but it does not follow From this first minute on, Lieb in splitting, as a result of the influence of emigres. the fatal tradition of unitv of the soldout therefrom that we can permit ourselves knecht's whole work was uninterrupt men devoid of chara~ter (Kautsky, The Russian revolution broke out. to commit many stupidities and that we edly at the service of the proletarian Hilferding, & Co.), the whole gang of From prison Karl Liebknecht sent the can in the present correlation of forces revolution. Around the Spartakus lackeys of capital (Scheidemann, Le Russian workers a fiery message of refuse to sign the Brest-Litovsk peace. members there rallied the whole revolu gien, David, & Co.). support. At this time Karl Liebknecht The Russian revolution signed the tionary part of the German working As a result of delay in splitting! It was began to become convinced of the full Brest-Litovsk peace. This fact pro class. Liebknecht's name was a torch just that mistake that the Bolsheviks had correctness of the position of the voked from all the social-patriotic ele Bolsheviks. His former "friends," the ments of Russia an unprecedented ex Russian Mensheviks, including all the plosion. Petty-bourgeois patriotism "radicals," showed themselves to be as reached white heat. The leaders of the vulgar social traitors as the Scheide Second International throughout the manns and Eberts.3 Only the Bolsheviks world, including Germany, for their brought Karl Liebknecht's programme, part did everything in their power to his slogans, and his name to the mass slander the Bolsheviks, to cast suspicion millions of workers and soldiers set in on the motives for their action, and to motion by the revolution. In the 1917 put them in the most unfavorable light July Days Lenin. and those comrades in the eyes of the working class of standing nearest him experienced a fate Western Europe. Once more it was Karl that was close to Karl Liebknecht's-an Liebknecht who from prison gave the effort was made to slander them, too, to signal to the best part of the Gerwan cover them with mud, as had been done working class as well as to the. European with Liebknecht, and they also were proletariat. He said to the West Europe branded as "agents of foreign powers," an workers: If the first proletarian and were put in prisons and fortresses as revolution must accept the harsh Brest "enemies of the fatherland." And those Litovsk peace, the Bolsheviks are not to who were only yesterday their comrades blame for this: in the first place it is the of the party and of the International, the. fault and the misfortune of the West Libers, the Dans, the Tseretellis, and the European workers themselves in that up Chernovs,4 had their hand in these to now they have not been able to go to shameful calumnies. the aid of the Russian revolution in an Through the thick walls of his prison adequate way. the news of events in Russia penetrated Meanwhile the strength of German Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945), revolutionary artist and friend of Liebknecht, to Liebknecht. With ever growing imperialism was declining more and captured the grief of thousands of workers in her 1919 woodcut "Karl interest Liebknecht collected every bit more and approaching complete ex Liebknecht Memorial." of news from the first country in which haustion. With ever greater speed the the revolution had broken through the revolutionary crisis in Germany drew that showed the way to the growing not made. Already long before the War fiery ring of war. He enthusiastically near. The war-crushed masses drove ranks of the revolutionary German they had split with the Mensheviks. The greeted the Bolsheviks' October victory toward the revolution. The official proletariat. Daily and hourly the influ enormous advantage possessed by the while still within the walls of the same German Social-Democracy did every ence of the Spartakus group grew. Bolsheviks was that they went into the prison. The Bolsheviks had seized thing it could to keep these masses under But the German bourgeoisie and the war and therefrom into the revolution as power. They are proud to have had the the yoke of imperialism. But it was German Social-Democracy were in an independent Bolshevik party whose friendship and total and unreserved already too late. The military defeats of comparably better organized and clev hands could not be tied by "unity" with political support of a fighter like Karl Hindenburg and Ludendorff precipitat erer than the Russian bourgeoisie, the the Mensheviks. That was the guarantee Liebknecht. ed the collapse. Every day, every hour, Russian Social-Revolutionaries, and of the Bolsehviks' victory. For a few months the proletarian the German workers grew more revolu the Mensheviks. Above all else they Enriched by the "Russian experi revolution in Russia made a triumphal tionary. Karl Liebknecht was their were studying the experiences of the ence," and driven to paroxysm by the march from victory to victory, as Lenin . banner-bearer, their I€ader. Lieb- Russian revolution. If the Kerenskys,6 imminent proletarian revolution, the expressed it. But now the first great knecht's fame shone forth to all the Tseretellis, Chernovs, Libers, and Dans, German and the whole international international difficulties rose up before oppressed, all the revolutionary workers who had the power in their hands, bourgeoisie, the leaders of the German it. German imperialism was still suffi of the world. launched the slogan, "Continuation of and the whole international Social ciently strong to force the revolution to The revolutionary movement of the the war to a victorious conclusion!", the Democracy, did everything to make the Scheidemanns and N oskes, 7 as well as not yet reenforced ranks of the ill-armed Ebert, who also had been given power, revolutionary workers fall into a trap Subscribe to Young Sparta~us! launched above all the slogans, Conclu and to smash them as quickly as cion of peace at any price! Peace with possible. The workers, inhumanly tor the Entente imperialists; war with the mented by the war, pushed for insur - --, revolutionary work.ers! Peace with rection. "Hatred led to a premature I Na~e Clemenceau and Lloyd George 8-war uprising," said Lenin. against Karl Liebkm:cht and Lenin! Over the corpses of the Spartakus I Address Phone I -I These were the slogans of the "Social workers, over the corpses of Rosa Democratic" government that came out Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the City State Zip of the November revolution. The Eberts Social-Democracy led the bourgeoisie YSp 132 I and Noskes cold-bloodedly used the in "free" Germany (which was called by o $2/9 issues of Young Spartacus; International rates: $8 airmail, $2 seamail readiness to fight of the German the first "Social-Democratic" govern I Make payable/mail to: Spartacus Youth Publlshmg Co, Box 3118, Church Street Stallon, New York, NY 10008 I revolutionary workers, who were driv ment, to the derisive hoots of the work 0$5/24 Issues of 0 $2/10 Introductory 0 $2/4 Issues of ing for action, to lead them into a ers, a "socialist" republic) to power, Workers Vanguard Issues of Women and premature uprising and then stifle it in which it held thenafter. The German I (includes Spartaclst) Workers Vanguard Revolution the proletariat's blood. This criminal proletariat has paid dear for the I ~~New D Renewal (Includes Spartaclst) , I L...::ke payable/mail to: Spartacist Publishing Co .. Box 1377 GPO, New York, N.Y. 10116---1 plan of the "fathers" of the German delay in splitting away from the Social-Democracy was successfully pre Social-Democratic Party, for its fail pared and carried through to the ure to make a solid and strengthened "I DECEMBER 1985/JANUARY 1986 7 Guillermo ... (continued from page 8) Victory to Watsonville Strikers! protesters for the slime that they really _ Workers Vanguard Photos are. So instead of relying solely on the bourgeois courts the witchhunting ayatollahs who run this campus are' setting themselves up to be judge, jury and executioner. ~\aP LittS The administration has its own hit list and has geared up its own "law and ",tAN I order" machinery, the Office of Student ~C~S, Conduct, to dictate what they constitute to be "legitimate" protest or "conduct." That this body is a political purge body is no secret. They want to suppress student protest and are doing their part for Reagan and the Democrats to turn us into a docile, mindless mass ready to march off as cannon fodder for their next imperialist war. After holding "hearings" which "need not be conduct ed according to technical rules of procedure and evidence," their "recom mendations" are given to the Chancellor whose decisions are "final." The admin istration and cops want to run this Watsonville, California: November campus like some medieval fiefdom 10, 1985 rally in defense of striking where the "highlord's writ" is law! cannery workers. Labor's gotta Chief Inquisitor, Alan "Kangaroo play hardball to win! Kourt" Kolling has been threatening For four months cannery workers tancy, the strikers have been targeted strike support rallies in Watsonville. "troublesome" students with "hearings" organized by Teamster Local 912 in for vicious state repression. Eighteen Forty-six Santa Cruz students were and "academic sanctions" all semester. Watsonville, California have been have been slapped with felony charges arrested and charged with breaking Student militants have told Kolling locked in a bitter class struggle against for defending their strike against a the strikebreaking injunction limiting where he can put their signed confes Watsonville Cannery and Richard btisload of scabs in nearby Gilroy. pickets to four per gate. The Spartacus sions of guilt. Now Kolling is trying to Shaw, Inc. Mostly Hispanic women, Amador Betancourt has been in jail Youth League has actively supported preempt Guillermo Bermudez' upcom the workers went out on strike after the for almost four months-with bail set the strike. As our banner (above) at the ing trial on frame-up charges in the arrogant bosses imposed wage cuts up at $250,000-on phony charges of November 10 strike rally says: "Vic Berkeley courts by dragging him before to 40 percent and more, two-tier wages throwing a Molotov cocktail at a scab tory to the Watsonville Cannery the "Committee on Student Conduct" and other insulting, provocative take bUL - Workers Strike! Labor's Gotta Play on December 5th at 7 p.m., the night aways. In October strikers voted down Students from UC Berkeley, UC Hardball to Win!" Defend Amador before the last day of classes. a "final offer" of a 25 percent pay cut Santa Cruz, Stanford University and Betancourt, the. Gilroy 18 and all This is an outrage! Their plan is to by 800 to 1. Unbroken in their mili- San Francisco State, have joined in victimized strikers and supporters! hold a rigged "hearing" before his trial, thus allowing the administration and cops to wave a "certified" guilty verdict in front of the jury and throw Guillermo chokeholded and had his arm broken by is through militant protest and public the ones who should stand trial, to be out of school no matter what happens in the UC uniformed thugs who arrested exposure these charges can be beaten. judged by your victims. No Reprisals court. This is the second time that the him. After assaulting Guillermo, the At Cal the ax is coming down without Against Anti-Imperialist Protesters! administration has said "fuck you"" to cops tried to turn their victim into lhe mercy in order to keep this enclave safe Drop All Charges! - Guillermo's basic constitutional rights criminal by slapping him with charges for Cold War II and ROTC training for December 3, 1985 by trying to force him to testify in a that could send him to prison for over an invasion of Nicaragua. We can prom "star-chamber" procedure where they two years, including the standard frame ise Kolling & Co. that no matter how Defense efforts cost big bucks. YSp make the rules. up of "assault" on a police officer, a well oiled, their repressive machinery readers are urged to make a much Guillermo Bermudez, a member of charge being used more and more will be resisted. For us to be judged by needed contribution to Guillermo's the Spartacus Youth League, was one of against student protesters. In the fight these small-time Reagans and Bothas, defense. Make checks payable to the the first victims of the UCPD rampage. ing tradition of class-struggle defense, these ruling-class proponents and apol Guillermo Bermudez Defense Fund. Arrested last January for leading a we pursue every avenue of legal de ogists of race-terror, attacks on unions Mail to: Partisan Defense Committee, demonstration that drove Marine re fense while placing no confidence in the and war from Durban to Detroit, is the P.O. Box 5555, San Francisco, CA cruiters off campus, Guillermo was class "justice" of the capitalist courts. It height of hypocrisy. We say-You are 94101. • Bolshevik Party. would be the first to say that precisely thrown by the Bolsheviks. head of successive bourgeois coalition gov The heroic uprising of the men of this, and not the contrary, must be the 5 The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed 3 ernments leading up to November 1917. Spartakus was fought down, but it way of the revolutionary proletariat. March 1918, concluded peace between 7 Gustav Noske, Scheidemann and Ebert's sowed the seeds of victory. Those seeds Liebknecht himself was going just this imperialist Germany and the newly formed war minister, was complicit in and encour are germinating. way, and only the treacherous bullet Soviet state during World War I. The aged the assassination of Luxemburg and The way from the official Social that killed Liebknecht prevented him Bolsheviks saw the treaty as a necessary Liebknecht on 15 January 1919. Democracy to "Spartakism" is, natu- from leading the German proletariat compromise while continuing to encourage 8 Georges Clemenceau and Lloyd George the German workers to rise against their further along this road .• were the respective leaders of French and "own" rulers, a call taken up inside Germany British imperialism during the latter part of only by the Spartacists. World War I; they were prime architects of 1 The Mensheviks were the right-wing fac 6 Alexander Kerensky (1882-1970) was a the imperialist wars of intervention against tion arising out of the historic 1903 split in right-wing Social Revolutionary and was the Soviet Russia, 1918-21. Russian Social Democracy. During 1917 the Mensheviks, along with the Social Revolu tionaries (a popUlist party based on the peas antry), participated in a series of capitalist SPARTACUS YOUTH LEAGUE DIRECTORY coalition governments and were subse National Office: Box 3118, Church St. Sta., NY, NY 10008 • (212) 732-7867 quently overthrown by the Bolshevik Revo lution of November 7. Atlanta New York Box 4012, Atlanta, GA 30302 Box 444, Canal St. Sta. 1 Julius Martov (1873-1923), a founder of Boston New York, NY 10013, or call Russian Social Democracy and early co Box 1644, Cambridge, MA 02238 (212) 267-1025 worker with Lenin on the newspaper Iskra, or call (617) 492-3928 led the Mensheviks in the 1903 split. During Norfolk World War I he adopted an internationalist ChIcago SYL, c/o SL, Box 1972, Main PO though pacifist stance and opposed breaking Box 4667, Main PO, Chicago Norfolk, VA 23501 IL 60680, or call (312·) 663-0715 openly with the Second International. Mar Oakland tov opposed the Bolshevik Revolution and .Cleveland Box 273, Civic Center Sta. emigrated to Germany in 1920. Box 6642, Cleveland, OH 44101 Oakland, CA 94604, or call or call (216) 621-5138 (415) 835-1535 3 Philipp Scheidemann and Friedrich Ebert, Detroit Oberlin New York City, July 1980: SYL fights leaders of the right wing of German Social SYL, c/o SL, Box 32717 Democracy, presided over the crushing ofthe DetrOit, M I 48232 Box 58, Oberlin College, Oberlin imposition of draft registration for OH 44074, or call (216) 621-5138 Imperialist armed forces; hails November 1918 revolution after coming to Los Angeles Soviet Red Army fighting Afghan power after the Kaiser's overthrow. Box 29115, Los Feliz Sta. San Francisco Los Angeles, CA 90029, or call Box 11685,\oSan Francisco mullahs. 4 Tseretelli, Liber and Dan were leading (213) 384-9716 CA 94101 .. or call (415) 863-6963 rally, an enormous step. The way from Mensheviks in the Petrograd Soviet and bourgeois coalition governments in 1917; Madison Washington, D.C. the Spartakusbund to the Bolshevik Box 2074, Madison, WI 53701 Box 75073, Washington, D.C. 20013 Party is a still greater stride forwa£d. Chernov was a leading Social Revolutionary in the coalition governments. They contin or call (608) 257-8625 or call (202) 636-3537 But the way from Bolshevism to "Spar ued Russia's participation in the war, takism" would be a step backward. attempted to stabilize capitalist rule by TROTSKYIST LEAGUE Of, CANADA From Liebknecht forward to Lenin! strangling the Soviets and brought Russia to Toronto: Box 7198, Station A, Toronto, Ontario'M5W 1X8 • (416) 593-4138 If Karl Liebknecht were still alive, he the brink of ruin before they were over- -.··~'-:f>I'·--....""" ... ~a"*'fJ@iQi 4? :-."'" -" 8 DECEMBER 1985/JANUARY 1986 Young Sparlaeus ---- ~------.----- Down with ue Berkeley's Kangaroo Court! All ut to Defeo uillermo! o Young Spartacus reprints below a o leaflet distributed by the UC Berkeley c..~ Spartacus Youth League in response to '"::J U the administration's unrelenting attacks 15'" 0- on elementary democratic rights. The (/J university's "Committee on Student Cl C Conduct" attempted to hold one of its o::J star-chamber hearings against SYL >- member Guillermo Bermudez on De cember 5. Comrade Guillermo is facing frame-up criminal charges for leading a successful protest last January against Marine recruiters. The notoriously brutal UC cops chokeholded him and Drop the broke his arm in the course of their charges "arrest" and then, as is standard against operating procedure for cops every Guillermo where, charged their victim with "as Bermudez sault." Two weeks befote the case was to (center) go to trial in the Berkeley Municipal and all anti Court, the administration's conduct imperialist committee outrageously tried to get its protesters! own "guilty" verdict on record. The SYL responded to this none-too subtle railroad attempt with a spirited picket line outside the "hearing," chant ing, "Down with UC's inquisition! Try the cops, not the victims!" Inside, dent militants face criminal charges; Department 3 in the Berkeley Municipal actions for over a year, the administra Howard Moore-the noted civil rights several others are also facing university Court, 2000 Center Street. Pack the tion and cops have so far failed to net attorney who is representing Guillermo disciplinary measures for their partici courtroom-all out to defend Guiller even one conviction. In their attempt to in the criminal trial-charged the pation in an August anti-ROTC protest. mo! An injury to one is an injury to all! quash political protest with manufac administration with a flagrant violation Now is the time for a united-front tured and trumped-up charges, the of Guillermo's constitutIOnal rights. defense campaign on behalf of all administration and cops have been After two hours of debate, the hearing the victims of cop / administration re The UC administration must be pret further exposed through testimony was rescheduled to January 30. In pression! Guillermo's trial date has ty frustrated these days. After arresting given at the trials of anti-apartheid addition to Guillermo, five other stu- been reset for February 10, 9:00 a.m., hundreds of students in anti-imperialist COl11illllCd on paKC 7 UC's Racist Cops Beat Chinese Scholar UC's "finest" are well known to phone call, the UC cops threw him in Berkeley students and readers of Santa Rita Prison for the night where Young Spartacus as dangerous, gun he was refused food until 4:00 a.m. and toting beasts run amok. Now, the Peking Outraged not released until 2:00 p.m. the next campus cops have earned internation day. As Li told the Daily Cal, "Before I al notoriety by provoking a scandal in angry letter of protest to the U.S. solicitor and reluctantly agreed to talk went to the police station, I was a East-West relations that has brought government declaring Li's arrest and to. As soon as Li stopped, the cop, with gentleman. When I left it, I became a the People's Republic of China down beating "a grave incident which the assistance of another plainclothes criminal." on their heads. On November 18, a constitutes a violation of the freedom thug who had been hiding, tackled him It is standard operating procedure distinguished 44-year-old visiting Chi of person and the safety of Chinese to the ground. As Li stated in an for the UC cops to turn their victims nese scholar, Li Xizhi, was beaten, nationals in the U.S. and a willful interview with the Daily Cal (13 into "criminals." After they beat their hospitalized and jailed by UC cops on infringement of human rights." The December 1985), "I thought they victims to a pulp, they pile on lying the prowl for an alleged "Peeping Chinese government demanded an wanted to kill me .... I shouted for charges of "assault," or "resisting ar Tom" described as an Asian man 21 official apology by the United States help." His call was heard by two rest" to "justify" their manhandling. years younger than Li. As the Daily and insisted that Li be personally uniformed cops who handcuffed him, This is precisely the case with SYL Californian editorialized on December compensated for his mistreatment. dragged him to the campus police member and UC Berkeley student 17, "By now, we at UC Berkeley have The U.S. State Departmerit grudging station and threw him in a jail cell. Guillermo Bermudez who is charged grown pretty sick of hearing about ly apologized only for their abuse of "My stomach hurt and I vomited all with assaulting the cops who nearly violent confrontations involving the protocol in failing to notify the over the floor of my cell ... I lost choked him to death and broke his UC police: clubbing demonstrators Chinese consulate of Li's arrest, while consciousness." Li finally awoke in arm. But Li had the backing of a state outside Moffit Library in March, the UC administration stood by its Berkeley's Herrick Hospital with his power behind him. Only after the in skirmishing with Biko Plaza protesters thugs insisting that "everything was arms and legs tied to the bed. tervention of the Chinese government last Spring to clear off sleeping bags, done properly" (Tribune, 12 Decem Meanwhile the cops had already did the Alameda County D.A.'s office ripping down signs during ROTC ber 1985). For such "proper" treat arrested another suspect as the alleged stand down and drop the charges. A protests so the video cameras could get ment by the UC police, Li deserves an "Peeping Tom." But a weak, battered traumatized Li, with bruised ribs and a good angle.... The stories keep apology to the tune of thousands in and confused Li was removed from the handcuff-scarred wrists, still awaits coming in. The protestors scream at compensation for the physical tor hospital in handcuffs, brought back to retribution. the cops for stepping out of line_, the ture, anguish and degradation he the camPlLs gestapo station, charged Down with UC Cop Terror! At a cops say they are responding to experienced. with "resisting arrest," and fingerprint minimum, these maniacs who act as if violence initiated by the protestors. While walking to his office on the ed. Li told the police, "in China, only they are a law unto themselves should This time, however, the UC police Berkeley campus, Li, who is not fluent· criminals have their fingerprints tak be stripped of their guns before some picked the wrong guy." in English, was stopped by an under en," and tore up the cards with his innocenfstudent or campus worker is On December II, Peking issued an ~over cop who Li thought was a prints. Denying Li the right to even a blown away. Cops Off Campus!