WfJRIlERS ,,1N'U,1R' 25¢ No. 228 .:~) X-523 30 March 1979

Palestinians Shafted Again arter's eace •• I

MARCH 26-Today marked the sign­ ly seeking to put together a new anti­ ing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty Soviet alliance. However, the fallout in a ceremony on the South Lawn of the from Iran's Islamic revolution has been White House. President Carter called contradictory from the standpoint of this the major achievement of his ad­ LJ. S. imperialism's strategic options. ministration and said solemnly, "Peace On the one hand, the spectre of has come." We say, "Baloney." Khomeini has hardened the Israeli This treaty is a license for continued ruling class against making any signifi­ Israeli aggression against the surround­ cant concessions on the grounds that ing Arab states. It "legalizes" the Zionist "moderates" like Sadat to whom the state's denial ofthe national rights ofthe concessions are made may not be Palestinians. And it calls for a major around long. As Moshe Dayan put it, jump in the direct military involvement Iran shows that in his part of the world, of U.S. imperialism in the Near East. a country that has been a "friend of It does not mean peace for the Israel" can become a friend of Arafat Palestinians. It does mean a greater very snddenly. Logically the uncou­ threat to the Soviet Union and its allies rling. even if temporary, of its imror­ in the region. It is not a pact for peace tant Iranian connection ~hould make but ~ spur to wider war. Washington even more committed to The treaty is the culmination of the line up Egyrt and Saudi Arabia on its theatrical pilgnmage of Egyptian presi­ side. Ergo more U.S. rressure on Israel dent Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem in for concessions. But the foreign policy :'\1m ember 1977: of the marathon 12-day of an imperialist ruling class never Camp David summit between Israeli simr1y corresponds to its long-term prime minister :YIenachem Begin, Sadat strategic Interests. And the right-wing and L .S. preSident Carter: and of "who lost Iran'!" backlash domestically Jimmy Carter's own desperate mid­ strengthens. at least for a while, the rro­ March "shuttle diplomacy" between Zionist lobby in the U.S. Cairo and Jcrusalem. This was the "separate peace" which Sadat had U.S. Imperialist Jingoism vowed he would never sign, and it Revives spelled nothing but more war and national oppression for both the Arab Jimmy Carter desperately needed this and Hebrew working masses. Streeky/Camera 5 treaty. His inability, after all the fanfare For Egypt the accords provide com­ of Camp David. to wring some kind of plete return of the Israeli-occupied Sinai agreement from Sadat and Begin had peninsula in two stages over three years. contri buted to escalating criticism of his For Israel there is an end to the state of loreign policy from all shades of war. full diplomatic relations with Cairo bourgeois rolitical opinion as indeci­ and the right to purchase Sinai oil. sive. im'qmpetent and impotent. His Carter got a publicity coup and the basis ratings In public opinion polls plummet­ for an anti-Soviet \'"ear East alliance. ed as he managed to antagonize both the But lor the long-suffering Palestinians, right wing and liberals within his own despite all the talk of a "linkage" rarty. as well as conservative Rerubli­ between the treaty and West Bank can neanderthals. This criticism turned "autonomy." there \\as only the bitter Into a barrage as the Carter administra­ prospect 01 continued subjugation tion stood helplessly on the sidelines under the Zionist boot. \\ hile Washington's \'"0. I gendarme SeekIng to soften Arab hostliity to the guarding the strategically vital rIO\\ 01 pact. Igv ptlan rrime minister Khalli oil lrom the Persian GulL the Iranian v\as reported as claiming that under its monarchy. was toprled. rrovlslons Israel \\ould \\ithdraw to its Carter was \Uprosed to be the small­ rre-llJf,7 borders and East Jerusalem town businessman and born-again would again corne under Arab control. Haptist Sunday school teacher who But the very next ua\ Begin e'rosed this v\ould remorali/e America after Viet­ hoa.'. categollcally stating in hiS open­ ndm and Watergate. allowing the l.S. ing speech to the Knesset (rarliament) Carter says "Peace has come." Not for the Palestinians. tl) resume an interventionist role as the debate on the treaty: leading, though no longer hegemonic. "Dr. Khalil. br

SAN FRANCISCO-The Ships Clerks nervously tried to squelch the motion as in hehind Weintrauh and was later in the AII-I.D dispute on the conference Hall of International Longshoremen's heing "out of order." as Feinstein was rewarded hy heing named secretary of a floor. It was apparent that the Stalinists and Warehousemen's Union (lLWU) already entering the hall. The chairman continuations committee. Weintrauh & do not want to openly condemn the Local 34 was the setting March 24 for a managed to wriggle out of this tight spot Co. then rammed through a vote to AII-I.D hecause it could upset George "Trade Union Conference on Chile," only hy heavy-handedly ordering the defeat the proposed workshop on the Meany and his "popular front" with one of those periodic get-togethers so agenda accepted without a vote, ignor­ AII-I.D, an action which further alien­ Jimmy Carter. Peter Grace and heloved hy the Communist Party (CP) ing the protests of several longshore ated a numher of independent trade­ Pinochet! as a sounding hoard for its c1ass­ delegates. union delegates who were already At the conference Stan Gow and collahorationist politics. At these "pro­ But the conference's big fight hegan enraged hy the presence of Mayor Howard KeyloL members of the ILWU gressive" confabs the main enemy is when delegate Jane Margolis, a militant I-einstein. Local 10 executive hoard and publishers always those who stand for uncompro­ recently elected to the executive board However hard it tried, the CP wasn't of the LOI1/{s!Jore Mililam, put forward mising class struggle, as at the 1975 Bay of the Communications Workers of able to suppress the issue so easily. In a motion calling for a "permanent Area Chile conference where the Stalin­ America (CWA) Local 9410, rose to a workshop on legislative action embargo on the transportation of ist organizers launched an unsuccessful propose a workshop on the need for Jane Margolis put forward a motion military goods to Chile" and for a two­ thug attack on a militant warehouseman labor to break all ties with AIFLD, the calling for abolishing AIFLD. This week boycott of all trade to Chile, to protesting the presence of a capitalist State Department's Latin American drove Archie Brown. into a frenzy, press demands for the releas'e from politician, Democratic Congressman "labor front" and brainchild of CWA screaming "Table it. table it!" at the top prison of Chilean trade unionists and Leo Ryan, at a labor meeting. founder Joe Beirne. Margolis, a mem­ of his voice. The CP looked so pathetic other victims of the Pinochet junta. While it did not come to blows at this ber ofthe Militant Action Caucus which that Fred Hirsh, a Stalinist fellow Predictably, their motion was sup­ year's gathering, the CP and its sundry has fought for years to break the CWA's traveler whose 1974 pamphlet exposed pressed by the Stalinists in favor of yet supporters were caught in an excruciat­ connection to the agency, distributed the AIFLD role in the Chilean coup, another paper resolution for the open­ ing contradiction over whether to tail copies of a caucus resolution denounc­ was sheepishly explaining that the ended "boycott on all goods to and from the "human rights" campaign of U.S. ing AIFLO which she had presented to delegates should not be so quick to Chile," which by their own admission imperialism or call for breaking labor the '7H CWA convention. I abolish such CIA fronts, but to look has already been sabotaged by the ties to the Yankee spy agencies. In the convention. instead for way to use them and "turn AI FLO! Ironically, in his speech Na­ end the Stalinists chose Jimmy Carter, One would think Margolis' proposal them around!" varro, whose popular-front rhetoric bureaucratically suppressing any mo­ for a workshop on the AIFLD at the generally matched that of the confer­ What was behind this grotesque tions denouncing the notorious CIA­ Chile conference would be an open-and­ ence organizers, criticized the "total about-face by the CP and its "democrat­ backed American Institute for Free shut case. So notorious is the agency boycott" conception as being too vague, ic" friends was revealed in the keynote Labor Development (AI FLO). that many Latin Americans bitterly arguing that a successful boycott must speech by Mario Navarro Castro, While the conference was endorsed by refer to the American labor federation be linked to concrete objectives. general secretary of the Central Unica a number of run-of-the-mill Bay Area as the AFL-CIA. The AIFLD's sinister In the ILWU itself the Stalinists have de lrabajadores de Chile (CUT), the trade-union bureaucrats grooming their operations have included infiltrating an unhroken all-talk, no-action record. Chilean labor federation banned by "socially concerned" images such as CIA spies into labor organizations. de­ While Local 10 has had a position since Pinochet. According to Navarro, the Walter Johnson, president - of Local stroying legitimate unions to replace 1973 in favor of a boycott of Chilean much-touted AFL-CIO threat to boy­ 1100 of the Department Store Clerks. them with yellow company unions, as goods. the only time the union tops cott Chilean goods was abandoned this and Herh Mills, secretary of ILWU well as playing a direct role in the actually boycotted military shipments January when a deal was concluded Local 10, the donkey work was accom­ overthrow of both the Goulart govern­ to Pinochet was after it received the hetween Pinochet and Peter Grace, plIshed by old-time Stalinist hacks like ment of Brazil in 1964 and the Allende approval of Senator Edward Kennedy, president of the W. R. Grace Corpora­ Archie Brown. retired longshoreman government of Chile in 1973, both of who saw the boycott as a pressure tool tion as well as AIFLD chairman. Grace and well-known CP leader. With his which were replaced by brutal military to use on Carter. "iow the Stalinists and George Meany apparently aban­ decades of experience as errand hoy for dictatorships. But in their cringing fear have gone one step further and turned doned the boycott in exchange for ex-ILWU leader Harry Bridges and the of angering the union tops. the CP themselves into apologists for the promises from Pinochet for certain Democratic Party, Brown was naturally supporters anrl fellow travelers did bloody AIFLD, all in the name of trade-union freedoms, such as the right on stage as the conference's "official everything they could to kill Margolis' Jimmy Carter's "human rights." The to assemble, pay dues, bargain collec­ convenor." proposal. CP's present tack is to call for the CIA to tively, strike (as long as the strikes do The sparks began to fly from the Thus Stalinist hack Jack Weintraub, get out ofthe AIFLD, i.e., leaving intact not involve "third parties") and so on. moment the chairman routinely pushed vice-president of Teamsters Local H5, this imperialist tool on whose board sit to adopt the agenda, scheduled to open argued against even a workshop (!) on But, as Navarro bitterly explained, the heads of major U.S. corporations with an address by the "honorable the idiotic parochial grounds that since these promises are useless since all and which is financed by the U.S. Diane Feinstein, mayor of San Francis­ the AIFLD is connected to the AFL­ genuine trade unions have been government! While the treacherous co." This prompted a protest from an Cia, it is "improper" for unions not smashed or driven underground, leav­ Stalinists may delude themselves into Amalgamated Transit Workers Union affiliated to the AFL-CIO to tell the ing only the junta-approved "unions" to thinking they can "use" the CIA, in fact delegate, Margaret Martinson, who latter what to do about their "internal" enjoy these freedoms-most probably the only aid they will get is when the CIA reminded the delegates that Feinstein affairs! Jim Imerzel, recently elected the AIFLD unions! However, Navarro needs the CP to derail the workers was a "vicious anti-labor strikebreaker" president of CWA Local 9410, chimed refused, when approached, to intervene struggles, in Chile or elsewhere.• in the 1976 San Francisco city workers strike. Moving to bar Mayor Feinstein from the conference, Martinson warned against tying the American and San Letters Francisco labor. movements to the Democratic Party. Brown's cohorts Jerusalem, Israel Sincerely yours. the national question-on the contrary, we call for the working class to carry out 12 March 1979 Israel Shahak a political revolution to oust the heirs.of WV Replies: A war between the U.S. Ho Chi Minh and replace them with W()RKERS soviets. That is the only road to a Dear Friends: and USSR may indeed be ignited in the genuine democratic socialist federation "NfilJ'RIJ Near East. But given the anti-Soviet of Indochina." Marxist Working-Class Biweekly I liked very much the several pieces of objectives of imperialism, the U.S. has WV was correct to suggest tha't a of the Spartacist League of the U.S. analysis about the Chinese invasion of good reason to try to use the nationalist Hanoi-dominated Indochinese Vietnam, which you have published in Chinese Stalinists as their cat's paw in federation would not necessarily be so EDITOR: Jan Norden your No. 226 (2 March) issue. I want to Southeast Asia. oppressive of the Cambodians that the PRODUCTION MANAGER: Darlene Kamiura add, however, that this invasion may 16 March 1979 majority of them would want an CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Wyatt turn out after all to be only a diversion, independent state. Despite the well­ Dear WV, EDITORIAL BOARD: Jon Brule, Charles and that the real imperialist attack may publicized discontent among non­ Burroughs, George Foster, Liz Gordon, come quite soon in the Middle East in This is to call your attention to a Russians in the USSR. there is also James Robertson, Joseph Seymour contradictory formulation in the article Published biweekly, skipping an issue in the form of an Israeli "preventative" evidence that many national minorities August and a week in December, by the attack on the eastern and northern "China Get Out!" (WV No. 226, 2 (Armenians, for example) favor being Spartacist PUblishing Co., 260 West March): part of the present federated state, Broadway, New York, NY 10013. Telephone: fronts, with Sadat's neutrality secured, "And it is equally unclear whether the which brings to them very considerable 966-6841 (Editorial), 925-5665 (Business). with or without a "treaty." The Israeli Vietnamese Stalinists have the capacity Address all correspondence to: Box 1377, Labor Party, is more in favour of such to create an essentially federated state in economic advantages. However, like G.P.O., New York. NY 10001. Domestic their Kremlin counterparts, the Hanoi subscriptions $3.00/24 issues. Second-class . an attack than Begin, but it has powerful which the peoples and sub-peoples of postage paid at New York, NY. allies inside the present gove-rnment for Indochina can freely choose their Stalinists, nationalist bureaucrats that national destiny." Opinions expressed in signed articles or such a policy, especially Gen,eral Ezer they are, will certainly 1101 grant the letters do not necessarily express the Weizman and also General Ariel As WV correctly says in the next Cambodian people the democratic right editorial viewpoint. Sharon (who only differ whether to paragraph: of national self-determination. ohtain a hidden or an oren support "We do not place political confidence in Comradely, No. 228 30 March 1979 from the USA for such a policy). the Vietnamese Stalinists to overcome John Sharpe

2 WORKERS VANGUARD Khomeini Continues Persian Domination Kurds Revolt

imam denounced the heretics and called For the Right upon his mullah militia to aid the police of Kurdish and army "to smash the bandits." When a local religious leader appointed by Self-Determination Khomeini then took charge of the ~-; ,~ arsenal and began transferring the 'jji.Joe tr·';; MARCH 27-For the last four days yet weapons of Sanandaj to Shi'ite areas, another popular challenge to the con­ the Kurds protested. Their protests were solidation of the new "Islamic Repub­ answered with rifle fire from the troops, lic" has been met with bullets as Kurdish and on Sunday, March 18. an enraged rebels battled government troops in the Kurdish population stormed Sanandaj's streets of Sanandaj. More than 500 have police headquarters and radio and been killed according to latest reports. television station and beseiged the local The unstable Khomeini government garrison of 2,000 men. The garrison's and the rebels have agreed to a cease-fire commander. Colonel Safar. was cap­ and "negotiations," but the situation tured and marched to the radio station remains explosive. Despite the govern­ from which he broadcast an appeal to rnent's token concessions including a the garrison yJ surrender. The troops Kurdish governor, the Kurds continue refused. to demand national "autonomy." Khomeini came to their rescue with Thus after clashes with leftist helicopter gunships. which strafed the Abbas/Gamma-L lalSon guerrillas who refused to turn in their streets of the city. killing several Kurdish guerrillas battle Khomeini's Islamic army in Sanandaj. \\capons when the mullahs toppled the hundred Kurds. The local Kurdish shah and after women took to the streets forces were bolstered by add itional men nated a huge empire. so it is in Iran without its echo in Iranain Azerbaijan to protest the attempt to impose the from throughout the region, The siege where only two fifths of the population and Kurdistan, Multi-class formations suffocating veiL now it is the turn of of the army base continued for several is Persian, The Kurds are the fourth national minorities-a majority of the days as all attempts at a truce broke (anjoman.\')' resembling soviets were population of Iran-to resist Khomei­ down. Negotiations only began with the most numerous people in the Near East established in Tabriz and Kirmanshah. with some estimates as high as six ni\ reactionary rule. arrival of Ayatollah Taleghani, dis­ Likewise, under the impact of October, patched by Khomeini, on March 21. million. They are an indigenous Aryan revolutionary ferment swept Iran, in­ Another sector of the Iranian people who for thousands of years cluding the so-called "Soviet Republic population is being taught the meaning The Kurds agreed to pull back in return for the release of nearly 200 hostages inhabited the mountainous regions of Gilan" in the northern province of of Khomeini's Shi'ite Islamic Republic separating the historical centers of held by the garrison, and the various Iran, adjoining Azerbaijan to the soviets at the cost of their lives-systematic Anatolia, Mesopotamia and'the Iranian chieftains and mullahs began bargain­ formed in Kirmanshah by the revolu­ subjugation of women, anti-communist plateau. TribaL pastoral and nomadic in ing for a greater share of local govern­ tionary Russian soldiers. terror for the left and great Persian the main, the Kurds have often fallen ment posts, At the same time Iran's border with chauvinism for the national minorities: victim to the more centralized, economi­ The Guevarist Fedayeen guerrillas the Soviet Union has also been seen by the rule of the ayatollahs and pious cally advanced societies surrounding the imperialists as the soft underbelly of played a significant role in the fighting ha:aari capitalists will be based on them. But their isolation has also Soviet power, a staging area for coun­ in alliance with self-styled "Marxist­ national oppression as much as was the prevented their integration and com­ terrevolutionary penetration. To pre­ Leninist" groups such as the "Revolu­ Pah\a\ IS' "peacock throne." From the rlcte absorption into those societies, vent the extension of the' October tionary Organization of Kurdish Work­ Arabs of the southwestern province of Today their nation is partitioned by live Revolution into Iran and to build a base Khu7istan to the Azerbaijanis of the ers," But the March 23 issue of Le state powers. against the Soviet Union, British impe­ ,Honde reports that these groupings :\orthwest and the Baluchis of Iran's Since Iran shares a LOOO-mile rialism backed the building of a strong, have subordinated themselves to the poorest province in the East. the border with the Soviet Union, there is an centrali7ed state power by Reza Khan traditional feudalist Kurdish leaders national demands are being suppressed overlap of nationalities between north­ (father of the now-deposed shah). The like Mohammed Ahmad Moftizadeh, a bv Khomeini's mullahs and their theo­ ern Iran and the Soviet Caucasus and British supported the coup of this son of religious figure reportedly tied to the e~atic militias in league with remnants of Central Asia. These nationalities, espe­ a peasant. who rose to the rank of Barzani clan. These "moderate" holy the shah's army. cially the Azerbaijanis, have been the colonel in the tsar's cossack brigade men and tribal chiefs have offered to The most dramatic battle between the bridge by which the Russian Revolution stationed in Iran, against the old Persian support Khomeini's Islamic Republic Kurdish partisans and Khomeini's spread its influence through the Near . Qajar dynasty. Thus while Kemal rather than a democratic secular regime forces took place in the provincial city of and Middle East. Before World War I "AtatLirk compacted a Turkish nation­ in return for "autonomy." Sanandaj where the Kurds had taken many Iranian Azerbaijanis who went to state out of the disintegrating Ottoman into their own hands the task of Iran: Prison House of Oppressed work in the Baku oil fields were exposed empire in struggle against imperialist disarming the shah's army. Clashes Nations to Marxist propaganda and returned to partition schemes, Reza Shah, who is broke out between Kurdish nationalists, build a nucleus of Iranian social often falsely compared to AtatLirk, by themselves Sunni Muslims, and Kho­ As in tsarist Russia, where the Great democracy, the Markaz-e Gheibi. The contrast restabilized an archaic multi­ meini's regular troops. So the Shi'ite Russian minority of 47 percent domi- 1905 Russian Revolution was not national empire with the imperialists' blessing. The replacement of British imperial­ ism by the U.S. as the dynasty's chief backer did not mean the slightest change in this structure. In the case of national minorities extending across national boundaries the Iranian state collaborat­ ed closely with its neighbors in suppress­ ing nationalist guerrillas-for example aiding Pakistan's suppression of the Baluchis, With the collapse of the monarchy the nationalLJuestion is once again a touchstone of the Iranian revolution. BlI! ir is preciseh in rhe ,lrrLIRRIt' aRainl' rhe I\urds rhar I\homei­ ni is arrempriilR w!urge rhe nell' milirary jorce ro impose horh Islamic rule and COf1linued Persian dominarion. rhe last major threat to the Persian central power occurred at the end of World War II when British imperialism and the USSR squared off in Iran, linder the tutclage of Soviet military occupation forees. "democratic repub­ lics" wcre established in Azerbaijan and \1ahabad in Kurdistan. But when the Red Army pulled out. the Azerbaijani "republic" ignominiously collapsed, Ihe Soviet Stalinist bureaucracy cyni­ cally abandoned it partly under the pressure of U.S. imperialism. but Slmonpletn/Sygma Afrique-Asle primarily because the Iranian govern­ Mustafa Barzani. Barzani holds council of war. ment had promiscd an oil concession in continued on page 9 30 MARCH 1979 3 I. S8: Endless Cliques, Endless Snlits Good Riddance to Workers' Power

After a decade of the most wretched only language the proletariat can free from all this talk of "socialism." applies cnough pressure on the party of labor reformism performed as 'Jew Left understand. even in primer terms. big husiness. then liheral Democrats Itke hi-jinx. the International Socialists What made WP an "agitational So the open letter announces a new Ld\\ard Kennedy and Hella Ah/ug will (I. S.) has done something every class­ revolutionary newspaper" in the mind "broad-hased labor newspaper hased on r('a/I, hecome "friends of labor." conscious worker can applaud: it has of the I.S. was its cynical claim that it the rank and file and union reform Such a perspective is not fundamen­ ceased publication of Workers' P(}\\'{'r was winning workers to the I.S. by movements developing in the working tally diflcrent from the DSOC scheme (WP). explaining that capitalism was evil and class today. Such a paper would not he to form a "labor party" within the WP's demise occurs in the context of socialism good. Every Christmas. for puhlished hy the IS or any other Democratic Party. Indeed. Changes all demoralization and exacerbated cliljuist instance. WP would take up the task of political group ...... In short. WP was hut openly advocates work within the hostilities \vhich render the I.S. ex­ exposing for the neediest the fact that not hackward enough. An internal Democratic Party as part of the liberal/ tremely unstable. The -latest cliljue feud the rich were living extravagantly. One document of the majority caucus spells lahar coalition. In the "Letter from the in this congenitally clilj ue-ridden organ­ year a front-page headline exposed out the character of the new "extremelv Editor" which appears by way of a ization rages over the usual subject: how "What the Rich Are Buying this Xmas"; exciting project": "The reform move­ policy statement. Changes says: best to serve the various labor out­ the $X.50 towels and fur coats could not ment needs a publication of its own.""!t "As this [Democrat/bureaucrat] bureaucrats who have been the I.S.'s constant preoccupation since it began union implantation. For the majority. PattY Hearst . Jocl Geier wants to tail the so-called , • GM contract . aD• ..-'- REVIEWS "reform movement." The "left" opposi­ tion is Steve Zeluck/ Pete Camarata and =_==~=a their Political Solution Caucus (PSC) which wants to run equally fast behind PUNIC? the so-called "rank and file movement." So the clique sparks fly; the documents are written; and once again, there is no programmatic difference about "what we've learned in the trade unions." Both sides have learned that the "socialist" I.S. is an unnecessary burden to refor­ mist union "work" and irrelevant to the I.S.'s real job~the manipulation of ~:~ Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), the IS creature upon which WORKERS' POWER rests both sides' dwindling hope of ~~::.','<,," ,,~"::::,:",",:;' ,","-,:- ,;;:: ,.. ::,:.,;,:~ ~, <~ broad reformist influence...... •.:...:'"' -. Bad Rubbish

Both sides were anxious to scrap the It"? garbage organ. a "left" caricature of pulp journalism. Workers Power: Finally Gptthe News. In the open letter which was sent to HP subscribers to announce its dissolu­ escape the vigilant journalists of WP. will have to reflect different points of coalition is forced to organin pressure tion. the I.S. explained that the working And I.S.'s special brand of economism view within the reform movements." on the Carter administration. on its budget proposals or health care. orjobs. class had failed to appreciate tts press: was given the "pedagogical" touch in Hut there is one point of view that will be "Workers' Power was quite consciously it will contribute to building a move­ articles like "Socialism: What's in it for hanned on principle: "while it will have a ment that goes beyond union and designed and planned to be a newspaper class point of \ie\\. it cannot be the presenting news of struggle. and revolu­ you'!" (12 September 1977). contract fights-a movement that can tionary socialist politics. to an audience The WP idea of a "dialogue" with advocate of socialism. for that would give working people a greater impact on which was becoming active in union or working-class militants was the most cut it off from too much of the union events .... "As the most conscious workers come communit~ struggles for the first reform movement" (Labor Perspectives condescending movie reviews. TV to understand the limits of capitalism. time. "guides" and pop-culture commentary. Convention Resolution. 'Jovembel' "From 1975 until todav. we have found through their own attempts to reform it. that the possibilities for building rank It patiently explained, for instance. 197X). The prototype of this paper is ot they become the key to building a and file movements in the unions "The Politics of Blue Jeans." It treated course the TDU's Con\'(}\". but another workers' revolutionary party in this country." ... have greatly increased. But the the trivial seriously and trivialized the labor-liheral newsletter has recentl~ audience for an agitational revolution­ serious. True proletarian inspiration appeared called Lahor Sotes with an The internal majority document on ary newspaper has not. As a result "Lahor Perspectives" says that in the Workers' Power faced the risk of was evidently to be found in the TV I.S.er as editor and TDU's Pete Cama­ becoming a paper published in a series "All in the Family." as the 17 rata on the editorial board. It embodies unions "calls for an immediate break political vacuum without any real October 1977 WP headlined "Gay the politics of WP sans "blue jeans." with the DP are not possible ... we do contact or dialogue with the workers Rights: If Archie Bunker Sees the Light. sans "socialism." sans everything but the not propose to raise the labor party as whose ideas we are trying to inf1uence." Why Can't Anita?" And for the youth limpest trade-union reformism. an agitational slogan in the unions at H-P was a political vacuum. an insult to this time" (of course, they do favor market WP glorified punk and reggae And what about "socialism"') That trade-union militants. It was indeed "education" for a labor party ... ). musIc as intrinsically "anti­ will be relegated to another new publica­ "ljuite consciously designed and Indeed. the Democratic Party is the establishment" and "the soul of tion called ChanKes. While the I.S. is planned" to be a fake mass paper. logical home for American social revolution." doing its best to build the "reform democrats. but whether or not the LS. dedicated to the petty-bourgeois work­ Who can forget WP's behind-the­ movement'" (of out-bureaucrats) with a or a section of it enters the party of erist proposition that philistinism is the scenes exposcs~like,the time the paper "workers' paper." it is also sniffing .I immy Carter will depend on the "set out to discover the real truth about around for possibilities of social­ posture of the liberal wing of the trade­ Muzak",! Will NeH' York Timesresident democratic regroupment with people unIon bureaucracy. gourmet Craig Claiborne find it in his like 'AM. So Changes is ~'VP refor­ stomach to. forgive the I.S. populist­ mism out of its academic closet. If WP Is the TDU "Unlike You, Harry"? moralists for having attacked him for was a college boy's version ofsomething eating the world's most expensive free for workers to read. Changc\ in its first Despite the madly shifting formats of meaI (won in a contest)'! Perhaps the ,ll!­ issue promises to he these same cynics at I.S. publications and the fren/ied time low \\as reached with the campaign work on a parod\ of a theoretical cliquist squabhling. the I.S. retains one to help the I.S.\ Red Tide youth journal. "principle" of unity: the TDt. All wings supporters collect 500 pairs of shoes for If anythlllg. ('1wngc\ IS e\en more of the organilation wish to clmg to its the Rhodesian nationalist ZA'Jl' gUCl­ open and enthuslchtie 0\ er the prospects one live opportunist prospect. lhe rillas: "\Ve say. if they're willing te take of an all-American popular front in the prcsent sharp clique fight is in one SCl1Se up arms and fight. we will provide shoes form of a ~iheral Democratic Part~ I a fight over the treasure of Pelt: to walk with." labor coalition floated in Detroit hv Camarata's personal reputation. And it Changes ... But Not for the Better LAW president Doug Fraser. In an is the Zeluck minority which has article entitled "Lahor. Liberals Lose Camarata. In dumping their newspaper, the IS Together at Democratic Mini-Con." This fact is the key to understanding evidences not a pang of shame. On the Changes enthuses: the otherwise unintelligible distinction cgntrary. these patronizing cynics like "These days. it's not just radicals who made by the PSC clique between a are characterizing the Democrats as a "reform movement" of out-bureaucrats the 'stupidity of WP. Instead of recog­ busin~ss. party of big The new coalition. like Sadlowski and a "rank and file" nizing that there never was an audience a sign of deeper political undercurrents. for this junk, the !.S. has decided that could be the beginnings of a rift in the 010\ ement. H P was too left-wing for the workers, [Democratic] party that could widen Certainly no real programmatic WV Photo too explicit for its "reform movement" into a chasm." difference can be discerned between the Pete Camarata. and "rank and file" work. Better to be In other words. if the labor movement continued on page // 4 WORKERS VANGUARD 04.. Venture into "Third Camp..:' SWP Discovers Capitalism in Cambodia South Vietnam. I he SWP argues that A I>A PT/:D FRO/vI China's invasion of Vietnam was under­ A [ ...,iRA IA5;IA N SPA R1AC/.'>! taken heeause of imperialist hostility to NO M. MA RCH /1)71) the O\erthro\\ of capitalism in the south .. . la.\1 rear: the recent outhreak of shooting wars hetwccn rival Stalinist regimes in "After delaying for nearly three years. in the hope of reaching an accommoda­ Southcast Asia has posed a serious test tion with imperialist and native capital­ for would-he Marxists. Seiling upon ist forces. the Vietnamese rulers moved Hanoi's lightning strike to topple the decisively. beginning in March 197~, to Pol Pot gang in Camhodia and the sweep away capitalism throughout South Vietnam...." su hscq uent Chinese invasion of Viet­ -Mililani. 19 January nam. va rious hourgeois commentators As Marxists we pointed out following «)flCC again) proclaimed the death of the N1.1-/ OR V victory of May 1975 that proletarian internationalism. Ofcourse. the capitalist state apparatus of the for thosc "communists" who simply act Saigon regime had heen smashed and as loudspeakers for one or another replaced hy that of the North Viet­ ruling hureaucracy, the response was namese hureaueratically deformed easy: like the RCA Victor mascot, workers state: that the Vietnamese they just hark to their master's voice. hourgeoisie was in night. its power as a Lapdogs of the Kremlin bayed against class hroken: and that the new regime the "U.S. puppets in Peking" while would he forced. simply as a defensive Maoist running dogs, taking their cue measure. to establish a nationaliled from Carter/Brzezinski, were yapping economy. The SWP, however, would at Victnamese "bandits." have us believe that after the triumphal Only Trotskyism, with its analysis of end to decades of fighting-a world the counterrevolutionary nationalism of event of historic proportions-a sepa­ the Stalinists, could provide a revolu­ rate South Vietnamese state based on a tionary explanation of the fighting in capitalist economy still existed: and that Indochina. But once again the mis­ three years later capitalism was quietly named United Sccretariat of the Fourth smashed by a hureaucratic flick of the International (USec) proved unequal to wrist. This is a harely disguised "Trot­ the task. As on so many issues in the past skyoid" version of the Stalinist myths of (Portugal, Angola, Guevarist guerrilla­ "two-stage revolution" and "peaceful ism. Chinese "cultural revolution"), a transition to socialism." survey of the USec press on the Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia The claim that capitalism continues revealed diametrically counterposed to exist in Cambodia is based on a string lines: the Spanish Comhate claimed that of factual distortions and inventions. Vietnam and its Kampuchean puppet Feldman and Clark claim that the werc carrying out a "defense of the nationalizations under Pol Pot "are in socialist achievements in Indochina," the same family with the extensive while the French Rou/{e demanded nationalizations by regimes in Egypt. "Vietnamese Troops Must Leave Cam­ Hurma, Mozambique and Angola"­ hodia" (quoted in Intercontinental that they were "the actions of a new Press, 12 February). bourgeoisie gestating in the state appa­ Most curious of all the responses in ratus." It is true that the nascent the USec to the explosive events in bourgeoisie o(the ex-colonial countries Indochina has been that of the Ameri­ has frequently resorted to more or less can Socialist Workers Party (S WP) and extensive nationalizations, to aid in its subsidiaries elsewhere. Jack Barnes primitive capitalist accumulation and as & Co. accused Peking of "acting in the a source for private profit through interests of American imperialism" by corruption. But in none of these invading Vietnam, then opposed dem­ Pol Pot's Cambodia: depopulated cities, forced collectivization. SWP says countries have all the means of produc­ onstrations outside the Chinese Mission Stalinist atrocities equal capitalism. tion and distribution been taken over by to the UN as being directed at the and oppressive capitalist government." long "theoretical"' treatise explaining "wrong address" (Militant, 9 March). Brutal and oppressive, yes-but that post-I975 Cambodia was "capital­ the state. As for their claim that the On the other hand, it hacked Hanoi's capitalist? With the crushing of the ist." Fred Feldman and Steve Clark Camhodian economy is still "under the ouster of Pol Pot as a "necessary step" venal Lon Nol puppet dictatorship in write: thumb of imperialism." that is pretty toward the overthrow of capitalism in 1975, the victorious Stalinists not only "If Pol Pot's Kampuchea was a workers difficult in a situation where trade with Cambodia. Pol Pot's Democratic Kam­ suppressed what there was ofa capitalist state, even with grave bureaucratic capitalist countries was effectively i-e­ puchea was "capitalist," according to class in Cambodia, but also collectivized distortions, then revolutionary social­ duced to lero. the SWP? That's what they say, and ists would have to defend the possibility everything in sight and even eliminated their membership has been having more that such a state can come into being The SWP has a hard time explaining currency! True, Pol Pot's paranoid and in no wav whatsoever mark a social' than a little difficulty defending this away the importance of the sweeping hureaucratic irrationality created a and historical advance for the working shift in line. collectivization measures. The "formal regime which raved about the territorial class." Thus, for example, the Australian -Intercontinental Press, abolition" of money is dismissed as claims of the ancient Khmer empire, SWP initially published an article by 26 February "temporary" and "artificial." That is extolled muscle power as an alternative local leader Allen Myers condemning true, certainly, but it doesn't make it any to "foreign" machinery and murderous­ Certainly, every socialist should find the the Vietnamese overthrow of the more possible to run a capitalist ly purged a whole layer of Khmer Rouge murderous xenophobic and anti­ Phnom Penh regime as "a major economy without money. As for the cadres trained in Vietnam. When the working-class policies of Pol Pot deeply setback" and denouncing both regimes agricultural communes, these are de­ Hanoi army toppled him in January repugnant. Unlike many opportunists as "privileged bureaucracies committed scribed as "qualitatively different from they were greeted more as liberators who uncritically tailed the Indochinese to 'socialjsm in one country'" (Direct the agrarian policies accompanying any than as hated conquerors. But despite Stalinists, from the beginning we de­ Action, 25 January). Two weeks later revolutionary social overturn anywhere the atrocities of Pol Pot & Co., the nounced the Khmer Rouge's brutal they reprinted without explanation an in the world, even those carried out in a overthrow of capitalist/landlord rule depopulation of the Cambodian cities article by Fred Feldman of the Ameri­ distorted and bureaucratic way." This is was a gain for the Cambodian masses. (see "Indochina: Deformed Revolu­ can SWP supporting the invasion and accompanied by a recital of the horrors As Trotskyists we defend the gains won tion," WV No. 72, 4 July 1975). But to referring to Pol Pot's Cambodia vaguely of life under Pol Pot: abolition of all in the entire region as a result of the say that there is "nothing" for the as a "bizarre authoritarianism based on social services, 12-hour day, militariza­ military defeat of U.S. imperialism, its working class to defend in Kampuchea the labor of a militarized peasantry." tion of labor. We have ou.\elves native puppets and exploiters, while is a direct attack on the Indochinese And then in its March I issue Direct repeatedly denounced the extreme calling for the political revolution to revolution.' And to square this with its ~'ears degree of bureaucratic irrationality and A ction announced-lour after the oust all the Stalinist bureaucracies, formal claim to Trotskyism, the SWP fall of Lon Nol-that "what [the Khmer brutality by the Khmer Rouge regime. replacing them with workers soviet rule. has to resort to endless theoretical and Rouge] had established was not a factual contortions. But is this truly unprecedented'! workers state but a particularly brutal Not for the SWP, however. In their To begin with there is the question of continued on page 8 30 MARCH 1979 5 Police StationsSeized,Tr

PARIS, MARCH 23 oday is the march on the capital in solidarity with Lorraine steel workers who have been fighting for more than three months against announcedT layoffs by the thousands in that hard hit industry and region. The national demonstration, called by the CGT labor federation, has been planned for weeks. The CGT bureaucracy wants to put itself at the head ofthe movement in order to keep it from.getting out of hand. The angry steel workers from the North want to draw in the working class of the Paris region, key to any signifi­ cant labor struggle in France. Will the march head off the explosive move­ ment or be a launching pad for a vast strike action against the rigid anti-labor "rationalization" program of the Giscard j Barre government? The next few hours will tell. Lorraine, at least, is on a war footing. Longwy, Denain, Valenciennes-all scenes of recent battles-are represent­ CouderellL'Express ed with big contingents. One hundred Steel workers demonstrate outside headquarters of Usinor trust in Paris in December.. eighty buses, six special trains have the cantonal elections," which are being the signs you can read the PCF slogans: cops usc the "autonomes" as a pretext to brought them to five assembly points in held Sunday. But that still doesn't "Paris must not become a suburb of break up half the demonstration, the "red belt" of working-class suburbs explain the low turnout. Bonn!" Along the march route we pass' leaving the miners and steel workers crowning the capital region. From there the offices of L'Humanite, literally hesitating between following the orders they will converge on Place de la A simple fact: just under two thirds of covered with French flags and a banner the demonstrators are from the prov­ of the bureaucrats or going on with the Republique, the Union Square of Paris. hanging out: "Fight for our demands, march even if it means a major confron­ inces. Just by itself, and certainly with France-Soir reports, "Longwy: Only our regions, our country!" tation with the cops. Finally they roll up the PCFjPS endorsements, the CGT Children and Elderly Stayed Behind." Faced with a massive outcry against their banners, but with bitter feelings in could fill the streets of Paris. The But where is the Parisian proletariat? By the mounting unemployment and con­ their breasts and an angry question on explanation: even though it was their the end of the march only 80,000­ tinuing inflation, the government has their lips: why couldn't a demonstration march, the CGT didn't call for a general 100,000 participants are counted, far adopted the policy of the carrot and the this strong have repelled the police and strike of all sectors in the Paris region. less than the 500,000 to a million stick. foday it is the stick. In addition to achieved its aims. At Renault-Billancourt, rightly consid­ marchers which the unions and the left the usual display of tough CGT mar­ The battles with the cops go on as ered the beacon of the French working have brought out on other occasions. shals to keep leftists from "contaminat­ night falls. with more than 100 shop class, L'Humanite reports that "the It's sabotage. ing" the rest of the marchers, the streets windows broken and 60 riot police CGT and CFDT agreed to call for a In addition to the Stalinist- are lined with the CRS riot police and injured. The next day the Stalinists work stoppage of two hours." So only a dominated CGT, the march was Gardes Mobiles stationed on every demand a government investigation to tiny minority of Billancourt's tens of block, alternating on left and right sides, see who provoked the violence, blaming thousands of workers are here. The ready to break up the demonstration. it in general on provocateurs. No doubt largest Paris contingents are of striking Deploying such a massive number of there were provocateurs, and the auto­ workers: the stock exchange employees, March on cops against the marchers for the first nomcs' action simply fed the lies of the out since February 27; workers of the time is an obvious government provoca­ bourgeois media and the Stalinists. who Credit du Nord bank, also on strike for Paris tion. Three times in recent weeks the slander the militant actions at Oenain several weeks. steel workers at Denain and Longwy and Longwy as the work of "outsiders." endorsed by the Lorraine branches of The contingents from the North and have battled the cops in near­ rhe answer was not to turn the march the social-democratic-Ied CFDT labor and East are easily recognizable by their insurrectional conditions, attempting to into a giant street battle. much as the federation and even the clerical CFTC, a helmets and their fighting spirit. Their storm police stations. Every contingent dcmonstrators would burn with desire "union" created on the papal encyclical banners announce the presence of from the North breaks into jeers and to teach the cops a lesson after their Rerum NO\'Qrum but which h":ls a virtually all the factories and villages of booing whenever they run into the bloody attacks on earlier protests in the working-class base among the coal the region. They have brought along "forces of order." '\orth. The fundamental obstacle to a miners. Sections of the FEN, the unitary small bands, noisemakers, etc., and an All along the march the police successful demonstration of power teachers union, are present and also impressive number of red flags. Several attempt to provoke incidents. succeed­ which could put the government against delegations of steel workers from times the demonstrators break into ing briefly at the Place de la Republique. the wall was the reformist leadership of Germany and Belgium. Both the Com­ singing the Internationale. The usual In addition, there are a number the workers movement. Stalinist and munist Party (PCF) and Socialist Party slogans: "Giscard, if you stay we'll kick of "autonomes," anarcho-spontaneists, social democratic alike. (PS) have endorsed. But the national you in the ass!" "Everything for us, who want to "spoil" the promenade-like Whether by calling a march without leaders of the CFDT and the right­ nothing for them!" There is also an atmosphere. At Place de 1'0pera, the focus or by boycotting it, their common social-democratic Force Ouvriere (Fa) impressive number of municipal offi­ destination point, there are no speeches, concern has been to prevent an explo­ have denounced the demonstration as a cials with tricolor sashes indicating their no mass rally, nothing but loud­ sion of working-class militancy. That is PCF electoral maneuver. CFDT chief role in the bourgeois state as well as the speakers with the CGT brass telling why the Parisian proletariat was not Edmond Maire called it "the march of nationalism of the CGT campaign. On everyone to go home peacefully. The mobilized; that's why there was no mass rally at the end. '"Let the workers blow off steam, then send them home." Trotskyist revolutionaries would seck to reach the demonstrators with the demand that a genuine "march on Paris" be built to muster forces for an unlimited general strike for expropria­ tion of the steel trusts and against the capitalist government's austerity poli­ cies and layoffs-for full employment and protcction against inflation by a sliding scale of wages and hours. It was necessary to combat popular-front illusions that this could be solved simply by putting the rcformists and their bourgeois bloc partncrs in the ministeri­ al chairs-for a '"new 6X" that goes all the way. workcrs to powerl \Vhat the steel workers need now is not simrie militancy~--that they ha\e pienty 01 France-SOlt alreadv-but a persrectl\c lor Cops battled demonstrators outside Gare de I'Est in Paris March 23. \ictor\ .• 6 WORKERS VANGUARD I Stopped, Plants Occupied lit t ROCKF of the factory and a load of cement in For two hours the commissariat is PARIS town, the workers called out the front of the offices. They then go on bombarded by molotov cocktails, and morning shift and surrounded the police he last several months have strike, causing one blast furnace to be the next morning the outside walls ofthe station with several thousand pro­ been marked by the erup­ banked. Both at Metz and Longwy the station are found peppered with holes testers. Repeatedly PCF and CGT offi­ tion of workers' struggles CGT union federation accuses "riot from carbine bullets. The PCF deputy cials attempted to disperse the demon­ and violent confrontation specialists, outside elements and provo­ and CGT representative try in vain to strators, announcing in a leaflet that with the police throughout cateurs" of causing the militant action. restrain the demonstrators, and finally company executives had agreed to TFrance. Although focusing on steel, Using their traditional tactics of manage to deflect the siege by calling for suspend the layoffs. According to Le where workers are facing the immediate "capturing" the leadership of a move­ an assault on the local offices of the Munde (9 March), workers tore up the prospect of tens of thousands of layoffs, ment outside their control, the Stalinist Union Patronal (management associa­ leaflet, shouting, "It's not the time to the unrest covers a whole range of and social-democratic union leaders call tion). The building is totally sacked: talk but to act." Le Matin of the same sectors of the working class, white collar a one-day strike of the metallurgical furniture. files, everything thrown out date reported that when the bureaucrats and blue collar; both in Paris and the sector for February 16. Demonstrating the windows and burned on the spot, tried to get the demonstrators to go back provinces. It has led to a number of the workers' will to fight, the strike is 90 even the crystal chandeliers and a grand to the plant. one steel worker protested: spectacular actions, often in areas not percent effective and extends also to piano (Le Munde. 25 February). "We won't let ourselves be maneuvered previously known for working-class other industries in the i\orth and Once again the Stalinist-led CGT like in 196X." militancy, including battles with the Lorraine. It is accompanied by big accuses provocateurs of being responsi­ Finally calm was restored in Denain CRS riot police, street barricades, plant demonstrations. notably at Valen- ble for what was in reality a mass revolt and the bureaucrats received the bour­ occupations, kidnapping of manage­ geoisie's congratulations. "[CGT leader ment personnel, shutting down whole Georges] Seguy was wildly applauded. cities for a day, taking over television He deserved it. He had recovered stations and, on at least four occasions, Denain by reassuring the populace. by armed assaults on police stations. The assuring them they had won, by promis­ press has been screaming "warnings," ing that everything would be taken care brandishing the spectre of May 1968, of and that moreover it was all planned while the government threatens a out. Nothing of course was improved crackdown and refuses to budge from its but eve~yone returned home quickly in viciously anti-working-class program to the driving rain. A policeman mur­ "rationalize" the economy by letting all mured. Thank you. Mr. Seguy'" (Le but the most profitable firms go under. Figaro. 10 March). Indeed, nothing was The most dramatic actions have improved, for on March 14 the Usinor occurred in three steel towns in the bosses announced the mill at Denain industrial basins of northern and north­ would be shut down. eastern France. They began last Decem­ These arc spectacular actions. to be ber when the leading French steel trust sure, but essentially guerrilla or "ap­ Usinor announced the layoff of 5,000 ache" tactics. While an impressive sign workers in Denain and another 500 in of the workers' militancy. they cannot nearby Valenciennes. In the Lorraine substitute for mass mobilization and steel region just south of Luxembourg strike action throughout the industry. an additional 5,900 job cuts were ~. The local CFDT union. which has more announced in the mills of Longwy. A Der Spiegel or less broken with its national federa­ protest demonstration was held there on Steel workers outside building of employers' federation in longwy. tion since the ranks refused to settle for December 19 attracting some 20,000 promises of "industrial plans" and marchers; in addition, all commerce was negotiations. is behind many of these shut down for 24 hours in an operation commando actions. This "rebel" section I'illc mum' (dead city). On the windows ne\ertheless toes the CFDT (and CGT) of closed shops leaflets were posted in line on the essential point: no national. the form of funeral announcements II unlimited strike in steel to stop the proclaiming that Longwy would live or layoffs. And in this treachery they are die with steel. On a giant slagheap, 400 supported not only by the PCF and the feet high, outside town the workers Socialist Party (PS). but also by most of perched an enormous SOS which is .. the self-proclaimed "Trotskyist" centrist visible for miles around. •• groupll1gs. That was only the start. From then .~. untiT the end of January there were a The Steel Crisis and the Workers number of actions, including blocking Movement roads into Longwy, lightning occupa­ The crisis in French steel has been tions of administrative offices, and brewing for some time and is indicative similar guerrilla tactics. These were of the not-so-rosv economic future announced by a clandestine radio offered to European workers by the station, "Radio SOS Jobs," run by the capitalists' Common Market. Interest­ local CFDT union. Then onJanuary 27 ingly. the first step taken toward the some 1,200 workers at the Usinor mill in eventual creation of the European Denain escaped from the control of the i,¥. Economic Community (EEC) was the bureaucrats and sacked the main ac­ Der Spiegel longwy steel workers take over bank in January. Furopean Coal and Steel Community. counting office, after which they clashed formed In the early 19S0s. which with the CRS riot police. Two days later eliminated tariffs on hasic metallurgical several hundred workers at the Chiers ciennes; at Sedan another police station by the workers of Longwy. Once again products. '\ow the entire European steel mill at Longwy burst into a meeting of is attacked. they try to bring things back under industry is in a crisis of overproduction. the managing committee and seized The bureaucrats hope they have control by calling a one- and two-hour leading to a wave of economic national­ three leading company officials whom cooled things down, but once again work stoppage for the entire metalwork­ ism fanned in particular hy the Stalin­ they held as hostages in the plant, Longwy takes the lead. On February 22 ing sector of industry. And once again it ists. Ihe go\ernment of President demanding a stop to the layoffs. Before the steel workers take over a bank and doesn't work. This time the scene shifts Ciiseard d'Estaing has proposed to dawn a squad of local police attacked the local television transmitter, de­ to the city of Denain, south of Belgium. answer this crisis with a retrenchment and snatched the managers. although a manding that the state network broad­ a stronghold of the Communist Party plan that would mean 20.000 layoffs in dOlen cops were injured in the fight. cast the truth about their situation (PCF) and the setting in which Emile the industry in the next two years. By Trying to stay on top of things. the instead of the usual lies. During the Zola wrote his novel of a coal miners' IYXO a total of 50.000 jobs in steel would local unions call a demonstration to night they are brutally d riven out by 150 strike, Germinal. ha\e been eliminated in six years and the protest the cop brutality. But at the end police in squad cars; an hour later the On March 7 a group of workers at the industry would employ only II~,OOO in it gets out of hand as several hundred workers. from the CFDT federation, Usinor mill had left for the border to all of France. workers and youth lay siege to the police regroup to counterattack. but on arriv­ stop trains and trucks bringing in Ihe reformists do not question the headquarters of Longwy. For over an ing at the transmitter they find it empty foreign steel (part of the PCF effort to gmerI1ment steel plan as such: for them hour they bombard the commissariat of cops and occupied by a group of turn steel workers' protests in the it is a ljuestion of negotiating its with bolts and paving stones. while the workers from a neighboring factory. direction of national chauvinism). application. presenting alternative in­ police trapped inside defend themselves Together they return to the center of While standing around talking. the dustrial projects. etc. In response the by shooting out tear gas grenades. Longwy to once again assault the police workers were suddenly attacked by gmnnlllent 01 Prime \1inlster Harre Meanwhile. also on the 29th. workers at station. At 3 a.m. factory sirens blast CRS riot police. Then as they returned has concocted a scheme tor "reconver­ steel company offices in Met! invade the calling the steel workers for a meeting. to Den,lIn the union buses were stopped sion sOCletil's'· tll find tempor;l!"y \\ork administrative offices and burn a large Hundreds arrive. bringing with them a by the CRS in the middle ot a forest, luI' laid-ull steel workers. One is number of files. The workers dump I~ bulld07er. To prevent reinforcements. their windows broken and tear gas shot lclllrted tu recall the '\ational WllI'k- railway carloads of ore in the courtyard ali access roads into town are cut otT. inSide. When they finally arrived back in cOl/lillued Oil {.Jage 9 30 MARCH 1979 7 Cambodia ... (continued from page 5) In order to make their case that Cambodia is some kind of uni4ue, bizarre capitalist authoritarianism. Feldman and Clark whitewash the hrutality of other Stalinist regimes. What about Stalin's forced collectiviza­ tions, often carried out at gunpoint and resulting in millions of deaths'? In China during the 1951\-60 Great Leap Forward the Central Committee had to pass a resolution limiting the workday to 12 hours. And after the peak of the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s, militarization was so extreme that th"e People's Liberation Army was placed in charge of all jurisdictions (communes, factories, neighborhoods). The article tries to claim that elsewhere "working­ class mobilizations" were "decisive, even though subjected to bureaucratic direction and control," including in Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe in the Reich/Paris Match "Mass democracy" in Democratic Kampuchea. late 1940s. This is simply a myth-the East European nationalizations were totally bureaucratic in their execution. The SWP's "explanation" of its which hinged on demonstrating its defensism in 1940, Max Shachtman uncritically politically supporting pro­ characterization of Pol Pot's Cambodia "Third Camp" neutrality between impe­ denied the Marxist understanding that imperialist Soviet dissidents, calling for as capitalist is an outlandish collection rialism and the deformed/degenerated property forms are decisive in determin­ a pacifist policy of nuclear disarma­ of half-truths, tautologies and outright workers states. In the 1960s the SWP ing the class character of a state, ment and asserting that in the nuclear idiocies. But what is important is the denied that a social revolution was·even insisting instead on the necessity for age military defense of the USSR has methodology. At least in Vietnam it taking place in Indochina (since if it political control by the working class. become "meaningless." With a USSR­ could point to the Chinese-dominated were they would obviously be duty­ The SWP has now lifted a page from U.S. military confrontation looming petty commerce that had not yet been bound to call for military victory of the Shachtman, arguing that Cambodia just over the horizon in the China­ nationalized; in Cambodia no private Stalinist NLF, something its liberal is not a workers state because Vietnam war, they have ignored the enterprise whatsoever existed under the allies could not stomach). The real issue, "The Kampuchean working class had threat to Soviet Russia and begun Khmer Rouge. There were no profits, they said, was a democratic one-self­ no stake whatsoever in the nationaliza­ dabbling in OIJefl~1' "Third Campist" no capitalist accumulation, no competi­ determination. With this theoretical fig­ tion of property, carried out without theories. How long before the SWP tion, no money: some capitalism! With leaf. the SWP paved the way to a class­ its participation ..." (Intercontinental "discovers" that, as in Cambodia, the this schema, all Feldman and Clark collaborationist bloc with a defeatist Press, 26 February). workers in the Soviet Union also do not would have to do is substitute new section of the U.S. bourgeoisie. In recent years the SWP has been exercise political power and therefore empirical data and examples to "prove" Now they are at it again-performing preparing the groundwork for a refusal the revolutionary legacy of October no that the Russia of Stalin and his heirs theoretical hocus-pocus in order to to defend the Soviet degenerated work­ longer warrants defense against was-"state capitalist." avoid any taint of connection with the ers state against U.S. imperialism: imperialism? • despised Pol Pot regime. Feldman and Testing the "Third Camp" Waters Clark tell us: What's behind all these theoretical "But the nationalization of property is not by itself sufficient to establish a acrobatics over an event which took workers state. The intervention by the "Allah iiber Alles?" place four years ago? The answer: tailing workers-the only force in modern after bourgeois anti-communism. Obvi­ society capable of establishing and You can really see why we call power of allah is greater than the ously, to be against "Democratic Kam­ maintaining a progressive economic them fake-lefts when you watch all man's technology," it seems. structure-is needed." puchea" doesn't take much political guts the opportunists falling over them­ Later, during the discussion peri­ these days. The Khmer Rouge regime Of course, this is the exact same selves trying to outdo each other in od, a visiting American auto worker was everybody's example of "violating argument used by proponents of the grovelling before the "Islamic Revo­ and supporter of the Spartacist human rights." Liberal Democratic theory of"state capitalism" to claim that lution" in Iran. Socialist Workers tendency challenged Grogan to senator George McGovern, an old SWP capitalism was not overthrown in Party (SWP) spokesman Cindy explain how chanting "Allah Akbar" favorite from the anti-Vietnam War China, Vietnam, Cuba, etc. As a long­ Jaquith's nauseating defense of the was any more Marxist than carrying days. was the first major figure to urge time SWPer, now a supporter of the chador, the head-to-foot veil which is pictures of Khomeini, as the Feda­ U.S. intervention against Pol Pot, but Spartacist League, noted at a March 9 a symbol of the feudal oppression of yeen guerrillas have been doing. not the only one. Recently even the SWp forum in the San Francisco Bay women, was bad enough. Only a , Without a moment's hesitation, Gro­ conservative columnist William Safire, Area on China's invasion of Vietnam: week before tens of thousands of gan pulled out his wallet and re­ an ex-Nixon staffer, supported Vietnam "The description you gave could just as women were marching in Teheran moved his own "Khomeini card" against Cambodia, because"any puppet easily have been applied to Poland, against "holy man" Khomeini's which he proudly displayed to the Hungary or any other of the East government would be better than the European countries. The workers, you orders to don the veil, Jaquith was audience. No difference at all, you hloodbathers of Pol Pot" (New Yurk say, did not participate in the nationali­ defending it as a symbol of resistance see, except that the Fedayeen are Times, 26 February). zations in Cambodia. They also didn't to the shah! back in Iran where they are now The SW P's analysis of the Indo­ participate in them in East Europe.... Now from England we receive a facing the threats and blows of Your description of Cambodia is a report of another disgusting exam­ Khomeini's Islamic police and army. chinese revolution has always figured classic, Shachtmanite, state-capitalist prominently in its long-term aspiration position." ple. Two weeks ago, Brian Grogan, Eduard Bernstein, the grandfather national secretary of the Internation­ of such "socialist" opportunists, said io become the party of U.S. social With the Chinese invasion of Viet­ al Marxist Group (IMG-fraternally "the movement is everything, the democracy. The antiwar movement of nam, the SWI' had only to extend its linked to the SWP), gave a talk in goal is nothing." The desire to be with the 1960s provided the SWP with its fabrication one step further to provide a Birmingham about his recent trip to the masses at all costs, the inability to first real opportunity to cozy up to a means ofducking the issue of defense of Iran. Like Jaquith's talks in the U.S., swim against the stream and tell the section of the American bourgeoisie, the Soviet Union, Vietnam's patron. truth to the working class, is invaria­ According to the SWp, capitalist Cam­ it was a combination radical trave­ hodia spearheaded a "triple alliance" logue and public relations spiel for bly at the root of great betrayals. Khomeini. His message was mass with the U.S. and China "which threat­ Grogan's remarks remind us of the following description by an erstwhile ened the very existence of the Vietnam­ action in the streets. And naturally YOUNG German socialist, Konrad Hanisch, ese workers state." China's invasion was Grogan was marching along with describing his feelings after the SpD designed to prevent Hanoi's new client them in the demonstration to greet the returning ayatollah, and chanting voted for war credits on 4 August SPARTACUS regime from "establish[ing] a workers their chants. The enthusiasm was so 1914: state in Kampuchea" (Direct Action, 22 MONTHLY NEWSPAPER OF THE great, he reported, that despite his "[on the one hand] this driving, SPARTACUS YOUTH LEAGUE February). Thus the SWP wished "anti-religious prejudices," this self­ burning desire to throw oneself into away the whole anti-So\'iet character of the powerful current of the general styled Marxist soon found himself Make checks payable/mail to: the U.S.jChina alliance, barely men­ national tide, and, on the other, the Spartacus Youth Publishing Co. crying out, "Allah Akbar!" (God is tioning even the possibility of Soviet terrible spiritual fear of ... surren­ Box 825, Canal Street Station Great!) intervention. Defending Vietnam is one dering oneself to the mood which New York, NY 10013 "That might shock some purists," roared about. ."I shall never forget thing; lining up with the militarily said Grogan, looking directly at the day and the hour this terrible Name _ powerful USSR would he an unforgiv­ tension was resolved; ... until one Spartacist League supporters in the ahle act of disloyalty to the U.S. ruling could, for the first time in almost a Address _ room. But you see, he went on, the class. quarter century, join with a full City-'-. _ slogan was only religious in form. heart, a clean conscience and with­ State _ Imitating social democrats and For weeks the shah's helicopter out a sense of treason in the sweep­ Zip . 228 "Third Campers" ofall stripes. the SWP gunships had been flying overhead ing stormy ..song: 'Deutschland, points to the verv real crimes of the Deutschland uber alles!" shooting at the masses. So in shout­ -quoted in Carl Schorske, SUBSCRIBE NOW! Stalinist hureaucracies in order to refuse ing "Allah Akbar" the people were German Social Democracl', to defend the degenerated/deformed saying, "We are great, you (the /905-19/7 . $2/9 issues workers states against imperialism. To helicopters) are small;' Sort of "the Really lelt good. didn't it Brian? justifv his ahandonment of Soviet

8 WORKERS VANGUARD 'government (the same slogan with Because the program of Mahabad's mean that they did nut have the right to France ... which they called for votes to Union of Kurdistan Republic was kept strictly independence from their colonial op­ (continued/rom page 7) the Left candidates in March 1978). within a nationalist framework, i.e., pressors'? The Stalinists, speaking in shops of Louis Blanc~except that But instead two different popular simply self-government and the use of support of "democratic" imperialism today the government is manufacturing fronts are now looming: the peF is the Kurdish language, it relied entirely said no. But for Trotskyists support for more unemployment. The Stalinists of looking to the Gaullist RPR of Chirac on the old feudal ruling elite. Qazi the right of self-determination does not the PCF and CGT leadership, for their to form a "union of the people of Mohammed was elected president over depend on the foreign policy of the part. i1 re doing their best to deflect the France" on the basis of the most a council of tribal leaders. Even the Kremlin, Receiving aid from the CIA workers' anger onto the dangerous path nauseating anti-"boche" chauvinism meager reforms introduced in Azerbai­ does not disqualify a nation from its of national chauvinism, turning the (the Communist Party's chief slogan in jan frightened Qazi Mohammed and his right to secede from an oppressor proletarians ofone country against their the upcoming elections to the EEC supporters. They actually went to nation. With all their talk of imperialist class brothers and sisters elsewhere. "parliament" is "No to a German Teheran to propose an anti-Azerbaijan manipulation those who denied the Thus the French Stalinists have op­ Europe!"); and important sectors of the bloc to the shah and the British. When Kurdish right of self-determination posed Spanish entry into the EEC and PS leadership are giving an ear to the shah moved to crush the Kurdish were Simply supporting Iraqi Arab campaign for the imposition of quotas Giscard's talk of a "center-left" state, it relied for its defense solely on nationalism against that of the Kurds. on Italian wine imported into France. In coalition. the Iraqi Kurdish feudal leader mullah The international Spartacist tendency the steel crisis it is the same story: at the This popular-front electoralism is a Mustafa Barzani. who had been driven recognizes the right of the nations of the December 19 demonstration at dangerous diversion to the embattled into Iran by the British and the Iraqi Middle East to self-determination while Longwy, the PCF banner read, "Lor­ monarchy. battling politically against all forms of raine Will Not Be the Vassal of West nationalism. We do not recognize the Given the balkanization and belated Germany." right of self-determination only for social development of the Kurdish The other main tack of the reformists "good" nationalists. They are all the nation, there has been a historic tenden­ is to detour the workers struggles into actual or potential exploiters and cy to look for allies beyond its borders. dead-end electoralism. Thus when oppressors of their "own" workers and Not only have many Kurds looked to thousands of layoffs at the Usinor mill peasants. And unlike the SWP and the Soviet Union for help, but the in Thionville (near Longwy) were others who preached the new dawn of Kurdis-h movement in Iraq had an announced in the fall of 1977, the Khomeini, we warned the oppressed evolution closely intertwined with that Stalinists and social democrats held a nationalities of Iran of their fate under of the Iraqi Communist Party and its "solidarity" march in Paris, then sent the clerical reactionary mullahs. But for Kurdish section. When both the Iraqi the workers home with promises of the SWP and others the national CP and the USSR subordinated the relief if the popular-front Union of the Der Spiegel question was answered when Khomeini Kurdish question in the interests of a Left won in the March 1978 legislative denounced Israel and set up the PLO French steel town threatened with diplomatic alliance between the Soviet elections. The Union of the Left lost, Arab nationalists in the Israeli embassy. extinction. Union and the bonapartist military and in any case the company proceeded Even many Kurds were fooled into steel workers, whosejobs are on the line. regime of the Arab nationalist to close the plant. Currently there is no believing that they might get a better The response of the workers movement Ba'athists, this betrayal opened the door doubt that the March 23 "march on deal under the mullahs than the shah. must begin with a strike of the entire to Barzani's accommodation with the Paris" was in part an electoral maneuver Now they know the truth. steel industry, together withoccupation shah of Iran and the CIA. When the aimed at the cantonal elections, being It is ul1derstandable that the embat­ of plants threatened by mass layoffs, shah reached an understanding with the held two days before the voting on the tled Kurds of Iran look to Iranian leftist demanding expropriation of the steel Ba'athist colonels all aid to the Kurds decisive second round. And in mid­ groupings like the Fedayeen for aid. But barons and the preservation of every suddenly ceased, as they had served March the reformist union leaders went for all their militancy, the Fedayeen job. But the economic crisis extends far their purpose, and the aged tribal along with the Gaullists' maneuver for a only offer a perspective of pressuring beyond this one sector; layoffs and chieftain was completely discredited. special session of the national assembly Khomeini. And the capitulation of the cutbacks in government employment Ironically Barzani died earlier this on the steel crisis. United Secretariat's Iranian section (in are threatened everywhere. And the month in Washington, D.C., just as the What is the response of the "far Jeff'? which Mandelites and SWP supporters working class has responded with a Kurdish nation rose against the Iranian They eagerly go along with attempts to are united on the basis of the SW p's wave of strikes and other job actions: state. channel the struggle into an electoralist parliamentary cretinism) before Kho­ rotating strikes in the post office. framework. Both the LCR and the meini is even more abysmal. periodic shutdown of rail service, a Barzani's connection to the U.S. and Organisation Communiste Internation­ Khomeini has betrayed no one. He is television hlackout, etc. The situation is his funding through the CIA have given aliste (OCI) of Pierre Lambert make the pursuing the course he had forthrightly ripe for the urgent demand of a general the followers of the so-called "Arab center of their propaganda the call for a promised all along: the construction of a strike to achieve the steel workers' revolution" an excuse to back off from PS-PCF government. Thus the OCI Persian chauvinist Muslim theocracy. demands and institute a sliding scale of the fundamental recognition of the right writes: of independence for the Kurds. Thus Yet the call for proletarian revolution to wages and hours. to protect all workers "It's a question of expressing the will of overthrow the mullahs' dictatorship against unemployment and inflation. while recognizing in the abstract the the masses ... who ask the leaders ofthe right of Kurdish self-determination, the remains conspicuously absent from the PCF and PS: whv do vou calion this Yes, the crisis is political. unlike the Iranian fake-Trotskyist followers of pages of the press of the United Assembly, whose 'majority represents a claims of the CFDT that the answer is Secretariat. The international Sparta­ minoritv of the countrv, when what is pure-and-simple trade unionism plus Ernest Mandel indicated that it might be necessary is to get rid o'f it and bring to cist tendency remains unique in its negotiating a phony "plan" with Gis­ put into question if: power a government of your parties." "... with the rise of the Arab revolution. intransigent opposition to Khomeini. -Inf()flnatiuns Ouvrieres, 14-21 card's technocrats. The reactionary and in particular with the intensifica­ Proletarian revolutionists in Iran March government which seeks to "rationalize" tion of the class struggle in Iraq. U. S. must fight every instance of national Hut even a PCF-PS government in the the economy by eliminating jobs must imperialism tries to manipulate the oppression. and must therefore militari­ Kurdish national movement under the par1iamenta ry framework of bourgeois he ousted hI' a rCI'o/wiu/1arr mohi/i::a­ ly defend the right of the Kurdish people tiO/1 o(the proletariat, not a parliamen­ leadership of Barzani to use it as a rule would not be able to solve the steel bastion of reaction against Arab to self-determination, up to and includ­ crisis. \vhich is based in the cyclical tary combination of the reformist mis­ revolution." ing the right to separate if they so crises of the capitalist economy. Only leaders. The spectre of a "new 6~" is -Azar l\ajmi. '"l\ationalism and choose. But a political struggle must be through expropriating the ruling class indeed appropriate, only this time the National Struggles in the waged not only against Persian nation­ working class must not let itself be ma­ Middle East." [SWP] and thus laying the basis for a planned International Internal alism but against Azerbaijani. Kurdish economy can there be a real answer to neuvered. as the steel worker in Denain Discussiun Bulletin. December or Baluchi nationalism. fighting for the the mass unemployment threatening put it, but must instead take the pOIl'N. 1973 class independence of the toilers from European steel workers. Strike committees must be elected in "Can the Arab Revolution Afford their "own" exploiters. Moreover. the "umty" of which the every enterpriseand locality. and coordi­ Another Garrison State in Kurdistan'!" The full achievement of the centrist pseudo-Trotskyists arc so fond nated in a national strike committee. asks Najmi undoubtedly referring to democratic tasks posed by the Kurdish is by no means the unity of the workers Such committees could be the embryos Israel. whose Hebrew-speaking people national struggle can only take place movement against the bourgeoisie, but of dual power. the basis of a future are also denied the right of self­ within a framework that is profoundly rather a call to establish the basis for a workers government. determination by the revisionists in the internat i(}/1ali.\I~the multi-national The answer must be internationalist. new popular front. The LCR sums up name of the "Arab revolution." dictatorship of the proletariat in a their policy in the following manner: Anti-"bocheism." to paraphrase August socialist federation of the ~ear and "The two majority workers parties. the Hehel's remark about anti-Semitism. is For Leninists recognition of the right Middle East. Under the leadership 01 a PS and the PCF. must stop their policy "the socialism of fools." The German of ,elf-determination does not depend genuine Trotskyist vanguard party. the of division and. in spite of their proletariat is the powerhouse of thc on whether or not the nationalists are strategic Iranian proletariat will playa disagreement. unite in struggle on the continent and key to the European side of the workers and put their getting their aid from "clean" sources. crucial role in its establishment. For a candidate, in the government." socialist revolution. Furthermore. the During World War I: nationalists in \vorkers revolution to 0\ t'rlhrow Kho­ ~ Ruuge. 9-15 February I-rcnch steel crisis comes at the same Indone'la. Hurma and India all received memi! !-or an Iranian \Yorker, and Ihe "polie:. of division" which the time as a German steel ,trike which also aid from Japane,e imperiali,m. Did tillS peasanh government'. Pahlo/\!, Ci mplaln about refers to the laced the questiun of layoffs and ,pllt-up 0' :lC l mun uf the Left in the demanded a .IS-hour \vorkweek. ( Ihat strike wa, miserablY sold out h\ the \vakc oj '.' defeat In March 1l)7~. - - SALES BLITZ-WV No. 226-Final Totals Ihloughu::: that electIon campaign union tops.) The German and I-rench hoth the ()l_ land LeR. lambasted the steel workers must jOin their struggle, Area Blitz Quota Total Sold Perceq!age against thc threat of mass unemploy­ SU!:r.:\h ,Lld,GClal dCn!ucrah. particu­ Berkeley/Oakland 450 670 149 ment. :\ot the ho,se,' Common larly the ;'CI-. for ,yuabhllf1g that Boston 250 331 132 \1arkct---:\ot the nationalist pOI,on 01 threatened :he electoral appeal. of the Chicago 500 688 138 the bureaucrats--Hut a SOCialist Lnitcd popu la r In1;11 Cleveland 275 440 1SD States of I:::urope~. I he howg('oi,1 cia" character of thiS Detroit 600 1026 1/ 1 electoral alliance of reformist workers Los Angeles 400 580 145 partie, \v Ith a cap:talist party (the Kurds Revolt.... New York City 450 587 130 \1(l\emen, ,>1 left Radicals) was passed (continued/rom page 3) San Francisco 425 724 l'7D over In ,ilc;' __ And since the breakup 01 Trotskyist League of thi, cla,,-c', !ahorationist hloc. the northern Iran to the LSSR. The So\iet Canada 332 centred caii ,'I ,he LCR and OCI is lor Its army did not occupy Iranian Kurdistan. recon,tltulii'n under the code\',ord of hut the Mahahad regime soon ,hared TOTAL 3350 5378 16; "unit:" and the slogan of a PCF-PS the late of its i\/erhaljani analogue.

30 MARCH 1979 9 total American aid to the Zionis( state would considerablv elevate the U.S. role rolled by Saudi Arabia and the oil Peace from its birth in 1948 to 1967. Syriajlraq, as arbiter in the region and thus sheikhs for years. If they needed on the other hand, have received no more push both the Soviet Union and additional reasons to give them cold feet than halfthat amount from the Kremlin. its allies into a precarious defensive about joining up with Carter's new anti­ Baloney ... So in contrast to the strategic balance in position: Soviet alliance the Saudis need only (continued from page 1) past Near East wars, today Israel "In such a polarized situation the U.S. look at the history of its predecessor, substantially outguns the combined and Soviet Union could become prison­ CENTO. Popular opposition to the "there is a growing view that America is forces of the "rejection front" states and ers of their own client states. In a war U.S.-engineered Baghdad Pact was one a patsy and we never retaliate." can even mobilize a larger army. No between Israel and Syria, the Russians, of the sparks which sent the Iraqi masses Answering his critics, Carter pro­ cut off from the possibility of playing a wonder the Syrians (who have 30,000 role in a general Near East settlement, into the streets in 1958 and brought claimed in a February 20 speech at troops tied down in Lebanon) fear a might see themselves forced to intervene down King Faisal, seen as a puppet of Georgia Tech: "Let me repeat, in the Zionist attack in the wake of the ever more directly to prevent the defeat the imperialists. With discontent con­ Middle East, in Southeast Asia and tinuing to build in the Egyptian working elsewhere in the world we will stand by class. it is an open question whether our friends'" Secretary of Defense Sadat will suffer a similar fate. Harold Brown was even more blunt when he declared on the 26 February Palestinians Shafted Again "Face the Nation" television program: "The United States is prepared todefend Purported Iy the treaty is "linked" to a its vital interests with whatever means timetable for Palestinian "self-rule" in are appropriate, including military force the Israeli-occupied territories of the when necessary, whether that's in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In reality, Middle East or elsewhere." The Sadat and Begin simply agreed to make Egyptian;Israeli treaty fits into this a "good faith" effort to complete perspective, but more was needed. So in negotiations on "autonomy" within a recent weeks the administration has year, with the U. S. acting as overseer pulled out all the stops to provide a and the Palestinians excluded (as usual) convincing show of force. from the bargaining. In any case, "self­ Todemonstratethatthe U.S. wasnota rule" is nothing but a hoax dreamed up "patsy," Carter chose the unlikely by the former Irgun terrorist and mass Arabian backwater of Yemen. Saudi­ murderer of Deir Yassin, Menachem backed :\orth Yemen was involved in a Begin. local war with forces attacking from the Begin's program is a thinly veiled call pro-Sonet People's Democratic Repub­ for forced population transfers of the lic of Yemen (formerly the Britishcolony Arab population out of the West Bank. of Aden) to the south. Seeing an All land not formally owned by Pales­ opportunity to "resist Soviet expansion" tinians would be taken over by the Israeli on the cheap while doing a favor for his state or handed out to Zionist settlers. On the phone with Begin: arranging the Pax Americana. UPI Saud i friends, Carter ordered the aircraft The Israeli army would patrol the entire carrierConstellation up into the Arabian area and control an Arab police which Sea and bypassed Congress to ship $360 would be confined to purely local million worth of military hardware to affairs. This is what Begin means by North Yemer, on an emergency basis, "autonomy" of "persons" and not along with 200-plus American military "territories." And to drive home the personnel in "training teams." point that the Israel/Egypt peace meant continued murderous oppression of the $5 Million Getsa"Peace"Treaty... Palestinians, as the final negotiations While U.S. "multinational" mer­ were going on. fanatical Zionist settlers chants of death are slapped on the wrist went on a rampage through the West when they bribe foreign governments to Bank town of Rumollah, shooting and beating up Arab students. win military contracts. the American Carter's visit to Jerusalem and government has no such scruples about announcement of the "peace" treaty bribing its clients in Cairo and Jerusa­ were greeted with mass Palestinian lem to extract a treaty from them. When protests on the \Vcst Ba nk. Two Arab defense secrctar) Brown visited Cairo youth were murdered by the Israeli in February Sadat eagerly suggested that army in the town of Halhul and in he replace the shah as the American response a gencral strike was declared in policeman for the region. As a symbolic Rumollah. But it is not just the gesture he sent 200 Egyptian soldiers to oppressed Palestinians who are in replace Iranian troops recently with­ ferment. While the vague peace senti­ drawn from the sultanate of Oman. !n ment widespread among the Israeli return, the Egyptian rais (leader) re­ population following the 1973 war has quested a little baksheesh, in the form of Trlunfo Get this, then we tell them we're for a democratic secular Palestine. been largely captured by the Carter/ an enormous shopping list ofweaponry, Begin/Sadat gambit, the Israeli working including 300 advanced F-16 fighters, Egyptian/Israeli "peace" treaty. Wash­ of their remaining aIiies if they are to class has been hard hit by an economic 600 tanks, 2,000 armored personnel ington would like to tie this $5 billion avoid being frozen out of this strategic crisis without precedent in the history of carriers. etc. Israeli officials made it clear region altogether. But Washington will package to a new anti-Soviet military the Zionist state. On the same day that that the price of any treaty in which they not tolerate direct Soviet intervention alliance in the Near East, modeled on the the cabinet was debating the draft gave up the Sinai would be equally against Israel. Much more so than in the long-defunct CENTO-the stillborn Arab-Israel wars of 1967 and 1973, a treaty, the Histadrut, Israel's corpora­ expensive. mid-1950s brainchild of J ohn Foster separate Israeli-Egyptian peace fol­ tist labor federation, called a general With the new alignment in the Near Dulles. lowed by a military showdown between strike against rising prices and the East, both Egypt and Israel are strategic Israel and Syria could become the spark removal of state subsidies from basic allies of the L.S.. and their combined setting off World War Ill." ...But Will It Buy an Alliance? foods. Out of a workforce of 1,250,000, military firepower far surpasses the -"War Danger Behind Cairo Peace Talks," WV No. 186,23 one million workers walked off their Soviet-supplied Syrians' and Iraqis. From the very beginningofthecurrent December 1977 jobs. Since the llln war Israel alone has ]\ear East "peace" gambit we have With the fall of the shah. this inhert:nt Although the strike's demands were received S 10 billion in arms deliveries warned that "Separate Peace Means logic ofa separate peace under American entirely economic. the Hebrew­ from the L. S . more t han six times the Wider War." An Egypt-Israeli treaty auspices was heightened as Washington speaking workers of Israel face the same ..~_.-._.__._------looked desperately for a new alliance to Zionist rulers as the Wcst Bank Pales­ bolster its weakencd position in the "arc tinians. But the Israeli workers are not of crisis." Carter hopes to consolidate a going to fight beside their Arab class -l bloc of U. S. client states including Egypt. brothers to replace the Zionist theocrat­ Israel. Jordan. Saudi Arabia. ~orth ic state of Butcher Begin with an W'IlIlEllS Yemen and the Pcrsian Gulf oil king­ "Islamic Republic" headed by Ayatol­ doms, whose main target would be the lah Khomeini's disciple Arafat and Soviet Union. subsidi/ed by Saudi charity. What is Will it work" The signing of the needed is an Arab-Hebrew revolution­ "N(;tlII1ID Egypt Israel trt:aty has considerably ary workers rarty which recogni/es the Marxist Working-Class Biweekly of the Spartacist League complicated Washington's relations right of self-determination lor both the with the Saudis and their clients. who Palestinian and Hebrew peoples, whieh 24 issues-53. Introductory offer (6 issues) S1 Internatlonal rates arc facing a unanimous Arab League lights for Israel's unconditional and 24 Issues-S12 alrmail/$3 seama,1 mandate to slar an economic and immediate \\ithdrawal from the occu­ -includes SpartBcist military boycott on Egypt. The Saudis pied territories and for the overthrow oj hel\e noted that ! ran'5 backing for both the ZionIst state and the Islamic Name _,, . .------~_._--~- Israel. even with massive American rulers. whether demagogic nationalist Address ..~ .._ support, did not contribute to the colonels or reactionary sheikhs. Togeth­ longevity of the Pahlavi dynasty. More­ er with other I rotskyist parties in the City _~__.__~. over. their fanatical Islamic fundamen­ Arab states. they would fight as part ala State ~ ~~ _ Zip talism feels more ideological kinship reborn Fourth International to establish 228 Make checks payable/mail to: with Khomeini than with the shah, while the only possible framework lor a just Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO, New York, N.Y. 10001 Arafat. though presented as a "radical" and lasting peace in the region: a in the Western press, has been bank- socialist federation of the ~ear East. •

10 WORKERS VANGUARD 1- "Fitz" will fight for them. And while In addition, such a strategy is bound made no serious preparations to build a Teamsters ... Fitzsimmons at least called for a 35 to breed illusions in the bosses' govern­ militant strike, and moreover has a (continued from page 12) percent wage and benefit increase, TOll ment. At a time when a central antago­ history of kowtowing to the gov,ern­ "think[s] money isn't a major issue this nist of the Teamsters is that same ment. Thus this reformist outfit may tionably be squandered if left to Fitz­ year" (Convoy No. 34, February 1979). government, such illusions quickly well find itself back in the bind it was in simmons & Co. The ranks must present In fact, it is not surprising that TOll become fatal. And, in fact, during the when the Oetroit Teamsters wildcatted an organized forced capable of counter­ played down the issue ofwages, because entire contract period TOll has simply against Fitzsimmons' national settle­ posing the will ofthe membership to the this is the question on which a confron­ tail-ended Fitzsimmons and his strategy ment in 1976. The Teamsters for a inevitable bureaucratic sellout. Mass tation with the government is likely. of seeking "exemptions" from the wage Oecent Contract (TOll's predecessor) meetings are essential in order to debate was suddenly catapulted into a position strategy and tactics and to respond to of de facto leadership, only to cave in to the immediate danger of strikebreaking a federal court order one day later and injunctions. Membership decisions advocate a return to work with a must be executed under (he leadership promise from local IBT officials that ofdemocratically elected strike commit­ there would be no victim·izations. This tees which would have the authority to ignominious collapse was palmed off as organize mass pickets at every terminal a TOll victory! and warehouse. By coordinating efforts Even if the group were to grow at a regional and national level, strike substantially, the Teamsters union leaders could appeal to unionized rail, could no more advance behind the TOU maritime and airline freight handlers banner than did the miners behind one­ when struck cargos are diverted to other time "reformer" Arnold M iller. To win transportation systems. In the event that in April the Teamsters must forge a injunctions or troops (as in Ohio in leadership which is committed to 1970) are ordered against the Teamsters, militant union action, forming elected the entire labor movement must be strike committees, and a program prepared to answer with militant action. including the following demands: WV Photo TDU: Reformist Dead-End I) Break the guidelines-for a big Detroit TDU rally in 1977. "Reformers" call on bosses' government to clean increase in wages and pensions with full The Fitzsimmons gang is corrupt and up union. COLA protection! Slash the workweek violent, but it sits atop a volcano of Integral to the TOll program is its guidelines as an alternative to strike without a pay cut-no forced overtime! membership discontent. It is widely strategy of seeking to pressure the action, never unambiguously calling for 2) Oown with company productivity discredited among the militant rank and bourgeois state into siding with the a strike on April I. Even when the schemes! For a full-time safety commit­ file, and could easily lose control of a working class. Thus the group has bureaucracy itself went to the member­ tee in every terminal with the power to strike. But there is no genuine alterna­ sponsored numerous lawsuits against ship for strike authorization, the group's stop work! For the right to refuse tive to replace it. The most prominent the Teamster bureaucracy, while TOll headlined response in Convoy Contract assignment on unsafe equipment! For group of dissident IBT members, often co-leader Pete Camarata even testified Bulletin No.5 was simply, "It's Time to the right to strike over grievances! lionized by the liberal capitalist media, at Congressional hearings on alleged Put on Pressure"-asserting that Fitz­ 3) Organize the unorganized! is Teamsters for a Oemocratic llnion abuse of the union's pension funds by simmons could be pressured "to win a 4) Oefy government strikebreaking (TOll). The TOll program, however, is lBT officials. Calling on the capitalist good contract." injunctions! No to arbitration! Govern­ not qualitatively different from that of state to get rid of the corrupt Teamster Should there be a strike-and ment out of the IBT! Fitzsimmons. It simply asksfor"more." bureaucracy is patently futile; indeed, particularly if there are large wildcats­ 5) Oump the Democrats and Republi­ TOll's Convoy concedes, in fact, that the present Fitzsimmons regime origi­ it is not unlikely that the ranks would cans! For a workers party based on the the IBT bargainers have raised "some nated injust such a government purge of look to TOll for leadership. The group trade unions to fight for a workers excellent proposals," only doubting that the old Hoffa leadership! has a high profile in the union, but has government! •

an honorary member of the TDU. We to assumed attitudes of racism among ism would bring them success. They did this despite the fact that by this time TDU members. Zeluck recounts that tailed the union bureaucrats and hailed Workers' the MFD [Miners for Democracy] had before the convention the I. S. decided shown its true colors time and again. the Labor Department-of course all in The MFD leaders in power since 1973, not to raise the question of Bakke and the name of the ""rank and file." They got Power... had tried again and again to smash affirmative action, and if it came up to nowhere: (continued fronz page 4) wildcat strikes.... Moreover in the table the issue to a steering committee: ""We watched for signs of an emerging IS-run TDll and the Sadlowski "re­ months before the TDU convention the "What happened then was that we movement.. We thought we saw the UMWA leadership was trying to crush form movement." Both represent the surrendered a chance to raise this vital beginnings as a mass rank and file another mass wildcat and Patrick was politicizing issue. For. as things turned upheaval in the early 70's, but it lost its ""progressive" wing of business union­ going along with them. He even out. the resolution did in fact almost momentum.... For the IS times were ism. Camarata is notorious for trying to appeared on TV to urge miners to go come up at the end of the convention. at hard. Sticking it out in the working class find new ways to bring the Teamsters back to work. Nonetheless. we put the initiative olone olour OH'n black cost the IS two splits and the loss ot forward Patrick to the TDU conven­ into the courts and the government into members. But In the name of'no time' it some talented cadre. For a period. the tion. Whatever we intended this to political perspectives of the IS seemed the union. And his ""leftist" patron was tabled. with the evident encourage­ mean. and whatever Patrick actuallv ment of K. who was in the chair ...... up in the air." Zeluck (whose own redbaiting "rank said. there was a strong message which [original emphasis] -IS majority ""Convention and file" work in the teachers' union was inevitably conveyed: 'Here's Harry Resolution" Then. it seems. the black I.S.ers­ embarrasses even the I.S.) is no leftist: in Patrick. He's a progressive official. He and the MFD got elected and succeeded schooled in ""caucus formation"­ And they still are. The I.S. has no reason fact. he argues that it was a "sectarian in cleaning up the UMWA. We want the threatened to form a black caucus to get for independent political existence. error" for the I.S. to leave the United TDU to become an organization like a Bakke resolution on the floor. Zeluck What it wants to do in the unions. the :'\ational Caucus of the UAW. the MFD. to act like the MFD did'." tells what happened next: ""reform"rrank and file" groups already But for factional purposes, the -I.S. Internal Bulletin No. 10. 7 November 1978 "The imperative need for the Bakke do better. What it wants to do outside minority is quick to seize on WP's resolution was amply demonstrated by the unions is done better by the official coverage of local Teamster elections in According to another Zeluck doc- the clear racist response of a top TDU social democrats. NAM, the SWP. the fall/winter of 1977: ument: leader. He objected to Blacks' right to a All that the I.S. can devise is more "Here Pete C. was running for election "Even worse [than inviting Patrick] is caucus and threatened to form a white ways-like dumping WP-to hide in the as representative of TDU. Pete Karazo­ the fact that one of our leading caucus in response." gian was running with the classic 'out' speakers, in effect, helped Patrick to unions. the better to serve the conceal his line on the wildcats. Our These stories are not disputed in the bureaucrats. Where to go from here" Let reform group. Concerned Members. internal documents of the majority. WP headlined: 'Vote for the Two Petes.' speaker, referring to Fitzsimmons as us offer our suggestion: You have taken Its article did nothing to distinguish one who is admired by the capitalists a step in the right direction by scuttling and politicians because 'he doesn't let 1.5. Got No Reason to Live between the approach of the two that awful paper: wouldn't it be another groups ...." the ranks run riot: then added, 'unlike you. Harry.' This strongly implied that The social-democratic New Left lavor to the working class to go all the :'\0 doubt this was galling to comrade Harry had no objection to the ranks workerists of the I.S. thought opportun- way'!. Camarata. But factional flattery to 'running riot: which in turn implies that Camarata aside, there's not a dime's Harry supported. or at least tolerated worth of difference between "the Two the wildcats.... "In short. a bureaucrat was allowed to Petes" from the standpoint of program. use our platform and even, at the end, to SPARTAClsr LEAGUE LOCAL DIRECTORY Even in clique fights there are be voted in as an honorary member of moments of partial truth. Steve Zeluck TDU. at the urging of one 01" our National Office Chicago New York playing the ""left" oppositionist is a leaders." [original emphasis] Box 1377, GPO Box 6441. Main PO Box 444. Canal Street Station -"The Politicization of the New York, NY 10001 Chicago. III 60680 New York, NY 10013 revolting impostor. but he does have TDU:' September 1977 (212) 925-2426 (312) 427-0003 (212) 925-5665 plenty to say about the Geierite I.S.: Cleveland San Diego And the I.S. consciously sought to Ann Arbor Box 6765 "At the 1977 TDU Convention we c/o SYL. Room 4102 PO Box 142 avoid raising the issue of racial oppres­ Cleveland, Ohio 441 01 Chula Vista. Ca 9201 invited Harry Patrick of the UMWA to MiChigan Union (216) 621-5138 be the keynote speaker and made him sion at the TDLJ convention, pandering University of Mlch San Francisco Ann Arbor. Mlch 48109 Detroit Box 5712 (313) 663-9012 Box 663A, General PO. San Francisco. Ca 9·: DetrOIt. Mich. 48232 (415) 863-6963 Berkeley/Oakland (313) 868-9095 Spartacist League/Spartacus Youth League Public Offices Box 23372 Santa Cruz Oakland. Ca 94623 Houston c/o SYL -MARXIST LITERA TURE- (415) 835-1535 Box 26474 Box 2842 Boston Houston. Texas 77207 Santa Cruz. Ca 9SC Box 188 Los Angeles Bay Area Chicago New York MIT Station Box 26282. Edendale Station Cambrrdge Mass 02139 Los Angeles Ca 90026 Friday 300-600p m Tuesday 530-900pm MondilY through (617) 492-3928 (213) 662-1564 Satllrday 3 00-6 OOp m Saturday 200-530pm Friday 630-900pm 1634 Telegraph 523 S Plymouth Court Saturday 100-400p m TROTSKYIST LEAGUE OF CANADA 3rd Floor 3rd Floor 260 West BrOildway (rlOar 17th Stre0t) Crllcaqo IllinOIS Fio()1l152? Toronto Vancouver Winnipeg Oakland CClllfornla Pilorl(' (312) 427-0003 Box 7198. Station A Box 26. Station A Box 3952. Stat,on 8 N,'w York N,·w York Toronto.Ont Vancouver. B.C Winnipeg. Man Phone (415) 835-1535 PIIi'fI" 1?1?19?C,-56h:, (416) 593-4138 (604) 733-8848 (204) 589-7214

30 MARCH 1979 11 WfJ/iIlE/iS "Ntil/'lil)

Strike to Bust the Wage Freeze! Teamsters: Get Carter!

On March 31 the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (lBT), the largest union in the U.S.. will have an unequaled opportunity to defend the livelihoods of millions of American workers from the ravages of inflation by dealing a crushing blow to Jimmy Carter's 7 percent wage guidelines. For on midnight of that day the Master Freight Agreement, which sets the wages and working conditions for 300,000 Teamster truck drivers and warehouse workers across the country, will expire. The gover nment's wage controls are already in plenty of trouble. Galloping inflation and soaring profits are rousing workers' anger and all that is needed is a good, solid shove to push Sauro/New York Times them into action. And right now it's up Teamsters: they can stop the country overnight. to the Teamsters to do it. While Carter has sought to depict his ty, recently slammed the IBT demand ster jobs, wages and working conditions IBT militants. too, must learn the "voluntary" wage-price guidelines as a for a 35 percent hike over three years as is entrusted to federal agencies like the lessons of this betrayal. 1n a struggle call forequal sacrifice from business and "an act of aggression against the Interstate Commerce Commission, which saw a Teamster picket killed, a labor, this claim now has almost zero American p~ople." Moreover the gov­ which has traditionally allowed the government raid and seizure of a credibility among trade unionists. Re­ ernment has insisted that a 5~ cent cost­ carriers to pass wage increases on to striking local's records, and the mobili­ cently the rate of inflation has consist­ of-living increase which would have consumers. In reality, militant union zation of a 2,500-man scab army, IBT ently exceeded 10 percent, and the been due April I, be counted against the organizing for IBT scale is the answer to head Fitzsimmons made every effort to Bureau of Labor Statistics just an­ yearly "guideline" on the new agree­ the encroachments of non-union carri­ sabotage the strike. His initial denial of nounced that for Febrary prices rose at ment. Should Carter continue to insist ers and owner-operators on non­ strike sanctions, his sellout proposals, an annual rale of 15.4 percent, over on imposing the 7 percent wage limit in regulated freight routes. withdrawal of pickets from crucial twice the 7 percent limit on wages! Only the face of double-digit inflation, there Since the government took the lead in regional distribution centers and the a few days previously the Department of is every likelihood ofa massive confron­ holding down Teamster wage demands, rctusal to strike the Safeway chain Commerce reported that corporate tation with the IBT. the industry spokesman, Trucking nationwide resulted in eventual defeat. profits had risen 26 percent in 197~. As Teamster locals met last weekend Management, Inc.. opened up with a Thai is Fit/simmons' real program. Even arch-conservative AFL-CIO chief to vote overwhelmingly to give the barrage of non-monetary "take away" The lengthy negotiation period eould George Meany felt compelled to accuse International authorization to call a proposals. ~t·v has obtained a copy of have been used to rally the ranks for big business of "the grossest demonstra­ strike, the government was threatening the TM I bargaining demands, dated 14 strike action. Instead IBT bargall1ers tion of price gouging since the opening everything from Taft-Hartley to eco­ December 197X, which includes: slashed demanded secret talks while hinting of -days of the Korean War." nomic sanctions. In particular, Kahn is wages for new hires (70 percent for 12 union willingness to extend the contract Meanwhile. the Carter administra­ brandishing government deregulation months, full pay only after two years); if a settlement is near on March 31. tion has been anything but conciliatory of the trucking industry as a club against refusal to "dovetail" seniority rights Then. after Fit/simmons warned that to the Teamsters. White House "infla­ IBT demands. This is a threat only when one company acquires another's federal interference would force the tion fighter" Alfred Kahn, chairman of because for I BT head Frank trucking permits; changes in work rules union to "negotiate from a strike the Council on Wage and Price Stabili- Fitzsimmons, the preservation ofTeam- to no longer require consent of union position," he invited the government's locals; complete elimination of separate top labor negotiator. mediator Wayne ratilication of supplemental agree­ Horowit/, into the bargaining. Fit/sim­ ments; and deletion of a commitment to mons has repeatedly pinned his hopes continue multi-employer bargaining on wheedling special exemptions from with the IBT. Other takeaways included the guidelines, and even when threaten­ requiring employees to pay their own ing to strike he has hinted at calling health and welfare contributions for selective work stoppages at one or t\\O each day ofC the right to fire employees carncrs rather than a nationwide for failure to report accidents and even shutdown-supposedly In order to traffic citations; and increased right to "circulllvent" Taft-Hartlev. hire "casuals" permanently denied If Fit/simmons does call a strike on senioritv. April I, he will do so reluctantly, to On March 2. IMI added its \\age dissipate rank-and-file militancy. (In proposal: an insulting ~5 cents per 1976 he okayed the first nationwide hour-\\ell under Carter's guidclines­ truck drivers' strike. then ordered two spread o\er three years! The union is thirds of the striking drivers back to calling for S1.75 in new wages over three work even before a tentative agreement years (plus 5X cents 1I1 COLA due April was reached.) Moreover. IBT car I) as part ofan o\erall package boosting haulers and workers in the giant United \\ages and benefits by about 3/'1 percent. Parcel Service chain will stay on the job Both sides are likely to modify their when the freight haulers go oul. The dl'mands some\\ hat. but the carriers numerous separate freight contracts demonstrated their actual intentions in which the IBT bureaucracy tolerates the bitter. IX-week California grocery benctit onlv the carriers. Icamster strike \\ hich \\as finally crushed in militants must demand that their leaders '\member. Thanks to bureaucratie shut down the entire trucking industry treachery, that strike was a dress and bargain for a single national rehearsed lor disaster ... and the bosses contract. All out on Api'll I-no krlO\\ it. 10m Schumacker. director 01 extensions' 1\0 selective strikes-tor a the Call!ornia Trueking Association, nationwide shutdown! remarked, "Many of our people are saying 'Ih golly. the toad company For Militant Strike Committees people hung in there. took an IX-week The enormous social power of a I eamster strike in one of the union's nationwide Teamster strike will unques- MIlitant strongholds. We ought to do the same Militant Ohio Teamsters wildcat in 1970. Same National Guard unit which thing if we have to'." conlinued on paxe II tried to break their strike shot the Kent State students. 12 WORKERS VANGUARD