WfJRIlERS ,I1NI,,1R' No. 437 2 October 1987

War-Crazy Reagan Attacks the Ayatollahs • rl er- a • • In erSlan • Careening from Contragate revela­ tions of.having secretly sold arms to Teheran, the Reagan administration seems hell-bent on provoking war with Iran. Last week, in a brazen act of war, the U.S. attacked and seized an Iranian ship in the Persian Gulf without warn­ ing. To further taunt Khomeini, the Navy scuttled the ship by blowing it up. And war, secretary Weinberger is demanding "a totally different kind of government in Iran." The Reaganauts have delusions they're back in the days of Teddy Roosevelt and his "big stick," that by sailing gunboats up the Gulf they can install another shah. Washington has sucked virtually every European NATO power into its shoot-'em-up adventure on. the Cold War grounds of "keeping the Soviets out" of the Gulf. But by getting mired in the muck of the Iran/Iraq war, Rambo Reagan has shot himself in the groin. Now this pyro­ maniac could light the fuse for World War III. First they sent in a Navy flotilla, dar­ ing Khomeini to respond. But Teheran Duncan/AP didn't bite. So the U.S. used two heli­ Persian Gulf minefield: USS' Jarrett captures Iranian ship. Reagan's provocations are dangerous trip ,wire for copter gunships from a secret high-tech World War III. ._.. Army unit (Task Force 160) to disable the Iranian ship, killing at least three waters used by American ships as an an­ say it was the Rakhsh. Who will ever crowd the shipping lanes through this seamen and capturing 26. Pentagon chorage. The U.s. solemnly declares it's know, since the Pentagon dynamited shallow basin nearly closed by the chief Caspar Weinberger showed up in not going to allow such "criminal acts" the evidence. Straits of Hormuz. There's now" a person on the decks of the command in the Persian Gulf. According to the The U.S. is clearly gearing up to at NATO war fleet of more than 60 ships, a ship LaSalle to crow. He calledthe Ira­ Pentagon the Iranian craft was the Iran least drop some bombs on Iran. And if small Soviet naval group ,ofminesweep­ nian craft "a blazing gun," a "mine­ .Ajr, but Lloyd's Register lists this as a Reagan gets his Gulfwar, it's going to be ers and escort ships, a couple of Iranian laying ship" caught "red-handed" in cargo ship. Reporters who boarded her a messy business. Scores of tankers , ~con~tinued on page 4

, . for anti-Semitism, lynch mob terror and fascist filth. We say: No way! Feds Caught Out on Nazi Holocaust Lies "Facing History and Ourselves" is a curriculum focusing on the Holocaust . written in 1975 by two Massachusetts high school teachers. Consisting of a teacher training course, a textbook and a collection of documentary films, the course has been used for the last ten years by oyer 30,000 teachers nation­ Reagan's Amerika wide. Last year, the program applied for a federal grant to the Education Every time you turn over another school curriculum on the Holbcaust terror is no aberration, but part of Department's "National Diffusion rock in Reagan's administration, an­ because, as one panelist wrote, it didn't the onslaught of social and political Network," which gives funds to make other Nazi-lover slithers out. The latest give "the Nazi point of view" nor "that reaction in Reagan's AmeriJea.Fun- programs more widely available. It ran outrage came out in a New York Daily of the Ku Klux Klan." If that high , damentalist book-burners and cross­ smack into the Reagan administra­ News (20 September) front-page expose' school course is "unfair to Nazis," we -burners are spreading ignorance and tion's new "program significance pan­ headlined, "UNFAIR TO NAZIS." hail it! Nazism is not a "point of view," fear across the land while the diehard el," which is supposed to screen (i.e., Who but a swastika-toting Hitler-lover . it's genocide. Hitler's Holocaust mur­ "nuke the Russians" gang is still in censor) programs for "appropriate­ could say such a thing?! Reagan's dered six million Jews, a million Ger­ office. When Reagan salutes S8 Nazi ness!' The panels are pushed by ultra­ Department of Education, that's who­ man Communists and hundreds of graves at Bitburg, West Germany, spit­ rightists like the Eagle FOlUm and and it tells you a lot about the people thousands of Gypsies. The Soviet peo­ ting ori the victims of the Holocaust, it's "Parents to Protect Our Youth From running this country.. ples lost 20 million dead in their heroic no wonder that the Nazi- and Klan­ Propaganda, Brainwashing, and Sub­ The News revealed that a U.S. De­ ~ struggle that smashed the Nazi death lovers'in this administration drop the versive Textbooks in Our Schools." partment of Education panel last year machine. mask. Now the Reaganites propose to An article in the professional journal refused to fund a widely used high This government apology for Nazi turn American schools into platforms continued on page 11 "By this action I pointed out the path in committed folks' deepest concern. The which I believe, my own philosophy, most cold, calloused and heartless treat­ Parti§a'u'Defeu§e . about what must be done, the way in ment is reserved for 'white' MOVE • which a man must be willing to sacri­ members and supporters. Sue is no £o...... fice and risk his life for the sake of an act exception. As a reporter, I covered her ittee that is important and beneficial to all 'trial'; a farce from the opening rap of mankind ...." the gavel, her 'judge' now sits on the CLASS-STRUGGLE DEFENSE NOTES State Supreme Ct., a redneck who's The trial is adjourned until mid­ only interest was in separating Sue from October. We must use this time to build her belief. At trial, he couldn't look that mass international support for his brave revolutionary in the face! defense. Support for Vanunu has been "They've alternatively sent her to growing, including inside the Zionist , Fairhaven State Hospital for the crimi­ Free Mordechai Vanunu! nally insane (on the particularly racist fortress itself. He has performed a great notion that any 'white": person who For the past 12 moo'ths Mordechai service for humanity, and that debt must dared join a predominantly 'black' Vanunu has been held in solitary con­ be repaid. International pressure and organization, i.e., MOVE, must, by finement in the notorious Ashkelon working-class action must be mobilized definition, be quite mad) to keeping her dungeon run by the Shin Beth (Israeli isolated on separate quarters from other to free Vanunu now! Send con­ MOVE women, to actually taunting her FBI). Vanunu faces the death penalty tributions for his defense to: Morde­ with news ofthe incineration of MOVE for courageously exposing the Zionist chai Vanunu Legal Defense Fund, P.O. infants May 13th; all in a vain attempt state's arsenal of 100-200 nuclear Box 45005, Somerville, MA 02145. to wrest her from MOVE's influence. bombs. Vanunu is formally charged That she remained startlingly sane, not with giving information to "unauthor­ to mention, still committed to her belief, * * * her religion, and still in resistance to this ized persons" and "passing secrets to the infanticidal system, is itself a tribute enemy." The "secret" of Israel's nuclear A number of MOVE members have to a remarkable revolutionary, and a arsenal is well known. But Vanunu's written us about Sue Africa, who as a still more remarkable revolutionary exposure of its vast extent revealed to white member of MOVE has faced a teaching ...." the world that the bombs are directed particular form of persecution and har­ The persecution of Sue Africa and all not just at Arab capitals but at the' assment by government officials. Sue MOVE members mustbe met with mass Soviet Union-posing a threat of a has been in Muncy, Pennsylvania state protest. Send letters and telegrams global nuclear holocaust. prison since 1980 on charges stemming demanding immediate freedom for Sue All proceedings against Vanunu are from a 1977 cop assault on the MOVE Africa to: Mr. Herman Tartler, Board conducted behind closed doors. Va­ home. After receiving her first stipend Secretary, Pennsylvania Board of Pro­ nunu's family. members are limited to a Independent last month Sue wrote us of the state's bation and Parole, 3103 N. Front Street, half hour visit with Vanunu every two Mordechai .Vanunu most recent efforts to break her will: Harrisburg, PA 17110. weeks and are subject to strict gag In July Mordechai Vanunu wrote of "Not only did the Parole Board deny my orders themselves. The Israeli govern­ parole because I refused to abide by the his motivations in an open letter from stipulation that I don't associate with * * * ment issued a warrant for the arrest of Ashkelon prison: any MOVE member but they have also Vanunu's brother Meir on charges of The PDC helped publicize and pay "My principal message is in several advised me that they will not be review­ legal expenses for the successful Spar­ espionage for telling the European press spheres. On the personal.level, the indi­ ing me for parole again and I have 6 tacist lawsuit against Accuracy in Aca­ how the Israeli Mossad kidnapped vidual, the citizen, anywhere on the face more years until my maximum sen­ demia (see article on page 10) which. Mordechai from' Rome. The Partisan of the earth, has to find the way in which tence of 12 years-unless I write and tell he can add his personal contribution to them I am 'amenable to their special Defense Committee protested to.the forced AlA to retract its deadly libel improve life on earth, its quality and stipulation that I don't associate With that Spartacist publications "urge ... the Israeli embassy this forced exile of Meir safety.... ' any MOVE member.' This is a prece­ killing of police officers." This impor­ from family and home. We again "In my own case, I wanted to increase dent in prison parole policy, every tant victory for all defenders of dem­ demanded Mordechai Vanunu's imnre­ the awareness of the nuclear danger in inmate on parole is always reviewed at this country and in the region, so it least every 6 mo.-I yr." ocratic rights cost nearly $10,000 in legal diate release and that all charges against was an action that contributes to both Mordechai and Meir Vanunu be On 13 May 1985-Mother's Day­ expenses and publicity. Help defray the the security and the brotherhood of costs of this case. Send your con­ dropped. nations .... Sue's nine-year-old son Tomasa was burned to death with four other MOVE tributions to: Partisan Defense Com­ children when Democratic mayor Wil­ mittee, P.O. Box 99, Canal Street son Goode ordered the bombing of their Station, New York, NY 10013. home on Osage Avenue, MOVE sup­ We encourage WV readers to con­ Trotsky on the Jewish Question porter Mumia Abu-Jamal wrote us tinue to support and build the POe. from Pennsylvania's death row about Become a sustaining contributor. Send In December 1938 Leon Trotsky, co­ Sue's courage: a donation of $5 or more and receive a leader with Lenin of the Bolshevik "Thanx for your timely rap on Sue. She subscription to Class-Struggle Defense Revolution and founder of the Fourth isa story that is worthy of your & all Notes.• International, addressed an appeal to American Jews. Trotsky saw that Hitler's victory in Germany, the proliferation of fascist forces in Europe and the U.S. and . the imminent imperialist world war posed the direct danger ofgenocide ofthe Jewish TROTSKY people, underlining the urgency of the LENIN fight for revolutionary leadership against the decadent capitalist system which BERKELEY Speaker: . engenders fascism and war. Valerie West Wednesday, October 7, 12' noon The number of countries which expel the Jews grows without cease. The numberof Staff counsel, countries able to accept them decreases. At the same time the exacerbation of the Stephens Lounge, ASUC Building Partisan Defense Committee struggle intensifies. It is possible 10 imagine without difficulty what awaits the Jews University of California For more information: (415) 839-0851 at the mere 'outbreak of the future world war. But even without war the next development of world reaction signifies with certainty the physical extermination ofthe Jews .... Now more than ever, the fate of the Jewish people-not only their political butalso their physical fate-c-is indissolubly linked with the emancipating struggle of the SPARTACIST LEAGUE/U.S. LOCAL DIRECTORY international proletariat. Only audacious mobilization of the workers against reaction, creation of workers' militia, direct physical resistance to the fascist gangs, National Office: New York increasing self-confidence, activity and audacity on the part of all the oppressed can Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 Box 444, Canal St. Sta. provoke a change in the relation of forces, stop the world wave of fascism, and open (212) 732-7860 . New York, NY 10013 a new chapter in the history. of mankind. (212) 267-1025 -Leon Trotsky, "Appeal to American Jews Menaced by Fascism Atlanta Detroit Norfolk and Anti-Semitism" (December 1938) Box 4012 Box 441794 Box 1972, Main PO Atlanta, GA 30302 Detroit, MI 48244 Norfolk, VA 23501 Boston Ithaca Oakland Box 840, Central Sta. Box 6767 Box 32552 Cambridge, MA 02139 Ithaca, NY 14850 Oakland, CA 94604 (617) 492-3928 (415) 839-0851 !l!w!!!.'!!..~!~!!,'!~!'!u.s~ Chicago Los Angeles San Francisco Box 29574, Los Feliz Sta. DIRECTOR OF PARTY PUBLICATIONS: Liz Gordon ' Box 6441, Main PO Box 5712 . Chicago, IL60680 Los Angeles, CA 90029 San Francisco, CA 94101 EDITOR: Jan Norden (213) 380-8239 PRODUCTION MANAGER: Noah Wilner (312) 663-0715 (415) 863-6963 CIRCULATION MANAGER: Jon Lawrence Cleveland Madison Washington, D.C, EDITORIAL BOARD: George Foster, Liz Gordon, Frank Hunter, Jane Kerrigan, Box 91037 Box 2074 Len Meyers, Jan Norden, James Robertson, Reuben Samuels, Joseph Seymour, Box 75073 Alison Spencer, Marjorie Stamberg, Noah Wilner (Closing editor) Cleveland, OH 44101 Madison, WI 53701 Washington, D.C. 20013 (216) 881-3700 (608) 251-6431 . (202) 636-3537 Workers Vanguard (USPS 098-770) published biweekly, except 2nd issue August and with 3-week interval December, by the Spartacist Publishing Co .. 41 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007.lelephone: 732-7862 (Editorial), 732-7861 (Business). Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, GPO, New York, NY 10116. DomestiC SUbscriptions: $5.00/24 issues. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workers ValJguard. Box 1377, GPO, NewcYork, NY 10116. Toronto Opinions expressed in signed articles or lellers do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. TROTSKYIST LEAGUE Box 7198, Station A . OF CANADA Toronto, Ontario M5W 1X8 No. 437 2 October 1987 (416) 593-4138

2 WORKERS VANGUARD Striking Chicago Teachers Surround City Hall CHICAGO-Over 1,000 striking teach­ are the hatchet men for Reagan's war ers, members of the Chicago Teachers on blacks and labor-it's their job. Union (CTU), surrounded City Hall on Those like the reformist Communist September 23 demanding Democratic Party, which calls for the strikers mayor Harold Washington come up to show "maximum unity." with "the with the money for a decent contract. Harold Washington administration" Still solid after three weeks on the picket (People's Daily World, 17 September), lines, the 38,000 teachers and mainte­ are paving the way for the defeat nance workers are determined to beat of the teachers strike and of all city back the Board of Education's insulting workers. demand for a pay cut, recently increased Last week Chicago transit workers from 2 to 4 percent! were saddled with a rotten takeaway Even as Washington's administra­ contract, the product of a state anti­ tion is heavily cutting back on supple­ labor law which was pushed through the mentary food distributions for the poor, legislature by Washington in 1983. And his school board is cynically attempting the drive against the city unions goes to pry open the schools by offering free hand in hand with racist terror in Seg­ lunches to children who cross the picket r.egation City. In July trigger-happy lines! At the City Hall rally, strikers cops gunned down disabled black auto chanted "Chop the top," referring to the worker Larry Hawkins in his own home, bloated salaries of school adminis­ and brutally beat up and arrested trators. To enforce its strikebreaking, Cassandra Seay, a bus driver and mem­ the board has filed "unfair labor prac­ ber of the Amalgamated Transit Union. tices" charges against the unions with The integrated unions in Chicago, espe­ the Illinois Labor Relations Board. Any ciallyteachers and transit workers, have attempt to order the striking unions the links to the oppressed ghetto masses back to work must be met with a mas­ and the power to defeat the union­ '- wv Photo' sive mobilization of Chicago labor­ Chicago teachers chant ·"Where's Harold?" at September 23 strike rally. busters and the racist terrorists. Blacks transit workers, firemen, all city work­ Black Democratic mayor Washington is on the other side of class line. and all working people must break with ers-to turn any injunctions into worth­ the capitalist Democratic Party, fight­ less scraps of paper. that the black Democratic mayor is on Operation PUSH, are trying to mobi- ing-instead to forge a workers party that At the September 23 rally strikers the other side! Washington's school lize black parents. against the heavily has on its. banner the defense of all chanted, "Where's Harold?" A first board is trying to break the CTU. The black CTU. From Detroit to Chicago the oppressed. Victory to the Chicago step to winning this strike is to realize mayor's allies, like Jesse Jackson's the black Democratic Party mayors teachers strike!. Atla __ta Cops Gun 'Down Black Viet Vet

en ATLANTA-:-On the evening of Sep­ On September 17, two hundred peo­ o "0 ple marched to demand the cops s: tember 10, two white plainclothes cops [L chased down black 38-year-old Viet­ Watson and Long be suspended with.. > nam veteran Eddie Lee Callahan. The out pay. Three days earlier, after 125 Angry 3i: two cops were cruising the Carver angry Carver Homes residents demon­ community Homes housing project for "dope deals" strated inside City Hall chambers, black protests the and gunning for someone. The cops' Commissioner of Public Safety George murder of "excuse" for chasing Callahan, who Napper had suspended the cops. But Eddie L~e crashed his car, was that he had stolen it. Mayor Andrew Young and Napper then Callahan. The car belonged to his father. As revoked the suspensions when the cops Callahan ran away, dazed, the cops threatened to "strike." This case under­ pounced on and pistol-whipped him. lines the role of black Democrats as And while he was handcuffed, they front men for the racist capitalist sys­ pumped six hollow point bullets into his tem. Young, the Martin Luther King back and side at pointblank range. lieutenant nicknamed "Tom," went This was the second killing by cops in from protecting the racist killer cops a week here where the victim was shot in from the outrage of Atlanta blacks to the back. The cops have claimed that Washington, D.C., where he used his Callahan was grabbing their gun when stature as civil rights leader to testify he was shot, but according to the against racist Judge Bork. Young has Atlanta Constitution (15 September), recently returned from Guatemala City "Witnesses said Callahan was hand­ where he set up a program for Guate­ cuffed and lying face down.when he was malan death squad police to come to shot,' Five hundred enraged residents Atlanta for "human rights" training! of the black project gathered as Calla­ As the 1988 Democratic convention han lay dead, shouting "Murderers!" approaches, the repressive apparatus of and "Killers!" at the police. For this the capitalist state has been gearing up cold-blooded racist execution the cops .to keep in line the black, working-class were suspended with pay (put on vaca­ and poor majority of the "city tOQ busy tion) pending an internal police investi­ to hate." Dumdum bullets, "vagrant­ gation. These same two cops were free zones," West German anti-terrorist already under investigation for the bru­ "training" for Atlanta police are ele­ tal beating of a black man several ments of the deadly package. And in months earlier. order to neutralize the fury around the Callahan shooting, the city and cops have launched a smear campaign against the victim..Police investigators . fooled-his attacks on Young are to Democrats, spreading illusions that the Spa rtaclst League have leaked reports that courageous push Williams' own mayoral ambi­ state (through the Georgia National Public Offices eyewitnesses to the police murder failed tions, and no less than the mayor he's Guard!) would protect black rights lie detector tests while the cops passed. trying to divert anger away from the against the Klan. -MARXIST LlTERATURE­ Meanwhile, the Fulton County cor­ state. He's worded that unless a token The police are the armed fist of the Bay Area oner's office has fired a woman who gesture is made, the whole thing could capitalist state, and strikebreaking rac­ Thurs.: 5:30-8:00 p.m., Sat.: 1:00-5:00 p.m. accused the coroner of suppressing blow ina way the Democratic Party ist enemies of blacks and the working 1634.Telegraph, 3rd Floor (near 17th Street) information which punched holes in the can't handle. . class. Elementary justice demands that Oakland, California Phone: (415) 839-0851 cops' lying cover-up. Williams wants to "get rid of some the cop killers of Eddie Callahan be Chicago Former King lieutenant and black rotten apples" in the police, but is not jailed! If the mainly black city workers Tues.: 5:00-9:00 p.m., Sat.: 11:00a.m.-2:00 p.m. city councilman Hosea Williams has raising calls for them to be jailed, or and transit unions were to demand a 161 W. Harrison St., 10th Floor Chicago, Illinois Phone: (312) 663-0715 tapped the seething anger of Carver charged with murder. He has praised the halt to this racist rampage and flex Homes residents. Amid persistent warn­ police department as being the best big some strike muscle, Young and the rul­ New York City ings from the Atlanta Constitution to city department in the nation, and.leads ing class he serves would think twice Tues.: 6:00-9:00 p.m., Sat.: 1:00-5:00 p.m. 41 Warren St. (one block below back off, Williams is leading nighttime songs with verses saying, "We love the about unleashing their police. For Chambers St. near Church St.) marches and vigils at City Hall, draw­ police." Likewise, the Forsyth County laborjblackmobilizations to stop rac­ New York, N.Y. Phone: (212) 267-1025 ing up to 300 people, until the cops are march last January derailed the anger ist terror! Black liberation through so­ removed from the payroll. But don't be over KKK ~ttacks into support for the cialist revolution! • 2 OCTOBER 1987 and West Germans have come on board; from the Soviet Union, than in North Lenin called the UN's predecessor, War-Crazy and France, whose Teheran embassy is Africa. the League of Nations, an imperialist now under siege, already has its own war Gorbachev's Pipe Dream: "den ofthieves."The United Nations is fleet in place. Peacekeeping with Imperialism an imperialist cabal along with their Reagan ... The sudden escalation of anti-Iran neocolonial victims in the "Third craziness is reminiscent of the anti­ The Soviet Union can chortle over World," as well as bureaucratically (continued from page 1) Libya "terrorism" frenzy of last year, Reagan's foundering in the Gulf. deformed workers states like the Soviet Union. Gorbachev still pines for the old warships and submarines, mines every­ which i'\dmiral Poindexter later admit­ Responding to American calls for an ted during the Iran/contra hearings was arms embargo against Iran, Soviet for­ Stalinist dream of 1945, when they where, and scads of Iranian speedboats thought that the "Big Five" (U.S., for "martyrdom" attacks. The destruc­ part of a U.S. disinformation campaign eign ministry spokesman Gennadi Britain, USSR, France and China) tion of the Iranian ship provided Rea­ to justify a military assault on Libya. In Gerasimov jibed, "We are not selling would rule the world through the UN. gan with the desired momentary spike of fact the terrorist HQ was on the arms to Iran. Some othercountries were But almost immediately Truman and popularity in the polls. But things will Potomac, as the Reagan gang launched selling "arms to Iran and telling others Churchill launched the Cold War to change swiftly ifthose' "American boys" a bombingrun on Tripoli in April 1986 not to do so" (New York Times, 25 "roll back" Communism and eventu­ start getting shot down by Hawk intended to assassinate Qaddafi-they September). Moreover Moscow re­ ally overthrow the Soviet government in missiles sold to Iran by the Reagan/ . succeeded 0111y in killing his adopted cently agreed with Iran to build a rail­ the name of "free world" capitalism. North gang in the first place. daughter along with 'other Libyan civil- road and pipeline linking the USSR Whether there's a war-crazed madman Reagan's Real Target Is Russia like Reagan in the White House or Democratic Cold Warrio.rs like Tru­ The Iran/Iraq war, which now enters man and Kennedy, defense ofthe Soviet its eighth year and has cost over one Union against the imperialist warmon­ million dead, is a dirty war between two gers requires world socialist revolution. repulsive dictatorial regimes. The work­ "As the Iran/Contragate affair demon­ ing class must oppose both sides in this' strated, the war drive against the Soviet squalid bloodbath. We have called since Union abroad also means the subver­ the beginning for Iranian and Iraqi sion of any pretense of parliamentary workers to turn the guns the other way democracy at home. Once again Rea­ and bring down Khomeini and Hussein. gan is flouting laws designed to prevent If Reagan now carries out his war a president from running amok-in this threats, as Democrat Carter tried and case, the toothless War Powers Act, failed to do, revolutionaries must which requires the president to inform defend Iran against imperialist attack. Congress when he puts troops in a situ­ But Reagan's real target is Russia. ation of "imminent hostilities." Invok­ Behind the Iran/contra arms scandal is ing the act would mean that Congress the fact that Reagan and Khomeini are must approve a continuation of the

brothers under the skin. Washington J military action. So Reagan simply has followed a schizophrenic policy of Who is Reagan defending in Persian Gulf? Feudalist King Fahd of Saudi ignores it and goes into the Gulf with arming and denouncing the ayatollahs, Arabia ("Country 2" of Contragate fame). guns blazing. And once again the lily­ " while both of them denounce the Soviet livered liberals in Congress have capit­ "evil empire" and are quietly allied in a ians. U.S. commando attacks on Libya with fabled "warm water ports," .which ulated, timidly suggesting a watered­ "holy war" against Communism in continued throughout 1986, and now must drive Washington crazy. But the down version of the same empty law so Afghanistan. the Pentagon is supplying gas masks to Soviets are anxious to end the Gulf they don't "tie the president's hands." The imperialist powers had for years Chad, currently engaged in a border war war in order to strengthen ties with From Central America-to the Persian taken a low profile in the Iran/Iraq war, with Libya. Is Washington planning a both Khomeini's Teheran and Saddam Gulf, the gang in power in Washington playing both sides off against each poison gas attack on Libya? Hussein's Baghdad. Fat chance! have been looking for an easy "win" other. This year the U.S. started tilting What links U.S. aggression and mili­ Gorbachev & Co. have been trying to against the Soviets. The Reaganauts more against Iran with the scheme to tary adventures against Libya and Iran push a negotiated settlement to the war were "walking tall" after stomping the "reflag" Kuwaiti oil tankers and pro­ is the global war drive against the Soviet via UN Resolution 598, which calls for a tiny black Caribbean island of Grenada vide Navy escorts for them. At first Union. The hysteria over Qaddafi was cease-fire and withdrawal of forces. In (hoping everyone would forget their Europe shrank from Reagan's folly, based on the fiction that he was the main fact the Soviets last year started paying Beirut fiasco). But their Grenada high especially after the first tanker to be proxy terrorist for the Kremlin. Now money into the fund for United Nations didn't last. They've gone after Nicara­ escorted hit a mine. The Reaganauts' they're pushing the Big Liethat Russia is "peacekeeping" operations, such as the gua with a vengeance, vowing (as CIA high-tech 600-ship Navy looked like a out to take over the Persian Gulfand cut UNIFIL forces in Lebanon, which are director Casey put it) to take back at helpless giant when it was revealed that off the "free world's" oil supply. The nothing more than border guards for least one country from Communism. they had no modern minesweepers. A U.S. wants to "reflag' the Gulf as "Lake Israel. Soviet foreign minister Eduard But it hasn't been so easy-the Nicara­ vice admiral sheepishly admitted that a Michigan" in the name of "freedom of Shevardnadze is now pushing for a UN guan masses have fought tenaciously to cheap "fish finder" sonar used by navigation," even though the only ones force to go into the Gulf. The Soviets' defend their revolution. Even Qaddafi's fishermen could have spotted the mine it's vital to as" a commercial water­ proposal would only legitimize imperi­ house refused to fall down no matter that hit the Bridgeton (Navy Times, 28 way are Iran and the local sultanates. alist intervention by giving it a UN how hard Reagan puffed. And now the September). Yet the White House has But Reagan's nutty military adven­ flag-as when the U.S. invaded Korea Reaganauts are desperate. No major since persuaded the Netherlands, Italy, turism is far more dangerous in the in the '50s, or raped the Congo and power in its right mind would go to war Britain and Belgium to send their navies strategic Persian Gulf, a nodal point of killed African nationalist leader Patrice over the Persian Gulf, but who" ever into the crazy adventure. The Japanese world tensions justa few hundred miles Lumumba in 1961. "., thought the Reagan regime was sane? Spartacist~ Events ---~.------~------.

LOS ANGELES SEATTLE NEW YORK AMHERST BOSTON Friday, October 2, 7:00 p.m. Friday, October 2 I Dodd Hall, Room 154 Time and location to be announced Thursday, Oct. 15 Monday, Oct. 19 Tuesday, Oct. 20 UCLA Speaker: 7:30 p.m. ,7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. Martha Phillips Barnard Hall (Room to be (Room to be Speaker: Member, Spartacist League, Room 306A announced) announced) Joseph Seymour just returned from the Soviet Union Spartacist League Barnard College UMass Amherst Harvard University Eyewitness Report- For more information: 1\ Central Committee For more information: (617) 492-3928 Slides of Leningrad and Moscow (212) 267-1025 For more information: (213) 380-8239 For more infor.mation: (415) 839-0851 Speaker: Marjorie Stamberg, Spartacist League Central Committee . Spartacist candidate for NYC mayor, 1985 . CLEVELAND OBERLIN Saturday, Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, 7:30 p.m. 109 University Center Wilder YW 2121 Euclid Avenue Oberlin College , Cleveland State University CHICAGO Speakers: For more information: (216) 881-3700 Judith Preston Wednesday, Oct. p.m. Speaker: Tweet Carter, Spartacist League 7, 7:30 Member, Spartacus Youth Club, Ida Noyes, Library recently returned from Nicaragua University of Chicago Marijke Asten For more information: (312) 663-0715 Spartacist League

4 WORKERS VANGUARD· dence just published in David Pear­ son's KAL 007: The Cover-Up. During the discussion period, a young man spoke out: Relatives of KAL007 Victims: "Let me answer from a person who lost a mother and father on the flight. I've - been living with this thing since ...and I've been optimistic [about] having an investigation. I had no idea about the feeling that a lot of information was hid­ den, and based on the Iran/contra thing-how much can be hidden and destroyed .... There are (acts out there, and we're not being allowed to see these facts [as] to what really happened .... What country do we live in, if we.can't get a good investigation? What do we pay our taxes for? What kind of defense do we have?" . When a hostile "reporter" from Avi­ ation Week tried to shift the blame for the deaths onto the Soviets, another relative, Nan Oldham, shot back that it was the American government's responsibility: "Our relatives' had no business being over Sakhalin, they had no business being over Kamchatka. My son bought his ticket in Greenwich Village, he was going to China to teach for a year. He WVPhoto UPI didn't expect to be used for electronic Families mourn relatives who died onKAL 007, in New York (left) and Japan. Now many know culpntls in the intelligence or political purpose. He White House. is' didn't expect to be sent or to go wher­ ever he went. Why don't we know these things? We want both the National Transportation Safety Board and Con­ gress to investigate .... "A commercial flight should act like a commer-cial flight. It shouldn't go over one naval base and turn and go over another, should it? Don't you think We Accuse Reagan! anybody would shoot down [such] a plane?" The morning after Korean Air Lines Safety Board investigation was called ocrats and the "free but responsible" As the Congressional Contragate Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet off, Air Force tapes were erased, air con­ American bourgeois press insisted that hearings demonstrated in full measure, fighter jet on the night of 31 August­ trollers silenced. "our government" wouldn't send over lies and cover-up are part of the daily 1 September 1983,the Reagan adminis­ We said right off, "Reagan's Story 200 innocent airline passengers to their routine of American imperialism. As tration put its anti-Soviet propaganda Stinks!" (see the Spartacist pamphlet deaths in a monstrous anti-Soviet prov­ Marxists, we have insisted that the cap­ machine into high gear. And while KAL 007: U.S. War Provocation). Ever ocation. Now after the Iran/contra italist . state will not carry out an Democrats and Republicans alike were since, proof has. piled up that the air­ scandal the blinders are being lifted, as "impartial investigation" of the KAL vituperating against the "evil empire," liner was on a spy mission over some of people realize that lies and murder are' 007 affair, which is anchored on the cen­ the U.S. government was systemat­ the most sensitive Soviet military the M.O. of the Reagan gang. tral axis of the Cold War: smashing the ically suppressing the accumulating installations in the Far East, overflying And those who are angriest about it Soviet Union. Will it take a victorious evidence which contradicted the official Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin . all are the relatives of the victims. On workers revolution to finally open the claim of an "innocent" .flight gone island. At first, everyone from hard-core September 9 a press conference.was files on this and the rest of imperialism's "astray." A National Transportation Reaganauts to Congressional Dern- held in Washington to present new evi- crimes?

UNITED STATES 65" USSR ALASKA Eielson s TheKAL Tapes (USAF) At a September 9 press conference in between KAL 007 and Tokyo air traf­ Washington, D.C., Yale scholar David fic controllers. The Tokyo tape was Pearson presented what he termed the plagued by mysterious noise whichblot­ "single most important new piece of ted out critical pieces of information, in evidence" in the investigation of Korean particular the supposed "final" message Air Lines (KAL) Flight OOTs provoca­ from KAL 007. But when an acoustics tive overflight of sensitive Soviet mili­ expert compared the official Tokyo tape tary regions four years ago. Tapes of . with an early, partial tape obtained from background conversations among the the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, Anchorage air traffic controllers on that he found there was no such noise on this fateful night show that the U.S. knew early tape. His conclusion: the official the plane was heading for Soviet air­ tape had been doctored. This is only one space and deliberately did not stop it. example of an elaborate u.s.,Japanese KAL 007 was a U.S. war provocation. governmental cover-up .. As detailed in Pearson's new book . Dr. Thomas Amlie, a Pentagon mili­ KA L 007: The Cover- Up, about an hour tary engineer and scientific/technical and a half after takeoff, at a time when adviser for the liberal Fund for Consti­ KAL 007 had already made a rightward tutional Government which financed turn toward Soviet airspace, an air con­ the investigation, added another small troller tried five times to contact the bombshell at the press conference: a plane but could not. He initiated a call very reliable source ("whose name I will to a private radio service in an attempt not reveal to anybody except to the to relay a message, but then inexplicably investigators") asserts that "there was a . canceled it. Two minutes later a voice piece of [avionics] equipment on that Alaskan air from a loudspeaker (someone else­ airplane that didn't belong there." This controllers.. where in the complex, or a military would fit in with a story which circu­ saw KAL 007 controller at Elmendorff Air Force lated in September 1983 that a KAL heading toward Base?) announces, "Okay, you guys plane with the same tail number as that Soviet airspace, got someone bumping into the Rus­ of Flight 007·had been flown futo but did nothing. sians' air defenses over here" (emphasis Andrews Air Force Base on August 11, The plane's' provocative added). Then come the responses: "Oh, not long before the fateful flight: course was you're kidding," "A person should warn "Upon arrival it was taken to.the far end deliberate. him" and "That's why you should've of the field to building 1752, operated given the information here, instead of by E-Systems. E-Systems is a Dallas­ waiting." In the end, no warning was based defense and CIA contractor specializing in electronic warfare equip­ issued, though clearly they perceived the ment. There, the Korean airliner was plane was dangerously off course some said to have been outfitted with unspeci­ William P. Clark, he reportedly went his office to tell them the Andrews story four hours before the shootdown! fied electronic gear." berserk and branded it "Soviet disin­ had been fabricated by the Russians." Besides the Anchorage tapes, ob­ -Pearson, KAL 007: formation." That same day the director Amlie's revelation lends even more cre­ tained in 1985 through a Freedom of The Cover- Up of the top-secret National Security dence to Soviet marshal Nikolai Ogar­ Information Act request, the investi­ When someone reported this story to Agency, Lt. Gen. LincolnFaurer,"called' kov's statement in September 1-983 that gators also analyzed communications Reagan's National Security Adviser a number of editors and publishers to continued on page 12- 2 OCTOBER 1987 5 Oakland Meeting Defends Class-War Prisoners OAKLAND, California-Partisans of crimes against working people and the cause offreedom for America's fore­ minorities abroad and at home-from most class-war prisoners and other Tripoli to Managua to Philadelphia. important defense -cases gathered here From J. Edgar Hoover's FBI targeting on August 21 at a forum sponsored by of Marcus Garvey for imprisonment, to the Partisan Defense Committee (PDq .the FBI and so-called "Justice" Depart­ and Bay Area Labor Black League for ment disruption, surveillance, harass­ Social Defense. About 130 people ment of M. L. King and othercivil rights attended the Oakland meeting, held at activists, to their bloody campaign of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers extermination of the Panthers-the rac­ Local 28 hall. Don Alexander, spokes­ ist capitalist rulers seek the destruction man for the Spartacist League and - of militant black struggle which could Labor Black League, centered his open the road to general social struggle remarks on the case of former Black and the possibility of thousands of Panther Geronimo Pratt, who has spent blacks becoming reds. 17 years behind bars (eight of them in Of the 295 FBI COINTELPRO op­ solitary) on a frame-up murder charge. erations against the black organiza­ Among the guest speakers were Dennis tions in the '60s and early '70s, 233 of Jennings on behalf of American Indian them were against the Panthers. Thirty­ militant Leonard Peltier, a leader of the WV Photo eight Panthers were murdered by the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, An injury to one is an injury to all! Partisan Defense Committee and . state, hundreds were arrested, many framed on bogus cop-killing charges; Bay Area Labor Black League forum brought out 130 people in support of driven into exile, countless suffered a spokesman for victimized Watsonville united class-struggle defense. preventive detention-this happened in cannery strikers; and Constance Scott the land of freedom for the capitalists. for the Freedom 'Socialist Party and its grams on Pratt's behalf. theirpicket line during the hard-fought Geronimo Pratt was framed. You name Seattle Freeway Hall case. There was heartfelt applause again 18-month strike which ended last it, and they've reached far down into Janet McCullough Johnspoke for the when Partisan Defense Committee March. The strike was solid, and the their grimy bag of dirty tricks in order to POC, noting that its work was based on counsel Valerie West read a letter from Watsonville strikers are justly proud of destroy him. We have to redouble our the tradition ofthe International Labor Mordechai Vanunu, the courageous it. "When we began this strike, we were efforts to free him. While we favor all Defense during the 1920s. "The ILD Israeli nuclear technician now on trial in one thousand strikers," said Hernandez. legal efforts to free him, we place abso­ fused two great traditions," she said, Jerusalem. Vanunu faces the death sen­ "When we ended the strike, we were the lutely no confidence in the capitalist "that ofthe Wobblies-ofmilitant class tence for his exposure of the Zionist same one thousand strikers." Now he courts, cops and politicians, but only in struggle and the slogan, 'An injury to nuclear arsenal: hundreds of Israeli war­ and other union brothers face charges the independent mobilizations of the one is an injury to aIr-with the inter­ heads aimed not only at every Arab that could put them behind bars for working people and the oppressed. nationalism of the Bolshevik Revolu­ capital but 'at the Soviet Union itself. years. All labor must fight to drop the People here remember that Reagan tion of 1917.\" She was greeted by All humanity owes this champion of charges against the Watsonville strikers! was trying to crush black militancy in applause as she held aloft the lantern peace a debt of gratitude for alerting Dennis Jennings of the American the '60s while he was governor of given to the Spartacist League by the the international proletariat to this Indian Movement spoke on behalf of California and Meese was his assistant. National Union of Mineworkers in heightened danger of thermonuclear imprisoned militant Leonard Peltier, They oversaw the war of extermination South Wales. The lantern was a token of holocaust. convicted in 1977 on trumped-up mur­ 'against the Panthers. In the late '60s, appreciation for the PDC's 1984 cam­ Carlos Hernandez spoke for the Wat­ der charges in the shooting death of two paign that raised $23,000 for the strik­ sonville One Thousand Defense Com­ FBI agents on South Dakota's Pine ing British miners. They, in turn, have mittee. Having failed to break the Ridge Indian Reservation. This racist now joined with American unionists union, the company is now trying to' COINTELPRO frame-up has already in support of Geronimo Pratt: three intimidate the workforce by framing stolen ten years of the life ofthis Amer­ NUM locals have sent letters and tele- four cannery workers who defended ican Indian leader. A campaign of international pressure recently forced Leavenworth prison authorities to allow Peltier, suffering from a severe eye dis­ order, to be examined by two Soviet specialists; he has been invited to the Soviet Union fOF treatment, Jennings said he had accepted the PDC's invita­ tion "because of your. work in behalfof Geronimo Pratt." He spoke ofthe mass petition campaign for Peltier inside the Soviet Union, and read a letter from Peltier sketching his work on behalf of the Indian community: "For this, my 'work to help people live in peace, I may spend the rest of my life in prison." The Seattle-based Freedom Socialist Party is the victim of a witchhunting , vendetta initiated by a disgruntled ex­ Indian Nation member who had donated money in the Wounded Knee, 1973: RIfle-toting purchase of a new headquarters after the U.S. marshals besiege American FSP was evicted from its "Freeway Indian protesters. Hall." The FS P has refused to turn over I its membership lists, internal doc­ Rehnquist fought to jail a New York uments and minutes of party meetings Times reporter, Earl Caldwell, for re­ to the government. Constance Scott of fusing to turn over his records and the FSP told the audience that "our photographs on the Panthers for prose­ members and our organization face cution. The Panther leaders were cut financial penalties, the possibility oflos­ down by the state in the most savage and ing our headquarters, and perhaps jail." systematic murder campaign ever seen The defense of the FSP's principled in the modern-day United States. And Savage COINTELPRO refusal to disclose their internal doc­ we have fought to invoke their memory murder campaign against uments is vital to the workers move­ in our fight against "McCarthyism with black leadership. Los Angeles ment and critical to all who would a drawn gun," in our successful fight Black Panther Party defend democratic rights. against the attempt by the FBI, Rea­ headquarters hit by mass gan, etc., to set us up as terrorist out­ cop "search and destroy" laws to be blown away in the dead of operation, December 1969. '" '" '" night. . Former L.A. Panther leader We print below excerpts from the We defend Pratt and all class-war Geronimo Pratt (right), speech of Don Alexander of the Spar­ prisoners as an integral and consistent America's foremost class-war tacist League and Bay Area Labor Black prisoner, must be freed! part ofour struggle for world socialism. . League: We have raised the call for his freedom Reagan, Meese, Rehnquist-they're internationally. British coal miners have I •\ the criminals who belong in jail, .not called for his freedom. Radio Moscow ,I Geronimo Pratt. They belong in the reported on the February rally [the ~ jailhouse for their enormousand bloody continued on page 12' 6 WORKERS VANGUARD Young Sparlacus "Peace" Hoax Imp-erils Nicaraguan Masses Eyew;tnessReports from Spartac;st" Br;gad;stas

Left: Mary Jo with fellow worker in Managua. Mural for military service reads: "Whatever the cost, we'll go to the end." Judith (in dark shirt with shovel) at work with fellow brigadistas on construction site for ISCA university.

In conjunction with our "Nicabucks" country and to lead the masses to vic­ treaty will not bring peace. Salvadoran refugees who currently live campaign to raise hard currency for the tory in Nicaragua as well. What does it mean to say there willbe in Nicaragua and are able to politically defense of Nicaragua, Spartacus Youth amnesty for the contras and .for the organize. The implementation of this Clubs have organized an ambitious * * * National Guard? It means that the peo­ treaty would definitely mean a move speaking tour of Spartacist brigadistas Mary Jo: ple that are killing the sons of.the work­ against these political refugees. recently returned from embattled Nica­ I'm sure that the position on the peace ers and peasants in the northern prov­ Many have argued that the peace ragua. Comrades and friends have treaty is something that is not immedi­ inces and along the Costa Rican border, treaty will provide a little breathing presented eyewitness accounts and slide ately clear to people. This peace treaty is as well as the National Guardsmen that space for Nicaragua to develop peace­ shows, and a Trotskyist analysis of an attempt by the Democrats and the are currently in jail, will be free to walk fully. But FSLN leader Omar Cabezas the road forward for the Nicaraguan various rulers of the other Central the streets with the families of their vic" said straight out that what this means is Revolution. American countries to freeze the revo­ tims. And it's a real knife in the back to that there's going to be more.spacefor Mary Jo -Marino, a CCNY student lution in Nicaragua right where it is, and the Salvadoran insurgents, who are the right wing to organize. Further": and New York City transit worker, . to stop the spread of revolution through actually in an advantageous position in more the population is presently armed donated a month's labor in Nicara­ . the rest of Central America. This peace Salvador right now. There are many continued on page 8 gua as an industrial electrician. SY9 no credit brigadistas Dan and Judith recently returned from work building a soil testing facility for the ISCA university near Managua. We print here edited excerpts from Mary Jo's forum at Columbia University on September I I, Judith's eyewitness account given at Oberlin University on September 15, and Dan's diary. A central topic of discussion at these SYC events has been the treacherous "peace" plan accepted by the F:SLNand promoted by Democratic Party liberals and U.S. client states in Central Ameri­ ca. Yet even as the Sandinista govern­ ment tries to appease Washington by implementing a unilateral truce and reopening "La PrenCIA" and a reac­ tionary clerical radio station as a ges­ ture of "good will," Reagan declares that "communist Nicaragua is, in fact, a Soviet beachhead in the Americas," and is gearing up to request another $270 Militiawomen at Bluefields. Nicaraguan women play active role in pro­ million in contra aid. duction and defense. SYC Nicabucks campaign raises funds for material A "peace" of paper solves nothing. aid to embattled Nicaragua. Order buttons ($2.00) and send contributions The struggle continues and a Trotskyist to: Student Committee to Defend Nicaragua, c/o Box 3118 Church Street party is urgently needed to bring down ­ Station, New York, NY 10008. Every dollar donated goes to Nicaragua. the anti-Soviet warmongers in this 2 OCTOBER 1987 7 Spartacist Brigadistas ... (continued from page 7) and organized. What if some of these armed militias go take direct action Benjamin Linder, against La Prensa? What's the govern­ internacionalista, ment going to do? They would have to murdered by crack heads, and move against the peo­ U.S. contra ple within Nicaragua who oppose this terrorists. betrayal-and there will be those peo­ ple, believe me. If they invite back the big landlords, what happens to the agrarian policy in Nicaragua? Already many of the peas­ ants have never received land, because very early on the Sandinista govern­ ment said "whoa, stop, wait" to the Comrade Dan at peasants who seized estates. If they Ben Linder's invite all these big landlords back, will grave In these peasants ever have land? What will Matagalpa, happen to the cooperative movement if an honored site for young these big landowners return? Already defenders of opposition demonstrations have been the Nicaraguan demanding a return of confiscated prop­ Revolution. erty, and a dissolution of the Sandinista BENJAMIN ERNEST LINDER Defense Committees-in other words, 1959 - 1987 they want to smash the organizations of the people. So obviously this also sig­ Young Spartacus nals more concessions to the capitalist States isas far out as Star Wars. Because very supportive of the brigadistas. avenge this; class. of their framework of nationalism, they My first weekend I went to Matagal­ All of the'skilled workers on our proj­ . ' I'm sure people are aware of the work do not even look to furthering rev­ pa, which is about 90 kilometers north ect were Nicaraguans. My foreman, of Ben Linder, who was bringing elec­ olutions in countries like El Salvador of Managua "in mountainous territory. Gustavo, and I would sit around at tricity to the rural villages. Ifthis kind Of or Guatemala, or more importantly This is where a lot of contras hide out lunchtime and talk about the revolu­ "peace" went through, would these vil­ . Mexico. and .carry out their attacks, mostly tion. I asked him what he thoughtabout lages ever see electricity? Or how about 'Now a lot of people have been argu­ against the campesino cooperatives. Soviet aid and he said, "Well, what do health care? Would that once again ing that this plan isgood because at least One of my fellow brigadistas brought they want us to fight with? All we have .become a luxury of a few people? One of it's a Central American initiative. No. balloons to give to the children, and the here is rocks and axes." Every day, very the good things the Sandinistas did was This is not a Central American initia­ whole neighborhood came out. Mata- effective Soviet military helicopters open up education to the sons and tive. This peace plan was basically writ­ , galpa is very poor, and these kids had would fly overhead, which made us feel daughters of the workers and peasants. ten by Senator Dodd and adopted and infected faces, infected feet, distended very safe and secure. Ifthere is a reversal, willit once again be promoted by Arias in the region. bellies, no clothes. At the University of Central America simply the domain of the sons and Because Reagan's contra war has failed, Ben Linder was buried in Matagalpa. (UCA) the FSLN runs a preparatory daughters of the bourgeoisie and the they want to step in, they want a chance To symbolize the happiness that he school for campesinos who fought in the better-off middle class? What about to try their tactics to stop things cold. brought to many Nicaraguan children military and never received any secon­ women? Will they ever win the right to Remember the history of the Dem­ when he worked with the Managua cir­ dary education. The university student abortion and day care under a "peace" ocratic Party: Walter Mondale ran for cus, his gravestone is engraved with a . population has doubled in Nicaragua president on a program to quarantine unicycle, a dove-and some balls in a cir­ since 1978. Students gettheir books and Nicaragua. cle. At the cemetery where Ben Linder is tuition paid for, and according to their The Democrats have been very clear' buried, graves are allotted for another needs, they can also get subsidized that should the Sandinistas do any­ 17,500 people-the future victims of transportation, food and housing. thing Sowildas to accept MIGs from the contra terror, yet to be put into the Youth attend school until they're 16 or Soviet government, they would sup­ ground. -17 years old and'then go into the mili­ port bombing them off the map. If , Franco, one of the Nicaraguans I tary. You see everybody reading around they're so interested in peace in Central worked with on the construction proj­ Nicaragua. The bookstores are filled America, why is it that they so rou­ ect, was from Jinotega, which is an area with Marxist literature, science books, tinely vote aid to the contras and right outside of Matagalpa. One day, novels-s-most published in the Soviet Duarte's death squad "democracy" in while working in Matagalpa, contras Union and Cuba and which cost only El Salvador? stormed down the hill and killed one.of about a dime. ' The Democrats have often been the his coworkers. Everyone who worked I had a chance to talk to one of the ones to execute and escalate the on this project was armed'; so Franco leaders of the Juventud (the Sandinista wars that the Republicans have laid turned around and killed the contra and youth organization) and we had a big the ground for-remember Vietnam. was awarded medals for that. He has argument over amnesty; This guy had When we put before you the possibility brothers who fight in the military and just come back from - spending five of fighting to complete and extend the already lost two to the contra murder­ weeks in the hills handing letters over to Nicaraguan Revolution and joining our ers in 1983. Franco was in the reserve contra families, appealing to them to Nicabucks campaign of material aid to army. He left our construction project call on members of their families to lay defend Nicaragua, the alternative that for military service on the same day that down their arms. He lost a lot of friends you're seeing from the "solidarity" the contras murdered an older woman who were killed by the contras and he movement is to go lobby the Dem­ and a nine-year-old girl and burned admitted that "sometimes when they ocrats. There is a fundamental problem down 29 houses on a cooperative out­ hand over their arms, the first thing I . Andy Peri here:' the Democrats, too, want to side his hometown of Jinotega. All of us want to do is blow them away." This Contra war comes home: Brian Willson (center) protesting on tracks strangle this revolution. brigadistas felt that Franco would amnesty is a betrayal by the Sandinis- before munitions train ran him One of the important things here is down. that peace is not going to be decided by a piece Of paper. And a sellout is not aimed at further conciliating the Cath­ something that is going to go over easy. olic church? These people have not had their sons At City College one fellow raised his and daughters fight and die to hand hand and said, "Well, if this peace plan back to the exploiters everything that is so detrimental to Nicaragua, why, they feel that they have won. would Ortega sign it?" One has to look at what the Sandinistas are and what they really represent.' Despite the fact *** that the papers here are always saying Judith: , that they're some kind of. hard-core I went to Nicaragua to show my soli­ Marxist revolutionaries, really what darity with that revolution and to they are is nationalists. donate my labor for work on a con­ The FSLN believes that there can be struction project, something that could social progress in Nicaragua without be used inthe future by the Nicaraguan expropriating the capitalist class, that people. This was a very valuable experi­ they can have a bloc with the "patri­ ence, to be able to talk with Nicara­ otic" bourgeoisie in the country and go guans who don't have any illusions that forward. Their perspective internation­ the Democratic Party is any alternative ally is that they would like to see a more to the Republicans. They remember that friendly administration in Washington. the Bay of Pigs invasion was launched That means the Democratic Party. "from Nicaragua by John F. Kennedy. Barreto/NY i'r;;;es From their point of view the possibility They knew of the oppression of work­ "Peace" plan reopens contra'mouthpiece. We say: Shut down La 'PrenCIA of ever having a revolution in the United ers and minorities in the U.S. and are for good! 8 WORKERS VANGUARD _ tas-and the majority of the people I Dan: met were opposed to it. August 19: We met with the FSLN -Everybody that I met in Nicaragua women's organization, AMNLAE. A was also opposed to reopening La representative of' the organization Prensa. By giving a voice to these stressed the gains for women since the counterrevolutionaries known as La revolution. In 1977 the literacy rate for PrenCIA, the FSLN is essentially giv­ women was 7 percent, last year it was 87 ing them the right to kill. These scum percent. Special hospitals have been advocate taking up arms against the opened up for women and women now Sandinistas and overthrowing the gov­ take an active part in defense·and ernment. These guys are also the mouth­ production. The new' Nicaraguan con­ piece for the black marketeers who sab­ stitution states that women have equal otage the economy and are a great threat rights-pretty significant when you to the proletariat. think that the ERA can'teven get passed There's a beautiful statue in down­ in the U.S. Chicago town Managua inscribed with the The AMNLAE representative was slogan, "Only the workers and peasants Spartacists uncomfortable and hedged when asked join protest will go to the end." We recognize the .about abortion. She told her skeptical against contra hope embodied in that, but for the rev­ audience that abortion was a "divisive war criminal olution to be consolidated and made issue" and that only when the war was Adolfo Calero, permanent requires a Trotskyist leader­ over would the question be taken up. It Jlily 18. ship to carry out a program to expro­ is obvious that the Sandinistas are priate the bourgeoisie and extend the caving in to pressure from the Catholic revolution throughout Central America church and trying to appease the and beyond. counterrevolutionary opposition. Many In Nicaragua, the Democrats and women's lives are lost because of the ban Republicans want to score a "win" in on abortions. Reagan calls the Sandi­ their anti-Soviet war drive. They seek to nistas "Communists," but real com­ start over. But only a small number vakian malt, so it's good beer. crush the "Nicaraguan Revolution be­ munists, the Bolsheviks, made abortion cause it is a tremendous inspiration to make it to Nicaragua. Salvadorans who A kilometer away on the other side of legal over 60 years ago in the Soviet are caught on the dangerous journey the highway, we visited the state-owned the workers and oppressed people of all Union. the world, including to youth and black I through H6nduras are put in concen­ Fanatex textile factory. Here workers August 22: Hitched out to a cooper­ tration camps and many others who try work eight-hour shifts for $12 a month. and Hispanic. workers. in this country. ative run by Salvadoran refugees about Our job is to put an end to imperialism to cross the Gulf of Fonseca in small As workers returned from lunch, a San­ six kilometers outside Estell. Nicara­ boats are shot out of the water. dinista spokeswoman urged them to once and for all by putting an end to gua is a beacon for Salvadorans fleeing capitalism here in this country. Although everyone in this region of sign up for volunteer work because the junta terror. Here they are given land, Nicaragua is armed, the Sandinistas plant was behind quota. Workers lis­ • •• seeds, tools, schools, -and a chance to try to allay the. concerns of the "in­ tened quietly with their arms crossed. ternational community" by keeping How many must be fuming at being o-< c Salvadorefios unarmed. It's suicidal asked to work voluntary overtime as a :J co even to cut sugar cane without your patriotic duty while the FSLN refuses to en -0 AK-47 here. Four weeks ago during expropriate the beer baron across the l» ~ the eighth anniversary festivities con- . street who never reinvests a cent of his c tras burned Soviet-made tractors and profits! '" killed a health care worker at a nearby Sept. 4: The bloodthirsty attempted cooperative. murder of Brian Willson, run down "Peace" plan calls for-amnesty August 24: Visited the Tofia beer fac­ by a train carrying weapons eventually for Somozaist tory this morning. It's privately owned­ bound for the contras, made front-page killers. by a millionaire who's now in Miami. headlines in the papers here. Barricada Nicaraguan Workers work 12-hour shifts and earn stressed that Willson was a Vietnam vet­ mother grieves about $15 a month. It was infuriating to eran and that he was run down while while telling see over' 20 percent of the product flow­ practicing civil disobedience. It was brigadistas of ing down floor drains because faulty announced that Ortega's wife is goingto savage murder parts in a bottling machine can't be visit Willson in the hospital, to convey. of her son. replaced due to the U.S. embargo (all the deep admiration of the Nicaraguan the equipment here was made in Mil­ people for his courage in standing up to waukee). But now they use Czechoslo- the U.S. war machine.js

. content of speech, the result is ideo­ We do not need witchhunters, spies, or sticker was pasted on my office door AlA logical conformity, self-censorship, and monitors who abridge access to certain with the Swastika and a 'stop all immi­ infringement of the freedom of speech ideas and fetter the freedom ofeachstu­ gration' slogan. The sticker was affixed and association. dent and teacher to read.-write, hear, to a statement of Martin Niemoller Retraction ... "I applaud your victory; My own speak, think, and choose." -' which I had posted on my-door: 'InGer­ (continued from page 10) .investigation of Accuracy in Academia Nancy G. Mclfermid many they first came for the Com­ organization notorious as a front for has convinced me that these 'virtuous' Dean, School of Humanities munists and I didn't speak up because I right wing machinations), they now and 'right-thinking' watchdogs use San Francisco State University" wasn't a Communist. Then.they came have forced the notorious 'Accuracy in political pressure, spies, and intimida­ for the trade unionists, and I didn't Academia' to retract as well. Libelous tion in their attempts to insure that the Can't Ignore AlA speak up because I wasn't a trade statements that anyone 'advocates "classroom is swept clean of all 'dirt' and unionist. Then they came for the violence,' especially against the police, 'untruth' as defined by the AlA censors. "In the fall of 1986 a student in my Catholics, and I didn't speak up because are part of a continuing attempt to The Spartacist League victory against class in the Law and Justice Program I was a Protestant. Then they came for equate speech with action and to blur AlA is an important victory for all ofus ('Authority, Liberty and Law') anony­ I me-and by that time no one was left the line between the two, so that some­ who believe that individuals in oursoci­ mously claimed that he was monitoring to speak up'.:.. body's 'violent' thoughts and speech can ety have a right to be exposed to all ideas the course for Accuracy in Acade­ "The purpose ofAccuracy in Acade­ become an excuse for actual violence by and to make choices among those ideas. mia ... , After one of my lectures a Nazi mia like the Moral Majority and the their opponents, inside and outside the American Nazi Party is to intimidate government. ... By showing courage on and silence anyone who even slightly this occasion, the Spartacists have elim­ disagrees with them. While we cannot inated dangers for all of us; and we overestimate their power and organiza­ should all be grateful." tion neither can we ignore them. My response will be to teach more aboutfas-. Ann N. Michelini cism not less." Officer, American Association of University Professors" Charley Shively (Cincinnati) Professor Law and Justice Program Defend Free Speech University of Massachusetts," February 1987: Boston "I have just read the news ofthe June Spartacists 19, 1987, settlement of the Spartacist picket ABC's Evil Irvine League libel suitfiled against 'Accuracy anti-Communist in Academia.' Even though I have my" soap opera "Reed Irvine is one of the principal political differences with SL and my Amerika, apologists for neo-fascist ideology in the own constitutional problems with libel brain child of world today!" laws, I have absolutely no reserva­ witchhunter Chip Berlet tions in my unmitigated opposition to Reed Irvine. Secretary, National Lawyers the AlA and its persecutive tactics. Guild Civil Liberties Committee" Freedom for : all is endangered by the articulated purposes and the dem­ • Organizational and university affil­ onstrated tactics of AlA. Whenever iation listed for purposes ofidentifica­ any individual or group monitors the tion only.- 2 OCTOBER 1987 9 Cry Uncle

: ... _ U l ...... 0...... ~ CAMPUS ,,_~:~..· _·1:-·- ·,...... _&m =c::='*..,aunub In an important victory for dem­ ocratic rights, the Spartacist League -- .. ~ REPORT won a libel lawsuit against the malicious • • JULY-AUGUST 1m • • z; from Accuracy In Academia V""" II. N";"'. 7 witchhunters of "Accuracy in Acade­ I mia" (AlA). In a pamphlet titled "Appeasing the Censors: A Special Report on Campus' Free Speech Correction Abuses," AlA invented and peddled a libel that kills: that Spartacist publica­ tions "urge ... the killing of police officers." As a result of our suit, AlA was forced to print a prominent retrac­ tion in the July/August issue of AlA's AlA and Laszlo Csorba now admit the falsity of a statement Campus Report. contained in a pamphlet published and distributed by them that The settlement was reached on June 19 when AlA, its executive director the Spartacist League in its''publications (Workers Vanguard, Laszlo Csorba, and Reed Irvine, AlA's Don't mess with Young Spartacus, and The Spartacus (sic) urge ... the killing founder and head of "Accuracy in the Spartacist Media," admitted their deadly lies were League! AlA ofpolice officers." This statementabout the Spartacist League utterly false. While "Big Brother" Irvine forced to retract and little brother Csorba squirmed deadly libel in is false. ' with embarrassment, the SL's attorney July/August . Jonathan Lubell proclaimed the settle­ issue of ment "a total victory" in a statement Camp-us Rep-art. carried by Associated Press. UPI also carried a story on AlA's retraction, as did the Wall Street Journal and a number of campus and black commu­ nity newspapers. Successfully forcing these campus contras to back down is especially important now as the dirty contra war comes home with the attempted mur­ der of Brian Willson, brutally maimed "Accuracy in Academia" Eats Its Deadly Lies "outside a California naval base for protesting U.S. war moves on Nicara­ gua. As Reagan's. domestic shock troops, AlA is the living embodiment of and therefore a little less dangerous to what we've called "McCarthyism with a everyone' on the left. You've done a real drawn gun." From spying on, harassing 'mitzvah' this time." and intimidating liberal and leftist pro­ Bertell Ollman fessors to lauding physical violence such Professor of Political Science as the sledgehammer attack on students New York University" in an anti-apartheid shanty at Dart­ mouth, AlA cuts a wide swath. We Good Offense found support for our case among the many victims and intended targets of "Your recent victory over AlA these sinister thought cops. As Saul demonstrates once again that the best Landau, an early target of AlA, wrote defense against anti-communist witch­ us: "Everyone attacked by AlA should hunters is a powerful offense based on fight back. Glad you won!" Other let- truth. Congratulations!" . ters of congratulation are reprinted Richard Rubenstein below. Author and Professor of Public Affairs ·A Real "Mitzvah" George Mason University" "I congratulate the SL on its success­ fullibel suit against Accuracy in. Acade­ Right on Target aliiornia Aggie mia (AlA). I wish I could say Wilt this " ...The.Spartacist League picks its Inaccurate and not academic: pipsqueak McCarthylte Les Csorba with will keep these ultrareactionaries hon­ . targets extremely well. Afterattacking a drawn guO. Csorba & Co. would purge universities of leftists as his personal est. It won't. But it willmake them more .libel by the followers of Rev. Moon (an hero, death squad leader D'Aubuisson, did in EI Salvador. SL suit is blow careful, a little less wild in their charges, continued on page 9 against campus witchhunters. .' '. '

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Watchdog Group Concedes It Was Too Quick to ~ite Bya WALL STRl':ET JOURNAL StaffReporter NEW YORK -Accuracy in Academia makes mistakes, too. The watchdog group had said in a 1986 pamphlet that the Spartacist League, a New York based Marxist group, urged''the killing of police offi­ cers" in some publications. But, in a li­ bel-suit settlement filed in federal court, Accuracy in Academia admitted the statement was false and.agreed to pub­ To the Editor: RADICAL RIGHT lish a retraction in its monthly newspa- ...... n - - .• --,.. League, a Marxist It may not quite rank up there with the celebrated pr r mnns Rpnnrt ucladaily bruin . n, has wo~ n~ ~bbieH~ffman~n~A~y. BIG RED. NEWS . for demo. Spartacist League challenges Accuracy in Academia McCart: AlA ~itch Hunters' By Timothy Reid EI Salvador). in order to isolate the left and scare genocide. without protest. professors from association with such groups. It In the last two years, with a resurgence of student Retract Deadly Libel The Spartacisl League has filed a libel lawsuit seeks more broadly to charie liberal faculty proIest against war moveS .on and U.S. Nicaragua TbcSponKiJI u.,ue...... publir';lIions (Wo,lus a circulalion of 2Q-2S.(00). The against "Accuracy in Academia. Inc." (AlA), its members and alle cdly co liam administraton with 'lion to the racist apartheid regime, AlA has . ;"' ...... ;.-.t..._--.;....:.- ~

10 WORKERS VANGUARD Reagan's Amerika ••• POPE'S STERN FAREWELL (continued from page 1) Calls for ban on abPrtion and mercy-killing - .... s Education Week (4 August) first ex­ DAILYI)NEWS posed what Reagan's board of censors ! "'YOM'S...cTl.M~' ~ SInll¥...... 20,t.,- was up to, forcing Education Depart­ ment spokesman Ronald Preston to Federal panel calsHoIocaat course: admit that the "significance panel" and its criticism of the Holocaust program was "a disaster.... We bungled it." Once UNFAlRTO~· the lid was blown, Preston tried to con­ trol the damage, declaring that Christi­ na Price, the panelist who wrote the Nazi comment, would be taken off the OUTRAGE! Reagan's Department of Education tried to list of teachers used in the reviews. He whitewash Nazi Holocaust. Right: fascists publicly tried to shrug it off, saying, "You never .execute young Jewish partisans in Minsk, USSR, 1941. know what these independent people on Nazism isn't a "point of view"-it's genocide. the outside [panels] are necessarily going to say." What would you expect from the . France, the fascist Le Pen-a candidate bunch who brought you Bitburg? Ac­ for the French presidency-recently cording to Education Week, Price has said that the Nazi gas chambers were a been a supporter of Phyllis Schlafly's "minor point of history." Le Pen's fas­ Eagle Forum since her days in "the anti­ cists are in action on the streets, mur­ ERA movement" against equal rights dering Arab immigrants, beating up for women. She said she'd been selected leftists, terrorizing the oppressed. Theirs for the panel by Shirley Curry, an are lies that kill. Education Department director who' The U.S. imperialists do not want the also reportedly has close ties to Schlafly. history of the Nazi Holocaust taught in Schlafly is part of the "High Frontier" the schools. They do not want Ameri­ lobby that supports a massive military can kids to learn that the government buildup to kill Russians. A former John imported tens of thousands of Nazi kill­ Birch Society member, Schlafly got her ers into this country after the war, to use witchhunting anti-communist Big Lie as agents and spies against the Rus­ training as a former "researcher" for sians. They do not want it learned that Senator Joe McCarthy. Her program just last Passover top cop Ed Meese for women could be summed up by the went skulking around asking Latin Nazi slogan, "Kinder, Kiiche, Kirche" . American dictators to harbor Nazi (children, kitchen and chtucli)-which butcher· Karl Linnas, to prevent' him spells KKK any way you look at it. from being returned to Estonia to face Christina Price, this self-described the wrath of his surviving victims. They "politically neutral" "mother offour," is do not want the Nazi terror studied. . currently a political science teacher at AP May 1985: Reagan salutes Nazi SS at Bitburg In service of anti-Soviet Maybe the comparisons to the methods Kennesaw College in Marietta, Georgia, war drive. of Reagan's favorite terrorists, the CIA- . home of the Ku Klux Klan and for­ contras, are too clear. During the Con­ mer John Bircher Congressman Larry a list of people who ought to be deported director and co-author of "Facing His­ tragate hearings, it came out (despite McDonald (who went down on KAL for Nazi war crimes! WV obtained tory," Margo Stern Strom, angrily com­ attempts of the "loyal opposition" Dem­ Flight 007). At the time of her panel copies from the Department of Educa­ plained of the "inane, ignorant and ocratic Party to stop it) that the Reagan review, Price was teaching at Troy State tion of the original reviews, which are scandalous views" of the reviewers. government has its own plans for mili­ University in Alabama, where funda- filled with anti-Communist apologies For. Reagan's second term in office, tary takeover of America and concen­ , mentalist bigots got a reactionary judge for racist terror: One complained that their super-conservative Heritage Foun­ tration camps for immigrants, blacks, to ban "secular humanist" textbooks. "the only companion mentioned to be dation think tank proposed turning the and all opponents of this fanatic, crazed And Price is no isolated nut. Some set beside the Nazi extermination policy Education Department into a "bully anti-Communist regime. . federal panel-theseguys read more like is the Ku Klux Klan," while "killings in pulpit" for "Americans with sound Thousands of Americans who died in Vietnam, Cuba, Ethiopia and Afghani­ ideas." This is the result. Reagan's World War II thought they were fight­ stan are ignored." Both Price and education secretary William Bennett ing Nazism. But Ronald Reagan repre­ another reviewer say the course is not made his debut by announcing that too sents that section of the American needed. because The Diary of Anne many people go to college and slashing ruling class who think the U.S. was on Frank is "common reading material." school lunches. Now they are 'pushing the wrong 'side. When Reagan went to They obscenely use this young Jewish fascist and racist filth in a nationwide Bitburg, it was chilling proof of the victim of Nazism to try to bury the crusade. In California;·the chairman of determination to openly embrace the Holocaust! the Bicentennial Commission for the Nazis in the name of anti-Communism. Funding for "Facing History" was • U.S. Constitution, Jane Crosby, a John They hope to finish up where the geno­ again denied this August, after a new Bircher appointed by Governor Deuk­ cidal Third Reich 'left off when the Red panel complained of a "profoundly anti­ mejian, got the Commission to sponsor Army smashed Hitler's Operation Bar­ Christian bias," that was "offensive to a racist textbook that called American barossa. They want to crush the Soviet fundamentalists and evangelicals." One black slaves "pickaninnies" and claimed Union and roll back the Bolshevik Rev­ reviewer wrapped it all up ideolog­ slaveowners were the real victims of the olution. They don't want the Holocaust ically, saying the program had an "overt . system! . remembered. They're planning their and consistent bias-anti-war, anti­ This isn't a matter of academic own nuclear holocaust against the hunting; on restrictions on immigra­ "points of view" but justifying lynch­ Soviet Union. We had better stop them tion equated with Nazism ... proposed ing! So-called "revisionist histori­ soon.• discussion on draft might induce young ans"-that is, apologists for Nazism­ Anne Frank Fonds, Basel/Comapress men to break law by not registering." It's have been pushing the obscene lie that Anne Frank. Her diary showed mil­ pretty clear who this guy wants to the Holocaust maybe didn't happen, or lions the horror of Nazi occupation. hunt-and it's not the Nazis.· The it's a question of "interpretation." In

75~ (32 pages) 75¢ (32 pages) 00 pages) ~ 75¢ (32 pages) 25¢ (16 Make checks payable/mall to: Spartaclst Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, NY 10116 Reagan's Amerlka: anti-Soviet war drive fuels racist terror. 2 OCTOBER 1987 11 Oakland forum they ended up permit­ ting themselves to be searched, albeit BY Covers for COINTELPRO' with loud histrionics. When they asked . . guest speaker Dennis Jennings ofthe The fight to free Geronimo Pratt is imo Pratt behind bars in the first obscenely attempted to donate one American Indian Movement what he the cause of every genuine enemy of place, and it will take a principled dollar to Pratt's defense (see "BT thought about their being "singled racist injustice. But at the August struggle against sectarianism, includ­ provocation Lands in the Mud," out" for a search, Jennings calmly 21 ing thlf sectarianism of the Spartacist Oakland forum, the dubious Bolshe­ League, to free him." WV No. 423, 6 March). replied that his organization always vik Tendency (BT) repeated its des­ After the BT staged a violent prov­ reserves the right to search anyone picable slander that Pratt is in prison Blaming the victims for the crime, ocation at a Spartacist forum on wishing to enter its, meetings. not because of the government's mur­ the BT parrots the FBI Big Lie that it 19 September 1986, which instantly One group that did swallow the BT's derous COINTELPRO drive to wipe was the Panthers' own fault they were brought the racist Berkeley campus sucker bait was the Freedom Socialist out the Black Panthers, but because of killed. The BTs new twist is to extend cops onto the scene, the SL instituted a Party (FSP), which protested from tl].e "Panther sectarianism." BTer Gerald the lie to include the Spartacist policy of searching BTers at the door podium in solidarity with the BT's Smith spat on the graves of the 38 Pan­ League. Smith's nauseating echo of to our forums in order to ensure the complaints. But then the FSP does thers murdered by COINTELPRO government propaganda was. a regur­ safety of all participants and the rights seem to have a hard time recognizing when he said: gitation of his speech at the February of all to an orderly and democratic provocation. After all, it has yet to dis- .....it was blind factionalism and sec­ 21 Oakland rally for Pratt's freedom meeting. After showing up at a subse­ -avow its fervid enthusiasm and PR tarianism on the part of the Panther initiated by the PDC and Labor Black quent SL forum with .a kit of clank­ service for "Miskito Indian leader" leadership that undermined a possi­ Brooklyn Rivera, a Nicaraguan con­ ble defense for Geronimo Pratt in the League for Social Defense. At that ing hardware, the BT announced in beginning .... In our opinion, it was event BT guru Howard Keylor tried stentorian tones that they refused to tra mercenary now publicly identified sectarianism that put brother Geron- to leap onto the stage, while they submit to a search. At the August 21 ' as being. on the CIA's payroll..

and Klansmen, and the Contra Dem­ Oakland ocrats are right up there beside him. They want to bleed us to death to pay for their bipartisan anti-Soviet war drive. Forum ... Ittook a civil war to emancipate black (continued from page 6) people from chattel slavery and it will labor-centered Oakland demonstration take a third American. revolution, a initiated by the PDC and LBL]. We workers revolution, to finish the Civil need to continue to find ways to War and to establish full equality broaden this call to other places. The between the races and working-Class Labor Black League for Social Defense emancipation. On the LBL's member­ stands for mobilizing the masses of ship card is a statement once made by black and working people for militant Karl Marx, a German communist and integrated struggle against racist cap­ the founder of scientific socialism. Marx italism. The LBL was initiated by and .said labor in a white skin can't be free is fraternally allied to the Spartacist if it is branded in the black. Labor must League and is part of the revolutionary fight for black freedom and freedom for movement of the workers and oppressed all of the oppressed. That's where the against the bosses and for socialism. social power is and guided by a class­ This is a government of war abroad struggle program and a class-struggle only road-to black freedom. Key to such Freedom now for Geronimo Pratt! Free and at home. Reagan has virtually revolutionary party the working people struggle is breaking with the Dem­ all class-war prisoners! Help build a ended sectoralism: the Klan-backed can turn the world upside down and set ocratic Party and forging a revolution­ Trotskyist vanguard party to lead the Reagan hates everybody except the rich it on new foundations. ary workers party. Geronimo Pratt and workers and the oppressed to power by capitalists. The bloody contras, the We Trotskyists fight for revolution­ all class-war prisoners can only be freed joining with the Spartacist League and Afghan feudalist cutthroats, apartheid ary integrationism, for black liberation through massive, united class struggle the Labor Black League for Social ~lavery, abortion clinic bombers, Nazis through proletarian revolution as the and no reliance on the bourgeois state. Defense.•

va on 31 July 1983. Code-named Jump­ KAL Tapes ••• seat, the top-secret satellite's "job is to take precise measurements of high­ (continued from page 5) performance phased array ... radars • (such as the huge one at Abalakova)," KAL 007 was enutting "periodically according to William E. Burrows' transmitted brief coded signals." This revealing 1986 book on spy satellites, was a spy plane. Deep Black. With the satellites and Soviet air marshal-Piotr Kirsanov other intelligence listening posts in provided detailed evidence four years place, all the U.'S. needed to do was to Week Three of Six ago that the flight of K~L 007 was provoke the Soviet defense systems, and "strictly synchronized" with" the orbit of record the signals. Enter KAL 007 . Quota Week Local • a 'U.S. "ferret" spy satellite. The West­ Ironically, last month-in the spirit of (In points) Three % ern press buried this report, but we glasnost (openness) and seeking an arms found evidence that the U.S. had indeed control agreement-the ruling Soviet Atlanta 160 125'h 78 launched such a "ferret" on 20 June Politburo permitted a delegation of Boston' 300 329'h 110 1983, only weeks before the fatal flight U.S. Congressmen to tour the top-secret Chicago 500 406'h 81 Cleveland 200 231 116 (WVNo. 350, "Reagan's KAL 007 Plot Abalakova radar site and take over Los Angeles 150 116'h 78 Unravels," 16 March 1984}l Washing­ 1,000 pictures, inside and out. The Dem­ New York 1,100. 900V2 82 ton was particularly obsessed with a ocratic Congressmen verified that the Oakland 700 539 77 newly discovered Soviet phased array radar is still under construction and is San Francisco 320 211 66 radar, located at Abalakova in Siberia, not yet operational. But this has been Washington, 150 '111 74 which the Reaganauts feared would foil known for years and that hasn't slowed D.C. their plans' for a nuclear first strike the rush toward war emanating from against the Soviet Union. the White House. Military glasnost National Total 3,580 2,970'12 83 More recent evidence indicates the will not appease the warmongering U.S. U.S. also launched yet another spy imperialists-they must be thrown out satellite specifically aimed at Abalako- of power.ja r--- 'Subscribe Now!. ---.,

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~~------Phone ( The Truth City State Zip ----,= About KAL 007 437 SPECIAL! A free packet of Spartacist literature or pamphlet with full subscriptions to both Workers Vanguard and Women and Revolution. Reprints of First Articles Published in U.S. that Told Truth About 0$5/24 issues of Workers Vanguard 0 $2/4 issues of Reagan's Spy Plane (includes Spartacist) Women and Revolution o New 0 Renewal 0$2/10 introductory issues of 5041: (24 pages) 'I 0 $2/4 issues of Workers Vanguard 1 Spartacist. edici6n en espanol (includes Sp'artacist) Order from: Spartacist Publishing Co. 1 Make payable/mall to: Spartaclst Publishing ce., Box 13n GPO, New York, New York 10116 Box 1377 GPO. New York. NY 10116 1 ~------~------~ 12 WORKERS VANGUARD Racism, Immigration and AIDS No to "Disease Exclusion"! - After years of neglect of the interna­ health experts concerned to find a (San Jose Mercury News, 7 May)? But prostitutes, illiterates and virtually all tional AIDS epidemic in the vindictive cure ...." viruses don't stop at borders and immigrants from Asia-a grab bag of fundamentalist hope that it was a "gay There are good medical reasons to want don't" bow .to immigration officials. accumulated prejudices. The lie that disease," the Reagan administration to monitor the spread of infectious dis­ As Dr. Jonathan Mann of the World syphilis and gonorrhea could be spread now wants "action." But rather than eases. But given the chilling reprisals Health Organization said, "We can't via drinking fountains was' used by mobilizing the social resources neces­ .inflicted on people with AIDS under the control it anywhere unless we control it officials in the early 20th century to jus­ sary to find a cure or treatment, what the prevailing social climate, mandatory ·everywhere." tify the exclusion of unwanted races.and Reagan government suggests for a testing does not constitute tracking the ethnic groups, who were blamed for "solution" (in addition to chastity, of disease, but tracking the victims so as to Disease Exclusion: passing these diseases on to the "clean" course) is a hysterical proposal for "rou­ punish them for having AIDS. And ex­ American Race-Hate upper classes. tine" (the new word for mandatory) test­ clusion of immigrants is a dangerous Historically fear of disease has been Attempts to' blamelmmigranCwork­ ing of just about everybody. The threat .precedent which will be exploited by used as a cover for prejudice and dis- ers for the disease-breeding slums where to gang-test the population will result their starvation wages forced them to (Jl only in turning up the hysteria another Q; live are a recurring theme of racist cap­ s: notch while driving underground those o italist self-justification. President The­ cD who suspect they might have AIDS, cor­ c odore"Roosevelt argued in 1901 for ;: rectly fearing the dire consequences of a o restrictions to "stop the influx of cheap positive test: firing, eviction, loss' of cD labor, and the resulting competition health insurance, social ostracism. And . which gives rise to so much of the bit­ it's probably going to get worse. terness in American industrial life, and Neither the preacher's sermons nor it would dry up the springs of the the spectre of mass testing will stop pestilential social conditions in our AIDS: it is a virus. And neither will great cities, where anarchist organiza­ barbed wire stop it. Over the last few Thousands of tions have their greatest possibility of months Washington has implemented a poor immigrants were refused growth." Congress responded by chauvinist proposal to exclude from the entry to U.S. excluding anarchists in 1903and "imbe­ country immigrants testing positive for by Ellis Island ciles, feeble-minded [persons] and per­ HIV antibodies. People already living in medical sons with physical or mental defects the U.S., applying for citizenship or res­ examiners. which might affect their ability to earn a idency, will be denied .legal status if Down with living" in 1907. found HIV positive; effective December disease In the early 1920s,such racist tracts as 1, those applying for admission to the exclusion acts! Madison Grant's fake-scientific .The country will be denied, if they test Passing ofthe Great Race were widely positive (but, illogically, the policy does used to justify cutting off immigration, not apply to tourists, students or others which allegedly "contained a large and temporarily in the U.S.). The Sparta­ increasing number of the weak, the cist League strongly protests this vicious broken, and the mentally crippled of all xenophobia and continued exploita­ races drawn from the lowest stratum tion of this horrible disease in the ser­ those bigots pushing to quarantine crimination of all kinds. As we com­ of the Mediterranean basin and the vice of right-wing reaction. We have everybody suffering from AIDS. mented in our protest of the disease' Balkans, together with hordes of filed a formal letter to the U.S. Public 'The useless viciousness of the U.S. exclusion regulations: the wretched, submerged population of Health Service (PHS) demanding the exclusion policy is only emphasized by "The history of exclusion of immi­ the Polish Ghettos." In April 1924, abolition of the entire disease exclu­ the fact that it willdo absolutely nothing grants in this country is one of dis­ Congress passed the Johnson-Reed crimination and xenophobia, in which sion measure as cruel, inhumane and to halt or contain the epidemic within ·'medical' exclusions have been in­ Immigration Act by a vast majority. unnecessary: the U.S. Indeed, AIDS is known in extricably intertwined. The vicious Many witnesses before the hearings "This regulation reflects a govern­ many countries as "the American stereotype of the 'disease-ridden for­ argued that "biology" demanded the mental policy of witchhunting and disease," since the majority of cases eigner' has been used by this nation's exclusion of most Eastern and Southern malicious neglect. Instead of searching recorded with the World Health Organi­ rulers to exclude immigrants ever European "races." President Calvin for a cure or control of AIDS by the since massive immigration restrictions adequate expenditure of money on zation are here. Other countries are also began." Coolidge, who as vice president had thoughtful research, the government excluding AIDS victims, many of them publicly declared that "Biological laws continues to cut funds for social ser­ Americans. Japan has banned HIV­ To the extent that quarantining and show ...that Nordics deteriorate when vices in.favor of military expenditures. infected foreigners and has already exclusion for diseases became regular­ mixed with other races," quickly signed It is possible that the AIDS virus will deported a Filipina woman. Britain ized prior to World War I, it was overtly the act into law. The other major U.S. elude modern medical technology in its class-biased. The notorious Ellis Island current state. The enormity of the chal­ refuses admission to anyone with the immigration bill, the McCarran-Walter lenge makes it all the more imperative disease; an American airline cabin stew­ holding pens were reserved for those Act of 1952, was also passed during a that adequate resources be allocated for ard was detained at Gatwick Airport who made the sea voyage in steerage, period of virulent reaction-the McCar­ internationally coordinated research while first-class passengers were admit­ projects on AIDS. and returned to the U.S. The British thyite Cold War period of violent anti­ colony of Hong Kong refused to allow ted after a few brief questions. The trag­ red scares, xenophobia and resurgent "There is no rational, medical basis for edies of separated families were enor­ the exclusion from society -ef people an American with AIDS to so much as racism. who either test positive for HIV virus or pass through, while Canada refuses mous, as 5 percent were rejected, with In our statement to the Public Health have AIDS .... We oppose mandatory' admission to those with active AIDS. some committing suicide rather than Service, the Spartacist League opposed HIV testing for everyone, including' The USSR is testing all foreigners seek­ face the uncertain voyage back to these provisions in general as "neces­ U.S. citizens. In general, mass testing lonely, desperate poverty. ing to stay for longerthan three months, sarily arbitrary, selective and punitive": for diseases could be valuable both to Sweeping Asian exclusion laws vic­ the individual and society as a whole, and has already deported about 40 peo­ "This is most overt in the case of 'sexual but only if the purpose were curative . ple. So what's the solution-a nation of timized the Chinese, who were for­ deviation,' under which homosexuals or epidemiological rather than puni­ bidden to immigrate, own land or can be excluded. Homosexuality is nei­ tive .... We support instead a program AIDS sufferers in Antarctica? Or, as ther a 'disease' nor a 'medical condi­ one rabid bigot said of leprosy patients intermarry. Savage prejudice against of voluntary, anonymous testing for these workers, a reservoir of pathetically tion,' but simply one expression of those who want it, as recommended by in California, " ...take 'em to the moon" human sexuality, which exists on a cheap labor, was most evident in broad continuum." California. After the completion of the Union Pacific railroad (built largely The U.S. ruling class has had a con­ with Chinese labor) in 1869, Congress tradictory attitude toward the control passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of and eradication of disease in the popu­ 1882 (at the behest of the racist,trade- lation. When a disease has threatened it's • union tops), which among other things basic interests, the capitalist class has prevented the wives of Chinese men in moved rapidly to end it, within the exist­ the U.S. from joining their husbands. ing limits of medical knowledge. For The intersection of this racism with fear example, Army Medical Corps major of disease was evident in San Francisco Walter Reed's campaign to wipe out yel­ in the early 1900s, when an outbreak low fever followed the U.S. takeover of of plague led to proposals to raze Cuba in the Spanish-American War of . Chinatown and forcibly detain the 1898, when this dreaded disease threat­ ened U.S'- imperialist aims in Central inhabitants.- -- --_.------Racist nativist agitation against America. immigrants reached a peak in the late However, the ruling classes' efforts to 19th and early 20th centuries. Prior to combat sexually transmitted diseases World·War I the government began are tentative, at best. In the first decade codifying the exclusion of whole cate­ of the 20th century, the great biologist Paul Ehrlich discovered Salvarsan, the " Der Spiegel gories of people, including polygamists, Medieval Europe saw ravages of bUbonic plague as god's scourge; today's anarchists and other radicals, convicts, first effective treatment for syphilis. witchhunters blame AIDS victims for disease. "lunatics," people with tuberculosis, continued on pqge 14 2 OCTOBER 1987 13 ghetto knows that there's a struggle every day, second by second, to save her AIDS child from that damned pusher. So what you get is the black hustlers like Witchhunt.~. Jesse Jackson that come up and say to this black woman, 'Yeah, you've got to (continued/rom page 16) support your cops, that's the answer.' ..... the Uncle Toms ... say what you've mandatory fink list of sexual contacts got to do is, don't ask for anything from going back as far as seven to ten years, the white man, improve yourself in the liberals are now praising the governor's eyes of the white man, and if you're "moderate" role .. In fact, this legisla­ good and good long enough, then you'll get something- And basically what it tion, effective immediately, could result does, it accepts the terms of the racism in wiping out anonymous HIV testing in of the oppressor. Jesse Jackson's recent statement is that drugs kill more than Illinois by requiring that every testee Anti-sex fanatics give written permission (i.e., sign their Klan ropes-does he want a united target AIDS' front with the KKK against drugs?" names), in effect volunteering for an victims. -"Sex, Race and Class in AIDS blacklist. the 'American Century'," In Chicago, right-wing thugs have Women and Revolution already carried the anti-gay offensive No. 33, Spring 1987 into the streets, A recent survey (Chica­ The hypocrisy of the anti-drug cru­ go Sun-Times, 20June) showed that one sade and its class-biased double stan­ out of every five homosexual men in dards is as striking on the drug question Chicago had been physically attacked black: bad living and wotking condi­ would be an elementary public health as on the issue of sexuality-it's illegal because he was gay. Last spring fa­ tions and wretched medical care mean measure, but this approach to checking when the poor do it. Wan Street brokers scistic punks at the elite University of poor health-including diseases which, the spread of AIDS and saving lives use cocaine on a daily basis while col­ Chicago' waged a campaign of intimi­ unlike AIDS, can be cured. runs smack up against Reagan's moral­ umnists (a "profession" not known for dation aimed primarily at gays. When a Last August the Centers for Disease istic anti-drug crusade. the sobriety of its members) urge the' gay newspaper published an expose of Control sponsored a special conference At a public forum last November, a hunting down of suspected "drug abus­ this homophobic and racist group, two . on AIDS and minorities. But partici­ Spartacist spokesman described the ers" ... so long as they are impoverished thugs walked. into the editorial office pants who anticipated a scientific dis­ intersection between racism and gen­ . ghetto kids or even black sports stars. and brutally attacked the publisher with cussion found instead a diatribe of eral social reaction, and the cohabita­ Meanwhile the ruling class is up to its a baseball bat. moralism of the "just say no" variety, tion of the black Democrats with Rea­ neck in drug-running, from the days of like Nancy Reagan turning down a piece gan and the racist cops in the anti-drug British imperialism's. subjugation of Racism and AIDS of chocolate cake. In his keynote witchhunt: China to the CIA in Indochina and the address .cDC deputy director Donald "The cops either hold the pushers up for present "Contragate" scandal. In the In every possible way AIDS hysteria Hopkins denounced promiscuity, teen­ their cut and then the pushers charge same way, the English Victorians found intersects sexual prejudices and racial that much more; or they just take the age pregnancy and "loose"sex, which he sex very dirty and distasteful when prac­ and ethnic hatred in this deeply bigoted entire thing and sell it themselves. So equated with drug use. "Strategies" for ticed by the poor, and in "modern" times country. AIDS was first identified in the what you get between the pushers and AIDS education boil down to exhort­ the cops is combat for profit. And that's the distinction between "erotica" and U.S. in 1981 among gay men, who are ing the impoverished ghetto masses the vice squad. "smut" has aiways resided in the quality still a majority of the victims. But in the against sex and drugs. "Just say no"­ "So this war on drugs is simply a tool to and price of the printing job. (The self­ past period, it has begun to spread much build the police department, to elimi­ the perennial exhortation to youth-s-has styled "feminists" of some years back more rapidly among users of intra­ nate democratic rights so the police can never worked before in the history of who took up the "anti-porn" campaign venous drugs, disproportionately black go anywhere to terrorize black kids. our species, and it won't work now. And not only that. The conditions of of the anti-sex book-burners put them­ and Hispanic, through sharing contami­ Everyone knows that AIDS is spread capitalism in the ghettos are so severe selves on the wrong side in a deeply rae­ nated needles. with generational unemployment, with among the poor by intravenous drug 'ist and anti-woman crusade to reim­ While blacks and Hispanics make up no possibility of getting out for these users sharing contaminated needles. pose the "morality" of the religious 17 percent of the American population, kids, no possibility of jobs, so why not The distribution of free sterile needles take drugs? A black mother in the right, a crusade waged in part by the they account for 38 percent of AIDS vic­ tims. Seventy-three percent of women with AIDS are black or Hispanic. In New York City, over 90 percent of chil­ dren with AIDS are black or Hispanic. Two years ago thousands of residents of Queens kept their children out of school because one lone child with HIV was attending school somewhere in New York City. Last spring in Queens a foster home for these children was firebombed. Queens-where a vicious white mob attacked three black men in Howard Beach and killed Michael Griffith. The explosive race tensions in New York feed on AIDS hysteria, which has become yet another right-wing rally­ ing cry for segregation and oppression. The AIDS death rates are a shocking 'reminder of the condition of black peo­ ple in America: on average, two years after a white is diagnosed with AIDS, he is dead. For blacks, it's 19 weeks. Racism and poverty are big factors in the spread of disease. That's why 62 . Jim WV hoto, percent of Americans with tuberculosis Harlem Hospital: AIDS patient, one of thousands abandoned to deteriorating health care. Right, AFSCME workers (which is soaring in the U.S. today) are protest cutbacks at Harlem's last remaining hospital in June.

To this day, although both syphilis and look upon our testimony as fable." But to be a hallmark of humanity; indeed, "Disease gonorrhea are generally easily cured, our species has not won its independ­ anthropologists cite evidence thatNean­ they remain widespread in the United ence from nature! With the advent of dertals cared for their aged and crip­ ·" States. In 1979gonorrhea accounted for agriculture, followed by concentration pled as indicating the intelligence and ExcIuSlon ... two-thirds of all reported commu­ in cities, hurnan beings became an humanity of these people. Although (continued/rom page 13) nicable disease in the U.S.; it is the most extremely pronetarget for disease of the medical technology is far from having Instead of hailing this important break­ prevalent serious human bacterial infec­ like not known to hunting-gathering' all the answers, it has made it possible through, many health officials wailed tion on the planet. Yet the U.S. govern> societies. In 1918-19, six centuries after for our species to control many diseases that it would encourage "licentious­ ment has systematically slashed fund­ Petrarch's prayer, a virulent influenza which have been hideous scourges in ness." This is the same view expressed by ing for education and treatment of . killed more people than died in WorId past centuries, smallpox not the least. Pope Leo XII in 1826 when he banned sexually transmitted diseases. AIDS is a War I. As we said in our letter to the Quality health care for all is objectively the use of the condom because "it defied replay of the same sorry moralistic Public Health Service: within the reach of material possibility, the intentions of divine Providence...to drivel, compounded by ferocious sex­ "Disease is a universal problem of our but not within the framework of this punish sinners by striking them in the ual and racial hatred. species which cannot be solved by capitalist system, which cannot provide member with which they had sinned" national exclusion and border patrols. the necessities of life to its citizens even (Henry E. Sigerist, Civilization and Dis­ Free, Quality Health Care for All! We do not have ready-made answers to though the productive capacities and ease). Fear of sexually transmitted dis­ this problem and we don't pretend to technology exist to feed the hungry expertise where medical technology has ease has been manipulated for sexual As a species, we stand directly in the so far failed. But as Marxists we seek to across, the whole planet. Even on the guilt: if you get sick as a result of a sex­ shadow ofthe Black Death which killed approach general social questions in a level of ideas, the need of the system's ual act, you're supposed to suffer.• approximately one-third of the world's scientific and rational manner, And we apologists to justify the exploitation and Syphilis was an identified disease for population in the 14th century. At the fight for a society in which resources can brutal oppression of the masses leaves be mobilized on the basis of social a good century before a cure, penicillin, time, Francesco Petrarch wrote, "Oh needs." increasingly little room for a rational was discovered. We don't know how happy posterity who will not experi­ approach to anything, including sci­ 100ig it will take to find a cure for AIDS. ence such abysmal woe-and who will Care for the aged and ill is supposed ence and medicine .• 14 WORKERS VANGUARD up, the Klan's broad-daylight massacre great stress on the question of "unity" of an integrated rally of unionists and and supportfrom other"constituencies" leftists in Greensboro, North Carolina outside the gay community. Of course; in 1979 (a crime in which the govern­ no sane person would underestimate the ment, as usual, participated heavily). need for vulnerable, specially targeted The accelerated pace of repression social layers like. homosexuals to find under Reagan has depended heavily on allies among the rest of the oppressed. the Democrats' eager participation, But real unity can never be secured by cheered on by the fat-cat labor tops who tying the working people to our class won't lift a finger on behalf of blacks, enemies. Such, "alliances" only guar­ women, gays and all the oppressed. antee that those who are compelled to When Reagan went after the well-paid come forward .and fight-s-picket-line air traffic controllers (PATCO) union militants in bitter local strikes, black and literally put their leaders in chains youth who have good reasons for their as a message to all of labor, the union moods of rebellion, people with AIDS bureaucrats were concerned above all to confronting virulent bigotry and the ' preserve their ties to lying "friend of prospect of death-are left isolated and labor" politicians, and the first condi­ betrayed. Only a revolutionary pro­ tion of those "alliances" is to accept the gram to fight capitalism can beat the rul­ bosses' anti-union laws, the "rules of the ers' divide-and-conquer schemes and . Women and Revolution Spartacists at 1986 Gay Pride Day march in New York City. game" which guarantee that labor will achieve a fighting unity of the targets of lose. Reagan reaction. naked terrorism of abortion clinic every issue of real concern to the peo­ To keep the desperate black masses The main document adopted at the bombers.) ple, presenting instead a set of media­ intimidated, the Democrats have been Spartacist League's recent Eighth Na­ glossy "personalities" (who moreover crucial as their mayors administer the tional Conference states: Reagan Reaction display a 'certain tendency for self­ big cities, bristling with social contra­ . " ...the all-sided reactionary nature of Reagan's attacks fuels the realization, and the Democrats destruction). Their best hope is that the diction and racial polarization and fear, c on behalf of the White House. In Phila­ among all those who know they have a The Democratic Party-partner with' cast of characters in Reagan's camp will sworn enemy in the White House, that the Reaganauts in America's one-party make them look good. There's the Civil delphia, for example, manyblack work­ democratic struggles are indivisible. In system, the class dictatorship of the Rights Commission that hates civil ing people thought they had a stake in sneering at hunger and homelessness, in property party-has no program except rights, the occupational safety agency the victory of black mayor Wilson taking aim gloatingly at those most Goode over the old racist machine of helpless like ghetto children, AIDS vic­ to compete with Reagan for right-wing that doesn't believe in safety, and just tims, non-citizens, old-age pensioners voters. The Democrats do have certain look at Reagan's AIDS commission. It long-time boss Frank Rizzo. But it was and so forth, Reaganism as an ideology tactical differences with Reagan, for includes one Penny Pullen, who has in Philly two years ago that the cops highlights the objective need for a fight­ example over whether revolution in claimed that homosexuals deliberately culminated their years-long vendetta ing proletarian vanguard as a tribune of Central . America can possibly be donate infected blood to pollute the stopped by funding the loser contras. bloodbanks. Among other members are Their differences concern not what Rea­ Theresa L. Crenshaw, a supporter of the gan wants to do to America and the fascistic LaRouche initiative in Califor­ world, but whether the U.S. population nia for quarantine (concentration is "ready" to go along. Indeed the Dem­ camps) for AIDS victims, and Amway ocratic Party of Hiroshima lind Viet­ Corp. president Richard M. DeVos, the nam is historically the war party within largest individual contributor to Rea­ the "Republicrat" division Of labor, gan's 1980 campaign, who says that gay since the facade of democracy and hyp­ men "just can't control themselves" ocritical promises to combat injustice (Washington Post, 26 August). New can more effectively compel the masses York Cardinal O'Connor, the U.S. to sacrifice for the so-called "national Catholic church's most prominent cru­ interest." sader against gay rights, was appointed As far as their present social program "to bring a religious valuesperspective is concerned, the Democrats are defi­ to the discussion" (New York Times, 24 nitely not motivated to make any con­ July). cessions toward the specially oppressed. It's not just venality or stupidity that The gloating hatefulness of the Reagan makes the Democrats partners in the all­ regime means to the Democrats that sided social' reaction called "Reagan­ they can take the black vote for granted. ism." Following the co-optation and After the success of Jesse Jackson in betrayal of the mass movement for turning out blacks for Mondale in 1984 black freedom which swept this coun­ WV Photo (no other section of society went for try in the late 1950s and 1960s (and the Spartacist-initiated united front spiked Nazi provocation against Gay Pride Mondale in its majority, while about 90 smashing of its most militant wing by Day, Chicago, 1982-.For labor/black action to smash fascist terror! ' percent of black voters did), black pres­ the state), and following the U.S. mili­ sure will have less effect on the Dem­ tary defeat in Vietnam, the ruling class against the MOVE commune, whose the people . .'.. After years of vicious and only "crime" was to be "uppity" in Rea­ even bizarre social reaction spear­ ocrats' platform than before, as the began a policy of "moralrearmament"­ headed by Reagan, many people mani­ Democrats openly court racist support. and reregimentation of the population. gan's America. On Mother's.Day, 1985, festly have an appetite to fight if they The reformist "left" organizations who Beginning under the Democrat Carter, Goode's cops and Reagan's FBI worked only could seea way forward. The prob­ do not cease to tail the Democrats and civil rights gains were "rolled back" and together to fly a bombing mission over ability is that any serious struggle by the tout the "Rainbow Coalition" share the courts acquiesced to the dismantling the MOVE house, massacring five chil­ unions or oppressed will pull other sec­ dren and six adults and burning down a tors behind it. ..." responsibility for the lack of a revolu­ of school busing, which was carried out -"Toward Revolutionary tionary alternative to Reagan reaction, by enraged racist mobs in the streets. A neighborhood of black homes. The Conjuncture," 18June 1987 proliferation of "Black Elected Offi­ to the extent that their small and demor­ bipartisan program was adopted of We got a foretaste of the power of cials" (touted as proof of black ad­ alized forces have any'influence. 'official racism and hatred of the cit­ that program when in June 1982 a vancement) was no gain for the black The Democrats, knowing full well ies-the killer budgetcuts, the closing of Spartacist-initiated united-front mobi­ masses, for the black mayors' like that Reagan is their best recruiter, duck hospitals to finance the military build- lization in Chicago spiked a genocidal Marion Barry in Washington are, no Nazi provocation against "Gay Pride less than white racists like New York's mayor Koch, merely overseers on Rea­ Day." While the city's gay groups despaired of the possibility of mobiliz­ gan's plantation. ing unionists and minorities in explicit The black Democrats, like their white Order Yours! defense of gays (and/or resented us for counterparts, are overtly the enemies of coming onto their "turf"), ouranti-Nazi Women an'd the real struggles which can forge a !~;!;i!~ protest drew 3,000 demonstrators, Revolution fighting alliance of laborand the ghetto: including members of dozens of unions Spring 1987 the labor/black mobilizations to stop and a significant minority of black peo­ No. 33 (24 pages) the Klan/Nazi provocations'which have ple who came out because they knew tried to invade the big cities, the strikes • sex, Race and Class in the ~ that the Nazis who today target the gays of unions with a large black component "American Century" have many others in their sights. Then (like several city workers strikes in • Free America's Class-War . Free America'S ---=== on November 27 of the same year, a Andrew Young's Atlanta or the present Prisonersl ClaSS-War . larger SL-initiated mobilization in· confrontation between Chicago teach­ • The Battles Against Syphilis Prisoners! Washington, D.C. composed over­ See_18 ers and the Harold Washington admin­ and AIDS 1t-t whelmingly of black unionists and black istration) where union victories could • Extend Gains of Bolshevik youth prevented the hated KKK from not only put some money into black Revolution to Afghan marching against Hispanics and other workers' pockets but also encourage Peoples! immigrant workers. But the potential others among the oppressed to fight • Workers Derail French for labor/black power shown by these back against a reactionary regime which Regime important actions cannot triumph with­ is visibly in considerable conjunctural $.50 single issue out the construction in struggle ofa rev­ $2.00 4-issue subscription "''-'-- disarray. olutionary leadership able to present Make checks payable/mail to: Fight for Revolutionary itself to the masses ofworking-people as Spartacist Publishing Co. the alternative to the two-headed prop­ Box 1371 GPO Leadership New York, NY 10116 erty party of the capitalist system, and The organizers of the upcoming the champion of the struggles of all the march in Washington on October l l lay oppressed.• 2 OCTOBER 1987 15 WfJl//(EI/S· ""'(Jill/I)

Reagan, Democrats Target Gays, Immigrants, Blacks Down with itc ont! AIDS has become a lightning rod for the most vicious racism and bigotry in this sick society: from brutal beatings of homosexuals to school boycotts, it's "AIDS" on the lips of every reactionary whipping up hatred and pogromist frenzy. Because of the ways it is spread (in the United States, at least), AIDS strikes disproportionately at gays, blacks and Hispanics (and their chil­ dren and sex partners), compounding the ingrained superstitions fostered by capitalist society. The bigots' message: only "nice," white American families, with the approved lifestyles straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, deserve good health and a decent life..And these racist, anti-gay bigots mean action: in August a family with three hemophiliac boys, all infected with the AIDS virus through blood transfusions, was burned out of their home in Arcadia, Florida. From the beginning, the tragic AIDS epidemic has been exploited by ped­ dlers of fear and bigotry. While the AIDS virus, HIV, is not spread by casual, day-to-day contact, AIDS vic­ tims-including those suspected of hav­ ing AIDS or of being associated with AIDS victims-have been fired from their jobs, evicted from their apart­ ments,' denied health and life insurance. Gay organizations across the country, . Burbank/Fort Myers News ress fed up with the vicious discrimination Reaganites whip up hysterical violence against AIDS victims: which is increasingly openly sanctioned When three hemophiliac children infected with AIDS virus through by the government (a recent New York " blood transfusion entered school, bigots burned down their Florida Times front-page story was headlined: home. Right: Washington, D.C. cops wearing rubber gloves arrest "Rights Bill on AIDS Is to Be Opposed protesters demanding funding for AIDS research. by Administration"), have called what may be the biggest gay protest 'ever, to opponents of the Supreme Court ruling experiencing a major health care crisis A friend of our party recently sent us a' referred to it as the Dred Scott decision in all dimensions, and people with moving.account of the impact of AIDS be held in Washington, D.C. on October for gays, they touched on a key II. The political coloration of the march connection. Black people are the main AIDS are getting the worst that hos­ on people's lives. Even those not made is heavily pro-Democratic Party (urban victims of Reagan reaction and the pitals have to offer. After years of destitute and homeless face desperate gays are, except for blacks, perhaps the struggle for the rights of all vulnerable cutbacks and hospital closings, the choices among untested therapies; they sections of the population- homosexu­ best-organized Democratic Partyvcon­ dumping of mental patients out of treat­ endure Kafkaesque bureaucracy and als, women, immigrants, youth, the ment facilities, the deterioration of con­ stituency"). In effect the march will be elderly-is integrally bound up with the "the rapacious greed of the drug com­ one of the opening shots of the "anti­ fight for black liberation." ditions in hospitals for patients and panies and the anarchy of a health care Reagan forces" looking toward the 1988 -"Reagan's Sex Witchhunt," staff, New York City hospitalscan'tfind for profit system." IQ the gay milieu in presidential elections. But the Demo­ WV No. 408, 18 July 1986 enough nurses willing to work there­ New York and California, substantial crats' socialprogram is no less reaction­ Democratic rights are indivisible­ even from traditional "Third World" self-help 'organizations and networks of dry than that of the White House! On labor and minorities must fight for the sources of cheap labor, like the Philip­ volunteers are trying to provide basic every social question, from teen sex to rights of homosexuals! pines or Latin America. informationand some help to AIDS vic­ For AIDS patients, this scene is tims within and outside the gay "com­ drugs to AIDS, and especially on the A Climate of Vicious Hysteria race question, which is the key to social compounded by denial of their civil munity," in the face of society's callous struggle in this country, the Democrats As of mid-September, there have rights in a climate of hysteria. Medical abandonment. are trying to out-Reagan Reagan to been over 41,000 cases of AIDS report­ personnel who refuse to treat victims of The comrade's letter also observes: compete for the support of outright ed to the federal Centers for Disease AIDS (or leprosy or any otherdisease­ "The AIDS epidemic intersects two racists and fundamentalist reaction­ Control. There remain many unan­ hospitals used to refuse beds to syphi­ deep wells of backwardness and irra­ litics) are like the military officer who tionality. On the one hand, it touches on aries. As we wrote last year followirlg . swered questions about AIDS: although ancient fears of the plague or the leper the Supreme Court's outrageous anti­ the media spread the' assumption that says, "I resign incase of war." They are syndrome. On the other hand, these "sodomy" decision: once you're infected, you're sure to get practitioners of religious superstition, fears become intertwined withthe vis­ "When gay rights protesters raised the sick, thatjs by no means proved. What is not medical science. ceral rejection of sexual pleasure, par­ chant, 'Civil rights or civil war!' and clear is that the United States is already People with AIDS are quickly ticularly in its 'aberrant' forms .... The campaigns to remove gay teachers impoverished by a disease costing speak to phobias that combine rejection thousands to treat, while public funding of the sexuality of youth with the hor­ for care is pitiful. Meanwhile, Bur­ rors of pederasty, phobias that are roughs Wellcome rakes in millions for heightened to fever pitch by the AIDS Racism, Immigration and AIDS AZT, the only current drug which, while epidemic." , not a cure, appears to act against HIV In Illinois, a dozen reactionary AIDS itself, although it has serious side effects. bills passed the state legislature this ,And the insurance vultures shriek that summer. These laws prescribe man­ No to their profits will go down unless they datory testing of all "sex and drug crime strike AIDS victims from their lists. It's offenders" and marriage license appli- already happening systematically in 'cants. On September 20, Governor "Disease Exclusion"! Britain, where AIDS-positive people James Thompson approved the reac­ can no longer get life insurance, and tionary core of the legislation. Relieved SEE PAGE THIRTEEN even just taking the test can lead to that he did veto the sectioncalling for a denial of coverage. continued on page 14 16 2 OCTOBER 1987