Racist School Boycott in Boston

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No. 76 ------.------~X.523 ------~------..12 September 1975 Goncalves Ca~itulates-Rightist Generals Consolidate

SEPTEMBER 8-For 16 months a pre­ revolutionary situation has been churn­ • ing in Portugal. Until a few weeks ago. at the major crisis points the political constellation of forces each time lurched to the left: 9 July 1974-rightist premier Palma Carlos dismissed; 28 September U2a aCID I 974-General Spinola ousted; II March 1975-reactionary coup frustrated. In December 1974 a proposed economic plan calls for integration of private industry; in April 1975 the banks are nationalized; in July 1975 the remaining major trusts are taken over. Workers ? commissions spread. vigilance commit­ tees appear. ("advisory") democratic 00 a assemblies are instituted in the _military • units. But revolutions have a certain rhythm and such a gradual leftward shift can nul continue forever. As the fundamental limits of capitalism are endangered. the reactionaries begin to mobilize. using e\ery means at their disposal: economic boycott and sabotage. mobilizing pctt~­ bourgeois and obscurantist clements against the workers. military compiracy. imperialist threats. So it has been in Portugal also. And as the rightists stepped up their dri\e for a sncmdo\\ n the pendulum's left swing slowed down and then aPP-':dfeJ w stop ill mid-air. The ouster three ciay sago ,)1' Genera; Vasco Gonc,:alves from his post as premier may mark the beginning of a sharp swing back to the right. As has been typical of the complex maneuvering of the last six weeks of governmental crisis. the situa­ tion is still murky and the whole process was carried out in a deceptively peaceful manner. First. President General Fran­ cisco da Costa Gomes dismissed Gon­ c,:alves as premier on August 29. but simultaneously nominated him as armed forces chief of staff (an equally or e\Cn more powerful position). After this met stiff resistance from top generals. Gon­ c,:alves finally capitulated at a meeting of the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) in Tancos on September 5. This outcome, although it involved little more than some "lapel-pulling" at Tancos, was prepared by large anti­ Boston-area police training for riot duty this month. Boston Herald American Communist demonstrations in July. the burning of scores of Communist Party (CP) offices and open threats of a putsch from the rightist commanders. And while For a Labor and Black Mobilization to Defend the Buses! the shift to the right is small (the new premier is ostensibly "non-aligned" and leftist officers still have considerable weight in the MFA's highest body, the Supreme Revolutionary Council), it is Racist School Boycott in Boston clear that the anti-Communist generals have occupied important positions of SEPTEMBER 8-As schools open this public schools opened their doors. Nearly housing projects in Charlestown attacked strength in the last 10 days' maneuvering. fall across the country, anti-busing forces 2,000 local and state police, backed up by police with rocks and bottles, and one The Portuguese workers must not be are stepping up their national drive to police cruiser was shot at. Later in the day federal agents, lined the streets and fooled by peaceful appearances. The obstruct school integration. The sharpest accompanied school buses bringing black the same gang vandalized several cars intentions of the "moderate" officers were confrontation last week came at Louis­ children to many formerly all-white parked in a bus staging area, setting one made clear by the "Document of the ville, Kentucky, where racist violence schools in the city. Another 600 National on fire. They then surged into nearby Nine" which focuses on the need to rocked the city for days. The democratic Guardsmen waited on call. South Boston Bunker Hill Community College where combat "the anarchy and populism which rights and even the very lives of black High School, the scene of repeated mob they assaulted a black student and broke inevitably lead to the catastrophic disso­ people are at stake in a half dozen major violence last year, was cordoned off by his arm. lution of the state .... " The document and cities as court suits, school boycotts, mass police barricades for three blocks in all As was to be expected, the cops its authors' actions have made clear that marches and angry mobs seek to block directions. concentrated their repression against the their aims can be accomplished, as we court-ordered busing plans. But the focal City-wide school attendance was less supporters of busing. Of 80 people wrote in our last issue, only "by a far­ point of the racist mobilization again than sixty percent, and in key locations arrested today, 74 were members of the reaching purge in the military, abolishing promises to be Boston. like South Boston, Roxbury and Charl­ Committee Against Racism (CAR), a soldiers committees, eliminating the Only a massive show of force. today estown High Schools it was less than pro-busing group dominated by Progres­ 'advisory' unit assemblies in the armed barely contained the seething violence of thirty percent as the result of a white sive Labor Party (PL). They were the anti-busing movement as Boston boycott. White lumpen youths from continued on page 11 continued on page 11 Protectionism Divides the Greetings to Weekly Working Class WORKERS Coil Off VANGUARD Anti-Soviet The Trotzkistische Uga Deutschlands hails the weekly Workers Vanguard as an important step forward in our international struggle for the rebirth of the Fourth International. The weekly will represent a powerful weapon for our tendency for the international regroupment of Trotskyist forces on the Groin Boycott I firm basis of the Transitional Program. In the last years Workers Vanguard has been an important instrument in the crystalliza­ The Meanyite bureaucracy of the AFL­ Soviet flagwaving, the flag being taken tion and education of our international political tendency, as CIO has once again become the vanguard down if the price is right. During the early well as for the struggle to forge the vanguard party of the of anti-communism in this country. A 1950's, the ILA refused to unload a sign on the Houston docks supporting the shipment of Russian furs. This cold-war working class in the U.S. The weekly means a qualitative leap in International Longshoremen's Associa­ patriotism was quietly discontinued when the capacity of the Spartacist League/U.S. to intervene with its tion (I LA) boycott of grain exports to the $65,000 was handed over to a union correct political line in the struggles of the American proletariat Soviet Union reads: "No wheat to Russia. business agent. and is a powerful boost to the international Spartacist tendency. Let Commies starve. Give U.S.A. lower George Meany's anti-Soviet stance is Opportunists, from the Ie of Healy to the German prices." less venal, but therefore more serious Spartacusbund, have long seen the production of a "mass The Spartacist League categorically than Gleason's. Just recently, the AFL­ paper"-sacrificing Marxist clarity for "agitational" effect-as a opposes the Meany/ Gleason grain boy­ CIO president made a bigshow of hosting necessary "stage" in the construction of the vanguard party. cott both because we defend the Soviet Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Workers Vanguard has been, in contrast, a Marxist newspaper in Union (a bureaucratically degenerated who called upon the West to launch a the best tradition of the political struggle of Lenin and Trotsky, a workers state) against American imperi­ crusade against "godless communism" in newspaper which is both a vital interventionist organ and a alism and because we oppose all forms of order to restore in Russia the "good old days" of Tsar Peter the Great. political educator. The weekly WV is a major step forward. U. S. national~st economic protectionism, which set the workers of different However, even Meany's role in the grain Best comradely greetings, For the Rebirth of the Fourth International! Trotzkistische Liga Deutschlands (Trotskyist League of Germany) Section of the iSt

Dear comrades: To produce a weekly newspaper is not easy, to produce a weekly Workers Vanguard is difficult indeed. The fact that you are able-without neglecting the other tasks which are posed for revolutionaries-to produce on a weekly basis the newspaper which has expressed our politics in the clearest and fullest manner means a powerful step forward in the struggle for the reforging of the Fourth International. Forward in the strugg Ie for the construction of the International Trotskyist League, forward to the rebirth of the Fourth International. With communist greetings, Osterreichische Bolschewiki-Leninisten AFL-CIO chief George Meany and President Ford. (Austrian Bolshevik-Leninists) Sympathizing section of the iSt countries at one another's throats. boycott is unalloyed hypocrisy. We oppose the grain boycott through a In 1973 (the latest year for which campaign within the la.bor movement, figures are available), U.S. exports of mobilizing the ranks against the Mea­ machinery and transport equipment to Dear comrades, ny I Gleason misleaders. We do not call the USSR totaled $204 million (U.S. upon the capitalist government, courts Department of Commerce, U.S. Exports, We greet with enthusiasm the transformation of Workers and police to prevent implementation of 1973). Most of these shipments received Vanguard from a bi-weekly to a weekly. the anti-communist policies of the union the usual government export subsidies We have no doubt that your decision will be important in bureaucracy. We do not support the court and bank trade credits. Yet one does not strengthening the political struggle in Europe, as well as in order against the Houston ILA, because hear a cheep out of Meany about consolidating the Spartacist League in the North American this sets a precedent for the future against "giveaways" to the Soviets when industri­ workers movement. The political and organizational determina­ international labor boycotts which we al, union-made exports are involved. tion needed to publish a weekly Workers Vanguard, together will advocate and support, such as against Meany's anti-communist fanaticism be­ with the proposal to strengthen the international Spartacist the Chilean junta. comes quite discreet when it conflicts with tendency's journal Spartacist, expresses the SLlU.S.' determi­ the vested interests of the Steelworkers, nation to proceed forward in affirming the principles of Anti-Soviet Labor Fakers Machinists and Electricians; only when farmers are concerned does Meany's anti­ Trotskyism. The grain boycott is being pushed in Soviet consumerism know no bounds. For the rebirth of the Fourth International! the name of economic protectionism for Nucleo Spartacista d'italia the maritime industry, anti-communist Blaming Higher Prices on the jingoism and holding down food prices. Kremlin (Spartacist Nucleus of Italy) The different parties involved in the Sympathizing section of the iSt boycott give very different weightings to For years the AFL-CIO officialdom these three proclaimed goals. has waged a major campaign for import The ILA acting on behalf of the other protectionism, which, if successful, would maritime unions is simply interested in deprive American working people (as Greetings from Ugue Trotskyste de France. Passage from bi­ increasing the amount of grain carried in consumers) of the benefits of the interna­ weekly to weekly constitutes enormous step forward for SL and American-flag ships and increasing the tional division of labor. The very same for international Spartacist tendency as well. Forward to rebirth rates charged by Soviet shipping in issue of the AFL-c/O News (August 16) of Fourth International. competition with the U.S. maritime which denounces grain sales to the USS R industry. And it now appears that as the sole cause of all inflation opposes Ligue Trotskyste de France Brezhnev's government is willing to make cutting tariffs, that is lowering the price of (Trotskyist League of France) concessions in the face of Teddy Glea­ imports, until unemployment falls below Sympathizing section of the iSt son's blackmail. five percent (i.e., most likely never, so The I LA has a long history of anti- continued on page /0

2 WORKERS VANGUARD

~--- "- Chile: Two Years of Junta Terror o run about 40 a week, according to the ::r September II marks the second anni­ OJ Ne ..... York Times (25 May 1975). Vl versary of the coup d'etat in Chile that Gl overthrew the Unidad Popular (UP­ 'The first pronouncements by the junta ~ ro Popular Unity) government of President stated its determination to wipe out the Ui ro Salvador Allende. This was no run-of­ "disease" of Marxism and "politics." All :::l the-mill "banana republic"-style coup in leftist and workers parties were banned, 25 '"3 which one petty despot replaces another and even the center-right Christian 3 with scarcely an iota of political change. Democrats were declared to be "in OJ An acute pre-revolutionary situation had recess." The labor federation (CUT) was ripened with the emergence of embryonic outlawed and many individual unions dual power formations as the leftist dissolved, to be replaced by corporatist coalition was increasingly unable to gremios (yellow unions) with leaders contain a militant working class. Thus the trained by the CIA-backed American central goal of the reactionary putschists Institute of Free Labor Development. was not merely the ouster of a shaky And these draconian measures took their regime but the bloody annihilation of the toll. The Socialist Party was utterly organized workers movement. As put by destroyed due to its loose organization Air Force General Gustavo Leigh, the and heavy infiltration, while the Com­ most vociferous member of the junta, "we munist Party's infrastructure was badly want to cancel the last fifty years of damaged. In an immediate sense thejunta Chilean history." and its imperialist backers had achieved To accomplish this the generals and their aims. admirals unleashed a wave of terror on a scale never before experienced in Latin Astronomical Inflation and Mass America. An orgy of indiscriminate Starvation murder during the first few weeks after Just as the mass murders were a the coup left more than 20,000 leftists, deliberate policy of General Augusto workers and peasants dead. Estimates of Pinochet's anti-communist regime, so too the number of political prisoners arrest­ was reducing the vast majority of workers ed, sent to concentration camps and to a near-starvation level of existence. It (many of them) severely tortured range hoped by this means to control the from 95,000, according to the Catholic inflation which plagued Allende and to Church, to 300,000 (a Radical Party attract U.S. and European investments. figure). Today more than 5,000 remain in The inflation, however, continued and various jails and detention centers, while even accelerated under the junta. For the '* year ending in August 1973 prices rose by N',_~ 323 percent, the highest rate in Chile's history, yet in the first year after the coup the rate nearly doubled to 611 percent (according to the government's own

statistics). Last year the rate dropped to - ~-~ -~--- "only" 355 percent but it is currently The Chilean military junta looks on as goose-step rising again due to severe shortages of goods. Many small and medium manu­ picture, which in Chile is extremely bleak. Pinochet's provocations accelerated facturers of mass consumption items have Even right-wing coups are not always this trend, systeIl1atically driving away all been forced to fold because of lack of a good business and today everyone from moderate conservative elements. The market . Chase Manhattan Bank to the Pentagon demagogic populist-posturing defense . The price increases were concentrated appears willing to see the present Chilean minister after the September 1973 take­ in the basic necessities (again deliberate­ rulers replaced by a more "liberal" over, General Bonilla, was purged last ly), which had been controlled under the regime. The situation is so catastrophic, year and then died in a March 1975 UP regime. Thus the cost of powdered in fact, that the ultra-rightist General helicopter "accident." And to show how Esquerda Socialista milk rose by 5,488 percent from Septem­ Leigh, ajunta leader, recently announced little the government cared about support Early 1975 photo of --Bautista Van ber 1973 to June 1975 and bread, which his opposition to the government's from the right-wing parties, Remin Schouwen hospitalized under deten­ stood at II escudos per kilogram at the deflationary policy which, he said, had Fuentealba (leader, along with Bernardo tion in Valparaiso because of severe time of the coup rose to 1,100 escudos this injuries received under torture. caused "intense suffering to the more Leighton, of a wing of the Christian May. Unemployment presently stands at deprived classes of the country" (LR Democratic Party) was barred from re­ an estimated 80,000 have gone into exile. 15 to 20 percent, much of it accounted for Monde, 26 August). entering the country on the grounds that The arbitrary quality of the initial by the systematic firing of all known he had been "politicking" while abroad. bloodbath was followed by increased leftists. It is not surprising, therefore, that Recomposition of the Popular - Thetitter failure of the free-marketand selectivity. But the junta still continues its the junta is universally hated among the Front heavily repressive "Brazilian-model" policy of periodically flooding workers' working-class and poor population, to The bonapartist military dictatorship economic policy has pushed even sectors quarters and shantytowns with police and the point where the government was has always lacked any sizeable social base of the rightist National Party to publicly army units, rounding up all males, many recently forced to arrest leaders of its own of support outside of the officer corps. criticize the regime. With this "broad of whom are hauled off for "further yellow "unions" who protested over Although it initially enjoyed the approval basis" for opposition the reformist questioning" (i.e., torture). Although, in provisions of a new labor. law. of all the bourgeois parties and the workers parties have been reconstituting order to improve its public relations The severe depression and disruption Catholic Church hierarchy, this positive and expanding the class-collaborationist image, the government has made a show of the Chilean economy has also led to a allegiance rapidly dissipated. For about popular-front coalition which from 1970 of willingness to send prisoners into exile, sharp drop of confidence in the regime th~ last 20 months all but the hard-line to 1973 systematically paved the way for new political detentions in Santiago alone from both domestic and foreign business ultra-right have sought to put a certain the bloody coup. By preaching reliance interests. Despite extensive denationali­ distance between themselves and Pino­ on the "constitutionalist'-' officers and zation of industry, Chile's external chet, playing a game of semi-opposition. continUed on page 8 financing has failed to improve. At a meeting last March, the "Club of Paris," a W'1tII~1 cartel of imperialist banks controlling a large part of the foreign debt of Asian, ",,",1111 African and Latin American countries, refused to substantially alter Chile's Marxist Working-Class Weekly of the Spartacist League of the U.S. onerous schedule of repayments. And while the junta has begun paying off the U.S. conglomerates for the nationalized EDITOR: Jan Norden PRODUCTION MANAGER: Karen Allen mines, income from copper sales has CIRCULATION MANAGER: Anne Kelley fallen by almost 50 percent in the last year EDITORIAL BOARD: Liz Gordon (Chairman), (from $1.8 billion to $1 billion). Mean­ Chris Knox (Labor), James Robertson while, desperately sought new investment (Advisory), Charles Burroughs (Editorial Staff), Joseph Seymour (Midwest), George Foster totals a paltry $2 million (New York (West Coast) Times, 6 May). Published weekly, except bi-weekly in August Having prepared their moves in close and December, by the Spartacist Publishing Co., coordination with the CIA, the gorila 260 West Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10013. Telephone: 966-6841 (Editorial), 925-5665 generals had expected an immediate (Business). Address all correspondence to: Box avalanche of loans and aid from grateful 1377, G.P.O., New York, N.Y. 10001. Domestic subscriptions: $5.00 per year. imperialist backers after the coup. But while always ready to spread around a Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express the editorial few million dollars in order to buy the press viewpoint. overthrow of a hostile government, U.S. Residents of Santiago search for food in a garbage dump outside the city last capitalists are still interested in the profit year. 12 SEPTEMBER 1975 3 Ranks Fight Purge in ILWU Local 10 Bridges Power Play in S.F. Longshore Union

Local 10 President meeting the ranks voted to uphold Wing tioner prays that damages be awarded in 109 show of solidarity with the direct in his ruling, over the vociferous objec­ accordance with proof thereof; that oppressors of the workers and racial Suspended-Sues Union Petitioner be awarded his costs of suit; tions of Bridges loyalists. In doing so the and for such other and further relief as the minorities. in Bosses' Courts membership showed excellent sense on court deems just and proper." two counts. -"Longshore Bulletin," 4 For a Class-Struggle Alternative SAN FRANCISCO, September 4- Firstly, Wing's opposition to raiding September Local 10 of the International Longshore­ and scabbing was a principled act of basic By taking the union to court Wing has The way to struggle against racism and men's and Warehousemen's Union union solidarity and not grounds for his transformed his case from a legitimate for a decent life for ILWU members and (lLWU) has been thrown into a deep removal from office. It is the pro­ struggle against arbitrary and disgusting all workers is not the way of the Wings internal crisis growing out of a split in the raiders-Smith, Watkins, Mosely and action by the Bridges machine into an and Bridges-not the way of court suits union leadership over the issue of raiding Co.-who are playing into the hands of attack upon the ILWU. He is treading in or collaborating with the capitalists, in the recent strike by the Sailors Union of the maritime bosses and their divide-and­ the exact same footsteps as one Stan fomenting raiding or promoting racial the Pacific (SUP) and the Marine rule schemes. Raiding by the IL WU in Weir, a longshoreman who turned a hysteria. The way forward lies through an Firemen's Union (MFOW) against the this instance could only open the door to struggle against the Bridges bureaucra­ unrelenting fight to oust misleaders such Pacific Far East Lines (PFEL). bloody inter-union warfare on the water­ cy's de-registration of B men into a court as Bridges and Wing and replace them During that strike the Local 10 execut­ front. It could only mean worker against with a leadership committed to the ive board responded to an offer by PFEL worker, not the workers against the struggle to put an end to capitalism and owner and Bridges' pal John Alioto to bosses. The only winners would be Alioto the racism it spawns, not just in words but "give" the longshoremen 50 to 75 contain­ and the Pacific Maritime Association in deeds. er maintenance jobs traditionally handled (PMA) capitalists. The lessons of the current crisis in by the SUP by passing a pro-raiding Secondly, to have accepted the Local 10 were perhaps most clearly motion instructing the Local's officers to proposition that there is a constitutional expressed in a leaflet distributed by go out and get those jobs. basis for suspending and trying Wing in ILWU militants Stan Gow and Howard While Local 10 president Larry Wing the absence of specific charges would Keylor: had previously directed longshoremen to have committed the Local to a dangerous "We need a leadership which doesn't respect the SUP/MFOW picket lines, he precedent. Any union officer on the outs stooge for PMA, Alioto and the Demo­ abstained on this motion. (The only with the Bridges machine could find cratic Party. We need a leadership that executive board member to oppose the himself suspended and facing a trial on also realizes the capitalist courts are no pro-raiding motion was Stan Gow, a charges of "malfeasance and misfeasance friend of labor; one that will not compro­ mise with Bridges' class collaboration, supporter of the Longshore Militant, a in office." And any unionist with a grain accepting "lesser evil" two year contracts. class-struggle opposition newsletter in of militancy must of necessity be on the The only way forward for the ILWU and Local 10.) However, on July 31, a week outs with a sellout artist like Bridges. the workers movement is through a after the pro-raiding motion was passed, program based on the absolute indepen­ dence of the working class. The present liar Wing, to his credit, denounced the Wing Goes to Court union leadership opposes such a program proposed deal and walked out of a ILWU Local 10 president Larry Wing. and its stranglehold must be broken. meeting between the Local 10 leadership Wing rightly refused to recognize his Then, instead of hall men being pitted and the PFEL. suspension as valid. And when the suit against the union. Although Weir's against steadymen and the IL WU against other unions in a mad scramble for jobs, Wing several times made public his executive board voted to remove him as suit has been dragging on for years, it is we'll be able to launch an all out fight, opposition to the raiding. In his July 31 chairman he protested by walking out still active and threatens to cost the union economic and political, for jobs for all "Longshore Bulletin" he correctly called with several of his supporters. (According hundreds of thousands of dollars, raising against the PMA, the shipping lines, and the PFEL proposal "strikebreaking and to a Longshore Militant leaflet, he was the potential of some kind of government the government that protects their raiding." And in another "Longshore also joined by Stan Gow, who walked out intervention into the union. Wing's court interests." Bulletin" dated August 14, discussing a to express his solidarity with the decision suit should make it crystal clear that he is Longshoremen must demand an end to meeting between the PFEL and the of the membership on August 21 rejecting no alternative to Bridges and Co. It points the bureaucratic wrangling in Local 10. SUP/ MFOW over the issue of job Wing's suspension. Gow indicated he has to the urgent necessity to construct a Wing must drop his lawsuit against the assignments the PFEL had offered to the no intention of boycotting board meet­ principled opposition to the present union; Smith, Watkins and Co. must stop ILWU, Wing states: ings, however, as this would leave the I L WU misleadership. their drive to oust Wing in opposition to "I assured them (the maritime unions) Bridges forces unchecked.) the expressed will of the membership. that Local 10 also was not interested in Wing also moved to circulate a petition With the PMA becoming daily more being used as a pawn by PFEL to raid Racial Tension aggressive in attacking working condi­ another union's work and that we bringing Secretary-Treasurer Carl Smith intended to continue to do the work we up on charges for proceeding to suspend Among the most dangerous aspects of tions and jobs, what is needed is not inter­ always have done at Pier 96." Wing in the face of the August 21 union the current dispute in Local 10 is a sharp union raiding and appeals to the bosses' . meeting. This ploy can only further rise in racial tension among the member­ courts to intervene in the unions, but Purge Attempt obscure the air and contribute to the ship. From the outset both Alioto and the rather a united struggle by allofmaritime atmosphere of charge and countercharge pro-Bridges forces have portrayed the labor against the capitalist offensive. This As Wing is Local 10's president and that is tying the Local up while the PMA proposed raiding as part of a struggle requires a relentless struggle against the therefore chief negotiator responsible for steps up its attacks on the uniori. against the job-trusting, lily-white' poli­ betrayals of all of the competing bureau­ signing new contracts, his opposition to Worst of all is Wing's main strategy to cies of the SUP and MFOW. We warn the cratic misleaders .• the raiding squelched the deal between get his job 'back-a court suit directed black members of the IL WU-this "anti­ Alioto and Bridges followers in the Local against the union. In filing such a suit racist" posture on the part of Alioto and 10 leadership. I n response, pro-raiding Wing invites the capitalists into the the Bridges bureaucracy is pure cynicism. forces in the Local launched a petition internal affairs of the union. The courts, Alioto wants minority workers on his drive to impeach Wing on the purposely like the police, prisons and army, are part Pier only so he can continue to qualify for YOUNG 'vague charges of malfeasance and misfea­ of the bourgeois state-they exist only to the federal government's capitalist gravy sance in office. In so doing they hoped to protect the property and interests of the train. Where was John Alioto when his SPARTACUS get rid of Wing while at the same time capitalist class. Thus Wing leans on the father, San Francisco mayor Joseph avoiding a debate by the membership on Current issue includes- self-same forces as Bridges, who puts his Alioto, pulled the South African style the raiding issue. trust in his pals in the PMA and capitalist "Operation Zebra" campaign last year? • Civil War in Angola Claiming that over 25 percent of the politicians to give longshoremen a And where were Harry Bridges and his • No State Aid to Parochial Schools! Local had signed the petition (the union "break." Wing, of course, claims his friends in Local 10 during Zebra? They • Mao Sacrifices Guerrillas on constitution requires 15 percent), Bridges motivation in bringing the suit is above had not one word of criticism for their Detente Altar loyalists in the executive board, led by • SWPIYSA Defends "Right" of Free reproach. In the Local 10 "Longshore "friend-of-labor" Joe Alioto! Bridges and Vice President Watkins and Secretary­ Speech for Fascist Scum! Bulletin" he says: Alioto hold out the prospect for 50 to 75 Treasurer Smith, moved to suspend Wing • Buckley Goes to Pot " ... 1 have no other recourse but to new jobs. But how many thousands of as pr.esident pending election of a trial • Iranian Students Protest with peti~ion the courts on behalf of Local 10 jobs has Bridges, in collaboration with Hunger Strikes committee at the next regular member­ and myself in order to safeguard Local the maritime bosses, frittered away over lO's property and bank accounts." ship meeting. Wing, in turn, appealed to the last two decades? SUBSCRIBE NOW! the membership at the August 21 Local But Wing's suit, especially that part of 52/11 issues meeting to uphold him in his ruling that it gleefully quoted by pro-Bridges Vice The pro-Bridges forces have been aided the petition was unacceptable since it President Watkins shows a less-than­ in their game of Whipping up racial Make payable/mail to: leveled no specific charges against him, altruistic concern for "Local lO's property hysteria by acts such as Wing's warm Spartacus Youth Publishing Co. Box 825, Canal Street P.O. and that therefore no trial committee It support to the recent San Francisco and bank accounts." reads: New York, New York 10013 could be elected. "That petitioner be reinstated as Presi­ police strike. IL WU militants must Five times during the August 21 dent of Local #10 and wherefore, Pet i- demand that Wing repudiate this disgust- WORKERS VANGUARD 4 he kidnapping and possible mur~er structure. Hoffa's power came from the "reds" out of the union. Eighteen SWP ed in the drive. Once over-the-road T of James Hoffa have thrown a extension of the large general freight and Local 544 leaders were thrown in jail drivers joined the union, they in turn spotlight on the intimate connections locals (with a single standard scale for under the anti-communist Smith Act, became a key factor in signing up local between a section of the labor bureaucra­ hourly and per-mile wages) from their while I BT officials were shipped in from cartage drivers and warehousemen. cy and organized crime in the U.S. The initial base in the Midwest to the South other cities to pirate the Minneapolis The effectiveness of this technique was press is filled with references to Robert and Southwest, and eventually through­ local. Hoffa was the key hatchet man enhanced by the diffuse character of the Kennedy's Senate investigation of the out the country. dispatched from Detroit for this purpose. trucking industry, where it was relatively International Brotherhood of Teamsters Although Hoffa knew a thing or two easy to play one employer off against (I BT) in the late 1950's as well as stories of about industrial unionism, he didn't Hoffa the Business Unionist another. (As recently as 1960 the number more recent mammoth rip-offs of the introduce it to the Teamsters. He frankly of interstate for-hire carriers operating union pension funds. On Hoffa's wherea­ admits that his knowledge of union Hoffa became the vice president of an under I CC permits exceeded 17,000 and bouts speculation abounds: some say he is organizing came straight from the Trot­ expanded Central States Drivers Council 80 percent of these had annual gross in hiding, others claim he has become a skyist leaders of Minneapolis' 1934 city­ (CS DC) in 1941 and was the major power revenues of under $200,000. Moreover, victim of former gangster pals in a wide truck drivers' strike. Out of that in it by the end of the war. Using his base since very few operators have licences to "business" deal. Many point the finger of strike emerged a powerful General in the CSDC, he directed organizing in operate over all trucking routes, they suspicion at Teamster president Frank Drivers Local 574 (later Teamsters Local the southwestern and southern states, generally depend on other companies to Fitzsimmons, who holds down Hoffa's 544 after IBT president Dan Tobin managing to unionize drivers in the Deep forward freight to many destinations.) former job, which he has been scrambling rescinded his, expulsion of the militant South at a time when few other occupa­ Most important, Hoffa understood how to retrieve ever since being paroled from local from the union) covering all crafts tions in the region were organized. When militant union tactics could be used to prison in 1971. carve out a place within the capitalist Although Fitzsimmons' underworld system. ties are not so well advertised by the While Hoffa picked up industrial media, it is he who has been the "god­ unionism and organizing methods from child" of the mob ever since he took over Dobbs, their goals were miles apart. the post of president. And Hoffa has been Personal aggrandizement, not workers threatening to rock the boat. The pre­ power, was Hoffa's aim. The SWP, in cious cargo in the Teamster hold is an contrast, not only "thought ahead and estimated $1.5 billion in pension funds, The Hoffa Myth planned," but integrated its union organ­ one of the largest financial lending izing into the broader struggle to lead the sources in the country. Hoffa was working class to the overthrow of reported to be preparing to tell the capitalism. Thus the 1934 Minneapolis government about gangland control and strike was directed by a democratically pension fraud in the Fitzsimmons regime. elected strike committee and mobilized Concurrently, rumors were "leaked" that not only truck drivers but also their wives in return for such services a stipulation of and masses of the unemployed. Hoffa's his parole preventing the former Team­ 'organizing campaigns were invariably ster chief from seeking union office might run bureaucratically, with minimal parti­ be lifted. cipation by the workers. With so much at stake, the Hoffa­ The "tough trade union~t" disavowed Fitzsimmons rivalry broke out into a any intention of opposing the "free state of virtual war in Detroit's I BT Local enterprise" system. As one company 299 during the last year. Among numer­ official put it: ous incidents, the Local's pro-Hoffa "Hoffa knows the trucking industry pr'esident had his cabin cruiser blown up better than probably 99S'( of the owners. while Fitzsimmons' son (another official) He knows what he wants and he knows had his Lincoln Continental destroyed by what he can get. That is why his demands are never out of line with what the a bomb. According to the New York industry can pay." Times (10 August), "organizers and -quoted in B.J, Widick, Lahor officers on both sides were slugged and Today, 1957 shot at so often that all are now under This means that Hoffa's demands were orders never to go out alone." actually much less than "what the After so much evidence of corruption industry can pay," and he often shoved and tics to mobsters, liberal commenta­ sellout contracts down the throats of the tors are continually amazed to find that membership. In Bay Area negotiations many rank-and-file truck drivers still during 1961 Hoffa succeeded in eliminat­ yearn for the "good old days" when ing the wage differential between north­ "Jimmy" ran the union with an iron fist. Jimmy Hoffa with Robert Kennedy during 1958 ern and southern California drivers, at What the big business press consciously ,corruption in Teamsters Union. the expense of the better-paid northern avoids mentioning is the other side of the California division. Hoffa myth, the image of a tough trade· not included in other charters. Farrell then-president Dave Beck met his down­ unionist. This reputation for militancy Dobbs, a leader of the Minneapolis local fall before the McClellan Senate subcom­ The Government Goes After Hoffa was both the result of and a contributing and of the then-revolutionary Socialist mittee investigation of union racketeering factor in the transformation of the Workers Party(SWP), took this principle in 1957, Hoffa was the ranking power in Hoffa's venality and corruption were Teamsters from a weak, regionally of united working-class action against the the Teamsters. Shortly thereafter he legendary. H is pension settlement alone autonomous craft union into the largest capitalists and extended industrial union­ became union president. was estimated at $1.2 million .. Among his (2.2 million members) and most powerful ism to inter-city trucking by initiating the From the Trotskyists Hoffa had business associates and the directors of union in the U.S. today. North Central District Drivers Council learned organizing techniques which were various Teamster welfare and pension But "Jimmy the con man" and "Jimmy (NCDDC) in 1937. instrumental in producing the area-wide plans were characters with reputations the tough trade unionist" are the same Hoffa got his start by organizing master contract. Chief among them was ranging from shady to well-known Hoffa, and his Janus-faced image is only workers in a Detroit Kroger warehouse the "secondary boycott" or "hot cargo­ underworld kingpins. He was also notori­ an expression of the contradictions into Local 299. By 1937 he had risen to ing" of non-union cartage. Already­ ous for jurisdictional raiding against inherent in "pure-and-simple trade un­ become "unofficial" head of the Local, unionized drivers refused to handle weaker unions, and IBT opposition to the ionism." Its political vision limited to and shortly afterwards he was assigned freight for unorganized companies target- AFL-CIO merger hinged on the Team­ getting the best deal possible from the the Michigan district of the NCDDC. In sters' unwillingness to sign no-raiding companies ("a bigger piece of the pie"), that capacity he worked under Dobbs as pacts with CIO unions. For purely simple trade-union militancy is unable to the latter forced trucking bosses to sign commercial purposes Hoffa would even challenge the capitalist system as a whole. the first area-wide contract in August loan Teamster funds to companies whose It is powerless in the face of economic 1938, covering 125,000 general freight employees were engaged in bitter strikes. depression and, irrespective of the "good drivers in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, As one of his followers said, "Jimmy is no will" or "honesty" of various union Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, angel." reformers, inevitably gives rise to sweet­ Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Beginning in the late 1950's Hoffa heart deals with the bosses, violations of North Dakota and adjacent areas. Hoffa hecame the object of a massive govern­ labor solidarity and the formation of a credits Dobbs as his teacher: ment vendetta, with five criminal pro­ weighty bureaucratic apparatus to sup­ "I learned a great deal in those days, but I ceedings in seven years, most of them press rank-and-file discontent. would have been a dunce not to have braintrusted by Robert Kennedy, first as done so, I was studying at the knee of a cOlmsel to the McClellan Subcommittee Trotskyists Brought Militant master who understood all the intricacies and later as U.S. Attorney General. of organizational work, fathomed the Industrial Unionism to the Finally the feds managed to convict him Teamsters responses and reactions of employers, and comprehended the many problems of on two counts of jury tampering in March Hoffa got to be president of the his union at home base. Instinctivelv 1964. In order to get a conviction the FBI Farrell Dobbs always thought ahead and kept Hoffa under continual surveillance Teamsters not simply because he had planned accordingly." more muscle, slicker accountants and . Donald Rogers and James throughout the' trial. illegally bugging better connections with the mob. His Hoffa, The Trials oj limn/l conversations \\ith his lawyer<;. The chief "constituency" was over-the-road drivers Hot/iI, 1970 ' . prosecution witness, Edward Partin. was and he organil.ed them on industrial But for all of Hoffa's talk about his an ex-Teamster official with a long union lines, The rest of the organization is teacher Farrell Dobbs, the business criminal record. He had been facing split up according to "craft" divisions, unionist and the revolutionary were indictment on 26 counts of mi~u~c of with bread truck drivers separate from profoundly separated during the course union funds when he \vas employed by the beer truck drivCfs, milk truck drivers, bus of the class struggle. When the Trotskyist go\'ernment to entrap Hoffa. Later, in drivers and every other conceivable sub­ leaders of Local 544 opposed World War \1 arch 1971, Partin recanted his testi­ category, each with its own particular II as an imperialist war, Teamster chief mony in an affidavit submitted tn the commission rates and different wage Tobinjoined President Roosevelt to drive Teamster head Frank Fitzsimmons continued on page }O 12 SEPTEMBER 1975 5 of 1964, was recognized as definitive by both the rae and the bourgeois press; "Centrism and the Fo International" (1934) by Leon Trotsky was reprint~ Eleven Years of Spartacist Press Spartacist No.9, January-February 1967; "Black Red-Class Struggle Road to Negro Freedom" (Spc cist No. 10, May-June 1967) incorporated the experie in struggle of Spartacist supporters in the b movement in both the North and South; "Chi Popular Front" (Spartacist No. 19, N ovember-Decer 1970) forthrightly exposed the dangerous conseque of class collaboration at a time when virtually the el ostensibly socialist movement was mindlessly enthu over Allende. During these early years a high priority Jlie 'fcchl, also given to the production of the Marxist Bulletin se which provides the documentary record of our ori and history. However the infrequency and irregularity of the eJ'. ~. U-·~j:ll-f • -·"S.1 press were a central weakness and a fetter upon r (J i-I,. growth of the organization. On 16 October I l ." ,_; Robertson wrote to SL West Coast spokesman Geot White summarizing the difficulties surrounding production of Spartacist and projecting bringing intc national center a full-time editor. Although the prop was implemented, the year 1968 saw no partic improvement in press frequency and concluded wi faction fight which virtually monopolized the cadres lfANGLIA resources of the S L. But by early 1971 the organization had begun to g rapidly and a regular press had become not only urge necessary but also evidently possible. A Political BUI meeting on 28 April 1971 projected the transformatio The appearance of the first weekly issue of Workers subscribers. Other RT supporters recognized Mage's Workers' Action, a trade union-centered publica Vanguard marks an important step forward for the liquidationist thrust, fully in keeping with his position produced on the West Coast, into the central organ oj Spartacist League. The official decision to launch the that the application of democratic-centralist norms to the SL as an 8-page monthly. Subsequent PB discuss weekly WV was taken at the recent plenum of the SL organization was premature. The intention which centered on the prerequisites for making this II Central Committee, but political and organizational emerged from this debate was to aim for a bi-monthly especially the strengthening of the national center. preparations for this leap had already been initiated in printed newspaper of a more interventionist nature. perspective was summarized in the "Memorandum tc Political Bureau discussions beginning in the winter of Although meager resources hampered the CC on the Transformation of the Spartacist Leag 1974. The motivation for our determination to undertake organization's ability to put this policy into practice on drafted in August 1971 and adopted in September I a weekly press was stated i'n the main political resolution any regular basis, the first issue of Spartacist succinctly Central Committee plenum. The document summar presented to the last National Conference of the SL: stated our conception: the great objective opportunities, both domestic "A weekly frequency would transform WVfrom an organ "We intend our periodical to be a propagandist publication international, confronting the organization and note which mainly projects and immediately draws the lessons of directed toward the same two aims which we have hitherto " ... almost every aspect of struggle and motion has four the work of the S L but is not itself a rallying weapon, into pursued exclusively within the confines of SWP member- compelled to intervene, and in a way qualitativel an organ which initiates and leads the activity of our supporters. With a weekly press we would remain a propaganda group, but with the capacity for limited and exemplary agitation over selected campaigns and major political events." -"Perspectives and Tasks of the Spartacist League of the U.S.," \0 August 1974 With the transformation to a weekly, Workers Vanguard will thus increase the interventionist capacity of the SL. The expansion of available space will also allow for a greater variety of subject matter, while the rapid growth of the Spartacist tendency internationally places special requirements on WV to provide extensive Left: WV spearheaded international coverage and analysis. The achievement of a an international weekly represents a significant gain-indeed, a mere four campaign to save years ago the SL had never had a regular press!-but this Chilean MIR leaders promising beginning will become a deformation if the Romero and Van weekly WV is unable to live up to the standards set for it Schouwen. by its predecessors. The weekly WV is intended to stand squarely in the tradition of the SL press, as a high-level heavily programmatic and polemical organ. Right: Class struggle The occasion of the first weekly WV is an appropriate sharpens in Portugal. time to review the history of the SL press and to examine WV sent a special its basic guiding conceptions. Key aspects of press policy correspondent in were outlined before the cadres who were to found the summer 1974. Spartacist League had a press or even an independent organization. Differing press conceptions were prefi­ gured in a discussion in the spring of 1961 between two leaders of the Revolutionary Tendency (RT) of the Socialist Workers Party: the now notorious Tim ship. We want to influence such radical and leftward variance with our self-designation as an unstable . Wohlforth, then head of the RT, and James Robertson, moving groups or sections as aspire to Marxist clarity and propaganda group. Since our intervention has been currerttly National Chairman of the SL. The RT had to direction. We frankly state in advance that the purpose of vanguard nucleus while the reality of our forces has bee our action is to further a revolutionary regroupment of a sub-propaganda group. in the past three years we I face the possibility of an early expUlsion from the SWP, forces within this country such that a Leninist vanguard found ourselves functioning under great tension and v, propelling the RT into independent organizational party of the working class will emerge. Secondly, we want overextended .... " existence with extremely small forces. It was projected to win individual supporters for our viewpoint from among "As we have recognized from our inception, a regular that hard choices would be necessary in the short run radical youth, militants in the civil rights struggle, and seek frequent press is central to our existence as a propag, to create modest nuclei within key sections of the working between crucial elements of organization. Robertson group. Now that the SL also finds imposed upon us class. Critical to our success will be the ability of our tasks of, and key elements in the capacity to be, the nue argued that the first functionary of an independent group comrades to both be involved as revolutionists in the social of the vanguard party, the inability to resolve our r should be a national secretary, while Wohlforth tended to struggles of our times and to undertake effective inquiry question would reduce us to a mockery .... " favor an editor. This divergence over hypothetical into the pressing theoretical and political issues posed for Marxists today." "The name Workers Vanguard is appropriate to tile kir allocation of resources implied conflicting priorities of paper we intend. From the vantage point of the vangua programmatic cohesiveness vs. immediate public face. -Spartacis( No. I, February-March 1964 is appropriate to treat the struggles of all of the oppre Wohlforth later made his "Potemkin Village" press policy and in a fully Marxist fashion, while centering on the I manifest in the Bulletin of his Workers League: a garbage struggle .... " organ of fake-agitational character. In the years that followed the formation of the -"Memorandum to the CC on the Transforma Spartacist organization (the Spartacist League was of the SL," reprinted in Marxist Bulletin NI A further delineation of press perspectives emerged Part 11\ from a meetingofthe New York Revolutionary Tendency founded in 1966), many articles of lasting value appeared on 13 November 1963. In the context of a discussion on in Spartacist. To note only a few, "Freedom for Cuban The leap to a more regular and frequent press was see "long-term perspectives," RT leader Shane Mage Trotskyists!" (Spartacist No.3, January-February 1965), Dccurring concurrently with other central tasks, not, projected a mimeographed newsletter of somewhat an account of Castro's repression of the Posadistas based international expansion, increased industrial impla abstract and non-factional cast, to be distributed only to on a trip to Cuba by a Spartacist comrade in the summer tion, the founding of a national youth organization

6 WORKERS VANGUA If

radical Fourth inted in lck and Sparta­ ...... ua .INTEI!: 1913-14 lSCENU

~nences : black The Struggle for Chilean :cember Trotskyism in Ceylon quences by Edmund Samarakkody DIe 8WP gnd dit YHn. In'-a~ ~ Ie entire lthusing T~ =:':! -=Nr!::*:~~ •.uc_ ...... ~ ... to TrotatytaD lD des ...10&_ u~u, tile ...... -----. "1_1ft_~ -~~!I'iiage,trI t" .. U.I ...... ao nat,.'- 01 I -...,.,.'r· ...... ,c.__ . ritywas ....,.., ... dipDenta 01 .. ~t .T_ .... I-.~;;; ....,,"""_,.. :;...... =.:=...... F.~:.....- •."::..::::;;::-",,_ ...... ~_ .. ':'~~=::"-- .. .. _aCC __ . • J __ .... "'" .••• <' ...... ~ .. - .. ,-<.-_.--. ._""_.,::::::,,,_ .. "_.. _ '-' A_ .., _::" .... _.... ~._..... """""'blC.,toa.1'IUItWllde~1a _lal ... tber.btrtlol~mlDC.,.­ n senes, ...... C.,., uper10Plell ... prab.ud _­ "'Wt, "- _ell ~ .. -~ •• In.--.\l'bel!... ~ ..t .. :'"d':..~:::;o ...... _&orOlW~.~lallyil:ltbellll­ ~~III.u.::,,:::::r ~~~~~~~:rA':"d .. us_~ ongms .*"..... cor.an., III _ ~ .. to buJkI~oI&D • ...... ucraw1:lro~­ ~ ::::~:.: :..~!!1t~::..~II_nn. ~r~~.!:: t~lll"'OOtltd ill tile ~ elaM. n. auIIIIcw, ~ .111&"~." ___If quau&.d to e--...t OR tIUa ....rl- IS~RRt~CJST,.. :':!',.:;:":~.:~--aed.r'~!:.~_.. ':': !.~~.~~~:!'-~':.~~:.E~:;,:~ .... ~.~.. "::.---= the SL ~. Ii -.raII ~t IDWtaDt.1III cur­ "fttII~'"Iate~a!::: .I~c ___ ~""'r~,,",Re~ rftttr~_ror""wlllt~I"JWIX'tl- In PIorty 01 C.,-. c ___ aa_ralImdJ ~~.r:,!:!,::,~;,; ...... I •. nw.... __ .!.,ot...... _ ... ,_ ",,","01 U-neml:N'.'175 l SOO ... Jon the __ • f~'''''r 01 tile Cey}oll. Mdtoa Mill:lotte'~II.na :~:.", 1ed.~ r.~~~ 01 tIM "ourth hIt,,.,.t ...l .... _rly ...ri- :r 1967 __ ... _d to tndt-.... orpmslJlC Jar ~=;nt~ .. La'" s._ SIIBDjI Pl;rty (LSBP) ta tile D yea... ~ World. WI.. n. tNr1III tile _r. I' ieoffrey Ccand!J sa_raIdIody, 110»1; .. otMr eft­ Ichlarazlone- - - . . fJ:-~~E tnt --..n 01 tile USP, _ IJAnIed by 1M ing the BrtuM uc&. JoDowlar& .. ..eape, ..... bt­ per d -----'" "'~."",!<>. -.ol...t ill cooren-t... tile IcttYlt..lell 01 1M u­ E""" s....."*kIDdy/1' . I~p~~",- tepUaed LSlP ••a tiaeG lotMd otber ...... into the ~ tbe UJSP bI telJlPOl'U't' l!Il.IC"ttoatola:U.l- organizzare ' ,. ::~ ... v.... _ • el'\lt ..l ...... t~u...... r~IOI' .. C., ...... ~ __Q ....oI .. _r. I roposal Co.rade SamarUilodJ'" QIIPOIIma.! ... uSee Covers Up Tampoe tory ..... ill 1t1I1, .... M ... cOIIr WI: una tendenza Irticular mWtua lD .. LSlP r...... UlBP', Scandal ... 25 ICccamodlitioll to .. boIIrpI:nII ..ua.u.t I with a Sri La_ Freedom ..rtyCBL"P).~lJ' trotzkista cnl:MlI lD .....,...... U. .,..ntDl 01 LeHer to the OCRFI and 1M bIte,..t... l T~ ~ .... Ires and (~--,... the OCI. .. 32 internazionale

I. La SpartaelS! Lea,ue dl >\ustraJII Ie 'lriuova Zelandat til SpartacIA League degh Statl L'nlll dlch~rano di CostllUIf't II mlcleo per La cnstalhu.1I1011t dl una tendenza to grow '"trotztiat.l ullernaZlonalc: DasalOi sull

-;+r+gStop Racist Terror in Boston! ,mpIeme'" and Extend the Susing Plan! loto WV photo Not federal TroOPS, Sut Labor/Slack-----~------' Defense' RU Calls for . WOOlenNO.' --,." and ble sub­ publications which extend the scope and audience of the '::':::::~,, I····~··.. t ~ 'een as a SL press. The Spartacus Youth League, disciplined youth Federa~PS~ . Revolution ~ s been as _"' .. _ .. ~"' .. so::::::: ~-!:.. we have . section of the SL, produces its own monthly paper, ld vastly Young Spartacus. Women and Revolution, edited by the SL Women's Commission, appears three times per year. 1 ular and Spartacist has subsequently become the organ of the i paganda international Spartacist tendency (iSt), edited under the n us the direction of the iSt's Interim Secretariat, and is now I : nucleus ,ur press issued irregularly in English, French, German and Italian. In the Spanish-language key documents of the iSt have "Women, Culture been published in the format of Cuadernos Marxistas. II e kind of and Class I English-language Spartacist is now intended to center on 19uard it Consciousness" ppressed international and documentary materials. the class The SL press has come a long way in recent years. The (W&R No.7) inauguration of the weekly Workers Vanguard represents received ,rmation an enormous increase in the impact of our program. Yet "fan mail" /1 No.9, this moment, which is of great satisfaction for all SL for months. II supporters, was prefigured by all the earlier struggles of a n ; seen as fighting propaganda group striving to become the I j Women. Culture and Class Society.. 2 Ii notably vanguard party of the proletariat. In taking this step we lO q lplanta­ The Woman Question and Revolutionary Marxism ... fa are merely seeking to fulfill the role projected in the first Women in Castro·s Cuba ... l5 • I ion and issue of Spartacist almost a dozen years ago. CLUW: Dead End for Working Women ... 24

IIi ~ =: f ~~

UARD 12 SEPTEMBER 1975 7 u.s. "1 echnicians" Head for Near East Chile ... (continued from page 3)

alliance with the "progressive" bourgeoi­ sie. Allende lulled the vigilance of the working class and blocked the road to the formation of an authentic workers and Kissinger's Sinai Pact: peasants government, based on demo­ cratic soviets, which would destroy the bourgeois state. Instead the UP coalition formally pledged to work within the limits of the constitution. to suppress workers militias and not to interfere with the armed forces. In an effort to buy off Imperialist Fist the commanders. Allende even increased the military budget by more than 60 SEPTEMBER 7-No matter how token also will upset the fragile stability of these Israeli ships to pass to and from Israel percent over previous years! or sordid are the diplomatic maneuvers of regimes. The State Department has not through the Suez Canal. Further, Sadat The Popular Unity coalition in power U.S. imperialism, they are invariably forgotten that Israeli military successes in agreed to renew the presence of the was unable to ""in any more substantial presented with elaborate bombastic the 1948-49 war were rapidly followed by UNEF annually for two or three years. bourgeois forces than the small Radical fanfare. And so it was with the "Sinai a military coup in Syria. mass uprisings in However, a similar UNEF set up after the Party and marginal left-Christian Demo­ Pact," initialed by Egypt and Israel on Iraq. the assassination of Transjordan's 1956 war was simply swept aside by cratic formations (initially the MAPU September I and officially signed three King Abdullah, the overthrow of King Nasser in May 1967 in preparation for the and later the Christian Left). Particularly days later. President Ford praised the Farouk and ousting of the British from June War, and a UNEF presence can be during the last month of the UP. Allende pact as not only "a great achievement" Egypt. vetoed at any time by any of the five repeatedly sought to entice the Christian but as "one of the most historic certainly Therefore, U.S. imperialism has always members of the UN Security Council Democrats (COP) into the government. of this decade and perhaps of this imposed certain limitations on Zionist (including the Soviet Union and China). It is the absence of the COP in the century" (New York Times, 2 expansionism. including insisting on a But (Maoists please note) up to now government which the reformist Com­ September). buffer zone between Egypt and Israel in China has cooperated with the Near East munist Party (CP) has always pointed to The U.S. president chose to remain the Sinai and a well-armed Jordan. Thus machinations of the "superpowers" by as the main factor leading to the coup. silent on whether this "great achieve­ the recent pact is tied to the Ford not vetoing the UNEF. The Stalinists have succeeded in con­ ment" was greater and more historic. or administration's attempt to sell King The U.S. will pay Israel for this vincing the other parties of the popular will prove to be more permanent. than all Hussein $240 million worth of Hawk agreement a promised $350 million front in exile-the "coalition of Rome"­ the other "understandings" (both public anti-aircraft missile batteries. knowing annual compensation for the loss of Abu of this line. and secret), ceasefires. truces and armi­ full well that it was a lack of just such air Rudeis--which Israel earlier stole from Moreover, sectors of the Christian stices that have failed to end the perma­ cover which kept Jordan from participat­ Egypt-thus proving that at least some Democrats have recently given hints that nent state of war existing between Israel ing fully in the October War. No doubt crimes pay. In addition the U.S. has they might be willing to go along with an and the surrounding Arab states since the the Sinai pact was also a reward to promised approximately $2.5 billion in expanded coalition. Leighton has re­ inception of the Zionist state in 1948. Egyptian President Sadat for throwing , military aid and loans. including its most portedly attended at least one conference These "agreements" now lie broken and out 6.000 Russian advisors in 1972 and advanced fighter-bomber. the F-15, and with former leaders of the. UP, and at a abandoned, like the destroyed tanks and opening up Egypt to foreign capital advanced electronic surveillance systems conference in Venezuela this summer planes that cover the Sinai sands, tomb­ investment. developed by the U.S. for Vietnam. An individuals representing the Leigh­ stones to the meagre results of a quarter open question is whether the Pentagon ton Fuentealba wing of the COP signed a century of "shuttle diplomacy." What's in the Sinai Pact? will sell Israel the Lance surface-to­ joint statement with the Radical and surface guided missile. which because of Socialist parties (Washington Post. 18 u.s. Imperialism and Israel According to the Wall Street 10urnal(2 September), an Israeli official is said to its accuracy and expense would only be July). desired for launching nuclear weapons. In Various "Third Worldists" contend have quipped about the Sinai pact that It is appropriate that this latter meeting addition, Washington will probably that Israel is simply a direct military­ "Israel gives. Egypt gets. and the U.S. was sponsored by the German Social supplement the oil sheikdoms' subsidies garrison extension of American imperial­ pays for it." In particular, Egypt is given Democrats' "Friends of Friedrich Ebert to Egypt with a few hundred million ism in the Near East, that its expansion back a thin corridor along the Gulf of Foundation." as Ebert (German chancel­ dollars in aid. including (if shuttle-weary everywhere and under any conditions is Suez which includes the Abu Rudeis oil lor after the overthrow of the Kaiser) was Kissinger keeps to a prior promise) supported by the U.S. However, after fields and Egyptian troops in the "limited one of the main traitors responsible for nuclear power plants for both Egypt and both the 1956 and 1967 wars which force zone" on the east bank of the Suez ·drowning the 1918-1919 German revolu­ Israel. resulted in Israeli occupations of the Canal are permitted to advance eight tion in the workers' blood. Another U.S. "payment" for the Sinai Sinai, the U.S. has called for Israeli miles further eastward. Israeli troops While for now the "center" COP pact is even more ominous: the direct withdrawal from the peninsula. In 1956 must withdraw from the strategic Mitla leaders are unwilling to go beyond involvement of American "technicians" Eisenhower put direct economic and and Gidi passes, which now become part flirtations with the Rome coalition, there in manning early-warning and surveil­ political pressure on Israel, threatening to of the UN "buffer zone" patrolled by the is no doubt that in the event of an lance outposts in the UN buffer zone. cut off U.S. Zionist aid and German United Nations Emergency Force insurrectionary overthrow of the junta These "technicians" will formally be reparations and thereby forcing a rapid (UNEF). they would (as happened in Italy and civilians, but in fact they will inevitably be retreat by this "schnorring" (Yiddish for In return, Egypt publicly agrees to France in the wake of the German defeat ex-military officers now employed with begging) state. Likewise, following the refrain from a naval blockade against in 1945) rush to join a government of the Central Intelligence and National June 1967 war in which Israel occupied Israel's access to the Red Sea from the "national salvation" with the CP and Security Agencies who have the necessary the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Gulf of Aqaba, a blockade which Egypt anyone else. Its purpose would be to. halt experience to operate such equipment.. Sinai, the U.S. formally supported UN had in practice already ended, and to the revolution, to disarm the workers, Security Council Resolution No. 242 permit non-military cargoes on non- continued on page 9 crush all incipient organs of dual power demanding "withdrawal of Israeli armed and preserve the bourgeois state. The forces from territories of recent conflict." Stalinists and social democrats are well There is no question that American aware of this, and it is precisely to be the imperialism is committed to the contin­ guarantor of capitalism that they appeal ued existence of the Zionist state in the to the liberal bourgeoisie to form a Near East. Israel serves as a bastion of "broad anti-fascist alliance." anti-communism. as a lightning rod to MIR Collapse deflect the hatred of the dispossessed Arab masses away from their ruling Of all the leftist groups. the Castroist classes. and to do certain dirty work for Revolutionary Left Movement (M I R) imperialism such as building CENTO air best weathered the tremendous repres­ bases in Turkey, training paratroopers in sion immediately following the coup. Uganda (including General Idi Amin) However. beginning with the murder of and the Iranian secret police. its main leader, Miguel Enriquez, last But the principal interest of U.S. October 5. the M I R has suffered extreme­ ly heavy casualties to the point where its imperialism in the Near East is control of " and access to "safe and secure" sources of 1 existence as a functioning movement is in oil. which in turn is dependent upon },. doubt. By all accounts. approximately 20 maintaining "political stability" in a of its top cadre have been killed and twice region ruled by reactionary capitalist that number are in jail, amounting to elites, whether they be the Saudi royal most of its central committee. One family or Ba'athist colonels. As long as member of the M I R's political commis­ Israel contributes to this "political stabili­ sion. Humberto Sottomayor. was ex­ ty." Washington is quite willing to pelled from the MIR for seeking asylum provide a plethora of weapons to the Tel in the Italian embassy and two others. Aviv generals. In the extreme. it is Bautista Van Schouwen and Jose Bordas. prepared to plunge the world into a are held by the junta. (Van Schouwen is nuclear holocaust in order to preserve paralyzed as a result of severe injuries Israel. as demonstrated by Nixon's received under torture and is presently "Condition 3" alert of all U.S. forces in being held at the Valparaiso Military the 1973 October War. Imes Hospital.) But the U.S. also realizes that ifIsrael is New accord allows Egyptian forces toadvance to eastern edge of old UN zone The MIR IS also in a shambles too succe~sful militarily, if the defeats it set up in 1974 and recover oil fields at Abu Rudeis in the far south. Israelis are to politically. reportedly with numerous inflicts on surrounding Arab states arc withdraw from Gidi and MiUa Passes, and U.S. is to control early warning internal factional differences. as a result too decisive and humiliating. then this systems in them. of a sharp right turn since the coup. 8 WORKERS VANGUARD Lacking a coherent Marxist program, the with Stalinists, social democrats and even the additional factor that the job action organization has shifted erratically with Christian Democratic unionists. But was launched by local union officials, every major political event. At first particularly under clandestine condi­ Miners ... created conditions for a wildcat coal (continued from page /2) seeking to replicate Castro's march into tions, where questions of security are strike that would not simply be a rout and Havana at the head of a peasant guerrilla paramount, tactical united fronts with coal trusts to break a strike. Fuming over had possibilities of real success. The army, it called for a "bullets-not-ballots" reformist misleaders who are the most M iller's strong denul).ciations of the strike Right to Strike Committee correctly abstention in the 1970 elections. Seeing bitter strategic enemies of the revolution­ and his incessant orders to return to the sought to broaden the strike demands and Allende's popularity, however, the M I R ary communists can only be episodic and pits, miners here are particularly incensed a current Committee leaflet rightly calls did an about-face, giving "critical sup­ limited. that UMW lawyers have often refused to for an end to injunctions, reopening of the port" to the "companero presidente" The main task of Chilean revolution­ represent miners in court for "illegal" contract to include the right to strike, and from 1970 to 1973, and even provided his aries at this time continues to be the picketing. In one such hearing, August 26 amnesty for all individuals, locals and the personal bodyguard. struggle to draw the lessons of the in Charleston, Judge K. K. Hall found five UMW as a whole from court penalties. But while it once talked of the choice popular-front disaster, steeling the work­ men in contempt of court, and fined each But the group has apparently decided between "socialism or fascism," begin­ ers with the program of working-class $500-payable to the Amherst Coal to restrict itself to these popular issues. ning in late 1973 the M I R again switched independence and thereby preparing the Company! Though miners filled the This is at the expense of waging the gears and now calls for a bigger and better political destruction of the treacherous chambers during these kangaroo court necessary political battle for a c1ass­ popular front, in effect posing bourgeois CP, SP and MIR, who with their c1ass­ proceedings, union lawyers were nowhere struggle program that alone can free democracy as the alternative to the junta. collaborationist policies paved the way in sight. miners from the grip of Miller and all While it has joined the "Committee of the for the coup and would in the future M iller has sent telegrams to officials in stripes of impotent reformism. Despite its Chilean Left Outside Chile" (the Rome short-circuit a proletarian uprising if they the wildcatting areas instructing local obvious aspiration for union leadership, coalition) and signed a February state­ got the chance. The struggle to build an leaders to identify U M Wers on picket the Right to Strike Committee currently ment with the parties of the former UP independent Trotskyist party, as part of lines. This outrageous company-finking has a program more limited than was calling for a political bloc of "all anti­ the struggle for the rebirth of the Fourth has caused signs and chants of" M iller is a M iller's in J912, and should logically fascists," the MIR has sought to pose to International, must be the axis of the scab!" to mushroom in miners' rallies dissolve if the right to strike is won! the left of the CP by denouncing the action of those who would preserve the throughout the striking areas. At Draway While the Committee desires to "keep latter's aim of uniting with the entire Chilean workers and peasants from a Falls Roadside Park, a traditional meet­ the judges and government out of our CDP, including former President Eduar­ repeat performance of September 1973 .• ing place during wildcats, 2,500 miners union" (quoted in Revolution, December do Frei who was obviously involved in rallied for three hours on August 24, 1974) its leaders apparently do not see preparations for the coup. despite intermittent rain storms, to shout that even "critical support" to Miller's Instead, the MIR appeals only to "all their disapproval of Miller. A march was election (which was the Revolutionary the left parties and the sectors represent­ . also held the following day in Charleston Union's position) was an invitation to ing the democratic petty bourgeoisie of Sinai .. -. when 400 miners protested the injunc­ government intervention. While of course the Christian Democratic Party" to form (continued from page 8) tions and jailing of Howze. opposing the gangster Boyle, the Sparta­ "a broad resistance front against the Beginning at the Quarrier Street cist League refused to support the dictatorship" (interview with Andres Needless to say, "protection'" of such Federal Building-headquarters for the "reformer" M iller's election precisely Pascal Allende, Miguel Enriquez' suc­ "U.S. civilians" has often been the pretext hated Judge Hall-miners chanted "Ar­ because his reliance on Labor Depart­ cessor, in the MIR's Correo de la for full-scale U.S. military invasion. Even nold Miller-You can't sell us out," "No ment intervention spelled a grave threat Resistencia, March 1975). This distinc­ a leading bourgeois politician like Senate work-No coal," "Stop the injunctions," to the independence of the union from the tion is entirely phony. What the MIR majority leader Mansfield has reacted to and "We demand the right to strike." bosses and their state. We countered to calls the petty-bourgeois democratic U.S. involvement in the Sinai with the After forcing the closing of U M W's the Boyle vs. Miller dead end the sector of the CDP, or those who had, statement, "One Vietnam is one too District 17 headquarters, solidarizing perspective of building a class-struggle "before the coup declared their opposi­ many," and Pentagon hawk Senator with postal workers' informational pick­ opposition, which would fight not only tion to such a move" (Rouge, 6 April Jackson (a strident pro-Zionist) is op­ ets at the Charleston P.O. and jeering for the right to strike but also for strikes 1974), is the Leighton/ Fuentealba wing. posed to the "civilian" commitment. outside the Kanawha' Coal Operator to unionize the 30 percent of bituminous But in late August 1973, in one of the In the meantime, Israel will continue Association offices, the miners were set coal fields still unorganized, for full cost­ major moves preparing the coup, the even under the "most historic" Sinai pact upon by local police, who had several of-living protection, a shorter workweek entire CDP congressional delegation to occupy the West Bank, Golan Heights, times earlier tried to block their path with with no pay loss to make jobs for all, voted for a National Party resolution Gaza strip and 85 percent of the Sinai. patrol cars. While the cops had backed expropriation without compensation of denouncing the UP government as acting The Palestinians are still deprived of their down earlier to chants of "Move 'em or the energy monopolies that own the outside the bounds of legality. Just as right to self-determination. And all the we'll overturn 'em!" this time they mines and labor's political independence does the reformist Communist Party, the state puwers in the region are busily blocked Capitol Street and, after a heated through the formation of a workers party MIR favors unity with the class enemy, squandering their resources on building exchange, seized the keys from the and a workers government. including with those directly implicated up arsenals for the next war, which may marchers' soundtruck. Miners and cops The Miners Committee to Defend the in preparing the massacre of tens of involve nuclear weapons and in which the clashed with nightsticks and fists as the Right to Strike is not such an opposition. thousands of Chi.\ean workers and chance for "superpower" involvement has miners chanted "Get the keys, get the Not only has it failed to raise such a full peasants! been heightened by this very Sinai pact. keys." The miners got the keys and class-struggle program, but it shuns Israel out of the occupied territories! marched back to t~e Federal Building for What Unity? crucial social issues right under its nose: No U.S. presence in the Sinai! speeches, leaving at least one guardian of the anti-abortion, anti-busing and notori­ Recent reports from Chile speak of No U.S. aid to Israel or Jordan! the law sprawled on the sidewalk. ous anti-"dirty school book" movements increasingly open expressions of mass For the right to self-determination for With this demonstrated widespread being led by local reactionaries and the discontent. This Maya wave of spontane­ the Palestinian and Hebrew nations~ militancy, a group centered in District Ku Klux Klan. Anxious to insure a ous, short strikes swept the country and in For a bi-national workers,state as part of 29~the Miners Committee to Defend the monopoly for its narrow brand of simple August, after the junta announced the a socialist federation of the Near East!. Right to Strike-has played a prominent trade unionism, the Committee is not firing of 16,000 miners and 8,000 "super­ public role. Originating in the 1974 above abusing elementary norms of fluous" railroad workers, Reuters report­ contract fight, the Right to Strike workers democracy. At the Charleston ed a wave of protest. There are also Committee described itself in a letter rally a District 17 miner distributing a reports of various kinds of clandestine CORRECTION published in the November 1974 issue of leaflet advertising a Kanawha Valley resistance formations among the working A statistical error appeared in the Maoist Revolutionary Union's Revo­ Association rally against racism was told class. "SL( U.S. Summer Camp Marks Interna­ lution: "The Right to Strike Committee is by Committee members he would be As the generals' grip weakens it can be tional Growth, Prepares for Weekly a group of rank-and-file coal miners "trashed" if he continued his leafletting. expected that more and more outbursts of Workers Vanguard" (WV No. 75, 29 united to organize and fight for a Forging the necessary class-struggle popular anger will take place, and as the August 1975). The article stated that STRONG CONTRACT which includes leadership for the U M W will surely not be possibilities of such actions increase, the some 72 percent of those attending the the RIGHT-TO-STRIKE written clearly an easy task. A miner who announced at a tactic of the united front will be of great plenum of the SL Central Committee had into the grievance procedure" [emphasis recent rally in the southernmost tip of importance. In organizing a strike or a been members of ostensibly revolution­ in original). West Virginia that he was a member of a clandestine workers commission, it is ary organizations before joining the SL. Unofficial strikes are highly vulnerable communist organization was nearly obviously vital to achieve united action '. The figure should have read "52 percent." to sabotage by the union bureaucracy and lynched for his declaration. Yet the are often adventurist. However, in this militant miners have already experienced case the powerful tradition among miners the bankruptcy of reformism: sacrificed of refusing to cross a picket line and the at the coal companies' altar by Boyle, they massive wave of militant anger caused by are now betrayed by Miller. Both today's the jailings and court injunctions, with wildcat and tomorrow's inevitable battles require the creation of a class-struggle FORUM: leadership. This is the prerequisite to WfJlillEli1 fulfilling the aspirations expressed by a TOWARD THE young Boone County miner, who was speaking for thousands of disgruntled CANADIAN miners, "We're not quitting, we're going all the way!" SOCIALIST Victory to the miners' strike! Drop all ""Name ______''''iiI) __ REVOLUTION! charges, fines, sentences, subpoenas and injunctions against miners and their Address ______Speakers: union! Re-open the contract. to include the CityIState/Zip ------~76 Murray Smith: Trotskyist League of Canada right to strike, full cost-of-living escalator includes SPARTACIST Central Committee clause and a shorter workweek at no loss Peter Moreau: in pay to create jobs for all! o Enclosed is $5 for 48 issues (1 year) Trotskyist League o( Canada Oust Miller and all the bureaucrats­ For a class-struggle leadership in the Debates Room, Hart House o Enclosed is $2 for 16 issues (4 months)-INTRODUCTORY sub unions! Break with the RepUblicans and University of Toronto Democrats-Build a ~orkers party to order from/pay to: Spartacist Publishing Co.lBox 1377, GPO/NY, NY 10001 Saturday, September 13,8 p.m. fight for a workers government! • 12 SEPTEMBER 1975 9 In any case it is well known that the always rejected in the hope of avoiding a Grain Boycott. overwhelming proportion of food prices showdown with the employers. In the • • is accounted for by the middleman and Hoffa ... present depression conditions a shorter (continued from page 2)· not the farmer. The farm-gate price of (continuedlrom page 5) workweek with no loss in pay, full cost­ wheat accounts for only about 10 percent of-living (c-o-I) protection and the ex­ long as capitalist rule is maintaiI1ed). of the supermarket price of bread. And propriation of the transportation com­ same judge who tried and sentenced the fhat the Ford administration is oppos­ from November 1974 until May 1975 panies are vital simply in order to former Teamster president. ing the Meany: Gleason boycott should (before the latest Soviet grain deal), preserve the living standards of the The furiolls "Get Hoffa" frame-up lead no one to believe it is soft on wheat prices fell from $4.87 to $3.47 a working class, yet Hoffa consistently campaign cannot be explained by a Brezhnev's Russia. Ford's old-fashioned bushel, while in the same period the fought against any demand that had even sllpposed hatred of corruption and cold-war, rocket-rattling speech to the wholesale price of bread rose from 32.5 the slightest hint of radicalism. While strikebreaking on the part of capitalist American Legion in Minneapolis should cents to 35.6 cents a pound loaf (U.S. Hoffa could only appeal to one or politicians. \1ore to the point is the fact dispel any such illusions. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural another big business politician (he sup­ that Hoffa was jailed shortly after signing At present the USSR is the only Prices, May 1975)! ported both Democrats and Republi­ the first national master freight agree­ country which is the target of export Ninety percent of grain export trade is cans), genuine labor militants must point ment (including both over-the-road and controls on food. Secretary of Agricul­ monopolized by just five companies, out the need for a break with the capitalist local cartage haulers) in 1964. While ture Earl Butz claims this is because the which could give the CIA and Mafia a parties and call for the construction of a many union bureaucrats blithely signed Russians make very large, unexpected lesson in shady operations, including workers party, based on the unions, to no-strike contracts, Hoffa jealously orders. In reality, the export controls are product adulteration, price fixing and fight for a workers government. guarded the right to strike over grie­ an instrument of economic blackmail. to short weighing. Four of the five are not Of all the major union leaders in the vances. This sened as an effective means be relaxed or tightened depending on the even public corporations and so are not post-World War II period, Jimmy Hoffa of circumventing Taft-Hartley prO\'isions state of "detente." In the past few years, legally obliged to disclose any financial had the most militant reputation. This is a outlawing the secondary boycott, the the Brezhnev regime has invested heavily data at all. If the AFL-CIO bureaucracy sad commentary on the state of the U.S. most important organiling weapon in the in livestock cattle and a serious feed grain were seriously committed to holding labor movement, but the contradictions Teamster arsenal. shortage would require extensive, pre­ down food prices, which it certainly is of con-man militant Hoffa are not It was Hoffa's record in securing mature slaughtering with substantial not, it could begin by demanding that fundamentally different from those of relatively large economic benefits for his economic loss. It is in the rational interest Continental. Bunge and the rest of the other business unionists. The erstwhile membership and the spectre of union of U.S. imperialism to maintain the grain-dealer cartel be nationalized with­ socialist Walter Reuther, Hoffa's rival in power represented by a single, unified Soviet Union at a certain level of out compensation. Detroit labor, espoused such gimmicks as truck drivers' union that triggered the agricultural import dependency. Thus in But assuming, as is likely, that the the "guaranteed annual income" and government onslaught against the Team­ the grain boycott, as in many other contracted grain sales to the Soviets do profit-sharing, then gave up the c-o-I sters and produced the accompanying instances, Meany's crude know-nothing raise food prices somewhat, it still does escalator, agreed to tie wages to produc­ anti-labor Landrum-Griffin Act. The anti-communism conflicts with the not follow that the overall impact of these tivity and abandoned the fight for a "Get Hoffa" campaign proves once again longer-term strategy of the Metternich of exports will be inflationary. The Soviet shorter workweek. John L. Lewis, Ameri­ that even in the most extreme cases of American imperialism, Henry Kissinger. Union is buying hundreds of millions of ca's best known union "maverick," union corruption the capitalist state musi Much of the outcry about higher prices dollars worth of U.S. commodities. The founded the CIO and led bitter strikes be kept out of the labor movement. stems from the widespread belief that the increased demand for dollars in the against the government in the 1940's, but sale of 19 million tons of grain to the foreign exchange market increases the Not Simple Trade Unionism But also acquiesced in massive automation USSR in 1972 triggered the food price value of the dollar relative to all other Class-Struggle Leadership which cut employment in coal by 60 explosion that year. In reality, the Soviet currencies, thus cheapening the price of percent following World War II. Com­ grain purchases fed into a situation that all imported items. Hoffa's successor, Frank Fitzsimmons mon to all these bureaucrats-the "social­ would have led to rapid food price Oppose Meany/Gleason Anti­ ("that guy Jimmy used to strike his ly concerned" Reuther, the "maverick" increases in any case. In 1971 and again in Soviet Boycott! matches on"), has compiled an unenvi­ Lewis and the "tough" Hoffa--was early 1972 the U.S. dollar was devalued, We call upon the ranks of organized able record as Teamster president. His acceptance of the limitations of the there was a sharp economic boom in all labor to oppose the Meany-backed pitiful 1970 contract package led capitalist system. the advanced capitalist countries while maritime union boycott of grain ship­ Chicago-area drivers to wildcat, and after The bizarre episode which may mark a global food output actually fell. During ments to the USSR. Despite its being the unauthorized strike shut down most mysterious end to Hoffa's life is entirely 1972-73 U.S. agricultural exports to West ruled by an oppressive Stalinist bureauc­ of the Midwest for days the companies consistent with the rest of his turbulent Europe and Japan greatly exceeded racy, the Soviet Union represents historic came up with an additional 65 cents per career. He fought the near~feudal "bar­ shipments to the USSR. economic and social achievements of the hour wage hike. "Fitz's" strong 'Support ons" who ruled the Teamsters before he The present situation is very different world working class (expropriation of the for Nixon led him to remain on the Pay took power (and who once again hold -from 1972. The U.S. will have a record bourgeoisie, collective ownership of the Board even after George Meany walked. sway under Fitzsimmons). But because he grain harvest with output two to three means of production, planned economy) off and produced another sellout contract shared the same limited goal-summed up in Samuel Gompers'·one-word slogan, times domestic consumption. To date, and therefore it, as well as the other in 1973. Last year he left independent "more"-and never challenged the capi­ Soviet purchases amount to only 12 bureaucratically deformed workers truckers in the lurch during their protest talist system, Hoffa's rise to power was percent of wheat and corn exports, states, must be defended against econom­ against fuel price gouging by the oil necessarily personal and bureaucratic. In Japanese purchases being significantly ic blackmail by U.S. imperialism. monopolies, and the Teamsters' shame­ less raiding of the United Farm Workers a gangster-ridden union this meant more greater (New York Times, 24 August). We oppose all forms of economic set a new low for the labor movement. guns, more goons and more kickbacks. Some experts contend that the harvest is protectionism, which set the workers of While Hoffa might have avoided some Only a militant opposition fighting for a so ample that exports to the USSR need different countries against one another. of the extremes of Fitzsimmons' actions, full class-struggle program could clean have little effect on price. Thomas A. The road to plenty for all lies through the his militant image could not have sur­ out the I BTs Augean stables of crime and Hieronymus, food economist from the internationalist unity of the working vived the battles of recent years. Consoli­ corruption, by mobilizing the ranks to University of Illinois, suggests that the class, which alone can free production dation of the trucking industry has smash capitalism and its agents in the U.S. could easily increase its exports by from its capitalist fetters and institute a sharply posed the need for a nationwide labor movement, the venal union 25 percent and asserts, "there may be rational international division of labor in transportation strike, a measure Hoffa bureaucracy .• more corn available for export than the a planned economy .• Soviets have money to buy" (Wall Street Journal, 12 August). The phony exactitude of Secretary r SL/SYL Butz's statement that Soviet grain pur­ ""' Presenting the Weekly chases will cause food prices to rise by 1.5 PUBLIC OFFICES . percent is based on' several shaky assump­ WORKERS VANGUARD tions. To begin with, Butz assumes that if Revolutionary Literature Russia did not purchase 9.8 million tons NEW YORK/Saturday, September 13, 7:30 p.m. of grain, total demand would be that BAY AREA much less. However, if excluded from the Friday } Depression and the The Weekly WORKERS VANGUARD U.S. market, the USSR would certainly and 3:00-6:00 p.m. Class Struggle and the Transformation of the expand its' purchases in Australia,.Argen­ Saturday Spartacist League JOSEPH SEYMOUR tina and other grain-exporting countries. 330-4Oth Street SL Central Committee HELENE BROSIUS, SL Central Committee I ncreased Soviet purchases abroad would (near Broadway) deflect non-Russian customers into the Oakland, California 306 A Barnard Hall, Barnard College (Broadway at 116th Street) Call 925.-5665 for information / Donation $1.00 U.S. markets. Thus the net effect of Phone 653-4668 shutting off American grain sales to the SPONSORED BY COLUMBIA SPARTACUS YOUTH LEAGUE Soviet Union would be increased export CHICAGO demand from non-Russian customers. Tuesday 4:00-8:00 p.m. BOSTON/Friday, September 12, 7:30 p.m. Alternatively, the Soviet government is Saturday 2:00-6:00 p.m. quite capable of buying through third Smash Black OppreSSion! countries. There is now speculation that 650 South Clark -Not Federal Troops, But Labor/Black Defense Japan is buying for transhipment to the Second floor -Lessons of the Civil Rights Movement Chicago, Illinois USSR. GERALD SMITH JOE VETTER Calculations about the effect of in­ Phone 427-0003 Spartacist League, Spartacist League, creas~d exports on domestic prices are former member, Black Panther Party former civil rights activist shortsighted, taking into account only NEW YORK Boylston Hall, Harvard University Call 492-3928 for information this year's harvest. A member of the Monday } Agricultural Council of America inter­ through 3:00-7:30 p.m. viewed by WV argued that preventing Friday CHICAGO grain exports to the Soviet Union would Saturday 1 :00-4:00 p.m. be financially "disastrous" for farmers, Louisville, Boston: 260 West Broadway The Working Class Must Defeat Racist Mobilization! leading to a severe cutback in acreage Room 522 sown in 1976. Thus the longer-term effect New York, New York Northeastern University Roosevelt University Call 427-0003 for of export restrictions may well be a Phone 925-5665 Friday, September 19 Tuesday, September 23 time and place supply shortage and higher grain prices. \.. ~ 10 WORKERS VANGUARD militant workers. Last week, for example, officers such as Gon9alves; it can only unambiguously confirm the class­ several hundred military police (led by the reinforce the Stalinists' policy of class collaborationist character of this un­ Portugal ... Maoist MRPP) demonstrated in front of collaboration; it stands in direct contra­ principled bloc. (continued/rom page 1) the presidential palace announcing their diction to the central axis of Marxist As to the participation of the ostensibly defiance of orders sending them to politics, the fight for the independence of Trotskyist LCI, this is directly opposed to forces, crushing the incipient workers Angola. the working class from bourgeois forces. the whole struggle of the Fourth Interna­ councils, banning numerous left groups Moreover, the navy (whose officers The LCI will no doubt seek to excuse this tionalists in the 1930's against Stalinist and (at least) totally regimenting the voted solidly against the rightists last alliance on the grounds that it does not popular frontism. It is the identical unions." week) is entrenched on the south bank of actually include a bourgeois party. After capitulation that led the Spanish POUM The threat of a bloodbath of the most the Tagus River at its Alfeite naval base, signing the communique it disingenuous­ to enter the popular front in 1936, advanced elements of the Portuguese close to the Lisnave shipyards and other ly issued a separate statement disagreeing explaining all the while that the pact was proletariat is posed by the rightist factories of a proletarian "red belt" in with "some points," and in particular with only for the purpose of elections and that officers' grab for power. This must be which Maoists and syndicalists of various the call for "integration of the MFA in a the Catalan nationalist Esquerra was fought by every class-conscious worker parties playa leading role. To their east front of the organs of workers and really "petty-bourgeois" rather than a and revolutionary militant. This means and south is the "Red Alentejo" region, in people's power" since the MFA is not bourgeois political formation (just as the fighting for the development and exten­ which the CP has a solid implantation revolutionary (Diario de Noticias, 26 LCI maintains that the M FA is not sion of organs of dual power-workers among the farm workers. And neighbor­ August). bourgeois but petty-bourgeois!). and soldiers committees, workers mili­ ing Spain has for months been in a state of Aside from the obvious dishonesty of This betrayal of the Portuguese work­ tias, workers councils-and their unifica­ barely contained social turmoil which signing a document one of whose key ers and of Trotskyism-for that is what tion into a national soviet, which could could explode from a spark in Lisbon. points is rejected, the "revolution­ joining the "revolutionary / popular unit­ serve as the basis for a workers govern­ Militant resistance to the reactionary ary/ popular united front" is not so free of ed front" amounts to--is not simply an ment and whose first task would be the officers in Portugal today is most defin­ direct participation by the military as unfortunate error of the young and crushing of the reactionary forces. The itely not hopeless. would seem from the list of signers. The inexperienced LCI. Far from it. The same struggle for soviets, moreover, is insepar­ introduction to the August 25 commu­ identical "error" was made by the USec's able from the struggle to break the Prop to a Popular Front nique notes the presence, at the meeting section in Bolivia, the POR (Combate), workers' illusions in the MFA and in the to form the front, of "representatives of when it joined the "Revolutionary Anti­ A military bloc for common action so-called "progressive" officers such as Imperialist Front" (FRA) in 1971. where against the reactionary mobilization, the MFA, who acted simply as elements Gon9alves, and to destroy the political of cohesion ...." According to a news it cohabited with former President however, is something quite different influence of the reformist workers parties, account, these unity brokers included General Torres. Thus the Usec's Pabloist from a coalition giving political support principally the Stalinist CP and the representatives of the Fifth Division, liquidationism is the origin of the LCl's to the Gon9alves government. Such a social-democratic Socialist Party, who COPCON, the Coordinating Committee betrayal. Only by struggling for the class-collaborationist formation was set have treacherously tied the proletariat to of Air Force Sergents, the Navy MFA rebirth of the Fourth International, in up in late August as the then-premier and the class enemy in repeated popular-front and the Revolutionary Supreme Council. opposition to the USec's revisionist his CP backers were flailing around for coalitions. Moreover, it was officers of the COP­ policies, can an authentically revolution­ any support they could find to stave off But at present a Marxist vanguard CON who took the initiative to form the ary Trotskyist party be built in the anti-Communist offensive unleashed would also seek a temporary military bloc bloc. Thus both its origins and program Portugal.. with the Stalinists, other workers parties by the SP and the nine "moderate" officers headed by Melo Antunes. With and even officers of the M FA who are its name shifting between "U nited Revo­ prepared to fight against the rightist officers' attempt to consolidate power. lutionary Front" and "U nited Popular the scene of particularly vicious and Although pro-NATO elements in the Front"depending on whether it is the "far Boston ... persistent assaults. Since black and Latin officer corps have landed an important left" or the CP that is speaking, this pact families were firebombed out of the (continued from page 1) blow and the current is clearly running was signed by the Communist Party, the Orient Heights project this spring. the Popular Socialist Front (FSP), the against the left, it is by no means clear that arrested while trying in stupidly adven­ Sumner and Maverick Streets project has anarcho-Castroist LUAR, the left social­ . troops would today obey orders to crush turist fashion to breach police lines at housed the only significant concentration democratic M ES, the CP's petty­ of non-white residents in East Boston. South Boston High School in order to bourgeois electoral front M DP. the welcome the buses arriving with black White street gangs have tried to repeat the svnd icalist-Castroist Proletarian Revolu­ SPARTACIST LEAGUE children from Roxbury. Frustrated ra­ pattern of Orient Heights, so far unsuc­ tionary Party (PRP). the semi-Maoist LOCAL DIRECTORY cists. who had been held back by police at cessfully. at Maverick and SUmner. On a May I group. and the ostensibly Trotsky­ the high school, attempted to break into number of occasions they have been met ANN ARBOR ...... (313) 662-1548 ist Internationalist Communist League the courthouse where the CAR members with effective resistance by black resi­ c/o SYL, Box 592 (LCI). Portuguese sympathising section dents and members of left and communi­ Ann Arbor, MI 48107 were taken. of the United Secretariat (USec) headed ty organizations. BERKELEY/ by Ernest 'V1andel. The anti-busing forces prepared for OAKLAND ...... (415) 653-4668 Thi, treacherous front is an open call today's events by a rally on Sunday at Outraged at their repeated failure to Box 23372 for political confidence in the Gonplves \\ hich prominent local politicians made drin' the black families from the project, OaKland. CA 94623 regime. the same government \\ hich has unmistakable appeals for lynch-mob about 60 racist youth gathered on the BLOOMINGTON .. (812) 332-3235 prepared the present crisis by temporizing violence. Clearly referring tothe Ku Klux night of August 25 armed with rocks, Indiana 47401 with the reactionaries. the bonapartist Klan inspired violence in Kentucky. bricks, ba~eball bats and car antennas. BOSTON ...... (617) 492-3928 regime which has sent troops against former School Committee chairman The attacks escalated through the ni~ht. Box 188 ...... (617) 436-1497 innumerable strikes. jailed unionists and John Kerrigan told the crowd of 3,000. Two black youth were beaten in the M.IT Station Maoists. and committed innumerable "Louisville is Boston's farm club. Let's playground, and several apartments Cambridge, MA 02139 other crimes again.st the working class. show that to the world." l\'ancy Yotts, belonging to black families had their CHICAGO ...... (312) 427-0003 The communique signed by the eight reportedly connected with the racist thugs windows smashed. Police in the area Box 6441, Main P.O. parties of the front on August 25 contains of the South Boston Defense League, refused to act. One of them even com­ Chicago, IL 60680 the following statement: announced that "We stand together. mented. "These are nice kids; we grew up CLEVELAND ...... (216) 621-3379 united like on December II tho May 3rd with them here in East Boston." The Box 6765, "'3. The document 'Lines of Programmat­ and August 10th." Those were the dates authorities only acted later in the night Cleveland, OH 44101 ic Action and Transitional Demands' [a proposal for governmental policy by respectively of a mob attack on black when an integrated group of black DETROIT ...... (313) 923-7314 General Gonc,:alves on August 21] consti­ students at South Boston High School, tenants and their supporters began to set Box 663A, General P.O., tutes the basic document for guiding the the rock and brick throwing spree in up a defense perimeter in front of the Detroit, MI 48232 government's action until the conditions response to PL's May Day March and the homes. At that point the cops moved in, necessary for the formation of a govern­ recent confrontation with black demon­ HOUSTON ...... (713) 926-9944 ment of revolutionary unity are met." arrested one of the defenders and forced Box 9054, -Diario de NOlicias, 26 August strators protesting racist harassment at the rest to disband. Houston, TX 77011 Carson Beach. There is not even a fig-leaf here: the The thin line of police that stands Such racist atrocities must be LOS ANGELES .... (213) 485-1838 government and even the program of the Box 26282, Edendale Station, between black children and the lynch protested, and the victims, who include premier are explicitly supported! If that Los Angeles, CA 90026 mobs cannot be relied on. If today they members of the Greater Boston People were not enough, the provisional secre­ Against Racism and the Cambridge MADiSON ...... (608) 257-4212 reluctantly protected the buses, tomor­ tariat of the "revolutionary j popular Tenants Organizing Committee, must be c/o SYL, Box 3334, row, when the national spotlight is off united front" as its first act issued a set of defended against all charges. Further­ Madison, WI 53704 Boston, they will dispense the same racist slogans including "Fifth Government, more, these small and relatively isolated NEW YORK ...... (212) 925-2426 "justice" that black people endure every­ Transition to Revolution." defense efforts must be extended to Box 1377, G.P.O., day. The myth of police neutrality was Moreover, another clause of the involve broader forces. A political fight New York, NY 10001 exploded by the cops' vendetta against August 25 communique makes an explicit must be waged within the only existing PHILADELPHIA ... (215) 667-5695 PLjCAR, their brutal handling of black call for participation in the front by mass organizations of the working class, Box 25601, demonstrators at Carson Beach, the use capitalist forces. The fourth point speaks the trade unions, to win their active Philadelphia, PA 19144 of police dogs against black children in of "The creation of a front including the support for the democratic rights of black SAN DIEGO the Mission Hill project last month and parties and other revolutionary political people. This means support to busing as a P.O. Box 2034, the police "sick-out" this past weekend, Chula Vista, CA 94101 organizations, revolutionary militants, minimal step toward integration and the MFA and autonomous organs of which was aimed at sabotaging the busing SAN FRANCISCO racial equality. But equally necessary is people's power... " (our emphasis). The program by leaving black children vul­ Box 5712 nerable to stonings, beatings and even organization of integrated defense of the San Francisco, CA 94101 M FA is the political expression of the black children riding the buses and of officer corps of the capitalist army-the worse. These racist gunmen of the capitalist class must be replaced, not by joint black-white patrols to prevent very core of the capitalist state power­ attacks on black people in racially mixed the imperialist army as many reformists TROTSKYIST LEAGUE and thus is a bourgeois formation no and borderline areas. Besides the Boston demand, but by a mass integrated defense OF CANADA matter how "left" some of its pronounce­ Teachers Union, such unions as the ments may have been. Thus the clearly force based on the trade unions and the TORONTO ...... (416) 366-4107 biack community. M eatcutters, United Electrical Workers Box 6867, Station A expressed aim is to transform this prop to and Hospital Workers Local 1199 bear a Toronto, Ontario the bonapartist government into an Racist Terror in East Boston particular responsibility as they are VANCOUVER ..... (604) 879-7623 explicit popular front. integrated and self-proclaimed "progres­ Box 26, Station A . This treacherous coalition can only In the weeks preceding school opening, sive" unions, whose members work in Vancouver, B.C. lead militant Portuguese workers to racist terror permeated the city. A some of the most racially tense continue to place their faith in demagogic housing project in East Boston has been neighborhoods .• 12 SEPTEMBER 1975 11 I: i~~~:~IL:S

Militant Wildcat in Coal Fields Miners Fight for Right to Strike

CHARLESTON, W.Va., September 7- A coal miners' wildcat strike that began near here in Logan County August II and encompassed at its peak two thirds of the United Mine Workers (UMW) 120,000 members continues in an atmosphere of deepening bitterness. Amid increasing reports of bomb threats, gunfire and rock throwing in neighboring coal fields, angry miners are defying UMW President M iller's repeated back-to-work orders as well as massive court fines (now up to $1 million and increasing at the rate of $100,000 a day). This already four-week-old strike, the longest and largest in the country so far in 1975, has cost the coal operators mbre than 2 million tons of production-and, more costly to them, has deeply shattered whatever lingering faith miners had in Miller, whose "reform" leadership team has moved as surely to sabotage the miners as did its predecessors in the Tony Boyle regime. Sparked by the firing of Local 1302 president Roger Thompson in Lundale. a neighboring Logan County mine went out in sympathy with 1302's protest strike. Though a grievance has been filed against Amherst Coal Company's firing of Thompson, to date no answer has been received by the union. A Logan County miner from a nearby local told this reporter of five recent firings at his mine and the growing fear that the companies Cops battle striking West Virginia miners in Charleston, August 25. were getting the upper hand. Thompson's firing. he said. "was the straw that broke the camel's back." His local walked out. their right to strike over grievances and The wildcat spread from District 17 (the would not be cajoled back to work so UMW's largest) into neighboring District easily. A retired miner ended his speech at 29 (the second largest). and within two a recent rally with the thought of many: weeks spilled into northern West Virgin­ "Without the right to strike. you've got no Victory to NYC ia. Kentucky. Virginia. Pennsylvania, union. You might as well throw the Illinois, Ohio. Alabama and Indiana. UMW in the ditch." Among these miners, with a long Though Arnold M iller backed the local history of hard strikes, the union is right to strike in his 1972 campaign. he sacred ~, and so is a picket line. The cI ropped this elementary need in the 1974 Teachers' Strike! president of Local 5922 (Logan County), contract negotiations. The resulting SEPTEMBER a-United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Bill Belcher. declared in court that "I have contract was only narrowly ratified (44 Albert Shanker has reluctantly been forced to call a strike against the been a miner for nearly three decades and percent voted "no") after a desperate had never crossed a picket line and I never campaign by Miller against the "unau­ New Vont City Board of Education, fronting for the bankers of the will. If the courts tell me I have to cross a thorized" contract strike. A Logan Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC). Following the disastrous picket line I'll hang up my hat. I'll never County miner (who didn't support the pattern set by the capitulation of other municipal union leaders, tell my men to cross." Even Miller, while contract) says that there has always been Shanker has indicated his willingness to accept thousands of layoffs, denouncing the strike, has not dared to suspicion in his local about the voting a cut in real wages, higher class sizes and a reduction in preparation call for crossing picket lines. tally on the contract since the ballots were Court injunctions to break initial called in for secret counting. Another said periods and other rights that teachers have enjoyed for a decade. But sympathy walkouts only fueled the he considered the contract a trick; the that is apparently not enough for MAC, which wants to administer a spreading strike. Sim Howze, black "legalese" about the right to strike and stinging defeat to the troublesome public employees unions in New president of Local 8454 (Lorado, West grievances wasn't clear, and he feels York. Virginia) refused to order his men back Miller pulled a fast one on the member­ The UFT cannot defend itself in isolation from the community and and was slapped with a 90-day contempt ship. In comparing the blatant no-strike the rest of the labor movement. In particular, the union must fight of court jailing by District Judge K. K. deal saddled on the Steelworkers by I. W. Hall. Following Howze's jailing August Abel with the current situation of the against ALL educational cutbacks and ALL layoffs (especially vital to 15, the wildcat spread ferociously. After miners, he said at least steelworkers know ils minority, members, who are overwhelmingly teachers' aides, only five days in jail, Howze secured his whom they should be against, "Miller's paraprofessionals and teachers with low seniority). Not one job, not release by promising his best efforts to too sneaky." one penny for Big MAC! The UFT must take the lead in mobilizing a end the wildcat and limit the issue to But it is difficult to be "sneaky" when city-wide general strike against the capitalists' austerity program! ending court injunctions. But by then, you openly join hands with the courts and miners had seized on the key question of continued on page 9

- (-,s.JI!.. 1 I. ~, - ~ .. 4 ~.;~ Y,- I I ~~" j "-,CJ):":~ -~,..1 II\~ :. c),~.~J1 J ·,{to I ... f ~~"J",~ .~ ~ -,~ '"' 12 12 SEPTEMBER 1975