No 208 AUTUMN 2009 40p Newspaper of the Spartacist League Down with racist capitalist rulel The bankruptcv 01 labour -The case lor socialist revolutio·n-

I f the elections to the European power in 1997, the average pricc fllr a Parliament held in June are an.ything to house in England and Wales was go by, the Labour Party is in the throes of £63.313. By January 200X, when the a political crisis at the end of twelve market peakcd, you would nced to fork years in government. Labour was out £ I X4,362 to purchase one a ncar trounced at the polls, coming in third 200";;, rise." Now there are "270,400 behind David Cameron's Tories and mortgage loans in arrears of three even beaten by the xenophobic United months or more" while "hundreds of Kingdom Independence Party, while the thousands of construction workers have fascist British National Party (BNP) won bcen laid off and built unib arc at his­ two seats in the European Parliament. toric lows". Moreover "'in 12 years under Labour's dire election results, coming at Labour, the number of households on a time of widespread fears over job los­ council waiting lists has risen 70% to ses and in the context of a huge scandal 1.7 million". over MPs' expenses, signal almost cer­ Tony Blair set out to transform the tain defeat at the general election. Labour Party from its original character as To say that New Labour in office has a "bourgeois workers party" - ie having alienated its traditional base of support a mass working-class base yet saddled is an understatement. The majority of with a capitalist programme~--into an out­ the rorulation opposes the brutal occu­ right bourgeois party. This means sever­ pations of Iraq and Afghani.tan. ing Labour's historic link to the trade -. -.~ Iht I '11Bi£.·.aiIi:CB have ..t1ii1f unions, a process that remains unfinished. Labour in droves, especially those of The character of Labour's relationship to Muslim background, who have been the unions needs to be tested and could relentlessly targeted by the racist "war well be resolved in the event of a crush­ on terror". Meanwhile immigrant work­ ing defeat at the next election. But New ers are scapegoated for everything from Labour today is morihund as a reformist job losses to lack of housing and more. party. Responsibility for whipping up the The fact that New Labour's relation­ racist climate that played into the hands ship to the unions has not undergone a of the BNP lies squarely with the decisive test in the form of a sharp class Labour government. As an article by confrontation is not because Tony Blair John Nicholson, a leader of the Conven­ or Gordon Brown lacks the bottle to tion of the Lett, says: "Now there are attempt to smash a union. Rather the British fascists III the European venal trade union bureaucrats, in partic­ Parliament and there is no question that ular the "'lefts", have refused to engage it is Labour's fault. Blair and Brown in serious class struggle under Labour and a succession of home secretaries and have betrayed the strikes that did have gone out of their way to legitimise Occur. To avoid being seen as unpatriot­ the BNP, seeking the approval of the ic the Fire Brigades Union leadership Daily Mail for increasingly racist mea­ called off a powerful strike as Tony sures before the far-right had even Blair was preparing the invasion of Iraq thought of them" (Morning Star, in 2003. Postal workers who repeatedly 7 August). staged wildcat strikes in recent years In government, Labour held true to and Rritish Airways staff who almost Peter Mandelson's declaration that the shut down Heathrow airport in 2005 party was "intensely relaxed about peo­ were disowned by the union leaders of ple getting filthy rich". Mandelson, who the Communication Workers Union was fired for corruption on more than (CWU) and the Transport and General one occasion, was brought back into the Workers Union (now part of Unite), Cabinet last year by Gordon Brown in because these wildcat strikes defied the an effort to revive the government's anti-union laws. image. New Labour continued Margaret The utter bankruptcy of old Labour Thatcher's devastation of manufactur­ "lelts" is also evident in their support to ing industry that has resulted in a vast protectionist poison~ Alier decades of reduction in the size and weight of the campaigns to "save" British coal, proletariat that historically formed the British steel, British Leyland, ad nause­ party's core membership. This went London. 28 March: Thousands of trade unionists march in opposition to am, today there is precious little indus­ hand in hand with slavish support to thc job losses caused by economic crisis. Above: Gordon Brown addresses tIy that could be described as "British". City of London: the financial sector Labour Party conference, September 2008. But still "left .. union leaders such as now accounts for over seven per cent of Bob Crow of the rail union RMT gross domestic product, larger than in being made to pay a heavy price, espe­ to pay for World War II and fears grotesquely support the chauvinist most developed countries, while manu­ cially in terms ofjob losses. abound that Britain lIlay default on its strikes against foreign workers that facturing has shrunk in the last decade Last year's govcn1mcnt bailout ufthe debt. Prior to the financial crash, the have been raging in thc construction trom around 20 per cent to 13 per cent banks has pushed public borrowing to booming house prices enriched some, industry under the slogan "British jobs (guardian.co.uk, 30 August). Thus the fl3.3bn in J.une. and total borrowing but created an excruciating housing cri­ for British workers". An Economist arti­ international banking crisis had a now stands at a whopping 56.6 per sis for the majority of working people. cle (5 February) about one such strike tremendous impact on the British ccon­ cent of gross domestic product. This An article on the Guardian website (30 quoted David Lindley, a former director omy, for which the working people arc recalls the level of debt Britain incurred August) says: "When Labour came to continued Oil page 4 'S"ar'ac/i,""'am"'e'"p ...... R ...... PM.M ......

We reprint helow the introduction Party's bourgeois nationalisations in to the latest Spartaeist pamphlet, the post-World War 11 period - we Capitalist Anarchy and the Immis­ Marxists understand that no amount of eration of the Working Class. It first tinkering with the existing system can appeared in Workers Vanguard no 937, wrench it into serving the needs of the 22 May 2009. proletariat and the oppressed. The • • • 1997 -98 Workers Vanguard series The anarchy and brutality of the cap­ "Wall Street and the War Against italist system has been revealed again in L~bor", reprinted here, takes this up in a global economic crisis, which threat­ the US context. It also deals with the ens to reach .the proportions of the labour movement in the US and the Great Depression. As millions are roots of its historic economic militancy thrown out of work, as massive num­ and political backwardness-a back­ bers offoreclosures throw people out of wardness due not least to the continuing their homes, as hunger stalks the poor, oppression of black people as a race­ black people and other minorities, the colour caste, integrated into the indus­ sick and vulncrable, the US has scen a trial proletariat but at the same time bitter winter of deprivation. Thc impact forcibly segregated at the bottom of of this crisis extends far beyond the US, society. threatening the lives and livelihoods of The more recent articles reprinted in the working class and oppressed inter­ this pamphlet put forward our revolu­ nationally. It is left to revolutionary tionary programme against those who Marxists both to explain the roots of the purvey illusions in the Democratic current crisis and to provide the pro­ Party and its current Obama administra­ Troops out of Northern Ireland! gramme necessary to put an end to tion as well as for class-struggle oppo- this barbaric, irrational system August 2009 marks the 40th anniver­ through the emancipation of the sary of the despatch of British troops to proletariat and establishment of Northern ireland. The Labour government its class rule, thus laying the led by Harold Wilson sent the army to sup­ basis for the construction of a press a popular revolt against the oppres­ socialist planned economy as a sion o(the Catholic minority. At the time transition to a classless, egalitar­ the International Socialists, jorerunner of ian and harmonious society on a the Socialist Workers Party in Britain, global scale. That is the purpose cravenly claimed the imperialist troops of this pamphlet, composed of TROTSKY would provide a "breathing space" jar LENIN articles previously published in Catholics. The fallacy of this was shown Workers Vanguard. on Bloody Sunday in January 1972 when Leon Trotsky's The Death the army shot and killed 13 Catholics on a civil rights march in Derry. Our tendency Agony of Capitalism and the has a proud record ofconsistently callingfor immediate, unconditional withdrawal of Tasks of the Fourth Inter­ British tmops, as part 0(0 proletarian revolutionary perspective. national (also known as An essential clement of our program is the demand for the immediate, unconditional the Transitional Programme), withdrawal of the British army. British imperialism has brought centuries of exploita­ adopted as the basic program­ tion, oppression and bloodshed to the island. No good can come of the British pres­ matic document of the founding ence; the existing tie between Northern Ireland and the British state can only be oppres­ conference of the Fourth Inter­ sive to the Irish Catholic population, an obstacle to a proletarian class mobilisation and national in September 1938, is solution. We place no preconditions on this demand for the immediate withdrawal of particularly relevant and urgent all British military forces or lessen its categorical quality by suggesting "steps" toward today. The political situation of its fulfillment (such as simply demanding that the army should withdraw to its bar­ the late 1930s and that of the racks or from working-class districts). post-Soviet world in which we At the same time we do not regard the demand as synonymous with or as a con­ live today are quite different, to sition to the pro-capitalist trade-union crete application of either the call for Irish self-determination (that is, a unitary state be sure. But Trotsky's declaration that of the whole island) or for an independent Ulster-two solutions which within the "under the conditions of disintegrating bureaucracy. Part and parcel of such a framework of capitalism would be anti-democratic, in the first case toward the Protes­ capitalism, the masses continue to live struggle is a fight against nationalist, tants and in the second toward the Irish Catholics. Nor is the demand for the withdrawal the impoverished life of the oppressed, chauvinist protectionism, anti-immi­ of British troops sufficient in itself, as though it has some automatic, inherent revolu­ threatened now more than at any other grant racism and the anti-Communist tionary content or outcome .... time with the danger of being cast into poison spread by the union tops against As historically demonstrated by examples such as India, Libya, Cyprus and Pales­ the pit of pauperism" could have been thosc slates where capitalism has been tine, the withdrawal of British imperialism, while a necessary objective of the com­ written about conditions in Detroit and overthrown, centrally China but also munist vanguard, in itself does not automatically ensure an advance in a revolution­ elsewhere today. The same is the case the other deformed workers states of ary direction. Thus, the demand for the immediate withdrawal of the British army with the call in the Transitional North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam. Our pro­ from Northern Ireland must be linked to and constitute a part of a whole revolutionary Programme that: "The Fourth Inter­ gramme is that of unconditional mili­ program. national declares uncompromising war tary defence of those states against .on the politics of the capitalists, which impcrialist attack and internal counter­ - "Theses on Ireland", Spartacist no 24, Autumn 1977 to a considerable degree, like the poli­ revolution and for proletarian political tics of their agents, the reformists, aims revolution to replace the nationalist to place the whole burden of militarism, bureaucratic regimes that undermine the crises, the disorganization of the their defence. Our model remains that monetary system, and all other scourges of the victorious October Revolution WORKERSIlAMMER~ stemming from capitalism's death of 1917 led by Lenin and Trotsky'S agony upon the backs ofthe toilers. The Bolshevik party. For class against Marxist newspaper of the Spartacist LeaguelBritain Fourth International demands employ­ class! For new October Revolutions'. ment and decent living conditions for For a federation of workers republics in the British Islesl all" (emphasis in original). Such transi­ For a Socialist United States of Europel tional demands, as Trotsky wrote, The Spartacist League is the British section of the International Communist League stemmed "from today's conditions and (Fourth Internationalist). from today's consciousncss of wide Order " ••1 EDITOR: Eibhlin McDonald layers of the working class" and unal­ PRODUCTION MANAGER: James Palmer terably led "to one final conclusion: the ·t1.$Q(~pag~) CIRCULATION MANAGER: Mick Connor conquest of power by the proletariat". Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY Against the tried and failed strata­ Ord&rIrClmlmake .cneqlllll$ E-mail: [email protected] Subscriptions: £3 for 1 year, Europe outside Britain & Ireland £5, overseas airmail £7 gems pushed by liberals and fake ~b1eto: ':;:~::':';;"P;'''11c8t10.$. +L.:.· ...... OpInions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. socialists --from the Keynesian project ...... CJ .. ,. _ .. rl ... , .. The closing date for news in this issue is 12 September 2009 of "benevolent" intervention by the "POiBOX 4:!88&,bondonNf9 &wi(.iI Printed by Newsfax International Ltd (trade union) ISSN 0267-8721 capitalist state to the British Labour " " , ";,,, ,'"" '" "0f'i+r''*!» '<"'" ",<',~',n;,'''', ',L"'1',' '<+!:/:

2 WORKERS HAMMER Partisan Defence Committee

II In\'1 iI'n n! EP tJll Iii] i fi9 i \Ie 1'/;ltln"9 ii! ijIg il 'l]! tIll IJ !If'1 Ii II ilII] iill Drop the charges against Helen Goddardl We print below a letter to the South­ "sex offenders" waged by the , ,<11 ,,' * ," ", wark Crown Court by the Partisan Blair and Brown Labour "··.iP~; •...... •'C',,', ,!iI;:':*fr~ '~ ,--' DeJence Committee, a class-struggle governments is a modern-day I,'1 legal and social deJence organisation version of Christian fundamen­ ~'i" f' associated with the Spartacist League. talist crusades against "sin". The Partisan Defence Committee Adults cngagcd in inter-gener­ demands the immediate dropping of all ational sex, especially bctween charges against 26-year-old music teachers and pupils, are treated teacher Helen Goddard, a victim of the as though they are de facto government's anti-sex witch hunt. God­ child rapists and murderers. dard, nicknamed the "Jazz Lady" by her The Sex Offenders Register is students, is due to be sentenced on 21 a witch hunter's charter, con­ September in Southwark Crown Court taining thousands of names of under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for totally innocent pcople - eg th e "crime" of having had sex with a 15- some merely cautioned for year-old female pupiL According to the possessing "dirty" pietures­ Telegraph online, having admitted six now blacklisted, stig01atiscd counts of sex with the girl who is under and worse for the rest of their the age of consent, Goddard now faces a lives. possible sentence of up to 14 years in State interference aims at prison and has been ordered to sign the regimenting society to con­ Sex Offenders Register. form to the mythical sexual Goddard and the pupil at City of "'norm" of one man on onc London School for Girls were involved woman for life, denying the in a close and sexual relationship, a per­ complexity and variety innate fectly natural thing that should be no in human sexuality. State business of either the school or the state. repression will not alter the fact There is no suggestion from anyone, that children and teenagers including the girl's parents, that the sex develop sexual attractions to­ was anything but consensuaL Now wards other children and Goddard's promising career as a musi­ adults, including their teachers. cian and teacher is in tatters, she has "'Age of consent" laws giving been thrown to the media wolves, both the capitalist state the right to determine of mutual effective consent. her and her partner's personal lives at what age youth can engage in sex are We protest the gross abuse perpetrated violated. an invasion of privacy. The guiding by the state on Helen Goddard and The puritanical witch hunt against principle in these matters should be that demand: Drop the charges now!

Free leonard Peltierl ~~ On 21 August, the US Parole Com­ June letter to the Parole Cornmission and convict Mr. Peltier." mission again turned down the parole demanding freedom for Peltier (see Yet again, the depraved capitalist request of Leonard Peltier, a prominent Workers Vanguani no 940, 31 July): rulers have demonstrated there is no member of the American Indian Move­ "One court proceeding after another has justice for fighters for the oppressed ment who was framed up on charges of laid bare the evidence of his innocence like Peltier. We join with millions killing two FBI agents during the fed­ and of massive prosecutoriai miscon­ worldwide in demanding: Free Leon­ eral assault on the Pine Ridge Reser­ duct. In a 1985 appeals hearing, the gov­ ard Peltier now! ernment's lead attorney admitted, 'We vation in 1975. The commission cold­ - Reprinted from can't prove who shot those agents.' Workers Vanguard bloodedly declared Peltier would not be no 941, 28 August 2009 considered for parole for another 15 "In 1986, the Eighth Circuit Court of This pamphlet reprints presentations Appeals ruled that the trial jury could years! For the 64-year-old Peltier, who given by SL Central Committee mem­ have acquitted Mr. Peltier if records ber Joseph Seymour on the origins of suffers from diabetes, high blood pres­ improperly withheld from the defense Marxism in the French Enlightenment sure, partial blindness and a heart con­ had been made available. dition, this is a declaration by the racist and in left Hegelianism. Also included "In November 2003. the Tenth Circuit are "150 Years of the Communist rulers that this courageous man will die Court of Appeals stated. 'Much of the Manifesto" and "Marxism and Religion". III pnson. government's behavior at the Pine Grotesquely, US Attorney Drew Ridge Reservation and in its prosecu­ In the retrograde climate of post-Soviet Wrigley gloated, "Leonard Peltier is tion ofMr. Peltier is to be condemned. reaction, the struggle to reassert the exactly where he belongs - federal The government withheld evidence. It validity of the programme and purpose prison, serving two life sentences." intimidated witnesses. These facts arc of revolutionary Marxism is crucial for not disputed. ' Wrigley added the claim that Peltier our fight for new October Revolutions. "has neither accepted responsibility for "'n 2001. in response to requests under the Freedom of Information £1.50 (48 pp) the murders nor shown any remorse", a Act and lawsuits, the U.S. government standard ruse for denying parole to admitted it had withheld a staggering those imprisoned for crimes they did not 142,579 pages of evidence of its secret Make cheques payablelpost to: commit. As the Poe pointed out in a 29 COIN TEL PRO efforts to persecute Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, London, N19 5WY

AUTUMN 2009 3 aim of the pseudo-Trotskyists of yes­ has collapsed", a fact they said which journalist Inayat Bunglawala has noted labour... teryear who arc wedded to social "should have every socialist rejoicing" that the BNP's campaign against Mus­ (Continuedji-om page 1) democracy is to build new electoral (Socialist Worker, 31 August 1991). lims has translated into a series of vio­ formations to retain and strengthen In the artennath or counterrevolution lent attacks on mosques, in Luton and of the construction firm Taylor Wood­ illusions in parliamentary refonnism. in the fonner Soviet Union, reformists elsewhere. Ominously, an outfit called row, saying: "Britain's hollowed-out Such "new" parties amount to road­ have become the perennial "moving the English Defence League has carried manufacturing sector lacks the capacity blocks to the construction of revolu­ right show". The SWP formed a coali­ out physical provocations against the to produce much of the specialist tionary parties. tion with Muslim organisations in left in Birmingham. machinery that such projects require". A case in point is the Socialist Respect, which disavowed even a nom­ Against such fascist provocations, The vile "British jobs" campaign Workers Party (SWP) in Britain. An inal commitment to "'socialism" (ie we call for trade union/minority mobili­ echoes the protests by London dockers article by Alex Callinicos in Socialist social democracy) but this was a disas­ sations to stop these race terrorists in who marched in support of Enoch Review (July 2009) bemoans the fact ter and blew apart in 2007. their tracks. But the social conditions Powell's landmark racist speech in that "centre-left governments brought In the wake of the European elec- endemic to decaying capitalism provide 1968 intoning that immigration would to office by popular revulsion against lead to "rivers of blood". ncolibcralism continued with free mar­ From the point of view of the work­ ket policies", noting that "in Germany ing people it matters little whether the Red-Green coalition under Gerhard Labour or Tories win the next election. Schroder between 199R and 2005 Further attacks on living standards and forced through Agenda 2010, which welfare spending arc planned and both was designed to make labour markets parties will tighten the screw on work­ more 'flexible'''. Nowhere does he ing people to restore profitability to mention that the SWP supported the British capitalism. Contrary to the bour­ election of these anti-working-class geois myth that Marxism is a "failed govemments all across Europe - not experiment". the situation cries out for least in Britain where then SWP leader an authentic Marxist party dedicated to Tony Cliff shamelessly proclaimed that the struggle for socialist revolution to the SWP was "over the moon" for Tony rid society of the decaying capitalist Blair's landslide win in May 1997. By order. Our task is the construction of the time of that election New Labour such a party - a multiethnic revolu­ was certainly a known quantity. We tionary workers party - based on a wrote, "the sheer size of Labour's vic­ programme that is proletarian, revolu­ tory is ominous; it will be taken as a tionary and internationalist. mandate to carry out New Labour's SWP's parliamentary-cretinist campaign vicious anti-working class programme" against BNP (2004), Former London mayor Europe's mass reformist (Workers Hammer no 156, May/June parties in crisis Ken Livingstone (right) addressing 2009 1997). Unite Against Fascism conference. The Labour govemment's present The reformists have marched in crisis takes place in the broader context lockstep with the rightward shifts of the tions the SWP issued an open letter to fertile ground for these scum to thrive, of widespread disillusion among work­ social-democratic parties, dropping any the British left declaring that: "The particularly during the present histori­ ers in other European countries with remaining verbiage that might taint SWP r>nnly believes that the lirst pri­ cally low level of class struggle. their historic parties. In recent years them by association with revolution. In ority is to build even greater unity and Thererore for Marxists the struggle these parties have held ollice and have France the former Ligue comlllunis\c resistance to the fascists over the com­ against fascism is inseparable from the been among the best enforcers of "'nco­ revolutionnaire formally junked the ing months and years", coyly stating fight for socialist revolution to over­ liberal" policies, fleecing working peo­ terms "revolutionary" and '''commu­ that "those who campaigned against throw the capitalist economic system ple in the service of "flexible" labour nist" to fonn a "New Anti-capitalist the llNP in the elections know that that breeds it. markets, attacking welfare provision Party" that seeks to occupy the space when they said to people, 'Don't vote The BNP cashed in on the chauvinist and leading to enormous wealth for the left by the Communist Party. In Nazi' they were often then asked who strikes on construction sitcs at Britain's capitalist masters. Workers in Germany C;ermany the pseudo-Trotskyists arc people should vote {(.Jr. The hlct that oil refineries and powa slat ions which are turning their backs on tht: social­ liquidating into the Lcll Party Die there is no single, united len altcfnutive populi/ri.cd the iascist slogan "British democratic party, the SPD, the French Linke - which upholds the programme to Labour means there was no clear jobs for British workers" (see article on Communist Party has collapsed and the of the earlier SPD. This is a party of answer available." page 12). The SWP's appeal for unity once-mighty Italian Communist Party countless betrayals of the working Over the years, the SWP has routine­ of the lell "against the BNP" is directed is no more. The latter split in the 1l)90s class. Above all, Die Linke embraces ly resurrected "'anti-fascist" work at at organisations such as Peter Taafre's into a majority wing, which now the PDS, the remnant or the leading election time as a way of getting out the Socialist Party which has been in the appears to have become an openly cap- Stalinist party in the former East vote for Labour. However Labour is so forciront of leading these strikes. For despised today that even these consum­ the European elections the Socialist mate opportunists are leery about open­ Party joined with "left" union bureau­ ly saying vote Labour (although they ~ crat Bob Crow of the rail union RMT 2: will surely campaign for Labour when and the remallls of the British ,~ the time comes). Moreover the SWP Communist Party to form the "N02EU" ~ doesn't sec much point in setting out electoral alliance. As we said last issue: the "vote Labour" stall just now. As the "N02EU boasts that its electoral list I open letter says, it would "take a mira­ comprises candidates who played a cle for Gordon Brown to be elected leading role in those reactionary back into Downing Street" and "the protests on construction sites and par­ danger is that by simply clinging on we ticipation in the alliance is conditional Labour's "war on would be pulled down with the wreck­ on having supported them. This in terror" fuels racism, age of New Labour" ('"Left must unite itself is e1lough for Marxists to reject particularly against to create an alternative", Socialist any support whatever to this outfit. We Muslims, East Work"" 13 June). say: No vote to N02EU in the European London mosque The SWP's current "anti-fascist" elections I" (Workers /lam",,,, no 207, had windows facc, Unite Against Fascism -like the Summer 2009). smashed in racist Anti Nazi League of old, complete with For Bob Crow, as for the Socialist attack, July 2005. music gigs and pressure tactics· - aIlllS Party's supporters in the trade union primarily to bring people out to vote. bureaucracy of the pes, protectionism The idea of "stopping" the BNP by vot­ goes hand in hand with their refusal to ing is in itself parliamentary cretinism. wage any meaningful, effective class The BNP is a fascist organisation, con­ struggle to defend their own union sisting of paramilitary shock troops members against the bosses. Recently whose real programme is murderous the govemment has further tightened italist party while its "lert" Wlllg, German deformed workers state. The racist terror against immigrants and restrictions on immigration. while bru­ Rifondazione Comunista, IS in severe founders of the PDS joined with the minorities. Fascists are generally kept tal round-ups of immigrants - such as CrISIS. Kremlin bureaucracy under Mikhail on a leash by the capitalist class for use the one staged in June at London's Be that as it may, the social­ Gorbaehev in handing over the DDR to in times of cllisis, especially when bour­ School of Oriental and African Studies, democratic parties in Europe are not capitalist reunification of Germany in geois rule is threatened by socialist rev­ in which eleaners were lured to a bogus about to go out of business - they con­ 1990. This was a precursor to counter­ olution. Manifestly this is not the case meeting where they were trapped and tinue to provide an invaluable service to revolution in the USSR in 1991-92, a today in Britain or elsewhere. seized by immigration police - arc on the ruling classes by tying the working historic defeat for the working classes Nevertheless the election of BNPers the rise. We insist that the trade unions classes to the capitalist order. The of the entire world. This enormous Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons to the must fight for full citizenship rights for strategic task of ICL sections in these betrayal by the Stalinist bureaucracies European Parliament gives respectabil­ all immigrants. Mobilising the unions countries is to forge Leninist-Trotskyist was supported by reformist pseudo­ ity to the fascist stormtroopers and will in defence of immigrants requires a parties by splitting the mass reformist Trotskyists intemationally. Foremost lead to increased attacks on the streets, political struggle against the existing parties and winning their working-class among them was the British SWP posing real and present danger to trade union bureaucracy - against Bob base to our programme. In contrast, the whose paper crowed that "Communism minorities, gays and leftists. Guardian continued on page 10

4 WORKERS HAMMER laclson and racist socielV

The following article is slightly the African continent performed the tabloids that had baited him merci­ adapted from Workers Vanguard no Jackson 5's "Blame It on the Boogie". lessly, dubbing him 'Wacko Jacko' for person should look like, act like and 940, 31 July 2009. The tragedy of Jackson's death is that his erratic behavior, increasingly strange sleep with. Even in death, the mud con­ On 25 June, black megastar and an extremely influential music career looks and accusations of child molesta­ tinues to be slung against this enor­ musical icon Michael Jackson died at was driven to the brink of destruction oy tion, were suddenly effusive in their mously talented and idio~yncratic man, his home in Los Angeles. The "King of a savagely racist and puritanical witch praise of a man 'who provided the with most black people defiantly com­ Pop", as he has been known for de­ hunt spanning more than a decade. The soundtrack to a billion lives' ." ing to his defence. In the last few cades, was one of the most successful mass hysteria whipped up against weeks, it was not rare for TV and radio recording artists of all time and has Jackson over charges of "child molesta­ Victim of racist vendetta commentators to ask why black peoplc remained hugely popular throughout tion" was an indictment of this anti-sex, During his highly publicised career­ seem to idcntify with Michael Jackson the world. Following his de'ath, there bigoted capitalist society, where being which soared when he was only eleven sincc he "looked white". Rabidly vile were spontaneous gatherings of fans an eccentric black celebrity is enough years old as the lead singer of the Jack­ Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly son 5 wlder Motown Records, through his ranted on his show The 0 'Reilly Factor solo career as a songwriter, musician and against blacks seeing Jackson as their performer up until age 50 ~- Michael own when he looked white and "chose Jackson was famous not only for his tal­ to have white children". In purc ent and versatility, but also for challeng­ O'Reilly fashion, this was a hittcr and ing both racial and sexual identities. In the unfiltered expression of the American spirit of other "crossover" artists like bourgeois psyche. Chuck Berry - who was one of the lirst Race and sex in America artists to perform to multiracial audiences - Jackson was known for breaking down As we stated in our article "Stop racial barriers and was the first black artist Vendetta Against Michael Jackson!" to get heavy airplay on MTY. (Workers Vanguard no 818, 23 January But the "inexcusable" racial barrier 2004): "The Jackson case represents an that he attempted to break down was his intersection of blatant anti-gay bigotry, appearance. Whether due to vitiligo or the reactionary state-enforced stigma to skin bleaching, the fact is that his against intcrgenerational sex, and racial gradual "whitening" and plastic surger­ prejudice." The intense vilification of ies did nothing to make him less black Michael Jackson served the bour­ in the eyes of racist America-a twist­ geoisie's aim to whip up hysteria over ed confirmation of the colour-caste race and sex, which is all too common nature of black oppression. No money in a country where blacks (famous or in the world, no changes to your not) are frequently indicted on false "racial" appearance, could ever change charges involving sex. In 1913, black the fact that, if you are born black, cap­ boxer Jack Johnson was arrested italist America will make sure to try to because his relationships with white Fans sing and dance to the music of Michael Jackson during tribute at the put you in your place. In a country women were deemed to violate the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York, 30 June, where the white supremacist ideology Mann Act against transporting women of racial "purity" resulted in the "one across state lines for "immoral pur­ dancing to his music in Harlem and for the state to try to frame you up with drop of black blood" rule, Jackson's poses". In 1960, black rock 'n' roll artist doing the "moonwalk" or holding trib­ something. The stunning hypocrisy of physical transformation became a trans­ Chuck Berry was also convicted under utes as far away as Mexico City, Hong the bourgeois media - which hounded gression that the bourgeois media and the Mann Act for transporting an under­ Kong and Paris. Rio de Janeiro's mayor and scapegoated Jackson as a "pae­ "public opinion" would not let him get age girl across state lines. More recent­ announced the construction of a statue dophile" when he was alive, even after away with. ly, R&B singer R Kelly was dragged of Michael Jackson in the slums wherc he was acquitted of all charges, but then There is a real connection among through the courts on sex-related he filmed one of his videos to "They teemed with adulation and tributes after blacks to someone who, no matter what charges. Frenzy about black male sexu­ Don't Care About Us". In Algiers, hun­ he died - was captnred by an article in he did, always had to respond to this ality is a common thread in American dreds of singers and dancers from across the Los Angeles Times (27 June): "The society's expectations of what a black continued on page 11

I

26 S8ptember--8November ·Quota~200points

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o 1-year sub to Workers Hammer PLUS 22 issues of Workers Vanguard, Marxist fortnightly of the Spartacist LeaguelUS for £10.00 ISPART~aSil~ ~ All subscriptions include Spartacist, organ of the International Communist 0_0." ___ ._=."-~ __ - .",." .. League (Fourth Internationalist). All subscriptions to Workers Vanguard include u., .. Wllh (",""" Q1I '0' olln, ~.~".h" i"" Black History and the Class Struggle. MarxlsUlllnclples BndE1ectI!!'ai Tactics Name ______Imperialists Hands Oft Iran' Address ______Tlotsl

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AUTUMN 2009 5 Communal violence in Xinjiang

•

Ethnic conflIct in Xinjiang. July: Injured Han Chinese women In hospital (left); Uighurs behind roadblock in their neighbourhood (above).

The fiJI/owing article is reprinted from Hong Kong capitalists were attacked by peasant-based armies over Chiang Kai­ capitalist counterrevolution. In answer Workers Vanguard no 941, 28 August Han workers. At least two Uighur work­ shek's Guomindang, destroyed capitalist­ to the aspirations of the Chinese work­ 211119, adapted to Workers Hammer style. ers were killed and scores injured. The landlord rule and liberated the country ers and rural toilers, and also national ••• attack, which lasted for hours, was from imperialist subjugation. The revo­ minorities like the Uighurs, for demo­ Early in July a violent national con­ apparently provoked by a false rumour lution brought enormous social gains cratic rights and a government that rep­ tlict erupted in Urumqi, the provincial circulated by a disgruntled former to China's workers, peasants and deep­ resents their needs and interests, we capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Auton­ worker that six Uighur men had raped ly oppressed women. However, the stand for proletarian political revolution omous Region in western China. It two Han women. After news of what People's Republic of China, ruled by to oust the Stalinist bureaucracy and began on 5 July when hundreds of happened reached Xinjiang, Uighurs the Communist Party (CCP), emerged establish a government based on elected Uighurs-a Turkic-speaking, tradition­ were enraged over inaction by Chinese as-and continues to be-a bureau­ workers and peasants councils that is ally Islamic people-went on a mur­ authorities and demanded a full govern­ cratically deformed workers state pat­ committed to revolutionary proletarian derous rampage against their Han ment investigation. These complaints terned on the former Soviet Union internationalism. Chinese neighbours. Han mobs then against the Chinese government, which under N Stalin. A parasitic, nationalist Fer the past several decades, the retaliated in kind. The Chinese govern­ seem to be justified, in no way excuse bureaucratic caste rests atop a coIlec­ Beijing Stalinist regime has utilised ment now sets the number killed at 197, the murderous rampage by Uighurs in tivised economy. extensive market mechanisms in the most of them Han Chinese, while some Xinjiang against their lIan neighbours. Like their Soviet Stalinist forebears, economy while encouraging large-scale 1600 were injured. To halt the inter­ Xinjiang, with its wealth of natural Mao and his successors, including the investment by Western and Japanese ethnic bloodletting the government resources, especially large deposits of current regime, have preached the pro­ corporations and the offshore Chinese authorities utilised massive police force oil and natural gas, is of great strategic foundly anti-Marxist notion that social­ bourgeoisie in Taiwan and Hong Kong. with 20,000 troops patrolling both Han economic importance to China. The ism could be built in a single country. A sizable class of capitalist entrepre­ and Uighur neighbourhoods. country's president, Hu Jintao, judged Marxists define socialism as a classless, neurs - many of them former govern­ From the outset the Beijing regime the communalist violence in Urumqi to egalitarian society based on material ment functionaries and the children of has claimed, without convincing evi­ current functionaries - has also devel­ dence, that the riots in Urumqi were oped on the mainland. As a conse­ masterminded by the anti-Chinese quence, there is now a widely held nationalists of the World Uighur Con­ m~l belief, across the entire political spec­ gress (WUC), an imperialist-sponsored trum, that once-"Communist" China group based mainly in the US and has become capitalist or is rapidly and Germany. Needless to say, the WUC irreversibly doing so. That belief is presents a completely different picture false. The core of the Chinese economy from that of the Chinese government of continues to be based on collectivised the events leading to the riots. It con­ property: In fact, the non-capitalist tends that on 5 July, a peaceful protest character of China has been clearly by Uighurs, mainly university students, demonstrated during the current severe was set upon by the police who opened global economic downturn. fire on the demonstrators without any To see this, one can compare the provocation. For its part, the Chinese effects of the economic stimulus pro­ government 'says that the repressive grarnmes in the US and China. Despite measures it took were a response to, not the $800 billion stimulus package the cause of, the violence. We are quite enacted by the Democratic administra­ distant from the situation, and each tion of Barack Obama, output and source - whether it's the Chinese gov­ employment have continued to fall. The ernment, the WUC or the imperialist Chinese troops on a main street in downtown Urumqi. gross domestic product is nearly four media - has its own motive in present­ per cent below what it was a year ago, ing what happened. What is clear is that be of such political importance and abundance, which could be built only while industrial production has been cut however the events on 5 July may have urgency that he cut short his participa­ on the basis of international planning, by 13.6 per cent over the same period. begun, they soon degenerated into com­ tion in the G8 sunnnit in Italy and crucially requiring the overthrow of Official optimism that the economy is munalist violence. Even the London returned to Beijing. What is the broad capitalist mle in the advanced capitalist bottoming out, propagated by the Economist (II July). a house organ for political significance of the national centres of North America, Western Obama White House, points to the fact Anglo-American financiers. stated: contlict between Uighurs and Han Europe and Japan. In practice, the that in July employers eliminated "The violence in Xinjiang was crude, Chinese in Xinjiang? To answer that Stalinist dogma of "socialism in one "only" a quarter of a million jobs, racist stuff on both sides, with the Han question it is necessary to understand country" has meant accommodation to somewhat less than the average job loss Chinese suffering the brunt of it." the class nature of the Chinese state and world imperialism and opposition to the over the previous several months. The trigger for the riots in Urumqi its relationship to world imperialism. perspective of international workers By contrast, China's stimulus pro­ was an event that occurred thousands of revolution. gramme, centred on investment in infra­ miles away in the southeastern Chinese The class character of As Trotskyists, we stand for the structure by state-owned enterprises coastal province of Guangdong. In late the Chinese state unconditional military defence of the and government bodies and expanding June, Uighur migrant workers living in The 1949 Chinese Revolution, marked Chinese bureaucratically deformed loans by state-controlled banks, has a dormitory at a toy factory owned by by the military victory of Mao Zedong's workers state against imperialism and effectively offset the massive decline in

6 WORKERS HAMMER export earnings. The annual rate of cial incentives. However, for the past growth of gross domestic product decade or so, Xinjiang had experienced increased to eight per cent in the second an economic boom, even by China's quarter up from six per cent in the pre­ standards, centrally based on the exploi­ vious quarter. Richard McGregor, a tation and development of its oil and China watcher for the Financial Times natural gas fields. According to official (9 August), commented: "Beijing has figures, the region '8 gross domestic managed to pull the Chinese economy product doubled between 2004 and out of a ditch with a massive fiscal and 2008 from $28 billion to $60 billion. monetary stimulus." This boom has attracted Han Chinese of Nonetheless, the global economic all classes, from capitalist entrepreneurs downturn has sharply worsened condi­ to unskilled labourers, pursuing their tions for those migrant workers from own economic interests. That is, the the countryside who have toiled in fac­ changing demographics are not solely tories owned by foreign and offshore determined by the policies anef intent of Chinese capitalists producing light the CCP regime, though Uighurs com­ manufactures for export. Many have plain that they continue to be excluded had to return to their villages, at least even from unskilled work. temporarily, including Uighurs from At the same time, the pervasive use Xinjiang. Impoverished Uighur and of market relations in the economy and

also Han youth in the villages and cities the large private sector have increased SabrielNY Times of Xinjiang cannot now improve their the gap between the growing number of In the wake of communal violence, Uighurs and Han Chinese in mixed neigh­ conditions by securing employment in Han Chinese and the indigenous peo­ bourhood sign up for joint self-defence group. the capitalist-owned factories produc­ ples in the country's western border­ ing for export. In this sense, the basic lands. Especially in private enterprises, , However, today's young Uighur men level of material abundance for the ben­ contradictions of the world capitalist but also in the state sector, hiring often and women are much less likely to com­ efit of all of China's peoples rcquires system and the accommodation to that is based on nepotism, other personal pare their conditions of life to those of aid from a socialist Japan or a socialist system by the Beijing Stalinist regime connections or outright discrimination their parents and grandparents than to America, underlining again the need for have aggravated the national conflict in favour of Han Chinese. But even if those of the Han newcomers. And by international proletarian revolution. between Uighurs and Han Chinese in competition in the labour market were those standards they are clearly disad­ Key to achieving genuine national Xinjiang. . decided solely by individual capacity, vantaged. To be sure, the Stalinist regime equality in Xinjiang is reversing the In their own way, the imperialist Han Chinese would still have an advan­ has made an effort to recruit more Stalinist policy offorced Sinifieation, in bourgeoisies recognise that China con­ tage over Uighurs; they are far more Uighurs and other national minorities into particular the effort to marginalise the tinues to embody the social and nation­ skilled and literate, in particular fluent the higher reaches of the social order. Thus Uighur language in favour of Mandarin. al gains of the 1949 Revolution. The in Mandarin, China's lingua/ranca. Uighur students are given additional The CCP boss of Xinjiang, Wang country is not theirs as it was in the Thus, the past decade's economic points on the standardised examinations Lequan, declared that minority lan­ past. The ultimate goal of the US, boom in Xinjiang appears to have that are a screening mechanism for guages like Uighur are "out of step with European and Japanese imperialist aggravated rather than lessened Uighur admission to university. But such meas­ the 21st century" (New York Times, 10 powers is to restore capitalism in China resentment against Han Chinese as a ures have a tokenistic character given the July). Wang is here speaking the lan­ reality that the mass ofUighurs are on the guage of the Mandarinate of old imperi­ bottom of a newly reconfigured society in al China translated into the Stalinist their own homelands. nationalism and Han chauvinism of The Chinese Stalinist leaders, who today. Since 2002, Mandarin has been strive above all to maintain social the only language used in courses at "order", recognised the danger to them­ Xinjiang University for at least the first selves in the growing hostility of the two years of course work. At the same poorer Uighurs towards the better-otT time, children from lower-class Uighur Han. But instead of moving to raise the families have had little opportunity to Uighur populace to the level of the Han achieve fluency in Mandarin. Under a within Xinjiang, the CCP regime had workers and peasants government, reCOurse to the safety valve of internal there would be genuine bilingualism at migration to the factories and construc­ all levels of education from preschool tion sites of coastal China. to university. Uighurs would be able to Beginning in 2002, the government usc their own language as well as instituted a labour export programme Mandarin in all economic and political for Uighur youth from low-income institutions, whether dealing with facto­ families. That progranune offered sub­ ry managers or government officials. stantial advantages for those participat­ Such a language policy is mandated ing in it: incomes two or three times by the principles of proletarian interna­ -7 what they could earn at home, training in tionalism-ie, equality of all peoples modern industrial equipment, Mandarin­ in all spheres of life. The example to Workers in state-owned wind turbine factory in Urumqi. The core sectors of the language classes and free medical care. which we look is that of the Bolshevik Chinese economy remain collectivised. But state coercion in the fonn of sti IT regime led by Lenin and Trotsky that fines also was used against those issued out of the 1917 Russian Revo­ and once again reduce the country to socially privileged and politically dom­ U ighurs who, despite such material lution. Tsarist Russia was aptly de­ semicolonial subjugation. In pursuing inant nationality. Two China correspon­ incentives, refused to leave their homes scribed by Lenin as a "prison house of that goal, the imperialists have encour­ dents for the Financial Times (7 July) to work in strange cities thousands of peoples". Upon coming to power, the aged and supported reactionary nation­ report: miles away. Bolsheviks implemented the policies alist forces linked to religion among the "The redevelopment or old towns and the An estimated 1.5 million people for which they always fought: the non-llan peoples~~ Tibetans, Uighurs influx of richer Han Chinese radically from Xinjiang, mainly Uighurs, work equality of all peoples, ethnicities and .-in the western borderlands of China. changed local economic structures, costing elsewhere in China. But that safety languages, including the right of selt~ Thus the national conflict between many Uighurs their traditional jobs .... valve is now being shut off by the detennination for the myriad nations Uighurs and Han in Xinjiang must be "This has happened while Xinjiang's etfects of the global capitalist downturn. oppressed under the tsarist empire. economy has been growing at morc than Reports indicate that both Uighur and In China, the Han majority comprises viewed within the broad framework of 11 per ccnt a year for the past six years, imperialist hostility to the Chinese above the national average. The wealth Han perpetrators and victims of July's some 90 per ccnt of the population. deformed workers state. created by this rapid growth has been con­ riots in Urumqi were mostly unem­ Only a Leninist-Trotskyist party com­ centrated in the pockets- of new immi­ ployed or seasonal migrant workers. mitted to proletarian internationalism Stalinist misrule and the grants, increasing the gap between rich and What then is to be done? A workers can effectively combat Han chauvinism, national conflict in Xinjiang poor, Han and Uighur, some locals com­ and peasants government in China, including by mobilising the Han prole­ The specific character of the national plain." issuing out of a proletarian political rev­ tariat in the struggle for the equality of question in Xinjiang has significantly Enmity between Uighurs and Han olution, would establish a rationally all of China's peoples. And only such a changed as a consequence of develop­ Chinese has centuries-old, historical planned and centrally managed econo­ party can combat the efforts of reac­ ments since the 1949 Revolution. At roots. But that enmity has been intensi­ my based on state-owned enterprises. tionary Uighur nationalists and Islam­ that time, 75 per cent of the region's fied by the effects of Stalinist bureau­ (This would not preclude the use of icists, supported by the imperialists, to population were Uighurs, less than cratic misrule, particularly in the last market mechanisms for certain purpos­ exploit the just grievances of the Uighur seven per cent were Han Chinese. two decades. At the same time, it is es nor a limited role for the private, masses against Chinese Stalinist mis­ Today, of the 21 million people in important to recognise that Uighurs, including foreign-owned, sector.) Only rule for counterrevolutionary purposes. Xinjiang, 45 per cent are Uighurs and like other workers and rural toilers such a system would be able to narrow World Uighur Congress: 40 per cent are Han. Moreover, the Han throughout China, have benefited enor­ the present and widening socioeconom­ population is concentrated in the cities mously from the progressive social and ic gap between Uighurs and Han in an agency of imperialism and even in 1949 tnade up a majority in economic development of the post- Xinjiang. What is required is expending There is historical irony and deep Urumqi, the provincial capital. 1949 People's Republie. Since the and directing sufficient resources to political significance in the fact that Initially, the migration .of Han into Revolution, infant mortality in Xinjiang educate and train Uighurs in the use of both Uighur Islamicists and the leading the relatively impoverished backwater has continually declined while life modem industrial technology on the figure in the World Uighur Congress province of Xinjiang resulted from expectancy, less' than 30 years in 1949, same footing as Han Chinese. In the were originally sponsored and promoted deliberate government policy and spe- rose to 67 years by 2000. final analysis, however, to achieve a continued on page 8

AUTUMN 2009 7 Democracy in Washington, a notorious In Tibet, the cffect of the CCP Liberation (PSL). A 24 July article on linjiang ... CIA conduit. The organisation's leading regime's policies has been to reconsti­ its website, "Behind the Urumqui Riots in China", while rightly denouncing the (Continued./i-om page 7) light is one Rebiya Kadeer, who dubs tute a numerically large and relatively herself "the Mother of the Uighur wealthy Buddhist priest castc. The imperialists and -their media for seizing by the Chinese Stalinist leadersbip. In nation". Kadeer began her career in lamas are in the forefront of both inter­ on the riots in lJrumqi, is essentially an the 1970s and' 80s, China was engaged China as a successful and wealthy capi­ nal reaction Jnd imperialist provoca­ apologia for the Chinese bureaucracy. in a strategic alliance with US imperial­ talist, becoming a member of the tions, such as last year's riots. By con­ Evcr so gingerly, the pst declares that ism against the Soviet Union, a policy National People's Congress, the rubber­ trast, Ucijing's policy in Xinjiang has "relations between the Han Chinese and initiated by Mao Zedong. In the context stamp parliamentary body or the CCP been to suppress the emergence of a Uyghur pcnplc arc not perfectly han11o­ of that reactionary alliance, the Beijing regime. However, in 1997 this poster socially and politically innuential nious". While noting that the CCP's regime trained and dispatched religious­ girl for China's new capitalist class fell Islamic clerical caste. Mosques must be "market reforms" have led to "national­ minded, young Uighur men (who were from political grace alter her husband, registered with the state amI imams istic rivalrics"~ the PSL disappear~ any Sunni Muslims) to join the CIA-backed who had ned to the US, made offensive require government approval. There hint of Han chauvinism on the Part of mujahedin cut-throats fighting Soviet the Chinese hureaucracy. Indeed, it is to troops in Afghanistan. the Stalinist bureaucracy that the PSL Thus, thc Chinese bureaucracy crim­ looks as the key barrier to counterrevo­ inally bolstered American imperialism lution, writing in an earlier article (10 in weakening and undermining the February): "The CCP government, in Soviet Union, thereby furthering impc­ spite all of its contradictions, remains rialism '5 counterrevolutionary drive the most important obstacle to the against the USSR. We Trotskyists return of China to its previous state of hailed the Red Army's intervention into semi-colonial slavery." Afghanistan, not only as an elementary In reality, the continued rule of the expression of our unconditional mili­ CCP undermines defence of proletarian tary defence of the Soviet degenerated state power in China. Contrary to the workers state but also as the only means PSL's claims, the bureaucracy contin­ for social progress to be realised in ues to preserve state property not out of benighted Afghanistan, not least for its a subjective identification with social­ horribly oppressed women. ism but, as Trotsky wrote in The Following the lall of the Soviet Union Revolution Betrayed ( 1936) in regard to in 1991-92, the 'main body of militant the Soviet Union, "only to the extent Islamicists, represented by Osama bin that it fears the proletariat" - ie, to pro­ Laden's AI Qaeda, tumed against their for­ tect its privileged position as a parasitic mer US masters. Similarly, Uighur caste atop the workers state. jihadists who had fought in Afghanistan redirected their fire at the Chinese Com­ World Uighur Congress head Rebiya Kadeer (left) at press conference in For international munist govenunent. Following the II Sep­ Washington DC, with Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (centre) proletarian revolution! tember 200 I attacks on the World Trade and Democrat William Delahunt, 10 July. The CCP regime denounces the Center and Pentagon, Jane ....' Security World Uighur Congress as "sepa­ News, which is linked to British intelli­ broadcasts over the official government does not now exist an organised net­ ratist". Actually, Kadeer & Co do not gence, commented in this regard: "Chi­ Voice of America radio station. Two work of Islamic clerics that could act as now openly call to detach Xinjiang nese strategy on this front [Afghanistan], years later, she was arrested and an effective link between the imperialist from China and establish an independ­ however, had a negative fallout for Bei­ charged with "providing secret infor­ enemies of the People's Republic ent state, though that is manifestly jing as the returning Uighur jihadis mation to foreigners" as she prepared to of China and the disaffected Uighur what they're aiming for. The Uighur fuelled the already-simmering insurgency meet a delegation of US Congressional masses. On the available evidence, what jihadists do call for an independent for an independent Muslim Eastern Turk­ staff. She was imprisoned until 2005. happened in Urumqi in July was mainly "Islamic East Turkestan". As proletari­ estan in Xinjiang." A fter her release, she moved to a spontaneous eruption of ethnic hatred, an internationalists, we do not consid­ Most of the Uighur jihadists did not, Washington DC, operating in the bas­ fuelled by relative economic depriva­ er tbcr present state boundaries· of in fact, return to China. However, the tion of world imperialism. On more tion, on the part of Uighurs involved. China to be sacrosanct. But all of the exiled Islamicists may well have ties to than one occasion, Kadeer was granted forces advocating or supporting an small, shadowy Uighur terrorist groups an audience by George W Bush, who Reformists and the independent Xinjiang today are in the like the East Turkestan Islamic Move­ duly called her an "apostle offreedom". Xinjiang riots camp of capitalist counterrevolution. ment operating in Xinjiang. Indeed, the The communalist riots in Urumqi Joining the imperialist drive for the Moreover, the demand for an inde­ counterrevolutionary destruction of the occurred a little over a year after counterrevolutionary destruction of the pendent Xinjiang, even if couched USSR has led to a resurgence of Islamic Tibetan mobs, led by Buddhist lamas, Chinese deformed workers state are in the most "democratic" language, fundamentalism throughout Central engaged in murderous attacks on Han reformist Hsocialists" such as the would be viewed by everyone in the Asia. For its part, the Chinese Stalinist Chinese residents in the capital, Lhasa International Socialist Organization region as a programme to drive out the government has signed on to the global (sec "Counterrevolutionary riots in (ISO) in the US and its fonner parent, Han people. "war on terror", again emboldening the Tibet", Workers Hammer no 202, the British Socialist Workers Party One cannot envision a progressive imperialists in Washington, who arc Spring 2008). Much of the Western (SWP). Both groups claim that China solution to the national connict in now seizing on the communal riots in bourgeois media has drawn a parallel has never been a workers state but has Xinjiang except in the context of a pro­ Xinjiang to promote their counterrevo­ between the two events, while hypocrit­ been "state capitalist" since 1949. This letarian political revolution throughout lutionary aims against China. ically condemning the Chinese Com­ "theory", which they also applied to the China. This would open up historical Far more important than the Uighur munists for their brutality towards the former Soviet Union, is a fig-leaf for possibilities that do not now exist: Islamieist terrorist groups is the World country's national minorities. decades of anti-Communist practice on regional autonomy in some fonn, even Uighur Congress because of the support There are similarities but also impor­ behalf of imperialism. Both groups an independent state allied to China. it receives from US and also German tant differences between the anti-Han howled alongside the imperialists The Chinese Stalinist regime of Hu imperialism. The WUC receives fund­ riots in Tibet last year and last month's against the Soviet intervention into lintao declares a "hannonious society" ing from the National Endowment for communal violence in Xinjiang. The Afghanistan. When Soviet forces pulled to be the goal of its policies and prac­ similarity lies in the reactionary, imperi­ out of Afghanistan in 1988-89, in a tices. It is a fundamental premise of alist-backed nature of the exiled forces futile attempt by the Kremlin bureau­ Marxism that a harmonious society can that claim to represent the Tibetan and cracy to appease the imperialists, the be achieved only through overcoming Uighur peoples. The difference lies in ISO gloated: "We welcome the defeat economic scarcity leading to material the actual influence these forces exer­ of the Russians in Afghanistan. It will abundance. Despite China's rapid ecO­ iii"",,,,,, /SPI!RTACjSt~ ~ cise on the ground in the borderlands of give heart to all those inside the USSR nomic growth since the 1949 Revo­ western China. and in Eastern Europe who want to lution, it is still a relatively poor country The Dalai Lama ned to India in 1959 break the rule of Stalin's heirs" by international standards. Per capita atter the suppression of a lamalaristocrat (Socialist Worker [US], May 1988). gross domestic product is one tenth that uprising organised and armed by the Three years later, the SWP exulted: of the United States and one seventh CIA. Since then he has been elevated, "Connnunism has collapsed .... It is a that of Japan. so to speak, by his imperialist masters as fact that should have every socialist Ultimately, the survival and advance­ the supreme incanmtion of opposition to rejoicing" (Socialist Worker, 31 August ment of China's revolutionary gains the Chinese Communist govemmcnt. 1991 ). • hinge on the fight for socialist revolution tIJi"'I!JIUIJ:AI!I.1 The Dalai Lama is a political personage More recently, in an article titled in the advanced capitalist countries of .1i:1iiI"lHllQ••• of some importance on the international "The Changing Shape of Struggle in Japan, North America and Western ~ ... ..,..1 scene. The WUC's Rebiya Kadeer has China" (Socialist Worker [US] online, Europe, the only road towards the all­ China's "Market Reforms": made every efrort to identify herself and 9 July), the ISO painted the horrific round modernisation of China as part of A Trotskyist Analysis her cause with Tibet's "living god", communal bloodletting in Xinjiang as an international plmmed economy. A pro­ The Russian Revolution and the who contributed a brief introduction to "class-infused protests", grotesquely letarian political revolution producing a Emancipation of Women her autobiography. Nonetheless, prior enthusing that "the Urumqi revolt con­ China of workers and peasants councils £0.70 (28 pages) to July's conununal violence in Xin­ limls that grassroots struggle continues would be a beacon for the oppressed Order from/make cheques payable to: jiang, few people paid attention to to erupt on an expanding scale". working masses of Asia and the entire Spartacist Publications, PO Box 42886, Kadeer and her cohorts except for their On the other side of the reiormist world. That is the perspective ofthe Inter­ London N19 5WY CIA handlers. spectrum is the Party for Socialism and national Communist League .•

8 WORKERS HAMMER protectionism is poisonous to class Construction ... consciousness and plays into the hands (Continued from page J 2) of the fascists. In the recent elections to the European parliament, the fascist ..Jj owned by ExxonMobil and Total". BNP secured two seats, while the While admitting that "Hertel faxed the right-wing populist UK Independence .. ',""1M"" 1100!'l!i media that the Polish workers [had] Party beat the hapless Labour Party, ..If ~ • been removed from the site", the which fell into third place. We said no Socialist Party dismissed this by saying vote to the N02EU campaign that was merely that "this was never a demand of led by RMT rail union leader Bob the union". The Socialist Party pro­ Crow in alliance with the Socialist claimed the outcome as another "victo­ Party and others. N02EU was sup­ ry" and blatantly admitted that the poscd to provide a "Ieft"'alternative to British workers "were not opposed to the BNP but was centrally based on laggers from Poland getting work on support to the anti-foreigner Lindsey the site as long as local laggers were strikes ~ the "British jobs" crusade gi ven the opportunity of the work that the BNP was riding high on. A first as under the union agreement" protest rally on 6 May at the 2012 (Socialist, 28 May-3 June). Olympics building site in Stratford, Having embraced the reactionary London, addressed by Bob Crow and campaign against foreign workers, the Keith Gibson, was an orgy of national­ Unite and GMB union bureaucrats arc ist protectionism. Many protesters had Socialist Party's Keith Gibson was a member of strike committee that led now conducting a strike ballot that been brought in from Lindsey 'and reactionary strike at Lindsey oil refinery in January. would bring future strikes within the some sported signs saying "British provisions of the anti-union laws. The Jobs for British Workers" and ded. Old Labour's erstwhile claim to merely another version of "British jobs Unite statement motivating strike "Fairness for British Workers". This is "socialism" amounted to nothing more for British workers". action repeats the claim that British particularly provocative at the than a commitment to nationalised For the trade union bureaucracy, the workers are being discriminated Olympics site where some 200 industry under capitalism, which is Socialist Party and the SWP, support against: "UK workers want fair access Romanian workers have been removed inherently protectionist. The extensive for these "British lirst" strikes stems to UK construction projects" and in a clampdown on immigrants in nationalisations of industry carried out from their reformist programme, alleges that "at a time when the engi- recent months. under Clement Attlee's Labour govern­ which accepts the framework of ment in the post-World War II period nationalism as opposed to proletarian had nothing to do with socialism but internationalism. They have no answer were a "rescue package" for British to the worldwide capitalist crisis other capitalism, which was in profound than to rally in defence of British cap­ decline against its rivals. italism. In virtually all major capitalist Compared to the Socialist Party, the countries, the unIOn tops have SWP has taken a more critical stance responded to mass joh losses and on the anti-foreign-worker crusade. A unemployment with chauvinism and recent headline says: '''British jobs' calls for increasing protectionism. As slogan pushed back but its argument we wrote in "Down with reactionary remains a danger" (Socialist Worker, strikes against foreign workers!": "For 27 June) and the article notes, the bourgeoisie, 'free tradc' and pro­ "Socialist Worker has always firmly tectionism are options they can debate, insisted that this is a divisive slogan but for the proletariat, protectionism is that feeds racism and pits workers poison. It is a classic means of chan­ against each other." This is a cover-up nelling discontent over job losses into of the SWP's actual support to the reac­ hostility towards foreign workers and tionary strikes, which is expressed in a immigrants while building illusions in petition being circulated by the SWP. the benevolence of our 'own' capital­ On the one hand it says: ists .... There is no answer to the boom­ "The slogan 'British johs for British and-bust cycles of capitalism short of workers' that has come to prominence proletarian socialist revolution that around the dispute can only lead to deep takes power out of the hands of the divisions inside working class communi­ irrational capitalist ruling class and London, 21 May: Bob Crow at press conference held by N02EU campaign for ties. The slogan, coined by Gordon Brown European elections. in his 2007 speech to Labour's conference, replaces it with a planned, socialised is being taken up by the right wing press economy. Only the achievement of a neering construction sector has the abil­ As Marxists we oppose the Euro­ and the Nazi BNP. These arc forces that world socialist order can eliminate the ity to be offering quality jobs to work­ pean Union, an imperialist trade bloc have always been bitterly hostile to the age-old problem of poverty, scarcity ing people, UK workers arc being and a vehicle for European capitalist trade union movement." and want." excluded from these job opportunities" classes to co-operate against the work­ But the petition also says clearly: We seck to build a multicthnic revo­ (unitcthcunion.com). As we said ing class and oppressed minorities of "We support the demands of the lutionary workers party, forged in oppo­ regarding the January strikes, no British each country. Our opposition is based Lindsey Oil Refinery strike committee" sition to Labourism, to overthrow the workers were fired at either Lindsey or on proletarian internationalism, which ("Unite to Fight for Jobs Petition" at bloodsoaked British capitalist order and Staythorpe. We also insist that until the is eountcrposed to the "little England" petitiononline.eom). Those demands replace it with working-class rule. workers take state power, the proletari­ nationalist opposition to the EU that is include: "Union controlled registering Down with the reactionary "United at will not be in a position to worry associated with old Labour reformism, of unemployed and locally skilled Kingdom"! For a federation of workers about the ebbs and nows of labour to which the Socialist Workers Party union members, with nominating rights republics in the British Isles! For a migration, which is subject to the world (SWI') and the Socialist Party arc wed- as work becomes availahle", which is Socialist United States of Europe'. economy more generally. The prospect of continuing strikes has enraged the construction bosses, who are incensed that projects such as the de-sulphurisation plant at Lindsey Declaration of Principles and "'It!1I!t.",s<" ""'!I'*t!J.,., are behind schedule, which means extra Some Elements of Program "Market Socialism" lOP fjJ ~1 f

AUTUMN 2009 9 Class Struggle Against Airbus Bosses! labour... Against National Protectionism, Chau­ (Continued jrom page 4) vinist Poison for the Working Class! For the Socialist United States of Europe!" Crow, whose RMT union organises Britain's construction bosses arc cur­ immigrant cleaners in the London.,Tube rently rcncgotiating the national agree­ network amI against the Socialist Party­ ment with the unions and also dcmand­ influenced leadership ufthc PCS union. ing a wage freeze in January. The unions Scandalously, the pes organises im­ must fight tooth and nail against attacks migration cops and the wretched on the national agrccment just as thcy Socialist Party regard these guard dogs went on strikc in June against job loss­ of the racist capitalist state as part of es. We supported these strikes, despite the workers movement. Down with the union leadership's recent crusade T&G immigration raids! No deportations! against immigrants, in the spirit that Immigration cops out of the unions! Trotsky outlined in 1939 when hc said: R~instate "A trade union led by reactionary fakers Down with protectionist organizes a strike against the admission of .acked poison I Negro workers into a certain branch of ·Cat. Internationally, fascist and xeno­ industry. Shall we support such a shame­ phobic outfits have benefited trom the ful strike? Of course not. But let us imag­ GOurmet vile nationalist protectionism heing ine that the bosses, utilizing the given strike, make an attempt to crush the trade Worke... whipped up by social-democratic parties union and to make impossible in general and trade union leaders as a substitute for the organized self-defence of the workers. : rt the class struggle that is needed to fight In this case we will defend the trade union job losses. Protectionism sets workers of as a matter of course in spite of its reac­ Women workers based at Heathrow airport sacked by catering firm Gate each country against each other and lines tionary leadership." Gourmet, August 2005. Solidarity wildcat strike by British Airways workers them up behind their "own" bourgeoisie. In Defence (~f Marxism was sold out by T&G bureaucracy. Glasgow. November 2002: Striking As the car giants in the US slashed jobs, With the construction bosses gearing firefighters were sold out by FBU tops when strike was accused of obstructing union leaders ofthe United Auto Workers up for further attacks, it is all the more military preparation for Iraq invasion. proffered "America first" protectionism, urgent that the reactionary strikes must railing against "outsourcing" of jobs to stop' Immigrant labour is endemic to foreign countries,. while handing over the building trade (as is subcontracting) historic gains won by the auto workers in and the bosses will always seek to tos­ decades of struggle in order to bailout ter national and ethnic divisions to the Big Three car producers. Part of the "level down" wages for all. At the same government's bailout package includes time the hottom line for the trade union the "Employ American Workers Act". In movement should not be who the Australia, the construction and mining employers hire, but what rate of pay union has recently appealed to "its" gov­ they get and under what conditions they ernment to provide stimulus monies only work. The construction unions must to employers "that give preference to appeal on an internationalist basis to local content" and "local labour" workers from other European countries, (Australian, 26 May). especially from Poland and the other British construction workers, many Eastern European countries, to become of whom work in other European Union allies of British workers in a struggle countries, should note that protection­ for jobs for all. ism is a two-way street. In March 2007 Our perspective requires a political when Airbus workers faced mass lay­ battle against the trade union bureauc­ offs and plant closures, a trade union racy, which is wedded to British capi­ representative in Hamburg, Riidigcr talism. Thc unions must demand: Full Liitjen, complained that German work­ union pay for all work at the prevail­ ers were losing out to British workers, ing rate, no matter who does it! Under saying: "My impression is that England the slogan of Karl Marx: "Workers of defeat of the miners strike of 1984-85 pursuit of profits. and Spain are getting extra work, and all countries unite!", migrant workers was pivotal. However, contrary to wish­ A vast improvement in health care is we Germans have to foot the bill" of Europe must become a bridge to ful thinking by thc arrogant capitalist necessary. The class divide in health is (quoted in Hamhurger Ahendblatt, proletarian internationalist opposition rulers and the venal trade union bureauc­ a yawning gulf: former Labour health 3 February 2007). Meanwhile a rcpre­ to the European Union, a bosses' con­ racy, the class struggle cannot bc con­ minister Alan Johnson admitted that: sentative of the French union Force glomerate designed to bludgeon the signed to history. What is urgently "A man living in Kensington and Ouvri;,re complained that German workers of Europe, the better to com­ posed is the need for a class-struggle Chelsea will on average live 10 years workers were getting the lion's share, pete with the EU's rivals such as US fight to save jobs and to save the work­ longer than a man living in Manchester. saying "Hamburg alone would profit and Japanese imperialism. ing class from decay, demoralisation For every stop on the Jubilee line from from an increase in production of up to and ruin. To combat mass job losses it is Westminster to Canning Town, life 45 planes from the A320 family. That's For revolutionary necessary to fight for a shorter working expectancy goes down by one year" unacceptable." We eounterposed a c1ass­ internationalism I week with no loss in pay and for (Guardian, 9 June 2008). Even before struggle perspective to the hurcauc­ spreading the available work, as part of the parasitical "private finance initia­ racy's vile protectionism in a joint ICL The decimation of the proletariat and a fight for jobs for all. Wages and bene­ tives" that proliferated under Labour statement issued by the British, French de-industrialisation of Britain is not fits must rise with the rate of inflation, permitting capitalist enterprises to and German sections (published in part of some inevitable process but the benefits for the unemployed must be make millim!s out of building hospitals, Workers Vanguard no 889, 30 March result of defeats and betrayals of the extcnded until they get jobs. All pen­ schools and other facilities, the pharma­ 2007) under the headline: "For United working class in struggle, of which the sions must be guaranteed by the gov­ ceutical giants made untold wealth out ernment and a hugc risc is needed: of the NHS. Nationalise the pharmaceu­ Britain has the worst pension provision tical companies! Abolish charges for in Europe, its pensioners being paid on medicines, dental and other health care! averdge a mere 17 per cent of their Full access to free, good quality med­ Socialist average earnings, in contrast to the ical care for all! Womer European average of 57 per cent The class divide permeates the edu­ ...... ~ .. "'-.!O! ....~~ .. _ .. L"'~~_ (guardian.co.uk, 3 July). cation system which is designed to CommuniSIl To redress the housing crisis there favour the wealthy few. "Scores of statc must be a massive building programme schools have becomc 'no-go' areas for of good quality, affordable public hous­ pupils taking traditional A-Ievcl sub­ But we don't bust ing. Also needed is a building pro­ jects such as maths, science, history, grammc to upgrade the crumbling geography or languages" according to infrastructure~ railways, roads, power recent research, while "children from stations and other energy facilities, etc the higher social classes were more ~employing all workers (including likcly to opt for subjects such as biolo­ Anti-Soviet, pro-Labour immigrants) at the highest union rates gy, further maths, English literature and Socialist Worker rejoices that of pay. To reveal the extent of capitalist languages" (independent.co.uk, 19 Au­ "communism has collapsed" corruption, robbery and exploitation, gust). Only seven per cent of all pupils (31 August 1991); backs not least in the government's "private are educated in the elite "public" Labour which was committed finance initiatives" (PFI) and other school system, yet this produces 75 per to Thatcherism (7 May 1997). scams, workers should demand that the cent of judges, 70 per cent of finance ~~~~~~$~~~ capitalists open their books to show the directors and 55 per cent of solicitors gross misuse of human labour in the (independent.co.uk, 22 July).

10 WORKERS HAMMER The British ruling class sees little nationalisation of industry under capi­ Labour that led to the rise of New government in 1979 which prepared a need to educate and train working-class talism, to be achieved through legisla­ Labour, which now stands discredited at showdown against the miners, culminat­ people beyond what is needed for the tion in parliament while leaving the the helm of a country in crisis. The cri­ ing in the heroic year-long strike of City, which in the words of Guardian capitalist state intact. Our programme sis of New Labour is a reflection of the 1984-85. Defeat in this battle was far columnist Stewart Lansley "has sucked of transitional demands will not be abject decline of Britain's industrial pro­ from inevitable and was not mainly the in the pick of Britain's brightest gradu­ granted by the profit-gouging capitalist letariat, itself the product of efTorts by result of the massive state repression, ates with some of the best young PhD rulers. We understand that the capital­ successive governments including but of the treachery of the Labourite mathematicians and physicists behind ist state exists to defend the profit sys­ Labour governments in the 1960s and union leaders. the fiendishly complex mathematical tem and the rule of the bourgeoisie and 70s - to enforce wage reductions on the Particular responsibility lies with formula used to run arcane fmancial cannot be transformed into an instru­ working people and break the power of the "left" leaders of the unions in rail instruments" (guardian.co.uk, 27 Au­ ment that will serve the interests of the the unions in an effort to improve the and the docks who failed to strike gust). As against the capitalist rulers' working people. competitiveness of British capitalism. alongside the miners, and with Labour wilful neglect, we demand free, good It was the political bank,\,ptcy of old Labour was replaced by the Thatcher "left" MPs such as Tony Bcnn who quality education and training for all, mouthed ofT in many speeches about with open admission to universities solidarity with the miners, but whose and colleges and a living grant for all perspective -like that of militant students. •• m ••~~A ~ miners leader Arthur Scargill-·- did These demands arc based on the not go beyond the election of a Labour 1938 Transitional Programme, the ,efl!nd.:.lra~liiig;m~t;' r government. founding document of the Trotskyist US/Britis)lStt:ack! . The regeneration of Britain's infra­ Fourth International, which asserted: structure and the rc-industrialisation of "Under the menace of its own disintegra­ its manufacturing centres, putting the tion, the proletariat cannot pennit the trans­ Labour government mean!> proletariat back into productive work, fonnation of an increasing section of the racism, union-bashing and war requires a thoroughgoing socialist rev­ workers into chronically unemployed pau­ olution that will introduce a rationally pers, living off the crumbs of a disinte­ 1"1 For 18 multiethnic planned economy. This is part of an grating society. The right to employment !b revolutionary workers pa(ty! internationalist programme for social­ is the only serious right left to the worker ist revolutions in other countries, par­ in a society based upon exploitation. This F' right today is being shorn frOm him at 51(' ticularly in the rest of Europc. Workers every step. Against unemployment, •struc­ ~I' revolution will overthrow thc British tural' as well as 'conjunctural,' the time is IPARTACIST WGUElBRITAlN capitalist order, and with it the domi­ ripe to advance, along with the slogan of SUB contingent nance of the City of London and the public works, the slogao of a sliding scale at Septembe, yuppie English Home Counties over of working hours." 2002 London the former industrial heartlands of the - The death agony of capitalism and the demonst,ation to north of England as well as Scotland tash (~fthe Fourth International, 1938 protest British and Walcs. Down with the reactionary An effective fight against the catastro­ and US war United Kingdom and its archaic insti­ phe of mass unemployment must be moves against tutions of the monarchy, the House of led by those committed to socialist Iraq. Lords and the established churches! revolution and the establishment of a The multiethnic revolutionary workers workers government. Particularly in party that we seek to build will be ded­ Britain, transitional demands are com­ icated to the overthrow of Westminster monly misused by reformists to cover rule by the revolutionary proletariat the fact that at bottom they uphold the and the establishment of a workers old Labour programme centred on government..

world humanitarian", it was promptly reformist left, who groove on being the unlike the countless people branded JackSOD ... killed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "morality police" when sexual matters "sex offenders" in this country who (Continued from page 5) to the pleasure of Republican Repre­ are involved. The most extreme demon­ have committed no crime and hurt no sentative Peter King. King infamously stration of this was when our comrades one and yet whose lives are made a liv­ called the media coverage of Jackson's in Germany were excluded from a con­ ing hell under bourgeois laws and culture, long used as a justification for death an "orgy" and ranted on a ference called "Socialism Days" hosted media hysteria, Jackson had to with­ lynch rope terror. YouTube posting about Jackson being a by Sozialistische Alternative Voran stand the bourgeoisie's attempts to rail­ Many black establishment figures "paedophilc" and a "pervert". (SAV), the sister group of the Socialist road him for falling outside the norms who wouldn't normally go near a con­ Michael Jackson was the victim of a Party in Britain, both of which arc asso­ of this society. Today, after his death, tentious "sex" issue have felt obliged to depraved social order with a degenerate ciated with Peter TaafTe's Committee the media is replete with discussions come out in Jackson's defence. The and cruel sense of "morality". And all for a Workers' International (see "No over his finances, custody of his chil­ day after Jackson's death, black Repre­ of these politicians - black or white, sex, no fun, no Spartacists!", Workers dren and the raid on his doctor's office sentatives Jesse Jackson Jr and Diane Democrat or Republican - are staunch Hammer no 190, Spring 2005). For the for suspected manslaughter. Watson asked for a moment of silence defenders of that very social order, ie, Taaffeites, anything that doesn't con­ Black Democrat AI Sharpton is a in the House of Representatives in American capitalism. form to bourgeois society's chauvinist political hustler who specialises in cor­ Michael Jackson's memory, with at least and repressive values deserves polit­ ralling black anger at racist injustice one Congressman storming out in America's puritanical values ical censorship. Outrageously, the into support for the capitalist Demo­ protest. When Democratic Reprcsen­ As Michael Jackson was twice Taaffeites slandered our position in the cratic Party. But at Jackson's elaborate, tative Sheila Jackson Lee put forward a dragged through the courts over accusa­ Michael Jackson case as "defence of lavish and emotional memorial, he had resolution proclaiming Jackson "an tions of child sexual abuse, we defended rapists" and "relativising child abuse"! a moment of honesty, stating: "I want American legend, musical icon and him through his legal trials and tribula­ Whether explicitly or implicitly, much his three children to know, wasn't noth­ tions. The cases relied on hearsay, con­ of the left was happy to jump on the ing strange about your daddy. It was A SparlllC'Sl Parnar,lal $150 tradictory testimony and zero physical "strange means guilty" bandwagon strange what your daddy had to deal lllack IIIstarv \ evidence. As we stated in "Michael around the Jackson case, thus demon­ with." The fact that the very gifted -I1ft Illns _all. Jackson Defeats Racist, Anti-Sex strating their embrace of prudish bour­ Michael Jackson was one of the enter­ Vendetta" (Workers Vanguard no 851, geois morality and their fundamental tainment world's biggest sources of 8 July 2005): loyalty to the current social order. scandals and attacks was not an indica­ "Jackson steadfastly maintains that he hru; Michael Jackson's sex life was tion of what he did, but of the sick soci­ been asexual in his rdations with boys, nobody's business but his own. But not ety in which he lived .• which is certainly possible but for us, that is irrelevant. The Slate's vendetta against Jackson rested upon anti-sex laws that we oppose on principle" ,. "Sex is a natural activity for humans -- II-Contact Addresses II even children. We believe that in any kind of sexual relations, the guiding principle Spartacist Group Ireland , II'UIM H/ Ioulll Alrlca; PermaeenllleltOlllflon should be effective consent, regardless of Spartacist League/Brital.:::i~"ii PO Box 2944, Dublin 6, Ireland "llf.( ~J! '1$. "T~~Stal~~'!~lnbt IJeh'a,"1 : age, gender or race. That is, if those !)'>:h, <'r involved have effective knowledge and PO Box 42886, London Nlt'"5WY International desire to do whatever it is they will, that Tel: 020 7281 5504 Communist League Black History and the Class Struggle is should be the end of it. We oppose arbi­ sent to all Workers Vanguard subscribers trary and reactionary state interference in [email protected] Box 7429 GPO, New York, such intimate matters." New York 10116, USA 7Sp (56 pages) Our stcadfast defence of privacy and Order from/make cheques sexual freedom, more generally across payable to; the board and more specifically in the Spartacist Publications, Michael Jackson case, has earned us i~~~;:ji~;=~=~=i:=~=m .• ·.~ PO Box 42886, London N19 5WY the contempi of the liberals and the

AUTUMN 2009 11 WORKERS Down with chauvinist campaign against foreign workers!

The /()Ilmving article was /irst puh­ Beginning in January, construction to Italian workers were allocated to multiethnic working class aKain~'t lished ;n Workers Vanguard no 939. workers at the Lindsey refinery staged a British workers. Gordon Brown's Labour government in 3 .II/Iv 2009. On 4 AII:;;lIst the GMB wave of reactionary strikes against From the outset we have insisted that a tight for jobs for all, through a short­ union announced a strike ballot oj" Italian and Portuguese workers under the struggle against protectionist poison er workweek with no loss in pay, and to .";elccted emgineering construction sites. the slogan "British jobs for British is vital to the interests of all working undertake a union organising drive to in part hecQuse the Total oi! company workers", a cry long associated with the people. In contrast to the majority of the draw into their ranks all workers, reneged 011 the agreement reached as a including those in dangerous and low­ result of the June .'itrike al LindH~V oil paying jobs. r(~fin(,/)' referred to in the article he/ow. The chauvinist anti-immigrant cam­ LONDON, 28 June- Powerful soli­ paign takes place in the broader climate darity strikes of construction workers at of a worldwide economic recession in many of Britain's power stations, oil which virulent racism against immi­ and gas facilities over the past week grants is on the rise. A chilling example have defeated a union-busting effort by is the recent provocative attack by the the bosses and secured the reinstate­ state on immigrant cleaners at London's ment of some 647 construction workers School of Oriental and Ali-ican Studies at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincoln­ (SOAS). Outrageously, when the clean­ shire, run by oil giant Total. These ers turned up to a 6.30 am meeting on workers were fired on 18 June for hav­ 12 June, ostensibly called to discuss ing walked out on strike in protest when working conditions, 40 immigration one subcontractor laid off 51 workers police in riot gear who had been con­ who, according to Socialist Worker cealed in the building descended on (20 June), were "stewards, activists or these low-paid, vulnerable workers. union members", At the same time, a Many have since becn deported or different subcontractor hired a different await deportation, mainly to Latin set of roughly 60 workers who had America. The real "crime" of these almost identical skills as those who had workers was that they had been organ­ been laid 01T. The sackings were rightly ised into the Unison union. seen as an attack on the union and Immigrants from Eastern Europe in sparked sympathy strikes which spread particular arc being viciously scape­ to plants across England, Wales and goa ted for the economic crisis that Scotland in a show of solidarity that stems from the capitalist system itself. appears to have forced a complete Thus in Belfast, over 100 Romanian elimbdown by the bosses. immigrants, mainly Roma (Gypsies), These sympathy strikes were neces­ were driven from thcir homes this sary in order to defend the existence of month by violent racist mobs, who also attacked a rally in support of ilmni­ the unions, and the outcome was cer­ June 19: Striking workers picket outside Lindsey oil refinery to protest mass tainly in the interests of the working retaliatory firings for earlier walkout against layoff of 51 workers. grants. These atrocities show that there class as a whole. But at the same time, is a vital need for the unions to defend the unions in these construction sites fascists. Among the leaders of these left, we opposed the January strikes at immigrant worker.,! To bring the are spearheading a chauvinist campaign strikes was Keith Gibson of the Lindsey, noting in "Down with reac­ unions' strength to bear in defence of against foreign workers that can only Socialist Party, who is a prominent tionary strikes against foreign workers!" immigrants means fighting for an end to fuel racist attacks on immigrants and is member of the GMB union. The (Worker", Hammer no 206, Spring the reactionary strikes against foreign­ poison to class consciousness and Socialist Party has tried to airbrush that 2009): "The strikes were not intended born workers on construction sites. We working-class solidarity. Pitting British slogan out of the picture. In the January to secure more jobs or indeed any gains say: Down with racist attacks on immi­ workers against their class brothers strikes, the demand for "British jobs for for the working class as a whole, nor to grant workers! No deportations! Down from other countries, this crusade British workers" became "local" jobs defend existing jobs. They were about with work restrictions on workers from undermines the fighting capacity of the for "local" workers, but the content redividing the existing pool of jobs EU countries in Eastern Europe! Full unions and is detrimental to the inter­ remained the same. The reactionary according to the nationality of the citizenship rights for all immigrants! ests of the multi ethnic working class as strikes and protests received enthusiastic workers. These reactionary strikes, pit­ Mobilising the working class in a whole. The bosses will always seck to backing Ifom rabidly anti-union, anti­ ting British workers against foreign defence of immigrants requires a c1ass­ exploit every division among workers immigrant newspapers such as the workers and immigrants, are detrimen­ struggle leadership in the unions, forged to go after all workers; this chauvinist !Jailv Mail and from the fascist British tal to the intcrests of the multiethnic as part of the struggle for a Leninist campaign against foreign workers gives National Party (BNP). The outcome of working class in Britain and those of party that would act as a "tribune of the the bosses yet mlother means to attack the January strike at Lindsey says it all: the workers of Europe as a whole." The people". This party must be built in the unions. over 100 jobs that were expectcd to go reactionary pol itics of th is crusade are opposition to the existing trade union shared by the Labourite leadership of bureaucracy and pseudo-socialists like the Unite and GMB trade unions, who the Socialist Party, which tries to claim embraced this patriotic crusade as natu­ that the original strikes were not aimed at rally as they embraced Labour's racist foreib'Il workers. But the truth is there for "war on terror" that is directed against all to see. At a protest in Newark, Not­ Muslims. tinghamshire, on 24 February against The bottom line for the trade union jobs being awarded to Spanish and movement must not be who the con­ Polish workers at the Staythorpe power tractors hire, b"t at what rate ofpay and station, a section of the demonstrators under what conditions. The way to chanted "foreigners out". Last month in undercut attempts by the bosses to Milford Haven in South Wales, another "level down" the wages and working anti-immigrant strike resulted in some conditions, including safety standards, 40 Polish workcrs losing their jobs. of all workers by playing off one According to the Guardian website nationality against the other is for the (21 May), the strike was settled when unions to demand: Full union pay for all '"the Dutch-based employer, lIertel, work at the prevailing rate, no matter agreed to withdraw 40 Poles and rep!aee who does the job' Equal pay for equal them with UK staff at the ternlinal Protectionist rally against foreign workers at Lindsey oil refinery in January. work! What's needed is to mobilise the continued un page 9

12 AUTUMN 2009