25¢ No. 154 22 April 1977 "Human Rights" Crusade Fuels U.S. War Machine

In the three months since he took office, Jimmy Carter has pursued an "activist" foreign policy on an unambi­ guously anti-Soviet axis. Aging cold­ war liberal Hutl<:n Humphrey called for the U.S. bourgeoi~ie to "take the ideological offensive." but the born­ again Baptist president nteded no urging to launch his crusade for "a moral climate." No soonn had the Carter clan moved into the White House than the ne"" commander-in-chief of U.S. impn~al­ ism went on the "human rights" war­ path. Whipping up an anti-Communist outcry OH; \ietiminltlOn of dissidents in the USSR and Czechoslovakia. Blustering State Department warnings were followed by a well publicized "private" Carter letter to dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov and a cordial White House reception for exiled former political pnsoner Vladimir Bukovsky. In mid-1\1arch the U.S. president brought his "human rights" crusade to the United "ations. Trying out his back­ slapping "ethnic politics" on the interna­ tional scale by claiming to empathize with delegates from the "developing nations" ("I come from a part of the United States that is largely agrarian"). his speech centered on a call for the UN to "strengthen" its "human rights machinery." Yet only a couple of weeks earlier. Carter had summarily yanked an American representative to the UN Felix Greene Imperialist chief Carter u.s. imperialist bomber over Vietnam. Human Rights Commission who had apologized for the U.S. role in Chile. "ideological offensive" presages impe­ the forefront of our attention, and The conspiracy ofsilence necessary to rialist war. where the attention of the press corps TELEGRAM present the imperialist butchers of can stimulate us to deal honestly with poe Indochina as crusaders for "morality this sensitive issue" (New York Times. People in Glass Houses Cyrus Vance, among men" is truly breathtaking. After 18 March). This appeal captures the Carter got himself elected by con­ Secretary of State official admissions that the CIA repeat­ essence of Carter's foreign policy gam­ stantly talking out of both sides of his Department of State edly attempted to assassinate govern­ mouth. making vague "promises" to bit. Behind the "moral" rhetoric was a mental leaders who ran afoul of U.S. every constituency and leaving both naked attempt to reverse a General The utter hypocrisy of your cold interests (Castro. Lumumba, etc.) and allies and enemies in the dark as to what Assembly decision of a few years ago war "human rights" crusade was that FBI informers triggered the murder his policies would be. Nevertheless, we when the Soviet bloc and "non-aligned" laid bare this week in two vicious of Black Panther Party leaders, for an warned that. "Despite ritual obeisance majority managed to get this commis­ acts of anti-communism: Three American president to fulminate about to detente, Carter's foreign policy sion moved to Geneva where it was out officials of the Soviet trade unions violations of civil liberties in the Soviet promises to be more openly anti­ from under the American thumb. who were invited by the Interna­ Union requires that the "free but Communist than that of his predeces­ Carter haughtily asserted aU.S. tional Longshoremen's and Ware­ responsible" bourgeois press outdo sor" ("Businessman's Democrat is Next "birthright" to act as supreme judge on housemen's Union to attend their itself in rigid self-censorship. Not since Imperialist Chiee" WV No. 133. 12 "human rights," while "humbly" an­ convention, and most recently U.S. military "advisors" burned down November 1976). He wasted no time in nouncing the removal of"all restrictions Tariq Ali, prominent spokesman Vietnamese villages "in order to save confirming our prediction. to American travel abroad" and stating for the International Marxist them" has there been such a wave of Carter's UN speech supposedly sent his intention to "liberalize completely Group of Britain, were excluded imperialist scorched earth hypocrisy. "signals" to Moscow about ending the travel opportunities" to the U.S. How­ from entry into the U.S. The witchhunting McCarran­ But Carter's "human rights" deadlock on arms control. but the ever, only three weeks later Russian Walter Act, which denies entry to campaign is more than just hypocrisy. It Kremlin could not miss the fact that trade unionists were barred from enter­ Communists and controversial is two-faced moralism in the service of nowhere did the U.S. president use the ing the country. And although Ameri­ leftists, is a frontal attack on the militarism. At the time of the Angolan word "detente." In fact. he went out of cans can now travel to Cuba, the trade democratic rights of working peo­ war last year Ford was unable to whip his way to emphasize that, "American­ embargo remains in effect. ple everywhere! We protest against up public support or even Congression­ Soviet relations will continue to be Moreover, the press almost com­ these McCarthyite exclusions. al backing for large-scale aid to anti­ highly competitive...." In contrast he pletely buried the fact that the U.S. has Down with the reactionary Communist forces there, much less for noted "parallel strategic interests" with refused to ratify 15 of the 19 UN McCarran-Walter Act! Soviet direct U.S. intervention. This is what the Peking in Asia. and called up the "spirit covenants on human rights, having trade-union officials and Tariq Ali Carter administration is out to change. of the Shanghai communique"-a endorsed only the most innocuous ones. must immediately be granted per­ Today the attempt to refurbish the standby from the days of the Nixon­ This is no oversight, as there is powerful mission to enter the U.S. moral authority of Yankee imperialism Mao courtship. resistance in the Senate to affirming the means a bigger war budget and "hang­ The self-annointed champion of right to a fair wage, to opposition to Partisan Defense Committee ing tough" in arms control negotiations. "freedom" called for the UN's Human racial discrimination (because there is a Box 633, Canal Street Station Ultimately, however, as in the case of Rights Division to be moved back to review committee) or to acceptance of New York, N.Y. 10013 Woodrow. Wilson and FOR, this New York. "where its activities will be in continued on page 8 • ~ ..J ACTWU Letter to Sp'artacist League Renounces Hot-Cargoing Cowardly Legalism Disarms J.P. Stevens Workers

On March I nearly 1.500 demonstra­ Stevens. The National Labor Relations tors supporting the unioninltion of J.P. Board found such extensive unfair labor Stevens marched outside the company's practices that it ordered the company to MUMAY H. FINlEY Pr_lt1wIr JACOB SHElNK""'" annual stockholders' meeting in New bargain with the TWUA anyway. But s.cr.tarr·T~ SOl. STETlN York City. The demonstration was the the company would not bargain. WllUAM DuCHESSf P:GtZrn SMtor ExacutMr Exac~~~ kick-off for a national campaign calling Three years later the union got the 15 UNION SQUARE N AFLoCto. CLC • EW YORK, NY '0003. (212) 255-7800 on consumers to boycott goods of this federal court of appeals to issue a decree --- notorious union-busting textile ordering J.P. Stevens to bargain. Two manufacturer. years after this. in 1973. the NLRB Among the many signs protesting asked the court for a contempt citation. firings. "brown lung" disease (byssino­ The court ordered an investigation. In March 30, 1977 sis) and low pay at J.P. Stevens. was a 1975 the court's investigator discovered Spartacists League Spartacist League (SL) banner declar­ '" that J.P. Stevens was bargaining in c/o The Spartacist 260 West Broadway ing: "Consumer Boycott Not Enough. bad faith. But meanwhile the company New York, New York Organile the South! For Militant Labor had shut down the Statesboro plant and Dear Gentlemen: Action. Don't Handle J.P. Stevens shifted its production elsewhere! The We wish to inform you th t Goods!" This militant slogan stood out TW UA also won a collective bargaining Textile Workers Union ha: the Amalgamated Clothing and strategies, nor will it tnever advocated "hot Cargo. prominently from those carried by the election at the company's Roanoke a any future date. labor bureaucrats. church groups and Rapids plant in 1974. but J.P. Stevens We are not in the habit of ~he law as such an action i:nco~raging anyone to oreak reformists and was picked up by the has refused to negotiate a ,contract. ut crUelly unfair to the wo ~o only counter productive bourgeois press. The New York Post Meanwhile workers at J.P. Stevens As r ers whose cause we espouse. a measure of protect' carricd a picture of the SL banner and a continue to receive hourly wages aver­ cott Was established w:nd the Workers for whom the boy­ repUdiate SUch tacti~s as 0 ~~~ and will continue to television documentary of unionization aging $3.20. compared to $4.62 for Or speaking for "hot cargo~;~ ~ng letters, Carrying signs efforts at J.P. Stevens shown on the factory workers throughout the U.S. We hope you will Consider CBS program "60 Minutes" also Their pensions are worth less than $4 a f~oYing tactics that are d;Z~r~~~~l implications of ern- showed it prominently. month for each year of service. And e Stevens workers. Th" ~ve t~ the boycott and A few weeks later the Spartacist subjected to abysmal working condi­ Si."<>union organizer's room. The company was also ordered EDITOR: Jan Norden by a federaljudge to end racialdiscrimi­ PROU'<:TI'JN '~1AN.AGER Karen Allen nation in its hiring policies. But this is a CIRCUIJ,TION MANAGER Anr<2 Ke::ey small price to pay for J.P. Stevens. the EDITORIAL BOARD Jon Brule, Charles second largest textile company in the Burrol..ic;hs. George Foster, Liz Gordon, James world. with annual sales exceeding $1.4 Robertson, Joseph Seymour billion and assets of $750 million. Published weekly, except bi-week!y in August In those rare instances where the and December, by the Spartacist Publishing union has actually managed to win Co., 260 West Broadway. New York, NY. 10013. Telephone: 966-6841 (Editorial), bargaining rights by pursuing proce­ 925-5665 (BUSiness). Address all correspond­ dures mandated by the delay-riddled ence to: Box 1377. G,P,O., New York, NY 10001. Domestic subscriptions: $5.00 peryear. and pro-company federal labor laws. it Second-class postage paid at New York, NY. has yet to negotiate a contract. In 1968 Opinions expressed in signed articles or the Textile Workers Union of America letters do not neceS3D C i!y express the editorial (TWUA) lost a representation election viewpoint. at the Statesboro, Georgia plant ofJ.P. March 1 J.P. Stevens protest in NYC. I 2 WORKERS VANGUARD I I• I eager to reap cheap publicity by sup­ utilize the might of the already union­ porting a safe cause. At a March 2S ized sectors of the American proletariat. meeting in New York held in support of If, in conjuction with a massive organi7­ the ACTWU boycott, the invocation ing drive and strikes in the mills, was delivered by none other than Teamsters and railroad workers were to Atlanta's mayor Maynard Jackson. refuse to transport scab goods and Naturally, Jackson "solidarized" pious­ northern industrial workers refused to ly with' the denunciations of J.P. process non-union textiles, J. P. Stevens Stevens' anti-unionism. Then the good would be brought to its knees. mayor returned home and promptly The ACTWU's opposition to hot­ fired 1,000 striking Atlanta sanitation cargoing only reveals its own hypocrisy. workers! Some 48 percent of Stevens' products are unfinished goods sold essentially to AFL-C10 labor fakers, who have th'e apparel industry. The garment failed miserably in their own efforts to industry is the single greatest user of organize the South, are also in on the textile goods, the overwhelming bulk of operation. At the June 1976 convention which is non-union-made. Yet ACTWU that created ACTWU, George Meany is in its majority a union of garment promised the full support of the federa­ workers. The ACTWU bureaucrats'self­ tion to the organizing effort. Meany righteously call for consume~s to boy­ blustered that, "J.P. Stevens didn't just cott J.P. Stevens' products, while it take on its employees or the textile cynically pledges that its own member­ workers or the Amalgamated Clothing ship will continue to handle tons ofnon­ and Textile Workers... J.P. Stevens union textiles every day! took on the entire labor movement" The ACTWU letter is deliberately (New York Times, 4 June). silent about the history of hot-cargoing But aside from kicking in some funds in. organizing drives. Labor bigwigs to the boycott campaign, the AFL-CIO have periodically blustered about ambi­ ~ .. is doing little. Its real concern is a tious campaigns to unionize the South, but they have fallen flat. Of all the massive lobbying effort to do some Garment workers demonstrating In New York I••t week. efforts, the only qualitatively successful one that has occurred since World War II was undertaken by the Teamsters. And this was achieved by hot-cargoing By refusing to deliver freight to non­ Textile/Garment Unions union southern carriers, unionized truck drivers forced the signing ofunion contracts in that anti-labor bastion. Demonstrate for Moreover, the refusal of the ACTWU bureaucrats to use militant hot-cargoing tactics is made doubly ludicrous by the Chauvinist Import Curbs fact that the garment unions fought foro-and won- a special clause in the The hidebound American labor Commission to impose higher excise National Labor Relations Act that bureaucracy. garment/textile bosses taxes on Japanese-made televisions. exempts the garment industry from the and capitalist politicians found a basis The Commission recommended to legal ban on hot-cargoing! for unity April 13 when they joined Carter a raise from 5 to 25 percent. The ACTWU letter's submission to together in an orgy of social patriotism The ILGWU I ACTWU walkout capitalist "legality" is characteristic of to demand that President Carter lower varied from several hours in some cities labor bureaucrats. It would indeed be quotas on apparel imports into the U.S. to a full day in others. Although preferable if the interests of the working In a one-day nationwide work-stoppage thousands of garment and textile masses could be fulfilled without con­ called by the International Ladies factories were idled by the strike, for fronting the bourgeois state. However, Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and once the employers were delighted with it is precisely in order to shackle and the Amalgamated C1'Ott1in~raTl"d'Textile the action. Burlington lndustries, a non~ repress the workers movement that the Workers Union (ACTWU), over union textile empire, for example, J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke capitalist state is maintained. The 500,000 workers demonstrated in more bought newspaper ads earlier in the Rapids, North Carolina. .history of the American labor move­ than 40 cities. A labor delegation, week captioned "Jobs in Textiles, ment graphically demonstrates that headed by George Meany, simultane­ Another Endangered Species." cosmetic surgery on the National Labor every major step forward, in particular ously met with Carter in the White Nowhere were the suicidal implica­ Relations Act (NLRA), supposedly to the organization of industrial unions, House to press this chauvinist demand. tions for the working class of such make it easier to win bargaining has been challenged not only by the The present international agreement protectionist policies more apparent elections. As a maher of fact, the AFL­ companie:;, but by the courts, cops, on textile and apparel imports, which than in New York. Here, thousands of CIO has been engaged in futile efforts to National Guard, etc. The sit-in at Flint allows foreign imports to the U.S. to the city's garment workers, many of persuade the capitalist parties to reform that laid the basis for the UAW, the San increase by 6 percent annually, expires them Latin American or Chinese, the labor laws ever since Taft-Hartley Francisco and Minneapolis general this year. Meany is urging Carter to take jammed midtown Herald Square to was passed in 1949. The present reform strikes, were all "illegal." a hard line in current textile trade cheer on the jingoism of featured effort falls far short of the federation's Even the ossified bureaucrats from negotiations which began Monday in speaker, Democratic senator Patrick stated goal of repealing the right-to­ the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Geneva. Robert Strauss, Carter's chief Moynihan. Moynihan was the authorof work statutes. can corroborate this. One of the key trade negotiator, said the president was the policy of "benign neglect" for the strikes leading up to the founding of the not going to be stampeded into any However, the AFL-CIO has already U.S. minority populations under Amalgamated was a general strike of quick decisions. Carter had previously been twice rebuffed by Carter in Nixon. New York garment workers in 1912. refused the AFL-CIO's request for Union leaflets distributed at the rally attempts to get the federal minimum When the NY supreme court issued a quotas on shoes and televisions. wage raised to a measly $3.00 per flour explained that the average wages of restraining order against picketing, the The labor bureaucracy has now clothing and textile workers are 32 cents and to legalize so-called "common situs" workers responded with a march of launched a frantic protectionist cam­ picketing on construction sites. Even the an hour in Korea, 21 cents in India and 20,000 through the garment district. The paign, saying that without strict limita­ 18 cents in Haiti. But instead of calling minor reforms of the NLRA it advo­ national officers of the United Garment tions, imports will climb to 50 or 60 cates are likely to run into stiff opposi­ for international organizing and soli­ Workers (UGW), to which the strikers percent of the domestic apparel/ textile darity, union placards in Chinese and tion from the millionaire open-shop belonged, ordered the ranks back to market within the next decades. The peanut mogul Carter and a coalition of Spanish grotesquely demanded a trade work and when this didn't work, Mayor "Committee to Preserve American policy which will mean the.further Dixiecrats and conservative Republi­ Gaynor ordered the suppression of all Color Television," a coalition of five cans in Congress. impoverishment of the workers m those picketing. The strike lasted for several companies and twelve unions, has given countries-especially qlinese workers more weeks. Disgust at the strikebreak­ up on "voluntary quotas" and peti­ in Taiwan and Hong j(ong! Militant Labor Action Built the ing and cretinist legalism of the UGW tioned the U.S. International Trade American workers will not gain by Unions bureaucracy in New York and in similar promoting increa<;ed unemploym~nt strikes in Chicago led directly to a abroad and further limiting the capacity The unionization of the South will be breakaway from the UGW and the Australasian of the international working class to achieved neither by an impotent con­ founding of the Amalgamated Clothing struggle against U.S. imperialism. T~e sumer boycott nor by lobbying Con­ Workers under its new president, SPARTACIST road forward for the garment and textile gress. The way forward lies in a mass Sidney Hillman. workers lies in the fight to unionize the mobilization of the labor movement. To The letter's charge that those who a monthly organ of revolutionary Marxism for vast numbers of unorganized workers in raise the need for hot-cargoing J.P. the rebirth of the Fourth International published be sure, organizing the textile mills by Spartacist Publications for the Central the industry, particularly in the numer­ (which employ 20 percent ofall industri­ Stevens textiles are "cruelly unfair" to Committee of the Spartacist League of Australia ous "runaway shops" which have al workers in the South) is no easy task. southern workers is the sheerest of and New Zealand, section of the international Spartacist tendency migrated south from New England and There is still a considerable reservoir of hypocrisy. It is not those who point Ollt New York. In the South, also, a sizable what is necessary to win who betray anti-union sentiment in the South, as U.S. $5-12 188ue8 (airmail) capital-intensive text.ile indus~ry, much demonstrated by the resounding defeats southern textile workers. The traitors of it based on synthetics, remams mostly are instead those who, like ACTWU's U.S. $2-12 18sues (surface mall) which every attempt to repeal "right-to­ unorganized. William DuChessi, flippantly assert that order from/pay to: work" laws in southern states has The half-hearted AFL-CIO consumer the union is prepared to boycott for "20 Spartacist Publications suffered. boycott of J.P. Stevens must be turn.ed years, if necessary." These are cheap GPO Box 3473 Behind the companies stand a reserve Sydney, NSW 2001 into a powerful campaign to orga~tze words from well-heeled bureaucrats, army of brutal cops and organized Australia the South through militant labor actIOn! but· the underpaid southern workers fascistic mobs like the Ku Klux Klan. Don't handle J.P Stevens goods!. But this only underscores the need to cannot afford to wait.. 3 22 APRIL 1977 I l British SWP, IMG Chicago Embrace Police Red Squad: as "Workers" Fingermen LONDON--The llO,OOO-member Po­ battle is, as the Economist (12 March) lice Federation in Britain announced in puts it in an article entitled "Police~ March that it wanted "more of the Not Just Money"; "Showing a bit of privileges of a trade union." Claiming for muscle by refusing to co-operate in they had been jobbed out ofa £6-a-week working the new complaints system that pay increase given to public employees, includes an independent review by non­ the Federation began a boycott of new police." Iranian procedures set up to investigate com­ The pseudo-Trotskyists of the Inter­ plaints against the police. The Labour national Marxist Group (IMG), British government's home secretary, Merlyn section of the United Secretariat, Rees, promptly invited them to join the certainly don't want to be kept out of SAVAK TUC (Trades Union Congress) in a this new arena of "class struggle." In a television interview. remarkable display of mental agility, The Communist Party of Great they discovered an angle which amounts CHICAGO--The notorious Chicago Britain rushed to give the cops "whole­ to putting out a welcome mat for the "Red Squad" and the Iranian SAVAK, hearted support," claiming the question cops. It is, you see, a question of tactics the Shah's deadly secret police, have was of "crucial importance" (Morning (for the 1M G there are almost never any The British Socialist linked bloody hands to spy on, harass Star, 5 March). Following hard on their principles). Recruiting cops into the Worker (26 March) and infiltrate the Iranian Student heels in saluting the latest "recruits to existing unions is a tactic which will help Association (ISA) for the past seven the struggle" were the reformist­ attack not the unions, but the police, commented on above years, the Chicago Sun- Times recently' syndicalists of the Socialist Workers says Red Weekly (10 March)! photo, "Call it revealed. This ominous police link-up Party (SWP-formerly International While not quite up to advocating that directly endangers the lives of Iranian Socialists). Beginning with the issue of the Police Federation join the TUC en incitement to students protesting against the butcher 12 March, a number of articles in the bloc, the IMG is pleased to have disaffection if you like. Shah, who right now holds over 40,000 Socialist Worker have excitedly specu­ discovered the tactic of having individu­ left-wing militants in prison, subjected lated on the revolutionary potential of al cops join! Meanwhile they haven't But we want these to the most hideous tortures at the the hired thugs of the capitalist class. murmured a word of criticism of the people on our side." hands of his private gestapo. The simple-minded economism and shameless enthusiasm for. the police Immediately threatened are four idiotic workerism of the British SWP found in the pages of Socialist Worker. Iranian students, arrested here last led it to print in all seriousness the But of course the IMG currently claims November;who face deportation by the photographs and captions we reproduce that the SWP is a revolutionary organi­ U.S. Immigration and Naturalization here, along with assurances that the sation and in no wayan obstacle to the Service-a move which could mean cops are simply "working class lads" British revolution. their joining other critics languishing in who must see "as a result of their own The IMG has so far refused to Iranian jails. struggles" that the police are used "in the publicly justify its position in favour of Last month the CBS television main [!] to protect those with property." recruitment of the racialist capitalist program "60 Minutes" documented that Socialist Worker argues that through thugs into workers organisations, de­ the SAVAK has dispatched assassina­ joining the TUC and fighting for the spite challenges to do so during its tion syuads to the United States and right to strike police would have their reformist campaigns for the Greater Europe to liquidate certain opponents "eyes opened." And if they could fight .London Council. However, IMG dem­ of the Shah's terror. The program for higher wages they wouldn't need agogue Tariq Ali assured London interviewed Jules Khan Pira, a self­ "the frustration to be released in other Spartacist Group members that the proclaimed "soldier of fortune," who ways" (presumably meaning if they got 1M G did indeed want the cops in the said that the SAVAK hired and armed more money they wouldn't go on unions. While exiting from a meeting in him to murder two people: an Iranian bashing in heads and committing racist the heavily Asian Southall district of opposition leader in France and the atrocities such as the police rampage in London on 14 April, Ali loftily an­ publisher of the Iranian Free Press in Notting Hill last August). nounced, "The Spartacists and the Alexandria, Virgina. One wonders what the readership of bourgeoisie want to keep the police out The Iranian ambassador to the U.S. Socialist Worker makes of this "turn" of the unions." Indeed we do. reportedly didn't deny the charges but. after reading issue after issue where cynically requested the program We expect that Tariq Ali.will try to labor/ black defense" as the way to police atrocities are stressed by the SWP enforce school integration and protect producer to recheck Pira's story to in order to build up a flashy "anti-racist" duck this issue during his upcoming tour make sure it wasn't "another of those in the United States, since the reformist black people from the racist mobiliza­ image. Better working conditions and tion in Boston. jokes" (Chicago Sun- Times, 7 March). more wages for the police mean only American Socialist Workers Party The producers did check-it was no that they will be more effective in ("fraternal supporter" of the unprinci­ Of course, many workers mistakenly joke. Recently, a leading foreign corre­ carrying out their suppression of resist­ pled bloc making up the "United Secre­ believe that the bourgeoisie's profes­ spondent for the Paris daily Ie Monde ance to capitalism. Despite the image tariat") not so long ago attacked the sional thugs and blacklegs [scabs] are on vouched for Pira's credibility. And the of the friendly London "bobby" touted Healyites on precisely this issue. When their side, or at least neutral. To the Shah himself has boasted that SAVAK by the tourist industry, British police are New York City cops went on strike in British SWP, notorious for tailing after operates freely in the U.S., "Checking no different from their counterparts 1971, the Workers League insisted that backward consciousness among the up on anyone who becomes affiliated throughout the capitalist world. cops were part ofa general upsurge ofall workers, this is sufficient. The American with circles, organizations hostile to my The bourgeois Economist is rather city labour, printing photos of"militant SWP caters to liberal illusions wide­ country..." (New York Times, 22 more perceptive, noting that the police policemen" under the headline "New spread in the black community that October 1976). grievances go far beyond the wage York Labor Begins Showdown." The Federal (as opposed to state or local) claims the SWP has played up. The cops American SWP, dusting off its Marxist government officials are their allies; and books, discovered that those champion­ the IMG is such a political hodgepodge Defend the Threatened Iranian want "protection from wrongful dismis­ Students! sal" and more "independence" for ing the cops were in fact "ending up on that it will capitulate to just about Federation activities-a bonapartist the same side of the fence as the most anything. Last November police wantonly and demand for independence from outside reactionary defenders of the status quo" Neither the American and British brutally attacked a peaceful ISA dem­ control. And it is certainly not a and correctly pointed out that the cops SWPs nor the IMG, whose politics are onstration at the French Consulate here coincidence that the chosen method of "can be counted on to act as the most determined by opportunist appetites, protesting the frame-up of two ISA inveterate and ruthless opponents ofany rather than Marxism, are able to members in Paris charged with shooting militant mass struggle" (Intercontinent­ distinguish the fundamental class line a notorious SAVAK agent. The cops r ABONNIERT al Press. 8 February 1971). We shall see separating the police from the working beat and arrested eight students on what they say about Tariq Ali! class. We stand with Trotsky, who charges of criminal trespass. A woman Kommunistische Actually, the American SWP's real exposed the illusions of German Social who protested the arrests was kicked Korrespondenz position on the repressive apparatus of Democrats that the Prussian police, and clubbed and then charged with herausgegeben von der the bourgeois state has been to call upon originally recruited from among social­ assault and battery. The trial of the nine Trotzkistischen Liga Deutschlands these "ruthless opponents" to intervene democratic workers, would stop Hitler: is due to begin April 20. • Jahresabonnement - 8,50 OM to protect "militant struggles," calling "The worker who becomes a policeman Taken first to city jails, the victims (inklusive Porto) on federal troops to defend busing in in the service of the capitalist state is a were immediately set upon by the • Auslandsluftpostabonnement ­ Boston. The Spartacist League (SL/ bourgeois cop, not a worker" ("What rapacious Immigration and Naturaliza­ 10,·- OM (ein Jahr) U.S.), in contrast, has maintained a Next'!" January 1932). tion Service (INS) who dragged them einschliesslich Spartacist. deutsche Ausgabe consistent Marxist line. It pointed out in As the IMG tails the British SWP off in handcuffs to federal prison where Zu bestellen Dber: 1971, "In no sense are these bodies of which tails the "lads in blue," we are they were questioned extensively and TLD armed men 'neutral' in the class strug­ proud to uphold the long working-class photographed as a group. While the Postfach 11 0647 gle." And three years later the SL/ U.S. tradition of total opposition to police in interrogations were going on, INS \... 1 Berlin 11 demanded, "not the bosses' army, but the workers movement. • officials broke into the students' apart- 4 WORKERS VANGUARD I! ..

ments without warrants and ransacked them. Deportation hearings were set for five Chicago Judge Dismisses Charges Against Hanrahan of the nine, with the first hearings in front of the Immigration judge taking I I place March 9. They have no legal I rights, are denied a public trial and ~ cannot bring witnesses to testify in their behalf. Proceedings against one of the Conspirators Behind Murder of ~ five have been dropped. However, cases ! against the others are still under way 1 and one of the students is in imminent danger of deportation. The left and the ! labor movement must immediately rally Hampton and Clark Let Off I to the defense ofthese victimized foreign •I students, demanding that all charges • I against the nine be dropped and that the CHICAGO, April 16-Formet' Illinois contained within a Panther apartment. believe the police, as I did, and do" i deportation hearings be called off! state's attorney and current Chicago Mitchell in his report to his superiors (Chicago Tribune, 18 February 1977)! The lives of foreign students and mayoral candidate Edward Hanrahan dated 21 November 1969 (two weeks But in the same breath he could not workers are still in danger as long as was dismissed today from the $47.7 before the raid), listed 24 guns plus ~olice Immigration agents can terrorize at will, million December 4th Committee! ammunition, gas masks and smoke substantiate one iota of the story. When questioned about his press breaking into homes and rounding up Black Panther Party civil rights dam­ bombs in the apartment but noted, "all conference statements following the "undocumented" workers in sweatshops age suit. The suit grew out of the 4 these weapons were allegedly purchased raid that Hampton had fired a .45 at and factories where they labor for less December 1969 Chicago police raid on a on legal Illinois state gun registration police officers, Hanrahan pleaded loss than subsistence wages, afraid to protest Panther apartment that resulted in the cards" (Chicago Defender, 2 March of memory as to who had informed him their exploitation for fear of deporta­ murder of Panther leaders Fred Hamp­ 1976). of this. But the racist Hanrahan, who tion. The fate of these students and ton and Mark Clark. Mitchell then proceeded to urge local was recently run off the Malcolm X workers must not rest in the hands ofthe Along with Hanrahan, 21 other police to take action on the basis of College campus by angry black students bourgeois state which plots with defendants in the suit were also dis- "illegal guns" and personally supplied chanting "Kill Hanrahan," was well -. SAV AK agents in secret. The Spartacist them with a floor plan of the apartment protected in Judge Perry's courtroom. League demands full citizenship rights indicating the precise location ofHamp­ At one point Perry barred anti­ for all foreign workers and students! No ton's b$d. The day before the raid the Hanrahan demonstrators not only from deportations! Chicago FBI office sent a report to their Washington superiors lamenting that the courtroom but also from the Down with the Red "no tangible results" had been obtained sidewalk in front of the Federal Court I Squad/FBI/SAVAK! from their COINTELPRO surveillance Building. activities. The report went on to say that One of the highlights of the trial was Piles of official documents revealing information about illegal weapons had the appearance of Elaine Brown, chair­ the Red Squad's massive surveillance, been forwarded to the local police and man of the Black Panther Party. In tune including detailed reports on political notes that the local police are "planning with the legalistic approach of the discussions held by the ISA "in the December 4th Committee she ex­ • a positive course of action relative to I Persian language" have been produced. this information." claimed, "The slogan of'all power to the I Yet the police deny that the group was people' really represents the cornerstone I spied on. This outrageous assertion Testimony from William O'Neil, an of America. Following the tradition of • prompted U.S. district court judge FBI agent-provocateur within the Black America from Patrick Henry to Abra­ Alfred Kirkland to lift a court-imposed Panther Party at the time of the raid, ham Lincoln to Dr. Martin Luther King secrecy order on information obtained further indicated that Chicago police to Malcolm X, it represents what was from the files of the Chicago police spy connected with Hanrahan's office con­ written in the Declaration of Independ­ unit (brought by the local Alliance to sciously rejected staging the raid the ence (Black Panther, 12 March 1977). ( End Repression three years ago) to night before when the Panther occu­ But despite this grovelling before the I iii allow the ISA to present evidence pants of the apartment would have been bourgeois courts-which included at I ! refuting the cop denial. Ofcourse, at the absent. They preferred the pre-dawn of one point the sickening spectacle of the ii same time, Kirkland said he found "no December 4 to carry out the raid, not for plaintiffs' attorneys standing to sing I - the purpose of taking "illegal guns" but • I malevolent intent or willful contempt" "Happy Birthday" to Judge Perry-the on the part of the first deputy police to assassinate Panther leader Fred bourgeois legal system has once again ~ superintendent when he denied the ISA Hampton. reinforced the racist status quo. Wide World charges. Based on the floor plan provided Edward Hanrahan The death of Fred Hampton and Over the last several months the them by the FBI the killer cops poured Mark Clark will not be avenged by the Chicago papers have been full ofliberal missed. These included three of Hanra­ over 90 rounds of ammunition in the "Amerikkkanization" of "power to the muckraking against "excesses" of cop- han's assistants at the time of the raid direction of Hampton's bedroom. The continued on page 11 and three key FBI agents involved in the Panthers returned one shot while people," but by victorious workers planning of the raid. As the judge revolution that will smash the murder­ peremptorily threw out all conspiracy ous police apparatus, doing away with SPARTACIST LEAGUE charges, only seven police officers who the racist cops and courts of the LOCAL DIRECTORY allegedly fired their weapons in the bourgeoisie. ANN ARBOR .•...... (313) 769-6376 course of the raid were left to carry the Jail the Killer Cops! Down with the cia SYL. Room 4316 brunt of the suit. FBI's Murder Inc.! • Michigan Union, U. of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109 This ruling of U.S. district courtjudge BERKELEYI Joseph Sam Perry is a slap in theface to OAKLAND (415) 835-1:>35 Box 23372 all hlack people. Perry, in addition to Oakland, CA 94623 ignoring mountains of evidence indi­ SUSYL BOSTON (617) 492-3928 Box 188 cating a conspiracy to destroy the M.I.T. Station Panther Party involving the FBI and the PUBLIC OFFICES Cambridge, MA 02139 Chicago police, made an unusual move CHiCAGO (312) 427-0003 Marxist Literature Box 6441, Main P.O. in the middle of the trial to strap the Chicago, IL 60680 plaintiffs in the suit with court costs up CLEVELAND (216) 281-4781 BAY AREA Box 6765 to this point. This could amount to Cleveland, OH 44101 $300,000 to $500,000. Friday and DETROIT (313) 869-1551 Such a move should not be unexpect­ Box 663A, General P.O. Saturday 3:00-6:00 p.m.. Detroit, MI 48232 ed from the likes of Perry, who 1634 Telegraph t3rd floor) HOUSTON continuously throughout the trial refer­ (near 17th .Street) Box 26474 Houston, TX 77207 red to the plaintiffs-the Hampton! Oakland, California Clark families and the seven survivors of LOS ANGELES (213) 662-1564 Phone 835-1535 Box 26282, Edendale Station the raid-as the "defendants." He Los Angeles, CA 90026 conducted the trial with blatant con­ MADISON CHICAGO cia SYL, Box 3334 tempt for the plaintiffs and their Madison, WI 53704 lawyers, which included citing and Tuesday 4:30-8:00 p.m. NEW yORK (212) 925-2426 Saturday 2:00-5:30 p.m. Box 1377, G.P.O. jailing one of the lawyers, Jeffrey Haas, New York, NY 10001 for accidentally knocking over a water 650 South Clark PHILADELPHIA pitcher in the courtroom. Keep Strong Second floor P.O. Box 13138 Philadelphia, PA 19101 Judge Perry delivered his verdict in a Fred Hampton Chicago, IUinois SAN DIEGO clearly vindictive spirit stating that, Phone 427-0003 P.O. Box 2034 Chula Vista, CA 92012 "The Court concludes as a matter oflaw Hampton was hit and killed in his sleep. SAN FRANCiSCO (415) 564-2845 that no case of a conspiracy or joint Hanrahan himself after. repeated NEW YORK Box 5712 venture has been established as alleged denials was forced to admit on the San Francisco, CA 94101 in the amended complaint" (Chicago witness stand that his office had received Monday TROTSKYIST LEAGUE Sun- Times, 16 April 1977). This runs information from the FBI that led to the through Friday 6:30-9:00 p.m. Saturday 1:00-4:00 p.m, OF CANADA counter to the well-publicized state­ raid. Squirming under the heat of TORONTO (416) 366-4101 ments of Roy Mitchell, FBI! exposure, Hanrahan at one point 260 West Broadway Box 7198, Station A COINTELPRO agent and mastermind asserted that the initial police cover-up Room 522 Toronto, Ontario New York, New York VANCOUVER , (604) 291-8993 of the raid, as well as Hanrahan himself. was "designed to inform the public and Box a6, Station A try to prevent what I thought might Phone 925-5665 Vancouver, B.C. The pre-dawn raid was staged on the pretext of searching for "illegal arms" become a riot and to get the public to 22 APRIL 1977 5 PDC Poses Class-Struggle Anti-Sedarian Defense I Whars Wrong with the National Lawye

BOSTON, April 18-The Northeast­ Arnold Miller), but maintained the the PDC's exposure of their sectarian class-struggle defense, there is very little ern regional conference of the National "tactical" need to continue legal attacks defense policies, OL speakers were debate over principles in the Lawyers Lawyers Guild (NLG) here last week­ against the unions in the name of reduced to rambling incoherence. An Guild. end, attended by about 200 lawyers, law democracy and oppressed minorities. inquiry from an "independent" about students and "legal workers," recon­ The labor workshops were politically why the "anti-imperialists" were sup­ Why the NLG Doesn't Draw the firmed this petty-bourgeois radical confronted and polarized around the porting the anti-Soviet Pan African Class Line milieu's hostility to class-struggle SL's and PDC's principled position Congress rather than the competing politics. against government interference in the African National Congress induced first Despite the heat of the current The conference was pervaded by unions. At the "Insurgent Labor an embarrassed silence, then a desperate feuding in the National Lawyers Guild, factional in-fighting between the NLG's Groups" workshop, the PDC presented unanswered plea for help from the there is fundamental agreement among two "superpowers"-the heterogeneous its motion opposing the NLG's "tacti­ audience, and finally an extended the Stalinists and their "independent" "independents" who follow the lead of cal" stampede across the class line (see anecdote about kids spitting on an old cohorts on defense policy: they all the pro-Moscow Communist Party box), which will be taken to the Seattle Chinese man. "But what about the preach class-collaboration and sectari­ anism. OL supporters tried to rope the (CP) and the pro-Peking October convention this summer. PAC?" demanded opponents in the League's (OL) "Anti-Imperialist Cau­ In the same workshop, a panelist who audience. Finally a walkout was staged NLG into supporting defense cam­ cus." Their listless sparring did not presented the case of National Maritime by about 30 "critical Maoists," includ­ paigns around its politics, while boycot­ prevent the competing Stalinists from Union (NMU) out-bureacratic opposi­ ing Jeff Segal of the Guardian. ting CP-Ied cases. The Communist cooperating to bureaucratically throttle tionist James Morrissey was stopped But all the Stalinists and "independ­ Party does the same thing through the the class-struggle defense policies repre­ cold by the intervention of a supporter ents" could agree to violate the norms of NAARPR, though with more finesse sented by the Spartacist League (S L) of a class-struggle opposition group in workers democracy to suppress the since it is in the driver's seat. As for the and Partisan Defense Committee the union, the Militant-Solidarity Cau­ views of the SLand PDC. When a PDC "independents," they are at best naive (PDC). cus (M-SC). The NMUer explained supporter protested a particularly egre­ and politically unformed, but at this late From the fulsome speeches hailing how--despite the legal maneuvers of gious attempt to cut off an SL spokes­ date mainly burned out and gripped by the reformist African National Con­ Morrissey and his "people's lawyers" to man, NLG bigwig Craig Kaplan replied: anti-communist hostility to organiza­ gress (ANC) to the ritual "criticism/ self­ sue union bureaucrats directly so as "If you don't stop this I'm going to call tion. The "independents" denounce the criticism" sermonette, the conference to avoid naming the union-the suit had off this meeting and blame it on the OL's sectarianism, but their self­ was an exercise in class­ threatened his union's independence Spartacist League." proclaimed spokesmen, McGee and collaborationism and sectarianism. from the capitalist state. This nearly During the inevitable "self-criticism" Bennis, have the same defense policy as Despite the generally apolitical, lawyer­ resulted moreover, in a third of the talkathon Kaplan explicitly justified the OL's Klonsky or the CP's Angela ly decorum, harassment and suppres­ damages being paid right out of the political suppression of "disrupters"­ Davis: political support for the "particu­ sion were the order ofthe day for SL and union treasury (that is, out of the i.e. those whose politics differ from his. lar aims and demands of the coalition." PDC spokesmen, who were repeatedly members' pockets). The M-SC support­ Voices of"moderation" were also heard, While there are plenty of fireworks in not recognized or were subjected to er exposed the Stalinists' sleight of hand such as outgoing regional vice president the NLG on broader issues as well, such discriminatory time limits and abusive in writing the bureaucrats out of the Mardie Walker, who said the NLG was as when the OL supporters tried to slip interruptions during their floor workers movement so as to pose as "overreacting to the sectarians" whom through a veiled attack on Soviet aid to interventions. protectors of the unions' independence the leadership fears will "undermine the Angola at the Norman NEB meeting, at bottom each of the main currents tail In three well-attended labor work­ while actively pushing court suits Guild." As the PDC's "Open Letter to after the class-collaborationist policies shops, panelists related their experi­ against them. the Membership of the Lawyers Guild" ences in suing the unions. Some ofthese The "Anti-Imperialist Caucus" meet­ (reprinted below) makes clear, the NLG of one or another Stalinist bureaucracy. "people's lawyers" expressed discomfort ing was a total debacle for the Maoists. has much to fear: not "disruption" but The CP pushes Brezhnev's project for with the activities of their out­ Unable to answer the SL's Trotskyist the counterposition of the PDC's class­ detente with U.S. imperialism; the OL bureaucrat clients (such as the strike­ attack on Maoist flip-flops from the struggle anti-sectarian defense policy to supports Hua's attempts to woo the Pentagon into a "united front against "Gang of Four" to Teng Hsiao-ping, or the soft-core Stalinism of the NLG. breaking policies of the Mine Workers' Soviet social imperialism"; and the "independents" love Cuba. They all managed to unite on a An Open Letter to NLG Membership from the resolution endorsing the present policies ofthe Vietnamese government. With the rivalry of the competing Moscow­ Partisan Defense Committee Peking bureaucracies threatening the precarious "unity" of the NLG, all Assata Shakur and Gary Tyler have struggle defense, the National Lawyers league with the CP supporters, who led parties found a PDC motion, presented been locked up for life. Washington Guild (NLG) is not about to provide it. the charge against the OL-supported at the NEB in Norman, Oklahoma, Post pressmen, Carter and Artis, Wen­ Instead of defending the independence motion regarding defense ofGary Tyler. denouncing Carter's anti-communist dy Yoshimura, UE militants Markley of the workers movement, the NLG And so it goes. campaign for "human rights" too hot to hauls the unions (the only mass defense and Suares: all convicted in the frame­ Battle lines are being drawn in the handle. The PDC called on the Lawyers organs of the working class in this up courts of capitalist "justice." UAW Lawyers Guild on the sectarian basis of Guild to "not participate in or sponsor I country today) into the bosses' courts. member Bennie Lenard is beaten by organizational squabbling, but the NLG projects or activities for the defense of Instead of treating an injury to one as an Chicago-area cops, then faces charges of doesn't draw the class line in defense Soviet dissidents which are subordinat­ injury to all, various factions in the assault. Every time a prison door slams work. OL supporters hold meetings to ed to a Cold War propaganda mobili­ Lawyers Guild push cases on the basis of shut on a labor militant whose "crime" is advance the struggle against "Soviet zation." The PDC has clear opposition agreement with the politics ofwhichever his loyalty to his class, or on a black social imperialism in the guise of the to the anti-communism ofthe American person subjected to a racist frame-up; defense committee or defendant suits CP's NAARPR" while attempting to bourgeoisie, but the NLG refused to their narrow organizational purposes. wherever right-wing dictatorships un­ exclude the Trotskyists ofthe Spartacist take a position. Instead of each group flying its own leash·their torturers and hangmen, it is a League (SL) as well as the Partisan All of these Stalinist tendencies take blow against the entire working class. colors and uniting in common struggle Defense Committee (PDC). The "anti­ defense work as a means to achieve a for an anti-sectarian, working-class But each time a victim of rightist sectarian" aging New Leftists, on the political bloc with the "progressive" defense, the Stalinists and unaffiliated repression is rescued from the class other hand, are mobilizing to remove bourgeoisie. That is precisely why they enemy, it increases the solidarity and reformists hide behind lowest-common­ OL supporters from positions of lead­ exclude freedom ofcriticism by commu­ denominator front groups and seek combativity of working people around ership in the Guild. With this "third nists and supporters of class-struggle control of the NLF through back­ the world. From the earliest days of the force" doing their work, CP supporters defense. It is the Partisan Defense stabbing, anti-communist exclusions Communist International, Marxists sit back, confident that their own brand Committee that uniquely upholds the and unprincipled organizational have insisted that there is only one way of Stalinist c1ass-collaboration will ILD's tradi~ion of principled united­ to defend the exploited and oppressed: maneuvering. ultimately triumph in this amorphous front actions, seeking the broadest Examples: At the February 1976 through vigorous use of class-struggle defense milieu. possible defense of causes in the inter­ methods. James P. Cannon, founder of NLG convention in Houston, support­ ests of the working class, calling for the International Labor Defense (lLD) ers of the Peking-loyal October League There is talk of throwing OL solidarity "regardless of conflicting and later of the Trotskyist movement in (OL) and the pro-Moscow Communist supporters out of the Lawyers Guild on views on other questions." The PDC the U.S., wrote of this policy: Party (CP) were so entangled in their charges of "disruption": we will fight to and the Spartacist League have defend­ "It puts the center of gravity in the running dog fight that the defense prevent expulsion of any working-class ed both Angela Davis of the CP and protest movement of the workers of workshop-which one would expect to tendency from the NLG, though the OL supporters arrested in Houston America and the world. It puts all faith be a key locus for deciding defense PDC has been the target ofblatant anti­ following fascist attack..But this anti­ in the power of the masses and no faith democratic action by these cravenly whatever in the iustice of the courts. policy-was almost totally ignored. At sectarian defense of victims of capitalist While favoring all possible legal pro­ the national executive board meeting in unprincipled Maoists. There is nothing "justice," seeking to mobilize the power ceedings, it calls for agitation, publicity, New Brunswick, New Jersey, last unprincipled with caucusing in the of the working class in defense of its demonstrations-organized protest on August, OL supporters opposed defense Guild. Every defined current within the own, is lost upon the Stalinists and New a national and international scale. It efforts for the Wilmington Ten and left should have that right, and will do so calls for unity and solidarity of all Leftists. workers on this burning issue, regard­ Charlotte Three because this demon­ anyway. In fact, some honest political less of conflicting views on other stration was led by the CP-dominated struggle in an organization which tries Courts Out of the Unionsl questions." National Alliance Against Racist and to falsely present itself as the great -LAbor Defender, January 1927 Political Repression (NAARPR). At conciliator of all good "progressives" The NLG crosses the class line with a Although innumerable cases of capi­ the last NEB in Norman, Oklahoma in will be a welcome change, but aside vengeance in the trade unions. In the talist "justice" cry out for such a c1ass- February, it was the "independents," in from the PDC's fight for anti-sectarian mass organizations of the working class 6 WORKERS VANGUARD ~o it should be the most elementary Impulse to defend the organized labor poe Fund Drive in High Gear movement from the capitalist state. However, all the major currents in the N LG not only fail to consistently defend the workers movement against attacks by the class enemy, but they also are Over $6,000 united in advocating the "tactic" of ·5 suing the unions in the bourgeois courts. Guild .Members of the NLG Labor Project Collected for will get up and pontificate about how it is most clear that a class-struggle bad the capitalist state is, about how policy in defense is also anti-sectarian. they don't want to build illusions in the Perilously, the NLG has no such policy. "neutrality" ofthe capitalist courts. This Fernando Marcos' -, The same sectarian and class­ is phrase-mongering by cynical wind­ ., collaborationist policies which charac­ bags. They all jump at a chance to sue :: terize the Guild's defense work in other the unions, and in fact that is about all Eye Operation areas is given particularly reactionary the Labor Project does these days. Some content as the NLG's Labor Project groups want to take the unions to court legal commandos go on the offensive in over "rank-and-file democracy"; others by the Partisan Defense Committee the capitalist courts against the indepen­ favor court suits to gain "super­ dence of the trade-union movement. seniority" for oppressed groups. All fail As the campaign being conducted by enclosed by a phone worker, along with Organizational squabbling to gain to see that dragging the bosses' govern­ the Partisan Defense Committee (PDC) a second donation to the campaign, factional advantage for some form of ment. i~to union affairs is a deeply to raise $10,000 for a crucial eye reads: "I am sending this contribution class collaboration, as usual, replaces unpnnclpled and dangerous act which operation for a Chilean trade-union because I want brother Fernando to get class-independent criteria for deciding attempts to wed the trade-union move­ leader in exile goes into its second his vision restored. We all need his eyes what trade union cases the NLG will ment to the bourgeois state. month, over $6,000 has been raised. as much as he does." A meeting of the This welcome response to the fund Hispanic Labor Council in Chicago legally assist. The Partisan Defense Committee has appeal has made available to Fernando heard a PDC presentation on the case Just as "an injury to one is an injury to introduced a motion to this NLG Marcos the last chance to save his and nearly $50 was collected. In Cana­ all" should be ABC for anyone claiming conference, to be submitted for vote at eyesight which was lost as a result of an da, this same solidarity has been to defend the exploited and oppressed. the Seattle convention, which denoun­ explosion of industrial supplies in a expressed, with a national union send­ ces the anti-labor practice of taking the Chilean foundry. ing in a $50 contribution. unions to court and puts forward a Support for the campaign has been Other supporters of Marcos' cause policy of consistent class defense (see Labor Motion wide-ranging, with New York City poe attached). Standing for class defense have been political organizations which leading the way. A letter from a trade means that the PDC's motion rejects the in the spirit of anti-sectarian defense' WHEREAS: The NLG is cur­ unionist in Australia echoes the deter­ usual NLG policy of supporting have sent contributions or publicized rently considering to whom within mination of the PDC and its supporters cases on a narrow sectarian basis the fund drive in their press. This is in the workers movement it shall offer th~ to make this fund drive a success: sharp contrast to a feminist, writing on legal assistance, and demanding political agreement with "I hope to be able to raise some more victims or the defense organizations. the letterhead of the Vancouver Status WHEREAS: Within the workers money from friends and fellow union­ of Women to the PDe: "You keep Similar motions introduced by the PDC isis over the next few weeks.... I wish movement an injury to one is an sending me materials on Chilean prison­ in the past have been rejected as the brother Marcos success in his treat­ injury to all, and therefore only a ers being freed. I do not wish to union-suers "unite" as the common ment. I commend the PDe for its work policy of defense for all under which demonstrates against the sneers contribute more $ until you free some enemy of class-struggle defense. Fur­ attack by the bosses and their and abuse of skeptics that the workers prisoners." thermore, a look at the Guild's history f? government is in the interest of and movement can defend itself against the Not only factually inaccurate with will show that it has always been a legal power of capital. can best protect the working class, regard to the defense work of the PDC arm for class collaboration. As the In solidarity, and R.L.H." this letter exemplifies defense work WHEREAS: The trade unions Spartacist League has written ("Identity In the U.S., unionists have also come to poisoned by sectarian class­ are the sole mass organizations of Crisis in the Lawyers Guild," Workers the aid of their class brother, with collaboration-the degenerated tradi­ working people in the U.S. today, Vanguard No. 96, 13 February 1976) tions which the PDC struggles to root "the history of the NLG is the history of !ndividual workers making donations, which provide the only existing out. Perhaps the Vancouver Status of whatever is popular on the radical left." In particular at the Mahwah, N.J. auto protection to workers despite the Women should take a lesson from the Yesterday the "anti-facist people's plant where over $75 was collected on , misleadership of the reactionary the line by PDC supporters. A note continued on page 9 labor bureaucracy which consist­ front" and "no-strike pledges" were ently sells out the interest of the popular; today the suing ofunions in the [ working class and the oppressed, name of union democracy and minority and rights, crossing picket lines and sectar­ ian front-group defense committees are Urgent poe Fund Appeal WHEREAS: The courts and the f Labor Department are instruments popular. All this is the antithesis of the of the bourgeois state whose inter­ class-struggle defense work of the ILD vention in the trade unions will only and the International Red Aid, which Exiled Chilean Militant weaken them, not the least when stood as a beacon to all victims of such interventions falsely claim to bourgeois class oppression until Stalin­ be in the interests of the specially ist degeneration politically gutted and Needs Your Aid oppressed or of union democracy, ultimately destroyed these pioneer and working-class defense organizations. Fernando Marcos is a 30-year-old Chilean miners union organizer WHEREAS: While all legal tools The PDC seeks to recover those now exiled in France. He was blinded in a 1972 industrial accident, but against the government and the traditions from decades of Stalinist and continued to aid the workers' struggles until the bloody Pinochet coup employers should be utilized to social-democratic betrayal. The Partisan Defense Committee is a forced him to flee the country. Previous operations to regain his protect and advance the interest of eyesight have failed due to inadequate medical attention, first from a the working class. suits against the class-struggle, anti-sectarian defense organization which is in accordance pro-junta doctor in Chile and then in a charity ward in exile. His last trade unions betray the class chance to see again involves a delicate corneal transplant operation at struggle by I) continuing and with the political views of the Spartacist the world-renowned Barraquer Clinic in Barcelona. The cost: $10,000. reinforcing state intervention and League. Our purpose, at this meeting control of the trade unions and 2) and everywhere, is to draw the class line The Partisan Defense Committee has undertaken to raise the funds creating the illusion that the work­ in defense work. Our motion for defense necessary for this operation, one which will determine if Marcos can ing class can fight the trade-union of victimized trade unionists on an anti­ again dedicate himself with his fullest abilities to the cause of the bureaucracy and divisions in the sectarian basis and for the independence oppressed. The PDC solicits and welcomes your financial support in working class by reliance on the of the union movement as a whole from this effort. bourgeois state, therefore be it the bosses and their state is a step RESOLVED: That NLG legal toward building support for class­ assistance should be given to struggle defense policies. For those who o Enclosed please find my contribution of $ to aid the campaign on I members of the labor movement disagree with us, we welcome open behalf of Fernando Marcos (Make payable to Partisan Defense Committee political debate conducted according to and earmark "Marcos Fund. ') !" under attack from the bosses r andlor their state-not to suits the norms of workers democracy. We o Enclosed please find my contribution of $ to aid the work of the which bring the government into hope that NLG members who have Partisan Defense Committee. questions about our trade-union de­ union affairs and which, therefore, Name _ attack the unions, and be it further fense motion or other matters will seek out PDC supporters at this conference. RESOLVED: Such legal Address _ II assistance should be given to those Like the ILD, our policy is the policy . within the workers movement on an of the class struggle. It is the PDC's City/State/Zip ~ _ •II anti-sectarian basis-not on the policy today, when it is unpopular in the National Lawyers Guild, and it will be .., basis ofpolitical agreement with the -I our policy in the future when we hope workers under attack. -I many who are here in Boston will come Partisan Defense Committee ~ to see the need for an organization l 15 April 1977 Box 633, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013. (212) 925-2426 ~ which carries out class-struggle defense. ~ Jacob Braun Box 6729, Main Post Office, Chicago, IL 60680 Valerie West Keep the state out of the labor • Box 26078, Edendale Station, Los Angeles, CA 90026 Rachel Wolkenstein movement-Vote for the PDC motion! Build the Partisan Defense Box 5555, San Francisco, CA 94101 ! PARTISAN DEFENSE Committee! The Partisan Defense Committee is a class- struggle. anti-sectanan legal deTens~ QrQanlzalion -I COMMITTEE -Partisan Defense Committee wn,cn IS In accoraance With tne_political views of the Spartacist League 16 April 1977 22 APRIL 1977 7

.. could not be, and was not intended to "Human be, accepted by Moscow. James Reston of the New York Times Rights" (I April) hailed the Carter/ Vance "two­ tiered" SALT proposal as "the most revolutionary arms proposal since the Crusade ... beginning ofthe Cold War." Ifthere was (continued from page 1) anything "revolutionary" about it, it health, education and housing stand­ could only be that no one had previously ards which American "democracy" put forward a proposal so obviously finds too expensive. There is even intended to strengthen the U.S. position opposition to ratifying the genocide in strategic weaponry vis avis the Soviet convention, since it would require the Union. It was not a negotiating position government to prosecute Nazi war so much as a slap in the face, which is criminals now living in the U.S. (see how Brezhnev took it. "How U.S. Opened Doors to Nazi War Criminals," WV No. 152, 8 April). "Linkages" II Carter's real aim is the more effective The original SALT agreement in May utilization of UN agencies and forums 1972 called for a U.S. arsenal of 2,358 by the imperialist propaganda mills, or land-based and submarine-launched (as in Korea, the Congo and the Near missiles for the USSR and 1,710 for the I East) as a cover of"international peace­ U.S. In November 1974 in Vladivostok, keeping" to mask Western military Gerald Ford and Brezhnev agreed upon intervention. Having inherited near equal limitations of 2,400 missile I universal opprobrium for U.S adven­ launchers, of which 1,320 could be f tures as world gendarme following the armed with MIRV (multiple independ­ r Vietnam debacle, Carter is seeking to ently targetable re-entry vehicle) war­ WV Photo enlist the imperialist "den of thieves" for heads. In Moscow, Vance proposed that his campaign to "make the world safe a total ceiling of 1,800 to 2,000 strategic Washington demonstration last Saturday called for dropping Indictments for democracy," 1970's-style. against Local 6 pressmen. missiles be permitted, of which 1,100­ "Linkages" I 1,200 would be "mirved." In addition, The Soviet bureaucracy welcomed "heavy" rocket launchers would be cut State Backs Off Felony CharD!!! Jimmy Carter to the White House with back from a maximum of 308 to 150. guarded praise, declaring that his This was the so-called inaugural address gave "deep satisfac­ "comprehensive package." The "defer­ Drop All Charges Against tion" to "all sober people" and hailing ral option" would confirm the levels his vague talk of doing away with agreed to at Vladivostok and write them nuclear weapons. Russian Communist into a SALT 11 treaty to take effect when Washington Post Pressmen! Party general secretary Leonid Brezh­ SALT I runs out this fall. Under the nev spoke of a "new major advance in "comprehensive package," American WASH INGTON, D.C., April 16-­ on minor misdemeanor charges such as relations between our countries" (see "Cruise" missiles of "intercontinental" Approximately 200 people, most of disorderly conduct. "Dissidents and Cold Warriors," WV range (unspecified) would be banned them trade unionists, marched here The indictment of the 15 was the No. 144, II February). But even though and limits placed on the Soviet "Back­ today in defense of the 15 Washington culmination of a vicious union-busting the Kremlin had muted its customary fire" (Tupolev A-G) bomber. On the Post pressmen charged with sabotaging drive by Post owner Katherine Graham wishful thinking on detente, it was in for "deferral" plan, no limits would be the presses at the start of a bitter strike against Local 6 in which 204 union a rude shock. placed on either weapon. by Local 6 of the International Printing pressmen were replaced by scabs and The new U.S. president had criticized On the third day of negotiations, a and Graphic Communications Union subjected to a nationwide blacklist. his Republican predecessors, former Soviet team headed by Brezhnev walked (IPGCU) against the paper. Local 6 struck the Post on I October secretary of state Henry Kissinger in into the conference room, rejected both Demonstrators gathered for a rally on 1975 when management, after months particular, for presuming a "linkage" American "options" and ended the McPherson Square and then marched of secret preparations' (including train­ between the issue of the Soviet regime's session in less than an hour. The U.S. through downtown Washington past ing management scabs at an industry treatment of dissidents and progress in delegation professed shock and dismay. the Post building. Among the marchers school for strikebreakers), switched strategic arms limitation talks (SALT). In the following days, the liberal press were contingents from IPGCU, District over from linotype to computerized However, in the wake of Carter's UN was filled with a debate over whether 1199, locals of the United Electrical, photocomposition production in the speech, where he made his anti­ Washington had "miscalculated" the Radio and Machine Workers (UE), and dead of the night. Graham's aim was to Communist "human rights" crusade the Soviet response, whether the Russian the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. oust the union and force layoffs, drastic cornerstone of an aggressive U.S. rejection was {he result· of Carter's Among left groups present were the wage cuts and vicious "management foreign policy, Brezhnev reaffirmed this "human-rights" blithering and what had Center for United Labor Action, the prerogatives" in production down the "linkage" by denouncing"Washington's happened to detente. Workers League, and the African pressmen's throats. After five months of claims to teach others how to live." The "nyet" in Moscow had nothing Liberation Support Committee. A halfheartedly respecting the Local 6 "I will repeat again," he said. "We will do to with "miscalculations," as Carter Spartacist League / Spartacus Youth picket lines, the other pressroom unions not tolerate interference in our internal himself admitted. In the first place, the League contingent carried a banner decided to scab and the strike went affairs by anyone and under any pretext. Vladivostok agreement included the reading "Bosses' Government Out of down to crushing defeat. A normal development of relations on cruise missile in the quotas for rocket the Labor Movement! Drop All Defense of the 15 pressmen, framed such a basis is, of course, unthinkable" launchers. (The U.S., basing itself on the ;• Charges Against the Post Pressmen!" up for their courageous struggle for the (New York Times, 22 March). Carter's fact that the accord was never pu­ The demonstration had been called to survival of the printing trades unions, is flippant response was: "Some people are blished, claims that it put limits only on coincide with the scheduled Monday of crucial importance to the entire labor concerned every time Brezhnev "ballistic" missiles, therefore excluding opening of the pressmen's trial on a slew movement. Although the state has now sneezes"-but not this cold-warrior. the cruise missile which is essentially a of phony charges ranging from rioting . decided, under pressure, to drop the The next day Carter called for a huge pilotless airplane.) Secondly, the Tupo­ to grand larceny to assault with a deadly felony charges, the men nevertheless increase in the budgets of American lev A-G bomber is not a strategic weapon. It was partly to head off the face jail sentences of up to two years and government propaganda radio stations weapon, since it cannot reach the U.S. growing support for the pressmen that are still without their jobs. Thus today's aimed at the Soviet bloc. without refueling. Moreover, the "Back­ the District of Columbia Superior demonstration was an important state­ Voice of America broadcasts to the fire" is already deployed (in central I Court decided on April 14 to drop all ment that the fight to stop the jailings Soviet Union and East Europe would be Europe), while the American cruise ;; felony charges against the defendants in and drop all the charges must be increased by 25 percent, while the missile program is still in the develop­ i exchange for agreement to plead guilty continued.• transmitting capacities of Radio Free ment stage. In short, the Russians were Europe and Radio Liberty would be being asked to give up a sizeable nearly doubled. The latter two stations something for nothing at all. were operated by the CIA during the Equally important are the numerical 1950's and 1960's, specializing in viru­ cuts implied in the "comprehensive" Workers Young lent counterrevolutionary propaganda. U.S. proposal. Since the American Since U.S. government sponsorship has arsenal includes a smaller number of Vanguard been openly admitted, they now put on strategic missiles than the proposed Spartacus an appearance of "professional" news 1,800-2,000 limit, it would not have to MARXIST WORKING-CLASS WEEKLY OF THE SPARTACIST LEAGUE analysis. However, both stations contin­ destroy any rockets; the USSR, on the MONTHLY NEWSPAPER OF THE ue to be notorious CIA fronts, staffed in other hand, would have to destroy at One year subscription (48 issues): $5­ SPARTACUS YOUTH LEAGUE least 400 missiles and possibly double Introductory oHer: (16 issues): $2. Interna­ many cases with ex-Nazis. tionatrates: 48 issues-$20 airmail/$5 sea Make checks payable/mail to: To slightly alter von Clausewitz' that number. The "heavy" missiles are mail;' 16 introductory issues-$5 airmail. Sparlacus Youth Publishing Co., famous statement, diplomacy is the the only area where the Soviet Union Make checks payable/mail to: Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, Box 825, Canal Street Station, continuation of war by other means. has superiority over the U.S. (which has NY 10001 New York, N.Y. 10013 This was certainly brought home at the no such missiles); here the Russians -includes SPARTACIST Name _ SALT negotiations in Moscow at the would have to cut their existing force in half, and again the U.S. would cut Name _ end of March. Ifthere was any ambigui­ Address _ ty in the "signals" Carter had been nothing. Address _ City _ sending to Brezhnev, these were cleared While much of the U.S. boqrgeois press thundered Vituperation against City _ State Zip _ up with the arrogant and deliberately 154 one-sided "disarmament" proposals "Soviet intransigence," and liberal State Zip__._ presented by U.S secretary of state reporters wrote of miscalculations, 154 SUBSCRIBE NOW! Cyrus Vance. The American position Newsweek (II April) let the cat out of SUBSCRIBE NOW! $2/11 issues was certainly not welcomed by "all the bag. The American negotiating sober people" in the Soviet leadership. It proposal was' "weighted in favor of the I 8 WORKERS VANGUARD • !!

U.S. in several instances," it admitted: ment to get the Kremlin to relinquish in vain to protect his rule through the defeated in the field of battle. "It sought severe limits on large missiles some of its heavy SS-18 missiles" (New League of Nations, the Laval pact with The bureaucracies of the Russian with heavy throw-weights, in which the York Times, 5 April). . France and then the pact with Hitler. degenerated workers state-and of the Soviets have a sizable lead. It proposed Today his heirs seek refuge in pipe­ deformed workers states from East sharp restrictions on the number of According to the Times, this was a land-based missiles with multiple "significant shift" of the White House dreams of nuclear disarmament and Germany to Vietnam and Cuba-fear warheads-on which the Soviets are position toward views long held by the everlasting 'peaceful coexistence. above all the explosion of proletarian relying for future defense. And on cruise Joint Chiefs of Staff (who claimed that Despite the Stalinist usurpation of revolution, which would directly and missiles-in which U.S. technology has political power in the USSR, fundamen­ immediately threaten their precarious a big lead-- it proposed that only those the original SALT negotiations were a with the longest range be excluded from giveaway to the Russians). This was tal social gains of the 1917 Bolshevik privileged position. A real defense ofthe SALT limitations...." underscored in Carter's press confer­ Revolution remain. To defend the social gains of the countries which have collectivized property forms of the smashed capitalist rule cannot be based It then quoted Carter's cold war hawk ence following the breakdown of arms Soviet Union, no confidence can be on Soviet diplomatic maneuvers, but on national security adviser Zbigniew control negotiations. If he determined placed in ephemeral and empty "disar­ the mobilization of the working people Brzezinski claiming the U.S. had done its the USSR were refusing to bargain in mament" negotiations. While state in defense of their vital interests. This best to come up with an "equitable" "good faith," said Carter, than "I would control of production has permitted the Brezhnevs and Huas can never package. be forced to consider a much more deep "The Soviets did not see things that commitment to the development and tremendous technological jumps, sym­ accomplish. way. To them, the deferral plan was deployment of additional weapons." In bolized by the sputnik, the U.S. remains On the one hand, a hapless search for nothing more than a recycled version of short, all the talk of eliminating nuclear well ahead in war technology. The detente with imperialism; on the other, a proposal they have rejected twice Pentagon has developed every major rigid suppression of workers democracy weapons becomes nothing but an excuse already on the ground that it handed the military advance-atomic bomb, hy­ at home -this is the necessary program lJ .5. a nuclear advantage. The compre­ for stepping up war preparations. hensive plan was equally untenable, drogen bomb, nuclear submarines, of the Stalinist bureaucracies. Trotsky­ Gromyko said. It 'proposed to liquidate MIRV warheads and now the cruise ists warn that the pro-imperialist views half the rockets in our possession... " he Oust the Stalinist Bureaucracy! missile. In the face of this threat, any of many in the current generation of contended. Certainly the arithmetic Defend the Gains of October! rotten liberalism by the Kremlin rulers "Soviet dissidents" hold no answers for seemed to support his view. Under the in arms control bargaining poses grave the working people who wish to move most severe limits, the Soviets would Trotskyists are unconditional defend­ threats to the existence of the Soviet forward to socialism; nevertheless, we have to scrap as many as 3,980 war­ ers of the Soviet Union against heads while the U. S. would not lose one; state. defend the right to free expression of Moscow would have to eliminate 740 imperialist attack. The only "human right" that Carter and his ilk would Brezhnev and Gromyko rejected those who do not advocate or engage in strategic bombers and missiles to Carter's arrogant, sabre-rattling SALT direct counterrevolutionary activity. America's 329. 'What kind of stability is bring to the Soviet Union is the "right" thatT Gromyko asked." of the capitalists to ruthlessly exploit proposal. But their "answer" is to appeal The Sakharovs of the USSR get and oppress the working people. to the lagging spirit of detente. Farfrom plenty of publicity for their reactionary SALTing Away Detente seeking the spread of world revolution, views; it is the job of revolutionary Revolutionary Russia under Lenin the Kremlin bureaucrats hope that by communists to denounce the repression Immediately after the Russian and Trotsky depended above all on the appearing reasonable they can appease against the unknown oppositionists in .rejection of these proposals-which no mobilization of the international work­ the imperialists. Thus during the agoniz­ the Soviet Union, the workers jailed for Soviet leader in his right mind could ing class to defend the USSR from the ing Vietnam War, Moscow (and Pek­ striking, the intellectuals sent to "psy­ accept-Western leaders began beating threat of international counterrevolu­ ing) consistently refused to supply chiatric hospitals" for seeking to follow the propaganda drums. "The sense in tion. In contrast, the parasitic bureauc­ North Vietnam with adequate weapon­ the path of Lenin. The fullest soviet Washington today is that President racy that has ruled the country since the ry to defend itselfagainst the terror raids democracy is required to truly defend Carter is being put to the test by the degeneration of the October Revolution of American B-52's. Eventually a U.S. the gains of October, and this can be Soviet leadership-a test that, perhaps under Stalin puts its faith in a deal with withdrawal was "negotiated," but only obtained only through workers political unintentionally, he brought upon him­ imperialism. In the 1930's Stalin sought because the American army had been revolution, led by a Trotskyist vanguard self with his vigorous public diplomacy party, in the degenerated/ deformed on human rights and arms control," workers states; and social revolution in wrote the New York Times (I April). An the capitalist countries that sweeps the "experienced Congressional observer" scourge of capitalist militarism from the was quoted as saying, "This is Khrush­ earth forever. • i chev and Kennedy all over again," Demonstrate A~ril 22! I recalling the 196 I Berlin crisis and 1962 f Cuban missile crisis. I I At the same time as they hypocritically claimed to be "tested," Fernando the imperialists gloated over the propa­ I ganda benefits. "The Administration 100 at Teach-In to I evidently feels it has gained a propagan­ Marcos ... ~ da advantage by offering what the (continued from page 7) President called 'drastic' reductions Keep Kissinger Off fact that one of the first contributors to aimed at putting a real cap on the arms the Marcos fund drive was a veteran of I race and putting the Kremlin on the the suffragist movement in the U.S. defensive by coming out against such College professors and students have l reductions," said the Times. The conser­ Columbia Campus . been an important source of funds for vative British business weekly, the the campaign. Church groups, legai Economist (9 April), echoed this senti­ workers, Latin American support APRIL 19-About 100 people, includ­ legitimate exercise of academic ment: "By a master stroke of Soviet groups, supporters of the Committee to ing representatives of the bourgeois freedom. diplomacy, Mr. Brezhnev has now "But Henry Kissinger is not just an Save Mario Munoz as well as subscrib­ press, attended an anti-Kissinger teach­ presented himself to the world as the apologist for imperialism, although he ers to Workers Vanguard have also in tonight at New York's Columbia cut his academic spurs by elevating pure great opponent of disarmament as well made valuable contributions on behalf University. The teach-in, organized by imperialist power politics to the level of as of human rights." of Marcos. the Ad Hoc Committee to Keep Kissing­ 'theory.' This man was the main orchestrator of the Christmas bombing Notable was a" social gathering Secretary of State Vance at first er Off Campus, was part ofa continuing of Vietnam; the coordinator of the recently held in New Jersey, where expressed "disappointment," then said militant campaign to prevent Dr. Henry 'Forty Committee' which aided the friends interested in hearing about the perhaps there had been "miscalcula­ Kissinger, architect ofAmerican imperi­ Chilean right in preparation for the defense work of the PDC and particu­ tion." But after being corrected by the alism's terror bombings of Vietnam, bloody Pinochet coup, and the oily diplomat for lJ .S. imperialism who has larly the Marcos cause raised over $300 White House press secretary on this from assuming a teaching position in the backed the vicious white-supremacist toward the $10,000 goal. point, he swung into line, saying: "To Political Science department ofthis "Ivy regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa. Basing its work on the traditions of them [Soviet leaders] everything is League" university. The Ad Hoc Com­ Henry Kissinger must be driven away the International Labor Defense (ILD) going their way. I don't think they're in mittee, which led a demonstration on from Columbia-not for his views, but under its founder James P. Cannon and any mood to negotiate." U.S. secretary March 25 against this" outrageous for his deeds." the sterling defense record of the of defense Harold Brown doubted that a travesty of "academic freedom," organ­ Tonight's teach-in featured a film, Spartacist League, the PDC welcomes r new arms control agreement could be ized the teach-in to publicize its call for a "U.S. Techniques of Torture and r the letter of a supporter in Cleveland: t" negotiated before SALT I ran out in demonstration to be held at I:00 p.m. Genocide in Vietnam," which graph­ ( "... Not since the days of the ILD have October, commenting: "It's too early to this Friday, April 22, at the Columbia ically reminded the audience of the J we seen in this cpuntry the kind of P' tell if the Soviets are interested in rough sundial. atrocities perpetrated by U.S. imperial­ vigorous internat'ional class struggle r equivalence or in strategic superiority." ism against the working people of fr The anti-Kissinger campaign has defense campaigns that the PDC now In point offact, it is the Pentagon that Vietnam. The speakers included Colum­ drawn the fire of the liberal-bourgeois has been waging a campaign to preserve bia professor Alexander Erlich, who wages." opinion-makers, who charge the dem­ Support the fund drive for Fernando its "strategic superiority." First there was forcefully insisted that war criminals onstrators with advocating political Marcos today-assist the POC in the "Team B" report on Soviet military like Kissinger must not be permitted to censorship (New York Times editorial, reaching its goal of$10,0001 Only $4,000 capabilities, asserting the Russians don the robes of academic respectabili­ 14 April). This is nonsense. An open more to go. Support today can indeed sought "superiority," not parity of ty. "We don't want to be a dumping letter to the Times distributed today by make the difference. In summing up the striking power-thereby giving grist to ground for uncommon criminals with I the Spartacus Youth League (SYL), campaign, we quote from a letter from the mills of military hawks who seek to PhD's," he said. which initiated the Ad Hoc Committee, the PDC to the editor ofthe New HatJen raise the war budget. Then came the Other featured speakers were explained: Advocate (6 April 1977): CIA's doubling of its estimate of the representatives of the Ad Hoc Commit­ "At issue here is not academic freedom "Despite recent cosmetic actions, the percentage ofthe USSR's gross national tee, SYL, Political Science Graduate Chilean generals continue to imprison, at Columbia University. The presti­ Students Opposed to the Appointment product expended on the military gious faculties of Columbia shelter a torture and murder thousands of (achieved by statistical sleight of hand, plethora of well-salaried conservative of Kissinger, Militant-Solidarity Cau­ political opponents both within the through doubling the GNP estimate!). professors fully capable of arguing in cus of the National Maritime Union, country's borders and around the world defense of American imperialism and­ (e.g., Orlando Leteher). Restoring the On the SALT negotiations, "Adminis­ Federaci6n Universitarios Socialista sight of Fernando Marcos would be tration officials acknowledged that the unlike the Spartaeus Youth League­ Puertorriqueno and United Farm fully free to voice their opinions on both a symbolic victory for all the far­ Government was trying to use Soviet Workers. flung South American leftist refugees campus without the slightest adminis­ L' Keep Kissinger OffCampus! Demon­ and a material contribution to the fears about the development of the tration harassment. The ventilation of W , such opinion must be regarded as a strate on April 22! struggle against the junta.". Americ,an cruise missile as an induce- ·1 ·.', 22 APRIL 1977 9 , iii •::'1 t -I ~I r River Rouge Tool and Die unit) and could endorse. The United Coalition of may well prove simply to be the UAW Local Pete Kelly. local 51. an amalgam of a few I.S. precursor to a more egregiously 0Pror­ Though the discontent of LJ AW surrortcrs and black local officials. got tunist line than in the past. The Ol.'s Elections ... skilled tradesmen is great, the ISTC se\eral delegates elected and recently basic commitment is to being the most does not attempt to lead them in a c1ass­ reC\lI11mcnded acceptance of the Local (continued from page 12) slavish mimics for every twist and turn struggle direction, nor link up their contract (which had been turned down of the Chinese Stalinist bureaucracy. began to rise, too. In the 1976 contract grievances with the numerically pre­ hy the membership twice). It contained. Given Peking's rapprochement with talks the largest no vote in the UAW dominant production workers. Instead said the coalition. "many important LJ .S. imperialism and every "Third history was recorded among production the ISTC panders to the backwardness imrrovemcnts"-like more cops in the World" despot who will visit the workers at the "target" company, Ford. of the militant but politically conserva­ parking lots. fixing the plant roof and Heavenly Palace, the anti-Soviet OL In the skilled trades. ratification was tive tradesmen by peddling parochial­ hot food! must end up in a bloc with the sabre­ secured only by altering the method of ism and protectionism (Gardener ran In Local 869, Chrysler's Warren rattling bourgeoisie and their lieuten­ vote counting. for re-election in 1975 on the slogan Stamping Plant, Dave McCullough ants in the labor movement. The OL's Since the national agreements were "American work for American work­ (described in Workers' Power as a long­ evaluation of Leonard Woodcock may signed in the fall, a substantial number ers"). Its main issue during the last time member of the I.S.) wasjust elected in fact change very quickly ifWoodcock of local contracts has been rejected. contract negotiations was the blatantly vice-president. The 28 March Workers' ends up in Peking sipping champagne "Official" strikes over local conditions, undemocratic demand that tradesmen Power asked what his campaign plat­ with Hua Kuo-feng. plus a recent spate of "unauthorized" be given a veto over UAW contracts. form was: "I haven't really promised to At another important East Coast strikes. could signal a new round ofclass The ISTC has scarcely opposed the do anything," McCullough replied, plant, Tarrytown, NY, GM, pro­ struggle between the auto workers and discrimination which keeps the trades "except what you expect of a union International officials of Local 664 got the capitalists. nearly all white. And so far, the ISTC official: fight the company, use the rid of their opposition by simply ruling has not moved to publicly defend power that the people have." Such them off the ballot. Led by Bill Scott, Detroit: Loyal "Opposition" in Jordan Sims, the UNCs only prominent empty rhetoric is a dime a dozen in the who is described as a Communist Party Disarray black spokesman. who was recently UAW. The I.S. is preparing its members (CP) supporter in the CP's Daily World, deposed by the International from the for "leadership," i.e., absorption into 14 candidates who were among 1,800 The UAW sports a variety of "dissi­ Local 961 presidency. the bureaucracy, by becoming indistin­ laid off in 1975 and recalled only six dent" currents. However, they usually Although Pete Kelly ran against guishable from it. months ago were declared ineligible play on the dissatisfaction of the Woodcock for the UAW presidency at because they had not been in "good membership only to knuckle under to the last convention, Kelly is not even East Coast standing for 12 continuous months" their superiors in the hierarchy on every running for delegate this year. Both prior to the elections. This was because crucial occasion. Their pessimistic Gardener and Kelly told a WV reporter Outside of Michigan, where the union they had not paid union dues while on cynicism reinforced by the layoff­ that they did not know if they would is concentrated, the Woodcock! Fraser layoff. induced passivity of the auto workers even oppose Fraser at the upcoming steamroller carried most locals handily. It is hard to believe that Scott, a over the past period. these loyal "oppo­ convention, though a number of ISTC For example, at the Ford assembly former Local shop chairman, was so sitionists" are now especially demoral­ delegates have been elected. Gardener plant in Mahwah. New Jersev, Local ignorant of the UAW's constitutional ized and prostrate. added that. if Fraser came out for the 906 president Joe Reilly's "Brother­ requirement to maintain dues while laid Frank Runnels, president of Cadillac referendum vote for International offi­ hood" slate won virtually every office off. Nevertheless. this provision is Local 22 in Detroit, has for the last few cers (the same system used in the highly and delegate slot. Since breaking a unjust and imposes a hardship on laid­ years been grooming himself for higher bureaucratized Steelworkers and Na­ wildcat four years ago and purging a off workers. UAW members should union office by playing a mildly dissi­ tional Maritime Union). "we'd have a number of militants, Reilly has run the fight to remove this restrictive, disen­ dent role. He is chairman of the hell of a time not supporting him." Local with a dictatorial hand. gaining franchising clause from their constitu­ "National Short Work Week Commit­ Though Fraser is unlikely to do this, it Ford's eager cooperation. tion and defend the right of Scott and tee" which calls for a vaguely defined cut indicates the rather low asking price of Throughout this period, the only his supporters (and all laid-off UAW in work time and is allied with the the ISTC. organized opposition to the Reilly members) to run for office. pressure group "30 and Out Committee" machine has been the Militant Solidari­ (also made up of local bureaucrats) led I.S. in Chaos ty Caucus (MSC). While other "opposi­ Chicago by Hugh Oginsky of Flint GM Local The other main component of the tionists." like supporters of the October In the Chicago area, a co-thinker of 599. Runnels recently told WVofhisall­ has-been UNC, supporters of the social­ League (OL) and Revolutionarv Com­ "Auto~orkers Scott's, Norm Roth, was elected dele­ out support to Fraser: "I think Fraser democratic I.S., has always pushed a munist Party-backed gate from Local 6 (International Har­ will make a very good president. I'm narrowly economist and purely reform­ United to Fight" (AWU F) cowered vester). Roth is co-chairman of the CP­ very enthused over his position on the ist program, moving steadily to the right quietly in the wings only to emerge at backed Auto Workers Action Caucus four day work week." Having been in a fruitless search for easy popularity. election time. the MSC has stood toe-to­ (AWAC). This seJdom-heard-from indicted several months ago for alleged­ toe with Reilly and borne the full brunt The failures of the I.S. "get rich quick" creation was formed several years ago ly running a workmen's compensation of Ford's harassment. schemes periodically generate internal when some members of the UNC kickback racket and with charges opposition, for which the I.S. has a The MSC candidates, Richie Bradley decided that it was too "anti­ in his local of vote fraud in the ready solution: expulsion. In 1973, the for convention delegate and Ron Paint­ leadership"! Roth and AWAC's other recent elections (which his slate swept) I.S. expelled about 100 of its dissident er for sub-council delegate, ran on their co-chairman, Lasker Smith from Local Runnels may have decided that now is members and, just a few weeks ago, militant record and a full program of 2, demonstrated what that meant in not the time to rock the boat. purged nearly another 100 grouped in transitional demands, including: yearly practice by voting for Woodcock's re­ The United National Caucus (UNC) the so-called "Left Faction." elections, conventions and contract; election at the last convention. grew out ofthe skilled trades' Dollar-an­ While the split heavily intersected union control of hiring to fight discrimi­ Now retired, Roth spiced up his Hour movement in 1967. Comprised of clique loyalties in the I.S., one of the nation; full rights for women, including campaign with a blatant appeal to bureaucratic aspirers, a few ex-radicals evident "sins" of the "Left Faction" was maternity leave and free child care; no reactionary protectionist sentiment, and disgruntled skilled tradesmen, the its criticism ofthe I.S.' increasingly crass deportations of, and full citizenship stating, "We must win legislation to UNC later caught the attention of the opportunism, and, in particular, its rights for, all foreign-born workers; restrict the multi-national corporations International Socialists (I.S.) which embarrassing accusations concerning union defense guards against racist so we can keep ourjobs at home." Roth, sought to give the UNC a "rank-and-file attacks; the full right to strike over all who praises "detente" for providingjobs production worker" tilt. Though always the I.S.' latest "mass work" ploy in auto, the "Coalition for a Good Contract" grievances without International au­ at Harvester through extensive tractor concentrated in Detroit, for some years (CGC): thorization; a shorter workweek to orders from Eastern Europe, might sing it was the only organized opposition "Instead of fighting for a rank and file make jobs for all; and a break with the another tune on the values ofeconomic caucus with even a semblance of movement independent of the trade Democrats-for a workers party and a protectionism if Soviet bloc workers national influence. union bureaucracy. in the CGC, (with workers government to expropriate took up the call: "keep our jobs at Ten years after its "birth," the UNC is the rank and file disinterested) the IS capitalist industry and run a planned home." ne~rly dead. It has largely dissolved into increasingly supported and promoted opportunists in the bureaucracy­ economy in the interests of the working Auto workers have no interest in its constituent elements. The skilled Runnels. Oginsky. Weissman. etc. people. fighting each other along national lines "trades mainstay of the UNC is now "There is always a price for this policy. for a shrinking number of jobs. Protec­ largely grouped in the Independent When there was a wildcat strike at Bradley polled 409 votes for conven­ tionism, high tariffs and import quotas Skilled Trades Council (ISTC) led by Al Weissman's TwinSburg, Ohio plant on tion delegate, outdistancing his late­ direct workers away from their real Gardener (past president of the Ford Nov. 5. 1976-a strike Weissman coming competitors; Doug Niehouse of helped break, denouncing the picketers enemy: the capitalist auto giants. Two as 'screwballs.' 'young single guys who AWUF got 190 votes and the OL candidates in the Local 6 elections, just wanted a night out' (Cleveland supporter Tom Cocke got 299. Painter Mark Freedman and Judson Jones of Plain Dealer. Nov. 7). Workers' Po .....er received 223 votes for sub-council the Labor Struggle Caucus (LSC) was silent. Worse. in December. Work­ Now Available as a Pamphlet! delegate. pointed out in a leaflet distributed to the ers' Po .....er again singled Weissman out The shallowness of the OL's current The Fight to Implement for praise. while claiming that the plant: membership of his local 'did not become "left turn" in trade-union work was "Nixon! Ford! Carter try to mobilize us Busing active in the struggle against the sellout.' shown most clearly by OL supporter against our Japanese and German class For Labor/Black Defense to Stop (Dec. 13. 1976)" Sandy Richardson's race for committee­ brothers and sisters and our 'leaders' Racist Attacks and to Smash Fascist - Left Faction "Draft" man. Though the OL is now shouting, pant and bark with approval and active Threats support like good lap dogs. with their If the I.S. can back strikebreaker "Throw the bureaucrats out!" and rabidly national chauvinist protection­ Price: 75C Weissman, why not Doug Fraser? This "Build a class struggle UA W, " for years ist 'buy America' schemes. Theirfunda­ Make checks payable/mail to: is evidently not to be ruled out. The they have posed barely to the left of the mental policy is the preservation of Spartacus Youth Publishing Co., Box 825, "Left Faction" noted: " ... the National union bureaucracy, seeking to ingratiate profit-hungry. racist, sexist, war­ Canal St. Station, New York, N.Y. 10013 Secretary announced at the auto frac­ themselves whenever possible. Richard­ mongering. anti-labor capitalism." tion during the National Convention son, for example, has been an alternate Though the LSC candidates were not that the I.S. might find itself supporting committeeman in Local 906 for three elected, they were the only ones to Doug Fraser. ..." years, but has never taken the union SPARTACIST edition fran~aise If the I. S. is not yet allied with Fraser. floor to denounce or oppose the Wood­ ABONNEZ-VOUS pour louie commande s'adresser it: it is only because these opportunists can cock! Reilly regime. His new found Pascal Alessandrl Spartaclst Publishing Co. see no percentage in it at the present "militancy" was neither believable nor Le Bolchevik B.P. 336 Box 1377, GPO time. But I.S.-supported candidates well-received: Richardson got only nine pUblication de la Ligue Trotskyste de France 75011 Paris New York, N.Y. 10001 FRANCE USA have been running (getting themselves votes. pour toute correspondance: Like the Stalinists' "Third Period" Pascal Alessandri, B.P. 336, 75011 Paris, 3,00 F.F. $.75 US/Canada elected in a few cases) on programs that . France a large section of the UAW bureaucracy dual unionism, the OL's mock "leftism" 10 WORKERS VANGUARD provide a class-struggle alternative to porters scattered in a few locals makes a minimal strike effort in the Northeast if the likes of Roth and the pro­ national opposition. But the fight for shippers had simply diverted cargo to Chicago Red International flunkeys who were elected influence in the labor movement is not a ports from North Carolina to Texas. [ in other Chicago-area locals. circus sideshow shell game. Influence in However, eventually the Southern ports Squad... ( the labor movement must proceed did go out with the strike, with long­ West Coast shoremen refusing to handle cargo of (continued from page 5) through the construction of authorita­ Il tive class-struggle caucuses firmly root­ thc seven struck companies. The pattern of bureaucratic victory .spying. including a 10 March Sun­ ed in the membership of the unions. The official strike demands included a I held true on the West Coast as well. At Times editorial railing that "outra­ I which can. on the basis of real support. pay hike from $8 to $10 an hour, doublc I, the Van Nuys and Southgate GM plants geous" police spying against the ISA, succeed in ousting the labor fakers. time for weekends and holidays. larger I near L.A., no one was elected who can "who simply march about chanting in r Because groups like CMUAW will employer contributions to health and be expected to give Fraser any difficulty. Persian," is a waste of the taxpayers' not be on the convention floor in Los pension funds, and a reduction in the :', Former western states Regional Direc­ money. The radical-chic "alternative" , Angeles. Leonard Woodcock will pass workweek from 40 to 32 hours. Clearly, tor Paul Shrade, who supported Fraser paper. the Reader has been running its · the baton to Doug Fraser without great however, these demands were not meant · for International president in 1970 and own version of the Red Squad expose, i difficulty. The scattered complaints of seriously. was subsequently dumped in a vindic­ written by David Moberg, mouthpiece • house-trained fake oppositionists who When Gleason ordered a return to I tive Woodcock-engineered coup, told for the social-democratic New America I may be there will only provide a foil for work, he won none of them, nor any WVthat he was unemployed and would Movement. An article in the 14 Febru­ • Solidarity House. concession whatsoever! Instead he •, not be running for delegate. The left­ ary edition makes the shameless asser­ , But the harassed and sped-up auto settled for a petition to be filed with the liberal Shrade, however, may well tion that massive spying was only workers cannot remain in the bureauc­ Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) regain some position in the union when "petty-bourgeois bureaucratic idiocy," a racy's grip forever. The conditions for by the seven struck steamship compan­ Fraser takes the reins. mere thing of the past. Echoing the new class battles in auto are ripening. ies, which was to demand that a tariff The elections in Fremont's Local liberal claptrap of the Sun- Times, When the masses of auto workers begin concession which inland consolidators 1364, held in the wake of the four-day Moberg demands that the cops do some to take up the program of groups like receive be repealed. Supposedly this will strike there, provided a clear opportuni­ "bona fide crime-stopping." The real the CM UAW, the days of Doug Fraser's divert work from the warehouses back ty for contending slates to draw the criminals, however, are the cops and the scab-herding will be numbered.• to the docks. However, as the Wall lessons of the strike and the treacherous capitalist state they protect. Iranian Street Journal (19 April) observed, role of the International. The Local students, blacks, the left and labor hearings before the FMC "could last for leadership, which called the strike, movements will be spied on, harassed months." In any case, the federal and shot down until the bourgeoisie's found itself caught in a squeeze between government, which has jurisdiction over the International and a hardline man­ monopoly of violence is smashed the NLRB as well as the FMC, has agement and shamelessly ended the through victorious proletarian ILA ... amply demonstrated its intention to revolution. struggle with no gains, drew only the (continued from page 12) replace higher-paid longshore labor most defeatist conclusions: "The events with lower-wage workers. of late (wildcat strike) proved, if nothing small consolidators, ruling that the Hands Off the ISA! The repeal of the 50-mile clause was a else, that we must have some workable contract clause was an "unlawful" real blow which struck primarily at the The Iranian students are extremely means other than strike, of policing and attempt by the ILA to obtain work for ILA membership and not the steam- vulnerable to bourgeois repression~-it correcting irresponsible supervisory its members. This was upheld six months later in aU.S. court of appeals. is imperative that these militants not fall personnel" ("Brotherhood Caucus" into the hands of the racist cops and campaign leaflet). On the West Coast, the 50-mile limit courts! However, the policies of the In a light, largely day-shift, turnout clause, along with the per-container Maoist Revolutionary Communist possibly caused by demoralization in royalty paid to the union, were dumped Party (RCP) and the ex-Trotskyist the wake of the strike's defeat, the from the contract of the International Socialist Workers Party (SWP), which Mays! Nano/ Malone Local leadership Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's believes the blood-soaked FBI/CIA can won the convention slots. Clearly, Union (ILWU) in 1971 following a somehow be reformed, have endangered however, they are prepared only to lead similar suit by an independent shipper. the lives of the ISA through acts of the membership backwards. This led to a wholesale loss ofjobs. But criminal stupidity, provocation and The several groups ofa Maoist bent in even before that ILWU chief Harry fingering. the local only demonstrated their Bridges' notorious "Modernization and The Rep has used ISAers, who can disorientation and impotence. During Mechanization" agreements, which be deported at any moment, as goons the strike, OL supporters, the August accepted cuts in jobs in exchange for a against "Trotskyites" in innumerable 29th Movement and Workers View­ so-called Pay Guarantee Plan (PGP) public demonstrations ringed with point Organization all skirted the clear­ assured the decimation of the longshore trigger-happy ('ops. The SWP's re­ cut issue of defending the shop commit­ force. And with unemployment rapidly sponse to one such incident (in tee members who had been fired. On the increasing the PGP funding has been Houston) was even more criminal. other hand, the AWU F group spent undercut and massive reductions in Last fall the Committee for Artistic and most of the strike trying to get into good benefits have been instituted. Mean­ Intellectual Freedom in Iran (CAIFI) graces with the Mays leadership they while the West Coast longshore work­ and its SW P! YSA sponsors demanded helped to elect i)1 1973. Although none force shrank from 26,000 in 1948 to that the state of Texas prosecute a rival of the strike demands were won and hardly more than 10,000 today. The wing of the ISA for an alleged physical union officials were subjected to com­ government ruling clearly poses a attack. The SWP's Militant (19 Novem­ pany discipline, AWUF idiotically similarly intensified attack on the ILA's ber 1976) reported that a CAIFI declared the strike "a victory ... despite jobs, as well as its pay guarantee. UPI spokesman "says his group will press some setbacks." Despite the seriousness of this threat, ILA president Gleason charges against the attackers." More­ Like AWU F in other locals, and the Gleason conducted a half-hearted over CAIFI smeared the rival ISA • r Revolutionary Communist Party which strike. The strike on the East Coast ship employers. The strike against this students, implying they were SAVAK backs it, the Fremont "On the Line" affected only seven "target" companies: action was entirely just. However agents. While vigorously condemning group combines mindless "militancy" Sea-Land Service, Seatrain Lines, U.S. Gleason's strategy, based upon asserting gangster tactics in the left, the SL with a thoroughly reformist program Lines, Hapag-Lioyd, Atlantic Contain­ that the interests of longshoremen can condemns any court action taken by that miraculously transforms defeated er Lines, Dart and the Russian-flag be defended by forming an alliance with CAIFI, which could easily result in the struggles into victories. AWUF calls for carriers Bait-atlantic and Blasco. The the companies, is a fatal illusion. deportation of those ISA students to more jobs-but opposes the shorter inclusion of Russian flagships was It should have come as no surprise Iran where torture and death await workweek with no loss in pay necessary clearly an anti-Soviet jab by the conser­ that he "settled" the strike without them. -, to get them. AWUF occasionally gripes vative ILA leaders since these lines carry getting anything from the steamship Both wings of the ISA unfortunately about UAW support to the Demo­ only a minute portion of containerized associations and stevedoring firms, for have a long record of rejecting princi­ crats-but opposes the demand for a cargo; this reactionary move must be Gleason does not regard them as the real pled defense efforts and have excluded workers party based on the trade protested by class-conscious dockers. enemy. From the beginning of the the SL from their picket lines. This unions, to fight for a workers govern­ In contrast, Gleason bent over dispute, the ILA bureaucrats have sectarian policy can only narrow and ment. In short, AWUF lacks a program backwards to make this a comfortable moved in step with the bosses. The weaken their defense. The Spartacist upon which to build a new class struggle strike for the shippers. Effects of the hearings before the NLRB pitted the League stands in solidarity with the leadership in the UAW. strike up and down the coast were union together with the steamship Chicago ISA studeJlts now facing The Committee for a Militant UAW minimal. Container shippers not part of owners associations against the inde­ deportation. Defend the ISA in Chicago (CM UAW), which ran Ruth Ryan and the seven target companies, as well as all pendent warehouse operators. Likewise and Houston! Full citizenship rights for Joan Putnam for Local 1364 delegates, bulk cargo, were unaffected. Perishable in the petition before the FMC. foreign workers and students! Down both accurately analyzed the lessons of goods were also exempted from the The ILA cannot maintain its jobs and with the butcher Shah!. the Fremont strike and advanced a "strike." In addition, most of the fleet of standards through a combination with program to combat the International the seven companies affected was at sea. the companies. The spread of container­ and its Local tag-alongs. CMUAW de­ In all. only about 34 ships were affected. ization and the availability of an fended the unions' leaders from com­ In New York, a Waterfront abundant supply of cheap labor inland pany attack. but insisted that the key to Commission spokesman said he didn't has forever doomed the ILA's cozy Limited Edition now available: winning the strike was mass picketing foresee any major pile-up. Here the relationship with the steamship opera­ and extension of the strike, both strike idled only 1,300 men on seven tors. The only way forward is a joint Workers Vanguard expanding the demands and including ships, while over 6,500 longshoremen struggle against the bosses by the in BOUND VOLUMES other UAW locals. Pointing to the were working cargo on another 28 ships. maritime and transport unions, for a Volume 1 includes: continual harassment and speed-up in Meanwhile, the initial response of shorter workweek at no loss in pay. This the plants, CM lJAW demanded the Ralph Massey, president of the ILA's must be combined with a vigorous drive • WV nos. 1-34 junking of Paragraph 117 of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast District, to bring the standards of inland ware­ • Workers Action nos. 7-10 contract, which binds local unions to the was no strike. "We've got a contract housemen to the levels ofthe longshore­ • subject index endless grievance procedure and forbids down here up until September 30 and men, while insuring that unorganized order from/pay to: strikes without the (seldom-given) we're going to live with it until Septem­ workers are brought into unions. Only Spartacist ber 30" (Houston Chronicle, 13 April). in such a fashion can the longshore Publishing Co authorization of the International. $15.00 Box 1377. GPO The various Maoist tendencies This backstabbing "solidarity" could unions on all coasts-Atlantic, Gulf, New York, NY 10001 foolishly think that a few dozen sup- have completely sabotaged even the and Pacific--survive extinction.• i, 22 APRIL 1977 11 WfJlillEIiS ,,1NfifJl1lilJ Fake Op~osition UNC Breaks Up Woodcock / Fraser Steamroller Takes UAW Local Elections

United Auto Workers (UAW) locals around the country are electing dele­ gates to the Constitutional Convention scheduled for May 15-IR in Los An­ geles. {I AW rrcsidcnt Leonard Wood­ cock will he rctlring and is rumored to he in line for a rosition in U.S. imrciialism\ foreign sen il·e. rossihly as liaison officer to Peking. The "Ad­ ministration Caucus" c,;ndidate to succeed Woodcock is DotH! Fraser. Returns from around ~hc- country indicate that Frascr will face littl~ orrosition al the cOfl\cntion. In the overwhelming majority of locals thnse heing elected arc lower-Inel toadies who regularlv turn out to endorse the actions. candidates and sell-out rro­ gram of the gang at Solidarity House. The Indianapolis Massacre One of the built-in dangers to these local leaders was illustrated in the recent Left, UAW tops Woodcock and Fraser. Right, strikers at Ford's River Rouge plant In September. 12-day strike at the Indlanarolis Chrys­ ler Electrical Plant. Doug. Fraser flew of the International to crush outbreaks Nearly 300.000 auto workers were on necessary accompaniment to this speed­ into town to rersonally hreak the strike, of militancy at any cost and to axe any either indefinite or temporary layoffs. up was increased harassment and tight refusing International sanction and local bureaucrats who do not clamp and tens of thousands were never called discipline to make the workers bear the leaving 2.\ local officers fired in his down on rank-and-file militancy. few back. Contrary to various crisis­ pace. When auto sales finally began to wake. UAW office holders are able to conceive mongers. workers usually respond to pick up. many auto plants began Similarly. when the Local 1364 of challenging Solidarity House. WV widespread unemployment with caution scheduling grueling overtime as well: six (Fremont. California Ci M) shor com­ recently interviewed a number of offi­ and conservatism rather than militancy. days a week. nine and ten hours day. mittee called its rlant out on strike two cers and delegates from key Detroit Betrayed at every turn by their "leaders" The killing combination of speed-up. weeks ago. demanding the dismissal ofa locals and found not one whose support and knowing full well that there were overtime and harassment is so severe foreman who had assaulted a commit­ for Fraser had been altered by his plenty of unemployed willing to take that it is common today to hear auto teeman, the International again came despicable strikebreaking. their place. employed auto workers old-timers say that conditions in the down hard. The Local leadership reacted to the layoffs with a drastic plants are returning to those of the pre­ buckled under and called the strike off Layoffs and Speed-up decline in wildcats, grievance-filing and union 1930·s. after four days. with the shop committee militancy. drawing serious disciplines and a large The stranglehold of the Wood­ By these methods the Big Three did number of rank and filers put "on cock/ Fraser bureaucracy is reinforced Auto company productivity in 1976 succeed in posting near-record profits in notice." by the massive layoffs which hit auto jumped at a rate twice that of the yearly the final quarter of 1976. But discontent Despite the demonstrated willingness workers during the 1974-75 depression. increases in the previous decade. The continued on page IO ILA's Gleason Calls Off Token Strike

APRIL 18-After a five-day "selective ILA workers have jurisdic'tion to strip strike" by East and Gulf coast dock and stuff all consolidated containers workers, International Longshoremen's moving to or from points within 50 Association (ILA) chief Thomas Glea­ miles of a port. son ordered his members back to work The government ruling clearly threat­ this evening. Abandoning the struggle ened the decimation of the ILA, with its for what could amount to thousands of 35.000 members the largest waterfront jobs. Gleason settled for a big zero: union in the U.S. The growth of some empty promises and nothing containerized shipping has made it signed on paper. ILA longshoremen are possible to do work which once had to now working without a contract. be done at the docks in consolidated The "strike," nothing more than a warehouses inland. Lower-paid Team­ token pressure tactic. was aimed at the sters and non-union labor are utilized to government's enforcement of a 1975 bypass the longshoremen. National Labor Relations Board The dispute began in April 1973 when (NLRB) ruling which canceled the key the ILA moved to crack down on . job protection clause in the contract. widespread ignoring of the 50-mile rule I due to expire this September 30. The by steamship lines in the Port of New ruling had been under appeal. York. Two off-pier consolidators, Twin The latest slam against dock workers Express and Consolidated Express. in the Port of New York and New Jersey challenged the union clause in a Labor came on January 10 when the Supreme Board case. In December 1975 the Court upheld the NLRB decision NLRB settled the dispute in favor ofthe voiding the clause which provides that continued on page 11 Container ship being loaded at Port Seatraln, Weehawken, New Jerley. 12 22 APRIL 1977