Kennedy, Carter: 01 a I 01 Ui Ereneel
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WORKERS 'ANGUARD 25¢ ~- .............. " II No. 240 !l:23 28 September 1979 Kennedy, Carter: 01 a I 01 ui ereneel From about the time of Robert Kennedy's death in 1961'\. it has been widely assumed that the presidency of the United States would pass to the next and last in line of the Kennedy brothers. "Teddy." It was only a matter of time and political timing. ;\low is the time. with the polls counting Carter's popu larity even below ;\lixon's when he was forced to resign. So after a prolonged period of teasing. hinting. primping and pusing. Kennedy has at last satisfied his admirers. coyly letting it be know that he had finally secured hlS mother's permission to go all the way. Among those admirers who make up the "draft Kennedy" committees across 1 the nation are many of the labor bureaucrats and black misleaders who sold Carter as a "friend of labor" and "man of the people" in the last election. (hese Democratic loyalists and class betrayers will do it again for their party. but they would rather have a fresh face. UPI Wymao/Sygma particularly the face ofa Kennedy to sell for the capitalists. Revolutionists warn as we did with Carter: the Democrats and Republicans are the parties of capital. Kennedy is not fundamentally different from Carter. Before Jimmy Carter became the pollsters' most unpopular president in "U.S. history. Teddy and the Camelot colossal unpopularity is due not merely for "a loss of faith." war which divides the capitalist politi gang seemed to be looking to the to his political stupidities. sermonette The problems of American capitalism cians; they have an amazing amount of presidential campaign of 191'\4. After all. solutions and general ineffectiveness. are real. serious. and in the long run agreement even on small issues and why should they want to challenge a Carter is also a self-made symbol of a terminal. But the bourgeoisie portrays particularly on the economy. Not only sitting president. causing a nasty split in punishing economy with its uncontrol the problem as a crisis of confidence. does Teddy have the same economic their party and making a Republican lable inflation. mass layoffs. shortages School child ren are taught that the programs as Carter. he also has the same victory all the more likely? But with amid plenty-grinding a new generation "Great Depression" was caused by such program of moral uplift, although the Carter totalled. Kennedy can ride in like of blacks and Hispanics into desperate a crisis of confidence. that money has style is more secular. slicker. efficient. the Ajax cleanser white knight to save poverty: driving workers onto gas lines "value" because people believe in it. and The only question is who will deliver the the Democrats from nearly certain and unemployment lines. and panicking more such wisdom suited to the realm of sermons and in what regional accents. defeat. sections of the middle class. Much of the 01. The elaborate theatricality of U.S. Kennedy has come not only to bury It is not only the Democratic Party dismay and anger is focused on Jimmy bourgeois electoral politics is staged to Carter, and to save the Democratic presidency at stake. however. Carter's Carter who blames the American people obscure the fact that the real issues in party. but to do a job for the entire America are class issues. But Carter's· capitalist class. The ruling class needs a sermons have backfired. The American man for one economic season: austerity. public has no confidence in Jimmy. And they want a president who can They do not believe in his baloney that "inspire." that is. enforce. austerity Americans have no confidence in upon the working people. Another themselves. Carter's religious act has Kennedy will tell Americans "what they' not worked and he has been given the can do for their country": eat less. take hook as a more seasoned performer horne less wages. pay more, drive less, heads for the oval stage. sacrifice more-not in the name of god The style of modern American perhaps. but in the name ofcountry and bourgeois politics is conditioned by the some hyped-up Madison Avenue absence of an organized mass political "frontier." expression of the working class. If. as the saying goes. "the business of Kennedy as Carter America is business." the style of Running for president in 1960 during American politics is style. That is what a period of economic stagnation. John Teddy has to offer capitalism in its time F. Kennedy promised to "get this of need. Matters of style are even more country moving again." But today his accentuated because there has rarely younger brother is promising nothing. been such consensus within bourgeois absolutely nothing. Here in a nutshell is politics. There is no great issue of Ted Kennedy's current economic wis- imperialist strategy like the Vietnam continued on page 9 'Bows to Khol11eini, fr(),mSparta~lstLeague f~:::: '~~ RU'ns ~- ~/;, ;.·SWf». ::<:,:, >,,' -, _ . c , ' , ' - ':: '-,'- :. _ .-': ", :"_":.',:; ~l Area: Daniel Ellsberg,~1 BOlle Honor SL Picket Mullah Lovers' Exclusion Backfires SAN FRANCISCO-The Socialist exclusion were summoned and a picket Militant whined about how the SL called around the slogans "Free the Workers Party is in political hot water. line was established, protest ~II but ruined the SWP's imprisoned HKS and Fedayeen Sup It is unable to answer the Spartacist Among the placards carried by the meeting-and then the Spartacists had porters!" and "Stop Khomeini's Gov League's exposure of its criminal tailing spirited marchers were: "USec/SWP the nerve to applaud Boyle and ElIsberg ernment's Attacks on the National of Islamic reaction in Iran. Instead, it Line Kills Arabs, Kurds, Leftists!" for refusing to cross a picket line to Minorities and Women of Iran!" To has opted for the cowardly, reformist "SWP Criminal Tailism in Iran: History address a politically exclusionist "public date the Bay Area SWP has yet to hold a expedients of slander and exclusion. Takes its Vengeance", and "USec meeting." single demonstration in solidarity with Thus all around the country the SWP is Revisionists Have Blood of Iranian any of Khomeini's victims, including the desperately trying to keep the SL from Workers on their Hands!" The Militant Lies (Again) HKS, attending demonstrations and rallies The chants included: "SWP: You -Caught out, the SWP is squealing like SWPjHKS/USec: You flinch in the called to defend the lives of 14 impris Cheered for Khomeini, But You're Not a stuck pig (but rather more slanderous face of the Spartacist League's accusa oned members of the Iranian HKS Cheering Now!" "Not USec Tailism, ly). The Militant article by one Bob tions and charge us with blind "factional (Socialist Workers Party of Iran). But an Iranian Trotskyist Party," "Last Capistrano claims that "more than 30 hatred." In fact. all militant workers The only justification the SWP has Autumn You Said Khomeini's Fine, It's mem bers of the Spartacist League ... should feel revolutionary hatred for ever given for this policy is that the SL Kind of Late to Change Your Line!" tried to march into the rally." Indeed we your policies in Iran! You told the demand, "Down with Khomeini-For "Not Cultural Autonomy but Kurdish did not-though this would have been a workers of Iran that Khomeini was a Workers Revolution in Iran!" is "pro Self-Determination," and "SWP: If the perfectly principled response to political "progressive," that he was "anti vocative" and a "disruption." This is Boot Fits, Lick It!" exclusion from a publicly advertised imperialist." Now the HKS pays the getting to be a hard proposition to forum! It would serve the SWP right for price. defend now that Khomeini's execution Kay Boyle, Ellsberg Refuse to Cross Picket Line a large group of working-class militants Today Khomeini guns down Arabs. ers prepare to butcher the jailed to thus enforce workers democracy. Kurds, and other national minorities, HKSers. And the SWP's criminal policy So far, this anti-communist exclusion The Militant article's main theme is Yet you still refuse to take a forthright of excluding the SL, the one tendency was just business as usual for the SWP that "The Spartacists placed their stand for the right of these national that refused to swear fealty to the social democrats. So the SWP was stung factional hatred for the SWP above the minorities to self-determination, To reactionary "Islamic Revolution," is when two of its featured speakers from lives of the imprisoned socialists." This day Khomeini orchestrates a campaign backfiring. Even the SWP's liberal Amnesty International, Kay Boyle and is the height o{hypocrisy comingfrom of white terror: unions are attacked; friends and favorite trade-union bu Daniel Ellsberg, refused to cross the SL the people who have usedphysicalforce workers parties are outlawed, their reaucrats are beginning to object to its picket line, Kay Boyle discussed the to keep the SL out of meetings and members jailed, beaten and executed, blatantly anti-democratic exclusions. exclusion at length with both the SWP demonstrations to defend the HKS! In Women, especially. and the populace as On September 14 the SWP barred and excluded ILWU executive board fact, the SL was demanding a vigorous a whole suffer under the hideous code of nine trade-union militants and SL members Stan Gow and Bob Mandel. defense.of the HKS and other victims of feudal morality of the mullahs, Yet you supporters from attending a rally here to She ended up shaking Mandel's hand in Khomeini's white terror while the SWP still refuse to call for the overthrow of free the imprisoned HKSers.