MARCH 23, 1979 50 CENTS VOLUME 43/NUMBER 11
A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE
Carter pours' arms, 'advisers' into Yemen Front-page headlines across the country are "advisers" would also be sent. mosphere is reminiscent of Vietnam in 1963," hailing President Carter as a "peacemaker" in Speaking before a House Foreign Relations where the first U.S. combat troops were also the Middle East. But under cover of the Israeli subcommittee, Crawford bluntly declared that called "advisers." Egyptian agreement Carter announced March the Carter administration is willing to go to In pouring tanks and jets into North Yemen, 13, Washington is driving ahead with prepara war over its interests in the oil-rich Arabian Carter made a point of using, for the first time, tions for war. peninsula, where border fighting broke out his presidential "emergency" authority to by With a U.S. naval task force already sta- February 24 between North and South Yemen. pass congressional review of arms shipments. For more than two weeks Washington has He cited "national security interests." been bristling with threats about "drawing the The elaborate media hoopla about Carter's line" in the Middle East by inflicting a defeat trip and the new "peace" agreement has been An editorial on South Yemen and its Cuban defenders. (See consciously used to divert public attention background article on page 10). from the escalating U.S. military involvement Planting even a few "advisers" in the war that is part and parcel of the Mideast deal. tioned off Yemen, and with massive shipments zone, of course, establishes a wedge that can of U.S. arms being airlifted into North Yemen, be used to widen U.S. involvement. • Billions of dollars worth of additional U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Crawford State Department officials, according to Rep. arms-paid for by U.S. taxpayers-are to be announced March 12 that 300 U.S. military Les Aspin (D-Wis.), "are saying that the at- Continued on next page Iranian women on the march Equal rights protests push revolution forward
TEHRAN, March 8-'Freedom for women-freedom for society,' says demonstrator's sign. See page 4. In Our Opinion VOLUME 43/NUMBER 11 MAR. 23, 1979 CLOSING NEWS DATE-MAR. 14
By neutralizing the Egyptian army as a threat to Israel, the pact helps free Israeli No to censors! forces for intervention throughout the region . As Washington escalates its military build ... Mideast It encourages the Zionist regime to under up it also moves to impose new curbs on civil Continued from page 1 take new assaults against Lebanon, Syria, and liberties, including freedom of the press. shipped to both the Israeli and Egyptian re perhaps Jordan. Even as Carter was being A significant step in this direction was gimes. hailed in Washington March 13, Israeli ar taken when the Justice Department obtained • The administration is floating trial bal tillery was pounding southern Lebanon and an injunction March 8 barring the Progressive loons about establishing U.S. military bases in gunboats were shelling the town of Damur, magazine from publishing an article on the hydrogen bomb. the Sinai Peninsula. just five miles south of Beirut. • The Pentagon is openly considering the The proposed treaty reinforces the disposses The censorship order, which violates the creation of a U.S. "Fifth Fleet" in the Indian sion of the Palestinian people from their First Amendment, will be appealed by the Ocean. homeland and the denial of their national magazine. • In keeping with these moves, Carter has rights. It was the first time the federal government raised the military budget to a record $135 As if to underline this fact, Israeli troops in had sought such a prior restraint order since billion and has opened the biggest congres the occupied West Bank shot and killed two it failed eight years ago to prevent the New sional discussion since Vietnam on the possi Arab youths who were participating in a York Times and Washington Post from pub bility of reintroducing the draft. demonstration March 14 against the agree lishing the Pentagon papers. Standby Selective Service Administration ment. The present move strikes a particularly (draft) directors have already been appointed Enlisting Egyptian President Sadat's aid sinister note in that the government motion is for each state, and Carter has asked for against the Palestinians will not suppress based on a section of the 1954 "atomic secrets" increases in selective service funding for both their struggle, which has just been given act. That measure was enacted in the witch 1979 and 1980. tremendous inspiration by the Iranian revolu hunt hysteria following the executions of The March 13 statement by Army Secretary tion. The most fitting answer to Carter's deal Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were falsely Clifford Alexander that the "official position" was a rally of more than 100,000 in Tehran convicted of passing such alleged secrets to the of the army is that the draft is not needed "at March 13. Soviet government. this time" merely reflects the hesitancy of The crowd cheered a Palestine Liberation It was already established back then that these moves. Carter knows the young people of Organization representative who said, "Carter Washington was simply lying when it asserted this country remain overwhelmingly opposed has come to the Middle East to organize new it had an "atomic secret." The laws of physics to fighting and dying for imperialism in the attacks against the Palestinian and Iranian are not a U.S. monopoly. Middle East or anywhere else. revolutions. We warn Carter, he will be The present "secrecy" claim is patently The deep antiwar sentiment among Ameri squashed under our feet." nonsense. The government makes no charge can working people is precisely why Carter against the author of the article, which report must cloak his war policy in rhetoric about Carter justifies his military build-up as an edly describes how a hydrogen bomb works. peace. answer to "Soviet expansionism." But as the He gathered his information legally from Iranian revolution so powerfully demon Washington's real intentions were spelled sources available to the general public. strated, the instability of such neocolonial out by the editors of the Wall Street Journal regimes as those in Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi The Justice Department action is not an March 9 when they wrote: "If we want to Arabia is caused by social inequality, oppres isolated one. insure the stability of the Middle East and the sion, and exploitation that drives the workers In the past several years, reporters have security of our friends, there will be no substi and peasants to revolt. It is not the product of been jailed for refusing to disclose confidential tute for an actual U.S. presence in the area." Moscow "subversion." news sources. Police have been given the green When the Wall Street Journal talks about The "energy crisis" is yet another theme of light by the courts to raid newspaper files for "stability" and "security," it is talking about Carter's propaganda. The arrogant implica "evidence." "securing" U.S. corporate interests and "stabil tion is that whatever the needs and decisions izing" pro-imperialist regimes against opposi The government's concern in this case is not of the people of the Middle East, U.S. corpora tion from their own people. That's what the to keep the lid on military secrets. It is to lay tions have a right to their natural resources U.S. government went to war in Vietnam over. the basis for hiding from the American people oil in particular-and the right to ensure the That's what it was unable to do in Iran to save more and more of the facts about Washing "security" of those resources. the shah, thanks to the American people's ton's counterrevolutionary drive for world opposition to any more foreign military adven Above all, Carter's Mideast deal aims to give domination-a drive that increases the risk of tures. political cover to the use of U.S. military forces atomic holocaust. The revolution in Iran-and fear that the in the name of "peace" and "national secur Even the compliant big-business news media example of the Iranian people will be followed ity." are liable to print information damaging to the elsewhere-made Washington desperate both Right now Carter is pushing toward a mil capitalist government-not "military secrets," to build up its own military forces in the area itary confrontation in Yemen. The alarm must but facts about its reactionary policies. That's and to wrap up the Egyptian-Israeli deal. be sounded. The response of the American what cannot stand the light of day. And that's This pact has nothing whatsoever to do with people should be: why the government seizes on such flimsy peace. It is a counterrevolutionary alliance Hands off Yemen! pretexts as the Progressive article to further that is part of a war policy. U.S. out of the Middle East! chip away at freedom of the press.
The Militant Militant Highlights This Week Editor: STEVE CLARK Associate Editors: CINDY JAQUITH ANDY ROSE 3 Newport N-• 1trlke Emergency appeal for Marroquin Busmess Manager: ANDREA BARON 4 Iranian women Editorial staff: Peter Archer. Nancy Cole, Fred With a deportation hearing set for Hector Marroquin Feldman. David Frankel. Osborne Hart, Shelley 5 'Militant' ~alee on April 3, notables supporting his right Kramer, Ivan Licho, Omari Musa. August N1mtz, 6 March 8 women's action Harry Ring, Dick Roberts, Priscilla Schenk, Arnold to political asylum have issued an urgent Weissberg. Matilde Zimmermann 7 'Weber' Clle appeal. Page 8. Publ 15 Labor party Correspondence concerning subscriptions or 18 UAW pamphlet revl-ed changes of address should be addressed to The Imperialism vs. working people Mililani Business Office, 14 Charles Lane, New 19 Young Soclall1t1 back Job• march War in Southeast Asia shows that the source of York, N.Y. 10014. 20 Teachert' strikes Second-class postage pa1d at New York N Y conflict is the insatiable profit drive of world Subscr 2 Va. Steelworkers rebuff Tenneco's strikebreaking They just didn't count on our sticking together' By Jon Hillson NEWPORT NEWS, Va.-United Steelworkers Local 8888's picket lines were big and spirited Monday morn ing, March 12. According to the count of union gate captains, the number of scabs entering Tenneco's Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company dropped by roughly 300 from the previous week. This was the opposite of what Ten neco had sought with its week-long advertising blitz to fill production and maintenance jobs and its weekend back-to-work harassment of shipyard strikers. MilitanVOmari Musa The Steelworkers have bt:en on strike Shipyard strikers and supporters march In Newport News March 2. Labor solidarity Is essential to turn back attacks. since January 31 to win union recogni tion. Before the strike, 15,500 produc tion and maintenance workers were employed at the yard. back some of the young applicants. nia, you can say good-bye to your dollars for being a "public drunk." Tenneco had even given its foremen Pickets warned job seekers that with constitutional rights to free speech and After nearly twenty-four hours of pick and supervisors Saturday off to call out proper job training, which Tenneco assembly. eting in the snow, Childress slipped strikers with thinly veiled threats of has no intention of providing, they Since the USWA was forced out on and fell on the ice. The cops swore they immediate firings if they failed to would be risking their lives inside the strike January 30, Newport News cops smelled alcohol on his breath. No report for work Monday. shipyard. have been arresting an average of breath test was given. "All the classic Union organizers countered with a Despite Tenneco's setbacks, its war about two strikers a day-everyone symptoms are here," concluded Judge phone campaign of their own, which, against the USW A continues. On from Local 8888 President Wayne W. Robert Phelps as he convicted Chil according to Local 8888 President March 19 and 20, the union comes Crosby to picket-line activists. dress. Wayne Crosby, was "aimed at making before the NLRB on the sham charge March 8 was a typical day in the Wayne Fisers was ordered to cough sure our people were on the picket lines of "chain voting" during last year's bosses' courts for shipyard workers. up seventy-five dollars for carrying a Monday morning." representation election. Even a favora Larry Childress was fined fifteen Continued on page 7 Tenneco's big push, Crosby said, ble decision by the board can be ap only "made the workers more deter pealed by the company, whose purpose mined to stay out." is to sap the union of its resources and Tenneco has escalated its strike energy. Unions set solidarity events breaking efforts since the federal But the Monday picket line showed By Shelley Kramer the film, contact Bob Moffit at 412- Fourth Circuit Court-at the com the giant corporation still has much to The bosses-with the aid of their 562-2635.) pany's request-ordered a National learn. Said picket captain Kevin courts, cops, and press-are doing The USWA has printed 7,500 lea Labor Relation Board hearing into the Fowler, "They just didn't count on our everything they can to help Tenneco flets for the emergency · rally, and union's January 1978 election victory. sticking together." break the Steelworkers' strike. every major steel local in Pittsburgh The shipyard claims the court's ruling It's up to the union movement to has pledged to help distribute them. invalidates the union charges of unfair unite our side in support of the • Members of United Auto labor practices and that Tenneco is One day in the strikers with a powerful demonstra Workers Local 451 in Cleveland now free to fire strikers and hire re tion of labor solidarity. The follow who visited Newport News have placements. bosses' courts ing union, support activities point prepared a slide show on the strike. "The new hires will remain after the By Jon Hillson the way forward. They have taken the show to stu strike is over," company spokesperson dents at Oberlin College, to Cleve NEWPORT NEWS, Va.-Remember • An emergency solidarity rally James Griffith announced. Strikers civics class, the way it was taught in land NOW's Labor Task Force, and will be "considered" for rehiring if they will be held in Pittsburgh March to the UAW's CAP Council. the eighth grade? Remember "fair 19, 7:30 p.m., University of Pitts immediately return to work. play" and "equal protection under the • USWA Local 2659 at McClouth "This is still an unfair labor practi burgh, Clapp Hall, Room L-9. law"? Steel in Detroit will host a solidar ces strike," Steelworkers organizer Speakers will include representa ity rally April 1 featuring a Newport Jack Hower answered. Tenneco is "just Forget it. tives from the Newport News strike; News strike representative. using the same old threats and intimi Especially if you're a member of Steelworkers International; Amal • The North Carolina Central La dation to try to scare these workers United Steelworkers Local 8888 on gamated Clothing and Textile bor Union is sponsoring a rally and into coming back to work. It's not strike against the Newport News Ship Workers Union; District 6 of the fund-raising dinner March 17 in going to work." building and Drydock Company. United Electrical Workers; District 5 Ahoskie, North Carolina, at the So far, Hower's prediction has been Virginia is a "right to work" state. of the United Mine Workers; Masonic Hall. borne out. The scores of potential scabs State statutes not only outlaw the NAACP; and National Organization Address donations, resolutions, who lined up early March 12 to apply union shop. In the name of protecting for Women. and requests for speakers to: USW A for jobs were met by 8888 pickets a scab's "right to work," they also go a A USW A film of the Newport Local 8888, Thirty-third and Wash chanting, "Scabs can't build no ships!" long ways toward denying workers News strike will be shown for the ington Streets, Newport News, Virgi The combination of chants and rea their right to strike. first time. (For more information on nia 23607, telephone (804) 247-5291. soned appeals by the strikers turned Once you're on a picket line in Virgi- Special offer Subscribe today $2 for ten issues (new readers only) to new readers $8.50 for six months ( ) $15 for one year New ( ) Renewal The Militant-10 weeks/S! Name Address The Militant stands on the side of the Newport News shipyard strikers and all working people City struggling to defend their unions, rights, and living standards. Don't miss a single issue. State Zip ______14 Charles Lane, New York. New York 10014 THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 3 New advance for revolution Thousands of Iranian women march for By Cindy Jaquith had already been planned for the next With the same fervor they displayed day, March 8. Angered by Khomeini's in battling the shah, Iranian women order, thousands of women turned out have again burst into the streets. The for these meetings, swelling the origi revolution is not over, they declare; nal estimates of the organizers. From women want their full democratic the rallies the women poured onto the rights. streets, beginning what would be days The sustained mobilizations of of protests against the government's women, which began on March 8, antiwoman decrees. International Women's Day, are the At one of the March 8 rallies, called most dramatic demonstration yet that by the Ad Hoc International Women's the Iranian masses are determined to Day Committee of Iran, 1,200 women win the rights so long denied them were present. The speakers included a under the hated Pahlavi monarchy. By nurse, a teacher, a Palestinian woman, their actions, Iranian women are ad and American feminist Kate Millett. vancing the revolution as a whole The Committee to Defend Women's from the workers' fight to control their Rights was initiated at this rally to factories to the peasants' struggles for continue the struggle. land to the demands of oppressed High school women took the lead in nationalities for control over their des the big demonstration that followed tinies. these rallies. Thousands of these stu The sight of tens of thousands of dents had gone on strike that day for women marching down the streets of women's equality. Some 20,000 women Tehran has also inspired supporters of marched from Tehran University to women's liberation around the world. the offices of Prime Minister Mehdi These were not only the largest femi Bazargan, denouncing government at nist actions to occur anywhere on tacks on women's rights. International Women's Day. The pro Stressing the sacrifices women made tests also marked the dawn of the to overthrow the shah, the demonstra women's movement in Iran, a country tors chanted: "We fought for freedom with the men. None of us knew free whose domination by imperialism and Twenty thousand women hit Tehran's streets March 8 after Ayatollah Khomelnl dom would come with chains;" and "In monarchy has trapped women in back ordered them to wear the veil. wardness for centuries. the dawn of freedom there is an ab sence of freedom." Ordered to put on veil Rightist goons attacked the have lined up to watch t.he marches. freedom to the rest of society." What sparked the outpouring in Iran marchers. But on March 10, 7,000 Government officials initially did little In the face of these unprecedented was a March 7 statement by Ayatollah women returned to protest, holding a to stop their attacks. mobilizations, the government has Ruhollah Khomeini that female gov sit-in at the Justice Department. They On March 11, women activists held a been badly shaken. Khomeini retreated ernment workers could not go "naked" were joined by a march of 10,000 news conference to declare they would on his statement about the chador, to work, but "must be clothed accord women. not be intimidated by violence. Speak saying that wearing it is a "duty" not ing to Islamic standards"-they must The demonstrators presented a list of ing for the Committee to Defend an "order." wear the chador, or veil. The govern eight demands to the government. Women's Rights, Kateh Vafadari an United Press International also re ment had also made statements These included: women's right to wear nounced there would be another rally ported that Khomeini disavowed those against equal rights for women in whatever clothes they choose; equal the next day. She demanded that the attacking the demonstrators and divorce, against coeducation, abortion, rights with men in all legal matters; Bazargan government halt the attacks "warned them of 'harsh punishment' and laws outlawing polygamy. full economic, political, and social on women protesters. unless they stopped their assaults." Several rallies for women's rights rights for women. Fifteen thousand turned out for the The Islamic Revolutionary Committee Women in veils joined their sisters. March 12 rally at Tehran University. has sent a few representatives to guard One older woman who had lost four A few speakers urged the crowd to the latest women's actions, but only in sons in the struggle against the shah refrain. from more demonstrations, as token numbers. arrived. She tore off her chador in right-wing hecklers shouted that The American bourgeois press has solidarity with the other demonstra women were "creating havoc and tried to distort the aims of the Iranian tors. anarchy and trying to create divisions women in an effort to undercut inter within the revolution." national support for the Iranian revo Strikes for equality But speakers from the Committee to lution. Public employees struck to protest Defend Women's Rights argued that The March 12 New York Post, for government attacks on equal rights. women must stay in the streets until example, claimed "many of the free Nurses, high school teachers, and their demands are won. The crowd doms Iranian women are now demand women in the ministries of agriculture voted with its feet, marching out into ing were made available to them dur and foreign affairs walked out. Women Shah Reza Avenue. ing the reign of the Shah whose sister, workers at Iran Air issued a statement Bank workers, hospital workers, stu Princess Ashraf, was a leading femi that the only veil women need is "a dents, and teachers participated. There nist." veil of purity in their hearts." was a contingent of radio and televi The Christian Science Monitor said Antiwoman thugs have continued sion workers there tq protest the firing in an editorial the same day that "the their violent assaults on women dem of women in the media and govern fundamental question facing Iran is Militant/Jose G. Perez onstrators, stabbing several. Calling ment censorship. whether, in its haste to do away with Kateh Vafadarl; a leader of Committee the women "whores," "SAV AK Women students and nurses waved the Shah's legacy of tyranny and to Defend Women's Rights, said protes agents," or "communists," these goons from their buildings as the march corruption, it will do away with the ters will not be Intimidated by right-wing arrive at the protests by bus. They are passed by. The demonstrators chanted: good inheritance as well." attacks. not part of the crowd of spectators who "To deny women freedom is to deny The Iranian women in the streets Bazargan sets March 30 rigged referendum Iran's Prime Minister Mehdi Baz distribution of political literature. On March 5, 1 million people at decide what government should rule argan has announced that a nation tended a rally in Ahmadabad to Iran. wide referendum will take place Thus there is growing suspicion commemorate the death of Mo March 30. There will be only one that the alternative of Islamic hammed Mossadegh, the National No capitalist government can question on the ballot-"Do you republic-once a popular slogan on Front premier overthrown by a CIA meet the needs of the masses, they want a monarchy or an Islamic demonstrations against the shah organized coup in 1953. Rally speak explain. The SWP calls for a republic?" Voters will be required to means cutting off the revolution ers counterposed to the Islamic re workers' and peasants' republic, a sign their names and addresses to before the demands of the masses public slogan a "democratic government based on broad, demo the ballots. are won. republic." cratic councils of the workers, soldi There is deepening opposition to The March 1 New York Times ers, and toilers. The real solution to the problems commented: "The rising protest is no such a rigged referendum, especially of the Iranian toiling masses, how In a statement printed in the longer a murmer of the middle class March 13 Ettela 'at, the SWP pointed in light of the new government's ever, is being put forward by the or the city dwellers who for years out that the government's attacks on moves against democratic rights. Hezb-e Kargaran-e Sosialist (Social have taken a less rigid view of their democratic rights are aimed at pre The government has told workers ist Workers Party). The SWP op they cannot elect their own commit religion. . . . The unrest includes venting free elections. The radio and , poses the imposition of any govern It workers in the oil fields who want to television stations refuse to broad tees to run the factories. has ment from above and calls for attacked women's demands for choose their leaders and participate cast statements by political parties extending the democratic rights of equality. Kurds and Baluchis-two in the national debate on the coun critical of the government, the so all sectors of Iranian society. It of Iran's oppressed nationalities try's oil policy. And, it involves cialists explained. They also pro supports freedom of religion and have been condemned for demand white-collar workers who believe tested the arrest of people selling the separation of church and state. ing local autonomy. Ayatollah Kho that no new laws or regulations Trotskyist newspaper Kargar meini's Islamic Revolutionary Com should be passed before the coun The Trotskyists demand the imme (Worker) by members of the Islamic mittee has tried to ban try's new constitution is drafted and diate convocation of a freely elected, Revolutionary Committee. All the demonstrations and prevent the free approved." sovereign constituent assembly to salespeople have been released. 4 Target week kicks off equal rights Militant sales campaign By Peter Seidman today have nothing but scorn for the ....------, paper from salespeople at entrances to Full results on the national target the giant bulk mail center in Jersey shah's supposed women's liberation Re ol ut·lon sales week now under way won't be City, the Ford auto plant in Metuchen, program. And far from representing V available until our next issue. But and other plants.) "feminism," his princess sister-who • initial reports from across the country Interest was particularly high in the ran the opium trade in Iran-is one of In 1ran indicate "a real mobilization feeling" Militant's coverage of striking ship the most hated members of the royal among our supporters. yard workers in Newport News, Virgi family. Eyewitness report from That's how Philadelphia circulation nia. The few reforms the shah authorized Cindy Jaquith, associate director Laurie Perkus summarized the Just across the Hudson River, the for women were a cynical public rela- editor of the Militant, j'ust mood in Philadelphia, where socialists three New York City branches of the tiona maneuver to counter his real braved bad weather to sell 160 papers SWP sold 1,058 papers over the week record of torture and tyranny. Divorce returned from Tehran this weekend towards their week's end. Copies of Perspectiva Mundial laws were liberalized, and women got special goal. made up 30 percent of this impressive the right to vote, but the shah never •. How masses overturn Altogether, branches of the Socialist total. This shows the potential for permitted free elections. Women were shah Workers Party ordered 5,000 papers increased sales of Perspectiva Mundial jailed and murdered by the thousands • Struggle of women for above and beyond their regular bun on a regular basis-one of the national for opposing his regime. liberation dles for the target week. The target goals for this circulation drive. The shah "liberated" women from • The Road forward for week kicks off a drive by the SWP and Seattle SWP organizer Margaret the veil by sending his cops into the Young Socialist Alliance to sell100,000 Trowe was enthusiastic about target streets to tear it off every woman they Iranian revolution copies of the Militant and its Spanish week results so far. "We sold 120 of our found. This was aimed at undercutting language sister publication Perspec goal of 225 as of Tuesday," she ex the influence of Islamic religious lead PORTLAND tiva Mundial during the next ten plained. "Ten of these were sold in ers who opposed the monarchy. To March 18 8 p.m. weeks. twenty minutes at the Todd Shipyard; portray himself as more "progressive," 711 NW Everett "Sales, sales, sales," will be a big six others at a protest demonstration the shah played on their reactionary feature of the stepped-up efforts sup by members of Boilermakers Union view that women should be completely TORONTO porters of Chicago SWP mayoral can Local 104." covered. March 25 7:30p.m. didate Andrew Pulley will be making Seattle socialists organize to sell the It was in response to these attacks 334 Queen St. West this week, says campaign director Bob Militant in teams of four. "Each team on veiled women that demonstrators bie Bagel. has a goal of selling an average of five over the past year put the veil back on Chicago socialists plan to sell more papers per member," Trowe explains. to show their opposition to the shah than 500 papers. Pulley will also be "Experienced salespeople serve as and his antiwoman "women's libera brothers, where is your fighting pushing subscriptions during hours of captains and help out newer people on tion" program. Many women wore the spirit?" Some men have supported the radio and TV time at his disposal this the teams. We find this leads to better veil for the first time in their lives. protests and have fought off right week. sales for each person-as well as for Today some of those same women wing thugs. If Pulley's supporters get anywhere higher overall sales, as teams compete have removed the veil and are now On March 12, when the women's near the response New Jersey salespeo to outdo each other." demonstrating against any new dic march passed by factories, the demon ple found last weekend, their sales Another target week sale shows the tates on how they should dress. strators chanted, "Workers, workers, should be high. increasing interest in socialist ideas In a telephone interview, Parvin we are all allies." Newark socialists sold 298 copies of among working people: striking Najafi, a leader of the Iranian Socialist At a March 11 news conference, Kate the Militant and 29 of Perspectiva members of the American Federation Workers Party and an activist in the Millett also refuted the idea that Mundial on Saturday and Sunday-82 of Teachers Local 420 in St. Louis women's protests, explained how women had benefited from the shah's percent of their special overall goal of bought thirty copies of the Militant women view the charges that their rule. According to the March 12 Wash 400 for the target week. (The branch's and one subscription in two days. demands will hurt the revolution. ington Post, "Millett's insistence that regular goal is 145 per week). We'll report full results of the target Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had Who bought the paper? Mainly New week and more information on where 'We fight for freedom' done nothing for women" was "partic Jersey industrial workers. (Several peo our ten-week circulation drive stands "The women marching today fought ularly upsetting" to hecklers who had ple indicated they'd already bought the next week. in the revolution against the shah so come to disrupt the news conference. we could win freedom-freedom for While centered in Tehran, the fight women, freedom for the workers and for women's rights is beginning to peasants, freedom from imperialism. spread throughout the country. We now feel the door is opened to our Hundreds of Kurdish women demon liberation, and nothing is going to strated for equality in Sanandaj, the stand in our way!" she said. March 13 Washington Post reported. "The high school women who are in Azerbaijani high school students in the forefront of our demonstrations Tabriz walked out of their classrooms were among the bravest fighters and joined women office and factory against the shah's tanks and machine workers demanding their rights. guns. No one-no one-is going to tell The actions of Kurdish and Azerbai them they're against the revolution." jani women are doubly significant Najafi reported that the recent pro because these women also suffer na tests have turned the country upside tional oppression. The overwhelming M i sa down. People are discussing women's majority of the population in these Young Socialist Alliance National Chairperson Cathy Sedwick sells to strikers In liberation everywhere. The women are areas is from the peasantry, the sector Newport News, VIrginia. trying to reach out to the population of Iranian society where women suffer especially workers-to explain how the greatest economic and social depri their struggle is in the interests of all vation. who fought to overthrow the mo Women have also demonstrated in In the March ~vs' ... narchy. the highly industrialized city of Isfa By August Nimtz the most significant labor battle today, One of the appeals directed by the han, where workers played a central Forty-three in a half-hour! That's the Coleman explains why "students have women to men, she said, is "Militant role in the revolution. number of Young Socialist newspapers an important stake in the outcome of that were recently sold on the streets of the strike." Amherst, Massachusetts. In Detroit, high school students are What attracted so many buyers to waging a struggle for student rights. the March issue is the cover story, "No YSA member Andrew Walden, a leader to nuclear power and weapons!" with a of the movement at Cass Technical feature article by Paul Mailhot. Am High School, describes the major dem herst is a major center of the anti onstration that occurred at his school nuclear power movement, which the and the wide attention that the action Young Socialist Alliance is helping to attracted in the community. build. An article by Miguel Zarate tells of In addition to pointing out the dan the emergency campaign to prevent gers of nuclear power and its relation the deportation to Mexico of Hector to nuclear weaponry, Mailhot ad Marroquin, a leader of the YSA. dresses the key questions for revolu tionary socialists involved in building Finally, Cathy Sedwick and Eli the movement. Green describe the issues and activities What attitude to take toward nuclear being discussed and planned on college power for states that have overthrown campuses for the week of April 4-11 to capitalism? demand an end to U.S. support to the How should socialists approach the racist regimes in southern Africa. issue of nuclear disarmament? The YSA is now in the second month What should be the strategy for of a three-month sales campaign. The involving the working class and its goal is to sell 4,500 copies of the Young allies in this movement? Socialist each month. Also in the March Young Socialist. At the same time, YSA members are Blaine Coleman tells how students at helping in the current sales drive for the College of William and Mary in the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. Militant/Cindy Jaq Williamsburg, Virginia, are organizing If the sales in Amherst are any indica Tehran University defense guards after February Insurrection. 'We fought for to support striking shipyard workers in tion, the YS campaign should be more freedom with the men,' women protesters explain today. nearby Newport News. In what may be than successful. THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 5 New York rneeting celebrates working women By Susan Y aiiez NEW YORK-Three hundred women ' gathered here March 8 for an Interna , tional Women's Day forum "celebrat ing working women." The meeting was sponsored by the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women. "In Iran thousands of women came out today on International Women's Day to show that Iranian women are not going to be kept under wraps any Women's rights supporters across the nation celebrated International Women's Day on or around March 8 with rallies, forums, and other activi ties. On this page are reports on two of those meetings. Next week's 'Mili tant' will carry further coverage on International Women's Day. longer or be put in a corner and co Militant:Lou Howort vered up," said NOW-NY President CYNTHIA HAWKINS: 'Brian Weber wouldn't know what discrimination Is until he has to ride In the back of the bus.' Kathe Rauch in openhg the forum. "Like the Iranian women, we are not going backwards." Addressing the myth of "reverse unions are going to change the whole on "animal jobs" that are too physi Rauch cochaired the rally, along discrimination," Hawkins declared concept of unionism and workers. cally demanding, verbal abuse, sexist with Adrienne Critchlow, a member of that Weber had "never been denied a CLUW is strengthening our unions by harassment, and even physical abuse. the Communications Workers of Amer job because of his sex or race." He getting them to move ahead on affir She told the audience about the case ica and of the New York chapter of wouldn't know what discrimination is, mative action." of one worker in her plant, Wendy CLUW. she said, "until he had to ride in the Marsha Cleveland, attorney for five Barnes, who refused to give in to one The banner hanging in the front of back of the bus. I can tell you one West Virginia chemical workers who foreman's sexual demands and was the auditorium read, "Pass the ERA! thing, I am not ready to ride in the were forced to undergo sterilization to later assaulted by another foreman, a Defend Affirmative Action!" back of the bus again." retain their jobs, spoke about the impli friend of the first. No speaker was more qualified to Hawkins concluded by pointing to cations of this case. The five women Barnes's decision to file a speak on the threat to affirmative the civil rights movement of the 1960s are members of the Oil, Chemical and grievance-demanding the company action programs for women and as the kind of movement needed to win Atomic Workers union. discipline the attacker-resulted in Blacks than Cynthia Hawkins, a gen women's equality. "To defeat Weber, "It's not the first instance of forced management transferring her to a job eral repair mechanic trainee in the our movement must unite fast and sterilization of women workers," she someone of her size and experience Kaiser Aluminum plant in Chalmette, strongly," she declared. explained. "Fortunately this case has couldn't handle. She suffered a serious Louisiana. Rosemary Mechem, from the New received the attention of the press back injury on this job. Hawkins was the first woman to be York Newspaper Guild, pointed to the because the women decided to go pub Since Barnes's case has become hired into the skilled-crafts training connection between the Equal Rights lic." known in the plant, the auto worker program. Brian Weber, a white lab Amendment and affirmative-action Cleveland said that the company, explained, "more women have come to technician at Kaiser's Gramercy, Loui quotas. "Passage of the ERA won't American Cyanamid, had done little to union meetings and women's commit siana, plant, sued in court, charging mandate quotas," she said, "but it will reduce the unsafe lead levels in the tee meetings" to urge the union to take the affirmative-action plan that got be a weapon in the fight for them." plant despite evidence of its adverse action to end such treatment of women Hawkins her position is "reverse dis Adrienne Critchlow emphasized that effects on both women's and men's workers. crimination." The Supreme Court will "working women involved in their reproductive capacities. A big factor in getting out the facts hear Weber's case March 28. Instead, the company hit upon the on Barnes's case was the support of Contributions from seven unions "perfect tactic," she said, for driving the New Jersey and New York chap made it possible for Hawkins to come Missouri NOW women out of the plant. "Sterilize ters of NOW, she said. to New York from Louisiana for the yourselves or be fired," management "When NOW became aware of the March 8 event. sets ERA protests told women workers. case, it sent telegrams to the company "International Women's Day is im The Missouri state council of the A member of Local 980 of the United and the union demanding that action portant to American working women National Organization for Women Auto Workers in Metuchen, New Jer be taken against the foreman." These and minorities," she began. "What I has called for ~arches and rallies sey, told the meeting of another kind of are issues the union movement and the have to say about the Weber case across the state on March 24 to victimization of women workers. "The women's movement can work together hurts. We have fought so hard for our demand ratification of the Equal single most important problem women on, she stressed. gains. We can't see them go down the Rights Amendment. face is access to these jobs. However, Other speakers at the meeting in drain because of one racist and sexist The cities in which there will be once you get the job you have to keep cluded Kathy Andrade, International man who is backed up by the courts March 24 actions include St. Louis, on fighting the sexual harassment of Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Local and federal government." Kansas City, and Nevada. the foremen who believe that women 2325; Jane Silver, NOW; Susan Holle Enthusiastic applause greeted Haw In St. Louis, the ERA march will belong at home in the kitchen," she ran, national NOW Committee on La kins's warning, "Brian Weber, I am begin at the downtown Gateway said. bor Union and On-Site Organizing; here in New York City today to say Arch at noon. A 1 p.m. rally will be The auto industry hires women to and feminist journalist Vivian Gor that I will do whatever I can to unite held at the Christ Church Cathed meet quotas and then tries to drive nick. Entertainment was provided by with others to fight you and Allan ral at Thirteenth and Locust. them out with various tactics, she feminist singers Lisa Garrison and Bakke." explained. This includes putting them Barbara McGee. 5,000 join S. F. women's rights gathering By Ann Menashe of the shah known persecution and of the grave danger to affirmative centers and educational programs for SAN FRANCISCO-More than oppression, march into the streets in action posed by the Weber case. every single child in this country." 5,000 people attended the Fourth An numbers that equal or exceed July 9. Brian Weber, she explained, "a white Other speakers at the rally included nual Day in the Park for Women's "Women throughout the world are worker, charges that an agreement former Congresswoman Bella Abzug; Rights here March 10. rising up to make a profound state between the Steelworkers and Kaiser Reeva Olson, Office and Professional The event was initiated by the San ment," she continued. "We will no to set up a joint affirmative-action and Employees International Union Local Francisco chapter of the National Or longer endure oppression and second training program for skilled craft job 3; Borinda Morena, Concilio Mujeres; ganization for Women and was en class citizenship. We demand equality openings was reverse discrimination. State Assemblyperson Willie Brown; dorsed by a broad list of women's now." "If Weber wins, it would mean that Susan Drew, Women Organized for groups and unions, including the San LaRene Paul delivered greetings unions cannot include affirmative Employment; Joan Kelly, vice Francisco Labor Council, District 9 of from Communications Workers of action programs in their contracts," president, American Federation of the Communications Workers of Amer America District 9 and from the San she said. Teachers Local 61; and Patty Roberts, ica, and locals of the United Steel Francisco chapter of the Coalition of Rev. Loey Powell of the Religious president of the San Francisco chapter workers, Teamsters, American Federa Labor Union Women. "Unless all of us Coalition for Abortion Rights warned of the National Lawyers Guild. tion of Teachers, and Retail Clerks. around this nation join forces to see that "the rights of every woman to Also, Walter Johnson, president, Re "On July 9 an army of feminists that the ERA is passed now," she choose a legal and medically safe tail Clerks Local 1100; Dorothy Ehr marched down Constitution Avenue in warned, "all of us will be the losers." abortion is being threatened. lich, president, Northern California Washington to demand that Congress Many speakers linked the fight for "The same groups that are leading American Civil Liberties Union; Ma extend the deadline for the Equal legal equality with the fight for abor the so-called pro-life movement," Po tilde Zimmermann, Socialist Workers Rights Amendment," said Mary tion rights, affirmative action, child well said, are the groups opposing Party; Eileen Lasta, League of Women Spencer, president of San Francisco care, and other issues of vital concern ratification of the ERA. Voters; and Kay Wiley, ERA Commit NOW. to women. Sylvia Weinstein, vice-president of tee chairperson, San Francisco NOW. "How proud we are today to have Jeannine Whitlow, chairperson of San Francisco NOW and a member of The event was chaired by TV an seen our sisters in Iran, who have the United Steelworkers Sub-district 3 the Socialist Workers Party, declared, chorwomen Belva Davis, Lynne traditionally and throughout the reign Civil Rights Committee, told the rally "We want an expansion of child-care Joiner, and Valerie Coleman. 6 500 rally in Gary against ~weber' threat By Omari Musa city council, where council member More than 500 persons-most of Robert Farrel has pledged to introduce them Black steelworkers-packed into an anti-Weber resolution. It is also Pamphlet sales soar a Gary, Indiana, meeting hall March holding a picket line March 28 at the By Helen Meyers turn the Weber Decision and Defend 14 to defend affirmative action and federal courthouse. Pathfinder Press has already sent Affirmative Action. out 3,000 copies of The Weber Case: Also in New Orleans, at oppose the Weber decision. The coalition is organizing an educa Speakers included Gary Mayor Ri New Threat to Affirmative Action- predominantly-Black Southern Uni tional conference on Weber and affir making it one of the fastest-selling versity, a professor put the pamphlet chard Hatcher and Steelworkers Dis mative action for April 21. trict 31 Director Jim Balanoff-the socialist pamphlets in recent years. on the reading list for his students. sponsors of the meeting-as well as United Steelworkers Local 1845 at The thirty-two-page pamphlet is One class bought seventy copies. Bernard Kleiman, general counsel of Bethlehem Steel in Los Angeles passed the most complete source of facts on "No one I've showed the pamphlet the United Steelworkers. a resolution at its March 13 meeting Brian Weber's challenge to job to has turned me down," said Greg Brian Weber, a white lab technician condemning Weber as "an attack on rights for Blacks and women. It also Nelson, an anti-Weber activist at for Kaiser Aluminum in Gramercy, the civil rights of minorities and explains why quotas are not "re- Kaiser Aluminum's Chalmette plant Louisiana, is suing to overturn women and the USW A as a whole." verse discrimination," what causes in Louisiana. Steel union members affirmative-action provisions of the unemployment, and why affirmative at Chalmette stand to lose their Local 1845 joined with the union action strengthens the entire labor affirmative-action training program Steelworkers' contract with Kaiser. subdistrict civil rights committee in Two lower courts have upheld Weber's movement. if Weber wins his suit. inviting USW A Vice-president Leon Socialist steelworkers m the With the Supreme Court hearing claim of "reverse discrimination." The Lynch to come to Los Angeles to speak U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case Chicago-Gary area have sold 150 arguments on the Weber case March on the case. Local 8593 passed a sim copies in the mills there. 28, and with a growing number of March 28. ilar resolution. The Gary rally was a sign of the In Toledo, socialist auto workers anti-Weber rallies and teach-ins growing opposition to Weber in the In San Diego, fifty-five people met set a goal of forty-four and have scheduled, both the need and the labor, Black, and women's movements. March 10 to form the Labor/Commun already sold eighteen. opportunities to sell the pamphlet The meeting was cochaired by Jack ity Affirmative Action Task Force. The At a Militant Forum in Baltimore, are greater than ever. Parton, president ofUSWA Locall014, group voted to organize a picket line a shipyard worker bought twelve Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 and State Rep. Carolyn Mosby. March 28 and a speakout April 29 .. copies to distribute to his co-workers. West Street, New York, New York Also on March 14, 200 people met in The California Federation of Twenty-three copies were sold 10014. Seventy-five cents each; fifty Los Angeles to plan activities of the Teachers adopted a strong anti-Weber March 4 at a New Orleans rally cents each for five or more copies. Los Angeles Coalition to Overturn the position at its statewide convention in organized by the Committee to Over- Add fifty cents for postage. Weber Decision. Marnesba Tackett of early March. It backed affirmative the Southern Christian Leadership action programs "with specific goals Conference-West and Bob Johnson, and quotas." It called for cooperation civil rights director of USW A District between the CFT and the USW A in the 38, subdistrict 1, were among those fight against Weber. present. The resolution is to be printed in the Virginia Militant sales Also represented were the NAACP, California Teacher, the CFT newspa By Harvey McArthur Militant supports freedom fighters Black Leadership Conference, Urban per, and brought before the American !'wanted to share with our readers there. News of the Steelworkers League, United Auto Workers, and Federation of Teachers national con some of the experiences I had while women's conference in Chicago was a American Federation of State, County vention later this year. selling the Militant in Newport News good attention-getter. and Municipal Employees. In Pittsburgh, women steelworkers recently. This is not the kind of reaction I The coalition is mobilizing people for organized in Women of Steel are hold Of course, I spent time on the picket would have expected if I had relied on a March 21 meeting of the Los Angeles ing an anti-Weber forum March 18. lines and received the friendly welcome the daily press and TV commentators. that we've come to expect from strik- Their standard refrain is that the ers. American people are "shifting to the But what impressed me most was the right." response of people in the community If there's any place this ought to be Designers: 'We'll win mostly workers like the shipyard strik true, it's Newport News. After all, ers. They are clearly for the Virginia is the nonunion South, where Steelworkers-"100 percent" they you can lose your job quickly if the on the icket lines' would tell me. boss doesn't like what you say or Their strike "is the most important think. thing that has happened in all of One incident showed me how wrong Newport News history," one longshore all those commentators and analysts worker said. are about a rightward tum. The people I spoke to emphasized If you've been selling the Militant for what it would mean for the biggest some years, you're sure to remember company in the area to be forced to the kinds of comments you used to get. recognize a union-what it would Like, "Sure, the Militant is a good mean for wages, for job safety, and for paper, but why don't you give it a the respect workers get on the job. Not name that won't turn people off? I just at the big Tenneco shipyard, but mean, Militant sounds so threaten at other work places as well. ing." I discovered that it's not only our Well, times have changed. One pick outstanding strike coverage that eting steelworker-who had read the makes the Militant so popular in New paper before-said to me: port News. A big selling point while I "Oh! The Militant. You know, when was there was a feature article on you named this paper, you gave it an South Africa, and the fact that the awfully good name!" Militant/Jerry Hunnicutt ... bosses' courts NEWPORT NEWS, Va.-Lee Company lies, adverse court deci Continued from page 3 $500 and sentenced to six months on Johnson is the president of United sions, and cop harassment have "concealed" weapon. The cops admit the county farm for having a gun on Steelworkers Local 8417. He walks been daily fare for the designers for ted they had seen Fisers's legal, his car dashboard-in view of a truck with a limp, the result of a fall he almost two years. Their will is hard sheathed hunting knife but insisted load of scabs. took after Tenneco's goons scattered as nails. that when it passed out of view under Hardy's wife, sobbing in the hall marbles on his doorstep. "We're going to win this strike on his winter clothing for a few minutes, way, cried out, "Isn't there any justice In a recent interview, Johnson told the picket line," Johnson said. "The it became "concealed." left in this country?" the Militant how Local 8417 8888 people have got to do what our Bernie Lee Miller couldn't believe his members-some 1,200 shipyard people have done, stick in there. ears when Phelps fined him twenty The union, which pays bail, bonds, designers-have stood their ground We've proven it can be done. It's five dollars for muttering "god-damned fines, and lawyers' fees, is appealing in their two-year-long strike for a been twenty-four months, but no scabs" under his breath one cold, quiet all convictions. Local 8888 filed suit to union contract. one's starved or lost anything impor night on the picket line. Profanity is overturn the strikebreaking right-to The designers' strike began in tant. It's not easy, but it's for some considered "intimidation" under the work statutes. April 1977 over a series of Tenneco's thing we believe in.'' "right to work" laws. It didn't matter On the witness stand, the _steel take-away demands. Since that time, The key to the designers' spirit that the only scab around was driving workers hold their heads high. members of Local 8417 have been and determination, says Johnson, is into the shipyard with windows rolled "The Steelworkers are number one," walking the picket line, despite an organizing every union member to up and couldn't hear a thing. Childress tells the prosecuting attor extraordinary strikebreaking court participate in the strike. "As long as Isaac Blount, a delivery-truck driver ney. order that even forbids them from we keep every individual involved, who drove through the picket lines, "Scabs slim our chances of making a taking pictures of scabs or writing they won't become scabs." pulled a gun on union picket Jerry living," Lewis charges. down their license plate numbers. Johnson's office itself has the air Lewis. But Blount had a "right to do "I called them scabs because they The striking designers pitched in of an organizing center. Members, what he did" to defend himself, Judge were scabbing," Miller explains to the to help the Steelworkers organize the picket captains, strike activists Phelps ruled. judge. yard's production and maintenance "anybody with a problem"-drop in Lewis, who asked the gun-toting Phelps's chambers are a "kangaroo workers. Their solidarity was re to discuss what's happening and Blount not to cross the union's lines, court" in a "kangaroo city" one steel warded on January 31 this year what has to be done. was fined twenty-five dollars for worker concludes. when thousands of USW A Local "It's like this nine of the ten hours "breach of peace." Strikers here are learning the hard 8888 members poured onto the picket I'm here every day," he says. A hard judicial act to follow? Not way what "civics" mean when written, lines to join forces against Tenneco. -J.H. really. taught, and enforced by the bosses and Striker Joe Will Hardy was fined their political servants. THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 7 EmergenCY....@P-P-eal Stop the deportation of Hector Marroquin! By Jane Roland Ed (Lou Grant) Asner, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, National Education Association Executive Director Terry Herndon, unionist Victor Reuther, and feminist Kate Millett are among the notables who have issued an emer gency appeal for Hector Marroquin. Supporters The appeal is being circulated in the remaining days before Marroquin's urged to come deportation hearing opens in Houston April 3. to hearing That Immigration and N aturaliza The Hector Marroquin Defense tion Service Review Board hearing will Committee is urging supporters consider an appeal by Marroquin from throughout Texas to come to against an INS decision to deport him Houston for the week of his depor back to Mexico. There the socialist tation hearing, which opens April activist faces trumped-up "terrorism" 3. charges and the danger of torture or Supporters in other areas are death in Mexico's notorious prisons. asked to raise funds urgently The emergency appeal is being needed for the hearing, organize mailed to more than 20,000 human activities to coincide with the hear rights supporters. It emphasizes that ing, and promote a barrage of defeat of the deportation order would protest messages to INS director not only preserve Marroquin's life and Leone! Castillo. liberty but also establish an important Such protests should be directed legal precedent for the right of political to Castillo at INS, Washington, asylum. D.C. 20536 with copies-and Other signers of the appeal include: donations-to the defense commit former United Farm Workers Vice cist George Wald; and Dr. Benjamin trary arrest without warrant," "deten tee's national office, Box 843, president Philip Vera Cruz; cartoonist Spock. tion incommunicado," and "maltreat Cooper Station, New York, New Jules Feiffer; comedian Dick Gregory; Describing the repression Marroquin ment and torture of suspects and York 10003. attorney William Kunstler; Michael would face in Mexico, the appeal cites disappearance after arrest." The committee has established a and Robert Meeropol, sons of Julius the recent report by Amnesty Interna As the deportation hearing draws movement center in Houston that and Ethel Rosenberg; Anne Sheppard tional confirming serious violations of closer, Marroquin support activity has will function until the hearing is increased. Turner of the Wilmington Ten; physi- human rights there, including "arbi- over. St. Louis Aupporters organized a Volunteers are needed there to cocktail party at the home of a promi help with mailings, leafleting and nent local physician, raising $370. fund-raising as well as to partici In Pittsburgh, Marroquin met with pate in teams that will be going out James Hobart, minister of the First 'Nuestro' magazine reports to area campuses daily. Public Unitarian Church, to discuss support rallies are also being organized. activity. Housing is being arranged from Marroquin's fight for asylum Marroquin also spoke at the Interna the center for the many volunteers Nuestro, a magazine oriented to and Anglo liberals. They are particu tional Development Forum at the who will be coming in. ward Latinos, with a circulation of larly upset that the key agency-the Graduate School of Public and Interna To participate, write or phone: 900,000, ran a page-long article in its State Department-refuses to believe tional Affairs at the University of Hector Marroquin Defense Com March issue on Hector Marroquin's that Marroquin might be persecuted Pittsburgh. Attending were interna mittee, 108 Main Street, #105, fight for political asylum. if he returned to Mexico." tional students, mostly from Iran, Houston, Texas 77002. Telephone: After he fled to this country, the Afghanistan, and countries of Africa The article said in part: "In his (713) 224-1870. native Mexico, Hector Marroquin is magazine reports, Marroquin joined and Latin America. an alleged criminal-a murderer, the Socialist Workers Party and In Philadelphia, he discussed out terrorist and radical desperado, ac Young Socialist Alliance. reach on his case with Melva Mueller, cording to various charges. It adds: "Although Marroquin national president of the Women's does not expect everybody to agree International League for Peace and "In the U.S., however, he is an with his political ideas, he insists Freedom. And at a benefit Mexican undocumented worker who has been that, 'I am a socialist,-not a terror dinner organized by students at Villan Marroquin will continue his tour caught and is facing deportation ist or a guerrillero.' ova Law School, more than $125 was until the hearing opens. He will be in unless he can convince the State "Whatever he is, he is in trouble," raised. Marroquin was introduced by the Los Angeles-San Diego area March Department to give him political Nuestro continues. "Whether he gets K.C. Ellis, Philadelphia defense com 17-20 and in the San Francisco Bay asylum." political asylum in the U.S. is an mittee coordinator and president of Area March 21-22. As a result of his efforts to win open question-the idea of admitting Branch 2151 of the National Associa From March 23 until April 3, he will support, Nuestro said, "his case has that political repression might exist tion of Letter Carriers. be touring Texas. become something of a cause celebre in Mexico seems to be anathema to In a number of cities, pickets are For additional information contact to a coalition of Chicanos, feminists the State Department." being planned at lt>cal INS offices to the Hector Marroquin Defense Com coincide with the opening of the April mittee, 108 Main Street, #105, Houston, 3 Houston hearings. Texas 77002. Phone (713) 224-1870. Colombian regime steps up repression "Not a day goes by without new Trabajadores (PST-Socialist Workers The army has dealt heavy blows to A movement is growing in opposi raids and arrests by Colombia's mil Party), also a sympathizing group of the M-19, arresting many of its tion to Turbay's repression. Some 400 itary forces," Intercontinental Press/ the Fourth International. This attack members and recovering the vast bulk persons attended a February 1 rally at lnprecor correspondent Miguel Fuentes was carried out by the army. Troops of the stolen arms. the Free University in Bogota, where reported from Bogota on February 17. confiscated the newspaper's archives But the repression has been by no representatives of various trade unions Among the most recent victims of and funds and arrested four PST means limited to, or even aimed at, the and political and human rights organi the repressive campaign of the Turbay activists-Rodolfo Galindo, Carlos Al M-19. Hundreds of persons have been zations denounced the more than 300 Ayala government is Cesar Torres, a berto Trujillo, Alvaro Nino, and Isabel arrested, and many have been brutally cases of torture, disappearances, and member of the Partido Socialista Revo Lorens. tortured. Besides attacking the PSR arrests. lucionario (PSR-Revolutionary So The four were released two days and the PST, the government has also Several trade unions have called for cialist Party), a sympathizing organi later. An officer told them this was arrested members of the leftist group national actions against the Security zation of the Fourth International. because the government wanted no Firmes and a number of artists and Statute, the "state of emergency," and Torres, an economist, was arrested at more "scandal" and "noise." intellectuals. the torture. The Broad Committee of his 'home at 5 a.m. on February 20 by The raids on Torres's home and the Struggle Against the Security Statute agents of the B-2-army intelligence. PST's offices were but two of hundreds The "antiterrorist" hysteria being and for Democratic Liberties is de They ransacked his house and confis of human rights violations carried out whipped up by the government is manding that a national plebiscite be cated his library. in recent months by the Turbay gov simply the pretext for its own official held on the statute. Torres's arrest shows "the phoniness ernment under its Security Statute terror. This has "one single objective," Letters and telegrams demanding an of the statements of President Turbay, decreed in September 1978 and the the February 19 issue of the PSR's immediate halt to torture, due process who claims that 'in Colombia no one is "state of emergency" imposed in Janu newspaper, Combate Socialista, ex of law, and the release of Cesar Torres arrested for their political opinions,'" a ary. The regime claims these are neces plained: "creating a climate of collec and all the other political prisoners PSR news release declares. sary measures to combat the guerrilla tive panic.... " should be sent to Colombian embassies Further proof of this was provided group known as the April 19 Move "The aim of the repressive operation or to Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala, Presi by the February 13 raid on the Bogota ment (M-19), which carried out a spec is to stave off the reaction of the dente de Ia Republica, Bogota, Colom offices of the newspaper El Socialista, tacular New Year's Eve raid on an masses to high prices and galloping bia. organ of the Partido Socialista de los army weapons depot. inflation." From Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 8 ··;·, tm~rialist maneuvering Behind the war between anda and Tanzania By Ernest Harsch From the time he joined the King's Armed conflict in East Africa has African Rifles in 1946 until Uganda's intensified sharply since late Febru independence from Britain in 1962, ary, when Tanzanian regular troops Amin was trained and groomed by the invaded Uganda, in conjunction with British colonialists to help them pro stepped-up efforts by Ugandan opposi tect their interests. Under Milton tion forces to overthrow President ldi Obote's regime, Amin, as army chief of Amin. staff, established close ties with the The imperialists in Washington and Israelis, who provided his forces with London have made clear which forces arms and additional training. they are backing, and why. According to former Central Intelli "A Uganda that is friendly toward gence Agency officials, the Israeli se the West would obviously be a welcome cret police, in collaboration with the addition in efforts to achieve a politi CIA and British intelligence, helped cally and economically stable Africa," Amin overthrow Obote in January an unidentified "Western diplomat" 1971, after the latter initiated a series was quoted as saying in the March 7 of nationalizations, reduced his ties issue of the Wall Street Journal. with Israel, and broke diplomatic rela Correspondent Richard R. Leger tions with London. stressed in the same report, "The de Almost as soon as he came to power, parture of President Amin would be Amin instituted mass repression, aim important to American interests in ing to stifle even the mildest dissent. part because of Uganda's proximity to The American, British, and French In late October, Amin ordered sev against Amin could place severe the Hom of Africa, Ethiopia and So imperialists signaled their approval by eral thousand troops to invade north strains on Tanzania's meager eco malia, where the Soviet Union, along continuing to arm and fund his regime. ern Tanzania, an area where Ugandan nomic resources, making the country with Cuban troops, has been trying for exiles opposed to Amin were active. even more dependent on imperialist years to gain dominance." 'Unreliable' The Nyerere government condemned financial assistance. The imperialists While opposing Amin, the American It was only after Amin broke ties the attack, accusing Amin of being an would not be upset if the pressures of and British imperialists at the same with Israel in 1972 and expropriated a "instrument of imperialism." Several the war compelled Nyerere to reduce time clearly favor Tanzanian Presi number of local- and foreign-owned other African regimes also denounced his aid to the southern African free dent Julius K. Nyerere in this conflict, businesses the following year that the the invasion. dom fighters. both in their public declarations and in imperialists began to sour on their The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Af Besides mobilizing his own military their provision of economic assistance protege. fairs, in a November 16 statement, forces, Nyerere also gave the green to Nyerere. Amin had become "unreliable," and charged "the forces of colonialism and light for Ugandan exiles in Tanzania his regime proved not to provide the neocolonialist imperialism" with fuel to step up activities against Amin. stability that the imperialists had ing the conflict so as to undermine Officially, the Tanzanian regime has Racist propaganda hoped for. They began to look for a African unity, weaken Tanzania, and presented its war against Amin as Most reports in the capitalist press replacem·ent who could better protect punish the Nyerere regime for its aid to strictly a "defensive" move. But the have tried to cover up imperialism's their interests. the Zimbabwean and Namibian libera government-controlled press and Nye real interests in the conflict under a Washington threatened direct mil tion movements. rere himself have admitted that they barrage of denunciations of Amin's itary intervention against Amin in The American, British, and other are intent on "destroying" Amin. "barbaric," "mad," or "capricious" early 1977, using as a pretext Amin's imperialist powers, for their own rea The manuevers by Carter and Cal dictatorship. The open racism of this temporary prohibition on Americans sons, also condemned Amin. The U.S. laghan to try to replace Amin with a campaign is matched only by its hy leaving Uganda. State Department demanded that more reliable bulwark against the Afri pocrisy, as it comes from the very In October 1978, the U.S. Congress Amin withdraw his troops from Tanza can revolution are aimed directly forces who helped place Amin in power struck a severe blow at Uganda by nia, a demand it did not later raise against the Ugandan masses, who in the first place. imposing a trade embargo. against Nyerere when Tanzanian alone have the right to determine what Under such steadily mounting impe troops invaded Uganda. kind of government they want. rialist pressure, Amin sought and re The imperialists favor Nyerere in If the imperialists are successful in ceived military or financial assistance this war despite his assumed image as imposing their choice, they will be in from such diverse sources as the Soviet a "socialist." They know that his "so an even stronger position to hold back Union, Saudi Arabia, and Libya. Amin cialism" is a fraud, amounting to little the struggles of Uganda's workers and also appears to have established some more than attempts to expand eco peasants. ties with the Rhodesian regime, provid nomic production through rural cooper An advance for imperialism in ing training for the military forces of atives and state-controlled enterprises, Uganda, moreover, will make it that Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Rev. Nda while keeping Tanzania tied to the much easier for the upholders of West baningi Sithole, two of Ian Smith's worM capitalist market. em "civilization" to strike out against Black collaborators. Blacks struggling for their liberation Uganda's deteriorating economic Economic strain in other African countries-including conditions-together with Amin's re In 1977 and 1978, certain enterprises Tanzania. pressive rule-have generated sporadic that had been nationalized were turned The current war, however, is also not opposition to his regime over the years. back to private ownership, and new without some risks for the imperialists There were an increasing number of private investments were encouraged. and their local allies. It could help reports of internal unrest shortly be Measures were introduced to tighten bring to the surface the sharp social fore the outbreak of the war between labor "discipline." Tanzania was al antagonisms that have been building Uganda and Tanzania. Peasants were ready one of the biggest recipients of up under eight years of Amin's brutal said to have burned down several "foreign aid" in Africa, and the current capitalist rule. And· once powerful so sugar plantations and to have refused economic plan provides new incentives cial forces are set in motion, they could to grow cotton. Rifts and rebellions for private foreign investment. prove difficult to control. Washington Post were reported within the military. The Tanzanian regime's current war From Intercontinental Press/lnprecor 800 at U. of Chicago hear divestment debate By Peter Thierjung Jennifer Davis of the American would promote investment in South President Gray drew the most re CHICAGO-More than 800 Univer Committee on Africa, Zola Tsembe of Africa. sponse from students. While condemn sity of Chicago (UC) students attended the South African Congress of Trade Chettles also asserted that condi ing apartheid and referring to divest a debate February 27 on university Unions, and Kinsey Wilson of the UC tions were bad for Blacks but getting ment as a "complex" issue, Gray complicity with South Africa. The de Action Committee presented the case better. He closed by saying the "real" pointed to her "fiduciary" responsibili bate originated with a challenge by the for immediate divestment. Black leaders in South Africa were ties in her role as a trustee of the Student Action Committee on South Davis remarked that the issue of opposed to divestment. university as a "corporate entity." Africa to UC's new president, Hanna divestment poses for churches, univer Former U.S. Sen. Dick Clark, who The audience pressed Gray for an Gray. She accepted, and the adminis sities, and unions the question of who chaired the Senate committee on open hearing. Gray replied that open tration also agreed to sponsor some of controls investment policy and why Africa, blasted South Africa as "the hearings and referenda were not the the other participants in the debate. especially when they are faced with most racist society on earth," and put "appropriate manner in which trustees Over the past two years, UC stu issues such as U.S. corporate exploita the blame on "American capital, which should make policy." dents have organized to demand div tion in South Africa. has entrench apartheid." But Clark Students were outraged by Gray's estment of the university's more than opposed total and immediate divest hedging on the issue. One student Kinsey Wilson proposed an open ment. commented, "You must think we're $60 million invested in U.S. corpora hearing on divestment at UC and a tions doing business in South Africa. stupid." Students continued to con campuswide referendum binding on He called for support to the "Sulli front Gray at a reception after the President Gray and the administra the trustees. van Principles," guidelines developed debate. tion viewed the debate as an opportun The other speakers opposed divest by Rev. Leon Sullivan, a General Mo Rather than put a damper on divest ity to diffuse student activism on cam ment from various standpoints. John tors board director. His "principles" ment demands at UC, the debate pus. Gray, former president of Yale Chettles, representing the South Africa are supposed to better the conditions of heightened students' understanding of University, instituted a special admin Foundation, a front for the South Black workers employed by U.S. corpo university complicity with apartheid. istration committee there to "study" African government, said divestment rations in South Africa. In reality, they Since the debate, divestment has be the issue. Yale students never heard was "an emotional and partisan issue" serve only as a. cover for continued come the most widely discussed issue from the committee. and that cooler, more rational heads racist exploitation. on the UC campus. THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 9 or a friendly local regime could offer a huge strategic asset; we can think of nothing that would stabilize the area and protect the oil lanes better than a U.S. carrier operating out of the port of Aden." Support for Carter's war-probe also came from the editors of the Washing ton Post, who, March 8, raised the specter of "Soviet expansionism on [Saudi Arabia's] back doorstep." arter pushes Known as a major voice of liberal ism, the Post said that Carter had "wisely" decided that "it was not enough to warn the Russians, it was necessary to see that their South Yemeni clients are taught a lesson." As of March 10, not a single promi toward war nent capitalist politician had uttered a word of protest against Carter's war _preparations. Of course, they know very well what is involved. As one "congressional source" quoted in the March 7 Wash ington Post put it: "There is a feeling in Yemen that Carter is drawing the line to stop the Russians and Cubans in North Yemen. He seems to think the progres sion from Angola through Ethiopia has to be stopped here." Why Yemen? Although Yemen has no large oil reserves, it is central to the politics of the Arabian Peninsula. Its mountains catch the monsoon from the Indian Ocean, making it one of the only parts of the Peninsula to receive regular rainfall. As a result, about half the people in the Peninsula are concen trated in Yemen. Out of a Saudi Arabian population that is estimated to be as low as 4.5 million, and which is certainly no higher than 9 million, more than 1 million are immigrant workers from North and South Yemen. These Yemeni immigrant workers, along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Egyptians, and others, have always been viewed by the Saudi regime as a potential source of rebel lion. During the latest events, Ned Temko reported in the March 6 Chris tian Science Monitor, " . . . Saudi authorities began cracking down on illegal immigrants (many of whom are Yemeni) by setting up checkpoints and expelling visitors who lacked valid vi sas." Nor is potential unrest among immi grant workers a problem that is limited to Saudi Arabia. Well over half of Kuwait's population, for example, are . expatriate workers. Most important, rebellion in Yemen Aircraft carrier Constellation (above), along with six other U.S. warships, Is heading tor Yemen. itself has threatened imperialist domi nation in the area. Imperialism's problems with Yemen began back in the early 1960s. Until By David Frankel made public an offer to send a squad are now stationed in. both Ethiopia and then, North Yemen had been ruled for Step by calculated step, President ron of F-15 fighters to Saudi Arabia. South Yemen. centuries by Imams who were religious Carter is pushing toward a dangerous Eager to push the Saudi regime into In this situation, and with Cuba's as well as political leaders. South new military confrontation in the Mid the war, U.S. officials announced the revolutionary forces also committed to Yemen, which had broken away from dle East. offer "was designed to facilitate possi aiding the advancing struggle for the Imamate in 1728, was taken over Invoking "national security inter ble Saudi involvement in the fighting Black liberation in southern Africa, by the British in 1839. ests" and emergency legislation to between Yemen and Southern Yemen," Washington is seeking to reassert its bypass Congress March 9, Carter or the New York Times reported. armed might. British rule dered the Pentagon to begin immediate • And on March 8, Carter took The U.S. ruling class is convinced The British wanted two things in delivery of twelve F-5 jet fighters, another step to prod the Saudis into that the Mideast is the best place to Yemen. First, they wanted the port of sixty-four M-60 tanks, and fifty ar action by ordering two U.S. radar flex its military muscle not only be Aden, the best natural port on the mored personnel carriers to Saudi Ara control planes to Saudi Arabia. Such cause of its objective interests there, Arabian Peninsula, and a valuable bia for shipment to North Yemen. planes serve as information and com but also because they hope that years link in the chain of bases connecting The State Department set the stage mand centers to direct aerial combat of racist propaganda around the Arab Britain to India. Second, they wanted for Carter's war moves by warning and ground support operations. Israel conflict and the "energy crisis" stability, both so that Aden could be February 28 that the U.S. "national have made the American people more more easily ruled and so that Yemen interest" was involved in an outbreak ready to accept military action in the as a whole could serve as a buffer to of fighting between North and South Thirst for oil Mideast than in southern Africa or protect British rule in India. Yemen. As in everything the American impe Indochina. The port was secured by occupying On the same day, the Saudi Arabian rialists do in the Middle East, concern it, and stability was ensured by rein regime placed its army on alert and about maintaining control of the re forcing the traditional tribal system. recalled 4,500 troops it had stationed in gion's vast oil wealth is central to 'Drawing the line' Infusions of guns and bribes streng Lebanon. Carter's moves in Yemen. Trying to reinforce Carter's moves, thened rival sheikhs, who were thus Further steps quickly followed. With the revolution in Iran, U.S. the editors of the Wall Street Journal tied to the British. At the same time, • U.S. Air Force jet transports air policymakers have come to realize that asked rhetorically March 8, "Do we economic development was frozen ex lifted 7,000 antitank rockets and thirty a similar upheaval in Saudi Arabia dare to hope that President Carter is cept in the port of Aden itself. Preser antiaircraft guns to the North Yemeni and the smaller oil states on the Ara after all drawing the line in the Middle vation of the Imamate in North Yemen capital of San'a. bian Peninsula is far from impossible. East, organizing the defense of North fit in perfectly with this policy. • On March 6, a U.S. destroyer and This fear has been growing ever Yemen against South Yemen's Soviet For the Yemeni people, however, the two frigates sailed into the port of since the Ethiopian monarchy was advised armies?" cost of preserving British imperial Djibouti, only hours away from Yemen. overthrown in 1974 by a revolutionary Returning to its favorite theme the interests was high. In 1962 North • Also on March 6, administration mass upheaval, in a country right following day, this mouthpiece of Yemen-with a population then esti officials announced that the aircraft across the Red Sea from Arabia. It was American finance declared that "there mated at about 5 million-had only carrier Constellation, a guided missile deepened by the defeat last year of the will be no substitute for an actual U.S. fifteen doctors (all foreigners) and 600 cruiser, and a guided missile destroyer imperialist-backed Somalian invasion presence in the area." hospital beds in the whole country. No were on the way to the area. of the Ogaden-primarily due to the The Journal went on to note that "a money at all was spent on education • On March 7, the White House rapid response of Cuban troops, which South Yemen controlled by the North by the government! 10 responding favorably to South Ye However, the Saudis have not yet men's requests for aid, and Cuban taken Carter up on his offer to send advisers were reported there as early them F-15s, and the statements from as 1973. Washington have been a good deal Although the regime in South Yemen more belligerent than anything re was a thorn in the side for the impe ported from Riyadh. rialists, Washington, with its hands full in Vietnam, chose not to intervene Saudi fears there openly. For a while such action The Saudis, who have some expe appeared unnecessary, especially when rience in Yemen, may well fear that the British-officered army of Oman, they will wind up facing an insurrec aided by some 4,000 Iranian troops, tion in the North as well as a war in succeeded in crushing the Dhofari the South. Nor is their own home base rebellion in 1975. so secure. And-as the South Africans But Washington was jolted in early and Somalian rulers discovered 1978 by the arrival of substantial taking on the revolutionary Cuban numbers of Cuban troops in Ethiopia army can backfire. and their successful defense of the Nevertheless, the U.S. ruling class Ethiopian revolution against the inva has clearly decided to push as far as sion by the Somalian army. The defeat they can. Writing in the March 9 New of the imperialist-inspired invasion York Times, James Reston summed up was a sharp blow to Washington, and the issue as the imperialists see it: it was followed by the staggering im "The critical foreign policy question pact of the revolution in Iran. in Washington now," Reston declared, "is whether the United States, so soon Imperialist provocation after its disappointing experience in For propaganda purposes, the U.S. Vietnam, is prepared to commit itself ruling class is claiming that it is politically and militarily to some kind responding in Yemen to a Soviet and of economic and military defense of the Cuban-backed invasion launched by Middle East." the South. But there is not the slightest Oil, of course, is the first concern of bit of evidence for the charge that the imperialists in the region. They either Soviet or Cuban forces have seek to stamp out any upsurge inspired been involved in the clashes between by the revolution in Iran, especially on North and South Yemen. the Arabian Peninsula. In fact, what evidence there is points At the same time, Carter hopes to to an imperialist-inspired provocation "teach a lesson" to the Cubans, and if by the North Yemen regime. possible to use a victory in Yemen as a Immediately following the outbreak wedge for moving against the Ethio of hostilities, New York Times colum pian revolution and the Cubans in the nist William Satire-a former Nixon Horn of Africa. aide who is kept well informed by high level contacts in government circles Mood at home said in a February 26 column that Finally, Carter wants to convince Things were little better in South The Imam and his family were ex "Yemen is reported to have attacked the skeptical and still antiwar Ameri Yemen. "Up to 1940," notes Fred Halli iled and the Imamate abolished. But a the Marxist state of South Yemen." can working class that U.S. military day in Arabia Without Sultans, "not a weak central state dominated by the Urging his readers to root for North force must be used to stop "Soviet penny had been spent on the hinter merchants and a rising bourgeoisie Yemen anyway, Satire said, "They expansionism." land, and what followed was a mean had to coexist with the continued domi may be the aggressors, and our State All this is a tall order. As Reston trickle.... " nation of the tribal sheikhs in the Department will tut-tut at that, but the noted, "The mood of the American Halliday points out that "even in mountains. Communists in South Yemen are the people is against any more overseas 1967, when the British departed, the The resulting North Yemeni state danger to us." commitments-indeed, it is ... almost country had only fourteen tarmacked has been little more than a Saudi A March 8 Associated Press dispatch isolationist." miles of road outside Aden, three satellite. Saudi subsidies to the moun from Kuwait reported that according to The editors of the Washington Post Yemeni doctors and 950 hospital beds. tain tribes have kept the central gov the conservative newspaper Al also paused in the midst of endorsing Educational facilities hardly existed ernment weak and encouraged con Seyassa, nearly 3,000 Cuban troops Carter's war moves to recall that and Soviet military advisers have been outside Aden." stant internal conflicts. "North Yemen is an unlikely and, Civil war in North Yemen, however, shifted from Ethiopia to Aden to "help some would say, unworthy vehicle to The masses rebel contributed to the destabilization of ward off an attack against South Ye be loaded with so much geopolitical Not surprisingly, such conditions led British rule in South Yemen. In Oc men in which the United States would freight. It is small, backward and participate." to mass rebellion. In September 1962, a tober 1963 Yemeni nationalists fight unstable and not widely known as a Under the propaganda cover of fight group of young army officers influ ing for liberation from British colonial champion of human rights." ing "Soviet expansionism," Carter has enced by the Arab nationalist ideas of rule initiated a guerrilla war in the But that is what the imperialists been moving full speed ahead toward a Nasserism seized control of San'a, southern mountains, and in August have at their disposal in the area, and military confrontation in Yemen. North Yemen's capital, and proclaimed 1964 the armed struggle was extended that's what they will use. the Yemen Arab Republic. to Aden. Cheering crowds welcomed the over Military victories by the Yemeni throw of the Imamate in the main forces, coupled with Britain's other cities of Taiz, San'a, and Hodeida. economic and political difficulties, led SOVIET UNioN There were peasant uprisings in some to the withdrawal of British troops rural areas. from South Yemen in November 1967. However, V\--ith help from Britain and A period of conflict between the left Saudi Arabia, the Imam was able to and right wings of the national libera rally a royalist army based on the tion movement, and between the new mountain tribes-the traditional base government and openly proimperialist of the Imamate. The Republic, mean forces, followed. while, received aid from Nasser's re Finally, in June 1969, the more radi gime in Egypt. The result was a civil cal nationalist forces-which declared war that lasted eight years and is themselves to be "Marxist-Leninist" estimated to have killed up to 200,000 won out. In November 1970 the Peo people. ple's Democratic Republic of Yemen Had the Republican side advanced a was declared. social program in the interests of the Internally, the South Yemen govern peasantry, it would have been able to ment carried out a land reform, nation win the ranks of the royalist army. alized banks, insurance companies, Under the Imamate, 80 percent of the trading houses, and some other enter *Riyadh poor peasant's crops were taken by the prises, and promulgated laws improv landlord and by various feudal taxes. ing the status of women. Among these SAUDI ARABIA The anthem of the !man's army in was a 1974 divorce law prohibiting cluded the lines, "We, the soldiers of child marriages and polygamy and the King, are stronger than all the equalizing divorce conditions. peasants." A campaign to eradicate the legacy SUDAN But the Republican leadership, of illiteracy left by British colonialism which included rich merchant land was also undertaken. owners and some dissident tribal leaders, refused to carry out a land Anti-imperialist policy reform. Left-wing forces who tried to In its foreign policy, the new regime push forward radical social measures in South Yemen followed a strongly were suppressed with the help of Egyp anti-imperialist course. It sought to tian troops. foster opposition forces in Saudi Ara bia and North Yemen, gave active Stalemate support to the rebellion of the op As a result, the war turned into a pressed Dhofari people in the neighbor stalemate. Eventually Nasser and the ing Sultanate of Oman, and appealed Pelbian GUlf States ~· ·--/ Saudi monarchy, with the support of for aid and support from the workers '-· the more conservative forces in the states. / Republican camp, struck a deal. Cuba was among those countries '· THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 11 Peking sa~s it's withdrawing ion: setback for v· the Carter administration announced piece of Chinese territory that has been March 5 that it would sell a squadron under colonial occupation for more of F-5 jet fighters worth $100 million to than a century. the Thai dictatorship. The result of this course has been The Vietnamese rulers kept their increasing isolation of the Chinese crack military units and a significant workers state from its only reliable part of the air force assigned to the defenders-the working people of the Kampuchean fighting. In contrast, world. they relied primarily on militia units to Contrary to the racist assertions of stalemate P€king. bourgeois journalists who claim that Despite the fact that both sides had "traditional Chinese hatred" for Viet substantial air forces at their disposal, nam is behind the war, Teng's military there is no evidence that a single plane adventure, and the opposition it went into combat. evoked, brought closer the day when Hanoi's measured response resulted Chinese workers and peasants will from cold political calculation. The topple the Stalinist bureaucracy and Vietnamese rulers knew that Peking's establish workers and peasants demo invasion had built-in limitations both cracy in its stead. as to extent and duration. As Mary-Alice Waters wrote in the Peking's aims February 23 issue of The Militant: What did the Peking rulers hope to gain from this unpopular war? A major war with Hanoi is the last thing Their eyes were focused not on Ha that the Peking bureaucrats are interested in. With economic modernization uppermost noi or Moscow but on Washington and in their minds, they stand to gain nothing Wall Street. They expected to be re from the instability and drain on resources warded not with increased "influence" that would result from becoming embroiled in Southeast Asia, but with vastly m a war. increased aid, trade, and credits from - U.S. imperialism. Defensive military capacities Just as Stalin in the 1930s did not This assessment was confirmed by hesitate to use thousands of Soviet what the invasion revealed about Pek agents to massacre revolutionists in ing's military capacities and strategy. Spain in order to win the favor of the Teng was right when he commented U.S., French, and British imperialists, during his U.S. visit that China's so Peking is today throwing itself armed forces have "limited and defen behind Washington's drive to block the sive military capabilities." extension of the Vietnamese revolution New York Times military writer to Kampuchea and beyond. The inva Drew Middleton noted "a problem in sion was an effort, fostered by Wash shifting the [Chinese] army's attitude ington, to prove Teng's usefulness as a from defensive war, for which it has guarantor of capitalist stability in been indoctrinated and trained, to one Southeast Asia. suited for an invasion, limited though In describing Peking's goals, the it was." March 7 Christian Science Monitor Chinese troops attack ang . Peking's invasion, Instigated This defensive orientation sterns reported Chinese spokesmen as claim has brought vast destruction to VIetnam's border regions. from the fact that the Chinese workers ing that "America was too 'afraid' to state is free from the expansionist confront the Soviet Union in Angola and elsewhere.... So, they say, it that both sides have agreed to re profit drive that is at the root of war in By Fred Feldman was up to China to take up the task." spect." the imperialist epoch. (See related arti The U.S.-inspired invasion of Viet It's a bald admission that Chinese But Washington was unable to force cle on page 21.) Massive arms spend nam by the Peking regime's armed troops are being used by U.S. imperial a withdrawal of Vietnamese forces ing is a burden not only to the Chinese forces is shaping up as a setback for ism in an area where it is "afraid" to from Kampuchea, or impose a proimpe workers, but also to the bureaucratic imperialism and a political victory for intervene directly because of massive rialist regime on Vietnam's western caste that feeds off the planned econ the Vietnamese revolution. antiwar sentiment in the United border as part of the deal. omy. The invasion has failed to deal mil This fundamental defensive stance States. itary blows severe enough to pressure The March 7 Christian Science Mon itor concluded: will not be changed as Peking seeks to Vietnam into withdrawing its aid to modernize its military machine in 'Cuban swashbucklers' the new government in Kampuchea China appears not to have inflicted years ahead. Teng accompanied his invasion with (Cambodia). enough "punishment" to force Vietnam to calls for U.S. action against Cuba: "We While Teng Hsiao-p'ing's regime was loosen its hold in Cambodia and Laos. An unpopular war cannot tolerate the Cubans to go Moreover, Vietnam has been able to deal beset with signs of antiwar opposition The brief war also deepened criticism swashbuckling unchecked in Africa, among Chinese working people, all with the invasion without committing large the Middle East and other areas. Nor numbers of regular troops in a way which of the Peking regime among the Chi initial reports indicate that the morale would require disengagement from Cambo nese masses. Despite an official ban on can we tolerate the Cubans of the of the Vietnamese workers and pea dia.... posters about the war, two went up on Orient [Vietnam] to go swashbuckling sants remained high. Indeed, the Vietnamese-aided forces of Democracy Wall in Peking. unchecked in Laos, Kampuchea or And Carter's attempt to present the new Cambodian government have "China has forfeited its interna even China's border areas." Washington as a "world peacemaker" stepped up their efforts to control that tional reputation and will find itself The March 3 issue of the Economist, has met with a skeptical response in country right up to Thailand's border. On isolated in the world community," one a prestigious voice of British capitalist the American working class. March 5, the Cambodian district of Poiphet poster warned. Another, according to interests, chimed in: The Vietnamese revolution is today bordering on Thailand fell. the March 12 Newsweek, "implied that That China should want to discourage more, not less, attractive to the Later reports admitted that Karnpu the war did not reflect the will of the Vietnamese expansionism in south-east workers and peasants in Southeast chean rightists had abandoned Pailin, people, but had been imposed on the Asia is understandable. . . . Asia. They have seen the Vietnamese the last provincial capital they held. nation by China's bureaucracy." Most people appreciate this. They also masses stand off yet another assault. Peking's invasion demonstrated the The "antiwar poster campaign has appreciate that Vietnam-like Cuba and But the beginning of Peking's mil deadly seriousness of U.S. imperial spread to nearly every important city maybe now South Yemen-is a pugnacious itary withdrawal doesn't mark the end ism's intentions. Under these circum in China," Newsweek continued, as ally of the Soviet Union. China commands of imperialism's offensive against Viet stances, a proirnperialist regime on serting that "antiwar rallies" had a fair amount of sympathy in its attempt to nam. On the contrary, Washington's Vietnam's western border would be taken place in a number of cities. contain the south-east Asian part of this expansionist alliance. fear and hatred of the revolution has like a dagger at the throat of the The Chinese masses supported the grown. Vietnamese workers state. Vietnamese in their long struggle Teng's anti-Cuban demagogy coin Thus, far from succeeding in pressur against imperialist domination. They cides with stepped-up activity by the A war of destruction ing the Vietnamese rulers to accept see no convincing reason to switch South African regime against Angola, The criminal blows to Vietnam's such a regime in Kampuchea, the sides now. where Cuban forces are stationed; by war-battered and flood-devastated invasion may press Hanoi toward The workers and peasants of China the Somali regime against eastern economy may prove to be the most countenancing the popular mobiliza correctly sense that this war under Ethiopia, where Cuban forces are sta substantial gains imperialism has de tions needed to defeat the rightists and mined rather than aided the defense of tioned; and by U.S.-arrned Saudi Ara rived from the brief border war. move toward a workers and peasants the workers state they created through bian, North Yemeni, and U.S. forces Peking announced its decision to government. their own mass struggles. In fact, the against South Yemen, where it is re withdraw March 5. But as they left, invasion is one of the gravest blows to ported that Cuban troops have been Chinese forces destroyed "bridges, rail Kampuchean front the Chinese workers state in many dispatched to help repulse any inva and road facilities and other installa Throughout the Chinese invasion, years. sion. tions as they moved toward the despite the dangers it posed and the The haughty declarations about This coordination of Teng's words border," according to Henry Karnrn, devastation it brought, Hanoi's spot "punishing" Vietnam merely put a and deeds with the latest moves of U.S. reporting from Bangkok in the March light remained fixed on the civil war bold face on Peking's policy of shame imperialism is no coincidence. The 9 New York Times. in Kampuchea and the rightists' lessly groveling before the imperialists. Chinese Stalinists are bidding for the Hanoi offered to hold discussions at supply lines across the Thai border. An example was the welcome ac role of Washington's chief partner in the deputy foreign minister's level on<;e That remains the main avenue of corded in Peking during the war with detente. the invading forces had withdrawn "to imperialism's attacks on Vietnam. Vietnam to the first visit since 1949 of The Soviet bureaucratic caste was the other side of the historical border This was further underscored when the British governor of Hong Kong-a not to be easily outbid, however. The 12 Carter's war drive Kremlin's attention throughout Pek help the Vietnamese beat back the Carter. The U.S. State Department ing's invasion was not on aiding Viet imperialist-inspired attack. While the finally had to admit that Teng in nam, but on proving its own superior Vietnamese rulers did not accept, the formed Washington of his plans for the Sailors reliability to Washington. That re Cuban offer itself was a factor that attack during his stay. quired placing no obstacles in the way Washington and Peking had to weigh • Carter immediately linked Chi of Carter's attack-through Peking in the fighting. The offer also made it nese withdrawal from Vietnam with block U.S. on Vietnam. more difficult for Moscow to deny Vietnamese withdrawal from Kampu The March 6 New York Times noted: assistance or to pressure Hanoi into chea, which was clearly his real con making concessions. cern. The complicity was confirmed arms for There have been unconfirmed reports when Teng endorsed Carter's formula from diplomatic sources in Peking that the What was the response to the inva "with the raising of both hands." United States passed on information about sion in Vietnam itself? Chinese intentions to the Soviet Union and Reporters and members of the U.S. • Diplomatic relations between Thailand vice versa. The diplomats believe the re Congress who were there at the time Washington and Peking were formally By George Dolph ported American role may have helped reported that the morale of the Vietna opened during the invasion, while Ha RALEIGH, N.C.-Twenty Egyptian prevent Soviet armed intervention in the mese people was high. Massive rallies crew members of the freighter Kuwait conflict. The Soviet Union denied on Satur noi's overtures for diplomatic relations iay that it had engaged in secret contacts were held in several cities, and mil have been persistently rejected. Horizon apparently wanted nothing to with China and the United States concern itary training was introduced in all • Treasury Secretary Michael Blu do with Washington's stepped-up sup ing the war. schools and factories. menthal went to Peking in the midst of port to the right-wing military dictator According to the March 3 Washing the war to prepare major trade agree ship in Thailand. Moscow's wretched role ton Post, a Hanoi radio broadcast the ments, while the U.S. government On March 2, they refused to load a previous day responded to Ambassa maintains its trade embargo against shipment of U.S. armaments bound for But Brezhnev & Co. reacted with a dor Andrew Young's call for Vietnam Vietnam. Bangkok, Thailand, and for Singapore. passivity indicating they were well to withdraw from Kampuchea as the • When the Soviet Union sent ships The freighter was docked at the Sunny informed about the scope and purposes price of a Chinese withdrawal. The into the South China Sea in a symbolic Point Military Ocean Terminal near of the military moves in Vietnam. broadcast reminded listeners that Pres gesture of support to Vietnam, Wash Wilmington, North Carolina. There was not even a massive airlift of ident Johnson had demanded that ington sent a nuclear-armed task force U.S. officials prevented any media military supplies. North Vietnam cut off aid to freedom to the shores off Vietnam. communication with the crew. But Statements by Brezhnev and Gro fighters in the South in exchange for a • Calls by capitalist politicians for William Harris, an attorney for the myko aided Carter's cover-up by plac deescalation of the U.S. war. It called renewed U.S. military interventions shipowner, met with the crew and later ing responsibility for the invasion on this a comparable confusion of "the abroad became increasingly strident, characterized the protest as a "moral Peking. In an unmistakable overture to aggressors with the victims of aggres while Carter talked of a worldwide issue." Harris said the crew objected to Carter, a March 5 Pravda commentary sion." U.S. "peacemaking" role. the cargo, 20- and 40-millimeter ar said: Reflecting its Stalinist character, The American people remember well tillery shells, and to the ship's destina As for the Soviet Union, we can point out however, much of Hanoi's propaganda that Johnson, Nixon, and Ford all tion. with legitimate pride that our party, govern· focused on conflicts with Chinese re talked about their peaceful The Carter administration has sig ment, and people saw through the Peking gimes dating back hundreds of years. intentions-and were all proven to be nificantly increased military ship leaders' treacherous scheme in time and did It issued no internationalist appeals to liars many times over. Everything ments to the Thai regime, which supp about Carter's treatment of the inva lies right-wing guerrillas in sion of Vietnam tells most American Kampuchea and Laos. workers that he, too, is lying through The crew reportedly detained the his teeth. captain aboard ship. Citing a breach of The American people are learning contract by the shipowner, they de through this experience and others the manded that the contract be termi lesson pointed to in the February 23 nated and that they be paid in full and Militant: flown home to Cairo. Col. H.K. Stevenson, director of the Of course Peking's military buildup along terminal, denied reporters access to the Vietnam's border does create a danger of sporadic outbreaks between Chinese and base as soon as word of the protest Vietnamese troops. But this is not the leaked out. According to the March 10 source of the war threat in Indochina today. Raleigh News and Observer, the ship Neither is Vietnam responsible for "the owners hired a private security firm increasing tensions in Southeast Asia," as to keep reporters away after the ship the Carter administration demagogically was moved from Sunny Point to Wil claims. mington. The war threat comes from U.S. imperial When three crew members beckoned ism and its unceasing expansionist drive to reporters on a nearby dock, the head for new markets, new investment opportuni of the security force ordered the sailors ties, and new military footholds to protect these interests. below deck. He told reporters that he The war threat comes from U.S. imperial· was under orders not to let the crew ism's drive to recoup some of the losses it talk to them. suffered at the hands of the Vietnamese, Washington, too, was clearly eager Worker putting up poster In Peking last December. Recent posters Indicate ma11 Laotian, and Kampuchean people four to avoid publicity for its flow of arms questioning of Peking's Invasion. years ago. to Southeast Asian rightists. The Im migration and Naturalization Service Overturns In South Vietnam immediately revoked the crew's shore permits and ordered them detained not fall for their provocations, the purpose the Chinese troops, which undoubtedly Added to these losses was the top and deported. of which was to get us into a collision with included many young workers and pling of capitalism in South Vietnam the United States. U.S. officials attempted deny any peasants who questioned Peking's poli last year. This revolutionary event to political motivation in the dispute. For both the Soviet and Chinese cies. marked the consolidation of a workers David Winn, desk officer of Kuwait Stalinist leaderships the Vietnamese This reflects Hanoi's fear of promot state encompassing 50 million people, Affairs at the U.S. State Department, revolution seems like a small sacrifice ing mass opposition inside China to making Vietnam the third most popu to make on the altar of detente. the Peking regime. A political revolu lous workers state. This was the first told the Wilmington Morning Star that "the most important thing is that it tion in the giant country on its north extension of socialist revolution since has no political overtones. A strike is Solidarity from Cuba ern border would be a powerful stimu the Cuban workers and peasants In stark contrast, the Cuban l-eader lus to antibureaucratic struggles in toppled capitalism. what I call it, although they are hold ing the captain." ship zeroed in from the outset on Vietnam as well. It would threaten The February 26 Toronto Globe and Washington's central role. Castro said Hanoi's own regime, which can be Mail condemned Hanoi for taking "a The capitalist press labeled the in a February 21 speech in Havana: maintained only by the suppression of hard line on the imposition of a social crew's protest "a mutiny." To the ex all democratic rights. ist economy in the South." tent the event was reported outside This is a signal that both the United North Carolina, the nature and desti States and China are seeking the reestab· And Henry Kamm in the March 4 New York Times blasted "Vietnam's nation of the cargo, and the crew's lishment of the genocidal Pol Pot/leng Sary U.S. workers not convinced aims, went unmentioned. regime in Kampuchea. That is their politi· Carter's claims of innocence in re dogmatic design to make the south like the north, politically and economi Negotiations between the crew and cal objective: attack Vietnam precisely in gard to Peking's invasion were greeted representatives of the shipowner and order to make it halt all cooperation and cally. . . . Hanoi has aggravated all with skepticism in the American work Kuwait and Egyptian embassies ended solidarity with the revolutionary govern· ing class. While most on the left did problems by a determined program of ment in Kampuchea; in order to reestablish nationalization of industry and com March 9. Thirteen members of the crew fall for Carter's bait, many working were awarded back pay and flown the genocidal regime and surround Vietnam people noted some basic facts. The merce.... " . . . from the south and from the north. home at the shipowner's expense. conclusions became more obvious as The imperialists know that a social That is the policy of the United States, revolution such as that in Vietnam has News of the other seven has still not while it appears to be washing its hands of the days went by. been reported. the matter. • Carter's response to the invasion powerful reverberations, despite at tempts by the Stalinist leadership in As of March 10, efforts were under of Vietnam contrasted sharply with way to hire a new crew. Castro correctly interpreted Teng's the response several weeks earlier to Hanoi to contain them. It threatens the anti-Cuba blasts as threats from impe the toppling of the brutal Pol Pot stability of imperialist domination rialism, and saw the invasion of Viet regime in Kampuchea. That was throughout Southeast Asia. This re nam as a direct threat to the Cuban greeted with howls of outrage in Wash gion stretches from the Philippines to revolution. ington. Indonesia, with a combined population The Cuban government backed up • The invasion followed by only a of more than 300 million people. its words by publicly offering troops to week Teng's U.S. visit and talks with Continued on next page THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 13 Cordero: Devoted life to P.R. independence By Jose G. Perez me that at the most desperate moment, at the end of Andres Figueroa Cordero, member of the Nation the 1950s when it seemed as if the United States alist Party of Puerto Rico who served almost a had definitively swallowed Puerto Rico, the Cuban quarter of a century in prison for armed actions revolution happened. "I thought, 'If Cuba csn free against U.S. colonial enslavement of his homeland, herself, so can we.'" died March 7 in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. He and For him, revolutionary Cuba had become Puerto three compatriots were imprisoned after a 1954 Rico's "mother country." attack on the House of Representatives. "We salute all the Cuban workers for the sacrifi What kind of man was he? I met him and spent a ces they are making for the liberation of the people couple of hours interviewing him in October 1976, of Puerto Rico and the peoples of Africa.... I don't while he was interned at the prison hospital in have the words to express this," he said. Springfield, Missouri. The newspapers say that he died of natural Although he knew he was dying, he didn't want causes-cancer. This is a lie. to talk about his own problems. "I've lived enough. Why worry so much about dying when in Latin He was murdered by prison authorities who turned a deaf ear, until it was too late, to pleas for America 375,000 babies die of hunger each year?" Figueroa Cordero didn't call himself a communist adequate medical treatment from a man completely or socialist. "I will call myself a nationalist until we at their mercy. And President Carter refused to free have achieved freedom for my people," he said. But him until he was liquidado-finished, to used Fig ueroa Cordero's own word. for him, the cause of the working class and the independence struggle weren't different things. He The example of this patriot's unbreakable courage told me that if he were freed, he would continue should inspire us to continue the fight to which he fighting "with the firmness and strength of a man devoted his life. And that is the struggle for Puerto who has served twenty-two years in jail for the Rican independence, and more immediately the workers." struggle to free Lolita Lebr6n, Rafael Cancel Mi "I've only been a very oppressed worker," he told randa, Oscar Collazo, and Irving Flores, comrades me reticently but with pride when I asked him ANDRES FIGUEROA CORDERO of Figueroa Cordero who, like him, have been about his background. And he had the same confi imprisoned since the early 1950s because they dence in the destiny of his class as in that of his fought for Puerto Rican independence. We should people: "Even in the United States, the workers will ist Party in 1939 at the age of fifteen. They buried stop Washington from committing against them the triumph." him wearing the insignia of his party. If he ever same crime it committed against Andres Figueroa He joined the youth organization of the National- wavered for a moment, he didn't say so. He did tell Cordero. Kremlin jails worker-dissident in mental hospital By Marilyn Vogt The AFTUWSU's founding appeal and appealed for recognition from Eight leading figures from these two Vladimir Klebanov, the Ukrainian said: "We are unemployed Soviet trade unions abroad. Forty-three workers rights organizations are coal miner who organized an unofficial workers who have come to Moscow workers signed this appeal which also known to be imprisoned, four in psy trade union in Moscow a year ago, has from various cities and republics of the listed other supporters. chiatric hospitals. been confined to a psychiatric hospital. country.... We have all been dis Among those responding to the ap The bureaucratic caste ruling the The Kremlin bureaucrats, who have missed for exposing abuses or for peal was the giant Communist Party USSR finds it difficult to use its stan subjected other dissidents to this speaking out against the management led federation in France, the CGT, dard "anti-Soviet activity" charge to "cure" in the past, claim that Kle of enterprises where we worked .... which passed a resolution at its for frame up and jail protesting workers, banov is suffering from "head injur "When we appealed to higher author tieth congress in November 1978 sup so it throws them into psychiatric ies" received in the mines. ities . . . for exercising our right to porting the AFTUWSU's right to exist prisons, claiming they suffer from complain ... they seized us one by one and demanding the release of Kle "head injuries." Klebanov was arrested in early Feb in groups, sending us to police stations banov and his comrades. Trade unionists and others who sup ruary 1978, days after he and other and psychiatric hospitals." In October 1978, a second indepen port democratic rights should demand workers announced the formation of dent labor association was formed in Klebanov and his comrades be freed, the Association of Free Trade Unions Having exhausted all possibilities Moscow. It already had more than 100 restored to their jobs, and allowed to of Workers in the Soviet Union (AF for help through official channels, the members, but its organizers have also speak and organize to protect their TUWSU). workers formed their own organization been arrested. · interests. Meeting sets action on 'U.S. hands off Nicaragua' By Roberto Flores America, the National Lawyers· Guild, Hatfield and representatives Ron Del proposals. Most important was the call and Bruce Landau the Epica Task Force, and others. lums and Walter Fauntroy. for a national campaign of education WASHINGTON-About 250 people Sponsors of the gathering included Most heavily reprE!Sented at the con and action directed against U.S. inter attended a national conference here union officials from the Amalgamated ference were local groups specifically vention in Nicaragua. February 23-25 to press for an end to Meat Cutters, the United Auto concerned with defending the demo This is to culminate in a National all forms of U.S. intervention and Workers, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic cratic rights of the Nicaraguan people. Week of Solidarity April 22-28. interference in Nicaragua. Workers, and others. The conference drew together organi April 28 was singled out as a target Participants came from various Additional sponsors were Isabel zations from a very broad political date on which to call simultaneous parts of the United States and Canada, Letelier, widow of the slain Chilean spectrum. Important differences of demonstrations and other actions as well as Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mex exile; Frank Jackalone, president of opinion on how to defend and help across the country. ico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and El the U.S. Student Association; and Dr. advance the Nicaraguan liberation To translate these plans into effec Salvador. William Wifler of the National Council struggle were inevitable and expressed tive action will require energetic and of Churches. themselves on a number of points. ambitious efforts to reach and mobilize The conference was called by an ad the maximum number of people hoc committee that included members Also such congressional figures as Nevertheless, the conference was around the demand "USA: Hands Off of the Washington Office on Latin senators Edward Kennedy and Mark able to reach agreement on practical Nicaragua!" ... Vietnam invasion is setback for U.S. war drive Continued from preceding page regain lost ground. lysts of Indochinese events here, China's dia" is Hanoi's support to the anti With its vital shipping lanes and That's why the imperialists are try long-term strategy is to stretch Vietnamese imperialist struggles in these sources of tin, tungsten, oil, rubber, ing to deal blows to the Vietnamese resources-both economic and military-to countries. rice, and other raw materials, South masses who accomplished this latest the utmost. These observers believe that But the "long-term strategy" he is east Asia is not an area that U.S., historic overturn, break their revolu China's analysis of Vietnam's liabilities describing is that of U.S. imperialism. coincides with theirs. European or Japanese imperialism will tionary will, and "punish" them for Peking is helping carry out this stra ever peacefully retire from. They daring to tamper with the sacred insti The liabilities are Hanoi's difficulties in tegy as payment for "peaceful coexist fought World War II in the Pacific over tution of capitalist property relations. integrating the former South Vietnam with ence." the North, the enormous economic problems Working people around the world these riches. They want to discourage others-the and shortages brought on by two years of The imperialists did not "give up" Kampuchean and Thai masses first of disastrous weather, the burden of adminis have a life-or-death stake in defeating after the 1975 victories by the Indochi all-from taking the same course. tering Laos and dominating Cambodia, and Washington's campaign against Viet nese liberation forces, which shifted nam. Times correspondent Kamm wrote in now the border conflict with China. the relationship of class forces against Hands off Vietnam! the March 8 issue from Bangkok: them in the area. They are fighting to What Kamm means by "administer Stop the imperialist drive against hold on to what they have, and to In the view of most diplomats and ana- ing Laos" and "dominating Cambo- the Viet~amese revolution! 14 Militant/Eric Simpson And what we can do about it today The urgent need for the union movement in December 1978 plenum of the Socialist Workers the union bureaucrats off guard and left them the United States to break from the capitalist Party on the question of the labor party? paralyzed with indecision. The future of the unions Democratic and Republican parties and form under their class-collaborationist misleadership is its own independent labor party was a major Answer. The discussion about a labor party bleak. We believe the workers are likely to suffer topic of discussion at the Socialist Workers flowed from the discussion of what was new in our some severe defeats until they can forge a new Party National Committee meeting last De party and in the class struggle. class-struggle leadership, one based on a strategy cember. What is new is our growing participation in the that combines their economic power with indepen union movement-especially in the industrial dent political action. The Carter administration's The National Committee, elected by dele unions-and the heavy anti-union campaign of the direct intervention in collective bargaining through gates at party conventions, is the SWP's high employing class. This offers us fresh opportunities the new wage limits is simply a further example of est decision-making body between conven to explain why the unions need a labor party; what the political character of every union struggle. tions. kind of party it should be; and why the SWP is The so-called crisis of the cities offers another Among the observers at the SWP meeting anxious to help build it. To do this we need to graphic example of how the union misleaders' were representatives from the Groupe Socia extend the dialogue in our party on the labor party subservience to capitalist politics impels them to liste des Travailleurs du Quebec (Socialist question, and equip our worker members to include accept and enforce the capitalist austerity drive. Workers Group of Quebec). In Quebec, where in this dialogue their on-the-job friends and others Most recently the Cleveland banks have demanded the union leadership is tied to the procapital who may be interested. higher taxes on workers and cutbacks in municipal ist Parti Quebecois, the need for a labor party This, of course, suggests nothing new jobs and services as the price for continued loans to is also widely discussed by union militants programmatically-the labor party has been a basic the city. The United Auto Workers-one of the most and socialists. Both the GSTQ and the Ligue part of our program since 1938, and our candidates powerful unions in the city-helped put Democratic Ouvriere Revolutionnaire/Revolutionary for public office have consistently tried to explain Mayor Dennis Kucinich in office and last summer Workers League, the Canadian section of the the need for a labor party as an integral part of the saved him from a recall campaign. Fourth International, advocate formation of a Transitional Program. labor party in Quebec. For our own clarification and for the benefit of What has this demonstration of union power at The following was written by Frank Lovell, our close friends and sympathizers, it is also neces the polls brought Cleveland workers? Instead of the longtime leader of the SWP, in response to sary for us to explain why stepping up our labor mayor adopting the UAW's program, the UAW has questions from the GSTQ representatives, for party propaganda is important at this time to adopted his. The union declared its support to a publication in their newspaper, 'Tribune Ouv prepare the launching of our 1980 presidential banker-inspired referendum to raise payroll taxes riere.' election campaign for greater influence among (which fall only on wage workers) 50 percent. When worker militants in the unions, and to continue the city employee unions warned they might strike if Question. Could you summarize for the readers of growth and proletarianization of the SWP. the mayor carried out mass firings, a former UAW "Tribune Ouvriere" what was discussed at the The employers'anti-union offensive has caught Continued on next page THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 15 Continued from preceding page would empower the NLRB to hold elections of official-appointed city personnel director by unorganized workers and pressure open-shop (non Kucinich-responded that "we have no intention of union) employers to sign collective bargaining tolerating the attempt by the unions to dictate agreements. This labor law reform legislation (nom political and governmental policy in violation of inally sponsored by the Carter administration but their collective bargaining commitments." actually sabotaged by Carter and his overwhelm In 1938 Trotsky warned a CIO organizer who ingly Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate) was visited him in Mexico that the "success of the CIO decisively defeated in the Ninety-fifth Congress and is temporary. . . . If your unions do not find new is not likely to be brought up again in the present ways, they will be ground to dust." We should not Congress. think now that the unions are permanent fixtures, as the bureaucrats hope. They are in greater danger Fraser's statement than most union members realize. On July 19, 1978, United Auto Workers president The unions have become established social insti Douglas Fraser announced his resignation from the tutions with great potential social power. But under Labor-Management Group, a top-level, nongovern their present leadership they are also subject to the mental committee of eight major corporation execu political control of the employing class, exercised tives and eight ranking labor leaders. through the Republican and Democratic parties and "The group has met regularly under the leader administered by all the agencies of government. ship of Professor John T. Dunlop, former Secretary These unions can eventually be reduced to shadows of Labor," said the UAW announcement, "and of their present size and power if they fail to break attempted to arrive at cooperative approaches to their ties with the capitalist parties, which are run substantive issues, such as energy problems, infla by the worst enemies of the workers. tion, unemployment, rising health care costs, and others." The "others" included joint backing of new Workers' attitudes legislation to revise the Taft-Hartley law, desper- The idea of a labor party is readily accepted by most workers to whom it is proposed, though not clearly understood. They distrust both capitalist parties. The workers often stay away from the polls in greater numbers than at any time since the New 'The unions can be destroyed If they fail Deal. And growing numbers consider themselves to break with the capitalist parties, "independents," as opposed to Democrats. which are run by the worst enemies of But they are easily mobilized to vote down propo sitions that directly threaten the union movement. the workers.' This happened in the 1978 general election when the employers put a "right to work" proposition on unions for a mass political break with the capitalist the Missouri ballot that would have outlawed the parties-a labor party-is crucial for transforming union shop. Here the voter turnout was high, the unions into class-struggle organizations. It will contrary to the general trend. The anti-union propo open the way to a mass revolutionary party that sition, which had been expected to pass easily, was can lead the workers to end exploitation and oppres defeated by the big working-class vote, which could sion. not be attracted by the capitalist politicians. Since we Trotskyists are the only political tend This vote in Missouri, in my opinion, also demon ency in the labor movement that advocates a labor strated that unions, when they take the lead on a party, it is reasonable to assume that those who class question, are supported by the vast majority of agree with the labor party idea will be attracted to workers, both organized and unorganized. Black the SWP. And one of the best assurances for the and women's organizations, students, and farmers formation of a viable labor party in the near future threw their support to the labor mobilization. This is a pick-up in the pace of the class struggle that indicates that a labor party based on a fighting would also result in a rapidly growing SWP. Our union movement would be immediately popular and present growth depends in tum very largely upon attract a mass following. how successfully we introduce, explain, and cam When we talk about this in the unions we must, of paign for the class-struggle road for American course, explain what kind of party the labor party labor-including the burning need for a labor party will be and how it differs from the existing parties, now. including the existing leaderships of "labor parties" We do not see this as a task for our worker like the pro-imperialist, union-busting outfit in comrades alone. It will be taken up in the propa Britain. We are not talking about a "third" party, or ganda and work of the entire party and made a Coal miners march on White House durin a "people's" party. The labor party will be a central aspect of our presidential election campaign. political obstacle of antilabor laws and g working-class party, in opposition to the capitalist parties (just as the unions are working-class organi Q. What is the situation today in American zations in opposition to employer-sponsored "com unions on the question of the Labor Party? ately sought by the AFL-CIO lobby in Congress. pany unions"); and it must be based on the union The corporate executives were uncooperative. movement. A. There is little or no talk about a labor party in Fraser said that this hostile attitude of big busi What will be the program of such a party? We the upper echelons of the union officialdom, except ness had convinced him that "leaders of the busi believe the Transitional Program, properly under to make publicly clear that they are opposed to the ness community, with few exceptions, have chosen stood and applied, should become the labor party idea "at this time." to wage a one-sided class war today in this program. We will explain and support this approach The union bureaucracy, however, is alarmed by country-a war against working people, the unem in the building of a labor party. While it will not the anti-labor trend in the U.S. Congress. This is ployed, the poor, the minorities, the very young and start with that program, it will be won to it through spurred on by U.S. business interests that until the very old, and even many in the middle class of experience and the active participation of revolu recently had appeared "friendly" to top union offi our society." tionary socialists. cials. "I am convinced," he said, "there has been a shift The regulation of labor-management relations on the part of the business community toward Not purely electoral (that is, government controls upon the unions) has confrontation, rather than cooperation." We do not believe that it should be or that it developed since the Taft-Hartley law was passed in Fraser talked about the sentiment in the UAW necessarily will be a purely electoral party, like the 1947 into a vast system of antistrike rules and ranks for a labor party. This prompted some units capitalist parties. It should be the political arm of practices. of the union to pass labor party resolutions or to the unions, organizing the working class and its The National Labor Relations Board is a federal urge Fraser to call for a labor party. The Tool and allies in political actions of all kinds, including agency of Taft-Hartley that serves the interests of Die Unit of Ford Local 600, largest local in the mass demonstrations, and giving advice and aid to the employers and stalls or prevents the effective UAW, praised Fraser for his stand and urged the its constituents every day. organization of unorganized workers. The courts formation of an "independent political party dedi For the labor party to succeed, it cannot be simply are used routinely by the employers to get injunc cated to the needs of the working people, the confined to the unions, not seeing itself as the tions against strikers, provide police protection for minorities, the very young and the very old." representative of the most exploited workers. It scabs, and in the end defeat the union. Many local Fraser then called a conference of 100 leading must support, appeal to, and truly represent the unions have been destroyed in this way in recent labor, women, minorities, civil liberties, and liberal entire class and all oppressed people. years, especially in the building trades and printing organizations, which met for one day in Detroit on The labor party here in the United States can be trades. October 17. The purpose was to assess the position anticapitalist from the beginning; it is not ordained Teachers and public employees have also been of the union movement in the Democratic Party, to begin as a reformist party. Events in the class hard hit. The 1977-78 mine strike suffered from and to voice some cautious criticisms of the Carter struggle mighty enough to break the unions from government restrictions and pressure upon it, and administration. the Democratic Party will give tremendous impetus the United Mine Workers has been prevented by At that conference Fraser removed any illusion to the radicalization of the working class. local courts and police action from organizing that he might favor the formation of a labor party. Trotsky believed it. "If the idea of the CIO nonunion mines and enforcing the contract in His talk about "others" in the unions favoring a inspired millions of workers for a certain period," he many union mines since the strike settlement. The labor party was intended to frighten the employers said, "the idea of an independent militant labor struggle of the 17,500 Newport News shipbuilding and their political agents who control the Demo party that aims to put an end to economic anarchy, workers for union recognition-the most important cratic Party. Such scare tactics have been tried unemployment, and misery, to save the people and battle in the labor movement today-has faced before. by AFL-CIO President George Meany and its culture, the ideas of such a party is capable of government obstruction at every step. others without the slightest effect. inspiring tens of millions." The labor bureaucrats hoped that they could The truth is that Fraser and other top UAW How do we explain why the SWP is interested in reach an understanding with the dominant sector of officials are more afraid of a labor party than they helping to build another party? the employing class and continue to collaborate are of the employers or the Democratic Party politi We in the SWP cannot build a labor party. That is with them in the maintenance of "stable" labor cians. the urgent task of the union movement. We explain management relations. For this purpose they At present some local union officials in the UAW to fellow workers that building a movement in the sought amendments to the Taft-Hartley law that Skilled Trades Department are talking about repro- 16 ducing a 1949 UAW pamphlet titled "You Can Do It Local 535 official, said that he had been fora labor But they won't find "the steps" to a real fighting Better Democratically," a comment by the sociolo party himself in the 1930s but hadn't been able to labor party that don't interfer with the sectarian gist Robert Lynd on the operation of politics and convince the membership to change registration. So and class-collaborationist policies of the CP or the government as they affect the lives of most people. he dropped the idea. Kremlin's peaceful coexistence ploys with the Dem It is a strong argument for a labor party, and it These examples will give you a pretty clear ocrats and Republicans. could be a useful educational tool right now. The picture of the union bureaucracy and its attitude on The situation today in American unions in rela UA W officialdom is trying in every way it knows to the labor party question. This is the position of tion to the labor party is in certain ways about th• prevent republication of this little-known union Social Democrats USA and the Democratic Social same as the situation in the old AFL in 1934 in pamphlet. ist Organizing Committee, both based on the en relation to the urgent need at that time to organize trenched union bureaucracy. the unorganized into industrial unions. Hearings The position of the Stalinists is not much differ I do not expect the present attitude on the labor The bureaucrats are stymied on the economic ent. The December 1978 issue of Labor Today, the party to change in a major way until labor party front, afraid to call strikes against Carter's "volun monthly publication of the CP's "Trade Union Ac coalitions based on local unions begin to organize tary" wage controls and incapable of other effective tion and Democracy" caucus carried a comment on political actions against the capitalist parties and political action. They participate in farcical con the labor party discussion in the Alameda County score some successes. There was interest but little gressional hearings, charging the Carter adminis Labor Council. It said: "We have always confidence in the immediate realization of indus tration with "unlawful" acts against workers. advocated-and we continue to support-the estab trial unionism until after the successful1934 strikes At February 6 hearings before the House Subcom lishment of a people's political party that has a in Toledo, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. The mittee on Commerce, Consumer and Monetary mass base in the trade union movement. If we had Committee For Industrial Organization did not take Mfairs, the representative of the Oil, Chemical and our way about it, that party would have been form in the old AFL Executive Council until 1935, Atomic Workers, after having signed a low-wage established yesterday. after it was clear that the workers were beginning settlement with the major oil companies, said the "However, that's not the way things work in the to organize under radical leadership. companies and the administration ganged up labor movement and we still have to figure out the For the same reason, it is likely that labor party against the union. "The one thing controlled is the steps that will actually lead to the creation of that formations in this country will be led initially not income of working people," he said. "Each employer independent movement and to that political party." by the current labor bureaucracy but by rising class-struggle currents in the unions. That is why the SWP views every fight by the workers to strengthen their unions by democratiz ing them in order to exercise their real class power as a crucial part of the process that will lead to a labor party. Examples today include the Steel workers' organizing strike in Newport News, efforts 0 to mobilize union power in defense of Black and women's rights, sentiment for rank-and-file ratifica tion of all contracts, and growing receptivity to solidarity actions with other workers on strike. Q. What will be the SWP's line of action after the plenum for continuing and intensifying the struggle for a labor party in the United States? A. There is greater interest in this question among SWP leaders now than in the past because the increasing economic and political pressures upon the union movement make it a more timely question. Our education department is collecting the accum ulated material on the labor party question. The National Education Department will prepare a study guide to this material and urges SWP branches to use it to conduct classes to better equip ourselves on the history of this question. And we won't confine this to SWP members. Many branches conduct public weekly forums on a variety of subjects. The need for a labor party is one of the timely subjects for public forums with speakers from the unions presenting several points 1977-78 strike. Every major struggle to defend workers' living standards runs Into of view. Symposiums will attract some union ·ernment strikebreaking. members, be educational for all participants, and arouse further interest in this and related issues. We have much to learn about workers' attitudes is only too eager to make sure that his workers' and their responses to labor party possibilities, and income is kept even or below the wage guideline." the best way to learn this is through our trade-union Such hearings and the charges flung by the union fractions, which try to raise our class-struggle ideas officials could be useful if they were part of a on the job as the occasion permits. Worker com strategy to mobilize the union ranks against the rades should not miss an opportunity to probe employers and the capitalist politicians and their attitudes on the labor party in on-the-job discus control of government. But the sad fact is that the sions. One of the fringe benefits of this will be the union ranks are hardly informed about such hear discovery of politically interested workers, and ings, let alone called into action to redress their some of them will become interested in the politics grievances. The union bureaucrats go to Washing of the SWP. ton to vent their frustrations, and then they go back For some time the Militant staff has talked about to the local unions and tell the members they have how to explain the need for a labor party and how done all that can possibly be done. They recorded to bring this into our articles on the unions without the workers' dissatisfaction. That is all. seeming to tack on the labor party idea as if it were Occasionally a labor party resolution is passed by an afterthought. You have noticed, I am sure, that a local union, often introduced by a member or there have frequently been-over the past couple of sympathizer of the SWP. This has happened in years-articles and editorials on the need for a recent years in locals of the Teachers union, the labor party. We will have more of this as developing State, County and Municipal Employees union, and events make its urgency more apparent. others. But nothing further happens except some Improving the Militant in this respect is not only times a patronizing word of encouragement from the responsibility of the staff. Reports on discussion someone in the union bureaucracy. in the shops is the best help our staff writers can get The fate of a labor party resolution adopted last ~GhtOh on effective ways to explain our class-struggle year in Los Angeles, California, by the 10,000- views. member Social Services Union Local 535, Service In preparation for launching our 1980 presiden Employees International Union, AFl.rCIO, is typi tial election campaign, our national campaign cal. Copies of this resolution were sent to the SEIU committee will be paying close attention to the most International Executive Board, where it was tabled; effective ways of explaining our views on the need to several central labor bodies in California, where for a labor party, how to present it forcefully at most of them filed it without action; and to Execu union meetings and in our radio and television tive Secretary-Treasurer John Henning of the Cali broadcasts. We will get out the word that the SWP fornia Labor Federation, AFl.rCIO. Henning ac iGhl l is the party that wants to help the 20 million union knowledged receipt of the resolution, saying he men and women in America build a labor party. appreciates "the difficulty involved in the formation And we agree that we should publish a popular of a labor party, but I also realize that the 'one AFL- CIO pamphlet on the labor party, explaining why it is party' system as it has evolved in our country can urgently needed, the kind of party it ought to be, only mean ruin for the labor movement." He sent JlliTAllt" and why the SWP strongly favors it. his "best wishes and kindest regards ...." Steel Labor With the central leadership of the party organiz The Alameda County Labor Council in the north 'Every fight by the workers to streng ing, directing, and pushing along these lines, we ern California Bay Area was the only central body then their unions and extend solidarity will learn concretely from our comrades' experience to discuss and act upon the resolution. It was not to other workers Is a crucial part of the on the job itself, the adjustments we may need in adopted. carrying out most effectively a labor party cam SEIU President George Hardy, according to a process that will lead to a labor party.' paign. THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 17 UA W P-_amP-_h/et teP-_ublished A weapon in the fight for a labor party In 1949 the United Auto Workers- talism is willing to shout about may CIO Education Department published not be the kind of. democracy labor a pamphlet titled "You Can Do It wants," he warned. ·· Better Democratically." The employers are more successful It is the text of a talk by the then- today in convincing the labor official- prominent sociologist Robert Lynd at dom of this fact that Robert Lynd was the fourth annual UAW International in his time. Education Conference, the slogan of which Lynd took as his subject. Labor's goals But what he said was different than The goals of the UAW in 1949 were what the sloganeers intended. adequate pensions, national health His analysis of democracy under insurance, comprehensive social secur capitalism shows that the democratic ity, and a raise in real wages to restore rights of workers are restricted and lost buying power. subverted by the capitalist rulers, that Not much progress has been made social planning is negated by corpo toward achieving these goals. They are rate profit taking, that the Democratic still the very things the labor move ment is trying to win, and success You Can Do It Better Democratic appears less likely than in 1949. Why is this? Because the labor movement ally by Robert Lynd. 46 pp. Order has not mobilized its potential political from Independent Skilled Trades power. Council, Suite 228, Southfield Office Lynd asked a series of questions, the Plaza Building, 17000 W. Eight Mile central one being this: "Do we, as Road, Southfield, Michigan 48075. organized labor, trust big business' Under 10 copies, 50 cents each; 10- promises and leadership in the light of 99 copies, 40 cents each; 100 or its record?" over, 30 cents each. This surely is a question the union movement ought to ask itself today. The record of capitalism has not im and Republican parties are political proved. instruments of the employing class, Lynd told his union listeners that and that American workers need a "labor looks to me like the only force in labor party that will abolish the contemporary society big enough and anarchy and injustice of the capitalist strong enough to save democracy for system. us Americans." With the first printing of this pam With popular text and He urged the formation of a labor phlet a prefatory note by Victor graphics, Lynd pamphlet party for this purpose. "And I don't Reuther, who was then UAW Educa explains need for believe a labor party will be worth a tion Director, said that "Mr. Lynd's Independent working damn if it simply tries to take over the remarks ... excited a great amount of class political action. Democratic Party and go on within our discussion," that there was "an insist present set-up," he said. "A labor party ent demand for its publication." lABOR and MANI\GEMENT 1 would have to make up its mind about The pamphlet, despite its initial pop capitalism." ularity, was never reissued by the One reason the labor party has not UAW Education Department. been organized is lack of self Top officials of the UAW today pre and not a single job for any unem Lynd warned that big business was confidence on the part of union offi tend they never heard of it and are ployed worker. Why has there been no planning to restrict all democratic cials. They are afraid to undertake any unfamiliar with its analysis of class progress for thirty years? freedoms, "so that we shall all march plan, however modest, without prior society in this country. For most of One reason is deception. Most of to the tune of big business and all keep approval of the banks and industry. them, there is no need to pretend those who were delegates to the fourth our mouths shut about other things." They think the only purpose of the ignorance. They don't know and don't annual UAW education conference and That warning was timely. The capi unions is to convince the employers to care. who heard Lynd back then believed at talist class stifled most criticism and do what needs to be done for the Official indifference seemed for a the time that the 1948 election of much thought until the uprising of welfare of working people. The result is long time to have buried this UAW Truman was a good thing and that the Black people against social and eco dismal. publication. But the ideas expressed by new Democratic Party majority in nomic oppression, and the beginning The original UAW pamphlet in Robert Lynd are so powerful and so Congress would solve most of their of the antiwar movement in the 1960s. cluded an appendix that has been left applicable to the current political and problems. The 1950s were a dismal decade. out of the reprint. That appendix was economic problems of the working Lynd told them, quite frankly, that the UAW's 1949 political action resolu class and the union movement that a "all of us can be and to a considerable 'Junior partners' tion. It outlines a policy exactly the new edition of the pamphlet has just extent are being fooled." Lynd cautioned the union officials opposite of what Lynd suggested. And been published by UAW members in We should all know now that Tru that they wouldn't get very far as it reveals why the union has failed to the union's skilled-trades department. man did nothing to help working peo "junior partners" of the capitalists. influence the course of political events. They think it will provoke more ple. He launched the Korean war, "Industry generally seems to be encou discussion today than thirty years ago. initiated the McCarthy witch-hunt, raging some such cautious policy of 'Realignment'? and broke strikes using the Taft junior-partner collaboration by labor It sought "a new realignment of Mass unemployment Hartley law (which the Democrats, if in its emphasis on labor-management political forces in America out of which The threat of mass unemployment given a majority, promised to repeal), cooperation," said Lynd, "but it is there can come a clear demarcation was very real in 1949, and there was while he lifted all price controls and reserving to itself the right to deal with between the political patties standing talk then about economic planning to boosted corporate profits. whatever things it calls 'management for people, human rights and progress guarantee jobs for all. The full employ problems.' " as opposed to a party representing ment act of 1946 had been passed by Two-party system A cozy relationship between top property, privilege and reaction." This the U.S. Congress. But it did not pro Since Truman's time, the Republi union officials and the heads of giant is all within the framework of capital vide any jobs because no money was cans have held the White House for corporations like General Motors has, ist politics. appropriated for public works. sixteen years and the Democrats for over the years, created the false im No such realignment of the capitalist Mass unemployment is a bigger fourteen. During all but two of those pression of relative "peace" between parties has yet occurred after a thirty problem today, compounded by long years, the Democrats have had a ma workers and their bosses. year effort by the UAW and other overtime hours for those with jobs, and jority in the Congress. But the workers suffered, while the unions to bring it about. Nor is it likely by inflated prices that undermine the But whether Democrats or Republi bosses got fatter. Union political influ to happen any time in the future. living conditions of both employed and cans hold the upper hand, they always ence declined, while corporate lobby The more practical course is what unemployed. share the power of government. They ists exercised control of government. Robert Lynd laid out. The fact that his The recurrence of a deep economic always protect the selfish interests of The deepening crisis of world capi talk has been reprinted today indicates depression is a greater threat now than the employers, and never help the talism now prompts the employers in there is developing within the union in 1949. The need for economic plan workers. During all these years the this country to change their tactics. movement sufficient self-confidence to ning is greater today than it was then. position of the union movement has They are telling their junior partners try it. "As I work with problems such as constantly worsened. that the partnership is dissolved. The labor party can begin at the planning for full employment," said This process was partially explained This is what UAW President Doug local level. And once it does, it can Lynd, "I am constantly stopped by the and accurately predicted by Lynd. He las Fraser recently called "one-sided rapidly win mass support and put fact that in our democracy there is a said that the class structure of capital class war.'' It is only another expres workers in office. It can help organize serious gap between what it makes ist society gives the employers the sion of the class war that never mass actions for social planning, inde sense for us to do, what millions of us upper hand because they own and ended-but now it takes the form of an pendent of capitalist control and with people want, and getting clearance to control the economy. open attack on the union movement. out the anchor of private profit to drag get those things done." His way of explaining it was that One of the myths about capitalism it down. Such an example would turn For thirty years there has been no economic power in the hands of a few that Lynd sought to expose in his talk politics in this country upside down. planning for full employment, and the can always override the political power is the false notion that political free This prospect is easily within the UAW is no closer to getting govern of the majority so long as the "rights" dom and so-called free enterprise are reach of unions today. It will be ment clearance for what needs to be of private industry are not challenged. synonymous. achieved by union men and women done. "Economic power is political power," Monopoly control of production long who have made up their minds that The recent campaign for enactment he said. "As state and economic pow ago eliminated "free enterprise", Lynd the welfare of their class is more im of the Humphrey-Hawkins "jobs bill" ers merge, the aces are in the hands of said. "A kind of democracy that is portant than the system of private produced not one cent for public works private business." necessary to capitalism and that capi- profit. -Frank Lovell 18 Young Socialists to join Apri/4 jobs protests Demonstrations demanding jobs for tering the job market in record them would cost the government $9 "We need massive demonstrations to youth are planned in about fifteen numbers, and, most cynically, on the billion a year, as much as it now expose this criminal hypocrisy of the cities on April 4. Black youth themselves, who officials spends on the whole federal jobs pro- Democrats and Republicans and to The protests are being organized by claim would rather commit crimes gram. demand jobs for all-now!" the Youth March for Jobs Committee, than work. "That was supposed to point out, I which also sponsored the national "The real reason for youth unem April 4 actions are planned in Bos guess, the impossibility of . ending ton, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, demonstration for jobs of 4,000 in ployment-and all unemployment-is youth unemployment. Washington, D.C., last April 8. that big business needs a pool of New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Young Socialist Alliance National reserve labor as a way of keeping "But the MX missile program alone Pittsburgh, Detroit, Jersey City, Se will cost $35 billion-nearly four times Chairperson Cathy Sedwick told the workers divided and holding wages attle, Washington, Los Angeles, Tuc that much. son (Arizona), and Portland (Maine). Militant that the YSA will be partici do~n," _Sedwick said. pating in these demonstrations. "If Carter and Congress had any "The official unemployment rate for intentions whatsoever of ending youth Black youth laet month was 35.5 per unemployment, they wouldn't be in cent," Sedwick said. "Just think about creasing military spending to a record Shorter workweek meeting it-in the richest nation in the world, $135 billion. They would be disman the government admits that more than The All Unions' Committee to Winpisinger, president of the Inter tling the military budget and using our Shorten the Work Week will hold its national Association of Machinists, one-third of its Black youth cannot tax money to provide jobs for all at find jobs. And that doesn't even ac second national conference in Wash will deliver speeches to the April 6 union-scale wages." ington, D.C., on April 6. gathering. count for thousands of others who The committee is headed by Frank have given up hope and aren't looking Sedwick said that in marching on The conference is open to represen Runnels, president of United Auto tatives from local unions and from any more. April 4, the YSA will be demanding for jobs Workers Local 22 in Detroit. Last "Carter and other Democratic and massive federal jobs programs and other labor organizations. ·year's conference in Dearborn, Mich For more information, contact the Republican politicians cry crocodile also a shorter workweek with no cut in igan, was attended by 700 delegates committee at 4300 Michigan Avenue, tears over all the young people without pay to provide jobs for all. from twenty-five unions. Detroit, Michigan 48210. Telephone: jobs. And then their 'experts' pin the "One government official recently Rep. John Conyers and William (313) 897-8850. rap on undocumented workers who told the New York Times that to pro supposedly 'steal' jobs, on women en- vide jobs for all Black youths needing S.D. electronics workers Seattle Boilermakers strike against pay limits protest plan to split local By Jay Ressler By Karl Bermann steel fabrication shops along with the SAN DIEGO-Workers at the Gen SEATTLE-More than 300 Boiler field construction workers, voted un eral Dynamics/Electronics Division makers marched on their union hall animously to oppose the plan to split plant here are on strike against Presi March 10 to let international union the local. The committee elected was dent Carter's wage guidelines in what officials know how they feel about a ·empowered to take whatever action union officials predict may be a long, plan to split up their local. necessary to defend the rights of Local hard fight. t~ ~~t~•ti'*~-~* ;~<.. . Officials of the International Broth 104 members. The company's determination to ... ····+·-,.·-··' erhood of Boilermakers are trying to Signs carried in the March 10 protest break the strike was shown the first force through a plan to take field said, "Unions are for the membership, day, March 5, when five loads of scabs construction workers out of the 5,200- not the international," "We want a in school buses, protected by state member Local 104 and put them in a voice in our union affairs," and "Keep cops, were driven through hundreds of separate district lodge. solidarity in the Brotherhood." As members waited in the union pickets. The Local 104 membership is not meeting hall to testify, they organized The strikers, mostly women, Blacks, ON SlRl allowed to vote on the plan. and Chicanos, are members of Interna their own "open hearing." A proposal The vast majority of the 600 con to organize a "solidarity caravan" to tional Association of Machinists Local struction workers in Local 104 oppose Portland the next weekend to coincide 2193. There are about 1,000 workers in the plan for several reasons. First, in with a the company's electronics division. similar hearing was greeted the district structure, they would be enthusiastically. denied the right to elect their business After one week of the strike, the About fifteen members of Boilermak agent, as well as the right to vote on company offered a contract that would ers Local 72 in Portland joined the other important matters. raise the bottom pay level to four protest here. They are protesting the dollars within the next nine months Second, they believe they are in a district plan, as well as new rules and provide a quarterly cost-of-living stronger position in Local 104 than agreed to by the union and the employ adjustment. This was all contingent on they would be in a much smaller ers for the "nine western states." approval by President Carter's Council district lodge. About 1,200 field Under these rules, members of the on Wage and Price Stability. workers-who are now in locals in union can be suspended from the "out The strikers rejected the offer by a Seattle, Tacoma (Washington), and of work" referral list for up to ninety three-to-two vote. Portland (Oregon)-would make up the days for being fired "without just General Dynamics, one of the na lodge. cause," for quitting without union per tion's largest aerospace corporations, Ten-hour days, The protest here coincided with mission, or for striking without author holds major military contracts for such 'What are we? a closed hearings before an international ization. weapons as the cruise missile and the striker. union official. In order to testify on the During the time workers are sus F-14 and F-16 fighter planes. proposed local split, workers had to pended from the list, or "benched," Wages at the plant here are as low as Since November, the union's rank take a number and wait in line to meet they are prohibited from working as $2.90 an hour. Many workers got a and-file Committee for a Decent Con one by one with the official. boilermakers anywhere in the nine raise only when the federal minimum tract has issued eleven contract bullet The demonstration of Boilermakers state area. · wage recently went up. Wages in all ins, reporting on the progress of the was organized in five days by a com On February 27, members of Local classifications lag nearly three dollars negotiations. mittee elected at a special membership 72 shut down a large construction an hour behind those of other aero In anticipation of the strike, the meeting of Local 104. The meeting of project in Boardman, Oregon, after space workers in the city, including contract committee set up committees 250, representing the shipyards and several members were "benched" those workers for other divisions of to organize a commissary, child care, under the new rules. They returned to General Dynamics. temporary employment, and welfare work after the suspensions were re counseling. Karl Bermann is a member of Boi duced by union officials from ninety On top of that, the workers have Solidarity with the electronics strik lermakers Local 104. days to fifteen. been subjected to sweatshop conditions ers is beginning. lAM locals 755 and where forced overtime is the norm. 385 have each contributed $5,000 to the One woman in her early fifties told strikers. The San Diego City College me that she has had to work ten hours student government has initiated a a day, seven days a week, since July. strike support committee. Even when she was sick with a fever, Socialist Workers Party mayoral she couldn't get excused. candidate Raul Gonzalez, a member of "What are we? Machines?" she lAM Local 685, joined the picket line asked. "Until this weekend, I hadn't and issued a statement in support of seen the sunlight for eight months the strike. and I work days!" General Dynamics, Gonzalez said, The strikers are also fighting for "is one of the largest employers m San plant-wide seniority. Diego and the pacesetter in the aero Virginia Cobb, Local 2193 business space industry." What happens with agent and chief negotiator, told the the electronics workers' fight, he said, March 4 strike meeting, "There was an will affect all workers in San Diego, invisible man sitting at the negotiat which has one of the highest inflation ing table on the bosses' side of the rates in the country. room. His name is Jimmy Carter. It's Gonzalez called on the entire labor clear we're not just up against GDE, movement to "immediately launch a Militant/Karl Bermann but also against the president of the united campaign to defend the General Membership elected special committee, which organized March 10 protest at union United States." Dynamics electronics workers." hall. THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 19 Teachers end 56-dar_ strike St. Louis socialists enter school board race By Carl Peterson a week for the rest of this semester and "But the teachers were up against teacher back to work; ST. LOUIS-This city's 4,100 four in the fall. the courts and the demagogic Demo- • take the tax burden for the schools teachers returned to work March 13, On the other central demand of cratic and Republican politicians every totally off working people and put it on ending the longest teachers' strike in lowering class size, the board only step of the way. the big banks and corporations; the state's history. agreed to bring the school system up to "Working people need our own politi- • repeal all laws that restrict the For fifty-six days, members of Amer official standards. cal party to stand behind us in our right of public employees to organize, ican Federation of Teachers Local 420 No support for the striking teachers battles, not to stab us in the back," she bargain collectively, and strike; stood up to antiunion laws, strike came from any official of the Demo- said. "We need a labor party based on • defend the rights of Black, Chi- breaking court orders, and a school cratic and Republican parties. the unions." cano, and Puerto Rican students to board blitz that tried to pit parents and On March 7, the Socialist Workers Among the tasks of such a labor equal education and desegregated students against the strikers. Party announced it would run the party, Pritchard believes, would be the schools; and, The teachers voted March 12 to party's St. Louis chairperson, Mary mobilization of teachers, students, and • guarantee the right of students to approve a new two-year contract that Pritchard, as a write-in candidate in parents in a political fight to: free speech, assembly, and participa- includes a pay raise $275 above the the April 30 school board election. • cut class size and put every jobless tion in political activity. board's "final offer" made two weeks Pritchard immediately declared her before. support for the teachers' strike and The strike also won elementary called on the St. Louis labor movement teachers two class-preparation periods to mount a solidarity campaign with Striking D.C. teachers fined the teachers. By Erich Martel ing a series of givebacks, including: Pritchard's supporters distributed WASHINGTON-Judge Gladys 5,000 copies of a campaign leaflet • that the teachers work an extra Kessler slapped heavy fines on the one and a half hours per day and headlined "Support the Teachers two weeks longer per year; Strike! Their Fight is Our Fight!"-at striking teachers union here March 13. • that nonunion teachers be eligi auto plants, steel plants, and teachers' The walkout by the 5,000-member ble to serve as building representa meetings. tives (or job stewards); "The public school system has be Washington Teachers Union was sparked March 6 by the board of • that the union no longer be able come a prime target of the nationwide education's refusal to extend the to appoint members to curriculum employers' drive to cut government previous contract during negotia and other planning committees; and spending on social services," Pritchard tions. The board then terminated • that the union grievance proce told the Militant. union dues check-off. dure be limited to areas specifically "Everywhere the bipartisan program The board got a back-to-work court mentioned in the contract and not to of the big-business Democratic and order the first day. The teachers general working conditions. Republican parties is to reduce teach· refused to bow to it. The demands are "a passport to ing staffs and increase class size, to slavery," says Simons. hold down pay and roll back contract Judge Kessler then found the The American Federation of gains, and to eliminate 'frills,' such as union in contempt, fining the union Teachers and the Greater Washing art, music, athletics, and remedial pro $5,000 a day, WTU President Wil ton Central Labor Council have grams. liam Simons $500 a day, and WTU endorsed the strike and are provid "Hardest hit," she went on, "are the executive board members $250 a ing assistance. schools in the Black, Chicano, and day. Teamster drivers are refusing to Puerto Rican communities." Simons called the strikebreaking cross the picket lines. Daily rallies The school board and city business actions "union busting at its best" MARY PRITCHARD: Teachers were up after picketing have been enthusias men "found" more money for the and declared the strike was still on. against courts and Democratic and Re tic, attracting several thousand teachers, Pritchard explained, after the The board of education is demand- teachers. publican politicians every step of the teachers made it clear they would way. continue to fight for their demands. Karen Silkwood lawsuit goes to trial in Okla. By Arnold Weissberg and Atomic Workers union, Silkwood disappeared. The Oklahoma Highway Even if that's true, it only reveals The Karen Silkwood case has finally was trying to lessen worker exposure Patrol claimed no documents were how miserably weak the government's gone to trial. to plutonium. found at the crash. "safeguards" are. Silkwood, a union activist who Then, only days before her death, Karen Silkwood's father filed suit The Karen Silkwood case has be sought to expose unsafe conditions at her apartment was contaminated by against Kerr-McGee, charging the come a focus for feminists, antinuclear the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where the fiendishly toxic element. Kerr- giant energy firm with negligence in activists, and trade unionists. The Oil, she worked, died in a mysterious auto McGee claims Silkwood did it herself. its handling of plutonium. Chemical and Atomic Workers union crash in November 1974. In the course of pretrial legal activi has played a leading role in circulating On the night of November 13, Silk the truth about Karen Silkwood's Jury selection in an $11.5 million ties, it has been revealed that: wood bundled documents substantiat death. The National Organization for civil suit against the company was • The FBI had Silkwood under sur ing her charges against Kerr-McGee Women has also aided in publicizing completed March 6 in Oklahoma City. veillance before she died-and Kerr and climbed into her car. She was the case. going to meet with an OCA W represen McGee knew it; Kerr-McGee's Cimarron plant, where • Documents wel"e found at the Last November, antinuclear groups Silkwood worked, manufactured pluto tative and a reporter for the New York around the country organized more Times. crash site and were loaded back into nium fuel rods for the federal govern the wreck of Karen Silkwood's car. But than 100 Karen Silkwood memorial ment. Radiation expert Dr. Karl Mor She never made it. Her car swerved they were gone by the next morning. actions, informing tens of thousands of gan said in 1976 he had "never known off the road and she was killed. people about the case. of an operation in this industry so A private investigator hired by Kerr-McGee, in its defense, claims it The Oklahoma City trial will help poorly operated from the standpoint of OCA W found evidence her car may can't be found negligent because its keep the spotlight on the still unans radiation protection." have been pushed off the road. plutonium safeguards met government wered question: who killed Karen Silk As an activist in the Oil, Chemical The documents she was carrying standards. wood? Cops illegally spied on campus anti nuke group By Martha Graham confirm or deny that Bell spied for the LOS ANGELES-The Los Angeles department. Police Department illegally spied on A 1975 California Supreme Court an antinuclear group at California ruling bars the cops from spying on State University at Los Angeles groups not engaged in illegal activi (CSLA). ties. And the LAPD's own "guidelines" Police agent Cheryl Bell infiltrated permit spying "only when there is a the campus Committee on Nuclear substantial threat that their activities Information from October 1977 until will result in public disorder." the following summer, eventually be No one has claimed that the Com coming president of the organization. mittee on Nuclear Information did She enrolled as a student for four anything illegal or even threatened to quarters while acting as a police spy. do anything illegal. Bell was active in Los Angeles anti nuclear activities and was a member of Campus groups, includ.ing the Young both the Los Angeles and Pasadena Socialist Alliance, Gay Student Union, chapters of the Alliance for Survival. Committee on Nuclear Information, In refusing to answer a reporter's and the Academic Senate Board of questions about her surveillance activi Directors, have demanded that the ties because "her superiors" had told CSLA administration and the cops end her not to talk, Bell de facto admitted the use of police informers. The groups her role as police agent. 'University Times' used circle and arrow to show pollee officer Cheryl have also demanded to see the files on The LAPD has refused to officially Bell In anti-nuclear power protest. all past and present campus spies. 20 glad the U.S. government had not intervened mil itarily in Iran. Washington's aim is to turn this situation around, so that it can use its massive military might to stop the spread of socialist revolution. This effort to put U.S. imperialism back on a war footing is a key battlefront in the rulers' offensive against the resistance by American workers to the political and economic needs of big business. The capitalists are determined to resolve the deep crisis of their system the only way they can-by taking it out of the hides of working people at home and abroad. The ruling class does not intend to let American workers block its drive to boost profits. It will push ahead to reverse gains won by the unions, and by the Black and women's movement, over decades of struggle. Nor does it intend to let workers' antiwar attitudes prevent it from using them as cannon fodder for Wall Street's interests around the globe. Carter's war drive is aimed just as much at the American working class as at workers elsewhere around the world. That's shown by Washington's record $135 billion war budget for this year. That's shown by the talk in Congress and the White House of resurrecting the draft. That's shown by the Pentagon's drive toward the most rapid possible development of a U.S. nuclear "first strike" capacity, and of tactical nuclear weapons such as the neutron bomb. That's shown by probes such as in Yemen, toward a direct U.S. military intervention. This is the dangerous road along which Washing ton is pushing American workers and all humanity a~ the crisis of capitalism deepens. What capitalist press says Business Week laid out U.S. imperialism's prob lem in a straightforward manner for its ruling-class readership in a special March 12 issue on: "The Decline of U.S. Power: The New Debate Over Guns and Butter." By "most criteria," said Business Week, "the U.S.-the colossus that emerged after World War II-is now clearly facing a crisis of the decay of power. Geopolitically, the years since the Vietnam war have produced far more evidence of retreat than of advance. The fall of a strong U.S. ally, the Shah in Iran, is only the most recent example.... "With its nuclear umbrella and armed forces, the U.S. stood ready to guarantee this open [world capitalist] system against threats from the Soviet Union on the outside and enemies that might close off certain markets"-a euphemism for socialist revolution. "As both banker and cop the U.S. was the guarantor of the postwar global economy," the leading U.S. financial weekly says. "Now there are signs of U.S. weakness everywhere, and cracks are appearing in the system. The policies set in motion during the Vietnam war are now threatening the way of life built since World War II." The solution? "There is growing sentiment both within the White House and in Congress," says Business Week, "that the U.S. retreat from the exercise of global power has gone too far and the time is now ripe for a reversal of that isolationist posture." The article suggests that a larger share of the federal budget must be spent on the Pentagon, and that Washington must look for opportunities to By Steve Clark Yemen this month. Carter is pushing the Saudi reassert its military power. Hiding behind the mask of world peacemaker, the Arabian regime to move against the government of The same themes were developed in a February 21 Carter administration is driving to reassert W a South Yemen and confront the Cuban troops that editorial in the Wall Street Journal. shington's political capacity to use its vast military are stationed there. "A generation of world stability was built on the power. • In combating the extension of the Indochinese bedrock of American purpose and American Due to the deep-seated opposition among Ameri revolution, Washington has had to pour in arms to power," the Journal wrote. "As this foundation can workers to U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath the rightist military regime in Thailand and funnel becomes increasingly shaky, the world is threa of the Vietnam War, the U.S. ruling class has been support through that conduit to reactionary guer tened with the unpalatable alternatives of. Soviet unable to simply "send in the marines" in an rilla forces in Kampuchea (Cambodia) and Laos. It domination or sheer anarchy" -again, code words attempt to slow down, halt, and reverse the rising had to enlist the help of the Peking Stalinists in an for socialist revolution. wave of anti-imperialist and anticapitalist struggles unsuccessful effort to pressure Vietnam to withdraw The Indochina developments, the Journal be around the world. troops from Kampuchea. lieves, show that it's time to call a halt. "The spiral The resulting weakening of U.S. imperialism in The imperialists know, however, that none of into disorder can be averted only if the U.S. starts relation to the world working class has been dram these can substitute for the direct use of U.S. to assert itself once again." atized most recently by Washington's dilemma in military muscle. No matter how loyally Teng Hsiao Painfully aware of the obstacles American the face of revolutionary developments in Iran, p'ing performs, U.S. imperialism will never trust the workers have erected to this task, the Journal southern Africa, and Indochina. rulers of a social system that is its deadly enemy. In explains: "This does not mean sending the Marines • In southern Africa, Washington has been addition, the Chinese army's poor showing in to settle every quarrel in the world. It does mean checkmated by the deep revulsion at home against Vietnam proved that it is certainly not a strategic, building the kind of military force we are likely to support to the white minority regimes. This feeling offensive military power in the area. need in the evolving world, refusing to make unne is especially strong among Blacks, who make up a And the Iranian events once again demonstrated cessary diplomatic concessions, asserting our rights large and growing portion of the volunteer army the frailty of semicolonial capitalist regimes such as unapologetically and keeping our promises to our today. The revolutionary Cuban government has in Thailand. allies." added to imperialism's headaches by stationing Despite U.S. imperialism's growing need to use Pointing to the ideological cover behind which the some 40,000 troops on the continent to resist coun direct military force, however, opposition to such a war drive could be prepared, the Journal says: "But terrevolutionary moves. course among American workers remains high. first, we need to digest the lesson of the current • In Iran, the U.S. rulers were unable to inter A CBS/ New York Times poll released March 2, fighting in Indochina: That American power is not vene at all militarily. Their eagerness to reassert for example, showed that 63 percent of those ques the root of evil in the world; that it is more likely to U.S. power in that part of the world highlights the tioned opposed sending troops abroad for any be a force for good." dangers in Washington's decision to dispatch an reason other than responding to an attack on the It is behind such a fog of lies that the U.S. rulers aircraft carrier and other warships to the waters off United States. Sixty-eight perc\=)nt said they were Continued on next page THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 21 have led the American people into every war this "We will not get involved in conflict between with the U.S. and Chinese workers, on the other. century. Asian Communist nations," Carter piously lied to Despite surface appearances, the Peking and Woodrow Wilson promised that World War I an audience at Georgia Tech last month. Hanoi Stalinist regimes are not the central protago would be the "war to end all wars." Franklin By striking this fraudulent posture, Carter hopes nists in this struggle. They represent privileged Roosevelt sent American workers to the slaughter not only to portray Washington as a force for peace bureaucratic castes balanced between the contend house under the banner, "Quarantine the aggres and sanity in a strife-torn world, but to discredit ing class forces. sors." Similar demagogy was use to justify the wars socialism as an alternative to the wars and suffer In an essay written forty years ago, Russian against Korea and Vietnam. ing bred by capitalism. Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky explained this cru Today, Carter knows that to achieve his goals he The big-business-controlled press in this country cial starting point for understanding anything must reverse the widespread popular suspicion of is unanimously beating the drums for Carter's about twentieth century politics: "The struggle for Washington's foreign-policy aims. He must con- propaganda effort. domination considered on a historical scale is not A February 19 editorial in the New York Times between the proletariat and the [Stalinist] bureau gloated: cracy, but between the proletariat and world bour 'Carter's effort to put U.S. "They are singing 'The Internationale' on all geoisie." imperialism back on a war sides of the Asian battles this week as they bury the "In its capacity of a transmitting mechanism in hopes of the Communist fathers with the bodies of this struggle," Trotsky said, "the bureaucracy leans footing is a key battlefront in their sons." now on the proletariat against imperialism, now on the capitalist offensive Assuring readers that the idea of a peaceful imperialism against the proletariat, in order to socialist future is utopian, the Times editors pointed increase its own power." ("Not a Workers' and Not against workers at home and out the "the Red brotherhood believed that the only a Bourgeois State?" in Writings of Leon Trotsky abroad.' international wars that could still occur-which (1937-1938).) were in fact 'inevitable'-were those growing out of Today in Indochina, the Peking Stalinists are vince American workers that the threat of war the contradictions inherent in capitalism." leaning on U.S. imperialism against the interests of comes from beyond the borders, and that the Now it can be seen, according to the Times, that both the Indochinese and Chinese masses. Their Pentagon must be strong in the interests of world war is really an inherent aspect of human nature. goal is to get an economic deal with U.S. capitalism peace. He must try to whip up an "us" versus "Ugly nationalism has triumphed once again in the and prove their reliability to Washington as an "them" atmosphere. human family." opponent of revolutionary change in Asia. So, Carter has tried to revive, with a new twist, "Communists at war" blared the front page of The Stalinist regime in Hanoi, on the other hand, the "Communist menace" propaganda that took a Time magazine, echoing a phrase pumped for all its has had to lean on the Vietnamese toilers against serious beating from the American people as a worth on radio, television, and in the newspapers. U.S. imperialism and its Peking ally. Its own consequence of the anti-Vietnam War movement. The same theme has been taken up by the attempts to reach accommodation with Washington Pointing to events in Indochina, Carter now aims to capitalist class and its electronic and newsprint following the 1973 accords have been met by an startle the American people with the specter of mouthpieces throughout Europe and around the intensification of the imperialist blockade and other spiraling wars among "Communist countries." world. hostile measures. As a result, the Hanoi bureau cracy has been forced to defend with its own Stalinist methods the revolutionary gains won by the Vietnamese workers and peasants during de cades of struggle. In rejecting such a class approach toward the How U.S. left responded Indochina events, the vast majority of the Ameri can radical press has ended up helping Washington No one on the American left except the Militant Vietnam and Kampuchea in supporting roles. in obscuring U.S. imperialism's counterrevolution and Socialist Workers Party has stood up under the "Vietnam" invaded "Kampuchea," everyone ex ary maneuvers there. pressure of this capitalist ideological barrage. No plains. Then "China" invaded "Vietnam." In countering these incorrect conceptions, the one except the Militant and SWP has consistently "Countries" are at war over "national antago Militant has stressed that: kept the spotlight on U.S. imperialism and its drive nisms" and "spheres of influence." All social div • The threat of war in today's world originates in to contain and roll back the Indochinese revolution. isions between and within these countries, all the profit drive of imperialism. At the heart of this In a front-page editorial in its February 28 issue, classes, disappear. drive is the capitalists' ultimate aim of rolling back for example, the Guardian lent credence to Carter's Who invaded Vietnam? The Chinese masses, or all conquests of the working class-from unions, to lie that Washington was not involved in plotting the Stalinist regime in Peking? Does it matter that the fourteen workers states, where capitalism has the invasion of Vietnam. "We denounce imperial capitalism had been toppled in Vietnam, but not in been abolished; ism, even though it is not yet directly invclved," Kampuchea? • The Stalinist bureaucratic castes that dominate said the Guardian perfunctorily. Most important, where is the struggle between the all the workers states except Cuba are not driven The following issue went even further, polemiciz Indochinese masses and U.S. imperialism? Has toward wars of aggression and do not seek an ing against those who viewed the trade mission to Washington simply written off Southeast Asia? offensive military capacity. Their foreign policies China by Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal Why has it suddenly and dramatically stepped up are neither those of an imperialist government as "an implicit imprimatur for Beijing's [Peking's] military shipments to the Thai dictatorship? What promoting the interests of the capitalists, nor those attack." Actually, the Guardian explained, the really happened when Teng visited Washington, of a revolutionary workers state pursuing the strug invasion conflicted "with Washington's perceptions and when Blumenthal visited Peking? gle to overturn world capitalism; of its overall interests." Most of the radical press has ended up echoing • The Stalinist castes play a counterrevolution According the the Guardian, U.S. imperialism the "explanations" offered by the bourgeois press, ary role on a world scale, acting as a transmission "watches patiently." which does its best to disguise the underlying belt for imperialist pressure against the working "Unable to defeat the forces of revolution in hot struggle between exploiters and exploited-the class class. Nonetheless, they are forced in the interests and cold wars," the February 28 editorial said, "it is struggle-that is at the center of all world politics. of self-preservation to defend the property relations content to maneuver skillfully between the contra In contrast to this classless mishmash, Marxists in the workers states against imperialism, although. dictions which have set socialist against socialist, explain that at the root of the Indochina wars is the their class-collaborationist methods actually exacerbating problems wherever possible." drive by the capitalist rulers of the United States to weaken the defense of these gains; and The Guardian echoes the New York Times's "Red defend their class interests against the extension of • All the key questions in world politics will be Brotherhood at War" editorial, warning of a "social social revolution in Southeast Asia. The main decided in the battles between imperialism and the ist world war." actors are the American ruling class, supported by world working class, a key part of which is the fight "These are sorry days for socialism," the Guard the Moscow and Peking bureaucracies, on the one to overthrow the bureaucratic castes and replace ian complains, "despite continuing advances by the hand; and the toiling masses of Indochina, together them by democratic rule of the working class. world's peoples against oppression and exploita tion. "China has invaded Vietnam. Vietnam has in vaded Kampuchea. The words evoke nausea. Where will it end?" Capitalist expansionism Similar themes have appeared in the social democratic weekly, In These Times. An editorial in All of twentieth-century history is proof scrawled with Blumenthal's trade mission to Peking. its January 17-23 issue, before the invasion of in blood that the source of war is the inexhaustible, While the U.S. treasury secretary was in China, Vietnam, argued that unlike the 1950s and 1960s, expansionist drive for profits by the giant monopoly the Peking regime suddenly announced that it was when "international conflicts revolved around the interests that dominate the world capitalist market. freezing a number of big trade deals with Japanese confrontation between world capitalism and world These competing monopoly corporations and firms. Blumenthal then stopped in Japan on his communism," today the main "conflicts in world banks defend their interests through various na way back to the United States. politics involve those among communists and so tional states. The capitalists must have state power According to the March 6 New York Times, "The cialists. . . ." to promote and defend their needs against those of Japanese officials told reporters that Japan and the An editorial in ITT's February 28-March 6 issue the workers they exploit at home and abroad, as United States should avoid 'cutthroat competition' even explained that "so far, to his credit, President well as against their capitalist competitors in other in vying for sales with China."' Carter has assumed a restrained position" in the countries. As if the leopard could change its spots! Indochina conflicts. World Wars I and II, the wars in Korea and Despite this never-ending rivalry, however, the "The Chinese invasion of Vietnam, like the Viet Vietnam, and innumerable wars to smash other political and military aspects of this interimperial namese invasion of Cambodia," said the editorial, colonial uprisings have been fought by U.S., Ger ist competition have been profoundly altered by the "is one more episode in the rise of national antago man, French, British, Japanese, and other imperial existence of fourteen countries where capitalism has nism dividing communist states. But it is not a ist powers. The fundamental aims are always the been abolished and by Washington's nuclear arse minor episode: it underscores the grave danger such same: the struggle for markets, countrol over raw nal. conflict poses to world peace. . . . materials, new investment openings, and establish Japan is the most economically powerful capital "It has deepened the worldwide confusion, dis ment of military outposts to police these economic ist country after the United States. Yet, opposition cord, and demoralization in the ranks of socialists stakes. from the Japanese people-the victims of Hiro who have always argued that socialism would put Interimperialist competition continues today, and shima and Nagasaki-has made it impossible for an end to wars of aggression." is, in fact, intensifying as the gap erodes between the Japanese ruling class to rebuild a strategic The American radical press all portray the main the economic predominance of U.S. imperialism and military establishment, especially with nuclear actors in the recent Indochina conflicts as the the West European and Japanese capitalists. This arms. governments of the Soviet Union and China, with competition came into sharp relief again recently Germany, which follows Japan as an economic 22 Some political cartoonists fell right Into step with Carter's propaganda that the threat of war today comes from conflicts between "communist coun tries." Other cartoonists, however, reflected the suspicion among American working people that Washington was not the Innocent bystander It claimed to be In recent events In Indochina. Mike Peters 'I don't know what got Into me . . . I ate hamburgers and Coca-Cola . . . I wore a 10-gallon hat, and then I Invaded VIetnam . . . ' Auth 'As class antagonism vanishes, hostility of nations will end.' 'fW aJANTfl) 70 SEC""· MS.HIJAN? / iT U'.JKS f:lo\17 fVR Nat\ ~H1'51DI2 power, also has no nuclear forces of its own. Here, back any extension of this deadly threat to their to sea in 1960. Moscow did so some seven years too, opposition from the German workers has been class rule and ultimately to crush it altogether. later. decisive. They are driven to regain for direct exploitation the U.S. imperialism introduced multiple atomic war So, the interests of the entire imperialist system one-third of humanity that now lives in countries heads (MIRVs) in 1970, with the Soviet Union depend ultimately on U.S. military power-power where capitalism has been abolished. following in 1976. that has been hamstrung by American working Washington's campaign to contain the Indochi Today, under the transparent guise of "defense," people. nese revolution today is one battlefront in this class Washington is moving ahead with plans for the Capitalism was overturned in Russia at the end of . war between two social systems reflecting the new M-X and cruise missiles, and the neutron bomb. World War I, and following World War II through interests of two antagonistic classes-workers and The Carter administration and bipartisan Con out Eastern Europe, in China, in North Korea, in capitalists. gress are driving toward a nuclear "first strike" North Vietnam, in Cuba, and most recently in Imperialism's irreconcilable hatred for this new capacity. This sought-after ability to wipe out the southern Vietnam. These are historic blows against social system explains Washington's nuclear wea: entire Soviet nuclear force in a single surprise blow imperialism. pons buildup since World War II. The U.S. rulers exposes the true aggressive aims of U.S. imperial The capitalist powers are no longer simply pitted did not incinerate more than 200,000 human beings ism. against each other to carve up markets and the at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order, as they claim, Washington's nuclear arsenal makes it the en colonial world; their sources for investment and forcer of imperialist interests throughout the world cheap raw materials have drastically contracted. against the struggles of the workers and peasants. They have banded together under Washington's 'The source of war is the In this capacity, it has gone to war time and again lead against the world socialist revolution and inexhaustible, expansionist since World War II, primarily against the spread of colonial uprisings. drive for profits by the giant the colonial revolution and the threat that capitalist property would be toppled by these struggles. Pole of attraction monopolies that dominate the Washington went to war in Korea in 1950. It sent Moreover, the gains made possible under the new world capitalist market. The marines into Lebanon in 1958. It helped crush the economic and social system are a pole of attraction Congolese nationalist movement in 1964. It staged for the oppressed around the world. nationalized and planned an invasion of Cuba in 1961. It intervened to halt a These advances flow from the gradual replace economies of workers states popular uprising in the Dominican Republic in ment of production for private profit by production 1965. for human use in those countries. This has been are free from this predatory And it waged a long and bloody war against the made possible by the expropriation of private prop drive.' workers and peasants of Vietnam, Laos, and Kam erty in the basic means of production, the institu puchea. tion of economic planning, and a state monopoly of to force a Japanese surrender and save the lives of In addition, the CIA engineered successful coups international trade. American Gls. The Japanese government had al in Brazil, Guatemala, Iran, Chile, Indonesia, and The full potential of this historically advanced ready informed Washington of its desire to nego other places. And the list goes on. economic and social system can only be realized tiate an immediate surrender. The mass opposition today among U.S. workers with the triumph of socialist revolution worldwide. That act of capitalist barbarism was a warning to to such military aggression is a tremendous weapon Moreover, in none of the countries where capitalism the Soviet Union and to the oppressed and exploited in the hands of the oppressed, from Zimbabwe to has been abolished is there yet the democratic around the world. Thailand. But the U.S. ruling class is no more working-class participation and control needed for From that day to this, every escalation of the resigned to living with this situation abroad than it effective planning. nuclear arms race has orginated in Washington. is to bowing to the resistance by American workers Yet the accomplishments of the new system are a The USSR did not develop an atomic weapon to to a drastic attack on their living standards. living condemnation of capitalism: enormous counter the U.S. rulers' threat until late 1949. As the situation in Yemen today shows, the U.S. strides in the elimination of hunger and illiteracy; Washington exploded the first hydrogen bomb in government is constantly gauging the situation, free medical care and secure retirement; the eradica 1952. Moscow in 1953. assessing the relationship of forces, and waiting for tion of boom-and-bust cycles and large-scale, per The first intercontinental ballistic missiles were its opportunity to reassert direct military power. manent joblessness; and-as we will see-an end to deployed in 1960. By whom? The American rulers, Only constant vigilance and readiness to oppose the drive toward colonial subjugation and war. with Moscow only following four years later. such moves anywhere in the world can keep the The imperialists share a common aim: to hold Washington put its first missile-laden submarine rulers on the defensive. THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 23 reported March 6 that Peking faced "a problem in shifting the army's attitude from defensive war, for which it has been indoctrinated and trained, to one Ruling classes &castes suitable for an invasion, limited though it was." Peking's favor to U.S. imperialism was a costly The uncontrolled quest for profits that powers the factories, nor the revenues from the sale of those one militarily and politically. Its full impact on the imperialist war drive does not exist in coun products. ranks of the Chinese army, and on the discontented tries where capitalism has been abolished and Through their political and administrative con workers and peasants of China, has just begun to replaced by a planned and nationalized economy. trol, they rake off from what the workers produce a be felt. The merciless lash of competition among privately tremendous amount for their own consumption and owned monopolies no longer rules the economy. personal comfort. But the bureaucracy cannot get Stalinist foreign policy This is a historic conquest of the world working its hands on the productive wealth of society, buy or The caste does not have a foreign policy in the class and a tribute to the Russian toilers who sell it, invest it for profit abroad, or pass it on to its same sense as the capitalists, who pursue policies to opened the door to a new epoch in October 1917. children. protect their massive economic interests abroad. U.S., Japanese, German, and other imperialist History books to the contrary, no major capitalist based companies invest billions of dollars outside Trotsky explains it this way in The Revolution power has ever been "isolationist." Their financial their own national borders each year, raking in Betrayed: "The bureaucracy has neither stocks nor and military tentacles extend around the globe. billions more in profits to reinvest. Companies such bonds. It is recruited, supplemented and renewed in The caste also does not pursue a revolutionary as General Motors, Toyota, Royal Dutch Shell, the manner of an administrative hierarchy, inde foreign policy in the interests of the working class, British Leyland, and Michelin exploit millions of pendently of any special property relations of its as did the Soviet government under the leadership Thai, South African, Jamaican, Peruvian, and own." of Lenin, Trotsky, and the Bolshevik Party. The other workers in semicolonial countries, as well as Stalinists do not pursue the revolutionary anti in other imperialist countries. Banks such as Chase Nikita Khrushchev, for example, could be rudely imperialist foreign policy of the Castro government Manhattan, Credit Lyonnais, the Bank of England, bumped from power and sent off to a disgraced, in Cuba, which has sent troops to aid the Mrican and others run profit-making operations on a world obscure, and only moderately comfortable retire freedom struggle and rallied the Cuban masses this scale. ment. Stalin routinely purged, jailed, and executed year in defense of Vietnam during the Peking Businessmen, their retainers, and all the trade top figures in the bureaucratic caste. 1nvaswn. marks of imperialist corporations dominate the Nelson Rockefeller, on the other hand, may have The policy of the bureaucratic castes, to the world. never become president. But his vast wealth en- contrary, is to minimize their need for involvement Can the same be said for the Soviet Union, China, abroad. They seek trade openings to obtain foreign or any other country where capitalism has been exchange to finance imports. They seek influence abolished? No. 'Lenin said that this is the over certain governments in the semicolonial world Without the export of capital and its profitable epoch of wars and revolu and certain national liberation movements, so that investment abroad, the economies of every imperial they have some leverage in their counterrevolution ist country in the world would grind to a halt and tions, and it is precisely wars ary dealings with imperialism. collapse. Yet the Soviet Union and China export no and revolutions that the Stal But the castes are not expansionist. Their aim is capital, and production-as well as the standard of to milk what they can from economic development living of the masses-continue to progress, al inist perverters of Leninism within their own borders-not to multiply their though at a rate slowed by bureaucratic misman most fear.' problems by swallowing up new territories to de agement. velop and new restless populations to control. The imperialist powers go to war and dispatch Again, this is not a moral or ethical tribute to the invading armies to protect these vital investments sured that he was, till his death, a wielder of castes. The Stalinist bureaucracies are not expan and direct economic interests around the globe. The enormous political power. He was part of the ruling sionist or militarist because it is against their states where capitalism has been abolished, how class, not an individual member of a parasitic, material interests to be. That is a tribute to the ever, have no such interests. administrative caste. legacy of the Russian revolution, not its Stalinist Trotsky continued: "The individual bureaucrat betrayers from Moscow to Prague to Peking. Character of bureaucratic castes cannot transmit to his heirs his rights in the Writing in 1939 about the Soviet Union under All this is true despite the fact that all of exploitation of the state apparatus. The bureau Stalin's rule, Trotsky explained: "The mission of the these postcapitalist countries except Cuba are cracy enjoys its privileges under the form of an Soviet regime is not that of securing new areas for saddled with counterrevolutionary bureaucratic abuse of power. the productive forces but that of erecting productive castes. In fact, the differences between the two forces for the old areas. The economic tasks of the "It conceals its income; it pretends that as a economic and social systems also determine funda USSR do not necessitate the extension of her special social group it does not even exist. Its mental differences between the social laws govern borders" ("The Twin Stars: Hitler-Stalin," Writings appropriation of a vast share of the national income ment the actions of a capitalist ruling class and a of Leon Trotsky (1939-1940).) has the character of social parasitism." Stalinist ruling caste. Isn't this contradicted by the Soviet army's occu This is not a moral or ethical question. Both the pation of Eastern Europe after World War II? capitalist and Stalinist rulers are alien from and Not at all. despise the workers and oppressed. On that level, Castes not expansionist When the Soviet army occupied Eastern Europe they are entirely kindred spirits. Unlike the capitalists, the bureaucratic caste does after driving out the Nazis, Stalin had every inten But the different social systems they preside over, not depend for its wealth and privileges on the tion of coming to terms with imperialism in those and their relationship to the means of production, accumulation and expansion of capital. The nation areas. He brutally crushed independent workers' cause them to act and react in different ways to alized and planned economies off which it leeches struggles and sought to establish friendly capitalist protect and promote their interests. are free from the predatory drive for profits and coalition regimes. What Leon Trotsky wrote about the Soviet Union foreign investments. Imperialism, however, smashed Stalin's plans. some four decades ago in The Revolution Betrayed Unlike the capitalists, the bureaucracy has no Winston Churchill signaled the launching of the remains true today for all the workers states under need to build up a massive military establishment. cold war with his "Iron Curtain" speech, and the Stalinist rule. "The Soviet bureaucracy has exprop In fact, arms spending cuts into its privileges. The imperialists began more openly to back rightist riated the proletariat politically in order by methods caste needs a strong enough repressive apparatus to forces throughout Eastern Europe. of its own to defend the social conquests," Trotsky police the workers and defend its borders from To prevent the establishment of a string of hostile explained. imperialism. Washington's mad arms race, how governments along the Soviet border, Stalin was ever, pushes the bureaucracy to respond out of forced by 1947 and 1948 to allow working-class The caste plays no necessary role whatever in the elementary self-preservation. mobilizations, even if tightly controlled ones, in functioning of the economy. In fact, its pillage and The defensive character of the army of the order to abolish capitalism and set up more reliable bureaucratic mismanagement are obstacles to the workers states was pointed up by the difficulties of regimes. The Kremlin had tried to avoid this course; full development of the productive possibilities of the Chinese army during its invasion of Vietnam. it was a defensive response to imperialist threats, the new social and economic relations. New York Times military writer Drew Middleton not an expression of "Communist expansionism." These countries remain workers states, however deformed or degenerated, because the property relations established through the toppling of capi talism represent an historic step forward by the working class. The workers are the ruling class in these countries, although oppressed by a parasitic 'Peaceful coexistence'? caste that has seized political power from them and stunted the workers' forward march toward social All the bureaucratic castes practice class collabo exploiters, no oppressed or oppressors. ism. ration with the imperialist enemies of the oppressed In the Stalinist dictionary, "socialism" means A ruling capitalist class that owns factories and and exploited. The form this takes is adherence to bountiful privileges for the bureaucrats. It means banks, in contrast, amasSI;lS capital in its own and promotion of the Stalinist concept of "peaceful economic development at a pace the caste hopes will hands, which it then seeks to reinvest to again turn coexistence" with capitalism on a world scale keep the masses' minds off their lack of freedom a profit, amass more capital, and so on. Since that d~tente. They all seek above everything else a and political control. Democratic rights and deci search for profitable investment pushes the capital permanent truce with· imperialism, so they can sion making would undermine the totalitarian grip ists beyond their own borders, they are expansionist build "socialism in one country" -their own. of the bureuacracy, which is the sole source of its by nature. And the state they control uses military Actually, it is more accurate to say: privileges. power to ensure that capital can be invested abroad 1) that in return for being left alone and helped To preserve its berth in society, the bureaucracies and protected there. out economically, the castes promise imperialism above all crave stability-inside and outside their The capitalists live more lavishly than any work that they won't try to build socialism anywhere borders. Lenin correctly said that this is the epoch ing person can imagine. But all their enormous beyond their borders; and of wars and revolutions, and it is pr~cisely wars and personal wealth is only a pittance of the vast 2) that within their borders, the castes strive to revolutions that the Stalinist perverters of Leninism fortunes that they own and have control over. They build what they falsely call socialism. Their goal most fear: . must either invest these revenues profitably, or else has nothing whatsoever to do with the Marxist goal The Stalinists' methods are counter go under in the competitive struggle. of a worldwide society of freedom, democracy, and revolutionary. As a social layer, they are conserva Things are different with the bureaucratic castes abundance in which human beings labor coopera tive. They hate everything that shakes up the status that rule the Soviet Union and other workers states. tively and produce for the common advancement of quo, especially if it puts the working class into They own neither the factories, the products of the all. A society in which there are no exploited or motion and threatens them directly. Any gain for 24 any revolution anywhere threatens to heighten world peace, not some alleged expansionism or back the revolution in Southeast Asia. The. capital class consciousness and discontent among the xenophobic aggressiveness. ists are preparing the day when they can reassert masses in the Stalinist-dominated workers states. Of course, since the outlook of Moscow, Peking, their own military power there. That is the only During the days of Lenin and Trotsky's political and other castes is limited to the privileges they hope to achieve their strategic goal in the area: not leadership of the Communist International, the derive within the boundaries they rule, they define just to contain the revolution in Southeast Asia, but Communist parties around the world set themselves their needs as "national interests" and place them eventually to reestablish a capitalist Vietnam and a the revolutionary goal of toppling their own bour above all else. capitalist China. geoisies and extending the socialist revolution But contrary to everyone from the New York This is not the aim of the Peking Stalinists. They worldwide. Times to the Guardian and In These Times, wars seek to preserve stability in Southeast Asia, and With the rise of Stalin, however, the Moscow- are not caueed by "nationalism" or "national hostil thereby win the good graces of imperialism. ities." Wars are not caused by ideas or "human Peking does not want capitalism restored in nature." Wars are caused by conflicting material Vietnam, which would require a very destabilizing interests. civil war. It also does not want the reintroduction of 'It is the bureaucratic castes' Governments will often cloak their interests be a large U.S. military presence in Indochina. This, rejection of proletarian inter hind a chauvinist guise in hopes of convincing the the caste knows, would be aimed at the conquests of nationalism that is their real masses that a war is in the interests of "the entire the Chinese revolution, on which its own survival nation." This is the standard propaganda ploy of depends. betrayal of the cause of world an imperialist ruling class driven to maximize its Peking's entire counterrevolutionary courtship of peace.' profits through world domination. U.S. imperialism, however, makes that scenario The material interests of the castes, however, are more possible. It threatens not only the Indochinese not expansionist or militarist. Stalinism's national revolution, but the Chinese workers state as well. ism is most characterized by its total rejection of oriented Communist parties-and since their found Furthermore, while American bankers and busi working-class internationalism. nessmen are out for every dollar they stand to make ing in the early 1960s, the many fewer and much from their new relationship with the Chinese re smaller Peking-oriented parties-abandoned any Vietnam, Kampuchea, China gime, the capitalists understand that this cann?t revolutionary perspective. This view contrasts sharply with that peddled by fundamentally reverse their deepgoing economiC virtually the entire ~J.S. radical movement except crisis. So long as they cannot massively export Rise of Stalinism the Militant. Seeing competing "nationalisms" as capital to China and exploit Chinese labor, they Their goal is to convince the capitalists in their the root of the Indochina conflicts, virtually every cannot boost their overall worldwide profit rate own country that they are a reliable and indispen radical newspaper has echoed the U.S. govern which they must do. sable force to keep the workers under control and ment's diplomatic stance. The U.S. rulers know that such a goal could only head off revolution. By doing so, and by applying First, like Washington, they called for immediate be accomplished with the restoration of capitalism pressure on the capitalist governments when neces withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Kampuchea. in China. They are still resigned to their inability sary, the Stalinist CPs try to help the castes achieve Following Peking's invasion, both they and Wa for the foreseeable future to roll back the revolution their goal of an accommodation with the imperial shington linked two slogans together: Vietnam out ary gains of the workers in either the Soviet Union ists. of Kampuchea; China out of Vietnam. or China. In pursuit of this goal, the Stalinists have be The petty-bourgeois left put an equal sign be That would meet deepgoing resistance from the trayed and beheaded revolutions from Spain in the tween the two invasions, entirely missing the oppo Soviet and Chinese workers, provoking a civil war. 1930s to Chile in the 1970s, from France in the site class forces that came into play in the two wars. The last thing the workers want is the restoration of 1940s to France again in the 1960s-and the list Both were allegedly "wars between Communist capitalism, with its mass unemployment, destitu goes on and on. nations," which is dreadful, demoralizing, tragic, ad tion, permanent inflation, wars, and other social This search for "peaceful coexistence," of course, nauseum. And that settles that. ills. They will fight to preserve their conquests, just does not mean that the bureaucratic castes will not Of course, both events do have something in as U.S. workers fight to preserve their unions from and do not go to war. common: Both are linked to the U.S. imperialist attacks by the employers. Faced with a military threat or attack from drive to contain and eventually roll back the In Despite the financial plums that Teng is offering imperialism, a caste will react in self-defense. Its dochinese revolution. U.S. capitalism, the caste, too, opposes restoration, aim is to protect its own privileges. But in doing so, The government of Vietnam supported insurgent which would kick over the trough from which it has and with its own counterrevolutionary methods, it Kampucheans as an act of self-defense against a fed for thirty years. must also defend the progressive social relations off tightening, imperialist squeeze in which the reac which it feeds. tionary Pol Pot regime was becoming a keystone. U.S. imperialism would find individuals for any new dependent capitalist class from among the Only a year after the Stalin-Hitler "peaceful Peking's invasion of Vietnam, on the contrary, privileged layers of Chinese society. Yet it is not coexistence" pact, for example, the Kremlin was was hatched in Washington as part of the imperial going to entrust this function to those who ~ontrol forced to go to war to defend the Soviet Union ist drive to stop any spread of anticapitalist over the regime it is seeking to overthrow-a pomt not against a Nazi invasion. To cite another example, turns to Kampuchea and Thailand by putting lost on the self-seeking caste. Peking intervened massively in the Korean War pressure on Hanoi. Caught between the working class on one side when it became clear that Washington had in mind Neither invasion, however, can be explained by and imperialism on the other, the Stalinists desper- pressing across the Chinese border. "ugly nationalism" as the New York Times put it, The Stalinists have also used military force to or "national animosities" as In These Times and crush antibureaucratic revolutions by the workers, other radicals explain. Nor can they be explained as 'The interests of the workers as the Kremlin did in Hungary in 1956 and Cze proxy wars for Sino-Soviet "national antagonisms," lie along the road of uncont choslovakia in 1968. The Moscow bureaucracy reflected in clashing "spheres of influence." feared the impact on the Soviet masses of a success The Peking regime had no territorial designs on promising class struggle. ful revolutionary struggle for workers democracy Vietnam. It did not aim to topple the Hanoi regime, Class collaboration is a set of and socialism. nor to conquer Vietnam. In cases such as these, however, the bureaucracy The Peking Stalinists carried out the invasion at handcuffs that hampers the is seeking to defend its position-against imperial Washington's behest because they saw a common use of their power in that ism in the first case, against the workers in the interest in halting the Indochinese revolution. The fight.' second. The ultimate aim of the caste is to keep Chinese bureaucracy sought to prove its counterre trouble from knocking on its door. volutionary reliability in the area. Its goal was to ately fight to preserve the status quo. "The Kremlin does not want war or revolution," punish the Vietnamese, who had dealt new blows to Trotsky wrote. "It does want order, tranquility, the Trotsky pointed to the imperialists' lack of grati imperialism and put the Peking bureaucracy on the tude and loyalty to its Stalinist collaborators in the status quo, and at any cost." defensive. It is on their mutual hatred of revolution that the 1930s: In return, the Chinese caste expects massive U.S. "In spite of all the efforts on the part of the caste stakes its hopes for peaceful coexistence with trade and aid. This, Peking has promised the world capitalism. Moscow clique to demonstrate its conservative Chinese masses, will make it possible to achieve the reliability (the counterrevolutionary politics of But this hope is as utopian as it is reactionary. "Four Modernizations" and improve their living "Stalin seeking to escape war does not mean that Stalin in Spain!)" -today we could add, and of Teng conditions. in Vietnam-"world imperialism does not trust war will permit Stalin to escape," wrote Trotsky in Despite these promises, the Peking Stalinists may 1939. Stalin, does not spare him the most humiliating yet have to pay a heavy price at home for the flicks and is ready at the first favorable opportunity In their counterrevolutionary search for peace treacherous invasion. Knowing that it would be through appeasement of imperialism, the Stalinists to overthrow him." ("Not a Workers' and Not a unpopular among the Chinese masses, Teng Bourgeois State?") actually make war more likely. Only extension of banned all public gatherings, demonstrations, or the revolution, and the growing consciousness and Washington's detente with Moscow and Peking wall posters discussing the war. Nonetheless, pro marks its recognition that "the first favorable self-confidence of the working class can make the tests did occur in many Chinese cities, according to workers states more secure from imperialist attack. opportunity" is a ways down the road and that, in press reports. the meantime, it must make use of the Stalinists Proletarian internationalism Unlike the Chinese war in Korea or Stalin's themselves in hopes of making that trip a little defense against Hitler, this war by the ruling caste This, not peaceful coexistence, was the policy of shorter. Teng' s treachery weakens the defense of of a workers state was not in the interests of the Lenin and the Bolsheviks. the economic conquests of the Chinese workers and ruling class, that is, not in the interests of the "As long as capitalism and socialism remain side heightens the chance of an ultimate imperialist Chinese proletariat. It was unpopular from the by side we cannot live peacefully," Lenin wrote in victory through restoration. outset. November 1920. "The one or the other will be the In the same essay, Trotsky continued: "For the victor in the end. An obituary will be sung either Imperialism's aims bourgeoisie-fascist as well as democratic-isolated counterrevolutionary exploits of Stalin do not suf over the death of world capitalism, or the death of U.S. business is eager to boost its sales through fice; it needs a complete counterrevolution in the the Soviet Republic." the opening of the China market. It sees an oppor relations of property and the opening of the Russian Far from promoting the idea of "socialism in one tunity to strike another blow at its Japanese com market. So long as this is not the case, the bourgeoi country," the Communist International under the petitors in particular. sie considers the Soviet state hostile to it. And it is leadership of Lenin and Trotsky saw the extension In addition, as the invasion of Vietnam itself right." showed, Washington has not recovered from the of the socialist revolution as a life and death matter U.S. imperialism has no more given up its stra problems that forced it to turn toward detente with for the Soviet Union. It championed the slogan, tegic aim of rolling back the Chinese and Russian "Workers of the world unite!" Peking and Moscow a decade ago. revolutions than it has of someday crushing the It is the Stalinists' rejection of Lenin's revolution The U.S. ruling class, however, is under no ary course that is their real betrayal of the cause of illusion that it can ultimately rely on Peking to hold Continued on next page THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 25 United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, United by a socialist revolution, will be decided in the class Newport News and last year's miners' strike are the Mine Workers, and other industrial unions. battles that are sharpening in this country and heat lightening of the storms to come. American Whether the rulers will succeed, or be swept aside around the world today. workers are beginning to fight back against the rulers' offensive, and they are discussing and think ing about all the life-and-death political issues of our times. "These are sorry days for socialism," moans the Unions &workers states Guardian. The Militant says, no! These are not sorry days Trotsky was the originator of a useful analogy against unemployed, union against nonunion, U.S. for socialism. These are sorry days for world capi between trade unions and workers states. workers against Japanese workers, and so on. talism, which is crisis-ridden and is suffering impor "The trade unions of France, Great Britain, the The bosses and their govemment glory in such tant blows. United States and other countries support com divisions, which pit the workers among themselves, These are sorry days for the bureaucratic castes, pletely the counterrevolutionary politics of their instead of against their common exploiter. The whose betrayals and lack of any historical role have bourgeoisie," Trotsky wrote in 1939. "This does not union bureaucracy serves as the transmission belt thrown Stalinism into crisis. prevent us from labeling them trade unions, from through which the employers bring this pressure And these are sorry days for petty-bourgeois supporting their progressive steps and from defend- and these prejudices and divisions to bear against radicals such as the Guardian, who have staked the labor movement. their hopes on the Stalinist castes and have no One way this is sometimes done is through confidence in the revolutionary power of the work "raiding operations" by the misleaders of one union ing class. They have folded before Carter's warmon 'The future of humanity to against another union. The bosses encourage this gering propaganda blitz because they are isolated day rests with the workers of situation if they feel too weak to keep out a union from and do not orient toward the only social force altogether, but believe they can come to a "sweet in the world that can stay the hand of U.S. impe the world, and with the heart" agreement with the bureaucrats of a particu rialism and ultimately disarm it-the American American working class lar union that will minimize their own profit losses. workers. above all.' For example, several years ago Califomia agri The future of humanity today rests with the business called in the Teamsters union bureaucracy workers of the world, and with the workers of this to aid it in smashing the organizing drive of the country above all. ing them against the bourgeoisie. United Farm Workers. Through its struggles and Members of the Socialist Workers Party are "Why is it impossible to employ the same method broad national support, the UFW had begun to win preparing for those big battles today in the facto with the counterrevolutionary workers' state. In the some contracts. Agribusiness was determined to ries, mines, and mills across the United States. last analysis a workers state is a trade union which smash the union. There, they are finding no reason for pessimism has conquered power." (In Defense of Marxism.) The growers, of course, publicly proclaimed their and despair. Just the opposite. Socialists are find The outlook of the Stalinist castes is summed up "neutrality" in the "unfortunate jurisdictional dis ing a greater audience for anticapitalist ideas than in their counterrevolutionary strategy of "peaceful pute." They claimed to have nothing to do with the ever before. coexistence" with world. capitalism. Similarly, the hired goons who beat up and killed UFW militants. The fight for a world free from war is a fight over union bureaucrats proclaim and practice "labor "It all shows the destructive logic of unions," the peace" and "stable labor-management relations." agribusiness spokespersons explained. "Farm In retum for favors from the bosses that let them workers would be better off without them." continue raking in dues, they agree not to organize A familiar refrain? Echoes of Washington's proc 'The fight for a world free the South, to corral working people inside the lamations of innocence over Peking's invasion of from war is a fight over capitalist Democratic and Republican parties, and Vietnam? to keep democratic control over union power out of All the while, the growers were meeting and which class will rule the the hands of the workers. making deals with the Teamster bureaucrats, just world-the workers or the The bosses-in a single industry or organized as as Blumenthal did recently with Teng in Peking. the govemment-'-seek to destroy the conquests of The UFW's supporters pointed the finger of blame capitalists.' the working class, all the way from unions on a for this union-busting drive where it belonged: at national level to the workers states on a world scale. the growers. And they condemned the Teamsters For them, class collaboration is at best a tactic officialdom for its treacherous, scabbing role in the antilabor scheme. which class will rule the world-the workers or the along the path toward that goal. capitalists. The workers, on the other hand, are pitted in Fortunately, the UFW was successful in exposing the growers' game and winning significant national In that intemational class war-from Iran to battle against capitalist exploitation. Their inter Zimbabwe, from the Soviet Union to China, from ests lie along the road of conscious, uncompromis solidarity for their fight. The Teamster bureaucrats France to the United States-the decisive element ing class struggle. For them, class collaboration is a were finally forced to pull out of the fields. This points to another important lesson, as well. will be the construction of revolutionary parties, set of handcuffs that hampers the use of their power armed with a Marxist program and composed in that fight. The decisive battle didn't come down to the bosses vs. the Teamster bureaucrats, or the bureaucrats vs. overwhelmingly of industrial workers. For the bureaucracies, however, class collabora "Where will it end?" sob the Guardian editors. tion is the staff of life. They are a petty-bourgeois the farm workers. The battle was between the growers on one side, and the farm workers and The Militant answers with complete confidence: social layer that derive their privileges from trying With the world socialist revolution, which will put to becalm the stormy class struggle. UFW supporters on the other. That was what counted in the end. an end to the capitalist scourges of poverty, exploi The aim of the union bureaucrats is to fatten their tation, and war. own pocketbooks, which depend on the existence of This was seen again last year during the coal the union. Their class-collaborationist course, how miners' strike. The United Mine Workers officials ever, ends up weakening the unions, just as "peace for a period of weeks were basically swept to the ful coexistence" weakens the workers states. sidelines, as the miners rejected the coal operators' Find out more The labor officialdom, like the Stalinist castes, is take-back contracts and Carter's Taft-Hartley back sometimes forced to act in self-defense or under to-work order. It was in that confrontation-the pressure from the workers. It may have to lead a workers vs. the bosses and their govemment-that about imperialism strike, if the employers launch a union-busting the UMWA beat back the coal operator's union drive, just as Stalin finally went to war against busting drive. and Stalinism German imperialism following Hitler's invasion. This is not to say that the bureaucracies will be gotten rid of automatically. Not at all. In the union The revolutionary Marxist positions on the source movement, it will take the formation of a class of war In the modern world and on the char.cter of Raiding operations struggle left wing around the fight for union demo Trotsky's analogy can even shed some light on Stalinist bureaucratic castes can be explored cracy, class solidarity, and political independence. further In the following books. what was really at stake in Peking's invasion of In the workers states, it will take political revolu Vietnam. tions. Imperialism: The Highest· Stage One of the biggest services the union tops perform The bureaucracies in both cases, however, are for the bosses is to keep the working class divided: parasitic social layers straddling the two decisive of Capitalism male against female, white against Black, employed classes in society: the capitalists and the workers. By V.l Lenin $1.25 In Defense of Marxism By Leon Trotsky Class struggle on rise $3.95 The Revolution Betrayed The big questions of revolution and counterrevo Today those struggles are on the rise. That is lution in the world will not be decided by the shown by the revolutionary events in Iran. It is What is the Soviet Union and Where Is It bureaucratic castes and their Stalinist policies. shown by the mounting liberation struggle in Going? Those questions will be settled in the battles be Zimbabwe and throughout southem Africa. It is $4.95 tween the world working class and imperialism. shown by the living revolution in Indochina that Every victory for the world revolution weakens Washington is trying to contain, with Peking's Writings of Leon Trotsky the imperialist warmakers. Each such victory is a help. 1929-1940 hundred times more potent in defending the social The working class in the imperialist countries, (In twelve volumes) gains of the Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and too, is on the move. In Britain they have shattered $5.45 for each volume other workers states than the ultimately suicidal the govemment's 5 percent wage guidelines. In policies of "peaceful coexistence" followed by the France they are battling to save jobs in that Available at the socialist bookstores listed on page Stalinist castes. And each such victory weakens the country's steel-making region. German steelworkers 31. Or order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West grip of these betrayers over the workers in their own this year waged their first industry-wide battle Street, New York, New York 10014. Enclose $.50 countries, and their influence over the course of against the employers in fifty years. for postage. struggles in other countries. And in the United States, today's struggle at 26 Pulley spotlighted in mass media, debates By Emma Jackson following Jane Byrne's victory in the CHICAGO-The Chicago Defender, primary election over incumbent the major Black newspaper here, ran a Mayor Michael Bilandic. full-page poster on the municipal elec Byrne is the first person here in tion in its March 10 issue. decades to beat a "machine" candidate The poster portrays Andrew Pulley, for a major public office. The upset of Socialist Workers Party candidate for Bilandic reflected the frustration and mayor, as the only alternative for the anger of Chicagoans over "politics as Black community in the April 3 elec usual." They wanted a change for the tions. better and hoped Byrne represented This support for Pulley caps a week that. of snowballing publicity and activity But many Chicago voters are begin for the socialist campaign. ning to realize that Byrne's nomina Since the February 27 primary elec tion means no change for them. tion, Pulley has been seen on televi A March 10 Chicago Tribune editor sion, heard on radio, and written about ial observed, "Mrs. Byrne's actions in the major daily papers virtually and statements since her nomination every day. strongly indicate that voters who saw This coverage has included film by her as a herald of political reform will Channel 5 television of Pulley cam be disappointed." paigning at the gates of U.S. Steel's The Chicago Metro News, a Black South Works, on a street corner in the community paper, editorialized on Black community, and at home getting March 10: "The major reality is that ready to go to work. Jane Byrne is not an independent. She The Socialist Workers Party scored a is a Democrat and she is a machine major victory when the League of Democrat." Women Voters here failed in its at The Republican candidate, Wall ace tempt to bar Pulley from a televised Johnson, has become notorious for his candidates' debate. racist "jokes." The Republican Party Throughout the country, the League traditionally gets only a tiny fraction of Women Voters has maneuvered to of the vote here. exclude the socialist candidates from More and more people are beginning the debates they sponsor. to see that the choice on April 3 is But they couldn't get away with it in between the Democratic machine and Chicago. the Socialist Workers Party. What happened was summed up by The choice is either Andrew Pulley lrv Kupcinet, whose syndicated "Kup's a steelworker, a union activist, an ex Column" appears daily in the Chicago GI, a Black activist who has earned Sun-Times. his stripes in mass struggles. Or Jane March 9: "The Chicago League of Byrne-a flunky of the late Mayor Women Voters and [television station] Richard Daley, and a machine Demo WITW have offered Mrs. Byrne and crat whose father is a vice-president of her Republican opponent, Wall ace Inland Steel. Johnson, one hour of prime time on At a time when workers in the March 27 for a debate.... The third plants, mills, and factories are increas mayoral candidate, Andrew Pulley of ingly open to class-struggle proposals, the Socialist Workers Party, will be and when anger and frustration are offered a half hour at another time." growing in the Black and latina com Two days later, Kupcinet wrote: munities, this choice is making people "NOW HEAR THIS: The Chicago sit up and take notice. League of Women Voters and WITW, In response to these new openings faced with a lawsuit, decided to include for the campaign, Pulley's supporters the third candidate, the Socialist from around the city met March 11 to tive, that we can vote in our own let them know we're watching, and Workers Party's Andrew Pulley, in the gear up for the final three weeks. interests. we're going to scream bloody murder televised mayoral debate. . . . Tenta John Studer, SWP Chicago organi "It's our biggest opportunity to ex over every vote we can prove they've tive date for the debate is March 29." zer, said: "This is the biggest opening plain the socialist solutions to war, stolen." Pulley's campaign takes place the Socialist Workers Party has ever unemployment, soaring prices, high The Chicago Socialist Workers Party within the context of confusion and had to show the working class of taxes, racism, and sexism. is also urging Pulley's supporters from shock inside the Democratic Party Chicago that it does have an alterna- "It's also clear," Studer continued, throughout the Midwest to come into "that we have the possibility of getting Chicago and join in the last weekend far and away more votes than we've of campaigning. ever gotten before. It's possible that we Andrew Pulley told his supporters at Join the socialist campaign! could get 5 percent of the vote-giving the meeting that one of the most im • Help distribute leaflets and March 18: Pulley appears on us regular ballot status for the first portant things they could do is talk to their co-workers on the job. posters. "Issues Unlimited," Black time. We should shoot for that 5 per cent! "Let them know a worker like them • Get your union or group to news panel on WGN-TV. "Getting permanent ballot status for selves is running, and ask them to help endorse Pulley's candidacy. March 20: Pulley speaks to UAW a working-class party would be a vic out," Pulley said. "I know from talking • Invite Pulley to speak to your Local 453 Council meeting. tory for all the oppressed and explo to the people I work with in the mill union, school, church, or March 23: Pulley debates Demo ited," Studer said. that they like our proposals for chang community group. cratic and Republican candi The socialists mapped out plans to ing things. They like the idea of a • FUNDS URGENTLY NEEDED dates at meeting sponsored print and distribute 100,000 copies of a labor party. They are for affirmative -Collect and send contribu by Chicago Urban League. 7 special "Vote Socialist Workers" lea action, and they don't like these nu flet. They will plaster the city with clear power plants." butions. p.m. at Liberty Baptist Church, 4849 S. King Drive. posters and stickers, including thou Pulley described a lunchtime discus • Be a poll-watcher on election sands of reproductions of the Chicago sion he had with Black auto workers at day. April 1: SOCIALIST CAMPAIGN Defender poster. Fisher Body. "They wanted to talk • Come to a campaign head RALLY. 7 p.m. Blue Gargoyle The activists organized themselves about school desegregation and they quarters and help out: Gymnasium, 5655 S. Univer into early morning, midday, night, and wanted to talk about the union," he Chicago city-wide: 407 S. Dearborn sity, 2nd floor. weekend teams to distribute literature said. "They wanted to talk about build #1145. Zip: 60605. Tel: (312) April 3: Election night victory and sell the Militant at plant gates, on ing a movement to change society. We 663-0753 or 939-0737. rally. 6 p.m. Gold Room, the campuses, and in the Black and need more discussions like that." South Side: 2251 E. 71st. St. Zip: latina communities. Pulley will be campaigning full time Blackstone Hotel. 60649. Tel: (312) 643-5520. The meeting also agreed to get as until the election. He requested a three West Side: 3942 W. Chicago. Zip: For more information call (312) many poll watchers as possible April 3. week leave from his job at U.S. Steel's 60651. Tel: ( 312) 384-0606. 663-0753. "We know we can't keep the city offi Gary Works. It was immediately cials honest," said Studer. "But we can granted. No questions asked. murder of Malcolm, or they set the evidence to warrant reopening the produce everything it has on Malcolm. climate in which it could easily occur." case. So far, however, neither the What the FBI has released so far is only a tiny fraction of what must be ... Malcolm The involvement of the police is also courts nor congressional committees Continued from back page thousands of documents on Malcolm. a real possibility in Kunstler's view. have shown the slightest interest in certainly would have facilitated the Others who have been victims of He cites "the failure to have any police investigating the many unanswered government explanation in the death government harassment-the labor in the area when they usually have questions about Malcolm's murder. of Malcolm. Hayer, the admitted assas movement, first and foremost-have a several hundred.... This was a week Congress has failed to mount even a sin, denied any connection with the stake in demanding full public disclo after the bombing of his [Malcolm's] token investigation, as it did in the Muslims. King and Kennedy assassinations. sure. Kunstler stated, "It's our theory ... house in Queens." that under the Cointelpro the bureau Also, as Kunstler pointed out, one of It is up to the Black community to An independent commission of in was setting up Malcolm against Elijah the weapons at the scene of the murder take the lead in bringing out the truth quiry into the assassination, organized and that everything possible was done disappeared after being given to an about Malcolm's murder. by and responsible to the Black com to stimulate each to attack the other, undercover cop. One way to do this is to demand that munity, would be the best assurance of and that they are the cause of the Clearly there is more than enough the government open its files and an honest and complete investigation. THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 ·27 In Brief 'Migra' to blame for El Paso killing Steel protests shake France EL PASO, Tex.-Immi workers are hassled by U.S. through a car driven by a Ongoing militant actions On March 8, steel strikers gration Service harassment border cops. Chicana. But as she ap by French steelworkers have threw up street barricades of Mexican workers crossing At about 6:30 a.m. on proached the end of the given pause to the govern and smashed part of a police the border here was respon March 9, the migra cops bridge, the rest of the crowd ment's drive to boost steel station with bulldozers in sible for the death of a ten began pulling aside people stood fast. profits by speedup and huge Denain, a small northern year-old Mexican child coming across with visitor The driver speeded up, layoffs. steel town threatened with March 10. She was killed permits. The cops claimed apparently believing the On March 9 the govern virtual extinction by the go when a car drove into a there was no place to go people would move aside. ment, which has largely vernment's plan. crowd of protesters on the shopping at that hour. They didn't. taken control of the steel Paul Lewis wrote from bridge between El Paso and Many were searched and Laura Fabela Chavez, ten, industry, said it was tempor Paris in the March 10 New Juarez. some forced to strip. About of Juarez, was killed. Martin arily suspending layoffs and York Times that "no one has 150 were sent back across Acosta Chavez, nine, was opening new talks with the With heavy unemploy forgotten that a wave of critically injured. Another ment in Juarez, many Mexi the border. steelworkers unions. Presi apparently minor disturban Word about what hap child was hit but apparently can women are forced to dent Giscard d'Estaing ces 10 years ago suddenly pened spread in Juarez. not seriously hurt. work as domestics in El called the National Assem turned into the great na Nearly 400 angry people The big-business media Paso. They are paid about bly into a special session tional strike of May 1968." twenty dollars a week. gathered and blocked the here are saying the whole the first in more than Because U.S. commuter car and pedestrian bridges, thing was the work of "mili twenty years-on the unem In another retreat, French work permits are often diffi preventing U.S. traffic from tant" groups on both sides ployment crisis. government officials denied cult to obtain, many of these entering Mexico. The pro of the border. One million workers had they were also planning workers use the visitor per tests continued all day Fri But the instigators of this joined in a general strike, drastic cutbacks in the ship mits issued for people who day, Saturday, and Sunday. protest were the migra cops mass demonstrations, and building industry. Just want to go shopping in El On Saturday, people in the and the racist U.S. immigra factory occupations Febru weeks before, the govern Paso. Periodically, the middle of the bridge let tion policies they enforce. ary 16. Protests continued ment had said such cuts over the following weeks. were next. DID LETELIER KILLER MEDICAID ABORTIONS September 1977 death of corpo PLOT OTHER DEATHS? SLASHED99 PERCENT rate lawyer Allan Randall. .vlichael Vernon Townley, an The Democrats and Republi There was no evidence at all ag·'nt for the Chilean military cans have succeeded in nearly connecting Cabrera to the re~ RALLY. Speakers: Willie Petty, SWP can Speakers: Jane Byrne, Democrat; Wallace enson, Northern Sun Alliance; Jim Car ARIZONA didate for school board, District 1; Pedro Johnson, Republican; Andrew Pulley, son, Socialist Workers Party. Sun., Mar. NEW MEXICO PHOENIX Vasquez, SWP candidate for school Socialist Workers Party. Fri., Mar. 23, 7 25, 7 p.m. 23 E. Lake St. Donation: $1.50. ALBUQUERQUE RALLY TO DEFEND HECTOR MAR board District 5. Sat., Mar. 24, 7 ;>.m.; p.m. Liberty Baptist Church, 4849 S. King Ausp: Militant Forum. For more informa TWENTY YEARS AFTER THE CUBAN ROQUIN. Speakers: Olga Rodriguez, So party at 9 p.m. CSO Hall, 2130 E. 1st St., Dr. Ausp: Chicago Urban League. For tion call (612) 825-6663. REVOLUTION: NEW UPSURGE IN cialist Workers Party; representative of Boyle Heights. Donation: $2. Ausp: So more information call (312) 663-0753. LATIN AMERICA. Speaker: Pedro NAACP; MEChA; others. Fri., Mar. 23, cialist Workers Campaign. For more in ST. PAUL Camejo, 1976 Socialist Workers Party 7:30 p.m. ASU Memorial Union, Pinal formation call (213) 582-1975. SOCIALIST CAMPAIGN RALLY. presidential candidate recently returned Room. Ausp: Hector Marroquin Defense DANGER! RADIOACTIVE WASTE. A film Speakers: Andrew Pulley, SWP candidate by NBC News. Also, speakers will report from a tour of Latin America. Wed., Mar. Committee. For more information call for mayor of Chicago; Maria Rivera, 21, 7:30p.m. 108 Morningside NE. Dona (602) 267-7410. on the recent convention of the Bailly COLORADO United Auto Workers Local 858. Sun., Alliance. Fri,. Mar. 23, 8 p.m. 373 Univer tion: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. For April 1, 7 p.m. Blue Gargoyle Youth more information call (505) 255-6869. DENVER sity Ave. Donation: $1.25. Ausp: Militant Service Center, 5655 S. University Ave. Forum. For more information call (612) CALIFORNIA WINE & CHEESE BENEFIT FOR HEC 2nd fl. Donation: $2. Ausp: Socialist 222-8929. TOR MARROQUIN. 'Amnestia,' twenty Workers Campaign Committee. For more BAY AREA minute film made in Mexico, will be information call (312) 663-0753. CHINA AFTER MAO. Speaker: Theo shown. Sat., Mar. 24, 7:30 p.m. Colorado NEW YORK dore Edwards, Marxist scholar and lec Migrant Council, 7905 W. 44th Ave. Dona MISSOURI LOWER MANHATTAN turer. Fri., Mar. 23, 8 p.m. 3264 Adeline, tion: $2.50. Ausp: Hector Marroquin De Berkeley. Donation: $1. Ausp: Militant KANSAS CITY NEWPORT NEWS SHIPYARD STRIKE: fense Committee. For more information EYEWITNESS REPORT. Speaker: Shelley Forum. For more information call (415) WAR IN INDOCHINA: WHAT'S BE call ( 303) 534-8330 KENTUCKY Kramer, staff writer for the 'Militant.' Fri., 824-1992, 653-7156, 261-1210, or (408) HIND THE CONFLICT? Speakers: repre 295-8342. LOUISVILLE sentative of Socialist Workers Party; oth Mar. 23, 8 p.m. 108 E. 16th St., 2nd fl. THE OIL CRISIS: MYTH OR REALITY? ers. Sun., Mar. 25, 7:30p.m. 4715A Troost Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Forum. Speaker: Jon Teitelbaum, Socialist TWO CLASSES ON CHINA. Speaker: GEORGIA Ave. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant Fo For more information call (212) 26G-6400. Workers Party; others. Sat., Mar. 24, 4 Theodore Edwards. Sat., Mar. 24. 2 rum. For more information call (816) 753- ATLANTA p.m. 1505 W Broadway. Donation: $1. p.m.,Ongins of Maoism; 4 p.m., Maoism 0404. INDOCHINA WAR: MADE IN USA. Ausp: Militant Forum Series. For more in power. 3264 Adeline, Berkeley. Dona Speaker: Bill O'Kain, Socialist Workers information call (502) 587-8418. tion: $1 per class. For more information Party. Fri., Mar. 23, 8 p.m. 509 Peachtree call (415) 824-1992, 653-7156, 261-1210, St. Donat1on: $1. Ausp: Militant Labor OHIO or ( 408) 295-8342. Forum. For more information call (404) NEW JERSEY CINCINNATI 872-7229. NEWARK IRAN: A MARXIST ANALYSIS OF THE MINNESOTA SEXUAL HARASSMENT ON THE REVOLUTION. A panel discussion. CALIFORNIA ILLINOIS JOB. A panel discussion. Fri., Mar. 23, 8 Thurs., Mar. 29, 7:30p.m. Univ. of Cincin MINNEAPOLIS p.m. 11A Central Ave. Donation: $1. nati, Rm. 402 Tangeman Center. Dona LOS ANGELES CHICAGO NO NUKESI Northern Sun Alliance slide Ausp: Militant Forum. f"or more informa tion $1. Ausp: M:l1tant Forum. For more SOCIALIST WORKERS CAMPAIGN MAYORAL CANDIDATES DEBATE. show & discussion. Speakers: Terry Hok- tion call ( 201) 643-3341. information call (513) 751-2636. 28 The Great Society Compiled by Arnold Weissberg new "reverse discrimination." Harry Ring Recent figures from New Quote unquote York City confirm what a crock this racist argument really is. A study based on 1976 U.S. "It was easy in the census figures show that pre-Vietnam days to Useless as a broken puppet doff their uniforms and wear jackets with nearly one fourth of New York look at an area on the Remember during the first big demonstra a lapel inscription, "We care for you." youth were living below the map and say, 'that's tions against the shah of Iran how Carter Does that mean they'll prescribe drugs official poverty level in 1975. ours' and feel pretty would phone regularly, urging him to and do surgery? good about investing This included, 37.7% of all hang in there? But since he left the there. That's no longer Hispanic youth and 36o/o of country, says the now-jobless shah, he Advice to the upward bound (I)-The Blacks. the case, as Iran has made so terribly clear." hasn't heard from his president once. New York University Graduate School of The figure for white youth? Business Administration held a workshop 8.5l7 THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 29 Our Revolutionary Heritage Letters eville, 1960 Hypocritical justice Vietnam's coast by Thieu. I want to thank you for The pervasive sighs will turning me on to the Militant. I engulf the media: "If only we find it to be a very informative could exploit these potentially newspaper. rich resources!" Your February 19 issue Frank Nowve carried an article on Patty Bayside, New York Hearst in the "In Our Opinion" section. This article was very interesting, and it exposes America's criminal justice Shares good fortune system as it really is. I was walking last week and Hypocritical! found six dollars on the I have reached the sidewalk. It seemed right to conclusion that America is a sent it on to the Militant as a beautiful dream for the rich contribution. ruling class, and an ugly Keep up the good work. nightmare for the poor and Phil Koch working class. America Baltimore, Maryland victimizes and oppresses those who reveal or attempt to reveal her ugliness. A prisoner Virginia Organize the contents South African pollee massacred Blacks during the March 21, 1960, demonstrations against The one thing I find to apartheid pass laws. criticize in the Militant is the page-two index to contents. Anyone seeking a quick guide Carter's propaganda to the main articles would have Nineteen years ago, on March 21, 1960, African National Congress and the PAC In your editorial of March 9 a bad time. nearly 70 Black men, women, and child called a strike of mourning. Hundreds of you mention Carter's Why don't you recognize the ren were murdered and 180 injured by thousands of workers refused to go to propaganda line on the "oil contents as to broad subject South African police. their jobs. crisis" consisting of three matter, with headings such as: The Sharpeville massacre was the racist The pressure of these mass actions themes. A fourth will be international news, labor news, regime's response to a peaceful demon forced the apartheid government to lift enunciated when the price of national, women's rights, stration against the pass laws. the pass laws for a short time. gasoline goes sky high. This Black struggle, etc. In an effort to tighten its social control will be attributed to foreign Instead, you have in very over the Black majority, in 1952 the white But within a matter of days, the re machinations, and it will small type a hodgepodge regime instituted laws requiring Blacks to gime banned the ANC and PAC; arrested undoubtedly result in pointing listing with no attempt to carry indentification books. Where Blacks nearly 20,000 Blacks; and detained more out that the major oil organize the contents. are permitted to live, work, and travel is than 1,600 political activists. companies were granted Henry Florman defined in the pass books. On the demand Even though the battle ebbed, Sharpe permits to prospect for oil off New York, New York of any cop or government official, the vilfe marked a turning point in the South book must be shown. Violation of the pass African struggle and the African revolu laws means immediate arrest. tion. It brought international attention to The protests in Sharpeville, Langa, the plight of the Black majority and their Nyanga, and other townships, organized determination to win freedom. A visit with by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), defied these laws. In 1973, Black workers participated in a In townships outside South Africa's massive strike wave for higher wages. Nationalist prisoners major urban centers, thousands of Blacks Three years later, Black schoolchildren in I am a member of the Workers Party (I told them I marched to police stations. Demonstrators the township of Soweto protested the Young Socialist Alliance in was a member of the YSA) offered themselves for arrest for not carry imposition of Afrikaans, the official lan Lawrence, Kansas. I am had explained to the fullest ing passes. guage of the apartheid regime. This led writing to ask you to let the the reasons for what they Police attacked the processions with to · more demonstrations and strikes by public know through the had done in support of tear gas, clubs, and guns. Demonstrators Blacks. Militant about my visit with Puerto Rican liberation, refused to move. Many were arrested, and As Robert Sobukwe, the late founder of two of the Puerto Rican their action still had an at least two were killed at Vanderbijlpark. the PAC and central leader of the 1960 Nationalist prisoners, Irving impact. Meanwhile, 10,000 massed at the anti-pass law campaign, said, "We are Flores and Oscar Collazo, at I was very glad to hear Sharpeville municipal offices. Unpro fighting for the noblest cause on earth, Leavenworth State them say that parties like voked, police fired into the crowd. the liberation of mankind. They are fight Penitentiary. the SWP had kept their The Sharpeville massacre sparked pass ing to retrench an outworn, anachronistic, I saw them February 11, cause-the cause of Puerto book burnings, demonstrations, and vile system of oppression. We represent before the death of their Rican independence-alive. comrade, Andres Figueroa strikes throughout South Africa for three progress. They represent decadence. We They also said that what weeks. represent the fresh fragrance of flowers in Cordero. I was invited to speak on a happened to them proved During those weeks, at least fourteen bloom; they represent the rancid smell of there were political more Blacks met their deaths. decaying vegetation. We have the whole panel on nationalism by the Chicano group at the prisoners in the United The most significant action in response continent on our side. We have history on States. Oscar also remarked, to Sharpeville occurred March 29. The our side. We will win!!!....Osborne Hart penitentiary, which Oscar and Irving participate in. "And besides, the only thing When I was extended the that matters is Puerto Rico." invitation I was told I would I told them the SWP and also have the opportunity to YSA wanted to know if there meet them. was anything they could do Our party is your party for them. They said there Because of unexpected difficulties that arose that was nothing they needed, but that the SWP and YSA 0 I _want to join the SWP. day, we were not allowed to THE MILITANT is the voice of enter the prison until late, so should continue what they the Socialist Workers Party. 0 Send me __ copies of Prospects are doing for independence for Socialism in America at $2.95 I could only spend a limited time with them. I also for Puerto Rico. IF YOU AGREE with what each. Enclosed$ ___ They told me a reporter 0 Please send me more information. shared the afternoon's event you've read, you should join with them. from the Kansas City Star had asked to interview us in fighting for a world Name They were as glad to see me as I was to see them. them, but they refused without war, racism, or Address ------ They were very surprised to because they feared he exploitation-a socialist City ------meet a boricua [Puerto would do the same as other reporters had done in taking world. State _____ Zip Rican] in Kansas. Because March 1 marked the words of their other Telephone ______the twenty-fifth anniversary comrades and turning them JOIN THE SWP. Fill out this of their attack on the around. They had no such SWP, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. fear about the Militant. coupon and mail it today. 10014 Congress, I asked how they felt about it today. Oscar When it was time to said they felt it had the most depart, we hugged each impact at the time. other tightly. They felt that because Ver6nica Cruz .· ·· JOIN THE sWP ·. ···· ·· , groups like the Socialist Lawrence, Kansas 30 Learning About Socialism Lenin on religion & revolution There never was a more implacable opponent of religion have consciously broken with this faith. . .. Behind these than Lenin. "Religion," he wrote in "Socialism and Reli scores of thousands, however, stood hundreds of thousands, gion," "is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of millions, of toiling and exploited people, proletarians and Irish revolution capital drown their human image, their demand for a life semi-proletarians, . . . in whom this faith could still With St. Patrick's Day not more or less worthy of man." (Collected Works, vol. 10, pp. survive.... Their feelings and their mood, their level of far off I remember what 83-84) knowledge and political experience were expressed by Trotsky said during the July Lenin also understood how revolutionaries combat reli Father Georgi Gapon." 1917 uprising as he gion. What he had to say on the subject is of great These millions, however, learned in struggle the need to participated among the crowds. significance for what is going on today in Iran. Here, we are overthrow the tsar. He said to the marchers who told by the bourgeois press (which is echoed by some groups In Iran the insurrection against the monarchy has tri got into small skirmishes that on the left, such as the Spartacist League), a reactionary umphed. The army has been broken up, SAV AK has been petty acts of violence do not Islamic movement led the backward masses to overthrow smashed, and some anti-imperialist steps have been taken. make revolution. The big question now is whether the revolution will be I reflect now on the situation the shah. This movement can only take Iran back to the in Ireland, about which not eighth century. moved forward to its logical conclusion, the taking of power by the working masses. much is heard. It's a sad fact But Lenin was aware that movements of the masses are that the Irish revolutionaries sometimes reflected through religious figures. Particularly In order for the proletariat to win power, revolutionists do not learn from history. A where the workers' leadership is weak, such figures can at must know how to approach the masses still influenced by bombing here and there does times play a progressive role. religion. Religion is "spiritual booze," but this does not not make revolution. It looks "However abject, however ignorant Russian Orthodox mean that revolutionists should be ranting prohibitionists. impressive and heroic (and clergymen may have been," he wrote in the same 1905 As Lenin explained, "Our Party ... cannot and must not sometimes silly, too) but it article, "even they have now been awakened by the thunder be indifferent to lack of class-consciousness, ignorance or changes nothing and only of the downfall of the old, medieval order in Russia. Even obscurantism in the shape of religious beliefs .... But turns off the masses. they are joining in the demand for freedom, are protesting under no circumstances ought we to fall into the error of Britain would tremble more against bureaucratic practices and officialism. . . . We posing the religious question in an abstract, idealistic at a revolutionary "liberation socialists must lend this movement our support, carrying fashion, as an 'intellectual' question unconnected with the front" on the march than a the demands of honest and sincere members of the clergy to class struggle, as is not infrequently done by the radical small band of sectarian their conclusion, making them stick to their words about democrats from among the bourgeoisie.... bombers. freedom, demanding that they should resolutely break all "No number of pamphlets and no amount of preaching The IRA is a sorrowful ties between religion and the police." (p. 85) can enlighten the proletariat, if it is not enlightened by its excuse for a "revolutionary In Iran the Shi'ite Muslim religion, unlike the Russian own struggle against the dark forces of capitalism. Unity in movement." They should learn Orthodox church under the tsar and the Sunni Muslim this really revolutionary struggle of the oppressed class for from the veterans of 1916 and religion in Saudi Arabia today, was not a state-established the creation of a paradise on earth is more important to us the IRA of then, and from 1917, religion. The shah viewed the Muslim clergy as opponents, than unity of proletarian opinion on paradise in heaven. and from the present but he was unable to crush them. "That is the reason why we do not and should not set revolution in Iran. The mosques were the only place where large numbers of forth our atheism in our Programme; that is why we do not Revolutionary change rests with the masses and their people could assemble legally or safely. The result was that and should not prohibit proletarians who still retain ves organized capabilities. the mosques became organizing centers for rebellion. The tiges of their old prejudices from associating themselves I praise the Militant for its Ayatollah Khomeini, the one religious leader who was with our Party. extensive coverage of the Irish uncompromising in his opposition to the shah, became an "We shall always preach the scientific world-outlook, and struggle in the past, and in authoritative figure among the masses. it is essential for us to combat the inconsistency of various times when the annual In the tsarist Russia of 1905 one opposition figure was 'Christians'. But that does not mean in the least that the "Paddy's Day Parade" has Father Gapon. Unlike Khomeini, who said from the begin religious question ought to be advanced to first place, where simmered down to smiles and ning that the shah must go, Father Gapon began by calling it does not belong at all; nor does it mean that we should brew. upon the people to petition the tsar peacefully while pro allow the forces of the really revolutionary economic and It's time they should claiming their loyalty to him. When the tsarist troops, political struggle to be split up on account of third-rate remember that Irish eyes are however, fired upon a peaceful demonstration on "Bloody opinions or senseless ideas, rapidly losing all political not smiling under the British Sunday," Father Gapon issued, said Lenin, "a call for importance, rapidly being swept out as rubbish by the very heel or sectarian, senseless revolution." course of economic development" (Collected Works, vol. 10, bombings. In this call for revolution, Lenin continued, it "is not pp. 85-87). It would be good this year to Father Georgi Gapon speaking. This is the voice of those In Iran, the issue is not the various leaders' religious see at least one Militant thousands upon thousands, of those millions upon millions views, but their political program. Religious leaders will be salesperson along the line of of Russian workers and peasants who until now could tested in struggle, and those afraid to deepen the revolution the parade route, because it has believe naively and blindly in the Tsar Father. . . . The will be recognized as such. Through their own experience in in the past strongly spoken out past decade of the working-class movement has produced struggle the masses will come to see religion as an instru in solidarity with the Irish thousands of advanced proletarian Social-Democrats who ment of capitalist rule. -Paul Siegel working class. Let the Militant "fan the flames of discontent" among Americans of Irish descent this year. John Aschou Toronto, Ontario I You Like This Paper, Look Us Up Where to find the Socialist Workers Party, You11g Socialist Alliance, and socialist books and pamphlets ALABAMA: Birmingham: SWP, Box 3382-A. Zip: Louisville: SWP, YSA, 1505 W. Broadway, P.O. Tel: (919) 833-9440. 35205. Tel: (205) 322-6028. Box 3593. Zip: 40201. Tel: (502) 587-8418. OHIO: Athens: YSA, c/o Balar Center, Ohio Univer ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP, YSA, 1243 E. McDowell. LOUISIANA: New Orleans: SWP, YSA, 3319 S. sity. Zip: 45701. Tel: (614) 594-7497. Cincinnati: Zip: 85006. Tel: (602) 255-0450. Tucson: YSA, Carrollton Ave. Zip: 70118. Tel: (504) 486-8048. SWP, YSA, 970 E. McMillan. Zip: 45206. Tel: (513) SUPO 20965. Zip: 85720. Tel: (602) 795-2053. MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP, YSA. 2117 N. Charles 751-2636. Cleveland: SWP, YSA, 13002 Kinsman CALIFORNIA: Berkeley: SWP, YSA, 3264 Adeline St. Zip: 21218. Tel (301) 547-0668. College Park: Rd Zip: 44120. Tel: (216) 991-5030. Columb1.111: St. Zip: 94703. Tel: (415) 653-7156. Los Angeles, YSA. c/o Student Union, University of Maryland. YSA, Box 106 Ohio Union, Rm. 308, Oh10 State Eastside: SWP, YSA, 2554 Saturn Ave., Hunting Zip 20742 Tel: (301) 454-4758. Univ, 1739 N. High St. Zip: 43210. Tel: (614) 291- Prepared for release ton Park, Zip: 90255. Tel: (213) 582-1975. Los MASSACHUSETTS: Amherst: YSA, c/o Rees, 4 8985. Kent: YSA, Student Center Box 41, Kent I am writing to tell you to Angeles, Westside: SWP, YSA, 2167 W. Washing Adams St, Easthampton 01027. Boston: SWP, State University. Zip: 44242. Tel: (216) 678-5974. ton Blvd. Tel: (213) 732-8196. Zip 90018. Oak YSA, 510 Commonwealth Ave., 4th Floor. Zip: Toledo: SWP, YSA, 2507 Collingwood Blvd. Zip: please end my subscription. I land: SWP, YSA, 1467 Fruitvale Ave. Zip: 94601 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. 43610. Tel (419) 242-9743. thank you very much for the Tel: (415) 261-1210. San Diego: SWP, YSA, 1053 MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor: YSA, Room 4321, Michigan OREGON: Portland: SWP, YSA, 711 NW Everett free sub you sent me since I'm 15th St. Zip 92101. Tel: (714) 234-4630. San Union. U. of M. Zip: 48109. Detroit: SWP, YSA, Zip: 97209. Tel: (503) 222-7225. Francisco: SWP. YSA, 3284 23rd St. Zip: 94110. 6404 Woodward Ave. Zip: 48202. Tel: (313) 875- PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edinboro State a prisoner and have no money. Tel: (415) 824-1992. San Jose: SWP, YSA, 942 E. 5322. MI. Pleasant: YSA, Box 51 Warriner Hall, College. Zip: 16412. Philadelphia: SWP, YSA, I've learned a lot that the big Santa Clara St. Zip: 95112. Tel: (408) 295-8342. Central Mich. Univ. Zip: 48859. 5811 N. Broad St Zip 19141. Tel: (215) 927-4747 newspapers won't print about COLORADO: Denver: SWP, YSA, 126 W. 12th Ave. MINNESOTA: Mesabi Iron Range: SWP, P.O. Box or 927-4748. Pittsburgh: SWP, YSA, 1210 E. ours and other countries. Zip: 80204. Tel: (303) 534-8954. 1287, Virginia, Minn. Zip: 55792. Tel: (218) 749- Carson St. Zip: 15203. Tel: (412) 488-7000. State CONNECTICUT: Hartford: YSA, c/o Joe Carmack, 6327. Minneapolis: SWP, YSA, 23 E. Lake St. Zip: College: YSA, c/o Jack Craypo, 132 Keller St. Zip: I'm being released from Univ. of Harford, 11 Sherman St. Zip: 06105. Tel: 55408. Tel: (612) 825-6663. St. Paul: SWP, 373 16801. prison this month, and I'll be (203) 233-6465. University Ave. Zip: 55103. Tel: (612) 222-8929 RHODE ISLAND: Kingston: YSA, P.O. Box 400. Zip: able to walk from the walls DELAWARE: Newark: YSA, c/o Stephen Krevisky, MISSOURI: Kansas City: SWP, YSA, 4715A Troost. 02881. Tel: (401) 783-8864. 638 Lehigh Rd. M4. Zip: 19711. Tel: (302) 368- Zip: 64110. Tel: (816) 753-0404. St. Louis: SWP, TEXAS: Austin: YSA, c/o Mike Rose, 7409 Berkman with a mind full of what's 1394. YSA. 6223 Delmar Blvd. Zip: 63130. Tel: (314) Dr. Zip: 78752. Dallas: SWP, YSA, 5442 E. Grand. going on in this world, thanks FLORIDA: Miami: SWP, YSA, 8171 NE 2nd Ave. Zip: 725-1570. Zip: 75223. Tel: (214) 826-4711. Houston: SWP, to your paper. 33138. Tel: (305) 756-8358. NEBRASKA: Omaha: YSA, c/o Hugh Wilcox, 521 YSA, 806 Elgin St #1. Zip: 77006. Tel: (713) 524- A prisoner GEORGIA: Atlanta: SWP, YSA, 509 Peachtree St. 4th St., Council Bluffs, Iowa. 51501. 8761. San Antonio: SWP, YSA, 112 Fredericks NE. Zip: 30308. Tel: (404) 872-7229. NEW JERSEY: Newark: SWP, YSA, 11-A Central burg Rd. Zip: 78201. Tel: (512) 735-3141. ILLINOIS: Champaign-Urbana: YSA, 284 lllini Ave. Zip: 07102. Tel: (201) 643-3341. UTAH: Logan: YSA, P.O. Box 1233, Utah State Union, Urbana. Zip: 61801. Chicago: City-wide NEW MEXICO: Albuquerque: SWP, 108 Morning University. Zip: 84322. Salt Lake City: SWP, YSA, SWP, YSA, 407 S. Dearborn #1145. Zip: 60605. side Dr. NE. Zip: 87108. Tel: (505) 255-6869. 677 S 7th East, 2nd Floor. Zip: 84102. Tel: (801) Tel: SWP-(312) 939-0737; YSA-(312) 427-0280. NEW YORK: Binghamton: YSA, c/o Larry Paradis, 355-1124. 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Tel (606) 269-6262 Buildmg, Rm. 209. 19 West Hargett St. Zip 27601 2076. THE MILITANT/MARCH 23, 1979 31 THE MILITANT Andrew Pulley: 'Workers should run Chicago' Socialist mayoral campai n: the real choice By John Studer ~~eting: nothing but an •:ord.~rly tran- CHICAGO-Andrew Pulley' Social- sibon to t~e same. old thmg. ist Workers Party candidate for mayor, N~~-TV s evemng _news reported walked out of a behind-closed-doors th~t Andrew Pulley said he had better meeting with his Democratic and Re- thmgs ,to do than tal~ to M:s. [Jane] publican opponents and lame-duck Byrne, the Democratic _nommee. Mayor Michael Bilandic March 12. The program the~ shifted to co~er- Pulley had been invited to the meet- age of Pulle~ .a~ his ne~t ca~paign ing by Bilandic to discuss an "orderly ap~earance-jommg a picket hne of transition" in city government. Umted Steelworkers Local ~~88~. Pulley emerged to the glare of TV T?e reporter commented: Th_Is was lights and electronic flashes from the ob~~ously one of those better thmgs to more than twenty-five reporters in doO. h d d b f ne un re mem ers o Local 13881 had voted two to one to strike MORE COVERAGE the Economist Publishing Company in 'Chicago Defender' backs Pulley; southwest Chicago March 11. Econo socialist forces open mayoral de mist prints twenty-six South Side and bates. See. page 27. suburban weeklies, the Daily Defender, Chicago's Black community newspa per, the Midwest edition of the Chris Chicago's city hall. "Mr. Pulley, Mr. tian Science Monitor, and some neigh Pulley," reporters yelled, "why are you borhood papers. the first out of the meeting? Did you Printer members of the Steelworkers walk out?" union told Pulley the company had "Yes, I walked out," Pulley replied. offered only a 7 percent a year raise "The kind of 'transition' that I have in over the next three years-less than mind if I win is not like what they are today's inflation rate. In addition, they talking about in there. are protesting the disparities between "Bilandic just kept telling us how MilitanVDavid McDonald the wages of journeymen and apprenti much he loved Chicago. He said he Pulley walks out of meeting with mayor and other candidates. 'They only discussed ces, a gap of five dollars per hour. wants no radical changes in the way little changes. I'm Interested In big changes.' things are, and the other candidates Pulley told the two TV crews present: agreed with him. They only discussed "These strikers, my brother and sister little changes. What I'm interested in the workers cannot come about about the proposals of his Democratic members of the Steelworkers union, is big changes. through back-room discussions among and Republican opponents. are the ones I want to discuss my "There's only one kind of transition politicians," Pulley explained. "Work Pulley responded, "They only dis transition policy with. My program is that will make any difference in the ing people must be directly involved in cussed picayune matters, like who to fight for the interests of working lives of the great majority of Chica these decisions. should get the juiciest patronage ap people against the bosses who rob goans. And that's a transition from the "The only way this can occur is by pointments. This is not the issue the them, and politicians who lie to them rule of the rich to a government of doing what I'm advocating in this working people of Chicago are con in the interests of the rich. We must working people. campaign-building a labor party, con cerned about. transform this system into one which "We need a transition that will take trolled by and made up of workers, in "We need jobs for all, affirmative puts human needs before profits. control out of the hands of the busi opposition to the Democratic and Re action programs to make up for de "That's the kind of transition I stand nessmen and bankers and put control publican parties. cades of discrimination against for, and that's why people should vote in the hands of the working people of "As a unionist, I believe the unions Blacks, latinos, and women, a new for me on April 3." this city, including the Black and should take the lead in this. The program that really will desegregate Within hours, Pulley's statements latina communities. unions, Black community groups, la the schools, and a IlUlSS transit system were reported in both afternoon pa "I believe that since it's working tino groups, and women's groups that works, that serves the Black com pers, the evening news on four TV people that keep the city running, it's should meet together and form a party munity at least as well as anyone stations, and dozens of radio pro working people that should run the to fight for our interests." else." grams. The March 13 New York Times city. Basil Talbott, Jr., political editor of Talbott's article in the March 13 also reported Pulley's early departure "A transition from rule by the rich to the Chicago Sun- Times, asked Pulley Sun-Times quoted Pulley as he left the from the meeting with Bilandic. New trial sought in Malcolm X murder By August Nimtz details of the plot. We've located two of Hayer had a meeting the night before should be made to capitalize upon New court action that will take place the men he mentioned. One is in prison the assassination with a man named existing conflicts between competing shortly may provide answers to some in New Jersey, and the other is still John Ali. Ali "was apparently an black nationalist organizations." of the questions surrounding the Feb living in Paterson." informer for the FBI in the Nation of In the case of Malcolm X. this in ruary 21, 1965, assassination of Mal Kunstler will ask the federal courts Islam." struction undoubtedly meant trying to colm X. to grant a new trial for Norman (3X) Kunstler's mention of the FBI is inflame conflicts between Malcolm and Attorney William Kunstler plans to Butler and Thomas (15X) Johnson, at significant. Revelations about the Elijah Muhammad, the then-head of ask the federal courts soon to grant a which Hayer would testify. Such a trial FBI's Cointelpro (counterintelligence the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims), new trial for two of the three men who could be tantamount to reopening the program), through which the govern with whom Malcolm broke in March are currently serving life sentences for entire case. ment tried to systematically destroy 1964. the murder. In December 1977, Kunstler submit the Black movement, have added to The government's version of the In an interview with the Militant, ted an earlier affidavit of Hayer in a long standing suspicions about possi assassination has always been that Kunstler said that Talmadge Hayer motion for a new trial in the New York ble FBI and police involvement in the Muslims killed Malcolm. But the (also known as Thomas Hagan), the State Supreme Court. This motion was Malcolm's death. highly publicized disputes between admitted assassin of Malcolm, has denied, and the appeal from that deci In one of the many memos that have Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad could stated in two affidavits that the other sion was also denied. been made public, former FBI Director just as well have provided the cover two men who were convicted had no Along with Hayer's affidavits, J. Edgar Hoover stated one of the under which provocateurs, FBI or CIA thing to do with the murder. Kunstler said he also had a sworn purposes of Cointelpro: "to expose, hit squads, or other racists could have Hayer, who was caught at the scene statement from Benjamin Goodman, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or other carried out the killing. and confessed during the 1965 trial, the man who introduced Malcolm to wise neutralize the activities" of Black Just last year Gary Rowe-an FBI has maintained from the start that the the meeting at which he was killed. nationalist groups. informer in the Ku Klux Klan-was other two men were innocent. Police Goodman, according to Kunstler, In instructing FBI agents how to indicted for killing civil rights worker always refused to investigate his asser states that "he knew everybody in the implement these goals, one memo says Viola Liuzzo in 1965. Previously the tions. room . . . and he was certain these two that "no opportunity should be missed FBI had pretended that only the KKK In the new affidavit, Kunstler said, men [Butler and Johnson] had not to exploit through counterintelligence was involved. "Hayer names four other people from been in the room that night." techniques the organizational and per A possible frame-up of Butler and Paterson, New Jersey," who were the Besides the affidavits, Kunstler said sonal conflicts of the leaderships of the Johnson-both well-known Muslims actual assassins, and "gives all the he has an FBI report that indicates groups and where possible an effort Continued on page 27