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WfJRNERS "N'O'RIJA". :\,' ... Number 5 or February 1972 NY LOCAL IN SIXTH MONTH OF STRIKE • one orKers onllnue eTiance 0 ellou
After six months of stubborn determination 'by voted to stay out after rejecting the sell-out na ing to offer some minor concessions on local is telephone workers, the New York phone strike tional contract of that year (which Beirne himself sues, a burst of activity now, giving the member suddenly seemed to come to life, seemingly with later imp Ii e d was "small potatoes"). Beirne's ship the feeling of having won some kind of "vic the blessings of all the leaders. Mass picketing response was swift: he split the locals and co tory," may be a trick designed to put over a new of Bell installations, "education" of scabs, and operated with the company, ,to deprive them of sellout. Either way, the result is essentially the militant marches through the streets of Manha,.ttan their dues check-off so that he 'could put them in Q~me-six months out for another betrayal., and Brooklyn by masses of phone workers ex a position of total dependence on the International. pressed new spirit. The New York strike is yet Local 4016 president William Moultrie was black Learn the Lessons of the Past! another e x amp I e of the great capacity of the listed from the company for doing no more than This familiar pattern explains the extremely American workers for sacrifice on behalf of their New York Local 1101 president Carnivale is doing high rate of turnover of ew A local leaders\],ips. class, and the role of the bureaucracy as an es now. In July 1971Beirne promised not to stop the Carnivale, who was recently elected as a militant sentially f rag il e lid atop potentially enormous strike without a membership vote, but five 9!Y~ and "good guy" on a wave of dissatisfaction with force. The furious determination of the leading later, having accepted a pre-strike company of the old leadership, is presently popular. He will strikers reveals again the hollowness of the old fer, he announced the decision of the International probably try to maintain a militant image kept rationale for the left's opportunism toward the Executive Board to end the strike (see Workers' within the bounds of Beirne's "rules." His mili union bureaucracy: that the workers are not pre Action, Sept. 1971). By using a mail ballot in tant posturing will not bring results, and he will pared to take the extreme steps necessary to oust stead of the more democratic, less controllable take the rank and file down to defeat with him. the bureaucracy and overthrow the condition for live membership meetings, Beirne hoped to mini Without a rank-and-file struggle against the en its existence-capitalism. mize 0 p p 0 sit ion to the rotten contract. Of the tire bureaucracy, from Carnivale to Beirne, and The ew A international leadership under Jo many locals around the 'country that initially re a s e rio u s attempt to shut down the Phone Co. seph A. Beirne, which has attempted to sabotage belled against this betrayal, only the New York completely, the most militaDtstreet dem9IlBtra the strike in the interests of maintaining the na state locals, mainly because of the power of the tiens will not prevent defeat. tionwide settlement 0 f 1 a s t July, has switched New York City rank and file and the state-wide What Is Needed to Win tactics. Beirne bought a full-page ad in the New unity, were able to hold out against Beirne and York Times (2 Jan.) which backed the membership the company. The real issues of the strike call for economic and vowed, "ew A will not violate its rules and Beirne's real role, like the rest of the labor and political solutions beyond the imagination of 'order' its members back to work. " Beirne knows "leaders" both reactionary and liberal, is to dis Carnivale and Beirne, and show where they have that N. Y. Telephone, which has managed to keep Cipline the workers to safeguard exploitation of failed. To begin with, the limits imposed by the working with its 0 per at 0 r san d out-oi-state labor by the corporations; his only real "rules" national sell-out m u s t be broken. The official scabs, plans to keep stalling until the strike ex keep the struggle safe for capitalism! In order to settlement of a 12.4% wage increase retroactive hausts itself; yet suddenly he encouraged street do this, however, the bureaucrats must maintain to May 1, 1971 and a pathetic 3% each of the two demonstrations and m il it a n c y. The reason for some credibility as leaders. Beirne, particular succeeding years does not even catch up on the this, is no mystery, and it's certainly not a change ly, needs to cover his bets for the next CWA con wages lost through inflation and taxes since the of heart on the part of Beirne. vention. If he appears to abandon New York while 1968 settlement! The so-called cost-of-living in Carnivale leads the strike, he could eventually be crease in the last two years of the contract is Beirne's "Rules of the Game" stampeded out of office. By appealing for militan insignificant. Many ew A operators (at the bottom The only "rules" Beirne will never "violate" cy now, he puts the blame on Carnivale if the of the scale) are getting less than 10% the first are the r u 1 e s of power -and the Phone Co. has ranks exhaust the m s e 1 v e s in ,the streets and year. In light of recent wage settlements by coal power. In 1968, CWA workers in Michigan also achieve nothing. Or, if New York Bell is prepar- continued on next page 2 WORKERS VANGUARD
Continued/rom PlIge I WfJIltEIS "Ntill'II) Marxist Working-Class Monthly Published by the Spartacist League
Editorial Board: Liz Gordon, Marv Treiger, Nick Benjamin (managing editor) . Phone Workers •••• Production manager: Karen Allen. Circulation manager: Janet Rogers. miners, aerospace workers and longshoremen working-class political pro g ram. Carnivale is West Coast editor: Mark Small New England editor: George Foster. and a possible longshoremen's strike to break the apparently too popular right now for United Action wage controls-12% increases each year is mini- to dare more than a one-sentence swipe at him Subscription: $1 yearly (11 issues). Bundle rates mum for a decent CWA contract. -- for "careerism" in its 3 January issue. The most for 10 or more copies. Address: Box 1377, G.P.O., --:rhe decisive part of the settlement as f~r as political art i c 1 e of the issue, entitled "Beirne New York, N. Y. 10001. Telephone: WA 5-8234. the 1 e a de r s hip is concerned is the "modified Must Go!" practically invites Carnivale to join: Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters agency shop"provision, which fattens the bu "If the CW A is to be e f f e c t i v e, rank and file do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. reaucracy 's treasury without really strengthening groups must organize in each local to make our the union by allowing them to collect dues from leaderships fight the company and theinterna: non-members. Furthermore, tow n classifica tional" l emphasis oursl. On a larger scale, the effect of poliCies like tions, and area wage differences, with different While these phonies refuse to challenge "their" those of United Action would be disastrous for the contracts for d iff ere n t sections of the country "good guys," they also refuse to really fight "bad political consciousness of the workers. Many of (corresponding poorly or not at all with actual guy" Beirne when they get a chance, as revealed the most militant )'lould come to see the "left" living cost differentials), only serve to pit work- in "What Beirne Really Said... " in the same is- caucuses in their unions as a brake upon achiev ing what they want, as a pusillanimous left cover for the bureaucrats. The result would be increas ing spontaneist a tt it u des among the workers, leading to heroic actions and inevitable disorgan ized defeat. In the present case, IS chooses a time when the workers have demonstrated will ingness to go to extreme lengths, for their talk of "forcing the bureaucracy to do certain things"! When the opportunity is lost, and the workers ex hausted, they may revert to a more far-reaching perspective, since then they will have no worry about beingtaken too seriously and possibly being faced with the responsibilities of providing'revo lutionary leadership accruing from smashing the bureaucracy. The lesson of this strike must be the realiza tion that a fight for a contract that satisfies the needs of the CWA membership necessarily means a struggle to, oust the rotten leadership locally and nationally. The bureaucrats maintain their position by limiting the struggle to the narrowest range of economic and trade union issues and by keeping the W 0 r k e r s confused and di"ided into separate, competing unions and locals. But thE: workers are confronted every day with an entire range of social and political issues that directly affect their lives and future: unemployment, wage controls, inflation, war, racism, sexual discrim ination. The interests of the working class as a whole, internationally, in these and other ques ers from one area against another, and to keep sue, are p 0 r t of an "impromptu" meeting with tions stand cliametrically opposed to the interests all wages low. There should be a union shop and Beirne in Washington, D. C. The article-the en of the corporatiOns and banks ruling most of the tire issue, in fa c t-contains no mention of the one nationwide contract and pay scale with equal w 0 rId. Therefore, any organized opposition in wages for equal work, including an unlimited cost slightest political challenge to Beirne by United CW A or any union must fight for a full range of of-living escalator. The New York workers must Action on any aspect of the need for a rank-and class demands if it is not to be still another de mobilize CW A ranks across the country behind file caucus, a fight to overthrow the bureaucracy, vice for so m e hustler's career. The program this. or transitional de man d s-despite Beirne's re must include ending unemployment through a ported statement that he "is seeking intervention shorter work week at no loss in pay, decent con Organize Operators! by various political figures to mediate the issue. " tracts, union democracy, an end to discrimination Beirne's sub s e r vie n c e to the political hand against racial minorities and women, labor off the Local issues center on grievance procedure, maidens of the giant cor po rat ion s stands in upgrading (the question of seniority vs. hiring off pay board, strike act ion a g a ins t war and a marked contrast to the attitude of the ranks of working-class political party to smash the influ the street), absence con t r 0 1, etc. Important as 1101 at a recent street demonstration, in which a ence of the bosses t political lackeys and lead the these are, Beirne will grab at the smallest "local Brooklyn Assistant to the Borough President was issue" bone tossed out by the company that he labor movement out of the hands of their reform booed and shouted down amid general condemna ist bureaucratic friends. thinks he can get by with, to avoid confronting the tion of "politicians." The indivisible marriage of decisive issue of breaking through the limits of the trade union bureaucracy to the bourgeois pol the national settfement. After a strike as long as iticians, particularly the Democratic Party, is SPARTACIST LEAGUE this one has been already, such an end would be a c en t r a 1 to their role as the bosses' policemen grotesque insult. within the labor movement. United Actionls si lence in the face of the open betrayal of inviting LOCAL DIRECTORY More vital is a "local issue" of a different kind these enemies to interfere in labor affairs is typ BERKELEY-OAKLAND. Box 852, Main P.O.• -the question of the operators, whose company ical of IS's craven cowardice and opportunism. Berkeley, Calif. 94701. phone: 848-3029. union is not honoring the strike. Furthermore, The 21 January Workers' Power can do no bet some of the women CW A members in clerical and BOSTON. Box 188, M.l T. Sta., Cambridge, ter than to note a byproduct of rank-and-file de Mass. 02139. phone: 321-3826. other titles have scabbed, feeling they have been termination to act (in this case, sending "flying CHICAGO. Box 6471, Main P. 0., Chicago, Ill. left at the bottom too long by the CW A leadership. squads" of pickets to installations in surrounding This disunity enables Bell to keep going no matte:r 60680. phone: 643-4394. regions and Detroit) in spite of bureaucratic sab DENVER. (contact New York) how militant the strikers are on the streets, Or otage: "determined rank and file militants can EUREKA. Box 3061, Eureka, Calif. 95501. ganizing travelling p.i c k e t s against the out-of force the labor bureaucracy to do certain things, state scabbing is acceptable to Beirne and Carni including get out of the way .•.. With a strategy HOUSTON. (contact New York) vale to a certain extent; but 0 r g ani z in g the and an understanding of what the real power re LOS ANGELES. Box 38053, Wilcox Sta., Los operators would require organizing on the basis lationships are, mass rank and file action can Angeles, Calif. 90038. phone: 467 -6855. of a struggle against the CWA bureaucracy. It change things." IS has noticed that the labor bu NEW ORLEANS. (contact New York) was Beirne's betrayal last July that turned the reaucracy will go further under pressure than NEW YORK. Box 1377, G. P. 0., New York, N. Y. tide among the operators against the CW A in the they will go without pressure. A profound insight! 10001. phone: W A 5-2426. subsequent rep res en tat ion election. But the But the bureaucracy can bend to "determined rank SAN DIEGO. Box 22052, Univ. City Sta., San "militant" Carnivale refused to tackle precisely and file" militancy until it is exhausted in the ab Diego, Calif. 92122. phone: 453-1436. this task of 0 r g ani z in g the operators, despite sence of a programmatically distinct caucus fight SAN FRANCISCO. Box 40574, San Francisco, pressure from the ranks, out of fear of Beirne's ing for leadership. Concessions from bureaucrats Calif. 94140. retaliation for breaking the "rules." can best be won by the real threat of an opposing STONY BROOK, L. l Box 654, Port Jefferson, The United Action caucus in Local 1101, heavily caucus with a revolutionary transitional program, N. Y. 11777. phone: 246-6648. publicized byWorkers' ~ of the International in the same way as greater reforms are won from WASHINGTON, D. C.-BALTIMORE. (contact New Socialists (IS) has failed utterly to fill the need the bourgeoisie by a revolutionary threat than by york) for hard, a 1 t ern a t i v e leadership based on a reformist pressure. -
" February 1972 II , 3 s II II I I II Defend the Gains, Defeat the Usurpers t "I ! ! ! I I If SET THE i f
ir BASE ,~ t r r t AGAINST • THE TOP! Hungarian Workers Destroy Stalin Statue, 1956 the testing by the USSR, just as they had been un- The differences expressed below between the "Anti-Stalinism Study Group" (ASG) and ourselves have a sig- able to denounce the USSR's suppression of the nificance beyond the issues discussed (which are of sufficient importance in their own right). By itself, the Hungarian revolution of1956. The position of the ASG is rut a small group in northern California which publishes the newsletter TSllshin, and with whom we Kakumaru faction is that the essential aims of have had comradely relations. But the ASG is a direct expression of a major and characteristic section of the t· _ t 1 t th t t "t very important Japanese revolutionary left, in particular the Kakumaru faction of the Japan Revolutionary Com- an 1 war s rugg es a . ~ pres en s age are 0 munist League led by comrade Kuroda. Given the profound contradictions of Japan and in the context of the expose. the corr~pt realI~Ies of the .contemporary mounting world criSiS, the capacity theoretically, politically and organizationally of the Japanese revolution- w.orld Itself, .WhiCh COnsIsts of reClproc~l re~ul- ists can well determine the outcome in victory or defeat of the Japanese proletarian revolution, itself an is- SlOn and recIprocal dependence between the Im- sue of overwhelming importance in East Asia and of first magnitude in global impact. perialist bloc and the Stalinist USSR bloc, artd to But the Japanese movement is disoriented, as illustrated by the Kakumaru faction's "world revolutionary create an organizational power aiming at the fun- strategy of 'anti-imperialism, anti-Stalinism.'" This View, originating in superstructural parallels, implicit- damental overthrow of these contradictions and ly gguates the vastly different phenomena of capitalist imperialism and the essentially derivative Stalinist bu- the realization of true peace. In other words, to rea~cracies. It le~ds logically.and pra.ct.ically to incapacity in th~ stru.ggle .!!,gainst. Stalinism within the work- create a revolutionary current containing within ers movement. Wlthout smashmg Staimism the Japanese revolution WIll surely mlscarry. itself also a breach with Stalinism in" the form of The Japanese revolutionary left arose out of the Stalinist party after the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and transcending the existing peace movement-this attempted to interpret that event essentially on the basis of national recent experiences alone. The official . th tIt k f l' tIt th "Fourth International," deep in its own revisionist decompOSition, only damaged and further disoriented the IS e cen ra "as 0 an I-war ~ rugg es a e LTapanese comrades. The essential task faCing the Japanese comrades is to take as the central axis of their pres~nt stage. Consequently, thIS slogan of op- movement the organically assimilated experiences of the international communist movement: the Leninist po.sltlon to bo.th US .and USSR nu~lear testmg con- first four Congresses of the Communist International, of the subsequent International Left Opposition and of tams withm It an Impetus urgImLt.~e m~s~s to the present struggle toward rebirth of the Fourth International. understand not only the essence of ImperIalIsm, Only through critical and searching internal struggle, necessarily as a component part of the world Trot- but also the anti-proletarian nature of contem- skyist movement, can the Japanese comrades overcome the particularities of their own origins and win a porary S tal in ism. (On this point,see Kuroda Leninist clarity. Many will fall by the wayside, but out of the process will emerge the Japanp~e vanguard par- Kan'ichi, "What is Revolutionary Marxism?"pp. ty, section of the Fourth InternationaL 77 -7 8.)
Letter to the Editor: tation, we know that P. L. has never broken with Armed Force The symposium on "August 6 and International Stalinism and is merely another of the all-too Even if one were to view the Stalinist rulers Anti-War Struggles" sponsored by our group had familiar left-wing Stalinist sects. We have seen as a "counter-revolutionary bureaucratiC caste" as its main purpose the promotion of revolution many ofthem in Japan and are not at all impressed sitting on top of revolutionary gains, this would ary anti-war struggles from the standpoint of pro by them. We further cannot agree with you in de not prevent op.e from protesting resolutely against letarian internationalism. Convinced that the ex fining the essence of Stalinism as being "class the counter-revolutionary poliCies pursued by the periences of the Japanese revolutionary Left is collaboration." Our un de r s tan din g is that the Stalinist bureaucracies. One of these poliCies is extremely relevant, we presented an outline of the ideology of Stalinism is essentially characterized the exclusive reliance 0 n escalation 0 farmed development of the Japanese anti-war movement, as being the theory of "socialism in one country" force (nuclear weapons, the arms race) coupled with specific emphasis on the Japanese anti -the idea that it is possible and necessary to ac with summit talks and negotiations. This two Stalinist R evolutionary Left which has been taking complish the revolution in a single country and to faced policy is conSistently adopted by the Stalin a militant stand in the forefront of these struggles. construct "socialism" in a single country. Thus, ist bureaucracies, who are unable and unwilling In organizing the sympOsium, we were guided Stalinism amounts to an abandonment of the very to lead the world proletariat towards the prole by two principles. First, it is our opinion that concept of world revolution and of the Marxian tarian revolution. We feel that it is essential that only those organizations in the U. S. which base concept of world socialism. Stalinists mayor may the revolutionary Left consistently confront, and themselves consciously 011 an anti-Stalinist orien not engage in class collaboration; they may advo res 0 1 ute 1 y and courageously expose this anti tation will be capable of leading the American cate peaceful coexistence or armed struggle; they proletarian policy by the entire world Stalinist anti-war struggles in a revolutionary direction. may simultaneously arm themselves with nuclear movement. Secondly. while there is a necessity for these weapons while seeking out negotiations with the In today's w 0 r 1 d, weapons are conSistently revolutionary groups to engage in common strug imperialists. used by the Stalinists in" a manner inimical to the gle, it certainly should not be done to the exclu We do not use the word "Stalinism" as a mere revolutionary struggles of the masses. The up sion of ideological confrontation between them curseword; our definition is quite precise. Al rising of the Hungarian workers was crushed by selves so as to sharpen the basis for promoting a though we are willing to work together- with P •. L. Soviet tanks. The rebellion of the population of revolutionary movement here in the U. S. in the attainment of certain immediate goals where East Pakistan, the armed struggles of the youth Despite the elemental militancy which is fre there is elementary agreement, we do not delude and students of Ceylon, have been crushed with quently displayed by groups which have embraced ourselves in t 0 believing that they have broken Chinese arms. Someday, even the nuclear weap S tal in is t politics. we do not beli;ve that such away from Stalinism. ons of these countries may be put into use to sup groups can possibly function as even a potential press the revolutionary struggles of the working vanguard of the American revolution nor hardly of "Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Stalinism" people. Are we to defend each and every counter the world revolution which must sweep aside both In your article, you referr ed to the Kakumaru' s revolutionary policy of the Kremlin and Peking imp e ria lis m and Stalinism. For our August 6 "general slogan" of "anti-imperialism, anti bureaucrats because of some imputed "1tevolution symposium, we called upon speakers from their Stalinism" and an "earlier slogan" of "Down with ary gains" said to be inherent in the nationalized position as anti-Stalinists to present their per US-USSR Nuclear Testing!" This is an error. The means of prodUction? Are we to refrain from ex spectives on international anti-war struggles and "slogan" "Anti-imperialism, anti-Stalinism" is posing the counter -revolutionary poliCies of the concerning Stalinism. (Since the S. L. was well a concise formulation of the world revolutionary USSR -Chinese bloc because this would be to deny aware before August 6 of the specific groups from strategy of the Kakumaru faction. The slogan op these Stalinist countries their weapons and to in which we were requesting speakers, we think that posing US and USSR nuclear testing was a con vite imperialist attack? We say No! The Stalinist if the S. L. was sincerely interested in inviting crete application of this world revolutionary bureaucracies, the S t a lin is t parties, and the P. L., they might have brought up this issue with strategy, as it is applied to the conditions of to Stalinist ideology must be thoroughly exposed and our group before August 6. Yet, the first we heard day's world, characterized by the vicious cycle smashed everywhere 'in the world. It would be about this was in the pages of Workers' Action in of nuclear tests between the Eastern and Western criminal to fost@r any illusions about the "pro l3 t e September!) --- blocs. In raising this slogan, the Kakumaru fac gressive" or "revolutionary" nature of any Stalin tion was exposing the corruption of all the exist ist group or party, and to refrain from struggle Socialism in One Country ing Left, which was symbolized by their willing to overthrow Stalinism on the strength of illusions Although we do not deny the superficial mili ness to oppose nuclear testing by American im tancyof theP.L. and its pro-working class orien- perialists but their inability to resolutely oppose contiI~ued on page 6
J 4 WORKERS VANGUARD
As the election year opens, and John Lindsay (OCB), w h i c h now administers the compulsory capacity, have reaped extra profits at the work begins his hoped-for leap from Mayor to Presi arbitration. ers' expense through interest on the loans and dent, the crisis he is trying to leave behind in Playing the Game bonds by which the city b 0 ugh t and maintained New York City has developed into a catastrophe the services. In New York, the big banks-First for the working class. The imposition of govern The labor "statesmen," for their part~ have National City, Chase Manhattan, etc. -are losing ment wage controls nationally has combined with been helping Lindsay out all along. Gotbaum suc confidence in the city's ability to pay back this the inflation, the lifting of rent controls, cutbacks cessfully headed off a powerful build-up toward a ever-mounting, interest-bloated "deficit" (over in city services, deliberate city-created unem general strike, spearheaded by city workers in $700 million!). Their program called for an end ployment, an 0 the r transit fare hike and sky 1971 when the state legislature broke to "rampant" expanSion of expensive services, rocketing tolls and taxes to force the problems precedent by refusing to approve penSion gains which jeopardized the city's ability to pay, from of the capitalist system into a ferocious attack on negotiated with the city by his union. He called a a tax base limited by workers' opposition. The labor. The "leaders" of labor, meanwhile, have dramatic two-day action in which bridge workers old Democratic political machine, relying on pa cooperated as usual. stopped traffic by locking the bridges into Man ternalism, graft, etc., to keep the working-class hattan open, but he then ~ 1;!£ Q!! every single vote, was undependable in this regard-too likely issue inVOlved, referring to the promise of a new to favor more services for electoral appeal. Compulsory Arbitration Imposed legislative budget discussion the following year Lindsay, besides being a "clean-up" man who which is standard-as a "victory"! He thereby would end machine corruption, vowed to put the Lindsay has finally capped the onslaught with a drew the steam off the general strike build-up city right financially. He was the bankers' boy! crown of rare "achievement" in a "labor" town and handed city and state governments the prece Lindsay's regressive tax proposals have contin like New York-a compulsory arbitration bill for dent that they can annul coli e c t i v e. bargaining ued to throw the burden for services on the work city employees which, combined with the state's agreements at will (see Workers 'Action #9, July ers and poor, but his plan to reduce the city anti-labor Taylor law, effectively hamstrings the August 1971). Labor is now contending with the budget by eliminating as many as 90,000 city jobs most important city unions and sets a dangerous full application of this principle. A slick maneuv through layoffs and a process of "attrition," is precedent for labor in every city. Until now only erer, Gotbaum has always used "inside"con the centerpiece of his table of benefits for the Vallejo, California and Eugene, Oregon had simi nections while opposing open struggle, enhancing bankers. The debt service comes first, services lar laws. It fits in well with the need of the ruling his personal power while the workers face abject second. Welfare workers are en rag e d as job class nationally, in its present crisis, to break defeat. In the key test of Lindsay's campaign to attrition drives up their case loads and recipients the s t r eng t h of the labor movement, and is an save city credit and bondholders' profits by laying must s pen d hours, sometimes days, on line to important feather in Lindsay's cap in his bid to off city workers, Got b a urn refused to fight the see someone. A heavy snowstorm in 1968 re be the Washington representative-in-chief of the first such firings since 1935, thereby paving Lind vealed that half the city's snow removal equip bourgeoisie. say's road ahead. menfwas out of repair. "Breakdown" maintenance DeLury, though he speaks gruffly at times and is the subway rule despite the transit workers' Response to this imposition of "public" (read plays his cards more closely to his chest, plays struggle for increased hiring to perform the pre capitalist) dictatorship over the workers (by City the same game. He was one up on Gotbaum in ventive maintenance n e c e s s a r y for safety and Council vote of 34 to 3) from the buzzards in the 1971; not only did he let the precedent of legisla dependable functioning. To prevent the resulting halls of labor was predictably nauseating. Most tive action against a contract get by, but he ac suffering from finding powerful expression throuKh gave it back-handed support by their silence or tively aided the state by ordering sanitation trucks or g ani zed labor, Lindsay must break labor's refusal to fight it. while Victor Gotbaum-head of to ~ the pension strike picket lines 1 (This power in the city: Lindsay's "solution" to the DC37 of AFSCME, the largest union of city em tough-talker had only three days earlier threat urban crisis will destroy human living conditions ployees, and one of the most ambitious fakers in ened a general strike if any city workers were for the city's workers and unemployed completely labor-openly endorsed the bill at Lindsay's sign laid off as a result of budget cuts 1) In due course unless the working class mobilizes against him, ing ceremony. He tried to bail out Lindsay· by the identical pension gain was lifted from DeLury's his banker-capitalist employers, and the reform blaming Rockefeller: "State law gave us no alter sanitation contract, signed later the same year, ist labor fakers! native ..... Only one city union head, John DeLury on the precedent of Gotbaum 's "victory," DeLury's of the Sanitationmen's Association, opposed the mostly verbal role-playing as the "tough" labor Transportation Bond Swindle bill flamboyantly on TV -but said he would go leader has about as much meaning in its outcome Rockefeller, who was acclaimed a "humanitar along if he could name the arbiter, thus giving to the workers as Gotbaum 's inside maneuverings, ian" shortly after committing mass murder at himself an opening to sell higher later. In order yet his posturing also directly reflects the thrust Attica, jousts wit h Lindsay over the electoral simultaneously to expose his contradictory role of the rank and file against tl}e reformist limita spoils in a sickening public display of ruling class and drive the struggle ahead, the ranks of labor tions he helps the capitalist system set for them. hypocrisy. Their essential unity on all issues in must raise demands on DeLury for action against He won't soon forget the time a few years ago the class struggle-which are the real political compulsory arbitration; Gotbaum stands already when he was physically assaulted by his own ranks questions-is typically displayed in the shell game exposed, since he has entirely suppressed his outside City Hall as he emerged to announce the of transportation bond issue, subway fare hike, role as labor leader in favor of 100% support of great "victory" he had just extracted from the and tax package. Each choice contains the same the interests of the bourgeoisie. mayor. reactionary imposition of service cos t s on the "Urban Crisis" workers, who can decide democratically how they Lindsay: Club-Fisted Strikebreaker are to be bilked, Lindsay's portrayal of the political issue as. Lindsay and Rockefeller, capitalists and "la The record leaves no doubt as to why Lindsay his struggle on behalf of the afflicted cities for bor" (read bureaucrats) lined up behind the bank took this step or why the labor bureaucracy has more help from the tight-fisted states and feder ers' swindle of the bond issue to "save the fare" sunk to such an abysmal depth of treachery as to al government is so much snake oil. Since the by re-financing the subways and lining the bank welcome what is intended as labor's death war Roosevelt New Deal, the Cities have been forced ers' pockets with workers' tax money later. De rant. From its inception, the Lindsay administra to assume more and more services, many once spite the "unanimity," the voters overwhelmingly tion has been nakedly anti-labor and clumsily provided by private companies, in transportation, rejected the bond issue in last November's elec provocative in its strikebreaking. Lindsay's very health, housing, education, etc. These services tions because-as everyone noted-they wanted no first act in office was to provoke the first transit are vital to the capitalists for re-creating the more taxes. "Democracy," chirp Lindsay strike in the history of the TWU by ordering his labor power they need in the form of people who Rockefeller;' has ordained that "we" need a fare flunkies to refuse to negotiate, then jailing TWU are minimally fed, rested, cured, educated, and hike, inc rea sed bridge tolls, and more taxes! President Quill for violating the Taylor law (which at the place of work on time. Yet the costs for What we need is a w 0 r kin g - c I ass political outlaws strikes by public employees). In the 1968 this are shifted onto the backs of the working peo m 0 vern e n f and party to replace the Lindsay sanitation strike, when other city employees re ple in order to help the capitalists beat the crisis Rockefeller, Democrat-Republican medicine men fused Lindsay's 0 r d e r s to scab on the garbage of their ever-narrowing profit margins. In 1915 and their hustler-friends in the labor movement collectors, Lindsay tried to call in the National business taxes made up 96% of the New York City as well! Guard. and was only stopped when Rockefeller budget with real estate taxes paying 92% of the Transit Strike Dud intervened! He next provoked a teachers' strike totai; by 1934 real estate had dropped to 84% and in which he used the Ford Foundation and black stands today at 24%! Meanwhile city employment A unique opportunity to blow apart this ruling "community" demagogy to try to break the union. together with government employment in general class. 'labor bureaucrat hypocrisy was m iss e d Urgedon by complaints from such quarters as has increased, as important sections of employ when the Guinan -Gilmartin I e a de r s hip of the the anti-labor New York Times about the "insuf ment in private industry have contracted due to Transport Workers Union sold out for a miser ficiency" of the -iaws a g a ins t public -employee automation, farm mechanization, layoffs, etc. able contract, in the face of a clear membership strikes. Lindsay has worked toward compulsory The interest of the working class lies in in mandate for a strike voted a few days before the arbitration to fill this "gap" and make up for his creasing employment and s e r vic e s by forcing New Year deadline. A revolutionary labor leader own club-fisted inc 0 m pet en c e in dealing with the ~italists to pay for the re-creation of labor ship was lacking to mobilize the discontent, which strikes. He was preparing as early as 1969 a bill power. But financial interests. 0 f ten the same burst into mass picketing and demonstrations at the to strengthen the Office of Collective Bargaining capitalists who bled the services dry in a private next page ... February 1972 5
ness, organically incapable except within very Continued/rom Page 8 narrow limits of understanding the contradictions in the capitalist system and reacting to them in a rational way. The bourgeoisie responds to social crises and revolutionary movements by retreat ing into obscurantism and bar bar i c fantasies epitomized in-but in no way limited to-fascism. [roEkpot SOEiol One would look long and hard to find any evi dence of the reasonable-sounding policy of sucking the workers and peasants into support of "man aged social revolutions" laying the "basis for re organization for healthy internal agricultural de velopment," etc., in the key test of U,S. imperial ist pol icy 0 v e r the last decade-i n Vietnam. DemOErOlV American policy in Vietnam has without exception been the exact opposite of the "enlightened" im these countries into the train of Ben Bellas, pro t e c t i v e tariffs for industries in backward perialism Marcus describes. It has been expen Nassers, etc. and to in turn use these regimes countries. The international financial policy of sive, embarassing, hopelessly misinformed and to lay the basis for reorganization for healthy Kennedy andJ ohnson was extremely conservative. unintelligent, to the exasperation of imp 0 r tan t internal agricultural development, and in turn The International Monetary Fund regularly de sections of the bourgeOisie. The French bour the imperialist exploitation of the s e coun manded domestic deflation (e. g. , in Chile) as a geoisie, led by de Gaulle, was forced to carry out tries. " condition for renewing loans. Failure to repay a coup, with all its dangers for them, because the -Conversations With Wohlforth, Seventh IMF loans on time was an important factor lead dominant wing of the ruling class clung obstinately Session, _p. 2 -- ing to the overthrow of Sukarno and particularly to the madness of maintaining direct French rule Goulart. And in 1967 we are told: over Algeria; a bonapartist regime was required What does the "aid"- that is given consist of? "In order to open up the Southern Hemisphere in order to buy off the nationalist-limited struggle Around half is military and virtually all the rest for direct internal market investment, a riew by granting Algeria national independence while is absorbed by the local ruling elites and their 'Marshall Plan' would have to be launched.•• " continuing economic do min a t ion by F r en c h apparatus. Any "development" funds that do in capital. - -Marcus, The Third Stage ~ Imperialism crease production are purely demonstrative, if Beyond the fundamental irrationality of their Once again Marcus' theories collide head-on not accidental. Even the bourgeois press of all order, the bourgeoisie faces an additional, sec with rea 1 i t y, and hence with Marxism. He is shades recognizes this and documents the siphon ondary but politically vitally important stumbling wrong on the magnitude of U. S. "aid," wrong on ing off of "aid" funds in endless exposes, usually block: the most willing and perSuasive political the e f f e c t such "aid" has or conceivably could without saying, of course, that such is the intended representatives of the bourgeoisie must often be have, and utterly wrong about the class con fat e of the funds. The "development" m 0 n e y those -(like Johnson or Nixon) stupid or narrow sciousness and the options open to the imperialist poured into South Vietnam is un us u a I only in minded enough to believe in their own rhetoric bourgeoisie. amount, otherwise typical of the entire "aid" sys their poliCies, if not checked in time, can carry Despite the "Alliance for Progress" and "De tem: increased purchases of (American) barbed the entire ruling class to the brink of disaster. velopment Decade" rhetoric, U. S. foreign aid in wire is the approximate extent of the economic Fascism naturally best epitomizes this danger to creased from a trivial $1.9 billion in 1960 to an development fostered there. the bourgeoisie, and hence is supportea. by the equally trivial $2.2 billion in 1965. The Kennedy Behind Marcus' swallowing of liberal inter main weight of the bourgeoiSie only when they see and Johnson administrations w ere both deeply national rhetoric is his total inability to under no other way out, but in this respect the fascists hostile to nat ion ali s t economic policy by Jhe stand what bourgeois c I ass consciousness and merely carry to an extreme the characteristics underdeveloped countries, although the y didn't rule are all about. For Marcus, capitalism is a required ofroyalist, militarist and parliamentar say so inState of the Union messages. At the im rat ion a 1, although inferior, system rationally ian bourgeois politicians alike. portant 1964 U. N. Conference on Trade and De maintained through changing institutions to meet Since the -unset of modern imperialism in the velopment, the U. S. voted (often as a minority of various kinds of problems. Apart from the fact 1880's and particularly since the Russian Revolu one) against compensation for worsening primary that this view qualitatively overestimates the in tion, the bourgeoisie has become progressively product terms of trade, against preferential tar fluence of the capitalist state over the world mar more reactionary, both politically and ideolog iffs for industrial exports of backward countries, ket, it completely misunderstands the nature of ically. The class whose early ideologues waged and against using fulllds released by disarmament bourgeois class consciousness. Bourgeois class an unrelenting struggle against religious obscur for development aid; it abstained on supporting consciousness is necessarily a false cQllscious- antism has long since embraced the church as a necessary ally from the Carolinas to Java. Adams and Jefferson were deists who called for govern TWU hall by all sections of transit workers. A ary National Caucus of Labor Committees throws ment in the spirit of rational humanism. Today full political program, emphasizing a free fare labor out with the bureaucrats by rej ecting union Nixon lends his authority to Billy Graham, the as well as a decent contract. could have made struggle altogether (see article on page 8). Ane worst kind of holy roller, and presidential in mockery of bosses' attempts to blame fare hikes like the so-called "Workers" League of Wohlforth augurations res em b 1 e meetings of the National & Co., the Labor Committee apparently doesn't on the transit workers. The ''Rank and File Com Council of Churches. That U.S. imperialism must see much distinction between labor and the cops, mittee" led by Joseph Carnegie, whose tactics prop up every monarch anQ. mil ita r i s t from as revealed in their run-down of Lindsay's be have included seeking court judgment against the Tierra del Fuego to Persepolis is not the result trayals (N ew Solidarity, 8-12 November 1971), TWU for failure to sign a no-strike pledge, urges of bureaucratic conservatism, parliamentary cre w h i c h rails against his b rea kin g the police workers to pull out of the union altogether; the tinism or stupidity, although the representatives "strike" and docking cops' pay. Like the Commu single-issue "Concerned Transit Workers "limit of the bourgeoisie s h are a 11 three in copious nist Party it imitates so well, the ex-Trotskyist ed itself to the contract issue and argued against measure. It is the very essence of modern cap Socialist Workers Party leaped at Lindsay's bait a strike, on bureaucratic grounds, when one might italism, the necessary policy of a class which in 1968 and helped pit black workers against white have been possible despite Guinan-Gilmartin. long ago outlived its historic mission.• in the "community control" attempt to smash the Break the -Wage Controls! teachers' union. (This was on its days-off-for Nixon's wage control program, long demanded good-behavior from the anti-war m 0 v e men t, SPARTACIST FORUM by bourgeois liberals and labor bureaucrats, was where it was sponsoring Lindsay as a prominent required by the national and international position speaker.) It has since taken to physically assault of the same giants who squeeze the cities dry to ing left opponents of its pop front with the iiberal keep their profit-inspired system motivated. The bourgeOisie, and is squelching those who recently advocated a return to its long-abandoned "prole NEW controls have kept most city contracts in line hospital, transit, sanitation and city clerical titles tarian orientation. " S'~tllt~r: -while price controls have been a thinly-veiled Oust the Bureaucrats! farce and tolls, fares and taxes are being urged MASTERS ahead full speed. Nationwide coal, aerospace and What the many fake leftists fail to grasp is the Marv longshore settlements have challenged the guide need for a political movement in the unions, to lines, however, and the bureaucratic leaders of uproot the trade union bureaucracy, which is the FOR Treiger the two longshore unions were merely reflecting social force that keeps the struggle of the work the vast power and determination of their ranks ers confined to the narrowest of trade union chan formerly when they finally came together and openly defied nels and insignificant, reformist demands. Oust BANGLA of the Nixon. -- ing the bureaucrats requires a highly conscious Communist Working - As the controls become more and mo're clear and well-organized alternative leadership to Collective, lyan endless highway robbery of labor, the work break through -these artificial limits with a pro DESH Los Angeles ers will become imp at i e n t, as they did even grammatic alternative, through the organizing of during the "patriotic" World War II controls. A caucuses and. the creation of ? communist cadre • The Leninist position on self working-class political movement based on mili in the unions on the basis of a transitional pro deter mination tant c au c use s in transit, longshore, maritime gram. This program must include among its de • Against all "left" camp followers and city employees must be built to spearhead mands: breaking state wage .controls, a sliding of the Indian Army! the drive to break Nixon's wage contr-ols, Lindsay scale of wages and hours, opposition to the spe • Down with the national betrayers of the Awami League! Rockefeller double-dealing and the betrayals of cial oppression of blacks and women (particularly • For a socialist federation of the the trade union bureaucracy, in the unions), opposition to protectionist national subcontinent! ism by the labor movement, strike action against Peas in the "Left" Pod the Vietnam war, defense of the deformed work W h i I e the hopelessly reformist Communist ers states and opposition tc the renewed threat of FRIDA V, FEB. 11 8:00 Party orients toward one wing of the trade union inter-imperialist war, l;>reakingthe working class bureaucracy distinguished only by "progressive" from the two capitalist parties and establishing a 602 Hamilton Hall-Columbia Univ.-NYC rhetoric from any other. the inherently reaction- workers party based on the labor movement•• 6 WORKERS VANGUARD
olution-would be pure (though perhaps militant) reformism if applied to a capitalist state. Third-Camp Pacifism SETTHEBASE The logical result of you r understanding of Stalinism is a speCies 0 f third-camp pacifism. Your undoubted desire for proletarian revolution will in no wise save you from the programmatiC implications of such a policy. Your analysiS must AGAINST THE TOP! lead you to oppose not merely nuclear armament, but all armament. for the Soviet Union and China: "In today's world, weapons are conSistently used by the Stalinists in a manner inimical to the rev (Continued from Page 3) olutionary struggles of the masses." (In yester day's world. too. we might add.) Note that your statement is not restricted to nuclear weapons. about any "revolutionary" gains said to be embod of the Kremlin and Peking bureaucrats because of Presumably we should seek the scrapping of So ied within the politico-economic structure of the some imputed 'revolutionary gains' said to be in viet tanks and rifles, too. since they can be and Stalinist bureaucratic system. Those who are un herent in the nationalized means of production?" have been used against the working class. able to discern the counter -revolutionary. anti [Emphasis addedi Are you implying that our po Is the problem Soviet armament or the politi proletarian essence of Stalinism (its ideology. its sition means that we are defending these counter cal leadership controlling it? The two do not at politico-economic system. its diplomatic policies) revolutionary policies? You cite the necessity to a 11 amount to the same thing. Were the Soviet are certainly unable to lead theAmerican working "assimilate the revolutionary theory of Trotsky Union a healthy workers state in an imperialist class forward towards the contemporary world and Trotskyism" and "to overcome its defects." dominated world. it would still have to maintain revolution. To avoid the tragedies of the Russian in order to avert further tragedies for the work a large military readiness. But in the case of Left 0 p p 0 sit ion, the Spanish and Vietnamese ers' movement like that of Trotsky himself. imperialist powers, we oppose armament regard Trotskyists, and Trotsky himself, it is essential The reader must be struck by your reluctance less of their political regime. for all American revolutionaries to assimilate the to say openly the only thing your statements can We oppose under all conditions the armed force revolutionary theory of Trotsky and Trotskyism, mean. We doubt t hat you are suggesting that of the cap ita 1 is t s. But were the trade unions to overcome its defects, and to m 0 v e forward Trotsky expected revolutionary good deeds from towards the creation 0 f revolutionary theories the So vie t bureaucrats. The only "defect" for based on Marxism-Leninism for the accomplish which you can accuse Trotsky on this score is his ment of the contemporary world revolution, over understanding of the class nature of the Soviet throwing both imperialism and Stalinism. state, and the policy of working-class defense of We re-affirm our resolution to continue to that state against imp e ria 1 ism, the primary struggle together with all groups of the American enemy of ~e working class and the 0 b j e c t i v e anti-Stalinist revolutionary Left and will continue cause of the Stalinist political excrescence. Trot to call upon them to unite in joint actions on the sky c e r t a i n 1 y did not regard the revolutionary basis of 0 p P 0 sit ion to both imperialism and gains preserved in the nationalized means of pro Stalinism. duction as a matter of opinion. or "imputed gains." Anti-Stalinism Study Group He considered the nationalized means of produc October. 1971 tion, the absence of a bourgeoisie, as defining the Soviet Union as a workers state-"a priceless pledge for the future" --despite its degeneration. For this reason. and not from any softness toward WV REPLIES: the political phenomenon of Stalinism, Trotsky never placed imperialism and Stalinism on the To the extent that you have addressed your same level as implied in the slogan, or "world arguments on Stalinism to the Spartacist League strategy" of "Anti-imperialism, anti-Stalinism" you imply that the SL maintains a more favorable although his position was both anti-imperialist evaluation of the fitness of Stalinists for revolu and anti -Stalinis t. tionary leadership than you do. Our differences with you on Stalinism are of another kind entirely. Stalinist Dilemma To begin with: we have always held, with Trot To whom is your question, "Are we to defend sky, that the Stalinist regimes and parties are each and every [sic] counter-revolutionary pol centrally responsible for the decades-long delay icy 0 f the Kremlin and Peking bureaucrats ... " of world proletarian revolution, a delay which in addressed? Does it apply to us? What counter creasingly poses for mankind the barbarian al revolutionary poliCies do you feel we support? ternative to socialism. Ih. their powerful rein Your next question reads "Are we to refrain from forcement by their betrayals of the ability of the exposing the counter -revolutionary poliCies of the Stalin at Signing of Nazi-~oviet Pact bour geois ie to control the workers, they fully USSR -Chinese bloc because this would be to deny merit Trotsky's characterization as "the syphilis these Stalinist countries their weapons and to in armed, w 0 u 1 d you demand their disarmament of the working class." The question, then, is how vite imperialist attack? We say No!" And so do pending the removal of bourgeois agents, reform Stalinism is to be expunged. For this, an under we! But in fact you frame the question after the ists, and Stalinists from their leadership? Our standing not only of the magnitude of its crimes fashion of-the Stalinists. It is they who insist, as analogy may seem to you overdrawn, but you must but its social origins and nature is essential. your question implies, that the interests of the admit that George Meany is in no way superior to Your letter is not clear on what you believe the Soviet state and its par as it i c bureaucracy are a Stalinist bureaucrat, and he would to whatever Stalinist bureaucracies to be. You strongly sug identical. Your kind of criticism of the counter extent he could use the working class' arms to gest, however, that you disagree fundamentally revolutionary poliCies of the bureaucracy includes diSCipline the workers. Or would you demand the with the Trotskyist analysis of the Soviet and kin in effect denying defense against imperialism to disarming of a Menshevik-led soviet until a Bol dred bureaucracies as parasitic, politically re the Soviet Union and similar states. The Stalinists shevik leadership c an be installed? Our policy actionary ruling strata which constitute ~ step 1;2- have always slandered the Trotskyists, insisting would be to demand that more workers be armed ward cap ita 1 is t res tor at ion but ~ not ~ that the gains of the October Revolution can be with bet t e r weapons -a measure clearly in the themselves that restoration. You say, "Even if defended only by supporting the bureaucracy. Our class' interest-and expose the bureaucrats' ~ one were to view the Stalinist rulers as a 'counter-= demand is for an end to the poliCies which endan sistance to this policy. To oppose the armament revolutionary bureaucratic caste' sitting on top of ger those states, including Stalinist peaceful co of even the most wretchedly bureaucratized and revolutionary gains.-... " You ask: "Are we to de existence illusions. We consider it tragic, and a treasonably led working-class formation would be fend each and every counter-revolutionary policy great service to Stalinism, that you in fact call interpreted (correctly) by the workers not as rev for a defenseless Soviet Union and China-pre olutionary principle on ou r part, but a neutral cisely what the Stalinists have always alleged was policy tow:ird working-class defense against the -'--'-'--'---~-'----~-'---~---"'-'~I the core of Trotskyism. Do not swallow the Sta class enemy. Such a policy would only aid the linist bait! As you pose the question, any militant bureaucrats and discredit the revolutionaries. In Subscribe! who desires the defense of the deformed workers fact, our trade union analogy is essential to the states against his own imperialist government understa:1dlllg of Stalinism. The Soviet bureaucra $1.00 YEARLY must as a matter of principle support the Stalin cy resembleS very closely what we could expect ists! A tragic dilemma you pose to anti from a reformist-led trade union raised to state imperialists, and one which can only benefit the power and administering a publicly-owned econ INCLUDES SPARTACIST Stalinists. omy. We do not regard imperialism and Stalinism as symmetrical evils. Rather, we see Stalinism Disarm the Stalinist NLF? Name as the product, within non-capitalist states, of the What are the implications of your analysis for Address pre s sur e of dominant world imperialism. Our Vietnam? We support the military victory of the City view does not deny their reciprocal relationship, NLF over U. S. imperialism and its Vietnamese but rather explains it. Stalinism-at bottom tht: State _____ agents, and we seek simultaneously to expose all Zip result of the pre s sur e of world imperialism, the forces standing in the way of such an outcome. materially and ideologically, upon the state of the First and foremost among the forces in which we proletariat-gives imperialism new lease on life. express absoluce lack of political confidence is The programmatic conclusion of this analysis is the Stalinist leadership of North Vietnam and the WfJRNERS VANGUARD the call for political revolution to sweep away the NLF" itself. We certainly do not demand the dis BOX 1377 / G.P.O. / NEW YORK / N.Y. 10001 Stalinist bureaucracies. The demand for political arming of the NLF, although its leaders can turn revolution, however-as distinct from social rev- next page .•• February 1972 7
its weapons against the working class-an act they -much as a union bureaucrat "defends" his union, would not adhere to its proclaimed promises. have committed before, as in the massacre of the knowing that without it he is nothing-they con The SWP, which you invited to the symposium, Trotskyists in the late 1940's. Do you call for the stantly undermine the security of that social gain does not even make the appeal to subjective revo military victory of theNLF, and~ what grounds? by their limitless desire to shore up the capitalist lutionary desires as PL did at the July Conference That they don't possess nuclear weapons? That order provided only that it promises to let them (since then, PL has moved right to its old talk 9f they are little Stalinists while the Soviet bureau alone. You believe that the Stalinists betray the "honest center forces," etc., in typical Stalinist crats are big and powerful Stalinists? But the So working class. To whom can it betray them if not to left-right oscillation). At that time there was a viet bureaucrats are arming North Vietnam and the bourgeoisie? Isn't that "class collaboration"? basis for an appeal to PL for certain common ac the NLF. Is the refusal of the bureaucrats to back tion and discussion in an anti-imperialist frame the NLF to the hilt, with more modern weapons Stalinophobia work. But the SWP had invited a representative of and even the nuclear shield, something for which A final note, on Progressive Labor. The dan the bourgeoisie to the NPAC Conference. They we are thankful or another instance of their coun ger of the phenomenon of Stalinophobia is that it are "Trotskyist" Ii k e the Communist Party is terrevolutionary treachery? How could one de can lead one to chase after groups no better and "Leninist." In a sense our g rea t est difference mand more military aid to the NLF from the So in some cases wo r s e in an attempt to destroy with you is not over the non-invitation of PL to vie t Union and other deformed workers states Stalinism. In addition, it blinds one to the differ the August 6 symposium, but the invitation to the while simultaneously opposing Soviet armament? ences between the Stalinist leaders and the ranks, SWP, which at that time stood qualitatively to the One' might reply that the NLF struggle is militar many of the latter sincerely desiring revolution right of PL on the question of the anti-war move ily supportable on grounds of Vietnamese self but misled by the tops into thinking that Stalinist ment. To the PL militants we would say: "We are determination. The IS invokes such a position to poliCies are the road to SOCialism, or that in or with you in your desire to get rid of the bour explain its switch from a third-camp position to der to preserve the achievements of revolution geoisie in the anti-war movement. We want to support for NL F victory. For us the self even in a "single country," it is n e c e s s a r y to show you by our argument and practice that with determination issue, although a supportable com ponent of the Vietnamese struggle, pales in sig nificance to the change in class relations which the Viet Minh and NLF created, as did Mao's Red Army. You must recognize that the Vietnamese struggle is neither politically nor militarily in AL WEEKE dependent of the Stalinized states you seek to dis arm. It would seem that unless you wish to aban don the NLF to the fate Washington plans for it Feb,.ua,.y 19, 20, 21 you must support the armament of the Stalinist led states up to some point. We should like to Saturday Sunday Monday know to what point you support it and why? FOR THE THE ORIGINS OF ['i.ABOR AGAlN~T RECONSTRUCTION OF Class Collaboration WORLD WAR m THE STATE THE 4th INTERNATIONAL Your understanding of S tal in is t ideology is ~----- The Struggle for Imperialism and the by Liz Gordon, muddled. "We ... cannot agree with you in defining Revolutionary Working World Economic Crisis Spartacist LElague the essence of Stalinism as being 'class collab Class Leadership oration. ' Our understanding is that the ideology of by Joseph Seymour, National Secretary RCY National Chmn. by George Foster, Chmn. Stalinism is essentially characterized as being Boston Spartacist League the theory of 'socialism in one country ... '" Fine. But explain then what is wrong with the theory [-PUBLIC PAR_T_Y_--, Boston of socialism in a single country. Our chief LRACE, SE"~~TH. J objection to it is that such a "theory" is a justifi Saturday night- University cation of class collaborationist appetites, the only place to be announced. Non-Class Forms of such justification open to the Soviet bureaucrats. Oppression Conference They had to cover their abandonment of a world revolutionary perspective (the antithesis of class by Laura Sawyer, RCY Assistant Editor Auditorium collaboration) with a "socialist" "theory." With the and Helen Cantor, new "theory" Stalin was able to rationalize bar RCY National Secretary George Sherman g a i n i n g away the international revolution with For more information: __:~._.
The Labor Committee: CRACKPOT SOCIAL DEMOCRACY The "National Caucus of Labor Committees" two major currents of nineteenth century Utopian groups favored by Norman Thomas and Co. were of Lynn Marcus, known for its apocalyptic visions socialism were technocracy and consumerism. funded by the CIA completely discredited these and schemes for instant socialism, has become Technocracy (Saint-Simon) maintained t hat the forces. This left a clear field for political for something of a New Left fad. Marcus' ability to fundamental problems of society can be solved by mations not tainted by McCarthyism and the stul foist off crackpot notions as "Marxism"-such as allow in g production to be rationally guided by tifying Cold War atmosphere of the Fifties but the idea that the U. S. is fighting in Vietnam to scientists, engineers and the like. Consumerism catering to the sam e reformist impulses. By gain a rice surplus for Indian industrialiZation, or (Proudhon) he 1 d that the fundamental issues of terming a student-based propaganda campaign to that a soc i ali s t economy can be realiZed in social conflict ar.e lowering rents, taxes and in oppose a transit fare increase a "proto-Soviet," twenty-four h ou r s through the organization of terest and expanding government-provided serv Marcus seeks to give a revolutionary facade to bank clerks-is perhaps not surprising given the ices. Technocracy raised the technically trained the kind of politics traditionally associated with abysmal level of Marxist education among U. S. petty bourgeoisie above all social classes, while the Democratic Par t y and "socialists" of the radicals. consumerism made an amalgam between the petty Norman Thomas-Bayard Rustin brand. New Left Utopianism bourgeoisie and other classes, particularly the Mirroring the New Left's contempt for organ industrial proletar.iat. iZed labor, the Labor Committee performs an es Marcus' positive appeal, apart from his de Marcusism is a remarkably pure amalgam of sential task of all social-democratic ideologues pendence on prevailing ignorance, stems from a Saint-Simon and Proudhon, including the latter's providing an excuse for the conservative politics particular amalgam of New Left Utopian ideas and fix a t ion with money, befitting a failing shop and sellouts of the union bureaucracy by arguing impulses with traditional social-democratic re keeper. Marcus' attacks Dn union parochialism that .they simply reflect the backwardness of the formism. Len i n characterized petty-bourgeois and his pseudo-Hegelian terminology are em workers and the inherent limitations of unions-as radicalism as a reflection of the "petty bour ployed in a sustained attack on the leading role of social institutions: geoisie driven to frenzy by the horrors of capital the industrial proletariat in the socialist revolu "Union leaderships of the CIO type do not 'sell ism," with a tendency toward instability and "in tion. Everything Marcus writes on this subject out' the membership because they are wretch fatuation with one bourgeois fad or another. " The has but one purpose: to dissolve the working class ed in general. .On the contrary, the union lead New Left was exactly the morally outraged petty into some broader social category which explicit erships sometimes seem to 'sell out' because bourgeoisie desperately trying one "revolution ly includes the lumpen proletariat and the petty they, like the majority of 'rank and file' mem ary" path after another-pacifism, Third World bourgeOisie, particularly the intelligentsia. Gone bers, refuse to undertake the sole alternative ism,street confrontations, workerism, "liberated" is the Marxist concept of intermediate strata· as to accepting a poorer settlement. Union lead life styles, communalism, etc. What the Labor capable of playing a valuable supporting role in ers of the CIO-type generally go as far as they Committee shares with the New Left world-view the revolutionary process on the basis of coming think the majority of members' union militan is the ~elief that revolution is easy and instant if to identify their needs with the fundamental class cy will carry the union in gaining additional one could just find the nev' gimmick, tactic, pos interests of the proletariat. Instead, these sec benefits. Tin y minorities of 'rank and file' ture, propaganda line or organizational form that tors-"which are equally capable of going over to professional insurgents are often more mili will bring American bourgeois society tumbling the side of reaction-are seen as having identical tant on these questions precisely because they down like the walls of Jericho. Marcus' position interests to those of the working class. Marcus' enjoy the speculative luxuries of being out of that the devaluation of the dollar marks the col difficulty in inventing a term for his category has office. The isolated militant can imagine all lapse of the capitalist system; Wohlforth's asser led him from "the non-ruling class population" to sorts of wonderful gains which would absolute tion that the Attica uprising means "the revolution the current "political working class." And on the ly not seem credible to him were he faced with has begun"; Charles Reich's claim that the U. S. terminological level, nineteenth century radicals the responsibilities of union office, were he revolution is already taking place in the hearts of and today's anarcho-Maoists co u 1 d contribute faced with the tactical realities which the in its youth-all represent typical idealist projection cumbent union leadership has to face as long of one's own desires onto reality. On the organi SPARTACIST LEAFLE'!' as it accepts existing legal for m s of labor zational 1 eve 1, the Labor Committee's "proto struggle and as long as the membership is un soviets," the Workers League's November 12 free! December 1971 willing to go beyond mere legal forms. " "general strike"and the Weatherpeople's terror -1971 Strategy for SOCialism, p. 19 ism are all aspects of the frenzied petty bour Michael -Harrington or Irving Howe couldn't have geois' "revolutionary" make-believe. The Poverty of said it better, including the attack on reds ("pro What distinguishes a genuine revolutionary or fessional insurgents") as irresponsible, unrealis ganiZation from all forms of adventurism, dil Marcusism tic, hopelessly isolated elements in the Unions. lentantism and hustler ism is that it develops with And The Campaigner states categorically: and through the working class. As Trotsky said: "A n y rank-and-file grouping which assumes "The revolution pursues its course together PORTRAIT OF AUTOPIAN-REFORMIST CHARLATAN power in his Ithe bureaucrats' 1 stead would be with its class. If the proletariat is weak, if it forced to more-or-less similar practices be is backward, the revolution confines itself to definite clarity to the Labor Committee; Marcus' cause of the ordinary petty conservatism and the modest, patient and persevering work of (non-) "class-for-itself" is nothing other than backwardness of the average union member." the creation of pro p a g and a circles, of the "the people." For the Labor Committee, the major -"Trade Unions Today," The Campaigner, preparation of cadre; supporling itself upon the social conflict of 0 u r time is that between the Spring 1971, P. 33 first cadres, it passes over to mass agitation people, led by the intellectuals, and the bankers. according to the circumstances. It always dis Proudhon lives! If the influence of Utopian so The position is clear: the workers get the leader tinguishes its class from the enemy class, and cialism on the nascent European working-class ship they deserve! conducts only such a policy as corresponds to movement did indeed have· tragic dimensions, its American Imperialism as the the strength of its class .... " r e cur r e n c e in the Labor Committee is truly farcical; Rational Development of Backward The objective forces for revolution are, as Trot sky noted, overripe, but there can be no revolu Social-Democratic Reformism Countries ' tion until the working class is politically con The Labor Committee shares the pervasive Only naive liberals-and Marcus and his fol scious and arm e d with its rev 0 1 uti 0 n a r y New Left desire to dump "dreary," "old lowing-took the "Alliance for Pro g res s" and instrument, the vanguard party, whose program fashioned" Marxism-Leninism and seek exciting "Development Decade" seriously, Acting as Wohl and cadres have been pre par e d and tested in "new" political methods. It also seeks to fill the forth's theoretician in the unity negotiations with struggle. There is no gimmick which can sub vacuum created by the complete discrediting of Spartacist in 1965, Marcus stated: stitute for that process. traditional American social democracy. Ten "Since 1959, US has followed policy of man What Is Utopian Socialism? years ago, young political activists who thought aged social revolutions, general policy of im in terms of supporting strikes in cooperation with perialism to support nationalist colonial rev Utopian socialism corresponds to the world the local union bureaucracy, of pressure groups olutions as long as they remain within control view of the petty bourgeoisie. Caught between the designed to expand medical care for the poor or of imperialism" The SWP et al. failed to see industrial working class and big capital, and pos to maintain rent control, joined the Young Peo this and merely sees US and its allies as con sessing the power of neither, the petty bourgeoisie ple's Socialist League or the early anti ducting a struggle against the colonial revolu strives, in Marx's words, "to be above all class communist SDS. However, the blatant chauvinism tion... this is not the case. They are trying struggles" and "transform into harmony" the ir of the trade union bureaucrats revealed by their instead to cirGumvent the Permanent Revolu reconcilable antagonisms bet wee n capital and slavish support to the Vietnam war and the dis tion by sucking working class and peasantry of wage labor. Apart from communal escapism, the closure that the 1 i b era 1 anti-communist front continued' on page 5