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' political strikes and other forms of of the Soviet bloc are not parties­ control of production through mass, my between advanced and backward countries implies the prospect of social­ direct action. (A workers government 'voluntary associations based on a democratic workers' organizations would seek to deal differently with shared program-at all. They are organs (such as soviets) is materially impossible ism in one advanced country, like the U.S., amid poverty, starvation and backward workers who engage in vio­ of an uncontrolled state bureaucracy. due to the limited development of the lence than with counterrevolutionary barbarism for most of humanity. We productive forces. In such situations, terrorists. ) The basic statement of Trotskyism, the SL's formula of control by a reject such an anti-egalitarian, chauvin­ For a concrete sense as to why a the 1938 Transitional Program, asserts workers' government (presumably a ist concept. workers government may have to that the struggle against the Stalinist Party-state) and a consultative role for Steve Miles' counterposition of De employ force against backward work­ bureaucracy is the struggle for soviet the mass workers' organizations is, I Leonism to Leninism is marred by self­ ers, look at the race question in the U.S. democracy: believe, correct. I should add that the contradictions and confusions concern­ Certainly a socialist government would "It is necessary to return to the soviets only legitimate functions of such a ing workers control of production. In aggressively implement racial integra­ not only their free democratic form but the Leninist tradition, workers' control also their class content. As once the government would be the suppression of tion in housing, schools, etc. In sharp bourgeoisie and kulaks were not per­ counterrevolution and the most rapid is used in two different senses. One is contrast to the liberal bourgeoisie, a mitted to enter the soviets, so now it is possible development ofthe economy­ that of dual power at the point of workers government would not imple­ necessary to drive the bureaucracy and gradually surreRdering its powers to production during a revolutionary ment integrationist policies in ways that the new aristocracy out ofthe soviets. In the soviets there is room only for the the workers' own mass economic crisis. The other is that of an authorita­ undermine or threaten the material tive consultative role by factory com­ representatives of the workers, rank­ organizations. interests of white working people. Of and-file collective (armers, peasant and In the context ofa developed capital­ mittees in the context of centralized course, for there to be a proletarian Red Army men. ist nation, this formula· is totally planning by a workers government. revolution in the U.S. it will be neces­ "Democratization of the soviets is inapplicable. In nations where a high What the author of the letter sary for the key sectors of the working impossible without legalization of describes as workers control is actually soviet parties. The workers and peas­ level of development of the productive class to have overcome racial divisions ants themselves by their oWn free vote forces prevails, the workers are capable centralized management by the eco­ in order to wage a united struggle will indicate what parties they recogni?-e of .administering production in a nomic organs of the laboring popula­ against capitalism. Nonetheless, it is as soviet parties." [emphasis inoriginall planned, democratic way-quite with­ tion. Daniel De Leon, so far as we know, entirely possible that residual pockets of The De Leonists' absolute dichotomy out a separate "workers' government." never used the term workers control, white racists would still violently resist between advanced and backward coun­ Ofcourse, some central authority would and certainly did not use that term to school integration, just as they have tries implies the prospect for socialism be necessary, but it must be an authority describe the organization of the econo-· done in Boston these past few years. No in one country, like the U.S. Closing the which is derived from the workers' own my following the overthrow of capital­ genuine socialist could deny the need for gap between the most developed and the mass economic organizations-their ism. In his 1905 Socialist Reconstruc­ a workers government to use force to poorest countries is the responsibility of General Executive Board, orwhatever it tion of Society, De Leon speaks of defend black children and implement the international proletariat as a whole. may be called. Industrial Unionism as the framework school integration in the face of violent for "the governmental administration of International socialist planning will Moreover, the workers' mass organi­ racist reaction. I the Republic of Labor." There are basic strive to secure a higher rate ofeconom­ zations would be quite capable of The race question in the U.S. is an ic growth for backward thailIor militarily suppressing counterrevolu­ differences between the Leninist con­ example ofthe divisions and conflicts of cept of a communist vanguard govern­ advanced workers states. Backward tion. With the military elimination of interests that will exist in the immediate elements in th& advanced countries, counterrevolutibn, the mass economic ing on the basis ofsoviet democracy and post-capitalist period. Conflicts arising the De Leonist Industrial Union govern­ imbued with national chauvinist atti­ organizations would cease funttioning from economic scarcity will be aggra­ tudes, will undoubtedly want to limit the as a state-their functions as a state ment, a syndicalist version of socialism. vated by reactionary ideological preju­ But these differences are only confused international redistribution ofwealth to would "die out." Thenceforth, they dices-racism, national chauvinism, a minimum. They would also oppose would be concerned with the "conduct by identifying the latter with workers religious fundamentalism (a la Anita control. increased i'mmmigration from poor of the processes of production." In the Bryant)-ultimately reflecting the heri­ nations. A communist vanguard will developed capitalist countries, no politi­ The basic differences between the tage of material deprivation and cultu­ dictatorship of the proletariat and have to fight for a genuinely internation­ cal group could exercise authority apart ral obscurantism. The situation is alist ·economic program. It is the from that of the workers' own mass. socialism can be summarized as follows: further complicated by the fact that The dictatorship of the proletariat internationalist component ofsocialism' economic organizations without be­ soviet democracy will not be restricted which, above all, requires a communist coming a parasitical formation-totally requires a distinct administrative appa­ to the organized working class ofthe old ratus. Under socialism, all administra­ vanguard governing a workers state unnecessary and an impediment to the bourgeois society, but will also embrace during the transitional epoch. establishment of a classless, stateless, tive functions are fulfilled through the much of the petty bourgeoisie of the old communist society. rotation of the general population. The society (e.g., low-level government In closing it should be noted that dictatorship of the proletariat requires officials, salesmen), as well as former Seymour is led to uphold a misleading an organized pUblic force whose tasks lumpenproletarians newly drawn into appraisal of history in the service of his are broader than simply suppressing the labor process. Workers statist conception of socialism: it is counterrevolutionary conspiracies. Un­ simply not true that, historically, "work­ der socialism, organized violence will The laboring population as it emerges ers' control has emerged after, not have disappeared from social life. from capitalist society will give rise to Vanguard before, the government was over­ During the transition"l epoch, there serious divisions and conflicts ofinterest MARXIST WORKlNG·CLASS WEEKLY OF thrown." His ambiguous use of the exist ~ignificant divisions and conflicts over such questions as the structure of THE SPARTACIST LEAGUE of interest within the laboring popula­ term, "the government," allows Sey­ labor payment, the level and distribu­ One year subscription (48 issues): $5­ mour to conceal the fact that the tion; these express themselves in separ­ tion of social services (e.g., housing), the Introductory oHer: (16 issues): $2. Interna· emergence of workers' control has ate political parties vying for govern­ rate of investment and the scale ofaid to tional rates: 48 issues-$20 airmail/$5 sea mental power through soviet mail; 16 introductory issues-$5 airmaiL always, and must necessarily, precede backward countries. A communist van­ Make checks payable/mail to: Spartacist democracy. Under socialist abundance guard will be needed to opposepolitical­ Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, the proletarian overthrow of any essen­ NY. 10001 tially bourgeois government. (Workers' and the cultural level associated with it, ly, not bureaucratically, those back­ control is not, however, a necessary there is no reason to expect permanent ~ard, parochial and short-sighted -includes SPARTAC/ST divisions over economic and social precondition for the military defeat ofa tendencies within the working class. Name _ policy; differences over such questions It is evident that Steve Miles identifies bourgeois government by a Party acting Address _ in the interests of the working class. But . will be episodic. the Leninist concept of a workers unless effective workers' control Classes will not disappear overnight. government with the Stalinist "one­ City _ emerges after the seizure ofpower by the Even after the smashing ofthe capitalist party" regimes of the Sino-Soviet State Zip_~_ Party, the Party will have no alternative state apparatus and the expropriation of degenerated and deformed workers 165 but to act as a new ruling class.) " the bourgeoisie, there will still be a states. Such an identification is wholly In sum, the essence of socialism is working class, an urban petty bourgeoi­ false. The Bolsheviks took power in SUBSCRIBE NOW! social control of the productive forces. sie, in many countries a peasantry, and 1917 after having attained a majority in 2 WORKERS VANGUARD Uproar in London over Police Attack on Pickets <..d~.X~i Londo~~ibune L,<~NDON-A struggle for union recog­ unofficially, and despite threats of Police open way for scabs at struck Grunwlck factory In North mtlOn at a small film processing plant in suspension, 64 bags of Grunwick's mail northern London, now in its eleventh have piled up. month, has suddenly become front-page Frustrated by the ineffectivness ofthe would never have done during strikes by the hook by a few gestures at Grunwick. news. The recent introduction of mass strike in mid-May, Dromey and the Leyland car workers earlier this year. . T~: strike has already elicited picketing at the struck plant and the strike committee, with the cooperation There the Social Contract was directly slgmflcant labour solidarity. Print threatened. But even in this small strike violent police response have turned the of the Brent Trades Council and APEX picketin~ workers at the Sunday Telegraph and dispute into a focal point of sharpening issued a call for mass pickets. (I~ national publicity and mass the Observer carried out job actions to class polarisation in Britain. The Tories ~esponse to this call, Ward began busing could let it get "out of hand," and this force their newspapers to run pro-union explains the reluctance of Labour and siding with the employers, bewail th~ 10 s~~b workers.) At this point, Dromey replies to particularly noxious attacks power ofthe unions and the closed shop. envIsIOned about 200 pickets at each of TUC tops to give the strike more than on the embattled Grunwicks workers. The Labour Party leaders, reluctantly the four gates. The first day of the grudging support. Instead they are Civil Service Union members, who drive forced to give verbal support to the picketing was 13 June. The police seeking to use the conflict at Grunwick's the police coach~s, were reportedly strikers, defend the right of union reacted with violent assaults, arresting to bolster the authority of their discred­ refusmg to contmue ferrying these recognition in the abstract while seeking over 70 people that day. Arrests now ited mediation machinery, hoping to uniformed thugs to the plant. Protests to gain credibility for the state as a total over 250. defuse the class struggle. In an article in by members of the college teachers "neutral mediator." At the same time as The picket lines, fluctuating from 200 the 3 July Observer, TUC general union led to the police Special Patrol the government they bear responsibility to 2,000 daily, have attracted trade­ secretary Len Murray wrote: Group being thrown out of facilities it for the actions "ACAS is industry's peacemaker. ... of the police, who daily union militants, the entire left-of­ "All those in all the parties and all the was using at Willesten Technical Col­ rough up picketers in the course of Labour spectrum, Labour MP's and ?rganisati?ns who gave their blessing to lege. Camden Direct Workers Depart­ enforcing capitalist "law and order." prominent union bureaucrats. Arthur Its formation and functions ought now ment staged a one-day strike on 17 June The dispute began last August when a Scargill, leader of the Yorkshire miners to be outspoken and persuasive in in support of the Grunwick workers. worker at Grunwick Film Processing and Mrs. Audrey Wise, MP, a Labou; supporting its efforts to bring peace to Grunwick's factories. Manifestly, a hundred workers was sacked for "talking back" to a boss. "left" even managed to get themselves "That does not mean taking sides in the cannot win this strike while production Fifty workers walked out soon after to arrested. Meanwhile, two senior Tory dispute (although I see the best of is carried on by scabs. Blacking must be be joined a week later by another 1'00. MP's began to ride with the scabs in the reasons for taking the side of APEX); it continued, and particularly in the case Mrs. Jayaben Desai, one of the first to buses, and the National Association For means lining up on the side of concilia­ tion, not confrontation." of the post office, all deliveries to and walk out and now one of the most Freedom placed advertisements from the plant must be shut off. Mass prominent members of the strike com­ throughout the bourgeois press asking If James Callaghan's government at picketing must bring in thousands to mittee, suggested that they join a union. for monetary support for Ward. Westminster, Labour bigwigs at Trans­ close the entrances-then the police will The strikers contacted Jack Dromey, a The police were reinforced with the port House and the TUC brass view the not be able to escort busloads of scabs Tribunite who is secretary of the Brent hated Special Branch and the Special Grunwick's strike as a troublesome through the lines. A plant occupation is Trades Council. Dromey put them in Patrol Group (specialising in "crowd nuisance which must be channeled into also clearly called for. An area-wide touch with the Trades Union Congress control"). At times there were almost as a more manageable framework, the left sympathy strike could bring tremen­ (TUC). The TUC, in turn, referred the many cops as pickets. They unleashed groups who join the lines daily see it as dous pressure on the recalcitrant em­ striking workers to the right-wing daily attacks, and injured several pick­ the focus of the class struggle in Britain. ployer, and turning the scheduled Association of Professional, Executive, ets. As a whole, the bourgeois press has The geriatric fake-Trotskyists of the demonstration of II July into a one-day Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX). played down police brutality while Militant group ran a lead article in their national solidarity work stoppage On 31 August 1976 APEX declared pillorying the workers for defending 24 June issue headlined: "Grunwick­ would serve notice that Britain's work­ the strike official. By this time 137 themselves. In particular, it played up The Acid Test." Similarly, the ers are determined to win this struggle. an incident when a policeman hit his reformist-syndicalist Socialist Workers workers, primarily Asian, were involved The demands ofsuch a work stoppage head on a flying bottle. The Tories have Party (formerly International Social­ (91 full-time workers and 48 students). and mass demonstration should not be commended the police for their "res­ ists) maintains that, "The battle of Two days later George Ward, managing limited to the Grunwick strike, however. traint" as has Labour _Party Home Grunwick is a battle for trade union director of Grunwick, told them they They must become a stepping stone to a were fired. The workers took the dispute Secretary Merlyn Rees. organisation itself' (Socialist Worker, 25 June). militant battle for massive wage in­ to an industrial tribunal, claiming unfair The response of the Labour Party creases, for a sliding-scale of wages and dismissal, but lost the case. The tribunal "moderates" has been continued sup­ This assumes that this "self-made" small entrepreneur stands in the fore­ hours to put an end to depression-level upheld Ward's contention that the port of APEX, but condemnation ofthe unemployment and salvage the working workers were sacked for "breach of violence, which they attribute to the "far front of a generalised ruling-class offensive against the whole union class from economic ruin. Not by tailing contract," not for joining a union. left" groups. The secretary of state for movement. But, in fact, even the Labour "lefts" and "militant" union After six weeks of fruitless picketing, employment, Albert Booth, "suggested" conservative Economist (25 June) refers bureaucrats can such a struggle be won, APEX asked the government's Adviso­ in Commons debate: "I have every but only through building a Trotskyist ry, Conciliation and Arbitration Service reason to believe that the general to Ward as a "maverick," and offers free advice on salvaging the mediation vanguard party that can unleash the (ACAS) to recognize its right to secretary of Apex will seek to cooperate power of the British working class, by represent the Grunwick workers. Set up fully with the police in every way he can machinery. The rights of immigrant workers in marginal industries are breaking the grip of Labourite reform­ under the 1975 Employment Protection to avoid any further violence or distur­ ism. Victory to the Grunwick's strike! Act, ACAS attempted to poll the bances outside the plant" (Times [Lon­ certainly at stake in the Grunwick struggle, and must be defended at all Smash the Social Contract! • Grunwick workers to see if they wanted don], I July). a union to represent them. Ward, on the costs. But a small strike at a single shop Booth has set up a Court of Inquiry, must not be allowed to become a means advice of the ultra right-wing National headed by Sir Leslie Scarman, the High Association For Freedom (NAFF), has of diverting attention from the main Court judge who oversaw the official issue facing the union movement in consistently refused to cooperate with whitewash of the 1974 police murder of -WfJRNERI ACAS and denied it access to his Britain today: the Social Contract. a young leftist during an anti-fascist This "voluntary" ceiling on wage remaining 216 employees. On 9 March, demonstration in London's Red Lion ACAS, only able to ballot the striking increases has subjected the working 'ANGUARD Square. It also includes one employers' class to a steady hemorrhaging in its workers (91 out of 93 for union Marxist WOrking-Class Weekly "representative" and one union official, living standards in the three years since representation), issued a report con­ to provide a veneer of neutrality. The of the Spartacist League of the U.S. cluding that Grunwick should recognize Labour came to power. Now the bulk of Court itself has no legal power: Ward the union ranks are fed up as they face APEX. Grunwick responded by taking repeatedly states that he will not be EDITOR: Jan Norden . the matter to the High Court, claiming unrelenting inflation despite their "res­ PRODUCTION MANAGER: Karen Allen bound by it if the decision is against him, traint." Already the engineers that the ballot was carried out improp­ and he has been backed by the NAFF in CIRCULATION MANAGER: Anne Kelley erly since not all the workers had been (AUEW-metal workers) have turned this. down Stage Three of the government's EDITORIAL BOARD: Jon Brule. Charles polled (i.e., the 216 or so scabs). BurroughS. George Foster. Liz Gordon. James Back in November, the strike This hard-fought and protracted incomes policy, and annual conferences Robertson. Joseph Seymour are scheduled soon for the miners committee had requested blacking [hot strike is an important test ofstrength for Published weekly, except bi-weekly in August cargoing] of supplies to Grunwick. The the trade-union movement. It is also an (NUM) and transport workers and December, by the Spartacist Publishing opportunity for mobilising the union (T&GWU) where opposition is massive. Co., 260 West Broadway, New York, N.Y. Cricklewood Post Office workers com­ 10013. Telephone: 966-6841 (Editorial). plied by refusing to deliver mail to the ranks around a popular, militant Revolutionaries must fight to turn this 925-5665 (Business). Address all correspond­ plant. Using the NAFF solicitors, Ward struggle of the sort which the anti­ rejection of the labour fakers' c1ass­ ence to: Box 1377, G.P.O., New York, N.Y. working-class "Social Contract" is collaborationist scheme into a wave of 10001. Domestic subscriptions: $5.00 per year. applied to the High Court to order the Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. resumption ofdeliveries, and the Postal intended to avoid. Because it involves a industrial action to break through the Social Contract. Labour "lefts" like Opinions expressed in signed articles or Workers union backed down. Since marginal group ofworkers, a number of letters do not necessarily express the editorial union leaders have been coming to the Wise and "militant" union leaders like viewpoint. June 17, however, the Cricklewood o~f workers have continued the blacking Grunwick's picket lines, something they Scargill must not be allowed to get 8 JULY 1977 3 Varga Commission Finishes Work OCI Slanders, But Varga Still Dubious ...~-~\~.,~ Figure ,. . '-.1\ The following article is slightly adapted ing to the iSt, an enraged LIRQI' from the introduction to a bulletin of accused the iSt of being agents of the documents concerning the Commission OCI because of our principled refusal ofInquiry into the"Varga affair," to be to participate in the captive LIRQI published shortly by the ligue Trot­ commissions. As we said in our "Decla­ skyste de France, sympathizing section ration" (WV No. 85, 14 Nov. 1975): ofthe international Spartacisttendency. "We cannot take part in a cynical The French-language bulletin will con­ operation totally devoid of the most tain documentation of the iSt's battle minimal democratic principles, whose only aim appears to be to whitewash for an impartial commission ofinquiry Varga in the hope of factional advan­ as well as selections from testimony to tage against the OCI. We are equally the Commission and documents made against whitewashes and frame-ups." available to it. The bulletin can be ordered from Pascal Alessandri, B. P. The Commission Meets 336, 75011 Paris, France, or from Spartacist Publishing, Box /377, GPO, On La's initiative, a real commission New York,. NY 10001. of inquiry was formed in March 1976. From April until December 1976, the The documents reproduced in' this Commission gathered testimony, docu­ bulletin testify to the struggle by the ments, whatever was relevant to the international Spartacist tendency (iSt) "Varga affair." to construct, and then to carry through At the beginning, the OCI took a very to a conclusion, the work of a commis­ aggressive attitude toward the Commis­ sion of inquiry to investigate the "Varga sion. It repeatedly stated that the affair." They document efforts by the Commission should confine itself to Organisation Communiste Internatio­ "authenticating" the documents from Varga's archives, and congratulated naliste (OCI) and the Vargaite group Jaume Mar (LIRQI, which now styles itself the Michel Varga itself that the members of the Commis­ "Fourth International") first to block sion "admitted" the documents' authen­ even the existence of an impartial organizations in France and elsewhere doubt hoping the Commission would ticity. The OCI suggested over and over commission in the tradition of the to mask its right turn. never see the light of day. Since at least in /0 (in June 1976 and again in Dewey commission of inquiry into the But the OCI did not reckon with the the end of 1974 the SWP had been October) that the iSt shared its accusa­ Moscow Trials, and then to create iSt. After seven months of repeated maneuvering with the OCI to facilitate tions against Varga. To make this obstacles to the Commission's work. requests, the OCI released a part (20 the latter's entry into the USee, and it amalgam, the OCI quoted our criticisms And they reveal the equivocations ofthe percent, by its own account) of the was obvious that a condemnation ofthe of Varga (passing over in silence our criticisms of the OCI) in a way calculat­ other organizations-the Ligue Com­ "Varga archives" in August 1974. Seven OCl's lies by an impartial and authori­ ed to suggest that we shared its charac­ muniste Revolutionnaire (LCR), Lutte months to xerox 200 pages! tative commission of inquiry would terization of Varga. It was only after the Ouvriere (La) and the American Social­ Meanwhile, Varga was pursuing his damage these maneuvers. iSt addressed a letter of protest to 10 ist Workers Party (SWP)-which par­ mendicant methods. In the late 1950's he As for the LCR and La, they never ticipated in the Commission. had sought funds from the U.S. State that the OCI ceased to put forth this objected in principle to participating in kind of amalgam. Department. Now his organization was a commission which included the running after the iSt, not in order to In throwing up this smokescreen, the Origins of the Commission LIRQI. La went so far as to say that it OCI hoped to obscure the fact that the engage in political discussion but simply was prepared to accept the OCI into a Although increasingly sharp political cynically in the naive hope of getting real question was whether or not the commission alongside the LIRQI! The documents confirmed the OCI's accusa­ differences separated the OCI and financing for its own "international iSt "Declaration" of 3 November was Varga since at least September 1972, it conference." tions. It is now established that they do drawn up after a meeting on 30 October not confirm the charges, which are was not until the end ofJune 1973, after In February 1975 the Spartacist ten­ 1975 during which the LCR and LO had therefore revealed as slanders. All the the "discovery" of Varga's archives dency took the step of publishing a long agreed to participate in a commission on around May 1973, that the OCI publicly article entitled "A Workers Commission more so since the OCI representatives the bases proposed by the LIRQI-i.e., systematically refused to present other accused Varga-falsely, as the Commis­ Must Try Varga." The article's main condemning in advance the OCl's sion established-of being an agent of positions on Varga and the OCI's elements which might have aided in accusations. At the meeting where our "proving" the a<:cusations; it must be the Stalinist secret police (Informations baseless accusations were eventually declaration was read, however, the LCR Ouvrieres, 27 June 1973) and, later, of confirmed by the deliberations of the concluded that "other" proofs do not and La pulled back from the LIRQI exist. the CIA as well. It subsequently took Commission of Inquiry; our stand "commission"-not for reasons of prin­ more than six months for the OCI to might have been drawn directly from the The OCI's attitude toward the Com­ ciple, but solely for reasons of "effi­ mission came out in its refusal (despite state that working-class organizations Commission's conclusions. We wrote: ciency" and "credibility." "Unfortunately, the irresponsible crim­ its protestations to the contrary) to could examine these archives, and it was Thus the Vargaites were in a position not until March 1974 that a pamphlet inal conduct of the OCI, which refused make the entire archives available to the to present its case against Varga to accuse the LCR and La ofcapitulat­ Commission or to groups which had announced in the first 10 article finally honestly before the workers movement, ing to the iSt. This accusation was not appeared. requested them. Testifying before the is surpassed only by the astonishingly totally unfounded, as the LCR's and Commission on 22 April 1976, Claude light-minded response of the Varga The "Varga affair" went hand in hand group to accusations which, if they are LO's hesitations are to be explained Chisserey of the OCI leadership claimed with a very rapid right turn ofthe OCI, founded on' fact, would define this above all by their factionally motivated that the 80 percent ofthe archives which expressed above aU by its capitulation tendency as a sinister clique." desire to condemn the OCI. Any means the OCI kept to itself consisted of before the popular front in the 1973 and -Spartacist [Mition fran~aise], would have sufficed, including the bulletins and documents internal to the 1974 elections, as well as its rapproche­ February 1975 LIRQl's "commission." Ifthese organi­ OCI and thus he "saw no point" in ment, beginning in early 1973, with the While denouncing the OCI's Stalinist zations surrendered to the principled turning them over to the Commission~ reformist SWP. In a centrist organiza­ methods as "foreign to the methodology arguments of the representative of the which, said Chisserey, alluding disin­ tion such as the OCI, the formation ofa and morality of Bolshevism," we estab­ LTF-a tiny organization compared to genuously to the exchange of internal left tendency opposing the leadership's lished that in his letters Varga "showed the LCR and LO-it is no doubt bulletins between the OCI and SWP, the right turn might have been expected. himself to be anti-Semitic, racist and because they believed that a condemna­ Commission was certainly familiar with And in fact wobbles showed up in 10 utterly cynical ... a basically dishonest tion of the OCI by a commission which already. But the SWP representative which looked like the stirrings of left individual [acting] in bad faith." did not include the LIRQI would have later stated that the SWP had never oppositionists in the OCI. But the From February until November 1975 greater authority. The recognized au­ received any such bulletins. "Varga affair" cut short any potential the iSt, represented by its French thority of the iSt regarding the "Varga Later, the OCI refused to allow Pierre crystallization ora serious left tendency sympathizing section, the Ligue Trot­ affair" also stemmed from the fact that Broue and Jean-Jacques Marie (who in the OCI. Just as the Vargaites skyste de France (LTF), led the battle we were the only organization to check had collaborated with Varga on the cynically sought to take up positions to for an impartial commission, without the OCl's translations of Varga's journal of his Institute) or Roger the left of the OCI, so too the OCI took the participation ofthe accused LIRQI. materials. Monnier (with whom Varga had left his advantage of its accusations against The record of this fight is detailed in our When its maneuver blew up in its face, archives) to testify before the Varga to seal offanything resembling an "Declaration to the Commission of the LIRQI set up its own "commission Commission. opposition. It was obvious that at the Inquiry on the Varga Affair" of 3 of inquiry," of which it was in fact the Toward the end of the Commission's outset the OCI was counting on the November 1975. During this entire only component. Not content with deliberations, the OeI found itself disinterest of th,e ostensibly Trotskyist period the SWP held itself aloof, no accusing the LCR and La of capitulat- continued on page IO 4 WORKERS VANGUARD Conclusions o~ the Committee of Inquiry into the Varga' Affair • Michel Varga (the political pseudo­ into contact with various groups and of being an agent of the CIA and the [Revolutionary Workers League](name nym used by Balasz Nagy) is today the individuals in the workers movement. KGB. adopted by the French section of the main leader.of the Ligue Internationale In 1961 Michel Varga broke with the On 27 March 1976the LigueCommu­ LI RQI), the OCI representatives denied de Reconstruction de la Quatrieme Institute and the journal. In 1962 he niste Revolutionnaire, Lutte Ouvriere, this, or refused to reply. Internationale (International League joined the Organisation Communiste Socialist Workers Party USA, the 2) It was at the request of the LIRQI Reconstructing the Fourth Interna­ Internationaliste(OCI). Toward the end international Spartacist tendency and that the organizations making up the tional-LIRQI), which now simply pro­ of 1972 a split occurred between a group the Workers Socialist League (Great. Commission of Inquiry decid~d to form claims itself the "Fourth International." led by Varga and the OCI. The group Britain) decided to form a Commission it. But the LIRQI demanded that the After the 1956 uprising in Hungary he founded by Varga first took the name of Inquiry on the basis of the following Commission of Inquiry be formed on emigrated to West Europe and, in the OCI-LIRQI Faction. declaration: the basis of an a priori recognition that la.te 1950's, became a founder of the "Some time ago, the Organisation In 1973 the OCI published material the OCI's accusations were slanders. "Imre Nagy Institute of Political (translated from Hungarian) excerpted Communiste Internationaliste (OCI) put forth certain accusations, asserting Seeing that the organizations in ques­ Science" and of its journal, ttudes. The from Varga's archives which it had that Balasz Nagy, known as Michel tion did not share its point of view, the purpose of this institute, as Varga obtained. This material dealt with the Varga, was an 'agent paid by the CIA' LIRQI then formed its own commission presented it in 1958, was to analyze period of 1957-1960, and the excerpts and 'a GPU provocateur.' The leaders of inquiry, the "Commission of Inquiry of the LI RQI, the organi~tion ofwhich problems of socialism, particularly the published by the OCI are mostly parts of against the Slanders about Michel problems of Hungary from 1948 to Michel Varga is a member, have called Varga's correspondence. On the basis of Varga," of which it is in fact the only 1956. For these projects Varga entered for a 'workers commission ofinquiry' to these excerpts, the OCI accused Varga take a position on 'the campaign of member. Subsequently, on on~ occa­ unfounded accusations launched by the si'on, LlRQI members agreed to testify DCI leadership' as well as on 'the extension of these accusations to the before the Commission on the question International League [LlRQI] as such, of the [OCl's] use of violence. ReJecting going as far as repeated physical attacks the Commission in advance as a upon militants of the DCI-LIRQI "maneuver," Michel Varga explicitly Draft Condusions on the Varga faction [the French LIRQI group]. in refused any collaboration with the particular during the joint demonstra­ tions against Francoism and the leaflet­ Commission. ting outside the meeting to free Soviet , '1 Affair Submitted by the iSt mathematician Leonid Plyushch.' II Basic Conclusions "We consider that such accusations against a militant or an organization are Despite the attitude of the OCI and The Commission of Inquiry was ered false, and therefore lying and sufficiently serious that it is incumbent the LOR toward the Commission of formed by Lutte Ouvrie're, the Ligue slanderous. upon the entire revolutionary move­ ment to determine whether or not they Inquiry, the undersigned members of it Communiste Revolutionnaire, the So­ 4. It goes without saying that the are justified. That is why we have have arrived at the following conclu­ cialist Workers Party and the interna­ Commission of Inquiry condemns the decided to constitute ourselves as a sions, which they share in common: tional Spartacist tendency, with the sole OCI's procedures, which are of a Commission of Inquiry for the purpose I) Was Varga a KGB agent? aim ofarriving at conclusions about the Stalinist nature. The OCI may have ofinviting the OClleadership to present all evidence it claims to possess, and in The OCI has not furnished any "Varga affair." Although composed of been familiar with the "Varga archives." order to request all those who could evidence proving that Michel Varga had organizations otherwise having serious It is quite probable that it at least knew furnish evidence concerning this matter relations with the KGB or the Soviet political differences among themselves, of their existence. The OCI therefore to come and testify. government. According to the words of the Commission is united in its determi­ had -a special responsibility to try to "The Commission's goal is a scrupulous the OCI leaders themselves, this accusa­ nation to safeguard the workers move­ examine these archives, given the verification of the facts and documents, which it will make public. In order for tion is based solely on "political ment against the alien practices of central importance of a complete and this verification to take place with the reasoning." violence and slander and to denounce unambiguous break with imperialism greatest possible authority. it invites all According to the Commission, this such practices whenever they "may on the part of those who claim to have organizations claiming adherence to the accusation is therefore unproved. occur, thereby rejecting any attempt to broken with the Stalinist bureaucracies revolhtionary workers movement to participate actively in its deliberations," 2) Was Varga a CIA agent? turn it into the tool of any political in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Thus -signed by representatives of: In order to assert this, the OCI bases alliance or regroupment. the OCI chose to launch a slanderous Lutte Ouvriere itself mainly on the "Varga archives" I On the basis of testimony and campaign, ~hose sole aim was to Ligue Communiste relating to the period 1957-1960. documents presented to it, the Commis­ intimidate and discredit Varga, only Revolutionnaire These archives show that during this Socialist Workers Party sion of Inquiry has arrived at the after his political differences with the international SJ?artacist tendency period, after leaving Hungary and following conclusions: OCI appeared. . Workers SocialIst League before joining the OCI, Michel Varga I. The Commission notes that, 5. The Commission condemns the After a year of proceedings. the sought financial support from many although representatives of the OCI scandalous lightmindedness of Michel Commission of Inquiry now feels that it sources, including sources close to the Varga, who refused to appear before it twice appeared before it, the OCI infact has come to its end. It has recorded American government, the [U.S.] State or to make any deposition. He has Department or the Free Europe Com­ refused to collaborate with the Commis­ t~timony and sought to verify it to the thereby refused to clarify his present sion of Inquiry, above all by not turning degree possible. mittee, in order to finance the Imre position vis-a-vis his past activities. Nagy Institute. The archives show that over to it the tntire documentation at its For practical reas~ns, the represen­ Consequently, the Commission can disposal; and by refusing to allow tative of the Workers Socialist League he actively sought this money, knowing only note the fact that between 1957 and testimony from its members who, based was unable to participate regularly in full well what he ,was doing and 1960-61 Varga consciously solicited on their own experience, could have the Commission's work. Five persons attempting to hide the source of the funds from sources functioning as answered the Commission's ques­ participated regularly: Andre Frys money. tions-on the pretext that the Commis­ agents of American imperialism, and But these archives do not prove that (LO), Andre Roussel (LO), Gus Horo­ sion should limit itself to stating even from the U.S. State Department. at this time Varga was a CIA agent. witz (SWP), Georges Marion (LCR) and And although Varga himself publicly whether or not the documents presented Jean Lesueur (iSt). This report is They do not prove that Varga was a CIA admitted having undertaken conscious­ by the OCI were authentic or not. made by the following three participants agent after he joined the ranks of the ly anti-eommunist activities in order to 2. The Commission also denounces in the Commission of Inquiry: Gus OCI in 1962, nor that he had contact "combat Marxism," he has never with the CIA during this period. the attitUlJe of the LIRQI and its Horowitz (SWP), Jean Lesueur (iSt), explained-nor' has he explicitly organizations toward the Commission. Georges Marion (LCR). According to the Commission. the With the failure ofthe LI RQI's attempts renounced-certain formulations to be accusation that he belonged to the CIA. to prevent the creation of an found in his I~tters at that time, which Preliminary Conclusions is therefore unproved. independent Commission of Inquiry in enable us to-characterize his attitudes as 3) Did the DCI know of Vqrga's past the best traditions of the workers move­ anti-Semitic and racist, Varga therefore The members of the Commission of before accepting him in its ranks? ment-in particular that represented by appears as a highly dubious figure. Inquiry, at the end oftheir proceedings, There are no documents which make • the Dewey Commission-the LIRQI set 6. According to depositions taken by wish to formulate thefollowing prelimi­ it pQ,ssible to answer this question. up a so-called "impartial" commission the Commission ofInquiry, the OCI has nary observations dealing with the • In the LIRQI's publications, Mic~ composed overwhelmingly of its own for a long time practiced violence ongoing development of the inquiry Varga has asserted that the O<;Iras organizations! The LIRQI's slanders of against competing organizations in the itself. fully informed about his past be~~:_he the Commission, which it terms "Lam­ workers movement. The OCI simply I) On two occasions members of the joined its ranks. But Michel Varga bertist agents," merely show its impo­ used its unfounded accusations against OCI-first Claude Chisserey and Ge­ refused to give his testimony to the tent fury following the refusal by the Varga as a pretext-following the rard Bloch, then Pierre Lambert­ Commission. organizations which formed the Com­ emergence of political differences-to agreed to answer the Commission's • As for the OCI, it has reasserted that mission to cover for its maneuvers. physically attack members of organiza­ questions. But numerous letters and it did not know of Varga's past as it 3. The OCI did not present any tions which included Varga. The Com­ requests by the Commission of Inquiry appears in light of the archives. Pierre sufficient proof to demonstrate the mission vigorously condemns the OCI for testimony from other members of Lambert repeated this in his testimony correctness of its accusations against for its slanders and its violence of a the OCI remain unanswered by the OCI. before the Commission of Inquiry. Balasz Nagy. known as Mi~hel Varga; purely Stalinist sort, alien to the best Pierre Lambert, for one, stated concern­ • The Commission also heard the namely that Michel Varga was suppo­ practices of the workers movement. ing this matter: "We will not allow the testimony of Albi and Kaldy, two sedlya paid agent of the CIA and KGB. In addition, the fact that the LIRQI Commission of Inquiry to investigate Hungarian militants presently members Moreover, the OCI dishonestly manipu­ invoked bourgeois justice against mem­ inside the OCI. The goal of your of the LCR and LO respectively, who lated the quotations it extracted from bers of the OCI demonstrates that Commission is to state whether the worked with Varga after 1962 in his I. I Varga's letters. The testimony, docu­ despite its protestations, it does not documents produced by the OCI are Hungarian Trotskyist organization, the I ments and information gathered by the fundamentally differ from the OCI on -authentic or not." Concerning the use of LRSH [Revolutionary League of Hun­ I' Commission lead to the conclusion that the question of workers democracy. violence by members of the OCI against garian Socialists]. According to their these accusations can only be consid- [Paris, December 1976] the LlRQI, subsequently the LOR continued on page 11 8 JULY 1977 5

L r

r Heroic Soviet" Spies PART 1 OF 2

On 21 June 1941 more than 150 Game. (New York: McGraw-Hill, totalitarianism" in the USSR. One of divisions of Hitler's Wehrmacht in­ 1977), • concerning the origins and the standard distortions of Soviet vaded the USSR in what was intended activities of the Red Orchestra, the history is the claim that Stalin's crimes as the classic Blitzkrieg of all time, subsequent Funkspiel ("radio game") were the natural outgrowth of the Red "Operation Barbarossa." Launching a that outsmarted his Nazi captors, and Army, secret police and intelligence surprise attack along a front extending Trepper's years in Stalinist prisons after apparatus set up under Lenin and from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the war. Hoping'to tap the huge markets Trotsky. Thus a recent academic study German army Panzers quickly drove for Second World War literature and asserts: hundreds of kilometers deep into Soviet escapist spy novels of the Ian Fleming "It was under Lenin's guidance and territory. The Russian border troops, genre, advertising for The Great Game direction that the salient features of the completely unprepared, fell back in a describes it as packed with "all the secret police... were crystallized. After Lenin's death. the secret police was total rout. Within five days the White unbearable suspense of the very best gradually transformed into an instru­ Russian capital of Minsk was taken and espionage thriller." But this and rdated ment of Stalin's personal dictatorship. in the north Finnish troops stood at the books are more than mere thrillers: they But it was Lenin, the founder' of the gates of Leningrad. "The greater part of starkly confirm Trotsky's contention Soviet state. not Stalin. who entrenched the Russian air force was wiped out in that the Kremlin was "the central nest of the power of the secret police and created the institutional foundations for defeatism" and provide revealing in­ rule bv terror." sights into the tragedy ofa generation of . Leonard Gerson. The Secret A review of: The. Great Game, by communists caught in Stalin's coun­ Police in unin's Russia (1977) terrevolutionary web. Or take the reactionary ideologue Leopold Trepper; The Red Although they lacked the political Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. In a speech to Orchestra, by Gilles Perrault; fortitude to join the Trotskyist Left the American AFL-CIO he favorably Our Own People, by Elisabeth Opposition-except for Ignace Reiss compared tsarist Russia and the Span­ (Poretsky), who was assassinated six ish Inquisition (!) tBerlin, the "Red Orchestra" only physically but also morally, as had for months been supplying M~scow Trepper put it, "between the hammer of with detailed information about the Pathfinder Press Hitler and the anvil of Stalin." - impending attack, including the pro­ Ignace Reiss posed plan of batttle. Nor was it alone. Who Were the Soviet Spies? Another Soviet spy, Richard Sorge in Tokyo. had obtained the exact date of For the bourgeois mind, which sees the invasion and the precise number of all spies as daredevils and bon vivants. divisions involved. But these reports driven by purely personal concerns such were routinely stamped "double agent" as money and adventure, the Soviet or "BritislT source." Stalin placed his intelligence network was a closed book. trust instead in the Molotov­ They could marvel at it~as did Hitler, Ribbentrop pact which had been who declared in 1942 that "The Bolshe­ signed with :"J"azi Germany in 1939. The viks are our superiors in only one field. entire Soviet people paid dearly, at a espionage"-but they could not under­ cost of millions of lives. for this criminal stand or imitate it. While all the Soviet negligence of the defense of the USSR. networks, which provided the highest This was the price for the Kremlin's quality intelligence during World War reliance on deals with the imperialists II. relied on traditional sources­ instead of mobilizing the world prole­ disgruntled ruling-class individuals with tariat to overthrow its exploiters. access to vital secrets--at their core stood long-time revolutionary militants "Soviet Totalitarianism"? who had been won to the communist In recent years there have appeared in cause in the days of Lenin and Trotsky. the West a number of books dealing . These militants came from with the exploits of leading Soviet spies remarkably similar backgrounds. Typi­ during the World War II period. The McGraw-Hili. cally they were members of Communist Red Army commander-in-chief Marsl latest, and best, in this field is the General Jan Berzin, victim of the parties in countries where revolutionary chevsky, assassinated by Stalin. memoirs of Leopold Trepper, The Great purge. struggles had been smashed and future 6 WORKERS VANGUARD tional Brigades in the Spanish civil war) blood purge. However, he was deter­ • and the notorious adventurer Hans mined to go on defending the Soviet Neumann. Union and sought to get around the A similar case was that of Richard Kremlin directive against setting up an Trepper on Stalin's • Sorge, who joined the German Commu­ active network on German territory. nist Party in 1919 and spent the next In selecting the comrades to lead such several turbulent years in clandestine vital and difficult work he sought out Sabotage of Soviet work among the mine workers of the those who in their own minds were still Ruhr, going to Moscow after the seeking to aid world revolution. Trepper collapse of the 1923 insurrection. says of his decision to join the Fourth Defense Another Soviet intelligence officer, who Department: later defected to the West, expressed a "Over and above our confusion and our common viewpoint among these anguish was the necessity of defending -Excerpted from Leopold Trepper, The Great Game (New York, 1977) militants: the Soviet Union, even though it had "When we saw the collapse of the ceased to be the homeland of the socialism we had hoped for. This Comintern's efforts, we said: 'Let's.save On December 18, 1940, Hitler signed Directive Number 21, better what we can of the German revolution.' obvious fact forced my decision, and We took the best men developed by our General Berzin's proposition allowed known as Operation Barbarossa. The first sentence of this plan was Party Intelligence and the Zersetzungs­ me to save my conscience.... by fighting explicit: "The German armed forces must be ready before the end of dienst [sabotage squad] and incorporat­ far from Moscow, in the forefront ofthe the war against Great Britain to defeat the Soviet Union by means of a ed them into the Soviet Military anti-Nazi struggle, I could continue to Blitzkrieg." Intelligence. Out of the ruins of the be what I had always been: a militant Communist revolution we built in revolutionary." Richard Sorge warned the Center immediately; he forwarded them a Germany for Soviet Russia a brilliant copy of the directive. Week after week, the heads of Red Army intelligence service. the envy of every Many others were attracted to the Intelligence received updates on the Wehrmacht's preparations. Atthe other nation." Fourth Department out of similar -Walter Krivitsky, In Stalin's beginning of 1941, SchuIze-Boysen sent the Center precise informa­ Secret Service motives-an apparent escape route tion on the operation being planned: massive bombardments of Lenin­ from politics which would afford While there were plenty of Germans grad, Kiev, and Vyborg; the number of divisions involved-In February, veteran militants a limited, technical in the Soviet intelligence networks, the I sent a detailed 'dispatch giving the exact number of divisions avenue to continue to work for social­ core of the spy apparatus was made up withdrawn from France and Belgium, and sent to the east. In May, ism. Elisabeth Poretsky describes an of homeless East Europeans-Latvians, through the Soviet military attache in Vichy, General Susloparov, I archetypal case, that of the Hungarian Hungarians and especially Polish Jews. sent the proposed plan of attack, and indicated the original date, May communist Theodore Maly. He joined Many of the latter had emigrated to 15, then the revised date, and the final date. On May 12, Sorge warned the Cheka during the Civil War, then Palestine in the early 1920's, joined the Moscow that 150 German divisions weremassed along the frontier. On stayed on but finally could continue no Communist Party and later arrived by the 15th, he cited June 21 st for the beginning of the operations, a date longer after the brutal massacres of the one means or another in West Europe. that was confirmed by Schulze-Boysen in Berlin.... Stalinist collectivization campaigns. "I Trepper, for example, Was born in went to the foreign division of the He who closes his eyes sees nothing, even in the full light of day. This Polish Galicia, joined the left-Zionist N.K.Y.D. and asked for an assignment was the case with Stalin and his entourage. The generalissimo Hashomer Hatzair youth group after abroad.... I could not bear to live in the preferred to trust his political instinct rather than the secret reports World War I. took part in a workers' piled up on his desk. Convinced that he had signed an eternal pact of I'5 Soviet Union any more. I had to run uprising in Krakau in 1923, was black­ away somewhere...." But there was no friendship with Germany, h~ sucked on the pipe of peace. He had listed by the Pilsudski dictatorship and escaping Stalinism for old party cadres: buried his tomahawk and he was not ready to dig it up yet. decided to flee to Palestine. There he either one succumbed to it or resisted, joined the Palestine Communist Party Thirty years after the war was over, Marshal Golikov, writing in a and the chances of survival were not and initiated the Ichud ("Unity") move­ Soviet historical review, officially confirmed the value of the informa- qualitatively higher for the capitulators. tion received. ... ment of Jewish and Arab workers. Maly was shot in 1937. Leading a clandestine existence for 'The Soviet Intelligence Services had learned in good time the dates several years, after repeated arrests he The purge of the Red Army began at of the attack against the USSR and had given the alarm before it was was finally deported to France. the top, with Marshal Mikhail Tukha­ too late.... The intelligence services provided accurate information In Paris he at first lived with a chevsky. Tukhachevsky had been depu­ regarcijng the military potential of Hitler's Germany, the exact number childhood friend, Alter Strom, who had ty chief of staff when Trotsky was of armed forces, the quantities of arms, and the strategic plans of the left Palestine a year earlier than he. commissar for the army but was commanders of the Wehrmacht...... Three years later, in 1932, he decided to removed when Stalin's flunky Voroshi­ Marshal Golikov was in a good position to make such a statement. leave France when Strom was arrested lov took over in 1925. According to From June, 1940, to July, 1941, he was the Director of Red Army by the police as part of the "Fantomas" Wollenberg, "Tukha never published a Intelligence. If the Russian chiefs of staff were so well informed, what Soviet espionage ring. (The head of the derogatory or even a critical statement was the reason for the debacle after the German attack? The answer is network, Isaiah Bir, was yet another about Trotsky," and in his contribution no doubt contained in a note Golikov himself addressed to his services Polish Jew who had immigrated to to the 1928 manual on armed insurrec­ on March 20, 1941: France after a stint in Palestine.) tion quoted from one of the Red Army Thereupon Trepper went to the Soviet founder's orders of the day. Stalin "All the documents claiming that war is imminent must be regarded Union, where he eventually came to the doubtless planned for years to eliminate as forgeries emanating from British' or even German sources." attention of the military intelligence' the popular and rt:spected "Tukha," but On the most important dispatches sent to him by Sorge, Schulze­ branch on the recommendation of the Kremlin's fear of war with Japan in Boysen, and me, Golikov noted in the margin "Double agent" or Strom. And when he returned to Fr-ance the early 1930's forced Voroshilov to "B~itish source...... in 1938 to set up the "Red Orchestra" take him back. Then in the summer of On June 21, 1941, we had confirmation from Vasily Maximovich and network, he turned to former associates 1937 Moscow papers suddenly an­ Schulze-Boysen that the invasion was set for the next day. There was from his Palestine days, Leo Grossvogel nounced the arrest of the Red Army still time to put the Red Army in a state of alert. I rushed to Vichy with and Hillel Katz, both ofwhom had been commander and seven top generals, all Leo Grossvogel. ...1 insisted that Susloparov send the dispatch. Late active in the Ichud movement. old Communists and heroes of the Civil that evening I went back to my hotel. At four in the morning the This was not the only circle of emigre War, on charges of plotting with the manager woke me up, shouting in my ear, Polish Jews working for Soviet intelli­ Nazis to stage a coup and restore "It's happened, Monsieur Gilbert! Germany is at war with the Soviet gence. Ignace Reiss was born in Austri­ capitalism. The next day their execution Union!" an Galicia and after 1919 became a was reported. On the 23rd, WOlosiuk, the attache for the army air force under member of the Polish Communist The details of the Tukhachevsky Susloparov, arrived in Vichy, having left Moscow a few hours before Party. He worked for a time for the affair are still murky. Trepper says that the outbreak of the war. He told me that before his departure, he had Comintern apparatus in Vienna. then Gestapo sources told him they had been called in to see the Director, who had given him a message for me: entered his intelligence career by seeking learned of plans for a coup and decided "You can tell Otto"-my code name-"that I have passed on the to obtain military information about to back Stalin by planting doctored Pilsudski's forces during the Red Ar­ information on the imminence of the German attack to the big boss. documents linking the Red Army my's 1920 drive on Warsaw. A book by The big boss is amazed that a man like Otto, an old militant and an commander to the Nazis. But whether intelligence man, has allowed himself to be intoxicated by English Reiss's \"idow, Elisabeth Poretsky (Our or not Stalin had additional aid (as in (Jim People, Ann Arbor: University of propaganda. You can tell him again that the big boss is completely the case of Comintern organizational Michigan Press. 1969), recounts how convinced that the war with Germany will not start before 1944-" secretary Ossip Piatnitsky, who was Reiss. Krivitsky and four otherlewish framed by phony German documents), The "complete conviction" of the big boss, Stalin, wap to be 1937-~ich bovhood friends from the same border his aim was to clean out the last, key expensive. Having decapitated the Red Army in was town all e\entuallv joined the Soviet sector of the Soviet state apparatus. In responsible for the first defeats-the inspired strategist then turned illtelilgcncc scnice.' . aiL 13 out of 19 army corps command­ over what was left of the army to Hitler's hordes. During the first hours II ers, 110 out of 135 division and brigade of the German offensive-in defiance of all the evidence, and because The Dark Night of Stalinism commanders, half the regimental com­ he had the idea of a planted rumor so firmly in mind-he refused to manders and most of the political allow a counterattack.... lIlc initial plans for a Soviet commissars were executed, and a total The results: the airfields pounded by German bombers; the airplanes intelligence network din;cted against of 25.000 Soviet officers were affected. smashed to pieces on the grounds; the German fighter planes masters Hitkr's Rcich were laid in Moscow in On the eve of World War II, the Red of the sky, transforming the Russian plains into graveyards strewn with 1937 by GencralJan Berzin, head of the Army was decapitated by Stalin and demolished tanks. On the evening of the 22nd, the leaders of the army, hlllrth Department. Berlin, a Latvian nearly destroyed. whom Stal in had forbidden to put their troops on alert, received the Old Bolshevik. had spent years in jail for order to drive the enemy outside their borders. By this time the anti-tsarist activities. During the Civil Trotsky analyzed the purges: "The generals rushed to defend the Red hrmored divisions of the Wehrmacht had already penetrated several War he commanded a regiment guard­ hundred kilometers into Soviet territory. ing l.enin and the government. and he Army from the demoralizing intrigues of the GPU. They defended the best It would take the sacrifices of a whole nation rising up against its had worked under Trotsky in setting up officers from false accusations. Thev the milita~y intelligence section. A c1ose­ resisted the establishment of the GPU"s invader to reverse the military situation. But meanwhile, Stalin's error II associate of Red Army commander-.in­ dictatorship over the Red Army.. :. The would cost Russia millions of lives and prolong the war. chief M.N. Tukhachevsky, he was generals fought for the security of the already under the shadow of Stalin's continued on page 11 8 JULY 1977 7 its practice of barring homosexuals "heterosexuality oaths" as a require­ Anita Bryant..'. from SWP membership. Irreconcilably ment for employment. The struggle to opposed to a class-struggle program for break the unions from backward capi­ (continued from page 1) democratic rights which can win homo­ talist ideology requires the construction SWP Tails als! You too can help draw the chariot of sexual activists to the socialist cause, the of class-struggle caucuses in opposition your oppressor." SWP recently used the "gay rights" issue to' the pro-capitalist pureaucracy which carter's Like feminism and black nationalism, to serve as a left cover for Jj'mmy prevents the power of the working class the ideology of "gay liberation" is Carter's anti-Soviet "human rights" from being mobilized against the forces "Human rooted in the New Left polyvanguardist campaign (see box). of oppression and reaction. notion that each stratum of the op­ Youth Against War and Fascism The SL has entered into a process of pressed must "unite" in an"autonomous (YAWF), another cheerleader for mili­ discussion and common work with the Rights" Hoax movement" to fight their speical oppres­ tant parochialism of the oppressed, has RFU(BT), with the aim of principled The ex-Trotskyist Socialist sion. The commonality of "sexual called a national demonstration under fusion. A key to the convergence of the Workers Party (SWP) has seized on orientation" is presumed to transcend the slogan "Demonstrate for Human two organizations has been the under­ the recent demonstrations protest­ class differences as workers and their Rights." The Vietnamese workers and standing that the class axis is primary ing the persecution of homosex­ bosses, tenants and their landlords, . peasants massacred by U.S. imperialism and that the fight against all special' uals not only to pander to the most supposedly discover "unity" around must be turning over in their graves as oppression rrnJ.st be led by the proletari­ backward elements of "gay rights" their "common interests." the American fake-lefts lend credence to an vanguard party. activism but also to do its bit for the "human rights" pretensions of the What "common interests"? The work­ Refusing to conciliate "lifestyle" Carter's anti-Soviet "human rights" number-one imperialist chieftain. ing class and its allies have no stake in radicalism and autonomist illusions, the campaign. YAWF boasts of its "Gay Caucus"; such the perpetuation of capitalist exploita­ SL and RFU(BT) seek to pose a class On June 28 the Coalition for a structure, which would have no place tion and oppression. The bourgeoisie axis in the fight against all special Lesbian and Gay Rights-a tho­ in a Leninist organization, indicates and its professional servants in the oppression. Our insistence that sexuali­ roughly reformist hodgepodge only that YAWF views the struggle for Democratic and Republican Parties ty is a private and not a political matter which includes the SWP, the homosexual rights as the responsibility have a real material interest in the may sometimes shock "gay activists" National Gay Task Force, the of its homosexual members rather than maintenance of the capitalist system of accustomed to opportunist patronizing, Feminist Liberation Front, the Gay of the organization as a whole. war, racism and oppression, including but our revolutionary program will Activist Alliance, NOW, the NA­ In the Leninist tradition, the its ideological and institutional props. attract the most serious elements from ACP and the Prairie Fire Organiz­ Spartacist League has always made the Homosexuality is seen as a threat to the "gay liberation" milieu. ing Committee-held a "mass demand for full democratic rights of bourgeois morality and the institution meeting" (about 100 people homosexuals a part of its program and of the family. Whether homosexuals are Bryant's reactionary crusade only showed up) in New York "to build a has defended homosexuals against . marginally and grudgingly tolerated or underlines the urgency of the fight to mass movement in the community persecution and victimization. The are persecuted, reviled and ultimately weld together a disciplined cadre of to fight for protective legislation for labor movement-and in particular the perhaps even slaughtered depends far proletarian fighters to counterpose a Lesbians and Gays." The main teachers' unions-must resist the reac­ less on the size of "gay rights" demon­ socialist solution to capitalist point on. the agenda was the tionary crusaders' proposals to impose degradation.• strations than on the immediacy of planning of a demonstration at the capitalism's need to frontally assault the United Nations in August around working class. In periods ofcrisis, when the slogan "Defend Human Rights fascist irrationality is revealed as capi­ for Lesbians and Gays." talism's last resort, leftists, unionists, A supporter of the Shachtmanite minorities and social "deviants" will Letter from the RFU Revolutionary Socialist League discover just how much "common who ,spoke in /(avor of both the interest" they have with the "democrat­ Coglrades, sented an impressionistic revulsion demonstration and the proposed ic" bourgeoisie! The fundamental tenet The article in the June 24 issue of WV, against the manifold atrocities of the slogan, noted piously that it was of "democracy" under capitalism is the "Lifestylers Attack Trotskyism at RFU Stalinist regimes, and preceded ouranti­ important to avoid being used as a bourgeoisie's "right" to exploit the Conference," while it generally captured Maoism. Specifically, our position left cover for Carter's imperialist half-~arted working class; the rest is ultimately the essence of the conference made an centered on the elimination of party campaign. This caveat dispensable. Only those who take the error in analyzing the politi&1 evolution democracy in the Bolshevik Party under apparently stirred the Committee of liberation of the working masses as their of the Red Flag Union. The WVarticle Stalin, Stalin's claim that socialism had Lesbian and Gay Male Socialists­ cause can effectively defend the rights of states, "Recoiling from Stalinist bigotry been built in the Soviet Union (though which includes supporters of Inter­ homosexuals. against homosexuals, the RFU devel­ we did not yet believe that socialism national Socialists and the Marxist oped toward Trotskyism through its could not be built in one country) and Education Collective-to put for­ Fake-Lefts Patronize "Gay study of Trotsky's theory of permanent the backw~rdness relative to sexuality ward a motion from the floor "that Rights" revolution...." and the family. the tone and content of the demon­ • Our movement from the point of stration explicitly differentiate our­ Political identity is not defined by In point of fact, it was not primarily moral outrage against Stalinist atroci­ selves from Carter's Human Rights sexual orientation. Despite its militan­ Stalinist bigotry that impelled us toward ties of all kinds to the current impending campaign." The m()tion passed 55 cy, the "gay movement" will remain a Trotskyism.· fusion with the SL was primarily to 54 with the SWPvotingagainst! sandbox for Democratic Party cynics The RFU (until recently the Lavender brought about by the intersection of the Soon after, this meeting of self­ and "lifestyle" radicals unless its most and Red Union) despite its Maoist L&RU/ RFU with the SL and our • appointed spokesmen of various thoughtful militants transcend their leanings was ostracized by the vast understanding of and commitment to sections ofthe oppressed degenerat­ parochialism and transform themselves majority of the Maoist left because we the building of a Leninist vanguard ed rapidly into screaming and race­ • into disciplined class-struggle fighters. baiting. The final confrontation are homosexuals. So while we were communist party. But this challenging task has been made was precipitated when a man in the sympathetic to this milieu we were never In the spring of 1976the L&RU began immeasurably more difficult by the audience addressed himself to "the fully a part of it. being baited as Trotskyist despite the fake-Marxist organizations. The vari­ lady in the back." The term "lady" The L&RU's anti-Stalinism repre- fact that we didn't know much about ous Stalinists, with their anti­ Trotskyism and (at that time) we didn't was too much for the "brothers and homosexual backwardness, feed the care to know much. In addition, the sisters." The chairman, who called noxious anti-communism pervasive in crushing defeats of the NYC workers, for order, found herself the subject this petty-bourgeois milieu. Meanwhile the wilting ofthe Portuguese revolution, of a motion to "condemn the chair the tail-endists exemplified by the SUSYL the shameless antics of Chinese foreign for preventing her sisters from Socialist Workers Party (SWP) patron­ policy in Angola and elsewhere sent us fighting a sexist attack!" Other izingly enthuse over the classless "life­ PUBUC OFFICES into a tailspin. W'e were not sufficiently women stormed out of the meeting style" radicalism of the "independent Marxist Literature tainted by Maoism so as t() be incapable shouting, "This isn't a coalition to gay movement," thereby in effect of seeing a betrayal as a betrayal. Inca­ fight for our rights. It's a white, recruiting for liberal Democratic BAY AREA pable as we were of understanding these male-supremacist, racist politicians. phenomena we were headed directly for organization!" Most notorious among the Stalinists Friday 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. political disillusionment and inactivity. Two days later the SWP held a is the Maoist Revolutionary Commu­ Saturday 11 :00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. It was around this time that we began public forum in Los Angeles on the nist Party, which labels homosexuality a 1634 Telegraph (3rd floor) . attending an SL class on Trotskyism. question of homosexual oppres­ "sickness" and bars homosexuals from (near 17th Street) We entitled our pamphlet on sion. Represented on the panel were membership. This attitude is common Oakland, California Trotsky's theory of permanent revolu­ the SWP, NOW and the ACLU. to all "hard Stalinist" formations, Phone 835-1535 tion, "Permanent Revolution: A Vindi­ There was also a lesbian feminist whether pro-Russian or pro-Chinese. It c,ation of Marxism," because it, along and one Morris Knight, who played owes less to "workerism" (gutless CHICAGO with the Trotskyist understanding ofthe the role of strikebreaker during a capitUlation before the social backward­ Russian question, rehabilitated for us protracted strike of workers at the ness of American workers) than to the Tuesday 4:30-8:00 p.m. the Marxist principles of proletarian Gay Community Services Center need to apologi.ze for the regimes of the Saturday 2:00-5:30 p.m. internationalism, workers democracy where he serves on the board of deformed workers states, which­ 650 South Clark and communist morality. directors. unable and unwilling to replace the Second floor Given our contradictory status in the The SWP chaired the meeting in nuclear family-replicate the back­ Chicago, Illinois Maoist camp and the petty-bourgeois its usual fashion; i.e., appealing to wardness of capitalism, persecuting Phone 427-0003 life-stylist gay liberation movement, we the most apolitical elements in the homosexuals and glorifying the family were open to investigating Trotskyism. audience and refusing to recognize as "a fighting unit of socialism." NEW YORK Ultimately it was our understanding of political opponents. When the The opportunists of the SWP have the crisis of revolutionary leadership spokesman for the ACLU said that become the most sophisticated apolo­ that has proved decisive in our move­ communists, along with fascists and gists for the "autonomous" organiza­ ment toward the SL, the nucleus of the the church, were the worst enemies tions of homosexuals. Knowledgeable vanguard communist party. of homosexuals, the SWPers did homosexual radicals are infuriated to not utter a word of protest. Ques- find the SWP portraying itself as their Fraternally, ,tioned about this later, they assert­ champion, for it was only a few years Mike Weinstein ed that the comment was ago that the SWP abandoned (but never (for the) Bolshevik Tendency of the "irrelevant." publicly acknowledged or repudiated) Red Flag Union 8 WORKERS VANGUARD Terry Moore/Newark Times left, company-hired gun thugs in position behind barricade face striking Stearns miners, right, across "no man's land."

Com~y' Thugs Wound Striker Solidarity with Stearns Miners I

Last week a striking coal miner was be run off. They have dug in on a piece posture, commenting on the "irony" of strike this winter. In the latest incident, shot by company gun thugs in Stearns, of property they bought on their side of such violence in a strike centered on the BCOA refused to transfer available Kentucky. While on picket duty June the picket line, built their own protective mine safety and noting the long hours cash to cover the Health and Retirement 23, the miner, Ray Hamlin, was hit in sandbag barriers and have shown and difficult working conditions of the Fund, causing big benefit cutbacks. This the leg with a shotgun blast, indicating militant determination to defend their Storm Security guards! sparked a wildcat, centered in West that the strikebreaking criminals of the strike by the means necessary. But the strike has an importance far Virginia, which grew to 35,000 miners Storm Security Service had advanced The strikers face not only an beyond its media appeal. The attention but was cut short by the annual two­ from behind their mine site fortifica­ intransigent anti-union boss and his of coal operators and miners through­ week vacation period which began June tions 200 yards from the picket line, hired gunmen, but the pro-company out the region, which is still predomi­ 24. Knowledgeable sources in the UMW crept through a wooded "no man's land" cops and courts as well. Kentucky state nantly non-union, is riveted on this expect the strike to mushroom when the and fired from close range on the police regularly escort company offi­ vacation period ends. pickets. cials across the picket line but look the UMW president Arnold Miller, with Tensions have skyrocketed in the other way when up to 500rounds a night The Stearns strikers face a barrage no idea how to counter the bosses' wake of the shooting and the miners pour into the miners' picket camp. Unti! not only from the mine guards but attacks or contain the ranks, is also have called for a mass protest rally July the arrest of the guard charged with from the courts. Twenty-seven of facing challenges of his recent narrow 8. Plans by the Blue Diamond Coal shooting Hamlin, the police had not the strikers and UMW organizer re-election. These have a new impetus Company to begin bringing security arrested a single one of the trigger­ Lee Potter go on trial in October, since Miller's attempt to enforce the guards into the mine through the picket happy thugs. The apprehended guard charged with three felonies euh highly unpopular health benefit cuts. line, ostensibly out of fear that was immediately released when Storm and facing up to 60 years in jail. Lee Roy Patterson filed motions for a previously-used helicopters may be shot Security put up his bail. These militants require the financial new election July I and Miller's other down, could soon lead to an explosive In contrast, 27- miners plus UMW assistance of all friends ofthe labor presidential opponent, Harry Patrick, is confrontation. When asked what will organizer Lee Potter face up to 60 years movement. The Partisan Defense also pushing for a rerun. Since Miller's happen if Blue Diamond tries to bring in each in jail on felony charges based on Committee urges that donationsfor foes control the union's International scabs to re-open the mine, United Mine the trumped-up charges by the gun legal expenses be sent to the Miners Executive Board, a new election is a Workers (UMW) spokesman Chuck thugs that miners have "assaulted" Legal Defense Fund, 1521 16th definite possibility Miller is expected to Shuford told WV, "It'd be a holocaust." them. Circuit Judge J. B. Johnson, who Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. appeal to the federal courts to avoid a The day after the shooting, 125 is scheduled to hear the case, has already 20036. rerun, a move which will embroil the miners, their wives and children, dem­ shown what kind of"justice" the miners union in renewed government interven­ onstrated in front of Blue Diamond's can expect. He has forbidden mass tion on the very eve of a national strike. Knoxville, Tennessee, headquarters. picketing, threatened to close down the bitter test of strength. If the strike is While Patterson, Miller and Patrick Though the demonstration was planned miners' picket camp, issued blanket broken, many companies will try tojunk plot how to bring the strikebreaking some weeks earlier, the pickets were contempt citations against the union the UMW when the current contract government into union affairs to feather doubly incensed over the shooting the (which even the Kentucky Supreme expires December 6. A prime target for their own nests and how best to quash night before. Angry miners marched Court had to throw out as illegal) and an employer offensive would clearly be the wildcats, none has given more than around the building taunting company forced the UMW to post a $100,000 the Brookside mine in nearby Harlan lip service to the Steams strikers. Justas officials who peered out of office bond to cOlier the possibility of future County, organized in a 13-month strike the violent strike at Brookside required windows above. A group of miners "damages" to Blue Diamond property. in 1973-74. Workers Vanguard was the a nationwide shutdown to win, so the attempted to enter the building. "We On the day of the recent shooting, first left newspaper to publicize the fight at Stearns cries out for solidarity want to see how you live," one striker UMW director of organizing John Cox Stearns strike (see "Miners Resist Coal action by the entire UMW. The .coal yelled at a Blue Diamond official, who sent a telegram to Kentucky governor Operators' Gun Thugs," WV No. 158, operators cannot be defeated byel{uivo­ locked the door as three police cars Julian Carroll protesting the rampant 20 May), and we have repeatedly cal compromises and evasive maneu­ arrived at the scene. One UMW organiz­ violence against the miners and the stressed the importance of winning this vers. Their escalating provocations er remarked to a reporter, "It was pretty strikebreaking role of the state police, crucial strike. must be met by a nationwide strike. tough controlling some of these guys and urgently requesting a meeting. For its part, the employers' Bitu­ Coal miners must prepare now by when we got here this morning.... A lot Predictably, the governor has not minous Coal Operators Association electing strike committees from their of these men were on the picket line last responded. But that same night 29 state (BCOA) has lined up solidly behind ranks to take on the BCOA. The miners night" (Louisville Courier-Journal, 25 police cars were reported massed at the Blue Diamond and its owner, Gordon cannot wait until one of their own is June). local courthouse, ready to sweep down Bonnyman, who has kept the union out killed on the battle lines at Stearns. Nearly 160 miners have been on strike on the miners. of his other two mines at Scotia and 'Strike the coal fields! Stop the union since last July 17fora UMW contract at The Stearns strike has become the Leatherwood. The BCOA, determined busters! Victory to the Stearns strike! the Stearns Justus mine. Since Febru­ flashpoint of class warfare in the to crush the growing militancy and ary, when Blue Diamond hired the southeastern coalfields. The recent wildcats which disrupt its dictatorial Euro-Communlsm: Joining security guards to break the picket line escalation of violence has even caught control, is gearing up for a showdown and pave the way for scab labor, the the attention of the bourgeois media, with the UMW and is backed up by the Carter's "Human Rights" Campaign? miners have been subjected to a hail of which up to now have ignored the strike. Carter administration, whose energy Speaker: gunfire almost every night, and some­ An NBC television crew was on hand policy demands "labor peace" in the ED CLARKSON times in broad daylight. The company June 25, pinned down with the miners coal fields. Spartacist League by the murderous, unrelenting gunfire The BCOA has repeatedly provoked goons are heavily armed with shotguns, Saturday. July 9 at 7:30 p.m. pistols, rifles and even high-powered from the mine guards. CBS toured the the Mine Workers, taking advantage of 215 W. 23rd Street (between 7th and semi-automatic AR-15's, the "civilian" mine site July I and the anti-labor New the union's divided and spineless leader­ 8th Avenues) version of the Army's M-16. York Times ran an article the same day ship to try to batter the union to its New York City But the coal miners are not about to that struck an obnoxiously neutral knees even before the expected coal

8 JULY 1977 9 maintained that the main culprit CWA ... OCI Slanders ... was... Varga! It is the responsibility of (continued from page 12) (continued from page 4) the SWP above all that the Commis­ sion's conclusions do not state the Taft-Hartley-anyone who iI~ns to obliged to testify once more. Unable to obvious: the lack of proof of the OCl's cash in on Carter's campaign promises reply to the questions posed by Com­ accusations against Varga renders them will be unpleasantly surprised. mission members, Pierre Lambert was lying and slanderous. It was also the repeatedly reduced to enraged mutter­ SWP which insisted on weakening the Oppositions Crumbl.e ings such as: rejection ofthe accusations, substituting "these accusations have not been AT&T is a capitalist giant which has "Draw whatever conclusion you like, listen, it's your business. I'm not here for proved" for ..... have in no way been trampled on its employees' rights and that. ... You're not here to ask me proved." the interests of working people for questions about my organisation." As for LO and the LCR, in their decades. Its operations are run like a ·-testimony, 16 December 1976 common aim of scoring points on the medieval fiefdom: impossible produc­ Yet the OCl's utter irresponsibility at OCI they maintained that Varga's past tion standards subject phone company was of interest only to his own organiza­ workers to arbitrary harassment and the time that Varga joined emerges with perfect clarity from Lambert's testi­ tion and that a condemnation of the discipline; pay raises can be held up at OCI would suffice. Thus LO refused to the whim of the foreman; more than mony. First of all, he admitted that Varga's archives had been accessible to draw the obvious conclusion about three to five days illness per year is Varga, already contained in the draft considered excessive, and may result in the OCI ever since Vargajoined in about Mickey Mouse Phone: what 1962: "this was a fellow who kept his conclusions submitted by the LTF discipline and firing. Women representative, mandated by the iSt: employees-over half the CWA ,System "develops" with archives, at his place everything was well increases. classified, etc." Then Lambert explicitly .....although Varga himself publicly membership-are concentrated in un­ admitted having undertaken conscious­ derpaid job classifications and are 1972 only to be shafted by their declared that, prior to Varga's joining, ly anti-communist activities in order to routinely subjected to the most inhu­ candidate a few years later. And where a "nobody asked him" for explanations of 'combat Marxism; he has never ex­ man, petty company abuse, traditional­ genuine class-struggle opposition would his political activity and that "ifwe had plained-nor has he explicitly re­ seek to mobilize union members' sup­ asked him, he didn't have to say nounced-certain formulations found ly with the tolerance of the union in his letters at that time, which enable leadership. port against the bureaucracy's attempt anything." As for the OCI's attitude us to characterize his attitudes as anti­ With the addition of the spectre of to purge oppositionists from the union, toward the Varga archives at that time, Semitic and racist. Varga therefore massive job losses to this already the UAC reacted by threatening to take Lambert was eloquent: "They were appears as a highly dubious figure." infuriating pattern of management the CWA to court. letters in Hungarian mostly, in Russian. The LCR and LO wanted to condemn abuse, there is a felt need among. Despite the systematic betrayals of Not problems of direct interest to us." the OCI but refused to characterize telephone workers for a nationwide the Watts/Beirne bureaucracy and As the Spartacist tendency said in our Varga's attitude; the SWP, by way of CWA strike against the Bell system. Yet consequent cynicism in the ranks, so draft conclusions, the OCI had: contrast, was more than willing to the International bureaucracy's long intense is the present threat ofjob losses "... a special responsibility to try to characterize Varga, but refused to examme these archives, given the history of defeats, cowardice and active that there would be a real basis for condemn the OCI. Caught in a bind, the support for a nationwide CWA strike central. importance of a complete and sabotage of strikes has made many unambiguous break with imperialism Commission rejected the conclusions union members doubt the chance of were there a leadership in the union with on the part of those who claim to have drafted by the iSt, and called instead on waging a successful strike against the the demonstrated capacity and militant broken with the Stalinist bureaucracies the SWP reformists to write the most in­ all-powerful Ma Bell. Workers in New determination to bring it off. But only in Eastern Europe and the USSR." nocuous conclusions possible. Though York Local 1101 well remember how the Militant Action Caucus (MAC) in But all these "problems"-including the the LCR might have preferred to they were left out on a limb in 1971 by Bay Area CWA locals has shown the possibility of agents infiltrating would­ condemn the OCI, it refused to break Beirne, walking the picket lines alone way forward in the intense crisis facing be Trotskyists' ranks-did not "inter­ with its partner in the USec rotten bloc. for more than half a year only to be phone company workers. At the 1973 est" the OCI! Seizing the pretext that the conclu­ forced to settle for a $1 per hour convention MAC led the fight to defeat Now, there are two possibilities. One, sions did not characterize the OCl's increase. This sellout led to the 1974 the bureaucrats' "19-2-C" clause which that the OCI is telling the truth: it was accusations against Varga as false introduction of "national bargaining," would hamstring all oppositionists in not familiar with Varga's past, because because unproved, LO refused to sign which simply meant that everything was the union. And last year MAC success­ "there were no problems of direct the conclusions. The iSt, on the other decided at the top through the protec­ fully waged a year-long fight based on interest" to the OCI. In that case, it hand, agreed to sign the Commission's tion of a rigid news blackout on the mobilizing the membership to win back would seem that the OCI accepted conclusions on the condition that an negotiations, and abandoning those the job of fired MAC member Jane Varga without worrying in the least appended iSt statement be published locals who walked out on the principle Margolis. This struggle-one of the few about possible infiltration by police with them. While the conclusions of "no contract, no work." times in memory where a militant agents-KGB or CIA-into its organi­ represented the absolute minimum of In several recent conventions, such successfully won a job back after being zation, without asking him the slightest what had been established by the betrayals by the International have fired by Ma Bell-was significant in question about his previous political Commission, the iSt signed them in the proving that the phone company can be sparked protests from locallead~rships activity. Or two-and this seems more interest of arriving at clear and authori­ defeated. tative conclusions. LO's refusal to feeling pressure from their outraged likely-that the 0 OCI was aware of ranks. Thus at the 1975 convention, During the present contract period, Varga's character and a good part of his sign-under an obvious pretext-can District 10 officials, among others, the Militant Action Caucus has been past, but covered it up in order to show only undermine the Commission's protested vehemently against the news fighting for a nationwide strike against off its "Eastern European work." It is authority and thus lessen the impact of blackouts and other backroom maneu­ all layoffs, downgrades and forced certainly no accident that the OCl's the very conclusions which LO claims to vers. Such "militant" talk was cheap transfers; for a 20-hour week with 40 noble concern about the character ofthe support. when nothing was at stake. But today, hours pay; for an across-the-board wage main leader of its much-vaunted "East­ All these petty and factionally moti­ with the contract expiration little more increase to close· the gap between ern European work" dates from the vated maneuvers stand in complete than a month away, even these phony traditional male and female job classifi­ emergence of political differences with contradiction with the methods and bureaucratic "oppositions" have eva­ cations; and for a full cost-of-living Varga. traditions established by the Dewey porated. At the annual (!) Local 1101 allowance. The key to a succesful strike For us as Trotskyists, it is essential to Commission. While maintaining a sense membership meeting last week Presi­ must be the mobilization of militant verify the total break from any illusions of historical proportion, we must recall dent Ed Dempsey, one-time critic of the picket lines which shut down the that the Stalinist bureaucracy will that Trotsky strongly insisted that­ International, announced that his rela­ buildings. No one-not non-unionized reform itself, as well as from Stalino­ since the Dewey Commission had tions with Watts were never better, and operators and clerical workers and phobia, on the part of militants like amassed sufficient proofs to show that that the crucial issue ofjob security will especially not management-must be Varga who come out of the degenerated Trotsky and Sedov were not guilty-it not even be part of the national allowed to pass! Since automated phone and deformed workers states, before was both just and necessary to take one bargaining demands (being relegated to equipment enables skeleton crews of accepting them as members. step further and accept the moral and local negotiations). As 1101 well knows, management scabs to maintain opera­ Still on the defensive, the OCI several P91itical responsibility for drawing the not even the most militant local can hold tions, militants must demand that the months later drew the Commission's conclusion that the Moscow Trials were out alone against AT&T. Yet there was union occupy key telephone installa­ attention to an interview with Varga in a frame-ups. not the slightest challenge at the meeting tions to prevent such scabbing. The Spanish newspaper and, in one final In opposition to all the other Watts machine would naturally oppose to Dempsey's convention report. brief, urged the Commission to uphold organizations participating in the Com­ The unanimous re-election of the such militant measures, so strike com­ "at least" the iSt's position: mission, the iSt assumes this responsi­ International Executive Board at Kan­ mittees must be elected to prevent "Starting from the documents, Varga bility in drawing a two-sided conclu­ sas City and the absence of a single bureaucratic sabotage and to ensure cannot be characterized-at the least­ sion: since the OCI has adduced no that effective picketing protects the differently than did Spartacist, as a sufficient proof to back up its accusa­ challenger was an indication of the 'highly dubious' figure; i.e., to the extent crumbling ofbureaucratic and reformist workers inside struck buildings. that it is not a question of a 'moral' tions against Varga, these accusations oppositions in the CWA. The only floor This is the way forward for .phone characterization, as an individual who must be characterized as false and fight at this year's convention was over workers, a road that can only be opened had kept up a certain kind of relations therefore lying and slanderous. The up through ousting the pro-company with the imperialist dens." OCI's practice of violence against the the credentials of the Atlanta delegates, -letter, 8 March 1977 with local rank and filers protesting that bureaucracy. As a recent MAC leaflet Vargaites is therefore shown to be distributed to Bay Area phone locations drawn from the Stalinist arsenal. On the elections had been held without notify­ SWP: OCI's Best Defender ing the membership. The president said: other hand, Varga's refusal to explain "We will drive the Company back only The Commission was also the scene of himself-his past and the content of his answered haughtily, "We always hold by determined militant action. The our elections this way." a factional struggle between the two letters-shows 0 him to be a shady union has considerable power-500,OOO character, a "highly dubious" figure.• The United Action Caucus (UAC), members. We could control the com­ wings of the USec. In the beginning, the which in the past had sent delegates to munications of the entire nation. We SWP, trying its best to protect the OCI, the convention, went unrepresented this must strike in our own defense and we did not even want testimony taped! must strike nationally.... SPA R 7A CIS T edition fran<;:aise year, and consequently the Internation­ "Phone workers must thoughtfully More generally, the SWP representative al's decision upholding the decision ofa prepare for a struggle. The Internation­ systematically intervened to limit the pour loute commande s'adresser it: Local 1101 trial board suspending four al has a record that we can remember scope of criticisms against the OCI. In Pascal Alessandri Spartacist Publishing Co. and it shows determination in keeping BoP. 336 Box 1377. GPO UACers for five years ·went unchal­ the last analysis, the SWP had to grant 75011 Paris New York, N.Y. 10001 us encased in cement. When we, the that the OCI had proved nothing-and FRANCE USA lenged. The UAC, true to its policy of ranks of the union, break out of their tailing after left-talking "democratic" grip, we will forge a leadership that we that the OCI employs violence -against 3,00 F.F. $.75 US/Canada bureaucrats, had supported Dempsey in can trust to fight on our side.". competing organizations-but still 10 WORKERS VANGUARD fed vital statistics on military produc­ staircase and threw everything she could carry the memoJ'¥ of ravaged flesh, tion and plans directly to Moscow. into the fireplace. David Kamy had been which to this day Jerks them awake in the night." Soviet Spies ... In 1939 the two joined forces in a monitoring a transmission in another (continued from page 7) broad anti-Nazi underground resistance room and was caught only after a wild The "Big Chief" (Trepper) was grouping whose components were listed chase. Trepper himself narrowly es­ himselffinally caught in November 1942 Soviet Union against the inter~ts of by Trepper as including: caped that first round-up: he rang the in Paris. The Germans hoped to use Stalin's security. That is why they died." "the writer Dr. Adam Kuckhoff and his doorbell in the midst ofthe Abwehr raid Trepper and his captured radio opera­ -"Army Opposed to Stalin," wife Greta; Dr. Adolf Grimme, the and only managed to extract himself by tors in a great "Funkspiel" (radio game) 6 March 1938 socialist ex-minister of Prussia; Johann with Moscow, feeding the center false Sieg, an old militant and editor of the indignantly showing his papers from the Berzin was one of the most important of Rote Fahne, the ,newspaper of the Todt Organization. information on rumors of a separate this group. He had been in Spain acting German Communist Party; and Hans peace. Trepper agreed to go along, as military adviser to the anti-Franco Coppi, Heinrich Scheel, Hans Lau­ There followed a desperate battle of seeing in this risky game his only chance forces, then returned to Moscow in 1937 tenschlager, and Ina Ender, former wits as Trepper sought to salvage his to slip a secret warning to Moscow of (voluntarily or on recall; the versions members ofcommunist youth organiza­ network: the narrow escapes, the search the real situation (the FunkspieJ had tions. When the war,broke out, the best for a transmitter, the activation of a vary) to protest the GPU massacres of . members of the group were assigned to already begun some months earlier, and anarchists and anti-Stalinist commu­ intelligence work, but in practice there replacement for the Orchestra's second­ the center was accepting the phony nists in the Republican areas. Fora time was no rigid separation between the in-command, Kent, whose nervousness messages as valid despite Trepper's he was back at the head of the Fourth Red Orchestra network and their had made him a liability. Inside the warnings that the "pianists" had been resistance. activities. Schulze-Boysen prisons there were harrowing scenes of Department, and it was during this ran both of these-and this confusion of arrested). He managed to smuggle out a period that he commissioned Trepper to tasks was an~npardonableerror, which torture, confessiOns, suicides and the message detailing the whole scheme, set up an anti-Hitler spy network.Later would be paid for very dearly." heroism of comrades who refused to and ten months later escaped from his that year Berzin was removed from his talk at the cost of their lives. Hitler's German captors by walking into a Part of the group was busy setting up "Nacht und Nebel" (night and fog) position, then shot in December 1938. escape routes for Jews and prisoners, pharmacy during an outing. decree of December 1941 aimed at spies, But Trepper, as he saw it, remained sabotaging war production and putting TO BE CONTINUED "faithful to bur agreement" and carried traitors and anyone suspected of out underground propaganda. One of "crimes against the Third Reich" au­ out the mission entrusted to him. Here its most spectacular efforts was the was the pitiful tragedy of Reiss and his thorized any and all measures to obtain overnight plastering of Berlin with information, as well as execution comrades, who kept hoping for a posters attacking Goebbels' propagan­ Varga Affair without appearing before a tribunal. miracle and kept toiling on. da exhibit on "The Soviet Paradise"; the posters proclaimed, "Nazi Paradise = Many ofthose captured in the Belgian Conclusions ... The Red Orchestra Plays War, Famine, Lies, Gestapo. How group were sent to Breendonk prison. (continuedfrom page 5) Much Longer?" Meanwhile, the intelli­ Here many of Trepper's associates statements, the OCI was in possession of But in spite ofeverything, the Reisses, gence apparatus was feeding high-level heroically met their fates, t6rtured by sufficient information about Varga's Treppers and Sorges accomplished information to Moscow, including: thumb screws, red-hot irons and electric past to have warranted suspicion con­ brilliant work, heroically risking their German high command plans for the needles. Hillel Katz had his fingernails cerning the source of financing for the lives to defend the USSR. Trepper spring 1942 offensive in the Caucasus; extracted and disappeared a year later. Imre Nagy Institute. However, Pierre waited for two years, painstakingly Luftwaffe parachute raid schedules; David Kamy was shot in 1942; Sophie Lambert testified that in 1961 the OCI building up a legitimate business cover monthly aircraft production figures; Poznanska committed suicide. In Ber­ had no grounds for such suspicion. with the aid of Grossvogel, who had reports of tension within the military lin, the Harnack/Schulze-Boysen group • Two OCI leaders, Pierre Broue and entered the rubber trade some years high command, etc. was broken up in the summer of 1942 Jean-Jacques Marie, collaborated with earlier. The import-export companies with over 100 arrested and tortured. the journal edited by the Imre Nagy he set up-Simex in Paris and Simexco The Orchestra Smashed More than SO were eventually executed, Institute, Etudes, on several occasions and the "Foreign Excellent Trenchcoat some by beheading, others (like the two prior to 1962. They therefore at least Company" (!) in Belgium-also served The Wehrmacht first stumbled on the leaders) by hanging on specially con­ knew ofthe Institute's existence. But the as direct sources of information, via Soviet intelligence apparatus headed by structed hooks. Some succumbed to the Commission was unable to hear their their black-market dealings with the Trepper on 26 June 1941, just five days unbearable pain and talked, for which testimony concerning the extent oftheir German Todt Organization, which after the German invasion ofthe USSR, no one can condemn them. As Trepper knowledge ofthe Institute in this period, supervised construction work for the when a radio operator routinely moni­ wrote: due to the OCI's refusal [to allow them Wehrmacht. By day the network con­ toring a Norwegian transmitter picked "A person who has not experienced the to testify]. For the same reason it was ducted its business, wining and dining up a mysterious call signal and coded atrocities of the Gestapo cannot ima­ unable to hear testimony from Roger German officials in fancy restaurants message. Hundreds of these messages, gine them.... The survivors of the Red Monnier, the OCI member with whom and luxurious apartments. By night the which the German military counterin­ Orchestra who have returned from hell Varga had deposited his archives. Orchestra transmitted. telligence (Abwehr) was initially unable The Commission is therefore not in a "Between 1940 and 1943, the to decipher, were picked up over the position to know whether the OCI musicians of the Red Orchestra-that next few months, as 'well as unmistak- SPARTACIST LEAGUE learned about the archives only in 1973. is, the radio operators, also known as #able evidence that another "pianist" was LOCAL DIRfCTORY 4) The use of violence. 'pianists'-sent the Center about ISOO transmitti~g from the very heart of the ANN ARBOR (313) 769-6376 The Commission heard testimony dispatches," Trepper reports. One cate­ Third Reich. The hunt for the network c/o SYL, Room 4316 indicating that on several o$:casions the gory concerned war materiel and wea­ which the Germans called the "Rote Michigan Union, U, of Michigan OCI has used violence against LIRQI pons development, where the network Kapelle" was on. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 members in order to prevent them from scored some vital successes. Plans for a In this stealthy battle the radio BERKELEY/ distributing their press, and not in self­ OAKLAND (415) 835-1535 defense. This testimony comes from new German tank were obtained and transmitters ofthe Orchestra were vital, Box 23372 transmitted to Moscow in time for and also inevitably its weakest point. As Oakland, CA 94623 different individuals and different Soviet industr; to prepare an even Gilles Perrault points out in his excel­ BOSTON (617) 492-3928 organizations. better version, the KV tank. Plans for a lent history, The Red Orchestra (New Box 188 ' The Commission is therefore con­ new Messerschmidt fighter were deliv­ York: Simon and Schuster, 1969): M.I.T. Station vinced that these attacks did indeed take ered on microfilm, and within months a "Without a transmitter, a network loses Cambridge, MA 02139 place. It is inadmissible for an organiza­ superior Soviet version was rolling off all value; it has been set up for the sole CHiCAGO (312) 427-0003 tion in the workers movement to act in \ production lines. A second category of purpostC of collecting information and Box 6441, Main P.O. this fashion, and this must stop. can be effective only if it passes that Chicago, IL 60680 dispatches concerned information on information on. Yet the very instrument the military situation and plans. Thus CLEVELAND (216) 281-4781 • • •• • that justifies its existence automatically Box 6765 when Hitler met with the German High places the network in jeopardy, for it Cleveland, OH 44101 The Commission ofInquiry's minutes Command in eastern Prussia in the fall alerts the other side to its activities. , are public in nature, before the entire Take the heads of the Abwehr: they had DETROIT (313) 869-1551 of 1941 and proposals for the encircle­ no idea that a Soviet spy ring was Box 663A, General P.O. . working-class movement, in order to ment of Moscow were drawn up, the operating in Belgium, much less in Detroit, MI 48232 allow all working-class militants who stenographer who took down the Germany; it was the pianists who put HOUSTON may so desire to form their own opinion. remarks of Hitler and the generals was a them on the track." Box 26474 The Commission makes the entire member of the Orchestra. Trepper can It was only a matter of time before Houston, TX 77207 workers movement judge of the "Varga write proudly: "The Soviet chiefs ofstaff German technology and the vast re­ LOS ANGELES .... (213) 662-1564 affair" and of the attitude adopted by its were informed ;of every' detail of the sources mobilized by a special comman­ Box 26282, Edendale Station protagonists. Los Angeles, CA 90026 attack, in time to prepare the counterof­ do formed by Heinrich Miiller'sGestapo Paris, 29 May 1977 fensive that succeeded in driving offthe and Admiral Canaris' Abwehr would MADISON c/o SYL, Box 3334 signed by: Wehrmacht." undo the network. The ability of the Madison, WI 53704 Gus Horowitz The Red Orchestra included groups German regime to use hundreds of NEW YORK (212) 925-2426 in Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen clerks to fit together the tiniest bits of Box 1377, G.P.O. (Socia:'"t Workers Party) and Paris, but by far the most important information, to send its agents through­ New York, NY 10001 Jean Lesueur was the Harnack/Schulze-Boysen out occupied Europe, made the dis­ PHILADELPHIA (international Spartacist tendency)· group in Berlin. Arvid Harnack was a covery of at least part of Trepper's clO SYL, P.O. Box 131381 Georges Marion Marxist scholar from a family of apparatus almost inevitable. (Howeve~ Philadelphia, PA 19101 (Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire) SAN DIEGO respected intellectuals and government tactics employed by members ofthe Red • The international Spartacist tendency officials and heJd a responsible position P.O. Box 2034 Orchestra within the very radio com­ Chula Vista, CA 92012 wishes to note that it votes in favor of in the ministry of economics, from pany supplying the A.bwehr with equip­ these conclusions with the following SAN FRANCiSCO (415) 564..2845 which he was able to ferret out much ment delayed the end for a while.) Thus Box 5712 reservations, whose reproductioh consti­ information useful for the Soviet war it took the Sonderkommando only San francisco, CA 94101 tutes a condition to signing the effort. Harro Schulze-Boysen came about six months each to destroy all of conclusions: from a conservative monarchist family Trepper's groups: two in Belgium, one in TROTSKYIST LEAGU£ I) The OCI's unproved accusations with a long tradition of sending its sons Berlin and the central group in France. Of CANADA must be characterized as slanders; 2) Varga's current attitude, namely to into the officer corps. Already a leftist, On 12 December 1941, German TORONTO (416) 366-4107 refuse to shed light on his past, must lead Schulze-Boysen had his anti-Nazi con­ counterintelligence finally closed in on Box 7198, Station A Toronto, Ontario to characterizing him as a suspicious and victions strengthened by a brief impris­ the Red Orchestra transmitter at IO I, highly dubious individual; onment and brutal beating by the rue des Atrebates in Brussels. Sophie VANCOUVER ... (604) 291-8993 3) The OCl's use of violence against Box 26, Station A Gestapo in 1933. As an intelligence Poznanska had been decoding messages Vancouver, B.C. Varga's supporters must be character­ officer in Goering's air force ministry he . but heard the sound of boots on the ized as deriving from Stalinist methods.

8 JULY 1977 11 WfJliNEIiS ""IUIlIiIJ

CWA ranks face company's drive to cut jobs through automation. Convention Rep'ort: CWA Tops Defend Bell Monopoly Profits, Ignore Job Threat - The nearly 100,000 telephone workers is the CWA planning to do about it? The made it clear that he will do everything and urban phone service provioeO free whose jobs have been eliminated by the major provisions under the heading "job he can to avoid a confrontation with the of charge. Bell System during the last few years will security" in the report ofthe union's Bell company. In February he announced, The CWA misleaders will never raise get a bitter laugh from U.S. vice System Bargaining Council to the recent "For the first time in our 39 years of such militant class-struggle demands. president Mondale's remark to the 39th convention called for eliminating sub­ dealing with Bell, CWA will try this year Watts' predecessor, Joe Beirne, annual convention of the Communica­ contracting; making all overtime volun­ to get an early settlement." coalesced the CWA out of several of tions Workers of America (CWA), held tary, at a minim'Jm rate of double-time; company unions during the late 1940's, in Kansas City June 19-24, that the providing for a shorter work year, What's Good for Ma Bell ... establishing a union that has been CWA is the "best union in America." through longer vacations, a 32-hour The motto of CWA tops is, what's doggedly company-loyal ever since. It From the standpoint of Ma Bell and the workweek, ten "personal days" off with good for Ma Bell is good for the union. was not surprising, therefore, to see bosses' government, this may be true, pay yearly, etc. In the past, union bureaucrats have AT&T management present at the but not for phone workers. Most of these demands are minimal repeatedly defended requests for rate convention as invited guests, as they are The key issue facing communications enough. The call for a shorter workweek increases by AT&T affiliates, and at this every year. Just as natural was the workers across the country is jobs. Yet does not even include a provision for no convention a resolution was unan­ appearance of Democrat Mondale, the CWA bureaucracy has done nothing cut in pay, and CWA International vice imously passed protesting attempts by since the CWA was an early and to halt the phone monopoly's assault on president for District 5, Ray Stevens, electronics corporations (RCA, IBM, enthusiastic backer of Carter in the last working conditions and the livelihoods wrote in the union newsletter "Take ITT) to horn in on Bell's profitable presidential elections. Yet despite its of its employees. The convention dem­ Five" that the 32-hour week should be a "interconnect" (business communica­ slavish devotion to "friend of labor" onstrated that they have no intention of legislative rather than a contractual tions systems) revenues. The convention . Democrats (the CWA even stuck by lifting a finger in the future, either. The demand (i.e., phone workers should beg also went on record against any attempt McGovern in 1972), the phone union facts speak for themselves: Congress instead of flexing their indus­ by the Federal Communications Com­ and the rest of the labor movement have • Since 1963 almost 100,000 jobs trial strength). But the kicker is that mission to force divestiture of Western gotten nothing but a kick in the teeth lost. even these "demands" have no relation­ Electric and perhaps the operating from the capitalist parties and • Over half of Western Electric ship whatsoever to what the CWA companies as well. government. installation locals throughout the U.S. bureaucracy will fight for. But higher profits for AT&T do not _ Among a recent spate of anti-labor with members on layoff, some with up The C WA Executive Board Report, mean more jobs for phone workers. An court decisions was one in New York to ten years seniority. 1977 puts down in black and white that example obvious even to the CWA state ruling that strikers are not eligible • Massive automation of central the labor fakers are prepared to accept bureaucracy is the introduction of to receive unemployment benefits. This offices, at the rate of one a day, through continued job cuts in phone. In the customer charges for directory assist­ case grew out of the several-month the introduction of Electronic Switch­ section on organizing, the International ance in 19 states. This policy, certainly strike by New York CWA locals in 1971­ ing Systems (ESS) which can replace baldly admits: "Despite an expected p>rofitable for Bell, is directly responsi­ 72, and if the decision is upheld on 400 workers with 35 technicians. increase in business volume annually, ble for the elimination of thousands of appeal the strikers may be required by • Opening of "phone stores," where employment in the telephone industry operators' jobs. Meanwhile, increased the courts to repay seven months of customers purchase their telephones for will continue to drop because of Bell System profits (third quarter after­ jobless benefits. While forced to recog­ self-installation. technological advancements." Instead' tax earnings in 1976 topped $1 billion) nize that the Carter administration has • Drastic cutbacks in CWA Western of fighting for more jobs for communi­ are invested in purchasing more auto­ been somewhat less than wholehearted­ Union locals; the 3,600 unionized cations workers, the CWA leadership is mated equipment to replace additional ly pro-labor, all Watts could do was cry employees in 1966 now down to below seeking to protect its dues base by thousands of union members. crocodile tears. "To be perfectly blunt," 1,000. roping in members "from virtually every Anti-trust schemes to attack the he told the convention, "we must insist As for "affirmative action" programs, kind of industry that exists." A list of phone company's power by forced that our national leaders have the touted by government and management organizing projects over the last year divestiture of the highly integrated Bell intestinal fortitude to match their as the answer to past job discrimination included nurses, librarians, furniture System are nothing but a backward commitment, the commitments that by the Bell System, recent figures report movers and even strikebreaking cops in looking utopia; their inevitable failure is they have made in the past." But as an increase of 500 top-salaried women two cities. shown by the hoax of the break-up of George Meany has already found out­ at executive level ...and a net loss of What phone workers need is a Standard Oil or U.S. Steel. But the after administration moves led to the 10,000 to 15,000 women workers over militant strike against Ma Bell. Such a alternative is not to defend the bloated rapid-succession defeat of the construc­ the last four years. strike, fought around key demands like profits of this universally hated monop­ tion site picketing bill, an AFL-CIO It is no secret that American a 20-hour workweek at 40 hours' pay, is oly at the expense ofCWA members and proposal to raise the minimum wage to a Telephone and Telegraph management the only way to bring AT&T to its knees the masses of consumers gouged by measly $3 per hour, and efforts to is planning a major new wave of layoffs and stave off the decimation of the AT&T. The Bell system should be eliminate the open shop provisions of of phone workers. The question is: what union. But CWA president Watts has nationalized without compensation, continued on page 10 8 JULY 1977 12