DOCSLIB.ORG

BLF ••• Rests with the Qantas Job's·Record of Industrial Campaign Over "Victimised Chinese" in Vietnam Is Continued from Page Eight Action Over Job Issues

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
BLF ••• Rests with the Qantas Job's·Record of Industrial Campaign Over NUMBER ~5~ JULY 197~ TWENTY CENTS ~ '- Imperialists welcome China's sabre-rattling Carter' sholy crusade . against Russia In the backwash of the fighting in the Shaba (formerly Katanga) province of Zaire, the already , threadbare fabric of "detente" is ripping apart as leading spokesmen for American imperialism hurl a rapid-fire series of bellicose threats at the Kremlin. As US president Jimmy Carter ranted about the "Red threat" in Africa, NATO chiefs met to approve an $80 billion plan to bolster their war forces. InParis, the leading Western powers plotted the establishm~nt of a bought and paid for "All-Africa" mercenary army to guarantee their African property holdings. In New York, US negotiators spurned a strategic arms limitations (SALT) proposal advanced by the Soviet Union in favour of the unimpeded pursuit of nuclear first strike capacity. In a typical speech- Carter railed, "The Soviet Union attempts to export a totalitarian and re­ pressive form of government", comparing it with ~,_'~JJ,L4.~mQ_gratic'Y.ay'of life_ [which] w§lrEaTlt!>~j})$ admiration and emul ation bY"otber 'Pel)pIe' -t'hrough~ -1~:~.. out the world" (as in Vietnam!) before laying .-, );;. down imperialism's terms: "The Soviet Union must . choose either confrontation or cooperation" (New , Cuba'in Zairean ca,pital Kinshasa (left); Corter's cold warrior Brzezinski in China. York Times, 8 June). This is what Carter's vaunted "human rights" campaign is all about: "democratic" US imperialism, responsible for the genocidal rape of Indochina and implicated in virtually every reactionary coup since World \Var II, threatens "totalitarian" Russia with military Pelcing raises outcry tis annihilation. While much of the left has simply appealed to the imperialist butchers for a more "even-handed" approach -- an occasional slap on the wrist of particularly despotic allies like the Shah of Iran -- the Spartacist tendency has unflinchingly exposed and opposed this supremely Vietnam expropriates vulgar attempt to refurbish the tarnished image of the American bourgeois state with the ultimate aim of preparing a military assault on the socialist foundations of the Soviet deformed workers state. The pretext for Carter's denunciations of Soviet "aggression" was his accusation that the Chinese capitalists Russians and Cubans in Angola had trained and Continued on page two Relations Between the People's Republic of Vietnam insists that the latest wave of refu­ China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, gees is the result of its crackdown on private already strained by a territorial dispute over businesses in the South. An editorial in the the oil-rich Paracel and Spratley Islands Vietnamese Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan coupled with Peking's open support for Hanoi's (29 May) queried: "One might ask whe,ther Cambodian adversary in the incessant border nationalization was supposed to stop in socialist fratricide and recent reports of isolated bloody Vietnam before the wealth of a number of capital­ incidents on the Sino-Vietnam border itself, have ists of Chinese origin?" reached,a new low in the last three months. Claiming that some 130,000 ethnic Chinese have Following an extremely liberal policy for fled across the rugged, mountainous and ill­ three years, during which private industry and defined border with Vietnam, Peking has violently trade (some 65 percent of the total market) in assailed Hanoi, charging it 'with racial chauvin­ the South continued and was even encouraged by ism and a long-standing policy of "unwarrantedly the bureaucracy, the Vietnamese Stalinist regime ostracizing and persecuting Chinese residents in struck hard in two successive waves in March and Vietnam, and expelling many of them back to April. Tens of thousands of party members and China" (Peking Review, 2 June). In response, youth were mobilised to occupy, search and inven­ Han-Oi -has denounced anonymous "rumour mongerers" tory all private businesses on the night of 27 who are conducting a "whisp-ering campaign" among March, following an abrupt announcement that day that "all trade and business operations of bour­ the 1.5 million Chinese reside~ts in Vietnam about a coming "big war between China and Vietnam geois tradesmen are to be abolished". This was because of China's support for Cambodia" followed up by a,clean-upof Ho Chi Minh City's (Asiaweek, 19 May). notorious open-air black markets and the intro­ duction on 3 Hay of a single new currency for all As the two nations exchanged bristling diplO­ Vietnam. matic charge and countercharge, Peking froze its already niggardly aid program, beefed up its Singled out for heavy control was'Cholon, the military forces on the border, threw out three large Chinese quarter of the former Saigon, which Rape and sexual Vietnamese consulates in China's southern prov­ . was surrounded by police and soldiers just before inces (where there is a significant Vietnamese the 27 March announcement. Cholon historically • mino'rity) and despatched two "rescue ships" to has been the centre of the Chinese merchant and oppression evacuate the "victimised Chinese". Originally . financial class which has dominated private trade denouncing Peking's "rescue mission" as "gunboat in southern Vietnam. In particular, Cholon • • • page 4 diplomacy" Hanoi reluctantly agreed to the sea traders have lang controlled the rice trade in evacuation albeit with "strict" conditions . Continued on page tv/v '_r...!~, , .~-_ ...... ~;;p;.~¥~::~_?~¥~_;:',;.o~~;1 y: <_,~- ~:"_~~-,,~c.bt::"-1t5 ..."'·- / crats have no interest in spreading genuine Carter ... social revolutions which might provoke the West and weaken their own bureaucratic stranglehold on Look who noticed Continued from page one the Soviet masses. The Kremlin seeks influence abroad by backing petty-bourgeois nationalists or the US coal strike promoted the former Katangan gendarm'es who at­ currying favour with capitalist regimes on the tacked and briefly held the Shaba copper centre outer with the West. When these "allies" of the In its 26 May issue Workers Vanguard (WV), paper of the of Kolwezi in May. The,US financed and trans­ moment kick sand in Russia's face and turn back Spartacist League/US (SL/US), announced t~at it would ported the mercenary scum of the French Foreign to the imperialists -- as has happened in Ghana, drop from weekly to fortnightly frequency. A statement Legion who, backed up by riotous Zairean troops, Guinea, Somalia ,and Egypt ,-- the Soviets simply by the Editorial Boord explained what it frankly called a murdered and looted to protect imperialist mine try to latch onto a new set of "friends", like "limited and orderly retreat": holdings and prop up the grossly corrupt and the bloody Ethiopian Derg and the Angolan regime. despotic l-Iobutu. But Carter's wild charges, "We do not lightly shift WV back to biweekly fre­ strongly denied by the Kremlin and Fidel Castro Far from safeguarding the defence of Soviet quency ... , The problem is not some absolute ove,rexten­ (and not even believed by the US Senate Foreign Russia, these pOlicies constantly undermine it. sion of our capacities, but rather one relative to the Relations Committee), have not stirred up much The West is able to exploit these dramatic rever­ quiescent period through which we are passing .... The enthusiasm in the US populace for a real showdown sals suffered by the Kremlin, just as it exploits inner capacity of the weekly to do its job has been with the Soviets.. Moreover, the sharp rise of the very real domestic crimes of the bureaucracy. well shown by its work in the recently ended miners' inter-imperialist economic competition has under­ The inevitable war threats of US imperialism will strike. However, our appetites as revolutionary Marx­ mined the ability of the US to simply dictate not be stopped by diplomatic deals or arms con­ ists have run too far ahead of recent objective possi- orders to its imperialist allies, as growing trol treaties, but by proletarian revolutions bi lities and for too long." trade protectionism pits the major industrial which disarm the rapacious capitalist class once nations at each other's throats. Except where and for all. Trotskyists defend the Soviet de­ Indeed, for four months during the great coal miners'strike generated workers state from imperialism because of 1977-78, week after week WV provided both on-the-spot their interests are directly concerned (eg France's African neo-colonies) the US's NATO of the gains of, the Russian Revolution that have coverage and in-depth analysis from the miners' side of allies prefer to avoid confrontation with the been preserved in spite of the bureaucracy's the barricades - denouncing Carter's strikebreaking at­ Soviets~ policies. But we also call for political revol­ tacks, exposing the bankruptcy of miners' "leader" utions to dump the Stalinist parasites of Moscow, Arnold Mi lIer, outlining a program for victory and aiding Carter's "China Card" Peking and Havana who imperil that defence and the determined efforts of SL/US supporters in the unions But the African uproar did tighten up the US­ make a mockery of socialism. The reforging of to initiate solidarity strike action and spread the conflict China alliance against the Soviet Union. Visit­ the'Fourth International, the world party of to related key industries such as steel and auto. ing China, US "national security" adviser, cold socialist revolution, is the necessary answer to So it was amusing to read in Direct Action (22 June), warrior Zbigniew Brzezinski, poured vitriol on Carter's Cold War threats and the spectre of nuclear holocaust .• paper of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), this comment the Soviets and Cubans only to be outdone by on the WV statement's reference to the "quiescent Chinese foreign minister Huang Hua. Huang jetted (adapted from Workers Vanguard no 209, 16 June 1978) period": "Apparently the Spartacists must have missed off to Zaire to tour the "battlefield" 'with the recent, record llO-day US coal strike! Mind you, it's Mobutu, praising him for leading "a just struggle not surprising when you co~sider that the Spartacists' •.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • L'aula D'idioma Com a Mitjà D'integració I D'enriquiment
    L’AULA D’IDIOMA COM A MITJÀ D’INTEGRACIÓ I D’ENRIQUIMENT MULTICULCULTURAL José Luis Bartolomé Sánchez Curs 2004-2005 Centre de treball: IES Montsacopa (Olot, Garrotxa) Especialitat: Llengua anglesa Supervisió: Neus Serra (Servei Inspecció Delegació Territorial d’Educació de Girona) Llicència d’estudis retribuïda concedida pel Departament d’Educació de la Generalitat, Resolució del 16 de juliol de 2004 (DOGC núm. 4182 de 26.7. 2004) “The White Man Drew a Small Circle” The white man drew a small circle in the sand and told the red man, 'This is what the Indian knows,' and drawing a big circle around the small one, 'This is what the white man knows.' The Indian took the stick and swept an immense ring around both circles: 'This is where the white man and the red man know nothing.' Carl Sandburg « L'home blanc va dibuixar un cercle petit » L'home blanc va dibuixar un cerce petit a la sorra i va dir al pell roja: "Això és els que coneixeu els indis" i tot seguit va dibuixar un cercle gran al voltant del petit: "Això és el que coneixem els homes blancs." L'indi va agafar el pal i va escombrar un enorme cercle al voltant dels altres dos: "Això és on ni l'home blanc ni el pell roja no coneixen gens". 2 3 4 5 Índex Pàgina Introducció 7 Greencards for Cultural Integration 11 Readers 113 - Around the world in ten Tintin books 118 - Australia 129 - America 139 - Far and Middle East 155 - Africa 177 - Far East. China & India 217 Pop Songs 249 Movies 357 Conclusions 428 Bibliografia 433 6 INTRODUCCIÓ 7 L'experiència personal dels darrers anys com a docent d'institut en un municipi amb un augment espectacular de l'arribada de famílies i alumnes d'altres països m'ha fet veure que l'entrebanc principal de contacte amb aquestes persones -l'idioma- resulta de vegades paradoxal.
    [Show full text]
  • Issue No. 112, August-September, 1985
    ~ Australasian '- Number 112 August/September 1985 30 cents Black Masses Defiant, Class Battle in Mines • o rica , • AUGUST 3 - On 20 July, apartheid were killed when police opened fire fuhrer president P W Botha declared a on a crowd of 400 demonstrators in "state of emergency" in 36 black the black township of Tumahole townships and cities in South Africa. outside Parys, 75 miles south of The sweeping order includes the Johannesburg, and officially at least heavily indusUial Transvaal around 16 others have been killed. Johannesburg, and the Eastern Cape Priests,lawyers, teachers and politi­ region around the auto centre of Port cal activists were said to be among Elizabeth. Henceforth, any member of those detained as the police moved in the state security, police or military to seize people identified from lists. l1iS"ViffiiiilJy -tihltfulteo - POW-erg to According to . civil rights monitoring' arrest anyone without cause and hold groups, police took hostages - one a them incommunicado without trial for four-year-old boy - to exchange for an indefinite time. Security forces can activists they could not immediately search and seize property without find. The purpose ofthe crackdown, as warrants, seal off any of the areas, the 23 July New York Times reported, impose curfews and censor all news "seems to be to arrest everyone from the specified locations. Violators deemed capable of organising or can be punished by imprisonment for channeling dissatisfaction with apart­ ten years. heid into protests that may involve This was the first emergency decree attacks on reputed collaborators, by the South African regime since as well as labour strikes and boycotts March 1960 - a similar order in the of white-owned shops" .
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise and Fall of Australian Maoism
    The Rise and Fall of Australian Maoism By Xiaoxiao Xie Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies School of Social Science Faculty of Arts University of Adelaide October 2016 Table of Contents Declaration II Abstract III Acknowledgments V Glossary XV Chapter One Introduction 01 Chapter Two Powell’s Flowing ‘Rivers of Blood’ and the Rise of the ‘Dark Nations’ 22 Chapter Three The ‘Wind from the East’ and the Birth of the ‘First’ Australian Maoists 66 Chapter Four ‘Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party’ 130 Chapter Five ‘Things Are Beginning to Change’: Struggles Against the turning Tide in Australia 178 Chapter Six ‘Continuous Revolution’ in the name of ‘Mango Mao’ and the ‘death’ of the last Australian Maoist 220 Conclusion 260 Bibliography 265 I Declaration I certify that this work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in my name, in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. In addition, I certify that no part of this work will, in the future, be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of the University of Adelaide and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-award of this degree. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.
    [Show full text]
  • SOCIAL DEMOCRACY and the "FAILURE" of the ACCORD Tom
    SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND THE "FAILURE" OF THE ACCORD Tom Bramble School of Business University of Queensland Brisbane Q 4072 AUSTRALIA [email protected] Published in K. Wilson, J. Bradford, and M. Fitzpatrick (eds) (2000): Australia in Accord: An Evaluation of the Prices and Incomes Accord in the Hawke-Keating Years, South Pacific Publishing, Melbourne, pp.243-64. 2 SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND THE "FAILURE" OF THE ACCORD1 INTRODUCTION Most sections of the industrial relations academic community (broadly defined) started with favourable impressions of the ALP-ACTU Prices and Incomes Accord. Amongst its keenest and most articulate supporters were academics and unionists writing from an explicitly social democratic perspective. Frequently drawing on the German and Scandinavian experiences, writers such as Hughes (1981), Hartnett (1981), Higgins (1978, 1980, 1985), Stilwell (1982), Burford (1983), Ogden (1984), Mathews (1986), and Clegg et al (1986) argued that the Accord would enable the union movement to break out of its labourist straitjacket to encompass broader political concerns and to develop a social role well beyond the ranks of organised labour.2 Similarly it was the left unions such as the Building Workers Industrial Union (BWIU) and Metal Workers Union (AMWU) who were most successful in developing an ideological underpinning for the Accord within the labour movement and who were most influential in winning support for it amongst workers who had the capacity to render it impotent. Opponents of the Accord at the time were almost entirely limited to Left organisations outside the Labor and Communist Parties (below) and a minority of right-wing commentators (for example Terry McCrann in The Age), the former on the basis that it represented an attack on wages and workers' rights under the rubric of social justice, the latter that it did not attack unions hard enough.
    [Show full text]
  • Official Hansard No
    COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES SENATE Official Hansard No. 8, 2004 TUESDAY, 22 JUNE 2004 FORTIETH PARLIAMENT FIRST SESSION—EIGHTH PERIOD BY AUTHORITY OF THE SENATE INTERNET The Journals for the Senate are available at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/work/journals/index.htm Proof and Official Hansards for the House of Representatives, the Senate and committee hearings are available at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard For searching purposes use http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au SITTING DAYS—2004 Month Date February 10, 11, 12 March 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31 April 1 May 11, 12, 13 June 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24 August 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 30, 31 September 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 27, 28, 29, 30 October 5, 6, 7, 25, 26, 27, 28 November 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30 December 1, 2 RADIO BROADCASTS Broadcasts of proceedings of the Parliament can be heard on the following Parliamentary and News Network radio stations, in the areas identified. CANBERRA 1440 AM SYDNEY 630 AM NEWCASTLE 1458 AM GOSFORD 98.1 FM BRISBANE 936 AM GOLD COAST 95.7 FM MELBOURNE 1026 AM ADELAIDE 972 AM PERTH 585 AM HOBART 747 AM NORTHERN TASMANIA 92.5 FM DARWIN 102.5 FM CONTENTS TUESDAY, 22 JUNE Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (No. 7) 2003— Consideration of House of Representatives Message...................................................24473 Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Choice of Superannuation Funds) Bill 2003— Second Reading............................................................................................................24477
    [Show full text]
  • Issue No. 15, December, 1974
    rtJMBER FIFTEEN DECEMBER 1974 TEN CENTS Gallagher attacks union as industry collapse looms aces ereat Growing unemployment and pressure from the em­ with the NSW Branch leadership before union mem­ fer). The 17 who refused to join the (Federal)1 ployers and from the employers' state are forc­ bers on the job sites, saying "we are here to take union then refused to work with the others, and ing open rifts in the bureaucratic hierarchy of over the NSW branch, not to indulge in silly de­ were promptly sacked by the company. However, the Australian trade union movement. While the bate before supporters of Mr' Owens" (quoted in most returned to the site the following week de overwhelming majority of union officialdom backs Sydney Morning Herald, 15 October 1974)1 manding reinstatement, only to be escorted off the central policies of Hawke -- wage restraint Whatever Gallagher may say, the employers have the site by cops -- while Federal BLF officials and accepting unemployment -- sectional interests shown consistent support for his takeover, and stood by. Crane operators (members of the and inter-bureaucratic rivalries produce serious have pursued a highly conscious, organised cam­ Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Associ­ divisions as officials, caught in a bind between paign closely coordinated with Gallagher's 'ef~ ation (FEDFA)) who had walked off on 18 October capitalists demanding concessions and union mem­ forts. On 21 October the NSW MBA held a special to protest the Federal BLF supporters' working bers whose living standards are constantly under meeting, and only hours after Gallagher had pro­ on the job now went out again for the same attack, must police the rank and file of the claimed that the takeover effort would continue reason, but also in support of reinstating the unions for the bourgeoisie.
    [Show full text]
  • Issue No. 18, April, 1975
    NUMBER EIGHTEEN APRIL 1975 TEN CENTS Gallagher wins in BLF fight The NSW Master Builders Association LMBA) and this State" (NSW BLF leaflet, 6 March 1975), but Norm Gallagher, Federal Secretary of the it also demanded job permanency, the leadership Builders' Labourers' Federation (BLF), have suc- having discovered a little late that unemployment 4 ceeded in their joint efforts to bring the mili­ should be fought. But the strike could not re­ i tant NSW Branch of the union to heel. A unani- alistically promise success on any front unless ''''i mous vote at a NSW Branch meeting on 24 March en- the jobs worked by Federal ticket-holders could dorsed a recommendation of the branch's leader­ be brought out. Gallagher predictably denounced ship (centred around Communist Party of Australia the strike and told workers to scab. An effort ,. (CPA) members Joe Owens and Jack Mundey) that its was made to stop scabbing with vigilante squads, ...~ " members join the bogus Federal branch set up by resulting in some arrests, but the jobs continued i Gallagher last October. to work. When the strike was call ed off on .1 0 March, nothing had been won and reportedly about Earlier this year the bosses had stepped up 500 workers had defected to the Federal branch. this campaign, with moves by contractor Concrete I Constructions to sack NSW BLF members and replace The failure of the strike was the signal for them with holders of the Federal ticket, the most the MBA and Gallagher, together with their mates provocative of numerous guerilla actions by MBA in the central trade-union bureaucracy, to go on contractors to force or dupe workers into joining the offensive.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxism Today for Australian Independence for Australian Socialism This Issue of Marxism Today Is Dedicated to the Memory of Our Comrade Neil Mclean
    MARXISM TODAY FOR AUSTRALIAN INDEPENDENCE FOR AUSTRALIAN SOCIALISM This issue of Marxism Today is dedicated to the memory of our comrade Neil McLean. Neil McLean was an activist leader of the Australian student movement in the early 1970s, a period of tremendous struggle by workers and students in Australia and around the world. For more than 40 years Neil worked closely with many overseas student activists in Australia and progressive organisations in their countries of origin. He provided leadership to struggles within the National Union of Students against the onslaught by US imperialist neo-liberal restructuring of the tertiary education sector to achieve the privatised user-pay system. Neil was a key figure among those who argued that people’s struggle, rather than parliamentary politics, was decisive in achieving radical social change. He promoted Australia’s national independence and links with, and service to, the working class and workers’ struggles. Neil’s activism and study of Marxism led him to join the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) in late 1970s. Neil was part of a collective of young Marxist-Leninists who had the important role of overseeing the transition of CPA (M-L) leadership after more than two decades of Ted Hill’s leadership and guidance. In 1986 Ted Hill resigned as Chairperson and the Central Committee elected Neil McLean as the new Chairperson. He remained in that position for a number of years. Comrade McLean had a very calm and assured leadership style and applied to himself Chairman Mao’s precept “No investigation, no right to speak”. To that end he was a patient listener and a thoughtful analyst.
    [Show full text]
  • BLEAKLEY Middlesex University, UK
    Volume 15, Issue 3, 458-474, 2021 Unconventional Labour: Environmental Justice and Working-class Ecology in the New South Wales Green Bans PAUL BLEAKLEY Middlesex University, UK ABSTRACT The New South Wales union movement embraced the principles of heritage and conservationism in the 1970s through the imposing of “green bans” – a strategy wherein union members refused to work on construction projects that were a threat to the state’s natural or built environment. Led by radicals like Builders Labourers’ Federation leader Jack Mundey, the green bans were seen in several sectors as a departure from the traditional “Old Left” priorities of securing workers’ wages and conditions. Rather than a hard shift towards radicalism, this article proposes that the green bans were instead reflective of an already existing conservationist tradition in the New South Wales union movement. This reinterpretation is predicated on a content analysis of extant historical material such as contemporaneous news articles, personal memoirs, transcripts of political speeches and archival documents related to the policing of left-wing activism in the 1960s and 1970s. The results show that an existing tradition of engagement with a broad spectrum of social issues in the New South Wales union movement predates the emergence of the New Left, including the commitment to environmental justice principles that underpinned the green bans. KEYWORDS working-class ecology; environmental justice; trade union; green ban; gentrification; New Left; Australia Introduction The late 1960s and early 1970s were a transformative time in Australian politics, as they were around the world. The predominantly conservative social values of the post-war era began to give way to a new model for political engagement, predicated on more existential concepts related to anti- imperialism and new social movements instead of the established binaries of Marxism and bourgeois capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • October 15, 1983
    CACC NEWSLETTER 5/11/10 12:53 PM CACC NEWSLETTER October 15, 1983 DOES REVOLUTION IN CENTRAL AMEIRCA THREATEN THE U.S.A.? SENATOR WILLIAM PROXMIRE Vs. COMMANDER TOMAS BORGE Senator William Proxmire states in his August report from Washington: "Looked at realistically, even if all the countries of Central America came together in union against the United States, they would pose no genuine military threat to us. They just don't have the economic or military resources to be a threat to us." Tomas Borge, Minister of the Interior of Nicaragua and sole surviving founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front tells a visiting group of Canadians: "If all the Nicaraguans would have to die, as a price for the solidarity that we feel for Central America, for the Latin American revolutions, we would, without vacillating, give our lives. Imperialism doesn't understand that." (Intercontinental Press, September, 1983, page 517) Borge makes it clear that the Nicaraguan Revolution is subordinate to the World Revolution to which Konstantin Chernenko, the Soviet second-in-command, refers when he states: "Soviet power gave the world dictatorship of the proletariat, and world revolution priority over any national sacrifices, however hard they may be,' Lenin wrote. The Soviet Union has repeatedly proved its loyalty to that behest of Lenin." (Soviet World Outlook, February 15, 1983) I wonder if Senator Proxmire could say: "Even is all the assets of the countries of Central America were added to those of the Soviet Union and the Communist Empire, they would pose no genuine military threat to us." As Tomas Borge and Konstantin Cherenenko make so clear, the revolutions in Central America are not isolated phenomena.
    [Show full text]
  • ROB DARBY (1953-2019): Interviewed in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1989 by John Herouvim for a Thesis on the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
    ROB DARBY (1953-2019): Interviewed in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1989 by John Herouvim for a thesis on the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) Posted on September 30, 2019 by c21styork https://c21stleft.com/2019/09/30/rob-darby-1953- 2019-interviewed-in-1982-1983-1984-and-1989-by-john-herouvim-for-thesis-on-the-communist-party-of- australia-marxist-leninist/ The following transcript of an interview with my long-time friend, Rob Darby, who died in March this year, is based on interview sessions recorded in the 1980s by John Herouvim (who died in 1995). I know that Rob would have no problems with it being published more than 30 years later. I have edited out the names of living persons, unless they are public figures. The transcript may be of historical interest. The CPA(ML) quickly became a zombie party in the 1970s (I was one) and the transcript may help in understanding how and why this can happen. I also recommend this article: https://c21stleft.com/2014/12/12/fascism-and-the-left-from-red- eureka-movement-november-1980/ * * * * ROB DARBY: Interviewed in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1989 by John Herouvim for thesis on the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) undertaken in the History Department at La Trobe University and supervised by Dr Peter Cook. Tape 1, 22 August 1982 JOHN HEROUVIM: Interview with ROB DARBY, 22 August 1982. Okay, let’s start with the details. Your age? ROB DARBY: Twenty-nine. JOHN HEROUVIM: Your work? ROB DARBY: I work in the Commonwealth Public Service.
    [Show full text]
  • Never Powerless CONTENTS
    THE BUILDERS LABOURERS FEDERATION LESSONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY DARE TO STRUGGLE DARE TO WIN IF YOU DON’T FIGHT YOU LOSE Never Powerless CONTENTS Norm Gallagher, an important leader of the BLF and the Australian Labour Movement PAGE 3 – 5 BRIAN BOYD INTRODUCTION PAGE 6 – 19 NORM WALLACE REVIEWING THE PAST, RENEWING THE PRESENT PAGE 20 – 26 PADDY DONNELLY RECOLLECTIONS PAGE 27 – 34 DAVE KERIN NORM GALLAGHER AND THE GREEN BANS PAGE 35 - 37 GEORGE DESPARD KICK UP A STORM, FREE NORM A special acknowledgement to Malcolm McDonald former Victorian Secretary of the FEDFA, for his recollections and editorial support. Introduction WW2 to 1986 - Brian Boyd It has been a perennial problem for the union movement to pass on to new generations of workers how their working conditions and wages were achieved. Many an activist unionist has be- moaned how younger workers take for granted the conditions they enjoy, or worse, believe it all comes from the “good heartedness” of the boss. The industrial and political impact of the BLF, especially between WW2 and the early 1980’s, is a story that should be told as a contribution to informing workers of the 21st century how key established working conditions were won through much struggle, over long campaigns. The BLF one out, but often in concert with other building unions, deserves due recognition for the establishment of many entitlements which we expect today, and which are outlined by Norm Wallace below Many gains initiated in the nation’s building industry would often transfer into other industries. The history of the struggles of the BLF, are rich in lessons for today’s unions.
    [Show full text]