WfJRNERS "HIII'RD 25¢ No. 116 ':j:i.i) ..... 2 July 1976

~ Ronald L. Haeberle Amalgamated Meat Cutters Marxism and the "S~irit of '76" Why We Don't Celebrate July 4

The burned-out tenements of Ameri­ bourgeois revolutions. Yet the fact Russia which the "founding fathers" For the American colonies, winning ca's decaying slums are plastered with remains that the Fourth of July is a held in contempt as the bastion of world inJt;,pendence from England did not red, white and blue posters celebrating a fundamentally chauvinist holiday, a reaction-the tsarist Russia against require a regime based on plebeian 200-year-old revolution. From factory celebration of national greatness. In no whose tyranny Lenin and the Bolsheviks terror. The war of independence did not bulletin boards and the walls of unem­ sense does it commemorate a popular organized the proletariat. It is to the produce a Cromwell or a Robespierre ployment offices, patriotic displays urge uprising against an oppressive system, world working class that the liberating because it did not need one. Nor did it American working people to join with or even pay tribute to democratic mission now falls. give rise to radical egalitarian groups Gerald Ford and the butchers of principles and individual freedom. like the Levellers and Diggers, or the Vietnam in commemorating the "Spirit Attempts to lend the Fourth of July a Was the War of Independence a Enrages and Babouvists. It never of '76." Class-conscious workers and populist coloration (or the Communist Social Revolution? remotely threatened the wealthiest, militant blacks, like the colonial masses Party's popular-front period slogan that most conservative planters and mer­ ground down under the economic and "Communism is 20th century Ameri­ Like the Fourth of July, Bastille Day chants who supported secession from military heel of arrogant American canism") only express the capitulation in France is an official, patriotic Britain. imperialism, must recoil in revulsion of various fake-socialists to the demo­ holiday, replete with military marches The consolidation of bourgeois rule from the U.S. bourgeoisie's hypocritical cratic pretensions of American imperi­ and chauvinist speeches. Yet the events in the Puritan and French revolutions pieties about "liberty." alism. Bastille Day commemorates retain a required a political counterrevolution in The Fourth of July is not our holiday. But neither can the traditions of 1776 certain revolutionary significance to this which the Cromwellians and Jacobins But the chauvinist ballyhoo of the justly be claimed by the imperialist day. The French people's understanding were overthrown, persecuted and vili­ "People's Bicentennial" does not negate bourgeoisie. Compared to the leader­ of 1789 is as a violent overthrow by the ·fied. The radical opposition which the need for a serious Marxist apprecia­ ship of the colonial independence masses of an oppressive ruling class. The sprung up in resistance to this coun­ tion of colonial America's war of in­ struggle, the present American capitalist French imperialist bourgeoisie's efforts terrevolution became part-through the dependence against monarchical! mer­ class is absolutely degenerate. One has to purge the French revolution of Babouvists in France-of the revolu­ cantilist England. Marxists have always only to think of Franklin or Jefferson, present-day revolutionary significance tionary tradition which Marx stressed the powerful impact of the among the intellectual giants of their have not succeeded. A Charles De embraced. classic bourgeois-democratic revolu­ time, and then consider Gerald Ford or Gaulle or a Valery Giscard d'Estaing Because the American war of inde­ tions in breaking feudal-aristocratic Jimmy Carter. The twentieth-century cannot embrace Robespierre or Marat, pendence did not experience a plebeian barriers to historical progress. United States is the gendarme of world for the latter stand too close to the terrorist phase, neither did it experience In appealing for support for the reaction, the backer of every torture­ primitive communist Gracchus Babeuf, a conservative bourgeois counterrevolu­ Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin in his chamber regime from Santiago to who considered himself a true Jacobin. tion. The leaders of the independence Letter to American Workers (I9 I 8) Tehran. The American war of independence struggle went on to found and govern wrote: was also a classic bourgeois-democratic The "founding fathers" would have the republic; greatly venerated, they "The history of modern, civilized revolution, but it was not really a social been revolted by the men who today died of old age. America opened with one of those really revolution which overthrew the existing represent their class. The degeneration The men who met in Philadelphia's great, really liberating, really revolu­ ruling class. The British loyalists were tionary wars of which there have been of the American bourgeoisie is appro­ Convention Hall 200 yean~.. ago realized largely concentrated in the propertied so few compared to the vast number of priate to the passing of its progressive their aims more satisfact,t)rily than any classes and governing elite. However wars of conquest which, like the present mission. The attitude toward religion is other similarly placed. insurrectionary imperialist war, were caused by squab­ pro-independence forces among the a good indicator. Virtually none of the group in history. This achievement does bles among kings, landowners or planters and merchants were strong capitalists over the division of usurped signers of the Declaration of Indepen­ not bespeak their greatness, but the enough to prevent any significant class land or ill-gotten gains. That was the dence were orthodox Christians; they polarization during the war. limited, essentially conservative nature war the American people waged against held a rationalist attitude toward the of their goals. The legitimization of the British robbers who oppressed The English and French bourgeois­ concept of god. Jefferson would have black chattel slavery in the Constitu­ America and held her in colonial democratic revolutions had to destroy walked out in protest at today's prayer­ tion, without significant opposition, slavery .... " an entrenched aristocratic order. That intoning presidential inaugurations. demonstrates the bourgeois conserva­ It is also legitimate for revolutionar­ destruction required a radical, plebeian tism of the leaders of the American ies to appeal to the most radical­ The America of 1976 is the terrorist phase associated with the democratic traditions of the great contemporary analogue of the tsarist figures of Cromwell and Robespierre. continued on page 5

PSPCelebrates Yankee Imperialist Holiday ..... 9

~ Editorial Notes World Press Covers "Buy a Calendar, Mr. Clearly what divides the Spartacist League from the Socialist League is not Cagle!" the question of "abstentionism" from Mario Munoz Defense LPOC's reformist campaigns, but our The Socialist League (a minuscule Bolshevik working-class politics versus San Francisco-based spin-off of the their social-democratic parliamentary Workers League) has been distin­ cretinism. guished mainly for its hysterical and The United States remains the only legalistic fixation on electoralism. Thus, major industrial country without a mass while San Francisco was in the midst of workers party; the working class is ImheNew lork mimes I a major class confrontation in the recent chained directly to the bourgeoisie­ city workers strike, which posed the through the labor bureaucrats' support i i burning necessity for an immediate for the Democrats and RepUblicans. Terror in Argentina general strike, the Socialist League This poses the need to call on organized To the -Editor: devoted itself to calling for new elec­ labor to form its own party. But unlike We are concerned for the fate of tions! (In fairness we must note that a the tailist Socialist League, we do not many South American politicians aM supporter of the Socialist League did advocate a "lower stage" reformist labor ·labor leaders who were trapped' as raise an amendment at a Muni drivers party such as exists in Britain. Rather, refugees in Argentina when the riiili­ meeting calling for a general strike, but the SL calls on the unions to break with tary junta of General Videla took adding that workers should return to the bosses' parties, dump the bureau­ power three months ago. work-i.e., break the strike-if it didn't crats and form a workers party to fight The unpunished terrorist raids - t;y materialize within 72 hours!). on the Transitional Program for a death squads against local arid refugee Having failed to win its demand for workers government. democrats' ana: socialists have lnmu~ pI'ied, culminating in the publicfdd-' "new elections," the Socialist League, in Nor do we assume a priori that creation of a workers party must go napping and torture in Buenos AiteS· a burst of parliamentary cretiriist zeal, of 25 perso-- ___ L_ ~'Aft+. 0# I has taken to inventing elections in which through a reformist labor bureauc­ refugee agen to push its call for a reformist labor racy, and certainly not the present The Argen party. hidebound pro-capitalist Meanyite pie­ condones su Through its electoralist creature, the cards. But these are the very people the ticipates in Labor Party Organizing Committee Socialist League looks to as leaders for liable' report (LPOC), the Socialist League called a its imagined reformist labor party. And Chilean min" should a wing of the bureaucracy Munoz Salas'L., -;n;:;a~s~D;;-:een=~n;;OWl;;;;-;Q;:;ea;;:;-~m:;;t;:o--;------...Jt meeting June 23 to tout an LPOC slate for S.F. Board of Supervisors in actually give birth to such a creature, it ,hiding, his Buenos Aires home bre ,...------, November elections, while attacking the will quite likely be in order to head off into and his family beaten by a'l Spartacist League (SL) for "abstention­ the formation of a genuine mass tary .patrol which tried to take Argentine ism" from its campaign. At the meeting, communist party. of the children as hostage. The C • Nous avons r~ d.u Comtt~ however, comrades of the SL were In that case, we can be sure of finding mittee to Save Mario Mufioz (Box pour sauver Mario M u 7i 0 < Canal Street Station, New York, N (M. W. Saffores, B.P. n° 64 75924 obliged to point out to Tom Cagle (a the likes of the Socialist League lapping Paris. Cedex 19) un appel deman­ locally -notorious supporter of the at their heels; unless, that is, these 10013), has collected detailed infor. dant une ({ campagne internatio­ "Sunday socialists" have not already tiort' on this and other cases. nale pour /atre pression SUT La Socialist League) and his befuddled junte milttaire argentine et les cohorts that, in fact, there were no given up the ghost and themselves An internatIonal protest Caulpt may be the only way to save the 11 Nations untes a/in d.'assurer Lf elections for Board of Supervisors this become pettifogging union bureaucrats respect de La vie et de La liberte of Mario Mufioz and progr~ in the meantime. The trouble is, Brother other de ce d.irigeant ouvrier chilien fall. Should the Socialist League ne­ refugees in Argentina, succeec et de sa famille». Dirlgeant syn­ vertheless manage to locate a genuine Cagle, who needs a fumbling bureaucrat where the Human Rights Commis! dical, M. Mufioz a ete condamne election, we would be more than happy, who can't even read a calendar? a. mort par Ie gouvernement Pino­ of the U.N. and the O.A.S. have rna chet. Refugie en Argentine, 11 est not to abstain, but to vigorously oppose only ineffectually. It may also I 'recherche par la pollce du nou­ their opportunist efforts to create a Cleaning Up Times pause to the Ford Administration veau regime. qui pourrait Ie in remettre aux autorites chiliennes. reformist social-democratic labor party, the State Department their call Le comtte qui 1e souttent a which could only be an obstacle to the Square ... for cOurse of support to the military , recueilll l'appul du comlte de fight for a revolutionary proletarian Congressmen? tatorships of Latin America. defense des ouvrlers et marins NOAM CHOMSKY, S. E. Ll emprisonn-es au Ch1l1, du Par­ party. tisan Defense Commltee (Etats­ In a rare moment of humility, In this summer of a no-issue primary, Cambridge, Mass., June 14, Unis). de la Tendance spartaciste Socialist Leaguers apologized for call­ internatlonal~ de la L i g u e the. capitalist press which specializes in trotskiste de l'·rance. de MM. Noam ing a meeting to discuss an imaginary all the news that's not fit to print (while Chomsky, Jiri Pelikan, I.-F. Stone, election, out quickly perked up as an suppressing or distorting the struggles Stokely Carmichael, Richard New­ house (senateur democrate dE even better legalistic gimmick occured between labor and capital at home and l'Dllnols). to them. They quickly whipped up the abroad) need not fear a copy crisis. The brilliant proposal to _get a proposition capacity in Washington for banal sex on the November ballot which would scandal seems boundless and the latest legalize strikes 15y city workers! Unlike episode is being predictably exploited in the Socialist League, which leaves it up the media. Last year a stripper made a to the voters to determine workers tidy bundle from the quick sale of her rights, during the S.F. city workers story after she went wading in the Tidal Chile steht vor strike the SL called for a citywide Basin with House bigwig Wilbur Mills. general strike to throw out all the anti­ This year, readers of major U.S. dailies labor charter amendments. Even if a are being treated to an account of the dem Bankrott right-to-strike proposal managed to get sex life of a portly Congressman from Nur noch US-Geld kann die Junta retten

on the ballot, given the frenzy of the Ohio, Wayne Hays. NodoubtElizabeth 1[5 ropaische Under ihre Oro- heavily petty-bourgeois electorate in Ray's tapes recorded under the beds of .Ib hung wahr machen, langst Pi- fallige Kredite an Chile nicht San Francisco and the bitter strike various politicians will get a faster, en mehr zu verlangern, muB das defeat, there is a strong likelihood it wider public hearing than even the ,rd Land mit einem Schlag 750 :e- Millionen aufbringen, die es would lose. In that case we suppose the Watergate tapes. 1m nicht hat. Die USA miiBten Socialist League would advise workers The press trumpets, as if it were news, st- wieder einmal als Retter ein- to wait until it is "legal" to strike. that there is considerable sexual hanky­ ;0- springen. on Warum tun sie das iiber- panky on the A deck of the ship of state. en haupt? Ole offizielle Erkla- But Hays is by no means the only t~ng is~1 ' .. --u".~_ Washington figure to have engaged a WfJ/iNE/iS ler 36jahrige Fi%re~-~41-- secretarial staff of "non-typists" on the beitergewerkschaft der chi- government payroll. Just the other day, luf lenischen Provinz Aconcagu~ one of Jimmy Carter's aides expressed \Unabhangige Tageszeitung fur Osterreich ~i- Mario Munoz, der seit sei- '''NfiIJIIRIJ worry about finding a suitable vice­ ..... __ ------;--:-:::==--=:==~....,,=..JI ist nem 14. Lebensjahr in Nord- Marxist Working-Class Weekly wieder- gestlegen: una aas chile der morderischen Mi- ofthe Spartacist League ofthe U.S. presidential candidak in light of the VIENNA hat Pinochet gerettet. . nenarbeit nachging und EDITOR: Jan Norden scandals: Trotzdem miiBte die chi- Funktioniir der Sozialisti- lenische Wirtschaft auf lan- schen Partei des Landes war, PRODUCTION MANAGER: Karen Allen '''Wouldn't that be a pretty picture?' ... gere Sicht doch in sich zu- fliichtete 1973 zu FuB fiber 'All of a sudden some secretary in CIRCULATION MANAGER: Anne Kelley sammenbrechen. wenn nicht die Anden nach Argentinien. Washington calls a press conference Pinochet auf Hilfe von auBen nachdem sein Bruder von EDITORIAL BOARD: Liz Gordon. Chris Knox. and says she knows whoever Jimmy zahlen konnte. der Pinochet-lunta ermordet James Robertson. Charles Burroughs. Joseph picks better than anybody'." worden war. "- Seymour. George Foster MilJionen-Scheck Von dort aus organisierte The media mouth surprise and er die Flucht von Zehntau­ Published weekly. except bi-weekly in August Der amerikanische Finanz­ senden chilenischen Arbei­ and December. by the Spartacist Publishing indignation. Why are they so shocked? minister William Simon be­ tern, die in Argentinien ein Coo. 260 West Broadway. New York. NY Aren't these the same politicians who suchte im Mai Chile und Exil gefunden hatten. Nach der Ablose der Peron-Dik­ 10013_ Telephone: 966-6841 (Editorial). are regularly involved in fund tin~ering, . brachte als Gastgeschenk 925-5665 (Business). Address all correspon­ US-Wirtschaftshilfe im Aus­ tatuf durch die noch bruta­ dence to: Box 1377. G.P.O .. New York. N.Y. bribery, influence peddling, expense maB von 90 Millionen Dollar lere Videla-Diktatur ist je-. 10001. Domestic subscriptions: $5.00 per year. account padding, nepotism, tax dodg­ mit. !"I,.r KongreB wird das ~h dieses Exil Ie .~ - --- Aj.l!!..o. . """word'" Second-class postage paid at New York. N.Y. ing, real estate scheming and a variety of Opinions expressed in signed articles or dirty tricking? There is nothing much in letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. continued on page 10 2 WORKERS VANGUARD WV: I'd like to know more about the WV: What else can you say about the case of Raymundo Gleyzer. political climate? Katz: All right. Gleyzer is a well-known Katz: Well, people are terrified by the WV Exclusive documentary filmmaker. Some of the quixotic nature of who gets picked up other organizations sponsoring his case and disappears. There's no rhyme or are Actors Equity and Amnesty Interna­ reason to it. Some people are picked up tional. But essentially it's the Film and released. Some people are picked up Committee and his family. His mother, and never seen again. I met with the an actress, brought the habeas corpus mother of a psychiatrist who received a proceedings. And of course they came in phone call over the weekend that he had and said, 'we know from nothing, we 24 hours to leave the country or get don't have his body, we don't ... .' killed. Down there those threats if not WV: Was he known as a leftist? taken seriously, you die. So he left his "There's A Katz: No. He had been in the states for wife a~d three children and his practice a few months, in April and May, and he and fled to Mexico. Within ten hours he signed an agreement with the UN to do was gone. He's a moderately liberal guy, some films on underdeveloped coun­ but he's Jewish and he's a psychiatrist tries. He arrived back in Argentina May and he's one of the few group therapists 24 and the last time he was seen or heard in Argentina. They equated political cell Bloodbath Going from was the 26th. People went to his activity with group therapy, I gather. apartment. It had been broken into, It goes on constantly. People are about $28,000 worth of film equipment picked up, killed, kidnapped, disap­ sent by someone in the states was peared. There's a tremendous strain, missing; typewriters, clothes, everything obviously, on people's nerves. Many else. people I met who are not political, or WV: YOl able to fmd out nothing moderately political, are making plans On in Argentina" by talkin. 'idela's assistant? to leave. Katz: No. VVhat I had wanted to do was It is totally repressive. You see lots of to go to the apartment building to find soldiers in the streets. They have trucks out from the people who lived there ... that will close off a thoroughfare. You'll I nterview with Sanford Katz there must have been a rather large be driving along a wide boulevard and group of guys who came in to do this suddenly three army trucks cut in front thing. I wanted to take someone who of you. Soldiers jump out and at Editor's Note: The following first-hand account of conditions inside Argentina talked better Spanish than I, an Argen­ random, they don't hit every car. But since the Videla coup is excerptedfrom a WV interview with attorney Sanford Katz tine, but everyone down there said no. It every third car, every fourth car, they'll who returned last week from Buenos Aires. Katz made the trip in order to was just too dangerous. stop and ask you for your identification. investigate the disappearance of the Argentine film-maker Raymundo Gleyzer, WV: So where do you go from here? And these kids are very trigger happy. missing since May 27 and believed to be captured by the junta. An endorser of the Katz: Well, there are lawyers down They're nervous and if you make a international campaign to save the life of exiled Chilean miners leader Mario there now taking up where I left off. The furtive or fast move, they'll blow you Munoz, Katz stressed the urgency ofdirecting worldwide protest against thejunta's international filmmakers, the Italians away. There have beenmanydeathsasa vicious repression aimed not only at the Argentine left but also at the large exile have complained in the press in Italy, result. population there composed of militants from all over Latin America. and in France .... He was very well Everyone I spoke to is convinced the known in Europe, he won many awards repression is going to get more severe over there. and that the only possibility for any WV: The American press has billed the Or, 'how do you know it wasn't just a WV: I understand you were in Buenos change at all is through outside [March 23] coup as restoration of law plain robbery ... .' Aires at the time the Catholic Relief pressure. and order, but in WV we've said from People become so cynical down there, Agency was raided and the names of the WV: We feel that there must be mass the beginning that the repression is they have a person ripped off and they Chilean refugees were stolen. protest, more than simply lee" protests can't get excited, the journalists can't get headed in the direction of Pinochet. Katz: That was before. And everyone and appeals throu... the United You've just come back from Buenos excited. believed there was no theft, it was just Nations. WV: Of course, the press is so censored Aires and I'm interested in your _handed over. The list was handed over Katz: Sure, the courts don't exist down that it would never come out that they impressions. by the government to these gangsters. there. There's not ajudge who values his are a paramilitary force connected to the own life who would dare do anything. Katz: The official position is that the government. They knew exactly where to go, who to right-wing terrorists, the AAA [Argen­ nail. The AAA would knock him off. I've Katz: Never! They wouldn't dare! And heard stories of generals, some former tine Anti-Communist Alliance] are a to leaflet down there is an even braver The government denies it of course. They are pious about their having presidents, who had a classmate whose bunch of gangsters that they have no action. I heard of some people who tried control over. But everyone down there is historically been a country of refuge! It's son was a Marxist guerrilla. He heard to leaflet an assembly plant in Santa Fe, convinced that they are clearly a a very important part of their political that the boy was captured and was being they were shot right there. paralegal force. They gave the game ethos, that they gave refuge to the Jews. tortured terribly up in that prison in the WV: I understand you went down to away when they ripped off those 25 They're very proud, they say, 'look, north. Together the three of them went Argentina representing the famOy of Chileans out of the hotel [the exiles none of the socialist countries are to the corps commander who was Raymundo Gleyzer who has disap­ kidnapped June 11, two days after a list knocking themselves out trying to get probably a friend or a classmate (it's a peared. I saw in the Times thi~ morning containing the names and addresses of these Chileans. We took them in and small society). He welcomed them and that you had met with a civilian aid of over 8,000 refugees was stolen from a now we're being attacked and con­ then said, "if you're here to discuss your General Videla's, Ricardo Yofre, about Catholic Relief Agency operating under demned for giving them refuge.' I think son, forget it." [The man who told me the case. the auspices of the United Nations]. they're being attacked because they're this story] is a very powerful man and he Katz: Yes, I went courtesy of the When the public furor internationally doing work for the Chilean government. could not and would not do anything to Committee to Defend Latin American was so great-at that same time they It seems clear that they not only have help anybody where they were being Filmmakers. Unfortunately, the day I had their Minister of Economy up here people sitting in these refugee hotels, held with political overtones. met with Yofre was within several hours And then there's the American [in the U.S.]-suddenly they reappear. of when Cardozo, the chief of the federal they have people in prison. All 25, all busted up, they were going to I know a woman whose husband had embassy people there, who give you the police, had been bombed. So you can facade of being concerned. They say, be executed. On the one hand the imagine how it started. What really been in jail for eight or nine months, even before Videla. And for nothing. I "well, Gleyzer's not an American," but government says 'we have no control,' incensed them [the staff at the presiden­ myself said to Yofre, 'why so 10ngT He of course since there were inquiries then obviously they pull the strings and tial palace] was that the bombing was said, 'we have no information on them.' made in Congress they had to get off 25 Chileans are back. It's bulls hit. the result of a young woman, a friend of And I said, 'if you have no information their ass. It's clear they have close Cardoza's daughter. That's what infuri­ Officially the line is they have no on them, release them.' Then he said, connections with the Argentine police. ated them, that these Marxist heathens control and they're trying to extermi­ 'the problem is who would receive They knew, for example, even before it would seduce this young woman who nate the terrorists of both left and right. them'! That was bullshit because he hit the papers, how Cardozo was killed. herself was from the upper classes-her There's a bloodbath going on. I mean knew the visas were coming through, They told me about it when I met with mother was a psychologist and I believe there's shootouts every day. The five or they had the letter from the British them in the morning, and they knew her father was a doctor. I read when I six days I was down there, it was embassy. Clearly they were doing the precisely how it was done. got back that right-wing guerrillas had reported there were at least some 25-odd work of the Chilean government. The paper was filled the next day murders, includirg the chief of police blown up the house where the family when Cardozo was killed, warning and retaliation-II people killed the lived out of frustration. WV: Yes, in our last issue we published parents that they have to be ever vigilant next day. Following the assassination there was an interview with Cristina and Richard and alert of their childrelf; politics and WV: I understand that when Torres, a piece [in the papers] to the effect that Whitecross who were released from jail what they say. If they(start giving a the former president of Bolivia was they had found a body of a young [in Argentina] about a month ago. They Marxist rap, they Olay have been killed in Argentina a few weeks ago, woman charred, burned. She had a tag were arrested with 11 other people, and infected. You deal with that by turning apparently one of the ministers of the on her with the name [of the woman they said they were convinced their them in, I guess. They have to be very j!!nta said, 'well, you can't really prove who allegedly planted the bomb in arrest was done by the Argentine police concerned about their children's friends; it's been an aSSii8!:ination because Cardozo's house]. It sounds preposter­ simply as a favor for the DINA [ChOean you got to start spying .... They literally nobody saw it ..• .' ous. I think they were trying to show the secret police]. They also stressed that the want to eliminate the left. Literally .• Katz: They disclaim any responsibility public that they are so vigilant and so regime is very threatened by interna­ for people disappeared or murdered. professional that they can capture tional protest and by news leaking out ( ~PJ oTAr-~c: "~, .. --~----;~~ They'll just give you the line; they'll stare someone; you know, there was nothing into the press because tMY Me !!'y!ni to ... '-J. r a ... ~ /""I "'-' I V I 1:U1110n lJaTlt;010"w about an autopsy report that would you right in the face and say 'we have present this image of heinl unlike pour louIe commande s'adr~er a: identify her by marks, by her teeth, absolutely no knowledge' ... that 'we the Pinochet. Bruno Porquier Spar!acisl Publishing Co. government have checked with all the etc.-you know, the normal way you Katz: That's one of the most reprehen­ B.P.57 Bo~ -, -·77 GPO, agencies, we've checked with the armed would identify a body. If it was her, why sible things about it. They are denying 95~20 Erl1}onl New ,rk, N.Y. 10001 FRANCE II!'>A forces, we've checked with the police did they burn her? Why did she have a what's going on, tbat people are getting and they have no knowledge.... Are tag on her? You would think they would kidnapped, denying the murders, deny­ 3,00 F. $.7~!S/Canada want to bring her head back on a state.. you sure he didn't have a jealous wifeT in& tbat torture is ... OIL ...... , ~""'-~~-' 2 JULY 1976 3 Behind the Guardian· OL Feud

The preponderant component of the ment to "Third World" nationalism national independence was justified U.S. imperialism is the main enemy of u.s. Maoist milieu is the product of the which led it to dissociate itself from because Georgia had become a base for the world's peoples is essentially empiri­ intersection of the pOlicies of the Peking's alliance with U.S. imperialism, British incursions dangerous to the cal: it is American capital which Chinese regime with the student­ the conflict erupting over Angola. If the embryonic Soviet state. Anticipating economically exploits the "Third centered radical generation of the dispute between the Guardian and the Mao by half a century, liberals and World" and virtually all popular 1960's-the New Left. The earliest OL were reduced to basic principles­ social democrats in the 'West denounced struggles in these countries are directed expression of doctrinal convergence which neither side is willing to do or the conquest of Georgia as "red imperi­ against U.S. imperialism and its client between Peking Stalinism and Ameri­ even capable of doing-it could be alism," as the expansion of the "new regimes. can New Leftism was 'Third World" stated as follows: for the OL's Mike tsars." The Bolshevik conquest of To this empirical argument, the hard­ nationalism. the view that the national K lonsky the interests of "socialist" Georgia was an unfortunately necessary line Maoists have a counter-argument liberation struggles of the colonial China. as expressed by its (none too violation of national self-determination based on orthodox Stalinist precedent. peoples were the main force for world stable) Stalinist leadership, are the for the sake of higher principle, the I t is a fairly effective counter-argument, revolution. moreover, because the Guardian ac­ Yet the "Third World ism" of the cepts the precedent: namely, Stalin's rulers in the Forbidden City and of the alliance with Britain, France and the American SDS had significantly differ­ U.S. against Nazi Germany. Before ent contents. For the Maoist bureaucra­ World War II, argue the Peking cy. the colonial and ex-colonial nation­ loyalists. wasn't Britain the global alist bourgeoisie (e.g., Sukarno. power exploiting millions of colonial ;>.ikrumah) was seen as a would-be ally slaves'? But. they continue. wasn't it Nazi of China against the U.S. and USSR. Germany. the aggressive have-not impe­ the original form of the "superpower" I rialism. which was the more dangerous?

doctrine. Peking's espousal of the SA Analogies between Hitler's Germany "progressive" bourgeois nationalism of During World War II Communist Party called on American imperialism to and its role in world politics and the "Third World" always had a open "second front" in Europe against Nazi Germany. strategic as well as a cynical character. The New Left embracing of "Third World" nationalism was conditioned by highest political value to which all other the Kremlin's commitment to the global considerations will be sacrificed; for the 'f' status quo ("peaceful coexistence") and Guardian's Irwin Silber, the colonial f' the apparent conservatism of the work­ people's struggle for national liberation ing class in the imperialist centers. Yet a is the supreme political goa\. For the world view which coupled white, Eu­ latter, Maoist China is simply the most ropean Russia with the U.S. likewise "advanced" of a series of progressive contained the rudiments of the "super­ national liberation movements. power" doctrine. even before the Soviet Union was designated "social­ National Liberation and Workers imperialist" by Mao. Underlying the States New Left notion that the struggle for The concrete and immediate coun­ socialism was essentially between the rich. white nations and the poor, dark­ terrevolutionary politics of the Peking­ skinned ones was a large element of loyal Maoists do not mean that the petty-bourgeois moralism, an outlook dissident Guardian is moving to the left. fundamentally hostile to a scientific At the purely formal level, the Guardi­ analysis of society. Inherent in New an's national liberationism has, if anything, even less in common with U.S. hegemony led not to "international New Deal" as Stalinists hoped, but Leftism is an inability to recognize the new imperialist atrocities as in Vietnam. class line in society, particularly when genuine Leninism (Trotskyism) than do confronted by working-class institu­ the doctrines of the Peking Stalinists. Brezhnev's Russia now pervade Maoist For Leninists, the obligatory defense tions under bureaucratic leadership. IMPERIALISM literature. To quote Mike Klonsky: of a workers state stands higher than the "The Soviet Union can be compared to principle of national self-determination, Hitler Germany during the period of the Guardian's New Left Reflexes a bourgeois-democratic right. On a '30s. At that time, the British, French world-historic scale, 'to be sure, the and U.S. imperialists were in the most The Guardian milieu represents that equality of nations can be realized only dominant position in the capitalist element of American Maoism which has world. But Germany's imperialists were through the victory of the communist the most dangerous precisely because broken least with its New Left origins movement-the creation of revolution­ they were trying to seek hegemony and and attitudes. A major theme of editor ary workers states. In particular con­ replace the other imperialist powers as Irwin Silber's recent forums has been junctures, the military defense of a top dog. This is the goal of Soviet social­ the call for a return to the "good old imperialism today." workers state may require violating the -Call, 31 May 1976 days" of the antiwar movement, when sovereignty of a smaller capitalist the left was "united" against American nation. The message is clear: if it was correct for imperialism. The Guardian's New Left­ For example, in 1921, Bolshevik Stalin's Russia to ally with American ism is immediately obvious in its very Russia conquered and annexed imperialism against fascist Germany, lack of an organizational embodiment. then it is correct for Mao's China to ally When other Maoists were busily pro­ __t!l.,. with American imperialism against claiming themselves "democratic­ "The Soviet Union in 1921 force­ "social-fascist" Russia. centralist cadre-type parties," the fully sovietized Georgia which At the level of ideology, the equation Guardian's nods in the direction of of the Soviet Union, a degenerated constituted an open gateway for Cartoon in CAP's newspaper, Unity Lenin and "party-building" were purely imperialist assault in the Cauca­ and Struggle. workers state, with fascist Germany, the platonic. At a time when it had no sus. From the standpoint of the most barbaric expression of capitalist defense of a workers state. substantial political differences with the principles of national self­ rule, is the greatest crime Maoism has October League (OL), the Guardian The narrow nationalist policies of the committed. However, the reactionary determination, a good deal might chose to remain an "independent radical Stalinist bureaucracies sometimes lead import of Klonsky / Mao's position is weekly," acting as a unity broker within have been said in objection to such to unnecessary wars against smaller not limited to the equation of the Soviet the Maoist movement and mouthpiece sovietization. From the stand­ capitalist nations, however. Thus, in U_nion with Nazi Germany. To further for assorted nationalist groups, such as point of extending the arena of the 1939-40 Stalin needlessly invaded Fin­ his military bloc with the Allies against the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. socialist revolution, military inter­ land without adequate military prepara­ fascist Germany, Stalin endorsed the Since its break with Peking-loyal vention in a peasant country was tion or any attempt to win over the war aims of the "democratic" imperial­ Maoism, the Guardian has tended more than a dubious act. From the Finnish working masses. Liberals, ists and forced the Communist Parties toward reconstructing the old New Left. standpoint of the self-defense of social democrats and erstwhile fellow of the West into the most shameful Thus it is now participating in the the workers' state surrounded by travelers sympathized with "little, dem­ betrayal of proletarian class interests, in ocratic" Finalnd (loosely tied at the "People's Bicentennial" (July 4th Coali­ enemies, ,forceful sovietization direct subservience to the Roosevelts time to Britain) and denounced Soviet tion). even while admitting that it is the was justified: the safeguarding of and Churchills. This was a counterrevo­ worst kind of liberal/ populist constitu­ "imperialism." The Trotskyist move­ lutionary act of monumental historic the socialist revolution comes ency politics. and denouncing as "ultra­ ment did not. While condemning consequences. left" the OL., which is abstaining from before formal democratic Stalin's megalomaniacal adventurism The enormous moral revulsion at the the bicentennial hi-jinks, and the Revo­ principles." and bureaucratic highhandedness, atrocities committed by the Nazi psy­ Trotsky unconditionally defended the lutionary Communist Party, which is -L.D. Trotsky, "Balance Sheet chopaths should not obscure which military victory of the USSR, a bu­ organizing its own separate on the Finnish Events," contending imperialism was the greater demonstration. reaucratically ruled workers state, force for global counterrevolution. Nazi April, 1940 However. the Guardian's Menshevik ~5 against Baron Mannerheim's Finland. Germany was a local power whose and specifically polyvanguardist organi­ demented dictators were capable of Stalin's Alliance with U.S. zational attitudes did not lead to any Menshevik-governed Georgia in the great destruction, but not of being the real trouble with the more serious Caucasus, although the majority of its Imperialism guardian of world capitalism for a Maoist October League. It was, rather, largely peasant population undoubtedly Since the Guarawn adheres to the continued on paKe 10 the primacy of the Guardian's commit- opposed this action. This violation of "superpower" doctrine, its position that 4 WORKERS VANGUARD Workers Strikes Roll Back Price Hike in Poland JUNE 28-Last week the Polish gov­ of this mass upsurge, the local PUWP or­ ernment suddenly withdrew its plans to ganizations collapsed with many of their institute massive price increases only activists going over to the workers' side. one day after the decree had been Amid rumors of Soviet intervention, the announced. The hasty retreat was in Polish army then occupied the Baltic direct response to a wave of strikes that ports. As the rebellion spread to followed the publicizing of hikes in food Warsaw, Poznan and other industrial prices ranging from 30 to 69 percent. centers, the government temporized. On June 25 at the U rsus tractor Wladyslaw Gomulka resigned as head factory outside Warsaw, workers tore of the t'UWP and his place was taken by up railroad tracks, built barricades and Gierek. disrupted rail traffic. Strikes were Under Gierek the government made a Party headquarters in Szczecin burned· during 1970 Polish workers revolt. reported at other plants in the capital number of concessions to the working area, including the Zeran auto plant masses, the chief one being a freeze on Gomulka consolidated his power after­ lcal stranglehold over the proletariat producing Polish Fiats. At the ship­ food prices which has been in effect for the Polish regime was shaken in 1956 by of tne Polish deformed worKers state. yards of Gdansk and Szczecin, the scene five and a half years. Gierek's promises massive food riots centered in Poznan·. Stalinist "reformers" like Gomulka and· of mass worker protests in 1970 that to focus on raising the notoriously low Gomulka, who promised numerous Gierek are incapable of more than zig­ zagging blindly between enforced aus­ toppled the Gomulka government, living stand~rds of Polish workers did economic concessions to the masses, peaceful sit-ins were staged. In Radom, bear some fruit: real wages rose an was also touted as a "reformer" at that terity for the working c1ass,indiscrimi­ a leather tanning center 60 miles south estimated 30 percent over five years. time. However, the 1970 events smashed nate crackdowns on the peasantry or of Warsaw, the headquarters of the However, this was achieved only at that illusion, and now Gierek has run increased dependence on the capitalist ruling Polish United Workers Party the cost of substantial deformation of afoul of the same obstacles that derailed nations. (PUWP) was reportedly set on fire. the Polish economy. Increased imports Gomulka. Escaping from material poverty The announcement retracting the of consumer goods from the West led to Of immediate importance is a solu­ requires transcending the limited con­ price increases was made by the Polish a massive trade deficit (over 50 percent tion to the conflicting demands of the fines of the relatively economically government after a day of "consulting" of Poland's foreign trade is with Polish working class and a large section backward Polish state. This poses the with workers in key factories through­ capitalist countries, an unprecedentedly of the peasantry. A carefully modulated need for a- workers political revolution out the country. (In the Stalinist high figure for an East European program of agricultural collectivization to oust the present Stalinist apparatus deformed workers states, the proletariat nation). While retail prices were frozen, is a necessary step toward achieving this wedded to the reactionary theory of is always "consulted" after the fact!) The farmers were receiving higher prices for· goal. However, a solution to these eco­ "socialism in one country" and replac­ regime vainly attempted to belittle the their products. This government sub­ nomic woes cannot be achieved through ing it with a Trotskyist leadership scale of the protests ("Only in a couple sidy to the peasantry assumed enormous "self-reform" of the parasitic, national­ dedicated to international proletarian of dozen [!] isolated cases was the course proportions, amounting to $5 billion a ist bureaucracy which maintains a pol it- revolution .• of the discussion connected with tem­ year. porary stoppage of work. Only in two The situation has become even more cases, at Radom and U rsus, did the aggravated recently as farmers demand outright, but they condemn John Brown emotions spill out into the street"). further increases. With open market July 4 __._ for his fanatical commitment and At the same time, in a statement prices 50 percent above prices offered by violent methods. The Reconstruction worthy of any bourgeois reactionary, it the state, farmers have been holding (continued from page 1) era of .1867-1877 is the only period in .slandered the protesters as rabble: "No back sales of grain and other produce to U.S. history which the present ruling civilized country, no civilized society government procurement agencies. Revolution. The "founding fathers" had class rejects an un-American extremism. irrespective of its political system, can Since the vast bulk of Polish agricultur­ no children who could claim that the Two important films, D. W. Griffith's stand idly by while attempts are made at al production is carried out on private principles of 1776 had been betrayed in Birth of a Nation and the later Gone looting and inciting the lowest instincts farms and because Gierek had previous­ the interests of the rich and powerful. With the Wind, are outright apologies of the mob, threatening both social ly eliminated compulsory procurement, The era of the war of independence did for white supremacist terror against the order and individual citizens" (UPI the government found itself at the mercy not give rise to a living revolutionary only radical-democratic governments dispatch quoting the 28 June Cycie of farmers and attempted to finance tradition. this country has ever experienced. The Warszawy, our emphasis). Official increased prices for farmers by driving Compromise of 1877, when the black rallies supporting Premier Edward down the living standards of workers. John Brown's Body freedmen were abandoned to the merci­ Gierek were also held, hoping to bolster The huge hikes in food prices were There is a social revolution in Ameri­ less regimes of the ex-slaveholders, was the stature of the blemished Polish preceded by other austerity measures can history which troubles the imperial­ the American bourgeois-democratic Stalinist leader. such as reductions in the rate of annual ist bour~eoisie to this day. It did not revolution betrayed. And the reversal of The hasty government retreat was wage increases and raising labor pro­ begin in 1776, but in the anti-slavery that historic betrayal awaits the victory obviously due to fear that there would ductivity by tightening up on "abuses" confrontations. The issue raised by the of American communism. be a repetition of the explosive 1970 of sick leave. However, the Polish civil war and particularly the period of Because of the American revolution's ~nts. In that year the announcement working class was in no mood to tighten Radical Reconstruction-the intimate limited social mobilization, those whose of price increases, coupled with the its belts. The modest reforms under relationship between capitalism in principles ultimately clashed with bour­ imposition of a program of wage and Gierek notwithstanding, the living America and racial oppression-awaits geois rule-the likes of Tom Paine and pension freezes and speed-up of the standards of Polish workers remained its fundamental resolution in future Sam Adams-wl!re easily disposed of. workforce led to mass marches by substantially inferior to those of work­ revolutionary struggle. The wasn't-it­ The radical abolitionists-John Brown, Polish workers on PUWP headquarters ers in neighboring East Germany and tragic attitude of the bourgeoisie to the Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass­ in several cities, centered on the Baltic Czechoslovakia, while their hours and civil war era contrasts sharply with their are the only figures in American history seaports. When police and troops working conditions were far more celebratory attitude toward the war of before the emergence of the workers opened fire on marchers in Szczecin (the arduous. independence. The signing of the Eman­ movement whose commitment to dem­ toll of killings in the 1970 events The recent strikes in Poland underline cipation Proclamation, unlike the Dec­ ocratic principles actual1y threatened numbered at least 56), angry protesters the definitive failure of the Gierek laration of Independence, will never be a bourgeois rule. For the same reason that burned down party headquarters while reforms-a failure that is no less than holiday in racist, imperialist America. the present-day bourgeoisie denounces singing the "Internationale." In the face that of his predecessor, Gomulka. It is in the civil war era that there are John Brown as a dangerous extremist, parallels with the plebeian component we communists can claim the radical of the French Revolution. The contem­ abolitionists as ours. Only a victorious porary bourgeois treatment of John American socia1ist revolution can give Brown resembles the French ruling class to the heroes and martyrs of Harper's attitude toward Robespierre. They Ferry and the -Underground railway" W,/tIiE/tS cannot disown the anti-slavery cause the honor that is their historic right.•

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City/State/Zip 116 in.cludes SPARTACIST o Enclosed is $5 for 48 i~ues (1 year) o Enclosed is $2 for 16 i~ues (4 months)-INTRODUCTORY sub order from/pay to: Spartacist Publishing Co.JBox 13n GPOINY. NY 10001 Sojourner Truth John Brown Frederick DougIaa

2 JULY 1976 5 "Law and Order" General Elected President CP in Deep Trouble in Portuguese Elections

Editor's Note: The follo ..... ing article ..... as Socialist votes. But his bourgeois written before the June 27 presidential -backers have been accommodating, and elections in Portugal. In the voling. the U.S. has given its stamp of approval Lisnave army chief of staff General Eanes ..... as in the form of a recent shipment of shipyard elected...... ith 61 percent of the vote. Of advanced military equipment (armored workers the remaining candidates. Major Carva­ personnel carriers and M-48 tanks) to in 1974. lho received 17 percent. Admiral Azeve­ equip an elite "intervention brigade." Recently do ..... as next ..... ith 14 percent and the While the army commander's election Communist Communist Party candidate. Octavia manifesto uses vaguely "progressive" Party PalO. finished last ..... ith less than 8 language, his campaign slogan, "liberty influence in security," is an unmistakable call for has percent. eroded capitalist "law and order." Ominously, in key Eanes has threatened that the left that industrial JUNE 25-AIthough the approaching "doesn't manage to collaborate in the centers. presidential elections in Portugal have transformation process in the manner failed to awaken much interest from the that it should ... will have to be re­ bulk of the popUlation, they have pressed" (quoted in Expresso, 2 June). Informations Ouvrieres considerably shaken up the left. In Another indication of the "interest" demoted from general) following the sion," but conveniently passes over the particular, the Communist Party (PCP) of the leading imperialist powers in November 25 events, the major pro­ fact that COPCON troops seized radio is panicked by the almost total lack of Portugal's presidential elections came in claimed himself a Robin Hood-last and television stations on behalf of the response (even from the party ranks) to the candid remarks of the second-place year it was "the Fidel Castro of Sixth Government last September, in a its candidate, who is trailing miserably candidate and current prime minister, Europe"-and has attracted huge move to purge leftists from the mass in the opinion polls. Meanwhile, most of Admiral Jose Pinheiro de Azevedo. crowds· with a flamboyant, whistle­ media. the groups that place themselves to the When asked by Associated Press wheth­ stopping campaign. The list of contradictions is endless: left of the PCP have abandoned all er the Communist Party might partici­ When he set off to the north the day Carvalho's program says he is commit­ pretense of working-class independence pate in a future government (the PCP after announcing his candidacy, a ted to guaranteeing trade-union organi­ and are slavishly campaigning for has one minister in the present cabinet, special train bedecked with red flags was zation "independent from the state," Major Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, but Eanes has said he would call on the greeted at the station in Porto by a conveniently "forgetting" that his secu­ former head of the COPCON security Socialists to form a minority govern­ crowd estimated at between 70,000 and rity forces ousted leaders of the Maoist­ forces. ment by themselves), the "admiral 100,000 people, the largest ever for a dominated Chemical Workers Union in without fear" replied meekly: leftist demonstration in the north. And April 1975. As for the claim that if By all accounts, the candidate that "that depends on American policy. It's in the militant industrial belt on the elected he would "not permit any has provoked the least enthusiasm is up to America ... it doesn't depend on south side of the Tagus River opposite attempts to make the working classes army chief of staff General Antonio· me at all .... I've got my feet on the Lisbon, workers at the Setenave and pay for the capitalist economic crisis," Ramalho Eanes, universally regarded as ground, and today there is no total Lisnave shipyards massively voted this not only flies in the face of independence, but alliances with the shoe-in favorite to win. Although compromises." endorsement of Carvalho for president, Carvalho's actions last summer when he backed-by the Socialist Party (PS), despite opposition from PCP­ was calling on the workers to "win the Popular Democrats (PPD), Social Pinheiro de Azevedo is not only frank dominated workers commissions. battle of production" and the famous Democratic Center (CDS) and several about his orders from Washington, he But there is a wide gulf between the COPCON document supported Prime smaller parties (including the Maoist also clearly expresses his hostility to the appearance and the reality of the Minister Vasco Gonr;alves' austerity MRPP and PCP--ML)-forces -which working class. When construction Carvalho campaign. The arch­ program; it also flatly contradicts his between them won 77 percent of the vote workers struck for higher wages last fall, proponent of an "MFA [Armed Forces own words during the campaign. In an in the April legislative elections-Eanes' at one point surrounding the presiden­ Movement]-People Alliance" uses left­ interview published in Expresso (25 campaign rallies have been virtually tial palace for two days, he told them to ist verbiage only to tie the combative June) the "people's power" major talks unattended, with both the PS and PPD "go to hell." Although currently posing workers to their class enemy, and in of "inevitably unpopular" economic as a "progressive" alternative to the drawing less than 10,000 to Lisbon's particular the bourgeois officer corps. measures of the next government. Campo Pequeno stadium. Moreover, at army commander, Azevedo's "Sixth The former COPCON chief labels his The Carvalho campaign is full of the least' one important PS local organiza­ Government" repeatedly sought just the candidacy "non-party" and reiterates absurdities which are the trademark of tion (Aveiro) has refused to support the confrontation with the "military left" his commitment to preserve the disci­ this two-faced demagogue. At one point mastermind of the successful power that occurred on November 25 and pline and unity of the capitalist army he announced that he would be a "guide grab by rightist officers last November brought with it the rise of Eanes. ("in the service -ef the people," of and a friend to all Portuguese," and later 25. "A Guide and a Friend to All course). observed (apparently with a straight The reasons for leftist unease over Portuguese" Carvalho's program (Revolur;iio, 10 face) that, "I think I'm starting to Eanes' candidacy are not hard to June) defends "the right to strike, a become intransigent in the defense of fathom. Selected by the top military The joker in the Portuguese presiden­ sacred right of the workers" and prom­ social justice"! His economic program is command as the most viable strongman tial elections has been Carvalho, who is ises "never to permit repression against to "give priority to agriculture" in this to "stabilize democracy," i.e., rebuild campaigning as the "candidate of April the working people"; it doesn't men­ already partially industrialized country. the army and straitjacket the workers 25" (he was in charge of executing the tion, however, that it was COPCON But while gullible leftists were cheering movement, his ties to the violently anti­ coup which brought down the Caetano troops who broke the TAP airline me­ the "candidate of April 25," Carvalho communist General Antonio de Spinola dictatorship two years ago). Back in the chanics' strike in September 1974. refused to frontally attack Spinolaist are well-known. In fact, it is widely limelight after being imprisoned (and Likewise it defends "freedom of expres- army commander Eanes ("a military rumored that the bemonocled former president-the leader of the ultra­ rightist Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Portugal (MDLP), which is in turn linked to the fascistic Portu­ guese Liberation Army (ELP)-will be lANES: allowed to return to the country following an Eanes victory. Further­ more, it was recently revealed that ·0 Eanes' brother-in-law was one of the pilots who bombed the left-wing RAL-I de barracks during the March 1975 Spino­ laist putsch (Times [London], 28 May). With the workers parties (primarily PCP and PS) receiving over 50 percent of the vote in April, Eanes has rdrained Vola from Whipping up an anti-communist "EANES frenzy since this could cost him many 6 ,WORKERS VANGUARD man of valor") and declared he would In Portugal over the last year the two With the information at our disposal order for· the workers to be able to appoint Socialist leader Mario Soares main ostensibly Trotskyist organiza­ it is impossible to say whether the support such a candidate. But the only guarantees given by the candidacy of ("a Portuguese patriot") to form a tions, both allied with the misnamed "Arlete affair" was, as the LCI and PRT Octavio Pato are precisely the opposite: government. Soares just happens to be "United" Secretariat of the Fourth suggest, a Stalinist provocation. Cer­ to collaborate with the generals and the choice for prime minister of both International (USec), have tailed after tainly the PCP did not come forward support the military president that is Eanes and Azevedo! the CP and SP. During last fall, the LCI until quite late with whatever informa­ elected." (Internationalist Communist League, tion it had concerning the dubious -Combate Socialista, 21 May Communist Party in Deep allied with the centrist USec majority character of a former member (whose But there was another factor that was Trouble led by Ernest Mandel) was part of the husband is reportedly a Communist decisive in ruling out critical support to "Revolutionary United Front" (FUR) Party militant), while at the same time a PRT / LCI candidacy: the statement While a vote for the general, the that "if elected, the candidate would be admiral or the major is clearly a vote for that supported the popular-front Fifth Government of Vasco Gonc;:alves and committed to call on the secretary the bourgeoisie, we explained in our last general of the PS, Mario Soares ... , to article ("Army Strongman Candidate initially included the Communist Party. At the same time, as the Socialist Party constitute a government ... based on the Threatens Portuguese Workers," WV was spearheading a reactionary anti­ left majority in parliament. ..." How can No. 112, 4June) that even the Commun­ these supposed Trotskyists propose the ist Party candidacy did not represent a Communist mobilization, the PRT (Revolutionary Workers Party, allied same government as Carvalho, Azevedo break with the capitalists. Rather, it is or Eanes? an attempt by the PCP to avoid with the reformist USec minority, and in recent months specifically with the The PRT during the parliamentary antagonizing Eanes in a situation where elections issued a number of statements it could not openly back the rightist Argentine PST) incredibly called for a Soares government. arguing that Soares' propaganda for a bonaparte for fear of losing control of However, in the presidential elec­ "go verno sozinho do PS" (Socialist its working-class base. But even a party Party minority government) was a candidate has not awakened the enthu­ tions, initially neither the 'Communists nor the Socialists were running a concession to the working-class ranks, siasm of Communist supporters, and who wished to see their party alone in PCP leaders fear a vote less than half the candidate (the Pato candidacy was the result of the PCP's inability to find a power, not tied to the class enemy. size of its showing in the April legislative Nothing could be further from the truth. elections (when it received 14 percent). general it could support), so with no one to tail after the LCI and PRT decided to . '". What Soares argued in presenting the Despite their protestations that they demand for a minority PS regime was (unlike Soares) are not electoralists, launch a joint presidential candidate. This was also part of on-again, off-again that the six coalition governments were PCP tops have been thrown into a cold all unstable and incapable of taking sweat by the impending defeat at the "unity" discussions between the two USec sympathizing groups. decisive action to "stabilize democracy." polls. The party's chance of gaining <) A PS government with a strong military ministerial portfolios is nil and its ranks Their choice as standard bearer was ,foP'" - one Arlete Vieira da Silva, whose president (Eanes), he said, could accom­ are in disarray. A graphic demonstra­ plish this task. tion of this panic was the front page of picture was published on flyers above ~ the headline: "Arlete, A Woman, A . Maroues Valentim But what does it mean to "stabilize" the 9 June issue of Avante, the PCP PSP leader Mario Soares bourgeois democracy in Portugal, newspaper. A communique announces Worker, A Revolutionary." A bio­ graphical sketch proclaimed that she where there is no tradition of parliamen­ imperiously: spreading rumors. Moreover, Cunhal& tary democracy? It does not mean "The complex situation surrounding had been a member of the PCP for 16 the elections for the presidency of the years and was arrested five times, once Co. are no doubt already trying to use defending an elected parliament against republic requires from all party mem­ imprisoned for more than three years. A this incident in order to spread their military bonapartism. On the contrary, bers and sympathizers a vigorous effort note in the USec international organ, usual slander that Trotskyists are it means defending a phantom "legisla­ to get out the view of the PCP .... Inprecor (27 May), went into the details provocateurs. What the affair definitely tive assembly" whose only base of power "Study and discussion of party materi­ shows, however, is that in their congeni­ is the officer corps against "parallel als is an urgent task! Every member of \oiture ("the traces can still be seen on must become informed-through party her broken wrists"). Following the over­ tal tailing after the reformists, the powers" such as the workers commis­ documents and proclamations, from throw of Caetano, it said, she resigned Pabloist liquidators demonstrate a sions. And this means, as Soares clearly speeches by comrades of the from the PCP in opposition to the fundamental lack of political serious­ stated at the inauguration of the Sixth leadership-so that at their workplaces ness which leads them to grab for an Government last September, crushing and in everyday conversation they can Stalinists' strikebreaking and class dear up doubts that may arise .... " collaboration. unknown quantity as a presidential, any germs of dual power, disbanding the However, three weeks after the candidate simply because she· could workers and neighborhood commis­ And then· the marching orders: "We PRT / LCI candidate was launched, serve as an advertising gimmick to rip sions, eliminating all attempts at work­ must vote massively for Comrade after the necessary 7,500 signatures had off Communist votes. Their salivary ers control, disarming workers militias Octavio Pato!" When a Stalinist party is been gathered to put her on the ballot glands are stronger than their brains, . and mopping up the remainders of the redueed to publicly exhorting its own and on the eve of the deadline for and it is clear that in presenting Arlete "military left." That is what the PRT I members to vote for the party candi­ registration, both groups suddenly Vieira da Silva in the elections, the PRT LCI call for a "Soares government" date, one can be sure it is in real trouble! withdrew their support. What hap­ and LCI gave no thought to providing means! serious leadership to the working The Arlete Affair pened? Readers of the PRTs Combate Mario Soares quite consciously Socialista (2 June) were given nothing masses. wishes to play the role of Scheidemann What could sharply alter the course of by way of explanation but an inside in smashing the German revolution political events in Portugal is the build­ story with the laconic title, "The Only No Support to the Portuguese during 1918-19. In his interviews with Scheidemann! ing of a Trotskyist party based on Candidacy of Class Independence Dominique Pouchin (Portugal: Quelle a clear program of class independence, Ceased to Exist!" This item's only But the failure of the USec fake­ Revolution?), the PS leader suggests breaking with all wings of the bourgeoi- answer to the "many questions which Trotskyists to provide political leader­ that Germany after World War I is a have been asked" about the sudden ship extends well beyond the personality more appropriate analogy to Portugal withdrawal was to refer to "our commu­ of their ex-presidential candidate. Even today than Spain in the 1930's or Chile niques" on the subject, which are not if the LCI and PRT had presented a in the 1970's. This is why the Socialist printed. "Arlete Vieira da Silva gave us credible personality on the same politi­ Party is willing to support a bona fide data about her political past which were cal program as Vieira da Silva, it would Spinolaist such as Eanes for president. not true," it says, "thereby not guarant­ not have represented a candidacy of Soares' comment that he would fight eeing the political and moral fitness working-class independence. Trotsky­ together with the ELP against "Com­ which a revolutionary party must ists could not have called for votes for munist dictatorship" (ibid.) is also demand in order to support a class the LCI/ PRT candidate. indicative. candidacy ...." Formally the Vieira da Silva The LCI and especially the PRT make a fetish out of the "workers united A few days earlier, the LCI had campaign was opposed to popular front," much in the manner of the withdrawn its support from frontism, calling on the PCP and PS to "Arlete," French OCI and its anti-Leninist con­ declaring that she did "not have the past break the anti-working-class pact guar­ anteeing military overlordship of Portu­ ception of a "strategic united front." nor the minimum conditions which (The Portuguese supporters of the OCI, would permit her to be an intransigent guese political life. An important ambiguity was introduced by the call, in moreover, were the first to call for a defender of a program of unity and Soares government.) But the present independence of the workers move­ the LCI/ PRT agreement, on "all the situation in Portugal is quite different ment." Placing the main blame on the organizations of the workers move­ ment, particularly the PS and PCP, to from Germany in 1931-33, when the PRT (which had nomin~ted her also in Social Democrats and Communists (in the April parliamentary elections), the present a single workers candidacy for different fashions) capitulat.ed to the LCI shamefacedly admitted that it only the presidential elections," and the offer Election pamphlet for LCI/PRT fascists. When a "Socialfst" party is belatedly investigated the background to withdraw the "Trotskyist candidate" candidate Arlete Vieira da Silva. leading a counterrevolutionary mobili­ of its "revolutionary candidate." And it in favor of a PSI PCP candidate. Since zation, Marxists must-tall for intransi­ sie, including the demagogic left-talking also said nothing about what it had both Socialists and Communists are gent opposition to its candidates. officers. A large part of the support for discovered (Luta Proletaria, 2 June). part of the popular-front Sixth Govern­ One might ask, if Rosa Luxemburg Carvalho comes from workers disillu­ The bourgeois press was more reveal­ ment, support the party/armed forces had run for president of Germany in late sioned"with the Socialist Party's open ing. Expresso (29 May) reported that it pact and subordinate themselves to the 1918, would she have offered to call ;upport for and the Communist Party's had learned trom the PRT that inquiries bourgeois military, this offer to with­ upon Scheidemann (the SPD prime ;owardly capitulation to Eanes, behind produced no evidence that its candidate draw could mean building support for a minister who sought, successfully, to whose dark glasses there lurks a mono­ had ever been imprisoned on political "workers candidate" of a popular front. subordinate the nascent workers coun­ charges. In fact, the only court trial of cle. A candidate calling for a break with However, when the PCP launched the cils to the military general staff through Arlete Vieira da Silva concerned "fail­ PS / PCP class collaboration, for no candidacy of Octavio Pato, the LCI and appeals for parliamentary democracy) confidence in the capitalist army, for the ure to pay and embezzlement of various PRT maintained their candidate. The to form a government if she were unification of the workers commissions household electrical appliances"!! In latter wrote: elected? As history showed, through the in a national workers assembly, could France, the daily Rouge (30 May), "That the two large workers parties assassination of Luxemburg and Karl point the way toward breaking through newspaper of the Ligue Communiste present a civilian Socialist or Commu­ Liebknecht with the connivance of the the vicious circle of "stabilizing parlia­ Revolutionnaire (LCR), asked in a nist candidate is a necessary but not a sufficient condition .... solid guarantees Scheidemann regime, such an offer mentary democracy" vs. military­ headline whether "Arlete" was a "Pre­ are necessary of complete independence dominated "people's power." varicator or Provocateur"? toward the generals and capitalists in continued on page / / 2 JULY 1976 7 ILWU'Local 6 Votes to End Strike Bureaucratic Defeatism Sabotages Warehouse Strike

'OAKLAND, June 28-The northern Area labor. While Local 6 members California warehouse strike moved escaped the fate of San Francisco city WV Photo toward an end today as members of craft workers who took substantial cuts Cops "monitor" pickets at Automated Plastics Molding June 15. Later, 11 were arrested when police charged picket line. International Longshoremen's and in pay, and of the Golden Gate bus Warehousemen's Union (lLWU) Local drivers who were forced to settle for less some of the independent warehouses, were forced to return to work under the 6 ratified a proposed agreement. The than the transit district's first offer, the which had earlier agreed to an uncapped company's original offer. contract has yet to be approved by settlement will undoubtedly mean an cost-of-living escalator for two of the The CP's role as hatchetman for the striking Teamster (IBT) locals, but the absolute decline in the warehousemen's three years, to demand that their bureaucracy was most fully revealed by IL WU vote will doubtless be used to standard of living. Given the enormous contracts be re-written now. Folger's attempts of CP supporters to file bogus pressure Teamster ranks into returning potential power of the transport alli­ seems to be the first step in that union charges against Stan Gow, a as well. After three weeks of a strike ance, involving the ILW{J and IBT, direction. Local IO executive board member. Gow during which their lines were subjected such a settlement is a glaring setback. Responsibility for the rotten settle­ was charged with "provocative actions" to numerous vicious police attacks, The capitalists have now been able to ment must be placed squarely at the feet for objecting to a deal made by Ramos many workers expressed the opinion establish to their own satisfaction that of the Bridges/Goldblatt/ McClain ma­ and Joe Lindsay to let management and that the settlement was the best that even these two key unions can be chine and with supporters of the office workers work behind Local 6 lines could be won. Doubtless they were brought to heel. Given the central role reformist Community Party in Local 6. at Golden Grain. Gow had offered a discouraged by the criminal disorgani­ that the IL WU has played in the Bay Preaching a strategy of compromise motion adopted by Local \0 to give full zation of the strike, particularly given Area labor movement for decades, this with the employers, the leadership support to the warehouse strike, includ­ the recent string of defeats suffered by can only pave the way to an even more continually slashed the bargaining ing hot-cargoing scab products, yet not Bay Area labor. The ILWU bureaucra­ extensive anti-labor drive. demands without membership consent. once did the leaderships of Locals 6, IO cy refused to take even the most To prevent any opposition to their class­ Union-Busting Continues or the International try to implement elementary steps to put the strike on a collaborationist schemes, once the these statements of support with con­ solid footing. Old-timers on the lines Open union-busting is on the order of strike got underway, the bureaucracy crete actions of solidarity. The CP interviewed by WV said it was the worst the day in the S.F. Bay Area. The strike simply cancelled all membership meet­ supporters were finally forced to with­ run strike they had ever seen the union continues at Associated Trucking ings and the joint stewards' council with draw the charges against Gow out of conduct against the company's attempt to the Teamsters. \ embarrassment when this exemplary I he settlement generally follows the circumvent the Master Freight Agree- Yesterda y's mass rally called to force militant was arrested and beaten during recently concluded Teamster Master through a settlement was the first a police assault on the Automatic Freight Agreement, except that it iseven membership meeting in over a month Plastic Molding picket line. worse. It provides for a $1.60 wage and the first local-wide meeting during The absolute cynicism of the ILWU increase over three years but with no the entire contract negotiations. When leadership is perhaps most starkl)l cost-of-living (c-o-I) payment in the first at a Local 6 stewards meeting, a revealed in its dealings with Automatic year and a 25-cent cap in each ofthe last gangster-style assault was launched Plastic Molding. While supporters 01 two. The miserable c-o-I formula guar­ against Bob Mandel, a member of the the Revolutionary Communist Party antees that IL WU and Teamster mem­ Local's executive board and spokesman and Progressive Labor in the ILWU bers who lost at least $1.50 to inflation for the Militant Caucus, the leadership screamed about great victories at and taxes over the life of the last turned a blind eye. Evidently they found Automatic due to the "fight back," contract will fall even further behind. it convenient to have goon attacks in outnumbered pickets had been continu­ EtI1ployets' pension contributions were order to silence critics who advanced an all~ harassed and arrested. Now, even increased by a token 25 cents, insuffi­ alternative to their sellout strategy. though the Di~tributors' AsSOCiation has cient to keep up with the ravages of Following their line of compromise to been managing the fight against union inflation. Although retirement age was its logical extreme, the recognition at APM all along, the union lowered to 63 there 'is some question • Goldblatt/ McClain forces refused to bureaucracy has decided to call the whether this section of the contract will • make even the simplest strike prepara­ master contract. strikers back to work ever be enforced. In 1973 the companies :-L: tions, on the ground that this might without forcing the Distributors to unilaterally cancelled an agreement to provoke the employers! Thus during recognize the union at APM. reduce retirement to 62, claiming pov­ small strikes at Victor California and This treachery may very well lead to erty: the McClain leadership capitulat­ •••• Automatic Plastic Molding which pre­ ~., .. an open-shop settlement of the type ed, returning the retirement age to 65! ceded the master contract battle, reached at Victor or even the complete Perhaps the most ominous section of WV Photc McClain & Co. outright refused to mo- destruction of the union at APM. the settlement was a little-noticed clause ILWU Local 6 president Curtis . bilize the membership in mass pickets Similarly, the leadership has made no which provides for differing wage rates McClain. against company strikebreaking. provision for forcing the Distributors to depending on "experience ... in the ment. Now, emboldened by the total It was no surprise, then, that the have all charges dropped against the industry." Under the complex member­ passivity of the warehouse union's Distributors' Association felt it could more than 50 pickets arrested since the ship structure within I L WU Local 6 leadership, management at Folger's launch a wave of police violence against strike began. This leaves the very real according to which new members are Coffee in South San Francisco seems the master contract strikers and get danger that the most militant union relegated to second-class citizenship for determined to follow in Associated's away with it. Doing its best to cover for members will be left isolated at the' a minimum of one year, this provision track. Although it is a member of the the leadership, time and again suppor­ mercy of the capitalist state at the very could establish a permanent pool of Distributors' Association, bargaining ters of the Communist Party (CP) urged time that the bourgeoisie is intensifying lower-paid labor. The Bridges regime agent for Bay Area Warehouse employ­ union members to call on local city continued on page l(j long ago cooperated with the employers ers, as of press time Folger's had refused governments to pass toothless "anti­ in introducing the infamous "B-man" to sign the warehouse agreement. scabbing ordinances." At the same time, system on the docks. This provides the Folger's was the scene of a violent the pro-CPhacks issued leaflets calling SL/SYL employers with just such a pool of confrontation during the first week of for "Unity, Unity, Unity," labeling any PUBLIC OFFICES who proposed militant tactics to resist lower-paid workers without union the strike, when over 80 police represen­ Revolutionary Literature protection, who could be speeded up in ting eight different police jurisdictions the employer attacks as "ultra-lefts." order to whiplash veteran longshore­ attacked an undermanned IL WU picket Whenever the combative membership BAY AREA men. into jacking up output to a line. Some 29 pickets were arrested at moved to defend their strikes, the Friday and Saturday ... , .. , .. 3:00-6:00 p.m. 1634 Telegraph (3rd floor) murderous pace. that time, including President McClain, leadership and the Stalinists moved in to (near 17th Street) At a time when the drive for profits is who sat down in the driveway. smash the efforts. At Thrifty, where Oakland, California Phone 835-1535 .Ieading to speed-up throughout U.S. But McClain's token heroics were not workers had refused to handle scab industry, this newest concession by the enough to stop this union-busting Nestle cargo, Abba Ramos, a prominent CHICAGO Tuesday ...... 4:()(H!:OO p.m. McClain bureaucracy is particularly outfit. Guarded by private armed CP supporter, ordered the workers to Saturday...... • .. 2:00-6:00 p.m. treacherous. Evidently many union security police, almost daily small handle the goods. While the Local 6 650 South Clark (2nd floor) convoys of scab trucks have passed Chicago, Illinois members felt disgusted by the settle­ leadership was forced to temporarily Phone 427-0003 ment. While the contract passed by through the lines, while token pickets backtrack on this betrayal because of 1,408 to 290, several hundred ILWU stood helplessly by. The latest issue of action taken by ILWU Local 34 clerks NEW YORK Monday through Friday ....•. 6:30-9:00 p.m. warehousemen in the crowd of well over the "Warehouse Militant," which urged to stop a mass shipment of Nestle Saturday ...... 1:00-4:00 p.m. 2,000 simply refused to vote. the membership to reject the contract, containers, no effective defense was ever ~ West BroadwaylRoom 522 New York, New York The warehouse settlement is the latest warned that a capitulation to the built for the Nestle strike. After 13 Phone 925-5665 in the series of defeats inflicted on Bay Distributors could easily encourage weeks on the bricks, Nestle workers 8 WORKERS VANGUARD "People's PSP Celebrates Bicenten nial" : Yankee Imperialist Yankee Doodle Holiday its support-political, economic and Independence Now! military-of fascist regimes like those of For a Puerto Rican Brazil and the Philippines or racist regimes like that of South Africa, to the Populism Workers Republic in a constant intervention which has pre­ Socialist Federation of vented stability and peace in Africa, The year's barrage of nauseatingly CELEBIIA'q~YEARS Asia, Latin America and the Middle star-spangled hard-sell propaganda for the Caribbean! East." America's "200th birthday" will culmi­ AMERICAlfRfvoWTION In so many words, this puts forward nate July 4th in Philadelphia, in a 0""'" inci~ On July 4 various reformist/ nation­ the idea of ending imperialism not chauvinist extravaganza of bourgeois ... ~ ~$ alist/liberal lash-ups will sponsor com­ through a proletarian overturn of the self-congratulation. Philadelphia's ...... If ~ capitalist system but through a grand .... ; .. * ..!! ~ peting bicentennial celebrations in Mayor Rizzo called for (but did not get) • *.".. " ~ conjunction with the U.S. bourgeoisie'S alliance of all those ostensibly opposed 15,000 combat troops to protect the *;*:··d·'J·"it. . ::sn raucous patriotic hoopla. From the to "the current foreign policy," includ­ tD ing the liberal bourgeoisie. Although the celebrants against potential "terrorism," ~...... , * macho confrontationism of the Revolu­ suggesting they could be "de­ ~ ',.,.~'" ~ specific contours of U.S. foreign policy o 0(jj tionary Communist Party's "Get the ployed ... ostensibly as part of the Bosses Off Our Backs" bicentennial to can and do change, the constant features pageantry." Meanwhile the city's transit the moldy Vietnam-era reformism of the of that policy-defense of U.S. corpora­ workers threatened to shut down the ~.r~ July 4 Coalition and the liberal jet-set tions' international investments, bol­ public transit system on the 4th unless ~d.c. trust busting of the People's Bicentenni­ stering of bourgeois regimes against 345 laid-off workers were rehired. The al Commission, all these political mass insurgencies, an autonomous city acquiesced and the bourgeoisie can MIlJlC!I~p~ foreign intelligence apparatus of spies Rubm"Hurncane" Carter * Jane FCn:la *Bauv Cornm:ner conglomerates attempt to drape them­ look forward to an unimpeded orgy of Pe,,~W conspired with left-wing political lead­ ANN ARBOR ...... ,...... 1~13i 66s-«J70 opposition to "the capitalists and c/o SYL, Room 4316 e~s. On the contrary, they said, "We, drafted a "Compact of Permanent generals." In the very next issue of Michigan Union, U. of Micb1gan Union:' which reaffirms the colonial Combate Socialista (2 June) after sailors who oppose a coup d'etat, have Ann Arbor, MI 48109 ' attempted by every means to inform the BERKELEY/ status of Puerto Rico while providing a declaring that the only guarantees given OAKLAND ' .... , .. ' ...... (415) 835-1535 linguistic face-lift by changing its people and the government of the coup Box 23372 by the PCP candidate are those of Oakland, CA 94623 English designation from "common­ collaborating with the generals, the being prepared by the officers of the Navy." After describing the incredible BOSTON ... ; ...... (617) 492-3928 wealth" to "free associated state" (which PRT announces that worker militants Box 188 (617) 436-1497 was always the obfuscating Spanish should cast their votes for Octavio Pato. brutalities inflicted upon them, the M.I.T. Station signatories concluded: Cambridge, MA 02139 designation). In opposing this arrogant It goes so far as to admit that «now it is CHiCAGO ...... , ...... (312) 427-0003 "Is it a crime to defend the government, bill (now temporarily shelved), the PSP impossible to vote for any candidate Box 6441, Main P.O. and its supporters waved the stars and the Constitution, legality and the Chicago, IL 60680 who is running against the generals, people? Or,.on the other hand, is it legal CLEVELAND ... , ...... ' ...... (216) 371-3643 stripes in the face of unimpressed because ... that car1didate does not not to respect the law, to overthrow the Box 6765 . Congressmen. Rosa Borenstein, execut­ exist." Perhaps the best expression of government and wipe out the lives of Cleveland, OH 44101 thousands of people? DETROIT ...... , .. (313) 881-1632 ive secretary of the Puerto Rico Solidar­ this bankrupt policy is a subtitle in the Box 663A, General P.O. ~WE WILL LET THE WORKERS Detroit. MI 48232 ity Committee, told the House Commit­ same article: "A Game With an Empty ANSWER THAT." tee on Territorial and Insular Affairs Hand." The PRTcertainly has an empty HOUSTON This letter was read by Carlos Box 26474 that "To approve this bill would rLean hand politically, and its call for "ex­ Houston, TX 77207 Altamirano at a mass rally in the treason to those who fought in a bloody pressing your repudiation of the princi­ LOS ANGELES ...... , ...... (213) 663-9674 Box 26282, Edendale Station war to gain U.S. independence from pal military candidate," Eanes, by a vote Los Angeles, CA 9Oe26 England" (Claridad. bilingual supple­ for Pato opens the door to all kinds of MADiSON .... , ... , .. , ... , .... , .. (Q08)257-4212 ment. 23 May). In this scene it is har i to c/o SYL, Box 3334 "lesser evil" policies including votingfor STOP THE RIGHTIST TERROR Madison, WI 53704 decide who are the crasser hypocr. tes: a popular front (such as the Allende NEW yORK ...... ,...... :, .. (212) 925-2426 the U.S. Congressmen who don't be; eve coalition in Chile) against the reaction­ IN ARGENTlNAl Box 1377, G.P.O. a word of the Declaration of Indepen­ Hands Off Mario Munoz! New York, NY 10001 ary right. PHILAD!LPHIA ...... (215) 848-9816 dence. or the PSP spokesmen who k lOW The lCI has also called for a vote for Public Meeting Sponsored by the Box 25601 this but pretend not to. The PSP's ei -ort Pato, as has every other ostensibly Committee to Save Mario Munoz Phila

The Chilean prison ship Esmeralda and women." But the voices of its will sail into New York harbor July 4 as victims cannot be silenced. "Everyone part of U.S. imperialism's bicentennial was stripped naked and placed under a festivities. This floating torture chamber jet of seawater ... the screams and the symbolizes the Pinochetjunta's reign of crying of the women who were detained terror against the working people of next to us cannot be expressed in this Chile. For many of the countless victims declaration," one former prisoner of the of the repression, the Esmeralda is more Esmeralda's sadistic torturers told than a 'symbol-it is the incarnation of Amnesty International. Another told an pain, fear and death for themselves, Organization of American States com­ their families, their comrades. mission: "The seven of us were tortured The Esmeralda must be stopped! Its on the Esmeralda for nine days. They welcome by the American rulers is an applied electric shock on my skin,on my arrogant insult to the international testicles, on my chest and back .... " working class. Elementary solidarity The five-nation investigating team with the persecuted victims of reaction­ reported that the Esmeralda was cited ary repression demands that left and "with significant unanimity" as a place labor militants prepare a more suitable of torture by inmates of 12 different who said their tongues had been ately replied that the invitation of the "welcome" for the blood-drenched Chilean prisons. In 1974 the OAS Inter­ burned." Esmeralda is analogous to "having the Esmeralda: a massive protest to block American Commission on Human Frank Braynard, head of "Operation Germans bring mobile gas units here for the torture ship. Down with the junta­ Rights was prevented from inspecting Sail" which has organized the 228-ship an automobile show in the 1940's." Stop the Esmeralda! the ship on the grounds it was designat­ bicentennial flotilla, answered the The liberals and Stalinists are moan­ The Pinochet junta has tried to deny ed as a "military area." The Commis­ charges against the Esmeralda with the ing that the Esmeralda's participation in that the Esmeralda is, in the words of sion's report cited testimony from remark, "it's too bad to hamper a good the celebration mars the meaning of the one Chilean lawyer, "a torture chamber, prisoners who were held on the Esmeral­ ceremony by bringing politics into the bicentennial. A leaflet of the Campaign a flagellation chamber, a floating jail of da and "beaten so badly that they had picture." William Whipfler of the to Stop the Esmeralda, coordinated by horror, death and fear to Chilean men urinated blood and from other prisoners National Council of Churches appropri- continued on page J J Victim of Allende's Popular Front and the Pinochet Junta

Beginning on 5 August 1973, a wave bound the workers to the "constitution­ of arrests swept through Chilean naval alist" military officers. installations in the ports of Valparaiso Defend Juan Cardenas and his and Talcahuano. In all, more than 100 comrades', victims of the junta, pariahs Free Sergeant people were detained on charges of of the popular front! Their crime? They seditious activity. They were brutally sought to prevent the mass butchery tortured and held incommunicado until, that has already cost over 30,000 lives. on September II, the Popular Unity (U P) regime was overthrown by a The "Conspiracy" military conspiracy. The 62 naval personnel against whom But the "plotters" were not released charges were filed were of modest Cardenasl by the new regime, forthe "crime" of the origins. Sergeant Cardenas was the non-commissioned officers and sailors highest ranking non-com and a majority arrested in early August had been to of the naval personnel were enlisted oppose an attempted coup against the men; 17 were employees of the govern­ elected government of Salvador Allen­ ment shipyards. None were affiliated de. For this they were imprisoned for with left-wing political groups. more than 30 days under the UP without After the tancazo, the attempted the government lifting a finger to defend putsch by an armored regiment in them, and have sat injail for more than Santiago on 29 June 1973, Socialist 33 months since then. Party general secretary Carlos Altamir­ Last month, 57 of the accused were ano and MIR leader Miguel Enriquez finally sentenced on charges of mutiny called on soldiers and sailors to disobey and subversion. Most received three­ orders for a coup. In response, a group year terms, others got eight years. Two of naval personnel arranged a meeting civilians from the MAPU party, Hernan with Altamirano, Enriquez and,MAPU Pacheco and Leopoldo Luna, were chief Oscar Garreton. At this meeting, given II and 10 years respectively, and they informed the political leaders of Juan Cardenas, the sailor identified by preparations for a putsch taking place in the naval prosecutor as leader of the the navy, and swore to defend the legal "conspiracy," was sentenced to 13 years government. at hard labor. The naval commanders evidently found out about this meeting, and These men are among the most decided to smoke out the "unreliable viciously peJsecuted victims of the elements." On the eve of August 5, the barbarous Pinochet junta. They are also crews of the cruisers Blanco Encalada forgotten men. Their names are not and Almirante Latorre were informed included in the lists of prisoners high­ that the high command had resolved to lighted by the various "Democratic take power: they were given two hours Chile" committees internationally for a to settle personal affairs and present simple reason: to raise their case is to themselves in formation. The non-coms indict the criminal passivity of the and enlisted men who had pledged to Socialist and Communist leaders in the defend the UP government knew that face of the real conspirators; it is to call into question the popular front that continued on page 11

12 2 JULY 1976