25¢ WfJltNE/iSNo. 165 '''N'O''''8 July 1977 Rightist Reaction Pushes Anti-Homosexual Hy'steria More than a hundred thousand people demonstrated in San Francisco. They were protesting against the reac­ tionary anti-homosexual crusade of Anita Bryant, the fanatic Bible­ thumping bigot whb has proclaimed herself the nemesis ofdemocratic rights for homosexuals. Bryant's right-wing rampage is obscene and dangerous. Outraged "gay rights" activists have taken to the streets in response. The San Francisco protest was by far the largest, but just about every majQr American city has witnessed mobilizations in defiance of the Bryant crusade; In fact, the "gay movement"-the last gasp of New Left lifestyle radicalism--is seem­ ingly the most vociferous liberal/radical mobilization this side of the Vietnam war. Whether this wave' of anti-bigotry protest will have any significant effect on the American social climate depends on whether the working class can be mobilized in a fight for democratic rights through a class-struggle program to fight social oppression. The presem wave of homosexual activism was precipitated by Bryant's June 7 "Save Our Children" victory in Dade County, Florida. Appealing to the most disgusting backwardness with scare tactics designed to conjure up images of sinister homosexuals lurking in school playgrounds, Bryant suc­ ceeded in repealing an ordinance pro­ hibiting discrimination against homo­ sexuals. The repeal is an outrage against Ji/%dt£'k;:;;::,,~;-,->~---c-----,~'-.·.' /. elementary democratic rights, in effect Paul Hosefros/New York Times declaring "open season" on homosexu­ HundretJs of thousands of demonstrators turned out across the country June26 to voice their opposition to als and encouraging employers, land­ discrimination against homosexuals. lords, etc., to put their prejudices into practice. eratic rights are indivisible. Those who gains of the last decade of liberalism. orate the killing of a homosexual, can Bryant has vowed that Dade County imagine that hostility toward homosex~ Recent targets include legal and safe "gay liberation" be far behind? Yes is only the beginning of her "divine uals can be eradicated through favor­ abortions, especially for poor women; indeed it can. The election of liberal mission" and that she will now take her able publicity and "progre.ssive" educa­ the Equal Rights Amendment; busing to Democrat Abzug would do "Gays for' vicious anti-homosexual crusade"wher­ tion under capitalism ignore the combat school segregation; preferential Bella" about as m"ch good as black ever God sends me." She has already ultimately genocidal logic of the reac­ minority-group college admissions. The capitalist politicians in their daishikis appeared at a Shriners' Flag Day tionary bigotry which in the final "right-to-lifers" screaming for the death have done the impoverished ghetto celebration in Chicago, where local cops analysis is wielded by the ruling class penalty grasp the logic of the Bryant masses. showed their support for her "cause" by against the proletariat. Thus, along with crusade far better than do some of its The homosexua1 movement has now brutally attacking and arresting some of communists, working-class militants, opponents. become, in some areas of the country, a the 3,000 people who had turned out to Jews and other "inferior races," homo­ Reactionaries of every stripe have recognized constituency, and is thus protest her appearance. Bryant's reac­ sexuals were rounded up for Nazi found Carter's anti-Soviet "human sometimes catered to and everyw.here tionary rampage must be stopped! concentration camps, scapegoated for rights" moralism a favorable climate in abused. That is, a few "gay leade,tS" can But many "gay liberation" spokesmen thehisis of German capitalism. The which to mount their mobilizations now aspire to become part of the all­ seem to consider Anita Bryant more ofa Protestant Church of Austria recently against homosexuals, minority groups, inclusive party of everybody's betrayal, joke than a threat; some have gone so far estimated that 220,000 alleged homo­ women and eventually the working class the Democratic Party-i.e., to point as to proclaim that she has done sexuals perished in" Hitler's "death directly. Yet homosexual activists still Jimmy Carter's nuclear-missile subma­ homosexuals a favor by publicizing mills." Similarly, during the first days look to the Democratic Party to lead the rines toward Russia so that Russian their oppression and forcing them to after Pinochet's bloody rightist coup in fight against the victimization of homo­ dissidents might be "saved" by an "unite" against it. The Spartacist Chile, troops marching through the sexuals! The impressive numbers at imperialism whose hypocrisy exceeds League (SL) and Red Flag Union streets of Santiago chanted "Death to "gay rights" demonstrations have unfor­ that of Nazi Germany while it competes (Bolshevik Tendency) (RFU-BT, for­ the faggots!"; random killing ofChilean tunately been dominated by sub­ in the "kill count" category. Manifestly, merly Lavender and Red Union) recog­ homosexuals was reported. reformist "lifestyle" politics, which like homosexual working people jlike nize that the Bryant campaign-which To struggle effectively against the all New Left "constituency" politics blacks, women, etc.) can only be left in has rallied forces representing the persecution of homosexuals, "gay collapses into mainstream - pressure­ the lurch, and ultimately grossly betray­ aggressive hard core ofvirulent reaction rights" activists must begin by under­ group horse-trading and tokenism. If ed, by these ordinary operations of in this country-is a grave threat not standing that bourgeois democracy is San Francisco mayor Moscone will tly token cooption. "Welcome, homosexu- only to homosexuals but to all con­ partial, fragile and reversible. Just as the city's flags at half mast to commem- continued on page 8 cerned with democratic rights. The drive "black is beautiful" does not abolish the to create a favorable climate of opinion horror of white racism, so the affirma­ for overt victimization of homosexuals tion of "gay pride" cannot effectively retlects something far more sinister than combat the Bryant campaign. The PART 1 OF 2 narrow-mindedness on the part of struggle fundamentally is not about sex individuals. but about all-sided democratic rights. The oppression of homosexuals, like The "Save Our Children" mobilization the oppression ofwomen, has historical­ is presently the most visible component Heroic Soviet Spies ....6 ly served as an index of more general of a much broader rightist offensive social and political attitudes, for demo- aimed at rolling back real and token ------_Letters.... ...... __ Workers must manage all the industries atomized remnants of the exploiting the soviets (workers councils). Lenin's Dictatorship of the and services-directly, democratically, classes. Consequently, class conflict will party neither intended nor desired to Proletariat: leninism and in a planned way-through their persist. Economic differentiation will eliminate the soviets and govern without ys. De Leonism own government, based on economic continue to exist, as will uneven and the sanction of the working class as a constituencies. inadequate cultural levels and reaction­ whole. It was the social-democratic Fraternally, ary ideological attitudes. For these Mensheviks and petty-bourgeois popu­ June 22, 1977 Steve Miles reasons a workers government must list Social Revolutionaries who rejected Colorado Springs, Colorado have an organized apparatus of coe'r­ soviet constitutionalism and pursued cion. Because we seek to build upon the policies which would have led to the Dear Workers Vanguard: WV replies: Our basic difference with already existing cultural and economic victory of bourgeois counterrevolution. As a DeLeonist and soon-to-be­ De Leonism does not concern workers levels, specialized professionals (statisti­ The atrophying of the soviets and member of the Socialist Labor Party, I control (as this is generally understood), cians, doctors, administrators) will be elevation of the Bolshevik party to a found Joseph Seymour's article on but rather the nature or, more precisely, utilized to the maximum by the victori­ monopoly of political organization was "Leninism and Workers Control" (WV existence of the dictatorship of the ous workers government. However, an unfortunate result of the civil war. [No. 162], 17 June) to be of great proletariat as a transition from capital­ police methods may sometimes be Lenin did not regard the governmental interest. ism to socialism. Steve Miles believes necessary to 'Prevent and reverse bu­ situation in Russia as it emerged from the In my opinion, Seymour's article is that the overthrow of capitalism in an reaucratic abuses arising from this civil war in 1921 as a programmatic flawed by his failure to distinguish advanced country leads directly and petty-bourgeois administrative stratum. norm; we look forward to the fullest between workers' control of production immediately from the government of Backward elements among the laboring soviet democracy including all tenden­ persons to the administration of things. in two very different contexts: under­ population may resist the policies ofthe cies recognized by the laboring masses. developed and developed capitalist As Marxists, we hold that this is not socialist majority through violence, possible. Further, his absolute dichoto­ Furthermore, the Communist Parties nations. In the former, direct workers'