, ' . . Soul Power or Workers Power? The Rise and Fall! o! the League of Revolutionary Black Workers

Crippling three major Chrysler call to end racial discrimination and Ken Cockrel, John Watson, Mike Ham- beyond such pitiful reforms would vig- facilities in this past summer's wave to appoint a black assistant prose- lin, General Baker and John Williams orously protest cases of racial dis- wildcats of (including the first auto cutor in the investigation and a self- (among others) coalesced shortly after crimination, while calling for the elim- plant takeovers since the historic sit- congratulatory pat on the back that the the rebellion around a community- ination of company supervisory downs of the late thirties), the Detroit bloodshed had not entered the plants.' oriented paper, the Inner City Voice. personnel from the shop floor and for working class has once again demon- The conflagration of July 1967 was Some among the original Inner City workers control of production. (Inci- strated its capacity for militant action. the bloodiest, and one of the last, of Voice group, such as John Watson, had dentally, the auto companies have since It was among the largely black work a series of anti-cop ghetto riots that earlier been around the ex-Trotskyist hired large numbers of black foremen force of these inner-city plants same buried the liberal illusions of the civil Socialist Workers Party, while others without changing one iota the oppres- that the League of Revolutionary Black rights movement. This uprising was came from a Maoist background. They siveness of the plants.) Workers was born in the late 1960's. the product of a combination of cir- were held together by a vague, but Similarly, while militants must op- Unlike other black nationalist cumstances. the hand, the On one militant, determination to create a pose racially and sexually discrimi- groups, the League insisted on the cen- "progressive" Reuther UAW bureauc- "black Marxist-Lemnist party." Main- natory aspects of existing seniority trality of the working class and, in the racy and its liberal Democratic taining their adherence to nationalist systems, and call for a sliding scale beginning, seriously oriented toward "friends in the White House" had done ideology, they nonetheless saw that of wages and hours to provide jobs organizing at "the point of production." nothing to Detroit's stem recurring black workers occupied a key role in for all, they must also recognize that The LRBW and its various auto factory massive auto-related unemployment, the American economy and the working seniority systems are a primitive form groups (DRUM, FRUM, ELRUM) have during the 1957-58 which recession class. As Watson pointed out in his pam- of job security that must be defended. since disappeared, inevitable victims reached 19.5 percent, and topped 15.2 phlet, To the Point of Production: And although class-conscious workers of their own internal contradictions. But percent at the height of the next re- "Our analysis tells us that the basic must pay special attention to the needs it is important for working-class mili- cession in 1961. March More damning power of black people lies at the point of the more oppressed sections of the tants to examine the League and its still was the unemployment figure for of production, that the basic power we proletariat, they would seek to unite evolution, which clearly reveal the in- Detroit blacks in the same 1961 have is our power as workers. As blacks and whites by simultaneously compatibility of nationalist and pro- percent period— 39 and a phenomenal workers, as black workers, we have raising demands which directly benefit letarian politics. historically been, are now, essen- 78 percent for black youth as com- and all workers. tial elements in the American economic pared to 33 percent for youth overall! Despite the demands' nationalist sense. ... This is probably different Reuther Betrayals Pave On the other hand, for the first inspiration, a of white from these kinds of analysis which say number workers the Way time in almost two decades large num- where it's at is to go out and organ- did support the walkout. But the DRUM bers of young blacks were being hired ize the so-called 'brother on the street. leadership consciously avoided organ- into the auto plants to replace older It was no accident that such a group It's not that we're opposed to this izing them. "No attempt was made to white workers. Seniority lists at developed in Detroit, where blacks have De- type of organization, but without a more interfere with white workers Most troit's Chrysler plants invariably long been an important element in the show solid base such as that which the work- of the white workers reported to work a gap for the period 1953-1965 or so. ing class represents, this type of or- auto plants. At first courted by Henry after they saw that it was safe for them ganization, that is, community based Ford as a counter-force to unionism, Thus, the upsurge in militancy coin- to go through the gate. Those who organization, is generally a pretty long, the vast majority nevertheless refused cided, as in 1943, with rising expecta- stayed out did so for various stretched-out, and futile development." reasons. tions on the part of the to serve as Ford's scabs in the crucial oppressed Some believed in honoring picket lines, 1940 River Rouge organizing strike. black minority (now a majority). and a few were sympathetic" (The South As in 1943, the UAW response was Lead Wildcats The increasing population of blacks DRUM, ELRUM End, 23 January 1969). hypocritical do-nothingism. After 43 in the city and the plants after World Though the UAW responded with blacks had been killed by cops and War n contributed to the pressure on As a result of its orientation, the heavy red-baiting (which led DRUM to National Guardsmen, Reuther offered a the Reuther bureaucracy to support the Inner City Voice group reportedly soon deny that it was indeed communist.'), union volunteer crew for cleaning up early civil rights movement— a move- attracted a group of young black work- the wildcat resulted in the reinstate- debris on bloody 12th Street— an offer ment characterized by the non-violent ers from the Chrysler Hamtramck As- ment of five of the fired seven (an he never fulfilled. protest politics of Martin Luther King sembly plant-Dodge Main. Disgusted The Black Panthers' acclaim of and well within the framework of with the bureaucratic union politics black lumpen street youth as the so- Reuther's "labor-Democratic alli- they had experienced, these workers cialist vanguard was made ludicrous ance." But despite Reuther's social- crystallized around an ICV member in democratic past and demagogic "pro- the plant to form the Dodge Revolu- gressive" image, the "red-haired tionary Union Movement (DRUM). A wonder" failed to apply even these wildcat over line speed-up in May 1968, minimal liberal capitalist policies to involving both black and white workers, the widespread racism permeating the resulted in racist disciplinary actions lower levels of his own bureaucracy. being applied overwhelmingly to the This situation led aspiring black black militants. bureaucrats to set up such opportunist The high level of nationalist senti- formations as the Trade Union Leader- ment among the recently hired young ship Council. The TULC was founded black workers, the isolation of the in 1957 by a group of lower-level blacks largely older, Polish bureaucracy and in the UAW apparatus (like Buddy Battle the absence of any other alternative of Ford's River Rouge Local 600) and leadership opened the way for a spec- black labor diplomats like venerable tacular and rapid success by DRUM in social democrat A. Philip Randolph, establishing itself as the leadership of whose main concern was simply to the 60 percent-black work force at garner a bit of face-saving indepen- Dodge. Within six weeks of its first dence from the Reuther machine, while newsletter distribution, DRUM organ- Ron March maintaining its liberal politics. ized a highly effective boycott by the open At the same time, the combination of DRUM supporter and founding ICV black workers of two nearby bars that Reuther's hypocritical liberalism and member was not rehired). In addi- refused to hire blacks. Three weeks tion, the impotent pressure-group politics of DRUM'S reputation was firmly es- later, in the crucial pre-changeover tablished; it King and the black bureaucrats pro- continued publication of period, they led a three-day wildcat a weekly newsletter, vided fertile ground for the spawning of went on to con- which shut down the plant and held solidate its support more militant black nationalist poli- into an organiza- a rally of 3,000 workers in the plant tional structure tical currents and organizations. De- in September and parking lot. shortly decided troit is the home of Elijah Muhammad's to run a candidate for union office. Nation of Islam, the Republic of New Besides calling for reinstatement of Taking Africa (RNA) and the Pan-African Con- seven workers fired in the May walk- advantage of a special elec- tion for gress; scene of the Black Economic out, DRUM demanded an end to union trustee of Dodge Local 3, DRUM ran Ron Development Conference and the "Black DETROIT news and company discrimination, and de- March in a campaign designed Ken Cock re I to demonstrate Manifesto" (April 1969); and battle- manded, in particular, more upgrading "DRUM power and black solidarity," ground for the race riot of 1943 and and apprenticeship openings for blacks. on such demands as: by the reality the ghetto rebellion of 1967. in Detroit of 60,000 It also called, however, for more "1. The complete accountability to militant blacks working in the strate- black foremen and other supervisory the black majority of the entire The 1943 riot was a result of the gic center of American industry. The personnel and launched an attack on the membership. . . mass migration of southern whites and real social power of blacks rests not "racist" seniority system. "3. Advocating a revolutionary change blacks into Detroit during the war. Ex- with the lumpen street gang that occa- Such demands can hardly be ex- in the UAW (Including a referendum tremely overcrowded housing and the sionally guns down an isolated cop in pected to lead to united working-class vote and revive the grievance hostility with which the southern poor the ghetto, but with the procedure). worker who struggle against capitalism. Demands . . whites viewed the relative equality can stop the lifeblood of American to change the skin color of the com- "5. A refusal to be dictated to by the which black workers enjoyed in the war- capitalism. " panies' disciplinary personnel implic- International staff of the UAW production plants turned the city into Recognizing this reality in reaction itly assume that the brutal realities -DRUM Newsletter No. 13 a bloody no-man's land for several to the Panther approach, a group of of capitalist exploitation can be changed March barely lost in a runoff election days. Yet the mass lynchings elicited radical nationalists centered around by a few reforms. Instead, revolu- to the little more from the than a pious the candidate of a temporarily uni- UAW Wayne State campus and including tionaries who seek to take the struggle fied bureaucracy, after initially beating 4 WORKERS VANGUARD . ,

out a field of 21 candidates. In a later and Nigger Executive Board," by Blacks acting in their own interests. courtroom defense with massive dem- election for vice-president, the in- and ELRUM’s solution "to break up this We believe that this can best be accom- out-bureaucrats onstrations in the black community and again blocked to sup- union-management plished through a League of Revolu- partnership" was open-air "People's Courts" staged in port Andy Hardy (current Local 3 "to obtain tionary Black Workers. BLACK representation," as downtown Detroit. Later that year, president), who defeated the DRUM though ihe problem were the lack of "...Those Brothers and Sisters who LRBW also led the campaign against candidate by 2,600 to 1,600. "blackness" (i.e., nationalism) of the are interested in a truly militant or- the attempted extradition of RNA head, Word of DRUM'S audacity spread to sellout bureaucrats. that ganization is dedicated to the Robert F. Williams to North Carolina. other plants and even outside the in- Concretely, cause of Black labor and Black liber- this meant running a James Johnson, an Eldon worker dustry. ELRUM was formed at Chrys- slate which included ation should contact the League of Jordan Sims (now who killed two white foremen and a ler's Eldon Avenue Gear and Axle plant Local Revolutionary Black Workers now." 961 president and co-chairman co-worker, was successfully defended in late 1968, and less important groups of the reformist United — National Spear Vol. 1, No. 1 by Cockrel on the grounds that the at Detroit arose Forge (FORUM), Jef- Caucus) for committeeman, and later But pressure of the assembly line and the ferson Assembly (JARUM), Mack Av- supporting the the inability to square a national- opportunist Sims (though continual racial harassment had driven enue Stamping (MARUM), Ford ist orientation with the realities of River he cautiously refused to accept their Johnson temporarily insane. The La- class struggle in the plants and the de- bor Defense Coalition, a League front, cline of plant-related activity, plus was able to mobilize Coleman Young, pressure in that direction from a sec- John Conyers and other black liberals tion of the leadership, led to an in- (not to mention the Guardians, a black creasing emphasis on the black work- policemen's association) against police er's role in the community: harassment and U.S. Senate surveil- "Black workers have the ability to deal lance of the League. In a fine example with the overall problems that exist of adaptation, the League demanded not within the black community. ... CHRY- the dismantling of the police, but rather RUM will be concerned not only with its reorganization to "concentrate its problems that exist inside the plants efforts on organized and the but problems that exist inside our crime community— the Black Community. The heroin traffic in Detroit" {Detroit News, first two projects that CHRY-RUM has 4 May 1971)— a demand even the black undertaken are the International Black cops could easily support.' Appeal and Parents and Students for Community Control (control of our "White-Skin Privilege" and school system)." All-Black Unions —CHRY-RUM, Vol. 1, No. 1 It was the key programmatic points The abortive IBA was conceived of as of "white-skin privilege" and separa- a black alternative to the United- tist dual-unionism which were the focal Foundation— a charity fund to be sup- points of DRUM'S approach to the ported by "communities of the black plants. The strong support they elicited and poor." This is the logic of commu- resulted in large part from the condition nity control: the poor supporting the facing the newly hired black youth. Be- poor.' sides the gross negligence of safety Detroit had recently a school passed standards and the massive speed-up, decentralization measure setting up they were confronted by older, con- regional school boards (which were to servatized racist white workers, an become centers of strike-breaking ac- all-white management, and a ponder- tivity in the recent DFT strike). In ous, isolated, heavily white bureauc- response, the League's front group, racy dominated by cold-war anti- Parents and Students for Community communism. The "progressive" Reu- Control (PASCC), demanded that re- ther bureaucracy had no response to the gional boundaries be redrawn so that dramatic increase in speed-up which blacks would exercise a majority in greeted the black new-hires and was of most districts. Black worker-student- course hostile to the nationalist cur- faculty committees would then be elec- rents circulating in the ghetto. Being ted to ensure such things as community unfamiliar with the UAW's relatively kitchens and the "teaching of skills that more radical and democratic past, new have longevity and are marketable." A black workers were presented with a PASCC slate was in the run regional view of the union as a hostile, white- school board elections based on that controlled apparatus allied with the program. company. The response was a wide- The League simultaneously devel- spread nationalist hostility to the union oped a base in several ghetto high itself rather than class-struggle oppo- schools. Its Black Students United Front League of Revolutionary Black Workers sition to the sellout bureaucracy. apparently had no working-class orien- For the consciously nationalist tation whatsoever. In an illustrative League leadership and the guilt- campaign against the suspensions of Rouge (FRUM), Fleet- tripping white New Left, which also Cadillac support) in his bid for local president several students disciplined for taking wood (CADRUM), the Detroit embraced the theory, "white-skin priv- News in 1970. This turn of events came from part in a "revolt" at militant Northern (NEWHUM), United Parcel warehouse ilege" was nothing but a cover for DRUM’S (and ELRUM’s) admitted em- High School in September 1969, it called evading the difficult task of uniting the (UPRUM) and other places. phasis on: for a total amaesty for all disciplined entire proletariat The Eldon plant, in particular, around a revolution- "electing an all Black slate ... we have students and the removal of cops from is crucial to Chrysler's entire opera- ary program. Rather than seeing the always been handed this slate or that the school, but also demanded "that all struggle against the rampant chau- tion, supplying parts to all of its as- slate none of which represents the best pictures of whites be removed from vinism white sembly plants, is of vital interest of Black Workers. We all among workers as an in- and part the Northern High School and be replaced Lynch Road complex which includes remember how we used to go to the tegral part of the strategy for socialist with pictures of our own heroes . . [and] the Detroit Forge and Plymouth As- polls with a hand full of slates trying . revolution, they wrote off that section the Nationalist Flag of Unity (Red, to pick out all of the black candidates . . of the working sembly. ELRUM launched itself by or- class as an "aristocracy We were forced in many instances to Green, Black) be raised each morning" ganizing a mass rally in front of the of white labor which gives white labor vote for stone cut throat pollacks, {Inner City Voice, February 1970). Local 961 union hall in January 1969, a huge stake in the imperialist sys- known white racist, and head scratching While the League gave its community- demanding that the act the tem, and renders white labor unable union on Uncle Toms because we had no alter- control campaign some "working- many unresolved health and safety and unfit to lead the working class in native candidates." class" rhetorical flourishes, its basic grievances. the U S." (LRBW General Program). — DRUM leaflet, February 1970 appeal was to black nationalism. And, Consequently, DRUM and ELRUM The firing of two militants who par- like the nationalist demand for black actively discouraged ticipated in the rally, and the local militant white foremen, it simply oriented to changing the workers from following their leader- president's agnostic response, led to From Plants to the the trappings (the flag!), without attack- ship, a wildcat the following with and, at times, lapsed into the week an "Community” ing the essence of the racist, anti- crudest race-baiting and ethnic slurs. expanded list of demands, similar to working class educational system. The DRUM constitution explicitly "de- those raised by DRUM, including "the Based on the apparent strength of nied [membership] to all honkies due removal of the non-English speaking DRUM and ELRUM after the initial Defense of Black Militants to the fact that said honkey has been witch doctor we have at present and wildcats and the obvious attractiveness the historic enemy, betrayer, and ex- replaced with a Black doctor" {The of the DRUM concept to other black The other major arena of the South ploiter of black people." It went on to End, 10 February 1969)1 This workers, yet seeing the need to trans- League's non-plant work, and the most state its main task as: second action resulted in the firing of cend the isolation of individual plant successful, was a series of major legal a large number of workers, of whom "Getting rid of the racist, tyrannical, caucuses, the ICV cadre moved to or- defense campaigns. The campaigns, 25 were not reinstated. ganize the and unrepresentative UAW as repre- League of Revolutionary conducted in a highly political manner sentation for Black workers, so that By May, Eldon was again shut down Black Workers in early 1969. The im- and propagandized in the plant news- with this enemy out of the way we can in a two-day wildcat organized by the petus behind the League's formation led letters, were largely under the control deal directly with our main adversary, Eldon Safety Committee, "a loose co- to conflicting notions within the lead- of Ken Cockrel, whose extensive use of the white racist, owners of the means alition composed by ELRUM, Eldon ership: whether to expand into the com- white radical legal assistance was of production." Wildcat (a small syndicalist group) and munity or orient toward a pan-plant, viewed with disdain by the more DRUM forsook a serious struggle for several discharged union officials" pan-industry workers' organization. "honky" -baiting elements in the leadership in the {Radical America, March-April 1971). UAW and attempted Reflecting its success and base in the organization. instead to substitute itself The wildcat, which resulted in the for the plants, the League introduced itself The first major case was the New existing organizations of the firing of three ELRUM militants, was a class as follows: Bethel incident: several members of which encompassed the response to the death of a young, black masses of the black separatist Republic of New black, as well as white, forklift driver and the mounting pile-up "DRUM, FRUM, and ELRUM are or- workers. By Africa were indicted for allegedly mur- offering itself as a of safety violations. ganizations of and for the super- revolutionary alter- dering two cops during a exploited, over-worked, last-hired, police attack on native to the UAW it was caught, as well, the newsletter a Though ELRUM first-fired, sick and tired Black work- RNA meeting at the New Bethel church in the organizational bind of attempting pointed out that it was betrayed by in ers of Detroit. These organizations March 1969. Cockrel mobilized a to satisfy the needs of a conscious those "Uncle Tom" union officials and large staff of are dedicated to the development of sympathetic liberal law- revolutionary vanguard and those of a ignored by "Our Uncle Tom President unified, disciplined, and effective action yers and supplemented the successful continued on pa^e 9 18 JANUARY 1974 5 .

which has consistently fought for the interests of the working class is the Continued from page 5

Socialist Labour League." ( Labour J l ress, October 8, 1973) The class can be won to revolutionary politics, and its potential allies mobilised, only on the Soul Power or Workers Power? basis of struggle around a programme plants Williams, which meets the felt needs of the op- broadly based trade union. Thus, while a motion away from the auto activities— Baker, Wooten, to day-to-day pressed today and leads to socialist the DRUM constitution demanded a as well as the U AW and led the League Luke-Tripp. Rooted in the revolution. Such a programme the SLL membership based on programmatic seek support from non- working-class reality of the assembly line, their In was a struggle to replaces with economism and simple agreement, it was forced to set elements in the black community. driving concern the shop floor. calls of "Follow me!" This was not the up various makeshift levels of Our Thing is DRUM, LRBW leader change the conditions on side were the petty- way of Trotsky. "affiliation." Hamlin said: On the other Hamlin The Fourth International's Transi- Dual-unionist in principle, the bourgeois types like Cockrel, "We always had an impulse to stay faction, who tional Programme— valid in all its League caucuses nonetheless vacillated and Watson in the pro-BWC with the plants and organize the plants "... concerning the de- saw black workers as a tool to enable fundamentals today— called for in their conceptions because that's where the power was. "black people" to get a piece of committees on prices, made up of dele- gree to which it was permissible to That's where blacks have power, they the gates from factories, trade unions, work within the UAW. At times, they are the producers, they can close the action. factional is- co-operatives, farmers' organisations, emphasized the similar positions of down the economy. But after we rec- Ostensibly, the major all our the split was national- the Tittle man' of the city, house- black and white workers under capital- ognized that we had to involve sue i n v o 1 v e d in in supporting those struggles fact, both sides were strongly wives, etc. " These committees must not ism, or claimed interest in "a peaceful people ism. In in the plants, we began to look beyond nationalist. pro-LRBW held a be based on illusions that the state can change in our Local 3. DRUM has always The factories What had happened was calling all elements of Hamtramck third-period Stalinist position control prices, nor that their own de- represented of - that the League represents a merger after control prices can Assembly" {DRUM Newsletter, un- for the creation of a black nation mands to themselves a number of various elements in In on a Special a successful proletarian revolution, be met under capitalism. They must be dated). a march UAW the black community and includes the ostensibly anti-nationalist organised on a programme of: a sliding Convention (November 1969), they de- students. ..." whereas wing had an openly reformist, scale of wages (so they go up with manded "50% representation for black Cockrel elements," es- o n e t i o n of involve- prices); open the account books of busi- workers on the international executive That these "various popular-front c c p forces, could not struggles in the commu- ness; and nationalisation of industry board" and Reuther's replacement by a sentially hostile class ment "in mass single plant" split without compensation under workers black president, yet maintained the be cohesively unified into a po- nity as well as the (LRBW evident with control. As the Transitional Pro- need for autonomous League control litical formation became documents). split in the LRBW. gramme says, "By this means the work- over the black membership. the later factional conclusion of their nation- ers will be able to prove to the farmers Their program raised a number of The logical Socialism in One City indicating a country where no material that the real reason for high prices is transitional demands, a cer- alism, in nation exists, was to community-control nationalism not high wages but the exorbitant pro- tain familiarity with Trotskyism and basis for a black The de- after the petty-bourgeois elements of the pro-BWC wing was a theoretical fits of the capitalists and the overhead the Transitional Program. These tail personal ambitions) in for its opportunistic appetite for expenses of capitalist anarchy." (The mands included an end to unemploy- (and Cockrel’s mask -control Detroit. Thus, it was small farmers Trotsky uses as an ex- ment through a shortened workweek, openly reformist community political power in abandoning the struggle for a and Hamlin who served as the ample of the oppressed sections of the organizing the unorganized and unem- struggles, Cockrel Thus, white radi- petty-bourgeoisie are no longer a sig- ployed, organization of workers mili- militant opposition in the plants. League's spokesmen to the call a tools in the strug- cal and it was Watson who nificant stratum in Australia.) The tias for self-defense and the for the caucuses became community, control, and the achieved notoriety as editor of The struggle of the working class and its general strike against the Indochina gle for community full circle from seeing End, he turned that campus potential allies against highprices must war. However, their work in the plants League went South when as a supportive newspaper into an unofficial organ of be led beyond the boundaries of capi- was characterized by simple shop- the black community the vanguard strug- the League and an avowedly revolution- talism to proletarian revolution. floor economism coupled with exposes mechanism behind to assign- role in the of company and union racism. The gle of the black proletariat, ary daily paper. Watson's black worker a supportive role West Central Organization and the Perverts Trotskyism plant newsletters would describe the ing the SWL struggle. Hamlin's in the Black Stu- racist, shoddy medical care provided in the community PASCC, and factors leading to the League's dent United Front, were the main ele- The reformist Socialist Workers by the clinic or the racism of an The in emphasis were not in the League's commumcy- League, which gives lip service to Trot- individual foreman or union official. rightward shift ments since its dual- skyism, criminally transforms the call Having rejected the perspective of a accidental, of course, control work. anti-white-worker approach They, along with ex-SNCC leader, of the Transitional Programme for long, but necessary struggle to replace unionism, reality of American leader, James committees on prices into a classless, the International bureaucracy with a did not accept the and sometime LRBW itself put organizers of the single-issue campaign subordinating revolutionary leadership, the League society which the League Foreman, were the black workers are an Development Confer- the working class to petty-bourgeois rationalized its impotence with an em- forward: that Black Economic pro- to finance black chari- protest politics. The SWL holds up as phasis on local issues: "We must keep essential sector of the American ance, a scheme organization of businesses through ex- a model for an "anti-inflation" move- our eyes open and see through the letariat. And while an ties and small play an important white churches. Cockrel's ment last May's meat boycott in the elaborate smoke screen of the National black workers could tortion from flashy legal United States {Direct Action, November contracts and focus on our local sup- role in class struggle if linked to a major work was in the united proletarian vanguard party, the defense cases, and all three were in- 9, 1973), a self-defeating and com- plement which is the point at which orientation led it in setting up the Motor pletely bankrupt tactic cynically used we lose or gain" (ELRUM leaflet, League's nationalist strumental against white, League and Control, Con- by the "progressive" wing of the Amer- 1970). to orient black workers City Labor in Club, a white ican labour bureaucracy to lobby Presi- thus condemning itself to impotence flict, and Change Book This parochial outlook resulting face of the company and UAW support group. Cockrel and Hamlin dent Nixon for . . . a more "equitable" the from the absence of a program to unite League's isolation in De- wage-price freeze! The SWL also pro- bureaucracy. viewed the the entire class eventually facilitated troit as a strength and foresaw the vides a clear example of the tailist possibility of winning electoral con.rol politics of Pabloism in the workers The League Splits of the city: "the resources we want to movement when the same issue of acquire in Detroit is, you know, mon- Direct Action engages in apologetics Spartacist Local Though the split of the League of opolistic control of the use of force . . for the "Socialist Left" in the Victorian Revolutionary Black Workers in June Directory control over the apparatus of state ALP: "Real opposition [to the wage 1971 concerned the question of merging power" {Our Thing is DRUM). freeze] is coming from the Labor move- BERKELEY- with the newly-formed Black Workers If Stalin's theory of "socialism in ment including some of the leaders of OAKLAND (415) 653-4668 Congress, it was a result of the long- one country" was a criminal apology the Victorian Socialist Left of the ALP Box 852, Mam P.O. standing tension inherent in the isolation, Cockrel's ." Berkeley, CA 94701 League's contradictory "pro-working- for Soviet Russia's and ourselves. . We find that this "real "socialism in one city" is a cover for opposition" consisted of tacking an class" nationalism. The League had not BOSTON (617) 492-3928 in respect- effectively struggled for programmatic appetites to win a place addendum to the Socialist Left's "Yes- M.I.T. Sta. Box 188, able bourgeois politics. Cockrel's di- No" position calling for a cost-of-living Cambridge, 02139 clarity to begin with, and the factional MA is straight toward the Demo- escalator— which even Whitlam has oc- lineups clearly reflected the different rection 837-1854 cratic as a newer model casionally endorsed! TheSWL's Pablo- BUFFALO (716) sections and appetites in the hetero- Party Box 412, Station C Coleman Young. ist methodology leads it to adopt the geneous organization. The faction fav- Buffalo, NY 14209 This orientation is as far role of a left pressure on the Socialist oring the maintenance of a separate removed the motivation which initially Left, which is— apparently— supposed CHICAGO (312) 728-2151 identity for the League consisted of the from attracted black workers to as to become the instrument of proletarian Box 6471, Mam P.O. worker cadre and those leadership DRUM is revolution. In reality the SWL simply Chicago, IL 60680 elements involved in the early plant continued on page 10 serves as left support to the union a CLEVELAND (216)651-9147 bureaucracy. Box 6765 Cleveland, OH 44101

For Revolutionary Alternative DETROIT (313) 921-4626 Leadership in the Unions Box 663A, General P.O. Detroit, MI 48232 The working class needs not left- LOS ANGELES (213) 467-6855 Sta. WORKERS wing apologies for the treachery of the Box 38053. Wilcox labour lieutenants of capital, but an Los Angeles, CA 90038 alternative political leadership openly NEW ORLEANS (504) 866-8384 based on a programme adequate to the Box 51634, Main P.O. tasks of the proletariat, a transitional New Orleans, LA 70151 VANGUARD programme beginning with the day-to- Name _ day, immediate demands of the class NEW YORK (212) 925-2426 and leading inexorably to the dictator- Box 1377, G.P.O. Address ship of the proletariat, the overthrow of New York, NY 10001 C Ity / State/ Z ip capitalist property relations as a whole. SAN DIEGO (714) 272-2286 Revolutionaries must create an opposi- Box 22052, Univ. City Sta. tion within the workers organisations San Diego, CA 92122 clearly based on such a full programme includes SAN FRANCISCO (415) 653-4668 SPARTACIST rr of struggle against capitalism, as the Box 1757 only real alternative to the policies of order from/pay to: Spartacist Publishing Co./ Box 1377, San Francisco, CA 94101 GPO/NY.NY 10001 Whitlam/ Hawke.

18 JANUARY 1974 9 ,

racial Hamlin was to remain active in the supporting the Communist League while ent level of widespread discrim- Continued from page 9 BWC, now closely connected with the clandestinely buried in the inner-city ination, separate organizations of black right-Maoist Revolutionary Union. auto plants. Subjectively revolutionary workers would be a hindrance rather than an aid to class unity. Instead, the The splintered League left behind instincts notwithstanding, its members best guarantee for a struggle against a twofold legacy in Detroit: on the will find no revolutionary solution with- discrimination is uncompromis- Soul Power... one hand, a nationalist-tinged social- in the framework of theCL's reformist racial they will be ing hositility to any form of labor democracy-in-embryo (manifested in Stalinism, Once more, the contra- reformism. Thus the SL's call for the Mayor's desk in Detroit City Hall the complementary appetites of Ken confronted with many of trade^union caucuses based on the from the assembly lines at Dodge Main. Cockrel and Jordan Sims), and, on the dictions that wracked DRUM and full transitional program, rather than Their nationalism was a raging reaction other, a hard nationalist semi- ELRUM early on. be a militant impulse opportunist lowest-common denomina- to the racism of the bureaucrats and syndicalist cadre embedded in the There may "militant" formations pushed by the bosses and a violent disappointment inner-city auto plants. behind rejection of the Moscow-line tor of a "peaceful various fake lefts, is of particular in the apparent apathy of their white Cockrel's pro-BWC position in the Stalinists' pipedreams for black worker militants. class brothers. The pro-BWC faction split was designed to propel him into road to socialism" and Martin Luther importance interracial har- their concerns are not somewhat accurately accused the other a more acceptable milieu for his poli- King-style pleas for Though of to the fight against racial dis- wing of "contending that in essence tical appetites. Already, through the mony. But the CL's Peking-brand limited such caucuses are a much all League activity should be focused Labor Defense Coalition (which he took peaceful coexistence and crackpot- crimination, weapon in securing even upon Dodge Main and Eldon plants, with him out of the League) and his nationalist theory of a "negro nation" more effective gains for specially- [and posingj a reformist, economist earlier legal defense work, Cockrelliad in the Deep South (with a majority immediate workers than re- program that opposed the anti- established ties with white radicals of "white negroes"!) are no better. oppressed minority with organized around imperialist line of the BWC with a like "Marxist" Judge Justin Ravitz and Only by breaking sharply the formist formations issue of racial oppression— mass line of 'Black Workers Unite'." black liberals like Coleman Young. petty-bourgeois politics of trade-union the single and Stalinism and adopting is what the League's caucuses Though it still called for commu- After his brief stay in the BWC, Cock- reformism which etc.) effectively be- nity control, the pro-LRBW wing was rel’s LDC initiated the anti-STRESS the proletarian program of Trotskyism (DRUM, ELRUM, the hand, to the extent motivated by a workerist impulse which campaign, with its watered-dowh ver- can subjectively revolutionary black came. On other to such as ending nonetheless recognized the BWC's anti- sion of community control of the police. worker militants contribute over- that DRUM demands a shortened imperialist emphasis as a liquidation Cockrel's changing rhetoric is a coming the crisis of proletarian lead- unemployment through organization of workers mi- of class interests into a classless front: barometer of his adaptability in pur- ership which is today the decisive workweek, anlbitions: his earlier roadblock to socialist revolution. In litias for self-defense and a general "A calling for everyone to struggle suit of personal struggling to build a unified Leninist strike against the Indochina war were against imperialism subsumes one's black workerese ("Dig the whole char- on the Transi- intended seriously to pose a revolu- own struggle to the majority to the acterization that black people give jobs vanguard party based rebuild the alternative to the bureaucracy extent that the specific form of our man: it's a 'yoke,' it's a 'hang,' it's tional Program and to tionary International destroyed by Pab- not reformist mishmash), struggle is overlooked and we end up [ is Fourth (and some a 'slave'..." Our Thing DRUM J) it is it only be harmful to for example with anti-war demonstra- gave way to "responsible radical" - loist revisionism, now possible then clearly can tions as the prime form as opposed to sounding declarations of the need "to to lay the bases to replace the sym- divide supporters of such a program organizing Black people around con- use the 1973 municipal elections to biotic duo of petty -bourgeois black on racial lines. crete conditions." that in the nationalism and reactionary white rac- The struggle against white racism —Split documents, take power and use power ism with proletarian internationalism. and special oppression of minority pro-LRBW position interests of the people." This in turn gave way to a diplomatically neutral, workers will depend on winning the The pro-LRBW wing alternative was back-handed support for Democrat working masses to understand the need For a United Vanguard Party "zeroing in on the plant settings with Coleman Young when Cockrel realized for a class-struggle program on all the appropriate use of the Marxist- he personally had no chance of winning and Class-Struggle Union questions facing the labor movement, Leninist method" and "building the a mayoral election at this time: "of Caucuses and on posing the struggle against mass base of Black workers around all the individuals being talked about special oppression in a manner that instead of set- proletarian consciousness." Its nation- as being 'electable,' Coleman Young The membership of the League was strengthens class unity the class against alist line was that "the removal of comes closest to an individual with certainly motivated in good part by ting one part of does not out racists," another. Thus a class -struggle trade- capitalism stamp whom we could work" ( Groundwork militant opposition to the pro-company ending and thus, blacks must have "the revo- July 1973). bureaucracy of the UAW and by a union caucus would call for lutionary right to self-determination At a time when both bourgeois desire for a proletarian strategy for unemployment through a sliding scale and secession after capitalism is parties stand increasingly exposed as black liberation, as opposed to the qf wages and hours and for an end to smashed." This position, and the gen- being unable to satisfy the most min- Panthers' idolization of "brother-on- all discriminatory practices in hiring eral identification of these elements imal needs of the working class, the-block" lumpen elements. But this and upgrading. with Maoism, led a number of them Cockrel is grooming his base in prep- is not to ignore the pernicious honky- On the other hand, while struggling to join the latter-day third-period aration for diverting the dissatisfac- baiting and anti-white pseudo-nation- within the unions for the elimination Stalinists of the Communist League. tion of Detroit's largely black prole- alism which were also an integral part of all racial, national and sexual dis- would vig- Of the other faction, only Mike tariat into the snare of a homegrown of the LRBW— and to which so much crimination, such a caucus social democracy. of the left accommodated or pros- orously oppose taking the union to The logical complement to Cockrel's trated itself in a pathetic attempt to court, i.e., calling on the bourgeois city-hall social democracy is, of tail after the popular petty-bourgeois state to arbitrate disputes within the SL/RIV course, a slicker, blacker, more palat- current of the moment. As Lenin re- workers movement. It would raise de- able bureaucracy in the UAW, The marked repeatedly, it is the task of mands which emphasize the interna- fragile position of the present bureau- the proletariat "to combat nationalism tional character of labor’s struggle Public Offices crats was revealed by the fear with of every kind" ("The Right of Nations for emancipation (labor strikes against which they viewed the relatively small to Self-Determination," 1914). imperialist wars, against protection- N LRBW caucuses, as well as their panic Unprincipled tailism is not the way ism, full citizenship rights for foreign during the recent Mack Avenue Stamp- to win and educate solid communist workers, for international strike ac- BAY AREA ing Plant sitdown, the River Rouge cadre, capable of leading the misses tion) and fight for its program on an Wednesday shootout and the UAW's desperate to victory over capitalism by success- explicitly political basis. Thus in op- j to the position to the bureaucracy's policies and . 1:00-6:00 p.m. maneuvering shove 1973 con- fully combatting all forms of reformist Thursday ' tract down auto workers' throats. false consciousness, among them na- of begging for crumbs from the capi- The League's failure to build aprin- tionalism. Among the tasks of the talist parties (Democratic and Repub- Saturday 2:30-6:00 p.m. cipled opposition to that bureaucracy-, Trotskyist vanguard, rather, is to state lican) and petty-bourgeois nationalist 330-40th Street not to abandon the existing mass work- clearly the responsibilities of socialist calls for a black party (which— witness (near Broadway) ers organizations but to struggle within militants who claim to stand for Marx- the 1971 Gary convention— endup tailing after black Oakland, California the UAW for a united movement of ism-Leninism and the historic inter- Democrats), we call for a workers party the to Phone 653-4668 class-conscious black and white work- ests of the proletariat. based on unions ers, opened the way for demagogic The "black question" is one of the fight for a workers government. reformists like Jordan Sims. Sims, most difficult, and at the same time While the Stalinists occasionally pay \ now president of Eldon Local 961, saw strategically most important, problems grudging lip service to Marxist princi- BOSTON the futility of the League’s separatist for U.S. communists. Its solution re- ples when it does not interfere with line, and then opted for joining the quires an uncompromising fight against their reformist maneuvers, their Wednesday i . , :00 5:00 p m bureaucracy rather than fighting it. white chauvinism and the myriad forms trade -union work is uniformly char- 7:00-9:00 p.m. In the recent Chrysler negotiations last of special oppression of minority work- acterized by simple union militancy. Friday J September, Sims voted for the grossly ers and an equally consistent struggle As Trotsky correctly remarked, the Saturday 1 1 :00 a.m.-3:00 sell-out contract before claiming he had against the bourgeois ideology of na- purpose of raising transitional de- been "duped" into it. tionalism, even in the most "prole- mands is to make a bridge between 639 Massachusetts Avenue Neither the minimally economist tarian" guise. The latter is no academic the present consciousness and needs Room 335 demands that Sims' United National question. of the masses and the socialist pro- Cambridge, Massachusetts Caucus puts forward in its role as the Black workers are a doubly op- gram of the revolution. La the epoch Phone 492-3928 ^ respectable "left" opposition to the pressed section of the U.S. proletariat, of decaying capitalism, when success- Woodcock leadership, nor the shop- forcibly segregated at the lowest levels. ful reformism is impossible, the trade floor economism of DRUM'S earlier Consequently, their liberation will unions will either be won to revolu- NEW YORK "mass line," can advance by one iota come about only through socialist revo- tionary leadership standing for the f the political consciousness of workers lution and common struggle with white Transitional Program or they will Monday —black or white.' This is not to deny workers under the leadership of a serve as instruments of the bourgeoisie | that there in crushing the through 3:00-7:30 p.m, are differences. Whereas unified vanguard party. The concept of workers movement and many of the original cadre separate black nation in the obliterating those gains already won by Friday ) LRBW were a U.S. apparently driven by a revolutionary not only lacks an objective basis in the labor through bitter struggle. Just as Saturday 1:00-6:00 p.m. impulse, Sims is driven by something class struggle and political economy worker -militants must transcend nar- row 260 West Broadway much more mundane— a thirst to re- of the country, but actually plays into trade unionism, so must revolu- place the presently isolated, tionists among the specially Room 522 ineffective the hands of those whose answer to oppressed Woodcock bureaucracy with a more social conflicts is race social strata transcend the special- New York, New York war— the inevi- streamlined machine, better capable of table result of which would interest pressure group strategy — Phone 925-5665 be the mas- serving as the "labor lieutenants of sacre of thousands of blacks and the which offers no real solution to their capital." triumph of white racism. More than felt oppression— and embrace a social- The other legacy, the League's any other social group, minority work- ist world view, which alone provides semi-syndicalist, "third-world" na- ing people have a direct interest in a consistent strategy for a unified fight tionalism, as expressed by the pro- working-class unity. against capitalist exploitation and HOYHIMYK LRBW faction, now finds itself In the factories, even with the pres- oppression. 10 WORKERS VANGUARD