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. _...... 2S¢ WfJR/(ERS "HIII'R'~~~,. X-523 No. 27 ::51 August 1973

'" ,\ - "'"z l g...... '"Cl Strikers at Mack Stamping plant try to stop supply trucks during wi Idcat. Auto workers arguing with Local Pres. Ghant (right), who opposed Mack strike.

Solit/llrity House Runs Amok liS • • I cats x oDe In • elrOI UIO An upsurge of wildcat strikes in firings of 13 workers over the past few worker, William Gilbreth, who had been the proportions of the purges ofthe Mc­ Detroit, culminating in the second sit­ months, which the workers said were a fired for participation in an earlier Carthy era. Fraser denounced radicals down striko in three we~ks, has upset conscious company ploy to raise the work stoppage and had returned to the and chastised the company for having the normal pattern of contract bargain­ stakes at the bargaining table, putting plant to seek reinstatemenL In a planned given in to the Jefferson Ave. strikers. ing in the auto industry and caused the the union on the defensive and perhaps action, Gilbreth sat down on the lineo "If you surrender to this type of black­ UAW tops to reveal themselves as vir­ forcing it, in the interest of getting Chrysler sent the bulk of the workers mail, there is no end to it," said tual shock troops for the companies, the workers rehired, to ab.1.ndon de­ home immediately, but a dwindling crew Fraser, who then mobilized 1,000 UAW preserving labor-force discipline by mands (such as a dental plan) which it of militants continued to occupy the fun c t ion a r i e s, mostly from other mobilizing goon squads of functionaries might otherwise have won. The workers plant. The strike was ended the fol­ plants, to show up at Mack to make against strikers and radicals. The were angered by open company hypoc­ lowing day as police entered the plant sure no "radicals" would keep out strikes also revealed the extreme iso­ risy. Thus while the company was arbi­ and led out 15 workers under arresL workers who wanted to work! Working lation of the union bureaucracy from trarily firing workers, it reinstated Of these, Gilbreth and another worker hand- in-glove with the police, this giant the ranks. These developments have (after only a one month's suspension) a were charged with assaulting plant goon squad, which was obscenely lik­ demonstrated more sharply than at any foreman who had been caught stealing. guards the previous day. ened in the bourgeois press to the his­ time since the red purges of the late In addition to the firings, hazardous The Mack Ave. strike sparked a toric "flying squads" of strikers that forties and fifties both the degeneration working conditions and a backlog of panic reaction in the Detroit ruling helped build the CIO in the thirties, of existing working-class "leadership" grievances which had been building up class and UA W bureaucracy both be­ was the union leadership's strike­ and the need for a new, revolutionary for years (since the last wildcat strike cause it followed immediately on the breaking answer to the Mack workers' leadership of the unions and for a two years ago) drove the workers to heels of the Jefferson Ave. and De­ grievances. While the bureaucracy was vanguard party. strikeo UA W officials revealed how troit Forge strikes and because Gil­ able to temporarily halt the snowballing Since the dramatic victory of a one­ inadequate and ponderous is their "rep­ breth was identified as a member of wildcat movement by such tactiCS, it day sit-down strike at Chrysler's Jef­ resentation" of the auto workers when Workers Action Movement (WAM) and is significant that in order to do this ferson Ave. assembly plant (see WV they declared they were "stunned" by Pro g res s i v e Labor Party. WAM it was forced to rely on bureaucrats, No. 26, 3 August 1973), two more strikes the strike, since there were "only 17 spokesmen made no secret of this­ largely from other plants. The return have erupted, prompting vicious red­ grievances in process in the plant" their claim to have planned the sit­ to work had been prepared for the pre­ baiting and strikebreaking by UA W (Detroit Free Press, 9 August 1973): down in advance was splashed across vious night by hourly UA W -sponsored goons. On 8 August a strike at the It is hardly surprising that the workers the front pages of the bourgeois presso media announcements 0 r d e r i n g the Detroit Forge plant, part of Chrysler's decided to represent themselves, elect­ Mentioned also were the Spartacist workers back, on the grounds that the Lynch Road complex, was spearheaded ing a rank-and-file strike committee, League and such ostensibly revolu­ strike wasn't official. by workers on the third shift who re­ which presented three demands (rein­ tionary organizations as the Labor In the following days Fraser mobi­ fused to go into work and began mass statement of the fired men, settlement Committee and the International lized his bureaucratic goons to attack of the backlog of grievances, no repri­ left-wing paper salesmen in front of picketing which kept the plant shut Socialists 0 down for five days. Since this forge sals), and hiring lawyers themselves Panic in the ruling class-prompting the plants. Members of the SPark plant is the largest of only two such to fight the company's anti-picketing the immediate police mobilization g l' 0 up, a small ps eudo - Trotskyist plants in the Chrysler system making injunction in the courts. against the Mack strike-qUickly had its grouping which sponsors factory bulle­ axles, crankshafts, torsion bars, gears reflection in the UA W bureaucracy. Un­ tins in some plants, were told not to and other parts, the strike threatened Sit-Down Strike til this point, Fraser and other bureau­ sell their paper in front of the Dodge to shut down the entire system in a crats, while working to end the strikes Main plant and were physically as­ saulted. The Revolutionary Socialist matter of days. No sooner had UAW Chrysler de­ without settlement of the issues, had League, a left-Shachtmanite grouping Both Chrysler managementand UAW partment head Fraser managed to talk been using the wildcats to "warn" which recently got itself expelled from officials panicked, called off the nego­ the Forge workers back to work with Chrysler of possible strikes over health the International SOCialists, was also tiations then in progress and began a promises of an official strike vote to and safety and of other retribution chased away from Dodge Main. And frantic drive to get the workers back be held in a few days than a sit-down (i.e., more wildcats) if the intolerable "union" goons, armed with clubs, were to work. While the company raced to strike broke out at Chrysler'S Mack plant conditions were not improved. seen looking for "radicals" in front of court to get an injunction against pick­ Ave. Stamping Plant, which has a Thus the UA W bureaucrats were simply eting and denounced the UAW for not reputation as the dirtiest and most adviSing their friends in the ruling a Dodge truck plant. being able to control its members (Le., dangerous plant in the Chrysler system. class that a few piecemeal "reforms" not dOing its job), the union leadership, Accidents are frequent, as workers are were necessary if the bureaucracy's United Front to Defend the Left hypocritically complaining about safety tempted to dispense with the use of job of keeping the workers in line were and clean-up in the plants, went all safety tools in order to speed up their not to become impossible. These incidents have tapered off, but out to force the strikers back to handling of the pieces in the giant With the eruption at Mack Ave., they represent a dangerous trend. In w 0 r k with nothing g a i ned except presses so as to meet hourly quotas. however, the bureaucracy dropped all defiance of the most basic prinCiples meaningless promises about f u t u r e Failure to meet the quotas results in pretense of being on the side of the of workers democracy, not to mention "improvements. " loss of break time. workers and led a drive against "reds" bourgeois legality, the UA W bureau- The strike was sparked by arbitrary The sit-down was started by one which threatened in one city to take on continued on page 10 return swayed "what was probably a majority of workers at the Broad­ meadows plant as a whole, but most of those in the car assembly plant did not want to return" (Tribune, 19-25 June). The follOwing Wednesday when a return-to-work attempt was made, dis­ Stalinists Sabotage sident workers gathered outside the plant and a mass picket line was soon established. The anger of the workers exploded as fire hoses were turned on those who tried to cross the picket line and on the plant itself. A truck laden with fruit was wrecked and its Australian Ford Strike contents used as ammunition. The win­ dows of the plant and its office block The ten-week strike of auto workers vociferous exponent of this approach for Carmichael, its chief industrial were smashed, a decorative brick wall pushed over and cyclone fences flat­ at the Broadmeadows Fordplant in Mel­ of isolated and fragmentary struggles strategist, the CPA paper, Tribune bourne, Australia, which ended on July was Laurie Carmichael, assistant fed­ (12-18 June), cited language difficul­ tened. Over 100 pOlice and mounted troopers were rushed to the scene, 23, clearly demonstrated the limita­ eral secretary of the 180,000 member ties, industrial inexperience and rela­ tions of militant reformism and the AMWU and National Committee mem­ tive insecurity as newcomers as ex­ but kept their distance until the storm treachery of the Stalinist Communist ber of the CPA. Only last year Car­ planations why the largely migrant had abated. The head shop steward Ron Gent was quoted in the Melbourne Age Party of Australia (CPA). Despite the michael played a major role in defeat­ workers at Ford Broadmeadows had combativity of the workers, the trade­ ing the oil workers' strike, and despite rejected the union proposal for guer­ as saying that "We don't want the union union bureaucrats, both Stalinist and his and his party's militant posturing, rilla tactics and had opted for an all­ officials here, they'd get killed." The right-wing, were able to divert the he again fulfilled his job as a labor out strike. This was to be only the Ford management complained that the strike into isolated impotence in the lieutenant of capitalism. "hooligans" had done $10,000 worth of first of several "explanations" of "Gen­ damage and soon after began publish­ absence of an alternative revolutionary General Motors' refusal to negotiate eral" Car m i c h a e I' s strikebreaking leadership. on the log of claims (union bargaining antics. ing full page advertisements in the local The automobile indusrty in Australia demands) initiated a series of rOlling The shop stewards put forward a press full of pious statements about employs a high percentage of immigrant strikes in early May at GMH plants series of demands for improved con­ "violence" and "majority rule." workers (about 75percent of the strikers in three states. Mass meetings en­ ditions, mainly relating to line speed At this stage the union bureaucracy at Broadmeadows were immigrants), dorsed the union leaderships' proposal and manning ratios. At the same time was completely isolated from the Ford mainly Southern European, Turkish and for guerrilla strikes if GMH did not the union leadership was having trouble workers, and the shop stewards (a Lebanese, who have recently arrived in act on the demands for negotiations. trying to control rank-and-file mili­ number of whom were close to the Australia. Many production workers In an attempt to stem the workers' tancy. When in late May the Broadmead­ CP A) had been unable to control the take home only 64 Australian dollars militancy and to undermine the union ows workers voted to continue their workers. Thus the situation was very tense on Friday morning at the mass meeting held in the plant car park. Carmichael, Townsend and the shop stewards addressed the workers from the back of a truck, while contingents of pOlice waited out of sight but not too far away. Carmichael's words are now famous: "I made a mistake," he said. "The workers taught me alesson.

*,o0"'l We had a plan, but we did not listen sufficiently to the workers and change that plan in accordance with your wish­ es" (Tribune, 31 July-6 August). And indeed Carmichael had made a Austral ian auto mistake: he had allowed himself to be­ workers at come isolated from his base. But nei­ Broadmeadows ther he nor the oth€r bureaucrats, nor Ford plant on the CPA, which assiduously sought to June 13 protest­ explain away his treachery, for one ing effort by moment questioned their fundamental Stal inist bureau­ strategy of betrayal. For them all, the crats to force mistakes were simply matters of poor them back to communications between the rank and work. Workers file and the union 1 e ad e r s hip, the failure of the "master plan" to take turned fire hoses adequate account of the emotions of on scabs, smash­ the workers (in particular the immi­ ed plant windows, grants) and the failure to place enough knocked over emphaSis on the CPA's elixir of "work­ wall and flattened ers control." In the absence of an al­ cyclone fence. ternative revolutionary 1 e a d e r s hip, Led by militant "honest" Laurie Carmichael and the immigrants, the other bureaucrats were able to soothe wildcat strike the workers and with few modifications lasted ten weeks. continue their capitulatory poliCies. ''"' Carmichael's "new plan" included a TH~AGE proposal to broaden the negotiating committee to take in "your represen­ (roughly $80 in U.S. currency) a week. strategy GMH threatened to dock the strike, Ford made the "final" offer of tatives from the shop floor." In the recent period they have been entire weekly overaward payments of a five percent increase in overaward Nevertheless the Stalinists required faced with speed-up, deterioration of those workers partiCipating in any stop­ payments and a reduction in penalties. new explanations for what had happened, working conditions and a 15 percent work meeting. But the union leaderShip was still so that whereas before the failure to annual inflation rate. However, the This attempt to divide the workers intent upon playing guerrilla warfare accept the "guerrilla campaign" had buoyant market for automobiles and a from the union leadership produced a with the companies and in the face of been due to the company's pressure on shortage of cheap labor caused by im­ sharp reaction in the plants, shifting the threat of a lockout of workers at the poor migrant workers, the Tribune migration restrictions meanwhile tend­ the initiative away from the union bu­ Ford Geelong thought it might man­ now "discovered" in a front-page head­ ed to strengthen the workers' position reaucracy to the shop floor. Workers euver by recommending a return to line that "Ford Men Reject the System" and thus encouraged militant resistance at General Motors' plant at Pagewood, work at Broadmeadows. Townsend ap­ (Tribune, 19-25 June). Carmichael to the companies. South Australia, for example, voted to pealed to the companies on behalf of himself, however" was still a little out Last November the federal leader­ continue their half-day stoppage for an the "responsible" officials: "We have of step with his party's cover-up. In a ships of the four unions in the auto in­ extended six-day period. GMH, appar­ had to hold them back, and they are letter to The Australian, Carmichael dustry, the Vehicle Building Employees ently more attuned to the volatile situa­ accusing us of being weak for not en­ insisted that it was Ford's fault that Federation (VBEF), the Amalgamated tion that existed on the shop floors couraging s t ron g e r action earlier. the men did not return to work. Ford Metal Workers Union, (AM WU). Aus­ than was the union bureaucracy, backed There is no doubt that there will be had vindicated those who had voted tralian SOCiety of Engineers (ASE) and off from its threat of penalties in order very strong action taken if there is against accepting the five percent offer the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) to ensure continued production. no agreement reached on Monday. But by clOSing its gates, because this was agreed to a common national cam­ The bureaucracy's schemes really I certainly hope we can work something "treating all those who had returned to paign. They called for an "overaward began to fall apart when a lunch-time out" (Melbourne Age, 9 June). work the same as those who had not" rate" (i.e., wages above the industry­ mass meeting on May 18 at the Ford At a mass meeting of the Broad­ (The Australian, 28 June). If only the wide rate) of 45 percent, the removal Broadmeadows plant erupted into an meadows workers on Monday, June 11, Ford company had not been so irre­ of all penalties from the overaward indefinite strike of 3,000 workers. Such union Officials tried to get the workers sponSible, the Ford workers might not wage and vacation pay totaling 17 1/2 actions had not been conceived as part to return to work on the basis of the have been so thoughtless as to "reject percent of the total annual wage earned. of the master plan, and the union bu­ company's terms. The meeting ended in the system"! The union leadership decided that a reaucracy immediately sought to con­ uproar when Carmichael declared that In keeping with their original stra­ strategy of "guerrilla action" would be tain this unwanted militancy by refusing a small majority had voted to return tegy the bureaucrats refused to extend most appropriate and that General to extend the strike, in particular by to work. Carmichael and other officials the strike. Other plants were not kept Motors-Holden (GMH) should be sin­ refusing to callout the 2,000 workers were attacked and roughed up by angry fully in for m e d of developments at gled out "for treatment first as the at the Ford Geelong plant who VBEF workers who had a very different Broadmeadows, and the union officials most arrogant and possibly the most assistant secretary Townsend boasted opinion on the outcome of the vote. made no effort to call them out. The vulnerable due to market considera­ were ready to respond to the call for Subsequently, the Tribune claimed that bureaucrats claimed that the Geelong tions" (Tribune, 19-25 June). The most indus~rial action. Attempting to cover the union recommendation in favor of a plant remained at work at the request 2 WORKERS VANGUARD I u.S., line workers are not pushed to supporting the "United [!] Secretariat" gramme of nationalizing the basic in­ the same extent. All this proves that in Australia, the pro-S WP Socialist dustries, implementing a 35-hour week WfJltltEItS the Ford-GMH system is not a rea­ Workers League and the pro-Mandel for all workers, and giving full support soned attempt to extract the greatest Communist League, simply tailed after to all wage struggles" (Labaur Press, prOfit, but an outcome of the limited the spontaneous militancy of the auto 2 July). The SLL reipforces the stran­ 'ANfJIJAItIJ thinking of men to whom Swinging the workers. For the CL this meant claim­ glehold of social-democratic and lash has become a way of life." Thus, ing that "Ford workers are shOwing Stalinist bureaucrats by promoting the I~ ~ Marxist Working-Class Bi-week~ you see, it was a particularly bad em­ the way forward" without prOviding a illusion that the struggle for socialism i:Ii of the Spartacist League ployer and CPA union leader Car­ revolutionary programmatic alterna­ is simply a matter of pressuring ref­ iii michael could perhaps be excused for tive to the present union misleaders. ormist union leaders and Labor Party ~ not realiZing just how angry the Broad­ The SWL abstractly noted that demands parliamentarians...... Editorial Board: ~ meadows workers had become. Sim­ "need to point the way towards" work­ The initial euphoria of the early ~ Liz Gordon (chairman) ilarly, if only Ford would compromise ers control of line speed and national­ weeks of the Labor government has ~ Jan No'rden (managing editor) by becoming just an "average" ex­ worn off as auto workers, as well ~ ization of the car industry /.Direct ~ Chris Knox (labor editor) plOiter, by raiSing the minimum wage, Action, 29 June), but failed to indi­ as brewery, electrical power, steel ~ Karen Allen (production manager) then "everybody will gain" (Trillune, cate a concrete means (such as a and aluminum proceSSing workers have IER -=-: Joseph Seymour 3-9 July)! programmatically-based caucus) for struck in defense of their living stan­ ;--. Circulation Manager: Anne Kelley struggling for such pol i c i e s in the dards. But (as was amply demonstrated After ten weeks the strikers voted unions. in the Ford strike) between the ranks ~-- to return to work at a mass meeting West Coast Editor: Mark Small The Healyite Soc i a lis t Labour and victory stands a crucial obstacle, on July 23. They agreed to end the -- New England Editor: George Foster League not surprisingly saw the strike the labor bureacracy, which will con­ -...- strike on the basis that Justice Moore Southern Editor: Joe Vetter as another of its endless "decisive tinue to betray the struggle until it of the Arbitration Court would conduct Midwest Editor: David Reynolds turning points," and co n seq u e n tl y is swept aside by a new leaderShip an inquiry into wage rates and arbi­ raised the urgent need to .•. force the dedicated to a program of class strug­ -- Published by the Spartacist trate on any further increases. The reformist Whitlam government to act gle. It is to the solution of this crisis workers had made no gains on wages Publishing Company, Box 1377, "in the interests of the working class" of proletarian leadership that the Spar­ and only minor concessions on condi­ G. p. 0., New York, N. Y. 10001. by implementing "a soc i a lis t pro- tacist League dedicates its efforts•• =-- Telephone: 925-8234. tions (a six-minute afternoon tea break, increased spaces between cars, an im­ Opinions expressed in signed proved system of relief on the line articles or letters do not neces­ and the repair of leaking roofs and the ists in France. When Cachin, a CP lead­ sarily express the editorial closing of doors which permitted cold er, called for a bloc with Daladier's viewpoint. winds in). After trying to sabotage the Do We Call on the Radical Socialists in 1934, one of his strike for the past ten weeks the Stalin­ arguments was that the Radicals had of the Broadmeadows workers, that ists now put on a false face of mili­ Bourgeoisie to called for disarming the fascists. Trot­ they were the most ready SOurce of tancy and voted against the terms that sky replied: strike support funds and that workers Carmichael himself had negotiated. ·Certainly, the R a d i cal s declared at other plants did not want to strike Even the Tribune had to admit that vir­ Outlaw Fascism? themselves for the disarmament of anyway. Rather than fighting to win tually nothing had been gained from the everyone-workers' organizations in­ ten-week strike, but no matter, for "the In the last issue (WV No. 26, 3 Au­ cluded. Certainly, in the hands of a the strike by extending it, Carmichael gust 1973) there were two errors of Bonapartist state, such a measure and the other bureaucrats prolonged and real significance here is that the work­ ers have at last staked a claim On conSiderable pOlitical importance. The would be directed especially against ultimately defeated the struggle by ef­ the workers. Certainly, the 'disarmed' what has been considered to be the first was typographical and rather fectively isolating it. humorous: in the article on "The Stalin Fascists would receive on the morrow sacred soil of the boss-the company's double their arms, not without the aid In the meantime the Australian La­ School of Falsification Revisited, Part bor Party government was demagogi­ exclusive 'right' to determine the speed of the police." of the line, its organisation, and the 4: The Popular Front" the Leninist -"Whither France?", November 1934 cally putting on a nationalist left face slogan for the workers united front is against the "foreign octopus." Minister manning scale" (Trillune, 31 July-6 Trotsky counterposed the disarming of August). Who needs a socialist revolu­ given as "march together, strike sep­ the fascists by workers militias. In a of Labour Clyde Cameron remarked arately." It should, of course, have read from London: tion when the CPA is capable of such programmatiC sense he dealt with the mighty steps toward making capital­ "march separately, str~e together." question in the theses on "War and the "I don't like a situation in which Aus­ ism more humane?!! The second is more serious. In the tralian workers have to fight an indUs­ Fourth International" (1934), which The CPA's role as agent of cap­ article "Rightest Coup Fails in Chile" stated: trial contest against somebody whose (p. 4) a call is made for "the outlawing decisions are being made in the board­ italism in the workers movement was "To turn to the state, that is, to capital, rooms of New York. clear and unequivocal during the strike, and disarming of all fascist organiza­ tions." The general political line of the with the demand to disarm the fascists "TIns is something that is v~ry bad-it despite the Trillune's hypocritical ser­ means to sow the worst democratic is a foreign company, it is owned by monizing about the workers' no longer article is clearly one of uncompro­ illUSions, to lull the vigilance of the foreigners, its policy is being made by "submit[ting] meekly to being treated mising class struggle, calling for the proletariat, to demoralize its will.· foreigners, and Australian workers as dumb cattle by capitalist bosses, distribution of arms to the Workers; have become the meat in the sandwich. • the formation of workers militias based In a more immediate sense, to call -Labour Press, 2 July or accept[ing] manipulation by union officials"-pious words which simply on the trade unions; the abolition of the on the bourgeois state to disarm "Ind Meanwhile his colleagues back home serve as a cover for CPA union leader standing army and the officer corps and outlaw the fascists is an invitation to were trying to force the rebellious Carmichael's sellout policies. the organization of the troops into sol­ the bourgeoisie to pass laws outlawing workers to accept company terms! Instead of the CPA's vague ref­ diers committees allied with the trade "extra-legal armed groups of both left The CPA for its part was making erences to "human dignity" the Spar­ unions; the formation of a central com­ and right." Such a law was passed in efforts to explain how especiallyalien­ tacist League of Australia and New mittee of workers militias, soldiers France during the 1936-38 PQPuiar front ated and frustrated the auto workers Zealand called concretely for the for­ councils and workers organizations and was used exclusively against the Trotskyists. Allende is pushing a simi': were and thereby promote its reformist mation of rank-and-file 0 p po s it ion (unions and parties). Nevertheless, version of "workers control." While caucuses in the unions to fight the even in this context to calion the lar decree today, and while the language originally GMH was the most arrogant bureaucracy with a revolutionary pro­ bourgeois state (even with a popular­ sounds impartial, if effectively imple­ company, now Ford Broadmeadows gram. In a leaflet distributed at the front government such as Allende's) to mented it would place guns only in the was declared "one of the wQrst, if not Broadmeadows 111 ant, the SL/ANZ outlaw and disarm fasCists is to awaken hands of the bourgeois army, leaving t~ worst example in Australia of an in­ called for extending the strike to all illusions in the masses. Only the work­ the working class totally disarmed; and human production line" (Tribune, 17-23 car assembly plants, for no state in­ ing class can smash faSCism, through in practice it is being used exclusively July). For several weeks the Trillune terference in the workers movement, making a proletarian revolution. Fas­ against unions and workers organiza­ excelled itself explaining how undigni­ for the establishment of workers' vigil­ cism is another form of capitalist rule, tions, while fascist organizations such fied, inhuman, wasteful and inefficient ance committees, for opening company to which the bourgeoisie may have to as Patria y Libertad continue to amass the assembly line "monster" was. This books, for 30 for 40 with automatic resort if more democratic forms prove huge arms stockpiles._ reached a peak in an article entitled cost-of-living increases, for equal op­ incapable of repressing the worker!! "Production Line Blues," which argued portunity and equal pay for women and movement. Therefore the deciSive sec­ that better cars could be produced and for nationalization of the car industry tors of the capitalist class cannot per­ that the system would be more efficient under workers' management. mit their government to eliminate this if there were no speedup. "Even in the In contrast, both of the groups potentially crucial weapon. Although the ex-TrotSkyist Socialist Workers Party concentrated during re­ sub­ cent demonstrations in defense of the Spartacist Local Directory Ligue Communiste on the slogan of "jail the fascists, not the Ligue, " Trot­ ATLANTA DETROIT •••••••••••• (313) 862-4920· sky himself decisively rejected such Box 7686, Atlallta, GA 30309 Box 663A, General P.O. slogans which were raised by the Stalin- DetrOit, MI 48232 Kribe BERKELEY- OAKLAND •••••••••• (415) 653-4668 IDS ANGELES •••••••• (213) 467-6855 Box 852, Main P.O. Box 38053, W'ilcox Sta. rKey Forum Berkeley, CA 94701 Los Angeles, CA 90038 MILWAUKEE ~¢1$3 BOSTON ••••••••••••• (617) 492-3928 Box 5144, Harbor Sta. Racial Oppression Box 188, M.LT. Sta. Milwaukee, WI 53204 C~bridge, MA 02139 l1li111 .. 241SSUES NE.W ORLEANS ••••••• (504)· 866-8384 BUFFAID •••••••••••• (716) 886-2711 Box 51634, Main P.O. N~e ____~ ______~ _____ Box New Orleans, LA 70151 412, Station C Class Struggle Address~~~~~ ______

BuUa1o, Wl14209 NEW yORK ••••••••••• (212) 925-2426 Ci~ ______~ ______" Box" 1377, G.P.O. SPEAKER: CHICAGo ••••••••.••• (312) 548-2934 New York, NY 10001 RUM Samuels State . Zip_·__ _ Box 6471, Main P.O. SAN DIEGO ...... (714) 272-U86 National Chairman RCY Chicago, IL 60680 SL Central Committee Make cbeeks payable/mail to: Box 22052, Univ. City Sta. SPARTACIST PUBLISHING CO. San Diego, CA 92122 CLEVELAND ••••••••• (216) 696-4943 Saturday. Sept. 15 1:30 PM Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10001 Cleveland WV Committee 27 SAN FRANCISCO •.•••• (415) 863-1459 WashingtOn Square Church Box 6765 Box 40574 Cleveland, OH 44101 San FranCiSCO, CA 94140 133 W. 4th St"reet, New York WIJIiKEIiS VIINGIJAIiD Donation- sot 31 AUGUST 1913 3 SL/RCY Summer Camp Report During August 11-18, over 250 mem­ for programmatic agreement' on key post-war revolutionary wave in West­ wages. Nonetheless, a black industrial bers and friends of the Spartacist historic events of the recent period­ ern Europe, most of the essential con­ proletariat was formed. However, at League and its youth section, the Revo­ the Chinese Revolution of 1926-27, the ditions of the inter-war period were the same time the unemployment rate lutionary Communist Youth, attended Anglo-Soviet Trade Union Committee, re-created. While strengthened through for blacks, particularly urban ghetto a summer camp in northern illinois. In the defense of the Soviet Union against geographical expansion, Stalinism con­ youth, has increased dramatically com­ addition to a full schedule of recreation­ imperialist attack. The speaker also tinued to be decisively shaped by im­ pared to the working class as a whole, al activities and educational classes on stressed the great objective problems perialist encirclement and capitalist thereby accentuating the special op­ the theory and practice of revolutionary in building the international Trotskyist world hegemony. Despite numerical pression of blacks and giving special Marxism, plenary sessions of the SL movement-Stalinist agents, bourgeois growth, by the end of the 1940 's the importance to the sections of the Central Committee and RCY National persecution and petty-bourgeois dilet­ Trotskyists were effectively isolated Transitional Program dealing with un­ Committee were held at the camp. tantism in a movement drawn largely from the labor movement and working employment: sliding scale of hours, The recent split in the International from the intelligentsia. un d e r manifestly non-revolutionary struggle against Jim Crowism in the Socialists intersected the week's ac­ Focusing on the latter problem, he conditions. In the s e circumstances unions and industry. tivities in a major way. The SLplenum rev i ewe d the 1931 - 3 2 Cannon­ Pabloism emerged as a liquidationist The second class dealt with the early agreed to fuse with the Leninist Tend­ Shachtman fig h t in the Communist tendency denying the capacity of the efforts of the U.S. Communist Party, ency, a grouping of some 8 comrades League of America as a genuine fore­ Trotskyist movement to lead the prole­ prodded into action by the Fourth Con­ emerging from the IS split. (A subse­ shadowing of the cataclysmic 1940 tariat to socialism, and relying instead gress of the Communist International, quent issue of Workers Vanguard will· split. The historic defeat for the Trot­ on various petty-bourgeois forces, in to recruit black cadre. This included treat the evolution of the Leninist Tend­ skyists in the failure to prevent Andres the fir s tin s tan c e the Stalinist the CP's successful workintheAfrican ency and its role in the IS factional Nin's descent into centrism during the bureaucracies. B 1 0 0 d B rot her h 0 0 d, its not-so­ struggle.) The culminating event ofthis Spanish Revolution was also empha­ successful work in the Garvey move­ intensely political week was a debate in sized. As a successful precondition for The Strategic Importance of ment and the formation of the American Chicago's old Wobbly Hall between the founding of the Fourth International the Black Question Negro Labor Congress in 1925. The spokesmen for the SL and Leninist in 1938, the speaker pOinted to the latter was the first attempt to organize Tendency and the newly formed left­ molding of a thin but homogeneous cadre The second class series consisted of a transitional black organization. The Shachtmanite Revolutionary Socialist through factional struggle and the mani­ three talks on the black question cen­ reporter also discussed the work of League. fest bankruptcy ofthose non-Trotskyist tering on the special oppression of the Stalinist CP among blacks during The RCY plenum voted to change tendencies claiming to be to the left of blacks and the necessary tasks which the CP's "Third Period," centering up­ the name of the youth paper from RCY Stalinism (e.g., the German Brandler­ flow from that fact for the proletarian on the theory of a supposed black na­ News letter to Young Spqrtacus in rec- ites and Urbahns group, the Lovestone­ vanguard-the need to combine a pro­ tion in the South. Trotsky's discussions 0gnition of the stabilization of an eight ites in the U.S., the Spanish POUM and gram of militant class struggle against with the SWP on the black question were page bi-monthly and in antiCipation of a British ILP). this special oppression with determined examined, noting that his early condi­ more frequent press. In the final talk, great stress was opposition to all for m s of black tional support for some variant of A discussion of international per­ laid on the physical liquidation of the separatism. "black-belt" self-determination was spectives at the SL plenum was qUite Trotskyist cadre during World War II, The first class was devoted totrac­ dropped in the later discussions in Mex­ optimistic. The 1971 split in the "Inter­ including courageous and experienced ing the material foundations for the ico when Trotsky was more familiar national Committee" and imminent rup­ I e ad e r s such as Lesoil (Belgium), special oppression of blacks in the U.S., with the black question in the U.S. Trot­ ture in the "United Secretariat" have Sneevliet (Netherlands), Blasco (Italy) from chattel slavery to their role as a sky's main emphasis throughout was the discredited these groups' claims to be and countless others. Thus Michel reserve army of the unemployed in the need for the SWP to reach the black the Fourth International. The resulting Pablo and his peers who took over the epoch of capitalist decay. The success masses. Blacks in the U.S. are not a greater openness and motion in the leadership of the international move­ of the Knights of Labor in organizing nation, but a race-color caste whose world movement combined withadeep­ ment after the war had to learn their blacks was contrasted to the Jim Crow special oppression consists of their ening of the SL's international involve­ Trotskyism solely from books. Further poliCies of the American Federation of simultaneous integration into the poli­ ment raises the possibility of. break­ disorienting the post-war international Labor and the Socialist Party. From the tical economy and forcible segregation through in building an international movement was a foreshortened view of Civil War to World War II, blacks were at the bottom of society. Spartacist tendency. The plenum also the death agony of capitalism, partly periodically drawn off southern farms The third class was devoted to the engaged in alively discussion of various ariSing from Trotsky's pre-war pro­ into northern industry during periods development of the Spartacist tendency aspects of trade-union work. Much of jections. The Trotskyist movement be­ of expansion, only to be thrown out of and its uniquely revolutionary approach the business of the plenum focused on lieved the outcome of World War II work during periods of crisis and de­ to the black question. As a minority in strengthening the SL' s regional and would finally decide the epochal ques­ pression. They were used by the capi­ the Socialist Workers Party, the Rev­ industrial centers, as well as building tion 9f socialism or barbarism. How­ talists as strikebreakers and as a re­ olutionary Tendency opposed the adap­ new locals. Specific commitments were ever, with the Stalinist betrayal of the serve industrial army to hold down tation to black nationalism and called also made to assist fraternal national organizations in other countries and to bolster the international work of the SL.

The Struggle fo~ the Fourth International SL/RSL DEBATE-•

Three talks were given on the history wv PHOTO of the Trotskyist movement from the RSL Gives "Critical Support" Russian Opposition of 1923 to the Second World Congress of the Fourth Inter­ national in 1948. In the wake of the to Trotskyism failure ofthe widely anticipated German Revolution in 1923, the Stalinist bu­ On Saturday August 18, Chicago's and above all the politics and history reaucracy achieved a decisive victory former IWW meeting hall witnessed a of the Spartacist League. in 1924 with the destruction of inner­ debate between the Spartacist League The SL has consistently attempted to party democracy and the adoption of and the Revolutionary Socialist League, engage such contradictory and incom­ an openly nationalist program around a left-Shachtmanite organization which plete leftward-moving tendencies in the slogan, "socialism in one country. " was recently expelled from the IS. More programmatic pOlitical discussion as Most of the discussion centered on than 200 SL/RCY supporters attended a part of the perspective of revolu­ the correctness of Trotsky's tactics in the event, as well as roughly 10 RSLers. tionary regroupment. But, as the SL the 1920's. Trotsky's failure to play an And although the debate centered on the reporter remarked during the debate, active role in inner-party life and the question, "What is the RSL?", at the with the IT we have an unprincipled struggle against bureaucracy before conclusion of four hours of discussion group (rejecting the SWP because it late 1923 wa!' noted, as was his failure the consensus was that the question ignores the proletariat, and then link­ to form a bloc with the 1925 Zinoviev remained unanswered-even to the RSL ing up with the USec majority whose Opposition against the pro-peasant eco­ itself. "new mass vanguard" theories and stu­ nomic policy and Stalin's ideology of The debate had a broader Signifi­ dent-oriented practice are hardly more "socialism in one country." However, cance for the Spartacist League, which proletarian); in the CSL we have a the speaker affirmed Trotsky's policy issued the challenge. In recent years multi-principled g roup (democratic of remaining in the Russian CP as the there have been a number of left splits centralism or freedom of criticism? only arena to recruit and organize a from Pabloist and Shachtmanite organ­ Fourth International or Fifth Interna­ communist cadre. He dismissed the izations resulting in various centrist tional? single-issue caucuses ortrade­ possibility of a Trotskyist-Bukharinite groupings which, upon emerging from union organizing on the Transitional bloc by noting that the Stalin faction their respective swamps (SWP, IS, Program? -who cares, because in the would not have pursued pOlicies which United Secretariat), proclaim that they CSL anything goes!); but with the RSL allowed all of its enemies to unite on a are the first Trotskyists since Trotsky we have something really rare-a non­ principled basis. himself. Examples are the former pvincipZed group! This was amply con­ The reporter began the second talk Communist Tendency of the SWP, the firmed in the debate, as the RSL re­ by emphaSizing the parallelism of Trot­ Class Struggle League, Spartacus-BL porter and speakers either avoided or sky's tasks in the 1929-34 period with in Germany and now the RSL, with the gave contradictory responses to all the the SL' s tasks today in creating an Internationalist Tendency of the SWP programmatic questions raised by the international tendency. By 1929 numer­ still in the pipeline. In order to deny SL. ous groups had split or been expelled the existence of the continuity of the Main SL reporter James Robertson from the Third International, subse­ Marxist movement, and thus validate opened the debate by raising the two key quently gravitating toward all points their own immaculate conception, these issues over which Shachtman broke with on the political compass. Trotsky was groups find it necessary to repudiate Trotskyism in 1940-the class nature of faced with the difficult task of sorting the banner of, the Fourth International the Russian state and the organizational out the genuine Bolsheviks from the (in the case of the Fifth International­ question. The RSL claims to have fully myriad "anti-Stalinist communists." ists in the CSL), the "Cannonite faction rej ected Shachtmanis m and to ha ve em­ To do this Trotsky put forth the need of Trotskyism" (in the case ofthe RSL) braced Trotskyism; yet the RSL is ag- 4 WORKERS VANGUARD of bur e au era tic corruption and a ~ til strengthening of restorationist forces. o... To this increased imperialist pressure, o the speaker counterposed the establish­ ment of workers democracy through political revolution leading to the eco­ nomiC, military and political unification of the Sino-Soviet states, Toward the International Spartaci st Tendency One of the highlights of the camp was an international symposium fea­ turing speakers from the Spartacist League of Australia and New Zealand (sLI ANZ) and fro m the Austrian Bolshevik-Leninists. A comrade of the SLIANZ presented a critical history of Ceylonese Trotskyism, pointing out the pervasi ve tendency toward Sinhalese nationalism and parliamentarianism. The former is particulary reactionary given the importance of Tamil-speaking Class session at plantation workers in linking the Cey­ first SL/RCY lonese revolutionary movement to the summer camp. rest of the subcontinent. The SLI ANZ comrade traced the evolution of the Samarakkody tendency from its op­ for communist intervention in the civil as do the cynical Workers League and Trotskyists with "progressive" trade position to incipient popular frontism rights movement. Following its expul­ Class Struggle League; nOr does it unionists. The Trotskyists lacked flex­ by the LSSP in 1956 to the split from sion from the SWP in 1963 the Spartacist claim to have emerged fully grown, as ibility in their tactiCS, and neglected the USec in 1968 and the founding ofthe group immediately plunged into the if by magic, from the scattered remains the development of caucus formations Revolutionary Workers Party. While ci vil rights movement, both in the South of a non-revolutionary tradition, as based on a revolutionary, transitional noting its vastly differing political and in the northern ghettoes, and within does the left-Shachtmanite Revolution­ program. They thereby deprived them­ experience from that of the Spartacist the limits of its forces 'carried out ary Socialist League (which claims to be selves of an organizational form for League, the s pea k e r stressed the exemplary work until being frozen out the first Trotskyist organization since distinguishing themselves politically RWP's leftward course. Particularly by the rise of black nationalism in the Trotsky). Rather, Marxists seek to from, and conSOlidating militant opposi­ important is its recent decision to mid-sixties. The 1968 New York City deepen' their understanding 0 f, and tion to, the "progressive" bureaucracy enhance the polemical character of teachers' strike was emphasized as an continuity with, their revolutionary tra­ in the unions. These errors were its press and to struggle for leadership acid test of the American left: those dition not in order to idolize it, but to deepened rather than reversed after the within the existing unions rather than currents which adapted to black na­ learn from it and correct its errors. Second World War, and were partially following the standard Ceylonese prac­ tionalism supported scabbing w h i 1 e Developing cor r e c t revolutionary responsible for the demoralization and tice of organizing its own unions. currents adapting to the labor bureauc­ trade-union tactics in the present per­ departure from revolutionary politics A comrade of the Austrian Bolshe­ racy became apologists for the racist iod depends On avoiding the serious of the bulk of the SWP's trade-union vik-Leninists surveyed the history of Shanker leadership of the teachers pitfalls into which the Trotskyists fell cadre in the Cochran-Clarke split in revolutionary Marxism in Central Eu­ union. in the 1930's and 1940's, andthespeak­ 1953, rope, focusing on the struggle to break er concentrated on summing up the the working class from the stranglehold Trotskyist Work in the criticisms. The Trotskyists relied Labor and Imperialist Conflict of Social Democracy, The speaker ex­ Trade Unions chiefly on broad united-front tactics Under Post-War Capitalism plained that his tendency evolved out of which made for brilliant organizing­ a series of New-Left splits from the A class on "Trotskyist Work in the drive victories such as the Minneapolis A set of two talks on the post-war German and Austrian USec sections Trade Unions," provided an historical strikes of 1934. capitalist economy began with the em­ whose most characteristic expressions overview and critical assessment. The After the rise of the CIO, however, pirical demonstration of the absence of are the German IKDandSpartacus-BL. SL dot's not reject out-of-hand the these united fronts, combined with a a generalized and qualitatively different The Austrian Bolshevik-Leninists were revolutionary tradition of James P. tendency on the part of the Trotskyists boom period during the 1950's, a fiction drawn to the Spartacist tendency on the Cannon and the American Socialist to view the Stalinists as the main enemy, maintained by both the "International key issues of the contradictory class Workers Party from which it emerged, led to an over-identification of the Committee" and the "United Secre­ nature of the mass social-democratic tariat." The speaker asserted that such parties and the consequent orientation theories as "neo-capitalism" and the of the communist vanguard toward "post-war economic boom" are an ob­ them, a rejection of the "freedom-of­ nostic on precisely these two questions! bor Department, in the mine workers' jectivistprojection of the weakness of criticism" perversion of democratic In Cleveland, RSLers refused to discuss elections. the Trotskyist movement, a kin to centralism, a sharp line against capit­ the Russian question, while their New The other speaker for the SL was a Pablo's re-evaluation of Stalinism. Not ulation to popular fronts (particularly York comrades have several times in­ representative of the Leninist Tendency structural reform (government inter­ in the recent French elections and in tervened in SL public classes and ar­ which had res igned from the IS following vention, "artificial inflation," "perma­ Vie t n a m) and r e j e c t ion of "neo­ gued for a state capitalist view. The the expulsion of the RT IRSL. The L T nent arms economy," etc.), but the ex­ capitalism. " SL spokesman attacked the "freedom speaker challenged the RSL reporter to treme weakness of the labor movement Another comrade of the SLI ANZ of critiCism, unity of action" line on reaffirm publicly what he had said pre­ in Japan and France and the aggressive ,spoke on the recent developments in the organization question (the early viously on the organizational question class collaborationism of the social­ Australia, streSSing that Whitlam's Lenin formulation embraced by Shacht­ (namely, support for the "freedom of democratic unions in Germany account Labor Party government originallyen­ man and by several current centrist criticism" position) and to defend his for the relative success of these econ­ joyed bourgeois support on the basis of formations), citing the ... pparent varia­ previous repudiation of Lenin'S argu­ omies in the post-war period. The pIa nsf 0 r economic rationalization tion among RSLers on the Russian ques­ ment (in What Is To Be Done?) that so­ necessity of direct state control of (e.g., incomes policy), while awakening tion as evidence that the RSL main­ cialist consciousness is brought to the wages in contemporary capitalism was illusions in the working class. Both its tained Shachtman's "interpretation" of working class from outside. (The RSL also stressed. Reviewing the exper­ working-class and bourgeois support democratic centralism. ducked this one also.) The LT speaker iences of Britain and Germany in the are now dWindling, however. The speak­ The SL reporter pointed out that the stated that the RSL position on critical 1960's, the speaker pointed out the er described the bitter strike at Ford state capitalism theory is basically a support boils down to backing who­ double-edged aspect of state control­ Motors which demonstrated that the moral stance-simple impressionistic ever is popular at the time. effectively holding down wages, but Australian CP's "w 0 r k e r s control" rejection of Russia-and is ultimately The reporter for the RSL was Sy tending to set the ranks against the campaign is Simply a new term for old­ merely silly. SOCieties are based on Landy, former national secretary of the openly class-collaborationist labor'tu­ fa s hi 0 ned reformism. The rapidly­ class relations determined at 'the point IS and a long-time Shachtmanite who reaucracy. The first class concluded on expanding SLI ANZ has established it­ of production. The fact that the Soviet followed his former mentor into the So­ the strategic importance of the black self as an aggressive propaganda group bureaucrats live well and the workers cialist Party in 1958. Accusing the SL of ghetto population in the U,S, andimmi­ exposing reformism and revisionism poorly does not' make the former a new relying on "potshots," he agreed that the grant labor drawn from the Mediter­ within the ostenSibly revolutionary left. class with a historical mission and a RSL's documents were abstract and de­ ranean basin peasantry in Western Eu­ Recently the SL was able to force characteristic relation to the means fended this as necessary in order to ex­ rope as the contemporary reserve army Tariq Ali, a leader of the British of production. Shachtman knew this and plore the methodology and put the final of the unemployed-a necessary ele­ USec section, to participate in an tried to come up with a more sophisti­ stamp on Shachtmanism, something he ment of capitalism. organization-to-organization deb ate cated evasion: bureaucratic collectiv­ insisted the SL had never done. At­ In the second talk, the reporter during which he stated that the Viet­ ism. But neither theory can explain the tempting to reply to the charge that pOinted out that imperialist conflict namese NLF did not act in a Stalinist extreme fragility of bureaucratic rule the RSL does not have a consistent arises from the intersection of foreign manner, and defended guerrilla strat­ as shown by the Hungarian uprising of pOSition on the RUSSian question, he trade and investment as a counteracting egy in Latin America. 1956, in which the bureaucracy simply stated that the RSL is still incomplete factor to the falling rate of profit, given Reflecting the growing international fragmented, with the vast majority of because it was prematurely expelled the nationally-limited character of the impact of the Spartacist tendency and its lower levels going over to the side from the IS before the fight had clari­ bourgeoisie. In contrast to the view of the fruitful period opening up as the of the workers. fied all the issues. the IC, international financial chaos rotten blocs of the IC and USec split The SL reporter challenged the RSL Landy declared that we are now in must be seen as the product of con­ apart, the symposium underlined the to explain its positions on the Russian a pre-revolutionary period internation­ flicting national states. The speaker urgent necessity' of international po­ question and democratic centralism­ ally, which has produced an advanced traced the history of American im­ lemical discussion on key political is­ something it never got around to doing. layer of workers who consider them­ perialism in the post-war period from sues (popular fronts, nature of the He also charged that on the one issue selves revolutionary: the task is to one of granting economic concessions to social-democratic parties, guerrilla on which the Revolutionary Tendency reach this layer. The RSL stands for Japan and West Europe to the present warfare, Pabloism, democratic cen­ did choose to fight the IS majority-­ revolutionary regroupment. intense struggles for immediate com­ tralism, etc.) in order to crystallize a trade-union policy-it emerged with the On the question of critical support, petitive advantage. The talk was con­ Bolshevik-Leninist tendency and work same operational position as the right Landy charged the SL, with having a cluded with a discussion of the impact toward the rebirth of a programatically­ wing led by Geier: critical support to static, recipe-book approach. The RSL of the increased presence of capitalist un i ted democratic-centralist Fourth Arnold Miller, the darling of the La- continued on page 10 firms in the Soviet Union as a source International. _

31 AUGUST 1973 5 Reply to the Guardian

PENGUIN

Allf ):'C T Nt 24 Hj.,.-1·~HH~ ;" {! TN .,rtP\f!;t,,'" l>1'~1 \!l." 1936

y gt,.,' ', v/~j K v' K 0 4 M n

t .. , "~I "" ary vanguard will not pardon the histor­ it did not simply proclaim themselves ical crime committed by the Stalinists. to be the new International. Expulsion '\" If we support the illusion of the vitality of the Left Opposition from the Comin­ of the party of Thaelmann-Neumann we tern had deprived it of a necessary would appear to the masses as the ~> sphere of political activity, forcing it /'r' real defenders of their bankruptcy. That would signify that we ourselves veer to develop as an isolated propaganda toward the road of centrism andputre­ group. The Left Opposition had been faction. " able to train a limited number of cadres -L.D. Trotsky, "KPD or New but lacked roots in the masses and was Party?", March 1933 numerically weak. Moreover, its or­ ganizations had not been tested in ser­ But what about the rest of the CI? ious class battles. The period ahead "Here it is natural to ask how we act was to be one of preparation: toward the other sections of the Comin­ "Propagating the ideas of the Left Op­ tern and the Third International as a pOSition, recruiting more and more ad­ whole. Do we break with them immedi­ herents, individually and in groups, into ately? In my opinion, it would be incor­ the ranks of the International Commu­ rect to give a rigid answer-yes, we nist League, carrying on an agitation break with them. The collapse of the among the masses under the slogan of KPD diminishes the chances for the the Fourth International, educating our regeneration of the Comintern. But on own cadres, deepening our theoretical the other hand the catastrophe itself position-such is our basic work in the could provoke a healthy reaction in historic period immediately ahead of some of the sections. We must be ready us." [emphasis in original J to help this process. The question has -L.D. Trotsky, "The SAP, the ICL not been settled for the USSR, where and the Fourth International, " proclamation of the second party would January 1934 be incorrect. We are calling today for the creation of a new party in Germany, The prinCipal tactic used by the ICL to seize the Comintern from the hands to recruit new adherents was revolu­ of the Stalinist bureaucracy. It is not a tionary regroupment. Trotsky was the question of the Fourth International but first to recognize the immensity of the of salvaging the Third." task faced by his small, isolated move­ -Ibid. ment. He searched out every opportu­ However, not a single one of the Com­ nity to break out of isolation and find intern sections made the slightest pro­ new allies, even temporary ones, so test to Stalin's claim that the pOlicies that the first steps could be taken toward of the KPD had been correct from start the building of a new International. to finish, or even called for a discussion In a period of tremendous revolu­ of the German events! Trotsky respond­ tionary opportunities and dangers the ed by declaring that an organization oppositionist moods and tendencies of which is not roused by the thunderbolt the 1930's bore a predominantly cen­ of fascism and submits docilely to the trist character, vacillating between outrageous acts of the bureaucracy social patriotism and socialist revolu­ (JEll fl.r!AT'N }PMA demonstrates that it is dead and that tion. The German events (1931-33), the Soviet cartoon during Mosco;T-':i'O,-; peri-od~,;ortro-ying T~ot~kY~~-Nazi agent. nothing can revive it; Stalinism had cru~hing of the "leftist" Austrian Social had its 4 August (a reference to the Democracy together with its supposedly definiti ve betrayal of the reformist powerful party militia (the Schutzbund) German Social Democrats, who voted in 1934, caused deep ferment in the for the Kaiser's war budget in August working-class movement and a wide­ 5/ THE STRUGGLE FOR THE 1914, thus siding with "their own" bour­ spread rejection of reformism. A pro­ geoisie in the imperialist war). In July liferation of c en t r i s t currents ap­ 1933 Trotsky called on the Left Op­ peared, as frequently occurs in the ear­ position to begin working for the crea­ ly stages of a new upsurge of working­ FOURTH INTERNATIONAL tion of a new International and new class militancy. The ICL oriented to­ revolutionary parties throughout the ward these groups in order by example (Editor's Note: The recent wave of virulent anti-Trotskyism being spread by world. In accord with the newperspec­ and propaganda to win the healthiest various Maoist groups relies on the starulard Stalinist weapons of lies arul dis­ tive, the Left Opposition changed its elements to a revolutionary program. tortion, arul above all on ignorance about the true history of the communist move­ name to the International Communist But the tactic of revolutionary regroup­ ment. The present series, rePlying to the articles on "Trotsky's Heritage" in League. ment is not, as some maintain, a pro­ theN ew Left/Maoist Guardian, serves as an introduction to this history arul a brief cess of political accommodation to cen­ summary of the principal political issues separating Trotskyism from StalinismJ Trotsky's analysis was quickly con­ trism. At the same time Trotsky waged firmed. After the German debacle the a consistent struggle against the vacil­ Comintern substituted the capitulatory The sectarian-defeatist "T h i r d­ lating centrist leaderships, merciless­ A party that is incapable of defending policy of the "united front" at any price Period" poliCies of the Comintern which ly rejecting the slogan of "unity" of all the conquests already won by the work­ for the adventures of the Third Period. ing class will certainly be unable to led to the victory of fascism in Germany working-class organizations regard­ In its international pOliCies, the Sovi­ lead the proletarian revolution. From in 1933 forced the Left Opposition to less of program and tactics: et Union decided to join the imperial­ " ••• to blur our difference with cen­ the time it was formed in 1923 until adopt a radical change in its perspec­ ists' League of Nations (which Lenin tive. Ever since 1930 Trotsky had trism in the name of facilitating 'unity' Stalin ordered the German Communist had denounced as a den of thieves) and Party to capitulate to Hitler without a warned that the fate of the international would mean not only to commit political turned toward military alliance with suiCide, but also to cover up, strength­ revolutionary movement depended on fight almost ten years later, the Left French imperialism, openly repudiat­ en, and nourish all the negative fea­ Opposition steadfastly held to the ban­ the outcome of the struggle against the ing revolutionary internationalism. The tures of bureaucratic centrism, and by ner of the Third International. In spite faSCist threat in Germany. The Commu­ Stalinists divided the imperialist pow­ that fact alone help the reactionary cur­ of the most incredible bureaucratic nists (KPD), following Stalin's orders, it ers into two categories: the "demo­ rents within against the revolution­ rigging, wholesale expulSions, and even played directly into the hands of the ary tendencies." cratic, peace-loving" on the one hand, -"On the State of the Left Op­ exile and deportation, Trotsky held ada­ fascists by refUSing to call for a united and the fascist, war-like on the other. mantly to his course of reforming the position," 16 December 1932 front with the Social Democracy (SPD) The Third International was subverted Comintern. Bureaucratically expelled against the NaziS, instead denouncing into becoming a simple tool for the The realignment of forces within the Left Oppositionists demanded readmit­ the SPD as "social fascists." European working class did not bypass diplomatic interests of the Russian bu­ tance to their respective CPs and acted reaucracy, with the job of forging alli­ the parties of the Second International. insofar as possible as factions of the The Call for a New International Disillusioned with the Comintern, many ances with the "peace-loving~ imperi­ Communist International, rather than alists to protect "SOCialism in one coun­ working-class m i 1i tan t s and youth proclaiming new parties. C r i tic a 1 Hitler's peaceful march to power, try." Thus the French CP was ordered joined the social-democratic parties, events inside or outSide the Soviet Union without even token resistance by the to vote for the defense budget of its res u 1 tin g in the proliferation of could stir the working class into action Communists, led Trotsky to correctly bourgeois rulers. The Stalinist bureau­ leftward-moving ten den c i e s within once again and provide the opportunity conclude that the KPD had decisively cracy officially declared that Roosevelt them. In France, Spain, Belgium and for replacing the Stalinist usurpers. degenerated. As a consequence of this was "honestly seeking a democratic Switzerland sections of the Socialist Further, the Third International, enjoy­ world-historical defeat and betrayal, and pacifist solution to imperialist con­ Youth became sympathetic to Trotsky's ing the prestige of association with the the German working class lay prostrate ideas. flicts" and consummated popular-front only successful socialist revolution, for more than a decade and the second alliances with liberal bourgeois parties In France, the Socialists (SFIO) had had strong ties with the masses which imperialist world war and Hitler's split at the end of 1933 with the right in France and Spain in 1936, which led could not be ignored. For the Left Op­ invasion of the Soviet Union were pre­ to the victory of the fascists three years wing forming its own organization. This position to prematurely renounce the pared. The Left Opposition now called later. During World War II Stalin final­ split shifted the SFlO, the largest work­ Comintern would abandon hundreds of for a new party in Germany: ly declared that the Comintern no longer ers party in France, to the left, and thou s an ds of revolutionary-minded Trotsky advised the small French sec­ "The question of the open break with served any purpose and formally dis­ workers to the bureaucracy and doom the Stalinist bureaucracy in Germany is banded it. tion of the ICL to enter the Socialists. the Trotskyists to is 0 I at ion and at the present moment of enormous The formation of a "united front" of irrelevance. principled importance. The revolution- The ICL and groups sympathetic to the SFIO and CP in July 1934 and talk of 6 WORKERS VANGUARD • merger of the two reformist parties distillation of the interests of the pro­ layers of the 'working class and un­ to finish. Nevertheless, both Moscow­ provided added reason for immediate letariat in the epoch of imperialism. alterably leading to one final conclu­ line and Maoist Stalinists today continue entry; every tendency outside the united It is a document that has been willfully sion: the conquest of power by the to repeat the slanders that Trotsky co­ front would become more isolated than misunderstood, both by its opponents proletariat." [emphasis in original] operated with the fascists even though ever. Trotsky advocated similar en­ and some of its supposed adherents. -"The Transitional Program," 1938 there was never produced one shred of tries (the so-called "French turn ") in Above all, it is not a program of re­ Such demands included a sliding evidence to "prove" these charges. most of the other sections as well. forms but represents marching orders scale of wages and hours, opening the Also at this time Stalin unleashed a The French turn led to deep disputes for the seizure of power by the prole­ books of the capitalists, expropriation systematic campaign to exterminate and even splits within the partisans of tariat. It is based on the premise that of industry under workers control, for Trotskyist I e ad e r s throughout the the Fourth International, with some in the epoch of capitalist decay, the the formation of factory committees, world and to eliminate the thousands ultra-left sectarians such as Oehler in objective prerequisites for socialist workers militias, soviets and a workers of Russian Left Oppositionists in the the U.S. rejecting the entry tactic on revolution are not only ripened, but al­ government. In the backward countries labor camps. An eye-witness account principle. The French section was split ready beginning to rot. The fundamental it called for proletarian revolution, from the Vorkuta camps told of roughly in half over the question, and the Spanish factor preventing world revolution is supported by the peasantry, which would 1,000 Bolshevik-Leninists in this camp, Communist Left (led by Andres Nin) re­ the reformist leadership of the unions solve both democratic (agrarian revo­ and several thousand more in the other jected it outright (only to fuse with a and mass workers parties, the agent of lution, national independence) and so­ camps of the province. Down to the end, reformist group to form the POUM a the bourgeoisie in the workers move- cialist tasks. In the Soviet Union it the Trotskyist prisoners called for the overthrow of the Stalin government, while always streSSing they would de­ fend the Soviet Union unconditionally in case of war. When in the spring of 1938 the GPU ordered the murder of all remaining Trotskyists they marched to their deaths Singing the Internationale. m~·~J:'·' Internationally, the GPU had assas­ sinated Trotsky's son; the Czech Erwin Wolf and the German Rudolf Klement, both secretaries of Trotsky; and the Pole Ignace Reiss, a former head of Soviet secret service in Europe. Dur­ ing the same period they also elimina­ ted prominent ex-Trotskyists such as Nin in Spain, the Austrian Landau and others. The culmination came with the assassination by a GPU agent of Trot­ WORlD sky himself on 20 August 1940. WUAliSM Unconditional Defense WIUBE of the Soviet Union iROJ\K'rl WONUMHiI The favorite charge of the Stalinists during this period was al ways that Trot­ sky allied with foreign powers to de­ stroy the Soviet state. This was a bald­ 1 '+.. : ..1...... '. ". ~ '1;\1 faced lie, as Trotsky always insisted '"'II"'" that true Bolshevik-Leninists must un­ 14:::'; >'j< conditionally defend the historical gains of the October Revolution (see part 3 of this series). Every single program­ matic document of the Left OppOSition, the International Communist League and the Fourth International proclaimed the unconditional defense of the USSR against capitalist restorationist forces and imperialist attack. But defense of the Soviet state required above all the ousting of the Stalinist regime which consistently sabotaged that defense. By the theory of "socialism in one country" the bu­ reaucracy wrote off the possibility of world socialist revolution which was the only real defense of the achieve­ ments of the first workers state in history. But Stalin did more than this: he twice decapitated the top leader­ .• __ ..... w ship of the Soviet armed forces during Trotsky Memorial Meeting at Hotel Diplomat, New York, 28 August 1940. the late 1930's (after repeatedly purg­ ing the Red Army during the 1920's to drive out Trotskyists); and he placed blind faith in his treaty with Hitler, year later). Even where it was carried ment: "The historical crisis of mankind called for political revolution, while thereby preparing the way for the out, however, the French turn and is reduced to the crisis of the revolu­ streSSing the commitment of the Fourth rout of the Russian forces during the struggles to regroup revolutionaries tionary leadership." International to unconditional defense first weeks of Hitler's 1941 invasion out of leftward-moving centrist forma­ During the period of progressive of the USSR against imperialist attack. tions brought few recruits to the Trot­ capitalism the Social Democracy dis­ of the USSR. Only by vigorously lead­ the workers against their own bour­ skyists. The proletariat had a long tinguished its min i mum program Stalinist Persecution series of defeats behind it and was in geoisies in the capitalist countries, (trade-union reforms, political democ­ and through political revolution in the retreat. With the threat of a new world racy) and its maximum program (so­ The Fourth International, at the time Soviet Union, could the road be open­ war, the working class was interested cialism), postponing the latter to the in­ of its founding conference, was com­ in immediate solutions to its problems; posed of sections conSisting of a few to socialism. This was the task of the definite future. Now "there can be no Fourth International. the tiny Trotskyist groups were not discussion of systematic social re­ dozen or at the most a few hundred attractive. forms and the raising of the masses' members (with one exception, the U.S. Trotsky's last political battle was living standards ••• every serious de­ section, the Socialist Workers Party, over precisely this question. In 1939- Founding of the mand of the proletariat •.• inevitably with 2,500 members). But despite their 40, under the pressure of public opin­ Fourth International reaches beyond the limits of capitalist small numbers, the Trotskyists were a ion which had turned against the Soviet property relations and of the bourgeois mortal threat to Stalin and his en­ Union during the Hitler-Stalin pact, a tourage of bureaucratic usurpers. The petty-bourgeois 0 p po sit ion formed But with the impending threat of im­ state." The task of the communist van­ guard was to make the proletariat con­ only answer was political and physical among elements of the leadership in the perialist war and the drying up of the annihilation. American SWP". The Shachtman/Burn­ various centrist currents following the scious of its tasks, through a series of transitional demands which formulate Stalin was, however, increaSingly ham/ Abern group suddenly "discov­ advent of the popular-front govern­ the obj ecti ve needs of the working class worried about even his own faction, and ered" that the Soviet Union was no long­ ments in France and Spain, the objec­ in such a way as to make clear the need beginning in 1936 heproceededtopurge er a workers state, and thus need not tive need for the foundation of a new to destroy capitalism: the entire leadership of the army; be defended unconditionally. Trotsky International permitted no further de­ through the medium of the Moscow steadfastly refused to give one inch to lay. In September 1938 the founding wThe strategic task of the next period trials he accused and convicted all nine the Shachtmanite faction, for he under­ conference was held in Paris with 21 -a prerevolutionary period of agita­ members of Lenin's Political Bureau stood perfectly that to waver on this delegates representing 11 countries. tion, propaganda and organization­ consists in overcoming the contradic­ (save Stalin himself), as well as vir­ crucial issue would condemn the Fourth While the Fourth International was weak tion between the maturity of the objec­ tually the entire Bolshevik Central International to an ignominiOUS death. in numbers, it represented the contin­ tive revolutionary conditions and the Committee of 1917. At the third trial This dedication to Bolshevikprinciples uity of Leninism, expressed above all immaturity of the proletariat and its (March 1938) Trotsky and his son Leon cost the SWP roughly 40 percent of the in its program. vanguard (the confusion and disappoint­ Sedov were accused of conspiring to party membefflhip when the Shachtman­ ment of the older generation, the in­ sabotage and overthrow the Soviet gov­ ites split in 1940, and destroyed the The basic programmatic document experience of the younger generation). ernment and restore capitalism in al­ youth section. Though weak and perse­ adopted at the founding conference, The It is necessary to help the masses in liance with Hitler and the Mikado. In his cuted, the Fourth International was the process of the daily struggle to find Death Agony 0/ Capitalism and the the bridge between present demands fa m 0 u s secret speech at the 1956 able to avoid its own "4 August" by Tasks 0/ the Fourth In t e rna tiona I and the socialist program ofthe revolu­ Twentieth Party Congress, Khrushchey steadfastly hoI din g to its program ("Transitional Program "), is the single tion. This bridge should include a sys­ officially admitted that the trials and the during this period of intense social most comprehensive and succinct sum­ tem of transitional demands, stemming ·confessions" On which they were os­ patriotism. mary of Trotskyism, representing the from today's consciousness of wide tenSibly based were a fraud from start [TO BE CONTINUED] 31 AUGUST 1973 7

~ Trotskyist Work in the Trade Unions The Primacy of Politics

After the formation of the Workers to spread the strike into the auto capital the ranks as opposed to arbitration or the reformist SP leaders by their Party (WP) through the fusion of the (New Militant, 11 May 1935), government boards, etc. As such, it had class-struggle policies. W hen they Musteite American Workers Party with The spreading of this strike through­ the episodic character of a united front emerged from the SP more than doubled the Trotskyist Communist League of out the GM empire was prevented only and lacked the clear revolutionary in size in 1938, the Trotskyists, though America (CLA) in 1934, the Trotsky­ by the relative organizational weakness political distinctiveness which became still small, were in a better position ists' organizational course took them of the Trotskyists and the diligent, crucial after the establishment of in­ than ever to conduct work in the unions. into the leftward-moving Socialist Par- strike-breaking efforts of the AFL' s dustrial unions under reformist leader­ ty in 1936. After winning appointed head of the auto union, Fran­ ship in the late 1930's, CIO Victories cis Dillon. Dillon personally headed off a sizeable section of the Another point made by Cannon in Pose Question of Politics PART 3 SP youth they then split a sympathy strike of Buick workers in drawing the balance sheet of the Work­ off from the Social Dem­ Detroit and sabotaged the strike at its ers Party period should be made ele­ The rise of the CIO through the mas­ OF 4 ocrats to found the So­ base in Toledo by threatening to with­ mentary reading for the Labor Com­ si ve struggles of 1936-37 transformed cialist Workers Party draw the local's charter and splitting mittee, which fetishizes unemployed the labor movement and altered the rn(SWP) in 1938. During this period of the strike leadership at the key poinL .organizing. The mass unemployed or­ terms of class struggle in favor of the upsurge, the Trotskyists grew and con­ GM agreed to a wage increase and ganizations inherited by the Trotskyists workers. The organized workers were tinued to do trade-union work and other published a stipulation that it would in their fusion with the Musteites were in a better position to resist the on­ mass work, giving the lie to Stalinist meet with the union leadership, but be­ highly unstable: slaughts of capitalism; however, the assertions that the Minneapolis strikes cause of Dillon's treachery there was "We reached thousands of workers new unions were controlled by a bu­ of 1934 were the only mass work the no Signed contract. The workers went through these unemployed organiza­ reaucratic layer which shared the pro­ Trotskyists ever did. The Trotskyists back solidly organized and undefeated, tions. But fur the r experience also capitalist, class-collaborationist poli­ led mass unemployed leagues, con­ however, since the company had the taught us an instructive lesson in the tics of the old AFL bureaucracy. Having ducted mass defense work and worked militant .1934 strike in mind and had field of mass work too, Unemployed reluctantly presided over the militant organizations can be built and expanded in the unions in mining, textiles, auto, made no attempt to operate the plant struggles which established the CIO, with scabs. It was the first GM strike rapidly and it is quite possible for one food workers, maritime, steel and to get illusory ideas of their stability these new bureaucrats desired nothing teamsters, among others. Less spec­ the company had failed to smash, and and revolutionary potentialities. At the more than to establish "normal" trade­ tacular than the Minneapolis strikes was an inspiration for the later auto very best they are loose and easily union relations with the capitalists, gain perhaps, nevertheless this work was of sit-down strikes which built the UA W scattered formations; they slip through influence in capitalist pOlitics, etc. As lasting importance and vital to the and established the CIO, your fingers like sand. The minute the inter-imperialist war drew closer, the building of the revolutionary vanguard After the strike, the Workers Party average unemployed worker gets a ruling class was gradually forced to in the U.S. published a critical assessment of the job, he wants to forget the unemployed temporarily lay aside its attempt to de­ The Trotskyists' policy of broad strike leadership of which it had been a organization•.•. " -History of American Trotskyism stroy the unions and accept the coalition united fronts continued to playa vital part, denouncing sloppiness, lack of at­ which the bureaucracy readily offered. and useful role as long as the bulk of tention to details (such as not calling Thus the trade-union bureaucracy was the rea c t ion a r y AFL bureaucracy sufficient strike committee meetings) The Making of the qualitatively expanded and consolidated fought the establishment of industrial and the "fundamental error" of allow­ Modern Teamsters Union as the chief agency for diSCiplining the unions, The Workers Party declared its ing the daily strike paper, Strike Truth, work force, replacing for the most part main goal to be the formation of a to be suppressed (New Militant, 18 May The most lasting achievement of the Pinkertons and b I 0 0 d y strike­ "national progressive movement" for 1935). This performance was in sharp Trotskyist trade-union work in the breaking as the principal means of militant industrial unionism (N ew Mili­ corrtrast to the Minneapolis truckers' 1930's was the transformation of the capitalist rule in the hitherto un­ tant, 19 January 1935), and the Trotsky­ strikes the year previous, in which Teamsters from a localized, federated organized mass production industries. ists hoped, with good reason, to win meticulous attention to tactical and craft union into a large industrial un­ This process was completed during the the leadership of important sections of organizational details and the hard­ ion, In the 1930's, while long-distance Second World War, when the ruling the working class by being the most hitting regular strike daily had been trucking was becoming more and more class allowed the completion of union consistent fighters for this minimum instrumental in achieving the ultimate important, the Teamsters union was organizing in key areas in exchange for but key immediate need of the working victory of the strike, At the same time still limited to local drivers, divided full partnership of the trade-union bu­ class. At the same time they did not the Trotskyists were able to recruit the by crafts (ice drivers, milk drivers, reaucracy in the imperialist war effort hide their socialist politics, in contrast most conscious workers to their organ­ etc,) and dependent on local conditions, (the no-strike pledge, endorsement of to the Stalinists who attempted to ization, with the Minneapolis branch of Based in their stronghold in Minne­ the anti-labor wage controls, strike­ masquerade as simple pro-Roosevelt the CLA increaSing from 40 to 100 apOliS, the Trotskyists spread industri­ breaking, etc.). militants. As much as pOSSible, the members and close sympathizers during al unionism throughout the Northwest Besides displacing organization of Trotskyists operated as open revolu­ 1934 alone, Many years later, Cannon through the Teamsters, An II-state the unorganized as the key immediate tionists. Gerry Allard, CLA member analyzed the main weakness of the work campaign led by Farrell Dobbs to or­ issue, this transformation placed the and a leader of the Progressive Miners in Toledo as the failure to consolidate ganize over-the-road drivers included question of politics in the foreground. of America in southern IllinOis, ad­ lasting organizational gains. He blamed conquest of the all-important hub of The industrial unions had been built, dressed the miners about an approach­ this on Muste, who was a "good mass Chicago and established the principle but they alone were clearly insufficient ing strike in the following terms: worker" but "tended to adapt himself" to of the uniform area-wide contract. The to deal with the outstanding social ques­ "Being a Marxist, a revolutionist, it is the mass movement too much for a campaign's achievements were solidi­ tions-unemployment, war, etc.-which my opinion that we should militarize Leninist, at the expense of developing fied through a major strike struggle determined the conditions under which the strike, revamp the Women's Auxil­ firm nuclei "on a programmatic basis centered in Omaha, Nebraska in 1938, they struggled. With the renewal of iary along the original lines, augment for permanent functioning" (History oj which was won through the same skill­ depression conditions in mid-1937-38, our forces by seeking the organizational American Trotskyism). ful organization that had succeeded in accompanied by increased employer support of the powerful unemployed Minneapolis. As in MinneapOlis, the resistance to union demands, opposition movement in IllinOiS, seek allies in the First Auto Union Caucus Formed building of the party went hand-in­ to Roosevelt burgeoned and mass senti­ rank and file of the United Mine Workers hand with the strike, resulting in an ment for a labor party developed, ex­ of America, and go forward once again The Workers Party was still working with the same determination that built SWP branch in Omaha. pressed through such agencies as La­ this union. This is the road of under the disadvantage in Toledo that Especiallv in the mid-1930's, the bor's Non-Partisan Political League struggle •.. ," the revolutionary leadership of the 1934 mass work of the Trotskyists was far­ (LNPL), the CIO political arm and the -New Militant, 30 March 1935 strike had been brought in from outside reaching and significant out of propor­ Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota. In Allard went on to appeal to the miners the union, thereby lacking sufficiently· tion to their size. Yet the Trotskyists order to head off this movement, the to see their struggle in the broadest deep roots to hold the militants together knew they were not yet a real party and bureaucracy in v e n ted the myth of possible context, as the impetus for the against Dillon's maneuvering in 1935, could not become a party leading sig­ Roosevelt as a "friend of labor" and organization of auto, steel, rUbber, etc, Today the Marcusite National Caucus of nificant sections of the masses in strug­ used the Stalinist Communist Party, Labor Committees, a group which has gle until the centrist and reformist closely integrated into the CIO bureauc­ not the faintest idea of what it means forces blocking the path were removed, racy, to pass off this warmed-over Toledo, 1935: to organize the working class, lauds It was for this reason that the Trotsky­ Gompers policy as a "working-class" Conflagration in Auto precisely this weakness as the hallmark ists entered the SP in 1936: the SP was strategy-the popular front. The CP un­ of revolutionary strategy. Their hero large, included a rapidly-growing left ceremoniously dropped its earlier calls Following up on the work of the Muste soon thereafter abandoned the wing (particularly in the youth) and was for a labor party. Musteites in the great Auto-Lite strike WP to return to the church. The de­ attracting militant workers who could of 1934, the WorkersPartyplayedakey ficiencies of the Trotskyists' trade­ be won to Trotskyism. The Trotskyists The Trotskyist role in a strike at the Toledo Chevrolet "mion tactics were not to be found in had to defeat sectarians in their own Transitional Program transmission plant in 1935, being in­ "overrating the unions" as the NCLC ranks, led by Oehler, who assumed strumental in getting GM workers in crackpots would have us believe, but in that the party could be built directly, The primary task of revolutionists CinCinnati, Cleveland, Norwood and the failure to organize firm class­ through the orientation of apropaganda in the labor movement had shifted, Atlanta to strike simultaneously. Two struggle nuclei "on a programmatic group to the masses. The Cannon-led therefore, from leading the struggle for Trotskyists, Cochran and Beck, lead­ basis for permanent functioning" with­ majority of the WP hardly ignored industrial unions to providing a political ers of the Workers Party and Spartacus in the unions. The struggles in Toledo mass work. It was, in fact, an impor­ pole of 0 p po s i ti 0 n to the class­ youth respectively, we rearrested gave birth to the first auto union caucus, tant part of the entry maneuver. While collaborationist bur e au era c y. The w h i1 e picketing the Flint, Michigan the Progressives of UAW Local 18384, in the Socialist Party the Trotskyists Transitional Program ("Death Agony of headquarters of Chevrolet in an attempt but its program was limited to the mili­ established new trade-union fractions, Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth tant unionism of the broadunitedfront5 notably in maritime (principally the International "), adopted by the SWP in Chris Knox the Trotskyists advocated: for indus­ Sailors Union of the Pacific) and auto, 1938, was written by Trotsky largely to by trial unions, reliance on the power of meanwhile considerably embarrasSing provide the basis for such a struggle. 8 WORKERS VANGUARD It contained demands designed to meet Program in their press and conducted challenge mounted by the bosses was in program for the FLP they were forced the immediate felt needs and problems campaigns for specific demands such as Omaha. to emphasize demands for the petty­ of the workers (wages, unemployment, workers defense guards, labor party, The united front to organize the bourgeOis farmers (loans, eaSing tax working conditions, approaching war struggle against approaching war, etc •• over-the-road drivers was not wrong, burdens, etc.) which watered down the and fascism) with alternatives leading their day-to~day trade-union work con­ but the Trotskyists lacked the means to working-class content of their program directly to a struggle against the capi­ tinued on the old basis of united fronts distinguish themselves politically from and was the inevitable result 0 f the talist system itself: a sliding scale of around immediate issues. As the or­ the bureaucracy. This could have been petty-bourgeois nature of the FLP as wages and hours, workers control of ganization of the unions proceeded and done through a caucus based on the a two-class party. While not politically industry, expropriation of in d us try the opposition of the bureaucracy to Transitional Program. The Northwest fatal in itself, this lack of clarity was without compensation, workers mili­ organizing industrial unions receded. Organizer was founded in 1935 as the a reflection of an accommodationist tias, etc. Most importantly, the pro­ this united-front policy turned into a organ of a pan-union caucus formation, bloc with the left wing of the trade­ gram proposed transitional organiza­ bloc around simple trade-union mili­ the Northwest Labor Unity Conference, union bureaucracy. tional forms and measures designed tancy with -whole sections of the non­ buttheNLUC's program was limited to Furthermore, the Trotskyists com­ to advance the workers' ability to strug­ Stalinist, "progressive" t r ad e-union militant, class-struggle union organiz­ pounded their inflexible united-front gle for these demands and to provide bureaucracy. Criticism of these bu­ ing, under the slogan, n All workers trade-union tactics with an over­ the basis for the overthrow of capi­ reaucrats tended to take the form of into the unions and all unions into the reaction to Stalinism. The 1938 SWP talism: factory committees, soviets, pushing for consistent trade-union mil­ struggle. " Eventually the Northwest trade-union resolution stated arming of the proletariat and workers itancy rather than building a revolution- Organizer became the organ of the categorically) Minneapolis Teamsters Joint Council "While always expanding our program and the NL UC lapsed, since its op­ independently and maintaining our right 1--- SPECIAL BULLETIN U 1 positional role was liquidated. When of criticism, our Party in a certain Tobin began to line up behind the war sense supports the 'lesser evil' within THE NORTHWEST ORGANIZER effort, the Trotskyists in Minneapolis the unions. The Stalinists are the main Oflicial Or,.. • 1 tA. lI"re.. ".U. T...... t.,. ./oUal C-cil enemy •••• We unite wit h all serious .~ II~A. niDAY, HOV II, IN'!' .... opposed the war and won over the Central Labor Union, but they lacked elements to exclude the Stalinists from P. J. Corcoran Slain; Rites Saturelay­ control of the unions.· the basis for a factional struggle in the -Socialist Appeal, 26 November 1938 TJC Calls Holiday For Morning, 9-11 union as a whole that a political caucus orientation might have provided. Dobbs The Stalinist CP, many times larger -_~I r--. Offer $10.000 i simply submitted his resignation as than the Trotskyists, was indeed a key ILM-::':C::::'_~ The Northwest organizer in 1940, without waging a political enemy in the unions. Having 000. __~~ ...... ______.. _ Organizer, the news­ political fight. A few years later, Tobin shifted to the right from a destructive .'__ J c--. _ .... ~._._01,._ paper of the Minneapolis finally was able to crush the Trotsky­ policy of self-isolation d uri n g the ...... ----~- ...... =:"-... -_ c-:: ~ :.-::=r"'.r-=::; --- Teamsters Joint ist leadership in Minneapolis, with the "Third Period" (1929-35), the CP had -~----.--- ...... ----...... -"' -- ..... _,.. ,..... -. aid of the government's first Smith Act become intimate advisers to the CIO -.--__..-.__ ...... c-..,...- _ ...... __~- ..... __...... --._--.- ...... _. - COlU'lcil, was written by ...... __ ...... _ .. _1,...... --.... _ ..... the Trotskyists, who anti-communist trial of the leading bureaucracy and hard right-wingers in - .... -,--- the unions, dOing whatever possible to .. _--,.._ - -~ militants • .--- .. - ...... ------­ -- ...... led Local 574. SWP ----_- .. _--.. _---_-_ .. ---.--- ..... - crush and expel the Trotskyists. Its -"-'--'--"---"'-'"...... 11...... n.._ ..... __..... _ trade-union work in -----.. ~...... --_--- ...... _.... main aim was to preserve links to the ... -~ The Two-Class Party --_.----...... ___... .-.---.. -- c-...... __ - the 1930's relied too --_.... -.--_-.... - ..... -~--- liberals and the collaboration of the -_-." ...... ---_c:-. ---.,·- __ fIII__ ... _ ...._ much on broad united

...... -_01 .. --' ______.. _~._ c-._. The bloc with "progressive" trade' labor movement with Roosevelt and U.S. fronts for immediate -----'-.-__ e-_._,._I-,~_"'_.... -,.-_... -~.--.- ..... _-- unionists was reflected politically in the imperialism. The CP participated di­ .. _...... -~-- _ ...... n... ___...... - ..... _ demands. Trotsky ...- ----~...... -~ - Trotskyists' orientation to the Minne­ rectly in the bourgeoisie's attempt to ... _...... _-... ._-...-..--- ...... _.. ~-- --.... commented: "You :::=='..:" ..c.::.--= -::.::::-_...... -_--...... -:...... _ ...... "' -. .. ___--_._- - sota Farmer-Labor Party, with which militarize the labor movement for the --_ ..... _.. _ .. -.,..-...... =--:..-----..-11.__ --... propose a trade union most of the local trade unions were war. Thus in maritime, while, the CP :::::.:::::..":.=___ .. ,.,c:- ... ~.=-.:-..::-...... __ ...... -.. :..e- -:..---== _____ =-= ==:.:::....-:.. -.._ -:. ': .. ... __._-_.. --"-'---"'- .--,,-- _..... -- policy, not a Bolshevik affiliated. Left-leaning FLP supporters and ~ts allies were busy weakening the .... - ...... - 0.."--.,_.,,.-- .... _.-...... ::..-.=.:..::::.-:...... - .._. ------____ . __ .. _... jw-., ____ _.==-::==.=._-- ...--_ .... __ ...... - ... . policy •••• 1 notice that were an important component of the 1936 West Coast longshore strike, :-. =:.=..-:.:: =:...-=-=. ~_ .. ..:: =::.:::: =::::: : ....::.., -=: ':.... 'A' -== _ in the Northwest Trotskyists' united front. In 1929, the - ..... ------.-- --_ ...... - -= _.-.- ..... wrecking the militant Maritime Fed­ =::..-:.':.~ ==~~.:.= = ...::....-=. .. ~ _-_ ..::...~~-=:::. lir:...~--:!!;;' Organizer this is true. excellent document, P lat/orm 0/ the eration of the Pacific and giving back­ -,,;:.:::;.:;.-:::::--~.:__'!!!':"_.. ..!_.!.~!7_'"":..:::"==_=.....-- ...... - ....:::--.. ~ .. I --.; .... -~ ==::::-c:-:"'::::: =-= ..-:::.!; ~ n"_~ c.oa -.=:.:~":'": •• ". The danger-a ter­ Communist Opposition, hadpointedout: handed support to the government's' __::':~':""'-=:"'==~-::=I~~:-...::.::=~= .. _ .. _ ..... _'...... ___ ..... _ .... ____ ..... _ ... _ ~.::~~e-..... __ _ rible danger-is "The organization of two classes in one effort to break the seamen's union ::...~?;..E~~:EE:?'~==::.~~:.::=:::; ~iFJi adaptation to the pro­ party, a Farmer-Labor Party, mustbe hiring halls through the Copeland Act, .::==:==.:!:=~:-::;:=.."":.!',::-~_.,:",__ - ~.:-~-- =.-:.=-u::.. .. Rooseveltian trade rejected in principle in favor of the the Trotskyists made a correct united­ unionists.- separate organization of the workers, front bloc with the militant but "anti­ $10,000 Rewarel is OHerecl for SI.y.. and the formation of apolitical alliance MONAD pOlitical" Lundberg leadership of the with the poor farmers under the leader­ SUP. and farmers government (as a popular ary political alternative, so that when ship of the former. The opportunist errors of the [Communist] Party com­ Nevertheless, the determination of designation of the dictatorship of the the "progressive" bureaucracy lined up the SWP to unite with the politically proletariat). rades in the Farmer-Labor Party of with Roosevelt for war in 1940, an em­ un d e fin e d "all seriaus elements" barraSSing lack of political distinction Minnesota and other states [in 1924] Also in 1938, Trotsky urged his flowed inevitably from and were sec­ against the stalinists in all cases re­ American followers to enter formations between the Trotskyists in the trade un­ ondary to the basically false policy of flected trade-union adaptationism. The such as the LNPL and fight for a labor ions and these "progressives" was a two-class party, in which the farmer SWP's reasoning was that, unlike stand­ party based on the trade unions, armed revealed. and worker are ostenSibly on an 'equal ard trade-union reformists, the Stalin­ with the Transitional Program as the The course of events in the North­ basis,' but where in reality the petty­ ists were the agency of an alien force political alternative to the class collab­ west Teamsters was a graphic example. bourgeois ideology of the former ac­ outside the unions-the bureaucratic orationism of the Stalinists and trade­ For two years after the 1934 strikes in tually dominates.· -Militant, 15 February 1929 ruling elite of the Soviet Union-and union bureaucrats. This reversed the Minneapolis, the Tobin leadership of the therefore willing to destroy the unions Trotskyists' earlier position of op­ Teamsters International continued to Written by the American Trotsky­ to achieve their ends. This was an posing the call for a labor party on the try to smash the Trotskyist leadership ists, this statement thus carried forth impliCit "third campist" denial of Sta­ grounds that the utterly reactionary of Local 574, using red-baiting, gang­ in hard political terms the criticisms linism as a tendency within the labor character of the Gompersite labor bu­ sters and a rival local. Then a subtle made by Trotsky of the Pepper leader­ movement. That the Trotskyists never reaucracy could allow the organizing shift began to occur. As the Trotskyists ship of the CP in 1924. Pepper had drew this logical conclusion from their of mass industrial unions directly under spread out, bUilding support for the blithely made a fundamental revision position and pulled back from it later the leadership of the revolutionary par­ campaign to organize the over-the-road of, Marxism in order to tail the radical did not prevent them from falling into ty. This would have effectively bypassed drivers, more and more bureaucrats farmers of the FLP into the third capi­ errors as a result of it even while the the need for the transitional demand of became won over, including the key talist party movement of LaFolette. The CP was at its worst during the popular­ a labor party. With the organization of leader in Chicago, whose adherence Minneapolis Trotskyists, howe v e r, front period (1935-39). the CIO on the basis of militant trade­ went a long way toward ensuring the failed to implement this policy in their The worst such error was the SWP's union reformism, the balance of power success of the campaign. Finally, by the orientation to the FLP. In 1935 they "auto crisis" which peaked in January between the revolutionaries and the la­ time of the 1938 Omaha strike, Tobin critically supported the FLP candidate 1939. The UAW was a key battleground bor bureaucrats was shifted in favor of himself began actively cooperating, for mayor of Minneapolis (despite the between Trotskyists, Stalinists and so­ the latter. But as the strike struggles even supporting the organizing drive current Workers Party position against cial democrats in the CIO. Wielding achieved the original goal of union or­ against his old allies who still sought to labor party formations), and in 1938 power with a bureaucratic heavy hand, ganization, and as Roosevelt's policies preserve the local power of the Joint they supported FLP Governor Benson UA W President Homer Martin, a left­ led to economic downturn, the newly Councils at the expense of moderniza­ in the primaries as well as in the leaning trade-union refor:nist, went so organized and highly combative rank tion, and appointing Farrell Dobbs In­ general election, without in either case far in his battle against the Stalinists and file of the CIO unions began to come ternational Organizer. mentioning the need for the "separate that he eventually lost all authority. into direct political conflict with their The 1936-37 strike strug'gles had organization of the workerso" The To the left of the Stalinists on some pro-Roosevelt leaders. The call for a finally rendered pure craft unionism SWP's September 1938 program for the issues, he was at base reactionary and labor party became a crucial program­ obsolete even within the AFL, and old­ FLP endorses the adherence of both made a concerted effort to smash matic we ap 0 n to lllobilize a class­ line craft unionists began to tail the CIO mass workers' and mass farmers' or­ wildcat strikes. The SWP, however, s t rug g 1 e opposition to the Lewis both in order to enhance their organiza­ ganizations to the FLP and complains extended critical support to Martin to bureaucracy. tional power and because the bour­ only of the inordinate power of the stop the Stalinists. The crisis came Though pOlitically armed to meet the geoisie itself was less resistant and ward clubs, through which the Stalinists while Cannon was in Europe following new situation, the American Trotsky­ more willing to accept organization of eventually wielded the dominant in­ the founding conference of the Fourth ists nevertheless failed to find a CO:1- the workers in exchange for the use of fluence in the FLPo This necessarily International in Fall 1938. The SWP sistent form of expression for their the bureaucracy as its labor lieutenant. blurred the SWP's campaign for a Political Committee was being run by program within the unionso While they Throughout the entire area of Dobbs' working-class labor party based on the Shachtman and Burnham, who were soon propagandized for the Transitional ll-state campaig'n, the only serious Transitional Program, since in their continued on page 11

31 AUGUST 1973 9 made easier by the CP's poliCies dur­ of the struggle for communist leader­ Continued from page 1 ing and immediately follOwing World ship of the working class. Continued from page 5 War II, when it was the staunchest sup­ WAM and Progressive Labor mem­ porter of the hated no-strike pledge.} bers must be defended against the joint In the present case, the workers are company/UAW bureaucracy drive to essentially neutral as a group, with isolate and deprive them of voice within RSL Gives Wildcats neither the Marxists nor the bureau­ the union and workers movement gener­ crats having a solid base of support ally. However, they must be politically among the ranks. The workers are rejected by all serious workers inter­ completely disillusioned with the union ested in building a vanguard party. "Critical Support" Explode in bureaucracy as a leaderShip, but the PL/WAM can only demoralize those in­ alternative leaders are essentially un­ volved in their fake "mass actions" and known, for the most part outsiders as corrupt others with their orientation to Trotskyism far as the majority of the workers is toward "left-center coalitions" on the Detroit Auto concerned. basis of the most minimal trade-union slogans. WAM has been organized pri­ criterion for critical support is what­ The Mack Ave. sit-down was planned marily around only one slogan-"30for by a small handful with no real roots ever aids the independence of the prole­ crats are attempting to deny the right 40"-and its practice has included woo­ in the plant. They were unable to tariat: Miller claims to support democ­ to existence and propagation of their ing typical, reformist trade-union mobilize more than a small percentage racy in the unions but can't deliver views to political groups which, regard­ bureaucrats on that basis (see "PL less of whether they are members of of the workers and were stigmatized on independence from the state, so the Finds Road to Bureaucrats," WV No. any particular union, are by their immediately as "communist" (which, RSL will support him on the first in 21, 25 May 1973). order to expose him on the second. stated aims legitimate members of as presented by the bourgeois press, Two hours of the meeting were de­ the workers movement. still conjures up lurid images of bomb voted to discussion from the floor. Sev­ The Spartacist League stands ready throwers and robots living on gold Contract Negotiations eral SL supporters berated the RSL to defend any such group so attacked. from Moscow). Nevertheless, the bu­ for not dealing with the fundamental Should the Woodcock bureaucracy re­ reaucracy of Local 212 was partially The wildcat events in Detroit coin­ questions of Shachtmanism, especially sume its gangster attacks, the SL will split, with some elements helping to cide with the opening of formal bar­ protect the strikers from the police gaining in the wake of record-breaking the Russian question. One SLer re­ issue an immediate call for a united marked, reversing Trotsky's formula, front to defend the right of tendencies excesses. The International had to bring profit levels during the last year for that the RSL had gone from gangrene within the labor movement to distribute in its goons from other plants. all four U.S. auto manufacturers. The to a scratch. Another speaker charged their press publicly in Detroit. This However, the bureaucracy was able wildcat strikes are a response to the that the RSL's new-found "Trotskyism" united front would be open to all groups to play on the essential neutrality of fact that those prOfits, which the UAW is merely the latest variant in the IS' which stand in solidarity with the UAW the workers, get them back to work leaders now hypocritically attack, were methodology of "critically supporting" against the companies {i.e., are not relatively easily and isolate the strik­ made possible because the UA W leaders ers. It could do this not because the consciously pursued a COurse of class whatever is popular: formerly tailing strikebreakers} and claim to be for mil­ paCifism and black nationalism, now itant democratic unionism (we are not workers didn't sympathize with the collaboration. They both underplayed demands of the s t r ike (they did), wage demands in favor of "humanizing tailing the Trotskyist movement. addressing the UAW bureaucracy). To Other comrades pointed out that for effectuate thiS, we would propose an but because the ostensible Marxists working conditions"-thereby ignoring years it has been the SL which has de­ action such as a well-publicized mass had not yet won recognition from the the ravages of runaway inflation-and fended the concrete Trotskyist posi­ mobilization to defend salesmen (on ranks as established leaders, on the helped isolate and squelch local strikes tions which the RSL now wants to em­ public property) at a particular plant, baSis of previous actions and struggle over working conditions (as in Lords­ brace: e.g., trade-union work based on barring on principle only such actions in the plant and in the union in defense town}-thereby assisting the companies the Transitional Program, opposition as would cross the class line by directly of the workers' interests. Workers to drive up the rate of exploitation. to petty-bourgeois protest politics like using the power of the bourgeois state cannot and will not follow a self­ Furthermore, the union leadership has the IS' ill-fated Peace and Freedom to coerce the union (for instance, court proclaimed "leader" who is essentially been soft-pedaling talk of a strike de­ Party. A member of the Militant Ac­ injunctions) • unknown to them, -who pulls an action spite the outstanding, unsolved de­ tion Caucus of CWA, which the sup­ The chief difference between the which is unprepared for by any mass mands of the workers-including those, posedly "sectarian" Spartacist League McCarthy-period purges and the pres­ mobilization of the ranks and which, such as voluntary overtime, adopted by supports, pointed out that the MAC had for those few daring to participate on the leadership itself, which the com­ ent wave of union-condoned firings of been in the forefront of the attempt to militants, bureaucratic strikebreaking the spur of the moment, means high panies have adamantly refused to con­ organize a united-front opposition to and actual thug attacks by UA W officials risk of being fired. The over 40 workers sider. The perpetuation of the one­ the threat of a new anti-red clause in is that in the earlierwitchhunt numbers now fired from the Mack plant are company-at-a-time strike "strategy" CWA, while the RSL had just pulled -of more conservative workers were now removed from the scene, unable is a further sign of weakness, pushed to prepare for future mass actions. its West Coast supporters out of that mobilized to chase Communist Party by the bureaucracy only because it industry entirely, members and other radicals out of the fears an industry-wide mass mobiliza­ The Mack Ave. sit-down strike, like A spokesman of the Leninist Ten­ plants. (The task of the bureaucrats, the Jefferson plant occupation three tion of the workers. led by the demagogic Reuther, was dency charged that Landy's remark weeks earlier, was a reminder of what This bureaucracy must be smashed about a premature split from the IS has been done in the past and what and replaced. But the substitution of a was pure hypocrisy: every time the can be done in the future. Furthermore, handful of adventurers for the workers LT had warned against a premature while it failed to raise any general is no better in the long run than the split in advance of political clarifi­ 5l/REV political issues, it went beyond the substitution of the bureaucracy for the cation, it had been accused of playing Jefferson strike in raising demands workers. Both forms of substitutionism into the hands of the IS majority. such as "30 for 40," voluntary over­ feed on each other. During the discussion, RSLers made PubliEDffiE!! time, right to strike over unsafe jobs, The only answer is the patient con­ the hilarious charge that their views improved cost-of-living, etc., which were being suppressed because they are of interest to all auto workers struction of a revolutionary leaderShip had had only a few speakers from the BAY AREA rather than just the workers _of one which can gain the confidence of and floor in contrast to the thirty or so plant. However, unlike the Jefferson lead the class. This must be done wednesdaY} SL supporters who had spoken. The strike, it was planned with a cynical through the proper balance of propa­ and 3:00-8:00 p.m. chairman replied that only those who disregard for the consequences to any­ ganda for the revolutionary program Friday had not yet spoken were being recog­ one actively supporting it, by a group and exemplary leadership in struggle. nized. She pOinted out that she had al­ Saturday 12:00-6:00 p.m. which has claimed to be a communist The program must go beyond the de­ ready called on all RSLers who had vanguard organization long enough to mands of auto workers, because a revo­ 330-4Oth Street raised their hands and urged RSLers know what adventurism is. (Real com­ lutionary leaderShip of the auto workers (near Broadway) who had not already spoken to do so. munists do not attempt premature revo­ must act in the interests of the working Oakland, California Only one RSL supporter eventually ac­ lutionary actions, involving only hand­ class as a whole in order to be revolu­ Phone 653-4668 cepted the offer, although several other fuls of the most advanced workers, tionary, i.e., in order to be more than RSLers were present. The real ques­ which are doomed to isolation and de­ Simply a new and slicker version ofthe tion, of course, is why had Landy not feat.) In fact, Progressive Labor knows present bureaucracy. Thus it is neces­ mobilized more supporters to attend perfectly well what adventurism is ••• sary to build a pole of opposition in the BOSTON the meeting, since he had been expli­ and consciously goes ahead with it unions around the struggle for political Citly invited to debate the SL at our ~eclneSdaY } anyway, since it has rej ected the pains­ consciousness: the need for a workers 1 :00-5:00 p.m. SUmmer camp where mostofourmem­ taking Leninist course of winning over political party, a workers government, 7:00-9:00 p.m. bership was present? In any case, the Friday the masses to communism and playing political strikes against war and gov­ RSL will have opportunities for several Saturday 11:00 a.m.-3:00 a real leading role in the mass struggle. ernment wage boards, international class SOlidarity, as well as for transi­ future confrontations in debates being 639 Massachusetts Avenue PL reflects, in both its past zig­ tional economic demands (30 for 40, full planned in several localities. In his summary, Landy concentra­ Room 335 zags and present polities, the oppor­ cost-of-living). tunism and "Third-Period" adventur­ ted on attaCking the SL for having lots Cambridge, Massachusetts ism of the Stalinist Communist Party Leading particular actions by the of pOSitions, but no analysis. He ac­ Phone 492-3928 of the thirties and forties. In its -Third­ workers, however, requires an ele­ cused the SL of a fundamental revis­ Period" phase (1929-35), the CP pulled mentary understanding of strategy and ion of Marxism for its view that under adventurous strikes without proper tactics. Fifteen or 50 people in one exceptional circumstances (e.g. Cuba, attempts to mobilize the workers and department on one shift cannot substi­ China) petty-bourgeois and stalinist NEW YORK set up sectarian "red" unions. As these tute themselves fQrthe rest of the plant, forces can. create deformed workers Monday·.· . adventures inevitably failed and the mueh less for the rest of the industry, states. He compared the SL unfavor­ through { 3:00-7:3D p.m •. _ seetuian unions shrank, the CP "red" wben calling for such industry-wide ably with the ,Workers League for not Friday r - union leaders often cynically accepted demands as 30 for 40 and'full cost-of­ having produced as much written ma­ . economic settlements which were Uving. The bureaucracy is still strong terial and for insisting on the impor­ Saturday 1:00-6:00 p.m. worse than those obtained by regular enough to outflank, isolate and destroy tance of programmatic positions and 260W.-I"'-- AFL unions in the same industries, in . any such attempts. The revolutionists paying less attention to analysis and Roam 522 order to cling to contracts with a few must use propaganda and education to methodology. Replying to a charge Ne. York, Ne. York companies. Later, when the CP turned consistently expose the bureaucracy that the RT /RSL had never taken a toward popular-front alliance with and win over the workers to their pro­ position on scabbing in the 1968 New Phone 925-5665 Roosevelt and the liberal bourgeOisie, gram, calling and carefully preparing York teachers' strike, he stated that it adopted a "left-center coalition" such actions along the way as will em­ the RSL condemned this scabbing and e@0011®~~\'1 policy of blocking with a section of the phasize crucial points without leading had affirmed this ten times previous­ trade-union bureaucracy. In both cases, to the destruction or rout of the rev­ ly-but, he added, ·so what?- [bmOO~lJ(!!J oorn the CP line constituted an abdication olutionary' forces. _ In his summary, the L T speaker 10 WORKERS VANGUARD paralyzing our work. " Despite this proposal for critical support to the CP political formations in opposition to the Continued from page 9 damaging admission, the SWP leaders in the elections: bureaucracy, as the early Communists' Trade Union Educational League had were opposed to a policy of maneuver " ••• our work in the trade unions up till to take advantage of the new situation. now has been largely a ctay-to-ctay affair been, the Trotskyists allowed these The Primacy Trotsky proposed critical support to the based upon the daily problems and has formations to be limited politically to CP candidates in the 1940 elections. He lacked a general political orientation the character of united fronts: epiSOdiC had to reiterate that this was theoreti­ and perspective. This has tended to blur alliances based on immediate issues. of Politics cally pOSSible, since the Stalinists had the distinction between us and pure and As such, not only did they not last, but made a sharp, though temporary, left Simple trade unionists. In many cases, the Trotskyists themselves, in the un­ turn and were just as much part of the at times, they appeared to be one with ions, became politically identified al­ to draw the full conclusions from their labor movement as the equally reac­ us. It was fair weatherandgoodfellQws most exclusively through these united Stalinophobia and lead a faction out of tionary forces in the unions with whom were together •••. fronts, rather than through the struggle the S WP (in 1940) denying that the Soviet "Then all of a sudden, this whole peace­ the Trotskyists had until then been ful routine of the trade union movement to build the vanguard party. Union was any kind of workers state blocking. The SWP leaders objected, Size was not a factor, since in some and refusing to defend it, and likewise is disrupted by overpowering issues of saying that it would disrupt the workin war, patriotism, the national elections, ways the problem was at its worst where denying that the Stalinists were a the trade unions, in which what were etc. And these trade unionists, who the Trotskyists were strongest, in the tendency within the workers movement. admittedly blocs at the top with "pro­ looked so goo d in ordinary times, Northwest Teamsters. Rather, the SWP With their own measure of bureaucratic gressives" had been necessary in order are all turning up as patriots and demonstrated a lack of flexibility of highhandedness, Shachtman and Burn­ for a small force of revolutionists to Rooseveltians. • tactics and an unwillingness to upset ham tried to ram a pro-Martin policy come forward and begin pOlitical work -Socialist Appeal, 19 October 1940 its policy of continual blocs with "pro­ down the throats of the auto fraction in the unions. Criticizing his followers Thus the primacy of politics in trade­ gressive" trade unionists on day-to­ in 1938 just as Martin was leading a for lack of initiative, Trotsky went to day issues by a hard, political drive rump convention of the UAW out of the union work had snuck up on the SWP and the core of the problem: clubbed it over the head. The problem for power based on revolutionary an­ CIO, back into the AFL and eventually swers to the larger issues.But the larg­ to oblivion. The bulk of the auto union "I believe we have the critical point had not been caused by lackofaprinci­ very clear. We are in a block with the pled struggle for the program, nor er issues dominated the day-to-day is­ dumped Martin and held its own pro­ sues, and as imperialist world war drew CIO convention. The S WP had to do an so-called progressives-not only fak­ primarily by blocs w h i c h were un­ ers but honest rank and file. Yes, they principled in character. Criticism of closer the Trotskyists had to pay the abrupt and embarrassing about-face are honest and progressive but -from price of isolation for their earlier fail­ entailing two issues of Socialist Appeal bureaucratic allies in the public press time to time they vote for Roosevelt­ had sometimes been weak, but the SWP ure to appear as an independent force which contradicted each other, for once in four years. This is decisive. in the unions. Unfortunately, they were which Shachtman and Burnham refused You propose a trade union policy, not a had vigorously struggled in the public domain for its program, while raising unable to absorb the lessons of this to acknowledge responsibility. Bolshevik policy. Bolshevik policies period sufficiently to prevent the repe­ begin outside the unions •••• You are key agitational demands in the unions. During the Hitler-Stalin Pact period a f r aid to become compromised in The main lack had been a consistent tition 0 f these characteristic errors. (1939-41), the beginning of World War the eyes of the Rooseveltian trade­ pole, in the unions, for the struggle for The Trotskyists continued, especially II, a general reversal of positions took unionists. • the Transitional Program and against after World War II, to rely on a policy of united fronts on trade-union issues, place. Reflecting Stalin's deal with To the American leaders' protesta­ the bureaucracy in all its manifesta­ rather than the construction of politi­ Hitler and turn away from the earlier tions that their forces were too small tions, i.e., a struggle for revolutionary cal formations within the unions-cau­ alliance with France, Britain and the to preserve an independent course, leadership of and in the unions. Instead cuses-to mount a comprehensive fight U.S., the CP conducted a grudging but Trotsky said, "Our real role is that of of developing such caucus formations for a full revolutionary program. definite turn to the left, denouncing the third competitor," distinct from both as the Progressives of the UA Wand the "imperialist" war, alienating its liberal Stalinists and "progressives," stating Northwest Labor Unity Conference into [TO BE CONTINUED] allies and reinvigorating its working­ that his proposal for maneuver "pre­ class base. The "progressive" trade supposes that we are an independent unionists with whom the Trotskyists party." Thus the discussions uncovered Continued from page 12 had been blocking on trade-union issues the fact that the Trotskyists' lack of an meanwhile became central in the pro­ independent political pole in the unions, war, patriotic lineup. As a result of this distinct from episodic blocs and united switch, in discussions between the SWP fronts around immediate issues, had Delent! the Farmworkers! leadership and Trotsky in Mexico in compromised their general ability to 1940, all the inadequacies of the Trot­ maneuver and their independence as a bilingual leaflet and with slogans and sharp class struggle, embodied in the skyists' trade-union work then became party. They had become over-identified banners (we were the sole group to slogans raised by the SL, could lead man i f est (s e e "Discussions with with their bloc partners. appear with these) calling for" A Gen­ the union to victory. Local organizers Trotsky," in his Writings, 1939-40). eral Strike to Defend the UF W"; "Armed were quite friendly; it was only when "'T'hp Stalinists are the problem," point­ In his report of these discussion to Self-Defense of UFW Picket Lines"; a sound truck with higher-ups arrived ed out Cannon: "By their change in line the pa,ty, Cannon agreed with most of "Down with the Rodino-Kennedy Bill­ that a UFW organizer told the workers they dealt a heavy blow, We were for­ Trotsky's points in some revealing For an International UF WI!; and de­ to throwaway our leaflets, Surrounded ging ahead when they made the switch, passages, while continuing to oppose the manding "Expropriate the Fields Under by goons and police, the SL supporters Workers Control." The SWP, which were forced to leave. had provided marshals for the event, • On August 25 trade-union sup­ used a bullhorn to drown out the slogans porters of the Bay Area Worker, an noted that the RSL claimed to have Or is this a deliberate hoax, an at­ chanted by the SL, while a prominent RU-backed newspaper, 0 r g ani zed a discovered the tactic of regroupment tempt to fake left-centrism while pre­ supporter of the RU, which had report­ caravan to the Merced area. As dem­ but didn't even bother to send most of serving intact the fundamental reform­ edly been red-baited by Chavez, was onstrators, including the SL/RCY, were its Chicago members to the debate to ist appetite of the old IS? overheard protesting its fidelity to the picketing the police station, the RU at­ help expose the SL before virtually Referring to the SWP's Interna­ UFW bureaucracy (the RU had purpose­ tempted to convince UF W leaders not the entire SL membership. He pOinted tionalist Tendency, the Class Struggle ly not brought any "offensive" revolu­ to allow the SL to pass out our leaflets out that, given the RSL's justifications League and the RSL, the reporter in­ tionary literature or signs) and offering or sell Workers Vanguard. When an for critical support to Miller (i.e., the vited them all to get together. He noted to demonstrate its servility by phy­ SL supporter, speaking in Spanish, at­ critical support tactic is applicable any an increaSing tendency for such organ­ sically expelling SL supporters. But tempted to explain our position to the time you want to expose a reformist izations to define themselves solely by the offer was not taken up. farm workers, she was prevented from leadership in the eyes of its base) the opposition to the SL. In terms of the • At the "unofficial" demonstration speaking and drowned out by RU chant­ RSL must support popular fronts-after enormous task we face, he observed, in Oakland on the same day, the SL ing. Nevertheless, a majority of the all, what's more popular than a popu­ the SL is minuscule, but to the centrists likewise intervened with its signs and union members received our leaflet lar front? Certainly the working masses we're obtrusive, in the way: we've got leaflet, eliCiting the same predictably enthUSiastically. A majority of the have illusions in popular fronts! The a press, we're in the factories, we're hostile response from the ostensibly farm workers present clustered speaker noted that the SL gives criti­ active internationally. To these petty revolutionary organizations present (IS around, eager to discuss the issues cal support to a trade-union bureau­ centrist currents, this seems like some and WAM). involved in the strike and the poliCies crat only if there is a central plank kind of an abomination, a crime against • At yet another "Boycott Safeway" necessary for victory. After this had in his platform which if carried out nature. There they are, proclaiming op­ demonstration on August 4 in Rich­ been going on for about ten minutes, would unite the workers against the portunist support to Miller and his ilk, mond, attended by only about 150 per­ the UFW leaders sent goons over to class enemy. while the SL struggles on the basis of sons, mostly white liberals, SL/RCY physically drag away the farm workers In his summary, the SL reporter at­ prinCiple. And the centrists, the capi­ supporters were met with violent hos­ from the discussion, while RU sup­ tacked the RSL's hypocritical charge tulationists, the rotten blocs fragment tility from the UFW organizers, who porters chanted, "Chavez si, Sparts that the SL didn't write enough: the while the SL continues to grow and to conferred with the police in an effort no." RSL knows all our positions-how did carry out its work. The feeling is, if to have the SL contingent expelled. When • In keeping with the SL's policy of they find out? Remember that for years you sell out, you ought to get rich. the demonstration reached the Safeway united working-class action to defeat we and these comrades have stood on store, a UF W goon tore down the SL the attack on the Farmworkers, the SL The reporter cited the development opposite sides of the class line on cru­ banner, "For a General strike to De­ has also distributed leaflets at the Fre­ of the Bulgarian Social Democrats be­ cial issues. Did they really want more fend the UFW," and the SL marchers mont GM plant, where a large propor­ fore World War 1. The Narrow Social­ SL publications then? For the past fif­ were forced to picket separately from tion of the workers are chicano and ists, in this predominantly peasant teen years, Landy has been fighting as the general line. there has been a widespread desire country, insisted that only the work­ a Shachtmanite against TrotSkyism. • On the same day an SL/RCY team among the rank and file to organize ing class can lead the revolution. The Now he comes here and claims he was which went out into the fields was able UA W support to the UFW. This attempt Broad Socialists glorified all sections born two months ago. to establish that this hostility was to mobilize the ranks has been opposed of the oppressed, talked endlessly about The IS had not a trace of interna­ emanating from the UFW leadership by the OL-supported BrotherhoodCau­ unity. Under Comrade Dimitrov the tionalism, not a trace of identification not from the ranks. This team attended cus, whose leaders are now demon­ Narrow Socialists waged perhaps 200 with the working class, no discipline­ a UFW demonstration of about 200 strating that they are bureaucrats no strikes and lost perhaps 195 of them. just a great big "with it" blob. And here farm workers at Mendota, in the Fresno d i if ere n t from their predecessors. Yet when it was all over, the Broad is Landy, one of the architects of every melon-grOwing region. When the SL Thus the Brotherhood C au c u s has Socialists were one-tenth the size of rotten IS pOSition, and you would never contingent arrived and began distri­ strongly discouraged workers from the Narrow Socialists. And academic know it. This self-amnesty is appalling. bUting a bilingual leaflet, it was enthu­ bringing up the question of the UFW at social-democratic historians are still The RSL has not emerged from the siastically received; in dee d, many union meetings, putting exclusive em­ muttering about it. Shachtmanite "third camp" milieu, the farm workers returned for additional phasis on the upcoming UAW contract SL reporter charged. This was an or­ The SL reporter concluded by re­ copies of the leaflet. In the ensuing just like any other business unionist. ganizational and largely cliquist split. marking that there is a continuity and discussions with about 30 rank-and­ AU the fake "lefts" who tailed the The documents of the RSL closely par­ centrality in the outlook and work of the file Spanish-speaking farm workers, SL BrotherhOOd in their press-notably the allel many SL views. Is there in fact a SL and "the thread of the future of rev­ supporters stressed our defense of the RU and the October League-Share re­ tension between these views and, for olutionary Marxism runs through the union while critiCizing Chavez' strategy sponsibility for this rejection of prole. example, the capitulation to Miller? needle of the Spartacist League." • and pointing out that only a policy of tarian. sol~darity ••

31 AUGUST 1913 11 Cops Attack, Chavez Runs Defend the Farmworkers!

Events in the past two months have strikingly confirmed our warning that massive defeats and possible annihila­ tion are in store for the Farmworkers Union so long as it follows the pacifist­ defeatist policies of the Chavez leader­ ship (see WV No. 23, 22 June 1973). Now this possibility is being realized under our very eyes, at the cost of great suffering for the thousands of UFW members and agricultural work­ ers throughout California. The UFW policy of relying on liberal Democrats, students, housewives-on anything, in fact, but united working-class action­ against the grower-Teamster offensive can only lead to catastrophe. Beginning with the wave of sweet­ heart contracts negotiated by the agri­ businesses with the Teamsters bu­ reaucracy in late spring, the Sparta­ cist League has conSistently called for defense of the UFW, Teamsters out of the fields. While many allegedly social­ ist organizations have been more than happy to jump on the Farmworkers bandwagon against the unpopular and ultra-conservative Teamsters, the SL has been the only organization to con­ sistently put forward a real alternative

to defeat through leaflets and signs at wv PHOTO numerous UFW support demonstra­ vital after all, and that a compromise, vegetable deliveries for weeks and diate area of Delano, the old home tions: armed self-defense of the picket with the growers and the union jointly causing the State Board of Agriculture base of the UFW.) lines; for a statewide general strike to administering the hall would be per­ to urge Nixon to intervene. Even more defend the UFW: With the thousands of fectly acceptable! Similarly, earlier SL Defends UFW, Attacks arrests during the summer and the significant was the emergence toward this month Chavez issued a letter the end of July of a distinct possi­ Bureaucratic Misleadership recent killings of two strikers by agreeing to another "compromise, " sheriff's deputies, these demands are bility of a general strike in support While criticizing the Chavez lead­ proposed by George Meany, whereby of the UFW when some 65,000 Team­ burning issues in the fields today. The a grower with complaints of "contract ership for setting the stage for de­ response of the other major radical or­ ster-organized cannery workers struck feat after defeat, the Spartacist League violations" against the UFW could ap­ upon expiration of their contract. Many ganizations in the area, particularly peal to an AFL-CIO arbitrator, who and Revolutionary CUIl1munlst Youth the Maoists of the Revolutionary Union of these workers are chicanos who have at the same time been among the would then arrive at a final and binding sympathize with the plight of the farm (RU) and October League (OL), how­ most active organizations on the left in decision. workers despite the attitude of their ever, has been uncritical enthusing for defending the struggle of the Farm­ Chavez and efforts to exclude the SL union leadership. Indeed, one of theis­ workers. Moreover, out of all these from Farmworker demonstrations. sues in the cannery strike was the ostensible revolutionists, the SL/RCY Chavez Leadership attempt by the Teamster bureaucrats At its peak the UFW had 180 con­ alone have not capitulated before the Opts For No-Win Tactics to introduce into the contract a clause tracts representing 40,000 farm work­ Chavez bureaucracy and the pressure which would have made it possible for ers. This figure has now dropped to 11 of bourgeois liberal publiC opinion: the union to refuse to handle UF W­ contracts for 6,500 workers. The first Rather lhan attempt to defend the the SWP, the IS, PL/WAM, the RU picked produce. There has also been major loss, in mid-April of this year, Farmworkers Union on the picket lines, and the October League have abjectly much opposition to Fitzsimmons' at­ was in the CoaChella Valley, where the the UFW leadership has always pre­ tailed after Chavez, while the pitiful tack on the UFW from the Teamster growers signed sweetheart contracts ferred the middle-class protest tactic Workers League has contented itself rank and file, particularly in Los with the Teamsters over the heads of of a consumer boycott. In addition to with sideline commentary. Angeles. Predictably, however, Cha­ the workers, enforCing them by well­ the fact that this time the boycott is The capitulation of these fake "lefts" vez did not even attempt to utilize paid Teamster goons recruited from less effective than ever, the threat to is all the more disgusting since the these opportunities to push for a state­ motorcycle gangs. Chavez' reaction? the union and its members is greater UFW bureaucracy obviously fears the At the 21 July UFW Delano rally he than ever. Instead of the absolutely wide general strike in support of the effect of radical propaganda on the UFW and against government inter­ commented, "We were asked by the crucial demands of an armed defense Farmworker ranks, given the increas­ press if we had lost tht' strike in of the UFW picket lines and a state­ ference in the labor movement. In­ ingly obvious failure of its own social­ Coachella; I told them workers never wide general strike to defend the UFW, stead, he further demonstrated his sub­ pacifist tactics. servience to capitalist law-and-order lose strikes!" Chavez' latest innovation is symbolic Thus after revelations by the CP's by going back to the same courts which The Chavez bureaucracy has been fasting and deliberate provocation of People's World that the Oakland "Strike striving to conceal from the rank and mass arrests of the Farmworker rank outlaw UFW pickets in order to sue the Support Committee" was actually under Teamsters. He has also announced file just how critical is the situation and file. At the Delano rally Chavez the control of "dangerous radicals," readiness to place the UF W under the for their union for obviOUS reasons: spoke with pride of his Ghandi-inspired Chavez disavowed the 28 July Oakland jurisdiction of the NLRB, which among a determined defense of the UF W "fill the jails" tactic, stating that in Safeway march on the grounds that "If other things administers the anti­ would require farm worker militancy 1973 alone some 6,000 farm workers you don't work with the [UFW] boycott com m un i s t, anti-labor Taft-Hartley which would necessarily dump Chavez' had been arrested, with roughly 1,200 committee, we don't want your help," Act. turn-the-other-cheek pacifism. In or­ currently locked up (and many sub­ Similarly, UFW organizers have twice jected to beatings by racist cops), con­ der to contain an~' unwanted outbursts The UFW leadership's paCifist tac­ asked union me m be r s not to read of militancy, the union leadership likes cluding happily, "and the end is not tics, the most militant of which have SL/RCY leaflets, but without success. to use (instead of the soft-spoken in sight"! What makes this defeatist been its impotent one-hour-long picket­ The SL/RCY have, in con t r a s t, Chavez) UF W Vice PreSident Vera­ tactic even more pathetiC is that the ing of a few Safeway stores, have re­ shown themselves capable of combining cruz. This would-be charismatic mis­ UFW leadership rejects the militant sulted in an unbroken chain of defeats active, militant defense of the UF W leader and consummate demagogue labor action required for the union to for the Farmworkers, as grower after against the companies, the cops and the gave a rip-roaring speech at the Delano win-armed defense of the picket lines, grower has signed with the Teamsters. Teamster bureaucrats with the vital rally-a real call to action-with the hot cargoing of scab grapes and let­ The sudden display of a "conciliatory" struggle against the sellout leadership: sole omission of any concrete sugges­ tuce, etc.-because it is "illegal" ac­ attitude by FitZSimmons, who on August • At the July 21 Delano rally a con­ tions as to how to pursue this life­ cording to the bosses' laws. Yet under 10 repudiated 30 contracts negotiated tingent from the Bay Area and Los and-death struggle. Instead, while the current court injunctions the farm­ by Teamster field agents in the Delano Angeles SL/RCY were alone in intro­ carefully avoiding any calls for labor workers are forced to break the law area, does not alter the essentials of ducing Class-struggle slogans into the unity, he addressed his speech to the just in order to picket! Chavez' ex­ this situation. A UFW which exists on purely symbolic march. Signs carried liberals present, claiming that the UFW planation for picking one illegal activity the tolerance of the Teamsters and has by SL supporters read: "Defend the leaderShip was "building a union that over another was that "these injunc­ abandoned the gains of the early UFW UFW-Teamsters out of the Fields"; will not only defend farmworkers but tions, which are unconstitutional, have contracts (especially the union hiring "For a General Strike against Union­ change society as a whole," a union to be tested." Thus Chavez announced hall) is just as thoroughly defeated­ Busting"; "For Workers Militias"; and that was "becoming the star of the in advance his readiness to remain and just as acceptable to the growers­ "Expropriate Industry under Workers movement of human liberation"! within the confines of whatever anti­ as if it had been completely smashed. Control!" While verbally saving humanity labor laws are currently felt to be Indeed, the existence of two sellout • At the July 28 "official" demon­ Chavez and Veracruz are busily aban­ necessary by the bourgeoisie and hence unions in a single industry, competing stration in San FranCiSCO, which drew doning the very gains which set the determined by the courts to be "legal. " for whatever pittances the growers de­ weli under 1,000 persons (Chavez was UFW contracts apart from the rotten United labor defense of the UFW cide to cast them, is probably prefer­ careful not to mobilize the Farmworker sellouts negotiated by the Teamsters. is no impossible pipe dream. On able for the corporate giants of Califor­ ranks), the SL/RCY criticized the im­ Now Chavez is suggesting that maybe 15 July 500 Teamster truck drivers nia agribUSiness. (Fitzsimmons has not potent "Boycott Safeway" tactics in a the union hiring hall isn't all that struck in the Salinas area, cutting off disavowed contracts outside the imme- continued on page 11 12 WORKERS VANGUARD