NUMBER THIRTEEN OCTOBER 1974 TEN CENTS A CTU Conference: "~left wing" covers for Hawke "Social contract" means wage restraint!
The Special ACTU Conference held in Sydney on companies) voted for the ACTU executive motion Carmichael put up a token resistance to the 23-24 September was called to discuss the state presented by Hawke. new Cameron deal on the first day, when he claim of the economy in the light of the Budget brought ed that he "could not accept" that the workers' "current share of the cake" should remain fixed down by the Labor government the week before. As part of the effort to woo the trade unions, Though the Conference had no decision-making and called for affirming the "right" to fight for Labor Minister Clyde Cameron had produced a new a bigger slice. But Carmichael in practice re powers, it was Hawke's and Whitlam's plan to use indexation proposal, a two-tier plan in which it to give union members the impression that the fuses to use that right, as indicated by his sup ACTU was doing something about the economic wages up to the average wage would be adjusted port for the sellout $9 Metal Trades settlement. crisis and at the same time to legitimise a quarterly by a direct percentage applicatiori of And conspicuously absent from any of his remarks "so'cial cohtract" with the government, laying the the consumer price index movement, and by a flat was any mention of the CPA's "autumn offensive". amount for wages above the average. This plan groundwork for a voluntary or state-imposed wage One of Carmichael's proposals was to maintain freeze. would mean wage cuts for anyone with an above average wage, but nevertheless it was generally import quotas to protect Australian jobs, en accepted favourably. In the ACTU executive res larging workers' share of the cake at the expense olution indexation is linked with annual adjust not of the employers but of workers overseas. ments for naCional productivity changes and The reliance on such protectionist measures was "changes in work value". This is no more than a another powerful undercurrent at the Conference. pfoductivity deal. The opposition to it has come Behind the support for higher tariffs by many mainly from the white collar unions who are jeal delegates was an appeal to national chauvinist ous of their relativities and want percentage ad fears of threats to Australian jobs by foreign justments extended to above-average incomes. workers, echoing the capitalists in the tariff protected industries now suffering layoffs. This The key concession that 'the union bureaucrats must be fought by international working-class or demanded was not an adequate indexation scheme (automatic monthly adjustments based on the high ganisation and the demand for the expropriation of the capitalists in these industries, rather than est wage in the industry) but further reforms in accepting layoffs or protecting their profits. the taxation structure, and in particular a tax ation indexation scheme. And rather than calling A subject of more open contention was the pro for elected price committees made up of workers, posals to "mov'e toward" limited nationalisations, L=.",..hous~+.ves a~d;t}1E!,~p.E.~,es~ed middle classes there raised by Carmichael and Stalinist BWIU Federal '-' Wp.-re va1rOfi!f'~~'"'t~ ~s!treng'tft~Yr1hg of secretary Pat Clancy in the' first session. Their Prices Justification Tribunal or a mirage of timid proposals concerned only a few unnamed impotent government "price controls". "key" multinationals and (in Carmichael's case) Once more this price control demand merely Australian corporations, saying nothing about. served as a cover for the introduction of an in compensation or workers' control. All the same, comes policy. Just prior to the Conference and Hawke and Fitzgibbon of the Waterside Workers in a reversal of his previous position, Hawke Federation launched an attack. Fitzgibbon said stated that "Since the Budget it has become in that nationalisation is "crap", and he and Hawke creasingly evident that the Government needs both stressed that (i& their view) there were powers over prices and incomes" (Australian, 23 "Constitutional barriers" to nationalisation. September 1974). Hawke's clearly expressed sup Yet they are now ready to campaign for a refer port for state wage control might have perhaps endum to give the bourgeois state power to freeze The Federal Budget was universally regarded as elicited some murmur from the "lefts". But no, wages; it is not the Constitution which worries a calculated concession to the union bureaucracy all the avowed opponents of wage restraint voted them, but the survival of the capitalist system, in exchange for the "social contract", but the for Hawke's resolution which states in part that and in particular of the Whitlam government. The trade was not to the advantage of workers. Not reformist nationalisations of Clancy/Carmichael, only are the social welfare reforms stressed by "Should it appear to Government in consul explicitly modelled on those in Britain, are no government paltry, but the Budget will have vir tations with the trade union movement that it great threat to capitalism either, but simply tually no effect ori growing unemployment or the is confronted by a lack of appropriate powers patchwork on a grander scale than Hawke's modest erosion of wages by inflation. At the ACTU Con which it would wish to exercise to achieve taxation reforms and Crean's budgetary manipu ference, AMWU assistant federal secretary and CPA these objectives (the Government's proposals lations. As Carmichael put it in replying to national committee member Laurie Carmichael ef for action), 'the trade union movement will Hawke and Fitzgibbon: "nationalisation is the fectively demolished Budget pretensions of give sympathetic consideration to supporting only way to achieve stability". They are in a "egalitarian" taxation reform with a few well attempts by the Government to acquire those minority in the labour bureaucracy at present chosen .statistics from the Budget i,tself: the powers." because they have yet to convince the ruling share of expenditures paid for by workers ("pay Beneath the diplomatic phrases lies the incomes class that this measure is now necessary in order as-you-earn" taxation) has risen from 25% in the policy the ACTU so loudly opposed only a year to keep workers from going farther still. 1964 Budget to about 39% in Treasurer Crean's new ago! Whitlam, to retain control of the government, Budget, while the share of company taxation has needs workers' electoral support but also leans fallen from 16.3% in 1964 to 15.79% in the new The CPA confined itself to a few lip-service on the union bureaucracy to keep them in line. Budget! Yet Carmichael then declared his support complaints about Hawke'S resolutionjJim Baird of Conversely, Hawke and company need the ALP in for the Budget and voted for the ACTU executive the AMWU talked about a shorter working week to order to deflect militancy, whether by conjuring motion which "congratulated" the government for fight unemployment and said he was "worried" a the image of Tory union-bashing or by appealing its taxation initiatives. bout wage restraint. Hawke, who throughout the for protection of the ALP's electoral respect Conference was extremely touchy about this The Conference was dominated by a mood of con· ability, and holding out the illusory promise of phrase, preferred the more ambiguous term "wage parliamentary reforms. Thus the real meaning of trolled alarm as the officials sought to protect moderation"j but whatever the label, the content their authority with the rank and file, in the Hawke/Whitlam's "responsive cooperation" is that was the same. Tying wages to productivity is the reformist misleadership of the ALP/ACTU makes 'face of their manifest inability to do anything only a tool for speed-up. The sensitivity of about the economic situation but try to concili the trade unions serve not as organs of class these social-democratic traitors is however a struggle but as a policing agency for the bour ate the increasingly hostile bosses. It revealed good measure of the pressure they feel from the an entrenched, wily but brittle bureaucracy whose ranks, which has created a dilemma for the Labor geoisie. composition -- literally all male and all white, government only temporarily resolved by the truce Oust Hawke/Whitlam and the ACTU bureaucrats! almost all native Au~tralian, with a likely aver with the unions embodied in the Budget and ACTU For a Labor Party with a revolutionary age age of 50 -- underscored its almost complete Conference resolution: how to retain the favour leadership! isolation from particularly the most oppressed of the bosses without exposing itself before the For a workers government based on workers' strata of the working class it claims to rep working class. organisations! resent. With artful diplomacy, Hawke hammered out a consensus on a "total package deal". In fact SYA member breaks from Pabloism . . . 2 the whole debate at the Conference was not about whether there should or should not be a "social in this contract" or wage restraints, but about what Housewives' wage debate ...... 3 terms should be expected, that is, how grossly to • sellout. Everyone (bar Wilson of the VBEF who was disgruntled by Whit lam 's remarks about col Issue: lusion between some union officials and foreign SWAG and the "'Third Camp" ...... 4
~-.. ' ~'''~-''''--- Metal award fake lefts run to Arbitration The $9 increase for metal workers that was "unreal" and "sectarian" (Tribune, 27 August by an amendment by Halfpenny which passed. In handed down by Mr Justice Moore on 11 September 1974). At the 23 August Garside meeting CPA the confusion when Halfpenny's amendment, which and accepted by subsequent Metal Trades Feder AMWU shop steward A Beaver moved an amendment called for price control measures and "full co ation (MTF) mass meetings was a defeat, falling later incorporated into the official resolution operation with the government", was put, the SL short even of current inflation rises, much less to accept the $9 -- to restructure taxes and to mistakenly voted'for it. This SLL motion was making up past losses. Worse, it is a big step take "effective" measures to control prices. The aritiaally supportable; Halfpenny's was not. in the current campaign for wage restraint. In CPA not only had no way forward, but actively de arguing that the increase should not be seen as a flected the campaign into this reformist dead Both Tribune and Workers News know full well that it was members and supporters of the SL who "springboard" for other claims, Moore was joined end, preparing the sellout in the Arbitration by Deputy PM Jim Cairns and ACTU President Bob courts. raised the demands reported by the ~rror and in addition called for a monthly cost-of-living Hawke. Tribune felt compelled to dissociate itself adjustment based on the highest wage in the in Since the award campaign began, the MTF execu from the "extremist militants" who were reported dustry. If, as Tribune maintains, it is sec tive consistently pursued a strategy of deflect in the Sydney Daily ~rror as advocating a $25 tarian and unreal to call for anything more than ing the struggle into the Arbitration courts. rise, thirty hours work for forty hours pay and $15, then so was the attempt to defend the living Playing upon fears and confusion among the work an indefinite strike. Although Tribune knows standards of workers. Simple arithmetic shows ers, they refused to mobilise the ranks (the better, they reported the Socialist Labour League that $25 would do little more than bring wages first mass meeting was not held until a month (SLL) as advocating $30 and an indefinite strike into line with past and future inflation. after the decision to seek to re-open the award -- affording the SLL the opportunity to rant in In order to cover himself, Halfpenny has been was announced). Particularly rotten was the role dignantly about "Tribune lies" (Workers News, pushing the strategy of individual over-award of the "left" bureaucrats in the AMWU such as 5 September 1974) and to loudly protest that the campaigns as an alternative to a struggle for the CPAer John Halfpenny. After initially opposing SLL only wanted a strike for $15 and an emergency living standards of all metal workers. While taking the claim to arbitration, Halfpenny moved ACTU Congress (the latter wish the Healyites got, over-award struggles ought to be pursued wherever the resolution at the Melbourne mass meeting on but it only decided on cooperation with Whitlam's )ossible, Halfpenny/Carmichael's strategy of dis 18 September to accept the $9 offer! And in both wage restraint)! And for all their "anti sipation only leads to demoralisation -- a major NSW and Victoria, CPA members voted for acceptance Stalinist" rhetoric, at the 18 September meeting reason why the workers were willing to settle for of the $9. Throughout the campaign, the CPA in Melbourne the Healyites joined the CPA in the $9. Halfpenny, Carmichael and their ilk are limited itself to tailing the official claim of voting to aaaept the $9! The SLL motion at that no alternative to the "rights", they only sell $15, arguing that to advance anything more was meeting calling for an ACTU congress was replaced out more adroitly .• US ban on SYA member breaks from Pabloism 27 September 1974 In the last year, I have beeen denied member Branch Organiser, ship in the SWL for my dissident views and others Carmichael Sydney SYA. have been kept out for "not arguing SWL politics Dear comrades, in the SYA." This conception of youth-party re In the past few months it has become increas lations reduces the Leninist conception of the opposed ingly clear to me that the Socialist Youth Al youth having organisational autonomy and politi cal subordination to the part~ to a farce .... The The following motion, put by supporters or liance/Socialist Workers League (SYA/SWL) and their co-thinkers in the Leninist-Trotskyist SWL/SYA has transformed Trotsky's description of members of the Spartacist League, has been passed the Bolshevik party internally as a place of by the Sydney Central AMWU, Melbourne AMWU, Glebe Faction (LTF) of the United Secretariat of the "seething democracy" into its opposite of "inert North ALP and the NSW Young Labor Council: Fourth International (USec) are programmatical We stand opposed to the refusal of the US ly and in practice reformists. For a period I bureaucracy" . . Government to grant entry to AMWU Assistant believed the LTF to have been merely centrist Federal Secretary Laurie Carmichael on the until its co-factionalists, the Argentinian PST, Finally, a gross example of the SWL/SYA's grounds of his membership in the Communist committed the naked betrayal of signing the liquidation of program came in the September 11 Aarty of Australia. This action is an attack "Declaration of the 8". The bureaucratic ex Chile actions in Sydney where the organisation on the democratic rights of workers in all pulsion of the pro-Mandel Internationalist Tend refused to fight for an open platform at the countries and in particular the right to un ency by the American Socialist Workers Party CPA/SPA-controlled rally. 'But the' organised dis~ restricted travel. (SWP) dramatically underscored this reformism ruption which took place by moving the bulk of We call upon all Australian workers and their and the state of the federated and disintegrating the crowd to the US Embassy'and'then to Martin American brothers and sisters, particularly USec. The centrist International Majority Tend Plaza proved that the SWL and the CL had the those in the United Auto Workers union, to ency, represented in Australia by the Communist social weight to fight for an OPen platform in carry out all necessary industrial action to League (CL) , are no Trotskyists either. Their the first place. But where, comrades, was the force the lifting of this blatantly undemo long-standing :ro-tten, bloc, with..,tAA.S~,r~o.-ift- - pwgram Qi"Trot,s,kyism in ,this action?. Co'iiTa it"" cratic ban. tain the fiction that the USec is the Fourth In conceivably be 'captured in the slogan "US out of On 8 September, the Spartacist League sent the ternational, their defence of indiscriminate ter Chile" that the SYA was chanting? Or was it put following telegrams: ror (witness 'the CL' s lauding of the Maalot mas at Martin Plaza' rally which the SWL/SYA organised Ambassador Marshall Green, US Embassy, Can sacre)', their support for popular frontism in in concert with the CL and excluded the berra -- We protest US Government's refusal of France and Chile' make clear'the rotteri character Spartacist League and others from speaking? The of their politics. answer is NO! Mandel/Percy/McCarthy carried out entry to Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union As a "united fronti' against the principle of sistant Federal Secretary Laurie Carmichael on The bankrupt politics of the SYA are manifest the grounds of his membership in the Communist workers' democracy. Out of a seatarian fear in its unprincipled organisational practice. of political struggle the SWL/SYA/CL liquidated Party of Australia. We demand that this ban, Whenever I have attempted to express my views at their program -- the SWL/SYA did not even have a an attack on the democratic rights of all branch meetings, I have been ruled out of order speaker! Mandel "forgot" to put the USec workers, be rescinded. and told things like "this was decided at the DR Wi11esee, Minister for Foreign Affairs, position. Conference". If I try to discuss my views with Because of the politics and practice of the Canberra -- We demand the Australian Labor individuals, I am accused of trying to form a Government lodge a formal protest against the SYA, I can no longer remain a member. I hereby secret faction. Such suppression of discussion resign from the SYA in solidarity with the US Government's refusal of entry to Amalga is a travesty of Leninist organisational norms. mated Metal Workers' Union Assistant Federal Spartacist League, having reached principled While it is correct and necessary for leaderships programmatic agreement with it. I urge all SYA Secretary Laurie Carmichael on the basis of to regulate discussion for aause, this unquali his membership in the Communist Party of members to seriously consider the program and fied ban on political discussion simply prevents practice of the SL -- the only organisation Australia. This ban, an attack on the demo WOUld-be minorities from forming in the SYA and which today carries on internationally the cratic rights of all workers, must be re contributes to the political sterility of the struggle of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. scinded .• organisation. For the Rebirth of the Fourth International Ross Barnett • James Patrick Cannon Repression grows in Old - defend the SMG! The arch-reactionary Queensland government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen has stepped up its repres sion of left-wing groups and Aboriginals in re cent,months, preparing the groundwork for at tacks on workers' strikes as well. Aboriginal militants including Denis Walker have been ar James Cannon rested or charged. Members of the Communist P. League have been harassed. was the finest The Brisbane Self-Management Group (SMG) has communist been victimised by blatant frame-ups. Several political leader of their supporters were arrested on various this country has trumped-up charges for leafleting at high schools, resulting in three trials. The first yet produced, In two, involving charges of wilful 'damage and pos his prime he session of drugs (planted by cops), resulted in had the evident acquittals. The third comes up in October. Es capacity to lead timates of lega~ expenses so far are $1000 with the proletarian more to come. Although we do not support the anarcho-syndicalist politics of the SMG, we urge revolution in the defence of the SMG against the bourgeois America to state. Contributions and inquiries regarding victory. further assistance should be sent to: reprinted from SMG Trial Fund, In Sydney, contact: Workers Vanguard no 52 13 September 1974 c/o POBox 332, Peter McGregor, 11 February 1890 - 21 August 1974 North Quay, 31 Golden Grove Street, Brisbane, Qld. Darlington. 51 3960 Page Two - AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST October 1974 Housewivesl wage debate
• • • the class bias of feminism
The question of a housewives' wage h~s been those who seek reforms within the Zimits of aapi for one set of reforms only at the expense of debated in the women's liberation movement for taZism that genuine (including token) reforms are others. To extend the argument down the line: years -- an exception for the ordinarily anti aounterposed to other reforms because (for adequate child care would mean less money for a political, anti-theoretical feminists who domi example) the limits of capitalist state budgets good national health care program; tax relief for nate the movement. The discussion has the virtue dictate choi~es. Revolutionaries do not accept workers would mean less money for all such pro of highlighting the real politics of the pseudo those premises, and take their bearings from the grams because the existing parliamentary state is revolutionary "socialist" feminists in the arena, needs of the masses instead. a boU.!'geois state, subordinate. to the general such as the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) interests of the capitalist class, based on pro and the Socialist Workers League (SWL). The fem Revolutionaries should therefore not oppose fit. All such reforms are necessary; but if the inist rhetoric peddled by such ostensibly Marxist the introduction of schemes such as the Hayden paltry mothers' wage is too much for the bour organisations represents a basic contradiction: plan. But to settl,e for the "mothers' allow geoisie, it is clear that they will have.to be feminism reflects the social reality of bourgeois ance", to make it a central demand, or to allow overthrown and a more rational social order in and petty-bourgeois women, for whom the sexual it to divert attention from more important stituted before anything substantial can be oppression of women is the primary form of social issues, would be reformism at its worst, precise gained. As far as pressuring the present Labor oppression they suffer, leading to the false view ly because_of its token nature and its short Government goes, the alternative to a mothers' that the fundamental division in society is that comings which make it susceptible to propaganda wage is not free, quality 24-hour child care for of men against women, rather than the class for the bourgeois family. The discrimination all, but so far nothing at all, and the best to struggle. against women with jobs stems not from the pay be expected is partial, part-time, inadequate ments to those without, but from the context - The issue has been current due to some social child care and the prospect of growing unemploy the performance of household tasks within the ment taking women workers out of the work force. welfare schemes backed in recent years by the bourgeois nuclear family. That is why the cen Labor Government. A limited form of housewives' tral programmatic attack against women's op The general response in WEL has been more wage -- more accurately a "mothers' wage" -- was pression must be for measures aimed at the clearly hostile than Windschuttle's, revealing a seriously considered by the Labor Government in soaiaZisation of househoZd duties and the inte complete lack of concern for working-class women 1973 (outlined in "Assistance to families with gration of women into productive life on an equal and a middle-class insistence on the high ground children" by John Mahoney and John Barnaby in footing. This cannot be achieved under capital of absolute moral principle which insists that SoaiaZ Seaurity, Winter 1973), as a means of ,ism, and must be part of a,program for the expro (for example) a migrant mother of six whose hus bolstering the family when women are forced priation of the ruling class and for workers' band earns $80 a week must refuse an additional through economic necessity to get jobs, and to power. $20 a week. A characteristic example from an sidestep the need for widespread child-care other WEL contribution shows clearly the boU.!' facilities. But Hayden, Federal Social Security WEL AND THE HOUSEWIVES' WAGE geois essence of feminist ideology: Minister, eventually backed down because the pro ". .. a 'mother's wage' will not encourage re posal would be "too expensive" ($1200 million a Three papers on the issue have been circulated sponsible parenthood 01' help solve over-popu year to pay a benefit of $20 a week to non preparatory to the National Conference of Women lation [!]." (liOn WEL' s position in the working women with one or more children under 16 on Socialism and Feminism to be held in Melbourne mother1s wage debate" by Caroline Graham) and not in other employment), saying "Above all, in October. These three papers represent three at a time of severe inflationary pressures, it main trends in the women's movemeRt: the Women's Another of the papers being circulated is an could have seriously deleterious economic Electoral Lobby (WEL) variety of bourgeois par article by the CPA's Mavis Robertson, "Towards effects." (AustraZian, 9 October 1973). In liamentary pressure groups; the representatives Liberation: Which Step Now?" (AustraZian Left fact, the effect would be no greater than that of reformist or centrist "socialists" who adapt Review, March/April 1974). Most of Robertson's of a $20 a week wage rise. to feminism; and the quasi-Marxist feminism now arguments are 'either evasive sophistries or typified by people like Selma James and Mariarosa nothing but obfuscation. The key to her position In various forms, the government is under a that a housewives' wage is an unacceptable reform certain pressure ,to recognise, in token con Dalla Costa. WEL representatives speak for main is her reformist conception of priorities: cessions to its rhetoric about sexual equality, stream feminism in opposing housewives' wages; the socially necessary character of housework the CPA and SWL have done the same (although the "The need now is to channel campaigning energy and to -give it some sort of monetary value. Be CPA vacillates). On the other extreme 'are those into winning conviction that child care must cause of the minimal value of these token reforms feminists for whom it is something of a panacea. be the priority, that the demand for a and the improbability of any action by a govern One of the papers is Elizabeth Windschuttle's mother's allowance is a diversion which, in ment which. is~alk~ng, ~~ster~
ary propaganda organisation such as the SWP Union, as a bureaucratically controlled, degener- successive ruling classes emerge at definite must be incomparably greater than that of a , ated workers state, against imperialist attack. stages in the historic process of the development mass party.'" (Trotsky, In Defense of Marxism, Beginning as a capitulation to bourgeois public of the productive forces as a result of deeply p 161) opinion against the USSR following the Hitler~ rooted inner needs of production. Marx recog Stalin pact and the Soviet invasion of Finland nised in the modern propertyless proletariat the SWAG's semi-social-democratic, semi-liber and Poland in 1938-39, the position of Shachtman only social class capable of overturning the tarian conception of discipline reveals a com soon developed into a theory that the USSR was bourgeois order and wrenching the productive plete lack of seriousness. For communists "dis not a workers state at all but a new kind of forces from the destructive accumulating contra cussion" means pOlitical struggle, because for class society in which the Stalinist bureaucracy dictions of capitalism, reorganising them on the the vanguard to pursue a false policy endangers was a new ruling aZass -- a modern barbarism. necessary collectivist basis, and maintaining and the revolution. "Ideas" do not exist in the ab During the build-up to the Second World War such developing these economic prerequisites for the stract but have class roots. SWAG on the con theories, identifying fascism and Stalinism as ultimate establishment of classless socialist so trary believes in discussion for its own sake. the new barbarism flourished. They have in common ciety. It is this unique historic mission of the Moreover, to open the disputes of the vanguard an inability to distinguish theaontradiatory proletariat which invests the collectivised form party automatically, on principle, to the masses character of the Stalinist bureaucracy which bal of property with its proletarian character. of workers mea~s to endorse and promote appeals ances between its base in the property forms of Thus Shachtmanites like Flaherty, must answer to Zower aZass aonsaiousness over the heads of ' the workers state and imperialist capitalism, and the question whether "bureaucratic collectivism" the vanguard, the aZass-aonsaious eZements. Im they justified a capitulation to bourgeois hos is historically progressive -- what is its his plicit in this is a purely metaphysical conception, tility to the workers state. torical reason for existence? Flaherty says, of democracy which is foreign tothe very thought of a conscious vanguard, totally abstracting from An article by Flaherty in Front Line no 2 "It might finally be asked whether bureaucratic the concrete reality of a politically hetero (June 1974) repeats Shachtman's arguments, of collectivism represents some sort of New Order geneous class. which the key is (in Flaherty's version): destined to usurp the place of the working Also metaphysical is the distinction between " ... workers' democracy [is] the very core of class as the grave digger of capitalism. The "ideas" and "action"., expressed as well in SWAG's the question of the workers' state. A~d for possibility cannot be theoretically excluded, basic acceptance of the social-democratic myth good reason. The proletariat is not a new and represents one possible realisation of the that trade unions are for working-class "action" property-owning class. It only 'owns' prop tendency to barbarism in late capitalism." while the ALP is their "political" expression. erty through its aontroZ of the state. Given (Front'Line, JUne 1974) Moreover, it fits their idea that an alternative a state-owned economy, if the working class leadership to the trade union bureaucracy can be loses control of the state, it has lost con So it is a new form of barbarism, an historical built on militant action, while suppressing the trol of the means of production, and its retrogression. But how then explain the enor transitional program which they ostensibly sup social rule therefore ends simultaneously with mous task represented by the industrialisation of port. its political rule." the USSR -- carried out under Stalin? Here is 'obvious empirical proof of the historical val At its August 25-26 1973 conference SWAG was CLASS AND PROPERTY IN THE WORKERS STATES: idity of the planned, collectivised economy even still full of good intentions and with "nearly SWAG ABANDONS MARXISM with the terrible distortions imposed by the unanimous" resolution decided on: Stalinist Thermidor. The product of Shachtman's terminological and definitional sleight-of-nand " ... the establishment of a political leader-----' The existence of the new "class society" is dem is an historical freak, without either the pre onstrated by a purely formal, terminological syl ship body to initiate discussion to develop a history of an oppressed class within the old political line."! (Workers Power (IS/US), 4 logism: state owns the means of production; social order or the birthright to a viable future October 1973) Stalinist bureaucracy "owns" (ie; controls) in the new. His theory yields no consistent el state; hence, Stalinist bureaucracy owns the ementary criteria for determining whether the new Milllicking Bernstein's evolutionary socialism SWAG means of production and constitutes the new rul bureaucratic class society is progressive or ing class. Thus two different class systems - promises Leninism at a snail's pace. Nor is SWAG retrogressive. in practice internationalist. While it claims the dictatorship of the' pror'etariat and "bureau "fraternal" links to groups like the British or cratic collectivism" -- are alleged to rest on the Flaherty attempts to point to the post-war US IS, these are little more than loose informal same property forms, that is, the same system and organisation-of production, a planned, collec Soviet occupation, of eastern Europe as an event ties, and neither SWAG nor the IS groups have any totally unanticipated by Trotsky and requiring a perspective of building a democratic-centralist tivised economy; and the class character of this economy is exaZusiveZy determined by control of re-evaluation of Stalinism. As an argument international. aga~~st Trotsky's an~lysis, this is not only the st'ate appartus -- by 8uper8t~lphenom false';' but dishonest. Contrary to Flaherty, The political tendency represented by SWAG ena. This is a profound revision of Marxism, an ideology based on historical materialism. The Trotsky not only explicitly foresaw the possibil originated in the struggle of the Shachtman/A ity that' such qitaUtativeZy deformed and Umited bern/Burnham faction of the American SWP against Marxist understanding of "property" and hence a central element of the Trots,kyist program - "class" is a historiaaZ aonaept, and not a de "revolutions from above" could be carried out by the unconditional military defence of the Soviet finitionaZ aonstruat. Marxism'discioses that Continued on page seven
League for trying to build what he called a not a popular front. But in 1971 a unanimous de "monoli thic" international. According, to this claration of the USec said that it was ("Chile: shameless peddler of rotten blocs, he like Lenin the Coming'Confrontation", SoaiaUst Review, May • stands for democratically dealing with differ 1972)! Now he argues that the workers in Chile ences. Mandel forgot to explain why he has re all knew that the Socialist and Communist parties mained silent about the bureaucratic expulsions were "hegemonic" in the UP coalition so that the vital Issues call for these parties to break from the bour of his factional supporters from the SWP At the Sydney public meeting Mandel was able to (American fraternal supporters of the USec), or geois parties and rule in their own name was not use Socialist Labour League (SLL) national sec the undemocratic handling of oppositionists by important. For him the situation was not ana1- cretary Jim Mulgrew as a convenient whipping boy. his supporters in the Canadian RMG. He even went ogousto Spain in 1938 but to Germany in 1918, Although Mulgrew's criticism was formally from so far as to energetically assert that in the because the workers were creating organs of dual the left, the SLL is incapable of developing any early Comintern it was the norm for disputes to power (the cordones industriales which at best real criticism of Mandel as it also accepts the be settled publicly and that Lenin condoned this. can be seen only as embryonic organs of dual myth of the "post-war boom", giving it their own Lenin and the Bolsheviks saw such public debate power) and thus "bypassing parliament". The ex distinctive crack-pot monetarist explanation. . in the formative stages of the Comintern not as ample of Germany 1918 is a smokescreen to avoid They only invert the conclusions with their hys a good thing but as a symptom of a disease which the key issue: how can the faith of the masses terical "third period" crisis-mongering. The SLL had to be politically fought. The harsh terms of in their reformist misleadership -- explicitly also explains the "post-war boom" with the argu the 21 Conditions, which called for a purge of linked to the c~pitalist system -- 'be broken? ment that: reformist elements, and the expUlsion of Paul Mandel curiOUSly forgot the example of the "Faced with the strength of the working class after the war, and conscious that a return to Russian Revolution where the workers were both the 1930's would produce revolutionary up armed (as in Spain) and had created organs of heavals in the advanced capitalist countries, dual power (the Soviets) and where Lenin and the the bourgeoisie was forced to make concessions Bolsheviks put forward the key slogan of "down to the working class." (workers News, 19 Sep with the ten capitalist ministers". The essence tember 1974) of a popular front, or coalition of bourgeois and So the "post-war boom" was just a concession to workers' parties, is not at all any specific con the workers! figuration of ministers but as Trotsky said the It is not surprising that Mandel, who places political subordination of the working class to so much faith in the "autonomy" of the "broad the left wing of the exploiters. The Chilean mass vanguard", does not attach too much import workers' belief in the hegemony of the reform ance to a clear stand against class collabora ists in the coalition was itseZf an iZZusion ation. Occasionally, if the factional need a the UP was openly bound hand and foot by the rises, he will try to appear orthodox. Thus the presence in it 'of the "shadow of the bour' USec majority, shortly before Mandel's visit to Ernest Mandel geoisie". All the more valid for Chile was the Australia issued a statement condemning their Leninist ~actic of demanding that the reformists Levy for publicly expressing his differences with take power in their own name. Mandel's notion sympathising section, the PST, in Argentina for the KPD leadership (even though Levy was right on class collaboration and for acting "in contra that the existence of potential organs of dual the issue!), testify to this. Lenin, like the power made it possible to bypass the popular diction with the conceptions and traditions of international Spartacist tendency, sought to con Trotskyism". Mandel's closest comrades-for front is only a refusal to confront the politi struct a democratic centralist international cal hegemony of the reformists in the class. armed-struggle in Australia, theCL, reprinted based on genuine programmatic agreement and with 'this statement the week prior to his visit. Yet real international discipline -- as expressed in The obverse of this search for a substitute to when challenged at the Sydney public meeting as the founding documents of the Fourth Internation conscious Leninist leadership is open capitu to why such an organisation was allowed to remain al in 1938. lation to popular frontism. And this is exactly as part of an ostensibly Trotskyist organisation, Mandel managed to get a little beyond his usual what the French USec group, the Front Communiste Mandel, no doubt with a view to the sensibilities mystifications and banalities when, challenged by Revolutionnaire, did when it supported the candi of his not-so-close comrades-for-legal-reform, members of the Spart~cist League both outside the date of the French Union of the Left in the last the SWL, stated that the PST was still "basically Sydney public meeting and during the public meet French Presidential elections. Handel's USec, Trotskyist"! ing in Helbourne, he claimed that the Unidad rotten with revisionism, is capable only of aid Small wonder that he attacked the Spartacist PopuZar (UP) government of Allende in Chile was ing the betrayers of the class .• AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST October 1974 - Page Five
" CONTINUED FROi~ PAGE EIGHT OF THE WORKERS' MOVEMENT, THE ALLENDE GOVERN Russia might very well have fallen in 1919 if MENT AND THE FORCES OF POPULAR UNITY WAS THE the British bourgeoisie had not been restrained MULTINATIONALS, THE C.I.A. AND UNITED STATES by the threat of strike, action by British Closed platforms . • • INSPIRED REACTION -- as recent US Congress workers against their plan for an expeditionary disclosures have proven beyond a doubt." (em amendments~ including one that all groups in the force. The SLL would have said, "forget the CDC have the opportunity to speak at the demon phasis in original) (heroic) Russian workers state! It has nothing stration. The SWL, SWAG, CPA voted against this By this criterion, the Bolsheviks should have to do with our revolution!" Here is the oppor amendment, and the CL voted against their co given up in 1917, and the Mensheviks absolved of tunist side of the sectarian coin -- a descent "internationalist" Painter's motion along with their betrayals. For the forces arrayed against into opportunist national parochialism. the SL and one CPA member. The SWL/CPA tried to the Russian Revolution were as significant as The opposite sih is committed by the CL - justify themselves by saying the speakers were those against Allende. Had the Bolsheviks been liquidating the vanguard into the united front not to put a political line, and that the demon unable to farce Kerensky to arm the workers in wi th a syndicalist's faith that "solidarity" stration was no place for programmatic debate - July 1917 he would have been smashed by Kornilov will of itself propel workers to revolutionary precisely the excuse used by the Stalinists in and the Soviets crushed. Allende aonsistentZy consciousness. The centrist CL has apparently the Sydney CSCP! opposed arming the Chilean workers and peasants adopted a peculiar "theory" of the united front, Rather than submit without a struggle to these and attempted to put them off guard with nos which they say only applies to mass organis political exclusions, the SL campaigned for open trums about the democratic military -- as did ations. Formally this position is a mere ter platforms in both cities. In Sydney, a statement Corvalan of the Chilean CPo Unlike the CPA, we minological quibble. The CL grasps at it to de supporting the demonstration and demanding an think the workers and peasants aouZd have de fend its liquidation of even its own faulty ver open platform at LAN Chile was endorsed by Peter feated even the "multinationals, the CIA and US sion of a Trotskyist program in "solidarity ac McGregor, Mike Matterson and Dorothy Coates of the inspired reaction" along with their "own" ex tions" so as not to be "disruptive". This tail Sydney Anarchist Group; Bob Gould; NSW MLA George ploiters and smashed capitalism, if they had not ism has now led them into effective support (ac Petersen; Henry Mayer, a professor at Sydney Uni been cruelly betrayed by the class collaboration tiye in Sydney, passive and i~consistent in Mel- versity; David Scott (AMWU member); T Parnell of their leaders, Robertson's friends, and prin (Hurstville Resident Action Group); Peter Tieman, cipally Allende. Reformists like the CPA and Rod Pickette, Brian Dale (YLA members); the (in spite of its orthodox squeaks) the SWL were Spartacist League; and a number of individuals. indeed much afraid that the "unity" of their Also approached were the Healyite Socialist "solidarity" behind the Chilean reformists' Labour League (SLL); the Glebe-Balmain branch of treachery would be "disrupted" by the revol the CPA; the Newcastle Young Communists; the utionary criticism of the SL; Reformism and Pablo-Pabloite Revolutionary Marxist Tendency political exclusionism go hand in hand. (RMT); and Jim Baird and Senator Gietzelt, two of the scheduled CSCP speakers. The SWL and CL re The purpose of actions such as the September fused to support the statement. The Glebe 11 demonstrations is to unite to the extent Balmain CPA pleaded unclarity on the events, possible the entire workers movement to defend after the intervention of Denis Freney against itself concretely against attacks of the class an open platform. Baird explicitly rejected an enemy. This includes the solidarity of workers open platform. Gietzelt professed his "sympathy" around the world, as the proletariat is an in but refused to do anything on grounds of expedi ternational class and in particular the defeat ency. Also chickening out was the RMT, because of the revolution in Chile, while not total, was they did not want to be identified with the issue a severe setback for the revolution internation during the "crucial" Leichhardt Council election ally. However, for Marxists, episodic defence -campaign then in progress. Chile is not as im actions cannot be isolated from the strategic portant as the elections, said Eric Sandblom, and goal of socialist revolution. And for Lenin Salvador Allende -- refused to arm workers ists, for the revolution to be snccessful the during the period of the campaign he did not want bourne) for the suppression of workers' democ to be associated with "outside activities"! The revolutionary party must gain the support iri itially of the key apvanced sections of the class racy -- ie of those such as the SL which refuse SLL rejected not only an open platform but the to abandon ,the revolutionary program. demonstration as a whole, in a criminal absten and in a revolutionary situation of the great ma jority for its program, by exposing the present tion from concrete action in defence of Chilean There is no difference in principle between workers. At the demonstration, the SL carried misleaders of the class. This is impossible if on the one hand, the Marxist vanguard refuses to the September 11 actions and united fronts on a signs and distributed literature protesting a larger scale. Revolutionaries use the opportun gainst the closed platform. join in united defensive actions, thereby elim inating any opportunity to demonstrate to the ity to expose misleaders while joining the In Melbourne, the two other groups initially struggle. The suppression of anopen platform by opposed to the exclusionary platform, the CL and class in practice the dangers of reformism; or, on the other hand, 1f the vanguard abandons its the CPA, SWL, SPA, and CL is a practical admis (after changing its mind) the SWAG first agreed sion that their politics cannot stand up to to help fight it. But the CL, always eager to independence and suppresses its revolutionary program for the sake of a spurious "unity" be criticism. Their appetites to play the same discard principles, almost immediately bailed role in Australia as that of the Chilean UP C or out, claiming that the campaign for an open plat hind the program of the betrayers. ,iD~he, ,~lJ..s~, of tp.~ Gr.).. ;that of ,the centrist MIR form was "red unionism"! Although SWAG exerted 'Th'e fir~;' c~:;se is foll~wed by the SLL which which tailed the UP, produce an irresistible little effort, they supported the campaign, and a urge to protect the authority of the UP. But SWAG supporter carried a sign in support of has consistently refused to have anything to do with any action against the Chilean Junta. While that is precisely why reformism is organically workers' democracy at the demonstratiqn as part opposed to workers' democracy. of an SL-organised picket. Also joining the the SLL now takes refuge behind an irrelevant literary metaphor ("Anniversaries can be cel In this case,. it is easy to see how workers' picket were members of the syndicalist F7 group. democracy serves the absolutely vital function In addition the SL circulated a petition that all ebrated, or mourned", Workers News, 19 September 1974) it has a standing position against any of advancing political clarity. The conse organisations endorsing the demands of the demon quences of inhibiting it can be seen in the case stration should have equal speaking time from the joint action "with Stalinists" (including the many Stalinist workers at the LAN Chile demon of the MIR, which in its centrist confusion has platform on September 11. In addition to being been disoriented by the coup; and the many sub endorsed by SL, SWAG ,and F7, it was signed by a stration) and therefore demands that all partici pants in any action agree with the slogan, "down jectively revolutionary militants, it undoubtedly total of 30 individuals including Rod Taylor contains have now been drawn into the promotion (LaTrobe Communist Club), Shubi Ishemo (LaTrobe with the UP". This is the best way to maintain the authority of the Stalinists. Workers News of-political blocs with agents of the bour History Department), Terry Boseley (AMWU), Rod geoisie, with the MIR's recent right turn (see Moran, Ken Carr (Victorian Secretary, Furnishing further says that in "no other way can the her oic Chilean workers be assisted by the' prolet Workers Vanguard, 23 September 1974)~ Thus the Trades Society of Australasia), P Maloney (PKIU, closed platforms on September 11 have done a Irish Workers Association), AH Khudruj (Palestine ariat of the world" than by "the building of a Action Committee), and Les Dalton and DM Dalton revolutionary,movement among theirown working defini te material disservice to the Chilean rev (CICD) . class". Indeed? The Bolshevik government in olution .• The political motivation of the exclusions is clear not only from the content of the speeches CONTINUED FROM PAGE THREE one iota, unless like Robertson you operate from from the platform -- not so much as a mention of reformist premises. Robertson's (equivocating) Allende's treacherous role or the need for a re Housewives' wage opposition, an exception for the reformist CPA, ' volutionary party in Chile, and only a bare • • • reflects the fact that this is one reform that mention by Mandel that some class collaboration Robertson is willing to accept a housewives' the forces she is tailing, the WEL feminists, re had taken place -- but also from the selection of wage onZy after adequate child-care facilities sist -- for the wrong reasons. become available. But it is precisely because speakers based on a criterion of reformist promi The third paper is "Wages for Housework" by nence. And Robertson gives as one of the reasons the alternative of child care does not now exist that the housewives' wage would benefit many Guiliana Pompei of Italy (translated by Joan for rej ecting open platforms that the CPA "cannot working-class women now, because without access Hall, reprinted from the American feminist publi agree" with the position of the Spartacist League to child care they are hindered from getting cation Women: A JournaZ of Liberation, no 3 vol that "the responsibility for the tragic defeat jobs, and the family unit economically burdened 3). In contrast to the vacillations of Robertson of the workers' movement by the military in down by the cost of supporting children. Criti or the open bourgeois feminism of the WEL papers, Chile ... lies with the reformist leadership of cal support for the housewives' wage -- demanding Pompei at least has a coherent, if totally wrong, the working class." (quoted by Robertson from that the Labor reformists carry through on it political line, derived from theories of Maria our leaflet of 6 September). Robertson goes on while explaining its inadequacy and warning rosa Dalla Costa. (For a Marxist critique of the to say, against its use to encourage male chauvinism - pamphlet "The Power of j\1omen and the Subversion "THE KEY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE TRAGIC DEFEAT need not diminish the struggle for child care by of the Community" by Dalla Costa and Selma James, see Women and RevoZution no 5, 1974, available for 25¢ from the Spartacist League.) Pompei Bolshevism and the takes up Dalla Costa's central theme that house Women's Movement. wives are productive workers and emphasises the --> Includes "Work Among demand "wages for housework" (which Dalla Costa Bolshevism Women" from "Decisions of herself does not stress). Instead of rejecting and the the Third Congress of the housewives wages on principle like some other Women's Communist International". feminists, Pompei demands them on principle. pri'ce sixty cents. Dalla Costa/Pompei argue that the family is a Movement centre of capitalist production, "the domestic Women and Revolution. labour power factory" (Pompei); and that house work is productive labour in that it ,produces price twenty-five cents. "surplus value" (Dalla Costa). The worker him self is equated with his labour power as the order from: commodity produced by the housewife in the fam_ Spartacist League, ily. The argument goes that this fact has been GPO Box 3473, obscured in large part because women have not Sydney, NSW, 2001. been paid a wage for their work: "Inside the home we saw our invisibZe work, Page Six - AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST October 1974 CONTINUED FROM PAGE FIVE scribe to any creed known as Trotskyism or de- ber 1972). A tendency which attempts to defend fined as such." (New International, spring- its wretched policies by falsifying its record in SWAG ••• summer 1958) this blatant fashion deserves only contempt. the Stalinist bureaucracy but analysed them in He was joined in the SP by the principal founders The statement in Front Line no 1 that "to mo process. At the same time he pointed out that to of the organisation later reconstituted as the bilise the working class means a determined as recognise this scarcely meant abandoning the American IS, including Hal Draper, Sy Landy, and sault on the labour bureaucracy, not an attempt Trotskyist program of political revolution in the Tom Weir. to slip around it or accommodate to it" is like USSR (and by extension, the other deformed wise a complete fraud which can be seen by exam workers states): The left social-democratic character of the ining briefly SWAG's own trade union work, which SWAG, which still pretends to honour the memory of is explicitly based on reformist militancy, the "No one has said that the Soviet bureaucracy Lenin and Trotsky, can be seen most clearly in catchcries of an alternative sellout bureaucracy always and everywhere either wishes or is able its attitude toward the ALP, which resembles and not an alternative revolutionary leadership. to accomplish the expropriation of the bour closely that of the Socialist Workers League For instance, according to an article in The geolsle. We only say that no other government (see ASp, June'1974). An article in Front Line Battler on the VSTA, referring to the "oppo could have accomplished that social overturn (May 1974) by Greg McCrae explicitly and rather sitional" grouping wholly endorsed by SWAG call which the Kremlin bureaucracy notwithstanding crassly rejects the Leninist tactic of entrism, ed Teacher Action and headed by Tom O'Lincoln.' its alliance with Hitler found itself com calling for a stzoategic entry in the ALP, but pelled to sanction in eastern Poland. Failing failing at his clumsy attempt to give SWAG's op "For next year it is developing a set of re this, it could not include the territory of portunism a left cover. Previously, SWAG was form policies to put forward at the annual the Federation in the USSR." (Trotsky, In De quite explicit in seeking to pressure Whitlam to general meeting. For teachers concerned with fense of Marxism, p 131) the left: changing the VSTA, Teacher Action is the group to join." It is not only possible to explain the postwar events by extending, rather than rejecting, "All these demands [including 30 hours work for 40 hours pay and nationalisation of in SWAG also supports the pan-union newsletter Clerk Trotsky's analysis; it is the only consistently and Dagger, and Miccey Finn, a newsletter of the revolutionary analysis, while Shachtman's capitu dustry without compensation under workers con trol] could be met by a Labor government if it Militant Insurance Clerks (MIC) , a rank-and-file lation had directly counter-revolutionary impli group in the ,Australian Insurance Staff's Feder cations. was forced to by a working class mass push for them." (Hard Lines, 26 October 1972) ation(AISF). Clerk and Dagger, purporting to "But the Labor Party can be forced to defend "print the news and raise hell", is directed at SHACHTMAN SIDES WITH US IMPERIALISM the basic interests of the working class in a Melbourne white-collar workers in the AISF, Fed erated Clerks Union, the Bank Officers Associ way that the Liberals cannot .... " (The Bat tler, 17 November 1972) ation and the ACOA, but is littlemore than a Perhaps the clearest indication of this fact militant gossip sheet devoid of any real pro is SWAG's deviation from its own theory in its grammatic content. Although it has on rare oc position on Vietnam, its opportunist appetites to Now McCrae tries to put forward a more orthodox version: casions raised a program as far left (perhaps capitalise on petty-bourgeois radicalism conflict slightly more) as that of a Wedgewood-Benn (see ing 'with its third-camp' Stalinophobia. SWAG, Clerk and Dagger, 24 August 1973), it seeks to like the IS (US), supported the military victory "One is not trying to move the formal leader ship to the left, but one is trying to push a build an opposition to the bureaucrats in the of the NLF -- while denying that an NLF govern formal opposition to the left, not with the most economist way, purely on immediate day-to ment would be any different to the present regime day issues. The MIC describes itself as follows: (see "Red Inc", SWAG Discussion Bulletin no 2). ' aim of eventually replacing right bureaucrats with left bureaucrats, but with the aim of Attempting to justify their position on the "What is MIC? .. We stand for - grounds of support for self-determination in creating a split in the Labor Party which will allow a movement to defend the working class "A Militant Union ... Vietnam, they ignore the class nature -of ,the con "A Democratic Union -- its strength built on flict -- a civil war of the Vietnamese workers to develop, which will retain the leadership of the class." (Front Line, May 1974) the deliberate activity of the rank and and peasants against the landlords and capital file .... ists and their imperialist protectors. Moreover This signifies at best to work for the creation "A socially conscious union -- they contradict'their own theory. During the of a new centrist party which "will allow" itself Korean War prior to the Chinese intervention, an to be pushed farther to the left, a concession of "A union that supports the struggles of other analagous case, Shachtman sided vehemently with McCrae/SWAG to the obvious absurdi,ty of saying unions, .. ," American imperialism (see New International [the that Whitlam can be forced to institute social American Shachtmlmite journal], July-August 1950, ism. However this policy is in practice no dif This falls short even of the politics of the p 196). Shachtman gave a repeat performance in ferent from what the SWAG has always called for, Socialist Left! 1954 on the war in Vietnam: the tailing of fake-left oppositions within the Labor Party such as the Socialist Left in Vic According to SWAG a left wing bureaucracy is "We reject any notion that the interests of toria. better than a right wing one because revolution the Indochinese people require the military or But perhaps SWAG has had a change of heart? aries can force them to fight. As Flaherty ex plained: poZ.{.tioat.'su-ppozotof theVietminh ,a-gainst the' on 't~- contrary'; McCrae defends the policy in The French. The Vietminh is decisively dominated Battler, but he does so by lying about what that "4. Normally at this point we shouldn't be by its Stalinist leadership and functions in policy was: practice as the power instrument of Stalinist come union leaders ourselves, but push others imperialism in Indochina." (New International.. "[the "left" split from the ALP "allowing" a who are more representative of the conscious July-August 1954, p 196) (emphasis added) "movement to defend and lead the working class ness workers can achieve at this point, This may mean CPA types at best, or'leftish ALP or to' develop"] is only possible if at the same The identification of Bolshevism with usurping time revolutionaries maintain their independ even centre ALP in the case of some unions." Stalinism in order to conciliate and capitulate ent organisation outside the ALP, organising [emphasis added] (MWG Discussion Bulletin no to liberalism and anti-communism is precisely a at an industrial level. Thus the slogan we 1, 8 November 1972 )!! characteristic of social democracy. And Shacht raised during the 1972 Federal elections -- to SWAG's stages theory of consciousness leads to man found it impossible to evade the political build a movement inside and outside the Labor logic of his break from Marxism, which achieved Party to fight the Labor leaders." promoting open labour traitors instead of warning final consummation when he took his organisation against them, blaming workers who "cannot achieve" an understanding of them. This liquidationist into the pro-imperialist American Socialist Party Not so! The Battler put forward only a ~n~mum in 1958 on the following basis: zoefozom pzoogzoam in opposition to Whitlam and said: economism flows directly from SWAG's rejection "Build a mass movement inside and outside the of the role of revolutionary leadership and the "We do not subscribe to any creed known as Labor Party, to force the Labor leadership to de vanguard party, and is summed up well in Lenin's Leninism or defined as such. We do not sub- fend the working class!" (The BattleI', 17 Novem- description of the Russian Economists: "[to the Economists,] that struggle is desir the enormous quantity of work that women are experience". Certainly a legitimate desire, and able which is possible, and the struggle which forced to perform every day in order to pro one shared by all the oppressed and exploited. is possible is that which is going on at the duce and reproduce the labour force, the in But to dream of its satisfaction unless capital given moment. This is precisely the trend of visible -- because unpaid -- foundation upon ism is smashed, allowing a leap forward in the unbounded opportunism, which passively adapts which the whole pyramid of capitalism rests." productive forces of humanity, is sheer utopian itself to spontaneity." (Lenin, What is To Be (Pompei) (emphasis in original) ism. In practice, utopianism is inevitably Done?) For a Marxist, under, capitalism not the labourer transformed into reformist evolution: Pompei It is counterposed to the communist method of or but his labour power is a commodity. Only in does not propose to end the channeling of women ganising caucuses in the unions on the basis of slave societies is the labourer pel' se a com into the special role of domestic slavery through the revolutionary program -- the transitional modity. Wage-slavery was one of the essential the integration of women on an equal footing into program -- leading workers to the consciousness innovations of capitalism, because of its superi the productive life of society, but has only a that they need proletarian rule. SWAG determines ority for capitalism over slave or feudal forms program to mitigate that oppression under capi its program not by the objective tasks of the en of exploitation. talism -- social services and wage demands. Without an understanding of capitalist class so tire proletariat but by-the subjective limi This underlies the fact that domestic work in tations of the existing consciousness of simple the bourgeois family is completely isolated from ciety and the unique revolutionary role of the proletariat, all concrete programmatic demands isolated trade-union struggles. In so doing, it the productive process, and the ahistorical prem ends up with the old social-democratic minimum/ ises of Dalla Costa/Pompei lack this understand become mere cosmetic reforms" whose effect is to buttress the system. maximum program of Bernstein and Kautsky, the ing. Two key concepts form the basis of their "minimum" for mass consumption in the unions and theory of women as productive workers -- their Radical or "socialist" feminists who counter pose to Labor's token reforms such measures as the "maximum" reserved for solemn occasions or production of the labourer/labour power (ie, empty proclamations on campus .• child-raising and servicing the husband/worker) child care, socially provided laundries and so and their role in consumption -- shopping, cook on, or the fight for abortion reform, are in ing, etc. The argument that these two aspects of capable of pursuing these goals, as they are Young Communist r housework produce surplus value ignores two cru hindered'by their class-collaborationist ideol Bu I Iet i n no 2 I cial distinctions made by Marx. These are (1) ogy. The linking of women's liberation to the proletarian struggle against capitalism can only Intel7lt/tiDllt1I Socitl/ists: the difference between industrial and pzoivate Left MJlgol consumption (ie, family consumption) and (2) the be forged by the creation of a communist women/s difference between productive labour under capi 'movement, based on a class line rather than sex price SocitJl DelllOUtlty talism -- wage labour for a capitalist generating ually exclusionist, to mobilise working-class women in support of a transitional program con seventy-five cents ::;" surplus value used in the accumulation of capi ( -,~ necting the, struggle against their oppression to J"""'J)... tal -- and simple work, which produces only use order from '/ z.n.,..I1 ...... value. the class struggle as a whole and to the need for The program Pompei offers is one of "reject workers power. Unless such a movement is built, Spartacist League, -~ ing" housework and for a struggle "not to become overcoming sexual barriers within the class, Youth GPO Box 3473, E.~",,:::",,-~~7:"''''.... -,,-, 7Sf under the leadership of a Leninist party, the V""OOoJ more productive, not to go off and be exploited Sydney, NSW, 2001. (212)1'25"2'5 better somewhere else, but to work less and to overthrow of capitalism necessary to smash the have more opportunity for social and political oppression of women cannot occur .• - AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST October 1974 - Page Seven September 11 Chile defence actions: Closed platforms push reformist illusions On 11 September, demonstrations against the re monstration at LAN Chile for September 11 in a allowed but specifically invited or encouraged to ,pression in Chile took place as scheduled in sev leaflet reflecting its own pro-Allende politics put their views. We have never at any time said eral locations in Australia. The way in which (with a picture of Allende under the heading, that "cooperation with the CSCP was impossible these actions were carried out, however, ensured "For Chile Venceremos -- Chile Solidarity Com because of the latter's aims" -- an absurd in that, whatever effect they may have had in de mittee", coupled with the slogan, "democracy in vention in light of the efforts of the CAC to in fending Chilean wOl'kers, illusions were perpetu Chile"). A leaflet, "Solidarity with Chile - duce cooperation from the CSCP on the same basis ated in the policies championed by Allende of'co not Sectarianism over Chile" authorised by Mavis as in the March demonstration. We said only that alition with the left wing of the exploiters, Robertson and published by the CPA, claims that we refuse to help propagate or to support the policies which left the Chilean workers defence the CSCP had made its decision before being ap CSCP's false views. less against last year's military coup. Because proached by the CAC. But even if true, this is To the CPA/SPA/SWL charges of threatened "dis all criticism of Allende was eliminated from the completely irrelevant; the decision to go ahead ruption" of the demonstration, we can only repeat speaking platforms in both Melbourne and Sydney, was a deliberate effort to prevent a coordinated what we said in our leaflet of 6 September: and because of the implicit or explicit support demonstration by presenting the CAC with a fait "The real disrup~ers are the CSCP and its for Allende by some speakers, these speaking accompli. The CAC nevertheless obtained agree backers. As long as their platform remains platforms were effectively transformed into or ment for joint publicity for a demonstration be closed, the Spartacist League will seek to pre gans for popular-frontist propaganda. Because of ginning at LAN Chile, with a march and a second vent the suppression of workers' democracy by this, the actions were unable to aid the process rally at Martin Plaza to be organised by the CAC. building support for an alternative open plat of political conflict necessary if the defeat The CAC was led to believe that the speaking form at LAN Chile to be provided by the SL. We suffered by the international working class in platform to be provided by the CSCP at LAN Chile calIon all those committed to the defence of Chile is not to 'be repeated. would be open, that is, would not exclude any the Chilean proletariat to support such an open This situation did not arise overnight, and all political tendency from speaking, and a poster platform .... There is absolutely no reason why of the major left-wing political tendencies in was produced advertising the whole demonstration an open platform need cause any disruption volved in organising the actions are directly re under the names of both committees. whatever .... We call for absolute rejection of sponsible for the outcome. In the case of the However the Stalinist Socialist Party of any violent clash, which would discredit the supposedly Trotskyist Socialist Workers League Australia (SPA), which had become the main force demonstration. It is still possible that the (SWL) and Communist League (CL) , their deliberate behind the CSCP, insisted that no speaker criti- CSCP can be convinced to open its platform. We connivance in or approval of the outright sup pression of workers'democracy, and their self inflicted political liquidation" themselves pro moting the absence of their own putative politi cal views, constitutes a sharp and scandalous proof of their renegacy from Trotskyism. In the case of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and the Socialist Party of Australia (SPA) it is simply one more' among their countless betrayals. The exclusionist policies were consistently fought only by the Spartacist League, which at The closed platfonn at LAN the same time consistently supported the prin Chile: praise for Allende cipled basis for the demonstrations and partici and the popular front pated in the actions -- actively upholding both road. Standing behind the urgent need for international working-class platform is SPA member, solidarity and unbending revolutionary criticism Terry Hickman. of the misleaders of the class. (photo: ASp) The background manoeuvres in Sydney have been the subject of lengthy leaflet polemics often typified by wholesale falsifications as various cal of Allende would be permitted on their plat could only welcome such a development, which revisionists have attempted to avoid embarrass form, and refused even to allow for a single would make an alternative platform unnecess ment or cover their tracks. It is necessary to speaker from any organisation in the CAC. ary." "set the record straight" once again; but more Robertson's attempt, to blame this on the CAC The SWL and CL first capitulated to the CSCP by -. importantly to reveal the roots of their actions (which supposedly demanded "tha:1: the CSC Joij.( rerusingto support this policy of fighting pol and how they conflict with a revolutionary appli THEM" and who "say it is all a communist plot" itically for an open platform, precipitating the cation of the united front. Those like the CPA's and so on ) is puerile and slanderous. Her red departure of the SL from the CAC. A five-page Mavis Robertson who "deplore" or "regret" having baiting charge is a baldfaced lie. leaflet then appeared under the name of the CAC to deal with these questions have good reason The actions of the SPA fit into a consistent ("For a united defence of democratic rights in Chile! Against .exclusionism and sectarianism!", to -- but not because it interferes with working pattern. In March of this year, the SPA at first class solidarity. On the contrary, it is they refused to back the trade-union "fact-finding" 28 August 1974) in order to hide their surrender. who have disrupted solidarity by trying to impose delegation to Chile. The SPA did not take part Waxing indignant over the closed platform, it their political views, and they attempt to evade in a demonstration at Sydney Airport on said: 23 March -- called by the same CSCP they now pro "At a stormy meeting the CSC adopted a proposal an exposure of this fact by appealing to the ur for a platform which was completely exclusive gency of practical action. That will not do. mote -- to see the union delegation off; and they likewise boycotted the Melbourne demonstration to of the forces represented by the CAC as it is. The planned demonstration in Sydney was ... They justify this on the grounds that seriously undermined by the exclusionist, undemo defend the MIR militants on 22 March. Robertson writes in her leaflet, people get bored with too many speakers and cratic behaviour of the Committee for Solidarity there must be no 'political' speakers on it. with the Chilean People (CSCP), a coalition de "Last March, the Spartacist League (SL) attend The current CSC platform certainly has politi dicated to the return of.a new Unidad Popular ed a few meetings of the CSC and made proposals cal speakers on it, but they are 'hidden' be (UP) government to power in Chile, and by the ca concerning actions in support of specific pol hind trade union affiliations .... The CAC sim pitulation to their tactics, and later adoption itical prisoners [which Robertson opposed]. ply argued for a platform which'represented all of the same tactics, by the majority of the Sep Their members attended a CSC-sponsored demon the currents supporting the action on ,the main tember 11 Chile Action Committee (CAC), chiefly stration for the release of all political pris demands .... It is simply an application of the SWL and the CL. The SL was originally a part oners when the trade union delegation left for workers democracy in the given situation." of the CAC in both Sydney and Melbourne. In Chile. The SL did not mention then that co (emphasis added) accord with the norms of a genuine united front operation with the'Chile Solidarity Committee But the incredible hypocrisy of the SWL/CL was the CAC initially made no attempt to impose a was impossible because of the latter's aims." exposed when the SWL with breath-taking cynicism common political line on participants beyond the This is deliberately misleading. The SL (unlike itself set up a closed platform for the demon stated aims (see ASp, August 1974, "Stop the re the CPA) not only attended but actively built stration in Melbourne, and the following week pression in Chile! "), which all those who claim that demonstration, among other things producing announced that the SWL/CL platfoJlll at Martin to speak in the interests of the working class and distributing several thousand leaflets. Plaza was to be closed as well! And this after can support in a principled fashion. Exhaustive There was a principled basis of cooperation in saying, attempts were made to collaborate with the CSCP this case only because the SL insisted on it, "A genuinely representative platform for _.a initially through Dave Holmes of the SWL on be with the result that at the rally, where the united demonstration might include speakers half of the CAC, and later by a CAC delegation. speakers were organised by the SL, and members of from the various political currents ... " Instead of cooperating the CSCP first sought to the SL and also the CL substantially outnumbered (28 August CAC leaflet) pre-empt any joint action by calling its own de- members of the CPA, all tendencies were not only and after specifically and publicly pledging that the Martin Plaza platform "will in the first Five dollars -- one year subscription to enclose: place represent those forces excluded from the publ ications of the Spartacist League of [J $5.00 (al I publications). CSC platform" (Direct Action, 2 September 1974)! Australia and New Zealand and the Spartacist [J $3.00 (WORKERS VANGUARD). In Melbourne, SWL member Steve Painter at a CD League of the United States. Includes: [J $1.00 (AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST). 5 September meeting of the Chile Defence Com mittee (Melbourne version of the CAC) moved for a AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST, REVOLUTIONARY Overseas (ASp only -- Austral ian currency) ~ COMMUNIST BULLETIN series, and other platform limited to two Chileans, Neil McLean publications of the SLANZ. [J $3.50 (air mai I). (AUS left liberal), McMann (a journalist), CPA .- [J $1.50 (surface mai I). member 'Roger Wi 1son (Seamen's Union), and 1eft .. WORKERS VANGUARD (SLUS fortnightly). ALPer Brian McKinley. The SL at that meeting YOUNG SPARTACUS (6 issues). foreshadowed a motion to be put were Painter's U NAME' ______motion to fail: "that the basis of the committee (I) WOMEN AND REVOLUTION (about 3 issues). is the five demands and that all participating ADDRESS, ______SPARTACIST (occasional international organisations have equal speaking time at the Sep journal). CITY STATE______tember 11 demonstration." Voting for the SWL's ~ exclusionist motion, which passed, were the Three dollars -- one year subscription to POSTCODE, ______Socialist Workers Action Group (SWAG) and CPA ~ WORKERS VANGUARD (24 issues). members. (SWAG later decided that it was in (I) mai I to: Spartacist League, favour of an open platform after all.) The Mel One dollar -- one year subscription to GPO Box 3473, bourne CL opposed the SWL's motion, putting two AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST (12 issues). Sydney, NSW, 2001. Continued on page six Page Eight - AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST October 1974