Krivine for President of France

Home , Alain Krivine, Gaston Defferre, Livio Maitan, The Militant

Vol. 7, No. 19 0 1969 Intercontinental Press May 19, 1969 50c Krivine for President of France

Grigorenko Arrested at Crimean Tartar Trial

May Day in Britain

Harvard Strike Report

New Social Unrest in Santo Doming0

ALAIN KRIVINE: From Sante Prison to Elysee Palace?

Ninth Congress of the Chinese CP -474-

ALAIN KRIVINE FOR PRESIDENT OF FMCE

The Ligue Communiste* CLCl an- "This candidacy ,I' Le Monde quoted nounced May 5 that it would enter Alain Bensaid as saying, "does not, therefore, Krivine as its candidate for president have an electoral objective. Its princi- of France in the June 1 elections. Kri- pal aim is to explain that nothing was vine was the main leader of the JCR and solved by the referendum, that nothing played a key role in the May-June up- will be solved following the 1st or the heaval. He was imprisoned in July for 15th of June. thirty-nine days and drafted into the army shortly after his release. At pres- "The economic and social problems ent Krivine is stationed at Verdun with remain; the financial apprehension, the the 150th Infantry Regiment. political instability, will not be healed for long by a victory for Pompidou. The The announcement of Krivine's can- solutions lie elsewhere: in a new mobili- didacy, which was featured on the front zation of the working class in the facto- page of the widely read Paris daily & ries and in the neighborhoods." Monde, came only hours after the Commu- nist party designated seventy-two-year- The army refused to allow Alain old Jacques Duclos as their standard Krivine to leave Verdun to attend the bearer. The day before, on May 4, the press conference, but the young candidate Parti Socialiste [Socialist party -- a has set in motion legal proceedings to new regroupment of right-wing Social Dem- compel the army to recognize his right to ocrats] at its founding conference at campaign. Supporters of the Ligue Commu- Alfortville nominated Gaston Defferre, niste have asked the Constitutional Coun- the mayor of Marseille, as its presiden- cil to rule -on the case. tial candidate. The Parti Socialiste Uni- fi6 CPSU -- United Socialist party, the Le Monde said the case was "unpre- left Social Democrats] nominated its na- cedented," but indicated that Krivine had tional secretary, Michel Rocard. the right to be a candidate. At twenty- seven, he fulfills the age requirement While the strongest bourgeois can- for the presidency, which in France is didate is still Georges Pompidou, who has twenty-three. He also satisfies all oth- the support of the Gaullists, interim er constitutional requirements for the President Alain Poher is being built up presidency. Le Monde commented: by the Parti Radical [Radical party -- the traditional bourgeois liberals] as "The first reaction in military another potential heir to de Gaulle's circles was that no regulation prohibits throne. running for office. A military candidate in an election is free to write or say The Ligue Communiste made it clear what he pleases. He can take advantage that its campaign would be conducted as of a leave without pay and a special fur- part of the revolutionary struggle of the lough .'' French youth, and not as part of the traditional parliamentary infighting of the French election laws require that reformist workers parties. a presidential candidate must receive the endorsement of 100 government officehold- Daniel Bensald, one of the editors ers in order to appear on the ballot. of Rouge, told a press conference May 5: These 100 signatures must be collected from mayors, members of parliament, sena- "We want to put the revolutionary tors, etc. The Ligue Communiste has is- voice of May and June on radio and tele- sued an appeal for these signatures on a vision. This revolutionary candidacy will civil-liberties basis. It is asking for help to dissipate the electoralist and endorsement from individuals who do not parliamentary illusions fostered by the necessarily agree with Krivine's program, CP. We want to break with this fantasy so that he can exercise the democratic and build a force to the left of the CP." right to appear on the ballot. The Communist party launched a red- * The Ligue Communiste [Communist League1 baiting attack on the Krivine campaign in was founded April 5-8 by supporters of the CP organ l'Humanit6. the left-Communist action journal RouKe, including former members of the Jeunesse "If Krivine ," 1 'Humanit6 said, "de- Communiste R6volutionnaire CJCR -- Revolu- spite his sudden respect for the democrat- tionary Communist Youth1 and of the Parti ic sentiments of elected officials, has Communiste Internationaliste CPCI -- In- trouble finding a hundred sponsors, Mar- ternationalist Communist party, the cellin will provide them." Marcellin, of French section of the Fourth Internation- course, is the head of the government po- al]. The two last-named organizations lice apparatus. The Ligue Communiste re- were banned by the de Gaulle regime in plied by asking the Communist party to June 1968. demonstrate its own willingness to defend -475-

the civil liberties of workers organiza- geois election code is the posting of tions by providing the necessary signa- 10,000 francs [US$2,0001 with the govern- tures for Alain Krivine from among the ment to put a presidential candidate on many CP functionaries who hold public the ballot. This is in addition to the office. expenses of campaigning. The Ligue Comu- niste has issued an appeal for contribu- Georges Marchais, a member of the tions for the campaign, to be sent to Do- Political Bureau of the French CP, in an minique Mehl, CCP: 24 786 41, Paris, interview in the May 9 Le Monde, further France. denounced the young revolutionary and declared that the CP would not provide any In issuing their appeal, the Ligue signatures. Communiste further outlined the projected campaign: The same issue of Le Monde reported that the Ligue Communiste had already "In face of such a carnival of secured forty of the required endorse- thieves, who seek to disorient revolution- ments. Charles Michaloux, Henri Weber and ary workers and militants, the Ligue Com- Daniel Bensaid told a press conference muniste considers it important to offer that the LC had proposed a joint campaign a revolutionary candidate. We are not to the PSU, but that the PSU had decided interested in running for the post of to run its own candidate. president but in spreading revolutionary ideas and propaganda among the work- Daniel Cohn-Bendit sent Alain Kri- ers through this campaign. At a time when vine a telegram May 7 suggesting himself all groups are digging into the mythology as a candidate for prime minister if Kri- of May to come up with attention-getting vine is elected. Speaking for Krivine, trappings for one or another of their who could not be present, Michel Michaloux heroes, we must present clearly and be- told the press that in the revolutionary fore all, one of the vanguard organiza- reconstruction that would follow if Kri- tions which bourgeois propaganda branded vine were elected there would no longer as a 'splinter gr0up.I" be such posts as ministers and such, but that Cohn-Bendit could be offered a post as a "people s commissar. Krivine's campaign is scheduled to wind up with a mass rally at the Palais Another requirement of the bour- des Sports in Paris May 28.

"LE MONDE'S" APPRAISAL OF ALAIN KRIVINE

[The leading role which the Trot- son-in-law of the former assistant gener- skyists played in the events of May and al secretary of the PSU [Parti Socialiste June 1968 and their organizational ad- Unifi6 -- United Socialist party -- a vances since that time have forced the centrist formation1 M. Gilles Martinet, bourgeois press in France to take a dif- he was a history student. He had to aban- ferent tack in reporting their activities don his preparation for his doctorate, Before these events, the practice was to however, to devote himself to politics. denigrate or ignore all forces to the left of the old established parties. Now Involvement in politics is Q the far left organizations are receiving -rigueur in the Krivine family. While his more attention. father, a dentist, has never been active in a political organization, his five CLe Monde, a bourgeois Paris daily brothers all joined the Comunist party. comparable to the New York or London At present, two are still in the Commu- Times in prestige, on May 7 printed the nist party. One has left politics. The following relatively objective biographi- two youngest -- Alain and his twin broth- cal sketch of Alain Krivine, the candi- er Hubert -- moved toward Trotskyism date of the Ligue Communiste for presi- under the influence especially of Ernest dent of France. Mandel, a Belgian economist and the auth- or of Marxist Economic Theory, and one of [The translation is by Interconti- the main figures in the Fourth Interna- nental Press.] tional. *** Alain Krivine got his first experience in politics during the Algerian war. I With abundant but not overly long He helped to found the Front Universitaire hair, careful dress, a natural elegance Antifasciste [Student Antifascist Front]. in his expression and bearing, and a Accusing the Communist party of softness ready sense of irony, M. Alain Krivine is in the struggle for Algerian independence eloquent but discreet. At 27, he is an and a$ainst the OAS [Organisation de "old man" of the student movement. The 1'Armee Secdte -- Secret Army Organiza- -476- tion -- a colonialist terrorist outfit], especially those shaking the "third he was already trying to outflank the CP world" (Castroism, Guevarism ...) and the to the left. youth. It established numerous contacts with the revolutionary youth movements He was in the opposition in the in foreign countries, especially Germany Union des Etudiants Communistes CUEC -- and Belgium. Union of Communist Students]. He conducted a noisy campaign against the Communist party line and violently criticized the If Alain Krivine was not one of party's decision to support M. Mitter- those on whom the spotlight played the rand's presidential candidacy. This posi- most in May 1968, he was nonetheless tion got him expelled from the UEC at its quite active. He appeared at the Sorbonne, 1966 congress along with the rest of the on the barricades, in the first rank of "liberal arts section" of the Sorbonne, the marches. He was often the one who in- of which he was one of the principal lead- spired the tactics of the demonstrators ers. or who dealt with the police. Upon being expelled, he did not This exuberant activity got him give up the fight. He immediately an- arrested in July, after the dissolution nounced the formation of the Jeunesse Com- of the JCR, for holding a "clandestine" muniste Rbvolutionnaire, which joined the press conference. He went directly from leftist "splinter groups'' already prolif- prison to the barracks. erating in the Latin Quarter. The aim of this organization was to rally the vari- Combining tactical skill with rev- ous strata of the youth (high-school and olutionary conviction, he symbolizes the university students, apprentices) to new extreme-left political generation "genuinely revolutionary" positions, to quite well. In this generation, we find train militants, and to promote ideologi- a combination of a taste for intellectual cal discussion. The JCR sought to be re- debate, a quest for direct action, and a ceptive to the new Marxist currents and certain romanticism.

WEST IRIAN REVOLT PLAGUES INDONESIAN DICTATORSHIP

Despite earlier assurances by the land an Indonesian marine and six Irian- Suharto dictatorship that the current re- ese policemen were said to have been bellion in West Irian had been suppressed, killed. an Indonesian government official announced May 8 that an "anti-Government At the West Irian capital of Jaya- terror campaign" had begun in West Irian. pura, workers and peasants held a large The Djakarta government banned journal- anti-Indonesian demonstration. ists from the Indonesian-administered area. Some 500 Indonesian paratroops At Enaratoli, rebels fired on a re- were sent into the territory to quell an connaissance plane carrying the military uprising of Papuan tribesmen armed only commander of West Irian, General Sarwo with farm tools and primitive weapons. Edhie. The area was reportedly strafed and rocketed by Indonesian bombers in retalia- West Irian, formerly Dutch New tion. Guinea, was ceded to Indonesia by the Netherlands in 1962, on the condition As of May 10 the Indonesian govern- that a plebiscite or "act of free choice" ment claimed to hold all major towns and be conducted among the 800,000 inhabi- airfields. Small rebel groups were said tants prior to 1969. to have retreated into the countryside. The current revolt, which began Since it achieved control of West April 29, was sparked by the Suharto re- Irian, Indonesian investment in the area gime's announcement that the "act of free has ranged between $2 million and $5 mil- choice" would not be a vote of the West lion a year. Much of this tiny sum has Irian population but a "consensus" of been drained off in corruption. Large 1,000 tribal chiefs. This method would quantities of produce and even equipment guarantee continuation of Indonesian rule. were simply shipped to Djakarta without payment, and maintenance of equipment has The rebels, said to belong to a declined. The Dutch, for their own imperi- loose confederation called the Free Papua alist reasons, have encouraged the devel- Movement, used farm implements to plow opment of an independence movement in holes in grass airstrips that provide the their former colony, but undeniably real only access to the Indonesian-controlled social forces are in motion against the portion of the island. Several Irianese Indonesian government's dictatorial rule policemen went over to the rebels with over the darker-skinned people of West their rifles. In one clash on Biak Is- Irian. -477-

THE NINTH CONGRESS OF THE CHINESE C0IQ"IST PARTY By Pierre Gousset

The New China News Agency has just this right proletarian democracy is re- published the full text of the report duced to a fraud, since the central ap- that Lin Piao gave to the Ninth Congress paratus holds all the advantages of cen- of the Chinese Communist party on April 1 tralization against an atomized member- and,that was adopted by the congress on ship. April 14. The NCNA also published the official text of the new statutes adopted This article does not repeat the at the congress and listed the members of formulation in the famous resolution of the newly elected Central Committee. the Eleventh Plenum of the Central Com- These reports are far from complete. We mittee (August 1966) which maintained still know nothing about the fifteen days that a minority could be right against of discussion! nonetheless the published a majority of the Central Committee or material enables us to get a clearer idea even against a majority in the party of the meaning of the congress. (it is true that at the time, Mao was often in a minority...). But it nonethe- The Ninth Congress confirmed the less constitutes an advance over the norm correctness of the opinions generally which the Stalin faction introduced into held for a long time as to the political the Communist International in October meaning of the "great cultural revolu- 1927 that minorities had a duty not only tion." Mao, whose faction found itself in to carry out the decisions of the major- a minority in the Central Committee elect- ity(which is the rule of democratic cen- ed by the Eighth Congress, reversed the tralism) but to renounce their ideas and relationship of forces in the Chinese Com- confess to having erred ideologically. munist party CCCPl through a gigantic mass mobilization. He now holds a solid It was through such procedures, majority in the new Central Committee. which transformed democratic centralism More than two-thirds of the members of into bureaucratic centralism, that Sta- the old Central Committee have not been lin expelled the Left Opposition and reelected.. It can safely be wagered that most of the old Bolsheviks from the CPSU. most of them were not even allowed to All the Communist parties, including the participate in the congress or to defend Chinese CP, have engaged in these anti- their point of view there. Leninist practices for more than thirty years. The fact that the Chinese CP now In this regard, a flagrant contra- disavows them in theory is not without diction must be noted between the text importance. of the new statutes and the practice of the Maoist tendency during the factional But does the practice match the struggle that has raged in the CCP for theory? Clearly not. As long as the Mao- three years. ist faction was in a minority, it invoked the right of free mass discussion Contrary to the reports published and was able to compel discussion in in the bourgeois press before the Ninth which tens of millions of Chinese -- Congress of the CCP, the new statutes do students, intellectuals, workers, tech- more than assert that party members must nicians, and peasants -- participated. obey the leadership and that minorities As soon as it felt it had regained con- must bend to the majority. They add an trol of the apparatus, it sought to important qualification: stifle freedom to discuss. "If a Party member holds different The rule just cited was not ap- views with regard to the decisions or plied to Liu Shao-chi and his friends. directives of the Party organizations, he They were required to renounce their is allowed to reserve his views and has errors in order to be able to continue the right to bypass the immediate leader- to function in the Chinese CP. Since ship and report directly to higher levels, they did not do this, or at least did up to and including the Central Committee not do so in a way entirely satisfactory and the Chairman of the Central Committee. to the Mao-Lin Piao faction, they were It is essential to create a political sit- expelled. The Chinese people and the uation in which there are both centralism Chinese Communists are still uninformed and democracy, both discipline and free- as to their real points of view, plat- dom, both unity of will and personal ease forms, proposals, and the real extent of mind and liveliness." of the present differences. All that they have been offered are excerpts from This formulation is no ideal codi- documents ten, twenty, or thirty years fication of the proletarian democracy old -- that is, of a period when there that ought to prevail in any communist or was no question of the "cultural revolu- revolutionary party. It does not recog- tion" or even an open factional struggle nize the right of tendencies. And without between Liu and Mao. -478-

In order to bypass their own legal- ity, which they had just proclaimed so solemnly, the Mao-Lin Piao faction resort- ed to a procedure which cannot fail to arouse the greatest distrust among all critically minded Communists and revolutionists throughout the world. This procedure was to set up two categories -- "Communists in error" and "renegades, secret agents, officials stubbornly em- barked on the capitalist road, degenerat- ed elements, and elements alien to our class ranks." In his report Lin Piao blithely proclaimed: "Now it has been proved through in- vestigation that as far back as the First Revolutionary Civil War period Liu Shao- chi betrayed the Party, capitulated to the enemy and became a hidden traitor and scab, that he was a crime-steeped lackey of the imperialists, modern revisionists, and Kuomintang reactionaries and that he was the arch-representative of the persons in power taking the capitalist road. He had a political line by which he vain- ly attempted to restore capitalism in China and turn her into an imperialist and revisionist colony. I' And further on he said: "He CLiul and his gang were working against time to restore capitalism." When you consider that this ''gang" included the majority of the Central Com- mittee that directed the overthrow of capitalist power in China, the majority of the leaders of the People's Liberation Army that won the civil war in 1949, and the majority of the cadres responsible for the proclamation of the People's Re- public of China in October 1949, it is clear how odious and slanderous this formulation is. Liu Shao-chi and his friends unquestionably committed many opportunist errors. Not a few of these errors were committed collectively by the entire leadership of the CCP, including Mao. To cite r/ just two such collective errors: there / was the abandonment of propaganda for the dictatorship of the proletariat in the period 1937-1948 and the support for Aidit's opportunist line in Indonesia MA0 TSETmG which led to the catastrophic defeat in October 1965. In these cases, Liu and his friends are today being used as scape- goats. these circumstances, the expulsion from the CCP of two-thirds of the members of In other cases, it is possible the Central Committee without their be- that Liu maintained erroneous views ing able to defend their positions before against more correct concepts held by Mao the congress was a violation of the ele- (although Lin Piao's formulation that mentary rules of proletarian democracy, after 1964 Liu's views were "apparently and a violation of the very statutes leftist but in reality rightist" counsels which the CCP has just adopted. caution here also). Here we come to a second contra- But it is clear that what was in- diction -- a contradition involving the volved were differences among Communists social meaning of the Ninth Congress of and not plotting by enemy agents. In the Chinese CP. -479-

According to Lin Piao's report, could reduce the weight of these sectors which repeats the formulas used thousands and shift the relationship of forces in of times over by the official Chinese pub- favor of the anticapitalist and prole- lications during the past three years, tarian sectors. the central objective of the "great cultural revolution" was struggle against But such an analysis is complete- "the restoration of capitalism in China," ly lacking in Lin Piao's report. We learn struggle between "the proletarian line nothing in this report about the class and the bourgeois line." forces in China, nothing about the dynamic of these forces in the countryside, noth- In our view, China, like the So- ing about small-commodity production, viet Union and the East European coun- nothing about the spontaneous reproduction tries, is in a stage of transition from of the bourgeoisie by the mechanisms which capitalism to socialism (that, moreover, Lenin, and Marx before him, pointed to. is how Marx and Lenin defined the epoch of the dictatorship of the proletariat). Instead of this, we are offered a In this sense, a restoration of capital- violent factional polemic against Liu, ism in these countries obviously is still who is presented as the incarnation of possible. But such a counterrevolution evil and of capital, a polemic strictly would be bound up not only with political limited to superstructural phenomena, struggles and their results but also with offering not an iota of objective analy- economic and social transformations, that sis. The height of absurdity is reached is, with the appearance of social forces when it is not even explained what mo- of a capitalist or semicapitalist nature. tives and what forces impelled Liu into wanting to "restore capitalism" in the The definition of capitalism is People's Republic of China, in which he well known to any Marxist. Capitalism is still held power. the exploitation of wage labor by means of capital accumulated by a social class Let us not forget that elsewhere separated off from the rest of society. in his report Lin Piao uses the formula- We must, therefore, search for the eco- tion "seize back that portion of power nomic and social phenomena promoting prim- usurped by the bourgeoisie ....I' Then, itive capitalist accumulation and capital- when the CCP denounced Khrushchevite re- ist exploi-cation of labor in China. visionism, was it the bourgeoisie that was denouncing revisionism? The party Lin Piao imprudently quoted Lenin did this, we must remember, under the on this question in his report. But what leadership of a Central Committee in does Lenin say in the quotation chosen which Liu's followers had a majority. by Lin? One would have to conclude that "...the bourgeoisie, whose resis- Liu tried to restore capitalism out of tance is increased tenfold by its over- pure malice. This is all very far from throw (even if only in one country), and Marxism . whose power lies not only in the strength of international capital, in the strength It is clear that these formula- and durability of the international con- tions conceal the real problems rather nections of the bourgeoisie, but also in than clarify them. And there are three the force of habit, in the strength of real problems. small production. For, unfortunately, small production is still very, very wide- The People's Republic of China, spread in the world, and small production besieged by imperialism, was stabbed in -___engenders capitalism and the bourgeoisie the back by the Soviet bureaucracy, which continuously, daily, hourly, spontaneous- denied it the nuclear weapons needed in ly, and on a mass scale." face of the standing threat of an Ameri- can atom bomb attack. In this situation, What can be concluded from this with the Soviet bureaucracy putting on an quotation except that, according to the economic stranglehold, China needs an method of Lenin (and Marx), in order to international extension of the revolution. evaluate the dangers of capitalist resto- Is the tactic advocated by Mao sufficient ration in China, the extent of capitalist to achieve this? The least that can be production would have to be determined said is that the results of the last (capitalist production survives in China seven years -- with those in Indonesia because of the subsistence of a private and Pakistan heading the list -- have industrial sector) as well as the extent scarcely provided a conclusive corrobor- of small-commodity production (which ation of the Mao line. And Lin Piao's still predominates in the countryside)? report (which already erred grossly by The developmental tendencies of these sec- relegating the possibility of revolutions tors would have to be analyzed, that is, in the imperialist countries to a remote whether they are expanding or contracting. future) gives no answer to, nor any analy- And a political, economic, social, and in- sis of, this question. ternational line of the Chinese revolution would have to be determined that The People's RepTblic of China, -480- which is an underdeveloped agricultural this score nothing but moralizing appeals country, requires an accelerated tempo of and pledges of fidelity to Mao Tsetung's* industrialization and a general mobiliza- thought (which are even written into the tion of all available manpower to raise statutes). When it is recalled that Liu itself out of its age-long poverty. This also swore by Mao Tsetung's thought, it demands a well-thought-out social and will be understood that such guarantees economic policy based on the mobilization are insufficient -- that is the least and enthusiastic involvement of the that can be said. We would have preferred masses, and based also on using the agri- organs of power elected by the workers cultural surplus product in a systematic and poor peasants, organs like those of and carefully considered way without de- the Paris Commune. But there is no ques- stroying the psychological motivations of tion of that with Lin Piao. the peasant masses' productive effort. The gigantic mass mobilization of On this question also, no analysis the last three years has unquestionably or answers were contained in Lin Piao's weakened the Chinese bureaucracy. The report. The Chinese people as well as the violent intrabureaucratic struggle has workers of the rest of the world still do had the same effect. But the contradic- not know what social and economic policy tions mentioned above and the questions the Mao-Lin Piao group intends to apply which the Ninth Congress left unanswered in the years to come. show that there is a danger now that this process will end. The Red Guards have The People's Republic of China has been dissolved. An attempt is being made been governed for twenty years by a bu- to rebuild the bureaucratic apparatus. reaucratic team which, by Mao's own ad- That is also part of the meaning of the mission, was remote from the people, en- Ninth Congress. joyed exorbitant material privileges, and stifled the masses' will to act and to discuss. Therefore, the necessary in- stitutional guarantees should be estab- * One of the achievements of the "cultur- lished to prevent such a pernicious al revolution" was to remove the hyphen bureaucracy from regaining power. from the transliteration of Mao's name, thus streamlining the formula, "Marxism- But Lin Piao's report offered on Leninism-Mao Tsetung's Thought ." -- I.p.

DICTATORSHIP IN HAITI DECREES- DEATH FOR "COMMUNISTS"

The rubber-stamp legislature of valier regime gave a demonstration o€ the Haitian dictator FranGois Duvalier voted enforcement of its new policy. Dispensing unanimously April 28 to make "communist with the part about a military trial, it activities'' a "crime against the security proceeded directly to the executions. The of the state" punishable by the death May 3 issue of le Nouveau Monde, a semi- penalty. This "crime" is to include the official government organ published in "promotion of Marxist or anarchist doc- Port-au-Prince, reported that police had trines. It surrounded a house in the Haitian capital and killed thirty-five "communists." Anyone accused of spreading Marx- ist ideas, or of aiding or harboring anyone so accused, is liable to be tried by Police opened fire on the house, a military tribunal and executed. then demolished it when the occupants would not surrender. The people inside Only a few days after this head- were buried in the rubble. Four survivors hunting warrant had been issued, the Du- were taken prisoner.

STUDENTS BOYCOTT CLASSES IN BRAZIL

Thousands of students boycotted in strikes or demonstrations. Under this classes at the University of SZio Paulo, law, students would be suspended for three Brazil, May 8, to protest a government or- years and professors for five. der forcing the retirement of twenty- three professors. Students at SBo Paulo University adopted a resolution asking President Groups of students from several Arthur da Costa e Silva to withdraw the universities also met during the day to order purging the professors. The govern- protest a decree ordering the suspension ment had given no explanation of the of students and professors who take part order. -481-

THE MAY DAY STRIKE IN BRITAIN By Alan Harris

London papers from being printed in London and Scotland. A sharp jolt was dealt Tory and Labour party leaders alike when over The SOGAT contingent in the London 200,000 workers throughout Britain went demonstration included members from Her on strike May 1 to show their hostility Majesty's Stationery Office at Harrow, to the Labour government and its proposed where the White Paper and other govern- anti-trade-union legislation. ment documents are printed. The government's White Paper, "In Between 15,000 and 20,000 singing Place of Strife," seeks to put the trade- and slogan-chanting London workers marched union movement into a legal straitjacket through the City (Brikish capitalism's by such means as a twenty-eight day "cool- financial centre) to Lincoln's Inn Fields ing off" period and by fines and imprison- by way of the Trades Union Congress [TUCl ment for those who refuse to return to headquarters in Great Russell Street. work when ordered by the government to do so. A petition was handed in to Con- gress House demanding that the TUC take Demonstrations and rallies took decisive action against the government's place in London, Liverpool, Manchester, bill and call for a twenty-four hour gen- Glasgow , Hull, Shef field , Birmingham, and eral strike on June 5 -- the day the TUG other industrial centres. recall conference meets. Industries most seriously affected, The official policy of the TUG is if not completely shut down, were the not to oppose the White Paper in its en- docks, building sites, engineering and tirety but to criticise only the most car factories. crude and objectionable parts of the bill. The top echelons of the TUC hope that by Members of the Society of Graphi- patiently explaining to Barbara Castle, cal and Allied Trades [SOGAT], a union the secretary of state for employment and which has a high proportion of youth and productivity, the antilabour content of women in its membership, stopped all daily the bill, she will prevent the worst aspects from becoming law. Although the demonstrations and rallies were initiated by the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions -- a body influenced to a great extent by the Communist party of Great Britain -- there was a wide response for strike action among the more militant workers. The turnout was much broader than the CP or its periphery, with almost all sections of the labour movement being represented. Students from the London School of Economics and the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation participated in the London march but the composition was over- whelmingly trade unionist. All the left-wing socialist orga- nisations were there with banners, leaflets, and journals.* The banner of the International Marxist Group, the British affiliate of the Fourth International, called for "Workers Control in Place of Strife .'I Three or four left-wing Members of

* There was one exception. Despite their concentration on trade-union issues, the leaders of the sectarian Socialist Labour League did not have a contingent under HAROLD WILSON their own banner in the demonstration. -482-

Parliament were in the front of the march, away workers' rights (like the right to the most notable being Bernadette Devlin, strike) that have been won through many the twenty-two-year-old civil-rights years of struggle against the Tories and fighter and member of People's Democracy their big-business friends in industry. -- the driving force behind Northern Ire- land's civil-rights movement. Earlier in In other words, the limitations of the week she had toured the building a Social Democratic Labour government are sites, where large numbers of Irish work- becoming much clearer to large layers of ers are employed, to encourage them to workers if not to the class as a whole. participate in the May Day activities. Alongside this development, the In speeches at the conclusion of policies of trade-union officials are com- the demonstration, spokesmen for the Liai- ing under closer scrutiny by the rank and son Committee urged everyone to spend the file. Almost every trade union in the afternoon in lobbying their MPs to put country has been forced to take a stand pressure on them to vote against the bill one way or the other on the White Paper. when it comes for final reading in a few Not surprisingly, most unions are opposed weeks time. to it either in its entirety or in part. Not many workers did so, as this To pass critical resolutions and type of cap-in-hand protest has taken to be in verbal opposition, however, is place many times before with unencourag- one thing. To have to take a position on ing results. mobilising workers in strike action to defeat the bill is yet another. It is clear that the British labour movement is now at a decisive turning According to the April 29 Guardian, point. The Labour government was elected the fifty-two rank-and-file members of the some four and a half years ago on the National Committee of the Amalgamated basis that reforms, no matter how small, Engineering Union, Britain's second larg- would be implemented by the Wilson leader- est union, decided after a "bitter 6 hour ship. The record is just the opposite. Far debate" to oppose the entire White Paper. from getting the reforms they anticipated, They also decided, according to the same the British working class is learning report, to reject the call for the "unof- from concrete experience that the present ficial" May Day strike. On the latter government, while making concession after question, the right wing won the vote by concession to the bankers and businessmen, 38 to 13 with one abstention. President while allowing prices and profits to es- Hugh Scanlon, who has a record of being calate, is not giving anything to the a left-winger, used his influence to gain workers, but, on the contrary, is taking support for the right-wing resolution.

Photo by Dick Roberts MAY DAY IN LONDON. Marchers were part of nationwide strike protesting antiunion laws. -483-

Throughout the country the issue been celebrated mainly by the socialist of the May Day strike drove a wedge be- movement and generally on a weekend. tween militant rank-and-file unionists and the conservative union officials, as This year was quite different. We a wide sector of the labour movement was saw a political strike directed against forced to take a position on the strike. the Labour government which is bound to have a radicalising effect on many here- Despite the fact that the union tofore apolitigal or conservatively in- officialdom did not support the strike, clined workers. The response gained so the action must be regarded as a success. far in the campaign against "In Place of In view of the mass turnout, the opposi- Strife,'' if properly utilised, should tion of the top brass of the TUC was par- make it possible for the June 5 lobby of ticularly specious -- they argued that the TUC emergency conference to involve the strike was "unofficial" because only even larger numbers of workers and demon- two relatively small unions had endorsed strate in no uncertain terms to the trade- it. union leadership that the workers are not prepared to accept any cutbacks of their For decades in Britain May Day has traditional trade-union rights.

STUDENTS AT LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS PRESS DEMANDS

The London School of Economics ad- building where a student social was being ministration retreated a step April 29 in held, raided the gathering and arrested its campaign to crush student dissidence. known student militants. In a statement The standing committee of the LSE's Court issued the next day, the students de- of Governors recommended that two ousted scribed what happened: 'I. . .students pres- lecturers, considered sympathetic to the ent at the Friday night social were rebellious students, be hesrd by a spe- forced to march single file through the cial appeals tribunal. cordon to be personally fingered by their own senior professors." The standing committee's decision was made after a student strike against Since the January arrests, some victimization by the administration, a professors have had difficulty in keeping successful one-day strike by the Associa- order in their classes. Dr. Alan Day, a tion of Scientific, Technical and Mana- professor of economics and vice-chairman gerial Staffs, and a recommendation by of the Academic Board, has been singled the LSE branch of the Association of Uni- out in particular as "an academic spy." versity Teachers that the dismissals be Indignant students have prevented him suspended pending an independent inquiry. from giving a number of lectures. The two dismissed lecturers -- Robin Blackburn, a well-known collaborator of A parliamentary committee trying the New Left Review; and Nicholas Bateson to investigate campus unrest has found -- agreed to study the appeal proposal. the students very "uncooperative. This may be because numerous MPs have made If Bateson and Blackburn accept violent verbal attacks on the student the appeal machinery, the London Times of movement which have been played up by the April 30 reported, "The dismissals will press. The students have objected to in- be suspended and they will be given leave dividuals being questioned by the commit- of absence on full pay pending the find- tee at its own convenience and have de- ing of the tribunal, comprising 'one emi- manded that hearings be held in front of nent legal member and two nonlegal mem- mass meetings. bers. I 'I The students' anger over academic Life at the LSE has been embit- informers and investigating MPs has led tered over the past months by attempts of the British press to call for blood. Even the administration and reactionary profes- the liberal Observer wrote May 4 that the sors, backed by the government, to purge students' action "in preventing professor student militants from the school. They Alan Day from delivering his lecture and have been the target of police spying and in breaking up the hearing of a parliamen- informing since a student action on Janu- tary committee hearing evidence about uni- ary 24. versity affairs showed clearly enough that the aim of this hard core is not so At that time, the students voted much to bring about reforms as to make it to remove iron gates that had been in- impossible for the LSE to function." stalled to divide up the campus into small sections in order to prevent stu- Little discussion has appeared in dent mass actions. About five hours after the press on professors serving as police the gates were torn down, police called informers. Perhaps that is considered in by the university heads surrounded a part of the normal functioning of the LSE. -484-

GENERAL GRIGORENKO ARRESTED AT TRIAL OF CRIMEAN TARTARS

Former Major General Pyotr G. Grig- the army and held high command positions orenko, one of the best known left-Commu- in World War 11, during which he was nist critics of the Soviet bureaucracy, twice wounded. After the war he taught was arrested in Tashkent May 7. The for- cybernetics at the Frunze Military Acad- /.--'-%=, emy in Moscow. In 1961 Major General Grigorenko was removed from his post for a speech at a party meeting accusing Khrushchev of following in the footsteps of Stalin. In 1964 he was arrested and held for fifteen months, eight of them in a mental institu- tion -- a common expedient of the Soviet bureaucracy for silencing opposition. In 1965 Grigorenko was certified sane and re- leased without having been brought to trial. He was expelled from the party. For a period he worked as a con- struction foreman, while outspokenly demanding a return to the norms of proletarian democracy of the days of Lenin. '\ In February 1968 Grigorenko joined a number of dissident Communists in send- ing a telegram to the Budapest conference \ of pro-Moscow Communist parties, protesting against political repression in the Soviet Union. Other signers included Pave1 Litvinov and Larisa Daniel [both of PYOTR G. GRIGORENKO whom are now in exile in remote regions of the USSR for demonstrating in Red Square against the invasion of Czechoslo- mer Soviet officer had flown to the Cen- vakia], a Crimean Tartar leader, the writ- tral Asian city at the request of eleven er Alexei Kosterin, and others. Kosterin imprisoned Crimean Tartar leaders, who had long been a champion of the Tartars' had asked him to act as a nonprofessional cause, and was instrumental in linking defense council on their behalf at their dissident Communist circles in Moscow trial on charges of "anti-Soviet" activi- with the Tartar spokesmen. ties. The Crimean Tartars were one of Soviet officials had threatened seven national minorities in the Soviet Grigorenko with arrest if he attended the Union whom Stalin forcibly deported to trial. The outspoken former general re- Central Asia during World War I1 because fused to be intimidated, and when he re- individuals had allegedly collaborated ceived a petition signed by 2,000 Tartars with the Nazis. In 1967 they were "re- asking him to come to the aid of the de- habilitated" but were not permitted to fendants,he left his home in Moscow and return to their homeland in the Crimea. went to Tashkent. The trial of the Tartar Since 1959 more than 200 Tartars have leaders was postponed indefinitely after been imprisoned for writing protest let- Grigorenko's arrest. ters, circulating petitions, and holding peaceful demonstrations. In Moscow, agents of the secret police, armed with warrants naming Grigoren- In March 1968 Tartars in Moscow ko as a defendant, searched the apart- held a meeting to celebrate Alexei Koster- ments of six persons known to be sympa- in's seventy-second birthday. Kosterin thetic to his views. Letters and other was ill and could not attend, so he sent written materials were confiscated. Grigorenko in his place. Grigorenko urged the Crimean Tartars to fight for their The secret police also raided the legal rights and to seek links with radi- former general's apartment and seized cal members of other nationalities in the copies of a number of petitions on behalf USSR. of the Tartars, letters, manuscripts, and other materials. Grigorenko, along with Ivan Yakhi- movich, former chairman of a collective Pyotr Grigorenko joined the Commu- farm in Latvia who is now under arrest, nist party in 1927, at the age of twenty. has played a prominent role in opposing He earned degrees in both military sci- the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. An ence and engineering. In 1930 he joined open letter to the Soviet people by the -485-

two men is said to be circulating widely has had to work as a laborer to support in typewritten form in Moscow. himself and his wife Zinaida Mikhailov- na, who is also a long-time party mem- Grigorenko was fired from his job ber. a year ago in reprisal for his criticism of the Brezhnev-Kosygin regime. His pen- Friends of the general fear that sion was taken away when he was cashiered the regime will railroad him to an asylum from the army. Despite his age and a bad again to avoid having to bring his case leg injury received during the war, he to trial.

PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN FORMED IN. BRITAIN.~

[The following is the text of the The present struggle of the Pales- initial declaration of the Palestine Sol- tinian people is a struggle to reclaim idarity Campaign, recently founded in their rights and overthrow the Zionist, Britain. This founding statement of the racist and expansionist state of Israel. united front committee was endorsed by a The PSC will struggle in support of the broad spectrum of organizations and pub- legitimate rights of the Palestinian peo- lications, including: ple, under Israeli occupation and in exile, along the lines of the following political [International Socialism; General platform: Union of Arab Students; General Union of Palestinian Students; International Marx- 1. PSC supports the right of the ist Group, affiliated to the Fourth Inter- Palestinian people to self-determination national; Black Dwarf; New Left Review; and national liberation in a de-Zionized, Arab Revolution; Free Palestine; Friends democratic Palestine where Jews and Arabs of Palestine; Committees for Solidarity enjoy equal rights. A de-Zionized, demo- with the Palestine Revolution; Revolution- cratic Palestine will put an end to: (i) ary Students Federation; Revolutionary So- Palestine as the state of all Jews in the cialist Students' Federation; British world; (ii) Jewish majority rule; (iii) Vietnam Solidarity Front. Further informa- the sequestration of Arab land and proper- tion can be obtained by writing to the ty; (iv) racial discrimination against Palestine Solidarity Campaign, % Free Arabs and Oriental Jews; (TI)subservience Palesting, BCM Box 3275, London, WC1.1 to imperialism. *** 2. PSC considers that the armed struggle waged by the vanguards of the A permanent Palestine Solidarity Palestinian people is the decisive means Campaipn (PSC) has been established to to force recognition of this people's organise all solidarity activities in rights to self-determination and national Britain with the struggle of the Palestin- liberation. It, consequently, supports the ian people for national liberation against activities of the Palestinian liberation Zionism and imperialism. fighters and the heroic civilian resistance in the occupied territories. The Zionist state of Israel is, historically, the product of a European 3. PSC rejects the UN resolution of problem, anti-Semitism. Zionism and anti- November 22, 1967, because it disregards Semitism are, in fact, two sides of the the political existence of the Palestinian same medal. The latter shouts 'out with people and their legitimate national rights. the Jews', the former is only too glad to PSC is firmly opposed to the attempts made remove the Jews from Europe. But the re- by the four Big Powers to impose on the moval of the Jews from where they are un- Palestinian people and the Arab masses wanted will never abolish minority perse- their so-called 'peaceful solution'. The cution. Unable to solve the Jewish prob- fate of the Arab peoples should be deter- lem by striking at its very roots in the mined by the Arab peoples themselves. capitalist structure of European society, Zionism created, furthermore, a new prob- 4. PSC opposes the attempts made by lem of national persecution -- Zionist any Arab government to liquidate, muzzle, persecution against the Palestinian Arabs. control, or in any way interfere with the Zionism is a colonialist movement in its Palestinian people and its armed vanguards own right, bent on the occupation of land -- the liberation fighters -- and supports and the displacement of its original in- all resistance to such repressive measures. habitants -- the Palestinian people. It is at the same time part of the world im- 5. PSC opposes all forms of racism. perialist camp, through which the various It will actively struggle against Zionism imperialist powers (and notably the U.S.) and anti-Jewish racism as rigorously as it have waged their aggressions by proxy, will fight against anti-Arab racism, a against the national liberation struggle legacy of imperialism fostered by Zionist of the Arab masses. propaganda. PSC joins the Palestinian lib- -486-

eration fighters in declaring its solidar- and Oman), against foreign military bases, ity with all Jews inside and outside Isra- and neoimperialist exploitation. PSC sup- el who are fighting against the Zionist, ports this struggle and its ultimate aim: racist and expansionist state of Israel. the control by the peoples of the Arab It calls upon all progressive anti-Zion- world over their wealth and natural re- ist Jews in Britain to organise them- sources (especially oil). selves for the defeat of Zionist propaganda and the liberation of the Jews from 7. The struggle of the Palestinian that aberration that has transformed many people and the Arab masses, like that of of them into unabashed racists, subservi- the Vietnamese people and all the peoples ent to imperialism. of Asia, Africa and Latin America, forms part of the historical process of liberat- 6. The armed struggle of the Pales- ing the oppressed peoples from under the tinian people forms an integral part of yoke of imperialism. the Arab revolution -- the combined anti- Zionist and anti-imperialist struggles of From Palestine to Vietnam: One ene- the Arab peoples. Anti-imperialism in the my, one fight! Victory to the national Arab world is presently waged against di- liberation struggle of the Palestinian rect colonialist rule (in Zafar, Muscat people !

"ODD THINGS" IN THE SINO-SOVIET RIFT

The ever widening Sino-Soviet rift, ogle Yugoslavia after years of outright which reached the point of bloodshed in hostility." The switch this signifies for the clashon the Ussuri River, continues Peking can be gathered from the fact that to be of absorbing interest to the buz- "one of the greatest criticisms of Khrush- zards roosting in Washington. They watch chev -- seen by Mao as the worst Soviet every move of the contestants to see how leader of the lot -- was the fact that he the conflict might be turned to the advan- made up with Tito and promptly denounced tage of imperialism. Stalin." Mao thereupon elevated Stalin to the highest pinnacle and gave full sup- Their approach is illustrated by port to Albania in its enmity with Yugo- the comments made by C.L. Sulzberger, the slavia. "But now China has decided to for- conservative foreign expert of the New get all this in the name of convenience. York Times. In his column of May 9, he Because Tito is No. 1 champion of Czecho- commented on the "odd things" that have slovakia among Communist leaders, Mao has been taking place. "On the one hand," he decided to wipe the slate clean. A trade said, "Russia has begun an extraordinary agreement was signed with Belgrade and flirtation with Chiang Kai-shek and on Tito's name has disappeared from Maoism's the other hand, Communist China has start- hate list." ed making googoo eyes at Marshal Tito, for long considered by Mao Tse-tung the In conclusion, Sulzberger hints at greatest heretic of them all." The "cau- what is of greatest interest to Washington tious development of friendship between -- how far will Mao go in seeking new al- Chiang's Nationalist Chinese Government lies in the conflict with Moscow? "The on Taiwan and the Soviet Union is a fan- Chinese, who continue their proclaimed tastic ideological reversion from the hostility to the United States, have not- viewpoint of both Taipei and MOSCOW" in withstanding become used to the idea that Sulzberger's opinion. As evidence of what we are not going to blow them up. America is cooking, he cites the following: is the known enemy; Russia is the unknown enemy. And today both are abandoning pre- "This year...a Soviet journalist viously fixed doctrinal positions as they suspected of connections with MOSCOW'S edge toward the brink." intelligence apparatus was admitted to Taiwan and received by Chiang Ching-kuo The truth is, of course, that in [the son of Kai-shekl. Since then there both instances the two bureaucracies have have been hints that contacts are slowly long discounted ideology and put their warming up. If Taiwan and the Soviet own national interests above everything Union were first touching fingers they else. This is one of the characteristics are now gingerly commencing to rub knees of the Stalinist school in which they were under the table. Direct anti-Soviet pro- trained. In the case of the Kremlin this paganda has almost ceased in Taiwan." can hardly be considered to be news. In the case of Peking, however, many illu- Brezhnev's game, says Sulzberger, sions persist. is to give "Peking something extra to worry about on its rear while Mao beats Naturally, it remains to be seen war drums along the Siberian frontier." how far Mao will ultimately go in this direction, but a film produced in China, But Mao is engaging in a counter- relating to the Sino-Soviet conflict, is maneuver. He made a "sudden decision to hardly reassuring. Called the "Antichinese -487-

Crimes of the New Czars," it is being the film is to arouse the most intense shown throughout China. It opened recent- national and chauvinistic emotions of the ly in Hong Kong. Chinese against the present Russian regime. The picture is presented in primi- Harrison E. Salisbury, the corre- tive colors of black and white. But no spondent who gained a reputation for his one watching and hearing the reaction of objective reporting of the North Vietnam- the Hong Kong Communist Chinese could ese cause after visiting Hanoi in 1966, doubt its powerful impact in arousing pre- described the film as follows in the New cisely those moods which Peking hoped to York Times May 11: evolve -- anger, resentment and violent hatred coupled with a mood of national "The clear propaganda objective of revenge.

NEW SOCIAL UNREST IN TKF DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Santo Doming0 Popular opposition is mounting here against the Balaguer government which rules under the protection of Amer- ican imperialism. The detonator of this opposition was the student movement which went onto the streets February 14 to demand an increase in the appropriation for the national university. The movement later spread to the primary- and secondary- school students. In addition, the Catholic clergy has begun to express opposition to the regime. They recently issued a statement, one in a series of accusing documents, denouncing poverty, oppression, and "insti- tutionalized violence." The declaration said that an immense popular explosion is in the offing throughout Latin America. This was shown, the priests said, by the sharp social convulsions, political up- sets, and signs of mass desperation ap- pearing in various Latin-American countries. "We cannot continue," they said, "to appease our consciences by pretending to respect the law or continuing to give priority to the property rights of those who live in overabundance, disregarding the elementary rights of those who live in poverty because they are bereft of all property. I' On April 15, in protest against the government forces' recent murder of seven persons, the parliamentary opposition made up of the deputies of the Parti- do Revolucionario Dominican0 CPRD -- Do- minican Revolutionary party -- the party of ex-President Juan Boschl withdrew from both houses of the legislature. They announced that they would not return "until Dr. Balaguer's government adopts a differ- JOAQUIN BALAGUER ent position in regard to the crimes that have been committed recently." The opposition deputies accused the police of doing 500 mark. On May 1 the leaders of the PRD nothing to halt "the wave of crimes in parliamentary fraction reaffirmed their the nation's capital.'t stand of boycotting the legislature. They declared that they felt the circumstances By the fourth anniversary of the were still not ripe for them to return revolution of April 1965 the list of op- because such an action "could be inter- positionists murdered by the Garcia Godoy preted as a lack of feeling for the suf- and Balaguer governments went over the fering of the people." -488-

On April 24 and 28, the anniver- army and the police. saries respectively of the revolution of 1965 and the new American occupation, This statement, which was sent to lightning meetings were held throughout labor and legal organizations abroad, the country. American flags were burned. included a call for a demonstration in There were bomb attacks on American com- Santo Doming0 on May 1. The government panies. The revolutionary organizations was forced to authorize the demonstration, denounced American imperialism in the the first to be permitted in all the time press and over the radio. it has been in office. At the end of April some seventy The leaders and rank and file of workers organizations issued a long in- the following organizations participated dictment of violations by the government in the May Day assembly: and the bosses of the rights of the people, including the right to organize. CASC [Confederacibn Authoma de They called for united struggle to remedy Sindicatos Cristianos -- Independent Con- this situation, declaring that "the rule federation of Christian Trade Unionsl; of law is invoked only against the humble Partido Revolucionario Dominicano and its and exploited, while a minority of priv- worker organizations; the Partido Comuni- ileged persons, who enjoy impunity, en- sta Dominicana [Dominican Communist party gage in the most criminal sort of insti- -- a party holding an independent position tutionalized violence. " in the international Communist movement]; and the Movimiento Popular Dominicano "We are living under a regime of [Dominican People's Movement -- pro-Maoist force," the statement said, "with a demo- but independent]. cratic faqade, whose respect for the con- stitution does not go beyond formalities." The theme of the demonstration was working-class unity to win "the desired The workers organizations pointed social gains and an end of the crimes and out that in the three years of the Bala- abuses against the workers and peasants." guer government there have been more than Thousands turned out for the assembly. 400,000 unemployed out of a work force of After the event was over, the police ar- about l,5OO,OOO. With a "very high, a rested and beat up about fifty persons at crushing cost of living ...more than 70 various points in the city. percent of the workers earn less than 80 pesos C1 peso = US$11 per month." While the workers movement still Another 20 percent earn less than 120 lacks an effective leadership and a tran- pesos monthly. Also included in the state- sitional program, this converging opposi- ment was a list of cases where the workers tion is laying the bases for a socialist and peasants have been repressed by the revolution in the Dominican Republic.

MAY DAY DEMONSTRATION IN SANTO DOMINGO. stration against Balaguer regime called Part of massive crowd of workers at Juan by workers organizations. Banner at right Pablo Duarte Olympic Center during demon- reads, "Down with Government Terrorism!" -489-

MEXICAN POLITICAL PRISONERS DEMAND PRISON REFORMS

[The following letter of protest quality of the food so that the full was sent April 26 to Brigadier General amount budgeted is used (ten pesos C12.49 Mario Cedillo Granados, the warden of the pesos = US$11 per person according to Preventive Prison of the Federal District your report). That would help a little to in Mexico, by a group of political prison- alleviate the chronic malnutrition af- ers held there. flicting the prison population. [The translation is by Interconti- 7. Reorganization of the medical nental Press.] service which presently suffers from many deficiencies -- the staff is too small *** and most of the time there is no medicine; the prison directors and those in charge of the medical department accuse each The undersigned, who are political other of dereliction; special diets, prisoners confined in Dormitory N of this which are necessary in the treatment of prison, address you to inform you of the many sicknesses, have been forbidden; following: prisoners have to buy their medicines outside; etc. We support the action carried out by our fellow political prisoners in Dor- 8. Introduction of the Federal mitory M on April 22 and we subscribe to District minimum wage for workers in the the demands that these compa5eros present- prison and the elimination of unpaid labor ed to you orally on the following day. In for so-called trustees. Development of this regard, we ask: new sources of work.

Unification of all political pm- 9. An increase in the time for oners in one dormitory. The fact that we recreational activities, in accordance are kept divided involves one more repres-- with the most elementary norms of group sion against us. hygiene that are stipulated and carefully maintained by most prisons throughout the But, besides this, experience has world. shown that the problem of the relations between the prison authorities and the political prisoners can only be resolved 10. Admission of Sunday visitors when the political prisoners are isolated without their having to go on a list in in a single dormitory. Moreover, there advance and without numerical restric- are legal provisions which require group- tions. ing prisoners in the same section according to the crimes of which they are ac- 11. An end to the restriction on cused. books, magazines, and other material for intellectual work. In addition, we demand: The foregoing demands are in no 1. Elimination of Section H as a way extraordinary and fall within the section for political prisoners. spirit of the rights granted to prisoners in a detention prison. For this reason, 2. Elimination of degrading physi- they should be granted to us. We will per- cal searches of our visitors, especially sist in our struggle to achieve these de- those of the female sex. mands. 3. Abolition of the arbitrary de- Signed : cree that permits only one person defend- ing us to visit us per day. Jos6 Luis Calva Tkllez, Hugo David Uriarte y B., Eduardo Fuentes de la F., 4. Humane treatment of the prison- Gumersindo Gomez C., Mario Rechy Montiel, ers by the penal authorities. A defini- Pablo Alvarado Barrera, Miguel Cruz Ruiz, tive prohibition of the blows, insults, Raul Contreras +., Rolf Meiners Huebner, and harassments to which the prisoners Victor Rico Galan, Gilbert0 Balam, Oliverio have been subjected -- especially those Pkrez Galicia, Justin0 Jfiarez M,, Carlos prisoners on general detail. Aguilera D., Fabio Erazo Barbosa; 5. Elimination of the “commandos, Oscar Fernkdez Bruno, Roberto Iri- who, using gangster methods, keep the com- arte J., Adolfo Gilly, Luis E.G.De1 Toro y mon prisoners’ sections in subhuman condi- N., M. Albert0 Reyna de la Cruz, Antonio tions. Replace them by commissions demo- Gershenson T., Enrique Condhs Lara, Fran- cratically elected by the prisoners. cisco Luna Leal, Daniel Camejo Guanche, Ge- rardo PelAez Ra+os, Ad& Nieto Castillo, 6. Improvement in the quantity and Cksar Catalb Sanchez, Ysaias Rojas D. -490-

Books

REVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES -- AN INTERNATIONAL VIEW By Gerry Foley

FIFTY YEARS OF WORLD REVOLUTION, 1917- Two essays deal with the central 1967. An International Symposium. Edit- event in the history of the twentieth ed by Ernest Mandel. Merit Publishers, century, the creation of the Soviet state 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003. and its bureaucratic degeneration. The 366 PP. $7.95. 1968. essay by Sirio Di Giuliomaria, a leading member of the Gruppi Communisti Rivolu- zi onari CRevolutiona.ry Communist Groups This work is an unusual achieve- -- the Italian section of the Fourth In- ment in international revolutionary col- ternational, the world party of socialist laboration. Written by fifteen leaders of revolution founded by Leon Trotskyl, the Trotskyist movement representing gives a sketch and analysis of the his- eleven countries and nearly all parts of tory of the Soviet state from Lenin's day the world, the essays in this book study to the de-Stalinization. Di Giuliomaria the full spectrum of problems and ques- describes Lenin's last fight against the tions that have confronted revolution- rising bureaucracy led by Stalin, and the ists since the Russian October opened the Stalinist machine that was erected after epoch of world socialist revolution. the death of Lenin and the defeat of the Left Opposition. He ends his essay by Of special current interest is the setting forth a program for antibureau- essay entitled "Economics of the Transi- cratic revolution in the Soviet Union tion Period" contributed by the book's and the other bureaucratized workers editor, Ernest Mandel, who is the author states. of the definitive two-volume work, Marx- ist Economic Theory. This well-known Bel- A process intimately bound up with gian socialist scholar and political the Russian revolution and its degenera- leader gives a systematic Marxist analy- tion is described by Ross Dowson, the sis of the transition from capitalist to editor of the Canadian socialist paper socialist economic relations. He examines Workers Vanguu. Dowson describes how a number of specific problems that have building the Communist International was arisen in those countries, embracing one- part and parcel of winning the Russian third of humanity, where capitalism has revolution and how the International with- been abolished but socialism has not yet ered and was eventually abandoned after been achieved. the bureaucracy rose to power. Among the questions studied are In his essay "Is Marxism-Leninism the relationship between planning and Obsolete?" Joseph Hansen, the editor of democracy in making economic choices; Intercontinental Press, discusses the economic relations among workers states; uses of the Marxist method in dealing trade between the noncapitalist and capi- with present-day reality. In connection talist countries; the meaning of the "so- with this discussion, he dissects the cialist market economy" reforms in the major arguments put forward by opponents Soviet Union and East Europe; and the of scientific socialism for relegating role of moral and material incentives in the ideas of Marx and Lenin to the ar- promoting productivity in a socialized chives of intellectual history. economy. The essay by James P. Cannon, the Mandells introduction to the book national chairman of the American Social- is a valuable contribution too. It suc- ist Workers party, examines how well the ceeds in giving a clear overview of the Leninist theory of a disciplined party of development of the socialist revolution professional revolutionists has stood the since Marx's time and thereby in giving test of time. He sums up some of the les- a focus that unites all the individual sons learned by the Trotskyist movement essays. in its forty years of experience in trying to build parties of this type. Broad guidelines to the unfolding of the revolutionary epoch are also pro- Three essays deal with categories vided by George Novack, the American Marx- of revolutionary theory where the Trotsky- ist philosopher,in his essay "The Uneven ist movement has historically made its Development of the World Revolutionary greatest contribution. A detailed study Process." Novack explains why the first of the development of the concept of per- socialist revolution occurred in backward manent revolution and of Trotsky's dif- Russia and how this example of the uneven ferences with Lenin over the 1905 revolu- development of history has shaped the con- tion is contributed by Livio Maitan, one temporary world. of the leaders of the Gruppi Communisti -491-

Rivoluzionari and a member of the United Argentina and Hugo Gonzglez Moscoso from Secretariat of the Fourth International. Bolivia, deal extensively with the questions of guerrilla warfare and the role Fernand Charlier, a leading Bel- of the peasantry in achieving the social- gian Marxist, gives a comprehensive study ist revolution. of the development and dynamics of the various forms of bureaucracy that exist MOSCOSO, who is general secretary in modern society. His main emphasis is of the Partido Obrero Revolucionario on bureaucracy in the workers movement, [Revolutionary Workers party -- the especially its most sophisticated form, Bolivian section of the Fourth Interna- in the bureaucratized workers states. tional], writes from a country where guerrilla warfare is now in progress. He gives Georg Jungclas, a veteran of the an assessment of the lessons of the suc- prewar German Trotseist movement, gives cessful guerrilla war in Cuba. His essay a compact and thorough study of the most describes the process of permanent revo- important example of the rise of a fas- lution that took place in Cuba and com- cist movement -- the Nazi victory in Ger- pares it with the stagnation and retreat many. He recapitulates Trotse's criti- that ensued in Bolivia after the anti- cism of the role of the Communist and So- imperialist revolution of 1952 failed to cialist parties in making a fascist vic- develop into a full socialist revolution. tory possible and offers a valuable, con- cise history of the events leading up to Nahuel Moreno's essay is a history the fascist take-over. Some interesting and analysis of the development of revolu- features in Jungclas' study are an ac- tionary warfare in China and Vietnam and count of the ideological development of the character of the regimes and doctrines the German Social Democracy after it re- that have arisen on the basis of this ex- nounced the revolutionary perspective, peri enc e . and fresh documentation on the ultraleft period of the German CP. An essay by Sitaram B. Kolpe, a leading member of the Socialist Workers An analysis of the question of pro- party of India, the Indian section of the letarian internationalism is given by Fourth International, rounds out the treat- Pierre Frank, a long-time leader of the ment of the colonial revolution. Using his French Trotslqist movement and a member own country as his example, Kolpe investi- of the United Secretariat of the Fourth gates the claims of the nationalist regimes International. Frank discusses the theory in the underdeveloped world to have found of lfsocialismin one country" as well as a "third road" of development between capi- the more recent bureaucratic theories of talism and Marxian socialism -- "Ghandian "polycentri sm" and "national communism" Socialism, "Arab Socialism," "African So- that have emerged from the process of the cialism," etc. This essay devotes special breakup of the Stalinist monolith. attention to MOSCOW'S invention of a new category of "noncapitalis t and "neutral" "The National Question and the states in the underdeveloped world. Black Liberation Struggle in the United States" by George Breitman, the American The usefulness of the book as a Marxist scholar who is the author of sev- whole is enhanced by the inclusion of a eral books and pamphlets on Malcolm X, is bibliography of 100 of the most important a good example of an analysis that applies Marxist works. a classical contribution of Leninism to a contemporary problem. Breitman uses Le- In view of the diversity of coun- nin's teaching on oppressed nationalities tries and areas of the world represented as a tool for examining the role of the in this anthology, it is a notably unified Afro-American population in the revolu- and complete study of the major problems tionary process beginning to develop in and questions which our epoch has posed America. for revolutionists. Three essays deal with the prob- This book is very clearly the pro- lems facing revolutionists in the under- duct of an international movement deeply developed countries, problems which are engaged in the day-to-day struggles of the relatively new for the revolutionary move- new generation. It reflects the worldwide ment and have gained special prominence experience of the Trotskyist movement in in the last two decades. Two contributors building the initial cadres of future mass from Latin America, Nahuel Moreno from parties, of the revolutionary international

CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE STUDENTS BEGIN STRIKE

Students at the Center of Higher of examinations be announced at least ten Education in Brazzaville went on strike days in advance ad that student represen- May 5. They demanded that the subjects tatives be among the judges. -492-

Campus Unrest in the U.S., a Case Study

REPORT ON TCHE HARVARD STRIKE By Fred Halstead

This spring has seen the most ex- "As a result of student protests tensive wave of student demonstrations, against the Vietnam war, the presence of occupations of campus buildings, and oth- ROTC has become an issue on the Harvard er forms of struggle in colleges and uni- campus this fall... .In the liberal view, versities in the history of the United ROTC courses, presently offered for cred- States. This new radicalization, of it, do not measure up to Harvard's high course, is part of the worldwide radical- intellectual standards. Course credit ization of the young generation, especial- should be withdrawn, but ROTC should be ly in the advanced capitalist countries, allowed to remain on campus as an extra- which reached its peak to date in the May- curricular activity. June 1968 upheaval in France. "In the radical view, ROTC is bad American developments, while part because it provides leadership for an of this general phenomenon, have their Army engaged in the suppression of just own logic and dynamic, flowing from the popular movements at home and abroad. specific conditions in this country: a Hence ROTC should be abolished." growing mass resistance to the criminal war in Vietnam and the heightening tempo The same issue of Old Mole reprints of the black liberation struggle, yet excerpts from a letter from the Department with the absence of any large working- of the Army, U.S. Army ROTC Instructors class party, relative prosperity among Group, Harvard, to the members of the the white sector of the population, and Faculty Committee on Educational Policy. the isolation of the students from both Appealing to the committee to fully sup- the actual working class and from the port ROTC, the letter said: historical traditions of the revolutionary workers movement. "Today reliance upon colleges and universities for officers is greater than The April 1969 strike at Harvard ever. For example, the 1968 graduating University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, classes [throughout the country] contained is typical of the current series of cam- over 11,000 newly commissioned officers pus strikes and occupations. The events who, as they enter the ranks of the active at Harvard are of special interest be- Army, will fill 85% of the required annual cause of the role of Harvard as the most input needed to provide the junior leaders exclusive of all American institutions of for today's troop units...The Armed Forces higher learning, where the cream of the simply cannot function ...without an offi- youth of the bourgeoisie itself acquires cer corps comprised largely of college the training to assume command of the gov- graduates ...Who is prepared to trust their ernment and financial empire of American sons -- let alone the nation's destiny -- imperialism. to the leadership of high-school boys and college drop-outs?" The April struggle dated from an incident in December 1968 when a meeting The letter describes as "disturb- of professors of the faculty of arts and ing" the fact that "there are brilliant sciences was scheduled to be held in young Harvard men with God-given leader- Paine Hall to discuss the future of the ship abilities who seem content to waste Reserve Officers Training Corps CROTCI at two years of their life by allowing them- Harvard . selves to be drafted to serve as a private.. . Students are not allowed to attend faculty meetings, but several hundred "About 45% of all Army officers cur- showed up at Paine Hall before the meet- rently on active duty are ROTC graduates; ing began and held a sit-in, demanding 65% of our First Lieutenants and 85% of that the faculty deal with the issue on our Second Lieutenants come from the ROTC political, not technical academic grounds. program... The meeting was canceled and more "ROTC is under attack at Harvard than 100 students were disciplined, some now because a small group of student ex- by having scholarships revoked, others tremists -- a tiny minority of the student by probation. body -- have played upon the inherent antiwar sentiment shared by a majority of The issue was explained in the peace-loving, traditionally isolationist January 13-26, 1969, issue of Old Mole, a Americans. The Vietnam war, grievous to Boston "underground" newspaper friendly virtually all of us, is the immediate to SDS [Students for a Democratic Soci- source of their blanket denunciation of ety], as follows: everything related to the military ...." -493-

This admission of the power of (2) No evictions at one apartment antiwar sentiment is extremely interest- building which is scheduled to be replaced ing. by a political science library. The letter continued: "More impor- (3) No evictions of the 182 fami- tant than any point thus far made is the lies in buildings to be torn down for role of Harvard University in setting a medical school expansion. That made six pattern of ROTC policy for the entire demands in all. academic community ...I As Harvard goes, so goes the Army ROTC program' might produce No demand for a black studies de- a disaster of real proportions if the partment was included at this meeting, ROTC concept is weakened and degraded na- though the black students had been nego- tionwide. tiating unsuccessfully with the administration on this question for some time. Under pressure of the agitation against ROTC the faculty of arts and On the question of the action to sciences on February 4 voted to remove be taken, the April 8 SDS meeting voted academic credit from ROTC courses and fac- approximately as follows: not to occupy ulty rank from ROTC instructors, but ROTC a building immediately, but to take steps was to remain on campus under this recom- of an educational and agitational charac- mendation. ter leading up to occupation within a week. The vote on this was close, with The crisis of April 1969 began about 150 for immediate occupation and with a meeting of the Harvard-Radcliffe 170 for SDS chapter on Tuesday, April 8, to dis- the motion that passed. cuss "militant action" against ROTC. The The next morning the SDS executive meeting, attended by several hundred per- council met and "interpreted" the vote as sons, adopted three demands on ROTC: an authorization to proceed with an occupation at noon the same day, when a rally (1) Abolish ROTC immediately by was scheduled. Some 1,000 attended the breaking all existing contracts with the noon rally, and Norm Daniels, a member of Department of the Army. the PL caucus, called for students to occupy University Hall, the main adminis- (2) Replace all ROTC scholarships tration building. At this point most of with university scholarships. those present were opposed to this and only about thirty entered the hall. As (3) Restore scholarships withdrawn the rally continued, however, and speeches from students who took part in previous by several faculty members angered stu- ROTC demonstrations (at Paine Hall). dents, more entered the hall. In addition, three demands on the issue of "Harvard Expansion" were adopted. By 4 p.m., when the administration This refers to plans by several univer- issued an ultimatum that all those inside sities in the area to greatly expand were subject to arrest for trespassing, facilities with the aim of turning Cam- there were nearly 400 students occupying bridge into a community largely devoted the building with some 800 outside, most to military and big-business research, of whom were sympathizers. displacing many residents. A campaign to expose this and its effect on rents had The first occupiers ejected the been launched by the Cambridge Peace and university administrators from their of- Freedom party. This issue appears to have fices. Later the students began going been initiated entirely by the student through the files. radicals as part of the SDS concept of "community organizing," though residents Large numbers of documents -- some suffering from evictions and rent pres- revealing connections between Harvard and sure are not unsympathetic. This issue the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency CCIAI has been pressed with special vigor by -- were photocopied and removed from the the Progressive Labor party (Maoist) cau- building. Some of these appeared the next cus within SDS. day in the Old Mole and in subsequent special issues of this paper. Included For PL, this issue serves as a sub- was correspondence between Harvard admin- stitute for demands for black control of istrators and the army discussing methods the black community (including black for keeping ROTC on campus and for circum- studies departments), which PL opposes as venting even the mild rebuke directed at "nationalist" and "dividing the working ROTC by the February 4 faculty vote. class. The students adopted a policy of The three antiexpansion demands "militant nonviolent obstruction, mean- were : ing they would barricade the doors and hold hands if police entered, but would (1) A rollback on rents for not physically fight the cops. Harvard-owned apartment buildings to the level of January 1, 1968. About 5 a.m., Thursday, April 10 -- -494- some sixteen hours after the sit-in began files and financial records. The alterna- -- a mass of over 400 policemen made a tives were to restore the building to its swift, savage attack on the occupiers, rightful officers at once or to allow an beating both men and women, clearing the entrenched effort to close down the Uni- building and making more than 200 arrests. versity to drag along for an indefinite Nearly seventy-five students were injured, period. Neither alternative was palatable, according to the Harvard Crimson, official but the one chosen seemed preferable if campus newspaper, some of them seriously. the freedom of the University was not to be surrendered. 'I A special extra edition of the Crimson appeared that day containing a Pusey told the Crimson that the long article describing some of the po- decision to call in police was made at a lice brutality in the raid. The cops who meeting of his advisers that ended at took part in the raid had been assembled 10 p.m. April 9. It took from 10 p.m. during the night from surrounding suburb- until dawn to assemble the large force of an cities. The university force of fifty cops. men was not used. With news of the raid spreading The reaction to the raid was elec- and arousing indignation in wide circles, tric, and all observers agree that it the student government leaders called a turned what began as an adventure by a rally in the university's Memorial Church relatively small number of students into for 10 a.m., five hours after the police a mass strike involving the majority of attack. Some 2,000 persons attended, con- the student body. demned the calling of police and voted to call a three-day "educational strike" on One contributing factor to this behalf of the following demands: no police was the fact that University Hall faces on campus again; dropping of criminal Harvard Yard, in full view of many stu- charges and no punishment of the occupiers dent dormitories. For some reason fire harsher than probation; a binding student- alarms were turned on in these dormitor- faculty referendum on ROTC; restoration of ies during the raid, and the occupants scholarships to Paine Hall demonstrators; poured into the Yard, where they wit- and restructuring of the decision-making nessed their fellows being clubbed by process at Harvard. cops. That night an SDS meeting of 350 The cops also chased some students persons, according to the April 11 Crimson, into dormitories and clubbed groups at voted to support the Memorial Church strike random. Some people who had nothing to do call, but under the six SDS demands and with the sit-in were injured. with a separate picket line. An SDS spokes- man declared: "This is our strike. It orga- Shouts of "Strike!" and "On strike, nized spontaneously as soon as the cops shut it down!" arose spontaneously from came on campus." the crowds in the Yard. The following night, April 11, SDS Just why the university authori- held a meeting of supporters of the six ties called for this raid -- when they demands. This meeting, attended by more must have known it would be an unpopular than 1,000 persons, elected a fifteen-man move -- is subject to some debate among strike committee, all SDS members, four of strike activists. Some believe the author- them from the PL caucus. A seventh demand ities simply put into effect a previously was added -- amnesty for all demonstrators. worked out plan for such a contingency. Others believe the authorities were prod- On Sunday night, April 13, a meeting ded into this precipitate move because called by the SDS strike committee, also of the damaging revelations contained in attended by more than 1,000 persons, added the files which were being exposed. the eighth demand -- the plan of the Harvard-Radcliffe African and Afro-Anerican The official explanation issued by Association of Students (AFRO) for a black Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey in a studies department. The question was raised press release April 11 is as follows: by AFRO leaders, who also declared AFRO'S support for the SDS demands. The Maoist "NO one can tell what the conse- caucus opposed adopting the AFRO demand, quences of their occupation of the head- as they had from the beginning. The Maoists quarters of the central Carts and were defeated and the motion passed over- sciences] Faculty of the University would whelmingly. have been had it been permitted to continue, but surely it would have been vir- This meeting also discussed what at- tually impossible to conduct the activity titude to take toward another meeting set of the Faculty. Even the two-day disrup- for Monday in Harvard Stadium called by tion of Faculty offices has caused seri- leaders of the various student government ous delay in administrative processes, bodies. The SDS leaders decided not to in- and the occupiers had already begun to troduce their demands at the stadium meet- rifle and duplicate the faculty personnel ing on the grounds that that meeting would -495- not represent the real strike. The graphic studies department building was devoted to turning out post- The Monday meeting was attended by ers, graphic displays, red armbands, etc., 10,000 students. It adopted the following for the strike. This was done by the GSD demands: severance of all existing con- Artists' Cooperative formed a day after tracts with ROTC; the acceptance of a the police raid. This group, said the plan prepared by the Harvard School of April 18 Crimson, "is part of the general Design to counter Harvard expansion; the humanist groundswell that rose around the AFRO demand; amnesty; and structural re- taking of the building. The group is not form including the establishment of a affiliated with SDS or any other political binding student-faculty senate. A vote group." This was typical of much of the for an indefinite strike resulted in a strike activity. virtual tie and a vote to strike for three more days was passed. It was the artists' cooperative that designed the red clenched fist that The meeting also unanimously voted became the symbol of the strike and which to "repudiate the right of the Harvard was stenciled on anything the students Corporation to close our University." brou ht in, shirts (which were This was in reply to a threat by the all- worn7 and be%i%?$which were hung out powerful corporation to shut down the of windows as signs). campus. The students' decision to chal- lenge the authority of that body was one On Thursday, April 17, the faculty of the most important general effects of of arts and sciences met to "clarify" the crisis. its position on ROTC. It; passed a resolution which was the product of intricate The Harvard Corporation is the behind-the-scenes maneuvering and which principal governing board of the univer- left the issue still to be decided by sity. Its actions are subject only to the negotiations with the army. The resolution review of the Board of Overseers, which states in part: is elected by mail ballot of the alumni and is dominated by big businessmen. All "That the principle governing ROTC university property is in the name of the be that it operate as other ordinary ex- corporation; every faculty is subject to tracurricular activities ...[and] that its authority; all changes in policy or existing contracts inconsistent with this university statutes require its consent; principle be terminated as soon as legally and all degrees and appointments are possible. It made by it. The existing contracts run for The corporation consists of seven three years and the resolution does not members, the president and six fellows. preclude some sort of contract keeping All six fellows are directors or board ROTC at Harvard, though it does imply a members of major corporations. rebuke to the ROTC program which neither the army nor the corporation finds to its When a member dies or retires, his liking. The faculty meeting also promised replacement is made by the other six. In- other reforms in a vague way. sofar as the faculty makes decisions, it is at the sufferance of this tiny, self- On Friday, April 18, the mass sta- perpetuating group of top capitalists. dium meeting -- again attended by 10,000 That is the real state of democracy at -- voted on the basis of "progress" at the Harvard -- as it is in essence at virtu- faculty meeting to suspend the strike for ally every major university in the United seven days, when a strike vote by secret States. ballot was scheduled. On Tuesday, April 15, over 80 per- On April 22, the faculty voted to cent of the students stayed out of adopt, with minor amendments, the AFRO classes, and where classes were held, proposal for an Afro-AmerScan studies de- many of the teachers turned them into partment in which studentk would have a discussions of the strike issues. This voting voice in appointing faculty. This situation prevailed until the end of the would be the first time students have ever week when another mass meeting was sched- been given a direct voice in appointing uled for Friday night. During this period faculty at Harvard . the campus was a beehive of radical educational activity with discussions every- A few actions involving fewer than where. Not only students but faculty and 200 students were carried out by SDS or nonteaching employees at the school be- the PL caucus during the yeek, but the came heavily involved. overwhelming majority of he students re- turned to classes. When t ke strike vote The philosophy department gave its was held, only 4,000 voted and of those, building to the strike and became a ten- 70 percent voted not to continue the strike ter of activity with mimeograph machines, at this time. meeting rooms, and hallways busy around the clock. The Harvard expansion issue remains -496-

about where it was when the strike began antiwar issue. except that some attention has been drawn to it. The ROTC question remains The administration was forced in dispute and further mass struggle on to counter the anti-ROTC demand with this issue is quite possible. the most elaborate sophistry and secret maneuvers. No one, not even the army, Three features of the Harvard dared to speak for retaining ROTC on strike of April 1969 stand out: one, the the ground that it contributes to the power black students have to wrest sig- war in Vietnam. On the contrary, they nificant concessions for their struggle; did everything they could to claim that two, the rapidity with which previously the war is not the issue, that the real nonpolitical students became spontaneous- issue is academic freedom for those who ly involved in overt radical activity; want to take ROTC,or some such specious and three, the tremendous force of the argument.

POLISH YOUTHS SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR OPPOSING CZECH INVASION

Five Polish youths have recently Romuald Lubianiec, Tadeusz Markie- been sentenced to prison terms for dis- wicz, and Wiktor Nagorski were condemned tributing leaflets last August opposing earlier to sentences ranging from six the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the So- months to a year in prison along with a viet Union and other Warsaw Pact coun- total fine of 1,000 zlotys. A young tries, including Poland. Agence France- woman, Sylwia Poleska, was sentenced in Presse reported from Warsaw May 7 that March to eight months in prison for the Piotr Zabrun had been sentenced to eigh- same "crime." All five are free on bail teen months in prison on May 6 and was while appealing the verdicts to a higher given a fine of 1,000 zlotys CUS$2501. court.

In this issue Page

PHOTO: Alain Krivine, on his release from the Sante Prison, August 24, 1968 ...... 473 Alain Krivine for President of France ...... 474 "Le Monde s I' Appraisal of Alain Krivine ...... 475 West Irian Revolt Plagues Indonesian Dictatorship ...... 476 The Ninth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party -- by Pierre Gousset ...... 477 DRAWING: Mao Tsetung ...... 478 Dictatorship in Haiti Decrees Death for "Communists" ...... 480 Students Boycott Classes in Brazil ...... 480 The May Day Strike in Britain -- by Alan Harris ...... 481 DRAWING : Harold Wi 1son ...... 481 PHOTO: May Day Demonstration in London ...... 482 Students at London School of Economics Press Demands ...... 483 General Grigorenko Arrested at Trial of Crimean Tartars ...... 484 DRAWING: Pyotr G. Grigorenko ...... 484 Palestine Solidarity Campaign Formed in Britain ...... 485 "Odd Things" in the Sino-Soviet Rift ...... 486 New Social Unrest in the Dominican Republic ...... 487 DRAWING: Joaquh Balaguer ...... 487 PHOTO: May Day Demonstration in Santo Doming0 ...... 488 Mexican Political Prisoners Demand Prison Reforms ...... 489 Books : Revolutionary Perspectives -- An International View -- by Gerry Foley ...... 490 Congo-Br azz avi 11e Students Be gin Strike ...... 491 Campus Unrest in the U.S., a Case Study: Report on the Harvard Strike -- by Fred Halstead ...... 49 2 Polish Youths Sentenced to Prison for Opposing Czech Invasion ...... 496

EDITOR: Joseph Hansen. CONTRlBUTlNGEDIT0RS:Pierre Frank, LivioMaitan, George Martin, Paris 10, France. INTERCONTINENTAL PRESS specializes in political analyzs Novack, TRANSLATIONS: Gerry Foley, George Saunders. BUSINESS MANAGER: ond interpretation of events of particularinteresttothe labor, socialist, colonial inde- Reba Hansen. Published each Monday except last in December and first in January; pendence, and black liberation movements. Signed articles represent the views of biweekly in July; not published in August. TO SUBSCRIBE: For 26 issues send $7.50 the authors, which may not necessarily coincide with those of Intercontinental Press. to Intercontinental Press, P.O. Box 635, Madison Sq.Station, New Yark, N. Y. 10010. Insofar CIS it reflecb editorial opinion, unsigned material expresses the standpoint Write for rates on airmail. PARIS OFFICE: Pierre Frank, 95 rue du Faubourg Saint- of revolutionary Marxism. Copyright @ 1969 by Intercontinental Press.