WfJ/lNElIS,,I"(J(J,I/I, 25¢ No.519 ~X-523 1 February 1991

• ar in I e • • I erslan • Less than 16 hours after the deadline ran out for George Bush's ultimatum, squadrons of U.S. jets and bombers screamed off runways in Saudi Arabia Bush's "New World Order" and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to drop their payloads of death upon the people of Baghdad. Means Imperialist Slaughter Across the U.S. and Europe, outraged demonstrators poured into the streets by the thousands. While the media presented gushing accounts of a high-tech video war game and romantic sunset shots of U.S. fighter planes, millions in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities were experiencing the all-too-real stench of death on· the streets and the screech of terror from the skies. The White House proclaimed: "The liberation of Kuwait has begun." the Spartacist League said: "The mass mur­ der of the Iraqi people had begun." To believe the first hours of TV cover­ age, the high-tech U.S. war machine was sweeping the field in a seemingly blood­ less war that would be all but over by breakfast. Bush cheered that his dogs of war were "right on schedule." Before midnight the first "instant poll" results were in: 86 percent say "yes" to war. Evangelist preacher Billy Graham was called to the White House to stay in the guest bedroom and conduct a prayer breakfast the next morning. Wall Street, too, thanked god for being on "our side": "After a moment of si­ lent prayer for the troops in the Persian Gulf and a short clang of the opening bell...trading got off to a flying start," AP the New York Times (18 January) wrote, The Revelation of "High Tech." Battleship Wisconsin launches Tomahawk cruise missile. U.S. rains death on Iraq with continued on page 7 thousands of "smart" weapons.

Spartacist League

On the night that American planes began bombing Baghdad, there were immediate spontaneous angry protests in cities from New York to San Francisco. At these and subsequent demonstrations, speakers from the Spartacist League read the following statement: As we demonstrate here, the United States government is raining death down on Baghdad. The mass murder of the Iraqi people has begun. George Bush has been planning this holocaust against the Arab peoples of the Near East for months. The war criminals in the White House and the Pentagon are aided /and abetted by the Democrats in Congress, both those who voted for this dirty war and those who have done nothing to stop it. There must be a cry of outrage and action by the American working people to stop this mass 'murder. Forget about writing your Congressman to pressure this White House of war. What we need is not just demonstrations on the streets, but power. It is the sons and daughters of black, Hispanic and working people who will die in the desert along with hundreds of thou­ sands of Iraqis. The working people make this country run. We ... ~"'l - WV Photo have the power to bring it to a grinding halt. Use that power now! Spartacist League banner at January 26 San Francisco demonstration against Persian Gulf War. continued on page 7 u.s. Bombs Baby Formula Factory White House Targets Peter Arnett

On January 20, American bombs de­ stroyed an infant formula and powdered milk plant on the outskirts of Baghdad. Two days later CNN's Peter Arnett, the only U.S. media correspondent in Bagh­ dad, personally toured the factory and reported this atrocity. Arnett's January 23 broadcast report immediately touched off a firestorm of official cover-up lies. This was no baby food factory, they declared, it was a Time "biological weapons plant"! And to make Iraq's only infant formula factory (right), before U.S. obliterated It claiming It was "biological warfare" plant. sure everyone toed the line, no less than the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, winning journalist as Saddam's dupe! beating Arnett on the air. And in a That afternoon the White House let General Colin Powell, and the White Caving in before this anathema, CNN blatant case of censorship, Arnett's reply loose with what the New York Times House denounced the Pulitzer Prize- headquarters in Atlanta began brow- to the Pentagon slanders was blanked out (24 January) called a "highly unusual on the American side. personal attack on an individual jour­ But the information broadcast about nalist." Bush mouthpiece Marlin Fitz­ the plant utterly demolishes the Penta­ water declared Arnett was being "used" To Young Fighters gon's claim. As Arnett was saying that by the Iraqis. And then General Powell Against Imperialist War the plant produced 20 tons of powdered ended up his Pentagon briefing stating, milk a day and was "the only source of "It is not an infant formula factory no As American bombs devastate Iraq, mass infant formula food for children one year, more than the Rabtachemical plant in protests in the United States have brought and younger in Iraq," the screen showed out a new layer ofyoung people appalled by Libya made aspirin. It was a biological shots of a milk bottling line and cans weapons facility, of that we are sure, and the horrors ofimperialist war. Many younger of baby food filmed by the news net­ demonstrators are moved by pacifist senti­ we have taken it out." work just a few months ago! Arnett ments, while liberal andfake-socialistprotest CNN got in trouble with the feds when reported: "CNN had visited this.plant organizers seek to channel outrage into sup­ it broadcast the government's illegal last August for a story on .how Iraq tapes of General Noriega talking with his port for Democratic Party "doves." In the was trying to beat the international TROTSKY mid-1930s, as Mussolini's Italy prepared to LENIN lawyer. The former Panamanian leader economic embargo by producing more invade Ethiopia, the Russian internationalist was seized by the U.S. in the bloody essential foods at home to make up for invasion a year ago. The network has had revolutionary Leon Trotsky addressed a message to socialist youth warning against a the loss." millions' of intent viewers around the "popular front" for peace that would tie working people to the imperialist parties ofwar. Immediately, the "spin controllers" at globe during the Gulf War, but like the The youth are at present deeply preoccupied with the question of the war danger. the U.S. military command in Riyadh, rest of the media it is ultimately the And rightly so. Their heads are at stake first.. .. Saudi Arabia, rushed in. In the middle handmaiden of U.S. policy. So the next For Marxists the struggle against war coincides with the struggle against imperialism. of a news briefing Lt. Col. Mike Galla­ day, the CNN anchor badgered Arnett The means for this struggle is not "general disarmament" but the arming of the prole­ gher was handed a piece of paper from with "questions" about whether he is tariat for the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of a which he read that "this facility has mili­ being "misled," whether he was "free," workers' state. Our slogan is not the League of Nations, but the Soviet United States tary guards around it, barbed wire fence, was his information "reliable," was he of Europe and of the entire world! it has a militarygarrison outside" and "being told what to say" and "instructed Today we see in France how the reformists and the so-called "Communists" (in it was "associated with biological war­ to report the Iraqi line." The veteran war. reality only Stalinists) 'have allied themselves with the Radicals, ostensibly for the fare production." His proof? "Numerous correspondent replied that "I learned in purpose of struggling against war and fascism. Who are the Radicals? A thoroughly sources" say so. Vietnam to believe only what my eyes imperialist party which stands for the Versailles treaty and for the French colonial CNN quickly got back to Arnett at had seen." empire. How can one lead a struggle against the imperialists' war together with an the Al Rashid hotel in Baghdad. Arnett Now every report from Arnett is imperialist party? began: "There was one guard at the gate. accompanied by a disclaimer saying his Naturally, the Radicals readily speak for peace. Hitler also works in the sweat of As we arrived, they were bringing out a reports are "based on statements by Iraqi his brow for peace. They are all for peace: priests, bankers, generals. But what does cart full of powdered milk from Britain government officials" and his "limited the pacifism of the bourgeois governments and parties mean? Vile hypocrisy. Every that they used to. .," At this point com­ personal observations." The caption at robber prefers, if possible, to take away his victim's purse "peacefully" without taking munication was cut for a full minute. the top of the screen reads "Cleared by his life. Mussolini would naturally prefer to pocket Ethiopia "peacefully," that is, When he came back on, Arnett stated Iraqi Censors." It shouldsay "And by the without the expenses and sacrifices of war. England and France would like to enjoy that the break in transmission "was noth­ Censors at CNN and the Pentagon." So their plunder "in peace." But woe to whoever hinders them! That is the meaning of ing to do with this end," whereupon much for CNN CEO Ted Turner and his capitalist love for peace. Atlanta anchorman Bob Cain cut off fiancee, the former "Hanoi Jane" Fonda, Petty-bourgeois pacifism is in general sincere, but so much the more blind and . Arnett's effort to continue his account. standing by their man in Baghdad.• helpless, since in essence it is but the belief of peasants and petty merchants that it is possible to make the ruling classes better, to disarm the great capitalist robbers and induce them to live peacefully side by side. But with all its good intentions petty­ bourgeois pacifism becomes a drug with the help of which the imperialists overcome SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S. LO~AL DIRECTORY the masses at the proper moment and make cannon fodder out of them: We accuse the leaders of the Second and Third Internationals of helping capitalism to prepare National Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 • (212) 732-7860 a new world slaughter through their nonsensical twaddle. In a new war the reformists and the Stalinists will in the majority of cases stand on the side of their governments, Atlanta Detroit Norfolk especially in France, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. Whoever really wants to fight Box 4012 Box 441043 Box 1972, Main PO Atlanta, GA 30302 Detroit, MI 48244 Norfolk, VA 23501 against war must speak to the people clearly, must gather the fighters under one revolutionary banner, under the banner of the Fourth International. Boston Los Angeles Oakland -Leon Trotsky, "To Young Communists and Socialists Who Wish to Think" Box 390840, Central Sta. Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta, Box 32552 Cambridge, MA 02139 Oakland, CA 94604 (July 1935) Los Angeles, CA 90029 (617) 492-3928 (213) 380-8239 (415) 839-0851 . Chicago San Francisco Box 6441, Main PO Madison Box 5712 Chicago, IL 60680 Box 1492 San Francisco, CA 94101 (312) 663-0715 Madison, WI 53701 (415) 863-6963 Cleveland New York Washington, D.C. '!~!!!!!v.~~!~!!.~'!.! ~ Box 91037 Box 444, Canal St. Sta. Box 75073 DIRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Liz Gordon Cleveland, OH 44101 New York, NY 10013 Washington, D,C. 20013 EDITOR: Jan Norden (216) 781-7500 (212) 267-1025 (202) 872-8240 PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jorge Ramirez CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Valdez EDITORIAL BOARD: George Foster, Frank Hunter, Jane Kerrigan, Len Meyers, James Robertson, Reuben Samuels, Joseph Seymour, Alison Spencer, Marjorie Stamberg TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA The Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the lriternational Communist League (Fourth Toronto Edmonton Vancouver tnternatlonatlst) . Box 7198, Station A PSS.E P.O, Box 96.05 Box 2717, Main PO, Workers Vanguard (USPS 098-770) published biweekly, except 2nd issue August and with 3-week interval December, Toronto, ON M5W 1X8 Edmonton, AB T6E 5X3 Vancouver, BC V6B 3X2 by the Spartacist Publishing Co., 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 732-7862 (Editorial), (212) 732-7861 (Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. Domestic (416) 593-4138 (403) 436-5105 (604) 255-0636 subscriptions: $7.00/24 issues. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER:Send address changes to Workers Vanguard, Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. Moncton , Montreal Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. P.O. Box 563 C,P Les Atriums, B,P. 32066 No. 519 1 February 1991 Moncton, NB E1C 8L9 Montreal, QC H2L 4V5 '

2 WORKERS VANGUARD The Press and the Pentagon War, Lies and Videotape The war began promptly at 7 p.m. EST, right on target for the nightly news (like Reagan's bombing of Tripoli, which started at 7:06 p.m.). The first days of the Talk Show War were designed to knock out the American audience by saturation jawboning, as platoons of retired generals, think tankers and war criminals like Henry Kissinger hit the media beachheads. These were the warm-up acts for the Pentagon's laser­ magic shows, the daily 3:30 p.m. brief­ ings which are the new version of its Vietnam-era "Five O'Clock Follies." "If Vietnam brought war into the drawing rooms of the world, the Gulf' conflict-to date at least-seems only to have moved it to the video arcade," noted a British journalist of the first week. For all the anchor-generals playing with their own high-tech toys, the million-dollar networks of flybys, sat­ ellite dishes, transponders and on-the­ spot instant images, rather than CNN we're watching "PNN-Pentagon Net­ work News," as a Pacifica radio com­ mentator put it. One Columbia University McCarthy/NY Times Gamma-Liaison antiwar protester carried a sign reading, In war, the first casualty is truth. Imperialist media whips up war hysteria and.fear, while marching in lockstep with "I want to kill my TV." rigid government censorship. By the end of Week One it seemed the American population was already suffer­ If the military hates the press, as one There have been a few exceptions to These exceptions only prove the rule ing war fatigue. As Scuds flew through Pentagon "news" briefer frankly said, it's the initial gung ho media enthusiasm. that in war the first casualty is truth. The the air, presidential spokesman Marlin not because "the media lost the Vietnam Veteran CBS anchor Walter Cronkite press skedaddled out of Baghdad when Fitzwater launched salvos at the press, War." The fact is, the U.S. lost on the cautioned a wild-eyed Dan Rather not to the U.S. State Department called up a complaining of "the way the media is battlefield, and the military is still seek­ believe everything he heard the first few days before the war and told them to covering this thing." Actually, the media ing a scapegoat. The media were perfect­ night. Later Vietnam-era veteran reporter get out. The Los Angeles Times (19 Janu­ has done more or less exactly what the ly happy to go along with the Kennedy Bob Simon, visibly trembling with fury ary) reported: "a key factor in their deci­ Pentagon and White House had told them and Johnson administrations on Vietnam in Saudi Arabia, burst out on the air: sion was an unofficialwarning to Ameri­ to. Ole Fizzwater's problem is that after -until the U.S. forces started getting so "Information so far has been minimal. . can networks in Baghdad, purportedly insisting this would be a short war, offi­ obviously creamed militarily by the This does not come as a surprise. In fact from Administration sources in Washing­ cial spokesmen are now having to pro­ North Vietnamese forces on the ground weare a little bit pleasantly surprised ton, that a U.S. attack was about to take nounce the "M-word" (months). that a significant section of the bour­ that our satellite transmissions were not place on the Al Rashid Hotel, where all. cut off.... The only report we've had of The point of the massive U.S. censor­ geoisie decided to pull out. anything that has gone wrong has been but a few of the journalists were stay­ ship, of course, is not to keep informa­ As Phillip Knightley documented in not'from official channels but from our ing ... several of the reporters who left tion from Iraq, but from the American his book The First Casualty (1975), it one CBS newsman who is not operating said they now suspect that the U.S. warn­ population. And the Pentagon has been wasn't until after the 1968 Tet Offensive within the Pentagon pool framework." ing also was a subtle, but effective, prop­ getting away with it for some time now. that a lot of the dirt began coming out in As we go to press, the latest word on aganda device by the U.S.-led forces to The U.S. war machine tested its censor­ the press, and even then the big stories Simon was that he and a crew, seeking end all reporting of the war from the ship apparatus in the Grenada and Pana­ weren't usually on-the-spot reports. The some real information, bad mysteriously Iraqi side." ma invasions, with great success. The My Lai massacre wasn't uncovered until disappeared into the desert-s-one can only The press like to portray themselves as media still has a clamp on publishing over a year after it happened, by free­ hope they reach safety behind Iraqi lines. a "Fourth Estate," some kind of inde­ how many casualties there were in the lancer Seymour Hersh. And the military And of course there has been CNN's pendent force seeking truth and objectiv­ mass bombing in Panama. managed to keep its massive bombing of Peter Arnett in Baghdad. The tough New ity. This is the message of David Halber­ On the day the bombing of Baghdad Cambodia in 1969-70 secret for over a Zealander won a Pulitzer Prize for his starn's The Best and the Brightest on the began, a Pentagon spokesman vowed that year, despite hundreds of correspondents Vietnam reporting (which included stay­ Vietnam War or Woodward and Bern­ this would not be another "living room in the field. ing behind after the Americans evacuated stein's All the President's Men on Water­ war," with the American public shocked For months now the Pentagon has been Saigon). His under-the-bombs reports gate. But those exposes were published by TV images of U.S. soldiers torching successfully running the media around from Baghdad have helped the Cable only because a section of the bourgeoisie Vietnamese villages and body bags being the Persian Gulf. Any vestigial news­ News Network to achieve air superiority became convinced that Vietnam was folly shipped home. This time they want to gathering instincts among press corps (and profitability). But he is now under and Nixon was so mired in muck that he rigidly control the flow of news, and the veterans were crippled early on by the fire from the White House and Pentagon had to go. Today the press is shown in media moguls have patriotically gone technique of severe alcohol deprivation. for reporting and filming how U.S. its true light, as the world's second along. The New York Times (9 January) They put the traveling caravan of reporters bombs are hitting civilian targets. And oldest profession (spies), eagerly engag­ complained about Pentagon press restric­ through dozens of pushups, in order 10 UPI's Helen Thomas continues to be a ing in the activity'of the oldest one as the tions, but added: "the media have little qualify for the highly restricted "pools" thorn in the side of the president, as' she whores of war for the Pentagon. or no choice except to go along grudg­ that are the only access allowed by the pointedly asked Bush why the U.S. was During World War II, one American ingly-and hopethe military will enforce military, which escorts reporters every­ so upset about Iraq counterattacking with censor wrote: "Newspapers...and broad­ its rules with understanding." , where and then censors their reports. its Scud missiles. casting stations must be as actively .Qel1in,g .the warc:cffort ~(i,Jnerch,:mts or manufacturers." And as a World War II correspondent reviewed the press' per­ formance 30 years later: "It's humiliatingto look back at what we wrote during the war. It was crap.... We were a propaganda arm of our govern­ ments. At the start the censors enforced that, but by the end we were our own censors.Wewerecheerleaders. I suppose there wasn't an alternativeat the time. It was total war. But, for God's sake, let's not glorify ourrole. It wasn't good jour­ nalism. It wasn't journalism at all." -Phillip Knightley, The First Casualty The big papers and TV stations are big capitalist enterprises, and fundamentally loyal to their class. It is to those who stand for the interests of the world work­ Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell lecturing compliant media hacks with videO show-and-tell of high-tech ing class that you will have to look for weaponry. "Trust me," said the general. Do you? the truth about this bloody imperialist slaughter. • 1 FEBRUARY 1991 3 . dress. Martin Luther King .mernorial celebrations in Atlanta became antiwar protests, while Catholic parishes and Protestant congregations held candlelight vigils. For the most part this wave of Hundreds of Thousands rejection has been blacked out by TV and press, which gave "equal time" to every group of a dozen right-wing nuts scream­ ing "nuke Iraq." Opposition to the war remains very broad, with even the Roman Catholic Protest U.S. War auxiliary bishop of Detroit calling for On the eve 'of the U.S. war against soldiers to desert in protest against a war Iraq, Bush's popularity was at an all-time that the Bishops Conference officially low; his war resolution barely squeaked declared does not fit the criteria for a through the Senate and large demonstra­ Coast to Coast "just war." Many came to demonstrations tions against "Operation Desert Shield" with creative homemade signs such as, had already taken place in many cities. "What If Kuwait's Main Export Were But on January 16, when the "Shield" flaming American flag up the Federal convictions." The article reported pro­ Broccoli?" and a drawing of the Capi­ turned to "Storm" and the bombs began Building flagpole. Some 20,000 marched tests in Northampton, Hyannis, Orange, tol with the slogan, "Best Little Whore­ to fall on Baghdad, the marching orders through the Castro and the Mission Dis­ Greenfield, and Springfield, Massachu­ house of. Texaco." On January 22, came down. Bourgeois "public opinion" trict. Next day civil disobedience groups setts; Concord, Hanover, Durham, Dover, ACT-UP activists in New York invaded swung sharply overnight. The next morn­ blockaded the Federal Building-forcing Portsmouth, Tilton, and Plymouth, New Dan Rather's CBS Evening News chant­ ing's New York Times warned it was time it to close for most of the day-and later Hampshire; Montpelier, Norwich, Bur­ ing "Fight AIDS, Not Arabs!" Our for this "divided country" to pull togeth­ the Pacific Stock Exchange. Three days lington, and Brattleboro, Vermont; Nor- favorite: a group of women in the er. The message was relentlessly ham­ mered home in the media, as Americans were bombarded with "rally 'round the flag" rhetoric from all sides. Anti-Bush "doves" in Congress suddenly metamor­ phosed into pro-war hawks. The polls showed four out of five approving the war, and Bush's ratings topped FDR's the week. after Pearl Harbor. Yet the nation is far from marching in lockstep: the flag-waving patriotism that turned the Super Bowl into a Nuremberg rally will dissipate as soon as the corpses start coming home. Moreover, this or­ chestrated war fever has been met, from the very first minutes, by an outpouring of hundreds of thousands of protesters in the largest antiwar demonstrations since the Vietnam War. In fact, the Vietnam protests did not swell until it became clear that the U.S. might actually lose the war. This time around the protests began before the shooting started, and by now have become daily events throughout the WV Photo country. On January 19 there were some Washington, D.C. January 19 protest drew opponents of Persian Gulf War including pacifists and pro-sanctions flag 35,000 in Washington, D.C. and double wavers. Spartacist League's call to defend Iraq against U.S. attack attracted much interest as up-front communist that on the 26th; in San Francisco there opposition to imperialist war. were 70,000-plus on both weekends, and thousands more in Los Angeles,Boston in a row, demonstrators closed down walk and West Hartford, Connecticut; Bay Area with signs reading: "George and numerous other cities. the Bay Bridge. In New York City, thou­ South Olwick and Bangor, Maine. Bush, Read My Labia, U.S. Out of Saudi Across the country, the Spartacist sands converged on Times Square. Elsewhere in the country demonstra­ Arabia!" League mobilized with banners and There were antiwar protests on college tions against the war were held in such But the flag-waving media barrage signs, selling our press, leafletting and campuses across the country, but not just bastions of the military-industrial com­ has affected the antiwar protests. Buying soapboxing with our call for revolution­ there. In New England, the Boston Globe plex as St. Louis (McDonnell Douglas the lie, popularized in "Rambo" movies, ary opposition to this heinous war. (20 January) reported: "Throughout the and General Dynamics), Seattle (Boeing) that '60s antiwar activists "spit on" The first hours ofthe war were marked region last week there were hundreds of and Rochester (Kodak); in small towns returning soldiers, today signs and ban­ by furious protracted demonstrations on processions, vigils, rallies, walkouts, like Fayetteville, Arkansas or St. Cloud, ners at demonstrations across the coun­ both coasts. In San Francisco, thousands teach-ins and other demonstrations as Minnesota; in state capitals like Des try proclaim "Peace Is Patriotic" and broke through police barricades, sacked New Englanders opposed to the war in Moines, Iowa, where protesters disrupted "Support Our Troops-Bring Them military recruiting offices, and ran a the Persian Gulfexpressed their fears and the governor's "state of'the state" ad- Home." And the liberal and pseudo­ socialist demo organizers imposed on the "peace" crawls a program of supporting the "moderate" war party of American Make my day. They're collapsing any­ As the feds whipped up' their "terrorism" scare, they naturally targeted NYC for capitalism. way. Three hundred and eighty-five The demonstrations on January 19th a "fear city" blitz. The CBS News program 60 Minutes (20 January) included a structural defects on the Manhattan, segment interviewing Vince Cannistraro, described as "former CIA Head ofCounter­ and 26th bore a marked similarity, both Williamsburg and Queensboro alone, calling for "Bring the Troops Home terrorism." Cannistraro was standing in Grand Central Station, which he described says the Department of Transportation. as "the kind ofplace that the Abu Nidal organization might go after," since 180,000 Now!" and trying to pressure the Demo­ Ifthey fall down, we New Yorkers will crats into opposing a war which they people pass through it every rush hour. New Yorkers howled in derision: why would have to pay to rebuild them. But if you any terrorist bother to blow up the subway and rail system, the MTA is quite overwhelmingly support. January 19 was knock them down, it'll be a lot easier organized by the "Coalition to Stop U.S. accomplished at this itself. Capturing the popular response, satirist Marty Goldensohn to get the feds to pick up the tab. War wrote a column (Newsday, 22 January), excerpted below: Intervention in the Middle East," domi­ damage. We'll get the sympathy vote in nated by the eclectic Stalinoid reformists' Reprinted from Newsday Congress. of the Workers World Party, and tended Random violence? No way, Saddy. to attract a more leftist and pacifist We invented it. Face it every day. New crowd, while January 26 was run by the About Terrorism Yorkers who are afraid of drive-by liberal-led "National Campaign for Peace murderers and dart men move to in the Middle East," which supported the Wyoming. And those who can't afford imperialist "UN sanctions" which are no In the Apple, Who'd Notice? to go aren't about to be intimidated by less an act of war. a few extra commandos on the block. , Consequently, the character of the And if New Yorkers are willing to latter demonstration was markedly more By Marty Goldensohn kill and die for leather jackets and patriotic, with no leftist speakers and drugs, we're certainly willing to take a more American flags than a VFW Humiliation. This is why I think Sad­ deal. Happens all the time. Happened few hits for a war even if we're parade. With demonstrators and some dam Hussein shouldn't try any ter­ this month, in fact, to AT&T. Some ambivalent about it. We know those motley crews of right-wingers both sport­ rorism in New York. It will embarrass poor slob in a Newark manhole did by Kuwaiti rulers are no great sheiks, but ing American flags and "Support Our him. New York is too big to notice mistake what Abu Nidal has probably compared to the causes for which we Soldiers" signs, at times it was hard to anything smallerthan a hydrogen bomb. been plotting since August. ... usually die, it would be martyrdom. tell the pro-war people from the antis, We've seen everything else already. As Speaking of halted in its tracks, How about decimating apartment unless you could read the fine print on George Bums once said, "Death. It's forget about torching the subways, buildings? Old hat, Sad. Con Ed did it their T-shirts (right-wingers' shirts said been done." Saddam. That's been done, too. Last more than a year ago. A busted water "Free Kuwait"). The New York Times Let's suppose for a minute that Iraqi month. Two passengers dead, 148 main blew asbestos all over Gramercy noted approvingly of the 26th: "yester­ commandos attacked the phone com­ injured.... Park. A crater 10 feet across, five feet day's antiwar demonstrators in Washing­ pany to disrupt communications. Big How about blowing up our bridges? deep, killed three. Better than a Scud! ton mostly shunned crude slogans like 'No blood for oil!' Most of them would 4 WORKERS VANGUARD Protesters on the Brooklyn Bridg~ First Casualties in the "War at Home"

Some of the first domestic casualties and seemingly aiming his car at demon­ of the imperialist onslaught against Iraq strators. "I yelled and jumped out of the were a group of antiwar demonstrators way. I heard the first two people get hit. who took to the Brooklyn Bridge the When I turned around I saw people get­ night the bombs began falling on Bagh­ ting lifted into the air and people were dad. On the freezing cold evening of scrambling. He kept going into the main January 16 thousands of demonstrators part of the crowd, then I heard a series gathered in Times Square upon hearing of thump, thump, thump-people getting the news that the American war machine hit." Another eyewitness, 19-year-old had launched its Persian Gulf attack. Malachi Dean, a member of the "Stop Protesters rallied and marched from U.S. War Machine Action Network," Times Square to the United Nations, said, "It looked like puppets being tossed where Columbia University students 10 to 15 feet into the air." arrived after a campus rally. Then back When Yarde, who works for CISPES, to Times Square and south again to lower saw the bodies sprawled on the ground, Manhattan. When the demonstrators de­ he tried to get swift medical attention for cided to take the Brooklyn Bridge, cars them. "I ran down the exit to get police, stopped and some honked horns in soli­ because I knew the police were there. darity. But one car, driven by Thomas They were totally unresponsive. I told Wade, didn't stop. Shortly after 2 a.m. them that we needed paramedics. One on Thursday morning, Wade plowed into policeman in his car rolled up his win­ the crowd of 1J10re than 200, seriously dow." Demonstrator Jay Everett told WV, Brian Palmerflmpact Visuals injuring seven people. One woman, "When we went to leave to obey their Antiwar protesters rush to aid of victim struck by speeding car on Brooklyn Christa Roberts, fell off the bridge to the [police] orders to head down the off­ Bridge, January 17. ground 70 feet below. Several of the ramp, all of a sudden about eight of them victims are still hospitalized. attacked from behind with nightsticks." WBAI Pacifica radio reported extensively dozen eyewitnesses, yet four days later the One demonstrator told WV that they Other demonstrators and eyewitnesses on the case, and the Village Voice ran a assistant district attorney assigned to the were inspired by the news of antiwar have also reported that the cops returned story. Still the cover-up goes on. case had never seen or heard of this list! protesters taking the Bay Bridge from in force and started swinging their clubs Khursh Mian went with five others to Christa Roberts is lucky to be alive San Francisco to Oakland. The demon­ at the remaining demonstrators. the NYPD's Fifth Precinct to give state­ today, as are several of the other dem­ strators on the bridge were a diverse The serious injuries and vicious police ments. He and the other witnesses were onstrators. Imperialist war abroad pro­ group, racially integrated and including treatment of antiwar protesters the night forced to freeze outside the precinct duces casualties at home, like the four younger and older political activists, war broke out has been virtually disap­ house for four hours and were allowed in college students at Kent State and the college students and homeless people. peared in the mainstream media. Newsday only one at a time (to guard against lesser known black protesters at Jackson All night long the demonstrators had wrote one story that read like it came off "terrorists'") to give statements. A detec­ State in Mississippi who were killed been shadowed (and harassed) by New the police blotter. Like news in the Per­ tive told Yarde, "normal people don't get protesting the Vietnam War. The cops York City police. But after the car driven sian Gulf, the official "pool coverage" up on a bridge." Mian gave police the who clubbed protesters on the Brooklyn by an apparently drunk Wade, who has has not deemed this atrocity newsworthy. names and phone numbers.of over two Bridge are the same NYPD which goes been subsequently charged with felonies after Daily News strikers while "pro­ of "reckless endangerment" and "vehicu­ tecting" scabs and herding them through lar assault," slammed into the crowd at _ the picket lines, the same racist police about 50 mph, the cops delayed medical who shot black grandmother Eleanor attention/or the victims and clubbed those Bumpurs in her Bronx apartment several still standing. years ago and then gunned down Mrs. As Christa Roberts scrambled to get Mary Mitchell in her own home just a out of the way of the speeding car she few months ago. fell between a gap in the main roadway The protesters who were struck by the and an access ramp, crashing to the speeding car and beaten by the cops were ground below. She was hospitalized in expressing their outrage over the criminal critical condition at St. Vincent's Hos­ mass murder the U.S. was unleashing pital, where at press time she is still in over Baghdad as they were marching on the intensive care unit with a fractured the bridge. Dema Mantooth, one of the pelvis. A doctor who treated several of victims of the car assault, explained, "If the victims reported there were lots of we slowed down traffic, if we stopped broken limbs and compound fractures the city, we'd make people care ...about and at least one of the victims suffered the unnecessary loss- of innocent lives" from breathing complications. Some of (Village Voice, 29 January). What is nec­ the protesters lack insurance to pay for essary is to forge this just outrage into a their medical treatment revolutionary fight to get rid of the sys­ Alexander Yarde, one of the demon­ WV Photo tem that rains death on Iraqis, uses cops strators and an eyewitness, told WV how NYPD slams demonstrators at UN before march downtown to the Brooklyn as scabherders and carries out "evictions he heard the driver Wade "revving up" Bridge. - by murder" on black people at home .•

agree with Vice President Quayle about ing Greyhound drivers and Daily News the Kennedy liberal wing of the Demo­ Troops-Bring Them Home Now." the need to support America's troops in strikers now in the fourth month of their cratic Party. In this case that spells sup­ These unions could deal a crippling the gulf." strike, hospital workers Local 1199, port for "sanctions" against Iraq. At the blow to the war-longshoremen, Team­ UAW District 65 and the Hotel and January 26 Bay Area rally, where Labor sters, communications workers have For Labor Strikes Against Restaurant Employees. In California, Council head Walter Johnson, ILWU more power than a thousand "peace" the War! 1,500 unionists marched including ILWU president Jimmy Herman and the public crawls. But these labor misleaders came One notable fact has been the presence longshoremen, AFT teachers, CWA employees local president spoke, their out only to save imperialism from of contingents of unionists at the demon­ phone workers, hotel and restaurant slogan was: "Labor Says: Support Our continued on page 7 strations, and thousands of workers have workers, school bus drivers, electricians individually come out to oppose the war. and public employees. The January 26 During the long war buildup, the polls Bay Area demo was endorsed by the repeatedly showed a strong degree of labor councils of San Francisco/Santa working-class opposition. Reading a New Clara, San Benito; Alameda and San York Times/CBS poll, one commentator Mateo counties. said, "Quite simply, it's a class thing." Yet the Cold Warriors of the AFL­ The San Francisco Examiner (25 January) CIO International remain foursquare noted that the "anti-war stance of a behind the bipartisan imperialist murder. significant segment of organized labor Lane Kirkland pronounced that in Saudi stands in vivid contrast to labor's posi­ Arabia, "the sons and daughters of tion at the outset of the Vietnam war­ working Americans once again are on Speaker: Paul Collins, Spartacist League Central Committee and in fact until about 1971, two years the firing line in the defense of vital before U.S. troops departed." interest of the free world"! The wing of Friday, February 8, 7:30 p.m. Room 304 Barnard Hall The Washington demonstrations in­ labor officialdom which graces the plat- Barnard College cluded union groups from the Post Office - forms of the popular-front "antiwar" NEW YORK CITY For more information: (212) 267-J025 Mail Handlers, Laborers, ACTWU, strik- coalitions simply reflects the politics of 1 FEBRUARY 1991 5 "Terrorism" Scare Targets Arab Americans As Bush's bombers rain death and front of the house of a family he be­ in the National Guard! Young feigned about Japanese auto imports, but also devastation upon Iraq, the U.S. govern­ lieved to be from Iraq (they were from concern for Arab residents, while rail" from the likes ofliberal black Democrat ment has whipped up a hysterical "anti­ India), And in a token of pervasive ing against "potential terrorist activity" Young. terrorist" campaign at home. For weeks repression to come, Pan Am just an­ supposedly aimed at the bridge and The purpose ofthe government's "se­ the FBI has been singling out for inter­ nounced that holders of Iraqi passports tunnel connecting Detroit with Windsor, curity"· blitz is not to stave off "ter­ rogation hundreds of Arab immigrants are barred from all flights. Since pass­ Canada. rorism" but to regiment the population and citizens of Arab descent. This ports aren't needed on domestic flights, , The National Guard's role hasn't for war. For this purpose they go to ominous campaign aims to smear Arab in practice airline security personnel changed one whit since it was sent into absurd lengths, with everything from Americans as potential "terrorists"­ comb airports scrutinizingand harass­ the Detroit ghetto in 1967 to shoot New York City police seminars on sup­ people without democratic rights and ing anyone who "looks like" an Arab. down blacks. Once mobilized to combat posed dangers to Wall Street CEOs to subject to unrestrained attacks. Meanwhile, official attacks have been the spectre of "terrorism," the Guard the massive security mobilization for The Gulf War has indeed provoked stepped up as the FBI announced a would be used to bust strikes, break up the Super Bowl-dubbed by some jour­ terrorism in the U.S.-against Arab campaign to deport Iraqi citizens resid­ anti-racist protests and clamp down on nalists the "Big Brother Bowl." In San Americans. In the space of one week, ing in the U.S. as their visas expire. In a population growing restive over the Francisco police arrested an Iraqi man Detroit police reported four firebomb Europe, Germany, France and Britain slaughter in the Arabian desert where on a bomb possession charge for what attacks against people of Middle East­ have been expelling Iraqis for weeks. fully one-third of the U.S. ground was later described as a partially dis­ ern descent (Detroit News, 21 January). This is especially pernicious since troops are black or Hispanic. assembled "vibrating massage pillow"! An Iraqi store owner on the Northeast among the deportees are many oppo­ Many in Detroit's Arab population There is a very real threat of the Side narrowly escaped being murdered nents of Saddam's regime who face are Yemenis who were recruited during U.S. government launching a massive when two men in army fatigues fired repression in Iraq because of their the 1970s to work in the Motor City's roundup of Arab Americans. During guns at him shouting, "You're dead, political views. One group of 30 Iraqi auto plants (now almost all closed). World War II more than 100,000 Japa­ Arab!" And in the rural town of Bliss­ students in Britain were declared "pris­ There is also a large, predominantly nese Americans were imprisoned in field, Michigan a Dairy Queen owned oners of war" and locked up. middle-class Chaldean Christian com­ notorious "internment" camps. The by a Palestinian American was burned Where the campaign of government munity. Even those in the suburbs are concentration camps are there, and down as "punishment" for his opposi­ repression is headed is shown by the now caught in the cross hairs of the plans for new dragnets are ready to tion to the Near East war. example of Detroit, which has the larg­ government's "anti-terrorism" scare and be implemented (see "Fight the Anti­ Arson, beatings, death threats and est concentration of Arab Americans (a subjected t~ the disgusting anti-Arab Arab Witchhunt!" WV No. 518, 18 Jan­ discrimination have targeted Arab quarter million) in North America. On chauvinism which comes not just from uary). We call again on the labor Americans around the country. In Flor­ January 19, Mayor Coleman Young racist yahoos, like the Chrysler foreman movement and defenders of democratic ida a 15-year-old was arrested when he declared a state of emergency and and his son who beat Chinese American rights to smash the racist "terrorism" reportedly exploded a pipe bomb in called on the Michigan governor to send Vincent Chin to death while screaming witchhunt.

be determined that mass murder of the Iraqi people is being carried out. Spartakist: Are there other things that In Baghdad Under the Bombs you have personally seen, not only the war itself, but also the blockade, which We print below excerpts from an inter­ was part of the war? view conducted on January 27 in Berlin by Dudin: What most deeply impressed me our comrades of Spartakist, the newspaper was the attitude of normal people. On the of the Spartakist Workers Party of Ger­ way back to the hotel, about 6 or 6:30 in many, with Sa'id Dudin, the editor for the morning, I met people, more and Germany of the Palestinian news agency more people. We had dozens of inter­ WAFA. Dudin had just returned from a views, with women, girls, men, youths. visit to Baghdad, where he was during the We said, you know a war has begun first nights and days of the American here. They said, but we're going to work. bombardment. Bush wants our economy to collapse. And really, they took it for granted, it Spartakist: You know that the news just radiated from them. about the war in Iraq is "sanitized," We went into tea shops where the particularly in the United States. It's sort people sat around unbelievably relaxed of a video-game report, everything is and smoked their water pipes, and talked, surgical strikes, there are no civilian of course, about what's to be done now. casualties in this war, etc. So it is,urgent And this tranquility of the people, this to counter these lies, and I wonder if you confidence. So they said: they're coming could speak a little about your own expe­ back. We fought with the English in the rience, what you saw yourself in Iraq. First World War against Germany and Dudin: One can say precisely the oppo­ Turkey for our independence, and the site of what is generally claimed here in euters response was that England and France the media. The losses among t~e Iraqi Day One of U.S. onslaught against Iraq. Ministry of Defense building in ripped apart our country. The multina­ military are minimal, absolutely minimal Baghdad burning from U.S. bombing raid. tionals, wherever they found an oil well, compared with the devastating losses found themselves a sheik and set up an which was destroyed. There were chil­ the defense mimstry, to a demolished among the civilian population. On the emirate. first day, as the attacks began, the Amer­ dren of roughly the same age lying there, building. An old man, perhaps between icans went so far as to claim that they I would judge between nine and eleven 50 and 55 years old, lay there dead. One Spartakist: We call for the defeat of the had taken out the entire Iraqi air defense years old. And they were apparently of his relatives was overcome with U.S. and NATO imperialists, and defend system, and Fitzwater even advised Sad­ having a painting lesson. The paint in sorrow and wept, saying, why have they Iraq. There is the demand for a Near-East dam Hussein to capitulate. I am no mili­ their coloring books wasn't even dry. destroyed this building? After all, it was peace conference, where the imperialists tary expert, but anyone who saw the And they lay there dead, all of them. I evacuated on August 3 last year. There will sit down after •. bavingoppressed intensity of the Iraqi antiaircraft defense, was told there were 23 children, I only was just this watchman there, it wasn't people for years, divided them, commit­ night after night, knows that it has re­ saw seven myself. When I arrived in the any defense ministry. But they reported ted mass murder. What do you think of mained unbroken. Only on the fifth day outlying areas, the victims had already that the defense ministry had been that? did the Americans admit their failure to been partially evacuated. There was an destroyed. Dudin: I'm absolutely against the An­ neutralize the Iraqi antiaircraft defenses. older lady, maybe 70 years old, dead. The number of victims is rising from schluss [annexation] of the Near East But they had already committed mass What happened was this: after they one minute to the next, the number from under Article 23 of the Basic Law [the murder against the Iraqi people. determined that they hadn't taken out the the civilian population. The Iraqi army German constitution, under which East The American military explained the military defense, the pilots began bomb­ is located in defense lines against which Germany was swallowed up by the West]. failure of their attacks on military targets ing from such a height that they simply attacks can't do much. That is the reason Europeans make the mistake of under­ in Baghdad with references to bad weath­ couldn't hit their targets and only hit the why the Americans haven't begun their estimating the intelligence of other er there. To me that was such a primitive civilian population. They even brought ground offensive, because they know that peoples. Let's go back to the Gulf War. joke, and it reminded me of the view of the pilots to the scene of their acts, but the losses among the Iraqi military are This marvelous mixture of boundless the Nazi generals, that the cause of their the racists naturally believe that the small. A city, Al Dour, about 280 kilo­ ignorance and master-race mentality that defeat in the Second World War lay in Iraqis are just making propaganda, for meters north of Baghdad, it's proven that you saw at Fitzwater's press conference the fact that there was too much snow on example with the baby food factory, there was no base there, no military eight hours after the attack began. He the ground between Berlin and Moscow. right? So a journalist sifts through the factory, nothing at all. That city was stands there, tries to laugh-his laughter But the more obvious this lie became, the pieces of cardboard at this factory, acts leveled, it was bombed, hundreds of seemed plastic-and says, well, the job is more obvious it was that they were trying like a criminal investigator, even though victims among the civilian population. done.now Iraq must capitulate, and he is to force Iraq to its knees by mass mur­ it's obvious to any idiot that it's a baby What I want to say is that this war is flattered by his court scribes. That was der, the more varied were the explana­ food factory. being waged first of all against the a historic moment for him, and it's crazy tions of the media. Naturally, the Americans attacked Iraqi civilian population. But they won't the amount of ignorance these people As far as the population in Baghdad ~ prestige targets. They said, we have break the morale of the Iraqi population show. They sell their ignorance as the itself is concerned, I went to one place destroyed the defense ministry. I went to through terror attacks. And it can already ultimate in wisdom.• 6 WORKERS VANGUARD Powell blathered on, he'd written the gress, he pointedly repeated several times ing people of the U.S. and the other Sink U.S. textbook defining air superiority, and that Hussein was "dead wrong." Soon the imperialist countries to mobilize their whatever it is, the U.S. has it. Were there gory, bone-crunching ground war will social power in class struggle against the figures to back up U.S. damage claims? begin and the rivers of Mesopotamia will exploiters and oppressors at home. War... "Trust me," he responded. Are American run red with blood. Amid all the talk of (continued from page 1) planes carpetbombing Iraq and Kuwait? Saddam Hussein using chemical warfare, Democrats Rally 'Round the War Le Monde of Paris headlined its market "I don't know what the definition of the U.S. is already shelling Iraqi posi­ reports, "Wall Street: America Is Back" carpet bombing is," replied the theater tions with white phosphorus. And the For months the capitalist media and and "Tokyo: Banzai!" More than 70 commander, General "Stormin' Norman" U.S.' Persian Gulfarmada has thousands Congressional Democrats regurgitated years ago, revolutionary leader Rosa Schwarzkopf. of nuclear warheads. Bush's transparently lying "peace" ploys. Luxemburg summed up the relationship Washington is lying through its teeth We of the Spartacist League and "A resolute Bush maneuvered U.S. to the between capitalism and war: "Profits because what they intend to do is truly International Communist League (Fourth edge of war," headlined the Philadelphia rising, proletarians falling." horrendous. The hallmark of this war, Internationalist) have warned from the Inquirer (16 January), claiming: "No one In Riyadh, an American general de­ writes R.W. Apple in the New York Times outset that this rapacious ruling class foresaw that in August." But a former clared this was "a technology war" as he (17 January), will be "overwhelming which presumes to be cops of the world Reagan aide says of Bush: "It's clear played a video of "my counterpart's force, relentlessly applied." What that was preparing to plunge the world's now that he took steps from the very headquarters in Baghdad" being zapped will mean, increasingly, is relentless working people into a bloody holocaust. start to make war inevitable." Historian by a "smart bomb." But as the first Iraqi terror against the Iraqi population and And now they've started. If imperialist James MacGregor Bums added: "Con­ Scuds landed on Tel Aviv hours later, the overwhelming civilian casualties.. "This carnage is not to be the continuing fate gress had the power and the time to "techno-euphoria" started evaporating. is not a war," an Egyptian fleeing Bagh­ of humanity until this system of war oppose him. It didn't." Daily Pentagori briefings replaced the dad after the first few days of bombing and destruction finally incinerates all It was clear all along that Bush was magician's smoke and mirrors with said bitterly, "This is the annihilation of of civilization in a nuclear fireball, it moving toward war. While pleading to meaningless charts and figures. Even the a Muslim people." must be swept away through proletarian "give sanctions a chance," the bourgeois most insipid questions from the house­ The American-led imperialist "allies" revolution. "opposition" marched in lockstep behind trained Pentagon press corps were baited are terror-bombing the cities and towns A stinging defeat for U.S. imperialism the White House. Capitol Hill cheered as feeding info to "the enemy." of Iraq. And they are out to assassinate in its onslaught against the Iraqi people when Bush deployed 200,000 troops to Had the U.S. achieved "air superi­ Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein: in Bush's can spark revolutionary struggle through­ "defend Saudi Arabia" in August. The ority"? Why, JCS chief General Colin "State of the Union" war rally in Con- out the Near East. We call on the work- continued on page 8

U.S. Protests... (continued from page 5) another costly defeat like Vietnam. These "antiwar" labor fakers seek to derail working-class struggle against the war, just as they have buried a decade of strikes-from PATCO to Hormel to Greyhound and Eastern-v-through reli­ ance on Democratic Party politicians. In contrast, the Spartacist League fights for labor strikes against the war, to choke off the munitions and materiel that fuel the U.S. war machine. Bush Lies, Black People Die­ Down with the Racist Imperialist War! Black Americans especially don't want WV Photos this war. The NYC black newspapers, the As the bombs began falling: protests in Chicago (left) Amsterdam News, City Sun and New and NYC (above), January 17. American, all ran antiwar front pages, in stark contrast to the chauvinist hype of restoring the venal Kuwaiti monarchy. A Washington Post poll revealed that Iraq! Defeat U.S. Imperialism!" got the mainstream media. As in the Vietnam As many as 80 percent of the esti­ 60 percent of black D.C. residents disap­ everybody's attention. Although they War, blacks are disproportionately rep­ mated 3,000 soldiers who have filed for prove of the war. Blacks know that their couldn't seem to get the various leftists' resented in the army, with almost "conscientious objector" status are black. war is at home, fighting for employment, slogans right, even the more obtuse bour­ one-quarter of all black families having One of them, E. A. Stanley, recently decent housing, education, health care geois media recognized the SL/SYC as a member in the Gulf, as opposed to wrote, "As an officer in the Army Re­ and simple equality. "Black Veterans for vintage communism: the San Francisco only seven percent of white families. serves, I often wonder why this country Social Justice," a New York group which Examiner wrote, "The Spartacist League As poverty and joblessness ravaged the always fights for the rich man's causes has participated in antiwar protests, is­ urged us to go back to the teachings of ghettos during the Reagan years, a de while the poor man's causes are often sued a statement declaring, "The irony of Trotsky and Lenin." The Washington Post facto "poverty draft" occurred. With ignored right here in the U.S." (Scoop the President's war frenzy is in.the his­ reported that protesters in the capital over one-quarter of black men either in USA, 21 December 1990). Another, U.S. tory of this country's treatment of those "range from sweet little seventh-graders prison or on parole, the lure of college Navy fireman Donald Alexander, held a who have answered the call to arms. We on officially sanctioned field trips to big aid or the (largely illusory) opportunity press conference at the National Press were sprayed with Agent Orange in Viet­ city. office workers on lunch break to to gain job skills enticed many black Club, stating, "I cannot fight in a war to nam. Among the homeless population, revolutionary Spartacists...." The Village and Hispanic youths into the army-and uphold chattel slavery.... Fighting in this we veterans number 40 percent nation­ Voice saw Sparts everywhere. reserves. Now they find themselves sit­ war in the Persian Gulf would be for me ally. We are 20 percent of the prison Over 10,000 copies of Workers Van­ ting ducks in the desert, expected to sac­ equivalent to fighting for General Lee population. And we are one of the high­ guard and other Spartacist publications rifice their lives for the privilege of against Abraham Lincoln." est groups of unemployed persons in this were soldat antiwar protests around the country" (New American, 17 January). country over the past two weeks. Our A number of blacks and Hispanics pamphlet "Black Soldiers in the Jim class struggle. And it's our job to do it, have participated in the demonstrations Crow Military" (in the Black History and Spartacist all of us. We are millions around the across the country, compelling black the Class Struggle series) attracted special world who hate this racist, bloodthirsty elected officials to oppose the war. In the attention. The bombs dropped on Bagh­ government. The enemy is capitalism. House of Representatives, the vote for dad can explode the Reagan/Bush reign Statement... That's what produces millions of home­ the war was 396-6 (five from the Black which glories in the ostentatious display (continued from page 1) less. The technology exists to feed every­ Congressional Caucus,' and Vermont of greed and privilege while sticking it We need labor strikes against this crim­ one on this planet, but instead this sys­ "socialist" Bernie Sanders). Jesse Jack­ to the working class and minorities. In inal war. We call on longshoremen to tem produces mass starvation and war son, after initially supporting the inva­ the coming months we look to win those stop handling all munitions shipments and after war after war. sion, has been backpedaling since the who recognize that our enemy is at home, war materiel. Is this pie in the sky? No! American imperialism must be defeat­ bombing began, and showed up to speak and that a defeat for U.S. imperialism is French dock workers refused to ship war ed in its bloody grab for oil and world in the Washington demonstrations, typi­ a victory for the oppressed of the world. materiel. Striking Turkish coal miners are domination. It is our duty to stand with cally couching his opposition in guns­ What sets the Trotskyist SL apart from demanding down with the war, down the Iraqi people in defending themselves versus-butter terms. What motivates these the American social-patriotic left is our with the warmongering government. against the American warmongers, We politicians is not opposition to U.S. im­ forthright opposition to our "own" impe­ What this war is about is the American stand with the Palestinian people, who perialism, but fear that blacks and other rialism. Not endless peace crawls to Empire wants to be cops of the world. face genocide at the hands of the racist, minorities will rebel against the twin pressure the ruling class, but revolution­ Remember Reagan's rape of tiny black Zionist butchers who rule Israel. parties of capitalism to which these mis­ ary struggle to overthrow the racist capi­ Grenada! Remember the thousands mur­ The working people of the Near East, leaders have tied them for decades. talist system. Not writing letters to Con­ dered in Panama only a year ago! Re­ the Kurds and other minorities, must rise gress, but organizing labor strikes against member the two million murdered in up to bring down all the sheiks, all the For a Revolutionary Party! the war, to unleash the power of the Vietnam by Washington. But the Viet­ despots, including Saddam Hussein, but In contrast to the sea of liberal imperi­ integrated working class in defense of namese people prevailed and made a not just the despots who are on the outs alist "doves" and red-white-and-blue our class brothers and sisters being revolution. Some people say, "No More with Washington today. And we're fight­ "socialists" preaching "patriotic" opposi­ bombed in Iraq. To defeat the U.S. ruling Vietnams." That is what Richard Nixon ing here, in the belly of the beast, for tion to the war, the revolutionary politics class, the most vicious and deadly force says. We say: Vietnam was a victory! workers revolution to sweep away the of the Spartacist League and Spartacus on earth, we need a revolutionary party American imperialism is the enemy of biggest despots of all. Youth Clubs stood out like a bright red which is not afraid to swim against the mankind. It must be defeated, through 16 January 1991 beacon. Our banner reading "Defend stream. Take a side-Join us!. 1 FEBRUARY 1991 7 rich ruling families of the region from swelling Arab rage and burgeoning humiliation, as New Order From Death Row, Imperialists, Americans, take the place of the old, the British. . This Is Mumia Abu-Jamal And the bulk of troops sent to the Arabian Desert to defend the regions' ruling elites are themselves members of the working class, or, all too often, the non-working class-people who joined, not to fight, but for jobs and benefits! To what shall the Western War in Babylon warriors return after the flames of war have ebbed, and the region has been declared "safe" for U.S. A shimmering reggae backbeat springs into (restructuring) with a vengeance! corporate interests? hypnotic repetitive consciousness, underscoring the It is said that "power abhors a vacuum," and in the When American oil companies cackle in acquis­ reedy tenor of Rastafarian singer, Max Romeo, as he empty hole left by USSR retrenchment, the U.S. has itive, avaricious glee at unhampered supply, and launches into a catchy chorus; moved decisively to fill the gap. new age Arab pashas re-establish their lifestyles of "War inna Babylon! War inna Babylon!" No matter what the outcome of the Mid East War, decadent opulence, those who faced and fought the Over a decade has passed since I've heard the song, forces of the U.S. Empire will occupy Arab lands for fires. of a man-made firestorm will, if they survive, an arcane allusion to a mystic, coming Armageddon. decades to come, modern reflections of Roman return to human hells in the concrete jungles of North But the Jamaican vision does not dominate my legions, mercenaries bought to protect the rich/super- America. mind today. Several hours ago, the startling news For defending their country's elite they will inherit swept the world that the United States struck the first a lifetime of empty tomorrows in inner city slums, not martial blow against the Middle East country of Iraq, unlike those of the denizens of Sabra & Shatila, urban by a night strike on Baghdad. . villages isolated in deserts of despair. U.S. jets rained death upon the desert capital, the Once again African-Americans will have fought, nation that is the modern day descendant of a once­ and shed precious blood for another class, another proud empire-Babylon. cause, and remain unfree, embittered and oppressed It can be said now, with the ring of truth, there is -unable to fight for ourselves. truly War in Babylon. The U.S. Empire, "New Babylon," has unleashed the dogs of war to insure dominion over the Arabian oil fields, and, by extension, its New World Order, Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Philadelphia black journal­ an "order" that appears, at first glance, much like ist, is on death row at Pennsylvania's Huntingdon the same old "order" of colonial, white, capitalist state prison. Framed up because of his political hegemony. views, Mumia faces death for his defiance of the But, at bottom, this "New Order" offers none of racist, capitalist order. His columns appear periodi­ the contrasts of the old, none of the balances of cally in Workers Vanguard and other newspapers. superpower, none of the past concerns of "sphere of To get involved in the fight to save Mumia influence"; for the counter-balance, the opposing Abu-Jamal and abolish the death penalty, contact superpower, is all but lost in a growing maelstrom of the Partisan Defense Committee, P.O. Box 99, internal chaos. Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013. If Indeed, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has you wish to correspond with Mumia, you can come dangerously close to becoming neither a write to: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM8335, Drawer R, "union," nor even nominally "socialist"-perestroika A banner in Washington, January 19. Huntingdon, PA 16652.

U.S. war on Iraq is not about "Iraqi belt" years ago, a recession under way, takeover of East Germany and Bonn's Sink U.S. aggression" against the oil emirate of per capita foreign debt the highest of any East European and Soviet deals.) Yet the Kuwait, and certainly has nothing to do country in the world, with U.S. finance estimated cost of a war lasting several with freedom or democracy. This much virtually in hock to Tokyo. No longer months-some $80 billion-is no more War... is obvious to all. Many also recognize undisputed master of the capitalist world, than the payouts this year alone for the (continued from page 7) that the oil companies will rake in with Germany and Japan surging forward trillion-dollar S&L scam. superprofitsas a result, but it is more as economically more dynamic powers, At bottom, it is not a question of Democrats kept mum over the Gulf dur­ than that. Ever since the 1973 "oil the U.S. is seeking to regain its position Bush's ego or war-mania in the White ing the election campaign and then shock," all wings of the U.S. bourgeoisie of unchallenged imperialist hegemony by House, no more than the assassination feigned surprise when, two days later, have agreed that "the oil is ours" and the throwing around its military weight. of an archduke was the cause of World Bush ordered another 200,000 troops in. Persian Gulf must be an American lake. Echoing Hitler's talk of a "New Or­ War I, or a Japanese "sneak attack" on After months of empty chatter by In January 1980, shortly after the der," Bush is out to create a "New World Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World liberals and reformists alike about en­ Soviet Union intervened in Afghani­ Order" of U.S. imperialist domination. In War II. This is the way imperialism forcing the War Powers Act, when Bush stan, Democratic president Jimmy Carter his triumphalist "State of the Union" works: in the final analysis, deep-going put it to the Democratic-controlled Con­ proclaimed the "Carter Doctrine": "Any speech, Bush called on "every American economic contradictions can only be re­ gress, they went for war. And as soon as attempt by any outside [!] force to gain to prepare for the next American cen­ solved by force of arms. And until the the warplanes started bombing Iraq, what control of the Persian Gulf will be re­ tury"! The lasf"American century," U.S. system of competing capitalist nation­ pusillanimous opposition existed col­ garded as an assault on the vital interests imperialist hegemony following World states is swept away through workers lapsed entirely, as all but a handful ral­ of the United States of America and such War II, was buried in the rice paddies of revolution, war will continue to be the lied 'round flag and Fuhrer. Erstwhile an assault will be repelled by any means Vietnam. And the attempt to restore it fate of humanity. "antiwar" Democratic Senator Boren of necessary, including military force." could lead to World War III. In the mid­ The Spartacist League warned from the Oklahoma proclaimeds.t'Now that the war Presidential Directive No. 51 later that 1930s, as the last imperialist world con­ outset: "Having lost its economic pre­ has begun ... Congress must be prepared year specified that this included the use flagration loomed, Leon Trotsky wrote: dominance, Washington is now trying to to vote to' provide our troops 'anything of tactical nuclear weapons. "U.S. capitalism is up against the same reassert its role as imperialist global they need to prevail." ' problems that pushed Germany in 1914 policeman through brute military force" The Democrats did nothing to block "New World Order" on the path of war. The world is divided? (WV No. 509, 7 September 1990). While Bush for the simple reason that for years with Feet of Clay It must be redivided. For Germany it was liberals cheered the United Nations these partner parties of American imperi­ American capitalism is in deep trouble: a question of 'organizing Europe.' The United States must 'organize' the world. "sanctions" and various fake-socialists alism have both had a war policy. The industrial regions turned into a vast "rust History is bringing humanity face to face tried to duck the issue, we said straight with the volcanic eruption of American out that the embargo itself was an act of imperialism." war against Iraq and declared: "Break the -"War and the Fourth Blockade of Iraq!" Intemational" (June 1934) Washington wants to paint its grubby While the Germans have turned oil grab in the Near East as a replay of Europe into a D-mark zone and the World War II, which was popularly Japanese have re-established with the perceived to be a war against Nazism. powerful yen the "Greater East Asian And the capitalist press goes along, refer­ Co-Prosperity Sphere" they lost in World ring to the U.S.-led "Allies" vs. the War II, there is one thing which Amer­ "Saddam Hussein (read, Hitler) forces." ica's imperialist rivals don't have-a Theywant to wipe out the memory of the massive, technologically sophisticated humiliating U.S. defeat in Indochina. But military arsenal. The U.S. ruling class the Pentagon's ban on TV cameras at intends to "correct the imbalance" in the Dover Air Force Base, where American world capitalist market by seizing control war dead in the Gulf will be returning over the world's oil supplies and black­ stateside, will do little to black out the mailing its imperialist competitors into image of body bags "coming home" from submission. the minds of bereaved parents and sweet­ And now the U.S. has the chutzpah to hearts and children. demand that Japan and Germany pay for The U.S. certainly has the military the oil grab which is aimed against them. firepower to "prevail" in the end over Sygma Center for Defense Information has estimated that U.S. invasion of Iraq could Japan has agreed to cough up an addi­ small, semicolonial Iraq. But at what produce over 300,000 casualties, including tens of thousands killed. Above: tional $9 billion, but the Germans have cost? As Prussian military strategist Karl eight-year-Iong Iran-Iraq War produced one million dead. Washington aided been less forthcoming. (Kohl needs gobs von Clausewitz observed in the wake of both sides in this bloody slaughter. of Deutschmarks right now to pay for the the Napoleonic Wars, war is "a test of 8 WORKERS VANGUARD moral and physical forces." Neither the in the occupied West Bank has been tion-lies through the revolutionary class from the very moment the shooting American population at large nor the ­ under house arrest, under pain of being destruction of capitalism and the creation began and even before. This opens up troops in the Gulf see any stake in this shot on sight if they leave their homes. of a socialist federation of the Near East. tremendous possibilities for building an war. As President Bush was celebrating One 24-year-old woman who appeared And particularly from among the nu­ authentic communist vanguard. Thanksgiving in the Saudi desert, U.S. on her balcony in the West Bank town of merous oppressed minorities can come At the outset of World War I, as well, soldiers yelled out to reporters, "This is Nablus was shot dead as she was breast­ steeled internationalist cadres of Bolshe­ there was a widespread sense that social­ not our war!" The Iraqis, on the other feeding her baby. vik parties capable of leading the work­ ism had failed. The vote of the German hand, even those who have no love for The White House has been disingenu­ ers to power. In Iraq, it was precisely the Social Democracy on 4 August 1914 for the despot Saddam Hussein, have no ously claiming that Israel is not part of Kurdish minority, as well as Christians war credits to the Kaiser's government doubts that they are defending their the anti-Iraq "coalition." But fearful that and Jews, who made up the bulk of the registered the collapse of the Second country against an imperialist invader an Israeli retaliatory attack on Iraq would Communist Party which was decimated International, as most of its national who is raining destruction down on their cause problems for its bought-and-paid" by Saddam Hussein's bloody repression components became rabid "social­ heads. for Arab "allies," Washington rushed (using hit lists supplied by the CIA). patriotic" flag-wavers for the war aims Patriot missile launchers and U.S. crews A defeat for U.S. imperialism will of their "own" bourgeoisies, and muck of Middle East Powder Keg to Israel. For the moment the Israelis embolden the working people in the Near the "left" social democracy was para­ have refrained from retaliating, anticipat­ East to deal with their own despots and lyzed by "social-pacifist" politics. The As the Americans should have learned ing a whopping $13 billion in additional butchers, including in Iraq. Leaving resolutions of the Second International from Vietnam, and even strategic bomb­ ing surveys during World War II showed, o s:o bombing population centers neither wins 0.. a war nor does it break the will of the > ~ people. On the contrary, as Patrick Cock­ burn observed in the London Independent (22 January): "there is little question that the bombing and missile attacks of the past five days have politicised the Iraqi population in a way that five months of propaganda from their own government failed to do. By Saturday, there was a sense of anger and determination com­ pletely lacking on 15 January." San Francisco, It may be an exaggeration to say at January 26­ this point, as Jordanian political scientist Spartacist League Kamel Abu Jaber does, that "Saddam has and Labor Black already won the political war." But in a League fight to war in which political factors are rapidly mobilize workers surpassing military-technical consider­ power against imperialist war. ations in importance, Iraq is certainly well ahead of the imperialists. Through­ out the Near East and North Africa, as well as South Asia, there has been an explosion of popular support for. Iraq since the bombing began, including among Muslim fundamentalist forces historically indebted to the Saudi theoc­ aid from Washington as payoff. But the Baghdad after a week of the U:S. bom­ for internationalist socialist action against racy. AUPI dispatch reports the follow­ Israeli rulers will strike at Iraq, and bardment, Financial Times correspondent war were revealed as so much worthless ing typical sentiment in Cairo bars and health minister Ehud OImert vowed that LamisAndoni observed (25 January): paper. coffeehouses: Iraq will suffer "painful scars that would "People in Iraq want freedom, but for the Among socialist opponents of the war, "America was screwed in Vietnam. America was screwed in Korea as well. stay with them for a long time" (New moment the battle is a matter of life and the left wing led by the Russian Bolshe­ Why then could not America be screwed York Times, 24 January). death. After the battle they will want viks called for a very different policy. in the gulf? The Arabsare not inferiorto What sort of "painful scars" are the more." Instead of appealing to the imperialists the Vietnamese or the Koreans." Zionist madmen planning? As Israeli to make a robbers' peace, Lenin called The Iraqi Scud missile attacks on nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu Reforge the Fourth on the workers to "turn the imperialist Israel turned Saddam Hussein into the courageously revealed to the world, the International! war into a civil war," to bring down the most popular Arab leader at least since Zionist state has more than 200 nuclear warring governments by socialist revolu­ Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser-and si­ warheads. Israel's rulers have already The American empire has embarked on tion. And so they did, in the Bolshevik multaneously shattered the myth of invul­ vowed to take out the Jordanian air force a major war with its population divided October Revolution of 1917. Key to the nerability which is one of the ideological should it attempt to prevent Israeli jets and its economy bankrupt. The' U.S. Bolshevik victory was their determined pillars of the Zionist garrison state. Tel from flying over Jordanian airspace in ruling class and its NATO allies are far struggle to forge a new, genuinely revo­ Aviv residents have been clogging the order to attack Iraq. They are intent on from unanimous in supporting Bush's lutionary International. After Stalin's highways out of the city to fill up hotels driving the Palestinians out of the West single-minded focus on the Persian Gulf, betrayal of the principles and program of in Jerusalem left vacant by the halt in Bank and into Jordan. The international and if things bog down there the imperi­ the Communist International, the Bolshe­ tourist traffic, only to be denounced as workers movement must raise an outcry alist war front could crack. Many Demo­ vik struggle was continued by Trotsky's "deserters" by the mayor of Tel Aviv. to demand: Defend the Palestinians! crats agree with. European politicians fight for the Fourth International. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post interna­ Israel out of the Occupied Territories! who want to step up pressure on the Today, America's rulers have gone all tional edition (26 January) reports that As one of the oldest crossroads of Soviet Union as Gorbachev flails about out to whip up a war fever, marshaling dozens of Israeli Arab families have civilization in the world, the Near East trying to hold back secessionist forces in all the forces of Madison Avenue in the opened up their homes to Jews from has always been a mosaic of numerous the Baltics. Columnist Anthony Lewis service of the Pentagon. This was epito­ areas hit by missiles. conflicting nationalities and ethnic and gripes that Bush is too "obsessed" by the mized by George Bush's message during Arabs are particularly infuriated by the religious groupings attempting to carve Gulf War to "be forcefully protesting the half time of the Super Bowl football outrage expressed by Western capitals out living space at each other's expense. repression in Lithuania and Latvia" (New game, as 75,000 spectators held up cards and the press over the Scud attacks­ Under the domination of imperialism and York Times, 28 January). forming a giant American flag. But this which have produced minimal casual­ the imposition of artificial borders, capi­ The stage for the Persian Gulf War mood is transitory at best. In his "War ties-even as thousands of bombs rain talist rule in the Near East has taken a was set by the collapse of Stalinist rule and the Fourth International," Trotsky down on Baghdad and Basra daily. One particularly bloody and horrendous form. in East Europe and the escalating crisis wrote: Palestinian exclaimed after the first Israeli Jews murder Palestinian Arabs, in the Soviet Union. No longer is the "For a revolutionary party, the moment of Scuds fell on Tel Aviv: "Two missile Egyptian Muslims suppress Copts, Sun­ United States, the leading imperialist declaration of war is especially critical. attacks on Israel that do not kill anybody, nis feud with Shi'ites and Maronite power, restrained by fear of what the The bourgeois and social-patriotic press response would be from Moscow. Rather in an alliance with the radio and movies and the whole world cries and moans." Christians in Lebanon, Alawites domi­ will pour out upon the toiling masses In the three years of the Intifada well nate everyone else in Syria, and every­ than ushering in an era of international torrents of chauvinistic poison.... over 700 Palestinians, many of them body goes after the Kurds. harmony, complete with the mythical "Even if at the beginning of a new war young children, have been gunned down The only way out of the national and "peace dividend" ballyhooed by liberals the true revolutionists should again find and social democrats who talked of themselves in a small minority, we can­ by Israeli troops. Since the Gulf War sectarian fratricide which has wracked not doubt for a single moment that this began, the entire Palestinian population the region-short of mutual annihila- "shifting priorities" from military to so­ time the shift of the masses to the road cial expenditures, instead George Bush's of revolution will occur much faster, "New World Order" is one in which more decisively and relentlessly than the U.S. arrogates to itself the role of during the first imperialist war. A new world policeman to impose its imperial wave of insurrections can and must be­ come victorious in the whole capitalist interests. world. The death agony of Stalinism has had "It is indisputable at any rate that in our another effect as well: the disarray epoch only that organization that bases among the "socialist" and "communist" itself on international principles and enters into the ranks of the world party leftists in the West, who are prostrate in of the proletariat can root itself in the the face of this bloody imperialist national soil. The struggle against war assault. Communism is supposed to be means now the struggle for the Fourth dead, and according to State Department International!" "theoreticians" maybe history too, but Today in countries around the world, that doesn't square very well with what's the sections of the International Commu­ going on in the Persian Gulf. With the nist League fight to defeat the imperialist onset of the "first post-Cold War war," onslaught against the Iraqi people. For Maguire/Philadelphia Inquirer there has been a wave of antiwar unrest labor strikes against.the war! Defeat u.s. U.S. imperialist rulers want to be cops of -the world. encompassing sections of the working imperialism! Defend Iraq!. 1 FEBRUARY 1991 9 time broke their silence by demonstrating in support of Iraq. Obviously, the government, the ruling party (the Constitutional Democratic North Africa Seething Rally [RCD]), the opposition parties and the UGTT trade-union federation are tak­ ing the easy road of collecting blood for the Iraqis. The Tunisian newspaper Al Sabah reports on a demonstration, in the city of Kaf, of 50 children between the Over Attack on Iraq ages of three and five shouting pro-Iraqi and pro-Saddam Hussein slogans. Almost two weeks of bombing of all foreign aggression. Several profes­ blood collection drive for Iraq. The strike According to Le Monde, the RCD "has Baghdad and Basra by the imperialist sional associations (associations of doc­ is to coincide with the call of the opposi­ been able to channel the popular move­ war machine has sparked an outpouring tors, nurses, engineers, etc.) and dozens tion parties for a day of fasting in all ments in favor of Iraq which have of solidarity with Iraq among the Arab of intellectuals have condemned the U.S.­ North African countries on January 28. unfurled across the country without inci­ populations of North Africa and Egypt. Western aggression and expressed their They also called for the withdrawal of all dent." The speech of Prime Minister The unrest provoked by the war threatens support to the Iraqi people. Arab and Islamic troops in order to avoid Ahmed Karoui on January 23 sharply to blow apart the U.S.-led coalition The Tunisian newspaper As Sabbah (24 spilling Arab and Islamic blood. denounced the destruction of Iraq's against Iraq and could ultimately bring January) reports that, according to the The editorial in Al Bayane (organ of capabilities by the forces of the imperial­ down the brittle pro-imperialist regimes Egyptian newspaper Al Ahali (organ of the PPS, the Moroccan Stalinists) of ist coalition, without naming any of of North Africa. the PPU), "thousands of Egyptians are 24 January is headlined "To Save the them. He proclaimed Tunisian solidarity The widespread protests involve highly volunteering for the Iraqi army." It adds Peace." The PPS has a classical pacifist with the Iraqi people as well as with the disparate forces. Pro-Iraq demonstrations, that "many Egyptians have refused to line. Thus, it supports the demand of the Kuwaiti people, without ever mentioning many of them led by Islamic fundamen­ leave Iraq and have insisted on stay­ North African governments for a special Saddam Hussein. talists, have swept Algeria and Tunisia. ing." The. Egyptian information agency session of the UN Security Council to re­ Doctors and nurses in Tunisia have reports that the Ministry of National Edu- establish peace in the Near East. Algeria offered their services in support of Iraq and have begun collecting blood. And in Algeria has seen the largest and most Morocco labor federations have called a massive demonstrations, organized sep­ general strike in solidarity with Iraq. arately by the secular parties and by Across North Africa volunteers are the Islamic fundamentalists of the FIS. enlisting to go fight on the side of Iraq. Following Friday prayers on January 18, In Tunisia 3,000 have already signed "More than 100,000 Algerian demon­ up, according to the UGTT trade-union strators cheer the fiery fundamentalist federation (Le Monde, 25 January). In preacher, Ali Ben Hadj, as he parades, Algeria several hundred youth presented dressed in army fatigues, on a jeep themselves at the Iraqi embassy after the through Algiers," reports the Financial first day of bombing to volunteer for Times (23 January). Women carry signs combat. proclaiming, "We will sacrifice our souls The New York Times (24 January) and blood for Islam." headlined that "In Egypt, Public Senti­ No longer singing the praises of Saudi ment Is Shifting in Baghdad's Favor." Arabia, the FIS appears entirely devoted The significance of this fact is not lost to Saddam Hussein and doesn't miss an on the imperialists. With over 40,000 opportunity to insult, at each demonstra­ Egyptian troops under U.S. command in tion, the Saudi monarch. The FIS has the Gulf, the Cairo regime is a key im­ called 'On Algerians to volunteer for mil­ perialist "asset" in the assault on Iraq. itary action in Iraq, and demanded of the At the same time, the numerous Egyp­ authorities that they open training camps. tian working class can be an important The response of the ruling FLN was not force for socialist revolution in the Der Spiegel long in coming. According to Le Monde, Bush's war unleashes protest across North Africa. Above, Islamic funda­ at a January 22 press conference, a gov­ Near East. mentalist demonstration in Algiers. Two days later the Times (26 Janu­ ernment spokesman spoke sarcastically of those who want Algeria to send mili­ ary) noted that "Pro-Iraq Sentiment Is cation has decided to extend school and Under the headline "National Consen­ Increasing in North Africa" as well: "A tary reinforcements to Iraq while it "has university vacations until February 2, sus to Condemn the Imperialist Attack not even been capable of transporting to major reason most Tunisians, Algerians presumably out of fear of student demon­ and an Immediate End to the Aggression and Moroccans back Mr. Hussein is Iraq a shipload of wheat." He was refer­ strations for Iraq. Against Iraq," Al Bayane reports that "the ring to the "peace ship" sent by Algerian they see him as their brother in fighting opposition [Stalinists, social democrats against the rich. The masses of people Morocco women's organizations which "was and nationalists of the Istiqlal] demands stopped by the U.S. Navy in the Gulf. have few kind words for Kuwait and With the launching of the Gulf the withdrawal of Moroccan troops were not sad that Iraq gobbled it up." As for President Benjedid Chadli, in War, "Our Friend the King" (title of a (1,500 men) stationed in Saudi Arabia a speech on January 23 he accused the The impact of the imperialist war on recent biography of King Hassan II by and the United Arab Emirates, to permit Iraq is reverberating through the region, fundamentalists of trying to "outbid" Gilles Perrault) threatened that if mat­ the Moroccan people to express its fer­ others with "demagogy." Benjedid avoid­ sparking mass unrest that with Trotskyist ters seemed to be getting but of hand vent pan-Arab sentiments, to mobilize leadership qould point to workers revolu­ ed bringing up Algeria's official position he would declare a state of siege. He the Moroccan people' to support and of condemning the annexation of Kuwait tion. A North African comrade inParis retreated afterwards, granting legal or­ stand with the Iraqi people... and to ex­ compiled the following report: by Iraq. He called on the population to ganizations the right to demonstrate on press its joy at the victories of the Iraqi solidarize with the state and not to wash army on the field." Egypt condition-that each organization demon­ their dirty linen in public. At the same strate in a different city from the others. The youth of the various opposition time, in the event that the Algerians got In a communique published on January According to a 25 January dispatch parties called for a demonstration on out of hand, the government just bought 23, the Muslim Brotherhood demanded from France-Infos, the three Moroccan Saturday, January 26 in the capital of from Mercedes-Benz anti-riot vehicles the withdrawal of Egyptian forces from trade-union federations (UMT, CDT, Rabat under the slogan, "Demand a Halt and equipment. the Gulf, while the main opposition par­ UGTM) have called a general strike for to the Gulf War, For a Peaceful Solution ty, the (Arab nationalist) Progressive January 28 in solidarity with the Iraqi in the Region." * * * Unionist Rally (PPU), published a call on people. At the same time sentences are contin­ Today, Arab nationalists and Islamic January 21 in which it merely called on The CDT and UGTM submitted a uing to be handed down as a result of the fundamentalists are in the forefront of the Egyptian forces to respect the objec­ request for an authorization to demon­ riots which took place following the protests against the U.S.-led attack on tive which they had set for themselves, strate in 13 cities to support the Iraqi general strike of last December 14. That Iraq. Should they come to power, such name1y defending Saudi Arabia against people. Furthermore, they called for a strike against the government's austerity forces will inevitably turn on the masses policy and for an increase in the mini­ in order to consolidate a new capitalist mum wage touched off a spontaneous regime, as occurred in Khomeini's Iran. explosion by the plebeian poor in which But should the war drag on, the potential banks, luxury hotels, jewelers and fash­ for serious' anti-imperialist struggles in ionable boutiques were attacked. Scores the region will grow enormously, and were killed and over 200 remain in jail. with it the possibilities for intervention Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League On January 23, the appeals court of by proletarian-internationalist forces. Fes handed down sentences ranging up The former subjects of French colo­ to ten years in prison in the trial ef nialism also form a human bridge to 0$7/24 issues of Workers Vanguard o $3/3 issues of , (includes English-language Spartacist) Women and Revolution 37 people, among them 26 students. In the imperialist metropole, where North Meknes ten others received up to five African workers are in key industrial o New 0 Renewal o $2/10 introductory issues International rates: years in prison. locations. Moroccan workers have rep­ $25/24 issues-Airmail $7/24 issues-Seamail of Workers Vanguard (includes English-language resented alarge segment of coal miners 0$2/4 issues of Spartacist (edici6n en espariol) Spartacist) Tunisia in northern France and took the lead in Name _ Demonstrations were held throughout auto workers strikes of the early 1980s. Tunisia in support of Iraq. Tens of thou­ Today, second-generation immigrant Address _ sands chant "Mitterrand, assassin!" and North African youth (beurs) have played "Saddam, we will sacrifice ourselves for a leading role in the student struggles ______Apt. # Phone (_) _ you!" The position of the government which have swept France, while con­ City State Zip __---'-_---;= points toward an initiative to cease hos­ fronting racist cop terror in the ghettos. 519 tilitiesand resolve the conflict through From one end of the Mediterranean to Make checks payable/mall to: Spartaclst Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 negotiations. As for the formerly pro­ the other, the key is to forge a Trotskyist Saudi fundamentalists, they for the first vanguard.• 10 WORKERS VANGUARD Weak Link in Imp.erialist War Coalition Workers' Struggles Rock Turkey

American F-15 fighter-bombers taking off with their payloads of death daily shake-the ground around Turkey's in­ cirlikair base. But what is rocking this front line NATO state even more is an upsurge of working-class struggle and antiwar protest. On January 3, two mil­ lion workers walked out in a one-day general strike which shut down all major cities. The next day, striking miners and their supporters began a march on the capital of Ankara from the Black Sea town of Zonguldak. The current strike wave, which rapidly spread from the Zonguldak mines to Turkish miners' private-sector metal workers and the march on Ankara textile and paper industries, is the most was met by water widespread since before the 1980 mili­ cannon and tary coup. The London Independent (7 bulldozers. January) noted: "What is especially wor­ rying for the government is the way labour protests are becoming mixed with anti-war Sentiment." The explosion of popularly supported class struggle against the repressive Turgut Ozal regime threat­ ens to pierce Washington's fragile war "coalition" against Iraq and trigger a bonapartist dictatorship has brought police barricade several miles out of maintaining the rule of their class ene­ wave of social struggles throughout the Turkey to the boiling point. The spear­ Zonguldak, the marchers refused to turn mies under a more "democratic" guise. region. head of the current upsurge of labor and back, until finally the barricades were' At the head of their march, the miners Ozal's decision to turn the country into antiwar protests is the militant two­ removed. "No to -war," they chanted, carried a portrait of Kemal Ataturk, the a staging area for Washington's war on month-old strike by Zonguldak coal "Let there be no wars, let no human bourgeois-nationalist modernizer who neighboring Iraq is universally unpopu­ miners demanding a 450 percent wage being die!" (Giinaydin; 6 January). founded the Turkish republic. Yet 70 lar, even within the top echelons of the increase to make up for the ravages of a While the TUrk-i~ leadership opposed years later, Turkey is under the military military. Last month the head of the 70 percent inflation rate (see "Heroic the "Miners Convoy," many unions thumb of the U.S., economically behold­ army resigned in opposition to the gov­ Coal Miners Strike Shakes Turkey," WV sent solidarity delegations. Even Islamic en to German imperialism and suffocat­ ernment's war policy. A recent poll No. 517, 4 January). Inspired by the groups and parliamentarians from the ing in religious obscurantism, while the shows that nine out often people oppose heroic miners, large sections of the Turk­ liberal SHP turned up to express support. Turkish ruling class savagely denies over Turkish involvement in the war. On the ish and Kurdish working class responded The opposition parties are fearful that ten million Kurds of eastern Anatolia eve of the U.S. bombing of Baghdad, the to the January 3 general strike call by the government intransigence could provoke their national rights. liberal Social Democratic Populist Party TUrk-i~ trade-union confederation. Uni­ an even wider upsurge. Quoting the SHP Turkey provides a stark example for (SHP) pulled 20,000 people to a "No to versity students boycotted classes in leader, one newspaper ran the headline, the Trotskyist perspective of permanent War" rally in Istanbul. Transport workers solidarity and in many large towns shop­ "Government Is Facing a Civil War." revolution: only through the proletariat in Istanbul staged a hunger strike to keepers shut down as well. The government surrounded Ankara with -led by an authentically Bolshevik protest the war and support the miners. But the cringing union leadership police roadblocks; Cankaya started to party-taking power at the head of all Bombs have ripped through the head­ called on workers to stay home and not look like it was under siege. Newspaper the oppressed can the democratic and quarters of Ozal 's Motherland Party in show their power on the streets. Defying photo captions reported: "Huge demon­ national tasks facing this backward coun­ Ankara and the U.S. Logistics Organi­ the TUrk-i~ tops, the Zonguldak miners stration in Zonguldak...tense waiting in try be accomplished. Yet from the United zation Group complex in Maslak. The launched their dramatic march on the Ankara" and "Workers on the road, state Communist Party (a fusion of the former guerrillaist Dev Sol took responsibility, capital and the presidential residence at security on its feet." TKP and Workers Party) and Socialist saying this was "a warning to the annex- Cankaya. When the government prevent- On January 6, police confronted the Party to various "Marxist-Leninist" na­ marchers with water cannon and bulldoz­ tionalist guerrillaist groups, the large ers. More than 200 miners were hauled Turkish left is dominated by the Stalinist off by the cops. Two days later, as the program of the "popular front" with one confrontation between' the militant or another sector of the bourgeoisie. marchers and the state continued to in­ The Ozal regime dreams of occupying tensify, Miners Union (Genel Maden-Is) the oil-rich areas of Mosul and Kirkuk in leader Semsi Denizer acquiesced to TUrk­ northern Iraq. This would pit Turkey not i~ pressure and "suspended" the march. only against Iraq but against Syria and Miners' wives wept openly as the march­ Iran as well. The Iranian foreign minister ers were corralled onto buses to take warned that "a possible attack by Turkey them back to Zonguldak. Fearful of • on Iraq will mean war with Iran." As upsetting the anti-Ozal bourgeois oppo­ part of the preparations for war; brutal sition, Denizer is now ordering the terror in Turkish Kurdistanhas dramat­ powerful miners to sit on their hands ically increased in the last few months. until "the end of this war" (Hiirriyet, The Voice of Kurdistan (January 1991) 26 January). reports: "Since July the Turkish army in Kurdi­ Bring Down Ozal with stan has been in continuous operation Workers Revolution! ... whole villages are being depopulated _ . ~~ffi and razed to the ground .... Entire groups Women at forefront of Z0ngttl'- str:itters' march on capital carry portrait of Defending workers' rights ih. the. face continued on page 15 Kemal Ataturk, founder of'Tunc.ish ",public. of the azal government's pro-imperialist war mobilization requires a sharp break ationist policies of American imperialism ed buses rented by the union from enter­ with the popular-frontist politics which in the Middle East and their collabora­ ing Zonguldak, the miners shouted: "We have plagued the Turkish left and unions. Spartacist League tors." While cops round up people even can walk not 300 kilometers but even Those fake-leftists who label the reac­ Public Offices for putting up antiwar posters, student 500 kilometers. Nobody can stopus on tionary Ozal regime as "fascist" do so in protesters have met police onslaughts our path" (Hiirriyet, 6 January). With order to hold the door open to a bloc - MARXIST LITERATURE­ with sticks and stones. On January 25, women in the forefront, 60,000 miners with the bourgeois "democratic"-or 8a, Area Turkey was swept by antiwar protests and their families set off. The town re­ even Islamic fundamentalist-opposition. Thurs.: 5:30-8:00 p.rn.. Sat.: 1:00-5:00 p.rn. which burned American and Israeli flags. verberated with chants of "The workers And from the SHP's Erdal Inonu to 1634 Telegraph, 3rd Floor (near 17th Street) In Tatvan, where demonstrators chanted will march, Cankaya will shake!" veteran rightist warhorse Siileyman De­ Oakland, California Phone: (415) 839-0851 "Down with Ozal" and "Freedom for Workers from other areas who had mirel, the capitalist politicians are eager­ CllicalO Kurdistan," one protester was shot dead been kept out of Zonguldak by the cops ly offering their services to head off the' Tues.:5:00-9:00 p.m., Sat.: 11 :00 a.m-2:oo p.m, 161 W. Harrison si., 10th Floor by the police; many more were injured waited in nearby villages for the miners burgeoning workers' upsurge. . Chicago, Illinois Phone: (312)663-0715 and well over a hundred arrested. to pass. The march soon swelled to over In calling off the miners' march, Deni­ 1OO,OOO-acolumn stretching eight kilo­ zer announced:"Our workers made their lew York Cit, "The Workers Will March, Tues.: 6:30-9:00 p.rn., Sat.: 1:00-5:00 p.rn. meters down the road. When the workers voice heard in the world. You have been 41 Warren St. (one block below c;an~aya Will Shake!" # passed a prison, they were applauded by registered in history." But the miners Chambers St. near Church SI:) Ten years of murderous repression and prisoners chanting, "For general amnesty! have not fought sovaliantly only to make New York, NY Phone: (212~267~1025 savage austerity under the pro-NATO Empty the dungeons!" Encountering a their "voice heard" for the purpose of 1 FEBRUARY 1991 .. t:~··\,jlb"""m Christopher Moms . Dejong/AP Bogged down in the Persian Gulf: U.S. air war can't win the war, so Pentagon will unleash bloody slaughter on the ground, using soldiers as cannon fodder. Next: Ground War Bloodbath The Pentagon-sanitized media is feed­ ing America images of a bloodless high­ tech war in which Iraq is supposedly being "taken out" at the push of a button. Pentagon Boasts Over High·Tech Air War Videos from attacking U.S. planes, dis­ played at press briefings by strutting Air pushing a few buttons, as Washington is American war machine, its high-tech air attacks alone dropped an astounding Force brass, show laser-guided bombs now rediscovering to its horror. Lieuten­ power, and get blown away in the proc­ 18,000 tons of bombs (London Inde­ homing in with pinpoint precision on ant General Thomas Kelly, director of ess since Iraq can't match it. Iraq may pendent, 19 January). This is far more supposed weapons storage warehouses, operations for the Joint Chiefs, dispar­ have a one-time-use air force, but clearly than the 13,000 tons dropped during the air base runways and a high-rise tower aged the Scud threat early on, claiming Hussein is not so stupid as to throw it entire eleven-day "Linebacker II" B-52 in Baghdad. The viewing audience at the Iraqis had only about 50 launchers away without purpose. It's become obvi­ bombing of Hanoi-Haiphong in Decem­ home could groove on the first TV war and suggesting that a large portion had ous that Hussein has done the only sane ber 1972 which marked the peak of in (almost) real time. A Tom Clancy been "neutralized." But over the next thing a commander could do in his situa­ bombing in that war. Needless to say, techno-thriller on y,our screen: you too days, every time a Scud came down on tion: hunker down and wait for the bombing on such a scale cannot possibly can be Top Gun! Israel and Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon's opportunity to hit the enemy at his weak be "surgical." • Tomahawk cruise missiles: some "estimates" of the size of the Iraqi rocket points, namely on the ground. And in the 200 were launched in the first two days Ironically, instead of learning anything arsenal went up. meantime he can fire off Scuds, forcing alone from Navy ships in the Gulf to from Vietnam the U.Sc-imperialists have The initially "decimated" Republican the U.S. to devote a lot of its sorties to wipe out Iraqi "command and control" magnified their own blind faith in tech­ Guard turned out to be hardly touched; tracking down launchers (and to use up centers, antiaircraft defenses and other nology as a substitute for an army with the Iraqi Air Force, which in initial brief­ its limited supply of Patriot missiles). fixed targets. At a cool $1.3 million a the will to fight, a blindness which was ings was declared wiped out, then 50 pop, the Tomahawk finds its preselected their downfall. One is reminded of De­ percent destroyed, turned out to be hard­ Revisiting Vietnam long-distance target by following a ter­ fense Secretary Robert McNamara and ly dented (45 planes "killed" out of 700­ "When you go to war, you're going rain map stored in its computer. his Pentagon "whiz kids" confidently plus). It, was all eerily reminiscent of to war all the way," is the summary predicting they could crush the Vietnam­ • F-117A: the top secret "stealth" fighter also reportedly played a key role ese with fancy gizmos (such as electronic in the initial attack, sneaking past Iraqi sensors along the Ho Chi Minh trail). radar to drop laser-guided munitions. The B-52 carpetbombing didn't destroy • Patriot anti-missile missiles: the Vietnam's will to resist or its military media proclaimed this the first "hero" of capacity to fight, and the current attempts the Gulf War, shooting down Iraqi to obliterate the Iraqis' elite Republican "Scud" missiles at $700,000 per shot, Guard from the air will also come to and pushing up the stock price of its naught. manufacturer, Raytheon. The fat-headed military would like to In short, the vaunted "state-of-the-art think that now they have a completely leading edge" of the Reagan-Bush three­ "free hand," but since war is, as trillion-dollar arsenal designed and built Clausewitz noted, the continuation of in the '80s to obliterate the Soviet Union politics by other means, there are real was thrown at the Third World country restrictions on their options. If the U.S. of Iraq. But the technocratic triumphal­ had unlimited time, for instance, perhaps ism which pumped up Washington in the they could "prevail" over Iraq solely by first days of the war is just a cover for air bombardment, since Baghdad has no old-fashioned mass murder. sources of resupply. But the fragile "coa­ Democratic Senator Sam Nunn, chair­ lition" cobbled together by Bush and man of the Armed Services Committee Baker threatens to unravel each day this and now a backer of Bush's war, war drags on, particularly as Israel is announced that "this is a new era of drawn in and as the Muslim holy month warfare." Reporters were impressed by of Ramadan draws closer. the Pentagon's meaningless statistics The approach of hot desett weather in about their bombing runs being "80 . "'n a few months adds to the time pressure. percent effective." Nobody asked what . . Imperial War Museum If it took, say, several months and thou­ World War I: Battle· of the Somme, July 1916. British commanders tried to sands of American lives to beat Hussein, "effective" meant, until Scud missiles smash German lines with massive artillery bombardment before assault. But such a "victory" would be a political started raining down on Tel Aviv~ To Germans were du'g in 30 feet deep. Result: 60,000 British casualties, 20,000 be sure, some of the video footage dead In one hour/ defeat for Bush. So there is a time limit showed impressive technology which on the air campaign, after which Bush does work under certain circumstances, Vietnam, where cocky Air Force boasts "lesson" of Vietnam as stated by General will have to try to end the war quickly namely that there are no high-tech of targets destroyed were quickly deflat­ Norman Schwarzkopf (London Guardian, by sending in the ground forces. Already countermeasures taken by the "enemy." ed when subsequent photos showed the 7 January), a veteran of that war and the White House has activated the "eu­ But some returning pilots reported Iraqi strangely "resourceful" enemy had not now commander of U.S. forces in the phoria patrol" to prepare Americans for antiaircraft fire became more intense as given up but instead had, for instance, Gulf. And so the Pentagon brass have a "long" war lasting "months," culminat­ the week wore on. built a makeshift replacement bridge. vowed that this time around there would ing in a "bloody land campaign" (Phila­ General Colin Powell, chairman of the The arrogant imperialists never credit be no "gradualism." delphia Inquirer, 24 January). Joint Chiefs of Staff, was forced to con­ the enemy with brains, let alone The U.S. and its allies' warplanes have It's the ground war the Pentagon fess that "it is taking more of an effort determination. launched some 2,000 sorties. a day dreads because that plays to Iraq's on our part to go after those.Scuds than It seems the U.S. was expecting Sad­ against Iraq, double the rate of the heavi­ strength: a well-armored and battle­ we had anticipated." But so far to no dam Hussein to send out his forces to est nighttime I,OOO-bomber raids on hardened army-dug in in Kuwait. "It's avail. Evidently there's more to war than challenge the strongest element of the Germany in late 1944. The first day's continued on page 15 12 WORKERS VANGUARD League comrades chanted, "Pro-sanctions is pro-war-Break with the pro­ imperialist NDP." On the coast, there Toronto Protesters Say: was a family reunion of social democrats in Vancouver, as the reformist left hid themselves in an orgy of pleas to "get Canada back to the peacekeeper role" Defend the Palestinians! -like when Canadian troops helped slaughter three million in Korea! TORONTO-As soon as news broke of izers tried to restrict chants to "Troops ritories-Defend the Palestinians!" A From "support our troops" to "let sanc­ the U.S. attack on Iraq, antiwar protests out" and "No blood for oil," a contingent Mohawk woman took the bullhorn to tions do the job," the social democrats of have swept across Canada. Late on the from the Trotskyist League joined with speak about the Canadian state's armed the NDP and the labor bureaucracy stand evening of January 16, over 1',000 dem­ Arab militants and others to demand assault on Native Indian people last ready to throttle working-class opposition onstrators gathered at the U.S. consulate "U.S./Canada, Hands off Iraq!" summer. to this war. In contrast, the Trotskyist in Toronto. The CBC national news As marchers rallied at the U.S. con­ Rallies continued across Canada on League fights to mobilize labor's power reported that the Trotskyists were calling sulate, TL spokesmen addressed a section January 26, with protests from Montreal in strike action, for the working class to to "Defend Iraq Against U.S. Attack!" of the march numbering 1,000 with to Edmonton and Vancouver. In Mont­ do its duty to aid in the defeat of North The second half of the Trotskyist League speeches calling for defense of Iraq and real, in the biggest rally so far, 15,000 American imperialism. At the January 19 banner read, "Defeat U.S./Canadian Im­ defeat of imperialism. Yossi Schwartz, chanted "Pas de guerre pour le federal" Toronto rally, the closing Trotskyist perialism!" The Canadian junior partners who left the Canadian CP last fall for the (No war for the federal government). League speaker linked the capitalists' of U.S. imperialism have supported the TL, emphasized the need to defend the Many union banners and placards were war at home against Native Indians, war to the hilt, sending troops, .ships and Palestinian people against the Zionist present. In Edmonton, when New Demo­ workers, immigrants and all oppressed to CF-18 fighters to the Gulf. terrorists, and the crowd took up the cratic Party speaker Svend Robinson their bloody war abroad against the Iraqi In a demonstration the following day, chant, "Israel out of the Occupied Ter- made a pitch for sanctions, the Trotskyist people .• 3,000 antiwar protesters met at the U.S. consulate and marched on Conserva­ tive Party headquarters. Demo organizers tried to drown out our comrades' "De­ fend Iraq" chants, but demonstrators snapped up hundreds of copies of Spar­ tacist Canada and Workers Vanguard. Linda Torney, president of the Metro Toronto Labour Council, called on work­ ers to mobilize in the streets against this "war to defend capitalist interests." But last month the Labour Council, after a Toronto, sharp debate, moved to support the UN January 17­ sanctions which are the cover for the in­ Trotskyist vasion. After Torney's speech, TL sup­ League marches porters chanted for "labor strikes against outside U.S. the war," which was widely picked 'up. consulate for The protests grew on January 19, when defense of Iraq and defeat of 5,000 marched again in Toronto.Among U.S./Canadian the protesters were many Palestinian, imperialism. Iraqi and other Arab militants with flags and placards denouncing the imperialist war and Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While demo organ-

Ansaldo of Milano, have made clear that adventure with no return," as the Pope send "peace dove" postcards to the presi­ Europe... they will continue to pressure the union said) which has been embraced by the dent and to sign petitions begging depu­ (continued from page 16) tops to call for a general strike. But the PCI in its bid to give concrete expression ties to vote against the war on January latter have sworn their fealty to Italian to a popular-frontist social-chauvinist 17. In the end a handful ofPS (Socialist) the Gulf," but also (vainly) chanted capitalism, and the real line of the Com­ resolution to the Gulf War. deputies voted with the Communist Party "Spartaco out of the march." They munist Party (soon to be "Democratic PSI (Socialist) leader Craxi has gone (PCF), the fascists and de Gaulle's son showed that the kind of strike that they Party of the Left"), although it formally to great lengths insisting on the necessity and grandson against French participation support is one where the reformists seek came out against the war, is to "give of the attack. The Italian bourgeoisie in the war. They were censured but not to impose on the working class the sanctions a chance." As PCI leader would have preferred a "shOI1 war," lim­ expelled, for even Mitterrand's war min­ social-pacifist chains that would bind Occhetto said in parliament, to "reinforce iting wider commitments. Italy's inter­ ister Chevenement is under fire for his them to their "own" bourgeoisie. the embargo and the international isola­ vention is limited, in line not only with lukewarm attitude toward the war. Despite the trade-union bureaucracy's tion of Iraq" (L' Unita, 17 January). the desires of U.S. imperialism but also When the bombing started, tens of sabotage, small sectors of militant work­ The Catholic church has played a with the limited aims of the Italian thousands took to the streets Thursday ers continue to fight for strikes against leading role in opposition to the war and bourgeoisie. and Friday nights, defying a government the war. Numerous factory councils, like has been pushing a position ("war is an Confindustria (the industrialists' asso­ ban on demonstrations. In the face of a ciation) came out clearly for t~ inter­ massive cop presence, machine guns at vention and went after the PCI over its the ready, chants included "Mitterrand call for the troops out. However, the pro­ Assassin" and "CRS [riot police] to International Communist League war coalition is extremely fragile and Kuwait." The leadership was the "Appeal (Fourth Internationalist) under much pressure. The Milano city of the 75" marching behind a banner council last night tried to pass a motion saying, "No to War," which on Friday Correspondence for: Address to: of support to the government on the became "Stop the War." The PCF, LCR Spartaclst League of Australia Spartacist League, GPO Box 3473 Gulf. To everyone's surprise, the motion (supporters of Ernest Mandel's "United Sydney, NSW, 2001, Australia was voted down and the Socialists are Secretariat of the Fourth International"), Spartaclst League/Britain Spartacist Publications, PO Box 1041 particularly sore about this. SOS-Racisme and Greens are prominent, London NW5 3EU, England as well as many beurs (second-generation Trotskyist League of Canada Trotskyist League, Box 7198, Station A France: Marchers Defy immigrants from North Africa). Toronto, Ontario M5W 1X8, Canada Demo Ban~ Chant The LCR whimpered, "Mitterrand, you Spartaklst-Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands .... SpAO, Postfach 2002 "Mitterrand Assassin!" didn't get elected to make war." In fact, 0-1026 Berlin, Germany PARIS, January 28-This isa very un­ the "Socialist" president was elected, Verlag Avantgarde, Postfach 11 0231 popular war, at least it was before it with the "critical" support of the pseudo­ 2000 Hamburg 11, Germany started. Hundreds of thousands of people Trotskyist LCR, on a program of unam­ L1gueTrotskystedeFrance Le Bolchevik, BP 135-10 marched in nearly all major cities on biguous backing for NATO. On the left, 75463 Paris Cedex 10, France January 12. In factories around the coun­ only our comrades of the Ligue Trots­ Spartaclst Group India/Lanka write to Spartacist, New York try, working-class opposition to the war kyste de. France can say that they never Dublin Spartaclst Youth Group PO Box 2944, Dublin 1 is apparent. Also on the l Zth, rail work­ called to vote for Algerian war criminal Republic of Ireland ers in Chambery, where mass pickets Mitterrand or his popular front! stopped the "bullet trains" during the '86 On the 12th, contingents of passing Lega Trotsklsta d'italia , Walter Fidacaro C.P. 1591, 20101 Milano, Italy transport strike, stopped an American Palestinians cheered as they passed the arms transport bound for the Gulf from LTF's banner calling for defense of Iraq Spartaclst Group Japan...... Spartacist Group Japan PO Box 18,Chitose-Yubinkyoku Germany via Italy. On the 13th, the and defeat of imperialism, prominently Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156, Japan national CGT confederation circulated an placed on an elevated sidewalk two me­ ters above the march. They punctuated Grupo Espartaqulsta de Mexico P. Linares, Apdo. Postal 453 order to all union locals to organize 15­ 06002, M~xico 1, OF, Mexico minute strikes to "win the peace." the air with the Intifada'S V-for-victory Attempting to line up the workers sign and snapped up copies of Le Bolche­ Spartakusowska Grupa Polski A.J., SKR 741 50-950 Wroclaw 2, Poland behind "His Majesty" Mitterrand's flurry vik. In Rouen, 30 people marched behind oflast-minute diplomatic activity (i.e., to the LTF's banner, including CGT mem- Spartaclst League/U.S Spartaclst League, Box 1377 GPO New York, NY 10116, USA get Saddam to capitulate), the CGT bers and high school students. . called for this strike time to be used to continued on page 14 1 FEBRUARY 1991 13 harbor and a section ofthe airport. Social Europe... Democrat (SPD) and Green-led teachers (continued from page 13) unions have organized student "strikes" and mass student demonstrations, but North African workers and youth in they feature school principals or the state France were initially dazed with anguish, education minister as the main speaker! as the bombing raids relentlessly rained At a Gulf "peace" demonstration on down destruction on the Arab population Januaryl2, a group of Autonomen punks in Baghdad, and the imperialist propa­ tore down theSpAD banner declaring ganda machine spewed out the lie that "Defend Iraq! For the Defeat of USAf Saddam had been KOed without resis­ NATO Imperialism!" These anarcho­ tance. The next day they breathed a chauvinists place themselves in the serv­ sigh of relief when the Iraqi Scuds ex­ ice of Greater Germany no less than do ploded the premature triumphalism of the the Nazi skinhead terrorists who have racist imperialists. been rampaging in the former East Ger­ The working-class population of North many. But at the same time that union African origin has been targeted as a bureaucrats, social democrats and Green potential "fifth column" in the govern­ peaceniks wrap themselves in the black­ ment's "anti-terrorist" campaign: post red-and-gold German flag, there are office workers are requisitioned into many others who look to the red flag of security crews to make rounds and check socialism. On January 13, well over the wastebaskets for bombs. TV shots 100,000 came out to demonstrate on the Berlin protesters say, "No Blood For Oil-Soldiers, Desert!" show the Champs-Elysees at night look­ anniversary of the assassination of Com­ ing like a glittery ghost town. The press munist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl played up a run oil gun shops in the But these disagreements are simply over where it is aiming at the dismantling of Liebknecht. This year like last, the SpAD south, making it seem like the entire how best to defend the Near Eastern and the Soviet Union. "Unity chancellor" commemorated the Three L's (including population was arming for imminent North African interests of this second­ Kohl certainly intends to be in on the Leninl), laying a wreath and soapboxing pogroms. rate imperialist power, whose principal division of the spoils if Iraq is defeated. under our banners. Over 1,400 issues of The heur youth, for the most part exports are cognac and Exocets. The PCF But if Washington has a hard time over­ Spartakist were sold. French citizens, have come to identify leadership's "antiwar" line waving the coming the "Vietnam syndrome," Ger­ Now that the U.S. is using Turkey as with the Palestinian Intifada and now French Tricolor is chauvinist poison, man ,imperialism has an ever bigger an aircraft carrier for bombing missions Iraq, as their future looks increasingly which plays into the hands of Le Pen's problem with what might be called the against northern Iraq, Germany may be hopeless here. "Radio Beur" in Paris is fascists. "Second World War syndrome." directly drawn into the war. NATO sec­ receiving more than I ,500 phone calls an Now Mitterrand's police have banned The concerns of the German capital­ retary general Worner declared that if hour against the war. The bombing of three pro-Iraq Arab-language newspapers, ist ruling class are refracted through Iraq defends itself from U.S./Turkish Israel sharpened the polarization in· this on the grounds that in the present context the petty-bourgeois, German nationalist attacks, it would be an attack on the country, especially on the campuses. they could "provoke disturbances ofpub­ peace movement and trade-union bu­ entire alliance, compelling all NATO Four Zionist leaders of SOS-Racisme lic order." And they are threatening to reaucracy. On the eve of D-Day for the members to respond. Kohl wants to use immediately resigned from that organiza­ prosecute Gilles Perrault, the author of U.S.fUN Diktat to Iraq, the DGB labor this war to eliminate the clause from the tion when it participated in the antiwar The Red Orchestra and a prominent oppo­ federation called for pacifist demon­ constitution that constrains the use of demo Friday night. nent of French colonialism's dirty war in strations, which targeted Saddam Hussein German armed forces outside of the It is a truly unholy alliance that Algeria, for his call on French soldiers as the "guilty party." Now scruffy, NATO theater. But actually sending the leads the peace movement-the Com­ to desert over the Gulf War. purple-haired Autonomen could unite Bundeswehr into Iraq is another matter munist Party/CGT and the virulently The Algerian War brought France to with union bureaucrats in three-piece -it could be bad for business in the Russia-hating social democrats of Pierre the brink of a civil war, and mobiliza­ suits, sitting in at the entrances of arms region and elsewhere. Lambert's pseudo-Trotskyist PCI. Denis tions for solidarity with the Vietnamese manufacturers said to be breaking the The Financial Times (22 January) Langlois, the PCI-influenced head of the Revolution were what sparked the move­ blockade of Iraq. The DGB and the pow­ reported that "Germans are paying rela­ "Appeal of the 75," calls for a general mentthat led to the barricades and the erful IG-Metall union also called for tively more attention to the Soviet crisis strike against the war, while looking prerevolutionary general strike of 1968. "five minutes of silence" work stoppages. than other Europeans." Here, too, the to the CIA-aided FO and Mitterrand­ Where the PCI marches today with signs As the Spartakist Workers Party (SpAD) Social Democrat-led DGB is in the fore­ supporting CFDT labor federations to saying, "Noto War" and"No More Viet­ declaration on the war noted, "the bu­ front of German imperialist Ostpolitik implement it. Now an assembly of the nams," the Ligue Trotskyste says war is reaucrats will use any excuse to silence (eastern policy). Their call for antiwar "Appeal" is scheduled to debate what the mother of revolution and proclaims: the working class." demonstrations on the 26th included: position to take on Iraq: an LCR "Vietnam Was a Victory!" However, the response to this token­ "Send our peace demand.to the address spokesman is quoted as saying, "If we istic call has sometimes been more than Germany: Bourgeojsie of the Soviet Union, to Mikhail Gorba­ discuss that, the movement will split" the bureaucrats'bargained for. The Ger­ chev, to stop the military aggression in (Liberation, 28 January). Looks East to Balties, man working class has no interest in the the Baltic." At the demonstration itself, Not South to Gulf Squabbles in the "peace movement" imperialists' war aims in the Near East the Social Democrats repeatedly warned reflect dissension in the French bourgeoi­ BERLIN, January 28-The biggest dem­ or East Europe. In the SPD stronghold of against antiwar protests taking on "anti­ sie, graphically shown in the zigzag onstrations in Europe against the Near Dusseldorf, 80,000 workers followed the American" tones. The Spartakist Workers policies of its governmental executive East war have been in Germany: over DGB call for a five-minute antiwar stop­ Party, which uniquely opposed the West arm. For "negotiations" before the shoot­ 200,000 in Bonn yesterday, 150,000 in page on the 16th. The day before, 150 German annexation of the DDR (the ing started, Mitterrand now wants to Berlin and tens of thousands more in apprentices at Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart East German bureaucratically deformed show his military mettle, by turning over Hamburg andelsewhere. This is no acci­ and 400 workers at Bosch-Leinfelden workers state) last year, has repeatedly command of the French forces to the dent, for the German bourgeoisie sees the south of Stuttgart staged 30-minute work warned that the SPD is a Trojan horse Americans. (So much for France'sVaunt­ Gulf War to the south as at best a diver­ stoppages. In Hamburg, work stoppages of counterrevolution. ed "operational autonomy" in NATO!) sion from its real interests to the east, included the subway, buses, half the Having turned the DDR over to the , Frankfurt bankers in a "peaceful" coun­ terrevolution, now Modrow, Gysi & Co. of the PDS (Party of Democratic Social­ ism, successor party to the former East Australian Wharfies Walk Out German Stalinists) want to smooth Ger­ man imperialism's Drang nach Osten SYDNEY-Australia has three frigates a resolution to their federal union and ing raids over Iraq. The government is (drive to the East). On January 14, the stationed alongside the USS Midway in the Trades and Labour Council calling trying to whip up hysteria over the sup­ PDS joined hands with the SPD, Greens the Persian Gulf, clearly expressing the for a one-day national general strike. posed threat of "terrorism," while on and Christian Democrats in a "human aspirations of the Hawke Labor govern­ During the Vietnam War, maritime the streets there has been a wave of chain" demonstration in Berlin that ment: to be deputy sheriff to U.S. cops workers led the way in political strikes racist attacks on Arab Australians. Fas­ stretched from the American to the of the world. against the war. cist groups have also targeted Jewish Soviet consulates, demanding "No force But the imperialist attack on Iraq After years of union-busting and schools, synagogues and even a Zionist in Lithuania and the Gulf." has sparked work stoppages and pro­ Cold War reaction; working people are meeting. Meanwhile, troops are readied This extraparliarnentary "Grand Coali­ test marches in Australia. On January fed up with Hawke. But the popular­ for a "peacekeeping force" to subdue tion" obscenely equates Gorbachev's 18-19, some 70,000 people joined in front protest coalitions, with their the rebellious island of Bougainville crackdown on Baltic counterrevolutionary marches around the country, including appeals to "Bring the Frigates Home" in Papua New Guinea, an Australian secessionists inside the USSR with U.S. rallies of 20,000 in Melbourne and and "Sanctions Not War," seek to neocolony. imperialism's campaign of mass murder Sydney. Thousands more marched a channel this anger into social-patriotic The Spartacist League/Australia has against Iraq. (One day after the U.S. week later. Protesters have been mostly appeals and support for sanctions. Ref­ uniquely fought to defend Iraq, with launched its bombs on Iraq, the PDS young, with many students, pacifists, ormistslike the anti-Soviet internation­ contingents calling for labour political issued an unspeakably shameful leaflet church groups, "greens" and feminists. al Socialist Organization have disap­ strikes against the war, and for the stating that "24 hours are enough"! In the There have been smaller contingents peared their initial slogans for "Victory defeat of U.S. and Australian imperial­ Bundestag PDS superstar Gysi said: "If from unions such as the Miners and to Iraq" in order to build the "peace ism. Over 1,000 pieces of revolutionary Germany: were neutral, the government Building Workers, as well as Kurdish, movement" around church leaders, poli­ literature have been sold in the past could be a force for peace negotiations." Turkish and Arab groups. ticians from the Australian Democrats ten days. As a Spartacist speaker told No! "Neutral" or not, the Fourth Reich When the U.S. bombing assault be­ (bourgeois liberals) and the Labor Party the January 17 Melbourne rally: "The of German imperialism is a force for gan, militant wharfies, members of the lefts. Labor Party is the party of capitalist 'economic spoliation and war, no less Waterside Workers Federation (WWF), More important than a few frigates war, depression and racism. The work­ than is the decaying American empire walked off the job in Brisbane, Sydney in the Gulf are. the U.S. bases in ing class needs to break from Labor in which seeks to hide its interests behind and Port Kembla, shutting down the Australia, especially the spy satellite order to unleash its enormous power. Hitlerite talk of a "new world order." docks as they attended an antiwar-rally ground stations at Pine Gap and Nur­ We need to build a revolutionary work­ The "human chain" demanded "Free­ and meetings. The Brisbane WWF sent rungar, crucial to the murderous bomb- ers party." dom for the Baltics" and "Red tanks out of Lithuania" and was followed by a 14 WORKERS VANGUARD vigil in front of the Soviet embassy that included Republikaner fascists! Indeed, -Ground War... when Reichs chancellor Kohl looks out (continued from page 12) over the Bundestag benches, from Right to Left, he can say like Kaiser Wilhelm going to be a meat grinder," said retired at the outset of World War I: "I see no Army Major General Stanley Connelly parties here, only Germans." (San Francisco Chronicle, 25 January). Ireland: Refuse to Handle Some computerized scenarios predict U.S./NATO Warplanes 45,000 casualties including 10,000 or at Shannon! more U.S. dead, and that's the con­ servative estimate, On the ground, U.S. DUBLIN-The Dublin Spartacist Youth military hardware is well matched by the Group (DSYG) calls for trade-union Iraqis, and in some cases the Iraqis have action to "black" (boycott) refueling of the advantage, particularly with their military transport at Shannon Interna­ long-range Soviet cannon and South tional Airport, used by U.S. warplanes on African artillery, which have longer their way to the Gulf. This is not an range than anything the U.S. Army has. abstract demand. The Dublin Council of Many experts think the highly adver­ Trade Unions has recently appealed to tised MI-Al tank may prove no match trade unionists at Shannon to implement for the Iraqis' Soviet-made T-72, which such action. "has a slightly larger main gun and can The Labour Party/Workers Party or­ travel just as far ... on half the amount of ganizers of the Gulf peace committee, fuel" (San Francisco Chronicle, 25 Jan­ bogus "anti-imperialists" who support the A uary). And U.S. air power may not be F-117A "stealth" fighters. $3-trilllon "high-tech" arsenal built to obliterate presence of British troops in Northern able to cover the ground troops because Soviet Union now being battle-tested against Iraq. Ireland, tried to silence the DSYG con­ in that region the Iraqis have, according tingent in a Dublin antiwar demo on to Colonel Harry Summers, "one of the suggests a penetration attack would be relatively antiseptic air war," notes the January 19. But sympathetic Republicans most extensive low-level air defense used, in which the attacking forces seek San Francisco Chronicle, the U.S. now intervened in our defense. At the Dublin systems in the world" composed ofthou­ a weak point and "massive bombardment faces "an armored clash in the desert that demo, Eamonn McCann (a supporter of sands of antiaircraft artillery machine by air and artillery on a very narrow many combat veterans and military ana­ Tony Cliff's British SWP) cynically guns and cannon (Los Angeles Times, portion of the enemy lines opens gaps lysts think will be gruesome and bloody devoted a substantial portion of his 23 January). that armored units rapidly move through" and may drag on for months." This will speech to "defeat of.the West and victory So the Americans' high-tech in the air (Los Angeles Times, 22 January). How­ collapse Bush's support in the polls and for Iraq," whereas in November his will be pushed to the background, and ever, this would require U.S. forces give him serious problems on the "home group boycotted a Trinity College "Break everything will depend on the foot sol­ to concentrate in a small area which front." The world working class must the Blockade" action, initiated by the dier, as in all wars. Here the Iraqis could become a "killing zone" for Iraqi stand in defense ofIraq: every day Bagh­ DSYG, because it took a side against have a tremendous advantage, as one artillery. dad holds out against the most deadly imperialism. Lebanese-born arms merchant familiar And oil itself, the object of Bush's war machine on the planet brings closer with their army remarked on 60 Minutes desire, has become a weapon of defense: the demise of a declining imperialism Britain: Labour Lackeys (20 January): the American troops "have the giant oil spill coming out of Kuwaiti which threatens all humanity in its drive of Bush's War not seen blood yet," he noted; unlike , pipelines into the Gulf will surely make to declare itself the one Superpower on LONDON, January 22-The British have the Iraqis who went through eight years an amphibious landing more difficult and the planet. the largest component of imperialist of trench warfare during the Iran-Iraq threatens to cut offthe U.S. troops' water Now that the war is not going accord­ forces in the Gulf after the Americans, War, losing a quarter million men. The supply by forcing the closure of desalini­ ing to plan, the Pentagon has added so Neil Kinnock and the Labour Party first shock of a mass bloodying will zation plants which supply 90 percent of "non-lethal" gas to its "tool box" of and trade-union tops are marching in likely magnify the dreaded "Vietnam fresh water to eastern Saudi Arabia. weapons-in violation of Geneva con­ lockstep with the Tory government. As syndrome." Some Kuwaiti oil wells have already ventions on chemical warfare. Polls are a result, since the bombing began in the The U.S. options on the ground are been blown up, and if this is done on a already asking Americans if they would Gulf antiwar demonstrations in England limited to "frontal attack, penetration and large scale the smoke would no doubt accept the use of "tactical" nuclear weap­ have been far smaller than those on the envelopment," as Colonel Summers puts obscure the battlefield for the American ons. A century ago Karl Marx warned continent. it. But Iraqi defenses are formidable, Air Force. In short, high-tech could be that the choices facing mankind were At a London demonstration of about including miles of minefields, ditches to foiled by low-tech. "socialism or barbarism," and today this 15,000 on January 19, called by Labour trap tanks and other obstacles. Summers "After more than a week fighting a warning is becoming terribly concrete.• Left MP Tony Benn's "Stop the War" committee, there was little trade-union presence. However, there were substan­ tial numbers of foreign workers, many of whom greeted with clenched fists the Turkey... Spartacist League contingent marching (continued from page 11) under the banner "Defend Iraq! Defeat of innocent peasants are being massacred. US/British Imperialism!" Much of our Half of Kurdistan is a war zone and is a sales went to Irish, Asian, black and Prohibited Area." other minorities, whose families have Meanwhile, Iran recently executed seven experienced firsthand the savagery of Kurdish leaders. And Saddam Hussein British colonialism and imperialism, and promised support for an independent some Asian workers joined our contin­ Kurdish state ... on Turkish and Iranian gent. (In contrast to the SL's forthright soil! stand, Workers Power and its bloc part­ Now Jallal Talibani, the leader of the ners in the "Hands Off the Middle Eas't'''' Patriotic Union ofKurdistan, reports that committee again carried no. placards or thousands of Kurdish rebels who had banners calling for military victory to taken refuge in Iran "to flee the repres­ Iraq.) sion of Saddam Hussein" had returned to On January 22, SL supporters partici­ Iraq since the U.S. assault began. Vow­ pated in a lunchtime antiwar picket ing that the "Turkish army will have to at London University's School of Ori­ Kemal Dogan pass over our bodies to get into Iraq," Spartakist Workers Party of Germany (SpAD) contingent joins Hamburg ental and African Studies (SOAS). The Talibani added that they would not allow demonstratio!.1 in solidarity with Turkish general strike. SpAD signs say: Ministry of Defense has declared SOAS themselves "to be manipulated again and "Overthrow Ozal with Workers Revolutlonl" and "Defend Iraq! Defeat a "soft target" for "terrorist attack," an then end up paying the price of agree­ U.S./NATO Imperlalistsl" excuse to intimidate and threaten stu­ ments between regional powers." dents, many of whom are from the Near Divided among four different capitalist Turkish and Kurdish communities took we warn today as well against illusions East. Already several dozen Iraqis and states in the post-World War I imperialist place in both Germany and Britain. In that this Ba'athist despot and former Palestinians in Britain have been jailed, carve-up of the region, the Kurdish peo­ Britain, police attacked pickets in the U.S./NATO ally can be a savior of the many facing deportation. The SL says: ple have been alternately used as cannon London borough of Hackney, where Palestinian or Kurdish peoples. But "No deportations, no victimizations, no fodder by one or another imperialist or strikes had closed several local factories today it is the elementary duty of all to internment!" regional power against theirenemies, and and sweatshops. Some 65 -people were opponents of imperialism to come to the In Glasgow, Scotland on the 19th, SL murderously repressed by their respective arrested, many beaten and forced to sign defense of Iraq against the bloody U.S.­ supporters and sympathizers distributed state powers, including Saddam Hus­ a statement agreeing to leave the country led onslaught. a leaflet titled, "Spartacist Call for De­ sein's Iraq. The International Communist if they lose their case in court. The Spar­ In fighting against the exploiters and fense of Iraq, Militant/CND Call the League (Fourth Internationalist) declares tacist League/Britain has called on the warmongers-and in sharp opposition to Cops." A Militant supporter who had that the national. rights of the Kurdish workers movement to take up the de­ all the parties of the bourgeoisie-the sought to use the Glasgow police to people can only be won through socialist mand: Drop the charges, no deportations! Turkish workers movement must fight exclude the Spartacist contingent is a revolution by the workers of Turkey, In Germany, the Spartakist Workers for the right to self-determination of the NALGO (local government workers) Iraq, Iran and Syria. For a socialist Party (SpAD) distributed a Turkish­ Kurdish people. As American jets thun- official. As the, leaflet, distributed to republic of united Kurdistan! language leaflet on the coal miners _der over Iraq and an imperialist armada NALGO and other union contingents, With several' million Turkish and strike. In Berlin, some Kurdish leftists has seized the Persian Gulf, international­ noted: "It's not just the Spartacist League Kurdish workers strategically situated in excluded our comrades from a demon­ ist class struggle by the Turkish and that's being set up here, at a time when key industrial centers of West Europe, stration in solidarity with the Zonguldak Kurdish workers can spike the designs the bourgeois state is gearing up an arse­ revolutionary proletarian struggle in miners because of the SpAD's forthright of rapacious U.S. imperialism and its nal of repression, anti-'red' witchhunts Turkey will reverberate throughout the call for defense of Iraq against impe­ lackeys' to build a "new world order" and press censorship to regiment the pop­ continent. On the day of the January 3 rialism. The ICL has for years denounced over the corpses of the world's working ulation for a bloody, unpopular war.". general strike, sympathy actions among the bloody Saddam Hussein regime, and people .• 1 fEBRUARY 1991 15 WfJ/tKE/tS ,,1l1filJl1/tIJ Antiwar Work Stoppages, Protests Across Europe

Over the past two weeks, millions have demonstrated in various European cities calling for peace in the Near East. Al­ ready on the day after the U.S. began bombing Baghdad, there were antiwar work stoppages in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, ranging from a token five minutes to de facto citywide general strikes. The outpouring of protests indi- '" cates revulsion at the mass murder being unleashed by the NATO governments in the Near East, and deep fears that the Gulf War will spill over to a continent that has been engulfed in conflagration twice already in this century. This has put tremendous pressure on the leaders of the trade unions and mass reformist workers parties who seek to bind the masses to the interests of their "own" national bourgeoisies. And it has opened tremendous opportunities for Marxist revolutionaries who fight for an internationalist opposition to imperialist war. As various pseudo-Trotskyists sim­ ply tail after pacifist sentiment and the reformist misleaders, the sections of the L'Humanite International Communist League (Fourth Paris, January 16-Thousands demonstrate outside National Assembly against French participation in war on Iraq. Internationalist) have been unique in calling forthrightly for the defeat of Saddam Hussein, there was also a fear of Stalinist traitors have played out their lano area there was a three-hour strike imperialism and defense of Iraq. what the U.S. will do to its imperialist role as "labor lieutenants ofthe capitalist explicitly against the war, pretty much When "Communist," "Socialist" or "allies" (rivals) if it succeeds in regain­ class," sabotaging revolutions and infect­ spontaneous, involving some ten facto­ "Labour" misleaders talk vaguely of ing control of world oil supplies. This ing the working classes with chauvinist ries. There was also a mass student rally "peace" in the Near East, they offer "UN concern is particularly strong in Ger­ poison. The Gulf War has exposed the in conjunction with the workers' action, sanctions" as the alternative to war-in many, which together with Japan is the "far left" as incapable of formulating a at which spokesmen for the Lega Trots­ other words, starving the Iraqi masses indirect target of Washington's Persian revolutionary, proletarian and internation­ kista d'Italia intervened. into submission instead of killing them Gulf invasion. Particularly following its alist opposition to the imperialist war. The first day of the bombardment of outright. They thus legitimize the vast annexation of East Germany, Bonn is Instead, as usual, they tail after the refor­ Iraq, January 17, workers in Milano lit­ imperialist military buildup in the Gulf, looking East for its expansion room (and mists, this time with social-pacifist ap­ erally walked out of the plants with their supposedly there to enforce the U.S.­ oil supplies), and has refused to send its peals to "bring the troops home." factory councils and made their way to ordered "UN" embargo that was the prel­ military forces against Iraq. It's not As in 1914 when the Second Interna­ Milano city square where 100,000 gath­ ude to the present barbaric war on Iraq. surprising, therefore, that the German tional exploded with the.onset of World ered at the demonstration meeting point. In so doing, they call for a more "ration­ "peace" demonstrations have been the War I, today the implosionof Stalinism This included factories like Breda, Falck, al" policy for their capitalist masters, largest on the continent. in East Europe has produced massive Maserati and Ansaldo, important metal often in league with "enlightened" bour­ Since the German Social Democrats' disorientation on the left. But already in factories in Milano. There were also geois leaders who worry about an explo­ vote for war credits on 4 August 1914, these early days of the war, there are government workers, transport workers, sion of Arab anger provoked by the war. and the French "Communist" Party's many in the ranks of the demonstrators financial center employees and other Behind the calls for negotiations from support (on Stalin's orders) for the who recognize in the ICL's stand in sectors of the working class. the Common Market 12, right up to the French government's war budget two defense of Iraq against imperialist attack In most of the major Italian cities in eve of Bush's January 15 ultimatum to decades later, the social-democratic and the program of authentic socialism and the north, there was a de facto general communism. We' fight for proletarian strike. There was an immediate call for opposition to the war in the spirit of a national general strike, as the workers Lenin and Trotsky, emphasizing that the were furious and wanting to put a halt to struggle against this predatory and bar­ the atrocities that were taking place. The haric war means the struggle to overthrow trade-union bureaucracy resisted all calls the imperialist system through class strug­ for a general strike with the excuse that gle at home. The crucial factor is an au­ this would damage the economy and that thentic revolutionary leadership: reforge it would be construed as a strike against the Fourth International as a world party the government! of socialist revolution. The January 19 demonstration in Mila­ The following reports from our com­ no was primarily high school students. rades around Europe indicate the revolu­ Some 25,000 turned up and part of the tionary opportunities posed by this "first march route passed in front of the Italian post-Cold War war." air force headquarters (Italy had just lost Rome, its first Tornado bomber). The LTd'l De Facto General Strike January 1~: gave out several thousand copies of its Massive ' in Northern Italy declaration on the war. With placards and demonstration MILANO, January 22-This morning, leaflets which read "Defend Iraq" and against train engineers carried out a half-hour "Defeat the Imperialists," accompanied impending strike against the war in which they by soapboxing with a megaphone, they Persian Gulf effectively disrupted most rail services politically engaged the high school stu­ War. throughout the country. In Milano, a dent pacifists. couple of high school collectives went to The Lega Trotskista comrades also the train station in Lambrate to give their came up against Falcemartello, the Italian support to this action. This kind of anti­ group linked to the British Militant war activity in the working class has group which is deeply embedded in the been going on for the last week .. NATO social democracy of the Labour On the day Bush's ultimatum expired, Party. Falcemartello chanted "General the trade-union "Ireaucracy called fora strike against the imperialist war in token five-min. strike. But in the Mi- continued on page 13

16 1 FEBRUARY 1991