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No. 488 ·e~)(·523 27 October 1989 ake

.i!tiL'it.flfl Oakland, California-Cypress Street Viaduct on Nimitz Freeway collapses, crushing to death scores of people. Measures to strengthen highway against quakes were never taken. reewa ea ra - • • • aOI a IS rime Juan Rubi, a 28-year-old roofer with making a statement like that, he wasn't two young sons, had just finished a job authorized to be up there." and was driving home on the Nimitz Yet more than 84 hours after the Freeway to his family last Tuesday Jail the Criminals! "last" survivor had been removed, afternoon. As he got to the Cypress workers pulling on the pillars to con­ Street Viaduct in Oakland, a mile and a duct stress tests accidentally found half of Interstate 880 turned into a twist­ noon, Daniel Rubi was dragged away by ing near the Nimitz, a WV reporter chal­ 57-year-old longshoreman Buck Helm ing carpet of concrete waves, as the col­ the cops for pointing a finger of blame at lenged an Oakland Police Department alive under the rubble. Apparently, umns holding the upper deck of the Wilson. It is Wilson, Deukmejian, the (OPD) spokesman with a report that saving Buck Helm was not "author­ elevated highway snapped like match­ Coltrans officials responsible and a lot one volunteer thought people were still ized" either, as the New York Times sticks. Minutes later Juan Rubi, and of others who should be going to jail alive in .the rubble after the 11 p.m. (22 October) reported: "The police, in unknown numbers of others, had been right now. . Tuesday cutoff. Captain Jim Hahn an effort to avoid creating false hopes, at crushed under tons of concrete. At a Thursday afternoon press brief- sneered: "If a volunteer was up there and first asked that the discovery of Mr. Hundreds of residents and local Helm not be reported." workers in the predominantly poor The massive earthquake that hit the black neighborhood of West Oakland San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area at rushed over to help rescue survivors. 5:04 p.m. on the afternoon of October They were credited with saving at least 17 Was a natural disaster. But many of 30 people. One sped down the street the estimated hundreds who died were with a forklift truck from work to help the victims of a manmade disaster wait­ push aside concrete and free people ing to happen, of a profit system where trapped beneath. But the cops decided contracts are awarded to the lowest bid­ they were all "looters" and chased them der ... or the highest briber. They died away with guns drawn. Meanwhile, Juan because of a willful refusal to repair and Rubi and others lay under the rubble. maintain structures that were known to By 11 p.m., after less than six hours, be inadequate. The incompetent and the powers that be had called off what obstructionist "rescue" effort, the lies official "rescue" efforts they had made. and the cover-ups that have followed, The next morning, California governor are not natural. George Deukmejian pleaded ignorance This was a case of criminality piled . of the freeway's condition, California atop criminality-all in the service of Department of Transportation (Cal­ the "bottom line," capitalist profits. trans) director Bob Best claimed it was That bottom line is marked by the blood all the fault of "inexact science," and running down the pillars of the freeway Oakland mayor Lionel Wilson an­ deathtrap. nounced "there are no people who have survived" under the rubble to rescue. Racist Cops: Business as Usual Juan Rubi's father knew better. "It wasn't the earthquake that killed my In the critical first hours after the son," raged bereaved Muni bus driver disaster, the authorities devoted the Daniel Rubi. "It was Wilson; Deukme­ Gas from mains broken in earthquake fed fire in San Francisco's posh Marina bulk of their efforts to disorganizing and jian and Caltrans." Later that after- district. continued on page 8 Letters

:~\ ... :~~;.- .~. ;:.>/.~. On Soviet Intervention - NO TO THE VEIL! DEFEND AFGHAN WOMENI SUPPORT JAlALABAD VICTIMS in Afghanistan OF CIA CUTTHROATS' August 18, 1989 Nevertheless, I do not agree with PARTISAN DEFENSE COtt1ITTEE your support to the Soviet interven­ Editor, Workers Vanguard tion in Afghanistan, and I don't share The Spartacist League, Workers Van- your estimate that the USSR's troop guard and the Partisan .Defense Com­ withdrawal from that country was a mittee are to be commended for their betrayal. .., coverage of and support for Afghani­ Soviet intervention only served to stan's ,s.tr,uggle against the reactionary unite the various gangs of reactionar­ Islamic mujahedeen and their CIA ies, helping give them a common focus. and Pakistani backers. You've done And, unlike the Vietnamese interven­ well! tion to kick the Pol Pot gang out of . Some on the left, due to deep-seated Cambodial Kampuchea, Soviet inter­ anti-Soviet prejudice, have actually sup­ vention in Afghanistan provided a use­ ported the mujahedeen. Others, who ful target for anti-Soviet propaganda in Washington, D.C.-Partisan Defense Committee in massive abortion rights have written about the reactionary na­ the capitalist press. rally last April championed cause of Afghan women. ture of the mujahedeen, have done noth­ Despite all the aid the CIA and Saudi ing in a practical way to make their Arabia have provided, the Islamic thugs short, at any rate. If the Soviets had Again, you've done good work III stated position real. Most, it seems, have begun to fall out among them­ pulled the plug on Afghanistan and cut Afghanistan's defense. would rather say nothing about Afghan­ selves since Soviet troops have been off all support, I wouldn't hesitate to In solidarity, istan at all. You, by positive contrast, withdrawn. They've now begun killing call their action a betrayal. This isn't Walter Lippmann have given the most extensive and one another, an activity one can cer­ Spain in the Thirties, and the Soviets detailed coverage to this important tainly applaud. haven't abandoned Afghanistan. In Editor's note: The issues raised in this struggle. Further, you have carried out a Though the news reports have been fact, on overall balance, Afghanistan thoughtful letter and related questions vigorous material aid campaign in this contradictory, it seems that the Soviet today seems to be standing up better are the subject of a two-part article, connection. Others on the left should at Union is continuing to supply as much and more effectively since the Soviet "Afghanistan: Civil War and Social least have had the decency to publicize arms and materiel as the Kabul govern­ troops were withdrawn. What is your Progress," which begins on page four of and support your efforts. ment can use. They don't seem to be estimate? this issue.

ist group in Sri Lanka. Some of their bodies with gunshot injuries appear on leaders are in exile because of death roads, in rivers and. cemeteries. I am sure Lanka Leftists Under Siege threats. On 6 September the Govern­ that you are well aware how difficult this ment security forces took in for situation must be for everyone. Every I October 1989 very dangerous and murderous attacks questioning three RCL members after moment all Trotskyists are facing death Sri Lanka from the fascist violence of JVP IDJV raiding their party office and the print­ fear both from JVP I DJV and the Gov­ forces who have shot and killed a large Partisan Defense Committee ing press. But the motive of the security ernment forces. Comrade Andradi (Sec­ number of members of left parties New York, USA forces were to arrest the leading mem­ retary of the WML) is a big challenger to including Trotskyists. At the moment bers specially Ananda Wakkubura the JVP I DJV for last 20 years. He has Dear Comrade Linda, more than 200 leftists have been killed. (Press Editor), Wije Dias (the Secre­ written number of books and articles As you know, for the first time in the Three members of the RCL (Northites) tary). Finally as the protest of LSSP, against the JVP. On several occasions Sri Lankan history all left ists are facing were killed. RCL is the largest Trotsky- NSSP and the number of trade unions, he got physical threats from the JVP. RCL members were released. Now this Although you and I have big politi­ threat has come closer to us. On 27th cal and organizational differences with August Workers Marxist League (An­ Comrade Andradi and the WML, there Communism Will Liberate dradi) leading Comrade G. K. R. Perera is no doubt that we should protect his Women of the East was shot dead. He is a 1980 striker of life. the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and a When I specially refer Comrade Central to the war in Afghanistan is the strong Trotskyist fighter. This brutal Andradi, it does not mean that I have no struggle to liberate women from medieval killing is a signal to all leading Com­ threat. The truth is all of us (R WP, barbarism in the Islamic East, including rades of RWP, WML, Spartacist and WML, Spartacist and the MWT) have purdah (seclusion), bride price and impris­ the MWT (breakaway group from the become victims of the fascists. Only onment behind the veil. During the I 920s. right-wing centrist NSSP). Meanwhile through your intervention, the Interna­ a similar struggle was fought and won on 20th September, three trade union tional Working Class will be mobilized against fundamentalist reactionaries in the . leaders (NSSP) were abducted by an for our protection (our open appeal Turkic-speaking republics of Soviet Cen­ armed gang and there is no news up to to International Working Class will TROTSKY tral Asia. One of the Communist women LENIN today. follow). organizers of this campaign, F. Niurina, pointed to the world-historic significance Just as the JVP/DJV, the Govern­ Finally I have no doubt that you will of women's emancipation for the countries of the East. ment security forces' operations against urgently respond in defence of Lankan Our work in the [Soviet] East is assuming now, in the present international JVP I DJV is more vehement than be­ Trotskyists. situation, an extraordinarily important role. It is not by sheer accident that the fore. Security forces raid villages and Eastern question is now at the center of world politics. It is no longer subject to any -residential areas and take all suspected Fraternally, doubt that the [present trends] in the colonial and semi-colonial countries make them youths and later their semi-burnt dead T.F. into virtually the weakest and most vulnerable points of the imperial system. It can, by the same token, no longer be doubted that the example of the Soviet Eastern Republics is playing a far from unimportant role in fashioning the revolutionary climate in the non-Soviet East. ... Our Eastern Republics are bordering directly on a SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORY number of Eastern lands (Persia, Afghanistan, andqt!lers). Every veil that is torn away, every Uzbek or Turkman woman who is drawn-l'nto a soviet, or recruited into National Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 • (212) 732-7860 the party or the komsomol, or even into a school, becomes a revolutionizing factor in Atlanta Detroit Norfol~, those foreign lands.. Box 4012 Box 441794 .~.9x 1972",' Main PO -F. Niurina, "In Central A~a," Kommunistka [Commuiiist Woman], 1925 Atlanta, GA 30302 Detroit, MI 48244 tirorfolk, VA 23501 :F"-';,;- . "c:"· . Boston Los Angeles Oakland Box.840, Central Sta. Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta. Box 32552 Cambridge, MA 02139 Los Angeles, CA 90029 Oakland, CA 94604 (617) 492-3928 (213) 380-8239 (415) 839-0851 Chicago San Francisco Madison Box 6441, Main PO Box 5712 !'!'!.!!'!!..~ '!l!S'!!.t,!~/!l!U.s~ Box 2074 Chica~o, IL 60680 San Francisco, CA 94101 DIRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Liz Gordon Madison, WI 53701 EDITOR: Jan Norden (312) 663-0715 (415) 863-6963 PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jorge Ramirez Cleveland New York Washington, D.C. CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Valdez Box 91037 Box 444, Canal St. Sta. Box 75073 EDITORIAL BOARD: George Foster. Frank Hunter. Jane Kerrigan. Len Meyers. James Robertson. Cleveland, OH 44101 New York, NY 10013 Washington, D.C. 20013 Reuben Samuels. Joseph Seymour. Alison Spencer. Marjorie Stamberg (216) 781-7500 (212) 267-1025 (202) 636-3537 The Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) . Workers Vanguard (USPS 098-770) published biweekly. except 2nd issue August and with 3-week interval December, by the Spartacist Publishing Co .. 41 Warren Street. New York. NY-10007. Telephone: (212) 732-7862 (Editorial). TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA (212) 732-7861 (Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO. New York. NY 10116. Domestic subscriptions: $7.00/24 issues. Second-class postage paid at New York. NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workers Vanguard. Box 1377. GPO, New York. NY 10116. Toronto Vancouver Opinion~ expressed in signed articles Or letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. Box 7198, Station A Box 2717, Main Post Office Toronto, Ontario M5W 1X8 Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3X2 No. 488 27 October 1989 (416) 593-4138 (604) 255-0636

2 WORKERS VANGUARD Smash Racist Cop Terror in Chicago! Spurred to action by police terror in whitewash bureau, the Office of Profes­ Chicago's black ghettos, 800 people sional Standards (OPS), received an marched through Mayor Richard Da­ average of over 2,200 complaints of bru­ ley's segregated home turf of Bridgeport Mobilize Labor and Minorities tality and misconduct each year-an October 21 chanting, "Racism-must average of six per day-and the vast go!" Daley was quick to support City ing the body. Cop Hartfield stood over Moore. As the youths waited for a majority of cases go unreported. Dur­ Council hearings on racist cop brutality the corpse proudly quenching his thirst bus after a White Sox night game, the ing the September 19 South Side hear­ after an oUtcry in September. Despite with a quart of milk, while black alder­ cops grabbed them, slammed them in ingattorney Jeffrey Haas revealed some powerful, moving testimony by a small man William Beavers, an ex-cop, came their squad car, beat them and then of the details contained in a court- brief fraction of the Chicago cops' victims- _ he filed last spring documenting a 14- including Callie Bryant, the mother of year pattern of torture carried out by black Chicago bus driver Cassandra ,now police commander J on Burge: a Seay-these staged hearings produced "black box" used to deliver electric only a meaningless reshuffling of Police shocks, plastic bags placed over the Boar" appointees. head to induce suffocation, a noose The October 21 demonstration was placed around the neck, brutal beat­ largely organized by Jesse Jackson's ings, a revolver forced into the victim's Operation PUSH, which sought to mouth. One of Burge's alleged accom­ channel black outrage against the racist plices is cop Joe Gorman who, Haas cops into the 1991 Democratic mayoral reports, likes to brag about his machine­ primary. Black attorney Lew Myers, gun participation in the FBI/cop mur­ who called the march, wound up the der of Black Panthers Fred Hampton event by calling on blacks to enlist in and Mark Clark in 1969. the bosses' "drug war." In opposition The nationalists of the National Black to these pro-capitalist dh.:ersions, the United Front (NBUF) try to shield the Chicago Spartacist League put forward cops-particularly 'Martin, who' was the program of integrated working-class installed as commissioner by Harold struggle against racist cop terror in the, '''''''''''''' Washington-by promoting racist di­ Jacksonichicagosu;:':fi;Y;~'s 27 September leaflet reprinted below. versions like targeting Asian store own­ Joseph Weaver (left) and Calvin McLin (right) testify that Chicago cops set ers. "We need organizations like the them up to be lynched by white racist gang. "We are sitting on a powder keg," Afro American Police League," said black alderman Alan Streeter told Dem­ by and shook his hand. An angry crowd, "dropped" them in all-white Canary­ attorney Lew Myers of NBUF at the ocratic Party politicos at a September abused and intimidated by dozens of ville. There, as the cops had intended, South Side hearing. Now they want to 19 hearing on police racism and brutal­ police until the body was finally re­ they were attacked and beaten by a gang team up with the sinister Al Sharpton, a ity. Indeed, on September 10 a ghetto moved, later vented its rage by trashing of racists. These vicious thugs in blue, self-confessed FBI stooge, for a march neighborhood-in the shadow of the Beavers' office and a nearby Arab­ Hartfield, Serio and Moore, should be to Daley's home in the segregated nearly shuttered U.S. Steel South owned grocery where "Six-Point" had locked up-throwaway the key! stronghold of Bridgeport. NBUF leader W orks-hadexploded in anger after a gotten his milk. Though Boss Daley II "denounced" Conrad W orrill calls for Daley to "take cop summarily executed a 23-year-old Black police commissioner Leroy police brutality and called for firing the leadership against police brutality." black man, Leonard Bannister,duringa Martin stonewalled, saying that racist cops involved in the Canaryville inci­ Racist police terror can't be bar­ "drug war" bust. cop violence "is not a serious problem"! dent, his election last spring-in the gained away, it must be smashed "He was murdered like a dog," said The liberal Democrats used the Septem­ most racially polarized voting in the through mass labor / black/ Hispanic eyewitness Glen King of the Bannister ber 19 hearing to push for a "civilian city's history-was a green light for cop struggle! Black or white, the cops are the killing (Chicago Defender, 12 Septem­ review board" to monitor the cops, as if terror in the ghetto. Every cop precinct armed fist of capitalist class rule: when ber). Leonard was gunned down by a police terror were caused by a few "bad knows that as Cook County state's the South Side steel mills were hum­ 13-year black cop, Noel "Six-Point" apples" and not the whole structure of attorney Daley refused to prosecute a ming, the cops defended profits and shot Hartfield. Hartfield knew Bannister, racist class oppression. Edward Ban­ single cop for brutality. Once elected, he down strikers; then and now, after the had openly threatened to kill him, and nister, Leonard's uncle, summed up the quickly established his credentials in the massive steel shutdowns, the cops "dis­ on September 10 made good on his rage felt in the black community when racist "drug war," pushing a proposal at cipline" the ghetto hellholes by gunning promise. As Bannister stood with his he exclaimed, "Martin and his Klan a national mayors' conference in June down unemployed blacks. hands in the air, Hartfield pointed his should be abolished!" to convert Fort Sheridan north of the The power of the integrated labor movement, supported by the ghetto .45 Magnum at his h~ad and pulled the The Bannister killing came after the city into a vast concentration camp for trigger, twice. Defender (2 September) broke the story "drug offenders." masses, can fight cop terror and win. An ambulance that arrived was of two black teenagers who were terror­ Murderous racist cop terror is "busi­ Remember black bus driver Cassandra ordered away by the cops, and Leon­ ized and set up for lynChing in August by ness as usual" in Chicago. During the Seay who was viciously attacked in her ard's aunt was prevented from identify- white cops James Serio and Kathleen past decade the police department's continued on page 7

Ten years have passed since the the "trials" which followed, lawyers Greensboro Massacre, the bloodiest argued that the fascist murderers were fascist attack in the U.S. in decades. In "patriotic citizen[ s], just like the broad daylight, the KKK/Nazi death Germans were.... That's why they squad drove up to a black housing went to Greensboro, to stop commu­ project in Greensboro, North Caro­ nists." Two successive all-white juries lina, where an anti-Klan rally was acquitted the killers of all charges, gatherin~ With cool deliberation, the affirming once again the meaning killers took their weapons out of the of "justice" in this racist capitalist trunk, aimed';' fired, and drove off. state. Five leftists, civil ri~1its activists and "Greensboro"-the name cries out union organizers lay dying in pools of for justice, for vengeance. When the blood, others wounded or maimed for liberals claim it was a "shoot-out" and life. Millions of Americans saw and , say to ignore the fascists, when the heard the videotape of the method­ lynchers say they want to parade in ical, 88-second fusillade. These were their white sheets in our neighbor­ the opening shots of the Reagan hoods, we remember Greensboro by years' war on labor and blacks, car­ mobilizing to stop them. From De­ ried out under the Democratic Carter troit in 1979 to Washington, D.C. in administration. I 982 to Philadelphia in I 98g, the Greensboro was a conspiracy of the power oflabor and blacks has stopped fascists and their patrons in the cap­ the fascists in their tracks. Cesar italist state. From the outset, the KKK Cauce, Michael Nathan, Bill Samp­ and Nazis were aided and abetted by son, Sandi Smith, James Waller-to the government, from the G-man who honor those who have fallen in the helped train the killers and plot the fight against fascism, we rededicate assassinations to the "former" FBI ourselves to this struggle. The work- ' informer who rode shotgun in the ing class in power, the third Ameri­ motorcade of death and the Greens­ can revolution, will ensure there shall boro cop who brought up the rear. In be No More Greensboros!

27 OCTOBER 1989 3 ---Afghanistan

~;~:

Civil War and Social Progress Walking through the streets of Kabul 1979 to defend their southern border en's emancipation and liberalism of any sions of new fronts opening up in the today, one can see beauty parlors and against an imperialist-backed insur­ kind." Much of the left, but not all. The war" (Frontline [Madras], 15 April). birth control clinics, young women with gency, anti-Communists from Jimmy Trotskyists of the international Sparta­ In contrast, our correspondent spoke college textbooks and little girls in Carter to the Ayatollah Khomeini cist tendency, today the International to cadre and leaders of the People's Dem­ school uniforms. Such scenes would be joined in an outcry over "poor little Communist League (Fourth Interna­ ocratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), commonplace in most of the world's Afghanistan." The battle lines were tionalist), stood at our posts. We pro­ activists in the women's and youth capital cities, but in the capital of drawn for Cold War II, and the front claimed "Hail Red Army in Afghani­ organizations, teachers and rank-and­ Afghanistan they are living testimony line in that war was Afghanistan. stan!" and called to "Extend social gains file soldiers. He visited the children's to a decade of turbulent social change. Carter's Polish Dr. Strangelove, Zbig­ of the October Revolution to the homes which provide shelter and educa­ For, on the same streets, one can also niew Brzezi'nski, stood at the Khyber Afghan peoples!" tion to orphaned sons and daughters of see bomb craters, street barricades and Pass with his finger on the trigger aim­ When Gorbachev bowed to impe­ martyred fighters against the ·CIA's ing through the gunsight at Afghani- rialist insistence and withdrew Soviet counterrevolutionary cutthroats. He PART ONE OF TWO _stan across the border. Washington, troops from Afghanistan, much of the spoke to women recently freed from the began pouring in billions of dollars, left echoed the CIA's premature obit­ shackles of feudal slavery and ded­ antiaircraft batteries. Almost every day, together with oil profits from the Saudi' uaries over the living bodies of Afghan icated to defending their newfound rockets rain down on street bazaars and monarchy and arms from Deng's China, women and leftists. We condemned emancipation arms in hand, women like housing projects, on schools and hos­ to bankroll a bloody civil war aimed at Gorbachev's pullout and insisted on the the Russian-trained militia commander pitals, leaving in their wake rubble and killing Russian sbldiers and turning urgent need for military support to the Shafiqa. He interviewed young men and corpses. The bombs and rockets are back the tide of social progress. , embattled Kaoul regime and the many women serving on the front lines of the "Made in U.S.A." Washington calls And tripping over Uncle Sam's coat­ hundreds of thousands of Afghans who civil war as partisans and soldiers, com­ those who fire them "freedom fighters." tails were Western leftists who echoed faced certain and horrible death in the mitted to freeing their country from cen­ They call themselves mujahedin, "holy CarterI Reagan's demand for "Soviet event of a mujahedin victory. The Par­ turies of oppression. He joined the peo­ warriors." Their "holy war" is a war of troops out!" In The Making of the tisan Defense Committee wrote to the ple of Jalalabad on July 7 in celebrating indiscriminate terror. killing numerous Second Cold War (1983), Fred Halliday Afghan government, offering to organ­ their heroic victory over the bitter U.S.­ children, and assassination of unveiled noted that "much of the left adopted ize international brigades to fight along­ ordered siege which began in early women, schoolteachers, leftists and all positions that are themselves as opposed side the Afghan army and militias. This March. others deemed to be "infidels." . to the USSR as those of the right" offer was rejected as militarily unneces­ Our correspondent reported that "On Not very long ago, Afghanistan was a and "supported the Afghan mojahidin, sary at the moment, but the Afghan gov­ first impact, Kabul does not look like a forgotten corner of the world. But when ferociously conservative tribal rebels ernmt;nt did appeal for humanitarian city under siege: the capital of a country Soviet troops moved in on 27 December hostile to socialism, democracy, wom- assistance to the civilian victims of the ravaged by an eleven-year-long civil brutal mujahedin siege of Jalalabad. war." But car bombs and rocket bar­ The PDC, along with fraternal legal and rages regularly set off by the counter­ ~ ~ social defense organizations in other revolutionary terrorists soon shatter <1> iil ,countries, launched the Jalalabad Civil­ that picture. Afghanistan, he wrote, ~~'''~. ""-.. '~~~ ian Victims Aid Fund, an international remains "a land of; great contradic­ .,c: campaign which raised over $44,000 in tions." Even in the capital, barefoot chil­ ~ two months. dren and gnarled-looking women barely ~ In July, the ICL sent a correspondent forty years old rely on begging for their g' for Workers Vanguard and Le Bolcht'­ survival. Pervasive segregation of men n ::r vik (monthly newspaper of the Ligue and women continues in public places. <1>. S, Trotskyste de France) to Afghanistan For the people of Afghanistan, how ~ "U ::r for four weeks, both to underscore our these contradictions will be resolved is o solidarity in the struggle against. coun­ literally a life-and-death question. It is terrevolution and to combat the lies of also a vital question to millions of work­ the Western imperialist press with our ing people far beyond the mountainous own eyewitness reports from "Front borders of Afghanistan. The signif­ A land of contrasts: Li.ne Afghanistan." Now that Washing­ icance of Soviet intervention and Soviet women veiled ton's promises of a quick and easy vic­ withdrawal, the outcome of civil war in head-to-toe tory over Kabul lie in shambles on the and the future of social progress in ch.adors sit in outskirts of Jalalabad, even the Ameri­ Afghanistan have become defining the shadow of can media are beginning to "expose" the ' issues in the struggle for socialist revo­ Soviet-made lies they manufactured over the years lution around the world. helicopter. from the CIA supply base in Peshawar, Pakistan. An Indian journalist cover­ Why We Said "Hail Red Army!" ing the war, Appan Menon, noted last Gorbachev's decision to leave Af­ spring that for "Westerners who lived in ghanistan in the lurch has raised anew the Intercontinental," the plush hotel in controversy over the original Soviet Kabul, government briefings were dis­ intervention. A recent letter to WV from missed as '~either propaganda or admis- Walter Lippmann (see page 2) expres- 4 WORKERS VANGUARD ses support for the PDC aid campaign to embattled Afghanistan but adds, "I do not agree with your support to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and I don't share your estimate that the USSR's troop withdrawal from that country was a betrayal." Arguing that "Soviet intervention only served to unite the various gangs of reactionaries" and "provided a useful target for anti-Soviet Hail ...... propaganda .in the capitalist press," Lippmann concludes that "Afghani­ stan today seems to be standing up bet­ 8ld,"~rt ,~~~~~:~'~i~:~:~52~~~~f:;f.#" ~~;:f :~~;;~':~~:~C:~~f:,~=~~~:;:;:,~~~':~ ter and more effectively since the Soviet :,", ':,~:":~";:,:::,M ::,~;,::: :";',~~'.:::,,,:",~;,'.:~.~: ::' ;~"::~:'':::~:;::<:~'J ,,'::, "~~'~,,':::<,;,;;,~':~,,~'~:::;: ...." ,<",,,". F,,,,, ••n.j ... "", '"",,"" ,,' 'i>< ,,,'" m... "."".. F", .. ,,' L, "',.-rn""'~ ....., ...... troops were withdrawn.'l II"".,." '''''''"''"." .. "., ...... ''''h.• , I.".. """",.I,m,,,,.. : nia u ___ Others on the left do not deny the 11_... = ...... , 5 -== C.. For c....n-oIuIioII Soviet forces land at Kabul airport, December 1979. U.S. imperialists launched ""'"Col_Support" Il"-elnr, I...,: --., y... ''''~Fron_ necessity of the Soviet intervention but Doc_ ...... " .... ~ new anti-Soviet war drive. Spartacists hailed Red Army intervention against ,.- C~ ...... II argue that the Russians stayed too long. feudal counterrevolution. Thus in an interview with WV (N o. 477, 12 May), Val Moghadam, a sociologist Democratic Organization of Afghan­ At bottom the views expressed by a sea of nomadic herdsmen and land­ sympathetic to the nationalist PDP A istan) 150,000 and the Democratic Lippmann and Moghadam share an less peasants beholden to the khans, regime, said of her visit to Kabul in Youth Organization (DYOA) approxi­ implicit assumption that Afghanistan the forces of social progress were February: mately 200,000 members. The PDP A­ could go it alone, albeit with some form heavily outweighed by the reactionary ..... party people that I spoke with all organized trade unions have another. of Soviet assistance, in a "national dem­ forces for tradition and the status quo. seemed to concur that the intervention 160,000 members. ocratic revolution." From a ,strictly on the part of the Red Army was neces­ The "Saur Revolution" was not a sary at that time .... However, most We share Walter Lippmann's sense of nationalist standpoint, Russian inter­ mass popular uprising but a coup by party people also agreed that the fact satisfaction that the Afghan armed vention could be seen as opposed to the Soviet-trained military officers and that the troops stayed on for so long was forces are proving their battlefield Afghan "national .liberation." In The modernizing intellectuals, backed by not particularly helpful. The mujahe­ capability. Doubtless they are "stand­ Tragedy of Afghanistan (1988), Raja thousands of Kabul students, which din were able to use this as a way to claim that the struggle was a national ing up better," since the Soviet pullout Anwar, a left-nationalist Pakistani exile proclaimed the Democratic Republic of liberation struggle, as opposed to what forced them to sink or swim on their in Kabul sympathetic to the aims of the Afghanistan. it really was, which was a civil war own. "Country or Coffin" may be an PDP A, says bluntly: "The fact is that In a backhanded way, a PDPA lead­ the Afghan Revolution died on the night er, Hafizullah Amin, admitted as much, ~ of 27 December 1979." characterizing the takeover as a "prole­ ~ Now Kremlin hacks, having for years tarian revolution" in which pro-Soviet (J) portrayed the Soviet intervention force army officers played the role of the ~ :::l as a "limited military contingent" whose proletariat: co C III sole aim was to support the PDP A's "If we had waited to follow the same e: "national democratic" revolution, in­ class pattern of working-class revolu­ ~ vert this argument to justify Soviet tion through a national democratic g' bourgeoisie, then we would have fol­ r; withdrawal. Thus Alexander Prokha­ lowed such a long and thorny road that :::T nov writes in Literaturnaya Gazeta (17 it would have required not only years ~ ~ February 1988): but centuries." ~ " ... the original goals proclaimed by the -quoted in The Tragedy of Afghanistan o~ PDP A have not been achieved. The party itself, the revolutionary govern­ The PDPA was immediately con­ ment itself, have renounced them. fronted by a reactio.nary insurgency­ Given that fact, the presence of Soviet troops in the country loses its point. which had begun organizing already Their departure is inevitable and under the previous regime of the "re­ logical." publican" Daud. What primarily "unit­ Indiscriminate This is the height of cynicism. There was ed" the disparate and feuding gangs of terror by not a single policy shift carried out by reactionaries-well before the Red CIA-armed Army moved in-was opposition to the mujahedin the PDP A regime in Kabul which was PDPA's reform policies, and particu­ (holy warriors)~ not generated in Moscow. If the origi­ building in Kabul nal goals proclaimed by the PDP A were larly those related to giving women destroyed by not achieved, the fault lies not primar­ some rights. Surrounded by external' rocket attack. ily with the isolated Afghan regime but enemies, the party was also rent by in the fact that the Soviet intervention internal bloodletting, exemplified by the was too limited and too temporary. If assassination of PDPA founder Noor Moscow had shown from the outset a Mohammed Taraki, the head of the determination to do whatever was "Khalq" (People) faction, and his re­ needed for victory, the war would have placement by Amin in the fall of 1979. been won quit~ a while ago. Finally, in late December 1979, the Soviet Union moved in to prop up its What Was the client government in Kabul and stem the "April Revolution"? counterrevolutionary insurgency on its between the forces for social change and inspirational fighting slogan; it is also a The "Saur Revolution" of April 1978 southern flank being financed and pro­ progress vs. the reactionary forces for statement of fact about the bloodbath a which brought the PDPA to power moted by U.S. imperialism and its tradition, patriarchy and the status promised to pull Afghanistan out of its Chinese Stalinist ally. quo." mujahedin victory would hold in store for supporters of the government. But feudal and prefeudal condition into the The conservative Brezhnev leader­ To begin with, had the Soviet Union who trained the Afghan helicopter pi- 20th century. But in Afghanistan, even ship didn't send 100,000 Soviet troops not moved in when it did, the PDP A . lots and bombardiers, the skilled mili­ the first, "democratic" stage of the Sta­ into Afghanistan to make a social rev­ government would surely have fallen tary technicians and artillerymen who linist schema of two-stage revolution olution.- Brezhnev sought only to sta­ under the reactionary onslaught. Ten have been using their Soviet-supplied was a. utopia. The tiny proletariat was bilize the situation in Afghanistan by years ago, the Afghan army was pat­ weaponry to such powerful effect? In dwarfed by a far more numerous Is­ suppressing the counterrevolutionary ently incapable of holding its own mili­ fact, well before the Soviet withdrawal, lamic clergy, the small urban popula­ uprising and replacing Amin with the tarily against the mujahedin, while the the Afghan armed forces were already tion of the country was surrounded by continued on page 6 PDPA had at best 20,000 members and taking on the brunt of direct fighting; virtually no' control over the country­ Afghan troops inflicted a major defeat side. Fred Halliday, hardly an uncritical against the mujahedin at Khost in 1988. supporter of the· Soviot: intervention, If the bourgeois press today presents the nevertheless acknowledged that "The combat effectiveness of the Kabul forces Russians have bought time for the as a revelation, it is largely because PDPA with their intervention" (New they have devoted the last ten years to Left Review, January-February 1980). painting the Soviet presence as an It was the Soviet presence which made army of occupation and the PDPA possible the fact that women are still free forces as mindless puppets or slaves of to walk around (at least in urban areas) the Russians. without a chador, the suffocating head­ To oppose the Red Army interven­ to-toe veil, and that young girls can tion on the grounds that it may have learn to read and write. fueled anti-Soviet propaganda implic­ Furthermore, by all accounts, the itly accepts the Stalinist framework of Kabul regime has a broader base of sup­ seeking an accommodation with impe­ port than at any point in its history. rialism under the rubric of "peaceful Today, the combined strength of the coexistence." If anything, a genuinely Afghan armed forces is some 150,000, Bolshevik government in the Kremlin with another 300,000 under arms in would be subjected to far more intense civilian militias. Their fighting capac­ imperialist anti-Sovietism. The answer ity was clearly demonstrated in lifting is not conciliation, but resolute defense the siege of Jalalabad. The People's of the Soviet bureaucratically degener­ Democratic Party has some 80,000- ated workers state and a program of members, the All-Afghanistan Wom­ world revolution to explode imperialist April 1978-Celebration in Kabul after left-wing military officers and modern­ en's Council (formerly the Women's capitalism from within. izing intellectuals overthrew reactionary Daud regime .

.~1. QC.T9~ER'9~9, .' 5 '.',-.1,., t.',,', '/', ' .. ' J ._-;:; f ...., f~ I ; .. ,'~ ~ ~o tion," i.e., revolutionary war, wa,s very Afghanistan ... much a part of Bolshevik international­ ism. In 1921 the Red Army waged war (continued from page 5) against Menshevik Georgia, a base for imperialist intrigues. The year before, it more pliable and conciliatory Babrak launched a revolutionary offensive into Karmal, head 'of the "Parcham" (Ban­ Left: Soviet Pilsudski's Poland. However, it encoun­ ner) faction. Karmal's first act upon his veterans tered there the problem of significant installation by the Soviet troops, liter­ of Afghan war layers of the popUlation closing ranks ally over Amin's dead body, was to ("afgantsi") behind Polish nationalism. Largely for appeal particularly to "religious schol­ did their that reason, Trotsky was dubious about ars and leaders" and "patriotic land­ internationalist duty. Below: the Polish offensive. The situation in the owners." The red banner introduced by East was different. Thus he had argued a the Khalqis was replaced as the national Soviet-trained year earlier: flag by a new tricolor. Land reform was Afghan air force "There is no doubt at all that our sharply curtailed, as tbe government pilots have effectively Red Army constitutes an incompara­ declared a "general amnesty" under combatted bly more powerful force in the Asian terrain of world politics than in the which feudal landlords who had defect­ CIA's tribalist ed to Pakistan would be given back their EUropean terrain .... The road to India cutthroats. may prove at the given moment to be property if they returned, while many more readily passable and shorter for us categories of landowner were now than the road to Soviet Hungary. The exempted entirely from the reform. sort of army which at the moment can Meanwhile, compulsory education for be of no great significance in the Euro­ girls was revoked and bride price reform pean scales can upset the unstable bal­ ance of Asian relationships of colonial put on the back burner. dependence, give a direct push to an It was certainly not the policies or uprising on the part of the oppressed subjective intentions of the Moscow masses and assure the triumph of such a bureaucracy which gave the Red Army rising in Asia .... "We have up to now devoted too little intervention its potentially revolution­ attention to agitation in Asia. How­ ary significance, but rather the prole­ ever, the international situation is evi­ tarian property forms on which the dently shaping in such a way that the Soviet state is based. As we wrote at the road to Paris and London lies via the towns of Afghanistan, the Punjab and time: Bengal." "By giving unconditional military sup­ port to the Soviet army and PDPA An ongoing Soviet military presence in Afghan forces we in no way place polit­ Afghanistan could have had signif­ ical confidence in the Kremlin bureauc­ icantly more far-reaching social conse­ racy or the left-nationalists in Kabul. While the Moscow Stalinists appar­ quences than it did in East Europe in ently presently intend to shore up the 1920. The East European countries are PDP A regime, and if anything limit the pretty well-defined social, national and pace of democratic and modernizing historical entities, whereas Afghanistan reforms, the prolonged presence in has long been a more amorphous and Afghanistan of the Soviet army opens insurgency. But neither Brezhnev nor Soviet media. Then, under Gorbachev, polyglot region. up more far-reaching possibilities." his successors ever chose to commit Moscow began churning out a torrent of To narrow-minded nationalists, the - WV No. 247, II January 1980 themselves to a clear-cut victory in propaganda presenting the interven­ perspective of bringing social revolu­ American military bases in the Phil­ Afghanistan: tion as a dismal fiasco from beginning to tion to a country like Afghanistan ippines and elsewhere begin to "Ameri­ " ... instead of capitulating to the mul­ end-echoing the timeworn Western lie may seem like bizarre adventurism; in canize" the local popUlation, e.g., turn­ lah reaction, by limiting land reform that Afghanistan was "Russia's Viet­ fact, there are numerous historical ing Saigon into a giant brothel during and literacy campaigns, the Soviets nam." Moscow News (6 August) snidely should be pouring the money in there on precedents. the Vietnam War. In a progressive and dismissed a conference of "afgantsi" a massive scale: land to the tiller and The Great French Revolution in­ far more profound way, the Russian (war veterans) in Uzbekistan for being cheap credit, health programs, etc. But spired and aided the momentous slave military presence in Afghanistan neces­ that means social revolution, a tremen­ "under the spell of the army concept of revolt in the colony of Haiti led by T ous­ sarily began to replicate qualities of ceus leap from feudalist backwardness 'international duty'" when they ap­ to proletarian dictatorship on the backs saint L'Ouverture. Later, under Napo­ Soviet life, acting as a magnetic attrac­ pealed for the right to organize volun­ of the Soviet Red Army, And that does leon, the "export" of the revolution de­ tion to forward-looking youth and the teer brigades to go back and fight the not square with the Kremlin's policies of stroyed feudal monarchies and brought deeply oppressed women. Such social/ detente and 'two-stage' revolution." mujahedin. This is decidedly not the bourgeois-democratic institutions and cultural transfer is inevitable in a pro­ -"Reagan, Begin & Hitler," sentiment one would find among veter­ freedoms throughout much of West longed military presence and, had it WV No. 308, 25 June 1982 ans of a colonial war of occupation. Europe. When French armies entered continued, would have had a qualita­ Now, in quitting Afghanistan, Mos­ Now, as the 24 October New York Frankfurt and other cities, they tore tive impact on Afghan society. cow lectures that "The last ten years Times headline crows, "Moscow Says down the walls around the Jewish ghet­ The intervention of the Red Army have proved (conclusively) that neither Afghan Role Was Illegal and Immoral." tos. It is no accident that the founder of objectively opened the possibility of side can win through force of arms" Similarly, the general sentiment of modern communism, Karl Marx, was a social transformation-including devel-, (Moscow News, 12 February). The Afghans toward the Soviets is clearly Jew from the Rhineland, the section of oping a working class-providing from bourgeois London Independent (14 not that of an "occupied" people. Appan Germany most radically affected by the without the social base and military February) was a lot closer to the truth: Menon notes this in his Frontline French revolutionary occupation. In force capable of crushing the counter­ "Soviet army turns its back on the war it article, as he describes how the POP A Italy, too, Napoleon's armies were wel­ revolutionary mujahedin and imposing never tried to win." regime, in its pursuit of "national rec­ comed as agents of social·liberation. a social revolution. By 1984, even the For years, the Kremlin Stalinists onciliation," has encouraged the elimi­ More directly relevant to Afghani­ Western press was conceding that the acted shamefaced about the war in nation of any signs of the Soviet pres­ stan is the case of Soviet Central Asia. Soviet troops were rolling back the Afghanistan, barely reporting it in the ence in the country: In the 1920s, this area looked remark­ "A surprising thing about Kabul is the rapidity in which all things Soviet have ably like contemporary Afghanistan. Communist been obliterated. Soviet shop signs have A foothold of Soviet power had been agitator been painted over, Soviet caviar has dis­ established in the Turkistan city of distributing appeared from the black market, and Tashkent in 1917, a Soviet Republic was most Afghans prefer to speak in English literature in rather than in any other foreign lan­ declared at Bukhara in 1920, but for 1920-21 Bukhara guage. Did this mean a deep-seated years the region was the scene of repeat­ Soviet Republic. hatred for the most recent 'occupier' in ed reactionary onslaughts and rival It took the Red their history? A wide cross-section of governments led by mullahs and land­ Army (below) Afghans were asked what they thought owners. In 1922 the Red Army finally of the Soviets. Interestingly, except for to suppress suppressed a rebellion by the so-called reactionary the ideologically hard line Khalqis who Basmachi are part of the ruling People's Dem­ Basmachi, the mujahedin of the time, rebellion. ocratic Party of Afghanistan (PDP A), who mobilized the ; countryside "by most had nothing but nice things to say depicting the Soviet regime hot just as about them." a foreign occupier but as a despoiler Our correspondent found numerous Af­ of Islam and of primordial institutions ghans quite willing to converse in Rus­ and sentiments" (Gregory J. Massell, sian. If many approved of the Soviet The Surrogate Proletariat [1974]). withdrawal, it was largely in the hope After the suppression of the, Bas­ that it would bring an end to the hor­ machis, Bolshevik women activists were rors of war, that the mujahedin would sent into the region, the powers and lay down .. their arms and accept "na­ authority of the clerical courts and tribal tional reconciliation." But far from chiefs were gradually undermined bringing peace, the Soviet withdrawal through legal and administrative meas­ emboldened the mujahedin and their ures, and the constitutional guarantees imperialist patrons. of equal rights for women proclaimed by the revolution were increasingly "Export of Revolution"? imposed on the region. Even then, every In response to our call of "Hail Red step toward emancipation was met by Army," Stalinists and fake-Trotskyists fierce resistance from the khans and alike leapt to denounce "export of revo­ mullahs, including wholesale murder lution." Like Stalin, who invented the not only of Bolshevik agitators but of phrase in order to repudiate it, they were any woman who rejected purdah (total really denouncing revolutionary inter­ seclusion) and the veil, while remnants nationalism. But "export of revolu- of the Basmachi continued to wage

6 WORK~RS VANGUARD guerrilla warfare against Soviet author­ commissar Chicherin that Russian ities throughout the 1920s. It was the troops would not be withdrawn until imposition of Soviet power in the "the threat to the free development of region, ultimately through the military the Mongolian people and to the secu­ might of the Red Army, which creat­ rity of th~ Russian Republic and of the ed the conditions for dismantling Far Eastern Republic shall have been centuries-old feudal-clerical domina­ removed" (quoted in E.H. Carr, The tion and opening the road to the eman­ Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923, Vol. 3 cipation of women. Interestingly, many [1953]). of the defeated Basmachi fled to The Soviet government of Lenin and Afghanistan, making the mujahedin not Trotsky was true to its word. Within only their political heirs but in some months it began to implement a series cases their physical offspring. of far-reaching, social and political Mongolia in the early 192.os offers an reforms-nationalization of lands and even more striking analogy to recent natural resources, land distribution, events in Afghanistan. In 1920, under abolition of titles and prerogatives of the impact of the Russian Revolution, a the Living Buddha and the nobility, tiny handful of young pro-Soviet intel­ democratic elections, and the establish­ lectuals formed the Mongolian Peo­ ment of health and education services ple's Party in opposition to the domina­ under Soviet control. According to a Ulan ~ator, tion of the Buddhist hierarchy and Chinese observer at the time, for 18 capital of the Chinese suzerainty. In March 1921 they months "not a day passed without its Mongolian proclaimed a Mongolian People's Gov­ clashes between the new and the old People's Republic, ernment and invoked Soviet assistance. groups" in Mongolian society. Soviet today enjoys They were immediately set upon by a and progressive forces had to wage a standard of living, cabal of reactionary forces-led by a civil war which lasted until late 1922 health, literacy Russian tsarist, aided by Japanese against indigenous counterrevolution­ comparable to the Soviet Union. imperialism and promoting the cler­ ary bandits. But in the end the· Red icalist emperor, known as the "Living Army was triumphant. In succeeding Buddha"-who launched a counter­ decades, Mongolia was transformed offensive into Soviet territory .. The Peo­ from a prefeudal nomadic backwater­ appear in public unveiled. But, as Raja country. The Islamic clergy, on the Anwar comments, "What the reformist other hand, have long since grown used ple's Government was installed literally in which fully 40 percent of the adult to exercising an important political on the bayonets of the Red Army. The male popUlation were Buddhist priests king failed to understand was that he influence, amounting in. the main to a following month, the new government living in monasteries-into an urban­ could not change the visible aspects of pronounced support of reaction .... was assured by Soviet foreign affairs ized society with a standard of living social and religious traditions without "The feeling of State citizenship is not comparable to that of the Soviet Union first changing the infrastructure of his very pronounced in Afghanistan. Each society." In 1929, after years of reac­ citizen is in the first place a member of a and a 90 percent literacy rate. tribe and only in the second place an Around the same time, Afghanistan tionary resistance, Amanullah was over­ Afghan .... itself was undergoing its only attempt at thrown and tribal and clerical "tradi­ "From the standpoint of war­ significant social reforms prior to the tionalism" restored to its position of preparations against the Soviet Union, power. Afghanistan is a highly important base PDPA seizure of power. In 1919 Amir for the British." Amanullah Khan, leader of the "Y oung Writing on "The War in Afghani­ -reprinted in Labour Review Afghan" movement, took the throne, stan" that year, Fedor Raskolnikov, (February 1980) immediately declared independence who served as the first Soviet envoy to Kabul in the mid-1920s, observed: For 50 years, this picture remained vir­ from British suzerainty and signed the tually unchanged, but for the fact that first Treaty of Friendship with the "Afghanistan is a small country with a considerable historical past. Its small the U.S. replaced Britain as the impe­ Soviet republic in 1921. Amanullah connection with the economy of the rialist power which sought to use the attempted to implement a broad range world, its centuries of artificial isola­ country as a base for war preparations of reforms along the lines of Kemal tion, have preserved in Afghanistan quite a number of antiquated forms of against the Soviet Union. Had the Red Atatiirk's Young Turk movement. He Army of Lenin and Trotsky, marching encouraged schooling for girls, out­ feudal rule .... "The political power lies in the hands behind the internationalist banner of lawed child marriage, proposed a sov­ of the landowners, the so-called authentic Bolshevism, been in a posi­ ereign national assembly to be elected ·sirdars' .... tion to go into Amanullah's Afghani­ "The small number of industrial work­ by all adult men and women, and stan at the time, the people of that coun­ declared that "the keystone of the future ers have not yet begun to feel them­ try would be centuries in advance of structure ofthe new Afghanistan will be selves a special class and are thus al­ together unorganised. They figurejust where they are today. Amanullah Khan, the modernizing the emancipation of women." Amanul­ as little in the political arena as do the Afghan king of the 1920s. lah's wife was the first Afghan woman to artisans who are dispersed all over the [TO BE CONTINUED]

fense. A student from nearby Cheyney A representative of the PDC told the spike the frame-up, Seay and her Save Mumia State, a predominantly black college, crowd that 11,000 people-including mother, Callie Bryant, were acquitted. rose during the discussion period to union officials, civil rights organiza­ Out of this victory came the Labor present over 100 signatures collected tions, religious leaders and other death Black Struggle League (LBSL). Initiat­ Abu-Jamal ... on petitions to Pennsylvania governor penalty opponents from Paris to the San ed by and fraternally allied with the (continued from page 12) Casey. A postal worker described how Francisco Bay Area-had earlier signed Spartacist League, the LBSL is "an inte­ she enlisted her friends and family to petitions demanding that Mumia Abu­ grated organization which stands for spirited crowd for Mumia's freedom. collect 109 signatures. Supporters of Jamal must not die. mobilizing the masses of labor and Dramatically setting one of her hus­ the Spartacist League presented 600 Increasingly, international attention blacks for militant integrated struggle band's dreadlocks aflame, she noted signatures on petitions collected in is being drawn to Mumia's case. In West against the brutal system of racist that "this is what they intend to do to Philadelphia during the preceding two Germany, the unofficial newspaper of oppression that is capitalist America." Mumia-to burn him, to destroy him weeks. the "Green Party," Die Tageszeitung The Democratic politicians have until he is no more." TV reports on the The rally, initiated by the Partisan (21 October), covered Mumia's case scheduled a City Council hearing on rally were run prominently by both Defense Committee and Pennsylvania during Amnesty International's "Week police brutality for September 28. Their ABC (Channel 6) and CBS (Channell 0) State Representative David Richard­ of the Political Prisoner." The taz article goal is not to end the terror by "the affiliates. son, was a watershed for the campaign noted, "His case is exemplary ofthe per­ toughest gang in town" (as Martin has The fight to save Mumia is today a - in Philadelphia, bringing together for secution of a whole generation of black called the police force), but to defuse focal point of opposition to the racist the first time participants from diverse women and men in the '70s and for the the fury building throughout the city. death penalty, and this rally sparked a organizations and backgrounds, in the 'racially discriminatory application of Already the remnants of Harold Wash­ resurgence of commitment to his de- tradition of class-struggle defense work. the death penalty in the USA' (Amnesty ington'spolitical bloc are attempting to International, 1989 report)." channel this issue into their 1991 may­ The October 14 Philly rally repre­ oral campaign against Daley. Labor and sents a new stage in the battle for minorities must bust up this capitalist Spartacus Youth Club Class Series Mumia's life. These forces, and many shell game and fight for a workers party. more beyond them, must be mobilized Such a party will avenge the numerous to save Mumia Abu-Jamal!. victims of Chicago's racist cops by .. organizing mass, militant and inte­ grated class struggle to abolish the profit Chicago system they defend and forge in its place a workers government. Saturdays, 2:00 p.m. Tuesdays, 6:00 p.m. Cop Terror ... October 28, November 4, 11, 18 October 31, November 14, 28 (continued from page 3) For more information about the 41 Warren Street Humanities Building, Room 321 Chicago Labor Black Struggle (1 block south of Chambers 81. San Francisco State University own home by five cops in 1987 and then League, write to: LBSL, Box 6938, between Church and West Broadway) For more information: framed up on charges of battery, resist­ Chicago, IL 60680. In California, For more information: (212) 267-1025 (415) 863-6963 or (415) 839-0851 ing arrest and obstructing a police contact tile Labor Black League for officer. When transit workers of A TU Social Defense, P.O. Box 751, NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO Locals 241 and 308 and other trade . Oakland, CA 94604. unionists and supporters mobilized to 27 OCTOBER 1989 7 Bay Area Quake ... (continued from page 1) ., preventing emergency rescue opera­ tions. Both Japan and the Soviet Union, with substantial expertise in earth­ quake relief, volunteered assistance. They were turned down by the arro­ gant, bureaucratic American author­ ities, who preferred to keep the opera­ tion "in house." They had to haul Deukmejian back from Europe in an Air Force jet. SF mayor Art Agnos picked a squabble with Vice President Dan Quayle, who used the occasion for a photo op. And the Federal Emer­ gency Management Agency (FEMA) showed it was "on the scene" by open­ ing 200 phone lines (which were prompt­ ly jammed) and doing surveys! The racist Oakland cops, who only know how to shoot down unarmed peo­ ple in the streets, actually appeared to be running this major disaster "relief' wv effort at the Nimitz collapse. Skilled Upper deck of Cypress Viaduct collapsed when unreinforced columns popped out at poorly designed jOints (left). One construction workers with heavy build­ section (right) built with stronger columns to span diagonal street remained standing. ing equipment, volunte.ers from Iron­ workers Local 378 and Operating Engi­ predominantly Latino Mission district less; one unemployed accountant com­ ed traffic flow for that time of day, with neers Local 3, many of whom work in of San Francisco and areas like Wat­ mented ironically, "Why does it take an the assumption of only one person in the area, showed up on Tuesday evening sonville down the coast (see box, earthquake for a bum to get a cup of cof­ each vehicle! There was heavy destruc­ to help with'the rescue effort. Local 378 page 9). In Oakland alone, 1,400 homes feeT' Many complained that color­ tion of buildings, bridges and highways Business Agent Ray Trujillo bitterly were damaged, generally unreinforced coded tags handed out to the Marina for 100 miles south of SF and' Oakland. told WV how his members were frus­ brick apartment buildings, many far residents were used to give these yup­ One engineer who toured the destruc­ trated over their inability to help: more severely than the press or the pies favorable treatment. tion area commented, "Everywhere I "We've had 30 riggers here, pro­ authorities admit. In some cases, build­ Meanwhile the bosses tried to corral turn around I have to take a detour fessional riggers, willing and.ready to go ing inspectors were ordering people workers back into the factories to keep because a bridge collapsed." to work." Trujillo explained that per- back into their apartments the next day the profits flowing. An auto worker at The predictable whitewash has al­ even where the roof had caved in. the Fremont NUMMI plant reported ready begun. Deukmejian's appointee For the racist cops, it was "business as how despite "busted water pipes and air to head the "independent investiga­ usual" in the black ghetto, which was pipes, broken glass from fallen light fix­ tion," Dr. Ian Buckle of the National virtually under military occupation. The tures and who knows what other dam­ Center for Earthquake Engineering Oakland Tribune (22 October) reported age," GM/Toyota bosses insisted that Research, was quickly dropped after how residents of heavily black and everybody go back to work: "Loss of stupidly asserting, "now is not the time working-class West Oakland found the money due to loss of line time was more for knocking" Caltrans. But already, usual racist police treatment particu­ important than people's lives .... Peo­ technically knowledgeable observers are larly galling because they were the ones ple are pissed off that the line was calling this the "Caltrans earthq uake." "who first rushed forward to try to save started as usual at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday Caltrans spokesman James Drago' victim~ of the freeway collapse, even without structural engineers checking claimed, "I don't think anyone envi­ when it meant endangering their own things out." Around the Bay Area, sioned an earthquake of that magni­ lives .... When police first arrived at the Monday was declared back-to-work tude." This is a particularly stupid and disaster site, they actually pulled guns day: with delays on the BART system ignorant lie. The 1906 quake measured on would-be rescuers and accused them and backups on alternative bridges, about 8.3 on the Richter scale-a of looting the bodies." The first cop many workers had hours added to their destructive power many, many times reports of "looting" suspiciously coin~ commuting time, then walked under greater than on October 17. Recent state cided with the shutdown of the reSCUe badly damaged structures like the Em­ planning "scenarios" envision another Oakland Ironworkers official Ray operation Tuesday night. In the after­ barcadero viaduct to go to work 8.3 quake. The Bay Area lies astride two Trujillo (left) charged that skilled math, the police seemed downright in buildings that should have been major earthquake fault lines, the San union workers volunteered to aid annoyed that th~y couldn't come up condemned. Andreas fault on the west and the rescue, but cops drove them away. with any incidents. Hayward fault on the east. A 7.6 quake In San Francisco, a shelter was set up "Caltrans Earthquake" on the Hayward fault has been long pre­ sonnel from the Oakland Police, the in the Moscone Convention Center for The quake was estimated at 7.1 on the dicted. The "big one" has yet to come. Navy and Caltrans couldn't decide who some 1,000 made homeless by the Richter scale. Beyond that everything California is the prime earthquake was in charge, so "the 0 PO chased off quake. But five days later, they were wa~ speculation and disinformation. zone of the United States. Particularly the Ironworkers." thrown out and bused to the Presidio Even the number of fatalities veered since the 1906 killer quake which After last year's Armenia earth­ army base and a Navy transport ship to from one figure to another; then it destroyed San Francisco, the need to quake, when the Soviets considered cut­ make way for "paying customers"-a turned out that the authorities had no design structures to take account of ting off rescue efforts after seven days, convention of plastic surgeons. Among idea-and still don't-how many have seismic effects has been indisputable. American newspapers raved about their those moved out were some of SF's died. The high estimate of 250 trapped All the more so in the Bay Area, where "inhumanity." In Oakland, the rescue several thousand permanently home- under the freeway was based on expect- signifrcant sections rest on landfill, was effectively stopped less than six which is known to "liquefy" in a heavy hours after the quake. The effect of this earthquake. Peter Yanev notes in his was dramatically related in the account book, Peace of Mind in Earthquake of one rescue worker at the Nimitz site Country (1974), that the soft, unstable reported op CNN (18 October): soils "act much like jelly in a bowl" dur­ "He said that last night at this time, ing a quake. In 1906, "The parts of the when he and his rescue team were in city that suffered the greatest amount of there, they had room between the sec­ tions of the bridge of maybe a foot and a damage .?;were built on landfill atop the half, maybe as much as three feet, for already uIl$table bay mud." Much ofthe them to maneuver their bodies around. Marina district is built on such ground, And they were able to rescue some peo­ and so is part ofthe Cypress Street Via­ ple successfully last night. He went back duct. And much of the Bay Bridge, to some of those same areas tonight, and found this much room [a hand's which popped a 50-foot slab of road­ breadth] to maneuver. Just the weight way on its upper deck, rests on sand. of this has taken all of his hope away." Furthermore, a recent study by Prof. When friends of a woman trapped under Wayne Clough of Virginia Polytechnic a collapsed building in Santa Cruz Institute ("Seismic Response of San started protesting and chanting "Don't Francisco Waterfront Fills," Journal of stop digging!" Tuesday night, the cops Geotechnical Engineering, April 1983) arrested four of them. Two days later, predicted that the "dune sands" in these the woman was found dead. areas "should liquefy under a nearby Adding to the stench of blood and earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or great­ bodies was the blatant class and race er." Was such destruction not "envi­ .bias in the reportage of the disaster. The sioned"? More than two years ago, three different engineering firms warned that media focused almost exclusively on Grieving father Daniel Rubi (being destruction in SF's posh Marina dis­ manhandled by cops) accused in the event of a "moderate" quake, a trict, presenting the quake aftermath as Oakland mayor Lionel Wilson (inset), building south of Market Street "could a community "coming together." Mean­ Governor Deukmejian and Caltrans suffer catastrophic failure with possible while, thousands languished homeless officials of killing his son, trapped in loss of life" and called for renovation and hungry in black Oakland and the Nimitz Freeway collapse. (San Francisco Chronicle, 21 October).

8 WORKERS VA~Y.UARD . .t>'• ..JV" II "'. ~,_I .• ~. I • j ." • \, The owners ignored the warnings. The • A 1972 federal study specifically building collapsed as predicted-five warned, "The Bay Bridge is very vul­ people are dead. Such examples of crim­ nerable in major earthquakes" (San inal negligence abound in the Bay Area Francisco Examiner, 19 October). A Desota Barker quake disaster. In the last week, Work­ statewide program had called for ers Vanguard has interviewed several "retrofitting" all California highway Desota Barker, a 30-year-old Barker and a fellow Local mem­ specialists in the field and reviewed bridges to protect against earthquakes. black San Francisco worker, was ber who is a member of the Bay technical materials on the affected Phase I called for lashing roadway slabs shot and killed Tuesday night, Area Labor Black League for structures. together with steel cables to prevent October 17, as he was volunteering Social Defense brought this attack his aid in the hours after the earth­ to the attention of their union. At its Bay Bridge: When the Oakland Bay them from separating. According to an article by Peter Carey and Gary Webb in quake struck the Bay Area. With July 1988 meeting, AFGE Local Bridge was built in the mid-1930s, it was lights and power out in SF, Desota 1457 passed a motion issuing "an considered a wonder in modern bridge the San Jose Mercury News (19 Octo­ ber): "The Bay Bridge, which saw a 50- was helping direct traffic in the urgent call to the Bay Area labor design. Seismic construction technol­ Western Addition when he was movement and to all decent people ogy has certainly advanced dramati­ foot section of its upper deck drop onto the lower deck, also received deck rein­ killed, according to a report in the to mobilize and act decisively to put • cally since then, but as Peter Yanev told SF Chronicle (21 October). an immediate stop to the atrocities WV: "The perturbing thought is this forcement under Phase I of the high­ way department's earthquake project. We came to know Desota Barker of these skinheads." Later that year, was not supposed to happen, and it when he was a member of Local Local 1457 was an early endorser of happened in a moderately strong earth­ But [Caltrans senior structural engi­ neer James] Gates confirmed that the 1457, the American Federation of the labor/black mobilization which quake. What the hell would it have Government Employees, working stopped the KKK and skinheads been like if this was a really big section of bridge that collapsed had not been strengthened with steel cables .... on road maintenance at the Presi­ from marching in Philadelphia one?" A civil engineer at Tokyo Univer­ dio. In June 1988, while he was November 5. sity told an October 18 program on 'We're still looking at why that decision was made'." attending a street fair in Haight­ In March, Barker and several of Japanese TV, "Since the Bay Bridge Ashbury with his wife and two chil­ his union brothers attended a show­ was constructed in 1936, after the 1906 Nimitz FreewllY: The Cypress Street dren he was viciously attacked by a ing of the video documentary, "The earthquake, I'm sure there were anti­ section of the Nimitz Freeway is an even gang often neo-Nazi skinheads who Klan Won't Ride in Philly!" He earthquake considerations in con­ more glaring example of making human had been terrorizing people at the continued to be concerned about structing this bridge." Yet, incredibly, safety dependent on the bottom line. fair. Barker wrote of the assault, "I growing skinhead violence in San earthquake considerations were rejected This was the state's first double-deck was wearing aT-shirt with Bob Francisco. Those who knew Desota as an extra factor in the design. elevated freeway, opened in 1957, built Marley's picture and the words say he was a conscious and consci­ • In a 1939 study on "Earthquake in an area of Oakland known to be land­ Smash apartheid written in front, entious guy-they were not sur­ Stresses in the San Francisco:.Oakland fill and unstable alluvial soil. The $6.6 which they tore off while beating prised he was out there trying to Bay Bridge," senior bridge engineers million construction contract went to and kicking me." help after the quake. Norman Raab and Howard Wood the lowest bidder-Grove, Shepherd, claimed that "well~built structures, even 'Wilson, Kruge of California, Inc. if no definite allowance for seismic Hampton Roberts, former vice pres­ forces has been made in their design, ident of the firm, today professes to be have come through the most severe "shocked" at its collapse (Oakland Trib­ request. As recently as last year, orities was 1-880" because this "top­ California earthquakes with no struc­ une, 20 October). Yet the 24 October Deukmejian vetoed a $90,000 appro­ heavy structure" "rests on landfill." tural damage." The bridge was only San Francisco Chronicle reports that priation for a new study on quake­ • There were many more warnings. A designed to resist ground forces of 10 the columns did not even "meet accept­ proofing (San Francisco Examiner, 22 1982 study by the state's Resources percent of gravity, which was no more ed safety standards in force at the time October). And~ they knew it would fail. Agency warned that "the elevated sec­ than the stresses from heavy winds, the freeway was built." Jim See, an engi­ • After the 1971 San Fernando earth­ tion through downtown Oakland is and therefore involved no extra con­ neer who worked on the project and just quake in Southern California in which expected to be heavily damaged" in an struction costs to protect against earth­ examined the original design plans, says 65 people died and many freeway earthquake (San Francisco Chronicle, quakes. Yet the authors acknowledged "most of the (reinforcing bar inside the overpasses collapsed, state investiga­ 20 October). As part of the statewide that in earthquakes maximum ground pillars) was not braced, or wrapped, tions called for tightened earthquake Phase I retrofitting program, the road accelerations can reach anywhere be­ with reinforcing ties." The 1952 engi­ standards for bridge and highway con­ decks of the Cypress Street Viaduct tween 25 and 50 percent. At the very neers' manual distributed by the Con­ struction. A bridge engineer described were strapped together with steel cable. least, this was clearly not a conservative crete Reinforcing Steel Institute insisted to a 1971 state assembly subcommittee But a subsequent phase, which called for design from a seismic standpoint. Could this was a "necessary structural ingredi­ hearing how columns "burst in the mid­ strengthening the critical support col­ it have something to do with the ent" for freeway pillars. dle and the [steel] bars were bent out"­ umns, was not even scheduled to begin fact that when the bridge was being • The weakness of the Nimitz was no just what happened last week on the for several years. built, as the chief engineers admitted, news .to anybody. In 1977, engineer Nimitz Freeway. An October 1972 • William Schaefer, chief engineer the "controlling thought throughout ,David Rogers did an exhaustive six­ Caltrans repo'rt directed that "remedial for Caltrans,. claims_ that phase wasn't the work has been ... that the total' month study, submitting a proposal for work" be done on selected "vulnerable" even planned for 1-880 because "we capital investment must be kept with­ a miserly allocation of $10,000-50,000 structures among the state's 11 ,000 don't have the technical knowledge, nor in $75,000,000" (Engineering News­ for further research to reinforce the existing bridges. According to News­ does it exist in the world, to tell us how Record, 22 March 1934)? structure. Caltrans tunied down his dffY (19 October), "among the top pri- continued on page 10

to go there. They're afraid to ask for help or put their names on any form, Watsonvi lie Quake Victi-ms because it's risking being deported. One relief worker with a Hispanic The following is a report from a health agency was quoted saying the Spartacist comrade. rumor is that the INS is going to come in and arrest everybody. FEMA (Fed­ My sister and I went to Watsonville eral Emergency Management Agency) to bring some supplies to the homeless is denying this, but somehow people people camped near the high school. don't believe them. We were farm workers as kids, and I There's a lot of fear-a lot of these had seen the TV news report which people were in the earthquake in showed the encampment and the dire Mexico City, and now it's happening need people are in. There are about to them again. There was an after­ four camps at least, I estimate prob­ shock at about 3:QO p.m. today and ably a thousand or more in each one pieces of the school were falling down, who are homele!is, mainly Mexican there was a lot of glass JaIling out of the farm workers.;n; high school windows. When we got to W'iitsonville we One old man said, in gratitude for found a very grim siturttion indeed. the supplies, brought in, "God Bless There were about 1,500 people camp­ 'America." We replied: the people here, ing near the school. They had few real yes, but the government, no-Bush tents so they're using tarps and sheets and Quayle just tour the devastated of plastic. It had been raining, there areas and flyaway leaving people in was lots of mud and puddles. It is also devastation. That is Bush's "thousand cold and windy, especially' at night. points of light." Mainly there were agricultural Today my sister told me she was at workers and also some cannery work­ Van Dyke/San one of the numerous camps set up in ers there. Most of the people at the Homeless survivors take refuge in Watsonville park. Watsonville, and it started to rain, it camp were women and children; men was getting very cold. She had heard were out harvesting in the fields. Most ing. There was massive disorganiza­ are the kinds of things most needed, in that there were supposed to be 300 people were Spanish-speaking, little tion, no one coordinating things. We addition to tents and blankets. A lot of tents delivered by the National Guard. English was being spoken. Old women spent some time helping boys put up kids were running around barefoot Finally she got sick of waiting around came up to the car to get some of the tents. and babies with no diapers. Burger and went to City Hall to find out what supplies but some of them couldn't Aside from the relief agencies men­ King had two trucks and they were giv­ was going on. carry anything because they were on tioned, there were individuals bring· ing out free hamburgers. She was told that they were waiting crutches, injured in the quake. ing supplies. We brought Coleman The Red Cross sent a young His­ for some decision, some bureaucratic The relief, such as it was, consisted lanterns, stoves, tents, sleeping bags, panic kid to try to get people to go to proceQure had to be done as to where of Salvation Army and Red Cross canned soup, baby formula and food, the shelters set up by the Red Cross, these tents were to be set up. Mean­ workers dumping supplies and leav- jackets and sanitary napkins. These but for the most part people are afraid while people were out there in the cold.

27 OCTOBER 1989 9 to decide what's safe and what's not. Everything has to be absolutely safe, so Bay Area ~~ @nwn they don't allow anypody except tech­ From the nical experts to go there. What hap­ 1f)

------oI'-ihEJ.@tUFl------Quota -Final Quota Final Local (In pOints) Totals % Local (In points) Totals %

Atlanta· 170 268% 158 Oakland 810 1,152% 142 Boston 300 385 128 San Francisco 360 491% 137 Chicago 520 649% 125 Washington, D.C. 170 225 132 Cleveland 200 296% 148 At-large 200 197% 99 L9s Angeles 270 ;569,% 211 New York 1,250 1,426 114 National Total 4,250 5,661112 133

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27 OCTOBER 1989 11 ~ W'ItIlEItS "6(;1111111) the Racist O.e.a. t~ h_-_P_-e------I

Philly Rally Demands: Save Mumia Abu-Jamal! PHILADELPHIA, October l4-Two representatives of Hispanic organiza­ as the "voice of the voiceless" for his Pennsylvania Supreme Court cruelly hundred opponents of the barbaric tions and trade unionists. The rally courageous political broadcasts against rejected his appeal in March of this death penalty came tog.::tht,r today at focused particularly on the urgent­ injustice. Hated and feared by the racist year. Temple University in a ground-breaking campaign to save Mumia Abu-Jamal, Philadelphia cops, in 1981 he was nearly Today's rally marked the 14th day of united-front rally against racist "legal" black political prisoner on Pennsylva­ fatally wounded by the police, then a desperate hunger strike by M umia and lynchings. They represented a broad nia's death row. framed up on charges of murdering a other inmates to protest the despicable cross section of Philadelphia's black Mumia, a former Philadelphia Black cop. Mumia's political views and writ­ conditions on death row at Hunting­ community, from members of MOVE Panther, prominent journalist and out­ ings and his past membership in the don prison. In a moving speech, Wadiya to Muslim women with sons in prison to spoken defender of the MOVE organi­ Black Panther Party were the explicit Jamal, Mumia's wife, appealed to the ex-Black Panthers, as well as students, zation, was known throughout the city basis for his death sentence. Yet the continued on page 7 Pittston Coal Strike

When 98 members of the United It was. the first mass plant occupa­ rotated around the clock. Inside the strike-it could have been a rally­ Mine Workers of America (UMW) tion in five decades, since the late '30s prep plant, the miners communicated ing point for all labor. Now UMW occupied the control room of Pittston sit-down strikes which brought Gen­ with their families massed at the gate president Richard Trumka is looking Coal's strategic Moss No. 3 coal eral Motors to its knees. Not surpris­ by walkie-talkie. Workers monitored to the labor-hating Bush adminis­ preparation plant in late September, ingly, the bosses' media instituted a the pl~nt's systems from the control tration's "super-mediator" Elizabeth miners poured in from West Virginia, virtual press blackout of the occupa­ room. Sitdowners even cleaned up gar­ Dole to produce a "deal" with the Kentucky and Ohio to defend the tion. Workers Vanguard is pleased to bage the scabs had thrown about. For Pittston Corporation. But Pittston occupation. The sitdowners had tak­ publish this photograph of the occu­ 80 hours they shut Pittston down president Michael Odom brags he is en a key position in the six-month-long pation, courtesy of the Cumberland tight-what the civil disobedience and willing to hold out "for four or five battle with Pittston, inspiring the Times, a southwest Virginia paper· "corporate campaign"-style boycotts years." Miners already showed what's ranks of the UMW and the battalions which has stood with the Pittston have failed to do. But the sitdowners needed when they wildcatted 50,000 of organized labor who know the strikers. were pulled out by the UMW tops, strong last summer for two weeks. Pittston strikers are on the front line of The miners pictured above, stand­ who feared the class power that was They powerfully demonstrated their the class war. For almost four days ing high atop the prep plant, looked unleashed. One strike supporter told strength again with the militant oc­ they held the plant, as between 2,000 out on a sea of their union brothers at WV that none of the men wanted to cupation of Moss No.3-with the and 5,000 defenders clogged the ap­ the entrance to Moss No.3. A second leave. capitalists' "sacred" property in the proach road to the plant, the choke group guarded the rear of the plant, The sit-down strike should have workers' hands. Victory to the Pittston point in Pittston's scab operations. while a third rested. The groups were been backed up by a national coal miners!

12 27 OCTOBER 1989