r

Soviet showdown: ","orkers vs. Gorbachev

Unbelievable, isn't it, that ciells regimes. only a year has passed The picture given by gloating West­ since Eastern Europe ern headlines: bloody fratricide, shrieks started tossing its Stalinist from the bestiary-and vulture capital­ pooh-bahs onto the ism winging in to pick the bones clean. ~ junkpile. Hell, it's been Let us, as an antidote to despair, only five years since perestroika was probe beneath the headlines for a look launched in the Soviet Union. The pace at deeper, and decisive, truths. of change in the East is dizzying, in­ credible, hypnotic. The workers states Hold the gold! Funny thing, Wall are being remade. The question is, into Street is not nearly so sanguine as its what? And who will end up doing the journalistic minions about the pros­ making? pects for capitalism's rebirth in the Is capitalism the wave of the future workers states. Take the Soviet Union. there, as everyone seems to think? Or is Capitalists must wonder, after salivat­ it a political revolution, a fight for real ing for 70 years at the prospect of socialism, that's now taking shape? plucking the USSR's vast markets and Everyone agrees that Stalinism is resources, whether the pleasure can be headed for the chutes-and conven­ worth all the pain. tional wisdom says that Stalinism and Judge for yourself. Three years ago, socialism are the same damn thing, i.e., Gorbachev's brain-trust figured that that socialism's had it. The only thing perestroika would put some 15-20 mil­ left for the East to do is slink back into lion Soviet workers out on the streets the capitalist corral with as much grace (current "worst-case" estimates run to and as little noise as possible. 40 million)-without the total pro-capi­ A superficial look at the East Euro­ talist makeover that the Solidarity gov­ pean arena supports this appraisal. ernment is trying to ram down Poland's Communists have been bounced by throat. Three years later, perestroika is pro-capitalists in elections in East Ger­ going belly up: Gorbachev hasn't yet many, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. In been able to pull the plug on all those wrath over Moscow. That's not the crumbling, at least not while underwrit­ Poland, the Solidarity government has millions of workers. In the meantime, half of it. Gorbachev has yet to really ing the world's fascist dictatorships. Ja­ already begun the shock transition to the Soviet economy is beginning to tackle the pro-capitalist "renovation" pan is roIling in dough, but is nonethe­ full-fledged market relations. Gorba­ smell like a beached whale and the So­ of industry. When and if that happens, less cash-short for this mammoth proj­ chev set off buyer panic in the Soviet viet state is flaking away at the edges. and plant doors swing shut, and those ect. Union in May by announcing the re­ In April, Gorbachev backed off his millions of workers find themselves moval of price controls on bread. contemplated removal of price controls out on the bricks-watch out. Hanging in midair. Perestroika Other indices of anti-socialist drift: as a key to bringing the Soviet Union What is Gorbachev going to do? was first conceived as finding a midway burgeoning nationalist antagonisms, wholesale into the world marketplace. What are the capitalists going to do? point between Soviet "socialism" and even pogroms, in the Soviet Union, A springtime stump through the Urals They want to bring the USSR into the outright capitalism by using market Yugoslavia, Romania, all presaging the had convinced him that workers world market? That means the utter "correctives" to scrape the bureaucratic possible Balkanization of the entire So­ wouldn't stand for it. Still, there was decimation of Soviet industry, uncom­ rust off the hull of production. Per­ viet bloc. Also, resurgent fascism: anti­ the Soviet economy-on the beach. So petitive as it is. Are Wall Street and To­ estroika's initiatives-partial disman­ Semitic Pamyat gangsters in Moscow; in May he announced the removal of kyo prepared to spend the zillions tling of the state monopoly of foreign roving Nazi skinheads in East Berlin; price controls on bread. needed to keep the country from trade, introduction of the profit incen­ exhumed Iron Guardists in Bucharest. You've read about the ensuing con­ crashing-and then to rebuild it to tive into industry, the beginning con­ Dying Stalinism pukes up the undi­ sumer panic and know that storm capitalist specifications? George Bush version of collective agriculture into gested savagery bequeathed by the all- clouds are gathering like Gargantua's can't even keep America's streets from to page 9 2 Freedom Socialist July-September 1990

In This Issue Letters Vol. 12, No. 1 July-September 1990

USSR/Eastern National Preconceived .•• and from Drug wars Thanks for part II of Europe Woo campaign 3 notions Poland I am quite familiar with Thank you for sending us "Drugs and Death Squads: the Soviet showdown 1 New Alliance Party 3 CIA Connection" (Vol. 11, #4). Eastern Europe 4 Radical Women Nicaragua and was astonished your newspaper. Your analysis by the bad article ("Eyewitness of the situation in Poland is I guess you noticed that How socialism will conference 10 report from embattled Nica­ quite good and corresponds to it's gotten pretty quiet on the work 5 Women of color 11 ragua," FS, Vo!' 11, #4). Strange the reality in our country. drug war front since January. Single-state Women workers 11 you should send two people to Krzysztof Galinski Suddenly there's not a lot "socialism" 5 test an ironclad analysis. Did Czarny LIANS about it in the papers, just oc­ Stalinism &: fascism 8 you really expect them to Gdansk, Poland casional blips, like when it was Opportunity for Civil Liberties' come back with anything but reported a couple of months ago that the drug war in Wash­ Trotskyists 8 Freeway Hall Case 12 Sandinista bashing? The Nica­ ragua they describe is one ington' DC was a "failure." I'm Unfair not surprised, seeing that it's Centerfold poster: Doug Barnes designed and produced forced to fit your preconceived notion of a socialist state, but It is not really fair...for you in the government's interest to this issue's special poster paying tribute to Leon Trotsky and his keep the drugs coming in. ideas on the 50th anniversary of Trotsky's death. one that takes little account of to maintain (in your February­ reality. I want to ask if the con­ April 1990 issue) that the gov­ But the reason they're not centration on Miskito commu­ ernments in the crumbling So­ making so much noise about nities is due to the fact that viet bloc were Stalinists with­ the drug war lately is because Freedom Socialist Credo neither of your reporters spoke out explaining that Stalin has people were starting to listen Spanish. been dead for 37 years and that to arguments for legalizing Really, how many lesbians none of them (except Albania) drugs. People see that this drug The Freedom Socialist boldly confronts and and gays are out of the closet have called themselves Stalin­ war is a mess and it's unwin­ makes sense of the dizzying events shaping in any Latin American coun­ ist since 1956. nab Ie, and the legalization ar­ try? Ten years of revolution If you ask Stalinists, Stalin­ gument is starting to look today's revolutionary world. should change centuries? .. ism has been dead in Eastern good ... We're Marxists, Leninists, Trotskyists, You are so quick to pass judg­ Europe for at least 34 years. It R.P. ment ... would be closer to the truth to Seattle, Washington feminists, humanists... we believe that all today's Mother Conoran call the old regimes Trotskyist gigantic upheavals are links in an enormous Rego Park, New York because Trotskyists defend the global effort to topple the tyranny of imperialism economic organization of Readers are encouraged to submit or Stalinist bureaucratism or racist arrogance. Co-author Stephen Durham these countries, while the 100 letters, news stories, commentary, speaks fluent Spanish-ed. percent Stalinists ... noticed the cartoons, graphics, photographs, We hail the decisive leadership role played by predominance of private farm­ and pertinent information on people of color and by sexual and national ing, the profit motive, imperi­ world and national affairs. alist banks and economic cri­ minorities in the worldwide class struggle. Greetings from sis-state capitalism-in Po­ We focus on women's non-stop fight for Czechoslovakia... land a long time ago ... I received your paper. I like How can you say there equality which, in the final analysis, challenges the articles "Poland: Capital­ needs to be a civil war to im­ every single basis on which capitalism rests. ism cannot be imposed short pose capitalism in Poland Correction Feminism is essentially an energizing and of fierce civil war" and" And when you don't mention a Contrary to what we as­ unifying inducement to international the walls come tumbling single fact that disproves the serted in our tribute to Huey down." existence of capitalism in Po­ Newton last issue, he was not revolutionary upsurge. Jaromil" Canibal land right now? w.itlUn.e· fS{q.cK,PanJ,he):s w.hen.,. Karrimi-Raj, A former Trotskyist they stood armed on the steps Our goal is to make these facts of life Czechoslovakia Ann Arbor of the Sacramento statehouse. apparent. We aim to inject the socialist movement with the revitalizing ideas of Trotskyism and feminism in order to prepare it for victory in this crucial decade. NOW~V~/J.~lJJ.£ ! . ~tnan Sitti.nS Next Issue t the Mach1ne, a 1 .• Compelling poetry • "Towards the '90s": In the third and con­ Thin1{ lnS cluding installment of the Freedom Socialist Party's Politi­ poems by B dine from a rebel artist cal Resolution, co-authors. Guerry Hoddersen and Clara . Karen 1'0 \.eS-< Fraser continue their investigation of the U.S. social move­ . :~;. prof;"~ ~- ments and assess the perspectives and tasks facing the FSP "Brodine's images touch ground. Her in this decade. work its visionary grace." • Drugs serial: Part Three of "Drugs and Death llilii~l~i~~~~ powerful sense of connections gives her Squads" will discuss the more sinister aspects of Bush's - REGINA HACKETT, art critic for "anti-drug" terrorism and will propose ways we can end it. Seattle Post-Intelligencer • Plus: Our usual columns and features. ~ "Her collection of memorable poems ~C.72 ~:~bt01diA~~-:~~::~ is like the fish in her 'work poems' - Staff ~t the spirit in them' lives so deep / it has grown its own light / Editor Consulting Editors Design & energy glaring out the bulbs / of its eyes.'" - MITSUYE YAMADA, Robert Crisman Yolanda Alaniz Production poet, author of Camp Notes and Desert Run Clara Fraser Susan Docekal Manager Guerry Hoddersen Jonathan Foe Andrea Bauer Gaby Garza Business Steve Hoffman Production Managers Manager Doreen McGrath Camera & Printing Please send me ___ copies at $8.95 each of Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking. Kathleen Merrigan Wendy McPherson VALCO Graphics Add $1.00 shipping cost for first book, 50e each additional book. Total: $.___ ~_

The Freedom Sociaiist(ISSN 0272-4367) is published quarterly by the Freedom Social­ Name ____--,-;----,-:;--- ____ Address, ______ist Party, New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118. (206)722-2453. (please print) Subscriptions: I-year $5.00 (institutions $10.00). 2-year Supporting Sub $25.00, City ______State ______Zip _____ Phone(s), ______3-year Sustaining Sub $50.00, 5-year Sponsoring Sub $100.00. Add $2.50 surface post· age outside the United States; add $7.00 for overseas airmail. Back copies $.75 each. In Australia: I-year $6.00, airmail. Checks or money orders to Freedom Socialist, P.O. Box Return with payment to Red Letter Press, 409 Maynard So. '201, Seattle, Washington 98104. 20&-&82-0990. 266, West Brunswick, Vic. 3055. . CALIFORNIA WASHINGTON Tacoma: P.O. Box 5847, Tacoma, WA 98405, los Angeles: 1918 W. 7th St., #204, Los Port Angeles: 512 E. 7th, PortAngeles, WA 206-383~4142. Angeles, CA 90057. 213-413 ~ 1350. 98362.206-452-7534. OREGON Seattle: National Office, Bush~Asia Center, 409 Portland: 1510 N.E. Brazee, Portland, OR San Francisco, CA 94110. 415~864-1278. Maynard Ave. So., Seattle, WA 98104. 97212. 503-249~8067. 206-682~0990. • • • NEW YORK Seattle Branch, New Freeway Hall, 5018 AUSTRALIA New York City: 32 Union Square E., Rm. 307, Rainier Ave. So., Seattle, WA 98118. Melbourne: P.O. Box 266, West Brunswick, P NY, NY 10003. 212~677-7002. 206-722~2453. VIC 3055. 03-386-5065. July-September 1990 Freedom SOcialist 3

Merle Woo's dramatic run for the California statehouse

The following interview is reprinted "More of us need to come together. from San Diego's Gay and Lesbian Na­ Sometimes I think there's no brother­ tion newspaper. hood and sisterhood in the lesbian/gay community. If we come together, we uring a recent phone con­ could face that common enemy. This versation with Merle Woo, divide-and-conquer between male and candidate for Governor of "With this cam­ female, among colors and races, comes California in the Peace and from the top level of government. Freedom Party's June pri­ paign, people "Lesbians of color are on the front Dmary, I was impressed not only by her lines. We are the leadership of the fu­ assessment of the issues, but by her have a chance to ture, and our leadership is invaluable." quiet optimism and conviction that Woo thinks her chances of win­ change can occur. It was also apparent not only lodge a ning in her primary are good. But she to me that this campaign, within the protest vote, but may never need our vote in order to be Peace and Freedom Party and without considered successful or a winner, al­ it, is not about or for Merle Woo-a also see a move­ though, of course, votes are always cru­ politician hungry for personal power­ cial. Beyond that, however, she wins if for in her there is no such person. ment for change we learn how to come together, if we Neither is it a campaign based on building from learn to examine the system and expose the need for one person's ego-appease­ its wrongs; if we learn the value of our ment. What makes Merle Woo run is the bottom Up." visibility and our leadership; and if we her determination that the leadership join her on the front lines. in this state be replaced by a visible She wins if we work collectively coalition of leadership of those tradi­ and become integral components in tionally excluded: women, people of and other women of color; and a focus to talk about what it means to build a the struggl~ against racism, sexism, color, gays and lesbians, the poor and on full AIDS resources and funding for large anti-capitalist movement and get classism, homophobia, and all other the underpaid and so on. Even should research and education." a movement into office. forms of discrimination. She wins, but she not win in the primary, she will When the Peace and Freedom "The other part of my running, and then, we win, too. 0 have made this point and delivered the Party, in deciding that someone from what I think I bring to this campaign, is message about this state's leadership. the Freedom Socialist Party should run that, as a lesbian of color, my presence -M. CORINNE MAKEY "In talking to people, I see that for governor, decided that that some- unites the movement. The clearest mes- people are feeling less demoralized, less one ought to be Merle Woo because of sage here is that as a lesbian of color, I M. Corinne Makey writes a cynical," Woo said. "They see that, her activism and abilities, and also be- know I will not get my rights under weekly column for Gay and Lesbian with this campaign, they have a chance cause of her visibility in connection capitalism. My presence also helps Nation and is a founder of the San to lodge not only a protest vote against with her lawsuit of UC-Berkeley, Woo people to know that it is their level of Diego group Lesbians and Gays of Af­ the current leadership, but to also see says she laughed at the idea. Gradually, participation that determines their suc- rican Descent United. something building... a movement for however, she says she recognized that if cess. I've learned that it is not enough change from the bottom up." they could focus on an educational to be a lesbian, but that you must also "The issues are: unemployment; campaign around socialist-feminist is- be an advocate for lesbian rights." Editor's note: Merle Woo was diag­ education; nationalized health care, in- sues, they could offer a real alternative I listened to Merle Woo speak. For nosed with breast cancer during her gu­ , dudmg funding for fu\\ reproductive to the other parties; ".; i ., 'eight years she has fought her arbitrary bernatorial campaign. In June she un­ rights and abortions on demand; elimi­ "But it's clear to me that it's not and discriminatory firing as a UC- derwent surgery to remove the cancer. nation of forced sterilization, which just one person in office that's going to Berkeley lecturer brought about because Merle's spirits are high. FSP and mostly affects Native American women, make a difference," she said. "We need of her so-called radical views. And she Radical Women, with Merle's family ~•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• h~~n~~db~US~~~Y~ and friends, are providing loving sup­ PI "the university is deliberately trying to port and insisting on the best medical create a chilling effect on the campus," care available. and this simply won't do for Woo. If Merle is recovering well-but she is she quits, others will have second angry: "Cancer, like AIDS, is dispropor­ New Alliance Party's thoughts about pursuing their own tionately found among people who re­ cases of discrimination. So she goes on ceive the lousiest health care, work the with the fight. It makes me believe that un safest jobs, live in the worst housing, sinister song 61 dance whatever the fight Woo becomes en­ are the most cruelly exploited and dis­ gaged in, she will go on slugging away criminated-against. And I am convinced Merle Woo lost to her opponent, Party nominee. This, despite the fact until there is a clear victor or loser. that we will not conquer these diseases New Alliance Party (NAP) candidate that NAP insisted, rightly, that the "The goal for me is to have a social­ until we get rid of the biggest disease of Elizabeth Munoz, in the Peace and Free­ Democrats will never accede to Black ist feminist revolution-that, or we face all, and that's capitalism." dom Party (P&FP) primary June S. Woo equality! our destruction," she said. "I have not Well-wishers can send messages to took San Francisco and Alameda Coun­ NAP was also fishing for Jackson been by myself in this struggle. I have Merle at Valencia Hall, S23-A Valencia ties. Nevertheless, second-time guber­ votes for their own candidate, Lenora had lots of support... St., San FranCiSCO, California 94110. natorial Munoz' greater name familiar­ Fulani, in the event Jackson stumbled. ity helped her statewide, as did the fact Not only votes: NAP solicits money for that NAP was able to mail campaign Iit something called the "Rainbow Lobby" to the entire P&FP registrant list-fi­ which, when people confuse it with nancially impossible for Woo. Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, NAP Also, Socialist Action, the SOcialist doesn't mind. The Rainbow Coalition National Speaking Tour Workers Party, the Communist Party has publicly blasted NAP for duplicity. and other leftists refused, for various NAP is currently cuddling up to sectarian reasons, to back the socialist Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Is­ Woo. lam. Farrakhan has clout in the Black Embaftl~~ Nicaragua: Nonetheless, Woo made an impact, community and NAP wants some. But especially in the press, a fact that aston­ Farrakhan is a notorious anti-Semite, ished old-time P&FP campaign workers. homophobe, male supremaCist, and There's always the next go-round: bedrock pro-capitalist. So how does ~~u=~~~!~ess ACCount Meanwhile, people need to learn more NAP square this with their supposed 10 1989. They lived with Sanphdo e? Durham traveled toN;"''''ta about NAP. support for women's, gay, and Jewish organ' '. ,101Sta work d - gua They may sound good on first equality and workers' democratic I d' Izers, unlOntsts, lesb' n!J . , ers an met\\TithwOtn n lans and Creoles la gay actIVISts, and Atlanti' '.C en hearing. Their song is one of "empow­ rights? For that matter, how do they . Coast erment" for all the oppressed. They sing reconcile it with support for Black The forums will feature their l,:..J , out for an end to racism, for lesbian/ women, Black gays, Black workers? ~ the numbers listed b 1__ L.._ S-:ue shoW, ~--..1 gay rights, for housing, health care, the The NAP package is snake-oil. eww JUT SItes, time•• _..1 ' ,,:',"great!004. Call right to abortion ... Sweet music. But in What do you expect from a group D .., --ntorelnJOrma . an age when sweet music is made into whose leader, Fred Newman, spent time 1. Susan Williams: tion, Muzak and used to pitch Pepsi, beware at the feet of Lyndon LaRouche in September 8 1', .,,' of crooning political hucksters. 1974-when the master was already September 15 R acr;w,Washingt'Ofl You'll never hear NAP sing socialist well down the road to Nazism? September 22 sort I nd, Oregon 206-383.. 4142 songs. Yet here is a group that poaches LaRouche was, at the time, sending eatt e, Washington 503.. 249-8067 at socialist watering holes-for issues, goon squads out to smash the Left; to­ 206.. 722-2453 pieces of ideas, the progreSSive electoral day Newman slanders socialists and Stephen Durham­ constituency-while slandering social­ tries to steal their support. LaRouche ists as irrelevant to American politiCS! brainwashes his followers; according to September 30 S This is the same "lone alternative" ex-insiders, Newman runs NAP as a October 13 an Francisco, California to the two-party system whose strategy "sex-therapy" cult. Los Angeles, California 1:5-864-1278 in the '88 presidential elections was to LaRouche today is an outright fas­ If yoU WOuld like Will/a 3-413-1350 hop aboard Jesse Jackson's bandwagon cist. Who knows where NAP will end Ottlce 409 M ms or DUrham to 'Peak In if he wound up being the Democratic up?O • aYnard Avenue South, ~ __... ~' Your c,ty.confctet FSP N t· • '"""'.. ..,. WO$h. 94JI> ... ~.L a lonal ..... -*682-0990. 4 Freedom Socialist July-September 1990 Eastern Europe: Rebellion at the grassroots

Back in 1917, everyone un­ eration. The West wants its restrictions crats to capitalism. ticated and consciously revolutionary derstood that the workers to become law in united Germany. Workers' councils have sprung up, leadership is developing. An example is were to rule in the workers You can imagine the outrage this or are fighting to, in Hungary, Roma­ the Polish Socialist Party-Democratic state. Logical, no? Then has provoked among East German nia, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, Revolution (PSP-DR). came Stalin to bury logic. women by the fact that even West Ger­ and a struggle is shaping up against PSP-DR leader Jozef Pinior analyzes ~ Now Stalinism is a gasp or man politicians predict that abortion government dismantling of social prop­ the current situation in Poland: two from interment and guess who's rights-even more than economic or erty for sale to capitalists at bargain back from the Land of Shades, shovels military matters-will be the flashpoint prices. Political wisdom has led in hand, itching to pronounce the last issue of reunification talks. In Romania, where Ceausescu was the bureaucracy to look for rites? Women workers meanwhile are ousted and executed, workers have be­ an agreement with the You bet-the workers throughout leveling the widest-ranging criticisms of gun removing corrupt and incompetent Church and the (Solidarity) the East bloc. the old regimes and the impending factory managers and electing replace­ opposition ... "free market II transitions. Here is a pas­ ments. One of the first acts of the new Poland. Can you imagine what's sage from the Manifesto for an Inde­ provisional government was to legalize The Walesa opposition going to happen in Poland, land of pendent Women's Movement adopted abortion. has agreed to support... the "shock" transition to capitalism, as by a confederation of East German In Hungary, where half-a-million embourgeoisement of the prices and unemployment skyrocket women's organizations on December 3, unemployed are forecast over the next nomenklatura. These re­ together, as the Stalinists and the 1989: few years, the battle will undoubtedly forms ... are aimed at provid­ sharpies of Solidarity's right wing get develop against the takeover of Hungar­ ing the world with cheap la­ rich selling off state property for a song We women say this: The ian industry by West German capital­ bor and dooming the youth to themselves and their capitalist co­ social changes in (East Ger­ providing the basis for direct unity be­ and majority of workers to horts, as the country is bled white by many) were set off by the tween Hungarian and German workers. destitution... debt to the International Monetary masses in the streets. Women Interestingly, battles against priva­ Fund? were present at all stages of tization in Czechoslovakia may break Sooner or later this will One hell of an explosion, that's this process. They were in out first in agriculture. Collective farm­ end up in a rebellion of Soli­ what. the forefront ... But as soon ing is a success here-agricultural yield darnosc's grassroots... it is Polish workers have been rising up as the time came to work out equals Western levels-and agricultural stupid to think that the against Stalinism for over three decades. the perspectives for the re­ workers show no signs of wanting to re­ workers will not react to the They came within an ace of dumping newal of socialist society, turn to the backbreaking regimen and capitalist appropriation of the bureaucracy in 1980 and have had women found themselves ineffiCiency that characterize private the means of production by ten years to seethe as things just got once again excluded. family farming. the ruling elite. worse. They've seen a lot in those ten years: they've watched the "hero" ... this society has been The pressure is on. Market re­ This passage, and PSP-DR's plat­ Walesa embrace General Jaruzelski and careening towards the abyss. forms in Yugoslavia in the 1960s put form, attest to their clear understanding the IMF in the attempt to lead Poland We have witnessed a rapid some 500,000 out of work and led to that Stalinist bureaucracy is antithetical like a hog to market. And if the workers deterioration in living con­ debt that today totals $21 billion. Simi­ to socialism and that it must be forcibly slaved under Stalinism, they're not ditions and the social situa­ lar reforms today, being pushed under overthrown and dismantled in a politi­ about to starve under capitalism. tion... And with the fall in IMF pressure, promise another half-mil­ cal revolution if workers are finally to Thirty-five thousand miners laid wages of men and women, lion jobless. Workers are responding: assume control. I down their shovels to strike after the shock reforms swelled unemployment and hiked prices in January. Chances are they'll be picking them up soon to help bury the bloodsuckers in Warsaw.

Reunification blues. Cold war­ riors may be gloating now over the im­ pending German reunification, i.e., the absorption of the East by the West and impOSition of West German law and the Deutsche mark throughout the East German women on land. Let them laugh while they can. strike at East Berlin's Here's what reunification means: Schuhfabrik VEB Gold­ East German industry, unable to com­ punkt, a shoe factory. Ger­ pete with West German, Japanese and man reunification will send South Korean industry, will fold like an hundreds of thousands of accordian. Unemployment will hit the East German workers into moon-an estimated 1.4 million jobless the streets-against unem­ virtually overnight. Meanwhile food ployment, wage cuts, price and housing costs, hitherto kept low hikes, etc. Women, most via government subsidies, could quad­ jeopardized by the coming ruple. East Germans also face being decimation of East German badly shortchanged by conversion to industry, and by the threat the Deutsche mark: East Germany is to abortion rights, are al­ bankrupt, its currency worthless. For ready causing sleepless small savers, Bonn is proposing a two­ nights in Bonn. for-one-swap of equivalent East Ger­ man notes for D-marks-a generosity likely to have East German workers out on the streets selling pencils. West German moneymen may be and the lessening of the po­ 2,000 strikes last year. Also, in the last PSP-DR has also moved far beyond licking their lips at the thought of all litical power of the workers, few months, worker pressure has forced early Solidarity's narrow national focus. that penurious East German labor, but it is women who have had to the bureaucracy to announce in favor For example, in demanding that Poland they can't be happy at the hemorrhage compensate by extra work of a multi-party system. As one Yugo­ repudiate the IMF debt, the party char­ of funds it will take to keep the East for the failure of social serv­ slavian militant put it, "The revolution acterizes the debt crisis as international from collapse. Then too, reunification ices, women who have be­ in Romania has changed many things and refutes the notion that socialism in will bring East and West German work­ come more and more at risk in the Balkans." anyone country can break the strangle­ ers closer together and-uh oh. You can from male aggression and Many things. Yugoslavia's national hold of world capital. bet the East Germans won't submit exploitation as sexual object. antagonisms, between Serbs and Croa­ This position gets to the heart of happily to "free market" peonage. West tians for example, rival those in the the problem all right: capitalism is an Germans meanwhile are chafing under Women have no country USSR. Yet development of independent international system; socialism must an official 8 percent unemployment to lose, they have a world to democratic organizations, blocked for supplant it internationally to survive. rate and steady erosion of social serv­ win. Now is the time to seize years by nationalist strife, is proceeding Poland's Left leadership is perhaps ices. Put them together in common un­ the opportunity to enhance swiftly on the crest of the current up­ the most sophisticated in the East. But ions and a common polity to share suf­ the diversity of our aspira­ heavals. Support is growing throughout Poland has been in arms against Stalin­ fering and compare notes and things tions and demands in the Yugoslavia now for the demands of the ism for over 30 years. The other East might really rock and roll in the Reich­ framework of a renewal of Moslem Albanian minority for greater Europeans, faced with essentially the to-be. Socialism... religious and cultural freedom. same crisis, will catch up. East European workers already Women's rage. Immediate Powerful stuff-and ominous for Leadership. Everywhere in the East know they're in the same boat; interna­ trouble is likely to come from women East and West German powers-that-be. the same thing: stiffening resistance to tional consciousness is there. That con­ over the question of abortion rights. In the bureaucrats' sellout to capital and sciousness, strengthened by events, and the East, abortion is free, no questions It's breaking out all over. the impulse to overcome divisions, na­ their unconquerable egalitarianism­ asked. In the West, however, a woman We see seeds of the same movement tional and otherwise, that have ham­ instilled by the promise, if not the real­ must persuade two doctors to grant per­ throughout the workers states, and why pered workers' self-organization. ity, of socialism-will carry them a long mission; then she must undergo "coun­ not? Workers in all these countries face It will take more than militance for way-against the bureaucrats, against seling" and wait three days for the op- the same danger, sellout by the bureau- the workers to win. Fortunately, sophis- the capitalists, towards socialism. D --~~~~--~~==~==~======~======~======~~~-;-=~-=-=-======~------~------

July-September 1990 Freedom SOCialist 5

The fallacies of socialisDl in one country Stalinism is crumbling in to regulate the scramble of too many Chinese revolution in 1925-27 and the position fought tooth and nail against Eastern Europe and the people for too few goods. British general strike in 1926. He spiked the bureaucracy's encroachments Soviet Union. That's the The Bolsheviks tried mightily to all hope for the German revolution in throughout the 1920s. best news we Trotskyists ignite the European revolUtion, but Eu­ the early 1930s by refusing to allow the Stalin used the machinery of state have heard in neady 70 rope, shored up by massive infusions of German Communist Party to unite to smash the opposition and exile ~ years. U.S. aid, held fast in the '20s and the with Social Democratic workers to repel Trotsky, then to exterminate millions We've been predicting the demise revolution stayed bottled up in the So­ the oncoming Nazi menace. This last of peasants and dissidents in the '30s, of that bastard parody of communism viet Union. betrayal paved the way for Hitler, who then to have Trotsky assassinated in ever since Stalin and his henchmen Mexico in 1940. usurped control of the Kremlin in 1923. Single-state squalor. Enter Stal­ Stalin falsified history, gagged art­ Stalinism ain't communism. inism to gum things up for decades. ists, writers and critics, butchered the You've heard that before, but let's dem­ True to fore- trade unions. He gutted the Soviet onstrate the difference again for those cast, Soviet pov­ constitution which had codified demo­ who didn't get it the first time. erty gave a leg The sodal revolution cratic freedoms for women, gays and up to govern­ national minorities. Having repressed The real thing. First, Marx's un­ ment careerists, in such a country the nationalities in the '20s, he pro­ sullied vision. Simply, it was that hu­ most of whom [Russia] can finally ceeded in the '30s to canonize women's man beings, rid of owners and over­ had flocked to be successful only... on re-enslavement in the home and to out­ lords, could cooperatively and success­ the Bolsheviks law homosexuality. fully plan their economic life and con­ only after the the condition that it is given timely He effectively demolished the sovi­ trol their own social destinies. Marx 1917 victory. support by the sodal revolution in one ets, the democratic representational foresaw that socialism would appropri­ Lodged in the bodies that had provided the basis for ate capitalism's already-socialized pro­ state machinery or more advanced countries ... workers' control of the government in ductive techniques and its privatized under the wing -V.I. Lenin the early years of the revolution. wealth and, on that basis, ascend to a of Stalin the Stalin leveled the most far-reaching higher culture. "Old Bolshevik," democracy the world has yet seen and Marx took account of the fact that they proceeded to take the best of what repaid Stalin's kindness less than a dec­ erected a gimcrack caricature of social­ capitalism is a global system. Its wealth little there was for themselves. As Soviet ade later with an invasion and 20 mil­ ism-a police state resting on top of a and technique have developed on the isolation grew prolonged, the nascent lion Soviet war dead. planned economy, in a country that basis of a world division of labor, the bureaucrats were able to consolidate Had Stalin ever bothered to ac­ had not yet swept away the vestiges of worldwide flow of resources from colo­ into a new and parasitical ruling caste. quaint himself with Marx, he might feudalism. nial countries to the industrial centers, The USSR's pariah status was okay have realized that the Soviet Union and high finance's ability to expand with the Stalinists, having lifted them could no more coexist with imperialism Inevitable fall. What a legacy! the capitalist market to all continents. to power-and they moved quickly to than human tissue can coexist with The Soviet state is still primitive today, Capitalism controls the planet eco­ cement the status quo. Stalin pro­ cancer. Capitalism must grow or die. still vulnerable to the West. How could nomically and politically. This means claimed "socialism in one country," the Accordingly, capitalist governments its economy not be a nightmare of rot­ that socialism, from wherever its start­ Soviet Union, as the end-all be-all of must subjugate the labor, resources and ten planning, corruption, and misman­ ing point, must take power world­ "Marxism-Leninism" in 1924. He markets of the planet. Removal of a agement? How could alcoholism and wide-or else wither, deformed in the turned his back on further revolution­ sixth of the earth's surface from the cynicism not be rampant among the womb, a la Romania. ary commitments at home and abroad. imperialist orbit could not sit well with politically disenfranchised workers? He lauded "peaceful coeXistence" with the profiteers and their generals. . How could long lines and scarce and Bottled up. Before and after the Western imperialism as the proper Hitler's invasion of the USSR in shoddy merchandise not plague weary Russian Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky framework for Soviet development. 1941 was a bloody obj ect lesson in consumers? insisted that the fledgling Soviet state Stalin's desecration of MarXism, capitalist political economy. Subse­ How could similar conditions not would not be secure until capitalism this theory of single-state SOCialism, was quent U.S. efforts to roll back commu­ prevail in the clone states that Stalin set was supplanted internationally by the logical outcome of the nest-feather­ nism via global hot and cold wars are up in Eastern Europe after World War workers' revolution. Socialism in a ing instinct: bureaucrats are by nature an emphatic restatement of the lesson. II, as per agreement with the U.S., to be single country, especially in one so his­ short-Sighted, opportunistic, anti-revo­ a buffer against imperialist control of torically impoverished and backward as lutionary seekers after privilege and Stalin's paradise. The Soviet bu­ the rest of Europe and Asia? Russia, could not possibly compete "peace." They "make the best" of bad reaucracy could not coexist with the When you add to the internal mis­ with the West. situations. If squalor serves their pur­ West. Nor, as it turned out, could it co­ ery the continuing Western ownership The USSR-encircled, isolated, left pose, they proclaim it a paradise and exist with the egalitarian dynamiCS of of the bulk of the world's economic as­ to build capitalism with what Trotsky work to ensure it lasts for eternity. the Russian Revolution itself. Soviet sets and the ongoing, manifest U.S. in­ called" a pre-capitalist inventory"­ Stalin didn't want any more up­ workers hadn't gotten rid of the old or­ tent to eradicate the workers states­ would fall prey to bureaucratism, to an heavals upsetting his applecart-and to der just to be saddled with a new gang well, how could Stalinism not be totter­ economic policeman st#addling society ensure that none did, he sabotaged the of slavemasters, and Trotsky'S Left Op- ing at the edge of the abyss? 0

"Well, Fran, it looks like Communism's down for the count. The USSR is dis­ integrating; Eastern Eu­ rope's going capitalist; ~ Chinese hardliners are A look at how reaching the end of their road. Won't you finally admit that socialism has failed, that it's finished, ended, kaput?" socialism would work "Stan, how can something that's never been born be dying or dead? I dance. Key to this system was workers "Fran, what's democracy got to do planning demands the fullest democ­ agree that Stalinism has had it. But just taking hold of economic life as the with economic planning?" racy. Imagine trying to prioritize local because Stalinists and capitalists have foundation of all social and cultural ac­ objectives, in harmony with regional insisted for 60 years that Stalinism is tivity and planning production for hu­ "Well, Stan, Stalin built his police and overall needs, meanwhile integrat­ socialism, we don't have to make the man use, not private profit. Planning, state, gave orders, do this, do that, no ing various far-flung industries and re­ same mistake. requiring overall coordination and di­ diSCUSSion, we'll shoot you. The bu­ sources to ensure that all needs get met! "Moscow and Wall Street had obvi­ rection of the economy, would be cen­ reaucracy built itself a 'socialist' econ­ You'd better have your shit together, ous reasons for equating the two: tralized under workers' control. omy that cannot adequately feed or know what your resources are, know Moscow thought it would make the bu­ "I know what you're thinking, house its people even today! what your problems are, and know how reaucracy look good. Wall Street knew Stan, Stalin said the same damn thing. "You see, a planned economy re­ to use those resources to get those prob­ it would make socialism look like hell. But Marxists never conceived central­ qUires discussion, debate, critiques and lems out of the way. But let's you and I take a look at the ized planning to be a bunch of Moscow control by the people responsible for "How are you possibly going to question with an eye to finding the hotshots ordering flunkies hither and carrying it out, the workers. Planning know unless the workers tell you the truth." yon to meet quotas cooked up by demands democracy, workers' democ­ truth? How can they do that if they're Kremlin hacks who want to look good racy. That's the point of a workers state. bullied, or threatened, or treated like "OK, Fran, What's the difference in reports to the Central Committee: "Look at it from the production pack mules and dummies? Why would between Stalinism and socialism?" "'The Committee wants a million angle: a plan begins with assessing ex­ they want to if they have no say in tractors by Christmas? Fine and dandy. isting conditions and industrial tech­ how things get done?" "First, Stan, let's go to the source If the tractors don't get built, blame the nique at the local, regional and top­ and see how socialism existed in the plant managers for screwing up. They most levels. How do you make realistic "OK, Fran, workers' democracy. minds' eye of Marx and Engels, as op­ can blame the workers for showing up assessments? By ensuring that those Great. How do you get it?" posed to how it was painted up in drunk on the job.' Dump down and most involved in the project, the work­ Stalin's advertising brochures. cover your ass-that's the Stalinist way. ers, offer opinions, clarify problems, "First we overthrow the capitalists "They saw socialism as a global sys­ "But that isn't what Marx had in hash out disagreements, make propos­ and take away their industry, Stan. tem in which free personalities could mind. And here is where economic als on what to do next, then vote on Then we dismantle the state appara­ develop and flourish in a community of planning meets up with the need for how best to get the job done. tus-army, police, courts, government social responsibility and material abun- political democracy." "Intelligent, clear-eyed, workable to page B ...... ~ ...... " ...... ~ . . ::~:~~~~~~~,~~~~~~~~~~,~~~' .•-.-.- .-.--:--:::::;:::::::::::::...... ::::::::: :::::::::::::: . .. :-:.:-:.:-:. :-:.:-: -:.:-: .. :.: .. :.:.:.:.: .. :.: .. :.. :.: .. : ...... " ...... "". . , ...... "'" . . ... " ." ', .... to • ...... ":':":':":":":":":":":":":':

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Domestic Stalinist police repres­ sions have smothered the creative intel­ ligence, person!1 initiative, collective harmony, and human spirit that are the heart and soul of socialist economy and Stalinism and fascism government. Yes, fascism is necessary to capital­ ism-and Stalinism is a millstone around socialism's neck. Where fascism A case of mistaken identity expresses the organiC impossibility of healthy capitalist development, Stalin­ ism has stood as the aberrant political Is Stalinism a variant of war production-all for the greater Fascism is the putrid emanation of barrier to the flowering of socialism. fascism, the "totalitarian" profits and glory of Ansaldo, Thyssen, decomposing capitalism; Stalinism, To eradicate the threat of fascism, twin of Hitlerism? Krupp, etc. conversely, is an aberration of post­ one must uproot and destroy the profit That's the assertion of Big business finances and goads to capitalist SOciety, an "accident" that system. The current anti-Stalinist up­ capitalist pundits, academ­ political action those middleclass happened when the newborn Russian heavals in Eastern Europe-aided by ~ ics and sundry other red­ masses of small business owners, man­ Revolution was corralled by imperialist timely anti-capitalist revolts in the baiters, and to hell with it. agers, functionaries, some more privi­ aggression in the 1920s. It is an ongo­ West-will finally clear the way for so­ Stalinism is certainly fascist-like in leged workers, sundry bigots, etc., who ing expression of poverty and back­ cialist renewal. its methods of rule, but fascism it isn't. face ruin by capitalist crisis-and who wardness in the Soviet Union and all It is fatal to equate the two political The latter horror is an inevitable out­ are all too willing to scapegoat the those countries where socialist over­ regimes, fascism and Stalinism. The growth of dying capitalism's inability workers and super-oppressed for their turns have taken place. equation obscures the life-or-death dis­ to maintain social order via "normal" troubles. Stalinism not only expresses, it ex­ tinction between the two socio-eco­ police methods or the charade of parlia­ So it is with the U.S. far right-Na­ acerbates, the backwardness of the post­ nomic systems, capitalism and social­ mentary democracy. zis, Klansmen, LaRouchies, Moonies, capitalist states. Stalinists have insisted ism. Worse, it fuels the delusion that Fascism grabs for power as the logi­ and so forth. Financed by oil-men, de­ that socialism can be built in single capitalist restoration is inevitable and cal political expression of late capital­ fense contractors, et al., they are organ­ countries, on the basis of material and good in those societies where Stalinism ism at that juncture where the need to izing for the day when the Democrats technical poverty. They have worked is disintegrating. jack up the profit rate clashes irreversi­ and Republicans can no longer success­ instinctively to sabotage socialist revo­ Let's avoid delusions. The Eastern bly with the living standards and dem­ fully manage the" democratic" impov­ lutions for the sake of "peaceful coexis­ European shakeups are a wonderful first ocratic impulses of the working major­ erishment of the American people­ tence" with imperialism-leaving the step back toward the road that leads to ity. So it was with Mussolini and Hitler, through plant closures, social and West in control of most of the planet, socialism. A needed second step is a whose job it was to crush the rambunc­ health care cuts, etc.-or continue their and the "socialist" states to founder as preemptive strike against fascism-a re­ tious Italian and German working efforts to legally impose a police regime also-rans in the race with imperialism volt that closes the book on capital­ classes, slash their wages to nothing, through "anti-drug" assaults on the for humanity's future. ism-in the West. [J and herd them with cattle prods into U.S. Constitution.

ety knockS oppor~~tskyists for r ned up extraor- oviet upheaval has o~orld socialist. ~~~a~y advan~~g~~/~~t~~ation.al T~~t::J~r· movemen.t a noW for TrotskYIsts It's time nght . b lief and be- the favor. d hock dIS e ~ has triggere s ' lcified by Com- The shakeup n Stalinists not ca b tter time for .lderment among a What could be a e ·ng to initi- WI ty ideology· h t's happen I , t munist Par h understand w a . . ts willing at leas Trotskyists~ w 0 ith the many.Sta~mIs ovements influ­ ate diSCUSSIOns w ers of activIsts m m ovements­ to listen? that's all hoW the can­ Bro~dyy_andst ~he ~ enced by Stal1m : an understandl.n?n~l promise of so- can noW be won. o wasted the ongi cer of bureaucratlsm h hev revelations cialism. be done. When the ~r~\\ocialist work- _ lt can CPUSA in 1956, t b struck Commu shattered the to engage the born - befriended or ~ Armenian protesters face off against Soviet troops in the ers Party was th~~e SWP recruited so~ei of radicalism Armenian cahital, Yerevan. National rehression has lonv nists in debate. and sparked a rev\Va r r ~ neutralized ot~~~~~ling"60S.. f the SWP do~sn't served as a foundation ofbureaucratic rule; the struggle for in time for th t degeneratIOn 0 . ment an IOta, workers' democracy in the USSR will succeed to the degree The subse.q~~~cance of this ach~~:vals offer that workers ofdiHerent nationalities unite on an equal basis, as mitigate the Sig the fact that the up ·ty to spearhead If· nor does it alt~r .lar historiC opportum happened in the Urals miners' strike last summer. TrotskYist~s~a~s~:m~s;~;n;ce;;n;o;w;.;o;;;;;;::::::::::::::::::~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, "dical ina" gional, national and international lev­ cialism has to take over and improve the Soviet Union. Capitalism kept hold els. Delegates are elected from the lower the highest existing productive, cultural of most of the world's wealth. What to the higher bodies, to ensure integra­ and educational techniques and re­ you had in the Soviet Union was tion of local and regional with overall sources-those already developed by chaos-and along came Stalin to bring ...SocialislIl interests. capitalism. 'ordeL' "All of SOciety would be represent­ "Socialism is supposed to meet all "To repeat, Stan, capitalism is a can work ed in the council system, Stan: we'd people's needs. Only capitalism has cre­ world system. SOcialism, therefore, has have workers' councils, women's coun­ ated the material foundation for that. to take over the world to flourish. It cils; councils of those who were racially We couldn't plan without capitalist ac­ can't just work in one or a few poor na­ from poge 5 and nationally oppressed; consumers' counting and administrative methods. tions as Stalin tried to pretend it institutions, etc.-that kept them in councils; seniors' councils; artists' Modern-day training and education are could." power. Then we build our own state. councils; councils of the disabled-all impossible without capitalism's cultural "We arm the workers in case the kinds of councils! These councils would resources. It's on the basis of these re­ "One last question, Fran. After 70 capitalists get frisky and try to retake function as autonomous expressions of sources that socialism will be able to years of Stalinism, what chance does power. That's what's meant by the dic­ the needs and interests of the groups draw the majority of the people into real socialism have of even getting a tatorship of the proletariat. We dictate they represent. Yet they would be inte­ the democratic administration of the hearing among workers today?" to the capitalists: back off, get lost; gral parts of the system as a whole, state, control of production, and so you're out of business. working collaboratively and collectively forth. "Better than you might think, Stan. "But we also want democracy-for to achieve a harmony of interests." "Going back to the Russian Revolu­ First, Stalinism is falling apart, which the workers, the majority. So we have tion and Stalin: The Bolsheviks took means there's one less roadblock to so­ workers' councils. These councils-the "But they had soviets in Russia, power in a poor, backward country. cialist revolution than there was. Sec­ Russians called them soviets-are the Fran, and they still wound up with Culture? Resources? What they had was ond, while Stalinism dirtied up the so­ representative bodies that are the basis Stalin. What's to prevent that from thin to begin with, and most of that cialist idea, capitalism is more than ever for workers' control of the state and so­ happening again?" was destroyed in the world war and the a horror story-a festering grab-bag of ciety. They're where we meet to ham­ civil war that followed the revolution. fascism, Third World famine, crime and mer out policy on all the great issues: "Let's step back a minute, Stan. No way could workers' democracy take corruption, social bigotries and eco­ production and distribution of goods, "Remember we said earlier that so­ hold in Russia-unless revolutions in nomic austerity in the Western 'democ­ the administration of state, education cialism would take over what capital­ the rest of the capitalist world suc­ racies.' People have just about had it. of children, town planning, health ism had built and go from there? That ceeded and brought help. They want out of the madhouse. care, environmental law, everything. was Marx's idea. And that's what social­ "To make a long story short, none Where's the door? Look at the exit sign: The councils are set up at the local, re- ism has to do! If it's going to work, so- did. The revolution stayed bottled up in It still says socialism." D

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July-September 1990 Freedom Socialist 9

tion to their repudiation of centralized women don't want what Gorbachev try to strangle the Russian Revolution. planning, the New Socialists insist that has to offer. Stalin meanwhile had to erect a police production be controlled by democrati­ Perestroika is stalled, of course, not state to protect the Kremlin's privileges cally elected workers' councils at every least by women's resistance. Mean­ from poor workers at home. Economic ... Soviet level. They admit that "democratic con­ while, the inequalities and ugliness of planning was a joke under the igno­ trol cannot exist without some kind of the old ways persist. Soviet feminists de­ rant, nest-feathering elite. Social rela­ showdown planning." ery, as they have increasingly for the last tions became those of bureaucratic Exactly. If workers run the econ­ decade, women's confinement to the masters to slaves. omy, they are going to try to ensure lowest-rung jobs, the lack of childcare Soviet socialism was a backward from front page that social needs get met. Goals will be and health safeguards, rising infant mor­ horror, impoverished, oppressive, a private farms-made some inroads, but set-and this entails the conscious di­ tality, and the fact that, 70 years after caricature, and thus a bureaucrats' para­ were stalled by worker resistance, bu­ rection of production to meet them. the revolution, women are still expected dise. reaucratic inertia, and the plain lack of But what kind of planning? Local? to keep house for nothing. Inevitably it floundered; now it's technique it takes to rev up a modern Regional? In certain branches of indus­ All these inequities, and the age­ falling. And it's up to the Soviet work­ economy. try only? What but economic Balkani­ old lack of bread. The Soviet system is a ers to pick up the pieces. Then too, perestroika's unspoken zation can result if How will they assumption has been that market anar­ the productive do it? They're in chy and economic planning could co­ whole is left to the the process already: exist indefinitely. This is a fundamental winds? The New So­ forming the New absurdity. Gorbachev learned, if he cialists will find Socialist Party, didn't already know, that the middle that the reciprocal reaching across na­ ground is a no-man's land, a limbo be­ impact of the vari­ tionallines in tween two irreconcilables-the market ous regions and strikes, voicing an and planning. One or the other ulti­ branches of indus­ increasingly femi­ mately must go. try are far too great nist eriticism of It's evident that Gorbachev would to allow for any iso­ things-as-they-are, now like to hand the USSR over to capi­ lated success. and linking up talism. But he can't. The capitalists workers' with con­ wouldn't know what to do with it if he A woman's sumers' demands, could. Meanwhile Soviet disintegration mission. Re­ aspirations and accelerates. Gorbachev is losing control. member who outrage. A vacuum of power is opening up in­ started the Russian This is workers' side the USSR. Revolution in Feb­ democracy strug­ ruary 1917? gling to be born, Toward midnight in Women textile chewing away at Moscow. How long do you think workers in Petro­ the bureaucratic Gorbachev can hold on by trying to re­ grad, the lowest- 0 foundations. structure the Soviet Union on the backs paid workers in the Z Soon up, per­ of Soviet workers? city, who got fed up haps: revived sovi­ Considering that the assembled having to stand in ets, real ones, multitudes in Red Square on May Day long lines after democratic repre­ this year booed him off the podium, work to buy sentational bodies the best guess is, not long. bread-only to find just like the ones The Soviet president is in a pickle: that were the basis the USSR must modernize, and he sees for workers' control only one way-via the capitalist mar­ of the state in the ket. But the market means misery for days before Stalin. workers and they've made it plain that they're not going to sit back and suffer The bottom its consequences. line. The workers' Time was when Stalinist terror fight against bureaucratism is at bottom could dictate in the Soviet Union. But a fight against Soviet backwardness in this is the Age of New Thinking, and relation to capitalism. Victory lies fi­ terror can no longer cut it. nally in socialism's triumph abroad. Workers want equality and food on No more soft soap. Gorbachev the table. Moscow cannot possibly de­ got a taste of the direction workers' liver. Capitalism promises even greater thoughts are headed when thousands horrors than Stalinism. It's the same all of miners struck in the Urals last sum­ over the Eastern bloc: the bureaucracies mer. The miners didn't even have soap are crumbling, the International Mone­ to wash with, and governments have tary Fund is circling, world capitalism is fallen for less. licking its lips. Circumstances compel Soap and more were on the strikers' an international, socialist solution to minds: self-management of the mines the crisis. for one thing, and the ouster of the The New Socialists are moving to­ Communist Party from its monopoly of ward fully recognizing this and that's state power. Here you have in embryo Women textile workers striking for bread in Petrograd kicked off the February good. Also, people are reading Trotsky the struggle for workers' democracy, for revolution which toppled the Czar in 1917. Their banner in the top photo above in Moscow and Leningrad these days. control of the workers state. reads "Comrade Workers and Soldiers, Support Our Demands." Today in That's good too. Human needs and as-­ Some crucial things about this Moscow (lower photo) the shelves are still bare, women are seething, and the pirations power the anti-bureaucratic strike: one, it lit off similar strikes in clock is ticking away on Gorbachev. struggle; Marxist theory can shape it the far-off Ukraine, despite lack of con­ and make it successful. tact other than press reports between there was no bread to buy when they daily insult to workers and consumers. Trotsky laid bare the fallacies of the strikers of the two regions. Then finally got into the store. Women of all nationalities-stuck in Stalinism and "socialism in one coun­ there's the fact that Kazakh, Russian, Think about how revolutions get go-nowhere jobs, sweating in long try." His writings can help Soviet work­ Tatar, German, and Caucasian miners started: Russia was being chopped to bits lines, insulted, beleaguered and boil­ ers draw fundamental revolutionary held together as equals during the walk­ in World War I. Millions were maimed, ing-have had it. conclusions from the current unholy out. What does this mean? Consider the bled-white peasantry starved, work­ Gorbachev, to ease pressure and collusion of Moscow with international that national antagonisms and ine­ ers were fodder for war production. The speed perestroika, would shunt women capital. And in scraping away some of qualities have formed a basis for the autocracy meanwhile feasted on caviar; out of the workplace and into the the mud heaped by Stalinism on the Russified bureaucracy's power for 60 capitalists grew fat off the profits of war. home full-time, to fulfill their "wom­ very idea of socialism, his analyses illu­ years. These same antagonisms are now All the agonies of czarist Russia anly mission" as domestic slaves. Re­ minate how that maligned system can the linchpin for Soviet disintegration­ came to a boil that February in the member, though, that women were finally fulfill the promise of 1917. and mulch for pro-capitalist organizing muscles, bones and nerves of those among those miners in the Urals who from the Baltics to the Moslem repub­ women textile workers. The breaking struck for soap and the ouster of the Wrapping it up. How's this for a lics. But the miners' solidarity, tran­ point had been reached. There was no burea ucracy. grand finale to the Soviet upheaval? scending national partitions, stands as bread. Enough was enough. Here we glimpse in embryo the ap­ One hundred and thirty-five mil­ a challenge to bureaucracy and capital­ The women struck-and toppled proaching head-on conflict between lion Soviet workers rise up to wrest con­ ism, as the foundation of an alternative the czar. Eight months later the Bolshe­ rulers and ruled, between women work­ trol of their state from the usurpers in to both. viks took power. ers and the bureaucracy. Moscow. The conflict reignites in work­ There's a lesson here for all of us, ers around the world the half-buried be­ A central question. The task is not least for Gorbachev. Women are Toward October. Gorbachev, lief that they too can seize hold of their to articulate and develop this alterna­ still the lowest-paid Soviet workers. heir to Stalin, persists in the dictator's destinies. tive, and it's happening. Last December They still form the lines outside the basic mistake. He holds fast to the no­ U.S. and European workers espe­ in Moscow, some leaders of the miners stores. There is still no bread on the tion of "socialism in one country"­ cially take heart from the Soviets, and got together with representatives of shelves. even if adherence to his brand of "so­ from Trotsky: they've been bound and leftwing socialist groups from around Gorbachev knows who among the cialism" now dictates finding a transi­ gagged for six rotten decades by Stalin­ the country and formed the all-Russian workers hate perestroika the most-the tion to capitalism. ist reformism in their unions and social Committee for the Socialist Party, women. They're the ones who would Trotsky explained long ago that movements. But with the Soviet inspi­ which ran candidates on the New So­ fill the unemployment lines in the re­ Stalin concocted the theory of single­ ration they settle accounts with their cialist ticket in the March 4 elections, structured USSR. They do the grunt state socialism to justify abandoning misleaders. Once that's accomplished­ winning several races. work of construction, roadbuilding, or world revolution, working out "peace­ once they're freed from reformist hand­ The New Socialists are struggling to janitorial maintenance, in dead-end ful coexistence" with imperialism, and cuffs-they steamroller the capitalists. develop a coherent ideology. They rec­ jobs with no opportunity for advance­ consolidating bureaucratic power and Socialist revolution in the West en­ ognize that "free market" means the ment. They are the workers who would privilege at home. (See accompanying sures its consolidation in the Soviet Un­ Latin-Americanization of the Soviet Un­ be lopped off by the cost-cutting mech­ article "Socialism in One Country.") ion and everywhere else. ion. But they reject centralized plan­ anisms of capitalist transition. Here's the trouble with Stalin's rec­ It all gets done by the end of the ning of prodUction. This they equate Fancy being out on the street with ipe: It left the rest of the world and decade. D with bureaucratism. a family to feed as the market takes most of its wealth to the capitalists, Nonetheless, in implicit contradic- hold and prices rise to the sky. No, who have since used their advantage to -ROBERT CRISMAN 10 Freedom SOcialist July-September 1990

Snapshots (counterclockwise from lower left): RW National Organizer Constance Scott; RW co­ founder and Seattle organizer Gloria Martin; international panelists hold the stage; keynoters Merle Woo, Phyllis Hutchinson, Clara Fraser, and Martha Cotera; full house for Woo keynote discussion.

Radical Women's candidly revolutionary conference rom the tenth floor of a Santa not for the working majority. Now, the ers-Sparkplugs of Labor." (For details, socialism. Monica hotel overlooking the profit system is crumbling, and the please see companion articles.) Eastern bloc workers want democ­ Pacific Ocean, Radical Women third wave of feminism is here to help Four keynote speakers, Merle Woo, racy and prosperity under SOCialism, looked into the 1990s and wash it away for keeps. Martha Cotera, Phyllis Hutchinson and RW says, not the unemployment, price smiled. Clara Fraser, brought analysis and in­ hikes, debt bondage and social inequal­ FThis is the decade. It's all in place. Highlights. The four-day confer­ spiration to the conference, turning a ity-especially for women-that the Let's go. ence was packed. Discussion. Debate. no-nonsense eye toward the 1990s. "free market" has in store. "The Third Wave of Feminism: A Theory. Workshops. Resolutions. Skits. RW co-founder Fraser pointed to National Organizer Scott proposed, Candidly Revolutionary Approach," Poetry. Song. women's leadership in struggles from and RW agreed, to send two delegates was the theme of Radical Women's Participants came from the U.S., El Moscow to Manila, from the u.S. to to five Eastern European countries to 23rd anniversary conference February Salvador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, France, South Africa, and asserted, "Women are seek out, make contact and build alli­ 17 -20 in Santa Monica, California. England, and the Netherlands. the central issue of world politics." ances with feminist movement leaders. Attended by more than 200 people Conferees applauded the downfall And, said Cotera, "To achieve our Feminism is on the agenda in both the from 18 u.S. cities and nine countries, of Stalinism in Eastern Europe and the liberation will take nothing less than a Eastern and Western revolts, a must for the conferees joyously concluded that release of South African freedom fighter revolution. Why put it off one more the success of each. Linkage of femi­ the third wave of feminism, with wom­ Nelson Mandela. They endorsed lesbian day?" nists East and West will unify their en of color and women workers in the socialist Merle Woo for governor of struggles and bring the triumph a giant lead, is headed full-steam toward social­ California on the Peace and Freedom International realities. Inter­ stride closer. ist revolution. Party ticket. They elected a national or­ nationalism permeated the conference. The feminist third wave follows the ganizer and 13 members to their Na­ Proceedings were barely hours old Basics. The conference also discussed first wave, the suffragist movement, tional Executive Committee. They when a Salvadoran guest read a poem and adopted RW's updated, expanded and the second wave, the women's launched a $50,000 fund drive. in Spanish about a mother's search for "Manifesto," the organization's basic movement of the '60s and '70s. While They also welcomed two new her disappeared son. Greetings were programmatiC document. both movements changed the face of members: Martha Cotera, nationally read from Australia and Chile. The next The "Manifesto" states: world politics, both were eventually co­ known Chicana author, activist and day, an international panel of Mexican, 1. That socialism is the goal, and opted by pro-capitalist feminist leaders. historian from Austin, Texas; and Den­ Palestinian, Salvadoran and Native feminism the means of getting there. Not this time. The third wave is ise Harvey, Black feminist journalist American revolutionaries and move­ They are inseparable because the entire borne along by workingclass and spe­ and editor from the Bay Area. ment leaders, and a Seattle trades­ profit structure of capitalism depends cially oppressed women who have no Fourteen workshops were held, woman recently returned from South on the cheap and unpaid labor of more room for reformist half-measures. covering such topiCS as abortion, lesbi­ Africa, discussed the relationship of women and people of color. Also be­ "We face a deep global economic ans of color, union organizing, immi­ women's struggles to the revolutionary cause sex inequality, like racism, is a crisis," said Radical Women National grant workers, anti-Semitism, ageism, movements in those countries. fundamental social prop of the system. Organizer Constance Scott. "The issues faSCism, disability rights and poverty. Van-Maria Castro, of Mexico's Les­ 2. That revolution is the answer to today are survival issues-the armies of An ad hoc discussion between bianas y Homosexuales Comunistas capitalism and that the most oppressed homeless people on the street, the in­ Blacks and Jews concluded that they Feministas, stated that "the struggle has by the system-working women of credible loss of life from AIDS, the wid­ must fight together, as they did during to be international. Lesbians, feminists color-will lead it. Their freedom ening gap between super-rich and dirt the '60s civil rights movement, to and workers together with the Third means an end to the internecine bigot­ poor." counter the rise of U.S. fascism. World will take power." ries that paralyze the entire working Conference keynote speaker Phyllis Two new Radical Women docu­ Meanwhile, as capitalists mislabel class. Hutchinson, Seattle labor leader, sum­ ments were presented, discussed and the fall of Stalinism in Eastern Europe 3. That international SOCialism is a med it up: "Capitalism doesn't work, adopted: "Women of Color: Frontrun­ as 'the death of Communism,' Radical must. Capitalism plunders the re~ never has, never will," not for women, ners for Freedom," and "Women Work- Women cheers it as a step toward true sources, subjugates the labor, and cap- F

July-September 1990 Freedom Socialist 11

tures the markets of the world in order "That kind of politics doesn't have and joined rightwing misogynists in while, steering the feminist movement to survive. "Peaceful coexistence" with a color line," Alaniz stated. promoting a return to "family values." toward a reformist dead-end. the profit system is impossible. Alaniz and Hoddersen pointed out Workingclass women, pushed to But the third wave isn't following The "Manifesto" lays out what RW that racism has been integral to capital­ the wall, meanwhile fought on. those leaders into another abyss. wants. Its 27-page platform carries a ism for 500 years and is constantly nur­ Not until the attack on Roe v. Wade Women workers, women and men comprehensive list of demands, includ­ tured by it. Yet, contrary to what move­ at the end of the decade did main­ of color, lesbians and gays, the dis­ ing free abortion on demand, an end to ment liberals and cultural nationalists stream feminist leaders get active again, abled, the poor-all the disaffected­ forced sterilization of women of color, assert, racism can be overcome. In RW, but once more in the wrong direction­ know that the capitalist system has no nationalized health care, free quality they said, racism is exposed whenever it channeling women into the pro-capi­ place for them but on the bottom rungs childcare, affirmative action and com­ crops up, sometimes by white women, talist Democratic Party, banking on the of misery, or the graveyard. parable worth. sometimes by women of color. Con­ Dems' "pro-choice" campaign promises That knowledge, embodied in the The document was expanded to in­ fronting racism as learned political be­ while forsaking all other issues. explosive leadership of working women clude the needs and demands of older havior, they said, rather than as some Radical Women kept up the call for and women of color, is what gives the women, women in prison, disabled kind of moral or psychological original multi-issue organizing, for racially inte­ third wave its power to achieve unlim­ women, and women in the military. It sin, enables the offender to learn from grated women's leadership, and for al­ ited victories in the 1990s, in the U.S., added calls for the legalization of pros­ the lesson and change behavior, rather ternative, anti-capitalist political organ­ East bloc, Third World, and Europe. titution and drugs, and for united than sink into the guilty mea culpas izations and parties. Said Merle Woo: "We face a transi­ fronts against fascism. that liberals indulge in. Even mainstream feminist leaders tional epoch. A transitional epoch full Such confrontation also cuts the are beginning to pay lip service to of life and beauty, and with Radical Cross-color dialogue. Tossing ground out from under cultural nation­ multi-issue demands, but are, all the Women I know we're going to make it aside traditional speech-making, Yolan­ alists, who insist that skin color is the to the other side. To socialism." D da Alaniz, co-author of The Chicano never-to-be-bridged dividing line - Struggle: A Racial or a National among people. :JULIE RUSSIE Movement?, and Guerry Hoddersen, Proof of the pudding, they said, is RW's success in building multi-racial al­ civil rights activist and Freedom Social­ I ist Party National Secretary, sat down liances in the women's and people of for a talk on racism. The talk was titled color movements. Gender. ke b "Across the Color Line: A Dialogue on RW's approach, they concluded, is Race Relations Among Women." a model for what needs to happen if Alaniz, a former migrant farm the revolutionary potential of the the fQt~re ~f ~~ds; and worker from the Yakima Valley in women's movement is to flower. Washington state, the "Little Missis­ "It's up to us, as women, to find Did you know that. • • Gbor the road to solidarity," Hoddersen said. Women com . . sippi" of the Pacific Northwest, told forty-five and fift pnse between White male Worker how she learned to hate the white If we don't do it, who will?" have dWindled M s predominate, Workers today? y percent of V.S. growers of the valley who exploited the expected to pr~d anufacturing is Sixty-seven er primarily Chicano and Mexicano farm The top of the wave. In her or­ between th p cent of women cent of the gross ~ce.only 17 per­ workers. Hoddersen spoke of the aliena­ ganizer's report, "At the Crest of the outside the ~~gmes ~f 18-64 now work in the year 2000 datlOnal Product tion she felt growing up in a racist Third Wave: Radical Women in Ac­ B e. cent in 1955. ,OWn from 30 per- white enclave in southern California. tion," Constance Scott characterized y the year 2000 . cent of new Wo kt: ,nInety per­ The lOwly com Both women came to Radical the 1980s as a decade of anti-feminist be women and r orce entrants will has become the b puter keyboard Women because of its position that no reaction that split the women's move­ It's all t people of COlor? DeCiSions that det~ttO? of power: one will be free until the needs of soci­ ment. Middle-class feminist leaders like rue-and th and direction of r?lIne the rate reVolution_in at means a ety's most oppressed are met. Betty Friedan COUldn't stand the heat -process fo V S wide are made .capltal flow world- This is the c . r " labor. W VIa comp t by Heidi Durha oncluslOn reached omen bank t 11 u er. . h' m and Me data entry oper:t~rs, payroll clerks, OIs ,PIoneer Seattle t d gan Cor- and money ma k rs, bookkeepers and unionists re . ra eswomen h - r et secr t· .' document "w' portIng on their t e keyboards th at e anes fInger ,omen W k cisions to be mad enable those de- Sparkplugs of Labor" Or ers- e The color of revolution These women . Durham and C' . ist system go Th make the capital_ facts to baCk their ornl~h had the down tomor;ow ey can shut it Nancy Kato, author of the docu- ers benefit from imperialism and that marily statistics gleasSe~lOns, pri­ ment "Women of Colbr: Frontrunners .' tr.S. women: of color aren't as op- ernment reports a ane from gov­ Women hav~ at I for Freedom," laid it on the line. pressed as their Third World sisters. exhaustive researc~er months of power as indust . east as much "The struggle of women of color Speakers responded that relatively few "point of Produ~~~l ":?rkers at the . Another fact· w· for equality is central to the elimina- workers benefit from U.S. oppression. WIth men of o.men together halt production a~~n ~ver did to colo~ tem to its knee bnng the sys- tion of the profit system and the suc- Those workers are primarily white and the Workforce) and(~I~~ percent of cess of revolution in North America." male; imperialism, capitalism's lifeline, men (statistics and gay They also ~~v th The reasons are rooted in history actually helps strengthen the oppres- unava~~a~~ns dump the s ste ,e e POWer to sume at least ten e, but as- ants. "The Ira m ~ labor lieuten_ and contemporary reality. "In 1992, it sion of women, especially women of nite and decisiv per~e~t) are a defi- will be 500 years since Columbus color, at home. workers. e maJonty of V.S. WOrkingclass r;:atlc shift in V.S. labor bureaucfacw~r means that the landed and brought the private prop- Later in the discussion, Kato was This majorit h erty system which destroyed the com- attacked by two attendees for includ- bered " said C ~ s days are num- ~omplexion of labo as ch~nged the th ' ornlsh F d munistic matriarchies of Native Ameri- ing a white woman among the con- tlOnizing the V S r ~~d IS revolu_ e bureaucrats h ave . or ecades cans. Since then, race and sex have sultants and editors of her document, It's not· '. polItIcal scene women and work kept a lid on Just a matt . "1 b ers of c 1 been the excuses to enslave people of even though two women of color graphics, it's th er of demo- a or peace" with t 0 ~}[ to keep and protect th' he capItalists color, pay them less, and keep them in had played the same role. ":omen of workers~ gl~~ement Th ey've made elf CUShy p OSltIons" the worst jobs." With members of RW's National ~Ish POinted Out th tham and Cor­ Sure that h' . Today, "women of color are being Comrades of Color Caucus in the tlOns, finance a communica_ get the best jobs d w He males hit first and hardest by layoffs and lead, speakers hit the mikes in other service /n~over?ment and them from the an pay, to divide poverty, the AIDS crisis, the slashing droves. (NCCC formed so RW mem- most Wo ustnes-where But w super-exploited men and p 1 . omen are J'o' . . of social and health care services-all bers of color could meet to discuss Work-have re 1 eop e of color In record numb InIng unions p aced he . alone), and the ~rs (140,0~0 in 1988 the evils of the decaying system." and work out policy proposals on as the fUlcrum of th V avy Industry This oppression, Kato said, "cre- issues of importance to them.) Chi- Jobs in heavy' e .S. economy. stand for the Ol~ ~~ nO.t g.oIng to d ways. They're Ie d·lscnm~natory ates women of color with an attitude. canas, Blacks, Asian Americans and In ustry, Where a Ing stnkes We have to become the most tena- whites exposed the attack as a cov- cious and creative fighters against ert cultural nationalist assault on to next page capitalism. And we understand how to the politics of the document. defeat it. We see the interconnected- Kato had upheld women of color's ness of race, sex, sexuality and class leadership of a racially integrated oppression and how these work to di- workingclass movement. Cultural na- Your contribution will be used now vide the working class. We know best tionalism upholds race as the primary how to overcome these divisions so we bond among peoples and class be to finance a socialist feminist can win liberation." damned. tour of five Eastern European Kato cited women of color's role Conference delegate Nellie Wong, Fuod on the job and in the labor move- Bay Area branch CCC coordinator, countries, as well as publishing ment, connecting social and bread- commented tellingly that cultural na- and-butter issues and teaching white tionalism not only divides people of f or Radical Women male workers that race and sex antago- color from whites, it drives wedges be- nisms are fostered by management to tween different groups of people of documents, control all workers. color. Other speakers had noted that -0.-st and organ- She stressed the special leadership an aspect of the attack on Kato, an Fem. of lesbians of color, who explode the Asian American, was that she had pas- izing a host myth that women are destined to be sively acquiesced to a white editor's unpaid domestic slaves within the nu- control. Passivity is a stereotype ap- of projects. clear family, the basic social unit of plied to Asian Americans by the domi- Sediti 00 * capitalism. nant white culture. Discussion of Kato's presentation The upshot of the discussion was * si-dish'an, noun: conduct or language inciting opened with praise for her document that cultural nationalism is a divisive to rebellion against the authority of the state. as a valuable tool in explaining the ne- perspective that aids capitalism- cessity of women of color's leadership. which thrives because people of differ- She received high marks for her fresh, ent races and sexes fight each other in- Give generously to the down-to-earth, accessible language. stead of it. Much discussion centered on As Kato put it, "Our very political whether the U.S. might not continue instinct and survival need is to build a Radical Women Fund Drivel to oppress the Third World even after united movement. We can't do that a U.S. revolution led by women of without speaking to everyone's needs. Goal: $50,000· Deadline: November 30, 1990 color and other oppressed. This con- Together with all others demanding a cern, voiced by a Mexican comrade, decent world, we will change the Please send donations to Radical Women National Office, Valencia Hall, rested on a perception that U.S. work- course of human history.":::J 523-A Valencia, San Francisco, California 94110. Phone 415-864-1278. 12 Freedom SOCialist July-September 1990 .vacy ruling triumphs in Milestone :~ACP lit panther V· tory builds on Hall Case Ie free"" ay r-----.L

dom of association, particularly where a group espouses dissident beliefs." A condensed version of this story ap­ peared in the Seattle Times on June 12. Membership to minutes. Be­ cause of its history, the NAACP was one f you believe in social change, the of the first organizations to aid the odds are you'll spend a lot of time Freedom Socialist Party in another case in court. involving a precious right: the right to Every great civil rights move­ meet in private and speak freely with­ ment of the last 35 years has waded out fear that someday what you say will Ithrough this country's legal system, be broadcast to the world. getting to know the jails and judges This case, known as the Freeway and the endless trials and appeals Hall Case, began in 1984 when the FSP which are part of the laborious process and nine individuals were sued by a of social change. hostile ex-party member for return of a It's really a job for the foolhardy or six-year-old donation. the rich. Yet it's usually those with In 1985, a King County Superior more convictions than cash who end Court judge in Seattle ordered the FSP Authors Fred Hyde (left) and Philip up battling for the hearts and minds of to hand over names of members and Burton (right). America by taking their demands for supporters, financial records, meeting expanded rights into the courtroom. minutes, and other internal documents. minutes can't be read by bosses; church legal precedent. Not all activists end up there vol­ The party appealed, and won protec­ and lodge gatherings are more secure. When they return to the court­ untarily. Some of the most important tion for everything but the minutes. The FHC decision takes the consti­ room, they'll be in good company. civil protections have been won by That's when they took their cause tutional principles in NAACP v. Ala­ With them in spirit will be the dedi­ those on the defensive. to the community. bama one step further. It recognizes cated civil rights workers, the Panthers, The party won quick and effective that the right to join an organization is all those whose earlier legal struggles The NAACP, Jim Crow, and support when the regional chapter of meaningless without the right to par­ were indispensable to the great social the courts. In 1956, the segrega­ the National Conference of Black Law­ ticipate fully in its internal life, includ­ gains made over the last decades. The tionist power structure in the South yers, two locals of the Washington Fed­ ing confidential discussions. way is well-marked by fighters who tried to destroy the NAACP by demand­ eration of State Employees, and the Se­ The Supreme Court also relied on have gone before, and the FSP is confi­ ing it turn over its membership lists to attle NAACP filed an affidavit describ­ the decision in the Black Panther dent of success. 0 state officials. State legislatures passed ing the crushing harm that would come Party's 1976 suit against the FBI for special laws and attorney generals got from undermining the right to belong spying and harassment. In that case, -PHII.IP L. BURTON special injunctions to force the organi­ to organizations and engage in discus­ the government retaliated by trying to AND FRED HVDE zation to do so. sions that are democratic, candid, free­ obtain names of party- members and By the end of 1957, the NAACP wheeling, and private. contributors. The Panthers fought back, Criminal lawyer and civil rights was outlawed in Alabama and tied up On February 22, 1990, the Wash­ pushing the federal courts to spell out a leader Philip L. Burton has served in in litigation in Louisiana, Texas, Vir­ ington State Supreme Court issued a strict balancing test to protect groups many offices for the Seattle branch of ginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, unanimous, precedent-setting decision from illegal prying and disruption. the NAACP, an organization he has South Carolina, and Florida. which upheld the claim that party min­ worked with since 1949. When the Alabama courts fined the utes are protected by the First Amend­ No easy road to justice. Like NAACP $100,000 for refusing to surren­ ment. the earlier NAACP and Panther victo­ Fred Hyde, Freeway Hall Case de­ der its membership lists, the group Like the ground-breaking NAACP ries, the Freeway Hall Case ruling did fendant and attorney, represented went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a decisions protecting confidentiality of not come easy. Clara Fraser in her successful lawsuit landmark decision, NAACP v. Alabama, members' names, this ruling is crucial Six years of intense organizing and against Seattle City Light because of the court ruled that membership infor­ to those who, on the road to a more public education rallied community sex and political ideology discrimina­ mation is constitutionally protected, equitable world, unexpectedly find support. Thousands of people and hun­ tion. saying: themselves detoured to a courtroom dreds of organizations spoke up in de­ "Inviolability of privacy in group bench. fense of First Amendment rights. association may in many circumstances The decision boosts privacy guar­ The defendants paid their dues, Editor's postscript: Since Burton and be indispensable to preservation of free- antees for all organizations. Union and are still paying. One risked losing Hyde wrote this article, the case defen­ her home by putting it up as a bond. dants have received a check for Others were sentenced to jail on con­ $2,506.74 from Richard Snedigar. The tempt charges, later dropped. The lead money is payment for a portion of the attorney was forced to fend off a bid by expenses the defendants incurred in fil­ the opposition lawyers to put her pri­ ing and pursuing their appeal. vate law practice into receivership. Though granting such an award is The case is far from over. After normal procedure, Snedigar requested being bounced from court to court that it be waived in his case, appealing since 1984, the FSP now returns to King for sympathy because he has "endured County Superior Court where they over six years of litigation"--even hope to get this harassment case dis­ though he is the one who initiated the missed. But the man who brought the suit! The court stuck by its decision. suit, Richard Snedigar, can still attempt Snedigar may choose next to try to to show that his need for the minutes is breathe new life into the fight for the so crucial that it overrides constitu­ minutes in the lower courts, or he and tional rights. FSP needs continued sup­ his attorneys may decide to proceed di­ port to ensure enforcement of the new rectly to trial. Stay tuned ...

them, and fighting one cannot proceed without fighting the other. ... Cender, Women of color, suffering all the capitalist oppressions, see most clearly To: Karrie Peterson, Case Coordinator keyboards how racism and sexism intertwine to New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. S. divide workers. They always move first from page " and most resolutely to overcome the Seattle, WA 98118 • 206-722-2453 (they've always done that), ousting the divisions and unite the labor move­ labor skates, and demanding that un­ ment. o Add my name to the mailing list and keep me posted. ions act on such crucial issues as abor­ A united, rank-and-file, female-led o Contact me to help with defense committee work! tion rights, comparable worth, affirma­ labor movement will shove the labor o Enclosed Is $ to help FSP defend First Amendment rights. tive action, childcare, and job safety. bureaucrats out of the way once and for (Make checks payable to the Freeway Hall Case Defense Committee.) Women are bringing labor's tradi­ all, and finally face off against the capi­ tional economic concerns together with talists. This, sure as night follows day, the widest-ranging social issues, and will detonate a socialist revolution. Name,______~~~~------this is no accident. Female workers are The face of labor has changed; it's (please print) Address, ______Phone ______exploited on the job, at home, and in entered the computer age. Those society at large. Economic and social women's hands that control the key­ City ______State. ______Zip ______discrimination are intertwined for boards hold the key to the future. n