WfJ/iIlE/iS ",IN(J(J,I/i, 25¢ No. 181 :-..==: )(,~:lJ 11 November 1977
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Sixtieth Anniversary of the ~ '!'--J t·1&~·- Bolshevik =' .~~~~I...... li.~'" E. ~ tt>c~~ t:~~~~ 1!!1.~ Oust tile Stalirlist Revolution ·~~.· ""I~,~. Bureaucracy! G ,j"§"!ill~'I\i.~.-'1... '-... October! the mood of the moment. The Russian against "Soviet social-imperialism"; program is as valid as it was 40 years The 1917 October Revolution was the ago. One ofits most powerfulpresenta question has been and remains the shaping event of our century. The centrists salute Lenin while ignoring his question of the revolution. The Russian life-long struggle for an international tions is the speech, reprinted below, by seizure of state power 60 years ago by James P. CannonJounder ofAmerican Bolsheviks on November 7, 1917, once the revolutionary Russian proletariat, proletarian vanguard as the roadto new and for all, took the question of the Octobers; and the now-reformist S WP Trotskyism, to the New York branch of led by its Bolshevik vanguard, was a the Socialist Workers Party on 15 workers' revolution out of the realm of monumental advance toward world sloughs offdefense of the USSR as an abstraction and gave it flesh and blood impediment to its social-democratic October 1939. Cannon's speech was socialism. Even today-decades after originally reprinted in the February reality. the usurpation ofpolitical power in the appetites. Only the international Spar It was said once of a book-I think it tacist tendency-the legitimate political 1940 New International; we are repu USSR by the Stalinist bureaucratic blishing it from his book, The Struggle was Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" caste whose counterrevolutionary be continuators of Lenin's Bolsheviks and "who touches this book, touches a of Trotsky's Fourth lnternational for a Proletarian Party, which originally trayals block the international exten appeared in 1943. man." In the same sense it can also be sion of the revolution and jeopardize stands solidly on the Trotskyist pro said, "Who touches the Russian ques this historic gain-all purported com gram of unconditional military defense tion, touches a revolution." Therefore, munists must seek to clothe themselves of the USSR against imperialism and by James F! Cannon be serious about it. Don't play with it. in the revolutionary mantle of October counterrevolution, combined with the The October revolution put socialism struggle for political revolution in the The Russian question is with us once 1917. again, as it has been at every critical on the order of the day throughout the Today the pro-Moscow Stalinists degenerated and deformed workers world. It revived and shaped and states to establish the proletarian turning point of the international labor commemorate the sixtieth anniversary movement since November 7,1917. And developed the revolutionary labor afthe Russian Revolution with nauseat democracy ofsoviet rule. movement of the world out of the Today. as Jimmy Carter beats the there is nothing strange in that. The ing appeals for "peaceful coexistence"; Russian question is no literary exercise drumsfor an anti-'Soviet mobilization in continued on page 2 Maoists wave red flags while demon to be taken up or cast aside according to strating for NATO as the bulwark the name of "human rights, " this We Are the Party of the Russian Revolution ... (continuedfrom page J) hloodv chaos of the war. The Russian revolution showed in practice. hy examp!o,::. how the workers' revolution is to he made. It revealed in life the role of the party. It showed in life what kind of a party the workers must have. By its victory. and its reorganization of the social system. the Russian revolution has proved for all time the superiority of nationaliled property and planned economy over capitalist private proper ty. and planless competition and an archy in production. A Sharp Dividing Line
The question of the Russian revolution and the Soviet state which is its creation has drawn a sharp di\iding line through the lahor move ment of all countries for 22 years. The attitude taken toward the Soviet Union throughout all these years has heen the Lenin speaking In Red Square, 1919. decisin:: criterion separating the genuine revolutionary tendency from all shades Conclusions on the Russian question them, That is the only way to assure a cal analysis--a degenerated Workers' and degrees of waverers. backsliders lead directly to positions on such issues firm and consistent policy. State. The political conclusion and capitulators to the pressure of the as war and revolution. defense and To he sure. we do not decline unconditional defense against external hourgeois world-the Mensheviks. defeatism. Such issues. by their very cooperation with people who agree with attack ot: imperialists or internal at Social Democrats. Anarchists and nature. admit no unclarity. no compro our political conclusions from different tempts at capitalist restoration. Syndicalists. Centrists. Stalinists. mise. because it is a matter of taking premises. For example. the Bolsheviks The main source of division in our sides' One must be on one side or were not deterred by the fact that the left Defensism and Defeatism own ranks for the past ten years. since another in war and revolution. S. R.s were inconsistent. As Trotsky the Fourth Internationalist tendency remarked in this connection. "Ifwe wait Defensism and defeatism are two took organized form on the internation The Importance of Theory till everything is right in everybody's principled. that is, irreconcilable posi al field. has been the Russian question, head there will never be any successful tions. They are not determined by Our tendency. being a genuine. that is. Hut if the lines are drawn only when revolutions in this world" (or words to arbitrary choice but by class interests. orthodox. Marxist tendency from A to political conclusions diverge. that does that effect). Just the same. for our part :\! 0 party in the world ever succeeded Z. has always proceeded on the Russian not at all signify that we are indifferent we want everything right in our own in harboring these two antipathetic question from theoretical premises to to theoretical premises. He is a very heads. We have no reason whatever to tendencies for any great length of time. political conclusions for action. Of poor Marxist better say. no Marxist at slur over theoretical formulas. which are The contradiction is too great. Division course. it is only when political conclu all who takes a careless or tolerant expressed in "terminology." As Trotsky all over the world ultimately took place ~if\I'''" 'In' dr'lu:n Ollt t() the end that attitude toward theoretical premises. savs. in theoretical matters "we must along this line. Defensists at home were u f 1.ILII\..\..~ \ Jr lJl\:. 1,U~~laJl YUC~l1UIl I ne plllllle,1I conclUSIOns or Marxists ke'ep our house clean." defeatists on Russia. Defensists on reach an unbearable acuteness and proceed from theoretical analyses and Our position on the Russian question Russia were defeatists at home. permit no amhiguity or compromise. arc constantly checked and regulated by is programmatic. In brief: The theoreti- The degeneration of the Soviet state under Stalin has been analyzed at every step by the Bolshevik-Lenininsts and only by them. A precise attitude has been taken at every stage. The guiding The "Russian Question" re lines of the revolutionary Marxist mains an acid test for Leninists. approach to the question have been: The context for the speech of See the reality and see it whole at James P. Cannon, left, was set every stage: never surrender any posi by the imminent World War II. tion before it is lost: the worst of all In particular, following the capitulators is the one who capitulates September 1939 Hitler-Stalin before the decisive battle. pact, a sanctimonious social The International Left Opposition chauvinist clamor arose for a which originated in 1923 as an opposi hol~ war by the imperialist tion in the Russian party (the original "democracies" against Stalin nucleus of the Fourth International) has ism. This pressure found a always taken a precisc attitude on the response eyen within the ranks Russian question. In the first stages of the degeneration of which the Stalinist of the American Trotskyists, as bureaucracv was the banner bearer the petty-bourgeois elements cast opposition considered it possible to around for a new "theorv" of rectify matters by methods of reform the l'SSR's class nature to'justi through the change of regime in the fy abandoning the Trotskyist Communist Party of the Soviet Union, program. Later. \\ hen it became clearer that the The ferment over the "Rus Communist Part\ of Lenin had been sian Question" was to lead to a Irremediabl\ destro\ed. and after it deep split in the party. The bel'ame manikst that the reactionan forces around Max Shachtman bureaucrac\ could be rernO\cd only by indignantly denied that their ci\ il war. the I'ourth International. abandonment of Soviet de standing as bdore on its analySIS of the fensism signaled their decisive SO\iet l nion as a \Iorkers' state. carne break from Bolshevism. but out lor a political rl'\o!ution. Trotsky and Cannon under \11 thl' time throughout this cntire stood that the Shachtmanites pl'Jlod of 16 \l'ars the HolshC\ ik were heading toward capitula I l'lllni,t> ha\ e \t(luth maintained. in tion to their "own" bourgeoisie. thl' Llee III ,i!I,LinJer and persecution. The Shachtmanites were mas that thn \\erl' the firrne\t de!cnders oj ters of obfuscating left thl' \\ (Hker
culmination in reconciliation \1, ~t bOUl (l'd"ln~ Inr a rnOIllCTlt our \\ith imperialist American social st'uggk dl!d:llSt till' Su,inlst bUTl'alll'ra democran. "Pathf:!lce; l·". \()\\ tlut the IhlUT of ,Linger 1'0 at hdl1d n\)\\ thdt thl'!\)ng-a\larted \Iar IS . .______J det u~IiI\ knock l11g at the door it \Iou!d 2 WORKERS VANGUARD he yen ,trange if the hlllrth Interna Hetween them it is not simply a case of eyery stage. We have dIscussed It and hastily-improvised theory, having al tional should renege on its oft-repeated two opinions on the Russian lJuestion. taken our position anew at every stage ready denounced the union as a com pledge. hut rather of two camps. All those who of it'> progressive development and its pany union, renounced support ("de in the past rejected the conclusions of degeneration. And, what is most Im fense") of the strike. They denounced it the Fourth International and hroke with portant. we have always acted on our as a "fake" strike. Thus their ill "Conservatism" on the Russian our mO\ement on that account. have conclusions. considered radicalism led them to a Question almost .invariably fallen into the service reactionary position. They were de The Decisive Criterion Throughout all this long period of of the imperialists. through Stalinism, nounced, and rightly, throughout the Soviet degeneration since the death of social and liheral democracy, or passivi The Soviet Union emerged from the need Ie trades market as strike breakers. Leni n, the fourth Internationalists, ty, a form of service. October revolution as a workers' state. To this day they suffer the discredit of analyzing the new phenomenon of a The standpoint of the world As a result of the backwardness and this reactionary action. degenerating workers' state at every hourgeoisie is a class standpoint. They poverty of the country and the delay of To defend the Soviet Union as a turn, striving to comprehend its compli proceed, as we do, from fundamental the world revol ution, a conservative gigantic labor organization against the cations and contradictions, to recognize class considerations. They want to bureaucracy emerged and triumphed, attacks of its class enemies does not and defend all the progressive features maintain world capitalism. This deter destroyed the party and bureaucratized mean to defend each and every action of of the contradictory processes and to mines their fundamental antagonism to the economy. However, this same its bureaucracy or each and every action reject the reactionary~during all this the U.S.S. R. They appreciate the bureaucracy still operates on the basis of of the Red Army which is an instrument long time we have been beset at every reactionary work of Stalin, but consider the nationalized property established by of the bureaucracy. To impute such a new turn of events by the impatient it incomplete, insofar as he has not the revolution. That is the decisive "totalitarian" concept of defense to the demands of "radicals" to simplify the restored capitalist private property. criterion for our evaluation of the Fourth International is absurd. Nobody question. Thrown off balance by the Their fundamental attitude deter question. here will deny defense of a bona fide crimes and betrayals of Stalin, they lost mines an inevitable attempt at the start If we see the Soviet Union for what it trade union, no matter how reactionary sight of the new system of economy . of the war, or during it, to attack Russia, really is, a gigantic labor organization its bureaucracy. But that does not which Stalin had not destroyed and overthrow the nationalized economy, which has conquered one-sixth of the prevent us from discriminating between could not destroy. restore a capitalist regime, smash the earth's surface, we will not be so ready to actions of the bureaucracy which We always firmly rejected these premature announcements that every thing was lost and that we must begin all over again. At each stage of develop ment, at each new revelation ofStalinist Lenin's·····General·
" Supreme Court Says Homosexuals Can't Teach
The Supreme Court last month with more than three years after I was declared open season on homosexuals fired." in refusing to hear the cases of two Since Gaylord was dismissed the teachers. James Gaylord of Washington state of Washington has legalized all state and John Gish of New Jersey. sexual activity between consenting These men were fired from their jobs on adults in private. Such laws. hailed as a one. and only one. charge: homosexual bill of rights for homosexuals by the NO~~ ity. Thus "the highest court in the land" bourgeois media. provide little protec gives the green light to every local Anita tion. however. as long as "immoral" can ~NNSf Bryant bigot to hound homosexuals be substituted for "illegal" in a UCi'tMUAl- out of the classrooms and their jobs. courtroom. 'ftACHcK~ , Make no mistake about it. this victimi John Gish. who has never acknow • zation of "social deviants" is part of an ledged being a homosexual. was re ominous and wide-ranging assault on moved from the classroom and ordered S1t!ff.ASf'jSYt. democratic rights. to undergo a psychiatric examination by Fresh from a series of reactionary the Paramus Board of Education after decisions attacking busing. housing he became president of the New Jersey desegregation. unemployment benefits Gay Activist Alliance in 1972. In for striking workers and abortions for refusing. Gish has rightly contended the poor, the Supreme Court has again that this violated his rights of privacy. proved a reliable ally of the racist mobs liberty. freedom ofexpression and equal in the streets and fundamentalist cru protection under the law. saders for social conformity and con The Supreme Court. however, had servatism. Having trampled on the already made its position perfectly clear. democratic rights of blacks and other saying the right of privacy does not racial minorities, women and workers, apply to homosexuals. thus laying the now under the hypocritical banner of legal basis for victimization of Gaylord WVPhoto' "community standards" the courts have and Gish. The COurt ruled in March Anti-Anita Bryant demonstration in New York City last June. targeted homosexuals as scapegoats. 1976 in upholding Virginia's anti This opens up the possibility of any sodomy statutes, making homosexual teacher being \'ictimized as "deviant" acts illegal. The Court brazenly declared of a better setting [for recruitment] than Teachers are an important target for or "immoral." It is urgent that the labor that )he constitutional right to privacy a classroom." those who would enforce reactionary movement. and teachers unions in applied only to "marriage. home or Across the board this wave of bourgeois morality. But the fact that a particular, be mobilized against these family life. It is enough for upholding reaction is presented as a crusade for large percentage of teachers is now frame-ups in order to block the mount the legislation to establish that the children. "Save Our Children" was organized in unions would give them ing reactionary trend. conduct is likely to end in a contribution Anita Bryant's battle cry. Attacks on some social power-if they were not to moral delinquency." freedom of the press are launched in the hamstrung by the labor_bureaucrats. Government Out of the Ironically. it is still to the bourgeois name of ridding society of "kiddie The American Federation of Teach Bedrooml courts and legislatures that various porn." Anti-busing racists screamed ers (AFT) is formally committed to n:lUflllISIS ana liberals. inclUding gay about the "innocent little children" defend its members victimiz.ed for Local school boards and the state rights activists. foolishly look for supposedly inconvenienced by bus homosexuality. The Tacoma AFT have no business snooping about in salvation. even as the courts systemati-. rides. And the ultimate"innocent"-the affiliate mounted a legal defense of anyone's privat.e sex life. the personal cally reverse the token gains of the fetus-is protected by right-to-lifers Gaylord, gave him a job and did relations of~~':lsenting individuals. A I960·s. who dismiss as irrelevant the mental everything short of what was really dangerous p!);Cedent has been set in anguish, physical danger and even death The Witchhunt Is On necessary to force his reinstatement. these two cases whereby the job of any of women seeking abortions. The labor movement, mobilized on the ~; teacher can taken away by bigots in The Supreme Court's refusal to hear Behind this hypocritical concern for grounds that an attack on one is an alliance with th~ courts. using the open the Gaylord and Gish cases fuels the children is nothing but the attempt to attack on all, could have smashed this ended criteria of what is deemed good fires of anti-homosexual hysteria ignit enshrine family-eentered bourgeois victimization. But the paper opposition and bad influence on children. It is not ed by Anita Bryant's obscene campaign morality. rooting out all "deviants" and of the AFT and the National Education hard to see communists being fired on to rescind the Dade County. Florida challenges. Hailing the family as the Association' to the persecution of ho the same grounds. and a long experience ordinance prohibiting discrimination "natural unit" ofsociety, thereactionary mosexual teachers has not stopped the of court-ordered repression of teachers against homosexuals. obscurantists would also legislate pro firings or put an end to the anxiety strikes (most recently in the bitter California now has its own version of creation as the "natural" (i.e., the only under which homosexuals are forced to Franklin. Massachusetts strike) sug Anita Byant in state senator John permissible) purpose of sex if they could work. gests that the very idea of unionism Briggs, who is running for governor on get away with it. The terrible reality is In fact, the AFT hasn't devoted nearly might be considered offensive to "com his sponsorship of an initiative (referen that under capitalism children are daily as much energy to defending Gaylord munity standards" by hardline school dum) that would enable school boards battered to a pulp in families where and Gish and to defeating the Briggs boards and anti-labor judges. to fire homosexual teachers at will. parents are fr.!.lstrated beyond reason. referendum as it does to supporting the Ifthere is any doubt about the leeway Briggs was a participant in Bryant's The oppression of women and children racist pro-Bakke campaign to roll back which the courts have granted to Dade County campaign. He explained. in the nuclear family will continue until the paltry educational opportunities reactionary witchhunters, just consider "What I'm after is to remove those socialist society has created the material opened up to blacks by special admis basis for its replacement. the cases of James Gaylord and John homosexual teachers who. through sions programs. The AFT's narrow Yet the Stalinists sing the praises of Gish. Gaylord was fired from Tacoma's word, thought or deed want to be a continued on page 8 Wilson High School in 1972. A Phi Beta public homosexual, to entice young the "proletarian family." and thus fall in Kappa graduate of the University of impressionable children into their life line with the reactionary bigotry which Washington. he had an exemplary style" (Los Angeles Times. 4 August). is the natural by-product of the back record during his 13 years as a social Supporters of this initiative are ward social attitudes fostered by capital Workers studies teacher. His tenure and record. working to collect the 312,404 signa ist society. The Maoists of the Revolu however. were ignored once a vice tures necessary to put the measure on tionary Communist Party, which principal. acting on expressed suspi the ballot in the June 1978 elections, marched side-by-side with the anti Vanguard cions of one of Gaylord's former when California voters would be given busing racists in Boston, now take up the logic of the viciously anti MARXIST WORKING·CLASS WEEKLY OF students. confronted the teacher over the "opportunity." as Briggs told an THE SPARTACIST LEAGUE whether or not he was a homosexual. L.A. news conference, "to tell homosex homosexual. anti-labor Briggs Never charged with any misconduct. campaign: One year subscriptIon (48 issues): $5 uals that we are tired of your aggressive Introductory offer (16 ,ssues): $2. Interna· Gaylord was fired for "immorality" "To deny such rights as housing or jobs is movement into our society, to have us persecution and is no more correct than tIonal rates 48 Issues-$2cranmail/$5 sea when he admitted his homosexuality. accept you are normal people. because mail. 16 Introductory issues-$5 airmail. denying alcoholics housing or jobs. Of Mnke checks payable/mail to: Spartaclst Ultimately the dismissal was upheld you are not normal people." course there are limits. Parents should Publishing Co, Box 1377 GPO. New York, on the argument that he must have Social issues touching on questions of have the right to remove notorious NY 10001 committed illegal acts; after all. he sex and the family are so emotionally homosexuals from any and all jobs working with children. just as they -Includes SPARTACIST hadn't denied it. As Gaylord explained loaded that ignorance and irrationality would rather not have some juice-head the frame-up to a WV reporter: "I was can be easily manipulated by dema guiding their children either." not dismissed for conduct; I was never gogues to produce a witchhunt atmo --Southern California Worker, Address __ ~._. .______accused of any misconduct. I was never sphere. Thus Briggs. like Bryant, can July-August 1'977 C,ty _ _. asked about my sexual conduct. As a ~ .. - seriously make the appeal of an utter Labor Must Defend Victimized matter of fact. it was not the school StElle . . Zlp_..__ idiot: "Homosexual families. to my Teachers district that first advanced this line of knowledge. do not breed children. and 181 argument about conduct. This was the only way they can get children is they It is not accidental that the reaction SUBSCRIBE NOW! something the trial courtjudge came up have to recruit ourchildren. I can't think aries have gone after Gaylord and Gish. 4 WORKERS VANGUARD
" Czech Bureaucracy. Jails Charter 77 Leaders Dissidents Appeal to Carter's Anti-Soviet
LuceINewsweek "Human Rights" Carter and flunkies Young, Brzezinski at U.N. ity as bloc partners in future popular front governments. After its initial hysteria, the Husak government has carefully modulated its persecution of the Charter 77ers, clearly Crusade hoping to slide through the Belgrade conference with minimal trouble. So far On October 18 a Prague court found were all signatories of its original they have succeeded. The Czechoslovak four Czechoslovaks guilty of charges of manifesto, and Havel had been desig economy badly needs Western credits "subversion against the state." Sen nated as one of three official spokesmen for the import of new technologies from tences of three-and-one-half and three for the Charter 77 group. the capitalists, and Husak's Soviet years' imprisonment each were handed The charter was issued on January I mentors don't want unnecessary obsta out to former theater director Ota of this year. Signed by some 257 cles to reaching a new arms limitation Ornest and journalist Jiri Lederer on Czechoslovaks, it presented the plight of agreement with U.S. imperialism. And charges of maintaining "conspiratorial thousands of supporters of the former after the collapse of U.S.-USSR arms links" with foreign diplomats and agents Dubcek government, and contrasted the control talks in Moscow last spring, of France and Italy. Receiving sentences absence of elementary democratic rights Carter has toned down his anti-Soviet of 17 and 14 months respectively, with the formal guarantees for such propaganda sallies-although far from although suspended for three years, rights contained in the constitution of abandoning this cornerstone of his were writer and director Frantisek the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic "moral" foreign policy, despite the fervent hopes of the dreamers in the Pavlicek and playwright Vaclav Havel. and the 1975 Helsinki treaty: .K~m"D·'_""""""'__'_' _ "By its symbolic name, Charter 77 Pavlicek was deemed to have "slandered Whereas late last winter Czechoslo the state" in articles published abroad, stresses that it has been established on the threshold of what has been declared vak newspapers were insisting that the while Havel was found guilty of trying the year of political prisoners, in the Havel Charter 77 appeal was illegal and to smuggle out of the country the course of which a meeting in Belgrade is unconstitutional, the claim now is that banned memoirs ofa former minister of to review the progress-or lack of it homes have already received their just achieved since the Helsinki conference." the movement is at "the limit oflimits of the government of liberal Stalinist deserts. ... They must be aware that legality." Thus the prosecutor ofOrnest, -New York Times, any new attempts will founder in Alexander Dubcek. 27 January 1977 Lederer, Pavlicek and Havel requested The trial of the four, all prominent embryo. The year 1968 will not be repeated. After the debacle suffered by "light sentences" while insisting that the supporters of Dubcek during the 1968 In essence, therefore, Charter 77 is an implicit but open appeal to the imperial reaction in our country in 1948 and trial had to do with subversion and not "Prague Spring," was the biggest politi again 20 years later, these Don Quixotes Charter 77. In the meantime the cal trial held in Czechoslovakia in the ist signatories of the Helsinki accords to want to sow the seeds of a new pressure Husak and his Soviet mentors persecution of the chartists rontinues.. last five years. Clearly it was one more counterrevolutionary adventure and to live up to the "human rights" throw our socialist society into chaos As of September over 100 signers of the attempt by the Husak regime, installed provisions of that treaty. The strategy of and uncertainty." manifesto had lost their jobs. Two, in power by Russian bayonets following -quoted in New York Times, Vladimir Lastuvka and Ales Machacek, the Warsaw Pact invasion of August the Czechoslovak chartists in this regard 13 January 1977 is no different from that of the Soviet have been charged with subversion for 1968, to crack down on the Charter 77 having periodicals and books published group. Lederer, Pavlicek and Havel pro-imperialist dissidents represented Along with the propaganda barrage by physicists Sakharov and Orlov. came the persecution. Leading members by Czechs living in the West. As far as the trial of Havel et al. in The reaction of the Husak regime was of Charter 77 were harassed, mauled and threatened by the police, dragged in Prague goes, it was held in a tiny abrupt and harsh. Here was no narrow courtroom packed with plainclothes stratum ofdisaffected intelligentsia such for long interrogations and often de prived of their jobs. Sensing a golden men. Newsmen,including reporters as compose the dissidents in the USSR. from the French Communist Party's The list of signatories of Charter 77 was opportunity, the new Democratic ad ministration in Washington used Char L'Humanite and the Italian Communist studded with former members of the Party's L'Unita, were barred from the ter 77 and the repression directed Dubcek central committee ofthe Czech proceedings. Prominent chartists came against it to kick off its phony "human oslovak Communist Party (CP) and home the evening before the trial to find rights" campaign. The very first act of former ministers of the government their homes ransacked by security cops Carter's State Department was to fire toppled by the Warsaw Pact invasion. and themselves hauled off for "interro off a letter charging Czechoslovakia Also among the signers were the widow gations." These trials were clearly a with violation of the Helsinki and son of Rudolf Siansky, the former juridical farce and reflect above all else agreement-precisely as the Charter 77 CP secretary who was hanged in 1952 the fear of the Czechoslovak Stalinists framers had hoped. during Stalin's anti-"Titoist" purge. that they will lose their stranglehold on The Charter 77 manifesto was imme Meanwhile, in the face of Husak's the proletariat. While we do not defend diately and hysterically denounced by the politics of the Ornests, Lederers, government authorities as "written on persecution the Charter 77 movement evoked widespread support among Pavliceks and Havels, we must demand the command of anti-communist and that they be released immediately and Zionist centers and then published by dissidents in East Europe and the USSR. It should be recalled that many that all charges against them be the most reactionary mass media in the withdrawn. West" (Guardian [London], 8 January of the current generation of Soviet dissidents first became active out of The issue of the trial was raised at the 1977). The Communist Party paper Belgrade conference by representatives Rude Pravo warned, "Those who lie on revulsion over the 1968 Russian inva sion of Czechoslovakia. Further, like of the U.S., Britain, France and the the rails to stop the train of history" their Prague counterparts, a large Netherlands. But in fact the Belgrade must expect to get their legs cut off. A conference has been ifanything a boring few days later the same mouthpiece for fraction of the dissidents in the rest of the Soviet bloc share or peddle illusions marathon of diplomatic doubletalkers. the bureaucracy blustered: In terms of the perspectives of Charter "A few piqued, ineffectual wrecks and in the good will of the "democratic" self-appointees, but in fact agents of imperialist bourgeoisies. For the "Eu 77 and the various pro-imperialist imperialism without a mite of honor rocommunists" of the French, Italian dissidents it has so far been a monumen and conscience, are spitting plans that and Spanish CP's, solidarity with tal failure and one likely to throw them have not and cannot have any mission Charter 77 was a chance to prove to into future dIsarray. Cambio 1& but the preparation of counterrevolu The people who framed Charter 77 tion... : The people who wanted to their own bourgeoisies their "independ Belgrade conference In session. smuggle counterrevolution into our ence" from Moscow-i.e., their reliabil- continued on page II 11 NOVEMBER 1977 5 n the sixtieth anniversary ofthe Russian Revolution. both the OStalinist bureaucrats and the Western imperialists have highlighted the question of Soviet bloc dissidents. For Jimmy Carter they are a godsend to his campaign of moral rearmament of u.s. imperialism. for in their vast majority the current crop of dissidents look to the West for their salvation. All are united in demanding that Washing ton use economic sanctions (capitalist hlackmail) toforce concessionsfrom the SOI'iet degenerated workers state. Bour geois commentators echo the theme of Sol;:henitsyn's Gulag. that all the ddormations and hureaucratic terror in the USSR todar hal'e their source in I.enin. For the Kremlin, the implicit or direct call by the dissidents for a return to capitalism is an invaluable gift, enabling the bureaucracy to pose as defenders of the October Revolution and the t-remen dous gains it brought Soviet workers. When Solzhenitsyn longsfor the days of the tsarist knout, Bukovskyjokes about exchanging Brezhnev for Pinochet. Amalrik chides the Westfor heing "soft" on the "monsters of Marxism" and Sakharov expresses indifference tmmrd the struggle ofthe Indochinese workers and peasants against the American war machine. it is the Stalinists who benefit. J for such sentiments are deep(1' repug Red soldiers marching in Moscow, 1917. nant to the proletariat. Thus both the Pentagon and the Kremlin hawaninterest inportrayingall opposition to Stalinist rule as counter Stalin Murdered tile Revolutionaries of October rel'olutionary. It is not true. Stalin's Gulag was not built to incarcerate capitalist-restorationistsbut communist oppositionists. chiefamong them those who led the October Revolution. The "gravedigger of the revolution" mur dered virtual(1' the entire surviving irotskyists at Vorhllt Bolshevik central committee of 1917 during his bloody purges of the late I930·s. The numbers of Soviet uft Oppositionists who were cut down by the Stalinist executioners are countedin the tens and hundreds of thousands. In the prison camps. the Trotskyists were the most resolute defenders ofthe prisoners' rights. This produced innum erable cases ofindividual and collective ?J! I~~ heroism which won the admiration of even those fellow prisoners who did not ~ share their revolutionary Marxist con I victions, as well as ofmanyex-Stalinists 1~ andloyal bureaucrats caught in the web of Kremlin terror. This tremendous respect was caught by former Soviet intelligence officer uopold Trepper in his memoir The Great Game. To the question, "Who did protest ai that time?" against Stalin's blood purges, he answers: "The Trotskl'ites can lal' claim to this honor.... BI" the time of" the greGI purges, they could only shout their rebellion in the freezing wastelands where they had been dragged in order to be exterminated. In the camps, their conduct was admirable. But their voices Left Oppositionists in exile colony (ca. 1928) demonstrate on anniversary of Bolshevik Revolution. were lost in the tundra. "Today. the Trotskyites have a right to accuse those who once howled along with the wolves. LRt them not forget. however, that ther had the enormous advantage over us' ofhaving a coherent political system capable of replacing Stalinism. They had something to cling of the Soviet people against Stalinist nik. This translation was taken from Communists; as for Stalin and his to in the midst oftheir profounddistress bureaucratic domination' These unin Samizdat: Voices of the Soviet Opposi supporters, "the apparatus men," they at seeing the revolution betrayed. They ist cadres had been hardened by the tion publishedby Monad Press in 1974.) were characterized as renegades from did not 'confess.' for they knew that experience of three revolutions. Trot communism. their confession would serve neither the party nor socialism. " skyist revolutionaries of today draw Among these "Trotskyists" were also strength from their example. In the During the middle and at the end of But the Trotskyists' voices were not found people who had never formally words of Kote Tsintsadze, an "Old the 1930s, the Trotskyists formed a quite lost in the tundra and theirfight has not belonged to the CP and did not join the Bolshevik" from 1903 on who was one disparate group at Vorkuta; one part of been in vain. They alone fought for a Left Opposition, but who tied their own ofthe first uft Oppositionists to die in them kept its old name of "Bolshevik program which can win the allegiance of fate with it to the very end-even when Stalin's Gulag: Leninists." There were almost 500 at the millions ofclass-conscious Soviet work the struggle of the Opposition was most "... many of our comrades and friends mine, close to 1,000 at the camp of acute. ers. They. and those who continue their have been forced to end their lives in Ukhta-Pechora, and certainly several struggle today, are the true heirs of prison or somewhere in deportation. thousands altogether around the Pecho In addition to these genuine Trotsky October. not the complacent bureau Yet in the final analysis this will be an ists, there were in the camps of Vorkuta ra district. crats who luxuriate in their privileges enrichment of revolutionary history: a and elsewhere more than 100,000 nel\' generation will learn the lesson. while eternally seeking a deal with the The Bolshevik youth, learningfrom the The Orthodox Trotskyists were de prisoners who, members of the party imperialists. We print below a moving struggle of the Bolshevik Opposition termined to remain faithful to the end to and the youth, had adhered to the eyewitness account of the Bolshevik against the opportunist wing of the their platform and their leaders. In 1927, Trotskyist Opposition and then at uninistsat the notorious Vorkuta labor party, l\'iII understand on whose side the following the resolutions ofthe fifteenth different times and for diverse reasons truth lies...." camp. which bears vivid testimony to congress of the party, they were ex (of which the principal were, evidently, the unshakable commitment to princi (The following account. signed on(1' cluded from the Communist Party and, repressions, unemployment, persecu ples of these Trotskyist Left "M. B.... first appeared in the October at the same time, arrested. From then tions, exclusion from schools and Oppositionists. 1961 issue of the Russian Menshevik on, even though they were in prison, university facilities, etc.) were forced to Here were real heroes ofthe struggle emigre journal Sotsialistichesky Vest- they continued to consider themselves "recant their errors" and withdraw from 6 WORKERS VANGUARD the Opposition. The meeting lasted only a short time; ees of the camp lost their holidays and spoke unwillingly and rather enigmati The Orthodox Trotskyists arrived at the question of the hunger strike and of their right to leave. Attempts were made cally. But little by little, the bonds the mine during the summer of 1936and concrete demands had already been to incite the other prisoners against the between them became tighter and the lived in a compact mass in two large debated for some months by the strikers. At the mine there were food conversations franker. Without letup, barracks. They categorically refused to Trotskyists. Some Trotskyist groups in reserves beyond what was required to new prisoners arrived from Russia; old work in the pits; they worked only on other camps (Usa station, Chib-Yu, sustain those who worked in the pits; the friends and acquaintances discovered the surface, and for only eight hours, not Kochmes, etc.) had also been discussing camp administration contended that it each other: it no longer was possible not the ten or twelve required by the the matter and had sent their agreement had to use up its large reserves offat and to believe the stories. regulations, as the other prisoners were to support the demands and to partici sugar, intended for the underground In spite of these obvious facts, a forced to do. They did so on their own pate in the hunger strike. These de workers, for artificial feeding of the certain number of prisoners waited with authority, in an organized manner, mands were ratified unanimously by Trotskyists. impatience for the autumn of 1937 and openly flouting the camp regulations. In those present. They stipulated: At the end of the first month of the the twentieth anniversary ofthe October the main they had already served nearly I. Abrogation of the illegal decision strike, one of the participants died of Revolution; they hoped, on this occa ten years in deportation. of the NK YO, concerning the transfer of exhaustion; two others died during the sion as in 1927, that the government In the beginning, they were sent into all Trotskyists from administrative third month. The same month, two would declare a large-scale amnesty, political isolators and then afterwards camps to concentration camps. Affairs strikers. non-Orthodox TrotSkyists, particularly since a little while earlier the exiled to Solovka; finally, they arrived relating to political opposition to the at Yorkuta. The Trotskyists formed the regime must not be judged by special only group of political prisoners who NK YO tribunals, but in public juridical openly criticized the Stalinist "general assemblies. line" and offered organized resistance to 2. The work day in the camp must the jailers.... Their leaders were Soc not exceed eight hours. rates Gevorkian, Yladimir Ivanov, 3. The food quota of the prisoners Melnais, Y. Y. Kossior and Trotsky's ex should not depend on their norm of secretary, Poznansky.... output. A cash bonus, not the food In the autumn of 1936, soon after the ration, should be used as a production frame-up trials against the leaders ofthe incentive. apposition, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and 4. Separation, at work as well as in the others, the entire group of "Ortho the barracks, of political prisoners and dox" Trotskyists at the mine got common criminals. together to confer with one another. 5. The old, the ill, and women Opening the meeting, Gevorkian political prisoners should be moved addressed those present: "Comrades! from the polar camps to camps where Before beginning our meeting, I ask you the climatic conditions were more to honor the memory of our comrades, favorable. guides, and leaders who have died as It was recommended, at the time of martyrs at the hands of the Stalinist the meeting, that the sick, the invalids, and the old should not participate in the ,< traitors to the revolution." S ,R hunger strike; however, all those in s The entire assembly stood up. Then, . question energetically rejected this • • in a brief and very trenchant speech, " proposal. ..." Gevorkian explained that it was neces ...... -..,. ,- • The meeting did not decide the day on ". . . . sary to examine and resolve the key which the hunger strike should begin; a '. . .. . problem: what should be done and how . . .":-. . ;"~,~ five-member directorate, headed by ..". ~ ·a-: 11.1. '" _'\•• ~ •• should they conduct themselves from Gevorkian, was delegated to inform the ..,.. now on. . -.. .. . ',.".. other Trotskyist groups spread over the • '. ,'/~:~-J' '.- .'. "It is now evident that the group of ~~~ ...... ', '. I :. :<- .. : ...... • rJ*. -._ ::: immense territory containing the camps L~.•;..> • y. ..s:~-,~-> .:::'~'~:$_~< "j>:::;;'::' .) • ff- • V:._,/·~\ ~ ..h Stalinist adventurers have completed of Ukhta-Pechora. -"}"':t· L_~ ,.. ... ' 11 NOVEMBER 1977 7 some impatient rnolutionanes did. and stages of its progressi\e de\c]opment or of the Red Army? ~o. that is absurd, We Are the thl'reh~ completely disoriented thcm degenClation. We arc. in fact. the part~ Did we support the Moscow Trials and sehes In the lahor movement. The of the Russian revolution. We ha\e heen the actions of Stalin's G.P.U. in these lnltcd \cline Workers retained its the people. and the only people. who trials'? Did we support the purges. the Party of the character as a labor organi/ation and ha\e had the Russian re\olution in their wholesale murders ofthe forces in Spain only last Spring came into conflict with program and in their blood. That isalso which were directed against the work Russian the coal operators on a national scale. I the mall1 reason why the Fourth ers? If I recall correctly, we uncondition think \OU all recall that in this contest International is the only re\olutionary ally defended those workers who fought Revolution ... our press ga\e "unconditional defense" tendency In the whole world. A false on the other side of the barricades in (continued/rom paRe 3) to the miners' unIon despite the fact that position on the Russian question would Barcelona. That did not prevent us from strikehreaker Lewis remained its ha\e destroyed our mmement as it supporting the military struggle against in a strike of the Kansas miners which president. dest royed all ot hers. Franco and maintaining our position in was directed against the enforcement of The l.ongshoremen's Union of the Two years ago we once again defense of the Soviet Union against a reactionary lahor law. known as the conducted an extensive discussion on imperialist attack. Kansas Industrial Court Law. a law Pacific Coast is a bona fide organilation of workers. headed by a Stalinist of an the Russian question. The almost It is now demanded that we take a big forhidding strikes. This was a thorough unanimous conclusion of the party was step forward and support the idea ofan ly progressive action on the part of the especially unattractive type. a pocket edition of Stalin named Bridges. This written into the program of our first armed struggle against Stalin in the Kansas miners and their president. Alex convention: newly occupied territories of old Po Howat. Howat and the other local same Bridges led a squad of misguided ( I) The Soviet l' nion. on the basis of land. Is this really something new? For officials were thrown into jail. \Vhile longshoremen through a picket line of the Sailors' Union in a direct attempt to its nationalized property and planned three years the Fourth International has they were In jail. John L. Lewis. as economy. the fruit of the revolution. advocated in its program the armed president of the national organilation. hreak up tim organization. I think all of you recall that our press scathingly remains a workers' state. though in a overthrow of Stalin inside the Soviet sent hiS agents into the Kansas fields to degenerated form. Union itself. The Fourth International sign an agreement with the hosses mer denounced this contemptible action of (2) As such. we stand. as before. for has generally acknowledged the necessi the head of the officers of the Kansas Bridges. But if the l.ongshoremen's l'l1lon. headed hy Bridges. which is at the unconditional defense of the Soviet ty for an armed struggle to set up an district. He supplied strike hreakers and lnion against imperialist attack. independent Soviet Ukraine. How can thugs and money to hreak the strike this moment conducting negotiations with the bosses. is compelled to resort to (J) The hest defense the only thing there be any question of having a whik the legitimate officers of the union tha t can sa\e the Smiet l.· nion in the end different policy in the newly occupied lay In jail for a good cause. Every strike action. what stand shall we take') by sol\ing its contradictions IS the territories'! If the revolution against militant worker in the country de An~ ordinary class-conscious worker. let alone an educated Marxist. will be on international revolution of the Stalin is really ready there, the Fourth nounced this treacherous strike proletariat. International will certainly support it hreaking action of Lewis. But did we the picket line with the Longshoremen's Union or "defending" it hy some other (4) In order to regenerate the workers' and endeavor to lead it. There are no therefore renounce support of the state we stand for the overthrow of the two opinions possible in our ranks on national union of mine workers'! Yes. mea ns. Win is it so difficult for some of our hureaucracy by a political revolution. this question. But what shall we do if friends. including some of those who are But. it may be said. "Defense of the Hitler (or Chamberlain) attacks the very well educated in the formal sense. So\iet l'nion. and Russia is a Workers' Sovietized Ukraine before Stalin has to understand the Russian question') I State -those two phrases don't answer been overthrown? This is the question Homosexuals... am very much afraid it is because they everything." They are not simply that needs an unambiguous answer. (continued/rom page 4) do not think of it in terms of struggle. It phrases. One is a theoretical analysis: Shall we defend the Soviet Union, and business unionism is especially treacher is strikingly evident that the workers. the other is a political conclusion for with it now and for the same reasons, the ous given the catalytic role teachers especially the more experienced workers action. nationalized property of the newly unions could play in implementing who have taken part in trade unions. annexed territories? We say, yes! busing and school desegregation. They strikes. etc.. understand the Russian The Meaning of Unconditional That position was incorporated into could also contribute greatly to throw question much better than the more Defense the program of the foundation congress ing back the mounting attacks on educated scholastics. From theirexperi of the Fourth International. held in the homosexuals, A victory for the Briggs ences in the struggle they know what is Our motion calls for unconditional summer of 1938. Remember, that was campaign would be a sharp defeat for meant when the SO\let C nion is com defense of the Soviet Union against after the Moscow Trials and the teachers and the labor movement pared to a trade union that has fallen imperialist attack. What does that crushing of the Spanish revolution. It generally. This attack on the "public into bad hands. And everyone who has mean? It simply means that we defend was after the murderous purge of the homosexual" is a clear attempt to drive been through a couple of strikes which the Soviet Union and its nationalized whole generation of Bolsheviks, after homosexuals "into the closet," creating underwent crises and came to the brink property against external attacks of the People's Front, the entry into the an atmosphere of intimidation for all of disaster. finally to emerge victorious. imperialist armies or against internal League of Nations, the Stalin-Laval teachers. The unions must use every understands what is meant when one attempts at capitalist restoration, with pact (and betrayal of the French out putting as a prior condition the workers). We took our position on the weapon at their disposal to defend their says: No position must be surrendered members and smash the Briggs until it is irrel'ocoblr lost. overthrow of the Stalinist bureaucracy. basis of the economic structure of the witchhunt. Any other kind of defense negates the country, the fruit of the revolution. The I. personally. have seen the fate of whole position under present circum great gains are not to be surrendered The neanderthal reactionaries who more than one strike determined by the would witchhunt homosexual teachers stances. Some people speak nowadays before they are really lost. That is the will or lack of will of the leadership to . of giving "conditional" defense to the fighting program of the Fourth Interna use the same emotional rhetoric about struggle at a critical moment. All our innocent little chrldren as those who Soviet Union. Ifyou stop to think about tional. trade union successes in Minneapolis it we are for conditional defense of the have argued to make (or keep) teachers stem back directly to a fateful week in United States. It is so stated in the strikes illegal. Public employees have 1934 when the leaders refused to call off The Stalin-Hitler Pact program of the Fourth International. In historically been singled out as the first the strike. which to all appearances was the event of war we will absolutely The Stalin-Hitler pact does not targets for anti-strike legislation. School hopelessly defeated, and persuaded the defend the country on only one small change anything fundamentally. If boards and legislative bodies feel free to strike committee to hold out a while violate their democratic rights and "condition": that we first overthrow the Stalin were allied with the United longer. In that intervening time a break government of the capitalists and States, and comrades should deny invade their privacy at will-prescrib occurred in the ranks of the bosses; this replace it with a government of the defense of the Soviet Union out of fear ing and proscribing their personal in turn paved the way for a compromise activities, imposing anti-communist workers. of becoming involved in the defense of settlement and eventually victorious Does unconditional defense of the Stalin's American ally, such comrades loyalty oaths, banning political activity advance of the whole union. by government employees. Teachers are Soviet Union mean supporting every act would be wrong, but their position How strange it is that some people would be understandable as a subjective supposed to be models of conformity, analyze the weakness and defects in a upholders of the status quo, impressing reaction prompted by revolutionary workers' organization so closely that PARTISAN DEFENSE sentiments. The "defeatism" which their young charges with the tenets of they do not always take into account the bourgeois ideology and with apologies COMMITTEE FORUM: broke out in our French section follow weakness in the camp of the enemy, ing the Stalin-Laval pact was undoubt for capitalism. As communists we do which may easily more than counter not place a value on any form of edly so motivated and, consequently, balance. consensual sexual activity, and there had to be refuted with the utmost In my own agitation among strikers at Defend the fore we are not interested in "protect tolerance and patience. But an epidemic dark moments of a strike I have of "defeatism" in the democratic camp ing" children from the influence of frequently resorted to the analogy of homosexuals. Trenton 7! would be simply shameful. There is no two men engaged in a physical fight. pressure on us in America to defend the The labor movement in particular has When one gets tired and apparently at The Trenton 7 have been fired and framed up in court in an attack on the Soviet Union. All the pressure is for a a vital and immediate interest in the the end of his resources he should never defense of these victims of legally rights of all working people. Among democratic holy war against the Soviet forget that the otherfellow is maybejust hundreds of pickets who shut down Union. Let us keep this in mind. The sanctified bourgeois bigotry. The dis as tired or even more so. In that case the Chrysler'S Trenton plant this summer missals of Gaylord and Gish open the demanding the rehiring of a union main enemy is still in our own country. one who holds out will prevail. Looked stew;ird and five workers fired for an What has happened since our last door to an intensified onslaught not at in this way a worn-out strike can earlier walkout over killing heat. the only against the jobs of other homosex Trenton 7 have been singled out in order discussion? Has there been some funda sometimes be carried through to a to intimidate the entire UAW mental change in Soviet economy? No, ual teachers, but also against any compromise or a victory by the resolute membership. Facing jail sentences, teachers whose activites are deemed to fines and mounting legal costs. the nothing of that kind is maintained. will of its leadership. We have seen this Trenton 7 need your support. Nothing happened except that Stalin violate "community standards." Union happen more than once. Why should we militants are always a prime target. Speakers. JAMES BARCZYK. Chairman, signed the pact with Hitler! For us that deny the Soviet Union. which is not yet Trenton Defense Committee and gave no reason whatever to change our What is required is vigorous action by Member, UAW Local 372 exhausted. the same rights? analysis of Soviet economy and our the labor movement to put a stop to FRANK HICKS employer and state snooping into the Member, UAW Local 600 attitude toward it. The aim of all our The Danger of a False Position previous theoretical work, concentrated activities and beliefs of teachers and all November 17, 12 noon workers. Democratic rights are indivisi We haw had many discussions on the Student Center BUilding. Rm. 798 in our program, was precisely to prepare ble; those who turn their backs on the Russian question in the past. It has been Wayne State University us for war and revolution. Now we have persecution of "sexual deviants" are the central and decisive question for us. DETROIT the war; and revolution is next irrorder. only making way for a vicious onslaught as for every political tendency in the Contributions can be sent to: Trenton If we have to stop now to find a new Defense Committee. P.O. Box 2132 program it is a very bad sign. ofsocial reaction. Reinstate Gaylord and labor mowment. That. I repeat. is Riverview. MI48192 Gish! Defeat the reactionary Briggs because it is nothing less than the For more Information. call: (313) 868-9095 Just consider: There are people who campaign! • question of the revolution at variou~ could witness all the crimes and betray- 8 WORKERS VANGUARD .... - =- als of Stalin, which we understood which can lump them together with whole policy. He demoralizes the I personally feel very deeply about better than anybody else, and de other people who pursue opposite aims. workers' movement and discredits the Finland, and this is by no means nounced before anybody else and more Being for or against something is not Soviet Union. That is what we are confined to the present dispute between effectively~-they could witness all this enough in the class struggle. It is against. He betrays the revolution by his Stalin and the Finnish Prime Minister. and still stand for the defense of the necessary to explain from what stand whole course. Every incident for us fits When I think of Finland, I think of the Soviet Union. But they could not point one is for or against. Are you for into that framework; it is considered thousands of martyred dead, the prole tolerate the alliance with fascist Ger or against racketeering gangsters in the from that point of view and taken in its tarian heroes who perished under the many instead of imperialist England or trade unions?-the philistines some true proportions. white terror of Mannerheim. I would, if France! times ask. We don't jump to attention, I could, call them back from their like a private soldier who has met an The Invasion of Finland graves. Failing that, I would organize a The Invasion of Poland officer on the street, and answer, proletarian army of Finnish workers to Those who take the Polish invasion "against!" We first inquire: who asks avenge them, and drive their murderers Of course, there has been a great an incident in a great chain of events this question and from what standpoint? into the Baltic Sea. I would send the Red hullaballoo about the Soviet invasion of as the basis for a fundamental change in And what weight does this question Army of the regenerated Soviet Union Polish Ukraine. But that is simply one of our program show a lack ofproportion. have in relation to other questions? We to help them at the decisive moment. the consequences of the war and the That is the kindest thing that can be said have our own standpoint and we are We don't support Stalin's invasion alliance with Hitler's Germany. The for them. They are destined to remain in careful not to get our answers mixed up only because he doesn't come for contention that we should change our a permanent lather throughout the war. with those of class enemies and pacifist revolutionary purposes. He doesn't analysis of the social character of the They are already four laps behind come at the call of Finnish workers Soviet state and our attitude toward its muddleheads. schedule: There is also Latvia, and whose confidence he has forfeited. That defense because the Red Army violated Some people-especially affected Estonia, and Lithuania, and now is the only reason we are against it. The the Polish border is even more absurd bosses- are against racketeering gang Finland. "borders" have nothing to do with it. than to base such changes on the Hitler sters in the trade unions because they We can expect another clamor of "Defense" in war also means attack. Do pact. The Polish invasion is only an extort graft from the bosses. That siqe of demands that we say, point-blank, and you think we will respect frontiers when incident in a war, and in wars borders the question doesn't interest us very in one word, whether we are "for" or we make our revolution? If an enemy are always violated. (If all the armies much. Some people-especially pacifist "against" the pressure on poor little army lands troops at Quebec, for stayed at home there could be no war.) preachers-are against the gangsters bourgeois-democratic Finland. Our example, do you think we will wait The inviolability of borders-all of because they commit violence. But we answer-wait a minute. Keep your shirt placidly at the Canadian border for their which were established by war-is are not against violence at all times and on. There is no lack of protests in behalf attack? No, if we are genuine revolution interesting to democratic pacifists and under all circumstances. We, for our of the bourgeois swine who rule Fin ists and not pacifist muddleheads we to nobody else. part, taking our time and formulating land. The New Leader has protested. will cross the border and meet them at Hearing all the democratic clamor we our viewpoint precisely, say: We are Charles Yale Harrison has written a tear the point of landing. And if our defense had to ask ourselves many times: Don't against union gangsterism because it ful column about it. The renegade Lore requires the seizure of Quebec, we will they know that Western Ukraine and injures the union in its fight against the has wept about it in the New York Post. seize it as the Red Army of Lenin seized White Russia never rightfully belonged bosses. That is our reason. It proceeds The President of the United States has Georgia and tried to take Warsaw. to Poland? Don't they know that this from our special class standpoint on the protested. Finland is pretty well covered territory was forcibly taken from the union question. - with moral support. So bourgeois Soviet Union by Pilsudski with French So with Poland: We don't support the Finland can wait a minute till we explain Foreseen in Program of Fourth aid in 1920? course of Stalin in general. His crime is our attitude without botheringabout the International To be sure, this did notjustify Stalin's not one incident here or there but his "for" or "against" ultimatum. invasion of the territory in collaboration Some may think the war and the with Hitler. We never supported that alliance with Hitler change everything we have previously considered; that it, and we never supported the fraudulent sound; but all, on the watch, still at least, requires a reconsideration ofthe claim that Stalin was bringing "libera listened. Nearly an hour passed in this whole question of the Soviet Union, if tion" to the peoples of the Polish way. Then, again, shots resounded in Vorkuta ... not a complete change in our program. Ukraine. At the same time we did not the tundra; this time they came from II: propose to yield an inch to the "demo (continued from page 7) To this we can answer: II: much further away, in the direction of II: War was contemplated by our cratic" incitement against the Soviet arrested in more distant camps-at the narrow railway which passed three I Pechora, Izhma, Kozhma, Chib-Yu, program. The fundamental theses on I Union on the basis of the Polish events. kilometers from the brickyard. The i "War and the Fourth International," The democratic war mongers were etc.-were kept near Chib-Yu. second "convoy" definitely convinced !! shrieking at top of their voices all over The whole winter of 1937-38 some adopted in 1934, say: .. those remaining behind that they had 'Of "Every big war, irrespective of its initial town. We must not be undl!ly impressed prisoners, encamped in barracks at the ... been irremediably condemned. brickyard, starved and waited for a moves, must pose squarely the question 'I' by this democratic clamor. Your Na The executions in the tundra lasted of military intervention against the tional Committee was not in the least decision regarding their fate. Finally, in the whole month of April and part of U.S.S.R. in order to transfuse fresh impressed. March, three NKVD officers, with May. Usually one day out oftwo, or one blood into the sclerotic veins of capitalism.... In order to penetrate a little deeper Kashketin at their head, arrived by day out ofthree, thirty to forty prisoners into this question and trace it to its plane at Vorkuta, coming from Mos "Defense of the Soviet Union from the K were called. It is characteristic to note blows of the capi1iaiist enemies, irrespec roots, let us take another hypothetical cow. They came to the brickyard to that each time, some common criminals, tive ofthe circul)}~ances and immediate example. Not a fantastic one, but a very interrogate the prisoners. Thirty to forty repeaters, were included. In order to causes of the conW~t, is the elementary logical one. Suppose Stalin had made a were called each day, superficially and impera~ive,·d\.lty of every honest terrorize the prisoners, the GPU, from labor orgamzatrdh." pact with the imperialist democracies questioned five to ten minutes each, time to time, made publicly known by against Hitler while Rumania had allied rudely insulted, forced to listen to vile means of local radio, the list of those Alliances were contemplated. The itself with Hitler. Suppose, as would name-calling and obscenities. Some shot. Usually broadcasts began as theses say: . most probably have happened in that were greeted with punches in the face; follows: "For counterrevolutionary "In the existing situation an alliance of case, the Red Army had struck at Lt. Kashketin himself several times beat the U.S.S. R. with an imperialist state or !! agitation, sabotage, brigandage in the with one imperialist combination i Rumania, Hitler's ally, instead of up one of them, the Old Bolshevik Virap II: camps, refusal to work, attempts to against another, in case of war, cannot I: Poland, the ally of the democracies, and Virapov, a former member of the escape, the following have been shot ..." at all be considered as excluded. Under had seized Bessarabia, which also once Central Committee of Armenia.. followed by a list of names of some the pressure of circumstances a tempo II: belonged to Russia. Would the demo At the end of March, a list of twenty political prisoners mixed with a group rary alliance ofthis kind may become an cratic war mongers in that case have five was announced, among them iron necessity, without ceasing, how of common criminals. ever, because of it, to be of the greatest howled about "Red Imperialism"? Not Gevorkian, Virapov, Slavin, etc....To One time, a group of nearly a danger both to the U.S.S.R. and to the on your life! each was delivered a kilo of bread and hundred, composed mainly of Trotsky world revolution. I am very glad that our National orders to prepare himself for a new ists, was led away to be shot. As they "The international proletariat will not decline to defend the U.S.S.R. even if Committee maintained its independ convoy. After fond farewells to their marched away, the condemned sang the friends, they left the barracks, and the the latter should find itself forced into a ence from bourgeois democratic pres "Internationale," joined by the voices of military alliance with some imperialists sure on the Polish invasion. The convoy departed. Fifteen or twenty hundreds of prisoners remaining in against others. But in this case, even question was put to us very excitedly, minutes later, not far away, about halfa camp. more than in any other, the internation al proletariat must safeguard its com point-blank, like a pistol at the temple: kilometer, on the steep bank of the little At the beginning of May, a group of "Are you for or against the invasion of river Verkhnyaya Vorkuta (Upper plete political independence from So women were shot. Among them were viet diplomacy and thereby also Poland?" But revolutionary Marxists Vorkuta), an abrupt volley resounded, the Ukranian Communist, Chumskaya, from the bureaucracy of the Third don't answer in a "yes" or "no" manner followed by isolated and disorderly the wife of I. N. Smirnov, a Bolshevik International." shots; then all grew qUiet again. Soon, since 1898 and ex-peoples' commissar; A stand on defense was taken in the the convoy's escort passed back near the (Olga, the daughter ofSmirnov, a young light of this perspective. barracks. And it was clear to all in what SL/SYL PUBLIC OFFICES girl, apolitical, passionately fond of A slogan of defense acquires a sort of convoy the prisoners had been music, had been shot a year before in concrete meaning precisely in the event Marxist Literature sent. Moscow); the wives of Kossior, of of war. A strange time to drop it! That Two days later, there was a new call, BAY AREA Melnais, etc.... one of these women had would mean a rejection of all our this time of forty names. Once more to walk on crutches. At the time of theoretical preparation for the war. Friday and Saturday 3:00-6:00 p.m. there was a ration ofbread. Some, out of 1634 Telegraph. 3rd floor execution of a male prisoner, his That would mean starting all over again. (near 17th Street) exhaustion, could no longer move; they imprisoned wife was automatically From what fundamental basis? Nobody Oakland. California were promised a ride in a cart. Holding Phone 835-1535 liable to capital punishment; and when knows. their breath, the prisoners remaining in it was a question of well-known mem There has been much talk of "inde CHICAGO the barracks heard the grating of the bers of the Opposition, this applied pendence" on the Russian question. Tuesday 4:30-8:00 snow under the feet of the departing equally to any of his children over the That is good! A revolutionist who is not Saturday 2:00-5:30 p.m. convoy. For a long time there was no age of twelve. independent is not worth his salt. But it 523 South Plymouth Court. 3rd floor , , Chicago. Illinois In May, when hardly a hundred is necessary to specify: Independent of Phone 427-0003 SPARTACIST CANADA prisoners remained, the executions were whom? What is needed by our party at NEW YORK Subscription: $2/year interrupted. Two weeks passed quietly; every turn is class independence, inde Monday-Friday " 6:30-9:00 p.m. (11 issues) then all the prisoners were led in a pendence of the Stalinists, and, above Saturday 1:00-4:00 pm. convoy to the mine. There it was learned all, independence of the bourgeoisie. 260 West Broadway. Room 522 Make payable/mail to: that Yezhov had been dismissed, and Our program assures such independ New York. N'ew York Spartacist Canada Publishing Association Box 6867. Station A that his place had been taken by ence underall circumstances. Itshall not Phone 925-5665 ~ Toronto. Ontario. Canada Beria.... be changed!. 11 NOVEMBER 1977 9 .. Comrade Blanco: Free All Political Prisoners? What About Hubert Matos? Thefollowing leaflet was distributed by expropriation of the very largest lati the New York Spartacist League at a fundios on the island, a right-wing forum given by Peruvian socialist opposition crystallized among military militant Hugo Blanco on 5 November leaders of Castro's hc;terogeneous July 1977. 26 Movement. Matos, then military Tonight, as throughout his American chief of Camaguey province, was to be tour, Hugo Blanco will be speaking the rallying point for the plotters under the banner ofthe U.S. Committee many of, whom, like Manuel Rey, were for Justice to Latin American Political to show up 18 months later at the Bay of WV Photo Prisoners (USLA). That banner states: Pigs in the company of former Batista Hugo Blanco speaking at forum I.n BOlton. "Free All Latin American Political torturers. It was for his role in this Prisoners." This has been the position of counterrevolutionary conspiracy that elsewhere is of a piece with such clutches ofthe Videlajunta in Argentina USLA since it was formed in 1966 by the Matos was arrested. "consistently democratic" reformism as and to aid blinded Chilean militant ex-Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party Today the release of Matos is the the SWP's advocacy of"free speech" for socialist and trade unionist Fernando (SWP). calling card of every anti-communist murderous fascist scum. Marcos in his battle to regain his The slogan is a hallmark of "class "concerned democrat"-concerned, In contrast, the Spartacist League eyesight. In the 1960's when the SWP neutral" civil libertarianism as exempli that is, with the restitution of Mafia (SL) and the Partisan Defense Commit was basking in the popularity of the fied by Amnesty International. It is dominated capitalist rule on the island tee (PDC) demand "Free all prisoners of Cuban Revolution (labeling Castro an generally coupled with demands such as 90 miles from the Florida shore. The right-wing repression." Unlike USLA "unconscious Marxist"), it was the SL "stop totalitarianism on both sides of New York Times and Chilean butcher and the SWP, the PDC-a class which fulfilled its revolutionary duties the Iron Curtain"-a slogan which Pinochet have both championed his struggle, anti-sectarian defense organi by defending Cuban supporters of denies the fundamental class difference cause. For Marxists, advocating the zation which is in accordance with the Trotskyism who were languishing in the between the degenerated and deformed "freedom" of this clearly political political views of the SL-has consist prisons of the fidelista Stalinists. workers states of the Soviet bloc and prisoner is as unthinkable as calling for ently drawn the class line in its defense The American and European left right-wing military dictatorships such as the release of the sole remaining activities. At the time of the Chilean must vigorously protest the murder of Chile. For Marxists-and anyone who political prisoner in Berlin's Spandau coup. we unhesitatingly demonstrated thousanps of leftists and unionists, the bases himself on class criteria-not all prison, Rudolph Hess! in defense of imprisoned leaders of the torture of tens of thousands and the political prisoners are the same. Since The question of demanding freedom MIR while other organizations (includ jailing of hundreds of thousands under the Cuban deformed workers state is, if for Matos (or, for example, fascists in ing USLA) were solidarizing only with the blood-stained military dictatorships not the "first free territory of America," Francoist jails and Georgian fascists the treacherous Stalinist and social which stretch across almost all of Latin at least the only country where capitalist locked up in the USSR) is central in democratic misleaders who had led the America. But genuine solidarity with rule has been overthrown in this determining the defense policies of those workers organizations into the popular the victims of Pinochet, Videla, Stroess hemisphere; and since Blanco and the who claim to stand on the side of the front debacle. We also publicized the ner and Co.-unlike the moralistic SWP claim to defend Cuba against working class. However, built on the plight of a number of naval seamen and gesture of boycotting everything Chile yanqui imperialism, the question arises: SWP's reformist program of appeasing even high-level officers who were an which Blanco is so fond of-must do Blanco and USLA call for the American liberals, USLA consciously arrested (while Allende was still in take as its point of departure the only freedom of "Latin American political rejects the class axis which has guided power) for their refusal to go along with force which can eradicate once and for prisoners" such as Cuban counterrevo the defense work of revolutionary plans for the bloody September II coup. all the brutality of militarist bonapartist lutionary Hubert Matos? organizations in this country since the The PDC organized campaigns (from rule, the working class. For the past 18 years, Matos has been time of the International Labor De which the S\\!P and USLA criminally So, Comrade Blanco, we pose the imprisoned in Cuba on clearly "politi fense. The demand for the freeing of all abstained) to rescue Chilean trade question: Free all political prisoners? cal" grounds. Following the June 1959 political prisoners in Latin America or union leader Mario Munoz from the What about Hubert Matos? Oman, but a major component (togeth militants who then turned to Maoism the last year in China, a group on the er with Turkey and Pakistan) of the have since hardened into fanatical West Coast calling itself the Union of Butcher string of U.S. allies along the southern defenders of the Sino-Iranian alliance. Iranian Students has split, condemning frontier of the SO\iet Union. Beginning in 1971, Peking began its China's foreign policy outright as treacherous course of supporting the "reactionary" and backing Albania. Shah ... Maoists and Nationalists in Crisis Shah as a bulwark against "Soviet Simultaneou,sly there has been a split in (continuedfrom page 12) social-imperialism," as the pages of one of the groups which presented a Ever since the 1953 CIA-engineered spewed forth Mao's full hard pro-Peking front, the Toufahn and daughters 01 prisoners in front of coup which reinstalled the Shah on his Peking Review support to Iranian "defense" policies group. A slavishly pro-H ua tendency them. throne. the Iranian student movement (directed against the USSR). In late recently expelled by the group revealed By no means all of the inhabitants of has hurled itself against the bloody 1973, Peking abruptly ended all Chinese that Toufahn sent a confidential letter of the SAVAK's torture chambers began as regime. In the mid-1960's the Confeder aid to the Peoples Front for the protest to China after the visit of the oppositionists. Thousands of artists, ation of Iranian Students (CIS) broke Liberation of Oman, which was fighting Shah's notoriously bloodthirsty sister in teachers and writers who were suspected with the pro-Moscow Stalinist Tudeh a guerrilla war against the sultan and his 1971. and is now allegedly also backing of being critical of Iranian society have (M asses) Party. criticizing the Soviet Iranian, British and Jordanian backers. the Gang of Four. As for the expelled been "interrogated." Sometimes they trade deals with Iran and the Kremlin's This accumulation of betrayals by the group, it raves about American "ap are charged with not having been resultant refusal to politically attack the Mao-Stalinists shattered the CIS and its peasement" of the USSR and advocates sufficiently laudatory of the monarch Shah. But. tragically, many of these American affiliate, the ISA. striking "the main blow at the Munich and his "White Revolution." An Iranian policy"! poet and professor writes: "Almost all The issue came to a head at the Despite their differences, what unites the prominent writers and poets of the sixteenth conference of the CIS, held in all the splinters of the ISA and CIS is a country have suffered incarceration and January 1975 in Europe, when hard-line shared commitment to the strategy of torture at the hands ofSAVA K agents in Maoists put forward a resolution stating "two-stage" revolution to overthrow the recent years.... In Iran one cannot stage that one of the most important tasks of Young monarchy and install a revival of the Hamlet. Richard III or Macbeth be the confederation was "to expose the 1951-53 "National Front" government cause no Iranian should see the death of reactionary policies of the Soviet Un a prince or a king on the stage" (Reza Spartacus ion." This was defeated by a majority Baraheni, Crowned Cannibals [1977]). grouped under the name ofthe "Nation TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF MONTHLY NEWSPAPER OF THE The Shah has long sought to pose. al Front," which included some critical SPARTACUS YOUTH LEAGUE CANADA with the aid of U.S. publicity agents, as a Maoists, others with politics parallel to social reformer. But the hundreds of Make checks payable/mail to. the U.S. Revolutionary Communist FORUM: thousands of imprisoned and tortured Spartacus Youth Publishing Co., Party (RCP) and various guerrillaists Box 825, Canal Street Station, with less defined politics. A motion was The Fight for Class oppositionists. and the Pahlevi dynas New York, N.Y. 10013 ty's combination of banana republic passed proposing to "direct the main Struggle Leadership style corruption and grandiloquent Name _ blow against U.S. imperialism, the posturing as heirs to the ancient Persian number one enemy of the peoples of the in the Trade Unions Address _ empire (the present Shah's father took world. while exposing the anti revolutionary policies of the Soviet GUEST SPEAKER: BOB McBURNEY power in a palace coup in the 1920's), Shop Steward LCUC Union whenever necessary." make a mockery of Carter's "human City _ Local 1, Toronto rights" crusade. This grotesque torture Within the United States. the ISA Thursday, Nov. 17 1230 pm regime is strategically vital for the State Zip _ splintered into a half-dozen factions, Pub Seminar Room SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY primary aim ofthe U.S. policy: isolating particularly under the impact of the and pressuring the USSR. Iran is not purge of the "Gang of Four" in Peking. Saturday. Nov 19 730 pm SUBSCRIBE NOW! Britannia Library only Western imperialism's policeman $2/10 issues While the largest grouping is sym COMMERCIAL AT NAPIER of the Persian Gulf, where its troops and pathetic to the RCP, and shares its Donation $100.J jets sustain the tottering sultanate of ostrich-like agnosticism on the events of 10 WORKERS VANGUARD , Smash Administration Anti-Red Ban! of the "Prague Spring" bear the harves' ;;""a•..o·,~"~'",,o ,:c,,~·,..;,;~. Dissidents of a "Budapest October." The brutal Russian-bloc intervention Appeal ... succeeded in cutting short the otherwise Armed Cops Throw inevitable conflicts between the Dubcck (conrinu{'djrom paKe 5) bureaucracy and the Czechoslovak proletariat. It also succeeded, however, SYL Leader Off Chicago with its indirect appeal to the world's in conserving the utopian illusions of foremost imperialists are none other many 'in the Dubcek camp that, save for than some of the leaders of the liberal the Kremlin invasion, the bureaucracy Campus wing of the Czechoslovak Communist could have been peaceably reformed Party who came to the fore during 1968. into a social-democratic paradise. The At that time Dubcek and his cohorts CH ICAGO-On October 27 Spartacus limits of liberal Stalinism so evident in thc SYL. Representatives of the Young claimed to be creating "socialism with a Youth League (SYL) spokesman San Tito's Yugoslavia were unable to mani Socialist Alliance CYSA) and the UICC human face"." in one country. dor John was thrown off the University student government, as well as students fest themselves because of that Actually, the main aim of the of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus from the Union for Mexican-Chicano intervention. Dubcekites was to "reform" the Czech (LJ ICC) by armed policemen. The Students and the Circle Women's The tragedy is that these illusions are oslovak economy so badly mismanaged university administration announced Liberation Union (CWLU) attended the catered to in the name of Trotskyism by by the Novotny bureaucracy. In particu ~ that he was "permanently barred" and meeting, which formed an ad hoc the opportunist United Secretariat of lar the Dubcek regime wanted to would be arrested for criminal trespass Committee to Stop Administration Ernest Mandel & Co, Both the Ameri increase the role of market forces in the if he ever set foot on UICC property Harassment. The purpose of the Com can SWP and the former International economy inherited from the Stalin era, again. As John was "escorted" off the mittee is to mobilize protest around the Majority Tendency have shamelessly to shut down outmoded plants, to tailed after and apologized for the r grounds, one of the cops warned: "If we slogans: End the administration's ha r import new technology and to speed up get any more complaints from these rassment of the left and campus organi former bureaucrats of Charter 77, not J the workforce. Novotny was conse only excusing their appeals to U.S. [ people [the university administration] zations! Stop the administration's anti ( quently able to keep some support in the about you being in the building or on communist "ban" on Sandor John! imperialism to "guarantee human r factories for a period by pointing out the campus, you will be locked up." While the Maoist Revolutionary Stu rights" but also catering to their illu intent of Dubcek's economic planners. When he was nabbed by university dent Brigade left the meeting without sions that Stalinism can be reformed, authorities the SYL spokesman was comment. the united-front Committee The successful struggle against the Genuine Trotskyists take as their engaged in a conversation in an area of has been endorsed by the SYL, YSA,-the Novotny wing of the bureaucracy of starting point two intertwined aims: to the campus traditionally used by politi student government, Janis Gutfreund of necessity required that the Dubcekites defend unconditionally the historic cal groups. Approaching from behind, the CWLU and left-wing professor Julia dismantle or neutralize the secret police. gains already embodied in the deformed UICC administrator Willie McKay LeSage. More endorsements are being Thus the "Prague Spring" presented the workers states and to renew and extend fingered John as a "non-student" to the gathered along with signatures to a novel situation of liberal Stalinist the Russian October through revolu campus cops he had brought along to dq protest petition. reformers bent on speeding up the tionary action of the proletariat: politi the dirty work. The accusation of being The meeting "adjourned" to an Czechoslovak working class, but with cal revolution against the Stalinist a "non-student" is a complete fraud at administration meeting, where the out the police force to impose their aims. bureaucracies in the Sino-Soviet states this sprawling commuter campus fre students confronted assembled bureau This situation was explosive, and it was and socialist revolution to overthrow quented by many who are not enrolled crats and underlings with the Commit the spectacle of Stalinists without cops capitalist imperialism elsewhere. Those for classes. tee demands. Administrator Stanford which impelled the Soviets and their who instead look to the "democratic" Further, the building is open to the Delaney excused himself from respond Warsaw Pact allies to stage the August imperialists are traitors to the socialist general public and John has regularly ing, saying that it would take too long to 1968 invasion. Brezhnev and Ulbricht future. carried on political work of the SYL explain the university's position. But the had no intention of letting the blossoms The extreme touchiness which the an officially recognized UICC student administration's position is quite clear: organization-on campus. The charge they want "reds" off campus. As the of "outside agitator" is one of the oldest most active left group on campus, ploys in the book of red baiting . The especialiy in defense of busing, the SYL administration action against Sandor has become the first target of an John and the Spartacus Youth League is escalating witchhunt. The ad hoc an outrageous violation of democratic Committee is equally clear in its rights and a crude attempt to intimidate purpose: it intends to mobilize the all left-wing groups on campus. If this necessary support to crack the adminis anti-red ban is not broken, UICC tration's anti-communist ban. A public authorities will be emboldened in their meeting has been called for November ~ McCarthyite purge of "undesirables." 10 by the Committee to Stop Adminis ( Recognizing the threat posed by the tration Harassment. "permanent bar," a number of campus Smash the anti-red ban at Circle organizations and individuals attended Campus! Cops off campus, not the I a meeting on November 3 initiated by left! • ! of the "anti-imperialist" landlord orientation. CAl FI refuses to defend the M ossadegh. With the possible excep Iranian guerrilla fighters from the Volker Kramer tion of the hard-Maoists, they support Shah's repression, and it shares the Russian troops outside of Prague radio station In August 1968. the petty-bourgeois nationalist guerrilla Stalino-Menshevik two-stage theories , " Stalinists manifest whenever the ques organizations, the Organization of of the rest of,the Iranian left. The tion of the most elementary democratic Iranian People's Fedayeen [Self international Spartacist tendency. in SPARTACIST LEAGUE rights is posed is a direct reflection of Sacrificing] Guerrillas (OIPFG) and contrast, stands for the Marxist revolu LOCAL DIRECTORY these usurpers' role as a parasitic the Organization of Majahedeen tionary perspective of permanent revo ANN ARBOR (313) 663-9012 cia SYL Room 4316 bureaucratic caste that has politically [Combatants] of the People of Iran lution, for workers rule in Iran as the Michigan Union. U of Michigan expropriated the proletariat. Exactly (OMPI). Although the OIPFG was only means of achieving the democratic Ann Arbor. MI 48109 BERKELEY because the Stalinists are a caste and not 1 founded by young would-be Marxist and anti-imperialist demands of the OAKLAND (415) 835- 535 ( Box 233/2 a class, and one which maintains it is intellectuaIs, while the 0 M PI only Iranian toilers. I Oakland. CA 94623 carrying out the socialist rule of the declared itself to be "Marxist-Leninist" Hands off Iranian militants-Free all if BOSTON ! 617> 492-3928 proletariat while it i~ in fact trampling i in 1975 (it had previously styled itself \ictims of the Shah's white terror! :\0 Box 188 MIT Station any and all proletarian democracy "Islamic-Marxist"), they are both en I '.S. arms to the Shah! Down with the I Cambridge MA 02139 underfoot, the bureaucratically degen gaged in a fruitless search for the hloody Pahlevis For a workers and i CHICAGO (312) 427-0003 erated and deformed workers states are "progressive." "anti-imperialist" petty pea,ants govcrnment in Iran!. Box 6441 Main PO I Chicago IL 60680 highly unstable, requiring the Stalinists hourgcoisie and "national bourgeoisie." ...... CLEVELAND 1216! 566-7806 to deploy massive police forces. Spartacus Youth League Box 6765 Cleveland OH 44101 For this reason we raise the banner of Hut the utterly corrupt. servile CLASS SERIES DETROIT (313) 868-9095 proletarian political revolution to oust Irania n comprador bourgeoisie is incap Box 663A General PO the Stalinist usurpers and restore soviet ahle of leading a democratic revolution Fundamentals of DetrOit MI 48232 democracy. To accomplish this it is in till' age of imperialism. Mossadegh. Marxism HOUSTON Box 26474 necessary to construct Trotskyist parties while partially expropriating the oil Houston TX 77207 Thursdays, October 13 to December in the USSR and the deformed workers industn. did not carn out land reform 8 at 7:30 p.m. LOS ANGELES ,2131662-1564 . . Box 26282 Edendale Station states. The experiences of Berlin 1953, or arm the masses. thus paving the way 222 Wheeler Hall Angeles C/1. 90026 Hungary 1956, Poland 1956 and 1970, lor his 0\\ n o\crthrow. The working UC Berkeley NEW YORK 2121925-2426 80x ~ 3~7 GPO and Czechoslovakia 1968 clearlv con cia,s alone can lead the struggle of the BERK~~~~_ ~OUC· \.. -/ New Y\)rk NY firm this as an iron imperativ~. The ()ppre~sed. grantll1g land to the peasan SAN DIEGO crisis of re\olutionary leadership ex tn. reeogni/ing the national rights of PO 80:-, ~ The Fight to Implement Vista CA tends to the East. It will not be I oppressed nationalities (Azerbaijanis. !( S/11\; F ANCISCC j' 5 863-6963 eliminated by tailing muddleheaded Kurd,) and oreaking with Imperialism. Busing Be:...: 7 1 2 San ra~~:c::sc:=; C,~ 9":1 1 Stalinist bureaucrats V'iho dream of 0\ cstahlishlllg its 0\\ n clas~ rule. For Labor/Black Defense to Stop "socialism with a human face" in one I Ill' H>ad !o['\\ard flU Iranian \\ould Racist Attacks and to Smash Fascist TROTSKYIST LEAGUE country and grovel before the liberal Ol' rn olutllHlaril" I., the road of Trot Th reats OF CANADA 3S,6 4~iU; imperialists. Only the struggle for the ,k\ hnl. !wt thl' p,euuo-Trotsk\ism oj Price: 75c A rebirth of the Fourth International will thl' Soclaliq \\orker, Party and ih Ma':e cnec,s payable mail to. assemble the revolutionary cadres able VANCC~VER 29'-3993 ,ateilite. the Committee for :\rtistic and Spartacus Youth Publishing Co.. Box 825 80) 26, Station f\ to sweep Stalinism from the face of the Intellccua! l-reedllll1 in Iran (C:\IFI). Canal St Station. New York. NY 10013 Vanco~ver BC planet. • HeGIU,c' ()f Ih oourgcois ci\ il-Iloertanan 11 NOVEMBER 1977 11 I I ~-'• W'liNEliS ,,1NfilJlllilJ 20 Iranian Students Savag!1Y. Beaten, Arrested by. Chicago CoP! Jlvenge Victimsof Butcher Shahl In a massive display of official brutality, some 300 Chicago cops attacked a group of 40 Iranian students and their supporters at the YMCA Central Community College on October 28. Evening TV newscasts caught the Right: Iranian students cops in frenzied action, dragging the demonstrating in Washington demonstrators by the hair, kicking them earlier this year. Below: Shah receiving officials at his palace. in the face and head, or poking billy clubs in students' stomachs and groins while others struck and kicked the same worth of sophisticated weaponry to the victim. Twenty demonstrators, all but Shah's army. According to Senate esti three of them Iranian, were arrested, mates, the number of American mili and were reportedly beaten again after tary advisors and intelligence-related they reached the police station. Thirteen personnel in Iran will reach 60,000 by of the Iranians were injured, and four 1980. It is not accidental that Carter has protesters were hospitalized, one of appointed William Sullivan-who, as them for a week after the incident. ambassador to Laos, oversaw both the Charges "ranging from mob action to secret U.S. air war and the CIA's interfering with police" (Chicago Sun organizing of anti-communist mercen Times, 29 October) have been levied ary armies of Laotian and Meo against those arrested in this blatant cop tribesmen--as the new ambassador to riot. The mere arrest of these students Tehran. raises an immediate threat of deporta The scale of repression in Iran is truly tion. If deported, they face certain staggering. Amnesty International re imprisonment, likely torture and in ports that the Shah's jails entomb as many cases death in the Shah's dun many as 100,000 political prisoners, geons. The left and labor movement with more than 300,000 locked up at one must demand that all charges be time or another in the 19-year existence dropped, and all victimization of the of the SAVAK. This would be the Iranian militants be stopped now! There equivalent of roughly 2 million political must be no deportations. We demand prisoners in the U.S. More than 600 political asylum for all left opponents of official executions have taken place in the butcher Shah! UPI Iran since 1971, making it the interna Chicago, ofcourse, is a city where the SAVAK (Persian acronym for Iranian infuriated by ISA-organized demon tional capital of legal murder. In police daily terrorize the black and State Security Organization). In Chica strations which greeted his wife when addition countless more die at the hands Spanish-speaking population with im go, students organizing for the Washing she visited the U.S. earlier this year, has of secret police torturers. punity. But the degree of viciousness ton demonstration and sympathizers an additional tactic. His plan is to SAVAK "interrogators" employ all and the large number of students who intend to' accompany them have distract media attention from the the traditional forms of torture, such as arrested on October 28 has a specific received anonymous threatening phone protest demonstrations by attempting ripping out toenails and fingernails, political message. The demonstration calls during the past few weeks. to insure that there will be supporters of breaking bones, beatings and rape. But was called by two wings of the Iranian the Shah demonstrating in Washington in addition they have made some unique Students Association (ISA) to protest SAVAK agents are undoubtedly bus as well. According to the ISA, the contributions of their own, rivaling in increasing harassment by the YMCA ily preparing for the Shah's visit. SAVAK is offering an all-expense-paid this respect the murderous military College administration and the upcom Following the September 1976 Wash "holiday weekend," including air fare, regime in Brazil. In one torture a heavy ing November 15-16 visit by the Shah to ington, D.C. bomb assassination of hotel lodging, meals and $100 in cash to weight is hung from the testicles of a Washington, D.C. The ISA has held a former Chilean ambassador Orlando prisoner. almost instantly maiming him; series of forums and demonstrations Letelier-in which all leads point to the Iranians in the U.S. for participation in this "welcome the Shah" project. The another procedure involves burning around the city, including a demonstra bloody hand of Pinochet's DINA-the financial arrangements vary from city to holes in the victim's face with a red-hot tion of more than a hundred on Iranian autocrat brazenly boasted that city, and in some cases people willing to iron rod, while a third technique burns a November 5 to mobilize as many people his agents are active in the U.S., go to Washington are offered a flat $600. victim on a device resembling a bed as possible for a demonstration in the infiltrating organizations opposed to his frame. When all the varieties of physical capital. murderous regime. SAVAK activities go Carter's "Human Rights" Equals torture have been exhausted, they The arrests of the ISA demonstrators far beyond spying. Last year the CBS Shah's White Terror supplement it with psychological tor in Chicago is merely the beginning of a television program Sixty Minutes docu ture, such as taking a prisoner before a wave of victimization of Iranian stu mented that assassination squads had The Washington visit by Shah Reza firing squad as if to execute him. One dents around the royal visit. The been dispatched to the United States Pahlevi underscores American imperi particularly vicious weapon employed Chicago Red Squad, in particular, has a and Europe to liquidate opponents of alism's role in propping up its Iranian by the secret police of this "urbane" long and well-documented history of the Shah's reign of terror. client state, ranging from cop and FBI monarch is to torture and rape the wives spying on Iranian students and has also In conjunction with harassment of repression of Iranian militants in the been linked, along with the FBI, to the Iranian student militants, the Shah, LJ .S. to its sale of billions of dollars continued on page 10 12 11 NOVEMBER 1977