WfJRKERS IIIIN'(JIIRIJ 2S¢ No.58 ,·afJ;~~' X·523 6 December 1974 300 ,000 Auto Layoffs in December • • • conom rum In DECEMBER I-Auto's Big Four, giant oline) generally. This has cut real industrial-financial monopolies at the wages by over 5 percent in the past heart of the American economy, will year. Profits in capital goods indus­ layoff close to 300,000 workers this tries such as steel, the most viable Government Threats in Coal Talks month. Production schedules are now "ector of the economy outside of en­ being drastically cut in light of dismal e .. :.y industries, have been artificially profit reports and continued declining exab'~;er<1.ted both by inflation and re­ sales. Although the current layoffs are cent ne'arL':ng in anticipation of the supposedly for December only it is ob­ coal strike. Tn reality orders have flat­ vious that long-term "adjustments" are tened out thL;, year, and cutbacks will UMW Ranks Resist in order. Ford Motor Company is al­ soon be required in these areas as well. ready projecting permanent job losses Since President Ford suddenly "dis­ affecting at least 31,000 workers. Since covered" he recession last month his a layoff in auto means about one and economic ldvisors ar'e now admitting one half layoffs in related sectors that it has been in process already Miller Sellout (rubber, safety glass, etc.) Ford's lat­ for ten (!) months. In announcing his est cut b a c k s will ultimately put discovery of an economic slump, Sec­ about 78,000 workers on the streets. retary of the Treasury Simons said Reduced sales and layoffs are now that it would be "V -shaped," with a spreading to other areas of the econ­ sharp upswing in mid-1975. Last week, omy including appliances, textIles and however, "some administration offi­ television manufacturing. M u n i c i pal cials" were quoted as saying that some­ and state governments are also feeling thing had happened to the sec 0 n d the pinch. New York City, for instance, leg of the "vn (Sew Yor./;? Times, 24 is planning to layoff over 1,500 muni­ November). It's apparently looking cipal workers, the largest cutback in more and more like an "L" these days, the city's history including during the even when viewed through Ford's rose­ dog days of the depression. The press colored glasses. is printing: stories of workers who de­ If things are bad here they are, if cided to ~.vorl: :=,:~ ~l:e goverrallent in anything, worse in the other ac.: 'dEced order to get (they thought) permanent industrial countries except Germany. civil service job security but are on Yashica, one of Japan's leading cam­ the street without money and ineligible era companies, has recently bee n Arnold Miller talks with Harlan County miners. ED ,STREEKY-CAl1ERA 5 for unemployment insurance. Economic forced to get rid of 41 percent of its "experts" who had earlier hoped that workforce. In the past, layoffs of per­ DECEMBER 2-The fight between the unemployment would remain below 7 manent workers had been unheard of in top leadership of the United Mine Work­ . EYEWITNESS,REPORT percent nationally are now predicting Japanese industries, where a worker ers and its ranks over a new contract that joblessness will peak at some­ belongs to a company for life. The is continuing to heat up and may boil where between 8 and 10 percent, the world crisis is cracking the founda­ over at any moment. The next fewdays The Coal Sbike in West Vioonia- highest since the 1930's depression. tions of this paternalistic labor system. will determine whether or not Arnold The recent 600 percent rise in the The diminishing opportunities for Miller, in close collaboration with the price of sugar has highlighted a tre­ "profitable" investment and shrinking government and management, will suc­ mendous rise in the retail prices of international markets have led to in­ ceed in ramming through his sellout Miners Up in basic commodities (utilities, food, gas- continued on page 11 pact. On November 26 Miller finally got "'> \ his contract past the union's bargain­ • ing council, which for 11 days had re­ Arms Over \ "'" fused to put its stamp of approval on :~ the blatantly pro-company deal. This time the UMW president was ready for Contract his reluctant district directors. After the initial package was turned BECKLEY, W. Va., December 2-The down overwhelmingly (by a vote of 37 heaviest snowfall in years has delayed to 1) on November 18, the re-opened voting by UMW miners, but it has done negotiations were conducted in an at­ nothing to dampen the widespread dis­ mosphere of secrecy and melodrama. satisfaction over the proposed contract Treasury Secretary Wi 11 i a m Simons negotiated by Mine Workers" presi­ played the hard cop, openly identified dent Arnold Miller. On Saturday a with the interests of the coal operators, horn-honking car caravan here calling while W.J, Usery (director of the Fed­ for a "no" vote highlighted the rank­ eral Mediation and Conciliation Ser­ and-file disgust. Simultaneously Miller -': ~"... Demonstrators protest layoffs at Jefferson Assembly plant. WV PHOTO vice) played the role of soft cop "friend was being hooted down by local dele­ of the workers." gates at a district-wide meeting. The council again deciSively re­ Opposition to the proposed pact cen­ jected Miller's "new" deal, by a22-to- ters around its failure to include a 11 margin at a mid-afternoon session on clause guaranteeing the right to strike November 26. Yet only a few hours over local grievances, notably health later the same body accepted the same and safety issues. The Right to Strike rotten pact. Its members were turned Committee, a regional grouping in the around not by new information, but by UMW, organized the car caravan after the threatening presence of a top gov­ a meeting last Wednesday of over 100 ernment official in union headquarters miners passed a resolution calling: Juring the deliberation&. Ostensibly " ... on all miners to !'esist eff()rL;:;, by there to help explain the terms of the union and company officials to sell us contract, "soft cop" Csery's real pur­ a bad bill of goods .. , . " puse Via:, to "explain" the terms of not A yOU:1g roof-bolter Clt 0]:(' of the ..lrCel~ling the contract;; n,.lnlE-'l~~' g

lnE'!1t strikt::breaking. r (J1150lidation Coal C011l1)any ex.presseJ Following the collapse of OPIJosition similar sentiments. As he told WOrkers in the bargaining council a phone con­ Va/lg'wni in an interview yesterday, versation was arranged between the liMy father got killed in an accident UMW chief and I-resident Ford, in which when I was five ..•. Management don't Miller promised to "do everything I can care about a man's life-they only care to get the coal flowing again for Ameri­ about the coaL" ca." Informed about the phone call, and He added, "They're trying to break JOE CLARK Detroit: Unsold Chryslers. continued on page 4 continued on page 8 xcnane:ewit Oak Park, Illinois your struggle around the Russian ques­ ferences that we mentioned in our first Therefore we were led to believe 8 September 1974 tion. Therefore we must treat your ten­ letter. that discussions with you might be of dency with the seriousness and respect Political Bureau On the other hand, it is evident that value. In particular we would have so indicated. Spartacist League the SL does not want political discus­ been interested in hearing your evalu­ Manifestly there are many differ­ sions at all. For instance, despite the ation of the earlier fervent ex-CT Dear Comrades: ences between our two tendencies. We fact that the SL approached us first, declaration on the worth of the IS: do not Wish to prejudge these, and ap­ despite our letter of acceptance and "We see the IS as the only group ser­ We have received from Comrade proach the question of discussion with iously trying to implement a prole­ Green, your local organizer, a proposal despite correspondence since then, the you comrades with an open mind. As you tarian orientation, a question which is for formal political discussions. We ac­ "SL has not proposed even a single item undoubtedly know we have had a great for discussion-hardly a sign of wanting cept this proposal. We should make fundamental for us" (Workers' Power deal of experience in approaching other to talk politics. It has become quite No. 60, July 1972). This contrasts with clear to you that we believe that serious groups in these conditions. We have clear, both from the Robertson letter your later dismissal in the first issue political differences exist between our­ probably learned more, and certainly and from the LF transcripts, what the of TRUTH, 15 September 1974, of the selves and your organization which have ourselves been more tested, by SL does want. Its sole purpose in seek­ would make fusion very unlikely. How­ IS as having always been "Shachtman­ those experiences which demonstrated ing to "discuss" with us is to engage in ite," as "having reached its peak in the ever, we feel that a serious and prin­ a fundamental lack of compatibility be­ a crude attack on our tendency for not period of middle class protest," as cipled discussion of pOlitical differ­ tween tendencies than by those which led recognizing the SL, now and in the past, "now await[ing] only the opportunity ences would aid in the development of to harmonious fusion. We published the as the font of all wisdom and to convey to openly dis sol v e in t 0 reform­ both groups. results of our perSistent overtures to Comrade Green has also informed us to us the hopelessness of independent ism" and your assertion of "the open the then-American Committee for the of your decision to publicize materials existence. We are far too busy to waste capitulation of the IS to the labor Fourth International as our Marxist bureaucracy. " relating to our expulsion from the RSL. our time on such a farcical "discussion" Bulletin,No. 3 Part IV, "Conversations Weare pleased by the decision to ex­ which cannot be in any way useful or Without a critical attitude toward the With Wohlforth." This is already avail­ pose this bureaucratic and cynical helpful. history and evolution9f one's Own po­ able to you. purge. To this end we will supply you Your real attitude is also evident in litical tend en c y, one's present-day The Leninist Faction of Passen and with all available written materials the fact that you have let stand as your words are all too cheap, especially Gregorich, after having alreadyessen­ necessary to clarify the facts and to position an imputation of cliquism on when numerical weakness and lack of fight the RSL' s cowardly cover-up. tially turned away from a perspective our part, put forward by you in agnostic opportunity do not permit the test of toward the Spartacist League, held two deeds. Enclosed, you will also find a copy of fashion in Workers Vanguard #52. This formal sessions with an SL delegation the fir s t issue of Our newspaper, is despite the Robertson letter, Which You appear to take particular ex­ in order to place upon us the burden of TRUTH, which we would like to ex­ speaks of "the unabashed explicit bu­ ception to our "agnostic" refusal to breaking off unity negotiations. We certify your lack of cliquism in your change on a regular basis with your reaucratism of the RSL and the funda­ publication. cheerfully accepted this responsibility. mental principled character of your struggle in the RSL. And you go on to We are sending you under separate cov­ struggle around the Russian Question. " insist that without "apublic correction" Comradely yours, er the rough, uncorrected transcripts Nor did you take the opportunity, in by the SL, "negotiations" to talk with Jon Myers of these discussions. your article on the RSL in WV #55, to you are impOSSible. C entral Executive Committee The tone of your letter to us sug­ disavow any charge of cliquism against Upon what objective basis could we TRUTH gests that you are concerned that we us. We can hardly be expected to believe make such a determination, accept might be precipitous in seeking an il­ in the good intentions of the SL when your ultimatum, and duly publish our lusory, unfounded, unprinCipled unifi­ its slanders are public and its praise "correction"-the tone and characteri­ • cation with you com r ad e s. These only private. A public correction is the zations in your letter to us? New York materials referred to we hope will re­ least to be expected of those with even To the extent that cliquist currents 20 September 1974 assure you that we do not approach you an elementary honesty and, since you do warp one's practice, to that extent in either a naively hasty or a maneu­ are so demonstrably lacking in this one's formal program is undermined. Jon Myers verist fashion. We have before us in the quality, negotiations are impossible on And if cliquism predominates in a Central Executive Committee CSL a living model of one ad hoc unifi­ any realistic basis. group then it becomes programmati­ TRUTH cation effort on top of another seeking to Trotsky taught us "to be true in little cally rudderless, i.e., at the mercy Dear Comrade Myers, compact the most egregiously incom­ things as in big ones." The basic politi­ of passing social pressures, as re­ patible positions. The worst result is cal content of the SL finds its expres­ fracted through personalist and sub­ Thank you for your letter of Septem­ not the acquiring of two splits for each Sion, not only in its attitude towards jective conSiderations. Certainly your ber 8 as well as for the substantial new "unification" but that at each point negotiations with us, but also in the vile expressed subjectivity toward the SL amount of documentation which you have the resulting organization cannot un­ backroom slander that Harold Robins is not a good omen, but hardly definitive. kindly supplied us in connection with dertake Leninist struggle because it "got Trotsky killed." We demand the Perhaps you believe that the correct your struggle in the RSL. Two pOints does not contain within it the program immediate retraction of this charge, the political issue you raised in the RSL appear quite clear to us: the unabashed, for the road to power (hard enough to cynicism of which serves only to illus­ and the RSL Majority's organizational explicit bureaucratism of the RSL and carry out in practice), but only pro­ trate on another pOint the corruption of abuse of you are a sufficient guaran­ the fundamental prinCipled character of grammatic ambiguity b r e e din g new the SL. tee? It is an elementary mistake in splits as the class struggle unfolds. political life to conclude that because Fraternally, In any case, it is good for tendenCies one side in a dispute is clearly wrong, Kevin Tracey in the socialist movement to discuss and the other must somehow be much more CEC Notice clarify their views rather than subordi­ than just correct on the issues posed. The next issue of Workers Van­ nate real programmatic difference or To do so would be to ignore the cen­ guard, No. 59, will be dated 3 agreement to mindless organizational tral features, totality and motion of January 1975. competitiveness, the latter posture al­ • the latter side. This is why we sought ready being a departure from Marxism­ discussion with your group following Leninism. New York your exclusion from the RSL. So with these cautionary injunctions 29 November 1974 Your reference to Harold Robins which you already evidently share we Kevin Tracey perplexes us. We by all means and for WfJRltERS are quite happy to undertake discus­ Central Executive Committee the record state that to our knowledge sions between our two organizations. TRUTH Harold Robins was not an accomplice It remains only to work out the arrange­ to the Trotsky assassination. Perhaps ',HIII,RD ments. Probably it would be easiest for Dear Comrade Tracey, you have twisted Our opinion, which is Marxist Working-Class Oi-weekly a delegation from our Central Commit­ In reply to yours of 28 October, it is well known to you, that a bodyguard who tee to meet with your representatives in of course unfortunate that your tendency fails should later show a certain mod­ of the Spartacist League the Midwest. Please let us know your has come once again to the conclu­ esty and not spend the next 30 years wishes. If you do wish to proceed with sion that you have nothing to gain by loudly trading on the presumed political these discussions it would be desirable authority of a simple guard's role, then Editorial Board: discussions now with the Spartacist Jan Norden (editor) if we also supplied you with the discus­ League. We do, however, thank you for drift into the social-democratic milieu Liz Gordon (chairman) sion material from our last National your overt rejection of such talks, while still invoking the murdered com­ Chris Knox (labor) Conference. rather than maneuvering and dragging munist, Trotsky, to justify such· a capitulation. Karen Allen (production) Fraternally, the matter out so as to place the It is our belief that a proliferation George Foster (advisory) James Robertson "burden" for the failure of such talks of ill-defined, ostensibly Trotskyist for the Spartacist League/U.S. on us (in the fashion of the late Lenin­ Circulation Manager: Anne K~lley grouplets is not a good thing. We re­ cc: Steve Green ist Faction right wing, now in the Class Struggle League). main willing to meet with your group, Correspondents: However, we believe your deCision as with others, in discussion or debate West Coast: Mark Small • is unfortunate. Certainly your new whenever there is even a small hope Southern: Joe Vetter paper, TRUTH, expresses a number of unity or even of that mutual clari­ Midwest: Len Meyers of serious differences with the SL as fication which can be a step toward 28 October 1974 unity. New England: R. Carling has your tendency in its earlier incar­ West Europe: Joseph Seymour Political Bureau nations (i.e., as the Communist Ten­ In its first years the Spartacist Spartacist League dency in the SWP, as the independent tendency was very small, generally well under a hundred supporters, but Published by the Spartacist Committee for a Workers' Govern­ Dear Comrades: from our inception we fought for and PubliShing Company, Box 1377, ment, then as entrist currents in the had programmatic firmness. And it is G.P.O., New York, N.Y. 10001 This is to inform you of our decision International Socialists and later the Telephone: (212) 966-6841 not to pursue any further negotiations Revolutionary Socialist League). But no contradiction that the bulk of the on discussions with your group. your present treatment of the nature SL's present cadres have come together over the years upon the baSis of Opinions expressed in signed We have followed a principled course of the Russian Question and your asser­ prinCipled fusions. articles or letters do not neces­ in these negotiations, hoping to sustain tion of its crucial importance for revo­ sarily express the editorial whatever faint chance there was of a lutionary Marxists indicate certain ma­ Fraternally, viewpoint. discussion which could serve to illumi­ jor points of agreement with the SL James Robertson, nate the political significance of the dif- as well. for the Political Bureau of the SL/U.S. 2 WORKERS VANGUARD SWP Calls for U.S. Army No Troops to Boston, for Labor/Black Defensel ~p~" t t j The current busing crisis in Boston port integration of the schools as part l i r of the struggle for equality, and there­ c.$I' has posed the issue of racial equality ~.~, ' , ttl~ , (, more sharply than at any time since the fore we support busing as a means of .... 1 t, '1,,' Hi demise of the civil rights movement achieving a modicum of integration, in the mid-1960's. A victory for the although by distorted and rather arti­ racists here will set back the struggle ficial means. >-, .. STOP RhCISlldATTACI(S .., against discrimination throughout the For many opportunist groups, how­ " country. ever, the issue is awkward. Their So far things have been going poorly method is to tail after petty-bourgeois ON BLACk SCHOOLotCHlbDREU!y for the integrationists in Boston. There public opinion, supporting whatever is have been weekly anti-busing motor­ popular at the moment. This way they . -' NOTl..rEetRAL .... TROOPS ., ~ cades of hundreds of cars and segrega­ will get more recruits-they hope. To­ tionist rallies have drawn several thou­ day many black politicians support sur INTEGRATED, ·PKING_ClAS.s DfffNJf sand participants. Boston's liberal busing, but not so long ago the dominant '.,4 .- Mayor White soon capitulated to the mood among black militants influenced SPARTAC'ST L£ACUE .,. SPARTACUS reactionary Hicks-Kerrigan elements by nationalist currents was for com­ of the School Committee and now even munity control of the schools. So many the judge who ordered the busing is of these fake socialists supported com­ ~.~ .• .<.J.'<:~~t.~.~t,-, ,,~ ';.*, " munity control. WI talking of a compromise exempting ill certain schools. The Spartacist League opposes black With the abandonment of racial mi­ nationalism and community control be­ norities by the liberals and the dis­ cause they further divide working peo­ crediting of black Democrats (some of ple instead of helping to unite them, , 'C> the worst cop atrocities have occurred increasing segregation instead of fight­ ,'",. in cities with black mayors) as well as ing it. Whatever the immediate rake-off both "pork-chop" and "revolutionary" for a handful of minority "professioD~ nationalists, a tremendous opportunity als" who get good-paying jobs as a re­ has opened up for communists to win sult of community control schemes, in black militants to a program of united the long run these will work against the class struggle. But this will not be done oppressed black minority. Among other simply by chanting "black and white, things, such schemes inevitably lead to unite and fight." It is necessary to the demand for community control of provide correct leadership to the mass­ schools by whites. es in their concrete struggles against If you support community control for oppression. blacks in Roxbury, then shouldn't you support community control for poor Community Control and Busing whites in South Boston? If you support community control, then shouldn't you In Boston there have been very sharp oppose busing (which obviously makes differences in the programs offered by community control impossible)? ostensibly revolutionary groups during For the reformists of the Socialist the busing crisis. Take the question of Workers Party there is no contradiction busing: some support it, some don't. in advocating two counterposed lines on Why? the same issue. For them this is dialec­ For the Spartacist League the ques­ tics. In an article entitled "BUSing: What tJ tion is straightforward. We are for the Are the Issues?" (International Social­ maximum political, economic and so­ ist Review, December 1974), SWP lead­ cial equality among different sectors of ;;;a;;,;;;;;;;,_#--~" .--~~ - er Peter Camejo notes that community 'eX £ "'49!d!uq ; :?I'). ~ the working people. Discrimination di­ control of the schools by whites is vides the working class and thus makes simply a cover for racist reaction. it more difficult to unite against the T rue enough. But he goes on to add WV ~HOTO common enemy-capitalism. We sup- continued on page 8

"Emerg~y' Committee": ALiberal Sham For AClass-Struggle Contingent on December 14 A "Freedom March for Human Dig­ who recently became the only black The national leaflet highlights ex­ of Vietnamese to bring jus tic e to nity" has been announced for Boston and state senator in Massachusetts, is ea­ cerpts from Owens' press conference Boston. other major cities around the country on ger to boost his career by attaching his statement, making clear that the rally is The Spartacist League is unable to December 14. Organized by the Emer­ name to a demonstration of national sig­ to be a pious appeal to "justice loving endorse this demonstration which is un­ gency Committee for a National Mobili­ nificance. This will draw the limelight people from all fifty states." Rather der the organizational control of the zation Against Racism, the Boston rally away from other members of the Mas­ than laying the basis for an integrated Democratic Party pOlitiCian Bill Owens. has a long list of several hundred spon­ sachusetts Legislative Black Caucus, working-class defense force to protect We have no confidence in the organizers sors, including trade-union bureau­ and put Owens on the road previously the black school children from racist of this demonstration who are dOing crats, black organizations, left groups traveled by U.S. Senator Brooke. mobs, this "moral witness" led by a their best to guarantee that it will be a and prominent liberals. The three slo­ Owens can afford a display of "mili­ bourgeois liberal politico will simply liberal/pacifist pep rally-a vehicle for gans on the leaflet for the national tancy" as long as he has iron-clad veto serve to dissipate the energies of those the electoral ambitions of bourgeois march are "No to Institutionalized Rac­ power over the dec i s ion s of the who wish to struggle against the reac­ politicians and a forum for liberal de­ ism; No to Racist Mob Violence and No "Emergency Committee": the charac­ tionary anti-busing mobilization. mands such as "Troops to Boston." to Racism in Education. " ter of leaflets, slogans, route of march, The ref 0 r m i s t s of the Socialist For revolutionaries to stand by and The absence of a broad mobilization speakers at the rally, etc. Consequent­ Workers Party 'are now seeking to be­ permit the opportunists, in this case of left, labor and black organizations ly, neither the hundreds of sponsoring come the "best builders" of yet another Y A WF and the SWP /YSA, and their lib­ has undoubtedly emboldened the racist organizations and individuals nor the bourgeois liberal-led protest movement eral allies to use the just outrage against mobs who are protesting school inte­ groups which have been most active in on the model of the late antiwar move­ the racist anti-busing forces to spread gration through court-ordered busing. building the de m 0 n s t rat ion - youth ment. By being dutiful errand boys they liberal/pacifist illusions would be an As early as September 22 the Sparta­ Against War and Fascism and the Soc­ perhaps hope to induce Owens to take up abdication of our responsibility to ex­ cist League urged (in a letter sent to ialist Workers Party-are making key what has become the SWP' s main slogan pose these criminal frauds. Thus, we numerous Boston-area trade unions, decisions. They are only the water boys. around the busing criSiS, "Federal will march in the December 14 demon­ black organizations and soc i ali s t At a meeting on November 18 to pub­ Troops Into Boston Now." Ironically, stration in our own contingent, together groups) a mass united-front demon­ licize the demonstration, Owens stated this demand was first raised by the with those who agree with the perspec­ stration around the slogan, "stop the unambiguously that all activities in the SWP because the "leaders of the Black tive of independent labor/black action Racist Attacks Against Black School name of the COm mit tee must be community" (Le., the black liberal pol­ against the racists under the slogans: Children." But the December 14 march approved directly by his office. He an­ iticians) called for it;· but now it is -STOP THE RACIST ATTACKS! is not such a united-front action. nounced that he was personally appoint­ primarily these fake Trotskyists (and, -IMPLEMENT THE BUSING PLAN! The rally is built around and tightly ing a "screening committee," to "over­ of course, the Communist Party) who EXTEND BUSING TO THE SUBURBS! controlled by a single!blackDemocrat­ see" the work of the Em8rgency Com­ are calling on the imperialist army -NOT FEDERAL TROOI'S, BUT INTE­ ic Party politician, Bill Owens. Owens, mittee as a wholeo which massacred hundreds of thousands GRATED WORKING-CLASSDEFENSE! 6 DECEMBER 1974 3 ./ ment (!]" and s i mil a r "devastating" p r inc i pIe s of the working cIa s s by the Russian bureaucracy. Turner accusations) is a box in one corner of movement." used to tell hJJw he, personally, favored Denounces Members in Print the page entitled "Statement by CSL The convoluted anonymity of the reconstructing the Fourth International Central Committee." statement is all the more amusing in while the CSL was for a Fifth. , To all appearances the two articles that Earl O. is the CSL's leading West The Class Struggle League has been are unrelated, inhabiting the same page Coast member as well as pretentious characterized since its inception by op­ only by sheer coincidence. The Class so Ii ci to r for its" In t e rnational portunist maneuverism at the expense Class Struggle Struggle League and readers of Work­ Commission. " of program and principle. It i5 an un­ ers Vanguard know differently. USing While the CSL hastens to "publicly stable bloc of the remnants of Turner's language reminiscent of Nixon's vari­ disown the actions of these comrades" VNL and elements from the former ous Watergate "revelations" ("we un­ in order to protect its tarnished repu­ Leninist Faction of the SWP. They dis­ League derstand," it has "come to our attention tation, the latter is far from unblemish­ agreed about which International to that," etc.) and suggesting that the group ed even without Owens' . own special construct/reconstruct, trade-u n ion is having trouble keeping track of the contributions. He might argue in self­ policy, the Near East and otherimpor­ activities of its 15 or so members, the defense, for instance, that inviting cops tant programmatic questions. The main Squirms statement shamefacedly admits that un­ into the revolutionary party is not only area of "agreement" was the right to named CSL members on the West Coast the "ludicrous, but logical extreme" of publicly disagree with the organiza­ have been saying and dOing some bi­ calling for unionization of the cops, but tion's policy. zarre things lately. also of the call (issued by Harry Turn­ In its aborted attempt to fuse with Our readers will recall that we re­ er's Vanguard Newsletter) for a general the Revolutionary Socialist League ear­ Over Cops strike in support of striking NYC police cently reported that one Earl Owens of lier this year the CSL obligingly the CSL had given us written statements in 1971. Owens was part of VNL and modified its pOSition on Arnold Miller The November issue of Class Strug­ asserting that cops "have the right to fused with the CSL together with Turner for the RSL's benefit. But the RSL gle contains yet another inept attempt membership in the revolutionary party" a year later. haughtily spurned this sacrifice, re­ by Henry Platsky to polemicize against and can join the unions, too (see "The EarlO. could assert with equal jus­ j ecting fusion on the grounds that "It the Spartacist League under the head­ CSL's 'International': Fourth, Fifth or tic e that he was only follOwing the CSL' s seems that you are just a temporary line "Liberalism Gains a New Ally." Cop?" WV No. 56, 8 November). Class Menshevik organizational norms sum­ assemblage of diverse entities." The But more interesting than this discon­ Struggle now confirms these charges, marized by the slogan "freedom of crit­ story of Earl O. only confirms once nected string of inane contortions ("the adding that the functioning of members icism, unity in action." Brother Platsky again the obscene consequences of SL's slick image-making," "capitula­ of their Bay Area branch has been such is wont to use this device in order to scorning the struggle for principled tion to the palates of the overwhelming­ as to "endanger the reputation of the explain how he defends the crushing of Marxist clarity. The chickens are com­ ly pro-Israeli radical-liberal move- CSL" and to "ignore the elementary the 1956 Hungarian workers' uprising ing home to roost in the CSL._

goes up three per cent, that's three in the contract" (New York Times. 1 tions mount united-front demonstra­ Continued from page 1 per cent of the total wage," he told December). Even the bargaining coun­ tions in support of the miners' strike. miners in West Virginia. cil's original demands, however, are If Taft-Hartley provisions or troops Lies, however, were not sufficient far from adequate to satisfy the min­ are used in an attempt to break the to push through the first contract. The ers' needs. Forces in the UMW which strike through government interven­ .. . Miller Sellout bargaining council sent Miller back to seek to counterpose a policy of mili­ tion, the entire labor movement must restore the two-week summer vaca­ tant class struggle to the defeatist re­ respond with a general strike for vic­ aware of the predictable reaction in the tion, get a 22 percent wage increase in formism of Miller & Co, must call for tory of the strike and against coal fields, a union aide groaned, "this the first year (to make up for past un li mit e d cost-of-living protection Taft-Hartley. will kill us." losses due to inflation) and obtain the (sliding scale of wages), no loss in ex­ As John L; Lewis remarked in the It should not be surprising to coal right to strike over health and safety isting union gains (vacations, grievance 1943 coal strike, "you can't mine coal miners or the left that Miller is such a issues. Sounding more like the voice of procedure, etc.,) and the unconditional with bayonets." But it is possible to willing tool of the government and industry than the president of a strik­ right to strike. break a strike by isolating it. This energy monopOlies. As a leader of the ing union, Miller fumed to reporters: In addition, the present favorable must not be allowed to happen._ Miners for Democracy, Miller was re­ "You wouldn't believe some of the bargaining power of the union should be sponsible for bringing the U.S. Labor recommendations" (New yOrk Times. used to strike to organize all non-union Department into the union to help "clean 24 December). coal fields (more than 30 percent of up" the corrupt gangster regime of Tony The "renegotiated" pact act u a 11 y present U.S. production). And in order Boyle. Explaining that it is a betrayal does nothing about vacatiolis, nothing to win support from broad sections of The Left and to bring the bosses' state into union about the right to strike and only raises working people and the rest of the labor affairs, the Spartacist League refused pay by another 2 percent: Yet when the movement, the UMW should callforthe to back Miller for UMW president in bargaining council balked at endorSing expropriation without compensation of December 1972 government-ordered Arnold Miller .. elections. Unable to resist an "honest In contrast, most of the left (as well reformer," many supposedly revo­ as the liberal press) supported this lutionary groups "critically" sup­ sub-reformist. Some fake socialists ported Arnold Miller for UMW favored the use of the capitalist gov­ president in 1972. There were ernment to bring "progress" to the un­ many different reasons, of course. ions; others agreed that this is "bad" The International Socialists gave but outweighed by Miller's "democ­ their backing because Miller was a racy." Now Miller is simultaneously step forward compared to Boyle. paying off the friends in Washington The Rev 01 u ti 0 n a r y Socialist who arranged his election and shedding League claims to have no such il­ a facade of democracy assumed when l usions; it supports Miller because he was out of office and not faced with the workers think he is a step "the responsibilities of power." forward. And the Guardian added its vote because Miller was a step If At First You Don't Succeed forward and a step backward (that old "two-line" struggle). Miller was well pleased with his The opportunism of such fakers first package, which he called "the is such that even today they are best contract in the history of the labor making excuses for Miller as dis­ movement," one which had "taken the sident miners march with Signs apple right down to the core, peelings this insulting proposal, Miller went on the profit-hungry energy monopolies denouncing the UMW president and and all" (N9W York Times. 24 Novem­ the air to question their "sincerity": and for a shorter workweek with no loss his m i s era b 1 e contract. The ber). Actually, Miller showed that as in pay, in order to provide jobs for the Guardian (4 December) wonders far as he was concerned the UMW UMW Ranks Want Strike Victory unemployed. whether the supposedly "best ever" could surrender "the apple" to manage­ BeSides selling out the miners, Mil­ contract really is so good, but ment and the membership would get Now that he has battered down the ler sits together with Meany, Fitzsim­ says that the UMW president is the worm. bargaining council, Miller has dropped mons and hobel on President Ford's only "acting defensively." Revolu­ The UMW chief negotiated a contract all talk of his "ultra-democratic" ten­ Labor-Management Committee, a body tion (November 1974) now says which threw away the right to strike day ratification procedure. Aft e r ed­ that Miller "may not be a staunch over local grievances-an acute need in whose job is to keep down ("monitor") ucationals on Saturday, the miners wages through "jawboning" un til man­ defender of the strike "! No kidding. the death-trap mines-and a wage pack­ vote today (Monday) and the results datory government controls are reim­ The Socialist Workers l'arty's age that is really a pay cut. (The will be announced tomorrow. Miller is posed. While it is only natural that the Militant (1 November), which has "capped" cost-of-living formula will officially predicting a 60 percent "yes" likes of Miller should see nothing a good word for just about every increase wages by a maximum of six vote. wrong with sitting on a wage-control liberal labor skate, touts the pre­ percent over three years. This means He will have to overcome a lot of sent UMW bureaucracy as "coal committee, the union ranks must de­ that under the proposed pact-including resistance among the membership to miners not long out of the pits." mand that labor get off all government the straight wage increase and c-o-l reach this figure. Already on Novem­ For the SWP this "makes them boards. In addition, socialists and )mion escalator-total pay would rise 21 per­ ber 29, some 300 miners marched in different from all other top nego­ militants m us t call for a workers par­ cent over the life of the contract. At a Bellaire, OhiO, against the contract. tiators." Apparently they forgot to ty-break with the parties of big busi­ rate of inflation above 7 percent-it is "Dump Miller and Guzek"(president of pass the word to Miller. ness!-to fight for a workers govern­ currently running about 13 percent­ district 6} and "Miners Get Ripped Off But the ultra-reformist Com­ ment. real wages will fall.) In addition, the Again" read their signs. At a district munist Party is the most shame­ traditional two-week summer vacation 29 educational in Beckley, West If miners do rej ect the contract, less of all. While most of Miller's was cut in half, one week being shifted to Virginia, the next day, Miller and his pressure wUI quickly build for govern­ "socialist" cheerleaders are chok­ the winter for the companies' benefit. lawyer reportedly were unable to an­ ment intervention. There will be cries ing on the sellout coal contract, Miller was faced with the problem swer questions about job bidding under of "energy blackmail" and denunciation the CP's Daily Horld (15 Novem­ of how to sell this rotten "apple" to the contract. "Get Guy Farmer [the of coal miners' "greed" in the press. ber) headlined, "Miners scan new the ranks. His solution was simple­ companies' chief negotiator]," hooted In such a situation it is urgent that the accvrd with cautious optimism." lying: "Every time the cost of living miners from the floor, "he knows what's labor movement and socialist organiza-

4 WORKERS VANGUARD le\ fltl\tI SQe(\o\ fro'" Israeli Trotskyists Demand Strikes Against Austerity Plan

EDITORS' NOTE: ~Ve reprint below a sentative from the merchants' organi­ interest to the workers. We should avoid defend the SOViet Union, Marxists will leaflet, dated 'November 15, issued by zation condemned the Likud l a rightist steps which can bring social instability" take a position of revolutionary defeat­ the Spartacist nucleus in Israel pro­ Zionist parliamentary bloc J for its re­ (Ha 'aretz, 15 November). ism on both sides or military defense testing the government's recent dra­ fusal to support this plan. Abramovich is merely repeating the of those countries under imperialist conian "austerity" regulations. Shortly The plan was approved by the general line that was accepted by the attack. In the case of an inter-imperial­ afterward a wave of Arab demonstra­ Knesset [the Israeli parliament] on Histadrut executive committee in the ist war, the interests of the working tions in solidarity with the P LO broke November 12. Even those who had pre­ summary speech by Meshel, its general class on both sides will be to turn it out on the West Bank; many stwients viously spoken against it voted for the secretary: "The enemy should make no into a civil war of class against class. were arrested as a result and one fe­ plan-for example, Mapam [a left­ mistake. Our differences cannot weaken If the war's character were similar male stwient killed. The Spartacist Zionist "labor" party] and Jacques Our unity. We do not want this govern­ to the 1956 war-fin this case,] an at­ group was the first Israeli left organiza­ Amir (ex-representative of the Dead ment to fall. If the government wants to tempt by the imperialists to seize con­ tion to reslJon:i to this important pro­ Sea workers committee) from Achdut remain strong, it must remember that trol of the oil fields-the interests of test against the Zionist occupation. A A vodah [another of the Zionist "labor" its ally is the Histadrut" (Davar, the working class would be to declare leaflet dated November 21 demanded parties]-after [Israeli premier 13 November). its military support for the oil­ army and police out of the Arab com­ Yitzhak] Rabin calmed them down by The government's attack on the producing nations, despite the reaction­ munities, immedbte release of the poli­ saying that negotiations with the His­ workers is supported by the capitalists ary character of their regimes. This tical prisoners and immediate, uncon­ tad rut would continue. on the one hand and by the Histadrut would not mean any pOlitical support to ditionalIsraeli withdrawalfrom the on the other. The only question faCing these regimes. In fact, the Marxists occupi.ed territories. Histadrut "Opposition" to the them is how to attack the workers and will point out that only the victory of Government at the same time to maintain the work­ the socialist revolution in these coun­ The goal of the government's new ers' confidence in the government and tries can mean real victory against economic plan is adecrease in imported The meeting of the Histadrut execu­ the Histadrut. But these "gentlemen" the imperialists. goods and an increase in exported goods tive committee approved a counter- are wrong if they think that they can (hence the 42 percent devaluation of the [Israeli] pound) at the expense of the The Workers Committees working masses-ending the subsidy for basic foods, eliminating the cost-of­ During the diSCUSSion, ademonstra­ li ving escalator, cutting back on social tion by Tel Aviv workers committees services like health and education. took place outSide, demanding that His­ In order to facilitate the success of tadrut fight for the cost-of-living ad­ their plan, the capitalists have been justment. The workers committees, busy making protectionist propaganda although a part of the Histadrut, are at ("Our Answer to Arafat: Buy Blue and the same time the only organizations White") in an attempt to indoctrinate elected by the workers themselves. the workers with economic nationalism. Even the more militant committees, However, the workers' interests lie not however, still adhere to the illusion in protecting their "own" capitalists, Israelis that the Histadrut can be pressured to but in solidarity with the international demonstrate the left, rather than seeing the need to working class. The new economic plan against new build real trade unions independent is a plan for war by the employers' austerity . from the state and semi-state agencies government against the mass of working policy. like the Histadrut. people. As David Pintov, a mUnicipal But there are committees and there worker, said in the general meeting of are committees. While some commit­ Haifa workers committees: "The attack tees demonstrated outside-the doors on Our living standards is as serious as being guarded by police-other commit­ the blow that was dealt us by the October tees were at the same time invited to War" (Ma'ariv, 14 November). proposal by a large majority-for full endlessly cheat the workers; a surprise the meeting. A look at the speeches of In the general assembly of the execu­ employment, full cost-of-living escala­ is in store for them. those committees which were invited ti ve of Histadrut [Israel's corporatist tor and compensation for large fami­ inside makes clear what were the "labor federation"] on November 12, the lies. This will melt away like inscrip­ New Threat of War criteria for the invitations. minister of economy, Y. Rabinovich, tions on ice. At the very same meeting, Albert, from a committee in Ashdod, said, "This step is only the second stage Histadrut officials made conciliatory The general meeting of the Histadrut threatened, "If there are more [!] steps of our plan. " The implication was clear: statements, declaring quite clearly executive on November 12 was only a like this, the workers committees will the third stage of this plan is widespread their willingness to make substantial show whose purpose was to cheat the decide to strike." Peretz (head of the unemployment. All the "sabbath songs" compromises. Not only will the full rise working masses. Rabin opened the Ashdod port committee), whose popu­ about how much unemployment there in the cost-of-living not be paid (at meeting with a military, anti-Soviet larity with the workers declined after will be if the workers do not accept this best Histadrut will "win" from the gov­ speech: "We shall do everything to en­ his last trip to the U.S., said, "We are plan cannot hide the truth-that even if ernment a wage increase of a few sure that if a war is forced on us we one nation, and we want to strengthen the workers do accept the plan, they pounds which will be presented to the shall come through it. This is my first the government and the Histadrut; but will in any case face widespread workers as a big achievement), but the national duty. Radio Moscow suggests we would like to know how long we must unemployment. already existing unemployment will in­ that we surrender; if we surrender, it go on tightening our belts." No doubt The plan was accepted warmly by crease next year. will not be necessary to double as long as the workers believe corrupt the capitalist economic organizations, It is clear that, as in the past, His­ our mil ita r y expenses" (Davar, little bureaucrats like Peretz, who which have been demanding a demon­ tad rut will support the government in 13 November). claim that the capitalists and the work­ stration of strength from the govern­ whatever the government does. The As usual, when capitalist represent­ ers have the same interests, the gov­ ment. In the meeting between the chairman of the "trade union" section atives like Rabin prepare a new war at ernment will be able to continue industrial capitalist representatives of the Histadrut, A. Abramovich, called the expense of workers' lives they pre­ tightening the workers' belts. and the Histadrut, Shavit (the capitalist upon the workers to support Histadrut, sent it as the defense of workers' For Peretz and his kind the question representative) said, "I hope that the saying, "The Histadrut is not going to families. And they attempt to cover the is not how to organize the workers for Histadrut does not expect that we will oppose the government's plan. Thedis­ attack on workers' living standards with victory, but how he can wind up sitting break the government's economic plan" cussion with the government will be on the need to protect the workers' lives. next to his old friend, Jacques Amir, in (Ha'aretz, 15 November). The repre- some details which are of the most But if in fact a new war is fought, it will the Knesset. And in order to prove that be to further the interests of capital, he belongs there, Peretz stressed re­ not labor. peatedly that, contrary to the "bad It is true that a new war is threaten­ name" of the town of Ashdod, it ispos­ ing the masses of workers and peasants sible to organize peaceful, orderly in the Near East. More and more, voices demonstrations there (i.e., ones that do of the imperialist governments are de­ not hurt the bourgeoisie)-as, for exam­ manding military action to end the oil ple, the recent demonstration there of boycott. Davar (10 November) trans­ 2,000 workers. lated an article by Jack Anderson, a By impUcation he drew the distinc­ U.S. columnist, which states that Amer­ tion between the kind of demonstrations ican imperialism is thinking of sending he leads and the spontaneous demon­ American troops to Libya and giving strations that went on for four days in the green light to Israel to occupy the the Tel Aviv slum of Ha Tikvah. He oil fieldS in Kuwait. thereby showed his solidarity with At this time it is not completely the police who suppressed those clear what the imperialist powers will demonstrations. do, whether they will unite or fight It is in the interest of the working each other. Depending upon how the im­ class to win to its side the people of perialists align themselves and the pos­ Ha Tikvah. It is not necessary for the Youths in pro-PLO demonstration in Jerusalem's Old City. sibility that it will be necessary to continued on page 8 6 DECEMBER 1974 5 Palestinian Nationalism ... From "People's War" to the "Mini-State"

During more than a quarter century assistant secretary-general of the state falls within the plans to liquidate of Israel-Arab conflicts in the Near League and later a member of the the Palestinian question. " East, ostensibly Marxist tendencies Syrian and then Saudi Arabian delega­ -Free Palestine, April 1971 have repeatedly failed to provide a tions to the United Nations-hardly the program for unity between the Hebrew credentials of a revolutionary. King The PLO "Tamed" and Arab working masses. Instead, Hussein, who at the time held the That is precisely what the "mini­ various "socialists" tailed after one or West Bank and has consistently opposed state" meant-both in 1971 and today: another currently popular bourgeo!3 moves for Palestinian independence, an attempt by the Arab regimes to nationalist force. sponsored the meeting at which the rid themselves of hundreds of thous­ PLO was formed. Thus in the "six-day war" of June sands of unwanted refugees, thereby 1967 much of the left supported the It was the Arab defeat in the 1967 eliminating a sou r c e of domestic "progressi ve" she i k s and colonels war that spurred the development of political turmoil and a prinCipal object against Israel, in the name of a class­ Palestinian commando groups, by dis­ for Israeli attack, by cramming them less "Arab Revolution." Yet only three crediting the existing nationalist re­ into the Judean hills. It will not solve years later t hat well-known Arab gimes and providing opportunities for the Palestinian question any more than "revolutionary," King Hussein of J or­ g u err i 11 a actions in the Israeli­ the 1921 partition solved the Irish dan, unleashed a bloody attack on the occupied West Bank. By 1968 Shuquairi question. refugee camps (the infamous "Black had been forced out of the leadership However, faced with the continued September" massacre) leaving thou­ of the PLO. The largest and most military impotence of the commandos sands of Falestinian dead. moderate of the resistance groups, (both against the Israelis and the butcn­ Yasir Arafat's Fatah, declared that the er Hussein) and in the wake of the Following the ignominious defeat of main strategy was "armed struggle," 1973 October war, which greatly the Arab regimes in the June war, defined as "guerrilla warfare progres­ strengthened Arab "moderates" around the attention of petty-bourgeois radi­ sing toward comprehensive popular war F aisal and Sadat, the PLO has dropped cals shifted to the nationalist guerrillas of liberation" ("Program for Political its opposition to the mini-state and is of the Palestine Liberation Organiza­ Action," Free Palestine, April 1971). now talking of forming a government­ tion. Being out of power-and with no According to Fatah, "exemplary" in-exile. At the Palestine National prospect of soon getting in-the several commando operations were supposed to Council meeting in Cairo this June, commando groups of the PLO could "detonate" armed mass mobilizations a "Transitional I-rogram" of the PLO afford mOre flamboyant rhetoric than on the scale of Algeria or Vietnam. was adopted which supports a West their mentors in Cairo, Damascus, But except for the single battle. of Bank state as "a link in the chain of Baghdad and Kuwait. But, as demon­ Karameh on 21 March 1968, when the strategy ... to establish the Demo­ strated by its recent drive to acquire . Palestinian guerrillas fought Israeli cratic Palestine state." bourgeois respectability (acceptance of E.DDIE ADAM:::; troops to a standstill, "armed struggle" In addition, at the recent "Arab From top: Yasir Arafat of PLO, George proposals for a West Bank "mini-state" summit" meeting in Rabat, one of the never progressed beyond isolated ter­ Habash of the PFLP, and NayefHawat­ and clamping down On com man d 0 rorist attacks. secret resolutions was reportedly a actions), "pick up the gun" rhetoric pledge by the PLO to end public opposi­ meh of the PDFLP. has not enabled the PLO to give revolu­ Another indication of the PLO's tion to Hussein. In return the Libera­ tionary leadership to the exploited "militancy" was its rejection of pro­ tion Organization was recognized as rected against the working people was masses of the Near East. posals for a "mini-state" which would the "sole legitimate representative of indicated by the remark of one PLO accept the pre-1967 boundaries of the Palestinian people on any liberated official, explaining the "detention" of Israel and abandon the 900,000 Pales­ Palestinian territory." 26 people (p res u m a b I Y Palestinian tinians living in Jordan, the 200,000 in commandos) in connection with a recent The "Militant" PLO Since the granting of "observer" Syria, the 300,000 in Lebanon and an status at the United Nations to the hijacking: "At the time we are gaining The Palestine Liberation Organiza­ equal number in Israel.· The 1971 PLO and Arafat's dramatic visit to international recognition," he said, "we Palestinian National Congress declared tion was set up in 1964, financed out New York last month, the resistance cannot allow mercenaries in our ranks its: of the coffers of the British-initiated movement has sought to bolster its to undermine our new stature" (New York Times, 28 November). Arab League, precisely to head off the "Firm opposition to the establishment new-found respectability by clamping development of an independent national down On airline hijackings. That this On the imperialists' side, this is of a Palestinian state on any part of exactly what is hoped for by those who movement in the refugee camps. Its the Paiestinian Homeland on the basis is not a belated recognition that indis­ founder, Ahmad Shuquairi, had been that any attempt to establish. such a criminate terrorism is actually di- support "Operation Mini-State." As French foreign minister Jean Sau­ vagnargues observed in justification for his visit with Arafat in late October, "The best way to distract people from violence and despair is to induce them to shoulder the responsibility On the international level, that is, to make them act in conformity with interna­ tional realities" (New York Times, 13 November). The Lessons of "Black September" Hussein's 1970 massacre of three to five thousand Palestinian refugees and commandos was a watershed for the guerrilla m 0 v e men t. Fatah blamed "Black September" on the adventurist antics of George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), especially his hijackings of airliners which were landed in Jordan. Arafat also condemned Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh's Democratic Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DPFLP), a left split from the PFLP, for provoking the repression by calling for the overthrow of Hussein. The correct policy, said Fatah, was "non­ interference in the affairs of the Arab regimes. " The DPFLP, at the time the mast left-wing expression of the reSistance, drew many correct conclusions from the September tragedy, albeit never AP transcending an e c I e c tic Stalinist Commandos pose atop wreckage. PFLP guerrillas blew up four hijacked airliners in September 1970. At one point they "armed struggle" concept of two-stage held more than 300 hostages at their "Revolutionary Airport" in the Jordanian desert. revolutiono Hawatmeh saw the weakness

6 WORKERS VANGUARD of the Palestinian resistance in its national emancipation is conceivable ·~i' ,'1/ Fatah-PFLP strategy). But while acceptance of the reactionary Hashe­ only through the dictatorship of the pro­ •,,,J.Citt· Habash cIa i m s to be .a "Marxist­ mite monarchy and the failure to raise letariat as the leader of the subjugated cf!.tt$ i Leninist internationalist," his funda­ "a democratic program for the rural nation, above all its peasant masses" mental nationalism was revealed by a areas (dealing with the land question, (The Permanent Revolution). reply to a reporter of the German the struggle against feudalism, the big Because the D PFLP could not find magazine Stern, who asked in 1970 land owners and rural capitalism ... )" the road to a revolutionary proletarian whether PFLP hijackings might spark (September Caunter-Revolution in Jor­ perspective, it rapidly degenerated into another world war: dan, November 1970). The DPFLP denounced the policy of the left-wing apologist and cover for "Oh yes. But let me assure you this does Fatah. Since last year's October war, not worry us. "non-interference" as rank opportun­ Hawatmeh has followed Arafat and Al "The whole world would stand to lose ism in order to "benefit from the money something in such a war except forus. and weapons of the regimes." Fatah's Saiqa, a co ill man d 0 organization founded by Syria mainly to-police refu­ U that should be the only way to destroy collaborationist perspective "resulted gee camps after the June 1967 war, Israel, Zionist and Arab reaction, we in the absence of a revolutionary pro­ would in fact welcome the third world grammatic alternative to the program into the. fold of the Arab League and war." which caused the defeats of 1967 and adopted' the once-despised position of - Workers Press, 18 September 1970 the "mini-state." 1948," leading it to "give deeds of In view of the potentially genocidal absolution to the reactionary regimes consequences of such a nuclear holo­ for their handful of subsidies" and to Marxism vs. Terrorism caust, which could threaten the very "cover up for the programs of the existence of humanity, it seems almost nationalist regimes, which have been As a consequence, "armed struggle" too mild to quote Lenin on the question unable to attain the objectives of na­ has degenerated into isolated and indis­ of Polish independence on the eve of tional democratic liberation." criminate acts of terrorism, often World War I: The "mini-state" scheme, too, was directed against civilian targets, in denounced by Hawatmeh as placing "the order to garnish international publiCity. "To be in favor of an all-European war merely for the sake of restoring Poland is to be a nationalist of the worst sort and to place the interests of a small number of Poles above those of the hun­ dreds of millions of people who suffer from the war." -"The Discussion of Self­ Determination Summed-Up" Above: General Dayan, Brigadier General Narkiss (left) and A Bantustan for Palestinian General Rabin enter Refugees Old City inJerusalem at Lion's Gate. Indeed, preparations for the fifth Far left: Pales- N ear East war are in full swing. Israel tin ian guerri lias in and Syria have put their troops on alert; training. Left: E I Arafat, in his interview with Time (11 Fatah poster pro­ November), predicted war in at most claims- "This is six months. At the Rabat conference a the way to liberation joint military command was proposed of my homeland. And compriSing Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the so, my brothers, J'II PLO. Meanwhile, the U.So continues to cl4f::J I~ if.:'~ 1.l...A fight on." rush arms- to Israel and Russia contin­ ues to dump its most advanced military ~~_ l..4-cr.J -·\/~\I· ~ ~ .. -- e,...-o.~.rL..i( .... hardware into Syria and Iraq. DFP'-\ROO~ GA:--'1MA TIME We have warned that yet another Palestinians in a position surrounded by Thus a splinter group from Fatah, led meh's statement increased the pres­ Israel-Arab war will not bring national the anvil of Israel and the hammer of by its former treasurer Abou Mahmoud, sure upon him; Ma'alot eased the pres- emancipation for Palestinian Arabs, the reactionary monarchy and imperi­ attacked a Pan American jet in Rome sure••• :" . nor will United NationS/Geneva peace -N ew Outlook, August-September 1974 alism" (ibid.). last December, killing more than 30 conference negotiations or a West Bank . persons. And on April 11 three mem­ "mini-state. " Hawatmeh as Left-Wing Cover bers of the PFLP-General Command The "Rejection Front" The proposed West Bank state is, in for Fatah entered an apartment in the small Israeli town of Qiryat Shemona and fact, even less than the Palestinians killed 18 persons. The "mini-state" perspective and were promised by the UN partition plan But the DPFLP proved unable to maneuvering to get delegate status at a of 1947 and,. if ru-rnors-of~a secret assimilate the most important lesson Fatah has in the past itself con­ renewed Geneva peace conference have Brezhnev-Ford deal at Vladivostok are of 1948, 1967 and "Black September"­ demned such indiscriminate terrorism. been rejected by the PFLP, PFLP­ true, would involve recognizing the namely that "the main enemy is at However, immediately after the Pales­ General Command, the Arab Liberation Zionist state as presently constituted home." This is true both for the Arab tine National Council adopted the "mini­ Front and Popular S t rug g 1 e Front. (New York Times, 29 November). Mas­ masses under the reactionary Hashe­ state" resolution (and its concomitant: These groups have formed a "rejection querading as recognition of the right to mites or the nationalist colonels and for national liberation through the UN and front" which proclaims its fidelity to the self-determination for the Jewishpopu­ the Hebrew-speaking working people of Geneva negotiations), Fatah took credit old slogan of H revolution until final vic­ lation, this actually means abandoning Israel. The DPFLP never explained for its first operation of this sort. On tory." In an interview (reprinted as a the 300,000 Palestinian Arabs living why the nationalist regimes were "un­ the evening of June 24 three Fatah pamphlet by the Organisation of Arab within pre-1967 Israeli boundaries to able to attain the objectives of national commandos entered an apartment in Students under the title "Liberation Not continued second-class citizenship and democratic liberation"-a correct em­ the Israeli seaport Nahriya and mur­ Negotiation") with the Italian leftist pa­ acceding to the results of Zionist con­ pirical observation which could have dered a woman and two children. The per Il Manifesto (29-30 January 1974), quest in 1947-49. been the beginning of Marxist wisdom, purpose of this otherwise senseless act PFLP leader Habash stated: i.e., an understanding of the permanent was to provide a "militant" cover for -The danger of the Geneva confer­ As to the results of another Arab­ revolution. Instead, it continued to en­ Fatah's rapid rightward motion. ence ••• is that it weakened the Arab Israel war, we have shown elsewhere vision some sort of "national united people's animosity toward U.S. im­ that in 1948, despite pious claims that front" which would perhaps include' Likewise, the D P F L P (prior to perialism and depicts the latter as a they were fighting for the national rights some of the Arab nationalist regimes, Ma'alot) had been critical of isolated neutral arbitrator. • • . _ of the Palestinians, the Arab League and certainly the "progressive" acts of terrorism. This was one of the "Hence the struggle of the Palestinian proceeded to gobble up whatever the differences that led to the split between and Arab masses would be transformed Zionists failed to occupyo Syria carried Palestinian b 0 u r g e 0 is i e . and petty from an anti-imperialist national lib­ bourgeoisie, while excluding the bulk Hawatmeh and Habash. After the split off the E1 Hamma district in the Golan the DPFLP wrote: eration movement, into a limited na­ Heights, Egypftook the Gaza strip, and of the Hebrew workers except for a tionalist fight for the regaining of some few "progressive intellectuals." "Historically we find that reliance on of the lost lands." T ransjordan transformed itself into the For the DPFLP, as for the rest of individual action and terrorism was the While the PFLP seeks to give the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan by ab­ solution of those who had lost faith in the sorbing the West Bank. In the latter case the commando groups, Zionism could potential revolutionary capabilities of "rejection front" the image of a mil­ never be destroyed by united class itantly independent Palestinian force, there was active co 11 us ion by King the masses. n Abdullah with the Zionists to prevent struggle together with the Israeli work­ -AI Hurriyah, 2 March 1970 this is far from accurate. The PFLP­ ers, but only from without, through a General Command is headed by former the emergence of an independent Pales­ combination of commando terror, re- . Quite true! And there is no doubt that Syrian army officer (and graduate of tinian state (see "Birth of the Zionist M a' alot was the desperate act of an or­ newed Near East wars and diplomatic Britain's Sandhurst) Ahmad Jibril. State: A Marxist Analysis; Part 2/The maneuvering. The DPFLP was unable ganization that has lost faith in the When in September 1968 the Syrian gov­ 1948 War," WV No. 45, 24 May 1974). revolutionary capacity of the masses. to break with the myth, shared alike by ernment arrested three PFLP leaders Neither in 1948,1967 nor 1973 have the Arab nationalism and Zionism, that the In an interview with Paul Jacobs, in Damascus, including Habash, Jibril Saudis, Hashemites, Nasserites and Hebrew worker is wedded to the Zionist published in the Israeli Zionist news­ refused to condemn the arrest and split Ba'athists fought for the liberation of state. Yet this myth is being shattered paper Yediot Ahronot (22 March 1974) from the PFLPo The Arab Liberation the Palestinians. today by strikes on the docks of Ashdod Hawatmeh was quite explicit: he called Front is simply a creation of the Iraqi In addition to becoming a "bantustan" and riots in the slums of Tel Aviv. for a "united, democratic state where Ba'athist Party. And all three-PFLP, for the dumping of unwanted Palestinian Mest importantly, Hawatmeh and his Palestinians and Israelis will live to­ PFLP-GC and ALF-are uncritically refugees and serving to legitimize the followers failed to break with the "two­ gether with the same rights and respon­ pro-Iraq. undemocratic partition of Palestine stage revolution" theory and find their sibilities" but added "we know that Habash, who is more widely known following World War II, a West Bank way to the Marxist concept of permanent instituting the united democratic state for his hijackings and the Lod airport "mini-state" would necessarily become revolution (though they occasionally is impossible in this period" (quoted in massacre (carried out by the Japanese the client state of the reactionary Arab mentioned the words). For. Trotsky it New Outlook, May 1974). As Jacobs Red Army in solidarity with the PFLP) regimes. How much can be expected in was the victorious working class that pointed out in a later article, than for his contribution to Marxist the way of "aid" from the oil-rich sheiks would bring national liberation of the "Sinc-" the DPF had not mounted any theory, has of late been making correct in such an arrangement was indicated by colonial and semi-colonial countries: guerrilla actions for a long time it has c r i tic ism s of the current Fatah­ the results of the Rabat summit: $1 "the complete and genuine solution of been vulnerable to the accusation that it DPFLP strategy (just as Hawatmeh billion a year for Egypt and Syria, $300 their tasks of achieving democracy and lacked militancy and courage. Hawat- earlier made correct criticisms of the continued on page 11

6 DECEMBER 1974 7 The frenzied genocidal Continued from page 3 hatred for which the Near East situation is such a fertile breeding ground No Troops to Boston! manifested itself recently in an incident in Beit Shean. that - the question can't be dealt with Three Arab guerrillas alleg­ "on a universal, abstract basis." edly on a mission to capture Camejo denies that black community hostages and exchange them control is linked to white community for fourteen PLO prisoners control, since "The fact is that whites in Israeli jails killed four already control the schools .... " So, residents of an apartment you see, the problem is not uniting building. Israeli soldiers bla{:k and white working people in strug­ stormed the bui Iding and gle against the capiblists who control the schools and fighting for democratic killed all three. Furious rights of oppressed minorities, but or­ townspeople threw the ganizing against white control of the bodies out a window to schools! Race struggle not class strug­ < the street below where gle-this is the logic of the SWP's they were beaten, spat sometime nationalism. upon and set on fi reo At What about the contradiction between left, mob watches burn­ busing and community control? No ing corpses. problem here, says Camejo, they are simply" a number of ways" of equalizing raising some correct economic de­ pieces of the Transitional Program education. But since they are obviously Continued from page 5 mands, e.g., a monthly cost-of-living (stopping short of the key question of counterposed (how can you have black adjustment (calculated by national political power) and its continued two­ control of Martin Luther King school if meetings of workers committee repre­ stage methodology demonstrate that, a majority of the students are white be­ Israeli Trotskyists. sentatives). At the same time it pro­ even as a temporary posture, it does cause of busing?), how does the SWP • • poses workers control of capitalist not know how to put forward revolu­ decide which to raise? Simple: "The production profits, meaning simply that tionary Marxist politics. question of how to achieve quality H a Tikvah residents to turn to fascism. education for Black children is one While their action-spontaneous riots the workers should manage prcxiuction partly directed against small shop­ for the benefit of the bourgeoisie. Program for Workers' Victory keepers-is not the method of working­ Without calling for a pOlitical fight class struggle, workers should support for a workers and peasants government, The program which can unite all their just demands against high prices Matzpen (Marxist) ends the leaflet with sections of the working class, con­ Continued from page 1 and try to win them to the workers' side. a call for a general strike. Every gen­ necting the democratic and economic Solidarity with the police will push the eral strike can open the way for a revo­ struggles to the fight for proletarian Ha Tikvah people toward a potential lutionary situation. Agitation for a power in this country, as part of the general strike without giving the work­ fascist movement. struggle for the socialist federation of Miners ... Peretz' speech essentially sug­ ing class clear political direction, with­ the Near East, must include the gested that workers committees like out workers militias for defense, following demands: without revolutionary leadership, is no -Strikes for monthly cost-of-living the union. The right to strike is our his should at the most organize peace­ only defense. What's the use of having ful demonstrations that can divert the more than a call for the bourgeoisie to adjustments (to be calculated by the workers committees)! For substan­ good pay if you don't live to spend it? anger of the workers. break the back of the working class. Workers Alliance, in its "mass" tial wage increases! For im­ I think Miller's been bought out .... The government's in control." newspaper, Wovkers Voice (November mediate withdrawal from the occupied The Left and the Economic Crisis 1974), puts forward some transitional territories! Beckley in Raleigh County is the cen­ demands, including for a shorter work­ -Against the claim of the bosses that ter of UMW District 29. With some The government is right when it says 70,000 active members this is the that the economic crisis developing in week with no loss in pay to end they cannot pay wage increases: Open unemployment, open the books, the books! largest and possibly most militant Israel is part of the world criSiS, but district in the union. District 29 voted this crisis does not fall from the sky. nationalization without compensation -Against growing unemployment: A under workers control-only of those shorter workweek with no loss in pay! Miller down in 1972 and was the scene Rather, it is a result of the anarchy of a wildcat wave which Miller at­ of the capitalist production system. factories which close down. While it Thirty hours' work for 46 hours' pay pays some lip service to the interests each week! tempted to squash shortly after his That is why the solution is not tighten­ election. of Arab workers, it avoids the demand -Against the clOSing of factories: Oc­ ing the workers' belts but tightening the At the District 29 delegate meeting belt around the neck of the capitalists­ for a united workers' political fight­ cupation by workers, nationalization the demand for a workers and peasants without compensation under workers Saturday Miller responded to charges by expropriating the means of produc­ of sellout with a mixture of pleas for tion under workers control and by re­ government. control! This same paper cynically uses-for --Expropriate all industry under sympathy and warnings of dire conse­ placing the pOlitical rule of the quences if the contract is voted down: the first time-the Spartacist slogan workers control! capitalists with a workers government. "The price to get a right to strike "For a bi-national workers state as part --Against the national oppression of the The current world economic crisis is would be too costly," he remarked, "be of a socialist federation of the Near Palestinians: Israeli army and pOlice creating not only starvation and unem­ mindful that if it's· a mandate of the East," in the article "The Generals and out of the Arab communities! For the ployment of millions, but can lead to a members, I'll go back to the bargain­ the Government Prepare a New War." right of all the Palestinian refugees third world war. The only way forward ing table-but we can't do it without But the article "Strikes in Gaza and the to return! Land to the fellahin! for workers is the fight for political jeopardizing what we've got already West Bank" ends with its old slogan, -Against the attack of the pOlice and power. in the agreement." His clincher was a "For a Unified Democratic State." This right wing on strikes: Workers armed To the left of Ma'arakh [the Zionist threat that, "I think the government's can only have one meaning-that al­ self-defense of picket lines! Toward "Labor Alignment"-including Mapai, ready to step down on us now." though Workers Alliance tries to color Arab-Jewish workers militias! Mapam, Rafi and Achdut Avodat-which Impatient hoots and catcalls greeted itself for the moment with leftist slo­ -Down with the Histadrut, which func­ forms the core of the government co­ Miller's assertion that "This is the best gans, it remains loyal to the political tions as part of the capitalist state alition] stand a few parties and groups contract ever negotiated by any labor logic of the two-stage theory: first, the apparatus! For independent Arab­ claiming to represent the interests of union in the country." Many VOiced ad­ bourgeois democratic stage and then, Jewish trade unions, based on the the workers. ditional resentment over the leader­ later, the socialist stage. workers committees! Oust petty bu­ Moked, which aspires to become a ship's steamroller speedup of the rati­ social-democratic party, calls on the In the past, Workers Alliance has reaucrats like Peretz and his friends! never raised transitional demands in For a class-struggle leadership of the fication process-"It may backfire," economic level for a fight for a full said one delegate from Local 5997. cost-of-living adjustment, while On the its "mass" paper. In the absence of any workers committees! analysis on its part of its failure to do -For a workers and peasants govern­ Under pressure Miller agreed to a political level it proposes to pressure one-day extension of the voting proce­ the government to accept the imperial­ this previously, we can only understand ment, loyal to the real interests of the its current behavior as a temporary working class! dure. However, the local radio station ist arrangement for peace in the Near continues to be inundated by UMW -paid East (which any day may explcxie in a left posturing in the present threatened - To win this difficult struggle requires crisis-and to expect that, under the leadership that fights for the histor­ spot ann 0 u n c e men t s pushing the new war), spreading pacifist illuSions contract. that this imperialist arrangement will pressures of a new war or full-blown ical interests of the working class. depression, Workers Alliance will re­ For the construction of a revolution­ Before the strike began here last be able to bring peace and a solution month, southern West Virginia was the for the oppression of the Palestinians. treat to its usual reformist and coward­ ary Trotskyist party which will lead ly behavior. In any case, its use of only the class to victory! _ site of a virulently r a cis t, anti­ Rakah, the pro-Moscow Stalinist communist "anti-textbook pro t est." party, adheres to the illusions of the This reactionary campaign is centered Soviet bureaucracy that indefinite co­ in nearby KanaWha County. It is neither existence with imperialism is possible SYL ' widespread nor deeply-felt. In fact, (ignoring the fact that the interests of many of the touted "anti-textbook" imperialism lie in the restoration of wildcats are due largely to the miners' capitalism in Russia). It holds the same instinctive refusal to cross any picket program as Moked, i.e., putting pres­ East Coast Educational line, even one set up by non-mining sure on the Histadrut to fight for a full Public Session: right-wingers. Nonetheless, such reac­ cost-of-living adjustment and on the tionary protests are always dange rous. government to accept the imperialist "The Leninist Party in Motion: Unfortunately, not one UMW leader­ peace arrangement. The same positions apparently not even the militants of the are held by the two satellites of Rakah­ Program and Conjuncture" Right to Strike Committee-has publicly Matzpen (Tel Aviv) and Struggle. denounced this movement. To their left stand two groups which The experience of the coal strike in claim to be revolutionary Marxist, i.e., Speaker: JAMES ROBERTSON Spartacist League Central Committee Raleigh County once again paints to the Trotskyist-Matzpen (Marxist) and need, not only to replace the Boyles Workers Alliance. (The latter has cor­ Friday, December 20 For more information and Millers, but to construct a new rectly abandoned its previous name of leadership in the UMW not simply of 8 p.m. Marc Ballroom call the SYL Local in Vanguard.) Matzpen (Marxist) has been "militant" trade unionists but one com­ 27 Union Square, New York City distributing a leaflet advocating the your area. mitted to a program representing the building of independent trade unions and interests of the whole working class. _ 8 WORKERS VANGUARD

.~ that must be decided on by the Black forward, unlike the SWP, cannot depend italist state, then why can't you demand chase of rifles for the front?" Trotsky community ••.. " on the black Democratic pOliticians to another? He asks: if it is alright to answered succinctly: "A vote in par­ No crisis of revolutionary leader­ decide for them which is correct. support busing, "then what is wrong with liament for the finanCial budget is not ship for these "Trotskyists"! If there is The SWP seems to be somwhat con­ demanding that this bourgeois sop be a 'material aid', but an act of political a contradiction between two lines, then cerned about its image in raising this assured through the bourgeois sop of solidarity. If we can vote for Negrin's the community (Le., not the revolution­ slogan, especially since the only other federal enforcement"? He takes us to budget, why can't we delegate our aries) must decide what is best, and the ostenSibly socialist organization with task for demandiI!g nationalization of the representatives to his government?" SWP will tag along behind. And just who this line is the ultra-reformist Stalinist auto industry without compensation and The situation with the troops is is the community in this class-divided Communist Party. Consequently, it cal­ calling on the U.S. to end the economic precisely parallel. A call for federal society? led on the venerable Joseph Hansen to blockade of Cuba while opposing the call troops to enforce desegregation in write a lengthy pol e m i cal article for federal troops. Boston is an expression of confidence ("Should Federal Troops Be Used In The S WP knows perfectly well that in the government; if we can call for SWP Ca lis for the Bosses Army Boston?") in the 25 November Inter­ the Spartacist League calls for the en­ the capitalist army to intervene, then "We completely support the demands continental Press, in which he attacks forcement of busing. From the begin­ why can't we administer the repressive made by leaders of the Black community the SL position, as well as those of ning we have demanded "implement the forces of the bourgeois state? And the that federal troops be sent to Bos­ several other groups. . busing plan." But there is a v a s t SWP has an answer for this as well: ton ... " declared SWF- candidates for Getting his signals crossed with the difference between this and calling for it wants to administer the cops, for it M assachuseUs state offices on October cynical hack Peter Camejo, who dis­ federal troops to Boston. The latter de­ regularly runs candidates for sheriff. 9. The"l e ad e r s of the Black com­ honestly charged that "the Spartacist mand is an expression of confidence in Hansen/Camejo's faith in the bour­ munity"-who turn out to be b 1 a c k League also opposed the use of force the government. geoisie is boundless. At the height of Democrats like Mel King, Tom Atkins, to carry out the desegregation order, " In fact the SWP openly states its the civil rights movement, the SWP Bill Owens and the like-call for feder­ Hansen labels the SL call for labor/ confidence that Ford will enforce de­ actually demanded: "Instead of sending al troops for the same reason they have black defense "a commendable stand." s egregation and protect the black school troops to Vietnam where they are in the past supported liberal Democrat This must be somewhat disorienting to children: referring to Selma and Little trampling upon the rights and lives of Mayor Kevin White: they seek to build SWP members who might recall reading Rock the 1 November Militant writes, the Vietnamese, troops should be sent illusions that blacks can achieve justice a statement by Camejo (Militant, 1 "In these cases the government did not to Selma and other parts of the South by "working within the system, " Le., by November) that, "The call for trade­ attack the Black community .... The to protect the constitutional rights of relying on the go v ern men t. For the union defense guards isn't realistic same dynamic would operate in Boston." Negroes" (Militant, 22 March 1965). SWP, however, this presents no prob­ right now .... you pull this slogan of But what if, as the Spartacist League ::)0 in Vietnam the Special Forces serve lem. Says Cam e j 0: "Generally speak­ trade-union defense guards totally out says may happen, troops are used the imperialists but in Selma they will ing, the Black Democrats may begin of the blue. It's not a serious proposal. against the black areas? The Militant protect the blacks! Well, as the saying with the best intentions." If, according It has nothing to do with meeting the has an answer for this: "the fact that the goes, nIf the camel once gets his nose to this "former resident of Boston, " ne eds of the Black community." government may not carry out our de­ into the tent, his whole body will enter." these fakers "may begin" with good Hansen gives two main arguments to mands doesn't mean that we should not At the end of his polemiC Hansen intentions, what is certain is that the support the SWP call for federal troops raise them." The SWP, you see, calls asks "are there certain demands that fake Trotskyists of the Socialist to Boston. First is a historical argu­ for sending in troops "to enforcedeseg­ must as a matter of prinCiple never be Workers Party follow them wherever ment. Sometimes, he says, federal regation." Evidently it believes this ab­ made" on a capitalist government. He they are gOing, for the SWP "completely troops have been used against the reac­ solves them of all res p 0 n sib iIi t y. strongly implies there are none. supports" their demands. tionaries and not just the workers. Not so. Trotsky, however, was of a different The Spartacist League is a revolu­ Recent examples of this, he says, are lt is possible to call anyone to do any­ opinion. As he wrote in "War and the tionary Marxist organization. We un­ Little Rock in 1957 and Selma in 1965. thing. The SWP could call for the elec­ Fourth International" (1934), "To turn derstand that the state is an instrument Elsewhere we have refuted these tion of Louise Day Hicks to the School to the state, that is to capital, with the of the ruling class to suppress its ene­ historical "proofs" by the SWI- in detail Committee in Boston "to enforce de­ demand to disarm the fascists means to mies. The U.S. Army, just as much as (see "Not Federal Troops, But Labor­ segregation." If she is then elected and sow the worst democratic illusions, to the local police or National Guard, is Black Defense!" Young Spartacus, No. pro c e e d s to discriminate against lull the vigilance of the proletariat, to the armed fist of the bourgeois state. 27, December 1974). We pointed out that black people, the SWP could mumble d e m 0 r ali z e its wilL .•• The Social And we hold-along with Marx, Engels, in Little Rock, E i sen howe r sent in something about having voted for her to Democrats, even the most left ones ... Lenin and Trotsky-that this state can­ troops after a night of mass resistance do something else. But they would have carefully avoid the question of arming not be taken over or reformed into its in the black areas. In the aftermath he the responsibility of having called for the workers, or openly declare this opposite. lt must be smashed, and re­ proceeded to strengthen the hand of the her election. It is the same with the t ask 'chimerical,' ad v e n tu r ous, placed by a workers state. raCists, not the integrationists, by troops. 'romantic,' etc." Consequently we have repeatedly dumping the federal judge, forcing the If you call for desegregation, asks FollOwing in the path of Lenin and warned working people in Boston that res i g nat ion of Attorney General Hansen, then why can't you call for they cannot depend on the forces of the Brownell and stacking the Civil Rights Trotsky we call for the formation of enforCing desegregation; and if you integrated workers defense guards to capitalist state to protect them against Commission with racist Dixiecrats. In call for enforcement, why can't you protect black school children in Boston. the racist mobs and achieve integration Selma, the federal troops were with­ call for federal troops to do it? By his of the schools. In the 11 October issue drawn follOwing a demonstration in By labeling this demand unrealistic and seemingly simple logic this increasing­ calling for federal troops the SWP takes 01 Workers Vanguuya, we wrUle: Montgomery. On the way home one of ly inept eX-Trotskyist succeeds in "Instead of relying on local or federal the marchers was murdured by a car­ the road of the Stalinists and social throwing the whole of Marxism out democrats who in the 1930's "fought" government for protection, black people load of racists including an FBI agent! the window. and all working people must depend on the fascist bands by calling on the their own organizations for defense. In 1937 Max Shachtman asked a very state to disarm them. The Stalinists' The Spartacist League advocates the Anything Goes? similar question. If we are for the vic­ support for the liberal bourgeoisie led formation of a bi-racial defense force, tory of the Republican forces in Spain, to a tragic defeat of the Spanish and organized by black and com m un it Y l:lansen's second argument is that he said, then "How can we refuse to French workers. The path of the SWI­ groups and the labor unions, to protect if you can demand one thing of the cap- devote a million pesetas to the pur- is the path of defeat. _ the buses and maintain order in the schools." We have pOinted out that troops may well be sent to Boston, not enforce integration but to maintain a segregationist "law and order" and CORRECTION prevent any organized defense by black and union militants. The article in }VV No. 57 entitled "West Bank Mini-State No Solution" has a supra-head calling for "Self­ W(JIIIlEItS Marxism vs. Reformism Determination for Palestinian Arabs." There are two sharply opposed lines It should have read, "For the Right of here. The Spartacist League condemns Self-Determination for Pal est i n ian the call for bringing in troops to Boston Arabs. " as a betrayal of elementary prinCiples In the same issue of WV the article, "Chrysler T h rea ten s National Shut­ ",.,tJ,ltl of Marxism; the Socialist Workers Partv labels the call for independent down," refers to Lynn Townsend as Name ______labol/black defense an "unrealistic" "Chrysler president." Towns e nd is Address ______demand of "sectarians." Militants who actually chairman of Chrysler's board wish to lead the struggles of the workers of directors. City /State/Z ip, ______The reference to Trotsky's quote 58 "Not just a stupidity, but a crime," D Enclosed is $5 for 24 issues attributed to "Spartacist, edition fran­ The World Crisis c;aise no. 6, 5 May 1974," in actuality mtludes SPARTACIST 0 Enclosed is $1 for 6 introductory issues refers to "Spartacist, editionfranc;aise of Imperialism: no. 5, 3 May·1974." order from/pay to: Spartacist Publishing Co./Box 1377, GPO/NY,NY 10001 A Debate Speakers: SL/SYL PUBLIC OFFICES-Revolutionary Literature SA NDOR JONAS i ...... ,Iii Spartacist League, SYL National Committee BAY AREA CHICAGO NEW YORK STEVE MILLER RSL Cent"ral Committee Monday 1 Friday ) Tuesday 4:00-8:00 p.m. through ( 3:00-7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 15 3:00 p.m. and > 3:00-6:00 p.m. Friday J Second Unitarian Church Saturday 2:00-6:00 p.m. Saturday J Saturday 1:uO-4:00 p.m. 656 West Barry I • 330-40th Street 538 So, Wabash 260 West BroadwQ.) (near Broadway) Room 206 Room 522 Oakland, California Chicago, Illinois New York, New York Phone 653-4668 Phone 427-0003 Phone 925-5665 fo, -00. 03

~----~-.------info'moJionCca~,1~3~2~-.~. -.~- 4~7 r ...... ,...,.~ ..,.~'-~~~"' __~ __ -.,..,....~"""_..... ~ ...... J"'-~'""~-,,-~.'" ~"._-:."--'=~' _ - - .. ... - .. _--.. --- 0_.-- "_.~,., ..-,.-.,_ .. __ ._ l _ .~''-''''''''W-~''._ ...... =.'''':s.~_ 6 DECEMBER 1974 9 militants in the Committee to Enforce boycott struggle, warned "The Inter­ Continued from page 12 the Boycott forced its hand by exposing national will not defend us!" It pro­ Chilean cargo on the dock. The Sparta­ posed a course of action to the mem­ cist League organized a united-front bership meeting to expand the struggle ILWU ... picket of the ship, while most of the around the barges. A motion on the Militant Elected left followed the lead of the CP, which leaflet read: body accepts Bridges' dictates, such as held a "protest" at company headquart­ "We go on record for continued refusal last year's no-strike deal, six weeks ers in order to draw attention away from to handle the hot barges and will close to ILWU Local 6 before the contract expired, and it is the ship (see "Hot Cargo Military Goods down the port if our officers are ar­ widely expected that the new Caucus will to Chile!" WV No. 53, 27 September). rested as a result or the local fined; be more militant.) This is such a blatant we will calIon the coast caucus to Exec Board shut the entire coast down in our de­ maneuver to head off a fight over the Stop Work on A I ioto Barges contract that the executive board of fense and in defense of the Pay Guaran­ tee Plan." OAKLAND, November 25-Bob Local 13 in Los Angeles voted to boycott The motion to hot cargo barges came These militants pointed the way M andel, a seven-year militant in the the December 9 meeting. from a delegate of the Stockton Local toward mobilization of support through­ ILWU, has been elected on a class­ 54. Stockton is one of the locals hardest out the union by combining defense of struggle program to the executive hit by the loss of work. It was reported Support Builds for "Hot Cargoing" the action V{ith a second motion man­ board of Local 6 (warehouse divi­ that a union whose members were work­ dating the Local's delegates to reject sion) from the East Bay. He got ing certain PFE barges agreed that it Meanwhile, the "settlement" report­ Bridges' premature contract scheme. 636 votes (the top vote-getter re­ had no jurisdiction over the work. The ed by the ILWU Dispatcher (25 October) But the Local leadership caved in and ceived 691). Banned by undemo­ Stockton IL WU local, carrying out the on jurisdictional problems over the called off the action, according to a note c ratic Local regulations from pub­ Caucus decision, put up picket lines barges was laughable: "attempting to added at the bottom, just as the leaflet lishing any campaign literature which were honored by the other unions work out solutions" although there are was gOing to press. except one short statement in a involved. special official election bulletin, "no simple answers"! What the Dis­ One of the barges then disappeared, Mandel took his program to the patcher failed to mention is that the and turned up at Pier 96 in San Fran­ The Alioto Connection Condemned membership by campaigning at Caucus voted to refuse to handle all barges worked by non-longshore labor. ciscoo Pier 96, the only automated con­ warehouses and retail 0 u t 1 e t s Two of these militants, Stan Gow tainer facility in the Port of San Fran­ throughout the Oakland area. This motion was heatedly opposed by and Howard Keylor, then put out a Bridges, who was quoted as saying ciSCO, is leased by Pacific Far East second leaflet denouncing the sellout In his election s tat e men t, Lines. Business agent Larry Wing Mandel advocated industry-wide that it is "penny ante stuff and not worth of the boycott and demanding that the hasseling over" (People's World, 9 authorized a stoppage of work on the barge issue be taken up by a Coast­ strikes against 1 a y 0 f f s and a barge, in solidarity with Stockton's shorter workweek at no loss in pay November). Wise Caucus meeting to be held as action. to meet spreading house closures The "penny ante stuff" is actually soon as possible. (They also opposed and "runaways" inlLWU-organized what's coming from Bridges, in trade Last September Wing was beaten boycotting the December 9 Caucus warehouses as well as layoffs in for the longshore work taken by the almost to unconsciousness by goons, an meeting ordered by Bridges.) After the longshore and Hawaiian sec­ barges and other automated mechan­ act which enraged the entire member­ prominently listing two motions to tions of the union. He also demanded isms (such as containers). The barges ship and temporarily stymied Bridges' this effect, the leaflet drew the vital that militant international labor are part of the LASH, or "Lighter attempt to bureaucratically destroy the political conclusions in a third: solidarity be revived "through tac­ Aboard Ship" system, one of the tech­ Local 10 leadership and force sale of "We condemn the alliance with Alioto tics like the recent boycott of cargo niques shipping compa.lies are using the hiring hall. As reported in Workers as a disaster for the IL WU and demand to Chile in defense of workers to avoid paying for longshore union Vanguard ("San Francisco Waterfront that our union break with the Republi­ struggling against the junta. " labor in loading and unloading ships. Scandal Mushrooms," No. 53, 27 Sep­ can and Democratic parties and begin Mandel condemned the IL WU' s Like contai.ners, LASH barges are tember), the beating led to a counter­ the struggle for a workers party to fight for a workers government." support for the "racist Alioto" as often worked at out-of-the-way places attack by Local 10 in which the orders (such as private company docks) ;JY non­ "a defeat for the movement of of Bridges' official monitors to stop Although these motions were not workers and oppressed," and called longshore labor. The barges are then paying money to the Local hall owner­ acted on by the meeting, speakers for returned to the special LASH mother for an independent workers party. ship corporation (which would fo-rce the them were very well received and the ship, into which they are hoisted for He also called for workers control hall's sale) were reversed. motions were referred to a special long runs between ports. Alioto's com­ and for a workers government "to Local meeting to be held onDecember pa;1Y, PFE, has invested heavily in Like the rest of the Local 10 "rebel" end the cycle of inflation, reces­ LASH equipment. regime under Herb Mills and Frank sion, racial and sexualdiscrimina­ Stout, however, Wing had no program tion" through the "nationaliz[ation The same issue of the Dispatcher with which to rally the membership ( of] all industry without compensa­ that failed to report the motion to "hot against Bridges' betrayals. Despite Spartacist tion" to the present owners. cargo" barges announced "First LASH his trade-union militant approach, he Finally, Mandel underlined the Payments Made" under an agreemed was thus forced into becoming another Local Directory betrayals of the present union which compensates longshoremen at the agent for those betrayals. rate of 50 cents per ton of cargo loaded leadership, which include disarm·· After authorizing the boycott of work BAY AREA ...... (415) 653-4668 ing the workers in the face of every on LASH barges by non-ILWU labor. Box 852, Main P.O., The total amount was $5,505.19, but the on the barge, Wing failed to mobilize kind of employer attack (layoffs, support for the action. So did the rest Berkeley, CA 94701 blacklisting of militants who fight lost wages and traveling compens::ttion BOSTON ...... (617) 282-7587 would have come to at least four timES of the Local 10 leadership. But Alioto, company attacks, armed strike­ long paraded as a "friend of labor" by Box 188, M.I.T. Sta., breakers in the ILWU Borax strike, that amount. As it's put in the Local Cambridge, MA 02139 10 "Longshore Bulletin" for November Bridges and the S.F. union bureaucracy, etc.). "An opposition caucus must wasted no time in acting against the BUFFALO ...... (716) 834-7610 be built throughout the union," he 14, over the signature of Archie Brown, c/o SYL, Box 6, Publicity Committee: uniono His company obtained an injunc­ declared, to fight for this class­ tion which resulted in the Stockton Norton Union, SUNYAB, struggle programo " •.• you can see how much wages we local's being fined $10,000 and Local 10 Buffalo, NY 14214 Mandel ran eighth in a field of lost, plus traveling time, etc. It is CHICAGO ...... (312) 427-0003 $4,000. 12 candidates for the 10 positions said that we 'historically' don't work Box 6471, Main P.O., open on the executive board. He in certain areas. It's enough to drive The PMA also wasted no time: it threw down the gauntlet by denying the Chicago, IL 60680 narrowly missed being elected del­ people into hysterics •••• it's our work CLEVELAND .... (216) 687-1413 egate to the International conven­ and no fancy-pants arguments can pay guarantee for the week to the entire change that." Box 6765, tion as well, losing by only 30 port. The weekly guarantee is compen­ sation for lack of work (paid provided Cleveland, OH 44101 votes (eighth out of 14 contenders What Brown, a well-known Communist DETROIT ....•.. (313) 921-4626 longshoremen are available for work). for 6 positions). Party supporter, fails to mention is Box 663A, General P.O., The ILWU didn't even show up for the Mandel established his reputa­ that most of the "fancy pants" argu­ Detroit, MI 48232 arbitration hearing at the International tion as a militant defender of hard­ ments for dropping the fight for jobs HOUSTON ...... (713) 926-9944 level, leaving little likelihood of adeci­ won union gains through his cam­ are coming directly from Bridges and Box 9054, sion favorable to the union and giving paign for sympathy-strike support Co. in the ILWU leadership. Houston, TX 77011 every indication that the militant boy­ by IL WU warehousemen to the 1971 LOS ANGELES ..• (213) 485-1838 That a motion to refuse to handle cott action would be betrayed. longshore strike and, more recent­ Box 26282, Edendale Sta., non-ILWU barges could even be ser­ The Mills-Stout regime got the mes­ ly, through his initiation of struggle Los Angeles, CA 90026 iously conSidered, let alone passed, is sage and called off the boycott. It was against blacklisting and for imple­ MADISON due in part to efforts during the last Wing who implemented the decision. As mentation of boycotts of Chilean c/o SYL, Box 3334, year to promote "hot cargoing" of reported to Workers Vanguardbylong­ ships and goods. He has also served Madison, WI 53704 Chilean goods. In late February and shoremen who were present, Wing was on union committees and as MILWAUKEE again in August the Spartacist League surrounded by an g r y longshoremen steward. organized pickets at the docks calling Box 6061, It is significant that in a union shouting, "These are our jobs! You've Milwaukee, WI 53209 for enforcement of a Local 10 resolu­ just given away our jobs!" Wing, who is with a strong Stalinist current in its NEW HAVEN ....• (203) 776-5953 tion to boycott cargo to and from Chile. running for Local president, apologized background Mandel got more votes c/o SYL, Box 1363, At demonstrations in the Bay Area the with the same excuses Local members t han many Communist Par t y­ New Haven, CT 06505 SL took the lead in publicizing this reso­ are now used to hearing from Stout and backed candidates despite vicious NEW ORLEANS ... (504) 866-8384 lution and agitating for labor action M ills: "The International wouldn't back Stalinist denunciation of him and Box 51634, Main P.O., against the reactionary junta. In May us up. What could we do?" his program, particularly during a "Committee to Enforce the Boycott" New Orleans, LA 70151 the anti-blacklisting cam p a i g n was formed by militants in several This was a paltry excuse indeed. The NEW YORK ...... (212) 925-2426 earlier this yearo IL WU locals, who succeeded in getting intentions of the International leader­ Box 1377, G.P.O., Mandel's victory is a victory for more than 450 signatures on a petition ship toward such a militant action in New York, NY 10001 a class-struggle program and the calling for hot cargoing. defense of !obs are known to every PHILADELI-HIA .• (215) 667-5695 future class-struggle leadership of member. Mills, Stout and Wing de­ Box 25601, the labor movement. It is an answer The Communist Party now quotes the prived the membership of the right to Philadelphia, PA 19144 to the many fake-left organizations motion of the October Caucus without decide on a response by failing to call SAN DIEGO which insist that it is necessary to critical comment (People's Wovld, 9 a special meeting. Or they could have P.O. Box 2034, support bureaucrats running on November), but in September it did easily held out until the regular meet­ Chula Vista, CA 92012 totally reformist programs (such everything possible to prevent imple­ ing scheduled for November 21, only TORONTO ...... (416) 366-0871 as Arnold Mill e r), abandoning mentation of a tWO-day boycott of three days after the boycott was called Canadian Committee of the Inter­ working-class prinCiples in order Chilean cargo which had been called for off. national Spartacist Tendency to gain influence in the working by the International Transport Workers During the boycott action a leaflet Box 6867, Station A, class. Federation. The Mills-Stout leadership signed by six Local members, some of Toronto, OntariO, Canada of Local 10 also failed to act until whom had been active in the Chile

10 WORKERS VANGUARD 5, four days prior to the convening of themselves. Such a "consumers' axis" Bridges' Caucus meeting. Gow and Continued from page 7 Continued from page 1 is clearly aimed at bullying the oil Keylor have also announced their inten­ exporters with threats of military ac­ tions to run on this program for the tion and massive trade retaliation. It Local 10 executive board (Gow is .. ."Mini-State" U.S. Economy would also put the other advanced cap­ presently a member running for re­ million a year to Hussein ... and $50 italist powers once again under the election). A class-struggle response to million annually to the Palestinians Pentagon's thumb. France countered Bridges' class collaborationism will Crumbling (New York Times, 30 October). by propOSing a meeting of both con­ thus be advocated in the next elections tensification of inter-imperialist ri­ sumers and producers, including smal­ in the key local of the union. ler nations as well. Other critical demands for the ILWU For an Arab-Hebrew Palestine valries, increaSing centrifugal forces among nations in the "free" world. The Rising national protectionism tends are listed in the leaflet by Gow and Workers Republic! to make international trade agreements Keylor. A shorter workweek at nO loss continuing American campaign for col­ At the same time that we advise worth something less than the paper in pay ("6 hours' work for 8 hours' lective "consumer" action against the against any "mini-state" scheme, we they're written on. The U.S. govern­ pay! And keep on sliding the hours oil-prodUCing Arab states is the most nevertheless defend the right of the ment has recently stepped in to "mon­ down and the wages up to create jobs") obvious case in point. Palestinians to set up their own gov­ itor" a deal made between two large is now critical to the survival of the The U.S. has suddenly dropped its ernment in Gaza and the West Bank as a grain dealers and the USSR. union. A full cost-of-living escalator oppOSition to the notion of "recycling" partial and d e for m e d application of and abolition ofthe "steady men" clause petrodollars and indicated a willing­ Meanwhile, virtually unnoticed are their right to self-determination. We in the contract, which facilitates job ness to partially back such a plan in the "agreements" the U.S. has sim"Jl­ also demand unconditional and imme­ loss and undermines the hiring hall, return for a consumers' (Europe, Japan taneously wrested from Europe and diate withdrawal of Israel from the oc­ are also listed as crucial, as is "Full and America) alliance against the Arab Japan not to shop on the American cupied territories. A-status for B-men now!" The leaflet Oil-prodUCing states. France and Japan grain market. At the same time the U.S. concludes by explaining that the present Revolutionary socialists would give ha ve been loathe to go along with this has cancelled a grain-export deal with military sup p 0 r t to an independent union leadership stands as an obstacle scheme. They correctly realize that Iran. As Henry KiSSinger aptly stated Palestinian force fighting for Palestin­ to this struggle and pointing to the the economic measures proposed by before the UN, "It is no longer possible ian self-determination, so long as it is critical importance of a break with the Kissinger and Co. (e.g., a 10 percent to imagine that conflicts, weapons and n - t simply an arm of one or more of the Democratic party. reduction in oil imports by consumers) recession will not spread." Arab states. But we oppose another con­ Frank discussion of the betrayals of are, by far, less important thanthepo­ In this period of crisis the reform­ frontation between the Arab regimes the IL WU leadership is a welcome new litical and military implications of such ist leaders of the working class have and Israel-just as we have taken aposi­ occurrence in Local 10, where so­ an alliance for the Near East-and intensified their efforts on behalf of the tion of revolutionary defeatism on both called militants and socialists have bourgeoisie. Throughout Europe the sides in the 1948, 1967 and 1973 con­ historically either been allied directly patriotic leaders of the social­ flicts-which might very well spill over with the Bridges regime or refused to democratic parties are striving to to a third world war, even if after the criticize it openly. The Communist shore up bourgeois order via "re­ holocaust the PLO flag flew over Party, whose militants allied with straint" and "social contracts" while Bridges in the San Francisco water­ Nablus. the Stalinists openly pursue political front strike of 1934 that built the union, Another Arab-Israel war would once alliances with the main representatives rapidly turned their alliance into a again reinforce the nationalists on both of the capitalist class. sides and undermine. the revolutionary class-collaborationist obstacle to fur­ In the U.S. the anti-communist potential in the mounting social crisis ther struggle. The CP supports all of trade-union bureaucracy has excelled in Israel and the occupied territories. the leadership's basiC pOlicies, in­ the most servile of its foreign counter­ cluding the M and M contracts, although What is needed is a multi-national Bolshevik (Trotskyist) par t y which parts. Although profits for U.S. capi­ it now occasionally raises implied dif­ talists during the oil crisis and ear­ could link the strikes in Tel Aviv, DA \'E POSAVET I ferences on some things (e.g., loss of Detroit workers line up for unemploy­ Ashdod and Haifa with demonstrations lier wage/price freeze have been higher jobs). These, however, are suitably ment benefits. than those in other advanced industrial by West Bank Arabs against the Israeli veiled in the form of pressure on the countries, the contract settlements ne­ occupation. regime, raising illusions that the pres­ gotiated by the American 1 abo r bu­ Recognizing the right of self­ ent leadership can be nudged to the left. reaucracy have been positively scan­ determination for bot h Palestinian The Mills-Stout regime in Local 10 dalous when compared to the settle­ Arabs and Hebrews, we point out that Continued from page 12 is based to a large extent on former men t s won by E u r 0 pea n t r ad e this can only be accomplished on both supporters of Longshore Victory, an unions. The Economist (12-18 October), "oppositional" paper which refused to sides of the Jordan, including all of .. . Mafia conservative s p 0 k e sma n of British what now constitutes Israel and Jordan. openly criticize Bridges. The sellout capital, put it most succinctly: of the barge boycott by Mills-Stout­ These national claims, however, are ILWU tops. Chapman is reported as "a n Arne ric a's great advantage over Wing now demonstrates the betrayals directly counterposed, the product of former enforcel'- for Murder Inc. He historical interpenetration of two peo­ Britain is that its trade unions are not which inevitably lie at the end of the still retains the nicknames 'Trigger ples on the same territory. Under mounting a wage push inflation on any­ road of a strategy of "pressur­ Abe,' or 'Killer Abe.'" capitalism another partition of Pales­ thing like the British scale." ing" a trade-union bureaucracy which Although under tremendous pres­ is committed to ref 0 r m ism and tine, with its massive forced population Apparently one of Amalgamated's transfers, can only bring untold misery first act as "consultant" to the ILWU sure from the ranks, the bureaucracy capitalism. is continuing its policy of craven capit­ Bridges is trying to destroy the to the working masses-as the Turkish welfare fund was to recommend a army's partition of Cyprus graphically "health" firm linked to Chapman, in his ulation to its capitalist masters. The IL WU. This cannot be explained by tentative settlement negotiated by UMW suggestions of personal gain from the demonstrated in July. new profession as "dental health con­ Although the Hebrew nation is today sultant," for running the union's dental head Arnold Miller is simply the latest Mafia influences he is allegedly allow­ of this series of sellouts of the most ing into the union or from an alliance an oppressor nation in relation to the plan. This switch of dental plan man­ Palestinians, a genuinely democratic agement had already been put over on elementary and vital interests of the with a capitalist and Demccratic Party working class. bigwig (although Bridges' pay as one of solution would not simply reverse the the welfare fund's trustees "when long­ Mayor Alioto's port commissioners ex­ terms of oppression. The "democratic shoremen in Sou the r n California­ Rather than mobilize the power of ceeds his union salary). Rather, this secular Palestine" of the commando mostly from Local 13 in San Pedro­ the trade unions behind a s t ru g g 1 e record of betrayal is the inevitable groups den i e s the existence of the demanded that they be given some rea­ against the ravages of the current outcome of the class-collaborationist Hebrew-speaking people as a nation­ son for the switch in plans. International economic crisis and the capitalist sys­ policy that he, the reformist Commun­ claiming they are simply a religion­ VP Bill Chester met with them to tem which breeds such crisis, the un­ ist Party and the rest of the trade­ and their right to self-determination. explain the merits of the new plan but ion bureaucrats have been busy trying union bureaucracy have forced on the This is no different from the right-wing was unable to convince the longshore­ to for c e their betrayals dow n the labor movement. Only a clear, class­ Zionist viewpoint which denies the men, and the contract was cancelled." throats of the workers. While rallying existence of a Palestinian nation and the labor movement behind the "friend struggle alternative to these treacher­ This article has created a great deal its right to self-determination. of labor" Democratic Party, thesefak­ ous misleaders can save the ILWU and of controversy in the union. So widely An equitable and genuinely demo­ ers have been pushing a program of the whole wo rki ng - c 1 as s move­ believed are the assertions in the arti­ cratic solution to the competing nation­ national chauvinist protectionism, try­ ment fro m defeat and, ultimately, cle that a recent Local 10 pensioners' al claims of the Palestinian Arabs and ing to convince the American working destruction .• meeting demanded an answer by Bridg­ Hebrews can only come about through class that the roots of the current eco­ es, When the latter proposed a motion to the formation of a bi-national Arab/ nomic crisis lie in the machinations of condemn the Bay Guardian article, he Hebrew workers state, part of a social­ U.S. capitalism's imperialist rivals. was hooted down. Todate there has been ist federation of the Near East, born of American workers now face runaway no reply to the article in the Dispatcher. Crisis in the ILWU the common class struggle of Arab and inflation and the prospect of mass un­ Jewish workers against their ruling Reported underworld involvment in employment. The current misleaders of and the classes .• the ILWU goes hand in hand with Bridg­ the labor movement have done next to es' alliance with the shipping companies nothing in the face of the latest capi­ and capitalist pOliticians like Alioto, talist onslaught except to beg for a few International and with his constant pressure for crumbs and fall over themselves in Early merger with the ILA and the Teamsters. demonstrating their "responsibility" to Class Struggle These two unions have been notorious their imperialist masters. Clearly the Communist for their cor r u p t ion, allegations of present period more and more de­ Mafia con n e c t ion s and attempts to mands an alternative to the dead end Speakers: of bureaucratic betrayal. Especially BOB MANDEL, member of ILWU Work in the undermine the more a d van c e d and d e m 0 c rat i c conditions e n joyed by necessary is a resolute stand against JOHN MORGAN, member of Trade Unions West Coast longshoremen and national chauvinism and protectionism, Canadian Committee of the warehousemen. and an uncompromising fight against International Spartacist Tendency Speaker: CHRIS KNOX the ravages of inflation and mass Labor Editor, Workers Vanguard Although B rid g e s' merger plans layoffs. SL Central Committee have been repeatedly voted down by the The struggle to forge an alternative Saturday, December 7 8:00 p.m. membership (1971 and 1972 votes leadership committed to such policies 130 West Hastings Street MADISON against merger with ILA and Team­ is in reality the struggle to mobilize sters, respectively), the Bay Guardian the working class to overturn the cap­ sponsored by: SPARTACUS BOOKS Friday, December 6, 7:30 p.m. quotes ILWU officials and members to italist system itself as well as the Room to be posted the effect that Bridges is out todismem­ parasitic misleaders of labor who make Memorial Union ber the union by sending the longshore a career of preventing the workers Vancouver University of Wisconsin half to the ILA and the warehouse di vi­ from challenging the power of the sion to the Teamsters .• bosses .• 6 DECEMBER 1974 11 W'RNERS ""'liAR'

SAN FRANCISCO, November 27-The to p leadership of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) is once again lashing out at the membership, threatening to • strangle the historically militant West Coast dockers' union to death. Harry Bridges and his cohorts were already u In Crisis swimming in scandal in September over their strongarm attempts to force the sale of Local 10's hiring hall to friends of S.F. Mayor Joe Alioto. Now they are trying to ram through a new sellout longshore contract, using a lame-duck delegate body to head off opposition, more than six months before the ex­ piration of the old agreement. Mean­ while, charges of direct collusion with shipping companies, capitalist politi­ cians and underworld crime figures continue to mount against the Bridges regime.

"Harry Bridges Wants To End the ILWU" A devastating, muckraking report in the San Francisco Bay Guardian (19 October-1 November) quoted one un­ named longshore union official as say­ ing recently, "Harry Bridges definitely wants to end the IL WU. His thing nOw is that it was born with him and it will die with him." The article goes on to detail charges that the union welfare fund is controlled by "business partners" of a convicted pension fund defrauder and a "former enforcer for Murder Inc." Bridges has long been known to favor merger proposals with the International Longshoremen's Association and the Teamsters, and his current poliCies of "alliance" wit h Gleason (ILA) and Fitzsimmons are nothing more than a calculated betrayal of the interests of longshoremen and warehousemen. Such an "alliance" could very well lead to ILWU longshoremen load military cargo for Vietnam during West Coast dock strike on Bridges orders. UP! the union's demise. Bridges' attempt to push through a new contract now will mean an even worse disaster for longshoremen than tration of full members for lackof work, This conflict was brought to a head dictional" questions with. other unions his earlier sweetheart pacts. Already as happened in 1946. Such depression recently by a "hot cargo" boycotting doing longshore work on barges. In a longshoremen with full union member­ conditions will of course be even worse action against a barge which had been surprise action Bridges moved to re­ ship (" A men") are finding as little as for "B men," the discriminated-against worked by non-longshore labor. The open the wages question in the contract, 18 hours' work a week in some ports. category of second-class union mem­ barge was a part of an automated oper­ ramming it through on the excuse that But instead of mounting a fight to save bers created by Bridges in order to ation belonging to the Alioto family Ford might freeze wages any minute, longshore jobs through organizing non­ ram through his first M and M agree­ shipping company, Pacific Far East thus creating problems later (the con­ union automated facilities and strug­ ment in 1961. Lines. Although solid for one week, the tract doesn't expire until next June 30). gling for a shorter workweek at no loss At the center of the rapidly growing boycott was sold out by the Local 10 Since October, however, Bridges in pay, the Bridges regime trades crisis in the union is Local 10, the leadership under pressure from has agreed to discuss "all economic away jobs to its shipping company Bay Area longshore unit whose opposi­ Bridges. questions" with the Pacific Maritime friends in return for nickel-and-dime tional leadership Bridges would like to The contract and Alioto's barges are ASSOCiation, the employer group, and "compensation. " destroy and whose hiring hall he would closely related. A meeting of the long­ has called for the Caucus to reconvene Under Bridges, these notorious "M like to sell to commercial developers shore Coast-Wise Caucus, a body of on December 9. He is clearly trying and M" ("Modernization and Mechani­ allied with his friend, Mayor Alioto. delegates representing longshoremen, to settle the main terms of the con­ zation") agreements have cut back The Local membership and part of the clerkS and walking bosses from up and tract before the election of a new dele­ available jobs to the point where another leadership have been reSisting sale of down the West Coast, took place in gate body of the Caucus. (The present such deal will mean probable deregis- the hall. October allegedly to deal with "juris- continued on page 10

moving in on the IL WU and its welfare '" ~ fund specifically. The welfare fund is .", ... rl.... - • .., .11...... UfflU, now "advised" by Amalgamated Insur­ .~. U"', tV ~ "BDR ~'" ance Agency Service, Inc., a Chicago­ ~" based "consultants" firm brought in by . Mafia in Bridges two years ago. According to the Bay Guardian article, the chief officers of Amalgamated include a long-time business partner of one AllenDorfman, IheILWU? who was convicted of six counts of fraud involving a loan of the Teamsters' pen­ sion fund in 1973. Dorfman was indicted Rum 0 r s have circulated for some again in 1974 for a $1.4 million pension time to the effect that San Francisco fund fraud. "Two weeks ago," continues Mayor Joseph Alioto is tied in with un­ the article, the star witness in his trial derworld crime figures, Allegations was gunned down" Al Capone-style on a have been made that the Mafia had inter­ Chicago street": ests on the San Francisco waterfront Although Dorfman is not listed as a and in the ILWU, the head of which, partner of Amalgamated, his phone Harry Bridges, is an S.1<'. port commis­ number is the same as the firm's and the sioner and political supporter of Alioto, article quotes Overdrive, an independ­ The Mayor is referred to as "godfather" ent truckers' magazine, as saying that ill some LboI' circles·, D urfman "does recei \·e an income" Accordins to an article based on sev­ from Amalgamated. Overd.vive is also eral interviews with longshoremen in quoted as linking one Abe Chapman the S.F. Bay Guardian of 19 October-1 ("real name Chalupowitz") with Amal­

November, there is strong evidence that gamated and, through them, with the WV PHOTu known underworld criminals are indeed continued on page 11 S.F. Mayor Joseph Alioto, left, Harry Bridges speaking.

12 6 DECEMBER 1974