The Internationalist No. 57 September-October 2019 50¢ Against Trump and the Democrats – Build a Workers Party Impeachment Crisis: “Deep State” vs. Bigot-in-Chief OCTOBER 30 – So the Dems finally did it. secution of immigrants in the U.S., of white- After months of agitation by liberals and the washing anti-Semitic fascist killers, the list Democratic (Party) Socialists of America, goes on and on. But that is not what Trump and months of resistance from the Demo- is being charged with. The Democrats are Internationalist photo cratic Party establishment, on September wrapping themselves in the flag, vituper- 24 House of Representatives speaker Nancy ating about national security, inveighing Pelosi announced that the lower house of against Russia and complaining about the Congress would open an official impeach- Republican “dirty tricks” against them, the ment inquiry against U.S. president Don- other main capitalist party. Both are parties ald Trump. The charges being investigated of U.S. imperialism, of the system of war, would be “betrayal of his oath of office, be- poverty and racism. If Republican Trump trayal of our national security and betrayal is immigrant-basher-in-chief, Democrat of the integrity of our elections.” The presi- Obama was deporter-in-chief. The presi- dent, who always relishes being the center dent incites racist terror against black people of attention, crowed that this will be “a posi- while across the country Democratic mayors tive for me.” The New York Times (25 Sep- preside over the racist killer cops who gun tember) foretold “an epic struggle that will down black people in the streets. test the limits of the Constitution and the The impeachment investigation has balance of power in the American system.” certainly thrown Washington politics into Donald Trump is certainly guilty of nu- crisis. It goes right to the heart of the state merous crimes, of sadistic murderous cruelty apparatus. But class-conscious workers, de- against refugees at the border, of vicious per- continued on page 6 Internationalists at Washington, D.C. protest against Trump inauguration. Defend the Kurds! Drive Out U.S./NATO Imperialists! For Workers Action Against U.S./Turkey Attack on Kurds! OCTOBER 14: An agreement has been an- canton of Afrin in Janu-

nounced between the Kurdish-led Syrian ary 2018, forcing tens of Delil Souleiman / Agence France-Presse Democratic Forces and the government thousands of Kurds to of Bashar al-Assad for the Syrian army flee. to take border positions in the face of the On the first day of Turkish invasion. This does not presently the invasion, the Turk- change the fundamental character of Tur- ish military carried out key’s occupation of northern Syria, with 181 air strikes against the backing of the White House, which is targets in Syria, in ad- directed at the Kurds. We also defend Syria dition to pounding the against the U.S./Turkish attack. border towns of Tel The long-expected Turkish invasion of Abyad and Ras al-Ain northeastern Syria began on October 9, two with heavy artillery. days after U.S. president Donald Trump gave Some 100,000 people Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Kurdish-held ter- the go-ahead. The immediate target of the ritory have fled their attack is the Kurdish YPG (People’s Pro- homes, according to tection Units) militia, along with the Syrian the United Nations. Democratic Forces (SDF) led by the YPG. In The YPG/SDF vowed reality, the entire ethnic Kurdish population to resist the Turkish at- of northeastern Syria, about 2 million people, tack, and returned fire, is threatened with mass expulsion and mas- sending rockets against sacres. Exactly that occurred when the Turk- the police station in the ish army occupied the northwestern Syrian continued on page 16 Syrian Kurds in Ras al-Ain demonstrate against imminent Turkish invasion on October 9. For Workers Revolution from Turkey and Syria to Iran and Egypt For a United Socialist Kurdistan in a Socialist Federation of the Middle East “Workers Struggle Has No Borders!” Defeat U.S./Mexico War on Immigrants As Democrats and Republicans gear A highlight of up for the 2020 elections, both capitalist the speak-out was the parties have been attacking immigrants. speech of a comrade Xenophobic president Donald Trump did a from the Grupo Inter- repeat of his 2015 campaign launch (when nacionalista, Mexican Internationalist photo he demonized Mexicans as “drug deal- section of the League ers, criminals, rapists”), appealed for rac- for the Fourth Interna- ist votes and sent waves of fear through tional, who spoke about immigrant communities with threats to how the new president round up “millions” of undocumented im- Andrés Manuel López migrants and immediately deport them. In Obrador, who cam- response, as they did last year, liberal pro- paigned as a popu- Democratic NGOs (non-governmental or- list, has been acting ganizations) called protests against family as a border guard for separation, but meanwhile Democrats in Trump, escalating de- Congress voted to increase funding for the portations and harass- I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforce- ment of Central Ameri- ment) police. can migrants to keep In the midst of the anti-immigrant them away from the hysteria, a white supremacist went into U.S. border. We print a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas and below a lightly edited opened fire on Latinos, killing 22 and version of her remarks. August 29 “Speak-Out Against Racist I.C.E. Raids” at California State University, Los Angeles. injuring two dozen others. As a pretext have united the repressive forces on both immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala for this mass murder, the shooter posted Immigrant workers today face a situa- sides of the border, that is, to join the and Honduras from 2015 to 2018, while a racist manifesto on the Internet vitu- tion of extreme urgency. I.C.E. police with [Mexican president] Mexico deported 436,000 migrants from perating against a supposed “Hispanic A stark example of the rapacious- Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s border Central America. invasion” that would “replace” the white ness of imperialism can be found in the police, deploying the full force of the state Completely counter to what the re- population. “Replacement”? In all the immigrant-bashing hysteria whipped up against its victims. formist left in the U.S. and Mexico think, coverage of this heinous crime there was by the Trump government. The image of a Both militarism and the catastroph- bourgeois democracy can only be in the hardly a mention of the fact that Texas girl crying for her father who had been ar- ic economic and social conditions in service of the bourgeoisie. In reality, was part of Mexico until it was invaded rested by the I.C.E. police and the images Honduras and all Latin America are the capitalism cannot be reformed, it can’t by white supremacists from the Southern of children locked in cages in deplorable product of U.S. imperialism, and it is be made into a “lesser evil.” This is not slave states, who swamped the Hispanic conditions, aroused the indignation of these that have led to thousands of poor about “developing democracy,” because population, staged a rebellion, instituted thousands of people. people, including entire families, to mi- it is the capitalist state that puts that car- slavery (banned in Mexico), joined the This gave rise to the idea that the grate. Those who produced the political ries out bourgeois “democracy” with its U.S. as a slave state, and then triggered openly racist bourgeois Donald Trump was framework for the social and economic weapons, its police, its government and the 1848 U.S. war on Mexico that stole to blame. But it must be said that it is not crisis that has devastated Honduras are its political parties. half its territory. only his fault: the bourgeoisie is acting as to be found directly in Washington and We are opposed to anti-immigrant In this context, with immigrants ter- a whole, and the supposedly “lesser evil” Wall Street. repression and fight for full rights of citi- rorized by the U.S. government and by parties of Mexico and the U.S., that is, the In Honduras, Trump’s right-wing zenship, not just in words but in deeds. In mass murderers incited by the white su- Democratic Party and MORENA, are de- puppet government is the result of the Mexico we called to welcome the caravan, premacist in the White House, the Revo- fending the interests of the capitalist class coup d’état that the Democratic govern- in conjunction with the combative Section lutionary Internationalist Youth at Cali- against immigrants. ment of Obama staged 10 years ago, which XXII of the CNTE (National Coordinating fornia State University, Los Angeles, On one side of the border, the U.S. was approved by the State Department Committee of Education Workers) to orga- with support from the L.A. local of the government orchestrates the largest raid headed by Hillary Clinton. As a result, the nize a solidarity mobilization in Oaxaca. Internationalist Group, held a “Speak- in one state, splitting families, launching caravan of migrants headed north, fleeing We demanded asylum for refugees and full Out Against Racist I.C.E. Raids” on Au- a racist, sexist and xenophobic campaign the desperate misery and violence of their citizenship rights for all immigrants! And gust 29. Speakers related RIY’s experi- that emboldens fascist groups that attack countries of origin. we called for workers actions to defend ence in organizing to defend immigrants immigrants, and attacks the most op- My point is that the root of the migra- Central American immigrants. and Muslims in New York, IG efforts pressed groups in society. tion crisis is to be found in the function- On October 21 of last year, a state to mobilize labor in defense of immi- At the same time, on the other side ing of the decaying capitalist system. Mi- teachers assembly in Oaxaca approved a grants in Los Angeles and against rac- of the border, the Mexican government is gration is a direct and inevitable result of motion supporting the migrant caravan, ist/fascist attacks in Portland. A speaker perfecting its repressive apparatus on the imperialism. Just to give an idea; in the and mobilized workers to accompany the from Class Struggle Education Workers country’s northern and southern border, 1980s, Reagan used Honduras as a base caravan as it passed through the states spoke of the record of the Democrats in and militarizing it with the national guard for U.S. counterrevolutionary war against where the CNTE is present, and they building up the deportation machine, as against migrants. Nicaragua, with the Honduran army as its made a call to the rest of the labor move- Barack Obama became known as “de- This makes it clear that the capital- support. Then, in the 1990s, Bill Clinton ment to join with them in defending the porter-in-chief.” ist governments of the U.S. and Mexico began deporting hundreds of gang mem- caravan. The actions included calling on bers like the Mara Salvatrucha to Honduras health workers to organize medical bri- Visit the League for the Fourth International/ and El Salvador. gades to provide medical care for the mi- And when in 2006 Mexican Presi- grants. Internationalist Group on the Internet dent Felipe Calderón launched the drug We also called to defeat U.S. imperi- http://www.internationalist.org war to comply with the orders of U.S. alist domination of Latin America, which president George W. Bush, the drug traf- U.S. politicians contemptuously call “our The fickers began to move to San Pedro Sula, back yard.” The struggle for full citizen- Internationalist Honduras, today the most violent city in ship rights for all immigrants, and to stop A Journal of Revolutionary Marxism the world. the raids, must be part of a genuinely for the Reforging of the Fourth International So yes, those who created the cur- revolutionary struggle. For that reason, Publication of the Internationalist Group, section of the League for the Fourth International rent immigration crisis are the imperial- we have to break with all the capitalist ists. And their answer to the devastation parties and build a workers party on the EDITORIAL BOARD: Jan Norden (editor), Fred Bergen, Mark Lazarus, Abram Negrete, Marjorie Salzburg, Jay Wood, Ines Young they created is more police and more ef- basis of a revolutionary internationalist The Internationalist (ISSN 1091-2843) is published bimonthly, skipping July-August, by Mundial fective repression. They are joined by the program. Publications, P.O. Box 3321, Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008, U.S.A. lackey Mexican bourgeoisie, which has For workers actions to stop the racist Telephone: (212) 460-0983 Fax: (212) 614-8711 E-mail: [email protected] Subscriptions: US$10 for five issues. placed itself in the service of imperial- raids of the I.C.E. police! ism. This is particularly true of immigra- ¡La lucha obrera no tiene fronteras! No. 57 September-October 2019 tion policy. The U.S. deported 294,000 Workers struggle has no borders!

2 The Internationalist Extend the Gains of the 1949 Revolution to Hong Kong – Expropriate the Bourgeoisie, Drive Out the Imperialists Hong Kong: Defeat Pro-Imperialist Riots With Revolutionary Workers Mobilization

OCTOBER 31 – For almost five months, the imperialist media marching in lockstep, Hong Kong has been convulsed by increas- have brought together an anti-communist un- ingly violent imperialist-backed protests holy alliance extending from outright fascists

and riots. Portrayed in the Western media and right-wing conservatives to bourgeois AP as “pro-democracy,” their ultimate aim is liberals and most of what remains of an os- to instigate capitalist counterrevolution in tensibly socialist left. The League for the China. Leading spokesmen of the suppos- Fourth International, in contrast, warns that edly “leaderless” movement call for inde- these protests are a threat to the remaining pendence from China for the former Brit- gains of the Chinese Revolution. They must ish colony and appeal to the U.S. president be countered with a working-class mobiliza- Donald Trump to “liberate Hong Kong.” tion on a revolutionary program to drive out They have traveled to Washington to appeal the imperialists, expropriate the Hong Kong to the U.S. government, as well as receiving bourgeoisie and end Hong Kong’s “autono- awards and funds from CIA conduits. mous” status as a capitalist enclave. It’s not just a few leaders. The protests Imperialist-Instigated Protests have been marked by numerous U.S. and Begun as protests against a bill in the UK colonial flags and even the flag of Tai- Hong Kong legislature (since withdrawn) wan, the refuge of the defeated Nationalist that would have allowed extradition of army that fled from the Chinese Revolu- suspects among other places to mainland tion in 1949. The petty-bourgeois protest- China, the mass marches and the rioting ers, whether in suits and ties or masked and that has accompanied them have been the Protest leaders have openly appealed for imperialist aid, as in this march of dressed in black, are virulently anti-commu- severest challenge to Beijing’s control thousands to the U.S. Consulate, where they were received by an official. nist. They bandy about “Alt-Right” symbols since the territory was returned to China demonstration of thousands called by the sinister provocations. This reached a cre- and have embraced fascist provocateurs a little more than two decades ago. In a from the U.S. They were quite literally in- rightist Hong Kong National Party marched scendo as official celebrations in Beijing of brazen provocation, on July 1, the anni- to the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong with the proclamation of the People’s Republic spired by the fascist/Ukrainian nationalist versary of Britain’s handover, protesters scores of U.S. flags and a blue banner pro- of China were met by an orgy of virulently uprising of 2014, copied the title of its an- stormed the Hong Kong legislative coun- claiming: “President Trump, Please Liber- anti-communist violence in Hong Kong. them and adopted its violent tactics. cil where they raised the colonial-era flag, ate Hong Kong.” On the weekend before China’s Na- The current protests are a replay and yearning for the times when the royal Two days later, 23-year-old Joshua tional Day, protesters turned central Hong sharp escalation of the 2014 “Umbrella governor appointed almost the entire as- Wong Chi-fung, one of the leading lumi- Kong’s main commercial areas into a battle- Movement” in Hong Kong, which was like- sembly and executive council. naries of the “anti-extradition” protests as field, hurling bricks and firebombs, burning wise promoted, advised and financed by the While some leftist cheerleaders for the they have exposed themselves as an anti- signs celebrating the PRC’s anniversary. imperialists. Yet such counterrevolutionary Hong Kong protests claimed that such an- communist movement, arrived in Germany Police responded with clouds of tear gas. outbursts and upheavals are the inevitable tics were only an aberration, a handful of where he proclaimed that “Hong Kong is Crowds carried signs saying “Anti-Chi­ result of the “one country, two systems” crazies, the evolution of the protests has dra- like Berlin in [a] ‘new cold war’.” Invited Nazi” and chanted, “Expel the Communist agreement between China and the United matically proven them wrong. On August by the right-wing Bild newspaper, Wong Party, free Hong Kong.” Bank of China Kingdom that led to the 1997 handover of 13, demonstrators stood outside the Hong declared that the former colony is a bul- branches were smashed and set ablaze. The the former imperial outpost that was estab- Kong airport brandishing large American wark against the “dictatorship of China.” A slogan “The Heavens will Destroy the Com- lished by Britain in 1842 as part of the first flags and singing the “Star-Spangled Ban- week later he testified before the U.S. Con- munist Party” was spray-painted on build- “Opium War,” when Britain forced the drug ner.” (Inside the terminal, “pro-democracy” gress urging support for the “Hong Kong ings. The September 29 protest was part of trade on the fracturing Qing dynasty that protesters pummeled a reporter for the Chi- Human Rights and Democracy Act,” to “anti-totalitarian rallies” worldwide, includ- ruled China. nese Communist Party daily Global Times.) sanction Hong Kong officials and cancel its ing Taiwan, denouncing “Chinese tyranny.” The Hong Kong protests, trumpeted by Then on September 8, a “pro-democracy” trade privileges if the U.S. decides it was On October 1, a large crowd marched “undermining basic freedoms.” through a deserted Causeway Bay shop- Five years ago, Western media image- ping district chanting, “Hong Kongers, add makers made Joshua Wong into the face of oil!” and “Reclaim Hong Kong; revolution the U.S.-funded “Umbrella Revolution.” of our times,” the slogan coined by ultra- Although that attempt to destabilize Chi- rightist “localist” Edward Leung. Flash na in the interests of Western imperialism mobs of black-clad masked thugs roamed eventually petered out, Wong became an the streets, chasing and beating cops, who international superstar, travelling to Wash- in several instances drew their revolvers ington where he was lionized by Demo- and in one case shot an attacker. In the next cratic House leader Nancy Pelosi, named days, the squads targeted more than a doz-

Lam Yik Fei / New York Times Fei / Lam Yik New York by Fortune magazine the tenth most in- en stations of the MTR subway, smashing fluential person in the world, nominated glass fronts along with turnstiles and set- for the Nobel Peace Prize by Democratic ting entrances ablaze. Many working peo- senator Chris Smith and Republican Marco ple expressed outrage over this destruction Rubio, and given an award from Freedom of their only means of transport. House, funded by the National Endowment When Hong Kong’s chief executive, for Democracy (NED), which took over Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, ordered a CIA funding of “civil society” groups. ban on face masks in demonstrations, this As the 70th anniversary of the Chinese set off another round of mass marches and Revolution on October 1 approached this mob riots. A Xiaomi cellphone store was “Anti-extradition” protesters burn entrance to MTR subway system in year, reactionary forces in Hong Kong and torched, a Fujian restaurant was wrecked Central Hong Kong, September 8. their backers in Washington intensified their continued on page 20 “One Country, Two Systems” = Stalinist Betrayal For Genuine Communism Through Workers Political Revolution

September-October 2019 3 The Havana Trotsky Conference By Alberto Fonseca I took her up on this, and attended the On May 6-8, an unprecedented and Notes of a Participant anniversary commemoration she organized important event was held in Havana, Cuba: in Havana. It was held in the museum ded- the first “International Academic Confer- icated to her uncle Abel Santamaría, who ence on Leon Trotsky.” The conference was captured in the attack on Moncada on was sponsored by Cuba’s Institute of Phi- that day 52 years before, then brutally tor- losophy and Juan Marinello Institute for tured and murdered. (Celia’s mother Hay- Cultural Research, and was held at the dée also played a key role in the attack.) In Casa México Benito Juárez in Habana her speech that evening, Celia emphasized Vieja, Havana’s historic “old town.” Those the importance of internationalism and her attending included Cuban researchers and belief that Trotsky’s ideas were crucial for students, together with scholars and activ- the revolutionary defense of Cuba. ists from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Ger- While we differed on important ques- many, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Turkey, tions (not least the guerrilla warfare strat- the United States and other countries. egy that led to many tragic defeats in Latin As a speaker at the conference, where America), I was proud to join Celia and I gave a talk on “Trotsky in Mexico: Anti- other Cuban comrades as we sang the “In- Imperialism and Struggle for the Political ternationale” that summer night. And it was Independence of the Working Class,” I thanks to her that I met Idalberto Ferrera. was one of the supporters of the League Listening to him speaking lucidly in his for the Fourth International (LFI) who had apartment near Havana’s Capitol building the very real honor of participating in this during that 2005 visit, it struck me that this historic event. Panels and presentations was the first (and perhaps the last) time I addressed many topics – on biographical, had the opportunity to talk with a Trotskyist cultural, literary and historical themes, militant who had joined the Fourth Interna- 1 among others – from a broad range of tional while Trotsky was still alive. His son viewpoints. This is far more than a brief León was also present then, proudly show- report can seek to cover. Instead, the pur- ing me a photo of himself as a member of pose of these notes is to give an overview, the revolutionary militia in the early 1960s. some background and impressions; and to León also recounted a number of anecdotes provide context for the presentations and about the period when he worked under Che comments from the floor made by LFI sup- Guevara in the Ministry of Industry. porters, which are available on the Internet Celia Hart’s sudden and shocking at www.internationalist.org. death seemed, from afar, to threaten to ex- Above all, our engagement with the tinguish the growth of interest in Trotsky’s history of Trotsky and Trotskyism is in- ideas on the besieged island. Yet late last separable from today’s struggle for inter- year, we heard the news that plans were national socialist revolution. We consider underway to hold a gathering in Havana the lessons of history to be essential for devoted to the study of Trotsky’s legacy, the fight for humanity’s future. This means which filled us with enthusiasm. At almost the same time I heard from a Mexican col- political struggle in the here and now for Poster of the conference. the genuine communist program upheld by league living in Havana that the publica- Trotsky, the co-leader together with Lenin be essential, though this important aspect physicist who was the daughter of two re- tion of Cuban author Leonardo Padura’s of the Bolshevik Revolution in tsarist Rus- has been downplayed or ignored in most ac- nowned leaders of the Cuban Revolution: novel about Trotsky, The Man Who Loved sia, the organizer of the October 1917 in- counts of the event. Key issues included the Armando Hart and Haydée Santamaría. In Dogs, was awakening considerable inter- surrection, founder of the Red Army and of “Russian Question” (the nature of the coun- the early 2000s, she declared her sympa- est among the Cuban public regarding the the Fourth International. tries where capitalism was overthrown, and thy with Trotsky’s ideas, and she sought Russian revolutionary leader. Thus at the conference, we considered their defense against imperialism and coun- to popularize them in Cuba until her tragic The Havana conference received im- political debate and polemical discussion to terrevolution), the fight against class col- death in a traffic accident eleven years ago. portant support from the Trotsky Museum laboration, and Trotsky’s program of per- García also saluted veterans of the Cuban in Mexico City. Led by Trotsky’s grandson manent revolution vs. Stalin’s anti-Marxist Trotskyist movement, including León Fer- Esteban Volkov, the Museum provided key dogma of “socialism in one country.” rera, the son of Idalberto Ferrera, whose assistance, including the wonderful display The urgency of proletarian-revolution- participation went back to the early 1930s. of photos and other materials that it sent, ary internationalism – not as a ritual phrase Inaugural remarks also referred to the im- which were installed in the conference hall. 1 but as a guide for powerful action by work- portant collaboration with the conference Editor’s note: Idalberto Ferrera died in 2013 ers internationally against imperialism – from the Trotsky Museum in Mexico City. at the age of 95. Despite his long record of up- holding defense of the Cuban deformed work- Internationalist photo was highlighted by the fact that the con- These are elements of vital context ers state against imperialism and counterrevo- ference took place just as the White House for the conference, whose intersection was lution, comrade Idalberto together with his son pushed its attempted coup in Venezuela, striking for me as a Mexican Trotskyist. León and other Cuban Trotskyists were impris- and tightened the vicious blockade against The event was my first visit to Cuba since oned for a number of years, first in the 1960s Cuba. These aspects too will be discussed July 2005, when I visited Celia Hart in Ha- and again in the late ’70s. in more detail below. vana. I had met her at the Trotsky Museum Celia Hart, the Trotsky Museum in Mexico City in the and the Havana Conference spring of that year. The conference was organized by She invited me to at- Frank García Hernández, a young re- tend the event that was searcher at the Marinello Institute, as part going to be held that of a team that included his colleagues Lis- summer in Cuba to beth Moya González, Yunier Mena, and commemorate the at- the director and staff of the Casa Juárez. tack on the Moncada With contagious enthusiasm, they over- Barracks, which was came many obstacles (some anticipated, carried out on 26 July some unexpected) to ensure that the event 1953 and set the stage Conference organizer Frank García would be carried out successfully. for the overthrow of Hernández, giving opening remarks In his inaugural remarks, comrade the Batista dictator- to the conference in the Museo Casa García paid moving tribute to the memo- ship by Fidel Castro’s México “Benito Juárez,” Havana. ry of Celia Hart (1962-2008), the Cuban 26 of July Movement. Celia Hart Santamaría

4 The Internationalist throw of capitalist rule much of the audience, including many of in the old tsarist empire the Trotskyist “old-timers” present there. and the expropriation of Railing against “Soviet imperialism,” the capitalists and land- “socialist” Cold Warriors such as Shacht- lords demanded the in- man and Cliff represent the antithesis of ternational extension of Trotskyism, standing on the opposite side the socialist revolution, of the barricades all down the line. Uphold- leading to the overthrow ing the Trotskyist position on the “Russian of world imperialism. Question” is essential today in the fight to This, together with a defeat U.S. imperialism’s onslaught against pro­le­tarian political Cuba and its drive for capitalist counter- revo­lution restoring the revolution from China, North Korea and proletarian democracy Vietnam to the embattled Caribbean island. of the soviets (workers Broad Range of Topics councils), was crucial to defend the gains of Oc- As Trotsky’s and Cannon’s struggle tober and open the way against Shachtman is crucial to understand- to a classless, socialist ing the history of Trotskyism – and what it society. is and isn’t today – the presentation by Can- Trotsky’s last po- non’s biographer Bryan Palmer was one of litical battle was to up- the highlights of the Havana Conference. hold the Fourth Interna- The Canadian researcher gave a fascinat- tional’s historic position ing talk, “On Cannon, Shachtman and Early in defense of the So- U.S. Trotskyism,” succinctly bringing to light a series of crucial episodes in the peri- The conference was attended by supporters of a number of tendencies, and saw sharp viet workers state. In that struggle, his close od leading up to the crucial showdown over polemical debates over fundamental issues for Trotskyists. Supporters of the League for the the Russian Question in 1939-40. (Palmer’s Fourth International insisted on the vital importance of Trotsky’s defense of the Soviet Union. collaborator James P. Cannon – founder of notes for the talk are available on line here: Esteban sent a warm greeting to the con- In early May, court suits of just this Trotskyism in the Western hemisphere – led http://links.org.au/node/5408.) ference, and the Museum’s acting director, kind began, kicked off by counterrevo- the fight in the U.S. section against the “pet- Another widely-known speaker at the Gabriela Pérez Noriega, gave a presentation lutionary exiles (“gusanos”) declaring ty-bourgeois opposition” of Max Shacht- conference was U.S. leftist historian Paul at the conference, on the activities carried themselves rightful “owners” of the docks man and James Burnham, which renounced Le Blanc, who gave a well-researched talk out there. Due to the efforts of Esteban and of Havana and Santiago, Cuba. Targets in- this just as World World II began. titled “The Darker the Night, the Brighter the entire staff, Trotsky’s house in Coyoacán clude cruise ships and vessels bringing oil At the Havana conference, LFI sup- the Star: Leon Trotsky’s Struggle Against – now the Casa Museo León Trotsky – has from Venezuela. The brutal exacerbation porters spoke out in defense of Trotsky’s Stalinism.” Le Blanc was formerly as- largely been returned to the appearance it of scarcity of many consumer products position. Thus we found ourselves answer- sociated with the “United Secretariat” of had when the exiled Bolshevik leader lived imposed by this vicious measure recalls, ing claims that Trotsky’s Left Opposition the late Ernest Mandel, which claimed to there and waged his last political battles. for many Cubans, the enormous difficul- should have made a political bloc with be the Fourth International while system- Today the Museum is in very good con- ties they faced during the “special period” Nikolai Bukharin’s Right Opposition; and atically adapting to reformist, Stalinist and dition, but this has meant overcoming many brought on by counterrevolutionary de- opposing the positions of Shachtman and of nationalist leaderships, eventually embrac- obstacles over the years. Our tendency’s in- struction of the Soviet Union, which left the late Tony Cliff, which were echoed by ing an essentially social-democratic stand- 3 volvement with preserving the Trotsky house Cuba without supplies key to its economy. a small number of participants. (One pre- point. Describing the devastation wrought as a living part of the revolutionary heritage Today, the ramping up of the attempt to sentation was devoted to upholding Cliff’s by Stalin’s murderous campaign against goes back decades, to the mid-1980s when strangle the Cuban Revolution was met crude “theoretical” justifications for oppos- the Left Opposition, Le Blanc cited Joseph (at a time when it had very little financial with widespread indignation in Cuba, ing defense of the USSR on the grounds Berger, secretary of the Communist Party support) we aided the carrying out of vital where the demand “Down with the Helms- that it was supposedly “state capitalist.”)2 of Palestine, who vividly described the repairs. After it became an official museum Burton Act!” figured prominently in the It was striking that the LFI was the only 3 He subsequently joined the International So- in 1990, comrades gave tours, helped clas- May Day rally held a week before the con- tendency whose supporters at the confer- cialist Organization, which dissolved earlier this sify and identify historic photos, documents ference, in which hundreds of thousands ence forthrightly took up this crucial chal- year. This past summer, following the trajectory and publications, and in 1995 our comrade marched with evident enthusiasm. lenge, though our remarks (see www.inter- of many in both the former ISO and Mandelite Socorro Valero planned and oversaw the res- As the Havana conference began, this nationalist.org) were warmly applauded by milieu, he came out for supporting the presiden- toration of the monument, designed by Mexi- situation highlighted anew the urgency of tial campaign of Bernie Sanders, who is seeking can artist Juan O’Gorman, that contains the defending the Cuban Revolution, a vital 2 In one exchange during floor discussion, Dan the Democratic nomination. Of course, support- ashes of Trotsky and his companion Natalia conquest for the workers and oppressed of La Botz (formerly of the International Social- ing a capitalist candidate is contrary to the ABC Sedova. Thus the connection between the the entire world. It underlined the vital im- ists, then Solidarity and now the Democratic of Marxist politics, which is based on the politi- Museum and the Havana Trotsky conference portance of discussing the theoretical and Socialists of America) gave a particularly cal independence of the working class (as Can- full-throated brief for Shachtman, crying out, non underlined in his speeches against support was a highly important point of reference for programmatic heritage of Leon Trotsky. “Shachtman was right!” for bourgeois “third parties” in the late ’40s). us, as for others. The event’s importance was far greater than any purely academic gathering could Trotsky’s Revolutionary have. As Lenin stressed, revolutionary Internationalism Essential Today Marxism is a “guide to action” by the in- We arrived in Havana not long after ternational proletariat. U.S. president Donald Trump activated Thus, the struggle between Trotsky’s “Title III” of the notorious Helms-Burton program of “permanent revolution” and Act. This heightened aggression against Stalin’s dogma of “socialism in one coun- Cuba, together with Washington’s attempt- try” continues to be crucial for revolution- ed coup in Venezuela, were a stark back- aries around the world. It was of decisive drop to the event. Passed in 1996 during importance that Trotsky fought relent- the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton, lessly to uphold the internationalist pro- the Helms-Burton Act tightened the U.S. gram of the October Revolution, against embargo aimed at starving Cuba’s people Stalin’s anti-Marxist, nationalist lie that into submission and promoting capitalist socialism could be built in the Soviet counterrevoluton – all in the name of im- Union in isolation from the international perialist “democracy,” of course. The law’s socialist revolution. Though the USSR Title III, which had previously been kept made up one sixth of the planet, the con- in reserve (“suspension”), states that non- stant economic and military pressure of U.S. companies trading with Cuba can be world imperialism led to the bureaucratic tried in U.S. courts if they use property degeneration of the Soviet workers state, “confiscated” (nationalized) after the Cu- and the counterrevolutionary destruction ban Revolution. The use of extraterritorial of the USSR and the East European de- trials is aimed at forcing companies (main- formed workers states in 1989-92. ly from Canada and Europe) to stop trading For Trotsky, defense of the enormous with or carrying out activities in Cuba. conquests for humanity brought by the over- Alberto Fonseca speaking on “Trotsky in Mexico.”

September-October 2019 5 the notorious violations of this principle by glimpse of Havana’s vibrant cultural life. the British pseudo-Trotskyist leader Gerry As Bryan Palmer humorously commented Healy. A key case was the 1966 gangster at- to me, it was a mixture of Trotsky and Al- tack on a supporter of Mandel’s United Sec- len Ginsberg. The occasion was poignant retariat named Ernest Tate, whose “crime” as we said goodbye, for now. was to sell a pamphlet critical of Healy in Today, 79 years after Trotsky’s murder front of a meeting in London. by a Stalinist assassin, the Trotskyist pro- It was moving to meet Ernie Tate over gram of world socialist revolution is more a half century later, together with his com- crucial than ever. Sixty years after the Cu- rade Jess MacKenzie, who worked closely ban Revolution of 1959, the revolutionary with the legendary African American revo- and internationalist defense of its con- lutionary Robert F. Williams in the early quests is a vital part of that program. For 1960s.8 And also to meet other veterans, us as revolutionary Marxists, the Havana such as the Austrian scholar Helmut Dah- conference helped show concretely – in mer, who gave the talk on Trotsky and many different ways – what this means.n Walter Benjamin. Dahmer related how he first met Trotskyists as a young teenager Impeachment... in 1956, at a march in solidarity with the continued from page 1 Hungarian Revolution. It was remarkable fenders of black rights, immigrants’ rights to be meeting and talking together at a con- and democratic rights in general, and cer- ference on Trotsky, in Havana! tainly revolutionary Marxists, have no dog Leon Trotsky, founder and first commander in chief of the Soviet Red Army, “The Most Dangerous Man in this fight. Or rather, we are against both described by Winston Churchill as “the most dangerous man in the world.” sides in this dogfight among capitalist poli- struggles of the Trotskyists in the Vorkuta At the Havana conference, many oth- in the World” ticians over who is betraying and who is labor camp, who sang the “Internationale” er aspects of revolutionary history and of On the second day of the conference, upholding the class interests and “national as they were massacred en masse.4 Trotsky’s work were addressed, in a broad Frank García invited us to visit the Cuban security” of the U.S. bourgeoisie. Trump is The annihilation of the Trotskyists in range of presentations. This included talks Cinematography Institute for the world being brought up on charges by the wrong the USSR was one of the elements that led by Cuban researchers Yunier Mena of the premiere of sections of The Most Dan- class for the wrong crimes. While various Victor Serge to call the late 1930s “midnight Universidad Central de Las Villas on “Art gerous Man in the World, a documentary- opportunist leftists have climbed aboard the in the century.” They were among the gen- and Literature in The Revolution Betrayed” in-progress on Leon Trotsky. (The title is impeachment express, we in the Interna- eration of revolutionaries targeted by Sta- and Caridad Massón of the Marinello In- based on Winston Churchill’s description tionalist Group are fighting to build a revo- lin because they embodied the memory of stitute on “The Trial of Sandalio Junco,” a of the exiled Bolshevik.) Film maker Da- lutionary workers party against Democrats, October, having survived the Civil War in trade-unionist considered one of the found- vid Weiss (1912-2005) started the project Republicans and all capitalist parties. which they fought the White Guards orga- ers of Cuban Trotskyism. Other talks reflect- in 1972. It is now being produced by Lindy Donald Trump rails against a “Deep nized by tsarist generals, armed and backed ing Trotskyism’s impact in Latin America Laub, with historical assistance from Suzy State” that he says is waging a conspiracy by the 14 capitalist powers whose interven- included presentations about Julio Antonio Weissman. Both were present and intro- to oust him. The phrase stems from Turkey, tion, aimed at strangling the workers state, Mella, founder of the Cuban Communist duced the film in person. where it referred to the security apparatus 5 was defeated by Trotsky’s Red Army. Party; about Trotsky’s writings on Latin Watching long portions of the film in that ran the country for decades, whether As Trotskyists fighting to bring the pro- America, his analysis of the rise of U.S. im- the crowded Havana theater was an ex- carrying out coups d’état or operating be- gram of Bolshevism into the class struggle perialism, and the period when he directed traordinary experience. As Laub explains, hind the scenes, independent of which po- today, we are often asked to explain: why the Bulletin of the Opposition from Mexico; Weiss, “a lifelong Trotskyist of Commu- litical party was/is in office. It is certainly are the forces laying claim to the heritage on some aspects of the Brazilian Trotskyist nist parents ... looked around and realized true that top-level military and intelligence of Bolshevism so fragmented? And why, in movement; as well as my presentation on that the people who had known and worked officials – in the Pentagon, Langley (CIA) the vast majority of cases, are groups which Trotsky in Mexico and Sándor John’s talk with Trotsky were dying.” He traveled to and in the White House itself – are behind claim to be Leninist and Trotskyist so dis- on Bolivian Trotskyism, both of which are Mexico, Turkey, France and other countries the revelations that sparked the impeach- tant from what Lenin and Trotsky meant reproduced at www.internationalist.org. to interview them on film. Combined with ment inquiry. The idea that it was the work by communism? Grasping the devastation While it is not possible to go into all extremely rare footage of Trotsky himself, of a lone courageous CIA “whistleblower” wrought by Stalinism is a crucial part of the topics and talks at the conference, my the film includes interviews with more than is ludicrous. understanding why today it is necessary to interest was also especially drawn by those 40 people, including French militants who “Deep State”? The force that has turned restore the very meaning of terms and con- on the “parallel lives” and aesthetic views knew Lenin and Trotsky in 1917, Nadezhda on Trump is at the core of state power – those cepts like socialism, communism, working- of Trotsky and the leftist German philoso- Yoffe, daughter of his close comrade and “special bodies of armed men,” the military class politics and so much more. pher and critic Walter Benjamin; on Sergei friend Adolph Yoffe; Black Jacobins au- and police, along with their auxiliaries such The bloody repression of revolutionar- Eisenstein’s film Strike and “the roots of thor and one-time Trotskyist C.L.R. James; as courts and prisons, which serve as the key ies carried by Stalin was the corollary to his permanent revolution” in the period of the founding U.S. Communist and Trotsky- “instrument for the exploitation of the op- betrayals of revolutionary struggle, such as 1905 revolution; and on comparisons be- ist Arne Swabeck, and many others. (See pressed class,” as Friedrich Engels noted in stabbing the Spanish Revolution in the back tween Trotsky during the four years (1929- “How It Began,” on trotskyproject.com.) Origin of the Family, Private Property and in the vain attempt to win favor from Britain, 33) he spent in Turkey during his final ex- We see Trotsky’s grandson Esteban Volkov the State (1884) and V.I. Lenin spelled out France and the U.S. in 1936-39. Stalinist ter- ile, and the pioneering Turkish communist in Coyoacán, speaking in the same voice I in The State and Revolution (1917). Under 7 ror, as well as that unleashed by the fascists and poet Nazim Hikmet. have come to know well over the years. imperialism, this apparatus expands enor- before and during WWII, wiped out the ma- Another vital aspect of the conference Among the most moving scenes are mously, the Bolshevik leader wrote. Since jority of experienced Trotskyist cadres. This was the opportunity to meet veterans of the the interviews with Trotsky’s secretar- the dawn of the 20th century: is one of the crucial reasons for the weakness Trotskyist movement, who in some cases we ies Fanny Yanovich and Jean van Heijen- “military and naval armaments have and disorientation of the Fourth International have heard about for decades. It was exciting oort – who gives a kind of guided tour of grown fantastically and the predatory in the postwar period, paving the way for its to meet them in person; and the fact that our the houses in Prinkipo and France where war of 1914-17 for the domination of destruction under Michel Pablo in 1951-53. views have often diverged widely over the Trotsky lived – and James Cannon. Shortly the world by Britain or Germany, for the The LFI calls to reforge the Fourth Interna- years proved no obstacle to debate and a real before traveling to Havana, I was study- division of the spoils, has brought the tional as the world party of socialist revolu- exchange of ideas. To choose one example, ing Cannon’s Struggle for a Proletarian ‘swallowing’ of all the forces of society tion on the basis of a program that Trotsky when I was first learning about the history of Party (1943). To see and hear Cannon in by the rapacious state power close to would recognize as his own.6 the Trotskyist movement, the importance of full color, speaking in his calm yet pow- complete catastrophe.” workers democracy was illustrated to me by erful voice, telling anecdotes about Lenin 4 See Shipwreck of a Generation: The Memoirs What left-liberals like Gore Vidal referred of Joseph Berger (Harvill Press, 1971). 7 This made me recall a poem by Hikmet that I and Trotsky at congresses of the Commu- to as the “national security state” expanded 5 Serge broke with Trotsky in the mid-1930s, first heard on Radio Universidad in Mexico two nist International – it is hard to describe the further as the United States became the top among other things, over the Bolshevik leader’s decades ago: impact of these scenes. Like many others, dog among the imperialists after World sharp opposition to any capitulation to the “popu- “We go to the moon we eagerly await the completion of this War II, and reached an apotheosis as the lar front” of class collaboration promoted by Sta- and further still, crucial film. U.S. became the world’s policeman in the lin and his followers that produced such disastrous where even telescopes reach. On the last night of the conference, post-Soviet “new world order.” results in Spain (as well as France and elsewhere). But when will the people of our Earth a group led by a friend of the conference 6 See “Declaration of the League for the Fourth no longer go hungry organizer gave a concert, featuring the de- Impeachment Crisis: International” (April 1998, on line at http:// and no one be afraid of anyone, but of a special piece written for the occa- Calculations and Consequences www.internationalist.org/lfideclaration.html) or rule over anyone, and “The Struggle to Reforge a Genuinely or curse anyone, sion, at a neighborhood café that offered a So getting the go-ahead from the mili- Trotskyist Fourth International (November or steal another’s hope? 8 This is described in Tate’s memoir Revolution- tary/intelligence agencies was the key rea- 2017, on line at http://www.internationalist.org/ This is why I am a communist: ary Activism in the 1950s & 60s (Resistance son why Democrats in Congress – who in- lficonferencedocument1712.html). to answer that question.” Books, 2014). clude a significant and increasing number 6 The Internationalist of former intelligence and military person- by another, such as a military dictatorship, to a musical about nel – launched the impeachment inquiry, if the capitalist rulers deem it necessary to him, wrote in and why they launched it now. After all, the uphold their class rule. Federalist Paper shenanigans by the sinister clown-maniac It’s well-known that “We the People,” No. 65 (7 March EPA/Roman Pilipey Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine, looking for dirt as the preamble to the Constitution starts 1788) that im- on the Bidens, father and son, on behalf out, excluded black slaves, Native Ameri- peachment should of Trump had been known since last May. cans, women and even poor whites and deal with “offens- But getting into a brawl with the president working people generally. The right to vote es” that stem from – especially this one, who will stop at noth- at the time was largely limited to white men “the misconduct ing – when he is in control the apparatus of property. In fact, the entire structure of of public men,” of repression is a risky business. Let’s not government established by the Constitution from “the abuse or forget that from the outset of Trump’s pres- was molded by slavery and the rulers’ fear violation of some idency, the Democrats have looked to the of the plebeian masses, black and white. Af- public trust,” and Pentagon and CIA/NSC, hoping that the ter slavery was uprooted in the Civil War, thus are eminently generals and spy chiefs could rein in the the institution of Jim Crow segregation “POLITICAL.” maverick. Those are some of the most sin- meant that black people were excluded from Since Trump Fascist Azov Batallion in Ukraine, funded by the U.S. ister, murderous forces on the face of the voting through poll taxes, literacy tests, and is not being impeached for his real crimes, crats have pushed “free trade” pacts which planet. And they failed. sheer terror. Even today, the “one person, what are the Democrats accusing him of? have devastated peasants’ livelihoods from A second main reason for the impeach- one vote” electoral system supposedly guar- The sole charge so far is holding up mili- Haiti (in favor of Arkansas rice) to Mexico ment gambit, and the particular charges, is anteed by the 14th and 15th Amendments tary aid to Ukraine’s military in order get its (dumping Iowa corn), and destroyed work- electoral. Desperate to oust Trump at the to the Constitution (the result of defeating president to announce an investigation of ers’ jobs while lowering wages in all the latest by the 2020 elections, the Democratic the Confederate slave masters on the field of the Democrats’ activities there. The Ukrai- countries involved. Party establishment would like to nail down battle), as well as Supreme Court decisions, nian Army wants Javelin missiles in order The workers and oppressed have no Joe Biden as the candidate. How can you the 24th Amendment and the 1965 Voting to fight Russian-backed rebels in Eastern class stake in the current impeachment brou- abandon Biden when he is the object of Rights Act, has been deeply eroded. Mass Ukraine. Ukraine’s military and police are haha, and in fact must oppose both sides in Trump’s attack? is Pelosi’s pitch. Demo- incarceration of African Americans com- shot through fascists and ultra-nationalists this ruling-class squabble. Needless to say, cratic Party leaders want to counter Trump’s bined with state laws banning ex-prisoners who have staged pogroms.2 The Azov Bat- “progressive” Democrats have been pushing attempt to “marry” the Democrats to Bernie from voting have disenfranchised millions talion of the Ukrainian National Guard, impeachment from the get-go. DSA Demo- Sanders and “The Squad” of first-term Con- of black people. which sports a Nazi-like symbol and is led crats Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio- gresswomen as purported “socialists,” but And, of course, immigrants are ex- by fascist nationalists, were shock troops for Cortez were among the first in Congress also to head off the “progressive” Elizabeth cluded – not only those lacking the pa- the assault on Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to call for impeaching Trump. And when Warren, whom the Clinton/Obama “moder- pers required by the racist ruling class and and has reportedly trained white suprema- Republicans and Democrats united to pass ates” consider “unelectable.” And by mak- who are demonized by Trump, but also cists from the U.S. The House of Represen- a House resolution on October 16 denounc- ing Trump’s dirt-digging on the Bidens the immigrants with legal residency but not tatives has passed resolutions blocking aid ing Trump for withdrawing U.S. troops from focus of the impeachment, they can deflect citizenship – even though they represent to the Azov Battalion, but they were lifted Syria, the whole “Squad” voted for it. Assort- his attack on son Hunter for corrupt con- a very large percentage of the workforce because of Pentagon pressure. ed reformist leftists have joined the impeach- nections in Ukraine. Their problem is that that keeps the country going. They toil in Donald Trump is a grotesque xeno- ment drive, such as Socialist Alternative (30 Biden Sr. is in several ways a weak candi- sweatshops and sleep in the fields, are con- phobic, racist, sexist, homophobic pig September) which headlined an editorial date, and getting weaker. tinually persecuted, living in fear with the guilty of countless crimes against working “Democrats Begin Impeachment Proceed- What the impeachment process will constant threat of deportation hanging over people and the oppressed. He is surrounded ings: Build a Movement to Drive Trump!” certainly do is further polarize an already their heads. Parents are separated from by grifters – rip-off artists – like the pair of politically and socially polarized country. their U.S.-born children, families are put in Ukrainian associates of Rudolph Giuliani, The Task of Revolutionaries It would likely trigger the fascist fringe and concentration camps, children locked up in Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were ar- Will Trump manage to engineer his enrage the right-wing racists at the core of cages and traumatized. The I.C.E. Gestapo rested on campaign fraud charges as they impeachment? Who can say? But the task Trump’s support. Many are armed, and not terrorizes immigrant communities, both tried to skip the country. (Their company of proletarian revolutionaries is to raise the a few are unstable. When Trump tweeted under Democrat Obama and Republican was curiously named Fraud Guarantee.) consciousness of the oppressed and ex- a quote from a notorious Southern Baptist Trump. As liberals call for “gun control,” But Trump is not alone, nor unique. He ploited about the true source of their op- pastor, Robert Jeffress (“If the Democrats kill-crazy cops gun down over 1,000 civil- was in fact earlier closely associated with pression, in order to take forward the strug- are successful in removing the president ians a year, one-third of them black, with Democrats. His mentor Roy Cohn, the gle to overthrow it. As Lenin wrote in his from office” it would “cause a Civil War- near-total impunity. And throughout the right-hand man of witch-hunter senator Joe 1913 essay “The Three Sources and Three like fracture in this Nation from which our history of U.S. imperialist wars, Demo- McCarthy, was a registered Democrat. He Component Parts of Marxism”: Country will never heal”) this was no idle crats have as a rule been in the forefront. hobnobbed with Bill and Hillary Clinton, “Champions of reforms and improve- threat.1 Another prominent evangelical These are (some of) the real crimes of Chuck Schumer and many another pillar of ments will always be fooled by the defend- preacher, Franklin Graham, said the same the U.S.’ rulers, for which they will never be the Democratic Party.3 Donald Trump is a ers of the old order until they realize that last May. Hard-core racists are “only” accountable so long as capitalism reigns and truly bipartisan product of decaying capi- every old institution, however barbarous about a quarter of the electorate – maybe its political representatives and military/po- talism, which elevates bizarre and sinister and rotten it may appear to be, is kept go- not a civil war, but violent attacks against lice enforcers hold the reins of state pow- fraudsters, like the moribund tsarist empire ing by the forces of certain ruling classes. immigrants, Muslims, black people, Jews, er. So are their imperialist wars that killed produced a Rasputin. And there is only one way of smashing the leftists, women, gays, trans people, pro- millions, from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq, But the Democrats are in some respects resistance of those classes, and that is to testers and others are highly likely. Afghanistan and Syria. Now the Democrats even more dangerous. In this impeachment find, in the very society which surrounds have lined up Republicans in Congress to they are relying on the Pentagon generals us, the forces which can – and, owing to “We the People”? Not slam Trump for ditching the Pentagon’s and CIA spymasters whose crimes far exceed their social position, must – constitute the Donald Trump claims Article II of the Kurdish “allies” in the U.S. war on the Is- anything that even Trump has done. Demo- power capable of sweeping away the old U.S. Constitution would let him do any- lamic State by green-lighting Turkey’s inva- crats have deported millions, put child refu- and creating the new, and to enlighten and thing. That is a slight exaggeration, but the sion of Syria. We, on the other hand, call to gees in cages, napalmed Vietnam, imposed organize those forces for the struggle.” foundation document of the government of drive the imperialists out of the Middle East. murderous sanctions in Iraq and elsewhere. The forces that can sweep away the decaying the United States does provide for a very Talk about “election interference”: continu- capitalist system and its political representa- Charged with the Wrong powerful executive. In civics classes and ing the long tradition of U.S. imperialism un- tives are the working class at the head of its bourgeois politicians’ speeches, the Con- Crimes by the Wrong Class der both parties, Hillary Clinton as secretary allies among the downtrodden and oppressed. stitution is worshipped as a kind of civic Would-be strongman Trump loves Arti- of state removed and installed governments The key task is to help free them from the religion. It’s as if they are the equivalent cle II of the Constitution. Article I (Sections in Haiti and Honduras. The Dems have ag- stranglehold of the Democratic Party and its of Moses’ tablets, that god spoke unto the 2 and 5), however, allows for the impeach- gressively pushed for war with Russia over camp followers on the left, to unchain the hallowed “Founding Fathers” – and say- ment of the president, as well as other high Ukraine and Syria, they denounce Trump for power of proletarian class struggle. eth, “Thou shalt write a Constitution that federal officials, senators, congressmen negotiating with North Korea, they are war The focus of our efforts must be to build shall be the rock of legitimacy through the and judges. The House of Representatives hawks against China. Meanwhile, the Demo- a workers party in struggle against all wings ages.” This document, even by the stan- brings articles of impeachment, but an of- of the bourgeois rulers, which can break the 2 dards of bourgeois democracy, is deeply ficial is only removed from office upon For example, burning down trade-union head- chains binding the oppressed to the sinking undemocratic. As Marxists understand, it conviction by the Senate. It should be em- quarters in Odessa as police stood by, killing capitalist system and lead the struggle to free almost 50 people trapped inside (see “Fascist enshrines one form of the dictatorship of phasized that impeachment is not a criminal the victims of all forms of social oppression Pogrom in Odessa, And the Aftermath,” in The the bourgeoisie – and it could be replaced n but a political trial. (The Spanish translation Internationalist No. 37, May-June 2014). through international socialist revolution. 1 See “Dangerous Racist Provocations in Pre- is juicio político.) Alexander Hamilton, that 3 A vivid account is provided by Frank Rich, This article has been excerpted for Election Maneuvering,” The Internationalist, proponent of a strong federal government “The Original Donald Trump,” New York maga- publication. For the full text see www.in- July 2019. so beloved of liberals today that they flock zine, April 2018 ternationalist.org. September-October 2019 7 You Can’t Fight Trump with the Democratic Party Dangerous Racist Provocations in Pre-Election Maneuvering JULY 24 – Leading up to the 2020 U.S. ing military action against Iran and Ven- elections, the maneuvering between the ezuela, or escalating trade war against

two main government parties of this im- Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE China (a bureaucratically deformed work- perialist country in deep social crisis has ers state), Democrats and Republicans are set off a virulent racist hate campaign, partner parties of U.S. imperialism. whipped up by Republican President Gone are the days when Washington Donald Trump, against first-term Demo- triumphantly proclaimed a “New World cratic Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio- Order” and a “second American Century.” Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Yet even as its economic power and mili- Rashida Tlaib. Escalating his racist taunts, tary domination wane, the rival factions Trump ranted that they should “go back” to of the hegemonic imperialist power have countries they “originally came from.” His contained their differences. The Watergate minions piled on, vituperating against the crisis of the early 1970s, largely a by-prod- women, two of whom are black, one Lati- uct of the historic U.S. defeat at the hands na, one Palestinian American, while Omar of the heroic Vietnamese, was “resolved” is a Muslim immigrant. At a North Caro- within the institutional framework. In its lina election rally, as Trump hurled insults wake, presidents from Democrat Jimmy at Omar, who came to the U.S. as a child Carter and Republican Reagan on sought refugee from Somalia, he whipped crowds to overcome the “Vietnam syndrome” into a mob-like frenzy as they chanted (widespread popular aversion to military “send her back.” Immigrant-bashing Republican president Donald Trump launches racist adventures involving large-scale U.S. ca- Trump brands the four liberal Demo- hate campaign, Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi rounded up votes sualties) and refurbish the “imperial presi- crats as “communists.” White House advi- to increase funds for Border Patrol refugee kidnappers. dency.” But after Vietnam and Watergate, sor Kellyanne Conway responded to report- ploited and oppressed to the institutions overtly and blatantly racist attack on the the fact that the government lies all the time became an integral part of popular er Andrew Feinberg by demanding, “What’s running the decaying capitalist social order four Congresswomen. Every single House consciousness. your ethnicity?” Liberals pointed out that in its death agony. Democrat voted for the resolution, includ- Today, the bourgeoisie – including three of the four women were born in the ing a number of “blue dog” Democrats Electoral Purposes, much of the Democratic Party – worries U.S. But Trump isn’t confused about their who are otherwise loath to go against that another impeachment crisis could even origin any more than he was in whipping Democratic “Resistance” Trump. But how they mean to “resist” further discredit and erode the institutions up the “birther” claim that Barack Obama Trump suggested that Democratic him was shown as they filled the resolu- of “normal” rule. Of course, there is little wasn’t born in the U.S. The “go back to House leader Nancy Pelosi “would be very tion with quotations from arch-racist Re- normal about the Trump presidency which where you came from” taunt is a threat of happy to very quickly work out free trav- publican Ronald Reagan (together with followed eight years of broken “Hope and racist (and in this case, misogynistic) vio- el arrangements” for the four Congress- Democratic Cold Warrior JFK and other Change” promises under Obama. The inten- lence often hurled against African Ameri- women, seeking with sly malice to fan the icons of bipartisan U.S. imperialism). sity of political clashes in the ruling class re- cans, immigrants, their children and oth- flames of conflict between Pelosi and “the “The Squad” held a press conference calls the period leading up to the U.S. Civil ers branded as “foreigners.” It comes after Squad,” as the four are now widely known. on July 15, in which they sought to defend War, notably the savage beating of Senator Trump announced raids by the I.C.E. (Im- Early this year, their entry to Congress was themselves with dignity against Trump’s Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the migration and Customs Enforcement) Ge- smoothed by a display of hugs with “es- onslaught of woman-hating bigotry. As ex- Senate floor by South Carolina Congress- stapo targeting “millions.” Meanwhile, tens tablishment” Democrats personified by Pe- pected, they joined the Democratic leader- man Preston Brooks in 1856. Brooks was of thousands of refugees and immigrants are losi, meant to symbolize amity and party ship in vows not to be distracted from the unity. More recently this has given way to a member of the Democratic Party, which subjected to sadistic cruelty, with children party’s “agenda.” And they joined in its increasing rancor between Pelosi and the represented the slave owners, while Sum- and adults starved, degraded and terrorized appeals to the flag-waving ideology “unit- “progressives.”1 ner was a leader of the Radical, anti-slavery in America’s concentration camps. ing” exploiter and exploited in fealty to While the White House bigot-in-chief wing of the recently formed Republican Revving up dangerous incitement U.S. imperialism. Would-be leftists who was clearly enjoying himself with his gibes Party. Soon the “irrepressible conflict” over that could easily turn deadly, the racist sow illusions in Democratic “resistance” about conflicts among Democrats, he de- slavery turned into armed conflict. and “foreigner”-baiting campaign takes can only help disarm real struggle against clared his intention to “marry” the Demo- The U.S. Civil War of the 1860s was aim at doubly and triply oppressed groups racist reaction. one of the last examples on a world scale throughout U.S. society, putting black cratic Party as a whole to “the Squad.” This would enable him to pitch the 2020 Spectre of Civil War? of sectors of the bourgeoisie playing a pro- people together with immigrants in the gressive historical role. The war led to the crosshairs. Yet while Trump revels in xe- presential race as Trump running against In significant ways the current situ- the made-up image that he and Fox News “Second American Revolution” in which nophobia, the actions of the Democrats in ation is unprecedented. The House of 180,000 slaves, finally armed by the North, office are no less racist, from the Clintons concoct of alien un- and anti-American Representatives explicitly and formally “socialists.” Right-wing talking heads played a key role in defeating the bloody in the 1990s, with their vicious welfare, im- registering that the head of the executive 2 gleefully embraced the gambit. Soon a slavocracy. Yet its promise of black free- migration and death penalty “reforms,” to branch is a racist ranter, while the presi- Trump supporter in New York was arrested dom was betrayed as Reconstruction was Obama, who really did deport millions. The dent tells members of Congress to “go for threatening to “put a bullet in her,” re- overturned in 1877, sacrificed by the North- only way to mobilize a real and effective re- back” where they “came from” – these ferring to Representative Omar. ern capitalists on the altar of “national rec- sponse to the bipartisan racism of the U.S. are vivid indications of the sharp crisis of In response to Trump’s barrage of onciliation” for profit. As U.S. capitalism imperialist rulers is to bring out the massive the decaying political and social system racist tweets and declarations, the U.S. completed its march across the continent, potential power of the multiracial working of American capitalism. Trump’s incite- House of Representatives passed a reso- its 1898 conquest of Puerto Rico, Cuba and class. To do this requires unchaining that ment is a harbinger of violence to come, lution denouncing the president for his Philippines marked the advent of the era of power from all the parties and politicians of but for all their talk of “Resistance,” the 1 See “Midterm Elections: No Win for Working imperialism, what Lenin analyzed as the this racist capitalist system. This underlines People,” The Internationalist No. 54, Novem- “opposition” has in fact ceded to his bul- 2 See “Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery” yet again why we insist that “you can’t fight ber-December 2018 and “Nancy Pelosi, Icon of ly-boy tactics time after time. The reason and “The Emancipation Proclamation: Promise Trump with the Democratic Party,” which Female Capitalist Power,” The Internationalist is simple: whether it is “cracking down” and Betrayal,” in The Internationalist No. 34, is the key mechanism for chaining the ex- No. 55, Winter 2019. on undocumented immigrants, threaten- March-April 2013. Unchain the Power of Labor and the Oppressed! For a Revolutionary Workers Party!

8 The Internationalist “highest stage of capitalism.” In this ep- have emphasized and spelled out in detail, och of imperialist decay, productive forces refurbishing and rejuvenating the Demo-

have been destroyed in two world capitalist cratic Party, bringing in large new layers / AP Scott Applewhite depressions (in the 1930s and since 2007) of youth in particular, is the social and po- and two world wars. litical function of “AOC,” Bernie Sanders, Today, the intensity of the political and the rest.4 clashes in Washington and the provoca- A civil war takes two sides, with tions of violent racist and outright fascist a leadership determined to win and (at groups raise the spectre of civil war. Cer- least for the winning side) capable of do- tainly, sectors of Trump’s most rabid base ing so. Nothing could be more obvious yearn to avenge the defeat of the vile Con- than the fact that reliance on or any kind federacy. Yet there are fundamental dif- of confidence in the Democratic wing of ferences from the U.S. of a century and a the capitalist class enemy can mean only half ago. For all the talk of “Resistance” defeat. For the workers and oppressed to from liberal Democrats and their reformist defend themselves, their most vital rights hangers-on, there is no sector of the U.S. and needs – let alone move to actually win bourgeoisie that will – or can – fight the what has up to now been a “one-sided class wave of reaction. With their “Russiagate” war” – it is urgently necessary to break “The Squad” of liberal Democrats, targeted by Trump’s racist taunts. From left: obsession, banging the drums against Chi- from the Democratic Party. Thus, while Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley. na, embracing the persecution of Julian As- militantly opposing the vicious racist cam- wheels of the capitalist system turn – has noted in “From Millerand to Mitterrand: sange, etc., national security liberals are the paign against the four Congresswomen, the power to paralyze production, transport Popular Front Chains the Workers” (The premier war party in Washington. Mean- revolutionary Marxists give no political and communications in the struggle for lib- Internationalist No. 2, April-May 1997), while, across the country it is Democratic support to them or any other representative eration. To bring that power into the fight “instead of mobilizing the workers in revo- mayors who are “the bosses of the racist of capitalism’s political machine. to uproot all forms of oppression, Lenin lutionary struggle, in 1899 Jaurès endorsed killer cops,” as we have emphasized,3 and It is precisely subjugation to the Demo- emphasized the need to educate the work- the entry of ... Millerand into the bourgeois who join Trump in protecting racist/fascist crats that reduced the labor movement to ers in their own, independent working- Radical [Party] government,” betraying the terrorists in the name of “free speech.” a shadow of its former strength; chained class politics, drawing a clear class line interests of the working class. The frenzy of bigotry from the highest African Americans, Latinos, defenders of demarcating this against bourgeois politics In her essay on “The Socialist Crisis in levels of government underlines again the women’s rights and youth to the bosses’ and class collaboration in all its forms. France” (1900), Luxemburg wrote: connection between anti-black racism and state and institutions; channeled each new Thus, in What Is To Be Done? Lenin “The Republic is in danger! Therefore anti-immigrant racism. The fight for full struggle into bourgeois electoralism – and bitingly denounced the French reformist it was necessary [claimed the reform- citizenship rights for all immigrants and paved the way for Trump. Winning the po- socialist Alexandre Millerand, who joined ists] that a socialist become the bour- for asylum for refugees fleeing the depre- litical independence of the working class is, the capitalist government as a cabinet min- geois minister of trade. The Republic dation wrought by imperialism, from the in an accumulating range of ways, a mat- ister in 1899, arguing that this was justified is in danger! Therefore the socialist had Middle East to Central America, is insepa- ter of life and death. This means ousting the since “the Republic is in danger” from a to remain in the ministry even after the rable from the program for black liberation pro-capitalist union bureaucracy and the reactionary crusade unleashed by royalists, massacre of striking workers on the is- through socialist revolution. Likewise, as bourgeois misleaders of struggles of the op- the high clergy and the military general land of Martinique and in Chalon. The women’s access to abortion is system- pressed and fighting for revolutionary lead- staff. Millerand’s entry into the bourgeois Republic is in danger! As a result, the atically cut off, the fight for free abortion ership, summed up in the urgent need to cabinet of René Waldeck-Rousseau was an inquiry into the massacre had to be re- on demand must be part of a struggle for forge a revolutionary workers party, steeled early example of the class-collaborationist jected, the parliamentary investigation women’s liberation through socialist revo- in the fight for socialist revolution. coalitions that would later be known as the into the colonial atrocity was quashed, and an amnesty declared.” lution. The destruction of the much of the “popular front.”5 Class Independence Key to When the Waldeck-Rousseau cabi- union movement and driving down of wag- Millerand’s “ministerial socialism” net was dismissed in 1902, Luxemburg es, particular for young and older workers, Fight Against Oppression grew out of the response by a wing of the summed up: “And so the books are closed highlights the urgent need for a class-strug- Revolutionary Marxists militantly op- labor movement to the “Dreyfus Affair” on ministerial socialism.... Instead of the gle program pointing to the need to bring pose all forms of bigotry and oppression, that polarized French society at the end of down the decaying capitalist order. which poisons society, seeking to divide the 19th century. The 1894 frame-up trial promised strengthening of the ‘politi- the exploited and oppressed and set them cal and economic power’ of the working Unchain Workers Power of Jewish army officer Albert Dreyfus, on against each other for the benefit of the fabricated charges of treason (for suppos- class, it only brought political weakening While rightist Republicans attacked ruling class. In his crucial What Is To Be edly selling military secrets to Germany), and disorganization. And also moral deg- Ocasio-Cortez and others for accurately Done? (1902), V.I. Lenin, who would go whipped up “militarism, chauvinism- radation on top of this” (“The Close of using the term “concentration camps” to on to lead the Bolshevik Revolution in nationalism, anti-Semitism, and clerical- the Socialist Crisis in France” 1902). Yet describe the caging of immigrants, it was 1917 together with Leon Trotsky, took ism,” “mak[ing] evident the disintegration over and over, opportunist socialists and the patron saint of Democratic liberalism on the question of how building a revolu- of bourgeois society,” as Rosa Luxemburg self-proclaimed communists have refused – Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom “AOC” tionary workers party is intimately tied to explained in her article, “The Dreyfus Af- to learn this basic lesson of history, of the and Bernie Sanders constantly cite as their combatting all forms of oppression going fair and the Millerand Case” (1899). While need for revolutionary independence from political model and inspiration – who put beyond the working class. liberal “bourgeois elements ... wanted all wings of the bourgeois ruling class. the Japanese Americans in camps during In his famous phrase, Lenin empha- to cure militarism of its abscess in order While today, the reactionary right World War II. It was Democrats as well sized that a revolutionary Marxist party to enable it to live,” she stated, Marxists might like to stage an anti-Muslim, anti- as Republicans who deported hundreds of must be “the tribune of the people ... able “combat the very militaristic system in its black and anti-Latina 21st-century Dreyfus thousands, if not millions, of Mexicans and to react to every manifestation of tyranny decadence” and “carry on a totally inde- Case, it is the Democratic Party which time Mexican Americans during the Depres- and oppression, no matter where it appears, pendent struggle, that is to say, a clearly and again takes the lead for U.S. milita- sion, on down to “Operation Wetback” in no matter what stratum or class of the peo- characterized class struggle which differ- rism, denouncing Trump for being “soft” the 1950s – and Barack Obama who mas- ple it affects.” This meant being able to entiates” the proletarian movement from on Russia, North Korea, Syria, etc. It was sively built up the deportation machine “generalize all these manifestations and all bourgeois politicians. Democratic president Barack Obama who wielded now by Trump. produce a single picture of police violence In contrast, the wing of French So- carried out a record number of deportations; Today, hard-core racists and outright and capitalist exploitation”; and to “clarify cialism led by Jules Guèsde preached in- the Democratic Party under the Clintons fascists emboldened by the demagogue for all and everyone the world-historic sig- difference to the Dreyfus Affair, saying it that vastly expanded the racist machinery Trump – with whom the Republican Party nificance of the struggle for the emancipa- was just a fight among capitalist forces and of mass incarceration. And it is the “bipar- as a whole is now thoroughly identified – tion of the proletariat.” Thus genuine Marx- thus of no importance to the proletariat. tisan” governmental apparatus of American would doubtless relish a real-life Confed- ists and class-conscious workers must be (This narrow view of proletarian struggle imperialism that bred the all-sided social re- erate “reenactment” to drown their entire in the front lines of defense of black rights became known as “workerism.”) Against action egged on today by Trump. enemies’ list in blood. But the self-de- and immigrants’ rights, of women’s rights them, the Socialist leader Jean Jaurès op- Militantly opposing the onslaught of scribed Resistance orbits around the Dem- and gay and transgender rights, as integral posed the rightist-nationalist onslaught, bigotry and racist, anti-immigrant reaction, ocratic Party, the slave masters’ party that parts of the struggle to overthrow capital- siding with the “dreyfusards” who op- the task of Marxists is to fight for the revo- became the leading party of U.S. imperial- ism and institute the revolutionary rule of posed the reactionary persecution of Drey- lutionary class politics required to defeat ism, and since the early 20th century has the working class and its allies. fus and correctly stood for militant work- it. This means winning new layers of work- been the central mechanism for subjugat- The proletariat – which makes the ing-class defense of democratic rights. Yet ers and youth to the revolutionary program. ing and burying even defensive struggles 4 “as the crisis came to a head and France And it means fighting intransigently for the by the exploited and oppressed. As we See, for example, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the Rescue of the Democratic Party,” The In- headed to the brink of civil war,” as we workers and oppressed to break from the 3 See “Democrats Are the Bosses of the Rac- ternationalist No. 53, September-October 2018; 5 See the Internationalist Group pamphlet, Democrats and all bourgeois parties and ist Killer Cops,” in The Internationalist No. 42, and the Internationalist Group pamphlet DSA: The Popular Front: Roadblock to Revolution politicians, on the path to socialist revolu- January-February 2016. Fronting for the Democrats (2018). (2007). tion and a workers government. ■ September-October 2019 9 UAW Tops Let Auto Bosses Off the Hook After 40-Day Strike, GM to Shut Plants, Keep 3-Tier Wages

On Friday, October 25, the United auto plants was ap- Auto Workers (UAW) ended its solid 40- proved, and there are no day strike against General Motors – the lon- provisions against clos- gest walkout in over half a century against ing more auto factories the auto giant – announcing that the mem- in the future. bers had voted to accept the contract settle- Instead of fighting ment. The bosses’ press claim the deal was to end the tiered labor Ryan Garza / Detroit Free Press a “rich contract for workers,” yet 43% of system and demanding the members voted against it. This reflects that there be no plant widespread anger that the contract did not closures, the UAW mis- end the hated three-tier wage system and leaders appealed to the allowed the closure of three plants, includ- GM bosses to move ing the historic Lordstown, Ohio, factory. production of some The supposed pay raise is actually a vehicles from Mexico pay cut, with two 3% hikes in four years – to the U.S. This pro- less than the rate of inflation. Plus 4% “bo- tectionist demand set nuses” in the other two years which will not U.S. workers against be included in the base wage. The union their Mexican broth- tops sold the deal with an $11,000 signing ers and sisters who had bonus for top-tier workers, and $60-75,000 expressed solidarity bonuses for early retirement (which would with the GM strike, and Auto workers picketing outside Flint, Michigan assembly plant as the General Motors strike help the company lower labor costs by get- echoes the reactionary began, September 16. ting rid of higher-paid workers). The raises Mexico-bashing poli- amount to at most $1 an hour each, and to- cies of Donald Trump. The bottom line is plant closures in order to cut costs even as Morgan Stanley analyst saying to Barra gether with the bonuses would cost GM less that, at a time when General Motors is roll- it rakes in billions in profits – $35 billion at an investor conference in New York than $1 billion over the four-year life of the ing in dough, when workers held fast on since 2015, $11 billion last year alone. This that with GM’s cost-cutting, “You guys contract. This is peanuts for a company with picket lines for almost six weeks, the UAW is the largest industrial strike in the U.S. in are kicking butt.” The auto giant with its profits of $11+ billion a year, which is sit- leadership once again aided the bosses, as over a decade, following a wave of walk- bloated management is hardly lean, but it ting on a cash pile of $18 billion. they did with concessions pushed by the outs by teachers, supermarket, hotel and is plenty mean, cutting off strikers’ health Yes, the company backed off its de- Democratic Obama administration at the healthcare workers. It is already the lon- care and demanding that workers pick up mand that workers, who typically perform height of the 2007-09 economic crisis. gest walkout at GM since the 67-day strike 15% of health care costs. Meanwhile on hard repetitive labor on speedy assembly The UAW tops will now use the GM by 460,000 workers in 1970. the eve of the strike, the FBI searched top lines, pay more for their health care. There settlement as a “template” for negotiating A lot is riding on the outcome: a GM UAW officials’ homes and arrested high- is a lot of hoopla about how second-tier contracts with the other two Big 3 auto- settlement will not only affect Ford and level union officials on corruption charges. workers (who start at $17 an hour, barely makers – Ford and Fiat Chrysler. The latter Fiat Chrysler (the other “Big 3” U.S. auto- The timing was clearly intended to under- half the regular rate) can reach top base pay maintains a huge pool of 10,000 “tempo- makers), it could set the tone for a season cut a looming strike. in four years time, instead of the current rary” workers. An all-out struggle there to of sharp labor struggle as strikes loom in General Motors, Wall Street and eight years. That’s still four years at very end tiered labor and win a big raise would West Coast grocery stores, hospitals and Washington are out for blood. To defeat substandard pay. UAW officials and GM make it possible to successfully organize other sectors. But the business-as-usual ap- this assault on auto workers’ jobs and live- spokesmen also made much of contract the mass of workers at plants of non-U.S.- proach of the United Auto Workers (UAW) lihoods will require an all-out struggle. The clauses that would give “temporary” work- based companies in the South and non- leadership cannot win this key battle. Even union ranks should demand: ers (who make as little as $15 an hour) a union parts plants. This makes it all the now, the union leaders have not announced • Turn the GM walkout into a nation- “pathway to permanent employment” af- more urgent to build a class-struggle op- their demands on the company, while GM wide auto strike! “Pattern bargaining” ter three years of continuous employment. position in the UAW against a leadership is “offering” a paltry “raise” of 2% a year has only led to concession contracts But this is a long way from the demand of which knows nothing but class collabora- (which is less than the rate of inflation, for all. Shut down the Big 3 and bring thousands of auto workers: for equal pay tion, repeatedly sacrificing the member- making it a pay cut). out UAW-organized parts plants! • for equal work and to end tiers now. ship in favor of the bosses’ profits. It is nec- But the union ranks know perfectly End tiered labor: every worker must On top of which, this gives the bosses a essary to oust the bureaucrats, break with well that what’s needed is to get rid of the have full status, with full pay, full pen- huge incentive to lay off these “permatemp” the Democrats and build a workers party whole “divide-and-conquer” tier set-up. sion rights and full paid health care at workers. A temporary worker at the Spring on an internationalist program uniting the GM’s obscene profits are a direct result of no cost to employees. • Hill, Tennesee, GM, who was laid off after workers of the world and all the oppressed the two-tier work force that the UAW tops All workers in the plants should be a few months and only recalled over a year against the exploiters and oppressors. agreed to in the 2007-09 economic crisis, covered by the GM contract. The later, expressed the sentiment of many: “No We reprint below our September 25 cutting wages for new hires by more than UAW’s strength was built on the fact one is going to make it to three years,” she article issued as a supplement to The In- half, with no pension and inferior health that it was an industrial union repre- said. “So it’s useless.” Spring Hill – which ternationalist. care. Then in 2015, in exchange for a sup- senting all employees. produces highly profitable SUVs, has hired posed “path” to full status for second-tier • Not “profit-sharing” for some but a hundreds of temporary workers for a third workers, the union bureaucrats signed off big raise for all, with a full cost-of-liv- shift, and has a large number of workers For a Big 3 Nationwide on the creation of a third tier of even lower- ing allowance (COLA) to cover wage who transferred from the closed Lordstown paid “temporary” workers. Many of these loss due to inflation. plant – voted against the contract (as did Lo- Auto Strike! “permatemps” have been working full-time • Create more jobs with a six-hour day cal 1112 in Lordstown). This is also where Spread the Strike – Shut Down for years, with only three days of missed with no loss in pay (“30 for 40”), and police aggressively arrested picketers start- work a year, unpaid, and are sometimes no forced overtime. ing on Day One of the strike. GM, Ford, Chrysler – Bring Out even forced to work a seven-day week. An- • Call on the whole union movement As for the proviso that future hiring of Unionized Parts Plants other burning issue is the contracting-out to build mass picket lines that no one temp workers is subject to union approval, The strike by some 48,000 General of jobs like those of maintenance workers, crosses! This is a class battle. Unions this will make UAW officials even more Motors workers at 33 manufacturing plants who used to be GM employees across the country will be affected by complicit in perpetuating the system of low- and 22 distribution warehouses in the U.S., General Motors CEO Mary Barra “is whether GM workers win or lose. paid workers which allows GM to rake in which began at midnight on September 15, aiming to show Wall Street that today’s • Form a national UAW strike commit- billions. The difference between the tempo- is now in its second week and going strong. GM is leaner and more assertive than the tee of elected delegates from every lo- rary and regular rate pay scales alone nets This is no bureaucratic walk-through. GM one that collapsed into bankruptcy a de- cal, who can be recalled at any time the company over $2 billion a year in pure workers are pissed, as the company de- cade ago,” writes the Wall Street Journal by the ranks meeting in daily strike profit. Meanwhile, the shuttering of three mands more concessions and announces (20 September). The Journal quoted a assemblies. 10 The Internationalist Unchain labor’s power – build a with the UAW strike. A group of workers workers party! Above all, this strike must at the giant Silao plant, GM’s biggest in be waged politically. Now Democratic Mexico, met on September 15, the first day presidential candidates including Elizabeth of the strike, and voted to “reject the com- Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden pany’s use of overtime here to make up are grandstanding about “supporting” the for work lost from the strike in the United strike. Yet it was Democrat Barack Obama States.” In a letter to the GM strikers they who shelled out trillions of dollars to the said they “believe in the internationaliza- bankers and Wall Street speculators who tion of our conflicts, since the boss is the set off the economic depression, that gave same and is a multinational.” As a result of tens of billions to General Motors and their courageous stance, on September 20, Chrysler, took over management and re- five of the workers were fired by GM. The structured the bankrupt companies, aided UAW must demand, as part of any strike by the pro-Democratic UAW tops’ agree- settlement, that the unjustly fired Mexican ment to a giveback contract. workers be reinstated.1 Democrats, Republicans and all capi- Over the last 25 years, General Mo- talist parties represent the bosses. The only tors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler in the U.S., way to take power, and put the wealth built Mexico and Canada have integrated their up from our labor to serve human needs, production chains in the framework of the is to build a class-struggle workers party North American Free Trade Agreement to lead the fight for a workers government (NAFTA), which since 2017 has been re- that would expropriate GM and all of the Internationalists in strike solidarity visit to Rancho Cucamonga, California placed by the United States-Mexico-Can- capitalist exploiters. This is key to social- General Motors facility, October 6. On a later visit to the picket line together ada Agreement (USMCA). These pacts ist revolution worldwide and the establish- with the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, a GM worker said he was mad have been used by the bosses to drive wag- ment of an international socialist planned that the contract pitted older workers against younger workers, and he was es down in all three countries while sub- economy that would put an end to war, rac- going to vote not just “no” but “Hell No!” An older worker said that if he had jecting Mexico to imperialist looting; they ism, poverty and make possible the elimi- a copy of the contract he would burn it then and there. should be opposed by all anti-imperialists nation all forms of social oppression. the system of tiers, which is used not only walkout, the UAW instructed the autowork- and defenders of labor rights. But such op- position must be on the basis of an interna- UAW Tops Play Ball to maximize profits but to create dissent ers to cross the janitors’ picket lines! between older and younger workers and Many workers expressed their disgust tionalist program of workers solidarity, not with the Bosses… divide the union. at this. Several took personal days rather poisonous nationalist protectionism. Striking UAW auto workers today than cross the picket line. “In my opinion, The UAW has long called to “protect … But Labor’s Gotta Play are seeking to reverse the draconian con- crossing the picket line makes you a scab,” American jobs” and “buy American,” lin- cessions wrested from the union during Hardball to Win! said Sean Crawford, a Flint Assembly auto ing up U.S. workers with their bosses and the 2007-09 economic crash. In 2007, the Now, after the GM bosses announced worker who joined the janitors and then pitting them against their class brothers and UAW bureaucrats headed by Ron Gettel- last November the closure of two assem- drove to Detroit to protest outside Gen- sisters in Mexico and elsewhere. This plays finger sought to help the Big 3 bosses be bly and two transmissions plants, workers eral Motors headquarters. “The picket line into the chauvinist demagogy of the noto- “competitive” with non-union and foreign have walked out. It’s too many sacrifices is sacred,” he added. “That’s the mean- rious union-basher and vile immigrant- competitors by agreeing to slash pay for for way too long. The UAW selected GM ing of solidarity” (Detroit Free Press, 15 hater Donald Trump, who accuses Mexico workers hired after 2007 to $14 an hour. for a strike while Ford and Fiat Chrysler September). Janitors in the plant should of “taking our manufacturing jobs.” But Next, the Obama administration oversaw workers stay on the job: the UAW for de- be under the same contract as the assem- for all his talk of forcing General Motors the 2009 bankruptcies and bailouts of cades has engaged in “pattern” bargaining, bly line workers, as they once were. But to reopen the Lordstown, Ohio plant and GM and Chrysler: the feds gave the GM selecting one company to reach a deal with in any case, no one, and certainly no class- pretense of opposing GM auto production bosses $68.2 billion as they implemented and then negotiating similar terms with the conscious worker, should never, ever cross in Mexico, the plant is still shut down and plant closures that eliminated tens of thou- others. But Ford and Chrysler workers, just a picket line, even if ordered to do so by 1 The Silao workers, who call themselves “GM sands of jobs and shifted responsibility as ground down as those at GM, are itch- union mis-leaders. – Generando Movimiento” (Generating Move- for paying for retiree health benefits onto ing to go out also. A solid nationwide Big 3 For International Labor Soli- ment), say they are fighting for union democracy the union. On top of this, the Democrats auto strike, backed up by mass picket lines and to throw out the fictitious company-imposed sweetened the “net operating loss” tax and labor movement solidarity, would sock darity Action “union,” the CTM. This corporatist outfit and loophole so that GM has paid virtually no it to the auto bosses big-time. Winning ma- Meanwhile, the UAW strike is affect- others like it have for decades been incorpo- federal income tax in this decade, and now jor gains would also go a long way toward ing GM plants in Canada and Mexico. The rated into the machinery of the Mexican capital- won’t for years to come. organizing non-union parts plants and as- Oshawa plant in Ontario has shut down be- ist state, acting as labor cops for the bosses and As the automakers started turning prof- sembly plants in the South, and toward cause it ran out of parts due to the strike, their government in order to prevent the rise of genuine workers unions. Now that new populist busting the union-busting “right to work” while the GM engine plant in St. Catharines, its again by 2011, UAW leaders – craven president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known and venal even by the abysmal standards of offensive. We say: Spread the strike! Beat Ontario is also partly shut down for lack by his initials AMLO, has taken office, he has the AFL-CIO labor bureaucracy – refused to back all the auto bosses! of supplies. Militants in the Unifor union, moved to set up a new government-controlled mount any effort to fight back. But in 2015, This is a hard class battle. GM re- which organizes Canadian auto workers, “labor” body, the CATEM (Autonomous Fed- angry workers at Chrysler and GM voted portedly has held job fairs to hire scabs should fight for solidarity action in support eration of Mexican Workers and Employees), down rotten contracts, forcing renegotia- to reopen assembly plants in Texas and of the UAW strikers, including walkouts at to which some of the Silao workers have been tions that set the post-2007 “second tier” Missouri. At many locations UAW pick- GM and other plants. Such joint struggle is attracted. Insurgent Mexican workers should workers on an eight-year-long path toward eters have stopped scab delivery trucks all the more important since General Motors beware that this is no more independent of the state than the CTM they are rebelling against. the “traditional pay” of “first tier” work- from entering the plants, often facing off has declared that it will shut down auto pro- The head of CATEM, Pedro Haces Barba, is a duction at Oshawa at the end of the year, as ers (who themselves have seen their wages against the police. Cops have arrested at former CTM leader, a superexploiting capital- fall 16% against inflation since 2010). At least ten picketers at the Spring Hill, Ten- it opens another plant in Mexico. ist and politician in AMLO’s bourgeois party, the same time, the 2015 contract expanded nessee, assembly plant for stopping would- Mexican GM workers, themselves MORENA (National Regeneration Movement), GM’s ability to hire “temporary workers” at be strikebreakers. The Teamsters union toiling under grueling conditions imposed briefly serving as a senator. In an interview with poverty wages. Temporary workers are now has announced that its 1,000 drivers who by the GM bosses, earning barely 2 dollars El Universal (2 February), Haces declared: “As a 7% of the company’s hourly workers and transport GM vehicles will not be hauling an hour and working 12-hour days, have in union leader, I must not fail AMLO.” GM want that to keep increasing. them to dealerships—that’s good, but not at least one plant taken a stand in solidarity continued on page 20 In the current round of negotiations, enough. Mass picket lines should ensure GM announced its insulting “offer” to the that nothing goes in or out of the plants. union only two hours before the old con- The fundamental working-class princi- Don’t Be Fooled by the World Scab Web Site tract expired. But rather than rejecting out ple – that picket lines mean don’t cross – has Then there are the scab “socialists” Michigan. And they literally help the of hand the 2% wage “increase” and the been gutted over the decades by sellout union of David North’s “World Socialist bosses. During a previous round of auto company’s demand that workers foot hun- bureaucrats, who play by the bosses’ rules, Web Site” who are currently putting contract negotiations, the WSWS fakers dreds of dollars a year in health care costs, which invariably include injunctions against out an online Autoworker Newsletter (who also masquerade as the Socialist “UAW Vice President Terry Dittes told militant picketing. The UAW tops showed and making supposedly leftist attacks Equality Party) said they “advise GM that the company’s latest offer might their contempt for this principle at the out- on the UAW leaders. Auto workers workers, should the UAW come to their have made it possible to reach an agree- set of the strike: when 850 UAW-represented should be forewarned: the WSWS plant, to vote to keep it out.” (For more ment” but it just arrived too late to avert Aramark janitorial employees who work in imposters seek to destroy the unions. on this sinister outfit, see “SEP/WSWS: a strike. Meanwhile, the company has re- five GM plants in Michigan and Ohio went North for years was the CEO of a non- Scab ‘Socialists’,” The Internationalist, fused to budge on workers’ demands to end on strike the day before the assembly plant union printshop in suburban Detroit, December 2007). n

September-October 2019 11 For Workers Mobilization Throughout Spain Against the Bloody Neo-Francoist Attack in Catalonia Catalonia: Unconditional Freedom for Independentista Prisoners! On October 14, the Spanish Supreme Court in Madrid pronounced draconian sen- tences against the nine Catalan independence Defend the Right to Self-Determination! leaders who were declared guilty in the so- called “trial against the procés” (the indepen- dence movement). The angry response to this frame-up came that same night in Barcelona as thousands of protesters besieged the air- port in order to shut it down. The next day

tens of thousands took to the streets to pro- EFE test against the verdict and the rigged trial. At nightfall as they dispersed, the National Po- lice and the Mossos d’Esquadra (police un- der the command of the Catalan government) viciously set upon the protesters, leading to a pitched battle with flaming barricades, a sce- nario that was repeated in the following days. The horrendous verdict of the Spanish judges was hardest against Oriol Junqueras, former vice president of the Generalitat, the Catalan autonomous self-government, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the crimes of “sedition” and embezzle- ment (paying for the 1 October 2017 inde- pendence referendum). Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull and Dolors Bassa, former members of the executive committee of the Generalitat, were sentenced to 12 years in jail. Carme Forcadell, who was president of the Catalan More than 750,000 people marched on October 18 during a general strike in Barcelona denouncing the draconian parliament, was given 11 and a half years sentences handed down to independentista leaders by the Spanish Supreme Court in Madrid. behind bars; two other former members of the executive, Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn, and Independence for Catalonia,” calling to the national territory” constitutes a crime continue to grow, leading up to Friday, Oc- were sentenced to 10 years, and the leaders “Resist Attempts to Prevent the October 1 against the constitution. Defense of the tober 18, when more than three-quarters of a of the Catalan National Assembly and Òm- Referendum!” (The Internationalist No. 49, right to self-determination in Catalonia to- million people filled the center of Barcelona nium (pro-independence associations), Jordi September-October 2017). In response to the day requires mobilizing the working class with the five columns of the “marxes per la Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, to 9 years in jail. repression, the LFI organized an emergency and the defenders of democratic rights llibertat” (freedom marches) amid a gen- These vengeful sentences are the culmi- protest in New York. throughout Spain, under the watchword, eral strike called by the pro-independence nation of the case begun in October 2017 by The Catalan independentistas didn’t “Free them all, now!” Intersindical-CSC and the Intersindical Al- the Spanish attorney general’s office against commit any crime. Holding the referen- Since Monday when the fateful Su- ternativa de Catalunya (IAC). Carles Puigdemont, then head of government dum on independence is an expression preme Court verdict was issued, day after The bourgeois press tried to minimize of the Generalitat, and 13 other Catalan na- of the elementary democratic right of na- day there have been massive protests in Bar- the impact of the general strike, claiming that tionalist leaders who promoted and carried tions to decide whether or not they wish celona, ​Tarragona, Lleida and Girona. And there was only a 7.5% decrease in electric- out the October 1 referendum. That day, de- to form their own state. Such votes have night after night there have been clashes in ity consumption. However, the number of spite the enormous and violent police mobili- been carried out in Quebec and Scotland the streets of the Catalan capital between pro- subway and rail passengers was cut in half, zation to prevent voting, more than two mil- without incident. But in the state derived testers and the forces of “law enforcement.” dozens of flights were canceled at the- Bar lion Catalans flocked to the polls. The League from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, So far, the Guardia Civil, the National Police celona airport, schools and universities were for the Fourth International proclaimed, with its motto of “Spain, One and Great,” and the Mossos have arrested more than 100 emptied, closures of downtown businesses “Defend the Right to Self-Determination to “proclaim the independence of a part of people and injured hundreds. Yet the protests continued on page 18 Manu Mitru / El Periódico Lluis Gene/Agence France-Presse

The final session of the frame-up trial of the Catalan pro-independence The dock workers union of Barcelona voted to join the general strike, the leaders was broadcast on a giant screen in Barcelona, June 12. Banner at only industrial union to do so. They marched from the port on October 18 bottom reads: “Democracy on Trial.” calling for dignity and civil rights. 12 The Internationalist Olli Weiss, 1985 – 2019 A Revolutionary Class Fighter for the Oppressed Translated from the German. life. This is the great- est honor we can pay to Our comrade Oliver Weiss died on our fallen comrade. July 22. According to the medical report, Olli was born to the cause of death was repeated heart at- a proletarian family in

tacks when he collapsed while jogging. His Permanente Revolution East Germany when it utterly unexpected death was an incredible was a workers state (the shock to his family, his girlfriend, com- German Democratic rades, friends and everyone who knew him; Republic, or DDR). he always seemed so fit and strong. Only Experiencing the di- a few weeks earlier he had celebrated his saster of “democratic” 34th birthday. The terrible death of com- capitalist counterrevo- rade Olli is a severe blow for the Interna- lution as a child gave tionalistische Gruppe/Germany, of which Olli an appreciation of he was a founding member and a mainstay, the enormous gains for and an incalculable loss for our League for workers, women and the Fourth International, of which he was the oppressed that had part of the international leadership. The been made possible by working class worldwide has lost an enor- the overthrow of capi- mously promising communist champion. talism and a collectiv- Olli was the organizer of the Interna- ized planned economy, tionalistische Gruppe and put out the news- despite mismanage- paper of the IG, Permanente Revolution. ment and undercutting He was also instrumental in the production by the Stalinist bureau- of the newspaper of our Italian section, cracy. Very early in life L´internazionalista, and played a lead- he started searching ing role in the European work of the LFI. for a political program Comrades of the American, Brazilian and capable of ending capi- Mexican sections got to know him and his talism’s oppression and Olli Weiss in the garden of the Museo Casa León Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico, August 2018. many talents when he was responsible for exploitation around the Won to Trotsky’s program, Olli never changed his revolutionary spirit, but fought to put it the technical functioning of the First Inter- globe. At the age of 15 consistently into practice. national Conference of the League for the Olli had gained enough political experience sented genuine Trotskyism until, after the As Olli later wrote when he joined Fourth International in November 2017, and knowledge to see through the radical counterrevolution in the DDR, the USSR the League for the Fourth International in as well as reporting on work in Europe. pretensions of the reformist anarchist and and other East European deformed work- 2017, “After nearly a year and a half of dis- Many others have known him for nearly anti-globalization milieus that had initially ers states around 1989-1992, it was over- cussion and joint work, I am convinced that two decades in numerous struggles against attracted him. It was the ideas of revolu- come by the spirit of defeatism and took the LFI is what I thought the ICL was when exploitation and oppression and have been tionary Trotskyism that really made sense leave of its former revolutionary program I became a member of the Berlin Sparta- inspired by his dedication and straightfor- of the world as he experienced it. in 1996. Although the ICL was at the point cist Youth in early 2002 and the SpAD in wardness. With the intention of fighting for the Olli joined only a shell of its former self, its 2003.” Won to Trotsky’s program, despite We all mourn his death. Our tears and Bolshevik politics of Leon Trotsky, Olli pronouncedly revolutionary past inspired the revisions, deviations and rejection by fury will only strengthen us in the convic- joined the Spartakist Youth in early 2002 Olli, particularly the then-revolutionary the ICL, Olli never changed his revolution- tion to fight with increased commitment for and a year later, the Spartakist Workers ICL’s intervention for defense of the DDR ary spirit, but fought to put it consistently a reforged Fourth International, the revolu- Party of Germany (SpAD), the affiliate against capitalist counterrevolution and for into practice. tionary International to which Olli Weiss of the International Communist League proletarian political revolution to oust the Within the SpAD, Olli was always wholeheartedly devoted his all-too-short (ICL). For three decades, the ICL repre- Stalinist bureaucracy. very “hands-on” in undertaking tasks and Janis Garnet Permanente Revolution

Olli Weiss, a revolutionary class fighter for the oppressed. Olli speaking at a meeting of the TVStud strikers. September-October 2019 13 Mendívil at the Free way it may go.” Natu- University of Berlin, rally, Olli’s precisely who was dismissed on-target criticism

from her teaching was dismissed out of Janis Garnet post because of slan- hand.1 derous accusations of Olli also rightly “anti-Semitism” (for feared that the increas- defending the rights of ingly demoralized and the Palestinians). One cynical ICL leadership of the first campaigns was rewriting its own Olli launched after history on the DDR in joining the LFI was order to rid themselves in Eleonora’s defense, of the obligation to Olli actively mobilized to defend Eleonora Roldán including writing a apply the true lessons Mendívil, slanderously accused of “anti-Semitism” powerful solidarity of this intervention to for defending the rights of the Palestinians. statement and fighting China, Cuba and the carried them out in a professional manner. within his union to take class-struggle ac- other remaining de- At the age of 20 he took over the produc- tion. formed workers states. tion of its newspaper, which he continued Like others in the ICL, Olli often felt While the ICL leader- to do conscientiously for the next 12 years. restricted, which he reacted to by throwing ship wanted to retire Olli soon became organizer of the youth himself further into the work, among other into producing abstract group of the Berlin SpAD, and then joined things. As he wrote in his application for propaganda from the the leadership of the local. In 2006 he was membership in the LFI: “I had been criti- comfort of their offic- elected to the central committee of the or- cal of certain tendencies of the SpAD for es, Olli wanted his par- ganization. As one of his former comrades a long time (passivity; immediate 180° ty to get up and ready due to criticisms from the IS; office-bound itself to again carry remarked, “despite his independence of Olli being interviewed during demonstration in defense existence; etc.), and I opposed some indi- out the kind of bold thought and action being anathema to ICL of Sea Watch ship’s captain Carola Rackete, 6 July 2019. internal operations, his aptness in whatever vidual line changes (e.g., on executive of- fight that it had waged he did meant that the SpAD’s leadership fice; not trying to explore opportunities in in the DDR, in all the remaining deformed fered a world-historic defeat. The ICL was preferred to try to coopt him.” Still: the DDR before the wall came down; etc.) workers states. able to undertake this intervention because “Olli was unique in that he didn’t bow and wrong positions (e.g., non-opposition It was in this context that in November it still stood on the ground of revolution- easily to pressure. He took his time to to privatization, out-sourcing etc.) over the 2010, Olli put forward a motion to strike ary Trotskyism at the time. It was equipped formulate where he stood on political is- years.” But he had “harbored illusions that the claim in the main document of the with Trotsky’s analysis of the Stalinist bu- sues. He was not easily convinced and through corrections here and there, and a Sixth Conference of the ICL (2010) that reaucracy as a contradictory, petty-bour- he stood up for his convictions. We are transition of younger, less burned-out cad- the document of the Second Conference geois stratum parasitically administering often tempted to describe such actions as res into central positions, a kind of self-re- (1992) had made an error in declaring that and resting on the foundations of the work- bravery. I don’t think that Olli thought form of the ICL could take place, and that the German section should have tried to ers state. Later, seized by the defeatism of of it this way. I think that he simply said I just had to hang in there, fight on selected “get appropriate propaganda into the hands the bourgeois thesis of a “death of commu- what he thought and did what he said.” issues that I might be able to win, and bide of political activists in the DDR” even be- nism,” the ICL abandoned this foundation This straightforward way of thinking and my time.” fore the fall of the Berlin Wall in Novem- of Trotskyism. Instead, it embraced the de- acting later attracted Olli to the League So, for example, on the ICL’s newly ber 1989. How could one simply deny such lusion that the fragile Stalinist caste, rather for the Fourth International, he remarked, coined principle that it is a betrayal for a self-evident statement? he asked. And es- than the powerful imperialist bourgeoisie, as he was particularly impressed by the revolutionaries to run for executive office, pecially with the (false) statement that all “led the counterrevolution.” Brazilian comrades’ motto of “the unity of even if they use the platform of the election opposition groups were controlled by the This anti-Marxist assertion served as deeds and words.” campaign to spread communist principles church, thereby equating informal pro-so- a “theoretical” rationale for the purge of Olli was always an activist in the best and refuse to take such executive positions cialist circles with conscious counter-revo- the ICL cadres who later founded the LFI, sense of the word, who fought stubbornly in the capitalist state, in 2007 Olli wrote lutionaries? Here he struck a nerve regard- and despite much shilly-shallying and rot- against the pseudo-Trotskyists, but was bluntly: ing the ICL’s 1989-90 intervention against ten compromises to cover it up, it remains attentive to possible contradictions that “I remain unconvinced that the simple the capitalist reunification of Germany and the line of the latter-day ICL in its Decla- would allow the true content of their in- act of a revolutionary running for an for a proletarian political revolution in the ration of Principles. As Olli stressed, on consistencies and betrayals to be demon- executive office of the capitalist state al- DDR. this basis these former Trotskyists could strated in struggle. This often distinguished ways and under all circumstances means This first-ever intervention of a never successfully intervene against a bud- him from the ICL’s predilection to lecture crossing the class line and therewith a Trotskyist International against imperi- ding counterrevolution, or in an incipient the working class and the left (and when betrayal of communism.” alist-led counterrevolutionary forces in a proletarian political revolution, in the re- they didn’t listen, to lecture themselves) He added: “I don’t understand why ev- tottering deformed workers state was one maining deformed workers states (China, with abstract pulpit sermons. He strongly eryone is suddenly so hot to take a new line of the ICL’s most outstanding accomplish- Cuba, etc.). But in fact, the abstentionist defended various leftists who had been at- so quickly. I find the discussion strange in- ments – even though, due to the balance ICL, which has long since taken its leave tacked for years, often physically, by the asmuch as it doesn’t research our own elec- of power, the working class ultimately suf- from the class struggle, does not want to do so-called “anti-German” proponents of Zi- tion campaigns, for example New York in 1 See his document, “If Left Communism Is an such a thing anymore, having sunk so deep onism. Olli was remembered at his funeral 1985. In my opinion, that would be a pre- Infantile Disorder, Then What Is ‘Left Trotsky- by left-wing lecturer Eleonora Roldán condition for an assessment, whichever ism’?” 19 January 2007. continued on page 19 Janis Garnet Permanente Revolution

The Internationalistische Gruppe marching during the TVStud strike of Olli (center, front of banner) mobilized striking hospital workers in solidarity with student assistants at Berlin’s Free University, 16 January 2018. Dr. Arturo Villalobos in Oaxaca, Mexico over the torture of his son, 15 May 2018. 14 The Internationalist Mobilize Workers Power to Stop Fascist/Anti-Semitic Terror! Halle was an Attempted Fascist Massacre BERLIN, October 13 – On October 9, doz- industrial export drive is failing, the German ens of people gathered in a synagogue in bourgeoisie is determined to make the Halle, in the eastern German federal state The Targets: Jews, Muslims, working class bear the burden of the crisis. of Sachsen-Anhalt, to observe the Jewish It cynically fans hysteria about “crime” to holiday of Yom Kippur narrowly escaped Leftists and Women justify reinforcing its repressive apparatus. being massacred by a fascist gunman in Hence the convergence of the bourgeois an anti-Semitic attack. This individual “center” parties with the program of the AfD. was unable to break into the synagogue The massive fortification of every because of its armored doors, and his self- synagogue in Germany – or every mosque,

produced weapons proved unreliable. But Permanente Revolution for that matter –is hardly a lasting solution. he was able to shoot and kill a woman The fascists must be defeated. This is a passing by, and then proceeded to a kebab political struggle, which begins with the takeout store, where he shot down a male realization that an injury to one is an injury customer after trying to bomb the store. to all – whether Jew or Muslim. The October After wounding two more people during 13 popular-front #unteilbar demonstration in his flight, he was ultimately arrested. Berlin against the anti-Semitic attack in Halle This was the latest in a series of atrocities calls to “Give no quarter: Kill anti-Semitism which have cut a bloody swathe around the and Racism.” Meaning what, exactly? Such world and followed the same pattern: the “common expressions of sorrow, rage and indiscriminate terror attack on Latinos in sympathy” won’t stop the fascists. El Paso, Texas in August, the Christchurch Nor will they be stopped by writing off mosque shootings in New Zealand in March, the fascists as merely “right-wing,” a “shift the Tree of Life Synagogue murders in to the right,” as the opportunist left does in Pittsburgh in October 2018 and ultimately seeking to make a popular front with social going back at least to the slaughter in democrats and bourgeois liberals. Given the Norway in July 2011. The Halle attack was Internationalistische Gruppe at #Unteilbar (indivisible) demo in Berlin, need for solidarity between all the targets live-streamed: each time, the perpetrators October 13. of racist reaction, there should have been a have provided manifestos or declarations equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. organizing shown by the state, to call on massive working-class counter-mobilization motivating their heinous acts. These days in Germany any criticism of this same bourgeois state for protection against the “right-to-life” crowd this past In this case, the would-be mass murderer the criminal repression of Palestinians by the against the fascists is suicidal. Yet the September 22 in Berlin, as there should be to vowed to “kill as many anti-whites as possible, Zionist state is labeled “hatred of Jews,” with reformist left has no other recourse than to stop the fascist provocations that have been Jews preferred.” According to his manifesto, rightist Israeli prime minister Netanyahu vainly cry out “state, help! intervene!” as announced for November 9, the anniversary he had originally considered targeting a and his ambassadors as arbiters of who and the social democrats did up to 1933. of the 1938 Kristallnacht anti-Jewish pogrom. mosque or an “antifa” meeting point, but what is “anti-Semitic.” This reached the The upsurge in reactionary, anti- The multiethnic working class in ultimately decided that striking a synagogue point this past June that the director of the immigrant “populist,” violent racist and Germany is being ground down, yet its on Yom Kippur would provide a maximum Jewish Museum in Berlin was denounced by outright fascist movements and attacks is an power is intact. The key is leadership. What’s of potential victims. He not only blamed “the the Israeli ambassador and forced to resign international phenomenon. It is a byproduct needed is a mass mobilization of workers Jews” for mass immigration (of Muslims), for tweeting an article about a petition of of the ongoing capitalist economic crisis, the power to crush the fascists, their uniformed but also for “feminism” which he vituperated 240 Jewish and Israeli scholars who signed depression that began in 2007-08 and whose protectors and their capitalist sponsors, part against for reducing the (white) birthrate. a petition opposing the parliament’s witch- effects continue to be felt today, including of a struggle to build a workers party that Although police quickly declared that hunting anti-BDS motion. mass unemployment, stagnant and falling fights for international socialist revolution the killer acted alone, the case was swiftly Meanwhile, the racist claptrap about wages, and the destruction of public services to bring down the bloody rule of capital and transferred to the chief federal prosecutor a supposed “replacement” of Europeans and social welfare programs. While its sweep away its enforcers. n on the grounds that the killings were “a by non-white immigrants, for which “the threat to the state” (staatsgefährdend). Jews” (in particular George Soros) are The local Sachsen-Anhalt police seemed held responsible, has long since spread The mainly interested in justifying their into “respectable” conservative circles. Internationalist absence from the synagogue even though And the upsurge in genuinely anti-Semitic the Jewish community had requested their incidents on the streets as well as actions by A Journal of Revolutionary Marxism for the presence during the High Holidays. “lone wolves” are being egged on by racist Reforging of the Fourth International Since the killings, the media have propaganda, including tropes common to exclusively labeled the attack as “anti- fascists and conservatives and propagated Publication of the Internationalist Group, Semitic,” which it certainly was, while by sections of the “mainstream” media. section of the League for the Fourth International ignoring the killer’s extensive enemies list. The electoral successes of the fascistic Neither victim was Jewish; they were people Alternative for Germany (AfD) provide Annual subscription US$10 for five issues. who happened to be in the wrong place political cover for full-blown anti-immigrant at the wrong time. The killer announced pogroms like that in Chemnitz last year, which Name______his attack on the kebab shop with an anti- included an attack on a Jewish restaurant. This Address______immigrant slur. Just as the first person time, not only did Germany just narrowly avoid killed was a victim of anti-Semitic terror, a slaughter which could have claimed more ______Apt. #_____Tel.(___)______the second was a victim of anti-immigrant victims than the fascist bombing in Munich in City______State/Province______racism, perpetrated by an all-round fascist. 1980, fascist terror had already taken on a new In the guise of opposing anti-Semitism, quality with the murder of Walter Lübcke, a Postal Code/Zip______Country______the prime minister of Sachsen-Anhalt, Christian Democratic politician. Haseloff, announced he was consulting the The murders in Halle were naturally Make checks/money orders payable to Mundial Publications and mail to: Israeli ambassador, since the Israelis have used by federal interior minister Martin Mundial Publications “experience with radicalized individual Seehofer to demand, yet again, more Box 3321, Church Street Station New York, NY 10008 U.S.A. perpetrators.” It takes place against the police and more billions to pay and equip backdrop of the designation of the “BDS” those cops. But in light of the continuing Write the Internationalist Group at the above address, or contact: Israel boycott movement as anti-Semitic by scandals about fascist nests in both the Tel (212) 460-0983 Fax (212) 614-8711 the federal parliamentary majority in May army and police (NSU 2.0), and the endless E-mail: [email protected] – an invitation to yet another witch hunt examples of deliberate blindness to fascist September-October 2019 15 war in a “security zone” occupied by the U.S./Turkey... Turkish army and policed by Turkish- continued from page 1 backed Syrian Islamist militias. Turkish city of Akcakale. By the second AP To realize his grandiose dreams, the day, hospitals were evacuated as Turkish would-be sultan of Ankara vows to clear warplanes and artillery pummeled Kurdish northern Syria of “terrorists,” i.e., to expel areas from Kobanê in the west to Qamishli the Kurds en masse. This recalls Ottoman 400 km. to the east. “The whole border was Turkey’s annihilation of over a million on fire,” an SDF spokesman said. Armenians in World War I. Objecting to Turkey’s president Erdoğan has threat- the term “genocide,” last April Erdoğan ened this occupation for several years, cit- defended the 1915 mass deportations and ing “national security.” He labels the Syri- massacres as the “relocation of the Arme- an Kurdish PYD (Democratic Union Party) nian gangs and their supporters,” and “the and its YPG militia “terrorist” because of most reasonable action.” Eerily, Ras al- their links to the Turkish PKK (Kurdistan Ain, now under Turkish attack, was the site Workers Party), which is so designated by of a concentration camp to hold Armenian the United States and its allies in the im- deportees prior to a death march into the perialist NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Or- Syrian desert around Deir ez-Zor, where ganization) alliance. But the real terrorists Erdoğan wants to push the Kurds today. are the Turkish governments, which for Whether he is able to do so is another decades have terrorized the Kurdish popu- Mercenary Syrian jihadi militias being used by Turkey to spearhead invasion, matter. The Kurds have an army of 60,000 lation of southeastern Turkey, and the U.S. most formerly on U.S. payroll, have carried out massacres against Kurds. hardened fighters, with some heavy weap- imperialists, who for the past five years operation, which class-conscious workers even real autonomy in northern Syria. That ons. While they can’t hope to outgun the have been terror-bombing Syria (as they and opponents of imperialism everywhere would threaten the Ottoman ambitions 350,000-strong Turkish army with its armor did earlier in Afghanistan and Iraq). must oppose and seek to defeat. The Turk- of the Islamist Erdogan and the Turkish (tanks and artillery) and air force, the YPG/ The U.S. military has been reluctant to ish invasion is aimed at forcibly transfer- nationalism of the army. And NATO SDF could be an effective guerrilla force. approve the Turkish invasion, having used ring 2 million Syrian Arab refugees to Turkey is a linchpin for Western imperialist It could endlessly harass Turkish positions the YPG/SDF as ground troops of its war Kurdish regions and pushing the Kurds domination of the Middle East…. [W]e and pick off Turkey’s Syrian puppet militia, call to expel U.S. imperialism from Syria, against the Islamic State (I.S.) in Syria. Top into the Syrian desert – “ethnic cleansing” the remnants of the CIA-backed “Free Syr- Iraq and the entire region.” Pentagon officials and U.S. envoys to the re- on a vast scale. It is also the predictable ian Army.” The “FSA” was never an effec- –“Syria: Defend the Kurds, Defeat U.S./ gion have warned that without the Kurdish- outcome of the devil’s bargain of the Kurd- tive fighting force, spending most of the war NATO Imperialism!” in “For Workers lounging in Turkish hotel lobbies, massa- led militia a resurgence of the I.S. is likely. ish bourgeois leadership in enlisting as Action to Defeat Barack Obama’s Iraq/ But Erdoğan would never have proceeded mercenary troops for U.S. imperialism in cring villagers of the Alawite religious mi- Syria War,” The Internationalist No. 38, nority1 with the occupation without the permission its war against the Islamic State. Now the and posing for photo ops with U.S. October-November 2014 politicians like John McCain. of the U.S., which Trump gave in his Octo- Kurdish people are paying the price. Meanwhile, seeking to displace 2 mil- ber 7 phone call. Besides, the U.S. president The League for the Fourth Interna- The Kurdish People, Victim lion Kurds with 2 million Sunni Arab refu- already announced last December that he tional has since its inception called to de- of Imperialist Carve-Up gees is a recipe for wholesale communal was pulling U.S. forces from Syria and sub- fend the PKK against repression and cham- of the Middle East bloodletting. Many of those refugees were contracting the war against the I.S. to U.S. pioned the right of the Kurdish people to The Kurdish people, numbering over urban dwellers who would be lost in the imperialism’s NATO junior partner Turkey. self-determination. The LFI calls for a so- 40 million spread over a contiguous, largely Western media are portraying the fight- fields of northern Syria, and relatively few cialist republic of united Kurdistan, as part mountainous area of the Middle East, is the are from that area: they will have to be “re- ing as a “clash between two U.S. allies,” in of a proletarian struggle against the impe- largest nation in the world without a state. settled” at gunpoint. The Kurdish popula- which the U.S. “stepped aside.” In reality, rialists and their Middle Eastern satraps As the victorious Allied imperialist powers tion has stood up to repeated attempts to the U.S. has actively worked with Turkey and Zionist allies. As besieged Kurds in dismembered the defeated Ottoman Empire push them out, by the Assads and the I.S.; in carrying out this attack. The New York Kobanê desperately fought off I.S. jihadis following World War I, they held out the their youth are armed and battle-tested, and Times (10 October) reported that “for the (holy warriors) five years ago, we wrote: promise of an independent Kurdish state in they have nowhere else to go. The stage is last few weeks, as Turkish military officials “Proletarian revolutionaries would the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. However, that set not only for massacres by the Turkish planned the assault, they received Ameri- defend the Kurdish areas against attacks promise was ripped up in the 1924 Treaty occupiers and their mercenary thugs but can surveillance video and information by the Assad regime or the Free Syrian of Lausanne, which carved up the Kurdish for turmoil that could spread to Kurds and from reconnaissance aircraft. The informa- Army and certainly against the Islamic nation, leaving them an oppressed minority Alevis2 in southern Turkey. tion may have helped them track Kurdish State whose victory would mean in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, all of which positions.” In addition, “Turkish aircraft wholesale slaughter of Kurds.” have bitterly opposed Kurdish indepen- The YPG’s Strange Bedfellows were given access to a suite of American At the same time, as PYD/YPG leaders dence, or even autonomy. Trump’s sudden action has met with battlefield intelligence in northeast Syria.” signed on with Democratic U.S. president Turkey prohibited the Kurdish lan- cries of “shame” and “betrayal” from But now, “The United States military … Obama’s Syrian bombing campaign, we guage, or even mentioning the words Democrats and Republicans in Congress, has cut off all support to the militia.” denounced this fateful step, warning: “Kurdistan” or “Kurdish,” while subjecting the Pentagon, the CIA, the State Depart- The reality is that this latest war on the “the U.S. and European imperialists will Kurdish regions to decades of brutal mili- ment and virtually the entire foreign policy Kurds is a U.S./Turkey/NATO combined never accept Kurdish independence, or tary occupation. Iraq expelled Kurds from establishment. Official Washington is wor- oil-rich areas in the north. Iran crushed a ried that his rhetoric rejecting “endless Kurdish republic allied with the Soviet wars” and talk of handing over policing of Union in 1946, at the onset of the Cold “their neighborhood” to Turkey could be a War, and persecuted Iranian Kurds ever 1 The Alawites are a religious sect comprising since, both under the shah and the mul- roughly one-sixth (17%) of Syria’s population, lahs. Syria under Hafez al-Assad (father concentrated in the mountains along the Mediter- of the current president, Bashar al-Assad), ranean coast. Nominally Muslim and claiming to also banned the Kurdish language, denied be a branch of Shia Islam, the Alawites are con- Kurds citizenship and “Arabized” Kurdish sidered apostates by many Sunni, the dominant regions by resettling tens of thousands of religious group in Syria. Alawite beliefs include Bedouin Arabs along its northern border. a number of Christian elements, and since their theology is largely secret to all but a tiny clergy Facing a leftist Kurdish insurgency of and they have no places of worship, the Alawite the PKK led by Abdullah Öcalan, since the population is in many ways functionally secular. late 1970s Turkish rulers, both the army Alawites achieved a prominent position in the Delil Souleiman / Agence France-Presse Delil Souleiman / with its “secular” Republican allies and military under French colonial rule, and consti- the Islamist Erdoğan, have waged a war of tute the hard core of the military-based Assad extermination in the southeast, killing tens regime, in power since 1970. 2 of thousands of Kurds. Now the authoritar- The Alevis are often confused with the Alawi- ian Turkish president, who cited “Hitler’s tes, and like them are a syncretic sect embody- ing elements of different religions, although Germany” as the kind of “unitary state” he more identifiably Islamic. Based in southern U.S.-Turkey joint military patrol earlier in September outside Tel Abyad on seeks to construct with his constitutional Turkey and constituting up to 20% of the Turk- Turkey-Syria border. Pentagon helped Turkish military prepare the invasion, reforms, wants to restore the “glory” of the ish population, Alevis are a persecuted religious dismantling YPG border defenses and sharing reconaissance information Ottoman Empire. He intends to “resettle” minority. Hundreds were killed before, during about Kurdish positions. millions of refugees from the Syrian civil and after the 1980 coup. 16 The Internationalist Tara Todras-WhitehillNew Yorkfor The Times Delil Souleiman / Agence France-Presse Delil Souleiman /

Civilians fleeing Turkish bombardment of Ras al-Ain, Syria. Ottoman dreams: Erdoğan’s grandiose presidential palace in Ankara. blow to U.S. imperialist hegemony glob- has tabulated some 1,600 civilians killed beyond that and call for defense of Raqqa a “safety zone,” which “could host up to 3 ally. They are concerned that “abandon- during the brutal four-month U.S./YPG as- against the attack by imperialism and million refugees currently living in Turkey ing our Kurdish allies” will make it much sault on the I.S. “capital” of Raqqa in 2017 allied forces including the Kurdish-led if extended from Turkey’s border to Deir al harder to win others to join “coalitions of (The Intercept, 15 April; Airwars, 7 August). YPG/SDF.” Zor and Raqqa” far south of the border (Re- the willing,” which have been the vehicles Using what former U.S. defense secretary – “Defend Raqqa – Drive U.S./NATO uters, 16 September). They agreed on the for the U.S.’ role as world policeman in the James Mattis called “annihilation tactics,” Imperialists Out of Syria and Iraq!” The “Astana format” of talks between the Syrian 21st-century “new world order.” the city was leveled, with 11,000 buildings Internationalist No. 43, May-June 2016 government and opposition (excluding the 3 Trump responds that the Kurds “were destroyed and 150,000 survivors barely ek- Middle East in Turmoil, Kurds) , and that the U.S. should withdraw paid massive amounts of money and equip- ing out an existence amid the rubble. its troops from northeastern Syria forthwith. Everyone Against the Kurds ment” to be U.S. allies. This is hardly the The YPG has also acted as jailers for Meanwhile, mass protests in Baghdad first time the imperialists have left their the U.S. imperialists. The YPG/SDF forces Under siege from his own supporters, by unemployed young men have plunged proxies in the lurch. Recall the CIA’s “se- that cleared Raqqa rounded up thousands the megalomaniacal U.S. president Trump the Iraqi capital into turmoil. The govern- cret army” of Hmong guerrillas in Laos, of Sunni Arab residents off the street and tweeted that “if Turkey does anything that ment responded with heavy repression (over or the “Harkis,” anti-independence mer- shipped them off to concentration camps I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, con- 100 dead so far). To date there is no recog- cenaries who fought with the French co- in the desert. It is reported that almost all sider to be off limits, I will totally destroy nized leadership, but if one emerges it could lonial army in Algeria. But for the Kurds the 1,000 I.S.-linked prisoners held in dun- and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve shake the regime, which is a client both of this is one more stab in the back from U.S. geons at the Ayn Issa detention camp have done before!).” What those limits are was Washington and Tehran. And now, while patrons, as in 1975 when the CIA cut off escaped as a result of Turkish bombing, not specified. This demented and empty pulling U.S. troops from Syria in order to funds to the guerrillas who, under long- passing over the fact that there were 11,000 bluster was then repeated by U.S. treasury supposedly “end the endless wars,” Trump time leader Mustafa Barzani, were fighting others being held there. Conditions at the secretary Steven Mnuchin. Meanwhile, has dispatched another 1,000 troops and Pa- the Iraqi government, resulting in 200,000 Al Hawl camp, which confined upwards facing a possible impeachment trial in the triot anti-missile systems to eastern Saudi Kurdish refugees; or in the 1991 Gulf War, of 70,000 “displaced persons” in tents ex- Senate, the unhinged U.S. president man- Arabia, where they will act as a tripwire to when the U.S. encouraged a Kurdish up- posed to bitter cold and 120° heat, were aged to unite Republican and Democratic trigger a U.S. attack in case Iranian-backed rising in the north and then abandoned the described by the International Red Cross senators into preparing a joint resolution forces again attack Saudi oil installations, as rebels to Saddam Hussein’s repression. as “apocalyptic.” for imposing sanctions on Turkey. they did last month. A host of Western leftists, particularly In 2015 we warned, “While defending On the other side of the Atlantic, Britain, In this scenario in which the entire re- anarchist liberals and social democrats, the Syrian Kurds, Assyrians and other mi- France and Germany put aside tensions over gion is again thrown into turmoil, the prin- have hailed PYD rule in the area of north- norities under attack by the Islamic State, Brexit to write a joint statement against the cipal regional actors are lined up against the Kurds, actively or passively. The PYD/ ern Syria the Kurds calls Rojava (or West- we have warned against any alliance with Turkish invasion, threatening to cut off future YPG/SDF will likely be obliged to negoti- ern Kurdistan), notably for its secularism imperialism, which would use them as sales to Turkey of arms that could be used in ate with the Assad regime under Russian and promotion of women’s rights. Many pawns, to be discarded when convenient” Syria. But that won’t stop the Turkish army sponsorship, but the government in Damas- talk of a “Rojava Revolution.” They have (“International Perspectives of the League from using its 350+ German-made Leopard downplayed the YPG’s role as foot soldiers cus will never agree to regional autonomy for the Fourth International,” The Interna- 2 tanks and its 1,000+ French-made ERYX for U.S. imperialism, and are conspicu- for Rojava, particularly with the Kurds hav- tionalist No. 40, Summer 2015). But when and Milan missiles to mow down Kurds. ously silent about it today. Yet the biggest ing their own army, and much less Kurdish the YPG acted as mercenary troops for Erdoğan responded to the hypocritical Eu- boosters of the PYD/YPG in Washington independence. The only way to defend the the Pentagon occupying Arab regions, we ropean statement by threatening to “open are the CIA, the Pentagon, right-wing Kurds’ right to self-determination is through wrote that the LFI: the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your Republicans and Obama Democrats. In- a revolutionary struggle going well beyond “has from the start called for the defeat way.” As world leaders trade schoolyard ternationally, the Israeli Zionists look to the borders of Syria. And in that scenario, as of the imperialists and to drive them taunts, the only one who might make good we wrote in our 2014 article, the “Turkish forge (and finance) alliances with Kurdish from the region, as well as declaring any on his threats is the megalomaniac in Ankara. Proletariat Is Key.” groups as a counter to Arab nationalism. blows against imperialist intervention and As for Syrian ally Russia, Erdoğan met So in this situation where everyone domination, even by ultra-reactionary last month with Russian president Vladimir Permanent Revolution from the from the New York Metropolitan Anarchist forces such as the I.S., to be in the interests Putin and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani at Middle East to the Imperialist Coordinating Committee to war hawk Re- of the working class and oppressed peoples a tripartite summit in Ankara on “regional Metropoles publican senator Lindsey Graham, former of the world. But it is now necessary to go issues.” They discussed Turkey’s plans for chief of the U.S. Central Command gen- As Leon Trotsky noted in his theory eral Joseph Votel and Israeli prime minis- and program of permanent revolution, and ter Netanyahu are denouncing the Turkish as was confirmed in the October 1917 Bol- invasion and calling to support the Kurds, shevik Revolution in Russia, in the imperi- we Trotskyists insist that it is necessary to alist epoch of decaying capitalism, even the call to defeat and drive U.S./NATO impe- gains of the classic bourgeois revolutions, rialism from the Middle East. Yet despite including national emancipation, democracy Trump’s stab in the back, the YPG is call- and agrarian revolution, cannot be achieved ing for the U.S. to enforce a “no-fly” zone without the working class taking power and over northern Syria to keep the Turkish extending socialist revolution internation- air force out. Implicitly or explicitly, they 3 Since the end of 2016, there have been indirect want to reestablish the U.S. alliance. talks in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, under Today we defend the Syrian Kurds U.N. auspices, with Iran, Russia and Turkey as guarantors of a ceasefire between the Syrian gov- against an imperialist attack that threatens ernment and some of the Islamist armed opposi- their very existence. But the fatal role of the tion. These talks have been discussing a draft con- YPG in doing the dirty work for the U.S. im- stitution of a federal “Republic of Syria” proposed perialist war on the Islamic State should not Turkish president Recep Tayipp Erdoğan and U.S. president Donald Trump by Russia. The political representatives of the be forgotten. The monitoring group Airwars meet during United Nations General Assembly in 2017. YPG/SDF were explicitly not invited to the talks. September-October 2019 17 ally. Nowhere is this more true today than in one that had the guts to alist movement. the Middle East, a pivot of imperialist world participate in the Oc- It should be noted that both the CWI domination, where the national boundaries tober 18 general strike and the IMT claim that the police are arbitrarily drawn at the end of World War I was the dock workers, “workers in uniform” instead of recogniz- have produced a century of national oppres- who marched in a col- ing their real nature as the armed fist of sion of the Kurdish people. umn from the port of the bourgeoisie. Rereading Lenin’s State There will be no democracy for the op- Barcelona. and Revolution wouldn’t hurt, along with pressed in the Middle East short of socialist The baton direct- Permanente Revolution the writings of Lenin and Trotsky on the revolution, only one or another authoritar- ing the neo-Francoist national question. But for these inveterate ian regime, whether Islamist like Erdoğan’s repression is now in opportunists, it’ s not a case of mistaken or “secular” military-based regimes like the hands of Pedro analysis. Assad’s in Syria, Egyptian governments be- Sánchez and his gov- Catalan society is deeply divided over fore and after the “Arab Spring,” and earlier ernment of the Span- independence. Rejection of the heavy hand Turkish governments. The fight for workers ish Socialist Workers of the Madrid government is pervasive. revolution – which alone can liberate the Party (PSOE), which But that by no means necessarily translates myriad oppressed nations, nationalities, peo- is the very incarnation into being in favor of independence. Sup- ples and ethnic/religious communities in the of social-democratic port for independence is particularly weak Middle East – must be international in scope. betrayal and “left” in the industrial zone of Baix Llobregat The 10-million-strong Turkish working españolismo (Span- and in the capital (Barcelona) itself, due class, along with millions of Egyptian, Iraqi ish chauvinism). The in large part to the fact that many work- and Iranian workers, is key to the struggle for acting president fully ers are from other regions of Spain, or are revolution in Syria. supported the hideous immigrants. According to the latest survey The Turkish working class has the sentence as “fitting,” of the Center d’Estudis d’Opinió of the power to defeat the invasion from the rear. demanding that it must Generalitat, only 35 percent of the popu- At present, when all reports indicate that the be “carried out in its Internationalistische Gruppe at protest in Berlin lation would like for Catalonia to be an war on the Syrian Kurds is widely popular in entirety.” Meanwhile, against repression in Catalonia, October 19. independent state rather than a region, au- Turkey, and as the government is detaining along with his calls for “Catalonia: Defend the Right of Self-Determination tonomous community or state in a federal hundreds of people just for making critical “proportionality,” Sán- and Independence! For Workers Revolution to Smash Spain, the lowest level since 2012. And if the only alternative is independence or not, comments on social media, calling for work- chez “is not ruling out the Spanish Monarchy!” the pro-independence “yes” is still in a mi- ers strikes against the war may not be imme- any scenario” (El Periódico, 17 October), propagated by the mainstream media and nority position (44 percent) compared to diately feasible. But Turkey is experiencing including applying the National Security hammered home by all the capitalist par- 48 percent for “no” (Baròmetre d’Opinió a sharp economic crisis, and class-conscious Law, to take control of the Catalan police, ties, from the Spanish right (Vox, PP, Cs) Politica, July 26). Turkish workers would fight against any ef- or to activate Article 155 of the Span- to the bourgeois Catalanists (PDeCAT / The League for the Fourth Interna- forts to subordinate their struggles to the war, ish constitution that would “suspend” the JxCat, ERC), demanding that everyone tional, which has always defended the right as well as to mobilize against the war to the autonomous government and effectively strongly denounce the “violence” of the of Catalonia to decide on independence, extent possible, and to defend democratic impose a military occupation, as occurred protesters, especially the youth on the bar- rights under wholesale attack by the regime. including holding the October 2017 refer- after the October 2017 referendum. ricades who have opposed the infamous Today the focal point for carrying out endum, has not called for independence, Meanwhile, Pablo Iglesias, spokesman ruling of the Francoist Supreme Court working-class struggle against the war is although this could change if massive and for the bourgeois-populist coalition Unidas and fought the police violence seeking to in Europe, particularly in Germany where brutal repression results in a sharp change Podemos, pledged allegiance to the Spanish impose it. This direct order from capital well over a million Turkish workers and of opinion among Catalans. Today, we call monarchist state by declaring: “Everyone will has been complied with not only by Torra, several hundred thousand Kurdish workers for workers mobilization throughout the have to respect the law and take responsibil- but also by some groups that call them- have for years formed a significant part of Spanish State against neo-Francoist repres- ity for the sentence.” This is an endorsement selves socialist. Esquerra Revolucionària the multiethnic proletariat. This is where sion and in favor of the democratic right of the institutions inherited from Franco’s (19 October), which leads the Sindicat Turkish-Kurdish working-class unity can to Catalan self-determination. We appeal military dictatorship, including a judicial ap- d’Estudiants (Students Union) and is part be forged. Trade unionists from IG Metall to the exploited and oppressed throughout paratus that is Francoist from head to toe, and of the Committee for a Workers Interna- and other unions have demonstrated in the the country to mobilize their class force a constitution that defines the right to self-de- tional (CWI), writes that the “demonstra- past against Turkish attacks on the Kurds. against the government of austerity and re- termination as “sedition.” (German courts re- tion of strength” that’s required: Now is a key time when work stoppages pression in Madrid, as well as against the “has nothing to do with the actions of jected Puigdemont’s extradition because the belt-tightening and repressive policies of and industrial action against the Turkish/ a few hundred hooded youths, who be- crime of “rebellion,” which all the accused the Catalan government in Barcelona. NATO invasion are urgently called for, but lieve that setting containers aflame and instead the union tops are calling on the Catalan independentistas were charged Starting from the internationalist prin- with, doesn’t even exist in Germany.) Such facing police repression with stones is European Union imperialists to pressure the shortest way to win. ciples of Lenin and Trotsky, we combat na- Erdoğan. anti-democratic institutions are essential for tional oppression, and all forms of social Spanish capitalism. Trying to change them “This type of marginal and individual vi- Vital to any struggle to defeat the im- olence is a dead end and does not serve to oppression, on the basis of class indepen- through a constituent assembly or some other perialist assault on the Syrian Kurds is a combat the massive violence of the state dence. In the upcoming November 10 elec- mechanism within the capitalist framework, revolutionary internationalist leadership, apparatus and its police forces. On the tions, revolutionary Marxists would oppose as some leftists advocate, is pure illusionism: cohering the nuclei of Leninist communist contrary, using these means, the hooded all bourgeois parties, including Catalan parties on the Trotskyist program of perma- it will take a socialist revolution. protesters, many of them egged on by nationalists, and the putrid PSOE of Pedro nent revolution – socialist revolution ex- The Catalan bourgeoisie, meanwhile, police infiltrators and provocateurs, play Sánchez, which has become the spearhead tending from the Middle East to the imperi- is spinning as it tries to maintain control. into the criminalization campaign… “ of the brutal onslaught against Catalonia. alist metropoles. The League for the Fourth Feeling pressure from the streets, Quim Joining this chorus of denunciation in Ultimately, the only way out is a revolution International and its national sections, from Torra, the current president, expressed unison against youths going up against the that establishes a workers government on the Internationalistische Gruppe in Germa- his “empathy” with “peaceful and civic” police, although using less police-like terms the ruins of the unspeakable Bourbon mon- ny and the Nucleo Internazionalista d’Italia protest and even with “strong actions like (“hooded,” “infiltrated,” “provocateurs”), archy and the Spain inherited from Franco, to Brazil, Mexico and the United States, shutting down such an important part of the Lucha de Clases (19 October), of the Inter- and that extends socialist revolution to the seek to help forge this vanguard in the heat infrastructure as El Prat Airport.” Mean- national Marxist Tendency (IMT), lectures: rest of Europe. This requires a revolution- of the class struggle. n while the Mossos, supposedly under the “It would be a mistake to wear out in ary, Leninist and Trotskyist, workers party command of the Generalitat, are attacking endless confrontations with the police, as a tribune of all the oppressed and world protesters to “protect them”! Shortly after, which isolate the youth vanguard from party of socialist revolution. Catalonia... Torra announced in the Parliament that he the rest of the movement and those lay- For the unconditional and immediate continued from page 12 intends to “end the legislature by validat- ers of the class that are still reluctant to release of all Catalan independentistas were widespread and the automaker SEAT ing independence,” that is, proclaiming it fight for the Catalan republic.” and everyone arrested in the fight against shut down its plants in Matorell and the Zona before December 2021. This grandstand- Marxists must explain to the most radi- the neo-Francoist repression! Franca. But the impact of the strike was un- ing met with derision from the entire op- calized sectors that street battles are not Defend the right of self-determina- dermined by the fact that the main union position – including the right-wing sover- enough, that in order to defeat the police tion of the Catalan people! federations, CC.OO. and the UGT, refused eigntists of the ERC and those on the “left” terror unleashed in Catalonia, the social Drop the charges against the exiled to participate. Despite having signed a dec- in the CUP (Candidatura d’Unitat Popular) power of the working class must be mo- nationalists and all those who are facing laration rejecting the sentence, the union tops – and bewilderment from his Junts per bilized in forceful action, with a revolu- accusations over the October 2017 refer- clung to “dialogue” with the bosses – that is, Catalunya (JxCat). tionary leadership. But what we have here, endum! to class collaboration – vilely betraying the Currently, there is an orchestrated from the extreme right to the opportunist For a federation of workers repub- struggle in defense of democratic rights. campaign emanating from La Moncloa left, is a demand to respect the rules of lics of the Iberian Peninsula in a socialist Among the industrial unions, the only (the Spanish prime minister’s offices), good behavior of a very bourgeois nation- United States of Europe! n 18 The Internationalist be a trade-union secretary but a tribune Everyone who knew Olli in his po- the revolutionary cause. Olli Weiss... of the people denouncing all cases of op- litical activity noted at least three things. At a meeting of a dozen supporters continued from page 14 pression, capitalist exploitation and police First of all, the incredible breadth of his and friends of the Internationalistische in their easy chairs. Olli lost that fight in arbitrariness. He wrote articles on the Afri- talents. He wrote, gave speeches, pro- Gruppe on July 28 to inform them about the ICL, but in the LFI he found the party can refugee Oury Jalloh, who was burned duced the newspaper and leaflets, printed the death of Olli and remember him, let- that shares both his understanding of the to death in a police cell in Dessau in 2005, and distributed them, organized demos, ters were read from the Nucleo Inter- Trotskyist program for the deformed work- and on the need to mobilize working-class painted banners, was key to providing the nazionalista d’Italia and Trabajadores ers states and the courage to carry it out. power for refugee rights and to prevent de- technical infrastructure of international Internacionales Clasistas in the USA. The Olli’s last fight in the ICL was on the portations that appeared in the Streikkurier conferences (both for the ICL and the well-known words of Bertolt Brecht were refugee and immigrant issue, in 2015-16. strike newspaper. After the brutal attack on LFI!), and more. A longtime comrade said quoted: As he later wrote, “the stubborn insistence the son of our comrade Dr. Arturo Villalo- he was “a great organizer and thinker.” “The weak do not fight. The strong fight [of the ICL] on not opposing the Dublin bos in Oaxaca, Mexico in May 2018, in a A young contact, who learned a lot from for perhaps an hour. Those who are even III fast-track deportation law, and oppos- few days Olli won the backing of striking him, noticed, in mourning, “for me he was stronger fight for many years. But the ing calls for asylum for Syrians as liberal students and hospital staff in Berlin for the a titan.” Later he added, “Olli was phe- strongest are those who fight all their … was something that I knew I could not international protest campaign. Photos of nomenal.” So he was. lives. They are indispensable.” possibly uphold in public, even if I op- their solidarity action were immediately Secondly, Olli’s great enthusiasm was Olli Weiss was one of those who are posed it internally. I did not want to be sent to Mexico, where they demonstrated contagious, especially when he was con- indispensable, and irreplaceable. He ded- associated with a social-chauvinist posi- that the comrades under attack were not vinced he was fighting for the right cause. icated his whole life to the struggle for tion towards refugees.” Thus he “arrived alone. All of us in the League for the Fourth In- communism. No single one of us can do at the conclusion that the ICL was lost for In evidence of his deep-rooted Lenin- ternational perceived how he threw him- everything he did, we have to gather our revolution.” ism, Olli’s last public actions in July were self into every task. A former comrade of strength to act together. Olli was known It was “the sharp and thoughtful decla- participating in demonstrations in defense his, who had disputes with Olli inside the for his quick wit, engaging and effective ration of the Better-Late-Than-Never Fac- of two women doctors in Berlin who were ICL (and who honestly admitted to hav- style of argumentation and unwavering tion,” which resulted in their immediate punished under the Paragraph 129a law for ing sometimes treated him bureaucrati- perseverance in upholding the truth in expulsion, and the powerful statement of advertising their abortion services, and a cally), said: “I believe that Olli must have small things and big things. The impact the Italian comrades that helped him “con- rally in defense of Captain Carole Rackete felt relieved when he turned his back on of his cutting interventions, patient ex- nect the dots” and “make sense of what who was arrested for rescuing refugees in the ICL and shortly thereafter joined the planations and demonstrations of revo- went wrong with the ICL.” After studying the Mediterranean Sea. In June Olli also LFI. It must have felt liberating for him to lutionary politics in action will continue the founding documents of the League for organized comrades to mobilize against find a collective of comrades with whom far beyond his death, as those inspired by his infectious enthusiasm for revolu- the Fourth International, Olli wrote in his the closure of the Wombat’s Hostel in Ber- he could align his strong political beliefs tionary politics will continue to carry his application for membership in the LFI: “I lin and in support of its workers against a and actions.” His compañera said mov- struggle forward. have realized that the ICL ceased to be a union-busting campaign. While opportun- ingly, “I’m glad that he had found you in In Spanish it is often said at the revolutionary organization long before I ist leftists – like the right-centrists of the his life.” death of a compañero that the deceased even joined it, and that the LFI continues Revolutionary Internationalist Organiza- And third, it was recognized by all 2 is ¡presente! The hard truth is that Com- today what Spartacism used to stand for.” tion (RIO) – as usual appealed to the “left- that he was always decent, straightforward, rade Olli is no longer with us. Yet his ide- After the founding of the Internation- ist” Berlin city government, the Interna- without cynicism and evasive maneuvers, als, his commitment to the oppressed and alistische Gruppe in August 2017, Olli’s tionalistische Gruppe addressed itself to “brutally honest, with others and with exploited, his revolutionary convictions, main work – on top of organizing the en- the Berlin working class, calling for occu- himself.” As one comrade remarked, “he his Trotskyist and Leninist program, are tire activity of the German section (!) – was pation of the facility. always tried to convince, he was always alive as ever and serve as inspiration to production of the newspaper. He pushed Olli Weiss was what Leninists strive honest, never manipulative.” all of us in the struggle for the liberation for the name Permanente Revolution, ap- to be, a professional revolutionary. This Olli Weiss was a young cadre and lead- of humanity. propriating the title of the newspaper of includes the gift of summarizing all es- er who vibrantly embodied our hopes, with the German Trotskyists in the early 1930s, sential points in just under three minutes, revolutionary optimism and determination. All honor to Olli Weiss! Long live the which printed Trotsky’s incisive analyses the usual speaking time we are conceded He was an internationalist to the core, trav- Fourth International! and calls for a united front of workers or- at rallies and in assemblies (if we aren’t elling widely, from Chi- ganizations to fight the fascists. Olli’s me- simply silenced). When in December na to Latin America. He League for the Fourth International ticulous work was highlighted in the very 2018 he delivered a brief speech at a RIO- was an extremely intelli- LFI, Box 3321, Church Street Station, New York, NY professionally produced issues of the LFI’s organized demonstration in defense of gent and talented young 10008, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] German and Italian publications. He was the Yellow Vests in France, Olli gave a person who loved life, firmly convinced that a sloppy-looking, concise call for defense of the movement had many interests, but Liga Quarta-Internacionalista do Brasil ugly newspaper, leaflet, poster or banner against police repression; for polarizing knew where he wanted Brazil: write to Caixa Postal 084027, CEP 27251-740, basically reflected contempt for readers. It it along class lines by the necessary pro- to go and pursued that Volta Redonda, RJ, Brazil would also undercut our promise of over- letarian revolutionary leadership; for de- goal with determination, turning capitalist society and creating a fense of immigrants and refugees by the while always lending a Rio de Janeiro: write to Caixa Postal 3982, CEP new, just socialist society. working class, and to demand access to hand when needed by 20001-974, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil Olli was key to bringing a class-strug- higher education. He then exposed, to the anyone. He was a person E-mail: [email protected] displeasure of the organizers, the “demo- who understood that tell- gle perspective to striking students and Internationalistische Gruppe/Deutschland workers at the Free University of Berlin, cratic” tinkering with the French consti- ing the truth and uphold- write to Postfach 80 97 21, 21007 Hamburg, where he completed his undergraduate tution raised by RIO’s French co-thinkers ing the real principles of Germany: Germany and postgraduate studies, for example in and other opportunists as a distraction revolutionary Marxism E-mail: [email protected] the struggles of the student assistants at from the proletarian revolution. was the only way to be As this example shows, Olli’s activ- true to the great cause he the Free University who are paid starva- Nucleo Internazionalista d’Italia ism, like his attention to detail in the pro- had embraced, and there- tion wages for their work to keep librar- duction of propaganda, was closely linked fore to himself. Italy: write to Anna Chiaraluce, Casella Postale N. 6, ies and offices running. He always warned to his dedication to programmatic clar- Olli’s death brings 06070 Ellera Umbra (PG), Italy in assemblies against placing any trust in ity and readiness for political debate. He to mind the tragedy of E-mail: [email protected] the capitalist SPD/Left Party/Green Ber- was always very well informed about the another young comrade, lin Senate (city government). “The Social Grupo Internacionalista/México ostensibly revolutionary organizations. At Fernando López in New Democrats of the SPD and Left Party (not this year’s Lutte Ouvrière Fête in France in York, an immigrant México: write to Apartado Postal 12-201, Admón. to mention the bourgeois Greens) are not early June, he along with young comrades worker, union organizer Postal Obrero Mundial, CP 03001, México D.F, México only no lesser evil than the CDU and FDP had polemical discussions with members and communist who fell E-mail: [email protected] – in fact, they are much more effective at of various currents. He defended Leninist to his death as he was Tel. Mexico City: 55-3154-7361; Guadalajara: 33-1752- ramming through anti-social austerity mea- and Trotskyist positions with the called-for facing deportation.3 In 6643; Oaxaca: 951-185-6815 sures,” he wrote in a leaflet (April 2018). severity, but never twisted the political line both cases we lost ex- He criticized the “stop-and-go” strategy of Internationalist Group/U.S. of the opponents, as the ICL often does to tremely valuable lead- the trade-union bureaucracy with its end- make a cheap shot. He knew from his own ers who contributed so Internationalist Group, Box 3321, Church Street less ineffective warning strikes, and vigor- experience that good militants can also be much, and had so much Station, New York, NY 10008, U.S.A. ously advocated organizing pickets to shut found in opportunist and rotten organiza- more to contribute to E-mail: [email protected] down the library during the TVStud strike tions, and that they can only be won with 3 See “Fernando López, New York Tel. (212) 460-0983 Fax: (212) 614-8711 in January 2018. honest polemics. 1973-1999: Comrade, In- Los Angeles Tel. (323) 984-8590 Olli deeply absorbed Lenin’s admoni- ternationalist, Revolution- New England Tel. (617) 213-5010 tion in What Is To Be Done? that the goal 2 Internationally affiliated with the Fracción ary,” The Internationalist Pacific Northwest Tel. (503) 303-8278 of the professional revolutionary is not to Trotskista, led by the Argentine PTS. No. 7, April-May 1999.

September-October 2019 19 by relying on the power of the labor move- cratically) planned economy, have lifted the and Deng, wants to maintain the capitalist GM Strike... ment and its allies. The UAW and other vast majority of China’s 1.6 billion people character of this banking and shipping hub. continued from page 11 industrial unions were built in the 1930s out of poverty, a unique achievement. Con- The protesters’ tactics, meanwhile, now manufacturing jobs have not “come back.” through often bloody class battles, and in trary to the bourgeois economists and most escalating to use of explosive devices, are Now Democratic presidential hopefuls opposition to Jim Crow segregation. of the left who claim that it had somehow clearly intended to provoke intervention by like Biden, Warren and Bernie Sanders visit Those unions were built by “reds,” by been transformed into a capitalist state, the PLA and Chinese paramlitary police, the picket lines to hustle votes and tout their communists and socialists who were later China didn’t suffer the ravages of the world- hoping for a bloody crackdown – a “new support to the union. But make no mistake, purged after World War II by the Democratic wide capitalist crisis and economic depres- Tiananmen” massacre – that could spark im- if these phony “friend of labor” capital- Party and the predecessors of today’s pro- sion that began in 2007-09. perialist intervention. ist politicians get to the White House, they Democratic labor officialdom. Yet what pass- Key gains, although under attack, re- What’s needed instead is a mobilization would continue to serve the ruling class and es for opposition in the U.S. labor movement main and must be defended, tooth and nail. of the working people of Hong Kong, many administer its state against the workers and today would just replace one pro-capitalist They are undermined by the ruling bureau- of whom are openly hostile to the “pro-de- oppressed, just as their Democratic prede- bureaucrat with another slightly more “pro- cracy, which includes many pro-capitalist mocracy” protesters, these “privileged mille- cessors Bill (NAFTA) Clinton and Barack gressive” bureaucrat who won’t do any bet- elements, and by the Stalinist dogma of nials” who seem bent on destroying workers’ (Bailout) Obama did. This shows yet again ter because they all play by the bosses’ rules building “socialism in one country.” Every livelihoods. Residents of several neighbor- why labor must break with the Democrats, – which means the workers are sure to lose. genuine Marxist from Marx on has insisted hoods, particularly those populated by poor Republicans and all capitalist parties. Thus an article on the GM strike by the that socialism can only be achieved on an immigrants from the coastal Fujian prov- social-democratic Labor Notes (18 Septem- ince, have pelted demonstrators with objects Labor Must Clean international scale, and therefore requires a ber) – reprinted by Jacobin, an unofficial program for international socialist revolu- thrown from their public housing towers. Its Own House! voice of the Democratic (Party) Socialists of tion. The variant of this nationalist program They are also incensed at the virulent ethnic As workers were preparing to walk the America – has various criticisms of the lack pushed by Beijing leaders from Deng Xiaop- hostility against mainland Chinese, who have picket lines, the FBI suddenly launched a of militancy in preparing the strike, the lack ing to Xi Jinping, “building socialism with been depicted as locusts descending on Hong wave of indictments of UAW officials for of transparency in bargaining, the corruption Chinese characteristics,” like Stalin’s, is Kong to buy up goods. But there has been no embezzlement of union funds for personal scandal, etc., and concludes: “if past contracts based on the pipedream of achieving “peace- serious effort to mobilize this working-class luxuries. In August, the feds raided union are an indication, the pact [UAW chief] Jones ful coexistence” with imperialism. opposition, only a few tepid nationalist coun- properties and the home of officials – includ- negotiates is likely to be weak.” So what is to This was expressed concretely in the terprotests waving PRC flags. Rather than ing past UAW president Dennis Williams be done about it? “In that case, GM strikers case of Hong Kong with the determination relying on military/police units, organized and current UAW president Gary Jones – in will have just one tool to use between their of China’s Stalinist leaders to maintain the workers should defeat the counterrevolution- six states. This followed the 2017-18 indict- rock and their hard place: their right to vote enclave’s capitalist character. As the Na- ary provocateurs in the streets. ments of Fiat Chrysler executives and UAW no.” That’s it? Just say no?! tionalist Kuomintang regime of Chiang Such mobilizations require revolution- officials involved in a bribery scheme, car- To revive the heritage of the sit-down Kai-shek collapsed in the late 1940s, Mao ary leadership. Yet groups falsely claiming ried out in order to corrupt contract negotia- strikes and bring it into the fight today requires ordered the CCP-led People’s Liberation to be Trotskyist have lined up with the tions in favor of the company. That took the ousting the labor bureaucracy as a whole and Army (PLA) to stop short of taking Hong counterrevolutionaries. Thus the Hong betrayals of the trade-union bureaucrats to a building a leadership on a program of hard Kong. Rather than destroying Chinese Kong group named Socialist Action, part grotesque extreme. class struggle rather than treacherous class capitalism root and branch, he preferred of the wing of the Commmittee for a Work- The trade-union bureaucracy with its collaboration. A victory to the GM strike is to keep it as an outpost of finance capital, ers International (CWI) that split from its privileges accepts the framework of capi- what’s needed to organize the mass of non- seeking deals with the imperialists. After founder Peter Taaffe, not only vociferously talism, the essence of which is exploitation union auto workers. Reopen Lordstown As- the victory of the Revolution in 1949, many supports the pro-imperialist demonstra- of the workers. Therefore, it inevitably op- tors (claiming that those waving U.S. and sembly – No more plant closures! And key Chinese capitalists left Shanghai seeking poses sharp class struggle. But the labor UK flags are only “a few misguided Hong to any real victory is to insist that no one the protection of the British colony. bureaucrats are an obstacle, sitting atop and Kong youths”), it is calling to extend the goes back until all go back equal: junk the From the early 1980s under Deng undermining the workers organizations, counterrevolutionary movent to the rest of tier system, make “temporary” workers full- Xiaoping, the negotiations with Britain while the cops are the armed fist of the class China, saying it “can only go forward as time, equal pay for equal work, now! were premised on the formula “one country, enemy, the guard dogs of capital. The FBI a struggle against the real power in Hong two systems.” By maintaining the capitalist is the main agency of domestic capitalist Victory to the GM strike! Kong, which is the Chinese dictatorship” character of the Special Autonomous Re- repression, and the current investigation, ar- (Chinaworker.org, 8 September). gions (SARs) of Hong Kong and the former rests and raids have posed the possibility of Hong Kong... Other opportunist leftists such as the Portuguese colony of Macau, the Stalinist a takeover of the union by the bosses’ gov- continued from page 3 misnamed Trotskyist Faction (FT), also rulers have sown the seeds for the anti-com- ernment. When the government has moved and branches of Chinese state-owned support the anti-communist protests, writ- munist protests that broke out in 2003 and to “clean up” the unions, and when union banks were trashed. With increasing fre- ing: “The socialist left in the U.S. and else- 2014, setting the stage for the situation to- “reformers” have brought in the courts or quency, attacks were directed at individu- where should support the mass struggle in day. The protests have prominently included the feds (Mine workers, Teamsters), it has als perceived to be from mainland China. A Hong Kong because it is a struggle against lawyers and businessmen whose existence been a disaster for the workers. bank employee was punched in the face for repression and state violence” (Left Voice, depends on maintaining this status, while Any government intervention in the speaking Mandarin instead of Cantonese. 22 August). And the followers of the late investigative journalists have shown that the UAW, on whatever grounds, would squelch When he said “we are all Chinese,” attack- Ernest Mandel claiming to be the Fourth more militant protest leaders have typically any movement by militant auto workers to ers yelled “go back to the mainland.” An International openly support demands for been the offspring of the Hong Kong bour- forge a class-struggle leadership and must older shirtless man who argued with dem- Hong Kong independence, headlining an geoisie, many of them having attended elite be opposed on principle. We say: Gov- onstrators was beaten bloody. article: “Hong Kong: The millennial gen- private schools. ernment/FBI hands off the UAW! The Defend the Chinese Revolution eration’s struggle for self-determination” unions belong to the workers. Labor must As we warned 21 years ago: (International Viewpoint, 26 September). “The handover of the former Brit- clean its own house! – End Capitalist Hong Kong’s All these fakers have a purely (bourgeois) ish crown colony of Hong Kong to the Today, UAW-represented workers Special Status “democratic” rather than a proletarian class People’s Republic in July 1997 has in- only assemble about half of the vehicles Ever since capitalist rule in the most program, and thus they end up echoing the corporated a capitalist enclave whose populous country on the planet was over- produced in the U.S., down from 85% 20 tentacles have already reached far into imperialists and siding with counterrevolu- years ago. Non-union plants have been thrown in 1949 by a peasant army led by China’s interior in the search for cheap tion – as they also did in East Europe and built by international automakers primar- the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under labor to exploit.... The annexation of the Soviet Union 30 years ago. ily in the South, the historic bastion of the Mao Zedong, the imperialists have been Hong Kong (now a ‘Special Autono- What is required is the forging of a “open shop” and racist anti-union terror. consumed by the ambition to overthrow the mous Region’) will not realize the class- genuinely communist, Trotskyist vanguard The defeat this past June of the UAW’s “Chicoms.” The anti-communist hysteria of collaobrationist fantasy of ‘one country, to lead the struggle to expropriate the en- second effort to organize the Volkswa- McCarthyism in the U.S. was set off by a two systems,’ as China’s former ‘Para- tire Hong Kong bourgeoisie, including its gen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just witch hunt over “who lost China.” Although mount Leader’ Deng Xiaoping declared. pro-Beijing components, and to join with showed the bankruptcy of the bureaucrats, it was not the result of a proletarian upris- Instead it will give enormous impetus to class-conscious workers and communists who have given up so much up to the auto ing like the 1917 October Revolution led by forces that would restore capitalist rule throughout China in defending the revolu- bosses that they have a limited force of at- Lenin and Trotsky in Russia, and installed throughout the country.” tionary gains. Authentic Trotskyists have traction to unorganized workers. a regime modeled on Stalin’s bureaucrati- –“Where Is China Going,” The Internation- always stood for uprooting the heritage A UAW spokesman lamented, “Our cally degenerated Soviet Union, the Chi- alist No. 6, November-December 1998 of Britain’s colonial theft of Hong Kong, labor laws are broken.” But the purpose nese Revolution represented an enormous Today, the Beijing bureaucracy and its while calling for workers political revo- of the labor laws is not to help workers historic gain for humankind. representatives in Hong Kong can only ap- lution throughout China to oust the privi- organize, they are meant to control the la- Genuine Trotskyists defended, and peal to nationalism, rather than class con- leged bureaucracy, smash the encroaching bor movement and aid the union-busters. continue to defend the Chinese deformed sciousness, and think in terms of stepped-up capitalists, establish the proletarian de- Hard class battles like against GM won’t workers state against imperialism and coun- repression to answer the counterrevolu- mocracy of workers councils (soviets), and be won through relying on the bosses’ laws terrevolution. The gains of the revolution, tionary mobilizations. This is particularly unite with the world’s workers to open the or imaginary government “neutrality,” but notably socialized industry and a (bureau- the case as Xi, like his predecessors Mao road to socialism. n 20 The Internationalist Published by the CUNY Internationalist Clubs and the Revolutionary Internationalist Youth Revolution Boston Cops Riot Against Protesters At “Straight Pride” Fascist Provocation On Saturday, August 31, a fascist rally motion of the Suffolk County district at- in Boston, MA, billed as a “Straight Pride” torney, Rachel Rollins, to dismiss charges parade, was far outnumbered by over a

Internationalist photo against 18 of the arrested demonstrators thousand anti-fascist demonstrators who at the anti-fascist protest. When a de- jeered all along the route. The event, or- fense attorney defending her clients read ganized by a front group for the alt-right out the law showing that the judge did “Resist Marxism” outfit with ties to other not have the authority to force the D.A. violent fascist groups like the Proud Boys, to prosecute, he ordered that the lawyer was a homophobic hate fest, with self- be handcuffed and jailed her. Rollins is described provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos one of several “progressives” who have as “grand marshal.” Their intent was to run for the office of prosecutor, including ridicule pride events and target gay and Larry Krasner in Philadelphia (who won) trans people, as well as immigrants, black and Tiffany Cabán in Queens, New York people, and other oppressed groups. Front (who lost), both backed by the Democrat- and center in the parade was a “Trump ic (Party) Socialists of America. 2020 – Build the Wall!” float, which was While Rollins ran on a program to surrounded by scores of U.S. (and Israeli) supposedly end mass incarceration, end flags, many with the racist “Blue Lives monetary bail and stop prosecuting a Matter” blue-stripe design. number of low-level charges, the obvious Boston has a reputation as a liberal fact is that prosecutors are part of the re- stronghold. Democratic mayor Martin pressive apparatus of the capitalist state, Walsh spoke of “our values of love, inclu- the class enemy of working and oppressed sion and acceptance,” saying that “Straight people. Despite his campaign rhetoric, Pride” aimed at “sowing division among Internationalist Group and Revolutionary Internationalist Youth at August Krasner for months opposed a judge’s or- the people” and “I will not stand for it.” 31 protest against homophobic “Straight Pride” parade. der that former Black Panther and class- Yet the police force, under the orders of the “The situation escalated as the police be heard chanting, ‘Who do you serve?’ war prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal be grant- Democrat-controlled city government, were continually opened the barricades to “Police moved into the crowd, and ed a new hearing to appeal his frame-up mobilized in massive numbers – including rush into the crowd and randomly ar- officers grappled with protesters, some of conviction, for which he has been impris- hundreds of heavily militarized riot police – rest people as well as indiscriminately whom were knocked to the ground. At least oned for the last 38 years, most of them to serve as a defense guard for the fascists. use pepper spray against anyone and eight people, including a woman limping, on death row. And Rollins is continuing Before, during and after the gay bashers’ everyone in the area.” could be seen being led away by police.” to prosecute eight of the anti-fascist pro- hate parade, the cops went on an hours-long At one point police charged the crowd Boston is a city wrought with a history testers arrested on August 31, several on rampage against protesters. They wanted no and people started running. Demonstra- of racist violence, including vicious race bogus charges of assaulting police when repeat of September 2017, when in the wake tors who tripped and fell were beaten with riots in the early 1970s against busing for in fact the police assaulted them. of the fascist murder of Heather Heyer in riot sticks; those who came to their aid got school integration – a policy which Demo- The Internationalist Group and Revo- Charlottesville some 40,000 people chased pepper-sprayed. Several journalists got hit, cratic front-runner Joe Biden explicitly op- lutionary Internationalist Youth demand the fascists from Boston Common. sprayed and tackled. posed, along with colleagues in the Senate. that all charges be dropped against all Well before the official starting time on Then after the fascist event ended at The police repression against anti-fascists the anti-fascist protesters. We call on all Saturday, as we and others were assembling 4 p.m., cops attacked in force. The Boston last Saturday reflects this ongoing reality of defenders of democratic, labor, black and at the Arlington T stop, several blocks from Globe (1 September) reported: racism in a supposedly “progressive” city. immigrants’ rights to do so as well. the “Straight Pride” meeting point in Copley “A phalanx of police riding motor- While liberal, reformist and anarchist pro- The Internationalist Group and Revo- Square, police began attacking anti-fascist cycles rolled up Congress Street to- testers lamely chanted at the cops, “Who do lutionary Internationalist Youth carried demonstrators. Black-clad antifa protesters ward State Street, with their sirens and you protect, who do you serve,” the real- banners on August 31 which called to were arrested for objecting to police pat- lights on, to disperse the crowd, but ity was starkly obvious. The police are the “Mobilize Workers Power – Stop Fascist downs; one person was grabbed for testing the mass of protesters moved into the armed guards of the racist capitalist order, Terror” and to “Build a Revolutionary a bullhorn (which was seized). The Uprise road and blocked the officers’ path. and they protect the most ardent reactionary Workers Party.” Another called to “Smash RI blog (2 September) reported: “As the sides faced off, protesters could forces that form the core of fascist and white I.C.E. Through Workers Revolution.” supremacist organizations in this country. Signs called “For Workers Action to De- The arrest of 34 anti-fascists clearly fend Gay and Trans Rights!” and declared, demonstrates whose side the police are on. “You Can’t Fight Trump with Democrats” In response to the outcry against the wanton As we have seen time and again, from Bos- cop brutality, the Boston police announced ton to New York to Portland, Democrats that they will do an internal “review” of the are the bosses of the racist cops who pro- “use of force.” For his part, Mayor Walsh tect the fascists. Workers must break with responded to denunciations of the August the Democrats and mobilize using their Brian Snyder: Reuters 31 cop riot at a September 7 protest against class power to put an end to fascist terror! police brutality saying, “If we could come Following the September 7 rally, the up with better ways of doing this, I would IG contingent along with 40 other protes- absolutely try and do it a different way.” tors joined the picket line of striking work- What a farce! In fact, the police have been ers from the Battery Wharf hotel. A victory reviewing videos to find more among the for the workers of UNITE-HERE Local 26 thousands who came out to protest the ho- could demonstrate the power of the workers mophobic provocation to arrest. in action. But to win such victories, we need Meanwhile, for the last week, local to build a revolutionary workers party that politics have been roiled by the refusal fights to do away with all the barbarism of of a municipal court judge to grant the capitalism and build a socialist society. n

Boston police protect “Trump Build the Wall” float at fascist-organized For more information about the Revolutionary Internationalist Youth, write: homophobic parade. [email protected]

September-October 2019 21 co, we have stressed that the true motive of the horrific crime of Iguala goes beyond Ayotzinapa: It Was the the corruption of a murderous government. To substitute one bourgeois politician for another does nothing, as the capitalist sys- tem is to blame. For us, it is essential to Capitalist State understand that in this epoch, in a country of late capitalist development like Mexi- We print below a slightly edited ver- co, the resolution of the most basic demo- sion of a talk by our comrade Lucrecia cratic demands is impossible within the Roth on September 29 in Berlin at a forum On the Fifth Anniversary of the framework of capitalism and this crime of the Internationalistische Gruppe, Ger- against the rural students stands as proof. man section of the League for the Fourth Disappearance of the 43 Students This is clear evidence that even to achieve International. the most elementary democratic demands, I am a supporter of the League for the it’s necessary to transcend the framework Fourth International from Mexico. One of of capitalism and to fight for a workers the most important political experiences Internationalist photo and peasants government (and in places I´ve had was to participate in the massive like Guerrero and Oaxaca, for a workers, mobilizations that happened in Mexico peasants and indigenous peoples govern- in the Fall and Winter of 2014 and 2015, ment) that could extend the socialist revo- that were aimed at finding the 43 students lution to an international scale. This is no from a pedagogical rural school who theoretical abstraction; it is the most urgent were“disappeared” by the local police of need of the moment. the Iguala municipality, under the watchful On the night of the 26th and the morn- eye of the Federal Police and the Army, on ing of the 27th of September, the local po- September 26th of 2014. lice under the orders of the Mayor José In the face of this atrocity, the situa- Luis Abarca attacked the school Normal tion in Mexico exploded. Students from Rural, or Rural Teachers College, of Ayo- all levels went out to the streets by the tzinapa, located in the state of Guerrero. thousands. They organized strikes in their They murdered at least 7 people, 4 of which schools. They went out to the plazas to were students, injured two dozen, and kid- hang photographs of their missing fellow napped 43 more students of this school, students. They got onto the public transport called normalistas in Spanish. Until now, to sing, chant and to rally the people in the these students are still missing. They were name of the young peasants, many of them adherents to the Federation of Socialist of indigenous origin, 20 or 21 years old, Class Struggle International Workers (TIC) and the Internationalist Group Peasant Students of Mexico , or FECSM who the police, armed wing of the capita- at New York protest on the 5th anniversary of the massacre, September 26. in Spanish, which has a Stalinist program. list state, kidnapped and disappeared. The municipal authorities claimed that the This terrible crime became infamous population is just as high as ever, AMLO can Revolution are sinking ever deeper into students had hijacked the buses that were internationally as the symbol of the slaugh- created a new military corps, the National poverty, leaves no doubt of what capitalism taking them back to Ayotzinapa from ne- ter of the Mexican population over the last Guard, he is acting as a border guard for in a neocolonial country is about. Despite arby town Iguala, and as a result emptied 13 years, where more than 250,000 people Donald Trump to keep refugees from rea- having no fewer than three bourgeois-dem- their assault rifles onto the buses, killing have been murdered, more than were killed ching the United States … and just about ocratic revolutions in its history, in Mexi- one. The next morning, a normalista stu- in Syria and Afghanistan combined. In the everyone arrested over the disappearance co, democratic rights for the oppressed and dent was found dead with his face flayed United States our comrades of the Interna- of the Ayotzinapa students is out of jail. exploited are no more than ink on paper. on the side of the road. tionalist Group called the very first protests Why? The answer is: because it wasn’t The peasants, even when formally some War on Public Education, War about Ayotzinapa, and continued to do so. just the government of Peña Nieto that was own their land, are condemned to starva- There was a protest in New York on Thurs- responsible, or the PRI, it was the state, the tion or to migrate north, to employ them- on Drugs = War on Poor and day and a much larger one in Mexico City capitalist state. These kinds of massacres selves as pawns in the new agroindustrial Working People of perhaps 20,000 people. We have here have regularly occurred in Mexico, starting haciendas. The indigenous people, without This episode is no accident. All over some pictures of the New York march. well before Ayotzinapa, and they are going the control of their own natural resources, the world there is a general campaign for The Mexican government tried to put to keep on happening until this murderous without real autonomy, in many cases face the privatization of education through re- the blame on drug traffickers and a few cor- semi-colonial state is brought down by a the threat of extinction. forms that has intensified in recent years. It rupt local politicians and police, carrying revolution, a socialist revolution. Why that The abduction of the 43 from Ayo- is being pushed by imperialist institutions out a phony “investigation” to supposedly is is what I want to talk about. tzinapa is but one episode of government like the World Bank, the International Mo- prove this “verdad histórica,” or historical So in this struggle, like in many repression directed against the fight for de- netary Fund, the Interamerican Bank and truth. But nobody believed it. Due to popu- others, the key question is what is to be fense of public education, which has been others. And those who have resisted those lar demand, forensic experts were brought done, which is something that can only be under attack in the country under orders plans have been targeted. in from Argentina who after carefully inve- addressed through a Marxist understan- from international financial organizations. For years, Mexican governments have stigating said that the government’s official ding of the Mexican reality. It is necessary So also is the repression of teachers strikes tried to shut down the rural teacher train- story was impossible. to understand the real causes behind this that led to another massacre, at Nochixtlán, ing institutes, even sending in the military During the demonstrations that fol- terrible crime in which the capitalist state in the state of Oaxaca, in June 2016, where to occupy them. The bourgeois media was lowed that terrible “night of Iguala,” tens murdered 4 and disappeared 43 students our comrades were part of the resistance. full of accounts saying they were breeding and hundreds of thousands of protesters from the rural teachers college of Iguala, But more generally, a weak bourgeoi- grounds for guerrillas due to the connec- chanted, “fue el estado,” it was the state. Mexico. For us, to know how to defeat the sie under the boot of imperialism, like tion of the normales rurales to peasant And they were right about that. But what capitalist’s offensive that imprisons, tortu- in Mexico, requires powerful repressive and indigenous struggles. In particular, many meant was that the government of res and murders workers, teachers and stu- machinery to keep a massive number of Guerrero has been the site of combative Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Re- dents in order to assert its control and to workers in line, who could fight to defeat mobilizations by the peasantry and educa- volutionary Party, the PRI, was responsib- privatize public education in a semi colo- it, freeing themselves from its yoke once tion workers, against labor and education le, which it was, whether drug traffickers nial country like Mexico is, literally, a que- and for all. For 70 years, the PRI accom- “reforms.” There is also the persecution of were involved or not. But now there is a stion of life and death. Only the Trotsky- plished this with a corporatist, and then indigenous communities by the gigantic new government, of Andrés Manuel López ist program of Permanent Revolution can semi-corporatist state apparatus that exer- miner conglomerates, and of an infernal Obrador, or AMLO, who is a bourgeois channel the gigantic desire of the exploited cised control over every aspect of society, circle of massacres and the “dirty war,” populist, and his party, MORENA, or Na- and oppressed to fight and achieve a genu- punctuated by massacres. But after that fell which in the ’70s was a technique of exter- tional Regeneration Movement, and many ine victory of the working class. apart under pressure from imperialism to- mination of the leftist guerrillas, and which people have illusions in him. Mexico is a textbook case that shows ward the end of the last century, they nee- continues today. López Obrador says he is against state the validity of the theoretical and program- ded another mechanism, which was massi- The military occupation of the state violence against the people, that he wants matic perspective of Permanent Revolu- ve, bloody repression. of Guerrero strengthened the caciques, or to get to the bottom of what happened to the tion. The“disappearance” and murder of So long as the bourgeoisie rules, there local strongmen, and their paramilitary Ayotzinapa students, and so on. But what young students that were on the way to will be no genuine democratic rights for groups. In many zones the army allowed AMLO has actually done is quite diffe- becoming teachers in rural and indigenous the whole population. From the beginning the cultivation on a large scale of mari- rent. The level of state violence against the communities that a century after the Mexi- of the Ayotzinapa mobilizations in Mexi- juana and poppy flower (amapola), which 22 The Internationalist generated a sort of counterinsurgency “so- of investigating Ayotzinapa, a former lea- ven in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, ta en EE.UU. y en México, la democracia cial base” linked to the drug trafficking. der of the Mexican Communist Party by the the only way for a country of late capitalist burguesa sólo puede estar al servicio de la The “war on drugs” initiated by Felipe Cal- way, said it was a scandal. But AMLO did development in this epoch of imperialist burguesía. En realidad el capitalismo no se derón Hinojosa has deepened the militari- nothing about it. Because it was the capita- decay to achieve these democratic tasks is puede reformar, no se puede hacer “menos zation of the country. As I said, more than a list state, which he administers and upholds. that the working class takes power, to esta- malo”. Esto no se trata de “desarrollar” la quarter million people have been murdered It has been quite clear in the first blish a workers and peasants government democracia, porque es el estado capitalista in violent actions in this war. Even though months of the AMLO administration that on the basis of the expropriation of private quien pone en funcionamiento esa democra- this program of massive militarization has he is in the service of the Mexican bour- property, and for it to extend the socialist cia burguesa a través de sus armas, su po- not intimidated drug cartels, (they opera- geoisie, and in the service of their impe- revolution on an international scale. licía, su gobierno, y sus partidos políticos. te in collusion and collaboration with the rialist senior partners. In relationship with In the face of such a powerful enemy, Nosotros nos oponemos a la represión repressive agencies of the capitalist state), the imperialist government of the United there is only one recourse: the revolutionary antiinmigrante y estamos por plenos dere- it has had the desired effect of increasing States under the administration of the racist mobilization of the working class. This is the chos de ciudadanía, no solo de palabra sino n the involvement of the military in police Donald Trump, AMLO and his team have true “historic truth” of the crime in Iguala. en los hechos. En México hemos hecho el activities. The so-called “war on drugs” is collaborated in the implementation of the llamado a dar la bienvenida a la caravana, nothing more than a disguise to hide the North American migration policy. AMLO Derrotar... en conjunto con la combativa Sección XXII war on the poor and the working class. In offers the carrot of “legality” to migrants, sigue de la página 24 de la CNTE para organizar una moviliza- recent years the indigenous peoples have but he increasingly applies the “stick” of crata de Obama, mismo que fue aprobado ción de solidaridad en Oaxaca exigiendo been persecuted by illegal woodcutters and police persecution. They are looking to por el Departamento de Estado encabezado ¡asilo para los refugiados y plenos derechos drug trafficking gunmen, a constant since keep the dispossessed Central American por Hilary Clinton. de ciudadanía para todos los inmigrantes! Y the 70s. In fact, the mayor of Iguala and his migrants in the Mexican south, as far away Consecuencia de esto es la caravana junto con esto, el llamado a favor de “Ac- wife, one of the many individual authors of from the US-Mexico border as possible. migrante peregrina para huir de la desespe- ciones obreras para defender a los inmigran- the disappearance of the 43 students, have We in the Internationalist Group say, in rante miseria y la violencia de sus países de tes centroamericanos”. strong links with the drug trafficking group Mexico and in Germany, and the United origen. El 21 de octubre del año pasado, una called “Guerreros Unidos”. States, and in Italy, and Brazil, say with re- Mi punto es que la raíz de la crisis mi- asamblea magisterial aprobó una moción Up to now Mexican governments gard to immigrants and refugees: Let them gratoria se halla en el funcionamiento del con la que dieron su respaldo a la caravana have tried to pin the blame on the narco in! Asylum for refugees! Full citizenship decadente sistema capitalista. La migración migrante y movilizaron a trabajadores para for the terrible repression unleashed to the rights for all immigrants! For workers es un resultado directo e inevitable del im- acompañar a dicha caravana en su paso por students of Ayotzinapa, as if it was an ex- mobilizations to defend immigrants perialismo. Sólo para darnos una idea: en traordinary event. We say that the capitalist against racist attacks! los estados donde la CNTE tiene presencia, 1980 Reagan usó a Honduras como base de además de que hicieron un llamando al resto state is responsible. That the drug traffic- Despite his claims of “governing for la guerra contrarrevolucionaria de EE.UU. del movimiento obrero a sumarse y a defen- king groups served as trigger men would everyone”, AMLO represents the most contra Nicaragua, apuntalando al ejército der la caravana. not represent a surprise, given the multiple recent attempt of the weak Mexican bour- hondureño; después, en 1990 Bill Clinton Las acciones incluyeron el llamado a connections between the narco groups and geoise to keep social peace in an industria- comenzó a deportar a cientos de pandilleros los trabajadores de la salud para que orga- the state authorities. But it’s not just about lized country, with a powerful proletariat, como los Mara Salvatrucha nizaran brigadas médicas para ofrecer aten- any particular government - that can be re- that could wake up and mobilize its volca- Luego, cuando en 2006 el presidente ción a los migrantes. placed, and has been replaced by others of nic strength. Full-scale war on the impo- de México, Felipe Calderón inició la guerra the same character. The state, like Lenin verished population hasn’t worked, so now contra las drogas para cumplir las órdenes También llamamos por derrotar el do- explained, consists of “special bodies of with López Obrador they’re trying more de George W. Bush, los narcotraficantes co- minio imperialista de EE.UU. en América armed men (police and permanent army)” militarization with a friendly face. Like our menzaron a irse a Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Latina, que políticos estadounidenses de- that defend the interests of the ruling class comrades in Portland, in the USA, like to hoy la ciudad más violenta del mundo. nominan despectivamente como “nuestro and incarnates the dominium of one class say: it’s putting lipstick on a pig. Entonces sí, los creadores de la actual patio trasero”. above the other. The struggles of the exploited and op- crisis migrante son los imperialistas. Y la La lucha por plenos derechos de ciuda- The continuation of the massacres in pressed that are flaring up (and will keep respuesta ante la devastación que crearon, danía para todos los inmigrantes, y por de- Mexico, under the ruling of all bourgeois on doing so) can only achieve victory on es más policía y mejor represión. A ello se tener las redadas debe ser parte de una lucha parties, underscores that it is the very the condition that they are waged with the une la lacaya burguesía mexicana que se verdaderamente revolucionaria. Para ello capitalist state, the repressive apparatus utmost class independence from the bour- pone al servicio del imperialismo. Esto es tenemos que romper con todos los partidos of the capitalist system, that has left dead geoisie, their policies, their parties and their particularmente cierto sobre la política mi- capitalistas y construir un partido obrero so- bodies in the whole Mexican territory. state. Quite a few leftists are enamored of gratoria. EE.UU. deportó a 294 mil migran- bre la base de un programa revolucionario e Behind it, is the bloody hand of imperial- the new government. Class-collaboration tes de El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras internacionalista. ism with its unending wars against the op- professionals that they are, they pretend de 2015 a 2018, y México deportó a 436 mil ¡Por acciones obreras para detener las pressed and exploited. And we revolution- that, somehow, the electoral victory of migrantes de Centroamérica. racistas redadas de la policía del ICE! ary Marxists, as determined defenders of MORENA in the represents some sort of Enteramente contrapuesto a lo que ¡LA LUCHA OBRERA NO TIENE democratic rights, oppose all laws against democratic triumph in the country. This piensa el grueso de la izquierda reformis- FRONTERAS! the production, trade and consumption of characterization is false to the core: the pop- drugs, which are routinely use to set up ulist bourgeois government of AMLO is the leftists, workers and poor people for re- enforcer of the interests of the bourgeoisie. pression. It also reflects the subordination After the disappearance of the 43 nor- The Internationalist of the bourgeoise Mexican governments malistas, the supporters of the League for to Yankee imperialism, with its destructi- the Fourth International organized actions A Journal of Revolutionary Marxism for the ve counterinsurgency wars in Latin Ame- in our sections on an international scale. rica since the 1960s. The Grupo Internacionalista in Mexico pu- Reforging of the Fourth International At the end of demonstrations about blished a text titled “Massacre in Iguala de- Publication of the Internationalist Group, the disappeared students of Ayotzinapa, mands workers mobilization and revoluti- section of the League for the Fourth International we and thousands of others count one, two, on.” Signs and banners called for a national three, and so on up to 43. And then the- strike against the murderous government, Annual subscription US$10 for five issues. re is a big cry for “justicia.” But how is for workers defense, and declared “The so- justice to be won? Certainly not from the cialist revolution will avenge the students Name______semi-colonial Mexican state, which man- from Ayotzinapa”. Address______ages what the imperialists consider their Mexico is a country of late capitalist “back yard.” So when we get to the end development, a semicolony of the Uni- ______Apt. #_____Tel.(___)______of counting 43, we cry out: ¡Revolución! ted States. Despite having in its history at City______State/Province______Or as the comrades of the Internationalist least three bourgeois-democratic revolu- Group and Revolutionary Internationalist tions, the democratic tasks have still not Postal Code/Zip______Country______Youth chant in protests against police kill- been accomplished. The Mexican Revo- ings of black people, “Only revolution will lution that exploded in 1910 was aborted, Make checks/money orders payable to Mundial Publications and mail to: bring justice!” and its demands like the liberation of the Mundial Publications Just a few days ago, the Mexican state oppressed peasant masses, national inde- Box 3321, Church Street Station New York, NY 10008 U.S.A. released 24 local policemen that were alleg- pendence and the realization of democratic edly implicated in the Ayotzinapa case, and rights were betrayed. Like the great Russi- Write the Internationalist Group at the above address, or contact: one of the leaders of the “Guerreros Uni- an revolutionary Trotsky pointed out in his Tel (212) 460-0983 Fax (212) 614-8711 dos” cartel. So what was the response of the theoretical-programmatic perspective of E-mail: [email protected] AMLO government? Its official in charge Permanent Revolution, and was also pro- September-October 2019 23 El Internacionalista septiembre-octubre de 2019 “¡La lucha obrera no tiene fronteras!” Derrotar la guerra de EE.UU. y México contra los migrantes Mientras demócratas y republicanos se preparan para las elecciones de 2020, am- bos partidos están atacando a los inmigran- tes. El xenófobo presidente Donald Trump ha hecho una repetición de su lanzamiento de campaña de 2015 (cuando satanizó a Internationalist Foto: The los mexicanos como “narcotraficantes, cri- minales, violadores”) para atraerse votos racistas y lanzar olas de pánico entre las comunidades inmigrantes con amenazas de hacer redadas para atrapar a “millones” de inmigrantes indocumentados para inme- diatamente deportarlos. En respuesta, tal y como hicieron el año pasado, las ONGs (organizaciones no gubernamentales) li- berales pro Partido Demócrata convoca- ron protestas en contra de la separación de familias, mientras que en el Congreso los demócratas votaron a favor de incrementar el presupuesto de la policía del ICE (Im- migration and Customs Enforcement – la odiada migra). En medio de la histeria antiinmigran- te, un supremacista blanco abrió fuego en una tienda de Walmart en El Paso, Texas, y mató a 22 personas e hirió a más de veinte más. Como pretexto para este asesinato en “Mitin contra las redadas racistas del ICE” en la Universidad Estatal de California, Los Angeles, el 29 de agosto. masa, el tirador publicó en Internet un ma- En este contexto, con los inmigrantes ataques racistas/fascistas en Portland. Un Partido Demócrata y Morena, se han unido nifiesto racista en el que vitupera en contra aterrorizados por la acción del gobierno de orador del Class Struggle Education Wor- como clase, funcionando en contra de los de una supuesta “invasión hispana” que EE.UU. y por los asesinatos en masa in- kers habló de todo lo que ha hecho el Par- inmigrantes. terminaría por “remplazar” la población citados por el supremacista blanco de la tido Demócrata para la construcción de la Mientras, de un lado de la frontera blanca. ¿“Remplazo”? En la cobertura de casa Blanca, la Juventud Internacionalista máquina deportadora, hasta hacer que Ba- el gobierno de EE.UU. orquesta la mayor este horrendo crimen prácticamente ni se Revolucionaria en la Universidad Estatal rack Obama llegara a ser conocido como el redada de un solo estado, separa familias, mencionó el hecho de que Texas era parte de California en Los Angeles, con el apoyo “deportador en jefe”. lanza una campaña racista, machista y xe- de México hasta que fue invadida por los del comité local de Los Angeles del Inter- Uno de los momentos culminantes nófoba misma que envalentona a grupos supremacistas blancos de los estados escla- nationalist Group realizó un “Mitin contra del mitin fue el discurso de una camarada fascistas que atacan inmigrantes, y lanza vistas del Sur, que inundaron a la población las redadas racistas del ICE” el 29 de agos- militante del Grupo Internacionalista, sec- ataques en contra de los grupos más opri- hispana, iniciaron una rebelión, instituye- to. Los oradores describieron la experien- ción mexicana de la Liga por la IV Inter- midos de la Sociedad. ron la esclavitud (proscrita en México), se cia de la JIR en la organización para defen- nacional, quien habló acerca de la manera Al mismo tiempo, del otro lado de la unieron a los EE.UU. en calidad de estado der a inmigrantes y musulmanes en Nueva en que el nuevo presidente Andrés Manuel frontera, el gobierno de México se esfuerza esclavista para comenzar la guerra de 1848 York, los esfuerzos del IG para movilizar López Obrador, que hizo campaña sobre la en perfeccionar toda su maquinaria repre- de EE.UU. contra México, para robarle la a la clase obrera en defensa de los inmi- base de un programa populista, ha estado siva en la frontera norte y en el sur del país, mitad de su territorio. grantes en Los Angeles y en contra de los actuando como guardia fronterizo al servi- y en militarizarlo con la Guardia Nacional cio de Trump, incrementando las deporta- en contra de los migrantes. ciones y el acoso en contra de migrantes Esto hace evidente que los gobiernos centroamericanos para mantenerlos lejos burgueses de EE.UU. y México tienen de la frontera con EE.UU. Reproducimos a los mismos propósitos: unir a las fuerzas continuación una versión ligeramente edi- represivas de los dos lados de la frontera, tada de su discurso. es decir, unir a los policías del ICE, y la policía fronteriza de AMLO para desplegar Quiero decirles que los trabajadores toda la fuerza del estado en contra de sus migrantes hoy enfrentan una situación de víctimas. extrema urgencia. Hay que decir que tanto el militaris- Una cruda muestra de la rapacidad del mo como las catastróficas condiciones imperialismo la encontramos en medio de económicas y sociales en Honduras y toda la histeria cazamigrante comandada por el Latinoamérica son producidas por el impe- Foto: The Internationalist gobierno de Trump. Las imágenes de una rialismo estadounidense y son las que han niña llorando por su padre detenido por la llevado a miles de pobres, incluyendo a fa- policía del ICE y las imágenes de niños milias enteras, a migrar. encerrados en jaulas en condiciones deplo- Los culpables de los orígenes políticos rables, despertaron la indignación de miles de la crisis social y económica que han de- de personas. vastado a Honduras se encuentran directa- Ello causó la idea de que el culpable mente en Washington y Wall Street. de esto era el abiertamente racista burgués En Honduras, el gobierno derechista, Trump. Hay que decir que no sólo es su títere de Trump, es nada más y nada menos Contingente del Grupo Internacionalista y de la Juventud Internacionalista culpa: la burguesía actúa como un conjunto que el resultado del golpe de Estado que Revolucionaria en una marcha en Los Angeles exigiendo el cierre de los y los partidos supuestamente “menos ma- hace diez años maquinó el gobierno demó- campos de detención para migrantes y refugiados, el 12 de octubre. los” de México y de EE.UU., es decir, el sigue en la página 23