50C!:

No. 714 ....U23 28 May 1999

AP China: Harrity/U.S. News & World Report Fight Capitalist Restoration! For Workers Political Revolution!

We print below in edited form the first Beijing bureaucracy's drive toward capitatist restoration has created massive Communist protests. As you've seen on part of a presentation by Spartaeist unemployment, deepening poverty. In April U~S: visit, Chinese premier Zhu TV, there certainly have been protests League Central Committee member Ray Rongji sought entry into ·Imperialist-dominated World Trade Organization. recently-four straight days of students Bishop at an SL forum in Chicago on and working people coming out in Bei­ May 15. jing, throwing rocks at the U.S. embassy In the past year, just about every and shouting, "Down with U.S. imperial­ major newspaper has had articles about ism!" Not quite what the U.S. had bar­ the approach on June 4 of the tenth anni­ gained for. versary of the Tiananmen massacre­ threatened the rule of the Beijing regime. Western bourgeois propaganda has Now, we're not in a position to know, the Chinese government's bloody crack­ The mass outpouring of defiance her­ falsely portrayed these protests as out­ so we can't tell you if the American down on mass protests. Beginning with alded the beginnings of a proletarian bursts of anti-Communism and of fer­ bombing of the Chinese embass}' in Bel­ students but increasingly drawing in political revolution which would have vor for Western-style "democracy:' And grade, which is what these people were workers chafing under the impact of pro­ swept away the corrupt and despised Sta­ the imperialists were hoping that the demonstrating about, was a deliberate capitalist "market reforms," this upheaval linist bureaucracy in Beijing. anniversary would be marked by anti- continued on page 6

Defeat· U. S. ImRerialism Through Workers Revolution! Down With U.S./NAJO Jerror War Against Serbia! MAY 25-ln a step toward a possible infrastructure of the country-factories ground invasion, the Clinton adminis­ and office buildings, roads and trans­ tration last week pressed its European portation netwOI:ks, water and power partners to almost double the U.S.! . distribution systems. Despite NATO's NATO military force on Serbia's bor­ ritual "regrets" about "collateral dam­ ders to a total of 50,000 troops. At the age"-Pentagon-speak for murder of same time, NATO has stepped up the .civilians-the imperialists -no longer massive bombing campaign against even seek to obscure the indisputable Serbia, which has killed over 1,300 fact that the whole aim of the onslaught civilians and is destroying the entire is to inflict mass terror against the Serb population. Yesterday, NATO planes again attacked electrical transformers through­ out Serbia, knocking out power supplies _ and water pumping stations. With Bel­ AP grade's water reserves already reduced Belgrade hospital destroyed by U.S./NATO terror bombing, May 20, killing 7 25tJJ·7~[ continued on page 10 four people. sion in how the USWA International tops have been dispensing the meager strike benefits has led to growing bitterness, As New Shipyard Strike Breaks Out in Mississippi One grim-faced striker told WV, "The company is playing with us and the union is playing with us." A strike depends on the strength of the workers; it is won or lost on the picket Newport News: Shut It Down Tight! lines. That means solid, mass picket lines outside all the gates which no one dares MAY 24-Newport News Shipbuilding the Newport News strike will have a News picket lines, the pro-capitalist cross, drawing on the thousands of Tide­ and United Steelworkers (USWA) Local major impact on these labor struggles. USWA International bureaucracy has water unionists, from !LA longshoremen 8888 are meeting today for the first time In fact, the Newport News strike poses pushed reliance on capitalist politicians to Teamsters. This can be dqne if the since the strike agaiIrst this major military a battle against the entire racist, "open and the agencies of the capitalist govern­ union makes it clear that it is fighting a contractor in the Virginia Tidewater area shop" edifice of the South, where en­ ment, from lobbying Congress at a rally battle on behalf of all working people in began almost two months ago. But the trenched racist oppression of black work­ in Washington, D.C. last month to recent the area-against the "right-to-work" company has continued to hardline it ers is used to prevent unionization and appeals for intervention by the National laws, against the "open shop" and also against the union's demands for higher drive down the living standards of all Labor Relations Board. against racist discrimination on and off wages and improved pensions and medi­ workers. Until a few years ago, many It is significant that in the midst of the the job. Newport News management is cal benefits. The strikers remain deter­ white workers at Newport News were not U.S. capitalist rulers' war against Serbia, itself notorious for its racist practices, mined, but their battle against the racist, in the union. A black union committee­ 16,000 shipyard workers in Virginia and like discriminatory "merit pay raises" profit-bloated Newport News manage­ woman told a Workers Vanguard team Mississippi are striking two major mili­ and playing favorites for promotions and ment has been seriously undermined by how one white worker explained to her: tary contractors. As we have warned apprentice programs . . the union tops, leading to a number of "White guys didn't join the union be­ throughout the Newport News strike, The experience of WV sales teams in hourly workers scabbing. cause it was mostly blacks in it. But then flag-waving appeals by the Steelworkers the Tidewa~er area demonstrated the Last week, over 7,000 shipyard work­ the situation got bad, so the only way to union tops for support from capitalist pol­ potential for mobilizing other sections of ers also went out in a strike against protect themselves was to join the union." iticians based on the "national interest" unionized workers: UPS Teamsters, ILA Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mis­ A victory in this strike could pave the and "national defense" will backfire longshoremen and workers at the nearby sissippi, which is owned by Litton Indus­ way for union organizing throughout the when the capitalists use the war as an Norshipco shipyard snapped up copies of tries and is the largest private employer in South and strike a blow against racial excuse to break the strike. In ordering the WV covering the Newport News strike. A that state. Worker protests are also contin­ oppression, the cornerstone of American Newport News talks, a spokesman for the black Newport News bus driver in the uing at Louisiana's Avondale shipyard, capitalist exploitation of the entire work­ Federal Mediation and Conciliation Ser­ Amalgamated Transit Union immediately where the union is fighting for its first ing class. But instead of seeking to vice stated that the strike has "national bought WV and told us that bus drivers contract. Since Litton wants to buyout mobilize workers from throughout the defense implications" and that the navy were tooting their horns as they passed both Newport News and Avondale to be­ region-including the ranks of the inte­ "needs their boats back." the picket lines to support the strikers. come the largest shipbuilder in the U.S., grated unions-to join the Newport The way that this strike will be won is The bus company ordered a halt to such with mass picket lines that stop all scab­ displays of solidarity at the demand of bing. Although the workers who are out Newport News management. One woman remain dedicated to the strike, shipyard bus driver reportedly slammed the door in The Stalinist Bureaucracy and gates have stayed open throughout the a scab's face rather than allow such ver­ Capitalist Counterrevolution strike and the lines are becoming smaller min on the bus. because of the bureaucrats' treachery. But mobilizing the power of the multi­ The Chinese bureaucracy's open drive Emboldened cops are intimidating pick­ racial working class is sabotaged by toward capitalist restoration threatens the ets and laughing about their "stick time in the AFL-CIO misleaders who bind the working masses with a level of devastation '79," when they rampaged against picket­ unions to the racist, capitalist Democratic and mi.sery that may well surpass what has ers during the three-month strike that Party. What's needed is a political fight befallen the working people of the former established Local 8888. Hundreds upon inside the unions to oust the pro-capitalist Soviet Union in the aftermath of counterrev­ hundreds of strikers stand in lines at the bureaucracy and replace it with a class­ olution there. In 1937, Bolshevik leader Freemarket Mall three miles away, seek­ struggle leadership-one which recog­ Leon Trotsky insisted that despite the crimes ing promised union financial assistance, nizes that the interests of labor are coun­ TROTSKY of the Stalin regime, the USSR remained a LENIN while only 20 strikers-and in some terposed to those of the employers. For a workers state-albeit degenerated-as long cases as few as three-man the picket workers party that fights for a workers as it was based on collectivized property. At the same time, he warned that unless the lines at the gates. The chaos and confu- government! • bureaucracy was overthrown through proletarian political revolution, its continued rule would necessarily lead to the final undoing of the gains of the October Revolution. If the workers' state loses its bureaucratization and gradually falls away, this means that its development marches along the road of socialism. On the contrary, if the bureaucracy becomes ever more powerful, authoritative, privileged, and conservative, this means that in the workers' state the bourgeois tendencies grow at the expense of the socialist; in other words, that inner contradiction which to a certain degree is lodged in the workers' state from the first days of its rise does not diminish, as the "norm" demands, but increases. However, so long as that contradiction has not passed from the sphere of distribution into the sphere of production, and has not blown up nationalized property and planned economy, the state remains a workers' state .... This degeneration, as the present orgy of Bonapartist terror shows, has approached a crucial point. That which was a "bureaucratic deformation" is at the present moment preparing to devour the workers' state, without leaving any remains, and on the ruins of nationalized property to spawn a new propertied class. Such a possibility has drawn extremely near. But all this is only a possibility and we do not intend beforehand to bow before it.. .. The recognition of the USSR as a workers' state-not a type but a mutilation of a Union tops refuse to build mass pickets to type-does not at all signify a theoreticar~nd political amnesty for the Soviet bureauc­ shut down shipyard. racy. On the contrary, its reactionary character is fully revealed only in the light of the Meanwhile, miles contradiction between its antiproletarian politics and the needs of the workers' state. away strikers stand in Only by posing the question iii this manner does our exposure of the crimes of the Sta­ long lines for meager linist clique gain full motive force. The defense of the USSR means not only the strike assistance supreme struggle against imperialism, but a preparation for the overthrow of the Bona­ from the union. partist bureaucracy. -Leon Trotsky, "Not a Workers' and Not a Bourgeois State?" (November 1937)

SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORY !.~!!!~~~~!~!!.~{!! ~ National Office: Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116· (212) 7-32-7860 EDITOR: Len Meyers Boston Los Angeles Oakland Box 390840, Central Sta. Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta. Box 29497 EDITOR, YOUNG SPARTACUS PAGES: Jacob Zorn Cambridge, MA 02139 . Los Angeles, CA 90029 Oakland, CA 94604 PRODUCTION MANAGER: Susan Fuller (617) 666-9453 (213) 380-8239 (510) 839-0851 CIRCULATION MANAGER: Mara Cadiz EDITORIAL BOARD: Ray Bishop (managing editor), Bruce Andre, Helene Brosius, George Foster, Chicago New York San Francisco Liz Gordon, Jane Kerrigan, James Robertson, Joseph Seymour, Alison Spencer Box 6441, Main PO Box 3381, Church St. Sta. Box 77494 The Spartacist League is the U.S. Section of the International Communist League (Fourth Chicago, IL 60680 New York. NY 10008 :San Francisco, CA 94107 Internationalist) . (312) 454-4930 (212) 267-1025 . (415) 777-9367 Workers Vanguard (ISSN 0276-0746) published biweekly, except skipping three alternate issues in June, July and August (beginning with omitting the second issue in June) and with a 3-week interval in December, by the Spartacist Pub­ lishing Co., 299 Broadway, Suite 318, New York, NY 10007. Telephone: (212) 732-7862 (Editorial), (212) 732-7861 (Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. E-mail address:[email protected] TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA/LiGUE TROTSKYSTE DU CANADA Domestic subscriptions: $10.00/22 issues. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workers Vanguard, Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. Opinions expressed in signed allicles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. Toronto Vancouver Box 2717, Main P.O. The closing date for news in this issue is May 25. Box 7198, Station A Toronto:ON M5W 1X8 Vancouver, BC V6B 3X2 (416) 593-4138 (604) 687-0353 No. 714 28 May 1999

2 WORKERS VANGUARD University in Mexico City, which has been rocked by militant protests against the imposition of tuition. In Japan, at a German Spartacists Detained by Berlin Cops 50,OOO-strong protest against revisions to the Japan-U.S. security treaty on May 22, metal workers, medical workers and rail workers reached into their pockets to give to the campaign-as did youth sup­ porters of the Communist Party, despite their leaders' attempts to exclude and silence us. And students from the Chi­ nese deformed workers state studying in the U.S., Canada and Australia have donated to the fund drive, including at 24 MAY-Following the ·U.S.lNATO protests against NATO's bombing of tfie bombing of the Zastava car factory in Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Zastava auto plant Kragujevac, Yugoslavia on April 9, work­ While anger and revulsion against the ers at the Alfa Romeo plant in Milano, following U.S./NATO terror bombing on NATO slaughter is widespread, the capit­ Italy downed tools in protest and the Alfa ulation of an array of so-called "social­ Romeo COBAS (Rank-and-File Commit­ April 9.' Below: Spartakist Workers ist" outfits to their "own" bourgeoisies, tee) launched a fund drive for Yugoslav Party comrades collect presently served by social-democratic workers. Strikes and workers demonstra­ donations at Berlin's governments in many cases, is appar­ tions against the war have been steadily Humboldt University ently without limit. The British Socialist escalating in Italy, now ruled by the coali­ in fund drive for Workers Party (SWP) of Tony Cliff and tion government headed by Prime Min­ Yugoslav workers. its international cothinkers are a case in ister Massimo D' Alema's Party of the point. When our comrades of the Sparta­ Democratic Left. On May 13, COBAS cist LeaguelBritain first collected for the led a political general strike around fund drive at a May 8 London antiwar the slogan "Not a life, not a lira for this protest, a number of SWPers contributed. war!" But the SWP leadership soon brought a Sections of the International Commu­ halt to this. At a subsequent protest on nist League around the world have actively May 18, SWP spokesman Julie Waterson joined in the COBAS-initiated campaign became so rabid in trying to thwart the of material aid, which aims to raise a bil­ efforts of our comrades that she grabbed lion lire (some $5.60,000) for the workers a big handful of leaflets out of a collec­ of Zastava and other factories. Despite tion bucket. our political differences with many of the Our participation in the campaign for participants in this campaign, including aid to the workers under NATO's guns the syndicalist-influenced COBAS, the necessarily entails a political struggle ICL has participated in the spirit of against the reformists and centrists who the united front-march separately, strike have given aid and comfort to their together! In doing so, we have been able respective bourgeoisies. As Leninists, we to make the fund drive an international Spartakist no credit understand that opposition to imperialism effort, providing a way for workers the wake of capitalist restoration. The bellicose of the NATO powers, shop abroad means class struggle at home­ throughout the world to express class sol­ statement declared that the "murderous stewards from the Cowley car plant, that socialist revolution, requiring the idarity with Yugoslav workers and oppo­ act of NATO terror against them-like workers at Ford Dagenham near London instrumentality of a revolutionary party to sition to the death and destruction that the the bombing of other key factories that and London Underground transit workers lead it, is the only way to put an end to the U.S.INATO imperialists have been rain­ have so far destroyed the workplaces of have contributed. So, too, have immi­ capitalist system which breeds war. ing down on the people of Serbia for two a half million workers-was intended as grant workers-in Britain and elsewhere months now. Indeed, the imperialists' a warning to the proletariat throughout in Europe-who are on the receiving end We urge our readers to donate gen­ murderous attack on the Zastava plant­ the Balkans." of racist state repression and the fascist erously to the Zastavacampaign­ killing tens of workers, injuring scores In the imperialist "belly of the beast" terror it spawns and have not bought into truly a cause in the interest of the and putting tens of thousands out of work in the U.S., our comrades have collected the cynical "humanitarian" pretext for whole of the working people. Contri­ . -epitomizes the nature of the U.S.! funds from trade unionists outside work­ NATO's Balkans war. butions can be made out to the Parti­ NATO war, which is clearly aimed at ter­ places and union meetings, including In Mexico, subjected to U.S. imperial­ san Defense Committee (earmarked rorizing the Serbian population. among the heavily black and immigrant ist plunder, the Grupo Espartaquista was "For Yugoslav Workers") and sent to: German imperialism, which instigated New York City transit workforce. In Brit­ invited to address and pass the hat­ Partisan Defense Committee, P.O. Box the counterrevolutionary breakup of the ain, where Tony Blair's Labour govern­ among 600 delegates of the workers 99, Canal Street Station, New York, Yugoslav deformed workers state, is now ment has distinguished itself as the most committee at the National Autonomous NY 10013. engaged in its first direct military combat since the defeat of the Nazi regime. The coalition government headed by Social Democratic (SPD) chancellor Gerhard SchrOder has sought to quell growing LO Covers for Imperialism's War in the Balkans popular opposition to the war against Serbia, which suffered under Nazi occu­ pation during World War II. On May 18, Protest LO Gangsterism Against leL Trotskyists! police detained two Spartakist salesmen in front of a Berlin Daimler-Chrysler We print below a protest statement The immediate precedent to LO's chauvinism and opportunism of LO and plant to stop them from collecting for the issued on May 25 by our comrades of violent assault was the ICL's exposure the LCR, ICL comrades argued that you fund drive. As described in a May ·24 the Ligue Trotskyste de France. of LO's social-chauvinist support to its can't fight imperialist war without fight­ protest statement by our comrades of the own ruling class in the Balkans war. ing for socialist revolution to overturn Spartakist Workers Party (SpAD): . This year's Lutte Ouvriere (LO) fete Aping the ruling PSIPCF [Socialist the capitalist system which breeds war. "Our supporters were packed into a concluded on 24 'May with a violent Party/Communist Party] government, LO-LCR's accommodation to the capi­ police van and held against their will for physical assault. Around 6:30 p.m., a which has of course quashed antiwar talist order is seen in the LCR's explicit 45 minutes while astonished Mercedes 20-man goon squad decked out in demonstrations while they bomb Serbia call for ground troops to the Balkans workers and apprentices streamed out of the factory gate. Worker donations col­ leather jackets, black leather gloves and back to the Stone Age, LO too tried to and in the platform of the LO-LCR slate lected before the cops arrived were Lutte Ouvriere security squad armbands conduct a "Marxist" fete while ignoring for the European Parliament, which immediately confiscated along with the surrounded International Communist that a war is going on! At the LO-LCR doesn't even mention the word "social­ collection bucket under the pretext of League comrades engaged in political [Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire] ism." With "Euro-Socialists" like LO­ 'suspicion of fraud.' At the same time, of discussion. Our comrades were grabbed debate, no discussion on the war by the LCR, who needs the stinking corpse of course, thousands of buckets are being passed for the Kosovo refugees, and that by the throat and choked, jumped and public or even LO members was social democracy which currently rules is allowed because it enhances the pre­ brutally dragged out of the fete while allowed. Finally, the troublesome topic most of capitalist Europe! text for this murderous war (while the being punched by this gang of thugs. was opened for discussion only on the LO is in trouble, and no amount of borders of racist Germany remain tightly Our comrade Xavier Brunoy, editor of final day, in the final forum, when most gangsterism can cover up its political shut to the refugees). This attack by the SPD-led German capitalist state on our French paper Le Bolchevik, was participants had already left. Despite a crisis. Recent polls predict the LO-LCR basic working-class solidarity is meant to seized and his arm deliberately broken in veneer of opposition to the bombing, slate won't muster the necessary votes intimidate and regiment all workers who four places by a leading LO gangster. LO joins in the imperialists' war cry to make it into the European Parlia­ dare to demonstrate their opposition to He was taken from the scene by ambu~ over "poor little Kosovo" whiCh is the ment. For a group which has given up the war of u.s. and German imperialism lance and required surgery. ICL com­ pretext for a terror war against the on proletarian revolution in favor of in the Balkans and must be vigorously fought .... rades quickly regrouped and went back Yugoslav people and for moving in a bourgeois parliamentarism, including "It is not an accident that the police were to the many shocked witnesses to mobi­ massive imperialist army of ground feeding at the financial trough of the apparently called by the Werkschutz lize political opposition to this atrocity. troops disguised as "peacekeepers." bourgeois state, electoral defeat spells [company cops] of Daimler, which as Violence is the recourse of political In sharp counterposition to LO, ICL disaster. Thus LO is ~urching even fur­ arms manufacturer and pillar of both the cowards. Unable to defend its political comrades motivated the attitude of ther to the right in a desperate scramble Third and Fourth Reichs of German imperialism has its strategic interests in support to the capitalist Jospin/Gayssot proletarian revolutionary international­ for votes. LO has stooped to the cam­ the Balkans, too." government-a government of imperi­ ists: Defeat imperialism through work­ paign style of American bourgeois The SpAD statement pointed to the alist war in the Balkans, racist deporta-· ers revolution! Defend Serbia against politicians, ·trashing even the pretense Zastava workers' history of class strug­ tions and strikebreaking on the domes­ imperialist attack! At this time, the right to political program, hustling caps and gle, including a bitter strike two and a tic front-LO substituted the fist for of independence for Kosovo is neces­ T-shirts with no message except "Vote half years ago against the bourgeois­ the brain as an "answer" to the revolu- sarily subordinated to the fight against LO-LCR." nationalist Milosevic regime, which had , tionary program of the ICL. NATO imperialism. Against the social- continued on page 10 fired more than half of the workforce in 28 MAY 1999 3 We reprint the following letter as we received it via the'lnternet. 7 May 1999 Dear Editor, Your hit piece hypocritically titled "Mobilize the Power of Labor! Free Mumia Now!" (WV 16 April, 1999) in Labor Opportunism, anticipation of the powerful April 24 West Coast longshore workers' shutdown in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal reflects a continuing political degeneration of the Spartacist League, exemplified by your the Democratic Party abstention from and open hostility to class struggle. The International Long­ shore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), despite opposition from reactionary ele­ ments, took this action in order to mobi­ and the Defense lize our membership for the April 24 demonstration for Mumia in San Fran­ cisco. Your sectarian opposition to the April 24 Mumia mobilization was based on the grounds that one of its demands of Mumia Abu-Jamal was for a new trial. The ILWU and other union contingents carried banners calling longshoremen were to raise a resolution called for. It would be gratifying to know Your sectarian refusal was com­ for freedom for Mumia, implementing in their union demanding a new trial that they fought for work stoppages in pounded further by WV's absurd and the united front slogim: "March sepa­ and shutting down the port to send defense of Mumia, but, alas, their silence scurrilous charge that my aim was "to go rately, strike together". a strong message to Governor Ridge, speaks loudly. after the reds, in the service of the labor April 24 was the most significant step the logical extension of the SL's posi­ During the 1984 longshore anti­ bureaucracy". What is the name of that to date in the struggle to free Mumia, not tion would be to oppose such a motion apartheid action the SL at first refused to leading union bureaucrat? ILWU Interna­ so much because it was the largest dem­ for bold labor action because it held support it, then in the midst of the II day tional President Brian McWilliams who onstration, but because longshore work­ illusions in the state. Union militants action switched their position to critical spoke at the Longshore Caucus in favor ers utilized their power to shutdown all would warn against illusions of justice support without publicly acknowledging of the resolution to shutdown the Coast ports on the West Coast to demand 1) in the capitalist courts while critically their change. Both Larry Wright and I for Mumia? Who is prominently pictured Stop the Execution and 2) Free Mumia! supporting the motion and trying to (amongst others) organized in 1984 to in the same WV article speaking at a 1995 Our union resolution specifically states build mass mobilizations and spreading defy the injunction against the anti­ PDC rally to stop the execution of that Mumia can't get a fair trial and that class struggle action to other sec­ apartheid action and had for several years Mumia? Who called for Mumia's free­ demands his freedom. Yet, WV inten­ tions of the working class, especially the been organizing longshore workers­ dom at the April 24 San Francisco rally? tionally tries to obfuscate this point by heavily black transportation unions in through the Stewards' Council, the Exec­ Who, last year, gave instrumental support simply disappearing it and minimizes the Philadelphia. utive Board, international dockers confer­ to union militants organizing to shut impact of our work stoppage by falsely Larry Wright and I, both ILWU Local ences, membership meetings and finally down Bay Area ports to fend off a legal reporting it as only two hours. WV must 10 stewards and organizers of the 1984 at the '99 Longshore Caucus for labor witchhunting attack by the employers' have confused the "two hours" with the San Francisco longshore anti-apartheid action to defend Mumia. The coastwise association? It is instructive that again, as work stoppage of the teachers' union in action, participated in the March 6 Uni­ shutdown to free Mumia didn't just fall in the '84 anti-apartheid action, the SL the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on versity of California, Berkeley Confer­ from the sky. To organize a successful abstained from supporting the interna­ April 23. Both labor actions called for ence to build for the April 24 mobiliza­ workers' struggle the sense of isolation tional solidarity picket line of labor activ­ . freedom for Mumia and both actions tion. In the first labor workshop at the must be eliminated and the spirit of soli­ ists for the Liverpool dockworkers in this were the result of resolutions presented end of the panelists' presentations, as darity reinforced. That is why I requested Neptune Jade struggle, but begrudgingly by critics of your tendency, the Interna­ chair, I asked those who wanted to speak in the January 22, 1999 letter from backed our legal defense case. tional Communist League, ergo your to identify themselves, their union or the Rank and File ILWU Committee With this kind of slander against class jaundiced reporting. organization and what they or their sup­ to Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal to the SL­ struggle militants who have actually To not participate now in the April porters had done in the unions to defend initiated Partisan Defense Committee, organized workers to take concrete action 24 protest in defense of self-proclaimed Mumia. One SL supporter said he had "a list of trade unions which have sup­ to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, a step toward revolutionary and former Black Panther helped raise money in his union for ported Mumia's defense in one way freeing the whole of the international Mumia Abu-Jamal, for whom the Par­ Mumia's legal defense. Later, another SL or another, endorsements, letters, resolu­ working class from the shackles of capi­ tisan Defense Committee had done supporter made a hypocritical speech tions, donations etc." We were attempting talism, the SL has descended into a important, early groundbreaking defense calling on longshoremen to shutdown the to organize solidarity for labor action deeper, darker political abyss. work, is to abstain from the class strug­ Coast, but didn't say what action SL sup­ for Mumia, not knowing in advance the For labor action to free Mumia, gle at a critical time. If Philadelphia porters in their transportation unions had outcome. Jack Heyman

,. Replies pendence from the capitalist parties. We Heyman's treachery, the ILWU stop­ sweep away the entire racist, capitalist have publicized Jamal's cause, raised work on April 24 posed the possibility of system in which black oppression is ack Heyman's letter, like the letter critically important funds for his legal a major disruption of shipping that rooted. from the International Bolshevik­ battles and fought to mobilize the broad­ would be a giant blow against the When the workers at UPS and GM JTendency (ffiT) and the polemic by est range of social forces in his defense. capitalist frame-up system. Such a polit­ went on strike, the withdrawal of their the Internationalist Group (IG) in the We recognized from the outset that cal strike would be more effective in labor economically paralyzed two of the April-May issue of its 11Jternationalist larger forces than our own would have to the fight to free Mumia than a thou­ biggest corporations in the U.S., costing (see page 5), is intended to cover for the be brought into the struggle to free sand demonstrations. It would advance them billions in lost profits. These are class-collaborationist character of the Jamal.. And largely as a result of our the struggle of longshoremen and all examples-albeit expressed solely on the April 24 "Millions for Mumia" demon-' efforts, larger numbers of liberals and workers against the capitalist employers economic plane--of what we mean by stration he supported and built. Our atti­ reformists did finally get involved when and be a powerful blow for black the social power of labor, when we call tude toward that mobilization was in­ Mumia was threatened with execution in freedom-a cause which must be ac­ to "Mobilize the Power of Labor! Free formed by the same criteria on which we the summer of 1995. But we also knew tively championed by labor as part of Mumia Now!" To be really effective, a have based our years-long efforts to free that these other forces would be far the fight for workers revolution to political strike must be conducted with Mumia. We have stressed that the fight removed from our Marxist perspective. to save the life of this outspoken black The April 24 demonstrations were journalist, MOVE supporter and former dedicated to something we support-the Black Panther Party spokesman is part defense of Jamal-but with slogans con­ and parcel of the struggle to abolish the sciously formulated to spell out some­ racist death penalty. We have sought to thing we don't support: the notion that win workers to the understanding that Jamal will get justice in a capitalist the bourgeois state, with its cops and society. With the central focus the call courts, is not some "neutral" agency for a new trial, the demonstrations were which serves society as a whole but aimed at a bloc with the liberal Demo­ rather exists to defend the class rule and crats who want ~to clean up the more profits of the capitalists against those grotesque and embarrassing aspects of they exploit. We have aimed at infusing the frame-up trial. They were politically the multiracial proletariat with the con­ organized along the lines of a classic sciousness that the fight against black popular front-a class-collaborationist oppression is central to the struggle for bloc in which the working class is subor­ the emancipation of labor itself. dinated to the program of a wing of the From the time the Spartacist League capitalist ruling class, represented by the and Partisan Defense Committee first Democratic Party. took up Jamal's cause 12 years ago, we The social power of the integrated have fought for a class-struggle defense longshore union lies in the ability to shut WVPhoto strategy centered on mobilizing the down the docks, stop the movement of San Francisco: PDe and Spartacist League intervened with Class-struggle social power of the integrated labor goods and thereby halt the flow of capi­ program against pro-Democratic Party reformism at April 24 "Millions for movement, requiring its political inde- talist profit. Although undermined by Mumia" rallies. 4 WORKERS VANGUARD We publish below excerpts from an the struggle by the LQB to expel cops article headlined "WV Blames· Victims, from the unions in Brazil.. .. Distorts April 24 Shutdown for Mumia" in the Internationalist Group's Interna­ * * * tionalist (April-May 1999). The following excerpts are from an April 25 letter by the International Bol-. ... The SL is in fact pursuing a com­ shevik Tendency. ~1fi'!1~]alf~1 pletely unprincipled vendetta. This is PHD..ADELPHIA • SAN FRANCISCO underscored by its response to the Comrades: ApriI2)StudentWil1but ~ :~ ==...":.::'"... ~ ILWU's decision to shut down all West As we have occasionally pointed ~.~;;.~~; 212~ b =:.::=-::=-~= l4I!O Millikin St., SF, ar. "'" to 415 a21-65C5 :::-...;::=..-:.....--::::: ... Coast ports on April 24 to demand free­ out in the past, the Spartacist League/ dom for Mumia Abu-Jamal-the first Partisan Defense Committee (SLIPDC) such political work stoppage in the U.S. deserves credit for its pioneering work in in defense of Jamal (see article in this publicizing the case of Mumia Abu Labor Organizations C.DiD, for a New T"ial issue). In a lpng back-page article titled Jamal and organizing for his freedom. for Mumia Abll·Jamal "Mobilize the Power of Labor! Free Since 1995 Mumia's case has won ever on tb4! ~casion of tht" Milliob$ for Munda . Mumia Now!" Workers Vanguard" No. broader support within the left and labor marches, Apm 14.1999 r------L------.... 711 (16 April 1999) makes a passing ref­ movement internationally. Regrettably (partial list) fadivjdgI labor eu4tP""""11 (p"rtW UstJ erence to the work stoppage, grudgingly you have not seen this as an opportunity lJ::abor organiptiog repnsea!ing mOte 8rU.. MeWiltia.." l.'emat'l hesW."t, admitting that "to pull the thousands to engage in common work and political than3,sQO,ooo ",om'll ILwtJ La...,. A.... , !'...,u••• , Majillalldkn Local of longshoremen coastwide off the job, struggle with activists from other organi­ lOO,UllNA even if only for a few hours, would zations. Instead you have tended to allow Intnnat" Longshore &Warellonse Uniob Ar1hluki, F.xee!adve ~Tnas.,Calif. be a powerful statement of the social petty sectarian organizational considera­ (ILWU)· lA..... I!'e4et-atIou·. AfL.CIO San power that can and must be mobilized tions to take precedence over principled 1199 National Hea in broader actions-from mass labor­ united-front activity to free Mumia. Ubiob/SEUJ centered protests to political strikes-for The 16 April Workers Vanguard (WV) Jamal's freedom."". commentary on recent events in Mumia's Meanwhile, the WV article willfully defense campaign is a case in point. The misrepresents the ILWU action. It focuses article, headlined "Mobilize the Power of on denouncing calls by Workers World, Labor! Free Mumia Now!," treats in an Socialist Action and others for a "new extremely cursory manner the exception­ ILWU presence at April 24 rally was labor fac;ade for class-collaborationist trial." There can be no "fair trial" for ally important work-stoppage by the appeals to Democratic Party. ILWU Local 10 bureaucrat Jack Heyman, joined Mumia in the racist capitalist courts that International Longshore and Warehouse by longtime IBT supporter, explicitly endorsed call for "new trial," sowing have relentlessly hounded black radicals Union (ILWU) on 24 April. Every port illusions in racist capitalist courts. and him in particular. We demand that from San Diego to Bellingham Washing­ Mumia be freed, now! In the middle of its ton was shut down for the day in solidar­ article, WV charges the initiators of the ity with Mumia! ... You claim that it was complete independence from the bour­ ted by Heyman, the IG and the IBT: ILWU work stoppage with "concealing organized so as "!O minimize the cost to geoisie and all its institutions. "WHEREAS: On April 24, 1999, there . the true nature of the capitalist state." An the company," but Saturday can be one will be national demonstrations to de­ unaware reader would deduce that the of the busiest days on the docks. You Window Dressing for mand a stop to the execution of and a action or its initiators are calling for a also mistakenly report that the work Class Collaboration new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal--on the· stoppage was only for two hours, rather East Coast in Philadelphia and on the new trial. Not so. WV deliberately omits Heyman worked on two levels inside West Coast in San Francisco, as wel1 as the fact that the motion voted by the del­ than for the entire day shift. and outside the ILWU to create the illu­ international demonstrations; and egates to the union's Longshore Caucus You grudgingly admit that it was, "a sion that this Democratic Party-centered "WHEREAS: The organized labor move­ on March 26 does not call for a new powerful statement of the social power" rally was a "labor mobilization" to defend ment has the power through action to en­ trial-in fact it states that "the organized of labor to win Mumia's freedom .... sure justice for this principled and coura­ You reported that "the ILWU" had Mumia. As an exec board member of S.P. geous freedom fighter, which he can't labor movement has the power through longshore Local 10, he helped create the get in the courts; THEREFORE BE IT action to ensure justice for this principled called for the action, but did not inform impression that the ILWU was engaging "RESOLVED: That the ILWU go on and courageous freedom fighter, which your readers that it had been initiated by in a political strike to shut down the West record to: he can't get in the courts." And the ILWU Jack Heyman, a former SL supporter, Coast ports, when in fact what was done "I) Support the San Francisco demon­ work stoppage is explicitly to demand who is currently on the executive board was to shift the regular monthly union stration and mobilize our membership on "Stop the Execution! Free Mumia!" of the ILWU's San Francisco local, and the coast to participate by coordinating is also active in the Labor Action Com­ meetings to coincide with April 24, tout­ our April stop-work meetings for the The WV article never cites that motion ing these as "work stoppages." Outside 24th to demand: 'Stop the Execution! and never explains how the ILWU work mittee to Free Mumia (LAC), along with the. union, he worked with the IBT, with Free Mumia!'" stoppage came about. Moreover, it misin­ IBT comrades, former SL trade-union whom he has a long association, to set up So Jack Heyman and his lawyer Jan forms its readers that the action consists supporters and others .... a fake organization called the "Labor Norden "disappear" the first WHEREAS of "two-hour stop work meetings:·~.wben Brother Heyman is introduced in the Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu­ above, the ILWU's endorsement of the the union has officially called for shutting WV article as someone "who postures as Jamal" (LAC), whose purpose was to pre­ call for a new trial, in their clumsy down work on all ships "from 8:00 a.m. the left wing of the ILWU Local IO exec­ tend that they were the coordinators of attempts to provide l! cover for the pro­ to 6:00 p.m. from Bellingham, Wash. to utive Board" and roundly denounced "labor support" to the April 24 demon­ Democratic Party labor bureaucracy. San Diego, Calif." as spelled out. in the for having the temerity to ask the "non­ stration. As we wrote in our article, the Heyman shamelessly continues his cha­ ILWU newspaper (The Dispatcher, sectarian" PDC for a list of union LAC "obscures the class nature of the rade, declaring: "Union militants would March 1999). So WV cynically misrepre­ endorsements gathered in the past for capitalist state, deep-sixes any· mention of warn against illusions of justice in the sents both the demands and the nature of Mumia .... the Democratic Party and completely capitalist courts while critically support­ the union action for Mumia, and it uses You prefer the call to "Free Mumia!" obviates the centrality of the fight for ing" a hypothetical motion calling for a the classic technique of the amalgam to So do we. Nonetheless we do not see this black liberation to the cause of the eman­ new trial in the Philadelphia longshore carry out this lying sleight-of-hand .... as a reason to abstain from participating cipation of all of labor" ("No Illusions in union. What Heyman doesn't say is that The WV article goes so far as to charge in national events that are many times Capitalist Courts! Mobilize the Power of he was the author of just such a motion, ILWU Local 10 executive board member larger than any rallies the SLIPDC has Labor! Free Mumia Now!" WV No. 711, in which he included as window dressing Jack Heyman, who presented the motion been able to organize .... 16 April). the counterposed statement that Mumia for the stoppage which was approved by The ILWU contingent, which headed It is a measure of the fundamental dis­ cannot get justice in the bourgeois courts. the local and the Coast Caucus, with the 24 April demonstration in San Fran­ honesty of Jack Heyman and the centrist We learned of Heyman's central role in seeking to "go after the reds"! What is the cisco, raised the call to "Free Mumia!" It IG of Jan Norden that in nearly identical this bit of deception from the letter by his evidence for this outrageous charge of did not, to my knowledge, call for a language they both blatantly attempt to friends in the IBT, who inform us that the witchhunting? That Heyman asked the "New Trial." deny what every endorser and most par­ ILWU motion "had been initiated by Jack Partisan Defense Committee (the defense WV approvingly quoted the remarks of ticipants knew: that the explicit basis for Heyman, a former SL supporter." organization associated with the Sparta­ a participant in an SL meeting last Febru­ the April 24 mobilizations was the call for The complete text of the ILWU resolu­ cist League, which has played a very ary who asked: a "new trial." Apparently ·assuming no tion authored by Heyman is contained in important role in Mumia's defense for "How about somebody telling the truth, that there's no way that Mumia's going one will bother to read union resolutions, a bulletin-type brochure published by the over 12 years) for help in putting together to get justice in the courts. It's going to Heyman writes: "Our union resolution LAC, along with copies of other union· a list of uniorts and labor offiCials who be exactly the same frame-up bul1shit specifically states that Mumia can't get a resolutions endorsing the call for a new ~ have publicly come out in Mumia's that happened the first time." fair trial and demands his freedom." Sim­ trial. At the end of this collection of res­ defense .... It is not impossible that a new trial ilarly, his apologists in the International­ olutions, the LAC conveniently prints a There is a connection here. The SL could result in 'an acquittal. To assert oth­ ist write of the ILWU action, "An una­ "partial list" of "Labor Organizations and International Communist League erwise is fake ultra-leftjsm. Fake, because ware reader would deduce that the action Calling for a New Trial for Mumia Abu­ (ICL) have regularly solicited Heyman in the SL doesn't truly believe it. If a new or its initiators are calling for a new trial. Jamal" which includes 83 national and the past for endorsement of various dem­ trial can only result in "exactly the same Not so." Thus, these people attempt to international union endorsers an.d 74 onstrations. But while not a supporter of frame-up bullshit," why is the PDC's conceal the simple' fact that, like similar "individual labor endorsements" for April the IGILFI, Heyman won union support Rachel Wolkenstein still participating in motions passed by dozens of other unions, 24. At the top of the list-no surprise (from the ILWU and International Dock­ Mumia's defense team which has been the ILWU resolution endorsed the April 24 whatsoever-is the ILWU. Among the ers' Conference) for the Brazilian Trot­ pursuing every possible legal avenue, rally and its call for a new trial. Here is individual endorsers of the call for a new skyist workers facing bourgeois state including trying to win a retrial?.. what the main part of the resolution actu­ trial we find ... Jack Heyman and longtime repression. And he had the gumption to Samuel T. for the ally says, including the key sections omit- continued on page 8 speak out against the ICL's betrayal of International Bolshevik Tendency 28 MAY 1999 5 Soviet "A-bomb spies." We say it was a China ... good thing that the USSR developed its (continued from page 1) atom bomb, or the U.S. might well have launched further nuclear attacks after provocation or not. The student-centered 1945-against the Soviet Union, against demonstrations outside U.S. embassies China and later against Vietnam and and consulates certainly expressed the Cuba. Despite the nationalist, concilia­ outrage of the Chinese people, histori­ tionist policies of the Stalinist bureauc­ cally oppressed by Western and Japanese racy, the Soviet Union acted to constrain imperialism. At the same time, the Bei­ the bloody American imperialist rulers. jing regime was careful to restrict these Conversely, the destruction of the USSR protests. Reportedly, they banned factory through capitalist counterrevolution in contingents for fear that the workers 1991-92 has made the world a much more might voice their own grievances against dangerous place. The war again'st Serbia, the regime's drive toward a capitalist the biggest war in Europe since World market economy. War II, has brought us all a step closer In the United States, students from toward a World War III. Like the contin­ China staged their own protests. The ued bombings of Iraq, it's all about exten­ Spartacist League participated in these, sion of U.S. power, projecting its military carrying placards in Chinese reading: might not only against small, dependent "For Workers Revolution to Defeat U.S. countries like Iraq and Serbia but against Imperialism!", "Defend Serbia Against America's main imperialist rivals, espe­ U.S.INATO Attack!" and "For Workers AP cially Gennany and Japan. Political Revolution to Stop Capitalist May 8: Thousands of students in Beijing protest U.S. bombing of Chinese There's a weapon of a different kind in Counterrevolution in China!" Many of embassy in Belgrade. the imperialists' arsenal, especially when the Chinese students were shocked to find they try to promote capitalist counterrev­ communists in the U.S.-the heartland of basis we have always, as Trotskyists, made by the working class. Instead, it was olution. I'll refer you to our sign here: world capitalism. Underlying this response given unconditional military defense to Mao's peasant-guerrilla army which took "1950: Hail Chinese PLA in Tibet! 1979: is the nationalist outlook historically fos­ China against imperialism and internal power, excluding the proletariat from Hail Red Anny in Afghanistan!" That's tered by the Chinese Communist Party counterrevolution. political power. our position. We vehemently oppose (CCP), which denied the possibility of But today Mao's heirs are pursuing a China is what we call a bureaucrati­ movements like the so-called "Free Tibet" workers revolution in Japan and the West. drive toward capitalist restoration full cally defprmed workers state, akin to the movement, which is simply a creature of The Spartacist League fights for the speed ahead which would destroy the Soviet Union under Stalin, who stood at the American CIA, which financed, armed defeat of .U.S. imperialism and all the social gains of that revolution, which are the head of a bureaucratic caste which and organized the 1959 uprising in Tibet imperialist powers raining terror on the already in fact massively eroded. So after rose to power there in a political counter­ led by the Dalai Lama. This doesn't mean Serbs. We do this in the tradition of the 20-plus years of "market reforms," the revolution in 1923-24. The conservative, we give Beijing an "A" for interethnic Bolshevik Party of V. I. Lenin and Leon same Guomindang bourgeoisie, the same nationalist outlook of both the Moscow harmony. Not by a long shot. The Beijing Trotsky-the party which led the multi­ imperialists that were kicked out in 1949 and Beijing bureaucracies was expressed bureaucracy, like all Stalinist regimes, is national proletariat of Russia to power in are today exploiting workers in large in the dogma of "socialism in one coun­ nationalist and chauvinist. In China, that the October Revolution of 1917. We fight sections, and growing sections, of China. try"-a complete perversion of Marxism. means the chauvinism of the dominant for mobilizing the multiracial American The Communist Party regime has now Socialism-the early stage of a classless Han people, who make up 90 percent of working class in socialist rt(volution. And brought China to the brink. Whether the communist society-requires material the population. A China run by workers from that standpoint, we defend Serbia drive toward capitalist counterrevolution abundance. It can only be achieved and peasants councils would defend the militarily. succeeds there, or whether the Chi­ through a series of proletarian revolu­ rights of all national and ethnic minori­ nese proletariat acts to stop that disas­ tions, especially in the advanced indus­ China on the Brink ties. But as the current war against Serbia ter by ousting the Stalinist bureaucracy trial countries. The Stalinists have al- all too starkly shows, when the imperial­ When we talk about China, it is and imposing its own political rule, is . ways and everywhere been virulently ists brandish "human rights," you better from the same standpoint of communists a centrally important question for work­ opposed to the Bolshevik program of watch your head. And in China, the U.S. fighting for a socialist society-for ing people and opponents of capitalist world socialist revolution, instead seek­ sponsors a whole range of reactionary new October Revolutions internationally. exploitation and imperialist depredation ing alliances with one or another imperi­ movements and so-called "human rights" The 1949 Chinese Revolution led by everywhere. alist bourgeoisie. dissidents and "democrats" who are noth­ Mao Zedong expelled Chiang Kai-shek's To understand what is happening in Stalinist rule blocks any development ing but tools of imperialism. Guomindang bourgeoisie-as well as the China today, you have to understand the toward a socialist society. In China today, imperialists his regime served-from the nature of what happened in 1949. That it means a galloping drive toward the out­ "Market Reforms": Road to Chinese mainland. It created a planned social revolution, while massively popu­ right restoration of capitalist enslavement. Counterrevolution economy which laid the basis for huge lar, was bureaucratically deformed from What is posed in China, very urgently, is Increased U.S. belligerence toward strides for workers, peasants, women and its inception. Unlike the October Revolu­ what Trotsky called for as early as the China is just one facet of American pol­ minorities like the Tibetans. And on that tion in Russia, it was not a revolution 1930s in the Soviet Union: a proletarian icy. The other is usually called "engage­ political revolution, which means replac­ ment." These are not really counterposed ing the rule of the parasitic nationalist but complementary policies. They have bureaucracy with the rule of workers one goal: to overturn the 1949 Revolu­ soviets-workers councils-committed tion. Now, the best spokesman for this to reviving and defending the planned policy lately has been Henry Kissinger. economy and committed to the interna­ He's been on TV since the bombing tionalist principles of Leriin and Trotsky's of the embassy, really frying to chill communism. things out. He's worried that the tensions As Trotskyists, we militarily defended between the U.S. and China will upset to the last the former Soviet Union-a all the mechanisms by which American degenerated workers state-and the de­ imperialism is working to further capital­ formed workers states of East Europe ist restoration there. based on their nationalized and planned Kissinger wrote an interesting piece in ICL sign in Chines4f economies. We defended them against the Washington Post (27 April) that kind reads: "For Workers capitalist counterrevolution-against the of gives you both sides of American pol­ Revolution to Defeat imperialists and internal counterrevolu­ icy. Contrasting China with the Soviet U.S. Imperialism! tionary forces. Our unconditional mili­ Union, he said: "Beijing, which until Defend Serbia tary defense of China against imperial­ 1978 was ideologically even more rigid Against U.S./NATO than Moscow, has since reversed its Attack!" ism includes, for instance, upholding its right to nuclear weapons. That, in short, course. Moving toward a market econ­ is our position on the brouhaha that's omy, it is, by classical Marxist standards, still being whipped up over the supposed hardly a communist country at all but an theft of nuclear secrets in the Los Ala­ mos laboratory. It is the United States ...." which not only has the world's largest Spartacist League nuclear arsenal but is the only country ever to use it, with the incineration of Public Offices 200,000 Japanese and Koreans living -MARXIST LlTERATURE­ in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Chicago Declaration of Principles and The U.S. has threatened repeatedly to Tues.: 5-9 p.m. and Sat.: 12-3 p.m. Some Elements of Program unleash nuclear terror against China, for 328 S. Jefferson St., Suite 904 Chicago,IL Phone: (312) 454-4930 International Communist instance during the Korean War of 1950- League (Fourth Internationalist) 2...-..-..I...... u.-.~a.l:_c-.....I ... 53. And even as Washington was scream­ Los Angeles l.a--...... -...... ing bloody murder over the so-called spy Saturday: 2-5 p.m...... ---··•• '-aa.e-.ea. at Los Alamos, Clinton was proposing an 3806 Beverly Blvd., room 215 (near Vermont) Adopted in 1998 at the .. l:Aa-..... _'1.1 .... Los Angeles, 'CA Phone (213) 380-8239 1.~_. Third International Conference .--.~ ...... • East Asian missile defense system which • ...... • .. ••·····••··•·•·•··•···•···•···· ..•.•..•...•. M would tie in Japan, South Korea and pos­ Oakland of the ICL...... , -----~...... " 11. "'-••A--1'a ... .• ~...... • Saturday: 1-5 p.m...... • sibly Taiwan. That was a direct threat to ...... -. -.--.... Jtl ...... 1634 Telegraph, 3rd Floor (near 17th Street) $1 (20 pages) China. Oilkland, CA Phone: (510) 839-0851 Now about the stuff about missiles and Make checks payable/mall to: , ---...IIL ... ,.....,~ ..... _ New York City spies. Let's give an example from history. Tues.: 6:30-8:30 p.m. and Sat.: 1-5 p.m. Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 ...... ,. =.-.::-<:: ~:~~~ - .- .r.e~ ~-'~.--.:.':: As communists, we honor the memory GPO, New York, NY 10116 - __ 299 Broadway, Suite 318 (north of Chambers St.) of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg-heroic New York, NY Phone: (212) 267-1025 , .) people who were executed in 1953 as 6 WORKERS VANGUARD authoritarian state with a governing party Street Journal coming out and hailing that chooses to call itself communist." - the premier of what used to be called And he warns: "A Sino-American Cold Red China and denouncing the American War would, in fact, produce a classic no­ president. win situation for both sides." Kissinger The Beijing bureaucracy right now was a trailblazer in the U.S.-China "rap­ preaches that through free-market meas­ prochement," going there in 1970 to cut a ures they can catapult China to become deal with the Mao regime directed against the next century's first new superpower. the Soviet Union. Kissinger wants to keep This is a utopian and reactionary notion. the Chinese regime on a pro-Western. A capitalist China would be an arena course moving toward capitalist restora­ of intense imperialist rivalry, with the tion. And to that end, he is quite prepared U.S., Japan and other imperialist powers to brandish military threats: "A serious fighting for the spoils, for who would be American policy will hold China to that the main exploiter of that country. It is undertaking. The American record in two worth remembering that the Pacific War world wars, as well as in the Korean and between the U.S. and Japan in World War Gulf wars, should leave no doubt about II was fought largely over which imperi­ our seriousness in this regard." alist power would control China. Imperialist spokesmen like Kissinger A capitalist China would mean untold look to the Stalinist regime to carry out a misery for the vast working-class and cold restoration of capitalism-and that's peasant masses. Already, the "iron rice precisely the program of the Stalinists bowl" system of guaranteed jobs, hous­ Peter Turnley themselves. It's pretty clear that the pro­ ing and benefits has been shattered. With May 1989: Workers contingent arrives in Tiananmen Square. Entry of tests outside the American embassy in state industries being privatized, every proletariat into mass student protests heralded inCipient political revolution. Beijing were orchestrated by the Chinese year several million workers are being government. In so doing, they tried to thrown out of work, told to fend for the kind of future facing the Chinese out daily throughout the country. The present themselves as "anti-imperialist." themselves in the growing private sector. masses if counterrevolution succeeds. anger of the workers is captured in this This is the most eJlormous hypocrisy. So side by side with yuppies making In his 1936 book The Revolution statement by a woman who lost her job When Chinese premier ~hu Rongji came money in Shanghai, Beijing and other Betrayed, which I encourage everybody in a state-owned textile factory in Shang­ here to read, Leon Trotsky posed point­ hai: "It's the laid-off workers who are blank: "Will the bureaucrat devour the the poor ones, not the factory leaders­ workers' state, or will the working class their pockets are full." It's become com­ clean up the bureaucrat? Thus stands the mon for protesting workers to carry signs question upon whose decision hangs the reading simply, "We want to eat." The fate of the Soviet Union." Trotsky's point countryside is also wracked with unrest. was confirmed in the negative in the In January, thousands of peasants in USSR, where after decades of Stalinist Hunan province demonstrated against misrule, capitalist counterrevolution tri­ the corruption of government officials. umphed. This was a historic defeat for the Hundreds of police were called out, kill­ working class internationally. It threw the ing one protester. working people of the former USSR back What is needed is the mobilization of to conditions of miserable poverty and the proletariat-at the head of the poor hopelessness. It has unleashed nationalist peasants, women and all the oppressed­ bloodletting throughout the region. in a fight for political power to get rid of China is much further down the road to the venal Stalinist bureaucracy. The capitalist counterrevolution than was the beginnings of just such a struggle were Soviet Union in Trotsky's time. But that seen with the entry of the working class does not have to be the fate of the Chi­ into the Tiananmen protests in May-June nese masses. Last year, we published the 1989. As was underscored by that incipi­ International Communist League's "Dec­ ent political revolution, for the proletar­ laration of Principles and Some Elements iat to successfully fight for political of Program." We wrote: ''The essence power, it needs revolutionary leadership. Burke/ute Victorious People's Liberation Army enters Beijing, 1949. Mao Zedong's heirs of 'market reforms' counterrevolution in We seek to forge a Leninist-Trotskyist in Stalinist bureaucracy threaten destruction of remaining gains of the China is the bureaucracy seeking to vanguard party, recruited from the most Chinese Revolution. become partners in exploitation with cap­ advanced workers and left-wing intellec­ italist forces and especially the Chinese tuals. To that end, we've translated our to the United States in April, he didn't Cities, you have tens of millions of capitalists who were not destroyed as a documents like the ICL's "Declaration of make a peep of protest about U.S. aggres: unemployed workers. In the hinterland, class (as were their Russian counterparts Principles" into Chinese. sion against Serbia, even though that's the it's even grimmer. In 1997, a World Bank after October 1917) but continued to Against both the nationalism fostered official Chinese position. He had more study reported that most Chinese peas­ function in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singa­ by the Stalinist bureaucracy and illu­ important things on his mind: to strike a ants live on an income of about $1 per pore and elsewhere." "This course," we sions in Western-style bourgeois democ­ deal with Clinton for China's entry into day. With the return of private farming, wrote, "cannot be accomplished without racy, we stress the need for a proletarian­ the World Trade Organization. What that some 100 million or more people from breaking the resistance of the militant internationalist perspective. As we wrote would mean, and they're still working at the countryside have flocked to cities working class." in "China on the Brink" (Spartacist it, is throwing China's domestic market and towns looking for work. And that's the critical question. Capi­ [English-language edition] No. 53, Sum- wide open to foreign profiteers. Adding to that situation is the collapse talist restoration in China would require mer 1997): . Clinton backed off from a deal with in trade with the capitalist countries of the consolidation of a new, counterrevo­ ''To smash the threat of capitalist re­ enslavement and open the road to a Zhu, bowing to the anti-China lobby in Southeast Asia, because of the economic lutionary state apparatus, one that is socialist future, Chinese workers must which the American anti-communist labor crisis that still wracks that area. Those committed to defending private owner­ look to the international class struggle. It bureaucracy is in the forefront. But busi­ taken with the myth of the free market ship of the means of production. But the is by linking their fight for political rev­ ness leaders started screaming, because should look at what happened in coun­ force standing in the way of that happen­ olution with the struggle to smash capi­ talist rule from Indonesia and South they saw a lost opportunity to extend their tries like Indonesia in the last couple of ing is the Chinese working class. Today, Korea to Japan and the U.S. that the Chi­ enormous inroads on the Chinese main­ years. With the economic collapse there, even Chinese government spokesmen nese proletariat will form the bridge to land during the past 20 years. It was you have mass unemployment, starvation, admit that strikes, sit-ins, marches and the socialist future." really quite a spectacle. You had the Wall horrific interethnic bloodshed. And that's other forms of labor protest have broken [TO BE CONTINUED]

/SPARTACJSTr-: ~ Spartacist ~5:I J:MftI ...... __ •• SUMMER 1.7 (English Edition)

No. 53 Summer 1997 (56 pages) $1.50 Taiwanese-owned electronics factory in Guangdong province, part of massive capitalist incursions in Original Documents Published from SOViet Archives China over last Trotsky's Fight Against Stalinist Betrayal two decades. of Bolshevik Revolution SEe PAGE 38 Make checks payable/mall to: Spartacist Publishing Co. ReVOlutionary Regroupment or Box 1377 GPO Centrist Alchemy? New York, NY 10116 SEE PAGE II - ..... "" ... ""'1'"

28 MAY 1999 7 Heyman who sycophantically proclaimed Opportunism ... San Francisco Labor Council head Wal­ ter Johnson-a pillar of the Demo­ (continued from page 5) cratic Party in the city and a staunch sup­ IBT supporters Bob Mandel and Andrew porter of Willie Brown's re-election as ("Drew") Bonthius, organizers along with mayor-"our secret weapon." It was Heyman of the LAC. Here we have the Heyman, the IBT and the rest of the LAC truth of the matter: Heyman endorses the who, at the March 6 "Millions for call for a new trial while trying to conceal Mumia" conference in Berkeley, led the this fact from longshoremen and the read­ charge against our revolutionary criticism ers of WV. Thus he and his centrist apol­ precisely on the question of the call for a ogists are revealed as the most despicable "new trial." swindlers of the working class whose lies only prove that they are not to be trusted. Who "Minimized" IlWU Despite their long list of endorsements, Action for Mumia? the only union contingent at the April 24 march was the small ILWU contingent. Anyone reading Heyman, the IBT and the IG would think the ILWU ranks had Marching at the head with its "Free WV Photos been genuinely mobilized for a political Mumia" banner, this contingent was cyni­ San Francisco, April 24: Jack strike on Jamal's behalf. They all squawk cally conceived as camouflage for the Heyman (left) mouths not one iota over our statement that: rally's real purpose. And the "Labor Con­ of criticism of Democratic Party or "new trial" slogan. IG's Jan Norden "Despite the obvious efforts of the tingent" organized by the IBT-which or­ at rally, peddling centrist apologies ILWU bureaucrats to minimize the cost gani!-ed virtually no one other than them­ for Heyman and class collaboration. to the company. to pull the thousands selves-was their fake-labor fa~ade for of longshoremen coastwide off the job, this bourgeois-liberal mobilization that ob­ even if only for a few hours, would scenely made Mumia a poster boy for the be a powerful statement of the social This was the program behind the April 24 cence and disappear any call to free him. power that can and must be mobilized inherent justice of capitalist "democracy." mobilization and this is what Heyman, In New York, these Democratic Party in broader actions-from mass labor­ Tacking the slogan "Free Mumia"onto the IBT and the IG are trying to conceal: liberals tried to put themselves at the centered protest'!; to political strikes-for the call for a "new trial" is not warning unity with people who think that Mumia front of the outrage over the Diallo kill­ Jamal's freedom." the workers about illusions of justice in is guilty and who have no problem with ing in order to contain it and to preserve The tremendous potential impact of the capitalist courts, it is deceiving the his being executed so long as he first gets the authority of the racist cops and "clean the longshore work stoppage was indeed workers with such illusions in the service a "fair trial." This was made disgustingly up" their image. In San Francisco, Brown minimized in every way. It was con­ of the Dtcommunity organizing." One of our IBT. In 1984, Keylor, then on the Local seen either by the PDC or by the union or bureaucracy in deceiving the workers. last fights with ILWU Local 10 member 10 exec board, helped the bureaucrats union official as a standing endorsement Many in Local lO's heavily black mem­ Howard Keylor, before he broke politi­ scuttle a union boycott of the Nedlloyd for subsequent events and certainly not as bership identify with Jamal's cause and cally with the SL and became a supporter Kimberley, a ship carrying South African a blank check or part of a 'list' to be want the union to take action in his of the External Tendency, was over his cargo, which had been called in solidar­ passed around to any organization upon defense. As the house "leftist" in the association with racist Portland ILWU ity with embattled black workers fight­ request." leadership of Local 10, Heyman makes it officials who had for years kept blacks ing the hated apartheid regime. As editor As shown by the long list of "labor his job to keep this impulse within out of their longshore local. This group of Workers Vanguard, Norden edited endorsements" pushed by the LAC, Hey­ bounds acceptable to the bourgeoisie. also denounced the SL for honoring the an article on that betrayal headlined: man & Co. clearly didn't need the PDC Heyman is well-practiced at this job. victims of the 1985 government bombing "ILWU Anti-Apartheid Action Sabotaged for names of union officials. Heyman's When the ILWU leadership wants to do of the MOVE home in Phihide1phia. -Labor Traitors and Their Lacl).eys" request, made in the name of something something that will make it look good Now the IBT's missive comes right out (WV No. 374, 8 March 1985). Last year, called "The Rank-and-File ILWU Com­ to its members without violating the no­ and argues that Mumia can get justice the IG raised a criticism of the Neptune mittee to Defend Mumia Abu-Jamal," strike clause or other legal restraints, from the capitalist courts, stating that "it Jade "picket" similar to ours. But now was never intended as anything other Heyman and his "leftist" buddies like is not impossible that a new trial could Norden hails this as a "legitimate action than a club to bad-mouth the PDC as the IBT will come in and set up an "unof­ result in an acquittal." They denounce the of labor solidarity" as he cynically rallies "sectarian." (Les Friedman had earlier ficial picket line"-like with the Nep­ statement by a spokesman for the Labor to defend Heyman's "honor" against the made the same demand to the PDC on tune Jade in September 1997 in solidar­ Black League quoted in our article that a SL, praising this labor opportunist for behalf of the IBT's "Labor Action Com­ ity with locked-out dockers in Liverpool, new trial is "going to be exactly the same having the "gumption to speak out" mittee.") And that's the only use to England. Such stunts just reinforce the frame-up bullshit that happened the first against us on Brazil. which this phony request has ever been line foisted on the workers by the pro­ time." Why then is the PDC's Rachel In Heyman, Norden sees a kindred put-first at the March 6 Berkeley con­ capitalist bureaucracy that the union can't Wolken stein involved in Mumia's legal spirit. Norden and his clot broke with ference "labor workshop," where Hey­ break the law-Le., its no-strike commit­ defense, they demand. Because while the us when we moved to break fraternal man and his friends used it to slander the ment to the bosses. The ILWU leader- IBT treated Mumia and MOVE as pari- relations with a group in Brazil which PDC as an obstacle to Mumia's defense, proved to be more interested in holding and in the current contributions by Hey­ onto union office in a cop-riddled union man and his twin tails. than in building the revolutionary party. Heyman then tries to cause trouble Why shouldn't the IG alibi appeals by between the PDC and ILWU Interna­ trade-union opportunists to the justice tional president Brian McWilliams by of the capitalist courts? The IG has spent putting words in our mouths when he much of the last three years trying challenges in his letter, "What is the name to cover up for the fact that this Brazil­ of that leading bureaucrat? ILWU Inter­ ian group which is now its affiliate, the national President Brian McWilliams." Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil No, his name is Jack Heyman. In our (LQB), has dragged the SFPMVR munic­ eyes, Heyman is a lot worse than McWil­ ipal workers union in Volta Redonda liams, because he pretends to be some­ through the capitalist courts three times thing different, a left-talking friend of the as part of a squalid fight for control of the workers who is more radical than McWil­ union against an equally unprincipled liams. McWilliams makes no bones about bureaucratic faction. Norden's group has his politics. He is a Democrat and proud never answered our challenge to publish of it. In this he is no worse than the rest the documentation of these court suits of the American labor bureaucracy, and­ (court case numbers 30.831, 30.832, when it comes to Mumia's defense­ 30.833). better than many others who did not raise WV Photo August 1995 labor-centered Oakland protest for Mumia Abu-Jamal initiated Brazil is far enough away that Norden their voices against Jamal's threatened can deny anything because no one except execution in 1995, as McWilliams did at by poe was part of international campaign which stayed Jamal's execution. Marxists look to social power of integrated labor movement, not to capitalist us will take the trouble to go there to a PDC-initiated protest. "justice" system. prove him a liar, as we have done (see For his part, Heyman said nothing on "Lies, Damned Lies and Anti-Union April 24 when McWilliams lauded the ship's refusal to mobilize union power to ahs, the PDC has fought to pull every Lawsuits: IG's Brazil Fraud Exposed" ILWU's refusal to load scrap iron to picket out the Neptune Jade emboldened legal lever to win his freedom, while and "IG's Brazil Cover-up: Dirty Hands, Japan in 1938-a chauvinist act of sup­ the PMA bosses, who responded with a stressing-in the words of International Cynical Lies," WV Nos. 669 and 671, 30 port for the U.S. bourgeoisie's mobiliza­ sinister witchhunt aimed at the union and Labor Defense founder James P. Cannon May and 11 July 1997). But now he has tion for interimperialist war over domi­ its officers (see "Bay Area Longshore -that we place "all faith in the power of shown his true colors here by making nation of the Pacific. On the contrary, in Union Under Attack-Defend Supporters the masses and no faith whatever in the common cause against the revolutionary building for April 24, Heyman repeat­ of Liverpool Dockers!" [WV No. 681, 2 justice of the courts." Even Jamal's legal Spartacist League and the PDC with this edly invoked the ILWU's "long history January 1998]). papers call for his immediate freedom! labor bureaucrat in leftist clothing, Jack of taking stands for social justice" and When the handful of SL cadre who Heyman, who uses the ILWU to further the image of "progressive unionism" cul­ A Short S.yphilitic Chain formed the IG split from our organiza­ his career as a deceiver of the workers. tivated by the ILWU leadership, expli­ tion in 1996, they protested indignantly Through our propaganda and our labor­ citly harking back to the days of Harry While Heyman openly supports the when we called them "the IBT of the centered united-front mobilizations, our Bridges. What this means is talking "pro­ pro-Democratic Party labor bureaucracy Nineties." Yet here they are now joining class-struggle defense work aims to bring gressive" as you sell out the workers. and endorses the call for a "new trial," the the IBT in their groveling suPport to to the proletariat the necessary conscious­ During World War II, Bridges, in line IBT and IG cover for Heyman-not a Heyman's treacherous role. The IBT and ness of the nature of the capitalist state with the politics of the Stalinist Commu­ very long edition of what Trotsky referred the IG play the classic role of centrists: and of the centrality of the fight for black nist Party (CP), enforced a no-strike to as the "syphilitic chain" in which cen­ directing all their fire against the left in freedom to socialist revolution in this pledge as part of his ardent support for trists and reformists are key links in tying order to alibi the right. As Trotsky put it country. We aim to break illusions in the U.S. imperialism-painting this imperi­ the working class to the racist, capitalist in his 1934 article "Centrism and the Democrats and bring home the under­ alist war for plunder .and profits as a prder. The IBT says it "prefers" the call Fourth International": "A centrist always standing that the working people need "war against fascism." The Stalinists also to free Mumia"":"-as though it were simply remains in spiritual dependence on right­ their own class party, a revolutionary opposed any struggle for black equality a matter of taste-whi~e echoing Hey­ ist groupings and is inclined to cringe workers party. What Heyman and his during the war. man's denunciation of our "sectarian oppo­ before those who are more moderate, to "left" lawyers do is reinforce the obsta­ The "progressive" Bridges continued sition" to the "new trial" mobilizations. remain silent on their opportunist sins cles to mobilizing the social power of his services to the capitalists and the Norden, in his typically slimy manner, and to coverup their actions before the the working class on Jamal's behalf, and shipping companies in later years. He portrays the ILWU work stoppage as inde­ workers." . in every cause of the exploited and imposed a no-strike clause in the ILWU pendent from the April 24 demonstration The kind of maneuvering practiced oppressed. Their road serves the capi­ contract. He enforced speed-up through by simply "disappearing" the demonstra­ by Heyman to prevent mobilizing union talist masters; ours the fight for a the "Modernization and Mechanization" tion in the pages of his Internationalist. power has long been the preserve of the socialist future._ contracts-which he called a "beautiful But Norden certainly knew of the demon­ piece of class collaboration"-that elim­ stration: in San Francisco, he marched inated tens of thousands of jobs. He insti­ shoulder to shoulder with Heyman in this tutionalized the discriminatory division mobilization for capitalist '~ustice," though between A-men and B-men, as well as the he didn't bother to sell the International­ obstacles that keep thousands of casuals ist at the longshore stop-work meetings out of the union. This is the tradition Hey­ which he claimed we denigrated. Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League man embraces. We oppose the B-list cat­ For years, the IBT refused to get any­ egory, which ghettoizes a large segment where near Mumia's case, taking it up only 0$10/22 issues of Workers Vanguard 0 New 0 Renewal of the ILWU membership, and fight for when the international campaign which (includes English-language Spartacist and Black History and the Class Struggle) full union rights for all longshoremen. stayed Jamal's execution in 1995 made international rates: $25/22 issues-Airmail $10/22 issues-Seamail Heyman did, too, when he was still ani­ Mumia's cause popular among the refor­ o $2/6 introductory issues of Workers Vanguard (includes English-language Spartacist) mated by the Trotskyist program. But mists and liberals. The IBT's hostility to now his loyalties lie elsewhere. the fight against black oppression was o $2/4 issues of Espartaco (en espanol) (includes Spanish-language Spartacist) Heyman represents a type familiar in evident from this group's inception in Name ______the labor movement since the 1930s: the the early 1980s. After the SL initiated a ex-radical who, because of his own pessi­ 5,OOO-strong labor/black mobilization that Address ______mism regarding the revolutionary capac­ stopped a KKK march in Washington, D.C. Apt. # __ Phone ( __ ) ______ity of the working class, abandons the in November 1982, the IBT's forerunner, struggle fm workers revolution in favor the External Tendency, sneered that our City State Zip ------=-c - black-centered proletarian perspective was 714 of a career in the pro-capitalist labor Make checks payable/mall to: Spartaclst Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 bur~aucracy. He knows how to talk the a retreat from "the working class" in favor 28 MAY 1999 9 present memory of its humiliating defeat Serbia ... by the revolutionary struggle of the Viet­ namese workers and peasants in the (continued from page 1) 1960s and early '70s. In parallel fashion, by 90 percent, the NATO bombing threat­ the fake left in this country calls for "No ens to plunge the Serbian population More Vietnams" and harks back to the Join the March on the Pentagon peace crawls of that period, which were into epidemics of dysentery and other Gather at lila VieInam Votarana Memorial. Woshlngtoo. DC diseases. Last week, NATO warplanes politically dominated by the craven ref­ .JUNE 5 • 12 NOON ormists of the Socialist Workers Party bombed a prison in Kosovo, which they Money 101' Jobs & Educallon lyingly claimed was serving as an army -not WAR (SWP). 1.\S.oWA1Q .... _ ... --- -~ .... - .. ""',.,...."' .... barracks, killing 19 people. The previ­ ==-...:::r.::.,,::-~___... _.CM...... ='=:.~.:.';!::=-"':_... __ While tens of thousands repeatedly

-~ _ ...... -.-... ,...... -.""'--' ...1oo4.~oooI,...... __ ...... ous day, U.S. bombers hit a Belgrade hos­ ~ ... _.__ .JUm) 1000_ us.-._ ...... __ ..... _ marched against the Vietnam War in _onI ...... -. .. _ ..._._ ...... _ ..... ~ _____ .... _"NJ" .... _ pital, killing four pe~ple. As rescue work­ ..... "'-... _"' .. _.... __ ...... -,. Washington, D.C. and other cities, the --.-....., ...... _-... ---.-.-...... _...... - ".-...... ~- SWP kept the demonstrations limited to ers carried wounded women from the =ra~=~ ~_rA_a._ maternity ward, one remarked bitterly: _1Ioo-.", .. -._o!I. • pressure on Democratic Party liberals :==-1Iooa"'MA1U._._~·__ '-_ =..== __ l'II "This is of course a military target if you with "single-issue" slogans like "Out just take the longer view. In 20 years or Now!" That demand was an undisguised so, these babies will be soldiers." Serbian chauvinist banners appeal to imperialist "doves," exemplified at New York "antiwar" rally For all the boasting about "precision by Democratic Senator Vance Hartke, organized by Workers who sat on the steering committee of the bombing," NATO bombs last week dam­ World. WWP promotes aged the official residences of the am­ Serbian nationalism while SWP-dominated National Peace Action bassadors to Belgrade from Sweden, appealing to imperialist Coalition (NPAC). A wing of the capital­ Switzerland, India and several other rulers for more "humane" ist ruling class increasingly realized countries, as well as the Libyan and pOlicies. that, especially after the Sino-Soviet split Israeli embassies. A few days later, war­ and the 1965 crushing of the Indonesian planes blasted a base ofthe Kosovo Lib­ Times (20 May) declared that "if the general Kofi Annan appointed two spe­ Communist Party, an anti-Communist eration Army auxiliaries of the NATO negotiations falter or fail, NATO should cial envoys to participate in negotiations restabilization of Southeast Asia was pos­ imperialist forces. have other options available," and con­ with Belgrade, he was curtly told by U.S. sible without pursuing the losing Vietnam The U.S.INATO bombing of Serbia is cluded that "preparations for an invasion officials that an occupation force in adventure. no "humanitarian" mission to defend the should move ahead." Kosovo will "under no circumstances" The Spartacists alone fought for a pro­ Albanians of Kosovo, as the imperialists As British Labour prime minister Tony be under UN control and that the UN gram aimed at mobilizing the working cynically claim. The U.S. rulers are wag­ Blair campaigned aggressively for send­ should '!be content with its own business, class in struggle against the U.S. capital­ ing a war of aggression against a tiny ing ground troops into Kosovo, German that is, humanitarian questions" (Le ist rulers. We called for the military vic­ country to project their military power in Social Democratic chancellor Gerhard Monde, 9 May). tory of the Vietnamese National Libera­ the Balkans while maintaining Wash­ SchrOder declared that "sending in Two political advertisements in the tion Front while at the same time warning ington's position as top dog against its ground troops is unthinkable. This is West Coast edition of the New York against the nationalist policies of the imperialist rivals. We seek the defeat of our position and it won't change in the Times (13 May) bracket the cunent Stalinist bureaucracy in Hanoi. Our reso­ U.S. imperialism through the revolution­ future." SchrOder was reportedly furious spread of bourgeois opinion on the impe­ lute class solidarity with the Vietnamese ary mobilization of the American work­ that, as a result ofthe U.S. bombing of the rialist bombardment of Serbia. One workers and peasants and our calls for ing class. We stand for military defense Chinese embassy in Belgrade, his trip to signed by the "Balkan Action Council" working-class action-including political of Serbia against U.S.INATO attack Beijing as new chairman of the European proclaims that "Only Ground Troops Will strikes-in the U.S. against the war pro­ and demand the withdrawal of all imperi­ Union became an occasion for apologies. End Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo" and vided the objective bases for uniting rad­ alist troops from the Balkans. At the Earlier this month, a conference of calls for the "establishment of a NATO­ ical students, trade unionists and the same time, we give no political support SchrOder's coalition partners, the Greens, safeguarded international protectorate for black population around opposition to to the bloody regime of nationalist Ser­ narrowly rejected a motion calling for an Kosovo." Its signatories range from sin­ U.S. imperialism. bian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and unconditional end to the bombings, ister right-wing types like former We politically opposed the petty­ we fight for a socialist federation of the which would have forced them to quit the national security adviser Zbigniew Brze­ bourgeois "draft resistance" movement Balkans through proletarian revolutions government. Greece and Italy have defied zinski to liberal writer Susan Sontag and by socially privileged college students. throughout the region. Washington by calling for a pause in the rad-chic celeb Bianca Jagger. We maintained that, if drafted, antiwar As the bombing enters its third month, bombing. Meanwhile, Russia and China The other, titled "10 Reasons to Stop activists should go into the army, to the New York Times (21 May) reports insist on a halt to the bombing as a pre­ Bombing Yugoslavia," was placed by the explain to their fellow soldiers that they that NATO leaders "feel they have to have condition for any UN Security Council "California Peace Action Education were being forced to fight and perhaps a military breakthrough or a diplomatic vote on an imperialist "peace" deal. Fund," which is composed of the Quak­ die in a racist imperialist war and to breakthrough. Everyone is tired of this." Tensions among the NATO partners ers, the social-democratic Los Angeles organize opposition among working­ Divisions within the capitalist ruling class have also flared over the question of who Committee of Correspondence and other class youth within the military against in this country and among the NATO would lead an occupation force. Ger­ radical-liberal pacifist types who want a the capitalist rulers. Toward the end of powers have become increasingly open. many and France had earlier pushed for kinder, more gentle imperialism. Com­ the war, U.S. troops in Vietnam were in In Washington, the House voted early this occupation under the banner of the plaining about a "double standard," they fact becoming semi-mutinous. month that Clinton must seek Congres­ United Nations or the Organization for ask: "Why are we not taking action to In the unions, among antiwar activists, sional approval before sending ground Security and Cooperation in Europe stop Turkey's violent repression" of on the campuses, among soldiers, the troops into Kosovo and, on a tie vote, (OSCE), a European-dominated alliance, Kurds. Presumably, they favor a single small forces of the Spartacist League rejected a resolution supporting the air as a way of undercutting U.S. influence "standard" for imperialist terror bomb­ fought for the principled program of class strikes against Serbia. At the same time, in the region. The Clinton administration ing. They also complain about the money struggle which, if it had become rooted in Democratic Party liberals in particular are responded by angrily insisting that any being "wasted" on missiles and bombs the working masses, wnuld have given increasingly calling to prepare an inva­ military force in Kosovo must be under instead of being spent on ','humanitarian powerful assistance to the Vietnamese sion of Kosovo. A recent editorial in the NATO command. When UN secretary relief efforts." Echoing the European Revolution and laid the basis for creating social democrats, they urge Clinton to a revolutionary workers party in this "work towards the immediate deploy­ in the Balkans today. Still riding the coat­ country. ment of non-military peacekeepers" Groups like the ISO and WWP today LO Fete ... tails of its own bourgeoisie, now LO tries through the OSCE or the UN. to silence the ICL's revolutionary opposi­ aim to build a new version of NPAC by (continued from page 3) Both these ads start from the stand­ appealing to liberal bourgeois sentiment. tion to the war and to the capitalist gov­ point of what is best for U.S. imperialism. That's why those looking for a genuine ernments waging the war. But the imperialists today are not, as they This is also the terrain of fake-left groups were in the '60s in Vietnam, engaged in a Trotskyist party were interested in the We will not be silenced by LO's in this country like the International ICL at the LO fete. Immediately prior to goons. The entire workers movement and losing war to crush a social revolution. In Socialist Organization (ISO) and the fact, the liberals are today the chief war LO's despicable thuggery, an Italian ICL especially LO members themselves must Workers World Party (WWP). Like the comrade urged tete participants to sup­ protest this outrage. At bottom, this vio­ hawks. Consequently, much of the left rad-lib ad cited above, one of the main not only refuses to call for the defense of port the campaign of material aid to the lence is a desperate attempt to shield LO reasons the ISO offers for a bombing halt workers of the Zastava car plant and other members from open political debate and Serbia and the defeat of the U.S.INATO is that it has strengthened Milosevic imperialists, but even downplays the call factories bombed by imperialism, a cam­ a clash of views which is vital to politi­ instead of weakening him. The ISO joins paign which was initiated by Italian syn­ cally clarify differences within the work­ for withdrawal of U.S.INATO troops the rad-Iibs in deploring U.S. "hypocrisy" from the Balkans, Lenin described as dicalists. Many participants welcomed ers movement. Every year, LO's goons for not acting against ethnic or commu­ the opportunity to concretely express create a new scandal which reveals the "social-chauvinism" just such support to nalist massacres in Rwanda, Turkey, etc. the imperialist aims of the capitalist rul­ their opposition to their own bourgeoisie disgusting values of these French social­ The pages of both Workers World and the and their solidarity with the victims of the chauvinists. In 1992, the homophobic ing class under a smokescreen of "social­ ISO's Socialist Worker are full of plain­ ist" phrasemongering. U.S.INATO bombing. The last thing LO chauvinists denied ACT-UP a stand. tive calls on the capitalist rulers, such as NATO wants to see is a revolutionary For offering our stand to ACT-UP, the When the Cliffite Socialist Worker "Stop the Bombing" and spend "Money printed a rare call last month for NATO class struggle by Yugoslav workers ICL has been forever banned from hav­ for Jobs & Education-Not War." against the capitalist butcher Milosevic ing a stand of our own at the J-,O fete. In to "get out of the Balkans," we wrote: As Marxists, we understand that impe­ "What they really mean is that the UN (indeed the Zastava workers have a his­ recent years, LO's goons have repeatedly rialism is not a policy that can be tory of militant strikes). That, and our beaten up second-generation youth of 'international forces' should "eplace the "reformed" by pressuring a wing of the U.S.-led NATO forces" (WV No. 712, 30 proletarian internationalist fight for a North African origin and immigrants ruling class. It is a worldwide system of socialist federation of the Balkans to put who sought admission to the fete. Last April). And that is exactly what they exploitation and oppression-capitalism meant. Alex Callinicos, a leading spokes­ an end to the ethnic bloodletting which year, LO censored the Basque nationalist in its highest stage of development­ capitalist counterrevolution has wrought, organization Herri Batasuna. The ICL man for the British Socialist Workers which must be overthrown through inter­ Party, the ISO's patron, recently joined are things the imperialists seek to impede. has exposed and protested each and national socialist revolution. LO howled with the imperialist wolves every one of these atrocities. Don't wait Noam Chomsky and other liberal aca­ against the Soviet degenerated workers to find out who will be next on LO's hit ISO/WWP: Left Face of demics in signing a statement in the New state and cheered the forces of capitalist list. Act now! Stop LO's political gang­ American Liberal Imperialism Statesman (10 May) which declares: Behind the U.S. bourgeoisie's dread of "Nato is not the only or above all the counterrevolution across East Europe, sterism and thuggery! We urge all work­ best fulcrum for an agreement. One which set the stage for the all-sided com­ ers organizations to publicly condemn getting into a "quagmire" in the Balkans could find the eJemen,ts of a multi­ munalist bloodletting and imperialist war this cowardly and despicable violence!. is the "Vietnam syndrome," the ever- national police force (embracing nota- 10 WORKERS VANGUARD bly Serbs and Albanians) in the ranks has been the subject of a polemic by the come subordinated to the defense of Ser­ "progressive" side-for example, sup­ of the OSCE to enforce a transitional centrist Australian Workers Power (WP) bia against imperialist attack." porting the imperialist-backed Bosnian agreement." group-affiliated to the British group of Our position toward Kosovo today is Muslim forces in the three-sided com­ This is an open call for military interven­ the same name-in a pamphlet titled War analogous to that of Lenin's Bolsheviks munalist fratricide between Croats, Mus­ tion under the auspices of the OSCE, in the Balkans. WP is a classic example toward self-determination for Poland lims and Serbs in Bosnia. At bottom, reflecting the particular interests of the of what we have called "NATO social­ during the First World War. The right of WP's methodology is social-democratic, West European imperialist powers. ists." They formalIy claim to oppose Poland and other oppressed nations to based not on the historic class interests Meanwhile, the WWP has issued a NATO and defend Serbia-"though not secede from the Russian tsarist empire of the proletariat but on "classless" con­ calI for a June 5 "Stop Bombing Yugo­ in Kosova which they have no right to had been a central element of the Bol­ siderations (which camp is more or less slavia" demonstration in Washington, shevik program. However, with the out­ "democratic" or "genocidal," which best D.C. that doesn't even mention the word break of the war in 1914, the Polish left embodies a mythical "anti-imperialist imperialism. WWP even chose as its petty-bourgeois nationalist Josef Pilsud­ dynamic," etc.). This was prepared and starting point for the march the Vietnam ski organized military units which fought exemplified by years of support to Veterans Memorial, the· bourgeoisie's with the Austrian army against Russia social-democratic anti-Sovietism. . monument to its dirty, counterrevolution­ under the banner of restoring "Polish While nominally abandoning its erst­ ary war! The featured speaker will be independence." In the context of interim­ while Cliffite "third camp" anti-Soviet none other than Ramsey Clark, who was perialist war, Lenin rightly argued that line, during the Cold War of the 1980s attorney general for Democratic presi­ calIs for Poland's independence only WP joined with the Cliffites in support­ dent Lyndon Johnson as his administra­ served as a "democratic" cover for Ger­ ing such reactionary anti-Communist tion rained down napalm on the Viet­ man imperialism. forces as Solidarnosc in Poland, a move­ namese people. As head of the Justice The Workers Power pamphlet asserts ment of rabid nationalists and anti­ Department, Clark was the boss of J. in complete seriousness that "under the Semites masquerading as a trade union. Edgar Hoover's FBI as it was carrying pressure of opposing imperialist aggres­ And in 1991-92, they cheered on the out its murderous COINTELPRO opera­ sion the Spartacist League have aban­ "democratic" counterrevolution led by tion against black radicals. doned the Kosovars to their fate." WP Boris Yeltsin and supported by Washing­ Logically, the ISO and WWP should certainly hasn't given in to the "pres­ ton which destroyed the Soviet degener­ find themselves on opposite sides of the sure" of opposing imperialism! ated workers state. war in Kosovo. WWP walIows in Serb The UCK, continues the pamphlet, "is For all the "ethnic cleansing" of Alba­ chauvinism; its "antiwar" protests fea­ not yet reduced to merely 'an instrument nians that Milosevic has carried out in ture Serbian monarchist flags and chants of NATO' ." This is self-evident hogwash. Kosovo, he could never dream of equal­ of "Kosovo is Serbia." The ISO, although UCK leaders have repeatedly bragged to ing the horrors the American ruling class it has retreated from its patently pro­ Western journalists that they are serving has inflicted on the world-from the imperialist call of "independence for Ko­ WV Photo Spartacist League fights to forge in Kosovo as spotters, guiding U.SINATO bloody rape of the Philippines a century sovo," still pr~sents Milosevic as the revolutionary workers party. Anti­ warplanes to their targets. Dozens of Brit­ ago to the mass slaughter of Haitians in greatest evil in the Balkans and echoes imperialism abroad means class ish and American special forces are fight­ 1915, from the A-bombing of Hiroshima NATO war propaganda over the plight of struggle at home I ing alongside the smalI UCK forces. And and Nagasaki to the devastation that was the Kosovo Albanians. Yet the WWP and the UCK recently named as its leader a wreaked on Vietnam and North Korea in the ISO share a common policy of pres­ occupy," according to a British WP state­ former brigadier general in the Croatian Washington's counterrevolutionary wars suring U.S. imperialism, as seen in their ment distributed at a March 30 London army who helped plan-with the support to "roll back Communism," from the gen­ amicable coexistence at a May 19 anti­ meeting. But their support to the separa­ and colIusion of Washington-the 1995 ocidal massacre of workers and peasants war "teach-in" at the New School in New tist Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), "ethnic cleansing" of Serbs in the Krajina in Central America in the 1980s to the York City. After an ISO spea\<.er there which is simply a pawn of NATO, is region. ongoing murder and starvation of welI claimed to "condemn" those on the left nothing but support to the imperialists' WP is welI aware that the UCK is over a million Iraqis. And, as the current who "parrot" the ruling class, a Spartacist war aims in the Balkans. today an instrument of NATO. A few trial of the New York City cops who hid­ League member shot back from the floor: The Australian WP pamphlet cites our weeks ago they co-sponsored a "Peace eously tortured Haitian immigrant Abner "WiII you condemn the British Socialist statement in "Balkans Trip Wire" (WV in the Balkans Committee" meeting in Louima testifies, this is the same ruling Workers Party which called for a vote for London which featured a Kosovar Alba­ the Labour Party, that was 'over the No. 7lD, 2 April) that as early as 1976- class that wages a racist war-the so­ moon' when Tony Blair was elected when Yugoslavia and Albania were still nian spokesman who vociferously pro­ calIed "war on crime"-against blacks prime minister of Britain? And finally, . deformed workers states-we had de­ claimed that "we" support NATO becaUSe and other minorities in this country. wiII the ISO condemn the parroting of fended the national rights of the Albanian they are the only ones helping the Alba­ The capitalist system, based on the the imperialists that has been the hall­ nians. Serbia is the only imperialism I exploitation of the mass of the world's mark of the International Socialist people of Kosovo and Macedonia to Organization and the Socialist Workers secede and join Albania. WP says: "And see, she declared to the assembled "anti­ population for the benefit of a handful of Party, which sided with imperialism for yet today, when ethnic hatreds and imperialists," and if this is contrary to filthy rich, necessarily breeds poverty, the 50 years of the anti-Soviet Cold War nationalism are an even greater threat to your beliefs, please stay home. racism and war. The imperialists' tug-of­ drive that has resulted in counterrevolu­ proletarian unity in the Balkans, the Spar­ WP's support to the UCK goes to the . war over influence in the Balkans con­ tion in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, which has created this tacists will have no truck with this princi­ heart of its centrist politics, which are tains the germ of a future world war in nationalist bloodletting?" ple." It is revealing that the pamphlet defined by tailism toward the Labourite which all sides will be armed with never cites what we say about this in our social democrats who are today the most nuclear weapons. We seek to build revo­ Workers Power: Lawyers for article, namely: "With direct U.S.INATO rabid war hawks in Europe. In every con­ lutionary workers parties as part of a NATO's Albanian Pawns intervention on the side of the Kosovo flict between opposing petty-bourgeois reforged Fourth International to lead the Our principled Marxist opposition to Albanians in recent months, the question or bourgeois nationalist forces, Workers socialist revolutions which alone can put U.S.INATO imperialism in the Balkans of national self-determination has be- Power always searches for a so-calIed an end to this inhuman system.•

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Clinton's imperialist war against Serbia. Spartacist~ Forums __--, NYC Labor ... The social"democratic International (continued from page 12) Socialist Organization (ISO) enthused over the May 12 demonstration. Its and enhance their credibility. Thus, Socialist Worker (21 May) article had not Rivera and black Democrat Al Sharpton a'word about the presence of Democratic were key architects of a I O~point program Party pols or the cops. This is no surprise. For a Socialist Federation of the Balkans! for "police reform" which includes the The ISO supports "organizing" prison For more information: (213) 380-8239 demand for a pay raise for the cops. Sup­ guards and backs "rank-and-file" outfits .'.}1,U@3'*. porting better pay and "working condi­ like Teamsters for a Democratic Union Saturday, June 5, 4 p.m. Echo Park United Methodist Church tions" for the police-echoing the PBA's and the DC 37 "Committee for Real 1226 N. Alvarado St. (Two blocks north of Sunset) demand for "No More Zeros" in the next Change," whose stock in trade is dragging contract- simply emboldens these thugs. the unions into the bosses courts. Mean­ The political character of the May 12 while, the ISO tails the police whitewash Trotskyist League/Ligue trotskyste Forum ralIy was made amply clear by the refor­ efforts of SharptonlRivera by pushing a mist Communist Party (CP), which "Citywide Network Against Police Vio­ waxed ecstatic that it was a continuation lence" with its own "lD-point program" of the "alI-people's fight to defeat Sen. whose main difference is that it does not Alfonse D' Amato and elect Chuck Schu­ call for more pay for the cops. TORONTO For more information: (416) 593-4138 mer," an aggressively pro-cop "law and The police cannot be reformed; they order" Democrat (People's Weekly World, must be swept away through a socialist Saturday, June 5, 7:30 p.m. International Student Centre 8 May). The CP has been pushing the revolution which smashes the capitalist 33 St. George St. (North of College St.) Democrats as "friends of labor" for more state and installs a workers governme~t to than six decades. But the Democrats are expropriate the bourgeoisie and place the no less a party of capitalism and racism means of production in the hands of the than the Republicans. Former NYC working class. The Spartacist League mayor David Dinkins laid off thousands fights to break workers and minorities of city workers while putting more cops from the Democratic Party in order to on the streets. And Clinton has presided build the revolutionary workers party over the devastation of welfare, a vast needed to lead the proletariat to the sei­ TORONTO NEW YORK expansion of the death penalty and one zure of state power. Working people after another imperialist military inter­ create the wealth on which the Wall Street Saturday, June 12, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 10, 7:30 p.m. vention overseas. Demonstrating their moguls gorge. Only when those who Trinity-St. Paul's Centre 322 W. 48th St., Club Room craven fealty to the bloody capitalist labor rule will that wealth be used to pro­ 427 BloorSt. West (1 blk. w. of Spadina Stn.) (bet. 8th & 9th Aves., take E or C to 50th St.) order, not one of the labor tops at the May vide decent jobs, housing, education and For more information: (416) 593-4138 For more information: (212) 267-1025 12 ralIy uttered a peep of criticism of medical care for aIL_ 28 MAY 1999 11 WfJ/lllE/IS """,/11) NYC Labor Rally: Angry Ranks, Sellout, Bureaucrats

NEW YORK-On May 12, up to 50,000 members of New York City trade unions flooded the streets of downtown Manhat­ tan in the biggest labor demonstration Cops, Courts Out of the Unions! seen here in decades. The turnout was fueled by anger over years of wage freezes imposed on municipal workers, over union-busting "workfare" which has meant slashing over 20,000 city jobs and forcing desperate welfare recipients to do the work, over rampant cop terror exemplified by the recent death-squad­ style execution of black African Amadou Diallo. But the union bureaucrats organ­ ized this rally not as a display of labor's social power against the city rulers but as a political mobilization for the capitalist Democratic Party. The ciass-collaborationist aims of the union tops were reflected not only in the presence of numerous Democratic Party mayoral hopefuls on the speaker's platform but in the invitation to the police "unions" to be an official part of this labor rally. This was a slap in the face to every unionist who has seen the business end of a billy club while picketing, and especially to the black and Hispanic workers who make up the bulk of the municipal unions' membership and know that anyone of them could have been in Amadou Diallo's shoes when he was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets. Espe­ Gribbon/Chief-Leader Erwitt/NY Daily News cially coming amid the trial of the five Racist, strikebreaking cops were invited by labor tops to join May 12 rally, where police manhandled union protesters. cops who brutalized Haitian immigrant Abner Louima two years ago, the labor tract. Virtually every major union official chief Stanley Hill and school cafeteria Even as cop spokesmen addressed the tops' embrace of the police as "union in New York supported Giuliani's re­ workers' union president Charles Hughes rally, the police engaged in repeated prov­ brothers" is aimed at deflecting outrage election in 1997; even Service Employ­ were plenty crooked-and arch-sellouts ocations against union members, penning over cop terror. While Patrolmen's Benev­ ees (SEIU) Local 1199 head' Dennis -but the aim of government intervention them in and sealing off entire streets to olent Association (PBA) chief James Sav­ Rivera, a former leader of the state Dem­ is not to "clean up" the unions but to pedestrians, including those trying to join age was presented as part of the "team," ocratic Party machine, remained for­ weaken them and-place them even more the demonstration. When the cops waded groups of protesters jeered when he mally "neutral" in the election while firmly under the thumb of the capitalist into the crowd at the corner of Warren and spoke. "I know his team. His team are appearing alongside Giuliani at a press state. We say: Labor must clean its own Broadway, shoving and manhandling pro­ killers," yelled one Teamsters member. conference. With Wall Street booming house! Government hands 'off the unions! testers, the labor bureaucrats' cozy unity Welcoming the capitalist rulers' hired and thanks to the sellout contracts Cops out of the labor movement! with the police "unions" was almost shat­ thugs into this demonstration was an enforced by the union tops, the city and Now with the despised Giuliani's term tered amid outrage by minority and white obscene display of the union misleaders' state governments are rolling in a $5 bil­ in City Hall coming to an end, the labor workers alike. As workers shoved back, class loyalties. For years, tl,tey have been lion surplus. But when the bureaucrats, tops are out to refurbish their image, and shouting "Union! Union!" in the face of in the hip pocket of Republican mayor with contract talks coming up, asked for the pro-Democratic Party wing of the the police, it brought to mind the 40,000- Rudolph Giuliani, positively bragging.at "A Fair Share for Working Families" NYC labor bureaucracy is intent on reas­ strong construction workers march last the rally how they had shoved through a after years of enforcing "sacrifice," Giu­ serting the whip hand. The chief organ­ year which erupted in running battles wage freeze, not to mention massive job liani told them to drop dead. izers of the May 12 rally were Rivera, between trade unionists and retreating cuts, "workfare" and other attacks on liv­ In the last year, a spate of government the AFSCME International bureaucracy cops. The cops are not, workers but an ing standards and union conditions. Wil­ anti-union "corruption" investigations which has taken control of DC 37 and integral part of the capitalist state appara­ lie James, head of Transport Workers has led to the ouster of a layer of Giuliani the teachers union; in fact, it was United tus which exists to repress the working Union Local 100, whose 35,000 mem­ allies from the NYC labor officialdom. Federation of Teachers president Randi class. The role of the police "unions" is bers keep the city running, imposed a SEIU Local 32B-32J janitors' head Gus Weingarten who was instrumental in to further their bonapartist appetites "workfare" provision in the union con- Bevona, AFSCME District Council 37 bringing the cops in. against any constraints on their murder­ There was a palpable divide at the ous terror. How this plays out was seen in rally between predominantly minority the violent, racist cop riot against former unions like DC 37 and Local 1199 hos­ mayor David Dinkins in 1992, which cat­ pital workers, who mobilized heavily, apulted Giuliani into City Hall. and the largely white skilled trades. Even Rivera and other liberal union officials before the demonstration, representatives marched at the head of an April 15 protest of the building trades unions like current against police brutality in the wake of Local 1199 chief Central Labor Council chief Brian the Diallo killing. There is no contradic­ Dennis Rivera McLaughlin argued against any explicit tion here with their joining with the cop (far left) jQins with criticism of Giuliani and Republican "unions" on May 12. As we warned Hillary Clinton in governor George Pataki. But Giuliani's throughout the wave' of Diallo protests, election rally for Democratic police-state methods-attacking every­ the role of the Democratic Party liber­ Senatorial candidate one from cab drivers to sidewalk hot als and their labor bureaucrat allies Charles Schumer dog vendors-have infuriated even many was to place themselves at the head of last year. white New Yorkers, especially when the outrage in order to deflect it into cops started confiscating the cars of driv­ schemes to "clean up" the cops' image ers who have had as little as one drink. continued on page 11 B.reak>withth.e ..Democrats!' ·Fora .. Class-StruggleWork e.rs Party!

12 28 MAY 1999