WfJRIlERS ,,1"(;II,1R' 25¢ No. 513 ~X.s23 2 November 1990 Bush and the Democrats Agree

A government by the rich and for the rich, a government that hates blacks and women, a government that wants to send the youth of Americato fight and die in a war for Big Oil. That's the way much of the American population perceives this administration. They're right. But while spouting "soak the rich" rhetoric to TV cameras, the Democratic leaders of the millionaires' club known as Congress bargain behind closed doors with their Republican cronies over how much more working people will pay for smokes, booze and gas. And they're no less en­ thusiastic in waving the Big Stick over the Persian Gulf, only pleading with Bush to let them "advise and consent" on when the shooting starts. The American people are not prepared to see their kids die in the sands of Saudi Arabia for the sake of Exxon profits and so that Washington can be cops of the world. And they deeply distrust this gov­ ernment which steals medical benefits from the 'elderly while promoting tax breaks for multimillionaires and getting rake-offs from the savings and loan scam. There has been much talk ofright­ WV Photo wingers capitalizing on populist "throw Spartacist contingent marches in October 20 New York City demonstration against U.S. invasion of Persian Gulf. the bums out" sentiment. But the wide­ spread popularity of the Daily News Bush and the Democrats have locked the the bourgeoisie's mass .murder plans. It partners in the anti-Iraq "coalition" are strike in New York shows that the work­ U.S. into a war that could set off the will take a revolutionary opposition to having doubts. The Soviets and French ing people of this country are fed up and Near East tinderbox and tear this country stop this system of war and.racism. are putting out feelers to Iraqi strongman ripe for social struggle. Workers, blacks apart. The American Empire is, as George Saddam Hussein. And now even the U.S. and Hispanics can seize this moment to Bush would put it, in "deep doodoo." Persian Gulf Quagmire: expeditionary forces' Saudi hosts are get­ pay back the capitalist rulers for all the On October 20, thousands across the "Easier to Get In Than Out" ting cold feet. Last week Saudi war min­ takebacks, the arrogant greed, the racist country marched in opposition to Wash­ Three months into the U.S. invasion of ister Prince Sultan, brother of King Fahd, terror of the last decade and more. ington's invasion of the Persian Gulf. the Gulf, a "senior" White House aide floated the possibility of a "brotherly" Crowing over victory in the'Cold While the liberal and reformist organ­ moans, "It was a lot easier to see how to Arab resolution to the conflict with Iraq. War, U.S. rulers are trying to re-create izers of the protests appealed to non­ get into this thing than it is to see how This triggered an outraged American re­ the "American century." But they still existent Democratic "doves" to save the to get out of it" (New York Times, 21 Oc­ action, causing the embarrassed Saudi haven't overcome the "Vietnam syn­ country from sinking in a Near East tober). In order to keep momentum going monarch to decree no more loose talk. drome"-not by a long shot. Meanwhile, quagmire, hundreds marched behind while public attention is "distracted" by In fact, the Saudi elite is deeply the stock market is going down, down, Spartacist League banners proclaiming: the budget fiasco in Washington and the divided over the prospect of a shooting down. The dollar is falling. Property "Break the Blockade ofIraq! Defeat U.S. Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Jerusa­ war on their oil fields. The 19 October values are plummeting. Cleaning up the Imperialism!" A generation ago, the im­ lem, the White House keeps escalating London Independent reported the "com­ S&L mess may cost a cool trillion. perialist warmongers slaughtered more the war of words 'while the Pentagon monly held" Saudi (and Syrian) view Leading banks are on the edge. Insurance than two million Vietnamese, and over sends in more troops and tanks. The lat­ "that the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was an companies are wobbly. We're already 50,000 black and working-class Ameri­ est move is to bring in another 100,000 American conspiracy to create a pretext into a recession/depression. The budget can soldiers came home in body bags. soldiers from Europe, made possible by for the 'occupation' of Saudi Arabia deficit ballooned from $150 billion to Labor political strikes against Bush's Gulf Gorbachev's virtual surrender to NATO. by American soldiers." It quoted an $240 billion in a few months. And now invasion would throw a giant wrench into Washington's none-too-enthusiastic continued on page 9

Vietnam: Racism and Rebellion Behind the -Lines ---- SEE PAGE FOUR increasing trouble getting the population to buy their shoddy frame-up wares, Ma~~lethorp~, especially among black citizens, who are 2 Live Crew all too familiar with the vicious tactics of this racist government. The jury in the Washington, D.C. Marion Barry trial refused to be suckers for the feds' at­ tempted frame-up of the black mayor, in the end only convicting him of one mis­ demeanor of cocaine possession out of Juries Rap Censorship 14 charges. Why should they believe anything federal agents tell them, many The "heartland of America" is fed up convicted for selling their album. But as an art museum before. It seemed the jurors rightly wondered. with the hypocritical lying cant and the jury foreman said, "We were very prosecution contemptously considered Furious at the jury's refusal to go witchhunting censorship. shoveled down open." He noted that "As the cross­ these people such hicks from the sticks along with the witchhunt against Barry, their throats by the Reaganites for the section of the community that we are, it that it didn't even bother to put on a real Judge Jackson on October 26 sentenced past decade. Two recent stunning jury was just not obscene. People in everyday case. the mayor to six months in prison on the verdicts in Cincinnati, Ohio and Broward society use those words." The jurors, The prosecutors limited themselves to misdemeanor charge. As Barry's lawyer County, Florida struck important blows who sent the judge a note asking if they shaking the photos in outrage, while their R. Kenneth Mundy noted, the same judge against the state's would-be sex cops and could laugh aloud in court, thought the only obscenity "expert" was a former gave Reagan's pal Michael K. Deaver censors. songs were a gas, inspiring them to try songwriter for Captain Kangaroo! But the probation after he got convicted of the "You take away one freedom, and out their own rap lyrics while going to jurors did the right thing. "We thought felony of lying under oath. It's these pretty soon they're all gone," said one and from the courtroom. "I thought it the pictures were lewd, grotesque, dis­ influence-peddlers, get-rich-quick hot­ juror in the Broward County case, ex­ would've been cute if we could have gusting," said one. "But like the defense shots and their corrupt politician buddies plaining their unanimous decision on come out with the verdict like we were said, art doesn't have to be beautiful or who are the filthy sleaze of this country. October 20 to acquit the black rap group doing a rap song," said one juror, a pretty." The prosecution strategy back­ The tendency toward common sense, 2 Live Crew of obscenity charges for a 42-year-old assistant middle school fired. One juror said, "It's like Picasso. decency and tolerance on the part of performance of songs from their album principal. Picasso from what everybody tells me ordinary citizens is deeply disturbing to "As Nasty As They Wanna Be." The In another stinging rebuke to the arro­ was an artist. It's not my cup of tea. I our rulers. The jury system occasionally prosecutors brought in an almost inaudi-' gant censors of America, an eight-person don't understand it. But if people say it's allows a small spark of fairness to break ble tape of the performance, but thought jury in Cincinnati acquitted the city's art, then I have to go along with it." through, to the dismay of the entrenched they had it made-after all, the six­ Contemporary Arts Center and its direc­ Juries nixing sex witchhunt prose­ agents of repression, who feel there's person jury hearing the raunchy lyrics tor Dennis Barrie of obscenity charges on cutions have become a trend. At the something deeply subversive about the included three over-60 ladies, a singer October 5. In that case, the first ever beginning 'of this year, a Southern people actually taking the law into their in a church choir, and only one black against a museum, it took the jury less California jury finally put an end to the own hands. Meanwhile, it's poetic justice person. than two hours to decide that the late infamous McMartin Preschool case. This that the man who made Cincinnati into It's not surprising that lead singer Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs were signature case of the Reagan years "Censornati," who in the early 1970s Luther Campbell was initially nervous works of art. The jury was largely com­ dragged on for six years, as prosecutors founded two anti-porn Cincinnati groups, about the outcome-earlier, Miami black posed of suburban working-class parents, sought to whip up a witches' brew of the Citizens for Decent Literature and store owner Charles Freeman had been only three of whom had ever been inside hysteria over the devil, drugs and day the Citizens for Decency for Law, is care. The Buckeys, owners of the pre­ none other than the man who is now school, were found not guilty ofsome 52 under indictment in the billion-dollar How Workers Beat Back counts of child abuse. Lincoln Savings & Loan scandal, Charles Witchhunting prosecutors are having H. Keating Jr.• Police Scabherding Every serious strike shows, as Marx and Engels asserted more than a century ago, that the capitalist state comes down to special armed bodies such as the police whose job is to defend the interests of the ruling class. From New York to Los Angeles, the cops are corporate America'sfront-line thugs. Any reliance on the capitalist state or its politi- TROTSKY cians, any illusions in the courts or the cops, LENIN spell death for a labor struggle. James P. Cannon, founder of American Trotskyism, describes here how the Trotskyist-led 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike, which culminated in a citywide general strike two months later. militarily defeated police scabherding in the "Battle of the Running Bulls." This served as a model in building the industrial unions in the 1930s. There is nothing new, of course, in a fight between strikers and police and gunmen. Every strike of any consequence tells the old, familiar story of the hounding, beating, and killing of strikers by the hired thugs of the exploiters, in and out of uniform. What is out of the ordinary in Minneapolis, what is more important in this respect, is that while the Minneapolis strike began with violent assaults on the strikers, it didn't end there. In pitched battles last Saturday and again on Monday, the strikers fought back and held their own. And on Tuesday they took the offensive, with devastating results. Businessmen, volunteering to put the workers in their place, and college boys out for a lark as special deputies-to say nothing of the uniformed cops-handed over their badges and fled in terror before -the mass fury of the aroused workers. And many of AP them carried away unwelcome souvenirs of the engagement. Here was a demonstration One thousand rallied against censorship of Mapplethorpe exhibit in Cincinnati that the American workers are willing and able to fight in their own interests. Nothing last April. is more important than this, for, in the last analysis, everything depends on it.. .. A second feature of the fight at the City Market which deserves' special attention is the fact that it was not the ordinary encounter between individual strikers and individual scabs or thugs. On the contrary-take note-the whole union went into action on the picket line in mass formation; thousands of other union men went with Down With "Obscenity" Laws! them; they took along the necessary means to protect themselves against the murderous thugs, as they had every right to do. This was an example of mass action which points 13 October 1990 highways of the "Sunshine" State. In the way for the future victorious struggles of the American workers. State's Attorney the 1950s White Citizens Councils burned "godless" rock and roll rec­ -James P. Cannon, "Learn From Minneapolis!" (May 1934) Broward County Courthouse Fort Lauderdale, FL ords-the flip side of burning black churches and schools. What do you Dear Sir: have in mind to accompany this The conviction of record store prohibition on black rap music? How owner Charles Freeman on obscenity nasty do you wanna be? charges and the prosecution of 2 Live Americans deeply cherish the rights !!~!!!!y.r..~!!!!.~f'!.! ~ supposedly embodied in the First Crew is an outrage. We demand all DIRECTOR OF PARTYPUBLICATIONS: Liz Gordon charges against Mr. Freeman and Amendment, and despise government EDITOR: Jan Norden 2 Live Crew be dropped. efforts to tell us what we can say, PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jorge Ramirez Real obscenity is no stranger to the read and listen to. The Big Brothers CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Valdez state of Florida: the assembly line of in state houses and legislatures have EDITORIAL BOARD: George Foster, Frank Hunter, Jane Kerrigan. L.tln Meyers. James Robertson, executions is obscene; it is an obscen­ absolutely no right to force their indi­ Reuben Samuels, Joseph Seymour, Alison Spencer, Marjorie Stamberg ity that thousands of black Haitian vidual moral values on others. We The Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League (Fourth refugees are held in Florida con­ demand an end to all obscenity laws. Internationalist). Drop the charges against Charles Workers Vanguard (USPS098-770) published biweekly, except 2nd issue August and with 3-week interval December, centration camps; jackbooted sheriffs by the Spartacist Publishing Co., 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 732-7862 (Editorial), telling black store owners what they Freeman and 2 Live Crew. (212) 732·7861 (Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. Domestic subscriptions: $7.00/24 issues. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes can sell is deeply obscene; and it is Very truly yours, to Workers Vanguard, Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. certainly deeply offensive that even Paul Cooperstein Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. star pitcher Dwight Gooden is not For the safe from .racist cop terror on the Partisan Defense Committee No. 513 2 November 1990

2 WORKERS VANGUARD D.C. Cops Protect KKK, Beat Protesters OCTOBER 28-About 30 hooded Klans­ their "celebration." men marched down Constitution Avenue The fascist group which marched to­ today, protected by thousands of riot-clad day, the "Christian Knights of the KKK," cops from the wrath of angry protesters. is led by Virgil Griffin, the ringleader of Some 2,500 demonstrators lined their the November 1979 massacre which march route, hurling rocks and bottles, gunned down five leftists and blacks in even throwing themselves at the police, Greensboro, North Carolina. Griffin's attempting to get at the KKK from every death squad was aided and abetted by conceivable direction. Hundreds more city, state and federal police, and the stationed themselves at points around the killers were then acquitted by all-white Capitol. But the army of police cracked juries! Now the Marcyites beg and plead heads to ensure that the racist terrorists with racist-in-chief George Bush to ban should march in Washington, D.C. his dogs of war! In contrast to the demonstration on Such banning laws, even when enacted September 2, when several thousand anti­ against fascists, are invariably used Klan protesters were able to occupy the against the left. And they will be no KKK's projected line of march, this time more effective in stopping the KKK than the protesters were kept hundreds of are the Marcyites' appeals to the impo­ yards away from the march route: Dem­ tent War Powers Act in stopping the onstrators ran along parallel streets look­ bipartisan U.S. invasion of the Persian ing for an opening. When demonstrators Gulf. Unlike the craven Marcyites, the probed police lines, clubbingsand arrests Progressive Labor Party's leaflet called often followed. Motorcycle cops drove to smash the Klan and linked the fascist into the crowd, while police dragged pro­ ThresherlWashington Post KKK in the streets to Bush's civil rights testers across barricades to club and Cops brutally charge anti-Klan protesters, October 28. An army of police lined veto. Hands off PL/InCARl arrest them. Some 50 demonstrators have the streets to escort the Klan to the Capitol. Not whining pleas to the White House, been arrested. Drop all charges against but mobilizing the power of the integrat­ the anti-Klan protesters! last month's events, when demonstrators, again on October 28, the APC issued a ed working class is key to stopping the This was the first time the KKK had including the mayor's wife, defied the call on George Bush to "Ban the Klan racist terrorists in their tracks. In 1982, marched through the capital's streets cops and blocked the Klan's march route. Now!" and initiated a petition campaign: the Spartacist League-initiated Labor/ since 1925, when 40,000 hooded white­ But when the courts gave the Klan the "We demand that the federal government Black Mobilization was built by calling supremacists paraded down Pennsylvania go-ahead, the cops had their contingency act now to ban the Klan." The petition on the strength of the union movement, Avenue. For the last week, it was unclear plans ready. Particularly after black pathetically appealed to a Reconstruction particularly of black-led locals in the whether the Klan would get a permit, mayor Marion Barry was sentenced to six law signed by Ulysses S. Grant as the D.C., Tidewater and Baltimore area. which was issued after a federal judge (at months in jail in a racist vendetta, the basis for banning the Klan. "Finish the Civil War!" was the chant the request of the ACLU) ordered the cops, citing "intelligence" of "exacerbat­ What an obscene comparison! General which captured the spirit of the 5,000­ city to do so. Today the handful of nativ­ ed racial tensions," clamped down hard. Grant led the Union armies which plus demonstrators whose determination ist fascists were surrounded by 3,000 They closed down museums and subway smashed the slaveowners' rule. George and organization made it clear that the D.C., Capitol and Park police. After stations and sealed off the Mall area for Bush on the other hand just vetoed racists wouldn't march that day. walking the eleven-block route, they most of Sunday. civil rights legislation, while plotting a We've got to finish the work started stood on the Capitol steps shouting racial In September, demonstrators didn't war which will rain death on the peo­ by Generals Grant, Sheridan and Sher­ epithets through megaphones to the TV heed the calls of the Marcyite All­ ples of the Near East! Fascist David man and the hundreds of thousands of cameras. Peoples Congress to protest "peacefully" Duke was in the visitors' gallery gloat­ black and white soldiers they led to In this 70 percent black city, D.C. and just "say no to racism." When the ing as Congress failed to override victory. For black liberation through local authorities were wary of a repeat of Klan announced it would try to march Bush's veto, and the Klan march was socialist revolution! • Racist Vote for Fascist Duke including "Did Six Million Really Die?" from a tree in rural Winona, Mississippi. 10 percent. The relative absence until and videotapes of American Nazi Party Charles Tisdale, publisher of the Jackson now of integrated social struggle makes founder George Lincoln Rockwell. Duke Advocate, told WV that "it's the fifth such it ripe for Duke's scapegoating. Living Louisiana has been linked to paramilitary mercenar­ lynching ruled a suicide in Mississippi in the shadow of Exxon refineries, the ies bent on overthrowing Maurice Bishop since 1982." In the next weeks, two black poor of Louisiana are scraping to Klansman David Duke, the fascist with in Grenada-only the KKK-endorsed synagogues in Duke's Metairie bailiwick make ends meet; as for a long line of a face-lift, came close to winning a Reagan got there first ("Bayou of Pigs," were desecrated with Nazi graffiti. And notoriously venal and corrupt Louisiana U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana October 6. Atlanta Constitution, 3 October). "For­ KKKers who carried outrthe 1979 pols, roulez les bons temps (let the good Sixty percent of the white vote in the mer" Klansman and Nazi Duke now Greensboro Massacre marched in Wash­ times roll). But now opposition is begin­ open primary went to Duke, currently appears in three-piece suits instead of ington, D.C. on October 28, backed by ning to polarize along class lines with a state legislator from the lily-white white sheets. But he is no less a fascist. an army of 3,000 cops (see above). renewed opportunity for militant social New Orleans suburb of 'Metairie. That Duke has said the difference between Meanwhile, in Portland, Oregon civil struggle. Duke is poison to united and the winner, incumbent Democrat J. Ben­ him and other Republicans is. he says rights attorney Morris Dees won a $12.5 integrated struggle; the reverse is also nett Johnston, a certified Dixiecrat and openly "what a lot of other Republicans million award in a civil suit against fas­ true. The recent strike by New Orleans staunch opponent of integration, could have not been willing to talk about on cist Metzger's "White Aryan Resistance" teachers shows that there is a reserve of posture as an "alternative" to Duke dem­ the campaign trail." As the Duke cam­ for inciting the murder of Mulugeta fighting social power to be tapped. onstrates the dead end of capitalist poli­ paign threatened to be a' major embar­ Seraw, a 27-year-old Ethiopian student Liberals such as the "Louisiana Coali­ tics. Even as the largely black and Cath­ rassment for the White House, Bush who was bludgeoned to death by skin­ tion Against Racism and Nazism" had no olic population of Southern Louisiana trotted out VP Quayle and a bevy of heads. The No.3 man of "WAR," David strategy to stop Duke except fund-raising returned him to office, "old Bennett" was Senators to denounce Duke. They got his Mazzella, testified that he was sent to benefits for anti-Duke television spots to whistling Dixie: "People are venting their Republican opponent to quit the race to Portland to organize the skinheads and "educate" the public. And their goal was spleen .... Well Bennett got the message." avoid having Duke as the GOP candidate was with the killers hours before the only to keep Duke's vote under 40 per­ And what was that "message"? in a run-off vote. The Democrats have attack. "I was a direct link from the cent to prevent him from gaining "legiti­ "Campaigning in Code," the Washing­ their fascists too. Duke, for one, ran in things Metzger wrote to the skinheads macy for future efforts." Meanwhile, ton Post dubbed it, as Duke addressed the Democratic presidential primaries in they were trying to reach," said Mazzella Jesse Jackson has invited fascist Duke pumped-up all-white audiences, blasting 1988. And KKK Imperial Wizard Tom (New York Times, 23 October). The onto his TV show! the "parasitic welfare underclass,' "pub­ Metzger was the Democratic Congres­ Seraw family deserves every penny they In New Orleans, black radical Leon lic housing residents," and immigrants sional candidate in San Diego, and was can get from these fascist murderers. Waters ran for Congress as candidate of who supposedly "threaten white Christian "disowned" by the Democratic Party. The battle against the likes of Duke the Revolutionary Political Organization civilization." But you don't need a The "mainstream" media tried to and Metzger will not be won at the ballot (Marxist-Leninist), But Waters' call to code breaker to recognize pure racism. whitewash Duke's election results. The box or in the courtroom. Fascist penetra­ "Vote No to Duke" is a backhanded call The New Orleans Times-Picayune (9 Au­ New York Times (8 October) headlined, tion into key American cities can and has to vote for the Democrats. Moreover, the gust) cited records Duke sells under the "Louisiana Tally Is Seen as a Sign of been stopped by the largely black plebe­ RPO's "legislative proposal" called to "Rebel" label with titles like "Some Voter Unrest." Even Virginia black Dem­ ian and working-class populations. Nota­ "Ban the Klan." The capitalist state Niggers Never Die" and "Kajun Ku Klux ocratic governor Douglas Wilder (who bly in the South, a drive to unionize the always uses bans on "extremists" against Klan," the latter about a black man tor­ dropped his opposition to the death pen­ unorganized on the scale of the organi­ the left, while keeping the fascists in tured to death for refusing to leave a cafe alty to get elected) said Duke's showing zation of the CIO in the 1930s-and led reserve for use against working-class where he is denied service. In Shreveport was a "demand for change from the by the powerful and largely (in the upsurge. he ripped the paper, "But you know who 'locked-out' and the leftout." Capitalist South) black ILA, joined by Teamsters, What is needed is a revolutionary fight owns the Times-Picayune?" The reply, politicians of both parties compete for Mine Workers, transit and chemical to mobilize labor and minorities in an chanted in unison: "Jews. Jews. Jews." this deeply racist vote. workers of the ATU and OCAW-could all-sided offensive against racist capital­ Duke says the Nazi Holocaust was a Not simply an "electoral" event, break the back and "appeal" of David ist rule. Break from the partner parties of "myth perpetrated on Christians by Duke's 44 percent vote will be seen as Duke fascism. capitalism-for a workers party to cham­ Jews." Until June of 1989 he sold Nazi agreen light for fascist terror. The very Louisiana has been hard hit for over a . pion the cause of the oppressed and fight tracts out of his "legislative office," next day a black man was found hanged decade with unemployment running over for workers rule!. 2 NOVEMBER 1990 3 Griffiths/Magnum . Wide World . Black Gis got the most dangerous assignments, died disproportionately in Vietnam. Many were radicalized by the dirty imperialist war and by the racism they experienced in the army. Vietnam: Racism and Rebellion Behind the Lines Today when the U.S. sends hundreds of defoliated, I've heard 20 percent. It was thousands of black, Hispanic and other probably more than that. I remember this working-class youth in uniform to kill and one place where it looked like a moon­ die in the Arabian sands, the "Vietnam scape, huge craters from 2,OOO-pound syndrome" is alive and well and could bombs that had been dropped. It had blow up in Washington's face. As the been defoliated, so everything was dead. heroic Vietnamese were waging and win­ The trees were just blackened, no sign of ning a war of social liberation, increas­ life. The people who'd been there were ingly American GIs came to understand probably rounded up and put in one of that they were cannon fodder in America's the relocation camps, where their "hearts dirty imperialist war. In particular, black and minds" were "won over." A small soldiers-victims of racist oppression­ village, where maybe 500 had lived, was saw the enemy at home, and at their back. us on trucks that drove past all the There was a lot of brutality toward the gone. Land that they'd probably been on Contrary to the new lying "history" of whorehouses. I was struck by the poverty Vietnamese. I saw young Vietnamese for god knows how many years was Vietnam being drummed into popular con­ once we got further away from the city. men who were "suspect" kicked, beaten, gone, their cemeteries were destroyed, sciousness by the bourgeois media, leftist I was basically apolitical. As a kid, like with their hands tied behind their backs. their houses of worship were destroyed. antiwar activists didn't "spit on" returning a lot of kids, I was aware of the fact that You'd hear the horror stories. Some of That's what really struck me-this soldiers. Rather they sought, through set­ there was all this wealth in America and these Marines were crazy. I was sitting total destruction of an entire people-and ting up GI coffeehouses, putting out under­ yet all this starvation. I knew about the next to a guy one day; who was on his made me start to think this was wrong ground newspapers, to win soldiers to war and read about the war. I didn't second or third tour on his request, and and there was absolutely no justification their ranks. And they did, in large num­ know anybody who really wanted to go there was an old farmer working in the for what was being done. It was more bers. We print below the recollections of fight, at least none of my friends. So field. And this guy just lifted his rifle than I'd imagined could be done to hu­ that monstrous war by Garry Gianninoto, instead of waiting to be drafted; I enlist- and said, "See that old 'gook'? If that man beings, land, animals. And those a Vietnam veteran and member of the images stick in my head. I can still see Spartacist League. them, I can still smell them. I was a Navy Medical Corpsman in Vet of Nam Combat and Danang After returning Racist Hell for the Ranks Vietnam from February '68 through De­ 8rig Rebellion Tells What the from Vietnam, cember '68, attached to the l st Marine Garry Gianninoto It was interesting: when we were in Division, Ist Battalion/27th Regiment, Military and the Newspapers Hide By Gary J. Gianninoto spoke out about the bush, with a couple of exceptions, C Company. We spent most of our time IIospitalm... USN (ret.) BIGOTED OFFICER GETS JUMPED the horrors he there was little overt racism to black GIs. between a small base south of Da Nang' Our company commander was experienced. But one day we were out and it was hot, an out and out bigot. He treated and Hue. My platoon was largely black, tbe black guys like shit. He used Left: 1969 article we'd been shot at, we knew we were I'd say 70 percent black. Almost half of' to especial1y pick on one black guy in newspaper of going to get shot at some more. One of named Brown from Detroit. But the American them were guys who'd already served one day he pushed it too far. When my buddies, a black kid from Detroit, he told Brown to get his "black Servicemen's one tour in Vietnam finishing out their ass moving," Brown turned around was taking a break and he was a little time in Hawaii. Then they announced we and knocked him right on his back Union, associated with Sam Marcy's slow in getting up. Our captain came were going out on a five-month training Workers World along-all the officers, by the way, were exercise, to the Philippines, Japan, but Ex-corpsrocm Gary Gianninoto smiles now THE that he "is free,but the past was a PartyIYAWF. white-and said to him: "Get your nig­ not Vietnam. On the third day out, the ... nightmare. BOND ger ass up. Get going!" My buddy captain and announced that this was no __----...... _-1 The ServIcemen'l NeWlpaper jumped up and tried to punch the cap­ L .1. 3 No. '7 July n. 11161 training exercise, that we were going to tain's face. Two men grabbed my friend Da Nang. The unit was being sent back and kept him from attacking the captain. because of the Tet Offensive. ed in the Navy for four years. was 'Charlie,' this is what I would do to The captain said, "Take this man back Even before we got to Vietnam a lot So I was really angry at being there. him." And he just squeezed the trigger and court-martial his black ass." of these guys, because they knew what I didn't want to be there. At the 'begin­ and shot the old man dead. And that No more than five minutes passed and they were facing, decided that they didn't ning I blamed the Vietnamese for my went on all over the place, or where they we hear this shriek, and here comes my want to go back to Vietnam. One fellow being there-I felt they should go fight went further and killed all the villagers, buddy with two grenades, one in each had his buddy use an entrenching tool, their own war. A lot of guys took their everybody who was a witness. hand, and he ~ d pulled the pins on both those small foldup shovels they use in rage out on the villagers. And there was The more I got out into the various grenades. The captain took one look at the field, to beat his lower legs, trying to a policy too: search and destroy mis­ areas, the more I saw. After four weeks my buddy, and just turned and ran, left break his legs. He was successful, and he sions. You'd just bum a village down, I saw a defoliated area, where they'd his whole command post behind. My was sent back to Hawaii once we got to destroy the grain stores and seal off all gone in and just destroyed a tremendous buddy was put on the next supply chop­ the Philippines for a stopoff. the bunkers, whether or not there were piece of land. Where there had been per and court-martialed; I think he was people inside. Nobody would bother villages and crops, there was nothing. given six months for attempted assault. I Can Still See the Destruction going in to look, they would just take With Agent Orange, what they said then . That was the only incident that I saw They actually landed us on the beach ­ grenades and throw them in there or use was nothing would grow for 20 years. I in the bush in terms of overt racism. in Da Nang in landing craft, then loaded a flamethrower. don't know how much of the land was But there was a lot of taking so-called 4 WORKERS VANGUARD troublemakers-the blacks were consid­ burned down a couple of buildings. ered troublemakers, and later I was con­ Along with another guy I led a sit­ sidered a white troublemaker-and mak­ down strike while I was in the brig. We ing them walk point on patrols. Day used to go out on work details to string patrols, night patrols, short patrols, long razor wire, usually at another base. So patrols. And it was a given that the man we're out there with this razor wire and who walked point was usually a black these heavy gloves and two sets of pants man. This was the guy who walked and two shirts so we wouldn't get cut up, ahead of the main column, and he had to in 100-degree weather. And the deal was feel his way along, look for booby traps, when we did thiskind of stuff, we would poke around looking for mines, looking have a hot meal. But the officers said we for any trip wires, that kind of stuff. couldn't go into their mess hall because. There was one poor guy who went out 20 we were prisoners and not worthy. We times and 'walked point 20 times only were going to eat C-rations instead. So because he was in some captain's shit­ my buddy and I said to the guys-there house who wanted to teach him a lesson. were ten or twelve of us on the work de­ Guys resented it, there'd be complaints tail-"Listen, they're not going to let us to the NCOs, the sergeants, about it. But eat. Let's just sit down and not work." especially in the Marines, they would We all sat down and lit up a cigarette. threaten your life: "If you don't do A, B They had to go get a lieutenant-some and C, we're going to take you some­ little shitfaced 20-year-old lieutenant where out in the boonies and put a bullet right out of Officers Training School. He in your head, and say that you got hit by Nihon Denpa News Ltd. actually fired a shot over his head, or­ Heroic 1968 Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese Army and NLF spelled defeat a 'gook'." for U.S.-Vietnam was a victory! dered us back to work. And we just The very tense period was after King's refused. Anyway, we end up before the assassination. There were all sorts of going to save the colonel from his fate, and said "I quit." My life was threatened. commanding officer of the brig, and all special MP types brought in, there were and he ended up getting his own throat I was court-martialed, and I spent four ten or twelve of us are charged with limitations on staying up late at night­ cut. Fortunately, it wasn't too severe, but months in a brig in Da Nang at hard mutiny, put in solitary confinement, a lot of times we would stop off at a the colonel never thanked the man for labor burning shit from the outhouses, or which is something I never experienced base to spend the night on our way doing this. He could have gone over to digging garbage pits, things like that. the likes of before. It's like a six-by­ somewhere and we'd usually stay up late the sick bay and thanked the guy. But he Surprisingly (not so surprisingly, I eight cell, and it's disgusting. There was in one of the bunkers and get high and never did. The other times that the unit suppose), a lot of the guys I knew were one fellow in there, black of course, for listen to music. and sing. That kind of tried to get this bastard was when he in the brig. We were in a facility that nine months, because he'd gotten caught stuff was curtailed because I think the would go along with us on the larger was designed for 180, and there were smoking a joint in the brig. We spent military was afraid there might be an operations, where his face had to be 300 prisoners squeezed into this filthy about a week in there, and they dropped explosion. seen. He was finally relieved of duty hole that didn't even have trenches in the charges. I don't think they wanted to after seven months of command for case we were attacked. have a big court-martial over ten or "Fragging" incompetence. One night at a movie guys just sort of twelve Marines and a Navy Corpsman There were several incidents of frag­ The other thing that started happening exploded and we were led back into our who wouldn't string barbed wire because ging in my unit. The first one was be­ in my unit was a number of people­ hooches-each hooch was a cage which they couldn't get a hot meal. tween a white sergeant and a black GI. especially the guys who'd already fought was separated from the next one by a Last thing I want to tell you about is The sergeant kept riding the black GI and the war once-started saying, "I'm going twelve- or nine-foot fence and barbed the phantom patrols, as we called them. it was endless and ceaseless-riding him, to shoot myself and get the fuck out of wire. We all began to bang our canteen They'd leave the main base and check riding him, riding him. So one day the here." It was started one day by this cups on the wooden floor, louder and out with the lieutenant and go over the sergeant was out by himself walking young white kid from the South. We louder and louder and louder. And the map with the red flashlight. Then they'd around, and it was alleged that the black were on a small patrol-squad size, 12 next thing I knew, in one of the hooches line up very seriously and go out maybe GI shot him and hit him in the leg, but men-and he said, "Wait up, guys, I've the guys started to rip two-by-fours off 100 yards, if that far. We'd stop and the didn't kill him-which in a way for the got to go take a piss." He went over to the hooches and managed to break the radio man would call back in, and we'd sergeant was a good thing, because it got the tree line, took his M-14, pressed the lock on their gate and came down and just sit down, wait 10, 15 minutes, and him sent back to the States. barrel against his thigh and pulled the broke the lock on the next gate. And the put the radio man back on. "Charlie One, The other incident of an officer being trigger. He literally blew his leg away. turnkeys, as we called them, the guards, this is Charlie Two. We're now at shot at by his own men was our colonel, And that sort of started it. locked the main gate and left us inside Checkpoint Two." This would go on until who was a 20-year man and had no expe­ So there'd be groups of two, three, this small compound. We proceeded to Checkpoint Four or Five, and then we'd rience in combat. He had been yanked four guys who, as soon as we hit any break out of that and took over the brig do the same thing in reverse order. I later from behind his desk in Hawaii and kind of incoming fire, would shoot them­ for about three days. heard that this became more widespread, given about 1,200 men to command. selves, usually through the calf muscle, What they did to break it up was that small units would go out at night After about a month of being under this or in between the toes of the feet, or they brought in a battalion of, say, a and not go anywhere, because they didn't want to risk running into the enemy when they didn't have to, especially if you only had a couple of months to go before you were going to be going back to the States. Black Gis: "This Isn't Our War" Among the blacks and poor whites, there wasn't any sense that this is a war that has to be won. There were no more dian a handful of men in my unit that were gung ho-that's the expression that was used-and one of them was killed because of his wanting to go out and win the war. The pitch that we were given about the Vietnamese was they're not Christians, they don't know how to gov­ ern themselves, and Westmoreland's famous line about how these people put less value on life than we do. The only education that the guys got were from people like myself, medics, about how

. A otos not to get syphilis and gonorrhea and U.S. imperialists rained chemical death on the people of Vietnam. Air Force dropped 19 million gallons of deadly things like that. I knew men who had "defoliants" like Agent Orange (left), burned thousands with jellied gasoline napalm (right). absolutely no idea where they were geo­ graphically in the world. guy's command, people began to make through the forearm, using a pistol. The thousand Marines, complete with shot­ I sort of became one of the brothers. decisions that this guy had to go: too last count before I left my unit, there guns, dogs, tear gas and just bombed the I hung out with the blacks because in many times our own artillery was called were eleven guys out of say 40 who'd place with tear gas and, using bullhorns, large part I didn't have much in common in on us, too many times our own jets shot themselves. No one was successful threatened that if people didn't start to with a lot ofthe whites. So I heard a lot bombed us, too many times of this, too in getting back to the States. A good come out, they were going to set the of the grumbling. Talking about racism. many times of that. friend of mine-he was a medic like dogs loose and they were going to start The war isn't their war. They ain't get­ When we were back in regimental HQ, myself-decided he wasn't going to using their shotguns. I've been tear­ ting nothing out of it. which was a relatively safe area where drink any water or take any salt tablets gassed at demonstrations but I've never Da Nang was like a big whorehouse, we'd go back now and then to freshen in the unbearably hot weather. The last seen anything like it. A lot of guys were black market. Too bad they didn't sell up, the colonel always took a shower at time I saw him he was being carried by charged, again mostly black. The dogs magazines. You could buy tires; you a certain time. And he was in the shower four guys and he was in heat stroke. were taken out of the dog kennels and could sell American money, but you this one night with another enlisted man. Marines were put in. They had these couldn't buy a magazine. Some guys had So the enlisted man dries himself off, Rebellion in the Brig steel cargo containers and they put four subs to some of the magazines. But goes outside the door, and overhears After four months I decided I wasn't or five guys in each one of those. About newspapers, the one you saw the most these two GIs talking, "When the colonel going to shoot myself or dehydrate my­ a week later, they had a rebellion at the there was the Stars and Stripes. For a comes out, you grab him and I'll cut his -self, but I'd had it because I'd seen too army brig-which could hold 800 men while one of my friends was getting throat." The kid decided that he was much butchery. I went to my superiors -down in Long Binh near Saigon. They continued on page 10 2 NOVEMBER 1990 5 We are proud to print be­ Warsaw congress of the low a statement of working OPZZ trade-union federation. agreement between the Inter­ Spartacist Group This letter, counterposing the national Communist League Trotskyist perspective of pro­ and our comrades of the new­ letarian internationalism to 1y founded Spartakusowska escalating Greater German Grupa Polski. The militants chauvinism and the nation­ of the SGP come to the ICL, alism of Solidarnosc, came having arrived at revolution­ of Poland Founded into the hands of the RML. ary Trotskyism after several "Nine years ago our call to years of efforts to rediscover , "Stop Solidarnosc Counter­ the program of authentic communism. have a 'Solidarnosc' pedigree, or in any East Germany (DDR) a year ago allowed revolution" stood out sharply as a con­ Its cadre include some who were po­ case put all their hopes in 'Solidarnosc.' us for the first time to reach out to Po­ cretization of the Trotskyist insistence liticized rby the events of 1980-81 in Until now it is difficult for them to shed lish workers with Trotskyist propaganda that the USSR and the deformed work­ Poland but were repulsed by the reac­ these illusions. Either they don't know or in their native language. A statement ers states be defended against capitalist tionary clericalism of Solidarnosc. They they deliberately suppress the reality of of "Internationalist Greetings to Our restoration. Sundry opportunists sneered were among the founders of the Ruch our true tradition (for 'tactical' reasons). Polish Comrades" (December 1989) by that such a principled stance would Mlodej Lewicy (RML-Young Left It is increasingly more difficult for us to our comrades in Germany, produced find no support within the Polish work­ Movement), initially a somewhat het­ have a common language with them." through the assistance of a Polish­ ers movement. The revolutionary re­ erogeneous grouping which sought to For the ICL, this agreement represents speaking sympathizer in London, was groupment in Poland is therefore particu­ function as a left wing within the a welcome result of our ongoing propa­ widely distributed among the thousands larly satisfying. The adherence of Polish youth organization of the Polish United gandistic intervention into the events in of Polish workers in the DDR. Sub­ comrades to the ICL, along with fusions Workers Party (PZPR-the ruling Stalin­ Poland from without. It is also a modest sequently, a "Letter to Polish Workers" of new forces in Canada and Mexico, ist party). Seeking the road to prole­ vindication of our insistence on reviving (May 1990) by the Spartakist Workers bears witness to the power of the Lenin­ tarian internationalism, our new Polish the historic revolutionary unity of the Party of Germany was distributed in ist program to regroup subjective com­ comrades came into conflict with the German, Polish and Soviet proletariat. Poland itself, to the combative rail munists internationally. Forward to the Stalinist nationalist perversion of Marx­ The beginnings of political revolution in workers in Szczecin as well as the reforging of the Fourth International! ism and with the deeply nationalist pro­ Solidarnosc left. They were excluded from a May Day demonstration in 1988 for carrying banners hailing Lenin, Lux­ emburg and Liebknecht, revolutionary leaders of the Russian, Polish and Ger­ man workers. Increasingly attracted to Trotskyism, they were instrumental in seeing that key works by Trotsky like The Revolution Betrayed were translated into the Polish language. Thus, by the time they first came into contact with ICL literature this summer, the comrades who now constitute the SGP had through their own experiences and struggles arrived at a similar political thrust on several key questions. But it was necessary to draw a sharp political line against the pro-Solidarnosc outfits like the Mandelites and Morenoites who masquerade as Trotskyists. As the Polish comrades noted in a letter to our German WV Photo Bulletin [Australia] section: "In the Trotskyist movement in New York, September 1981: Spartacists opposed power grab by reactionary Solidarnosc, company union for the CIA Poland, we often meet with activists who and capitalist bankers. Solidarnosc leader Lech Walesa (right) flaunts money from Western backers.

1. From October 1917 on, capitalism relations. As opposed to workers "self­ has sought to crush the world historic Between Young Left Movement management," which in reality means the achievements of the Russian Revolution. introduction of capitalist property rela­ The restoration of capitalism would mean tions through the pitting of workers in massive immiserization and unemploy­ of Poland and leL different enterprises against each other, we stand for a planned, socializedecon­ ment of the working people, bringing restoration of capitalism through bour­ the parasitic bureaucracy. The RML omy (including the collectivization of back all the backwardness and chauvin­ geois parliamentarism, and liquidation of [Young Left Movement] agrees with this agriculture) free of Stalinist bureaucrat­ ism of the past, and preparations for a the planned economy. Had Solidarnosc position. These events were an acid test ic parasitism, arbitrarism and national new interimperialist war. We Trotskyists been victorious, it would as well have for all would-be revolutionaries; it is autarky. The basic direction of the econ­ stand for unconditional military defense threatened the existence of the other necessary to swim against the stream omy and society must be decided through of the Soviet Union .and the deformed deformed workers states, placing in the when the Marxist program stands coun­ workers democracy, that is, rule by workers states against imperialism and hands of the imperialists the main supply terposed to the existing consciousness of workers councils. internal counterrevolution. and communication routes between the the overwhelming bulk of the working 2. In Poland the primary agency for Soviet Union and the DDR, then the class. 4. True to the program of the early Com­ counterrevolution has been Solidarnosc, front line state confronting NATO.' At munist International, Trotskyism stands aided and abetted by imperialism, the that time the international Spartacist 3. We reject the claims of fake-leftists for world socialist revolution. In contrast, Vatican and social democracy. By the tendency (iSt, now the ICL) demanded that counterrevolutionary Solidarnosc Stalin's dogma of "socialism in one time of its first congress in 1981, Soli­ "Stop Solidarnosc Counterrevolution" was leading a "proletarian political revo­ country" is a nationalist, anti-socialist lie darnosc had consolidated behind a pro­ and supported Jaruzelski's preventive lution" in 1981. A genuine proletarian aimed at conciliating imperialism. The gram of social counterrevolution: support military coup, while fighting for a political revolution is premised on the Gorbachev bureaucracy's appeasement of to anti-communist "free trade unions," proletarian political revolution to oust defense of the collectivized property imperialism and its undermining of the Panorama Columbia University Press Ksiazka i Wiedza no credit collectivized economy, unleashing bloody national and ethnic conflicts, threatens the very existence of the homeland of October. The Polish Stalinists, who mort­ gaged the economy to the Western bank­ ers and drove the working class into the arms of the CIA and Vatican, are self­ evidently politically bankrupt. Those who have paved the way for capitalist restora­ tion cannot lead the struggles to beat it back. 5. Posed pointblank is the need to build an authentic Trotskyist vanguard party in Poland, part of a reforged Fourth Interna­ tional. But we reject the idea of a "fami­ ly of Trotskyism"; genuine Trotskyism Poland's revolutionary Communist tradition: Rosa Luxemburg and the "Three W's" has nothing in common with such pro­ -A~olfWarski, Henryk Walecki and Wera Kostrzewa of the early Polish Communist Solidarnosc purveyors of anti-Sovietism Party. as the followers of Nahuel Moreno and 6 WORKERS VANGUARD Letter from Polish Comrades The following letter was addressed to the Spartakist Workers Party ofGermany. Wroclaw 29 July 1990

To Comrade Spartacists, SJ'-,>Oltv ...1 Pismo teoretyczno-programoweRuchu M~odej Lewicy ~ ~:~::.. As young people, who during their Wrodaw kwiecien-Iipiec 1990 rok nr7 8 strorr ,. studies have arrived-thanks to their own efforts and searchings-to Trot­ skyism, that forgotten tradition and modern revolutionary current of the workers movement, we read with inter­ est your publications. As far as we know, you are the only current which commemorates the anniversary of the deaths of Lenin, Luxemburg, Lieb­ knecht. It so happens that we too have remembered this anniversary in Poland. Young Left Movement in Poland, Spartakist Workers Party in Germany have fought to revive internationalist tradition So for your interest, on the lst of of the "Three L's": Lenin, Liebknecht and Luxemburg. For revolutionary unity of German, Polish and Soviet workers! May 1988, we were thrown off an official demonstration in Warsaw for this forgotten tradition. Thanks to you press the reality of our true tradition' German imperialism against which you having banners, one of which was about our access to this tradition became (for "tactical" reasons). Itis increasing­ are warning is in Poland used to fuel "Lenin, Luxemburg, Liebknecht." On wider. ly more difficult for us to have a com­ nationalistic hysteria. Our aim is to op­ the 70th anniversary of the death of R. In the Trotskyist movement in Po­ mon language with them. pose it with an internationalist stand Luxemburg and K. Liebknecht we have land, we often meet with activists who We are hearing proposals to sup­ calling for a common defense of the issued a leaflet on the streets of Wro­ have a "Solidarnosc" pedigree, or in press your position, which they consid­ gains of workers revolution on this and claw in dedication to their memory. We any case put all their hopes in "Solidar­ er as "discrediting the Trotskyist move­ the other side of the Oder. We express have organized a series of meetings nose." Until now it is difficult for them ment" (!). Discussion is cut short at the full support to your struggle. with slides from the German and Polish to shed these illusions. Either they very moment that it should have started. With internationalist greetings, press, in which we have documented don't know or they deliberately sup- The threat to the workers states by AJ, RK

ian internationalism offers a way for­ lish Jewish communist and leader of the ward-For the revolutionary unity of revolutionary German proletariat. Revil­ Russian, Polish and German workers! For ing Luxemburg for her internationalism, a socialist united states of Europe! Stalin never trusted and finally liquidated the Polish CP, which was the first to 9. Reformists and centrists, forsaking the come to the defense of comrade Trotsky principle of defense of the deformed by asserting in 1923 that "the name of Warsaw workers states against counterrevolution, Comrade Trotsky is insolubly connected monument to assist in infecting the working masses with the victory of the Soviet Revolution, 1943 Ghetto with the poison of national chauvinism. with the Red Army, with communism." uprising, Thus, such organizations as USec, the erected by Morenoites and Workers Power backed 11. While today Walesa and Jaruzelski Jewish both the Polish nationalists of Soli­ obscenely whip up Polish nationalism by survivors celebrating the defeat of the Red Army in 1946. darnosc, while in Germany tailing after such groups as the PDS, SPD and/or the outside Warsaw in 1920, we reaffirm the United Left, which supported revanchist policy of the early Polish CP, which not capitalist reunification. Adapting to con­ only rose to the defense of the Russian flicting appetites of different national Revolution but recognized that the Polish bourgeoisies, the fake- Trotskyists are an proletariat was a bridge to extend west­ the United Secretariat [USee] of Ernest ety, based on material abundance and ward the revolution to the borders of Mandel, who in 1983 hailed the Solidar­ egalitarianism, can truly liberate women. obstacle to the construction of an inter­ national vanguard party. Germany, with its powerful proletariat. nose leadership as the "best socialists in The subsequent defeat of the German 7. We honor the 600,000 soldiers of the the world." The RML, a group known for 10. Polish Trotskyists must seek to re­ revolution of 1923 was a major impetus honoring the communist leaders Lenin, Red Army who died liberating Poland from the Nazis. But today the forces claim the best traditions of the Polish for the consolidation of the Stalinist Luxemburg and Liebknecht, came to bureaucracy with its false ideology of of capitalist restoration have fueled the workers movement, forged in the strug­ recognize that Trotskyism represented the gle against national chauvinism. This is "socialism in one country." continuation of the revolutionary tradi­ growth of virulent anti-Semitism, from skinhead Nazis in Germany to the exemplified by Rosa Luxemburg", a Po- continued on page 10 tions of the "3 L's." The RML first came Spartakist into contact with the program of theICL KPN [Confederation for an Independent '~:.::. while it was engaged in discussions with Poland] vermin here to the Great Rus­ the Morenoites. Particularly decisive.in sian chauvinists of Pamyat. For workers Top: Polish winning it to the program of the ICL united fronts to smash the fascists! railway workers Workers in Poland: smash chauvinist in Szczecin were (a) agreement over tlie character of strike in May Solidamosc and (b) the RML's support attacks on Jewish people, Ukrainians, Gypsies, homosexuals! Honor the heroic against to the "Trotskyist Platform" published by Solldarnosc fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising the Trotskyist Faction of the Mexican regime's POS, which subsequently fused with the of 1943! Defend leftists and former capitalist "shock Grupo Espartaquista de Mexico. members of the PZPR [Polish United treatment." \ Workers Party] against anti-communist Bottom: women 6. A Trotskyist party must be a tribune witchhunts! For class struggle against peddling of the people, championing all victims of attempts to dismantle social gains of the vegetables to oppression. The drive to restore capital­ collectivized economy: for factory occu­ survive. ism revives and intensifies all the "old pations and strikes against privatizations crap" of the prewar social order, from and plant shutdowns! Le Bolchevlk reactionary clericalism to Pilsudskiite nationalism and anti-Semitism. As Rosa 8. In East Germany what began as a Luxemburg wrote in 1905: "The clergy, political revolution turned into a capital­ no less than the capitalist class, lives on ist counterrevolution. This defeat for the the backs of the people, profits from the workers movement has whetted the appe­ degradation, the ignorance and the op­ tites of the Fourth Reich of German pression of the people." The Catholic imperialism for a renewed "Drang nach hierarchy, conciliated by the Stalinists, Osten" [drive to the East]. Our comrades has long exercised decisive influence of the Spartakist Workers Party of Ger­ over Solidarnosc. Clerical reaction partic­ many [SpAD] uniquely fought against ularly targets women. Smash the attacks capitalist reunification and fight today on abortion rights! For free abortion against anti-Polish and anti-immigrant on demand! For free 24-hour. childcare chauvinism, as an essential part of the facilities! For the strict separation of struggle for socialist revolution. Polish church and state! Down with the conser­ communists must fight relentlessly vative Stalinist dogma that glorifies the against Pilsudskiite nationalism, which institution of the family, the main social subjects the workers to the dictates of the institution oppressing women. Only the IMF while spewing out anti-Russian and achievement of a genuine socialist soci- anti-German chauvinism. Only proletar- 2 NOVEMBER 1990 7 tfjght-arNI-Fog Action Against Ex-StalinistPDS Fourth Reich Anti-Communist Witchhunt In the dead of night on October 19, this anti-fascistaction with a leaflet titled Mercedes paddy wagons pulled up in "Stop the Nazis with Workers Mass front of the headquarters of the Party of Mobilization," the Social Democrats and Democratic Socialism (PDS) at Rosa bourgeois media have howled. An article Luxemburg Square in the former East in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (26 October) Berlin. Some 150 heavily armed police, objected to the SpAD's "militant lan­ many of them wearing bulletproof vests, guage" and its "calling for the Reform­ piled out and sealed off the. building. haus to be defended by workers fighting Accompanied by shadowy figures in groups and discharged NVA [East Ger­ plainclothes, they searched through the man Army] soldiers against attacks." The offices for six hours, finally leaving at 5 article quoted a statement denouncing a.m. with a sheaf of documents. "the takeover by class-struggle ideo­ This is the same building, the Karl­ logues who have learned nothing from Liebknecht-Haus, which was stormed by history." the Nazis only days after Hitler took In response; the SpAD wrote to the power in 1933, proclaiming a Third paper: "From the history leading up to Reich (empire). Now, barely two weeks 1933, for example? The working class of after the official takeover by capitalist Germany had and has the power to stop West Germany of the former German . the Nazis. It was the policy of the Social Democratic Republic (DDR), a bureau­ Democrats and the Stalinists which held cratically deformed workers state, the Der Spiegel Photos the working class back from resistance Fourth Reich of Greater German im­ to Hitler and thus aided his seizure of perialism dramatically announced that power." The Spartakists noted that many its bourgeois "democracy" spells anti­ Berlin cops seal off groups (including PDS, Vereinigte Linke, communist wiichhunting. PDS office (above) In October 19 raid. PDS KPD, Young Socialists, League of Anti­ This time the "night-and-fog" opera­ leader Gregor Gysl Fascists and Gay League) had called for tion was ordered by the Social Democrat­ (right) harassed by the November 2 demo, and that a united ic (SPD) city-state governmentof Berlin. anti-communist front means freedom of propaganda for The action was illegal from start to fin­ demonstrators in all participants. ish: there was no search warrant (they JanuaryI now turns In The SpAD is running in the upcoming hadn't even applied for one); the lame party treasurers to December 2 Bundestag elections under excuse was "danger in delaying" even Fourth Reich. the slogan, "For Workers Resistance though the raid was planned for at least Against the Fourth Reich." Spartakist 13 hours. And one of the police officials­ candidates are being presented not only let the mask fall as he snarled: "the time PDS brought out barely a hundred. German police and border guards who in Berlin, but now also in the states of of 50 years of restraint is over." Today A week later, this weak-kneed re­ were brought into Berlin to occupy the Sachsen-Anhalt, Mecklenburg and Ham­ the bourgeois-democratic German state sponse turned into belly-crawling capitu­ new capital of Greater Germany let loose burg. The election program highlights does not need to place the Nazis in lation by PDS leader Gregor Gysi. After against an anti-reunification demonstra­ the struggle against the anti-communist power to achieve its ends, but they are handing over the DDR to the capitalists, tion of 10,000, which had been called by witchhunt, calls for workers defense waiting in the wings. Gysi now turned in PDS treasurers Pohl the anarchistic "Autonomen" and includ­ guards to protect foreign workers, and The Spartakist Workers Party of Ger­ and Langnitschke to the bourgeois state, ed many youth and foreigners. More than for full citizenship rights for all immi­ many (SpAD), section of the Internation­ which promptly jailedthem. This is class 200 were injured in the brutal cop grant workers and their families. The al Communist League (Fourth Interna­ treason! The accusation was of sending attacks. The PDS had scheduled a march SpAD has also demonstrated against the tionalist), fought to mobilize the working some 100 million D-marks in PDS funds in remembrance of dle DDR on October immigration ban on Soviet Jews. people to oppose the capitalist Anschluss to the Soviet Union. The two said they 2, but canceled it because of "lack of In an article in Spartakist (No. 77, 9 (annexation) of the DDR, warning that were trying to protect their party against cooperation" from the police! October), our comrades recalled Trot­ this would bring mass unemployment, the snoops of the Deutsche Bank and the The fact that a mass party of 350,000 sky's description of Hitler's tactics at the destruction of women's rights, attacks threat of illegalization. didn't dare to go on the street in its. time of his 1921 Munich beer hall on immigrant workers and a witchhunt In a statement to the Berlin govern­ stronghold is one more expression of the putsch: "To a meeting of the Social De­ against "reds." With close to three ment, the SpAD demanded the immediate criminal policy of capitulation of PDS mocracy he sent a band with Rudolf release of Pohl and Langnitschke, an end leader Gysi and former DDR president Hess. He says that at the end of the to the attacks on the PDS headquarters, Hans Modrow. In the previous week, meeting his thirty boys evicted all the and "Bourgeois state, keep your fingers party meetings were repeatedly disrupted workers and they were incapable of out of the treasuries of working-class by small bands of Nazis. On September opposing them. Then he knew he would parties!" Already last summer, in an 30, a PDS election meeting-in Frankfurt! be victorious. The workers were organ­ open letter to the left (12 July), the Oder was attacked by fascistgangsters ized only to pay dues." Spartakist added, SpAD had denounced the grotesque par­ with tear gas and pistols firing blanks. A following Trotsky: ty expropriation law which aimed at week earlier, a PDS meeting of 500 was "What was and is needed are disciplined, criminalizing the PDS. The Spartakists intimidated by 30-35 fascists for two determined self-defense groups of work­ called on the workers movement to hours while the police stood by. ers, who can count on the support of refuse to comply with this outrageous When some 150 fascists disrupted a many thousands more workers and the 'anti-communist law. PDS gathering of 5,000 in Dresden, Gysi oppressed." - As we had warned, German reunifica­ grotesquely declared that "Right-wing At Treptow War Memorial in East tion was accompanied'by repression of radicalism belongs to the political culture Berlin on January 3, some 250,000 came reds. The very next day, the former head of a pluralist democracy"! Leaving his out in the largest anti-fascist mobilization ofthe Stasi (state security) counterespio­ members defenseless, turning in to be in German history, to stand with the Red nage department, Werner Grossman, was jailed those who would protect the party, Army which had smashed the Nazi dicta­ jailed. Simultaneously, an arrest order Gysi wants to earn credit with the torship. Itwas initiated by the Spartakists was issued for former intelligence chief bourgeoisie as a "democrat." But he is and then taken up by the SED/PDS. The Spartakist participants saw that capitalist reunifica­ Spartaklst Workers Party of Germany Markus Wolf, whose successful spy oper­ only encouraging those, both right-wing tion would mean revival of the brown­ denounces SPD-Ied Wltchhunt, de­ ations aided defense ofthe DDR and the reactionaries and particularly the SPD, mands "Hands Off PDS and FDJI" In Soviet bloc against NATO imperialism who seek to wipe out the PDS and shirt scum. This "fighting demonstration" East Berlln, July 3. for decades. A federal court declared it every vestige ofwhat they (falsely) iden­ frightened not only the bourgeoisie and legal to exclude communists from the tify as communism. The liberal/social­ the fascist bands, but also the Stalinist million now jobless, women massively unions. And a labor court declared that,' democratic Der Spiegel last February bureaucrats, for whom the massive pres­ thrown out of work, tens of thousands of comparing plant conditions to Nazi times published an anti-Semitic smear against ence of their own ranks, eager to fight, foreign workers expelled and the assault was grounds for firing. Gysi labeling him "the manipulator." raised the spectre of civil war and on the PDS, our warnings have been The witchhunt is by no means limited Accompanying the attacks on the PDS revolution. fully confirmed. to state action. On the night of October are repeated attacks against Mozambi­ The former Stalinist rulers crawled The day after the police action, the 3, as fireworks exploded over the Bran­ can and Vietnamese workers' housing, before the imperialist onslaught, rebaptiz­ SpAD took part in a protest in front denburg Gate to celebrate capitalist re­ against Turkish immigrants in the West ing themselves as social democrats, of an administrative court, raising the unification ofGermany and crowds sang and against Soviet soldiers. In the indus­ handing over the country and now their slogan "Hands Off the PDS!" Sparta­ "Deutschland tiber Alles," bands of skin­ trial city of Halle, which is near the giant own officials.: Yet many members and kist candidate for the Bundestag (par­ head Nazis rampaged across the country. chemical plants of Leuna and Buna, a former members of this party and others liament) Renate Dahlhaus noted Rosa In Leipzig, where a year ago demonstra­ building containing the offices of various still consider themselves communists, "in Luxemburg had been jailed there, and tors marched to democratize the DDR, left groups has been attacked on several spite of everything," in Karl Liebknecht's later Luxembur~ and Karl Liebknecht squares echoed with German nationalist occasions by skinhead/Nazi bands, who famous words. The Spartakist Workers were murdered by the Freikorps (fore­ intoxication and club-wielding gangs of also harass passengers on the streetcars. Party of Germany, which fought against runners of Hitler's Brownshirts) insti­ up to 200 fascists gave the stiff-arm A united-front demonstration in Halle capitalist reunification at every step, calls gated by .. the Social Democrats. But salute, chanting "Sieg Heil!" and "For- against the fascists has been called for ori those who would return to the authen­ instead ofthe thousands who should have ~ eigners out!" November 2. tic communism of Lenin and.Trotsky to protested this dangerous cop assault, the The next day, the thousands of West As the Spartakist Workers Party builds join its ranks.•

8 WORKERS VANGUARD Deal for Rich... (continued from page J) American-educated Saudi doctor saying, "Did not the American ambassador to Baghdad virtually invite Saddam to invade?" And a "Report from Baghdad" in the New Yorker of 24 September noted that following the 1987 "reflagging" of Kuwaiti tankers under the protection of the U.S. Navy, the Kuwaitis began acting "as if they had suddenly.felt themselves to be invulnerable." The writer, Middle East expert Milton Viorst, asks: --"Is it t06 farfetched to wonder whether there was something cooking between the White House and Kuwait?.. [Iraqi for­ eign minister] Aziz suggested that it had become America's linchpin. Iraqis were convinced, he said, that the United States, seeking to impose its own order on the region, had come to the Gulf planning to stay." Meanwhile, Washington has been hard­ lining it: Bush, a certified war crimi­ nal who launched the bloody invasion of Panama and oversaw the dirty contra war against Nicaragua, has ordered "war crimes" charges to be put together against Saddam Hussein and revved up his "Arab Hitler" rhetoric. Newsday (24 October) reports the government is "con­ WV Photos sidering a major public relations effort to Spartacists take a side for defeat of U.S. prepare the nation for a long siege in imperialism: October 20 demonstrations in the Saudi Arabian desert and a possible (clockwise from top left) Cleveland, New York war against Iraq." The U.S. commander and San Francisco. of the Gulf forces, General "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf, said Americans of them. Hebrew-speaking workers: ocratic Party. They seek to resurrect shoremen in L.A. who struck against a would have to "patiently" accept a desert break from your Zionist rulers before another popular front of betrayal, which cop invasion of their union hall, to black war that could "last along, long time and they hurl the region into a thermonuclear . ties the working class to its exploiters. In people in Washington who tried to stop kill an awful lot ofpeople" (Atlanta Jour­ holocaust! Defend the Palestinians­ contrast, in the October 20 marches, the Klan nightriders from marching nal and Constitution, 28 October). Israel out of the Occupied Territories! Spartacist contingents chanted: "Remem­ through their city. Now is the time to Schwarzkopf also hinted at the sort of U.S. out ofthe Persian Gulf! Defend Iraq ber Hiroshima, remember Vietnam­ mobilize in class struggle against the war scenario Washington is hoping for, - Working masses must oust the butcher Democratic Party, we know which side racist warmongers. When the 200-strong projecting an "international incident" that Saddam Hussein! you're on!" In fact the Democrats­ Spartacist League contingent at the Octo­ would lead to a "skirmish" with Iraqi whose image as the "people's party" of ber 20 march in New York chanted, "The troops. The U.S. would like to send in "Bush and the Democrats­ capitalism makes them more effective in rich get their budget, the poor get war troops totake back Kuwait City, launch Ollt the Door!" calling on the population to make sacri­ -Bush and the Democrats, out the air strikes against Baghdad, but not Even as they beat the drums for war, fices-has been in office during every door!" it was welcomed with thumbs up commit itself to a drawn-out ground war. imperialist "opinion-makers" in the U.S. U.S. war of this century. from many people. Break with the Dem­ Washington could claim that it deterred are particularly worried about its conse­ We appeal to the strikers on the Daily ocrats-e-For a workers party to fight for Iraqi aggression and liberated. Kuwait, quences on the home front. The New News picket lines in NYC, to the long- a workers government! • while Saddam Hussein would get what York Times (21 October) published an he wanted in the first place: a secure article by James LeMoyne based on tour­ outlet to the Gulf and control over the ing the desert front.: He reported: (previously shared) Rumaila oil fields "American troops become visibly uncom­ which the Kuwaitis were siphoning off. fortable when discussing the thought that they are here to defend low oil prices and And Bush gets to buy out of his the near-absolute family monarchies that "wimp" image at the price of a few dominate Saudi Arabia and most other thousand lives. At least that's how the gulf states. Pentagon's computer read-out has it. "Talking to soldiers stationed in the des­ ert here makes it apparent that the politi­ But war is no war game. And the U.S.' cal cost of either broken illusions or large night-fighting capabilities are in question American casualties in a treacherous war after several crashes, its high-tech weap­ is likely to be high, both for President onry affected by sand and heat, its troops Bush and for the American people." Final Totals unsure of what they're fighting for, Bush is already in big trouble coming or whether they want to. fight at all. off the budget fiasco. He is being treated Local Quota Total % , The Iraqi army-battle-hardened in the as a leper within his own party. When (In points) Sold squalid eight-year Iran-Iraq war-has an Bush went to campaign for the Republi­ Atlanta 190 312 164 experienced officer corps, a heavy advan­ can Senatorial candidate in New Hamp­ Boston 300 368 123 tage in troop strength and armor, aswell shire, the candidate didn't show. Ver­ Chicago 450 518 115 as its own share of sophisticated weap­ mont Republican Peter Smith denounced ons, and moreover is fighting on its own Bush's stand on the budget and the civil Cleveland 150 204 136 terrain. Washington's scenario of choice rights bill while the president was seated Los Angeles 300 353 118 , could tum into a nightmare. And in the behind him on the platform. Bush barely New York' 1,100 1,579 144 politically shifting sands of the Near (by one vote) prevented a Senate over­ Oakland 735 924 126 East, the best laid plans of imperialist ride of his veto of the toothless "civil San Francisco 315 364 116 warmongers are notoriously prone to rights" bill, which would merely have Washington, D,C. 120 128Y2107 blowing up in their authors' faces. restored the possibility struck down by At Large 300 277 92 "Pandora's box will open wide the the Supreme Court for women and mi­ minute war breaks out," writes Paul norities to sue against job discrimination. National Total 3,960 5,027V2 127 Mann in Aviation Week (1 October), "to But if the Democrats stand to be the say nothing of the consequences if war winners by default in the upcoming Con­ between the U.S. and Iraq were to trigger gressional elections, they are no less a another Arab/Israeli/Palestinian conflict." party of wealth, war and racism than the r--- Subscribe Now! ---, And the Israelis have been going out of Republicans. They stand behind Bush on their way to provoke a war. Avi Shlaim, the Persian Gulf. Some Congressional Name ~ ~ _ an Israeli scholar at Oxford, writes of the Democrats are even talking of using the Address _ bloodthirsty Zionist massacre of Palestin­ ballyhooed War Powers Act to vote Bush ians at Jerusalem's Al Aksa mosque: "An an undated advance declaration of war! ______Apt. # Phone (_) ~_ immediate consequence of this latest The budget debate was over how tituch City State Zip ------;= Israeli-Palestinian clash is to make war of a tax break the top brackets should 513 in the Gulf more likely and this would retain. One voter in Texas summed up SPECIAL! A free packet of Spartaclst literature or pamphlet with full not be unwelcome to the Israeli propo­ the general mood of disgust with both subscriptions to both Workers Vanguard and Women and Revolution. nents of 'War Now'" (Manchester Guard­ parties when he said, "What I'd like to ian Weekly, 21 October). see... is for every single member of Con­ D $7/24 issues ot Workers Vanguard D $3/3 issues of A generalized war in the Near East gress to get kicked out." (includes English-language Spartacist) Women and Revolution D New D Renewal D $2/10 introductory issues could unleash massive turmoil. The sit­ But the liberal and reformist organizers International rates: uation cries out for an internationalist of the new "antiwar movement" seek to $25/24 issues-Airmail '$7/24 issues-Seamail of Workers Vanguard proletarian leadership to direct the anti­ save the asses of the gang in Washington (includes English-language D $2/4 issues of Spartacist (edlcion en espariol) Spartacist) imperialist sentiments of the Arab masses and channel deep discontent and anger away from nationalist fratricide into class -with the patrician wimp in the White L Make checks payable/mall to: Spartaclst Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, Ny 1011!l ~ struggle against their own despots-all House back into the fold of the Dem- 2 NOVEMBER 1990 9 Co~s Racist Cops Rampage Against - Invade, Union Hall Students at San Leandro High Longshoremen Shut Down OAKLAND, California-On October 24, protested the racist cop onslaught and dozens of police brutally beat students, organized a: successful boycott of classes, Los Angeles Ports mainly blacks and Hispanics, at San demanding a mass meeting. In the face Leandro High School, sending 20 to the of an outpouring of anger from students Los Angeles cops and sheriffs are used out with a gun ...pointed at his head, hospital with broken bones and bruises. and their parents, school principal Bob to getting their way, terrorizing black and charging him with three counts, including The rampage was triggered when a plain­ Oates reluctantly agreed to hold a mass Hispanic workers and youth. But on "inciting a riot." Curiously, the long­ clothes cop singled out.a black student meeting of parents on October 29. Par­ October 10, a couple of gun-toting inves­ shoreman wanted for non-support (the who was crossing the street along with ents were outraged that the school didn't tigators for the Los Angeles. County poor/guy's paycheck was already being several whites during the lunch period, even notify them that the cop rampage district attorney's office picked on the garnished) wasn't taken. and handed him a citation for "jaywalk­ had occurred. Some only found out when wrong target: hundreds of members of The cops took the sergeant-at-arms to ing." Students protested, reportedly a cup their kids phoned them from the hos­ International Longshoremen's and Ware­ jail, but the longshoremen weren't fin­ or bottle was thrown at the cop, and then pital! Meanwhile the San Leandro PD housemen's Unioll'(ILWU) Local 13. ished. They quickly struck the ports of all hell broke loose. claims that the cops showed "consider­ The two cops waltzed into the Local Long Beach and Los Angeles, stranding "The cops went crazy with their able restraint" and denies any racism! 13 union hall in Wilmington, California, 33 ships, including one carrying materiel clubs," one Asian student told WV. "Then San Leandro, just south of Oakland in supposedly to pick up a longshoreman for Bush's war on Iraq. ILWU members they started saying, 'You blacks go back Alameda County, used to be lily-white. for "non-payment of child support." De­ in the L.A. ports haven't been happy to Oakland'." Other students told report­ Today about half the students at San spite lying accounts of the incident in the about working the cargo destined for the ers, "Police officers were yelling, 'You Leandro are white, 11 percent black and capitalist press the riext day, longshore­ oil barons' war, everything from tanks to Mexicans and blacks, get the hell 'out of the rest are Asian and Hispanic. The men said the DA's men. never identified portable refrigerated morgues. For 13 San Leandro'." Students were choked club-swinging cops gave full vent to the themselves to the officials in charge of hours no cargo moved. The bosses' with billy clubs and beaten against police racism of those who want to preserve the hall, where between 300 and 400 spokesmen at the Los Angeles Times (12 cars. Cops unleashed a dog on some , their white enclave. This comes- in the ILWU members were waiting to be dis­ October) moaned about "how powerful students. San Leandro police called in context of a profusion of KKK-inspired patched for work on the docks. Sergeant­ and clannish longshoremen can be." the Oakland PD, Alameda County Sher­ incidents in the East Bay, from cross­ at-arms John Nappi asked who they were An LAPD captain wailed that "my iff's Department and the state Highway burnings and racist graffiti against blacks and demanded to see their union books. gosh, they had a warrant and a union hall Patrol. Four students were charged with and immigrants, to a pipe bomb made by Finding out they weren't members, he or- is not a sanctuary against arrest." Well, assaulting police and resisting arrest. We a fascist Hayward youth found unex­ . dered them to leave-and union mem­ this time the L.A.· cops and their cap­ demand: Drop die charges! ploded in a restaurant, to beatings of bers in the hall suggested they do as they italist masters got just a little taste of Cops have been hovering around the Asians and blacks. Metzger's "White were told. workers power. Mobilizing that power high school supposedly to prevent fights Aryan Resistance" is actively recruiting ILWUers said the "investigators" then in political strikes against Washington's among students. But one student told in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. went berserk, barricading themselves in bipartisan war moves .would sink a WV, "We didn't have a problem before. What's needed is integrated class a union office and brandishing their giant cargo hook in the U.S. invasion The cops started it." In fact, the students struggle against the racist violence, guns, even threatening to shoot long­ of the Persian Gulf (and save a lot of of San Leandro High-black, Hispanic, whether of the white-hooded Klansmen shoremen through the door! A score of lives). And integrated struggle of black, white and Asian-are sticking together or the bosses' blue-uniformed police LAPD cops arrived suspiciously quickly white and Hispanic workers would in the face of this racist cop brutality. thugs. San Leandro students and parents -longshoremen told WV that you can quickly put a halt to the LAPD storm­ "All races were trying to help each oth­ who are organizing to get the cops never find a cop in San Pedro, but that troopers' marauding at home. Hands off er," said a black senior. off campus have a good idea where to day they were crawling all over the the ILWU! Drop the charges. against On October 26, about 200 students start. • place. They hauled the 65-year-old Nappi Brother Nappil a

tions in this country. I learned a lot about I don't think they tried to recruit any of matters of mutual concern regarding Vietnam... the war in Vietnam. It's a shame. I met the vets. Basically, what they used the Poland, both parties to this agreement a lot of decent guys who I never saw Gis for, especially the black vets, was (continued from page 5) will consult. • again. gooning and making speeches. 14. The SGP needs to develop a system­ Ramparts magazine which a lot of us I got my discharge in July '69. But I I was reading on my own, everything atic public face, recruiting cadre and from guerrillaism to the Little Red Book. read. It talked about the war and about was now politicized, I'd become politi­ intervening in various struggles and things in general. cized by the war-mad as hell-and I But I started to become disenchanted movements with ICL propaganda. A And it was about that time that the wanted to do something. One day I was with the whole thing when I saw that Leninist-Trotskyist party in Poland will self-inflicted wounds started because, I you'd go to these demos and get your ass reading one of the so-called underground be built from above through splits and think, people felt like, "A bullet in my . newspapers, of which there were many kicked, which happened to me quite a fusions of ostensibly revolutionary organ­ leg is not really going to hurt me when at the time, and there was an ad for the bit, you'd get tear-gassed, and the war izations. Cadre can be won from among American Servicemen's Union. So I went went on. So I started to just drift slowly I'm out of here, taking the chance of left Stalinists, as well as ostensible getting my head blown off. And for down to their office and told them I just away from the whole thing. I stayed Trotskyists. nothing, to go back to a ghetto where I wanted to get involved in protesting the away from politics until I ran into a didn't have a job before and ain't going war and putting an end to it, tell people couple 'Of members of the Spartacist 15. The ICL will assistthe comrades in to have one when I get back." It had an what was really going on there. I was League a few years later and I started Poland in developing a systematic educa­ incredible impact on me, a white kid who around YAWF for maybe a year plus. reading Workers Vanguard. Arid I was tional program to better acquaint them grew up in the suburbs. I knew about the They taught me nothing. They never tried impressed because of the intensity with with the specific positions of ICL sec­ war, but I learned a lot about race rela- to recruit me, and when I think about it, which I was pursued politically. I started tions on various problems and events in - . to get more and more involved and real­ the world. Fuller political integration will ized that if anything was going to be be enhanced by travel and mutual ex­ done, this was the organization that was changes of visits with other ICL sections. .. SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORY going to do it.• In particular, it is envisaged that com­ rades from Poland participate in the National Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 • (212) 732-7860 SpAD's election campaign, as well as Atlanta' Detroit Norfolk helping to translate election materials and Box 4012 Box 441043 Box 1972, Main PO Poland... fundamental ICL documents into the Atlanta, GA 30302 Detroit, MI 48244 Norfolk, VA 23501 (continued from page 7) Polish language. The establishment of an ICL group in Poland represents a real Boston Oakland Los Angeles 12. The RML agrees with the iSt step in our capacity to bring the program Box 840, Central Sta. Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta. Box 32552 Cambridge, MA 02139 Oakland, CA 94604 position on Afghanistan, hailing the of Trotskyism to the East European and Los Angeles, CA 90029 Soviet proletariats. (617) 492-3928 (213) 380-8239 (415) 839-0851 Red Army intervention, which posed the extension of the gains of the Octo­ 20 October 1990 Chicago San Francisco Madison ber Revolution to the Afghan peoples Box 6441, Main PO Box 5712 and particularly to the oppressed women Chicago, IL 60680 Box 1492 San Francisco, CA 94101 (312) 663-0715 Madison, WI 53701 (415) 863-6963 of Afghanistan. Gorbachev's withdrawal was a sellout, greatly encouraging the Spartacist League Cleveland New York Washington, D.C. imperialists in their drive to overthrow Box 91037 Box 444, Canal St. Sta. Box 75073 the Soviet workers state. We reject the Public Offices Cleveland, OH 44101 New York, NY 10013 Washington, D.C. 20013' anti-Soviet demand raised by fake-leftists - MARXIST LlTERATURE­ (216) 781-7500 (212) 267-1025 (202) 872-8240 to withdraw the Warsaw Pact troops from East Europe-Soviet troops have consti­ Bay Area tuted the first line of defense of the Thurs.: 5:30-8:00 p.rn., Sat.: 1:00-5:00 p.rn, TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA 1634 Telegraph, 3rd Floor (near 17th Street) workers states against NATO imperial­ Oakland, California Phone: (415) 839-0851 Toronto Edmonton Vancouver ism. Out of the ranks of Soviet soldiers Chicago Box 7198, Station A RMT/TL Box 2717, Main PO and officers will come many fighters for Tues.:5:00-9:00p.rn.,Sat: 11:00a.m-z.oc p.rn. Toronto, Ont. PS.S.E. PO. Box 9605 Vancouver, B.C. Trotskyism. 161 W. Harrison si.. 10th Floor M5W 1X8 Edmonton, Alta. T6E 5X3 V6B 3X2 Chicago, Illinois Phone: (312) 663-0715 (416) 593-4138 (403) 436-5105 (604) 255-0636 13. The comrades of the RML constitute themselves as the Spartakusowska Grupa New York City Moncton Montreal Polski (SGP). The SGP and the ICL look Tues.: 6:30-9:00 p.m., Sat.: 1:00-5:00 p.rn, 41 Warren St (one block below Box 563 C.P Les Atriums, B.P 32066 forward to an early fusion, where the Chambers St. near Church SI.) Moncton, N.B. E1C 8L9 'Montreal, Que. H2L 4Y5 SGP will become part of a democratic­ New York, NY Phone: (212)2IF-1025 centralist International. In the interim, in 10 WORKERS VANGUARD Helmsley. The Hotel and Restaurant the Allied union tops didn't want this version. Instead of shutting down the Workers should refuse to serve them. strike and haven't prepared for it. In airports with strike action, the Machinist Class War... . September, when union foremen at the (continued from page 12) Every day, Daily News yuppie PR scab leaders called for a "boycott" of Eastern Lisa (pull my bow) Robinson is on TV, Pacific plant were fired, Printing Trades Airlines that has left those workers on But the press unions must not stand telling the strikers "they quit," and retail­ Council president George McDonald the street for almost two years. Workers alone. City workers are now facing ing bald-faced lies that over a million said, "We're going to eat this one too. World pushed the same criminal strategy 35,000 layoffs threatened by black Dem­ scab papers were delivered. (Every time We're bleeding, but it is not blood that at Greyhound, where Amalgamated Tran­ ocratic mayor Dinkins who was elected she comes out, picketers yell "Three Mile is going to kill us." Maybe it wasn't sit Union bureaucrats have cut off strike with heavy union support. Under pressure Island" at her, referring to her previous killing them, but it sure as hell was kill­ benefits and hung the strikers out to dry. from the bankers, the city is even taking job as a company flack putting a positive ing the News workers! The only "boycott" that works is labor back the miserly 5.5 percent .contract "spin" on that nuclear near-meltdown.) The Daily News is playing a dirty rac­ action to keep the Daily News off the (less than the inflation rate!) negotiated But the only place in the five boroughs • ist game, pitting desperate unemployed streets. Picket lines mean don't cross, with the teachers. Even Barry Feinstein you can be sure of finding the News is in black and Hispanic workers against the and the News can't publish without deliv­ of the Teamsters and Stanley Hill ofDC eries of ink and paper. There must be an 37 are blowing hot air about demonstra­ authoritative strike committee, elected tions and strike action. This city could from all the Allied unions, that can ex­ use a real labor demonstration, not some tend the strike to all the dailies and parade charade but a solid phalanx of appeal to NYC labor and its allies to union power marching from Wall Street pour into the streets. The first job of a to City Hall, and then heading over the strike committee should be to publish a Brooklyn Bridge to the News' Pacific daily, mass circulation newspaper by and Street plant. City workers should put the for the workers of New York. Fill it with bridges up like in '71, shut the subways the truth about the bosses 'dirty war on down like in '66. And the teachers the unions, with reporting on the fight for should open the classroom doors to let justice, and the comics-but no ads for one million students out on the streets! Bloomingdale's or Citibank. Shut down For the bosses, the movie Escape from the Scab News and let them howl-the New York would look like a Sunday pic­ only news will be the Workers' News. nic in contrast. This is the program that the Spartacist The Daily News strike has national' League has brought to Daily News strik­ importance. And the last thing American ers, and thousands of NYC unionists and workers need is another losing strike. minorities. Over 10,000 copies of a spe­ Just look at the sorry record of the last cial strike supplement of Workers Van­ decade: PATCO, Greyhound in 1983-84, guard were distributed in four days. The Arizona. miners, . Hormel meatpackers, WV supplement has struck a chord be~ Eastern Airlines workers, Pittston miners cause it shows the way to win. One older pressman told a WV reporter, "I'm a and now Greyhound again. The labor WVPholo misleaders have produced an unbroken Transit workers Join striking pressmen at Brooklyn printing plant. The Dally conservative, at least I was. But you see string of defeats. From Ronald Reagan to News unlonfl' fight is the cause of all working people and minorltlesl all this on TV about El Salvador, the the Tribune Company, the bosses sure rebels. Well, we're the rebels here, and as hell aren't playing by Marquis of the East River! heavily white press unions. Militants in the cops, they're the army." Queensberry rules. Yes, it's war-;-class Almost four dozen strikers have been Transport Workers Union Local 100 and Around the world, the working class war-and you've got to have a class­ arrested, as the NYC cops of "friend of members of the Labor/Black League for and the oppressed must rely on their own struggle program to win. labor" mayor Dinkins have brought out Social Defense have organized to foil strength to win, shedding any illusions As we go to press, the Allied unions the horses and wielded the riot sticks. this attempt to foment race war on the that this racist capitalist state can be are militantly picketing every night. At Some nights it looks like he's already . picket line, bringing integrated contin­ "neutral" when the fundamentally coun­ the Pacific Street printing plant in Brook­ hired the 5,000 more racist cops and they gents of transit workers and Hispanic terposed interests of labor and capital lyn, at smaller plants in Kearny, New are all on Pacific Street in Brooklyn! In students to the picket line. Make the collide on the picket line. The Democrat­ Jersey and Garden City, Long Island, the middle of a "budget crisis" they've convicted racists in Daily News manage­ ic and Republican parties are just two pressmen and drivers are battling against spent half a million dollars on police ment pay-for union-run minority re­ wings of the capitalists' property party, an army of strikebreakers and cops riding overtime pay! The Partisan Defense cruitment and training programs, and a the "bipartisan" war party. We need a shotgun for scab delivery trucks. Over Committee has sent a telegram denounc­ shorter workweek with no loss in pay­ fighting workers party. the weekend, the News brought out-of­ ing the Dinkins administration's strike­ fight for jobs for all! The Daily News bosses provoked labor town editors and reporters into the News breaking and demanding all charges The labor bureaucracy's call for a war on the streets of New York. They building on 42nd Street. They are being against the unionists be dropped. consumer boycott, supported by fake­ asked for it, they got it. It's the urgent housed in the hotel next door, owned by As Workers Vanguard has said before, socialists like the Militant and Workers task of class-conscious workers to finish Leona ("only little people pay taxes") "Labor's gotta play hardball to win!" But World, isa dangerous and impotent di- it. Victory to the Daily News strikel a

And with real labor solidarity in action headfirst into a quagmire in the Saudi Daily News it can be won. sand. But we need a new leadership of the labor. movement. The professional For a Workers Party! losers who sit atop the unions have spent Workers... The infuriating arrogance of the Daily whole careers capitulating to.the ruling (continued from page 12) News bosses matches that of the people class. They're in bed with the Demo­ Kalikow just slashed workers' pay again. who run this country-from Wall Street cratic and Republican politicians' whose Instead of begging capitalist advertisers to Washington,. Republicans and Demo­ strings are pulled by Wall Street. The to boycott the News, the strike needs a crats. Congress, that millionaires' club, Spartacist League says: labor and minori­ union paper, a real daily newspaper-that spends weeks haggling over how much ties need a workers party, which organ­ can serve as a strike organizer. In order of a tax break their fellow millionaires izes on the picket lines and in the streets to win this strike, the best militants in should get. Meanwhile, they're sending to throw out this government by the rich, every press union must be elected to our kids off to fight their war for Big for the rich, and to put a workers govern­ form a citywide newspaper strike com­ Oil. The rich get their budget and the ment in power. mittee, appealing to labor and minor­ workers get war. That's what capitalism ities across New York City to join the is all about. For years the capitalists have Labor's Gotta Play Hardball fight. looted the economy, shutting down facto­ to Win! Boss Hog(e} with his ritzy Gramercy ries and turning the Midwest into a rust What's going to decide this strike is Park apartment is out to provoke race belt. They've turned the cities into liv­ power. Newspapers aren't just words on war in the tinderbox that is NYC. By ing hell. They've stolen billions through a page. Publishers like the New York targeting their scab hiring at blacks and their S&L scam. So now they've got a Times own everything back to the forests Hispanics, these strikebreakers hope to "budget crisis," and we're supposed to and the paper mills that produce their set off a racial bloodbath on the picket pay through the nose for gas, cigarettes newsprint. They get their big bucks from WVPholo lines. But don't anybody forget the News and a six-pack. the big advertisers, from Bloomingdale's DallyNews strikers burn Confederate bosses are convicted racists-proven in They've thrown trillions into high-tech to Exxon. They. speak for the capitalist flag, a Klan symbol and "scab flag." a lawsuit by black reporters in 1987. weapons in their "war against Commu­ class that runs this country. But they can When the strike kicked off last night, nism," aimed at taking back the countries be defeated, by mobilizing workers pow­ and Hispanicworkers against the unions: pressmen and drivers gave their answer where capitalism was kicked out. What er. Without our labor, the presses don't fight to create jobs through a shorter to this racist appeal. They took a Con­ they bring back to East Europe is home­ run, the trucks don't roll and their profits workweek and no loss in pay, set up federate flag and burned it, denouncing lessness, unemployment, soup kitchens. don't roll in.·The bosses have been stick­ union-run minority recruitmerit and train­ the "scab flag" of the Tennessee union­ Meanwhile, in this country Medicare ing it to working people, minorities-c-all ing programs, at full union scale and at busting law firm of King and Ballow, benefits are slashed, young workers are of us-for years. They're asking for a the bosses' expense. We need, here and hired by the News. pauperized by "two-tier" wage deals, a fight, so give them one! now, a massive display of working-class As the strike began, workers showed quarter of young black men are in jail or Whether it's the rent-a-cops inside the power, crossing all the craft and race their power. Teamsters lined up on At­ otherwise held hostage by the penal sys­ fence with their dogs or the NYPD out­ lines. To stop the scabs, strikers should lantic Avenue refused to deliver truck­ tem. Over three million people sleep and side with its horses and helicopters, the occupy the Daily News and surround it loads of newsprint to the plant. This is die on the streets. And many more are cops are the armed fist of the ruling with the New York City working class. the way to win. And the strikers showed only one paycheck away from the streets. class. Labor's strength lies in organiza­ The Daily News unions' fight is the that scabbing is dangerous to your health. This country needs hard class struggle tion, unity, militancy, and a leadership cause of all working people and minori­ One scab bus was left sitting on its rims to tum things around. And there couldn't with a class-struggle program and the ties who if we stand together make up on Atlantic Avenue, not a single window be a better time. The government is a determination to win. Against the bosses' the immense majority of this city.All out intact. It's war, but it has only begun. mess, and they've thrown themselves cynical attempts to pit unemployed black now to defend the Daily News workersl a 2 NOVEMBER 1990 11 W'It/(EltS "lIfilJllltlJ Stop the Scabs-Take the Plant! ass ar a al• ews

OCTOBER 30-"We are in awar with the Daily News," declared the head of the Allied Printing Trades Council, comprised of ten unions representing 2,500 workers at America's second largest newspaper. The News unions are facing the Chicago-based Tribune Company, a vicious union-busting media empire which owns New York's "hometown paper" and has left a trail of broken strikes and decertified unions from Chicago to Newport News, Virginia. After a crass provocation, the News bosses carried out a mass firing of union workers at the paper. All of New York labor has a stake in a victory for the News unions, and will suffer badly if they lose. With the strike almost a week old, we're happy to see there are a lot of disabled trucks and very few copies of the Daily News on the streets, But that and impotent appeals for a consumer boycott aren't enough to win this battle. A long, drawn-out strike is a ticket for defeat. News workers need to hit the bosses hard, now. The Spartacist League has called on press unions, NYC labor, minorities: All out to win the Daily News strike! And since we're not talking about "fighting the good fight" only to lose it, let's get down to specifics. The newspaper unions should occupy the printing plants and ring them with mass pickets. That will put an end to scabbing, quick. To put the scab News out of action, newspaper workers should produce a real daily strike newspaper. A mass meeting should be called of all press unions to organize a citywide newspaper strike. continued on page 11 Scabbing can be hazardous to your health! Daily News strikers rock scab bus in Brooklyn.

WfJRNE/iS 'ANfJIJA/i/J Strike Supplement. .~)''''. 28 October 1110 Press Unions, City Labor, Minorities Press Unions, City Labor, Minorities All Out to Defend Daily News Workers!

All. Out. to Defend Daily News Workers!

The arrogant Daily News bosses opened up with both hostages." The Pressmen voted then and there to stay barrels on the press unions in NYC last night. After out too. Workers declared, "It's going to be settled out suspending an injured worker, they locked out a couple here." hundred drivers who walked out in sympathy, then They're right. This strike is going to be settled on the fired 60. After ten months of constant provocations and picket lines. In the 1978 Daily News strike union mili­ assault by the News owners, the Chicago-Tribune Com­ tancy and solidarity broke the management onslaught pany, with their hired thugs and professional scabherd­ in three days. ers, it finally came to a head. One striker spoke for For a decade, Wall Street and their two parties in Thousands of Workers Vanguard strike supple­ unionists throughout the country fed up with years of Washington have busted unions while they slashed ments have been distributed on the picket lines givebacks to the bosses when he yelled out: "Let the social services. In NYC, Wall Street and the Democrats and to workers throughout the city. payback begin!" in City Hall and the state house have united to demand Following the cynical management provocation in the thousands of workers be laid offto hire thousands more ing class uses its power the cops and courts come down early morning hours of October 25, the locked-out cops to unleash racist terror in the ghettos and barrios. like a ton of bricks. We need to unleash our power­ drivers exploded in anger. The street outside the Daily The capitalist politicians and media want to roll back take the printing plant and ring it with mass pickets News' Pacific Street plant in Brooklyn looked like a war the lousy contract the teachers got, which doesn't even from every union in New York City! Make Pacific zone, as scab delivery trucks burst into flames. The next catch up with inflation. Enough! The Daily News strike Street and Sixth Avenue a workers fortress. They'll night the 9 p.m. shift went in only to find their brothers is the chance to stop the union-busters cold! think twice about unleashing their dogs and cops when were fired. They turned around and walked out, chant­ The press unions at the Daily News are fighting, and labor is sitting on top of their precious machinery. ing "Union, Union!" 'Newspaper and Mail Deliverers they are fighting hard. But they had better not be left to The future ofevery newspaper union in the city is on Union head Michael Alvino officially announced the fight alone. A few courageous acts of defiance are not the line. Stop all the presses-from the New York Times strike, denouncing the News' attempt to split the drivers enough-the Daily News unions face the power of the to Newsday to the Post, where real estate king Peter union by "listing 60 guys, like the Nazis :picked out bosses' state. And in every strike, as soon as the work- continued 0(1 page 11

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