WORKERS VIIN(JIJIIR' 25¢ t..ln .. ;';;'i.~,~.• ~2J 1'0 .... 215 '. '~6b""!" .. 22 September 1978

Down with the Shah! Down with the Mullahs! • ran In I

For Proletarian Revolution Not Islamic Reaction

On Septemher S, this summer's uninterrupted waH: of massi\C protests against the hrutal Iranian monarch~ reached a grisly climax \vhen the shah's Royal Guard poured machine gun fire into the ranks of an anti-government demonstration in Teheran. At least a thousand protesters were slaughtered in the greatest single massacre in decades. Ihe l.ondon Guardian's Teheran corre­ spondent, Lif Thurgood, gave this e\cwitness account: In a hrutal display of military force, troops and small tanb opened fire at Y·.20 am. vesterdav in Madan Jaleh [.Ialeh Slju,lre] at a spot where hetween 5.()()O and IO.OOD young people had gathered lor a peaeeful demonstration a~ainst the Shah. Men. women. and Y;lung children, many splattered with hloc,d. ran screaming. 'Thev're killing Setbourld,.'S iP;;:B';:;~},"Star us. the\'re killiilg us'." Anti-shah demonstration in Teheran before troops fired into crowd, killing over 1,000. Guardian 9 Septemher later doubled the figure. In a Majlis According to other reports, tanks treated by makeshift medical teams in trucks. Shooting continued into the ("parliament") debate shown on nation­ moved in from the corners of the square, the homes of sympathizers. night. when exchanges of gunfire al television, opposition deputies de­ crushing corpses and wounded alike. Marchers elsewhere in the city were between troops and unknown oppo­ similarly gunned down. The enraged nents were reported. nounced this obvious lie. And now even Hundreds of wounded swamped the the U.S. embassy is admitting to 500 hospitals. where many died because the survivors retreated through the city. At Jaleh Square soldiers loaded the attacking banks. luxury stores and dead and dying into trucks while fire dead. supply of doctors and medical supplies In response Teheran and other major was inadequate for the number of government offices. The crowds over­ engines washed the blood off the streets. turned and burned autos in an attempt Although the government initially Iranian cities were placed under martial victims. Many more. fearing the likeli­ continued on page 4 hood of arrest at the hospitals, were to block the patrolling tanks and army claimed that a mere 50 had been killed, it Camp David Hoax True to the Carter style. much of SEPTEMBER 19 After 13 days House imposed news blackout, the "miracle" of Camp David was of closed-door wrangling with Carter staged a theatrical televised simply media hokum. In his tele­ Egyptian president Anwar Sadat ceremony where he outlined two vised address from the White House and Israeli prime minister Mena­ pacts said to represent a dramatic Carter glossed over most of the chern Begin, Jimmy Carter sudden­ breakthrough. Amid much hug­ details of the two pacts, emphasiz­ ly announced last Sunday that the ging. hand clasping and laughing ing instead how brotherhood and trilateral summit meeting on the hetween Sadat and Begin, Carter reconciliation had triumphed. On Ncar East held at Camp David had announced to the nation that peace the spot to say something on such a resulted in a far-reaching "frame­ was at hand for the Near East, work for peace." Ending the White possibly within a matter of months. continued on page 11

>- ~ c c OJ ~ OJ E :0 I -0 ;; o'" Court Dismis.ses "Outside Agitator" Charg~ SYL Victory at Chicago Circle Campus CII ICA(iO On August 15 the li niver­ student groups. During the past year the Publicity over the witchhunt greatly a May II anti-Zionist demonstration sitv 01 Illinois Chicago Circle (UICC) trlCC administration has banned the embarrassed the Circle Campus admin­ (on the same trespass charges) and has administration was thwarted in its salc of newspapers by campus organiza­ istration. Articles on the defense ap­ announced its intention to aid the attempt to drive the Spartacus Youth tions. threatened to evict five student peared in the ChicaRo Sun- Times. the prosecution of anti-shah Iranians (see league (SYL) off campus when Judge groups from their offices (including the Reader and ChicaRo Weekend. Their "U ICC Admin. Does SAVAK Dirty .lohn .I. McDonald dismissed criminal student government!) and kicked union inLjuisitorial ban exposed before a wide Work," YOllnR Spartacus No. 65, tn:spass chargcs against SYL activist organi/ers off campus as "outsiders." public audience, the UICC authorities Summer 1978). The SYL victory can Sandor John. After months of delay The Spartacus Youth League was took a red-faced dive. After the court and should provide a springboard for a costing hundreds of dollars in legal singled out for a purge intended to cow finally dismissed the charges, one campaign to defend all victims of these expenses for the defense. the circuit all the administration's opponents. But eampus official remarked: "The whole academic McCarthys.• court finally ruled in favor ofthe motion in response the SYL initiated a united­ ineident was unfortunate and really by John's lawyer David Thomas to front campaign to defend the democrat­ shouldn't have happened. Some people dismiss thc case on broad constitutional ic rights of all faculty, students and thought that John shouldn't have forced grounds. holding that political activity campus workers under attack. The the issue. But that didn't make the arrest Despite the court victory, out­ by "non-students" at the li ICC Campus committee held rallies and meetings. right" (ChicaRo Sun- Times, 16 August). standing legal expenses remain. Center could not be prohibited by and reeeived an impressive array of Of course. for the administration the WV urges its readers to aid the administrative fiat. endorsements. including the Circle arrest was an "unfortunate" error only campaign with a contribution to the The court's dismissal confirmed what student government, Circle Women's because it was forced to publicly back Sandor John Defense Fund, which the SYL had said from the outset: the Liberation Union and the Young down. is being administered by the Parti­ san Defense Committee. Please Novembcr 22 arrest and permanent Socialist Alliance as well as prominent The modest yet real victory of the send contributions/make checks campus ban of Sandor John was a professors. labor leaders and newspaper Sandor John defense weakens the UICC payable to: Partisan Defense Com­ McCarthy-style witchhunt of leftist columnists from across the country. The authorities' hand. but it has not ended mittee (earmarked Sandor John "outside agitators." It was part of a SYL also initiated a broad-ranging civil their vicious assaults against free speech Defense Fund), P.O. Box 6729, wider net of intimidation, aimed parti­ suit with the American Civil Liberties and the left. The administration conti­ Main P.O., Chicago, IL 60680 cularly at left-wing faeulty, students, Union against U ICC's gag-rule nues to prosecute a group of Palestinian campus workers and Arab and Iranian harassment. and Latin American students arrested at Free Nahuel Moreno and Rita Strasberg!

The lives of two Argentine socialists, United Secretariat as well as exiled Sa Leal, a representative from the Janeiro. Internationally, telegrams and Nahuel Moreno (Hugo Bressano) and leader of the Argentine Socialist Work­ Portuguese PRT who has since been protest letters denouncing the arrests Rita Strasberg, are in grave danger ers Party (PST). He and his companion released following protests from the have been sent by leaders ofthe Spanish following their arrest August 22 by Strasberg were among 22 activists Portuguese parliament. At press time, Socialist Party. the Bolivian Miners Brazilian police. Now being held prison­ rounded up in Sao Paulo late last month eight of the Brazilian militants seized in Union Federation and others. er in Sao Paulo, the two are threatened in a police raid after a public meeting of the roundup remain in jail. On September 6, in response to the with deportation to Argentina where the Socialist Convergence group. Ac­ The arrests may be the opening shot PST appeal. the Ligue Trotskyste de they face probable torture and possible cording to a PST communique (Rouge, in a new wave of repression by the Geisel France and the Organizacion Trotskista death. It is the duty of the workers 5 September) the group seeks to government. For more than a decade movement and all those concerned with establish a -- Brazilian socialist party. the Brazilian military dictatorship has democratic rights to take up the fight to Accused of being members of a imposed its rule of savage terror, stilling "Trotskyist-line" group, the Liga Ope­ 6 September 1978 save Moreno and Strasberg from the liberal criticism by pointing to its fabled infamous Brazilian esquadras da morte r;"nia [Workers League], which had Brazilian Embassy "economic miracle." which brought 34 Cours Albert (death sLjuads) and the bloody hangmen allegedly "infiltrated" Socialist Conver­ increased prosperity for the rich by gence. the were charged with violat­ 75008 Paris, France of the Videla junta! 22 imposing starvation wages on the ing the National Security Law banning Nahuel Moreno (the pen name under workers. However. with the collapse of The Ligue Trotskyste de France which Bressano is known on the left) is a "suhversive" political parties. the "economic miracle" in the 1974-76 and the Organizacion Trotskista Among those arrested at the Socialist longtime self-proclaimed Trotskyist. worldwide capitalist depression, and Revolucionaria de Chile, sympa­ head of the Bolshevik Tendency of the Comergence conference was Antonio faced with increasing clamor from large thizing sections ofthe international sections of the bourgeoisie for a degree Spartacist tendency, demand the of political liheralization. even Geisel immediate freeing of Hugo Bressa­ hegan mouthing vague calls for the no, Antonio Sa Leal, and Rita advent of "rdativ e democracy." But in Strasberg and the twenty militants the mo,t recent period. the mounting of the Socialist Convergence. In unre,-;\ v\ithin Hra;ilian society has made particular we demand that the two the military increasingly nenous. PST militants not be extradited to .\ rgelltina. rflUs in ;"larch-June 1977 hU!idreds Th~' Uz. uf thuu,ands oj sllldcnts took to , OlH strl'ch lor the first time since 19615 and September 15-0ctober 13 fought pitched hattles v\ith the cops (sec c_

!!t­ WORKERS VANGUARD -.-=- 2 Nicaragua in Flames

the auspices of the Organization of aftermath of a December 1972 earth­ road shouting anti-government slogans For People's Tribunals to American States (OAS), Truman's 4uake which destroyed the capital, while the National Guard looked on Punish National colonial ministry now turned into Managua, leaving 14,000 dead and helplessly. Jimmy Carter's overseer of "human 300.000 homeless. An international SomOla's capitUlation was universal­ Guard Criminals! rights" south of the Rio Grande. relief effort raised millions of dollars; ly taken as a sign that the dictator's grip The populist Sandinista Front is the popular Dominican baseball star was weakening. Thus the kidnapping of No Deals with doing its best to ensure a "smooth Roberto Clemente died in an airplane the Congress was quickly followed by Somoza Regime­ transition." It sponsored the so-called crash while flying a relief mission to another national work stoppage, called "Group of Twelve." a blue-ribbon Nicaragua~ but meanwhile the Somoza by the FAO, which began the very next For a Constituent committee of anti-Somoza business­ family was using the calamity to day (August 25). In Managua workers Assembly! men, Maryknoll Fathers, lawyers ~I}.d eliminate business competitors and grab occupied one of the major banks. and technicians. formed last October, which the lion's share of the aid. This over­ everywhere compliance with the strike calls for a provisional government weening greed and traffic in death gave call was 80 percent or more. The few As the rubble smoulders in the seven dominated by bourgeois liberals, with rise to the first serious bourgeois businesses open were those belonging cities and towns which rose up against onlva minor role for the FSLN. And at opposition to the regime since the directly to the ruling family or to Cuban the tyrant Somoza, the Nicaraguan people arc burying their dead. The mercenary "'ational Guard once again swaggers through the streets of Leon, Masaya and Matagalpa, but the obese dictator is still sweating in his air­ conditioned concrete bunker in the capital. For if the pistol shots from the street barricades have suhsided for the r;lomenL a nation-wide work stoppage continues unabated, its effectiveness due to ncar unanimous support from the local bourgeoisie as well as the workers. As the insurrectionists return to the shadows, the Sandinista Liberation Front (FSL"') launched a second operation, an attempt to establish a rf "liberated lone" along the southern horder with Costa Rica. And in the population hatred grows Into cold fury against a rotting dynasty which in its death agony feeds on the blood of the youth in order to gain a few more weeks to line Miami bank accounts. The hours arc· numbered for "Tacho" Somoza, "president" and owner of Nicaragua, caudillo (boss) by the grace of the U.S. Marines. "The dict,norship of the flies," Pablo Neruda called it in his Canto General, "Trujillo flies, Tacho flieS". flies drip­ ping with the thickened blood of the Meiselas/Magnum downtrodden, intoxicated flies buzzing National guardsmen dodge Sandinista bullets in the streets of Masaya. over the people's graves ... learned flies skilled in tyranny." For 34 years the height of the uprising last week the Marines left in 1934. exiles. And in Matagalpa. the third Somoza, Inc. has ruled this belt of the Front gave its approval to a negotiating The second key event was the largest city in the country. open revolt Central American isthmus as its private commission composed ofa lawyer from assassination of UDEL leader Pedro broke out as teenagers led by Sandinista domain. Now the time is up for these the Group of Twelve, a businessman Joaquin Chamorro last January. With guerrillas (and armed by the local parasitic insects. from the bourgeois opposition coalition all of Jimmy Carter's "human rights" populace) set up barricades. The sniping In spite ofall the sacrifices and days of UDEL (Democratic Union for Libera­ propaganda the local bourgeoisie fi­ battle lasted until September 7, when heroic struggle, the Nicaraguan working tion) and a conservative industrialist gured they had a green light from the FSLN broke into a leading radio people will not become their own supported by the State Department. Washington and called a work stoppage station and broadcast an appeal for a masters without a bitter political fight Nevertheless, for the past three weeks that brought business to a standstill for general armed uprising. against the last-minute "allies" of the the Nicaraguan masses have been two weeks. However, the State Depart­ Immediately the cities of Masaya and "democratic" businessmen and ranch­ fighting it out. guns in hand, with ment was not yet ready to flick its little Leon and four other towns (Estell, ers. Until yesterday they were the Somoza's praetorian guard. And in finger and adopted a "hands-off" Diriamba. Chinandega and Pei'ias underpinning ofthe corrupt regime, and Washington the Carter administration posture (anabsurdity in a country where Blancas) fell into rebel hands. Somoza today their courage extends only far seems paralyzed with indecision over absolutely everything has always been referred to a "Tet offensive" by the enough to send their teenage sons and which horse to back, fearing that done following instructions or signals Sandinistas. slapped censorship on the daughters into battle. Tomorrow they whatever it does the U.S. will be from the U.S.). And at the end of July opposition press (later extended to hope to "restabilize" the country under denounced for "outside interference." the liberal opposition was dismayed by foreign reporters) and called up reserve State Department liberals are worried publication of a letter by Carter to troops. that the longer Somoza holds on the SomOla praising alleged "human rights continued on page 11 greater the chances will be for a "second advances" in Nicaragua. Cuba." The spectre of Cuba is in fact so The dominant sector of the FSLN as omnipresent that the Nicaraguan bour­ well as the Broad Opposition Front geoisie would not have made an alliance (FAa). a body including everyone from with the FSLN without the firmest conservative landowners to the WORKERS guarantees. Moscow-Stalinist Nicaraguan Socialist But with armed workers in the streets Party. had been banking on a move by ""fiIlARI) the conditions are there for another Washington to ease out Somoza. So Marxist Working-Class Biweekly Santo Domingo, where a mass "consti­ following Carter's letter the Nicaraguan of the Spartacist League of the U.S. tutionalist" movement against military opposition decided it would have to go it rule threatened to escape the control of alone. or at least step up the heat. The EDITOR: Jan Norden its bourgeois leaders. Trujillo, another Sandinistas' answer was a daring attack PRODUCTION MANAGER: Darlene Kamiura CIA-backed dictator who had become on the National Congress. a puppet C:RCULATION MANAGER: Mike Beech an albatross. was removed by his body composed overwhelmingly of EDITORIAL BOARD: Jon Brule, Charles Burroughs. George Foster, Liz Gordon, masters in Washington with an assass­ Somoza toadies. Led by "Comandante James Robertson, Joseph Seymour in's bullet. The significance of the Zero," FSLN veteran Eden Pastora, the Published biweekly, skipping an issue in current uprising in Nicaragua is that it operation could have been a tragic August and a week in December, by the Spartacist Publishing Co.• 260 West could be the first time in almost two adventure if it had not been greeted with Broadway, New York, NY 10013. Telephone: decades that a Latin American despot is the overwhelming support of the popu­ 966-6841 (Editorial), 925-5665 (Business). toppled by popular revolt. That pros­ lation. Rut instead of storming the Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, G.P.O.. New York. NY 10001. Domestic· pect is unsettling both to U.S. imperial­ palace where his few remaining cohorts subscriptions: $5.00/48 issues. Second-class ism and its client strongmen throughout were being held. Somoza was forced to postage paid at New York, NY. the region (particularly the military allow the commandos to fly to Panama Opinions expressed in signed articles or regimes next door in Guatemala. El along with 59 released prisoners. A bus letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. WV Photo Salvador and Honduras). taking the guerrillas and remaining Poster at demonstration in the U.S. The beginning of the end for the hostages to the airport was greeted by No. 215 22 September 1978 hit Somoza regime. Somoza family can be traced to the th()usands of Nicaraguans .lining the 22 SEPTEMBER 1978 3

~ The gO\nnment immediately declared was responsible for the Abadan fire atmadari, calls for the overthrow of the that the fire \vas the work of anti-shah spread across Iran. shah. denounced the "liberalization" Iran ... arsonists. and claimed to have un­ from exile in Iraq as a "plot to deceive (continued from page 1) covered a plot by communist school The "Liberalization" Fraud the Muslim people and derail their teachers who turned their classes into movement." Certain of the liberals law and put under the administration of sabotage rings. Nothing more has been On August 27. the shah announced a demanded the abolition of the shah's the commander of the army. General heard of this obvious frame-up. number of concessions designed to secret police. SAVAK. Oveissi. for a period of six months. This It is not impossible that the arson was appease the Muslim fundamentalists But whether the concessions were the essentially takes all power out of the the work of Muslim fundamentalists· and bourgeois liberals. Prime Minister result of fright or a calculated maneu­ hands of the newly appointed prime in the recent period. banks. restaurants. Amuzegar resigned and was replaced by ver. it soon became clear that they were minister Jaafar Sharif-Emami. Last night clubs and liquor stores or brewer­ Sharif-Emami. The shah's "Imperial" meaningless. Two hundred and thirty week mass round-ups of hundreds of ies have been attacked or bombed by calendar which hegan with the ancient imprisoned Muslim leaders remained in opposition figures began across Iran. anti-shah protesters. In most cases the Persian empire was replaced by the jail. The reactionary hard-liner General Scandalously. in the middle of this Abbas Garabaghi. head of the National popular turmoil directed against the Gendarmerie. became Minister of the shah. Chinese Communist Party leader Interior. and prime minister Hua Kuo-feng The "Iranian Spring" was soon seen winged into Teheran to demonstrate his as the act of a regime that had been sOlidarity with the hated Iranian dicta­ weakened. yet was clearly unreform­ tor (see "Chairman Hua Embraces able. The stage was set for the demon­ Butcher Shah:' WV No. 214.8 Septem­ strations of September 4. The capital ber 1978). While riot police shot down had been the scene of a week of almost demonstrators in the streets of Qom. continuous streetfighting. but the Hua was given a 21-gun salute and crowds demonstrating on the 4th were convcyed to the Shahyad monument in able to fraternize with the soldiers. the royal carriage to receive the keys to Shouting. "Soldiers. you are from us." reheran. and "Why do you kill your brothers'!" The shah has decided to drown thc they showered the troops with flowers. protests in hlood. ~ot only have the From before dawn until late at night. the demonstrations shown no sign of demonstrations remained unmolested. diminishing. hut those of Septemher 4 and Teheran took on a carni\al drew millions of participants through­ atmosphere. out the country. and half a million or Four days later more than 1.000 more in Teheran itself. The march was protesters lay dead in the street. The led hy mullahs (preachers) reading from "Iranian Spring" lasted no more than II the Koran and hanners called for the davs. return of Ayatollah Khomeini. a Mus­ lim religious leader exiled hy the shah. The Spectre of American Other hanners signed hy leftist guerrilla Intervention groups called for "U.S. out of Iran." But When the "progressive:' "modern­ the dominant theme was set by the izing" rhetoric of the "White Revolu­ religious opposition. tion" is stripped away what remains is The marches not only indicated the "but a brutal military dictatorship. And extent of popular hatred for the Pahlavi the shahatishah now faces the possibility dictatorship. but protesters in the Setboun/Sipa-Black Star that his only bulwark against the white­ capital openly fraternized with the Disgusting: While Iranian troops shoot down demonstrators, Chairman Hua hot fury of the Iranian masses is eroding largely conscript troops. The Iranian fetes Butcher Shah, The dilemma for Iranian Maoists: You cannot "hate the around him. At the top of the military shah and love China in the face of this "friendship association." regime is facing a threat similar to that machine both a major general and a of the 1963' uprising. when the shah's leading official of the SAVAK were advi~ors military believed that the executed in the last year for allegedly troops in Teheran would mutiny if organi7ing plots against the Shah. In the called upon to fire upon protesting ranks. U.S. reporters interviewed sol­ erowds for a second day. diers and non-commissioned officers Fifteen years ago the shah brought in who swore to commit suicide ratherthan fresh troops and killed thousands in fire upon civilians. order to crush the rehellion: today. It appears that on the 8th. some of relying on elite units. he is again these men were faithful to their word, emharked on a desperate attempt to and in at least one incident turned their exterminate all resistance. guns on their commanding officer. rhree years ago. the shahanshah Certainly. only a skeleton force pa­ (ook ing ofkings" )had decreed a one-part) trolled the streets of Teheran: a force regime. confident that his opponents had inadeLJuate to stop many of the attacks heen reduced to an impotent handful: on stores and offices. but one which had today it is his Rastakhi7 Party that has the advantage of being less susceptible hecn reduccd to a 'hambles. to "contamination." lhe opposition shows no signs of Ihere remains one last resort for heing intimidated by the September 8 defending the shahanshah the same massacre. :\e\\ clashes have been one that restored him to power in 1953. reported from Teheran. Mashad and has stocked his arsenal with hillions of other cities. while shops in th~ capital dollars of weapons and which has been were once again shut down by.a protest Abbas/Gamma-Liaison his international press agent: the United Imperial troops march in review. strike. Only a short time ago. the self­ States. the shah's godfather. No sooner proclaimed "light of the Aryans" boast­ were the bodies cold than Carter ed. "1\obody can overthrow me. 1 have attacks were clearly based on the traditional Muslim calendar, and the telephoned the shah to reaffirm the the support of 700.000 troops. all the Koran's prohibition on interest-taking new prime minister closed the casinos "close and friendly relationship" be­ workers and most of the people .... I and against alcohol. or a more general and other gambling spots. The post of tween Iran and U.S. imperialism and to have the power" (!.os Angeles Times. 17 orposition to "decadent" Western cul­ women's affairs was abolished. and congratulate his client about the "prog­ August). 1\ow the fragility of this mass ture. General Ayadi. a member of the Bahai ress" made in "liberalizing." murderer's rule is demonstrated for all sect. long hated by Iran's Shi'ite Mus­ The American bourgeois press But there is much circumstantial to see. For the first time in 25 years (in lims. resigned. immediately sent up a chorus in praise evidence suggesting that the Abadan fire 1953 a CIA-engineered coup overthrew More important than these alleged of the shah and his "modernization" and was in fact a government provocation. the bourgeois nationalist Mossadegh proofs of the shah's devotion to allah "liberalization." Unanimously. in near­ Despite Ahadan's ultra-modern fire­ a nd restored the shah to his throne). the was the announcement that freedom of identical editorials. the Wash ingtOfl fighting system, fire engines arrived at Imperial Palace is guarded by tanks. press. speech and assembly would be Post. Wall Street Journal, Los Anxeles the scene (100 yards from the police guaranteed to "legitimate" political Times and other leading "molders of station) only after three hours. one of parties (the pro-Moscow Stalinist Tu­ (bourgeois) public opinion" called for The Aftermath of Abadan them with an empty water tank. Abad­ deh Party and other leftist groups unambiguous U.S. support for the an's police chief initially claimed that continued to be banned). Free elections Peacock Throne. Once again they the arsonists had used incendiary Tension in Iran dramatically escalat­ were promised for the summer of 1979. explained that the Iranian workers and homhs. hut retracted the statement ed after a fire killed nearly 400 people Within a day after this announcement peasants "needed" the strong hand of a when it .was pointed out that these trapped inside a movie theater in the 14 political parties had surfaced. testify­ murdering despot. The more cynical did bombs were in the hands of the police southern city of Abadan on August 19. ing to the diversity of political currents not even bother with this. simply calling andarmv. which has so far been suppressed by the for the defense of the oil companies' fhree days later. police and city shah's autocratic rule. profits and for the maintenance of Iran officials were excluded from the mourn­ While some of the "moderate" as a strategic bastion in U.S. imperial­ SPARTACIST ing ceremonies. which became an opposition politicians and the religious ism's anti-Soviet drive. With all of the indictment of police negligence, or opposition led by Ayatollah Shariat­ viciousness that a capitalist with an Canada complicity. in the fire. The crowd. madari. were willing to test Sharif­ endangered bank account can muster. Subscription: S2/year predominantly relatives of the victims, Emami's sincerity. both the bourgeois the Wall Street Journal (13 September) (10 issues) then clashed with the police and liberals and religious opposition contin­ complained that "the Shah until now Make payable/mail to Spartaclst Canada attacked banks and restaurants. Troops ued to demand the dissolution of the has heen attempting to conciliate rather Publishing ASSOCiation, Box 6867. Station A. Toronto, Ontario. Canada and tanks had to he brought in to quell Majlis and the holding of new elections. than crush what is obviously deep­ the rrotests. The belief that the regime Ayatollah Khomeini who, unlike Shari- seated unrest in Iran."

4 WORKERS VANGUARD rhere arc already more than 35,000 No. fundamentally the current mass revolutionary emancipation from semi­ religious leaders' "democracy" does not. lJ .S. military personnel in Iran. Secre­ mobilizations against the Pahlavi family feudal backwardness. The religious extend to communists. Khomeini has tary of Defense Brown is now discussing arc under the ideological sway of opposition stands on the heritage of the ordered his followers not to engage in "the possible 'dispatch of appropriate Muslim fundamentalists whose idea ofa Middle Ages. opposed even to the paltry any collaboration with leftists against U.S. forces to the scene'" and "100,000 golden age is the expansion of Islam social advances for women in past the shah. Shariatmadari opposes the U.S. troops are being trained for by fire and sword in the sixth century decades. legalization of the Tudeh party, as it possible intervention in the Gulf," (Los A.D. Thus in the Muslim holy city ofQom, would be contrary to the laws of Islam. Aflfieles Times. 17 August). U.S. Shariatmadari's stronghold, every fe­ The hold of the mullahs over the Furthermore. at every key point in intervention-no doubt to "save Ameri­ male over the age of four must wear the Iranian masses is on the basis ofa petty­ recent Iranianhistory(l906,1946,1953) can lives" as in Santo Domingo in chador. the black cloak/veil which is the bourgeois populist ideology, represent­ there· are many examples of anti­ 1965 is a real possibility. symbol of centuries of brutal oppression ed in its most radical form by Khomeini, monarchical and "anti-imperialist" reli­ Carter's "human rights" demagogy of women by Islamic society. As for who calls for the confiscation of the gious figures who returned to the side of Khomeini, he states, "We wish to stands exposed as a cynical cover for "immorally" gained wealth of the rich. the Peacock Throne because of their propping up the Pahlavis' blood-stained liberate women from the corruption The lavish ostentation of the decadent, fear of the left and the plebeian masses. that is menacing them" (Le Monde, 6 rule. Instead of hat-in-hand pleas to corrupt. jet-setting Imperial Court Now that medievalist Muslims are May). His followers exposed the real Carter to honor his "promises" and renders this Islamic puritanism all the calling for the overthrow of the shah in meaning of this delicate phrase when timid protest telegrams to the shah. the more appealing to the Iranian masses. the streets of Iran, the cowardly ref­ situation cries out for the American left This reactionary "anti-imperialism" they chanted "Death or the Veil" in the ormists of the Socialist Workers Party and labor movement to fight to free all virulently hates all aspects of Western streets of Tabriz in February. (SWP) have finally raised the sk'gan victims of the shah's white terror, culture which erode traditional Islamic Placing themselves in the tradition of "Down With the Shah." The SWP boycott arms shipments to Iran through society. The core of the mullahs' social the Islamic religious leaders in the 1906 believes that the mullahs' "anti­ trade-union action and demand a halt to support is thus the traditional middle revolution against the monarchy, when imperialism" and the call for parliamen­ all U.S. aid to the shah! elasses--merchants and artisans, the they fought for a constitution and a tary "democracy" have an inherently parliament. Khomeini and Shariatmad­ revolutionary thrust. But the SWP is No to Islamic Reaction small stratum of wealthy peasants and certain backward sections of the prolet­ ari can pose as the champions of confronted with the dilemma of recon­ But what is the political basis of the democratic rights against the shah's ariat such as casual construction ciling its uncritical support to the current opposition to the shah? It is not laborers. tyranny. Do not be fooled! Numerous Muslim preachers with its pose as the proletarian socialism. It is not even the cases of dictatorial Muslim states "best fighters" against the oppression of bourgeois liberalism of Mossadegh, The victory of a reactionary move­ masked by forms of parliamentary women. Once again these social demo­ although liberals and leftists can be ment of Muslim traditionalism will democracy can be found, including crats resorted to the "SWP school of found in the movement and even represent a far-reaching historical de­ Pakistan. Malaysia and Indonesia. falsification" by running a picture of the apologizing for the Muslim preachers. feal for communists. who seek a More importantly. the Muslim Teheran march. proclaiming that "Women played a prominent role in the September 4 protests" (Mililant, 22 Dro~ the Charges-Sto~ the FBI Witchhunt! September). The caption fails to men­ tion that everyone of the women is swathed in a veil! Furthermore. the entire Iranian left also trails behind the Muslim leaders. L.A. Cops Savagely Attack The Tudeh party accuses the shah of "pretending to respect the fundamental principles of Islam and ... taking demagogic measures..." (Le Monde. I Septemher). Their program goes no Anti-Shah Protesters further than the confiscation of the property of the royal family. And what I.OS A'\GELES On September I. 165 of the !'v1aoist and guerrillaist groups which vehemently denounce Tudeh's Iranian student demonstrators and reformism? They too speak only of the sncral Americans were arrested on "progressive religious leaders." echoed charges of rioting. inciting to riot. by their supporters in the various wings assault with a deadly weapon on a police of the Iranian Students Association. A ofric,er. arson and noise violations as particularly grotesque example was a scores of baton-swinging J.os Angeles lea net issued by the Federation of cops savagely attacked an anti-shah Iranian Students and the Southern demonstration of400 in downtown L.A. California ISA. which allied itself with Witnesses to the police riot reported Khomeini by attacking "corrupt por­ numerous instances of demonstrators nographic culture." being beaten with police batons while The Iranian left thus marches on the lying bound and helpless on the ground. road to suicide. An Iranian Islamic Thirty demonstrators and nine cops "republic" would have numerous prece­ were taken to hospitals. All those dents for a campaign to exterminate the arrested. including 35 women and ten left. from Libya to Pakistan to Indone­ juveniles. were released on bail ranging sia where the army. aided by fanatical from $250 to $10,000. Muslim students, slaughtered more The demonstration had been called to than half a million leftist, worker and protest the U.S. media's coverage of the peasant militants. Whatever their "anti­ recent theater fire in Abadan, which imperialist" trappings. not one of the killed nearly 400 people, as well as to UPI states which swear by the Koran has oppose the "impending military inter­ Nightstick-wielding cops charge Iranian demonstrators at September 1 anti­ abolished capitalism or imperialist vention of the U.S. in Iran." It quickly shah demonstration in Los Angeles, domination. became obvious that the cops were out When the demonstration moved to Iranian students with at least four The hundreds of thousands who are for blood. They initially attacked the now marching behind the mullahs are demonstration at the Federal building, the Los Angeles Times building, the different "terrorist" organizations, in- scene of numerous anti-shah rallies in eluding the West German Red Army by no means all Muslim fundamental­ attempting to prevent the demonstra­ ists. Many are primarily motivated by tors from using a bullhorn. The demon­ the last two weeks protesting press Faction (known in the bourgeois press coverage ofevents in Iran, about 50 cops as the "Baader-Meinhof Gang"). The hostility to the real crimes of the shah. strators responded with the chant, Many leftist workers have probably "Down with the Fascist Cops!" moved in and began manhandling and hired killers of the FBI have already arresting demonstration leaders. People announced an "investigation" of the joined what they view as a potentially coming to the aid ofthose being dragged ISA to determine if there are "interna- successful opposition to the hated The brutal attack on Iranian away as well as others simply trying to tional terrorists" within its ranks who regime. But the masses, particularly the students which took place on Sep­ get out of the area were viciously set may have been responsible for violence workers, who are now supporting the tember 1 is part of a familiar pattern upon by the marauding cops. at the September I demonstration! Khomeinis and Shariatmadaris can and of cop repression against minorities The police attack ended with over 100 This grotesque attempt tg use a cop must be won away from the present and leftists in Los Angeles. There has demonstrators lying face down on the riot as a pretext for the harassment and Islamic reacvonary offensive in favor of been considerable protest recently in pavement with their arms tied behind victimization of leftists cannot be a social revolutionary opposition to the response to the escalation of shoot­ their backs. An LAPD mobile booking tolerated! The Spartacist League fully shah. in2s by cops in L.A. ghettos, the station was brought to the spot to solidarizes with the ISA's demands for stran2ulation deaths of two blacks For Workers Revolution in Iran facilitate photographing and finger- the immediate release of remaining this year while in police custody and printing of those arrested before they prisoners, dismissal of all charges the 2risly murder of Andres Montes, The Iranian proletariat has not were hauled off to jail. against them and the payment of all a Puerto Rican supporter of the always been simple foot soldiers of the Notwithstanding our serious political medical fees for cop-inflicted injuries. If National Cnited, Workers Organiza­ ulema. After the reigning shah's father differences with all factions of the these outrageous charges are upheld in tion, the workerist front group of the was deposed by the Allies in 1942, the Iranian Students Association (ISA)and court. it could well be the first step Maoist Re\'olutionary Communist new government's authority was mini­ despite the unclarity surrounding re- toward deportation proceedings for Party. Montes, who had been re­ mal. with Russian forces occupying sponsibility for the theater fire in anti-shah militants, which would result peatedly harassed by cops, was northwestern Iran and British troops in Abadan, the Spartacist League stands in their likely torture and possible death chased and 2unned down in his car the south. But class war erupted across unconditionally for the defense of the at the blood-drenched hands of the on thl' ni2ht of July 24 on the official the country. The city of Isfahan, in anti-shah demonstrators against the shah's SAVAK executioners. central Iran, saw three general strikes l"\CU',l' that he had an outstanding bourgeois state. Drop All Charges Against the traffir ticket! This ugly crime WllS not and one lockout between 1942 and 1946. The government has responded to the Demonstrators! Down with the Interna- As a result of the lockout the starving l" l'n rl'ported to Montes' wife until 'incident with a vicious redbaiting tional Terrorist Organizations of the t\\O day s later. Disarm the L.A. cops! workers occupied the granaries and witch hunt of the ISA, whipping up Bourgeoisie: the SAVAK and the FBI/ Dishlll1d SWAT! public hysteria by attempting to link the CI;\! • continued on page 8 5 22 SEPTEMBER 1978 he idea of class war is gen­ erally regarded as something T connected with the Communisl .Hanijl'slo. Bolshevism and other things alien' to "the American way of life." Thus. it caused a bit of a flap last summer when a respectable trade-union leader. Douglas Fraser of the United Auto Workers (lJAW). accused the leaders of big business ofwaging"a one­ sided class war in this country a war against working people, the unem­ ployed. the poor. the minorities. the very young and thevery old. and even many in the middle-class of our society" (UA W Washingtun RC{Jorf. 24 July). This denunciation was made in his resignation statement from the presi­ dential advisory Labor-Management Group. Of course. no one believes that this cynical trade-union bureaucrat has suddenly becomc..radicali/ed and hostile to capitalism. No. Fraser is simply piLjued with Carter and the Democratic Congress and chose strong and vaguely socialistic language in order to catch headlines. Significantly. that crusty old reac­ tll1nan boss of all labor hosses. George Meany. hacked Fraser up. Commenting on the li AW leader's "class war" statement, Meany's executive assistant. lhomas Donahue. said: "Call it a class strugglt:. call it corporate power \erSliS the peoplt:. call it the the young wise-ass economist Barry Yet the fanatically anti-communist ment rate for blacks has been consistent­ estahlishment mer'll!.. We're the Bosworth. is going around telling central trade-union leadership, under ly twice as high as the national average. workers who want a higgcr sharc of employers to take a hard line in wage George Meany. remained one of the last and at present the jobless rate for black what thcv ha\c. and thc\' don't want to settlements. More ominously, there is bastions of bitter-end Vietnam hawks. teenagers is 37 percent (U .S. Depart­ givc it lip." . now much talk of Carter instituting ment of Lahor Nell·s. 4 August)! Y('II' }"ork li/1/cs, 30 .I lily In some ways the black question was "voluntary" wage-price guidelines. even more destructive to the liberal! A more immediate cause of mass And then Meany himself turned the labor alliance than Vietnam. When the dissatisfaction with the Carter adminis­ heat up under Carter when in an almost Putting the Liberal Coalition civil rights movement "moved north" in tration is inflation. In Ford's last year in unprecedented act he criticized the Together Again? the mid-1960's. it encountered a race­ office the inflation rate was slightly tentative postal settlement and predict­ under 6 percent: in the first half of this ed the ranks would vote it down. At this. So if the labor tops arc finally reacting caste system in unionized industry, not only in the labor-aristocratic job­ year consumer prices have gone up more Carter reportedly went through the to Carter's right-wing economic poli­ trustified construction trades but also in' than 10 percent at an annual ra.te! Real roof. His secretary of labor. Ray cies. what do they intend to do about it? "progressivc" unions like the UA W. wages have fallen sharply since last Marshall. denounced the AFL-C10 Fraser is calling for a meeting of labor, winter. Although total national income chief for fomenting inflationary wage civil rights. environmentalist, women's Th_ese deep rifts in the Democratic is now higher. the average real take­ settlements. These heated exchanges and other "progressive" groups to Party hawks versus doves, labor home pay for a worker with three caused Nell'sll'eek (21 August) to ob­ ·counter the "new right." This is clearly a officials versus black spokesmen-were dependents is today .l5 percent lower serve: "It was the sharpest breach call to re-establish the old Rooseveltian largely responsible for Nixon's electoral than in 1974 (U .S. Department of l.abor coalition. which the labor bureaucracy victories in 196R and again in 1972. Then between a Democratic President and ,VCll's. 21' July). organi/ed labor since World War II." did mueh to destroy in the 1960's. But along came Jimmy Carter to provide the It is perfectly understandahle that the however much Fraser and Meany are momentary illusion of a reunited Dem­ The "Tax Revolt" and Public labor tops are fed up and infuriated with angry at Carter and even at the majority ocratic Party. Although well right of Employee Strikes center in the Democratic Party (he Carter. especially since their support of Democratic politicians. the present prohably gave him his narrow victory labor bureaucracy cannot and will not nominated Henry Jackson at the 1972 The present attacks on Carter's' over Ford. All of labor's "must" put back together the labor!minorities! convention). the Georgia governor had economic policies from both organiled the advantage of not being centrally legislation a $3 minimum wage. com­ middle class libcral coalition, labor and the suburbanite "tax revolt­ il1\olved in the bitter faction fights of ers." though from opposite directions. mon situs picketing. the Humphrey­ Against the background of the Great the late 1960's-early 1970's. Trade-union center on government expenditure. For Hawkins Full Employment bill. labor Depression. the organization of mass and black leaders could dupe themselves the moment one of the key economic into beliC\ing that this "New South" contradictions of American capital­ millionaire-politician (Lester Maddox's ism lies in the relationship of the protege) would pursue liberal policies in state sector to the rest of the economy. the White House. and Carter encour­ Perhaps the most important change in aged such comforting illusions. the structure of the American econOlllV Once Carter was elected. the sinec World War II has been the American people wanted to think the enormous expansion of the state sector hest of him. So he did well in the opinion relative to pri\ate capital. Between 1950 polls in his first months in office. But in and 1976 the labor force in private ncar record time all major sections of industry (manufacturing. construction. American society h,t\e turned against mining) increased from IRA to 23A the man in the White House. Not one million or 27 percent: in the same period important constituency stands solidly the number of government employees behind Carter. And all his opponents increased !I1orc Ihan !lco alld a hall' smell the blood of a one-term president. ti!l1e\ going from 6.0 to 15.9 million If Carter is now on the outs with the (l:"collo!l1ic Refi0rf o( Ihe Prcsidel1f. basic constituencies of Democratic ICJ7X). Party liberalism. he is also increasingly lor se\ eraI \'Ca rs now the American unpopular with the forces of bourgeois ruling class has been increasingly upset conservatism. The homeowners' "tax about what it \iews as a grossly bloated. IT\olt." with its spectacular victory in parasitic state sector. Demands for a California's Prop 13. is essentially a radical redistribution of economIc right-wing Rcpublican campaign which resources from government expenditure

WV Photo can only damage Carter and the to private capital arc far from limited to Strike pickets in front of New York Post Office. Democrats. And to top it off. Wall neanderthal right wingers of the Barry Street is appalled that Carter has let the Ciold\\ater/Milton Friedman stripe. In la\\ reform. national health insurance­ Industrial unions and a broad political dollar fall right through the floor -30 the earlv 1970's the prestigious liberal h,tS heen deeisi\clv defeated bv an radicali/ation. FOR put together an percent against the Japanese yen and 15 economic thinktank. Brookings Insti­ o\c,whelmingly Democratic Congress. alliance \\ hich made the Democrats the percent against the West German mark tute. published an influential study, In some cases. such as the minimum dominant party for the next three it} the past year (sec "Behind the Dollar Cafiital Seeds o( Ihe Seven/ies. This wage and national health insurance. deChiring hall. In the violent elass battles which built the short. a class-struggle labor leadership industrial unions the 1934 San Fran­ would and must be the best defenders of cisco and Minneapolis general strikes. specially-oppressed black workers and the 1936 Flint sitdown. the bloody of the democratic rights of the black defeats in Little Steel in 1937. the final people in general. assault on Ford Dearborn in 1941 -had Instead Meany. Reuther. Abel & Co. an enormously radicaliting effect on the defended the racist status quo. often work ing class. A generation of young acting in concert with the employers. So militants. usually affiliated with left­ in the late 1960's black leaders and their \\ing organizations. came to the fore white liberal and leftist supporters and led the ne\\ unions. Through its role in the earl\ CIO. the Stalinist Commu­ turned sharply agai nst the labor official­ nist Party became a major force in the dom. They demanded the government eliminate racial discrimination in indus­ labor movement. Many of today's top try. if necessary taking legal. forcible bureaucrats. particularly in the more action against the unions. Given their left-wing CIO unions like the UAW. liberal and/or ethnic communalist won their spurs by purging the reds in political outlook. black activists natu- the early Cold War years. AFL-CIO Meany welcomes peanut boss Carter to AFL-CIO meeting in May. The top union leaders are pat.hologi- continued on page 8

22 SEPTEMBER 1978 i new ones. Still. Carter might just be inept enough to pressure Ted Kennedy , carter­ into coming forward as the liberal great v,hill' hope four years earlier than he SEAMEN Labor ... would hav'e liked to. SAY; (continued from page 7) While the bureaucrats arc waiting and UNIONIZE rally did not regard the American state hoping for Kennedy to commit himself as an instrument of capitalist class or Carter to become more conciliatory, J~ ~EAl1EN ~AY: domination. Rather they saw in it a some of them may indulge in a certain STEVENS- potential agency forsocialjustice. Black amount of left talk. In a July 19 press activists and liberal reformers came to conference following his resignation LA&OR view trade-union independence as from the Labor-Management Group, ORGANIZ something akin to "states' rights," a "'raser raised the vague threat of a labor doctrine designed to keep blacks down. party if the Ikmocratic leadership THE. MUST NOT For bourgeois politicians "affirma­ didn't mend its ways: tive action" is a perfect divide-and-rule "And for the first time in veal's our people arc raising the ljuesti(in: 'Is this SOUTH HAN~\.E policy. These tokenistic gestures placate coalition that we have with the Demo­ discontented blacks, while at the same cratic Party, is it futile'! And if it is, time weakening and discrediting the should "C' start rethinking the old .J f. STEVEN; workers movement. The ruling class question of a l.ahor Partv'" advocates of "affirmative action" in "Well. I don't thinK we're there vel. reallv." . unionized industry arc far from limited GOODS to liberals, who normally try to stay on This kind of vague labor party talk the good side of the black constituency. has become a standard ploy for union WV Photo Richard Nixon, whom nobody would bureaucrats who are opposed to the IMPOTENT LEGALISM OR CLASS STRUGGLE: call a supporter of black equality, head of the Democratic Party, but don't WIIAT PROGRAM TO ORGANIZE SOUTHERN TEXTILE WORKERS? advocated "affirmativc action," notably yet openly want to support his oppo­ On September 14 a rally sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile thc 1969 Philadelphia Plan for the nent. In this regard, it is instructive to Workers Union was held in New York's garment district to boost the consumer building trades. look at the last time union leaders talked boycott of J,P. Stevens products. The union bureaucrats, black preachers and "Affirmative action" is a dagger in the about a labor party. This was at the 1972 right-wing social democrats who spoke at the rally offered only the moral heart of the workers movement. and not Demoeratic convention. The Meanvite pressure tactics which for more than a decade have proved ineffective in only because it empowers the govern­ machine went all out in support of':the organizing the mills of the southern textile giant. Seamen of the Militant­ ment to throw out and rewrite union­ senator from Boeing," ~enry Jackson. Solidarity Caucus of the National Maritime Union, however, had an answer. negotiated contracts. "Affirmative ac­ Meany and his cohorts were infuriated Their signs called for putting the weight of the entire labor movement behind tion" is designed to divide the working and disgusted with McGovern's victorv, the struggle of southern textile workers for union wages and benefits-by "hot­ class from within. Black workers now believing the Democratic Party h~d cargoing" (refusing to handle) J.P. Stevens products. look to thc capitalist state-even under somehow been captured by radicals, ,I :\ixon or Ford to eliminate racial pinkos and hippies. In the presidential opprcssion at the point of production. deetion the central labor bureaucracv organinltions in a sense in which they do mounting in the ranb of his union and Hccause the prcsent labqr bureaucra­ adopted a pro-:\ixon neutrality. not so regard the Democratic Party. throughout the lahor movement for a Ihis distinction expresses an embryonic i1reaK II ith the Carter administration cy is organically tied to the racist status However. in order to show their and the Democratic Part' and for the quo in industry, it cannot gain the displeasure with the Democrats without sense of class consciousness in the formation 01 an indepei1dent Lahor political confidence of black workers. openl) embracing the Republicans, political field. 1'.1 rt \." !\ny talk about reviving the labor these hard-line pro-war bureaucrats Since the rise of mass industrial In 19'72 the WL was aiso ecstatic black; liberal coalition of yesteryear is also made a few labor party noises. An ulliolls in the late 1930\, revolutionary Gerry Healy, claims the present union i.e.. a workers government. We do not The labor bureaucracy would not it at all indicates the American working officialdom will build a labor party or call for a workers party based on the have to grin and 'bear Carter if some class, despite its political backwardness, can be pressured into doing so. The unions with a reformist program like the • politicia~ liberal Democratic were docs not regard the Democratic Party as Wl.'s Bulletin (21 July) blew up Fraser's British Labour Party;'much less do we willing to stand against the president. its own. Most workers view the Republi­ vague, guarded labor party remarks as call for one based on the fanatical anti­ Hut this is a big "if." The Democratic cans as the party of big business, while an expression of mass pressure from communism and national chauvinism of Party would rather not dump Carter in believing the Democrats can serve the below: the Meanyite bureaucracy. 19l\0. This would mean a messy fight, interests of organized labor. They "United Auto Workers president Doug­ During the 1972 presidential elec­ tearing open old wounds and inflicting regard the trade unions as "their" las Fraser-admitted that pressure was tions, we wrote an article which dealt extensively with the labor party ques­ tion ("The Only Choice: Build a Work­ maneuvers of the Kremlin bureaucracy. proletariat. which confronts the vicious ers Party!" WV No. 13, November Iran ... Today Iran's working class has just repression of the shah's dictatorship in 1972), Today, when the working class is (continued from page 5) begun to re-enter the battle. Through­ its struggle for the most elementary engaged in greater economic struggles factories and had to be suppressed by out the 1960's a number of militant demands, can bring into play its social than in the past few years, when the armed tribesmen. but scattered strikes were waged, but the power at the head of the other oppressed Democratic Party leadership is openly In parts of the north, the Central veterans of the struggles of the 1940's strata of Iranian society. contemptuous of organized labor, the Council of the Trade Unions of Iran, and 1950's had been largely decimated The Moscow and Peking Stalinists' conclusion of that article retains its full organized by the Tudeh party, and its and a new generation of proletarians support to the Muslim religious leaders force: workers militia held sole administrative had flowed into the factories from the serves only to tie the Iranian masses to "The rising line ofworking-class discon­ tent can sweep the entrenched bureaue­ and judicial authority, collecting taxes, villages. Under the leadership of a treacherous class enemies, In contrast, l.eninist-Trotskyist vanguard party this racv from office, hut in the ahsence of a issuing travel permits, etc. Factories revolutionary Trotskyism advances a powerful and fully class-conscious were taken over in Mazanderan, and program which can rip sections of the leadership it may do so only to replace armed strikers clashed with troops in the SPARTACIST LEAGUE FORUM petty bourgeoisie away from its Islamic the discredited Cold Warriors with a streets of Teheran, A bloody struggle leadership: Smash the butcher shah with slicker version of the same, armed with Nationalism and soeial-democratie rhetoric for duping was waged against the British oil Imperialism in Africa workers revolution! For a revolutionary the class instead of with the old lead companies in the southwestern province democratic constituent assembly based Speaker: JOSEPH SEYMOUR pipes. Those who would pose a labor of Khuzistan. The working class, al­ on universal suffrage! Smash SAVAK! party demand stripped in advance of its Spartacist League revolutionary transitional program, in though armed and independently or­ Central Committee Land to the tiller! Only the victorious gani/ed. lacked the revolutionary van­ alliance with the labor bureaucracy Saturd'ay, September 30. 7:30 p.m proletariat can guarantee these de­ instead of over the political corpse, lif guard part\ which could lead them to Lehman Auditorium mands by sweeping away the social the Meanys and WoodcocKs [Fraser's victol'\. f he' Tudeh broke the 1946 oil Altschul Hall. Barnard College bases of the Pahlavi autocracy and of predecessor as UA W pre,iclent]. would 116 & Broadway strike 111 r,,'turn for three cabinet the ulema's religious obscurantism­ doom the working class to an illu,ory For more information. vietorv in the consolidation of a new position.,.•\gain and again the Stalinists (212) 925·5665 thus hreaking Iran from imperialist 'progressive' facade for the more effec­ betrayed the struggles of the Iranian NEW YORK CITY domination. For a workers and peas­ tive continuation of the same class masses on behalf of the diplomatic ants government!. treason." 8 WORKERS VANGUARD expropriate the banks which are bleed­ . Democratic reformers and their union good opportunity for a revolutionary Spartacist ing the city white with their billion­ hureaucrat accomplices, the Spartacist internationalist electoral campaign. But dollar debt service? What prospect can candidate is running against the Demo­ it's a tough city for reformists with their there be for quality education for ghetto crats on a platform of class struggle: honey-coated panaceas and inch-at-a­ candidate ... youth when there are no jobs to offer dump the labor bureaucrats who tie (continued from page 12) time schemes. Nevertheless the Com­ them after graduation? Isn't it obvious workers to the party of capital. build a munist Party (CP) and Socialist Work­ arc closed while entire blocks rot and that elementary rights ~ like the right to political party of labor based on the ers Party (SWP) are pushing their usual then burn up. subway service is cut back walk around at night without fear-­ unions to fight for a workers reformist pablum. while its cost is raised again and again. would require a cataclysmic social government! The human cost of capitalist decay is The CP and SWP have nearly transformation? A principled socialist Only a combative New York labor appalling. Jobless youth hang out in the :lI!fI identical election slogans. The CP says doorways of broken-down buildings on movement can hold ground against the its candidates stand for "People Before streets where survival often means banks' assault. The Spartacist campaign Profits." And the SWP?"Human Needs crime. Killer cops terrorize the ghettos. stands for the mobilization of city Before Profits." ofcourse. Both serve up labor .for a working-class fight on shooting first and asking questions the usual smorgasbord of tax-the-rich behalf of all the oppressed and exploit­ later. Old people live in poverty and fare: one exempts incomes below ed. a fight that can cut through the constant fear of lumpen violence. $25.000. the other below $30,000. But ethnic divisions which pit working there's not a dime's worth of difference Meanwhile. the city's communities. people against one another and cripple long governed according to traditional between their programs. Both aim at the potential for united militant action appealing to the "progressive" liberal~ ethnic Democratic Party politics, spor­ against the hanks. adically explode in bouts of organized to reform the capitalist state. Both race hate. The recent Crown Heights New York's powerful labor redefine socialism as if it were a matter confrontation between blacks and movement has heen paralyzed by the of the capitalist rulers merely adjusting Hasidic Jews is a bizarre eruption of the reactionary. joh-trusting trade-union their "priorities" between merciless profit-gouging and "human rights" racial hostility which underlies New hureaucracy. The bureaucrats' indiffer­ York's social life. Such grotesque out­ ence to the rlight of the masses has led tokenism. The SWP has even gone so bursts increase as the potential for a directly to counterposition along racial far as to portray its version of the class-hased fight is derailed into race lines hetween unionized workers and Transitional Program - Trotsky's pro­ hattles hy "community control" reform­ other strata of the working people. The gram to mobilize the working class for ists and pork-harrel Democratic hacks. hureaucrats' criminal passivity in the the seizure of state power-as if it could he an amendment to the U.S. As New York perceptihly slides into face of the "fiscal crisis" ahetted Big ~ Constitution. barbarism. it still remains the center of AC as it slashed johs. froze wages and WV extorted the unions' pension funds. Only the Spartacist candidate stands U.S. finance capital. The guardians of Marjorie 5tamberg campaigns. imperialist interest cannot afford to let If the unions' Gothaums. Shankers forthrightly for the smashing of the the city go down the drainjust to please campaign can make more sense to and (iuinans really rerresented the inter­ capitalist state arparatus and the reactionary nativists to whom New thoughtful working people in besieged ests of city workers. they could unite the dest ruct ion of the profit system. Her York represents the dominion of Jews. "iew York than the politicians' cynical city's working population behind the program cannot be won at the polls. but on the battle lines of the class struggle Italians. foreigners. sex "deviants" and promises of too little too late. leadershir of the working class. The through the fight for revolutionary "welfare chiselcrs." But while local 1975 "fiscal crisis" cried out for a Labor~Break leadership, in the unions. politicians cloyingly proclaim "I Love Mobilize NYC with citywide strike to heat hack the banks' New York" and promise to keep the city the Democrats! assault on the living standards of New Down with Big MAC and the Ylukers. Such a strike could have been functional for the businesses and banks. !\ew York has long been a E FCB Wipe Out the Debt- broadly popular among sections of the they offer the city's desperate masses Democratic town. The Democratic Expropriate the Banks! middle class and black and Spanish­ nothing hut helt-tightening admoni­ primaries are the elections that count; Restore Open Admissions--Free ", speaking poor who generally view tions and racist "war on crime" rhetoric. "fusion" candidates like former Repub­ Tuition with Living Stipend! Down with themselves as competing with unionized It is not that the politicians do not lican mayor John Lindsay can win only the Bakke Decision! workers for a share of "the pie." For as want to make false promises to the through tht: support of the Reform the banks waged war on the unions, they For "30 for 40" Jobs for All! people (such is the liberals' stock-in­ Democratic clubs. The Democrats also attacked the masses-cutting wel­ Abolish Gun Control Legislation-~ trade). but rather that the emptiness of administer the city on behalf of the fare. abolishing rent control. destroying Disarm the Cops! the usual false promises is obvious to all. banks. whose program is to drive the the free-tuition city college system. etc. Who could really believe Jimmy Carter unions into the ground. And their loyal Full Democratic Rights for Homo­ If the labor movement were to mount an when he stands atop the rubble that is flunkies. the labor "statesmen." cheer sexuals! effective challenge to the banks' the South Bronx and mouths born­ them on and deflect the union ranks stranglehold over New York City. it Down with Carter's Warmongering again haloney about a New York from struggle. could rally the bulk of the population to Anti-Soviet "Human Rights" renaissance? The city's problems are so But if New York is a Democratic Crusade - For Strike Action Against immense and interconnected that liberal its side. fiefdom poisoned by' explosive ethnic Imperialist Military Advt:ntures i lies and reformist illusions ring hollow. politics. it is still a union town. And that Our Campaign and Theirs HO\~ can anyone talk about decent crucial fact is at the heart of the Oust the Pro-Democratic Partv health care. mass transit. housing. Srartacist rrogram. In this city which 'ew York. the financial heart of the Cnion Hacks For a Labor Party to sanitation. etc. without posing a fight to has heen led past the brink of disaster by imperialist world system. provides a Fight for a Workers Government' Strike Against Postal Arbitration Ruling!

SEPTEMBER 16 . Some 500.000 U.S. paign to slash lahor costs by massi\'e timers and casuals. and defense of ha\c consistently refused to call the key postal workers. who have been battling cuthacks in the workforce. dozens of bulk mail workers firt:d and 'lew Yark locals out on strike. repudiat­ for six weeks to dump the miserable Tht: estimated wage hike of 21 percent facing criminal and civil charges for ing the militant traditions responsible contract that the Carter administration over three years is vastly lower than the wildcatting against the contract. for the success of the 1970 national imposed on them. were greeted yester­ 37 percent increase won by coal miners Postal workers are only the latest postal wildcat. day hy the announcement of the terms and the 35 percent recently won by group of trade unionists to get the shaft Today Biller is wrangling with of a settlement arrived at undercompul­ major rail unions. Not coincidentally. under compulsory arbitration. presided national APWU leaders over a new mail sory arhitration. This contract, al­ Healy's "award" to postal workers lies over by such blatantly pro-capitalist ratification vote. Postal workers must though it contains some improvements within the 7.5 percent yearly increase tools as Healy. a professor of labor place no confidence in any of these labor in the wages package. is if anything limits that the Carter administration has relations at the Harvard Business traitors. They must demand an immedi­ \I·or.I·C than the last management offer. been trying to impose on unions by School! While the two-hit reformists on ate strike. Joint mass meetings of the including a major inroad into the vital "jawboning" and which even conserva­ the left are busy proclaiming that the unions should be held in every city; no-layoffs clause. tive lahor skate George Meany has "right to ratify contracts" is the solution stri'kc committees should be elected and The arbitration "award" provides a balked at. to the problems of all trade unionists. picket duty assigned. Shut down the grand total of $300 in additional wages Postal union leaders responded to the government contemptuously spits Post Office nationwide! • to be paid out over the life of the this outrageous deal by feigning disap­ on the postal workers' fully justified agreement. raising the estimated in­ pointment. a complete show ofhypocri­ rejection of the contract. precisely SL/SYL PUBLIC OFFICES hecause it knows the postal union crease in pay from 19 percent to a sy. These hacks have acted as the lackeys Marxist Literature piddling 21 percent over three years. of the government throughout the leaders are too gutless to undertake any The contract decreed by special federal contract negotiations. The head of every militant' action. Labor must rely on its BAY AREA mediator James J. Healy also removed union endorsed the original deal offered own strength-~only the prompt and Friday and Saturday 300-600 p m the cap on the cost-of-living clause. At hy Postmaster General William Bolger solid exercise of the slrike lI'eapon can 1634 Telegraph 3rd floor (near 17th Street) the same time. however. Healy grievous­ and President Carter. Then, after being defeat the Democratic Party govern­ Oaklalld. Callforn!a ly assaulted the postal workers' tradi­ soundly repudiated by their member­ ment's vicious anti-labor policies! Phone 835-1515 tional no-layoff clause, requiring newly ships. they hacked the new negotiating Predictably. Moe Biller. head of the CHICAGO hired workers to put in six years of procedure proposed by the government. strategic New York Metro chapter of Tuesday 430-800 continuous service before they are which permitted bargaining only over the American Postal Workers Union Saturday 200-530 p m wages and the no-layoffclause. Not only (APWU). denounced the arbitration 523 Saute, Plyrnodth Court 3rd floor protected against layoffs. The no-layoff Chicago 11!lnOIS clause had. in fact. heen maintained did they agree to compulsory arbitra­ award. The opportunist Biller has all Phone 427 -0003 ;lIIacl in the government's previous tion of these two issues if they were not along heen sniping at the national NEW YORK offer. Thus while Healy was handing the resolved within 15 days. but they APWU leadership from the sidelines. Monday-Friday 630-900 p m unions a few more pennies with one handed away the just demands of postal while carefully avoiding any confronta­ Sa~urday 1 00-400 P m hand. with his other hand he was giving workers for a shorter workweek. better tion with the government. Biller and his 260 West Broadway Room 522 a green light to management to acceler­ safety conditions. an end to speedup and counterpart in the New York branch of New York. New York Phone 925-5665 ate its automation and speedup cam- 'lorq:d overtime, upgrading of part- the Letter Carriers. Vince Sombrotto: 22 SEPTEMBER 1978 9 New Fascist "Bookstore" O~ened UAW Must Drive Out Detroit Nazis! DETROIT A tiny hand of local ing firehomhing threats. Finally these meeting. How much longer will the cannot rely on the Mayor [Coleman fascists opened their third "hookstore" scum jumped his 14- and II-year-old fascists he allowed to get away with Youngl whose anti-Iahor record in­ here Septemher :I after heing evicted sons in front of their home. knocking these hloody prO\ocations'? cludes his strongarming of the sanita­ from two previous headquarters. The out one hoy's teeth. The cops' reaction. It IS high time that the lahor tionmen's strike. It's Young's cops who new hlack-painted office. its outside as usual. wasto laugh off the threats and movement takes things into its own routinely terrorile the black communi­ walls prO\ocatively emhlazoned with tell the hlack resident to "get along" with hands and drives these would-be mass ties and stand guard at the Nazi slogans like "We hury our competition" his "neighhors." Finally he pressed murderers out of Detroit once and for headquarters." There arc over 40,000 and "emon inside. it's a gas:' immedi­ cha rges. hut was arrested himself for all! Two militants from UAW Local 600 auto workers employed at the Cadillac ately prO\oked community dismay and "misuse of firearms." (After three court (Ri\er Rouge) have heen fighting for and Ri\er Rouge complexes only five anger. The racially mixed West Side appearances and $400 in legal fees the this perspective. On September 10 one minutes from the fascist headquarters. neighhorhood of Poles. Mexicans and charges were finally dropped last week.) of them. Matt Prince. raised a motion at It is these workers. who have both the hlacks has held almost daily demonstra­ Community figures like Reverend the Dearhorn Assemhly Plallt unit interest and the power to drive the tions against the :\azis. the largest Stokes of M ACO and the local trade­ meeting: fascists out. that must be mobililed! drawing over 250 in a neighhorhood union hureaueracy keep preaching "That this unit of (oeal 600 l'AW Although this little gang of racist march led hy the Michigan Avenue relialKT on the cops and courts to take initiate a mass. lahor-centered demon­ stration in {It)nt of the :\ali headquar­ terrorists on the West Side may today Community Organilation (MACO). care of the "alis. But this is the third ters Ilithin tllO Ileeks around thl' look like just a few craled fanatics. the time in less than eight months that the slol!an. 'Smash the Detroit :\,ui potential threat of fascism is real. It's no The slJl

man to help the puhlishers force a sell­ necd a strategy to defeat Murdoch's haiting left-wing l.ahour M.P.'s. He Press Strike ... Ollt on the pressmen. The meeting \Iooing l)1 the other unions. the impact came to thl: L.S. to expand his holdings (cuntinuedfrom page 12) succeeded in getting William Kennedy. of \1 hich will increase with every payless and hu~t a few unions in the process. rresident of the pressmen's local. to rayday. and to win the support of the ing only the dri\ers \Ias asked after \1 urdoch. his cronies and hackers can accept Kheel's presence in future nego­ nc\\s-hungry "ew York populace. A M u I'd nch's statement if the other unions onh be eomhatted by a solid front 01 the tiatil1t1s. something Kennedy had re­ \Iinning perspective. rather than the \Iould ahandon the pressmen. "At this lahur nw\emenl. Though five of the portedly hcen resisting. rrospect of isolation. would be opened time. absolutely not" was his ominous nine unions in the AlIicd Printing up hy the launching of a daih lahur response. McDonald then scandalously The puhlishers. out for hlood, have trades Council have now declared /U'\\-.I/l(lper. echoed Murdoch's charges ag,~nst the little use for a mediator and have strikes against the major dailies. each A lahor daily. staffed by the strikers at pressmen: "We want to make sure the resisted Kheel's role in the talks. But continues its own separate negotiations. full union scale and financially backed issues are trade-union issues and not there should be no illusions as to what Strike committees in each union must be hy the New York unions, would be featherhedding." kind of "compromise" he will try to elected and joint bargaining enormously popular with everyone but Though a special meeting of the engineer. His last major settlement. established no separate deals. no more the puhlishers and their first cousins Council on Septemher 18 reaffirmed between Local 6 of the International It'ashinglOn Posts! Through such a putting out the parasitic "interim" solidarity with the pressmen, what is Typographical Union (ITU) and the policy the printing worker~can win this papers. It would provide work and clearly going on is mounting pressure on !\ew York papers in 1974, gave the strike. lay the groundwork for the income for the reporters (only about 25 the pressmen to be more"reasonable" in puhlishers just what they wanted. In a amalgamation of the separate craft percent of whom have found work with the negotiations-or face going it alone. dispute strikingly similar to the present unions into a single industrial union and the "interim" papers), mailers, drivers. The Council has retained mediator/ one, over manning scales, Kheel got the turn the tide on the arrogant press \ords etc., eliminating the threat of defections. arbitrator Theodore Kheel, veteran of ITU to agree to an II-year contract and their union-busting.• A campaign to financially support the many newspaper strikes, as an "advisor" which guaranteed current members' paper would draw the rest of the labor to determine. as McDonald put it in jobs in exchange for letting manage­ movement behind the strike. And a another dig at the pressmen, if "both ment gut the union through attrition. high-quality paper. without the capital­ SPARTACIST LEAGUE sides" are engaged in "good faith "Big 6:' once the proud powerhouse of ist advertising which is the bulk of the LOCAL DIRECTORY bargaining" and to try to arrange a ITU militancy and strength, will be a "interim" papers, would be a hit with ANN ARBOR _(313) 663-9012 compromise. shadow of its former self at the end of c/o SYL, .Room 4102 millions of New Yorkers. Both McDonald and driver's union the agreement and is already weak and Michigan Union, U. of Michigan In addition to solidifying and Ann Arbor, MI 48109 head Doug LaChance, who ordered his cowering, the only union in the current popularizing the strike, a labor daily BERKELEY/ members to cross the picket lines in June strike to refuse to back the pressmen out would really put the screws to the OAKLAND (415) 835-1535 at the Post, made clear that their of fear that the publishers might cancel publishers. A union-scale daily would Box 23372 continued support is conditional on the its contract. Oakland, CA 94623 further expose the inherently strike­ pressmen being more "flexible," i.e., But the pressmen need more than the BOSTON (617) 492-3928 breaking nature of the parasitic papers, giving up jobs to the rapacious publish­ lessons of history and appeals to union Box 188 whose "independent" facade was al­ M.I.T. Station ers. Kheel is these bureaucraJs' front solidarity to keep the strike solid. They ready exploded by revelations of Mur­ Cambridge, MA 02139 doch's secret hankrolling of an option CHiCAGO (312) 427-0003 Box 6441, Main P.O. to buy the Daih Metro. Though Chicago, IL 60680 Murdoch and Metro publisher Fred CLEVELAND (216) 566-7806 Iseman reversed a staff walkout by Box 6765 canceling the option contract, Murdoch Cleveland, OH 44101 still has a lien on the paper for his DETROIT (313) 868-9095 "loans," and it is widely rumored that he Box 663A, General P.O. Detroit, MI 48232 may attempt to continue the morning HOUSTON paper on a non-union basis, perhaps Box 26474 folding the money-losing Post. after the Houston, TX 77207 strike. LOS ANGELES .... (213) 662-1564 The publishers have the unified Box 26282, Edendale Station support of New York business and Los Angeles, CA 90026 NEW YORK (212) 925-2426 financial interests. backed up by the Box 444 Canal St. Station Democratic mayor Ed Koch and Dem­ New York. NY 10013 ocratic governor Hugh Carey, both of SAN DIEGO whom have bemoaned the "chaos" in P.O. Box 2034 the city and blamed it on the striking Chula Vista, CA 92012 unions instead of the banks who have SAN FRANCISCO .. (415) 863-6963 Box 5712 heen bleeding the city dry. The unholy San Francisco, CA 94101 alliance of big business, the capitalist politicians and the publishers is headed TROTSKYIST LEAGUE hy Rupert Murdoch. the sinister multi­ OF CANADA millionaire with an empire of nearly 100 TORONTO (416) 366-4107 newspapers, magazine and T.V. stations Box 7198, Station A Toronto, Ontario in Australia, Britain and the U.S. Murdoch built his fortune in Australia' VANCOUVER ..... (604) 733-8848 Box 26, Station A and played a key and pernicious role in Vancouver, B.C backing the toppling of the Labor Party WINNIPEG (204) 589-7214 government there in 1975. He went to Box 3952, Sta B WV Photo Britain and bought up papers. fighting Winnipeg, Manitoba Strikers picketing offices of Murdoch's Post. the unions and making a specialty of 10 WORKERS VANGUARD city were preceded hy a group of ahout place. In Nicaragua everyone can we call for /wo/ile's frihunals to punish 3() women and children who were forced unlkrstand the urgent necessity of the criminals of the Soma/a regime, Nicaragua ... to walk in front to prevent the guerrillas dismemhering the existing state appara­ (continued from page 3) trihunals staffed not hy learned jurists from firing. (In Estell. Guard troops tus. which can only he an instrument of hut hy the poor who were the yictims of Although the army IS still hrutally beat priests. then used them as a hrutal repression of the masses. the tyranny. We call for l'xpropriafion holding t;gether. some '01' the top human shield: during earlier fighting in Alter the events of the last two weeks, ojthl' pwpl'rlil's oj fhe Somo::ajamilr leaders have seen the handwriting onthe Matagalpa they had adnlnced hehind e\en if the hourgeois opposition (Jlld its (lccom/ilicl'.l, hut Marxists do not wall. Last month an incipient rehellion the car of a nun who was announcing a ma nages to remove Somoza through the stop there. We must destroy the social hy unnamed officers was quashed, and "truce" through a megaphone.) The "good offices" of Jimmy Carter. a hases and the imperialist domination at the height of the FSLN-Ied uprising towers of the Leon cathedral. which smooth transition to a stahle capitalist \\hich will give rise to new Somo/as. the commander of the l\ational Guard's contain the remains of leftist l'iicara­ democraC\ is highly unlikely. But it is Ihus communists demand an a,r;rariall counterguerrilla forces, apparently try­ guan poet Ruhen Dario, were also necessary that revolutionaries put for­ rc\"()lufion distrihution of the lati­ ing to flee the country, died in a plane homhed. In the streets more than 100 \\ard demands which exacerbate the lundia to the peasants who work the crash ncar the Costa Rican border. He men were press-ganged at gunpoint into fundamental class divisions and thus land and expropriafioll o(rhe indusfrr was accompanied hy an American ex­ tearing down tht' rehels' harricades. frustrate efforts to "reform" the dicta­ (llld commercl' of those who profited Green Beret mercenary and a former Gi\cn the primitive armament of the torship or impose a bourgeois provi­ while the workers and peasants suffered South Vietnamese officer! workers and y,mth who led the fighting. sional gO\ernment. Naturally Marxists undcr the yoke of the despot. After more than a week of hloody the Guard "victory" is primarily due to would unite in action on the barricades The accomplishment of such fighting, the National Guard was able to superior force. However. in the midst of \\ ith the populist petty-bourgeois FSLN l-evolutionary aims requires breaking reoccupy the center of Leon, the second the hattie, on September 1.\, the FAa and even with the bourgeois anti­ the political coalition with the "demo­ largest city. Journalists described a opposition front announced a commis­ Somo/a opposition against the present cratic" exploiters and the establish­ horrifying scene. Indiscriminate aerial sion to negotiate a ceasefire and "open hloody dictatorship. But we would at all ment of a lI'orkers alld peasanfS bomhardment. typical of an occupying the way for a democratic provisional costs fight for thepolifical independence gOl'l'fllml'llf based on the democratic army. had reduced many buildings to gO\ernment to replace President Ana­ of the working class from all capitalist rule of soviets, not on nationalistic ruhhle and at every street corner there stasio Somma" (Washin,r;lOn POSf, 15 and pro-capitalist forces. hureaucracies as in Cuba. Russia or were shallow graves of victims of mass Septemher). In particular it was empow­ As Trotskyists we fight for the class China. And this requires above all the executions by the Guard. According to a ered to seek mediation by OAS govern­ program of the international proletari­ Icadership not of the petty-hourgeois UPI dispatch. which passed government ments, i.e., hy Washington. One of the at. This includes numerous revolution­ nationalist FSLN but of a Trofskrisf censors: commission members. Alfonso Robelo, ary democratic demands directed "A woman crying hysterically yelled, parn fighting for a Central American 'Tell vour readers what a hunch of sons is hraintrusted by the State Department against autocratic and bonapartist rule. Workl'rs Rl'puhlic in a Socialist Unifed of whores the National Guard arc. Thev and has heen calling, in essence, for a Thus we demand not a negotiated pact 5;fafes oj/.alin America. ar~ arc nothing hut killers.... They "Somozaist regime without Somoza"­ with liberal capitalist forces but a Only with such a transitional killing the youth of our town'.... no nationalizations, no reprisals and an democratic COflSfituent assembly, which "Ahout everv 50 feet were swarms of program can the long-suffering working flies hU71ing'over small scorched areas agreement with the murderous National could give free expression to the will of people of Nicaragua ensure that the where the Red Cross had hurned hodies Guard. the population after decades of silence "Tacho flies" are not replaced with to prevent outhreaks of disease.... But the Nicaraguan masses have enforced by the rifle butts of Somoza's another tyranny, cloaked in phrases of "... relatives picked up most of the entered the fight and that changes hired guns. We also call for smashin,r; "human rights" but armed by the same identified hodies and quickly buried fhe Nafional Guard and the formation them in hackyards to prevent them from matters drastically. After years of Pentagon. The overthrow of the Somo­ rotting under Nicaragua's torrid sun. suhmitting to endless abuse by this of a people's milifia hased on the /a dynasty by a popular revolt would be "The hodies of unidentified guerrillas personal army. after atrocities such as lI"orkers and peasants or,r;anizations. a cause for rejoicing and a spur to were huried right in thedirt they had left the massacre of several hundred peas­ That is the only way· to guarantee revolutionary action throughout the at street intersections where they ripped ants hy the Guard during 1975-76, and against new massacres by these guard Americas. The Sandinistas' efforts to up paving blocks to huild harricades, residents said .... particularly after the wanton savagery dogs of capital. achieve a negotiated solution are today "Residents said at least 13 people were of the "mopping-up" operations follow­ The proletariat does not follow the the main ohstacle, possibly leading to buried in one block alone." ing the September uprising, the popula­ maxim of "forgive and forget," of which civil war as today's "democratic opposi­ UPI dispatch. 17 September tion will not easily put up with a the priests and other treacherous advo­ tion" seeks to repress the armed masses. Government foot patrols entering the "solution" which leaves these killers in cates 'of "social peace" are so fond. So Don't stop now!.

the fate of the Zionist settlements will be will be encouraged to join in maintain­ douht these bases would be a cover for Camp David ... decided by the Israeli Knesset within the ing "security." U.S. military personnel. (continued from page 1) next two weeks. So war weary are the Only after an Israeli /.1 ordanian treaty In addition the Camp David pacts supposedly historic occasion, both masses of Israel that the Knesset just has heen signed would certain unspeci­ al\ow for the introduction of more Begin and Sadat mainly paid tribute to might sacrifice the settlements for the_~ fied "representatives" of the West Bank United Nations "peace-keeping" forces the statesmanship of Carter. With sake of a separate treaty with Egypt. Arabs be permitted to express their to implement any treaties negotiated. down-home schmaltz Begin effusively Recent demonstrations numbering in opinion on the settlement. Not only the But experiences since the Korean War thanked Carter: "The president of the the thousands have been staged in Israel PLO but all Palestinians living outside have shown that such UN "peace­ United States won the day and peace demanding concessions on the settle­ the West Bank and Gaza, inclUding the keeping" forces intervene to safeguard now celebrates a great victory for the ments. Yet the die-hards in the right­ more than one million Palestinians who and advance the interests ofimperialism. nations of Egypt and Israel and for all wing I.ikud coalition are preparing for a comprise the majority .01' the Jordanian What kind of"peace" would result in the mankind." With no less pomposity showdown in the Knesset. Moshe population, would simply be excluded :'-iear East can bejudged by the role ofthe Sadat lionized Carter for his "spirit and Arens, a memher of Begin's own Herut from this settlement. UN forces in Cyprus, in the Sinai before dedication," praying that the Camp Party and chairman of the powerful the 1967 war and on the Golan Heights If the "framework" for the West Bank David pacts would "usher in a ne\\ Foreign Affairs and Defense Commit­ and in southern I.ebanon today. accepted hy Begin has met with approv­ chapter of historY for the Near East." tee. has denounced any concession on Imperialist military presence. either al h\ di\erse elements of the Likud hloc, Hut in realitv Camp Da\id will have the settlements as treason. Thus, Sadat directlv hy the l'.S. or through horder it is not because it represents a concrete less eftect on reso!ling the Ncar East made major concessions agreeing to a guards for israeL dressed in UN ta­ \ ietnr\ tor the Zionists. Rather. the c'risis than on hoosting Carter's rating in separate peace settlement and to the tigues. not onl\ r,'presenh a continua­ ··!ramC\\(lrf.." simply hu\s time. And th,: Ciallup pulk None of the crucial presence of Israeli military forces in the tion of the hrutal national opprc's,ion oj lime IS \\ hat ail Begin's critics \\ant: I,sues \1<\\ ll'suhcd 11\ the two ~acts. so Sinal up to three years after the treaty I~ the Palestinian mJsses a'nd ,cr\e~ t() Begin i, an hraeti HumphrC\ who can 1bdt th,: ulnc,-""ions made h\ hoth sides ... i,i!l1ed in return for no hard commit­ slahili/c the rieketv regimes 1'1 .lordan \Ieli ~i1tc'!d t,; m:d", fi\e-yeardiplomatie arl' t1l1t hinding, In til,: "framework" fot ments from the Zionists. and Israel: more signifieatltl\, it \\ ould prCl111IS,Ui\ notes. since he won't he ~\1l Fg\ptian braeli peace treaty Begm hen if the Sinai pact survives the ljualitati\ely escalate the dangers of a around to ha\c to deli\cr. Instead, the agreed to negotiate a phased troop dehate in the Knesset o\er the settle­ direct L.S. l:SSR militar~ confronta­ Israelt ha\\ks-turned-dO\es (like the \\ithdnm~tl from the Sinai that would ments, it may well he torpedoed hy Arah tion in the Ncar East. !flhe l SSR were majority of the recently split MO\ement ultimatelv restore the Sinai to full opposition to Sadat's concessions. Out to respond to such an American for Democratic Change) arc no\\ Egyptian sO\ereignty. But Begin refused in the cold as the "sale representative of prO\ocation in kind. "human rights" hanking on Defense Minister the Palestinian people," the PLO has Carter might \cry likely place the to concede to the Egyptian demand that Weillm;n that secularized version of the thirteen Zionist settlements in the hegun a campaign to sabotage the Camp Pentagon on nuclear alert, as :\ixon did Begin who wears Air Force wings Sinai he \aeated. David pacts, backed by Syria and the during the 1973 war in response to the instead of a yarmulka. According to Begin, the question of so-called hard-line Arab regimes (Iraq. threatened Soviet intervention in the Libya, Algeria, Yemen) whose intransi­ Regardless of whether the "frame­ Sinai. Thus, not far behind any U.S./ gence is inversely proportional to their work" pacts lead to further summit UN military intervention into the Near distance from Israel. More significantly, meetings, Camp David clearly signified East is the threat of a third world war. MarxistBulletin E:._ that U.S. imperialism is moving ever 8ItiSedUlliDA::J without anything to show for his The duty of the international workers concessions Sadat is certain to come closer to direct military presence in the movement is clear. It must oppose any under mounting criticism at home. Near East as everyone of its exercises in imperialist military intervention in the WHAT ST1\ATEGY Already Egyptian foreign minister "shuttle diplomacy" or protracted talk­ Ncar East, whether in the form of FOR BLACK UBERAnON? Mohammed Ibrahim Kamel has re­ athons ends in failure. Marines who landed in Lebanon in 1958, Trotskyism signed in opposition. Even before the Camp David summit CIA operatives working hand-in-hand vs. While an Israeli/Egyptian settlement was convened Carter, faced with the with the Israeli army in the Sinai or the Black Nationalism is not entirely inconceivable, the Camp intransigence of Begin, hinted that the UN "peacekeeping" forces who have David pact dealing with the West Bank U.S, would consider introducing U.S. proved their mettle from the Congo to and Gaza Strip is simply a truncated military forces into the occupied territo­ southern Lebanon. Peace will come to version of Begin's absurd 26-point plan. ries if Israel. which has long been falsely the Near East only when the Sadats, the It does not even address the central issue regarded as simply a puppet ofWashing­ Begins and the Assadsareoverthrown by of Palestinian self-determination (even ton by virtually the entire fake left, didn't the rcvolutionary struggles of the Arab in the deformed form of a mini-state). It make concessions. While the Camp and Hebrew workers and poor peasants. PRICE: $3.50 projects a five-year "transition period" David pacts do not mention possible Only in the framework of a soviet U.S. intervention. the Sinai accord federation of the Near East can a just order from/pay to: during which Israeli occupation forces explicitly stipulates that in return for solution to the legitimate national Spartacist Publishing Co. will make the transition from the streets Israeli withdrawal from two air bases in Box 1377, Canal Street Station to their garrisons, while the Jordanian demands of the P"lestinian Arabs be New York, N.Y. 10013 army, the butchers of the Palestinians the Sinai the U.S. would build two air ensured while guaranteeing the national during the "Black September" uprising, hases in the Negev desert of Israel. No rights of the Hehrews.• 22 SEPTEMBER 1978 11 WORKERS VIIN'(JIIRIJ

Socialist Trade-Union Militant Ma~orie Stamberg Spartacist Candidate in New York Elections '\IW YORK CITY. September 16­ support to socialist anti-Vietnam \\ar Spartacist supporters here arc cam­ candidates in the late 1960\. paigning for Marjorie Stamberg. "Spar­ St