No 202 SPRING 2008 40p Newspaper of the Spartacist League

hina is not capitalist

Siemens Metals and Mining China Photos Left: Baosteel plant in Shangl).ai, part of China's collectivised industry. Right: Workers demonstrate outside paper products factory to demand back pay, Shenzhen, China, October 2007.

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In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics Tories and from none other than heir to racist and repressive overseers, holding been drawn ever more into the cross­ in August there is a growing crescendo of the British throne, Prince Charles, who the island as a protectorate until it was hairs of the imperialists since the coun­ imperialist anti-Communism against the happens to be a long-time friend of the rightfully returned to the People's terrevolutionary destruction of the de­ Chinese deformed workers state, pro­ counterrevolutionary Tibetan "God Republic of China in 1997. As in the formed workers states of Eastern moted by the Labour government and King". Cold War against the Soviet Union, Europe and, in particular, the destruc­ echoed by the reformist left. There has Despite their differences, the aim of what the imperialists understand by tion of the Soviet degenerated workers been a military build-up against China by all the imperialist powers towards the "human rights" above all is one thing: state in 1991-92. As a result of the US and Japanese imperialism and a bar­ People's Republic of China is to destroy the right of the bourgeoisie to unlimited treacherous Stalinist policy of "social­ rage of China-bashing that ranges from the workers state by counterrevolution. exploitation and enslavement of the ism in one country" and its associated crocodile tears over the "oppression of On the one hand they use China's "mar­ working masses. And this "right" was illusions in "peaceful coexistence" Tibet" and "human rights" to claims that ket reforms" to pursue intensified eco­ "violated" in China by the 1949 between the Chinese wprkers state and China is responsible for the horrific vio­ nomic penetration, thus British capital­ Revolution, which drove the bour­ imperialism, the Chinese bureaucracy lence in Sudan's Darfur region. ism is a prime investor in China and a geoisie off the Chinese mainland. has continued its policy of concessions Prime minister Gordon Brown's an­ competitor for Chinese overseas invest­ The reformist left agrees with bour­ to the imperialists. Thus, it supports the nouncement that he will meet the Dalai ment. On the other hand the imperialists geois public opinion that with the mar­ "war on terror", the sanctions against Lama in London in May is the latest in this are ratcheting up the military pressure ket reforms capitalism has been Iran and the campaign for the nuclear ongoing anti-Communist offensive by the on China. British foreign secretary restored in China, or is irreversibly disarmament of North Korea. None­ bourgeoisie and its ideologues against David Miliband leaves no doubt about being restored. On the contrary, China theless, China is surrounded today by a China. Not coincidentally, the Dalai British imperialism's support for this today remains what it has been since whole system of US military bases. Lama has recently been met by German military build-up. In a February state­ 1949: a bureaucratically deformed Along with North Korea, it is on the chancellor Angela Merkel and US presi­ ment he cited "the moral imperative to workers state. While the rule of the cap­ Pentagon's list as a potential target of a dent Bush. These meetings prefigured the intervene - sometimes militarily - to italists has been overthrown, laying the nuclear first strike by the US, while the monk-led riots in Tibet in mid-March help spread democracy throughout the basis for tremendous economic and US programme of National Missile which were a counterrevolutionary provo­ world", adding that: "After the end of social development, China is ruled by a Defense has the strategic goal of neu­ cation against the Chinese deformed the cold war it was tempting to believe nationalist, Stalinist bureaucratic caste tralising China's modest nuclear capac­ workers state. "An orgy of anti-Chinese in the 'end of history' -the inevitable that is hostile to workers democracy ities. Japan and the US are cooperating rioting convulsed the Tibetan capital, process of liberal democracy and capi­ and revolutionary internationalism. militarily, subordinating their rivalry to Lhasa" is how it was described by a cor­ talist economics. Now with the eco­ As the strongest of the remaining their common hostility to the workers respondent for the Economist (14 March) nomic success of China, we can no deformed workers states, China has continued on page 2 who reported that Tibetans were shouting longer take the forward march of slogans like "long live Tibet" and "long democracy for granted" (Guardian, 12 live the Dalai Lama". February). Gordon Brown used his high-profile In the name of "democracy", British visit to Beijing in January to try to per­ imperialism is currently heavily involved C11118r­ suade the Chinese regime to invest its in the brutal occupations of Iraq and $200 billion wealth fund in London. Afghanistan which have resulted in the Fearful of incurring a diplomatic rift slaughter of countless thousands of peo­ relPI_i.an with Beijing, Brown refuses to boycott ple. Historically, the kind of "democra­ the Beijing Olympics and was initially cy" and "human rights" the British hesitant to grant the Dalai Lama a meet­ Empire visited upon China is exempli­ rilIS·.·.il ing in London. Brown agreed to a meet­ fied by the opium wars and by the ing after he came under fire from the Empire lording it over Hong Kong as nery production, telecommunications, sciousness is the Labourite programme Chinese deformed workers state who China ... energy, petrochemicals - remain con­ of class collaboration with the "democ­ are willing to consign the Tibetan mas­ (Continued from page 1) centrated in state-owned companies, ratic" bourgeoisie at home while pro­ ses to the return of the Lamaocracy. which are strategic. State ownership of moting counterrevolution in the re­ The CWI ':is currently conducting a states in Asia. We are in favour of China land has prevented the development of maining workers states under cover of debate about the class nature of China and North Korea developing, testing a layer of rich large landowners domi­ "human rights" and "democracy". in which all the participants agree that, and producing nuclear weapons to nating the rural areas. State control over In opposition to this, we uphold the with the market reforms, the bureaucra­ defend themselves against British, US the financial system has so far been able Trotskyist programme for the uncondi­ cy has restored capitalism in China. and Japanese imperialism. to protect the People's Republic of tional military defence of China and the They merely disagree over whether it is As in the former Soviet Union, capi­ China from the manoeuvres of specula­ other deformed workers states of North "fully" capitalist yet. One contribution talist counterrevolution in China would tive capital, which have ruined the Korea, Cuba and Vietnam against posted on the CWI's Chinese-English have to triumph in the political arena, in economy in so many capitalist neo­ imperialism and internal counterrevo­ website says: the conquest of state power; it cannot colonies. lution. We also fight for proletarian "Capitalism in China has been recreated take place simply through a quantitative The fate of China, the most populous political revolution to oust the parasitic under the tutelage of the Stalinist ruling extension of the private sector, whether country on earth, where the bourgeoisie bureaucracy. Ultimately, only a politi­ party, in close interaction with overseas domestic or foreign. Moreover, the was expropriated by the 1949 Revolu­ cal revolution in China can lead to the capitalism through the process of globali­ large and growing private sector created tion, is of strategic importance to all the rule of workers and peasants soviets, sation. The Chinese capitalist class is extremely dependent on this state, pri­ by the market reforms, including for­ workers of the world, who must be won and only the extension of the Chinese marily to protect it from the working class, eign companies, is predominantly light to the understanding that it must defend Revolution internationally can ensure and for this reason its democratic ambi­ industry. Meanwhile core elements of China against imperialism and internal the defence and development of its tions - and desire for regime change­ the economy such as heavy industry­ counterrevolution. In Britain, the cen­ gains. Our defence of the deformed are almost non-existent." steel, non-ferrous metals, heavy machi- tral obstacle to this revolutionary con- workers states is integral to our pro­ -"China at the Crossroads", China gramme for proletarian socialist revo­ Worker online, 24 May 2007 lution against the capitalist ruling CWI leader Peter Taaffe says China classes internationally. The Interna­ "has been engaged in an almost 30-year May 1968 in France tional Communist League (Fourth long process of restoring capitalism" Internationalist) is dedicated to build­ but although it is travelling "in the On the fortieth anniversary of the rev­ ing a revolutionary internationalist direction of a full capitalist economy", olutionary events in Paris in May 1968 we workers party. As a section of the ICL, China "has not arrived at this situation reprint below an extract from our article the Spartacist League/Britain is fight­ yet" ("Has capitalism been fully in Spartacist at that time. What began as ing to build a party committed to the restored?" socialistworld.net, 22 March student protests became the spark for a revolutionary overthrow of British 2007). Another contribution titled revolutionary upheaval of the working imperialism and establishing a federa­ "China's capitalist counterrevolution" class. It was this social crisis, not the stu­ tion of workers republics in the British by Vincent Kolo in Socialism Today dent mdvement, that led to the workers' Isles. (December 2007-January 2008) says: occcupation of the factories, paralysing "Which is the ruling economic class in French industry in the largest and most Taaffeites: handmaidens TROTSKY LENIN China today? With the destruction of powerful general strike in history. of counterrevolution the planned economy it is no longer the The imperialist campaign for "demo­ working class. A section of the former There was a period of about a week, the high-tide of which was 29 May, when cratic" counterrevolution in China is Maoist bureaucracy has converted itself France was in the grip of a pre-revolutionary situation. The initiative was with the echoed by the majority of the Labourite through the 'reform process' into a workers; it was within their grasp to take state power and establish the proletarian left, as can be seen in their support for property owning class." dictatorship. The old order and the Gaullist government were incapable of ruling, the "Free Tibet" cause, which originat­ The CWI's attempt to portray China incapable of imposing their order on the subordinate classes or of solving the social ed with the machinations of the Amer­ as capitalist is but a "theoretical" ration­ crises tearing apart the nation. General discontent among parts of these subordinate ican CIA and other imperialist forces ale for a long-standing policy of sup­ strata-students, some farmers, the urban petty-bourgeoisie-was acute. The intent on fomenting capitalist counter­ porting the forces of "bourgeois­ French state, racked by its own internal contradictions, the crisis of bourgeois order revolution in China. A case in point is democratic" counterrevolution in the and far-reaching discontent, was for the period of a week more fragile than at any Peter Taaffe's Committee for a Workers deg~nerated and deformed workers other time in a generation. International (CWI), known in Britain states. In the name of "democracy" Yet the situation did not reach the point of dual power, which is the characteris­ as the Socialist Party, which supports the Taaffe organisation supported tic of all revolutionary crises. In a few cases, factory committees, replacing the the recent anti-Communist riots in imperialist-backed, anti -Communist existing representation in the several trade-union federations, were elected by the Tibet. Calling for Tibet's "right to inde­ forces such as Polish Solidarnosc in the striking workers, but this embryonic form of workers' councils was limited to per­ pendence", the CWI solidarises with 1980s. In 1991 in Moscow they stood haps ten factories. The comites d'action which sprang up all over France were the supposed "radical layers" among on the barricades with Boris Yeltsin's essentially district or neighborhood groups, not based specifically on the working Tibetan youth as against the "concilia­ forces of counterrevolution. It didn't class in the enterprises. tory approach" of the Dalai Lama, matter that the Taaffeites formally held What was missing in France was a revolutionary party which could have raised while admitting that "national inde­ that these countries were workers states the necessary demands to take the situation from a general strike to dual power, to pendence on a capitalist basis can in no governed by Stalinist regimes. The bot­ shatter the control of the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) over the strike way solve the problems of the impover­ tom line is that this social-democratic through the building of workers' councils. That the revolutionary French workers ished masses" (China Worker online, 18 organisation's programme is counter­ were unable to take power was principally, although not solely, due to the treachery March). As we note in our article (see posed to defence of the workers states. of the French Communist Party (PCF). page 5) the Taaffeites are enemies of the continued on page 4 The PCF leaders, along with the CGT, their trade union arm, did everything in their power to derail the movement. They attempted to split the initial student­ worker alliance at the factory gates, slandering the students as "provocateurs." In their patriotic fervor they German-baited Cohn-Bendit. They attempted to steer the .whole thrust of the demonstrations, strikes and factory occupations into narrow, exclusively economic demands. They established back-to-work movements. They misdirected the struggle back into the parliamentary swamp. They allowed De Gaulle a breathing space, allowed him to retrieve the initiative and to rally back to himself wavering middle-class elements, to ally himself with the military command 30,eaf& of the and a whole bloc of proto-fascist elements. The PCF's betrayals in May led direct­ ly to De GauUe's victory at the polls on 23 June. Spar-~acI8t ,~eague/Britain -"French Revolution", Spartacist no 12, September-October 1968

Down with executive offices WORKERSIlAMMER~ of the capitalist state! Marxist newspaper of the Spartacist League/Britain Milita",tin Liverpool in the 1980&: For a federation of workers republics in the British Isles! For a Socialist United States of Europe! " Reformism in action!

The Spartacist League is the British section of the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist). Saturday, 3 May, 12plQ' EDITOR: Eibhlin McDonald PRODUCTION MANAGER: James Palmer CIRCULATION MANAGER: Mick Connor University of London Union, Room 3~f Malet Street, London WC1 .. Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY E-mail: [email protected] Nearest tube: Russell Square or Goodge Street Subscriptions: £3 for 1 year, Europe outside Britain & Ireland £5, overseas airmail £7 For more information contact the Spartacist League Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. The closing date for news in this issue is 27 March 2008. Tel: 020 7281 5504, E-mail: [email protected] Printed by Newsfax International Ltd (trade union) ISSN 0267·8721

2 WORKERS HAMMER Craven reformists bac cops

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ay-ii;;/;-s;;;;,,------____80'SlIellit me Doli"" even decided 80bbles to march -.------throUgh centrallondor In January, However, a comPmmise was "THE SPIR.IT of Petrogldd", Cried MetSome said 25,000 the real POllee figure took was part. or/y The SYlvia Pankhurst On hearing the news 22,500, but they always undereSb_ reached whereby POlice would drop their demands to strike and have their Of a DoIice Sbike in 1918. "The mate demo figures, don't they, london PO/ice on Sthke. After that, 1here Was a sea of bUrly blokes pay linked to Private sector deals, which Pffiduced 900d Hses for tiJ!, anYthiog can haPPen." with White base-ball caps. 1hey read next 28 years - up tilJ now that Is. 1he groUnd is certainly Shiftiog in 'Fair P{llay for the Po/ice'. mere were BHeain. mere has been a COnbnua/ very few plocards and not a Hot-shield build up of PUblic aage, at the gov- or miner's helmet in Sight. 1here Was lloYd George erament's abtempt to Impose a 2% no chantiog or Whishiog for that mat- limIt on public sector pay, For the Nrst ter me only Shouts came from the Today we have entered Unchartered time in 21 Years, the Nahanal Union occaSioral bystander railing 'Get back waters. Feelings are running high and stoppage. strike action is diSCussed. In of Teachers is ballobog for a Datioral to WCJrk', to """'Yone's amusement. being 1919, they faCed UOYd George. TOday And there are the POlice. I knew Police strike they face Gordon Brown. In 1919 they When the ~ were dubbed 'BolSheVik Bobbles', tOday they Will need to take a leaf out ~ of the eXJJenence of theIr forefathers to get anYWhere.

Left: Police march through London on 23 January. Above: reformist Socialist Appeal article in solidarity with bourgeoisie's cops, enemies of workers and oppressed.

When up to 23,000 cops marched huge effort by the family campaign to ists" portraying the police as "workers The fact that the police may demon­ through London on 23 January deman­ have his killers brought to justice. in uniform" is to deny the need for rev­ strate for higher wages (or even, on rare ding better pay, Labourite reformists Support for the police is an integral olution to smash the capitalist state. occasions, go on "strike") neither gave this mobilisation of the repressive part of Labour reformism which has That is what underlies reformist illu­ makes them part of the working class arm of the capitalist state a gushing been used to dupe the British working sions that the capitalist state can nor does it change the material reality welcome. "Bolshevik Bobbies", head­ class into supporting the racist capitalist become an instrument capable of serv­ that they serve only one master: the lined Socialist Appeal, published by the order for over a century. Both Socialist ing the interests of the working class capitalist class. By supporting the diehard Labourite organisation founded Appeal and the Socialist Party had their and the oppressed in society. police demonstration on 23 January, the by the late Ted Grant. Revelling in the origins in the Militant tendency which In our last issue we scandalised the Socialist Party and Socialist Appeal are mood among the cops, the article by for more than four decades was an Socialist Party and others for their supporting better pay for the police Rob Sewell enthused: "There is rebel­ organic part of the old Labour Party. As enthusiastic hailing of last August's force to carry out their work. That con­ lion in the air. A pillar of the state \s in we wrote 14 years ago: prison guards strike (see "'Socialists' sists of brutalising minorities by carry­ a mutinous mood", whilst equating the "Labourism is reflected in Militant's pol­ embrace cops and prison guards", ing out dawn raids on Asian homes cops with public sector workers whose itics across the board, from its sympathetic Workers Hammer no 201, Winter 2007- under the pretext of the "war on terror", wages and jobs this Labour government portrayal of the British "bobby" and its 2008). What distinguishes us Marxists including the raid in Forest Gate in June is slashing. Clearly this reformist out­ appeals to the capitalist state to act against from these reformists comes down to 2006 in which police shot Mohammed the fascists, to its gross refusal to oppose fit's drooling over the police has not the murderous British imperialist troops the central question of the bourgeois Abdul Kahar and nearly killed him. gone amiss: Rob Sewell, the author of sent into Northern Ireland by a Labour state, which is the divide between These "socialists" are backing im­ the article made the breathtaking admis­ government." reform and revolution. We base our pro­ proved conditions for the police to sion that: "I knew there was something - Militant Labour s touching faith in gramme on Lenin's The State and detain and arrest black and Asian up when the 'Socialist Appeal' office the capitalist state, Spartacist pam­ Revolution, written in 1917 shortly minorities under the racist "stop and got a phone call from the 'Police phlet (1994) before the Bolsheviks led the working search" powers that have been boosted Review' asking for permission to Today Socialist Appeal remains class to state power in Russia. Lenin massively. Try telling the families of the republish an article from our website on inside New Labour, while beseeching laid out the fundamental Marxist under­ dozens of blacks and Asians who have the police strikes of 1918-19" (Socialist the unions to reclaim the Labour Party standing that the state consists of "spe­ died in police custody that "socialists" Appeal, 28 January). demanding that Labour must "imme­ cial bodies of armed men" and "is an support the cops' claim for better pay No less jubilant over the police diately take over the 'commanding organ of class rule, an organ for the for doing their job! protest was Peter Taaffe's Socialist Party heights of the economy"'. The Socialist oppression of one class by another". Appropriately enough, marching at which said the police protest was "in Party was formed outside the Labour Citing Marx and the experience of the the head of the police demonstration many ways a momentous occasion". Party in the early 1990s and now cam­ Paris Commune, Lenin reiterates that "the was the fascist British National Party They pointed out that cops on duty were paigns for a "new mass workers party", working class cannot simply lay hold of (BNP) candidate for London mayor, not allowed to attend but "the turnout but the politics of old Labour reformism the ready-made state machinery, and Richard Bambrook, who stated that "he was impressive under the circum­ remain unchanged. Both organisations wield it for its own purposes"; that the lib­ had been told by officers that he was stances". These reformists unashamedly hold that socialism can be achieved eration ofthe working class cannot come welcome" (Guardian, 24 January). As boast of having gone to the march and through parliament passing an about "without the destruction of the well as the fascists, with whom they "sold five copies of The Socialist in 20 "enabling act" giving a bourgeois gov­ apparatus of state power which was cre­ overlap, the police are necessarily a minutes and got three sheets of our peti­ ernment "emergency powers". ated by the ruling class". The capitalist sewer of concentrated racism, male tion for a living wage and joint public­ state, at its core consisting of armed bodies chauvinism and anti-communism in sector action filled in" (Socialist, Police: core part of the of men - the cops, courts, prisons and capitalist society. This shows the falla­ 31 January). capitalist state army - must be replaced "by a 'special cy of reformist appeals to the capitalist This craven subservience to the racist In an attempt to portray the police as repressive force' for the suppression of state to deal with the fascists. Fascists capitalist state's thugs in blue is not new part of the workers movement, Socialist the bourgeoisie by the proletariat (the dic­ are extra-parliamentary race-terror for these organisations, both of which Appeal welcomes the fact that the tatorship of the proletariat)". In short, the gangs which cannot be "stopped" by have maintained for decades that the Police Federation "has threatened to bourgeois state is the "dictatorship of the state bans, nor by campaigns not to police are part of the working class when ballot its 140,000 members about the bourgeoisie". The only way to get rid of vote for fascist candidates in elections. in fact they are a core part of the capital­ right to strike" (Socialist Appeal, March the rotten racist system of capitalism that What is necessary to combat fascist ist state. This fulsome support by 2008). The 1984-85 miners strike, in breeds racism, poverty, famine and war is provocations is trade union/minority "socialists" for better pay for the cops is which an army of cops occupied the through workers revolution that shatters mobilisations to stop them in their obscene,.- particularly now in London coalfields, brutally battered the miners the capitalist state and replaces it by the tracks! The fascists are kept in reserve where the police carried out the brutal, on picket lines and protected the scabs rule of the working class through work­ by the bourgeoisie to be used in times cold-blooded killing of Brazilian immi­ from the pickets, showed in unmistak­ ers councils (soviets). This fundamental of crisis and the fight to end fascism is grant Jean Charles de Menezes in July able terms the true function of the cops truth has been obscured and contradicted inseparable from the fight to overthrow 2005 and got away with it. This outrage as regards the unions: they are profes­ by Labourite social-democratic organisa­ capitalism. by the Metropolitan Police is in continu­ sional strike-breakers and enemies of tions for over a century. Our task of build­ The reformist Socialist Workers ity with their years-long role in shielding the working class in struggle. That is a ing a multi ethnic revolutionary workers Party (SWP) has in the past argued that the racist killers of black teenager basic truth that reformists try to cover party requires destroying the illusions per­ cops and prison guards are part of the Stephen Lawrence in 199:3, despite a up. The only purpose served by "social- petrated by Labourite reformists. continued on page 11

SPRING 2008 3 European deformed workers states lution showed that the China ... against imperialist attack and counter­ working class can take (Continued from page 2) revolution from within, while fighting power and -~wield it for proletarian political revolution to through democratically Taaffe asserts that the Chinese oust the parasitic Stalinist bureaucracies elected workers, peas­ regime has been "at pains to avoid the and replace them with regimes based on ants and soldiers soviets. 'big bang' return to capitalism wit­ workers democracy and revolutionary The internationalist early nessed in Russia in the early 1990s". internationalism. Soviet Union became a This is a denial that capitalist counter­ beacon to the working revolution would have to triumph at the Triumph of the Chinese class and oppressed' political level and destroy the Chinese Revolution worldwide. workers state. In fact, for capitalism to With the Chinese Revolution of To the Bolshevik triumph and smash the workers states, 1949, capitalist rule was smashed and leadership, it was clear first in Eastern Europe and then the Chinese society fundamentally trans­ that workers revolu­ Soviet Union between 1989 and 1992, formed. This victory was won by Mao tions in more advanced the Stalinist governments had to be Zedong's People's Liberation Army countries were neces­ replaced with imperialist-backed, anti­ (PLA), which was based on the peas­ sary to establish an Communist regimes. In every case, the antry. The capitalists and large land­ international planned militaries were reconstituted, their offi­ owners fled to Taiwan, where they economy and produce cer corps purged of pro-socialist indi­ were protected by US imperialism. the social growth rates viduals; Boris Yeltsin banned the Mainland China, which had been divid­ and abundance which Communist Party and anti-Communist ed and plundered by the imperialists, are the necessary foun­ witch hunts raged through those soci­ was unified. Under the Chinese Com­ dation for socialism­ eties (and still do). munist Party (CCP) China was recon­ a society based on People's Liberation Army marches through Beijing, We of the ICL fought tooth and nail structed as a workers state with a cen­ equality and without June 1949. against the forces of counterrevolution trally planned economy which was a material want. But the in Eastern Europe and the Soviet huge social leap forward. Over the next revolutionary uprisings after World War imperialism that prepared the way for Union. When a proletarian political rev­ few years, land was distributed to the I, in particular in Germany, were Deng to open the door to imperialism's olution began to develop in the DDR in peasants, the key industries were crushed through the betrayal of the pro­ economic penetration of China. 1989, we mobilised all the forces of our expropriated and a significant compo­ capitalist social democrats and because Both under Mao and under Deng and international organisation to intervene nent of state-owned industry was built of the weakness of the fledgling his successors, including the current there. We fought against capitalist up. The liberating effect of the Revo­ Communist Parties outside of the leadership, the CCP bureaucracy has counterrevolution, and for the revolu­ lution is evident in the status of Soviet Union. In the wake of these adhered to the Stalinist policy of tionary reunification of Germany, ie for Chinese women, whose previous mis­ defeats, especially that of the German "socialism in one country" and "peace­ proletarian political revolution to oust erable existence was symbolised by the Revolution in 1923, a conservative ful coexistence" with imperialism. This the Stalinist bureaucracy in the DDR barbaric practice of footbinding. By nationalist bureaucracy took political can be seen in the Beijing bureaucracy's and for social revolution in West 1949, significant inroads had already power in the Soviet Union in late 1923- preservation of Hong Kong as a capital­ Germany to overthrow the rule of the been made into footbinding's perma­ early 1924. In the course of the degen­ ist enclave within the People's Republic bourgeoisie, for a red Germany of nent eradication and the revolution eration of the workers state, Stalin and following its rightful return to China in workers councils. We called for the for­ enabled women to make enormous his clique turned away from proletarian 1997. As against what the bureaucracy mation of workers and soldiers coun­ progress. internationalism and invented the anti­ refers to as "one country, two systems" cils, in order to organise the working After the defeat of the Chinese Revo­ Marxist dogma of "building socialism we wrote at the time: class as a class for itself, as a contender lution of 1925-27, when the bourgeois in one country" and "peaceful coexis­ "Trotskyists can only cheer as the rotted for political rule. Against illusions that nationalist Guomindang massacred the tence" with imperialism. The Stalinists British Empire loses its last major colonial the ruling Stalinist SED-PDS could be insurrectionary workers in Shanghai in sabotaged revolutionary possibilities holding with the lowering of the bloody reformed, we fought to build a new 1927, the CCP eventually abandoned the abroad, not least the Chinese Revo­ Union Jack and the raising of the five­ starred red flag of the People's Republic on egalitarian Leninist party. working class. By the time of the 1949 lution of 1925-27, which they betrayed July 1. But as the Spartacist League/ The potential for a proletarian politi­ Revolution the CCP rested on the peas­ by subordinating the young CCP to the Britain wrote in 'Britain Out of Hong cal revolution in the DDR was ex­ antry. Only due to an exceptional histor­ bourgeois Guomindang. Hong!' (Workers Hammer No. 109, Sep­ pressed on 3 January 1990 in the pro­ ical situation was it able to smash capi­ Historically, the anti-revolutionary tember 1989), we are for 'One country, one socialist, united-front rally against the talism. The working class had been character of the Chinese bureaucracy system-under workers rule!'" fascist desecration of the Soviet war atomised by the horrific oppression under can be seen in its alliance with US - Workers Hammer no 157, memorial at Berlin-Treptow and in both the Guomindang and the Japanese imperialism against the Soviet Union, a July/August 1997 defence of the workers states in the imperialists. After the defeat of Japan in logical consequence of the search for Related to the pipedream of "social­ DDR and the Soviet Union, which we the Second World War, bourgeois rule was "peaceful coexistence" with the capital­ ism in one country", the present CCP initiated and which was taken up by the unstable, and the Guomindang regime was ist rulers internationally. In 1972, as leaders believe that they can modernise SED-PDS. In front of more than decaying from within. An additional fac­ bombs were raining down on Vietnam, China, transforming it into the world's 250,000 demonstrators, we Trotskyists tor was the existence of the Soviet work­ Mao Zedong hosted US president next superpower, through ever greater called for political revolution and ers state, which was able to offer economic Nixon in Beijing. These politics were integration into the world capitalist warned against the social-democratic and military assistance to the PLA during continued by Mao's successor, Deng economy. This ignores the economic SPD as the Trojan horse for counterrev­ the Chinese civil war and then to the new Xiaoping. In 1979, four years after the vulnerabilities of China in its relations olution. The Taaffeites at that time were People's Republic. heroic Vietnamese had defeated the US, with the world capitalist market, the both organisationally and politically The CCP regime suppressed indepen­ Chinese troops criminally invaded implacable hostility of the imperialist part of the SPD. dent action by the working class, while Vietnam. Shortly thereafter, China sup­ bourgeoisies to the Chinese workers In Moscow in 1991 when Boris falsely claiming to be building "socialism ported the murderous Islamic muja­ state, and the internal instability of Yeltsin seized power in a countercoup, in one country". This stood in sharp con­ hedin in Afghanistan, who were fight­ Chinese society due to growing social our comrades mass distributed a leaflet tradiction to the beginnings ofthe Soviet ing against the Soviet Red Army. In unrest. titled: "Soviet Workers: Defeat Yeltsin­ Union in the October Revolution of 1917, many respects both the Mao and Deng While the market-oriented reforms Bush Counterrevolution!" We fought a proletarian revolution led by Lenin and wings of the bureaucracy helped impe­ initiated-by Deng in 1978 were made for unconditional military defence of Trotsky's Bolshevik party that translated rialism destroy the Soviet Union. And, possible by the previous successes of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Marxism into deeds. The October Revo- not least, it was Mao's alliance with US the planned economy under Mao, they were an attempt to tackle the incompe­ tence of the bureaucratic command economy within the framework of Stalinist bonapartism. As we wrote in the 1980s: "Within the framework of Stalinism, there is thus an inherent tendency to replace centralized planning and manage­ ment with market mechanisms. Since managers and workers cannot be subject to the discipline of soviet democracy (workers councils), increasingly the bu­ reaucracy sees subjecting the economic actors to the discipline of market compe­ tition as the only answer to economic inef­ ficiency." -"For Central Planning Through Soviet Democracy", . printed in Spartacist pamphlet, "Market Socialism" in East­ ern Europe, July 1988 The Stalinist bureaucracy opened the country to imperialist investment, privatised strategically unimportant Left: Tibetan Buddhist monks surrender to Chinese Red Army troops in Lhasa after leading reactionary armed revolt, companies and ultimately abandoned April 1959. Right: Workers in China's Qinghai province constructing world's highest railway line that climbs to 16,640 the state monopoly of foreign trade. The feet above sea level to cross Tibetan plateau. The train line is now in operation. continued on page 8

4 WORKERS HAMMER '.:.. ···.··,······'·: ..... ;:1' •.•.•. :.-...... ,.·.··.:1····.,1.111: ..··· .i, ·····1'1·······;·· •••811·····:·,·····~; ' ...... :' .. ,,:., •...... , ...... , .. '; ...... ' ... " .... : ...... , ...... , ...... ,.: .. ,: Counterrevolutionarv riots in Tibet The following article is adapted from Workers Vanguard no 911, 28 March 2008. "An orgy of anti-Chinese rioting". That's how the Economist online (14 March), which had the only official for­ eign correspondent in Lhasa, described the protests in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Launched on 10 March to com­ memorate the anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule - an uprising inspired, armed and financed by the CIA - the protests were led by Buddhist lamas and were echoed by coordinated actions in China's Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, where there are substantial Tibetan popula­ tions. There was also a march in India from the centre of the Dalai Lama's "government in exile". Shouting "long Lhasa: Counterrevolutionary rioters in live Tibet" and "long live the Dalai streets (left). Tibetan "God-King", the Dalai Lama", rioters led by monks, often at Lama, welcomed to London in 2004 by the head of teenage gangs, rampaged in Britain's would-be king, Prince Charles. Lhasa's old Tibetan quarter, burning and destroying shops run by ethnic abolished ulag (forced peasant labour) September the Dalai Lama met with associated with the Socialist Party in Chinese and killing at least 13 people. and put an end to flogging, mutilation German chancellor Angela Merkel in Britain, have declared themselves to be Among those attacked were also ethnic and amputation as forms of criminal Berlin, US president Bush in Wash­ for Tibet's "right to independence". Chinese Hui, a Muslim minority in the punishment. The land, livestock and ington - the first time a sitting US They saluted the supposed "radical lay­ region. The Economist (22 March) tools of the aristocrats who fled into president has met publicly with the ers" among Tibetan youth as against the reported that "shops owned by Tibetans exile were distributed to the peasants, as Dalai Lama - and Canadian prime "conciliatory approach" of the Dalai were marked as such with traditional were the land and chattels of the monas­ minister Stephen Harper. Now, British Lama, while admitting that "national white scarves .... They were spared teries that had participated in the upris­ prime minister Gordon Brown has independence on a capitalist basis can destruction. " ing. The Chinese deformed workers announced that he will host the Dalai in no way solve the problems of the The protests in Tibet are reactionary, state established secular education and Lama in London this coming May. impoverished masses" (China Worker anti-Communist and counterrevolu­ constructed running water and electrical While the Bush administration has online, 18 March). Enemies of the tionary. As Trotskyists (ie, genuine systems in Lhasa. As a result, the aver­ called on China to exercise "restraint" Chinese deformed workers state, these Marxists), we of the International age life span of Tibetans, which had in Tibet, the Democrats have sought to opponents of the revolutionary interna­ Communist League fight for the uncon­ been 35 years in 1950, rose to 67 in outdo the Bush gang in belligerence tionalist workers movement are willing ditional military defence of the Chinese 2001. Infant mortality, which was an towards China. After the Tibet riots to consign the Tibetan masses to the deformed workers state against imperi­ astounding 43 per cent in 1950, dramat­ broke out, Democratic House speaker return of the lamaocracy. The pseudo­ alist attack and capitalist counterrev­ ically decreased to 0.661 per cent in Nancy Pelosi visited the headquarters Marxists' calls for Tibetan "indepen­ olution - as we do for the other 2000. The recent opening of the Lhasa­ of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. dence" stand to the right of even the remaining deformed workers states of Qinghai railway, connecting Tibet to In a 12 March statement, Pelosi con­ Dalai Lama, who admitted in 2005: "As North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. The China, has led to economic develop­ demned "the violent response by the material development of China 1949 Revolution that overthrew capital­ ment and an improvement of living Chinese forces to peaceful protesters in moves forward we gain materially, like ist rule in China has resulted in enor­ standards. These gains are testimony to Tibet". While Democratic presidential the railway. If we were a separate coun­ mous gains for that country's working the social progress resulting from the hopeful Hillary Clinton issued a state­ try it would be very difficult and we and peasant masses, including for the expropriation of the capitalist class and ment declaring that "Chinese repression would not benefit" (South China people of Tibet, which, until the victory landlords and the institution of prole tar­ in Tibet continues", Barack Obama's Morning Post, 14 March). of Chinese forces there in 1959, was ian property forms that issued out of the statement echoed Pelosi's in condemn­ Patterned after the Soviet Union after ruled by a pro-slavery "Lamaocracy". 1949 Chinese Revolution. ing "the use of violence to put down the usurpation of political power from The "Free Tibet" cause originated with Especially since the counterrevolu­ peaceful protests". In fact, during the the working class by the Stalinist the machinations of the CIA and other tionary destruction of the deformed violent riots, China's security forces bureaucracy, the Chinese workers state imperialist forces intent on restoring workers states of Eastern Europe and, in "appear to have acted with relative was deformed from its inception. The capitalism in China, which would once particular, the destruction of the Soviet restraint", as the Economist online (16 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of again reduce the country to semicolo­ degenerated workers state in 1991-92, March) reported. Mao Zedong that carried out the 1949 nial subjugation. The call to "Free China has been increasingly in the For their part, the fake "socialists" Revolution was not a party based on the Tibet" is a rallying cry for counterrevo­ cross-hairs of the imperialists. To pro­ are marching in lockstep behind their working class, but rather the peasantry. lution and would in fact mean imperial­ mote counterrevolution, they combine imperialist rulers' attempts to foment From the start, the CCP regime sup­ ist lordship over the Tibetan masses. pursuit of the economic openings counterrevolution in China, just as they pressed independent action by the The counterrevolutionary destruction of offered by the Beijing Stalinist bureau­ supported the counterrevolutionary des­ working class, excluding it from politi­ the Chinese deformed workers state cracy, through which they seek to truction of the USSR, a world-historic cal power. Representing a nationalist would be a tremendous defeat for the encourage internal counterrevolution, defeat for the international proletariat bureaucratic caste resting atop the col­ international proletariat, including for with escalating military pressure. China, that has brought devastation and misery lectivised economy, the Beijing Stalin­ the Tibetan people. the strongest of the remaining deformed to the peoples of the former Soviet ist regime preached the profoundly Before being crushed by the People's workers states, is surrounded by a whole Union. In France, the misnamed Ligue anti -Marxist notion that socialism - a Liberation Army in 1959, the Lamaist system of US military bases. Along with communiste revolutionnaire, immedi­ classless, egalitarian society based on theocracy in Tibet was perhaps propor­ North Korea, it is on the Pentagon's hit ately solidarised with the lamas, con­ material abundance - could be built in tionally the largest and most idle ruling list as a potential target of a nuclear first demning the "repression which is meted a single country. In practice, "socialism stratum in human history, economically strike, while the US programme of out by the Beijing regime" and calling in one country" meant accommodation supported by peasants, growers of bar­ National Missile Defense has the strate­ for "self determination" (18 March to world imperialism and opposition to ley and herders of yak. At base, this gic goal of neutralising China's modest statement). Their Japanese affiliate, the perspective of workers revolution meant that the back-breaking labour nuclear capacities. Kakehashi, called for the "right of self­ internationally. was mostly done by women, since both The imperialist rulers hope to take determination for the Tibetan people" In their futile pursuit of "peaceful the monks and a not small portion of the advantage of the upcoming Beijing and demanded that China "accept coexistence" with world imperialism, male population, who emulated the 2008 Olympics to intensify their pres­ an international investigation team" the Stalinist misrulers themselves monastic life after "sinning" by procre­ sure on China through their support to (Kakehashi, 24 March). undermine the defence of the Chinese ating, were employed in contemplation. the Dalai Lama. In a provocation that Meanwhile, the reformists of the workers state. The official statements After suppressing the CIA-backed prefigured the Tibet riots, within a Committee for a Workers' International, from Beijing condemning the riots in 1959 uprising, the Chinese government space of five weeks beginning last which publishes China Worker and is continued on page 10

SPRING 2008 5 Class-struggle delence and the light to Iree Mumia Abu-Jamal

We reprint below a speech, edited for barrel of a gun". And for that Mumia publication, by Partisan Defense Com­ was sentenced to death, because that mittee counsel Rachel Wolkenstein was considered to be the proof that he given at the New York City Holiday had always intended to kill cops! Appeal for Class- War Prisoners on 16 In the book, Maureen Faulkner also December 2007. This article first paints a vicious, lying portrait of the appeared in Workers Vanguard no 908, MOVE organisation, of which Mumia 15 February 2008. The PDC is a class­ is a supporter. His support of MOVE is struggle, non-sectarian legal and social also part of the reason why he was defence organisation associated with framed up in 1981. You all saw the PDC the Spartacist League. video, From Death Row, This Is Mumia When we took up Mumia's case in Abu-Jamal, and you saw the bombing 1987, he was not America's foremost of the MOVE commune in 1985. You political prisoner. In fact, hardly any­ heard Mumia speak about how this was body knew who he was. We were intro­ done under black Democratic mayor duced to Mumia by the MOVE prison­ Wilson Goode, with the ATF and the ers whom we had begun defending after FBI assisting and providing the bomb. the government bombing of the MOVE Faulkner claims that MOVE "was commune in Philly in 1985. This was responsible" for the bombing - that is, also around the time when we, starting the killing of eleven MOVE members, in 1986, began our programme of send­ including five children and the inciner­ ing monthly stipends to class-war pris­ ation of the entire neighbourhood. She oners. But, quite frankly, it's the work doesn't describe the circumstances of begun by the PDC - and taken up by the bombing. many, many other organisations - that Rachel Wolkenstein speaking at 5 May 2007 London rally organised by POCo Faulkner uses thinly veiled racist has made Mumia the man who repre­ terms to describe Mumia's writings, sents what the death penalty is all about, support from arch-reactionaries. there are the forces of racist law and ter­ his supporters and the MOVE organi­ who is the foremost class-war prisoner Smerconish, a man who considers that ror, led by the Fraternal Order of Police, sation - code language for pure out­ in the US, and who has come to repre­ Abu Ghraib was not a question of tor­ who demand his execution. and-out racism. She also has a whole sent the fight for black liberation in this ture, worked with Frank Rizzo, the I am not going to go through all the chapter on one of her major supporters, country and the fight against the death notorious, racist, brutal police com­ prosecution's lies, which are virtually a guy by the name of Joey Vento who penalty internationally. missioner and then mayor of endless. We have written about them in runs a well-known cheesesteak place in Maureen Faulkner, widow of Police Philadelphia. our PDC pamphlets, including the pam­ Philadelphia. Vento is known for having Officer Daniel Faulkner, and a man by Murdered by Mumia was written phlet, The Fight to Free Mumia Abu­ a sign in his window saying, "This is the name of Michael Smerconish have with the support of other people who Jamal-Mumia Is Innocent! (July America. When ordering please speak just published a book called Murdered are known in the far-right wing. This 2006). Smerconish and Faulkner repeat English." Faulkner hails this, which by Mumia. It came out on 6 December. book is not just a right-wing tract that over and over that Billy Cook (Mumia's tells you who this book is addressed to. Interestingly enough, Smerconish's can be dismissed as such. It is a call for brother) and Mumia have never stated The determination of the bourgeoisie foreword is dated 9 December, after the Mumia's execution. It is also an assault what they saw happen the night to kill Mumia or imprison him for life is publication of the book, to coincide on those bourgeois liberals who from Faulkner was killed. They act as if the no less than the determination the bour­ with the 26th anniversary of the date of time to time have wavered on the ques­ declarations Mumia and Cook wrote geoisie showed for killing the two anar­ Faulkner's killing and the beginning of tion of Mumia's innocence and instead and submitted in 2001, along with the chist martyrs, Sacco and Vanzetti, who the frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal. have called for having him spend the submission of the confession of Arnold were executed in 1927; or for killing the This book, which came on the eve of an rest of his life in prison, for burying Beverly that he, not Mumia, killed Rosenbergs, Communist Party support­ anticipated decision by the Third him alive. It makes clear that there are Faulkner, as well as other evidence, ers executed in 1953 on charges of giv­ Circuit Court of Appeals, is a total only two sides in Mumia's case. On one simply do not exist. In fact, the declara­ ing "secrets" on the bomb to the rehash of the police and prosecution lies side is the struggle to fight for his free­ tions and Beverly's affidavit are on the Soviets. Political repression is part and to falsely convict Mumia for the killing dom, based upon his innocence and the original Daniel Faulkner website! parcel of the workings of the capitalist of Faulkner on 9 December, 1981. It is fact that he is a victim of a racist and Faulkner and Co make no bones about injustice system, and it is supported by an orchestrated attack written with political frame-up. On the other side, the political nature of Mumia's frame­ both parties of American capitalism, up. They reiterate the prosecution's line Democrats as well as Republicans. And that Mumia's Black Panther Party it is intended to intimidate, silence and membership proves that he'd been plan­ punish those who raise their voices in ning to kill cops for years. They write opposition. that D.A. Joseph McGill "successfully established that Abu-Jamal had an anti­ Mumia Abu-Jamal is an police, anti-establishment, anti-govern­ innocent man! ment philosophy that accounted for his The PDC video most of you saw desire to murder Danny". tonight was made some 17 years ago. When we first took up Mumia's case, But the man that you heard speak there it was primarily on the question of free­ is the same man who is in prison today. dom of speech. Here is a man, Mumia, He has not changed his political views the only man in recent decades who, as one iota. He said then that he was fight­ far as we know, was sentenced to death ing to create revolution in America, because of his exercise of his First "revolution means change, it means Amendment'ri"ghts: Mumia was a mem­ total change". Mumia has not been ber of the Black Panthers in his youth, intimidated into silence since then. He and 12 years before the killing of continues to be the voice of the voice­ Faulkner, he was interviewed after the less, denouncing the imperial and police killing of the Chicago Panthers colonial slaughter and destruction in Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. He said Iraq, denouncing the US rulers' dis­ in the interview that the government dain for the black and the poor left to was trying to get the Panthers, that the die in the face of Hurricane Katrina,

James/Philadelphia Inquirer Panthers should face reality. He called defending immigrants, defending Mumia Abu-Jamal as Minister of Information of Philadelphia chapter of Black for "all power to the people" and noted workers on strike. Now, Mumia is no Panther Party in 1969. that "political power grows out of the Marxist revolutionary. He is not a sup-

6 WORKERS HAMMER nonsensical things in the prosecution's where reactionary Supreme Court case - the reformists and liberals say it Justice Samuel Alito comes from. They is a terrible thing. They even cast doubt say this even though Marjorie Rendell, on Mumia's own statement-the state­ the wife of Democratic Pennsylvania ment that he presented in state and fed­ governor Ed Rendell, the former D.A. On 17 May 2007, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia heard oral eral court - declaring, "I had nothing who prosecuted Mumia, sits on that arguments in Mumia's case and there could be a decision at any time. to do with the killing of Officer court. What does all that amount to Faulkner. I am innocent." Do you ever except trying to refurbish the creden­ If the Court rules to uphold the death sentence or denies Mumia's appeals hear anyone besides us say that Mumia tials of the "justice" system? for a new trial or hearing, the Partisan Defence Committee calls for protest has declared his innocence and the day after a decision, 5.00 pm if on a weekday, 1.00 pm if on a Saturday explained what he saw happen that For class-struggle defence! at the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1 (Tube: Bond Street). night? No. Instead you have people who As Marxists - and the PDC has a Prepare now for emergency mobilisation! Encourage your friends, Mlleagues, are heralded on platforms by most of Marxist worldview - we understand unions and organisations to mobilise for Mumia's freedom. For more informa­ the rest of the left, people like David that the cops, the courts, the prisons, the tion, call 020 7281 5504 and see the PDC website, www.partisandefense.org Lindorff and others who say something armed forces, are the core components like: I sort of defend Mumia, but you of the capitalist state, the machinery of know it's possible, even likely, that he organised violence that protects the rule really did shoot the cop. And that pass­ and profits of the exploiting class. We es for people who say that they are believe that the justice system, at every defenders of Mumia. single level in Mumia's case and in Now why does that happen? Again, it other cases, has declared that Mumia goes back to the political period we are has no rights that it is bound to respect. in, and the necessary fights we have to This is like what was done by the porter of the Spartacist League. But to Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt). The fact that wage. It goes back to the whole question Supreme Court before the Civil War in the capitalist rulers, Mumia represents the reformist left subordinates the fight of what the Beverly evidence represents. the infamous Dred Scott decision, the spectre of black revolt, of defiant for Mumia's freedom to the call for a What does it mean to understand that in which upheld slavery and declared that opposition to their system of racist new trial is not an accident: it.is a direct this case there was collusion between black people have no rights that whites oppression. For them, Mumia is a dead reflection of the post-Soviet period we the cops and the mob and the D.A. and are bound to respect. man on leave. . are in and what we call the retrogres­ the judges to see Mumia convicted of A "new trial" is a code word for a The fight to free Mumia also sion of consciousness. murder, to see him executed? It means programme of reliance on the capitalist involves a political struggle within The reformist left ties people-who, that there is not just one rogue cop, or class and on some sort of benevolent the movement of those who say that through Mumia's case, could otherwise one racist judge - though Sabo is defi- Democratic Party politician, on some they are fighting to defend Mumia. good judge; a code word for sowing Why is that? Because the social illusions that fighters for the oppressed power to free Mumia is embodied in can obtain justice from the capitalist the international working class, but courts. This has retarded the political there are obstacles to unleashing that understanding of those who joined the power. The so-called left serves to tie struggle for Mumia and has ultimately working people to the view that served to demobilise the movement for the bourgeoisie can somehow be Mumia's freedom. It is no accident that reformed, that capitalism can be in the lead-up to the Third Circuit Court reformed. And so we have yet another of Appeals hearing this past May, there struggle with two opposing sides. On were very few protests and events one side are those bourgeois liberals, organised on Mumia's behalf. The trade union misleaders, so-called left­ events called by the PDC and its co­ ists that are sowing illusions in the thinkers internationally numbered a "fairness" of capitalist justice. On the modest few hundred here or there. But other side, there is the PDC and its those were the largest events that there supporters and co-thinkers, and our were. What does that tell you about the line of class-struggle defence, which demobilisation of a movement that once means having no illusions in capitalist numbered in the millions? "justice" and putting all faith in the I want to make a point: I'm a lawyer, power of the masses. and the work that I personally did and Workers Hammer Today's world is profoundly shaped PDC contingent at 17 May 2007 protest outside US Embassy in London. Jonathan Piper, another lawyer associ­ by the impact of the counterrevolution­ ated with the PDC, has done in ary destruction of the Soviet degenerat­ be won to the understanding of the nitely a racist judge-or one D.A. who Mumia's case when we were on the ed workers state in 1991-92 following nature of the capitalist state and what is "overzealous". It is an indictment of legal team from 1995 to 1999 repre­ the decades of Stalinist rule there. And the necessary fight is - to a false view the entire bourgeois legal system, which sents hundreds and hundreds of hours as the bourgeois rulers proclaim the lie that somehow the justice system under is class-biased and race-biased. of legal work. I'm not saying that it that we're in the period of the "death of capitalism can be made to be just. The And what liberals want to do - and wasn't good work to do. But the pur­ communism", the bulk of the left, many liberals and reformists who call what the so-called left agrees with - is pose of this legal work was not only to which in the main joined in the imperi­ for a new trial for Mumia also fling mud to attempt to clean up the 'justice" sys­ have a fight in court, but to provide key alist anti-Soviet campaign, places its on the Beverly confession. Here's a tem's bad image. They say that it was evidence for a movement that would political activity solidly within the man who confessed to shooting only one bad cop, and only Judge Sabo take this evidence and fight in the framework of the "democratic" capital­ Faulkner, and instead of people saying, who is the racist, that the rest of them streets, mobilising the working class in ist order. In the 1960s and 1970s, "Hey this is great, we got somebody aren't that bad, that federal court judge the fight for Mumia's freedom. The nobody talked about a new trial for who confessed", and looking at the Yohn is really an honourable man, that organised working class has the power Huey Newton, or a new trial for Angela mountains of evidence supporting his the Third Circuit is the most liberal in to actually scare the hell out of the Davis, or more recently a new trial for confession and explaining all the crazy the country-though, of course, it's continued on page 11

I~-.,;;rti~.;-~-"..e Funds are urgently needed for legal defence! Just out! l~!~·!"-~·.!·-c~~-~-;" . Make a contribution today, payable to Partisan Defence Committee. Write "Jamal legal defence" on the ~12.Q06 back of the cheque and mail to the address below. Such contributions as well as collections at PDC or iumi8 Is Innocentl other events for Mumia's legal defence are receipted and transferred in full to the National Lawyers Get the facts! free Him NOw\ Guild Foundation account in New York as has been designated by Mumia's lawyer for this purpose.

New poe fact sheet Organise protest! Pass motions in your unions, campus, community and religious organisations pamphlet, Big Lies in demanding Mumia's freedom. Get your union or organisation to make a contribution and join rallies and the Service of Legal protests for Mumia. Publicise Mumia's case in your union or organisation's newsletter. Lynching (30p each, Spread the word! Distribute the Workers Hammer supplement, "Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal!" £2 for 10) is a detailed refutation of the recent (July 2007), containing reports and speeches from the May 2007 rally in London, £1 per bundle of 10. book Murdered by Order from/make payable to: Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY. Mumia by right-wing ~ge:, Order the PDC pamphlet The Fight to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal-Mumia is Innocent!, detailing the politi­ .~~ __IO-£_-I1"'" journalist Michael cal basis of the state vendetta against Mumia and the explosive evidence of his innocence. It is avail­ Smerconish and ~,ue~:a DeClaraliGII .. 14..... ~ Maureen Faulkner, ~p!!>JSl'M able for 70p. Get the PDC badge: "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!" £1 each. whose lying tract is a Order the DVD made by the PDC, From Death Row, This is Mumia Abu-Jamal, £2 each. rallying cry not only to -~.".. execute Mumia but for Order from, make cheques payable to Partisan Defence Committee, BCM Box 4986, London WC1N 3XX. the death penalty itself. Contact the Partisan Defence Committee [email protected]. Telephone: 020 7281 5504 • www.partisandefense.org

SPRING 2008 7 the imperialists has enormously China ... strengthened the forces for internal (Continued from page 4) counterrevolution. A class of capi­ talist entrepreneurs has developed planned economy was replaced by mar­ with family and financial connec­ ket mechanisms and agriculture was tions both to the CCP bureaucracy decollectivised, so that peasant families and to the Chinese capitalists in could get their own little piece of land Taiwan and Hong Kong. A layer of on a long-term lease. Over time, the well-to-do managers, professionals regime abolished the "iron rice bowl", and technocrats has been created which was based on guaranteeing work­ that enjoys a lifestyle like that in the ers a job for life and was rightly seen by West. urban workers as an important gain of The policies carried out by the the 1949 Revolution. But a country as Beijing Stalinists have driven a sig­ poor and backward as China could nificant component of the working obviously not offer hundreds of mil­ class and rural toilers into poverty. lions of peasants a job in state industry, Important social gains such as guaranteed for life and at a significantly healthcare have been eroded, mil­ higher wage rate than the income of lions of unemployed are looking for members of a rural commune. new jobs, and if they find work at When Mao died in 1976, China had all, they are employed in the private constructed a substantial heavy indus­ sector under much worse condi­ trial sector, but it remained an over­ tions, without the social benefits of whelmingly (80 per cent) rural society. the state sector. Some 150 million Agricultural production remained tech­ migrant workers have moved from Spartakist nologically backward and a large frac­ the countryside into the cities, where East Berlin, 3 January 1990: Spartakist speaker adresses the ICl-initiated 250,000- tion of the peasantry lived in abject they toil under wretched conditions strong demonstration at Treptow Park against fascist desecration of Soviet war poverty. For the past two decades, with few rights and are often memorial and in defence of East German and Soviet workers states. China has experienced an economic scorned by urban workers. growth rate of close to ten per cent. These inequalities have resulted in 2006), a real reduction in the gap democrats abhor about what Lenin and More than 40 per cent of the population massive struggles, which we support: between the city and the countryside Trotsky's Bolsheviks did in the October is now urbanised. Chinese industry has workers protesting against non-pay­ requires a massive redistribution and Revolution of 1917. grown enormously and over half the ment of wages, lay-offs or poor work­ reallocation of economic resources. The As Marx and Lenin explained, every working population is now employed in ing conditions; peasants protesting introduction of modem technology in state is an instrument of class rule, manufacturing, transport, construction against corruption and illegal theft of the countryside demands a qualitatively including the modem bourgeois repub­ and the public service sector. Up to 150 their land by party bureaucrats or higher industrial base than that which lic, where the democratic forms of gov­ million peasants became proletarians against environmental pollution. The exists today. Correspondingly, a growth ernment conceal the rule of the bour­ since market reforms began. According ruling bureaucracy is clearly split in agricultural productivity would geoisie particularly effectively. Lenin's to Monthly Labour Review (July 2005), between elements who want to pursue necessitate an enormous extension of question to Kautsky applies just as there were twice as many industrial the economic "reforms" unabated, industrial jobs in the urban areas in much to the CWI today: "Can it be that workers in China as in all the G-7 states those who want more state intervention order to absorb the huge workforce the learned Kautsky has never heard together. The proletarianisation of the and others who want to return to a which would no longer be required in that the more highly democracy is peasantry on such a scale is a progres­ bureaucratically planned economy. the countryside. This would no doubt be developed, the more the bourgeois par­ sive development of great historical sig­ According to the bureaucrats' official a lengthy process, especially given the liaments are subjected by the stock nificance. statistics, there were 87,000 protests in still limited size and relatively low pro­ exchange and the bankers?" (The Development in China puts the 2005 alone. But militancy at the eco­ ductivity of China's industrial base. Proletarian Revolution and the Rene­ growth in capitalist neocolonies in the nomic level is not enough. The working All this shows the strategic necessity gade Kautsky [1918]). What is neces­ shade, whether it be "tiger economies" class must take up the struggle at the of extending the Chinese Revolution to sary is a socialist revolution that smash­ like Indonesia and South Korea, or political level. What's needed is a revo­ advanced capitalist countries like Japan es the 'bourgeois state machinery and India, which won its independence lutionary vanguard party in China to and of establishing an international replaces it by the dictatorship of the around the same time as China but fight for a proletarian political revolu­ planned economy. This will determine proletariat. This is what the CWI, like remained capitalist. India's per capita tion based on unconditional military both the tempo and ultimately the via­ Kautsky, is opposed to. gross national product is only half that defence of the deformed workers state. bility of this perspective. A red China of Because it stands firmly in the tradi­ of China, while the poverty rate of Such a party would fight to unite all workers and peasants councils would be tions of social democracy, Taaffe's CWI China is only half that of India. Child sectors of the working class in an a beacon for the oppressed working regurgitates the bourgeoisie's "human malnutrition is 75 per cent lower in alliance with the rural workers and the masses of Asia and the entire world. A rights" campaigns against the workers China than in India. In China, almost 90 urban poor. Migrant workers must victorious proletarian political revolu­ states, as a cover for supporting coun­ per cent of women are literate, almost receive all the rights of legal residents tion would deal a deathblow to the terrevolutionary pro-imperialist forces. twice as high as in India. - including access to healthcare, hous­ bourgeoisie's "death of communism" The CWI upholds the programmatic At the same time, the "reform" era ing and public education - and equal propaganda, and it would lift up the core of the old Labour Party which has also seen a widening of inequali­ pay for equal work. downtrodden masses of the former saved capitalist rule in Britain during ties, both within the cities and between As we explain in our article "China's Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the revolutionary wave that shook the urban and rural areas and there­ 'Market Reforms' -A Trotskyist inspire the workers of Western Europe. capitalist world at the end of World fore China today is seething with Analysis" (Workers Vanguard nos 874 War I. When the Bolsheviks led the discontent. Economic penetration by and 875, 4 August and 1 September Social democracy abhors October 1917 Revolution to victory, the Bolshevik Revolution Labour Party leadership was hostile to Ever since the October Revolution of the Revolution and took it upon itself to 1917, social democracy has condemned act as a burwark against the spread of the workers states in the name of Bolshevism, including by derailing the "democracy", as a declaration of sup­ mass revolutionary mobilisations that port to its own bourgeoisie. In Germany swept Britain, particularly in 1920. in 1918-19, the social democracy As an antidote to Bolshevism, the drowned the revolution in the blood of Labour Party in 1918 adopted "Clause thousands upon thousands of workers IV", a nominal commitment to "com­ and had revolutionary leaders Karl mon ownership of the means of produc­ Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg mur­ tion". This was a cynical ploy to dupe dered. "Left" social democrat Karl the working class into believing that Kautsky ranted against the dictatorship "socialism" could be achieved "demo­ of the proletariat in Russia and propa­ cratically", through parliament, without gated the illusion of "pure democracy". smashing the capitalist state and without In 1918, in The Proletarian Revolution establishing the dictatorship of the pro­ and the Renegade Kautsky, Lenin letariat. Labour's pretence to "social­ replied that "democracy" is a type of ism" rested upon a nominal commit­ state. And tM state - at its core the ment to nationalising industry through police, army and courts - is not neu­ legislation in parliament. tral. So the question always posed for Clause IV was abolished from the Marxists is: democracy for which Labour Party's constitution by Tony class? Marx drew the decisive lesson Blair in 1994 but it remains the corner­ from the Paris Commune of 1871 that stone of the programme of Peter the proletariat cannot simply take over Taaffe's Socialist Party. Marking the the bourgeois state machinery, but must 90th anniversary of Clause IV's adop­ Workers and students fraternise with troops called in to suppress 1989 shatter it and replace it with its own tion, the Taaffeites noted that since the Tiananmen uprising, which marked incipient political revolution against state: the dictatorship of the proletariat. "socialist" Clause IV was adopted, it Chinese Stalinist regime. And that is exactly what the social "has been denounced by ultra-lefts as

8 WORKERS HAMMER being a fig-leaf disguising the capitalist that "a further development of the accu­ the same benefits and working condi­ At a number of points the CWI's character ofthe Labour Party", and that mulating contradictions can as well lead tions as in the state sector. It would Vincent Kolo ("China's capitalist coun­ "it is the job of the Socialist Party and to socialism as back to capitalism; h) on encourage the voluntary collectivisation terrevolution", Socialism Today, De­ the Campaign for a New Workers' Party the road to capitalism the counterrevo­ of agriculture on the basis of large-scale cember 2007-January 2008) compares that it has initiated, to help mobilise the lution would have to break the resist­ mechanised and scientific farming, China un favourably to post-Soviet level of support that the celebrated ance of the workers; i) on the road to while recognising that this requires sub­ Russia (for example, in terms of the Clause attracted in 1918" ("1918: 2008, socialism the workers would have to stantial material aid from successful percentage of government revenue con­ Clause IV and nine decades of workers overthrow the bureaucracy". workers revolutions in more economi­ tributed by state-owned enterprises). struggles", Socialist Party website, 20 The idea that a workers state can cally advanced countries. A revolution­ But he ignores the most important and February). gradually evolve towards capitalism ary regime in China would actively obvious difference between China and was refuted at the theoretical level by promote revolutions internationally, post-Soviet Russia. In the 1990s, Russia Taaffe revises Marxism Trotsky as far back as 1933, when he understanding that genuine communism and also Ukraine, as a consequence of on the state condemned such notions of a gradual, can only come via a globally integrated capitalist counterrevolution, experi­ Peter Taaffe's ludicrous assertion that imperceptible, bourgeoi~ counterrevolu­ and planned socialist economy based enced a catastrophic economic col­ the "Chinese state itself is of a 'mixed tion in the Soviet Union. In "The Class on the most advanced industry and lapse unprecedented in the history of character''', which occupies a "halfway Nature of the Soviet State" he wrote: technology following proletarian revo­ any advanced capitalist society except house position" ("Has capitalism been "The dictatorship of the proletariat was lution in the imperialist centres. in wartime. The CWI bears its share of fully restored?" socialistworld.net, 22 established by means of a political over­ The market reforms have exacer­ responsibility for this disaster, having March 2007), is a flagrant denial of the turn and a civil war of three years. The bated the contradictions in China, on supported counterrevolution. The wind­ Marxist understanding that the state is class theory of society and historical one hand feeding the growth of enor­ fall gain Russia has obtained in recent an instrument for the suppression of one experience equally testify to the impos­ mous forces for capitalist counterrevo­ years from the price boom in oil and class by another. Taaffe claims that the sibility of the victory of the proletariat lution while at the same time giving rise natural gas has done little to repair its state in China "can, under certain condi­ through peaceful methods, that is,_ with­ to one of the most powerful industrial tattered social fabric. A striking index is tions - for instance, where there is a out grandiose class battles, weapons in proletariats in the world. Coinciding the sharp decline in l'ife expectancy es­ class deadlock-playa relatively 'inde­ hand. How, in that case, is the impercep­ with the period in which the CWI pecially for men. Even though China's pendent' role". This utterly social­ tible, 'gradual,' bourgeois counterrevo­ claims counterrevolution has been per capita gross domestic product is democratic view of the state in China as lution conceivable?" Trotsky's conclu­ underway, China has experienced a only a third that of Russia, the life a neutral force is very much in keeping sion certainly applies to· the CWI's prodigious expansion of industrial expectancy of Chinese men (70 years) with the CWI's programme for Britain approach to China today: "He who capacity with a corresponding increase is far longer than that of Russian men and other capitalist countries, which is asserts that the Soviet government has in the social weight of the urban work­ (59 years). based on peddling illusions that "social­ been gradually changed from proletari­ ing class. China has also developed a Kolo uses a plethora of statistics to ism" can be achieved through legisla­ an to bourgeois is only, so to speak, run­ large technical intelligentsia. Overall deny that China has been able to make tion in parliament, ie without smashing ning backwards the film of reformism." there has been a substantial improve­ rapid economic progress precisely the bourgeois state. As the Socialist The accumulating contradictions in ment in living standards, including in because it remains a workers state. The Party's election manifesto for 2007 put China will lead sooner or later to the the countryside, with much of the popu­ 150 large state-owned enterprises it: "Take into public ownership the top collapse of Stalinist bonapartism and lace gaining access to modem industri­ directly controlled by the central min­ 150 companies, banks and building the political shattering of the ruling al culture. istries in Beijing account for one-third societies that dominate the economy, Communist Party. But whether this is The significant development of of China's total national output. And under democratic working-class control followed by a capItalist counterrevolu­ China's infrastructure in recent years that third constitutes the strategic core and management." tion that breaks the resistance of the has confounded bourgeois commenta­ of China's industrial economy. Even While denying the need for the capi­ Chinese working class and destroys the tors. The Economist noted with envy Kolo acknowledges that the "Big Four" talist state to be smashed in Britain, his workers state, or by a proletarian politi­ that Beijing's new airport terminal­ banks account for 71 per cent of all home terrain, Taaffe'insists the Chinese cal revolution that overthrows the rule the largest in the world - "was planned loans for investment purposes. Since state must be dismantled, saying: "The of the Stalinist bureaucracy, establish­ and built in four years by an army of the early 1980s the CCP regime has present 'halfway house' state combines ing the political rule of workers and 50,000 workers", in contrast to Britain used the state-owned banks as its main some of the worst features of Stalinism peasants soviets in China and fighting where, "it took as long to conduct a pub­ institutional instrument in seeking to and capitalism. It must be completely to extend the Chinese Revolution inter­ lic inquiry into the proposed construc­ direct the economy. In the past few dismantled; it is incapable of ;.reform'. nationally, will be decided in struggle. tion of Heathrow's Terminal Five as it years the Beijing authorities have This call to smash the Chinese state is a took to build Beijing's new airport ter­ allowed limited foreign ownership of declaration that, when the fate of China Taaffeites equate market minal from scratch". In China, between the banks without relinquishing effec­ as a workers state is decisively posed, reforms with capitalist 2001 and the end of 2005 "more was tive managerial control. The mass of the the CWI will be on the side of forces for counterrevolution spent on roads, railways and other fixed economic surplus generated in main­ "democratic" counterrevolution. For As revolutionary Marxists, we do not assets than was spent in the previous 50 land China (except by firms owned by Marxists it is axiomatic that the work­ oppose as such China's extensive eco­ years" and "since the 1990s China has foreign and off-shore Chinese capital­ ing class must establish its own state nomic relations with the capitalist built an expressway network criss­ ists) continues to be channelled into and power in the course of a revolution to world. A revolutionary workers state crossing the country that is second only out of a handful of state-owned banks. defend itself and its organs of power would seek to trade with capitalist to America's interstate highway system against the blood-soaked capitalist countries, as the early Soviet state did in length" (Economist, 14 February). At For proletarian state. under the revolutionary leadership of the same time, industrialisation has internationalism! Contrary to Taaffe, the Stalinist Lenin and Trotsky'S Bolshevik party. A come at a huge cost: China is plagued by The CWI retails the protectionism of bureaucracy is not capable of bringing China of workers and peasants councils water shortages and environmental pol­ social-democratic trade union bureau­ about a cold, step-by-step restoration of based on workers democracy would re­ lution. Acid rain reduces agricultural crats in imperialist countries who howl capitalism from above. The ruling establish a centrally planned economy yields and two in three cities suffer from that China-and not the world capital­ Stalinist bureaucracy is a brittle, contra­ and reinstate the state monopoly of for­ water shortages. ist economic system - is responsible dictory caste, not a class based on pri­ eign trade. It would expropriate the While the Chinese economy will not for maintaining low wages in the poor­ vate ownership of the means of produc­ Chinese capitalist entrepreneurs and be immune from the economic down­ est regions of the wofld. Kolo says that: tion. In 1936, in The Revolution renegotiate the terms of foreign invest­ turn facing most of the capitalist world "China today is synonymous with vast Betrayed, Trotsky explained in regard ment in the interests of Chinese work­ today, China will not be affected in the sweatshops" and that the "CCP regime to the Soviet degenerated workers state ers - insisting for example on at least same way, because it is a workers state today is instrumental in spreading neo­ and the core of the economy is based on liberalism globally", adding that collectivised property. A prevalent myth "Chinese companies, many of which is that the Chinese economy primarily are state-owned, are hated across whole produces cheap manufactured goods swathes of Africa due to their union­ which are then exported. China is the busting, corrupt, law-breaking and en­ world's largest producer of steel (pro­ vironmentally destructive practises." Marxist Newspaper of the Spartacist League ducing the world's largest cranes) and This is identical to the anti-Communist of concrete, as well as the third largest complaint of the British Trades Union D 1-year subscription to Workers Hammer. £3.00 (Overseas subscriptions: car producer (behind the US and Japan) Congress (TUC) against China's export Airmail £7.00; Europe outside Britain and Ireland £5.00) and second largest car market. Much of of textiles, the impact of which they say that steel and concrete are used for build­ "has been to create mass unemploynlent D 1-year sub to Workers Hammer PLUS 22 issues of Workers Vanguard, ing Chinese infrastructure and the manu­ in countries like Lesotho, and drive Marxist fortnightly of the Spartacist League/US for £10.00. factured goods are increasingly for the wages to rock bottom prices in coun­ home market. While the productivity of tries like Bangladesh. And all over the All subscriptions include Spartacist, organ of the International Communist labour in China is increasing, it remains developing world, workers' rights to League (Fourth Internationalist). All subscriptions to Workers Vanguard very low compared to that of the US, organise have been under attack so that include Black History and the Class Struggle. Germany and Japan. Increasing the pro­ employers can freely exploit labour so ductivity of labour requires advanced that they can compete with the Name ------technology. Ultimately China's vulnera­ Chinese" ("China and manufacturing", Address ______bility through international trade-com­ TUC statement, 10 December 2005). ______Postcode ______pounded by the bureaucracy's disman­ Such anti-Communist China-bashing tling of the state monopoly of foreign is also a cover for the social-democratic E-mail Phone ------2~02 trade - and its low productivity under­ union bureaucrats' treachery to the Make cheques payable/post to: Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY score the necessity of workers revo­ working class at home which is based lutions in the imperialist centres. continued on page 10

SPRING 2008 9 CIA, operating under the direction of, alist attack on China - we naturally Unity and Socialism Is Needed", stat­ China ... among others, Condoleezza Rice, who is side with the deformed workers state, ing: "We support the unification of (Continued from page 9) on its board of directors. Han - the which we unconditionally militarily every nation - even the German one­ CIA's favourite dissident-is reproached defend. In opposition to the Beijing as a historically progressive develop­ on class collaboration rather than class by the CWI for having illusions in the bureaucracy's policy of "one country, ment and as a democratic right" (Voran struggle. This goes hand-in-hand with Stalinists, because he supposedly wants to two systems", which is intended by the supplement, 25 January 1990). In both chauvinist protectionism, summed up in win the official union federation "to a bureaucracy as a pledge to preserve cases one thing remains the same for the call "British jobs for British work­ democratic, fighting standpoint". This is private property, we fight for the revo­ the CWI: it is always on the side of ers" - a slogan long associated with the "completely unrealistic", says the CWI lutionary reunification of China and counterrevolution, of "democratic" fascists and recently embraced by which stands for "independent" unions, Taiwan through proletarian political capitalism against "Stalinist dictator­ Gordon Brown. Pro-imperialist protec­ just as it did when helping to build Soli­ revolution against the bureaucracy on ship", which in reality was a form ofthe tionism is poison for the working class, darnosc in the 1980s. Contrary to the the mainland and social revolution to dictatorship of the proletariat, albeit de­ reinforcing national divisions and sub­ CWI, the fight for unions independent of bring down the Chinese bourgeoisie in formed. ordinating it to its own bourgeoisie. the Stalinist bureaucracy in China must Taiwan. The CWI takes a side with the The question of revolution and Against such chauvinism, we advance be based on unconditional military Taiwanese bourgeoisie and the imperi­ counterrevolution in China is a vital Karl Marx's slogan: "Workers of the defence of the Chinese deformed work­ alists in the name of "democracy", say­ question for the working class of the world unite!" ers state. Independent unions must stand ing: "Nevertheless, the Chinese regime whole world. We fight to build Trots­ in irreconcilable opposition to the impe­ is a dictatorship. Moreover, from the kyist parties worldwide as part of Pro-udemocracy" movements rialists and their ideological agencies, standpoint of the Taiwanese masses a reforged Fourth International. The for capitalist restoration including the counterrevolutionary "non­ they would not wish to put themselves working class in Britain must be won to The CWI claims that Trotsky's theo­ govemmental" organisations. Defence of under its control; preferring the demo­ the understanding that it is necessary to ry of permanent revolution applies to workers' rights presupposes above all the cratic rights, however limited, which defend China against the British bour­ China today, as it does to the neocolo­ defence of the Chinese workers state and they enjoy under a bourgeois-democratic geoisie and its social-democratic agents. nial capitalist countries like India, its collectivised economy. regime, which is what Taiwan is" This constitutes a central component of while perverting Trotsky's theory to Indeed, the CWI raises a thinly veiled (chinaworker.org, 26 August 2005). breaking workers from their illusions in justify supporting pro-imperialist coun­ call for the Chinese deformed workers In 1989-90 in Germany - which was bourgeois democracy and ultimately terrevolutionary forces. The CWI arti­ state to legalise the utterly counterrevo­ until capitalist reunification one nation mobilising them to overthrow British cle "China at the Crossroads" says: lutionary Guomindang, which was separated, like China today, by a class imperialism and to set up a federation "The tasks facing workers in China driven from the mainland by the 1949 line - the CWI argued the reverse. At of workers republics in the British Isles today are a confirmation in a new and Revolution: "Marxists support the right that time it trumpeted: "The SPD's as part of a Socialist United States of original form of Trotsky's theory of the of all parties, except fascists (which use Germany Policy.-An Offensive for Europe .• permanent revolution", adding that terror against the working class and all there is a need "to link the struggle for democratic rights), to organise inde­ democratic rights with the struggle for pendently of the state. This means we socialism". would not oppose the legalisation of the ans, the Muslim Uighurs of Xinjiang Permanent revolution, a programme GMD, however much we oppose its anti­ and other national and ethnic minori­ developed by Trotsky in 1905, was in working class policies" (China Worker Tibet ... (Continued from page 5) ties. What is needed is a fight to sweep essence the programme carried out by online, 24 May 2007). This stands com­ away Stalinist bureaucratic rule in the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revo­ pletely in continuity with the CWI's sup­ Tibet have laid the blame solely on the China and replace it with a regime lution. It is the only means of achieving port for counterrevolution in the deformed Dalai Lama; left unsaid is the role of based on workers democracy, ex­ the democratic tasks in countries of workers states of Eastern Europe and in the imperialists. But as a New York pressed through workers and peasants belated capitalist development, such as the degenerated workers state of the Soviet Times (22 March) op-ed article by one councils and rooted in Marxist interna­ China prior to the 1949 Revolution. Union in the name of democracy. Patrick French, a former director of the tionalism. This would be a workers Permanent revolution holds that the The CWI actually defends "demo­ "Free Tibet Campaign" in London, stat­ political revolution, not a social one. It proletariat must place itself at the head cratic" capitalist Taiwan against the ed: "The International Campaign for would be based on defending the of the peasant masses in a struggle for Chinese deformed workers state. Up­ Tibet, based in Washington, is now a Chinese workers state and fighting for socialist revolution, against the colo­ holding "independence" for Taiwan, more powerful and effective force on international socialist revolution. Key nial powers and against the national Taaffe implies it is a distinct nation, global opinion than the Dalai Lama's to realising this perspective is the forg­ bourgeoisie and landlords, as part of a saying: "There is now clearly a con­ outfit in northern India." This "Free ing of a Trotskyist party in China. The programme for revolution internation­ sciousness of a separate entity, Taiwan, Tibet" supporter went on to underline fate of the Tibetan people is inextrica­ ally. and a broad 'national consciousness' that "the European and American pro­ bly bound up with the struggle for pro­ This is a far cry from the CWI's pro­ amongst the majority of the population" Tibet organizations are the tail that wags letarian political revolution in China gramme which is to seek out anti­ ("Marxists, Taiwan and the National the dog of the Tibetan govemment-in­ and socialist revolution in the capitalist Communist political opposition forces in Question", chinaworker.org, 26 August exile". He also noted that "after scour­ countries - from the Indian subconti­ China, particularly those masquerading as 2005). Taiwan has been part of China ing the archives in Dharamsala" he nent to Japan, the US, Britain and other workers organisations. A key player for centuries. For the imperialists, found "that there was no evidence" to imperialist centres. among such forces is Han Dongfang, above all Japan and the US, Taiwan is a support the claim raised by his and Back in 1959, in the aftermath ofthe founder of China Labour Bulletin, who dagger at the throat of the Chinese other "Free Tibet" groups that 1.2 mil­ failed Tibetan uprising, James Robert­ has direct connections to the European deformed workers state and a spring­ lion Tibetans have been killed since the son, one of the founding leaders of our and American imperialists. Han, who is board for counterrevolution on the Chinese entered Tibet in 1950. international tendency and national also called the "Chinese Lech Walesa" mainland, which is why they arm it to At the same time, Chinese Stalinism chairman of the Spartacist League/US, after the leader of counterrevolutionary the teeth. has meant nationalism and Han chau­ wrote a leaflet that was printed in Young Solidarnosc in Poland, has for years been In a military conflict between China vinism. During the misnamed "Great Socialist (June 1959), newspaper of the a regular spokesman for Washington's and Taiwan - which could certainly Proletarian Cultural Revolution" that Young Socialist Clubs, forerunner of the Radio Free Asia, the radio station of the result in a counterrevolutionary imperi- began in the mid 1960s, in which Mao youth group of the then-Trotskyist mobilised millions of student youth to Socialist Workers Party (SWP). buttress his position in an intra­ Robertson was a former member of a bureaucratic factional feud, Mao sub­ Shachtmanite organisation that had a jected the Tibetans to fierce Great Han "third campist" (ie, non-defensist) posi­ chauvinism. Tibetan language and tion towards the Soviet Union. An native dress were proscribed. Much of ardent communist, he was won to what had been at the core of Tibetan Trotskyism and joined the SWP. This culture was simply smashed up and leaflet, titled "The Tibetan Brigade: destroyed, although with the beneficial Crocodile Tears Stain the Monkscloth" side effect of driving monks into actu­ and issued by the Eugene V Debs Club allabour. of Berkeley, was his first statement of After Mao's death, Deng Xiaoping Trotskyist Soviet defensism. In it he lifted the strictures against Tibetan lan­ asserted: guage, attire and hairstyles. At the same "The real choice for Tibet if Chinese con­ time, monasteries were rebuilt and trol were thrown off is not independent refurbished, and idle monks returned in nationhood but abject dependence on droves and numbered 40,000 to 50,000 American anus, money and advisors .... by the late 1990s. Meanwhile, the "The victory of the Chinese ComrilUnist government is clearly the progressive "market ref~rills" initiated under Deng choice in the present contest. However, to have increased Han privilege in the recognize this is not to whitewash that area. The real gains won by the Tibetan regime. But even in its distorted way it is masses from the 1949 Chinese Rev­ part of great and positive changes on the olution stand alongside continuing Asian mainland, changes that eventually inequalities. will be the Maoists' own undoing. Over 92 per cent of China's popula­ Through these very achievements the regime will be overthrown by the mass of tion is Han. It is vital for the Chinese people anxious to rule their own destinies Spartacist literature stall, 24 February 2007 Iraq war demonstration, London. proletariat to combat the Han chauvin­ without the intervention of a privileged Placards oppose British imperialism, and call for defence of China and ism of the Stalinist bureaucracy and elite. That is the future; the Tibetan monk­ remaining deformed workers states against imperialism, counterrevolution. oppose all discrimination against Tibet- rulers are the past.".

10 WORKERS HAMMER sion and religious reaction - whether it ment as a platform from which to con­ The City of London is a citadel for Elections ... comes from church, temple or mosque." vince the working class of the need for international finance capital. Much of - Workers Hammer no 194, Spring 2006 (Continued from page 12) revolutionary struggle to overthrow the the vast wealth that passes through it is Down with executive offices of capitalist system. Such was the policy of produced by the sweat and blood of partially, on an issue of importance for the capitalist state! Lenin's Bolsheviks, who were elected to toilers around the world who endure the working class. But as a matter of and organised a parliamentary fraction desperate poverty, neo-colonial subju­ George Galloway is leading Respect's principle we would not consider giving within the reactionary tsarist Duma gation and wars, which are endemic to list of candidates for the London critical support to either wing of the for­ before the 1917 October Revolution. the world system of capitalism. The Assembly, and says: "We want to hold mer Respect coalition, both of which Bourgeois parliaments, as well as local most basic needs of the working class Mayor Ken Livingstone to account" claim to stand in the true tradition of councils and assemblies, are merely a and oppressed masses cannot be met (Respect, March 2008). The office of Respect. Respect has never even pre­ "democratic" facade that masks the fun­ mayor is an executive office of the capi­ within the framework of capitalism, tended to be a working-class formation, damental nature of capitalist society as which is based on production for pri­ talist state, which can only~be held "to but was founded as a cross-class, popu­ account" by the capitalist rulers. Revo­ the class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie vate profit, not for human need. To end lar-frontist coalition. As we wrote in lutionaries would not take up executive over the working class and oppressed poverty and secure decent jobs and our article "SWP wanted the post­ offices such as that of mayor, nor that of masses. Behind the facade of parliamen­ services for all, to put an end to racism Soviet world, now they've got it": president in a bourgeois republic such as tary democracy is the mailed fist of the and imperialism's perpetual wars of "Respect purports to represent Britain's Ireland, France or the US. For the same capitalist state, which consists at its core plunder requires ripping society's Muslims, who are among the poorest sec­ reason Marxists would not take over the of armed bodies of men - the police, the means of production out of the hands of tions of the population and are foremost running of a local council-a section of army, the courts and prison system and the capitalists internationally through targets of the government's racist 'war on the capitalist state-as Militant proudly all the coercive forces which the capital­ workers revolution and establishing a terror' at home. Far from representing the ist class has at its disposal to crush any collectivised, planned economy and the interests of any oppressed minority, did in Liverpool in the 1980s. As the Respect is based on a bald-faced accept­ city's bosses, Militant became tbe real challenge to its domination. The dic­ construction of an egalitarian socialist ance by the SWP of racist British capi­ employer of Liverpool city's 30,000 tatorship of the bourgeoisie cannot be society based on a massive expansion talist rule, based on the monarchy, the workers and had to administer budget reformed away by reformist "socialists" of the productive forces. Our task is to House of Lords, the established Protes­ and job cuts. Neither would we run for getting elected to parliament or to offices forge a Bolshevik party to lead the pro­ tant churches and parliament. Respect executive office, because to do so lends such as mayor. It can only be overthrown letariat in the struggle to end the night­ certainly does not represent the interests through workers revolution, which will mare of British imperialist rule and of the . working class, minorities or legitimacy to the kind of illusions that shatter the capitalist state and establish women. It ought to repel young activists Galloway and other reformists peddle replace it with an egalitarian socialist who want to fight to overthrow the racist about the capitalist state. organs of workers rule-workers coun­ society where production is to meet the system of capitalist exploitation and to We do not oppose taking seats in par­ cils (soviets), defended by the armed needs of all the toilers, not a handful of liberate women from the yoke of oppres- liament, indeed we seek to use parlia- bodies of a workers state. super-rich exploiters .•

"no to terrorism, no to war". This was racist, and that the death sentence was Police ... an echo of Livingstone himself, who lumia ... the call for racist legal lynching. And (Continued from page 3) brandished his "anti-war" credentials (Continued from page 7) the very particulars of Mumia's case over Iraq while backing the "war on provide powerful lessons, that Mumia's working class. A 26 January Socialist terror" at home. Above all that meant bourgeoisie and to let them know that if freedom can be wrested from the state Worker article headlined: "Whose supporting the cops. something bad happens to Mumia, there only by the independent action of the interests do police officers really The notion that the strike-breaking will be a social explosion. This perspec­ working class acting with conscious­ serve?" It answered, somewhat sur­ police are part of the workers move­ tive is part of understanding that the ness of its social power to withhold prisingly, that the state "operates as the ment is the outlook of Labourite union fight for Mumia is part of the fight for its labour, to shut down industry, com­ instrument of the rich to oppress the bureauj::fats whose policy is class­ black liberation, for that of all working munications and transportation. poor" and that "the police are not part collaboration. Thus the Socialist Party people and the oppressed, which re­ Mumia's case has the power to deepen of the working class, but are rather a boasts that its members have a majority quires socialist revolution. workers' militancy, class solidarity method of holding back the working on the executive of the civil service I also want to make the point that if and the recognition that the fight for class". But actions speak louder'-than union, the PCS. These "socialists", who bourgeois law were followed, Mumia's black rights, for immigrant rights and words: leading SWPer Lindsey Ger­ have secured a sell-out two-tier deal on conviction should be thrown out, dis­ to end exploitation and oppression is man is running for Mayor of London pensions, raise not a peep about the fact missed, no new trial, no nothing. This is one fight. and giving her second preference votes that the union membership includes because there is constitutional law stip­ What we need is class-struggle to Ken Livingstone, assuring us that "it immigration cops. We say: all cops out ulating that if the police and the prose­ defence. We need united-front defence is very important that we don't let the o/the peS! cution withhold evidence from the for Mumia based on a class-struggle Tory in, which is why I will be calling Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky made defence, if they suppress evidence of programme. This means, as an initial for all my voters to give Ken their sec­ it unquestionably clear that the police Mumia's innocence, if they frame peo­ basis, that we agree that Mumia is an ond preference" (Socialist Worker, are the class enemy, saying: ple up, it is a violation of due process innocent man. Free him now! Abolish 2 February). Livingstone boasts of "The fact that the police was originally for which the charges can be dismissed. the racist death penalty! We are pre­ having put thousands more cops on recruited in large numbers from among So all the talk about needing a new trial pared to work with any organisation London's streets and he backed the Social Democratic workers is absolutely to free Mumia is a lot of legal bunk. It's that supports those slogans, understand­ Metropolitan Police in the face of pub­ meaningless. Consciousness is determined a way to give support to those who want ing that we will continue to criticise by environment even in this instance. The lic criticism over the execution of Jean to destroy a movement that could be other forces in this united front on other Charles de Menezes. This cold-blood­ worker who becomes a policeman in the service of the capitalist state, is a bourgeois based on the fact that Mumia is an inno­ political issues. And there are a number ed execution took place amid a wave cop, not a worker." cent man who must be freed. The legal of different political issues here. As I of anti-Muslim hysteria following the -"What Next? Vital Questions for the papers we filed called for dismissal of said, Mumia is not a Marxist. criminal London public transport German Proletariat", January 1932, the charges. The call for a new trial does Finally, I want to say this: the labour bombings in July 2005, at which time The Struggle Against Fascism in not even have legal credibility; it movement, the revolutionary movement the Socialist Party adopted the slogan Germany .• expresses the politics of sell-out, a internationally, has had its share of mar­ betrayal of everything that Mumia rep­ tyrs. We don't want more martyrs. We ..... resents. don't want Mumia to be a martyr. And I would just like to note that when a he must not become a martyr to the Declaration of Principles and lffeJlt3'l~mg~.; Some Elements of Program death warrant was signed in 1995, there racist viciousness of American capital. International Communist League were protests around the world for The power to free Mumia exists in the (Fourth Internationalist) Mumia's cause, including protests international working class and our task £0.50 (20 pages) based on trade unions representing mil­ is to rekindle and build a mass interna­ The Origins of lions of workers from South Africa and tional mobilisation based on the social Chinese Trotskyism Europe to the US. The mobilisations power of the working class and its many were built on the fact that Mumia's allies to fight for Mumia's freedom. Permanent Revolution vs. frame-up conviction was political and The "Anti-Imperialist United Front" Free Mumia now!. £0.70 (24 pages) How the Soviet Workers State Was Strangled Chinafs "Market Reforms": [I Contact Addresses II For Central Planning A Trotskyist Analysis Spartacist Group Ireland Through Soviet Democracy The Russian Revolution and the Defend the Chinese and North Emancipation of Women Spartacist League/Bri~i;';'::) FO Box 2944, Dublin 6, Ireland Korean Deformed Workers States! £0.70 (28 pages) PO Box 42886, London:~19·iW:f,>-.';::>. ,'.' International £0.70 (20 pages) Revolution vs. Counter­ Tel: 0207281 5504' Communist League "Market Socialism" revolution in Germany, 1989-90 [email protected]· Box 7429 GPO, New York, and the Legacy of Mao Chinese Miners Revolt Against New York 10116, USA Whither China? "Market Reforms" £0.70 (24 pages) £0.70 (24 pages) Order from/make cheques payable to: Visit the ICL website: www.spartacist.org Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY

SPRING 2008 11 WORKERS El8clionslorlondoomavor: No choice I worlers! Tory candidate Boris Johnson, racist bigot (left). Ken Livingstone, loyal servant of capitalists and staunch supporter of police (right).

The local elections due to be held on protesters on Mayday 2000. In an article Bright. Livingstone's oppOSItIon to the pay" and "said if he was an RMT mem­ I May in England and Wales will be New titled "Ken Livingstone: 100 per cent occupation of Iraq makes him a hate fig­ ber he would cross the picket line and Labour's first test at the polls since New Labour", we wrote: "Without a ure for the likes of Cohen, a "liberal" who break the strike". But the hapless Gordon Brown took over as prime minis­ doubt, a vote for Livingstone in the May passionately defends the imperialist occu- Thornett sees no alternative to voting for ter from Tony Blair last year. In London, Livingstone, at least as second choice in addition to choosing the 25-seat (second-preference votes are transferred London Assembly, voters will also elect after the first count to the best-placed the mayor, who is likely to be either New candidates). Thornett argues that "in the Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone or 2004 mayoral election Respect stood his Conservative opponent Boris No vote to livingstone, Linds'ey German and called on its sup­ Johnson. Some choice! Boris Johnson is porters to cast a second vote for Living­ certainly bad news. He is notorious for stone, and many of them did. The same using foul racist epithets to describe Respect or the len listl should apply this time" ("Socialists and black people and has condemned "the Ken Livingstone", 28 January, social­ tyranny of black majority rule" in South istresistance.net). Africa. When the 1999 report of the Macpherson inquiry into police conduct London mayoral elections is a vote for pation of Iraq; the fact that Livingstone No vote to Galloway's Respect following the murder of black teenager New Labour: he supported the govern­ cultivates relations with Muslim and other or the Left List! minority community leaders makes him a Stephen Lawrence concluded that the ment's imperialist bombing of Serbia, he Following the spectacular blow-up in police are institutionally racist, Johnson is for the British Army in Northern target of frenzied lslamophobia. the Respect coalition late last year, both described this as a witch hunt. This arro­ Ireland, and he is emphatically for the Cohen and Bright rather laughably wings are standing rival candidates in the gant, arch-Thatcherite toff is quite open racist police" (Workers Hammer no 172, tried to red-bait Livingstone, mainly upcoming elections. The two wings about his multiple prejudices, which Spring 2000). Today we also say categor­ because some of his advisors-such as are politically indistinguishable: the include class hatred for working people, ically: No vote to Livingstone! A vote for John Ross, who has worked for Galloway-led Respect is calling outright expressed in rants against Liverpool as Livingstone is an affront to the memory Livingstone for around 19 years and who for first preference votes for Livingstone well as English chauvinism in his dia­ of Jean Charles de Menezes! now reputedly earns in excess of in the mayoral elections, while the SWP­ tribes against Scottish people. The fact that Johnson, who was £100,000 a year-they say are former led wing of Respect-which is standing For his part, Livingstone has run the widely seen as a buffoon, is now a seri­ Trotskyists. Journalist Seumas Mime was as the "Left List" - is running SWPer capital for eight years as a loyal servant ous contender for mayor speaks vol­ scathing about this, not least the notion Lindsey German for mayor, and calling of the Labour government and the capita­ umes about the aggressively racist that Ross & Co constitute a "secret for a vote to Livingstone on the second list ruling class. As mayor, with some climate that exists in Britain today. Marxist' cell". Rather, he notes, these round. In a 2 February article in Socialist responsibility for policing, Livingstone Forty years on from Enoch Powell's Livingstone aides have in fact "been Worker titled "Respect's fight for has championed the Metropolitan Police, racist "rivers of blood" speech, the BBC working happily with the police and City Londoners", German gushes: "I have most grotesquely in the face of public television series titled the "White grandees for the past eight years" many points of agreement with Ken outrage over the cold-blooded police Season" shows that today Powell's anti­ (GJiardian, 24 January). We have no Livingstone - his anti-racist and anti­ slaying of Brazilian electrician Jean irnmigrant views are being regarded as truck with the witch hunt being conduct­ imperialist policies are a credit to London Charles de Menezes in July 2005. This "respectable". Responsibility for gener­ ed against Livingstone by the most reac­ and he has seriously attempted to cut car heinous act was perpetrated as part of ating this racist climate lies squarely tionary enemies of the working class. But use in the city." German would be well Labour's racist "war on terror" which with the Labour governments of Tony that hardly translates into a reason for advised not to enthuse too much about particularly targets the Muslim popula­ Blair and Gordon Brown of the past advocating electoral support for this Livingstone's sterling "anti-imperialist" tion. Back in 2000, when he first stood decade, during which they have taken proven traitor to the workers' cause. credentials in, for example, Belgrade for the newly-created office of London the ground from under the Tories' feet Showing their utter bankruptcy, the given his rabid support for NATO's mayor, the Spartacist League was virtual­ when it comes to anti-immigrant racism reformist left are lining up in support of bombing of Serbia in 1999. And even the ly alone on the left in saying no vote to and have fuelled anti-Muslim racism the despicable Livingstone. Yet even fawning SWP has to grudgingly accept Livingstone. At that time Blair's New under cover of the "war on terror". the most incQqigible Labourites among that Livingstone has some "pretty inde­ Labour prevented him from running as Johnson's campaign has been aided by them have to admit that voting for fensible policies" like "arguing tube the official Labour candidate, but that did a vicious witch hunt of Livingstone, con­ Livingstone is unpalatable. Alan workers should cross picket lines during not prevent Livingstone from openly ducted particularly by the right-wing Thornett of Socialist Resistance, which disputes, or backing Metropolitan Police declaring his fulsome support to the Blair Evening Standard which forced Lee is inside George Galloway'S Respect, Commissioner Sir Ian Blair when there government. And it certainly didn't stop Jasper, Livingstone's race adviser, to admits that "Livingstone has systemat­ were calls for his resignation after the the reformist left such as the Socialist resign amid corruption allegations. As ically championed the police including killing of Jean Charles De Menezes". Workers Party (SWP) from calling for part of this, the Observer ran a rabid over the Jean-Charles de Menezes We revolutionaries would consider votes to Livingstone, knowing full well article by Nick Cohen on 20 January, shooting" and points out that, as giving critical support to working­ that he had supported the bombing of which was followed the next day by a employer in the London public trans­ class tendencies running in elections if Serbia in 1999 and backed the cops Channel 4 Dispatches programme pre­ port system, in June 2004 Livingstone their candidacy drew a class line, even when they bloodied the anti-capitalist sented by the New Statesman's Martin "attacked the RMT for striking over continued on page 11

12 SPRING 2008