15 cents

WfJRKERS IIA.'''ARD'"Z.~J;), lC3 Number 3 DECEMBER 1971 PHASE II AND THE PAY BOARD: WORKERS BETRAYED BY

UNION L ~11Ii' TI\9o New York Times/Mike lien AFt·CIO Bureaucrats at Fla. Convention: From left, George Meany, "LEADERS" AFt·CIO Pres.; Thomas Gleason, ItA; I. W. Abel, Steelworkers. The criminal traitors who call themselves la­ of hiding price increases. The central focus was Meany was left with nothing but hot air. bor "leaders" today stand as the main obstacle to the blatant abrogation of legal contracts of the The "opposition" of other labor leaders proved a working-class defense against the attacks of the large industrial un ion s such as the UAW, who also to be non-existent. Woodcock's early talk of ruling class. had scheduled contractual wage increases. The a "war"with the government of course never ma­ Nixon's New Economic Policy is designed to Wage Freeze was eagerly and quickly "adminis­ terialized. Fitzsimmons of the Teamsters backed solve the accelerating crisis of American capi­ tered" by the cap ita lis t s themselves, and the the President from the beginning, not even both­ talism by squeezing the American and interna­ workers could not po s sib I y "sneak" in a wage ering to make fake s tat e men t s of opposition. tional working class. The two-pronged attack­ increase as the capitalists have been slipping in Bridges of the ILWU, caught in the middle of a driving down the living standards of American price increases. So much for bourgeois legality! major strike, merely pleaded for a special ex­ workers and curbing the competition of foreign In a single stroke Nixon ripped up thousands of emption, and quickly w hip P e d the men back to nroducts-can only be accomplished by curbing­ contracts, and the only OIlDos-Hi.on was brief work with the help of a Taft-HarUey injunction. the combativenebs of the trade unions. III short, public relations squawks from the labor -'lead­ The most extreme of1iCIai OppoSItlOn was a lew the success of Nixon's NEP rests on the cooper­ ers" . token demonstrations organized by some bureau­ ation of the trade union bureaucracy, and the fact Geor ge Meany had. been c a II i n g for wage­ crats, such as the Detroit AFL-CIO demonstra­ thaCthe bureaucrats have proven so eager to co­ price con t l' 0 I s all along, but suddenly changed tion in late September. operate is indicative of their fear of rank-and­ his tune to put up a show of 0 P P 0 sit ion for the file unrest. rank and file. Meany has even s u g g est e d that Phase II: Second Punch he would give a no-strike pledge if labor was al­ Nixon thus had the green light to proceed with Phase I: Test of Strength lowed sufficient "representation" in its own re­ the second wave of his attack against the working Phase I of Nixon's program was simply a test pression! What he really would prefer is a wage class-Phase II, which represents an attempt to ofthe combativeness of the trade unions. Clearly control administered by Democratic "friends of make permanent the wage controls, with the active no real price control was intended-the only ma­ labor," who might accord him more respect by collusion of the labor leaders. The participation chi n e r y set up for that was a pool of phone­ giving him greater control over administration of the five major labor figures (Meany, Woodcock, answerers to field questions. S u c h machinery of the program. When the "friends of labor" like F i tz s i m mo ns, Abel, Smith) on the Pay Board could not possibly control the thousands of ways McGovern all rushed to support Nixon's program, continued on page 2

y

'>.J•••••••• -;.~~« .. ::::\:;:;~~ FOR REVOLUTIONARY DEFEATISM ON BOTH SIDES IN THE INDIA-PAKISTAN WAR! ! Once more the power rivalry between India and Pakistan has broken out in war. Seeking control of all Bengal and elimination of Pakistan as a significant rival, India has absorbed under its direct command the military forces of East Bengal (BangIa Desh), entirely subordinating the just Bengali struggle to the ambitions of the Indian bourgeoisie. The bourgeois nation building era of capitalism's youth is long past. In the 19th century one might have given cold-eyed critical support to a drive by the Indian bour­ geoisie to unify the subcontinent under its hegemony correspondingly advancing the growth, organization, and power of the proletariat. But in the era of imperialism only proletarian revolution offers the masses a road forward. For the Bengali mass­ es only the international client relationships of their masters will change through an Indian victory. The Indian bourgeoisie vies with the Pakistani in viciousness toward national minorities and perhaps exceeds it in hypocrisy. It is a ruling class without a future. But a proletarian revolution which turns the guns of both armies against their own rulers will be a brilliant giant leap forward in the world struggle for socialism. Their Real Enemy Behind Them, Indian Troops Advance in Pakistan.

Ie Fraud Explodes: CENTRIST DEBACLE Reconstruct the Fourth IN BOLIViA .... '"'" pg. 3 LEARN TO READ - International! pages4-5 LEARN TO THINK .. pg. 7 2 on the contrary, the trade \ unions can become the in­ Continued/rom Poge 1 struments of the revolu­ tionary movement of the proletariat. " -from Trade Unions in the Epoch of Im­ perialist Decay­ In this period of general WORKERS BETRAYED capitalist crisis, it becomes impossible for the bureau­ crats to draw a line between George Meany the political and economic -m""'--", """", '""'''''' sphere, as the capitalist state ,:.- intervenes directly to roll BY UNION "LEADERS" _- back union gains. Yet the .;-, ,~, bureaucrats today are in- and bourgeoisie. The capitalists may permit the merely veils the fact that the Board is a weapon ,.-,, ~.- ~ capable of launching a uni- of the capitalist state against the unions. Meany union m 0 vern e n t to exist so long as it acts to -'f- fied political assault on the no doubt knows that the five "public" members, discipline the working class, but in times of cri­ l'""",,, • ,_ I '~ capitalist state, since such hand-picked by Nixon, will vote against labor on sis they will seek a way to abolish the unions to -~"-' .~l an ass a u It would unleash the key questions. After all, who are these "pub­ remove all potential sources of in d e pen den t ,\''; -- _.' - for c e s which would sweep lic" members? They include: William Caples, a working-class power. Ultimately either the work­ - away the bureaucrats as well. college president, director of the First Knox Na­ ing class takes political power iE: its own name, .-''''-~);... j, ..... ~ The bureaucrats fear the de- tional Bank of Mount Vernon and ex e cut i v e of or the capitalists will wipe out all the gains of the Harry Bridges velopment of proletarian po- Inland Steel from 1946 to 1968; Neil Jacoby, an Working class in Order to fi'"solve"the capital:fSi crisis. ------I <0 .. " """ 1 it i cal consciousness and "economic adviser" who presently directs Occi­ sabotage working-class unity dental Petroleum Corp.; Arnold Weber, the man ---.:ri1e great contradiction of the American work­ at every turn. The ILA, for who worked under Sec ret a r y of the Treasury ing class has been its extreme militancy in the instance, went on strike in Con naIl y to set up Phase I; and so on. These economic sphere-typified by the great CIO strikes spite of the wishes of Glea­ "public" members are merely professional ad­ of the late 1930's-combined with barrenness and son, who supports the NEP ministrators of the capitalist system. backwardness in the political sphere, reflecting and was content to stay on It was therefore no sur p r is e when the Pay low class consciousness. This backwardness was the job under the old contract; Board voted 10 to 5 to deny retroactive pay to developed into a policy by the Stalinist Commu­ only blatant employer attacks labor. Meany's threat to walk off the Board if nist Party around 1936, when the CP began to and rank-and-file un res t retroactive pay was denied turned out to be just call for labor support to the "progressive" bour­ forced a strike. Yet through a bluff. Similarly, his earlier threat to walk off geoisie in the form of FDR and the Democrats. lack of any elemental class if the Board did not have final say in rulings was The privileged bureaucracy which immediately Leonard Woodcock solidarity between 1 e a d e r - empty rhetoric-what did it mat t e r, since the arose in the formative years of the CIO quickly ships, the nationwide longshore strike was quick­ Board itself is stacked against labor? Paul Schrade entrenched itself through the systematic suppres­ ly divided by Taft-Hartley injunctions and other of the UAW recently threatened a "general strike" sion of independent working-class politics and the government intervention (see Workers Vanguard against the NEP, though his own union supports li mit a t ion of the trade unions to "bread-and­ #3). The only political alternative the bureaucrats theNEP through Woodcock's presence on the Pay butter" issues. can come up with is more support to the Demo­ Board! The merger of the AFL and CIO in 1955 was a cratic \'friends of laqor"-the same "friends "who Not surprisingly, the Price Control program reactionary development crowning the firm en­ are rushing to back Nixon's program. is full of holes for the capitalists to walk through. trenchment ofthe conservative labor bureaucracy For instance, officials admit that nearly one-fifth through the suppression of political life within the of the goods and services making up the average unions. The two top posts went to narrow-minded The AFL-CIO Convention in Florida was a dis­ worker's cost of living are excluded from any craft union leaders from the AFL, e s p e cia 11 y gusting display of the decay of the trade union price control, such as homes, used cars, taxes, George Meany. The merger was the culmination movement. The Convention should have been the place to map out a strategy for a working class in t ere s t rates, and raw agricultural products. of a witchhunt in the unions to drive out all mili­ counter-offensive against the bourgeoisie, and the Furthermore, the 2.5% limit on price raises is tants and possible political oppositiQnists; a whole publicity should have been used to expose the lie intended only as an overall goal, not a limit on series of unions were expelled from the CIO in of Nixon's program. Instead, th e bureaucrats individual businesses, which are allowed to in­ 1950 for "Communist influence" (ILWU, UE, etc.) invited in the bourgeoisie to present its views on crease prices to compensate for "higher costs" and the labor bureaucrats bowed to the govern­ nationaftelevision. Meany & Co., despite their ment's "right" to purge the unions of militants (the reason always given for r a is in g prices!). wid ely publiciz ed row with Nixon, allowed the through such laws as Taft-Hartley. The class­ Meany & Co. have called on unions and individ­ convention to be used literally as a forum for collaborationist pol i c i e s of the CP helped feed ual workers to form "watchdog committees" to Nixon to defend his policy. After Nixon, they the reaction by disorienting mil ita n t workers. check on price rises, but they do not explain how f eat u red a speech by Senator McGovern, the working people are supposed to dis tin gu ish a The AFL-CIO constitution codified the witchhunt, "friend of labor"who supportsNixon'sNEP. Thus dropping previous references to class struggle in "legal" price rise from an "i 11 ega 1" one. The the labor bureaucracy took a further step toward favor of anti-communist clauses. The bureau­ entire price control program is buried in merger with the capitalist state. complicated-sounding economic formulas which crats would bargain for economic concessions; in effect leave it to businesses to decide what is politica~ power they conceded to the government, a "legal" price rise. and policed their unions on the government's be­ The Pay Board's approval of the contract set­ Meany and the other bureaucrats know all this. half. tlements of the coal miners and railroad signal­ Meany him s elf served on wage control boards men, far exceeding official guidelines, demon­ Political Struggle Essential strated how easily Nixon's gu id e lUre s can be during World War IT, when the labor bureaucrats Thus in the political sphere the labor bureauc­ gave a no-strike pledge and a r e e d to enforce broken, and how much the NEP depends on the g racy tends to merge with the capitalist state, and wage controls. This policy of class collaboration, labor bureaucrats' cooperation to succeed. both react in common h 0 s til i t Y to any signs of endorsed by the Stalinist Communist Party, led rank-and-file independence. In return for their Clearly, for the organized working class to to the impoverishment of the working class as service the bu rea u c rat s receive tremendous prices skyrocketed ahead of wages. It was only a move forward, there must be a rank-and-file privileges. The creation of the breakaway ALA movement with a political program to throw out rank-and-file rebellion reluctantly led by John L. by Reuther in no way represented a break from Lewis which broke the wage controls and brought the bureaucrats and break the stranglehold of the the bureaucracy, but only an attempt to put on a' capitalist government. Rank-and-file union cau­ some economic relief through a series of strikes new face-Woodcock today joins Meany on the Pay beginning in 1943 and blossoming in 1946. (The cuses must fight against government interference Board. The bureaucrats dare not admit that the in the unions and for independent working-class rank-and-file of the UMW appear again to be the state is owned and run by the capitalists; that leaders of a defiant revolt against the bureaucrats political action through a workers' party, op­ would be to admit the necessity for socialist revo­ posed to the two capitalist parties, to fight for a and government controls. In their tradition of "No lution. As Trotsky noted: Contract, No Work," the coal miners struck on w 0 r k e r s' government. Most immediately, all " .•. In the eyes of the bureaucracy of the trade militants must demand that the labor "leaders" September 30 and have won wage and benefit in­ union movement the chief task lies in 'freeing' creases far in excess of the Pay Board "guide­ immediately resign from the Pay Board, since the state from the embrace of capitalism, in their presence on the Board masks its real func­ lines," and many have rem a i ned on strike de­ weakening its dependence on trusts, in pulling manding Pay Board approval of their contract!) tion as a weapon of the capitalists. Militants must it over to their side. This position is in com­ demand a general strike against Nixon's program plete harmony with the social position of the and for all retroactive wage increases. A fight The Taming of the Trade Unions labour aristocracy and the labour bureaucracy, must begin now against the drift toward World who fight for a crumb in the share of super­ War ill, manifested by the capitalists' attempt to One cannot understand the spinelessness of the profits of imperialist capitalism. The labour stir up resentment against "foreign" workers and labor "leaders" without understanding the nature bureaucrats do their level best in words and the rush for greater armaments. The bureaucrats of trade unions. To the extent that trade unions deeds to demonstrate to the 'democratic' state are eagerly lining up with the capitalists in the are organizations of s t rug g 1 e thrown up by the how reI i a b 1 e and indispensable they are in demand for trade curbs on imports, which mere­ working class, they represent a potential source peace-time and especially in time of war. By ly shift unemployment to the w 0 r kin g class of of working-class political power opposed to the transforming the trade unions into organs of other countries, expecially Japan, and strengthen rule of the capitalists, who hold power through the state, fa sci s m invents nothing new; it nationalist hatreds. Instead there must be an in­ the state apparatus. On the other hand, to the ex­ merely draws to their ultimate conclusion the ternational working-class fig h t to increase the tent that the trade unions accept capitalist prop­ tendencies in her en t in imperialism•.•• The total pool of jobs through the shorter work week erty forms and merely bargain for crumbs, they trade unions of our time can either serve as and ultimately through the expropriation of in­ become institutions of capitalism. This contra­ secondary instruments of imperialist capital­ dustry under workers' control and a govern- dictory nature of trade unions is a reflection of ism for the subordination and disciplining of the existence of contending classes-working class workers and for obstructing the revolution, or, continued on next page DEC~MBER 1971 3 II The issue of the role of the Partido Obrero vacillation on the part of the PORe For example, major article in the 31 May Masas exposes the Revolucionario in the recent Bolivian events has in an article w r itt e n by Guillermo Lora after plan for "worker-participation" in COMIBOL as become inevitably a factional football in the power Banzer's coup is the admission: "the point of departure for the bureaucratization fight between the Healyite (SLL-WL) and Lam­ "At this time [October 1970] everybody thought and political control over the 'worker-managers' bertiste (OCI) wings of the now split International -including we Marxists-that the arms would on the part of ti)..e- state," counterposing to this the Committee. But in addition to providing a test of be given by the governing military team, which deman~.-for -j'workers control with veto rights" the revolutionary capacity of both wings of the IC, would consider that only through resting on the and pointing out that workers control does not ob­ the lessons of Bolivia are important in their own masses and giving them adequate firepower viate the class struggle. I right, as a verification, in the breech, of the les­ could they at least neutralize the gorila right. A severe blunting of a hard Leninist edge is sons of the October Revolution of 1917. This position was completely wron~' (Bul­ apparent in an article in the 9 May Masas which The POR is an avowedly Trotskyist organiza­ letin, 27 September 1971) - states: ---

tion under the leadership of Guillermo Lora, which To have placed any confidence in Torres to arm fl••• the fundamental contradiction in Bolivia since 1970 has claimed agreement with the anti­ the masses shows the most severe disorientation is nothing else than that which exists between revisionist avowals of the IC. Despite its oppor­ on the part of the POR over the crucial question the proletariat and imperialism." l tunist policy following the 1952 Bolivian uprising of the class nature of the state. Torres was a Our question is simple: what role does the national in conciliating the left wing of the bourgeois na­ bonapartist seeking to balance between the work­ bourgeoisie play in this schema? For the fatal il­ tionalist MNR government of Paz Estenssoro, the ing class, r 0 use d by a foretaste of power and lusion fostered by the nationalist-Stalinist cabal POR is an organization which must was precisely the conception of the be treated seriously because of its "anti-imperialist" bourgeoisie as an considerable implantation in the ally. What was required of the POR most militant sector of the Bolivian was preCisely to break the working proletariat, the tin miners. cIa s s fro m subordination to the "revolutionary," "anti-imperialist" People s Assembly Centrist regime of Torres. To Marxists, the The POR played an active role in counterposed class forces are the the People's Assembly which came wor king class supported by the peas­ into existence under the bonapartist antry on the one side and the bour­ regime of left militarist General • geoisie-both the puppets of imperi­ Juan Jose Torres, which was over­ alism and the "progressive" nation­ r thrown by the rightest coup of Gen­ alist wing-on the other. eral Hugo Banzer in August. The Debacle In The OCl's response to the grave People's Assembly was composed of accusations levelled against the POR a majority of representatives from is an attempt to bluff it out. The 19 working-class organizations and in- September statement declares: I.! cluded representatives of the sig- " ••• the coup d'etat organized by nificant left political organizations. the CIA and the military dictators The basis for a,dherence to the Peo- of Brazil and Argentina and facil­ ple's Assembly was defined as sup- Bolivia itated by the action of the Torres port to the Theses of the Fourth Con- government is the proof that the gress of the Central Obrera Boliviana, the main policy carried by the POR was fundamentally trade union federation, which is heavily influenced based on the interests of the Bolivian prole­ by left nationalists and Stalinists. The People's tariat.••• Assembly pledged to lead the struggle against im­ fl ••• All those who attack the POR through this, perialism and for socialism: represent the enemies of the dictatorship of "The People's Ass e m b I y is a revolutionary the proletariat. They take the sides of im­ anti-imperialist front led by the proletariat, perialism and Stalinism. They are agents of constituted by the Central Obrera Boliviana, counterrevolution and are enemies, conscious the trade union confederations and federations or unconSCious, of the Fourth International. " of national character, the people's organiza­ This kind of argumentation can simply be dis­ tions and the political parties of revolutionary m iss e d out of hand. As Trotskyists, we have orientation. listened too many times to the hysterical accusa­ "It recognizes as its political leadership the tions of Stalinists of all stripes along the same proletariat and declares that its program is lines: the ferocity of U. S. imperialism's aggres­ the Political Theses passed by the Fourth Con­ sion against the NLF and the North Vietnamese gress of the COB, held in May 1970 •••• ~- regimes proves that their leaderships have not ''The People's Assembly constitutes itself as Armed Bolivian Miners Arriving in LaPaz sold out; all those who attack Chairman Mao are the leadership and unifying center of the anti­ eager to struggle for its own class rule, and the taking the side of imperialism; Trotsky was a imperialist movement and its fundamental goal reactionary generals-at the head qf a bourgeois conscious or unconscious agent of fascism; those I consists in attaining national liberation and the who stand in opposition to the United Secretariat establishment of socialism in Bolivia. state. Although forcedtogrant concessions to the masses, Torres, as Lora points out: are against the Fourth International; ad nauseum. (from the statutes of the People's Assembly, We note only that this "defense" of the POR fl ••• preferred to capitulate to his fellow gen­ reprinted in the POR organ Masas of 13 July proves nothing about the POR but a great deal to 1971) -- erals before arming masses who showed signs of taking the road to socialism and whose mo­ the discredit of the OCt According to the POR~ the People's Assembly bilization put in serious danger the army as an The OCI asserts that the People's Assembly was a body of the soviet type which had the poten­ institution. " was "under the leadership of the Trotskyist party, tial to become an institution of dual power-i. e. , The issue is clear, but the attitude and role of the the POR." This statement is open to question. that it was a n embryonic workers government POR is not. For in the 31 May 1971 iss u e of In an in t e r vie w in the 9 August Bulletin, POR within and in contradiction to the bourgeois gov­ Masas we find a call for the formation of indepen­ leader Victor Sossa states that "the POR repre­ ernment un de r Torres. Masas engaged in oc­ dent workers and peasants militias and the cate­ sented only around 20 per cent of the delegates, casional sharp criticism of the CP for pursuing gorical assertion that: "General Torres will never perhaps a little more." Yet he expected that the a "rightist and pro-government line" in the As­ arm the workers and peasants militias." Assembly, still predominantly influenced by Sta­ sembly but did not systematically expose the CP An article in the SLL's Workers Press of 24 linists, bourgeois nationalism and "ultra-left ad­ and the other reformist parties for their betrayal August quotes POR leader Filemon Escobar: venturist petty-bourgeois groups," to do the fol­ of the working class in attempting to subordinate " ••• we will work for political objectives that lowing: the Assembly to Torres, de v 0 tin g at least as help radicalize the present process-for ex­ "In the case of a coup the People's Assembly much emphasis to praising the Assembly ~d de­ ample, worker-participation in COMIBOL will call age n era I strike, will assume the fending it against "leftist" detractors. [Bolivian Mining Corporation]. " military and political command of the masses. Centrist Vllcilllltion And Lora's Bulletin art i c 1 e speaks of "the The decision to go over to the systematic or­ Even on the basis of insufficient documenta­ danger to the state that majority working class ganization of militias is geared to this per­ tion, what emerges clearly is a pattern of centrist partiCipation in COMIBOL would mean." Yet a spective and prepares the working class for the inevitable confrontation, the fight to fully install its own government, the workers and peasants government." ment of workers in their own class interest: 3. BREAK FROM THE CAPITALIST PARTIES­ The question here is not whether the POR had al­ BUILD A WORKERS' PARTY BASED ON THE ready established its hegemony over the workers 1. GOVERNMENT STAY OUT OF LABOR STRUG­ TRADE UNIONS. TOWARD A W 0 R K E R S ' organizations, but whether it was struggling to do GLES-NO RELIANCE ON THE CAPITALIST GOVERNMENT! so-whether the POR 's perspective was to expose STATE. BREAK THE WAGE FREEZE; FOR A the reformists' and nationalists' treachery before GENERAL STRIKE AGAINST NIXON'S WAGE 4. END UNEMPLOYMENT - 30 H 0 U R S WORK their supporters by demanding that the Assembly PLAN. REPEAL ALL ANTI-LABOR LAWS FOR 40 HOURS PAY, JOBS FOR ALL! A counterpose itself to the regime, breaking all ties SUCH AS TAFT-HARTLEY. RELEASE ALL SLIDING SCALE OF HOURS AND WAGES­ with the regime and s t rug g lin g to establish a POLITICAL PRISONERS SUCH AS ANGELA FULL COST OF LIVING ESCALATORS IN ALL workers and peasants government-i. e. the dic­ DAVIS AND JIMMY HOFFA. CONTRACTS. STRIKES AGAINST LAYOFFS. tatorship of the proletariat. It would appear that the POR placed political confidence in theAssem­ 2. FOR LABOR STRIKES AGAINST THE WAR: 5. NO TRADE PROTECTIONISM, NO GOVERN­ bly under its existing leadership. HALT THE FLOW OF ALL WAR GOODS. FOR MENT CREDITS FOR BUSINESS - SUPPORT Soviets: Form lind (ontent IMMEDIATE UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL THE INTERNATIONAL WOR KING - CLASS OF ALL U.S. TROOPS FROM S.E. ASIA. FOR FIGHT TO CREATE AND ORGANIZE JOBS! What was the role of the POR within the Peo­ INTERNATIONAL WORKING-CLASS SOLI­ ple's Assembly? The OCI notes that: DARITY: VICTORY TO THE VIETNAMESE 6. EXPROPRIATION OF INDUSTRY UNDER REVOLUTION! WORKERS'CONTROL •• continued on page 6 4 WORKERS VANGUARD Ie Fraud Explodes RECONSTRUCT TM

The "I n t ern a t ion a I Committee," which for which the two centers of the same "international" linear political and organizational continuity of nearly two dec ad e s proclaimed itself the em­ voted against each other's motions. In a sense the international founded by Trotsky; the French bodiment of authentic revolutionary Trotskyism Healy is right-for reasons which hardly redound insisted that the international had been destroyed opposed to the Pabloist revisionism of the "United to his credit! Healy, accustomed to the organiza­ by Pabloist revisionism and the central interna­ Secretariat," has now crumbled under the weight tional whip hand in the IC, was understandably tional task of Trotskyists was to wage a struggle of years of gross pOlitical deception perpetrated chagrined to find himself opposed and outvoted by for its rebuilding. This difference was debated at against the international Trotskyist movement. the OCI supporters; perhaps the unkindest cut of the 1966 London IC Conference and an internal The IC combination sought to present itself as a all was the presence (afterwards apologized for exchange occurred between the SLL and OCI over political tendency but was in fact a rotten bloc by the French) of a Spartacist League observer. this question in 1967; yet both wings continued to between the political bandits of the Socialist La­ Having lost organizational control, the Healyites insist that their adherence to "the IC" was a priori bour League of Britain and the left centrists of de t e r min e d up:m split, and chose to strike an proof of their internationalism (one might par-a­ the Organisation Communiste Internationaliste of orthodox Leninist pose over Bolivia as an excuse phrase "the IC position" as: the Fourth Interna­ France. Years of jockeying for hegemony within . for a precipitous break. No, Bolivia was not the tional no longer exists and we are it!). The SLL the IC while seeking to preserve the criminal fic­ "real" issue, Comrade Healy; that it was not is position is merely another example of its much­ tion of basic programmatic agreement came to a shown by your own egregious opportunism over vaunted "method"-the c rea t ion of cynical and head as the OCI increasingly gained the whip hand, popular frontism in Ceylon and Chile, as docu­ shabby Pot e m kin villages by which it seeks to especially by the affiliation to the IC of the Par­ mented below. It was only when the PORts dupe its follower s - in this case simply side­ tido Obrero Revolucionario of BoliVia, which was policies came to their inevitably disastrous fru­ stepping the struggle to rebuild the Fourth Inter­ lined up from the first with the OCI against the ition in a rightist coup, and when the SLL-WL national by a dogmatic and sectarian assertion SLL. The IC has finally broken apart completely needed a factional stick to beat the OCI-POR, that that the task was completed in the form of the IC. in open rupture, with the OCI-POR on one side the Healyite bandits rediscovered Trotskyism for And the French were content to coexist with the and the SLL (and its U. S. sycophants, the Work­ Bolivia. In this they are strikingly reminiscent Healyites despite their numerous differences, not ers League) on the other. The split in the IC­ of their supposed polar oppOSites, the Hansen­ the leastof which was what their common organi­ together with the increasingly strained relations SWP wing of the United Secretariat, which sud­ zation was and who was in it! with in its major international competitor, the denly remembered Leninist orthodoxy in order to United Secretariat-represents the fragmentation polemicize against the petty-bourgeois guerrilla­ The IC: Rotten Bloc into chaotic chunks of the organizational config­ ist adventurism of Mandel-Maitan. Healy and Wohlforth are now seeking to create urations of 0 s ten sib I e Trotskyism which have an orthodox Leninist image for themselves against existed essentially since 1953. Will the Real IC Please Stand Up? their picture of the OCI as unprincipled centrist The SLL-OCI split is at once inevitable, un­ That the main imp e t us for the split was a maneuverers. But the mask keeps tearing, re­ p r inc i pie d and opportune. Its inevitability was power fight can be seen in the hilarious gyrations vealingtheugly features of an organization quali­ obvious to anyone familiar with the wide p3litical of Tim Wohlforth and his Workers League over tatively worse than the grossly defective OCI­ distance separating Gerry Healy's SLL from the the POR-not over its politics but over the ques­ POR. For on every issue on which they indict OCI of Pierre Lambert, joined in agreement not tion of its putative IC membership. In the 19 July the Lam bert is t es, the SLL-WL have in their to di.sagree. The internationalist mas que r ad e Bulletin the POR, then riding high, was described readily verifiable history swung far to the right thinly concealed the reality of unprincipled l:>loc simply as the "Bolivian section of the Interna­ of their former bloc partners, in response to the between two power centers with keen competing tional Committee." By 30 August the connection most trivial appetites, ignoring even the limita­ appetites for satellites. The split, accomplished between the POR and the IC had been disappeared: tions on opportunism observed by intelligent re­ by calculated SLL-WL provocation over the issue If••• Lora was car r yin g forward a political formists in pursuit ofthe "main chance." The OCI of the policies of Guillermo Lora's POR of Bolivia, course begun over a decade ago, from which is a serious political current with a persistently is as unprincipled as was the erstwhile posture he has consistently refused to veer. At every centrist thrust-i. e. an opportunist practice; the of unity. The split can be of great objective assis­ point this course has received support within SLL-WL are both hilariously sectarian and egre­ tance in rebuilding the Fourth International of the Fourth International or forces claiming to giously opportunist. Leon Trotsky, by breaking unprincipled combi­ represent the Fourth International. ... " The chief opportunist sin of the OCI is pre­ nations as a prerequisite for political clarification If the reader knew who the sud den 1 y organiza­ cisely the one with which the Healyites will never and internal po Ii tic a I struggle within national tionally anonymous Lora was-well, okay. If not, charge them: their service for years in shoring group~ngSpreviously insulated by the comforting Wohlforth wasn't telling. up Healy's claims to internationalism. The grave assurance of ".i.nternationalism"-i. e. member­ The United Secretariat's Intercontinental Press charges which both sides are now flinging at one ship in one of the unprincipled international blocs. was, of course, delighted to be able to point out another include not only sharp differences over But the rebuilding of the Fourth International that the man Wohlforth was den 0 u n c in g was a current and recent issues, but positions of years' does not proceed automatically from the collapse member of Wohlforth's own IC. On 4 October the duration-public positions of the competing wings of the ersatz, revisionist and centrist conglom­ Bulletin attempted to reply to the charges of un­ when bothSIdes claimed adherence to the same erations. The possibilities for revolutionary re­ prindpied combinationism and sectarianism, but IC as proof of their internationalism! The main groupment in authentic de m 0 c rat i c centralist did not deny the POR's affiliation although such a SLL-WL statement, dated 24 October, denounces international tendencies defined by programmatiC denial would have been the most effective answer the OCI for supporting a wing of the Algerian na­ cohesion are sharply enhanc ed in the present to the attack. But the 24 October SLL-WL state­ tionalist bourgeoisie, the MNA, in the 1950's; period of heightened class struggle and growing ment declares that the POR "is not a section of the 19 September OCI statement included a veiled instability in the imperialist world order; but the the International Committee." The OCI has con­ attack on the He a 1 y it e s ("those who attack the dangers of new unprincipled combinations built sistently claimed that it is. The treatment of this POR ... are the same people who ... ") for having upon congruent appetite rather than principle like­ question-at first b.)asting of the link with the in­ "characterized Ho Chi Minh as a revolutionary" wise increase; only a vigorous fight by the revolu­ fluential POR, then ignoring the connection, then and having "subordinated the Palestinian resist­ tionary Trotskyists can prevent the creation of not denying it when asserted by the United Secre­ ance to Nasser, then to the petty-bourgeois lead­ some new centrist swamp to trap and disillusion tariat, then denying it later when a Healyite "ma­ ers of the Palestine resistance." militants and breed revisionist confusion. jority" in the s p 1 i t is needed - not only casts We ask the OCI: If these things dis t u r b you doubt on the present SLL-WL claim but, much now, how is it that you remained in an interna­ • Healyite Provocation more importantly, illustrates the utter hollow­ tional bloc - which you foisted off on the world The IC split was preCipitated by the British ness of the IC pretense of Leni.nist internation­ movement as a political tendency-with Healy and and U. S. Healyites' public attack on the poliCies alism. A prerequisite for any genuine organiza­ W ohlforth who shouted from the housetops their pursued in Bolivia by the POR in the events which tion, obviously, is knowing who is in it! Nothing capitulation to Vietnamese Stalinism and Arab culminated in the August rightist military coup. illustrates more clearly the rottenness of the IC­ nationalism? The Bulletin's laudatory obituary for The denunCiation, appearing in the U. S. for the bordering on organizational non-existence, which Ho Chi Minh, which p a i n ted him as a sincere first time in the 30 August issue of the WL Bul­ cIa i m e d to be an international (and the Fourth revolutionary betrayed by Stalin, glossing over letin, was a device for accomplishing quicklythe International, at that)-than its inability to agree his own ro~e in the repeated Stalinist sellouts and deSIred break with the increasingly powerful OCI on its own membership. the murder of Trotskyists, was no more than a wing. By 8 November the Bull e tin was able to In fact, the IC never even managed to agree on vulgar hIt consistent extension of the SLL-WL's p r in t documents confirming the split, with the its own name. According to the SLL, it was "the years-long policy of critical (and sometimes not SLL-WL and smaller associates claiming to be IC of the Fourth International"; the OCI has al­ so critical) political support, rather than princi­ the majority. ways called it "the IC for the reconstruction of pled military-support against imperialism, to the A c cor din g to the Healyites, however, the the Fourth Internationa(''Two-fundimentallY--dif ~ NLF. This position was of a piece with the Hea­ "real" issue is not Bolivia. Bolivia is a "smoke­ ferent evaluations of the very nature of the IC lyites' s ham e 1 e s s enthusing over Mao' s "R ed screen"; the real issue is Essen, the youth con­ were expressed in the difference over nomen­ Guards" in the 1968 "Cultural Revolution" intra­ ference called by the OCI in July 1971, during clature: the British held the IC to be the simple, bureaucratic fight, treating Mao's mobilization -

DECEMBER 1971 5 f FOURTH INTERNATIONAL!

radical youth. The conference and the propaganda tion for the U. S. is no better. An internal WL surrounding it constituted an adaptation to .YQuth Political Committee d ire c t i v e dated 15 March vanguardism; the very concept of a "youth inter­ 1970 earnestly explained the need to tone down national," unless it is indissolubly linked with and criticisms of the SWP's Young Socialist Alliance politically subordinated to an international prole­ because: tarian party, can only be at best an illusion, and "The perspectives document agreed to in Eng­ at worSta capi~ulation to anti-Leninism. "The land proposed that the road to the American youth" are not a class: proletarian youth are gen­ working class is through the YSA--and it meant erally one of the most militant sectors of their lust that.-"------class; student youth are the most volatile sector One won d e r s what the SWP oppOSitionists, re­ of the petty-bourgeoisie, many of whom can be buffed in their campaign to make the SWP adopt won over to a proletarian revolutionary perspec­ even the most rudimentary working-class orien­ tive but only by be com i n g in effect traitors to tation, would think of this apparent affirmation of their own future class interests. Thus the youth the YSA's proletarian credentials! movement must be linked - in conception, pro­ The H e a 1 y it e s' chase after the Pabloists­ gram and organization-to the revolutionary par­ perhaps motivated by the awareness that their ty, which is firmly rooted in the working class own international rotten bloc was coming unstuck and encompl.sses the historical and living experi­ -reached its high point in the summer of 1970 ence of previous generations of proletarian mili­ when, on Healy's initiative, they approached the tants. In short, a "revolutionary youth interna­ United Secretariat leadership with a proposal for tional" cannot be in d e pen den t of the vanguard private discussions toward the aim of joint work party and it cannot be anything less than Trotsky­ and the holding of a joint international conference. ist. The OCI line over the Essen conference is an The overture, which hadfhe effect of shoring up accommodation to youth vanguardist and spon­ the Pabloists' Trotskyist pretensions at precise­ taneist moods in the petty - b 0 u r g e 0 i s student ly the time when they were experiencing signifi­ milieu. cant left splits in several countries, was spurned by the United Secretariat as Joe Hansen, lavishly Moreover, at E sse n the Lambertistes were covering himself in orthodoxy, explained that such openly courting the Spanish POUM and even the discussions without a firm basis in a deepening U.S. NSA. (The NSA was in the past disgraced by programmatic agreement would not be princi­ the receipt of CIA funds. In projecting the NSA pled. The incident illustrated the symbiotic rela­ as a likely seedbed for the U. S. revolution, the tionship between the IC and the Pabloists, each OCI has compounded its opportunist appetites by episodically making the other look good by com­ gross ignorance.) While chasing after rightist parison. elements, the OCI committed a gross violation of workers' democracy by forcibly preventing an From Red Guards to Stalinophobia Tim Wohlforth oppositional Trotskyist tendency, the Internation­ At the national convention of the SWP's anti­ al Communists of Germany (IKD), from distrib­ war front group last July the Wohlforthites pledged of the student youth (and the army) as a surrogate uting outside the hall a leaflet c r it i c i z in g the their physical support to the group's sponsorship OCI's r e fu sal to base the "revolutionary youth for political revolution in Chinao The SLL-WL's of bourgeois speakers in the anti-war movement cam p a i gn of political support to the so-called international" on an explicitly Trotskyist program. and joined the SWP goon squad in be at in g and "Arab Revolution"-i. e. the Arab government's Although it lacks the Healyites' world-wide rep­ evicting the militants, including supporters of the at tern p t to deflect the aspirations of the Arab utation for t hug g e r y, the OCI shares with the Spartacist League, who were vociferously pro­ working masses for social revolution into wars SLL-WL the reprehensible position that the use testing the presence of a U. S. senator. The slo­ against Zionist Israel-was in flat contradiction of force and recourse to the capitalist state are gan under which they justified this capitulation to to the OCI line of revolutionary defeatism for both legitimate means for settling disputes within the popular frontism to their membership was "Stal­ sides; where was the OCI outcry then? It is not workers' movement. inism vs. Trotskyism"-which in this case meant enough to have published your own positions while The Healyites in effect boycotted the Essen excluding the (ex-Maoist, now theoretically state for years lending your weight to the cynical fic­ capitalist) Progressive Labor and the (Trotskyist) conference-they sent a delegation of perhaps two tion t hat the IC was a disciplined international Spa r t a cis t League, in the service of the (ex­ dozen headed by Cliff Slaughter (by way of con­ body. Such unprincipled combinationism contra­ Trotskyist) SWP and the (prO-MOSCOW) Commu­ dicts the OCI's pious assertions of its commit­ trast, the SLL-WL demands that virtually the en­ nist Party. (This convenient Stalinophobic pose ment to struggle "for the reconstruction of the tire WL membership turn out for yearly rallies rests very uneasily on the WL, which enthused Fourth International." in England)-while bringing in an "orthodox" mo­ over the "Red Guards" maneuver and the Stalinist tion that the youth international must base itself OCI and NSA NLF and in its frenzy of appetite toward PL once on revolutionary theory, the Fourth International went so far as to justify an incident of gross PL The conduct of the OCI at their Essen youth and the IC, which the Lambertistes voted down. vi ole n c e against SWPers.) Now Wohlforth­ conference on 3-4 July demonstrates that on the Healy and YSA who at the time of the 24 April anti-war demon­ question of the relationship between the youth and stration categorically ruled out seeking a united the working class the Lam b e r tis t e s' rightist That the Healyite opposition to the OCI's poli­ cies at Essen was a provocation empty of prin­ front, based on a class line against the war, with course places them on common ground with the left-wing Stalinists ("In any event we will not have past and present practice of the Healyites. Under ciple is shown by the SLL-WL conduct of many years' standing. The abysmal political level of joint actions with MaOists") - is castigating the the guidance ::>f the OCI and its youth affiliate, the OCI for •.. Stalinophobia! Alliance des J eunes pour Ie Socialisme, the call Healy's own mod e 1 youth operation, the Young SOCialists, is well known and exposes his new­ Where will the components of the former IC was P'lt forward for "the Revolutionary Youth In­ go from here? The Healyites, endlessly veering ternational": found c()ncern for the importance of Marxist theory among the youth as a fraud from start to finish. from egregious sectarianism to blatant oppor­ ''Yo'J.th wants to live, in hope and freed)m, and The WL's s eve r a 1 ill-fated attempts to build a tunism, have never s how n themselves loath to in order to live it must struggle. youth as­ youth group in the U.S. have been notable for abandon any and everyone of the ostensible prin­ ciples in pursuit of new allies, dupes or masters. pires to life, youth nee d s exhilarating per­ their sin gu 1 a r absence of anything resembling The OCI, in the past more stable in maintaining spectives. Bureaucrats and bourgeois offer Trotskyist politics; having once launched a short­ only a sordid life, unemployment, misery, fail­ lived youth group called "Revolt" whose program connection with a fundamental class line, but now ure, war and suffering." was determined by what the WL thought would be loosed from its IC moorings by a rotten split-in most attractive to Maoist street confrontation­ which it cast itself as a left cover for the POR A main slogan of the conference was "Lons live ists, the Wohlforthites' most recent exploit is a debacle-and launched on a youth vanguardist ca­ the struggle of the youth against the Stalinist bur­ call for "a Conference of Revolutionary youth" pitulation, may find itself moving further to the eaucracy and imperialism! ,. The posing; of the right than most of its cadres ever dreamed. The based on an e con 0 m i s t "Program for youth to struggle against Stalinism and cap ita 1 ism as Fight Back" whose section on the Vietnam war ::>nly perspective which can open the road to au­ equivalent reflects not only a persistent tendency does not even mention military support to the NLF thentic Trotskyism for these militants is intran­ on the OCl's part to fail to distinguish political against U. S. imperialism. sigent internal struggle. Only by a ruthless ex­ revolution in the Sino-Soviet states froin~s~ocial amination 6T1heIC-split and its roots in unprin­ revolution in the capitalist states, but also a ca­ The Healyites now denounce the OCI for its cipled combinationism can the struggle for the pitulation to carrent moods among petty-bourgeois appetites toward the NSA, but their own orienta- rebirth of the Fourth International go forward!. 6 WORKERS VANGUARD Continued/rom Poge 3 Centrist Debacle in Bolivia " ••• the setting up of the People's Assembly What this paragraph sets forward is the Menshe­ ing a dominant role in the IC-and that's all. For expresses the fundamental trend of the period, vik theory of stages, pure and simple-first na­ although they would now prefer to bury it1 the the will of the proletarian and peasant masses tional liberation, then socialist revolution. It is Healyites have a shining example of how they to enter into the struggle for power." the classic reformist rationale for class collabo­ would deal with a Popular Front bourgeois gov­ ration, which has led to the most bitter and bloody ernment: Chile. But Allende's Popular Front government in Chile, defeats for the working class. And yet the POR for example, also without doubt represents "the supported this resolution and continued to acclaim will of the proletarian and peasant masses to en­ The 21 September 1970 Bulletin advised the it in Masas. Instead of struggling around this workers of Chile: ter into the struggle for power"-yet we know that question, the POR compromised around a contra­ the Chilean masses have been terribly deceived dictory hodge-podge document w h i c h contained "There is only one road and that is the revo­ and they are likely to pay for their misleaders' affirmations of internationalism, condemnations lutionary road of the October Revolution•••• promises in blood. The willingness of the work­ of class collaboration alongside praise of the so­ as a step in this understanding the workers ing masses to struggle is not in dispute. In Boliv­ c all e d "socialist" nations and c 1 ear popular must hold Allende to his promises...• " ia, as in Chile, Spain, Vietnam and doz ens of frontism. other ins tan c e s, the question is whether their It speaks well of the Lambertistes that they Wohlforth's road is not that of the October Revo­ combative heroism has been betrayed. were willing to raise to the POR and subsequently lution, but of those Bolsheviks, Stalin prominent The OCI declares: make public their criticisms of the POR's depar­ among them, who very nearly ruined the chances "It is the unity in and around the People's As­ ture from principle. Now, however,. the OCI's for October by their policy-denounced by Lenin sembly, organ of dual power, which under the opportunism has gained the upper hand, and 80 and Trotsky-of support for the bourgeois Pro­ leadership of the Trotskyist party, the POR, all critics of the POR become "agents of counter­ visional Go v ern men t "insofar as it struggles dominated the whole revolutionary process be­ revolution" 1 against rea c t ion or counterrevolution." Wohl­ fore and after the confrontations of August 20- And what of the POR's conduct since the coup? forth's statement parallels the notorious Pravda 23. " The 6' December issue of the SWP's Interconti­ articles capitulating to Menshevism in February nental Press reprints a declaration signed by the What does it mean to acclaim the "unity in and and March of 1917, filled with statements like the POR-along with the Communist Party, the "POR" around the People's Assembly"? If the People's following: of the Moscoso Pabloists, left nationalist groups Assembly was indeed an embryonic soviet form, and General Torres himself 1 The document again "The way out is bringing pressure to bear on how was the struggle for its leadership carried pays lip service to "the leadership of the prole­ the Provisional Government with the demand out? A soviet is a unit e d front of the working tariat, the ruling class of the revolutionary pro­ that the government proclaim its readiness to class raised to the level of struggling for power. cess" but the tone of the document is nationalist­ begin immediate negotiations for peace." There is nothing sacred about the soviet or any populist ("revolutionary priests," "revolutionary other un i ted front form. Soviets arise, even Against this policy Lenin declared: "To turn to officers," "patriots," "the power is now in the spontaneously, in revolutionary c r is e s as the this governm ent wit h a proposal of concluding han d s of foreigners," etc. ) and its core is the proletarian axis in the dual power situation, with peace is equivalent to preaching morality to the following: th e potential under revolutionary leadership to keeper of a brothel." And Trotsky, in Lessons of oust the bourgeois state power and become the " ••• Therefore, the need is undeniable to build October, said: agency of working-class rule-i.e. to consummate ~ fighting unity of all the revolutionary, demo­ "The programme of exerting pressure on an the revolution on the national plane. They are the cratic and progressive forces so that the great imperialist government so as to 'induce' it to best arena in which the Bolsheviks can demon­ battle can be begun in conditions offering a pursue a pious course was the programme of strate their superiority in carrying forward the real perspective for a popular and national Kautsky and Ledebour in Germany, Jean Lon­ tasks implicit in the soviet as an embryonic form government. • . • - guet in F ran c e, MacDonald in England, but of the state of a different class: the seizure of "This is not a battle that concerns only one never the programme of Bolshevism." power and the dictatorship of the proletariat A sector of the exploited people, or one class, Menshevik-led soviet, for example, may indeed institution or party•..• Any form of sectarian­ One must be sharply critical, as was Trotsky, of be an authentic soviet-but it will inevitably be­ ism is counterrevolutionary. Let us be worthy those Bolsheviks who would have let slip a revo­ tray. Thus a Leninist call for the formation of of the sacrifice of those who fell August 21 lutionary opportunity if it had not been for the soviets, for power to the soviets, must contain defending Bolivia. " (our emphasis) sharp correction of Lenin. But more than criti­ within it the perspective of struggle within the In fact, the declaration is a classic popular front cism is merited by the Healyites, who claim to soviet: in order to demonstrate to the workers which subordinates the working class to alien stand on the shoulders of the Bolsheviks, to have that it is they, unlike the revisionists and reform­ class forces and ideologies to which it is in fun­ assimilated the "lessons of October. " ists, who have nothing to fear from soviet power damental and irreconcilable opposition. Lenin expressed his pol icy in an uncompro- and that only their policy can achieve and defend mising for mula: it. The existence of a soviet is in itself no guar­ Nea/yite POp Frontism "Our tactic: absolute 1 a c k of confidence; no antee of revolutionary principle. (Even the Sta­ For the political bandits of the Healyite SLL­ support to the new government; suspect Keren­ linists have called-bureaucratically, to be sure­ WL, the OCI's decision to march in lockstep be­ sky especially; arming of the proletariat the for the formation of soviets in their "left" zig­ hind the POR is a godsend, a cheap way to assert sole guarantee; ••• no rapprochement with other zags, after having doomed the workers in advance their Leninist orthodoxy and cast themselves as parties. " by their policies-policies which guaranteed the the principled left wing in the IC split. But the ruin of the soviet.) Without the presence of rev­ real difference between the Healyites and the POR Against Lenin's policy stand both the centrism of olutionaries intransigently struggling at every the POR-OCI and the Healyite pseudo-Leninist on proletarian policy toward a "leftist" bourgeois posturing. point to expose before the working class the trai­ government is that the POR has had the oppor­ torous misleaders within its ranks, the People's And now the Healyites sanctimoniously de­ tunity to wreck a pre-revolutionary situation and nounce the POR -OCI for the same kind of Pop Assembly offered no more promise for the Boliv­ the Healyites have not. Healy-Wohlforth have ian proletarian revolution than George Meany's seized on Bolivia as a pretext for ridding them­ continued on next page AFL-CIO raised to the political level. Does the selves of the OCI, which was increasingly play- OCI really want to boast that the POR expounded "unity in and around the People's Assembly"? When questions of power politics between the SUBSCRIBE wings of the IC were not so clearly and ultima­ WfJRNERS VIINfiIJIIRD tistically posed, the OCI was will i n g to take a more critical attitude toward the POR on pre­ Marxist Working-Class Monthly NOW! cisely this question. A letter to the POR leader­ ship dated 30 July 1970 and later published in the Published by the Spartacist League Lambertistes' public theoretical magazine dis­ $1.00 yearly cussed the COB Theses which the POR had helped Editorial Board: Liz Gordon, Marv Treiger, prepare and voted for. The sections of the COB Nick Benjamin (managing editor). document singled out for sharp criticism by the Production manager: Karen Allen. I INC LUDESsPARTACIST I OCI include the following: Circulation manager: Janet Rogers. "In order to attain SOCialism, it seems neces­ Name' ______sary first of all to make a unity of all the rev­ West Coast editor: Mark Small. Address ______olutionary and anti-imperialist forces. The New England editor: George Foster. people's anti-imperialist revolution is linked City ______to the struggle for socialism. The people's Subscription: $1 yearly (11 issues). Bundle State_.______Zip front is an alliance of related classes, and the rates for 10 or more copies. Address: Box unitary instrument for making the revolution. 1377, G.P.O., New York, N.Y. 10001. Tele­ •.. The expUlsion of imperialism and the real­ phone: WA 5-8234. Opinions expressed in ization of national and democratic tasks will signed articles or letters du not necessarily WfJRNERS VIINfiIJIIRD render possible the socialist revolution. " express the editorial viewpoint. BOX 1377 / G.p.O. / NEW YORK / N.Y. 10001 (La Verite, October 1970) r ~-

DECEMBER 1971 7

"It is precisely this 'petty-bourgeois moraliz­ Third Period Ilealyism- ing' which Thaelmann & Co. engage in When, in justification of their own turn, they begin to enumerate the countless infamies committed by the 1 e a d e r s of the Social Democracy." ["Against National Communism," reprinted in The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany] LEARN TO READ­ Wohlforth is counting-not for the first time- on the ignorance of his supporters. He hopes that his own "petty-bourgeois moralizing," cataloguing the horrors of bourgeois regimes and the crimes LEARN TO THINI( of the reformists who participate in them, will co v e r his inability to handle them. Trotsky's The SLL-WL, seeking to make factional capital Thousands of Bolsheviks were in the jails. The devastating critique of the policies of the Stalin­ out of the disastrous policy of the Bolivian POR, workers, soldiers, and sailors demanded the ists and ultra-lefts in pre-Hitler Germany, "con­ have adopted a sectarian posture which only mud­ liberation of their leaders and of the Bolshe­ ducting politics with blown-out lanterns," applies dies the waters and sows confusion before serious viks in general. The provisional government with equal precision to the "Trotskyist" Wohlforth. militants seeking to understand the crucial les­ refused. Should not the Central Committee of More from The Struggle Against Fascism ~ Ger­ sons of the Bolivian defeat. Prominent among the the Bolsheviks have addressed an ultimatum many: Healyite charges of class treason heaped upon to the government ofKerensky?-free the Bol­ ~ne might have said, 'For Bolsheviks, Kor­ Guillermo Lora of the Bolivian POR was this from sheviks immediately and wit h d raw the dis­ nilovism begins only with Kornilov. But isn't Wohlforth in his 30 August Bulletin: graceful accusation of service to the Hohen­ Kerensky a Kornilovite? Isn't he crushing the "Together with the Stalinists the POR support­ zollerns-and, in the eve n t 0 f Kerensky's pea san t s by means of punitive expeditions? ed the position of threatening a general strike refusal, have refused to fight against Kornilov? Dvesn't he organize lockouts? Doesn't Lenin and military action in defense of Torres!" This is probably how the Central Committee of have to hide underground? And all this we must [emphasis in original] Thaelmann-Remmele-Neumann w ou ld ha v e put up with?' Such is Wohlforth's conception of treachery acted. But this is not how the Central Com­ If••• I can't think of a single Bolshevik rash against the working class. The most charitable mittee of the Bolsheviks acted. Lenin wrote at enough to have advanced such arguments. But interpretation is that Cde. W ohlforth was sorely the time: 'It would have been the most profound were he to be found, he would have been an­ pressed for time in grinding out turgid copy for error to think that the revolutionary proletar­ swered something after this fashion. 'We ac­ his weekly Bulletin. More likely, Wohlforth didn't iat is capable, so to speak, out of "revenge" cuse Kerensky of preparing for and facilitating know that he had scrapped a basic Leninist tactic upon the SRs and Mensheviks for their support the coming of Kornilov to power. But does this for defeating counterrevolution and making prole­ of the crushing of the Bolsheviks, the assas­ relieve us of the duty of rushing to repeal Kor­ tarian revolution. In his self-proclaimed fight sinations on the front, and the disarming of the nilov's attack? We accuse the gatekeeper of for the con tin u it Y of the Fourth International, workers, of "refusing" to support them against leaving the gates ajar for the bandit. But must Wohlforth would do well to re-establish continuity the counterrevolution. Such a way of putting we therefore shrug our shoulders and let the with the views of Trotsky: the question would have meant, first of all, the gates go hang?' Since, thanks to the toleration ''The party came to the October uprising ••• carrying over of petty-bourgeois conceptions of the Social Democracy, Bruening's govern­ through a series of stages. At the time of the of morality into the proletariat (because for ment has been able to push the proletariat up April 1917 demonstration, a section of the the good of the cause the prole tar i a t will to its knees in capitulation to faSCism, you ar­ Bolsheviks brought out the slogan: 'Down with always support not only the vacillating petty rive at the conclusion that up to the knees, up the provisional government!' The C en t r a 1 bourgeoisie but also the big bourgeoisie); in to the waist, or over the head-isn't it all one Committee immediately straightened out the the second place, it would have been-and this thing? No, there is some difference. Who­ ultraleftists. Of course, we should popularize is most important-a petty-bourgeois attempt ever is up to his knees in a quagmire can still the necessity of overthrowing the provisional to cast a shadow, by "moralizing," over the drag himself out. Whoever is in over his head, government; but to call the workers into the political essence of the matter •.•• for him there is no returning," streets under that slogan-this we cannot do, continued on page 8 for we ourselves are a minority in the working class. If we overthrow the provisional govern­ Revolutionary Communist Youth, Spartacist League ment under these conditions, we will not be youth section, sponsors a class-study series in NYC able to take its place, and consequently we will TOPICS: NEW YORK on Leninism and revolutionary strategy. help the counterrevolution. We must patiently • The Role of the Working Class • The Socialist Revolution and Non­ explain to the masses the antipopular character and the Permanent Revolution Class Forms of Oppression EVERY TUESDAY of this government, before the hour for its • • The Nature of the Russian • The National Question 7:30PM. overthrow has struck. Such was the position Revolution • Proletarian Internationalism and CALL: of the party •••• • Imperialism, War and the Col­ Revolutionary Defeatism ''Two months later, K 0 r n il 0 v rose against lapse of the 2nd International • State and Revolution (212)831 ~3004 the provisional government. In the struggle • The Bolsheviks in Power • RevolutionaryStrategy in the West against Kornilov, the Bolsheviks occupied the Building the Vanguard Party (212)925- 2426 frontline positions. Lenin was then in hiding.

Frontist capitulation which they themselves es­ dent working-class political action which you tent anti-Pabloist? Aft e r having written to the poused for Chile! have always promoted in the past as a matter SWP that delicate maneuvers among the Pabloists

of prinCiple, ••• were r eq u ire d in Ceylon9 Healy on 14 August Neilly Corers lor the LSSP "Your new political course also appears to us wrote to the SWP's Joe Hansen: to be a form of 'popular frontism' of the kind 'We discussed at some length•• , the proposi­ But perhaps an even purer example of Healyite promoted in many countries by the Stalinists tion concerning the situation in Ceylon... , hypocrisy is the question of Ceylon. The 30 Au­ since 1935-that is, class collaboration between 'We think that it is necessary to write again gust Bulletin declares: the working-class parties and a section of the asking for the fullest possible information con­

p. , • Though less known than the evolution of bourgeoisie.... " cerning the present situation in the party in the LSSP in Ceylon, the role 01 Lora and the Despite their concern the SWP leadership hesi­ Ceylon. POR has been no less treacherous and impor­ tated to raise this betrayal in the public press, "There is no doubt that they are in a severe tant. " On 8 August James Robertson, then a member crisis but if we take their situation and recent For years, in endless articles, the Healyites have of the SWP, wrote to the Political Committee: events in Europe it is not improbable that there used the betrayal of the Ceylonese masses by the "I am addressing you on the mat t e r of our will now be important developments inside the LSSP-which tail-ended the bourgeois nationalist party's public silence concerning the recent Pablo camp, This is all the more reason for party of Mrs. Bandaranaike and when it came to and continuing betrayal of the Ceylonese work­ us to proceed with caution-as you have in the power in 1964 entered the government-as an ex­ ing class and of the world Trotskyist movement past so rightly insisted. pose of the Un it e d Secretariat Pabloists, who by the Lanka Sarna Samaja Party. I refer, of 'We are going to cable them tomorrow for in­ covered for the LSSP until the last moment: (The course, to that party's entry into a 'Popular formation and we suggest you do likewise and Bulletin has just con c 1 u d e d yet another four­ Front' electoral pact with the Stalinist party hold up for the time being publication of any­ part series on the subject.) And rightly so, for and with the left bourgeois nationalist party thL:g in the --,-Militant." their role over Ceylon was an important verifi­ represented by the widow Bandaranaike. cation of the SWP-United Secretariat's departure "In raising this matter privately with several Rebuild the Fourth International! from Trotskyism. But what the Healyites are un­ members of your body I was told that letters likely to men t ion is that they themselves are have been sent the Ceylonese and that your It is their own sordid history which gives the tarred with the same brush! view is that for the present a greater advan­ lie to the Healyites' claims of internationalism In May 1960 the SWP, then affiliated with the tage is to be gained by revolutionary Marxists and anti-revisionism. If the Lambertistes-who IC as was Healy's SLL, began to get increasing­ in the LSSP through our remaining publicly si­ in 1952 launched the struggle against Pabloism­ ly nervous about the line and conduct of the LSSP. lent. I must disagree and urge you to recon­ never transcended centrism and have now hard­ On 17 May Tom Kerry addressed a letter on be­ sider ..... ened themselves in opportunism by their line on half of the SWP's Political Committee to the The letter concludes: Bolivia and their conduct at Essen, the Healyites' LSSP. It states: "Comrades, that you condemn the Ceylonese pretensions of principle have always rested on 'We are greatly disturbed by the parliamen­ eX-Trotskyists I have no doubt, but your fail­ sand. tary and electoral course now pursued by the ure to raise this publicly and with great ser­ Only the Fourth International-rebuilt in the leadership of the LSSP•••• iousness does the movement internationally a process of struggle against all varieties of Pablo­ "Your policy of working for the creation of an disservice ... ist revisionism, including the inverted Pabloism SLFP government appears to us to be com­ And what was the position of Gerry Healy, who of the IC - can provide the way forward toward the pletely at variance with the course ofindepen- now proclaims himself the world's only consis- decisive victory of the international working class. 8 WORKERS VANGUARD PL BOGGED IN "CENTER" SWAMP In keeping with their new "anti-sectarian" line, the Progressive Lab o:r Party called a "united ~i front" demonstration in Boston on October 30. ''fi.: The demonstration a r 0 un d "30 for 40," "Fight ~'l': Welfare Cutbacks," and "Support the Attica Pris­ oners' Demands," was one of several organized a by PL around the country. For PL, which by "united front" understands "left-center coalition," October 30 was an exercise in trying to ally with any "center" organization it could dredge up from the swamps of reformism. At the same time, it assiduously avoided a p pro a chi n g competing working-class tendencies, thus abdicating in the struggle to unite the class and expose the revi­ sionist and reformist betrayers. This concept of a "left-center coalition"put forward by PL stands in sharp contrast to the Len i n i s t tactic of the united front. It is nothing more than the old "anti­ SL-RCY-Organized Contingent Marches in Boston "United Front" Demonstration. monopoly coalition" of the CPUSA barely refur­ of Labor Committees, the Socialist Labor Com­ Against the Freeze!" drove many of the petty­ bished, and leads to the same policies of revi­ mittee, The Cambridge Tenants Organizing Com- bourgeois pacifists to h y s t e ric a 1 red-baiting. sionist betrayal. ~tee, and the Allston-Brighton Com m un it Y In sharp contrast to the left-wing thrust of their Tenants Union. MarchIng with the pitifully small protests against Senator Hartke and Victor Trotskyist Intervention labor contingent organized as part of the SWP's Reuther at the July 4 NPAC Convention, PL-SDS The Spartacist League and Revolutionary Com­ recent "proletarian orientation" for the anti-war this time stood by in silence, apparently fearful munist Youth intervened in Boston on October movement, over 100 people marched in opposi­ of alienating "center" forces. 30 in order to counterpose a sharp Marxist line, tion to the pre sen c e of the class enemy in the Only through the res 0 1 ute fight against the and to establish that Trotskyists will not be cowed anti-war movement, and for the defeatofU.S.im­ class enemy and its collaborators in the anti-war by the goon squad attacks and threats we have ex­ per i ali s m in Vietnam. At the rally the SL and movement can the struggle against imperialist perienced at the hands of PL (see Workers Van­ RCY chanted their opposition to the speech of the war go forward. Progressive Labor must repudi­ guard, #1 and #2). We will not stand idly by, liberal imp e ria 1 i stErnest Gruening, ex-U. S. ate the Stalinist methodology which led it to rej ect tolerating assaults on democratic rights within Sen at 0 r and ex-High Commissioner to Puerto its flawed revolutionary proletarian line as sec­ the workers' movement. Rico. Chants like "U.S. Out of Vietnam! U.S. tarian, and now leads it to chart a course away Drawing upon its growing membership in the Out of Puerto Rico" and "No Liberal Speakers! from "sectarianism" to mass influence through Boston area, and aided by comrades from New Labor Strikes Against the War! Labor Strikes the revisionist-liberal swamp•• York City, the SL organized a strong contingent, tightly disciplined and ready to defend itself if attacked. In addition, comrades of the Socialist Third Period Healyism- Labor Committee and the Communist Tendency blocked with us militarily to defend the principle of proletarian democracy. Facing a determined con tin g e n t of eighty people, and eager not to LEARN TO READ - LEARN alienate their "honest center" friends, PL care­ fully avoided provocations throughout the march and rally. The SL and RCY marched under slo­ TO THINI( Continued/rom Poge 7 gans such as "For Labor Political Strikes Against mon action with the Social Democrats, who were the War and Freeze," "Break With the Capitalist For the :imarter Ones held to be as bad as the Nazis, When will the Parties, For a Workers' Party," and "Support to On "critical support" advocated by Lenin "as Healyites openly label their current position the Attica Prisoners, Smash the Capitalist Prisons," a rope supports a hanged man," Wohlforth says: "Theory of Social Stalinism" or "Third Period drawing the class line sharply and boldly. "Is it necessary to point out that Lenin was re­ Healyism"? PL Flirts With NPAC ferring to support to social democratic parties The POR must, through unsparing criticism and not to bourgeois governments and certain­ of their own history and scrapping the centrist More confirmation of PL's flip to the right ly not to military dictators?" program and leadership which led tofue de~feats came the next day at regional meetings of SDS Correct. But Lenin was referring to political in 1953 and 1971, discover the Leninist road to and the University Action Group (UAG). Within support, not military defense against counter­ power (see article on page 3, "Centrist Debacle these self-styled "c en t e r" organizations, PL rev 0 1 uti 0 n-which is at issue in the "military in Bolivia"). They can expect no help from the members argued for co-sponsoring the popular action in defense of Torres" for which Wohlforth Healyites shouting their Leninist orthodoxy and front ant i - war demonstration on November 6, condemns Lora. Leninists defend the policy of "continuity" to cover their limitless opportunism, provided they were given a speaker! They strong­ fig h tin g militarily alongside Stalinist, social­ blind sectarianism and ignorance•• ly 0 P po sed the SL-R CY call for a united front , _~_< ___ «~~ ___